Sermon in Phoenix 08.03.2009

In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, let us quieten our hearts and offer prayer unto our Heavenly Father.

Dear Lord God Almighty, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, we thank You, dear Heavenly Father, that Thou hast called us here to these services today. We thank You, dear Lord, that Thou hast kept us and protected us in living faith. We pray, dear Heavenly Father, that Thou would continue to protect us to cause us to remain in the middle of Thy flock here upon this earth, that we would receive that wisdom, that understanding, comforting and those comforting words that give us that strength to remain as a child of God here in the midst of this evil world.

We thank You, dear Heavenly Father, for the many blessings of the day for our families, our homes, our friends. And we pray, dear Heavenly Father, that Thou would keep us here in faith, that our faith, which is a gift from Heaven, would remain the most important matter in our lives, and that the temptations of this world would not draw us from this Kingdom.

We thank You, dear Heavenly Father, for giving us Thy only begotten Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus, who suffered and died on that middle cross of Golgotha, so that we could believe upon Him and receive that forgiveness of sins. We pray even in that perfect way that Jesus has taught us to pray. Our Father who art in Heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever. Amen.

For our text this morning, we'll read from the Gospel of St. Mark. As it's recorded for us, from verse 24 to verse 30, and the words are as follows, in Jesus' name.

And from thence He arose and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into a house and would have no man know it, but He could not be hid. For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of Him, and came and fell at His feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by nation, and she besought Him that He would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled, for it is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast it unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto Him, Yes, Lord, yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs. And He said unto her, For this thing go thy way. The devil is gone out of thy daughter. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out and her daughter laid upon the bed.

And again, Amen.

First of all, I want to bring greetings from the brothers and sisters. Last Saturday, I attended a workshop at the LLC offices concerning mission work. And it was truly an uplifting and enlightening workshop. There were many brothers and sisters there from Zion who discussed primarily matters of domestic mission work. And there was one particular thought that stayed with me after that workshop. And it was... One of the brothers had said it in this way, that he was from farming country. And when the farmers go into the field, they take that seed and they make sure that that seed is planted into good soil.

In fact, I had a conversation a couple weeks ago with someone from the Dakotas who was farming. And the machines, as they go over the soil, they actually measure the mineral contents. And when they go back through the following season, they put the proper minerals and nutrients into the ground. But when we study God's Word and we look at that parable of the sower of the seed, that sower cast that seed everywhere. It went into good soil, but it also went into rocky soil and other places. And this is a reminder unto us that when we even consider this matter of mission work, it is not up to us to judge the heart of a man. For we know not where God may call those on the outside of this kingdom. As we have seen, those called in many different countries and in many different places of the world in these last twenty or so years.

So it was good to be there and be reminded of the preciousness of this work of the mission field. And we know that this is one commandment that Jesus gave to His disciples was to go forth and to preach that Gospel to all nations.

But today, we've read a particular text that is that text of that woman who, according to the Gospel of Mark, it says that she was a Syrophoenician from Canaan. If we read the Gospel of St. Matthew's, it says she was from Canaan.

This Sunday is the second Sunday in Lent. And the theme for today is prayer and faith. We'll study this particular portion a little further later. But I was thinking of that matter of prayer and faith. Jesus in His in the Lord's prayer taught us to pray in this way that Thy will be done. And certainly when we pray in our lives that would be the most important matter. is that the will of the Heavenly Father would be done.

Jesus speaks about prayer and fasting. And we know that this fasting when we consider this fasting in the temporal sense fasting is the cleansing of the body of impurities. And this is why some people fast. And then they would go on to live and to take in food that is more nourishing for them and to have a healthier lifestyle.

Prayer. But when we think about this matter of fasting in the light of God's Word in a spiritual sense, we speak of penitence and of the preaching of the gospel of the forgiveness of sins. This cleanses the spiritual body of all sin. And then one makes those promises to go forth and to live a life which is according to God's holy and precious Word.

And we know that even when we receive the grace of repentance and we believe our sins forgiven, we make those promises unto God that we would continue to believe. And we truly have that desire in our hearts through the power of the Holy Spirit to go forth and to as Jesus said, to sin no more. That's our spiritual desire. That's what taught us by the Holy Spirit.

But we also know that we have been born with this temporal portion, this portion that is sinful. It has that inherited sin. And we often times are tempted and we fall into sin. But we have been given the grace of God to believe. And it is that power of God that causes us to repent and to confess our sins one to another. God to love.

And this gospel message has been offered to all sin-fallen mankind. And as we study our text for today and we spoke briefly of that woman, Mark says she was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by nation. My understanding is that Mark, when he wrote this gospel, that he was writing it primarily towards the Romans. And when Matthew wrote his gospel, he was writing it primarily towards the Jewish nation.

And when we consider the gospel of St. Matthew, it says that this woman was of Canaan. And we know that the Canaanites were enemies of the Jewish people, the Israelites, when they were traveling on that wilderness journey. And when we think of this, and we know that many of those that followed Jesus, particularly those Jewish people, had not yet repented of their sins, or perhaps never would. But they were curious and they followed Jesus because they saw the miracles that he performed.

And we would have to think that perhaps because of the nationality of this woman, that there might have even been some prejudice against this woman from the part of the Jewish people. But we also know that she was a Gentile.

Mark, on the other hand, speaks of her as a Syrophoenician. And we know that Jesus had traveled from Galilee onto these cities of Tyre and Sidon. And if you look on a map, I think Tyre is probably about 50 miles north of Galilee.

And when I was looking at this map, I even stopped and considered that trip to Israel that is coming up. And I'd have to say that I had a little bit of envy for those brothers and sisters that are going on that trip because certainly there would be much to learn about Bible history from that trip.

But looking at that map, I could see that Tyre was about 50 miles from Galilee. And these cities are around the shore of the Mediterranean Sea. And they were prosperous cities. They were cities that had much trade and much wealth.

And it's interesting that if we would go back and we would read from 2 Samuel 5:11, we'd find out a little bit about this particular city of Tyre. It reads, and Hiram, a king of Tyre sent messengers to David and cedar trees and carpenters and masons and they built David's house.

So we can see that at one point in time during the life of King David that he was friendly with the king of Tyre. And even then they were a prosperous nation.

But then later it reads in the book of Ezekiel that's what it is. We would see that this friendliness had changed. I can find it here. Read that and this is Ezekiel speaking. The word of the Lord came again unto me saying, Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyre, thus saith the Lord God, because thine heart is lifted up and thou hast said, I am a God. I sit in the seat of God in the midst of the seas, yet thou art a man and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God.

So later on, this new king, whose name was Eszal, he actually came out and said that he was God. And he, this friendliness between Israel and that particular city or nation changed.

And later on, when Jerusalem was destroyed in 586 BC, we know that the people of this city rejoiced because they no longer needed to compete with Jerusalem as far as goods and trading goes.

So this city prospered and it became very wealthy, but we also have this understanding that it was also an evil city.

In fact, just before this particular portion that we read for our text, Jesus was talking to his disciples and he said, that which cometh out of the man, that defileth the man. For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, and evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile the man.

We don't know if that was what Jesus was referring to as they were traveling to this particular city, but we do know that it was a city that apparently, from what I understand, was a very prosperous, yet was a corrupt and evil city.

But at any rate, Jesus came to this city of Tyre and also Sidon, and he entered into a house and would have no man know it, but he could not be hid. We know that many followed Jesus and they sought him out. We remember when he crossed the lake and the people followed him, even though Jesus wanted to travel there to have some quiet time with his disciples. So the people followed Jesus and they were able to find him.

And it says this certain woman whose young daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell at his feet. And we heard how she was a Greek, she was a Syrophoenician by nation, Matthew referred to as from Canaan, and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.

But Jesus said unto her, let the children first be filled, for it is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast it unto the dogs.

We remember that this woman was a Gentile. And we know that Jesus here, when he said, let the children first be filled, he was referring to the children of Israel, that chosen nation. And the Jewish people, they referred to the Gentiles as dogs. They felt the Gentiles were dirty and unclean, and that they were lower than them.

And in fact, if you go to Middle East countries, even to this day, you might hear similar words when referring to other nations or to lower class people.

But at any rate, Jesus used these words on this woman. If we would read the Gospel of Matthew, it relates to us that Jesus almost ignored this woman when she first came unto him. And here we see that he spoke to her in what we might consider to be a rather harsh way. He referred to her as a dog.

And I've often thought about that. But then also too, we know that the law of God, that law of Moses which drives the sinner to Christ, is also harsh. But it awakens the conscience of man.

And here we see this woman who was a Gentile. And she was concerned about her daughter. Her daughter who had a devil. And she also came before Jesus because she had heard that he performed miracles and he could cast out devils and heal the sick and so forth.

And Jesus referred to her as a dog. And she answered and said unto him, yes, Lord, yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.

This is a spiritual picture unto us, dear brothers and sisters, of those morsels of bread, those crumbs that we receive even when we come to services of God's children and we hear this word of God.

This woman who was a sinner, who was a Gentile, she understood the condition of her heart, of her sinfulness, and she understood that even of her daughter. And she was brought down to that level of the dog underneath the table who one throws their scraps of food to.

She confessed to Jesus that she was a sinner. She had been humbled by the word of God. She had been humbled by those words that Jesus spoke unto her. And she had that desire to eat of those morsels of bread that were tossed to her. And in fact, she believed. She said, Yes, Lord, yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs.

And he said unto her, For this saying, go thy way, the devil is gone out of thy daughter. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil out, and her daughter laid upon the bed.

Here we have seen a picture of even that mission work of Christ. How we know that the chosen people of Israel were God's chosen ones. And Jesus had that desire to give unto them the word of life, the bread of life.

But there were many of that nation that did not believe. And so God had even offered that spiritual bread unto those Gentile nations.

We even today are of those, that same nation, that Gentile nation. We who are here today are not of those chosen people of Israel. But God in His love and His grace and His mercy has even called us through the gospel unto this grace kingdom.

And we also are as this woman, this Greek, as Mark says, who had that desire to eat of that manna of life.

And truly, when we consider this world and what it has to offer, we could look at it through our temporal eyes and we could see much beauty and we could see many things in this world that we would have the desire to partake of. But that comes from our flesh.

And here we are as grace beggars of God coming here even to these services today to receive those crumbs, those morsels of God's Word, which can nourish the undying soul.

And truly, this is the most precious gift in life that we can receive.

And when I even consider these particular cities here of Tyre and Sidon and how I had read that these were prosperous cities, there was much trade and money and so forth, they were very good times.

Yet, we know that there was this woman who sought that which was much better. She sought that eternal city, our home in heaven.

And I was even speaking to and was thinking and talking to a brother the other day. And my thoughts were in this way that was considering the state of the economy here and how we have lived in such a prosperous time.

When there is food on the shelves, we go to the store and we can get as much food as we want and we have shelter and we certainly are not lacking much.

But then our flesh begins to worry and our flesh wonders why we find ourselves in times like this.

Yet we know that there have been even more desperate times in the world and certainly even in various countries today.

There are places where there is little or no food. And we can truly say that we have been blessed by God.

But my thoughts went in this way that what happens if this country continues to go down? What country would we be able to turn to?

And it's this way brothers and sisters that as the Bible says there is no eternal city here upon this earth.

But there is only one eternal country.

And that's our home in heaven.

And this is our desire.

We know that God promises He will care for us in this life.

The children of Israel as they were traveling on that wilderness journey, they needed to have faith in their hearts.

God promised that He would give them that manna from heaven. And He told them not to collect this manna. Don't try to collect it and store it, for it will only spoil.

But He promised that He would feed them daily.

And we know that He fed them not only that temporal food that they needed, in order to sustain their strength as they traveled across that desert wilderness.

But He also gave them that spiritual manna that they needed for the nourishment of their undying souls.

Dear brothers and sisters, today, that nourishment that we seek when we come to the services of God's Word.

And even today, you can lift up your hearts and believe all sins, doubts, and temptations forgiven and washed away in Jesus' precious name and atonement blood.

This is how we live day by day.

This is that spiritual fasting that Jesus even spoke of when He spoke unto the father of that, or when He spoke unto the disciples after they had tried to heal that boy with that dumb spirit.

And Jesus, they had been unable to, and Jesus went and He was able to heal that boy.

And then His disciples asked Him in private that, Lord, why could we have not done this?

And He said that with this kind that it is only through prayer and fasting.

Prayer is a powerful tool.

And sometimes when we have doubts in our lives, we can look at the Psalms of King David.

And we know that King David was troubled in many different ways.

King David was a sinful man. He fell into many sins, both small and large, as we had discussed at our winter services.

And he had fallen into many sins.

But King David in those Psalms, those Psalms were, he spoke of his troubles.

Yet he turned those thoughts into prayers.

And he prayed unto God that God would give him the strength to continue to travel on this journey of faith.

And that his will would be done.

I've often thought about prayer and we can maybe look at it even in this way that when we pray unto God, it does not always seem that our prayers are answered.

But when we think about someone who has a desk with an in basket, and each day new papers are put into that in basket, and generally speaking, that person will look at all those papers briefly each day, and he knows what's in that basket, but he doesn't necessarily act upon all of those papers each day.

And this is true of that basket in heaven where our prayers are placed.

God knows our prayers, and our prayers are there, and he's aware of what our needs are. He's aware of what our troubles are.

And we can be assured of this, that God answers our prayers, and when he answers them, he answers them in this way, that he answers them in that way which is not only the best for us as individual believers, but also that which is good for this kingdom of God.

For we know God is a perfect God, and he's a God of love, and he's a God that cares for us as we travel on this journey of faith.

And he takes care of us in so many different ways, whether we, as we journey with so much fault on this journey of faith, he still loves us and calls us and cares for us in this kingdom of God here upon this earth.

So dear brothers and sisters in faith, be encouraged even today to continue to believe all of your sins, doubts, and temptations forgiven and washed away in Jesus' precious name and atonement blood.

And one day we'll be able to reach that perfect country, that home in heaven where we will no longer have any cares or sorrows, but rather there will be true peace and happiness without the threefold enemy.

And even for my own many, many doubts and temptations and sins upon this journey, I'd wish to hear that gospel message. Can I even yet believe?

And I promise to believe with you, dear brothers and sisters in faith.

Remember that prayer is a powerful tool and that God encourages us to pray.

And we know often that a prayer from the heart of a child of God is often nothing more than a sigh unto God.

But when we're traveling correctly in faith, we know that our prayers go out in this way, that thy will be done.

In Jesus' name, amen.

Let us close our services this morning hour in closing benediction.

The Lord bless us and keep us. The Lord make his face shine upon us and be gracious unto us. The Lord lift up his countenance upon us and give us peace.

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, amen.