The Syrophoenician Woman, Part 2

Introduction and Review of the Syrophoenician Woman's Faith

0:04 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, December 22nd, 1985, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:17 Now will you turn with me in your Bibles, please, to the seventh chapter of the Gospel according to Mark, Mark's Gospel, and the seventh chapter. And follow, please, as I read verses 24 through 30, Mark chapter 7, beginning the reading with verse 24. Mark, tracing out the activity of our Lord at this point in his life and ministry, writes, And from thence he arose, and went away into the borders of Tyre and Sidon. And he entered into a house, and would have no man know it. But he could not be hid. But straightway a woman, whose little daughter had an unclean spirit, having heard of him, came and fell down at his feet. Now the woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by race.

1:20 And she besought him that he would cast forth the demon out of her daughter. And he said unto her, Let the children first be filled. For it is not meet to take the children's bread. And And And And Cast it to the little dogs.

1:38 But she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord, even the little dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs. And he said unto her, For this saying go your way. The demon is gone out of your daughter. And she went away unto her house, and found the child laid upon the bed, and the demon gone out.

2:05 Now let us again look to God in prayer that the Lord will indeed enable us to bring a large petition to him for large blessing upon our needy hearts through the preaching of his word. Let us pray our father we thank you for this reminder that we are coming to you the great king and lord of the universe and we would not dishonor you by bringing petitions that a pauper could answer and fulfill. But we would come to you and ask largely of you that you would so work and so minister to our hearts in the preaching of the word today. That what we receive from your hand will be in some little measure a reflection of the greatness of your being and the bounty of your provision for needy sinners. Oh lord we would ask largely give us then that which we ask of you for our good and ultimately for your glory. Amen.

3:18 Now we return this morning to this passage read in. In your hearing in order to focus our attention upon several of the vital lessons which this incident in the life of our lord so powerfully demonstrates and so clearly illustrates for those who were not with us last lord's day let me take just a few minutes to review what we discovered in our initial examination of this passage. The setting is very clearly described by Luke in verse. Twenty four the lord Jesus withdraws from Galilee that has been the scene of much of his activity and he goes north and west into the area of Phoenicia whose two most famous cities were Tyre and Sidon and he withdraws to the very borderlands between Galilee and Phoenicia and he does so apparently from the teaching of this portion verse twenty four.

4:26 To have a time of retirement a time of retirement that probably involved though we cannot be dogmatic a legitimate need for rest the need to withdraw from the twin attacks of the organized religious leaders the scribes and the Pharisees and also Herod the political leader and then also to have seasons of concentrated. Destruction for the twelve who in about a year's time will be left by their lord to carry on his work throughout the apostolic age well while he is in this situation in seclusion in a house somewhere in the borderlands between Galilee and Phoenicia he experiences the intrusion of a desperate woman she is according to the text a Gentile woman by birth.

5:26 And dwelling but she is a Gentile woman who lives with the tragic reality of having a little daughter who has become the very habitat of a foul evil spirit she has a demon possessed daughter and having heard reports of the lord Jesus and obviously having heard that he had made his way into those borderlands close to her own place of dwelling she intrudes upon. Our lord's privacy either either in the house or outside of the house in the context in which he was alone with his disciples she falls at his feet and she burst forth with this tremendous sense of urgency crying to the lord that he would have mercy upon her and by comparing Matthew fifteen twenty eight with what we have in marks gospel we come to the conclusion that in her plea.

6:26 There are four cycles of request on her part and the response of Jesus she makes a request and Jesus response she makes another request and he responds another and she responds another and she responds all of it culminating in the wonderful words of Matthew fifteen twenty eight oh woman great is your faith be it unto you as you will or in the language of mark seven. Twenty nine for this saying go your way the demon is gone out of your daughter well it took so much time simply to unpack the passage and explain and expound it we had time to concentrate only upon one aspect of its abiding message to us who sit in the twentieth century and listen to the reading and exposition of this portion of the word of God. And that one.

7:26 Aspect is what the passage teaches us about the properties and actings of real faith since Jesus said in the parallel passage Matthew fifteen oh woman great is your faith we ought to be concerned to understand what were the properties and the actings of that spiritual grace which Jesus described as great faith. And we noted. In looking through the passage that there were these six properties and actings of her faith it was a faith created in a context of deeply felt need it was a faith awakened by reports concerning the activity the character and the power of Jesus it was faith directed exclusively to the person of Jesus it was faith utterly submissive to the divine will as revealed. And we noted. In Jesus.

8:28 When Jesus says it is the father's will that at this point in my ministry I should be concentrating upon the lost sheep of the house of Israel and then gives the illustration of not taking children's bread and throwing it to the little puppy dogs under the table she does not argue with our Lord she doesn't ask him to change the whole thrust of his ministry her faith is active in a context of utter submission to the divine will as revealed. In Jesus. And then finally it was a faith determined to overcome all obstacles and attain its object from Jesus she came determined that she would know if it lay within the framework of God's will she would know the deliverance of her child and until Christ would send her away with a word from God there is no healing for you. In Jesus. In Jesus. In Jesus.

9:26 In Jesus. In Jesus. In Jesus. In Jesus.

9:26 Your daughter she was prepared to overcome every obstacle in the way of her faith and to see in what appeared to be one dark cloud after another that met her in the way she saw the silver lining of hope and of promise and she overcame until Jesus as it were overcome by the sheer sanctified brashness of her faith said oh woman great is thy faith you can have what you want. In Jesus. In Jesus. In Jesus.

9:57 In Jesus. In Jesus. Show me another place where Jesus ever put himself at the disposition of the will of another like that. Be it unto you as you will in the face of such faith I can only grant the desire of your heart.

Affliction as a Package for Blessing

10:12 Well this morning time permitting I want us to look at two other lines of application of this passage and then God willing next week the third and final this passage not only sets before us. In Jesus. Some very helpful teaching on the properties and actings of real faith but in it we have a clear illustration of one of the major purposes of God in affliction this passage sets before us a clear illustration of one of the major purposes of God in affliction here in the passage open before us we see how an intense and an apparently. Cruel affliction to be the very package in which God had wrapped up marvelous blessing we've often heard the saying good things come in small packages you could write over the top of this passage he's come for what could be more than for this mother to look at the darling part her precious little girl and watch her by degrees or all of a sudden for the scripture is silent as to how.

11:36 The evil spirit possessed her until in the language of Matthew she says my daughter is greatly demonized this was a very advanced and gravitated state of demon possession and whether it came upon gradually or suddenly one can only imagine what must have gone through the mind and heart of that distraught mother to see that happy carefree little. The evil spirit possessed her until she was greatly demonized I say that's an ugly package to wake up and find under your Christmas tree now how long the mother had to face those dark days darker nights as a witness to this reality we do not know it may have been days it may have been weeks months or even. Several years but this much we do know.

12:47 That when the reports of the mighty works and the compound of Jesus of Nazareth Nazareth reached her ears when those reports began to have a common denominator that this Jesus who down in Galilee performs mighty works by the word of a grand shoe she was not indifferent to those reports in my preparation I imagined her out in the backyard. One day hanging up her clothes.

13:22 As she's hanging up her clothes one of the neighbors comes over to her and says Mary Mary have you heard the report and she says what report there's a mighty miracle worker down in Galilee and some of our townspeople have gone down there according to Mark three eight they were going down from the area of Tyre and Sidon into Galilee and they've come back and told us amazing things why one day in the synagogue a man so possessed of a demon cried out like a madman. And with a word of this man cast out the demon with a word and we're told by others who followed him for an entire day that throughout the entire day there was no form of demon possession that in his presence could stand his word of exorcism demons were cast out and he's shown compassion even upon lepers well you can imagine by then she could not have cared less whether her clothes got hung up. She was.

14:21 Her ears probably stretched two or three inches until she looked like a little Dumbo as she listened to the report of one who was able to do the very thing she so desperately needed to have done in the life of her own child and we do not know how many such reports she heard but there are some indications that those reports awakened in her a spirit of inquiry and she began to ask. Questions until she came to at least this much knowledge according to Matthew 15 that this mighty worker who was casting out demons healing the sick and cleansing lepers was none other than the promised Messiah of Israel he was the son of David a messianic title for she addresses him in that title in Matthew chapter 15 one can begin to see as it were the hopes and the longings of her heart drawn out and expanding and growing.

15:21 As one after another in her neighborhood brings a report maybe one on a Monday one on a Thursday until there begins to be born in her a kind of obsession all that he would come to our borders all that he would really and come into this area one can imagine what happened one day when one of her friends came and said Mary I have amazing news report has reached us that in one of our borders. In that area between us and Galilee Jesus of Nazareth has come with his followers his band of 12 and he's somewhere in a house in such and such a town I'm convinced whatever she was doing she dropped it if it meant leaving a half cooked steak in the middle of the floor if it meant leaving a basket full of clothes half hung up out in the backyard it made no difference for when we are introduced to her we are introduced to a woman who is on an errand of desperation. Desperation.

16:24 All of the language of Matthew and Mark's account is the language not of a timid withdrawn tentative person she's introduced is one who comes and falls down the feet of Jesus throws feet and cries have mercy when she's met with silence she's not turned off she continues to cry until the disciples say send her away she's a nuisance and she is not at all discouraged by their indifference. But continuing to cry Jesus then speaks to her as we saw last week and tells her what his mission is and she is undaunted and she now says Lord help me when he uses an illustration that on the surface could have discouraged her she turned it into the very launching pad of a reason why she ought to have a request fulfilled until Jesus says oh woman great is your faith be it unto you now.

17:27 She's not laying at the bottom of all well you see it was this dark affliction it was this of this hot on her dog in which the package of the revelation of the power and the grace of Jesus came to her I to imagine what it would have been like had her daughter been a healthy normal little girl the first day she's out in the backyard hanging up her clothes in one of her friends comes and says oh Mary have you heard the reports what reports. About the man down in Galilee who cast out the dead she'd have gone right on hanging up her clothes saying oh very interesting that's lovely but what's that say to me and she'd have gone in the house and dandled her little darling on her knee and played and you see she would have been utterly indifferent to all of Jesus had she not been engineered by divine providence into a state of the most deep and desperate affliction and it was that.

18:41 That prepared responded to the reports about Jesus for the writer tells us in verse twenty five of mark seven the only contact she had heard had had with Jesus she had heard of him but you see she did not hear of him in a vacuum of self-sufficiency she didn't hear of you was like a chain around her neck.

19:32 That thing was. Wait upon her soul she ate with it she slept with it she woke up with it she went through the day with it so when she heard of one who could meet that need everything in her mind her natural affection the awakened spiritual desires all of them came like the rays of the sun to a magnifying glass to one burning my daughter's. Need and at that point life became a very. Concentrated focused myopic existence one which alone my daughter's name and you see the great purpose of God infliction was precisely this to prepare see the very blessing that Christ conferred the good old Bishop Ryle is expository thoughts on the gospels underscores this so simply and clearly when in his commentary on the Matthew.

21:02 Account he writes the Canaanite ish mother no doubt had been sorely tried she had seen her precious child vexed with the devil and been unable to relieve her but yet that trouble brought her to Christ and taught her to pray without it she might have lived and died in careless ignorance and never seen Jesus at all surely it was good for her that she was thus afflicted let us mark. There is nothing which shows our ignorance so much as our impatience under trouble we forget that every cross is a message from God and is intended to do us good in the end trials are intended to make us think to wean us from the world to send us to the Bible to drive us to our knees health is a good thing but sickness is far better if it leads us to God.

God's Purpose in Affliction: Overcoming Complacency

22:04 Prosperity is a great mercy but adversity is a greater one if it brings us to Christ anything anything is better than living in carelessness and dying in sin better affected like the Canaanite ish mother and like her flee to Christ than to live at ease like the rich fool and die at last without Christ and without hope. Oh dear people in applying this. Let me say this morning that if the Bible is clear in its denunciation of any state of being at all it is that scene called car and see and smug self-satisfaction and he goes on and you think he was describing a festive Christmas or New Year's season they eat they were totally out with reality and their deceptive complacency and smug self-satisfaction the strongest words.

23:52 To. The churches in the book of the revelation. Are not the words to those suffering. Immorality lack of church discipline heretical doctrine is most graphic words for that revelation three the church at Laodicea.

24:15 He says because our lukewarm and neither hot nor cold I'm about to vomit you Jesus said there is a spiritual state that makes me nauseous. And it was. The. The spiritual state of neither hot nor cold and what is the language of that state he gives it to us in that very passage because you say I'm rich increased with goods have need of nothing you see when you're in a smug complacency there is spiritual hunger often when moving as his people in direction that would lead us into the layout attitude her white hot with earnest no lunch with that.

25:54 He says. To let him go on in that direction for the very things that have taken the edge off the earnestness and the holy brashness of his prayers are things that will bring him to spiritual dullness and latitude and therefore what does God do. God makes a package an ugly package of a future. That that very package might contain.

26:27 The precious gift. Of renewed first hand dealings with the Lord Jesus Christ whom I love chase his son whom I receive and when the scripture says to us in Romans eight twenty eight all work together for good what is that good the good to which he is committed namely to conform us to the image of his son and when our costs and contentment with. They begin to take the edge off. His sense of fictions which become his problem that we might see. They become it's hot salt to cut the chicken if he got the become dogs hand grenades to blast us out of the pill boxes of our own smugness. And all the says his people to learn the lesson and to learn it well.

27:38 That affliction is not the greatest enemy of the soul some of us on time bonus most. And all my friends. I'm going to. I'm going to.

28:04 I'm going to. I'm going to. I'm going to. I'm going to.

28:06 I'm going to. I'm going to. I'm going to. I'm going to.

28:07 I'm going to. I'm going to. I'm going to. I'm going to.

28:10 Because our pretty a concentration of the spiritual faculties and energies that seem to be lost in direct proportion to days and months of comfort and ease and good health. May I encourage some of you who this morning. May have awakened. Perhaps even walked by.

28:41 A house adorned with the signs of the season. Even saw some lovely. Presence. wrapped in beautiful paper, and yet in your present circumstances you've awakened this morning not to a beautiful package, but an ugly pack of affliction, the likes of which you say, O God, if that affliction continues, I don't know if I can bear it.

29:08 My friend, may I urge you to ask God to show you the precious gift wrapped up in that ugly package, and you go to the Lord Jesus believing the truth we have often sung in that wonderful hymn of William Cowper's, Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take the clouds ye so much dread are big with mercy and shall break in blessing on your head. Blind unbelief is sure to earth and scan his work in vain. God is a interpreter and He will make it plain. The day before that woman heard the news that Jesus has come to one of our border towns, it may have been hard food and wise gracious in all when she lives with the horror of a demon.

30:13 But if that woman, and there's evidence that she did, saw something more than a physical healer in Christ, acknowledging Him as the Son of David, I believe there is indication she came to true and saving faith in the Son of God. She went to her grave, blessing God for the day He allowed a demon to possess her daughter that she might be desperate to get to Jesus.

30:40 Can you do that, child of God? Have you learned to break out of the shell of this world's truncated thinking that ease and comfort and the non-offended life are the highest at any cost? Have we come to the place where we can sing from the heart's sand? He can save me more love.

Affliction for the Unconverted: A Call to Repentance

31:18 Christ, you see, that word not only applies to the people of God.

31:27 Unconverted loss, unbelieving, impenitent man, woman, boy, or hear me carefully. What could be worse?

31:38 Gent, a smooth, undisturbed bed of comfort.

32:06 Why did that happen to me? Yes, my friend, listen. God is good. Surrounded you with hundreds of tokens of His goodness before this, that, or the other thing that's made you cynical came upon you.

32:18 And what did His goodness do? Did it accomplish its end in you? Romans 2.5 says, Don't you know that the goodness of God leads to repentance?

32:27 No.

32:44 Wretchedness that you had taken all of God's and giving Him nothing in return.

32:53 He ensued His son.

33:00 Now He's taken several away and you're ready to curse Him? Oh, my friend, no. God's goodness was smoothing your bed on which you are resting and upon which you were sliding. God's ruffled the sheets and God is shaking the bed and He's put a few full of mercy and compassion. His goodness was not getting your attention. He's bringing strokes of fiction that you might realize. Listen, listen.

33:58 He never made you to make it on your own. He never made you to go it on your own. He's not a sufficient, independent idol unto yourself. He made you for Himself.

34:12 And His afflictions are saying to you what they said to that woman. Go to the one who meets the needs of the afflicted. He's in your border town. He's somewhere in a house.

34:24 You'll have to seek Him out. And I love to think of that woman if they didn't tell her the exact house. That's when my imagination goes crazy. I love to watch her.

34:32 Think of her in my mind as running up and down the street pounding on the door. Is Jesus here? No, what? Sorry, ma'am, no time for pounding on the door.

34:41 Is Jesus here? Is who here? Is what? Sorry, ma'am, next door, next door.

34:44 Yes, He's here. Throws the door open. Fling!

34:50 Frenzy of holy desire. And my friend, my friend, that's what you need. A frenzy of holy desire born of the knowledge that your case is desperate and only Jesus can meet it. Seek the Lord while He may be found.

35:06 Call upon Him while He's near. Thank God you don't need to go out of this building to find Him. He is here in the preaching of His own Word and by His Spirit. And whatever it is that seems to be so bitter to you now, look upon it in this light.

35:22 It is to you what the demon possession of that daughter was to that woman. It is God's catalyst to spring you loose from complacency and the horrible ease in which you will be damned.

The Desperate Need for a New Heart

35:37 We have often sung together that wonderful hymn of Francis Scott Key, author of our national anthem. But we love to sing that song, Praise my, not praise my soul, the King of Heaven, but praise the grace, etc. And there's a phrase in there, Praise whose threats from thy faithfulness and thy fatal ease. See, he caught that.

36:06 I ask you from the depths of my heart, are you upset that your pastor preached you about hell and the reality of the judgment of God? Are you upset that I tell you you must be born again? That you must repent and flee to Christ?

36:53 Because we long from your fatal ease. We long to see you, see you running to see upon me. Not because I have a daughter,

37:17 but because, Lord, I've got a bat in my mind. And the world,

37:32 if I sell my soul to the Lord, Jesus, have mercy on me. I have a need far greater than that little girl. She had a foul spirit that had entered her from without, and it needed to be cast out. But, Lord, I have a spiritual disposition with which I was conceived.

37:51 It was with me in my mother's womb. It was with me in the delivery room. It was with me when I nursed at my mother's breast. It was with me when I toddled in the playroom.

38:02 With me when I went that first day to kindergarten. With me, every hour of every day. Lord Jesus, see on me, give me a new heart. Lord Jesus, I have a mountain of sin.

38:15 All my lies, all my disobedience to mommy and daddy. All of my pride, all of my picking on my brothers and sisters. All of my desire to do my own thing and have my own way. Lord Jesus, there's a mountain of sin.

38:30 Only your blood can wash it away. Oh, dear children and young people, it's because we love you that we love you. That we seek to see you afflicted with an awakened conscience. Afflicted with true conviction of sin.

38:47 We long to see you like this woman recognizing that anything that makes you desperate to run to Jesus is your friend, not your enemy.

Universal Accessibility of Jesus's Grace and Power

39:00 But then we must hurry on and in the second place I want to make this observation in the passage. It not only sets forth the principles and actings of faith that demonstrates to us as of God in affliction, but it contains a wonderful manifestation of the grace and the power of Jesus. A wonderful manifestation of the grace and the power of Jesus. You who have been here through all the expositions will know that I've turned you back to Mark 1-1 again and again and again because Mark has nothing to hide he tells you in his opening words what the rest of this treatise is all about. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus.

40:01 He sits down to the good news that pertains back to this verse and interpret every event, every circumstance, every healing, every interaction of the Lord Jesus with people and asks the question what dimension, what facet of the good news about Christ is found here? And so we do it again as we put ourselves in the place of Romans people that is living in Rome not the book of Romans for it is most likely that Mark under the eye and tutelage of Peter wrote his gospel account particularly with the Romans in mind. The Romans with their enterprising aggressive energetic disposition and perspective he sets forth the Lord Jesus as the mighty worker. So that whatever their mighty kings and mighty conquerors and generals have done they would see there was none like unto the mighty Son of God in whom the gospel has its embodiment. And when we come to this passage we can only begin to imagine how it would have come home to the ears and the eyes of the first readers

41:30 and hearers there in Gentile pagan Rome when they read this account what does it tell us a fundamental but glorious and therefore passage contains a wonderful manifestation of display and outshining of the grace and power of Jesus. And what are the two things? First of all the grace and power of Jesus are universally accessible. They are accessible.

42:13 You remember that in this setting Jesus says to this woman my primary mission is to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Oh yes I've come up into the borders of Gentile land but that doesn't mean I've changed my mission. I have been sent at this point in the history of my father's working to bring the good news to national Israel.

42:42 In this very setting it is this Gentile woman Gentile by birth Canaanitish woman who is a woman who is a woman who had a relationship with the covenant people but she wasn't even a proselyte. In this passage it's evident that Jesus does not spurn her. He does not turn her away to silence though she faced his statement about the overall intent of his ministry though she faced his parable that at first seemed to discourage her she pressed on and said oh in grave who was that woman a pagan a Gentile one of the children who at that time belonged at the table but one of the little dogs who were under the table close to where the bread was being placed upon the table because Jesus himself had come into the borders of Gentile territory. One commentator has aptly stated the spirit of the book of the Acts is in this incident. In the book of the Acts we read of the gospel going from Jerusalem Judea Samaria to Jerusalem the outermost parts of the earth and when the record would come

44:10 saying yes it's most likely that the disciples said send her away send her away when she cried out the disciples say if you were not here last week look at it with me if you will please in Matthew chapter 15 verse 23 and his disciples came and besought him saying send her away she cries one of the lost sheep of the house of Israel we might plead for her but she's a Gentile dog a Phoenician woman Lord for them now but God was able to make it plain that the spirit of the gospels the word of the message of salvation was to go primarily to the lost sheep of the house of Israel not exclusively who came to the young child Jesus certain magi of the east these mysterious creatures characters I should say these men translated magi what had been written were they astrologers this was the were they that this much we know they were not

45:37 the covenant community God is making it plain in the very birth narratives that this one who is born is to be savior of Jew and of Gentile and periodically throughout his ministry the Lord by example is training his disciples and at this point you see it was crucial he's beginning to withdraw concentrate his training his finishing training with the disciples and what's one of the lessons they need desperately to learn that he has come to be the savior of the world the savior of the favored nation but the savior of Jew and Gentile that the other sheep he has are scattered throughout the world and them also he must bring and there shall be one fold and one shepherd and surely this passage teaches so plainly by way of example that the grace and power of Jesus are usually acceptable one had such a promise as John 3 16 and first Timothy 1 15 and a host of other texts which speak of the universal accessibility of Jesus what this woman heard about him what she learned of him through her meager contact with the Jewish scriptures she was convinced

47:05 that the reign of the son of David would include blessing upon the Gentiles and I'm personally convinced that that's where her faith had its strongest taproot when she said have mercy upon me scriptures which had taught her that Messiah was son of David taught her that when Messiah sits upon David's throne the Gentiles shall wait for his law that his grain the scepter of his kingly crown and government would extend to the nations what a beautiful picture of the universal accessible nature of the Lord Jesus and his salvation and my friend sitting here this morning you may feel like a Gentile in the sense that you say look I was brought up in a home where the Bible was never read mom and dad never prayed the only time Jesus name was mentioned was when it was cursed I feel like an unclean I sit here this morning and I see people when you mention a passage they know right where to find it I can't find a book in the Bible if my life I just feel like an outcast a pagan I don't know any I don't my friend listen listen the warrant you have to go to Christ is not what you know it's not how much good association you've had with God's people in God's word it's simply this you see yourself

48:34 as a needy sinner whose hope does not lie in yourself in your rituals in any other rituals or institutions but have you had enough contact with God with God's is in Christ crucified accessible to every one of you in the gospel and if you go on a Christless life and die a Christless death and go to a Christless judgment it will not be because no one told you that the Savior was accessible I'm telling you this morning He's universally accessible wherever and whenever His saving word He's His own word and says come and I will give you rest but then secondly and finally we see not only a manifestation of the universally accessible grace and power of Christ but we learn here that the grace and power of Jesus omnipotently effectual not only universally accessible anyone can have it who wants it but omnipotently effectual and what do I mean by that

Omnipotent Efficacy of Jesus's Grace and Power

50:02 simply this that we are in a short time of the world and it's an earth as always that is our CD and so there is this acceptance that God has given us the holy hundred days of the holy day I we in former kings forever behalf only will live all all the things tell us be son rider be of him in our presence to caring in heaven east was 365 with his door nobody your life house and found the child laid upon a bed and the demon gone out. Question, when did the demon go out and by what means? The demon-possessed girl was home, half a mile away, quarter a mile away.

50:59 Jesus was in the borderlands. Matthew says that she came out of that place, so there was some distance, half a mile, a mile, couple miles, we don't know. When did the demon leave? Jesus exercised his will toward that demon. He went out the woman's faith toward that end and saying, be it unto you even as you will. And the moment he read in her heart, Lord, I will, silent to us of the omnipotent, gracious will of Christ, and the demon left the little girl. So that Jesus can say, for this sake,

52:18 be it unto you even as you will. And the moment he said that, she came with, one thing on her will, on her mind, on her affections, her whole being was consumed with one thing. I want that demon gone out of my daughter, grievously vexed with the demon.

52:46 O woman, great is your faith, be it unto you as you will. No record she said anything the moment her heart before could even frame words as, O I will that the demon go, Jesus will that the demon go, and it went. It wasn't the woman's will that cast the demons out, it was his will. And that will is omnipotent.

53:07 Infection, and death, and the devil, and hell itself. My friends, you and I need that it is something more than tenderness and pity toward us in the mess our sin has brought us into. We need that not only condescends, touches where we are, what though I, I chain, or anything's impossible to man, possible with God. Who then, disciples say, and Jesus said with men, it is impossible. But, with God, all things are possible. O my friend, this is why the doctrine of the person of Christ is so vital. This is why we insist that those birth narratives be held to as matters of life

54:13 and death. That the angel Gabriel came to a virgin, and there was a supernatural conception in the constitution of a supernatural being. That holy thing which is begotten to be, shall be called the Son of God.

54:31 And that's why, that is the reason why our God called the flesh, that is, the Son of God. And that flesh he who was formed in Mary's womb is as much God as though he were never man. He is as much man as though he were never God. And in that mysterious, yet glorious person we have the two distinct natures joined. And in him, universally accessible grace and power to say, say, Pastor, I've gone on for 15, 20, 30, 40 years. I've established such habits and patterns. That's no way you can. But don't you tell me there's any chain you've forged that he can't break.

55:22 He came according to his own word through Isaiah to open the prison to those that are bound. He comes to unlock the prison and then go in and take the prisoner who's chained by his own chained chain. He sets the captive free. My friend, this is what the passage teaches us, that there is an omnipotently effectual grace and power in the Lord Jesus.

Conclusion: A Christmas Present of Christ

55:55 God willing, we'll look next week at the great lesson this passage holds about effectual prevailing prayer. And I trust it will set the note for the coming year in which I am personally convinced from a pastoral standpoint, one of God's designs for us as a church to take us deeper into the school, of effectual prayer. But suffice it to say for this morning, I hope you don't resent this rather strange Christmas present I've given you. What greater present could I give you than to point you to the Son of God?

56:31 What greater favor could I do for you in the spirit of goodwill of Caesar than to plead with you to look upon those present circumstances that seem to have utterly destroyed your ability to enter into the so-called Christmas spirit, afflictions that have pressed in upon you and tell you, as with this woman, this ugly package which contains a wonderful present. It's his sovereign disposition of circumstances to bring you out of that fatal ease and complacency and smugness that you might go to Christ like that desperate Syrophoenician woman and find him ready to meet your need. And then you can go to him in the confidence that he's accessible to you. He bids you come in all your need. He bids you come in the confidence that he'll welcome you. He bids you come against the backdrop of this marvelous picture of his own omnipotent will having power over the demon that inhabited that poor little girl.

57:37 And he can take whatever demons of pride and lust and mental misconceptions of God in his salvation. He can take the whole thing and by his mighty power renovate you and make you a new creation in himself. Oh, flee to him, go to him, cry out, be discouraged if he seems to be silent. That woman wasn't.

58:03 It says he answered another word upon her first cry. She didn't go away and say, oh, well, I tried. It doesn't work to have someone sitting here today said, I tried. What do you mean you tried it?

58:14 You prayed a little three minute prayer and then walked away to someone who desires it. So meagerly is that? Now, he says, you'll seek me and find me in the day you search for me with what all your heart with the heart man believes unto salvation. Go to him and throw yourself at his feet and say, Lord, if I perish and go to hell, I'll pay.

58:44 You'd be the first one who ever perished from that posture. Oh, go to him. Cry to him and continue to cry until he by his word and spirit speaks peace to your heart. Let us pray.

58:59 Our Father, how we thank you for the portraits of your beloved Son given to us in the Gospel records. We confess that when we look upon our Savior, forgive us that so quickly our hearts turn aside from Him when our eyes are fixed on other objects. O Lord, bless your preached word this morning. Bring comfort and consolation to some of your afflicted saints that they may see that the purposes of your afflictive providences and dispensations are all gracious and kind. And we pray for sinners in whom your goodness has hardened them, but who are now distressed and bitter and cynical. Lord, open their eyes. See that mercy is coming to them riding upon the dark clouds of affliction.

60:09 And then, O God, that there will be no doubts in our minds about the things that we have done in our lives. And we pray that you will bless us with the power of your grace. And we pray that you will bless us with the power of your grace. And we pray that you will bless us with the power of your grace.

60:15 And we pray that you will bless us with the power of your grace. And we pray that you will bless us with the largeness of the heart of Jesus, the might and power of the arm of Jesus. O God, O may some lay hold of Him this day and find that He is true to every promise made to believing, repentant, seeking sinners. Dismiss us then with your blessing.

60:40 Continue with us through this your day. We ask these mercies with thankful hearts. In the name of our great and conquering Lord, Amen.