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[0:00] Mark writes, Let the children be fed first, for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs.

[0:36] But she answered him, Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs. And he said to her, For this statement you may go your way.

[0:47] The demon has left your daughter. And she went home and found the child lying in bed and the demon gone. Father, send your Spirit now to give us understanding.

[1:00] We ask in Christ's name, Amen. This is one of those passages in the Gospel of Mark, one of those passages in Scripture, where we are expected to know a little bit more about the overarching story of the Bible if we're going to really understand what's happening here.

[1:22] I think that Mark expects us, I think that Mark expected the people to whom he originally wrote this Gospel, to know at least a little bit about the Old Testament, to know a little bit about God's workings in history in order for them to really understand what's happening here.

[1:41] I don't think Mark expects us to know a lot about the Old Testament in order to understand what's happening here. The Gospel of Mark is one of those books in the New Testament that at times will require you to know about the Old Testament in order to understand what's happening.

[1:57] And then at times he will slow down and he will explain something from the Old Testament. Or he will explain something from Jewish life in the first century to his readers.

[2:08] And there's a good reason for that. We know that in all likelihood Mark wrote this Gospel while he was in the city of Rome. And that's a long way from Palestine.

[2:20] In all likelihood Mark wrote this Gospel because he was recording Peter's account of the ministry and life and death and resurrection of Jesus.

[2:31] And so Peter would have been steeped in the Old Testament. And Peter would have been able to explain things in great detail. And yet we have Mark trying to convey that message to a primarily Gentile audience.

[2:43] So there are times when Mark explains things. We saw that last week where Mark explains all the cleanliness rituals of the Jewish people.

[2:55] He said, well, they have lots of traditions and they wash their hands. Sometimes they even wash their hands when they turn from the marketplaces and they won't eat until they've washed their hands. And many such traditions the Jews have. He's explaining things to these Gentiles about the Jewish people.

[3:07] But when it comes to specific Old Testament information, he expects them to know at least a little bit. And we saw this a few weeks ago when Jesus walked on the water. And Jesus says to his disciples, do not be afraid.

[3:20] It is I. I am he. And literally I said to you that what Jesus is saying in that passage is he's saying to them, I am. And so Mark expects his Gentile audience to know the Old Testament well enough to see that when Jesus says I am, Jesus is identifying himself with the great I am who revealed himself to Moses and others in the Old Testament.

[3:42] So at times we need to know a little bit about the Old Testament or even sometimes a little bit more than a little bit about the Old Testament in order to understand it. And sometimes Mark explains things.

[3:53] This is one of those passages where we need to know something. We need to know about the overarching story of the Old Testament. In particular, we need to know something about the history of Israel or this passage will not make any real sense to us.

[4:11] So I want us to sort of step back from this passage, take a bird's eye view of Israel throughout the Scriptures. And I want to share with you and point out with you things you may know, but I want to point out to you and show you from the Scriptures three main truths that we need to understand about Israel in order for us to understand this passage, okay?

[4:31] So the first thing that may seem really obvious to you, but we need to say it, we need to highlight it, we need to remember it, is the simple fact that God chose Israel to be his people.

[4:44] He chose them. Now I want you to keep your place in the Gospel of Mark, but we're going to look at several passages in the Old Testament here. I want you to turn all the way back to the first book in the Bible, the book of Genesis, to Genesis chapter 12.

[4:58] In Genesis chapter 12, when you arrive at Genesis chapter 12, there is no Israel. There is no nation of Israel. There are no Jews. There is no Jewish people.

[5:09] So far, up through chapter 12, the story of the Bible has been a story about all of humanity. It's not singled out any particular group. So that you begin in the opening chapters of Genesis, and the focus is upon Adam and Eve, who, of course, are the parents of all of humanity.

[5:25] And then as you work your way through the first several chapters of Genesis, the next major turn in the story, the next major turn in God's dealings with humankind, is the flood with Noah and his wife and his three sons.

[5:38] And they, of course, are the parents also of all of humanity. The focus all the way up to that point is on all of humanity. And it's not until you get to the story that comes right after the flood that you begin to see a breaking up of this sort of unified humanity.

[5:54] And that happens with the Tower of Babel. And what we need to recognize about the Tower of Babel is that, yes, it was God's judgment upon them for their vanity, for their attempt to be like God.

[6:07] But still, the breaking up of humanity into nations, the breaking up of humanity into distinct language groups and ultimately distinct ethnic groups, the breaking up of humanity was God's doing.

[6:22] It was a part of His plan. He did that. The Scriptures tell us He creates nations. He sets boundaries. That's His doing. It's His desire that there be various nations.

[6:34] And then we arrive at chapter 12 of Genesis. And we see that out of all of those nations, God chooses a nation. He chooses to create a nation. Genesis chapter 12, verse 1.

[6:47] This is what we read. It says, Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.

[6:59] And I will make of you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. Abraham is nobody at this point.

[7:10] In fact, his name is not even Abraham yet. His name is Abram. And he is no one special. He is, we are told, that he is from Ur of the Chaldeans.

[7:21] In other words, he's from Babylon. Which in all likelihood means that Abraham, prior to this, was probably just another pagan. Just another worshiper of false gods and idols.

[7:32] There is nothing about Abraham that would commend him to God. That would make God look upon humanity and go, Oh yeah, he's really good. I think that I'll pick him because he's better than everybody else.

[7:45] That's not the case at all. God simply chooses Abraham because it's his will to do so. But in choosing Abraham, of course, he chooses Abraham's descendants.

[7:56] He creates the nation of Israel. Hold your place there and turn over to the book of Nehemiah, chapter 9. So we can see some later reflection upon God's choice of Israel.

[8:10] Now if you're looking really hard for Nehemiah, it comes before the Psalms. Okay, a little bit. Three books before the Psalms. Alright. In Nehemiah, chapter 9. I have to turn there as well.

[8:23] Nehemiah, chapter 9, beginning in verse 6. This is what we read. It says, You are the Lord. You alone. You have made heaven, the heavens of heaven, with their hosts, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them, and you preserve all of them, and the hosts of heaven worship you.

[8:43] So here the writer is recounting for us what it means for God to be God. You are the Lord. You alone. And then you have made all things.

[8:53] You hold all things together. And even the heavenly hosts, even the angels bow down and worship to you. He's helping us to see and understand what it means for God to be God, which makes his next statement surprising.

[9:09] He begins by saying the same words he says in verse 6, You are the Lord. So he's continuing to help us to understand who God is, what it means for God to be God, and this is a part of what it means.

[9:19] You are the Lord, the God who chose Abram and brought him out of Ur of the Chaldeans and gave him the name Abraham.

[9:31] A part of what it means for God to be God is for him to be sovereign, for him to choose. And that's exactly what he does with Abraham.

[9:42] He chooses Abraham out from the nations. He chooses him out. And not only Abraham, but like I said, that includes Abraham's descendants.

[9:55] So that if you move back again to the law, move to Deuteronomy. Turn back to Deuteronomy chapter 14.

[10:06] I know we're jumping around a bit here and I don't usually do that, so I'm sorry to do that to you. But I want you to see this really clearly. Deuteronomy chapter 14 in verse 1, we read this.

[10:20] God speaking to Israel, You are the sons of the Lord your God. And then he gives them some commands about how things they're not supposed to do in the rest of verse 1. And then he tells them why in verse 2.

[10:30] He says, For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. Now holy there does not mean that they are morally pure. The word holy means set apart. You are a people that the Lord your God has set apart.

[10:43] You are a people set apart to the Lord your God. And the Lord has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.

[10:56] So we need to remember this. We need to understand this, that God chose Abraham and God chose Israel. It was a choice that He made.

[11:09] It's crucial. Sometimes we take basic biblical truths like that for granted and we forget them when we come to the New Testament to a passage like we're looking at today. So remember, God chose Israel.

[11:22] Truth number one. Truth number two that I want you to lock away in your brain about Israel is that God chose Israel for His own glory. Just turn back a few chapters from Deuteronomy 14 to Deuteronomy chapter 7.

[11:36] In Deuteronomy chapter 7, God tells Israel reasons that He didn't choose them.

[11:47] In other words, He says, I didn't choose you because of this. I didn't choose you because of that. He's going to help them to understand who they are and why it is that He's chosen them.

[11:58] Verse 6, You are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for His treasured possession. You hear that? It's echoing those passages in Nehemiah and then later Deuteronomy.

[12:12] Out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. And then He says in verse 7, It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love on you and chose you.

[12:24] For you were the fewest of all peoples. But it is because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that He swore to your fathers that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.

[12:38] Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love. It was not because you were more powerful, He's saying.

[12:50] God did not choose you, nation of Israel, because you were better than everyone else. God did not choose Abraham, your father, because he was better than everyone else. He did not lead you out of Egypt.

[13:02] He did not bring you into the land. He didn't give you the land. He didn't do all of these things. These promises that He's given you are not because you are more powerful. They're not because you're more numerous.

[13:12] It's not because you're better. In fact, it's the exact opposite. God chose you because you were fewer than the other nations, because you were weaker than them, because you were less than them.

[13:23] He didn't choose Egypt. He didn't choose Babylon. He didn't choose any of these great powerhouses of the ancient world. He chose Israel and He chose them when they weren't even a people.

[13:35] God regularly does this. God chooses the weak. He chooses the lowly. He chooses the despised. And the reason that He does that is because He wants to demonstrate His own power.

[13:50] What did God tell the Apostle Paul when Paul came to Him and prayed three times that He would remove from Him this thorn in the flesh? He said, no, I'm not going to do that because my power is made perfect in your weakness.

[14:04] This is how God operates. He chooses the weak. He chooses those who cannot do for themselves so that in the end He will receive all of the honor and the glory.

[14:19] If you pay attention to sports at all then you know this past week that the Miami Heat won the NBA championship. They finally won. And that's a big deal because everybody thought they would win last year.

[14:34] Everybody thought that they would win last year because they were sort of set up to dominate. And a lot of people were mad at the management of the Heat and even the players because they had sort of combined these great basketball talents onto one team to create this super team.

[14:52] So finally this year they came through on sort of the promise and they won. And so everybody's talking about the Heat and how great they are. And even if you don't follow sports or you don't know anything at all you've probably at least heard the name LeBron James one of the stars on the Heat even if you don't know anything you may not even know who he is.

[15:10] All you have to do is listen to the radio or read people's Facebook updates and you've seen his name okay all over the place. But how many of you have heard the name of the coach of the Heat?

[15:22] I mean if you watch the games you may know his name right? Anybody here know his name? Nobody? Why? Why don't we know his name? Because they were stacked.

[15:34] They had more talent than any other team so the glory doesn't belong to the coach. All he had to do was not get in their way and help them to express their own greatness and they won.

[15:45] The glory doesn't belong to him because he had greatness to work with. But you see God works the opposite. God wants to retain all of the glory and the honor for himself because he's the only one worthy and so he does not stack his team.

[16:02] He does the exact opposite and he picks the worst players. He picks the ones with no talent. Alright? You and me. He picks the worst so that when he accomplishes great things through his people the world will know it was not his people.

[16:21] It was not because they were greater or more numerous or more powerful. It was because their God is capable and he is magnified, honored, and glorified by choosing the weak and the lowly and despised and he wants Israel to understand that.

[16:36] I didn't choose you because you were better. I chose you because you were worse. Because you were small and weak and pathetic and you didn't even exist when I chose you. And now I'm doing great things through you.

[16:47] He did it all for the sake of his own glory. And lest we begin to doubt that and think there may be some other reason than later on in biblical history, once you get through most of the history of Israel in the Old Testament where they have tried and they have failed and God has judged them and then he's rescued them and all these sorts of things have happened, you arrive at the prophetic books, the books written by the prophets that are reflecting back upon the history of Israel and looking forward and hope to what God might do.

[17:18] And in one of the most important passages in all the prophets, in the book of Ezekiel, you don't have to turn there this time, I've been making you turn everywhere, okay? In the book of Ezekiel chapter 36, we actually read this passage last week, I'm just going to read the first couple of verses to you.

[17:33] I want you to listen to what God says to Israel. After they have failed for the millionth time, this is what God says to them. He tells Ezekiel to say, Therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came.

[18:00] And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.

[18:14] In other words, he says to them, I'm not letting you go. I ought to destroy you off the face of the earth. I ought to wipe you out because you have you have so violated my commands.

[18:25] You have profaned my name among the nations, and I should wipe you out, but I'm not going to do it. And it's not because I think so well of you. It is not because I am compelled by your loveliness to save you.

[18:39] I'm going to rescue you from my own wrath for one reason, for the sake of my name. Because the nations know that I'm your God, and if I wipe you off the face of the earth like I ought to do, then the nations will look and say, they're gone.

[18:53] Their God was not powerful. He couldn't preserve them. And he says, so I'm going to preserve you. I'm going to rescue you out of this. I'm going to deliver you from my own anger because of my namesake.

[19:07] Not for you. It is always, ultimately, about the glory of God at the end of it. If you begin to dig at any particular place in Scripture, and you dig down as far as you can, you will come to the foundation of the glory of God every time.

[19:27] It is God's ultimate motive in all that He does. Why does He save people? For His glory. Why does He judge people? For His glory. Jesus' disciples ask Him, was this man born blind?

[19:41] Or did His parents, why was this man born blind? Did he sin? Did his parents sin? And Jesus answers, no, this man suffers from an infirmity. Why? For the glory of God. Why did He allow Lazarus to die?

[19:52] So that God could display His glory. So whether it's a good thing happening in your life, or a terrible thing happening in your life, whether it's God saving you from your sins, or God judging someone at the end of their life because of their sins, whatever it might be, if we dig down to the bottom of it, we'll always come to this answer, God does all that He does for the sake of His name and for His own glory, and that's what He's teaching Israel.

[20:14] I didn't choose you because you were great. I'm not preserving you because you're worthy to be preserved. I chose you and I preserve you for the sake of my name.

[20:25] So He chose Israel and He chose them for His own glory. And the third thing that I think we need to know to understand this passage in Mark is that He chose them so that they might be a blessing to all the other nations on the earth.

[20:44] Or another way of saying that is He chose Israel so that He might channel His grace through them to all the other nations on the face of the earth. That's, I told you to hold your place in Genesis 12.

[20:55] I don't know if you did, if you didn't turn back there. That's at the very beginning of this whole history of God with the Jewish people with the choosing of Abraham. It's built in to the promises to Abraham and his descendants.

[21:09] We'll read again the first two verses before we get to the third where we see this. Now the Lord said to Abram, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you.

[21:20] And I will make you a great nation and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. And I will bless those who bless you and him who dishonors you I will curse.

[21:32] And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. Did you see that? In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

[21:45] That is, through your descendants I will bring a blessing upon all the nations. It sounds a lot like the Great Commission, doesn't it?

[21:57] Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, all ethnic groups. Ethne is the Greek word. We get the word ethnic groups from that. Make disciples of all the nations.

[22:09] He tells Abraham at the very beginning of his dealings with his chosen people through you I'm going to bless all the families of the earth. This is a part of God's plan in choosing Israel.

[22:24] So that we need to make sure that we don't make the mistake of thinking it's all about Israel because it's not all about Israel. It's all about what God has designed from the beginning to do through Israel.

[22:40] And when you come to the New Testament that idea is not lost in the New Testament. So that Paul says in the book of Romans that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation.

[22:51] and then he says to the Jew first and also to the Greek. Paul never loses this connection between God channeling his grace through the nation of Israel and through the Jewish people to the Gentiles.

[23:03] He never loses that connection. It's always there. So that he says frequently to the Jew first and also to the Greek. So that when we read in the book of Acts when Paul goes to a new city to start a new church in any town the first place that he goes is the synagogue he preaches the gospel to the Jews there and then they inevitably reject him and then he turns and he preaches the gospel to the Gentiles.

[23:28] So the means of him getting into a city and initially gaining an audience is always through the Jewish people and through the synagogue and then the gospel spreads to the Gentiles. That's how Paul operates.

[23:39] Paul never loses this concept of the blessings of God come through Israel. He doesn't lose that. Israel was always intended to be a blessing to all the nations.

[23:54] We see that idea reflected also towards the end of the history of Israel in the Old Testament when we come to the writings of the prophets. When we come in particular to the writings of the prophet Isaiah Isaiah begins in the latter part of the book of Isaiah he begins to talk about Israel as God's servant.

[24:21] And he begins to look to the future and predict a day that will come when through this servant whom he identifies with Israel he says there will come a day when God rains down blessings through that servant.

[24:36] There will come a day when through his servant Israel God will bless all peoples. and the strange thing that happens in the middle of all of that is that Isaiah begins to jump back and forth as he talks about this servant sometimes he says that the servant is Israel.

[24:55] He just says my servant Israel is what he says. And then at other times he says that the servant is someone who does things for Israel.

[25:08] So that sometimes in the middle of these chapters in Isaiah the chapters in the 40s and 50s well the late 30s 40s and 50s in Isaiah God is going back and forth between the servant being the nation and the servant being an individual who represents the nation.

[25:27] It's a shift that's happening there. And in the middle of that though in chapter 49 I want you to listen carefully to this. Again you don't have to turn there but you can if you want.

[25:38] You begin to see some of this back and forth between is the servant the nation or is the servant someone who represents the nation. 49 verse 1 says listen to me O coastlands and give attention you peoples from afar.

[25:53] The Lord called me from the womb from the body of my mother he named my name. That sounds like an individual doesn't it? Called me from the womb. He made my mouth like a sharp sword in the shadow of his hand he hid me he made me a polished arrow in his quiver he hid me away and he said to me listen you are my servant Israel in whom I will be glorified.

[26:16] Is it an individual or is it the nation? Which one is it? Because it sounds like an individual but then he says you're my servant Israel. And then if you move down again in verse 5 the Lord says he who formed me from the womb to be his servant to bring Jacob that's another word for Israel back to him.

[26:34] Now so wait a minute the servant is supposed to bring Israel back to God and yet the servant is Israel? I'm confused. Are you?

[26:44] Does that does that just confuse you? It's very confusing when you read those kinds of things initially. But then it goes beyond that as you continue to read down this is what it says in verse 6 God says is it too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob here it is again now the servant who he called Israel now the servant is raising up Israel the tribes of Jacob is it too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob to bring back the preserved of Israel and then he says this I will make you as a light for the nations that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth so Isaiah is picking up on this theme that stretches all the way back to Genesis chapter 12 that through Israel God will bless the nations but now Isaiah is narrowing it and he's saying look there will be an individual from within Israel who will represent

[27:53] Israel and on behalf of Israel he will become a light to all the nations this is why when you get to the New Testament you come to a book like Galatians where the apostle Paul looks back to the book of Genesis and he begins to interpret the promises made to Abraham and he looks back where it talks about God blessing the nations through Abraham's descendants that is literally through his seed Paul looks back and he says that word seed is singular right that's what he says it's singular it's not plural seeds not many not all of Israel and then he says that Christ is that seed Christ is the descendant of Abraham from the line of Abraham he is the Israelite who becomes Israel and represents

[28:54] Israel and he does what Israel failed to do the greatest failure throughout Israel's history was that they did not honor God by becoming a blessing to the nations they did not honor God by being a light for the nations Israel was always meant to be a missionary people and they failed at it utterly and so there arises one within who represents the nation and accomplishes all the things that they failed to do so that when Jesus arrives on the scene Jesus has it as his main as one of his main goals to come and do the things that Israel could not do and among those things is he's going to begin to broaden the blessing out and include the Gentiles but he never forgets Israel he never leaves behind

[29:59] Israel because it says he's supposed to raise up the tribes of Jacob he's supposed to bring back the preserved of Israel and then he's a light for the nations so he doesn't leave behind Israel he transforms what it means to be Israel so let's sort of sum all this up alright God chose sovereignly of his own will he chose Israel he chose Israel ultimately to display his own glory and he chose Israel so that through Israel salvation and blessing might come to all people now let's get to our text for this morning in Mark chapter 7 now if you'll remember from last week in the previous verses in verses 1 through 24

[31:00] Jesus has a confrontation with the Jewish leaders with the Pharisees and the scribes and the confrontation he has with them is that his disciples do not obey all of their traditions all of their ritual rules they don't obey those and the Pharisees confront him about it and then Jesus says something to his disciples he says to his disciples it's not it's not what what goes into you that makes you unclean it's what comes out of you it's what's in your heart and comes out in the form of various sins that makes you unclean nothing going into you Jesus says can make you unclean and then Mark makes a comment so that we'll understand what's happening here us Gentiles who may be a little dull on understanding some of the Old Testament Mark says in saying this he declared all foods clean in other words when Jesus said nothing can go into you and make you unclean Jesus is saying all the food laws found in the

[32:05] Torah all the food laws found in what we call the Old Testament Jesus says those are no longer in effect which means that Jesus has the authority to do that and I told you last week he has that authority for two reasons!

[32:18] number one because he's in this instance even more importantly Jesus is the Messiah he is the Christ so he is the one who brings in the new covenant he is the one who initiates the age in which all nations are blessed so Jesus as the Messiah as the one who brings in the new covenant is able to make the switch from old covenant where food laws apply to new covenant where food laws don't apply and that's what Jesus is teaching his disciples he's saying to them it's happening now we're transferring from old to new right now in my ministry it's happening right before your eyes so here's part of it food laws no more it's part of it now that's what's happening when we get to verse 24 that's the context and from there he arose and went away to the region of Tyre and Sidon which means that he has now left the physical boundaries of

[33:24] Israel he left the country he's gone now he hasn't gone a long way away okay he's gone somewhere between 20 and 40 miles depending on where in the region of Tyre and Sidon he is but he's gone somewhere between 20 and 40 miles away from where he was but he is officially!

[33:42] of Gentile territory alright that's where he's gone it says that he entered a house and he did not want anyone to know yet he could not be hidden so Jesus I think weary from his confrontations with the Jewish leadership trying to teach his disciples that there's a shift taking place from old covenant to new covenant and some of the old laws of the Old Testament are passing away they're no longer in effect he's trying to teach them that he decides to take them into Gentile territory and spend some time alone with his disciples I think teaching them and instructing them and helping to understand but he arrives there and even there outside the borders of Israel even there Jesus can't get peace and quiet because even there they know of who he is even there they have heard of him because earlier in the gospel of Mark we've been told in chapter 4 that people came from Tyre and Sidon into

[34:43] Galilee seeking him because they had heard of his reputation and they wanted healing they wanted all sorts of things from him so now he goes to their region they've already heard of him they know who he is and so he cannot remain hidden long!

[34:56] word spreads even no rest no time alone with his disciples yet and now a specific story but immediately a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit heard of him and came and fell at his feet and then the comment to make sure that we don't miss it now the woman was a Gentile and specifically a Syrophoenician by birth you look for Syrophoenicians in the Old Testament and you will not find anything nice about them alright these are outcasts these are among Gentiles bad Gentiles they're looked down upon by the Jews in a very serious way she's a Gentile even worse she is by birth Syrophoenician and yet she comes throws herself at his feet and begins to beg him to cast the demon out of her daughter

[36:03] I don't know how she heard that Jesus was in the area I don't know whether or not she had tried other means of getting the demon out of her daughter I would imagine that she probably had if she's a desperate parent but now she comes to Jesus begging him please help I know you have the power to do it and then Jesus says something that if you don't know all that stuff that we just covered in the Old Testament he says something that is shocking he says to her let the children be fed first for it is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs sounds terribly insulting doesn't it alright it is insulting but not as insulting as you think there's two words for dog in Greek one word refers to a common street dog that you would want to stay away from the other refers to a house dog okay he uses the word for a house dog here so this is a pet kind of dog who literally would be fed scraps from the table alright that's what he says to her he says you can't take the kids food you can't feed the dog before you feed the kids alright but when the dogs eat the same thing as the kids you want to make sure the kids get their fill first before you feed the little puppy right and that's what Jesus is saying to her here comes this Gentile woman this Syrophoenician and she's begging

[37:38] Jesus for mercy and grace and he's there trying to spend some time alone with his Jewish disciples trying to teach them and she begs him for mercy and he looks and he says listen it's not right for me to give to you a Gentile dog what belongs to God's children I can't do that well he doesn't say that exactly does he what does he say exactly let the children be fed first that's an important word he does not say I will not feed you let the children be fed first now there's two things happening here he's teaching this woman about salvation history he's teaching this woman about God's dealings and blessing through Israel but he's also teaching his disciples that the blessing must go out beyond Israel because he says first and then she answers yes Lord but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs here's a woman who's come to him in utter humility and she hasn't come to him as just an ignorant gentile who's heard that there's a random healer in town

[38:57] I think she knows something about who he is because in the gospel of Matthew she comes and addresses him as Lord son of David so she knows that he's the promised Jewish Messiah she knows that he's the promised king of Israel she knows who he is I don't know how she knows that I don't know if she has Jewish friends I don't know if she's one of those Gentiles who just was fascinated with Judaism and studied the Torah I don't know how she knows this stuff but she knows stuff about Jesus she knows stuff about Israel and so she just says son of David I need your help I know I'm a Gentile I know you need to feed them first but even the dogs get the crumbs off the table and all I want are crumbs all I want is a bit of your grace because that's enough she comes in utter humility and total complete dependence upon him that's something that we call faith we call that faith in fact in Matthew's account again

[40:06] Matthew records that Jesus comments about the greatness of her faith because in the end that's what connects someone to the promises of God and the blessings of God you're not connected to the promises and blessings of God merely because of your physical descent in fact one of the things that Jesus tries to help and that the apostles later on try to help the Jewish people to see is you are not an automatic recipient of salvation you don't automatically get the blessings of Abraham just because you're descended from Abraham and Paul in Romans chapter 9 takes great pains to teach them that he points to two examples he says Abraham had two sons and yet only one of them was a child of promise and he said that child of promise has two sons twins even Jacob and Esau and only one of those two twins receives the promises Paul says it's not it's not because of physical descent that you receive the promises it's!

[41:07] because of God's calling and God's choosing and then on the human side it's because of faith that connects you to him here's a Syrophoenician here's a Gentile she's cut off from the promises of God and yet she's not because she trusts in Jesus she's not cut off I think everything that the disciples would have thought about Gentiles everything that they would have believed about the possibility of Gentiles receiving the blessings has just been turned on its head because in verse 29 he says for this statement you may go your way the demon has left your daughter and she went home it says and found the child lying literally cast down on the bed and the demon was gone she received the mercy and grace of Jesus because she came humbly!

[42:00] in utter dependence and trust in his power and his grace this has been God's plan all along God always intended through Israel to take the gospel to the nations so that even even the most wicked evil sinful people through faith in Christ might receive the promises and blessings of Abraham it has always been his plan to do it that way the difference is that under the old covenant the focus was upon the nation of Israel so that we might see and understand that they're not enough that the physical descendants of Abraham are not enough to bring salvation to the nations we need something better than that we need the seed of Abraham we need the servant who is called

[43:01] Israel we need someone better than they are we need someone to save Israel and save us too and Jesus has come to do just that let the children eat first he says but I feed all those who come to me in faith so that the real issue for us in the end becomes have we really trusted in him I think that the Jewish people would have at this time at least in history would have found these sorts of events to be outside the box it's not okay you can't do these sorts of things Jesus you can't say these kinds of things you can't bless these kinds of people and I'm not sure that we are all that much different because at the root of that all is the fact that they believe that because of their physical descent they had a special claim upon the promises and the blessings of

[44:06] Abraham and we do the same thing we just don't do it with physical descent we think that because we did something because we go to church regularly or because we read our Bible regularly or because we got baptized or because we walked down an aisle or because we said a prayer because of something we did we think that we have access to the promises of God and if this story teaches us anything it teaches us it's not about what you do because it's a Syrophoenician woman she has no claim upon the promises of God and yet by faith she does we have no claim upon him we can't demand anything from him and there's nothing that we can do there is no list of good works that you can do that gives you a claim upon his promises and yet by faith by faith they are all yours turn back to Romans 11 where we were earlier as we were singing and we paused to read scripture because this is what I want us to end with Romans 11 is

[45:10] Paul's explaining it's his explanation of God's overarching plan to work through Israel and then through Israel to reach the nations and he talks about how Israel branches are broken off and Gentiles are grafted in and all this tricky stuff but his overall point is that that age in which God blesses the nations through Israel is happening now it's what Paul teaches in Romans 11 and this is Paul's response to God's great plan to save the nations through Israel oh the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways now as we read these next two verses I want you to lock in your brain the second point we made earlier God chose Israel and now he blesses us through his servant Jesus for his own glory keep that in your mind as Paul worships in response to God's plan verse 34 for who has known the mind of the

[46:19] Lord or who has been his counselor or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid in other words this is all from God and therefore 36 for from him and through him and to him are all things to him be glory forever why does God choose to save people by faith why doesn't he give us a list of things that we ought to do if we want to be right with him well we could say on one level because we are sinners and not capable of doing enough to be right with!

[47:01] standard is perfection he's a holy God but we could dig deeper than that couldn't we God saves people through faith because faith doesn't lay a claim on anything faith doesn't bring a gift to God and say here take this faith is saying I have nothing I need you that's what faith is faith is the opposite of striving faith is the opposite of bringing God a list of all the things that you've done for why he should accept you faith is coming to him and saying I have nothing to offer you I just want you God is the giver in salvation and if you try to give him a gift he will utterly reject!

[47:56]  it will save you and he will do it so that to him will be glory forever let's pray