[0:00] We're in Mark chapter 7. We'll pick up in verse 24! The Word of God declares, And he said to her,
[1:10] Because of this answer, go, the demon has gone out of your daughter. And going back to her home, she found the child lying on the bed, the demon having left. Again, he went out and came through Saddam to the Sea of Galilee within the region of Decapolis.
[1:28] They brought to him one who was deaf and spoke with difficulty. And they implored him to lay his hands on him. Jesus took him aside from the crowd by himself and put his fingers into his ears.
[1:42] And after spitting, he touched his tongue with the saliva. And looking up to heaven with a deep sigh, he said to him, That is, be opened.
[1:52] And his ears were opened, and the impediment of his tongue was removed. And he began speaking plainly. And he gave them orders not to tell anyone. But the more he ordered them, the more widely they continued to proclaim it.
[2:06] And they were utterly astonished, saying, He has done all things well. He makes even the deaf to hear and the mute to speak. Let's pray.
[2:17] Father, again, we thank you for this day. We rejoice in the gathering of the saints. And Lord, we know that one of the grandest things that we can do is to come together and look at the word of God with one another.
[2:29] So, Father, thank you. Praise your name that we are able to hear and to read the word. And we pray now, Lord, as we have seen it, that our hearts and minds would be open to receive it.
[2:40] That what we hear and what is brought to us is not the opinion or the thought of man, but rather it would be the declaration of the word of God. And the word of God would have its work within the hearts of each and every one of us.
[2:54] Lord, may you mold us and conform us and to shape us to be more and more like you for your glory and your glory alone. We ask it all in Christ's most precious and holy name.
[3:05] Amen. You may be seated. As we are making our way through the gospel of Mark, we have just finished up the teaching of Christ on that which truly defiles a man.
[3:18] He had been speaking to the Pharisees and the scribes who had came down from Jerusalem into the Galilean region which he was at. And they had come to him testing him and watching him and observing, that is, actively looking upon his disciples.
[3:33] They had noticed that his disciples did not wash their hands in the ceremonial way. They had noticed that when they came into contact with whatever it was they came into contact with during the marketplace or just by living life, that when they gathered together to eat a meal, that they had just went right into eating.
[3:51] It wasn't a matter of eating with unclean hands. It was a matter of eating with what they refer to as defiled hands. Christ had set the matter straight. He had declared to them that it was not the keeping of traditions, nor the manner in which an individual walked through these traditions, which ensured that a man would be pure and holy in the sight of a holy God.
[4:13] Rather, if you remember, last week we gathered together, that which truly defiles a man is that which comes from within the heart and out of the heart of the individual. It is not that which goes into him, but which comes out of him, for out of his heart comes all of these evil things.
[4:27] And in looking at that, we saw the reality that it is not that just some are defiled, but rather that each and every one of us are defiled. And we are not defiled because we have come into contact with unclean and impure people.
[4:40] That is, we've hung around the wrong crowds. Rather, we are defiled because we are the wrong crowd, just to put it bluntly. It is that within us that has defiled us. For the heart of every man is desperately wicked.
[4:51] There is none righteous, no, not one. Looking at that, we reminded ourselves that three times Scripture quoted that. There are verses found in Psalm 14, again Psalm 53.
[5:05] And then we are reminded in Romans chapter 3 that it is the heart of every man that defiles him. And we have seen that since that is the problem, there was hope for man, and that hope was found in Christ.
[5:16] And to reiterate that point and to display it, to give us a vivid observation of it, we have the passage before us. So I want you to see this morning, the hope of all man.
[5:29] The hope of all man. If we looked last week at that which truly defiles us, that which brings us down to lead us to do things which are often unspeakable and unimaginable.
[5:42] Not just the heinous crimes which we can think of, not the things which make the headlines, but even the things such as unbelief. Those things which seem so simple by the world's standards, which God declares in his presence are unacceptable.
[6:00] And yet we are not people without hope. It is not that we live in a hopeless situation, but rather there is hope extended to all mankind, not just to a particular nation or to a particular people group or just those who have the right tradition.
[6:16] There is hope extended for all man. And it is the hope which we know in Jesus Christ. We'll get to it in just a moment. It is a hope which we can declare. There is hope. It is a word that is used quite often.
[6:28] If you do just a little study and walk through, you used to, you could walk through the bookstores. Now we have to walk through the online bookstores and see how many titles have the word hope in it. We can see how many things are offered and the world is desperately looking for it, but the world quite often is looking for it in the wrong way and in the wrong place.
[6:48] But here we have it before us, the hope of all man. And we have it in an account that seems most unlikely to us. An account, the first account of the woman of Syrophoenician race in which we have a parallel passage found in the Gospel of Matthew.
[7:03] And then immediately the man that is deaf and has a speech impediment that is from the region of Decapolis, which is really confined only to the account found in the Gospel of Mark. It is one of the few accounts that is only found in the Gospel of Mark.
[7:20] The majority of Mark, if you remember, can be found with parallel passages found in Matthew and Luke. They are what we refer to as the synoptic Gospels. You say, well, Pastor, I thought we were preaching this morning, right?
[7:32] Well, part of preaching is helping us get a grasp of the Word of God. Synoptic just means same, right? They are similar. They share a lot of similarities. But here we find a passage that is put together with this one of the woman from Tyre that seems to be unique.
[7:46] And it is absolutely unique to Mark alone. So Mark put it here with some intentionality. We must never forget the reality, my friend, that the Word of God is inspired.
[7:56] That the Spirit of God moves the men of God to pen the Word of God so that we would know exactly what it is he has to say to us. I would even declare that the inspiration of the Word of God applies to how it is fit and put together.
[8:14] That is, these passages are here with some intentionality. God so wanted us to see these two accounts in connection with the account that immediately preceded it so that we would come to the grasp of the reality that since all men are wicked in their heart, that all men have hope found in a person.
[8:34] And it is not something that is confined to a geographic region or to a nationality of people. And so, the Word of God, with the inspiration of the Word of God, and by the way, let me just stop right here and give you just a little caveat.
[8:48] I fully believe in the divine inspiration of the Word of God that there is nothing that measures to it in modern circumstances.
[8:58] In that I say, I read recently something that said, just like the Psalms were inspired by the song leaders of the nation of Israel, so we have inspiration today. Now, I'm going to be careful.
[9:09] You'll see I'm a little legalistic here. I don't want to be legalistic. But please don't ever equate the inspiration of even the songs in your hymn book. I think they're great. But they are not equal to the inspiration of the songs we find within the pages of Scripture.
[9:25] They may be beneficial. I'm not saying they're not. But do not say that John Newton was inspired as David when David wrote Psalm 23. Okay?
[9:36] John Newton may have been led by the Lord to pen something based upon his circumstances when he wrote Amazing Grace, and it is a wonderful hymn that has been a help to many of us. But please do not make any writing equal with the Word of God.
[9:52] It is absolutely inspired, divinely given. Now, there are moments, I'm just getting a little pastorally on you here, where I will take the hymn book, and I'll read through it to be encouraged by the hymns.
[10:06] You say, well, how nerdy is that? It's pretty nerdy. I get it. But I understand. It's okay. And just to read through it along with Scripture, and it's encouraging. But I don't read through it so that I can find how I ought to live my life.
[10:18] I read the Word of God to find how I ought to live my life. It is the Word of God that deals with the issues within the heart of man. And we need to have those things clearly differentiated in our lives.
[10:31] There needs to be a standard, and the standard is set by the Word of God. So now, enough of that. Let's get to the hope of all men. We notice here a number of things. The first thing that we notice in these two accounts, which really are referring to one event, is the desperation of the individual.
[10:50] We notice first the desperation of the individual. It says, Jesus got up and went away from there to the region of Tyre. Now, and we read the other account.
[11:01] It says that he went to the area of the capitalist. Decapolis means ten cities. Now, in particular, these would have stood out to the audience of the Gospel of Mark.
[11:13] You remember so many weeks ago when we introduced the Gospel of Mark, right? Maybe you don't, so I'll remember. The intended audience was not a Jewish people group that Mark was writing to Greeks.
[11:27] That is to Gentiles. To people of Roman society who were living with a Greek mentality. They were surrounded by multitude of gods, lowercase g, by all kinds of paganistic objects in worship.
[11:43] And their mindset was a Greek mindset. It was not a Jewish traditional mindset. Now, we know that because Mark intends to describe and even to declare and to clarify what are Jewish traditions so that his audience, when they read this writing, would understand what he's talking about.
[11:59] By the way, as much as I believe the words are inspired, I also believe the intended audience is inspired. So we have these, I could really get on a big, long subject. I'm not going to do that right now about the Scripture and why it's important.
[12:10] But anyway, so we want to know the history. We want to know who wrote it, why they wrote it, who they wrote it to, and what they were trying to address. All those things matter when we study Scripture. And so he is writing to a Greek audience, a Greek mindset, which, by the way, would be a whole lot like American mindset today.
[12:29] And it's important because he brings up two regions within the Roman Empire that had a grand appeal to the Greek people. The region in Tyre, in which he finds this woman of Syrophoenician race, would be one of the grand cultural centers of the Greek reign.
[12:48] When the Romans took it on, the Greek tradition was so large in that area that they continued to think in that mindset that the Decapolis, the ten cities of the Roman Empire, were heavily influenced by Greek mentality.
[13:02] So when Mark puts these names here being moved by the hand of God, now his audience stands up and takes notice because he's been writing about how Jesus interacted with the Jewish people.
[13:14] But if we're not careful, that's just those people. So he has some grand work among those people. But what about us, his audience may have said. And here now he introduces us to these people.
[13:27] So the first thing that we notice about their desperation is these are Gentiles. Here the two accounts before us are Gentile individuals. They are not Jewish by nationality.
[13:41] So we find that the reach and the extent of Christ is going outside of Jewish territory. Because the first barrier that must be torn down is that he is the Messiah of the Jews.
[13:56] Even the Old Testament tells us that the Messiah that comes would be a light unto the Gentiles. If we read even in the book of Micah where it declares where he will be born, that the light that arises out of Bethlehem would shine unto the nations and the nations would be drawn to him.
[14:15] This whole concept of a Jewish Messiah is foreign not only to the New Testament but it's foreign to the entirety of all of Scripture. Now the people during the time of Christ, they were looking for a Messiah.
[14:26] But they were looking for a Messiah that was of temporary ascent that would deliver them from the Roman rule. Jesus came to be the King of kings and Lord of lords to release all men from all rule. That they would set up under his reign.
[14:40] He is of Jewish nationality but he is not just a Jewish Messiah. We do not ever want to separate that fact but we do see here that now the first desperate condition these people have is they are not people of the law.
[14:58] They are not those under the covenant, the Mosaic covenant. They are not living according to the standards. They have no temple. They have no priesthood. They have no Levites.
[15:08] They have no scribes. No Pharisees among them. They are like you and I. They are Gentiles which is everyone else except people of Jewish nationality.
[15:24] And we see the desperation goes even further than that because it says that when he came to this region he had entered a house he wanted no one to know of it and yet he could not escape notice but after hearing of him a woman.
[15:37] Here is the first thing that follows the reality that they are Gentiles. This is a woman. Some of you women say well what does that have to do? What problem is that one? In that culture that is a big problem.
[15:49] Here is a woman who has a problem and the problem is now think about this both of these here is a woman who comes to him who has demonic activity taking place in her house.
[16:01] Her little daughter is demon possessed. The circumstances of the man who has an impediment to speech seem to imply that he was not born deaf because at some time he could have spoke clearly if we read the really the historical language of it but something was constraining his tongue and so the implication there is there is demonic activity in his life as well.
[16:34] So now let's paint the picture. What we have before us are two Gentile individuals who very clearly have demonic activity taking place in their life and there is nothing they can do about it.
[16:52] They are at a great place of desperation a place where there is no hope. There is no deliverance found among the religions of the world.
[17:03] There is nothing that they can release them from the activity that has taken place in their lives and they are living in a moment of desperation. Something that we almost miss from this passage though is the second thing.
[17:18] Not only do we notice the desperation of the individual we see the declaration of the truth and we almost miss it because it is such a simple wording. It tells us that when Jesus went into the region of Tyre he entered a house and he wanted no one to know of it yet he could not escape notice.
[17:33] You ever thought about that? How can Christ escape notice? Well you say I don't know how Jesus Christ could ever escape notice but too often in our own world he escapes notice.
[17:43] He does it seems at times is doing a pretty good job of that among the multitudes but yet Christ when he is moving is recognizable but here is the phrase look at it says in verse 25 but after hearing of him but after hearing of him now that is important in my study of the passage I almost passed over it I almost just wanted to focus so much on the desperation of the individual that I forgot that this desperate individual had to hear of the reality that Christ was near but after hearing of him you know what we don't notice from this passage there's some things we don't notice the first thing that we don't notice is we don't know who told her about him we don't know who went up to this woman and said you know what I know you have a problem in your life I know you have a daughter that's demon possessed I know you have some issues going on let me tell you what I've heard
[18:46] I've heard that over in this house I can take care of that problem nobody tells us who that individual is there's even no mentioning but clearly someone had to tell her because what does Paul say Paul says how can they hear unless someone tell them you don't just hear it because the birds proclaim it you hear it because someone says there's a person you need to go see but after hearing of him there's a great song out I love that song it's called you don't even know my name and it speaks of all the things that happen in scripture and it tells these accounts and in the chorus it says and the wonderful thing about my story is that you don't even know my name we don't even know the name of the lady who had a daughter that was demon possessed we don't know the name of the man who was deaf and had an impediment of speech we don't know the name of the widow whose son was raised in Cain there's so many people in scripture we don't know their name because the account and the story is not about them but what we have found here is that she hears of him
[19:53] Paul says in Romans chapter 10 verse 17 that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ the word of there means the word concerning Christ and what does our passage before us say and she heard of him she heard something concerning about him she heard something that was about Jesus Christ and that something led her to take action friend listen to me you don't need to know everything you don't have to declare people all the mysteries of the theology and all the mysterious doctrines that church history has ever looked up in those things interest me and I love talking about them you don't need to know all the church creeds and all the church fathers all you need to do is be able to speak of Christ if you talk of him the word of God says that when we hear of Christ all of a sudden something changes you say oh pastor makes me feel bad because I don't well in our natural conversation we talk about the things we love right we can speak of our children of our grandchildren and of our hobbies and of our work and of all these things around us and of our favorite sports team all people need to hear is things and matters of Christ we don't know who told her but we know she heard it and we also know that when he went to the capitalist evidently people heard it because they brought a man to him because you don't come to him unless you know about him never belittle the declaration of truth in daily conversation it's just living it out now does that mean that we ought to go door to door in what
[21:45] I call code knocking evangelism well if you're so led to do that then you can do that if that's your calling and your ambition then by all means do it but what if in our conversation we just spoke of the things of Christ what if the circumstances around us were put so that people would ask us concerning the things of Christ what if we are told to live our lives in such a manner that people will see our good works and glorify our father which is in heaven that we'd be able to give an answer and a reason for our faith see it's the declaration of truth that mattered so much to this lady because after hearing of him what if no one had ever told her what if when he went into town no one had ever said there's a man at the house that you need to see well then we wouldn't be reading an account about a woman who had a daughter that was demon possessed he said well I don't know her name it's okay but we do know who she went to which leads us to the third thing the display of faith faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of
[22:55] Christ so she didn't only hear of him says this woman who had a little daughter of an unclean spirit immediately came immediately is the great favorite word of Mark by the way things were always happening quickly because in that society in that culture that he was writing to the Greek culture things happened quickly the people the Greek people were people of action they wanted something to take place they weren't people of instruction so much so they wanted action they say well what does it do and it says immediately came and fell at his feet this woman hears of Christ and all of a sudden faith begins to take root and we know that faith takes root because it bears fruit it does something it says she came immediately she came and she fell at his feet it is the hearing that produces!
[23:39] faith but it is the faith that moves our feet and here we see faith they bring the man to Christ and they implore him to do something with this individual the wording is even more powerful concerning this lady who has the greater problem it says not only did she come and fall at his feet it says the woman was a Gentile in case we missed the Syrophoenician race and it says and she kept asking him she didn't just ask one time she didn't say hey could you do I don't know I'm not going to do it okay thank you no she had a problem she was in desperate condition that she just kept imploring him kept begging him kept asking him he said well why was the savior so resistant if he's such a loving savior why didn't he answer the first time well what right does the clay have to say to the master why did you make me this way right and the story doesn't end there it says that she kept asking and kept begging and kept imploring and kept seeking this help and the wording seems so cold but keep in mind when
[24:51] Jesus says what he says he also knew what he was going to do we read it as if it are two finite individuals having a conversation now if you were to come to me and you say pastor can you help me out and I looked at you and said what right do the dogs have to benefit from what I'm giving to everybody else and you would say you calling me a dog and I said well that seems like what I said and we have a problem we have a problem if I came to you and you!
[25:16] we'd have a problem and there be an issue there what he is about to do so when we're looking at this why does he say what he says anyway the woman keeps begging he says no let me feed the children first that word first matters because when Christ came he came to be the deliverer of the Messiah of the Jews the Jewish people rejected him as Paul would say in the book of Romans and that offer has been extended to the Gentiles we find that in the book of Acts find it also in the book of Romans because they rejected him but again in the economy of God God knew they were going to reject him therefore he is the savior and redeemer of all mankind really deep I know but it's really powerful so don't let these things these things that are happening in time and space overwhelm you but he dogs and so what he is telling her is do you know what my people refer to you as and what's so astounding about the passage is she doesn't get so offended that she gets offensive she acknowledges who she is yes but even the dogs eat from the crumb of the table do you know when you are aware the reality that faith is working in your life is when you can admit that you are as bad as other people say you are because you're standing in the presence of the holy
[27:03] Lord and Savior Jesus Christ when you don't have to defend yourself anymore you don't have to become offensive because you can say with all confidence well if they knew me any better they would think less of me because it's no longer about who you are you're at the feet of the Savior say yes Lord I am a dog and all I beg of crumbs from the table in the gospel of Matthew Jesus says because of your great faith it has been done for you it takes a mighty work of faith to reveal to a heart that we are as bad as everybody thinks we are only because wickedness flows from within our own heart but we also know that the one the feet before us the one whose feet we have fallen before is able to take us and redeem us and to restore us and then when people then now they want to look at us and say in
[28:09] Christ I am not all things have been made new in Christ I no longer that in Christ I been redeemed in Christ I been forgiven in Christ see it's in Christ it's no longer who I am you say pastor do you just walk around with this false sense of humility no I understand this reality that no matter what anybody called me when I went to Christ I was all of that and more but in Christ I am not in Christ I'm a child of the king in Christ I get to sit with!
[28:39] in Christ and it is faith that comes from hearing of Christ and it is a display of faith because she admits who she is and he says then go based upon this display of faith in your life this great faith that has been seen which leads us to the fourth and final thing the deliverance from enslavement each of these individuals are in a desperate!
[29:15] condition! each one of them are bound by demonic activity things that are bringing wickedness in their own life for the lady it's her little daughter and when she goes home she goes back to her home and she found the child lying on the bed and the demon having left the man from Decapolis Christ brings him off by himself touches his ears spits on the ground puts the spit in his mouth and declares there's not a single Bible scholar that really knows why but there is this reality Christ though he did similar healings he never healed them the same way sometimes he just looked at them and said be open sometimes he spit on the ground and touched their tongue and said be open sometimes he put his fingers in there why it doesn't really matter why what we understand is that the work of Christ is unique to the individual before him the work that Christ does in your life is not the work that he does in my life he will redeem and restore and make new the same but how he does it is different right the circumstances of our lives are so independently unique to each and every one of us but we have a savior who can meet us where we're at sometimes he can look at us and say be clean and we're clean sometimes he pulls us off by ourselves and puts his fingers in our ear because we need to hear something and we need to know he's present sometimes he needs to just anoint our eyes and we can see men like trees and he comes back and does it again sometimes it's this progressive work sometimes it's an instant work but it doesn't matter is the same and what
[31:03] I'm saying is if you come to Christ in the moment you say he awakens my spirit and I cry out to him and he saves me in a moment praise me to God he saves you instantly sometimes for some of Christ is not confined to do the work the same in each and every person but he's going to do the same work of completion and redemption but he just does it in a unique fashion and I praise him for that because it's not like he walked around going you be healed and you healed and you healed no he took time said I'm going to take this!
[31:49] I'm going to do something different in his life and the work he did in your life is so much different than the work he did in mine you know why it's because the circumstances he found me in are so much more unique than where he found you but the redemption he offers is the same but he is big enough to meet each one of us individually and to work it out in a matter of full and final deliverance to the woman he gives the word of faith she goes home and the demon is gone to the man he has to pull him aside and his tongue is loose that is the demon is gone but each one of them are delivered from the enslavement from that which brought them to a point of desperation each one of them walk away from their say now be sure to go home and wash your hands in a certain way and be sure to do all these traditional things he didn't do that because they were not of
[33:00] Jewish nationality but the same redeemer and savior met them where they were at and did a similar work he is the hope of all men he is not confined to the geographic location he is not confined to the nationality of people and since all men have this wicked heart within them he is the hope of all men he is the hope of those who find themselves in a desperate position which at some time I would say each and every one of us do he is the hope that comes because we hear of him and by faith we run to him and we fall at his feet crying out for deliverance and what we find is he is the one able to meet us where we're at and fully deliver us from that which is holding us captive because he's the hope of all men let's pray father we thank you so much for this day we thank you for your word we thank you for the truth that it declares we thank you for the ability we've had together together as your people today to lift up our songs to lift up our voices in song to fellowship with one another to read the word of God with one another
[34:20] I pray oh father now that you would speak to our hearts and minds there be one here today who is in a place of desperation that you would call them by faith the fall at the feet of the savior for those of us that need to be encouraged may we find it in your presence may you be glorified and honored we ask it in Christ's name amen