In the sermon 'A Mother's Faith' by Dr. Joel Beeke, the story of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21-28 is used to illustrate the maturation of faith through trials. The woman, seeking healing for her demon-possessed daughter, faces apparent silence, rejection, and insult from Jesus. However, her persistent faith is ultimately rewarded. Dr. Beeke emphasizes that mature faith is crucial not only for mothers but for all believers, as it is developed through life's challenges and reliance on Christ. He draws parallels between these trials and Jesus' experiences on the cross, highlighting that Jesus endured real silence, rejection, and insult so that believers might never truly face these. The sermon encourages believers to seek a deeper communion with Christ and to understand that trials are designed to strengthen their faith, leading to greater reliance on God and spiritual growth.

Turn with me please to Matthew chapter 15. And let's stand for the reading of God's holy word. Matthew 15 verses 21 through 28. Hear the word of God as it comes to you this morning. Matthew 15, 21.

Then Jesus went thence and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts and cried unto him, saying, "'Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her, not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she cryeth after us.

But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, it is not meat, It is not fitting to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs. And she said, truth Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt.

And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. May God bless the reading of his word. You may be seated. The church needs mature The church needs mature faith. Perhaps you wonder, what is this story, this strange story all about?

Three times Jesus seems to push this mother away. Three times She passes his tests. And the clue to the story, the meaning of this history, as so often is the case with Jesus' miracles or parables or other events, lies in the last verse. That's where you often get the hermeneutical secret of what Jesus is doing. And it lies in these words, oh woman, or you could say oh mother, great, or you could translate it, mature is your faith.

What Jesus is doing in this whole passage is he's maturing the faith of a heathen woman. And this is absolutely beautiful. And how he matured This mother's faith is how you, mom, need to have your faith mature today, but also not only you, but also your husband and your children. We need desperately today in the Church of Jesus Christ, mothers in Israel, mature mothers, women in the most holy faith. Not just mature men to lead the church, mature women at the hub, at the center of their families.

And that means, of course, we need couples who are mature in their marriage in order to be mature parents for their children. When couples come to me for marital counseling, one of the most common things I ask them at the beginning is How mature do you want your marriage to be? How excellent do you want your marriage to be? Tell me on a scale of one to 10, what do you want to reach? And most of them say, 10.

One man said, I want 11. That's great. But too often as Christians, isn't that true? Someone asks you how you were saved and you tell them how you became a lost sinner before God, how you got your first hope in Christ, how by grace you closed with Christ by faith as the Puritans would express it, and then you stop. But you see that's only the beginning of your conversion.

And what we need to be able to tell others about is how the Lord, through the daily trials of our lives, also of motherhood, as we'll see here, leads us to a more mature faith, to grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. To be crystal centric in our thinking, in our speaking, in our actions. How we need mature faith. And if you're truly a Christian that is not backsliding, you're alive and you want to know the Lord better, you understand what I'm talking about right now. You want to be a whole lot mature than you are right now, don't you?

And that's a good sign, that's a healthy sign. And I'm here to tell you today, there's a savior who can make you, by grace and only by grace, an excellent Christian. With an excellent marriage, a betrothal to him, to be a genuinely mature Christian. That's what we want. I hope that's what you want.

You want to live holy and solely for Christ. I have a man in my church for many years who's now in glory, and he would always begin his prayers with these words. I love to hear him pray. Oh Lord, make me holy and solely thine. That's mature faith.

So how does Christ mature our faith? Well, I want to look at this case with you of this mother in this way. First, by his apparent silence. You see that in verse 23. Second, by his apparent rejection, verse 24.

And third, by his apparent insult, verse 26. Notice that all three verses begin with but. But. It seems like he's setting up obstacle after obstacle after obstacle, trial after trial after trial, but all designed to mature this mother's faith. So the title of this sermon, with God's help, I want to bring you, is A Mother's Faith Matured by Christ's Apparent Silence, by Christ's Apparent Rejection, by Christ's Apparent insult.

Three simple but profoundly experienced points. So consider, boys and girls, the meeting of this Canaanite woman with Jesus. She comes from the north. She's trying to find her way down to Jesus because she has a daughter who is vexed with the devil. No doubt she has tried all kinds of doctors.

Nobody can help. And she's heard about Jesus, that he causes the blind to see and the deaf to hear, and the lame to walk, and heals the lepers. And she's thinking, maybe, maybe, he could help my daughter. He seems to be all powerful. And she's convinced in her heart that he's the Messiah.

She comes to him crying out, Lord, son of David. That's the Hebrew title for Messiah. So we know, We don't know exactly when, but we know that the seed of regeneration is planted already in this woman. She doesn't say, I'll go to Jesus of Nazareth. She doesn't use a despicable term.

Can any good thing come out of Nazareth? She says, Lord, son of David, the Messiah, the Lord of glory. She sees his deity. She sees his Messiahship. And she comes.

Now, No doubt, there were neighbors all around her who said, what in the world are you doing going to the Jewish Messiah? So-called Messiah. Because in those days, seems strange to us, but every local area had its own deity. And Jesus was considered to be the Savior in the minds of those who saw him that way of the Jewish people in Palestine, in Israel, that little dot on the globe, just a tiny little speck, Certainly not the God of the heathen. And so, no doubt people said to her, you're gonna make a long journey.

He's not gonna hear you. He's not gonna respond to you. He's the Jewish Messiah. But no, she has faith planted in her heart. And boys and girls, when you have faith planted in your heart, faith has only one object.

That is Jesus. He's the only one to go to. He's the only Savior. Without Him, you cannot be saved. And so she comes.

But how is she going to find Jesus? It's going to be very difficult, don't you think? Sure, it's a small country, but where do you go? Well, as she crosses the northern boundary, our text says, Behold, behold, pay attention. This is a wonder.

A woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried into him. Jesus had been in Jerusalem and they were trying to arrest him and he slipped through the crowds miraculously and went with his disciples to the northern boundary of Israel to escape arrest for his hour had not yet come. But there as he's at the very northern point of Israel the woman of Canaan comes down and they just meet. She no sooner crosses the border and there's Jesus. Amazing.

Behold, the wonders of God's special providence to his people. You can imagine how the hope sprang up in this woman. Wow, I came to find Jesus, I thought it might take me days or weeks, and here I just crossed the border, and he's right here. She's amazed, and she cries out to him, Lord, a son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.

And in the Greek language, it's used in the repetitive tense. She cries it out again and again. She shouts it out. The streets are ringing with her noise. She's desperate.

She needs the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you would think, wouldn't you, wouldn't you boys and girls, you teenagers, wouldn't you think that Jesus would heal her daughter right away? I mean, he's almighty. But then you read these amazing words. But he answered her, verse 23, not a word.

Boys and girls, how would you feel If you were outside playing for a long time and something happened and you rushed home and you burst open the door, you wanted to tell your mother about it and you were very needy, maybe you were hurt or maybe somebody hurt you and you poured out your soul to your mother. You said, mother, mother, this is what just happened to me. And your mother's in the kitchen, and you're crying, and you're needy. And she just goes right on working. She doesn't even turn to you.

She doesn't say a word to you. You would say, mother, what's wrong? I need you. But not one word. What a contrast.

A crying woman and a silent Jesus. What cause for doubt? Maybe my neighbors are right back home. It sure seems like they were right. Why are you going to Jesus of Nazareth?

He won't hear you. He won't respond to you. And now He's silent. So everything in this woman, naturally speaking, would say, there's no use going to Jesus. He has nothing for me.

I've gone to him in prayer, and now I'm going to turn back and go home because he doesn't answer me. He doesn't even say a word. But you see, this woman doesn't go back. This is a mark of faith. True faith never turns its back on Jesus.

True faith perseveres in prayer. True faith keeps knocking on the door of grace. And Jesus Christ is the only object of it. He's everything to her. She cannot do without him.

He is her only hope. Even his silence will not send this woman away. Can you identify with that in your own life, into trials of life? You know times of silence, don't you? When God seems not to hear you.

Every true Christian knows something of that. When we live by faith, we know at least two things in our spiritual pilgrimage. We know the presence of God and the joy of communing with him, but we also know the sorrow of a silent and apparently absent God. Don't you have prayers right now that God has never answered? And you say he's so silent and it burdens you, it breaks you, it humbles you, and yet you cry out to him.

You can't turn back. You cry out again and again, oh Lord, son of David, have mercy on me. Scottish divine Samuel Rutherford said, the silence of Jesus Christ is the bitterest ingredient Christians must drink in their cup of sorrow. For the silence of God is a taste of hell on earth for the believer. Maybe you're there right now.

Maybe you've got a prodigal son. Maybe your spouse has cancer. Maybe there's some heavy burden in your life and there seems to be no answer from God. And you say with the bride in the song of songs, I will rise now and go about the city and the streets and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth. I sought him but I found him not.

I called him but he gave me no answer. Or the cry of Jeremiah. When I cry and shout, the Lord shutteth out my prayer, thou hast covered thyself with a cloud that my prayer should not pass through. Lamentations 3. But why would God do that?

Why would God put his people in a position through afflictions such that when they cry to him, the heavens are his breast? Why would God make himself seemingly unreachable when he says, coming to me, all ye who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest? Why? Silence. Daphneen.

Silence. Silence that multiplies the doubts within. Silence that makes us cry out with the psalmist. To God my rock I cry and say, oh Why hast thou forgotten me? Why go I mourning on my way, oppressed by foes that know not thee?

With anguish as from piercing sword reproach and bitterness I hear, while day by day with taunting word, Where is thy God? The scoffers sneer. Martin Luther once left his home on a sunny morning, But it was dark in his soul, saying to his dear wife, whom he always called Katie, God is so silent to me. This is when he was trying to rebuild the church. I think he is dead.

And that night when he came back home, all the shades were drawn signifying that someone died and Luther burst through the doors and said, Katie, who died today? She said, this morning, you said God. And it broke him. It broke him. But why?

Why would God be silent to us? Of course, we never know all the reasons God does what he does. He's infinite. We're finite. He's got no doubt a thousand reasons.

God's ways are above our ways, his thoughts are above our thoughts. Our lives are like a jigsaw puzzle, aren't they? God knows how every piece fits together perfectly, no overlap. There's a place for every piece of his providence in our lives, also for his silences. And so we don't know all the reasons.

But I can give you certainly two big pieces in that puzzle. First, turn with me just a moment to John 11. John 11. You notice there in verse three that messengers come from Martha and Mary to Jesus, who loves Martha and Mary and their brother Lazarus, saying this, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. And then look at verse six.

When Jesus heard therefore that Lazarus was sick, He abode two days still in the same place where he was. Well, that's very odd. What in the world is that all about? Jesus is only six miles away. He could walk there in an hour and a half.

Why would he love Lazarus and when Lazarus is sick unto death, the Bible says, he doesn't go to him. Well, we're told why aren't we in verse four, we're told, this sickness is done unto death, but for the glory of God. The glory of God. You see, the point is this, how would God get more glory by healing a sick Lazarus or by raising a dead Lazarus? Well, the answer is obvious.

But translate that into your own life, mother, father, husband, wife, teenager, boys and girls. Does God get more glory if he were to answer all your cries right away? Well, maybe your mom does that with your baby brother or sister But if you're seven eight years old or maybe ten years old You don't go crying when your mother goes to the grocery store. Do you when she leaves you for a little while? If you did she'd probably bring you to the doctor to find out why you're still so immature.

No, of course not, you understand. My mother is gone, but she's coming back. And you see, If God answered everything right away, we would stay like little babies, like immature Christians. So sometimes God tests us and seems to be absent from us so that we almost give up, maybe do give up in our prayers, and then from the glowing ashes of our prayers or coals of our prayers, he burst into flame again, giving us the answer to our cries. God gets more glory answering our cries when we've come to our wits end than he does if he answers them right away.

So sometimes God is silent for his own glory so that we learn to center upon him. For the glory of God, Jesus says in John 11, verse 4, this sickness is not unto death, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Now the second piece in this puzzle is to purify and mature our faith. There was a 19th century musician who was asked why his playing was so memorable. He was a great conductor and a great musician.

And he answered, it's the pauses, it's the silences. He said, I don't play the musical instruments different than other players, but there are pauses. There are silences. Isn't that interesting? Have you ever heard a minister preach a sermon where he just rattles traps on and on every single word so fast the whole time, You can barely keep up with them.

There's no pauses between the sentences. Have you been blessed under those sermons? I doubt it. You walk out, your head is spinning. It doesn't work.

You need silences in sermons, in music. Or even think of a book. If there was no white space on the page, it would just print from the very top, no margins, solid print everywhere, small print to get as many words on the page as you possibly could. No white spaces anywhere, no new paragraphs. How hard it would be to read that book.

So what does God do? Well, God uses silences in our lives because He's wired us in such a way that we need times of silence. We need times of reflection. We need times of needing Him. We need dark tunnels in our lives in order to get us to enjoy breaking out into the sunshine of his grace.

Actually, boys and girls, when I was nine years old, I had a wonderful trip with my dad. Just me alone. Not my sisters, not my brothers. We went from Grand Rapids, Michigan. We drove all the way to Hoboken, New Jersey, to pick up my grandfather who was coming across the ocean on the boat.

My grandfather was a very old man already then, and He actually didn't believe that people should fly in airplanes because he said the Bible said the birds are for the air. So he took a boat. And we went all the way, but as we were going through the Appalachian Mountains, we went into a very long dark tunnel underneath a mountain. I had never seen a mountain before. And I got a little bit scared, a little bit of claustrophobia.

I said to my dad, is this tunnel ever going to end? And my Dad said, oh yeah, don't worry, son. Pretty soon you're gonna see a pinprick of light at the end of the tunnel. As we get closer, the light's gonna get bigger and bigger, and we're gonna break out in the sunshine, and you'll enjoy the sunshine more than ever before. And that's exactly what happened.

But you know what? 15 minutes later, children, we were in another tunnel. And then another one, there were like seven or eight of them. And you know, the Christian life is kind of like that. God brings us into tunnels to teach us to mature our faith, to purify our faith, so that we learn to live by faith in darkness, rather than walk in the light, and learn to glorify Him more in darkness than we do in sunshine, trusting Him.

But of course we enjoy it when He brings us out into the sunshine of His answers, and His healings and His graces and His promises fulfilled. But how does your faith get matured? It's by learning to trust Him in darkness. It's by learning to trust Him in the tunnel. It's by learning to trust Him in the midst of silences and pauses.

Jesus is maturing this woman's faith. He answers her. Not a word. It doesn't say he didn't hear a word. It's a big difference.

He hears the needy when they cry. He just doesn't answer us always, right away. Now, today is what we call Mother's Day as well. And I wanna say a word to mothers here. Obviously today is supremely the Lord's day, but mothers, you are worthy of honor, you are worthy of direction.

But could it be, could it be, and I think it is so, that One reason among many that God gives us children and gives you a powerful mothering instinct to love your children and to seek for the maturity of your children is actually that God wants to mature you as a mother through your children. So how many mothers here are perfect mothers? Perfect mothers, raise your hand. No hands, I expected that. The only perfect mother I know is the one who hasn't had kids yet.

You see, you think you know how to do it before the kids come along. But what does God teach you through children? He teaches you to be needy. He teaches you to cry out for him, like this woman. To cry out even in times where you don't get answers right away.

My wife used to say quite often, she said, when you're gone, and I'm just working in the house, walking from room to room, and I think about our kids, sometimes I just cry out loud, Lord help me. That's exactly what this woman did. Lord help me. Could it be that a major reason God gives you children is to mature your faith? Because you don't know how to do it.

And think, multiply that. None of your children are alike. Isn't that true? They all have different personalities. Why would God do that?

Why wouldn't he just make them like cookie cutters? And they're all the same. So once you get it mastered with one, you've got them all. No, no, no. God wants you to need him for every single child.

Wisdom for each child, you see. So one of the reasons God gives us children is to deal with us and not only you, Mother, but also you, Father, to deal with us as parents. Fascinating, isn't it? And if you look in the New Testament, the gospels, isn't it true that when Jesus is encountered by a father or a mother, think of the father with a demoniac boy in Mark nine, or the mother here, the Cainanese woman, with this daughter, isn't it true that often Jesus disregards the child for a little while and focuses on the parent? How many parents have come to me in my lifetime, it's in the hundreds, who grieve over a prodigal son or a prodigal daughter.

But You know what? When they're God-fearing parents, every single time, it's that prodigal son, that prodigal daughter that keeps them on praying ground day by day, crying out to God. And God is maturing their faith, even through the prodigality of their children, as hard as it is. So it is with this woman here. God deals with parents through their children.

And so Jesus doesn't heal the daughter right away, but he puts this woman through three tests. The first is the test of silence, but now the second is a test of apparent rejection. Apparent rejection. Now this is a double barrel rejection, if you look with me at the text. First, the disciples at the end of verse 23 reject her and say, send her away for she cries after us.

Why in the world would they do that? Well, they'd just been in Jerusalem with Jesus, and there was a lot of clamor, a lot of noise around where he was, and they were trying to arrest him, and he slipped away. So now they're on the boundaries, northern boundaries of Israel, trying to get away from persecution, and here comes this woman, and the streets are filled with her noise, and they say, oh no, here it comes again. Jesus is going to get arrested and maybe us too. Send her away, for she cries after us.

Well the disciples are bad evangelists here, That's for sure. But we understand, they're sinners. They're sinners. They're selfish. Actually, they're mistaken as well.

She cries after us, she wasn't crying after them. She was crying after Jesus. So there's pride there as well. But we can tolerate that because, well, we're the same kind of sinners. But the mystery is, why would Jesus reject her?

He finally speaks and he says, "'I am not sent but into the lost sheep "'of the house of Israel.'" She's not of the house of Israel. She's not one of the sheep. She's lost. But she's not described here. It seems as if Jesus is saying to her, woman, this is not for you.

Now, surely she's going to turn her back on Jesus and go back home. I mean, he's finally spoken and basically said, it's not for you. But she doesn't go home, does she? Boys and girls? No, why not?

Faith never turns its back on Jesus. Faith always needs Jesus. Faith says, give me Jesus, else I die. And so this woman cannot turn back. She's got nothing to go back home to, but a demon possessed daughter.

So how are we to understand this rejection? Well, Christ's priestly work as the promised seed and savior in whom all nations will be blessed, needs to be distinguished here from his prophetic work during his ministry on earth, which was primarily confined to the Jews. Now the day would come of course, the day of Pentecost, after he would suffer and die, be raised again, ascended to heaven, and send forth his spirit that he would break down the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile, sending out Peter and the apostles to proclaim the message of the gospel to all people. But that time is not yet. So John Calvin puts it this way, it appears that Jesus is warning the Canaanite woman that she's acting out of turn by trying to raid the table laid for God's chosen people, the Jews.

She's coming too early. Pentecost hasn't come. But what is she going to do? She needs Jesus. But oh, the feeling of rejection is Powerful.

I know that feeling. When I was 14 years old and brought under deep conviction of sin, I was sure I was a reprobate, and yet I was crying out to God for mercy. But I couldn't see any hope for myself. But it was good for my soul. It emptied me of all my self-righteousness.

It is good for this woman to come to a point where she realizes, I'm a heathen. I have no rights to this Jesus. I'm a sinner. I deserve hell. But what does she do now?

This is so beautiful. I love this. Verse 25. Then, then came she, and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me. Then, when she was rejected, when you reject somebody, they turn around in anger, don't they, and they walk away.

Or when you're rejected, That's what you feel like doing. But you see, when you need the Lord, you can't turn away from the Lord because he's your only hope, he's your only help. And when you come to that point, you see your faith is being matured. Give me Jesus, else I die is a sign of mature faith. But notice the difference in her two prayers.

You see what Jesus is doing? First prayer was all about her daughter. Oh Lord, Son of David, have mercy. My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. Heal my daughter." Now, where'd her daughter go in this second prayer?

No, Jesus is dealing with her. And she cries out, Lord, help me. That's a beautiful, beautiful prayer. Everything you need in prayer is in these three words. Every word is like a link.

Boys and girls, God loves the simple prayers of children when you speak them from your heart. Just say, Lord, help me. Lord, she reaches up into the heavens. Me, she reaches down into the hellish mess within her own heart, needy, frail, poor, sinful mother. And then help.

Help is the linking verb between God and me. The mediator is the help. God has laid help upon one who is mighty. It is Jesus. So this prayer is like a three golden linked necklace.

One link merged into the next, but everything is there. In three words, Lord help me, I cannot let thee go. Without thee, everything is impossible. And she worships him. She worships him when he seems to reject her.

You see, Jesus is maturing her faith. Now the word worship here is a beautiful word. In Greek it's pros keniel. Pros means towards, and keniel means to kiss. Did you ever realize that, that the word worship in Greek actually means to kiss towards.

In other words, all the affections of my soul, my mind, everything within me goes out toward the object of worship whom I love, the Lord Jesus Christ. She worships Him, the one who seemed to reject her, the one who was silent to her. She cannot do without Him. Lord, help me. There are 280 names and titles for Christ in the Bible.

And he is every one of them for a true believer. And so she says, I want to worship thee. She doesn't know about most of these names, but in her simplicity, in the beauty of worship, she's saying I'd rather die worshiping at thy feet than living apart from thee, Lord Jesus, I need thee. And then what does Jesus say? Now, of course, he's going to heal, right?

No, no, no. A third test. A third but. Verse 26. But he answered and said, it's not fitting to take the children's bread, that's the bread of the Jews, the gospel bread he was bringing to them in his earthly ministry, and to cast it to dogs.

What? At that day, in that day, the Jews called the Gentiles dogs. It was sort of like calling people pigs today. I mean, don't ever do that, boys and girls. That's very wrong.

But why would Jesus call this Gentile mother a dog? Well in Bible times most dogs were wild, and to call someone a dog was like a term of rejection. But in New Testament times, people were beginning to take small dogs into their houses. Not the big dogs, big dogs were still all wild. But Interestingly, in the Greek language, Jesus actually is saying, and the New King James Version translated that way, little dogs.

The Dutch language has the same thing. If you add je to a word, It means little. A kint is a child, but a kinsha is a little child. And so, there's something like that in Greek, similar to it at least. And Jesus is saying, it's not fitting to take the children's bread and to cast it to those little pet dogs in the houses.

And this woman takes him at his word. She pleads his word. She lays hold of his word. Martin Luther says she ensnares Christ in his own words. He who loves to be so ensnared and have his word presented back to him.

And she said, Lord, this is true. And this is fine with me. I'm not asking to be one of your children, your Jewish children sitting around the table eating the gospel bread that you are passing out. But let me be, let me be your pet dog. And now Lord, you're on the northern boundary of Israel and you are an infinite savior.

Don't you have a few crumbs, few crumbs of your grace that can fall off the boundary, the boundary of Israel, unto this Gentile pet dog. I'm willing to be your dog, just let me be your dog. Because I am filthy, I am unclean. But I need thee. You see, by saying truth, Lord, she is acknowledging her own sinfulness, her own emptiness, Her own uncleanness, which she hadn't done yet.

So Jesus is emptying her, you see, of everything of herself to fill her with everything of himself. That's what happens when he matures, our faith. So faith, said the Puritan William Grinnell, is a two-handed thing. With one hand it takes everything of what I am and wipes it out of the way and throws it away, and with the other hand it reaches out and takes everything that Christ is and draws it to the soul. And this is what Christ is enabling her to do.

He's stripping her of any self-worth. She's a Syrophoenician, a Canaanite, a Gentile. She has no natural rights therefore, no religious rights, no citizenship rights. She's a sinner, she's like a filthy dog. But she says, truth, Lord, I'm a dog, but I wanna be your dog.

And I want the crumbs from the master's table. You see, this woman doesn't give up. True faith never gives up on the Lord. True faith is like Jacob. In fact, this woman is like the New Testament Jacob.

I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. Actually, this woman, in the maturation of her faith, is making a holy argument with the Savior. The same place that Job came to in the midst of all his troubles. He said, all that I knew where I might find him, I would order my cause before the Lord and fill my mouth with holy arguments. That's what this woman's doing.

She's taking Jesus at his own word. She's saying, let me be, let me be your little dog. She's presenting Jesus' own words back to him. And that's what God loves to see, loves to hear. God is tender of his own handwriting in the Bible.

And when you come to him in prayer, one of the best ways to come to him is to bring him his own word and then say, do as thou has said, do as thou has said. There is such a thing as a holy, submissive argumentation with God at the throne of grace. And it goes like this, truth Lord yet, truth Lord yet. Truth Lord I'm blind but dost thou not have eyes set for the blind? Truth, Lord, I'm poor, but didst thou, who was rich, who became poor, become poor so that poor sinners may be made rich in thee?

Truth, Lord, I am weak, but art thou not the strong one mighty to save? Truth, Lord, I am unrighteous, but art thou not the Lord our righteousness? Truth Lord I'm a dog, but dost thou not have crumbs for dogs? He's maturing in faith. Another quick story for you boys and girls.

When my dad was nine years old, he lived in a very poor house, just two rooms and a bathroom, about as big as your double car garage. My grandparents were very poor, but they had train tracks running through their backyard. And beggars would often get out of the train as it would slow down, and they'd come to the front door and ask for something. So one day there was a beggar on the front door. My dad answered the door.

Beggar said, I'm hungry. I need a sandwich. So my dad went to my grandma and he said, there's a beggar on the door who's hungry, he needs a sandwich. And my grandma said, you just go tell the beggar we're just as poor as he is. So my dad did that.

And then my dad went to shut the door, but the beggar stuck his foot in the door. And my dad couldn't close it. And he looked up at the beggar and the beggar looked down at him and said, just one slice of bread. Oh, my dad didn't know what to do so he went back to my grandma and he said, Mom, the beggar won't go away. And my grandma said, oh, you go make him a whole sandwich.

He's a real beggar.'" That's what God does with us. We beg for crumbs, but when he gives, he gives lavishly. He gives full sandwiches, he gives full loaves of bread. He's a giving God. And so, God delights in spiritual beggars who keep knocking, who stick the beggar's foot in the door.

I still remember in Sioux Center, Iowa, a beggar came to the door asking for money. And I said to him, what would you do with the money if I gave it to you? He said, that's none of your business. I said, you're getting nothing from me. You see, he turned around and walked away.

He was mad. But if he had just said, I'm hungry, give me one slice of bread, I probably would have given him $20. You see, the point is this, when you humble before God, God is maturing your faith. And you keep your foot in the door all your lifetime. Begging of God, he loves beggars.

He loves genuine beggars. Now she passes Jesus' test. Oh woman, oh mother, mature is your faith. Be it unto you even as thou wilt. It's as if Jesus took the keys out of his own pocket and gave them to the woman and said, my whole storehouse of grace is for you.

You can take whatever you want. You're a true beggar. And it's as if she takes two full loaves of bread, one home to her daughter, one for herself. You can almost see her going, can't you? With joy in her heart.

And her daughter was made whole from the very hour that Jesus said, be it unto thee, even as thou wilt. What a beautiful story this is. Woman, you can have whatever you want. I can trust you now because I know what you take will be taken by faith and that faith will focus on me and I want to give everything away to you, for you are mine and I am yours. But that leaves one question, and let me conclude this sermon with this question.

How could Jesus actually give everything to a woman who was a Gentile? Well, Think of it this way. When I began this sermon, my points, you remember, were apparent silence, apparent rejection, apparent insult. I put that word apparent in there for a reason. Because you see, the only way this woman could receive the desire of her heart and find her child whole and healed when she got back home, and you can imagine what they talked about.

They talked about Jesus first thing, no doubt. And for the first time, she could talk to this child coherently and communicate back and forth in wonderful ways. How is it possible when she was a sinner, when she was a Gentile, when she was unclean, well, the point is this, Jesus endured the real silence on the cross of Calvary. My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? You see, sometimes God appears to push us away with one hand, but he draws us with another in the tunnels of darkness.

But with his own son, He pushed him away with both hands so that he could be the savior of those who deserve to be pushed away. And Jesus endured the real rejection. Oh, how he was rejected. Even the sun wouldn't shine upon him on the cross. He was thrust away by the demons of hell as he hung between earth and heaven.

Total rejection, seemingly by heaven, by earth, by the religious people, by the secular people, by the Romans, by the Jews, and hell. He endured the real rejection. So that you, believing sinner, would never have to be truly rejected, never have to face true silence. And then he was insulted. He was insulted as no man ever was.

He was called Baalzebub, the prince of the devils. He was mocked and spat upon and taunted. If thou be the Christ, save thyself and us. So here's the point of the sermon. If you forget everything I said, remember this.

Jesus is never truly silent to his people. He never truly rejects them. He never truly insults them, but he uses apparent silence, apparent rejection, and apparent insult to mature your faith so that you will grow in communion with him with whom you are already in union by true saving faith. So let it be your prayer, Lord, whatever means thou wilt use, increase our faith. Because we don't eat crumbs from the master's table, we pray for crumbs, but He always gives us much more.

Increase our faith through the bounty of thy giving character and thank thee, Lord Jesus, for enduring the real silence, the real rejection, and the real insult. Let's pray. Great God of heaven, we thank thee so much that thou will use trials to mature our faith and that thou will bring us through times of silence and apparent silence, apparent rejection, apparent insult, to lead us to throw ourselves entirely upon thee, who didst face the real things, so that thou couldst give to us out of the bounty of thy grace, whole loaves of bread, that we may feast on the good things of God, the blessed things of Jesus. So bless us Lord, and be our God in our guide, and mature our faith, and be in a special way with mothers as they undertake that humongous task of raising children. The fear of the Lord together with their husbands, O give to parents, Lord, all that they need to put their faith in thee, to trust thy covenant mercies as they rear their children, to worry less and to trust thee more, and to see the wonders of thy hand, oh that our children may all be saved in due time, and could it be soon?

And grant that one day, we and our entire families would be undivided families reserved for the heavenly mansions above. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.