In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the desperate cry for help from a woman who was suffering. She realized that she needed to depend on the Lord for deliverance from the demonic powers that were afflicting her and her daughter. The preacher highlights the power of demons and the need for supernatural intervention, which can only come through Jesus Christ. He also explains that although demons cannot possess a true believer who has the Holy Spirit dwelling within them, they can still oppress and attack from the outside. The sermon concludes with a prayer of gratitude for God's blessings and a reminder to use our resources to spread the good news of Jesus Christ.

Scripture text for this morning. Let's turn to the text. There are two passages. Let us turn first to Mark chapter 7. Mark chapter 7, verses 24 to 30. And I shall read. Mark 7, 24. And from thence he arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into a house, and would have no man know it, but he could not be hid. For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of him, and came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, a Syrophoenician by nation, and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled, for it is not meat to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord, yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs. And he said unto her, For this saying, Go thy way, the devil is gone out of thy daughter. And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed. The next passage is in Matthew. Let's turn to the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew chapter 15 verses 21 to 28. Then Jesus went thence, and departed unto the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David! My daughter is grievously vexed with the devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth 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 worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet 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. The Lord bless the reading of His word. Dr. Jeffrey Khoo will speak to us on the sermon, Jesus, Our Only Help. He will lead us in the pastoral prayer. Shall we pray? Almighty God, our gracious and loving Father in Heaven, how our hearts are glad that we can come into Thine house this morning to worship Thee, the one living and true God, even our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, who came to this world to live for us, and He kept the law perfectly for us. And then as the lamb that was led to the slaughter, He did not open His mouth, but willingly and voluntarily went to the cross to be sacrificed for our sins. How we thank Thee for His precious blood that was shed. And Lord, we thank Thee that Jesus not only died on the cross for our sins and was buried, but on the third day, He proved that He was truly the Son of God, that all His words and all His promises are true by His resurrection. And Lord, we thank Thee that we do not have a dead Savior, but a Savior who is truly alive. And right now we worship Him who sitteth on high, sitting at the right hand of God, our Great and Most High Priest. And we know that He hears our prayers, and He knows our every need, and He is taking care of us, protecting us, and preserving us even until the very end. And how we thank Thee that Thou hast sent Thine Holy Spirit, even the Spirit of Truth, to indwell us, to abide with us, to keep us even until the very end. O Lord, Thou art a great God, and You deserve all our praise and all our worship and all our adoration. And how we thank Thee for this country that Thou hast blessed, even tiny Singapore. Lord, You have blessed us with the riches and the wealth that we can gain. And even Thy Church is blessed. Help us, Lord, to be good stewards of the prosperity that You have blessed us with, that we will not spend our riches on ourselves, but to think of how we can extend Thy Kingdom, and to use the money You have given to us to spread the good news of Jesus Christ, not only in Singapore and the neighboring countries, but even unto the uttermost part of the earth. We pray that True Life BP Church may continue to be a missions church, a church that cares about the good news of Jesus Christ, who will obey the Great Commission, and not only give to missions, but we ourselves will labor for missions. Truly the harvest is great and plenteous, but the laborers are few. O Lord, we pray that You may call some in our midst, if not just one, to answer the call of Christ, to serve Thee full-time, and to embark on formal training at the Far Eastern Bible College. O Lord, will You not send more laborers into Thy harvest, to hasten the day of Thy coming? And we know, Lord, Thy coming is very near. Help us to give our lives to full-time service, and help us, the rest of us, to also yearn for Thy coming, by sharing the good news and be effective witnesses for Thee wherever we are, whether at school, at home, or at work. Lord, we thank Thee for our pastor. Even in his old age, he is still on fire for Thee. And now he is down under, in the city of Perth, ministering to the Faith Presbyterian Church. May You continue to be with him, to strengthen him, that the word that he preaches today will also bear good fruit for Thee in the lives of Thy saints down in Australia. We pray, O Lord, for our Bible College students right here, who are worshiping with us. And during this college vacation time, may they use their time meaningfully and wisely, not to while their time away, but to spend time studying the Scriptures, reading good books, and preparing themselves for the semester to come in January. We pray also for all those who have come from afar to attend the Haggai Institute. We thank Thee that they have come to worship with us this morning. May You bless each one of them. Fill them with Thy joy and Thy peace, and fill them also with Thy truth, that they may return home with not only the good news of Jesus Christ, but the truth of the whole counsel of God. Not only through the preaching from this pulpit, but the literature that they will carry with them, will go with them and bear good fruit, Lord, in their lives, in the lives of those whom they will minister to. So how we are thankful to Thee that our faith is an international faith, and surely people from all towns and all nations will give praise and worship Thee on that day when we will all congregate together to worship the thrice-holy God from every part of the world. And so, Lord, we pray. As we study Thy Word right now, may You reveal Thy truth to us and guide us into all truths. Grant us, Lord, not only a good spirit, but we pray for all those who are weak in health, that You may also bless them with the health and the strength that they need. How we are thankful to Thee that we see Elder Mahadevan with us week after week, and You have sustained him. May You continue to do so, that he may be strengthened, both in body and in spirit, to continue to serve Thee in this church. And all others, Lord, who are in ill health, may You raise them up, that they may return to church to worship Thee, that we may rejoice together because of Thy good hand in our lives. Cleanse us, Lord, from every sin. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Please keep your Bibles open to our text, which is Matthew 15. Matthew chapter 15, verse 21 to 28, which we have just read. And this is the story of the Canaanite, or the Syrophoenician woman, how she came to Jesus for help. And indeed, Jesus is our only help. He is our only help. Our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ, is the sinner's only help. And although Jesus is ever ready to help anyone and everyone in need, we know that not everyone will be helped by Him. Jesus offers His help to everyone, but He will not force anyone to receive His help. Jesus will only help those who sincerely seek Him with all their heart. Jesus will not force His way into our lives. He offers His help. But if we refuse and reject His help, His offer of help, He leaves us alone to our own destructive, to our own self-destructive ways. And if we are punished, and if we are destroyed because of our sins, and our waywitness, and our rebellion against Him, we have only ourselves to blame. We cannot blame Jesus on the day of judgment. And Jesus today continues to offer His hand of help, His salvation help, to anyone who would believe, and who would receive His help. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as Paul tells us, but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Who will receive the help of Jesus? Well, the true story here of Jesus and the Canaanite woman has some important lessons for us. Who are the people that Jesus will help? If we want Jesus to help us in our need, we must approach Him in our hopelessness, in our helplessness, and in deep humility. Firstly, Jesus helps those who are hopeless. What are the kind of people that Jesus will help? Well, Jesus will help those who are hopeless. Now here we find this woman coming to Jesus for help. And the Bible describes her to us in these three ways. Number one, she was of Canaan. She was from Canaan. Number two, she was a Greek. And number three, she was a Syrophoenician by nation. Now this tells us that she was Gentile in every way. She was not a Jew or from the nation of Israel whatsoever. She was a true blue Gentile. 100% Gentile in every way. And this tells us that she was completely outside of the circle of God's special blessing on His chosen people. This also tells us that she was paganistic in every way. She was brought up in an idolatrous country and with an idolatrous culture. She was a worshipper of idols and a practitioner of the occult. Now you need to know a little background of the Canaanite religion. And the Canaanite religion was a really polytheistic one and a pantheistic one. They have many, many gods. Big gods, small gods. Male gods, female gods or goddesses. Gods of war and gods of sex. In fact, the Canaanite religion was a very immoral religion. And in their pantheon of gods, they worshipped chiefly Baal. And Baal takes on various, various forms, many forms. And it was a religion that appealed to the lust of the flesh. There were many of these temples. And in these temples, there will be these priestesses. And these priestesses truly functioned like prostitutes. For if you sleep with these priestesses, you'll be sleeping with these gods. And you'll receive blessing from them. That was the kind of religion that the Canaanites had. Truly heathen and paganistic and immoral in every way. And not only that, they also had human, they also practiced human sacrifices. They would sacrifice their children to their gods. And without doubt, this Canaanite woman had come from such a background. And serving her gods had left her totally without hope. Instead of being helped, she had been destroyed by her gods, by her religion. And it's not surprising that such dark and heathen practices have resulted in her daughter being possessed by a demon. It is possible, although the Bible doesn't tell us, it is possible that her daughter might have gotten sick. And instead of going to the physician, she might have brought her daughter to see the temple priest or the temple medium. And even in the Chinese religion, sometimes we are superstitious enough. Instead of bringing our children to see the doctor, we bring them to the temple and ask the mediums to pray or to chant. So that some supernatural power might heal our children from their sicknesses. But if we go by this kind of a way, we may just open the door for the devil to afflict us. To oppress us, even to take possession of us and of our children. And it's quite possible that this happened. In this particular situation, she had a young daughter. And this daughter of hers was demon possessed. Taken over by a demon and she was left totally hopeless. She couldn't find help from anyone. You know, that is what Satan does to us. Satan often seduces us to follow him. And he sets a trap for us. And once we take the bait, we are done for. He leaves us for dead. And this woman, having worshipped her gods, found no help from them. In fact, only misery and trouble and sorrow. And now her daughter was demon possessed. And in her hopeless, totally hopeless condition, she went to Jesus for help. Yes, Jesus wants us to go to Him with such an attitude and a spirit. Lord, I have no hope in any of my gods. These gods that I have worshipped are all false. And I have been destroyed by them. And now my daughter is demon possessed. Who can help me? We must be in this totally hopeless condition. And when we cry out to the Lord, the Lord can come to rescue us. If we will only have hope in Him and hope in no one else, we will be helped by the Lord. You know, I know of a case where there was a couple. At one point in time, they were unbelievers. In fact, they were very devout to their gods and to their temple. And they had donated money to a certain temple for the building of this temple. And as a token of appreciation, the priest gave this man who gave this money to the building of the temple, an idol, a statue, decked with semi-precious stones. Very beautiful, very colorful. And of course, he kept it in his home. Well, the Lord was gracious upon this couple and the gospel was preached to them. And they believed. They were born again, got baptized in the church. And soon after they had believed and were baptized in the church, well, Satan began to work. Now we know that if we are truly born again and we have the Holy Spirit indwelling in us, no demon can ever possess us, can take possession of us. Because darkness cannot conquer light. And if the Holy Spirit, which is the Spirit of Truth, who is God Himself, indwells and lives within us, no other spirits, unclean, evil or dark spirits can ever enter us to take possession. When light comes, darkness is dispelled. Although no demons can ever take possession of the Christian, demons can oppress us. Demons can attack us from the outside. Demons can disturb us. And this brother who just believed on the Lord and got baptized, was oppressed by the evil one. For he soon found himself not able to read the scriptures. Not able to pray. And even his behavior turned violent. And there was no peace in his life. And he couldn't sleep at all. And things were in chaos, in turmoil. And he even had suicidal thoughts. What was the problem? The problem was this idol that he still had and still kept in his home. He thought, well, although I've become a Christian already, and actually the idol is nothing, and while it's quite wasteful to throw it away, because it is decked with so many precious stones, and so beautiful, so expensive, he couldn't bear to throw it away. This very, very abominable object, idolatrous object, he would not throw away. And because he kept that object, this idol in his home, he opened the door for the devil to disturb and to attack him. And of course the Lord allowed this to chasten him. And when he finally cast this idol away and threw it out, then peace was restored in the home. Then he could sleep well. Then he began to study the scriptures. And he could pray. And everything was restored back to normal. Because God will never share His glory, nor His worship with anyone. No human being, no angel, no creature, no idol can ever take the place of God one bit. And in our lives, we must make sure, we must worship the Lord with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. We cannot allow our loyalty to be divided. We cannot give our allegiance to anyone else. Not even 1% of it. I worship you Lord 99%, but there's still 1% in me that I still love. Or there's something that I still desire after. And I just want to have this love for this something else. But I give you most of my worship, but not all of my worship. No, that cannot do. God demands 100% worship from us. You either serve God or you serve mammon. You cannot serve both God and mammon. You cannot serve both Christ and Baal. You cannot just worship the living and true God at the same time, worship idols. Thou shalt have no other gods before me, and thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, and we cannot bow down to any of them. We only bow down to the living and true God. Or else, the Lord will not hear our prayers, and we will not grow in our spiritual life, but we'll be chastened by Him, and we will be miserable. And so the Lord wants us to be totally in a hopeless condition. We can find no hope in this world, no hope in men, no hope in power, no hope in our strength, no hope in any of the religions or the gods of this world. We have only hope in Christ, and we turn to Him. Then the Lord will come to help us. And this was the case with this Canaanite woman. The second thing we find from this episode is that Jesus not only helps the hopeless, He helps the helpless. He helps the helpless. Now this woman was greatly troubled and deeply depressed, and every attempt to find help for her demonized daughter ended with a big zero. No one could help. And she was at her wit's end. And her daughter here, and probably this little girl, the daughter that she had was her only daughter. And Mark tenderly tells us that she was a young daughter. That means she was not an adult. She was still a little girl. Maybe at primary school age. A little girl. And this girl, obviously the daughter was very precious to her. And note that at first, she identified her sorrow with that of her daughter. Lord, take pity on me, she cried to the Lord, and my daughter. But that appeal became more and more intense, and more personal, and she finally dropped all mention of her daughter and just cried out, Lord, help me. Lord, I'm the one that needs help, not just my daughter. Yes, not only did she find her daughter totally helpless in the control of a demonic spirit, but she herself, although not demon possessed, yet because of the bondage of sin in her life, she also recognized she needed help. Lord, help me, she finally cried out. And this tells us of her utter desperation. Not only her daughter, but she too was in great pain and great suffering. And she realized that she needed to be totally dependent on the Lord, for flesh cannot conquer the spirit. What can overcome demonic powers? The demonic powers, the demons are very powerful. We can't see them, but they are true and they are real. And they can wreak havoc in our lives. Their power is very real. Can flesh conquer? Spirit cannot. So we must look for someone greater, more powerful, to fight against the demons. We need supernatural power, and that power can only come in the Lord Jesus Christ. Cannot come from man, but from the one who is both God and man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And she realized that Jesus was her only help. So not only must a person who wants to be saved from sin and death must consider himself totally hopeless, he must also see himself to be totally helpless. If we think that we can somehow save ourselves, or we have some strength, but not enough, and we just need Jesus to top up what strength we lack. Well, we have 50% strength to save ourselves, and I just need Jesus to top up the other 50%. Then I can be saved. No, not at all. We must consider ourselves to be totally without strength, that we must be absolutely zero, that we must be nothing at all, and Jesus must be everything to us. Then Jesus will come and help us. Because if we come to Jesus with some of our strength, and we get saved, well, we will give part of the glory to ourselves, and not all the glory to Christ. Christ receives 50% glory, I receive 50% glory, because part of my salvation is due to my strength. Jesus will not help anyone who will have any confidence in himself, even part confidence is not good enough for the Lord. We must be totally non-confident of ourselves. Then the Lord will help us. God wants us to be 100% dependent on Him for our spiritual salvation. As the Bible tells us, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us. And Spurgeon had said, if our garment of salvation requires just one stitch from us, we are lost. Yes, our garment of salvation must be made totally by Christ. Made in heaven, not on earth. Cannot be made by us, but made by our Lord. And when we believe on Him, He will clothe us with His garment of righteousness. Then we are saved. Otherwise, we are lost. One percent effort from us in our salvation, we are finished, we are gone, we are lost. Our salvation must be totally and only in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then the Lord will help us in our helplessness. Now, please note that being hopeless, totally hopeless and helpless, is not enough for us to find salvation in the Lord. There are those who feel totally hopeless and helpless. And they are lost because being totally hopeless and helpless, they are still filled with pride. And if you are in a hopeless and helpless condition, and not filled with humility, but filled with pride, you will take your own life. And many people are like that, isn't it? When they come to the end of the road, everything is lost. They feel totally hopeless. Everything is gone. They feel totally helpless. So what do they do? End my misery. I will end my misery by committing suicide. I jump, or I hang myself, or I drink poison. And some of them would even take their whole family with them, and then kill themselves. Take their own life. Pride drives us to murder and suicide in our hopeless and helpless condition. And so having, being without hope is not enough. Being without help is not enough. In our hopeless and helpless condition, we must also what? Remove every pride that is in our lives. Hopelessness plus helplessness combined with pride leads to destruction, leads to death, leads to suicide and murder. But hopelessness and helplessness plus the most important ingredient, humility, humility before God will lead to life, eternal life and forgiveness. Was this not the case with Judas Iscariot? Judas, after he betrayed the Lord, felt thoroughly miserable, isn't it? And he even felt so sorrowful, sorry enough to throw back the 30 pieces of silver and gave it all back to the chief priest. But in his hopeless and helpless condition, he did not go, he did not humble himself to go to his Lord, to kneel at the feet of the cross, the tree of life, to beg for the Lord's forgiveness. I believe if he had done so, he would have been saved. But instead of humbling himself before the Lord Jesus Christ, before the tree of life, the cross, in his pride, he would not say sorry to the Lord. He went to what? To seek a tree of death and there he hanged himself and committed suicide. Yes, he saw himself in a hopeless and helpless condition but pride drove him to suicide. He could not humble himself to say sorry to his Lord whom he had betrayed. But this Syrophoenician woman, this Canaanite woman, in her hopeless and helpless condition found true help indeed and salvation for she humbled herself to the dust and her humility was remarkable. Her humility revealed the kind of faith that she had. Now look at her attitude and the spirit here in this passage. Now the woman's humility was displayed in the following ways. Firstly, we see her confessing who Jesus was. And look at her confession. She said, Thou Son of David. Now this was a remarkable confession and statement because it came from the mouth of a Canaanite, a Gentile woman. Now you would only expect such a confession. O Lord, Thou Son of David from the mouth of a Jew who had the Old Testament Scriptures, who had all the promises and all the prophecies with regard to the coming Messiah, the Son of David who will rescue and deliver them from their sins. But this did not come from the mouth of a Jewish person but a Gentile person who had not the Scriptures as the Jews had. And yet she could confess that Jesus was Lord and the Son of David. Now how did she know this? Now faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And she must have heard. She may not have the Holy Scriptures in her hands. The Scriptures were found in the temple, in the synagogues and the Jews read the Scriptures. The Jews heard the Scriptures. The Jews were taught the Scriptures. This Gentile woman had no such privilege but she heard of Jesus because Jesus by this time had gone around preaching the good news of salvation, had gone around preaching the Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Heaven. He has done many mighty works and miracles to prove that He indeed was truly the Messiah, the Savior of the world, the Way, the Truth and the Life, the Resurrection and the Life. And she must have heard all these things that Jesus had preached, that Jesus had done. And from this little knowledge that she had received from the reports that were going around about Jesus, what He had taught and what He had done, by faith she believed this was truly the Christ, the Son of the Living God, the Savior of the world. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And she had just called Jesus, when Jesus came into the city, she called Jesus Lord. And even the Son of David. She acknowledged that Jesus was the Messiah, the King whom God promised David that should come. And it is only this God, the God of Israel, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, that could save her from her sins. And not only did she confess who Jesus was, truly, O Lord, Thou Son of David, she also worshipped at His feet. In other words, Jesus, I don't regard You only as a great man. I know You are God Yourself. And I now worship at Your feet. So she humbled herself to the ground. For she did not see it fit to speak to the Lord face to face, standing up. She fell at His feet and worshipped Him. And she showed how great humility she had before the Lord by even willing to be called a dog. A dog. What Jesus said, Jesus said these words to her when she cried to the Lord and she asked the Lord, Thou Son of David, to help. And Jesus said this, It is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast it unto the dogs. Jesus had come to save the lost sheep of Israel. Jesus came to save His own people. His chosen people, the Jews. God's chosen nation. And who are you? Are you part of Israel? No. Are you in any way Jewish? No. You are totally a Canaanite, a Gentile, a Syrophoenician, you are totally outside my circle of provision. Isn't it? You are just a dog. What do dogs deserve? Nothing. The dogs here, when Jesus spoke of the dogs here, these were the pet dogs. They are found in Jewish homes. And in those days, you know, good bread was set on the table and the family would have the meal together. And after they eat the bread, and usually their hands would get dirt, would get dirty from the food and from the gravy on the table. And after they had eaten and if the children want to clean their fingers, whatever leftover bread that's left on the table would be used to wipe the fingers, to clean the hands. And this dirty bread would then be cast to the ground, to the floor for the dogs to eat. And although Jesus said, you know, it is not meat to take the children's bread and to cast it unto the dogs. Children's bread are for the children to eat, the clean bread. So how can I cast children's bread to dogs? And this Canaanite woman humbled herself. She willingly acknowledged she was but a dog. And she said, truth Lord, what you say of me is true. Isn't it? Look at verse 27. But he answered and said, it is not meat to take the children's bread and cast it to dogs. And she said, truth Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Truth Lord. She did not tell the Lord, Lord, how can you call me a dog? I am not a dog. You know, I am a human being, you know. I have my own dignity. How can you insult me like this and call me a dog? I mean, she could have responded to Jesus in that way, in her pride. Although I am begging to you for help, and not only have you not helped me at first when I cried out to you, O Lord, thou Son of David, you ignored me. And then later on, the disciples even tried to shoo her away. Right? Tell her to keep quiet. And even Jesus said, I have been sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Who are you? You are just a Gentile. And how can I give children's bread to you who are but a Gentile? You are just like the dogs. She did not tell Jesus, Jesus, have you not insulted me enough? I come to you, I fall at your feet, I confess you as Lord, that you are the Son of David, and I am begging to you to help me, and not only did you ignore me, not only, you know, do your disciples shoo me away, and now you call me a dog. You know, I still have some dignity in me, you know. How dare you call me a dog? I mean, she could have replied in such a way, but she didn't. She truly humbled herself to the dust, isn't it? And she just told the Lord, Lord, what you say is true. Even though you call me a dog, I humbly accept it. You are not wrong. I am a dog. I don't deserve all these good things from you. Yes, you have prepared all these things for your children. I am not one of yours. I am not part of the nation of Israel, your chosen people. I am outside, Lord. And this is the kind of faith the Lord wants from us. Lord, every word you say, although I don't like it, it is true. It is true. Do we have this kind of humility that this Syrophoenician woman had? Many a time we read the Scriptures, and the things that we don't like, we have this hidden anger against God, and we refuse to repent and believe. And sometimes when the preacher preaches something that we don't like to hear, because he is dealing with our sin, and telling us who we are according to the Scriptures, how dirty and how filthy and how sinful we are, and we have sinned against the Lord, and we are like this, we are not happy. In fact, we get angry. And we criticize the preacher. By criticizing the preacher, if he preaches the truth, we in fact criticize the Lord. Many things in the Bible that we may not like to hear or listen to, but it is an accurate description of us. And every word of God and every word of Christ is true. And this Syrophoenician woman, Jesus called her, you are a dog. You don't deserve anything. Say, Lord, what you say is true. Truth, Lord. And look at how she humbled herself. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table. Lord, I am not even asking you for the good bread on your table that you give to your children. I just ask for that dirty bread your children would use to wipe their fingers with, and clean their hands. This salt and dirty bread that you cast to the ground for the dogs, I am asking for these crumbs. You see how she humbled herself? Really, to the rock bottom. To zero. You know, sometimes we think here that Jesus is very mean, right, and unkind and unloving. This woman came to Him in all her hopelessness and helplessness, begging the Lord. Lord, Thou Son of David. You would think that Jesus had not been hearing this from His own people. And suddenly, all this while, Jesus, without hearing this confession from His own people, hears these words of confession of who He truly was from a Gentile woman, would suddenly, would surely have paid attention to her. Because it has come from what? Foreign lips? But Jesus ignored her. Now, it's not that Jesus didn't know of her plight. That Jesus didn't want to help her in the first place. Jesus purposely ignored her to prove a point. And He was doing all this to test her faith, and also to cause her to demonstrate her faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because the disciples were with Him. The other Jews were also around. And He wanted the Jews to see the kind of faith He was looking for in Israel. And He was really putting to shame His disciples. And even the Jews that would be witnessing this event, that this confession of Me, Lord, Thou Son of David, should come from the lips of My own people. But instead, I'm hearing this, what? From the mouth of this Gentile woman. I'm expecting this kind of humility from My people. But I'm finding this not in Israel, but outside of Israel. From this Syrophoenician woman. In other words, Jesus is telling His disciples, Shame on you! Learn from this woman the kind of faith that I'm looking for. And of course, Jesus knew her already. And Jesus was going to help her, truly. But He delayed in helping her, to make use of her as a live example of what true faith is all about. And so Jesus answered and said unto her, in verse 28, O woman, great is thy faith, great is thy faith. Why? Because she took God at His word. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. She was totally given to the Lord Jesus. Jesus can do nothing wrong. He is always true, always right. And although He said words that were so demeaning to me, and even called me a dog. And I don't even deserve the good bread from His table, but only the crumbs. I'm willing, Lord, to just receive what you have for me. Whatever little you have for me, I'm just willing to receive. And you can do nothing wrong. You are always right. Great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou wilt. You see, when you delight yourself in the Lord, and you are 100% loyal to the Lord, you are 100% loving the Lord, without question, without doubt, the Lord will give you what you have asked from Him. O woman, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. We must be totally humbled to the dust, if we are to receive God's help. If we are to be saved. So if you are an unbeliever, you are here seeking for the Lord Jesus, how can you be saved? You must totally say, I cannot help myself. I'm totally sinful. I've sinned against God. I'm totally without hope. I'm condemned. I'm on my way to hell. I need Jesus and Jesus only, to save me from my sins. And if you will confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart, that God had raised Him from the dead, you shall be saved. Will you not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Don't say, I still need to believe a little bit about, you know, trust a little bit on my own strength, and believe in myself. You cannot believe in yourself. You cannot believe in anyone else, but the Lord Jesus Christ. And humble yourself, like this Syrophoenician woman. I am nothing, Lord. Save me. Then you can be saved. And for us who are Christians, if we want the Lord to help us in our daily lives, and answer our prayers, we must be totally, 100% dependent on Him, to do His will and obey His word. Every word. And if we are convicted of our sins in our hearts, don't get angry with God. We have to get angry with ourselves. And whatever the Lord says to us, and against us, we must say, Lord, truth Lord, truth. What you say of me is true. And I repent. Please, heal me. Please forgive me. And please help me. Then, we will be helped. Do we humble ourselves before the Lord to confess, that without Him, we are indeed hopeless and helpless people? If we want Jesus to help us, we must come to Him totally hopeless, totally helpless, and totally humbled. May we do this. And may the Lord help us. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank Thee for this good example, from Thy word of the Kynite woman, who came to Jesus for help. May we also have her spirit and her attitude, to fully surrender ourselves to the Lord Jesus Christ, in every way, that we might be helped, that we might find help, in time of need, from our God and our Saviour, even the Lord Jesus Christ. In His name we pray. Amen.