Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to Matthew chapter 15 and reading
for our text, verse 25. Then came she and worshipped
him, saying, Lord, help me. Matthew 15 and verse 25. We have some very strong contrasts
in this chapter. The chapter begins with the scribes
and Pharisees coming to the Lord Jesus Christ and they ask him
a question and immediately he answers them. Those were those that often tried
to trip him up, to lay traps for him. They were people described
in verse 8. These people draweth nigh unto
me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips, but their
heart is far from me. And then in verse 9, in vain
they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments
of men. We have the scribes and the Pharisees
then answered directly, and the Lord tells they're worshipping
him in vain. With the woman of Canaan who
spoke the words of our text, when she came to the Lord, the
Lord answered her, not at all. And yet in our text we're told
that she came and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. And at the end of the count,
it was not in vain, because she had healing for her daughter
that she was seeking healing for, and her faith commended. And yet what contrast there was. She might well have thought,
well, the Lord is speaking to these of whom seem to be very
religious people but to me he is not speaking at all. This woman's faith was sorely
tried but we must remember that God gave her that faith. I want to just notice a few things
firstly before looking more particularly at the context and the whole
account really that is summed up very much in our text, Lord
Help Me. The first thing is those things
that the Lord uses to bring his people to him. This account, it really begins
in verse 22 where we are told that it is her daughter that
was grievously vexed with the devil that she is coming to the
Lord and begging that he'd have mercy upon her, upon her daughter. Our Lord says that none can come
unto him that is truly except the Father which has sent me
draw him and I'll raise him up at the last day. But many times
throughout the word of God and throughout the time our Lord
was on earth, we have those that had afflictions and trials not
just in themselves, but in those whom they loved and even their
friends. Sometimes it's like this woman,
her daughter. Other times it's like the ten
lepers. Other times it's like the man
sick of the palsy, born of four, and they are carrying him. The
Lord saw their faith and healed the one that was sick. many different
things and we do well to notice throughout the scripture what
it is that was used to bring men, women, children to the Lord
and to come before him in supplication and in prayer. What is our case
and what are those things that bring us to prayer and bring
us to the Lord? One of the things that is so
marked when there are things like this is that prayer has
a point to it. It has something that is a subject
of it, and we can then verify the answer of it. Hannah could
say, when she brought Samuel up to the temple, for this child
I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition that I asked of
him. And the Lord has said that it
is through much tribulation that we are to enter the kingdom and
that those things that then come upon us because of sin, sin entered
into the world and death by sin and within all of the sorrows
and trials and sicknesses that there are and those are those
things that we can rightly bring before the Lord. It's very evident
with this dear woman that the Lord was using this matter not
just so that she had healing alone, but that she was brought
to worship him and to approach him as he truly is the son of
David, how she first addresses him. But I want to then just
think in this first point, before we move on to the next, what
is it that brings us to the Lord? Are there those things the Lord
has given us now, and we have the cause that is too hard for
us, and we are not bringing it to the Lord, and yet we should.
Things that we should be praying over, things that we should be
bringing. Of course we cannot Like this
woman, see the Lord in the flesh. We cannot approach Him as she
did, but we can approach the throne of grace. We can pray,
we can come to the Lord in the same way of asking. When we think of the matter here
and others like the centurion whose servant was unwell, and
he desired him to be healed, the Lord was able to heal from
a distance. Later on in this chapter, we
have those that were sick in many different ways, the lame
and the blind, and they were physically brought to the Lord,
and the Lord healed them. But some, like this woman's daughter,
and like the centurion's servant, he said, I am not worthy that
thou should come under my roof, Speak the word only and my servants
shall be healed. And the Lord could heal at a
distance. What would we say of a surgeon
or a doctor in our land who we were asked to heal us or heal
a loved one? And they said, well, you must
bring them to the surgery. I must see them. I must be able
to treat them. And you say, no, you treat them
where you are. Distance doesn't matter. And
with the Lord, it didn't matter. He could heal. And it's a good
thing for us to remember this. We do not need the Lord on earth
and right next to us. He hears our prayers in heaven.
And from heaven, he sends the answers as well. When we maybe
cannot get to our loved ones ourselves, we cannot help them
physically, we can help them in prayer. And sometimes we overlook
that and have those that we so long to be healed or helped and
feel helpless. But if we have prayer and a God
to go to, we are not helpless. And so may we have those things
that bring us to this same God, to the Lord Jesus Christ, in
this same way. The second thing to notice is
what true worship is. I mentioned the contrast in this
chapter, the Lord pronouncing the worship of the scribes and
the Pharisees as empty as vain. It was not true. With this woman,
it is said, in the inspired and holy word of God, that she came
and worshipped him. And we might think, well, worship
is just singing, singing the praises of God. Here we have
worship in prayer, worship in supplication, worship in bowing
before the Lord, worship in acknowledging the Lord, who he is, our son
of David, and in the petition, Lord, help me. We never confine
worship just to one aspect, but look at it in the way that is
set before us here in the Word. The Lord in John 4 said to the
woman of Samaria that they that worship him must worship him
in spirit and in truth. And this woman Those things that
she was bringing, they were real things and real burdens and real
trials. There was nothing hypocritical,
there was nothing imagined. These were real things and that's
good for us to do that. What a difference, what a contrast
to just worshipping the Lord with lip service, but there's
nothing really we want the Lord to do for us. And truly, if we
have mindfulness of our sinnership, our evil heart, the temptations
of the adversary, there's many, many things that we need the
Lord to do for us and appear for us. The next thing to notice is that
those that have true faith, those that are given faith by the Lord,
They are not easily put off. We may say here that the Lord
tries faith, the trial of your faith being much more precious
than of gold that perisheth though it be tried with fire. There
can be an idea in these days, and I want to speak rightly because
we are not to bruise a, break a bruised reed or quench a smoking
flag. We're not to, ourselves, the
Lord knows every case, but we're not to discourage those that
come. But maybe this case is a good
balance to the thought today Well, if someone does show any
interest, if someone does come to the house of God, he must
be very, very careful not to offend them, not to say anything
wrong, say everything right, and to really draw them on. As if, if the work of God is
real, it would be somehow fragile and easy put off. But here's
this woman, And as we'll see in a moment, her faith is greatly
tried, and not in any way is it fragile. And where the Lord
is working, that work, the scriptures declare, nothing shall offend
them. Where there is a real work of
the Spirit, then it will press through the crowns, as the woman
with the issue of blood had. and it will press after the Lord. And sometimes we really act in
a wrong way and can very much veer to almost bending down to
the world and to those who have no faith with the thought and
effort that we'll entice them in or somehow bring them on. When you see these real cases
in the Word, and how the Lord deals with them. It is so certain,
it is so encouraging to see the end result of the Lord's dealings. Then I just want to notice that
in this account there are four utterances of the woman, four
things that she says. There are four things that the
Lord said, and there's five discouragements. Five discouragements in it. Now I want to look at the account,
bearing those things in mind, the woman's utterances, the things
the Lord said, and the discouragements, and to trace it through from
verse 22. This is her first utterances,
her cries for mercy. Behold, a woman of Canaan, not
of the Jews, not of the land of Israel, came out of the same coast, that's
the coast of Tyre and Sidon, and cried unto him, saying, Have
mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David, my daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil. And in this first utterance,
how she acknowledges him, like the blind men did as well, crying
out, thou son of David. And in doing so, they are testifying
publicly that Jesus of Nazareth is the son of David, is the promised
Messiah. He is the Christ that was to
come. And in that woman's utterance
it was right, it was a right way, there was nothing that was
wrong in her coming in this way, in how she addressed him reverently
and acknowledged exactly who he was. And presenting her petition
to him, my daughter, is grievously vexed with the devil and what
she wanted was mercy. Nothing, no merits were put forth,
no good works put forth, it was just mercy that she sought after. Now it's a blessed thing if we are
taught so early on to pray and to approach the Lord in a right
way, the right manner. This woman did. Came straight
to the point, as it were, and sought mercy. But then we have
the first discouragement that she has from the Lord, and that
is silence. She does not have an acknowledgement. She does not have a word in reply. How often when we come into those
places, the first thing we start to think is, we've asked wrong,
we've said something wrong, we haven't approached right. Well,
if this woman was examining in that way, she wouldn't have found
that as being the reason at all. We can have many thoughts as
to why the Lord is silent to our petitions. In this case,
We know from the outcome of it, it was the trial of her faith. May that be just sufficient for
us this evening as a thought to remain with us. The Lord's
silence to us in our petitions, our urgent petitions, may be
as it was with this woman, a trial of our faith. Not for us to go
back and think that we've made some mistake or done something
wrong. This woman is coming with mercy
so it doesn't ascribe with anything of what she's done at all. It
doesn't rely on anything. Words don't come into it. But
she has this silence, no answer at all. But he answered her not a word. Then by implication we read of
her next utterance, and that is not to the Lord, but to the
disciples. She came and cried after them. Although she was not in the wrong
as how she petitioned, when the Lord was silent, then she went
after those of his own disciples and cried after them. There's
a solemn thing that is said with King Saul, when the Lord was
not answering him at the end of his life, just before he was
killed, that he then used the witch to bring up Samuel to find
out what he wanted from Samuel because the Lord was not answering
him. That is the most solemn, solemn
case. But here is a case of one that
proved to be one of the Lord's dear people, and the Lord not
answering her directly, not a word. She then turns to the disciples. And we can be like this. We can
be seeking the Lord in prayer for things, but don't seem to
get answers, and the Lord not answering us. So we ask advice
and ask help from the Lord's people. And the Lord's people,
that is too much for them. They're not able to help us.
They're not able to deal with our case. And sometimes you might
be very dismayed with how we seem to be let down by our friends
and by those that we look to. But in this case, wasn't it a
good thing? that those disciples were not
able to answer her, to help her, because then she was thrown back
onto the Lord. Should the creatures help or
ease us? Seldom should we think of prayer. Few, if any, come to Jesus to
reduce to self-despair, is what the hymn writer puts on it. And
this woman, as she cried out to the disciples, then the disciples,
and we didn't mention their utterances, but we have here another discouragement
for this woman. Those disciples, they could not
help her. That was a discouragement. But
then she had another discouragement because we have these disciples
and she hears them saying to the Lord, beseeching the Lord,
send her away, for she crieth after us. They were actually
taking a course against her, pleading against her, praying
against her. Those that she came for help
for are now, instead of helping her, They want her completely
sent away, away from them, away from the Lord Jesus. What discouragement
this must have been to this dear woman. No help from them at all. And then she listens and she
hears the Lord answering them, speaking when they said that. He hadn't answered her, but now
she hears him say, I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. Of course, the disciples would
have known that the Lord had commanded them to go unto the
lost sheep of the house of Israel, but not to go into the way of
the Gentiles. She was a Gentile. Yes, later on, when the Lord
had been crucified and suffered and risen again, descended into
heaven, the Holy Spirit given, the disciples were to preach
and then they were to go and preach to the Gentiles. But at this point, at this time,
he is saying what is true. Our Lord was sent to his own.
His own received Him not, but as many as received Him, to them
gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed
on His name. Though she hears this said, really
of her, against her, to the disciples, a great Discouragement. How many times have we been discouraged? When we may have been told what
the Lord has said to someone else. What they have heard. And we felt that that is spoken
against us. How could the Lord appear for
that person, but not us? And how could he say those things
to them? while we are in such a need and
such a trial and such a burden. Remember, all through this time,
this woman's burden was still there, the trial was still there,
and yet she has these discouragements that takes different turns all
the time. We shouldn't be surprised when
our discouragements take different turns, sometimes from one way
and sometimes from another, sometimes from even those that are Lord's
dear people, those that are close to Him, and yet we receive knocks
from them. And then we have the words of
our text, the third utterance of the woman. with the utterance to the disciples,
we are not told only that she cried after them. But here we
are told specifically, then came she and worshipped him, saying,
Lord, help me. And in this, there's not the
pleading of mercy that she had before, that had been made, the
mention of her daughter, that had been mentioned before, Now
it's reduced to these three words, Lord help me. Many a time it's
been said, the Lord's servants are three steps up into the pulpit,
Lord help me. The short prayer of Peter as
he was walking on the water to come to Jesus was very similar,
Lord save me. Very short and yet effectual
prayers. The Lord doesn't forget what
has gone on before. In one sense, we don't need to
rehearse every time we come in prayer exactly the same things
and in the same way. This woman, she'd known the Lord
had heard what she had already said. She doesn't need, in that
sense, to repeat that. But here she implores of the
Lord for his help. We know of the Lord that help
is laid upon one that is mighty, the Lord Jesus Christ, that help,
that saving help, not just for temporal, but for eternal things. And this woman, her faith was
being exercised in temporal things, but her faith in how she addressed
the Lord, the Son of David, that He was able to help her, that
He would help her, that He would save her in this hour of need. This utterance then, inspired
word of God, tells us His worship. Dear friends, when we are brought
in extremity and that this prayer is so suitable and precious to
us, Lord, help me. We might remember that this is
said here as being true worship. Worship before the answer was
given. Worship while she needed the
help. Worship while she is asking for
the help. Worship, calling him Lord. and imploring his help. But then
she has another discouragement and she hears him say, and this
time in one sense there is an encouragement because he is answering
her now directly. This is the first time that he
is actually speaking to her. He answered and said, It is not
made to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs. It is
not fitting, it is not right to take that bread that was for
the children and to give it to dogs. You think of it in a literal
sense, if there was a family and the children all sitting
around the table and you got the dogs around as well and that
The children, they needed that food. It was precious, good food
for them. And it was taken and it was given
to those dogs round about. Of course, one of the reference
to dogs here is Gentiles, which the Gentiles were sometimes referred
to. Not me, not right to take Israel's
children and the bread that was for them, give it to the Gentiles. Or we may say of this, God's
spiritual children, those that are his dear people, to take
that which is precious, that which is food and meat and that
bread from heaven, the Lord said, except you eat the flesh and
drink the blood of the Son of Man, you have no life in you.
The manna from heaven, that God gives to his children is not
right, that that should just be cast away, wasted, wasted
to dogs. And yet this, what the Lord said,
brings about with this woman a counterplay, her fourth utterance, And she says, truth Lord, she
agrees with him. And then there's that yet. Yet
the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table. A beautiful analogy. She kept to the same as what
the Lord had said. And yet she humbles herself so
low to desire not the whole loaf, not a slice, but just a few crumbs
that fall. How often reminded in the Word
of God the way to blessing is humility and lowliness. To get low at the Lord's feet,
to be content with little, to be like Ruth, a gleaner, going
after the reapers and just getting A little bit here and a little
bit there that had been left. And this was her answer. And the Lord honoured her. The
Lord then spake again. Her trial was done. The trial
was finished. Who was to determine when it
was finished? Why should it have each of these
steps? The silence, the disciples, the pleas to send her away, them virtually being told that the
Lord wasn't sent for her. Why all of these steps? Why could not it have been shortened?
The Lord was the order of it all. And the same with us. Are
we to say, well, if this is our trial, surely it is time now
it be finished? She kept going until she got
what she wanted, until her plea was answered. There is a time when the trial
starts, the testing of God's children, and the time when it
finishes. With Abraham, when he was tried,
he offered up his son Isaac. But he was told to go and offer
him up on a mountain that I will tell thee of. And we read on
the third day he lifted up his eyes and he beheld that mountain.
The first day Isaac would have been in his eyes as dead. the
second too, and the beginning of the third as well. But at
the end of the third day, Isaac is alive, he's off the altar,
the ram is in his place, and Abraham is commanded, because
thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from me, in blessing
I will bless thee, and in thee and in thy seed shall all nations
be blessed. That is, in Christ. A third day religion. Abraham
had to wait that third day. The disciples, when our Lord
and Saviour suffered at Calvary, he died, he was buried, but they
had to wait the third day. Then he was raised again. And
it wasn't until the end of that day that they could clearly say
the Lord is risen, indeed and hath appeared." May you have
a religion that waits the Lord's time for its deliverance and
that we be helped even to take those things which seem to be
discouragements and to turn them about for fresh pleas and fresh
cries to the Lord. All the while that she was interacting
here, silence or not, and with the disciples or with the Lord,
the matter was an ongoing thing. It was a continuing thing. We think of dear Jacob wrestling
with the angel. He had Esau coming. He feared
for his life, for the life of his loved ones. The angel said,
which was a pre-incarnation appearance, of our Lord Jesus Christ. Let
me go, for the day breaketh. And he said, I will not let thee
go, except thou bless me. And he blessed him there. And
his name was changed from Jacob to Israel, for thou hast wrestled,
had power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. The God-man,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And this dear woman, in one sense,
was wrestling with him in her pleas, in her coming again and
again. So her trial was passed. And
how was it passed? The Lord said two things to her. The first thing he did, he commended
her faith. Then Jesus answered and said
unto her, O woman, Great is thy faith. Great is thy faith. There's a few times in the Word
of God that great faith is commended. The other one we've referred
to already, regarding this centurion and his servant, the Lord said,
I have not found so great faith, no, not in all Israel. And he was a Roman. He again
was a Gentile who's not of Israel. And yet he had great faith. And
that faith was evidenced by him saying, speak the Lord only,
and my servant shall be healed. And here, this woman's great
faith was commended, really in her tenacity, in her acknowledgement
of the son of David, in her coming and taking no, not taking no
for an answer, but again and again, pleading her case, really
getting lower and lower before Him, humbling before Him. And
He commended her faith as great faith. And may we remember that
and to translate it to our trials, our troubles, our lack of answers,
our continuing at the throne of grace, our continuing with,
Lord help me, that this is the path to great faith. This is the way. The Lord tries
his people, tests his people. Have they got some other way
that they can go? Have they got someone else they
can turn to? This woman has already proved
the disciples were no help. Vain is the help of man, and
she proved it. The woman with the issue of blood,
12 years, had proved that as well, suffered much at the hand
of the physicians, and brought that there's only one hope, and
only one name, and one play, and there she must remind, there
we must remind, No, Manny, when we are tried, we have something
else up our sleeve, some other help, some other way. But when
we are brought to this, that there is no other way, the Lord
is our only refuge, our only help. This is the path to great
faith. This is the evidence of great
faith. Great is thy faith. And may we
remember again, Faith is not something of our manufacturing. This is not something that we
say, well, we're going to use our own resolutions and efforts
in. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
author and finisher of our faith. He knew that he had given her
faith. He knew that he'd given her that
which he was trying. May we remember this. Faith is
the gift of God. By grace you are saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. May we
remember as well that faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God. Very often our prayers and our
strength in prayer is taking God's own words and pleading
Him with them. And making them our plea, thou
saidst, I will surely do thee good. And the effectual, fervent
prayer of a righteous man availeth not. James reminds us of Elijah,
when he prayed that there be no rain and there was no rain.
He prayed that there be fire from heaven, and the fire came
straight away. But then he prayed that there
might be rain, and he had to say, go again. seven times. The answer then wasn't straight
away. And so with the woman here, right,
is thy faith. The second thing, that he said
to her, that her plea was granted, be it unto thee even as thou
wilt. Their petition answered, and
the verse ends, and her daughter was made whole from that very
hour. The matter, their petition was
answered, was realized. May we be granted that same outcome
to our trials, whether they are short, or whether they are long,
you might say the most important thing here, though it was important
that her daughter was healed, the most important thing was
her faith, and that that faith was a real faith in the Son of
God, a faith that stood the trial, a faith that triumphed in her
answer. And may we have that same light,
precious faith. In Hebrews 11, we have that long
cloud of witnesses that lived and died by faith in the coming
Lord Jesus. And we are to join that long
cloud of witnesses and those that we've known here below as
well. And that we are to walk by faith,
not by sight. And faith will be tried. and
it will be tested, and it's a good thing that it is, that before
we get to the end of our journey, before we come to death's cold
flood, that we might know that our faith in the Son of God was
a God-given faith, a real faith, and we can trust Him as we launch
in worlds unseen. As we depart this life and breathe
our last, we can trust Him who has helped us all their journey
through, many times given us answers to prayer, many times
proved that the faith that he has given us has been proved
a true faith and a right faith. And those things that he's said
have come to pass. Those trials that we've been
brought in, he's brought us out of them. And we may look upon
what the Lord has given us in that great gift of saving faith
as the greatest gift and greatest blessing. We may have, as David
said, my cup runneth over in the cup of salvation many things
the Lord has done for us. But may we see in all of these
things that great gift of faith in the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. This is the dear Redeemer that
she came to, the one that she could see as and did worship
as, the Son of David. And may we worship in this same
way. Then came she and worshipped
him, saying, Lord, help me.