I'm thankful to be here. I'm
thankful we have this time together and this ordination. But what's a lot different about
today than any other day, than any other Sunday? What attitude
do we come to an ordination service with? What attitude do we come
to a regular service with? What kind of attitude do we deal
with our brethren? whenever we're joyful or whenever we're in a
fault? How do we have an attitude about us, about our daily lives
and just normal business? What attitude am I supposed to
have when I preach? What attitude do we approach
that throne of grace? So I want to ask you these questions.
I got four short points. We'll look at it in our text,
and then I want to ask these questions again and answer them.
And I hope it's clear. But let's turn to Matthew chapter
15. Matthew chapter 15, we'll begin
in verse 21. The title of my message is, Three Ways That Sinners
Approach the Lord. Matthew 15, 21 says, Then Jesus
went thence and departed into the coast 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 the devil. But he answered her not a word.
That would hurt, wouldn't it? And his disciples came and besought
him, saying, Send her away, for she crieth after us. But he answered
and said, and he's speaking to the disciples here, 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 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.
And 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." Many people have quoted this passage
of Scripture, especially around Mother's Day, and it says, a
persistent mother, And she's finally getting the help she
needed for her daughter. And if that's all you get out
of it, you're not getting anything at all. How she approaches here,
if I were to approach the Lord and He ignored me, I don't know
how I would react to that. There's times I feel that that's
happened to me. And if I approached the Lord and begged for help,
and He told me, He said, no, this here is only for the saints. We wouldn't cast this to dogs.
I'd probably just turn inside out and die right there. I don't
know how I would... I feel like that sometimes, but I know He
hasn't left me. But there's three ways here that that lady approached
the Lord and wants to look at Him. First, when we approach
Christ, we don't have a reason for him to help us. She had a
reason. She was indebted, indebting him
to herself. She was deserving of mercy in
some way. She's asking for mercy. She's
calling to Christ by his rightful office, thou son of David, but
it was with a reason. She had an excuse. He needs to
come do this. It says there in verse 22, 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. That sounds good,
doesn't it? We looked at last time those
four types of ground. This could very well be, if this
was one person, not just the same person saying it, That rocky
ground where it shoots up, and it looks good on the outside,
but there's no root in the area you can't see. There's no work
in the heart there. It sounds good, looks good, but
it's not. And what had the Lord answered?
It said there in verse 23, But He answered her not a word. And
His disciples came and besought Him, saying, Send her away, for
she crieth after us. She was asking them. And my daughter's
sick. But he answered and said, I'm
not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He's
not sent but unto the lost sheep. Larry Criss once said this. He may have got it from somebody
else, but I got it from him, so that's okay. He said the modern
world religion doesn't need to get saved. They need to get lost.
That's where we need to be in. It's much like that Pharisee
and the publican. Look over in Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18 there in verse
9. And He spake this parable unto
a certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous and
despised others. The Lord said, Two men went up
into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other
a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I thank Thee. He was thanking the Lord.
That I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers,
or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week and
I give tithes of all that I possess. That Pharisee had a reason that
the Lord should deal with him. He had several reasons, didn't
he? And he prayed to himself. We are not to come to Christ
on anything that we have done, any merit that we have. We have
no merit. We don't come on the pride of
race, what status in life we were born into, pride of face,
what we look at outwardly, or the pride of grace, what the
Lord's already given us. I can't brag on any of those things.
Those are what He's done. We have no merit to come with
any reason that He should deal with us in our lives. Secondly,
you can hold your place there in Luke 18, but we'll turn back
to our text from Matthew 15. Secondly, This woman was approaching Christ
needing help only. It says she worshipped. She came there where Christ was. She used the right titles. But
she wanted help. She wasn't going to allow him
to do the whole thing. She needed to co-pilot, as they
say nowadays, right? She was still able to do part
of the work, but she just needed to let a little extra nudge.
There in verse 25, it said, Then she came and worshipped Him,
saying, Lord, help me. Now we do have need of Him. Scriptures say He is our help
in time of trouble. But that is a total encompassing
help. That's true salvation, total
salvation that He provides for us. It's not an assistance to
us. He completely helps us. He makes us whole. Hebrews 7.25
says, Wherefore, He is able to save them to the uttermost that
come to God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession
for them. We come by Christ and He saves us to the uttermost.
Completely, doesn't He? At this point, she isn't mentioning
her personal troubles anymore in this spot. She didn't say
anything about her daughter. She said, Lord, help me. Her worldly
concerns have started to fade away, and she needs some partial
help for herself. Like we looked at in those types
of grounds, that thorny ground, it shoots up, got a little bit
of, what appears to be a little bit of root, it shoots up a little
taller, but it's choked out. And verse 26, but he answered
her and said, it is not meat to take the children's bread
and cast it to dogs. Lastly, we see here, she approaches
Christ in a humble submission, and she approaches Him in truth.
Verse 27, and she said, truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the
crumbs which fall from their master's table. That's vastly
different from the beginning. Lord have mercy on me, here's
a reason. Or Lord, I just need help. Here she says, you're right
Lord, I'm a dog. I'm the lowest form. And what
was the result of approaching the Lord that way? Look at verse
28. When Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy
faith. Be it unto thee as thou wilt.
And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. That's a
stark contrast from being completely ignored or being insulted to
go away. Let's look back there in Luke
18, verse 13, see what that publican had to say. Luke 18, verse 13. And the publican standing afar
off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but
smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified rather than the other. For everyone
that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted." When we approach the Lord, we approach
humbly. And that's a good example for
us, a good preset for us to follow. And it's hard. How can you humble
yourself? One guy said, I'm so humble I
recognize my one fault. That's how I feel most of the
time. Something you can't make yourself be. You have to be made
humble, don't you? So that's something we can't
do, like Clay was telling us last night. Lay this stuff out.
Here's what the scriptures show us. Give us a good pattern on
how to do things. I can't do that. Who can? Christ can, can't
He? He does it for me. Then it would
give me a heart to want to do it. So what about our Savior?
Was He humble? Have you ever read the Psalms?
Any of them? I picked one. I read through
several of them. Psalm 51 says, Wash me throughly from mine iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin, for I acknowledge my transgression,
and my sin as ever before me. It says, Against thee, speaking
to the Lord God Almighty, the Heavenly Father, said, Against
thee, thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear
when thou judgest. how thankful we should be to
our God that we are one with Christ. I can't explain it. I know it's so. I can tell people.
There's so much argument and it's the point that's vital needs
to be made and so many contentions over Corinthians 5 where it says,
He hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. That word sin, it
has made him sin. It's hamartia. It's offense. A fatal flaw. And people can
understand that. They can agree. They don't pay
attention. I'm not good at English. You all can hear that right now. But the beginning of that, in
parenthesis, it says a noun. It's not a verb. It's not something
that was done. It's a noun. Well, what else
is it now? He hath been made Gwen. He hath
been made Thomas. Is that how one we are with Him?
We have to be, don't we? How would we approach someone
like that? Would we come saying, well, I've done something, even
though He has been made Kevin Thacker and took everything I
deserve to give me His righteousness? What could I approach him with?
The reason that he should do that? No. Should I approach with
a partial help? Should he help me kinda? Just
a little bit to get me over the edge? No. We come humbly. Lord,
I'm a dog. Thank you. I'll be thankful for
the crumbs. And what will he say to you?
Go your way. Everything you desire has been
accomplished. What do we desire when that happens?
Him. How do I know if I'm one of His
sheep? What if I approach Christ the wrong way? How would I know
these things? Is that something to worry about?
Look over in John chapter 6. John chapter 6 verse 37. All that the Father given me
shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is, and this is the Father's will which has sent me, that
of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should
raise it up again at the last day." What does that also sound
like? Your warfare is over. Christ loves you and He died
for you. There's no more battle to be
fought. It's a whole lot more than breadcrumbs,
isn't it? That's something special. So if we understand these things,
we see those things, what attitude should we come to services with? We're owed something? No, we
come looking to Christ, don't we? Humbly looking unto Him.
How do we deal with our brethren? Our brethren offend us? If they're
in error, how do we deal with that brethren? Do we scold them?
No. We see what our Lord's done and we humbly come to them and
humbly look to Christ, point them to Christ, don't we? It's
how we live our daily lives and trials come. Do we act like the
fool? As Job told his wife, he said,
you're acting like one of the foolish women. We know better, don't
we? The Lord sent that trial and
He sent the pain, but He's going to send the cure too, won't He?
How should I stand here to preach to you? Should I come demanding
of you? No, I'll just point you to Him. I'll just tell you the truth
of what these scriptures say. How we approach that throne of grace?
Humbly look unto Christ. They won't be turned away. It
would be a good way to approach. And I pray that the Lord will
keep us today humbly in submission. I marked that down. I forgot
to, in my stuff, I moved to the pulpit. We're just saying that. Blessed Assurance says, perfect
submission, all is at rest. It's a good way to be. I and
my Savior and happy and blessed, watching and waiting, looking
above, filled with His goodness and lost in His love. I pray
that every one of us tonight, Clay's preaching and when we
get a fellowship in the back, I pray we're lost in the love
of Christ. That's our conversation. I want to know nothing of among
you, save Christ and him crucified. Wouldn't that be wonderful? I
hope I don't get involved. I hope I'm invisible.