We've looked at this passage,
I'd say several times for sure, and I've always looked at it
the same way, until this week, and I saw something remarkable. Starting in verse 21, crumbs of grace, crumbs of grace. Matthew 15 verse 21, Then Jesus
went thence and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Siloam. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast and cried unto Jesus, unto Him, saying,
Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is
grievously vexed with the devil." But Christ 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. Three words of crying for mercy. Lord, help me. But He answered
and said, It is not meat to take the children's bread and to cast
it to dogs. So that's what He's calling her.
He's calling her a dog. And she said, Truth, Lord, I
agree with you about myself. I am a dog. Yet the dogs eat
of the crumbs which fall from their master's table, their master's
table. There are several wonderful acknowledgements
in this couple of verses. Then Jesus 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. Now, in time
past, I've noted from this text the greatness of this lady's
sin and the acknowledgement of her insufficiency, calling herself,
agree with the Lord, a dog in the presence of Christ. Today,
I want to look elsewhere, namely at the wonder of God's grace
in His beloved Son. To say a few things I haven't
seen before. The first thing we need to ask
is what's going on? What's going on? What's she talking
about? What is she saying? Why is she crying for help? She
is crying for help. Back in our text, verse 22. And a woman, a Canaan, Gentile,
came out of the same coast and said unto Him, Have mercy on
me, Oh Lord, now son of David. She'd heard about him. My daughter,
she's crying for herself, asking to help me, but on behalf of,
and primarily she's asking the Lord to cast out the devil from
her daughter. So she's asking, have mercy on
me. My daughter is vexed, and that's
the primary reason why she's there. But she came to the right person
only. She didn't go to anybody else.
She went to the Lord. She had great thoughts, says
Spurgeon, and expectations of the Redeemer. And if anybody's
going to come to Christ, you've got to have great expectation
that He can do what He says. He can cast away our sin. Only He can heal. Only He can
cleanse our sin. Only He is the substitute between
God and man. There's no other. I tell you,
if you come to the law, you'll be slain. Like a Christian, the
burden just got heavier. When you went to the Mount Sinai
and the thunderings, the load got heavier. It didn't get released.
If you come to religion, you'll only be indoctrinated by it.
If you come to this teaching or to that teaching, you'll only
be taught what men know. If you come with your works,
you'll be sent away in that day of judgment. If you come with
anything in your hands, anything to offer God, any goodness in
yourself, you will die yet in your sins. But, if you come,
like this lady did, to Christ, trusting only in Him, His finished
work, then you shall be made whole. The second thing, let's look
at what she says. Verse 27. He said, I'm not sent, but to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And then after she got
not rejected, but kind of stood up by the Lord, or put a detour,
or stopped her, then she came and worshipped him, saying, Lord,
help me. But he answered, it is not me to take the children's
bread and to cast it to the dogs. And she said, truth, Lord, yet
the dogs, yet I. Truth, Lord, I'm a dog. This she knew, this she saw,
and this she felt, that she was a dog in the sight of a thrice
holy God. Now, turn to Isaiah 53. I've never seen this before. Isaiah 53. In this one verse is the Gospel.
It's got sorrow, sadness, it's acknowledgement. It's just like
this woman, she knows she's a dog. Enabled by the Holy Spirit of
God's grace, we know. Because a person won't see what
they are until God shines His light in the dark place. But
this verse has got everything. All, verse 6, Isaiah 53, verse
6. All we, she included herself,
like sheep. have gone astray. Now, Romans
3, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We're all
transgressors, trespassed against His law, against His nature,
against His character. We know that. We know that the
person sitting next to us, husband, spouse, daughter, son, it doesn't
matter, we're all sinners. Generically, we know we're all
sinners. And this is good to acknowledge
that. Because most people won't even acknowledge that. I'm just
as good as so-and-so. We know that we're all sinners. But look
at this specifically. We have turned everyone to His
own way. Now, I've always looked at that
as talking about free will and our own way and it's not God's
way. And that's true, very true. But I didn't see it quite like
Spurgeon saw it. I just did more research, did
more study. We've gone astray generally,
but every one term, specifically, my very, very personal transgressions
that are unique to me. I own them. He shows you that
the whole world lies in wickedness. And then you're like, that's
incredible. And then you start to draw your vision in a little
closer and a little closer. I see why mom and dad did that.
They were sinners. And then you start to get in a closer, tighter
zone, which is not our comfort zone. And we say, I did. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. very particular sinfulness that
has dialed in on me, dialed in on you. And this is scriptural, because
every one of us has unique sins that maybe our neighbor, that
maybe our husband or spouse, they don't struggle with. you know, maybe Nathan doesn't
have a problem with covetousness, maybe that may tear me apart.
There's very specific sins that have our name on them. Oh yeah,
well, we're generally. We have all, like sheep, have
gone astray. But specific, we have turned
everyone to his own way. Okay? You see that? And it's
scriptural, because I got to thinking, and I didn't have to
think very long, what did Paul say in 1 Timothy 1.5? This is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Jesus
Christ came in as safe sinners of whom I am. I am. Me, particularly, am chief. So it's, you know, it's, you
kind of get this nebulous prayer, Lord, forgive me, and that's
why I don't like, you know, forgive us our sins, or we, you know,
all this, this, you know, where we've come short, you know, get
specific, not necessarily verbal, not out loud, but we know, we
specifically know the areas that we struggle with. It may be money,
it may be lust, it may, it doesn't make any difference, it's all
sins against God, but there's areas, very specific, And that's
what this woman... I don't go, I don't feed, I don't
give these crumbs, I don't give food to the dogs. That's the
truth. I'm a dog. Not dog, dog, dog, dog. No. Isn't that what Isaiah did? Isn't that what Isaiah did in
Isaiah 6, the first five chapters? What was you? What was you? What
was you? And then he saw the glory of
the Lord, and what did he say? I, I am a man of uncleanliness. And I dwell with people that
are just as corrupt as I am, but I can't deal, you know, I
can only tell them that. We've sinned against particular
light, says Spurgeon, and have an aggravation often unseen by
others. Often unseen by others. Now,
a lot of our sins are seen by others, but there's some personal
aggravations against God's character and His nature that we only know. And again, I got to think of
an example. Zechariah 12, and in Zechariah
12, the end of Zechariah 12, and in Zechariah 13, one. It
says, in that day every house will mourn, every house separate.
Mother, father, this house will mourn, that house will mourn.
And in that day, once they see that, once it gets very specific,
once it gets very particular, then you don't have a problem
with, to be honest with you, you don't have a problem with
God and why He could choose. You don't have a problem with
election. And you don't have a problem with particular redemption,
because you know particular sins that you aggravate against light. And you understand depravity,
and you understand if He ever lets you go, you're not going
to be kept. That's why the doctrine of grace, they call them doctrines,
but the doctrine of grace The believer, once they hear, if
they know themselves, like this woman, yeah Lord, truth, truth. But what are the end results?
And this is what I really just, I looked over, I just never saw
it. And she said, verse 27, truth
your Lord, yet the dogs. And that's where I'd stop. 27b, 27a would be the first part
of the text, 27b would be the last part of the text. Yea of
a truth Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from
their master's, their master's table. Now she understood that
she was a great sinner, but she understood that her master was
having a banquet of sufficient grace, that even if a little
crumb, she knew her master was gracious and she knew her master
was kind, and even if a little crumb fell on the floor, that
crumb would be more than sufficient. Doesn't Paul say His grace is
sufficient? Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. And even if it's a crumb. what
this world calls insignificant. The littlest crumb from the hand
of the master will clear the most monumentous sin. And I've
never seen that. And all she wants is just to
give me a crumb. Just give me a crumb. Crumbs
of grace is grace sufficient to pardon massive iniquities.
That lady with the issue of blood in Luke 8 and verse 43 and 44,
it's found in the other Gospels, but she says, if I can just touch
the hem, which is, that's the fringe. Isn't that the same concept?
I don't have to embrace Christ, so to speak. I don't have to
tackle Him and get a part of His, hold of His leg or His limb.
If I can just touch, the word is, fringe, it's hem, it's fringe,
it's just a small portion of the material. If I can just... His grace is sufficient. That's
never been the issue. The issue is our great sin. But
His grace has always been sufficient. The hem fringe of His garment
did quite nicely, did it not? hem of the garment. It's a fringe
or literally a tassel. Little grace is sufficient grace.
God's smallness is to us an overabundance of grace and mercy. Is it not? Is it not grace? Just a crumb. What does God say? Do not despise
the day of small things. His grace, however it comes,
is grace sufficient. Back to our text in Isaiah. Verse 6, All we like sheep have
gone astray. We have turned everyone his own
way. But then look at, we like sheep have gone astray. That's
Isaiah 53, 6a. 56B, we have turned everyone
in his own way. And 56C, the latter part, and the Lord hath
laid on him the iniquity of us all. Spurgeon said it's like
the song, it's just like a song. Right in the end of this verse,
depression, depression rejoicing. The gospel in one verse. the
Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. Now back to our text,
isn't that what's going on here? And Jesus answered her and said,
O woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee. And her daughter
was made whole that same hour. That's what she came for, which was helping herself, as
the anxiety of a mother would be. She asked for help for herself,
but it was really the petition. The whole thing is talking about
salvation in picture and type. She's petitioning to ask for
great God's grace for her daughter, and he likens it to crumbs. And
so she uses that metaphor and says, yes, your crumbs of grace,
which is coming from the Master's table, that's all I need. That's all
I need, to be forever thankful. This passage in Isaiah 53, 6c
also answers quite well to the smitten conscience, does it not?
He laid on Him the iniquity of His own. They're both the same
similar text. It's almost a song in a verse
of despair. The gospel in one verse, it could
be said. This lady remember was asking
Christ to help for her daughter, very specifically. She knew that
crumbs falling from the good and kind master's table would
more than be enough to exercise the evil spirits to set her in
her right mind and to go about her way rejoicing and singing
God's glory and God's praise. Yes, but just give me a crumb.
Just give me a crumb which falls from your overabundance. Oh,
for a few crumbs here today. That's all we need. Next week
looks tough. Next week at work it looks rough. Next week if we don't work, it
looks tough. There's going to be struggles
whether you work or don't work. You're in this world. Next week,
oh, just give me a few crumbs. It may be a crumb of thankfulness.
It may be a crumb to say, well, I still have a job. And I like
it. It may be that just maybe different
struggles. Financially, it may be struggles. Just give me a crumb of grace.
Yea, Lord, truth, I'm still a dog. I'm still a dog. But I'm your dog. What was Caleb's
name? In Hebrew, his name means faithful
dog. Could you imagine going to a
cemetery, Kate? Could you imagine just going
to a cemetery, and you're looking for somebody, and all of a sudden
you see, here lies so-and-so, a dog. What? They must have made a mistake.
No, that man probably knew something about the grace of God. Here lies the dog, so and so
forth. Oh, for a few comes of grace
here today, for we find in Christ all the soul could ever ask for,
and all the soul truly needs. So I tell you, I tell myself,
I say come for some crumbs of grace from Christ's table today. It's just... What did Matt just
read? I didn't know. I never know.
I don't tell them what to read. Better is a little. A little. Fear not, little flock. I mean, you could go on and on.
These things just kept popping in my head. They're not in my notes,
but you could just... David and Goliath. Samuel's going, it's got to be
this one, it's got to be this one. When he was calling David,
the Lord said, go see. Samuel's like, it's got to be
this one. He's big. He's like, no. God said, Samuel,
God doesn't look like what man looks like. Not this guy. This little ruddy-headed shepherd
boy. He's going to be my little crumb.
And through Him, that lineage, Christ. So, may we ask for crumbs
of grace as long as they come from our Master's table. Matt,
would you close this please?