Matthew

[0:00] Prayerful attention to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 15 and reading verse 25.

[0:18] Matthew chapter 15 verse 25.

[0:31] Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.

[0:43] Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.

[0:58] This dear woman, she had come to the Lord Jesus Christ. But here we read of her, as it works, taking one step further and nearer to him.

[1:19] And we need to ask the question, this night, which way are we moving in our footsteps?

[1:30] As we would come to worship the Lord, to seek his face for our own never-dying soul.

[1:43] We need to just prompt ourselves to remember how she came. She came, I say, with a personal need concerning her daughter.

[2:00] Her daughter's trouble, her affliction, as we might call it, brought her closer and nearer to Jesus.

[2:11] It was the very vehicle that God had used to bring her out of the coast of Tyre and Sidon.

[2:26] And truly, how mysterious God does work in his ways to bring us nearer to him. We know that judgment nor mercy will have no effect upon the unregenerate soul.

[2:46] They will shrug their shoulders and say, oh well, these things happen to everybody. But I say, we pray that this dear soul, she came to the Lord and her first approach to him was, have mercy on me.

[3:13] O Lord, thou son of David, my daughter is grievously waxed with a devil. When she came as a believer.

[3:28] And her first request was for him to have mercy upon her. And I would say this, have we ever come sincerely and truly, not with feigned words, to say, have mercy upon me.

[3:50] For if we need mercy, we are admitting that we are guilty on worthy sinners.

[4:02] If we stood in a court of law and pleaded for mercy, the judge would immediately say they must be guilty.

[4:16] For if they were innocent, we'd say, not guilty, sir. But no, the Lord truly brings home by his Holy Spirit the power of conviction into the coming sinner's soul, whereby they are brought to say, have mercy upon me.

[4:44] And one might have thought, well, that will be good enough. That will be the end of the matter and all will be well now.

[4:56] And to our own disappointment and dismay, from time to time, we seem to be frightened of by the circumstances that surround us.

[5:12] Things that we did not expect. And so we find, oh, that this poor soul found that the disciples were not in favour of her being there.

[5:30] Friend, they were not right. They were not right. And if we are true disciples, oh, may God make us of a right spirit, that we might be right before him.

[5:46] For they falsely accused her and said, for she crieth after us. Send her away, for she crieth after us.

[6:00] But there was nothing of the sort. She cried unto Jesus. And what a mercy it is when by the Holy Spirit we are guided and directed to the right place.

[6:21] But had they gone to the disciples, why, it is clear, oh, that she would never have obtained any help whatsoever.

[6:36] But Jesus answers the disciples in a most decisive way when he said to them, I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

[6:59] That may have been very cutting to the disciples. We are not told so. But it did not appear by the way they spoke that they felt to be lost.

[7:15] Friends, it is a solemn thing to feel lost. It is a wonderful thing to be brought and made nigh by the laws of power within our heart and life.

[7:32] Some 18 months ago, having met with a serious accident and in a poor state of health and mind and felt so very low, I felt lost under the Lord broke in with that hymn we sometimes sing.

[8:01] Was it for sin, for mortal guilt, the Saviour gave his vital blood, for sin amazing, anguish felt, the wrath of an offending God?

[8:19] And shall I harbour in my breast, tremble, my soul, at such a deed, this dreadful foe, this fatal ghast, the sin that made the Saviour bleed?

[8:38] Come, glorious conqueror, gracious Lord, thy all-prevailing power employ. O come, and with thy restless word these hateful enemies destroy.

[8:56] My hope, my all, is fixed on thee, for thou alone hast power divine. O come, and conquer, Lord for me, and all the glory shall be thine.

[9:15] And O that came with such blessed force and to my poor soul, it lifted me up out of darkness and shone, I say, into my heart.

[9:31] I say, Jesus could make such, and did make such a difference to that dear woman, and I trust he made that difference to some of you here tonight.

[9:49] Then she came and worshipped him. The word of Jesus did not discourage her, but rather encouraged her.

[10:02] It shone with light into her pathway, and it does say, see, how she came and worshipped him.

[10:15] Men often speak of worship, don't they? Let us have worship, let us go and worship, but do we worship, I say, God, aright.

[10:28] I'm sure this dear woman worshipped aright, and all of the words of worship were contained in those three words, Lord, help me, help me.

[10:46] I say, what a beautiful spot that is to worship. Where we got brought down to the bottom, bedrock bottom, having nothing.

[11:02] When we come face to face with Jesus, and everybody else is excluded, the request, the desire, yea, to come before him is a matter between your soul and almighty God.

[11:22] Lord, help me. As some dare even say, do they not, God helps those that help themselves.

[11:35] We'll leave that very point as such, but as I find it, as we find the saints of God have found it, when they cannot help themselves one little bit, they come to Jesus, and he does not help them a little bit, it helps them all the way, Lord, help me.

[12:08] And so we find him, the Lord answered him, and it seems a little ambiguous, a little difficult, it's not meat to take the children's bread, and cast it to dogs.

[12:32] And she did not fall out with that at all, no she didn't. She didn't say, I'm offended at this, I am insulted.

[12:43] but she saw herself as one of those that came to the table, to the partake of the bread of life, for her never dying soul, and said, yea, Lord.

[13:06] Yet the dogs eat truth, Lord, yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table, I say, we have to ask, who is our master?

[13:24] Oh, the crumbs that fall from our own table, are we a master to ourselves? Then undoubtedly we may have been treating ourselves very badly, thinking badly of ourselves by thinking too much of ourselves.

[13:48] Knowing nothing of the words of Jeremiah when he speaks of the loving kindness of the Lord, yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.

[14:04] And what how true there is that he loves his people, he loves them forever. So he, she said, yea, Lord, the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from the master's table.

[14:24] Some might say, I want to have more than a crumb, I want a good meal, friend.

[14:34] you remember the Lord, he break and blessed those loaves and fishes that were obtainable and made it sufficient for the multitude.

[14:52] And such indeed was the blessing that there was more than sufficient for them, I say. O, by faith, shall we not say, yea, Lord, what the dogs eat of the crumbs from the master's table.

[15:10] that the Lord had answered her first petition. Why, Lord, help me, help me.

[15:22] What a great mercy it is that the Lord should give to you and I a soft heart, a soft heart. is there anything worse to be in dire trouble, a great need, and to have a hard heart?

[15:44] Friend, a heart that is hardened by sin and shame. I say what an adversary it is to us because it doesn't encourage us to come to the right place.

[16:02] but when the Lord comes through the clouds and softens our heart, then I say his word it does sink into the heart.

[16:15] It's not like the rain upon the rock that just rolls off, but no, it's like the rain that penetrates into the earth.

[16:28] I say great mercy when the Lord makes our hearts soft, that we desire to receive his word.

[16:39] I say, Lord, help me. Let me come then back to the beginning.

[16:52] When is it that the Lord helps a poor sinner? why the Lord had helped her already, had he not?

[17:04] Because he had drawn her unto him. The Lord had helped her already, because she had striven against a tide and storm, the face of opposition.

[17:21] Yea, the Lord had blessed her already with a desire to come right before the Lord. What a great need it is to come before Jesus in a right spirit.

[17:39] Oh, that we might be saved from that impudent spirit. It's like going to the earthly physician, the earthly doctor, and come in a challenging spirit, a hard spirit, an insulting spirit.

[18:01] And they'll say, if you've come like this to me, what have you come for? My friend, he would reject you, he'd cast you out, and say, go and find another position.

[18:19] Lord, help me, that I might have a right spirit, yea, to hearken unto thee, and to do what thou wilt have me to do.

[18:39] How we read the Syrian, who was a leper, by Naaman. he was of a wrong spirit, when the prophet told him what to do.

[18:53] He said, why, I'm not going to do that? Why, the rivers of Syria are far better than these rivers here? Why, until one said to him, with sanity, if the prophet had bidden thee do some great thing, would you not have done it?

[19:16] Oh, I say, he prevailed upon his superior, and he hearkened, and indeed he was healed, and restored.

[19:29] I say, how we need to hearken, yea, to not our inferiors, but to our superior.

[19:40] Lord, help me. Jesus says, come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

[19:57] Come unto Jesus, some might say, that name I hate, that name I detest, my friends, and so did Saul of Tarsus, but my friend, the Lord brought him unto him in a remarkable way, and he heard that voice from heaven saying, Saul, Saul, why persecute is thou me, my friend, the man that was such an adversary of Jesus, was made indeed a seeker after him, seeking for pardon, and seeking for forgiveness.

[20:47] I say, Lord, help me. Friend, if I should call on every one of you tonight to repent, what would it avail?

[21:01] Repentance you need, but man cannot give another man repentance. He may change his mind, but repentance, you know, is a change of heart.

[21:18] Lord, help me. I have a hard heart. Oh, I say, Lord, help me that I may be given a soft heart and truly repent.

[21:33] Lord, help me that I might know thy love effectively in my own soul, that I might love thee.

[21:46] Lord, help me. Oh, I say, how we need God's help even to love him. And has so ever known a spark of love in thy heart to Jesus?

[22:04] Yet in the depths of your troubles and distresses, Lord, Jesus has told us this, that we love him because he first loved us.

[22:18] and you could never, never, never, even have produced that little measure as you felt it to be towards Jesus without him putting it there.

[22:34] Oh, Lord, help me. Put that in my heart, Lord, that I may be found a true worshipper of thee, that I might find him who is a God that is able to help in every time of trouble and in every need.

[22:57] Lord, help me. Are we reaping that which we have sown? I say, how distressful that is, what horror comes to us, what amazement, why, these are the seeds that I have sown, and now I am reaping what I have sown.

[23:26] The word has said, be not deceived, God is not mocked, but whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.

[23:38] Oh, Lord, help me. The thought is more than we can bear. Oh, at times, but Lord, in thy mercy, bring me out of the depths and have compassion upon me.

[23:58] Oh, my mind turns to Psalm 130. That surely is a beautiful psalm, for we read the psalmist saying, Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord, Lord, hear my voice, let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication.

[24:35] Lord, help me. This is thy supplications tonight. But the verse that really came to my mind was that of verse Sathom, where we read, Let Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there is mercy.

[24:59] Oh, with him is plenteous redemption. Lord, help me, for Lord, I need thy mercy, I need thy pardon, I need thy forgiveness, as we have been referring to.

[25:21] Lord, help me, I need, Lord, to be converted. My friend, it is the Holy Spirit's work that converts a poor sinner.

[25:37] It is he that turns you inside out and upside down, maybe, in your circumstances. But, Lord, help me, Lord, do with me, even as thou wilt, but have compassion, and cast not my soul, out of thy glorious light, into everlasting darkness.

[26:05] Lord, help me, if I pursue the road that I have been pursuing, Lord, there is not a glimpse of hope for me, but surely I shall hear those words, depart from me, yet God said, for I never knew you.

[26:27] Lord, help me, that I might be brought closer and nearer to thee, oh, that I might be washed in the precious blood of Jesus Christ, that every stain might forever be removed.

[26:47] Sins of the past, sins of the present, sins of the future too. Lord, help me, I cannot do anything of myself, I am totally dependent upon thee.

[27:06] thou knowest how it is in a true marriage, why, as we go on in life's journey together, we become more dependent upon one another, as we merge with one another, when truly the flesh is bonded to one to the other, why, how much more so in spiritual things, us.

[27:37] You know, Peter, in closing his epistle, said, but grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

[27:51] Oh, I say, Lord, help me, Peter was not a stranger to this, he pointed and directed to the way, did he not?

[28:03] yes, and I say, what a mercy, if that charms your heart and soul and has a blessed attraction to us, oh, to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

[28:24] God will work in his own way.

[28:39] Sometimes he works instant, I was going to say he works instantaneously, but he works that very moment. and what I don't think seems to take another person years, it's done in but a short moment.

[28:56] Lord, help me, that I might know, that I might know, that one day is as a thousand years with thee, and a thousand years as one day.

[29:11] Great mystery, isn't it, to us? But we say, Lord, help me, I'm a poor creature of time, but thou are the God of eternity, God of eternity.

[29:28] Oh, we might know, that he is a God of eternal love to us. Lord, help me. Lord, I believe, oh, that thou art able to help me, and I've got nothing that warrants me to claim I am a child of God, but for a good hope through grace in his mercy.

[30:00] Lord, help me. How often we've come to those who are nearing their journey's end, and we've spoken of those things that are needful, or to leave this world with, and they will just simply say, well, I hope I'm right, I want to be right, in a very casual way.

[30:32] hope. But the apostle Paul speaks of hope in a different way, is he that separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by his grace.

[30:51] Friend, what a mercy it is to that call by grace, whereby we are brought to hope in him. I say, have you heard his voice?

[31:05] Has he spoken to you? I say, one thing I believe is sure that if that is true, and I've no right to say it's not, you'll want to hear his voice again.

[31:21] Yes, you will. And more than that, you'll know that voice. It's there to save and the sweet smell behind it that it could not be replaced by any poor creature.

[31:38] It's like indeed that the savour that was left on the handle of the door of the dear spouse in the Song of Solomon.

[31:50] When he withdrew himself, she felt a sweet attraction to him. she rose up and went about the streets, did she not?

[32:03] And was not her inquiry this, seen him, whom I so lovest? Lord, help me, oh, that I might love thee, and know this is real, know this is genuine, to know this is an aching void I have within me, that I cannot fill myself, and neither can this world, and neither can a fleshly religion, I say, I ought to feel that need within.

[32:44] It is Jesus, I say, that puts it there, and you're called to cry unto him, Lord, help me.

[32:58] Feel so poor, and so destitute, in your prayers, when you hear others pray, you may well say, if I could pray like them, then I would feel different.

[33:15] Well, you may pray like them, but you may not feel any different. No, Lord, help me. Good Peter, you know, he didn't fully realize it at first, when Jesus spiked to him, he said, Satan has desired to have thee, to sift thee as wheat.

[33:42] That's close, isn't it? It's close. But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.

[33:55] He didn't say it at the time, Lord, pray for me in this trying time. I'm sure he certainly understood it later when he wrote those blessed epistles.

[34:12] Yes, for he said, having obtained the help of God, friend, kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, O Lord, help me.

[34:31] O keep me by thy power in the right road. Keep me, Lord, from turning astray.

[34:44] Keep me, Lord, from being turned into another pathway and tempted to an easier life that I may not suffer tribulation.

[34:59] Lord, help me to face the facts that are declared to us in his word. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer.

[35:16] I have overcome the world. And again, it is through much tribulation. Ye shall enter into the kingdom of heaven.

[35:30] Friend, Lord, help me to accept thy word. Yes, how we need the Lord to do this. Alas, you know, my wretched heart has said sometimes I wish that word there wasn't much tribulation.

[35:51] If it was just a little tribulation, it seemed to go on from one trouble to the other. Seeming to testify that if you was a real child of God, a minister of his, your life would not be like that.

[36:12] Friend, it is Lord, help me, because oh, without his help, we cannot continue, we cannot go on, we cannot bear indeed the pathway.

[36:30] Lord, help me. We need his help by night and by day. We need his help in season and out of season.

[36:43] Lord, help me. I often use that little phrase with regard to married life.

[36:57] We have summers and wintered together. We thank God for it. But I say, oh, Lord, help me to summer and winter.

[37:09] Oh, walking in the footsteps of Jesus, being entirely dependent upon me.

[37:21] For Lord, none else can help me and bring me through. I say, Lord, help me. When all things militate against me, let me rephrase that, when all things go against me, yes, that I might be willing, yes, to bear all things for thy dear name sake.

[37:53] Lord, help me. Oh, to own thee and to confess thee. For we are told that if we are ashamed of him before men, he will be ashamed of us before his father, which is in heaven.

[38:16] Oh, I say, Lord, help me, that I might never, never be ashamed of thee. How oft times we have been put to the test, and how Satan goes about to trouble us and to cause us to fall into some snare or to some pitch.

[38:44] Lord, help me, that I might not be ashamed of him, that even with our dying breath, we might be able to say, my Jesus has done all things well, and will not the theme in heaven be that it is Jesus that has helped us, and not we ourselves.

[39:15] Oh, Lord, help me. Often on the mind and speech of others to give credit much to some preacher.

[39:30] See, he's a very able man, so he may be an orator, a man who is able of the command of the English language, yes, but I say, Lord, help me, that I may receive something more than that.

[39:53] Oh, to hear the whisper of Jesus saying, I love thee, though art all fair my love, and there's no spot in thee.

[40:06] Oh, that my precious blood has cleansed away all your sins, though art forgiven, and forgiven now and forever.

[40:18] Friend, I must leave it here, as I'm sure to rest, but nevertheless, oh, our cry still is, Lord, help me, oh, never to forget thee, help me to pray to thee, help me, Lord, to draw closer and nearer to thee, that I may find thee to be a very present help in the time of trouble.

[40:49] Amen. Amen. Let's close this evening by singing hymn number 512 to the tomb from Ellen 250 hymn number 512.

[41:28] My church, oh, Lord, let's plant it here, oh, make it to increase, with numbers dressed, with pity or fear, enjoying heavenly peace.

[41:42] Oh, may we all, dear Lord, as one, united, ever be, rejoicing in what Christ has done, who groan upon the tree, cam number 512.

[41:57] address. protein 312 05 319рез 05 419 Amen.

[42:47] Amen. Amen.

[43:47] Amen. Amen.

[44:47] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[44:59] Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[45:11] O Lord, answer, we pray thee, the prayer of our closing hymn. But now may the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the teaching of thy Holy Spirit be with you all now and forevermore.

[45:39] Amen. Amen.

[45:51] Amen. Amen. Thank you.

[46:03] Thank you. Thank you. How are you? Yes. Thank you. How are you?

[46:15] What is your name? yeah hello you understand English? ah yeah, a little bit more understand hello and the last word the last word is all in the same last word last word last word yes it's the same it's the same word please we have we have behind we have our church is very big we have thousands of people in the church we have not the church we have not we have please please please please please please please please