Faith Rooted in Need — Ian Murray

I tried yesterday morning to say a few words on behalf of my wife and myself and my family for our deep appreciation of this last week, but I expect there are many more McElwain people here this evening, so can I just repeat that in a very simple sentence?

We are profoundly indebted to you for the hospitality that has been shown to us for every part of this week has been something that has given us a great deal of encouragement and we hope spiritual joy.

The friendship of your pastor and Mrs. Dunkley has been something we've treasured through many years and this was an experience we were looking forward to of being in his pulpit. Perhaps you don't realize what a good correspondent your pastor is, but he has kept us through the years fairly well informed and then when he came down here to Pensacola, we shared in the news and we see your church, I don't know what you call it, we don't have them in Britain, but these service sheets, every Lord's Day if he writes near the weekend he sends me your service sheet and in these ways we keep in touch, but now that we have been here we feel so much more in a position where we can share more fully in what is being done here and the witness and as we go back across to Scotland this next week, we certainly will seek to remember you and to pray God's continuing blessing upon you and as you are faithful to God's truth that he will bless your testimony and honor his own work in your midst.

Matthew 15 and the Canaanite Woman's Persistent Faith

Let us hear then the Word of God in the Gospel of Matthew and the 15th chapter. The Gospel of Matthew chapter 15. Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees which were of Jerusalem saying, why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders for they wash not their hands when they eat bread?

But he answered and said unto them, why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition? For God commanded saying, honor thy father and mother and he that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.

But ye say, whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, it is a gift by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me and honor not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

Ye hypocrites, well did Isaiah prophesy of you saying, this people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth and honoreth me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

He called the multitude and said unto them, hear and understand, not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man, but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. Then came his disciples and said unto him, knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended after they heard this saying?

But he answered and said, every plant which my heavenly father hath not planted shall be rooted up, let them alone, they be blind leaders of the blind, and if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

Then answered Peter and said unto him, declare unto us this parable. And Jesus said, are ye also yet without understanding? Do not ye yet understand that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly and is cast out into the drop?

But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies.

These are the things which defile a man. But to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man. Then Jesus went thence and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon. 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. Thus far in our reading of the Holy Scripture.

Christ's Retreat, the Heathen Borders, and the Woman's Cry

Let us look this evening at these familiar words of the record of our Lord's meeting with this woman of Canaan as we find it from verse 21 onwards. Behold a woman of Canaan came and cried unto him. Now in the earlier part of the chapter, you will note how our Lord was engaged not only in ministry in Galilee, but was engaged in fierce controversy with the scribes and the Pharisees.

Some of them had come up from Jerusalem, not in order to learn from him, not in order to be instructed, but to oppose him and to hinder him. And that came to that point of collision when our Lord not only offended them by his words, but spoke as we heard to the disciples concerning these blind leaders of the blind.

We are not to suppose that this was without strain and weariness on the part of our Lord. We know indeed that he knew what weariness was. And it is certainly clear that from this period of ministry in Galilee, he retired temporarily, as we read here, across the borders of Israel down into the area of Tyre and Sidon.

And he did that not to extend his preaching ministry or his works of power, but he did it in order to rest. Mark, who gives us the same account with slightly different detail, which elaborates the story, he tells us that Jesus coming into this area of Tyre and Sidon, he entered into a house and he would have no man know it.

Clearly then, he gave instructions to the apostles concerning the nature of his stay in this area, and he required of them that his presence should not be disclosed. He would have no man know it. This area of Tyre and Sidon was, of course, the part of Palestine which was inhabited by the remnants of the old heathen tribes, some of them at least, which had once peopled the whole land in the days of Joshua.

When at last, the time of their iniquities had come to its full, and when they were struck with the judgment and the wrath of God, that people, as we know, were dispossessed of the great portion of the land.

But a few were left to linger on through the centuries, and these Canaanite people, as we read of this woman here, still inhabited this portion surrounding Tyre and Sidon. Now, although our Lord came in order to rest, Mark goes on to tell us, as soon as we are informed that he had given this instruction that no man should know it, Mark adds those significant words, but he could not be hid.

That is to say, word of our Lord's ministry had penetrated even into this dark area of Tyre and Sidon. We read, indeed, in the Gospels of those who had crossed the hills and down into Galilee from Tyre and Sidon, some had seen his marvellous works, some had heard the preaching of the Gospel from his lips, and therefore it was that when he came into Tyre and Sidon, he could not be hid, and the word spread of his coming.

And here is an instance of one who apparently had not met him before, but had heard enough of him to be persuaded that if only she could get access to Christ, he would be able to relieve her of the burden which pressed upon her heart.

He would be able to assuage the grief that had so long stricken her on account of the demon possession of her daughter. And thus, with this conviction, this woman of Canaan finds the Saviour and at once presents her petition to him.

Silence, Rebuke, and the Persistence of Faith

Indeed, it is more than a petition. We read in verse 22 that she cried unto him. She cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David. My daughter is grievously with the devil. And yet, despite the urgency of her plea, despite the importunity with which she addresses Christ, we go on to read that he answered her not a word.

She is met with complete silence. It is as though our Lord has not even observed her presence. Not only does he not speak to her, but there is no response given to her. She evidently has to retire from his presence without her longing being even acknowledged.

It might well have been, surely, at that point that she could have been tempted to question the truth of the information that had come to her. Was it possible that she was a victim of some false report, that she was believing in error?

But if that temptation did come to her, she speedily resisted it and rejected it. Because far from believing or entertaining such a doubt, she proceeds to insist with the disciples that they should find a way for her to have her petition presented again to Christ.

And she speaks to them, as we find here in verse 23. She speaks to them, evidently not once or twice, but on so many occasions that they are wearied with her insistence. And then they come to Jesus, and they besought him, saying, send her away, for she crieth after us.

Not it appears so much even on account of the woman's need, but because she was so insistent with them, they thus present her case to the Saviour. But he answered and said, I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

And this, you may recall, is in harmony with what he himself required of the disciples when they were sent forth to preach, as we have it in Matthew chapter 10, and verse 5 and following, that when the twelve were sent forth, they were given that command to go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans, enter ye not, but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

And here our Lord says that this was what he also was doing, that his answer, one would expect, would be a clear negative to the request of the woman. It would seem from the conversation that developed later that this word to the disciples was probably heard passed on to the woman.

But certainly the meaning of our Lord's words are these, I being sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, we are not now in the house of Israel, and therefore the conclusion seemed to be inescapable.

My business is not here, my business is not with this woman, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But the wonder of the story develops as it goes on, for having thus been received by our Lord, and rebuffed by him, and then the hearer of such news as this, she comes yet again and prostrating herself before the Saviour, we read in verse 25, she worshipped him saying, Lord help me.

And Jesus now speaks to her for the first time. He answered and said, it is not meet, it is not fitting, it is not right, it is not meet to take the children's bread and to cast it to dogs. You have already heard, he said, that the bread I have is for the house of Israel, I am sent to them.

This is not the house of Israel, it is not meet to take that which belongs to children 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.

It is true, I am not of Israel, and yet I may still partake of your bounty, because surely there is no need to deprive the children of bread. For I be not a child of Israel, is it not also true that the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their master's table, and therefore why may I not be treated as one of them, if not as a child?

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 same hour. Now here is one of the great passages in the history of our Lord's earthly ministry, familiar surely to many of us.

Faith as the Way to Christ

And it is here in the gospel, because it reveals to us so fully the way in which we also are to meet with Christ, and the way in which we are to obtain from him the blessing that we need. Here is a woman, she has no natural advantages, she has not been brought up under the word of God, she has not had the blessing of the light which was to be found in Israel, even though portions of that light may have reached her.

She has none of these natural benefits, but as we find here, she has one thing, and by that one thing she obtains everything from Christ. And the one thing that she has is faith. And the message of this portion of scripture, as of so much, indeed the whole of the gospel, the message is, that if thou believest, all things are possible to him that believeth.

Will we obtain anything from Christ? Then we must come to him believing. Fear not, said Jesus, believe only, and she shall be made whole, speaking to the ruler of the synagogue, whose daughter was so grievously ill.

Believe, he said on another occasion, to those two dumb men, believe ye that I am able to do this. But to all those who pressed upon him with grief of conscience, in need of cleansing, who came to him as the disciples came, and who were received as his disciples, this is the word which he gives ever to them and to us, believe.

Ye believe in God, believe also in me. Now, if that is true, that all the blessings of the gospel are suspended upon faith, that we receive them from Jesus as we come in faith, if that is true, as surely it is, then the supreme question for us is, what is faith?

What is believing? And how do I possess that faith which receives such blessings from Christ? Now, I believe that this passage answers that question. It not only tells us that faith is the way to Christ, but it brings out before us certain great lessons concerning what faith is.

Faith Is Born of Need

In the first place, then, let us understand from this passage that faith is born of need. Here is a woman who comes to Jesus, she has a real burden. The need lies behind her coming. That was true in the case of those great multitudes who came to Jesus, who were lame, and blind, and maimed, and helpless.

There was need which made them come. Yes, but behind physical need, as we see it in this passage, there is deep spiritual and moral need. That is this woman's greatest burden. How do we know that? How do we know that it's spiritual need that is her primary concern?

Well, I think very clearly from these words. When our Lord speaks to her concerning her real condition, as not belonging to the house of Israel, as belonging to those who were under the condemnation and the judgment of God, not children, He says, but dogs.

When He speaks to her of that, instead of being offended with His word, She says, that is true, Lord. We are unworthy. I have no right. I have no claim. I do not come to you as one who takes her place as a child in your house.

That is not my position. What you say about me, what you say about our condition, that is all true. We are fallen. We are worthless. We have nothing to plead in your presence. I accept all that. My friends, we see here something glorious, something that we do not see in the Pharisees.

What was it that offended them about the preaching of Jesus? Was it not the fact that He spoke to them as sinners? That He spoke to them as men whose hearts were defiled and guilty and unworthy in the sight of God?

Was that not the truth which offended them so deeply? It was. And that is the truth that offends every son of man by nature. To be told that, to be told that we are lost and outside, that we have no claim and no deserving and no right in the presence of God, that is a truth which we do not receive by nature.

And if when we hear those truths, we say yes, and we go on to cry out, Lord, help me, then my friends, something is being done for us as was done for this woman. You have heard perhaps the record of how Scottish nobleman Robert Haldane went to Geneva in the year 1817.

He had been converted, had given up the life of a Scottish aristocrat, and had become an evangelist. And he was a very well-educated man, well able to speak the European languages, and loving the doctrines of grace.

He went to Geneva in that year to see if Calvin's gospel was still being preached in Geneva. He found it wasn't. Not only was it being preached, but he found in the theological school of Geneva all kinds of error and apostasy.

So in his hotel bedroom, he began a little Bible class, invited to it a number of the students, and they went through verse by verse and chapter by chapter the epistle of Paul to the Romans. And when they got to the first section of chapter three, when Haldane was commenting on those tremendous words, there is none righteous, no, not one.

There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God, there is none that doeth good, no, not one. When he came to those words, one of these students cried out, he said, I see it now.

He saw the need of the doctrines of salvation by grace, but Haldane wasn't satisfied. He turned to him and said, yes, but do you see that in your heart? Is that what you see within? No righteousness, no goodness, no worthiness.

This is what this woman saw. There was need. There was a deep sense of need and of helplessness. So what does Jesus do with her in this state of anxiety and concern? Well, you might say he does nothing.

And in a sense, that's perfectly true. What in fact he does is, he works to deepen her sense of need. He doesn't answer her. He does not speak to her. He gives her no response at all. Why is that? Well, just so that that burden might be increased.

We might have supposed that a woman so needy as this at once, the Savior would have rushed to her and said to her, you have no need to be so concerned. You have no need to be so disturbed. Yes, I am able to deal with your case.

I can give you the help that you need, but he doesn't say that at all. And that is how Christ deals with sinners. When sinners come to Jesus, he doesn't say to them, your case is not as bad as you suppose.

Your sinfulness is not as great as you think. Not at all. When the Holy Spirit deals with men in conviction of sin, he deals to deepen that sense of conviction. And when Jesus here is personally dealing with this woman, instead of beginning at once to comfort her, he does the very opposite.

Meets her with silence, rebuffs her, doesn't give her any response, until her heart was near to breaking. And then at last, when he does speak to her, he gives her these hardest truths. Tells her that he's not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

And only at this last point of extremity does he speak to her these words of peace. My friends, there's a great deal for us to learn from that. If faith is born of need, then need is a very precious thing.

A very precious thing. Nothing in this world can buy a sense of spiritual need. You know how the apostle accounts for the fact that there are many who do not come to the feet of Jesus. Who are they? Not many wise men, he says.

Not many mighty. Not many noble are called. Very few who in this world are filled with good and peace, and who have no sense of need. When George Buchanan, one of the Scottish Reformation leaders of a second generation, when he was dying, he sent a message to King James VI of Scotland, who became James I of England.

Buchanan had been a tutor to the king when the king was a boy prince, and therefore he knew him well. And he sent him this farewell message, intended if by God's blessing it could bring home an arrow of conviction, for he had always failed hitherto to bring the king to submit to the gospel.

And Buchanan's last word to the king was, he said to his servant, go and tell his majesty that I am going where few kings or great men ever come. The sense of need which leads to faith is a precious thing.

And God, knowing its preciousness, works to increase it in the hearts of those whom he saves. And let us then not suppose that if we find when we are seeking Christ, and seeking him under real burden of heart, and if he does not answer, and it seems that our prayers are not even being heard, let us not suppose that he is doing anything else than that which he did here in the gospels.

He knows best how to humble us. He knows that our greatest need is to be humbled in ourselves, and brought to that strength of faith which comes after such conviction and depths of helplessness. We are living in a generation, we are living in a day when unhappily a great deal, even of evangelism, has turned its eyes away from this very truth.

But if we are to see real and strong faith, that faith grows from the soil of need. Faith then is born of need. Secondly, we see in this passage how a true sense of need leads on to great thoughts about the person of Jesus Christ.

A Sense of Need Leads to Great Thoughts of Christ

As long as I have a superficial sense of my need, I can go on looking to myself. But when I really am convicted, I must begin to look away from myself to another. And I say must, because the person who creates that sense of need, that is the Holy Spirit, is the one who has come to glorify Christ.

And where he smites the heart with conviction, he will go on to lead the penitent to behold the greatness of the Saviour. A true sense of need always leads on to great thoughts of Christ. And look at this woman's thoughts about Jesus.

Notice how she addresses him. Oh Lord, she says, thou son of David. That is to say, she takes hold of this title, and she does not use it accidentally, but she uses it deliberately. It means something to her.

Now we've already said that here was a woman who had little or no spiritual knowledge or information, and yet this much she must have heard. She had somehow heard that to the royal house of David, an heir was to be born who would be king.

It could be even that she had heard something of those glorious promises written in the Old Testament concerning the son of David. We sang that paraphrase of Isaac Watts of Psalm 72. In that paraphrase we read of the son of David, he will deliver, he will deliver the needy when he crieth, the poor also, and him that hath no helper.

That same psalm tells us concerning the son of David that men shall be blessed in him, and all nations shall call him blessed. His name will endure forever. Now you see what has happened in the mind of this woman.

Hearing of the deeds which Christ has wrought, she has come to the persuasion that this is indeed the son of David, and therefore when she comes to Jesus, she comes with this promise, with this title, O Lord, thou son of David, have mercy on me.

Not thou son of Adam, thou son of Abraham, but a title which has a meaning which is full of significance for her. You know when John Bunyan was under conviction of sin, and he began to read the Scriptures in a new way, he says that he clutched at the promises of Scripture as a drowning man would clutch at a piece of wood.

This is what this woman's doing. She is clutching at a title of Christ, and that is what faith is to do. Faith is not to wait for some happy day when perchance God will make our heart to glow, or anything of that kind, but faith is to take hold of God's promises and to come to Christ pleading those promises.

But there is more to it than that. She not only uses his title, but think for a moment of how she esteems his person. When treated by him as she was, she nevertheless comes, and in the greatness of her thoughts about him, she worships him.

It's as though she says, O Lord, I own you, I acknowledge you, I worship you. She came, and she worshipped him saying, Lord, help me. And this again is always the characteristic of faith. Jesus Christ is not only David's son, but David's Lord.

He is the Lord from heaven, and when faith approaches Christ, it approaches in the attitude of worship and of adoration. That means that faith is prepared to trust where it does not understand. When we as poor sinners first seek the feet of Christ, there is so much that we have not even begun to understand.

We are face to face with the greatest of all mysteries when we approach the Redeemer. He is infinite, he is eternal, he is the God-man. And when this woman came to Jesus, certainly there was a vast amount which she did not begin to comprehend.

He said to her that he was not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel, but here he was in Tyre and Sidon. Why was he here if he was only sent to the house of Israel? That was only one question which she could not begin to answer.

But though she couldn't answer the questions which no doubt must have perplexed her, she came and she worshipped him, and she owned him because she knew who he was in the greatness of his person. And that is something that we must do if we are believers.

When there comes across our pathway, as there must come, many things which we cannot understand, which solely try us and perplex us, the one thing we have to do is to fall down and to know that we are dealing with God.

God is not man, and his thoughts are not our thoughts. And there is an immense profundity in the providence of God which we cannot begin to trace. We must then not dispute, but we must worship, and in so doing we shall find our peace.

You know how Job long ago, confronted by providences which he could not begin to understand, uttered those memorable words, though he slay me, yet will I trust in him. That is the language of faith. When it seems we are to be slain, we are even then able by God's grace to believe in him, who is God, and who therefore will do with us what is good.

She owns her unworthiness, and she believes that the Savior is great enough to do that which she is not able to understand, but faith leads her to worship. And one last thing, respecting her thoughts of Christ, and this of course is the very heart of the passage, she believes that Jesus is a master who bountifully supplies the need of all his household.

Christ's Abundant Table and the Faith That Trusts His Promises

It is this hardest thing of our Lord which gives her the very light which she needs. It is not neat to take the children's bread and to throw it to dogs. How does she get comfort out of that, in this way?

Jesus is representing himself as a master. He is one who has a table. He has children to feed. But are, she thinks, what kind of table has Jesus? What kind of master is he? Why, he is a master who bountifully will supply the needs of his own.

He is not one whose table will have some niggardly portion on it, a few pieces of bread to feed the hands of the hungry. No, he will so abundantly fill his children that their hands will not be able to contain the blessing.

There will be enough for all the children around the table, and for as many dogs as there may be to pick up the crumbs which fall from the hands of the children. This, you see, is her view of the table of Christ.

It is a table laden with blessings. The children's hands will be filled, and even when they are filled there will be more than enough for the dogs which will gather also. Do not treat me, she says, as a child.

There's no need to do that, but I only ask for these crumbs because I know that they will fall from your table. That is faith. That is seeing in Christ what is in Christ. I am the bread of life to Jesus.

He that cometh unto me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. We surely, says the psalmist, we surely shall be satisfied with thy abundant grace. And this woman had a sort of prophetic insight into what God was doing.

He was then loading the table of Israel. From Israel, the bread of life was to be taken to the world. There would be enough, there was enough for her and for every other one who would come to gather of these crumbs.

Oh woman, said Jesus, great is thy faith. Be it unto thee even as thou will. And that underscores our Lord's pleasure in that faith which believes him to be all that he declares himself to be to us. Now then, as we close in just a moment of application, my friend, I wonder if you understand that your real problem, if tonight you are not consciously rejoicing in the blessing of the gospel, I wonder if you understand that your real problem is your absence of true need.

The Danger of Self-Sufficiency and Looking to Christ Alone

Here is a woman who broke through to Christ when she had heard so little about him, but what she heard was enough to drive her to him. But there are some of you here tonight who have heard more than she ever heard, and at this moment you do not long after him, and you are not seeking him with the importunity that this woman sought him.

And why is that? It is because you do not yet see how deep that need is of yours, and your faith is not yet taking hold upon the titles of Christ and looking up to him and worshipping him. I beseech you then to implore God to open your heart and to break down that self-sufficiency and to give you to see what it means to be disturbed so as to seek Jesus until we truly find him.

And then what is faith? Faith is but turning one's eye to Christ alone. Faith is but believing that I have nothing to bring, I have nothing to do, I have to look to him. They looked unto him, says the psalmist, they looked unto him and they were lightened and their faces were not ashamed.

Salvation does not depend upon myself in the least degree. Faith is acknowledging that fact and looking to Jesus alone. I like the stories about C. H. Spurgeon. After he had begun his ministry in London for a few years, one Sunday night he was preaching to an immense congregation in the Surrey Music Hall, holding about 10 ,000 people.

And at the beginning of that service certain ruffians who had come into the meeting began in the opening prayer to call out fire. It was a huge building as you will understand and the word only circulated in part of the congregation but in the area where people heard this cry of fire, repeated by several people simultaneously, there was a stampede.

Seven people were killed and about 25 or 26 were seriously injured. Spurgeon went on preaching not understanding what was going on in the far distant corner of the building until a man came up to the pulpit and explained to him the terrible tragedy and Spurgeon collapsed under the shock.

He was carried out of the building as though he was dead. But the worst thing was that the next morning he had not only not recovered but it seemed that he might never preach again. His mind seemed to be unhinged by it.

He was overtaken with terrible darkness. There was no question of him doing any work so he was taken to the home of one of his deacons a little way out of London and there he was to stay for a few days and there was apparently no improvement.

And then one afternoon that same week Spurgeon says how he was walking in the garden of this deacon's home, in the yard as you would say. He was walking there and there came to him a verse of scripture and the verse was in Philippians chapter 2.