Sermon #39                                                 Series: Matthew

 

            Title:            “I WILL NOT SEND THEM AWAY!”       
            Text:             Matthew 15:29-39

            Subject:       

            Readings:   Office: Ron Wood Aud. Bobbie Estes

            Date:            Tuesday Evening – April 04, 1995
            Tape:           

 

Introduction:

 

            Here was a great throng of people gathered around the Lord Jesus. They had been thronging around him for three days. He performed miracle after miracle, healing the sick, deseased, and impotant souls that were brought before him. His miracles were so astounding that all these thousands of people were utterly astonished by the power and grace of God. “And they glorified the God of Israel.”

 

            This great crowd of people, twenty thousand or more strong, was so taken up with Christ, his miraculous power, his infinite goodness, and his gracious word that they lost all track of other things. Three days had passed before they knew it. Now they were all hungry and faint. Having received great, great mercy and blessings, one on top of another, they were yet in great need. They needed food and strength.

 

            Notice our Lord’s response to their need, in verse 32. He says to his disciples – “I Will Not Send Them Away!” Oh, how I love the sound of these words falling from the lips of the Son of God! He says, “Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.” (John 6:37). That means there is nothing in any sinner in all the world that will keep Christ from receiving him, if he does but come to him. Come then to Christ! Come just like you are! Just come to Christ; and he will receive you.”

 

“Just as I am, without one plea,

But that Thy blood was shed for me,

And that thou bidst me come to Thee,

A Lamb of God, I come!”

 

            Then, regarding those who have come to him, our Savior says, “I will not send them away!” “That means, having come to Christ, there is nothing in us that will cause him to send us away and no need that might arise that can necessitate our going away from our Savior.

 

“Christ is all I need! Christ is all I need!

He is all I need. For me He died.

He was crucified. And HE is all I need!

 

It is my prayer that, as I preach to you now, God the Holy Spirit will cause you to see, and know, and rejoice in this fact – Christ is all you need!

 

Proposition:

 

            Come to Christ and he will never send you away; for this is his promise – “I will not send them away!”

 

Divisions:

 

            I want to show you seven things from these verses of Inspiration.

 

  1. The Behavior of Needy Souls.
  2. The Omnipotence of God’s Mercy
  3. The Character of Our God and Savior
  4. The Sphere of Instrumentality
  5. The Necessity of Faith in Serving Christ
  6. The Goal of our Ministry
  7. The Blessedness of Giving.

 

I.  First, verses 29 and 30 display The Behavior of Needy Souls.

 

            Nothing is more difficult and troublesome than moving sick, impotant, deseased people, especially in those days. These people had to be literally carried. But the hope of being healed was in sight. Such a hope inspired these needy souls and those who cared for them. No obstacle was considered. No cost was calculated.

 

            When people are in desperate need, nothing will prevent them from seeking relief if there is any hope. For bodily health, people will wait in a crowded doctor’s office for hours, move from one state to another for purer air, give up jobs, and pay any price. But few are even slightly concerned about their souls’ health. Yet, I know that….

 

A.  Any sinner who knows his souls’ need will allow nothing to keep him from Christ, who alone can meet his soul’s needs.

 

            (Illus: Dr. Ramsey – “Their your eyes. You’re the one that has glaucoma.”)

 

B.  Anyone who knows the power of Christ and cares for the souls of others will do whatever he can to get sin sick souls to the Savior.

 

            Illus: Mark 2:1-4

 

II.  Secondly, verse 31 displays The Omnipotence of God’s Mercy.

 

            Our Lord Jesus was not one of your modern false healers. He healed people with real infirmities.

 

Note: The word “maimed” means mutilated or cut off, as one whose limb had been cut off in an accident.

 

Note: The apostles healed in the name of Christ. Christ healed in his own name – He is God!

 

Note: All healing comes from God; but the gifts of healing ended with the apostles.

 

            What we have before us is a tremendous picture of our Lord’s power to heal sin-sick souls. There is no plague of the heart that he cannot cure. There is no deformity of soul that he cannot overcome. There is no fever of lust that he cannot stop, no palsy of worldliness that he cannot heal, no cancer of indolence that he cannot remove, when the Son of God sends his Spirit, omnipotent grace is healing grace for our souls. He opens blind eyes, causes the dumb to sing his praise, the deaf to hear his Word, the blind to see his glory, and the lame to walk in paths of righteousness for his name’s sake.

 

            “The time of miracles has not yet passed. Every conversion is a miracle.” – J.C. Ryle.

 

            If you would be saved, go to Christ by faith. Cast your soul down before him. Call upon him for relief. He is still the same today as he was two thousand years ago. He is still “the great physician.” He still “receiveth sinners.” He is still mighty to heal.

 

III. Thirdly, verse 32 shows us The Character of Our God and Savior.

 

            “Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude.”

 

            It is striking to me that this word “compassion” is used more often in the four gospels to describe our Savior than any other. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John show us much about our Redeemer’s feelings of joy and sorrow, thanksgiving and anger, holiness and zeal. But the word they most often use to describe him is this word “compassion.”

 

            The word means “to be moved from within. “Our English word means “co-passion,” or “to suffer with.” It is “a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow, accompanied with a strong desire to alleviate the pain and remove its cause.”

 

A.  Our Lord’s compassion for us extends to every aspect of our lives.

 

 

B.  Let no sinner question the tenderness and compassion of Christ.

 

            He will graciously receive all who come to him. He will freely, fully, and forever forgive all the sins of all who trust him. He will supply all the needs of all who call upon him forever! God’s mercy in Christ is a deep, deep wall, of which no man has ever found the bottom!

 

C.  What comfort there is for God’s saints in this great attribute of his – Compassion!

 

 

  1. He knows the world in which we live.
  2. He knows our frailties.
  3. He knows satan’s devices.
  4. He pities us!

 

D.  If the Lord Jesus is full of compassion toward us, how much more compassionate we ought to be toward the needs of men – (Eph. 4:32 – 5:1); James 1:27; I John 3:17; Gal. 6:10).

 

 

IV.  Fourthly, the employment of his disciples in the distribution of the loaves and fishes teaches us something about The Sphere of Instrumentality.

 

A.  Our Lord does not need to use us!

 

            He could have distributed the loaves and fishes far more easily and much, much faster than the disciples. But he chose not to do what they were perfectly capable of doing.

 

B.  What a privilege it was for the disciples to be allowed to pass out the bread and fish as he multiplied it!

 

            Serving Christ by serving the needs of men is the highest honor and greatest privilege in this world.

 

 

V.  Fifthly, in verse 33, the disciples show us The Necessity of Faith in Serving Christ.

 

            Their reply to the Savior was not a matter of unbelief. They had not forgotten what happened in chapter 14! They were simply saying, “Lord, if this crowd is going to be fed, you will have to feed them. We don’t have any bread and have no way of getting any bread.”

 

NOTE: We are most useful, when we acknowledge that we are useless. We are most sufficient when we acknowledge our insufficiency.

 

NOTE: God never gives us a task to do without giving us the means and the ability to do – (Acts 1:8).

 

VI.  Sixthly, in the last line of verse 31, we see what must be and I hope is The Goal of Our Ministry – “And they glorified the God of Israel.”

 

            The object and goal of everything we do in the service of Christ must be to bring eternity bound souls to glorify and worship the God of Israel! Our goal is…

 

 

VII.  Lastly, verses 34-37 demonstrate something of The Blessedness of Giving.

 

            NOTE: The word “baskets” here is not “little lunch baskets” as in (14:20), but huge “market place baskets,” the kind that was used to lower Paul over the city wall in Damascus (Acts 9:25).

 

A.  What an honor it is to give to God – What an honor for God to take our Loaves and Fishes and use them!

 

B.  It is impossible for anyone to impoverish himself by giving (Pro. 3:9-10).

 

 

Illus: John Wanemaker – (“Wanamaker’s”) in China saw a boy pulling a plow for his father. They sold their ox to give the money to build a church building – “Lord, teach me to give like that!”

 

#59 – The Great Physician