That's what the book of Job says.
Deliver him from going down to the pit because a ransom has
been found. That means a payment has been
made. A ransom was found. Yes, a ransom
was found. Love paid the price on Calvary's
mound. Judgment was met. God's judgment
on sin. And the law satisfied all of
the perfection that the law demanded. and mercy was born. If we wanna
know where mercy came from, mercy was born when a ransom was found. And that third verse says, as
poor wretched sinners, no God and no hope, it seemed there
was no one to help, but God in his mercy, salvation supplied,
emptied heaven and came down himself and a ransom was found. That's a true gospel song. Alright, turn with me if you
would now back to Matthew chapter 8. Matthew chapter 8. We are going to look now at the
actual story of this centurion coming to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And this is such a beautiful story, truly a beautiful story. Let's read Matthew's account. Our brother just read Luke's
account. Let's read the full account here in Matthew. It's
verses five to 13. And when Jesus was entered into
Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching him and
saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home, sick of the palsy, grievously
tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will
come and heal him. The centurion answered and said,
Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof,
but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For
I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me, and I say
to this man, go, and he goeth, and to another, come, and he
cometh, and to my servant, do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus
heard it, he marveled and said to them that followed, verily
I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto you that many
shall come from the east and west and shall sit down with
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the
children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness,
and there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus
said unto the centurion, Go thy way, and as thou hast believed,
so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in
the selfsame hour." That's wonderful, isn't it? Truly wonderful. It
is precious that the Lord answered his request. He came with a request
and it is precious that the Lord answered his request and healed
his servant. But this story is really not
about the healing of his servant. the emphasis is on the faith
of the centurion. I don't want to diminish the
healing of the servant. That's wonderful. But I don't
want us to pass by the glory that is told here of the centurion's
faith. And here's the reason why. If
we really listen to what the Lord said, we just stated this
in the Bible study, But if we really, really listen to what
the Lord said, we will understand that this is the greatest example
given of faith in the scripture. We turn to all those different
places that talked about faith just a moment ago. This is the greatest example
of faith that any human being could ever witness or know. This
is it right here. The Lord himself said, I have
not seen this much faith anywhere else. Because our Lord said that we
just had a Bible study on the subject of faith. Because he
said that we just looked at what faith is and where it comes from
and who gets the glory for it. We just saw that faith is not
of ourselves, it's the gift of God. We just saw that faith is the
substance of what we're hoping for. Faith is the evidence of
the fact that we have what we're hoping for. We just saw that Christ is the
author of it. Christ is the performer of it.
Christ is the finisher of it. It is the very faith of Christ
Himself given to His people, and He gets all the glory for
it. All the glory for it. If God's people believe, if they
do believe, just like this centurion, Christ gets all the glory for
it. If God's people believe on Christ,
if they really do, if they really look to Christ, if they really
trust in Christ, Christ gets all the glory for it. He gets
all the credit for it. That's what we just established
in our Bible study a moment ago. Now, what I want us to see in
this message is what this glorious faith of Christ actually looks
like in a child of God. What God's gift, we say it's
God's gift, we say, God authors it, what God has authored, what
God has performed, what God has finished in His child. I want us to see what that faith
looks like and causes a person to say and believe with conviction. We asked the question in the
Bible study, do I have it? All right, well, Ephesians 4
says, There is one faith. That's important. That's what it says. And what
that means is it produces the exact same thing in every child
of God that it's given to. Many people believe, well, you
have your faith and I have my faith. There is only one true
faith, one true faith of Christ, one true gift, And it produces
the exact same thing in all of God's people. All right. So if
this is the greatest example of it, if this is honestly the greatest
example of what it is to believe God, then I want us to see what
it is to believe God, what it truly is to believe on Christ,
to believe God. Okay. From this story, we're
gonna see this. Five things, I want us to notice
five things that true faith caused this centurion to believe and
to confess before God. And again, it's just gonna be
the same thing for all of God's people. All right, number one,
Matthew 8, verse five says, and when Jesus, was entered into
Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching him." Beseeching him. Oh, how important
that word is. Beseeching means begging. That's what the word means. Begging. Begging. Do you know what I don't
hear a lot of in religion today? Begging. I don't hear a lot of
it. This is so important. If anybody
here wants to know, why do I feel like I'm just a beggar all the
time? Why am I constantly begging?
How come I never get a hold of it? Do you know I've never gotten
a hold of preaching? I sit in that chair right there
begging. Please. Please. No man is sufficient for this.
No man's. This is you. Begging. You know, honestly, you will
hear in in religion a lot of assuming on God. And you'll hear
a lot of announcing to God. but you don't hear hardly any. Begging, begging. True faith given to a sinner
will cause that sinner to beg. Do I have it? Well, does my heart
beg before Him? Does it beg? True faith gives
a sinner a right view of his place before God. He sees, I'm
a beggar. One man said a long time ago,
he said, true gospel preaching is just one beggar telling another
beggar where he found bread. Saying, if you'll go to him,
he'll feed you too, just like he fed me. True faith causes a sinner to
know this is in His hands. This is according to His will.
That centurion knew that. And he came beseeching, beseeching,
crying to Him, Lord, the outcome of this is going to be according
to Your will, according to Your hand. Now,
he made his own will known. I want us to notice that. He
did make His request to God, and the Scripture says we can
do that. We can make our request to Him. But He believed in His
heart that this healing was not going to come according to His
will. It was only going to come according
to the will of Christ alone. So He came to the Lord Jesus
Christ, beseeching Him. He came begging Him. He came
humbly. He came lowly, saying, this will only happen
according to your will. Only according to your will.
That's what true faith will convince a person of. Only according to
your will. All right, verse 5. And when
Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto Him a centurion,
beseeching Him, and saying, Lord. Here's the second thing faith
produces. He believed he was coming to
the sovereign, the sovereign God, the sovereign
King. That's what Lord means. Sovereign. Sovereign. The reason we call Him the Lord
Jesus, the reason that we do is because He is not just a man. The scripture calls Him Jesus. I want to point this out to us. We are reading right now that
Jesus did this and Jesus did that. And what it's telling us
is Our Savior, in His low state of humanity, as the substitute
of human flesh, as the substitute of us, in His low estate, accomplished
all of this for us. He is a man. He is a man. But He's not just a man. He's
the God-man. He is the God-man and He is not
in His humbled state anymore. This is record of what God Almighty
humbled Himself and took upon Him the likeness of sinful flesh,
what He came down here and accomplished for His people. But He accomplished
it. and he's not in his low state
anymore, his humbled state. He is high and lifted up and
this is what he said, you call me Lord and Master and you say,
well, for so I am. When a sinner sees the Sovereign,
he will cry, Lord, Lord. This centurion believed in his
heart This is all according to your will because you're the
sovereign God, the absolute sovereign God. All right, here's the third
thing. Verse five. And when Jesus was entered into
Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching him and
saying, Lord, My servant, life at home, sick of the palsy, grievously
tormented." This centurion brought to who he believed held all things
in his hand, the sovereign God, he brought a helpless, weak,
sick, loved one. He believed that the Lord Jesus
Christ was the great physician. the great healer of the sick,
the almighty sovereign God who truly had compassion on the afflicted, the one who truly showed mercy
to those who were in need. You know, I want to make this
clear, I just I just want to speak a little bit in the midst
of the message. But sometimes there are some who see the Lord
as being a weak, low, still in the likeness of human flesh,
can't do anything. And that's wrong. And there are
some that see Him as this stern, hard, sovereign God who won't
do anything. And that's wrong. Who won't have
mercy on sinners? Some believe he can't save sinners
and some believe he won't save sinners. Thank God he will. He will have mercy. This sovereign,
holy, just God will have compassion towards sinners in need. This
is the true friend of sinners. That's what this centurion believed.
He believed this man will receive sinners. He will receive us. So he came crying, Lord, you
said, come unto me. So we're coming. We're coming. I believe you're willing to forgive
all our iniquities, willing to heal all of our diseases, willing
to redeem our lives from destruction. And my servant needs desperate
healing. So Lord, we're coming to you. We're coming to you just
like when Martha and Mary sent word concerning Lazarus. They
said, Lord, that's how they started, Lord. They said, he whom thou
lovest is sick. So we're coming to you. This centurion came to the Lord
crying. This is in your hands. According
to your will. because you are the sovereign,
but I'm begging for mercy. And I'm begging for compassion
from you because I believe with all my heart that you're the
friend of sinners, the great healer of the sick, the loving
seeker of the lost, our only hope, our only hope coming to
you. That's what true faith will cause
a man or a woman to believe. All right, number four. Verse
five says, when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto
him a centurion beseeching him and saying, Lord, my servant,
life at home, sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. And Jesus
saith unto him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered
and said, Lord, I am not worthy. that thou shouldest come under
my roof." What did faith, this true faith, what did it cause
this centurion to believe? He believed, I am not worthy. I am not worthy. I am unworthy. He believed all of the worthiness
belonged to Christ alone. All of it. No worthiness belonged
to him. Our brother read Luke's account
just a moment ago. And did you notice that it said
there, it went into the story more deeply and said, actually,
he sent the, uh, religious leaders of the Jews
to the Lord on his behalf. And they said to the Lord, his
servant is at home sick, and we need for you to come and heal
him. And Lord, you should, because this man is worthy of it. He's
a good man, and he's raised up a synagogue for us, and he's
worthy of you to heal him. And the Lord said, I will come
to his house and heal him. And when the centurion found
out that the Lord was coming, halfway there, he sent his friends
and ran to him saying, don't come any farther. I'm not worthy
for you to come to my house. That's why I've sent all these
people. He said, I didn't come to you myself because I did not
believe I was worthy to come to you, much less you to come
to me. I'm unworthy. I'm unworthy. That's what true
faith produces in a sinner. I'm unworthy. David said, not
unto us. John the Baptist said, I must
decrease. True faith will convince a man
or a woman of that. Absolutely convince them, all
right? Number five. Verse eight says, the centurion
answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest
come under my roof. but speak the word only, and
my servant shall be healed. For I am a man under authority,
having soldiers under me, and I say to this man, go, and he
goeth, and to another, come, and he cometh, and to my servant,
do this, and he doeth it. What does God-given faith cause
a sinner to believe? Speak the Word only. Speak the Word only. All power
is in Your Word. All power is in Your Word. All power is in Your Word. Speak the Word only. All ability. What is able to
open blind eyes? What is able to open deaf ears?
What is able to quicken, give life to a dead heart? The Word. The Word. Lord, by your Spirit, speak the
Word only. If you say it, it's done. If you speak the Word, whatever
you say is. It just is. True faith will cause
a sinner to believe that God does not beg for anything. He doesn't beg for anything. He doesn't beg people to let
Him do anything. He speaks the Word and it's so. God doesn't try to do anything.
He's not trying to accomplish anything. He's not hoping anything will
come to pass. He speaks the Word and it's so. I love how Genesis says, God
said, and who is God? The Lord Jesus
Christ. God said, let there be light. Boom! Can you imagine? And there
was light. Everything that He said in creation,
God said, let there be. Boom! And there it was. God said, O ye dead, dry bones,
live. Can you imagine what Ezekiel witnessed?
He said, you hear the word of the Lord. The Lord says, live. And bone came to his bone. They were scattered out just
in chaos. Bone came to his bone and stood upright and sinews
and flesh and breath entered their lungs and they lived. He said, Lazarus, come forth. And he that was dead came forth. You believe that, don't you?
Speak the Word only. Speak the Word only. We don't have time this morning,
but sometime read Psalm 29 on the voice of the Lord. speak the word only. Oh, the
power in the command of His word, whatever He says is so. No buts about it. And what wonderful news that
is for sinners like this centurion who are in need of mercy. What
wonderful news it is for sinners who are sick with sin in desperate
need of healing from God. Desperate need of salvation.
It's glorious news. And the reason is because. You know what he said in John
19, 30, you know what word speak the word only Lord speak the
word only. Do you know what words he said in John 19, 30, three
of them. It is finished. And it's so. It's so. From the cross of Calvary,
while He was hanging there on the cross of Calvary with His
own blood flowing from His body, as He bowed His head, as He was
giving up His ghost, dying to put away the sin of his people,
he said, it is finished. And it's so. True faith will cause a child
of God to say, Lord, if you have declared your accomplishment
of my sin debt payment to God, the debt that I owe, in your
blood, paid in full, if you say it's done, I believe you. That's what true faith. will
produce. I believe you. I believe you. I believe the words you've spoken
and they brought peace to my heart. If a soul truly believes that,
if a soul truly believes that Christ has spoken it and it's
done, then that soul will stop trying to help him do what's
already done. That soul will rest in His Word. Faith causes God's people to
rest in His Word. Lord, if you've said it, it's
done. Verse eight, the centurion answered
and said, Lord, I'm not worthy that thou shouldest come under
my roof, but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed.
For I'm a man under authority, having soldiers under me, and
I say to this man, go, and he goeth. And to another, come,
and he cometh. And to my servant, do this, and
he doeth it." When Jesus heard it, he marveled, not at the centurion,
but at God. What God had done in this man.
the marvelous grace of the loving Lord that had been bestowed on
one of God's own. Verse 10, when Jesus heard it,
He marveled and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto
you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And
I say unto you that many shall come from the east and west,
meaning the Gentiles, this was a Roman centurion, and they shall
sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
But the children of the kingdom, meaning many of the natural Israelites,
shall be cast out into outer darkness. There shall be weeping
and gnashing of teeth. They are not all Israel, which
are of Israel. He's not necessarily a Jew, which
is one outwardly." What's going to make the difference?
God-given faith. And we can summarize that by
saying Christ. God's gift of Christ, God's gift and ability
to believe on Christ, come to Christ, cast our all on Christ.
Verse 13, and Jesus said unto the centurion, go thy way and
as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant
was healed in the selfsame hour. When the power of His Word comes,
the result of that power immediately follows. Immediately. When God pierces the soul with
the healing command of His Word, immediately that soul was healed. The verses before this talk about
that leper that came and said, Lord, if you will, you can make
me whole. He said, I will, and immediately he was whole. The
power brings the result immediately. If He says to a desperate sick
soul, you are washed in my blood, you're washed. If He says you're healed by the
sacrifice and death of Christ your Lord, you're healed. When He says bow, we bow. When
He says come, we come. When He says live, we live. Immediate. Lord, speak the word
only. Speak your word of comfort and
healing to our hearts and we'll be healed. We will be healed. The prophet Eli very wisely told
young Samuel, who was lent to help him in the service of the
temple, he said, he told Samuel, you say, speak Lord for thy servant
heareth. May the Lord speak to every soul
here today. May He speak to every soul here.
It's not any man's voice, but it's the voice of the Holy God
through His Holy Word. May the Lord speak to every soul
here. Live for Christ's sake. All right, Brother Eddie, you
come.