Matthew chapter 8, we're going
to pick up where we left off a few weeks ago. Let's read verses
5 to 10. Matthew 8, beginning in verse
5, it says, 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. The Lord willing, we're gonna
look at this entire story in our message in just a moment.
What I want us to look at for this Bible study is after this
centurion said what he did to the Lord, the Lord said, I have
not found more faith in a person than I have found right here
in this man." He was a Roman centurion, a Roman centurion. And the Lord went on to say,
I have not even found this much faith in any of the children
of Israel, any one of the Israelites. This
is the most faith that I've seen in any one person. Now, did that Roman centurion
have anything to boast in? You know, with religion, faith
is a very boastful thing. I was driving to the service
this morning and I was following a car on the road. I've never
seen so many religious bumper stickers on one car. And I thought,
poor fella, I understand his thought process, but there's
so much pride involved in, look at me, look at me. And the question
goes out when the Lord says, I have not seen this much faith
in anybody. Here's the question. Can we and
should we pat him on the back? Should we admire him for this? How should we view what the Lord
said about this man? How should we understand what
he was saying about this Roman centurion? For this Bible study,
I want us to look at the subject of faith. Faith, I want us to
see what the scripture has to say about faith. We're gonna
let this be our doctrine. We're gonna let this be our authority
on it. And then after we see these things,
we're gonna ask the question again, did he have anything to
boast in? Should he get the credit? Who
should get the credit for it? And what should our response
be? As we hear the Lord say that,
what should our response be? All right, what does the scripture
have to say about faith? I'm gonna warn you, we're gonna
turn a lot. I turn a lot, but here lately
I haven't been. We're not gonna turn so much
in the message, but here we're gonna turn a lot. We're gonna
let the scripture answer for us What is faith? When the Lord said, I have not
found so great faith. What was he saying? Turn with
me to Hebrews 11. Hebrews 11 verse one says, now
faith is the substance. And that means the ground, the
confidence, the confidence, it's the belief. It's the trust. It's the assurance of things
hoped for. The evidence of things not seen. Faith is the belief and the confidence
of what the believer is hoping for. And faith is the evidence that
the believer has what he or she is hoping for. It's the evidence,
it's the confidence, and it's the evidence. Verse two says,
for by it, by faith, the elders obtained a good report. Romans
four says, Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for
righteousness. Perfection, perfection before
God. So verse two says, by it, the
elders obtained a good report. Through faith, we understand
that the worlds were framed by the word of God so that things
which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By
faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than
Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying
of his gifts, and by it, he being dead yet speaketh. By faith Enoch
was translated that he should not see death and was not found
because God had translated him. For before his translation, he
had this testimony that he pleased God." Now watch verse six. If
it ever comes into question whether or not a sinner needs to believe
on Christ, verse six says, but without faith, it is impossible
to please him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him. He that comes to God must believe
that he is and that he's a rewarder of them that diligently seek
him. So faith is the substance and
the confidence in our salvation. Faith is the evidence of our
salvation. And faith is the only thing that
a sinner can possess that will please God. Because without faith,
it is impossible to please him. So faith is critical. It's critical, all right? Then
here's what I want to know. Do I have it? Do I have it? How can I get it? Where does
it come from? Is it something that I have to
learn how to, you know, dig down deep and pull up? Is it something
that comes from within myself? Do I need to tap into it, exercise
it? Thankfully, I believe most of
us know the answer to this, but it has to be spiritually revealed.
And I'm telling you, the more I think on this, even those of
us who know the answer to this, we still fall back into a lack
of faith, losing the truth of what it is and what it cries. So I pray this will be a help
to all of us. All right, where does faith come
from and how can it be said that I have it? Turn with me to Ephesians
two. Ephesians 2 verse 8 says, for
by grace, that means free gift, God's free gift, for by grace
are you saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it
is the gift of God. Faith is not of ourselves, It's
the gift of God. It's not something that lives
down deep inside of us, waiting for us to pull it out. It is
something that is not there until God puts it there. It does not
exist until God puts it there. He has to give it to us and put
it inside of us. If a man or a woman even has
faith, the scripture says, as the grain of a mustard seed, He or she can't boast in that.
There's no boasting in that. Even if it's just a mustard seed,
even that had to be given to us. That had to be given to us. So faith does not come from within
us. Faith is from God. Look back
a couple of pages at Galatians chapter two. Verse 16 says, knowing that a
man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith
of Jesus Christ. I've told you this before, but
some churches went in together and had these Cambridge style
Bibles reprinted. Many of you have them. When we
were having them printed, the printing company, and I'm glad
they asked this question. Um, they asked us, do you want
to change? this one and a few other scriptures,
it says the faith of Jesus Christ. They said, do you want us to
change that to in, like a lot of the other Bibles are going
to? And we said, oh no, leave it like God wrote it. And he
said, well, I just wanted to make sure, because a lot of people
are requesting that. Well, how would you request that? It's just critical, that's a
critical word. A man is not justified by the
works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. The faith that is given to God's
people is the very faith of the Lord Jesus Christ himself. It is his faith. We believe in him because of
the faith of him. We don't receive the ability
to produce faith. When his spirit comes to us,
he doesn't give us the ability to produce faith. We receive
faith. His faith, from Him, of Him. He is the source of faith. He's
the provider of faith. And He's the performer of faith. Look with me if you would at
Philippians chapter one. Philippians 1 verse 3 says, I
thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer
of mine for you all making request with joy for your fellowship
in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident
of this very thing that he which hath begun a good work in you
will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. If he started
that saving, God-pleasing work in you, he will perform it. He's the performer of it. He's
the performer of it. Look at Philippians 3, verse
13. For it is God which worketh in
you Both to will and to do of his good pleasure. He said, if
you're doing it, it's God doing it in you. So he's the giver. He's the performer of his own
faith within his people. And the promise of God to his
people is he will perform that faith in them all the way to
the end. He which hath begun a good work
in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Now
turn with me to Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews 12. Verse 1 says, Wherefore, seeing
we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily
beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set
before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. who for the joy that was set
before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set
down at the right hand of the throne of God. Faith is the faith
of Christ. It's the gift of Christ. It's
the work of Christ. and it's the object of Christ. He said, looking unto the Lord
Jesus. Let us finish this course of
life, looking unto the Lord Jesus. Faith looks to Christ. Faith doesn't look to faith. Whenever we have these moments,
when we're so frustrated with ourselves, saying, I just, I'm
so frustrated with my faith, I just don't, That's looking to faith and that
will not encourage faith. That will not produce faith because
the end result of that is I am so happy with the amount of faith
that I have now. I was not happy with it last
week, but I'm so happy with my faith. That's not faith. Faith doesn't look to faith in
a bad way or in a good way. It doesn't look to faith at all.
Faith looks to Christ, the Christ of the cross, who for the joy
that was set before him endured the suffering and death of the
cross for his people, despising the shame of their sin, dealing
with it in judgment, dealing with it in justice, dealing with
it in mercy. And because of that, he is now
sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. That means
the seat of his honor and authority, the right hand. So faith looks
to Christ. Faith trusts in Christ. Faith's
confidence is in the Lord Jesus Christ, what he gave, what he
did, what he finished. Faith says, my life is in his
life. My death is in His death. My
resurrection is in His resurrection. The answer to everything concerning
faith, if the subject of faith comes up, period, the answer
to everything concerning faith is Christ, Christ, Christ, Christ,
Christ, faith looks to Christ. That's what it does. That's what
it says. Christ. Now I've told you this before,
but let's enter into it again. To summarize this, to summarize
the whole thing, all we have to do is say Christ. That is all we have to do. We
talk about faith, if we try to think about faith, if we try
to get our minds around faith, if we try to understand faith,
all we have to do is say Christ. All right, now let me illustrate
that to you with the Word. Look with me one more time at
Hebrews 11, back one chapter. Hebrews 11, we're going to summarize
everything that the Word has to say about faith by substituting
the word Christ for it. Hebrews 11 verse 1 says, Now, Christ is the substance
of things hoped for. And he is. He is. True faith is not hoping for
heaven. True faith hopes for Christ. True faith is not hoping for
anything but Christ. In him, God's people have all
things. But Christ is the substance of
things hoped for. Christ is the evidence of things
not seen. How do we know all these things?
Christ came. Verse two says, for by Christ, the elders obtained
a good report. That's what faith says. How did
all of them, how did Abraham really obtain a good report?
Christ. Christ. Verse three says, through
Christ we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word
of God so that things which are seen were not made of things
which do appear. By Christ Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain. He was told to bring blood,
and we know that that is a picture of the blood of Christ, by Christ. He goes on to say by which he
obtained witness that he was righteous. God testifying of
his gifts. And by it, he being dead yet
speaketh verse five says by Christ. Enoch was translated that he
should not see death and was not found because God had translated
him for before his translation. He had this testimony that he
pleased God. Verse six says, but without Christ. It is impossible to please him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek him. When our Lord said concerning
that Roman centurion, I have not found so great faith, no,
not in Israel. What he was saying was, I have
not seen a greater gift from God than this. I have not seen a greater performance
by God in a person than this right here. Did that centurion
have anything to boast in? No way. No way. That was God's
work in him. That was God's goodness and his
grace to him, God's gift to him. And he doesn't get any of the
glory. for him looking to Christ and trusting in Christ. God gets
the glory for it. True faith says, amen. That's
right, God gets the glory for it. So with all that being said,
understanding what faith is, where it comes from, who it's
to, what should our response be in seeing this? Knowing that it's of him, through
him, to him, for him, in him, What should our response be in
seeing this? Turn with me to Luke 17. Luke
17, verse 5. And the apostles said unto the
Lord, increase our faith. Lord, increase our faith. Like
that man said to the Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. Increase our
faith. Lord, if you're the giver of
it, if you are the object of it, if it's the evidence and
the assurance of our salvation, If it's the work that you perform
in us, causing us to look to your blood for all of our forgiveness
from sin and causing us to look to your righteousness alone for
all of our perfection before God. If it's your gift to us that
causes us to be acceptable and pleasing, then Lord increase
our faith. Increase our faith, we're looking
to you. Increase our faith, cause us
to more and more say, mind and heart, Christ, Christ. Let that be our first response,
Christ. All right, now that's what faith
is. That's where it comes from. That's who gets the glory for
it, all right? We're gonna see in just a minute
here, the story of faith in this Roman centurion. All right, we
just saw what it is, where it comes from, who gets the glory
for it. What we're going to look at in
just a minute is what it actually produces in a child of God and
causes that person to believe and say. how it works. It's God which
works in us. We're gonna see the work in just
a minute, all right? See what that physically looks
like in a child of God. All right, you're dismissed.