I'm reading to you this morning
from the Gospel of Luke chapter 7. The Gospel of Luke chapter
7. The Gospel, like all of God's
Word, is concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior of sinners. How He came into this world to
seek and to save that which was lost. To save a people given
to Him by the Father before the world began. To come to seek,
to call them by His power. save them from their sins by
dying for them on Calvary's tree. I read beginning with verse 1,
Now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the
people, he entered into Capernaum. And a certain centurion's servant,
who was dear unto him, was sick and ready to die. And when the
centurion heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the
Jews. beseeching him that he would
come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus,
they besought him instantly, saying that he, that is, the
centurion, was worthy for whom he should do this. For he loveth
our nation, they said. Then Jesus went with them. When
he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to
him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself For I am not worthy
that thou shouldest enter under my roof. Wherefore neither thought
I myself worthy to come unto thee. But say it a word, and
my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man set under
authority, having under me soldiers, and I say unto one, Go, and he
goeth, to another, Come, and he cometh. Do my servant do this,
and he doeth it. And when Jesus heard these things,
he marveled at him, and turned him about, and said unto the
people that followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so
great faith, no, not in Israel. And they that were sent returning
to the house, they found the servant whole healed that had
been sick. It says in verse 1, when he had
ended all his sayings in the audience of the people, he entered
into Capernaum. He, the Lord Jesus Christ, spoke
much. The end of John's gospel says,
if everything the Lord said or did was written in books, the
world could not contain the book. He ended all his sayings in the
audience of the people. Many heard him. Multitudes heard
what he said. But do you know that very, very
few really believed what He said? Very few people believed then
and few believe now. Really believe all that He said. When our Lord left the earth,
when He arose and went back to the Father, there were only 120
disciples in an upper room, those that had believed. His sayings,
His words, what did He say? Well, all that He said is the
Word of God. He is the Way, the Truth, the
Life, the Wisdom of God, Righteousness, Sanctification, Redemption. He
is the Word of God. All the Bible speaks of Him.
Everything in God's Word speaks of Him, of His work, of His person,
of His glory, of His honor, of His salvation. It's all about
Him. And all that He said in the volume of the book, it was
written of Him. And what He said was absolute
truth, not to be taken lightly, but to be taken seriously, words
of life, and what a man may say you can take or leave, but not
what the Lord Jesus Christ said. All heard Him then and now, and
this is condemnation. God has spoken, Scripture says,
once, yea, twice, but man perceiveth it not. That is, he doesn't perceive
it as the Word of God. Very few people believe this
book to be God's holy, inerrant, inspired, infallible Word of
the living God. Most believe it's just the mere
words of man, a Jewish fable. Listen to the likes of Moses,
that prophet. Listen to what he says. Hear,
O heavens, and I will speak. Give ear to the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the
rain. My speech shall distill as the
dew, as a small rain upon the tender herb, as a shower upon
the grass. For I will publish the name of
the Lord." Listen to Isaiah. Hear, O heavens, and give ear,
O earth, for the Lord has spoken. Listen to Paul in Romans chapter
10. Have they not all heard? Yes,
verily the sound went into all the earth. Well, many are called,
but few are chosen. This man who the Lord came to
save, this centurion, he heard, and he believed, and he called,
for whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.
And he called because Christ came calling on him. Now when
he had ended his sayings, He entered into Capernaum. Capernaum
was a city which the Lord spent a great deal of time in. How
blessed Capernaum was to hear all that he said, to see all
that he did. And I say without reservation,
how blessed is the city of Rocky Mount. The gospel has been preached
here for many, many years. Oh, how blessed. But do you know
the Lord pronounced woe upon Capernaum later? Woe unto thee,
Capernaum, for if the mighty works and words that had been
done in thee had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah, they would
have repented long ago. Well, the Lord came, and it says,
a certain centurion's servant who was dear unto him was sick
and ready to die. And when this centurion heard
of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews beseeching
him. He called on the Lord that he
would come and heal his servant. Now here's proof of the Lord's
absolute, sovereign, electing love, mercy, and grace, that
salvation is of the Lord, His will, that He chooses whom He
will, His choice, His power, His grace, This certain centurion,
scripture speaks much of certain individuals, a certain woman,
a certain man who had the palsy, a certain place, a certain thing,
because salvation is of the Lord. It's according to His eternal
purpose, ordered in all things, predestined. For whom He did
foreknow, He did predestinate. Whom He did predestinate, He
called like this man. And whom He called, He justified.
Gives them saving faith which justifies Him. And whom He justifies,
He glorified. That is, they see His glory and
will be with Him someday in glory. This certain centurion was a
certain object of the Lord and Savior's love and mercy and grace. And he came to this man. How
many centurions were in Rome at this time? Many. But this
certain centurion heard and believed. Now, a centurion back then was
a Roman soldier. You've got to realize that the
Roman Empire was one of the most evil empires in the history of
the world, out to conquer the world. And Roman soldiers were
ruthless, brutal warriors, heartless, vicious, and violent men who
killed without conscience. Later on, a band of these soldiers
would gather together against the Lord Jesus Christ and beat
him to a bloody pulp. Why didn't this man get in on
that? Because the Lord chose him. There was another centurion
at the foot of the cross who heard all that Christ said from
that cross and saw him hanging there. He saw his salvation and
he cried, his profession was, surely this was the Son of God.
God had chosen this centurion. And he changed this man. This
certain soldier was an object of God's electing love. Even
the Jews loved this man. They loved him. Now, Romans and
Jews didn't love each other. They were enemies, like Jews
and Gentiles. But God had broken down the enmity
in this man's heart for the Jews, and he loved them. I have a couple
of friends who were soldiers for many years. One was a drill
sergeant in the army. A rough, rough, hard man. But the Lord changed him. The
Lord called him. The Lord saved him. The Lord
had mercy on him. Turned him into a preacher. Another
man, same thing. Two tours of Vietnam. He said
he stood out in the middle of a field and defied God to kill
him. Well, God did kill him. God killed
his spirit. He killed his soul. He killed
his religion. He killed him, that is, but made
him alive in Christ. And he too became a preacher
of the Gospel. It says in verse 3 and 4, when
he heard of Jesus. Now, he heard of the Lord, and faith
cometh by hearing. Who told him about Jesus Christ?
I don't know. But he heard. And how do I know
that he knew who Christ was? Because of what he called Him.
Verse 6, he called Him Lord. And his testimony concerning
Christ was one of Christ's sovereignty. He heard of Jesus. He heard by
the hearing of the ear of Jesus Christ. He heard who He was. And the first thing you will
hear if God comes to you through the preaching of the gospel as
you'll hear, not that He's a Savior, but that He's Lord. This man
called Him Lord. That's how I know He knows who
this is. Many speak of Jesus. That's what
they call Him. But when you find out who He
is, you'll call Him Lord. Like Simon Peter, when he was
in that boat and the net, the Lord told him to cast the net
on the right side of the ship, and it took in so many fish that
he was not able to bring them into the boat. Hit his knees and he called him
Lord. He said, depart from me Lord.
Thomas, when he found out who he was, he hit his knees and
called him Lord. My Lord and my God. The first
thing that a sinner will find out about Jesus Christ is that
he is Lord. You don't know. He does not your
Savior first, and then you make Him Lord. God made Him Lord.
And God sends Him to the preachers of the gospel for you to find
out that He is Lord. For the fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom, like this man. You'll find out that He's
sovereign. He does what He will, with whom
He will, because He will. That's what He said. Listen to
His profession. He said in verse 8, I'm a man
of under-authority, And I say unto one, Go, and he goeth. To
another, Come, and he cometh. Do this, and he doeth that."
What he's saying is, you just say the Word, because you're
God. You don't depend on man. You
don't wait on man to do something for you, to accept you. You say
the Word. God said in His Word, I have
spoken it, I will do it. I have purposed it, I'll bring
it to pass. That's the God of the Bible.
He worketh all things after the counsel of His own will and by
the word of His power. He spoke light. He spoke life. And He speaks salvation. It's
not up to man. It's up to Him. It's up to God.
And look at this. Here's the centurion's profession. In verse 6, the centurion said,
Lord, don't trouble Yourself. I am not worthy that Thou shouldest
enter under my roof. And he said, I didn't think myself
worthy to come unto You. You just say the Word, though,
and you can have mercy. This is the testimony, the heart-spent
belief of every single sinner God saves through the preaching
of the Gospel. When they hear who God is, holy,
righteous, sovereign, who Christ is sovereign, they find out what
they are, a sinner, undeserving, hell-deserving, unworthy, That's
what they say. I am not worthy. No, they don't
believe they deserve a chance to be saved. They believe they
deserve hell. The wages of sin is hell. And
they all say, All of them with one accord say, unworthy, unworthy. But, oh Lord, just say the word. Just say the word. Well, the
Lord did. And you know what the Lord said
after this? He said, I haven't found faith like that in all
of Israel. Not in all of religion where you hardly find anybody
that says, I'm unworthy and God is sovereign in salvation. But
all of God's people do. All true Israel do. They know.
God is sovereign. Christ is sovereign. Saveth whom
He will. And we're unworthy sinners in
His hand. Oh, may the Lord reveal this
truth, reveal Himself to you. Amen.