I express my thanksgiving for
all of you who attended the services Friday and Saturday night at
the Sovereign Grace Church in New Caney. I know that was a
blessing to all of us to be in the services and worship the
Lord, and you being there was a blessing to the church family
there. I'm very thankful for all of
you who were able to go. If you will, let's open our Bibles
today to Matthew chapter 8. Matthew chapter 8. When he was
come down from the mountain, great multitudes followed him.
And behold, there came a leper and worshipped him, saying, Lord,
if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus put forth
his hand and touched him, saying, I will be thou clean. And immediately
his leprosy was cleansed. And Jesus saith unto him, See
thou tell no man, but go thy way. Show thyself to the priest
and offer the gift that Moses commanded for a testimony unto
them. 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'm 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 in the
kingdom, or sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom
of God. But the children of the kingdom
shall be cast out into outer darkness. 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. First of
all, I want to point out that we know that when our Lord cleansed
this leper, that this was not his first miracle which he wrought. upon entering into his public
ministry. For the last several weeks we've
been looking at the early life of our Savior. We saw his baptism
and last week his temptation. But we know the first miracle
was the miracle of turning the water into wine because John
tells us that. But let me point three things
out to us about the miracle here of our Lord. cleansing this leper. First of all, we see Christ's
power displayed. The leper worshipped Christ,
acknowledging that he had the power to make him clean. Notice he said, Thou canst make
me clean. He recognized that the Lord Jesus
Christ had the power to make him clean. He did not presume,
he did not dictate to Christ what he should do, but simply
confessed that he needed cleansing and Christ could do it if he
willed. So first of all, the power of
Christ is displayed. Let me ask you this morning,
All of us here today, especially if you have never experienced
the saving grace of God, do you believe that Christ has the power
to save you? Do you? He's God. With Him, nothing is impossible.
So we see His power displayed, first of all. And second, we
see Christ's holiness and His grace displayed. His holiness
is displayed in the fact that he touched this leper. The leper
was unclean. That was what the law of God
said. And the leper, according to the
law, should have cried out, unclean, unclean, and should never have
approached unto a person who was clean. But this leper did,
and the Lord touched him, and the Lord was not polluted. He
was not made unclean by the touch of this leper. And we see also
His grace in that when the leper said, Lord, if Thou wilt, Thou
canst make me clean, we see His grace, He willed. You see, grace is unmerited favor. We all know that. We all recognize
that. This leper He didn't come even
though he had a great need, but he didn't come demanding that
the Lord cleanse him. He recognized that his cleansing
was in the hand of Christ and it was his grace to give or not
to give. We see His holiness, we see His
grace. And also, number three, we see
Christ's obedience here. Remember when He came into this
world, He came as the servant of Jehovah. In Isaiah 42, that
passage tells us, God said, behold, my servant. Look at Him, my servant. He came here to do the Father's
will. And the father's will was that
he obey the law, that he make the law honorable. And we see
that when he commanded this leper, after he cleansed him, he said,
now go to the priest and do what the law entails you to do, what
you are to do according to Moses. Go do that now. You see, before
this, in Matthew chapter 5, he made this statement, that he
did not come to destroy the law. That was not his purpose. He
didn't come to destroy the law or the prophets, but to fulfill. And all the law, all the law
of God, he fulfilled. And He did that in the stead
and in the place of each and every one of us here today. He is our righteousness. His
righteousness was worked out by His perfect obedience to the
law of God, to the will of God. And He did that. We see that
here in this passage. But I want to leave that miracle
and I want us to go on to this next one this morning. I want
us to look at the healing of the centurion's servant. And
I want to divide the message into three parts. First of all,
let's see some things about this centurion coming to Christ. And then second, some things
about Christ's willingness to go and heal his servant. And then third, Just a few words
about this man's faith, because he's one of two men, two individuals,
I should say, this man and a woman that our Lord commended, and
both were Gentiles, for having great faith. But first of all,
let's say some things about the centurion coming to Christ. Look
at what Matthew tells us about him coming to Christ. Verse 5,
it says, and when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto
him a centurion. The coming of this centurion
to Christ. In John chapter 6 and verse 37,
the Lord Jesus Christ said, all that the Father giveth me shall
come to me. and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. His people, that is the Lord's
people, His chosen people, His people, we come to Him from all
walks of life. This man was a soldier, a professional
soldier, if you please. You don't usually associate Christianity
or with soldiers. This man was a soldier. The man
who recorded this, Matthew, he was a tax collector. Remember,
he was sitting at the seat of receipt of custom and the Lord
passed by and said, follow me. And the scripture says Matthew
left everything. He just left the money table
as it was and followed the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord was visiting
in the house of Peter. Peter was a fisherman. If you
look down to verse 14, it says, And when Jesus
was coming to Peter's house, Lydia Remember the first convert
from Europe in Acts chapter 16. The Lord opened her heart so
that she attended unto the things spoken by Paul to the gospel. She was a businesswoman. And
Luke, the one who wrote the Acts and the gospel of Luke, he was
a physician. And there were no doubt many
others But the point I'm making is this centurion came to Christ,
our Lord said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And
his people come to him from all walks of life. Keep your place
here, but turn to 1st Timothy if you will. 1st Timothy chapter two. The apostle writing to this preacher
said, I exhort therefore, 1st Timothy chapter 2, 1. Now first
of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of
thanks be made for all men. Excuse me. For kings and for
all that are in authority, that we may lead a quiet and peaceable
life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable
in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved
and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one
God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. When the scripture here tells
us, who will have all men to be saved, this is what it has
reference to. Not every single individual,
thank you, not every single individual in the world, but all men, men
of all walks of life, as I've just gone through several of
them. The Lord Jesus, the man Christ
Jesus, had said He gave Himself a ransom for all. Now did He
ransom all men? If He ransomed all men in the
sense that some people like to understand this, then that would
mean that all men are delivered. That's what a ransom is. A few years back, a very famous
man in Mexico, he was an entertainer. wealthy man because he's very
popular and I believe I have this story correct. I know his
son was taken and I believe one day he received a finger in the
mail or somehow and it was the finger of his son and they said
one million dollars and your son goes free. He was held for
ransom price and the father paid the ransom price and his son
was set free. Christ, the Son of God, think
about this, the Son of God, He paid the ransom price for all
of His people. And each and every one is sure
to go free. Why? Can we believe that somehow
the ransom price was not sufficient? Seeing who He is, the Son of
God? Perish the thought. The thought
almost sounds like blasphemy to me. To even begin to imagine
that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's dear Son, doesn't affect
what God intended for it to affect. And that is to ransom, to buy,
to redeem each and every one. that the Father gave unto Him
in that eternal covenant. But His people come from all
walks of life. Now, go back to our text, if
you will. And you see this in verse 11. In our text, when the
Lord Jesus said, And I say unto you that many shall come. Now, He doesn't say many may
come. I say unto you that many may
come. I say unto you, many, if somehow
we can convince them to will to be saved, will come. No, he says, many shall come. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will and no wise
can stop. And notice, not only does His
people come from all walks of life, but from all directions,
from the east and from the west, from the north and from the south,
from all around this globe, His people come. This is what we
read, recorded about heaven in Revelation chapter 5, They're
singing and praising the Lamb of God who redeemed them to God
by His blood out of every kindred, tongue, people, and nation. So what I see here is by this
centurion coming to Christ, the truth that all that were given
to him will come to him. And they come from all walks
of life. And they come from all places
on the globe. Now I want you to keep your place
here in Matthew, but turn with me to Luke. And I want us to
read the account that Luke gives us of this same miracle and make
some comments from this. In Luke chapter 7. Now when he had ended all his
sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum. And a certain centurion servant,
who was dear unto him, was sick and ready to die. And when he,
that is 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 was worthy for
whom he should do this. For he loveth our nation, and
he hath built us a synagogue. Then Jesus went with them. And
when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent
friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself, for
I'm not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof. Wherefore,
neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee, but say in
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 unto another come, and he cometh, and to my
servants do this, and he doeth it. 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 found the servant whole that had been sick. Notice the first thing that Luke
tells us that we didn't read in Matthew. He heard of Jesus. He heard of Him. Doesn't that
remind us of the fact, the truth, that faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God? The Apostle Paul said in Romans
10, how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? We know that Christ's people,
that his sheep, they hear his voice and they hear his voice
in the gospel. He said in John 10, my sheep
hear my voice and I know them and they follow me. And I cannot
overemphasize the importance of hearing the word of God. God
has chosen to use his word. It's the means, the instrument
that God uses in calling His people and saving His people.
This man, first of all, we find that he heard. He heard. Secondly, he came as he was with
a number of good qualities. Do you see that? He came as he
was and he had a number of good qualities about him. Consider
this. The fact that he sought help
for a servant speaks well of him. The very fact that he came,
he sent a delegation, and he came on behalf of a servant speaks
well of him. The leper we just read about,
he came for himself. Jairus, we love that story, don't
we? I should say history. We love
that history. Jairus came for his daughter. Later we read of a nobleman. He came for his son. This man
came for his servant. Now a servant or a slave at that
time had very little right, very little rights I should say. But
this man, the very fact that he came for his servant speaks
well of him. And then the Jews who came, they
said, he built us a synagogue. He built us a place to worship. And I point this out to us this
morning to say this, not everyone, not everyone that the Lord saves
does he call out of a hog pen. There's no doubt many he has,
but not everyone. And I point this out because
I believe sometimes there's a danger when people hear the testimonies
of some that it causes them to doubt and to question. Well,
I didn't experience that. I was, no, if a person has been
in church and living under the rule of Christian parents, no,
they're not going to be in a hog pen like the prodigal son was. And some people have even made
the statement, I kind of wish I'd lived that kind of life so
that I could have that experience. Never think like that. Never
think like that, my friends. God, if He spared you, and it's
His sparing grace, His prevenient grace, no doubt about it, that
keeps some people from going as far into the the sins of this
world as others. But think about this, and I say
this by experience, as a pastor and individually. If you've never
experienced some of those things, God, He forgets your sins. He will remember them no more.
But many times people who know that's true, they remember them. And it causes them much pain
and much grief. God called this man, he had a
lot of good qualities about him. But he was like everyone else
in this sense, and that is, he came to Christ knowing he was
unworthy. No matter what others said about
him, he knew his heart. He knew what was on the inside.
Everyone else looked at the outside, and as I've said many times before,
it's easy to look good on the outside. It's easy to put on
a coat and look good on the outside, but our Lord said, the problem
is not what goes into the man, it's what comes out. Comes out
of his heart, and all men. Have a heart, we come into this
world with a heart that is desperately wicked. We all do. And who can know it? The Jews, they said, he's worthy.
He said, I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy
that you should even come under the roof of my house. Sounds
to me like man has some realization of his sinfulness and who Christ
was. As I said, not all are called
out of a hog pen, but all who are called are unworthy. All
have inherited a fallen sinful nature. And those who spoke for
Him, they said, He's worthy. But when He spoke for Himself,
He said, Lord, I'm not worthy. Now here's the second thing.
Let us see some things about Christ and His willingness and
power to heal. Back in chapter 8 of Matthew,
if you will. Our Lord said, I will come and
heal him. You notice It just seems to me
how spontaneous this is. When this centurion, when he
said he had a servant, he came beseeching the Lord for his servant. And the Lord said, I will come
and heal him. He came and he said, Lord, my
servant lies at the door sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. Well, let me think about this.
Let me think about this a while. Oh no. Just as soon as the centurion
told the Lord Jesus Christ of the need, the Lord instantly
said, I'll come. I'll come. I will come and heal
him. He didn't say, I'll come and
I'll do my best. I'll come and I'll try. I remember one time a man told
me, he was, bless his heart, he was making a profession of
faith, and he said, I'm going to give it my best shot. Sad. But he didn't know any better,
but our best shot isn't good enough. The Lord came to seek and to
save that which is lost, and He's not going to fail in His
mission. I will come, and this reminds
us here of the Lord Jesus Christ, His willingness to come, to leave
heaven's glory as the eternal Son of God, and to come into
this world as a man. I will come. I will come. and heal him. I will come and
save them. Concerning his willingness we
have this scripture in Hebrews chapter 10 and it is a quotation
from the Old Testament from the book of Psalms where he said,
Lo, I come. I come willingly. Lo, I come
in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will,
O God. Now his will when he said I I
will come, His willingness to come, think of what that included. His willingness to be made flesh,
His incarnation. His willingness to walk among
sinful men and women. I don't think we can even begin
to appreciate the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy
Son of God, walking among men and women just like you and me. all of our sinfulness, all of
our unbelief. And His disciples, they were
filled with unbelief. Every one of us, like that man
who said, Lord, I do believe. Help thou mine unbelief. Here the Lord Jesus Christ is,
who is God, who knows He could not lie. His Father God cannot
change. What He's promised He will do,
and yet here He is walking among men and women who doubted and
questioned and did not believe. Surely that was a grief to Him.
Yes, His willingness to come included His incarnation, His
life in this world in obedience as the servant of Jehovah to
magnify God's law and make it honorable. It included His death
to be the one propitiation for the sins of His people. His body
was laid there in that grave for three days. His resurrection,
His ascension, it's all included in those words, I will come. I will come and heal Him. Concerning His power to save,
When you think about his calls in the gospel, like in Matthew
chapter 11, when he said, come unto me. Can you imagine one
individual, one individual, a blanket call, come unto me, all ye that
labor and are heavy laden. I'll give you this. If any man thirst, let him come
unto me and drink. The power of the Lord Jesus Christ
manifested in this world. And then notice this also in
this Narrative, we see the centurion interceding for his servant,
beseeching him, the scripture says. Verse 5, and when Jesus
was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching
him. And doesn't that remind us today
of our Savior's intercession? This man put himself, right?
between His servant and the Savior, beseeching the Savior for His
servant. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
our advocate, whoever liveth, who's always there at the Father's
right hand. You know, the Apostle Paul in
Romans 5 said it like this, for if when we were enemies, We were reconciled unto God by
the death of His Son. Much more, much more we shall be saved by
His life. What does that mean? By His life
of intercession. Much more we shall be saved by
His life. Not only as He died for us, but
as we see this centurion beseeching the Lord so God, our Savior,
He ever lives to make intercession for all who come unto God by
Him. Now, here's the third part of
the message, just briefly. Let us see some things about
the Lord and this centurion's faith. The Lord said that his
faith was great. In fact, our Lord said he had
not found faith this great among the Jews. But here was a Gentile. This man's faith made him to
know that all that was necessary was for Christ to say the word. Many of the ones who came to
Christ said, come, Jairus, come, go with me to my house. My daughter's
grievous. No, this man, his faith was such
that he knew Christ, all he needed to do was speak the word. It
wasn't necessary that he come and lay his hands upon this servant,
just speak the word. And this showed his faith, that
his faith was great. How many people, how many of
God's people fail to find rest as we should in Christ because
we are convinced for some reason or the other that there's some
kind of feeling that we must experience? And because we don't
have that feeling, we don't have that rest. No, just speak the
word. That's all that's necessary.
Just speak the word. You know, our Lord gave sight
to Several blind people. I don't know how many blind people
he opened their eyes. But we think of three of them
that experienced different things, don't we? Bartimaeus, he came
and the Lord just said, what would you have? And Bartimaeus
said, my side. Granted to him. One man, he put
clay on his eyes, didn't he? He said, you go to the pool and
wash. One man, he put spittle on his
eyes. They all had different experiences, but they all had
the same thing in common. They were all blind, they were
all given sight, and it was Christ who gave each of them their sight. Those three things were the same.
Their experiences different, yes. They all knew their need. They all came to Christ. seeking
help, and they all received their sight. The scripture says this,
whosoever, and we love that word whosoever, don't we? Whosoever. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. And everyone that loveth him
that begat, loveth him also that is begotten of him. The second
thing, the last thing I'll point out about this man, or about
this, the Lord Jesus Christ and this man's faith. The Lord marveled. That is truly amazing. As God, and we know He is God,
as God, He gave this man the faith. Faith is a gift of God. It's the fruit of the Spirit,
isn't it? But as man, he marveled. And the same person, the God-man,
we see attribute of deity and we see attribute of humanity. He marveled. What a wonderful
Savior is Jesus our Lord. May the Lord bless his word this
morning. Now I know I haven't done this
passage just