Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to our first reading, the Gospel
according to Matthew chapter 8, and reading for our text,
verse 7, or particularly the latter part of that verse. Matthew
chapter 8, verse 7, and Jesus saith unto him, I will come and
heal him. It is the words that our Lord
spake, I will come and heal him. Our Lord had been acquainted
with the servant of the centurion who was sick at home, sick of
the palsy. In one of the accounts here,
we have the centurion coming to him, beseeching him. The other
account we have that he sent unto him his servants and messengers
that were to bring this and to convey this message to our Lord. And obviously at different times
as the account had been viewed, it is noted in a different way. But there's different aspects
that are shown in each account, and particularly in the account
that is in Luke, we have from the friends that which is said,
or the elders of the Jews, what could not have been said or was
not said by the centurion himself. they recommending him because
of how that he had done so much for Israel and that he loved
their nation, hath built us a synagogue. So we have this account and coupled
with that in the Gospel according to Matthew, we have others that
were healed as well. Much of our Lord's ministry was
fulfilling that word that we read of, that it might be fulfilled. Verse 17 in Matthew 8, that it
might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet
saying, himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses. And with the important aspect
of the bearing the sicknesses and the miracles that he did,
this adjoining together of physical afflictions and spiritual afflictions
and sicknesses, the two, they go together. We have in the third
epistle of John the desire of John for his well-beloved Gaius,
whom I love in the truth. Beloved, I wish above all things
that thou mayest prosper and be in health even as thy soul
prospereth. And he brings the two together,
a physical health of the body and a prospering of soul. He
obviously viewed that his soul was certainly prospering. We have the case in Mark chapter
2, where again there was one sick of the palsy, born of four,
brought on a bed, there was no room to get in at the door, so
the crowd that was there, preventing them coming to Jesus, so they
went up to the roof, took away the tiles from the roof and let
him down. right to the Lord Jesus. And
when our Lord saw them and saw their faith, he said unto the
sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. And our Lord
dealt first with the matter of sin, that sin was forgiven him. And then there were those that
were round about And they questioned, they said, who is this that is
speaking blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
only? And when our Lord perceived in
His Spirit what they were reasoning amongst themselves, He said,
why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether is it easier
to say to the sick of the palsy, thy sins be forgiven thee, or
to say, arise and take up thy bed and walk? And then he says,
But that ye may know, that the Son of Man hath power on earth
to forgive sins. He saith to the sick of the palsy,
I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into
thy house. And immediately he arose, took
up the bed, and went forth before them all. The two things were
joined together, the Lord showing his power over the body, and
over the soul. And we must remember that when
God created man, his body was sinless, it was perfect, there
was no sickness, there was nothing wrong with it, it was perfect
in every way. And spiritually, there was full
communion and fellowship with God. God could come and walk
in the garden and they had that communion one with another. And
when sin enters into the world, it touches the body, it touches
the soul. Man is spiritually dead and man
is dying, heading for the grave naturally and heading to the
judgment in a spiritual way. And we must remember that. When
we have a view of heaven, then what is said of heaven, there
are those that are there that there is no more death, no more
sickness, no more crying, no more pain. that which is suffered
in the body is not belonging to that new heavens and a new
earth wherein dwelleth righteousness. So the two things, they do go
together. And the Lord is pleased to use
the afflictions and trials of his people. Many are the afflictions
of the righteous. Use them to bring them to be
strengthened in their faith and to be helped through them, not
necessarily full healing or cleansing. We would not in any way suggest
that an evidence of being a child of God is that God makes miracle
healings and does that. He blesses the means and He is
able to heal in a miraculous way and it's wonderful to hear
where the medical profession are marvelling at the progress
made or the blessing on the means of the people of God. And we've
heard of several cases recently and we give that glory and honour
to God that makes even those that qualified medically to say
this is not what we expected and it is not what we would have
predicted. And we know that all healing,
is of the Lord. We must never look to the means
and say, well, this can be effectual without the Lord's blessing,
without Him working through that. It is of the blessing of the
Lord that any man's skills or endeavours are successful in
any way. And those that fear God in the
medical profession know that. And the training that I've had
in engineering and many years of designing machines and thankfully
many of them, most of them though they were very well and yet I
know how many cries to the Lord that I'd be given wisdom and
help and guidance and I wouldn't take that credit of those skills
to myself but many answers to prayer and blessings and We know
those in many professions would say the same, that fear the Lord,
that they ask the Lord for wisdom, for guidance, for help, and he
helps them. And we have this with healing
and afflictions as well. I want, with the Lord's help
this evening, firstly to consider the purpose of Christ's miracles. a miracle that is before us. Our Lord has one presented to
him that is sick and immediately says, I will come and heal him. And he does. And what is the
purpose of Christ's miracles? Secondly, Christ the healer. Just to see the, not only what
has been done, but our Lord himself and his methods and manner of
healing. And then thirdly, we have in
this account, and this is covered in both of those accounts in
Matthew and in Luke, what faith that Christ described as great
faith. Just to notice what was that
great faith and how was it distinguished. But firstly, the purpose of Christ's
miracles. Why did he work miracles? You say, well, it was so that
he would heal the sick, and so that he would raise the dead,
and so that he would feed the multitudes. Was that the purpose
of those miracles? with the Lord go right through
his time here below. And at the end of it, we'd say,
well, it was good that we had this man, Jesus, with us, because
there's many that were healed and many received benefits and
health, but it's a pity now he's no longer here with us. We have to find some other means
now And those that had received the food and the healing and
the rising from the dead, in due time they all died, all were
laid in the grave. And with only those blessings,
they'd go to the judgment and be doubly condemned, we might
say. Because the purpose of the miracles
was not for the actual benefit that was received as the first
thing, but it was pointing out who Christ really was. We have our Lord in the Gospel
according to John. In chapter five, verse 36, he
says, and this is regarding his speaking of John the Baptist,
and remember what the Jews said of John the Baptist. They said
of him that John did no miracle But all things that John said
of this man were true. We read of that in John 10. But
here he is referring to John the Baptist. He says, but I have
greater witness than that of John. Remember John said, behold
the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. For the
works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works
that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me."
Those things that the Lord did, they testified who He was. When He fed the multitudes in
John 6, the next chapter along, And no doubt they were very pleased
with that food. They're poor people and they
would have blessed God for it. And we should, whatever blessing
that we have from the Lord, whether it's healing, whether it's food,
it's provision, health or strength, whatever it is, we would be glad,
we would thank the Lord for it. But the Lord had this reproof
for them when they followed him over the sea and the next day,
He said to them, you seek me not because you saw the miracles,
but because you did eat of the loaves and were filled. There
was a difference in why they were seeking the Lord. Were they
seeking the Lord because they saw the miracles and realised
this man was the Christ? This man was truly God and man. This was the Messiah. This was
He that would be able to take away their sin and hasten to
Him for Himself and for that greater need of their soul. But
He said, no, the only reason why they were seeking Him was
because of the loaves and the fishes. They were filled. They
had those things. For all it mattered for them,
he might have been what would be, we could say, a millionaire
that was able to just dish out and hand out all goods, and people
just followed a person just for that, but weren't interested
in anything else. But the miracles, they testified
of who he was. John, especially in his gospel,
is emphasising that Jesus is the Son of God. And so many times
he makes this comparison, the miracles that were done in John
12 and 37, we read this, that, but though he had done so many
miracles before them, yet they believed not on him. What a solemn
thing, so many miracles, Sometimes the Jews have said, when Christ
comes, shall he do more miracles than this man? They were that
close, as it were, to realising that this was the Christ. But that's why the miracles were
done, so that they would see and look past the man and see
God, see the God-man, see the power that was given to him. And of course, after the Lord
had laid down his life and taken it again, after he descended
up into heaven and the Holy Spirit came, then the disciples, they
were working miracles, but never, never did they take the credit
to themselves. Never did they say that we are
doing this by our power. They always said it was by the
power of the Lord Jesus Christ, by thy holy child Jesus, this
man is made whole, this miracle is done. And there's a very clear
link between Jesus of Nazareth, who they had crucified and slain,
and the apostles who were witnesses of him, that both wrought miracles
and Both the purpose of those miracles was to point to the
Lord Jesus Christ as being the Messiah, as being Him that was
to come to save His people from their sins. That is why the Lord
came, not to just provide temporal relief. And so we need to know
this, we need to realise this and bring it to our own lives
as well. Why? Why does the Lord bring
trials? Why is the Lord said, you must,
through much tribulation, enter the kingdom? And the disciples,
they echo the same words. Our Lord saying, in me you shall
have peace, in the world you shall have tribulation. And why? Many of the afflictions of the
righteous, but the Lord delivereth them out of them all. Why does
Paul have the thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, that
God will not remove, it stays there, whether it was a physical
affliction or not, something because of not being able to
recognise the high priest, and that it was because of his sight
as an after effect when he was smitten with blindness. But we're not told that. Scripture
is silent. But it was something that was
such a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan, that would stir up
the old nature. That is what it is, you know.
Years ago I said to one over in Australia, Geelong, that was
a man so afflicted with arthritis and had to have gold injections
every three months to ease it. And we were discussing Paul's
thorn and I thought perhaps it wasn't an affliction because
it was said to be a messenger of Satan. He looked at me and
said, it's not the affliction, it's what it stirs up within. all of the enmity and replying
against God and the rebellion and the thinking of a hard lot
and hard thoughts against the Lord, that's what is the messenger
of Satan. And he knew it, he walked through
that path and given great grace to bear that affliction and that
sorrow. Well, we need that those things
that we pass through, God has chosen, our sicknesses, our afflictions,
our illnesses, that those things are used for good and used for
the good of our souls. That in seeking healing and seeking
relief and seeking help, in all of those things we be mindful
that God's people are chosen in the furnace of affliction
and that those things that are sent, they are sent in one sense
to weaken of the things of time to give us a reminder before
we turn to dust that we are of dust, that we are affected by
sin and how it affects our bodies and that the Lord in mercy will
use those things that won't naturally work for good but under the Lord's
blessing it will and may everyone that is afflicted and everyone
that is ill know that they are in, as it were, a situation of
which many have been blessed, many have been helped, even though
they have not been fully healed or healed at all, they have been
given the blessing of the Lord and healing in their souls and
they've been brought to view and to see and to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. If we go through many, many things
here below and are never brought to believe in the Lord Jesus
Christ and to trust in him, not just for time but for eternity,
then we have all men most miserable. Those that go through life with
health and strength every moment of it and they enjoy all the
pleasures of life and they get to the end and they go to the
grave, they have a terrible shock awaiting them the other side
of the grave. We are told in Psalm 73 that
there are no bands in their death. They're not in trouble as any
other men because they don't believe. They don't think there's
an afterlife. They don't think there's a heaven
and a hell. They don't think there's a judgment to come until
the reality in their open eyes, the other side of the grave,
and then it is too late. But God's mercy is to convince
us of the truth of that here, to bring us into a need, to bring
us to look to our Creator, our Maker, and look to Him that is
able to heal both body and soul, or like the man with the palsy
that was born afore, able to forgive sins, pardon our many
transgressions, and to show the proof of that was able to heal
miraculously, instantly, that one that was sick as well. So
may we ask ourselves when we come into things, whatever it
is, whether it's sicknesses or trials in our life, for what
purpose, what cause has God brought these things? And may we be even
like Jehoshaphat when he had the enemies coming against him.
Neither know we what to do, But our eyes are upon Thee, and it
may be one this evening you say, I don't know what to do. But
if our eyes are upon the Lord, they're upon the right place.
If it brings us to look to our Maker, our Creator, if it brings
us to consider Him and to remember that we are but dust. So may we consider then in this
first point the reason why our Lord went about doing miracles
and doing that which was greatly appreciated by those that were
beneficiaries of it. And there were those that, like
the centurion, saw through what the Lord did and even before
what he did, able to see and believe that this truly was the
Christ, but we'll look at that in our third point. But I want
to look then secondly at Christ, the healer. The healer of body
and of soul. In the words of our text, and
they're really beautiful, simple words, aren't they? I will come
and heal him. It is what drew my attention
to this word. They seem so simple, so lovely,
so full of compassion, so full of love, so full of mercy. I will come and heal him. You know, if anything remains
from this evening, may the simplicity of these words remain. I will
come and heal him. I will come and heal her. But not just the words that he
speaks, but you think what is behind this. And joining the
body and the soul, it is the same one that deals with both,
the willingness of the Lord to heal. I will come. Sometimes
Satan will really malign the Lord, and he will say, the Lord
is not willing. Many of the Lord's dear people
get very troubled over this. They seek him, they ask him,
but they say, is the Lord willing? Is the Lord willing? Well, here
in this account, he says, I will come and heal him. Our Lord taught
the manner of prayer, thy will be done on earth as it is in
heaven. And we know that what the Lord
does is according to his will. But his willingness to help one
that comes to him for help and aid was so clearly demonstrated
in his time here below. I don't think, I'm sure, you
cannot come to a time, yes, you would say, well, what about when
Lazarus was sick? The Lord didn't come, but there's
a good reason why he didn't come, and he knew what he would do. And again, to clearly show that
he had power over death and to rise from the dead. But he doesn't turn away. a poor
sinner, a poor sick one, a poor one in need, but he hearkens
and is willing, willing to address and deal with that matter in
the way that he sees fit. May we have our eyes set upon
the greater aim of the Lord. When we read in Romans 8 that
we know That all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them that are the called according to his purpose.
You'll find that there'll be some things in our lives that
if you measure it by wealth, it hasn't worked for good. If
you measure it in health, it doesn't work for good. But if
you measure it in the balances of eternity, it does work for
good. And then there's the time aspect.
If Joseph would have said, well, it didn't work for good for me
being sent by my father to my brethren, I ended up in the pit
and stripped and sold as a servant and then put in prison. And all
those times we're told that the word of the Lord tried him. But
at the end, he's able to say it was not you to his brothers
that send me hither, but God to save your lives by great deliverance. Judge nothing before the time. It's a good thing to remember
that. We live in a society today that we are so used to wanting
everything instantly. Now, today, those of you that
order things online, you might go to a company like Amazon or
something, and you have two products, and one it can be tomorrow, and
the next one will be a few days' time, And you're more is like
to take the one that comes on the next day. And we're in a
society where everything must be instant, straight away. But the Lord doesn't work like
that. He says, when he was on earth, your time is already,
but my time is not yet. And very often, the Lord does
delay. And it is a trial of faith. It's
meant to be. and to hang upon him and to wait
upon him. But we have here Christ the healer,
the willingness of the Lord Jesus to come, I will come. And then
we have his ability. He doesn't say I will come and
I might be able to heal him. He might get a doctor today and
so we see what we can do, you come and I'll have a look. But
our Lord, he knows the outcome, he knows his power, he knows
his ability. He says, I will come and heal
him. May we never doubt the ability
and the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. All power is given unto
him. Also the varying use of means. The Lord does use means, in some
cases, We have it like the case here in verse 3, with the man
with the leprosy. Jesus put forth his hand and
touched him, saying, I will. So there is the touch and there
is the word, I will. In verse 13, we have with the
centurion, go thy way, as thou hast believed, so be it done
unto thee. His servant was healed in the
selfsame hour. There's no direct word or command
of healing at all, but just go thy way. It is done. I have done
the matter. And then we have the case with
the man that was born blind in John chapter 9. And our Lord
made clay of his spittle and anointed his eyes. And at first,
he says he sees as trees, men as trees walking, and then he
saw clearly. And the Lord used those different
means to open the eyes of the blind and to other ways of healing. And so again, he has different
means and methods that he uses, whether in literal healing, when
we Go to the doctors, when we have an operation, when we use
vaccines, when we use tablets, or whatever means we may use,
the Lord's blessing on them, he may use what he sees fit,
and in whatever way, and in a spiritual way as well. Sometimes we might
think, well, our hearts are so hard, what will be needed to
soften our hearts. I remember one time years ago,
a run of three things happened and I felt I was so hardened
against the Lord. And as each one happened, I think
I was ironing once and iron went straight through the trousers
and instead of being softened I felt angry with the Lord. And
the other time the pressure cooker burned dry and It bowed out at
the bottom, wonder it didn't explode. And again, my heart
was so hard it wouldn't bend. And other things happened as
well. And I thought, well, what will soften, what will bring
me back from this angry, far-off state of my soul? And then the
Lord was pleased to do it, just with a sense of His mercy. a
Dutch friend staying with me at that time. And he was saying,
I can't understand why I can't get over to New Zealand. He wanted
to go to New Zealand. And this Lord's Day was saying
this. And I suddenly remembered. And
I said, look, of course, I know the reason why. And I went and
I got a letter that had been sent to me from England before
I ever got to know that friend. And this friend from here had
said that, maybe the Lord will provide you a friend to live
with you in your loneliness. And I laughed, although it was
impossible that that could ever be so. And within two weeks,
the Lord provided me this friend, and he came and lived me for
a while. And I'd remembered, I'd forgotten
it. And then, when he was saying
these things, I got the letter. And when I realised that I had
laughed, but the Lord had answered that lady's prayers or desires
for me, it so broke my heart. It softened me down. What all
the judgements could never do, a sense of mercy and the Lord's
kindness and goodness to me. And you know, within a week,
that friend could go to New Zealand. But I was able to say, like with
Jo, The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the
name of the Lord. But the Lord knows how to come
and to soften hard hearts. And sometimes under afflictions
and trials, we seem to get harder and harder and harder, further
off and further off. And we think, well, what will
be the end of it? He'll crush me. He'll destroy
me. I'm not one of the Lord's people.
But then the Lord knows exactly how to come with a drop of mercy
and show us His beloved Son, grant us a taste of His graciousness
and kindness. And it brings us down in a moment,
down to His feet, believing, adoring, worshipping Him, humbled,
tears of contrition, godly sorrow for sin, thankfulness to God,
and worship to him. Those means are in the Lord's
hand. May we help to come to Christ
the healer and leave it with him. We mentioned about Lazarus
and I've always felt how wonderful it was with those sisters of
Mary and Martha that they could say to the Lord, he whom thou
lovest is sick. And they left it with him. You
know, quite often we prescribe things, don't we? Sometimes we
even do it to the doctor. We go to the doctor and we say,
we want this tablet, and please, we want an antibiotic, or we
want this or that, and we tell him his job. But with those dear
sisters, they left it to love. They left it to the Lord. There's
so much instruction in that. Cast thy burden upon the Lord. Not dictating, but just cast
it. You say, he knows already, I
don't need to go and tell him. Yes, you do, because that's why
the Lord brings these things, to bring us to him. He loves
to hear the voice of his people. Maybe we've been prayerless and
careless, and those afflictions, they make us cry and make us
sigh, and call unto him in our troubles. To do that, dear friends,
call upon May, says the Lord in the day of trouble, I will
deliver thee and thou shalt glorify me. Christ is the heavenly physician
to heal both body and soul, and he cares more for our eternal
good than for our temporal, if it could be put like that. He
cares for the whole person, but he won't half-save, if you like. Those mercies that he gives,
that are eternal ones, they are the greatest blessings and mercies
that he could ever show. The apostle said, if in this
life only we have hope in Christ just for the temporal things,
then we have all men most miserable. But if we have that hope beyond
the grave, what a blessing. that that is. I want to then
look in the third place at what Christ described as great faith. We sang in the hymn about how
faith is feeble and we often feel that, we feel so faithless
and very feeble but I want to notice what the Lord looks upon
and he pronounces it great faith and may it be a help to some
of you this evening who feel you have but no faith or little
faith and it may be that you'll see that even in this great faith
you have some marks of that yourself. The first thing is that this
centurion he ventured to the Lord It wasn't a faith that just
sat down and said, well, what will be will be. It wasn't a
faith that was a fatalistic faith. It was a venturing faith, a faith
like Esther had when she says, I'll go into the king, and if
I perish, I perish. But she ventured. And so the
centurion here, have you that faith? In your venturing, do
you pray? Do you seek the Lord? Do you
come before him? Do you ask of him in prayer,
in your trouble, crying unto the Lord in your trouble? Then
you're venturing. You're not like those that have
illnesses and they never seek the Lord. We read that even of
Asa, and Asa was a godly king. But at the end of his life, he
was diseased in his feet And we read that he sought not unto
the Lord but unto physicians. That doesn't mean it's not right
to go unto a physician, a doctor, and ask the Lord's blessing and
to be looking above the man and looking the Lord's blessing on
him. But we read with Asa he didn't seek the Lord in him.
Do you join prayer with your use of means? Are you looking
to the Lord, asking him, asking him for his help, for his blessing.
That is faith that whatever the thing is, whatever the trial,
the burden, the sickness, it's bringing to the Lord. It's venturing
to the Lord. So that's the first point. The
second is this, the humility that this man had. He was a centurion. He was a Roman soldier. over a hundred men. He was one
that had authority. And yet how humbly he comes before
the Lord. And we especially see this in
Luke, which is contrasted because we have those that were sent
by him, they are saying he is worthy. They're saying he's worthy
that thou should do this. He loveth our nation. He hath
built a synagogue. So on one hand, there are those
that are looking on him, and they're praising and lifting
him up. But on the other hand, he is
saying, I'm not worthy. He says, wherefore neither thought
I myself worthy to come unto thee. Trouble not thyself. I'm not worthy that thou should
enter under my roof. The humility that this man had,
and yet he had every reason not to be humble because of his position
in life, because of what even the Jews were saying of him.
But all of those things that others were saying, he is saying,
I'm not worthy. How do you feel? How do you feel
in your present trial, affliction? Do you feel you're not worthy?
Not worthy, you're venturing. but you feel not worthy, not
worthy that there should be the Lord's presence in this affliction,
not worthy that there should be a real blessing attending
it, that there should be that audience with the Lord himself
in these things. This was one of the marks of
great faith, humility, lowliness of mind, Pride is one of the
great master sins and it is a miracle where the Lord humbles and brings
low before him. Then we have the centurion's
belief in the power of the word alone. He says, speak the word
only and my servant shall be healed. Faith viewed the power of Christ's
word, and how vital that this is, especially in the matter
of sin. Our Lord told the parable of
the rich man and Lazarus, and without going into the whole
parable, many of you I believe will know of the parable, But
the rich man, when he died, he went to hell, he saw Lazarus
in heaven with Abraham, and he asked that Lazarus would be sent
from the dead to his five brethren so that they didn't come into
that place of torment. And the Lord said, they have
Moses and the prophets, If they hear not them, neither will they
believe, though one rose from the dead. And of course, later
on, our Lord was to rise from the dead. And the Jews didn't
believe. Many of them didn't. Some did. The important thing is the power
of the word. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. If you and I are blessed savingly,
if you and I are blessed through afflictions and trials, it will
come through the Word of God. He sent his Word and healed them. Speak the Word only and may it
make us to really value the holy, inspired, infallible Word of
God. May we truly know that it is
given by God and the Holy Spirit takes that and applies that and
uses that Word in our bodies and in our souls. The authority
that the Lord had to speak the word and speak the word only. So may we be in looking for help
and answers to prayer, looking that that help be given through
the word of God, through that which is coming from heaven. My word shall not return unto
me void, it shall accomplish the thing whereto I sent it. The next thing that marks out
this great faith is that the centurion was able to take his
own life experience and use it to see Christ's authority. He says that he's not worthy, that he
should have the Lord under his roof, and then he says in Matthew
8, verse 9, 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. To my servant, do this, and he
doeth it. So this man is looking at his
own life and his own experience of being a person in authority
And the reaction when he speaks the word, people jump, they do
what he says. And he sees that the Lord Jesus
has that same authority. He's able to look past, really,
the parable of his own life. And faith does that. No, really,
a parable is that, isn't it? It is a natural story with a
spiritual application. And our life is full of parables. There's many things that we look
past, the providence and things that are done, and we see a spiritual
lesson, a teaching in that, in those things that are done. I
remember the time when so very low and discouraged in soul,
walking actually through A graveyard, head down, very bowed down in
thoughts and feelings, and there on the ground in the path was
a dead sparrow. And I stopped and I looked at
this sparrow, in my feelings, before that time the Lord was
far off. But I thought of the Word, that
that sparrow, that couldn't fall without the Lord. He was there. He knew of that sparrow. So he
knew I was there too. And that so picked me up. I've
never forgotten that time. A simple thing that is used to
point to the Lord, point to his presence. Well, this man, his
faith here was in his employment. What is your employment? What
do you do? Can you see from that what the
Lord is able to do? And you see through that to this,
Who this is? The Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
this great faith, this man, God used this. God is the author
of faith. May we remember this. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the giver of faith, not something that comes
from us. It is given from the Lord, but
it's evidenced in this way. And you might say in the last
place as well, that here is a faith that does not look to ourselves
or to our own works, but looks solely to the Lord. It was something
we mentioned in connection with humility. Others were saying
about him, about his works and what he'd done, but he wasn't.
And great faith does not do that. Great faith is not thinking,
well, I'm a good preacher, or I'm a good citizen, and I help
the church, and I put so much into the collection each week.
Great faith is not looking at that kind of balance as to why
the Lord will bless. On the other hand, it's not looking
at all what we may feel of our sinfulness and unworthiness as
well. Great faith is just looking.
to Christ the healer, is looking unto the Lord alone. Nothing
in my hand I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. Naked come
to thee for dress, helpless come to thee. That is the path of
the people of God, to come just as they are to the Lamb. In whatever
trial, in whatever trouble, Like those cities of refuge, we flee
unto him, a name that is above every name, the precious name
of Jesus. Jesus saith unto him, I will
come and heal him. May we then hear of you, view
the reason why the Lord had worked these miracles and have always
in mind in our lives that we desire to see Christ truly as
he is, and for that greatest need, the need of our souls,
and the pardon, forgiveness of our sins, and the blessing of
the gift, not just of life, but of eternal life. I give unto
them eternal life, they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of mine hand. And may we be of those that really
see not only the purpose of Christ's miracles, but the Christ that
worked them and his character, his feelings for his people,
his methods of operation. And when we think of our faith,
may we not discount what the Lord gives, the gift of faith
that has some, if not all, of the evidences of the great faith
that the Lord commended in this centurion. May the Lord help
us, bless and sanctify to us our afflictions and trials, and
make himself precious to us, and do what is necessary that
we be found at last at his right hand in heaven. Amen.