May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this morning as we meditate in his word. Let
us turn to the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 8, and we'll read verse
8. The Gospel of Matthew, chapter
8, and reading verse 8. 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. We have in the New Testament
many little accounts of quite remarkable occasions. And this
was really a little account about this centurion. And obviously,
he had heard about Jesus and knew what Jesus had done. And therefore, we're told that
he came to Jesus beseeching him. That means very sincerely and
with a great need. It wasn't just coming to Jesus
with just a casual position, but he came with a real desire
that this great and glorious person, the Lord Jesus Christ,
would hear him and would indeed appear for him. And what was
his need? Well, he told the Lord very simply,
Lord, my servant lieth at home, sick of the palsy, grievously
tormented. And Jesus then very graciously
answered and said, I will come and heal him. And then as we
see how the centurion responded to that statement, we might think,
well, that's a wonderful answer. And how good it is to know that
Jesus is going to come and heal this, my servant, but the centurion
answered, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under
my roof, but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed. Well, I wonder how many of us
this morning would count ourselves to be not worthy of the Lord
coming amongst us. Not worthy. I'm not worthy. And yet, you see, He was an eminent
person. He was a centurion. A centurion
in those days was an important person. There weren't so many
centurions around. And yet, you see, we see the
grace of God really shining forth in this man. And he's able to
say very straightforward, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest
come under my roof. We might think, in our lives
today, with regard to so many requests, we might make to think
that we're not worthy of any notice from Almighty God. It's very good when we look on
ourselves as insignificant and not worthy of any notice, and
then to realise that we have a kind and gracious God, who
is merciful, who does come, and does look upon us, and is mindful
of us, small as we may feel to be, insignificant as we may feel
to be. But you see, when the Lord comes
then, it is to deal graciously with us, because we're not bolstered
up with pride, we're low in our own estimation, And surely our
desire is that Christ will be lifted up and honoured and glorified. And that should always be our
concern and always be our desire that in each of our lives, the
Lord Jesus Christ may be lifted up and honoured and glorified,
that his name may indeed receive the honour and glory due unto
him and how much he deserves and how little we realise or
what the great God deserves. Adoration, praise, thanksgiving
from us. And yet how little we find ourselves
in that frame and in that attitude. How often we let God's mercies
and God's favours pass by, pass by. Well, it's good to realize then
that we have here an example of an eminent person who felt
himself to be utterly unworthy that the Lord should come to
him under his roof. And he tells us then, he says,
but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed. Well, that is, of course, the
great need of all of us. to hear God's Word, to hear God
speaking to us, speak the Word only, and to be concerned that
we do hear the Word of God, that it is spoken into our hearts,
and that we're not left just to carry on aimlessly in this
world. We do need to have what we would
term a spiritual testimony The evidence of God being mindful
of us. The evidence of God's Word, His
Words, being spoken into our heart with power from on high. To realise that you and I are
passing fast through our little life of time on this earth and
soon For each one of us, time will be no more. And then where
will our soul be? Well, we need the evidence that
it is well with our soul and the evidence we receive through
God speaking to our souls, directing us, encouraging us, correcting
us, whatever it may be. Yet what a blessing it is if
we come like this, Just, Lord, speak the Word, Thy Word, to
my soul. Not seeking for any great revelation,
any great vision, as it were. Sometimes we can be tempted to
ask for great things like that. They're not promised, and we
should be content with what the Lord gives to us, what the Lord
speaks to us. Never forget the truth of the
word of God, a little that a righteous man hath is better than the treasures
of many wicked. And my friends, if you and I
have heard God's word in our hearts, we have cause to rejoice
eternally. Because if God speaks to our
heart, it is an eternal blessing. Because God doesn't speak to
everybody. He does speak to those whom he
has loved with an everlasting love. Now then, this centurion,
he had this desire that the Lord would come, speak the word only. And he was given faith to believe
that the Lord could do just that. He didn't have to come to heal
the servant. He could just speak the word
and healing would be done. He had confidence in God. He had faith to believe that
God could do this great and wonderful act and favour for him. Well,
how necessary and important it is for us today to have faith
to believe that God will speak to us. Now, if you have desire
that God will speak to you, speak to your soul, confirm to you
that it is well with your soul, You may be on the stretch for
that. You may be seeking earnestly
for it. Well, the great blessing is God
hears and answers such desires that he himself will come and
speak the word only. And the great blessing is he
gives us faith to believe. Faith to believe the things which
are Impossible with men, impossible with us, are possible with God. That's what this man had here,
faith to believe. He realized that it wasn't necessary
for Jesus to come into his house to actually heal this man. All the Lord had to do was to
speak and his servant would be healed. And how true that is
today. We need to come to our God very
humbly and very simply, pleading that he will look upon us and
he will speak the word only. Now, it may be a very short word,
it may be a longer word, but whatever word it is, If the Lord
speaks a word into our souls, we can be sure it will be a suitable
word. You may say, why do you say that?
Because God does not waste his words. God does not speak words
of no value, of no need. God speaks words which come exactly
where we are. it's a wonderful favour to realise
that God and God alone knows where we are you might think
well I know where I am well you might think you know where you
are but you may not always know but God knows exactly where you
are in your spiritual life he knows whether you're right at
the very beginning or whether you're on the journey, or whether
you're near the end of the journey. But in all those situations,
and everything in between, how wonderful it is when God is mindful
of us and hears our desires. You see, this centurion's desire
was that his servant should be healed. It was a big need he
had. The Lord knew about it anyway.
But he'd had to come. He'd had to come to the Lord. He'd had to ask the Lord that
he would come. Very simple statement. He came
and said, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the Paulsley,
grievously demented. He told the Lord the position. And it's a good, wonderful favour
for us still today. that we come to a God who knows
about us and we can explain to our God our condition and our
position. And the Lord knows what to do. What did he do here? He said,
I will come and heal him. But the centurion said, it's
not needful. Just speak the word. Just speak
the word. and my servant shall be healed. And he goes on to explain his
position and how he was he could command what this one and that
one and yet here he was willing just to wait for God to speak
the word and heal his servant. Now let us be encouraged that
today we come to the same Almighty God And I say that because we're
told the Lord is the same yesterday and today and forever. The power of the Lord has not
diminished. The ability to speak the word
only has not faded away. He is able and He does still
speak the Word only. Well, I wonder how many of us
today, I hope most of us, could perhaps testify that God has
spoken His Word into our hearts. You know, when that occurs, it's
really like this. We have an illustration in the
Word of God which tells us It's like the writing in the rock
with an iron pen. You may say, well, why? What
does that tell us? What it tells us is this. If
somebody had inscribed on the rock with an iron pen, it wouldn't
be eradicated. It wouldn't be rubbed off, would
it? It would be there. And that's so in our spiritual
life. When the Lord comes and speaks
the Word into our heart, we don't lose it. It's quite remarkable, really.
That Word remains. And we're thankful, therefore,
to be able to testify of what God has spoken to us. Speak the
Word only. And how humbling to think that
unworthy as we are, the almighty God comes to us where we are
in our time of need and speaks the word only and it enters into
our heart. And there it is. The word of
God, the word of God to direct us, the word of God to encourage
us, the word of God perhaps to correct us wherever we need.
God speaks. And so here was a centurion testifying
that he knew that God only had to speak the word, speak the
word only and my servant shall be healed. And that's so in our
spiritual life, when God comes and speaks the word only, our
soul is encouraged. Our soul is strengthened and
we have the evidence that we are one of the Lord's favoured
children. One of those whom he is mindful
of us. One of those who he hasn't passed
by. How humbling it is to realise
that we have the same God today. And Jesus spoke of this man. And when Jesus heard it, he marveled
and said to them that followed, Very I say unto you, I have not
found so great faith, no, not in Israel. Well, this centurion
was given faith to believe. God still today gives faith to
believe. What a wonderful thing it is.
In our lives, if God has given you and me faith to believe,
the Lord only has to speak the Word, only has to speak His Word
into our hearts, and what a blessing it will be and what a wonderful
evidence it is of divine life and God speaks always a very
suitable word God speaks words which come where
we are and you'll know and you'll be encouraged by it and you'll
be humbled by it to think that the Lord has not passed you by
and has come where you are indeed we can think of that wonderful
account of of Zacchaeus can't we because Zacchaeus he was a
tax collector a publican and he wanted to see Jesus Probably
out of curiosity, principally, and he went and climbed up into
a sycamore tree. But Jesus knew what he'd done
and he knew where he was. And when he came to Zacchaeus
in that tree, he stopped and he looked up and he spoke to
Zacchaeus. Well, my friends, how wonderful,
isn't it? You might think sometimes God
doesn't know where you are. He does. He knows exactly where you are. And on that occasion, of course,
it was a glorious deliverance for Zacchaeus. Today, salvation
has come to this house when God speaks to our souls. Today, when
salvation comes to our spiritual house, And surely it's a time
when we can rejoice and praise God that he's been mindful of
us and he's spoken to us. Sometimes the Lord comes in remarkable
ways and strange places, unlooked for sometimes. The Lord comes
in his time. The Lord comes in his way. And the Lord comes in such a
way that He shows very clearly that it emanates from Him. It's
not because of our righteousness, it's because of His love and
it's because of His mercy that He comes to us where we are and
speaks the Word only. Sometimes we might think, well,
I wasn't particularly thinking of anything religious, No, the
Lord knows. The Lord knows to show to us
it is His, and we use the phrase, it's a very lovely phrase, sovereign
grace. What it says before us is the
free unmerited favour of the King of Kings. And that's very
humbling, isn't it? To think that not a natural king,
But the King of Kings, the Sovereign Lord, Almighty God condescends
to come to us where we are and speaks the word only to our very
souls. It's an amazing favour. It's a wonderful privilege. and
to think that such a word is the evidence to us that we are
indeed born again by the Spirit of God. How humbling it is to think that
God should look upon us and come to us and speak to us, speak
the word only. Well, it's a wonderful truth,
isn't it? I was thinking on these words,
and I thought about the case in John's gospel, in the fourth
chapter, and that's the chapter that speaks about the woman at
the well, the woman of Samaria, and it's a wonderful account,
and Jesus came on that occasion, It's lovely to read, actually,
the very beginning of that fourth chapter. And we're told, and
he must needs go through Samaria. Yes. He had to go through Samaria
because he had to meet this woman. And as you read down the account,
you'll see that you might think, just by chance, This woman came
along, Jesus, just by chance, was wearied and sat at the well. But no, it was ordained by Almighty
God that this should occur. And therefore Jesus was able
to then ask her and speak to her. And what a wonderful thing
it is. Because they came with the woman
of Samaria and Jesus said unto her, Give me to drink. Give me to drink. Well, you may
have been there. You may have asked the Lord Jesus
that you might drink of the water of life. That means that the
Lord would speak into your heart, into your soul, the water of
life. You see, Jesus spoke these words
to this woman to demonstrate to her that there was natural
water, which she needed to live naturally, but more importantly,
there was spiritual water, which, if she partook of, would never
fail, would always be there, like a fountain ever springing
up. What a blessing it was then that
the Lord Jesus came and spoke to her and told her about the
water of life. And you know it had a wonderful
effect upon her because the Lord spoke and quizzed her about her
own life. He asked her how many husbands. He called her husband. The woman
said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast
well said, I have no husband. But thou hast had five husbands.
But him whom thou now hast is not thy husband, in that sense
thou truly. Now that was really an evidence
for that woman to realize that this was not an ordinary person.
So I perceive thou art a prophet. What a mercy when God speaks
to our hearts And we perceive. It's not the Word of man. It's
the Word of God. The Word of Almighty God. And that Jesus said, Woman, believe
Me. Well, that's a word for all of
us, isn't it? To believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The hour cometh
when ye shall neither in this mountain nor at Jerusalem worship
the Father, Ye worship ye know not what we know. What we worship
for salvation is of the Jews. The hour cometh now is when the
true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.
For the Father seeketh such to worship him. Well again, to ponder
those things and to think of the Lord has sought us, sought
you and me, sought us, put in our hearts, the desire, the Lord
will speak his word into our hearts. You see, it's wonderful
to recognize this is the work of the Holy Spirit of God. You
see, everything emanates from God. It's not like you and me
suddenly thought, oh, that's a good idea, I'll do that. It's
the Spirit of God which enters in and causes us, causes us,
to seek the Lord causes us to pray to God that he will speak
his word. And the reason is, quite simply,
that because of that, when the Lord does speak his word into
our hearts and we realise it is God speaking, we acknowledge
this is God. He has heard and answered my
prayer. It's not that which I did, God
gave me. the desire. God gave me the concern
to pray to God. What a mercy, what a blessing.
Well, my friends, we have this very beautiful description really
in this fourth chapter of John, but God hasn't changed. And he
still works his great and wonderful work today. And as you read through
this chapter, it's worth reading through because this woman, she
said, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ, when
he has come, he will tell us all things Jesus said unto her,
I that speak unto thee am he. Well, what a great statement
that was. What a wonderful thing it is when the Lord reveals himself
to you and me, perhaps in that way. And the disciples were surprised
that Jesus was speaking to a woman, which wasn't something which
was done in those days, especially a Samaritan. And the woman, she
left her water pot. She forgot what she was doing.
She went back to the place where she lived, to the city, and she
said, Come, see a man which told me all things that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? She was confirmed to believe
that this was the great and glorious Messiah. that they'd been looking
forward to. Now he'd revealed himself to
her. How wonderful it is to realise
that this same almighty God comes and reveals himself still to
his people today and still comes and reveals himself unto us. Towards the end of this Fourth
chapter in John, we have the case of, again, a man who came
to Jesus and who had a son who was at the point of death. And
Jesus said unto him, except ye see signs and wonders, ye will
not believe. Well, often that's what we want,
something more radical, something more specific, something more
wonderful. Now God does it so that he gets
the honour and glory. And Jesus said to him, Go thy
way, thy son liveth. And the man marvelled at the
word that Jesus had spoken unto him. and went his way. The Lord
just spoke the word. And when the man came home, so
the father knew that it were, he inquired of them the hour
when he began to amend. And they said unto him, yesterday
at the seventh hour, the fever left him. So the father knew
that it was the same hour in which Jesus said, when Jesus
spoke, Unto him thy son liveth, and himself believed, and his
house. It's a wonderful evidence for
us, isn't it? When God speaks to our soul, it's the evidence
that God is gracious, God is mindful of us. And again, let
me just tell you again, don't despise the day of small things. You see, sometimes we may look
for great things and very often, you know, we analyse things wrongly. Because a little that a righteous
man hath is better than the treasures of many wicked. It's not the
quantity, it's the quality. And the quality is the Word from
God. Yes, the Word from God. You see,
the Lord gives that which brings honour and glory to Him. You
won't be able to go around boasting of the wonderful revelation of
vision you've had. No, you'll be humbled to think
that Almighty God has spoken His Word into your heart, which
gives the evidence of divine life. Yes, the work of the Spirit
of God and what's occurred. It's really wonderful if you
try and analyze it. First of all, he's given us faith
to believe. He's given us faith. He gives us ability to believe
through that faith. And it's wonderful. Again, it's
all the gift of God. you see these aren't things that
you and I can produce ourselves and pat ourselves on the back
and think well I'm a great Christian really and I've had these wonderful
revelations the Lord will keep you like this person this centurion
was to realize you're not worthy of any notice and yet how wonderful
it is to rejoice in what God has done. And you know these
great little things you might say, they lead you on. They lead you on. There is a
beginning. And it's a great blessing when
in our lives we have the evidence that God has begun His work in
our soul. by speaking His Word. What a mercy! What a blessing! How many people never know of
this great favour? And we need sometimes to look
at ourselves and perhaps think in the lines of the hymn writer,
what was there in me that could merit esteem or give my Creator
delight? For even so, Father, we ever
must sing it seemed good in thy sight good for God to
look upon us one who had loved indeed with an everlasting love
Lord Jesus again when he was on the earth and again just referring
to the Gospel of John and the 15th chapter we have some a very
wonderful statement when the Lord says He was speaking, of
course, to his disciples, and he says, I have not chosen you,
but you have chosen me. So I have you have not chosen
me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should
go and bring forth fruit. and that your fruit should remain.
But whatsoever you should ask of the Father in my name, he
may give it to you. Don't forget that. It's very
clear. Ye have not chosen me. Left to
ourselves, we would never choose God. What a blessing if he's
put into our heart that desire to seek for his blessing, that
the Lord would speak to our soul, speak the word only. Speak the
word only. Simple, wasn't it? My friends,
the gospel is still simple. And the great blessing is for
God to speak the word only to you and to me. What a mercy then. We have this testimony of this
man, this man blessed by God, and we're thankful for that.
And Jesus, speaking about the centurion, he said, 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
that selfsame hour. You can depend upon the words
of God. You can depend upon the truth
of God. And you can depend upon that which he speaks into your
heart. It's not the word of man. And it's not the word of the
devil. Because the devil never speaks a word that comes where
we are. The devil always speaks things
which turn us away from God. My friends, what a mercy if the
Lord comes and speaks to our heart like he did here. He said, speak the word only.
and the Lord came and spoke clearly and this person was healed yes
the Lord does heal you may have a need from that perspective
as well you may perhaps feel that you need to be healed you
need to be delivered of all your sin you need to have the evidence
that your sins are forever taken away and to perhaps enter into
the words that Isaiah spoke in that first chapter of Isaiah. They're lovely, glorious words
which are recorded for our encouragement and for our direction. And he
tells us in that chapter, he says, though your sins be as
scarlet, they shall be white as snow, no doubt red like crimson,
They shall be as wool. Yes, my friends, a complete deliverance. And it's the work of God. He
heals. He speaks the Word. And as He
speaks the Word, we are cleansed. Yes. What a mercy then to have
a God who deals with us therefore in love to our souls. And He begins, He says, come
now. Come now. and let us reason together. Isn't
it humbling to think that God invites us sometimes to come
to Him, come now, and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow, they shall be red like crimson,
they shall be as warm, if you be willing and obedient. you
shall eat the good of the land, but if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be devoured with a sword, for the mouth of the Lord hath
spoken it. The word of the Lord. Let us
not pass over what the Lord speaks, and in these A few simple verses
in this first chapter of Isaiah. Remember, if you be willing and
obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. That means to come
to our God as we are, not bringing any baggage with us, just as
we are, confessing our sins. If we confess our sin, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. That's the word of the Lord.
And if the Lord speaks that word into our hearts, we have the
wonderful evidence that we are redeemed. And how are we redeemed?
Redeemed with the precious blood of Christ. You see, that puts
everything into a right perspective. What does it do? It makes us
very low in ourselves and raises up Christ. as a great and glorious
Saviour. So we see in Him all that we
need. He is to us then the one thing
needful. I without Him perish must. Well, what a mercy it is if we
have the evidence that God can just speak the Word and have
the confidence and the faith to believe just like this centurion
said, but speak the word only. No great demonstration of any
great vision, but just the word spoken into our hearts. And as I've said, if that word
is spoken and it's engraved as it were with an iron pen in the
rock, you won't forget it. You'll bless God for it. You
will go on your way rejoicing and praising God that you have
evidences of it and the testimony of God's saints recorded in the
word of God so many times. Read through the scriptures and
see how the Lord spoke the word and it was done. Where the word
of the Lord is, there is power. where the Word of the Lord is,
there is power. And it's not man's power, it's God's power. Power from on high. And how very
humbling to think that that great God speaks His Word with power
into our hearts and gives us faith to believe, therefore,
that it is well with our soul. And we have a great and glorious
Saviour who has come into this sinful world to pay the price
for our sin and to take us at last at home to be with Him in
glory. Well, 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.
He had a confidence in his God. And may you and I have a confidence
in our God May we pray in faith, nothing wavering, believing the
Lord will appear. Amen.