Grandfathers can say whatever
they feel like saying. A few things I want us to learn
from this passage tonight. Number one is the blessedness
of coming to Christ. How that it's not of him that
willeth or him that runneth. It's not of our will that we
come to Christ. It's a blessed, blessed gift,
power of God to bring a person to the Lord Jesus Christ, like
this centurion. And secondly, it's a great blessing
in having a burden for others, just like this centurion had
a burden for his servant. A great blessing. The Lord will
bless that. It gives you a burden to go to
the Lord for someone. He'll bless that. Whatever he
does with that person, he'll bless you. The Lord said that
to the centurion. According to your faith, so be
it unto you. He was blessed just coming in
an audience with the Lord. And another thing I want us to
learn is that faith, that is, hoping in His mercy, is not presumption. The Lord commends it. In fact, He upbraids us for not
believing Him more. For not believing that He's more
willing. And if you'll notice, in both these
verses, or both of these stories, the leper said, Lord, if You
will, He said, I will. Centurions, would You come? He
said, I will. He's willing. He sure is able. We don't half believe our God
like we ought to. The amazing thing, as it was
said, that someone would come to Christ, that you or I would
come to Christ. Look how this chapter begins.
Chapter 8, verse 1 says, He came down from the mountain and great
multitudes followed Him. Thousands of people. And most
of them were unsaved. Most of them were lost. And look at the last verse in
this chapter. Do you remember the story of
the swine? Well, it says the whole city
came out to meet him and they asked him to leave. They asked
him to leave. Most people then and now don't
want anything to do with it. And if you do, you're greatly
blessed. God hath blessed you, as I quoted,
blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach
unto thee, that he may dwell in his courts. And between these
stories, the thousands that followed him for their loaves and fishes
and the miracles and the others who asked him to leave, in between
these stories there are certain individuals that our Lord dealt
with. There's a leper, there's a centurion,
a Roman soldier of all people. a mother-in-law, a sick Peter's
mother-in-law. And that underscores the fact
to me that the Lord Jesus Christ came to this earth to save certain
individuals. That's how this whole Gospel
of Matthew begins. Call His name Jesus. He shall
save His people from their sin. He wasn't trying to save everyone,
but He came to seek and to save His people. given to him by the
Father. And he did. He saved every one
of them. He brought them to himself. Every one of them. He went and
found them. This leper and this centurion, if we can take our
place with these who came to Christ, we can believe with the
utmost assurance that the Lord Jesus Christ came all the way
to this earth to save us. If we can take our place with
this leper, And this centurion, the Lord came to save us. That's
not presumption. That's believing Him. That's
faith. Verse 5. When Jesus was entered into Capernaum,
it came unto Him a certain centurion beseeching Him. Capernaum. Stop
right there. That way you can turn to Matthew
11. Go over there to Matthew 11.
Capernaum was a blessed place, a blessed city. Capernaum. I
want you to listen to what all the Lord did in Capernaum. His
Sermon on the Mount was there. The leper that He saved was there. This centurion that He dealt
with was saved. The woman with the issue of blood.
Jairus' daughter. The man with the withered hand.
The blind and dumb demoniac was healed there. And everything
our Lord said in John 6 about the bread of life, He said that
at Capernaum. How blessed Capernaum was. How
blessed is Rocky Mount, Virginia. More than Capernaum. We've heard
all of that and more, haven't we? We were talking a while ago
about what all we have looked at in the Lord's Word. And yet,
look what he says to Capernaum in chapter 11, verse 23. He says,
Thou Capernaum which are exalted unto heaven. That means Christ
came. Son of God came to Capernaum. Has he come here? Yes, he has. Exalted to heaven. Yet, he says,
shall be brought down to hell. If the mighty works which have
been done in thee had been done in Sodom, it would have remained
unto this day. Capernaum is no more. That is,
there's no gospel there anymore. And there will be a day when
there's none here. How blessed, though, we have been, haven't
we? My, my. Mercy for some, but judgment
for most. That's why I say how blessed
we are. We don't realize it. We really
don't. You take it for granted like anything good, you keep
getting it. You keep good food, you keep
eating it and eating it, and before long, it's just like regular
fare and you take it for granted. Well, anyway, in Capernaum he
came, and there came unto him a centurion beseeching him. In Luke 7 is the same account,
yet a few more words. In Luke 7, as is often said,
a certain centurion. A certain centurion. Do you know
how many centurions there were in the Roman army? A centurion
is an officer. I don't know what rank, but quite
high. An officer in the Roman army. Do you know how many there
were? There were legions and legions of Roman soldiers and
there were many thousands of centurions. Well, here this certain
centurion came to the Lord. He was a Gentile. A Roman soldier. a Gentile, a Roman soldier. Now, I've known a few lifers,
that is, soldiers who were lifers. Haven't you? Some of you men
that were in the army. John and John and John. All three of you Johns were in
the service. And you knew some men that had
been there you know, colonels and what have you, lifers they
called them, right? That was their life. Were they
meek, gentle, kind, sweet, loving fellows? Not. They were the opposite. To live
in the armed forces as your life is a hard occupation. It's a hard atmosphere and you've
got to be a hard man to live in it. Roman soldiers were known
for their brutality. Brutality. Wicked. They were on the take. They were
often quite rich. That makes this man a marvelous
trophy of the Lord's saving grace, doesn't it? That he would come
to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord has a people out of
all classes. The Lord has a people. He told
Timothy to pray for kings all in authority. He said, for God
will have all men to be saved. That means that God will have
a people out of every vocation, every tribe, kindred, tongue,
nation, out of all types, high and low, to show His marvelous
saving grace. A certain centurion came to Christ
beseeching Him. Now, Roman soldiers didn't beg
anybody for anything, ever. It was so beneath them to come
to somebody and beseech, that is, plead with them. He told
us, he said, when I say jump, they jump. When I say go, they
go. My servant, this person, I say
come, they come. That's the authority this man
had. Yet, something had happened to this man. except you be born
again, you'll not see the King of Heaven. This man was born
of God. How do you know? The first thing,
he broke Him. The Lord broke Him. The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And the Lord, someone
said, no matter how great a man you are, you're going to have
to be a beggar when you approach the Lord Jesus Christ. So this
great Roman centurion, the Lord broke his heart showed him who,
you know how, look at Luke 7. This is how the Lord deals with
everyone he saves. The same way he did that, we
looked at that leper, the same way he does with the centurion.
This man believed who Christ was. He saw his need of Christ. That Christ was the sovereign
Lord of the universe. He's the King of kings and Lord
of lords. He saw that he himself was nothing, that Christ is all,
and he came to him as such. He came to him as a humble beggar,
beseeching the Lord. The Spirit of the Lord has to
teach a man that. And how does that happen? Luke
7 says in verse 2, A certain centurion's servant who was dear
unto him was sick and ready to die, and when he heard of Jesus,
he sent unto him. Faith cometh by hearing. Our Lord said, My sheep hear
My voice. That's how. And He came. He came. He said, All that the
Father giveth me shall come to me. Ask Him. Seek Him. Knock Him. So He came. He came
to the Lord Jesus Christ. It was great mercy, like I said,
it's great mercy if you and I see our need of Christ and come to
Him. We would not come. Our Lord said
in John 5, you will not come unto Me that you might have life.
And then He said it twice in John 6, He said no man can come
unto Me except the Father which hath sent Me draw them. And the Lord in mercy and grace
got this old hardened Roman soldier, broke his heart, saw his sinfulness,
saw Christ as the Lord of glory, his need of Christ, and He drew
him with cords of love. And here this powerful man came
as a humble child to the Lord Jesus, to a Jewish rabbi. He's
an enemy. Rome was an enemy. Jews hated
Romans. They were under their dominion.
They were in bondage to the Romans. They hated these soldiers. It
would be like Nazi occupation of this country. It would be
like this country would be under Nazi occupation. Like France
and all those countries that were under Nazi rule. They hated
those men walking down their streets. And if those men wanted
something, they could take it. Look back again at Luke 7. I meant to show you this. Oh,
what mercy, what grace, what power it takes to turn a man
like this into a child of God. Look at this in Luke 4 and 5. Verse 3, He sent unto the Lord
elders of the Jews, beseeching Him that He would come and heal
His servant. And they came, these elders,
these Jewish elders, these rabbis came to Christ for this man. They loved Him. He loved them.
and besought the Lord, saying that this man, this Roman soldier,
is worthy for whom he should do this. He loves our nation.
He's built us a synagogue. This man loves our nation. He's
built us a church house. He's worthy. Would you come and
heal this man's servant? Psalm 122 says, Pray for the
peace of Jerusalem. Those that love thee will prosper. They shall prosper that love
thee. Our Lord is surely talking about
the new Jerusalem, His church. He says they shall prosper that
love her. Those that love His people, Christ
loves. Those that do for His people,
Christ will do for. Christ gave Himself for His church. God to shed His blood for His
church. And he says, you do the same
and I'll do it for you, like this man. I'll do it for you.
You give yourselves for her and he'll love you and hear you and
grant your desires. Well, go back to Matthew 8. So
this man was a great object of the Lord's saving grace. That
he came to the Lord was a great miracle. But no more a miracle
than me. How about you? It's really as much or more a
miracle to take a self-righteous religious person, like Saul of
Tarsus, and bring them down and bring them humbly to the feet
of the Lord Jesus Christ, let alone a gutter dweller. Well,
first the leper seeks mercy for himself. The leper seeks mercy
for himself. And as we said Sunday, we've
got to come like that leper. Lord, it's if Thou wilt. It's Your will. Everything is
according to Your will. If You save me or damn me, it's
Your will. But You can. You're able. And
the one thing I need is to be clean. We've got to come like
that leper for ourselves. No one can come for us. We have
to come for ourselves. Ask ourselves. Seek for ourselves. Knock for ourselves. Call upon
the name of the Lord for ourselves. And the blessed promise here
is, if you come and you ask, whosoever, he says, I will. I loved how quickly the Lord
said that. He said, if you will, thou canst
make me clean. I reached out and touched him.
That old leprous, stinky, dying fellow. Nobody wanted to get
near him, but the Lord laid His blessed hand on him. He said,
I will. Be clean. One man in the midst of that
multitude. And then this centurion, though,
he comes on behalf of someone else. Now, do you see the progression
here? You see that? If you come and
get mercy from the Lord, you know what you'll want? You'll
want mercy for others. Someone once said that someone who hears the Gospels
is like one beggar telling another beggar where he got food. The woman at the well. And this
story is of all of them. Everyone the Lord dealt with.
The woman at the well. After the Lord revealed Himself
to her, He says, she dropped her water pot. And what did she
do? She ran home. Come see a man. This is Him.
This is Him. Come see a man. The Lord has
mercy upon you. You'll want mercy for others.
God grant it to be more so. And this certain centurion said
to the Lord in verse 6, Lord, see that? That's how you approach. the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, you call Me, Lord and
Master, and you say, well, so I am. That's why we're so particular
about how we refer to the Lord. Because that's who He is. That
gives Him glory, all the glory and the honor. That's how you
address a sovereign. If you come into the presence
of a king, what do you call him? King. King. He said, Lord, my
servant, life at home, sick of the palsy, grievously tormented. Now here's further proof that
the Lord did a great work for this man. He has a great desire. He has a great love for his servants. You know how many servants Roman
soldiers had? They could have as many as they
would like. depending on how many men they
commanded or how large a rule that they had, they could have
as many as they liked. And this man had a tender affection for
and a great concern for one lowly servant, one insignificant lowly
servant who had the palsy. In the past, he would have said,
get rid of him, get me someone else, wouldn't he? Not now. He
has a love for this man. He has a concern for this man.
well-being. That's further proof that the
Lord has done a work of grace in this man's heart. You reckon the Lord will hear
a man who has great concern for servants? You reckon the Lord will hear
a man who will deal well with a man who wants the salvation,
the healing of a lowly servant? Does that sound familiar? He who thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but took upon himself the form of a servant,
made himself with no reputation, took upon himself the form of
a servant, made in the likeness of sinful play. And because he
did that, in obedience to the cross, because he did that, God
hath given him a name which is above every name. Yes, God loves
those who love servants, those who become servants. God's going
to hear this man. In fact, the kingdom of God is
made up of such servants. The lowly, the nobodies, the
nothings. Think about the men and women
in this congregation. There are no doctors and lawyers.
Not that the Lord doesn't have doctors and lawyers. There's
a couple of them in the church in Lexington. A couple of doctors.
I don't know of any lawyers. Well, he saves preachers so he
can save loggers. But this little congregation
made up of servants, package deliverers, truck drivers,
gas stations, people that pump gas or people that deliver gas,
people that take care of sick people. Servants. Servants. That's who his kingdom is made
up of. The Lord loves servants. What
about this servant? This is a picture of anybody
that's lost. This man, this centurion, had
a great desire for this servant of his that was home, sick of
the palsy, near death, Luke said, that the Lord would come and
heal him. And we've got people just like this servant that we
need the Lord to speak the Word, to do something for them. Do
you? This servant, it says he was
lying at home. He could not come. I already
quoted that. Our Lord said, no man can come
unto Him. Not to say that he would have
if he could have. Do you know anybody that's at
home right now? You know anybody that's in their
home right now? You've got a son, you've got a daughter, you've
got somebody you love that's at home right now and has no
desire for the gospel whatsoever? They ought to be here seeking
the Lord, but they're not, or somewhere seeking the Lord. You
know anybody like that? My servant life at home says
he's sick of the palsy. He can't move. He can't walk
well. He doesn't have anything. He's dead. That's what Luke said. He says, near death. Maybe the
servant didn't know it. But this centurion knew it. He's
about to die. Please. Grievously tormented. Grievously
tormented. Miserable. He doesn't know what
the problem is. Anybody got anybody like that?
Well, as we read, the centurion sent the elders. The elders. to the Lord to ask
Him on His behalf. And then he sent some others
to the Lord. It sounds like he never even
faced Him. That he sent Word through other people. And here's
what he said. He did this because he said in
verse 8, Lord, I am not worthy that Thou shouldest come under
my roof, but You speak the Word only and my servant shall be
healed. I'm not worthy. Would you turn to Matthew 10
with me? This is wonderful. Matthew chapter 10. This man
said, I'm not worthy. The leper came. A leper. He said,
I need to be clean. This man came and said, I'm not
worthy. That's how you approach the Lord
of glory. He delights in that. That's the fear of the Lord,
you see. This man had a low opinion of
himself and a high opinion of Christ. That's faith. That's understanding. He said,
I'm not worthy. And Luke's gospel, he says, don't
trouble yourself. Don't put yourself into such
trouble to come to my lowly house. I'm not worth the trouble, is
what he's saying. But I sure am desperate. So I'm
sending somebody to ask you on my behalf. Would you please?
In Matthew chapter 10, look at this. He sent out his disciples.
This is good for us, Gabe, us going out to preach the gospel.
He sent them out in verse 11. It says, "...whatever city or
town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and stay there."
Go there and you abide right there. Whoever is worthy. Now,
we know there is none worthy. There is no man or woman worthy
in themselves. We know that, don't we? Christ
is the only one worthy. But what is he saying here? He
said, what makes a person worthy of mercy? Mercy is not getting what you
deserve. Who is merciful? The unworthy,
the undeserving. What makes a person worthy is
that they know they're unworthy. What makes a person worthy to
hear this glorious gospel is they've got to be poor. He said
the poor have the gospel preached unto them. Blessed are the poor
in spirit. That's the first thing our Lord
said. The poor in spirit. Oh Lord, you don't want me. You
don't need me. But I'm coming. Poor. I'm unworthy. Look at this. Read
on. When you come into that house,
When you find an unworthy sinner, that makes him worthy. When you
find a poor sinner, a needy sinner, when you come into that house,
you stay there and you salute it. You salute it. And you say,
if that house be worthy, let your peace come upon it. The
Son of Peace, the Prince of Peace is going to dwell in that house.
Find the place where there's an unworthy sinner, and that's
where the Lord Jesus Christ will dwell. That's not presumption. That's
faith. Oh, the Lord doesn't need me.
No, He doesn't. But that's who He came for. That's
who He came for. Who in here is worthy? Who in here is worthy? Nobody? Peace, grace, and peace
be unto you from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. God
loves you. And Christ died for you. I can say that on the authority
of God's Word. Yes, I can. Grace. So feeling unworthy, he
sends, listen to this man, he sends these elders, these religious
leaders, and he thinks, the Lord will listen to these men. I'm
a nothing, I'm a nobody. Let them go and plead my case
for me. What man in here likes to lead
in public prayer? Anybody? Last Sunday, we didn't have a
reader, and so I read and I asked somebody to read. I started to
ask for a volunteer, but I thought, I won't get one. I started to
ask, who will lead us in prayer? And I thought, nobody's going
to raise their hand. I wouldn't. And such is the disposition,
Brother Gabe, that now it's on you nearly every time to pray. So be it. So be it. That's our
position. But nobody wants to do that. Nobody wants to go to the Lord
and call on Him. That is, feels worthy to call
upon the Lord to lead in prayer. This man asked the elders, would
you go plead for me? That's exactly what he did. Would
you plead for me? Maybe he'll hear you. I'm not
worth hearing. I'm an old Roman soldier. I've
persecuted God's people. Maybe he'll hear you. He won't
hear me. That's not so, sinner. That's not so, Mr. Centurion.
He'll hear every broken hearted sinner. He'll hear you. You can
come boldly to the throne of grace to find help in time of
need. You can come. Every single one can come. If
you're unworthy, come. And he'll hear you. He'll hear
you. Nevertheless, he sends these men. And look at what he said
in our fifth. He said, Lord, I'm not worthy.
If you just speak the Word, just speak the Word, and my servant
shall be healed. You're sovereign. Lord, you're
the sovereign Lord. And he said, because I know I'm
a man under authority. I have soldiers. And say to this
man, go. And he'd go. I say unto this man, come, and
he cometh. To my servant, do this, and he doeth it. He doeth
it. Now, this man knew more about
God than the average seminary professor, than the average preacher
and the average pulpit did. This Roman soldier who never
had any religious training, he knew God. He knew that God has
the will, and it's his will that will be done. But God is sovereign.
Man is not. He said, I know because I'm just
a man. If I say go, they go, or they'll
die. They come when I say come. How
much more of the Lord of Glory? This man knew Him. He knew who
He was. You can tell if somebody knows
the Lord Jesus Christ or not how they refer to Him. God wants
to. That's not the God of the Bible.
Jesus, if you will, that's not the Jesus Christ. You don't know
Him. You don't know Him. And this
man knew the sovereign Lord, and he acknowledged Him. And
he said to him, he said this, he said, all you've got to do
is say the Word. Just speak the Word. It's your
will, it's your power, it's your Word. This is how he's going
to be healed. Your Word. And anybody that's
experienced the power of God, whom God has spoken to, through
the Word. They know what the power of God
is. The gospel is the power of God from the salvation of everyone
that believes in it. The Jew first and the Gentile. Why do we preach the Word? Why
is that all we do? Because that's what saved us,
isn't it? That's what we heard. That's what we know God uses. It's the power of God. The Word.
Just speak the Word. And my servant shall be healed.
You know, that's my hope. That's
my hope, not only for myself and salvation. He speaks the
word. He says, clean, and I'm clean. Like he said to the disciples
when he was washing their feet. He said, Peter said, wash me
all over. He says, you're clean. Not your feet. You are clean.
You're clean through the water. The Word I spoke to you. You're
playing because I said so. Because I said so. Like that
woman caught in the act. They said, what do you say? He
said, justify. You can't do that. I just did. And you can't say anything about
it. Oh, I love that. I love that. You speak the Word. You speak
the Word and it will be done. My servant will be healed. Lord,
just speak the Word. That's my hope in preaching.
Lord, if you'll speak the Word, I'm going to say a bunch of comments.
I'm going to say, you know, go through my little outline, all
my little notes, and it will avail nothing. But if you speak
the Word, just one Word, you can pass from death unto life,
from darkness to light. That's right. I've seen it happen. I've had it happen to me. Just
speak the Word. And that rebel will be healed.
He'll be saved. He'll be brought. That rebel
will come. That young lady who doesn't know whether she's coming
or going, she'll start coming. Lord, just
speak the Word. People, we've got some in here
that we need. earnest burden for him. He didn't.
But listen to this story, would you? This man came to the Lord
earnestly beseeching Him. He said, Lord, beseeching means just begging
Him. Lord, please, all You've got to do is speak the Word.
Speak the Word. What did the Lord say? I will. I will come
and heal him. I will. And I said in the outset
of this message, that we need to believe the Lord more. That
it's not presumption to believe the Lord. I think it's unbelief
not to. Are you with me? There were two preachers one
time. I forget their names. Old preachers. It may have been
Henry Laws. I forget which one it was. They were sitting and
talking. Well, one of them came in to
talk to his dear brother and he said, did you hear the news,
Brother So-and-so? The Lord saved, oh, what's his name? Somebody they knew, a notorious
sinner. He said, the Lord saved him through the preaching of
the Word. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, he
said, it is, brother, it's wonderful. And the one brother said, I'll
never despair of the Lord saving anybody since He saved old so-and-so. And the other preacher said,
brother, I haven't despaired of the Lord saving anybody since
He saved me. It's not presumption. It's faith. What if it's not His will? Well, what I find mostly is it
is His will. I'm trying to convince myself
of this. Both these messages I was struck with. He said, Lord,
if He will. He said, I will. The centurion said, would you
come? He said, I will. I will come and heal him. But what? I hear the old writers
say, we limit God. We limit God. God can't be limited. You know what I mean? You can't
tie His hands. You can't keep Him from doing anything. But
what it is, we are limited in our thoughts of Him. Scripture
says, as the heavens are higher above the earth, so are my thoughts
and your thoughts, my ways and your ways. What he's talking
about is his mercy. His great grace. The Lord taketh
pleasure in them that fear Him, and them that hope in His mercy.
And I learned recently that that means not just hoping for yourself,
but for somebody else. In fact, that's what the Lord
loves more than anything. You go to Him for somebody else,
He loves that. Why do I know? Because that's
what He did. His whole life. His whole life was spent for
other people. Hanging on the cross, he said,
Father, forgive them. He did. Five thousand people. No goods. Nothing. Hopeless people. People that had no hope whatsoever
for. Oh, you can't save that Saul
of Tarsus. No way. He's the worst of the worst.
Watch me. I will. And I'll just tell you
what. You can call this presumption
if you will, but I just expect the Lord to save some of these
people that we're concerned about. I just expect that He's going
to come and He's going to heal them. And we're going to rejoice. Do you reckon? We wouldn't still be in existence
if that weren't so. This church wouldn't still be
here if it wasn't so. That's the only purpose for this
church, not for us to Not to come and just, you know, carry
on, carry on, but it's as a city set on a hill, a gospel to go
at to lost sinners. Could the Lord speak the word
right now? That servant was at home. Is the Lord's arm too short?
Could the Lord speak a word right now to one of these that we're
concerned about sitting in their home right now? Could the Lord
speak that word? Could He? Why, most certainly. He did it to me. I remember distinctly
working on the railroad. Now understand, the Lord's Word
is His power. That's what he uses, not an experience.
It's not something that happens to him, but it's his Word that
he uses like the seed plants the seed. And when that Word
goes out, he said it would not return void. And we've had children
who have grown up here and heard the Word and then leave. I did. Well, did that Word, was
it void? Not necessarily. The seed may
have been planted. We don't know. And in the fullness
of time, it happened to me. I distinctly remember the Word
coming to my heart where the Lord, when He hung on that cross,
that very Word where He said, Father, forgive Him. He knows
not what He does. And that struck me like a in
my heart. And here I am. Can they do that? You just speak the Word. My servants
at home, would you speak the Word? I will. I will. I love that. Let's start believing the Lord
a little more, shall we? All of us. Trust Him more. Looking forward what he's about
to do. You know, if the Lord's coming,
there's going to be some healing going on. The Gospel's coming
to Kingsport. I expect there'll be some healing.
I expect so. It sounds like you don't expect. Faith is believing who He is. It's not you. It's not you. It's Him. How merciful is He? A lot more than you even know,
than we even know. How gracious is He? How much
does He delight to show mercy? What lengths will He go through
to save? Oh, my, from heaven to earth, even to the cross. So I look forward to see some
people coming to these waters to be troubled like the pool
of Bethesda. Well, look at verse 10. I'll
close. When the Lord heard this, He marveled. One of the only
times He ever marveled at anything. The Lord didn't marvel at one
single thing on planet earth. Not the most beautiful buildings. Not the greatest of people. He
stood before the most powerful men on earth. He despised them. He didn't marvel at anything
or anyone, but one thing He said He marveled at. This man's faith. Well, that's our minute. How many times did he say to
his disciples, if you had that much faith, just that much. And
this man did. He said, you say the word and
it'll happen. He said, I will. He trusted him. He believed him.
He marveled at this faith. Oh, my Lord, give me this marvelous
faith. He said, I haven't found so great
faith. No, they're not in Israel. And I say unto you, verse 11,
he said that many shall come from the east and west and shall
sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
And that deserves a message all by itself. But you think about
that. We were talking the other day
about this, how the men and I were talking about we'll know even as we've been
known and walk into glory and Abraham say, well, hello, Stan. Lord Moses, I gave." They are all equal in the Kingdom
of Heaven. They are all equal. They are
all sinners saved by grace, and they all know each other in the
Kingdom of Heaven. My, my. But the children of the
Kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness. This is something
of a clue to me about whether or not there will be a great
outpouring of the Jews being saved. Do you see that in that? I don't see it. There may be
some. The Lord has a people, but He
says the children of the kingdom cast out. Weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Why me, Lord, as a Gentile? Jesus said unto the centurion,
Go thy way as thou hast believed, so it be done unto thee. He believed
the Lord was sovereign. He believed the Lord was merciful.
He believed the Lord was willing, and it was done unto him. The
Lord had great mercy on him. He confirmed his faith. He gave him more assurance than
when he came. He had more faith than I did
when he came. Now, Kelly, there's nothing he
won't believe the Lord will do. And the Lord healed his servant.
From that moment. That moment. As quoted, the Lord
taketh pleasure in them that fear Him and them that hope in
His mercy, not only for themselves, but for others. Because that's
our merciful Lord. He's full of mercy. Gracious
and full of mercy. Stand with me. Our Lord, oh my, give us faith. Give us faith. Thou art God,
beside Thee there is none else. Merciful, gracious, loving, kind,
long-suffering, willing, able. Oh, Lord, let us believe You.
Let us trust You. Let us be more importunate. Let
us be more diligent in prayer. Pray without ceasing. Give us
a burden, Lord, for our own and for others. Give us a burden.
We know this is what You do Have purpose to save some and bring
some. You give a burden to the preacher
and people alike. Give a burden and let it not
ease up. For there are many, there are
many who need you. Give us a burden. Here and everywhere
your gospel goes, the people in Kingsport, give them a burden,
Lord. Call out your sheep there. I believe there are, perhaps
like Corinth, many, much people in that city. And here, Lord,
surely You're not through with us. We ask that You would be
pleased to call out sheep. Use the radio. Use word of mouth. Make us witnesses. Let us go
and tell what great things the Lord has done for us. Give us
courage. Forgive us our cowardice. Give us Your Holy Spirit. Give
us Your Word. Give us wisdom, the wisdom of
Solomon, dear Lord, in dealing with people. And like Jude says,
some make a difference, pulling, saving by fear. Lord, grant it. Grant it. Use your gospel, we
pray, for thy glory and honor and for the salvation of your
people. It's in Christ's name we ask and give thanks. Amen.
You're dismissed.