We spent four months in Luke
chapter six and we may circle back there at some point and
pick up a few points from time to time and we'll be utilizing
the scriptures of wisdom and grace that were brought to our
attention in previous studies. And since this is kind of the
beginning of a new year and we launch into the deep on the chapter
here before us and in view of all that's Transpiring around
the world. I just thought it would be good
to remember a few key spiritual immutable facts that We should
always keep in mind and number one that God the Father God the
Son and God the Holy Spirit are now is always solely and completely
engaged in the redemption of the church and the dispensation
of time as we know it and as we understand it. And God has
been clear in declaring his purpose and all the events and occurrences
must be viewed and understood within the scope of that purpose. And with that As Norman always
says, keep your fingers here in Luke chapter seven and turn
over to Ephesians chapter one as that scope and purpose is
defined for us. And I just hope that we always
keep that in mind as we, in the perspective that we always see
things. In Ephesians chapter one, starting in verse nine,
having made known unto us the mystery of his will, made known
to us. according to His good pleasure,
which He hath purposed in Himself. And here it is, that in the dispensation
of the fullness of time, He might gather together in one all things
in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth,
even in Him, in whom also we have obtained an inheritance,
being predestinated according to the purpose of Him, who worketh
all things after the counsel of His own will, that we should
be to the praise of His glory, who first trusted in Christ.
And the dispensation of the fullness of time is relative to our nature
and view, but in the view of the I am that we discussed in
chapter six, the eternal view, all things are now with Him that
with whom we have to do. And the purpose of God determines
that all the church will be saved even in the midst of turbulent
times as we see them now. And His purpose will prevail
and nothing shall thwart Him and nothing shall overcome Him. And as we look through the Scriptures,
you know, in 2 Peter chapter 2, It's written, Beloved, be not
ignorant of this one thing, that one day with the Lord is as a
thousand years, and a thousand years is one day. With Him the
church is ever in view, and the Lord is not slack concerning
His promise to us. That's to the church, not to
us. as universally used in some cases
by others erroneously, but he's not slack concerning his promise.
As some men count slackness, but as longsuffering to usward,
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. All the church That's all the
church. That promise is made and all
the church will come to repentance. All the church will come to turn
to Him. And so we come to chapter 7 with
those things in mind. The Lord's purpose is paramount. We're going to be involved today
in the first 10 verses of chapter 7 of Luke. And let's just read through those
real quick. Now when he had ended all his
sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum. And a certain centurion servant
who was dear unto him was sick and ready to die. And when he
heard of Jesus, He sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching
him that he would come and heal his servant. And when they came
to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying that he was worthy for
whom he should do this. For he loveth our nation, and
he hath built us a synagogue. And then Jesus went with them.
And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent
friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself, for
I'm not worthy that thou should enter under my roof. Wherefore,
neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee, but say in
a word, and my servant shall be healed. For I also am a man
set under authority, having under me soldiers. And I say unto one,
go, and he goeth. And to another, come, and he
cometh. And to my servant, do this, and he doeth it. And when
Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him and turned him
about. and said unto the people that
followed him, I say unto you, I have not found so great faith,
no, not in Israel. And they that were sent returning
to the house found the servant whole that had been sick. So
we're dealing with that here in chapter seven today. And we note several things of
kind of a historical note that which are displayed here as God
is working as Norman mentioned this morning. All things are
working for good to them that love the Lord who are the called
according to his purpose from Romans chapter eight, verse 28.
And history tells us that the Roman Empire came to pass and
came into existence about 748, the year 748 BC and expanded
through conquest and to dominate and control a vast area. from
North Africa clear up into Europe and throughout the Mediterranean
region and parts of Asia and north to the British Isles and
according to, all according to God's determinate counsel and
purpose. I was kind of reading through
some of this and Daniel The prophet Daniel was taken captive into
Babylon about the year 605 BC. So as he's over there in Babylon
and experiencing the things he's experiencing and prophesying
of the Medes and the Persians and the Greeks and all those
that were engaged in that part of the world. And there was kind
of these going back and forth about the land of Judea. One time it's under the influence
of these kingdoms and another time it's under the influence
of these Romans. All according to God's purpose
to accomplish what he has directed. I think I read where Jerusalem
was conquered like 44 times in history. Eventually they were incorporated
into the Roman Empire They were under conquest. They were subject
to Roman rule. They were subject to have to
pay Roman taxes. Remember in the last couple of
weeks we've been studying and listening to the messages about
Bethlehem and why Joseph and Mary had to go to Bethlehem to
pay a tax that was implemented by Caesar that all the world
should be taxed. And they fell under that and
they should each have to go to their own hometown to be taxed
and they were from the city of David so they had to go there
and pay this tax to somebody that conquered them. We have
trouble identifying with that because we're taxed by our own
government. We haven't been conquered by
anybody else. But still, they were under Roman rule and a foreign
entity had said, you have to go here and pay this tax. And they were under the subject
of Rome. They were under strict military
control and Roman political governance. And as we enter into this study
here in Luke chapter 7, that's what the conditions that they
were under at the time. They were under Roman rule. And
they looked to Jesus, they looked to the Messiah to deliver them
from that. And physically they were hoping
for a strong military political leader that would conquer the
Romans and get them out from underneath that Roman yoke. And
the Lord spiritually said, this is nothing. My kingdom is not of this world.
And if you're looking for that, you're barking up the wrong tree,
as it were. But as they were under this Roman
yoke, the Roman soldiers were kind
of looked at as enemies. And yet we find this Roman, this
centurion, this captain of 100, there was something different
about him. And he had a servant that was dear to him. And we
don't have a lot of detail on the circumstances of this servant,
but the Greek word that is used there is doulos, which means
a slave. He was not just somebody that
came that they hired and said, I want you to come here and work
for me every day. He was a slave, a person. And so that's the circumstances
that we find. And it was in this city of Capernaum. And remember back in our lessons
from Luke chapter four, that Capernaum was a walled city. And the very name of it meant
that it was a city, a comfortable city with walls. And we remembered
that Jesus did some things there that kind of disrupted their
comfort level back in chapter four. And if you want to go back
there and read our lessons on astonishing doctrine that he
presented there, that took them way out of their comfort level.
And so it's just good to remember that
It takes almighty power to move us out of our comfort zone. And that our comfort is based really
in Him. And as we start this new year
out, to always remember that where our comfort lies and where
our trust should be. that comfortable zone that they
were in, kind of typified where natural man resides and where
religion resides in this comfort of things that are established. And even though they were under
Roman yoke, they had a a level of religious independence that
they were allowed to observe as long as they didn't riot or
be unruly, they could exercise their religious things. They still viewed the Romans
as intruders. Over time, they had revolted
against them. When we look at this, the fact that here's a Roman
centurion that knew the Lord, And we have to
examine a little bit how that could come to be. And it only
comes to be by one way. Somebody had brought the gospel
to that Roman. Somebody had preached to him
the gospel. And he understood some things
that a lot of people that claim to be religious, that claim to
be regenerated, don't understand and don't apply. And so we wanted
to look at some of those things. And Jesus taught in their synagogues,
and here this man had built them one. He took his own funds and
built them a synagogue in that town of Capernaum. We know that the people that
generally ran that synagogue were not engaged in things that
were benevolent to Christ. They kind of took offense at
some of the things He did. The healings that He did on the
Sabbath days and all the things that He said. Remember He took
up the role of the scripture and read to them from Isaiah
and He said, this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. I am the Christ, I am here. And yet, they didn't perceive
those spiritual things. So, it's no wonder that we find the
Lord here entering the city of Capernaum, about to disturb the
worldly view of those about Him. You know, the elders in the city,
they like this guy because he gave them a synagogue. And yet we find there's a lot
more relevant things here revealed to us. And as we apply some of the things
that we learned in chapter 6, that It's important that we kind of
pay attention a little bit here. I don't think it's any accident
that we had all these lessons from chapter 6 and all these
things that we read in his sermon on the plane. And then we find
him demonstrating that very thing right here in chapter seven,
right off. So, love your enemies. Well, who was a bigger enemy
to Israel than the Romans that enslaved them and conquered them
and made them pay tribute and taxes? And he had a slave, this
centurion had a slave, But it says that slave was dear to him.
It means he was precious to him. He had value to him. He was more
than just a paid hired servant. And it says here it was a certain
centurion. And we find that applied oftentimes
in the New Testament where it's a someone that's specific yet
unnamed. But it's usually according to
God's purpose that we find that the name is not so important
as the things that it represents, the circumstances that it represents.
A certain woman or a certain man, a certain centurion. It's brought to our attention
here because it's important and not the fact that his name or
so much as what he represented. He was a commander over a hundred
men or sometimes a little more, sometimes a little less, depends
on the circumstances. But he was in the army of an
empire that God had established centuries before in the dispensation
of the fullness of times according to God's purpose. And he was
there according to God's purpose. And yet he was a captain of troops
that most of Judea regarded as a bitter enemy. And yet his name
is not revealed to us, but we know that it was written in the
Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world. And he had an appointment here
to be presented in the memory of the church because the Lord of Glory had
appointed it so. And in Acts the fourth chapter
in verse 26 says, the kings of the earth stood up and the rulers
were gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ
for of a truth against thy holy child Jesus whom thou has anointed
both Herod Pontius Pilate and the Gentiles and the people of
Israel were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel determined before to be done. And so he represented
the army of one of the Gentiles. They would be considered a Gentile
and Pontius Pilate, the armies of Rome, to do the things that
had been determined to be done from before the foundation of
the world. He was the lamb slain. And he was on this mission, as
we mentioned at the beginning of the lesson. the redemption
of the church, that was the focus of everything. That was the determinate
counsel of God that he would gather all things together and
he is in the process of doing that then as now. And so as we look at this supposed
enemy in the face of many who were
the natural children of Abraham, who believe not, yet we find
a Gentile. Remember in Revelation, there'll
be some from every kindred, tongue, tribe, nation. And as we look at all the things
that led up to this, the Babylonians, the Parthians, the Medes, the
Greeks, all played their part. in the turmoil and political
conquests that went over that whole region. And they're still
going on today, all according to the purpose of God to accomplish
the redemption of the church. And so we see in this Gentile,
this barbarian, they might even have called him Roman centurion,
a demonstration of the total reliance on Christ for salvation
by one who is a supposed enemy. Love your enemies. And I was
kind of reminded of Naaman the Syrian, of all the, as we look
at the big scope of things that happened, the Syrians were, they'd
come down to Israel and raid them every harvest time and steal
all their stuff, you know, and then they'd go back and, do it
all again the next year. And on one of these raids, Naaman
the Syrian, they captured, they stole this girl. And he took
her back and made her a servant. And out of those circumstances,
Naaman, remember he was the leper, and she said, well, there's someone
that can help. There's someone that can help. And he was presented with the
gospel in that way. And yet she was a stolen slave. So all these circumstances that
we would look at like, how horrible? Yet in God's purpose, he brought
it about. to save much people alive through
this demonstration. We find Jesus here in Capernaum. He said, you know, if the works
that were done in Capernaum had been done in Tyre and Sidon and Sodom, they
would have repented long ago in ashes, you know. So he did
a lot of mighty works there, and yet among the religious folks,
there was just no faith in him at all, and a total rejection. And yet in this one that was
a foreigner and a supposed enemy, a demonstration of faith that
we should just be in awe of. James wrote in chapter 2 of his
gospel, We kind of have an introduction
to that here in Luke chapter 7. He said, I'll show or demonstrate
my faith by my works. What I do in life reflecting
what I believe in spirit. And that's a valuable thing for
the church to consider all the time because we're so often reliant. We say we trust Jesus, we say
we have faith, and yet we mostly trust to ourselves to whatever
circumstances that we're involved in. And we don't just give it
to Him totally and then trust in Him. We always sort of have
to have our backup plan in case that doesn't work out. So, as we peel back the layers here
in chapter 7 in this slave and this centurion here that we're
looking at, it just would seem to me likely that this slave
was somehow instrumental in bringing the gospel to him, but whether
it was him or someone else, regardless, that's what had to have happened.
And we know how we feel about someone who has brought
the gospel of the good news of Christ dying for our sins to
us. We know how we feel. I always love when our pastor
gets up and talks about Henry Mahan. He says, you know, I hated
him, but when it pleased Christ to reveal himself in him, then
it turned to love. something that he couldn't understand
before, now made plain to him. And Henry always said, that's
not the issue, it's Christ is the issue. And it didn't make
sense to him until after the new birth. And then it all was
crystal clear. And now he just loves that man,
the one that brought him the gospel. And I think maybe that's
the case here where this servant was dear to him, not just because
he kept his shoes shined and his armor polished and food. He was precious to him for some
other reason, and I think it probably had to do with the gospel.
But regardless of that, maybe once they were considered mutual
enemies because the one was a conqueror and the other was a slave, But
it says now this servant was precious to him, was valuable
to him. A strange set of circumstances,
it would seem, in this world played out over many centuries
as we understand it. But in God's perfect purpose
and time, we're introduced to one we'll likely meet later on,
this centurion. There's revealed to us the actions
of this man regarding faith and authority as a lesson for the
church. And there's, you know, there seems to just be a relative
inverse relationship with our trust in Christ and our reliance
on self. The more we trust in ourselves,
the less faith we exhibit toward Christ. And so the less we esteem
him as who he is. and what He's done for us. And the less we trust in ourselves,
the more faith we exhibit towards Christ, and the more we esteem
Him for who He is and what He's done for us. So those two things
are kind of in inverse proportion. The more we rely on ourselves,
the less we have faith in Him and trust in Him, and the less
we rely on ourselves, the more trust and faith we have
in him. And that seems to be what we
find with this centurion here. And he said, I'm not worthy that
you should even come under my roof. And he said, but he understood
authority. And there's been much written
about this. Well, he understood that the
Lord had complete authority over all kinds of disease and those
kinds of things. But it was deeper than that.
It was more than that. He understood him as the Lord,
God Almighty. And he said, I'm a soldier, and
I say so-and-so do this, or so-and-so do that. And they do it, and
I don't have to go and make sure that it's done. They do it. And in like fashion, he understood
the authority and the power of the Lord God Almighty. And anybody
that's experienced rebirth has to understand that because they
know that that's what it took to overcome sin and the fall. And he says, I'm not even worthy that you
should come into my house. And you know, in the Wednesday
night lesson on the prayer, I'm ashamed. to even because of what's
going on. And Isaiah said, I'm a man of
unclean lips in the midst of unclean people. And Jacob, few
and evil have been the days of the years of my life. But right
accompanying all those times, we always find but God, who is
rich in mercy. And while we were yet sinners,
He died for us. So we always find those two things
coupled together. But for Him to say, I'm not worthy,
but I know if you say it, it will be done. He who created
the world by His voice, by His Word. The Lord God said, be light,
and light became. To understand that and apply
it is something not many can do. And it takes faith in that
to believe that and total reliance on Christ to do that, to believe
that. And so it's odd that a Roman
captain centuries ago would remind the church that neither I thought
myself worthy to come to you. And it's a view that we often
find in the scriptures about one who God has revealed His
Son by free grace alone and not from works or merits. I'm not worthy, but thank you. Praise the Lord for his work. And so he says, neither thought
I myself worthy to come to thee, but say in a word, and my servant
shall be healed. That leprosy, if thou wilt, thou
can make me clean. Thou can make me whole. For I also am a man set under
authority, and having under me soldiers. And I say to one, go,
and he goeth. And another come, and he cometh.
To my servant, do this, and he doeth it." And when Jesus heard
these things from a guy that was a soldier, a captain of a
hundred in an army, that conquered that area, that the people were
clamoring for a Messiah to get them out physically from underneath
that Roman yoke. And he says, for me to hear words
of absolute faith and trust in me from one, and down the road
yonder is a synagogue full of supposed religious folks that That is the furthest thing from
their mind. There's no trust, there's no faith, there's no
nothing. He says, I marvel that I say
unto you, I've not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. He
marveled at it. And I would hope that he doesn't
have to marvel it now. And that he says, when he comes
back, will he find faith? Or will he find self-reliance,
self-help, and self-work? So we're going to stop there.
And hopefully, we'll go into this year, and we'll exercise
more total reliance on Christ as we go along, and faith in
the gospel. It's just, the more I go through
this life, the more it's apparent to me in plain that there's nothing
else makes any difference except the gospel. not good advice,
not wisdom, not anything from this world makes any difference
if it's not paired with the regenerating work of the Gospel. So with that,
we'll stop there and as always, be free. I'd like just a word
before we're free. I had an opportunity to talk
to Brother Lance. And he and his family got together
in Missouri. And Claire flew back to Denver
on her own. When he was here, he said that
she was having some difficulty because of damage to the optic
nerve. And in some people, the brain
takes over and helps with that. And it has apparently been that
way with Claire. Her vision has greatly improved.
She will have some kind of a lens over that cornea in the one. She's doing well. She's going
to start looking for a job. Lance and Robin are driving to
Florida because his parents are old. And they're going to have
to do something, help them. So remember them. And he's asked
us to specifically pray that the doors would open so he could
get back into New Guinea. Right now, because of the fear
mongering and all of the other stuff that goes on, he can't
get into Australia to get to New Guinea. So it's a burden
on him. So remembering the prayer. All
right. Thank you.