But if you want to follow along,
I'd ask you to turn to the book of Matthew chapter 8. Matthew chapter 8. Let me mark something right quick. Matthew chapter 8, beginning
in verse 5. And when Jesus was entered into
Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion beseeching him and
saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously
tormented. And Jesus saith unto him, I will
come and heal him. The centurion answered and said,
Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof,
but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For
I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me, and I say
to this man, go, and he goeth. And to another, come, and he
cometh, and to my servant, do this, and he doeth it. When Jesus
heard it, he marveled and said to them that followed, verily
I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I say unto you that many
shall come from the east and the west and shall sit down with
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the
children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. And Jesus said unto the centurion,
go thy way. And as thou hast believed, so
be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in
the selfsame hour. In my thinking about it, I have
found a common denominator in all of my problems. And I mean
all. Personal problems, interpersonal
problems. That's another good word. Interpersonal
means somebody else. Family problems, work problems,
even spiritual problems. And there's one thing all of
these problems have together in common. They're mine. It's my personal problem. It's
my interpersonal problem. It's my family problem. And it's
my spiritual problem. Now, I'm not going to let you
guys off the hook either, because I'd say if you look at yourselves,
you'll see the same exact thing. There's no difference. But here
it is. Like I said, I'm not going to
make any accusations or point any fingers. But the Bible says,
even a believing, a believer, has within him unbelief. And unbelief is pretty much the
root of all my sin and all my problems. Because if I believed
God, I really wouldn't have any problems. But we don't. Because even believers are, can
be, incredibly self-centered and selfish. That's the way we
are. The old man didn't go anywhere
when the new man was created. But I thought about this when
I'm thinking about this centurion coming to Christ and our Lord's
interaction with this Roman centurion. He, well, it just says, when he entered
into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,
and saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy
grievously tormented. OK, A, the first thing, the centurion
came to Christ. That's a good thing. That's a
good thing. And B, because here's why that
was a good thing, this centurion called him Lord. Called him Lord. And he meant it. The centurion called him the
supreme authority. That's what that word means.
Curios. The supreme. Coming to Jesus
is good. And calling him Lord is appropriate. It's correct. It's correct. But he told the Lord, he said,
I've got a servant at home, he's sick of the palsy, he's grievously
tormented. And Jesus said unto him, this
is just amazing to me, I will come and heal him, just like
that. Now most accounts would pretty
much end here. They'd say the Lord went and
the Lord healed him. But this one doesn't. This one does not. Jesus would go and heal the servant
because there's something more here. There's more than just
a showing of Jesus' power to heal. There's more here than
showing of Christ's benevolence to answer a heartfelt plea. Our
Lord healed more people than are written in this book. He
talked about when John the Baptist's fellows come to see him. There
was a couple of them they sent. He says, well, you've seen the dead
raised, the blind given sight, lepers cleansed. That was a busy
afternoon. For me, it would have been terrible.
But for Jesus, it was business as usual. He did this all the
time, which is why there was such a stir among the Pharisees
about him. They thought he might gain a
following. And he did. But here. This doesn't end here. And Christ
said, I'll go. And the centurion kept talking. He answered and said, again,
Lord, Lord, I'm not worthy that thou shouldest come unto my roof,
but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For
I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. I say to this
man, go, and he goes. I say to this man, come, and
he comes. And I say to my servant, do it,
and he does it. He does it. But here, this centurion, who's called
him Lord twice now, this centurion, says, speak the word Speak the word only Hmm and my
servant shall be healed the centurion recognized his unworthiness and
He recognized Christ's worthiness called him Lord twice Came to
him for help Knew that he could help He recognized
the power of the word of the Lord. This centurion knew how
true authority and power work. Speak the word only. I find that
amazing. He says, I'm under authority.
And by that, he meant he had people above him, and he had
people below him. He answered to the generals,
and they, in turn, and he himself answered to Caesar above him.
He was a Roman centurion. And a centurion is a leader of
a band of at least 100. Some of them said that's 128. I don't know why, but that's
why. You always got to have clerks
in the army. I'd say that's part of it, and supply people. But
here it is. I'm a soldier. I tell them to
go, and they go. I tell them to come, and they
come. And I tell them to do, and they do. That's how true
authority works. And he was acknowledging and
professing that Jesus Christ could do the exact same thing.
Speak the word only, and it'll be done. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that astounding? This man,
this Roman centurion, he's not even a Jew. Now true, there may
have been some Jews in the Roman army. I don't know. It doesn't
matter. It doesn't say. But I can tell you this right
now. The centurions were Romans. No matter where they came from,
if they came from Greece or somewhere else, they were Romans first.
That's the thing Paul used when he was arrested. And the Roman
soldiers took him into custody, basically for his own protection.
He told them, I'm a Roman citizen. Now Paul didn't count that as
his first thing, but it was true. He said, I was born a Roman citizen. And this Roman centurion is talking
to the Lord of glory and acknowledging his power and his might to say,
just speak, and it'll be done. I like that, I do. Only speak and it shall be. And when Jesus heard it, he marveled. And I looked at that word, it
means he marveled. Now trust me, he wasn't surprised, but
he was pleased. He was pleased. And I suspect
by Jesus' words here that this man, this Roman centurion, knew
Christ. He certainly believed Christ.
Because here, what did Christ say? He turned. He was talking
to the centurion. And he said to them that followed
him, verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith. No, not in Israel. This centurion. had great faith. This centurion knew that Jesus,
this man standing in front of him, had the supreme authority
of God. And Jesus Christ said himself,
this man had great faith. Now, as far as I can tell in
the scriptures, there's only two places where it is said that
somebody has great faith. Well, wait a minute. Wrong one.
This is one. This Roman centurion. The second
is right here in Matthew chapter 15. In verse 22, it says, and behold,
a woman of Canaan came out of the same coast and cried unto
him, have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter
is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought
him, saying, send her away, for she crieth after us. But he answered
and said, I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house
of Israel. Then came she, and worshiped
him, saying, Lord, Lord, Lord, help me. Now you understand, he looked
at that centurion and said, OK, I'll go and heal her. And then
the centurion answered. Here he's telling this woman,
it's not meat to give the children's bread to the dogs. It's not meat to take the children's
bread and cast it to dogs. And she said, truth, Lord, Lord. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered and
said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. Being unto thee, even as thou
wilt, her daughter was made whole from that very hour. That's the
only two instances where I can find in the scriptures that Christ
used the word talking about great faith. And here's the surprising
thing when you think about this. Both of these instances were
Gentiles, a Roman centurion and a Canaanite woman. Now Christ, in these two instances,
he didn't go into where that great faith came from. But he
knew. And I know, and I'll tell you,
it's the gift of God. Faith in Christ is the gift of
God. Not of works, lest any man should boast, because we would.
For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Calling him Lord's a good work,
Mason. Calling him Lord is a good work. Worshipping him, that's
a good work. Oh, my. But the scripture tells us that
if anyone knows that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, the
Lord Jesus Christ, that knowledge was revealed by the Father and
the Holy Spirit. And then he says this. Jesus
marveled. He said to them that followed,
I've not found so great faith. No, not in Israel. And then he
says this. And I say unto you that many
shall come from the east and the west and shall sit down with
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. He's still
referring to that Gentile Roman centurion. That's where this
is at. He's still referring to this
Gentile Roman centurion. And he says this. To that Roman centurion, and
I'll tell you that to every other Gentile believer there is, was,
or ever will be, many shall come from the east and the west and
sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus Christ states clearly and
succinctly that there will be Gentiles, that's us, in the kingdom
of God, in the kingdom of heaven. And he's saying this to his followers
who are all Jews. They all were. whether they were
fishermen or publicans. Jew and Gentile will sit in the
kingdom of God together. And the statement here about sitting
in the kingdom of God, sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob,
that's sitting down at the master's table. They're going to sit at
the same table. Jesus Christ made no difference
between Jew and Gentile in the kingdom of heaven. I remember reading this 35 years
ago. And I remember talking to Earl
about it, not quite that long ago, 32 years ago, something,
I don't know, 30 years ago. And I remember, and I told Earl,
I says, it says we're going to sit down. in the kingdom of heaven
with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob. And man, that just amazed
me back then. And you know what? It amazes
me more now, more. This is something. To the Jews, we're given the
oracles of God, and the scriptures, and the Old Testament, and the
sacrifices, and the offering, and all that. And what do we
have? Nothing. That's what the Gentiles
had. Absolutely nothing. In the Old
Testament, if you were one of God's, you joined yourself to
the Jews. Rahab, formerly the harlot, Ruth, Mary Boaz, told her mother-in-law,
I'm going to go with you. Your people's going to be my
people, and your God's going to be my God. And God put that
Gentile woman, both of them, in the lineage of David the king.
This is nothing new. But they didn't like it in Christ's
day. He got them angry at one time,
telling them that, God, there were many lepers in Israel at
the time of the kings. But God didn't heal none of them,
except for Naaman, a Syrian. And there are many widows who
are starving in the old age. But God didn't inhale one of
them, except the one Elijah gave bread to. It wasn't a Jew. Oh, they didn't like that. But
our Lord Jesus Christ declares it clearly and plainly. Jew and Gentile will sit together
in the kingdom of heaven, and I'm going to tell you, They're
going to be at the master's table, and they're going to feast just
like Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. There will be no difference.
He takes the poor from the dust and the beggar from the dunghill, two, two, for the express purpose
to what? Sit them with princes. You know who them princes are?
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and everybody else. Oh my, I like
that, I do. And trust me, they're not gonna
be at that feast in any ragged clothes. They're not gonna look
like the poor anymore, they're not gonna look like the beggar.
Because when he sits you at his table, he's gonna put you in
the best robe. He's gonna put you in the best robe, just like
the prodigal son was put in the best robe by the father. He said,
put it on him. And let's slay the fatted calf.
And let's feast. For this my son, which was lost,
is now found. Oh, my. That's the illustration
of what this is talking about, sitting with Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob, taking meals together, sustenance feeding upon the Lord. Remember, the garments of salvation
are many, but the robe of righteousness is singular. There's only one. Because it's his righteousness. We sing that song every now and
then. I was going to pick it, but it didn't work out today.
The God that lived in the olden times is just the same today. He's just the same today. I like
that song, I do. Look back if you want. Malachi,
this is nothing new, what Christ said. They're going to come from
the east and the west and sit down in the kingdom. In Luke
it's recorded they're going to come from the east and the west
and the north and the south and sit down in the kingdom with
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. But in Malachi 1, oh my. Verse 6. A son honoreth his father, and
a servant his master. If then I be a father, where
is mine honor? These are the words of the Lord. Where is mine honor? And if I
be a master, where is my fear? Saith the Lord of hosts unto
you, O priest that despise my name. And ye say, wherein have
we despised thy name? You offer polluted bread upon
mine altar. Wherein have we polluted thee?
In that ye say, the table of the Lord is contemptible. And
if ye offer the blind for sacrifice, it's not bad, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor,
your boss. And will he be pleased with thee,
or accept thy person, saith the Lord of hosts. Verse 10. Who is there even among
you who would shut the doors for naught? Neither do you kindle
fire on mine altar for naught. I have no pleasure in you, saith
the Lord of hosts. Neither will I accept an offering
at your hand. Excuse me. Now this is where
it gets a little interesting with what I'm saying. For from
the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the same, my
name shall be great among the Gentiles. And in every place
incense shall be offered unto my name, and a pure offering
For my name shall be great among the heathen, the heathen, saith
the Lord of hosts. Folks, can you take your place
among the heathen? Yes, I can, if they worship God. That's what they thought of us.
That's what the Jews think of us in this day. You were either
Jewish or you were not. That was it. That was the two
types of people that encompasses everyone in the world, Jew and
Gentile. There ain't nobody else, because
Gentile means not Jewish. Excuse me. Because back in those days, compared
to the Jews who I said it, they were given the oracles of God,
the Holy Scripture, the Old Testament, the sacrifices, the offerings,
the tabernacle, King Solomon's temple when they built it. Compared
to that, we were considered heathen, heathen. But here Christ looks
at us. Roman centurion, and says unto
him, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. And he says this. There's gonna
be some that are not in the kingdom. And the children of the kingdom
shall be cast into outer darkness, and there shall be weeping and
gnashing of teeth. What's he talking about there? He's talking
about he came unto his own. and his own received him not.
He came and said, it's not meat for me to give the bread of the
children. I'm not sent but unto the house
of Israel, the lost house of Israel. But then he told that woman,
great is thy faith. Why? Because she said, Lord,
I am your dog. The dogs eat the crumbs from
the master's table. I'm your dog. And this Roman
centurion called him Lord and said, I'm not worthy that thou
shouldest come under my roof, but speak and it'll happen. Great is thy faith, great is
thy faith. And Jesus said unto the centurion,
after he said this to his followers, go thy way, go thy way. And as thou hast believed, so
be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in
the selfsame hour." What happened? The Lord Jesus Christ spoke,
and it was. Oh, my. But first, he told this
centurion, go thy way. Go thy way. You understand, it's an odd thing, and it happens
from time to time in the scriptures. He didn't tell this Roman centurion,
OK, chuck your job, come and follow me, like he did his disciples. He told them, come and I'll make
you fishers of men. They dropped their nets and they followed
him. Matthew was at the receipt of custom. He was there taking
taxes for the Romans. That's what he was. He was a
publican. A collaborator is what they called him in World War
II, if you work with the enemy who's taken over your country.
Well, he was a tax collector for the Romans. And whatever
Rome didn't get, he kept. He collected more than what was
owed. Same thing with Zacchaeus. But he didn't tell them, come
follow me. He told them that, but he didn't tell this Roman
centurion that. He says, go thy way. He did this more than once to
people who he had healed or cast out devils. In Mark 5.19, you'll see the Gadarene demoniac,
as it's called, the one who had devils in him, the legion of
devils. And he cast them out. And the
unclean spirits went out and entered into the swine, and the
herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea. They were
about 2,000 and were choked in the sea. This is verse 14. And
they that fed the swine fled and told it in the city and in
the country. And they went out to see what
it was that was done. Verse 15. And they come to Jesus
and see him. that was possessed with the devil
and had the legion, they saw him sitting and clothed and in
his right mind. And they were afraid. And they that saw, it told them
how it befell him, and that was possessed with the devil and
also concerning the swine. And guess what they said to Jesus?
They began to pray him to depart from their coasts. Please go
away. That's depravity right there,
folks. And when he was coming to the
ship, he that had been possessed with the devil prayed him that
he might be with him. He wanted to come along. Howbeit
Jesus suffered him not. But saith unto him, go home to
thy friends, and tell them how great things the Lord hath done
for thee, and hath had compassion on thee. And he departed, and
began to publish in Decapolis how great things Jesus had done
for him, and all men did marvel. He told this gallery demoniac,
go home. Go home to your friends. And
not just go home go home and tell them what great things the
Lord has done Tell them the Lord had compassion on thee Compassion
by divine grace Jesus Christ's body has many
members His church is made up of many
members as far as we know all over the world now But here's
the thing, he places them exactly as he sees fit. He puts them
where he wants them to be. Some he had follow him. Some
he had follow him. Some he told him, go thy way.
Another one he told, go home. Go home. And tell them of the
great things the Lord hath done to thee. He sends them wherever he wants,
and he places them as he sees fit. You understand? Do you really
think it's an accident that we ended up here in Crow, West Virginia,
two steps from nowhere? Come on. This church is off a
dirt road, off a side road, off another road that goes to the
state park. But we're here. We're here because
this is where God wants us. Oh my. In Christ's body, every
member is exactly where the head wants them. Because Jesus told
the centurion to go thy way. Guess what he did? He went. Did exactly what Christ said.
He went. Just exactly as the Lord spoke. But here's the thing. What was
the way of the centurion? He said, go thy way. The way of faith? The way of
great faith, Christ said. Why? Believing the Lord Jesus
will do exactly what he said. Go thy way, Christ's way, in
faith, Believe in Christ. Believe that the words of Jesus
Christ will not return unto him void. Speak, Lord. Only speak the word, and my servant
will be healed. Oh. You understand something about
the voice of Christ? I think I marked it. John 6 and verse 24 Verily verily I
say unto you he that heareth my word and believeth on him
that sent me hath everlasting life and shall not come into
condemnation But is passed from death unto life And here it is
verily verily truly truly Verily, verily, verse 25, I say unto
you, the hour is coming, and now is, and now is, when the
dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that
hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in
himself, so hath he given to the Son. to have life in himself
and has given him authority to execute judgment also because
he is not only the son of God, he's the son of man. And the
father has laid everything in his hands. But here's the thing,
the dead hearing the voice of the son of God, that's regeneration. That's life from God. Christ
speaks like that in the Old Testament. I came upon thee when thou were
polluted in thine own blood, and I said unto thee, live. And they lived. Whenever Christ
says, live, or he calls his sheep by name, other sheep I have,
them I must bring. they're gonna hear the voice
of the Son of God. Now it's not audible, it's not
in your head, you're not hearing voices, but he's gonna call to
you, and the Holy Spirit's gonna give you life. Where there was
none before, the dead shall hear the voice. Now this is not talking
about dead in the graves, that's down in, where is it, verse 28. down another verse, marvel not
at this for the hour is coming in which all that are in the
graves shall hear his voice. They shall come forth, they that
have done good under the resurrection of life, they that have done
evil under the resurrection of damnation. That's talking about
raising the dead from the grave. What Christ is talking about
here, and it says, marvel not at this for the hour is coming.
The dead in the graves are going to hear. That's still coming.
That hasn't happened yet. But here it says, the hour is
coming, and now is. When now is. When the dead shall
hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall
live. That's the power of Christ's word spoken. It shall not return
unto him void. If he says the words live, you're
going to live. And if he calls out, Lazarus,
come forth, Lazarus is coming forth. And he did. He did. Go thy way, in faith
believing, Jesus Christ. Go thy way, telling men that
the Lord tells his people to go, he tells them to come, and
he tells them to do. Go tell them of the great things
the Lord has done for you. Tell of the true compassion the
Lord has had on you. Hear in his love, not that we
loved him, but that he loved us. Go and tell them of the great
things. Come to his assembly and hear the words of Christ
proclaimed in public, and do repeat his words. Tell him. Tell him. Because his word shall never
return unto him void. It will accomplish everything
for which he sent it forth. And I tell you, I mean, I can
tell you from experience, the same gospel message that
blesses my soul sometimes and in some places, does absolutely
nothing for the unbeliever. I mean, and I could preach it,
if I could preach it perfectly, which I can't, but if I could,
you know, I'd like to. If I could preach it perfectly. My preaching is not gonna give
anybody life. It takes the voice of the Son
of God. Oh, but when he breathes that
voice out, when he says that word, and someone lives, guess
what? They're alive. They're alive. And he'll send them his gospel,
and they'll believe it. Why? Because if it's his gospel,
it's about him. Actually, it is him. The gospel
concerning his son? the gospel of Christ, the gospel
of God. And he says to us, come, go, and
do. He's the authority. I don't like people to tell me
what to do. I'm not talking about people, I'm talking about God.
I'm talking about Christ. Well, I believe Jesus is God,
but I don't want to listen to him. I don't want to hear about
him. I don't want you to talk about
him. I'm glad you know that Jesus
is God. Because one day you're going to hear his voice. You
better hope it's this way. Him calling you unto himself.
Because there's a day coming when those in the grave are coming
out. by that same voice. Jesus Christ is the voice of
God. He is the Son of God. But speak the word only, and
it will be done as he says. Guaranteed. Our Heavenly Father,
we're thankful again today for this time and this place. Lord, be with Walter and Paul
and Paula and Penny and Pam and Linda and the whole family as
they're going through this egregious time. I know we're thankful that
Roy Sr. has gone home, but it still feels
like a loss to us who knew him, who missed him,
who are going to miss him and love him. Be with them, Lord. and ease their suffering and
their pain. Help them as you always do. And we'll give you
the honor and the praise and the glory now and forever. Amen.