Well, good morning. If you care
to open your Bibles to the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 8,
that's where our lesson will be taken from this morning. Before
we begin, let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, how thankful we are
that you, out of your infinite goodness and grace to your people,
have given us one more opportunity to meet together to open your
word, to have your gospel preached to us, to be able to look in
your word into the things that you would be pleased to reveal
to us of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I pray this morning
that the name of Christ our Savior be glorified, honored and magnified
and lifted up in everything that is said and done here this morning.
Enable us to forget about ourselves, our troubles, our heartaches,
our blessings even of this life. Enable us to forget about ourselves
and focus upon our Lord Jesus Christ. Give us a heart that's
set upon him, that we might learn of him, that you'd be pleased,
Father, to save your people, that you'd be pleased that today
would be the day that in mercy and grace you'd reveal yourself,
that you'd reveal your son to the hearts of your people. Father,
I pray that today would be the day that you'd be pleased to
reach down and comfort the hearts of your people by revealing Christ. I pray that you would feed us
and edify us on the preaching of our Lord Jesus Christ. He
truly is all and in all. Father, I freely admit We're
asking a great, great blessing. We're asking for mercy and grace
we do not deserve. But that's the kind of grace
that sinners like us need. Father, would you get glory to
yourself in saving and blessing your people this morning? And
we dare not forget to thank you for all your many, many blessings,
how you have blessed this congregation for years and years and years.
Father, we're humbled and how thankful we are. And pray that
you not take your hand of leadership and mercy and grace and protection
off of us. For if you even lift your finger
off of us, we'll fall. Father, keep us by your grace.
Continue to bless your word as it's preached. It's in the precious
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. For his glory, we pray and give
thanks. Amen. All right, Matthew chapter eight.
I titled our lesson this morning, Great Faith. Everybody here knows
very well the story of this centurion who had a sick servant. He came
to the Lord asking that he would heal his servant. And the Lord
called the faith of this Gentile. This man you got to remember
is a Gentile. He's not raised under the law. He's a Gentile.
The Lord called the faith of this Gentile, Great Faith. In verse 10, at the end of verse
10, The Savior says, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so
great faith, no, not in Israel. Now that really caught my attention.
When you read the story, does that catch your attention? What
made this man's faith great faith? I want to know that. I spend too much time with small
faith. I want great faith, don't you? What made this man's faith
great faith? Well, I got five or six things
here to show you about this. Number one, great faith is faith
in Christ. It's faith in a person, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Faith is not believing church
doctrine. Faith is not believing in church
creeds or the different denominations. Faith is not in catchphrases
that men make up. drive around places and here
and other places all over the country and you see these signs
on the outside of these church buildings and you just go, oh.
And somebody's right proud of those things. These catchphrases
they put up there. That's not faith. Faith is not
in those things. Faith is not in the cross. I was driving here
this morning and I saw a man standing beside the road holding
this gigantic cross and he was standing behind it. And I thought, well, his faith
is in a piece of wood. Where's the sacrifice? I wanted
to be like Isaac and go ask him, here's the wood, here's the fire.
Where's the sacrifice? Faith is in a person. the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look here, this man's faith was
in a person. Verse 5, Matthew 8. 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'll
come and heal him. Now this man came to Christ. And this is exactly what I tell
all of you to do all the time. come to Christ, come to Him.
A sinner who's in need. If God ever puts a sinner in
need, I can tell you what they will do. They'll come to Christ. This man had a need and he came
to Christ. His servant was at home sick
of the palsy and the palsy is being paralyzed, either partially
or fully paralyzed. And this man came to Christ because
Christ was his only hope of healing. There's no human cure for this
disease. Only the Lord could heal you.
There's a couple of things we should notice here about faith.
This man knew he didn't know a lot. I'm sure he didn't know
a lot, but he knew this man, Jesus of Nazareth, he knew that
he was sovereign over all things. I mean, at this time, you know,
they had absolutely no idea about the neurological problems that
could cause paralysis. They didn't have any idea. It
was such a mystery to them. But this man did know that the
Lord Jesus is sovereign over everything. And he did have the
power to heal his servant. And he was the only one who could
heal his servant. So he came to Christ because
Christ is his only hope. He's the sovereign. And second,
I love this and oh, I wish I could learn this lesson. This centurion
came to the Lord and he did not make any suggestions about how
the Lord could help him. He simply laid out his need before
the sovereign and shut his mouth. Well, that is how a sinner comes
to Christ in faith. Now, I know I have a problem
of sin. And I don't truly know all the
depths of what sin really is. I know sin is more than breaking
the rules. I know sin is rebellion against God. I know sin is uncleanness. I do know that. And the ramifications
of sin are far more reaching than I probably imagined. Sin
does not just have me paralyzed. Sin's made me dead. I'm dead
in sin, dead because of sin. And someone who's dead is more
helpless than somebody who's paralyzed. I mean, somebody paralyzed
may have some hope. Their nerves will regenerate.
Somebody dead got no hope. But nobody more helpless than
a dead person. I don't know everything there is to know about sin, and
I certainly don't know everything there is to know about the Lord
Jesus Christ. But this I know. He's sovereign
over all things. I know that. And He is the only
one who has the power, has the ability to forgive my sin. He's
the only one who's got the power to cleanse me of my sin. He is
the only one that's got the power to give this dead sinner life.
He's my only hope. The only hope of righteousness
that I have is in Him. The only hope of salvation for
my sin is in Christ. And faith knows that Christ is
my only hope. So everybody who has received
faith from God, they come to Christ. He's our only hope. And
sinners who come to Christ come to Christ because they are in
great need. And they're helpless about their
need. I come to Christ because I can't do anything to save myself. I can't even do anything to make
myself savable. I can't do something to get God to show mercy to me. I'm in great need. I need Christ
to save me. I need that. I need Christ to
forgive me. I need him to cleanse me. I need
him to make me righteous. I need him to give me faith.
And if God's ever showed you a glimpse of who you are and
who Christ is, I can promise you this, you'll come to Christ.
He's your only hope. And that need of Christ is a
constant thing. Coming to Christ is not a one
time thing. Needing Christ is not a one time
thing. It's a lifelong thing. Now, do you need Christ to save
you? Do you? Do you need him to keep
you? Do you need him to feed your
soul? Do you need him to comfort your heart? Do you need him to
strengthen you for the journey? If you have that kind of need,
then God saved you because faith feels that need. Faith sees that
Christ is the answer to my need. He's all that I need. And faith
comes to Christ begging and doesn't make any suggestions about how
the Lord might help me. Faith just says, Lord, I'm a
sinner. Help me. Lord, I'm lost. Would you come find me? Lord,
I'm dead. Would you give me life? Lord,
help me. Here I am. Lord, you see me for who I am
and what I am. Would you help me?" And the Savior
himself said, that's great faith. I want to show you another example
of this. Mark chapter 2. Where someone comes to the Savior
in faith and just lays their need out. and doesn't make not
one suggestion about how the Lord might help them. Mark chapter
two, verse three. And they came unto him bringing
one sick of the palsy, which was born of four. And when they
could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered
the roof where he was. They tore the roof off the house
where the Lord was. And when they'd broken it up,
they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. When
Jesus saw their faith, he said, under the sick of the palsy,
son, thy sins be forgiven thee. Oh, to hear the master, the savior
say that, son, thy sins be forgiven thee. But there were certain
other scribes sitting there and reasoning in their hearts, why
does this man thus speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
only? And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that
they so reasoned within themselves, He said unto them, why reason
ye these things in your hearts? Whether is it easier to say to
the sick of the palsy, thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say arise,
take up thy bed and walk? Which one's easier? But that
you may know that the son of man hath power on earth to forgive
sins. He sayeth to the sick of the
palsy, I say unto thee, arise, take up thy bed and go thy way
into thine house. And immediately he arose. took up the bed and went forth
before them all, insomuch that they were all amazed and glorified
God saying, we never saw it on this fashion. In Luke's account
of this story, Luke said that these people said, we've seen
strange things today. That's true. How strange that
the Lord of glory would have mercy on the worst of sinners. How strange that God would give
the worst of sinners faith to believe His Son. Strange but
true. That's strange but glorious,
isn't it? God saves sinners. So come to Christ. All right,
here's the second thing about faith. Great faith is humble. The Lord, in verse 7, said unto
him, I'll come and heal him. And the centurion answered and
said, Lord, I'm not worthy that thou shouldest come under my
roof. Now to understand that statement, you've got to understand
something about a centurion. This centurion is somebody important
in society. He earned his post by being a
decorated war veteran. He had been the bravest soldier
in a battle, and he earned this post. He commanded 100 men, and
he was a highly respected man in society. Yet he says that
he was not worthy for this homeless Jewish man to even come into
his house, because I'm not worthy of that. This centurion had faith
to know this man's no mere man. This is God. And that's saving
faith. Saving faith always sees the
difference between God and me. And I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy
of anything but God's wrath. I'm not even worthy. God recognizes
I exist. I'm certainly not worthy that
God saved me, much less by sacrificing his son, killing his son in my
place to save the likes of me. I'm not worthy of that. I'm not
worthy of the least of God's mercies. You're not either. Oh,
but Christ is worthy. He's worthy. That is the song
of eternity in heaven. Worthy is the lamb that was slain
to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor
and glory and blessing. He is worthy. So saving faith
comes and begs mercy from God. Begs it. Saving faith begs for
mercy. Willingly, not because we're
being forced to, but willingly. I beg for it because I'm not
willing or I'm not worthy to receive it. But God freely gives
mercy to sinners. That's why we're begging for
it. I'll show you another example of this, Matthew chapter 15.
Here's another example of humble faith. that the Savior called
great faith. Matthew chapter 15, verse 21. Then Jesus went thence and departed
into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a woman of Canaan
came out of the same coast and cried unto him saying, have mercy
upon me, O Lord, thou son of David. My daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil. But he answered her, not a word. He didn't even recognize she's
speaking. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send
her away, for she crieth after us. But he answered and said,
I'm not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
I've come to save my elect. Then came she and worshiped him,
saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It's
not me. It's not right for me to take the children's bread
and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord. I
mean, you talk about humility. In 2019, we'd grab this woman,
you know, and put a net over her and take her to get counseling,
wouldn't we? Oh, you got too low of an opinion of yourself.
She said, truth Lord, I'm a dog. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered and
said unto her, now this humble faith, O woman, great is thy
faith. Be it unto thee even as thou
wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour. The Lord called that humility,
that humility of spirit, humble faith, or that humility of spirit,
he called it great faith. All right, here's the third thing
about great faith. Saving faith is always based upon the word
of God. Verse 8, back in our text, Matthew
8, the centurion answered and said, Lord, I'm 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. Now, not
only did this centurion know that the Lord had the power to
heal somebody just by touching them, He knew the Lord had the
power to heal simply by speaking. He didn't have to be there, simply
by speaking. This man knew about the authority
of the word that came from somebody in authority. When he told soldiers
to go there, they did it. When he told soldiers to do this,
they did it. I mean, they didn't question him, they did it immediately.
Just because that centurion spoke. Well, you just think what's going
to happen when the Lord speaks. When the Lord speaks and says,
let there be light, there's light. When the Lord says, let the dry
land appear, it appears. Whatever the Lord speaks is so,
because he has all authority. He doesn't just have a little
bit of authority like this centurion. He has all authority. And this man knew that. He knew
all his servant needed was for the Lord of glory to say the
word and he'd be healed. Roman soldiers, Obey this centurion's
command without hesitation. But all of creation, all of creation
obeys the commandment of God. Germs we cannot see obey his
command. The weather obeys his command.
This man has the power to stop the wind and the waves. This
man has the power to turn the hearts of men, whether it's whoever
he will, just at his word. Now here, if you've been here
very much, you've noticed this. We preach the word of God, normally
verse by verse. And I'll tell you why we do that.
You know, it doesn't really matter if you know the thoughts of men. You know, when I study, I do,
I read the thoughts of men and I highly respect, but, and I've
got some thoughts on those things that don't really matter much
to me. It doesn't really matter about the creeds of men, how
they relate to our religion. But I'll tell you this, you'll
be saved if you hear the Word of God. You hear it and believe
it, you'll be saved. Salvation comes from the Word
of God. The Holy Spirit uses the Word
of God as the seed to give life to his people. And all we need
to preach is the unadulterated Word of God. Thus saith the Lord. I was talking with Pastor Paul
Mahan last week. We were preaching together at
a Bible conference and I was telling him about a situation
and just wondering, Paul, what would you do if you were in this
situation? And this is what he said. I'd
do absolutely nothing. I'd do absolutely nothing. That's
what he said. I'd do absolutely nothing. He
said, if the word of God doesn't do it, it doesn't matter what
you and me say. We preach the word, and God will
ever let you hear. Thus saith the Lord, you'll be
saved. Look at 2 Timothy chapter 4. See, God's word has the power
to save. Only the word has the power to
give life. God sends his word to direct
the hearts of his people. to feed and comfort His people. It's the Word. 2 Timothy chapter
4. When I read these epistles to Timothy,
I think about my mentor and pastor, Brother Henry. He would write
me letters often after he moved down there to Rocky Mountain.
I was always glad to get those letters. And I just imagine Timothy
felt the same way about Paul, don't you reckon? This is serious
business. This is a serious relationship
between these two men. And not only is he writing a
letter, this is under inspiration of the Holy Spirit. Look what
the Apostle Paul says to this young preacher. St. Timothy 4
verse 1. I charge thee, therefore, before
God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and
the dead at his appearing in his kingdom. Boy, I bet that
got Timothy's attention, don't you reckon? Look what Paul says
next. Timothy, preach the word. Preach
the Word. Preach the Word. Preach the Word.
Be instant, in season, out of season, reprove, rebuke, exhort
with all long-suffering and doctrine. Preach the Word, Timothy. Preach
the Word. In every situation, preach the
Word. When you're preaching to the
lost, preach the Word of God. It's the only thing that'll save
them. When you preach to the saved, preach the Word of God. Tell them what God says. It's
the children's bread. When you preach to the brokenhearted,
to the suffering, God's suffering children, I'll tell you what
to do. Preach the word. God said, comfort ye, comfort
ye my people. How do we do that? Well, the
Lord told us, you tell them the warfare's over, the battle's
won, victory's won. You tell them God will give them
double for all their sin. Comfort their hearts and preach
the gospel to them. Remind God's suffering children
one more time of all the promises of God, His mercy and His grace. You know, when our brethren suffer,
we ought to go to them. We ought to let them know we're
thinking about them. We're praying for them. We care
about them. And that'll be nice. You know, as far as that goes,
that'll mean something to them. Somebody cares about them. But
God's word, oh no, that'll comfort the heart. God's promises will
comfort the heart. When you preach to the brokenhearted,
preach the word. And what about when you preach to the joyful?
Oh, God's blessed them. God's given them some wonderful
thing. Tell you what to do. Preach the
word. He's the one who gave the joy, isn't he? Preach the word. Preach it on Thanksgiving. Just
stick to the word. Just stick to the word. And you
can't go wrong. There's no error in this word.
It's pure truth. so we can hang our very souls
upon it. Just preach the word. And saving
faith only wants God's word. You know, when you preach to
the lost, just like I said, preach the word of God to them. Don't
try to get them to stick around by whatever else, fill in the
blank, all the psychology, you know, people do do that. Just
preach the word of God to them. If they're gods, you won't be
able to run them off. that saving faith only wants the word of
God, only wants the word of God. I mean, people got some, some
great ideas about things. I always want to ask, do you
got a scripture for that? I mean, it sounds wonderful.
You got a scripture for that? I mean, did we just make that
up? You got a scripture for that? Saving faith only wants the word
Christ, the incarnate word and Christ, the written word. That's
all saving faith means. Thus sayeth the Lord. Right,
here's the fourth thing. Saving faith is rare. Verse 10, 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. A saving faith is rare, is a
rare gift of God. And the Lord himself, who knows
all things, who sees all things, made this statement. I've not
found this kind of faith among the Jews. They had the Word of
God read to them every Saturday. I've not found this kind of faith
among the Jews, but I found this great faith in this Gentile man.
That's rare, isn't it? Rare. God gave him a rare gift. And many, many people are religious. Many people try to be moral,
but few people have faith in Christ. As a matter of fact,
nobody has faith in Christ by nature. Few people believe Christ. As a matter of fact, nobody believes
Christ by nature. Many people are religious, but
few people come to Christ. Few people do. It's because this
gift of faith is precious. It's rare. You'll find few people
who are willing to leave the rags of their own righteousness,
the things that they've done, that they think God would be
happy with them for. You'll find few people willing
to leave those things in the trash and trust Christ alone.
Few. You'll find few people who are
willing to have no other hope of salvation but Christ alone. They want to help out. Few people
are willing to do that and nobody will do it unless the Spirit
reveals Christ to us. Oh, you'll find many people who
are willing to go to different religious functions and different
things. You'll find a lot of people willing to put up 10 commandments
in their front yard. You'll find people. But you'll
find few people willing to come to Christ. Few people. And nobody
will unless the Spirit of God draws them to Christ. No man
can come unto me. He doesn't have the ability to
come. Not only does he not have the desire to, he doesn't have the
ability to come to Christ, unless my father would send me drawing.
Saving faith is rare. I know we don't want to say,
oh, this person's lost, and this person's lost. You kind of just
want to say, oh, people, they're saved. They know the Lord. They
know Jesus. Now, wait a minute. Wait a minute. Let's not make this thing broader
than what God does. That's dangerous, isn't it? Don't
go around saying everybody. Don't fall into that trap. That's not the right attitude.
But saving faith is rare. It's rare. And that ought to
make us a whole lot more thankful when we see the genuine article.
That'll make us so much more thankful. The Lord gave it. Oh, that's a marvel. The Lord
himself, who is the one that gave that man faith, marveled
at it. Now you think of that. We should
do, don't you think? It's a rare gift, precious gift. Then, saving faith, fifthly,
is absolutely necessary for salvation. Verse 11, And I say unto you
that many shall come from the east and west, and should sit
down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
But the children of the kingdom should be cast out into outer
darkness. There should be weeping and gnashing
of teeth. Now, if you would be saved, you, you must believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Somebody else can't do it for
you. You must do it. Being religious won't help you
now. Being moral, more moral than your neighbor, that won't
help you. Depending on who your neighbor
is, it may not be too hard to be more moral than your neighbor.
I don't know, but it won't help you. Joining the right denomination,
that won't help you. Remember, few people have faith
in Christ. There are many religious people,
and our Lord said many, many will be cast into hell, into
outer darkness. Now you must believe Christ in
order to be saved. You must believe Christ. Did
you hear me? Christ. Christ. Salvation is
all Christ. Without faith in Christ, it's
impossible to please God because the Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one who ever did please God. You can go to hell doing
your best to keep the law. And you know what? We ought to
do our best to keep the law. You can go to hell doing your
best to keep the law, but you can't go to hell believing Christ.
It's impossibility. You can go to hell believing
the right doctrine and being from the right denomination,
but you cannot go to hell believing Christ. Can't be done. See, you
must believe Christ and God must give you that faith. He must
give it. All right, here's the last thing. Saving faith will
be satisfied. Saving faith will receive what
it hopes for. Verse 13. And Jesus said unto
the centurion, go thy way as thou hast believed so be it done
unto thee. And his servant was healed in
the selfsame hour. This centurion believed Christ
is able. He believed Christ was all he
needed. And you know what? He got what he hoped for. His
servant was healed. And not some day, right now,
he was healed. And everyone who believes Christ
for all their salvation, everybody who trusts their soul to Christ,
they will get what their soul desires. They're going to know
Christ now. In this life, they're going to
know Christ. They're going to walk with Christ now. And in
the very moment, we're going to look at this in the message
this morning, they're not going to receive everything in this
life that their faith hopes for, that their faith expects. But
in the very moment that they close their eyes in death in
this life, they're going to awake in glory in the likeness of Christ. and they will instantly and eternally
have everything they hope for. And in that moment and throughout
eternity even, you know, it's not going to matter. It's not
going to matter what I did or didn't do. It's not going to
matter what I had or what I did not have as long as I had God-given
faith. And I know I have in my notes
here that sometimes we consider our faith to be weak. The believer
always considers their faith to be weak. I mean, if we ever
think, oh, right now I got strong faith, I can promise you we're
fixing the fault. You know, if we have a right
understanding of ourselves and the situation, a believer never
thinks they have strong faith. It's never as strong as we'd
like for it to be. But if our faith is in Christ,
the weakest, youngest believer has great faith. Because it's
faith in a great Savior. Sooner or later, God's gonna
give them just what they had been expecting by faith. Eternal
life with Christ our Savior. What a blessing that'll be, won't
it? All right, I'll go over and bless that to you.