We're going to look at verses,
I'm going to start reading in verse 5 and go to verse 13. Matthew chapter 8, verses 5 through
18. And when Jesus was entered into
Capernaum, there came unto Him a centurion, beseeching him and
saying, Lord, my servant lies at home sick of the palsy, grievously
tormented. And Jesus said unto him, I will
come and heal him. The centurion answered and said,
Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but
speak the word only and my servant shall be healed. For I am as
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 does it." When Jesus
heard it, heard this explanation, he marveled and said unto them
that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great
faith, no, not in Israel. 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, and there
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said unto
the centurion, Go thy way, as thou hast believed, so it be
done unto thee. And his servant was healed in
the selfsame hour." Now this is remarkable for several reasons,
but I want us to consider this miracle in several ways. First, as an answer to prayer, but whose
prayer It was. Whose prayer is it? This is obviously
an answer to prayer. It was a centurion. He was not
an Israelite. He was an alien, says Paul, the
commonwealth of Israel. He was a Roman. He was a Gentile. Yes, the record still stands
true May God be true and every man a liar. In Romans 10, verse
12, he says, for there is no difference between the Jew and
the Greek. For the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon Him. And in Romans 11, I say
then, hath God cast away His people? God forbid. For I, says
Paul, am also an Israelite of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe
of Benjamin. Hath God not cast away his people,
which he foreknew? Wilt ye not that the scriptures
saith of Elias how he maketh intercession to God against Israel,
saying, Lord, they have killed thy prophets, and dig down thine
altars, and I am left alone, and they seek my life? But what
saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself
seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to the image of
Baal. Even so, at this present time, also there is a remnant
according to the election of grace. And if it be by grace,
then it is no more works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then it is no more grace. Otherwise,
work is no more work. Verse 13, for I speak unto you
Gentiles, and as much as I am the apostle of the Gentiles,
I magnify mine office. If by any means I may provoke
to immolation them which are my flesh, and might save some
of them. For if the casting away of them, Israelites, be of the
reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be
but life from dead? For if the first fruits be holy,
the lump is also holy, and if the root be holy, so also are
the branches. And if some of the branches be
broken off, Israel, and thou, being a wild olive branch, Gentiles,
Romans, Centurion's servant, were grafted in among them, and
with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree,
Boast not against the branches, but if thou boast, thou bearest
not the root, but the root thee." And in John chapter 6, and in
verse 37, he says, And all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. all at the Father. This is kind
of like I was thinking about, this is kind of like that message
that I think Darwin preached, that whosoever, whosoever gospel. This is an answer to prayer.
Consider this, it's an answer to prayer. This man was no Israelite
and he came to Christ anyway. And evidently, Christ received
them. Second thing to consider in this
passage, what was this prayer? What was this prayer? What was,
who was it for? It was not even for himself,
the centurion, this Roman soldier that he petitioned the Lord for,
but for his slave. It's worded here, it's a servant.
It's his servant. It's not even for himself. It's
not even for his own children. It seems to suggest, as God does
in other places, God does not refuse any who come unto Him
with heart, sincerity, and humility, which are God-given graces, so
He will not refuse any addresses to Him on account of others. Now this is encouraging to me. Do you have parents that don't
know Christ? Do you have children? neighbors,
friends who don't know Christ. This encourages me. This man
is not petitioning and not pleading for himself, but for someone
else. And he has an audience. He has
an audience. Neighbors, fathers, mothers,
our children, neighbors, friends, Turn with me to James chapter
1. Are we not commanded to pray for others? Their healing, their
spiritual healing? James chapter 1 verses 5 through
7. If any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth
not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, not
wavering, for he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven
with the wind and tossed. And let not that man think that
he shall receive anything of the Lord." This man did not waver.
He went to the Lord, he petitioned
Him, Now, God does not bow. I'm going to put it this way.
God is not under our beck and call. However, if it's God giving
faith, He listens every time. So basically, we pray so often
without faith. And you know how I feel about
the promises. There's promises in here for us, perhaps for other
people. I firmly believe that. I firmly
believe that. I could go into that, but it
could be controversial, so I won't do it. Just to say faith is a
gift of God, and whatever faith He's given you is a gift from
Him, and stand on that. Stand on that. Move mountains. James 5. James 5. Verses 14 and
15. James 5. Verses 14 and 15. is any sick among you, let him
call for the elders of the church, and let him pray over him, anointing
him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith
shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. And
if he hath committed any sins, they shall be forgiven him."
Pray the prayer of faith. That's God-given faith. I know
what the world says. I know what the churches down
and up the street say. Prayer changes things. It does
not change God's providential, sovereign decrees that He established
before we were ever born. What prayer does is gets us in
line, in tune, and causes us to submit. Thy will be done. That's what the Lord taught His
disciples to pray. Thy will be done. So we pray, Lord, save
this, our child, this, that. Your will be done. It's up to
Him to do so or not. So back to our text. The third
thing I want us to consider as of Christ, Christ's act of condescension. Christ, we know, scripturally
concludes that He was higher than the angels, or He's higher
than anything that was created. He spoke and the worlds were.
He is King. He's majestic. The heavens are
not clean in His sight, says Joel 15, 15. All are and will
be bowed at His feet in that great day. There's not anything
that will not bow to His grace, His glory, His majesty. Yet,
here He comes unto His own creation, and immediately heals a servant
of a Gentile." Now remember, this is just Matthew chapter
8. This is just the beginning of
His ministry, and He immediately shows compassion, shows humility. He always went about doing good,
the Scripture says. He was one to suffer for the
people and lay down His life. The Scripture says a ransom for
many. This is why He came. He's Lord of all. He's God over
all. Blessed forever. And yet, He
became flesh and blood. You could turn, you don't have
to, but 1 Samuel chapter 30 tells the importance of a slave. The
story is, David and his men are pursuing the enemies. And they come across a man. He's
half-dead, starving. He's left for dead. And he's
a slave. And he says, I'm a slave of a Moabitess. It was one of those kind of situations,
if you want to turn and look at it and start reading verse
11. He was abandoned by his owners, left to die a slow, painful death. David said, let's get him food,
raisins, they gave him nourishment, and then he helped them capture
the people. But they just left him there.
He's just a slave. He's just a servant. Some people
treat dogs, some people treat animals, cats, and unfortunately,
some people treat other humans. Our Lord Jesus Christ, yet the
Son of Man, showing wonderful and astonishing compassion on
this servant, this slave, this property, you could say. This property. Oh, amazing, free,
sovereign grace, fully undeserved, yet fully extended and fully
successful. Look at what the, in verse 8,
look at what the Master says when Christ says, I'm going to
come and heal. He says, I'm not worthy that you come under My
house. But just speak the Word only. I'm not even worthy. And
I know if the servant's not worthy, the slave's not worthy. If I'm
not worthy and I'm over him, there's grace in that heart. Was he born with it? Is it just
a little seed? And as he got older, he got more
mature? No. It's the grace that only
can come from the Lord Jesus Christ, by God the Father and
by God the Holy Spirit. So you can't pull these things
out like it's done so often in religion and say, well, look,
it shows free will. This does, I guess, if you think
that, that you don't understand the Scriptures. I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy. Let alone my servant. Do we not
hear the sweet sound of grace dispensed and faith's action? all secured by what Christ executed
on Calvary's tree. He's a lamb slain before the
foundation of the world. So he wasn't slain yet. He was
in the eyes of God, in the mind of God. He was the lamb slain
from before the foundation of the world. Nextly, consider this also of
Christ. What power. What power He displayed. If this centurion came to one
of his friends and told him, he would hear, I will come and
sit with you for a while. That's all I could do. If the
centurion had a minister, the minister would say, I will come
and pray with you for a while. If this was the centurion's position,
he would say, I will come and administer some sort of prescribed
relief. But Christ says in verse 7, I
will come and heal him. He's the only one that could
speak with such authority that the waves obeyed his command,
the demons obeyed his commands, and diseases obeyed his command. I will come. What a word to hear. When the gospel is preached,
that's what he does. He does. I will heal him all,
in him is all sufficiency, in him is all mercy, in him is all
grace, in him is all remedy. I repeat, sufficiency, mercy,
grace, and remedy only found in Christ. And look at what he says in verse
8, the Solicitorian says, he understands, but speak, speak
the word only. That's what I'm doing right now.
That's what I'm doing. I'm just speaking, I'm reading
what this book says. That's what we saw last Wednesday at the siege of Jericho. What did they do? They just went
around, went around, went around, went around, and they shouted
and shouted. That's, make noise. So when you
go to your neighbor's house, make noise, the gospel noise.
Just tell them, what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? Just keep on, it may take days,
weeks, months, we've been here years and we still have, that's
fine. What are you responsible for?
What am I responsible for? I'm responsible to tell the truth,
what I know about God. So it doesn't make any difference
how many times I've got to go around, circle the building. Just keep
doing it. But that's not... I know religion wants to see
the hoopla, they want to see the bands, they want to see music,
they want to see all this stuff that has nothing to do with worship.
They want something to happen. They've got these big screens.
Let the potsherds of this earth strive with the potsherds of
this earth. That's all they are. The religion of Cain can do no
more. But this, our Lord, Preach it. Speak the word only. Preach it.
That's enough. Christ knows that this is enough.
As this centurion knew right well himself. He said, verse
9, I'm a man under authority. I say this to this person. He
does it even to my servants. They do that. He knew that. Isn't it amazing how life mimics
grace, if I could say it that way, these examples? We see it. The world doesn't see it. Oh,
look at how this happened. This is lucky that Christ came
into this now. His steps were ordered before
the foundation of the world. There's no such thing. This man
was in tune with the Gospel. This man was in tune with grace.
This man was in tune with Christ. Everything and everyone is under
His control. And so therefore, let our hearts
not be troubled." This world is so troubling. It's so aggravating. It's so frustrating. You can't
believe anything. What you hear, for sure, just
turn it off. You can't believe it. It's nonsense. and everyone is under his control,
let not your heart be troubled." And Christ spoke those words
when he was getting ready to leave. They'd been with him for
three, three and a half years, whatever. And all of a sudden,
he's like, no, we don't, we can't do this. We can't do this. Bruce and I tried to, when the
pastor left us all split up and beat up, we're like, we can't
do this. We're not smart enough. We're
not brave enough. And then, you've got nowhere
to go. The Lord says, I made your tongue.
Okay. I made your mouth. Okay. I gave
you faith. Okay. Onward, Christian soldiers. Just go forward. Just go forward. Let us see here this morning
what this centurion saw and sees, he saw the complete total ability
of Jehovah God. It wasn't in his ability, it
wasn't the fact that he came and he didn't bring up his faith,
Christ brought up his faith. You know, I see all these things
sometimes on television, you know, well, my faith, it did
it, my faith, it is, you know, it's the faith of God's elect,
you know, the faith of Christ, he says in many places, of, shows
origin. Yes, He gives it to us. It's
ours in a sense, I guess you could say that. The centurion
was not looking at his faith. All he was concerned with was,
I've got a need, a friend, a slave, a servant in need, and here's
the Redeemer. You see, the Gospel, people over-complicate
it. Do you have a need? It's desperate. There is a Redeemer. Let us see, as this centurion
saw, Christ's ability to redeem, Christ's ability to rescue, Christ's
ability to restore, Christ's ability to give necessary righteousness
that God will accept, Christ's ability to give complete pardon. Lastly, in this text here, let
us consider this miracle as it shows an emblem of salvation.
We, like this servant, are sick, unable to right our wrongs, to
heal ourselves, and we have fallen in Adam's transgression. But
Christ comes to willingly heal and redeem, all by Himself, no
assistance needed. It says in Luke 19, He came to
seek and to save the lost. Are you lost? He brings health
and cure. He secures meritorious standing,
not our standing, but His merit to us through His death. He efficiently cleanses every
wit. He affords us fellowship with
Him and His people. He heals completely. Yet, this
servant was healed and He continued to serve. And He continued to
grow. And we continue to grow in grace.
Now we don't get progressively, we don't, there's not progressive
sanctification here. He sanctified, we're sanctified. He's made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification. As God looks on us, we're as
holy as the sun. That's difficult, but that's
what the scripture says. But we do grow in grace. It's
like I said time and time again, you know, you go to Silver Dollar
City and there's that guy Whittling. And when you go in, And he gets
a stick and he comes back after six or eight hours of spending
all day at Silver Lion City, and it's starting to look like
something. And that's us. That's us. He completely heals. And you know He'll never leave
us to ourselves, but through chastening and affliction, He'll
bring forth, as the Scripture says, a vessel fitted for the
fighter or fitted unto glory. He will mold us as our heavenly
potter and present us as the Scriptures faultless before the
presence of His glory with joy. And that's what I'm going to
close with. That was Jude 24. Then right after that, in Jude
25, He says, to the only wise God our Savior, be glory and
majesty, Dominion and power, both now and ever. He has. He has all these things. Be glory. The only wise God,
our Savior. The word be is in italics, so
it's implied, but you could say the only wise God, our Savior,
glory, it's a statement, majesty, dominion, and power. Right now, though the world doesn't
see it, and forever. And that's what we believe. We
believe it will be even as He has said. What a glorious Savior
we worship. He's marvelous indeed, and He's
done it for us, for His people. That's amazing. Bruce, would
you close us?