Well, I want to start by asking
you a question this morning, not just you here, but anybody
listening to this. Do you have faith? Do you have
faith? I imagine many will say yes. But if yes, what sort of faith
is it? Faith means all things to all
people. There's a huge spectrum of what
people mean by faith. I mean, at one extreme, even
the unbeliever, the humanist unbeliever, has a certain optimism
in human nature, and therefore it's a sort of faith. They have
faith. You have Islamic extremism that
leads to the most outrageous acts of terrorism. And it's done
in the name of faith. There's Anglo-Catholic mysticism. You know, there's no gospel in
it. There's all sorts of icons and symbols and all sorts of
other things like that. But lots of people say they have
that as their faith. Oh, I have my faith, even if
they don't go to those churches. For the charismatic, for the
Pentecostal, faith is the key to God working. Faith is that
sort of blind trust, that groundless optimism that you have to have
that the cancer's going to be healed, or that the site's going
to be restored, or that the lame is going to walk. And the only
reason the lame doesn't walk, they will tell you, you didn't
have enough faith. Or if only you'd had more faith,
God would have honored that. It's a bargaining chip with God
to the charismatic, is that kind of faith. There's the Arminian's
faith. You know, the one who thinks
that the gospel is determined by the free will of the sinner.
And they have their free will works faith. where salvation
is God's reward for your work. You, compared to others who rejected,
you said, oh, all right then, I'll believe, I'll come down
to the front, I'll put my hand up, I'll pray the penitent's
prayer. This is Arminian free will works
faith. And then there's the reformed
faith, which is really a legal bondage faith. It's a submission
to having the shackles put back on of the law. And none of them
bear any true comparison to the true faith that the scriptures
speak about. The scriptures, Christ spoke
lots about faith. You see, it's not the amount
of faith that you have, that we pray increase our faith as
the disciples did, but it's the quality of that faith. Is it
true faith, or is it one of these other false faiths? Jesus said
this in Luke 17 verse 6, if you have faith by which he meant
true faith, as a grain of mustard seed, the tiniest of the seeds. If you have faith as a grain
of mustard seed, and he goes on to give all sorts of examples
in the different accounts of that saying, of what would be
possible. You'll move a mountain, you'll
pluck this tree up. Speaking metaphorically, It's
the quality of that faith. Is it the true faith of the gospel
of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is it that faith, as opposed
to all the other faiths, religious or non-religious, of this world? I want to turn your attention
to Luke chapter 7 and the first 10 verses. And I just want to
read those with you now. Luke chapter 7 and the first
10 verses. and uh... this is speaking of
jesus now when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of
the people he entered into companion 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. 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 am not worthy that thou shouldst 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 to one,
go, and he goeth. And to another, come, and he
cometh. And to my servant, do this, and he doeth it. 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. Here is a man of whom Jesus said
he hadn't seen greater faith in all Israel. Great faith. That's the title of the message.
And who is this man? Who is this man in Israel in
the time of Jesus? Who is this man? He's a Gentile,
not a Jew. He's a Roman soldier. He's a
member of the occupying forces. You know, just think how some
living in France, northern France, in 1942 regarded the German soldiers
that were there. There probably wasn't a great
deal of affection, mostly. This was a member of the occupying
armed forces, and Jesus said of him, here's a man in whom
I have not seen greater faith in all of Israel. He was in Capernaum,
and this is a place on the northwest shore of the Lake of Galilee.
and uh... many miracles have been performed
there and much of Jesus's ministry was done there and in chapter
seven he'd just finished the sermon on the mount and it says
when he'd ended all of his sayings he entered into Capernaum he's
just been teaching you know we get the much fuller account in
Matthew's gospel five six and seven and there's a lot there
what says what says we should believe his teaching The answer? In the earthly ministry of Christ,
His miracles. His miracles were signs of authentication. That He was who He said He was.
That His Word was true. That He was bringing a message
from on high. These were miracles of authentication. Authentication of the Word spoken. Authentication of the Word incarnate. The Word made flesh. Let's think
about this man for a moment. This man. A certain centurion. I like that in the scriptures.
It speaks of God's distinguishing sovereign grace. A certain. There were plenty of centurions.
Plenty of them. But here was a certain centurion. Singled out by the grace of God.
Oh, that's not fair. You better bow to it. God is
sovereign. The God of the universe is sovereign.
The God of the universe can show his grace to whomsoever he will. Show me your glory. I will be
compassionate on whom I will be compassionate. I will have
mercy on whom I will have mercy, said God to Moses. This is a
certain centurion, a Roman soldier, an officer, in charge of a hundred
men, hence the name, a centurion. and he was attended by a servant. And verse five, look at the testimony
of the Jews. This is the Jews all around him.
the people that he lived with, the people that he controlled
and applied Roman law to. And they said of him, this wasn't
his testimony of himself, they said of this invading soldier,
this occupying soldier, this Gentile who wasn't one of the,
they said, he loves our nation and he's built us a synagogue.
They thought he was a pretty decent guy. They thought he was
a very, very good guy to have around. He loves our nation.
He's built us a synagogue. He's not like many Roman centurions,
of which there were many. There were many Roman centurions
in the occupying force in this part of the world in those days.
What made the difference with this one? Why did this one love
our nation? Why did this one build them out
of his resources a synagogue? Why did he do that? I can only
think of one reason, and I'm sure it's true. It was grace. It was the grace of God. It was
Holy Spirit revelation to this Gentile soldier. He loved the
scriptures. He must have done. Why else did
he build a synagogue? Do you know what the synagogue
was? It was the house where the scriptures were taught in the
Jewish religion of those days. The synagogue, it was where the
scriptures were taught. It wasn't the temple. The animal
sacrifices were at the temple. That all went on at the temple.
The picture of redemption was at the temple, but in the synagogue,
the word of God was taught. And you know in the Word of God,
what was the Word of God they had? The Old Testament scriptures. The final addition to these scriptures
had been 400 years before, with Malachi. 400 years before, the
canon of Old Testament scripture was closed. And what do those
Old Testament scriptures speak of? Jesus said, these are they
which speak of me. This Roman soldier, I believe,
knew something of the grace of God. He knew something of the
salvation of God. He knew something of that which
God had promised in his word. Why else would he build them
a synagogue? Why else would he do this? Why else did he love
our nation? He was clearly a compassionate
man. He had a desire to see the truth
taught. He must have had this revelation
of the gospel that was implicit in the Old Testament. And he
had a belief of the truth. I think this is clear by the
gift of faith it must be by the gift of faith because anyone
who has faith you know it's not of yourselves it is the gift
of God and he'd been humbled here's another thing that tells
me this he'd been humbled by God's word look at verse six
look at the second half he says when he sends messengers he says
don't don't come I'm not worthy that you should enter under my
roof Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come to you."
But you're a Roman soldier. You're not just a Roman soldier,
you're a centurion. You're an officer of the Roman
army. You have legal jurisdiction over this area. You're in charge
and your soldiers enforce the Roman law. and you're not worthy. Who's told him he's not worthy?
Everything said he was very worthy. Who told him he wasn't worthy?
The Spirit of God told him he wasn't worthy. The Spirit of
God humbled this man. The Spirit of God convicted this
man of sin. The Spirit of God showed this
man his true place in the light of God's holiness. You know that
holiest of men in the Old Testament? I know I keep repeating it, but
it doesn't hurt, does it? You know, thought he was holy. He was, compared with men. God
said to Satan, have you seen anybody like him? He eschews
evil, there's none like him. And he went through his life
with all that suffering that God allowed Satan to inflict
upon him. And his friend said, it must be something you've done,
because God wouldn't punish you like this if you were holy like
you claim to be. And he kept saying, that's not
fair, that's not fair. I'm at least as good as all of
you. And it gets to the end. And he sees who God really is. I've heard of you with the ear,
but now I see. Mine eye sees. And his answer? I'm not worthy. I abhor myself
and I repent in sackcloth, in dust and ashes. This man, I believe,
had God-given faith. And it was working. It was faith
that worked. Because why did they say, he
loves our nation? It worked in acts of kindness
and compassion and generosity. No doubt he was responsible for
the administration of Roman justice, but he did it with fairness and
justice to the society that he was placed to oversee. What other
than true faith made this certain centurion so different from the
norm? And he had a servant. This man's
servant, it says in verse two, was dear to him. This servant,
you know, master-servant relationship. Oh, it's not fair, there shouldn't
be one master, and that's what modern thinking would say, isn't
it? You know, why should one be the master and the other one
the servant? Let's all have an egalitarian society where everybody's
got exactly the same status and role. No, no, he had a servant,
but the servant was dear to him. Each had their respective place.
Each had their respective role. One was the appointed Roman centurion,
responsible for administering justice and governing his soldiers. And the other had responsibility
to serve him. They both had their duties, but
there was true respectful affection between them. Because this centurion
knew what he was in relation to God, his master. He knew that
he had a master, and therefore he treated his servant with due
respect. As Paul would write several years later to the Colossians,
after the ascension of Christ, many years later, he wrote to
the Colossians, masters, give unto your servants that which
is just and equal. Why? knowing this that you also
have a master in heaven this centurion knew that and therefore
he was kind and generous and compassionate and fair to his
servant they did wasn't soft but he was fair and generous
to his servant and he loved him dearly because he was a faithful
servant and he was sick and he was close to death close to death
he was certainly going to die and to the centurion Well, he's
just going to get another servant, isn't he? You know, servants
get sick and die. What does that matter? No. There's
a heart of compassion here. This was a matter of anguish
and grief to the centurion. And in verse three we read, when
he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him. He heard of this man, Jesus. He heard of Jesus. He heard of
a man who was teaching the Sermon on the Mount. He heard of a man
who was teaching. How did they say he taught? With
authority, and not as the scribes and Pharisees. Here was a man
who was teaching, whose teaching was in an altogether different
league than those of the other teachers around him. Here was
a man who was teaching of whom he'd heard, and the crowds were
flocking to hear him. The crowds wanted to be near
Jesus, hear and hearing his words, and hearing him speak, and hearing
him preach. And he heard of Jesus performing
miracles of healing. He heard of Jesus doing everything
that verse 22 says. Look down a bit further in chapter
7, verse 22. In answer to the request of the
disciples of John, who John sent, John the Baptist sent to him.
Jesus answering said unto them, go your way and tell John what
things ye have seen and heard, how that the blind see, the lame
walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised,
to the poor the gospel is preached, and blessed is he, whosoever
shall not be offended in me." He'd seen that, he'd heard that,
that Jesus was performing those miracles of authentication, and
he knew the Old Testament scriptures. He must have done. Why else build
a synagogue? Because it was the place of scripture
teaching. He built a synagogue for them. And he must have known
their scriptures. And he knew that as Jesus said
to the Samaritan woman, salvation is of the Jews. He, a Gentile,
knew that salvation was of the Jews. What do I mean by salvation?
How to be right with God for eternity. How to deal with this
issue? How can a man be just with God
for it's appointed to die, to man to die once and then the
judgment? How can I be right with God?
Salvation is of the Jews. He knew that, that the Old Testament
scriptures contained the gospel of grace, of reconciliation,
of redemption. Which scriptures would he know?
I have no idea. whether he knew all of them or
little. But if he knew nothing other
than the book of Isaiah, he would know enough. And if he knew nothing
other than a few verses from the book of Isaiah, why do I
choose the book of Isaiah? It happens to be the scroll of
Isaiah that the Ethiopian eunuch was reading in his chariot when
Philip came to him. You know, that's just the reason,
why pick one out? Because the gospel is so clear
in the book of Isaiah. If he only knew this, Isaiah
35, verses 1 to 6. Listen while I read this. They
shall see the glory of the Lord and the excellency of our God
at some time in the future. Strengthen ye the weak hands
and confirm the feeble knees. You weak flesh, take courage. Say to them that are of a fearful
heart. This is God speaking. Be strong. Fear not. Behold,
your God will come with vengeance. Even God with a recompense. He
will come and save you. This man will have heard that
being taught in the synagogue. God is coming. The true God is
coming to save his people. What do they need to be saved
from? He knew what the law said. He knew how the law condemned.
He knew that The law talked about the Old Testament sacrifices
to picture the necessary redemption of sin, the necessary atonement
of sin. But God is coming to save you. And when he comes, what's going
to happen? When he comes, what's going to happen? Then the eyes
of the blind shall be opened. and the years of the death shall
be unstopped. Then shall the lame man leap
as an heart, as a deer, and the tongue of the dumb sing, for
in the wilderness shall waters break out and streams in the
desert. When God comes to save Deaf people
are going to hear. Miracles are going to be performed.
Jesus said, go tell John. All these things are happening.
The scripture is being fulfilled. He'd heard of Jesus. He knew
the scriptures. Is this the one? Is this the
one who was coming? Isaiah 45, that we read earlier. Just verses 20 to 25. Listen. God says, assemble yourselves
and come. Draw near together. ye that are
escaped of the nations is that referring to gentiles like this
gentile roman soldier ye that are escaped of the nations if
he knew the scriptures he would have known which the pharisees
in the days of jesus didn't seem to know that the scriptures talked
about the salvation of the gentiles of gentiles being amongst that
number that number of the elect of god that no man can number
escape from the nations. Then he says, they have no knowledge
that set up the wood of their graven image and pray unto a
God that cannot save, idolatry, all around, falsehood. Tell ye
and bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who hath told it from that time?
Have not I, the Lord? and there is no God else beside
me, a just God and a Savior?" Do you know I'm convinced this
is the words of the Lord Jesus Christ speaking to that gentleman.
He heard of Jesus and when Jesus stood and preached this is effectively
what he was saying, what Isaiah had said he would say. There
is no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior. Jesus, Jehovah,
Jesus, our Savior, a just God, whose justice must be preserved,
and a Savior of sinners who have broken the justice of God. There
is none beside me. There isn't another God. There
isn't God in heaven and another God. There's the Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, one God, and Christ is that one God. Look
unto me. Look unto whom? Look unto Jesus. Look unto me. and be ye saved
in a look as there was a as there was salvation from snake venom
in that look at the brazen serpent in numbers twenty one is it when
they said when Moses set up the brazen serpent on a pole and
they had to look look unto me says Jesus look unto me and be
ye saved who? Jews only? No all ye ends of
the earth God so loved the world, a world without distinction of
race or color or language. For I am God, he says, and there
is none else I have sworn by myself. Who else could he swear
by? There is none greater. The word
has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return without
being fulfilled. That unto me every knee shall
bow. What did Paul write to the Philippians?
At the name of, we sing the hymn, at the name of Jesus, every knee
shall bow. That unto me, unto God, at the
name of Jesus, every knee shall bow. Every tongue shall swear
and confess, let God be just, let God be true, let every man
be alike. God is true. Surely shall one
say, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Our Lord Jesus
Christ is the Lord. Pursue holiness without which
no man shall see the Lord. Where am I going to have righteousness?
In the Lord I have righteousness and strength. Even to Him shall
men come. and all that are incensed against
him shall be ashamed. Do you notice what it said in
verse 23 of Luke 7 that Jesus said to go and tell John and
blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended in me. I think
we might be back looking at that in coming messages. In the Lord
shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory. That's particular redemption.
That's effectual redemption. That's redemption accomplished.
In the Lord, in this one, shall all the seed of Israel, the elect
of God, be justified. Why? For he shall bear their
iniquities, he shall pay their sin price. This man, this centurion,
he hears, he knows some scripture, he maybe just knew these two
scriptures. Is this Jesus of whom he's hearing, the one of
whom the scriptures are speaking, were speaking? Is this God come
to save his people, to fulfill all righteousness, to take his
people's sin debt, to discharge it, how far? To the uttermost. as far as is necessary, as far
as is possible. Could this Jesus be the Christ? Could this man, Jesus of Nazareth,
of whom they were speaking, could he be the Christ? As again, several
years later, when the Apostle Paul was ministering, Acts chapter
17 verse 3, what was he at pains to point out? That this Jesus
whom I preach unto you is the Christ of whom the Scriptures
spoke, is the promised Messiah that the Old Testament said would
come to save his people. The Old Testament Scriptures
said this, God is coming as a man to redeem his elect, to buy back
his elect from the slavery of sin out of all nations. This
is the world that God so loved, a world including a Roman centurion,
a Roman soldier, He will have taken comfort from this. Coming
as the spotless Lamb of God that the Passover required, the Passover
sacrifice, the sin bearer, the just one, coming to redeem those
who are unjust. I'm not worthy for you to come
under my roof. The reality, is this the reality? Is this Jesus the reality of
which the temple sacrifices of which the scriptures speak were
but pictures? I wonder if he ever went and
stood in the court of the Gentiles outside the temple as the sacrifices
were enacted. These were just but pictures.
But is this the one who really came to redeem from the curse
of the law, bearing the sins of his people as a substitute? As John the Baptist asked, in
verse 19, are you he that should come, or should we look for another? I'm sure that this man, by Holy
Spirit revelation, verse three, was convinced immediately. When
he heard of Jesus, no hesitation. He sent unto the elders of the
Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant.
He didn't dare go himself, he was a Roman soldier. So he sent
the elders of the Jews, Please, you'll have some influence with
him. You're Jews. Will you go and ask him to come
and heal my servant? The Holy Spirit had assured him
that this was indeed God who would come to save his people.
Like Simeon in the temple when the infant Jesus was brought
in by his parents, and he held him in his arms, and it says
in Luke 2.26, it was revealed to Simeon by the Holy Ghost who
this was. I'm sure by Holy Spirit revelation,
this centurion knew who it was. Do you know, Holy Spirit conviction,
that Jesus is the Christ? That Jesus is the only Savior
of sinners? that you are a sinner, justly
condemned by the law of God, that if God were to take you
from this world today, as you are, in your flesh, in your sins,
without faith in God, without knowing the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus, He would justly condemn you for your sins? Do
you know that, that you're justly condemned by the law of God?
That though you live now, yet you are very frail, you are prone
to life's events, things that happen, whatever they are, that
death is certain, and then judgment comes, that as the centurion's
servant was then close to death, so are we all. So all of us,
every one of us in this room, do you know you're close to death?
What are you saying to the young people? I'm saying you're close
to death. Do you know the only difference? It's just a matter
of time. You ask, you know, young people can't believe it, but
you ask those that are older. It seems like five minutes when
I was as young as you. It really does. And where's the
last 45 years gone, let's say, since the world seemed to be
my oyster? Where's it gone? Click of the fingers and it's
gone. And some of you are older than me and you can say it even
more. It seems like five minutes, doesn't it? How quickly it seems
to have gone. We're close to death. But here
is Jesus, the Christ. Here is God incarnate. Here is
his people's substitute and surety who promises life to all who
come to him. In the face of death, he promises
life. John 10, verse 10, Jesus said,
I am come that they might have life and that they might have
it more abundantly. He says, look unto me and be
ye saved, all ye ends of the earth. For I am God and there
is none else. Saved from what? Saved from the
second death of judgment and condemnation. We're all going
to die physically, but the scriptures speak of the second death of
judgment and condemnation. Just judgment and condemnation. So what is it then about great
faith? True faith. What is it about great faith?
Verse three. He hears of Jesus. He knows instantly. And he says, oh, he needs to
come and heal my servant. He needs to come. Please go and
tell him to come. If only he'll come, my servant
will be healed. Go and please ask him to come. But faith says this. True faith
says this. Who is this one? This is God
incarnate. This is the sovereign of the
universe. This is the one who is able to
do all he wills. Everywhere in the universe. The
issue is not the physical presence of Jesus. It's not the issue.
The issue is the will of Jesus. It's not whether Jesus is here,
my servant will be healed. It's whether Jesus wills that
my servant be healed. John chapter 1 verse 13, talking
of eternal life and being born again of the Spirit of God to
eternal life says those who are born not of blood, not of genetic
association, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God. It's the will of God. And the
natural man hates that. The natural man of natural religion
loves to think how good he is in his natural religion. And
he hates the fact that it's not of the will of the flesh, nor
of the will of man, but of God. This is the issue. Not the physical
presence of Jesus, but the will of Jesus. And so what does he
say then? Because he's got such great faith.
Please come. Oh no, hold on. This is God. This is God come from glory to
redeem his people. Verse 7, he sends again to them,
I didn't think I was worthy to come to you. Verse 6 sorry, trouble
not yourself. You've got this mission that
you've come on to save your people. There's a mission of preaching
to thousands. I'm not worthy. Who am I in this
busy schedule that you have where you must go in all these places
and do that for which you've been sent? I'm not worthy that
you should come under my roof. You don't need to divert from
where you are. Just say a word. And I'm not
going to come to you because I don't need to. Just say a word. Just say a word. Don't trouble
yourself. I'm not worthy for God incarnate to divert from
his earthly purpose for my request. Just say a word to heal my servant,
for you Lord control all things with the same power, with the
same authority that I command my soldiers. He said, I know
what it's like to have a certain degree of sovereignty. This centurion
had sovereignty over a hundred soldiers. I say to one, go, and
he goes. I say to another, come, and he
comes. I say to another, do this, and
he does it. That's a tiny, tiny picture,
says this man, of the authority that I know you have over everything,
for you are sovereign over the whole universe. You, Lord, can
control all things with the same power and authority that I control
my soldiers. And Jesus heard, and this man
was healed, just in a word. He was truly healed. He was inexplicably
healed. You can't rationalize a miracle
like this. There is no physical, rational
explanation of this. It was a miracle. That's what
a miracle is. People often talk about miracles
when they don't really mean miracle. They mean happy coincidence of
providences. This was a miracle. God altered
the normal course of events. to achieve his purposes. And
it was irrefutably a miracle. There were so many people saw
it and knew about it. Do you think for one minute it
would have got in the scriptures in more than one account if it
had been possible for anybody to say credibly that this didn't
happen? No, of course not. Think about
the resurrection of Jesus, attested by 500 people. You know, we hear
stories all the time, and we wonder, is this true? And there
might be one person's story, or corroborated by two or three. The resurrection of Jesus was
corroborated by 500 people. That's a lot of people to say,
we all saw it, and nobody could refute it. And this miracle was
irrefutable. Many witnesses, many witnesses,
it happened, it truly did. True faith, true faith, great
faith, quality not quantity, oh give us more faith, but oh
that it be true faith, is that which sees who Jesus really is.
Who sees what he has done, particularly in coming to save, Effectually,
it is finished, he's done it, he's saved to the uttermost.
And what he says to sinners like me, come unto me and I will give
you rest. Come unto me, whosoever comes
to me, I'll give eternal life, he says. And that life will be
more abundant life. True faith, great faith, sees
who he is, what he's done, believes him, trusts him, and believes
his word. or that that might be the case
for each one of us here and each one of us listening.