You know, it says here in verse
1, that when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of
the people, he went somewhere else. He went to Capernaum. Now,
all these sayings was what we've been dealing with, you know,
the good tree, the bad tree, the good man, the evil man, the
good treasure, the evil treasure, love your enemies, love them
that persecute you. And so all of these things, after
he had ended these sayings, these parables of the of the two builders,
the foundations that they built. And now he goes to talking about
faith again. Faith. You know, I try to say
some things about faith Sunday morning, and I mention that I've
got, you know, faith is something that was constantly mentioned
in the Scriptures. Faith is faith. And here's another
thing, that our Lord said He saw this man's faith. Now, he's
a Gentile. He's a centurion. He's a Roman. And our Lord marveled at his
faith. Marveled at his faith. And then others he marveled because
of their unbelief. And faith, as I've already told
you, is a blessed, glorious gift. It's a gift. It's a gift that
our Lord Jesus Christ purchased with his own blood. And God gives
it to his people, gives it to his elect. And it's a glorious
gift, a blessed gift. What it does is it brings invisible
things to where we can see them. We can see God. We can see His
glory. We can see His power. We can
see His majesty. We can see His eternality. He's
a spirit no man's ever seen, but we see God. We see God. We've never seen Christ, but
we see the Lord Jesus Christ. So the faith brings visible things
to view for us so we can see them. And it carries us outside
ourselves. It did this man. It carried him
outside himself. It carried his faith outside
to someone else. And that's what faith does to
us. It never looks to itself. It never looks to feelings. It always looks outside to its
object. It looks to the one. And faith
is as good and as strong as its object is. And that's why, you
know, Bruce Cratchit and I was talking about today, faith must
be perfect. Now, in ourselves, faith ain't
perfect. But we are justified through the faith of the Son
of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. As a man, he had the perfect
faith. And though our faith is imperfect, it don't have to be
perfect. Our Lord said, if you had the faith of a grain of mustard
seed, you could save. And we have lots of mountains
that get in our way, lots of obstacles. And we ain't got nothing
to do but say, Lord, please move this. Move this. And not only is it carried out
of ourselves, but it takes the things that are absent and makes
them to appear like they're here right now. It takes life that's
yet to come and it makes it appear like it's here right now. It
makes glory and heaven itself sometimes to appear like it's
right here present. The Lord Jesus Christ makes him
feel like he's right here present. And what did our Lord Jesus say?
He said, all things are possible to him that believeth. And here
in these verses that I read, we have a Roman centurion. A
Roman centurion. A centurion is where we get our
word centurion from. It's a Latin word. And centurion
means a hundred. And a centurion is a man who
has a hundred soldiers under him. A hundred soldiers. Now
when I was in the service, in the grunts there was twelve men
to a squad, four squads to a platoon, and each squad had a squad leader,
each platoon had a platoon commander, and each company had a company
commander. And so in our company, in squads
and platoons, and so when you get a fellow that's over a hundred
men, That's four platoons. That's a lot of people had responsibility
for. To send out to fight, to send
out to war, to send out to do what they have to do. So here's
a centurion. He's a soldier. He's a soldier. Probably a very strong man. Probably
a very committed man. Probably a very disciplined man.
He was a leader. Led these men. He was a man of
war. And he was also a very practical man. Very practical man. And
here he comes and he deals with our Lord Jesus Christ. This is
what I love. How he deals with our Lord Jesus
Christ. Oh, it's different. It's refreshing. And you know, that's what's so
wonderful. The way he deals with the Lord
is so different than the way most people think of it. Is his
servant sick? We're in Luke chapter 7. Is his
servant sick? Yes. But does he talk about the
pity he has for him? No. He sins for the position. He doesn't say, I feel sorry
for him, and I pity him, I have nothing I can do, he gets to
serve. No, he sins for the position. He sins for the Lord Jesus Christ.
He sins, and does he love the Jewish nation? Well, then, it's
not just in word, only look what he says there in verse 5. For
he loveth our nation. How do you know he loves? He
built us a synagogue. A place where we could go worship God.
So his love wasn't just in word, but it was in deed. And he doesn't
speak of his faith, but he always, always shows in a way that the
Lord himself marvels at the simplicity and greatness of it. And how
simple, how simple his reasoning is. You know, he says, the Lord
Jesus comes to him and he sends friends out, and he said, all
you have to do is say the word. Just say the word, and my service
shall be healed. Because I'm a man under authority,
and I know what authority is like. And if I, just being a
man, tell another man to do something, and he does it, you being the
almighty authority, the greatest authority, with all power, whatever
you say, sure enough will be done. Sure enough will be done.
And oh my, that's what he says, I'm a man, just a man with authority. I tell a soldier and they obey
me. And you're the greatest authority. Just speak and it'll be done.
And so our Lord said, I found not so great faith, no, not in
Israel. And what he said was, among all
these Jews, in all of Israel, among all these Jews who met
in this synagogue that this man had built for them, not among
all these Jews who hear the word, who have the word, who had their
word taught to them and constantly go to the synagogues and carry
their scriptures around with them, who say they believe. He
said, I've not seen so great a faith in all of Israel, in
all of Israel. Well, let's see the gospel right
before our very eyes in this story of this servant, this interior
servant being healed. Look at the servant's needs up
there in verse 2, Luke 7, 2. Look at the servant's needs,
his condition. A certain centurion's servant, who was dear unto him,
was sick. What's his condition? He's sick.
He's helpless. Utter helpless. He is sick. Now,
he's a bond slave. He is a bond slave. He was his
servant. Lots and lots of slaves in the Roman Empire. And he was
sick. This man was sick, a bond slave.
And he was blessed with many favors. And the Scripture says
here, he was dear unto him. This centurion, this soldier,
this man had great authority, and all these soldiers under
him. He said his servant was dear unto him, and he was sick. And even though he was sick,
as dear as this man was unto him, and though he was a moundslave,
he couldn't do anything. The man couldn't help himself,
or the centurion couldn't help him. He was sick. And, O Beloved,
unable to help himself. And that's the way the human
race is. That's the way men is outside of Christ. Sin. Sin-sick. Helplessly sin-sick. I mean,
sin is such an awful disease that it took the stripes of the
Lord Jesus Christ to heal that disease. To put away that disease. And that's why the Scripture
said, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me. Bless
his holy name. He's killing all the diseases,
and all the disease. How many diseases are involved
in sin? Unbelief, rebellion, high-mindedness,
pride, self-love, lovers of pleasure. When we think about sin, we just
think about something black. But all the sins, all the disease,
it comes from sin. Oh, you know, the physical diseases
we have in this world is because of sin. If it hadn't been for
sin, we wouldn't get sick. If it hadn't been for sin, we
wouldn't wear glasses. If it hadn't been for sin, our
bodies wouldn't wear out. Sin, sin, and also by His Christ. And oh, the soul, the soul is
what has to be healed. The relationship with God. And
this helplessly sick man had no thought as he lay there sick. This helplessly sick man had
no thought of earning his health by his works or by his effort.
His hope was gone. How's he going to get well? And
then he had great misery. I want you to look over in Matthew
8 with me just a minute. Great misery. This man had great
misery. In Matthew 8, verse 6, it's the
same story. And it reads a little different
because all the evangelists, all the gospel writers, they
all said a little something different about it. And here he says in
verse 6, here this centurion comes and said, Lord, my servant
lies at home sick of the palsy, grievously, grievously tormented. Now that's the condition he was
in, grave misery, grievously tormented. Now lots of people
are helpless, but they're unaware of it. They're not conscious
of it. And you know that as well as
I do. How many people do we see that we understand the helpless
condition in them? The things they can't do for
themselves. When we view our children, when we view our grandchildren,
I see them as helpless and hopeless and unable to do anything about
it. They're like this man here. They're dearer than me. But I
can't do anything for them. But call on the Lord for them.
That's all I can do. Call on the Lord for him. Tell
him that you're sick. Tell him of the hopeless, helpless
condition. But they're unaware of it. But not this man. This
interior was aware he was sick. This surrogate was aware he was
sick. Now when a soul is convinced of their sin and guilt, they
will be grievously tormented too. When you become conscious
of what you are before God, and you're convinced of your sin
and your unrighteousness, and not only of your sin, but the
best thing you've ever done. is in the sight of God as right
as filthy rags. And when you're convinced of
that, your soul will be grievously tormented, too, until that soul
is cleansed in the blood of the Son of God. And I'll tell you,
it's better to be tormented over sin here, here, now, than to
perish without a sense of redemption. I never knew what sin was until
the Lord saved me. That's what Paul said. He said,
I have not known sin. Well, he read the Bible. He read
Isaiah where he said, full of wounds, bruises, and putrefying
sores from the top of your head to the sole of your foot. He
read where your righteousness is all as filthy rags. But he
didn't see sin in those things. He didn't say we're all as a
leaf, an unclean thing that just fades away. He didn't see that.
Well, you know what he saw? He saw everybody else in that
condition. And oh, he was running around with the law, he was running
around with his Bible, he was running around with his prayers,
until he said, I have not known sin except the law said, thou
shalt not covet it. What do you reckon he was coveting?
He wasn't coveting money, I don't believe. You know what he was
coveting? He was coveting a high place
in the Jewish hierarchy. He was coveting him a high position. He said, oh, I was a Hebrew of
Hebrews, after the rights of the law, I was blameless, most
zealous, above many my father. Oh, I persecuted the church.
And I mean, he went through all the things that he'd done. And
he said, I never know what sin was until... And I didn't know
what sin was. Never had any idea what it was.
I made some mistakes. I wasn't perfect. I felt bad
over a few things that I'd done. But if you made me mad over a
few things that I'd done, then I'd start justifying. But oh,
when God comes and makes you aware of your sin, I'd rather
bear the weight of my sin here, conscious that Christ has taken
more of me than David, who says my sin is ever before me, than
to die unaware that I'm a sinner. When you and all look at his
immediate danger, not only carry verse 2 again of Luke 7, And
a certain centurion servant who was dear unto him was sick, and
ready, to die. Whoa, that's sick, isn't it?
Ready to die. His disease, his sickness had
led him right to the brink of eternity. And as he lays there
ready to die, all the power of this centurion, all the power
of the government All the dearness of this man to this centurion
and all the wisdom of man are as impotent as he is to do anything
for him. Ready to die. Ready to die. But now look what happens now.
Look what the centurion does. Oh, look at his plea. And oh,
and it says there in verse 3, He interceded on the behalf of
his servant, and it says here, when he heard of Jesus, I said
that the last two Sundays. Last two Sundays I talked about
this, when he heard of Jesus. Faith came with his hearing.
Whatever he heard about the Lord Jesus Christ, whatever he heard
about Him, faith came with that hearing. And if you don't hear
of Him, you can't believe in Him. If you don't believe in
Him, you can't call on Him, and you can't trust Him. And he heard
of Him, and with his hearing came faith. He believed what
he had heard of Him. He heard of His power. He heard
of His Word. He heard of His miracles. He
heard that He was Jesus of Nazareth. He heard He was the Son of David.
He heard that He was the Son of God. And he believed those
things. Huh? And look what it says now. He says in verse 3 there, And
he sent unto him the elders of the Jews. Now, this is not in
Jerusalem. These are elders among the Jews
in Capernaum. And he sent the elders of the
Jews. This centurion, when he said that, he said he sent a
prayer with them. He sent a prayer with them. He
sent unto him the elders of the Jews beseeching him. Beseeching
him. You know what that word beseech
means? That means call someone to your
side. Call someone to get aid. Call
someone to come up to your side and do for you. And here he is. He says, he's in earnest. He
beseeched him. Come, Lord. Oh, I beseech you. Would you come? Would you come? Oh, and I'll tell you, he was
earnest in his beseeching the Lord. There's some things that'll
make you earnest. Anxiety and fear for some people,
or your own soul, that'll make you earnest. Heartfelt sympathy
and compassion, that'll make you earnest. Love will make you
earnest. If you love somebody and they're
in trouble, that'll make you earnest. Compassion will make
you earnest. And this man was earnest. He
sent the elders of the Jews and beseeching him that he would
come. You see, he loved his servant.
And what love did, it warmed up his prayer. It warmed up his
prayer. I mean, he was earnest. It warmed
up his prayer. It became zealous and earnest
and coldness and formality. And our prayer means a heartlessness
on the part of the one praying. Oh, I think the worst thing we
could ever do is not have any heart in our praying. Not have
any heart in our desire for others. I think that's one of the worst
conditions we can be in, is to be cold and formal in our prayers. Not earnest in them. Not have
some warmth in them. Not have some compassion in them.
Not have some power in them. Pam, I just remembered, you're
supposed to sing. I'm sorry. Next time. Oh boy, I ought to be a preacher
sometime. Now you get up here and you get started and it's
on your mind, that's all you can think about. But not only was he earnest,
but look at him, he was humble. He says, down there in verse 6 and 7.
Then Jesus went with him, and when he was now not far from
the house, the centurion sent friends, sent friends, and oh,
my, not just one or two, sent some friends to him, saying unto
him, Lord, trouble not yourself. I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy
that you should come into my house and run to my room. Oh,
Lord, have you got there yet? He hadn't even got there yet.
He heard he's on his way and he said, told some of his friends,
go out there and meet him. Go meet him. Go meet him and
tell him, tell him he don't need to come. I'm not worthy. I'm
not worthy. There was no presumption here.
There's no you owe me. There's no, he never reminded
him that he had built a synagogue. Didn't talk about how much he
loved the Jewish nation. He didn't talk about what great
works he had done. He didn't talk about how compassionate
he was towards his servant. How much he loved his servant.
No, no. He didn't demand any kind of rights. Oh, I'm somebody
here and you need to do... No, no. You see, others said
he was worthy. Look back up in verse 4. And
when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly saying
that he was worthy. For who he should do this thing.
For he loved the Tharn Nation and had to build a synagogue.
Everybody else said his word. But what everybody else said
about him, he said about himself two different things. Ain't that
right? Ain't that the way you feel?
You know, no matter what anybody else says about you, you know
what you are. Oh, you know what you are. But he knew himself. He knew himself. Everybody went
and told him. He didn't know what they said
about him. He didn't care what they said about him. He was dealing
with the Lord Jesus Christ. He was dealing with power. He
was dealing with majesty. He was dealing with glory. He
was dealing with authority. He didn't believe his good works
merited anything from the Master. He didn't think he was worthy
of the Lord coming into his house. And when Saul was made king over
Israel, the scripture says, when he was living in his own sight,
the Lord exalted him. And when you get high in your
own sight, the Lord's going to bring you down. He is worthy. And I tell you, that's
something that no matter what anybody says about you, anybody
says about you, and you know this from your own experience,
that you know yourself. People talk about how worthy
you are, and how nice you are, and how committed you are, and
how dedicated you are, and how you give, and how faithful you
are, and all that. But you look and you see yourself, and say,
they're describing somebody who don't hardly sound like me at
all. Huh? And that's what this fellow was
like. And then he believed. Not only was he humble, I'm not
worthy. I'm not worthy. He said prayers before the Lord
even got there. There was no presumption here.
Look what it says now, in verse 7. He says, Wherefore neither
thought I myself worthy to come unto thee? Now, this was not
just false humility. You know, I've been in a lot
of services where folks get up and boo-hoo and cry and say,
I'm not worthy to be among the least of y'all. Y'all is a bit
better than me. Just cry and carry on. And talk
about, you know, how unworthy they was. If they was unworthy,
why didn't they just sit down and be quiet and not even say
anything? They don't have to tell us that they're unworthy.
This is, he's telling this to the Lord. I'm not worthy to come
unto thee. Now watch this. Say in a word. Say in a word. And my service shall be healed.
Just say the word. That's all it takes. Just say
the word. You don't have to move a step.
You don't have to come lay hands on me. You don't have to come
into my house and I don't want to see a miracle. You just say
the word. That's all you've got to do.
And I'll tell you something about faith. Faith always has to do
with the Word of God. This is the foundation of our
faith. Religion has to bind itself to something. It has to have
a foundation of course. And most religion, you know as
well as I do, is built upon man's opinions, man's traditions, man's
feelings, man's thoughts, man's interpretation, or some denomination,
or some preacher somewhere. But the believer's faith is founded
on the Word of God. Abraham believed God. Abraham, being persuaded that
what he had promised, he is able also to perform. Faith always
has to do with the Word of God. He is faithful and is satisfied
with that. It is satisfied with that. We're
satisfied with what God says. I read some things in the Word
that just flabbergast me. I read about men being slaughtered
and slayed and killed and God saying, I'm going to do this
and I'm going to do that. And you tend to say, oh God,
what power, what justice. And Lord don't deal with me like
that. Help me please to pay attention to your word. Huh? Oh my. Listen. This is the one over.
Martin Luther said, feelings come and feelings go, and feelings
are deceiving. My warrant is the Word of God. I've got a warrant to come into
the presence of God. I've got a warrant to trust God.
I've got a warrant to say that I'm saved. I've got a warrant
to say that I've been washed in the blood. When they come
and get me, when God calls for me, I've got a warrant. I've got the evidence. What is
it? He said. Don't need no more than that.
He said, thus saith the Lord. That's all we need. Not warned,
not else is worth believing. Though all my heart should feel
condemned for one of some sweet token, there is one greater than
my heart, whose word cannot be broken. Huh? Oh my. Faith doesn't need signs. We
don't need any signs. Faith doesn't need feelings. And don't trust them. But all
faith has got to have the word of God. Will you also go away? Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou
hast the words of eternal life. Thou hast the words. And look
at our Savior's response now. There in verse 6. Back over in
our time. Verse 6. Look at our Savior's
response. When they asked Him to come,
then Jesus went with them. Jesus went with him. See, it
was prompt. Our Savior's response was prompt.
And I'll tell you something, wherever our Lord Jesus goes,
guess what goes with Him? Grace and truth. Everywhere He
goes, grace and truth go with Him. Grace to do for man truth. to make him see the truth, understand
the truth, reveal the truth. And wherever he goes, it goes
with him. He never goes anywhere without
it. If he comes into our midst, he's going to bring grace and
he's going to bring truth. If he comes to your heart, he
brings grace to save you, truth to reveal himself to you, truth
to give you something to stand on, truth to reveal yourself
to, truth to make a man understand where he's at. So I mean, beloved,
when he was prompted, he said, come with this man. Let's go. Let's go. And then look what
encouraged me. Look what our Lord encouraged
his servant. This man here said this. He says, to say in a word,
down in verse 7, my servant shall be healed. For I am also a man,
said unto authority. I have unto me soldiers, and
I say unto one, go. And he goes. And to another,
come, and he comes. And to my servant, do this, and
he does it. And oh, my. What does our Master
say about a man like this? He didn't go in his house. When Jesus heard these things
coming out of this man's mouth, he marveled at them. marveled
at him, and turned around and looked at everybody. Turned around
and started looking at everybody. All that multitude of people
that was following him and going around with him, and looked and
marveled and turned about him and said, under the people that
followed him, I say unto you, I'm going to tell you something.
I've been all over Israel. I've been in Jerusalem. I've
been in Galilee. I've been in Capernaum. I've
been in Tyre. I've been in Sidon. I've been
in Judea. And I've not found so great faith,
no, not in Israel." Our Lord marveled at this man's faith. I'll tell you whose faith I marvel
at. Marvel at Adonai. Marvel at God
was pleased to give His Son. At you? Oh, my. And I'll tell you, we can't believe
too strongly. You know, without faith, it's impossible to believe
God. Now, or please God. Impossible to please God. Look
over here in Mark chapter 11. Let me show you something. I
made a preaching on this Sunday morning. That, O our Lord and Mother,
I have not found so great a faith, no, not in Israel, among the
Jews who have the Scriptures, who have the prophets, who have
the sacrifices, who have the priesthood, who have the Scriptures.
I have not found so great a faith, not among the Jews, not in Israel.
And, oh, my, we can't believe too strongly. And they, you know, this is right
after our Lord had cursed that fig tree. And they came by it,
and it was cursed, and it was withered away. And Mark 11, 22,
And Jesus answering said unto them, Have faith. Mark 11. Mark 11, 22, And Jesus
answering said unto them, Have faith. Have faith in God. Why shouldn't
we have faith in God? He created the world with His
Word. He upholds it by the Word of His power. Has He ever failed
you in any way? Oh my, how faithful, how faithful. And then, not only did our Lord
Jesus' response was encouraging to this man, but it was effectual. Look what happens down here in
Luke 7, verse 10. He said, Oh, I found my soul
great of faith, no, not in Israel. And they that were sent, returning
to the house, found the servant whole that
had been seen." See, this man of the Lord ain't never had a
conversation yet. This is what other people... He had his friends
tell him. You go tell them, I must tell
them, I said I was a centurion. I'd tell a man to go, go, sir,
go, go. And oh my, our Lord heard that. He went on about his business,
and them fellas got back to that man's house, and they said, A
servant that was ready to die, grievously tormented, was whole. I was in tears when he saw him
get up. He said, I told you that he'd do
it. I'm sure that's what he told
that servant. I told you he'd do it. I told you he could do
it. I believed him. I believed him.
And, oh, beloved, he sent his word. Look over in Psalm 170,
and I'm done. 107, not 170, 107. He sent his
word, and he told how many people he sent to him, said, as you
believe, so be it unto thee. Oh, my, his word was effectual.
His coming was effectual. Oh, our Lord Jesus, of all the
things that he marveled at, there's two things he marveled at, unbelief
and faith. But look here in Psalm 107, verse
20. He sent His Word and healed them
and delivered them from their destructions. That's how He saved
us, wasn't it? That's how He saved us out of
our troubles. That's how He healed us. He sent
the Gospel. He sent the Word. And, oh, He delivered us out
from under all the destructions that we were under. all the danger
we was under. He delivered us from hell. It's
in His Word. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation. It's in His Word. And that's
why we were preaching. The Word, God said, He'll never
return unto the Lord. He won't return unto the Lord.
It's in His Word. Oh, I couldn't tell you the times
He's healed me with His Word. He's come to me and met my needs
with His Word. Our gracious, gracious Father,
thank you for this wonderful privilege together with the people
of God, again, to look into your Word, to see about our blessed
Master, and the power of his Word, his willingness to go where
the need is. And so, Lord, we ask you, we
beseech you to come to our side, to our aid, And we do it every
day, for we need you every day, every hour, every moment. We
need you, Lord Jesus. We need you. And we bless you. Thank you for these dear saints
gathered out this evening. Meet the needs of every heart
and every home, for you know the need and you can meet it.
We ask in our Lord Jesus' name. Amen.