Well, if you would, be turning
in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 8. Let me echo to you what Brother
Clare said just a moment ago, how happy I am to see all of
you. Very, very thankful to be with you here this evening. The title of the message this
evening is Great Faith. You all know very well the story
of the centurion told here in Matthew chapter 8. who had a
sick servant and he came to the Lord for healing. And the Lord
called the faith of this Gentile man, great faith. At the end
of verse 10, our Lord says, verily I say unto you, I have not found
so great faith, no, not in Israel. And I read that and I wondered,
what made this great faith? Now I'm interested in that. I
want great faith, not small faith. Don't you, Matthew? I want great
faith. I know little faith will save. I know that. But I'm ashamed to think how
many times the master would come to me and say, oh, you have little
faith. Why are you here? I want great
faith. I want to know something about
this great faith. Do I have to be like Abraham?
Do I have to be like the martyrs in order to have great faith?
You have to never waver, to never have any doubts or fears in order
to have great faith. I want us to look this evening
at these few verses and see maybe if the Spirit might be pleased
to teach us something about this thing of great faith. And this
first point, everything else hangs off of this. Great faith
is in a person. Great faith is in the Lord Jesus
Christ, the person of Christ. Verse five, Matthew chapter eight.
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 said unto
him, I will come in healing. Now faith, saving faith, is not
in doctrines or church creeds. Saving faith is not in catchphrases
that men make up. Great faith is faith that is
in Christ alone. Our great need, every person
in this room, our great need is to know Christ. That need
is so great, we must know Christ. We must know him. And this is
our main goal in preaching, that you know Christ. Our main goal
in preaching is not to teach the doctrine of total depravity.
While that is true, that's not our main goal. If I know Christ,
I'll have no doubt I am totally depraved. All doubt will be removed
about that if I know Christ. If Christ, the son of God, had
to come to this earth to obey the law for me, and the father
had to kill his son To save me, I've got to be totally depraved,
don't I? Our main goal in preaching is not to convince people of
the doctrine of limited atonement, although that's very true. The
Lord Jesus Christ did not die for all men. But you know, if
I know Christ, of course I will know. He saved everyone for whom
he died. Nobody for whom he died perished.
He didn't die to give men a chance to be saved. He died to save
his people from their sin, and every last one will be saved.
I'll know that. There'll be no doubt in my mind about that if
I know Christ. Our main goal in preaching is
not to convince people of the truth of unconditional election,
although nothing could be more true. If I know Christ, and I
know anything at all about myself, I'm gonna know I had to be chosen
in Christ before time began or I never would have come to Christ.
God had to choose me before time began or I could never be saved.
And you just take that and apply that to every point of doctrine.
All we need to know is Christ. And if we know Christ, our doctrine
will be straight. This man came to Christ. He didn't
come to the Jewish church. He didn't come to the form and
ceremony of the Jewish religion. He came to Christ. Well, of course
he did because the Spirit had taught him who Christ is. I say
this all the time in preaching. You come to Christ. Right now,
where you sit, you come to Christ. A sinner who is in need will
come to Christ because he is in great need and Christ is everything
that we need. This man had a need. His servant
was sick of the palsy and the palsy is to be paralyzed, either
partially or totally 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 him.
There's a couple of things I noticed here. I think it should be pointed
out. Number one, this man knew that
the Lord Jesus was sovereign. over all things. At that time,
they didn't know, they had no idea the kind of neurological
disorders that could cause paralysis. This disease was a mystery to
them. Yet this man knew the Lord Jesus
was sovereign over it and he could heal it. And he knew that
the Lord Jesus was the only one who had the power to heal him.
So he came to Christ. He came to the person. He came
to Christ because Christ was his only hope. And that's exactly
when you and I will come to Christ. I can tell you until I'm blue
in the face. And David, I plan on doing it. I can tell you until
I'm blue in the face, come to Christ. But I'll tell you when
you will. Christ is your only hope. You'll
come to him. Second, the centurion came to
the Savior and he made no suggestions about what the Lord could do
to help him. He simply laid his need out before
the Lord and he shut up. I wish I could learn that. I
make far too many suggestions to the Lord about how he could
do things. He just laid his problem out before the Lord and left
it alone. That's how a sinner comes to Christ in faith. I don't
truly know all the depths of sin. I know sin is more than
breaking the rules. Sin is rebellion against God. Sin is an uncleanness. I know
something about that, but I certainly don't know the depths of it.
And the ramifications of sin are far more reaching than I
imagine. Sin hasn't just left us paralyzed, sin's left us dead.
That someone who's dead is much more helpless than someone who's
paralyzed. I don't know everything there is to know about sin. And
I certainly don't know everything there is to know about Christ
the Savior. But this is one thing I'm convinced
of. He is sovereign over all things. Nothing happens without
his express will. Everything that happens, every
event in human history happened just the way it happened, when
it happened, because he determined for it to happen just that way
before time began. He's sovereign over all things.
And I'm convinced of this too. Christ is the only one who's
got the power to forgive my sin. He's the only one that's got
the power to cleanse and give me life. Christ is my only hope
of righteousness. He's the only hope of salvation
from my sin. And that's what faith believes.
So everyone who has received faith from the Father comes to
Christ, because Christ is our only hope. Sinners come to Christ
because we are in great need. I come to Christ because I don't
have any other hope. I mean, I know I can't save myself,
but I can't even make myself more savable. I mean, I can't
even make myself a very helpless. And I need Christ to save me. I need him to forgive me. I need
him to cleanse me from my sin. I need him to give me life. I
need him to give me this faith or I'll never believe him. Do
you need Christ like that? Do you? I mean, you do, but do
you know you do? Well, if you know that, God's given you this
faith. If you know you need Christ,
you know you need Him to feed you, strengthen you, and comfort
you. God's given you saving faith.
Saving faith needs Christ like that. And faith comes to Christ
begging. It doesn't make any suggestions
about how the Lord might help me. Faith just says, Lord, I'm
a sinner. Help me. I'm dead. Lord, here
I am. You see me for what I am. I can
hide what I am from y'all. I can't hide myself from who
I am from God. Lord, you see me for what I am. Would you help
me? I want to show you a really good
example of this. Mark chapter two. 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." I mean, they just tore the roof off the
house where he was. And when they had broken it up, they let
down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay. They just laid
the problem at the feet of the Savior. They didn't say one word.
They lowered him down. Here he is. And when Jesus saw
their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be
forgiven thee. And there were certain of the
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. And that you may know
that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins. He
saith 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, and 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. Luke, in his
account of this very miracle, says that the people went home
and said, we've seen strange things today. That's true, isn't
it? How strange that God Almighty
would have mercy on sinners. Oh, it's strange. How strange
that God would give the worst of sinners faith to believe His
Son. That is strange but true. It's
strange but glorious. How God draws sinners to come
to Christ. Now I have a question for you.
I want you to answer this question in your mind. Do you believe
that the Lord Jesus Christ is your only hope of salvation?
Do you believe that? Do you believe that Christ saved
sinners and that all you need to be saved, all you need to
have is Christ? Do you believe that? I have an
illustration for you. I picked this up from Brother
Darwin Pruitt this past weekend. He is an expert at illustrations. I'm going to give you this illustration.
In the 1840s, there was a tight roper who determined he was going
to walk across Niagara Falls, and he did it. They stretched
the rope, and he walked across Niagara Falls on that rope. When
he got to the other side, he turned around, and he tied peach
baskets to his ankles, stepped out, and walked across Niagara
Falls again. He went back with those peach
baskets dangling from his feet. He took those off, and he went
back out, and he stopped in the middle of the falls, and he laid
down on that rope, put his hands behind his head, and just laid
there resting. He got up. He went back across,
and he came to the promoter, the one who arranged this whole
show, and he asked his promoter, now do you believe I can do anything
I want on a tightrope? And the promoter said, yes, I
do. And the tightrope walker said, then hop on. Climb on.
Jan and I were talking about that later, asking, would you
climb on? She said, not a chance, and me neither. I would have
said, yeah, I believe you can do anything you want, but not
with me. That promoter climbed up on that
man's shoulders and he took him safe across Niagara Falls on
a tightrope. Now I ask you again, do you believe
Christ? Do you? Do you? Then climb on. Come to Christ. Hide in him. Stay in him. That's great faith. Do you believe Christ? Do you
believe that Christ is your, it's not Christ plus your doctrine,
your mean, hard orthodoxy, it's Christ alone. Do you believe
it's Christ? It's not Christ plus your morality
and Christ plus your whatever. It's Christ alone. Christ plus none. Do you believe
that? Then come to Christ. That's what great faith does.
All right, number two. Great faith is in a person. Number
two, great faith is humble. Back here in our text, Matthew
chapter 8, verse 8, the centurion answered
and said, Lord, I'm not worthy that thou shouldest come under
my roof. Now this centurion is somebody who's important. He's
earned his post. This is not just some honorary
thing. He earned this post by being a decorated war hero. He
had been the most valiant soldier in a battle. That's how he earned
this position. And he commanded 100 men. He
was highly respected in that society. Yet this man says that
he's not worthy for a homeless Jewish man to come under his
roof. You see, this centurion had faith to see this man is
no mere man. He's God. He's God in human flesh. And saving faith always sees
the difference between God and me. I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy of anything from
God except His wrath. I've earned that. I'm not worthy
that God would even recognize I exist. I'm certainly not worthy
that God would save me, much less that He'd save me by slaughtering
His Son in my place. No, I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy
of the least of God's mercy, God's grace. Oh, but Christ is
worthy, isn't he? Oh, he's worthy. That's the song
of heaven. Worthy is the lamb that was slain
to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor
and glory and blessing. Worthy is the lamb. So saving
faith humbly begs God for mercy. Saving faith begs God for mercy,
not because I deserve it, but because God's willing to give
it. I beg God for mercy because God is great in mercy. Look over a few pages at Matthew
chapter 15. Here's an example of humble faith, one of my very
favorite stories. Matthew chapter 15 verse 21. Then Jesus went thence and departed
in 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 on me, O Lord, thou Son of David. My daughter is grievously
vexed with the devil. But he answered her not a word,
he just ignored her. And his disciples came, but sought
him, saying, Send her away, she crieth after us. But he answered
and said, I am not sent, but unto the lost sheep of the house
of Israel. Then came she and worshiped him, saying, Lord,
help me, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, it's
not mean, it's not right for me to take the children's bread
and to cast it to dogs. And she said, truth, Lord, truth. Yet the dogs eat of the crumbs
which fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered and
said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith. This is great faith,
humble faith, faith that would just beg and not leave the feet
of the master. This is great 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 great faith. I want great faith, don't
you? Are you willing to beg God for
it like a dog? Are you? Really, honestly, comparing ourselves
to dogs is an insult to dogs everywhere. It is. But are you
willing to beg for it as somebody worthy of nothing? Are you? That's
great faith. All right, number three, saving
faith. Great faith is always based upon the word of God. In
verse eight, 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'm a man under authority, having soldiers under me, I say
to this man, go and he goeth. and to another cometh, and he
cometh. And to my servant do this, and he doeth it." Now this
centurion understood power. And not only did he know that
the Lord had the power to heal somebody by touching them, he
knew the Lord had the power to heal. He had the power to make
His will happen simply by speaking. There's power in His Word. You
just think if soldiers went here and did this, because that centurion
told them to, or they went there and did that because that centurion
told them to, just think what's going to happen when the Lord
speaks, when the Lord who has all authority speaks. All this
man's servant needed was the Lord to say the word and he'd
be healed. That's all he needed. Roman soldiers
obeyed this centurion's command, our savior. is the sovereign
ruler. All of creation obeys His command. Germs, weather, the hearts of
men, they all obey the Word of God. Now, we preach the Word
of God. You all hear just like we do
at home, almost always verse by verse. Do you know why we
do that? We pick a book and we go verse
by verse to it. You know why we do that? Because
it really doesn't matter that you know the thoughts and the
creeds and the words of men. It really doesn't matter. But
you will be saved if you hear and believe the word of God.
We preach only the word of God because that's all you need.
I don't care who you are. I don't care what situation that
you are in. we preach the Word of God, it's
going to meet your need. I promise you that. You'll be
saved by hearing the Word. All we need to preach is the
unadulterated Word of God, thus saith the Lord. Look at 2 Timothy
chapter 4. See, God's Word has the power
to save. God's Word is the power that
God uses to give life. God's Word has the power to direct
his people, to feed and comfort the hearts of his people. It's
all the Word. 2 Timothy 4, verse 1. I can just imagine young Timothy
getting this letter from Paul. The Apostle Paul was his mentor.
These men had a close relationship. Some of you who've grown up here,
all you've known is Todd Nybridge, your pastor. Can you imagine
getting a letter from Todd? Boy, you'd be interested now.
I want to see what he's got. And then he gets to this point in
the letter, he says, I charge you. You're going to pay attention,
aren't you? This is what Paul tells Timothy.
Timothy, I charge thee, therefore, before God and the Lord Jesus
Christ, who should judge the quick and the dead at his appearing
in his kingdom, Timothy, preach the word. Preach the word. Preach the word. Be instant,
in season, out of season. Whatever season it is, preach
the word. reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. In every situation, preach the
word. When you preach to the lost,
preach the word. Tell them how God saves sinners.
Tell them what God says, how God saves sinners. When you preach
to the saved, preach the word. It's the children's bread. It'll
bless their heart. When you preach to the brokenhearted,
into the suffering, and you wonder, what can I say to them? Tell
you what to do. Preach the word. Our God says,
comfort ye, comfort ye my people. Well, how are we going to do
that? How can you comfort the brokenhearted? Tell them what God says. Tell
them God says the battle's over. Peace has been won. Tell them
how God has forgiven the sins of his people. Tell them what
God says. God's gonna give his people double
for all their sin. Remind them one more time of
the promises of God. Our words, our thoughts, our
care, they'll be nice, it'll matter to them. But God's word,
oh, that'll comfort their heart. When you preach to the brokenhearted,
preach the word. And when you preach to the joyful,
Preach Christ the Word. Tomorrow morning, Lord willing,
back home, one of our young ladies is gonna give birth to a brand
new daughter. They're a happy family right
now, happy. You know what I did this morning
for them? Preach the Word. In every situation, preach the
Word. Just stick to this Word. I promise
you, you can't go wrong because there's no error in this Word.
It's pure truth. so that we can hang our souls
on every word of it. See, saving faith. You wonder,
do I have saving faith? Do I have great faith? Do I even have little faith?
Saving faith only wants God's word. That's all they want. Christ, the incarnate word, and
Christ, the written word. That's all saving faith wants,
because he's the only one worth trusting. All right, here's the
fourth thing. Saving faith is rare. Verse 10, back in our text, Matthew
chapter 8. And 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. Now, saving faith
is the gift of God. It's by grace you're saved through
faith and that not of yourself. It's the gift of God. And you
know, this is a rare gift. It's a rare gift. The Lord himself,
who knows all, who sees all, made this statement, haven't
found faith like this among any of the Jews, but I found it in
this Gentile. And you know, I bet, I mean,
I'm just betting, a centurion was one hard nut. I mean, don't
you reckon, just battle-hardened, just, oh, he's a hard nut. And
he, the Lord said, I found great faith in this hardened Gentile. Few people have this kind of
faith in Christ. Matter of fact, nobody has it
by nature. Few people believe Christ. I
don't know how many people live in this town, but apparently
it's few compared to the number, you know, few. And matter of
fact, nobody believes in Christ by the first birth. The only
people who believe Christ are those to whom God has given this
precious gift. He's given the gift of faith.
Few people are willing to leave the rags of their own righteousness,
their own doings, and trust Christ alone to be all their righteousness
without them adding anything to it. Few people are willing
to have no other hope of salvation but Christ. As a matter of fact,
nobody will until God reveals Christ to them. Few people will
come to Christ, and nobody will unless the Spirit draws them.
Now, if the Spirit draws them, they're coming. They're coming
willingly, but few do. Saving faith is rare, and that
ought to make us all the more thankful for it and all the more
in awe of it when we see it. Oh, it ought to humble us. It
ought not make us proud and look down our nose and make fun of
people without it. No, it ought to amaze us. It
ought to just overwhelms not even a strong
enough word, that God would give such a rare gift to a wretch
like me, to a wretch like you, it ought to make us in awe, awe. The Lord who's gave this faith
marveled at it. Isn't that something? Because
it's a rare gift. God, fifthly, saving faith is
absolutely necessary for salvation. Verse 11, and I say unto you
that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit
down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer
darkness. There shall be weeping and gnashing
of teeth." Now, if you would be saved, you must believe Christ. Nobody else can do it for you.
Your parents can't do it for you, your husband, your wife,
your friends, nobody can do it for you. If you would be saved,
you must believe on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Being
religious won't help you. Being moral won't help you. I
mean, you ought to be moral, but it won't help the salvation
of your soul. Joining the right denomination, that won't help
you. Our Lord said many religious people, many, many will be cast
into hell, into outer darkness. Their religion didn't help them
at all, See, in order to be saved, you must believe Christ. You
must believe Him because salvation is all Christ. Without faith
in Christ, it is impossible to please God because Christ is
the only one who ever pleased the Father. You can go to hell
doing your best to keep the law, but you cannot go to hell trusting
Christ. It's impossible. You can go to
hell believing the right doctrine. You know, people talk about the,
we call the doctrines of grace or Calvinism. Coming to believe
that's no big deal. That's no big deal. We got four-year-olds
back at church we taught to be Calvinist. That's no big deal.
You can go to hell believing the right doctrine, but you cannot
go to hell believing Christ. Can't be done. You can go to
hell from the right denomination if there is such a thing, but
you cannot go to hell believing Christ. You see, you must believe
Christ. and God must give you that faith.
Both are true. That goes back to humbly begging
for it, doesn't it? All right, here's the last thing. Saving
faith will be satisfied. It will receive everything it
hopes for. Verse 13, and Jesus said unto
the centurion, go thy way, and as thou hast believed, so be
it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in
the selfsame hour. See, this centurion believed
that Christ was a He believed Christ was all he needed, and
he got everything he wanted, didn't he? His servant was healed
that very same hour, right there in the end. And everyone who
believes Christ, for all of their salvation, everybody who trusts
their soul to the Lord Jesus Christ, will get exactly what
they hoped for. They'll know Christ right now.
Right now in this earth, in this life, they'll know Christ. They'll
walk with Christ now. They'll look to Christ now. And
in the very moment they closed their eyes in this life, you
know what'll happen? You know what'll happen? I told our folks
at home this morning, preached a whole message on this, look
to Christ, look to Christ, look to Christ. To those who are looking
to Him, you want me to tell you how this is gonna end? Let's
look at the end of the book and find out. Revelation 22. Revelation
22. At the very moment they close
their eyes in death, these who believe Christ, what's gonna
happen? They're gonna awake in glory looking in Christ's face. Revelation 22, verse three. And
there shall be no more curse. All the curse of Adam's sin,
there shall be no more curse. But the throne of God and of
the Lamb shall be in it, and his servants shall serve him,
and they shall see his face. Claire, I can't imagine such
a thing. My heart is thrilled to see through
a glass darkly, to see something of him by faith now. There's not human language to
express the soul thrilling rapture to open your eyes and behold
the face of Christ the Savior. Everyone who believes him is
going to have what their hearts desire. Their heart's desire
is not going to be streets of gold. Their heart's desire is
not going to be a permanent vacation floating around on a cloud. Their
heart's desire is to be with Christ and they're going to see
him face to face. And I'll tell you at that time,
it's not going to matter what else I did or did not have as
long as I had God given faith. You know, a believer never thinks
we have strong faith. Our faith is never as strong
as we would like for it to be. I'm certainly not going to stand
up here before you this evening and lay claim to great faith.
Our faith is never as strong as we'd like for it to be. But
if our faith is in Christ, I'm going to go back to my first
point. If our faith is in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ,
it's great faith because it's faith in a great Savior. The
Lord Jesus Christ is such a great Savior. He saves the greatest
of sinners through faith in Him. I pray that God will be pleased
to give us that faith here tonight. Alright, the Lord bless you.