that I did choose thee, Lord, Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Niver. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com. I'm going to be speaking from
Luke chapter 7 this morning on the greatest faith in Israel,
but I would first like to invite you to a Sovereign Grace Bible
Conference that we're hosting at the Todd's Road Grace Church
this week. We're going to have six speakers and the services
begin this Friday at 7. Saturday evening at 6 and Sunday
morning at 10, and we'll have six different men preaching the
gospel of God's sovereign grace. And we'd love to have you come
out and visit. Nursery will be provided. Someone
may ask the question, what do you mean by sovereign grace? A sovereign grace Bible conference.
Sovereign grace is saving grace. Another way to describe sovereign
grace is it's grace on purpose. Grace on purpose. Electing grace,
redeeming grace, regenerating grace. There was a woman who
once came to a wise old preacher and said, I'm having a hard time
understanding the doctrine of election. Can you help me? And
he looked at her and he said, well, are you saved? And she
said, I believe I am. And he said, did you save yourself
or did God save you? She said, oh, God saved me. Did
he do it all? Did he do it all or did you help?
She said, no, he did it all. And then he said, well, did he
do it on purpose or was it an accident? And she said, oh, I
understand. That's what sovereign grace is,
grace on purpose. Now in Luke chapter 7 verse 9
we read this statement, When Jesus heard these things, he
marveled at him. And he 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. The greatest faith
in Israel. Now let me give you two reasons
why you and I should look at this passage of scripture very
carefully. Number one is because we find
something that the Lord Jesus Christ marveled at. He heard
what this man had to say and the scripture says he marveled.
There are a lot of things I marvel at. But I do not believe there
are very many things that he could be said to marvel at. I
mean, he's God. He's omnipotent. He's all wise. He's omnipresent. He's absolutely
sovereign. It's hard to even imagine him
marveling at anything. But there are only two things
in the scripture he said to marvel at. One time he marveled at some
people's unbelief in Mark chapter 6, and here he marveled at this
man's faith. And the Lord Jesus, the only
one who is capable of making such a judgment, judges this
man's faith as the greatest faith in Israel. Now when Peter walked
on the water, I would have called that great faith. But the Lord
Jesus said to him, O ye of little faith, wherefore did you doubt? I would have called it great
faith. The Lord calls it little faith. Now, little faith is better
than no faith. Little faith is saving faith. But he said of
this man in the story in Luke chapter 7, this is the greatest
faith I've seen, the greatest in all of Israel. Now what was
it about this man's faith that made it so great? I want to have
the same kind of faith he has, and I'm sure you do too. Now
in the first of this chapter we read in verse 1, I want to
see what took place that made our Lord make this judgment concerning
this man's faith. Now when he had ended all his
sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum.
And a certain centurion that was a Gentile Roman soldier over
a hundred other soldiers. Now these were rough men, they
made it through the ranks to get to the position. He may have
started low, but now he was a Roman centurion. A certain centurion
servant who was dear unto him was sick. and ready to die. Now let's consider the man who
was in need, this servant of the Roman centurion. He was sick
and ready to die. And the word sick here means
evilly sick. There are different words translated
sick in the New Testament. Here the word means evilly sick. It's actually sometimes translated
by the word evil. and amiss. It's taken from the
word that means morally worthless and depraved. This picture is
what you and I are by nature, evilly sick. And if I don't see
that, it's because I'm blind. If I have spiritual eyes at all,
I'll know that's the truth with regard to myself. You see, if
God gives you eyes to see, I know this, you're gonna see you're
a sinner and you're gonna see your need of a Savior. But if
you don't see yourself as a sinner, morally, evilly, sick, totally
depraved, you don't need a Savior. You know, the Lord said, I came
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. May God
give you and me both grace to see I'm sick and I need the great
physician to do something for me. In verse 10, a different word
is used to describe his sickness. It's the word that is quite often
translated impotent. This man was morally evil. He was impotent. He was unable
to do anything. He was without strength, without
spiritual strength. Now that's the state we are all
in by nature. And we know from Matthew's account
that this man was paralytic. He was unable to walk. And that
speaks strongly of our condition, unable to walk in God's law,
unable to walk with God, paralyzed. And he was at the point of death. And Matthew's account also tells
us he was grievously tormented. by his sickness, grievously tormented. Now, there are a lot of people
who are sinful that are not grievously tormented by their sin. It doesn't
really bother them that much. They're satisfied with things
the way they are. But this man was grievously tormented. Oh, he wanted deliverance from
his sin. Now, let's go on reading. This
Roman centurion, when he heard of Jesus, Faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God and I believe that this Roman
centurion heard about what the Lord did with a paralytic man
just a few days before that. In Luke chapter 5 we read and
behold Men, verse 18, men brought in a bed a man which was taken
with a palsy, same thing as this Roman centurion servant, a paralytic. And they sought means to bring
him in and to lay him before him. And when they could not
find by what way they might bring him in because of the multitude,
they went up to the house hot top and led him down through
the tiling with his couch into the midst before Jesus. Can you
imagine being in that room when all of a sudden the ceiling breaks
out and they lower this man right before the Lord Jesus I guess
on ropes right down before him. Verse 20, and when he saw their
faith, what was their faith? They knew the only one who could
do anything for their friend was the Lord Jesus. When he saw
their faith, he said unto him, man, notice what he didn't say. He didn't say rise up and walk.
He said, man, thy sins are forgiven thee. Now they brought him down
through the roof in order to have him healed, and our Lord
looked at this man and he said, your sins are forgiven. He didn't
say anything yet about his physical healing. He said, your sins are
forgiven. Verse 21, and the scribes and
the Pharisees began to reason saying, who is this which speaketh
blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God
alone? And they were right there. Only
God can forgive sins. And if the Lord Jesus Christ
were not God, he could not say to that man, man, thy sins be
forgiven thee. He wouldn't have the authority
to do that, but he's God. They just didn't know who he
was. Now let's go on reading verse 22. But when Jesus perceived
their thoughts, he answering said unto them, what reason ye
in your hearts? Whether it's easier to say thy
sins be forgiven thee or to say rise up and walk. Now it's a
lot easier to say your sins are forgiven than to say rise up
and walk because if you can say your sins are forgiven, nobody
can know whether or not that came to pass. But if you say
rise up and walk, if that man doesn't rise up and walk, it
means what you said was powerless. It's a whole lot easier to say
your sins are forgiven than rise up and walk. Now go on reading,
whether is it easier to say thy sins be forgiven thee or to say
rise up and walk, but that you may know that the Son of Man
hath power upon the earth to forgive sins. He has got the
power to forgive you of all your sins. What a glorious Savior. He said to that one who he had
already said, Your sins are forgiven. He said unto the sick of palsy,
I say unto thee, Arise, take up thy couch, and go into thy
house. And immediately he rose up before
them, and took up that whereon he lay, and departed to his own
house, glorifying God. And they all witnessed this.
And I have no doubt that that Roman centurion had heard of
this. So when he heard of Jesus, it's just he knew that he's the
one who had power to heal. He's the one who had power to
do something for his sick servant. So back in Luke chapter 7, 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. Now we know as we go on down
reading this passage of scripture, he himself did not feel fit to
come into the Lord's presence. Let me read these verses to you.
Then Jesus went with them, verse 6, and he was not now far from
the house of Centurion, and 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 servants
shall be healed. Now, do you see this man's attitude? He said,
I'm not even worthy to have you come to my home. Such a stoop
would be too low. And I'm sure not worthy to come
to you. He sent friends to him. that and asked them to ask the
Lord to do something for his sick servant. He felt unworthy
to come. So these people who came, verse
4, that he sent, and when they came to Jesus, They besought
him instantly, saying that he was worthy from whom he should
do this. For he loveth our nation, and
he hath built us a synagogue. Now, I'm sure this man was a
fine man, humanly speaking. But to come into the Lord's presence
and say he's worthy, he ought to have this done for him, that's
making the living God, that man's debtor. That's not gonna happen.
You don't come into the presence of the Lord saying he's worthy.
You might come saying he's unworthy and he needs mercy, but you don't
come saying he's worthy because that all of a sudden puts that
person God owes them something. Because of their worthiness,
He owes them something. And this man, he knew better than that,
but these people didn't know better than that, so they came
really the wrong way. They said, He's worthy. Then
Jesus went with them, these people who had come to ask Him to heal
the servant. And when He was not now far from
the house, the centurion sent friends to Him, saying unto Him,
I am not worthy. I'm not fit. I'm not sufficient. I'm not fit in character. I'm
not worthy to have you come under my roof. That's a stoop too low. I think he felt very much like
Peter in Luke chapter 5 verse 11 when Peter said, depart from
me, Lord. I'm a sinful man. You don't want
to have anything to do with me. I'm not worthy. Depart from me. I'm not worthy." Now, that was
this man's attitude. I'm not even worthy to have you
come to my house and be under my roof. That stoop's too low
for you, and I'm sure not worthy to come to you. Now, there are
two things that I see very clearly about this man. He had a very
high view of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm not even worthy to come to
him. And he had a very low view of himself. Now, that's very
important. Remember that. This man had a
high and exalted view of the Lord Jesus Christ and a very
low view of himself. Now, if you and I ever see who
Christ is, if we really see Him spiritually, I don't mean see
Him physically, but I mean come to see who He really is, we'll
be like Isaiah. We'll see Him high and lifted
up, seated on a throne. That's how we'll see Him, as
the absolute sovereign Savior. And we're going to cry the same
thing Isaiah did when he saw Him high and lifted up, sitting
on a throne. He cried out, Woe is me, I am
undone. I'm a man of unclean lips, I
dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes
have seen the King, the Lord of hosts." This man said, I am
not worthy. But look what else he said. Verse
7, Wherefore neither thought I myself to come unto thee, but
say in a word, say in a word. and my servant shall be healed. Matthew's account says this,
speak the word only and my servant shall be healed. Say the word,
speak the word only and my servant shall be healed. Four, verse
eight, I also am a man set under authority. I understand authority. Having under me soldiers, and
I say to one, go, and he goes, and to another, come, and he
comes, and to my servant, do this, and he does it. I understand
authority. I have people under me, and they
do what I say. And you're not set under authority,
you're over all authority. And whatever you will must take
place. If you say go, Whatever you say
it to, they obey you. If you say come, they come. If
you say do this, they do this, because you have absolute authority. You see, he believed in the absolute
sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now what does sovereign
mean? Well, if you're sovereign, that
means you're uninfluenced. That means you, and there's only
one that can be described like this, that's God himself. That
means you have a will, you have the power to make your will come
to pass, You have the right to make your will come to pass,
and you do in fact make and cause your will to come to pass. The
sovereignty of God. The sovereignty of Jesus Christ.
He has a will. He's uninfluenced. He's independent. He's immutable. He never had
a beginning. He never had an ending. He doesn't dwell in time.
He's uninfluenced. Known unto God are all of his
works from the beginning. He doeth according to his will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth,
and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?
He has a will. He has the power to make his
will come to pass because he's omnipotent. He knows no limitations. Whatever he wills must come to
pass because he has the power to cause it to come to pass.
He's God. He does His will. His will is always done. This man said, I understand authority,
and I know that you have supreme authority. Your God and whatever
you will must come to pass. As the Father raises the dead
and quickens them, even so the Son quickens whom He will. Now I think of the Lord Jesus
when they came to arrest Him. And he said, Whom seek ye? And
they said, Jesus of Nazareth. He said, I am. That's God's name. I am that I am. And as soon as
he said that, the scripture says they fell backwards. Our Lord
was letting them know at that time, I am not a victim. I am
in control of this situation and the only reason you're arresting
me is because it's my will for it to take place. I've purposed
it. I think of the words of Pilate,
speakest thou not to me? Don't you know that I have power
to release you? Or I have power to crucify you or release you?
And the Lord said, you don't have any power at all over me,
except it be given thee from above. You see, our Lord is absolutely
sovereign. His will must be done. And this man had some understanding
of that, because he said, say in a word, speak the word only,
and my servant shall be healed. Now, there are some things that
are basically meaningless without the word only. Genesis 6, 5. And God saw the wickedness of
man was great in the earth and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was, doesn't say mostly, evil continually,
but it says only evil continually. Psalm 62, 2. He only, David said,
is my rock and my salvation. He only. No sharing here. No
sharing here. No other helpers. He only is
my rock, and He only is my salvation. In Psalm 71, 16, David said,
I've made mention of thy righteousness, even thine only. Now why did he say, even thine
only? Because his righteousness is really the only righteousness
there is. Our righteousness, according
to the scripture, has filthy rags. There's none righteous,
no not one. His righteousness is the only
righteousness, and that's why David said, I make mention of
thy righteousness even thine only. You see, my standing before
God is his righteousness only. My standing, my righteousness
before God is not based upon His righteousness. My righteousness
before God is His righteousness. And that's the only righteousness
we'll make mention of. In Mark 2, verse 7, who can forgive
sins but God only? Only God can. That's very true. And then in Matthew 17, verse
8, on the man of transfiguration, when the Lord was transfigured
before three of his disciples, and his face shined like the
sun, and Moses and Elijah were talking to him, and Luke tells
us that they were speaking of the deceased, which he should
accomplish, and Peter had to say something. He saw Moses and
Elijah, the Lord, and he said, Lord, it's good for us to be
here. Let's make three tabernacles, one for thee and one for Moses
and one for Elijah. Wrong thing to say, Peter. A
cloud overshadowed them and a voice from the cloud said, this is
my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And then when they opened
their eyes from fear, scripture says they saw no man save Jesus
only. You see, when you see him truly,
you don't see him in comparison to other men. you see Him only. In Luke chapter 8, verse 50,
the Lord said to the man whose daughter had died, Fear not,
believe only, and she shall be made whole. But I believe this
is the onlyest of the only, When this Roman centurion said, I
do not need to see anything, and I'm utterly unfit to come
to you, I'm utterly unfit to have you come under my roof,
just lead me out of the equation, speak the word only, and my servant
shall be healed. You speak the Word and the universe
came into existence simply by your command. You speak the Word
and everything that takes place, takes place. You're in control
of all of providence. He holds all things, the Scripture
says, by the Word of His power. You yourself are the Word of
God. You're all that God is. When you speak Omniscience, all
wisdom speaks. When you speak omnipotence, all
power speaks. When you speak, divine sovereignty
speaks. You speak the word only, and
my servant shall be healed. You see, what you say becomes
more than necessity. What you say becomes more than
reality. It becomes history. Speak the
word only and my servant shall be healed. Now, this is what
I need. I need him to speak the word
only regarding my salvation. I need him to speak my, I need
him to decree, I need him to command my salvation. Speak the
word only and my servant shall be healed. Now, verse nine, when
Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him. He was amazed. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son
of God, marveled at this man, the simplicity of his faith,
the purity of his faith. He marveled at him. And what
did he say? He said unto the people that
followed him, I say unto you, I've not found so great faith?
No, not in Israel. What was so great about it? That's
not what the world would call great faith. As a matter of fact,
the world would probably send this man to a counselor to get
his self-esteem pumped up. Yet our Lord looks at him and
says, I've not found so great a faith, no, not in Israel. What was so great about his faith?
Two things. He had a high view of the Lord
Jesus. He said, whatever you will, must
come to pass. I understand authority and I
understand you have all authority. And whatever you will, must come
to pass. He believed that Jesus Christ
was God Almighty, the Son of God. God's Christ. He had a high and exalted view
of the Lord Jesus Christ and you see that by his low view
of himself. You know where true low views
of self come from? High views of him. Now I'm not
talking about, there are some people who don't have any self-confidence
and they beat themselves up all the time and they always feel
bad about things or always comparing themselves to somebody else and
feel bad. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about when
you see who God is, you see that you're in and of yourself nothing
but sin, and the only hope you have is the grace of God in Christ
Jesus. You see that, and you know that.
Now this man had high and exalted views of Christ, and he had a
low view of himself. And he knew all the Lord had
to do is will the healing of his servant, and he'd be healed.
You see, he believed the exact same thing that that leopard
did who came to Christ. We read in Matthew chapter eight,
there came a leper and worshiped him saying, Lord, if you will,
you can make me clean. He wasn't all that sure about
the Lord's willingness because he thought of how unclean he was,
but he knew if the Lord willed it, it would take place. And
the Lord said, I will. As a matter of fact, scripture
says he was moved with compassion and said, I will be thou clean. So he says regarding this man's
faith, this is the greatest faith I've seen in Israel. And let
me read a verse from Matthew's account. 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, as you have believed." Now what did he believe? He believed that all Jesus Christ
had to do is will it. He didn't have to have an experience.
He didn't even feel worthy to come to the Lord. He sent somebody
else to talk to him. But he knew all Christ had to
do is will it, and his servant would be healed. And our Lord
said, as you believed, So be it done unto thee. His servant
was healed. And let me remind you of the
Bible conference we're having this week, beginning Friday night
at 7, Saturday evening at 6, and Sunday morning at 10. Six
different speakers preaching on the sovereign grace of God,
the Sovereign Grace Bible Conference. We have this message on cassette
tape, DVD or CD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.