In Matthew's Gospel chapter 8,
I was coming down here this morning
and I noticed on my little car it said 5 degrees. And I was
thinking what the Lord has done on some cold days like this when
a few people were gathered together worshiping Him. It was somewhere
around 1950 or so. It was cold, there was snow that
had almost shut London down. And Charles Spurgeon was out
looking to see what was going on, a boy about 15 years old
or so. And he wandered into a little
chapel. The snow had got so deep the pastor couldn't be there
and just a few people gathered and a man that could hardly read
the scriptures got up and read the text, look unto me and be
ye saved, all the ends of the world, for I am God and there
is none else. And that cold morning in the
middle of London, England, the young Charles Spurgeon looked
to the Lord Jesus Christ and lived. That was on a morning
something like this. There was another time, you remember
Augustus Toplady, Rock of Ages cleft for me, let me hide myself
in thee, he wrote that song. He was a young man that was lost.
And he wandered into an old barn. There were a few people on a
cold day gathered in a barn to worship the Lord. And the preacher
preached on the necessity of a new birth. He didn't say much
about it, but Mr. Toplady said it went home to
my heart. I entered that barn, he said, a dead sinner. And when
I left, I was alive in Jesus Christ. So who knows what the
Lord may do here this morning on this cold day? A few of us
gathered here wondering if this furnace is going to make it through
our service. What the Lord might be pleased to do. Let me read
my text to you in Matthew chapter 8 and begin in verse 5. Matthew
chapter 8 and begin in verse 5. And when Jesus was entered into
Capernaum, that was His hometown, that's where He was raised up,
there came unto Him a centurion, a Roman soldier. He was over,
they tell us, probably a hundred men. They had a garrison there
in Capernaum. He was over those. And He came
beseeching Him, beseeching the Lord Jesus, and saying, Lord,
My servant lies at home sick of the palsy. He's paralyzed.
This was a most dreadful and uncurable disease. And he is
grievously tormented. And Jesus said unto him, I will
come and heal him. The centurion answered and said,
Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof.
But speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed. For
I am a man under authority. having soldiers under me. And
I say to this man, Go, and he goeth. And to another, Come,
and he cometh. And to my servant, Do this, and
he doeth it. 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. And I say unto
you that many shall come from the east and the west, and shall
sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom
shall be cast out into outer darkness. There shall be weeping
and gnashing of teeth. And Jesus said unto the centurion,
Go thy way, as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And
his servant was healed in the selfsame hour." When you read
chapters 5, through chapter 7 of Matthew, it is all about our
Lord's teaching. And when He finished His teaching,
a wonderful teaching, the Sermon on the Mount, it was said there
in verse 28 of the last chapter, It came to pass when Jesus had
ended these sayings, the people were astonished at His doctrine,
at His teaching. For He taught them as one having
authority. and not as the scribes and the
Pharisees. He taught them as one having
the ability. One having the competency, the
control, the liberty, the strength. He had power in His words. It went home to their hearts.
And then chapter 8, when you begin to read chapter 8, it's
all about our Lord's miracles. Six times in chapter 8. you find
him doing miracles. That's all it's about, is his
miracles. Here in verses 1 through verse
4, you remember the leper that came to him full of leprosy?
And the Lord spake him clean of his leprosy. And then verses
14, verse 15, Peter's wife's mother, his mother-in-law lay
sick. The Lord Jesus just touched her
hand and the fever left her. And she arose immediately and
ministered unto those that were present in her house. And then
verse 26, here's a miracle. A storm came on the sea. The
Lord Jesus arose and rebuked the storm. And there was a calm. The wind ceased to blow. The
waves ceased. There was a great calm. And then
in verse 31, there was this maniac that had 2,000 devils. The Lord
said, Come out of it. And the devils came out. And
then here in verse 16, also it was said that those who were
possessed with devils and those who were sick, the Lord cast
out the devils with His Word and He healed all that was sick.
And then our text where He healed this man with leprosy in His
Word. With His Word. If chapter 5 through 7 could
be said of the Lord Jesus that He taught them as one having
authority, then surely chapter 8 can be said of Him that He
worked, that He did, as one having authority. With unlimited power. One of the words this authority
means is jurisdiction. The Lord Jesus has jurisdiction
over all diseases, all demons, and all nature. Leprosy and the
policy, policy was incurable disease. They were dreadful things. Usually if you got leprosy, you
died of it, and a horrible death. If you were paralyzed with this
disease, it usually killed you. But here the Lord Jesus simply
spake, and they were healed. Can you imagine walking in a
woman's house that is laid on the bed and she is so feverish
that she can't think? She's confused. And somebody
just touches her hand and the fever suddenly leaves her. That's
powering. That's authority to have that
kind of a power. And here are all these devils.
Who has power over devils? What mere men have power over
devils? These are spirits. They're fallen
spirits. They're demons. They're hateful. And here they were filling these
people, and the Lord Jesus just spake. That's all He did, just
spake. And they had to come out. He
has unlimited authority. And this storm on the Sea of
Galilee, our meteorologists today can hardly predict storms, can
they? Let alone stop them. But here's a man that just spoke
to nature, a violent storm, and said, Peace, be still. And it
was a calm. What was this? This was the fanger
of God. It was the fanger of God. None
but God could do these miracles that our Lord did. And someone
said, Here's the foundation for the faith of the Christian. Here's the foundation for our
faith. And what is it? The authority
of the Lord Jesus Christ. All He has to do is just speak
the Word and He's irresistible. He controls everything and everybody
in every circumstance. What a foundation for our faith.
When we first come to the Lord Jesus Christ, what does He tell
us? Come unto Me, and I will give
you rest for your souls." Does He have that kind of authority?
Does He have that kind of power? Does He have the wisdom to give
rest to a person's mind, to a person's conscience, to a person's heavy
spirit? He has that kind of power. He
has all authority in heaven and in earth. We're told by Him Himself
to cast all our cares upon Him. Can we possibly doubt that He's
able to carry us and our cares too? Does He have that kind of
authority? We're told to live by faith upon
Him. That He will supply all our needs
according to His riches and in glory. He will supply all our
needs? To cast our cares upon Him? Our
daily concerns? Is He able to carry those? Is
He able to supply our needs? He has that power, doesn't He?
He has that authority. He said, Whosoever liveth and
believeth in Me shall never come into condemnation and shall never
die. Now that's claims, isn't it?
The Lord Jesus Christ is either God in our humanity or He's the
biggest liar this world has ever seen. Because He said, He that
believes in Me shall never come into condemnation and He shall
never die. He that believeth in me shall
never see death." Boy, that's authority, isn't it? That's power. One old man said about this,
he said, My faith can sleep soundly on no other pillar than Christ's
omnipotence. He is almighty. And when we come to the Lord,
we should ask ourselves this question. Every time we come
to the Lord Jesus in prayer, we should ask ourselves this
question. Do we believe that He is able
to do this? This is what this prayer is about. This centurion made this request,
and this is what it's about. Lord, I'm not worthy that You
should come under my roof. Speak the Word only. Speak the
Word only. Does He have that authority just
to speak? And whatever He says comes to
pass. That's what this prayer and these
requests are about. Do we believe He's able to raise
the dead? I tell you, there's coming a
day when He'll raise the physical dead. But are you and I convinced
this morning He's able to raise the spiritual dead? Men who are
dead in trespasses and sin. I tell you, we believe that,
don't we? That's why we go to the Lord in prayer and pray for
our loved ones. We pray for our children. We
pray for lost people. Because we believe that all He
has to do is what He did to Lazarus. Lazarus come forth. He speaks
to a dead sinner and gives him life. You believe that? I believe
He has that kind of authority. The Lord speak the Word only.
I believe the Lord Jesus Christ can speak to a sick soul and
heal it. He can speak to a sick body and
heal it. He can give strength to those
of His children who are weak. Listen to what He says in Isaiah
chapter 40. He giveth power to the faint,
and to them that have no might He increases strength. Here's
what he said to Israel. He said, Why are you saying,
O Jacob? Why do you speak, O Israel? My
way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from
my God. Have you not known? Have you
not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of
the ends of the earth, faints not? Neither is he weary, there
is no searching of his understanding, even the youth shall faint and
be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall." Brothers and sisters,
this race is not run by our natural strength. I don't care how wise
you are, you are not wise enough to run this heavenly race. Our
strength and our wisdom lies in someone else, doesn't it?
The natural man will fail. The natural man will fall. But
they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They
shall mount up with wings as eagles. They shall run and not
be weary. They shall walk and not faint."
In and of ourselves, somebody said, we are spiritual lepers
just like this leper in the first of this chapter. We are an unclean
thing. All our righteousnesses as filthy
rags. If you would have looked at that
leper, can you imagine what that man looked like? Eyewitnesses
tell us that his sores were so open and running and stinking. Can you imagine how repulsive
this man was? Look at our souls. Look at our
hearts. Isn't that not a good picture
of us? But doesn't the Lord Jesus have blood that's able to cleanse
us? Yes, He does. Doesn't He have
a righteousness to clothe the shame of our nakedness? Yes,
He does. Is He able to do that? That's
what this prayer is about, the authority of the Son of God to
do what we want and what we ask Him to do, to fulfill our needs. We are spiritually paralyzed
as this poor man in our text who had the palsy. We see people
all the time. What is that we call them? Paraplegics?
Paralyzed from the head down, the neck down. We're worse than
that, aren't we? I mean, spiritually speaking,
our head don't even work. We're completely paralyzed. We
have palsy from the top of our heads to the sole of our feet.
We can't do anything, can we? The Lord Jesus said, without
Me, you can do nothing. We're completely paralyzed. We
call upon people to come to Christ, to forsake their sins, to believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing all along they can't do it. Ain't
that amazing? And yet they must. And how can they do it? I tell
you, the grace to do it, the strength to do it, the desire
to do it, the will to do it comes from Him. It all comes from Him. And we tell sinners to come on,
come to Christ, come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And when you've
come, you'll realize He gave you grace to come. When you believe,
you'll realize He gave you grace to believe. When you repent,
you realize He gave you grace to repent. Does He have that
kind of power? I tell you, brothers and sisters,
if I didn't believe it, I'd quit preaching, because I'm preaching
to a bunch of people with palsy, completely paralyzed. Without
me, you can do nothing. But in Christ and with Christ,
I can do everything, all things, through Him that strengthens
me. Why is this important? Because
our faith is not in us. Our faith is not in our strength.
Our faith is not in our wills. Our faith is not in our abilities.
Our faith must be in the authority, in the power, and in the ability
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Speak the word only. and my servant
shall be healed." I have not found so great a faith. No, not
in Israel. Where was his faith in? In this
almighty Savior, wasn't it? Let's look at this prayer then
right quickly, and let's see some practical things about it.
See if we can apply it to our own situation. First of all,
here let's see some things about The whole attitude of prayer.
How profitable, first of all, is a universal attitude of prayer. And by that I simply mean that
everybody in this scene, in this situation, had an attitude of
prayer. Now, if you want to read Luke's
account of this, it gives us some more information about this
and explains this. This centurion's servant, He
was sick. He was dying. Luke chapter 7
tells us he's ready to die. He's been paralyzed. He can't
swallow now. He can't digest his food. He's
dying. Don't you imagine that servant
was praying? He was a servant to this centurion.
This centurion had faith in the Lord. He probably told his servant.
But I imagine he was praying. But he had some people praying
for him. This centurion, Luke tells us, never came to the Lord
Jesus Himself. He sent the elders of the Jews
and said, go tell Jesus of Nazareth, ask Him if He will come and heal
my servant. The Jews used to say, when you
send a messenger, it's as if you go yourself. That's why Matthew
said the centurion came. But He sent these elders and
they came and said, would you come and heal this centurion
servant. Then the Lord said, I'll go on
his way back. The centurion sent some more
friends and said, Lord, I'm not worthy that you should come under
my roof. Just speak the word only and my servant shall be
whole. So see, everybody's involved
in this prayer, isn't it? Everybody's involved in praying. I imagine the poor man's dine
was praying. The centurion sent his request
to the Lord. The elders went to the Lord.
Then his friends went to the Lord. See the advantage, brothers
and sisters. When the congregation is saturated
with this spirit of grace and supplication, everybody has this
attitude of prayer. Oh, it's a wonderful thing. when
this spirit of prayer comes on a congregation, when the whole
congregation begins to seek the Lord. Charles Spurgeon was asked
one time about the success of his preaching. And he said, I'll
tell you the main thing, if I have success in my ministry, I'll
tell you the main ingredient to it, my people pray for me. My people pray for me. Brothers
and sisters, I tell you one thing I value from you more than anything
else, and that's your prayer. Sometimes I thought about getting
a little sign, print a nice little sign up and let it hang down
just below those two doors where you almost have to duck to go
under. And here's what it would say, Pray for your pastor. Why is that? Because if everybody
here would spend time in praying for their pastor, and the Lord
heard them, can you imagine? Can you imagine? When I got up
to speak then, when I got up to take my text, if the Holy
Spirit used it, and the Word went forth, not only in Word
only, but in power to a sinner's heart, can you imagine? Oh, that's
the advantage of this universal prayer. when the Lord hears. Oh, that's a blessing, ain't
it? That's a blessing. Everybody is praying. The Apostle
Paul said, I would that first of all, prayers and supplications
and intercessions be made for all men. He didn't mean everybody
without exception. My goodness, we can't pray for
everybody. But we pray for all kinds of people, don't we? Even
kings. Those who are in authority. We
pray for all kinds of people. And when we as a church, the
Lord's people, as a congregation, are saturated in our souls with
this desire and felt need to pray, to seek the Lord, oh, I
think the Lord would move. I think the Lord would move. Secondly, not only the universal
Spirit of prayer here among these people. Everybody was praying.
Everybody saw the value, the need of sending these requests
to the Lord. But there is something else,
and Luke chapter 7 and verse 2 tells us this, and it is a
tender heart towards people when we pray. Here is what he said
in Luke chapter 7 and verse 2. A certain servant, a certain
centurion servant, who was dear unto him, and was sick and ready
to die. What prompted this poor centurion
to send this message to the Lord Jesus because this servant was
dear unto him? He loved his servant. He could
not endear to watch his servant lay there with a fever, lay there
paralyzed and dying. And what did he do? He began
to pray and seek the Lord. I've read Foxe's Book of Martyrs.
If you've never read Foxe's Book of Martyrs, I would earnestly
recommend that book to you. Because you have these old saints
of old, and sometimes they would put them on machines and pull
them limb for limb. Sometimes they would throw them
in boiling oil and burn them alive. Sometimes throw them on
the horns of beasts. sometimes burn them. And almost
always when they were there in the fire and the flames coming
up around them, they prayed for those who had set them on fire.
Isn't that amazing? I was reading, or I was seeing,
watching Richard Wurmbrand. He was there in the prison. I
mentioned him so much, but it's just amazing. They kept that
man in solitary confinement, 30 feet under the ground, in
abstract darkness. He couldn't see his hand before
his face. Fourteen years! And the only
time they got him out is just to beat him. And he had a captain
that was over the torture of him and others. And when they
finally rescued him, they captured his captain and they put him
in prison. You know what Worm Brandt did?
He went almost every week and sat down with that captain and
had prayer with him and testified to him. A man that had tortured
him for 14 years. Can you imagine that? And you
know the one thing that made these men do that? These people
were dear unto them. Don't ask me, I don't know very
much, about your persecutors being dear to you, that you could
pour your heart out in prayer to them. I have noticed myself,
when I'm cold and indifferent, my prayers are so short, and
one of the reasons they're so short, nothing's dear to me. Very few things and very few
people are dear to me, but I've noticed when people and things
that are right become dear to me again, I then spend more time
in prayer. When a neighbor, when a dear
neighbor becomes dear to me, I spend some time in prayer.
When a lost child becomes dear to me, when I think of some lost
relative, Some lost one in the congregation. Why? Because they're
dear to you. Boy, I've often wondered about
poor old Stephen. He was laying there kneeling
and rocks were bouncing off of his head. And what did he do? He said, Lord, lay not this sin
to their charge. Why did he pray that? Those people,
though he hated their religion, He could have no fellowship with
them in their unrighteousness. He couldn't associate with them.
But they were dear to Him, weren't they? They had precious souls. And He said, Lord, please lay
not this sin to their charge. Oh, I tell you, if something
is dear to you, you're concerned about it, you seek the Lord for
it, don't you? I mean, Clarence went to see
his sister a few weeks ago, talking with her. And we asked her, Do
you pray? Do you seek the Lord? And she
said, No. And you know why? Her soul is
not dear to her. Men live as though they have
no souls. But as soon as a person's soul
becomes dear to them, what will they do? They'll seek the Savior
of the soul. And I tell you, when the work
and glory of Jesus Christ is dear to us, we'll seek, we'll
seek His glory and His will to be done. Things that's dear to
us and people that's dear to us, we spend time, don't we? Why did this man send this petition
to the Lord Jesus, come and heal my servant? Because he was dear. What's dear to you, dear soul?
What's dear to you this morning? Do you have anything that's dear
to you, that's worth saving, that's worth looking at in the
light of eternity? What's dear to you? Whatever
it is, then you'll seek the Lord. It may be your children. You'll
seek the Lord to secure their salvation. It may be the glory
of Christ and the good of His church. But if that's dear to
you, you'll seek Him. You'll seek Him. My servant who
is dear to me. And something else, something
else thirdly about prayer, and we see this, and it's humility. It's humility. Some people speak out today pretty
boldly about a false humility. Well, I join with them. But we
need to be careful. There is a real humility. There
is a real humility. And this man manifested it. And
God knows the difference, doesn't He? And it ain't what a man says
about himself. It's what the Lord knows about
him. If a man is humble, he won't see it in himself. What humble
people see in themselves is pride and arrogance. Let other people,
Solomon said, speak well of you and not your own lips. This man was a man filled with
humility. And it wasn't a humbleness that
he bragged about. These Jews went to the Lord Jesus
and said, Lord, this centurion servant is sick. And He's dying. And He's worthy that you should
do this for Him. Now that's not a good way to
pray for people, listen. He is worthy. But what did this
man say about himself? Lord, I'm not worthy. I'm not
worthy that you should come under my roof. That's humility, isn't
it? Not worthy that you should even
look at me or be in my house. Lord, I'm unworthy. The Lord said of John the Baptist,
of men that's barred of woman, there's not risen a greater than
John the Baptist. But what did John the Baptist
say about himself? I'm not worthy to stoop down
and unloose the latches of your shoes. The man was telling me
one time he was watching one of the televangelists, and I
had never seen this, but I think this man was telling me the truth.
He said this televangelist got up and stood on his platform
before thousands of people, and he said, Lord, this is not a
private now. This is General Swaber coming
to you. Isn't that amazing? Lord, I'm
not a private now. I am not unimportant. I am not
of low rank. I am a general. I am somebody. You think that prayer was heard? They that exalt themselves shall
be abased, and they that humble themselves shall be exalted. Humble yourself, therefore, unto
the mighty hand of God. And what better time to humble
ourselves is when we go to the Lord of glory in prayer. I tell you, it is a dangerous
thing and an unprofitable thing to rush into the Lord of glory's
presence without showing Him reverence. Get Him down at His
feet. He is the Lord of glory. I am
not worthy. The Lord Jesus was getting ready
just a few years from this time to turn to the Gentiles. This
soldier was the first Gentile saved as far as I know. He was
the first fruit. Isn't this amazing? A soldier.
Curtis, among the soldiers, that's a pretty rough language, ain't
it? A soldier's life is usually a pretty rough life. The Roman
soldiers, man, they were vicious people. They were cruel people.
Here was one that had faith in Christ. Ain't that amazing? He was a forerunner of all these
other Gentiles who were coming. And they were going to have the
same attitude that he had. I'm not worthy. I'm not worthy,
Lord. You see them entering the kingdom
one after one. Here comes a Gentile dog and
he enters the kingdom of Christ by faith. And what is he saying
of himself? Unworthy, unworthy, unworthy. That's the motto of everybody
that enters the kingdom of Christ. Unworthy, unworthy. And when they get to heaven,
what do they say? Thou art worthy, O Lamb. They cast contempt upon
themselves. and then scribe all glory to
Him. When the Gentile world reaches
the place, it thinks God owes them something. God owes me a chance. God owes
me grace. God owes me mercy. When they
reach that place, brothers and sisters, the fullness of the
Gentiles has probably come in and He's ready to turn from them.
He was ready to turn to them and watch their attitude. Unworthy,
Lord! Unworthy, Lord! And when they
reach the attitude that I'm worthy, I'm worthy, He's ready to turn
from them. How many lost people do you talk
to and they think, they think that coming to the Lord, they
have to pump themselves up in some kind of vain confidence
and exhibit some kind of power or wisdom that they don't have. When in truth, the way to come
to the Lord is just cast yourself upon Him as worthy of nothing
but what He owes you. That's justice and damnation. That's the way to carry weight
with the Lord. Come to Him and say, Lord, I'm
unworthy. Would you please show us mercy? Would you give us grace? Look now quickly at this. We'll
look at this in closing. Look at the centurion's faith.
That's what this is about. The Lord said there in verse
10, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great a faith, no,
not in Israel." Two times the Lord marveled. One, He marveled
at faith, and then He marveled at unbelief. Isn't that amazing? He marveled at the greatness
of this man's faith, and He marveled at the greatness of the Jews'
unbelief. And He said here about this man's
faith, I have not found so great faith, not in Israel. I'll tell
you one thing, brothers and sisters, the Pharisees and scribes didn't
have it. Oh, they had their outward holiness, didn't they? They looked
good, the world spake of them, but they didn't have faith in
the Son of God. And I tell you, at this point in time, even His
apostles didn't have this kind of faith. He rebuked them for
their unbelief, didn't He? But here was faith. Faith. This man never asked for a sign. He never asked for a feeling. He never even asked for the Lord
to be present. He said, Speak the Word only,
and my servant shall be healed. Why did he have such strong confidence
in Christ's Word? Because he had strong confidence
in Christ Himself. What was his meaning here in
verse 9 when he said, I am a man under authority, having soldiers
under me? What he was simply saying here,
he said, I know something about the chain of command. I know
something about being under authority. My superior gives me an order,
I do it. I'm subject to him. And he said,
I have soldiers under me. I say to one of them, you do
this, and he does it. I say to my servant, you go and
he goes. And I say to him, come and you come. What's he saying
by this? He is saying to the Lord Jesus,
everything is subject unto you. That's all he's saying. You have
absolutely authority over everything. Not just this sickness, over
everything. Just speak the Word. You're irresistible. Just speak the Word. Nobody can
resist you. You have unlimited jurisdiction
over everything. You know this could be said of
none but God the Creator. You could not say this about
anybody but God the Creator. Speak the Word and it shall be
done. That's the way God created this
world, was it not? He spoke and said, Let there
be light. And there was light by just the
power of His voice. Listen to Psalms 33, 6-9. By the word of the Lord were
the heavens made, and all the host of them by the breath of
His mouth. He spake, and it was done. He commanded, and it stood fast. Who did this centurion believe
that Jesus of Nazareth was? The Incarnate God. The Incarnate
Creator. That's who He believed that He
was. The centurion addressed Him as
the Incarnate Creator who made the mighty angels, who made this
boundless universe, who made man, and who made this earth.
He wasn't a mere man. He wasn't a mighty angel. They
can create nothing. The mightiest of angels can create
nothing. Shannon, you make a lot of things,
but you can't create anything, can you? And here he speaks to Jesus of
Nazareth, this redeeming God, and he says, All you have to
do is speak the Word only. What made this faith so great?
Well, I can say it was because It was in a great God. It was
in an omnipotent God. That's what made it great. But
it's more than that, isn't it? It's that, but it's more than
that. What made this centurion's faith so great? It was not only
in an omnipotent God, but it was in a great God who cares, who knows our plight and can
sympathize with us. Brothers and sisters, I don't
care how great the power of God is. If He's not a redeeming God,
if He's not a God who cares, He'll do us no good. But He does
care, doesn't He? He does sympathize. Look at Him
standing there in the flesh, reaching out and touching this
man full of leprosy. Why did He do that? Compassion. Look at Him upon the cross of
Calvary. Does He care? There hangs a mighty
God. Does He care for us? He's bearing
our load. He's bearing our guilt. He's
suffering our shame. He's putting away our sins. He's
endearing the awful wrath of God. Why? Because He cares. He cares. I tell you, if this centurion
only looked at the mighty God in our flesh, he would have been
so fearful. He would have never sent to Him
and said, Come and help us. But here was a mighty God in
our humanity, and He's a redeeming God. He's a caring God. He's a merciful God. He's our
Redeemer. Do you believe it? Do you believe
it? Do you believe it? You know one
reason I never did come to the Lord, looking at myself and giving
a reason in myself for not coming? I saw the justice of God. I saw
the wrath of God. I lived through my teenage years
with that. But I never did see the goodness of God displayed
in Jesus Christ. I didn't know that He cared for
my soul. I didn't know what Christ had
done for me upon Calvary. I was afraid to come. Boy, this
man wasn't afraid to come, was he? No, the Lord cares. The Lord
cares. Casting all your care upon Him,
for He cares for you. He pities us as a father pities
his children. Do we know this? Do we believe
this? Let faith take hold of this Word,
this Word only, and that's enough. Boy, that's enough to fill a
man with assurance. Let him take hold on this Word.
Jesus Christ is the incarnate God, and He has unlimited authority. Nothing is outside of His control.
Let that get in your heart, in that this sovereign incarnate
God cares for poor sinners like me. Oh, what hope, what assurance,
what joy. You can face life and living
and death with this confidence. Though you're a poor Gentile
dog, someday you're going to leave this earth and go up to
heaven and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom
of heaven. Is that possible? Is that possible? If you believe Him, it is. He said the day is coming. Why
would He put this in here? It does seem so out of place,
doesn't it? He's speaking to this man of
greatness of His faith. And He turns and said, I said
to you, there's coming a day when people are going to come
from the East and West. Who is that? That's these dumb
Gentiles. And they're going to sit down
with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven. You believe that? You believe
He has the power, Greg, to take you, a poor, wretched sinner,
from this earth, in the position you're in now, to heaven and
set you down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? How could you live
in assurance of such a thing? Because He said it. And when He says it, that fixes
it. That's where my assurance is.
Right here in His Word. That's why your faith can be
said to be great when you don't want feelings. You don't want
any signs. You just say, Lord, speak the
Word. Well, here it is. Today you shall be with me in
paradise. I don't feel like I'm going to
paradise. No, you're dying. Poor thing on the cross. Then
where can you possibly get your assurance? He said it. He said
it. The old slave John Jasper lived
his life in the assurance that when he left this world, he was
going to heaven. And it wasn't a presumption on
his part. They said, John, what if you
get up there and he turns you out? He said, well, I'll lose
my soul. That's for sure. I'll lose myself. But he says, God will lose more
than I do. Because I trust Him. I put my
trust in His Word. I hope in His Word. That's the
foundation of my salvation. His Word. And if after I put
all my confidence in what He said, if I get up there and He
turns me away, yes, I'm a loser. But He's a bigger loser. Because
He will have proved that His Word is not true. Oh, it will
never happen. Brothers and sisters, leave here
this morning putting all your confidence in the Word of God. That's what Christ Himself says. And what He says and what He
promises, He not only will do, He has the authority to do. He'll
do it. Lord bless His Word. Let's pray.