Now, if you'd like to follow
while I speak this morning in your Bible, turn back to Luke
7, Luke chapter 7. There are several things about this
man from Capernaum and the account of the healing of his servant
that especially interest me and I believe will be helpful to
every person here. First of all, this man was a
Gentile. He was not a Jew, he was not of the nation of Israel,
he was not by nature son of Abraham, but he was a Gentile. A stranger,
that's what scripture calls us, stranger, an alien, without God,
without Christ, without hope in this world. This man was a
Gentile. And we're Gentiles. Everybody who's not a Jew is
Gentile. And we're Gentiles. That interests me. Secondly,
this man, this ought to interest you even more than me. This man
was involved in the affairs of life. This wasn't a monk. This wasn't a preacher. This
wasn't a man who was living in a mountain somewhere in a cave
looking for spiritual things. This man was a soldier. He was
a professional soldier. He was a high-ranking officer,
evidently in Caesar's army, a Roman centurion. He had servants. He had people who worked for
him. He was involved in the affairs of life. Now that ought to interest
you. Here's a man who's a Gentile.
He's not a Jew. He's a Gentile. And this man,
God's mercy and blessings and grace was upon this man. He was
a Gentile. He didn't have any right or any
rights descending from Abraham. He had no heritage like Saul
of Tarsus. He wasn't a Hebrew of Hebrews.
He was a Gentile of Gentiles. And not only that, but he was
a man involved in the affairs of life. He was a man who had
something to do with the affairs of his country, of his community. He was a man who worked people,
where people worked for him. He was a man involved in the
community. He was a family man. He was a neighbor. He was a man
involved in life. So often today, and this troubles
me, that we think that sainthood is reserved for some special
hermit or some special person who has nothing to do with life,
who's not involved in life, who's not out yonder, as people say,
in the rat race or in the jungle or in the affairs of life. He's some person sitting off
somewhere in a musty, dusty dim-lidded old study somewhere, browsing
through some books. But this man, of whom our Lord
said, I haven't found faith like this in Israel, of whom our Lord
marveled, was a soldier. Now you think about that. He was a soldier. He was a professional
soldier. He was a high-ranking officer,
a man involved in life. And then the third thing that
really caught my attention was the fact that our Lord Himself
commended this man's faith. Now, we wouldn't have been too
surprised if He had commended the faith of Peter, James, or
John. It wouldn't have attracted my attention so much if He had
commended the faith of Mary, or Zechariah's wife, or one of
these fellows, or Simeon in the temple. or Anna the prophetess. But here is our Lord commending
the faith of this Gentile professional soldier, this high-ranking officer. He's marveling and saying this
is an example of faith. I haven't found faith like this
in the whole nation of Israel. And then the thing, of course,
that led me to preach on the subject was the fact that our
Lord heard his cry and met his need. Now that should interest
everybody here. There must be something here
for us if we get the message, if we hear it. And I've divided
the message up into four parts, and I've thought through these
very diligently, and I believe God's given me some understanding.
First of all, the man had an interest. He had an interest,
and we've got some things to say about that. And then secondly,
I want to introduce you to a very humble man. He may have been
a man of prestige, but he was a man of humility. He may have
been a man of great possessions, but he was a man of great humility.
He may have been a man with great authority, but a man of great
humility. I want you to see that. Then
thirdly, I want you to see from this Scripture his total confidence,
his total confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ and what he has
to say about the character of Christ. his total confidence
in our Lord. And then the fourth thing we'll
look at is the answer to his prayer. Now, first of all, his
interest. It says here in verse 2, And a certain centurion's
servant, who was dear unto him, was sick and ready to die. And
when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews,
beseeching him that would come and heal his servant. Now, there
may be instances, and I want you to listen to this, There
may be instances when the Lord Jesus Christ calls a man out
of total pagan idolatry like Abraham. Now, I don't believe
that Abraham had a great deal of interest in God or in the
things of God. I don't know a great deal about
Abraham. I just know that the Scripture tells us that Abraham
and his whole family were idol worshipers. That's what God's
Word declares. that when God called Abraham,
that Abraham lived among and dwelt with idol worshipers. And God came to him and spoke
to him and said, Abraham, you get out of this place and out
of your land and from among your kindred and from your father's
house and go to a land I'll show you. That was unexpected. That
was totally, as we say, out of the blue. In an instant, God came and put
his hand upon Abraham. Now that's true. And then there's
another case of an earthquake shaking a man out of his lethargy
and indifference. And I don't find, I know a lot
of preachers seem to find the Philippian jailer under conviction.
They try to picture the Philippian jailer sitting outside the cell
keeping the prisoners and listening to Paul preach and sing and praise
God and pray, but the Bible says that he was asleep It was asleep. He had beaten them and imprisoned
them and sat down out there asleep. And God Almighty shook that jail
with an earthquake. Even the cell doors opened and
fell off their hinges. And that's when he sprang forth
a light and sprang in. He would have killed himself.
He drew his sword and would have... That doesn't sound like a man
under conviction about to commit suicide, but he was about to
kill himself. And he heard Paul say, don't
do that. Do yourself no harm. We're all
here. That's when he called for the light and sprang in and came
trembling. He'd seen the power of God. He'd seen demonstrated
before his faith the power of God. And then another instant
was a woman at the well. She did not expect to meet Christ
at that well. She didn't come to the well to
meet Him. She didn't expect to meet Him. He came there to meet
her. So I'm saying there may be some instances through the
Word of people who met God unexpectedly. People who met God who were not
seeking God. People who met Christ who did
not have on their minds or hearts any interest or concern for meeting
Him. But throughout the New Testament,
most of the time, now you watch this, most of the time, Those
to whom the Lord reveals Himself, His grace, His redemption, His
mercy, were seeking the Lord. Now, you look through the Bible
and see if that's not true. You say, where is this man? Well,
let's look at this man first of all. Now, I said he was a
Roman soldier, but he was not the ordinary soldier. I'm not
denying his sinnerhood. I'm not denying his lostness.
I'm not denying his guilt. I'm not denying his sinful heart.
I'm not denying the fact that he was a sinner. But I'm saying
he was a sinner who had a concern for a relationship with God.
I see that in several things. First of all, verse 2, it says,
"...a servant was very dear to him." We're not talking about
a son. I know a lot of people have changed this to read son,
Danny, but it says servant, doesn't it? Here was a soldier. Here
was a high-ranking officer who had a servant. And that servant
was dear to him. He was dear to him. So here's
a man of compassion. Here's a man, I know he's a sinner.
I know he's guilty before God. I know he's unjust and unrighteous
and unholy before God. But here's a man who had some
spiritual interest, who had compassion, who had concern, and his servant
was dear to him. That servant, that man that worked
in his field, was dear to him. And when that servant got sick,
and was ready to die. He left the big mansion and went
down there to the servant's house and gathered the servant's children
and wife around and he said, Is there anything I can do? Is
there anything I can do? Tell me what I can do. This man's
precious to me. He's dear to me. He said, I'll
tell you, I've heard of a man called Jesus of Nazareth and
I've heard he healed people and I'm going to see if I can get
him to heal you. He called the man. He cared.
He was a man who cared. Here's a man with concern. All
right, watch this, I'll show you another thing. It says down
here in verse 5, well, these Jews, these elders that he sent
to Christ, they told the Lord Jesus, this man is a worthy,
benevolent man. He loves the Jews. He loves our
nation. All right, let's carry that through.
I know here's a soldier, and he's a sinner. He's a great sinner.
Not denying that. I'm not denying any man's sin.
But they're different sinners. They're indifferent sinners and
they're seeking sinners. They're sinners who have no interest
in God and God will never do anything for them. But they're
sinners who have a care and a concern and a compassion and a need and
a seeking of God. And this man was one. The Ethiopian
eunuch. Our Lord sent Philip to it, but
that man had been to Jerusalem seeking the Lord. Lydia as another. God opened Lydia's heart. But
Lydia on that Sabbath day was down there by the river worshiping
God. Cornelius, the head of the Italian
band. Cornelius was a devout man who
feared God and prayed. Zacchaeus was anxious to see
Christ, and he ran, and here this man of means and this man
of importance climbed a tree so he could see the Lord. He's
pretty interested in it. He's pretty interested. I can
go, the woman with the issue, 12 years had been sick. She came crawling on her hands
and knees and said, if I can just get to Him, I'll be made
whole. That's putting forth an effort. I could tell you about
Brian Bartimaeus who would not be stilled. I could tell you
about the harlot who lived down there wherever she lived and
she heard of Christ and she came and brought the most precious
ornament that she had and put it on his feet and wept over
his feet and dragged him with a hammerhead and kissed his feet
with the kisses of her mouth. That's seeking, isn't it Jim?
That's care. See what I'm saying? This man
wasn't sitting in a rocking chair down in Capernaum saying, well,
if Jesus Christ wants me, he can come down and get me. If
my servant, I can always replace him. You can always pick up another. And I say, well, the fellow here,
he dies, I'll get me another. No, he cared. He was a man of
care. He was a man of concern. He was
a man of compassion. And these Jews says he loves
our nation. He loves our nation. I'm always
worried about the people who hate Jews. I'm worried about
them. Now, they can say what they want
to, but you find me a racist. I don't care who he is. You find
me a racist, and I believe you found a man who doesn't know
God, who does not know God. I don't see how that any of us
can have that prejudice and bigotry and hatred for a person because
he was not born with blonde hair and blue eyes and white skin.
There's something wrong. At least he might not have a
heart that's as rotten as ours is. But this man was not a racist.
He was not prejudiced. He was not a bigot. He loves
our nation. That's what those elders said.
And I'll tell you something else. He didn't know God. I know that.
He didn't know Christ. He wasn't a saved man, but he
built them a synagogue to worship him. Now you think about that.
He cared. I believe he was like the fellow
that said, I don't know the Israelites' God, but the Israelites' God
is God. Cornelius could say that. The
Ethiopian eunuch could say that. They were men who knew that God
dwelt in Israel. And indeed He did. And indeed
He did. And I see that through this man's
experience. And I'm asking myself and you
this morning, what kind of interest do you really have in knowing
God? What kind of interest? What kind
of interest? This man had an interest in knowing
God. This man, he cared. He was a caring, compassionate
man of concern. God was doing something for him.
That's exactly what I'm saying. I'm saying that God was already
doing something for this man. You see, God's sheep are not
just His sheep when He calls them, they're His sheep when
He chooses them and sets them apart. He said, Jeremiah, before
I formed you in the belly, I knew you. Before you came out of your
mother's womb, I sanctified you. Paul said, God separated me from
my mother's womb and called me by His grace. I'll tell you this,
at a certain point in a man's life, Even before he comes to
faith in Christ, he has evidence of being a sheep. Now, you watch
that in a lot of these faiths. I'm not saying in every case.
In some instances, God strikes like this, you know, like that.
But even Saul of Tarsus had an interest in the Word. Cornelius
had an interest in God. The eunuch had an interest in
God. Zacchaeus, the woman at the issue of blood. Just keep
going through the Scripture. And here down here in Capernaum
was one of God's sheep, a Roman army officer who had a plantation,
who had servants and people who worked for him. But he was unique,
he was different. God said to Satan, he said, if
you consider my servant Job, he's a righteous man, he hates
evil, he shuns evil. And this man here, this was a
man who, you look at that and think about it a little bit,
Here was a man who, in his days of unbelief, in his days of not
knowing God, had an interest, a concern. He had his eyes toward
something that he hadn't seen and his ears tuned to something
he hadn't yet heard, but he knew there was a voice somewhere.
He knew. He knew. And it was manifested
in his attitude, manifested in his attitude toward others, in
his spirit, if God hadn't saved him yet, he will. He will. Now you think about that a little
bit. I leave that for you to think about. I leave that for
you to think about. He was a man who loved Israel.
Why did he love Israel? He saw in Israel something that
everybody else didn't see. Why did he build a synagogue?
Why in the world would a man of his prestige and of his position
as a Roman, so why would he build the Jews a synagogue? Now you
think about that. I'll tell you why. Because he
knew there was something about that synagogue and that synagogue
worship and those sacrifices that said something to his heart.
And even before he knew God in saving faith, he built a synagogue.
And here was a man down here, a man of power and prestige and
prominence down here, caring for his servant, loving him. He was dear to him. Those are
marks, marks and characteristics of the elect. All right, let's
notice his humility. It says here, first of all, in
verse 3, when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of
the Jews. Now he told our Lord why he didn't
come himself. He said, Lord, I wasn't worthy
to speak to you. See this man's humility? You
know, this doesn't usually go with prominence. Humility is
not something generally that you find in places of power. Not much humility. Not much humility
in places of power and places of great possession and places
where men have great influence. They usually crowd me. Arrogant
men they're usually men who feel that they belong here or belong
there or belong wherever anybody belongs I've got a right to be
where I please you know, but this man would not come to Christ.
He told him why He said Lord. He said I I did verse 7. I didn't myself feel worthy to
come to you That's why I sent those elders. I Didn't feel worthy
to come to you And then when our Lord, when the elders came
and told him about the man, of course he knew about the man,
but they brought the message. And our Lord started toward his
house, and of course a lot of people followed him, and he got
a certain distance from the house, I don't know how far, a mile
or two or three or however. But when he got near the house,
these people came running out and said, Master, we have a word
from our master, the centurion. Don't come in the house. Don't
come in the house. Why not? Because he says he's
not worthy for you to come under his roof. You see, he's a soldier,
and he's a man that's been a man of great sin and great failure,
and he just doesn't feel like he's worthy for you to come under
his roof. He's not worthy to come speak to you, and he's not
worthy for you to come. I see here the public in the temple. I see too many in the temple. Our Lord said, One fellow came
to the temple to pray, and he came in the door and walked all
the way down to the front, right down to the altar. And there
he stood and raised his hands and his eyes to heaven, and he
began to pray with himself, Christ said. And he began to say, Lord,
I thank you I'm not like other people. You see, Lord, I tithe
and I fast and I give alms and I'm good to people and I take
care of the poor. And I'm not an adulterer, and
I'm not unjust, I'm not an extortioner." And his eyes dropped, and he
caught sight of an old publican back there in the back. And he
said, I'm not like him. I'm not like him. He didn't feel
any embarrassment about coming into the presence of the Lord.
He didn't feel any embarrassment about speaking to the Lord. He
didn't feel any hesitancy at all about just gushing out his,
vomiting out his self-righteous rags right in front of the Lord.
It didn't bother him. He felt like he belonged there.
And our Lord sent him home condemned. Well, there was another man came
to the temple that day to pray for the same reason this man
came to pray. And he stopped right back there.
He stood afar off. He stopped right back in the
back. And he wasn't left. They talk about lifting holy
hands. He wouldn't lift even his eyes. His hands stayed at
his side. Back in the Old Testament, they
lifted their hands. You see them on television doing
that, don't you? That's where they get that. Lifting holy hands
in prayer. Not this fella. He kept his hands.
Actually, he beat on his breast. Spurgeon said he knew this is
where the trouble was, and he kept pounding on it, you know,
his heart. And he wouldn't even lift his
eyes. He's ashamed to lift his eyes toward God's heaven, wherever
that is. And he bowed his head and he
smote on his breast and he cried, oh God, oh God, be merciful to
me, thee sinner. Can we discover this type of
approach to the Lord? I know this is totally different
from today. Today it's Jesus wants you, Jesus
begs for you, Jesus needs you, the church needs you, I need
you, all these different things, God needs you. all of these things,
but where do we find that person that feels that God doesn't need
him, and that God's not obligated to him, and he can't add anything
to the church or to God? That everything would be added
to him, that he wouldn't, where's the person that feels that if
you left here, anybody'd miss you? Or if you didn't do this, the
church would just about flounder and fall apart. Where is the
person who feels like that you are complimented to be here?
That you are honored to be a part of the kingdom of God? That you
can't add one thing to Him? That you are so embarrassed in
His presence by your sin that you don't even come? That's where
this man sent somebody else. That's humility. And this was
a prominent man. This was a powerful man. This
was a man of prestige and position. But before God, he was as one
in the dust. And he wouldn't even come. And
he apologized. He said, Lord, I'll tell you
why I didn't come personally. He said, I'm not worthy to talk
to you. That's why I didn't come. I didn't come because I'm not
fit to come. I got no right to come. You don't owe me anything. You're not indebted to me. And
I'll tell you why I didn't invite you into the house. It wasn't
because I didn't want you. It wasn't because I wouldn't be
honored if you came. It's, Lord, I didn't feel like you belonged
here. I just felt like it was too great a condescension for
you to come under my roof. Isn't that something? Most of us feel like God ought
to save us and we're doing God's... We just get so proud. We walk
down and shake hands and tell everybody that we believed in
Jesus, patting Him on the back. We're going to let Jesus come
to our house. What if He doesn't want to? You reckon you could handle that?
Actually, He doesn't belong in my house. If He comes under my
roof, He's going to have to get mighty low. Isn't that right,
Charlie? Mighty, mighty low. And that's what this man felt. And the reason this hits so close
to home, this is so applicable to where we are, is the reason
I'm preaching on it. Here was a man with an interest.
Don't ask me where he got it. God gave it to him, but it was
there. And he showed it. And when the Lord Jesus was out
there, he sent somebody. He didn't feel worthy. And then
when the Lord started, here he comes, here he comes! And he
said to the servant, run out there and stop him! Run out there
and stop him. Tell him not to come. Just don't
tell him to come. I'm not worthy that he should
have anything to do with me. Now watch his confidence. And
here, brother, I tell you, this is where it is. Verse 7, he says,
Lord, I didn't think myself worthy to come to you, but Lord, just
say a word and my servant will be healed. You just stay right
where you are and just speak. Now what made him believe that the Lord Jesus didn't have
to touch the servant, didn't have to see the servant, didn't
have to minister to the servant, to just stand out there two miles
from the house and speak a word. You know why he said that? Because
he knew who Christ was, the Lord of heaven and earth, the sovereign
master with all authority over all things, even germs, even
infections, even demons. That's right. That's what he
believed. He said, I understand authority. I know something about
authority. You're a man of authority. You
have the authority of God. You're under the authority of
God. He said, I've got some authority.
I'm under the authority of Caesar. He's given me authority over
soldiers. I can say to this soldier, you go, and he goes on my word. I can say to this soldier, you
come, and he comes on the authority of my word. I can say to this
servant, you do this and he does it because I have authority over
him and Lord you got authority. You can speak and the blind eye
sees. You can speak and the deaf ear
hears. You can speak and the lame walks. You can speak and the dead come
forth. You can speak and the sea calms. You have all authority. And whatever
this germ is in the body of my servant, all you have to do is
speak and it will obey your voice. That's faith. The authority. Do you know something about the
authority of Christ? The Jesus that I hear preached
today has no authority at all. I don't detect any reverence
for his name. They call him Jesus. They don't
call him Master. They don't call him Lord. I don't detect any
reverence or awe of his presence. He's my buddy. He's my best friend,
most of all. I don't detect any fear of his
word, of his presence. There's some kind of over-familiarity
and buddy-buddy sort of thing that I don't see reverence. And yet here's a centurion of
Rome who has more understanding than the preachers in the pulpit.
And he sends some servants out there to stop the Lord of heaven
before he comes under his roof. And he says, Lord, I'm not worthy.
I'm just not worthy. I'm no good, and you're good. I'm a sinner, and you're holy.
Now, you don't even have to come under my roof. All you have to
do is say the word because I understand authority. And I know that you
have authority even over microscopic germs. You have all authority. And Christ said that. Let's turn
to Scripture 2. Turn to John chapter 17. Now,
let's look at some Scripture. In John chapter 17, verse 2,
this is the Lord Jesus talking to the Father. He says in verse
2, "...as thou hast given him power..." What is that word,
power? That's authority. Authority. "...over all flesh,
that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given
him." Christ has authority. I was talking about the sale
of these houses back here. I know this. One person on the
corner here who owns the house there says, She wants self, a
lesson, an astronomical figure, you know. God has authority over
her. If he wants us to have it, we'll
have it. You know that? He has authority over all people.
The king's heart's in the hands of the Lord. He turns it whithersoever
he will. I know that. I know that in here.
Sometimes don't act like it out here, but I know it. He has all
authority over all flesh. over all flesh. There's nobody
in this world that's not under the dominion of my master. In
him we live and move and have our being. Even the devil is
God's devil. And he's on a leash. And he only
do what God lets him do. Not what God sends him to do,
what God lets him do. There's a difference. Turn to
Matthew 28. I hear a lot of preachers talk
like the devil and God are just about equal in power. They say the old devil is out
to get you. I was holding a meeting down
in Georgia, down in Savannah, Georgia, and I was sitting down
studying one day on the front row waiting for the service to
start before the evening service, and the song lady was there. He had some children up there
practicing some songs he was going to sing that night, and
he was assistant pastor and song leader. I was sitting down there
and he said, Brother Mahan, I said, what? He said, I'm going to have
the kids sing my favorite chorus for you. I said, that would be
fine. I looked up, you know, and I
said, cut loose. And they started singing, one, two, three, the
devil's after me. Four, five, six, he's always
throwing sticks. Seven, eight, nine, he misses
every time. Hallelujah, I'm saved, you know. I thought, uh-oh, we're
in for a rough week here, you know. If that's his favorite
song, what are we going to do with the rest of them? Oh my
goodness, the devil voted for you and God voted for you and
it's a tie. Isn't that terrible? Our Lord
has all authority. Matthew 28, 18, listen. And Jesus
came and spake unto them, saying, All power, all authority is given
unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore and teach all
nations. Where is the power invested in the Son? Now, He's King, He's
Lord. He's Lord by God's decree. He
hath decreed Christ to be Lord. He's Lord by God's design in
His covenant of grace. In his redemptive purpose and
plan, Christ is Lord. He's made him the surety of an
everlasting covenant, the authority. By death, he purchased the right
to be Lord. He died, the Scripture says,
that he might be Lord of the dead and the living. In his death,
he bruised the serpent's head. In his death, he conquered sin.
And God has seated him until all his enemies become his footstool. And the last enemy, he'll destroy
his death. He's got all authority. I wish
I could get that across. It's not sweet little Jesus,
boy. It's King of kings and Lord of lords. It's not the poor little
defeated reformer that wants you to let him in your heart.
It's the King who has authority over the walls of Jericho. and over the throne of England
and Rome and all the rest of it. King. This man knew that. He sent word out there, Lord,
you don't have to come up here. Just speak the word. I understand
authority. And just as these soldiers are
under me to do my bidding and these servants to do my bidding,
all men are under you. Even the demons, the devils,
even germs and diseases and death, speak! Speak! Speak. Now watch the last part. Back to the text in Luke 7. And
our Lord stood there, and He turned to those with Him. In
verse 9, it's like He turned to you today, and to me. And
he'd say, that's faith, Danny. That's what he said. He said,
that's it. I haven't, that's so great faith.
I haven't found faith like that. And I want every one of you,
he said, to listen to what that man said. Are you listening? I want you to listen. That's
the Master. I don't have to preach another
word here. All I have to say there, the Master said that.