Let us turn this morning to Matthew
chapter eight. Matthew chapter eight and beginning
with verse five. 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 saith unto him, I will
come and heal him. 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 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 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. I want us to focus this morning
on these wonderful words of the Lord Jesus Christ in verse five,
where he said, I will come and heal him. I will come and heal
him. This is an illustration, no doubt,
of what those temple police meant. You know, in John chapter 7,
I believe it is, the Pharisees and the priests, they sent the
temple police to arrest the Lord Jesus Christ, to bring him before
them. And, of course, they came back
without him. And those leaders asked them, why, excuse me, why
have you not brought him? What's the problem? We sent you
to bring Jesus of Nazareth to us. What's the problem? Why isn't he with you? And those
men responded, never man spoke like this man. We've never heard
anyone speak like him. There never has been anyone who
has spoken like him. I will come and heal him. You know, as we read through
the Gospels and read the various words of the Lord Jesus Christ,
some of his words we would say are gracious words to that woman
who was taken in adultery and brought before him. He said,
neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more. Those are certainly
gracious words, aren't they? Unmerited favor, gracious words. And then when he was awakened,
he was asleep in the back of the ship and the storm came up,
the winds were blowing. And they awoke him and said,
Master, carest thou not that we perish? And the Lord Jesus
Christ spoke very powerful words, didn't he? He spoke to the wind. Peace be still. And there was
a great calm immediately. The wind and the waves obeyed
his voice. And I think of the words of the
Lord Jesus Christ, many of them as very kind words. If you look
above this here, in Matthew chapter eight, the words which he spoke
to the leper. In verse two, we read, and behold,
there came a leper and worshiped him, saying, Lord, if thou wilt,
thou canst make me clean. You know, to have the disease
of leprosy, a type of sin, A man had to be separated from his
family, had to live outside the camp. He was isolated from society. He was an outcast of the outcast,
a horrible disease, a rottenness of the flesh. No doubt there
was such an awful stench as the flesh decayed while he was alive. I can't hardly imagine a worse
disease. And yet when this man came to
the Lord, He said, Lord, if you will. He didn't question the
Lord's power, did he? And he recognized that the Lord
had the right, the sovereign right, to do with him as he pleased. As God said, I will have mercy
upon whom I will have mercy. He had the right. Lord, if you
will, you can make me claim. What kind words did the Lord
Jesus Christ speak to that man? I will be thou clean. And immediately, the leprosy
was gone. He was healed of that disease.
With these words this morning, I want us to look at in four
different ways, six words. I will come and heal him. Four different ways that we may
consider these words. First of all, I want us to consider
them as an answer to prayer, as an answer to the prayer of
this centurion. The centurion, we read, came
unto him beseeching him. Now you know a centurion was
not an Israelite. He was most likely a Roman, a
Roman soldier. He was a Gentile. He was not
an Israelite. And we know, of course, that
God had chosen the nation of Israel to be his special people. But this never meant, even though
the nation of Israel was chosen and blessed in such a great way,
to have, Paul said chiefly, the blessing that was given unto
them is they had the oracles of God. They had the word of
one nation. out of all the many nations in
the world, and this one nation, which was a small nation in comparison
to many of the nations, and a weak nation in comparison to many
powerful nations, but to this nation God had given them His
Word. How shall they hear without a
preacher? In order to be saved, a person
must hear the gospel. A preacher must be sent. How
beautiful are the feet of them who come preaching glad tidings
of great joy. In other words, the gospel message.
It was to the nation of Israel that the word of God, the oracles
of God was committed. That was a chief blessing. The
apostle Paul tells us in Romans chapter three. This man was not
an Israelite. But as I began to say, even though
God had blessed that nation and chosen that nation in a special
way, that never meant that God would not have mercy upon Gentiles. It never meant that. In fact,
the scripture says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. If you look back here in Matthew
to chapter one, for instance, In Matthew chapter 1, in the
genealogy that is given here of Joseph, Mary's husband, the
supposed, that's the way it reads in the Gospel of Luke, Joseph,
the supposed father of Jesus. Our Lord had no human father.
We know that. He was born of the Virgin Mary. And this genealogy, which is
given here in the Gospel of Matthew, concerns Joseph. But I want you
to notice in verse 5, there are two women who are mentioned here
in this genealogy. In verse 5, Salmon, that was
a prince of Israel, of the tribe of Judah. Salmon begat Boaz of
Rahab. Now who was Rahab? better known as Rahab the harlot,
the woman who received the spies that Joshua sent into the land
of Canaan when they came there to take possession of that land
which God gave them. Rahab, a Gentile, an Amorite,
under a curse, a Canaanite living in the land of Canaan. And yet, She asked those spies
to consider her, and not her alone, but her whole family.
And you remember what they told her. You put this scarlet thread,
you hang this scarlet thread, and you gather all your family
into your house. And she lived on the wall. Her
house was on the wall, wasn't it? And all the wall of Jericho's
going to fall down, except that portion where that scarlet thread
was hanging. And all those Gentiles were gathered
there. Well, you know that scarlet thread
has to represent to us the blood of Christ, doesn't it? The blood
of Jesus Christ. We just sang about that, didn't
we? Silver nor gold hath obtained our redemption, but the precious
blood of Christ. That was pictured. And this woman
here in this list of the genealogy of our Lord, she was a Gentile. And then notice the next one.
And Boaz beget Obed of Ruth. Now who is Ruth? She's another
Gentile, a Moabitess. Remember that the nation of Moabite
came from that incestuous act between Lot and one of his daughters. And they were under a special
curse and not able to come into the congregation of Israel for,
I forget, I think it was 10 generations. And yet God's mercy reached out
and saved this Gentile. This man who came to our Lord
this day was a Gentile, beseeching the Lord, praying, asking the
Lord for his servant's sake. And if you look back here in
Matthew chapter eight, as our Lord spoke about the faith of
the centurion, you notice down in verse 11, he said, I say unto
you that many shall come from the east and the west. Who are
these from the east and the west? Gentiles. Aren't you thankful
today that God has sent his gospel to the Gentiles, that it wasn't
just to that one nation? I think most of us here this
morning probably are Gentiles. And yet, our Lord said they'll
come from the east and from the west into the kingdom of God,
and they'll sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Here are
the three patriarchs. of the nation of Israel. It began
with Abraham and then the promise was given to Isaac and then to
Jacob. And men, Gentiles from the east
and the west, they're going to come and set down in the kingdom
of God. There's only one kingdom, the
kingdom of heaven. There's only one kingdom. You
know, I get kind of perturbed at these people who believe the
Jews, that Israel's going to be over here, and there's a special
gospel for them, and the Gentiles over here. No, there's one gospel,
there's one Savior, and there's one body. And that body is the
body of Christ, the spiritual body of Christ. This man came, he was a Gentile,
beseeching the Lord. You know, in Romans, the apostle
Paul said, for there's no difference between the Jew and the Greek.
For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon
him. What a promise, what a declaration. He's rich unto all that call
upon him. Here's a man who goes to hell,
he never called upon the Lord. He never sought the Lord. And
yet he's going to blame God. Oh, no. There's a promise here. There's no difference between
the Jew and the Greek. We're all of the same blood.
We all flow from Adam, our father. And all have sinned. Everyone
has sinned and come short of the glory of God. And I want you to notice we're
considering these words of Christ. I will come and heal him as an
answer to prayer. This centurion came beseeching
the Lord for his servant. And this is what we find. This
is what you find when you read through the gospels. You never
find that anyone came to the Lord Jesus Christ with a need
and ask him to help. to meet that need, and the Lord
turned them away. You don't find that. Neither
do you find anyone who ever came to the Lord asking for someone
else, a son, a daughter, someone else, a slave like this man. And the Lord did not meet the
need. This should be a great encouragement
to all of us here this morning, to pray, to beseech the Lord,
like this man did. He sought the Lord for his servant. To beseech the Lord, to pray
for our neighbors, our friends, our children. I told someone,
I think it was last Wednesday night, they were relating to
me how one of their children, I believe they have three children,
their children the Lord has saved. And I said, you know, we pray
for our children before they're born, don't we? I mean, when
they're in the womb of their mother, we're praying for them,
aren't we? Praying that not only that they'll be healthy, that
our wife will have a safe delivery, but we're praying for the children
that when they come into this world that God will have mercy
on them, will save them. And we continue to pray, don't
we? We continue to pray. What an encouragement this is
for all of us to pray, to beseech the Lord for others, for our friends,
as I said, our neighbors, and not to give up, not to give up. Sometimes the Lord seems slow
to us in answering our prayers, doesn't he? But we should never
give up. Why? Because he is merciful and
he is gracious. So that's the first way I want
us to think about these words. I will come and heal him as an
answer to this man's prayer. Now secondly, I want us to think
of them as a manifestation of his condescension. I will come
and heal him. This man was a servant, which
means he was a slave. That's what he was, he was a
slave. Now here's the king of kings, the lord of lords, the
lord of the angels, all of heaven worshiped him as
the eternal son of God and here he is in this world as the God
man and he says, I will come, I will come and heal him. If you look back with me to 1
Samuel, just a moment, I want to show you at least one illustration
of how people treated their servants in that day. If you've ever lived in a country
where there's different, how could I say it? Kind of like
a caste system. Usually it's all based on money. Poor people, they're looked down
on. Just average people, well, they're
kind of accepted. Wealthy people, they're somebody. That's one thing I thank the
Lord for for our country, don't you? That the public education
here at least has served to teach us who are citizens of this country,
we're all equal. We're all equal under the law.
But in this time, when the scriptures were written, for instance, here
in 1 Samuel chapter 30, in the life of David, he found a slave. David had come back and Enemies
had come into his camp and burned the camp and taken everyone captive
and and he's going to pursue them But of course they didn't
know exactly which way they went and it says but David verse 10
But David pursued he and 400 men for 200 abode behind which
were so faint that they could not go over the brook baser and
they found an Egyptian in the field they found this man just
out in the field and He was an Egyptian. And they brought him
to David and gave him bread, and he did eat, and they made
him drink water, and they gave him a piece of a cake of figs
and two clusters of raisins. And when he had eaten, his spirit
came again to him, for he had eaten no bread nor drunk any
water three days and three nights. How in the world did he get in
that situation? I tell you how. His owner left
him. He fell sick. and his owner left
him, sick, without food, and without water. That's just the
way slaves were treated. Awful. Not every man. We see
in the case that we're looking at today, this centurion, thank
God, he loved, he cared for his servant, and he came to the Lord. But notice what this man says.
Back here in 1 Samuel, in verse 13, David said unto him, to whom
belongest thou? Who owns you? And he said, I'm
a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite, and my master
left me, because three days ago I fell sick. He fell sick, and
his master just said, well, leave him. Forget about him. Let's
go on. Cruel. It gives us some idea, at least,
of how society, and the only reason things have changed, people
don't realize this, is because of the gospel. The gospel has
changed this world. And that's just so. We live in
a day where these people that hate the gospel, they talk about
the gospel and ridicule the gospel. But I'm telling you, the gospel
changed this world. The rights that men and women
have today, a direct result of freedom that we enjoy, a direct
result of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And yet we live
in a country where people, not everyone, thank God, but a whole
lot of people are wanting to cast all that overboard. Forget
about that. These words, I will come and
heal him. is a manifestation of the Lord,
the Lord's condescension. The centurion, if you turn back
here to Matthew, the centurion, he came and he asked the Lord
for help. He sought the Lord for a servant
and he seemed surprised. He seemed surprised that the
Lord, the Lord was a rabbi. He was a teacher. and I'm asking
you for my servant. Yeah, I know that. Shouldn't
say it like that. Yes, I know that. I'll come and
heal him. I'll come and heal him. This centurion couldn't believe
that the Lord would take the time. You're gonna take the time to
come and heal my servant. He's just a servant, not my son,
not me. It's my servant. I'll come and
heal him. You're gonna take the journey?
Yes, I'll take the journey. I'll come and heal him. He seemed surprised, and he didn't
know how to accept the master's offer, did he? When the Lord
said, I will come and heal him, he said, Lord, I'm not worthy. My servant's at my house and
you will come and heal him. You're gonna come into my house.
I'm not worthy that you should even come under my roof. You know, in the book of Job,
the scripture said, did not he, that is God, did not he that
made me in the womb make him? And did not one fashion us in
the womb? God is not a respecter of persons. And those of us who follow the
Lord Jesus Christ that take him as our example, There's an evil,
evil, evil sin of pride. Pride. And we get proud of who
we are, where we were born, our parents, or whatever. Our Lord, we're to follow him.
He showed no respect to persons. I'll come and heal him. And third, consider these words as a display
of his power. I'll come and heal him. One writer pointed out that if
these words, if this man had gone to a friend, a friend of
this slave, and said he's sick, and the man might have said,
well, I'll come and I'll take a cloth of cool water and I'll
bathe his forehead. I'll come and do that for him.
Or if he'd gone to a minister like myself, he might have said,
well, I'll come and pray with him. I'll come and pray with
him and witness to him. And if he'd gone to a doctor,
a doctor would've said, maybe would've said, I'll come and
examine him. I'll see what this sickness is
and maybe I'll have medicine to help him. The Lord Jesus said,
I'll come and heal him. No question, no doubt. I'll come
and heal him. Because you see, he knew that
there's no disease beyond his power. The centurion believed
He believed that the Lord could heal his servant, and he reasoned
about the Lord and himself. He said, I'm a man that have
men under me. And I say to this man, go. I
don't have to follow him. I don't have to go with him to
make sure he goes. No, I say go, he goes. I say come. He comes, Lord, just
speak the word. He recognized the power, believed
in the power that the Lord Jesus Christ had. That there's no power
beyond his, or there's no disease rather beyond his power. Just
speak the word, just speak the word. You know there's a verse
in Ecclesiastes, And remember Ecclesiastes is a book written
by King Solomon, and in that book he said, where the word
of a king is, there's power. Where the word of a king is,
there's power. And who may say unto him, what
doest thou? Now Solomon was a great king,
and where his word was, his word of command, where it went, there
was power to back up. his command, and that's been
true of many men who've been raised to great places of power,
but no one ever raised to a place like our Lord. I will come and
heal. It doesn't matter what the disease
is, if it's cancer, if it's tuberculosis, diabetes, or any other life-threatening,
awful disease that we're subject to, I'll come and heal it. Lastly, and our Lord said unto
that man, I've not found so great faith, no, not in Israel. You
know, we have the same confidence in the Lord Jesus Christ, that
he's able to save to the uttermost. And lastly, I want us to consider
these words as a picture of the Lord's saving centers. I will
come and heal him. He did come, didn't he? He did
come. He came from heaven. And why
did he come? The Son of Man has come to seek
and to save that which is lost. I will come and heal him. I will
come and save his people. Everything that is required. What is required for a person
to be saved? Well, first of all, our sins
have to be dealt with, don't they? You see, a lot of people
think, well, I'm just gonna begin today, and I'm going to live
a holy life from here on out, and that's going to be sufficient.
Well, in the first place, you're not going to do that. But remember,
if you could, what about the past? What about those days beforehand? No. For a sinner to be saved,
we've got to have a sacrifice that appeases God. A sacrifice
that God will accept. You say, well, is God like? God
is absolutely holy. And He declares about Himself,
I will by no means clear the guilty. And all of us are guilty. Our Lord said, I will come and
heal him. I will come and save them. Those that the Father gave him
in that eternal covenant, I will come and save them. And that's the reason he had
to be wounded for our transgressions. How that it is by his stripes,
his suffering, that we may be healed. And think about this,
sin is a disease that, it always ends in death. Always. And there's some diseases you
can have and maybe live with for a long time. And that disease
is not gonna kill you. Doctor said, you're gonna die
of old age before that kills you. I've known some men the
doctors told that to. But I tell you, sin is a disease
that always ends in death. The wages of sin is death. But aren't you thankful that's
not the end of that verse? But the gift of God is eternal
life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. I will come and heal him. I will come and save them. He
had to establish righteousness. You see, we not only needed our
sins to be put away, but we needed a righteousness that would allow
us to stand in God's presence. How are we going to get that?
Where are we going to get that? Only Christ. His righteousness
becomes our righteousness. Remember in Romans chapter four,
Paul asked this question. The apostle Paul asked this question.
What shall we say about our father Abraham after the flesh? What
are we gonna say about him? Everybody had respect for Abraham,
everyone in the nation of Israel, the head of the nation, the first
Israelite. What are we gonna say about him? He believed God and God imputed
it unto him for righteousness. That's what we're going to say
about Abraham, and that's what we're going to say about everyone
who is saved by the grace of God. We trust in the Lord Jesus
Christ, we believe God, and His righteousness becomes our righteousness,
just as our sins became His sins. Our sins were charged upon Him.
In Isaiah 53, the scripture says that God made to meet upon him
the iniquities of us all. And his righteousness is imputed
unto everyone that believes. What a wonderful word is this,
right? I will come and heal him. The Lord Jesus Christ is beyond description, isn't he?
He's an altogether lovely one. As he healed you, as he saved
you, as he revealed himself unto thee. We live in a day when people
are so deceived about being saved, they think that it's a matter
of praying a sinner's prayer or walking down an aisle and
signing decision card or something like that. Our Lord said, this
is life eternal. That they might know thee and
Jesus Christ and be of sin. The Lord reveals himself unto
his people and his people believe. Couldn't do anything else. Couldn't do anything else. When
God reveals Christ unto you, as the only way you believe. It's not a decision. You don't
decide to open up your eyes in the morning when you wake up.
You just open up your eyes, don't you? And when Christ is revealed
by the power of God, the Holy Spirit, through the Word, through
the preaching of the Word, you believe. You believe. and you go on your way rejoicing. And he gets all the glory, and
that's the way it's got to be. Scripture says he will not share
his glory with another. Let's sing a hymn and be dismissed.