from Isaiah 56. And this is a passage that speaks about the inclusion of the Gentiles in salvation. And that they will have a place with God, just like the place that Abraham and the Jewish people have. Here is the Word of our Lord. Thus says the Lord. Keep justice and do righteousness, for my salvation is about to come and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man who does this and the son of man who lays hold on it, who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and keeps his hand from doing any evil. Do not let the son of the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord speak, saying, The Lord has utterly separated me from his people, nor let the eunuchs say, here I am a dry tree. For thus says the Lord to the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths and choose what pleases me and hold fast my covenant, even to them I will give in my house and within my walls a place and a name better than that of sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off. Also, the sons of the foreigner who join themselves to the Lord to serve Him and to love the name of the Lord to be His servants, everyone who keeps from defiling the Sabbath and holds fast my covenant, even them I will bring to my holy mountain and make them joyful in my house of prayer. Their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on My altar. For My house shall be called a house of prayer for all nations. The Lord God who gathers the outcasts of Israel says, Yet I will gather to Him others besides those who are gathered to Him. All you beasts of the field come to devour. All you beasts in the forest. His watchmen are blind. They're all ignorant. They are all dumb dogs. They cannot bark, sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. Yes, they are greedy dogs which never have enough. And they are shepherds who cannot understand. They all look to their own way. Everyone for his own gain from his own territory. Come, one says, I will bring wine and we will fill ourselves with intoxicating drink. Tomorrow will be as today. and much more abundant. God bless these words to us. You see the contrast that's set up here between presumptuous covenant people. We're going to be participating in our drunkenness and all these kind of things. It won't matter. Tomorrow will be like today. Still be the blessing of God to us. And then you have the Gentiles that come in and keep the Lord's Sabbaths and serve Him gladly and graciously. And He says to them that they will have a better place even than the sons and daughters of the covenant. Now let's turn over to our New Testament reading. That's from Matthew 8. And I'll begin reading in verse 5. Here is the word of our Lord God. Now, when Jesus had entered Capernaum, the centurion came to him, pleading with him, saying, Lord, my servant is lying at home, paralyzed, dreadfully tormented. And Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him. The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that you should come under my roof, but only speak a word and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, go. And he goes. And to another, come. And he comes. And to my servant, do this. And he does it. When Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to those who followed, Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel. And I say to you that many will come from the east and the west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then Jesus said to the centurion, Go your way. And as you have believed, so let it be done for you. And his servant was healed that same hour. Praise be to our Lord for His grace that is revealed to us in this passage. May we reverence and honor Him and give thanks to His name. Under His Old Testament law, God appointed an elaborate system of rituals and ceremonies to teach the world about Himself. Israel was like a place where God displayed to the whole world. his salvation and continues to do so today from what he did in those ancient times. One of the main things that he wanted to show the entire world, we looked at this a little last week, is that he is holy because the whole human race has fallen into sin. He taught through those ceremonies that nobody could come into His presence unless that person had first been cleansed and sanctified by Him, by the Lord Himself. To drive home this lesson, God appointed worship at a central sanctuary. First, the tabernacle, and after that, the temple. And this was to represent His dwelling place in the world, His presence. But before anybody could worship there, that person had to go through all sorts of cleansing and sanctifying ceremonies to prepare them for that worship. There was circumcision. There were the sacrifices that had to be offered by the priests. Various washings, or baptisms as they were called, that were all required before a person could come before the Lord God. Those who had been sanctified by these things were thus distinguished from those who were not sanctified and who were considered unclean. And because God sanctified in particular the nation of Israel. then Israel was set apart from all other nations. And those other nations were considered unclean. The Gentiles. Those other nations were called Gentiles. And the people of Israel whom God sanctified were called Jews. This meant that the Jews could worship God at the temple as long as they continued in all of those cleansing ceremonies that were required of them. But the Gentiles were excluded except for those few proselytes among the Gentiles who completely became members of the society of Israel by being circumcised and joining themselves fully to Israel, undergoing all the cleansing requirements that were necessary in order to become a worshipper of God in that way. Now, all of this was to teach that nobody could come into God's presence unless God Himself sanctified them. Now, of course, all of these rituals were types, or pictures if you would want to call it that, of what God had purposed to do in His Son, Jesus Christ. All the ceremonies that were performed and all the sacrifices that were offered could only cleanse the persons outwardly to worship at the earthly tabernacle. It was a model or a picture of what God had to do in truth, to use the biblical term. The true cleansing and sanctification was not from the washing of water and from bulls and goats offered on an altar, but it was the offering of Jesus Christ. It was by Him and by Him alone that sinners could be reconciled to God. Without His sacrifice, we would all be cut off from the presence of God forever. But by him, all who believe are given eternal life. So you see that there are still two kinds of people in the world. And even at this day, there are those who have been sanctified by faith in Jesus Christ and there are the rest who are all unclean. And so remain cut off from God because they have not been cleansed by Christ. They have not been sanctified. And there is still an outward sanctification that is accomplished by baptism, which a person undergoes before they are admitted to come to the Lord's table. But the true sanctification is that which is done invisibly. It is done by faith in Jesus Christ. It has visible results in our life, but it is not something we can see with our eyes. except as God reveals it to us through outward ceremonies. And so you see then that there are still these two kinds of people. And I should add that the purpose of the Old Testament ceremonial law was to lead both Jew and Gentile to faith in Jesus Christ. It teaches both Jew and Gentile that God must sanctify, or we are unclean. The Old Testament Jews were not supposed to rest in their outward service. But they were appointed by those ceremonies to God to cleanse them through Jesus Christ. And so it was that when Jesus came in the fullness of time, that the whole world was then called to believe in Him for the remission of sins. The whole world is called to come and be sanctified by faith in Him. And all who come to Him believing are given assurance of eternal life. They are reconciled to God by His offering. And they are adopted as sons and daughters. For you are all sons and daughters, Paul says, by faith in Jesus Christ. Matthew's Gospel, like the other Gospels, was written to declare this glorious salvation that Jesus Christ came to bring to all who believe. And of all the four Gospels, Matthew's is the most Jewish. of the Gospels. That is, it was written especially to the Jews and with the Jews in mind. The history tells us that this was written, that Matthew was written in Aramaic, which was the sort of the Hebrew of the day. And because this is so, Matthew focuses more than the other Gospels on blasting Jewish hypocrisy. He presents us with more of the nasty things that Jesus had to say about those who considered themselves righteous just because they were Jews than any other Gospel. And how their faith and their pedigree was worthless unless they had faith in God's promise through His Son. So much of Matthew's Gospel, as we have already seen, draws a line between covenant people who have salvation and covenant people who don't have salvation. Those who have entered the wide gate into God's kingdom that leads only to destruction, and those who have entered the narrow gate that leads to life. The narrow gate of faith in Jesus Christ. And one of the things that Matthew brings to focus that Jesus Himself used to stir the Jews up to forsake that hypocrisy and to believe is the faith of Gentiles in contrast to Jews. Matthew brings all of those stories forward that we have in the Gospels that Jesus highlights the faith of the Gentiles over against the unbelief of the Jews. And so to boil this all down, what we have in Matthew 8, 5-13 is an example of the faith of a Gentile that shows us what faith ought to look like. It's to stir up covenant people who have fallen asleep and whose faith is not living and vital. And it's also to encourage Gentiles, those who are outside the nations that are still outside of Christ, to come and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ after the example of this man. Now, gladly, Jesus does not say that we must have faith equal to this man's faith in order to be saved. But we must have faith like this man's faith. Even though it may be small and weak, If we have faith and we depend on Jesus Christ, we shall be saved. But you see, this is something that covenant people need to hear. The Gospel has been with us for a long time in Western civilization. Most of you have parents or grandparents that were baptized into the church of Jesus Christ. Whether they were in an apostate church, it didn't matter, they were baptized. And the name of Christ was put upon them in that baptism. And that makes you like the Jews to whom Matthew wrote. You are today's covenant people and you need to be challenged by this Gentile's faith. First, to make sure that you have saving faith. And secondly, that your faith might be vital, that it might be a greater faith like his faith, a great faith. It is so easy for the faith of God's covenant people to grow cold and dim. from one generation to the next. And the solution is not to excommunicate all of our children. That is what has been done in North American revivalism. Children have been cut off, excommunicated from the covenant of God's people, excluded from baptism and from membership among the people of God. in order that they might try to revive faith. That was an error on the part of the church. They're still in the covenant. But the solution is to continually challenge those who are in the covenant that they must have faith if they would be saved. Not to put them out of the covenant. So now let us take a good hard look at the wonderful faith that is presented here. A faith that made Jesus marvel, we are told. First of all, Gentile faith is a humble faith. Yes, here is a marvel. A captain of the mighty Roman army pleading with one of his captives. His faith is all the more striking because he is a great man in the world. The centurions got their name from being in charge of a company of a hundred soldiers. the centi, a hundred. And often we're told that there are more than a hundred that they are responsible for. This man had been sent across the sea from Rome by the emperor to maintain Roman law and order and rule in Capernaum and the surrounding region. The centurions were known to be the finest men in the Roman army. Polybius says of centurions, They must not be so much venturesome seekers after danger as men who can command. Steady in action and reliable. They ought not to be over-anxious to rush into the fight, but when hard-pressed, they must be ready to hold their ground and die at their post." And he adds that they were the finest men in the Roman army. As you can see, centurions were highly respected. as the most disciplined of all the Roman soldiers and the most disciplined army that was in the entire world. So here is a man that was, as far as the world is concerned, a very self-sufficient sort of man. Quite a contrast from the leper that we looked at last week. He was used to giving orders, this man. He was used to success and power in the world. He was used to respect and honor. He was used to victories. But see how he puts all that aside when he comes before Jesus Christ. It's beautiful. He comes as one who is totally dependent on the will of this Jewish carpenter's son, whose land this centurion had conquered. He does not come demanding. He comes pleading with him, beseeching, looking for mercy. He comes not as a captor to his captive, but he comes as a servant to a master. He comes as one who is helpless and unable to accomplish what he desires. This man who can conquer nations, who can put down disorder in the city, but he knows that he cannot heal the servant that he loves who is paralyzed. My friends, you will come with the same humility when you realize how dependent you are on Jesus to obtain your desire. Here is the Creator who holds the particles of dust that make up your body together so that it is a body. You are so dependent upon Him at this very moment. Here is the only Savior that the world has ever known to whom all judgment is committed, and by whose will you will be committed to eternal misery or to eternal life. Here is the One who alone has the power to cleanse you and to pardon your sins. No matter how successful you may have been in the world, no matter how important you may think that you are and that your own desires are in this world, no matter how important you think what I want is, when you come before Jesus Christ, you have to put all that aside and you have to come. with full humility. See also this Gentile's humility in that he pleads for his servant." The word translated servant here is an affectionate term that could be translated, my boy. It speaks of a young servant. It could even refer to a son. And the only way we know that it's not a son is because Luke in the parallel passage uses a different word that means a bond slave, a servant. how moving it is to see this man, this man that was accustomed to hard warfare, pleading for a slave in his household. Many other Romans would have had little to do with a suffering slave that had fallen into illness. Get him out of my sight and bring someone here that can take care of me and do what I want him to do. But not this man. Makes no difference to him that this is a slave. He will do all that he can for this young lad to see him relieved. It is obvious that his concern is not a selfish concern. This man was in such a position that the economic loss of losing a slave would have been very little to him. He could have gotten another slave easy enough. But his words show that he is concerned for the servant's comfort and welfare. Lord, he says, my servant is lying at home paralyzed. Dreadfully tormented. Apparently, this servant had some type of paralysis that caused him to writhe in pain. Many times when you have paralysis, there's not a lot of pain associated with it. But in this case, there was. And this rugged soldier is filled with tender compassion for his slave that he loves. Mercy. is always present where there is strong, humble faith. Strong, humble faith realizes that we all depend on the mercy of God. And so strong faith considers that if God has sustained us by His mercy, we ought to do all we can to sustain those who are under our care. Surely, if we are harsh with them, God will be harsh with us. But where He has been so kind and gracious to us, We ought to be kind and gracious to those who are weaker than we are and under our authority. And so, you men here who are fathers and husbands, you ought to plead with God for your wife and children when you see needs in their lives. Some men never pray for their wives. as the Lord Jesus was so concerned for your infirmities that He interceded for you and went to the cross to give Himself for you, a wretched sinner, as He was touched with the feeling of our infirmities even to the point that He was willing to bear our infirmities on the cross. So, you ought to be pained for those under your care. not looking at them as merely present for your own comfort and satisfaction, but looking them as objects for you to show mercy to. In fact, the Bible teaches that the poor and the needy and the lowly are God's receptacles of our mercy. In other words, we in a sense show mercy. We can't really show mercy to God because He has no needs. But He says, when you do it to the least of these, My brethren, then you have done it to Me. So you see that humble faith not only forgets its own honor and comes to Jesus as a humble beggar, But we also see that it remembers to show mercy to the weak and the lowly. That's not all. Humble faith also recognizes that it is unworthy of Christ's blessing. There is little doubt that this centurion would have had a fine home that was well appointed with all the finest furnishings. But he tells Jesus, I am not worthy for You to come into my house. How could this be when Jesus was born in a cattle stall? The son of a carpenter in a lowly place called Nazareth. A man who now had no place to lay his head. And this man with his fine home says, I'm not worthy for you to come under my roof. Is this a translation error? Did the man mean to say that Jesus was not worthy to come into his fine home? No. The centurion said that he, the centurion, was not worthy for Jesus to come to his home. How could he come to such a conclusion, given Jesus' poverty and position as he stood before him? Jesus was in the people who had been conquered. And here was his conqueror. I am not worthy for you to come into my house. Probably this has something to do with the fact that he was a Gentile. And it appears that though he was what the Jews called a God-fearer, he was not one who was a full proselyte and so had been circumcised and brought into the people of God. This meant that as a Gentile, he was unclean and he knew it. Even though he was good friends with many of the Jews, we're told that in the account of Luke, parallel to this one in Matthew. Luke's Gospel informs us that he had built them a synagogue and that they spoke to Jesus saying, you ought to be merciful to this man because he is so gracious and kind to us. He knew the long-standing practice, though, of the Jewish people that they would not go into a Gentile's home lest they be defiled and become unclean. What is remarkable about this man's humility, a Roman soldier, a Roman captain, is that instead of sneering at that unclean, he respected it. And he declared himself to be unworthy to have Christ come into his home. He was, you can suppose, a little taken back when Jesus said to him, I will come and heal him. He knew that he had not been sanctified in the way that God had appointed for the Jews to be sanctified, and so that he could not receive Jesus into his home without making him unclean. He drew back from such a thought, and he protested. And he said, I am not worthy for you to come. This is so foreign to anything that anybody in our proud, arrogant society would ever say in such a situation. We would be offended that they think we're unclean. But brothers and sisters, you see, this is true. In order to dwell in our hearts by His Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ had to be defiled for us. We looked at that last week with the leper. To cleanse us, He who is holy had to become unclean. As it turned out in this passage, Jesus did not go to the centurion's house. But you can see that he was perfectly willing to do so. Now, I want you to understand that these Old Testament ceremonies were there to teach us that we really are unclean until our iniquities are laid on Jesus Christ and taken to the cross to show mercy to us. He had to do that. To sanctify us, He had to be defiled. And I tell you that you cannot come to Jesus until you understand that you are unworthy of His mercy. It cost Him dearly to sanctify Jews. It also cost Him dearly to sanctify Gentiles. How unworthy we are to have Him come under our roof when it means that he must be defiled to do so. Let us not be too proud to see that it is so. Gentile faith is not a faith that says, we are just as good as the Jews. Or, why did you only bless the Jews for all of those years? But it says we are totally unclean until you, Lord God, have sanctified us. And those who have been sanctified say, We are not clean because of ourselves or anything intrinsic to us or anything that we have done. But we are only clean because You, Lord God, have cleansed us. We are also unworthy of the least of Your mercies and of the salvation that has so graciously been given to us as God's covenant people. So you see then, Gentile faith is a humble faith. Secondly, Gentile faith is a trusting faith. rather than a seeing faith. Trusting faith. That's a little bit redundant, isn't it? But trusting rather than seeing. Trusting the Word. All throughout His ministry, Jesus did not go to the Gentiles. And He told His disciples, do not go to the Gentiles. And there was good reason for this. The great triune God had ordained that salvation was first to be revealed to the Jews. That the Messiah would come to them to save them. And that after the blessing of salvation had been accomplished, then the blessing would be extended to the Gentiles. To the Jews, God promised that the Messiah would come and that He would work signs among them. And so He came to them in the time that had been appointed by the prophets with all manner of signs. The very signs that the prophets had said that Messiah would perform in their midst. And He was presented to them as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And after He had finished His work, it was given to the Jewish people to see Him rise from the dead. for the justification of all those that would believe." You see, the Jews were supposed to see all of these things. And seeing it, they were to believe. After He arose and appeared to His disciples, with Thomas being absent, you remember that Thomas declared to the other disciples that he would not believe on the bare Word alone. that he must see and touch the Lord Jesus Christ risen from the dead before he would believe that He had risen. And you remember when the women went to the other disciples and told them, and they did not believe. Here is the account from John 20-24 of Thomas. Now, Thomas called the twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, We have seen the Lord. So he said to them, unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days, his disciples were again inside and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said, Peace to you. Then he said to Thomas, Reach your finger here and look at my hands and reach your hand here and put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing." And Thomas answered and said to Him, My Lord and my God." There is a sense in which it was right for Thomas to refuse to believe until he had seen. Because Thomas was appointed by God to be an eyewitness of these things. in order that as an eyewitness he might declare to the entire world the risen Lord Jesus Christ that the world might believe. It was ordained by God that the Jews were to see the Messiah and to receive Him when He came to them and performed signs and wonders in their midst. Something different was appointed for the Gentiles. Jesus did not come to them in the flesh. It is not for them to know Him after the flesh. We know Him no more after the flesh as the Jews did. That's why Jesus also, in speaking to Thomas, added, Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed. And why John added the comment, and truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. How? By believing what the eyewitnesses have declared in the Word of God. And so the chief characteristic you see of Gentile faith as compared to Jewish faith was believing based on the Word of God instead of believing based on seeing the Messiah. Now obviously, this is a much greater faith. And it brings greater glory to God. The Jews require a sign. But the Gentiles believe by the bare hearing of the Word of God. It was a marvel to Jesus to see this Gentile believing that Jesus could heal His servant from a distance without coming to see the servant. You see, He didn't have to come and be present in the flesh in order to bring His blessing. The Jews believed that He did have to come and be present in the flesh. And indeed He did in order to offer His sacrifice. But now the Gentiles look to Him by faith alone without His physical presence among them. See how this Gentile is different than the Jews. Martha and Mary said, Lord, if only you had been here, our brother would not have died. This centurion says, only say the word. Whether you're here or not, only say the Word and My servant is healed. This is the difference between Gentile and Jewish faith. It's the difference between the time when the Messiah came and the time thereafter, which is the time of faith, of believing the Word of God. But do not suppose that this Gentile faith is a kind of a blind faith, as some moderns would accuse it of being. It is not a leap in the dark kind of faith. But it is a very reasonable kind of faith. The centurion reasoned that even he, a man under authority of others, see, he was under authority, that he was able to speak a word to those that were under his authority and have things done. Verse 9 he explains, for I also am a man under authority. Having soldiers under me." Now that first part can be translated, for I am even a man under authority. See, he's emphasizing that I'm not like you. I'm a man, even someone like me, who is under authority. Having soldiers under me, and I say to this one, go, and he goes. And another, come, and he comes. And to my servant, do this, and he does it. Thus he was sure. in saying this, that the true God could simply speak whatever He wanted and it would be done. This was like the faith of Abraham, who believed God, that God was able to give life to the dead and call those things which do not exist as though they do. by His mere Word. Abraham and this centurion simply acknowledged in believing that that God was God. It was very simple. And that the same One who had called the world into existence could surely call whatever else he wanted to come to pass. This centurion and Abraham knew that there is a God in Heaven who brings all things to pass. by the mere exercise of His will, by the mere expression and power of His Word. He knew that the bread that He ate every day on His table was there because God willed it to be there. No other reason. He knew that every plant that grew in His garden grew there because God caused it to grow. And that every dewdrop situated in every place that it was on every flower petal was there because the will of God willed it to be so. You see, this man's whole life was full of miracles because he recognized that the living God wills. And it is done. It doesn't have to be any special ceremonies or special exercises. Just speak the Word. Just will. And this is done. He knew that every battle that he had ever won He had won because God had decreed that battle to be won. He knew the truth, declared in Psalm 33, verse 6, by the Word of the Lord, the heavens were made, and all the hosts of them by the breath of His mouth. He gathers the water of the sea together as a heap. He lays up the deep in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him. For He spoke and it was done. He commanded and it stood fast. The Lord brings the counsel of the nations to nothing. He makes the plans of the peoples of no effect. The counsel of the Lord stands forever. The plans of His heart to all generations. What do we see before us every day? The plans of God's heart unfolded every day. Brothers and sisters, when we finally get to heaven, we will see the hand of our gracious God in everything. Everything that we receive, we will receive as from the Lord, because we will have this fullness of faith. Now, when the centurion learned that this man Jesus was going about healing and cleansing lepers and such things, he saw the power of God in that man. He was sure that he did not need to be present. That this one did not need to be present with the sick to heal the sick. He was sure that Jesus could do whatever he chose by a mere act of his will, because he saw in Jesus the power of God. And he did not suppose that Jesus would have to be physically present. All he had to do was say the word and my servant will be healed. And so now It is also most reasonable for you to believe in Jesus without seeing Him physically present. The thing to marvel at is not belief so much as unbelief. Later on in the Gospel, Jesus marvels at the unbelief of the Jews because they saw and did not believe. That's the only two times He said to marvel at this centurion's great faith and at the lack of the Jews' faith who saw all the signs that God had promised and did not believe. You see, it is only reasonable for you if you will accept the fact that you're totally dependent on God's will. That the reason that you have suffering in your life is because it was God's will. It was His will that He cursed the earth. And we are dependent on that will on account of our sins. And that the reason that suffering is relieved from you is because God willed to show mercy. If you accept that fact, that you are totally dependent on His will, as soon as you hear the Word of God that you are a sinner, then you will acknowledge that you are helpless and desperate, just as this man acknowledged that he was helpless to cure his servant. You will see that there is nothing you can do. You will see that there is absolutely nothing but what God does. But likewise, when you hear the Gospel of Salvation, you will recognize it as the only possible solution. You will believe based on the testimony of God's Word. It will be enough for you. You won't need a sign to prove to you that Jesus is the way, because you will see it as the way. A man who is caught in a burning building doesn't need special signs to show him that the open door before him is the way of escape from that building. As soon as the way is pointed out to him, he believes that that's the way. And he takes the way because he realizes the situation. What would be a marvel is if he didn't take that way of escape. If he saw it. He began to reason and say, well now, I wonder if there are other ways that I could take. He's in a burning building. And here's a way. What would he be reasoning? I wonder if there's another way that I might be able to get out of this building. Or if he were to argue about whether this way was really a good way to escape. There's a door that's open. It's a solution. It's the way. You see, when we believe that God is God, and that we're dependent on Him and we see our sin and believe what is revealed in nature, then we're going to easily believe the Gospel. Let me see if I can put this same truth another way. To make it clear, those Gentiles whom God has prepared to believe without seeing, He prepares by first causing them to believe what He has done in the world. Nature itself teaches, Romans tells us, that there is a God who has created all things and who upholds all things by the word of His power. And nature itself teaches us that God has cursed the world because of death and suffering that we see around us. If God upholds all things, He's the one that sent the death and suffering. We see His wrath revealed. And nature itself teaches us, therefore, that we have sinned against God. We can see because the law of God testifies in our hearts that we are sinners. Our conscience bears witness. And so, when the Word of God comes to us, immediately we recognize that here is a book that deals with reality. And how happy we are when we see that it presents a way of salvation from sin and from the curse of God. It becomes very clear to us at that time that this is a divine way. that we don't need signs to tell us now, is this really the right way? There is no other way. What way could be possibly conceived when you realize the trouble that you're in and when you see what is promised in this way? The message becomes very clear. It does not have to be a special visitation of the Lord or some special feeling worked up in your heart to make you believe that these things are so. God has spoken. And it is enough. His bare Word is enough. Now, there does have to be a great miraculous work of God, of course, because we're so stubborn and rebellious that we won't come. That's what has to be done. But in order for us to see it clearly, there is no excuse for rejecting this way when it comes to us. His bare Word is sufficient. This is the way that God has chosen to work in the times of the Gentiles, which are the times that we live in today. When covenant people grow wanton and become evil and adulterous, what do they do? The Bible says they demand signs. They say, we will not believe unless we see signs. You have to confirm this to us. What? You mean the way that your forefathers have known for all these ages is the only possible way that a sinner could be reconciled to God and you have to have a sign to show you that it's the right way? You see how foolish that is. Jesus marveled at the unbelief of the Jews. But here we see that the Gentile comes to Jesus. How we need the faith of the Gentiles who believe that God saves by the bare Word of God. That is Gentile faith. It is humble and it trusts without seeing. And finally, we see that Gentile faith is also a rewarded faith. It is a faith that is rewarded. Gentile faith, we are told in this passage, obtains the full blessing of Abraham. Jesus Himself marvels at this faith and presents it to us as the way by which the blessing of Abraham is to be received by us. In verses 11-12, He shows that the Jews who saw and did not believe will be cast out of God's Kingdom. But the Gentiles who did not see and yet believe will be brought into the full privileges of God's children. Look at what he says in verse 11 and 12. Matthew 8, 11 and 12. And I say to you that many will come from the east and west and sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into outer darkness. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." See the blessing that is obtained. The blessing of Abraham. The word sit down means to recline as was done in those days when you sat at a table together in fellowship around the table. Jesus is referring here to that great heavenly banquet that all the redeemed will enjoy. He is saying that the Gentiles who believe will have a seat at that table right next to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob who also believed. They will be seated at the table with them enjoying the same privileges and the same benefits in the Kingdom of Heaven forever and ever. God Himself will be their God. And they will be His people. and His will shall be directed." That all-powerful will that He doesn't even have to be there will be directed to their good always, forever and ever. But in contrast to this blessing is the curse upon those covenant people, those Jews, that did not believe when they saw so much the work of God. They will be cast into outer darkness. Away from the light of this banquet. Isolated and cut off from the wonderful banquet of Abraham and all those who believe. For them, there will be anguish and misery, weeping and gnashing of teeth. What a warning this is to the covenant people who take their privileges for granted. Who have the truth preached to them. all their lives, and yet do not believe. He is a most dreadful prospect, but is one that is surely deserved for all who despise God's mercy and who reject His truth. Let me urge you to believe the way the centurion believed. You will not be disappointed if you do. He was blessed. even as he believed. Verse 13, Jesus says, Go your way, and as you have believed, so let it be done for you. If this centurion had believed that it was necessary for Jesus to come and be physically present to heal his servant, we have indication that Jesus was prepared to come. But when Jesus found that he had faith to believe that he could heal him from a distance, then he did it that way. You see, our faith sometimes, in a sense, in God's sovereign pleasure, limits that which He would do for us. There's a picture here of the faith of sanctification. If our faith is very small, then we will see less sanctification. If we say, well, before I could be sanctified, this has to happen, and this has to, and this has to, and this has to happen. But if we believe, that God is able to sanctify us, and we look to Him through Jesus Christ to change all of those stubborn ways in our rebellious hearts, then He will respond to that faith. As you have believed, so it is done. If our faith is greater so that God gets the glory, even from a distance, then we will see a greater sanctification. And as this is true for us as individuals, it is also true for those for whom we intercede. God calls us to believe for those in our household, for our children. And so you see that it is for us as parents. to intercede for our children, believing that God can change them, that He can work in their hearts, that He can do whatever He pleases. And parents who believe that activate that faith. And there is a greater measure of the outpouring of God's Spirit where there is a greater faith. We need to understand that Jesus is saying, as you have believed, so let it be done for you. Presenting to us a great faith. It is a humble faith. It's not a proud faith. It's a trusting faith that believes the bare Word of God. It doesn't have to have sights and things happen to make them think, oh yes, God really is going to work. No. It looks to Him. And it is a richly rewarded faith. Let me urge you then, to come to God with this humility, with this trust in the bare Word of God, and you will be blessed. You will not be disappointed. Let's stand and call upon the name of the Lord. Heavenly Father, we praise You that faith is the gift that You give to Your people, whereby You are glorified as we look to You to bless us through Jesus Christ, both to justify and to sanctify. We thank You, Lord, that even a tiny, weak, faltering faith that reaches up to You for salvation receives that salvation. We also see that in this passage that the Lord Jesus calls us that as you have believed, so it is done. And we pray, Lord, that You would help us to have a strong faith that we might see Your mighty hand at work, that we might believe that You are able to do great things, that we might not wallow around when You have given us such rich promises. that we would lay hold of those promises and we would pursue them with all eagerness, both for ourselves and also for our children. Father, we see that there is so much unbelief today, that even those who have trusted in you for salvation, that among them there is much unbelief. There is much doubting and insecurity and uncertainty. We pray, Lord, that You would cure us of that, that we would believe whatever promises You have given in Your Word, and that we would lay hold of those promises. We pray, Lord, that we would not presumptuously believe in things that You have not promised, that we would believe in the things that You have promised. Lord God, we thank You. And we praise You that our Lord Jesus Christ has come into the world and that He has appeared in the flesh in order that He might offer Himself as a sacrifice for sinners. And we praise You, Lord, that He came to the Jews just as the prophets said He would, and that He performed all the things that they said He would perform, even the death on the cross and rising again on the third day. And we praise You that even as Daniel said that He has ascended to sit at Your right hand and that He has been given a kingdom and dominion over all the nations. And Father, we pray that as we are those nations, that You would bless us as we come to You and we look to You for salvation. Lord, we pray that Your kingdom would come and that Your will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. We pray that we might see the nations of the world bowing down to Jesus Christ and confessing Him as Lord and Savior. For there is no reason for us to need anything else to believe this glorious Gospel. When we see our own condition that is so obvious as sinners before a holy God who created the world and upholds all things by His power, when we see these things that are so clear to every human being, Father, we pray that You would lead us then to repentance and faith. That we would delight in the Gospel that rescues us from so great a destruction. And Father, we pray that this delight of the Gospel would be something that we proclaim to the nations. We pray for those missionaries that have gone out to proclaim the Word of God. We pray that You would bless them, that You would use their ministry to call Your elect people into the fold. And we pray, Lord, that with one voice that we would glorify our Maker and our Redeemer, and that we would declare His praises in our assemblies. We pray, Lord, now as we prepare to come and feast at the Lord's table, that we would consider also that great feast that you have promised in heaven when we will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and enjoy the bounty of your kingdom forever and ever, and the bounty and joy of your presence. Father, may we have in a small measure the joy of that presence now as we prepare to come to commune at the Lord's table. For we pray these things in the name of our gracious Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. You may be seated. I'll ask if if Dave and Kevin, are you able to come? Kevin would come. As I mentioned in my prayer a moment ago, the Lord's Table is a foretaste of the great table that Jesus spoke about that we will sit at with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and all the redeemed from all of the nations of the world to feast in eternal glory in heaven. There is to be this great heavenly banquet with the sweetest fellowship the most nourishing and delectable food, and with the most joyful comfort. In Mark's Gospel, Jesus gives the cup to His disciples and He commands them to drink it in remembrance of Him. And then He says, Jesus says, Assuredly, I say to you, I will no longer drink of the fruit of this vine until the day when I drink it new in the Kingdom of God. With these words, He teaches us to look forward to the blessing that His sacrifice will bring to us forever and ever at that heavenly banquet. As we saw in the sermon today, through faith in Him as our only Savior, we will be received into His eternal glory and we will receive the full blessing of Abraham. Namely, that God will be our God and that we will be His people. His will directed to our good alone forever and ever. Already that is so. But yet, we live in this fallen world where it is for our good to suffer in our bodies until our bodies are redeemed. And we're going to have trouble in this world. The Lord has said so. But He has also said that the day is coming when we will be resurrected and we will hear His voice. And if we believe, we'll be resurrected to life. And we will sit at this table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob where there will be no more suffering, but only blessing. Let us rejoice then in coming to this table today in anticipation of the table that we will come to in Heaven. You are invited to eat at this table if you're trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ alone for salvation. If you have been baptized and if you're under the care and discipline of elders who have admitted you to the Lord's table, let us give thanks to God as we prepare to eat and drink. Heavenly Father, we praise your name. We give thanks to You for the bread and the wine that is on this table that is so significant, so full of signage for us. The broken body of our Lord Jesus Christ, the means by which we are nourished and fed to eternal life. And the shed blood of Jesus Christ, the means by which we are reconciled to You and have the remission of sins. Father, I pray that You would grant us joy in our salvation this day. Gladness that those who have known You throughout the ages have experienced in knowing of sins forgiven and the promise of eternal life. May the bare Word of God be enough for us. the bare word in conjunction with the sign that you have graciously given to us at this table. Father, help us not to be a wanton people who crave after signs, but make us to be a people who have the faith of Gentiles, who believe without seeing, because you have spoken, you have promised, your word is divine, And we know that your word is true. Father, we ask you now to bless the bread and the wine on this table, that they would point us to our Lord Jesus Christ, and that as we receive the bread and the wine in our mouth, that we would receive Christ in our heart. and that You would nourish us and feed us at this table, that we might not go away as the same people. Lord, we come to You with that faith of sanctification, looking to You to give us that nourishment, for we cannot see You nourishing us after the flesh, but we know, Lord, that You've promised at this table that You do indeed nourish Your people. So we look to You now, Lord, because we need Your grace. We are a people who are paralyzed like the servant was paralyzed. We are unable to serve You as we should. And we ask You, Lord, deliver us from this paralysis, for we are tormented by it. We ask You, Lord, to make us holy, for You are holy. We pray these things in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. As we pass out the tray, of course, you may eat and drink as soon as the tray comes to you. And then I'll ask Dave to lead us in a word of prayer of thanksgiving. According to the holy institution, command an example of our Lord Jesus Christ. I take this bread, having given thanks, break it and give it to you. Take, eat. This is the body of Christ which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of him. And in this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of well-refined wines on the lees. And He will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people and the veil that is spread over all nations. He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces. The rebuke of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken." According to the institution, command, and example of our Lord Jesus Christ, I also take this cup. This cup is a new covenant in the blood of Christ that was shed for the remission of sins. Drink from it, all of you.