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00:00So the title of the sermon this morning is faith greater than Israel, faith greater than
00:07Israel.
00:08We're going to turn to Matthew 8, Matthew 8 in your Bible.
00:12We're going to be in two places mainly, it's Matthew 8 and Luke 7, Matthew 8 and Luke 7.
00:18You just turn to those two places because we're going to look at two different accounts.
00:22We're going to look at Matthew 8 first.
00:27Two different accounts of the same story.
00:29Now there's several times in the Bible where you'll see stories that are repeated and then
00:35you'll see some where the Sermon on the Mount sounds like the same thing as Sermon on the
00:41Plains but it's not, it's two different locations.
00:44But these are the two exact same stories.
00:47If you look at Matthew 8 verse 5, starting in verse 5 it says, and when Jesus entered
00:55in Capernaum, so he's entering into the city of Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion.
01:00So what is a centurion?
01:01A centurion is a Roman guard.
01:04He's not a Jew, he is a Roman guard.
01:06If you'll know that during this time, the Romans are over the Jewish people.
01:14So he's over a thousand, I'm sorry, a hundred soldiers.
01:20So he's over a hundred soldiers.
01:22So he's over a lot of people.
01:24And he's beseeching him and saying, Lord, my servant, life at home of the sick of the
01:30palsy.
01:31So he's got a servant that is sick.
01:34It means he can't move around, he's got, you know, probably palsy, he's probably laying
01:38on his back and he can't do anything, grievously tormented.
01:42And Jesus says unto him, I will come and heal him.
01:47So the first thing I want you to notice is that he loved his servant.
01:52The centurion loved his servant because he wanted to be healed.
01:57You know, a lot of times we read in the Bible where people were servants or slaves or whatever,
02:03and they just didn't care that much about him.
02:06But this centurion, this guy who had a lot of people under him, he loved his servant
02:11so much that he wanted him to be healed.
02:14Just like Jesus loved the world, John 3, 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his
02:19only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting
02:24life.
02:25So if you keep your finger on Matthew and go to Luke 7, again, this is the same account,
02:32this is the same story of the centurion.
02:36In Luke 7, verse 1, when he had ended all his sayings in the audience of the people,
02:41he entered in Capernaum.
02:42Just like we saw in Matthew 8, he's entering into the city of Capernaum.
02:47And a certain centurion's servant who was dear unto him was sick and ready to die.
02:53So now we see a little bit more, not that he just has a palsy, he's ready to die.
02:59He's fixing to die.
03:00He's on his deathbed, as we would say.
03:04So what I love about the Bible is, is one of the main things, especially about the Gospel,
03:10is that you get more account of what's happening in the story.
03:15So when you read Matthew, if you just read Matthew 8, you'll get a different, it's the
03:19same story, but then when you read Luke, you'll get more information, and vice versa.
03:25So if you just read Luke 7, you'd get more information by reading Matthew 8.
03:31So we see he's ready to die, either he's giving up on life or he's fixing to die.
03:35And when he had heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews.
03:42So now we see that the centurion is asking the elders of the Jews to go see Jesus and
03:51heal his servant.
03:52And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly saying that he was worthy of
03:57him who should do this.
03:59So we see two things.
04:01One we see that this centurion is a great man.
04:04He is a great man in the eyes of the elders of the Jews and all the people.
04:08They think he's a great man.
04:11But look, keep reading, for he loveth our nation and he hath built us a synagogue.
04:16So this is the reason they think he's a great man.
04:19And he might have done a lot of great things.
04:23When Jesus went with them, talking about who, he's talking about the elders of the Jews.
04:29And when he was now not far from the house, so you got to picture this, Jesus has this
04:34entourage going with him.
04:36He always had a group of people, disciples and other followers following him because
04:40they knew that he was going to do a miracle.
04:42So people wanted to see the miracle.
04:45So he's got these people following him.
04:49When he gets close to the house, the centurion sent friends to him saying unto him, Lord,
04:56trouble not thyself, for I'm not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof.
05:01So he's sending friends to him and the centurion is telling Jesus, I'm not worthy.
05:06I'm not worthy for you to come into my house because I'm a sinner.
05:10And he knows that he's the Lord because if you look at the letter in his LORD, he knows
05:16he's the boss.
05:17He knows he's, he probably doesn't know he's the savior, but he knows there's something
05:21special about him.
05:22Look at verse seven, wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee, but I say
05:28in a word and my servant shall be healed.
05:32So the next point I want you to see is that he's humbled himself.
05:36He's humbled himself to the point saying, Hey, I'm not worthy for you to come into my
05:39house.
05:41I'm not worthy.
05:44And that's what we have to do.
05:46Keep your finger there.
05:47Go to Proverbs 27, Proverbs 27.
05:58See we should never brag about ourselves and talk about how good we are.
06:03The Bible tells us that like a Proverbs 27 verse one, those not by self of tomorrow for
06:09they'll know it's not what a day may bring forth.
06:12So you shouldn't say, Hey, I'm going to do this tomorrow.
06:14We shouldn't make promises because you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.
06:18That's what the Bible is saying.
06:20Let another man praise thee and not thine own mouth, a stranger and not their own lips.
06:27So the Bible is clearly telling us that we shouldn't be prideful and we shouldn't be
06:31praising ourselves.
06:33We shouldn't be tooting our own horn, so to speak.
06:36Go a couple of pages over to Proverbs 20, Proverbs 20.
06:45So you know, this is one of the things of many that irritates me about politics is,
06:50you know, I don't know if you know this, but in US politics, it used to be a shame for
06:55a candidate to announce themselves.
06:57It used to be a shame for a man to say, Hey, I'm going to run for president.
07:02I'll vote for me.
07:03It was shameful for do that.
07:05It was somebody else would say, Hey, this guy should be the president.
07:08This guy should be the governor or whatever, and I'm going to nominate him to be elected
07:13as the governor or the president.
07:15That used to be the way things happened in the US politics.
07:18It was a shame for you to stand up and say, Hey, I'm announcing my candidacy.
07:21I think I'm so great.
07:22I should be the governor or the mayor, whatever.
07:25That was a shame, but that don't happen today anymore.
07:29Look at verse six in Proverbs 20, most men will proclaim everyone his own goodness, but
07:34a faithful man who can find.
07:37So you think about it, when you go for a job, you will tell somebody how great you are,
07:42how good you are for the job.
07:44But the next question is, but a faithful man who can find.
07:48It's hard to find somebody who is faithful.
07:52It's hard to find somebody who will continue the course.
07:56They might say how great they are.
07:57They might tell you how much they're going to come to work, they're going to be there
08:01every day and all this stuff, but somebody who goes and follows through with, it's hard
08:05to find that person, and that's what we see here with the centurion.
08:11So he humbled himself.
08:12He said, I'm not worthy.
08:17Keep your finger in Luke and go back to Matthew 8, and let's see the other account where he
08:22humbled himself.
08:24So we're still in Matthew 8 and Luke 7, Matthew 8, verse 8.
08:39The centurion answered and said, Lord, I'm not worthy that thou shouldest come under
08:43my roof, but speak the word only and my servant shall be healed.
08:49So the centurion tells him, hey, you don't even have to come to the house.
08:54All you have to do is speak the word for my servant to be healed and he'll be healed.
08:58Now I want you to look real carefully.
08:59I want you to keep your finger in Matthew 8 and Luke 7, and I want you to go back to
09:03verse 5 and see the difference.
09:07Starting in verse 5, and when Jesus entered in Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion.
09:17So the Bible seems like that the centurion is coming up to Jesus, right?
09:24That's what it says.
09:25Now go to Luke 7.
09:30Now when you read Luke 7, it says, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching
09:36him that he would heal his servant.
09:38When they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly saying that he was worthy of him.
09:43So in Luke 7, what do you see?
09:45You see him not coming to him.
09:47You see him sending the elders of the Jews.
09:50Now folks, this bothers people sometimes.
09:53They'll look at this and say, well, the Bible's not true because you have Matthew 8, it sounds
09:59like that he's coming to him personally.
10:03He's not.
10:05And then you see in Matthew 7, he's not coming to him.
10:10He doesn't feel himself worthy enough.
10:12So he knows that Jesus is a Jew, so he's sending so-called the elders of the Jews to come to
10:17Jesus to tell him, don't let this bother you.
10:24Don't let this bother you that it seems different.
10:28It's not.
10:30It's our lack of understanding.
10:31It's just like when you read all the accounts of Jesus being crucified, you'll see that
10:37in the third hour, he's being crucified.
10:40And then you go to the book of John, and it's in the sixth hour, and you say, well, what's
10:44the difference?
10:45How can it be in one hour and the other hour?
10:47Well, the difference is our lack of understanding.
10:50See, Matthew, Mark, Luke, the timing is different.
10:55The timing is for the Jews' time.
10:58When the sun came up, that's when their time started for the morning.
11:02And it would be three hours afterwards.
11:04In the book of John, John is the book for people to be saved.
11:08It says at the end of John that this book was written that people might read and believe
11:12on Jesus.
11:14So it's more for the whole world.
11:17So the time clock is more of the whole world.
11:20It's not different.
11:21It's just our lack of understanding.
11:23This is the same thing.
11:25It seems like that the centurion is coming to Jesus, but it's not.
11:31Now, this is what makes the Bible so great, is that we know that Jesus Christ is 100%
11:39man.
11:40He's 100% man on this earth.
11:42He wept.
11:43He cried.
11:44He hungered.
11:45All the same things that you've gone through, he has gone through the same thing with the
11:48only difference, he never sinned.
11:51But he's also 100% God, because only God could die for our sins.
11:56Only God could take that sin away from us.
12:00So Jesus Christ is 100% man and 100% God, but so is the Bible.
12:05That's why Jesus is called the Word of God, because he is 100% man and 100% God.
12:12But the Word of God is a living word.
12:14It is the word spoken by men who were moved by the Holy Spirit, and they wrote the things
12:19that were truthful, but it's just like any eyewitness.
12:24I learned in law enforcement that you could have four different people, and they could
12:28see the exact same thing, but they would explain it in a different way.
12:32For instance, when I first started my law enforcement career, they didn't have the word
12:38sport utility vehicle, or SUV.
12:41So when you would ask somebody about a crime, and they'd say they would leave in something,
12:46they would either use two different vehicles, a Jeep Cherokee or a Blazer, S10 Blazer.
12:53Now even in the time of the early 90s when I was in law enforcement at the beginning,
12:58there were so many different sport utility vehicles.
13:01You had Geo-Trackers, you had Samurais, you had all these different vehicles.
13:06Toyota had different ones, so it couldn't be clumped into one type of vehicle, but when
13:12somebody would tell you, hey, it was a Jeep Cherokee type vehicle, it could have been
13:16a Toyota Foreman, it could have been a Nissan Pathfinder.
13:19There were so many different vehicles, so it wasn't accurate, but it was accurate.
13:26And what I mean by that is, their description of what they saw in their mind is coming out
13:32of what they knew.
13:34And that's the same thing with the Bible.
13:35The words are true, what's happening in Luke and in Matthew are exactly the same thing,
13:43the account from the Holy Spirit, but it's being filtered through a person.
13:50So their personality is coming out, and that's what makes the Bible so great.
13:55And people have tried to take Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and put it in chronological
14:00order and make it in one book, and it just doesn't work.
14:03The reason is, is because, just like it says in the book of John, that Jesus, if you were
14:09to put every single thing he did on the three and a half years on his life that Matthew,
14:14Mark, Luke, and John was written about, you wouldn't even be able to contain the things
14:19that he did.
14:21God chose the things that he wanted in the Word of God, and folks, people just get all
14:27confused about this.
14:28Do not let this confuse you.
14:31Know that what we have, the 66 books, is what God wants us to have.
14:35People have tried to write the book of St. Thomas and St. Bartholomew and all these other
14:41Gospels, and when you read it, it just doesn't have the poetic, and it just does not have
14:45the Holy Spirit inside of it.
14:47That's the difference.
14:50Anytime that you think there's some contradiction in the King James Bible, just know it's your
14:54lack of understanding.
14:57It's been my lack of understanding in the past.
15:00What we see here is that the centurion was humble enough, he had no pride, that he did
15:06not come to Jesus.
15:09He had people to come to him.
15:11Alright?
15:12Keep your finger there and go to James 4.
15:18My next point is God hates pride.
15:22He hates pride.
15:28What is pride?
15:29It's basically what keeps every person from being saved.
15:36Pride is a man who says he deserves to be saved.
15:38Pride is a man who thinks he deserves to go to heaven because of something he's done or
15:42not done.
15:43That's what pride is.
15:44That's what, if the road paved to hell is with good intentions, the paver is pride.
15:52Pride is the reason that Satan, who was number two in heaven at some point in time, was denounced
15:58because he wanted to be God.
16:01Look at James 4, verse 6.
16:05James 4, verse 6, but he giveth more grace, wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud.
16:14He resisteth grace unto the humble.
16:16So he resists the proud.
16:18These politicians that are pride, these men who are pride, Donald Trump who's so proud
16:23that he just thinks everybody should bow down to him, God is resisting him.
16:27I don't care who it is.
16:28I don't care if it's Kamala Harris or whoever, these people are proud and God is resisting
16:34them.
16:35Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil and he will flee from you.
16:40Draw nigh, which means near to God, and he will draw nigh to you.
16:44So God's always waiting for us, no matter what happens in your life, whether it's salvation,
16:50you got to come to God first and say, God, I want to be saved.
16:53After you're saved, if you've backslidden because of something you did, some kind of
16:58sin that you did and you've gotten further away from God, God is always waiting for us
17:03to come near to him and say, God, I'm sorry, I want to be right with you.
17:09That's what it means when you hear people saying, hey, are you right with God before
17:12you die?
17:13What that means has nothing to do with you repenting of your sins, but what it does mean
17:18is that you're humble enough to realize that you're not right with God.
17:23What do you have to do?
17:24Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
17:30Draw nigh to God.
17:32God's always waiting.
17:33He'll never leave us, never forsake us, but when you commit sin and you constantly commit
17:37sin and you know it's sin and you say, well, I don't really care, it's not that big a deal,
17:42you're separating yourself from God.
17:46I know I've done it.
17:47I've done it in my own life.
17:48Doesn't mean that I'm going to hell.
17:50Doesn't mean that God forgot me.
17:52It means that you're just separating yourself.
17:54You're shutting out the Holy Spirit.
17:56That Holy Spirit needs to say, hey, what you're doing is wrong.
17:59You're just shutting them up.
18:00You're putting a mouth, you're covering up their mouth, and the Holy Spirit won't keep
18:04pricking your heart and telling you, hey, what you're doing is wrong, what you're doing
18:07is wrong, and you just keep separating yourself and separating yourself and separating yourself,
18:12and then finally what happens, God makes you fall down to your knees, and then the only
18:17thing you do is look up and say, God, I'm sorry.
18:21Reveal the things that I'm doing, and that's when you come nigh to God, and then what is
18:25He going to do?
18:26He's going to get near to you, but first, you've got to humble yourself.
18:31You've got to take that pride out, and you've got to come near to Him.
18:34Look at verse 9.
18:36Be afflicted in the morning, weep.
18:38Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness.
18:42Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He shall lift you up.
18:47So when we're humble and we're saying, God, I just don't deserve to be saved, I don't
18:52deserve to go to heaven, I don't deserve the reign that you gave us, we don't deserve all
18:58the blessings you give us, we don't deserve the house you give us, then He will lift you
19:03up eventually.
19:04Go back to Luke 7.
19:09So God hates pride.
19:16And as we see, these two men were not prideful.
19:19Nobody with pride will ever be saved, I want you to understand that.
19:24Because they think that they deserve it.
19:26You know, I know somebody who's a Calvinist, and they believe, what does Calvinists believe?
19:31They believe that God chose them to be saved, and there's nothing in the Bible about that,
19:36folks.
19:38If they die and go to hell, it's their own fault, it's their own fault.
19:43There's nobody that can be blamed, because everybody has the same opportunity to be saved
19:49as everybody.
19:51And it's not because God chooses us to go to heaven, there's nothing in the Bible that
19:54says that.
19:55But when you think you're so great of a person that God chooses you and this person He doesn't
20:00choose for whatever reason, there's no rhyme or reason that they have, then you have pride
20:05in your life.
20:06Look at Luke 7, verse 7, Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee,
20:14but I say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.
20:17So he believes that Jesus doesn't even have to touch him, he doesn't have to do anything,
20:22all he has to do is say it from wherever he's at, and he'll be healed.
20:26That's pretty great faith.
20:29And then he tells him, for I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers,
20:34and I say unto one, go, and he goeth, and another, come, and he cometh, and my servant
20:39do this, and he doeth it.
20:41So he's telling him, hey, I've got people under me, and I don't have to do it myself,
20:46I have to tell people, I can tell people to do something, and they'll do it.
20:50And that's what he's saying.
20:51I understand what you're talking about, Jesus, because all you have to do is speak it, because
20:55he understands as well that there's people under authority under him, and he tells them
21:00what to do, and they do it.
21:07Now go back to Matthew 8, Matthew 8 verse 11, and I say unto you that many shall come
21:13from the east and west, I'm sorry, let's go back up to verse 10, verse 9, for I am a man
21:20under authority.
21:23So again, he tells him, hey, I'm not worthy that you should come under my roof, but if
21:28you speak the word, my servant shall be healed, for I am a man under authority, having soldiers
21:32under me, and I say unto this man, go, and he goeth, and to another, come, and he cometh,
21:37and to my servant, do this, and he doeth it.
21:40And when Jesus heard it, he marveled and said to them that followed, verily I say unto you,
21:45I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
21:50So he's saying that he's never seen this before, not even in Israel.
21:57This is great faith.
21:58Go back to Luke 7, verse 9, when Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turned
22:04him about, and said unto the people.
22:07So now we get a little bit more information that Jesus is standing there with the centurion,
22:12and he turns him around to all the people that are following him, and he tells the people,
22:16I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
22:22So why does it not say that in Matthew?
22:25I'll go back to Matthew, because you've got to understand, and I preach a sermon on this,
22:31the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, are both portrayed in a different way.
22:37The book of Matthew is more towards the Jews.
22:41Now I'm not talking about the Christ rejecting people over there in Israel today, I'm talking
22:46about the religion of Judaism, who was all about the Ten Commandments, and the commandments
22:51and had nothing to do with Jesus.
22:54This was what this is preached about, and we see that, look at the next verse.
23:00Verse 10, when Jesus heard it, and he marveled, and said to them that followed, verily I say
23:05unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.
23:09Well look at the next verse, and I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and
23:15the west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.
23:21What's he talking about?
23:22He's talking about people going to heaven.
23:23He's saying many people in the world will sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in
23:28the kingdom of heaven.
23:29Look at verse 12, but, but the children of the kingdom shall be cast into outer darkness,
23:37there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
23:39So he's just talking about the kingdom of heaven.
23:42So don't let that mix you up and say, well who's the children of the kingdom?
23:46Well he's not talking about the kingdom of heaven because that wouldn't make any sense.
23:50For him to say, well the kingdom, the children of the, in the kingdom of heaven are going
23:54to see these people, but then they're going to go to hell, that don't make sense.
23:58So what is he talking about?
23:59He's talking about the kingdom of Israel.
24:00He's talking about the physical seed of Israel, because they thought they were physically of
24:05the seed of Abraham, because they had that lineage, that they're not going to see the
24:10kingdom of heaven.
24:12That they think they are, like today, there's people out there that think they're saved,
24:16that think they're going to heaven.
24:17They think, oh everything's great, but they're not, because they don't have faith.
24:26They think just because they're physical seed, because their daddy, their grandpa, their
24:30great-great-grandpa might be somebody, that they think they're going to heaven, but what
24:34he's telling them, because this is geared toward the Jews, we don't see that in the
24:38book of Luke, but we see that in Matthew, but the children of the kingdom shall be cast
24:43into the outer darkness, there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
24:47Now does that mean that in the book of Luke, that he didn't hear that?
24:50No, that's not what that means.
24:52What it means is, is that when God wrote the book of Matthew, and he sat down, and the
24:58Holy Spirit moved him to write these words, guess what?
25:02This is what he wanted him to say, because he wanted it to be geared toward the Jews.
25:07But in the book of Luke, what is it?
25:09It's focusing more on the centurion, the man, because the book of Luke is more the
25:15man Christ Jesus, to represent who Jesus is as a man, more than any other book.
25:25So don't let those differences bother you, but I want to show you that this story is
25:30in the book of Matthew and Luke.
25:32Why is that?
25:33It is a foreshadowing to the Gentiles.
25:36The centurion was a Gentile, he's not a Jew.
25:39And it's to show us that in the book of Acts, you're going to see more where Paul is told
25:44to leave Israel, and to leave Judah, and to go to the outermost areas, the areas of the
25:51Gentiles, Philippi, Colossae, all these other places where Gentiles were.
25:56This is the foreshadowing that the Jews who had the oracles of God, that God all the way
26:02back from Moses gave him the law, that they were not going to accept Jesus Christ.
26:08And John 1, it says that he came to his own, but his own received him not.
26:13And it's today.
26:14The Jews, they hate Jesus.
26:16They hate him.
26:17They have nothing to do.
26:18Oh, but he's got God the Father.
26:20You don't have the Father, the Son, you don't have the Father, it's a package deal.
26:25So his faith healed him, that's point number four.
26:29Because he had faith, his sermon was healed.
26:33Look at verse 13.
26:35And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way, and as thou hast believed, so be it done
26:44unto thee.
26:45And the servant was healed in the selfsame hour.
26:47Go to Luke, back to Luke 7, and we'll see that again.
26:54Look at verse 10.
26:55And they were sent, returning to the house, found the servant whole that had been sick.
26:59So Jesus never touches him, he never sprinkles water on him.
27:04He actually just says, hey, your faith has made him healed.
27:08And he goes back, and in that same hour, he's healed.
27:11Now for a man to be in that point, let's not glaze over this and just say, okay, you healed
27:16him.
27:17Because this is a miracle, folks.
27:19When you see people with palsy, they're usually to the point where they can't move, their
27:24muscles can't move, they can't get up, they can't do anything.
27:29And they're useless to society because they can't work or do anything.
27:32Well, if you can't work or do anything, guess what?
27:35You can't support your family.
27:37But this servant was healed.
27:40He was made whole.
27:43Go to Hebrews 11, we're going through the book of Hebrews, we'll be going through this
27:49chapter, Hebrews 11, on Wednesday.
27:55God rewards faith.
27:58Not just in salvation, look at Hebrews 11.1.
28:03Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
28:10So what is faith?
28:11It's something you can't touch.
28:13You can't touch faith.
28:15You can't touch salvation.
28:17You can't, there's no evidence of it.
28:19People say, well, give me the evidence of salvation.
28:22There's not any.
28:23There's not any.
28:25There's not any.
28:26You say, well, what about somebody coming to church or doing right?
28:30There's no evidence of salvation because you can't see inside a person's heart.
28:35Now we try to ask them questions.
28:37Now we try to ask somebody, hey, if you died today, are you 100% sure you'd go to heaven?
28:42Well, when you ask them that, and they're not thinking, well, I've got to repent of
28:46my sins, and they say, well, it's not up to me, it's all about Jesus, then they're going
28:50to say what?
28:51Yeah, I'm 100% sure.
28:54So that's how we can feel what's in their heart.
28:56And then you say, well, why are you so confident?
28:59What makes you believe that?
29:00And they say, well, it's nothing I can do.
29:02It's all that what Jesus did.
29:04It's his righteousness.
29:05And then the next thing, is there anything you can do to lose your salvation?
29:09Because if there's something you think you can do to lose your salvation, then it's all
29:12about you doing something that God's going to reject you.
29:18And that's not faith.
29:20Faith is where you're at an impasse, and I've used this example before, when you're
29:27on an airplane, and they say, hey, this airplane's going to crash, and the only thing you've
29:31got is this parachute, and you've got to trust that parachute, and you've strapped that parachute
29:35on.
29:36And you say, I've got this parachute on.
29:39And they say, all right, the plane's fixing to crash.
29:41Now you've got to take that leap of faith, and put all your trust on that parachute to
29:45open up to make you live.
29:48That's faith.
29:49Faith is when you're putting everything you have on one thing.
29:54You're putting all your chips on that.
29:57And that's what faith is, when you're believing that the death, burial, and resurrection of
30:02Christ is the only thing that's going to get you to heaven, and you're saying, I'm trusting
30:06only that.
30:07Go to Luke 4.
30:10I'm sorry, go down to verse 6 in Hebrews 11.
30:17So without faith, but without faith, it is impossible to please Him.
30:24So without faith, it's impossible to be saved.
30:27That's what pleases God, is you to be saved with faith.
30:32But not only that, after you are saved, it's impossible for you to please Him.
30:37For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that
30:44diligently seek Him.
30:46So it's not just believing that God exists.
30:50You got to believe what?
30:51That God is who He says He is.
30:54That He's the creator of all things.
30:56That He's the Savior of all things.
30:58And you got to believe of what the Bible says He is.
31:01You can't just say, people say, well, I believe in God.
31:03Not good enough, folks.
31:06The devil believes in God.
31:08Is he going to heaven?
31:10Nope.
31:11So it's not good enough just to believe in God.
31:14You got to believe that God is who He says He is, and who He says He is is between Genesis
31:20and Revelation.
31:22And believe that He's a rewarder.
31:23We see where He rewarded who?
31:25He rewarded the centurion and his servant for being so faithful.
31:31Now go to Luke 4.
31:39Luke 4, verse 27.
31:47This is, just to give you a quick thing, because we're running out of time, this is when Jesus
31:53is going to His own city to preach, and they don't like it.
31:59Look at verse 27.
32:02And He's talking about Elijah, that there's a bunch of people that are during a famine,
32:08and that He goes to one person.
32:10God sends Him to one person, a widow, who is not a Jew.
32:14Look at verse 27.
32:15And many lepers were in Israel.
32:19A leper is somebody who has leprosy.
32:22In the time of Elisha, which is Elisha, the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, save
32:29in Naaman the Syrian.
32:31So there's one guy named Naaman, he's the king of Syria, and he's the only one that's
32:36cleansed of leprosy.
32:38Let's go to 2 Kings 5.
32:422 Kings in the Old Testament, chapter 5.
32:46And let's look at this story.
32:47We're going to glaze through it kind of quick.
32:51This is another story of faith we saw with the centurion.
32:58Look at 2 Kings 5, verse 1.
33:05Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, so he's this big guy in the nation
33:13of Syria.
33:14Well, guess what?
33:15Syria and Judah, they're fighting most of the time, was a great man with his master
33:21and honorable because by him the Lord had given deliverance into Syria.
33:28He was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper.
33:32So let me tell you something about leprosy.
33:35It's a terrible disease.
33:37You can read in Exodus what they had to do, where they had to go and show to the priest,
33:41they had to show him, and if it looked like it was spreading, it explains in details about
33:49the spreading, if there's a hair on it or whatever, that they had to go outside the
33:53camp for seven days, and they had to present themselves back to the priest, and if the
33:58priest saw that it wasn't spreading and that it was going away, he would cleanse them,
34:03and it was so bad that anything that a leper touched had to be destroyed.
34:07Anything.
34:08A pot or whatever, if they touched a pot, it had to be destroyed.
34:15But not only that, it was highly contagious.
34:18People had to cover their mouth and say, unclean, unclean, when they came in contact.
34:23You see all these people outside of the gate of cities begging for money because they couldn't
34:28work.
34:29Nobody wants to work with a leper because they're afraid they're going to get it.
34:30It's highly contagious, and there's no cure, no human cure.
34:35There's no salve, there's no nothing that you can get.
34:39The only way that they could be cleansed of it was they had to see the priest, which was
34:44a representation, and you constantly see in the Old Testament that leprosy is compared
34:50to sin.
34:53There's nothing you can do about it.
34:55There's nothing you can do to get rid of your own sin, there's nothing you can do to
34:58get rid of leprosy, but the only way you can get rid of your own sin is through the Savior.
35:04Now, the priest obviously was not a Savior, I think the Catholics would love for me to
35:08say that, but it's a representation that the high priest was supposed to be that representation
35:14of the Savior.
35:15That they had to present themselves, show their sores, and if they looked at it and
35:19they said, hey, you're good, you can come back into camp, if not, that's what it was.
35:23So back then, that's the way things were.
35:27So the word leprosy is to represent sin.
35:31So when you take this story of Nahum and the Syrian, then you'll understand that it's a
35:37representation of sin.
35:39So let's keep reading in 2 Kings, so first, he's a big guy, he's a head guy in the nation
35:48of Syria, he's the captain of the host, he's the captain of them fighting in the Syrian
35:54army.
35:55Look at verse 3, so he said unto her mistress, would God, my Lord, were with the prophet
36:06that is in Samaria, for he would recover him of his leprosy.
36:11So I want you to understand that this is after the nation has been split up, you've got the
36:15nation of Judah, which is the southern part, which is, what, the capital is Jerusalem,
36:21and then you've got the northern nation of Israel, which the capital is what, Samaria.
36:27So this is the northern kingdom of Israel, Samaria.
36:32And this lady is saying, look, there's a prophet in Samaria that can recover you from leprosy.
36:38So that took great faith for her to say that.
36:42And one went in and told his lord, saying thus and thus, and said, the maid that is
36:46of the land of Israel, and the king of Syria, said, go to go, and I will send a letter unto
36:52the king of Israel.
36:53And he departed and took with him ten talents of silver, and six thousand pieces of gold,
36:59and ten changes of raiment.
37:01So he's trying to send money to the king of Israel to get rid of this leprosy, which is
37:09a representation of what, you can't buy salvation.
37:12You can't buy salvation, it's a gift.
37:15You can't buy it, you can't do enough for it, you can't do anything for salvation.
37:19Because look at the next verse.
37:22The man, the king gets mad, go down to verse 8, verse 7, I'm sorry, and it came to pass
37:29when the king of Israel read the letter that he rent his clothes, means he ripped them
37:34in half, that's what people did when they were mad or whatever, and said, am I God to
37:39kill and make alive, and that this man doth sin unto me to recover a man of his leprosy?
37:46He's saying, who am I?
37:47Why am I supposed to help this guy?
37:50Because they've already been fighting together.
37:54And he's saying, look, it's making me mad.
37:56He's saying, why are you sending this?
37:58Look at verse 8.
38:00And it was so, when Elisha heard the man of God, the man of God had heard the king of
38:06Israel had rent his clothes, so Elisha's there and he hears that he rips his clothes.
38:10He wants to know, why is he ripping his clothes?
38:14And he tells them, let him come to me, and he shall know that there's a prophet in Israel.
38:20So the next thing I want you to see is that he had to come to Elisha, meaning what?
38:24He had to be humble.
38:26You've got to come to the Savior, you have to come to the Savior showing that there's
38:31no fix for your problem, there's no fix for your leprosy except the Savior.
38:35That's a representation there.
38:38So what happens?
38:40So Naaman came with his horses and his chariot and stood at the door of the house of Elisha.
38:45And Elisha, he didn't even come himself, he sent a messenger unto him saying, we're in
38:51verse 10, go and wash in Jordan seven times and thy flesh shall come again to thee and
38:58thou shalt be clean.
39:00So the next thing I want you to understand is the Jordan River is a nasty river.
39:06It's dirty, it's filthy.
39:08If you see pictures of it, it's brown, you wouldn't want to get in it.
39:12So you're thinking, man, if I get into this river, it's going to make me dirtier than
39:17it's going to be.
39:18Because look at what he tells them in verse 10, are not Abana and Farpar rivers of Damascus
39:26better than the waters of Israel?
39:28So he's thinking about the physicalness that if I get in this river, this isn't going to
39:32make me clean, it's going to make me dirtier.
39:35There's cleaner rivers out there.
39:39But that's not the point.
39:41The point is the faith.
39:43It's not the physical, it's the faith that's going to heal him.
39:46It's not that he's physically going into the river and washing himself, just like it's
39:50not the physical of you being baptized.
39:53It's not the physical of you repenting of your sin.
39:55It's not anything that you can do.
39:57It's the faith that God said, hey, through Elisha, if you do this, your leprosy will
40:02be gone.
40:04So what happens?
40:05Well, let's keep reading.
40:08But Naaman was wroth and went away and said, Behold, I thought he will surely come and
40:12stand and call on the name of the Lord his God and strike his hand over the place and
40:16recover the leper.
40:18So Naaman's thinking he's going to come out there with a stick and do a bunch of magic
40:23and whatever and make a big to-do and that he's going to be healed.
40:28Well, that's what God does not do.
40:31He doesn't make a big to-do about salvation.
40:35He doesn't make this big ordeal and all this big production.
40:40People just believe on Christ and they're saved.
40:43So what happens?
40:44Look at verse 13, And his servants came near and spake unto him and said, My father, if
40:50the prophet had bid thee to do some great thing, wouldst thou not have done it?
40:55How much rather then when he saith to thee, Wash and be clean.
41:00So he's saying, look, if the prophet had wanted you to do something else besides getting in
41:04the river and dipping in there seven times, he would have told you.
41:08But he's not.
41:09The only thing he's telling you to do is to do that.
41:11Then when he down and dipped himself seven times into Jordan, according to the saying
41:17of the man of God, which is Elisha, and his flesh came again, like into the flesh of a
41:22little child, and he was clean.
41:25So it has nothing to do with the water.
41:27The water was nasty.
41:29He's looking at the brown water.
41:30He's thinking, man, why am I getting into this water?
41:33But it's by faith he's doing it.
41:37And that's what it's got to do is it's a good example of salvation.
41:41That when you are by faith, you come to the Lord and you say, Lord, I'm just a dirty,
41:46rotten, filthy sinner.
41:47I can only be saved by you.
41:49I don't deserve heaven.
41:50It's only by your grace because you died and rose again.
41:54And I believe in that, that I will get salvation.
41:59And because of faith, people want to make it more difficult, don't they?
42:04No, you're telling me all I got to do is put my trust on Jesus.
42:08I don't have to repent of my sins.
42:10I don't have to join the church.
42:11I don't have to be baptized.
42:12Yeah, that's what I'm telling you.
42:15It's just that easy.
42:16And I was reading a story about a guy named Randy Gratishaw.
42:23He was just inducted to the NFL Hall of Fame.
42:26And in the 70s, he was a member of the football team, the Denver Broncos, and he was a group
42:35called the Orange Crush, which was a really good defensive team.
42:39And when he was up there talking and he was being inducted into the Hall of Fame, he had
42:44this speech, and I listened to the speech.
42:48And he was talking about this guy named Archie Griffin, who was the two-time Heisman Trophy
42:53winner.
42:54So these are people who a lot of people know.
42:57So in his speech, he decided to get up there and explain about his testimony.
43:03And a lot of people would listen to this and say, well, in the world we live in, what's
43:08the big deal?
43:09He mentioned the name Jesus Christ, and he did.
43:12But here's the thing.
43:15He said in 1974, he was saved, and I'm going to put that in quotation marks, and you tell
43:19me if you think he was saved.
43:21He said that there's four truths that he found, that Archie Griffin invited him to some kind
43:27of gathering where it was fellowship, Christian athletes or something, when they were in college,
43:36and that he got saved that day.
43:38And he said that first truth was that God created man in his own image, and he loved
43:43man.
43:44You know, John 3.16.
43:45That's true.
43:46Well, the next thing is, when he quoted John 3.16, he didn't quote it out of the King James
43:50Bible, because it says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
43:55He just said son.
43:56But his only begotten son is Jesus Christ.
44:00We are his sons and his daughters once we believe on him, so he's not his only son.
44:05He's his only begotten son.
44:07I don't have time to explain that.
44:09But the other thing, so that first was the first trigger I heard.
44:13The next thing was in Romans 3.23, and if you'll turn to Romans 3.23, I want you to
44:19see it in your own Bible in the King James Version.
44:23You can always tell when somebody uses a different version, and you say, what's the big deal?
44:29Well, when he quoted it, he said, for all have sinned and come, not short, but have
44:35fallen short of the glory of God.
44:39You say, what's the big difference?
44:41Come short, fallen short.
44:42Well, the difference is that I've come short of the glory of God.
44:46That the only way to get into heaven for you to measure up to God, and the best way I can
44:51explain this, as I have before, is like if you go to a park, like the Wild Adventures
44:56or Six Flags, and they say you've got to be this tall to ride this ride, and you say,
45:01well, I'm not tall enough, and they say, well, you can't ride that ride.
45:04Well, the only way that you measure up to that line is to be perfect and sinless, and
45:10nobody's that.
45:11Nobody's perfect.
45:12Nobody's sinless.
45:13So, you're not falling short.
45:15If you're falling short means you were up on this pedestal, and you fell down off of
45:19that pedestal.
45:20Well, nobody has fallen short of the glory of God because nobody's perfect, but we've
45:26all come short, and the only way we can meet that mark is by putting on the righteousness
45:32of Christ, believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, and that means we put on His righteousness,
45:37not our own.
45:38So, that's the first thing that got me, and you say, well, that's not a big deal.
45:42Okay.
45:43But the fourth truth that he talked about is turning to God, which means what?
45:50It means that you're repenting.
45:52The word repent means just to turn, to change.
45:54So, if you said, hey, I was going to Wendy's, but I repented and went to McDonald's, it
45:59has nothing to do with sin.
46:00It just has to do with you changing your mind.
46:03So, if somebody thinks that Muslim or Islam or Jehovah's Witness or whatever is the way
46:09to go to heaven, and they turn to that, to Jesus Christ the Savior, that's repenting,
46:15not of your sin.
46:16But, he went on further to say, turning to God and repenting of my sins.
46:21Now, I ask you, my friend, since 1974, for 50 years, do you think that Mr. Rami Gratishar
46:31ever turned from his sins?
46:33Are you telling me, and if you took him by the side and said, are you telling me for
46:3750 years you never made a sin?
46:39Now, we all know how NFL stars are.
46:43We know they drink.
46:44We know they do drugs.
46:45We know things that they do.
46:47I'm here to tell you, I don't believe that.
46:50And even if he won an NFL star, if he was just a regular human being, there's no way
46:54that for 50 years, not for even 50 days, can somebody not sin.
46:59So are you telling me that if you don't repent of your sins, are you saved?
47:03That brings confusion, folks.
47:06Because there's people out there, I guarantee you, that was listening to his thing on YouTube
47:10and they're thinking, well, I'm not ready to give up my sin.
47:13I'm not ready to give up drinking.
47:15I'm having a good time on the weekends going and getting drunk.
47:17I'm having a good time of doing drugs.
47:19I'm having a good time of doing this.
47:21I'm having a good time.
47:22I'm not ready to.
47:23I'll wait until later.
47:24And they're going to die and go to hell.
47:26Because you know what?
47:27It's not necessary to give up your sin to be saved.
47:31It's not necessary for you to repent of your sins.
47:33And I hate this word.
47:34I hate it with a passion because there's people in church that are sitting there and they're
47:38listening to the preacher saying you got to repent of your sins to be saved.
47:42And they're thinking, I'm not ready.
47:43They're going to walk out the door and they're going to die and go to hell.
47:47And it irritates me.
47:48There's a no end when people say this.
47:52And it sounds good.
47:53You've got to turn from your sin to the Savior.
47:55But it's nowhere found in the Bible.
47:57Nowhere.
47:58In fact, the book of John, who claims to be the book of salvation, the word repent is
48:04never found.
48:07So if the book of John is the book of salvation, why is it not there if it's not necessary?
48:12Folks, I'm here to tell you, if Randy Gratishaw thinks he's repenting of his sins to be saved,
48:17he's going to split hell wide open.
48:21And there's a lot of people that are like, what's the big deal in the world we live in
48:24where sodomites are running free and all this stupidity and people are killing each other
48:28for nothing.
48:29You know, why not a little bit of Christianity?
48:31Because it's not true Christianity.
48:33Christianity is Jesus died on the cross.
48:36He was buried.
48:37He went to hell for three days.
48:38He rose three days later.
48:40And because he did that and I put my trust in that is faith.
48:45If anything has to do with you, there's no you in salvation.
48:50There's no you in salvation.
48:51If you think you have to do something to save, you have to repent of your sins to be saved.
48:56You have to join a church to be saved.
48:58You have to be baptized to be saved.
49:00You're going to die and go to hell.
49:02And that's the truth.
49:03There's nowhere in the Bible that says anything different.
49:07But the things after salvation, does God want us to repent of our sins and come humbly to
49:12him and say, God, I know that I'm not supposed to drink.
49:15I know I'm not supposed to do drugs.
49:17I know I'm not supposed to do whatever it is and come to him.
49:22Just like I said, you come now to God, he'll come now to you.
49:26That's after salvation.
49:27But this man saying that he repented of his sins to be saved and he's going to die and
49:32go to hell.
49:33And if Archie Griffin, the two time Heisman winner that I think is the only two time person
49:37and I won it twice, he can go with his Heisman trophy straight to hell.
49:42And you may not like that, but I don't give a rip.
49:45I'm here to preach the truth.
49:48And you know, I hope these men are just repeating something they heard.
49:52And that's not what they truly believe.
49:54Because I'm here to tell you, if that's what they truly believe, they will split hell wide
49:58open.
50:01But naming the Syrian and the Centurion, what do they do?
50:05They loved.
50:06They wanted to be healed.
50:08They humbled themselves.
50:10They took the pride out of their life.
50:12Don't you think it's pretty unprideful, it's humble for you to get into a dirty river?
50:18I mean, there's nothing magical about our river.
50:21It's a filthy river.
50:23But it wasn't the river.
50:24It wasn't the water.
50:25Just like it's not the water of baptism that saves you, it's the faith.
50:29The Centurion, his servant was saved by faith.
50:34And any time we have faith, God rewards our faith.
50:39It's just like, you know, you tell somebody, hey, if you don't give 10% of what you make,
50:45then God's going to take it away.
50:47And look, you can talk to any person out there, any mathematician or whatever, but the Bible
50:53says in Malachi, if you give 10%, God's going to allow you to use that 90% to pay your bills
51:00instead of that 100% you have.
51:03And any mathematician is like, well, that don't make any sense, that 10% less of what
51:08you got.
51:09But that's where faith comes in.
51:12That's where faith comes in.
51:14We need to understand that the faith that we have needs to be greater than, like Jesus
51:20said, than Israel.
51:21He went to Israel, and these people were supposed to have great faith, but they didn't.
51:25He found it in a Gentile.
51:27He found it in somebody that just believed.
51:29I mean, I always wondered, and I have not found any reason to see any different.
51:35The centurion that he keeps talking about, is this the same centurion that's there when
51:39Jesus is crucified, who says this truly is the Son of God?
51:43I don't know.
51:44Are there more than one centurion?
51:46I'm sure there is.
51:47The Bible never tells us that.
51:48But every time I've read this, I always wondered if the connection is, is this the same centurion?
51:54He has that great faith.
51:55And then when he sees Jesus, and he sees the sky go dark for three hours when he's on the
52:00cross, is this the same centurion?
52:02I don't know.
52:03It may not be.
52:04The Bible doesn't tell us that.
52:06Maybe we can find out when we get heaven.
52:08So let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.