Good evening, brethren. I want
to begin in Luke. I want to begin a study in Luke.
And so let's go to Luke chapter 1. And Luke gives us an introduction
to his gospel. And so that's going to be the
focus of our message tonight. And in this introduction, I want
to look at five things that the inspired writer says to us, five
things that we can take and use to our benefit as we go through
the book of Luke. And we're going to see the purpose
for his writing this gospel in this introduction. And before
we get started, let me just point out that we've been through Mark,
and then we've just finished going through John. And now we're
in Luke, and we know that there's Matthew, and there's four Gospels. Why are there four Gospels? Well,
each one, each one of the Gospel writers gives us a particular,
distinct view of our Savior. It addresses something about
the character of our Lord and Savior, and each one's a little
different. For example, Matthew shows us that Jesus of Nazareth
is the promised Messiah of God. He's the one that our Lord spoke
of in the Old Testament scriptures. And so Matthew gives us a lot
of Old Testament scriptures showing us how that Jesus of Nazareth
fulfills those very scriptures. And therefore he is the Christ
of God, the Messiah. Mark shows us that our Lord is
Jehovah's righteous servant, that servant that he spoke of
in Isaiah when he said, look, look to my servant, behold my
servant, look to him, behold him whom I've sent. And he came,
and though he is Lord of all, he took the lowest place, and
he laid down his life as the servant for his people. And then John, as we've just
seen, his focus is on the divinity of Christ. That's probably the
last book that was written to show us, to counter all the false
ideas about Christ and to show, to prove that he is the eternal
son of God. And now Luke, he shows us the
perfect humanity of Christ. And Luke's focus is that this
Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of Man. He is the man who laid
down his life for the life of his people. And so together we
see that He's divine. He is the God-Man-Mediator who
served His people in laying down His life to fulfill all the will
and purpose of Almighty God, that God may be gracious to you,
His people. So Luke here, what first caught
my eye is that Luke is writing to a man named Theophilus. And
that's at the end of verse three, Theophilus. And he calls him
Most Excellent Theophilus. And that's a title that has led
some to think that perhaps this man Theophilus is a magistrate. Maybe he's a governor. Maybe
he's a man of rank, because he's called Most Excellent Theophilus. For example, in Acts 23, when
Luke is the author of that, well, the Lord is the author, but Luke
is the man whose pen the Lord guided in writing both Luke and
Acts, Felix had written a letter, and he titled it, he titled who
he was that was writing it, and he called himself The Most Excellent
Governor Felix. And he's a governor. He's a man
of rank and power. Or most noble Festus is another
title that was given to Festus. And so Theophilus Luke calls
him most excellent. So some think that perhaps he
was a man of rank. But the name Theophilus means
lover of God. One who is the friend of God
and one who loves God. And that's a peculiar name, a
peculiar name. And that name has led some, among
myself included, that has led some to think that maybe Luke
is generally addressing this gospel. Perhaps he's giving this
as a general address to the people of God, those who love God, those
who are called of God. and he was burdened to put together
this gospel in a very circumspect way, in
a very precise way to help us to know these truths which are
held by the church. And I say that because the Apostle
John, when he was writing one of his epistles, the second epistle
of John, second John, he addresses it this way. the elder, which
is himself, he's the elder, unto the elect lady and her children. And that sounds like he's writing
it to someone's home, a home church or something like that.
But in reality, what he's using is a term of endearment, the
elect lady, which speaks of that mystical, local body of Christ. and he refers to her children,
which are the members of that body, that local body of Christ. And so regardless of whether
Theophilus is a single actual man to whom Luke is writing this
gospel, the Spirit clearly intended it for all who love the Lord,
all who love God and are loved of God and called of God, because
here it is. It's not sitting in someone's
trunk in some family lineage, their history in a trunk somewhere
in an attic. Here it is in the Word of God
for us all to read. And so that's how we're to see
this. This is written to me. The Lord
has given me this gospel, this word, that I might read it and
know the things that are most surely believed among the church
of God. And so let's begin in verse one,
Luke 1, 1. He says, for as much as many
have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those
things which are most surely believed among us. And so some
believe that there had been a number of smaller writings, a number
of manuscripts or some things or details gathered and recorded,
and that perhaps this is the first of the Gospels that was
written. because Matthew and Mark maybe weren't even written
yet. And perhaps Luke was the first one to be burdened to write
this together with the focus that he gives. But another thing
that we see in this, where he says, I'm writing this to set
in order a declaration of those things which are most surely
believed among us. And that tells us something about
our Lord. And that's the second point.
that there are things that are most surely believed among us. This isn't just a free-for-all,
this isn't just gray matter where we can just pick and choose what
we like, but there are definite things, definite articles of
faith, definite things that all Christians believe, and these
things can be defined, and these things can be declared one to
another. And as the church, we can declare
these truths to our hearers and they're to be defended and they're
to be kept. These are truths kept and proclaimed
and taught by the church. And so the Lord is saying to
us, there are things which all believers hold. There are things
which all Christians know and believe. And these things concern
the mystery of Christ. We're not talking about administrative
things. There's no details in here of
how many hymns to sing, whether we stand or sit during the hymns. There's nothing like that. There's
liberty in that regard, as long as it's done decently and in
order. But there are doctrinal truths
that all believers hold to and defend rigorously and vigorously
concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this means that those
who do not hold to the doctrine of Christ, not only are they
not in agreement with the testimony of scripture, but they're unbelievers. They don't believe the truth
that God has revealed concerning his son, concerning our very
salvation and the hope that we have in the true and living God
who promised us eternal life. And they're yet in their sins.
And so there is a distinction made. There are things which
are most surely believed among us. Turn over to that epistle,
2 John. So if you hit Revelation, just
turn back a page or two, and you'll come to 2 John. There's only one chapter, and
we're going to pick up in verse 5. He says there, verse five, and
now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment
unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that
we love one another. So we remember that the Lord
said to his disciples, this is my commandment, that ye love
one another. And he said, this is my commandment,
that you keep my word, that you keep my word. And John says,
this is love, that we walk after his commandments. This is the
commandment, that as you have heard from the beginning, ye
should walk in it. And these are the things which
Luke has recorded in his gospel. And these are the things which
are recorded for us in the gospel and in the epistles. And they
are built upon the foundation of Christ which is declared to
us in the Old Testament. It's this making plain that mystery
of God revealed to us in the face of Christ, because that's
who God is declaring. That's who God is revealing to
sinners, to his people that he elected and that he chose unto
the salvation. He's showing us Christ, who is
our very life, our very light, our very salvation. Four, verse
seven, many deceivers are entered into the world who confess not
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. And this is a deceiver
and an antichrist. And someone might ask, well,
don't all people believe that Jesus Christ came in the flesh?
Not with understanding, not with the understanding according to
the scriptures. Verse nine, drop down to verse
nine, whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine
of Christ, Hath not God. So there is a line of truth.
There is a line of truth. There is an understanding that
all believers have who rest in the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And it's contained in the doctrine
of Christ. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. If there come any
unto you and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house,
neither bid him Godspeed. Now, that doctrine of Christ
is what sets forth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. That doctrine of Christ makes
known to us what is meant by Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. It speaks of Christ, who He is,
that He is the Son of God who took upon Him flesh, the flesh
of His brethren, the flesh of His chosen people to be made
like unto them, yet without sin. They're in sin and they cannot
save themselves, but Christ came as the substitute to save His
people from their sins. That's why He came in the flesh,
because we can't save ourselves. We're corrupt. We're ruined.
We've fallen in Adam and have no spiritual life. But Christ
came to give light and life and liberty to his people. And he declares in this doctrine
of Christ, what he accomplished, what this divine person accomplished
in the flesh for his people and putting away their sins forever.
And that's what the doctrine of Christ speaks of. And you might think that sounds
so simple and easy to believe, and yet so many people who profess
and claim to be Christians come short of that and reject some
or all of that. and hold to some things and not
other things. And what Luke is saying and what John is saying
is they've come short. They've come short of the truth
of God. They don't believe the gospel
that God has revealed in his son, the gospel which is contained
here in these scriptures throughout. So, brethren, those things which
are most surely believed among us, they declare that all are
sinners, that not a one of us can save ourselves by our works,
not before salvation and not after salvation. We are saved
entirely from beginning to end by the Lord Jesus Christ. He's all our righteousness because
I and you are incapable of saving ourselves and changing ourselves
and putting off our sins and doing that which is right from
here forward. We can't do it, but He can and He does. He did
it. He did it. He accomplished the
salvation in us. Then another thing that we see
is that except God find us, except God seek us out and deliver us
from death and give us life, except He do that, we cannot
be saved. You know, in Luke chapter 15,
we've been through that one time, there's three parables contained
there of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost son. And in all those, we see how
it's the Lord who seeks out the lost, and the Lord saves them,
Luke 15. And then we also see that the
Son of God was made flesh because he is the Christ of God. Peter declares that to us in
Luke 9.20. He says, you are the Christ of
God. You are the promised seed that
our God spoke of in the garden. And he alone is our salvation.
And there's not another. There's one salvation. There's
one name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. And that name is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the Son of God. He is the
mediator between God and men. He is our salvation. And that
was Acts 4.12, also from Luke. And that by his death, he redeemed,
he purchased his people as their substitute. He vicariously laid
down His life, bearing their sins in their place, to put away
their death by bearing it in Himself and putting away our
sins forever. and giving us light and liberty
and a knowledge of what he's done for us by himself. And you could see that in Luke
1, 68, that Zacharias, the father of John the Baptist, said, blessed
be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed
his people. And then we also see that in
Luke that his people are an elect, chosen people. You know, when
Christ was in Nazareth, he went into the synagogue, and there
he read from Isaiah, and there he preached the gospel, and he
showed how that God has an elect chosen people. He passed by the
many widows that were in Israel, and
he went to a Gentile widow and provided for her. He passed by
the Jewish lepers that were in Israel in that day, and he went
and healed a Gentile leper. And the Jews that were there
in the synagogue hated that word. They hated that God is sovereign
and he chooses whom he will. So much so that they tried to
kill him. They tried to murder him by driving
him off the edge of a cliff. But he, walking right through
them, passed on by. Passed on by. And we know that
same truth. If you speak to others that have
not the spirit of God, how that God chooses whom he will and
that God saves his people according to his own will and purpose in
sovereign election, they get angry. What do you mean? What
are you doing? Why are you taking away that
which I glory in? You're telling me that God is
God? And they get upset with that.
They don't want to hear that God is God and that God saves
whom He will by His glory and power. And so they get angry.
And they murder you in their heart, if not physically, if
they could. And so that's in Luke chapter
4. Therefore, we also see that all
who need salvation receive it. Everyone who needs salvation
is saved. Everyone who needs healing is
healed. We're broken hearted, ruined,
condemned sinners, except for Christ's gracious, glorious,
wonderful, free salvation work to save us from our sins. It
says in Luke 9 11 that the people, when they knew it, that he was
there, they followed him and he received them and spake unto
them of the kingdom of God and healed them that had need of
healing. Our Savior heals. He saves those
that have need of healing, those that have need of salvation.
All who need it, they receive it. It's given to them. Now the
third thing that we learn in this gospel is that the mystery
of these things is revealed unto us by the gift and by the grace
of our God, so that by these gifts, by our Lord, by what He
has done and accomplished for us and in us, we understand this
gospel. We understand and know who our
God is. We have an understanding of His
salvation. We know the name of our God and
Savior. And he knows our name. And he
makes us to know that, what he's done for us in laying down his
life, in love, in mercy, in grace, in kindness. Though we didn't
deserve it at all, he saved us. He's merciful to us. And by this
understanding that he gives us, we're able to preach these truths
according to the experience of grace. It's not a dry, dead doctrine. It's not a dead letter religion.
It's not a dead faith, it's a living faith. Because He's revealed
it to us, He's shown it to us in our hearts. So that even if
those that we love in the flesh reject us, and hate this, and
despise this, this gospel, and despise us, what can we do? Where can we go? Our Lord has
the words of eternal life, and we're sure that He is the very
Savior whom the Father has sent, and He has accomplished our salvation. And so Luke says now in Luke
1 verse 2, even as they deliver them unto us, which from the beginning were
eyewitnesses and ministers of the word." And what he's saying
there is, we've been taught. We've been taught by the Lord.
There's a people that have been taught by the Lord, and we've
been taught by the Lord. Our Savior said in John 6 45,
it is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught
of God. all of God's people are taught
by God. He gives His people the Holy Spirit, the Holy Ghost,
who comes and dwells in us and applies that blood of Christ
to our guilty conscience, setting us free from that guilt and condemnation,
to know, to believe, to hope in Christ, to have faith in Him,
in that Word which we've heard declared unto us in the Gospel. And he makes known, he teaches
us Christ. Every man therefore that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. All his people come to him without
fail. None fall short of that for whom
Christ shed his blood. They're all saved and delivered
from death. And so we've been benefited by the labors of those
that have gone before us, those that were eyewitnesses. First
and foremost is the Lord Jesus Christ, who came and laid down
his life as the servant. And then our Lord, when he was
raised from the dead, he gave power and gifts, especially in
great measure, to his apostles. for the founding of the church,
for the completion of these scriptures, to write this scripture. So it's
a whole, complete word. We have the whole testimony of
God, which lays the foundation of Christ, and we build according
to this. We don't deviate from this word.
This is the word. The pattern is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he had early disciples that
were eyewitnesses from the beginning. And then the Lord took of these
things, these things, and made them effectual in our heart.
through the preaching of the Gospel, through the giving of
the Holy Ghost, teaching us in our hearts, opening our understanding
that we might understand the Scriptures. And he does this
for all his people so that we now are able to comprehend the
mystery of God, hidden in ages past, but revealed to us by our
God in this Gospel. so that you may think you don't
know it, but you know who the Savior is. You know what he accomplished
for you. You know it's by grace and mercy,
because it's not by our works. It's by what he has done for
us. And then he makes us witnesses
of these things which are most surely believed among us. Look at what John says in 1 John
1. Go to 1 John 1. And look at what he writes there
in the beginning in verses one through three. He says, that which was from
the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with
our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled
of the word of life. For the life was manifested,
and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that
eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto
us, that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. that
ye also may have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship
is with the Father, and with His Son, Jesus Christ." And so
our God who revealed Himself to these men, He's given us that
same Spirit to show us, to teach us, to reveal to us that Word
of God. the eternal word of God, which
came in the flesh, and revealed the Father unto us, and put away
our sins, and delivered us from the wrath of God, and has given
us light, and life, and hope, in the family of our God, adopting
us by His grace, and by His Spirit, He bears that righteous fruit
of faith in us, which believes, just like these disciples believed. and hopes in Him, and waits for
Him, and trusts Him to fulfill all His word of promise made
unto us in this very word. And so, look now back at Luke
1. Luke 1 verse 3, as you see there,
he says, it seemed good to me also. Because that's what the
Lord does, that he had his eyewitnesses, and Luke says it seemed good
to me also. Good to me also, having had perfect
understanding of all things, from the very first to right
unto thee, in order, most excellent Theophilus. So even though Luke
doesn't appear to have been an eyewitness in that sense of the
word, but he experienced the grace of God. And so it seemed
good to him. And we hear this word and it
seems good to us. It's made good to us so that
we know this is salvation. This is the word of God. This
is the hope and the inheritance of the saints in glory. And this
is what he's given unto us so that it's our hope. It's our
hope and this is our joy and rejoicing. Paul said it this
way in 2 Corinthians 4.13. we having the same spirit of
faith according as it's written I believed and therefore have
I spoken he said we also believe and therefore speak and that's
that's saying to us here that same that same word that bless
the hearts of those eyewitnesses, those ministers of the word,
is the same spirit that is given to us, according to the measure
that God has given to us in our day, but He makes known to us
the doctrine of Christ. so that we preach and declare
and teach that same doctrine, that same word of promise to
you as they did then so we do now. That perfect understanding
that Luke had, what he's saying is I had a complete understanding
of these things. I understood these things and
I gathered together all these things. I know why Christ came,
who he is, why he came, what he accomplished, and for whom
he accomplished it. And I declare these things. I
want to put this together in this gospel word for you Theophilus. For you that love the Lord so
that it's clear to you and that you would have this same understanding. and same confidence in your God
and glory in Him as we do in our day so we do now in our day. As they did then so we do now. And that word from the very first
refers to who gave it to us. This is heaven born. This is
from our God above who has given us this wisdom and understanding
in Christ. James said it this way, James
3, 17 and 18, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure,
then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy
and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. And the
fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace. Because brethren, we are peacemakers. Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they shall be called the sons of God. We're peacemakers
through the preaching of the gospel to sinners. We're declaring
what God has done to reconcile his people to himself through
Christ, who laid down his life for his enemies, who laid down
his life for undeserving sinners to put away their sins and to
give them life. And so we declare this gospel
and when our God turns the hearts of his people to himself. He
removes that veil which lays over the heart so that they then
see the Lord, they see Christ, and they rejoice in Him, that
we believe in Him. And that enmity is removed and
peace is put in its place. They too then have peace with
God. And that's why we're called peacemakers. If you would be a peacemaker,
speak according to this Gospel word unflinchingly. Preach Him
faithfully. Declare what He has accomplished
for His people. Because that's how we make peace.
With that wisdom which is from above, given unto us and made
known unto us. Fourth, the scriptures are the
word of God. This word right here, this Bible
is the word of God, the holy scriptures. And we are ministers
of the word. This is the inspired word of
God. Holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost. They recorded this word for us
of which we speak. This is one of the witnesses
which is given to us in the earth. It's the Word of God that makes
known to us the will and purpose of our God. And so we submit
to this Word. We bow down to this Word. We believe God that He has preserved
this Word, that He's written it, given it, and preserved it
for us unto this day. That's why this Word's always
being attacked. Because if the foundations be
destroyed, What can the righteous do? But this word declares the
foundation which is Christ. And the more we see Him, the
more we know it's so true. This is all declaring Christ
to us. Abundantly clear. 1 Thessalonians
2.13 says, For this cause also thank we God without ceasing.
Because when ye received the word of God which ye heard of
us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in
truth the word of God which effectually worketh also in you that believe. And so we're speaking according
to this word, this gospel word. 2 Timothy 3.16 All scripture
is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine,
for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. Alright so this is the word of
God. Now fifthly and finally we're given this word to make
us to know the salvation of God revealed in Christ. Look at Luke
1 verse 4. That thou mightest know writing
to you, Theophilus, that thou mightest know the certainty of
those things wherein thou hast been instructed. So our Lord
has given this word to make known to us who He is, to make known
His gracious will and purpose in Christ. Just as we saw recently
in John chapter 20 verse 31 These things are written, that ye might
believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing,
ye might have life through his name. 2 Corinthians 4, 6 For
God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath
shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. That same light
that shone upon the darkness of this world shines upon the
darkness and the chaos of this heart that's in us. And it shows
us Christ. We see Jesus. We see him who
is most precious, that eternal word of God by whom we receive
all the promises and blessings of God given in him who is our
husband, our friend, our savior, our all. our all. He is everything to the believer. And so that's who this word is
declaring from Genesis to Revelation. He's in every picture, every
type, every shadow. It speaks of Christ Jesus, our
Lord, the Son of God. Our God in this word is not telling
us how to save ourselves by our own works, how to get ourselves
saved, how to do this and do that for God, and to build an
inheritance for ourselves by what we do. It's showing us what
God has done for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's showing us
what has been done and He manifests faith in His people who hear
that glorious good news. It's finished? Yes, it's finished. Christ has finished the work.
He's finished the salvation of His people and He's making it
known to you through the declaration of this gospel word. And in you
that are His, in you that believe, it's because He has given you
that fruit of righteous faith that looks away from self and
hears and receives this word and believes. The Lord Jesus
Christ is all my salvation. He's the salvation whom the Father
has sent to save me from our sins. So this whole word is driving
us to Christ. It's driving us to Christ. because
he's salvation. I can't tell you how many years
I read this word and sat hearing different people say different
things on it and kept looking to myself and kept looking to
my faith until one day he opened it up and made me understand
the scriptures through the preaching of the gospel to know it's all
of Christ. It's all of Christ. It's all
done. It's all finished. And He revealed faith in my heart
to see it's all of Christ. And that's where there's peace
and rest and hope. Because as long as I'm looking
at myself, it's misery and darkness and ruin. But when I look to
Christ, it's peace and rest and the grace of my God through His
Son. And so as we go through Luke,
the word is first written to every Theophilus, to every lover
of God. Second, it's given to make us
to know those things which are most surely believed among us. Third, all God's ministers to
this day speak according to this revealed Word. And fourth, this
is the Word of God. This is the inspired, given Word
of God and there's not another. This alone is the Word, the revealed
Word of God, the revealed Will of God. And fifthly, He gave
us His Word to make us wise unto salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ,
by Him and Him only. Amen.