Go back with me, if you would,
to Luke 1. I have always loved these four
verses. I love the confidence of the
Scripture, all of the Scripture. It's so confident, isn't it?
There's no buts about it. And these four verses are the
same way. Luke 1, verse 1 says, For as
many as have taken in hand This thing was not done in a
corner, was it? Our Lord has never been without
a witness. Isn't that wonderful? He will
not be without a witness. It says, For as many as have
taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those
things, those things which are most surely believed among us. even as they delivered them unto
us, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers
of the word. It seemed good to me also, having
had perfect understanding of all things, from the very first,
to write unto thee in order most excellent Theophilus." And Theophilus
means friend of God. most excellent friend of God,
that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou
hast been instructed." How could we possibly enter into the blessing
of being called the friend of God? How could we possibly enter
in to what that means? How could we possibly, possibly
understand and rejoice as fully as we ought to rejoice in the
fact that God has called us, if we're in Christ, His friend? Amazing. Absolutely amazing. And that God would instruct us
It says we've been instructed in these things that he in his
kindness and in his grace would call many. Call many to take the gospel
of his word in hand. This is a huge calling. It is not a calling to take lightly. And how gracious the Lord has
been to call many. Aren't you so glad that God called
a man to declare the gospel to you? I mean, I speak as a sinner
saved by grace who heard the gospel. I'm so glad God called
a man and preached the gospel to me. It's everything. It's everything. I've been given
everything. through that declaration. And
God in His kindness, He called many to take the gospel of His
word in hand and set forth in order a declaration of those
things. God, He calls men to declare
His word. He puts a fear of the Lord in
them that is greater than the fear of man. And He knows that
the flesh does not want to hear those things, but He declares
it anyway in order, right? Clearly, thank God, thank God. And then that God would give
us who have heard the declaration a heart to most surely believe
these things. How could we enter into the blessing
of that? One of these days we will. One
of these days we will. Look with me at Luke chapter
2. Luke chapter 2, this is where
our Lord, earthly speaking, was born and the shepherds came to
Him. In Luke chapter 2 verse 16 says,
And they came with haste and found Mary and Joseph and the
babe lying in a manger. And when they had seen, they
made known abroad the saying which was told them concerning
this child. And all they that heard wondered
at those things which were told them by the shepherds." Those
things. But Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her
heart. They set forth, these shepherds
came and they set forth in order the things they were told about
this child. And Mary pondered those things
in her heart. And I know the feeling. We do
the same thing. We ponder these things in our
heart. Eight days after that, they brought our Lord to the
temple and a man named Simeon was waiting there for him. And
right here in Luke 2 verse 28 says, Then Simeon took the Lord
up in his arms, and blessed God, and said, Lord, now lettest thou
thy servant depart in peace according to thy word. For mine eyes have
seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared before the face
of all people, a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of
thy people Israel. And verse 33 says, Joseph and
his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him.
Could you imagine being told you're going to have a child
and then hearing everything Mary was told about this child? And
an angel came to Joseph and said, don't put her away. This is of
God and told Joseph everything he told him about this child.
And then here the child is born, and here come shepherds from
who knows how far, and they tell everything that was told them
about this child, and they go eight days later like the law
commands, and they bring the Lord to the temple, and there's
a man waiting, and they hear everything that he says about
this child, and they're just marveling at those things. Amazing
things. Now look with me at Luke 10,
and as you're turning, I want you to ask the Lord in your hearts
to let you enter into this, okay? Let's see if the Lord will open
our eyes to this right here. Luke chapter 10, verse 21 says, In that hour Jesus rejoiced in
spirit and said, I thank the old father Lord of heaven and
earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent,
and has revealed them unto babes, even so, Father, for it seemed
good in Thy sight. All things are delivered to me
of my Father, and no man knoweth who the Son is but the Father,
and who the Father is but the Son, and He to whom the Son will
reveal Him." Now watch verse 23. And he turned him unto his
disciples, and said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see
the things that you see. For I tell you that many prophets,
many preachers, many, many preachers, people
love preachers, Oh, you'll love him. He's a preacher. He's a
good man. He's a man of God. He's a man
of the cloth. He knows the way. He's going
to show us the way, you know. They respect him. Many, many preachers. Tons of preachers. The average
man probably weighs 175 pounds. Tons and tons of preachers. Piles of preachers. If you just
kept throwing preachers up on the pile. Mountains and mountains
of preachers. And he said kings, high and mighty,
noble, decision makers, big wigs in the world, have desired to
see those things which you see and have not seen them. Tons
of preachers. Tons of preachers have desired
to see those things which you see and have not seen them and
to hear those things which you hear and have not heard them. Is that not amazing? Is that
not amazing? The things that our children
know. How much do our children know?
I don't know. God knows. But I do know that
what our children know is more than tons of preachers have ever
known. Tons of preachers. Priests, you
know, they got the collars and the hats and the smoke and the
tons and tons. It's amazing. Look with me at
Acts 13. Acts 13 verse 44. And the next Sabbath day came
almost the whole city together to hear the word of God. Wouldn't
you love to see that? But when the Jews saw the multitudes,
all the preachers, when they saw the multitudes they were
filled with envy and spake against those things which were spoken
by Paul contradicting and blaspheming. They contradicted and they blasphemed
God's Word which was clearly, plainly set forth in order to
them. But look at Acts 17. Turn over
to Acts 17. It says in verse 10, And the brethren immediately
sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea, who coming thither
went into the synagogue of the Jews. These were more noble than
those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all
readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures." And that's the
key. That's the key. They searched
the scriptures. Whenever I first started preaching,
I was told over and over and over again, tell them and then
show them. I was told that over again. Tell
them and show them. Tell them and show them. False
preachers don't show anybody anything. They can't. They can't, not only can they
not support what they preach, it will contradict what they
preach. So they just stand up and say, now the Bible says.
And people believe them. You know, the Bible says. All
right, if we do the same thing. Then it's just my word against
his. But if we show them. If we show them. This is what
God's word says. It says they were more noble
because they searched the scriptures daily to see whether those things
were so. Are these things so? The Apostle
Paul said, This I confess unto thee, that after the way which
they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing
all things. Those things. all things which
are written in the Law and in the Prophets, all things. Now
go with me back to Luke 1. Luke 1 verse 1 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." I
titled this message, Things We Believe. Things We Believe. God's people believe every word
that proceeds out of the mouth of God. That's what we believe. every word, I mean every word.
We could be here forever declaring what we believe. We would go
chapter by chapter like we do, we would go verse by verse, word
by word, and we could honestly be here forever declaring what
we believe. We can also declare what we believe
in one word, Christ. We believe Christ. I have something, though, that
I want to set forth in order to you tonight. After searching
the scriptures, I found five places. Five places that say
we believe I was specifically looking because we could. I could
declare anything out of this word, this is what we believe.
And we could be here forever. So to narrow it down for this
message, okay, I searched out the two words back to back. We
believe. We believe. I found five places. We believe. And I want to tell you and I
want to show you, all right, in order, a declaration of these
five precious things that we most surely believe. The first
one is in John 6. John 6, verse 66. From that time, many of his disciples
went back and walked with him no more. Walked no more with
him. What a fear that is. What a fear that is. Does that
strike you at all like it strikes me? Prone to wander. Lord, I feel it. You know how
we feel that proneness to wander? We don't feel anything. Isn't that right? That's how
we feel that proneness to wander. I'm off and it's okay. No big deal. Verse 66, From that
time many of his disciples went back and walked no more with
him. Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will you also go away? That reminds me of when the Lord
asked Peter, Do you love me? Do you love me? Peter said, Can
you imagine? He said, Thou knowest. Thou knowest. The Lord said right here, will
you also go away? Lord, you know. You know, I don't
know. You know whether or not you've
purposed to keep me or whether you've purposed to leave me to
myself and just let me go. I know what I'll do if you leave
me to myself. I know what I'll do. But Peter
did answer him right here with the only other answer that can
be given besides you know. He said in verse 68, Then Simon
Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the
words of eternal life. And in verse 69 he said, We believe
and are sure. We most surely believe. that thou art that Christ, the
Son of the living God. To believe that He is the Christ
is to believe He is the God-man. It's to believe He is the only
mediator between God and man. But He's not just the one who
can get man to God. That's what people see Jesus
to be. The man who knows the way. The
man who knows how to get you to God. But he didn't say, I
know the way. He said, I am the way. I am. He is not just the man
who can get us to God. He is God. He is God. And he is man. A man is God. I don't know that
I'll ever stop being amazed by that. A man is God. One particular man. Whenever
we think of Moses, we talk about Moses. When we think of him,
do we think of him as being less than God? Yes. What about King David? Do we
think of him as being less than God? What about Elijah? A chariot
of fire came down and picked him up and carried him alive. He never laid his body down,
just carried him straight on into glory. Do we think of him as
being less than God? Yes. What about the man who wrote
half the New Testament, the Apostle Paul? The man who was carried
up into the third heaven? Do we think of him as being less
than God? Yes. What about the man Jesus of Nazareth?
The man who was born, we read about him, born and laid in a
manger. When we think of him, do we think of him as being less
than God? Nope. When we think of that man, we
most surely believe that man is God. That man is God. God Almighty. Verse 69, We believe
and are sure that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. We believe that most surely,
don't we? We believe that. That has been
set forth in order to us and God by His grace has caused us
to believe it. Now the next precious thing that
is most surely believed among us is in Acts 15. Acts 15, this is where in verse
1, certain men which came down from Judea taught the brethren
and said, except you be circumcised after the manner of Moses, you
can't be saved. And that perfectly sums up every
denomination of religion that there is. Every single one. Every religion believes some
form of something that says, except you do this, you can't
be saved. They attach some work to salvation. But Paul and Barnabas
took in hand the declaration of the gospel. They took the
declaration of the truth in hand, and it says they had a large
dissension in verse 2 with these who were trying to preach another
gospel, which there's not another gospel. And they disputed with
them and they determined to go up to Jerusalem and to the elders
up there and talk with them about these things. And verse 6, after
they told them what was going on, verse 6 says, The apostles
and elders came together to consider of this matter. And when there
had been much disputing, Peter rose up and said unto them, Men
and brethren, you know how that a good while ago God made choice
among us that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word
of the gospel and believe. And God, which knoweth the hearts,
bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as He did
unto us, and put no difference between us and them purifying
their hearts by faith, Now therefore, why tempt ye God to put a yoke
upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor
we were able to bear?" This yoke that men put on other men, this
yoke of bondage, this yoke of works, is a yoke that no man
can bear. No man trying to earn salvation,
trying to work hard enough and be good enough to earn salvation
is a yoke that no man is able to bear. Do the scriptures teach
good works? Absolutely they do. Absolutely. The instruction in the commandment
of God is crucial. It is crucial. I thought about
this little experiment. Those of us who have kids. Let's
go seven days. All right. Seven days with absolutely
no correction. Not a word. Not a look. Absolutely no discipline. No calming them down. Just let
them have at it. And then at the end of seven
days, let's see which one's better. Correction or no correction?
They're our kids either way. Isn't that right? It's crucial. Whom the Lord loves, he chastens. He corrects, He instructs, but
not one time has He ever required anything from a sinner in order
for that sinner to be His child. Not one time. So here's the second
thing that God's people most surely believe. Peter said in
verse 11, but we believe That through the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, we shall be saved even as they. Salvation is by
the grace of God. By the grace of God. Grace means
gift. It means kindness. It means favor. Through the gift of God the Father
giving His own Son for us. Through the kindness. of the
Lord Jesus Christ willingly laying down His own life, His own self,
His own body, His own blood, and through the favor that we
now have with God the Father through Christ. Through the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that's how man is saved. That's how
we were saved. That's how every child of God
is saved. We most surely believe that our Lord is indeed the Christ.
And we most surely believe that through the grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that's how sinners say. Grace alone. Now here's the third thing that
we most surely believe. Romans 6. Romans 6 verse 8. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with Him. Paul said in Galatians
2, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. I live. He said, but it's not
I that live, Christ lives in me. Christ liveth in me. That is the life of a believer. That is life. Anything other
than Christ in us is death to us. That's the part that we say,
Oh, wretched man, that I am. Christ lives in us and the life
that we now live in the flesh, we live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved us and gave himself for us. That's our hope.
That's our life. We died with him. We rose with
him. We live with him. And we most
surely believe that. Only in Him do we live and move
and have our being. Only in Him. This is what He
said. He said, Whosoever liveth and
believeth in Me shall never die. And then He said, Believest thou
this? We most surely do. We most surely
do. Now the last two things that
we believe, these are just glorious to think about. One of them is
exciting, one of them is comforting. Turn with me over to 1 Thessalonians
4. Here's the fourth precious thing that we most surely believe. 1 Thessalonians 4. Verse 13. But I would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that you
sorrow not, even as others which have no hope." You think about
the precious believers that have gone before us. You just think
about them for just one second. Those who said with us, we believe. Those who In the unity of Christ
said and witnessed we believe, those who believe God's word,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, all of the brethren who went
recently, all of the brethren that went in the last few decades,
all of the brethren that went all the way back to Abel, Adam
and Eve's son Abel, Verse 13 says, I would not have
you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep,
that you sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For
if we believe, and we do, if we believe that Jesus died and
rose again, meaning if we believe it's finished, if we believe
He accomplished what He died for, If we believe God the Father
said, well done thou good and faithful servant. Verse 14, if
we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also
which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him. We believe that, don't we? We believe that. Could you imagine
seeing somebody you have not seen in years who profess to
believe the truth? What if they walked through the
door right now? What if they did? They're alive
and well. They're alive and well. They're
more alive than we are. We're half dead. Moses and Elijah, there they
were. What if they walk through the
door right now? We believe, we can't really get our minds around
it, but we believe our Lord is coming back, don't we? We also
believe that every single brother and sister that died in Him,
He will bring with Him. We believe that. We most surely
believe that. They're not dead. Their body
is sleeping. They're right now with the Lord.
That's where they are. And when he comes back, he is
going to bring every single one of them with him. And it's going
to be like we were never separated. Never. And we love these verses,
verse 15, we say, this we say unto you by the word of the Lord. God said to say this, we which
are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord are not going
to prevent them which are asleep. The Lord himself shall descend
from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with
the trump of God, the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then
we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with
them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. So shall we
ever be with the Lord. We believe that. We most surely
believe that. Death is not actually death.
It's life. It's life. Every brother and
sister in Christ is alive and well. They're all alive and well. Alright, here's the last thing.
Last glorious thing. 2 Timothy 2. 2nd Timothy 2 and I love this. 2nd Timothy 2 verse 13 says,
If we believe not, now this is what we believe. This right here
is what we believe because God chose us. And because God called us by
His grace, and this is the reason why we believe God chose us,
is because He called us by His grace. And it's because He put
faith in us to believe these things. But because He did all
that, because He caused us to most surely believe Him, we believe
that, verse 13 says, if we believe not, yet He abideth faithful,
he cannot deny himself." We believe that, don't we? Even if I am
so weak that I just can't and don't and won't believe Him,
if God chose me, the faith started with Him, the faith is going
to be performed by Him, and what He begun, He will finish. And if we believe not, He's faithful. He's faithful. Will He leave
me in a state of unbelief forever? No, He will not. He'll put it
in me. He'll make me believe. I love
the song that says, Arise, my soul, arise, shake off thy guilty
fears, the bleeding sacrifice on my behalf appears. He said
right here in verse 13, He cannot deny Himself. That song goes
on to say, The Father hears Him pray, His dear anointed one,
He cannot turn away the presence of His Son. Can't do it. His
Spirit answers to the blood. It's His blood. His Spirit answers
to His blood and then tells me I am born of God. And tells me
I'm born of God. We believe that, don't we? We
believe that. Thank God He called many. The
Gospel is such good news. Thank God He called many to take
these things in hand and set them forth in order, and He gave
us a heart to most surely believe it. Thank God. I want to sing
that song. Let's all stand and turn to 223.