Good morning. Let's all stand together and sing hymn number 51. Hymn number 51. Find out in a minute. Praise the Savior, ye who know Him, who can tell how much we owe Him. Gladly let us render to Him all we are and have. Jesus is the name that charms us. He, for conflict, fits and harms us. Nothing moves and nothing harms us while we trust in Him. Trust in Him, ye Saints, forever. He is faithful, changing never. Neither force nor guile can sever those he loves from Him. Keep us, Lord, O keep us, cleaving to thyself and still believing. Till the hour of our receiving promise joys with thee. Then we shall be where we would be. Then we shall be what we should be. Things that are not, now nor could be, Soon shall be our own. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number 255. 255. ? Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine ? ? O what a foretaste of glory divine ? ? Heir of salvation, Purchase of God ? washed in His blood. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story. This is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, perfect delight, visions of rapture now burst on my sight. Angels descending, ring from above. Echoes of mercy, whispers of love. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior. all the day long. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, all is at rest. I in my Savior am happy and blessed. Watching and waiting, looking above. Filled with His goodness, lost in His love. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Luke, open your Bibles with me to Luke chapter 1. Luke chapter 1. Read the first four verses, because I'm going to start going through the book of Luke, and I want to have a couple of messages that will be introductions to it. Gospel according to Luke. BOOK CHAPTER I. 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, 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, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed." Our blessed, blessed God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, how grateful, thankful We are, that we can come into your presence, into the holiest of holies, by a new and living way, through our Lord Jesus Christ. We don't have to have a high priest on this earth to go in for us. We've got a great high priest sitting on his throne right now. one that can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, one who offered a sacrifice for us, one who himself is our altar, one him whose self is our God and our Savior. Lord, we come to bless you and to praise you. There's none like unto you. Of all the gods in this world, of all the gods of man's imagination, all the gods made out of stone, gold, wood. You're the God of the eternal God that dwells and inhabits eternity. The one true and living God who needs no image of him. You sent your son into this world who was the image of the invisible God. And we thank you that we saw him and we see him now by faith. And Lord, we pray that you'd cause the gospel to run well here today. that you'd cause the gospel to go forth in some power, go forth in some liberty, and go forth with effectualness that I know that every time we preach, it's a trail of life or trail of death. And so, Lord, let it be a trail of life, not of death. Please bring glory to yourself today. Save your people in this place. Encourage us, edify us, build us up. And our blessed Savior, remember our lost loved ones, sons and daughters, grandchildren, great-grandchildren. Lord, we need them. And keep our dear sisters safe on their journey home today. We ask these things in our blessed Savior's name. Amen. Let's all stand together and sing the hymn of the day in the bulletin. Though troubles assail and dangers surprise, though friends should all fail and foes all unite, This one thing secures us whatever be tide. His promise assures us the Lord will provide. The birds without barn or storehouse are fed. From them let us learn. to trust for our bread. His saints, what is needed, shall never be denied. So long as it is written, the Lord will provide. His call we obey like Abram of old. We know not the way, but faith makes us bold. For though we are strangers, we have a sure God. And know in all dangers, the Lord will provide. The strength of our own ? Your goodness we claim ? ? Our trust is all cast on His precious name ? ? In this our strong refuge for safety we hide ? ? The Lord is our refuge, the Lord will provide ? When life is most sore and death is in view The world of His grace will see us safe through Not fearing nor doubting with Christ on our side We hope to die shouting The Lord will provide. Be seated. Look back here with me in Luke chapter one. And by introduction, Let me say this, there are several reasons for us studying a book in the Bible. And we've been through several books I have over the years. The first reason is it allows us to approach the scriptures systematically and see how that the scriptures connect one to another, that they don't stand by themselves. And the second reason is we have to deal with the scriptures as we come to them. That's what I like about anything. We have to deal with what we're dealing with right in front of us. And what that means is it keeps us from getting trapped into a system of interpretation. And what I mean by that is there's a lot of people make the scriptures fit their view. When our view must accept the scriptures and bow to the scriptures. And let me illustrate that. There's people that preach water for salvation. Now you can't find water for salvation in the book of Luke. And then there's people that preach free will for salvation. You can't find free will when you go systematically through the Bible. Can't do it. And that's what's so wonderful about going through the scriptures. Our view has to bow to what God says. And that's why going through the Bible, verse by verse, and dealing with the issues that's in the scriptures, you come to them, you face them to where they are. And we listen to them and they talk to us where we are. Not where we'd like to be, not where we think we ought to be, and not like we'd like to be, but as we really are. And I love that about it. And the third thing it does, It allows us to see how different men wrote. You know, men wrote differently because God used men for one thing, and He has different personalities, and their personalities come up in the Scriptures. And they wrote often the same things, and all the Bibles verbally inspired. Every word of this book, God breathed it. There's not a word in it that shouldn't be in it. The Jews, they go through the Jots and the Tittles, but we go through the Bible, hopefully, by the Gospel. You know, there's four Gospels, four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, four Gospels, but there's only one theme, and that's Christ. That's Christ. Now I'm going to, you know, before I get into this, I'm going to read some things to you just to show you. I'm going to start in Matthew chapter 1 and then go to Mark chapter 1 and show you how that happens here. First of all, it says in the Gospel of Matthew, the very first verse says this, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. Starts out with Christ. Starts out with Christ. Mark chapter 1, verse 1, we just got through with this here recently. The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And we all know what John says, don't have to look over there. In the beginning, he starts in the beginning, that's what Mark did, in the beginning, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. John started this way, in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, the Word was God. The same was with Him in the beginning, and all things that were made were made by Him and for Him. So I mean, when I say that all the Gospels has one theme, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's what we're looking for. That's what we're looking for. And let me start this way, this here, back in Luke. The author of the gospel is Luke. Gospel of Luke. And he also wrote the book of Acts. Here he calls Theophilus. And that's what he says. He says, the treatise that I wrote unto you before, O excellent Theophilus, concerning Jesus Christ, who we were eyewitnesses of. You know, and he never names himself. He never names himself in this whole book. Never names himself. Other than using the first person singular in verse three. And he said, it seemed good to me also. That's the only time he mentions himself. Seemed good to me also. And he's mentioned by name. Luke is mentioned by name several times in the scriptures. He's mentioned in three places. Paul called him, in Colossians 4, he called him the beloved physician. Luke was a physician. He was a doctor. And 2 Timothy said, when Paul said, everybody forsook me, he said, only Luke. Demas haven't forsaken us, haven't forsaken me. Love this present evil world. Only Luke is with me. Nobody else is with me right now, only Luke. He talked about where everybody was and where they all went. He said, I ain't got but one person here with me that cares for me in the gospel I preach. Only Luke. Only Luke is with me. And then when he wrote to Philemon, he said, Lucas, my fellow laborer, my fellow laborer. So Luke is the one who wrote this. And when he says we, We, in the book of Acts, it's always mentioned we. And when he goes through the book of Acts, he says, we went here, we went there. And he was with Paul most of his journeys and with him while he was in prison. He stayed with him while he was in prison. And he addresses this gospel to the theophicists. So there in verse three of Luke chapter one, It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things, from the very first to right unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus." Theophilus, the word means lover of God. Oh, Theophilus, that man, that lover of God. That's what his names mean, Theophilus. Theo, that's God. Theology is the study of God, the science of God. means God. The first thing means God, Dio. And he's Theophilus, a lover of God. And oh, my. And I'll tell you, his Gospel, this Gospel here, emphasizes the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ, his humanity. His being a man called the Son of Man, and why he's talked about in his humanity is to identify with us in his humanity. He's the son of man in places he called the son of God, and he's presented to us as our high priest who can be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. You know, everybody says the gospel according to Matthew, the gospel according to Mark, the Gospel according to Luke, the Gospel according to John. And this Gospel emphasizes the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ. And all of them have a different emphasis, all of them. Matthew is about the King, the Lord Jesus Christ. Mark was about his miracle working. John is about his deity. He reveals Christ as God manifest in the flesh. Here he talks about his humanity, and a perfect humanity, a sinless humanity. And the only reason God had Christ in his humanity was to identify with us. Identify with us. If God had not made him man, and sent him into this world, to represent us and to be with us, then there'd be no hope for us. If he wasn't perfect man, perfect humanity, and I believe this with all my heart, that our Lord Jesus Christ, people say he could have sinned. I say there's no way in the world he could have sinned. If he could have sinned then, he could sin now. If he could ascend in his humanity, he can ascend now because they still got his humanity with him in heaven. He's God and man. When we get to heaven, there's a man sitting on the throne and he's got the evidence in his body that he was on this earth and he was crucified. When John saw him, he said, I saw him as a lamb as it had been had been slain. And so our Lord, when He sits on His throne, as you know, old Herman Moore, years ago, he used to pastor over there where Tim James is at, and Tim's been there as long as I have, a little longer maybe. But anyway, to make a long story short, he preached to man, there's a man in glory one time, and I sure would love to find it because I heard it one time, but I can't find it anymore. But there is a man in glory. a sinless man, a perfect man, a high priest man, the God man. And when we get there, we're not gonna see a spirit, we're gonna see a man. A man's gonna sit down at the head of the table and he's gonna feed us and make a marriage for us and feed every one of his children. He's got a table big enough to feed all of us and it's called the marriage supper of the lamb. We had a wedding yesterday and the wedding party come in and they ate. Well, we're going to go to a wedding party one of these days and Christ himself is going to sit at the head of the table and he's going to get, we live on the living bread now. We don't live on the bread of this earth. When he said, give us this day, this daily bread, give us the bread of Christ. If any man hunger or thirst, We hunger after the bread of Christ. If any man is thirst, do you know where our water is? Not this right here, the water of life. He's our bread. He's our water. He's our light. And how we know that? Because he came and had perfect humanity, and Luke deals with his humanity. Bless his name. Oh, bless the Lord's name. There's many, many precious things recorded in Luke that aren't recorded in any of the other Gospels. There's no, not recorded in the other Gospels. First of all, there's the history of Zacharias. He was a high priest, and you remember, and Zacharias was in the temple, and his wife Elizabeth was the first cousin to Mary. And so she went up, when Mary received the announcement that she was going to have a child, she went up to be with her sister Elizabeth, with her niece, with her sister-cousin Elizabeth. I'll get it right in a minute. And when she heard about the Lord Jesus Christ coming, the babe, John the Baptist, Zacharias and Elizabeth, is the mother and father of John the Baptist, the forerunner of our Lord Jesus Christ. And when she went up there, when she mentions, she said, and this is what she said to Mary before she knew what was going. How can this the mother of my Lord come here and the babe leaped in his mother's womb and was filled with the Holy Ghost from his, in that womb. You tell me how that happens with God. Nothing is impossible. With man, nothing's possible. With God, nothing's impossible. And then there's when the angels announced to Mary that she's gonna have a child. Gabriel's the one that was sent to Zacharias. Gabriel was the one that was sent to Mary. And Gabriel was the one who come and told Mary, said, listen, you're gonna have a baby. How can this be? How can this possibly be? Well, the angel told her. That's the only place it is, the announcement. Angels announced to Mary, a virgin, that she's gonna bear a child. And this covers the whole first two chapters. Zacharias and Elizabeth and Mary and what happens in those people's lives. Forget their whole history, right there in those first two chapters. I'll tell you something else that's only in the book of Luke. And that's the conversion of Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus not mentioned no place else in the Bible. He was a little bitty man. Everybody knows that. He got up in a tree. And this is where our Lord says, call him by name. Call him by name. He said, but I call all my sheep by name. He said, I know my sheep. And all my sheep know me. But he said, Zacchaeus, come down. And he came down, and I love this right here. Our Lord told him, he said, today, not tomorrow, not sometime in the future, today, I must abide at thy house, for salvation is come to you today. Maybe today will be the day of your salvation. Wouldn't it be something that today would be the day of your salvation? That was the day that Zacchaeus was. I'm coming home with you, Zacchaeus. And I tell you what, and Zacchaeus, when he came down, our Lord Jesus Christ, he was saved that moment, and Christ went in his house with him. Oh my. And then there's the, you know, the walk to Emmaus. No place else in the Bible is that mentioned. Our Lord Jesus Christ, after his resurrection, he was walking with two disciples. I know that Simon Peter was one of them. And he walked with them. And oh my, what a conversation they had. The road on Damascus, the walk to Emmaus. And oh, what a conversation took place that day. I've got a message, I believe I preached years and years ago, that what was the message of Christ? Christ preached Himself. When He was on the road to Emmaus, you know what He preached to them? He preached to them His life, His death, His burial, His resurrection, and now He said, all that happened to me, and it happened to me for one reason, to save your sinful souls and to me to go back into my glory which I had with my father before the world was. And there's something else that's only in the book of Luke. That's the parable of the Pharisee and the publican. And old Scott Richardson used to say all the time, either a man's bragging or begging. And then that parable of the Pharisee and the publican, the Pharisee was bragging. bragging about himself and all of his accomplishments. The publican, he didn't have anything to say. He looked at God and closed his eyes and bowed his head and beat on his heart and said, oh God, oh Lord, be merciful to me, me. I'm the sinner. He didn't say I'm a sinner, he said I'm the sinner. wouldn't lift up his eyes. He said, Oh Lord, this is where my problem is in my heart. Men have a heart trouble. You know, people go to the doctors and they do have heart issues. I understand that. And they have weak hearts, hearts out of rhythm, enlarged hearts and arteries and have to have a heart surgery. But man's physical heart is not his problem. His natural heart is his problem. The heart, not the one that beats in you, but that heart that makes you, you. My son, give me your heart. He's not talking about this heart. He's talking about, give me your affections. Give me your soul. Give me your life. Turn it over to me. Give it to me. Our Lord talked about, you know, from within out of the heart. You know what comes out of a man's heart? First thing he said was evil thoughts. Then adultery. Then fornication. Lying. Cubbishness. All these things come from within, out of the heart. And that's why God said, I'll give unto them a new heart. A new heart. And that's what a man has to have. He's got to have a new one. That old one, these preachers go around and say, give Jesus your heart. He wouldn't have it. He don't want it. He don't want your heart, not the way it is. He don't want your heart, you can't give it to him. Let Jesus into your heart. I read something the other day, oh my, that I know these people. They mentioned about, you know, I got saved when I was just a young girl, and then I lived in the world. lived in sin. But I heard my son, he was baptized, got saved and was baptized. My daughter-in-law was saved and was baptized. So I renewed up, I went myself and gave myself back to Jesus. And he said, listen, if the Lord knocks on your heart's door, let him in. She put that out in public. I'm going to tell you something. When God saves a sinner, he takes his... I don't know how else to say it. He takes his arm. My arm, right arm, breaks salvation, God said. He takes his right arm, and he, boom! He breaks in on you, and once he breaks in on you, you're the thankfulest person who ever lived, and you'll always be thankful, Hebrews. I'll tell you what. He said, I have other sheep which almost what have to do to them? Bring them. If you come, he got to bring you. I love that. I love the gospel. It tells us that. Me and my sweet wife was talking about this morning that if salvation was any other way than Christ, and by grace, and where God gets all the glory, there would be no salvation for anybody. And I'll tell you something, God has fixed salvation in such a way that He gets all the glory. He does not get nothing from us. He just does nothing but give to us. We worship Him, we adore Him, we call on Him, we trust Him, But He has to be the one to save us. He has to be the one to keep us saved. And if we go to glory, He has to be the one to take us all the way to glory. And He got to open the door and let us in. If He took us right to within an inch, a half an inch of getting into heaven and said, now you take that last heavy step, we couldn't do it. Now that's why God gives all the glory. This is the difference between people who don't know anything about the grace of God. And I'm thankful. I tell you, if God hadn't revealed this to me, I wouldn't know it either. Had not God set me apart and taught me these things, I wouldn't know them either. I'd be just as lost as anybody else. But here's the thing, that most men preach, man way up here, Man by nature looks for a reward. He looks to be paid for what he's done. He looks because he thinks because he's a good person or something like that, that God owes him something. He's going to get rewarded for what he does in this world. Like Larry said the other day, he said this is a natural religion in what man believes most people in this world, in most churches, it's as natural as breathing. It's a natural religion. Man wants to be rewarded for what he's done. I've been a good person all my life. I'm glad for you. But it's not the goodness of man that saves him, it's the goodness of God that leads a man to repentance. And I tell you, man can preach men up as high as he wants to. But what the difference is, We preach God way, way high. We can't preach Him high enough. Can't preach Him sovereign enough. Can't preach Him powerful enough. And give Him all the glory. He done all the saving. I heard Henry say one time, he said, reward for what? What did you do? What do you need a reward for? God done the saving. He saved you. You didn't save yourself. He opened your heart, you didn't do it. He opened your mind, you didn't do it. He gave you the grace, you didn't have it. You gave your faith, you didn't have it. He gave you repentance, you didn't have it. You know what you got? Same thing I got, zero without Christ. But with Christ, that's why it says He's all in all. Oh my. And I'll tell you what, then there's the, here's another thing that we find only in Luke. There's the rich man and Lazarus. That rich man who fared sumptuously every day. Fared sumptuously every day. And there's a poor old man He had dogs. He sat by that rich man's gate, and he had sores, and the dogs licked them. You know, we got dogs, and I get scratched all the time and have blood on me or something, and the first thing them dogs wants to do is find that sore and lick on it. That's what dogs do. They'll find the sore and go licking on it. And that's what Lazarus was. Here's some old manger mongrel dogs licking on him. But God made a difference in those two men. Showing you that the world absolutely has nothing to offer. Wealth can do not save you. There's Lazarus. Nothing. Had nothing. That's the one God saved. The man who had nothing. And when a man has nothing, God's gotta make him that way. Christ will save him. Christ will save him. And then here's another one that's only in the book of Luke, the prodigal son. Everybody knows about the prodigal son. How many prodigal sons are in here? And this is what I love about the prodigal son more than anything else, is that the father was standing up on the roof watching for him. The father went down to the house. Well, he'll make it back one of these days. No, the father was up on the roof looking, looking, looking. And he saw him coming. And you know what it says? That the father ran, ran to meet him. Put his arms around that boy. And kissed him, and kissed him, and kissed him. Oh, kissed the son lest he be angry. His father saw him and he ran to him. Ran to him. Oh my, you think God is not ready and willing to save a sinner? And I believe that's what he did for me. I believe he came to where I was and embraced me. when I was lost as a goose in a snowstorm. Oh, I tell you, he came to me. I didn't come to him, he came to me. And once he came to me, I ain't got over it yet. I ain't got, I'm 75 years old, and I've known something about Christ and the gospel for all these years, but I tell you one thing, I ain't got over it. It still is just as alive and vital to me as it was the day God opened his heart to me, opened my heart to him. Oh my, that's just, it's the most, it's the most wondrous thing that's ever happened to a soul on this earth. For God to come where you are and do for you what you cannot possibly ever do for yourself. Not one moment of your whole life could you not do anything. Oh my. And all Bible readers, all Bible readers and believers are thankful for these precious, precious truths contained in them. And then he called the gospel according to Saint Luke. And you know all the gospels addressed that way. The Gospel of Matthew, the Gospel of John, doesn't mention that. And what is a gospel? Well, here in verse 3, Luke explains how and why he wrote his gospel. Look what he said here in verse 3. It seemed good to me also, it seemed good to me also, having to No, look what he said in verse one. No, excuse me, I'm sorry. It's a certain type of writing. He said in verse one, for as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order. Did you notice that? As many have taken in hand. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. All these took in hand to write, to write. And the gospel is a certain type of writing. Many have taken hand to set forth in order. And there's what they call the synoptic Gospels. That means there's so many things in them that's different than the rest of them. And thank God for these Gospels because they tell us the history of our Lord Jesus Christ coming, His living, His dying, His resurrection, and His ascension. That's what these Gospels tell us about. And the gospel is a count of something, given a count of something. Well, I just read to you, Matthew is the beginning of the book of generation, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ. And you know, in that book of the generation, I know I'm taking too long, but listen, in that book of the generation of Jesus Christ, everybody in that book of generation of Jesus Christ lives, live, live, alive. Every one of them's got a life. Every one of them is in the genealogy of Christ. You go back over in Genesis, In chapter 5, it says, the book of the generation of Adam. Die, die, die, die, die. The book of generation of Jesus Christ, life, life, life. Mark said the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Oh, my. And the gospel gives us account of something. Look what he says here in verse 1 again. It's a declaration of those things which we most surely believed. He said, I'm declaring the things we most surely believe. What do you mean most surely believe? Well, I think I believe them. I hope I believe them. No, no. He said the things we most surely believe. And it's a declaration. One thing that I, people sometimes think about, we need to have a Bible, you know, people get together and have a Bible study. But what I know most about Bible studies is when people get together and have a Bible study, is that what they end up doing is everybody giving their opinion. And everybody's allowed to talk. He said, hear a declaration. Paul said, I declare unto you the gospel which I received. The gospel's a declaration, it's not a debate. It's not something to argue about. We declare. And that's what he said. It's a declaration of the things which surely, surely we believe. We believe these things. And all the gospel is an account of Christ's glorious person. Oh, what a person he was. What a person he was. The moment he was born, he was the Lord of glory. And all gives an account of his life. the life he lived in this world, and the times in which he lived. The times, oh my, the times in which he lived. And when you read it from beginning, the first chapter's got 80 verses in it. These verses, these chapters are very long in here. But try to read them, you know, you try to read a little bit next week before you come again. The gospel, You read it from beginning to end, it gives a connected account of our Lord's humanity in this world. And it begins in Jerusalem, and it ends in Jerusalem. Begins in Jerusalem, ends in Jerusalem. And a gospel is about things that have been fulfilled. Ain't that what he said here in verse 1 again? A declaration of those things. a declaration of things. And when he talks about things, things that's already been accomplished. These are things he's talking in the past tense. He's talking and telling a purpose, God's purpose, that's been carried out in time, carried out in the life of Christ. It is God's purpose promised in the Old Testament scriptures concerning the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. It starts, look over in verse 27, excuse me, 26 and 27 of chapter 1. And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph. Of the house of David, the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee, blessed art thou. And the angel said, in verse 30, Fear not, for thou hast been favoured with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, verse 31, and bring forth a son, and I'll tell you what you're going to call him, Jesus, Jehovah's Saviour. That's what that means. Now look how it ends. Look in Luke chapter 23 and look how it ends. Excuse me, 24 and see how it ends. Luke 24. It opens up with his birth. And then Luke 24. And look how it ends up. Talked about his coming. Now look what it says here in verse 50. And he led them out. as far as to Bethany, and he lifted up his hands and blessed them. And it came to pass, while he blessed them, he was parted from them and carried up into heaven. He came down from heaven in the womb of a virgin. And here he goes right back where he started. And listen to this, I love this verse here. And they worshipped him and returned to Jerusalem with great joy. Oh, my. And I'll tell you something else about the Gospel. Back over in our text, if you will. I hope I'm not worrying you out. The Gospel is based on first-hand reports, first-hand reports of those who knew our Lord from the beginning. Ain't that what he says down here in verse 2 of chapter 1? Even as they delivered them unto us, the things that we've been taught, we were eyewitness from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word. Paul said he was an eyewitness. John said he was an eyewitness. He said, I'm an eyewitness. I saw with my eyes. I saw Christ. I saw what he did. I saw the things he said. I was an eyewitness of what all went on in his life. And oh, they listened, they listened. And that's why they said, the most surely believed among us, they were delivered unto us. They listened to what Christ said, paid attention to what Christ said. And I tell you, they're very, very careful and took pains, took pains to be accurate about the truth about Christ. And that's why he said, I write unto thee in order. In order, in order. And oh my, and this is my last thing. You know why there's a gospel written, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John? Why Acts was written. These eyewitnesses, these things that was said in order, the things concerning Christ. A gospel is written that sinners, sinners like ourselves, can have a well-grounded faith in God who sent his son to save us. I mean a well-grounded foundation, well-grounded faith in God who sent his son. And oh, my, a well-grounded faith. You know, I'm going out to Montana the last of the month, And there's a fellow who used to be out there, John Mitchell. He went out there and started preaching to three or four people. And when he got out there, some of the people that was there, they left. But he stayed right there and was faithful to Christ, faithful to the gospel. And now there's a great, great work out there called New Testament Baptist Church. Moose Parks is out there pastoring now. But those folks met every Sunday when they didn't even have a preacher, but every Sunday to read the scriptures and to pray. And you're talking about a well-taught congregation, well, well-taught congregation. And like Scott Richardson, where he was, and where Henry May, those folks have a well-grounded foundation. And you get it through the preaching of the gospel. That's how it's done. And it's written for sinners that we could have it. And the things that written are real. They're real. They're real. It's reality. Real life facts. Facts about Christ. Not suppositions. Not theory, not philosophy. Facts about our Lord's life. The things He did. The things He said. His death. And what He accomplished by His death. And oh, how it was accomplished. His resurrection, His facts. His ascension, they stood and watched Him go up. And then look what he said in verse four. And then I'm done. That thou mightest know the certainty. That thou mightest know the certain certainty of those things wherein I've taught you. You've been instructed. Been instructed. And that's what I've done today. I've done a little instructing. A little instructing. And as we read the Gospels, the Gospel of Luke, it will reveal to our minds and hearts the true things concerning our Lord Jesus Christ, increase our knowledge of Him. And hopefully, while we go through this, we'll be like them on the Timaeus Road and say, did not our hearts burn within us? Did not our hearts burn within us? Our Father, thank you for the day. Thank you for your gospel. Thank you for the truth. And Lord, I pray that you would make the word effectual, make it powerful, make it true, make it alive and vital. I know you do to your people, but oh, Lord, those who don't know you, those who never bowed the heart, those who don't know what it is to know what it is to be saved by the grace of God, to know what it is to be loved by Christ, to know what it is to be cleansed from sin. So, Lord, we pray that you'd cause these things to happen and you do it for your glory, for your glory, for your glory. Blessed be your name. Amen. Come in saying to God, be the glory. When this is over, you'll be at liberty to go. What is that, 490? What? 449. OK. Let's stand together and sing hymn number? 449. 449. And when this is over, you'll be at liberty to go. To God be the glory, great things he hath done. So loved he the world that he gave us his Son. who yielded his life and atonement for sin, and opened the life gate that all may go in. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Let the earth hear his voice. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. ? Let the people rejoice ? ? O come to the Father ? ? Through Jesus the Son ? ? And give him the glory ? ? Great things he hath done ? ? O perfect redemption ? ? The purchase of blood ? ? To every believer the promise of God ? The vilest offender who truly believes ? That moment from Jesus a pardon receives ? Praise the Lord, praise the Lord Let the earth hear his voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord. Let the people rejoice. O come to the Father, through Jesus the Son, and give him the glory, great things he hath done. Great things He hath taught us, great things He hath done, and greater rejoicing through Jesus the Son. But purer and higher and greater will be Our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the earth hear his voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, let the people rejoice. ? O come to the Father ? Through Jesus the Son ? And give Him the glory ? Great things He hath done Let me mention this. If God does something for you and you feel like He has, and you wanna confess your faith in Christ, you know how you do it, you come to me, Tell me you want to be baptized and you just stand up and tell the congregation, I want to be identified with Christ, I want you to baptize me. That's how a confession of faith is in Christ. It's not coming to the front and making a big talk or nothing. It's coming to and saying, I want to confess Christ by believer's baptism. That's why it's done. All right, we'll see you Wednesday.