All right, let's take our Bibles
and turn to the book of Luke. We're gonna start a new study
this morning, and we're gonna go through verse by verse through
the book of Luke. I want us to begin our study
this morning with the first four verses of chapter one in Luke. 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, 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 Theopolis. that
thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou
hast been instructed. It's my prayer that the Lord
will be pleased to bless the reading of His Word and also
the teaching of it this morning. I have three or four things I
want us to see as kind of an introductory into our study in
the book of Luke. And the first is this. The title. If you look in your Bible, it
should say the gospel according to Luke, or Saint Luke. There's four books of the Bible
with this same title, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. They all say right at the heading,
the gospel according to. And each one of these men were
selected of God to write the gospel of Jesus Christ and to
put it in order from the beginning, from his birth to his death to
his resurrection and ascension. And then there's one other title
to a book that's very similar, and that is the book of Revelation. It says the revelation of Jesus
Christ. And in this, John writes a summary
of all that these four gospels have said. And he also includes
the Old Testament types and pictures as you read through the book
of Revelations. Those things are not some new
thing, but those visions were already interpreted in the Old
Testament. They found the root of their
meaning back there. And he just uses them as he declares
these things unto us. Now I hope the Lord willing uncover
all kinds of things in this book as we come to them. There's all
kinds of mysteries, mysteries of the Gentiles, mysteries of
faith, mysteries of revelation, all kinds of mysteries as we
study this book. And we'll talk about whatever
subject that is set before us, whatever it is. If it's marriage,
if it's judgment, or whatever it is, we'll try to deal with
it as best we can. But always bear in mind that
it is the gospel testimony of God that we're looking at. This
is what this book is about. It's not about some future date.
It's not about some other economy. This is the gospel. This is the
gospel as it's being set before us. And what is the gospel? It's
a person, isn't it? It's the person of Jesus Christ.
And so this is what these four men stress to us all the way
through their teaching. Now the particular focus, you
remember in the book of Mark, I told you that this is Jehovah's
servant. That was his, as Mark set forth
his gospel, he set it forth emphasizing that Christ is Jehovah's servant. And all four of these gospel
writers, they all had something they were sitting for. And the focus of this one, the book
of Luke, is about the humanity of Christ. He's gonna emphasize
to us all the way through here about Christ's humanity. So as John shows us Christ as
the son of God, Luke shows us Christ as the son of man. And
we'll notice that as we go through the study. So this book is the
gospel testimony of God. God the Holy Ghost who inspired
this man to write just as he inspired Matthew and Mark and
John. Just never forget, I know this
is Luke writing these things, but it's God the Holy Ghost inspiring
him infallibly to write these things without error. And so
we're to receive them as the word of God. And then as I said, the gospel
is a person. And The point of these Gospels
is to prove to us beyond a shadow of doubt that Jesus of Nazareth
is the Christ. Is that important? Yeah, it's
important. Very important. If he's not the
Christ, we're still looking for the Christ. But if he's the Christ,
we don't need to look for another. You remember John sent out, John
the Baptist sent out his disciples, and they went out and they said,
John sent us over here to you, and they said, well, what'd John
want? He said, well, he said, art thou
the Christ, or do we look for another? Now, John didn't send
them out to him for information. John's the one who said, behold,
the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. He's
the one that pointed to Christ. He knew Christ when he was still
in his mother's womb and leaped for joy when he heard the news.
But this, he sent them disciples out for their information. Art
thou the Christ or do we look for another? No doubt those disciples
saw him in prison and said, well, you know, John's going down the
tubes and now what are we going to do? Because they were faithful
followers of John. And John wants them to follow
Christ. And so he sends them out there. And Christ said, you
go back and tell John what you saw and what you heard. The deaf
hear, the dead are raised, devils are cast out. You go tell John
what you saw and heard. Now know this. This is important to you. In
this day and time when people look to emotions and look to
their minds and look to what seems right and draw from everything
under the sun, it's important for me to make this known and
just keep repeating it and repeating it. There is no other source
of knowledge to draw from except the testimony of these men as
they've been confirmed of God. Now if you want to know what
that means, you can go over to Hebrews 2 and he'll tell you
what that means. They were confirmed with miracles
and wonders and signs which God did by them in the midst of all. And you say, well, what are these
tongues and miracles and healings and all this stuff we're hearing
about today? That's the figment of men's imagination is what
that is. God's Word is complete. There's
no other reason now for all of these things. It's already been
confirmed of God. He's not gonna keep reconfirming
and reconfirming. It's already been confirmed.
And the canon of Scripture's complete. So just keep that in
mind as we go through and study these things. In 1 John chapter
five and verse nine, it said, if we receive the witness of
men, and that's what this is, the witness of God is greater.
You'll see these men and their personalities, if you read and
study the scriptures enough, you'll be able to recognize Matthew's
character, and Luke's character, and Mark's character, and John's
character. Their character shines right
through into their writings. But they were all inspired of
God. And he said, if we receive the
witness of men, the witness of God is greater, for this is the
witness of God. Talking about the scriptures.
This is the witness of God, which he hath testified of his son. He that hath the son. That's
the very next verse there. He that hath the son hath life. He that hath not the son of God
hath not life. Now what is it to have the Son
of God? It's to have Him according to the testimony of these men. You can't have another Jesus.
Paul warns you about that in Galatians. It has to be this
one. This one he testifies of. So these men were called of God
to document the birth, the life, the death, the resurrection and
ascension of Jesus Christ to the throne of God. And these
four gospel writers make up the testimony of God concerning his
son. And Jesus of Nazareth has the
fulfillment of all that he had foretold of him throughout the
prophets, throughout the whole of the Old Testament. And whatever
else you may discover, it's primarily the gospel of Jesus Christ that
I'm trying to teach. And then secondly, I want us
to consider the writer, Luke, unlike all the other writers
of scripture, to the best of my knowledge, and I read everybody
I could get my hands on on this because it's something I never
knew. He was a Gentile. Luke was a Gentile. He is the
only Gentile in all of scripture who was inspired of God to write. Luke. Luke. He doesn't have a Jewish name.
He don't have a Jewish name. He has a Syrian name. And you won't find Luke listed
as an apostle. He was an evangelist. Same thing
with Mark. He was an evangelist. And most
believe that he was a freed man. That is, he was a slave before
the Romans took over. And then, as they took over,
he was freed for whatever reason. Some believe he was made a Jewish
proselyte. He heard the Jews and and believed
what he was hearing and become a Jewish proselyte and then was
converted under the Apostle Paul. He was freed and then these freed
men who seemed, under the Roman government, who seemed like they
shouldn't be doing these menial tasks. These men were like Daniel
and Meshach and Abednego. These men, the sovereign recognized
right away that these men had talents, these men had abilities.
They shouldn't be carrying water and slopping the hogs. These
men needed a position. They could be taught. And a lot
of these men under this condition were sent to school and most
believed that that was the case with Luke, that he was sent to
school to be a physician. And then if he was indeed, and
there's no scriptural, you're not gonna find a scriptural foundation
for what I'm telling you here without a lot of study and going
here and going there and reading these genealogies. Every time
a Jew is mentioned in a scripture, they give a short genealogy with
him. And I can show you that, but
I don't have time this morning to get into that. But at any
rate, he was trained to be a physician. And most believe he was converted
under the Apostle Paul, but whether or not this is true, he'd become
the constant companion of Paul and preached with Paul everywhere
he went. And no doubt he was influenced heavily under their
time together. And another thing, that he doesn't
have in common with some of the others is he wasn't an eyewitness
of these things. Did you notice that when we read
the first two verses of this? He wasn't, he said in verse two,
even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning
were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word. He was taught this.
He didn't see this, he was taught this. And he's called under divine
inspiration, the beloved physician, and no doubt he exercised his
gifts as he traveled with Paul into these places, and there
they ministered the gospel. There's three times that Luke's
name is mentioned in the scriptures. He mentions him in Colossians
4, and verse 14. He mentions him in 2 Timothy
4 and verse 11, and he mentions him in Philemon verse 24. All three times his name is mentioned,
it's mentioned by the Apostle Paul. So close were Paul and Luke and
so influenced under the ministry of Paul that their Linguists
that I read and studied under this said there's over 200 phrases
in Luke's writings that match perfectly with those of Paul.
Now that's how much one they become. Brother Henry told me one time,
I said, this was before he had his preacher school, I said,
how is a preacher prepared for this office? And he said, find
you a pastor that you got confidence in and crawl in his pocket. Stay
with him. Don't let him leave without you.
Any opportunity you get, you go. When he's teaching and telling
you something, just shut up and listen. Shut up and listen. Be a sponge. And I think it's a wonderful
thing, myself, that God would single out a Gentile, considering
the mystery of the Gentile being opened in the New Testament,
I think it's a wonderful thing that God would have one of his
witnesses to be a Gentile. Now, I ain't no doubt, once this
goes up online, I'm gonna get 40 letters telling me, well,
I don't even know what you're talking about. Well, open some
books and read, and you'll find out what I'm talking about. Think about that, a Gentile to
bear witness of the gospel of his son, which is now considered
to be the Christ of spiritual Israel. Spiritual Israel. So we've talked about the title,
the subject of the book, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And we've
talked a little bit about the writer of the book, which is
Luke, or Saint Luke, or Luke the beloved physician. And now
here is the preface. According to what I gathered
from verses one, there was many who had already
made an attempt to write these things. I mean, I've run into people
in my short time in the ministry who just said, I just feel impressed
to write these things and publish a book. Young men. One of them called me while we
were here. Nearest I can remember, we were
still at the old building or maybe in transition. It's right
about that time. Called me and told me these things.
It's a 19-year-old boy. And I said, well, you do whatever
you feel led to do. I don't know what God's telling
you or what he ain't telling you. But I said, I can tell you
this, at 19, I didn't have anything to write about. And if I were you, I'd just give
it some time. Give it some time. Give it some study. You couldn't
possibly learn enough in three years in your life to sit down
and write a book about these things. So according to what
I've gathered from these things, there were many who had begun
to write various things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, all kinds
of people. And all that he taught, and all
that he accomplished in his life, death, and resurrection, which
things, he said, are most surely believed among us. There's nothing trivial here.
Nothing that Luke's gonna write about that's trivial. These things
are most surely believed among us. I don't feel good or comfortable
with doctrinal divisions among churches. Doctrinal divisions
among believers that cannot ever seem to be resolved. I don't
feel good about it at all. We're told on many occasions
that our faith is common faith. That's what the scripture says,
like precious faith. He wouldn't call it like faith
if it was different, would he? It's the same. It's the same. I'm not around these guys very
much. There's some up there in West Virginia, and some down
in Tennessee, and one down in Florida, and some up there in
New Jersey. Kentucky, Montana, we're in agreement
about these things. We're not at odds about these
things. We believe the same things. In Ephesians 4, he says that
those who are separated by God to the ministry given to the
church by our ascended Lord are to edify. This is why he gave
them. This is he who said, all power
is given unto me in heaven and earth. Now you go preach. And
the first thing he did was he gave to the church evangelists
and pastor teachers. And he did it to edify the body
of Christ until we all come in the unity of the faith. There's that word again, the
unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God unto
a perfect man. What in the world's a perfect
man? That's that man in you that's being formed in you by what you
hear and what you believe. That perfect man is Christ. You're
not a perfect man, you're only perfect in him. By one offering, he hath perfected
forever them that he sanctified. And by the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ, you're sanctified once for all. And all of those
he sanctified are perfected in him. He said, till we all come into
the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God
unto a perfect man, or unto that perfect man, unto the measure
of the stature of the fullness of Christ. What Luke is about to write is
a declaration of those things which are most surely believed
among us. What's he gonna write about?
The incarnation of Christ, God come into the flesh. God and man and one glorious
person, Emmanuel. Isaiah spoke of him, Emmanuel,
God with us. And he's gonna He's gonna teach
us and declare to us something about the life of Christ. Now
you're gonna find this in the book of Luke only. You're gonna
find he's gonna shed some light on when Christ was just a child.
You won't find that in none of the other Gospels, just in Luke.
So he's gonna talk to us about the life of Christ. Jesus of Nazareth is the federal
head of the church And as our head, he is our representative. Now just follow me for a minute.
God has, by divine election, brought us into a covenant union
with his son. Everything that God requires
of the sinner, he's going to provide in the Savior. He's our
representative. When he kept the law, we kept
the law. When he died, we died. When he
raised, he raised us up with him. When he sat down, we're
seated with him in heaven. He put us in a covenant union
with his son. The life of Jesus Christ was
the life of perfect obedience from the cradle to the cross.
And what you need to do as you see him going forth is to put
yourself in his shoes, because in his shoes is where God puts
you. I in them, thou in me, that we
might be one. Now you ain't gonna find any
peace anywhere else, I'm telling you. And you're not gonna find
that peace till you learn who he is. And this is the whole
reason for the gospel testimonies of these four men, so that we
know who he is, why he came, what he did, where he's at. He's our righteousness. Paul
said, with the mind of Christ, I serve the law. There's no other
way to serve it. You try to serve the law on your
own, without Christ, and all you're gonna find is condemnation.
But in Christ, that law is perfectly honored and kept. And so Paul
said, with the mind, I myself serve the law of God. And then thirdly, he tells us
something of the humanity of Christ. Paul wrote in the book
of Hebrews, he's writing now to Jews. He knew he was a Jew. He understood how to think like
a Jew. And he wrote this book of Hebrews
to declare these spiritual things to him, and he said, every high
priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining
to God that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins. Now watch this, Hebrews 5.2. Who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that
are out of the way, for that he himself also is compassed
with infirmity. So also Christ glorified not
himself to be made a high priest, but he that said unto him, thou
art my son, today have I begotten thee. who in the days of his flesh,
when he had offered up prayers and supplications, with strong
crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death,
and he was heard in that he feared. Though he was a son, yet learned
he obedience by the things that he suffered, and being made perfect,
that is a perfect priest. Larry, one who's able to look
at you and you're in a bad way and you're praying to him, he
knows exactly where you're coming from. You heard that expression? Been there and done that. He
knows exactly what you're feeling, exactly what you're suffering.
And he can have compassion on you for that reason. That's why
God took his priest from among men. And that's why Christ had
to become a man. The purpose of this book is to
show us Christ and how he's our salvation and the necessity of
his coming, his obedience, and his sacrifice. His coming was
as much for God as it was for us. This whole generation's ignorant
of that. His coming was to set forth or
manifest the glory of God. This is God's whole reason for
even having a creation. It was for His glory. He's going
to manifest His glory in the salvation of sinners. How's He
going to do it? He's going to do it through the
incarnation of Christ. through his person and work.
I tell you, I love what this man preached. He preached this
years ago before I ever started pastoring. I thought it was the
keynote of that whole conference, and I've never forgotten the
message, there's a man in glory. And if there's one, maybe there
might be two. There's a man in glory. And because
there's a man up there, a representative man, then I have every reason
to have hope that I may too. I may too. His coming wasn't
just for us. Our sins must be paid for. We must have a righteousness
established, neither one of which we have any ability to do. But
Christ can. And Christ came according to
the scriptures. If he's not in perfect harmony
with the Christ set forth in the garden, in the flood, in
the early church, if he's not that same Jesus, then he's an
imposter. And then, also our Lord's resurrection
in Luke 24-44, He said unto them, These are the words which I spoke
to you, wise yet weak Now watch this, that in all things, that
all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law
of Moses and in the prophets and in the psalm concerning me. These things all have to be fulfilled.
And I'm the fulfillment of it. Then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures. And he said unto
them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoove Christ to suffer
and to rise from the dead the third day, and that repentance
and remission of sin should be preached in his name among all
nations, beginning at Jerusalem. And ye are witnesses of these
things. So this is what we're going to
be studying, the gospel. The gospel. And it's going to
be a gospel according to Luke the evangelist. And his testimony
as the servant of God, chosen to document these things. This is a man, verse 3, having
had a perfect understanding of all things from the very first,
and to whom these things were delivered, verse 2, from these
men who were eyewitnesses. And in closing, I'd mention this
one to whom he writes the gospel. I know you picked that up at
the very beginning. The most excellent Theopolis. Now Luke also wrote the book
of Acts. And most of the writers believe
that it was all one writing. And if you look at the book of
Acts, he takes up exactly where he left off in the book of Luke. He was told there to go to Jerusalem
and wait for power to be endued with power from on high, so he
goes to the book of Acts, and that's where he begins. But I would tell you this, this
most excellent theopolist, most believe he was a real person.
He's not mentioned anywhere in the scriptures that I can find,
but most believe that he was a real person. But whether he
was or not, the meaning of his name is the reason the Holy Ghost
had him inspired to write these things. most excellent lover
of God. That's what it means. He's writing
to the most excellent lover of God. He's writing to every lover
of God. And also it can mean this, beloved
of the Lord. How often does the Apostle Paul
use that term, beloved of the Lord? Huh? Most excellent Theophilus. And
I'm up here preaching. I preach to anybody that comes
in here, saved or lost. I preach to them. I preach to
them if they're looking and counting ceiling tile. I'm still gonna
preach to them. I'm gonna preach to them if they fold their hands
and stomp and go out the back door. I'm still gonna preach
to them. But what my heart desires and
the reason that I preach more than anything else is I know
that he has a people. And every one of them is going
to believe. And they're going to believe because they're going
to hear. And that's why we study these things. That's why I get
up here and preach to you every Sunday. All right. Thank you.