I've entitled the message for
this evening, The Beloved Physician. Surely this could be a name and
a description of our Lord Jesus Christ. I love that verse of
scripture where he says, the whole need not a physician, but
they that are sick. What a name of our Lord. But
Paul is referring to Luke. the author of the book of Luke
and the author of the Acts of the Apostles. He was someone
who accompanied Paul on several of his missionary journeys, and
he gave, when he gave a narrative of the Acts, quite often he used
the word we as being with Paul. Let me give you an example. In
Acts chapter 16, verse 9, a vision appeared to Paul in the night.
There stood a man of Macedonia and prayed him saying, come over
into Macedonia and help us. And after he had seen the vision,
immediately we endeavored to go unto Macedonia, surely gathering
that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel to them.
So we see that Luke was actually a traveling companion with the
apostle Paul. And he really was a physician.
It's not just a title. From what I have read, he described
things in his writings that only a trained physician could describe. And he was a very educated man,
and that is seen in his style of writing. And quite often when
Luke is reporting the facts, he gives his commentary. I love
the way he does this. For instance, he was speaking
of Paul and Thessalonica, and he said certain lewd fellows
of the baser sort gathered a company and set all the city on an uproar.
And then when he spoke of Paul being questioned by the Athenians,
he made this commentary on the Athenians themselves. He said,
for all the Athenians and strangers which were there spent their
time and nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. I love the way he makes those
comments as he is giving us the narrative. His personality comes
out in his writings and well, his personality should come out
in his writings. So does Paul, so does John, so
does Peter, so does Jane. Men wrote the Bible inspired
by God. But God worked through these
men's personalities to communicate the gospel. And he is called
the Beloved Physician. Don't you love that name? He
was beloved of God. God loved this man. He was beloved
of Paul. He was a dear friend of Paul.
As a matter of fact, when you read in 2 Timothy, After many
had defected from Paul, including Demas, who he speaks of here,
he later on says, Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present
world. Lord willing, that's what we're going to consider next
week, Demas. But here he says, only Luke is with me. Everybody
else has left me. Only Luke is with me. Now, Luke is also beloved to
me and you. a brother who was used by God
to write scripture. And I feel like I know him. I
love Luke. I look forward to meeting him
one day. Now, what I want us to do is
look at Luke's introduction to the gospel of Luke and his introduction
to the book of Acts. And we're going to see why he
was called the beloved physician. Now, would you turn with me to
Luke chapter one? Verse 1. 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. This is a reference to the apostles.
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 name means lover of God, that
thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou
hast been instructed. Now, I love his language. He
says, I want to set forth in order, in an orderly, clear fashion,
a declaration. Literally, a narrative. A narrative. You know, we've got a story to
tell. It's not just spitting out some facts. We have a story
to tell. And old Luke knows how to tell
the story. a narrative of those things which
are most surely believed among us. And he's speaking as a spokesman
for every believer when he speaks of those things which are most
surely believed among us, things that we're persuaded of, things
that we really believe. Now, when I think of the things
that are most surely believed among us, I know where I have
to begin. It's that the Bible is God's
inspired word. That's what the Bible claims.
All scripture is given by inspiration of God. That's the Bible's claim
for itself. The prophecy came not in old
time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake as they
were moved by the Holy Ghost. Now, if we don't begin here,
what do we have? We have my opinion. We have our
denominational distinction. We have what our church believes.
We've got your opinion. What good is that? Do you even
care? You know, I was telling the man
in the back, I've received a letter three times from somebody from
Boston School of Theology or something like that in the last
couple of weeks. He keeps sending me this form he wants me to fill
out where he's interviewing people where they give their take on
religious experience. What's your experience? What's
your experience? And I'm going to write him back. I'm going
to say, I don't care about anybody's experience. I care about what the Word of
God says. That's what I care about. God's Word. This is the inspired, infallible
Word of God. And all we believe comes from
this book. Anything contrary to this book
is wrong. And we must begin here. We must
begin here because we have to have an authoritative revelation. And if we don't have that, what
are we left with? My thoughts, your thoughts, here's
what I think, here's what you think. And that's not going to
do anybody any good at all. Now, can I prove the Bible is
the Word of God? No. Do I feel any need to prove
that the Bible is the Word of God? No. Do I really believe
the Bible is the Word of God? Yes. Yes. I've been persuaded. The Lord's
persuaded me, but I've been persuaded. I surely, this is the thing that's
most surely believed among us, we've got to begin here, that
the Bible is the Word of God, and we most surely believe that
God is as the Bible presents Him to be. That's what we surely
believe. I don't want to come up with
some man-made system of doctrine. Oh, I want to be so scriptural
when I talk about this. We most surely believe that God
is as the Bible describes Him to be. That's why we believe
the Trinity. Somebody says, well, the word
Trinity is not in the Bible. I know it's not, but the doctrine of
the Trinity surely is there. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. One God in three distinct persons. It's in the very first chapter
of Genesis. The Trinity. We believe this Trinity is this
one God who is revealed in three persons is as the Bible describes
him to be. According to the Bible, he's
the creator. He spaked this world into existence.
He's holy. You know what that means? It
means He's not like me and you. That's exactly what that means.
Somebody once said the best definition of holy is other. Other. I like that definition, don't
you? Other. He's sovereign. That means His
will is always done. The Lord doeth according to His
will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth and none can stay His hand or say unto Him, what doest
thou? Give an account for yourself
as if He answers to us. He is absolutely, immutably sovereign. He's absolutely just according
to the Scriptures. Judgment and justice are the
habitation of thy throne. You know what that means? That
means all sin will be punished. You can just write that down.
All sin will be punished. He's independent. I love thinking
of His independence, don't you? That means He doesn't need me
or you. He's in need of nothing. He's
immutable. He never changes. I am the Lord,
I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are
not consumed. He's eternal. He never had a
beginning. That blows my mind, doesn't it,
yours? I mean, I can't even grasp that
concept. He never had a beginning. He'll
never end. He's absolutely eternal. And
He's omnipotent. That means whatever He wills,
He has the power to make it come to pass. He's omniscient. He's never learned anything.
He's never been informed of anything. He knows all. He's omnipresent. You can't go anywhere where he's
not. He's always there. He's faithful. That's who he
is. We believe, we most surely believe,
that God is, as the Bible, as this authoritative revelation
that He has given us, tells us He is. We couldn't know Him apart
from what He tells us in His Word. These are not just things
we figure out logically. It's what we believe from the
Scriptures. Now, we also, what is most surely
believed among us, is we believe that man is as the Bible says
he is, both by way of nature and by way of grace. And what
do I mean by that? Well, how is man by nature? Well,
Adam fell. You and I fell in him. He became
dead in sins. You and I are born dead in sins
without the ability to do anything but sin. That's what the Bible
says. Genesis chapter 6 verse 5, And
God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and
that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only
evil continually. Now that's God's testimony of
man by nature. There is none righteous, no,
not one. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. If God leaves mere you to ourselves,
we'll never seek him, we'll never call on his name, we'll never
ask for mercy. If God doesn't do something for
us, we'll continue to go away from him. Now that's what man
is by nature, totally dependent upon the grace of God. But I
don't in any way want to leave out what man is by grace. He's
a new man. He's a new creature. I've got
a heart that I didn't have before. David said, creating me a clean
heart. I got a new heart. It's the inner man, what I am
by grace. Now, by grace, I'm two men. I'm the old man. I'm painfully
aware of it. He's still there. But I'm also
the new man, the new man that loves God as he's revealed in
his word, that loves his gospel, that loves his people. I'm a
new man by grace. by grace, but I'm a new man,
and I would not dare want to take away from the importance
of that. Yes, by nature, I'm nothing but sin, but that new
man created in Christ Jesus into good works does not even sin. Now, can I explain that? Not
on your life. I know it's what the Bible says.
Whoso abideth in him sinneth not. Now, do I ever see where
I'm not sinning? Well, I did good on that one.
No, I never see that. I never see that. The only way
I know that is by faith, that I have a new man that God has
given me that looks to Christ. But we believe, this is what
we surely believe, we surely believe that man is, as the Bible
says him to be, both by nature and by grace. And beloved, God tells us that this man is
poor in spirit, and he mourns over his sin, and he's meek before
God. And he hungers and he thirsts
after righteousness. And he's merciful. He knows something
about the mercy of God. And he's pure in heart, given
a new heart, that heart that's the gift of God's grace, the
product of God in regeneration. And he's a peacemaker. and he's
persecuted for righteousness sake. That's the new man in Christ
Jesus. And we believe salvation to be
as the Bible describes salvation. Now I've already talked about
God being one God in three distinct persons. God the Father elects. God the Son redeems. God the Holy Spirit regenerates. That's biblical salvation. That's
Trinitarian salvation. God the Father, before time began,
chose who would be saved. According as He has chosen us
in Him, before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him. God the Son redeemed those
the Father gave Him. And God the Holy Spirit invincibly
and irresistibly calls those God the Father elected and God
the Son redeemed by invincible grace and causes them to come
to the Lord Jesus Christ. Aren't you glad He caused you
to come to the Lord Jesus Christ? I wouldn't want it to be any
other way. I love being caused by His grace. We believe salvation
to be as The Bible describes it. You know,
salvation's by God's justice. He's made a way to be just and
justify him that which believeth in Jesus. It's by his grace.
Salvation's by grace. That's what the Bible says. Salvation
comes by the blood of Christ. Salvation comes by faith. We
really do believe. Now, let's go on reading verse
two. He talked about this narration
of those things which are most surely believed among us. Verse
2, even as they delivered them unto us, which from the beginning
were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word. He's talking about
the apostles. 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." Now, what's Luke talking about when he says,
I've had a perfect understanding of all things from the beginning?
Now, all he means by that, and here's what the word means, I've
traced. I've traced, I've traced what
they said. I feel comfortable with that, don't you? Somebody
that traces exactly what God said from his word, and that's
what he means when he says, I have this perfect understanding. I've
traced what those eyewitnesses have said. Now, notice how he
says in verse four, that thou mightest know the certainty of
those things wherein thou hast been instructed." This was Luke's
desire for Theophilus. He wanted him to know the certainty.
Now, that word certainty comes from the word which means safety. Safety. I think of what Paul
said to the Philippians, to write the same things to you. to me indeed is not grievous,
it's not irksome, but for you it is safe, that you might know
the certainty and the safety of those things wherein thou
hast been instructed." Now, Paul said it's not grievous to me
to write the same things to you. One of the most challenging and
in some ways intimidating and difficult things about preaching
the gospel is to preach it in such a way where it's always
fresh and it's always new and it's always powerful so that
when you hear it, it's like you're hearing it for the first time
over and over again. Every time we hear the gospel,
We ought to hear it as if it's the first time we've ever heard
it, and it comes to us as good news. Now, the greatest challenge
of preaching, as a matter of fact, it's impossible unless
the Lord causes it, is to preach to the same faces over and over
again. Some of you, you know, some of
you have heard me 5,000 times. 5,000 times. Now that's a lot. That's a lot. And to be able
to present the gospel, the same things, the same things in a
fresh and new perspective, in a powerful way. Now you think
about how difficult that is, so pray for me that I'll be enabled
to do that, and pray for yourselves that you'll be able to hear.
Like the first time you've ever heard, not as a critic, not to
be entertained, but you're here to be fed, hungering and thirsting
after the Word of God. You come in, Lord, speak to me.
Speak from your Word. Now, the reputation of the truth
is not grievous. It's thrilling. Tell me one more time. how God
can have something to do with somebody like me. Tell me one
more time how God can be just and yet justify somebody like
me where I'm without sin and not guilty before Him. Tell me
one more time how free the grace of God is. You see, I need to
hear over and over and over again because I forget so quick. you do too. That's why we need
to hear the gospel over and over again. Now, I need to hear the
gospel preached over and over again because it's certain and
it's safe. Now, what is it that I am utterly
certain of? that I can speak with such conviction
and certainty. And that's what Luke wanted to
bring his hearers to the place of, to where they would be certain
of this. Now, of this I'm certain. If salvation is in any way dependent
upon me, I will not be saved. I am dead certain of that. If salvation is dependent upon
me doing anything before I can be saved, I will not be saved. Now I am dead certain of that. If Christ doesn't do it all for
me, I will not be saved. Are you certain of that? Is that
burned into your heart to where you really believe it? The certainty
And of this I am certain, that salvation is of the Lord. There is such a thing as salvation.
And this salvation, God's salvation, is of the Lord. It's of the Lord in its planning.
God purposed salvation before time began. He purposed who would
be saved before time began. God's eternal. He dwells outside
of time. Man and God are all of His works
from the beginning. And the Scripture actually says
in Hebrews 4.3 that the works were finished from the foundation
of the world. Now, do I understand that? No.
I don't understand how everything can be finished before it ever
happened. But do I believe it? Absolutely. You see, it's who
God is. It's what He declares in His
Word. Salvation is of the Lord in its execution. That means
no one helped Him. There wasn't a co-operative effort
between God and man. Hebrews 1.3 says he by himself
purged our sins. No help from me, no help from
you. He did it all. And salvation
is of the Lord in its planning, in its execution, and in its
application. He applies it. What do I mean
by that? Well, listen to this scripture,
John 1.12 and 13, but as many as received him. To them gave
he the power to become the sons of God, even to them which believe
on his name. Which were born, not of blood. You won't be saved because your
mommy and daddy are saved. Not of the will of the flesh. Not because a bunch of men got
together and said, we're gonna pray for them until they're saved.
Not of the will of man. Not as an act of man's free will. You were born God birthed you
into the kingdom. Salvation is of the Lord. Now,
somebody says, well, that will cause men to live in indifference. If they think the Lord does everything,
they don't have to do anything. Does not. Does not. Doesn't make me live in indifference.
And if some people do live in indifference when they hear that,
does that mean I'm not going to preach it? No, it's what the
Bible teaches clearly. If somebody uses it to live in
difference, that's there. I don't want you to do that,
but that's a willful misrepresentation of the truth. It doesn't cause
anybody to live in difference. causes people to love Him. Salvation
is of the Lord in its sustaining power. We're kept by the power
of God through faith unto salvation. I'm kept by God. The reason I
preserve, the reason I continue in the faith, the reason I'm
not going to quit is because He sustains me. He keeps me by
His grace. And in its ultimate perfection,
salvation is of the Lord. When I stand perfect in Christ
Jesus, there'd be one thing to say. Salvation is of the Lord. It didn't have anything to do
with what that man did. It had to do with what the Lord did
for him. Now, what I'm talking about right
now, it's safe. It's certain, and it's safe. To write the same things to you,
to me indeed, is not grievous. But for you, it is safe. And if this message becomes stale,
If this message becomes old, old, one of two things are true. The preacher is not preaching
as a sinner to other sinners. Or the hearer is not hearing
as a sinner. Because if I preach as a sinner
to other sinners, It never gets stale. And if I hear, as a sinner,
it comes as good news. I turn to Acts chapter 1. This
is what we'll close with. In Acts chapter 1, he's referring
to the epistle he wrote, the Gospel of Luke. He says, the
former treatise have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus
began both to do and teach. Now, isn't that a summary of
all true preaching? It's all that Jesus began both
to do and to teach. Now I want to close with speaking a few moments on
what he did and what he taught in a very simple manner. You
know, people use the phrase WWJD, what would Jesus do? I know what he did. I know what he did. You know, when
people use that language, what would Jesus do? We need to find
out what he would do, so we'll do what he did. Well, you ought
to do what he did. There's no doubt about that,
but that's religious, phony. You're not going to do it. You
talk about, I'm going to do what he did. No, you won't. I mean,
that's talk. You know, that's religious talk. What did he do? Now, I can tell
you what he did from the scriptures. He stood as a surety for all
His people. He took, before time began, He
took complete salvation, complete responsibility for the salvation
of all the Father gave Him. He said, I'll be surety for them. Of my hand will you require them,
just like Judah said of Benjamin, of my hand shall thou require
him. If I bring him not before thee and set him before thee,
let me bear the blame forever. The Lord stood as my surety,
and when the Lord stood as my surety, God did cease to look
to me for a thing. He looked for everything he required
to his dear son. Is that good news? I love that. The Word became flesh. What did
He do? He became flesh. And in His flesh,
He kept God's holy law. He never sinned. He never put anything before
His Father. He never He never took His name
in vain. He's the only man that never
commit idolatry. He kept the Sabbath perfectly. He honored his parents in all
authority. He never killed, not physically
or murdered somebody's character. He was sexually pure. He never
had an impure thought. He never stole anything. He never
lied. He never coveted. He magnified
God's law and made it honorable. He kept God's law. And then he became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. He did so as the sinner's
substitute. My sin became His sin. My evil was placed in Him. He bore our
sins in His own body on the tree. Do I understand all that? No! No! Do I believe it with
all my heart? My sin became His sin, and His
perfect righteousness becomes mine, so that I'm the very righteousness
of God in Him. He became obedient to death. His father said, son, go to the
cross. And he said, yes, father. And
he's the only one to ever really believe God. Somebody had to
believe God perfectly. He did. He said, though He slay
me, yet will I trust Him. And He was raised from the dead
for our justification. Everybody He was raised for was
justified before God. He calls us by His Spirit. He
preserves us. He reigns in sovereign authority. That's what He does. He reigns
in sovereign authority. You know what that means? That
means me and you are in His hands. And He can do with me and you
whatever He's pleased to do. And He's in such... I've said
this a lot here lately, but I love saying it. I'm going to repeat
it. Even the thoughts going through your mind right now, He is in
control of. Such a Savior is to be worshipped
as God. He's the Lord. That's what He
did. Now, what did He teach? Well, He taught us who God is. He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father. What glorious words. He taught
us who we are, who we are by nature, evil, who we are by grace,
righteous. I love the way he calls believers,
the righteous, don't you? He calls believers, me, you,
the righteous. Then shall the righteous say,
Lot, I think of Lot, that righteous man. And it speaks of his righteous
soul who was vexed from day to day. He tells us who we are. He says to his people, if you
then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how do you respond to that? When he says that, if you then,
he's speaking to his children, because he says, if you then,
being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more shall your heavenly Father give to them than ask
him? If you then, being evil, does
that, is that you? And then also he calls his people
the righteous. And he teaches us how to live. He teaches us how to live. And
it can all be summarized by that one statement, do unto others
as you would have them do unto you. That's everything you need
to know. That's everything I need to know
about how to live. How do you want to be treated?
You do unto others. It doesn't matter how they treated
you. I want vengeance. I'm holding a grudge. I remember
what they did to me. Oh, that's no. You do unto others
as you would have them do unto you. And the Lord said on this
hangs all the law and all the prophets. That gives us the significance
of that statement. He teaches us how to live and
he teaches us how to die. Blessed are the dead who die
in the Lord. Now, there's only one way I want
to die. Now, I think about death. I think, well, I hope I don't
have to suffer much. I hope I don't have any long extended illness
where I'm real sick or nauseous or hurting, and I know what pain
is. I've experienced sickness, and
I'd just as soon get out of it as much of it as I can. I don't
much want to be sick. I want to die easily. I want
to die well. I want to die gracefully and
graciously. I want somebody when they're
around me when I'm dying, I'd like to think that they'd be
encouraged. Well, that man was looking to Christ. But, you know,
all that stuff aside, I don't even think of that. This is the
way I want to die. I want to die in Christ. I want to be found in Christ,
so that all God sees when He sees me is He sees His Son. And that's what Paul meant when
he said, Oh, that I may win Christ and be found in Him. When God comes after me, when
my time comes, may I be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
that's the only way to die. You know, people say, well, I
want to be taught how to live. In a way, I've got a lot of skepticism
about that when somebody says, I want to be taught how to live,
because you already know how to live. Now, you do. You already know what's
wrong and what's right. You know you ought to love God.
You know you ought not steal. You ought not commit sexual sin. You ought not covet. You know
all that stuff. Teach people how to live. Don't
teach people how to die. That's what I want to do more
than anything else. I want to know how to die. And what does
the Lord teach? He teaches us how to die. These all died in faith. Now aren't you thankful for the
beloved physician, Luke? He gives us some, by the inspiration
of God the Holy Spirit, he gives us some glorious things to chew
on in these introductions to Luke and the acts of the apostles. He's a delightful man. The Lord
used him to preach the gospel and truly we see why Paul called
Luke the beloved physician. Let's pray together. Lord, we come into your presence
in Christ's name and how we thank you for your word. Lord, how
we thank you that you are as your word reveals you to be. And Lord, we confess that we
are as your word reveals us to be. And Lord, how thankful we are
that salvation is as you've revealed it to be in your word. It's in
Christ. It's by your grace. And Lord,
our desire in this generation in which we live is to tell all
men what thy son did and what thy son taught. Now, bless this
message for your glory and for our good. In Christ's name we
pray. Amen. We got going? In number 512, we'll stand and
sing together.