Too many of us, God's chosen people, God's elect, those who God has loved from before the world was, too many of us sing right past that stanza where it says, my past with its sin and stain. It kind of gives a little bit of the assumption that maybe we don't have any more sin, but that's not true at all, is it? There was a day when we didn't have any sin. We were okay people. We didn't kill anybody. We may do this, we may do that, but we didn't do that. We weren't as bad as that guy. We weren't as bad as those people over there. If I could rewrite that, I would put this. My sin, which stains this flesh, the guilt and the despair when I look at that sin, Calvary covers it all now. Calvary covers it all from this day until the day the Lord takes me out of this world. If He doesn't cover it all, including what's coming, then we're not going to spend eternity with Him. He's got to cover it all because we can't spend eternity with God unless we are as holy as God Himself. And no one that ever walked this earth other than Christ Jesus Himself is as holy as God, yet all of His people are as holy as He is in His Son. That was all three. Let's get to the meat of today's message, shall we? Turn to the book of Luke, if you would. And you can just set the Word of God right down there on your lap. I want to begin a series from the book of Luke. Some of my pastor friends are going through Romans, John, Matthew. We're going through Mark. I normally don't do a series of messages. And I don't know how long we may go through the whole book of Luke. You know, after the service today, I'll sit down and look at what's next in the messages in the Word of God in Luke and see if the Lord leads me to put a message together for next Sunday. But Lord willing, we'll bring a series of messages. This morning is going to be Part 1, verses 1-4. Our Lord says in His Word, Whosoever calleth upon Me, Whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be saved. Not maybe. Shall. But then it also says this, and we looked at this a little bit in depth last Sunday. It also says that how can you call upon the One, the Lord Jesus Christ, how can you call upon Him? If you're not hearing about who He is. If you're not hearing about the truth of who He is. If you're hearing something about some Jesus, you're not hearing about the one and only God. The one who is God incarnate in the flesh. How are you going to call on one whom you've not heard? You've got to hear about him. That's what God sends preachers out into the world to do. That's what the apostles, the first preachers of the New Testament... Well, let me take that back. Jesus Christ was the first preacher of the New Testament. Abbas was an Old Testament prophet, leading the Old Testament into the New. The Old Testament pointed as to what would happen. Jesus Christ would give himself for his people. And the New Testament points to what did happen. Jesus Christ did give himself for his people. His elect. Those that he has loved from before the world was. Those whose names are written in his breastplate. That's the Word of God. How are you gonna call on one whom you've not heard? I wanna consider this morning four things from these opening words of Luke's gospel, and I pray, I pray that God may use these words, his word, that he may cause it to burn in the hearts of his people. That's what happened on the road to Emmaus. Remember the two men? that Christ spoke to? I'm talking about the Lord Jesus from His Word here, but my words don't mean nothing. If Christ doesn't speak to our hearts, now, all of our hearts, He doesn't just speak to us once, He speaks to us every time we hear a message. Isn't that why we keep coming back? I need to hear about my Savior? I've been walking through the world for a whole week now. I need to hear about my Lord. May God burn in our hearts as He did to those two men on the road to Emmaus, when He revealed, when He expounded the Word of God unto them, the things concerning Himself. Look with me, if you would, in the book of Luke, chapter 1, verses 1 through 4. For as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration many have taken in hand, they have undertaken to go out and make a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us. I want that to sink in. I wanna pause there for just a moment. I want you to wrap your minds around this. Luke is talking about those who have been sent forth by God. That's what that verse that I just quoted from Romans a moment ago. How are you gonna hear, how are you gonna call on one you've never believed? How are you gonna believe in one you've never heard of? Blessed are the feet of those who go out and preach the gospel of the true gospel. That's what this is all about. Those who were sent forth in order to declare of those things which are most surely believed among us, even as they delivered them unto us, verse two, which from the beginning were eyewitnesses. Now this is important. Folks, people think that this is just talking about apostles. Those who have eyewitnessed it that very day, those who walked with Christ. Do you know, we don't walk by sight, but we walk by faith, don't we? We walk by the eyes of our heart that see God's Word and believe. We believe it as God's Word. We believe it as truth. Why? Why do you believe this? Seriously, are you smarter than somebody else? No, our Lord comes into our heart and gives us faith. Ephesians chapter two, verse eight. For by grace are you saved through faith, through the belief of Jesus Christ, not by faith, but by grace are we saved, that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, lest man should boast. Everything, everything to a child of God is given glory to our Lord, including the measly little good things that we do in our life. Now, I gotta say this, I just said the measly little things we do in our life that are good. You know, the things that we don't do good, that's our fault. That's the nature of this old flesh. That's what we, when we get really mad at somebody for something foolish or for whatever reason, angry enough to say, oh, I wish you were dead. Don't tell me some of you haven't thought about some of that, if somebody. We all have family members somewhere that have been wronged in some way or another, or maybe ourselves have been wronged. I shared this last week, a conversation, a debate kind of, not really a debate, there wasn't any real debate to it, just two different ways of looking at things. And the conversation was clothed with these wonderful words. If I go to hell, it's my fault. If I go to heaven, it's God's fault. I had to say that because everything we do as children of God, we try to give our Lord the glory the best we can. It's not very good sometimes, but we do try to give it. We think of Him where there was a time when we all didn't. Even as they delivered, it says in verse 2, them to us which from the beginning were eyewitnesses. You and I are eyewitnesses of God's grace to us through His Word. and ministers of the Word. You know, when you go out and you witness to somebody, you're talking to somebody about the Lord Jesus. And they want to tell you, well, God's offering you. I was reading an article on Facebook the other day. A guy started off and he was talking some truths and he was throwing some real good truths in there, and then there was a little small paragraph where it said, God has offered salvation. And then down below that he said, And then he went on from there and he gave God the glory for everything. So if you bypassed and just kind of started at the beginning and looked past it and went to the end, you thought this was a good article. But he threw everything out the door when he said, it's your decision. You and I know. that if it was left to us to decide, we'd still be going to football, we'd still be doing the drinking, we'd still be doing whatever it is we were doing before God called us out of darkness. I know I would, because that's the sinner that I was. I'm still a sinner, but I'm just not the sinner walking around in darkness anymore. I have the life of Christ living in me, and I give him all the glory for everything, everything good. They were eyewitnesses. and ministers of the Word. You're as much a minister of His Word as I am, because you live with Christ living in you, and your actions show Christ living in you. Verse 3, It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, that word perfect just means that he saw things first hand, to write unto thee in order most excellent Theopolis, Luke, by the way, is also the writer of Acts. I did not know that until I started doing a little deeper study. See, I don't know a lot, but I do know some things. I know that my Lord is Lord of everything, and I know he has saved a people for himself, and I know that his righteousness belongs to his people because he took the sins of everyone, every sin upon himself when he went to that cross. It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all these things, from the very first to right unto thee, in order, most excellent Theopolis, that thou mightest know the certainty of those things wherein thou hast been instructed. I wanna bring before you this morning four quick points, won't take much time. But before I do, I wanna make this really clear. And I said this last week, I'm gonna say it again. Calvinism does not save you. Knowing the doctrines, the teachings of total depravity, knowing the teachings of unconditional election, knowing the teachings, the doctrines of limited atonement, knowing the teachings of irresistible grace, Knowing the teachings of God's perseverance, perseverance of the saints, does not save you. Christ Jesus is our savior. What he did on the cross saved us. But when a preacher gets up to talk about who he is, you cannot miss out on those five points. There's no such thing as a two and a half point Calvinist. Every one of those five points is part of the salvation of God's elect. If you don't believe in total depravity, then that means you have something you can do to save yourself. That's what total depravity means. Nothing. And as children of God, we know there is nothing we can do. We know that we were dead in trespasses and sin. I can't reach for medicine absolutely angers me. People treat God's Word like a medicine that's on the table if you'll just reach out and take His medicine. That's hogwash. Christ came to me. He came to each and every one of you the same way when you were sinking in death. Grabbed a hold of you and He said, you're mine. I will not let you go. You can't teach about the Lord Jesus unless you need a Savior. Because that's what He is. He's our Savior. You can't teach that He put it out there as some kind of an offer. That means anybody could be saved. That means anybody can all of a sudden reach over and grab that medicine. No! They can't! He chose a people for Himself. And it reads that way from book, from cover to cover. It's not just overhears election and overhears this. It's all the way through to teach that Jesus Christ died for everybody and that some would go to hell teaches that Christ's blood means nothing. Our Lord went to the cross and He didn't offer atonement, He atoned His people. You're as righteous, Roger, as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself because God has paid for your sins. He is made atonement, complete. We're washed in his blood. To say that the calling of God can be turned away by man is to say that man is above God. I have the power to do what I want, Lord. Just like I said, the closing of that conversation was this. If I go to hell, it's my fault. If I'm given the right to choose to do anything, I'm gonna go to hell, because that's John Rhys in the flesh, and that's everyone who ever walked this world, other than Christ Jesus himself. Our Lord's call is with the power of God. The spirit of God speaks to the heart of man and moves it, just as he does kings, just as he does rivers. You know that river that came down? I'm telling you, Kathy and I were standing here, We're standing out here on the porch. All of a sudden, there's a brown tidal wave coming at us. It was only about a foot deep, but it was still coming at us. And we're freaking out, both of us. I'm yelling at her, get in the house. I'm thinking it's going to wash her away. She's like, no, I need to help you. And she's doing help. She's helping a lot. It took the two of us to keep the water from going any further than it did in the building next door. Our Lord directs everything. He's the sovereign. single thing. It takes the sovereign rule of God to take a dead, cold heart, cut it out, dispose of it, and put a fresh, new heart in there that loves the Lord Jesus. Every one of us, we're walking through this world at one day, at one time, when we thought, I'll not have that guy rule over me, and by his irresistible calling, he grabs ahold of us, and he says, You will. I'm Lord, and now you know it. You cannot teach about who Jesus Christ is unless you teach about His power in keeping us. Verse 5, 1 Peter, we read these words. This is teaching about who Christ is. This is teaching about who the power of God is. You, you who are kept, you who are guarded, you who are fenced about, you who are given, kept through the power of God, through faith, through belief, through the understanding of who He is, unto salvation, ready to be revealed at the last time. Some of the things that Christians believe. These opening words of Luke's Gospel is the fact that there are some things that all true Christians believe. Luke stopped mentioning words here, folks. He's pretty clear about that. These ones who go out and declare, these ones who have the understanding, these ones who go out and speak the word of God, whether they be preachers, apostles, or God's people, We talk about the things that we know. I know, I don't know a lot about the scriptures. Anybody who says they do, you might wanna put up a question mark on their name. Just put a big question mark in red up there. I'm the least of anyone who knows anything about this book. But I know this, I know that Jesus Christ and all the fullness of the Godhead dwelleth in him. I know that when I look and see the Lord Jesus Christ according to Scriptures, I see God the Father and God the Spirit. I know that all the fullness, all the characteristics, all the names that you can give God, you can call Jesus Christ the same thing. We know some things, don't we? We may not know everything in Scriptures, but I know this. I know that everything, everything, is ruled by my Lord and my Savior. Nothing is outside of Him. And that includes me. That includes me. Luke tells us that he wrote his gospel, he says, to set forth and order those things which are most surely believed among us. Do you surely believe who Jesus is? Do you surely believe in what He has done? You know, there's a lot of people who say, well, He's did this, but maybe you'll Maybe you'll be saved. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Is that not his word? Is that not the word of God? That's not John's word, that's his. We know, we know that what our Lord did on that cross was effectual. Not an offer, but an effectual salvation of his people. He says, to set forth in the order of those things which we surely believed among us, all who are like this one Theopolis that Luke is writing to, all who are lovers of God, love those things that are most surely believed among us. And I mentioned a minute ago, total depravity. I love to hear about total depravity because that's me. I understand it because I know that's me. And if you belong to God, so do you. I love to hear about election because I know that if I had not chosen God, I would be with John doing what John wants still. We know these things to be sure and we love them. What are those things? Let me give you five unmistakable statements. All men and women are sinners in need of God's salvation. Lost, ruined, dead in trespasses and sin, under the curse of God's holy law, totally incapable of changing their condition. We know this and we love it. Like the lost coin, the lost sheep, and the lost son described in the parables of Luke chapter 15, of which we will get to at another time. None could ever be saved except the triune God. Seek us out, just as he But this year, you probably should talk to a doctor, but if God is speaking to the ears of the heart, you will hear and you will come. None could be saved except for if God seek us out and find us and bring us home to himself by the redeeming blood of his son in omnipotent grace. Secondly, Jesus Christ is the incarnate God. The Son of God came in the flesh. Look over at chapter 9 of Luke. Turn over to chapter 9. Luke chapter 9. Our Lord and Savior is incarnate God in the flesh. That means everything He did was as perfect and holy as God Himself. We need that. If we're going to get to heaven on His righteousness, it has to be perfect, doesn't it? We need the incarnate God to come in the flesh. I was talking about this on Friday night. You know, some people think about the crucifixion of our Lord. And I've heard some talk, oh, what a shame. Wasn't it so sad that He had to go through that? Wasn't it just so sad to God's people? To you and I who love the Lord? To Mary who poured ointment on His hair and on His feet preparing Him for His death and His burial. That's good news! Because if He did not come here in the flesh, made in the flesh, God manifest in the flesh, then you and I wouldn't have any Savior. Nobody else is perfect. Nobody else could do it. Over here in Luke chapter 9, look at verse 20. He said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? Peter answering said, the Christ, the Christ of God, the Savior of God, the Anointed One. Every child of God loves the truth that God provided himself our sacrifice. Thirdly, the Lord Jesus Christ has an effectually accomplished and obtained, obtained. salvation for each and every one of us. By His obedience and death as our substitute, He has affectionately accomplished our salvation. Look over at Luke chapter 1 again. Go back to Luke chapter 1 and look at verse 68. Luke chapter 1 verse 68. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for He hath visited and what? Redeemed. redeemed His people. He had visited and redeemed His people. Fourthly, this salvation comes to sinners by the gift of God according to His own sovereign eternal purpose and the grace in the Lord Jesus Christ as a matter of pure and free sovereign grace. Look over at chapter 4. Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4, we read beginning at verse 25, But I tell you of a truth, many widows were in Israel in the day of Elias. Now this is election. We love to hear that our God, our Christ came and by the gift of God, according to his own sovereign eternal purpose, he saved us. He saved us in his own sovereign grace. But I tell you a truth, it says many widows were in Israel in the days of Elias when the heavens were shut up for three years and six months. when a great famine was throughout all the land, but unto none of them. This is election. This is God choosing to save one out of many. Verse 26, but unto none of them was Elias sent, save Sephardah, a city of Zion, unto a woman that was a widow. He sent his person, his speaker, to go to one person and speak to them. He sent His messenger to speak to one guy who sat over in that pulpit once. Me! I don't know if the Lord spoke to anybody else that day, but I know He spoke to me. Verse 27, And many lepers were in Israel at the time of Elijah and the prophet, and none of them was cleansed, saving Nahum, the Syrian. We love We love to hear that salvation comes to us by the gift of God and by His gift alone. And then lastly in that, God's grace in Christ is so abundant. Folks, our Lord is not limited. Have you done anything in your life you think is unforgivable? Scripture is very clear, folks. There is only one unforgivable sin. Only one! You know what that sin is? You go through that door marked death with unbelief. You go through that door marked death and you don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. If God has not come unto you and given you the gift of faith, you will die in your sins. It's unforgivable. That's it. That's what Scripture tells us. Whatever you have done in your life, God will forgive you if you belong to Him. Whatever you have done in your life, no matter what it is, If you belong to Him, He has paid for that sin on that cross that He died 2,000 years ago. Look over at chapter 9. Our Lord, His grace is so abundant, so free, that every sinner in this world who needs it, has it. Do you need the grace of God today? Look at verse 9, chapter 9, verse 11. Look at chapter 9, verse 11. And the people, when they knew it, followed Him, and He received them, and spake unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that needed healing." Do you need healing? Are you broken? Well, I'll tell you what, folks, nobody here is broken more than this man who's standing before you. There's healing for one who's broken. Our Lord healed them that sought Him. The second thing I want to bring out real quick, like we'll make these last three points pretty fast. Second thing revealed in these words of Luke chapter 1 verses 1 through 4 is this, that God's servants tell only what they know firsthand. I don't talk to you about what you're supposed to do. I tell you what God has done for me. How many times have I stood in this pulpit and said, I'm not going to tell you how to live. That's when you and God, God will teach you how to live. If you belong to Him, He'll make it hurt if you don't walk the way He wants you to. He'll guide you. He'll turn you. I know. And those of you who know God know that to be true also. Because it's our nature to try to walk the way we want to, isn't it? Bill and I have had a lot of conversations about that hurt thing. Those of you who know Him know what I mean. What a wonderful brother in Christ. I miss him so much. We speak about what we know. We direct folks in the Word of God by what we have experienced. I may not know a lot about what's in these words, but I know a lot about grace. Don't we? We know a lot about grace, don't we? I know about grace. I'm an eyewitness. to the grace of my Savior for me. Are you? Are you and I witness to it? In 1 John 1 verse 1 through 3, I'll read it for you because we're running out of time. That which was from the beginning which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, in our hands have handled the word of life. For the life was manifest, and we have seen it, and we bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us." That's a preacher who's sinned of God, to preach God's Word. Manifesting the grace of God to me, that's what saved me, that's what brought me to experience my Lord's salvation, His grace to me. Faith cometh by hearing. Going on with the remainder of those verses I was just reading, that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you. that ye also may have fellowship with us. We love God's Word. We love His grace. We love the Lord because He first loved us. Isn't that God's Word? That ye may also have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Experienced grace is a personal knowledge of depravity. It's a personal knowledge of election. It's a personal knowledge of atonement. It's a personal knowledge of irresistible grace. It's a personal knowledge of perseverance. I know that if God was not with me, I would wander off, just like a sheep. I've never heard anything out there in the world anywhere where it talks about the greatness of sheep until I came under the grace preaching of Jesus Christ. Isn't that strange that we take such that if you don't watch them, they will wander off. Make them saints before God. We tell you what we know, we report what we've seen, and we teach what we've been taught of God. It says back in our text, even as they delivered them unto us, which were from the beginning, were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me, it seems good to me, also having had perfect understanding Is my understanding perfect? No. But the one I understand is. Everything about me in Him is perfect. The perfect understanding of all things from the very first to right unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus. We preach what we've experienced by the grace of God as eyewitnesses. We minister as servants of the Word of God. That's what we read in 2 Corinthians. 2, verse 17, for we are not as many, which corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God and the sight of God, speak we in Christ. That's all I've been talking about to you this whole time. It's about Him, isn't it? Over in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 7, we read this, but we have this treasure. Christ is our treasure. Seek ye the things in heaven, folks, We can have all kinds of stuff here in the world, but if we don't have any heaven, it's all worthless. We're going to leave it all behind. You can't take any of it with you. And it doesn't matter which side of eternity you go into, you can't take your motor home with you. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God. Don't you love God's Word? That's it. God's servants are men who have God-given understanding of spiritual truths, and that's exactly what Luke is saying here. We who have an understanding of spiritual truths, we want to tell you about this Jesus. We want to tell you about what He's done. We want to tell you about where He is right now on His throne in heaven. How do you know, John? Because it says so in His Word, and I believe it. There was a whole bunch of people who saw it at one time, and they gave their words about it. But he says it, and I believe it. Look over here at verse three for just a second. I wanna show you something. See where it says from the very first? A better translation of that would be from above. Read it that way. It seemed good to me also having a perfect understanding of all things from the very, no, from above, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theopolis. In John 3, verse 31, we read these words, he that cometh from above is above all. He that is of the earth is earthly and speaketh of the earth. He that cometh from heaven is above all. In John 19, 11, we read this, Jesus answers, he says, thou couldest have no power over me, except it were given to thee from heaven, from above. And then in James 3, 17, we read these words, but the wisdom that is from above is first pure, than peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy, good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. Thirdly, we who love the word of God, and what Luke is telling us here, is we go about preaching the word of God. Luke here teaches us that the Bible is the book of God's writing, period. Wait a minute, didn't man write that? Yes, he did. God inspired men to write that book. Listen to these words from 1 Thessalonians 2.13, for this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because when you receive the word of God, which is heard of us, you received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God. 2 Timothy 3.16, all scripture is given by the inspiration of God. 2 Peter 1, 21, for 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. We preach that this is God's word. You know, I'm gonna tell you right now, Don Fortner said this once to me, or from the pulpit once, he said, I will not argue with anybody about this. You don't believe that this is the Word of God, the Divine Word of God, then you and I have nothing to talk about. Don't sit here and talk about religion with me. This is God's Word. I've told you this many times. You want truth? Come to God's Word. Don't come to John. Don't go to some psychologist. I mean, if you need to go to a psychologist, go to a psychologist, but don't go to them Luke is declaring that the Word of God makes us wise unto salvation. We are taught that the purpose of God in giving us His Word is to make us wise unto salvation. Listen to the words of 2 Timothy 3.15, the holy scriptures which are able to make them wise. What did I say a moment ago? Faith cometh by hearing. Hearing what? Hearing a lie? Can you have faith in something that you have not been told the truth about? If somebody is standing there telling you that you can make a decision and come down to the front and pray a prayer, or if you get in the bathtub back here, or if you worship on Saturday, you're saved, then that's a lie. Scripture tells us those things are not true. How are you going to believe? if you're not hearing the truth. The holy scriptures which are able to make them wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. John chapter 20, verse 31. But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name. 1 John chapter 5. Read with me if you would, verses 10 through 13. He that believeth on the Son of God hath, did you catch that? Hath. If you believe on the Son of God according to scriptures, if God the Father has revealed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God the Father, if ye believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself, He that believeth not God hath made him, made God, to be a liar. I don't believe that, John. I don't believe in half of one of those doctrines we talked about. I don't believe that God's grace is irresistible. I think he puts it out there as an offer. Then you call God a liar. Too many places in scriptures tell us that God's grace is irresistible. You call God a liar is what it's saying there. Because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record. That God hath given us eternal life and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. These things have I written unto you says John, that believe on the name of the Son of God that ye may know that ye have eternal life and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. Jesus Christ is God's salvation. He's the salvation of his people, the only salvation of his people. This great salvation is a gift of God's grace. He gives it to every sinner who believes the record he gave of his son. That's what we just read, isn't it? The question is this. Will you believe God? That's what it comes down to. Will you believe God? Or will you die in your sins? God help you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.