I just want to say at the beginning, what a joy it has been to come back to park in the ponds. We have many, many friends here that we have known for a lifetime, and it has been a very, very great joy and privilege to be back again and to see those friends. And again, all the love and affection that has been poured upon us since we have been here this past weekend, our hearts are just overflowing in praise and thankfulness. I just want to say a little word about conditions in the field where we spent the most of our life. You probably know that we spent a good many years in Angola. I went there when I was twenty-one years of age. Went there in nineteen twenty-three, twenty-four. And we spent the nature part of our life in that country. Our work was pioneer gospel work and also the building up of assemblies. But in Angola, there have been many, many outstanding servants of God that did a wonderful work. But during the past thirty years, there has been a civil war. And in that civil war, many of the assemblies that had been established, taught, they were, they came under tremendous persecution. And as a matter of fact, many of the leaders of the assemblies were executed. Perfectly honest people, never were engaged in political activity of any kind, but they were taken out and shot. It was a very, very difficult time, but God intervened. And now, after thirty years of war, there has been a ceasefire. And we had some news recently from Marge Lee Beckwith, who is in the capital city of Luanda. And she tells us that in spite of all that has happened during the past thirty years, there's one thousand three hundred assemblies that are still functioning. Now, that gives us a good deal of joy. I don't want to go into detail about that at all. But I do want to say that our hearts are very, very glad. And we rejoice in the fact that in spite of all the persecution and trial and the bloodshed, the work of God remains solid. One thousand three hundred assemblies functioning in Angola at the present time. They badly need help at the present time of men that are able to teach the word. And if I was thirty years younger, I'd be back again there tomorrow. But as far as I'm concerned, coming to the even tide of life, we just have to be content just to engage in a ministry of prayer for the work that is over there. Now this morning, I thought I would like to read a passage in the Gospel according to Luke. So shall we turn over to Luke's Gospel and read the first paragraph? and also the last paragraph in that Gospel. The Gospel according to Luke, chapter one. For as much as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us. I want you to notice that term particularly. The things most surely believed among us. Even as they delivered them unto us from the beginning, where were eyewitnesses and ministers of the word, it seemed good to me also, having a 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 were in Thou hast been instructed. So we'll look at the last paragraph in Luke, Luke chapter twenty four. And verse fifty. And he led them out thus far as to Bethany. And he lifted up his hands and blessed them. and attempt to pass while he blessed them he was parted from them and carried up into heaven, and they worshipped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising and blessing God. Amen. For some time I have been very much interested in Luke's Gospel. I think it is one of the most beautiful books in the world. As a matter of fact, there was a French skeptic who was a literary critic, although he did not believe in the fundamentals of Christianity. Yes, he was able to read and to criticize, and this is what he said. He said, the Gospel, according to Luke, is the most beautiful book in the world. And I would say, Amen. It would be interesting to look at the activity of Luke in the New Testament. It's an amazing thing that this dear man never mentions himself. He wrote the two books, the Gospel According to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles, and you would search in both books and you would never find him mentioning himself. He keeps himself completely out of the picture. And when we turn over to the Acts of the Apostles, we find that in any situation, we know he was there. And he describes the first thirty years of Christianity. And when he was there, he would say, we did this, we did that, we did the other thing. And when he turns, he changes the words. And they said, they did this, or they did that, or they did the other thing. He was, we know that he was not there. But as far as the account that we find in the Acts of the Apostles and also in the Gospel according to Luke, he keeps himself completely out of the picture and he exalts the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I thought this morning at the beginning of a new year, I want to take the little paragraph that he opens here in his Gospel. and what he has to say he said he's speaking to a friend a Roman official his name was Theophilus and he calls him most excellent Theophilus apparently Theophilus was a man of some category and in the Roman world and he has been teaching him and instructing him in the things of the Lord and he said that he's writing to him that he might know the certainty of the things of which he has been instructed. And the term that he uses is that we find here is the things most surely believed among us. And when we look at the gospel that he has written here, I think that is exactly what he's doing. It has been said that there are about five different categories. in the Gospel, in connection with the exposition of the things most surely believed among us. And the first is a virgin birth. And the second one is a virtuous life. And the third one is a vicarious death. And the fourth one is a victorious resurrection. And the last one is a visible ascension to God's right hand. and then just about covers the ground as far as his book is concerned. The things most surely believed among us. Oh, thank God, in this beautiful, beautiful book, he starts off with a wonderful account of the incarnation. It's entirely different from what we find in the Gospel according to Matthew. And we have mentioned that the first great truth that he emphasizes is the virgin birth. of the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember in the first few chapters here we find a beautiful, beautiful delicate account of the incarnation, the birth of the Lord Jesus, and he emphasizes that it is a virgin birth. Now this is a fundamental doctrine and I just want to say that anyone that would deny the virgin birth of Christ is on dangerous ground. I know that this man who would do that would say that it was another impossibility. But I'm glad that this man who was a medical doctor and don't go away with the idea that he was a quack or someone that didn't know what he was talking about, but he was a highly educated man. And I believe that when we look at what he has to say about the virgin birth, it comes from the very core of his being and also inspired by the Holy Spirit of God. It's only Dr. Luke that tells us about the four songs that were sung at the beginning, at the birth of the Lord Jesus. He tells us about the shepherds in the fields of Bethlehem, and how the angels appeared to them and the symphony of heaven sang glory to God on the highest on an earth peace to men of good will glory to God on the highest and the shepherds when they heard that they knew that it was a revelation of God himself there you get the symphony of heaven but the response To that symphony are four songs that are sung at the incarnation of the Lord Jesus. There were two men and two women who sang. And the wonderful, wonderful truths that are brought out in those four songs, it exalts the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, again, just let me say in passing that the virgin birth is a fundamental doctrine of Holy Scripture. If I did not believe in the virgin birth of Christ, I would close my book and go home. Because it is the very foundation of Christianity that the Lord Jesus Christ, when he was born, he was born of a virgin. Every one of us here this morning, in our birth, we inherited an old, evil, wicked nature. And I don't think I need to emphasize that. anyone who has had any experience in raising children. We know perfectly well that before very long that old nature is manifest and all of us have it until we come to Christ and we have been regenerated and we have the new birth. But at the same time we have an old wicked nature and we inherit it and we're born with it. But when God sent his son into the world, he performed a miracle, a super miracle, that he was born of the Virgin. And in the most beautiful, delicate language, Dr. Luke, he emphasizes that. We do thank God for this great fundamental doctrine of the Virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the lovely language that Luke uses in describing it, I think he must have had some contact with Mary, the Virgin Mother, to get all the details concerning it. And in the most beautiful language, he speaks about it here. Now the second great truth is a virtuous life. And as we look through the Gospel according to Luke, we find that there's some outstanding praise concerning the person of Christ. that show that it was absolutely sinless in every sense of the word. I don't want to turn over to the various passages this morning. It would take too long to do that. But let me say that he shows us that Christ was absolutely sinless on his compassion, on his love. When he was here below, it manifests the fact that he was the Son of God, absolutely without spot or sin of any kind. And again and again he emphasizes that. He speaks of the prayer life of the Lord Jesus. Again and again he emphasizes prayer. He also uses quite a lot of time in speaking about women and the compassion of the Lord Jesus to the opposite sex. We get here a virtuous life. And in that life, divided in two parts by chapter nine, In chapter nine we find the Lord, he steadfastly sets his face as a flint to go to Jerusalem. And that from chapter nine right through to the cross we find that journey. And again and again the glory of God shone in the work that he was doing. It's only, Dr. Luke, that gives us the Korean ministry. He does speak about the Galilean ministry quite a lot, but at the same time, he emphasizes the ministry that Christ gave on the other side of the garden called the Perian ministry. In that section, we find Luke chapter fifteen, that beautiful, beautiful chapter of the gospel. First of all, we get there the lost sheep. and we get the last piece of silver and we get the last son, the prodigal son. And oh, what we would have missed. You don't find it this chapter or the details of that brilliant ministry in the other Gospels. It is unique to Dr. Luke and he tells us there of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ and he illustrates it by these three different examples. Many, many times we have sat at the fire in Africa and read the story of the prodigal son. What a wonderful, wonderful exposition we find here of the triune God in his love for guilty men. But another thing that Luke emphasizes is the alternative. In chapter fifteen, speaking of the Gospel, and the love of God the Father, the love of God the Son, and the love of God the Holy Spirit. Then when he turns over to chapter sixteen, he gives us the dark side of the picture. He tells about a man called Lazarus who died and was buried. But then we read about a man that lived luxuriously and he lifted up when he died, he lifted up his eyes in hell, in torment. that is the other side of the picture. You know, Luke, while he speaks about the love and compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ, at the same time he shows the alternative. And by the way, I believe that this is something that is avoided very often at the present time. We don't like to speak about hell. And we don't like to speak about Luke chapter sixteen. But Dr. Luke, he's very plain and he's sensitive and yet at the same time he speaks of the alternative of those that reject the gospel and live in their sins and finally land in hell. Hellfire preaching is conspicuous by its absence at the present time. We must never use the term or speak about it or preach about it in any hard way. But any man who has any idea of the gospel of the grace of God must recognize that there is an alternative to it. And those that reject the gospel, deliberately reject it, go on in their sins. There's danger of eternal fire. So, Dr. Luke, he gives us that. What would we have missed if we did not have the parables that we find at this section of the Gospel. So we find here a virtuous life and then a vicarious death. It would be interesting to look at the different things that he mentions in connection with the death of Christ, the terms that he uses. Again, as he speaks to the Lord Jesus upon the cross, there are a number of items that he uses in connection with it that we don't find elsewhere. And I'm awfully thankful that the things that he says, it lifts up the person of Christ, the sinless Savior upon the cross. And the vicarious death that he died, we thank God for the record of it. Again, it is a fundamental part of the Holy Scriptures. And the things most surely believed among us, this is one of them. The vicarious death, of the Savior. Well, thank God that Jesus, the one who was sinless, the one who was virgin born, and the one who lived that compassionate life, thank God he died a vicarious death. And for the word vicarious, it means he died for you and for me. This is the very essence of the Gospel. And if we look at the details concerning the death of Christ, again there are a number of unique items that Luke tells us about it. And we're awfully thankful that he emphasizes it again and again, that it is a victorious death that Jesus died upon the cross. And then again the victorious resurrection of Christ. Not only did he die and was buried, but thank God he rose victoriously on the third day. And again, Dr. Luke, he gives us some items connected with that that's absolutely delightful. He speaks of that journey of the two disciples on the way to Amaze. And that lovely story, how that as they went along the highway, we read that he opened up the scriptures concerning himself and we read that those two disciples that were going back home Their joy was gone. Their hope was gone. But as the Lord walked with them, alongside of them, on the highway to Amaze, he opened up onto them the scriptures concerning himself from the Psalms and from the law and the prophets. And later they said, did not our hearts burn within us while they walked with us for the way and opened the scriptures. You know, I have heard in my life, many, many outstanding preachers. I thank God for names that I could mention that have sat onto their ministry, and my heart burns as I listen to them. I had the privilege of knowing Mr. Harrell Sinjin very well. He was a man of God, an outstanding teacher of the Word, and many, many times I sat onto his ministry, and my heart burned in listening to him. But I would love to have heard that discourse. As the Lord opened up the scriptures to those two on the highway, and then they finally arrived at a miss, at their home. And they went in and sat down beside them, and he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. So here we get the victorious resurrection and the lovely items connected with it in Luke's Gospel. But then the final one here is that he whipped at the end of the period, the forty days, at the end of that period, we read that he led the disciples out to Bethany. And that takes us into the last paragraph of the Gospel. Again, there's something here that we don't find elsewhere in connection with the ascension of the Lord Jesus Christ. I've been in Israel twice and on the top of Mount Olivet there is a church and they call it the Church of the Ascension and if you have a guide he'll take you in there and he'll show you a mark on the floor and he'll tell you that this is the place that the Lord ascended to heaven and this mark on the floor was supposed to be the mark of his feet as he was taken up to heaven and you know some people Listen to him, and they take it all in. But there are others, when they listen to the guide and with the speech, they have a big question mark in their mind. You know, the man who was giving the address or making the speech, he had never read Luke chapter twenty-four. He laid them out as far as to Bethany. Now, it's only Dr. Luke who tells us that. the location of the ascension. He led them out as far as to Bethany. Now we know Bethany is on the side of the Mount of Olives, but it's he and only he that tells us the place of the ascension. He led them out as far as to Bethany. Many a time I wondered why. Bethany is mentioned here. You know, if you think of the life of the Lord Jesus, there are four outstanding places where we find our Lord. The first place is in Bethlehem. And we know that in Bethlehem there was no room for him in the end. And as a matter of fact, it was there that Herod tried to kill him. He was rejected as far as Bethlehem was concerned. No room, no room in the end. rejected in Bethlehem. The second place was the place where he was brought up in Nazareth. And when he went to the synagogue and handed him the scroll of the prophet Isaiah, and he turned over to chapter sixty-three and quoted that wonderful, wonderful passage, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. He has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, and so on. and when he came to the last item he closed the book and he said this day these words have been fulfilled in your ears it was a claim that he was the Messiah and the elders of the synagogue that took him to the edge of a precipice and they wanted to throw him down they attempted to kill him rejected in Nazareth and then the third place was Capernaum in Capernaum He spent at least two and a half years in Capernaum. It was the center of a Galilean ministry. And at the end of that period, the Lord had to say, Oh, Capernaum, Capernaum. Oh, Capernaum, Capernaum. And he had to say that they had rejected him there. Capernaum. the place where he ministered so low. And at the same time it was rejected. And then the final place was Jerusalem. The city of the Great King. And it was outside the walls of Jerusalem that the Lord Jesus was taken and crucified upon a cross outside the gate. And the outside place rejected in Jerusalem. So in the four different places that the Lord ministered, he had to say that he was a gentler than all of them, but there was one place where he was not rejected, and that was Bethany. And, you know, it warms your heart. When you think that at Bethany, it was there, he was gladly received. And if you look at the different times that he was in Bethany, every time there's something that would warm your heart. As you think of that, gracious hospitality that was shown by Martha and Lazarus and Mary of Bethany. Oh, he loved Bethany. It was the place of gracious hospitality, and I believe that he just wanted to leave them there. He laid them out as far as to Bethany. And then the second thing he did, he lifted up his hands and blessed them. I don't want to speculate what the blessing was, but I've often thought that that lovely, lovely, priestly blessing that we find in the Old Testament, the Lord bless thee and keep thee. The Lord lift up his countenance upon thee and be gracious unto thee. The Lord lift up his face upon thee and give thee peace. I wonder if it was the priestly blessing. He lifted up his hands and he blessed them. And while he was blessing them, he was carried up into heaven and worried that they went back to Jerusalem and worried that they worshipped him. Oh, what a wonderful, wonderful description of the one who sits at God's right hand. And by the way, Dr. Luke, when he writes the Acts of the Apostles, he gives us a few other details there concerning the ascension of the Lord Jesus. When he went up, there were two men appeared, and they're called men. Two men appeared. I wonder who they were. You remember at the Transfiguration, there were two men appeared there. It was Moses, Elijah. But in any case, there were two men appeared. And they say, ye men of Galilee, Why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus which has been taken up from you shall so come and light banner as you have seen him go into heaven. You know, he gives us these different details concerning the ascension of the Lord Jesus. By the way, there are about sixteen different passages in the New Testament concerning the ascension and the ascension ministry. of the Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved, here this morning let me say that these are the things most surely believed among us. Oh, I do thank God for a virgin birth, the incarnation. I thank God for a virtuous life and the compassion and love that He showed when He was down here and the wonderful parables of the Gospel that He gave a virtuous life and then an atoning death, a vicarious death, a glorious resurrection, and then the visible ascension to God's right hand. These are the things most surely believed among us. And when we consider them, they cover a tremendous amount of ground concerning fundamental Christianity. What may God help us to enjoy these wonderful, wonderful truths while we're down here, looking forward to the day when Christ will come and take us to be with himself and there we'll be able to see his face and be able to have fellowship with one another when we arrive in the heavenly city. May God bless his word to our hearts. Just a little word of prayer. Our blessed God, and Father, we come to thee this morning with hearts overflowing with praise and thankfulness. We thank thee for this first day of a new year. As we do, think over the past and think of all thy kindness and love and preservation bestowed upon us, we offer to thee our praise and worship and thanksgiving. And our Father, as we enter into this new year, We do pray that these great fundamental doctrines of Scripture, that they may become increasingly precious to us, and that we may enjoy them, and spread the Gospel to Earth's remotest ground. Our Father, we pray thy blessing on thy work here at part of the palms. We thank thee for the testimony that is here. We thank thee for the love and affection of thy people. And our Father, we do pray that the work may be preserved and that it may increase and that it may bring glory to thy name from day to day. And again, we look forward to the moment when Christ shall come. This is our great hope. And we wonder, could it possibly be this year? We know it. We don't know. But our Father, we thank thee that whether it's the grave or whether it's the air, We thank thee that we have thy great promise, that thou wilt be with us right to the end. And so we commend us now to thee, praying thy richest blessing upon my beloved people, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.