Might please almighty God to
bless us together as we meditate in his holy word. Let's turn
to the gospel of Luke chapter 23 and we'll read verse 42. The
gospel of Luke chapter 23 and reading verse 42. And he said
unto Jesus, Lord, Remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. Well, we read together part of
this 23rd chapter this morning. And you will be very aware, of
course, that there were two thieves or two manufacturers that we
read of and one was clearly a saved person and the other one was
clearly a lost person and it proves to us the separation which
exists and here on this amazing occasion when the Lord Jesus
was crucified There were these two thieves, one on one side
and one on the other. And we should be very thankful
that we have a description of what they said. They were all
on the cross, they were all suffering, and we have in this little account
And what a wonderful truth it is that God is very gracious
and gives us such details and how wonderful it is. And so in
this little account we're told that one of the thieves which
were hanged, railed on him. That means they spoke against
him loudly and probably cursed and swore and saying, if thou
be Christ, save thyself and us. Clearly, that person did not
believe in the Lord Jesus as the Saviour. Although, of course,
on the cross there have been that amazing notice which had
been placed, this is the King of the Jews And it was written
in Greek and Latin and Hebrew. And you may remember that in
another account that the people said to Caesar, take that notice
down and don't say that. He's not the king of the Jews.
And Caesar said, what I have written, I have written. So there
it was left there as a proof that Jesus was indeed the king
of the Jews. And we read here, therefore,
what the one thief said, And the other answered in a very
different way. And he rebuked him, that one,
and said, Dost thou not fear God, seeing thou in the same
condemnation? We indeed justly, for we receive
the due reward of our deeds. But this man hath done nothing
amiss.' It's wonderful really to read those words because they're
words which this thief uttered but they're typical really of
the true converted person, the believer, that comes and confesses
in similar words, it may not be the same words, but to be
able to say that we indeed justly receive punishment due for our
sins. That means of course eternity
in hell. We receive the due reward of
our deeds. But this man has done nothing
amiss. He hadn't been with Jesus all
his life. He'd been with him just a very
short time. But God had given him faith to
believe and faith to speak, to say. And it's wonderful, isn't
it, when the Holy Spirit moves us to confess the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's what this thief did. We indeed justly, for we receive
the due reward of our deeds, but this man hath done nothing
amiss. So very many people today, I
suppose it would be true to say, the vast majority of mankind
would not categorise themselves as someone who was worthy of
punishment, someone who was indeed a sinner, but they would try
and justify themselves. And if you ask people today,
do you realise you're a sinner and a great sinner? And they
may say, well, of course I've just done this little thing wrong
and that little thing wrong, but they wouldn't like to confess
that they were a great sinner and they were a needy sinner. Well, this man came and he followed
this statement up with the verse that we read this morning. Lord,
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. He wanted God to remember him. And if he truly desired that,
he wanted God to speak to him. He wanted God to come to him
and encourage him. And we should be very thankful
that there are many or a great number of cases really in the
Word of God where we do read about asking the Lords to remember
them. But we have one very succinct
statement in the Psalms. It's in the 106th Psalm and it's
the fourth verse in the 106th Psalm. And the Psalmist who we
think probably is David And this is what he says, verse four. Remember me, O Lord, with the
favour that thou bearest unto thy people, O visit me with thy
salvation. This was a very personal request,
a very important request. He goes on to say that I may
see the good of thy chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness
of thy nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance. The faith that was given to that
man to pray that the Lord would remember him and to desire that
he would be visited by almighty God, the Lord, with salvation,
That means, of course, the saving of our souls, the deliverance
of our souls from eternal damnation and the prospect that I may see
the good of thy chosen. He clearly understood that there
were a people called and chosen by God that I may rejoice. There is a tremendous benefit
of knowing this to rejoice. Rejoice in the gladness of thy nation. Rejoice because of what God had
done, that I may glory with thine inheritance. To the true converted
believer, it is a time of rejoicing. It is a time of thankfulness.
It is a time to glory in the grand and wonderful truth that
I have an inheritance, an inheritance which is to be found in glory
at last with Jesus and the whole Church of God. Well, it'll be
a wonderful blessing for every one of us if we have the evidence
in our hearts that we can look forward to an inheritance in
heaven, an inheritance of glory, a place where we shall be forever
with the Lord. What a mercy that will be. And he just goes on to say, and
I don't intend to go through this chapter, but he just tells
us, we have sinned with our fathers. we have committed iniquity and
we have done wickedly when God comes and touches our heart he
shows to us that we're not a very good person and he shows to us
in exactly the same form that we have here to confess a true
believer confesses their sins to God. And sins weigh heavy
upon them. It's not something which is trivial. It's something which is weighty.
And so to be able to say, I have sinned with our fathers, I have
committed iniquity, and I have done wickedly. Oh, God looks
at our hearts, looks at your heart, and my heart. And it would
be a great favour for us if we're able to say this, you see, the
two thieves, one didn't think he'd done anything wrong. He
thought he was all right. And the vast number of mankind
think just that today. But what a mercy, therefore,
if you and I come in with that request of that thief and the
request of the psalmist here, With these two words, remember
me. I wonder if you've prayed that. I wonder if you've prayed to
God. Simple, isn't it? It's not a
big prayer, is it? It's a very simple statement. But it's a very wonderful statement.
If God has given you a desire in your heart that God will remember
you. That God won't pass you by. He
won't ignore you. And therefore as you come, as
you pray to God, do you pray earnestly? Do you pray believing
that you come to a God who does hear prayer and a God who does
answer prayer and as such therefore you come in faith faith of course
is the gift of God and what a wonderful blessing if God gives us faith
to come and to pray to God It's not then just a mere formality. You may have been brought up
to pray, nothing wrong in that at all. It's a good thing to
be brought up to pray. But it would be a wonderful thing
when Almighty God comes and blesses us with what we would term prevailing
prayer. That means when our prayers enter
in to the holy place, they enter in and we pray in faith believing
that our prayers will be heard. We don't want to pray to God
and not think our prayers are going to be heard. We need that
faith to believe. our prayers will be heard and
then to be found waiting and watching for answers to our prayers. This thief prayed in faith. Very simple prayer, it's here
for our wonderful teaching and for example he said, And Lord, as here is Lord Jehovah,
Almighty God, Lord. He came believing. He came believing
and he asked, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. He had faith to believe the Lord
would indeed be shortly taken to glory. He would die upon that
cross. And he would be found in glory
and therefore he wanted the Lord Jesus to remember him. Well, what's your reaction and
my reaction today? Do we want God to remember us? Have we really prayed that in
our prayers? So that our prayers cease to
become a mere formality? it seems to become just a want
list of things that we want God to do for us naturally perhaps
to help us in this and help us in that again it's nothing wrong
and it's good to always pray to God for help but the reality
is that the Holy Spirit to his church to his people comes and
touches our hearts so that we realize We have a never-dying
soul and we need God to come and to remember us and to bless
us and to be gracious to us. Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. Well, he didn't have to wait
long for an answer, did he? Now sometimes we have to wait
quite a long time for an answer. We have to be patient. The Lord
has a time to bless. The Lord has a perfect time to
bless. And the Word of God tells us,
your time is always, but my time is not yet. And that means that
we do have to continue to pray because it is a test. of our
faith, a test whether we really are praying earnestly that God
will remember us, that he will have mercy upon us, that he will
come and encourage us and he will come and speak to us in
similar terms, it won't be the same, but similar terms to the
words that Jesus spoke to this thief and he said, I say unto
thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. What a wonderful answer. Well, blessed be God, you and
I today come to the same God. And I say that because the Bible
tells us in the New and the Old Testament that we come to that
God who is the same yesterday and today and forever. And we should remember that we
have an all-powerful God and a God who waits to be gracious. That's very wonderful, isn't
it? Sometimes you may be tempted to give up. You may be tempted
to think that God hasn't heard your prayer because you haven't
received an answer. Well, you need a patience. Pray on. Don't give up. Remember, He waits
to be gracious. He waits to be gracious to a
time when the blessing will come, when you will know the Lord has
heard and the Lord has answered your prayer. And when the Lord
hears and answers your prayer, you see, if you prayed in similar
terms like this, Lord, remember me, the truth is that this thief
didn't want to be forgotten. He didn't want Jesus to pass
away and not remember. He wanted to be remembered. He
wanted God to remember him. And it's a tremendous thought,
isn't it? To think that almighty God, the
ruler of the whole universe, the King of kings and Lord of
lords, the creator of all things, bows down his ear and hears prayers
of such an utterly unworthy person. You will never think, if you
are a true believer, that you are worthy of God hearing your
prayer. You won't think that, well, I
believe God will hear my prayer because I'm a worthy person. You can believe that God will
hear your prayer because he's merciful, And because he is a
prayer answering God, but not because there's any virtue in
yourself. All you can stack up on one side of the equation is
your sin. And on the other side, you can't
bring anything. But what a blessing it is when
God on the other side shows his mercy and encourages you to come
therefore and earnestly continue to pray unto Him. And it can
come in similar words, you see, like we've just already spoken
on this fourth verse in the 106th Psalm. Remember me, O Lord, with
a favour. The favour, the blessing is a
favour of God. You can't demand it. You don't
deserve it. It's a favour. Think of that. Almighty God, as a favour toward
us. We can pray for it. Remember me, O Lord, with a favour
that thou bearest unto thy people. This obviously means a spiritual
favour. You know, we have often a wantonness,
don't we, of natural things. But this is far more important.
with a favour thou bearest unto thy people the church of God
not the world at large the favoured people the chosen people those
whom God has loved with everlasting love with a favour that thou
bearest that means it brings to bear it comes to the true
church of God he does come, he does remember he doesn't pass
them by you may think you may have prayed, I don't know you
may have prayed for a long time no answers, you think you don't
know you may have passed something by because you may have qualified
your requests in terms that you want God to answer your prayers
in a certain way My friends, you and I need to come before
God with an open heart to receive His blessing in His way and as
He sees fit and not as you and I see fit. And I'll tell you
one of the reasons why that is. If you and I prayed for specific
things and they came to pass, And then we would say, well,
of course, I prayed for that. And the effect would be, therefore,
you pat yourself on the back. And it's your prayers. Well,
you and I have to come to God pleading for His mercy, that
He will look upon us if it's His will. And you have to remember,
that's a very important part of our prayer, and you only have
to look and the glorious picture of the Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ, when he was in the Garden of Gethsemane and he was in great
agony because we're told he He sweat as it were great drops
of blood fall into the ground He was in great agony knowing
what was ahead of him the crucifixion. He was a man We see his manhood
there. He was a man like you me man
of like passions and the Lord graciously came to that place
and Caused him to pray if it be possible Let this cup let
this situation pass from me. It didn't stop there. I Nevertheless,
not my will, but thine be done. And it's good for us to not forget
that in our prayers. Well, in the Lord's case, it
wasn't the will of the Father to deliver the Lord Jesus from
that. But we are told he was strengthened
in that situation. The Lord didn't leave him. He
was strengthened. Although he hid his face from
those three hours of darkness, yet you see he was willing to
do his Father's will. And that's very relevant for
us today when we come and pray to God that he will remember
us and then to leave it in the hand of God, rather than dictate
to him with our terms. God has his terms, and you can
rely upon God's terms being the best terms, because God knows
the end from the beginning. You and I don't. What a mercy,
therefore. to follow the simple instructions
which are hidden, really, in the accounts we have in the Word
of God. An account we have, therefore,
in this statement here. Remember me, O Lord, with a favour. Thou bearest unto thy people. He wanted to be a partaker of
the grace of God. He wanted to be a partaker of
the favour of God. He wanted to be a partaker of
that which touched his soul because he comes and says, oh, visit
me with thy salvation. He wanted God to come and to
visit him. He didn't explain what it was. Visit me with thy salvation. And what that entailed was, Almighty
God revealed to him what he'd done for him in redeeming his
soul. It would direct him to the mercy
and the favour and to look forward to the glorious Redeemer, the
Lord Jesus Christ, who would come into this world And in the
Old Testament we have so many testimonies, so many examples
of prophecy which proved these things would come to pass. The
Messiah would come. Jesus would come. And so it came
to pass. But just ponder that for a moment.
The promise was given in the Garden of Eden to Adam and Eve. and yet there were some 4,000
years that had to pass by before it came to fruition your time
is always but my time is not yet you need a patience don't
give up God gives patience oh visit me with thy salvation
that means to confirm to me that thou hast died to take away my
sins." Well, that's a good place to be in, to come submitting
ourselves to God. Remember me, says this dying
thief, with a favor. He says, remember me when thou
comest into thy kingdom. And the Lord told him, verily
today shalt thou be with me in paradise. What a wonderful answer
to his prayer. What a wonderful revelation. Well, we should remember there's
only one dying thief blessed in this way. There's only a record
of one person being blessed like this. So you and I shouldn't
be discouraged if therefore we've prayed and we haven't had an
answer which we expect to have, as it were, by return. No, we'll
wait to wait upon the Lord. And you know, the waiting time
is a good time because what it does, it tests the reality of
our faith. It tests the reality of whether
that faith is God-given. Because that enables us to wait. That enables us to hold on our
way. We don't give up. We pray on. We pray on. What a wonderful
favour it is then to pray on. Well, says the psalmist, he wanted
this blessing so that he might see the good of thy chosen. He knew there were a people chosen. There are a people chosen. God
has chosen a people. We don't know who they are, but
God knows. None of us deserve to be chosen. But how amazingly wonderful it
is if God has chosen us. And if he's chosen us, it's because
he's loved us. And if he's loved us, it's because
he's loved us with an everlasting love. a life which had no beginning,
a love which has no end. What a mercy and what a blessing
that is. So, to be able to come and say,
like this, then, that I may see the good of thy chosen, that
I may rejoice in the gladness of thy nation, that I may glory
with thine inheritance. That's a good result. And you
and I can look forward to a good result. We can look forward to
those times when the Lord has revealed to us that we are one
of his children. And if he does that, my friends,
great cause to rejoice. Now, just a word of caution. The devil won't want you to rejoice. and he will come and he'll harass
you and pretend that this was not the word of God, it was not
the work of God, it was his work. And I've told you quite often,
but I will tell you once again, the occasion in John Warburton's
life when he was wonderfully blessed And he rejoiced in it. He went into a field and he danced
in the field before God. He was so pleased and joyful
that God had blessed him. And then the devil came along
and spoke and said, I did that. I did that. Well, of course,
that would be a great temptation, wouldn't it? But dear old John
Warburton was given grace to answer the devil. And he said,
devil, If you did that, do it again. And of course the devil
wasn't able to. So John Warburton knew then that
it emanated from God himself. So don't be surprised that if
God does come, and bless you and gives you a good hope in
his grace and a good hope in his mercy that the devil comes
alongside and tells you, oh, that wasn't real, that wasn't
from God, that was what I did. Well, you can answer him in the
same way and tell him to do it again and you can be sure he
won't be able to. and what a revelation that is
then to thank God and as the psalmist says that I may glory
with thine inheritance glory with the church of God praise
God for it many people today seem to fail in rejoicing and
praising God for his goodness and mercy. Don't let that happen. If God hears and answers your
prayer, if he answers a prayer like this, just like this man,
Lord, remember me. And God does remember you. Praise him for it. Thank him
for it. Bless him for it. Go on your
way rejoicing. Oh, it's a time to be so thankful
for. And God does work today. God
does work today. And some of us know it and can
prove it and can testify of it. And when the Lord comes and blesses,
you know, it produces a wonderful effect. Peace in our heart. The hymn writer has it when he
says, peace by his cross has Jesus made. And what a mercy
it is when you and I are found at Calvary. We read here at Calvary
today. We read of the great and glorious
end of the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what a mercy it is. And we're thankful that we have
such a great and glorious account. And to know indeed that that
veil, that veil which separated the holy place from the most
holy place was rent in twain when Christ died upon that cross
at Calvary because there was no more need of a mercy seat
in a physical way because you and I now can come direct to
our Father through the merits, through our Saviour, the Lord
Jesus Christ. Oh, friends, never forget in
your prayers to come and say, for Jesus Christ's sake, because
you and I, by the grace of God, are accepted in the Beloved. Well may we bless God today that we have a simple prayer
recorded like this, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy
kingdom and may we prove it, the Lord has and does remember
us and blesses us indeed. Amen.