Turn with me in your Bibles to
Luke's Gospel, chapter 23. Luke chapter 23, and I'll begin
reading in verse 35. We actually dealt with that verse
from Mark 15 on Wednesday night. And the people stood beholding,
And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved
others, let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of
God. And the soldiers also mocked
him, coming to him and offering him vinegar, and saying, If thou
be the King of the Jews, save thyself." And a superscription
also was written over him in letters of Greek and Latin and
Hebrew. This is the King of the Jews. And one of the malefactors, which
were hanged, railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself
and us. But the other answering rebuked
him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same
condemnation? and we indeed justly, for we
receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man hath done
nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord,
remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom. And Jesus said
unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in
paradise.' And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness
over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened,
and the veil of the temple was rent in the midst." In the Bible,
we find two groups of people, and only two. There are two lines
that can be seen from Genesis to Revelation, two descriptions. They are described and distinguished
as sheep and goats. They're referred to as vessels
of mercy and vessels of wrath. They're called the children of
God and the children of the devil. They're described as being saved
by grace, And they're described also, on the other hand, the
others as being lost. There are some who are said to
be going to heaven, and many that are described as being bound
for hell. And we not only find these two
lines distinguished in language, like I've just mentioned, out
of a few places, but we find them distinguished even in families. On the one hand, in Adam's family,
there was Abel, and on the other hand, there was that wicked man
named Cain. It was the same with Noah's children. And most clearly, it was the
same with Abraham's sons. There was Isaac, that promised
child. And then there was also Ishmael,
the child of the bondwoman. And with Isaac, it was the same
thing. There was that distinguishing
of these two lines, which, by the way, are spiritual lines,
when it was said by God Himself to His mother, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. And we find that being stated
so clearly not only throughout the Old Testament and the New
Testament, but Paul goes to great length being led by the Spirit,
particularly in Romans 9, to show us the distinguishing grace
and mercy of God. And while these are very much
just alike in themselves, the Scripture says that it is God
that hath made them to differ. It is God who has distinguished
and made a difference, as He did with Israel and Egypt, distinguishing
the holy, He says, from the profane. It is God who has purpose to
save, and there is also God who has purpose to leave some in
their own cells and sin. And somebody always asks this
question, why is that the way it is? And I would say that God
has done it simply, first of all, and this is what we always
have to confront. God has done it, first of all,
because He would. Because he would, and because
he is the absolute sovereign, because he says plainly, all
souls as well as everything else, all souls are mine, can I not
do with my own what I will? Because he rules. and because
he always does justly, because he always acts in his infinite
wisdom as well as his almighty will. He just would. And he does it to demonstrate,
according to him, he does it to demonstrate and to make known
his power. That's what he says, particularly
of Pharaoh. I've raised you up that I might
make known not my grace in you, he says, but my power. Then He does it without a doubt
to glorify His grace in His people, to magnify His sovereign grace
in His elect, the fact that He saves, the fact that He glorifies
Christ in that salvation, everything being to the praise of the glory
of His grace. And he does it, like I say, according
to him, to show his wrath. That's what Paul says in Romans
9, God willing to show his wrath. Men say he's not, he says he
is. Willing to show his wrath justly
on sinners outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we find
this distinction. And these two lines all throughout
from the very opening pages of Genesis all the way down to the
Revelation, we find these distinguishing lines, but nowhere do we find
it. Nowhere do we find it made manifest
and publicly displayed any more so than we do right here in our
text in Luke 23. You see, what takes place here
as the Lord Jesus Christ is hanging on the cross between these two
men, What takes place here on this occasion deals a death blow,
deals a devastating death blow to any notion of salvation by
human works or human will or human worth. And as it does that,
as it deals a death blow to all notions of such life, it is also
a plain, clear example of what it means to be saved by grace. Most everyone in professing Christianity
They say that they are all saved by grace. But here is an instance,
here is a picture and an illustration, not only of what it is to be
saved by grace, but also what it means to be saved by what
we call sovereign grace. John 19, it says, "...there they
crucified Him, and two others with Him on either side, each
one and Jesus in the midst." Here He is hanging on that middle
cross. Everybody has heard about Jesus
hanging on that cross, and they've heard about these two thieves
that were crucified with Him, one on each side. And so here,
in a clear picture of what I've been talking about, we have these
two men, both who are said to be thieves, and only one is saved
from his sins. Many years ago, I read somebody
commenting on this, and they said something like this. There
are two men here. One saved that none should despair,
and one left in his sins that none should presume." And here
is the truth of God's sovereign, free, saving grace demonstrated. If you wanted a picture of what
God answered Moses when He asked him to show him His glory. If you wanted a picture of what
Paul says when he quotes that very thing in Romans 9 when he
says this, "'For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy, on
whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will
have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy."
This is the picture. Two men, two thieves. And what we're going to see in
these two men and these two thieves is just exactly what was said
by the Lord Jesus Christ when He prayed to the Father in John
17 and verse 2. When He said, Father, as Thou
hast given Him, He's talking about Himself. as thou hast given
him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him." Now, there is an obvious demonstration
here of just what he says. because he gives eternal life
to one who obviously, according to himself, must be one of these
given to him by the Father, and he leaves the other to the just
consequences of his sin. Now, there are so many things. that are proved to be absolute
foolishness, absolute error, just simply by what we have the
Spirit of God giving us the record of on this occasion. To those who insist that men
and women are regenerated in the waters of baptism, or that
it is necessary to be baptized or baptized in a certain way
in order to be saved. To such people as that, it's
just pooey. That's all it is. Because this
man that was saved had none of these things. He never went into
anybody's pool. He never was sprinkled with anybody's
water, holy or otherwise. He was simply saved by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And to those who insist that
a life of good works and morality, and especially this widely held
one, that if a person just does the best that they can, that
they will surely be saved, this dying thief saved by Christ shows
that that is so contrary to this book. And to all those who insist
upon the acts of moral religion, that a person has to, at a certain
time and with a certain feeling, walk down the aisle to the front
of somebody's religious building and service, or raise a hand,
or sign a card by which they join up in a local assembly,
all these things show that salvation is not in these things, which
just means this. If that's all we've done, if
all we've done is gone to the front, shook the preacher's hand,
prayed that rehearsed sinner's prayer, been told by the preacher
we're saved, if all we've done is gone in the water, or if all
we've done is joined up or had some kind of experience, then
we're not saved. We have to be saved by Christ. And all those who say that if
we give enough money, we'll be blessed, surely be blessed with
the highest blessings of God, this proves that not to be true. Or that some earthly priest or
mediator is necessary in salvation, he does away with that here.
And any notion that it's necessary to make a pilgrimage to a certain
place or go to Mecca or Salt Lake City or a certain church
that meets in a certain state or something like that, we can't
hear the gospel or do anything in order to please God in that
way? I'm sorry, but he shows that's
not true. To those who say, joining a particular
religious organization says, not so, he joined none of them.
To those who say that knowing certain facts or having certain
information or identifying with certain creeds or confessions
of faith, that's where it's at. No, it's not. We may be able
to rehearse the five points of Calvinism. We may identify with
the 1611 confession of faith. We may do all these things and
still be lost. This man had none of them. And
to those who say that some who die will go into some kind of
intermediate state or go to some place called purgatory to wait
until a certain time they can enter into heaven, Christ says
to this man, this day you'll be with me in paradise. And to
those who say you have to have this certain experience. You
know, I believe that's one of the real pitfalls in reading,
as some people do, all these biographies of the saints that
are past, supposedly, and reading about all their experiences,
some of which I question very much, that if I don't have this
experience, If I don't feel this feeling, if I don't go under
a certain period and time of conviction, if I'm not brought
into kind of a state of preparation, brought up to a point that the
Lord would save me, they all go by the way. This man's only
got a few minutes. How long does it take a man to
be saved? And the word there is, be saved. Some people spend a lifetime,
they say, looking for God. No way. And I want you to particularly
notice something else that proves God's distinguishing grace and
power, because both of these men were of the same nature and
most likely had participated in the same crime. Why would you say that? Well,
the Jews had more quirks and peculiarities and rules by the
time all of the oral law was passed down and everybody added
them a little piece and part to it like men do. The Jews had
a rule or had a way of doing things that they would never
judge or condemn two in one day, but do one one day and the other
the next day, except if they were in the same transgression,
if they were, as we say, partners in crime. And so, they being
in the same transgression, would then die the one death, and they
evidently, in their thievery or their robbery, most likely,
since they were being crucified, had committed murder in it. Because
you just don't hang a man for stealing a loaf of bread. And
you don't crucify two of them together. except they be one
in the same crime. But here is the real issue and
point. They both had the same heart. They both had the same mind and
the same desire and the same action to rail on the Lord Jesus
Christ just a few minutes before. Do we realize that? A man or
a woman left to themselves will no more on their deathbed or
in their dying hour cry out to the living God than they would
when they're 16 years old. Oh, when I get old, I'm going
to make it right. No, you won't. Oh, when I get
old, I'm going to turn to the Lord. left to ourselves will
be as hard and as cold and as mean as we are right now. Somebody told me recently about
a fight that broke out in the nursing home. The nursing home!
Why? People standing on the edge of
eternity. having seen all the wickedness
that most of them had, knowing that not long from now they'll
stand before God, and they want to fight? Because that's the
nature of sin. Turn back over to Matthew's gospel,
chapter 27. Matthew chapter 27, and look
down at verse 41. Likewise, also the chief priests
mocking Him with the scribes and elders said, He saved others,
Himself He cannot save. If He be the King of Israel,
let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe in
Him. He trusted in God, let Him deliver
Him now, if He will have Him, for He said, I am the Son of
God." So we're in the same Situation. We're talking about the same
thing here. But look at the next verse. "...the thieves," you
see that plural, "...the thieves also which were crucified with
him cast the same in his teeth." It's just a matter of a few minutes. that one thief is railing on
Christ, mocking Him, saying to Him, if You're the Christ, save
Yourself and us. The other thief is saying exactly
the same thing. The thieves, they're all the
same nature. And now just a little while later,
this is so amazing, in a matter of moments later, As the moments
pass, one of them calls Christ, Lord. Now that word, Lord, in
the Greek is kurios, which means controller, sovereign, ruler. And at this hour, for him after
having railed on Christ, for him now to acknowledge Him as
the Lord." Something has taken place. Let me read you what Paul
says. He writes to the Corinthian church
and he says, "...wherefore I give you to understand that no man
speaking by the Spirit of God calls Jesus accursed." and that
no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost."
He's not just talking about uttering with his lips, but from his heart
of hearts. Not only speaking it with words,
but in his heart, bowing to him as such. Nobody ever has called
Jesus Christ the Lord. apart from the Spirit of God. Both of them have been hearing
what is said of the Lord Jesus Christ. Both of them have seen
Him with their eyes, and now only one of them confesses Him
as the Lord and calls on Him for mercy. Land sakes, what has
happened? Why now, after both of them being
in agreement and consent and accusation and railing and mockery
toward the Lord Jesus Christ, why now is one man calling on
Him as the Lord? I can tell you why. Because He
has now been born. of the Spirit of God. To be born
again, as we find it in Scripture, means to be birthed or brought
forth from above. He didn't just, of his own will,
change his mind. He was quickened by the Spirit
of God and as was said of Lydia. You remember Lydia? When Paul
and the brethren preached to those women there by the shore,
by the river, it describes Lydia as the one whose heart the Lord
opened. God opened his heart. He didn't
raise his hand. His hands were nailed to a cross.
He didn't walk down somebody's aisle or go do something for
God so God would do something for him. His feet were nailed
to a cross. He didn't have time to come to
a certain experience or do certain things in preparation. He was
just a few minutes from eternity. But God took this wicked, no
doubt proud, rebellious sinner, who in his death even could mock
the Son of God. And He humbled him. He humbled
him. And I don't know why it is, it
doesn't seem like in our day that the Lord is saving many
people. Because one of the first signs of His grace and Spirit
in a sinner's heart is He brings him down. You say you can't get
any lower than a thief that's being crucified. But you see,
men and women are as proud even in the hour of death. They're
as blind in that hour. They're still trusting in their
own works and righteousness. Christ said in that day, when
they stand before Him, they're going to say, Lord, Lord, have
we not done many wonderful works in Your name? Have we not prophesied
in Your name? Have we not cast out devils in
Your name? Because we were pillars of the
church. We gave our money, we worked
hard, we labored, we did all these things. And he'll say unto
them, he says this, Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. I never knew you. You think about
that. Here are all these good, moral,
upright people, religious people, And they're going to hear, depart
from me, you that work iniquity, I never knew you. And here's
the thief hanging on a cross, and he hears, today you'll be
with me in paradise. God gives him that broken and
contrite spirit. He never looked for God his whole
life. He wasn't looking for Him, obviously,
in that hour. And I say that, not God as He
is. There's a lot of people who look
for God, but not God as He is. Saul of Tarshish. Here he is
on the road to Damascus. Teacher, Pharisee. Pharisee of
the Pharisees. Morally impeccable. zealous,
going out in the name of Jehovah God to cast men and women into
prison for what he thinks is their idolatry. God stops him. Here's this proud Pharisee, and
he's brought down to the dust, and what is the first thing he
utters? Who are you, Lord? I've often said, what he's saying
there is, I don't know who you are, but whoever you are, you
are the Lord. And only God, only the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself can reveal Himself to us, and the manifestation
of who He is shows us what we are. You know, that's what the
Scriptures say, in His light we shall see light. We're just
like an old, dirty building, rotting, full of dust and cobwebs
and junks and deteriorating things and everything that most of our
buildings become, by the way, in time. And it may look fair
on the outside, but when the door is open and the light comes
in, it reveals all that rubbish and filth and the vermin. I know of a building, it's an
old building, and I always wondered why these people didn't just
go ahead and tear it down and burn it because it just really
looks kind of bad, a little bit on the outside. But when Irene
was through and it had ripped all those boards Off the outside
and all that's inside, you can see it from the highways, just
rusty buckets and deteriorating things and rotting things. Because
when the wind blew, it ripped it back and exposed it. And that's what the wind of God's
Spirit does to us. It just rips off those old boards
of self-righteousness and lets us see us for what we are, sinners,
hopeless, lost. John said, "...he came unto his
own, and his own received him not. But as many as received
him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name, which were born." Why did they
receive him, and these others, the greater part of them, rejected
him? He says, "...they were born,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God." I'll tell you, when God the Spirit comes
to a sinner and starts to give him light and life, he didn't
just plainly change his mind, but as one of God's elect, he
was made willing in the day of God's power. God revealed the
truth to him of who this man Jesus of Nazareth was. And that is the only difference
between him and the other man, both being sinners. God made
him to differ. He gave him faith. So how do
you know he gave him faith? Because he sided with God. in his own condemnation." Now,
a sinner by nature will justify himself before God in himself. But a sinner that the Spirit
of God has worked in, he'll join God and, as the Scriptures say,
justify God in his own condemnation. Isn't that what it says here?
It says that he rebuked the other thief, saying, Dost thou not
fear God, seeing that thou art in the same condemnation? And
we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our own deeds. We're just getting what we deserve. You know we deserve this. And
then he acknowledged the sinlessness of Christ. He says, He said,
this man has done nothing amiss. Only the Spirit of God can reveal
that to you in power so that at this hour you believe this.
This man is a sinless man and we're sinners. And he believed
him to be the King, the Christ. He said, remember me when you
come into your kingdom. And he obviously believed in
his resurrection, didn't he? And of his sure success. He said,
remember me when you come. He didn't say, remember me if
you come. If you make it through this,
that's the kind of way a lot of people are. Lord, if you're
there, if there's a God, no, that's not faith. He said, when
you come into your kingdom. Oh, John Gill said, this was
great faith indeed to be exercised on Christ at such a time as this,
when He was under the greatest reproach and ignominy, while
he was insulted and derided by all sorts of people, and when
he was forsaken by his own apostles, and was suffering a shameful
punishment, and now dying. You just imagine that. Like being
at the bottom of the ninth, and you've got 99 runs against you,
and one man left to bat. You say, I'm hanging it all on
him. Well, here he is dying. Here he is, all these religious
folks are mocking him. Here he is, the powers that be
have taken him now and nailed him to this cross. Here he is
bleeding. Here he is manifesting what appears
to be human weakness. And this man who's dying there
too, he says, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Remember me. Somebody said Jesus
immediately answered him. And though he said not one word
to the other one who railed on him, or to any of that multitude
that abused him, he promised this man more than he asked for,
and sooner than he expected. He said, today, you will be with
me in paradise. I looked that word paradise up. I just thought, you know, I want
to know something about where What paradise is? And I saw some
ridiculous definitions, which led me to believe that nobody
really knows any more than I know about it. But I did find one
that I believe thumbs it up. Someone had written, wherever
God is, that's paradise. That's eternal life. He said,
today shall thou be with me in paradise. Now think about it. How could a just, a holy God
so quickly make this promise to this vile sinner? And I'm
sure did exactly what he said he would do, and that was to
take a sinner who'd never done any of these things that religious
people talk about, who not was definitely obviously nothing
of himself, but a criminal to the extent of being put to death. How could he take him into his
holy presence? by virtue of what he was doing,
what that man on that middle cross was doing. Because there's
a picture here also of imputation. And what has taken place here,
as was read in that psalm, blessed is that person, that man, to
whom the Lord will not impute sin. How can he not impute this
sinner, this thief that I'm talking about, that was promised? How can he not impute his sin
or charge him with sin? Because he's already imputed
it to Christ, who's there dying for it. And he's already imputed
the righteousness of Christ to this sinner, this sinful thief. so as to make him holy and perfect
and acceptable before God in the beloved. That's amazing.
I can tell you this, any hope you might have of salvation,
and any hope you might have of being accepted by God, and any
hope you might have of being blessed by God and taken into
His holy heaven for eternity, it better rest on the same thing
Or I should say, the same one that this thief rested in. Because
you and I are just like that thief in our condemnation, in
ourselves, in our sins. Just like as if we were nailed
to a cross, helpless and hopeless, condemned in ourselves, headed
for eternity. Christ became His righteousness. He was made unto Him righteousness. redemption, justification, sanctification. He is dying there to put away
his sin. And the way he went to heaven
is the only way for us to go. We're all thieves who sought
to steal the glory of God. Let me show you one other case
where this distinction of these two lines is made manifest. I say is made manifest. What
is spoken of does not put these individuals in either camp, in
either line, but it does manifest which line they're in. Turn over
to John chapter 3. John chapter 3, and look down
at the 36th verse, because this is exactly what you see demonstrated
on that cross scene between those two men. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. Now, don't you mistakenly fall
into this error that's so common, that your believing is the cause
of you having eternal life. No. The cause is the fact that
God has given you eternal life. He that believe it has eternal
life. The old preacher said, he's got
it. The baby that cries, doesn't
cry to get life, cries because it has life. He that hath eternal
life believes. Here's one thief, he's found
believing. And he that believeth not the
Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him."
You've got three crosses. One man there is dying in his
sin. The man on the middle cross,
he's dying for sin. And this thief we're talking
about this morning particularly, he's dying to sin. And then we
find in Matthew 27. Since I'm always long-winded,
let's just go ahead and take the time to read that too, and
I'll be thoroughly guilty. Matthew 27, and look down about
verse 40. I'm sorry, Matthew 24. Look over
at Matthew 24, rather. When he's talking about the coming
of Christ. This same Jesus shall come, the
angel said, in like manner." But look, in like manner. But he says in Matthew 24, describing
that hour, He says that it be as it was in the days of Noah.
They were eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage until the
day that Noah entered into the ark. And they knew not until
the flood came and took them all away, so shall also the coming
of the Son of Man be. Verse 40, then shall two be in
a field. The one shall be taken, the other
left. Two women shall be grinding at
the mill. the one shall be taken and the
other left. Watch therefore, for you know
not what hour your Lord doth come." Always to that very hour,
two lines. And they are clearly seen in
these two thieves. God helped us to be saved as
this thief was. The men asked Christ, what must
we do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And believing is just the opposite
of doing. Here's a man who quite clearly
could do nothing. I'm so glad God gave us this
picture. He couldn't do anything to save
himself. He had to be saved altogether
by Christ. God help us to see ourselves
as such, unable to do anything. I'm not saying He doesn't command
us to do some things, but He never commands us to do anything
to be saved. For by grace are you saved, or
being saved through faith. And that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. Not of works, lest any man should
boast. I pray that everyone here will
be found in that line that runs from Abel, Isaac, Jacob, Abraham,
all the way down. Those who are the objects of
His mercy. Vessels of mercy, they're called.
And who have everlasting life, which is manifested in them believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, this day we give praise
and thanks to Your name. You alone are worthy We are,
as this thief, so helpless and hopeless and worthless that we
can only be saved by your saving us, and that only through the
blood and the righteousness of Jesus Christ our Lord, most especially
manifested in his death on that cross. Remember me when you come into
your kingdom. We thank you and we praise you.
In Christ's name, amen.