Please get a Bible and turn with
me to Luke 23. Luke chapter 23. I want you to
look at the scripture. If there's a Bible underneath
there, maybe one behind you there, or you can share with one another.
We've been, last of Wednesday night, I talked to you about
The first saying from the cross, Father forgive them for they
know not what they do. Tonight will be the second saying
from the cross, today thou shalt be with me. Luke 23, I think I'll begin reading with
verse 39. And one of the male factors which
were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be the 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, verily, I say unto thee, today thou shalt be
with me in paradise. We need to take off our shoes
tonight because we're on holy ground. It was no accident that the Lord
of glory was crucified between two thieves. There are no accidents
with God who governs this world, and especially on this day of
all days, in this event of all events. A day and an event at
the very center of the world's history. You see, God was presiding
over Calvary's scene. God was there. From all eternity,
he had determined and decreed when and where and how and with
whom his son should die. 700 years before Pilate spoke that
Christ should hang between two thieves, God declared through
Isaiah that His Son should be numbered with the transgressors
in Isaiah 53.12. God's amazing grace can most
clearly be seen in the salvation of this wretch who hung on the
very verge of hell on the ledge of the pit of destruction. You
see, this thief had no moral life before his conversion. He
had no works to bring to offer to God. And he had no life of
active service after he was about to die. So no good works before
and no opportunity to produce good works after. Before his
conversion, he respected neither the law of God nor the law of
man. After his conversion, he died without having opportunity
to engage in any type of service to Christ. The dying thief had
no good works, either before or after conversion. Thus, if
saved at all, he was certainly to be saved by sovereign grace.
His conversion occurred at a time when to all outward appearance,
Christ had lost all power to save either himself or others.
This is an amazing conversion. He had followed along with the
Savior through the streets of Jerusalem, and as you remember
the story, he saw Jesus sink beneath the weight of the cross.
Being a thief and robber, It is highly probable that this
was the first day he had ever set his eyes on the Lord Jesus. And now that he did see Him,
it was under every circumstance of weakness and disgrace. Jesus
was forsaken by all, and His crucifixion was regarded as utterly
inconsistent with His Messiahship. You see, the Jewish people were
looking for a Messiah who was literally going to give them
victory over the Roman Empire. How can we possibly account for
such a faith? How can we explain the fact that
this dying thief took a suffering, bleeding, crucified man for his
God? How do you explain that? That
this guy hanging on the cross said, remember me. when you come
into your kingdom. You see, it must be divine intervention.
Divine intervention is what you and I needed as well. A supernatural
operation, a miracle of God's grace. This thief cried, Lord,
remember me before the supernatural phenomenas of that day. You remember
before the hours of darkness, you remember when the earth got
really dark there at Calvary as Jesus hung on the cross. Well,
the thief said this before that happened. Before the rending
of the temple veil from bottom to top, before the earthquake,
You see, genuine conversion is the direct product of the supernatural
operation of the Holy Spirit. That's what I say to you constantly. Those of you who are here without
Christ, nothing has worked. This is the only thing that works,
a super operation of the Holy Spirit on your inside who gives
you life. So let's look at this. Surely
this thief is a representative of sinners in all ages. Prior
to the time when this thief repented and believed, there was no essential
difference between the two thieves. Both of them were thieves. There
was no difference. And the scripture says in Matthew
27, the thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the
same in his teeth. Both the thieves at one time
on the cross were mocking Christ. If you be the Christ, come down
off the cross, saved yourself and of course us along with you. You see, there is no difference.
You are a sinner and no better than the person sitting next
to you. You are not better or worse. You're a sinner in
need of a supernatural work inside of you, in need of redemption
and salvation. Romans 3, 22 and 23 says this,
For there is no difference. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. I hear people all the time, for
50 some years I've heard people declare, I'm different. Oh, I
smoke a little pop, but I've never used heroin. You know, I've been drunk a few
times, but I've never used hard drugs. You know what they're
trying to say? I'm different. But you're not. You are a sinner
and are going to perish in your sins. Unless Jesus comes where
you are and does for you what you cannot do for yourself. Very
true. Amen. These men in their dying
hours derided the suffering Savior. What a demonstration of human
depravity. In their worst moment, hanging
on the cross, they derided Christ. Some of you sit here, service
after service, and you make fun of me preaching, you make light
of the gospel or religion, you wish you weren't here. See, you're
no different. You're just like these thieves.
In fact, there is no difference. Say, well, I'm converted now,
pastor, I don't do that at all. I know. But who makes you to
differ from another? That's the big question. If you're
different now, you're converted now, who was it that did that?
I want you to say, it was grace. It was God's amazing grace that
I'm still not out there. And that's what it's going to
take to bring you to the foot of the cross in conversion, the
grace of God. To you lost ones, I say that
this depravity is likewise in you. And unless a miracle of
grace is wrought, you will react the same." You see, the heart
is deceitful. You say, if I know my heart.
You don't, it's wicked. It's deceitful. Your heart is
deceitful. Who told you? Try it again. It'll
work this time. Use again. You'll find what you're
looking for. Your heart is deceitful. Or how
about chipping just a little bit, you know? You're going through
a lot. Baloney. Your heart is deceitful. You don't know your own heart
until you're converted. Then you know you're desperately
wicked in your flesh. And in your flesh dwells no good
thing. Here's what the Bible says in Romans 8, 7. The carnal
mind is enmity against God. Do you know your mind, your natural
mind, is not at enmity, it's enmity itself. It's always against
God. Your natural mind is against
God. That's the problem. You're gonna have to be made
a workmanship of God, a new creation. Something's gotta happen, a creation,
a new you, a new creature. This one thief said, does not
thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? Well,
now that's strange. A few minutes before that, he
was making light of Christ. And now he is saying, to the
other thief, we're both here in condemnation and we're guilty.
Don't you fear God? You see, it's not until our desperate
condition is realized that we discover our need of a divine
Savior. You don't know how rotten you
are. Once you find out, the first cry of your heart will be, Oh
God, I need a Savior. Help me. Save me. You see, we
must be a base before we can be exalted, and that's what God
does. At some point in time, if God's going to convert you,
He's going to bring you to the end of your own way. You're not
going to have any trust in yourself. No trust in yourself. We have
to be stripped of the filthy rags of our self-righteousness. You know, I am pretty bad, but
I can tell you right now I'm not as bad as a lot of people. Same old stuff. No, you're not
there yet. It's not until you come to see
that you're worse than most people. Because you don't see other people.
You only see you, and your depravity, and your sins. See, you come
to God as a beggar. Not telling God what He ought
to do for you. Nothing in my hands I bring,
simply to Thy cross I cling." You come to God empty-handed.
A sinner must come to the end of himself before he can be saved. We must not only see ourselves
lost but undone, and that we can do nothing to help ourselves.
We must see that we are beyond human repair. You are not going
to make it right. You have nothing to work with.
Nothing at all. We're without strength. That
means you're impotent. You're without any strength to
save yourself. Man must look outside of himself
for salvation. And surely this thief there on
the cross did just that. You see, he could not walk in
the path of righteousness because his feet were nailed to the cross.
He could not perform any good works, for there were nails through
his hands. He could not turn over a new
leaf and live better, because he was dying. The sinner must
be cut off from his workings and be made willing to be saved
by Christ alone. And that's what I attempt to
do here with the help of the Holy Spirit, to cut you off. To tell you to shut up. Shut
your mouth and quit talking about how good you are or how better
you are. Cut you off till there's nothing
left, but Christ alone, be merciful to me, the sinner. And then conversion
comes. Secondly, in this thief, we see
a true manifestation of repentance and faith. He said, we indeed
justly. You know, if God sends you to
hell, it'll be just. And by the way, if God takes
you to heaven, he'll be just. God will be just. He's a holy
God and what He does is absolutely right. He Himself became your
reconciler, your redeemer, your propitiation, your justifier. He's just and justifier of the
ungodly. You needed somebody that was
able to be just and holy and righteous. Not a judge you could
pay off. What a crooked thing that is,
to go into court and a judge has been paid off. No. God found a way to be just and
justifier of the ungodly, and take you to heaven without getting
himself dirty. Isn't that something? How can
God lay hold of you, dirty person, and not get himself dirty? Well,
God found a way to do that in just and justification. The thief
acknowledged his guilt and the justice of his condemnation.
He owns his sinnership. His sins have found him out.
He passes sentence upon himself. Have you done that yet? Have
you passed sentence upon yourself? Oh, you know, there must be something
wrong with the drops. You're not quite there yet. Lie
like a rug. Do you know people lie like a
rug? Somebody ought to say amen. I hope you know that. I didn't
do it. Really. Really. How come it's getting quiet in
here? This repentance. When the sinner
feels that punishment itself is sweet. I mean, when you feel
I'm getting exactly what I deserve. It's only right. because you are so deeply sensible
to what sin deserves. Are you sensible to that? That
if God sent you to hell, he would just be giving you what you deserved. What an amazing thing it is not
to go to hell. God's not gonna hear the last
of it when I see him either. Amen. Amen. Have you taken this
position before God? The thief's repentance towards
God was accompanied with faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
He trusted Christ. What an amazing thing this is.
This thief believed in the free unmerited grace of God that was
found in Jesus Christ. He believes the truth about Christ
and the truth of Christ. No doubt the thief saw the writing
over the cross. This is Jesus, King of the Jews.
Well, who's going to believe that? You're hanging here on
Golgotha, the place of the skull, between two thieves, two crooks. Who's going to believe that you're
king of the Jews? Nobody, unless God does something.
But isn't it an amazing thing that God didn't leave Himself
without a witness on that day? This thief said, Lord, wait a
minute. Lord, Master, Boss, Sovereign
One. He's dying on a cross. Yet the thieves saw something
other people didn't see. Lord, You're my Lord. Remember me when You come into
Your kingdom. Kingdom? What kingdom? You know, there are many of us
here that are in His kingdom. We have a King. I'll tell you
flat out, Jesus is my King. King Jesus. I've been thinking
about bringing this message. I brought this 50 years ago to
Bryansville Baptist Church, and I was reading it over today,
and I got happy all by myself. And I said to myself, what a
wonder it is. that you believe this crucified Christ is King
of kings and Lord of lords and He's your Lord. The heart of faith of this thief
rested savingly on Christ. I wonder if you can do that tonight.
Yeah, you're a mess. Can you just rest savingly on
Christ? I mean, can you just give it
all up? Can you raise the white flag? Can you lay the shotgun
down? Can you stop your rebellion against not believing on the
Lord Jesus Christ? You see, not believing on Christ
is flat out rebellion. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
that's the command of Almighty God. Believe My Son, trust My
Boy, lean on Him. and you won't come to Him that
you might have life. I thought about Sunday. Someone
here should have professed faith in Christ. But you were too chicken
to do so. But you will, eventually. If
He's converted you, you're going to acknowledge Him as your King,
just like this thief. You see, here was divine illumination. What else can you contribute
this to? Do you get the scene? Two thieves
nailed to a cross, hands and feet, and the king of kings on
the middle cross, and this thief turns to him and says, Lord,
remember me. Don't you think that's a miraculous
thing? Isn't that an awesome thing? See, it wasn't reasonable that
Christ should notice this thief. It doesn't make any sense. I
mean, I try to figure it all out about why would God love
me. I really can't find a good answer to that outside of the
message of grace. It has to be with me. This unmerited
favor, this what we call Calvinism, this truth of the Bible, that
we are saved by grace alone is just not a creed and a doctrine
to me. It's my life, it's my substance,
it's the bread of heaven. It's my reason for living, and
I'm about to get happy here by myself, mate. And you think about it. I looked
across the crowd. We had about 20-30 people leave
for the kids' programs downstairs. We've got a great crowd here.
Most churches don't have this many people on Wednesday evening. This place doesn't make sense.
You know, grace never makes any sense. It just doesn't. People,
you know, church people often say, you know, I'm just praying
for you over there, over there in that inner city mess, over
there with that bunch of drug addicts. I'm just, what are you
talking about? I'm here with people who love
me and I love you and we're friends and we're rejoicing in the grace
of God. Well, with the heart man believes. Do you have a new heart? Has
God given you a new heart? And a heart to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ? Here we see the Saviorhood of
Christ too, here at Calvary. What a place to see that. Christ
might have said, you deserve your fate. You're wicked. You're
a robber. You merit death. You've waited
too long. You should have sought Me sooner,
before I got to the cross. But Jesus said, and promised,
Him that cometh to Me, I will in no wise cast out. I can say
to you streetwalkers who may be here, who have sold your bodies
on the streets of this city, I can say to you guys who took
advantage of those girls, To you guys who have been drunk
and used and shooting up, I can say this to you without any doubt
in my mind. Him that cometh to me, what him? Any him, rich him, poor him,
dope him, crack him or her, any him that cometh to me, I will
not cast them out. Isn't that awesome? The free offer of the gospel.
Spreading the bride, say, Come, let him that is a thirst come.
And whosoever will, say, Oh, I wish I could be saved. Oh,
you already have been, you just don't know it yet. By the time
you say that, you already have life. I just have to do my best
to be used of the Spirit of God to get you to confess it. I am
His and He is mine. He promised that if I came to
Him, He wouldn't cast me away. So tonight, Not very biblical
what I'm about to say. I just double-dog dare you to
come to Christ. I just double-dog dare you to
come to Christ. You see, Jesus took no notice
of the insults or reproaches cast on Him by the priests and
the crowds that day. You think about all the religious
people who were there. You know, it was religious people
that killed Jesus. It wasn't the harlots and whoremongers. It was these Pharisees and Sadducees
and religious folks. He paid no attention to them.
But there was one who was chosen from all eternity to be on that
cross. This thief. You think about that.
Predestinated to be on that cross that day. And Jesus knows them
that are His and knew them that were His. How excited Jesus must
have been. to see this thief that God had
chosen and given him before the foundation of the world. And
the gospel was not left without a testimony. You know, in the
most dire circumstances, when all of hell is popping, get ready
and look for someone to say, He's my Lord and my Savior. It happens over and over again. We not only see the readiness
of Christ to save, but also His power You know, the Bible talks
about the suffering of Christ, the physical suffering of Christ,
and it was awful. In fact, Isaiah talks about His
visage being mired beyond that of any man. You wouldn't recognize
Him. I often think about guys that
have been blown up in war, and you wouldn't recognize them because
their bodies have been torn apart. But the Scripture says His face,
His visage, was beyond that of any man, the suffering of Christ. And then you've got to remember
too that on that cross, sin was being imputed to Him. You know
what it is to have pressure? No, that's very true. To have
the weight of something on you that's seemingly unbearable.
The weight is just unbearable. Can you imagine what on the tree
of the cross He was experiencing when this holy righteous man
who knew no sin, did no sin, had no sin, and God imputed to
him all of your sin and my sin. And it was laid on Him. Oh, I'm
way over my head now, and over your head too. You can't imagine
the shame and the guilt. In the Garden of Gethsemane,
he sweat great drops of blood as that computer was running.
I believe that imputation of sin was taking place there. And
sin was being imputed to him, and he cried out, if it's possible,
let this cup pass from me. He wasn't praying to bypass Calvary,
he was praying he wouldn't die there in the Garden of Gethsemane,
because the weight was so heavy. Only those of us who know a little
bit about carrying a weight know what suffering that is. It is
suffering, but nowhere compared to him. But he had time for this thief.
You know, I just bet he has time for you too. Those of you who
are here tonight and you're saying things like, you know, Pastor,
that's such a wonderful story. And I appreciate that, but I
just can't imagine God saving somebody like me. I'd love to
hear that. I'd love to hear you say that.
Because I know he's already done something for you. Because you
wouldn't even know that. You'd never admit that. People
just don't go around, I'm the chief of sinners, I'm the worst
person on earth, I'm far worse than you. No, we usually try
to hide and cover that up. Jesus had time for this thief.
You know, I wonder, I often thought too, how much time there was
between the thief asking and the Lord's reply. Lord, remember
me when you come into your kingdom. And then silence. And if the Lord doesn't say something,
there's no hope for this guy. And then, the Lord Jesus said,
Today! I wonder if he could look at
him. I wonder how he did. Today! Not
tomorrow. Today, thou shalt be with me
in paradise. That had to be an awesome thing.
I don't know how that thief stayed on that cross. He must have wanted
to dance or something. Today thou shalt be with me.
You know, Jesus is the friend of sinners. Do you know that? He's the friend of sinners. That's
why I often say, if you're here and a sinner, and know it, I
can say to you, He's a perfect Savior for you. But, you know,
I have often told you this, it's hard to find a sinner. If I can
just find a genuine, bona fide, pedigreed, papered sinner, I
can say to him or her, Christ died for you. I can say that. But they're hard to find. They're just hard to find. This
thief found the very jewel of life on the dunghill of Golgotha. Who would have ever thought the
disciples ran away, his mother ran away, all of them ran away
and left him there hanging on the tree by himself. And it looked
like for a while that there was not going to be a witness. And
then right there next to Christ, a dying, no good for nothing,
sorry rascal, came to know Christ as Savior. There's hope for you,
my friend. It's in Jesus Christ. You say,
well, pastor, you know what? I think I see that. For myself,
I see Him as my Savior. Then you ought to hop right up
and tell us. We ought to confess Him. Here's
what Mr. Kalper said, The dying thief
rejoiced to see that fountain in his day. And there may I,
though vile as he, wash all my sins away. There is a fountain
filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners
plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains. William
Kalper. Let me tell you a little bit
about William Kalper and then we'll go home. William Kalper
was a wreck. Tried to kill himself three or
four times. I believe from reading history
of William Kalper who was basically put in children's homes, and
I believe he was sexually abused, and never really got over that
abuse. And he would have just tremendous
dips of depression, would try to take his own life. And he got under the preaching
of the Amazing Grace guy. and came to know Christ, but
battled his depression and his emotional issues all of his life. And maybe you're here and you've
been so badly abused, it's hard for you to believe that there's
even any love in the world. Sexual abuse, you know, it's
so prevalent. And honestly and truly, it's
not something new. Sexual abuse has been around
here and people abusing people and sexual abuse for years and
years. And you know, in and out of the
church, there's so much sexual abuse, just abuse. But if you're here in one of
those, and have given up on yourself because usually abusers tell
you how bad you are. You're no good and this whole
thing is your fault anyway. You know Jesus can take all that
away. All of that shame, all of that condemnation, all of
that judgment, you can lift your head, you can have a happy life. You can live a productive life.
You can bring others to Jesus Christ. You know, I wrote For
Known for that very purpose. I don't know how many years ago,
because I kept hearing over and over and over about sexual abuse,
both from men and women. I would say some of you guys
who sold yourself in your addiction, There's forgiveness for you.
You're past all that. Somebody else say amen louder
than that. You're past all that. In Jesus Christ, He doesn't even
remember that stuff. He can't remember your sins.
Amen. Somebody else get happy in here
besides me. Today thou shalt be with me in
paradise. You think about that. You could have come in here tonight
under great condemnation, thinking about all the things that have
happened to you and all the things you've done, and you could leave
here tonight justified. You know, there's a story in
the Bible about two men who went up to the temple to pray. One
was a Republican, the other was... I got that. I got to get that
right. One was a Republican. One was
a Republican. One was a Pharisee, of course.
And the Pharisee was saying, I thank thee God. And it's interesting
what the scripture says. And the Pharisee prayed with
himself. I thank thee God that I'm not as other men are. I tithe,
I go to the temple, I do this, I do that. But the other wouldn't
even lift his head up. but smote himself on his breast
and said, God, be propitiatory, be the appeasing factor, take
my place, be the atoner for me. And he went down to his house
justified, rather than the other. Are you a sinner? There's a perfect
Savior for you. in Jesus Christ, and I encourage
you to trust Him tonight on a Wednesday night, a night that you'll never
forget, a night that will make heaven rejoice by you saying,
He's my Lord, He's my Savior, He's my King, He's my Redeemer. I'm trusting Him and Him alone.