As the Lord may be pleased to
help us this evening, I'd like to invite your prayerful
attention to the chapter we read together, Luke chapter 23, and
we'll take as our text the verses from verse 39 to 43. Luke 23,
from verse 39, we read these words. And one of the malefactors 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,
I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Luke 23, verses 39 to 43. I do feel much need of the Lord's
help this evening, friends. We look at this record of our
suffering Redeemer, our Lord Jesus Christ, who came to do
love's redeeming work, which he alone could do. When we consider that our Lord
Jesus is absolutely unique, no one before him or since him has
ever lived a perfect sinless life on this earth. He alone had that word that people
heard from heaven, the word of his heavenly father who said,
this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, hear him. We are all born sinners. Our Lord Jesus was born by birth
miraculous, a divine intervention, that which was prophesied way
back in the Old Testament, that he would be born of a virgin. But we, our sons of Adam, and
we've inherited that one title as we are born, sinners. And but for God's wonderful grace,
we would remain sinners. And if there are any listening
this evening who are made aware that they are sinners and that they face an endless
eternity, and these things have awakened them, we do pray that
the content of the scripture here before us this evening might
encourage them to seek. Our Lord Jesus said, blessed
are they that seek, for they shall find. Our dear Lord Jesus, may that
wonderful statement following his resurrection he said I have
all he said all power is given to me in heaven and in earth
go therefore and teach all nations and we do give thanks that there
are those who have obeyed the call and gone forth to various
parts of the world to make known the glorious good news of the
gospel Our Lord Jesus said that no man taketh his life from him. He said, I have power to lay
it down. I have power to take it again. This, he said, I have
received from my father. And therefore, we must never
forget that in every part of the life of our Lord Jesus, he is in full control. We read
that very sacred chapter 23 in Luke. And as we read it, we can
see from there how the Lord Jesus made it clear in a statement
before this, that he said, no man taketh my life from me. He
said, I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it
again. He is God. And although it was somewhat
of a complicated an accusation and it was a trial that took
place at night, which should never have happened according
to their law. And yet, knowing that the only way that
God's divine justice could be satisfied is by himself being
the sacrifice, he went forward. We read those
wonderful words regarding our Lord Jesus who, we read, who
for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising
the shame, and is now seated at the right hand of the majesty
on high. Our Lord Jesus knew what the joy that was set
before him was. What was it? Well, I feel sure
that Lord Jesus had a knowledge of who would be saved, who he
shed his blood for, and who he would enjoy being with for all
eternity, including this poor man who died on the cross right
next to him. The joy that was set before him,
the joy was to be in eternity with his heavenly father. And
we read that he will say, behold I and the children whom thou
has given me. These are all the elect vessels
of mercy for whom our dear savior gave his perfect life. But we read in Isaiah 53, And
that's a remarkable part of Isaiah's prophecy, isn't it? We read,
he was numbered with the transgressors. And when you get a few minutes
to spare, and it's only a few verses, you read through Isaiah
53, and everything is written in the past tense, as though
it's already happened. Although I think that prophecy
was written something like 700 years before Christ. And yet,
in the eyes of God the Father, in his eternal knowledge, we see the fulfilment in the
Lord Jesus of, as we read in the scriptures, the Lamb slain
from before the foundation of the world. God knew that sin
would come into the world. God knew that the only way that
sin could be dealt with was not by people trying their best to
be good, but trusting alone in the perfect sacrifice for sin,
which our dear Lord Jesus alone could give. He made himself an offering for
sin. Now the At the time when the
Lord Jesus gave his life to ransom lost souls, would have been the
time of the Passover, so there would have been many people from
all over the place gathering in Jerusalem. Many would have
been there at the time of the Passover. But we read quite clearly
in the scriptures that the Passover at that time was replaced by
the Lord's Supper. And whereas the Passover was
looking forward in those days through the Old Testament to
the coming Saviour, when we meet together, church members gather
regularly, and the bread is broken and shared, and the wine is poured
out, and shared, we're looking back. The Lord Jesus said to
those disciples around him at the first Lord's Supper, this
do in remembrance of me. And he left us with a very simple,
symbolic ordinance. It's called an ordinance, yes,
because it was ordained by the Lord Jesus himself. So many would have been there
to witness this unique event in the history of the world.
Our Lord Jesus, in the high priestly prayer of John 17, began by saying,
Father, the hour has come. The hour, that is the time in
the history of this world when the people through the Old Testament
look forward to. Abraham we read, Abraham saw
my day and he was glad. And we have many things to teach
us from those Old Testament believers. But after the life of our Lord
Jesus, it's a point in history that we can look back to. It's
the hour, the crucial time in the history of this world when
that supreme sacrifice for sin was given, even the suffering
and the death of our Lord Jesus. And we must never forget the
load that He bore. In that Garden of Gethsemane,
He took on Him the full load of all the sin of all who would
be the recipients of His saving grace. And therefore, our hearts should
be filled with gratitude, shouldn't they? It is he alone who has
purchased salvation. He alone laid down his life for
lost souls. And as we read together of this
solemn event, this crucifixion, in those verses we're looking
at this evening, verses 39 to 43, we see where three men were
taken to the cross. And a Roman cross was a very
cruel cross. I remember seeing the reconstruction
of a Roman cross And it was slightly different than any cross before
or since. The cruelest death possible was
at that time on a cross. Speaking with great reverence,
the hands and feet of our Lord Jesus were cruelly nailed to
that cross. And just below his feet, The
Romans would fix a block of wood to the cross and that would help
support their feet. It actually prolonged their death. Without that, hanging with the
hands would soon collapse their lungs and they would become unconscious. But instinctively, the sufferer
on the cross would support themselves with their feet and it would
actually prolong their death. And I think we can, in looking
at it from that angle, we can see why the soldiers were surprised that
the Lord Jesus was dead already. They thought he might linger
on a bit longer. But even in his suffering, Dear
friends, he was still in control. We know that he could have released
himself from the cross. He did not. To purchase all those
who would come to put their trust in him, eternally loved, he endured
the cross. And at that crucial time, he
cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. He said, no
man taketh my life from me. I have power to lay it down. I have power to take it again.
And therefore, that cruel cross was there. They fixed our dear Lord Jesus
to it. And there were three men. He
was numbered with the transgressors. And two went to the cross. as
guilty sinners. One went to the cross, sinless, and yet for sin, he
died. And one of those who went as
guilty sinners, criminals, was saved by grace through faith. And we're favored in the Luke's
gospel to have The detail of it, this account of the Lord
being numbered with the transgressors is found in Matthew, Mark, and
John, and also in Luke. But Luke gives a detail regarding
the difference between these two criminals. And we're favored to have the
record of it. One of the malefactors which
was hanged railed on him saying, if thou be the Christ, save thyself
and us. That was one of the criminals.
He turned to the Lord Jesus and railed on him as though he could
do something but he didn't do it. He actually cast doubt on the
authority and person of the Lord Jesus, if thou be the Christ.
And surely this reminds us, if we can take our minds right back
to the Garden of Eden and Genesis 3, where we read the question that the devil put
to Eve, hath God said? He doubted the authority of God.
Now here this malefactor is doubting the authority of Christ. He said,
if thou be the Christ. But the other, answering, rebuked
him, saying, dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same
condemnation? This condemnation, this man said,
I deserve it. I've been a criminal, I've broken
the law. His soul was awakened to his
true condition. And it's as though he could see
an endless eternity in front of him. What was he to do? Well, he could do nothing, could
he? If good works could save a man,
this one couldn't do it. His hands and his feet were nailed
to a cross, and there he was expected to suffer and die. But
he was not without God and without hope, was he? He said, we indeed
justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds. I always like the word but in
the Bible. There's always something positive following the word but.
But this man has done nothing amiss. He saw in our Lord Jesus
a man of perfect righteousness. This man has done nothing amiss. This man, I truly believe, is
an elect vessel of mercy. And what was shown to him is
so remarkable. The fear of God was in him. We
read in the Proverbs that the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding. He had the fear of God. He realized
his sin. He said, we receive the just
reward of our deeds. And he realized the inability
to save himself. We sing of it in that well-known
hymn, don't we? Nothing in my hand I bring, simply
to thy cross I cling, and so on. But here, this man knew it. He had an inability to save himself. He could only plead for mercy. He saw the perfect righteousness
of Christ. This man hath done nothing amiss. That could not have been said
of anyone else but our dear Savior. And there was this man hanging
on a cross in a helpless condition, but he could still plead for
mercy. and he only looked in one direction. Whether he was
on the right or the left, we don't know, but we read that
the Lord Jesus was in the center. So both of those who were suffering
were an equal distance from the same Savior, but one was saved, that none need despair. One was lost. that we should
not presume and think, in some way, I will one day be saved. Our Lord Jesus alone is the way,
the truth, and the life, and no man cometh unto the Father
but by him. And that endless eternity was
before this poor man as he had this conviction of sin and a
realization of the perfect righteousness of Christ. And he could bring nothing, he
could do nothing but plead for mercy. We cannot begin to imagine eternity,
can we? While we're on this earth, our
life is so often governed by clocks and time and Seconds and minutes and hours
and days and weeks and months and years go on. And this is what we've always
been used to. But eternity will be a situation
where there's no beginning and no end. What a blessing it is
that the eternal God is our refuge and underneath are those everlasting
arms which cannot fail. Someone tried to write a poem
about eternity, and I think it begins, eternity, eternity, where
shall I spend eternity? And he goes on with an example,
a type of parable. Came there a bird each thousandth
year, one sand grain from the hills to bear, when all had vanished,
grain by grain, eternity would still remain. You just think
of that picture, friends. If a bird came every thousandth
year, took away one little bit of dust, one little sand grain
from this world, a thousand years time came back for another one,
you can't begin to calculate how long that would take. But
when that had all gone, eternity would still remain. It's solemn to think that every
soul on this earth is facing eternity. But when we are brought
to the realization of it, like this dear man is, he looked at
the Lord Jesus, and he no doubt had some knowledge of him, because he regarded him as Lord. He turned to him and the first
word he spoke unto Jesus was, Lord, remember me. If the Lord Jesus is our Lord
and our Savior, what a privilege, an eternal privilege. For he who has helped us hitherto
will help us on our journey through, and through all eternity, or
in eternity. We say through eternity, don't
we? But it's a state with no end. We enter into eternity,
either to be lost or saved, but it's a situation that is boundless,
immeasurable. this endless eternity. And he's
not the first one to call him Lord. We go through the Old Testament.
We read of many who referred to the Lord Jesus as their Lord.
And we have, I think we referred to Bartimaeus this morning. He
said, Lord, that I might receive my sight. Here we have one addressing the Lord Jesus as
his Lord, and this he refers to because he can see the Lord
Jesus as his only way of salvation. This man has done nothing amiss. And he realized that the Lord
Jesus had a kingdom. And to all those thousands who
were there in that Passover time, they might have observed this
cruel crucifixion, and some might have thought, we don't know,
but they might well have thought this man who set up to be a king
on earth, His kingdom is no failing. His life is being taken. So often
if a king is taken, especially in those days from a situation,
his kingdom is dissolving. But our dear Lord Jesus, no,
his kingdom is made up of souls redeemed by his own precious
blood. And this same Jesus is he who
lives and reigns in the hearts and lives of souls otherwise
lost. He said, Lord, remember me. And I think I'm right in saying,
and I've looked through the scriptures, Judas, who was a disciple with
the others, he had the same teaching, he followed the Lord Jesus, but
I can't find where he referred to the Lord Jesus as his Lord. He called him Master, he called
him Rabbi, but I can't find where he called him Lord. And what
a sad end Judas Iscariot came to. But this man, he realized
his sinnership, he realized his lost condition, and his only
hope was in our Lord Jesus, who was right next to him on that
cross, numbered with the transgressors. Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. He had a kingdom, and this man
recognized him to be the king of that kingdom. Kingdom, of course, means the
king's domain. The Lord Jesus' domain is in
heaven with his heavenly father seated at his right hand where
he ever lives to make intercession for us. And he will come again. And when he returns, he'll not
come as savior, but as judge. But here this man says, Lord,
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. What an answer
Jesus gave him. And Jesus said unto him, verily,
that means truly, absolutely, verily, I say unto thee, today
thou shalt be with me in paradise. That dear man's heart must have
been warmed. He would have been suffering,
he would have been in immense agony. But our Lord Jesus rescued
him from a lost eternity, because this man had within him his soul
awakened, the wonders of grace were at work in his heart and
soul, and in his helpless condition, he cried out. If ever a man could say, thy
mercy, my God, is the theme of my song, the joy of my heart
and the theme of my tongue. Thy free grace alone from the
first to the last has won my affection and bound my soul fast. This man could say it because
of the reply that Jesus gave to him. Today thou shalt be with
me in paradise. He had a total dependence on
the Lord Jesus And he realized in all his sin that the only righteousness he
could plead is the perfect righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
we read of that in the prophecy of Jeremiah where that Word went
forth, and this is the name whereby he shall be called the Lord Our
Righteousness. And there's a hymn. If you've
got a copy of the little supplement book, Hymns for Worship, you'll
find it in there, number 38, written by Robert Murray McChain,
a very godly young man who died as a young man. And he wrote
this wonderful hymn. could well be his testimony.
It begins, I once was a stranger to grace and to God. I knew not
my danger, I felt not my load. Though friends spoke in rapture
of Christ on the tree, Jehovah Tzikinu, that is the Lord our
righteousness, was nothing to me. When free grace awoke me,
my light from on high, Then legal fears shook me, I trembled to
die. No refuge or safety in self could
I see. Jehovah Chikinu, my Savior, must
be. My terrors all vanished before
the sweet name. My guilty fears banished, with
boldness I came. When sealed by the Spirit, through
mercy most free, Jehovah Chikinu, was all things to me. Jehovah Tzikinu, my treasure
and boast, Jehovah Tzikinu, I cannot be lost. In thee I shall conquer
by flood and by field, my cable, my anchor, my breastplate and
shield. And treading the valley, the
shadow of death, This watchword should rally my faltering breath,
for if, from life's fever, my God set me free, Jehovah Tzikinu,
my death song shall be. The Lord, our righteousness. That eternal kingdom into which this vessel of mercy,
this poor ex-criminal was brought into, that eternal kingdom, is secured
by the death and the perfect righteousness
of our Lord Jesus, which has, for all eternity, satisfied God's
justice. a kingdom built up with souls,
saved by grace through the gift of faith. And life is uncertain. One of these
criminals was lost, one was saved. Saved that we should not despair.
And if there's one listening this evening, It may be online,
it may be in this little chapel, but we do trust, friends, that
with our scriptures before us and by the wonders of grace,
God will bring us each to a saving knowledge of himself. There's
a hymn that we sometimes sing, Trust in Him. He tempted saints. Tell him all your sad complaints.
He a present help will be. Give you strength and victory. Victory over death, which is
the effect of sin. And this sure promise that was
given to this man, today thou shalt be with me in paradise.
And we read, those wonderful words in the
prophecy of Isaiah. My word shall not return unto
me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please and prosper
in the thing whereto I sent it. What a blessing it is that we
have these wonderful truths to look into, to encourage ourselves
by, Because those who are the recipients of the perfect righteousness
of Christ, His righteousness He has made over to otherwise
lost souls. The righteous shall hold on His
way. We read in the scriptures, we
sometimes sing about it. And we should remember what a
blessing it is when we here are souls saved and brought into
their everlasting kingdom of grace. Brings us right back to the man in the parable. Having a hundred
sheep, if he lose one of them, does not leave the ninety and
nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost, in
case he might find it? No, we read until he find it. This is God's invincible grace.
Everyone to whom he had an eternal purpose of grace will be saved
until he find it. And when he has found it, he
lays it on his shoulders. He carries it. It doesn't come
to him by their own efforts. He carries it. He takes the full
weight. He puts it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he cometh
home, he calleth together his friends and neighbours, saying
unto them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep, yes, my
sheep, it's his, he's purchased it, which was lost. I say unto you that likewise
joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than
over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance. And
so as we come to a close this evening, may the Lord bless his
own word to our prophet and to his praise. Amen.