For our call to worship this
morning, turn with me, if you will, to 1 John, the first chapter. I'd like to read the first chapter
of 1 John. 1 John, chapter one. That which
was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have
seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands
have handled the word of life. For life was manifested and we
have seen it and bear witness and show it unto you and show
it unto you that eternal life which was with the father and
was manifested to us. That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship with
us. And truly, our fellowship is
with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And these
things we write unto you that your joy may be full. This then
is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto
you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship
with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light,
as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, cleanses us from all
sin. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our
sins, and by confessing our sins, it doesn't mean to name them
one by one. It means to take God's view against
us, to agree with God that we are
nothing but sin and capable only of sinning. We are not even aware
of all of our sins, so we can't name everyone. Back to verse nine, if we confess
our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Let's go to the
Lord in prayer. Oh Lord, our God, we thank thee
for who thou art and what thou art. We praise thee that thou
art God, that thou art holy. Father, we confess that we are
sinners. Father, we confess that we can
do nothing but sin. Father, we thank you for your
mercy and for your grace where you saved us and don't hold us
responsible for our sins because Christ Jesus, the Lord, died
on Calvary's cross and forgave us of our sins. He took the sin
and the punishment for us. Father, we pray that as we gather
here this morning that you would be with us. Father, we pray that
you would point us to the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray, O Lord,
that you would be with Greg, our brother, as he opens the
word to us and preaches Christ to us. the message you have given
him for us to hear. Give us, O Lord, we ask for ears
to hear and hearts that are prepared for your word. In Christ's name
we ask it, amen. We'll stand again. and sing from
the hardback hymn number 272, The Solid Rock. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, all other ground is sinking. other ground is sinking
sand. When darkness veils his lovely
face, I rest on his unchanging grace. In every high and stormy
gale, my anchor holds within the veil. On Christ the solid
rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand. All other ground
is sinking sand. His oath, His covenant, His blood,
Support me in the whelming flood. When all around my soul gives
way, He then is all my hope and stay. On Christ the solid rock
I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. And all other ground
is sinking sand. When He shall come with trumpet
sound, O may I then in Him be found, Dressed in His righteousness
alone, Faultless to stand before the throne. On Christ the solid
rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. Be seated, please. That is our confession. On Christ, the solid rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. I pray the Lord will make that
our confession this morning. Pray that he will give one of
his lost sheep light to make that their confession for the
first time. Pray that those of us that have
been called already would be more sure that that is, that
he is our confession, Christ. That first hymn we sang that's
on the back of your bulletin, I understand the history of that
hymn was that there were two sisters after the service where they
had just closed the service with singing that hymn that we often
sing, I Need Thee Every Hour. And these two ladies were talking
after the service and one of them said to the other, I need
him moment by moment, moment by moment. And one of them went
home and wrote that hymn. It's so true how we need the
Lord Jesus moment by moment. If he was to let us go for one
moment, we'd be gone, we'd be lost. I want to try to bring a message
this morning about confession and hope. The title of the message
is, A Good Confession Has Hope. And we're going to be looking
at Abigail's confession in 1 Samuel chapter 25. if you wanna stick
your bulletin in that place of your Bible for a moment and then
turn with me to 2 Thessalonians because by way of introduction,
I wanna look at a couple of verses that we went over very quickly
last Sunday that I believe will provide for us a good foundation
for this message, a good confession A good confession has hope. Now, before we proceed any further,
I want to make it absolutely clear that both the confession
and hope is of the Lord. But a good confession is always
associated with hope and hope is always associated with a good
confession. They cannot be separated. And
so our hope this morning is that the Lord will give us a good
confession and that we will leave this place with hope in Christ. This hope is not, as we speak
of hope, well, you know, maybe it will be, maybe it won't be.
Usually when we say hope, that's what we're saying. This is a
firm confidence, assurance of who Christ is and what he's accomplished,
our hope. He is our hope. I quoted this
in the first hour, that Christ in you is our hope of glory. So may the Lord be pleased to
give his word free course this morning and cause us to have
a good confession that has with it a good hope. 2 Thessalonians 2, beginning at
verse 14, where unto he called you by our gospel to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. When Moses asked to see the glory
of God, Christ was revealed to him. When the disciples said
to our Lord, show us the father and it suffice us, Lord, we just
want to see God. And the Lord Jesus looked at
them and said, have I been with thee so long that you don't know
if you've seen me, you've seen the father for I and the father
are one. So the glory of God is bound up, as Abigail says,
in the bundle of life, we're gonna look at that verse in a
moment, in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when the
gospel's preached, we're preaching a person. We're preaching who
he is, the sovereign, omnipotent, immutable God. He reigns, He doesn't change,
and He's all-powerful. We preach Christ. And Him crucified,
that's what Paul said. He said, we've determined not
to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, that's who He is,
and Him crucified, that's what He did. What did He accomplish
at the cross? The full salvation of His people. Everything that God required
for the elect of the Father to be redeemed, the Lord Jesus Christ
accomplished that. He gave to his Father the full
payment for sin. He bore in his body all the sins
of all of God's people of every generation and suffered the full
wrath of God to satisfy divine justice. That's who he is and
that's what he did. He's the sovereign, successful
savior of sinners and he is our confession. So when God calls
out of darkness into his marvelous light, he calls us by the good
news and that's what the word gospel means, the good news of
who the Lord Jesus is and what he did to the obtaining of the
glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast. Don't be moved from Christ. Don't look for something to add
to the Lord Jesus Christ. He's everything, he's all, and
he is in all. This book concludes by God with
a curse upon anyone that would add anything to Christ. That the curses of this book
would be added unto him. We don't want to have anything
to do with that. God make Christ everything to us. Everything
in our salvation. Everything in our wisdom. Everything
in our sanctification. Everything in our holiness. Everything
in our redemption, everything in our glorification, it's all
bound up in the bundle of life in Christ. Stand fast, right there. and
hold the traditions. Now here again, here's a word
that we use to represent rituals. We might speak of traditions
in terms of customs, but that's not what the word tradition here
means. If you'll turn back with me to 1 Corinthians 11, 1 Corinthians
11, I'll show you another place where this word tradition is
used. I believe it'll give us some understanding. 1 Corinthians
11, verse one, be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ. Paul said, as I follow Christ,
you follow me. Now I praise you brethren that
you remember me in all things and keep thee Ordinances. You see that word ordinances?
That's the same word translated tradition in our text. Keep the
ordinances as I delivered them to you. The word here translated
means the substance of the teaching. The meaning of the word. So it's
not just a tradition in terms of a habit. or a ritual, it is
being reminded of the meaning of the message. The message is
Christ. He is the meaning of it. And
so what we're being admonished to do, again, is to stand fast. Stand fast in this tradition.
Don't be moved away from the Lord Jesus Christ. which you
have been taught. You see, go back with me to our
text now. 2 Thessalonians 2 at verse 15, which you have been
taught. These things have been delivered
to you faithfully and they've been taught to you by the Spirit
of God. Now again, we're not taught by
a man. God uses the voice of a man to
make audible to articulate and to explain his word. But if the
only voice that you hear or I hear is the voice of a man, we have
not heard from God. The Lord Jesus said, Father,
I thank thee that thou hast hid these things from the wise and
the prudent, and you have revealed them unto babes. Even so, it
seemed good in thy sight. In another place he said, and
they shall all be taught of God." Oh, we must be taught of God.
The Word of God must be given free course. It must be empowered
by the Spirit of God. We haven't learned anything. And if God teaches us, no man
can unteach us what God has taught us, can they? We hear someone
tell us something contrary to what God has said, we know that's
not true. If what we've learned, we've
learned from a man, we might hear something contrary from
another man and that other man may be more educated. He may
be more knowledgeable. And we might reject what we heard
before because we've got a better source now. But if you've been
taught from God, there is no better source. There is no higher
knowledge. There is no greater wisdom. I've
got it directly from God. No man can refute it. No man
can teach me better than what God's taught me. God must send a man. The Ethiopian
eunuch, when the eunuch asked him there in Acts, he said, do
you understand what you read? And what the Ethiopian eunuch?
How can I accept a man shall guide me? You need to come up
here and guide me. But it wasn't Philip's word that
the Ethiopian heard. Philip was just a guide, that's
all he was. Just directing that eunuch to
the one that would teach him. That's what John the Baptist
said when the Lord Jesus came to be baptized, John said, oh,
I must decrease, he must increase, he gets all the glory. But John
still was used of God to point to Christ. Behold, the Lamb of
God, which taketh away the sins of the world." Lord, give me a man that's faithful,
a man that you've made faithful to tell me what you have said, but teach me, teach me by your
Spirit and by your Word Let's read this verse again,
verse 15. Therefore, brethren, stand fast and hold the meaning of the gospel, which
you have been taught, whether by word, Paul was with the Thessalonians
for three weeks, he had taught them personally, whether by word
or by epistle, he had already sent them one epistle, this is
the second epistle. So Paul's saying, what I've told you and
what I've written to you is the word of God. Hold fast to that. Verse 16,
now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God, even our father, which
hath loved us. Here's the first cause of the
salvation of God's people, the eternal love of God. God elected
a people because he loved them. He loved them with an everlasting
love. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus, which hath loved us and hath
given us everlasting consolation. Here's where I wanted to go before
we get to our text in 1 Samuel, on everlasting consolation. This
is a comfort. Our hearts are comforted when
we look to the everlasting salvation of God. Everlasting means it
started in eternity and it extends to eternity. It had no beginning,
it will have no end. That's what everlasting means.
And it's a great comfort to know that the salvation of God was
purposed by him and in him from eternity past and nothing can
change it to eternity future. There's my comfort. Nothing I
do can change what God has purposed and what he has fulfilled, what
he has accomplished. Nothing I do can change that.
Nothing that happens in the world can change that. Here's my everlasting
consolation. We have lots of reasons to be
disquieted and discomforted when we look at our circumstances,
when we look at our sin, when we look at our lives, when we
look at the world. There's a lot of things that
are unstable and unsure that would cause us to tremble. But when we look, At the everlasting
salvation of God's grace in the glorious person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, we have comfort. I am the Lord and I change not. Therefore, you sons of Jacob
are not consumed. Oh, our sin would consume us. This world would consume us.
Circumstances of our lives would consume us. But we have an everlasting
consolation. We have a comfort in knowing
that our God never changes and he is faithful. He's faithful
to fulfill all his promises. Here's what Paul's saying. Here's
what the Lord's saying to me and you. This everlasting consolation
and good hope. It's a good hope. You see, a good confession always
has with it a good hope and it's all of grace. You see that in
that verse? It's all of grace. It's all of God. He did it all
from beginning to end. Unworthy sinners. They could
not ever merit favor with God or could not ever obligate God
in any way. could not ever provide anything
that would contribute to their salvation. That's what grace
means. Grace means that God did it all.
And He did it all by Himself. And He gets all the glory. Oh, there's our everlasting consolation. There's our good hope. It's by
grace. What God did cannot fail. Cannot fail. God the Father in
election, God the Son in redemption, God the Holy Spirit in regeneration.
They all three did a perfect work together to assure the salvation
of God's people. It's an everlasting consolation
and it comes with a good hope. Comfort your hearts. Comfort your hearts with this
truth. May God make his word effectual. May he give it free course. May
he cause it to be powerful and quick and sharper than any two-edged
sword. May he discern the thoughts and
intents of the heart. May he pierce our hearts with
this glorious gospel in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here's
our hope. There's no hope outside of this.
There's no light, there's only darkness and confusion. Comfort your hearts and establish
you. Establish you firm. Be not moved away from Christ. In every good word, right? The words that we speak in our
confession be good words. Words that glorify God. Where
is the give to Christ, all the glory? And this is a good work. This
is a good work that we're doing right now. Worshiping God is
a good, that's the best work we can do. Preaching the gospel. It was God that brought us here.
It was God that put it on our hearts, the need to hear of Christ. It was God that gives us the
message. But it's called a good work.
Now dead works are those works that men try to perform in order
to earn favor with God. And the gospel destroys dead
works. The gospel exposes dead works. But the gospel also causes good
works. And a good work is to worship
God. May we not be weary in a good work. May we be established.
in a good word, speak the truth about God, the truth about ourselves,
enable us to worship him by his Spirit in a good work. A good confession has with it a good hope. Now just very briefly, go with
me to 1 Samuel chapter 25. Abigail, the joy of my father. That's what her name translated
means. We can see the Lord Jesus Christ
pictured in Abigail as our intercessor going before the father and interceding
on behalf of her husband, her spouse, I should say, Nabal,
who was a fool left to himself, which is what we are by nature,
foolish men. I want you to see Abigail as
a believer, been given the grace to make
a good confession. And in making this good confession,
she has a good hope. Ultimately, she becomes the wife
of David. God kills Nabal, her husband. And David, as a type of Christ,
takes the joy of my father, the children of God are the joy,
just as our children are a great joy to us. Oh, how much more if you being
evil know how to give good gifts unto your children whom you love,
How much more does your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to
them that ask Him? Oh, what a joy the children of
God are to their heavenly Father. Abigail, here we are, the whole
church married to Christ. She's taken, her husband's been
put to death by God, he's been killed, and now she's taken as
David's wife, married in union with him. And here is her confession. Verse 28 of 1 Samuel chapter
25. I pray thee, forgive the trespass
of thy handmaid. Now she's taking responsibility
for her husband's sins. Nabal was the one who offended
David. David is coming to take revenge
against Nabal. Abigail hears about it and she
runs to intercede on behalf of her husband and she confesses
his sin as her own. And we see in that a picture
of Christ, but we also see a work of grace when God calls us with
an everlasting consolation and gives us a good hope and reveals
Christ in us. We have no excuse for our sin.
We own our sin. Don, what you were saying about
1 John, we confess our sin. We take sides with God against
ourselves. We agree with God that everything
about us is sinful. We cannot excuse it. We cannot
blame anybody else. We cannot say, well, so-and-so
made me do something. No, Lord, it's all on me. And it's always been that with
the children of God. When God revealed Himself to
Job, Job said, behold, behold, I see something now I've never
seen before. Job had been trying to justify
himself. Job had been blaming God. Job
had been saying, I don't deserve this. And then the Lord Jesus
reveals himself to Job through the preaching of a gospel preacher. And the first words out of Job's
mouth is, behold, I am vile. It's all on me. It's all on me. There's a very clear, to me, likeness to the confession that
Abigail's making to the confession that the thief on the cross made.
And who was given a better hope of his everlasting consolation
than that thief? when he was dying and the Lord
Jesus said, truly this day you shall be with me in paradise. Who's given a better hope? Look
at what David says to Abigail, go with me to verse 35. So David
received of her hand that which she had brought him and said
unto her, go up in peace to thine house. See, I have hearkened
to thy voice and I have accepted thy person. Look with me back up in verse
31, the end of verse 31, where Abigail says, but when the Lord
shall have dealt well with my Lord, then remember thine handmaid. What did that thief on the cross
say? Lord, remember me when I enter into thy kingdom. Here's a confession. Lord, remember me. All the hope
of my salvation is in you remembering me. Lord, you having grace on
me. You having mercy on me. And she
received a good hope from David. Go to your house in peace. I've
accepted your person. Now how is our person accepted
before God? Ephesians chapter one tells us,
we are accepted in the beloved. In the Lord Jesus Christ is our
acceptance before God. And she says, forgive the trespass
of thine handmaid. She owns all the sin as her own. What did that thief on the cross
say to his cohort in crime? Dost thou not fear seeing that
we are in the same condemnation? Aren't you afraid to die? And we justly, we're getting
our due reward. That's what he said. He accepted
full responsibility. He wasn't one of those criminals
going to death row, claiming his innocence in his dying breath.
No, he confessed full responsibility. He said, we're getting what we
deserve. Aren't you afraid? But this man,
this man is innocent. This man had done nothing to
miss. Look at verse 28 in our text. I pray thee forgive the trespass
of thy handmaid for the Lord will certainly make my Lord a
sure house. What did the thief on the cross
say? Lord, remember me. when you enter
into your kingdom. You see, Abigail and the thief
on the cross confess what every believer confesses. That despite
all the outward evidences, the Lord Jesus Christ has been given
by his father a sure house. He's been given by his father
a kingdom on which he will reign eternally. That is our confession. Abigail rebukes her husband.
She says to David, she said, I didn't know that you had come
to my husband. He's a fool. The thief on the cross rebukes his cohort when he said,
you're being a fool, here you are, here you are about to die
and you have no fear of God. He had railed on Christ is what
had happened. And he gets rebuked just as Nabal
had railed on David. Who is David? Who is the son
of Jesse? He's just a runaway servant.
He's nothing to be afraid of. Oh, do you not fear God? And this thief on the cross,
The scripture tells us that the two thieves began by railing
on Christ and then one of them had a change of heart. He didn't just get closer to
death and decide, you know, he knew when they put him on the
cross that there was no hope of him surviving that. But while hanging there and listening
to the Word of God, God changed his heart. And he was able to say with what
the Apostle Paul said, I was a blasphemer and I was an injurious
man, but I did it in ignorance. I did it in ignorance, I didn't
know. that Jesus was the Son of God,
I didn't know who he was, I didn't know how much I hated him, I
didn't know what I was doing. And now God has changed my mind,
he's given me repentance, he's caused me to see I can no longer
claim ignorance. So many similarities. Now what I want you to see in
closing is that there was no outward evidence for the confession
that Abigail made or for the confession that the thief on
the cross made. There was no outward evidence. David was hiding in caves in
the wilderness with 600 men fearing the army of thousands that Saul
had out looking for him. David was in such a bad place
that he was now reduced to having to beg for bread. He had to come
to Nabal's house and ask for his good graces toward him, to
ask for him to support him and his men and give them some supplies. Nabal was walking by sight and
Nabal saw the situation that David was in and Nabal said,
who's David? Who's the son of Jesse? He's
a runaway servant. What do I have to fear of him? The thief on the cross and Abigail Their confession was made by
faith. The thief on the cross had no
outward evidence. In fact, everything that was observable was contrary
to his confession. That the Lord Jesus would be the King of Kings reigning Brethren, we walk by faith, not
by sight. If our confession and our hope
is based on anything other than the Word of God, it's placed in a bad place. But how oftentimes we become
doubtful and fearful because we're not looking to the fulfillment
of God's promises, but rather we're looking to our feelings.
We're looking to our outward circumstances, we're looking
to our experiences. We're looking to some evidence
that we can see tangibly to get hope of our comfort in Christ. There is no hope to be had outside of the promises of God fulfilled
in the person of Christ. We have precious promises. You
see, we walk by faith, not by sight. We believe what we've
heard, not what we see. Look at Abigail's confession. Verse 28, I pray thee, forgive
the trespass of thy handmaid, for the Lord will certainly make
my Lord a sure house because my Lord fighteth the battles
of the Lord and evil hath not been found in thee and all thy
days. In this man, there's no ought.
Abigail believed that David was innocent. And it shall, verse 30, and it
shall, I'm sorry, verse 29. Yet a man is risen to pursue
thee and to seek thy soul, but the soul of my Lord shall be
bound in the bundle of life with the Lord thy God. And the souls
of thine enemies, them shall he sling out as out of the middle
of a sling. And it shall come to pass when
the Lord shall have done to my Lord according to all the good
that he has spoken concerning thee, and shall have appointed
thee ruler over Israel, that this shall be no grief unto
thee, nor offensive heart unto my Lord, neither that thou has
shed blood causeless, or that my Lord hath avenged himself. But when the Lord shall have
dealt well with my Lord, then remember thine handmaid." Do you see the similarities between
these two confessions? What did the thief on the cross
have? What did Abigail have? Everybody in Israel knew the
promises that had come through the prophet Samuel for David. Saul knew it. Saul wanted to
thwart the purpose of God by killing David so that those promises
couldn't come to fruition. Oh, what a futile attempt that
is to thwart God. Oh, Abigail believed the promises
that were made. Abigail believed what God had
told the prophet Samuel that David was going to have a sure
throne that he was going to have an everlasting kingdom and that
the Messiah would come through his lineage and that the scepter
would not be taken from him. And the Lord Jesus Christ, being
the son of David, came into fulfillment of all those promises. Abigail
just believed God. Brethren, I don't know how to
make it any simpler, but that's what faith is. Faith is not presumption. Faith is not saying, well, you
know, if I just believe something strong enough, I can make it
happen by my faith. That's not faith. That's presumption. Faith is nothing more, nothing
less than just believing God. What did the thief on the cross
have? Same thing you've got, same thing I've got, same thing
Abigail had, a promise from God. That's all she had. That's all
he had. And that's all you've got. And
if you look anywhere else for a good consolation and a good
hope, everything else is mutable, everything
else changes, everything else is unstable and unworthy and
cannot save. You say, well, what word of God
did the thief on the cross have? Father, forgive them for they
know not what they do. The Lord knew, I mean, the thief
on the cross knew that was a word from God for him. I need forgiveness. I need the
blood of that man to be the covering for my sin. I need God to forgive
me. I bear the full weight of my
guilt before God. If the blood of Christ does not
cover my sin, I've got no place else to go. And I have no idea
how bad my sin is. Someone might say to you, well,
you know, you don't know what I've done. I'm gonna give you
a good response to that statement. You say to that person, it's
a whole lot worse than you think it is. It's a whole lot worse
than you think it is. Father, forgive them for they
know not what they do. The things that don't even bother
us in our sin is worthy of eternal judgment
and the sufferings of Christ. Oh, our sin is so much worse.
Father, forgive. He had that word from God. We have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins. You have word from God. You can't
look back to the land's book of life and see if your name's
there. You have God's word and that's
all you have. And you will hang all your hopes
on the infallible word of God or you'll be without A firm consolation,
you'll be without a good hope. Today, thou shalt be with me
in paradise. He believed that the Lord Jesus
Christ was the Messiah, the King of
Kings. He had a word from God. He had
a promise from God. And we have a word from God,
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's
a word from God. Now you believe or you don't
believe. You either cast all your care upon him and trust
him only or we'll die in our sins. Verily I say unto you, He that
believeth on me hath everlasting life. That's a word from God. That's all you've got. And you
will rest your consolation and your hope on him. And we don't
separate God's written word from the living word. The Lord Jesus
Christ is the word. We're resting our hope on him,
aren't we? And on what we've heard. What did Abigail say? When God fulfills all the words
that he has promised unto you, remember me. It's exactly what
thief on the cross say. I know that God's gonna fulfill
for you what he promised, remember me. We have a word from God. The
disciples were worried Peter had just rebuked the Lord in
chapter 13 of John. And the Lord Jesus had just called
Peter Satan. The Lord Jesus Christ looked
at Peter and said, get thee behind me Satan. What if the Lord Jesus
Christ said that to you, called you the devil? And then the Lord looked at Peter
and said, Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God,
believe also in me. For in my father's house are
many mansions, if it were not so, I would have told you, I
go and prepare a place for you, and if I go and prepare a place
for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that
where I am there you may be also. That's a word from God. You believe
that or you don't believe it. Perhaps this thief on the cross,
I assume he was a Jew, perhaps he'd been taught as a child the
scriptures as all Jews would have been. And perhaps when he heard the
Lord Jesus Christ say, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? That was a word from God, he
heard that. And he believed that part of it. But perhaps he remembered
that that verse that the Lord Jesus quoted came from Psalm
22. And perhaps flooding his memory
were the other verses of Psalm 22 that were being fulfilled
right before his eyes. He was watching Psalm 22 being
fulfilled. Many bulls have come past me
about. I am poured out like water. They
part my garments among themselves. My strength is dried up. I can
tell all my bones. That's all. You see, Psalm 22
is a picture of what the Lord Jesus experienced on Calvary's
cross. And the thief's watching that happen. And he believed God. It is finished. We know that
the Lord Jesus died before the thieves died because when the
Roman soldiers came at the end of the day to see if they were
dead, they had to break the legs of the two thieves so that they
could no longer sustain their weight and in their collapsing
of broken legs, their lungs would fill up and they would die instantly.
But when they came to the Lord Jesus, he was already dead. They
didn't break his legs. In fulfillment of the prophecy,
not one of his bones would be broken. So we know that the thief
on the cross heard the very last words that the Lord Jesus spoke.
It is finished. Father into thy hands, I commend
my spirit. And he believed. He believed
that everything that God required for his salvation, the Lord Jesus
Christ had just accomplished. He believed God. And in believing
God, he had the boldness to say, Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. Remember me. Lord, I believe
you. I've got no place else to go. Oh, brethren. Say, well, I'm
not hanging on a cross and I'm not bleeding out right now. We
have no idea how close to death we really are, do we? Believe God. Abigail believed God and she had the word of David
to say, go home in peace. You have found acceptance with
me." And she became David's wife. The thief on the cross had the
Lord Jesus say to him, this day, you'll be with me in paradise.
What a good consolation. What a good hope. A good confession
always has a good hope. Our heavenly Father, bless your
word. Give to us a good confession in Christ and give us a good
hope of your everlasting consolation. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. 103, let's stand together, number
103. One day when heaven was filled
with His praises One day when sin was as black as could be
Jesus came forth to be born of a virgin Dwelt among men, my
example is He Living, He loved me. Dying, He saved me. Buried, He carried my sins far
away. Rising, He justified freely forever. One day, He's coming, O glorious
day. lead.