Good morning again. I was remiss
the first hour for not even introducing our guest preacher this morning,
but he needs no introduction here. He's like our other preacher.
So Greg's been preaching. Of course, our pastor is out
of town preaching in Springfield, Missouri. But he's been preaching
on the body of Christ lately, and we've been greatly blessed.
And if two bodies were ever joined at the hip, I think it's our
two churches, Todd, the one in Lexington and the one here. So
anyway, we appreciate you, and thanks for coming. All right,
let's open the second hour's worship with the hymn that is
found on the back of your bulletin. Let's all stand together and
we'll sing the hymn on the back of the bulletin. ? How beauteous are their feet
? ? Who stand on Zion's hill ? ? Who bring salvation on their
tongues ? ? And words of peace reveal ? ? How charming is their
voice ? ? How sweet the tidings are ? How happy are our ears
that hear this joyful sound! which kings and prophets waited
for and sought but never found. How blessed are our eyes that
see this heavenly light! Prophets and kings desired it
long, But died without the sight. The watchmen joined their voice,
And tuneful notes employ, Jerusalem breaks forth in songs, and deserts
learn the joy. The Lord makes bare His arms,
Please be seated. Would you join me and turn in
God's Word to John 17, the Gospel of John. And I want us, as we read this,
to see the unbreakable relationship between God the Father, Christ
the Son, God the Spirit and His people. And I hope the Lord will
bless it to His, glorify Him and be a comfort to His people.
And I ask your indulgence, because sometimes I know younger, I'm
not the brightest man, but all the vowels in these people get
confused. And I'd like to try to put the
nouns back where the pronouns are. Forgive me, please. This is Christ's prayer to God
the Father. And one thing we can say with
certainty, do you think there's any chance that God's gonna deny
his son what he prays? Not a chance. So we know this
is going to happen. And these words spake Jesus and
lifted up his eyes to heaven, said, God the Father, thou has
come, glorify thy son Christ, that thy son Christ may also
glorify God the Father. God the Father has given Christ
power over all flesh That Christ should give eternal life to as
many as God the Father has given Christ He has all power that's why I
say when people say Christ died for you wants to save you that
is blasphemy Christ is going to save everyone. He wants to
save that's it this is life eternal, that these people may know God
the Father, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom God the
Father has sent. Christ has glorified God the
Father on earth, and Christ has finished the work which God gave
us Christ to do. And that work was to accomplish
the salvation of his people. And now, O Father, glorify Christ
with thy own self, with the glory which Christ had with God before
the world was. Christ has manifested God's name
unto men which God the Father gave Christ out of the world. Gods they were, and God gave
them to Christ, and these people have kept God's word. Now, these
people have known that all things whatsoever God has given Christ
are from God. For Christ has given them the
words which God gave him. And these people have received
these words and have known surely that Christ came out from God
the Father. And these people have believed
that God sent Christ. And in verse nine, Christ says,
I pray for these people. And just so he's clear, he says
in the next sentence, Christ says, I pray not for the world. I'm not praying for everybody.
I'm praying for the people that God the Father gave me and them
only. But I'm praying, I'm not praying
for the world, but I'm praying for the people which God has
given me, for they are God the Father's. And all are Christ,
and all mine, all are thine, and thine are mine, and I am
glorified in them. We can take great comfort in
my only hope of life is that Christ has prayed for me. And
I can be a certain if he has prayed for you and for me, we
can be certain we'll see Him in glory, because His prayers
never fail. Unlike mine, which are, as Brother
Sadler, nothing but sin, tainted with the sin of my... His prayers
are perfect. What a great comfort it knows
is that that covenant of grace cannot be broken, and it is accomplished. I can sleep good on that. I can't
sleep on a lot of things, but that I can sleep well at night
and rest. Let us go to the Lord in prayer. Lord, we would ask that you would
enable us to pray correctly this morning. Send your spirit to
us to worship you are right. And to give you all the glory.
We pray for the servant you've sent to us and our brother. And
all your gospel preachers and their families that you would
bless them. encourage them, comfort them, and, Lord, that you would
speak through them. And as your people, we pray,
O God, enable us to hear and to believe. Do not leave us to
ourselves, for we have no strength and no power. And we pray this day for those
who are strangers to your grace, This might be the day, Lord,
when you reveal yourself to them. We ask that Christ would take
this prayer and make it effectual to God the Father. We ask it
for your glory. Amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing hymn number 12 from your gospel hymn spiral, hymn
book number 12, So Be Still My Heart. Let's all stand together. Upon my great and sovereign God,
I cast my soul and rest. My Father's hand controls the
world, and what He does is best. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blessed. In raging storms and
fiery trials, He keeps me from all harm. He walks with me and
holds me in His everlasting arms. So be still, my heart, and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blessed. ? My God with skill
infallible ? And great designs of grace ? With power and love
that never fail ? Shall order all my ways ? So be still my
heart and doubt no more ? Believe and find sweet rest God's wisdom,
love, and truth and power combine to make thee blessed. My life's most minute circumstance
is ordered by my God who promised that in all things he will ever
do me good. So be still my heart and doubt
no more. Believe and find sweet rest. God's wisdom, love, and truth,
and power combine to make thee blessed. Please be seated. Would you turn with me to Luke
chapter 23? Beginning in verse 39. 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, Does 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, 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. We have many instances of great
faith in the scripture. The first thing that came to
my mind when I was thinking about that was Noah, in obedience to
God's command, spending 120 years building an ark before a drop
of rain ever fell. I think of Abraham. The promised Messiah was going
to come through Isaac. And then God said, take him and
kill him. And Abraham believed that God
would raise that boy from the dead, and he lifted up his arm
to slay his son, knowing God would raise him from the dead.
What faith? I think of Moses standing before
Pharaoh. I love thinking about this. Thus
saith the Lord, let my people go. And Pharaoh said, who is
the Lord that I should obey him? I would love to be able to look
in his mind at that time. You're fixing to find out. I
think of David running. at that giant, Goliath, saying,
You come with a sword and a spear and a shield, but I come in the
name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel,
whom you have defied. This day will the Lord deliver
you into my hand. What faith! And in the New Testament, I think
of that Roman centurion, who said to the Lord, speak the word
only. I don't need anything else. I don't need any experience.
Speak the word only and my servant shall be healed. How highly he
viewed the Lord Jesus Christ. I think of the Syro-Phoenician
woman. She comes to the Lord, Jesus, our son of David, have
mercy on me. He answered her, not a word.
He ignored her. Did she stop? No, she continued
to cry. And he said to his disciples,
for her to hear, I'm not sent but to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel. I didn't come to save everybody. How did she
respond? Then she came and worshiped him
saying, Lord, help me. If you don't help me, I won't
be helped. And he said, it's not right to take the children's
bread and throw it to dogs. She said, that's the truth. If
I ever heard the truth, that's it. That's the truth. I'm not looking for a place setting,
but I'd be awful happy to be one of those little dogs sitting
under the children's table, getting crumbs. And he said, Oh woman,
great is thy faith. But you know what? I believe
the greatest faith ever seen is the faith of the thief. This dying thief. Now the disciples had seen the
Lord do what only God can do. They saw Him raise the dead. They saw Him bring matter into
the universe that had not before existed. They haven't been able
to do that in any laboratory, have they? Only the Lord could
do that in feeding the 5,000 with two sardines and five barley
loaves. They seen him control the weather. Peace, be still. And they said,
what manner of man is this that even the wind and the seas do
obey him? He gave sight to people who were
born blind. Oh, they saw him do what only
God could do. And where were they when this
man was boldly confessing Christ? They were in hiding. None of them were around at this
time. They were in hiding. Now this man saw no miracles. He never saw a miracle. And all he saw was a man nailed
to a cross, seemingly so weak, emaciated, forsaken by his friends,
all alone. That's all he saw. His visage
marred to where you couldn't even tell he was a human being.
And you know what he said? He knew that this man hanging
on the cross was the Lord, the dictator, the absolute controller
of all things. He knew he was Lord. He recognized what no one else
did. Now this man was never baptized. He never gave a dime to the cause
of Christ. He didn't have any good works
to recommend him. And yet the Lord gave him more
assurance than he gave any other man. Today, thou shalt be with me
in paradise. Now, if you and I are ever saved,
we're going to have the exact same faith as this man. I don't believe it'll be as strong.
It ought to be, but I doubt that it will be in my case at any
rate. But this man is what every believer has, this faith. Like
I said, maybe not this strong, but you can know by the time
this message is over, you can know whether or not you have
saving faith. Don't you want to know? That's
something I desperately want to know. If I actually possess
the faith of God's elect saving faith. Now, faith is the evidence of
things not seen. Can you see your justification? I can't see my justification.
What's the evidence you got then? Faith. That's how important faith
is. Can you see your election? No. What makes you think you're elect?
Well, I hope you'll know by the end of this message. Now some have used the thief
to flatter themselves that they can put off the things of God
until a later date. The thief was saved at the last
hour. Now, if I even think something
like that, that proves that I think that I've got a power to do something
that I really don't have. Oh, I can believe and repent
whenever I get ready. You're a very misguided soul
if that's what you believe. You're sadly mistaken. Don't
use the thief. as a reason to think I can put
things off until a later date. use the thieves death to give
them some hope about their relatives because of a deathbed salvation.
You know, this week in the Lexington Herald-Leader, I was reading
the obituaries. I don't know, I can't tell you
why I read them. It was actually last week. But I was reading
the obituaries and someone said he accepted Christ as his personal
Savior on May 4th. You know, some kind of deathbed
happens all the time. And people will use that as kind
of a reason to think, well, maybe my relative was saved, even though
they didn't believe the gospel, something happened, you know.
Now remember this, what about the other thief? As he lived, he died. We're given one thief that was
saved, lest we despair. But only one. lest we presume. Now these thieves remind us of
how close we are right now to eternity. And after that, heaven or hell. How close these two men were
to eternity. They would die in just a few
hours. Remember they were still alive
and the soldiers came and clubbed their legs and broke them so
they would suffocate and die because they didn't want these
men hanging on the cross on the Passover. God forbid that something
like that should happen. But they had just a couple of
hours to live. And then heaven or hell. Some present this thief as an
illustration of how little you need to know to be saved. Thief never heard of election.
Thief never heard of predestination. The thief never heard of justification. The thief never heard of sanctification. The thief didn't hear of any
of these things and he was saved. That's right. But if he would have heard him,
he would have believed him. You see, faith is in a person. It's not simply in a doctrine.
It's in a person. And if you believe this person,
you automatically believe all the doctrine. They go together. You believe the person. For instance,
you can't believe Jesus Christ is God and believe that he can
die for somebody and they wind up in hell anyway. That's absolutely
impossible. Faith is in a person. And what
we believe is determined by who we believe. Does a man have to
believe, fill in the blank, whatever it is in the scriptures, does
he have to believe that to be saved? You do. You do. Whatever it is, if it's in the
Bible, yes, you do. Now most would agree that he
had the minimal amount of saving knowledge. And I wouldn't deny
that. But as I've already stated, this is the greatest faith this
world has ever seen. This thief hanging on a tree
and seeing the Lord of glory, knowing who he was and what he
confessed when no one else confessed him. Now, it's pointed out in
both Luke and Mark's account that both of these thieves began
reviling Christ. When this thief, who ended up
saying, Lord, remember me, when he first went to the cross and
was nailed to the cross, he was casting the same thing in the
teeth of the Lord as the other thief. They were both reviling
him. They both hated him. They both were making fun of
him. They both were speaking blasphemously. He didn't have any interest at
all. He was dying as he lived, But
something happened. While the other thief continued
to revile the Lord, he grew strangely silent. He saw something that
he didn't see before. In that instant, he went to that
cross a lost soul. And in that short period of time,
when they took him down, he was saved. And he was in the very
presence of Christ. Now, what about this thief? What
happened to him? These two thieves actually are
the two representative men. You and I are represented by
one of these two men. You can write that down. These
are the two representative men. On the middle cross, you have
a man dying for sin, the Lord Jesus Christ. On his left was
a man dying in his sins. And on his right, there was a
man dying unto sin. What was the difference between
these two men? They were equally wicked. They were equally guilty. These were bad men, evil men,
suffering what they deserved. What is the difference between
these two men? They also heard the same things.
The thief that was condemned heard the exact same thing that
the thief that was saved heard. They had the same experience.
What was the difference between these two men? Turn with me for a moment to
1 Corinthians chapter 4. Now when Paul gives this verse,
he's thinking of a passage of scripture in Exodus chapter 11,
where God said against any of the children of Israel, shall
not a dog move his tongue against man or beast, but you may know
how that the Lord doth put a difference. between the Egyptians and the
children of Israel. Now that's what Paul has in mind
when he makes this statement in first Corinthians chapter
four, verse seven, four, who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? One thief saved, the other thief
left to himself. Who made him to differ? God the
Father did in eternal election when He chose Him and His Son
before time began. God the Son did when He died
for Him and paid for His sins. God the Son made the difference.
God the Holy Spirit made the difference when He regenerated
Him and gave Him a new heart that was not there before, right
then. God made the difference. What
do you have that you didn't receive? That one thief who believed,
where'd the faith come from? He received it. God gave it to
him. That's why I believed. That's
the difference. God makes the difference. Now, let's consider these two
thieves. The first one I want to consider
is the one who railed and blasphemed. Let's consider something about
this man. Look back in our text in Luke chapter 23. Verse 39, in one of the male
factors, which were hanged, railed on him, that word is blasphemy,
saying, if thou be the Christ, save thyself and us. Now let me point out two things
about this fellow. Number one is found in the word
if. If you're the Christ. If you're the Christ. You're the Christ. Now, if you
would have asked Peter after he fell, and as far as he was
concerned, he denied the Lord and it was over for him. He didn't
understand what the Lord meant when he said, whosoever shall
deny me before men, him will I deny before my father, which
is in heaven. And he thought he denied the Lord. He thought
it was over for him. And if you would have asked Peter at that
time, are you saved? Probably not. Probably not. But if you would have asked him,
do you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God? He'd
say, with all my heart, I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of the living God. Now, let me remind you of something.
Faith doesn't have anything to do with what you believe about
yourself. You believe that? Faith has nothing to do with
whether you think you're saved or whether you think you're not
saved. Faith has to do with this. Do you believe he is God, the
son, God's Christ? Do you believe that? Every believer
does. Might struggle what they think
about themselves, but they don't struggle with this. He's got
the son. He's God's Christ. And this man
was saying, if you're the Christ, well, he exposed himself then.
If you're the Christ, the next thing that I noticed about this
man is that this man is this wicked sense of entitlement he
had. If you're the Christ, save us,
save us, save yourself, save us, come down from the cross,
save us. If you're the Christ, you ought to save us. Entitlement. If you ever find
out who you are, you'll lose that sense of entitlement. You'll
believe that whatever, if God sends you to hell, you'll be
getting exactly what you deserve. You won't be complaining about
God's sovereignty and how it's fair for him to save some and
pass by others and so on. All that stuff will be gone because
you'll know with you, with you, what you deserve is hell. This
man had this sense of entitlement though. If you're the Christ,
Save yourself, save us too. Come down and save us. That's
what you ought to do if you're the Christ. Entitlement. Verse 40. But the other answering rebuked
him, saying, does not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same
condemnation? Where there's saving faith, there
will not be a sense of entitlement. He rebuked him for this. Don't
you fear God seeing you are in the same condemnation? Gone are the objections concerning
God's fairness. That man believes he has no claims
on God. You know that the one thing fair
for you is hell. Don't you fear God. Now, this man believed, listen
to me, this man believed that Jesus of Nazareth is God. When he said, don't you fear
God, that one hanging on the tree beside me, He's God. He's the Creator. He's the Sovereign
of the Universe. And He believed that. How could He believe that? Same
way you did. It was revealed to Him. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah,
for flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you. For reveal what?
Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, the eternal
Son of God, the uncreated second person of the Trinity, God's
Christ. Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah,
flesh and blood didn't reveal that to thee. but my Father which
is in heaven." Now he believed that Jesus of Nazareth was God
and everything else he said was predicated upon that. That he
believed that Jesus of Nazareth was God. Do you believe Jesus
of Nazareth is God? And he believed in the absolute,
listen carefully, he believed in the absolute justice of God. Don't you fear God, seeing you're
in the same condemnation? For we indeed justly, absolute
justice is being meted out toward us. For we're receiving the due
reward, the perfect punishment that we actually deserve. But
this man, hath done nothing amiss. Now, if anyone is ever truly
seeking God, I know this, they cannot be satisfied with anything
short of absolute perfect justice. Now, what do I mean by that?
I mean that the only way I can be satisfied is for God to look
at me as without sin, perfectly just, that He's not merely forgiving
me and letting me off the hook, but that I stand before God to
where the justice of God demands my salvation. Anybody that believes, they believe
in the absolute justice of God. And I can't be satisfied. I can't
be satisfied with anything short of perfect justice that glorifies
and honors the justice and righteousness of God. You know, I used to use
a term, I'm ashamed that I ever used it, but justification is
just as if I never sinned. You ever heard that? Justification
is just as if I never sinned. There's one problem with that.
If it's just as if I never sinned, that means I still sinned. But in the gospel, God actually justifies with absolute
justice Everybody he saves and absolutely justly damns, everybody
he damns. But perfect justice and righteousness
is meted out. And no believer can be satisfied
with anything short of perfect, absolute righteousness. Amen? I can't be satisfied with anything
but that. And this man realized that. He said, we indeed justly. It's what the Bible calls justification. And this man believed that he
was a sinner deserving nothing but condemnation. That's what
he thought about himself. He said, we indeed justly, we're
receiving the due reward of our deeds. This man really believed
he was a sinner with absolutely no claims on God. Now that's
how I can tell if somebody really believes they're a sinner. If
they really believe they're a sinner, they believe they have no claims
on God. If God sends me to hell, if he
passes me by, if he refuses to have mercy on me, holy and just
is his name. I'm getting exactly what I deserved.
Now, I want to ask you a question. If God decided not to save you
and to pass you by, would he still be just? Would he still be glorious? Would he still be the only living
and true God, and whatever he does is right, just, holy, and
true? We're getting exactly what we
deserve. No sense of entitlement. And he believed in the sinlessness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This man hath done nothing amiss. He's never sinned. He did no
sin. He knew no sin. In him is no
sin. He believed in the absolute sinlessness
of Jesus Christ. You see, there's a point behind
this. This sinless Christ, his life is my life before God. His
righteousness is my righteousness before God. His perfect obedience
is my obedience before God. You put my history up behind
me on a film and it's all perfect. Perfect righteousness, the absolute
sinlessness of the Lord Jesus Christ is my personal righteousness
before God. Just as truly as he was made
my sin became his, That's why I said, my God, my God, why have
you forsaken me? When the lights were turned off,
he was on the cross from nine to three, from 12 to three. All the stuff that was said at
first was from nine to 12 and from 12 to three, nothing was
said. Except this, my God, my God,
why have you forsaken me? And I know the answer to that
question. My sin became His sin. And He was forsaken because that's
what I deserve, that I might not be forsaken. Now, he believed in the sinlessness
of Jesus Christ. This man hath done nothing amiss. Do you believe that? Do you believe
that? That he was sinless? Now remember,
this is what saving faith is made of. This that you can know
whether or not you have saving faith by, if you have the faith,
this thief had, he believed that Jesus Christ was God. He believed
in the absolute justice of God in all things. He believed in
the sinlessness of the Lord, Jesus Christ. And here is such
an amazing thing. He looked at the Lord hanging
on the cross. seemingly so helpless and so
abandoned and so forsaken. And he looked at him and he said,
Lord, you're the Lord. You're the absolute dictator
of the universe. You're the Lord of creation.
You created the world. You're the Lord of Providence.
The reason you're hanging on that tree is because of your
will. The reason they nailed the spikes in your hands and
feet is because you determined for it to be done. Everything
is under your control. Everything in this transaction
is under your control. I understand that. You're the
Lord of Providence. You're the Lord of Salvation. I understand
that. My salvation is not in my hands.
It's in your hands. It's up to you as to whether
or not I'll be saved. You're the Lord. He understood
the Lordship of Jesus Christ. He believed that. Do you? Do you believe he's Lord? And
you know what else he said? He said, I know that you're not
going to remain dead. You're going to come back as
a mighty conquering king in a kingdom. I know that you can't fail in
what you're doing. You're the Lord. You're God.
You can't fail. You're going to come back as
a mighty reigning king in a kingdom. He knew that we'll look at the
greatness of this man's faith. Nobody else saw that they were
in hiding. They were scared to death or making fun of it. But
this man knew he's a mighty reigning king. He's the king of kings
and the Lord of Lords. And you'll come back reigning
as the king. And this man knew, he knew that
salvation was in Christ's sovereign will. Because he said, Lord,
remember me when you come in your kingdom.
If you remember me, nothing else will need to be said. If you
remember me, All is well. It's the same thing the leper
said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. The same thing
in principle. Remember me when you come back as a mighty reigning
king. Oh, if you just remember me,
if you just acknowledge me before the father, everything's fine.
Nothing else needs to be said. I don't want, I don't need to
say a thing. Remember me when you come into your kingdom. And the Lord said to this man, who was not baptized, who had
never given a dime to the cause of Christ, and didn't have one
good work to recommend him. He said to this man, today thou
shalt be with me in paradise. And I don't have any doubt that
when our Lord went into heaven, the first person to come after
that was this thief with Christ in paradise. Now, what did the
thief believe? Who did the thief believe would
probably be a better way to say that. Who did the thief believe? Now, if you and I have saving
faith, we're going to have the same faith this thief had. He believed that Jesus of Nazareth
was God. Compare yourself to this man.
He believed God was absolutely just. He believed he was a sinner. He really believed that. He believed Christ was sinless. He believed Christ was Lord,
Lord of creation, Lord of providence, Lord of salvation. He believed
that whatever Christ did of necessity would be successful. You can't
stay dead. You're going to come back as
a mighty reigning king. And he believed that salvation
was in the sovereign will of Christ. Lord, remember me when you come
in your kingdom. That's what the thief believed.
You want me to That's exactly what every believer believes. May God grant us the same faith
that this thief had. I love that line. The dying thief
rejoiced to see that fountain in his day. And there may I,
though vile as he, Wash all my sins away. Let's pray together. Lord, in Christ's name, we don't come any other way but
in His name. We come pleading no past, present, or future merit,
but only in Christ's name. We ask that you give each person
here the same faith that this thief had. For Christ's sake,
we pray for your continued blessing upon this assembly. Lord, we
pray for your favor and your grace toward us. In Christ's
blessed name, we pray. Amen. the cost of survival. Pass me not, O gracious Father,
sinful, wretched though I be. Though you might in truth condemn
me, let your mercy on me. Love of God so everlasting, blood
of Christ so rich and free, grace of God so strong and saving,
magnify them all in me. Pass me not, O blessed Savior,
let me hear your gracious call. I'm a guilty, helpless sinner,
Savior, at your feet I fall. Love of God so everlasting, Blood
of Christ so rich and free, Grace of God so strong and saving,
Magnify them all in me. Pass me not, O mighty Spirit. You can cause the dead to live. Speak the word of saving power. Give me faith and make me live. of God so everlasting, blood
of Christ so rich and free, grace of God so strong and saving,
magnify them all in me. Pass me not a poor lost sinner
If you will you can save me Reach down with your hand of mercy
Saving others Lord save me love of God God so everlasting, blood
of Christ so rich and free, grace of God so strong and saving,
magnify them all in me. Thank you very much.