Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the book of Luke chapter 23. Luke chapter 23. I would like to read verses 39
to 43. 23, beginning in verse 39, the Scriptures say, and one of the
male factors, which were hanged, wrangled on him, saying, If thou
be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other, answering rebuked
him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same
condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we
receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man hath done
nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord,
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said
unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in
paradise. Let's pray together. Our Father, as we come this morning,
we are so thankful for the blessed privilege that we have to call
upon you and to thank you for your long-suffering and mercy,
Lord, that you would allow us to be here today. What privilege,
what joy, what comfort. Would you help us to worship?
Lord, would you bless us today through your word? Lord, may
Christ be honored. Your people comforted. Would you save sinners today?
Lord, would you call out of darkness your people for Christ's sake? Thank you. John Calvin said concerning
this passage of Scripture, this very well could be. one of the greatest examples,
manifestations of faith that's ever recorded in scriptures. The Lord's hour had come. Now
you know many times he said, my hour has not yet come. Well, it's here moving. And now he's going to have to
drink of a cup, of a of his father. Absolute justice is going to
have to be dealt with right now. Here is the Lord of glory, and
now upon that cross, by God's grace, the holy, harmless
Lamb of God, here is the Lord himself being made sin. Willingly, obediently, made so
by the Father's good pleasure. If He does not come to this cross,
if He's not made sin, if He's not made what His people are,
we don't have any hope. Here is Almighty God dealing
with God. here's God satisfying himself.
And we're able to enter in by the grace of God, and we're able
to consider it as the Spirit of God gives us some understanding. All of the debt, all of the eternal
debt of his people, those that he
had stood for everlastingly. Everything that they are, everything
in thought and word and deed, and everything that they deserved,
being in themselves, rebels against God, everything that they deserved
for eternity, He's going to pay by one sacrifice. Here is the Lord Himself. The
scripture says that He's forsaken of His Father. My God, my God,
why hast Thou forsaken me? Martin Luther said, who can perceive
this truth? God. Forsaken God. We can't even enter into this
thought. I want you to look at Acts chapter
20, verse 28. Here's an amazing passage of
Scripture. Acts 20, 28. Now listen. This
is the way that it is. This is the way it is. Whatever
God says is so. And you know that. Now we know
that God Himself, God Himself cannot die. Now we understand
that. We know that. I want you to read
Acts 20, 28. Now here is the Father forsaking
the Son. Acts 20, 28. Take heed therefore
unto yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy
Ghost hath made you overseers to feed the church of God which
He, God, has purchased with His own blood. The blood of God being shared. God forsaking God. Now, who can enter into that?
The secret things belong to the Lord. Those things that are revealed
for us and for our children. But here we are. Here's the Lord
of glory. The Word made flesh. In the beginning
was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word
was God. Brother Don said last weekend,
Jesus is God. Here's God. Now there's God upon
that cross. Now we know that. Acts 20.28
says that the blood of God will be shed. The Lord of glory cries unto
his Father, why have you forsaken me? Well, Mark 15.25 tells us that
the Lord was crucified about the ninth hour. About 9 a.m.,
excuse me, third hour, 9 a.m., about 9 o'clock, crucifixion
started. And there were two thieves that
were on each side, one thief on each side, two thieves, one
on each side that day. And during the next three hours,
these two thieves listened. About three hours, these two
thieves listened. proud that they stood by and
they railed on the Lord and called out and ridiculed Him. Two thieves listened. And while these two thieves were
listening, one of the things that the Scriptures sets forth
in Luke 23, verse 34, it says, Then said Jesus, forgive them. But they know not
what they do. And they parted with Raymond
and cast lots. And these two thieves, along
with all the other folks that were there that day, they watched.
And they listened. And they heard. They saw as Raymond
gambled far. And they heard the religious
leaders. all of the supposedly religiously
educated people. He saved others, himself he couldn't
save. If he'd be the Christ, the chosen
of God, and they listened, they heard. The soldiers mocked him,
offered him some vinegar to drink, and said, If thou be the king
of the Jews, save thyself. Oh, how bleak this must have
appeared to be. Here's the Lord of glory. Here
is Almighty God. Stripped. Humiliation. Humbled of self. gave himself to the smiters.
They spit on him, pulled out his beard, made a crown of thorns,
stuck it on his head, put a robe on him, gave him a stick or a
scepter, took that stick and hit him on the head with it. I don't doubt for a second that
they stood there and watched the One that had performed the
miracles. They had seen Him raise the dead. They had seen Him heal
the sick and feed the hungry. And now it appears that He's
totally helpless. Here He is, hanging there. Now according to Matthew and
Mark's account of the crucifixion, Those two accounts set forth
that these two thieves both joined in the railing and the disrespect
that was shown to the Lord of Glory right up to the time of
that twelve o'clock, that sixth hour. Right up to that time,
both thieves were railing on the Lord. Listen to this. Matthew 27, 43 to 45. He trusted
in God. Let him deliver him now if he
will have him. For he said, the Lord said there,
quoting, he said, I am the Son of God. And the thieves also
which were crucified with him cast the same in his teeth. Now
the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth
hour. Mark 15.32 says, Let Christ, the King of Israel, descend now
from the cross, that we may see and believe in they that were
crucified with him, reviled him. And when the sixth hour will
come, there will be darkness over the whole land until the
ninth hour. Now, if those two accounts had been the only two
accounts that we would have had, we would have never known of
the miracle. of absolute saving grace and
power shown to one of the thieves, because those two accounts, Matthew
and Mark, they set forth right up until the time that God just
blackened everything. Darkness was upon the land from
12 o'clock to 3 o'clock, pitch black. We would have never known But
there were a lot of things written, a lot of things done by our Lord. John said that all the things
that were done by our Lord had been written down in books. The
world would not contain the books. How much had he done? I don't
know. But I'll tell you what I do know.
I do know what Scripture reveals. And I know this, by the grace
of God, this prophecy of our Lord concerning himself,
one shall be taken and the other left. It was witnessed right
here. I know that. Luke's account,
and Matthew and Mark's account. Now, we know that that's exactly
these thieves right up until the time that the Lord shut down
the light. Right up until that time, those
thieves were raiding on him. mocking him, making fun of him. But Luke's account gives a detail
of a miracle that happened there on Calvary concerning God's sovereign,
electing, quickening grace. And that's what I'd like to look
at for just a few minutes there in Luke. That's where we read
back in Luke 23. Verse 39, this is what happened.
I'm talking about just a few sentences. Just how long did
those few sentences take? Probably not long, just a minute
or so. But oh, what happened in that
little short period of time. Here's what happened. Verse 39, and one of the male
factors which were hanged, As we said, Thou be Christ, save
Thyself and us. Now here was absolute, total
blindness. Here was total enmity against
God and total ignorance manifesting. One of those thieves, and they'd
both been doing it. They were both doing it. shut down everything that could
be seen. One of them, that's what he said,
he said, if thou be Christ, well I know this, he was ignorant
of who the Lord of glory was. The scripture says in John 17,
verse 2, I'll just read this to you, John 17, 2. as thou hast given him, and this
is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." I know that this male
factor right here was ignorant of who was hanging there. I know
he was. If thou be Christ, he was ignorant of the necessity And therefore God's will, God's
purpose, if thou be Christ, save thyself. He couldn't save himself. And his people be saved. He must
die. God must be just. If he saves
himself, we will perish. Almighty God must deal with sin. God does not sweep sin under
the rug. God does not say, well, never
mind, forget about it. No! The wages of sin is death. Why did He die? Because there
was the Lamb of God made sin. There, the law found sin. There, justice must be satisfied. There was God Almighty dealing
with all of God's elect in one person. He was ignorant of the penalty
of sin. Save thyself and save us! He was a man that was totally
ignorant, dying in his sin, railing on the only hope of anybody. Man by nature blames God for
man's own rebellion. If you're Christ, like you say
you are, save yourself and save us. It's always somebody else's
fault. That's what man by nature, it's
always somebody else's fault. Adam, did you eat of the fruit? Or the woman that you gave me?
He was blaming God. If you wouldn't have given me
the woman, I wouldn't have eaten the fruit. He blamed God. You
mark it down. A man, by nature, is always going
to blame somebody else. I'm a victim of circumstances.
Leave the man to himself, and he will rail on God throughout
all eternity. But on the other side, there
was another thief there. And something marvelous happened.
Faith was imparted. Faith. A new heart was given. In an instant, the Lord of Glory,
I'm talking about just before this other thief even knew what
happened, Almighty God, in everlasting snatched an object of His mercy
from the very brink of hell, the Lord wouldn't have let him
perish. The Lord had always known him. The Lord had always chosen
this one. I know He had. Because of what
we're about to read, I know, I know this is so. Here was a
trophy of His grace and His compassion. This was one of the ones he came
for. And in the timing of Almighty God, the Lord was not pleased
to call him out of darkness until this moment. Let that man do
just exactly what that man wanted to do. All those years, doing
just exactly what he wanted to do. He wanted to steal. That was his love. He was a thief. He was caught. He was guilty. He was right there on that cross.
And here we see this one in whom was no merit. One without any works of righteousness. What had he done? He had rebelled
against God. That's all he had ever done.
What did you ever do? What did I ever do? That's all
I'd ever done. Oh, just moments before the three
hours of darkness covered the land, the mercy of God's grace
unfolded and a precious conversation took place. And the evidence
of God's grace and God's mercy was set forth. Here was the first
thing I know about this thief. The one on the other side, not
the one that railed on him, had been, had been, but here was
an honest confession. And this is what you're going
to find every time God Almighty does something for somebody.
They get to be honest. Verse 40 and 41, it said, But
the other answering rebuked him, that is, the first thief on the
other side, saying, Dost not thou fear God? He knew who this was. How did
he know that? He only knew it one way. The
God of all grace had given him a new heart. God had opened his
eyes that the Lord of glory had shown himself to this thief.
Does not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? God is just. Here is the Lord. He's hanging
there for a reason. We're going to deal with it in
just a second. And you're hanging there for a reason. He said in verse 41, we indeed
justly, He knew. I'm guilty. I'm guilty. And He said, I am getting, we
are getting, we're receiving the due reward of our deeds.
I'm getting just exactly what I deserve. Had Almighty God not
called me out of darkness, had the Lord of Glory not given me
a new heart, a heart that calls out for mercy and grace, a heart
that sees Him, a heart that trusts Him, had Almighty God been pleased
to lead me to myself, And believe me and myself, I didn't deserve
anything other than that. I didn't deserve anything other
than that. He'd have put me in hell. And I'd have gone through eternity. Screaming blasphemies against
God Almighty. I would have never repented.
I would have never repented. I'd have blamed God for putting
me there. And I'd have gotten just exactly what I deserved.
And you would too? We're hanging here today getting
just exactly what this man has done nothing amiss. Here was
a thief made to see what he is by nature. Deserving God's judgment and
honest enough to admit it. It's amazing how honest God makes
men to be. By the time that Almighty God
gives the man a new heart, he's just proud and arrogant, he's
just braille, buzzed, cussed, everything is Almighty God. But
this man knew. He knew all his sin. We're getting
just exactly what we deserve. All of his sin, he comes short
of the glory of God. But I'll tell you what he knew
more intimately than that. I deserve it. I deserve it. The scripture is truly believed
by those that have been brought to see themselves before God
Almighty. 1 Timothy 1.15, this is a faithful
saying, worthy of all acceptations that Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners, before my chief. I know, I know that in myself
I can agree with this. I do agree with this. Old wretched
man that I am. I know that. I know that there's
a body of death. The same body in which I was
born, I still got. Same one. Same old heart. Same old mind. Same old desires. Same old... I know this. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? This is what that thief knew
he was a thief. He was honest. He had an honest confession.
So the first mark of a new heart is the admittance that I have
an old heart. I've got an old man, a heart
that will surely rail upon the Lord, and a heart that will absolutely
run from Him if left to myself. And I must admit, there was secondly
a dying request. Verse 42 said, he said unto Jesus,
Lord, isn't it wonderful how I know
every knee is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess.
But thanks be unto God that this side of the grave that God would
give me a heart to confess Remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom." Here was a dying thief, one that
had raved, one that had rebelled, one hanging there. And by the
grace of God, he had been listening they were raised, something marvelous
was happening. He heard what these chief priests
were saying. He heard the Lord of Glory calling to his Father, Father,
forgive them, for they know not what they do. I can tell you
this, I know that the Lord of Glory hears the Lord Himself. I know that the Father hears
the Son. And I know this, that when the Son asked for the Father
to forgive them, I know that there were some out there that
the Lord would call out of darkness. I know He would. But when the
Lord of Glory asked, Father forgive them, I know this for a fact,
He wasn't asking for all of them. He said, I pray not for the one.
Who was he praying for? He said, I'm praying for those
that you've given me. Thine they were, thou gavest
them me. And I'm absolutely convinced
as the Lord looked out and saw those that were railing, he had
just been listening to this one thief just a moment before, and
here was one that he loved. Had always loved. And he listened
to it. And those that railed on Him
out there, those that, I don't know what, maybe 50 days later
at Pentecost, the Lord said 5,000, 5,000 people on the day of Pentecost. 5,000. Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're
doing. But here was one. He said unto Jesus, Do you remember me? This man
was absolutely, positively convinced, I know who this is, and he's going to be victorious.
By the grace of God, he didn't listen to what all those people
were saying concerning him, but what the Spirit of God did, is
they were crying out, you know, if he be the Christ, There was
a sign, faith cometh by hearing. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the word of God. When did this thing hear? I know
this, there was a sign over his head that said this is the King
of the Jews. This is the King of the Jews. Listen to these words. Just listen to what this thief
heard. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do. Verse 35, the people
stood beholding, the rulers also with them, deriding him, saying,
He saved others. Let him save himself, if he be
the Christ, the chosen of God. The soldier mocked. Baal can
come into him, offering him vinegar and saying, If thou be the King
of the Jews, save thyself. And a superscription also written
over him in letters, Greek, Latin, Hebrew, This is the King of the
Jews! This is the King of the Jews!
This is the King of the Jews! And the Spirit of God took what
people were writing on the Lord with, what Pilate had put over
his head, and Almighty God concerning Christ, and the Spirit
of God broke his heart. God blessed him to the salvation
of this children's sinner. And one was on the other side
and heard the same thing, the same words, could say the same
placard, Yes he does. Yes he does. Yes sir, my friend, it is absolutely
necessary to hear the gospel of Christ preached. Faith cometh by hearing, hearing
by the word of God. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel, it's the power of God. And in the day of our Lord's
crucifixion, And God blessed it. It saved
a sinner. Lord, would you remember me?
Lord, would you remember this? Poor, helpless sinner. Here was
one that by faith saw the Lamb of God putting away the guilty. He saw the Lord of glory dying
for him. The Redeemer. The Redeemer of
sinners, who He knew Himself to be. We're deserving of what
we're getting. Lord, You've got a kingdom. And I know You're going to enter
into it. I know You're going to do just exactly what You're
purposed to do. Lord, would You remember me? Lord, hope for one such as I
am here. I'm talking about low down, no
good, stinking thief. Just a thief. Sin. Oh, what power is exhibited in
the moment of his desperate need. I'm getting ready to die. I'm
getting ready to leave this world. I'm going to have to face God.
I'm going to face God. And the only hope that I've got
is in the mediator, is in the substitute, is in the priest. Lord, would you remember me?
And then lastly, there was a word
that the Lord gave this thief, a promise that he could die with. And you think, this thief knew,
I'm gone, I'm gone. I'm getting ready to leave this
world. This is my last, this is my last go around right here.
This is all of it. Ain't no way in the world I'm
getting off this cross alive. I know, I know, I know what's
happening. And the Lord of Glory in verse
43 said this, Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee,
Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Today, today is the
day of salvation. You that my Father gave to me for the foundation of the I've
always known you. I've always loved you. I came into this world to save
you. I'm hanging on this cross to
redeem you. And the Father gave that thief
a new heart to call upon the Lord. And I know this. I know that the Father gave him
because that sinner came to him. Him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out." I'm not going to leave you to yourself. Oh, here's true salvation. Nothing whatsoever to glory in,
no baptism, no Lord's Supper, no walking down the aisle, no
joining an assembly. Here was a sinner saved by the
grace of God. Here was a sinner. Saved by God's
power, God's mercy. The Lord doesn't save people
apart from faith. He gives them faith. By faith,
He's going to teach them what He's done for them. Saves them
by grace through faith. He doesn't save them because
of their faith. He saves them by grace. When
that thief called on the Lord, he said, Lord, would you remember
me? God had already saved him. God
had already called him out of darkness. He had already snatched
that sinner from the jaws of hell. Nothing but grace made
the difference between those two thieves. That was it. The
grace of God. One thief saw the Lord as a helpless
failure. Couldn't do anything. shined in his heart to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me ask you this, who
made them differ? God Almighty. He's the only one
that made them differ. Two men dug out of the same pit,
just like me and you. We're no different. We're no
different. You who think that there's no hope for you. You
who think Yeah, but you don't know what I've done. I may not
know all the details, but I'll tell you this, you're no different
than I am. And we're no different than this thief right here. There
was a man that had nothing. He had nothing to brag on. Nothing. You that think that
you've sent away your day of grace and hope, that there can
be absolutely no possibility whatsoever that Almighty God
would show me mercy. Look and live. You just took
a breath, didn't you? As long as you've got breath
in your lungs, there's hope. Ask Him, Lord, remember me. I'm telling you, Any sinner that
comes to Christ by faith, God-given faith, any sinner that God Almighty
calls out of darkness, gives them a heart, gives them faith
to believe, to cry unto Him, Lord, would you remember me?
I tell you, you will hear Him say, today shall you be with
me in paradise. Haven't you said, what if I don't
die today? And in that day, to hear him
say, you're going to be with me. Now there's a promise to
die with. May the Lord bless these words
in our hearts for Christ's sake.