Well, let us turn to God's Word.
Turning again to the Gospel according to Luke in chapter 23. Luke chapter 23. And reading at verses 32 and
33 we are told, And there were also two other malefactors led
with him, to be put to death. And when they were come to the
place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him and
the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left. And then at 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, 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 last week we were considering the previous portion where we
read of those who were weeping over the Lord Jesus Christ as
he comes from the judgment hall from that mockery of a trial
before Pontius Pilate and is led in the way to Calvary. And we consider then how Christ
spoke to those weepers. Verse 28, Jesus turning unto
them said, Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for
yourselves and for your children. And now we turn to consider the
Lord's dealings with these Manifactors, these two that he is crucified
with, but particularly that one who prays to the Lord Jesus Christ
that he might be remembered by him. We read the familiar 53rd
chapter of Isaiah and of course that is a great prophecy concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. and how that scripture must have
its fulfillment, all that is written in the Old Testament
must have its fulfillment. And those prophecies concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ have been fulfilled, although we know that
there are those that are yet to be fulfilled for years to
come, again in power and great glory. But there in Isaiah 53
we read the familiar words, he was numbered with the transgressors. He made his grave with the wicked. And so these things were accomplished,
as we see here in these two verses, 32 and 33, that two malefactors
were led away with him to be put to death.
And when they would come to that place called Calvary, they crucified
him with one malefactor on the right hand and the other on the
left hand. He is numbered. He is numbered
with the transgression. And so the Scripture, the Word
of God has its fulfilment. But Though Christ is numbered
with the transgressors, we have to remember of course that there
was nothing of sin in him. He is the sinless one. He is
the innocent one. And here in verse 41 we see how
this particular malefactor acknowledges that. We, indeed justly, for
we receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man, This
man hath done nothing amiss. This man is the innocent man. Was he not pronounced innocent
by his human judge? Pontius Pilate, as we've seen
in the previous part of the chapter, those three times, in verse 4,
Pilate says to the chief priest and to the people, I find no
fault in him. He's faultless. there is no cause
of death in him. Again at verse 14, You have brought
this man unto me as one that perverted the people, and behold,
I, having examined him before you, have found no fault in this
man, touching those things whereof ye accuse him, no, nor ye herald,
for I sent you to him, and no nothing worthy of death is done
in him. And then at verse 22, He says unto them, the third
time, the third time, why, what evil hath he done? I have found
no cause of death in him. I will therefore chastise him
and let him go. He is numbered with the transgressors
and yet he is without any sin. He is pronounced innocent even
by his human judge. Well, what do we see here as
Christ identifies himself with the sinners and is crucified
in the midst of two of them? Are we not witnessing the great
truth of the substitutionary atonement that the Lord Jesus
Christ is making? He hath once suffered for sin,
says Peter, the just for the unjust. It's not his own sin
that he is suffering. He has done no sin. There's no
cause of death in him. He is dying as a substitute. It is those sins of his people
imputed to his charge that he is bearing the punishment of
there upon the cross at Calvary. Dying then the just for the unjust
to bring the sinner back to God. But as we come to consider the
malefactors, or this particular malefactor today, I want to concentrate
your attention upon the prayer of the dying thief as we have
it recorded here at verse 42. Here is the text then, verse
42, and he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. He said unto Jesus, Lord, remember
me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Verse 42, the prayer
of the dying thief. First of all, let's consider
what the particular request that this man is making in this verse. To rightly understand this request
we must first of all consider something of his previous character,
the sort of man that he was. And we notice three things here.
First of all, he was one who had been reviling the Lord Jesus
Christ together with his fellow. Now he dissociates himself from
the other thief in what we are told in Luke's account. He doesn't want to be identified
with what his fellow is saying. In verse 39, 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, we read at verse 40. He says to him, Thus 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 has done nothing to me. He doesn't want to be
associated then with the writings of the other faiths. But that was not always the case,
as we can easily ascertain when we look more closely at the history
of these things as we have it recorded in the fourfold gospel. God has not just given us Luke's
account, we have other accounts in Matthew and Mark and John.
God has given us a fourfold account, a fourfold witness to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And of course there are those
things recorded in one gospel that we might not find in another.
John's gospel is quite distinct from the other three which we
normally refer to as the synoptic gospels because there's so much
in them that is similar. But each of the accounts are
different and how significant it is that God in his goodness
has given to us a fourfold gospel. Does he not remind us of the
importance of these things? that are recorded concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ, His coming into the world, the miracle of
His birth, He is born of a virgin, the great mystery of the Incarnation,
that God is manifest in the flesh and the record that we have of
all that Jesus began both to do and to teach. But now in all
of the accounts we find a great deal of time is taken up with
these events that surround his death, his crucifixion, his resurrection
again from the dead. There's a great deal of detail
then concerning these things in all of the Gospels and I say
we have to be careful to compare one Gospel with the other. And
as we do so, we see that this particular thief, who is now
praying to Christ, and making this remarkable request of the
Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, remember them when thou comest into thy
kingdom. He's dissociated himself from
the railings of his fellow, but as I say, that was not always
the case. In Mark chapter 15, for example,
and verse 32 we are told they that were crucified with him
reviled him not just one of them but both of them were guilty
of their crucifixion they that were crucified with him these
two malefactors how they together were reviling the Lord Jesus
Christ and here in Luke's account in verse 41 What does this man
say? We, we receive the due reward
of our deeds. We indeed Jocelyn, we receive
the due reward of our deeds. He is confessing his previous
sin. He is only receiving that that
he is deserving of. He is a sinner. He would acknowledge
his previous wicked ways. And amongst those wicked ways
had he not been reviling this man who is in the midst of the
two of them. But now he comes you see to confess, to make his
acknowledgement of sin. I acknowledge my transgression
says David. and my sin is ever before me. How often do we see David in
the Psalms having to do that very thing to come and to acknowledge
the awful truth of his sinnership. Again in the 32nd Psalm at verse
5 he says, I acknowledge my sin unto thee and mine iniquity have
I not hid. I said I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord and thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin, Selah. And how significant the Selah
is here. The Selah probably has something
to do with the way in which the Psalms were to be recited and
sung in the worship of God in the temple, but it's also reckoned
that the Selah does indicate a pause, and it's as if there's
a certain emphasis upon those sins that have just been spoken.
And so here is David acknowledging, acknowledging his sin. There's
a C-lot at the end of verse 4, and then we come into verse 5,
and there's this other C-lot at the end of verse 5. How significant
then is this statement, I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity
have I not hid. I said I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. This man comes in and he acknowledges
that he is a sinner. He had not always been one who
was seeking after Christ and desirous that Christ should be
mindful of him. With his fellow thief he had
been one who had been reviling the very name of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He comes in to acknowledge his
sin. We receive the due reward of
our deeds. We have sinned. or we see something
of the same spirit, do we not, in that great prayer of Daniel's
in Daniel chapter 9. As he comes before God to plead
concerning the nation that has been taken into exile, that godly
remnant there in Babylon, and God understands he's about to
restore them after 70 years of captivity. As he reads there
in the book of the prophet Jeremiah, and he begins to understand the
significance of those things, and the seventy years has almost
conspired and he sets his faith and he pleads with God but how
he prides we have sinned he says, we have done wickedness he includes
himself uselessly as he comes and makes his confession to God
if we say that we have no sin we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us but 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 that we have not sinned we make him a liar and his word
is not in us those familiar words at the end of the first chapter
of John's first epistle this man then comes to acknowledge
his sin when we consider what he was, he was a sinner What
was his previous character? Together with his fellow, he
had been reviling the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But now,
how different. There's a change. He asks Christ
to remember him. Lord, remember me, he says. It is such a simple prayer Such
a humble prayer that the man is making. He wants the Lord
Jesus Christ in the midst of all his own sufferings to be
mindful of him. How we have recorded in the Gospel
these simple prayers, these brief prayers, these pity prayers.
You can think of Peter as he's beginning to sink under the weight
As he's walking there on the water to go to Christ, remember
the incident, there are the disciples and they're in the midst of the
sea and a great storm begins to brew and although they be
experienced fishermen, and doubtless accustomed to those storms that
could quickly blow up on the Sea of Galilee, it must have
been a tremendous storm, their faith. And then the Lord appears
and he's walking on the water and bold Peter, impetuous Peter
climbs out of the boat to go to meet the Lord on the water
but then his eyes seem to be deflected from Christ and he
begins to be aware of all that's about him, the wind and the waves
and he begins to sink under the waters and what does he do? He
cries out, Lord save And the Lord puts forth his hand and
in a moment they're both safely again in the boat. Oh, but what
a prayer it is, those three words, Lord, save me. And oh, to be able to pray such
a prayer as Peter prayed there, or the prayer of that Syrophoenician
woman, that woman of Canaan, when she comes to Christ with
her daughter and yet It seems that she's rejected the disciples
of Christ to send her away. She's a trouble to them. And the Lord initially seems
to be ignoring her and then he says to her that he sent only
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But oh what remarkable
faith we see in that woman there in Matthew chapter 15. And we're
told how she worshipped him. She worshipped the Lord Jesus
Christ and to worship Him of course is an acknowledgement
that He is God. She worshipped Him saying, Lord help me. Again it's a prayer of just three
words. Lord help me. And yet in those three simple
words there's a wonderful act of real worship. Is this how
we desire to worship God as we come into this place? We come
so utterly helpless and we need the Lord to appear for us and
to help us to worship Him. We recognise that of ourselves
we can do nothing. We need that the Lord Himself
should be present and constantly undertaking for us and strengthening
us and helping us. Lord, help me. Here we have a very simple prayer
from this dying thief. Lord, he says, remember me. Lord, remember me. Or do we desire that the Lord
would remember us? Be mindful of us. Think upon
us. What fate is seen, friends, in
these short prayers. But let us just look at this
man's prayer in particular, the request that this man is making. Look at the beginning of his
prayer. What does he say? He says, Lord, who is recognizing
here the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Why was he dying there
upon the cross? What was the accusation that
had been laid against him by the Jews? Why they accused him
of blasphemy. This is the charge that they
made before Pontius Pilate. He ought to die, they said, because
he made himself the son of God. And when they spoke of him in
that sense, the son of God, they recognised that he was equal
to the Father. Remember the events of John chapter
5, why they decided to stone him. He'd not only broken the
Sabbath day, they said, or their conception of what that day was,
their false conception, but it also said that God was his father,
making himself equal with God. And so when they say to Pilate,
he made himself the son of God, it's blasphemy, he's saying he's
God. But this man recognises him as God. He addresses him
as Lord, He is the Lord, the Lord of Glory. But not only the
beginning of this man's prayer, but also the end of his prayer
is significant. Remember me, he says, when thou
comest into thy kingdom. Oh, he's not only Lord, he's
also King. He has a kingdom. But what is that kingdom? It's
not like the kingdoms of this world. At this time, of course,
the great kingdom, the great empire was out of rule. And it
seemed that that empire would last forever. All the great might
and power of the Roman legionaries who ensured that Patromana ruled
throughout the empire, the vastness of it, And yet, this man comes
and acknowledges that Christ has a kingdom. And what sort
of a kingdom is that? It's a spiritual kingdom. What had Christ said
before Pilate? My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world,
then would my servants fight. This is a spiritual kingdom.
Do we not see something of sovereign grace? in the prayer that this
man is making before the Lord Jesus Christ. He addresses him as Lord. He
confesses his deity. He speaks of his kingdom, when
thou comest into thy kingdom, a spiritual kingdom. Oh surely
here, friends, there is sovereign grace, there is the sovereignty
of the Lord Jesus Christ being acknowledged. And this man desires
to know something spiritual in nature. He wants to know that
his sins are pardoned, that he has peace with God. It is a remarkable
request, a remarkable prayer that this man is brought to make
in his dying hour. But consider also here the reason
for the change in the priest. Why was there such a change? He was one with his fellow initially,
but why did he now turn from railing against the Lord Jesus
Christ and make a request to Him? Why did he stop reviling
the Lord Jesus Christ and now simply ask that the Lord would
remember him? Why was there such a change? Well, observe the circumstances. He is, of course, at the very
point of death. He's at the point of death, we
might say. And suddenly, it's as if the man is brought to his
senses. We read of some who, through fear of death, are all
their lifetime subject to bondage. Was this man suddenly aware he's
dying? And if he's appointed unto men
that after death judge him? Or is it this that causes him
to change? But then we have to remember
of course that both these men, these two thieves, are in exactly
the same predicament. Both of them. are being crucified,
both of them are dying. And dying a most cruel death
upon the cross, there is no difference between them. So why should one
suddenly become aware of his situation and the other one continue
unaware of his situation? Surely here we see that it is
nothing of self, nothing of himself that causes this man to be chained. than to be different from his
fellow. In the Proverbs, Proverbs 27
and verse 22, Solomon makes his statement.
Though thou shouldest bray a fool in a mortar, among wheat with
a pestle, yet will not his foolishness depart from him. Whatever you
do to a man you see, his foolishness, the folly of his sin will not
depart from him. Drain him in water among wheat,
grind him, do what you will but his folly will not depart from
him. How cruel is the wisdom that we see in that proverb.
The circumstances that the man finds himself in, naturally speaking,
cannot change it, does not change it. There's nothing natural to
change any man. There's nothing of self here.
What we have, surely, is this a remarkable instance of the
sovereign grace of God. All the Lord has come into the
soul of this man. There's a wavening in this man's
soul. This is what lies behind his prayer. It's a real prayer. Why? Because it's the product
of the sovereign operation of the Holy Ghost. Here is a remarkable
instance of the sovereignty of God's grace. And we see it, of
course, in the eleventh hour. Here is a man on the point of
death, and yet even now there's salvation for sinners. It has been observed that of
these two thieves, you see, one is saved, which teaches us that
no one needs despair. Even at the end of life, salvation
can come to a man. But though one is saved, one
is lost, and so it is said that none should presume. Oh, we're
not to imagine, you see, we can leave these things to the end
of our dying. We are to seek the Lord now,
O men. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day
of salvation. How important it is, you see,
that we are not those who would procrastinate and think, oh well,
you see, he is the dying thief, can we not draw some comfort
from this? We can draw comfort. But we are not to presume with
God. But with the grace of God, we are to heed what God says
throughout His Word. And there is to be urgency. Today,
if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. For now is the acceptable time.
What a remarkable instance we have here of the sovereignty
of God's grace. And he comes to the most unlikely
of characters. This man was a married man. This
man was receiving the just recompense of the sort of life that he lived. We sang that hymn for our opening
praise of Joseph Hart, in which he speaks much of the free grace
of God, and he speaks of biblical characters. He speaks of a wicked
king like Manasseh, given over to the most gross idolatry, sacrificing
children to their idols in his way. He speaks of Mary Magdalene,
as of whom Christ had cast seven demons And what does he say in
the conclusion of that hymn? None ever miscarry which on him
rely, though filthy as Mary, Manasseh, or I. All Christ has
come, you see, to say is the greatest of all sinners. This
is what Paul testifies to in 1 Timothy, is it not? He speaks
of himself as the chief of sinners, that saying that he is worthy
of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners of whom the apostle says I am the chief and in a
sense is that not the case with every sinner if we are going
to know salvation we will feel ourselves to be the chief and
the greatest of sinners with all that remarkable grace of
our God we are sinner bound Christ does so much more about. Well, having said something with
regards to this man's request, the prayer that he is making,
here in verse 42, let us see how he does not pray in vain.
The Lord answers prayers. This is why we pray. Prayer is
not an end in itself. Oh yes, in our prayer we are
enjoying communion with God. We have the ear of God. That's
a great favour, a great blessing. But we are to be those who as
we pray come with that spirit of expectancy. And so after prayer
we should be looking. We want to see the return of
our prayers. And so we have it here in the
next verse. Verse 43, Jesus said unto him,
I say unto thee today, shalt thou be with me in paradise. And see how Christ prefixes his
answer with their own. Literally in the Greek it's the
word Amen. We say Amen at the end of our
prayers, so be it. And here the Lord answers prayer
by repeating the Amen. It shall be so, verily, truly. Now, there's a threefold answer
that we can discern in what the Lord is saying here. First of
all, do we not here observe that there is an answer for the present? Christ says to die. Verily I
say unto thee today. Oh, it's an immediate answer
that this man is receiving. He asks Christ to remember him
when he comes into his kingdom, when thou comest into thy kingdom,
you see. But the Lord says you're going
to be immediately in that kingdom, today. You see, God is a very
present help in every time of trouble, as we read there at
the beginning of the 46th Psalm. He's not just a present help,
He's a very present help. Don't we need to take account,
you see, of every little word in Holy Scripture? We say that
we believe, in the inspiration of the Word of God. We believe
that this book is inspired and to use theological terms we sometimes
speak of plenary inspiration, that means inspired in all its
parts from Genesis, from the very opening chapter of the Bible
to Revelation and the very last chapter there in Revelation 22. We say it's inspired throughout.
Plenary inspiration. And then sometimes we use the
word verbal. We say it's verbally inspired.
In other words, every word of Scripture as it was given
in the Old Testament Hebrew, as it was given in the New Testament
Greek, These holy men of God, they spoke as they were moved,
as they were carried along, by the Spirit of God. And the great
beauty of the Authorized Version, as we've said many times, is
because of the literalness of the translation. And the faithfulness
of the translators, because, as you know, when they feel it
necessary to introduce some additional word in the English to bring
out the proper meaning in the original, they indicate that
they're not translating then one of the words from the original
by putting that English word in italics. It's a very faithful
rendering of the scripture that we have here in the Authorised
Version. We thank God for that. We do
have before us in our own time God's very Word of Truth. And
so how important it is that we look at the words. And there
in Psalm 46, God is a very present help. In every time of trouble,
always there immediately. And there's an immediacy in the
answer that the Lord is giving to this man's prayer. Today he
says, or doesn't Isaiah tell us, before they call I will answer.
Whilst thou yet speaking, I will hear. How ready God is to answer
us, and yet, alas, how slow we are to pray. Well, I have to
say, I'm slow to pray. Also slow to pray. One says it
to one's shame, really. We ought to be a praying people,
because God is a prayer-hearing and a prayer-answering God. Here
we see, then, that there is a promise for the present time, today,
says Christ. But then also, in the second
place, isn't this a promise of Christ's presence? The very presence
of Christ. What does the man ask? He says
to him, Lord, remember me. But what does Christ answer? Christ says, today thou shalt
be with me. He's not just going to remember
him, the man's going to be with Christ in the very presence of
Christ. You see how God is able to do
exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. We
cannot conceive the goodness that is in God. He is so more
ready to give than we are to receive. This man receives much
more than he asks. He's going to be with Christ.
And with Christ not just here as the Lord Jesus Christ is dying
upon the cross, He is going to be with Christ in glory. Today shalt thou be with me. And you see what we learn here,
there is no such thing as soul sleep. All believers at death are immediately
with Christ. The Spirit returns to God who
gave it. It is absent from the body, present
with the Lord. There are a multitude of scriptures.
Paul speaks of having a desire to depart and to be with Christ,
which is far better. Remember how the Lord Jesus himself
previously here speaks of Lazarus the beggar sitting at the gate
of the rich man and both of them died disappointed unto men all
men rich and poor it is appointed unto all men once to die what
does Christ say here in chapter 16 verse 22 it came to pass that
the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abram's bosom. The rich man also died and was
buried, and in hell he lift up his eyes being in torments, and
seeth Abram afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and
said, Father Abram, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that
he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and call my tongue,
for I am tormented in this land. But Abram said, Son, remember
that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things and likewise
Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted and thou art
tormented. And beside all this between us
and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that they which would
pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that
would come from then. There is an immediacy here, you
see. Upon dying, the spirit goes to
its appointed place. And here is the promise of the
Lord Jesus Christ to this man, the Lord will do more than remember
him, he will be with Christ. To die they shall be with me. Then the third aspect of the
Lord's reply to the man, It's the promise of paradise. Today
thou shalt be with me in paradise. Or what is paradise? Well, ultimately
it is, of course, being in the very presence of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lamb is all the glory of
Emmanuel's Lamb. There we have those wonderful
descriptions. to the very end of the scriptures
and there we have remarkable words concerning what heaven
is to be like in Revelation chapter 21 at verse 3 John says I heard
a great voice out of heaven saying behold the tabernacle of God
is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his
people and God himself shall be with them and be their God
and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall
be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there
be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. And then again in the very last
chapter, Revelation 22 at verse 3, there shall be no more curse,
but the throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it, and His
servants shall serve it, and they shall see his face and his
name shall be in their foreheads and there shall be no nightmare
and they need no candle neither light of the sun for the Lord
God giveth him light and they shall reign forever and ever
what remarkable things we find Revelation is not an easy book
and yet blessed is he that readeth What remarkable statements we
have. Just one more passage here in the Revelation concerning
heaven. In chapter 7 at verse 9 John says, After this
I beheld that lo a great multitude which no man could number of
all nations and kindreds and people and tongues stood before
the throne and before the Lamb clothed with white robes and
palms in their hands and cried with a loud voice saying salvation
to our God which sitteth upon the throne and unto the Lamb
and all the angels stood round about the throne and about the
elders and the four beasts and fell before the throne on their
faces and worshipped God saying Amen blessing and glory and wisdom
and thanksgiving and honour and power and might be unto our God
forever and ever Amen. And one of the elders answered,
saying unto him, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? And whence came they? And I said
unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are
they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed
their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore
are they before the throne of God, and serve him day and night
in his temple, and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among
them. They shall hunger no more, neither
thirst any more, neither shall the sun light on them, nor any
heat. For the Lamb which is in the
midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto
living fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears. from their lives. Oh, this is
the paradise which Christ promises to this penitential thief upon
the cross. He asked the Lord to remember
him. Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom was his prayer.
And Jesus said unto him, Verily, truly I say unto thee, today
shalt thou be with me in paradise, he would enter the very heaven
of God, heaven that holy happy place where sin no more defiles,
where God unveils his blissful face and looks and loves and
smiles. Oh God grant that we might have
an interest in this great salvation. Amen.