Open back up with me to Matthew
27. Matthew 27, this is last week
we looked at, it is finished. Holy, holy, holy. Oh man. Here again, we're looking at
the Lord, going to the cross. What can we say about this? Verse 34, Matthew 27, verse 34
says, They gave him vinegar to drink,
mingled with gall. And when he had tasted thereof,
he would not drink. And they crucified him and parted
his garments, casting lots, that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken by the prophet. They parted my garments among
them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down,
they watched him there." Can you imagine? They all took
a seat. The Lord of Glory is hanging
on that cross, and while He's hanging there naked and meek
and lowly, all of these people, sinners against God, they all want Him dead. They
all gather together and they sit down to see Jesus Christ
crucified. Can you imagine? Verse 37 says, And set up over
His head His accusation. This was the only thing they
could accuse Him of. They searched and they searched
and they searched. This was the only factual truth
they could accuse Him of. Verse 37 says, This is Jesus,
the King of the Jews. Verse 38 says, Then were there
two thieves crucified with Him, one on the right hand and another
on the left. He was numbered with the transgressors. But in what appeared to be His
weakest hour, His weakest hour, the greatest victory ever known
was accomplished. Through His weakness, if I can
even say it like that, this is a holy, holy thing. There was nothing weak about
what he did. The right arm of God took this
victory. But he was willingly made low. He willingly took upon himself
suffering and death. Willingly. Through his lowness, Every sinner
that He purposed to die for, every single one of them is raised
up. Every one of them is made strong. Every one of them. Every sinner
who God the Father elected. I want us to look at one of them
this morning. one of these sinners that God
the Father elected. Just one. Okay? Verse 38 says,
Then were there two thieves crucified with him, one on the right hand
and another on the left. When this event was finally over,
it was all finished. We all know what happened to
these two thieves, don't we? We already know this story. One of them was crucified with
Christ. The other one was crucified in
Christ. That's what happened. One of
these two thieves was foreknown by God. and predestinated to
be conformed to the image of the one who was hanging right
next to him. One of those two thieves was
called, justified, and glorified in the same day. That day. Isn't that amazing? That is amazing. The Holy Spirit gave one of those
two thieves faith that day, that day. Faith to believe God. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. The scripture says, faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the word of God, right? The scripture says, listen to
Romans 10, 13, it says, whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? How shall they believe in him
of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? It doesn't say that the thief
ever attended a worship service. Nowhere in the scripture does
it say that. But the scripture says, it pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Is the scripture wrong? Could there be just a few scriptures,
a few verses of scriptures that are wrong? Did God not fully mean what He
wrote when He said, this is my will, this is my way. You know what this is? His will. His last will and testament. His first will and testament.
Because He's the same yesterday, today and forever. This is my
will. Let's look at this account and
let's focus on our Lord and see what He did and how He did it,
okay? Turn over to Matthew chapter
4. We quote this verse often, Matthew
4 verse 17 says, From that time Jesus began to preach, and to
say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. At the
age of 30, our Lord began to preach. And He went from town to town,
and He went into the synagogues, and He opened the Word, and He
preached. That's what he did. Look at Matthew
four verse 23. It says in Jesus went about all
Galilee teaching in their synagogues and preaching the gospel of the
kingdom and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of
disease among the people preaching. Look at chapter 5 verse 1, And
seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain, and when
he was set, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth
and taught them, saying, And this is the chapter that the
translators titled at the top of our page, His Sermon on the
Mount. He was a preacher. That's what
he did. He was a preacher. Go over to
Luke chapter four. Luke chapter 4 verse 16 says,
And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as
His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath
day and stood up to read. And there was delivered unto
Him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book,
He found the place where it was written, The Spirit of the Lord
is upon Me, because He hath anointed Me to preach the gospel to the
poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach
the acceptable year of the Lord." He said, this is what I've been
anointed to do. Preach the gospel. That's what
I've been anointed to do. The message. What was the sum and the substance
of his message? What was the sum and the substance
of his message? I love this. Go to Luke 24. Verse 27, Luke 24, 27, And beginning
at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto them in all
the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. What about Himself? What did He say about Himself? Look at verse 26. Ought not Christ
to have suffered these things and to enter into His glory? He went everywhere preaching
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's what He preached. That
is the message of salvation. If that message is not being
preached, salvation is not being accomplished. That is the message that opens
blind eyes. Blind, blind, poor, blind eyes. That's the message that opens
deaf ears. I hear what you're saying, but
I have no idea what you're talking about. That's the message that sends
faith into the heart and life into the soul. This thief who
was hanging on the cross next to the Lord of Glory, he heard
the preacher preach the message from the cross. Our Lord preached
a message while he hung on the cross. Isn't that amazing? We're
about to see it. He preached a message while he
hung on the cross. That is exciting to me. And it pleased the Lord through
that preaching to save that thief. Let's look at this message the
thief on the cross heard. Our Lord hung there while those
sinners sat down. They all gathered around. They
sat down looking at Him, listening to Him. And we read just a minute ago,
we all know how they all reviled Him. All of them. They all mocked Him. All of them. Even the two thieves. Both of
them. They said, if you're God, save
yourself and us. He's not God. He can't do anything. They all laughed at Him. They were all glad He was crucified. They all wanted Him dead, all
of them, all of them. But God, who is rich in mercy,
He chose this thief. This thief hanging right next
to God. And He's about to stop his mouth
and open his ears and give him life. It's wonderful. One more. The Lord is so merciful. So merciful. It only takes one word from God
to do this. As the message goes forth, if
it is indeed a message, not a sermon, and if I am just a vessel, and
God blesses one word to the heart of a sinner, that's all it takes,
is one word from God. But from the cross, our Lord
said seven things. He said seven statements. Seven
is the number of perfection. He preached the perfect message. Every word of it was the Word
of God. Every single word of it. But
He said seven glorious things, and the first one is back one
chapter in Luke 23. Now, I want to pray that the
Lord will allow us to enter into this, okay? Enter into this. This thief, this rebel against
God, he doesn't know God, he hates God, and God's about to
work on this thief. God's about to do something to
his soul. And maybe the Lord will let us
enter into this, okay? Here it is. Luke 23, verse 33
says, And when they were come to the
place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him and
the male factors, one on the right hand and the other on the
left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive
them for they know not what they do. What? He had been silent. And they had been just reviling
him. And he finally opens his mouth.
And he said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what
they do. After all they've done, I've been watching them spit
on you, and curse you, and hate you, and reject you, and I've been doing it too. Do you mean there is forgiveness
with thee? Father, forgive them. For they
know not what they do." That word went straight to his heart. He's dying. He's dying. They're all down there mocking
and living. He's hanging on the cross just
like he is. Today is my last day. What if
you knew today was your last day? Well, he did. Today is my
last day. I'm headed to eternity today. I'm about to go meet God today. And I know what I am. And I know
what I've done. And I know why I'm hanging here. But for the first time in that
thief's life, God opened his ears and forced him to hear some
glorious news. Do you mean there's mercy for
sinners? He never understood anything
about that before. He never knew he needed it before,
just like we didn't. But God sent a Word and pierced
the heart And he realized, I'm a sinner and I need mercy. Do you mean there's mercy for
sinners? I need it. Our Lord said, they know not
what they do. They're blind. They're deaf. They're dumb. They're dead. Father, forgive them. Do you mean if any man sin, we
have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous? How is that possible? How is
that possible? Well, turn with me back over
to Matthew 27. Matthew 27 verse 46 says, In about the ninth hour, Jesus
cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, that
is to say, My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Pilate said, I find no fault
with him. He told everybody, I find no
fault with this man. The sinless one died. The one who was always with the
Father. daily His delight, the one who
is in eternal communion with Him. When God the Father turned His
face on Christ, Christ endured the most bitter
ingredient of that cup that was handed to Him. You know that? They are one. Do you know the
love that the Son has for the Father and the love that the
Father has for the Son? And God the Father turned His
back on God the Son. And it says, He cried with a
loud voice, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? You know what that thief realized
right then and there? God has forsaken him so that
I might never be forsaken. He is being forsaken for me. Can you imagine how serious it
was? How horrifyingly fearful it was
and sobering it was to watch God forsake Christ. Horrible. His visage was marred
more than any man. What do you think that did to
that thief? Was it due to you? It broke him. It broke his heart. It put fear
into him. He realized God is not going
to clear the guilty. He realized this is a holy God. This is a just God who must punish
sin. But Christ said, Father, forgive
them. How? Forsake me. You know what that thief saw
with his own two eyes? He was made sin for me. David said, I have been young
and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken.
Why? Christ was. Who is he that condemneth? Christ
died. Here's the third statement the
thief heard. Go to John 19. John 19 verse 28 says, after
this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished,
that the Scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. You know what that thief heard
when he said that? This is a real man. I worship a real man. I don't just know what I believe. Do you know what the difference
is in the truth and a lie, false religion and true religion, false
worship and true worship? You know what the difference
is? A real man. That's the difference. I got
a whole bunch of facts laid out and I had some of them confused,
but I got the order flipped around and now I'm good. I don't just know what I believe,
I know whom I have believed." And he's a real man. He said, Father, which means
he's the Son of God. But God became a man. Listen to this. Listen to this. Arthur Pink is a man that the
Lord really revealed some things too. This is what Arthur Pink
wrote. The Lord Jesus was not a divine
man, nor a humanized God. He was the God-man. Forever God. And now, forever
man. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that
amazing? I worship a man. Yes, I worship
God. Who is God? He's a man. What he realized at that moment
was, I believe that Jesus is the Christ. Peter, who do you
say I am? Thou art the Christ. Thief, who
do you say I am? He said, Lord. You know what that means? Jehovah. This man is the Christ. God manifest
in the flesh. This man is so much God that
if I've seen him, I have seen the Father. That's how much God
he is. Then that thief heard the most
glorious three words a sinner could ever hear preached. This
is the message. This then is the message. You
know what's different from their message and our message? These
three words. Look at John 19 verse 30. When Jesus therefore had received
the vinegar, He said, It is Finished. What is finished? The forgiveness
He just asked for. The punishment for the sin of
His people is finished. It is finished. No more punishment. It's over. Here's the fifth thing
He heard the Savior say. Look at verse 26. When Jesus therefore saw his
mother and the disciple standing by whom he loved, he saith unto
his mother, Woman, behold thy son. Then saith he to the disciple,
Behold thy mother. Behold thy son. Behold thy mother. That thief watched that. That
thief listened to that. And he realized there is union
in him. Isn't that what we preach? Union
with God in Jesus Christ. There is peace in Him. There is adoption in Him. Woman, you've just adopted a
son, and son, you've just adopted a mother. Adoption. There is one body, one head,
one family. This thief realizes as he's dying,
he's remembering them. He's taking care of their needs
as he's dying. And here's what the thief said,
Lord, would you remember me? Turn back over to Luke 23 with
me. Luke 23 verse 42 says, 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. What he said is, it's already
a done deal. I've already prepared a place
for you. Man, that is good news. That
is good news. Well, the last glorious thing
the thief heard was in Luke 23, verse 46. And when Jesus had
cried with a loud voice, he said, into thy hands, I commend my spirit." The thief
had just heard him say, he just heard him say this, Why hast
thou forsaken me? And then right after he said,
it is finished. The wrath is now finished. Righteousness and peace have
now kissed each other. And because of Christ and Him
crucified, here's what he heard. God will now receive my spirit. Isn't that wonderful? That thief died right after that. And he died a happy man. God gave that thief dying grace,
and he hung the rest of his time on that cross, rejoicing in Christ
Jesus, his Savior. And he died a happy, happy man. And in Christ, so will you and
I. So will you and I. Isn't that
something? That's the message the thief heard, and I pray to
God he'll open my heart and let me hear it too. Let me hear it
too. I pray the Lord will bless His
Word. Let's stand together.