who hath believed our report,
and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed. For he shall grow
up before him as a tender plant and as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form nor comeliness.
And when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire
him. He is despised and rejected of
men. A man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from him. He was despised, and we esteemed
him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded to our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. And with his stripes, we are
healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way. And the Lord has laid on him
the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and he was afflicted. Yet he opened not his mouth.
He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before
her shears is done. So he opened not his mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. And who shall declare his generation? For he was cut off out of the
land of the living. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken. And he made his grave with the
wicked and with the rich in his death because he had done no
violence. Neither was there any deceit
in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief, when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed,
he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide this poor with the
strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death. And he was numbered with the
transgressors, and he bear the sin of many. and made intercession
for the transgressors. Let's bow our heads. Our Lord God, Lord, we thank
you this day for your mercies which are new every morning.
Lord, you are the Lord God of this universe. You control all
things. All things are in your hands.
And Lord, we're glad it's so. And Lord, as we come this morning,
we're thankful that you've given us these treasures and earthen
vessels to proclaim your holy and precious word. And Lord,
if you'd be pleased to meet with us this day, cause your people
to hear your word. Lord, not just in our ears, but
in our hearts. May you be honored and glorified
this day, not only in this place, Lord, but wherever your earthen
vessels stand to proclaim your holy word. Lord, we ask that
you would be with each congregation and each church as they meet
in this hour. And as we cross the time zones,
Lord, you'd be with those all over this land. that would meet
together to glorify and honor your holy and precious name.
Lord, we ask this now in your precious name of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Amen. Good morning again. Gabe and all the brethren in
Kingsport send their greetings. Rachel and I are delighted to
be with you all again today. If you will turn with me in your
Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 23. Luke, chapter 23. We're going to read our text
together starting in Luke 23, verse 32. Luke 23, 32 says, 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. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do. And they parted his
raiment and cast lots, and the people stood beholding. And the
rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others,
let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God. And the soldiers also mocked
him, coming to him and offering him vinegar, and saying, If thou
be the king of the Jews, save thyself. And a superscription
also was written over him in letters of Greek and Latin and
Hebrew, This is the king of the Jews. 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. Now we know, a familiar passage
for many of us, our Lord's crucifixion. Here He hangs on a cross. A thief
on His left, a thief on His right. And these two thieves represent
all men as they are born into this world. Sinners. Sinners. We read that they're
malefactors. The word means criminals. Thieves. And here, by Roman law,
they're being crucified. So they vary possibly more than
just the crime of thievery. Many suppose that they may have
been murderers. But what we are here to see is
that they're sinners. Thieves, liars, workers of iniquity,
That's you and me, okay? It's the first thing I want us
to see. Now someone might say to that, we live in a religious
world, someone might say, well, I'm not a thief. You robbed God
of His glory. We all have done that. I'm not
a liar. You lie to yourself and you lie
to God. Every day. I'm not a worker of iniquity.
Everything we do is marred with sin. And it's our own sin. 1 John 1 verse 8 says, If we
say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not
in us. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. You and me both, and there's
none good. No, not one. Not a single one. Well, let God
be true, and every man a liar. That's what God says. Now, this
passage is commonly referred to as the thief on the cross.
Well, there are two thieves on the cross. And I talked about
the first message. It's too glorious for me to even
begin to speak concerning these things. But I'm here to set forth
those things in order which are most surely believed." And what
a better passage then to see those things which we surely
believe. I want us to see the sovereignty of God in salvation. That's what I want us to see
here. Two thieves. One thief was forgiven. One thief
was not. One thief was blessed. The other
thief was cursed. One thief is saved. Right now he is saved. The other
thief is damned. Right now and forever. And there's
a great goal fixed between the two. The title of this message
is, Which Thief Am I? We're all thieves. Which thief
am I? Which thief are you? And by the
end of this message, it's gonna be clear which thief we are,
which thief we can identify with. I simply want to go through and
look at the first thief, the damned thief, and then I want
to look at the saved thief, and I pray God would prick our hearts
with His truth. I pray that we would know and
go home knowing which thief we are. Now first, the first thing
I see about the damned thief is this. In verse 39 it says,
And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him. He
railed on Him. That means to speak evil of,
to revile, cursing Him, blaspheming Him. He hated the Lord Jesus
Christ. He hated Him. Do you speak evil
of those you love? Craig, do you go to work and
start talking evil of Donna to all your co-workers? I know you
don't. Of course you don't. We don't speak evil of those
we love. We speak highly of those we love. We speak well of them
because we love them. This man, he did not speak highly
of Jesus Christ. He railed on Him. And this is
just amazing to me. We just read about how these
soldiers, these rulers, religious rulers, these chief priests,
these elders, these scribes, what they did to Jesus Christ. And then we see that this thief,
whom they were also crucifying, joined... I guess if you can't
beat them, join them. Isn't that what they say? He just joined
right in with them. To his own shame. And I can identify with
him. Because man by nature does the
exact same thing. We insult Him. Which one of us
was not born lying about God? Which one of us did not go about
cursing the Lord with all our breath, defaming Him and taking
His name in vain and not even thinking anything of it? That's
us. He mocked Him. If thou be Christ. Oh, He's Christ. We're going to see that. You
know, there's no darker picture in our minds than to put ourselves
right here. I love how it says, and the people
stood beholding. I just thought, if I were there,
can you imagine being there beholding what took place? I can't even
begin to imagine. But if I'm honest with myself,
I know that I would have been right there spitting on him,
laughing at him, mocking him, saying, this man's the Christ?
Look at him! That's man by nature. Hate, hate
God. We hate God by nature. And the best picture of that,
the best picture we're going to see about how man truly feels
about God is right here. It said, Pilate delivered him
to the will of the people. He said, it's the day of the
feast, the Passover, we got to release somebody. Pilate said,
let's release Barabbas. They said, no. I'm sorry. Pilate
said, let's release Jesus. I found no fault in this man.
What did they say? They said, give us Barabbas. It says he was a murderer. We
know he was a murderer. It doesn't take much common sense
to tell you they're not good for society. They need to be
locked up. It was good that they were crucifying
a murderer. And then they away with him. Crucify him. Give us
that murderer. Give us Barabbas. Brethren, that's
what man thinks about God. We won't have Him. I won't have
Him. Give me Barabbas. That's us.
That's the first thing we're to see is that man by nature
hates God, hates Christ, just like this damned thief. And second,
Look at verse 39 again, it says, "...and one of the malefactors
which were hanged railed on Him, saying, If Thou be Christ." He
did not believe Jesus to be the Christ of God. Just like those
religious people that were crucified on Him. Come down from the cross,
if He be the King of Israel. Let Him come down, then we'll
believe Him. This thief was the very one and the same. If he be Christ, come down."
This thief, he looked at the Lord Jesus and all he saw was
himself. Just a thief, just a no-good
criminal being put to death for crimes he committed. Doug just
read it. He was bruised for our iniquities,
wounded for our transgressions. He had none of his own. This
thief, as far as he was concerned, he was just like him. He thought
it was helpless. If you're Christ, save yourself.
Come down. They didn't understand. That's
the whole reason He came into this world. My hour has now come. This is why He came into this
world. The only reason. This thief thought that the Lord
Jesus had no power to save. That's really what it's saying
here when He said, If thou be Christ, save thyself. He has
no power to come down from that cross. What did the Lord Jesus
say in John chapter 10? I think Dennis just preached
from that chapter here a week or two ago. I lay down my life. I lay it down. I have the power
to lay it down. I have the power to take it again. This commandment
have I received of my Father. That's exactly right. He laid
down His life. It wasn't taken. No man take
it from me. I lay it down on myself. I lay
down my life for the sheep. But that's not what man by nature
sees. Man by nature looks at the cross and they say, Jesus
died, now accept Him. Make His death effectual. Is
that right? Is this the message being declared all over this
world? Yes, that is it. But that's not
the truth of God. I'm here to declare to you the
truth of God as it is in His Word. Now no man by nature believes
that Jesus Christ has the power to save. Not without our help. But that is not, that's just
not so. That's just not so. You know, people talk about how,
what they do for Jesus. You do nothing for Him. Believe
Him. You're not going to do something for Him. We're commanded to believe
Him. Believe Him. Believe Him. And
I pray God would help us to, and cause us to do so. The third
thing we see about this thief is that he felt entitled. Notice
he said, if thou be Christ, save thyself and us. You're not the
Christ, but if you are, if somehow you are, save yourself, of course,
but save us. You've got to save us. And he
wasn't saying it in a, I need you to save me way. He was mocking
himself. This thief thought, If anybody
should be saved, you're looking at him, this man right here.
After all, I mean, yeah, I'm a thief, but surely my good outweighs
my bad. Yeah, I've killed a few people,
but I'm still a good person. How foolish. Whether or not we've
actually murdered somebody or not, we murder every day in our
heart, every time we're angry. Murder in our heart. Adultery
in our heart. Fornication a lot. That's the
heart of man. Deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked. No one can know it but God who
searches the heart. God knows. We can fool each other.
You know, we can put on a pretty good show. Make a pretense of
religion, but we're not going to fool God. Not for one second.
God searches the heart. He knows all things. This man thought, just like everybody
else, God loves everybody. You know, it's amazing to me
that there was no fear in this man as he was dying. That, you
want to talk about the coldness of man's heart. That's it. Here
he is being put to death and he just doesn't even seem to
care. It's alright with me. God loves
me. That preacher told me so. Did you know that I have no authority
from this Word of God to look at you and say, God loves you? A kid used to take me out to
eat in high school and every time he'd drop me off at home
he'd say, smile, Jesus loves you. I've never heard anything
so blasphemous. I'm here to tell you if you are
in Christ, if God put you in Christ from eternity and sent
His Son here to die and redeem you, to save you by His precious
blood, then God loves you. Yes. But it's not a general Tell
me, it's limited. It's not limited in its power,
but it's limited in God's purpose. God, the sheep, that's who Christ
came to save. The sheep, His people. God owes
us nothing. He owes us nothing. God is not
obliged to save me. He's not. You know, if I'm going
to be saved, it's not because I willed to be saved. Not because
I chose Him, but because He chose me. That's exactly right. There's just one thing that God
owes us. That's justice. That's injustice. I'm a sinner. You know what I deserve? You
know what justice demands? That I suffer for my sins. That's all that God owes any
of us. And mercy is not earned. Mercy is God's free sovereign
gift. God owes us justice. This man,
he hated the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't believe He was the
Christ. He felt entitled to be saved. Fourthly, he did not fear
God. Look at verse 40. It says, "...but
the other answering him, Rebuked him, saying, Dost thou not fear
God? I just told you how amazing to
hear this man dies. No fear of God. No fear of death. Nothing. Just a cold body. And that's what man is. Just
a cold, lifeless body. You know, every message I've
ever heard on this passage talk about the faith of the thief
that was saved and how he didn't pray, he didn't read his Bible,
he didn't go to church. If he knew some scripture, which
we have no reason to suppose he did, but if he did, I can
just see him quoting this verse, Matthew 10 verse 28, looking
at the other thief and saying, Fear not them which kill the
body, but are not able to kill the soul. But rather fear Him
which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Fear Him. Fear God. Here He is dying on a cross.
No concern for His soul. None at all. to imagine that this night thy
soul shall be required of thee. And he knew it. He knew it. He
was hanging on a cross dying. He knew he was dying. You know,
the scary thing with us is we think we're fine. We get up and
we think we're A-OK. But the fact is we're not fine.
We're sinners and God can come at any moment and strike us dead.
We need to be concerned with our soul. We need to be concerned
with our soul. This thief, like all lost religious
people, He had no reason to fear God. God couldn't send him to
hell. Not over his free will, right?
To choose heaven. Hell is what we deserve. And
we're going to get it unless God does something for us. When
studying for this message, I found this horrible poem online called
Invictus by William Ernest Henley. It says, I'm the master of my
fate, I'm the captain of my soul. You're the captain of your soul? Christ is my captain. He's the
captain of my soul. My only hope is that I'm in Him
and that He's in me. Sadly, that's what man thinks
about God, that I'm the captain of my soul. I choose Him. I choose
my own destiny. God predestinated all things.
He's working all things together for good to them that love God,
to the called according to His purpose. Everything that happens
is in line with God's purpose. God has a purpose and it's going
to come to pass. But here this man dies with no fear, no fear
of the Lord. We know that the fear of the
Lord is the beginning of all wisdom. If we're to have any
hope, we must fear the Lord. And I'll talk more about that
in a minute. But I pray that God the Holy Spirit would descend
upon us and teach us the fear of the Lord. I really do. Fifthly,
this man was doomed for hell. Look at verse 40. But the other
answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing
thou art in the same condemnation?" This dying thief was condemned. He was under God's condemnation,
soon to be judged by God, by Christ, the judge of all the
earth. He was about to die physically, but worse than that, he was about
to die the second death. There's a second death. that
all outside of Christ must face, and that death is eternal. Look
over with me in John chapter 3. John chapter 3 verse 19. I'm sorry, John 3 verse 17 says,
For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world,
but that the world, His people, God's elect, through Him might
be saved. He that believeth on Him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
This thief, the saved thief, looks at him and says, Do you
not fear God, seeing you're in the same condemnation? He was
condemned because he hath not believed in the name of the only
begotten Son of God." And this is the condemnation, look at
it, verse 19. This is the condemnation, that
light is coming to the world and men loved darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. Now what's that? As
Christ hung on that cross, He is the light. I am the light
of the world. Christ is that light. In Him
was life and the light was the life of men. Christ is the light. Christ came into the world and
we love darkness. We love ourselves rather than
Him. And that's evil. That's evil.
That's condemnation. We condemn ourselves. Sixthly,
This thief, he was guilty as charged. Look at our text again,
verse 41. The other thief told him, he
said, seeing we're in the same condemnation, and we indeed justly,
for we received the due reward of our deeds. This man was about
to meet God in judgment. What a fearful thing. if you're
in His state. I think of nothing worse than
to die not knowing Christ, than to die cursing God with the very
breath He gives me. And that's how this man died.
Cursing and blaspheming God with his every breath. And he was
going to get exactly what he deserved, and so will you and
I. We're going to get exactly what we deserve. God's eternal
wrath. Well, that's not fair. I thought
you said something about God's elect, these sheep that shall
be saved. This is what's fair. People say
that's not fair. God's very fair. The soul that
sinneth it shall die. That's fair. That's fair. You
and I wind up in hell. That is fair. We receive the
due reward of our deeds justly. God was sending him to hell and
it was right. And we know every knee shall
bow, every tongue is going to confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord. Very soon, from this moment, this man was going to be crying
from the depths of hell. Amen, Lord. I wish you could
send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool
my tongue. I can't do that. Amen. Amen. You're right. You're right. This is what I
deserve. We'd be better to learn that now than then. Much better to learn it now than
when it's too late. Because all who die like this
thief will get exactly what they deserve. Exactly what's rightly
theirs. There's no bending in the justice
of God. soul that sinneth, it must die. God must punish sin. God will by no means clear the
guilty. Prepare to meet thy God. Prepare to meet thy God. Everything
that I just said, did I describe anybody here? Anybody? Anybody? That's exactly you and me if
left to ourselves. That's exactly man by nature.
You and me both. All God has to do for us to march
straight into hell is leave us alone. Just leave us alone. And the scary thing is we want
to be left alone. We don't want to be told what
to do. We don't want to be told, bow to God. We want people to
bow to us. But we must bow to Him. We must
bow to Him. What about the other thief? We
know how this ends. Today you'll be with me in paradise.
What about this other thief? Let's consider him. Let's consider
him. Now the first thing that I want
to point out is that this saved thief, hear me, was just like
the damned thief. Turn over to Matthew chapter
27. He was just like The other thief. Look at Matthew 27, verse 44.
I want you to see this. Matthew 27, verse 44 says, "...the
thieves also, which were crucified with Him, cast the same in His
teeth." Look over at Mark chapter 15. Mark chapter 15, verse 32. "...Let Christ the King of Israel
descend now from the cross, that we may see and believe. And they
that were crucified with Him reviled Him." Do you see that? But that doesn't make any sense. We read that He rebuked the other
thief. I told you, we are all thieves. We're all thieves, guilty
of hating God. We're guilty of the very same
thing. These men were being put to death
for committing sins against other people. The law of the land demanded
they be crucified. But we're guilty of much worse
than that. We may not get in trouble with the law here, we're
in trouble with the law of God. Every single one of us deserves
God's wrath in full. Both these thieves, no difference
in and of themselves. But there was a difference. Praise
God, there was a great, great difference in these two thieves.
Why was this one thief all of a sudden different? Just moments ago, they were together
mocking Him. They were right there together
cursing Him, and, if you be Christ, why is He now not? What happened? Well, the time was going by,
He was hanging there, and He just reconsidered everything. He saw the sign, this is Jesus,
the King of the Jews, and he just thought about it, and maybe
he is King. And then he made his decision.
Nope. He was about to die, needed a
hope, so this was his deathbed religious moment. You wouldn't. You and I can both be on our
deathbed, but we're not going to save ourselves. It's just not going
to happen. It's not. You being on your deathbed might
make you scared of hell, but being scared of hell does not
produce God-saving faith. That's the gift of God. I'll
tell you what the difference was. Look over in 1 Corinthians
chapter 4. 1 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 7. And this is God speaking. For
who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou
didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it,
why dost thou glory as if thou hast not received it? Now, notice
it doesn't say what made you to differ. We can all act a certain
way and portray ourselves different than other people. But when it
comes to salvation, it's not a what matter, it's a who. I
know whom I believed. I'm sure that he's able. That's what it's talking about
here. Who made you to differ? You were a thief standing there
cursing me just like the other one. Who's in hell? Who made
you to differ? God, in sovereign mercy, made
him to differ from the other. Well, explain that. I can't.
But all I have to say is what's the difference if one of you
is sitting there and you believe God and you're rejoicing in the
Gospel, you're looking to Christ, and the person beside you is
not. What's the difference? Who's the difference? Who's the
difference? If you have faith, Did you produce
it on your own? This thief had faith. He had
faith in Christ. What do you have that you have
not received? Faith. Faith is what you've received
from God. It's the gift of God, not of
works lest we should boast. It's God's gift. God's gift. Did this thief boast about his
faith? Absolutely not. He gloried in Christ. He gloried
in his Savior. We know what he cried, Lord,
remember me because of my faith. No. He cried, Lord, remember
me. In spite of me, there's no reason
why you should remember me. But that's my only hope. He didn't do that to Himself.
God saved that thief. That's the difference. God, His
sovereign love, mercy and grace. That's the only difference between
you and me. That's the only difference between the blessed and the cursed,
the saved and the lost. That's the only difference. God.
Now we're going to look at a few things that happened after. After
the Lord had saved this man, He gave him faith. Look back
at our text, verse 40. He tells the other thief, he
says, does not thou fear God? He now feared God. Just a few
moments ago, he did not fear God, but God put his fear in
his heart. For the first time in his life, he feared God. Feared
God. Sanctified the Lord God in his
heart. And what that means, fearing
God, I feel more than anything, fearing God is I'm a sinner.
You're the Savior. You're God. You're just. You're
holy. You're right. I'm a sinner down here. You're
God. Whatever you do is right because
you're God. Because you're God. And not only did this man fear
God, he was being faithful in witnessing to the other thief
who was still lost, whom God had left to himself. And if you
fear God, if we fear God, we're going to pray for God to make
us faithful witnesses of Christ. I believe it was Peter who said,
we're witnessing, testifying the things that we have seen
and that we have heard. How do you suppose Bartimaeus,
why was he all of a sudden crying out to the Lord, Jesus our son
of David have mercy on me. He heard somebody saying, Jesus
of Nazareth has come by and He can give you sight. Well, how
does it work here? I'm here telling you Jesus Christ
saves. He has the power to save you
against your will. Because that's what I've experienced.
I can only tell you what I've experienced. This man, fearing God, knew himself
to be a guilty, hell-deserving sinner. Look at verse 41. He said, and we indeed justly.
This is just. We receive the due reward of
our deeds. I'm reaping exactly what I've sowed. This is what
we deserve. Hell. God's wrath. Crucifixion. Now
obviously these men were sinners in the eyes of men. Crucified
because the law of the land said they must be killed. But now
this thief knew that not only had he sinned against people,
not only had he broken the laws of the land, he was a sinner
against God. Psalm 51 verse 4 says, "...against
Thee, Thee only have I sinned." Our sin is against God. We've
done this evil in Thy sight. We've sinned in God's sight. I'm not going to condone us sinning
against each other. God said sin not. But our sin
against each other, yeah it's bad, but we should be concerned
with sinning against God more than anything. We've sinned against
God. And the wages of sin is death, and that's what we're
going to get if God leaves us to ourselves. If we die trusting
in ourselves that we're righteous, despising others, that's exactly
what we're going to get, eternal death. This man now knew that
God's justice demanded he suffer for his sins. I'm a sinner, I'm
guilty, I must face What's right? I must face death, damnation,
forever. Because that's what God's justice
demands. Strict, holy justice. Fifth, this man knew Jesus to
be the Christ. He knew Jesus to be the Christ.
In verse 41, he also said, but this man, you see this man hanging
between us, numbered with the transgressors? He's done nothing
amiss. This man hath done nothing amiss. Now how did he know that? I just told you the other thief,
just supposed he was just like himself. Right? How did he know
that this man was the perfect God-man? Because God revealed
it to him. When God puts faith in you, when God puts Christ
in you, you know that Christ is the sinless,
perfect, holy Son of God, both man and God. And that's only by divine revelation.
Just like the Lord told that Samaritan woman, I that speak
unto thee, I am. I am. I am He. I am the Messiah. I am the Christ of God. I love
thinking about this. God enabled him to see Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. That's what Paul said we preach.
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. This man, by the grace of God,
turns and looks. My Savior. dying for my sins. It's only by His grace, His work
in my heart that I now fear Him, that I now reverence Him and
see Him as the Christ, the Son of God. Just like Simeon beheld
the Lord Jesus as a baby, he said, my eyes have seen Thy salvation.
This thief, my eyes have seen Thy salvation. I'm looking at
my salvation. I'm looking at my salvation. He watched his
Savior die for his sins. Now how did he die? How did he
die? Look at verse 42. And he said
unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. I just thought of this. In Matthew
7, the Lord said, Many shall say to me in that day, Lord,
Lord. They're calling Him the same
thing that Steve called Him. We've done many wonderful works in Thy name.
Notice the difference. Lord, Lord, look what we've done
in Your name and look at this. Lord, remember me. Do you see
a difference in that? Lord, remember me. And I just
told you, He wasn't wanting him to remember Him because of all
the wonderful works in His name that He'd done. That's laughable. This man was a thief being put
to death for his sins against the laws of men. But here He
cries, Lord, for mercy. For mercy. Lord, remember me.
Have mercy on me. Do something for me. I need You
to be dying for me. God revealed Him. He was being
bruised for my iniquities. Wounded for my transgressions,
my sins. He's dying the just for the unjust.
He's my lamb slain from the foundation of the world. God's going to
provide Himself a lamb, and I'm looking right at Him. I'm being
put to death right beside Him. Isn't this glorious? Oh, it's
so glorious. He needed the Lord Jesus to save
Him. to save him. He wasn't there
going to make effects of what he did. He needed him to save
him all on his own. He knew he had the power to save
by the grace of God. He heard him cry, Father, forgive
them. And even though he was mocking
him then, he's now crying, I hope he's praying for me. Oh, I was
just standing here mocking him and laughing at him and spitting
at him. I hope he was praying for me. Oh, Father, forgive them.
They know not what they do. And we know what happened, don't
we? Look at verse 43. Jesus said unto him, He didn't
say this to the other thief. He looked at him. There was a
thief on his left and a thief on his right. He looked at him
and he said, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. I told
you, I hope that we will see God's sovereignty in salvation. Two thieves, one saved, one not. The Lord Jesus looks and tells
that thief, you're going to be with me in paradise today. Does
God have the right? Absolutely He does. He's God.
In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. He
let there be light. Each day He created something
and God saw that it was good because He did it. Because He's
God. You know, I rejoice to know that
the Lord told this thief today, you're going to be with me in
paradise today. Did you know this is the only
place in the whole Word of God where such assurance is given? You know, it blows my mind that
the message being preached in most places is, God's done what
He can, you do the rest. when the Lord turns to a thief
and says, today you'll be with me in paradise. What a contradiction
against what men preach and what God preaches, what God's Word
declares. There was never assurance like
this. Never. Never. And you know, just a few moments
later, perhaps just a couple minutes after this, this thief
sees the Lord bow his head, give up the ghost and cry, it is finished.
It is finished. Today you'll be with Me in Paradise."
And it's finished. That's the Gospel. That's the
Gospel. Believe on Christ. If God has
saved us, given us faith in Him, it's going to be well with us.
It shall be well with the righteous. And it's well with this man.
In fact, if it's well with anyone's soul, we know it's well with
this man's. We know it is. God tells us it is. God told
him it is. Now briefly, Paradise. He said, today you'll be with
Me in Paradise. People talk about streets of gold. Here, we like
gold. If you got some, feel free to
give me some. But you know, as far as glory, being in heaven,
do we desire the streets of gold? Did you know gold is nothing
in the sight of God? To us, it would be just wonderful,
right? We'd be rich. It'd be great.
I gave points out a few weeks ago. Did you notice it says streets
of gold? That means you walk on it. It's
nothing to God. Just what you walk on. I love
that. I love that. Paradise is not
the streets of gold, the many mansions, and all these wonderful
things. Paradise is being with the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's paradise. That's paradise. Awaking in His likeness. Being
forever conformed to His image. Seeing Him in His beauty, in
all His glory. Dwelling in His house forever.
I love how a verse says that one day with the Lord is as 1,000
years. 1,000 years is one day. We think this life is so long
that we might live for 100 years, maybe. I honestly hope I don't
and I'd be miserable by then. But one day with the Lord is
as 1,000 years. We can't begin to understand
what eternity is, but it's glorious for the child of God. Oh, so
glorious. Now, in conclusion, Two thieves, one saved, one damned. One representing the world, which
shall perish under the wrath of God, those for whom Christ
said, I pray not for the world. And the other representing God's
elect, I pray for them which thou hast given me, for they
are thine. God's elect, the remnant, according
to the election of grace, which shall be saved. We're one of
the two. We're one of the thieves. We're
either the damned thief or the saved thief. Which thief am I?
Which thief are you? I'll tell you how you can know.
The message I've been declaring to you, the message of God's
free, sovereign salvation in Christ. Is this good news to
you? I know I'm not the most gifted
at declaring this news, but I hope my message has been clear. Is
it good news to you? Perhaps it just I agree. I agree. I agree. But it's not
really good news to you. You don't need it. It's got to
be much more than I agree. Amen. It's got to be I need this.
I need God to do this for me. Or do you despise it? You're
either just lukewarm or you're cold to it. That's not God. Or oh God save me. Which one is it? I believe we
can know, brethren. We're either sinners in our own eyes Like
this thief, by the grace of God, or we're sinners in God's eyes. Which one is it? Which one is
it? I want to show you one more thing
here over in 1 Corinthians chapter 6. This will be very brief. 1 Corinthians
chapter 6 verse 9. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? This thief just cried,
Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Know ye not
that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Now
look at this. Be not deceived, neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor thieves. You see that? Go on
reading. "...nor covetous, nor drunkards,
nor revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of
God." Whoa! Nor thieves. I thought you just told us one
of those thieves was saved. Didn't Christ even say this thief
was saved? Yes, He did. And yes, He is.
Well, how can that be? Look at verse 11. "...and such
were some of you." Oh, isn't that good? Such were some of
you. Can you, by the grace of God,
say, oh Lord God, that's me. I'm a thief, I'm covetous, I'm
a drunkard, I'm a reviled, that's me. You're talking about me. And such were some of you, but
you're washed. But you are sanctified, but you
are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit
of our God. Oh, this man was a thief. He was a sinner. But he was washed. The other thief wasn't washed.
This thief was washed in the blood of God's Son, washed in
the blood of the Lamb. And by the grace of God, I'm
here to tell you I can identify with this thief. I'm not trusting
in myself. By the grace of God, God has
caused me to trust in Christ, to look to Him and Him alone
for all my salvation. Just like this thief, my cry
is, Lord, remember me. You're coming again, Lord. He's
coming again. Remember me when you come into
your kingdom. And you know what He's going to say to me? You know I'm not going to say
it today. It may not be today. This is what He's going to say
to me. Matthew 25 verse 34, How can He say that to me? I'm a
thief. I'm a sinner. Such were some
of you, but you're washed. washed, sanctified, justified
in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
Amen. Let us pray. O God, our Father,
we thank You for Your Word. We thank You for this passage
of two thieves, knowing that You sovereignly saved one and
passed by the other. And we say, Amen, Lord. You're
right. Father, we know that if left
to ourselves, we are Doomed for hell. That's exactly what we
deserve. But Lord, we pray that you would
come. Come to us. Dwell in our hearts. Give us
a new heart. Put your spirit in us. Save us by your grace. And Lord, I pray that you would
cause us to cry from the depths of our soul, Lord, remember me.
Be merciful to me, the sinner. Oh God, save me. Lord, please
do that for each soul here this day. Give us saving faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ and cause us to look to him for all our
salvation. Amen.