Thank you, Brad. I would like
to ask you to hold your finger there in Luke 22, and turn also
to the book of John in chapter 5, if you would turn to John
chapter 5. John chapter 5, verse 17. Jesus is telling those who hated
him, in great mercy, he's telling
them who he truly is. He says in verse 17, but Jesus
answered them, my father worketh hitherto and I work. Clearly
when Jesus said my father, he's identifying himself as the son
of God because God couldn't be his father unless he was God's
son. And he says here too also that
his father works and he works. And he's talking especially about
the fact that they accused him of doing something on the Sabbath
day, and for that they wanted to kill him, and they would eventually. Verse 18, therefore, the Jews
sought the Moor to kill him because he not only had broken the Sabbath,
but said also that God was his father making himself equal with
God. Then answered Jesus and said
to them, Verily, verily I say to you, the son can do nothing
of himself but what he seeth the father do. For what things
soever he doeth, these also doeth the son likewise. Jesus does
the work that his father does also. Whatever his father does,
that's what he does. and that makes him equal with
God because no man can do God's work but the one who is God.
Verse 20, for the father loveth the son and showeth him all things
that himself doeth and he will show him greater works than these
that you may marvel. What work is that? Verse 21,
for as the father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them,
that means gives life to them, even so the Son quickeneth whom
He will. God gives life to whom He will
and the Son also gives life to whom He will. It's a sovereign
work. Giving life is God's work and
it's a sovereign work. He gives life to whom He will.
For the Father judgeth no man, but has committed all judgment
unto the Son, that all men should honor the Son, even as they honor
the Father." Now scripture makes it clear that we are to worship
and honor only God. And here, Jesus says that God
has given all judgment into the hand of his son in order that
we would honor the son even as we honor the father. Clearly,
he is equal with God. In fact, God the father does
nothing but what he does by his son. He that honoreth not the
son honoreth not the father which has sent him. Verily, verily,
I say to you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him
that sent me." Now, to believe Christ's word is to believe what
God gave him to say. Though he's the son and equal
with God, there is a delegated authority where God the Father
has given his son the message of salvation. And so he says
here, whoever hears my word and believeth on him, it's God the
Father's message given to Christ, it's also his message. To believe
the Lord Jesus Christ is to believe on the Father. We can't believe
on the Father unless we believe him through the Son. He says,
whoever hears my word and believes on him that sent me, has everlasting
life. It's a present possession. Every
believer who hears Christ's words, His teaching, and believes Him,
believing His word, has, present tense, everlasting life. And he shall not come into condemnation. In the end of the world, there
will be a judgment. All believing Christ will not
be condemned. but is passed from death to life. That's resurrection. To pass
from death to life, you have to be raised from death and given
life. And that is the work of the Son.
God has given all judgment into His hand, and in that judgment,
the Son of God, of His own will, according to the Father's will
and to His work, gives life, everlasting life, raises to life
dead sinners, and gives them not only everlasting life, but
they pass from death to life, avoiding all condemnation. And
there's a reason for that. He goes on, verily, verily, I
say to you, the hour is coming, and now is when the dead shall
hear the voice. How can a dead person hear anything?
If the power doesn't come from the dead person, It comes from
the one who speaks. When the dead shall hear the
voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. Clearly,
if Christ gives his voice to raise the dead, and the dead
hear it, then that message, that word, was given to them, who
hear it and are raised to life. Isn't it? It's a life-giving
voice, a life-giving word. And what is that word? It's the
message of the gospel. For as the Father hath life in
himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself,
and hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because
he is the Son of Man. Marvel not at this, for the hour
is coming in the which all that are in the graves shall hear
his voice. At the coming of Christ, everyone
who has died will be raised up. In their bodies they will be
raised. And it says in verse 29, and they shall come forth,
they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and
they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation. So there is one resurrection.
those who have done good to the resurrection of life, those who
have done evil to the resurrection of damnation. Now, in Romans
chapter three and in verse 10, it says this, in Romans chapter
three and verse 10, as it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. And he goes on in
verse 12, he says, they're all gone out of the way, they're
all together become unprofitable. There is none that do with good,
no, not one. How can there be a resurrection
and those who have done good enter into life if there is none
that have done good? Because the resurrection is accomplished
by the one who speaks. The life comes from him. Now,
I don't know about you, but when I was a child, if my mom and
dad said, today is a school day, I had to go to school. I couldn't
debate with them that today was not a school day. I might pretend
to be sick and try to get out of going to school. But their
word about which days were school days was an authoritative word.
And I knew that they were inflexible in it. Today's a school day,
get going. It's because they had integrity
that their word about school days was correct. And I knew
that if they said, you don't have to go to school today, it
was because there was no school. Now the Lord Jesus Christ commands
dead sinners to life. He is God. God cannot lie. Death is the payback for sin. All who have sinned must die. God's character demands it. And yet the Son of God says he
is the resurrection and the life. How then can God, who cannot
lie, and cannot pervert judgment, raise a dead sinner to life and
still be true to his own character. How? Because the one who commands
life to dead sinners took from them the cause of death. And what is that? It is sin. Sin against God is the reason
for all death. In order for Jesus Christ to
be the resurrection and the life, he himself had to take the sins
of his people, he had to answer for those sins to God, and he
had to give to God an equivalent to balance the scales of his
justice so that God himself would be pleased in forgiving sinners. And that's exactly what the Lord
Jesus Christ did. In 1 Corinthians chapter 15,
he says this in the first three verses, four verses. He says,
moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel. This is
what Jesus came to give, that message about life from the dead. The gospel which I preach to
you, which also you have received and wherein you stand, by which
also you are saved. To be saved is to be delivered
from the things that our sin brings. It's to be delivered
from our sin, from death, and from the condemnation that God's
law pronounces upon us, and the curse, and to be free from the
devil. All those things are wrapped
up in being saved. In order to be saved, our sins
have to be dealt with, and in order to do that, God had to
do that in his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse two, this
gospel which I preach to you, which you have received and wherein
you stand, by the which also you are saved, if you keep in
memory what I preach to you, unless you have believed in vain.
For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received,
how that Christ, died for our sins. Why did Jesus die? It wasn't for anything he did.
In fact, it was as a substitute for those he would save. This
is how he saved us. He died for our sins. He died as the one who had committed
the sins. He didn't commit them. He took
them. And he took them by the will
of God in order to take our sins from us. He says, how that Christ
died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried,
his body was buried, and that he rose again the third day according
to the scriptures. That's the gospel. How Christ
died, why he died, who he died for, he died for our sins. Now
back in Luke chapter 23, where Brad read to us, I wanna give
you this account of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross and
his promise to this sinner. Because unless we see ourselves
as this man, dying, justly condemned to death because of our own sin,
we cannot have any reason to trust Christ as our savior. But
if we truly are sinners, guilty before God, deserving the death
that our sins bring because of our sins, because God is holy,
and if we are helpless, absolutely helpless, as helpless as a dead
person, cannot do anything to take away our sins or to escape
the wrath of God, or to escape the bondage of our sins and the
death our sins deserve in all of our being, and to escape the
bondage of Satan, and the deception of Satan, and all the accusations
of Satan. The only way we can escape that
is if Jesus Christ himself bears our sins, because we can't do
anything about it. So in Luke chapter 23, it says
there were these two malefactors, one on the right hand of Jesus
and the other on the left. Christ was crucified on the middle
cross. He was, as it says in Isaiah
53, numbered. He was counted as a transgressor
himself and he was numbered among the transgressors. He was right
in the middle. He was considered in all ability
for the people there to perceive, he was considered as the worst
transgressor. And by God, because he bore our
sins. And you know how dark your sins
are. There's not one of us here who doesn't have something or
many things that you think of from time to time for which you
groan In your deepest being and in your conscience, you know
how ashamed you are if you could somehow get rid of that, that
whatever you've done and whatever you've thought and whatever motives
you have that bring this dark cloud of your own sinfulness
upon you. We all have that. Now the Lord
Jesus Christ had to bear that sin for all those for whom he
died. Think of the weight of those
sins. He was crucified in the middle. He says in verse 34,
then said Jesus, notice, this is why he's here. Father, and
the father loves his son and answers all of his prayers. Forgive
them for they know not what they do. Those who were there, who
crucified Him, the man who was hanging next to Him, who believed
on Him, He was praying for them. And He asked His Father to forgive
them, and His Father answered His prayer. Their sins were no
more remembered by God, because He asked God for His sake. He's asking, He's bearing their
sins, He's taking them on Himself, He's suffering for them. What
He asked for God, in response to, or in agreement with, in
this transaction between the Lord Jesus Christ and His Father,
is, Father, forgive them. For they know not what they do.
And they parted his raiment. and they 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." Now, listen to the words very carefully
here, because the men on the cross next to Jesus, the one
on the left, the one on the right, hear these words. They hear the
truth about the Lord Jesus Christ. He saved others. They hear that. Let him save himself. But he
did not save himself. He could have, but he would not,
because he came to save others. If he be Christ, therefore he
was the Christ of God, the chosen of God, therefore he was God's
chosen to save his people. They heard this, and faith comes
by hearing, and hearing comes by the word of God. The soldiers
also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar and
saying, if thou be the king of the Jews. So what were they saying? He was God's appointed king over
God's chosen people. Now here they're called the Jews,
but he's not limiting it to the Jews. He's describing his people
with the title of Jews because all of God's people are considered
his, and they're often called in scripture both Israel and
Jews, the true ones. These are the true people of
God. He's the king of them. He says, if thou be king of the
Jews, he's truly God's king over his people, then save thyself.
He would not do that, because God sent him to save them by
his death. And it says, verse 38, a superscription
also was written over him in letters of Greek and Latin and
Hebrew. Clearly this message was not
just for the Jews. It was in these three languages
spoken in that day. Greek, Hebrew, which was the
language of the Jews, and Latin, which was the language of the
Romans. And here's the message. This is the king of the Jews. So the thieves knew this. They
heard this. And one of the malefactors, one
of the thieves, which were hanged, railed on him, saying, if thou
be Christ, save thyself and us." Now, these two thieves represent
all people. My reaction to reading scripture
like this is I always want to identify with the hero. don't
you? Whenever I was a kid and I watched
the cartoons, I always wanted to be the hero underdog, or Superman,
or Mighty Mouse, or Adam Ant. You know, you just name your
cartoon. You wanted to be one of those guys. You never wanted
to be the villain, did you? But the fact is that God gives
us these two men to show us ourselves. By nature, we are these thieves."
We are the one, the malefactor, hanged and railing on Christ,
saying, if thou be Christ, save thyself and us. By nature, we
have no interest in the glory of God. If we could, we would
not believe on Christ. But if we would, we could not
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Sin is so much part of our nature
that we have died in our spirit. We cannot know the things of
God. We cannot understand them. And we cannot enter the kingdom
of God. We have to be raised from death
to life by the Son of God. And so he does what we do by
nature. Let's go on. But the other, the
other thief answering, rebuked the first thief. Why did he do
this? Because he heard the voice of
the Son of God. He heard about Christ what God
said was true about him. Faith, God gives us faith. Faith is not inherent in us. It's not inherent in any of us,
not faith in Christ. But when God gives us faith,
our faith doesn't make God do anything. Faith is believing
what God said. That's what faith is. And whatever God said, that's
the way that it is. So faith doesn't make things
happen. God makes things happen and God
says what things are true. And so faith enables us, it persuades
us of the truth about God, about what he has said. And so this
thief who received this faith from God, he heard that Jesus
was the Son of God. He heard him pray, Father. He heard that he was the one
who had power with God to ask for the forgiveness of sins of
these sinners. Didn't he? He heard the people
say he saved others, and he would not save himself, though they
mocked him by saying he could not. They heard that he was the
Christ, the chosen of God, and that he was the king. And he
would not save himself as king. Now they heard all this, and
this thief heard this, and this is what gave this thief, this
believing thief, faith in the truth about Jesus Christ. And
listen to what he does. He answered the first thief saying,
does not thou fear God, who is God? the one hanging next to
him in the middle cross. He calls him the son of God.
Don't you fear God, seeing that thou art in the same condemnation
as I am? I inserted those words. Verse
41, we indeed justly, notice how he, the second thief, He
understands that he himself and the first thief both are sinners
and both worthy of death, the condemnation of God against sinners. Verse 41, we indeed justly, for
we receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man has done
nothing amiss, no sin in him. Verse 42. And now he stops talking
to the first thief, the unbelieving thief. This believing thief now
turns to the Lord Jesus Christ and he utters this prayer, Lord,
Lord, the one hanging next to him on the cross is bloodied.
Thorns pierce his head. His back is laid open from the
whip of the soldiers so that his bones stick out. They spit
in his face. They stripped him of his clothes. He had nothing on, and he was
mocked by the vilest of men. And they had his clothes, and
they were dividing them among themselves. They were gambling
for his clothes. He had no apparent power, and
yet this thief calls him Lord. And then he says, remember me,
when thou comest into thy kingdom, his kingdom, he's the king, he's
the Lord, remember me. The thief is going to go into
death and in the grave. Christ is going to die. How could
the Lord Jesus Christ remember him and what good would it do
if he could only remember him to the grave? He had to remember
him beyond the grave. He would rise again and sit on
heaven's throne as the Lord and the King. And if the King remembered,
then he would raise him up too. Remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. Everyone else saw no Lord, they
saw no king, they saw no Christ in him. They saw he could save
no one. They mocked him and they had
confidence that he would do nothing against them, though he was the
judge of all men. They gave him no honor because
they did not believe him. They therefore did not believe
God. And notice what Jesus says. And
Jesus said to him, verily, you can take this as the way things
shall be. This is certain. Verily, I say
unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Both were going to die. Jesus,
without any reluctance, gives him a solemn promise, which if
he broke his promise, would discredit him as God himself. He stakes his promise on his
own name as God. This will happen. You will be
with me in paradise. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ died. The thief, both thieves, also
died that day. And they were all buried. That was the day Christ died,
which was a Friday night. His body was laid in the tomb. The thieves were buried somewhere.
I don't know where. But that day, that day, the thief,
believing thief, was with Christ in paradise. How could this be? It wasn't until after Saturday
and the next day, Sunday, that Christ rose from the dead in
his body. How could he be with the thief
in paradise that day? Because in the resurrection,
God raises us in three different ways. First, when we hear the
Word of God and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, when we read
from John 5, 24, whoever believes on me has everlasting life. Our spirits are given life from
the dead, and in that life, that everlasting life, we believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, by His
word, commands life to our dead spirits and gives us life. And
by that life, by Christ, we believe on Him. Then, secondly, when
our body dies, Because we have life in our spirit, because that
life is Christ, our souls go to be with Christ immediately. Our souls are separated from
our body. Our body is like a glove. Have
you ever seen a glove? You put it on. You can wiggle
your fingers. And you see that the glove responds
to everything your hand does inside it. Our souls give life
to our bodies. When our soul is taken from our
body, our body is like the glove. You take it off, you lay it down,
it looks like the person, but there's no life there. The soul
is absent. And the souls of believers, when
they die, immediately go to be with the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus
said, today you'll be with me in paradise. And then, When the
Lord Jesus Christ rose from the dead, the body that he had before
he went into the tomb, that body was changed. That body became
a spiritual body. It says in Philippians chapter
3 and verse 21, I'll read this to you. This is incredible. Listen to this. He says, He shall
change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His
glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even
to subdue all things to Himself." Jesus Christ rose from the dead. His body was a spiritual body. In the resurrection of the believer,
at the coming of Christ, every believer's body shall be raised
up, just like we read in John 5. some to the resurrection of
life. They will be given life in their
body because they are joined to the Lord Jesus Christ, and
faith in Christ is the evidence that they were joined to him
in spirit. The Spirit of God gives them
life in their spirit. They believe on Christ. The evidence
of that is they believe, the evidence of their being joined
to Christ is that they believe on Him. And the result of that
is their souls depart when they die. They go to be with Christ
that very day, that moment that they die, they're with Christ.
Paul said, for me to live is Christ, but to die is gain. To
be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. But
on the last day, at the coming of Christ, he shall issue his
command, and everyone, first of all, the believers, the saints
they're called, will be raised up in their body, and their bodies
will be given life by his own body. Because God says that in
the believer, in our own bodies, the Lord Jesus Christ dwells.
Our body, it says, is the temple of Christ, the temple of God
right now. Every person believing Christ
has Christ by His Spirit living in them. And even our hands are
called the members of Christ. But also true is that His body
being joined to ours, we are one with Him. When he rose from
the dead, his spiritual body now gives life to our body so
that when we die, our bodies will be raised up on the last
day. And this is the truth of the
resurrection. He died, he rose again. Because
he rose, we shall rise with him. He told his disciples in John
14, chapter 14, verse 19, because I live, Because I live, you shall live
also. I'll read that to you, John 14
and verse 19. He says, yet a little while the world
seeth me no more, but you see me because I live, you shall
live also. At that day, you shall know that
I am in my Father and you in me. and I in you. You see the union? It's that
union with the Lord Jesus Christ that causes us to be raised with
Him. We are raised from death to life
because Christ rose from the dead. And He rose from the dead,
why? Because He put away the cause
of death, the sins of His people. He bore them before God as a
criminal. but he bore them before God as
the Redeemer who came to pay the debt that we owed God because
of our sins. And having paid the debt, he
received from God the liberty, the freedom from sin and from
death so that all of our sins now are forgiven according to
Christ's own prayer. This is the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And the Lord says this in Isaiah
45 and verse 22, the Lord Jesus Christ, own words, he says this,
look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth. Look
upon Christ as the sin bearing, The cursed bearing substitute
who took the sins of his people, they were helpless in their sins,
condemned in their sins, did nothing to remove their sins
from them and could do nothing. And Jesus Christ, when they were
helpless in their sins, took their sins, bore them as his,
answered God for the accusations that God's law would bring against
them for those sins. And he took away their sins and
delivered them from sin and death, from the devil, and from all
of the consequences of their sins. That's the gospel. Let's
pray. Father, we pray according to
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, the words that tell us the truth
of the way things are, that as He died for the sins of His people,
and He was buried to put away those sins from the remembrance
of God, and rose again because He put them away and justified
us in His own blood, so we would be given faith in Him to trust
Him as our only Redeemer, our only Savior. And like that thief
who was given this grace to look to Him, may we be given grace
now to know that He is the Lord and ask Him ourselves, Lord,
remember me when you come into your kingdom. And we want more
than anything to be with our Savior and to hear his words
today, you shall be with me in paradise. May you bless your
word to our hearts, everyone. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.