This has to be one of the most
precious places in all of scripture. Luke chapter 23. Almost everybody you talk to
who knows anything about the Bible knows something about the
thief on the cross. So we're going to look at this
here. I'll just read it to you. Excuse me. It says, you have
to understand the context here. Excuse me. The Lord Jesus had been taken
the very night He was betrayed by the high priest and accused
falsely and mocked. He was slapped and hit in the
face. They covered His face. They spit in His face. And they
hit Him on the head. They put a crown of thorns on
His head and they stripped Him of His clothes and they mocked
Him. And they bowed to Him in mock honor and worship. These men who were haters of
Christ, who envied Him, who could only think of themselves, and
the soldiers who were only cruel and merciless towards Him, and
the religious leaders who had whipped up the crowd to call
for His crucifixion. Everybody, literally everybody,
was crying out for Him to be crucified. And it was one of
His own disciples who betrayed Him, Judas, you know that. Judas
was his friend. Jesus had befriended him and
trusted him. And without getting into how
that can be and how he can be the son of God and trust him,
just take God's word for it. He trusted and was friends to
Judas. So his betrayal was especially
painful. And the disciples all forsook
him and fled. There was no comforters for him.
He carried his cross partway, and then they got another man
to carry it, and now they nailed him to the cross, and they hung
him on the cross, and they put him in the ground, the cross
in the ground, and there he hangs. And they said these things in
verse, if you look back up a little bit in verse 35, it says, and
the people stood beholding, and the rulers also with them. These would be the rulers of
the Jews and the people of the Jews. And they derided him, saying
this, 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. So they all were mocking
him, saying, If you're the king, If you're truly the king of the
Jews, if you're truly the chosen one of God, in other words, if
God favors you, then save yourself. And then in verse 38 it says,
and a superscription also was written over him in letters of
Greek and Latin and Hebrew. Everyone could read it. All those
people who had come to that area could read it. All those languages
were there for them to read. And here it is, this is the king
of the Jews. And then in verse 39, And one
of the malefactors, an evildoer, which were hanged with the Lord
Jesus, railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself
and us. So there were actually three
crosses there. One for Jesus and one for each
of these two thieves. Jesus was the cross in the middle.
And one of the thieves, and I don't know whether it was the right
or the left, I suspect it was the left hand, because the right
hand was the side of honor. And perhaps the thief, the believing
thief, was on that side. But here this thief rails on
him. And he said to him, If thou be
Christ, save thyself and us. If thou be Christ, save thyself
and us. Now think about what that statement
says. If thou be Christ. Clearly, He
was challenging him, wasn't He? If you are Christ, then do something.
Prove it. And here's what I want you to
do. Save us and save yourself. That's exactly the way the devil
tempted the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew chapter 4. He said,
if you are the Son of God, then turn these stones into bread.
Feed yourself. If you're the Son of God, then
cast yourself down from this pinnacle of the temple. All these
things were temptations, challenging him to prove who he was. But why did He need Jesus to
prove what He was by getting down from the cross? His words,
weren't they enough? Why don't we believe people?
Isn't it because we doubt that their word is sufficient? That's
the way you treat a common liar, is you ask them to prove with
evidence what they're saying is true. If you accept someone's
word, it's because you believe them. You're taking their person
as good enough for their word. But here this thief rails on
him. It wasn't meant to be an honest
question. He meant it to deride him and
to mock him. So he says, if thou be the Christ,
save thyself and us. But why save you? Why do you
need me to prove that I'm Christ by saving you? Why would you
expect that because I'm the Christ, I would have to save you? See,
this man had another attitude, which was, not only did he not
believe Christ, not only was he joining with the crowd, perhaps
trying to get their favor, perhaps trying to buy himself some mercy
at their hands. But he was also doing it with
this attitude of, if you're the Christ, then save me. So it was really all about him.
He expected that the Lord Jesus Christ would save him. Not because
he saw Christ as gracious and as Lord and God, but because
he thought he deserved it. He presumed upon him that if
he was the Christ, then he would just save him and save the other
thief and himself too. But, of course, he had no understanding. And he was the thief we call
the unbelieving thief. But then in verse 40 it says,
But the other, the other thief, answering, answering him, rebuked
him, saying, Dost not thou fear God? Don't you fear God? Seeing thou art in the same condemnation. Don't you fear God? You're in
the same condemnation. And what was that condemnation?
Well, it was the sentence of death, wasn't it? The same condemnation of the
one you're accusing, you're dying. And he asked him, don't you fear
God? And he goes on in verse 41, he says, and we indeed justly,
for we receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man had
done nothing amiss. Don't you fear God? You know,
if we fear God, we really don't need to fear anything else, do
we? Because if God is for us, then who can be against us? But
if God is not for us, if God is against us, then who can be
for us? It won't matter, will it? So
really, the fear of the Lord is everything. But have you ever
wondered what that means? What is the fear of the Lord? I wonder that all the time. I
struggle with it. You know, the Bible says a lot of things about
the fear of God. When Abraham was in Egypt sojourning
there, Abimelech asked him about his wife and he told Sarah to
say, you're my sister, so that he wouldn't die for her sake.
And so she said that she was his sister. And so Abimelech thought to take
her to be his own wife. And later, when Abimelech was
confronted by God about this, Abimelech asked Abraham, what
did you see that you would say this, that she's just your sister?
And Abraham said, because I saw that the fear of God was not
in this place. He knew that the fear of God,
how did he know that? Well, because of the way the
people acted. The Proverbs say this, that the
fear of the Lord is to depart from evil. So the evidence of
the fear of the Lord is that men depart from evil. But what
is it to fear the Lord? You know, in our day, the fear
of God is almost absent. Jesus, this is a common problem,
isn't it? You see those shirts, no fear. Have you ever seen those? I don't
know if they're popular now. They used to be. No fear. As I said,
if we fear God, we really don't need to fear anything else. But
if we don't fear God, then we have everything to fear. What are we to say that we have
no fear? That's a complete lie, isn't
it? To be without fear is to be... I think it's to be insane,
really. It's to be mindless. of the condition of your soul
and mindless of the reality of this world. So, to say there's
no fear is just a complete denial of the truth, isn't it? But what
is it to fear the Lord? Well, first of all, it's to know
who God is. You've probably seen this several
times in your own life, where you're confronted with something
that you'd heard about, but you don't really realize the immensity
of it, or that Or the fact of it, until it hits you square
in the face. I've never seen a bear in the
wild. Some of my family here have.
But can you imagine, my brother in fact, Terry, I think he was
out one day, and a bear. He saw a bear not far from him.
Now there's something about the concept of a bear that becomes
crystal clear to you when you see a bear face to face. What
would that do? It would strike terror into you.
The bear is huge and the power is immense. So you would immediately
have the fear of a bear by seeing that bear face to face. When
you see and know what a bear really is, Then you understand
what the fear of the bear is, don't you? Well, that's the same
thing it is with God. If you know who God is. If you
don't know God, you don't fear Him. And to not fear God is simply
to say, I don't know God. But to know God is to fear God. It's to know that He is holy.
To be holy means that everything that God does is right and pure.
Because God does it. And I am all sin. To fear God is to know that God
is holy, and that He alone is holy, and that I am all sin,
and that He holds me accountable. To me, that strikes fear in me.
Doesn't it, you? And it's to know not only that
I am a sinner, and that I'm accountable, but that I'm actually worthy
to die because of my sin. The wages of sin is death. Those
are God's words, and there's something about those words that
strikes a measure of sobriety and fear in us, doesn't it? And
how about those words that says, we shall all give account of
ourselves to God. Doesn't that cause you to pause
a little bit and wonder, how am I going to give an account?
So it's to know I'm a sinner, that God is holy, that I'm accountable,
that I'm worthy to die, and to know that I'm utterly dependent
upon Him to save me." Isn't that what the thief, the believing
thief was? He knew he was utterly dependent upon the Lord Jesus
Christ to save him. This other thief When He said,
if you're the Christ, save us and yourself, He didn't have
any dependence upon Christ to save Him. He was challenging
Him in arrogance and ignorance, complete spiritual blindness. Here Jesus is hanging on the
cross all through the process of bringing Him to the cross.
He never spoke a word. He never complained. In the dignity
of his person and majesty of a king, with victory over his
captors, he submits in obedience to God. And he didn't see it.
He didn't know it. But the fear of God is to know
that He must save me. That I'm utterly dependent upon
His free mercy and grace. Because I have nothing. I can
never deserve God's salvation. Never deserve anything from Him.
And it's to know that I cannot produce one thing that He requires.
It's finding not only my utter emptiness and His all-sufficiency
according to His Word, but it's also finding that He's done all
to save His people in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. And knowing
that He died, that Christ died for sinners and receives sinners,
and that God only receives sinners through Christ, that God is so
holy that He required His Son, His only begotten Son, to bear
the sins of His people and die in order to have those people
and present them to Himself without blame. That holiness, that requirement
of God, you know what that does? It drives me to Christ knowing
that the only way God can accept me is in Christ. That's what
the fear of God does. It causes me to come to God and
to come only in Christ for mercy. That's the fear of God. And this
man asked, the believing thief asked this man, don't you fear
God? Don't you fear God? Obviously,
no. He didn't fear God, did he? And
so we have to ask ourselves, do I fear God? Do I? Now, the story of the thief on
the cross is one of those things, as I said, everybody seems to
know about it. In fact, a lot of people say this. They'll say,
well, you know, before I die, I'll make my peace with God.
The thief on the cross did. But there's a real... deep-seated pride and evil in
that statement. When I come to the point when
I am about to die, then I will make my peace with God, as the
thief on the cross did. That presumes, first of all,
that I can get God to accept me. Nothing could be further
from the truth. And until we realize that we're
under the judgment of God and only God can move Himself, find
motivation to save me, we won't fear God. Until we realize that
we are in the hand and at the mercy of God alone, we won't
fear Him. We won't submit. We will not
worship Him. Remember the Syrophoenician woman
who came to Jesus because her daughter was possessed by a devil.
And she came to Jesus and cried out to him. He didn't say a word. And she cried to the disciples.
And the disciples asked Jesus to send her away. And she cried
more. And then Jesus said, I'm not
sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And she
worshipped him then. It says that she worshipped him
then. Why? Because she knew she was in his
hands to save or to leave in her misery of her sin and her
daughter's trouble. And that only he could... she
worshipped him. And when she worshipped him, he then said,
I'm not sent, but it wouldn't be right for me to take the children's
bread and give it to dogs. Can you imagine Can you imagine
coming to the Lord like that? First, ignored. Second, the disciples
pray to Him against you. And then He says, I'm only sent
to the lost sheep of Israel, and you worship Him. And He says,
it's not right to take the children's bread and give it to dogs. Can
you imagine how you would feel? I would never have gotten to
step A, would you? And then she says, Lord, it's true, it's true. You are my master and I am a
dog, but the dogs eat the crumbs from their master's table. All
I need is a crumb of your mercy." See, that was a woman who feared
God. That was a woman who wasn't like the unbelieving thief. I heard a story about a man who
was dying. And his strength was gone and
his wife stood beside his bedside and he was unable to speak. But
he managed to communicate to his wife, he wanted her to bring
the Bible. And he asked her to open the Bible and somehow directed
her to open it to this place that we're looking at right here
in Luke chapter 23. And then his wife laid the Bible
on his chest and... helped him with his hand, and
he was able to put his finger right here on this verse, in
verse 42, when the thief, the believing thief, looked at the
Lord Jesus and said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. remember me." Her husband left
his hand there, pointing to that verse when he died. Now, I don't
know if that man was, if the Lord remembered him. I believe
that he did. Jesus said, "...him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out." What a gracious Savior
we have. But never presume that you can
decide when and if the Lord will save you. The Lord is the Lord. Not you, not me. We're sinners.
We deserve nothing but His wrath. And we stand at His mercy and
at His grace. And God must give us not only
salvation, but the faith to believe, the faith to look, the eyes to
see, and a heart to know. He must do that. We're entirely
dependent on His grace. Hebrews 11, 6 says that without
faith it is impossible to please Him. And he that cometh to God
must believe that he is, and that he is the rewarder of them
that diligently seek him." To diligently seek him means to
need him and find in him everything. Especially that grace of faith
that we all need to see and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Each
one of us one day will soon stand before Jesus Christ in judgment.
It says this in Romans 14, 12. We must all give an account of
ourselves to God. And what we answer there will
be an answer to His question to us. Give an account. There's
only one question. Only one question. Give an account
of yourself. What answer can you give? Have you ever wondered that?
What would it be like to stand in judgment there alone before
the judge of all, who sees every thought, and to stand there and
try to find an answer suitable, something that I could give?
Could you even find words to speak? I don't think so. But as you consider that question,
do you ever race in your mind to find an acceptable answer?
One that God will accept, and in accepting that answer, accept
you? Do you try to recall in your
mind a promise from scripture, perhaps, that you can take hold
of in faith? Do you think of all the things,
perhaps, that you did in your life, hoping God will consider
those things in your favor? Maybe you think the words you
say then will make a difference. I hope that you and I will have
the only acceptable answer in that day. Because there is only
one acceptable answer to the Lord in the day of judgment. It's the same answer that must
be ours now in our conscience. Whatever our answer is then,
it will come out of whatever we believe in our heart. And
what we believe in our heart is going to determine if God
has had mercy upon us in our life. And so we have to think
about that. That answer that God accepts
is the answer that He requires. It's the answer that He actually
provided. It's the answer He declares to
us in Scripture. The only acceptable answer that
God accepts is this. It is Christ that died. And when
you stand before God in judgment, if you have another answer, if
you think, well, I remember that time when I had this feeling
of sorrow swept over me and I prayed, and surely that must be acceptable
to God. No, that's not acceptable. There's
only one thing God accepts. It is Christ that died. Men didn't
require Jesus to die for their sins. If God needed to persuade men
to be reconciled to Himself, He could have done something
else besides requiring His Son to offer Himself as a sacrifice.
But God required Christ to die to make satisfaction to His own
justice and fulfill His own law in the place of sinners. It was
God who required it. And the answer that God gives
us in Scripture is this, "...who is he that condemneth? It is
Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us." If Christ died, then God must
have required it. If Christ died, God must have
provided it. If Christ died and rose, God
must have accepted Him. If God is satisfied with the
Lord Jesus Christ, then I can be satisfied as a sinner with
Him, can't I? If God, who is holy, is satisfied
with His Son, cannot I be satisfied with His Son as a sinner? Because,
you see, the answer we give in our heart now is the answer God
gives in Scripture and persuades us, by faith, this is your standing
before God. It's what God thinks of His Son.
That's the answer from Scripture. And that answer really answers
every question, doesn't it? How evil is my sin? God required His Son to die. What did God require to justify
sinners? It's Christ that died. How do
we know the love of God for His own? It's Christ that died. How do I know that God will accept
me in the Day of Judgment? Isn't that a question? That the
thief, the believing thief, had that question in his heart. How
do I know God will accept me in the day of judgment? For him,
he was dying and suffering a death on the cross. He didn't even
ask Jesus, get me down from the cross like this other thief did,
did he? He didn't even ask that. He said,
Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. How do I know that the Lord will
accept me? How do I know that Christ died for me? This is how
you know. If your only answer to God now,
in your conscience and in the day of judgment, is the answer
that He provided and accepted when He raised Christ from the
dead, and is the only answer He declares to me and you as
sinners, if Christ is your only answer, then Christ died and
answered God for you. And if He answered for you on
Calvary, then He is your only answer. You're persuaded of that. If Christ is your only answer,
the count of yourself that you give in the day of judgment will
be the same one you give now in your conscience. Your reply
in judgment will be, Lord, if you are not my answer and my
complete answer, If you're not my advocate to God in all of
your wisdom and righteousness, in all the offering of yourself
and your blood, then I have no answer. I'm like that believing
thief who said, and we indeed justly. Now, I want you to consider here
this thief, because some people would say, well, You know, this
thief, all you have to believe is what the thief believed, and
so that's not very much. So, I mean, why do you require
us to have all these other things, you know, these other doctrines
and things like that? It seems so complicated. It's right, you only have to
believe what the thief believed. But how did this thief come to
believe what he believed? And what did he believe? It says in Matthew that both
of the thieves railed on Jesus. But here it says that this thief
turns to the other thief and rebuked him and said, Don't you
fear God, seeing you're in the same condemnation? And we indeed
justly? But this man has done nothing
amiss? What did this man believe? First of all, he believed that
he himself was a sinner. And secondly, He believed that
he deserved the condemnation that had been pronounced against
him. He was dying on the cross and
he deserved it. He said, I deserve it. We receive
the due reward of our deeds. That's the hardest thing, I think,
for people to admit. I deserve what I'm getting. Nowadays,
it's all about entitlement, isn't it? I deserve this from the government. The government, the government,
the government. They take all my money and they give me nothing
for it, but I deserve something from them, don't I? I do that. And I know it's wrong when I
do it, to complain. To complain is wrong, isn't it?
One of the Psalms says, oh, that there would be no complaining
in our streets. Because it's a sign of unbelief. But here this man, he says, Jesus
has done nothing amiss. Nothing amiss. How could he say
that? Well, the word amiss actually
means more than he did nothing wrong. It actually means he did
everything right too, if you look that word up. So here he
looked at the Lord Jesus and he had observed him by God-given
faith. And he had seen, not only did
he not do anything wrong, but he did everything right. He heard
that prayer. Father, forgive them for they
know not what they do. He heard the people speaking
against him saying, if you're the Christ, if you're the Son
of God, save yourself and save us. The Son of God, Christ, save
yourself. He saved others. He heard those
words. The words that spoke of Christ,
they spoke it against Him. The Son of God, Christ, the Chosen
of God, the One who saved people. His disciples had been with him
over three years. They had seen him speak to the
wind and the sea and comet. To raise the dead, not just once,
but multiple times. To heal lepers, make them completely
clean, just by his word and by touching them. He saw that. He opened the eyes of a man born
blind. Raised people from their lameness. They couldn't even walk. A paralytic
man. And he forgave sins. The disciples saw all that, and
yet, where were they? And here this man is, hanging
next to Jesus, and he says, he's done nothing amiss. And he hears
these words, the Son of God, the Christ of God, He who saved
others. And God used those words. How
does faith come to us? Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. Romans 10, 17. Doesn't it? He
heard these words and all the words the enemy spoke against
the Lord Jesus Christ actually became words from God that convinced
him in his heart. Do you know the things that people
say against Christ are the very things that are true about Him?
And so they were simply echoing what God had said about him,
which they denied. But he saw their evil. He saw
their wickedness. He knew they were denying him.
He knew that for envy and hatred and cruelty, they were killing
Christ. And God put it together for him. And so he says, this
man has done nothing amiss. And then he says these most amazing
words in verse 42. which is the title of this sermon,
Remember Me. He says, he said to Jesus, Lord,
remember me. When you come into your kingdom, I cannot tell you that there's
a greater faith than this man had in all of scripture. Cain
was the first man to offer a sacrifice to God for his sins. And Noah
built the ark, patiently believing God's word that he was going
to destroy the world and flood for 120 years. Can you imagine
that kind of faith? Abraham offered up his only begotten
son, the son of his old age, that son who seemed impossible,
had come from his dead body and the wife of, the dead body of
his wife Sarah had come from them and he believed God and
he offered up his son thinking that God was going to raise him
again from the dead. That's great faith, isn't it? And this man
He had this incomparable faith. Remember me, Lord. Everybody
in the world was against Christ. And while everybody else was
against Him, He confesses and comes to Him as Lord. Isn't that
amazing? It's one thing to believe when
everybody is believing. It's another thing entirely when
everybody else is in denial. That is really astounding. Lord. He didn't just believe
that he had done nothing amiss. He calls him Lord. And Lord is
the word in scripture for the Lord. It wasn't just Master. It was Lord. You're the Lord.
And the other thing he realized too is that... He needed the
Lord to remember him. And there was something about
this. The fact that he didn't ask Jesus to save him from the
cross teaches us that there was something else he was looking
for, wasn't it? He wasn't just looking for immediate
deliverance from his troubles and his problems and his sufferings
and even the death he was going to suffer. He accepted the fact
that he was dying undeservedly. And he even looked to the future
and knew that he was deserving of that punishment that awaited
him as a sinner. And yet, what does he say? He
turns to the Lord and he says, Lord, remember me. Remember me. This is a cry of
mercy, isn't it? There is no justification for
this man to be able to claim from Christ to remember him.
Remember you? A thief? But he had heard those words,
hadn't he? Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
And he thought, I'm sure that those words were the words the
Lord used. Forgive them. There's mercy with
thee, that thou mayest be feared. Psalm 130 verse 4. He thought
of those words. Remember me. Nehemiah prayed
these words to God. He said, Remember me, O my God,
according to this also, and spare me according to the greatness
of thy mercy. Remember me. The psalmist prayed
this way. Remember the word unto thy servant
upon which thou hast caused me to hope. Remember me. What a word is that. And then he says, I think it's
important to see here that when he does this, this believing
thief, he looked to the Lord Jesus Christ. He looked to Him. I don't know if he could see
Him, whether their crosses were in front, or in back, or alongside,
or facing each other, or what. It doesn't matter. When I say
look, it doesn't mean necessarily with his physical eyes, but he
spoke to Him. He spoke to the Lord. Now a sinner
who's condemned comes to the Lord and speaks to him and asks
him something. Remember me. Isn't this telling
us what we should do as sinners? This man had done everything
wrong. And he came to him who had done
everything right, who was holy and just. And yet he had heard
of his mercy. Father, forgive them. And he
says, Lord, remember me. In that prayer, remember me. He asks the Lord for this salvation. If you're ever saved, you're
going to ask Him. You're going to go to the Lord
Jesus Christ and ask Him. Ezekiel 37 says that. He says, "...for this I will
be inquired of by the house of Israel, to do it for them." David
prayed that in 2 Samuel 7 25 when he said, Lord, do as you
have said. That's what he asked. Lord, you are the Lord. Remember me. You have power.
You have authority. And you have mercy. Remember
me, the Lord. If he fears God, he need not
fear anyone else. If God is for us, who can be
against us? So he goes to the Lord. He goes
to the one against whom he sinned. And He asks him to remember Him.
And then He says these most amazing words. He says, "...when thou
comest into thy kingdom." Here He hangs. His head pierced with
thorns. Blood all over His face. Unrecognizable
to men. His back laid open. Spit. His face beaten with men's fists
and slaps. Stripped naked. Hands pierced
and his feet pierced. He didn't even look like he had
before. The sweat from the garden probably
still on his, staining his body. And he says, Lord, remember me
when you come into your kingdom. They had said, come down from
the cross, if you're the Christ, so that we can believe you. It's
not about coming down from the cross. It's about going to the
cross and dying, and then rising again. If they would believe
Him, had He come down from the cross, then they would believe
Him when He rose from the dead, which was far greater. But that
wasn't their intent, nor was it their ability to do it, nor
is it ours, unless God has mercy upon us. And so, he says to him,
when you come into your kingdom. Because this thief was given
grace by God to see that the one hanging next to him was going
to actually accomplish something. He came there to do something.
And he was going to finish what he had done. And later on, on
the cross, he even cried, it is finished. He deliberately
laid down his life. And so when he spoke to him,
he saw that he was a king. He was a king. When you come
into your kingdom, kings come in their kingdom. It said over
his head, the king of the Jews, he's the king. He's the Lord.
He's coming. After he dies, he's going to
rise again. And he's going to receive a kingdom.
And his kingdom is not of this world. And so he says, Lord,
remember me. You, the King of glory, the King
of heaven, remember me. You who forgive sins, you whom
God always answers when you pray, remember me. Remember me, Lord. If the Lord remembers me, I don't
need anything else, do I? There's nothing else I need than
that. And if that's all I need, then won't I go to him? If I'm
truly a sinner, if I truly know that what I've done is against
God only, then I'll go to God only with my sin. Telling other
people what I've done isn't going to help. Telling other people
that I need mercy isn't really going to help me. I need to go
to the Lord Jesus Christ. I need to ask Him, Lord, remember
me. I can't think of anything more
amazing than the grace that God gave this thief. He knew where
his salvation was, it was in Christ. He staked his whole eternity,
as every believing sinner does, on the Lord Jesus Christ. And
notice the words that Jesus said in verse 43. And Jesus said to
him, because up to this time it doesn't say that Jesus has
said anything. He hadn't spoken to any of the
soldiers. Hadn't spoken to the soldiers. Hadn't spoken to Pilate. Except when he told him that
you could have no power over me unless it were given you from
heaven and a couple of other things. When he said he was the
Christ. When he asked him if he was a king, he said, yeah,
you said it. But he barely spoke to anybody. But here this man
who was a sinner, he looks to him and he says, remember me.
And then Jesus says these words, verily. Now that's a word of
certainty. It's a word of reassurance. He
gives assurance to this thief. He doesn't just say, it'll be
okay. He gives him the most solemn
assurance, verily. I say unto thee. He believed
him, and now he speaks. He hadn't hardly spoken, but
now he speaks. I say unto thee. He had spoken
to the wind and the waves, and they obeyed him. He had spoken
to Lazarus, and he obeyed, even though he was dead. He had spoken
to those soldiers, and they all fell back. Whatever he said,
always accomplished what his word intended. And now he says,
I say unto thee. Hear the word. Faith is believing
what God says, what Christ says. He says to him, listen, today
thou shalt be with me in paradise. Remember me. He thought, when
you come into your kingdom, remember me. That's a long time down the
road, maybe when you return to this earth. No. Today you'll
be with me in paradise. Today. Here the Lord Jesus Christ
is on the cross. Hanging there. Dying. And he
says today. This very day. He was going to
die shortly. And when he did, in his body
he still hung on the cross. But the Lord Jesus in his human
soul and spirit immediately went to his father. Immediately. He didn't go down into hell to
talk to the devils there, or to people in hell. He didn't
go there. He went to his father. And he told the thief, you will
be with me. That means when the thief died,
that day, evidently because they broke his legs and Jesus said
this, he died that day too. The Jews didn't want him on the
cross so they could keep the Passover. Get him off the cross,
break their legs so they die and we get him down for the cross
before nightfall. And then he says, today not only
will I remember you, in the future kingdom, or when
I come again, to end this world. But today, this very day, you're
going to be with me in paradise." Here he hangs. Can you imagine
the comfort that swept over this thief? It doesn't say that they
spoke to one another anymore. I don't know if they did or not.
I can't imagine the peace and joy while He hung on the cross,
even though He was suffering as a man, the thief and Christ,
that here you see the communion between Christ and His people.
What does the Lord Jesus want more than anything? To have His
people, that they might see Him and come to Him. Remember when
He sat on that well at Samaria, and the woman who was a sinner
came to Him and said, she didn't speak at all. And Jesus asked
her, He said, give me to drink. Give me to drink? You're the
Lord of glory, why do you need a drink from me? And the entire... The communication between them
came through where he revealed himself to her. And made her
to know that he was the Christ. And she leaves her water pot
as if she forgot all about coming for water. And goes back and
tells them, isn't this the Christ? And the disciples come and they
say, Lord, you need to eat. Aren't you hungry, thirsty? He
said, I have meat to eat that you know not of. My meat is to
do the will of Him that sent me and to finish His work. He
had just given Himself as the Savior to this woman and she
had received from Him eternal life and that satisfied Him. And here the Lord Jesus Christ
on the cross, He has this thing to do to save this sinner. and
to save every sinner like Him who believes on Him." There was
this communion between them, wasn't there? His intimacy of
a sinner coming to Christ, his Savior, and depending upon Him
for mercy, and finding that mercy in Him, and taking comfort and
satisfaction, and finding great joy in that, and this assurance.
This is an assurance. Christ wants us to be assured
that He is the Savior. When we think of assurance, we
think, well, let's see, have I done this? Have I done that? Do I
believe this? Do I believe that? Assurance comes by being assured
that the Lord Jesus Christ is who He said He is. That He did
what He said He did. And He accomplished it. And being
assured that as a sinner, that's my only hope. And coming to Him
with nothing to claim, and nothing to bring, and nothing to claim
except His Word. Lord, remember me. Now, I know
in the Day of Judgment, I want to remember the right words to
say. I want to say whatever God says in Scripture. But you know
what? I don't trust my memory. And I certainly don't trust it
through that process of death. And so the thief does the same
thing. He commits the entire case into Christ's hands. And he says, Lord, remember me.
Jesus says, today. And not just today you'll be
raised again or today you'll be given life, but today you'll
be with me. That is heaven, isn't it? To be with Christ. There is nothing
else. Heaven is not heaven if Christ
isn't there. But to be with Christ, hell would
be heaven, wouldn't it? Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
were thrown into the fiery furnace. And King Nebuchadnezzar looks
in there and he goes, Whoa, there's four men in there. Didn't we
just throw three in? There's four. And the fourth
is like the Son of God. And they were walking around
talking with each other. Their bonds were loosed. Because
they were with Christ. Today you'll be with me in paradise. Not the Garden of Eden, but that
eternal inheritance which Christ purchased with His own blood
when He fulfilled the eternal will of God. And as the testator
of that will died and put it into force and then rose again
to make sure all the conditions or the promises of that will
were actually given to the inheritance was given to His people. Today
you'll be with me in paradise. All eternal glory rewarded to
this thief, this dying thief, for the obedience of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Amazing, isn't it? That's amazing. Today you'll be with me. Lord,
remember me. Don't you want the Lord to remember
you? I hope that you do. There were three men that died
that day and they all three represent us. One man died in his sins. That was the unbelieving thief.
He was guilty. He came to the cross guilty.
He was condemned. He died a sinner. As he lived,
he died. And as he died, he spent eternity.
Revelation says, let him that is filthy be filthy still. He
died in the filth of his sins, and he remained in the guilt
of his sins. He died in his sins. Another
man there, died four sins. That was the Lord Jesus. And
this thief, this believing thief, he died two sins with his Savior. In fact, he died in his Savior.
When the Lord Jesus Christ died under the penalty of sin, the
penalty for his sins was fully expended in his Savior. So that
there was no more penalty to pay. God received full satisfaction. The debt was erased. Remission
was granted. Forgiveness declared. And life
rewarded for Christ's righteousness. What a Savior. Paul the Apostle
says, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life that I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved
me and gave himself for me." That's the gospel, isn't it?
Let's pray. Father, we thank you for the
Lord Jesus and for telling us about how he saved sinners, even
the worst of sinners, this man who seemed to have nothing to
contribute to the kingdom of God. He didn't do anything before,
anything after that we would have taken notice of. Didn't
do all the things that we set down as requirements for men
to do. He simply looked to the Lord
Jesus Christ and found all of his salvation and all of his
acceptance before God in him. Lord, we pray that for Jesus'
sake, in mercy, you would remember us and give us this faith, this
thief had, that we might be with you in paradise. In Jesus' name
we pray. Amen.