This poor, lisping, stammering
tongue lies silent. I look forward to the day that
that happens. This tongue that is wagged. This mouth that's been too full
of cursing and bitterness. And a nobler, sweeter tongue
or voice will sing. It will use this tongue and these
mouths for nothing but praise. That thief on the cross mouth
full of cursing and bitterness all his life. With his dying
breath, the Lord gave him the tongue of alerted. May our dying breath be, Lord,
remember me. Luke 23 is the story. You know it. You've heard it
many times. I have too. Tried to preach it. The Gospel
is good news, brand new. May the Lord make it so. Saul
of Tarsus, you remember. Paul the Apostle, formerly Saul
of Tarsus, Pharisee. Thought he knew God, did what
he did in the name of God, but he was a blaspheme God like these Pharisees,
these scribes, these religious leaders. Saul was right there
in the middle of them. Later on, when the Lord changed
him, the Lord saved him, Paul said this, this is a faithful
saint and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the
world to save sinners of whom I am the chief. Like this thief. Like this thief,
he really did come to save the chief of sinners. The worst of the worst. Next
to the religious people, this man hanging on the cross. Next
to the scribes and Pharisees, this man on the cross beside
our Lord on his right hand, right hand, was the worst sinner on
earth. He'd never done one good thing
all his life. Look at verse 32 here, leading up to this. Verse
32 says there were also two malefactors led with him to put to death. Now, we looked at this, didn't
we? Malefactor. We don't use that
word anymore. The Scriptures do. But first
look at verse 33. It says, they came to the place
called Calvary. The margin, that means place
of the skull. Calvary, that means skull. Okay,
like the cross, we don't glory in a piece of wood, we don't
glory in the Mount Calvary, do we? Place of the skull, the reason
it's called the place of the skull, some say it looked like
one, but because so many people were killed there, that bones
were literally scattered everywhere. Skulls and all that. Place of
death, awful. I'm sure there was no greenery
there, no trees, no greenery there, no grass, no nothing.
Death everywhere. And all the blood that was shed
and all the death there. What of the fixation that our
generation has with skulls? Ever thought about that? What
does that tell you? Huh? Ever thought about that? Why, all of a sudden, Everybody
everywhere, little children have skulls on their shirts. Surely
we're in the last days. Death? Death. This place of the skull. Well, he was crucified with two
malefactors. And I told you the meaning of
malefactor means this. Malefactor. God's Word uses words
that clearly describe the thing. It means an evildoer. It means
one who's committed a crime, a criminal. A crime means a serious
offense, serious wrongdoing, serious wrongdoing. One who's
committed a shameful, shameless act, senseless, foolish and shameful
act, a criminal. That's what a criminal, a malefactor
is. Now, those weren't the only malefactors
there that day. All around that cross were malefactors. Everybody that was crucifying
the Lord were malefactors. This was a senseless, shameless,
foolish crime against God. And this building is full of
malefactors. Right? Someone says, I've never
committed a crime. Oh, yes you have. We've offended
the Holy God. We've done some serious wrongdoing
in not thanking Him. Young people, do you call on
the Lord? Do you seek His face? Do you
call on the Lord? Are you here because you want
to worship Him? No. That's a serious crime. Isn't
it? Cause all who don't know and
worship the Lord fools. Foolish act, senseless act. We're
biting the hand that feeds us. If we don't acknowledge Him,
if we don't worship Him, we're biting the hand that feeds Him.
And men and women and young people that sin against God, they're
defying the God in whose hands our breath is in all our ways. The God who sins everything to
take our lives. And this man, both malefactors
were thieves. Both of them were called thieves. What is a thief? A thief is someone
who takes something that doesn't belong to them. It's to rob someone
of something that belongs to them that doesn't belong to you.
Do we rob God? Does man rob God? Man robs God
daily of His glory. of His thanks, of His praise.
When we take that which doesn't belong to us, that only belongs
to God, credit. Pride is to rob God of His glory. What do we have we have not received? For a beautiful person to take
pride in their beauty is to rob God of His glory. To a strong
man to take pride in his strength is to rob God of His glory. Scripture says, let not the wise
man glory in his wisdom, the mighty man in his strength, but
let him that glorieth the glory of the Lord. Give him all the
praise and honor of the Lord. Saul of Tarsus became Paul, humble,
broken before the Lord. He said, by the grace of God
I am what I am. So pride is the worst form of
thievery, isn't it? The worst form. We're all thieves
and robbers and manufacturers. Right now, the people all around
that cross were not interested in Christ. They were just watching
Him for sport. Verse 35, look at it. It says, people stood beholding. Right after He said, Father,
forgive them. And it had no effect on most
people. No effect. Imagine that. And they stood beholding Him.
They were looking, they were listening, they were watching.
And so are we. So are our children. You're watching,
you're listening, aren't you? I'm talking about Christ crucified. And Matthew's Gospel says, sitting
down, they watched Him there. They all sat down, they watched
Him like it was a sporting event. They watched Him for entertainment.
They were watching to see what was going to happen next. Weren't
they? That's what they said. Beholding
Him, watching Him. They weren't looking to Him.
And we're just watching out of curiosity in a sport. And that's
religion today. People are coming to supposedly
the house of prayer and the house of worship and the house of praise
and the house of singing and the house where sinners can be
washed in the blood of Christ and confess their sin before
the Lord and look to Christ and be saved. And yet people are
gathering everywhere just to, just entertainment, sport, you
know. popping their gum and cutting
their nails and, you know, waiting on them to get out and go to
a party or something. It's an abomination to God. Abomination. Verse 35 says, The
people stood beholden, and the rulers derided him. Deride. Derided him. That means to sneer. There's somebody with a look
of derision. smear, smirk, like, I told you,
see, I told you so. I preached to a woman and her
daughter that would literally smirk at me and cut up and laugh
while I was preaching, when I was preaching Christ. They sneered at him. See, nothing
to this. Oh, yes there is to it. It's
nothing to you. That's what Jeremiah said. He
said, nothing to you, all you that pass by, behold and see
it presented solid like... Some of the women, it meant something.
They were weeping, wailing. Some of them at the foot of the
cross, they had been malefactors. They had been malefactors. There's
one in particular, Mary Magdalene. Oh, what a malefactor. Oh, what
a foolish, forlorn woman. All her life lived in lust of
the flesh. Sold her body, sold herself to
sin. But God. But Christ. But the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
who He came for. That chief of sinners. He came
for her. He said, and Mary, you know,
He said, this will never be taken from you, Mary. You sit at My
feet. And there she was again at the foot of the cross. And
there she is right now at the foot of the Lamb. She was a malefactor. Sin-loving, God-rejecting sinner. But God, with great mercy with
her, He loved her. And this malefactor. He said to her one day, the most
precious word she ever heard in her entire life, Woman, thy
sins be forgiven. That demoniac, boy, he was a
malefactor, wasn't he? You think he was at the foot
of this cross, Brother John? I think he probably was. That
demoniac, oh, tried all his life to destroy himself. But God,
but Christ came. Took that devil out of him, legion
devil, all manner of evil in him. And took it all out of him
and sat him clothed, clothed him. He was naked before John.
He clothed him, Christ clothed him, covered him with his own
vesture. and sat him down right there
in his right mind at the feet of listening, worshipping the
Lord Jesus Christ. I believe he's there. I believe
he's right there. So there's a few former malefactors
who are now worshippers of the Lamb that's being slain. He's got one more hanging beside
him. They said in verse 35, I love
this, He saved others, let Him save Himself. Matthew said He
saved others, Himself He can't save. They said that. Derision. Yeah, He saved others. You ought
to be on your knees thanking God. Yes, He saved others. Isn't
that wonderful? What they're saying is to His
glory. He saved others. Isn't that amazing? He didn't
have to. Why did He come down here? To save. To seek and to
save that which was lost. Amazing mercy and grace and love. He saved some. God said, I will
be gracious. I will be merciful. Bless His
holy name. That He saved some people. Nobody deserves a chance to be
saved like modern religion says. No! This is to His praise. The wrath of man shall praise
Him, won't it? The derision of man shall praise
Him. The answer of the tongue is of
the Lord, isn't it? The preparation of the heart.
You with evil hearts, He said, have taken and crucified. But
you did what God purposed to be done. The Lamb had to be slain.
And with their evil tongues, He said, He saved others. Bless
His holy name. He did. Himself He cannot save. No truer
words have ever been spoken. Do you understand? He can't save
Himself if He saves me. In order to save me, He can't
save Himself. In order for God to accept me,
God's got to reject Him. In order for me to be justified,
Christ has got to be condemned. You see the beauty, the glory,
the honor, the praise that He is worthy of? Oh, He saved others. Let Him save Himself. If He'd
be the Christ, the Chosen of God, oh, He is. That's why He's
hanging there. That's why He came. Chosen of God. And the soldiers came by and
mocked Him and gave Him vinegar. I didn't mention that this morning,
did I? Vinegar. They gave Him vinegar
to drink. He said, I thirst. They gave Him vinegar to drink.
Because the scripture says so. Because man is going to thirst
forever in the fires of hell. Those who are not in Christ.
Those whom Christ didn't die for will thirst forever. The
rich man in hell said, I thirst. But Christ for his people went
through hell on Calvary's tree. And he said it on our behalf.
I thirst. And they gave him vinegar. No,
there's no quenching of that thirst. Where the worm dieth
not, and the thirst is never quenched. Vinegar. And they said, if you be the
King of the Jews, save thyself. And they put over top of him,
King of the Jews. King of the Jews. Now they all
said that. They all cast that in his teeth. Matthew and Mark's Gospel said
the thieves, both thieves, cast the same, listen, cast the same
things into his teeth. That's important. Scripture's
wording is very clear. These dying men, these men are
dying. They're about to go face God
and they're cursing God. Both of them. Imagine that. Defying God. They're defying
God. They're defying the only one
that can save them. Cursing the only one that can
save them. They're dying. We are too. All of us. Old and young. Imagine that. Imagine that with
your dying breath. Cursing God. Happens all the
time. It may be happening right here. The one on verse 39 says, one
of the malefactors who was hanged railed on him. He kept, he continued,
he kept railing on him. He said, if thou be the Christ,
save thyself and save us. What he meant was, Save us from this trouble, if
you are who you say you are. Get us out of this trouble. Get
us out of this pain we're suffering in. If you're the Christ, Get
us down from here. You think he would have worshipped
Christ for doing that? Do you think so? No, no, no.
He went right on. Went right on doing what he's
doing. It's like people all the time
get in religion, they get in trouble, make a bargain with
God. If you'll save me out of this,
I'll come to church. You don't bargain with God. That's
not salvation. Salvation is to see your sin
against God. And this man, he just wanted
down from that cross. Save us from this. Our Lord wouldn't listen to that
man. Dying with his dying breath.
Imagine that. Me and you and I have someone that we love dearly.
He's a madman. He's a mindless fool. He's as
near to completely destroying himself as anyone I've ever known.
He's right on the verge. of just going to meet God because
of his own foolishness. And he's bitter, he's angry. We try to talk to him. He told
her, don't preach to me anymore. And the amazing thing is, I was
right beside him for years. He was my friend. I was just
like Him. This is the one on the left.
How do you know he's on the left, Preacher? Because our Lord said
in Matthew 25, He shall separate the sheep from the goat. So He
puts His sheep on His right hand. And say, come, you blessed my
father, into the kingdom. Come, you blessed my father,
into paradise. Sheep on his right hand. Goats
on his left. This is that man on the left. Defying the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he died a horrible death. In a few moments, they're going
to come by with an iron bar and break his leg. He's going to
die screaming. And then it's going to be worse.
And he's going to face God that he defied. But all of a sudden, the one
on the right, all of a sudden, inexplicably,
amazingly, miraculously, he His heart pricks Him. His conscience smites Him. He shuts His mouth. Boy, there's
a miracle in it. He stops His mouth with a look. See, they're crucified
on either side of Him. And they were where they both
could see Him. One on the right hand, one on
the left. They both saw Him. At first, there was nothing in
Him that they desired. Both of them. Both of them cursed
Him. Both of them defied Him. Both of them. Destroying themselves. But God chose the one on His
right. to stop his wild career, to break
his heart, to this man when I look who's a poor and a broken heart
and trembleth at my word. All of a sudden this man on his
right hand, after hearing Christ say, Father forgive them, they
know not what they do. That's what happened to me. And all of a sudden, he says in verse 40, Now his
heart is pricked, his conscience is smitten, and he quits his
railing, he quits his derision, and he stops and he repents. This is repentance. He says,
we're under condemnation. We're dying. We deserve it. And
he starts witnessing. Before he calls on Christ, before
he knows if the Lord will have mercy on him, he confesses who
he is, what he is, what ought to happen to him, and witnesses
to that other dying thief over there. Look at verse 40. He said, Just now not fear God?
You mean this man fears God now? Why? Why all of a sudden does
he fear God? Christ crucified. The other day I said, we don't
really know what the fear of God is. It's hard to preach,
hard to understand. But the closest we can come to
understanding the fear of God is Calvary. Right there you see
who God really is. He will punish sin. Sin was found
on his son. God made his son to be sinned.
God will punish sin. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. God made his soul an offering for sin. God will punish. Shame. Sinners will be ashamed. And Christ bore the shame of
his people. God is holy. He will. He is just. He will punish sin. He punished
Jesus Christ, the sinless one. That ought to make you tremble.
Fear of the Lord. And this man, all of a sudden,
was looking on Christ, hearing His Word, seeing all these people
do what they were doing to this one who had done nothing amiss. He said, don't you fear God?
He fears God. He said, seeing that we're in
the same condemnation, we're under condemnation. We're dying.
We're dying. And verse 41, You know, every single believer,
when the Lord saves them, their favorite psalm is Psalm 51. Everyone. I don't know of anybody
that their favorite psalm is not Psalm 51. Have mercy on me,
O God. Wash me. Cleanse me. I acknowledge
my iniquity, my transgression, my sin is ever before thee against
thee and thee only have I sinned. Before, it was everybody else's
fault. Now, it's my fault. I've sinned and done this evil.
And he said, you're going to be justified when you speak and
clear when you judge me and send me to hell. That's what every
soul saved by grace says at first. At first, I'm a sinner. against
God. And he ought to, if he's just,
he'd cast me out. But, he said, let the blood be
perpetuation on the person. Wash me throughly. Purge me with
hyssop. John, he said, David said, purge
me with hyssop. You know what hyssop is. You
know what hyssop is. How many people did? That's what
the high priest took and Dipped in the blood and purged all,
everything, people with blood, hyssop. Healing herb. That's Christ. That man said,
that thief on the cross said, we're getting what we justly
deserve, a due reward of our deeds, but this man has done
nothing amiss. This man He's a man, yes. He's a sinless man. He's a holy
man. It's obvious. But you know, he
now sees him as more than a man, doesn't he? Think about it. He looks over at this, the Lord,
his visage was marred more than any man. His form unrecognizable
as a man, like that lamb that was burnt. You could tell it
was a form, but his form now is marred, his vision is marred
more than any other. Covered with blood, hanging naked
like a piece of meat. And this thief looks over into
the face of that bloodiest man. And look at verse 42. He said
unto Jesus the man, Lord, Now, he fears God now. The fear
of the Lord. He doesn't call him Jesus. What
does he call him? He sees Jesus made a little lower
than the angels for the suffering of death. And now he sees him
crowned with thorns, yes, but he sees him far off that he's
going to go into his kingdom. This is the Lord of glory. This
thief, all of a sudden, by the hand of God, by the Spirit of
God, by looking to Christ the Lord, the crucified Christ, this
man says, you're Lord. Lord. He's saying, you're my
Lord. And he doesn't know what the
Lord is going to do with him. But he calls. Whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord, shall say. You see why I'm such
a stickler for this? People everywhere, Jesus, Jesus,
Jesus. That's not what you to call Him. Nobody fears Jesus. Fear the
Lord. He just said, whoever calls on
the name of Jesus, does it. Whoever calls on the name of
the Lord. This man, all of a sudden, by the mercy and grace of God,
miraculously by the Spirit of God, by seeing, looking to Christ
hanging crucified on that cross, by hearing Christ's voice, by
hearing Him speak, all of a sudden he acknowledges this is the Lord
God who made the heavens and the earth. This is the Lord God
of the universe. This is the King of kings and
the Lord of lords. This is the Lord. This is Jehovah. This is
God manifesting in the flesh. This is the one in whose hands
my breath is and all my way. This is the one who owns my soul.
This is the one who has the right to deal with me as he pleases.
This is the one who reigns. Though he's hanging on that cross,
he's reigning and ruling right now. So how can a man see that
in a man hanging on a tree? Every one of God's people see
that. The light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ, the Lord. You see, with the heart man believeth
and with the mouth confession is made. What? That he's Lord. You don't make Him Lord. Did
this thief make Him Lord? Did Christ say, won't you let
me be your Lord? This thief says, let me be your
subject. Lord! He said, when you come into your
kingdom, remember me. Verse 42. Remember me. When you come into your kingdom,
remember me. Remember that. Psalm 103 says this. It says that when we die, And
not just a little time after we die, because we're like the
grass, the flower of the field, we're flourishing, but when the
wind passes over it, the Spirit of God, it's gone. So the place
thereof shall know it no more. And that will be remembered.
We'll be gone and only a few people will ever remember we
existed or care. And that thief, everybody wants
him gone. Everybody wants him dead. He's been no good to anybody. Certainly not for God. And His
only hope, and His only plea, and His only request is that
this sovereign, holy, spotless, wonderful Lord who came to do
what He did for sinners would just think on Him. Just remember him because he's
coming into his kingdom. He's not going to hang on that
crossbar. He's not going to stay here.
He's going to go back to glory after he's purged the sins of
his people and sit down at the right hand of the majesty on
high, reigning and ruling, expecting his enemies to be made his footstool
and this thief is one of those enemies. But God has broken down
this enmity in his heart. He stops his railing, God stops
his wild career, stops his mouth, and the last thing he's got to
say is, remember me. Just think of me. Don't forget
me. You're coming into a kingdom.
What he's saying, John, is, I want to come. Would you let me into your kingdom? It's yours. The earth is the
Lord and the fullness thereof. The world and the inhabitants
thereof is full. And the kingdom, thy kingdom
come, thy will be done. Would you let me, Lord, in me,
the chief, the thief, into your kingdom? Can I come? And the last words he heard on
this earth with the best words he'd ever heard in his life.
Look at it. Verily, verse 43, I say unto
thee, see he cannot lie. God who promised salvation to
those that believe, I say unto thee, today, today shalt thou
be with me in paradise. I believe. Today. And brothers and sisters, today
is the day of salvation. I just preached it the best I
could. It's not up to me, is it? Not at all. Not at all. Paradise. Paradise. It's to be with Christ, isn't
it? And notice that it was the sixth hour and there was darkness
over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the veil was
ripped. Darkness. All this happened in
darkness. It was dark the whole time this was happening. Dark,
dark, dark. But this sinner, who was in darkness,
sees a marvelous light. In the middle of that darkness,
he sees a light In thy light shall we see light, David said.
Light shone round about him in the person of Christ crucified. Oh, may the Lord do that for
someone today. Let's sing a closing hymn.