Luke chapter twenty three. I want to read. A few verses that we did not
read, beginning with verse thirty four, and this is where we left
off. Luke twenty three. Beginning
with verse thirty four. Now, this is after they had put
Jesus Christ on the cross and the two malefactors with him,
one on the right hand and one on the left, then said Jesus,
Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And they
parted his reign and cast lots. And the people stood beholding,
watching. 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 the 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 the Christ, save thyself
and us." But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, Lest not
thou fear God. Seeing thou art in the same condemnation,
and we indeed just live, we receive the due reward for our deeds.
But this man hath done nothing amiss, and he turned, 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. And I want you to look with me
today and one of the most remarkable pictures, trophies of the grace
of God in all the Scripture. And when I say grace, I mean
grace. I don't use the term lightly.
I mean amazing grace. I mean unearned, unmerited, undeserved
favor, grace that reaches way down and picks up a worm and
exalts him to the stars of heaven. I'm talking about sovereign saving
grace, grace, grace. I'm talking about God's grace. Now, the only way that you and
I can understand The only way you and I can understand anything
or feel anything of this grace of God that I'm talking about,
the only way, is for us to understand and feel something of the exceeding
sinfulness of sin. Grace means nothing to a man
unless he feels his utter sinfulness. Grace means nothing to a woman
unless she understands something of what sin is and what sin has
done to her. And the clearest picture you
can see, the clearest picture revealed in the scripture to
us of how sinful sin is, is seen at Calvary. The only real picture you can
get of sin and its true essence is to go to Calvary. At Calvary,
we see sin abounding. We see sin unleashed. We see
man at his worst state. We see men and women doing, left
to themselves, doing whatever their hearts desire. Sin abounding, but also at Calvary
we see grace abounding as never before. Now, what happened at this place
called the place of the skull, Calvary, the place of death,
is the most horrible thing mankind has ever witnessed. This is the most horrible picture
of sin known to man. The utter wickedness and depravity
of mankind revealed itself to its fullest extent as never before
at Calvary, never before, yet at the same time. The glory,
the mercy, the grace, the love of God Almighty was displayed
and revealed as never before at Calvary. It took the wisdom
of God to do such a thing, where sin abounded, unleashed, ran
over, No boundaries. No limit. Grace abounded more. I wish I could paint this picture.
Calvary. How many times have we heard
it? Calvary was a horrible thing.
Horrible thing. It's impossible for an artist.
You see all these artists renditions of Christ, supposedly Christ,
hanging upon the cross. A man can't put on the canvas
what went on here. Nobody can render what happened
in this place. Nobody can accurately present
the horror of this scene, the unspeakable horror of this place. The sights, the sounds, the smells,
the stench of sweat and blood. The weeping, the groaning, the
wailing, the horrific screams of men in pain and agony, of
women wailing and gnashing their teeth. Everywhere you look, blood
on everybody and everything, splattered like a slaughterhouse.
You can't put this on canvas. Excruciating, painful death of
three men hanging naturally nailed to wooden poles. nails in their
hands and feet. There was weeping, as I said,
weeping and wailing. There was cries of pain and agony
and cursing. Cursing as never before. Yelling,
screams and blood. Blood just everywhere. This is a scene that could have
been, that could be Taken right out of hell itself. Right now. What could be very well going
on in hell itself, this was hell on earth. You can't put it on
paper on campus. This is not something we have
our children in Sunday school, so to speak, to witness. This
is not something we would want our children to look at. This
is not something we'd hang around our neck with. It's not something
we'd put on our dining room wall over top of the table. We'd throw
up. to look at this scene. And this is a picture, and if
I could paint the picture of the horror of this thing, what
this is, in summary, is a picture of sin, sin on earth. But, in the midst of this black
picture, The sun shines as never before. Brightness, the inexpressible
glory and brightness of the Son of God shone forth more gloriously
than ever before. The sun had arisen as bloody
and as despicably horrible the scene was. The sun had arisen,
had spread his wings, those wings where healing was found. In the
midst of that blood that is splattered in the very faces of the men
and women who caused it, there was salvation. On one of these crosses, I believe
it was on the farther most left cross facing them. I believe
it was the one that was on the right hand of the middle cross.
On one of these crosses hangs the greatest trophy of the grace
of God in the universe. On one of these crosses is personified,
is pictured, that where Paul said that in the ages to come
he's going to show the exceeding riches of his glory and his grace,
his kindness toward us. And on this cross we're going
to see this morning, hopefully, God will help us. exceeding riches
of His glory and His kindness to this man. I'm talking about
the thief on the crop. You've got to understand something
of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. You've got to understand
what sin is, something about sin to appreciate what happened
here and to appreciate what salvation is, to appreciate what Christ
did. You cannot know and love and esteem and worship Christ
unless you really realize what he's done for you. No, you can't. You'll consider him as a martyr,
you'll consider him as a pathetic, pitiful figure, and you'll feel
sorry for him and pity the man, but you'll not esteem him and
see him as this man did, as Lord, and fall at his feet and worship
him and praise him and love him forever for what he's done for
you in the very hour of death unless you see yourself hanging
like that because of sin. Let me show you something. Let
me tell you briefly of what sin requires, what sin brought upon
us, what it took, rather, to get rid of sin, how horrible
sin is, and how God hates sin. The Scriptures say that God is
absolutely holy and spotless and pure. His eyes are too pure
that He cannot look upon them. It cannot have anything to do
with sin. That's us. We're sinners. We're altogether full of sin.
God cannot have anything to do with us. He hates sin. He's angry
with the wicked every day. He hates all workers of iniquity.
That's me. I'm iniquitous. I'm full of sin. And because God is absolutely
holy and pure, He detests and abhors everything to do with
sin. And in order for this holy God
to have anything to do with us, sinners, vile worms, he's going
to have to do something about this sin thing in us. And it
took an all-wise and all-powerful purpose and act of divine wisdom
to carry it out. It took a sacrifice. The Scripture
says, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission
of sin. Terry Kinsey, you're going to
ever bear your sins unless blood is shed for them. That's what
God said. He said, The soul that sinneth,
have you sinned? Sure you have. It's going to die. Now either
you got to die for those sins, or hopefully, and it's your only
hope. fully. Somebody will die for
you. And God Almighty, in mercy and
love and grace, sent His Son, sent His holy, spotless, unblameable,
unreprovable, righteous Son to this earth to do for us what
we could not do for ourselves, that is, live a holy life. God demands we be holy. If we're
going to get in his presence, we've got to be holy. So Christ
came down here to live that life for us. And once having done
that, he imputed, he took that holy life, he took that life
he lived and transferred it to the account of the people that
God determined to do this for. They're called elect. And then,
that couldn't do it all. That wouldn't fulfill the whole
purpose and plan of God. sin had to be paid for. And God,
this is unimaginable, but God made his Son, this Holy One,
took all the sins of all of his people. He took the very essence,
the principle, the indwelling principle of sin within all of
us, that which makes us lie, cheat, steal, hate, envy, jealousy,
all of this principle of all of his people that are accountable
for it, and took it all in one big lump of leaven that no mere
mortal man could bear, and laid it on his son. And as strong as he was, as powerful
as he was, because of who he was, God's son, he could handle
it. And he took this massive weight and stood before God and man.
And God and man slit his throat, poured out the blood. The lamb
was slain upon the altar of the cross. Therefore, enabling God
to be just, he punished our sins. and yet justify you and me. It
takes a bloody sacrifice. Something this world doesn't
understand anything about. They're getting away from the
blood. There is no way to God. There is no true religion without
the blood. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. And without the preaching of
blood, there's no preaching of any gospel. Right? And at Calvary, we see what a
great price sin took to pay for it, to remit it. Do you see that? What a great price it took to
pay for our sins. When God hates sin so much, when
He saw it on His only Son, our Holy Son, yet being made sin
for us, He who knew no sin. God killed and slaughtered and
butchered his son. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. Why? Because he hated sin, he was putting away sin, and
he was saving a people. And put it away he did. Let me
add that. He didn't make an attempt, but
he made an atonement. He hath appeared once in these
last days, Hebrews said, to put away sin by the sacrifice of
his Son. Does that mean he did it? Why, it sure does. said in
Hebrews 9, 12, he hath obtained eternal redemption for us. Now that's why he was hanging
on this central cross. Men didn't get him. These men
didn't grab Christ helplessly and without strength, and he
couldn't help himself, and they just grabbed him and brutalized
him. He said, no man takes my life from me. No man kills God. He said, I lay it down on myself,
willingly. obediently for you and for this
fellow hanging around beside him, this despicable, worthless
scum of the earth hanging beside him. It just so happened that
this fellow was crucified the same day. Don't you know he's
praising the providence of God through eternity right now that
caused that very day to be his crucifixion day. It could have
been any other day. They killed people every day
of the week. But this is a picture, you see,
of what it took to put away sin. Now, it's a picture of man's
utter depravity, too. Not only do you see what it took
to put away sin on the cross, but you see what man's made of.
You see man's inhumanity to man. Now, we're called a higher life
form. That's baloney. were worse than the beasts. No
animal would do to a fellow creature what man does to man. The inhumanity
of man to man is such that you never see, even among the beasts,
the horrible pain and cruel torture that man will do to another man.
And our world is full of it—murder. We're seeing mass murders daily. Man just gets a wild hare and
goes shooting people. gang rapes, robbery, cruel torture,
prison camps, witness man's depravity. I wish I could say, I wish I
could depict it like it is, our utter depravity, wickedness. That makes me want to say, why
God? Why would you come down and have
anything? That's what David said. What is man that you should be
mindful of such a wicked and vile? I can understand God saving
the beasts. They didn't take part in this
evil. But we, our hands are dripping with blood, and these hearts
are black and filled. Us. Us. And here we see, as nowhere else
before, as never before, man's Man's cruelty completely unleashed. God this day turned his back. You know that everything, God
restrains most everything to a certain degree. When God lets
his hand go, you see what happens in the ghettos and in the drug
fields and so forth. That's God leaving man alone.
Well, here as never before, God completely left man to himself
to do with whatever he pleased. And you see what he does. And there's some good in all
of us, huh? As the modern preachers would
have us to believe. You've got to love yourself. We see men taking another man,
taking three men, taking another man and nail his body with huge
spikes. Beat him to a pulp before you
do that. Take a rose bush, a thorn bush,
and jam it on top of his head and dig it in until the blood
runs and his face is a bloody black and blue pulp. Just beat
him beyond recognition. Nail a body, a man who had never
done anything amiss. and then drop his body on that
rough-hewn piece of wood down in a hole, and every joint of
his body out of place, and stand back and laugh at him. And the Scripture of Henry Sore
says, we did esteem him, smitten and stricken of God. We despised him. Terry Kinsley,
if you'd have been there, you'd have been nailing one hand and
I'd have been nailing the other. Who do we think we are? We got
the blood and the ultimate picture. I'm not trying to get you to
feel sorry for Jesus. I'm not trying to paint an ugly
picture so we'll be so impressed. This is man with God in his hands. This is the ultimate picture
of sin. Man getting his hands on God. We call man a hater of God. The scripture says the carnal
mind is enmity of God. Man got his hands on God one
day, didn't he? A good, the only good man who
ever lived. Holy. All he did all his life
was good. spotless, unblameable, unreprovable,
nothing but grace for him from his lips, nothing but good deeds,
good works, sacrificial, self-abasing works, humanitarian efforts,
healing, providing, loving, weeping, a good man, a good man. And what we do with it. But this wasn't just a man. That's
the reason I say, and that's the reason he turned around and
said to those women, don't you weep for me. Oh no, don't feel
sorry for me. You better be praising God I'm
doing this for you right now, if you'd be the one in my place. You weep for yourselves and your
children because you don't understand. You don't know who I am. You
don't know what I'm doing. You weep and wail and call upon
God that he'll show you what I'm doing for you and make you
eternally grateful and thankful. You call upon God to show you
what this thief is about to say. This wasn't just a man. You see,
there's nothing good, but God, he said it himself. And as I
say, this is man getting his hands on God. This is the reason,
Joe Parks, this gospel today is such an abomination. I can't
say it strongly enough. This gospel, it makes nothing
of the love of God, nothing of the blood of Christ. It makes
it ineffectual. It makes the blood not atoned for anybody.
It exalts and elevates the will of man, the goodness of man,
the works of man. It's an abomination. It makes
the wisdom of God to be nothing. Doesn't it? It mocks the wisdom
of God. It mocks the person of God. It makes God a monster that
would make God send his son and do such a thing to him if something
else could be done. If anything else could have been
done to put away our sins, why would God subject his son to
such a thing? Doesn't that mock the wisdom
of God? Doesn't that mock the power of God? Doesn't that mock
the blood of Christ? We're not splitting hairs here.
It's the utmost, the uttermost blasphemy to talk about this
in any way but a sovereign sense, an effectual, all-wise, atoning
work. Do you see a little bit of the
utter sinfulness of sin? Huh? Do I see it? This is man getting a hold of
the religious people. The Sunday moat go to meet and
crowd with their robes and crosses and hats and bumper stickers. Got God where they want him.
We will not have this man reign over us. We have our free will. Didn't it say there, Terry, we
read it? He delivered them unto their will. This is the free
will of man exercised, and they didn't accept Jesus, did they,
as their personal Savior. Huh? They want, what did they take?
A rapist. We'll exercise our free will,
all right? We want a murderer, a thief, a scumbag. and do away
with this holy spotless thing, this Son of God. He sees our
hearts. He knows what we're thinking. He reveals what we are. Get Him out of here. He's not
Lord. He's just a man. And this is the heart and core
of sin. Like I said, again, one time
in history, a man got his hands on God. And he didn't believe him, didn't
believe a thing he said. Man didn't believe a thing the
Son of God said. They hated everything he said.
We hated everything he said. Enemies, hatred for God, everything
about God, everything good and holy, despised it. This is a
horrible picture of sin. Who is rich in mercy. Thank God
he's rich in mercy. John Davis. God's son hanging
there at the expense of us. Men clearing their throats and
this is what we think of God. What would you do if somebody
did that to you? What must God have been restraining
himself from? And Christ said, I could have
called twelve legions of angels, and someday he's going to, right? He's going to say, you angel,
you take that corner, you take that corner, you take that corner,
and wrap her up like a sheet. I'm going to ball it up and throw
this mess away. Sin! Get it out of my sight! Thank God, Terry, he got my sin
out of his sight just right then on the cross. Thank God he didn't
come down from that cross. Thank God he was saving others
and didn't save himself. It was true what they said in
malice and anger. He saved others. Himself he could
not save. That's right. Had he saved himself, he would
not have saved me. But God, who is rich in mercy,
unspeakable mercy. History, and you can't talk about
mercy in any other sense than just unspeakable mercy. Doing
what they did, doing what we did to God's Son. He's rich in
mercy, isn't He? Superabundant mercy and grace,
where sin abounded. Grace abounded. If he had a, if he could get
a hand loose, he'd put it over his mouth. A man who'd been looking with
contempt, all of a sudden looks with amazement. Just like that! What made the change? Did he
exercise his free will? Huh? Did he all of a sudden just
change his mind? No, it wasn't free will, it was
free grace. You see, God, the Holy Spirit,
like a wind, blows where it listed. All of
a sudden, blew on that old boy's heart, shut his mouth, opened his eyes
to see something he'd never seen before. He had never seen before. He had heard everything Christ
had been saying, and all of a sudden he heard, when he heard Him say,
Father, forgive them, they don't know what they did. He heard with amazement, and
he turned at this other fellow. Don't you see we're getting what
we deserve? Now, he didn't think that just ten minutes ago, did
he? Just ten minutes ago, he'd been saying, I was wrong! I was
blackmailed! Get me down from here! I don't
belong up here! Maybe I do. Yeah, I do. And he said, this man has
done nothing amiss. He'd been accusing him before,
but all of a sudden he didn't see any fault in it. Oh, he saw more
than that. He saw everything in him. Not
only did he see no fault in him, he saw him as all and in all. He saw him as the Lord of glory. The Lord of glory. And what is
he doing? He's hanging there. And he looks
over at Christ. Now, you've got to understand
this. You've got to understand now this picture. You've got
to see this picture. What do you see in this man hanging there?
And like I described, he was beyond recognition. His visage,
Isaiah 52 says, was marred more than any man. A bloody pulp. A man who apparently, apparently
to the naked eye, appears to be totally helpless, without
strength, about to die. the object of derision, the object
of all the taunts and mocking of all people everywhere, everybody
was anybody, turned thumbs down on it, despised and rejected
of men, being killed, brutally beaten, a bloody pulp hanging
on this cross, about to die, and they're going to throw his
body in a hole in the ground. A helpless, hopeless, dying man,
and this thief looks at this man and says, Lord, it's you." He saw in this bloody figure
the Lord of Jove. You think about that. Is this
amazing or what? And he said, Lord, would you remember me when you
come into your kingdom? Are you not staying dead? You're not getting—you're not
a helpless, hopeless, dying, pathetic figure at the hands
of men. You're the Lord. You're hung there. You're making
propitiation for my soul on a mercy seat with your own blood. Lord! Lord of glory! King of kings
and Lord of lords! Would you remember this old,
poor, dying, wretched, If you're coming into a kingdom, you're
going to sit on a throne. You're not going to hang on a
cross for six hours. But I'm going to hang here, and
if I get what I deserve, I'm going to go to hell itself. I'm
going to drop this body right in the hell itself. Would you
please remember me? Remember me. What a remarkable,
a remarkable example of saving grace. And what a remarkable
example of saving faith. He saw in a man what nobody else
saw, didn't he? He saw what the naked eye could
not behold. He saw with eyes of faith in
the heart who this was. And Christ said it about us.
He said, Blessed are your eyes. And in light of this pitiful
generation of Jesus worshippers, we see not just a Jesus who was
made a little lower than the angels, do we? Who do we see?
The Lord, strong and full of glory, seated on a throne in
His temple, waiting, expecting His enemies to be made His foes
too. And what do we cry out daily, Henry? This is faith's call.
Lord, remember me, would you? Oh, you'd do well to forget everything
about me. My, you'd do well, and heaven
would do well to forget I ever existed, right? But Lord is my
only hope is you'll remember me." And Christ said, remember you. Yes, Lord, remember me. I'll
tell you my name." I don't need to know your name. See, I've known you before the
stars were put in place. I had you on my heart and in
my mind before this world existed. I've loved you and known you
with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness,
at this very moment, I've drawn you to myself. And I'm paying
this penalty for your sin. Remember you, verily I say unto
you today, you're going to be seated on my right hand in the
halls of paradise itself with joy unspeakable." You see, salvation is not dependent
upon us remembering Him. Salvation is not dependent on
how much we know. Salvation is dependent on Him
knowing me and loving me and remembering me, I mean, from
now to eternity. Because when I get seventy-five
years old, I may have hardening of the arteries and not know
my own wife. He better remember me, hadn't
He? Verily, verily, I say unto you
today, today. With a word, this is marvelous,
marvelous. With a word, Christ forgave this
old wretched, vile murderer and thief what he had done in a lifetime. This is the beauty. This is a
picture of God saving amazing, amazing grace in a word. Don't you know that man, after
he began to come to himself, God brought him to himself, he's
hanging there on that cross, he began to reflect back over
his life. He began to think, what a bum. He said, we're getting what we
deserve, and he began to think about his own life. I killed
a man, maybe more than one. I stole from poor people, anybody,
anything for my own, whatever it may have been, drug habit,
whatever it may have been. He began to think of his past
life, of all that he had ever done, all of his life. Perhaps
some things came into his mind that he'd done. Perhaps he heard
his father say to him as a young boy, he's always in trouble.
Perhaps he heard his father's voice haunt him and say, boy,
you ain't going to amount to nothing. And it was true, he
hadn't amounted to nothing. In a word, in a minute, the Lord
of Glory said, Your sin, don't forget, your past is wiped out. You're going to heaven with me.
Clare, he didn't work, he didn't wash, he wasn't baptized, he
didn't witness. He didn't do nothing but sin,
Stan. Boy, this is some good news I'm
giving you right here. This is the comfort of the gospel.
He didn't do anything but sin. All he did was call, Lord. And the Lord said, OK, done. That's amazing grace, isn't it? Amazing grace. About like that
old prodigal son, you know. Wasted his life. Wanton living. Rebellious. No good to his parents
or anybody else. Took off down the road. Wasted
his life. Got in a predicament. Realized
where he was at. Came to himself by the Spirit
of God. Practiced him a little speech.
So he got him a little speech up. He's going to come home to
tell his daddy. He rehearsed that speech. to
come home and tell his daddy a little speech and hope his
daddy would forgive him. He didn't realize that his daddy
was looking for him the whole time, waiting on him. When he got there,
he couldn't even get his speech out. Father, I don't want to
hear it. Bring the mess robe. My son that
was dead is now alive. With a word, he said. With a
word, and you'd do it too, wouldn't you, Joe? With a word, you'd
forgive him. For your great love were with you, loved us all.
And God, for his great love were with us, loved us all. Even when
we were dead in trespass and sin, quickened us together. By
grace are you saved. By grace. It's grace. In evil long I took delight,
unawed by shame or fear. till a new object struck my sight
and stopped my wild career. I saw one hanging on a tree in
agony and blood, and he fixed his languid eyes at me as near his cross I stood. Sure,
never till my latest breath will I forget that look. It seemed
to charge me with his death, though not a word he spoke. My conscience felt and owned
the guilt, and plunged me in despair. I saw my sins, his blood
had spilt, and helped to nail him there. Alas, I knew not what I did,
but now my tears are vain. Where shall my trembling soul
be hid, for I the Lord have slain? But a second look he gave, which
said, I freely all forgive. This blood, my blood, is for
your ransom paid. I am dying that you may live. Thus, while his death my sin
displays in all its blackest hue, such is the mystery of grace,
it seals my pardon too. With pleasing grief and mournful
joy, my spirit now is filled, that I should such a life destroy,
yet live by him I killed." And the blood that poured to
the ground that day brought forgiveness for the world that treated him
that way. I'll let you go with this illustration. There was a man who dreamed he
died and went to hell. And upon getting there, getting
in the streets of glory, he came across a man, the most glorious
creature he'd ever seen, arrayed in golden white robes with beautiful
countenance upon his face. a glorious appearance. And this
old sinner who had made it by God's grace, he fell on his feet,
fell on his face at the feet of this man and began to worship
him like John did, that angel. And the man said, see, he grabbed
him, picked him up and said, so see that you do this not.
Don't worship me. Oh, don't worship me. See, I'm
of your brethren. I'm a man just like you. And the man was so awed and amazed
at being there, and with this heavenly creature, he said, Well,
you must be Moses. The man said, Oh, no, no, no,
I'm not nearly, not anywhere close to being the man that Moses
was. Man, Moses, oh, he was a great man. Well, you must be, you're
Elijah. That's who you are. No, no, I'm
not Elijah. No such great man as that. I'm
not Elijah. John? Peter! No, no, no, no. I'm not any of
those men." And he answered the man with
this verse of song. He began to sing, "...the dying
thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day." Can you finish Huh? Stand with me, stand with me.