Well, good morning. Welcome to
our continuing Bible study in Luke. We're in chapter 23 this
morning again. It's been a couple of weeks since
we've been together, so we'll kind of back up and review a
little bit in our very interesting portion of Scripture that we're
looking at today regarding this thief on the cross with Jesus.
There were two thieves with Christ crucified in the middle of them. Something miraculous happened
with the one thief while the other went to his death cursing Christ and abusing Him. But the other one, something
happened with him. So we'll read there. starting in Luke 23. And the soldiers also mocked
Him, coming to Him and offering Him vinegar and saying, If thou
be the King of the Jews, save thyself. And a superscription
was also 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, say thyself
and us. But the other answering rebuked
him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, saying thou art in the same
condemnation? And we indeed justly. for we
received the due reward of our deeds. But this man hath done
nothing amiss, and he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when
thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, Verily
I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
Boy, what a tremendous passage we have here. And as we consider
these circumstances, the conditions, today thou shalt be with me in
paradise. Is that a place or is that a
person? Is it a park, a city, a kingdom? You know, all those
things are brought to us in the Scriptures that describe the
same thing. And behind it all is a purpose. And what does the scripture tell
us about the paradise of God? What does it tell us about these
conditions in which this thief turned about? And we're considering
those things which absolutely must have occurred for Jesus
to make this statement to this one that says, today thou shalt
be with me in paradise. Well, he knew that all the Father
had given him would come to him. And even in the last hours of
life, this thief was brought to him and their paths intersected. Well, Christ knew that no man
could come to him except the Father, which sent me draw him,
is what the scripture says. And him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. Can we find a clearer example
of that than this thief says, Lord, remember me? him that cometh to Me, I will
no wise cast out." Well, Christ knew that no man can come to
Him except the Father which sent Me draw him, and I will raise
him up at the last day. And no man can call Jesus Lord
but by the Holy Ghost from 1 Corinthians 12. You know, in our last lesson,
it was again brought out the natural condition of man and
sin as stated by the one thief crucified at the right hand side
of Jesus. Brought to an understanding regarding
the guiltiness of our position by nature by the Most Holy God. He says, we're guilty. We're
receiving our due reward, but this man has done nothing amiss. He was brought to his sense of
a need for a Savior. We look back at Job at that daisman,
the one that could lay a hand on us both, one that could satisfy
the justice and righteousness of God on the one hand, and the
one that could take a sinner and make him righteous in the
eyes of God. You know, the natural man has no part, ability, nor right
to participate in the spiritual things of God. in 1 Corinthians
2.14 says, "...the natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned." And certainly this
one thief, this robber, this plunderer who was joined with
the other thief and those gathered to blaspheme the Lord, to mock
Him, fit that description. The taunting, the one that was
in the middle, who appeared so far to the One, He appeared so
far from being even able to save Himself, let alone them, that
He just mocked Him and taunted Him. And to the other one, something
was revealed to him about that man that caused him to call Him
Lord and to look to Him as the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world and the One who would be the Savior of the world. You know, we discussed last time
that crucifixion was a lengthy process that could take a long
time for the thief to expire, and they hurried that up by breaking
their legs so that they couldn't breathe and they would suffocate. You know, this man was not going
to pass out of this world until the Lord said, today thou shalt
be with Me in Paradise. A man's heart was changed, given
a heart to know God. And we pointed out how accurately
Ezekiel 36, 22 through 31 portrays this. I will cleanse you, I will
give you a new heart, and I will do all these external things
to you from a divine perspective. you'll look at yourself and loathe
yourself for your own ways. But at the same time, you're
going to rejoice that the Lord saved you and that your name
was revealed, that your name was written in the Lamb's Book
of Life. So this scene which so accurately
portrays sovereign grace in salvation, this man had no chance to do
any good stuff. I was thinking this morning,
you know, he's hanging there on the cross and there might
have been some people out there that he robbed, that he assaulted. And they're saying, I hope you
take a long time to die. I hope you suffer a lot because
you stole all my stuff and now I'm suffering. And they were probably happy
to see him hanging there. And yet, we find out that he
was a chosen vessel of God to bring this scene through thousands
of years to so many people that would say, you know, I'm the
chiefest of sinners, just as that man proclaimed. I'm guilty. a pattern. He didn't have a chance
to go to church regularly, didn't get baptized, no communion, no
repeat after me prayer, no sign this, none of that crazy stuff
that religion brings out. Just sovereign intervention by
God for one of his elect. Sovereign grace applied at a
time which pleased God according to his purpose. And his repentance
was a direct result of the new birth, and the result was today that shalt
thou be with me in paradise. So we're going to look a little
bit, one of the things that we're trying to bring out here is to
try and give as much of an accurate portrayal of God and His holiness
and attributes and compare that to our condition in the fall,
and then to realize what it takes to overcome all that, and then
to be told, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. And what
exactly is paradise? And what does the scripture say
about that? And we're going to spend a little
time in Colossians chapter 1. says in verse 5 of Colossians
1, "...for the hope which is laid up for you in heaven, wherever
you heard before in the word of the truth of the gospel."
So it tells us some things there about the connection between
heaven and the gospel. Our text in Luke refers to paradise,
which we in this world associate as heaven. It's an interesting
word. It's defined as to rise, paradise, it's defined
as to rise as a mountain figuratively and the idea of elevation and
by extension heaven as the abode of God and hence by implication
happiness. It's lofty from a standpoint
of holiness. And so in religion, people have
a kind of a crazy idea about heaven and everything. It's often
portrayed almost like a Disneyland type thing. Don't you want to
go to heaven? Don't you want to go to heaven?
And they seldom mention sin or the fall or any of those things
that are of importance. And they portray it as more of
a destination instead of maybe a result. It's as it's defined to rise
as a mountain. Often in times in scripture,
it's portrayed as a mountain. Mount Zion, and the Holy Mount,
and all those things. The idea of elevation again. You know, the Greek term Acme,
I always liked the Roadrunner cartoons. It was always Acme
this and Acme that. Well, Acme is actually a Greek
term that means the absolute peak, the highest point, the
perfection of a thing expressed. That's what that word means.
And ironically, the acme in the cartoon was always failure, failure,
failure. Something that blows up, that
doesn't work. But in biblical terms, it describes
accurately the work of God and salvation. It's truly the absolute
peak. And He is the absolute peak,
the highest point, the perfection of a thing expressed. We must
then consider it in terms which only come from God and perhaps
not really look at paradise so much as a place up there. as more of a state of being. One of the words that defined
paradise was happiness. Well, happiness is not a place.
Happiness is a state of being. Metaphorically, this truth is
spoken of by God Himself. Up. It's interesting that when we're
looking at Scripture, we go up to Jerusalem, we go up to Mount
Zion, we go up or we go down to Egypt, things that picture
this world and the things that are opposite to God. And so up
is just an allegory really for spiritual truth. And in Isaiah
chapter 55, verse 8 and 9, we'll look at a couple words here that
are interesting. As Isaiah wrote them in Isaiah
55, he says God is describing Himself and comparing Himself
to men. He says in verse 8, my thoughts
are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways,
saith the Lord, saith Jehovah. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts. And so it's not really a measurement,
it's just an allegorical reference point to show us the difference
between how we are and how God is, and it's an infinite measurement. It's so high that, as Norman
pointed out in Wednesday night lesson in Esther, that God said
to Moses, no man can see my face and live. So I'll let you see
my hinder parts. I'll let you see a little bit
of me. And that's what we're faced with
here and in this world. So higher gives us a sense of
to soar above incomprehensibly. The other night I was standing
out in the yard and the sky was so clear and this little satellite
went blinking across the sky. Just traveling at a high rate
of speed and pretty soon it was just gone out of sight and soaring across the heavens as
we perceived them. So to soar above incomprehensibly
is kind of a concept that we can in some measure understand
and appreciate if only in a small way that God says my ways are
higher than your ways. It's unreachable in our condition. And as Norm said from Song of
Solomon, we see through the lattice. We
only get a little glimpse here and a little glimpse there, and
the rest of it is kind of obscured. And Paul said, for now we see through
a glass darkly, but then face to face. Now I know in part,
but then shall I know, even as also I am known. So that's kind of our view of
God. We just have such a small glimpse
of His true nature, His true holiness, His true righteousness,
His true character. And the more that we get a glimpse
of that, we see how far removed from Him that the fall makes
us and what it takes to overcome that. When we talk about His ways being
higher than our ways, the sense is more advanced in quantity
and quality and by every measurable and unmeasurable metric to an
infinite scope. It's just not comprehensible
to us. It's foolishness to us. And we don't even get hardly
a dark glass glimpse or through the lattice glimpse until we're
born again. Because Jesus said, once a man
be born again, he can't see the kingdom of God. It doesn't matter
if there's lattice work or dark glass or whatever. He doesn't
even get a glimmer of it. He can't see it. And so we have a situation then
as stated in Isaiah 55, 8, whereby nature in this world, our thoughts
are not His thoughts. Our ways are not His ways. And
we're always trying to reverse that thing by saying, well, your
ways ought to be our ways. This is how we think things should
be. And we're always trying to make him comply with our metrics,
our idea of how things should be. And so there's an absolute
imperative necessity for a change to occur. a reconciliation to take place
if we're to dwell with Him and be in His realm. Because in our
natural state, we're incompatible with that. We can't be there. So to accomplish reconciliation,
to effect a change that allows us into the very presence of
God, and to more than that, be able to go to Him and say, Abba,
Father, It's something to overcome. It's a huge problem that has
to be taken care of. It requires the effectual work
of the Son to whom all power is given. He says, You've given
me power to give eternal life to as many as Thou has given
me. to Him by whom all things were
created and by whom all things consist. And that word means
held together. And more than a physical sense,
when Norm was, we were talking about quantum physics and how
things are hooked together in ways that we can't understand
and forces that We're just trying to unravel,
but we don't have a clear understanding of that. Everything operates
according to God's laws and principles and physics. And even if we don't
fully understand them, it doesn't mean that they're not working
everything according to his will. But he says, by whom all things
consist. kind of gives us a glimpse of
more of a spiritual sense than just physics. All things are
held together in a spiritual way that we barely can get our
handle on. He's the daisman, the one that
can lay a hand on the most holy God, the Father. and the worst
sinner like this thief on the cross." Or like Paul, he said,
I was a rotten egg. I was awful. I am the chiefest
sinner. I am the worst sinner is kind
of what he said. So Christ is the one that can
lay a hand on us both and reconcile all things, the justice and righteousness
of God, the need for His people's sins to be atoned for and for
them to be changed, to be in fellowship with Him whose ways
are higher than our ways. You know, Matthew tells us that
the kingdom, that heaven, that paradise were created from the
foundation of the world. Sometimes we read things and
we just don't really latch on to them and say, what does that
mean? Well, let's look at Matthew 25-34,
"...then shall the king say unto them on his right hand, Come,
ye blessed of my Father, and inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world." Well, that word,
prepared, when you look that up, it means provided. inherit the kingdom provided
for you from the foundation of the world. And then we look at
a scripture that says we have a lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. And we put those things together
and we get a clearer sense of of the scope of salvation and
God's work in bringing them to Him. At the time of creation,
there was a provision made. Not just a place, perhaps more of a person than
a place. And I think that's the essence
of what we're trying to bring out today, that maybe heaven
isn't that hymn we sang, my mansion, I'm going to my mansion in the
sky. Maybe that mansion isn't so much
of a physical building where we have everything as being in Christ So let's go over
to Colossians 1. It's a very interesting chapter
here and says so much. But as we consider then that
paradise or heaven is really maybe more than just a destination
or a place, but a state of being, in Colossians 1 beginning with
verse 12, it states the absolute necessity of redemption from
the fall of the state and restoration or reconciliation to fellowship
with God through His Son. When we think about Adam in the
garden before the fall was in fellowship with God. He was in
a different state, a different being. And yet the fall plunged
him into an abyss that was immeasurable. In Colossians 1, verse 12 says,
"...giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet, to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." So it lays all of the causative
element there to God. God the Father made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light. And so there's several sermons
right in that verse there, because we know that God is light and
in Him is no darkness. And if we look at Him in that
element of Him being light in a spiritual sense, then it gives added context to
our scriptures here. Who hath delivered us, that's
God again, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness,
the opposite of light, and translated us into the kingdom of His dear
Son. Translated means that translating
involves a change. When we translate a language,
we change it from this language into another language. When we
translate radio frequencies from one to another, they're different. They carry the same message maybe,
but they've been changed from one frequency to another. So we have that understanding
of it. Translated us into the kingdom
of his dear son in whom And this refers to Christ, His dear Son,
in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness
of sins. And then some more descriptive things about Christ. Who is the
image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature?
For by Him were all things created. All things were created by Him
and for Him. All things were created that
are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or power. All
things were created by Him and for Him." Well, what is the purpose
of all that? It's for the glory of God. It
wasn't just because He was bored or some inconsequential thing. It
was according to His eternal purpose. All things were created
by Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and by Him
all things consist. So we have some very potent things
written about Christ there. And more than that, I always
like these ands. It's kind of like Ephesians and
Romans. Romans 8.28-31. Just layers on
blessings. And he's before all things, and
by him all things consist. And he's the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things he might have the preeminence. For it pleased
the Father, that in him should all fullness dwell. And having
made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile
all things to himself, by him I say whether they be things
in earth or things in heaven. And you, so now we go to the
flip side, the recipients of all these wonderful things that
we just read about, creation, Reconciliation through the blood
of the cross, all those things. And you, there in verse 21, that
were sometime alienated. That means a foreigner. That
means you were a stranger, a foreigner. And worse than that, your enemies. You that were sometimes alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled."
You know, we think of wicked works, well, we think of all
kinds of things, but the wicked work is unbelief. That is the
crux of things. not believing the gospel, not
believing Christ. But now he's reconciled us because
our ways were not his ways. I always use the example of my
wife's checkbook. I would put entries in there
sometimes, sometimes not. Then she would get her statement
from the bank and she would have to reconcile my mess that I made
with the bank, which had the accurate record of things as
they really were. And so we might think of that's
the gospel, that's the Bible, that's the truth of God. And
over here we have this mess that we make in life. So she'd say,
what about this, what about that, what about this, and then she
would fill in all the blanks and correct all the, where I
put transposed numbers or whatever, and then at the end she would
say, I reconciled. They're both the same. And it says, yet now hath He
reconciled. He's made us the same. He's made
us both the same. He's changed us. In the body
of His flesh through death, to present you holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in his sight." Well, that's what has to occur
before the paradise part comes in. We have to be changed from
our condition as it relates to the fall to one that's holy and
unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. You know, in Hebrews 1, verse
3, it says, who being, talking about Christ again, who being
the brightness of His glory. Just not enough to say He's light,
but it's the brightness, the dazzlingness of it. The brightness of His glory and
the express image of His person and upholding all things by the
word of His power." Upholding, that's a very expressive term
about Christ, how by Him all things consist. Upholding all
things by the word of His power, when He had by Himself purged
our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high.
Purging of sins is necessary because of the condition that
we fell into in Adam in the garden. He became a sinner, and he could
only reproduce what he was. In Genesis 3, we have that description
in verse 8, they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the
garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves
from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the
garden, because His ways were no longer God's ways. And we were plunged into a level
so far below God as to be beyond comprehension. Our very being and thoughts were
now centered on ourselves and not subject to or in alignment
with Him and His holy nature. That's what happened in the fall.
And it tells us that in Romans chapter 8, verse 7, it says,
because the carnal mind is enmity against God or hatred. For it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be." You know, we might go to
a foreign country and we might see a big bunch of writing on
the wall. Maybe that's all their laws.
We're not subject to any of them. We might be put in jeopardy by them. because
they're there whether we understand them or not. But we can read
that thing if it's in Arabic or Russian or whatever. We don't understand what it says. So we say, well, that doesn't
apply. I don't understand it, so it's
not applicable to me. It's not subject to the law of
God, neither indeed can be. There's no ability to be subject
to the law of God in our natural condition. We're already condemned. We're already guilty. In verse
24 of chapter 3 of Genesis, So he drove out the man, and he
placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims and a flaming
sword, which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of
life. So next we see from our text
this compulsory and prerequisite necessity of a transition, a
change, the new birth, to enter the kingdom of God, to enter
paradise of God, to heaven. And when our time in this world
is at its end, the flesh, our nature in this world is corrupt
and cannot enter or participate in that realm. Jesus said, the
flesh is flesh and the spirit is spirit. John 3.3. And we'll read a couple of verses
there. "'Except verily, verily, I say
unto thee, except a man be born again.'" You can't see the Kingdom
of God. His visual perception only sees the things of this
world. Verily I say unto thee, Except
a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God." And in verse 6, that which is born of the
flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
The flesh profiteth nothing. It's never going to be useful. And that's what Paul wrote. He's
such an interesting person in the Scriptures, how God used
him even though he was a vile, contemptible person, much like
this thief that probably assaulted somebody and robbed them of all
their goods and maybe hurt them, maybe killed them, I don't know. In 1 Corinthians 15.50, Paul
wrote, Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. Neither doth corruption inherit
incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed." So there's
a change at the new birth. It's a spiritual change. And
then in the resurrection, there'll be another change. Our natural
state in this body, the world does not allow a physical translation
to a spiritual realm. You know, that thief was going
to hang on that cross till they broke his legs and then he suffocated.
It was going to be an agonizing death. Even though God said,
you're going to be with me in paradise, he still was going
to suffer some indignities in the way of death that still we're going to happen.
There must be a change wrought in us the same as is externally
imposed on us in the new birth. The change that we call death
and the body that we're assigned to in this world returns to dust
as it tells us in Genesis 3.19. There's I don't know how many
hymns there are. We must cross over, Jordan. That
picture, that spiritual divide there where you're in one realm
on one side and then on the other side is the land of milk and
honey and all the good things and in the new birth. We get a new perspective of our
existence and our true relationship in the spiritual world of God.
In the new birth, we discover that we're in the world, but
we're not of the world. That's what tells us in John
17. And we're in this world for a
purpose. And those purposes vary, but the bottom line purpose of
it all is to give glory unto God through Christ, to show forth
his sovereign love and mercy. This thief was recorded for us
for a pattern of true salvation. Unable to do anything for himself,
he was hopelessly bound Couldn't wiggle much even. Dead spiritually,
about to be dead physically, yet wherever sin abounded, grace
did much more abound. His name written in the Lamb's
Book of Life. You know, Paul, he recognized
the same thing when he was writing Timothy. And the grace of our
Lord was exceedingly abundant." He just couldn't get over it,
how exceedingly abundant the grace of God was. "...with faith
and love which is in Christ Jesus." And this is a faithful saying.
worthy of all acceptation, that Christ came into the world to
save sinners, of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtain
mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering."
If you put up with me, who's not savable? for a pattern to them which should
hereafter believe on Him to everlasting life." He said, I was the most
religious person in the country. I bragged on it. But I led people to be executed
and put in prison. I did all kinds of harm in the name of religion. And after the new birth, Paul,
by grace, experienced something even more. And he writes in 2
Corinthians 12, he says, you know, it's not expedient for
me to glory here, but I'll tell you something. I knew a man in Christ about
14 years ago, and whether in the body I cannot tell or whether
out of the body I cannot tell, God knoweth. Such a one caught
up to the third heaven." You know that word caught up there
is the same word that you find in 2 Thessalonians 2.13 where
it says, God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation. And it's a word that means to
seize or to pluck up I knew a man caught up into paradise,
but I couldn't tell if I was in my body or not. And I heard
unspeakable words. It was just too much. It's not lawful for a man to
utter. In his experience, he seemed to have a body, but he
seemed not to be confined to that criteria, and he simply
said, I can't tell. He just didn't understand how
it all worked together. And we were talking about this
this morning, about like that blind man that was blind from
birth. He said, you know, I don't know how this happened, but I
know one thing. Where I was blind before, now
I can see. And the Lord revealed Himself
to him in a magnificent way. And if you read that in, we won't
have time today, but if you read that in John chapter 9. But spiritually that shaped a
lot of Paul's thinking and things were not as they were or seemed.
He said there's a lot more. that I can only see through a
glass darkly. There's a lot more that I'm kind
of getting a glimpse of through the lattice. But he understood some things.
He said, you know what? I'd rather be with Christ, in
Christ. And he wrote that to the Philippians. He says, for me to live is Christ,
and to die is gain, because I'll be with him. But if I live in
the flesh, this is the fruit of my labor. What I shall choose,
I don't know. I'm in a straight matrix too,
having a desire to depart and be with Christ, which is far
better." He thought, well, for me, it'd be far better for me
to exit this world and be with Christ. But he says, it's more
necessary for me to be here with you, because Christ said He's
a chosen vessel to bring my name to the Gentiles, to preach the
gospel. I'm in a straight, having a desire to depart and to be
with Christ, which is far better. Nevertheless, to abide in the
flesh is more needful for you." And so he viewed it as merely
a departure from this realm into a different realm. He says, I'm now ready to be
offered. The time of my departure is at
hand, is what he wrote to Timothy the second time. Time of my departure,
like a train schedule, or a plane, my departure time is coming up. And so when they came to the
place which is called Calvary, they crucified him and the malefactors,
one on the right and one on the left. Little did that thief know
in the purposes of God, his name would be written, not only in
the Lamb's Book of Life, but in the Gospel. That he would be intersected
with the very essence of the Gospel, being given the new birth
in the last moments of his life. given an understanding of his
nature and sin before God and a heart to turn to Christ, a
knowledge of a need for the daysman who could lay a hand on him both.
Today, shalt thou be with me in paradise." So we ran over. We're going to stop there. And there's more we could say on
this maybe next time.