Dying Thief #3

Q: What does the Bible say about the conversion of the dying thief?

The conversion of the dying thief demonstrates the incredible saving power of Jesus Christ and the grace of God in salvation. The account of the dying thief, found in Luke 23:39-43, showcases a powerful illustration of salvation by grace alone. One of the thieves recognized his own guilt and proclaimed his belief in Jesus, asking Him to remember him when He entered His kingdom. Jesus' response, 'Today thou shalt be with me in paradise,' highlights that salvation is not based on our merits or prior deeds, but solely on God's grace. This incident reveals that even in the final moments of life, the offer of salvation is available, proving that God's grace is sufficient to redeem even the most hardened sinners.

Q: Why is grace alone important in salvation?

Grace alone is vital because it teaches that salvation is entirely a gift from God, not dependent on human effort. The dying thief's conversion exemplifies an unparalleled display of salvation by grace alone. In Luke 23:43, Jesus tells him, 'Today thou shalt be with me in paradise,' demonstrating that the thief had nothing to offer God—no past virtuous deeds or rituals, only his faith in Christ in his final moments. This underlines the critical Reformed belief that one cannot do anything to earn God's favor or to secure salvation; it is purely a matter of God's unmerited grace. The notion that we must bring something to God stems from a misunderstanding of the nature of grace. Salvation is a gift that cannot be earned or marred by our works, affirming that we are saved by grace, through faith, and not of ourselves.

Q: How does the dying thief's story illustrate God's sovereignty?

The story illustrates God's sovereignty by showing that salvation depends on God's will, not human effort or circumstance. The story of the dying thief powerfully illustrates the sovereignty of God in salvation. Despite being crucified with Jesus, one thief remained hardened, while the other was transformed in an instant. This difference is not attributed to any merit within the individuals but must be understood as the sovereign act of God. Jesus chose to reveal His saving grace to the repentant thief, underscoring that salvation is wholly the work of God's grace. This points to the Reformed understanding that God alone determines who will receive mercy, reinforcing that the response of the heart is the result of divine intervention. Such sovereignty is a comfort for believers and a reminder of the extraordinary power of God's grace in rescuing sinners.

We turn again this morning to
Luke's Gospel, the 23rd chapter. The Gospel according to Luke,
chapter 23. And I shall read verses 39 through
43. Luke 23, 39 through 43. The setting, of course, being
those hours after our Lord was impaled upon the cross in
prior to the three hours of darkness, and Luke gives us an event in
those hours not recorded by any of the other Gospel writers,
describing the conversion of this dying malefactor, this evildoer,
this thief. And one of the malefactors that
were hanged railed on him, saying, Art not thou the Christ? Save
thyself and us. But the other answered, and rebuking
him, said, Dost not thou even fear God, seeing thou art in
the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we
receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man hath done
nothing of this. And he said, Jesus, remember
me when thou comest in thy kingdom. And he said unto him, And verily
I say unto thee, Today thou shalt be with me in paradise." Having
completed a very careful study of Ephesians 2, 1 through 10,
a portion of the Word of God which perhaps more clearly and
comprehensively than any other describes the magnitude and the
glory of salvation by grace, The past few weeks we have been
looking at some case histories which wonderfully exemplify and
illustrate the truths taught by the Apostle in Ephesians 2
verses 1 through 10. We considered for three Lord's
Days the conversion of the Philippian jailer and his household. Last
Lord's Day morning and evening we looked at the passage that
is before us again this morning this trophy of God's grace, snatched
as it were from the very jaws of hell moments before he would
have entered that terrible place, rescued by the grace and power
of the dying Son of God. And I shall only briefly review
the exposition of the passage as I sought to lay it out last
Lord's Day. I suggested that in thinking
our way through this passage, the key to any proper interpretation
of it is our Lord's words in verse 43. Our Lord himself asserts
that this man has come to true repentance and faith. He says
that he has been born of the Spirit, for no man can see or
enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of the Spirit, unless
he repents and believes. And our Lord says that this man
has repented and believed, for he is ready to enter paradise
with the Lord Jesus. And therefore it is right to
see in the words of the dying thief expressions of the actings
of his own spiritual awakening, his own repentance and faith.
And we are not reading something into the words that we ought
not to read into the words. We are reading them in the light
of our Lord's infallible statement. Verily I say unto thee, today
thou shalt be with me in paradise. And I suggested that in trying
to open up the meaning, the significance of these words, we need first
of all to consider the native spiritual condition of the dying
thief. The diamond of God's grace in
this passage is set against the dark background of the native
spiritual condition of this dying thief. And from the passage itself
we saw that he was a defiant rebel against the law of God,
an irreligious and hardened sinner before the face of God, and a
condemned criminal before the bar of God. And having looked
at his native spiritual condition, last Lord's Day we then considered
the gracious transformation of the dying faith. And we addressed
ourselves simply to two questions. How did this transformation come
to pass? And what are the evidences of
its reality and its depth? How was he transformed? And we
understand his transformation in terms of two fundamental issues. He was given a spirit-wrought
revelation of his true condition before God, and he was given
a spirit-wrought revelation of and confidence in the Son of
God. And how do we know that the transformation
was both real and deep? Because of those six evidences
that I sought to expound last Lord's Day evening, indicating
both the reality and the depth of the change that grace effected
in this man. It is not my purpose to re-preach
the sermons. If your appetite has been whetted,
you were not here, I suggest you get the tapes of the sermons
for your own edification But what I wish to do this morning
is to come to the third area in which this passage speaks
with profound insight and almost overwhelming power with reference
to salvation by grace. Having looked at the native spiritual
condition of this man, the gracious transformation of the dying thief,
and in so doing, having expounded the passage, what I propose to
do this morning is to draw your attention to the principal lessons
contained in this account of the conversion of the dying thief.
Having expounded, we now, in the words of the Apostle Paul,
seek to extract what is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction,
and instruction in the realm of righteousness. And because
I have much to cover, we will move right into the first profound
lesson, the first fundamental principle set before us in the
narrative, and I wish to set each one before you in the way
of an exhortation to behold something that is here. Exhortation number
one, behold in this narrative a singular manifestation of the
saving power of Jesus Christ. Behold in this narrative a singular
manifestation of the saving power of Christ. Bishop Ryle in commenting
on this incident wrote, If we search the Bible from Genesis
to Revelation, we shall never find a more striking proof of
Christ's power and mercy. Now that's a very sweeping statement. If we search from Genesis to
Revelation, we shall never find a more striking proof of Christ's
power and mercy. that Jesus Christ was to be a
powerful Savior was clearly announced at His conception. Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Our Lord Himself announced this
as His purpose. The Son of Man is come to seek
and to save that which was lost. But think of the circumstances
in which that announced purpose and power of the Son of God were
operative in the case of this dying thief. First of all, consider
the difficulty of our Lord's own situation. His own mind and
spirit are oppressed with the blasphemous mockery of His enemies. And never forget that our Lord
was a true man. The scripture records him as
being grieved in the presence of unbelief, being angered in
the presence of unbelief, weeping in the face of the separation
which death brought in the circle of his own intimate friends. Our Lord was true man. And our
Lord knew something of the pain that comes in the face of unjust
jeering and mockery. And now from every quarter of
His enemies, this mockery, this taunting is hurled, not only
into the ears, but into the soul of the blessed and holy Son of
God. It comes from scribes. It comes
from the pagan soldiers. Added to this was the pain of
the desertion of the disciples. Smite the shepherd and the sheep
will be scattered. And the very Lord who in the
impending agony of Calvary cries out, as it were, for the support
of His intimate friends and says to Peter, James and John, could
you not watch with me one hour? If He felt the need of the supportive
influence of His intimate companions as He approached the agony of
Calvary and Golgotha, How much must his holy and righteous soul
have longed for the support of just the identification of friendship
in those awful hours? Yet the scripture says they all
forsook him, and they fled. The scripture says crucified
through weakness. Think of the difficulties of
our Lord's circumstances. His soul tortured with the taunts
of His enemies, grieved at the forsaking of His own disciples. Add to that the difficulty of
feeling in Himself the frown of His own Father. When He who
knew no sin was constituted sin for us, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. What it meant for the infinitely
spotless Son of God to come into such close proximity with the
sins of His people, so that on the one hand He is not defiled
by it, but so identified with it that all of the arrows of
God are shot into His holy heart and they stick fast? Not only
are there the difficulties of our Lord's inward pain, the suffering
brought by His enemies, His friends from His Father, but the intensity
of the agony of His physical pain. We pick up our Bibles and
we read, and they crucified Him. failing to pause and think of
the intense physical agony, one of the most cruel forms of punishment
ever devised by man. And I will not weary you with
flights of fancy and trying to play upon your emotions. This
would be a prostitution of preaching. I simply call upon you to face
the tremendous personal difficulties that were heaped upon our Lord.
And in that situation, is He really mighty to save? Is He
able to deliver from their sins those on whose behalf He became
incarnate, lived and died? But now think of the difficulties
of the feast situation. He too is undergoing the terrible
pain of crucifixion and the distraction of mind that comes from intense
pain. Think of the difficulty in terms
of His association. Just a short time before, He
joins in the chorus of those who taunt our Lord, for the Gospel
writers tell us that the thieves, plural, cast the same into His
teeth. And now there is the difficulty
of His own physical pain, the difficulty of the emotional strain
of wrenching Himself loose from that association in blasphemy
and mockery and of evil. Add to this the brevity of time
in which the work is to be accomplished. Just a matter of a few hours
and this man will be in eternity. Think of the difficulties of
the meager measure of truth that has been proclaimed. Think of
the unsympathetic environment, the jeering, the taunting. Think
of everything that in terms of the world of sense would turn
this man away from ever beholding in the sighing, bleeding, bloody
form of Jesus of Nazareth, the King of Israel. Keep all the
difficulties together. And yet the Lord Jesus says today,
thou shalt be with me in paradise. Though dying through weakness,
buried in the agony of his own baptism of suffering, the object
of derision and scorn, he reaches out and rescues this man who,
as it were, has the flames of hell licking at his feet. And
he says, I am mighty to save. In the midst of everything that
is unsympathetic to the exercise of my saving power, when the
angel announced, Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people. Save I must, save I will, though
every difficulty imaginable shall be heaped upon me. I am the Savior
who is mighty and able to save. And so the Lord demonstrates
His saving power by enlightening the mind of this ignorant sinner,
the dying thief, awakening the conscience of this insensitive
sinner, the dying thief, subduing the will of the rebel sinner,
the dying thief, implanting faith and repentance in this previously
unbelieving sinner. That's what it means to say that
Jesus Christ will overcome every difficulty in the external circumstances,
in the internal disposition and attitude of all those for whom
He came to give His life. And the cross is not alone in
itself the pledge of that. The salvation of one who hung
next to the Lord Jesus is a singular manifestation of the saving power
of Jesus Christ. The salvation of every sinner
is a manifestation of his saving power. But I say this is a singular
manifestation. when He walked by the receipt
of custom and called Matthew to Himself. What a display of
His saving power that He did so in the time of His popularity
beginning to emerge, the great miracle worker, in the full flush
of His manhood, in the demonstration of God's seals upon Him by signs
and wonders and miracles. When he speaks from heaven to
save Saul of Tarsus, he does so in such a climate of manifested
glory that Paul knows he is dealing with exalted deity. Who art thou,
Jehovah? he says in the Hebrew tongue.
Jehovah says, I am Jesus, a manifestation of the power of God that all
people catch something of the wonder of this. Behold what the
dying thief saw. Not Jesus of Nazareth in the
performance of his miracle. coming as it were before him
with all of his credentials displayed, capturing his heart, but he is
there upon a cross amidst all that to the world of sense and
sight and human reason would say, he is nothing but a miserable
imposter and truth has finally caught up with him and done him
justice. And in the midst of that, today
thou shalt be with me and O blessed be God, for so mighty a Savior. And my friend, listen, if Jesus
Christ demonstrates in this singular way His power to save amidst
the most difficult of circumstances, do you not see why it is wicked,
wicked unbelief not to trust Him to save you when now He is
no longer impaled upon a cross in weakness? No longer is He
surrounded by taunts and jeers, but the Scripture says He has
been exalted to the right hand of the Majesty on high, and as
a Prince and a Savior, He lives to give repentance and faith
to all who will call upon Him. I plead with you, dear people
of God, to behold in this account a singular manifestation of the
saving power of Christ, or, it's not as good English, but I like
it better, Behold in it a singular manifestation of Christ's power
to save. Secondly, behold in the account
an unparalleled display of salvation by grace alone. An unparalleled
display of salvation by grace alone. Look at our Lord's words
in verse 43. Today, that is, immediately,
without passing through any further work of purification, immediately,
today, thou shalt be with me in paradise, the realm of perfect
light, purity, holiness, and bliss, that realm where none
can enter with either the guilt or the defilement of sin. Now
think back to the native condition of this man. A few moments before,
he was what? He was an impenitent, hardened
sinner before the face of God. He was a condemned criminal before
the bar of God. He was an insensitive, calloused
sinner. Now the Lord says, this day,
before this day ends, you are going to be in the realm where
all is light, all is purity, all is peace, all is blessedness,
and you will be perfectly suited for that perfect realm of existence." Now, he had no lengthy period
of conviction. He had no past virtues to bring to the Savior.
He had no ordinances, no sacraments to which he could hook into some
stream of grace Though some of the early church fathers tried
to find baptism in the water and blood that flowed from our
Lord's side, that sprinkled themselves upon him and therefore proved
that he was baptized. Brethren, that's the stupidity
to which sacramentalism will lead otherwise good men. He had
no time to bring forth the fruits of love and gratitude except
for a few hours, and he certainly had no time to acquire much knowledge.
What in the world took him from that state of defilement, impenitence,
insensitivity and guilt and made him fit to dwell with Jesus Christ
in paradise? The answer is the grace of God
and the grace of God alone. Grace that fully blotted out
all of his sins grace that so radically altered his nature
that both his guilt and defilement were so dealt with by Jesus Christ
that he was fit to enter that world of perfect light and perfect
joy. You see, there are two great
enemies of salvation by grace alone. Number one is the notion
that I must bring something to God before I can gain his acceptance. And the second notion is that
I must do something for God after I come in order to add to my
acceptance. Get those two things? The two
great enemies of the biblical doctrine of salvation by grace
alone are, number one, I must bring something to God before
I can gain His acceptance, and I must do something for God after
I've come in order to add to my acceptance. Now look at the
dying thief. What could he bring to God? Could
he say, now, Lord, remember me, because, you know, a few hours
ago I was mocking you with my companion. Now, Lord, I think
that will really help to fix me up for heaven. Lord, remember
me, and not only remember me, remember my deeds that I bring
to you. And, Lord, furthermore, remember
when I put that man to death in plunder and in pillage. Remember,
when I... No, no, the Scripture says this
man's character was so much in opposition to the law of God
that even the power of the state put him to death and he wasn't
framed. He says, we are here justly. Well, this poor dying
thief knew that if he was to be made fit for that place to
which the Lord was going as the king in the messianic kingdom,
And that kingdom would one day be manifested at the end of the
age if he's to be remembered and to find a place, and if he
knows there's nothing he can bring to Christ to gain his acceptance. And the Lord did not, by a miracle,
get him down from the cross and let him live out many years expressing
the virtues and power of the new life implanted. He says,
before the day is over, you've had it! And yet he says, you'll
be with me in paradise. I say this is an unparalleled
display of salvation by grace alone. He had nothing to bring
to the Lord to gain acceptance, and he had no time to do anything
for the Lord to add to his acceptance. So there is only one answer to
the question, what prepared him to go to paradise with Christ?
And the answer is grace, and grace alone. Oh, hear me, dear
people. That's the only salvation sent
by Almighty God. Salvation which is of grace and
grace alone. A salvation in which the sinners
conduct before gaining the favor of God Whether that be good or
bad, religious or irreligious, it has nothing to do with the
grounds of your acceptance. It is Christ and Christ alone. You must not only repent of your
bad works, but the scripture speaks of repentance from dead
works. That's good things done in your
unregenerate state that are a stench in the nostrils of God. And having
come in the naked embrace of faith, you must maintain that
naked embrace. You must, not having been accepted
on the grounds of grace, then think that you can free one hand
from that grasp upon Christ alone, and with it begin to pick up
merit along the way that somehow will be attractive to the Lord.
No, no. That was the problem of the Galatians.
And Paul says you are falling from the principle of grace.
When I preached and I set Christ before you, it was Christ and
Christ alone. Now that you've listened to these
wretched Judaizers, it's Christ plus your circumcision, Christ
plus your ceremonial law. No, no, he says. No, no. And this passage is an unparalleled
display of that glorious truth. Salvation by grace alone. But
in the third place, behold in this passage a clear demonstration
of the sovereignty of God in the salvation of sinners. Behold
in it a queer demonstration of the sovereignty of God in the
salvation of sinners. Remember the circumstances. Two
men, and the scripture is explicit, saying that they were crucified,
one on the one hand and one on the other. The Lord was not crucified to
the left, Look at verse 33. When they came to the place that
is called the skull, there they crucified him. And here's a historical
detail. And the malefactors, one on the
right hand, the other on the left, both were within equal
distance of the Lord Jesus. They heard with equal clarity
all that was said by the enemies. They saw with equal clarity the
inscription above his head. With equal proximity to every
transaction that occurred prior to and during the crucifixion
of the Son of God, they had equal opportunity. They came from similar
backgrounds. Both were men condemned by common
law because of their deeds. Hardened criminals, guilty before
the bar of man as well as the bar of God. Now the question
is this. How do you account for the fact that from similar backgrounds
with identical influences, one is melted to repentance and enters
paradise. One is hardened in his blasphemy
and enters hell. Now, how do you account for the
difference? How do you account for the difference? Unless we are willing to place
the ultimate difference in the hands of man and destroy everything
that the Bible says, and human experience confirms. The difference must be accounted
for in these terms. He was born not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And as many as were ordained
to eternal life, If we could somehow have access
to that dying thief as he's been in paradise from that hour and
ask him, why did you come hither while your companion has gone
to the place of unspeakable agony and torment and woe? Do you think
you could get him for one minute to say that the difference lay
within himself? Do you? Well, I tell you, there
was a little spark of something in me that really, you know,
the Lord got to that and he fanned it and he blew upon it. But my
buddy there, the Lord fanned and blew, but the spark just
went out. No, no, my friend, he'd be the first to acknowledge
in answer to the question, who maketh me to differ? He would
say, grace, grace, all of grace, sovereign mercy. unfettered but
glorious sovereignty that constituted me a vessel of mercy. Let me
come, as it were, to the very gates of hell and feel the flames
licking at my feet and rescued me to make it manifest that it
is all of God and all of grace. Dear child of God, this ought
to fill your heart with unspeakable praise, for many of us at this
very hour can think of those who were as close to every means
of grace that we were brought near to. Every single influence
that ultimately proved defectual to our repentance and faith has
simply hardened others in a state of impenitence and rebellion
against God. The word in the original here
is the one that is often translated. In fact, our English word is
just a transliteration of the Greek word. The same railed on
him, verse 39, it means blasphemed him. The influences that turned
one to a penitent believer, Lord, remember me, caused the other
one to die with blasphemy upon his lips. Behold this clear demonstration
of the sovereignty of God. in the salvation of sinners,
and let your heart run out in praise to Him, dear child of
God. Let your heart be filled with
expectant hope as you pray for others. If God purposes to manifest
that they are vessels of mercy, listen, He may let them come
right down to the very mouth of hell, and to show that it
is all of grace, snatch them at the last hour. People say
that's a discouraging doctrine. No, no, my friend. It's the most
encouraging doctrine in the world. Use your imagination for a minute,
will you? This is not exegesis now, but I believe it's sanctified
imagination. Suppose, suppose that thine thief
had been taken to Sunday school somewhere in Israel as a little
boy, had been taught the law of God and the truth of God,
and came from a godly home. where parents taught him, instructed
him, prayed for him, and then they saw his choice. He began
to fall in with bad companions and chose a course of crime until
they stand there the day when his sentence is declared, and
they watch him go out to a place of execution. They feel that
all their prayers and hopes have suddenly been dashed, and they
may go back to their homes to weep in grief that he lived and
died in his sin and went to hell. And they're waiting that final
day for a blessed surprise. Maybe they stood by the cross
long enough to hear Him joining His companion, railing on Christ. And they said, that's the last
straw. Even facing death doesn't sober that boy. God, what can
we do? They may have turned away in
despair. What a surprise they're in for. Because God in His sovereign
grace can reach at the last moment and rescue center. And the grace
and the sovereignty of that grace is all the more manifest. But
what about some of you who are not Christians? You say you people
preach the sovereignty of God and salvation. That's the most
discouraging thing to me. My friend, listen to me. If you're
letting that truth become a discouragement, it's because of the perversity
of your own heart. That's no discouragement. If
you really believe the Bible teaches that the God of the universe
who made you holds your destiny in His hands, and that God of
absolute and unfettered sovereignty commands you to seek Him while
He may be found, you'll be up and seeking. You'll be crying
to a God like that to have mercy upon you for the sake of His
own dear Son. You will not sit back passively
and go, God's sovereign salvation, nothing I can do. My friend,
that's an affront to his sovereignty because that sovereign God commands
you to seek the Lord while he may be found and to call upon
him while he is near. But in the fourth place, behold
in this account, behold in this account how little of God's truth
may serve for conversion. in the words of Buchanan, if
improved by the hearer, and savingly applied by the spirit. What gospel
expositions did this man hear? Well, you say, he may have heard
Christ preach. Yes, he may have, but the Bible
doesn't tell us that he did. He may have seen the miracles
of Christ. The Bible doesn't tell us he
did. From what is clearly revealed, We see that this man, we have
no grounds to believe he had any sustained, clear, concise
expositions of the gospel. The only gospel he heard in these
hours of agony upon the cross was the gospel concocted of the
taunts of his enemies and the official inscription over the
head of Christ and the gospel declared in the words of Christ
when he said to his enemies, Father, forgive them, for they
know not what they do. So here's a gospel that has this
point number one, the tauntings of its enemies. If you're the
son of God, come down. If you're king of Israel, show
your stuff. You save others, you can't save
yourself. That's point number one in that
gospel sermon, comprised of taunts and jeers. Point number two in
the sermon, an inscription over the head of Christ. This is Jesus,
king of the Jews. an inscription that seems to
be mocked by everything the human eye can see. King, what is his
crown? Made of jewels? Made of the stuff
of regal crowns? Gold and silver? No, no. Thorns,
the manifestation of God's curse upon the earth. That curse is
symbolically pressing in upon his own brow, drawing forth blood
from his holy veins. King! Crown of thorns. King of
the Jews. declared king that was point
number two was an inscription that seemed to be mocked by everything
in the world of reality and point number three was the conduct
of Christ himself father forgive while he and his companion no
doubt cursed those who pounded the nails into their hands the
son of God as a sheep that is led to his shearers is dumb that isn't much of a gospel sermon
is it? Ah, my friend, it is if the Holy Ghost will lay hold
of it and make it effectual. We read in Luke chapter 1, one
of the most precious words in all of Scripture, 137, when Mary
said, Look, angel, I don't doubt you've come from the presence
of God, but when you say that I'm going to be a mother, something's
not quite right here. I've never known a man I've not
entered into that relationship necessary for the procreation
of a child, for the bearing of a child. How can this be? And
the answer of the angel is beautifully simple. No word from God shall
be void of power. If God speaks, God will do it. That's it. And she says, that's
enough for me. Be it unto me according to thy
word. If no word from God is void of power, Lord, I mix faith
with that word, and my own conviction is that at that point the conception
of the Son of God occurred. Think of it, the mystery that
has baffled the most holy, sensitive minds of the people of God for
centuries. The union of the two natures
into one person, God and man, this profound mystery. Mary doesn't
trouble herself with the mystery. All she says, Lord, it doesn't
make sense at this point. Some new factors got to enter.
If I'm going to be a mother, this is all right. That factor
is God's word. She says, that's enough for me. No word of God should be void
of power there upon the cross. He's saved! Ah, that's a word
of God. Thou shalt call His name Jesus.
He shall save! And so the Holy Spirit shines
the spotlight upon Christ's position as Savior, and He puts into darkness
the context in which it comes. Blessed God, who can take the
sermon and rinse some words out of their context, the vile sermon
of His enemies, and make it an instrument of salvation. What
a God we have, who takes these fragments of truth and improves
them in the words of Dillkennen to the salvation of this man.
Now, this does not negate the responsibility I have as a preacher. All of us have, as Christians,
when presenting the gospel, to seek to be as comprehensive as
possible in declaring the whole counsel of God. You who attend
this place of worship know well enough that we're committed to
that principle. Now, we haven't done a double
take and thrown that over. No, no. Our duty is one thing. But the ground of our confidence
is quite another. You see, our duty is to proclaim
the whole counsel of God. But what's our confidence in
the salvation of sinners? Not our comprehensive presentation
of the gospel, but that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation,
and He can take either a gram of gospel truth or a ton of it,
because the work is God. Of course, only the preachers
can appreciate why I'm blowing my fuses on this this morning.
But the rest of you take my word for it. This is the most encouraging
thing in all the world. There are some of you sitting
here this morning, perhaps almost totally ignorant of the gospel.
And I'm not giving a formal exposition of the gospel. sounding a few
gospel notes, picking out a few gospel strands. What gives me
joy? The knowledge that my God, if
He pleases, can take some of those little gospel strands,
some of the little nuggets, some of the little crumbs here or
there, and bring them together and make them essential for your
salvation. Oh, child of God, do you have
loved ones you're praying for? And one of the things that grieves
you is, Lord, they go to that abominable liberal church. Are
the only gospels in the hymn books? None in the pulpit. None in the pulpit. My friend,
if the gospel is still in the hymn books, they could be sitting
there singing a hymn. And there's gospel truth in that
hymn. Nobody in the church believes it. The preacher doesn't believe
it. But it's there in the hymn books. What can God do? God can take the gospel in the
line of the hymn and save them sitting right where they are.
Now you ought to try to get them out of that heresy house. and
where the word is preached. But my friend, don't think that
their conversion is impossible until you get them out of there.
God can save them. At least they're not hanging
on a cross with their minds and bodies tortured with agony and
pain and public shame. No, no, they have many more advantages
than he had. And yet the Lord took these little
fragments of truth and made them effectual. May God comfort our
hearts as Christians as we pray for our unsaved loved ones. You
men upon whom God's hand is resting to preach the gospel. Mr. Rogers
and you brethren that'll be going up there to overbrook, to minister
to men whose minds, many of them are dull and twisted because
of sin and for some because of chemical failures in the body
and all the rest. May God fill you with joy brethren
as you go. God can take a word of truth
here, and a word of truth there, and make it effectual to the
salvation of a sinner. Well, I must hurry on to two
other points very quickly. Behold, in this narrative, a
death blow to the sins of despair and of presumption. Now let me
explain my two terms, presumption and despair. Some men hear that salvation
is completely in the work of another, that is, in Jesus Christ,
that it's all of God and all of grace. And that wonderful
set of facts is used by the devil to beat them down. Now, how in
the world can this glorious truth that salvation is all of God,
all of grace, all of His soft mercy, how can the devil ever
take such wonderful things and cover people with it? Well, I'll
tell you what he does. He takes those things and says to the
person, sure, it's all of grace, all of God, all of another, but
it's not for me. I've sinned too much. I've sinned
against too much light. I've sinned for too long. I've
been hardened and insensitive, and my conscience has stifled.
I've stifled the voice of conscience. I've stopped my ears to the overtures
of grace in the gospel. It's not for me. My friend, listen.
Listen. This passage is the death knell
to unbelieving despair. And on the other hand, then there's
carnal presumption. Someone hears, all of grace,
all of God, not of yourself? Well, fine. Wait until you're
on the brink of eternity, and you can do like the thief. You
can just call on the Lord. All you need to say is remember.
And the devil takes the most wonderful truths of the gospel,
and by mixing his own potions in them, he turns them into poison.
Now, this passage is the death blow to despair and to presumption. How does it strike a blow at
unbelieving despair? Oh, dear ones, who could be harder
than this thief? Who could be more insensitive
at the beginning of the narrative than this thief? Yet our Lord
has recorded through Luke an incident that is not recorded
by the other gospel writers. And as one writer quaintly stated
it, a rich man who is not about to be bombarded with appeals
to his riches does not publish his acts of benevolence to poor
people. Here's a wealthy man, and he's
shown kindness to people in need or to certain institutions and
foundations. And if he takes action to have
published before the eyes of all who will read it, he's acted
his kindness. What he's saying is, I'm accessible
to others. in a similar place of me. Why
did the Holy Ghost move Luke with his careful historical scrutiny
to search out an incident that eluded the other gospel writers?
Why did the Spirit of God guide him to incorporate it into his
gospel? Because God is saying, I didn't exhaust the disposition
that showed mercy to that dying thief in the last hour. And as
one old Puritan has said, and it's oft quoted, There is the
record of one dying thief. There is one that none may despair. What a wonderful thing to proclaim
to anyone in this building this morning, upstairs, downstairs. No matter what your past has
been, no matter how hardened and insensitive a sinner you've
been, my friend, if you go on in unbelief and you say the only
reason I will not commit myself to the Savior is because I don't
believe He'll save the likes of me, my friend, that's not
humility that magnifies Christ. That's wicked, cursing, unbelief. For Christ invites every sinner
to come and to rest upon Him. What about the presumption? How
many dying thieves are set before us in Scripture? How many deathbed
conversions are found in Scripture? Only one. Only one. The general pattern of Scripture
is a man will die precisely as he's left. He'll die precisely
as he lived. And you children, you listen
to me now. Do you know that your basic character is being set
formed and fixed in these days of your youth? You say, I never
become the hardened. My friend, listen, you children,
if you can sit through the kind of gospel preaching that you
hear in this place from your pastors, if you can sit through
the kind of gospel entreaties you hear at your family worship,
and in the time of greatest tenderness, your youth, if you can harden
yourself to that great amount of light, In most cases, you'll end up
a hardened, impenitent adult who'll simply be marking time
before you drop into hell, even if you live to be 80. That's
why God says, Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth,
before the evil days come when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure
in them. Listen to me, dear young people,
listen. When your mind is free from the pressing responsibilities
of providing for your children, providing for your household,
and the cares of adult life and responsibility, when your mind
is most simple in that which it has to be occupied with, And
when your life is most or least encumbered with other responsibilities,
if all this light of the gospel, if all this entreaty comes to
a mind and to a body that is not wracked with pain and distracted
by agony, if all of that will not be effectual to bring you
to the Savior, where will you be in another twenty years? Where
will you be? That's why this is such an amazing
trophy of grace. Most people when they're on a
deathbed, their minds are so filled with the agonies of the
physical disease that is taking life, they can't even think about
eternity. I've gone into deathbed rooms
where my mouth was shut. I couldn't even yank it open
to speak the gospel. Dear children, dear children,
for the sake of your souls, Seek the Lord while he may be found.
Call upon him while he is near. Don't presume. Don't presume. Don't presume. This passage deals
a death blow to despair and to presumption, and then last of
all, behold in this account a sure word of consolation to every
dying believer. Maybe some of you are a little
disappointed and say, Pastor, you didn't expound verse 43 in
the first two messages. I know what I did and didn't
do. I saved the dessert until the end of the meal. Behold, in this account, a sure
word of consolation to every dying believer. Look at these
words. The thief says, Lord, remember me when thou comest
in thy kingdom. Oh, Lord. Oh, Jesus. Look upon me with favor in that
hour when you come in glory and power as the returning Messiah
to establish your kingdom in the new heavens and the new earth.
All I ask is in that day, the day of judgment, the last day
that you'll remember me with favor. The Lord Jesus said, I have something
far better than that. And he focuses, first of all,
upon the time today. It's both a prophecy and a word
of assurance. He says to him, you're not going
to live for three or four days like men often do in crucifixion,
apart from the Jewish custom, to want them dead and out of
the way before they keep their religious feast. The height of
wicked hypocrisy. He says today, not after a while
of soul sleep, not if you pass through so many years of purgatory.
Today, thou shalt be with me. This day, you'll know the realized
presence of my own companionship. Mr. Dying Thief, your soul is
going to be wrenched loose from that body, that violent, abnormal
wrenching that has been brought about by sin and is only temporary
for all men, saved or lost. Today, you, what constitutes
you, essentially you, your soul, will be with me. Mr. Thief, you've only asked
to be remembered at the last day. You're going to be with
me until that day and then on into eternity. And where will
it be? Paradise, the garden of God,
that garden out of which our first father and his wife were
driven, that garden which Christ is open for all his own. Revelation
2 in verse 7, to him that overcometh, he says he shall be with me in
the paradise of God. And I think it's irresponsible
exegesis that men play around with the word our Lord used and
trace its origin into a Persian concept and all the rest. What
foolery. It's like taking a beautiful dessert. Instead of eating it
and letting it roll over the taste buds and licking your lips
and rubbing your tummy, you bring in a microscope and try to analyze
its constituent physical element. Today, with me in paradise, place
of bliss, place of unsullied joy, with me this day. What word of consolation could
be more certain than, if that's not enough, notice what our Lord
says verily. He puts his amen upon it. Amen! The affirmation of deity. Heaven
and hell will not conspire to cancel out this state. and child of God, this ought
to be a sure word of consolation to you. For the scripture says
to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
Paul says, I desire to depart and to be with Christ. And with
each passing year, some of us will pass the midway mark if
we live out our three score in ten plus our bonus ten. The reality
of death becomes more and more real to us. I'm sure to some
who've lived out three quarters of it, and some who even had
another ten, beyond their bonus ten is, dear Mrs. Blair, the
reality of death becomes more and more real. And I'll tell
you something, child of God, there's only one thing that makes
you face it with any degree of confidence. It is a growing repose
in the almighty power of Jesus Christ to save. You're less and
less occupied with your own performances, less and less satisfied with
anything that takes the gaze away from the almightiness of
the power of Christ to take us through that final crisis when
soul and body will be violently wrenched apart for a time. All
I need to know is that if I've said, remember me, the Lord says
to me, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. Oh may God write this word upon
our hearts that as we come in the words of Bunyan to cross
that river we may suck sweetness from this word of consolation
to this dying thief today Thou shalt be with me in paradise,
and it is the glory of the salvation of Christ that it needs nothing,
nothing added to the perfection of His own grace to fit us to
dwell with Him. This is the abominableness, if
I may coin a word, of the horrendous, blasphemous doctrine of purgatory. What can your pains in the fires
of purgatory add to the pains borne by the Son of God? And I love to read this passage
in conjunction with the next paragraph. And it was now about
the sixth hour, and darkness came over the whole land till
the ninth hour. Dear dying thief, There will
be just grounds for you to enter paradise without one gram of
unmet demands against your sin, because following the words of
the Savior to your own heart, he himself was plunged into the
abyss of forsakenness, plunged into the darkness of felt wrath
against your sin, Mr. Thief. And when He comes up the
other side saying, It is finished! You don't need the lick of one
tongue of flame upon your soul to fit you for paradise. The flames were exhausted in
the Son of God. Hallelujah! Thy pains, O Christ,
not mine. Christian, you need Christ as
your only ground of confidence, not in life alone, but in facing death. You'll derive
little comfort, even if God's given you 50, 60 years to serve
Him, because you will see with an eye that is more and more
perceptive concerning the glory of that other world. You'll see
with greater accuracy the holes, the worms, in the best of your
services. And you'll want to know that
your only hope is Christ and Christ alone. Behold in this
narrative, this singular manifestation of the power of Christ to save,
behold the unparalleled display of salvation by grace alone. Behold this clear demonstration
of the sovereignty of God in the salvation of sinners. Behold
how little of God's truth may be made effectual to convert
a soul. See in this passage a death blow
to presumption and despair. Behold in it, child of God, a
sure word of consolation in the face of death. And oh, dear unsaved
person, what have you got if you don't have this? What have
you got if you don't have this? What do you really have if you
don't have this? And child of God, if you have
this, then it's right for God to say, all things are yours. Blessed be God for so great a
Savior and so great a salvation. Oh, dear friend, I hope we provoke
you to jealousy. I hope if you're on the outside
this morning, your spiritual mouth is just dripping, saying,
I've got to know something of that. My friend, it's yours in
Christ. Lay hold of it! And it's yours
in Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. Let us pray.

Dying Thief #3

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the conversion of the dying thief?

Why is grace alone important in salvation?

How does the dying thief's story illustrate God's sovereignty?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

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Dying Thief #3

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the conversion of the dying thief?

Why is grace alone important in salvation?

How does the dying thief's story illustrate God's sovereignty?

Sermon Transcript

About Albert N. Martin

Comments

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