The lesson this morning will
be in Luke chapter 23. Luke 23. I'm going to recap some of the
verses that I taught from last week. And we'll look at verses
39 through 43 with this subject in mind, comfort for dying sinners. Luke 23, let's read these verses
together. Beginning with verse 39. 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, Dost thou not 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 amiss. We're dying and we deserve it.
He's dying and he hasn't done anything. 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. We've all got a death to die. Jesus Christ was the Son of God. took in union with himself human
flesh and had a death to die. He knew his whole life that he
was going to die on that cross. He told his disciples in detail
what was going to happen to him and that he was going to die
and be buried and raised again on the third day. He told them
all that before he ever went to Jerusalem. But my question
is this, what further comfort could a man ask than for the
Redeemer to look you in the eyes and say, today shalt thou be
with me in paradise? Is there something else you need
from God? Is there anything else in this
world, would it comfort you in your death? Now this is what
will comfort you today. Today shall that be with me in
paradise. Now in Acts chapter 4 and verse
27 it says, Of a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou
hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles
and the people of Israel. were gathered together for to
do whatsoever thy hand and thy counsel determined before to
be done. This is what's going on. This
is what's taking place. And there's a myriad of things
that you can look at and see that's going on in the natural
here, but this is what's going on overall. They're doing what
God's hand and God's counsel determined before to be done. And everything concerning the
death of Christ was arranged of God and nothing was missing.
There was nothing left out. Nothing altered. Nothing about
his death was incidental. It was on purpose. And knowing
this is so, I want us to look at these men dying that day and
see if the Lord will show us some comforts. See if we can
draw some comfort from these dying sinners. That's what we
are. That's what we are. The only
hope that day was the one in the middle. The Lord Jesus Christ. That was
the only hope that day. I read several commentators on
verse 32 through 43 And most of them spent page upon page
upon page talking about a flaw in the King James Version of
the Bible. That's what men do when they don't understand what's
being said. They said, well, that's a flaw. It shouldn't read
that way. It ought to read this way. The
flaw is right here. The flaw isn't in this book. The flaw is in us. When something
don't make sense, we just need to leave it alone for a little
while, give it some time and prayer and study. Maybe the Lord
will reveal to us what really is going on. And I don't want to be the one
to bust your bubble, but Christ was a malfactor. That's what
the whole discussion was about. The Bible shouldn't have called
him a malfactor. Why not? He was. He was. In verse 32 it says, there were
also two other malefactors. He was judged in their courts
and sentenced to be crucified. That's why he was referred to
as a malefactor. The law had judged him. Even
the prophets foretold of it the same way. In Isaiah 53, 12, Therefore
will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide
the small with the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto
death, and he was numbered with the transgressors. That's how he was considered.
That's how he was looked on. He was judged. The Bible said he bore our sins
in his own body on the tree. And when God formed him in the
belly of the virgin, he was made under the law to redeem them
that were under the law that we might receive the adoption
of sons. Sacrifice and offering, he said,
thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared made. What
kind of body? A sacrificial body. A substitutionary
body. A representative body. And there's
two things that require a representative man in the redemption of a sinner.
First of all, he must be given a perfect righteousness, and
he can't produce it. Don't even entertain the thought
of something you've done making you righteous. You're not righteous. Not by the deeds of the law. There's none righteous. That's
what Scripture said. So if you think you're righteous,
just put a checkmark beside that, because that's not going to happen.
You're not righteous by anything that you've ever done. Even our
faith, which saves us. By grace are you saved through
faith. Even that faith is imperfect. And it's not of works. If it
were, we'd boast in it forever. One thing I can say? No, he won't
give you one thing you can say. He's going to shut up every mouth.
That's what it says in Romans 3. We must be given a perfect righteousness
and obedience out of love to honor God. A perfect continual
obedience. an obedience in motive, thought,
and deed, and an obedience acceptable to God. I know men and women
out here will accept an imperfect obedience. They'll do that. If
you do the best you can, it's good enough most of the time.
Oh, he's a good man. That's what they'll say. And
compared to other men, he is. I don't have a problem with that.
But there's none good but God. That's what Christ is. And there's
none righteous. None righteous. The overwhelming majority of
Israelites in the early days of Christ and following his death
were ignorant of imputed righteousness. They didn't see their need of
it, and they didn't see how it could possibly be. And Paul,
after being given an understanding of God, he went all the way back
to Abraham. He said that's why Abraham believed
God and was counted to him for righteousness. He said that thousands
of years before you come along. Paul tells us about these folks
over in Romans chapter 10. He said they had a zeal of God
that is they were actively engaged in all kinds of ceremonies and
service, but the zeal was not according to knowledge. How so? For they being ignorant
of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. The believer's righteousness
is in Christ. of God are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom," now listen, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. We're righteous in Him. And He's the end of the law for
righteousness. That end not only means the finish of it, but And the end
is also the goal of it, what it's doing, what it's saying. The end of that law is the righteousness
of Christ. That's what this whole law is
describing, the person of Christ. And Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness, not to everyone, but to everyone that
believeth. Romans 10, verses 2 through 4. And I see the same thing today
in religion that Paul saw in his, men and women going about
to establish their own righteousness. That's what they're doing. Men
and women doing things that in themselves seem commendable.
Teaching others, to be honest, that's commendable, isn't it? To live clean lives, to support
their local churches, instill values concerning marriage and
parenting. They have whole sections of their
religions dedicated to that. Those things in and of themselves
are commendable. But the arsenic in the sermon
is why they're doing it and how. Fallen men cannot produce a righteousness
acceptable to God. And if you think you have, then
you quit looking. And you start trusting in yourself.
You start trusting in your righteousness. That's fatal. To redeem a savior by representation must produce
a righteousness for another. It has to be one produced because
you can't produce it. And then secondly, Here's the
second thing. His sins must be judged and paid
in full. If you're going to be redeemed,
redeemed of God, your sins have to be paid for. This whole business
of religion, I've seen men take a blackboard and number sins
and start talking about them. Stealing, put a mark there. lie,
put a mark there, you know, and so on. Everything that they consider
a sin, he put it there. He gets it all marked up and
he said, now here's salvation. He went over there with an eraser
and erased him saying, that ain't salvation. Sin has to be paid for. God has
to be appeased. It's not about you starting over. That's not what it's about. Oh,
you'll start over if He regenerates you. All things will become new
to you then, but that's not what this is about. Sin has to be
paid for. When Christ died on that cross,
He wasn't up there suffering wrongfully. He was suffering
for our sins as our substitute. God was paying for my sin on
that cross in His own Son. And there's no other sacrifice
that God will accept, except that of his son. This is my beloved
son, he said, and whom I'm well pleased. Over in Hebrews 10,
he says this time and again. Sacrifice and offering thou hath
no pleasure. No pleasure in it. That word
pleasure has to do with satisfaction. God wasn't satisfied with it.
It was just a picture. You get arrested. You go down
here, you got a fine to pay. So you go over there in your
file cabinet and you get a picture. And you take it down to the judge
and says, here's a picture. He don't want a picture. You can't take that goat and
that lamb, those are pictures. You can't take a picture to God
and say, here it is. No, that type has to be fulfilled. One has to come, all those types
and pictures, we'll get into that here in a little bit, but
those types and pictures, that's all they are, types and pictures.
This is God establishing the way He saves sinners. Christ
is what them things are pointing to, pointing to the Son. He that
hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God
hath not life. And somewhere in a fallen mind
of man is the idea that God will overlook his sins and help him
to do right if he'll just decide to change his ways. I was told
that my whole young life. Somewhere in a twisted understanding
of men, they believe that God will accept some personal sacrifice
to atone for their past. They'll give up something. I know it was just a joke, but
I was watching this John Wayne movie, and this woman was going
down this river on a raft, and they got her in these real rough
rapids, and he said, if you'll save us, I'll give up drinking. Isn't that what the world teaches?
That's exactly what it teaches. My friend, God won't excuse sin
or accept any sacrifice on your part to put it away. The living
God demands full retribution for sin. And we don't even know
the exceeding disgust that God has for sin. I can't even enter
into it. My son has made me so mad in
the past, but I never got mad enough to crucify him on the
cross. I never got mad enough at him
to shoot him. God's wrath was appeased in his
son on the cross. His anger against my sin was
appeased on that cross. He saw the travail of his son's
soul and he was satisfied. I can't enter into the contempt
God has for sin. The prophet Habakkuk said, Thou
art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. That is, he cannot look on it
with favor or disinterest. God despises it. He'll bring
every sinner into judgment concerning his sin. The soul that sinneth
shall surely die. Cursed is everyone who continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law to do them.
And there's only one way for a sinner to be reconciled to
God, and that is by way of substitution. Now, if he truly is a substitute,
whose substitute is he? That's what I want to know. This
whole world talking about universal salvation and all that commie
rot. How can you do that and still
claim to have a substitute? If he's a substitute, he's there
for somebody. And whatever he does, whatever
satisfaction that he gets, it's eventual. He's a substitute. This whole world's out celebrating
the resurrection this morning and they have no idea what the
resurrection accomplished. They have no idea what it means.
They're just talking about it. It means hunting Easter eggs
and getting a new dress and whatever else they do. The gist of the ministry of reconciliation
is that God was in Christ. You can read it for yourself,
2 Corinthians chapter 5. God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself, not charging their trespasses unto them. You can't imagine such a thing,
can you? But that's the hope of every
believer. God's not going to charge me
with my sins. He's charging them to my Savior. We say the man go out and sin,
he'll sin all he wants to then. You don't really understand what
I'm saying if you believe that. My sin being charged to him,
don't that make you ashamed? Huh? I don't want sin. I want sin. You that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
How'd he do it? In the body of his flesh through
death to present you holy. Holy. Not before man, before
God. Holy. And what's next? Unblameable. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's wrath? Who is he that condemns Christ's
death? Unreprovable. You can't find a flaw in a believer,
not in his righteousness. It's without flaws. And all of
this in God's sight. To be redeemed, I must have a
representative righteousness and a substitutionary atonement.
He's the end of the law for righteousness. The crowning act of his righteousness
was his atoning death on the cross. wounded for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquities, the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity
of us all. There was a man hanging on the
cross, a convicted felon, a man who by his own compassion was
guilty and getting his just reward. That's what it said. You ever been there? Huh? Lord ever brought you there? Lord ever brought you to that
place where you get on His side concerning your sin? Getting your just reward for
your sins? His death was imminent. He was
hanging on the brink of eternity. Isn't that where God brings sinners? There ain't but a breadth between
you and eternity. I don't care how old you are
or how young you are. One breath. What did he see to comfort his
soul in his death on that cross? Just a man suffering. He was
suffering just like Christ was suffering. He was hanging on a cross right
beside of him. He was listening to all this
stuff going on and he took part in it for a little while. Then
the Lord did something for him. did something in him. There were three things present
to see from his cross where this man was hanging. Three things.
A savior, that's all he could see. A sinner and self-righteous religion.
He could see all those things, and so could you if the Lord
opened your eyes. You see those three things. When this man,
hanging to the right of Christ, looked upon Jesus of Nazareth,
he saw an all-sufficient Savior. Jesus of Nazareth was about to
complete his saving work in this world just an hour or so before
commending his soul to his Father, and this chosen sinner saw what
nobody else could see. He saw hanging right beside Him
the Savior, the promised Redeemer. The only documented hope there's
ever been for man is nailed on that cross right beside Him.
He saw the Savior. He found in a person that perfect
satisfaction of God. He found it in a person. What
were we looking for? Huh? Indecisions, eye walking,
church joining, what were we finding? I hope. He found it
in a person and the person was hanging right beside him. Secondly, he saw one whose willingness
was to save sinners was evidenced by his unprotested death on the
cross. Is God willing to save me? I
don't hear him protesting on the cross. He died a willing
death. And if he was willing to live
and die for sinners, maybe I might find mercy in him. When you see Christ crucified,
can you see a willing Savior? He told Pilate, he said, don't
you know who I am? Yeah, I know who you are, you
ain't nothing but a peanut. You had no power over me whatsoever,
except it was given you of my father. Boy, from that time,
he wanted to release you. He didn't want no more to do
with you. Oh. Jesus Christ was a willing savior. In the volume of the book, it's
written of me, I come to do thy will, O God. I tell you, I know
all the conniving and all the deceit and all the hatred and
all the things that was done against him. I read it to you
right out of the book of Acts. But all that they did was according
to God's hand and his counsel. What they did to him. God used
these ungodly men and all their ungodly ways to accomplish our
salvation. Thirdly, he saw the promised
Redeemer, the King of Israel, about to enter into his kingdom.
This man was not going into eternal exile, but to the very throne
of God. I'm talking about Jesus Christ. He's going to commend his soul
to God the Father. He's going to take him down,
bury him in a tomb, and on the third day, You're going to raise
Him from the dead. And when He's sufficiently proven
His resurrection, He will ascend into glory and take His seat
at the right hand of God. Remember me. That's what He said.
Oh, my soul. What hope have we except that?
Christ is seated at the right hand of God. And when we call
on Him, what do we ask? Remember me. I don't have any other hope.
Neither did he. He saw what this whole world
can't see. He saw an all-sufficient Savior
hanging right beside him, about to enter into his glory. To this end, Christ both died,
was buried, and rose again, that he might be Lord both of the
dead and the living. And then fourthly, he saw this
man, Jesus of Nazareth, as he turned and looked upon him and
said, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. I'm going to
tell you something. It's one thing to hear the voice
of a man and quite another to hear the voice of the Son of
God. I heard a lot of men in my lifetime. One day I heard one. but I heard
the voice of the Son of God speaking through him." Ain't that what
it comes down to? He that heareth you, heareth
me. That's what our Lord said. The Gospel of John, chapter 5,
verse 24, our Lord said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that
heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting
life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from
death unto life. Verily I say unto you, the hour
is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of
the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. How are they
going to hear him speak? He's seated at the right hand
of God. He speaks through his preachers. How shall you hear without a
preacher? Oh, God will speak. He ain't going to speak apart
from his preachers. You read this book again. Read Romans
chapter 10, see if that ain't what it says. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But how are you
going to call on him in whom you have not believed? And how
are you going to believe on him of whom you have not heard? And
how are you going to hear without a preacher? And how on earth
is he going to preach if God don't send him? What he heard from Jesus of Nazareth
He heard as God speaking to him. And so it is with every preacher's
sin of God, he that heareth you, heareth me. Paul knew the Thessalonians'
election because his gospel came in power and in the Holy Ghost.
That's how it has to come amongst us. When our Lord said, Today shalt
thou be with me in paradise, That thief was comforted in his
death, wasn't he? What about you? What about me? Is what I've heard, and I've
never heard a voice, if what I've heard from men, is that
my hope? Can I go out of this world hoping in what was told
me? I didn't just hear a man. I didn't
just hear a man. All of a sudden, his death was
not a loss, but gain. His death was no more the end,
but the beginning. His death was no more a curse,
but a blessing. His death was not a door slammed
in his face, but an open door into eternal bliss and glory.
He was looking on this man and his death. What else did this poor sinner
see? He saw another cross on the other side, a man totally
oblivious to what was going on. He saw nothing in this man called
Jesus but a pretender of religion. He saw a man duped into believing
that there was a God and that he was a sinner God to minister
to sinners. And this old man dying on that
cross probably believed death would be a release to him. Just
like everybody else thinks. I don't know how many funerals
I've heard men and women just talking. Just listen to them
talk. Well, at least he's not suffering anymore. He's not if
he believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. But if he did, he's suffering
like he never suffered. How many such men there are in
this world? Like whistling in a cemetery,
they've convinced themselves that death is the end, and so
they live out their days doing as they please, and they suddenly
awake to judgment. This man who, moments before,
was singing a duet, now was shocked by his friend's attitude. I've never shocked her, I believe.
I wasn't shocked. I listened to men talk, talk
the same talk as they did. Going in the choir until I knew
better. Then I was shocked. All around the cross is false
religion, strutting around in their self-righteous, proud imagination
of being examples of God's people. How disgusted he must have felt
as he looked down on men, laughing and mocking his Savior and Lord. But then an even more shocking
statement's heard. He's looking down here on these
religious men in disgust, how they're treating his Lord, how
they're talking about him. He's looking at himself, seeing
those things in himself, But here's the most shocking thing
that man, that believer heard that day. Father, forgive them. Who? Down here. For they know not what they do. Now religion likes to make that
a general statement. It wasn't. God had an elect people,
and they were down there breathing out obscenities at him, treating
him like dirt, treating him like an imposter. Didn't you at one
time? Sure you did. And he said, Father,
forgive them. And I tell you, on the day of
Pentecost, 3,000 of them, most of which were present at his
crucifixion, were regenerated and saved. Up 3,000. Father, you reckon God heard
his prayer? I tell you that believer hanging
on that cross, he was shocked by his acceptance with the Savior. But he was even more shocked
when he looked down at those people still sinning. Still sinning. God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Isn't that what was going on
that day? Boy, on the day of Pentecost, the reality of it,
God hears his prayers. Oh, may the Lord give us some
understanding.