Luke chapter 23. I may have a lot of things to apologize for, but God's Word
is not one of them. I believe it. I do not want to
Mislead anybody concerning it And I want to declare unto you
the importance of it And speak it as clearly as I
can In Luke 23 We're going to pick up reading
verse 32 Luke 23 verse 32. And there were also two other
male factors led with him to be put to death. And when they
were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they
crucified him and the male factors, one on the right hand and the
other on the left. Dropping down to verse 39, and
one of the male factors, which were hanged, railed on him, saying,
if thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering
rebuked him, saying, does not thou fear God, seeing thou art
in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, For we
received the dear 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. You understand these words, latter
words of this 43rd verse, are one of the seven times that Christ
spoke from the cross. Verily I say unto thee, today
shalt thou be with me in paradise. Now in this verses we read and
in this story of the crucifixion and these two thieves, crucified
with Christ. We have some tremendous gospel
truth. We have truth ignored by many. We have truth denied by many.
But you see, truth don't change. And I love that. Theories are
like fashions. They come and go. What's in this
year will be out next year. But truth does not change. That's
why I emphasize God's Word will still be God's Word next time
you open it. Whether we believe it or not,
whether anybody believes it or not, men can explain it away,
but it won't go away. It's here. And so I would ask
you to give us your attention for a little while as we look
at these things. Much has been spoken and written about the
fact that this one thief embraced Christ in the latter moments
of his life. And that's correct. But it's
not to be viewed in the sense that most men present it. They
say it like and they seem to imply that, well, he has no life
left anyway. He may as well turn to Christ.
He cannot enjoy the world anymore anyway. He may as well give Christ
a chance. I've heard that term saying many
times, give Christ a chance. And the emphasis is placed on
the wise choice this man made in the latter moments
of his life. But that emphasis robs God of
the glory of his grace. And we don't want to rob God
of the glory of his grace. The story is told as if it takes
less to die than it does to live. But I have this question. If
the Romans had decided to take this man off the cross and let him live, would his life
have been any different from before? And the answer is absolutely
yes. He's had a change of heart. He's
a changed man. You see, it's the same grace
that enables one man to die in peace and another man to live
in holiness. To live to the honoring glory
of God. So it's not the man doing anything
here. It's God. Another thought, there's
a great deal of emphasis placed on deathbed repentance, and people
use this passage. And certainly it can happen,
but I want to say to you this morning, I know way too many
people that are counting on it. And you can't count on it. Here
it was exactly 50%. One man repented on his deathbed
and one didn't. I don't much like those odds
for myself, just 50%. You say, well, if I was in that
situation with only a few moments to live, I'd certainly repent. Well, you would if you could. It comes from a heart desiring
to be holy. Desiring to be right with God
to be able to repent. Got nothing to do with going
to heaven or escaping hell. It's a matter of having offended
an infinitely holy God as we all have and do by nature. It's
a question of being right with Him. And my question this morning,
if you don't have such a heart now, What makes you think you'll
have it then, in those final moments? This is serious business
stuff, folks. You say, oh, if I were in the
final moments of my life, I'd feel different from what I do
now. How do you know you're not in
the final moments of your life now? You see what I'm saying? So what
happens here is bigger than this man. It is bigger than you and
I. It is bigger than our modern
day, sissified, make a decision religion. After all, it's not
Christ asking the sinner to remember him. It's the sinner asking Christ
to remember him. See? So I want to speak for a few
minutes about what it is that happened here. What's going on
here? And we're talking about this
subject, the faith of God's elect. Paul wrote to
Titus in chapter one, verse one, Paul, a servant of God, an apostle
of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God's elect. the faith of God's elect. Now
that word elect is pretty much forbidden in Henderson County
and Transylvania County and Greenville County. But it's a Bible word
and it's a Bible truth. I mean they'll get on the radio
and hoot about being Bible believing but they don't believe it. And there's many right now this
year celebrating the 400th anniversary of the King James Version, which
is what we use and believe in love, from 1611 to 2011, 400
years, and they're celebrating that, but they don't even believe
it. Don't even believe it. So I have, if we get this far,
nine things to say about the faith of God's elect. These are
important things. Number one, The origin of this
faith. The origin of it. And when I
say the faith of God's elect, I don't mean something that man
produces. I don't mean we get together
and hoop it up and pump it up and a little bit of trying to
cut the mustard on our own. That's not what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about Ephesians 2.8 which clearly says that faith
is the gift of God. Do you believe that? Faith is
the gift of God. I'm not talking about some worked
up fleshly excitement. Not talking about some spurious,
sentimental, emotional something that men call faith. They're
really no better off than the snake handlers. That's all they
do. Putting people under a spell.
But the faith of God's elect originates not with us, but with
Him. The faith of God's elect, meaning
the measure of faith operating in our hearts, it's not something
man can just decide to take hold of. It's really life from God taking
hold of you. That's what it is. And will pull you on and press
you on in spite of hell. in spite of
all that goes on, and will keep you trusting and believing till
you move out of this life. Now let's look at the origin
of this faith in this text. First, some things that it cannot
be attributed to. It cannot be attributed to anything
previously in this man's character. If we go back and read in Matthew's
account, and we'll not take time to do that, but I'll just give
you the reference in case you want to jot it down. Matthew
27, 44. If you go back there and read, you'll find that both
these thieves were in on the mocking and making fun. And both were set in their minds
and their hearts that there was nothing to this Jesus. that was
dying on the cross between them. And they were both dying in unbelief. So you cannot say that this one
repentant thief believed in Jesus secretly all along. He did not. Because Matthew's account said
that first they were both mocking and reviling. Next, this faith
cannot be attributed to any outward means of religion. These fellows
were thieves, criminals, scum of society. No outward means
of religion before or around the cross. There was nobody there
passing out tracts. And this one took it and read
it and said, oh, I believe that. And the other man said, no, I
don't want to. There wasn't nobody there doing that. There was no invitation hymn
being sung. And there was no howling preacher
there pleading with these men to accept Jesus. No. None of
that was present. There was no one on the scene
physically pointing men to Christ. But there was the Spirit of God
laying hold of this man's heart and planting faith in his heart
to believe and to trust and to rest in Christ. Now we read in,
well the verses we didn't read previous to this, they had written
an inscription and put it over Jesus' head. Verse 38, they had
written it in Greek and Latin and Hebrew, all three. This is
the king of the Jews. Of course, they did that in mockery,
not believing that he really was at all. But as the spirit
of God works in this one man's heart, this repentant thief's
heart, he thinks, well, what if it really is him? What if
it's true? And we don't know if this man
had any knowledge of the Old Testament, of the scriptures,
but if he did, under the influence of the Holy Spirit, he is brought
to remember something about Isaiah 53. He is despised and rejected
of men, a man of sorrows. and acquainted with grief. And
we hid, as it were, our faces from Him. He was despised and
we esteemed Him not. And it dawns on this fellow,
boy, that's happening right here, right now. That's the way they
feel about this one on the middle cross next to me. Or perhaps he thinks about Psalm
22. Verse 16 flashes into his mind,
they pierced my hands and my feet. That's what just happened. And nobody else is seeing it,
but this old boy is seeing it. So the origin of true faith,
the faith of God's elect is God Himself. Doing something in this
man's heart that he couldn't do for himself and no one else
could do. Secondly, a word about the power of this faith. Now,
when we consider the scene here, and then we look at ourselves,
you and I trust Christ this morning in light of the entire New Testament
record. We know that he succeeded in
conquering death, hell, and the grave. And we know he's highly
exalted and given a name above every name. And he told us after
the resurrection in Matthew 28, 18, all power is given me in
heaven and in earth. And we know according to Paul's
writing to the Ephesians that Christ is seated in the heavenlies
and is set down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
We know all that. So it don't seem like it would
take that much faith for us. But think about the power of
faith gripping this man's heart. What does he see? He don't have
a New Testament to read. What he sees is another man charged,
convicted, condemned, like himself. He sees a man society has concluded
is a transgressor, a criminal, and worthy of death like himself,
he sees apparently a man in the same boat he's in, helpless and
dying. So the power of this faith had
to exceed anything that this man could see physically or anything
he could think naturally. And guess what? The power of
faith did exceed that. with no outward evidence that
Jesus Christ was anything more than the other two, one of them
believes in him. What about that? It's the power
of God-given faith. A third thing about this faith
would be the nature of it. We're talking about the faith
of God's elect. We're talking about what it is
that keeps the Lord's people trusting in Him, believing Him,
worshiping Him, year in and year out, long as they live. The faith of God's elect. What
about the nature of this faith? And here's where our generation
has really missed it. How does this faith respond to
the Lord Jesus? Now bear in mind, he's as close
to one thief as he is the other. One of those verses said, I believe
it was about verse, I believe it was about verse 33 that said
there was one on the right hand and one on the left. Here's three
crosses with Jesus on the center cross. What does faith really do? What
is its nature? Well, it's clearly in this story.
Both of these thieves want saving, by the way. They both want deliverance. But deliverance from what? One of them wants saving from
the present predicament. He wants his old life back. And he says in verse 39, if thou
be Christ, save thyself and us. He's talking about save us from
this circumstance we're in. That's his heart. Get us out
of this mess so I can forget about this day and forget about
you and forget this ever happened and I can just get on with my
life. And there's no conviction of
sin. There's no intention of changing his lifestyle if he
did get down off that cross. See, the same grace that brings
a dying man to live in peace will bring a living man to live
godly. Now, I know we have this thing
nowadays, well, so-and-so has been saved, but he's been out
of church a few years. living like the devil, well,
that's all wrong. If there's not something in a person's heart,
enough love for God to live for him now, don't tell me that person
is ready to die in peace. No way. No way. Now, this repentant thief, he
does not ask to be delivered from the cross. See, here's the
difference in him. The one says, oh, just get us
out of this mess so I can get on with my hellish life. But
this one that repents, he does not ask to be delivered from
the cross like the other one. He sees Christ for who he is. And the nature of this faith
cries for deliverance from his sins. The other one wants Jesus to
do something about the situation. But this man wants Jesus to do
something about what got him in this situation. His wicked
heart. And the Lord's already done it.
He's already doing it. Or this man wouldn't even be
desiring it. See? See the difference in the nature
that's at work here in these two? What am I saying? I'm saying the faith of God's
elect, delivering faith, saving faith is not a ticket for heaven. It's a heart for holiness. Huh? It's what it is. Y'all are awful
quiet and that's fine with me. Number four, the expression of this faith
before men. What about it? I'm telling you
folks, I'm telling you things based on God's Word that will
stand. This will stand. This will live.
I don't care what the government says. I don't care what the TV
preacher said. I don't care what grandma said. I'm telling you what God said.
The expression of this faith before men. Now look what happens
here. The other thief with his unbelieving plea of desperation
in verse 39, If thou be Christ, get us out of this mess. Well,
in response to that, the believing thief, the sinner, he speaks.
And this faith we're talking about expresses itself openly. Verse 40 says, he rebuked him. And he asked him some questions. Does not thou fear God? And the answer is no. The other
one didn't fear God. He probably had on one of those
t-shirts. No fear. Does not thou fear God? No, he
didn't. Seeing thou art in the same condemnation. Man, we're dying here. Have you
no concern for your soul? No, he didn't. He's only interested in saving
his hide that day. That's why he asked Jesus for
something present, something temporal, something to get him
out of that mess right then. The believer reminds him, we're
here on these crosses Indeed justly For we receive The due
reward of our deeds. This is what we deserve And now
he speaks for Christ We're talking about this faith expressing itself
He said but this man hath done nothing amiss Who told him that Faith told him that. There is
no other way. He could have known that Jesus
was any different from himself. But somehow he knew he was. This
is that faith of God's elect working in him. Faith expressing
himself. Number five. And here we come
to the petition of faith. In verse 42, and there is some
profound truth. in this petition. And he said
unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. There are all three dying on
crosses. And this one looks over at Jesus and calls him Lord. Who told him Jesus was the Lord? He's one of three condemned,
convicted, dying, helpless and hopeless, they think. But this
one looks and calls Him Lord. Who told him that? Who told him
Jesus was the Lord? Well, nobody could have done
that but the Spirit of God. work in this faith of God's elect
in his heart. Well, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. Who told this man that Jesus
had a kingdom? Nobody there that day told him except the Spirit of God. He
told him, Lord, remember me. Notice he's not identifying with
the other thief. He don't say, Lord, remember
us. But he's identifying with the
Lord personally. Lord, remember me. It's not my brother. It's not
my sister. But it's me, oh Lord. The old spiritual colored people
saying, it's me, oh Lord. Standing in the need of prayer.
Lord, remember me. I can't speak for anybody else. And such is the case nowadays.
Seems like everybody wants something different in religion. But this
man says, Lord, I want you. Lord, remember me. What a petition. A petition that only God-given
faith could bring out of a man. And could make this petition
to another, hanging on a cross beside him, seemingly in the
same shape he was in. We're talking about the faith
of God's elect, a real thing, a powerful thing, a precious
thing. Number six, I see something of
the purity of this faith that's working in this text. It rests fully on the merits
of Christ. We notice that this man makes
no mention of any good he's done in life. He makes no mention of any occasion
when he did the right thing instead of the wrong thing. He knows quite well that he's
never been anything or done anything worthy of any mention in this
hour. And neither have you and I. When
it comes that time for you and I, if we have any time, And the
doctor says, there's nothing more we can do. It's a matter
of time. In just a few hours, in just
a few minutes, he'll be gone, she'll be gone. What are you
going to do? Is it time then to start counting up and telling
the Lord, oh, I did, oh boy, I got all this to my credit.
No, no, no. This man had done not enough
good to speak of, and neither have you or I. Because God's demand is perfection.
And we were born too late for that. Sinful as we are. So it's not
remember me because I did this or because I'm such and such. But this man is saying what I
often say. My hope is not in me, Lord. It's
in you. Lord, remember me. The purity of this faith makes no appeal to justice. The man mentions nothing whereby
God could smile on him in the least. So the appeal is not to
justice, but only to mercy. Lord, remember me. That's all his plea. Not that I'm in the position
to bargain for any favor. But Lord, you're in a position
to grant favor. That's pure stuff. Lord, remember
me. You can't improve on that. Try to improve on that and you'll
mess it up. Just pray those three words. Lord, remember me. Don't try to improve on that.
Number seven. The answer to this man's faith,
the answer to this faith we're talking about, the faith of God's
elect. And what is the answer? What
does Jesus say to this man who would simply ask for mercy? Lord,
remember me. Well, you remember before this
time on occasion, Christ had said, I've not found so great
faith. No, not in Israel. He said to
the woman in Matthew 15, great is thy faith. And he could have
said that here, but he doesn't. He goes straight to the answer. The sinner had been short and
to the point. Lord, remember me. And now Christ
is straight to the answer. Today shalt thou be with me in
paradise. That's his answer to this God-given
faith. And we could comment on almost
every word in this statement. Today, shalt thou be with me
in paradise. Not tomorrow, but today. Today. There's no soul sleep. You're welcome. Seventh-day Adventist. There's no purgatory. You're
welcome, Roman Catholics. Today, shalt thou be with me. Today. I have read and heard
others preach this, how that crucifixion was the most painful
and agonizing and slow death the Romans could devise. Sometimes
a person would hang on the cross three or four days or strong
people maybe even up to a week before they died, paying for
their crimes. But not this time. Christ says to this man, today,
today, your suffering will be over. And when Christ speaks,
it's a done deal. And notice it's today, shout,
I love that word shall and shout in the New Testament. It's not
maybe, might, hope so or wish it could be. But no, it's shout. Today's shout, thou. And the thou there is singular.
He's not talking to both of these thieves. Just the one that's
had his heart changed. The one that's been given the
faith of God's elect. Today shalt thou what? Be with me. Be with me. Oh my, the Romans have concluded
concerning this man that today you're not fit to live in this
world. But Christ says unto him, today you live with me and be
with me. Where? in paradise. In paradise. Many have called
the Garden of Eden paradise. But it wasn't. It was wonderful. But it wasn't paradise. Paradise
is the sum total of everlasting blessedness. And the Lord defines paradise
in this statement. It's to be with me. That's paradise. To be with me. That's everlasting
blessedness. To be with Christ. They used
to sing that old, and I mentioned this while ago, that old song,
where Jesus is, tis heaven there. And that's the whole story. He
is paradise. He is heaven. But we're in a mixed up, filthy,
religious generation. that just wants streets of gold,
gates of pearl, walls of jasper, robes and crowns, with no king
over us, no holiness in us. We're going to heaven just as
we are. Because we was just singing just
as I am. And if you're black, you're singing
just as I is. No, I didn't say that. But anyhow, Unless this faith I'm talking
about takes a hold of you and brings you to give up on
you and changes you, you ain't going nowhere but hell and could go today. The other thief died in his sins
that day, but this one died to his sins
that day. They are no more. And he's with
Christ. That's the answer of faith. Number eight, the eighth thing
would be the satisfaction of this faith we see here. The words
of Christ brought rest to this man's heart. He'll die in peace. The words of Christ. Were enough. They took him from the longing
of faith to the satisfaction of it. We don't read that this
man spake another word after Christ spoke to him. Today,
shalt thou be with me in paradise. He never spoke again. I believe
his gratitude is too deep for words. And the peace in his heart is
so perfect. He doesn't speak again. Just
a calm silence is in harmony with the peace that he feels.
Words would mess it up. Love is like that. It runs deeper than words. And words can mess it up sometimes. So hanging there in silence,
his soul is further thawing and melting and meshing into oneness with
Christ. All he was or ever has been in
himself has ceased to be. The old man is dead. He's a new
creation in Christ. Talking about the faith of God's
elect, it's a satisfying thing. And I'll tell you what it'll
do. It ends the search for fleshly
excitement. It ends the search for religious
trinkets. It ends the interest in religious
popularity and acceptance. It kills the desire for self-glory. Look at me and what I'm doing. It stops the business of look
at us and what we're doing. I'm talking to you about something. This religious world knows nothing
about, but they've affected God's little children so much. I'm talking about a faith that'll
strip you of your glory and your pride and pull you off the throne
of your heart and put Christ on it. The Bible calls it the
faith of God's elect. And the ninth thing, and I'll
be through, the chief ministry of this faith
we're talking about It's not just to include the
thief in God's family, he's already included. Ephesians 1.4, he's
part of those chosen in Christ before the foundation of the
world. So he's already included. But the chief ministry of this
God-given faith, this faith of God's elect, was to minister
to Christ in his suffering. If you remember back in the Gospel
of Matthew chapter 4, where Jesus is being tested 40 days and 40
nights in the wilderness. And Satan attacks him from three
directions. And the Bible says in Matthew
4, 11, the angels came and ministered to him. He has
some comfort. He has some relief. He has some
ministering, some encouragement. Well, there's no mention of angels
at the cross. But faith came, came from God,
the faith of God's elect and was planted in this man's heart.
And it came out of him and ministered to Christ in this hour. For three
and a half years, people had flocked to him with their problems.
their sicknesses, their diseases, their troubles, some with their
sins, and petitioned Him for help. But guess what? On this
day, He's hanging on the cross. And everybody thinks it's Him
that needs help. But none are coming to Him for help. None but one. Faith ministers to Christ through
this dying thief. Isaiah 53, 11. He shall see,
and Isaiah 53 is describing the crucifixion. He shall see of
the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. Where
did Christ see of the travail of his soul? And wherein was
he satisfied? In the gift of God. In the faith
God put in this sinner. And it was coming out of him. Oh, how he ministered to Christ
and oh, how satisfied Christ is with this. The travail of his soul and he's
satisfied. That word travail is always used
in connection with a woman's labor pains in bringing forth
a child. Christ is here on the cross.
He's travailing in birth. And an old thief, a known, convicted,
worthless, condemned sinner is born. Born again. The old is gone. He's a new creation in Christ. I'm talking to you about the
faith of God's elect. I'm talking about something the
religious world has missed. And I'm talking about something
that hell can't destroy. And I'm talking about something
that cancer can't destroy. And I'm talking about something
that the government can't defeat. And I'm talking about something
the ragheads can't handle. Huh? You can listen to this warped
up religious mess if you want to, Hagee and all the rest of
them on television that's trying to scare people to death. God's
bigger than our outfit. There's been gangs like that
throughout history. Oh, the Muslims are going to
take us over. Not if God says no, they're not. And if he says
yes, it'll be what we deserve. But I ain't running in fear.
I'm trusting God who's always been in charge of this thing,
and that's what you better do. He'll stop it when he wants to
stop it. And all the governments in the world can't do nothing
about it. It's in God's hands. Got to believe that. Got to believe
that. Say, well, preacher, I wouldn't have said that. They'll cut your
head off. My head's in heaven. He's on the throne and he'll
be there forever. And I'm destined to be with him
forever. I'm talking to you about the faith of God's elect. I'm talking to you about what
it is that if you truly are God's child, that keeps you keeping
on. Why is it you hadn't got disgusted
and put out with the whole mess and quit church and quit your
believing, and throw your Bible in the garbage can, and forget
the whole business. I'm simply saying to you, if
it was left up to you, that's what you'd do. Because the forces
of evil, the world, the flesh, and the devil would bring you
to it. But I'm talking to us about a
faith, the gift of God that causes us to keep on keeping on. in
spite of it all. And I bless His holy name today
for that which Paul titled the faith of God's elect.