Luke 23, Luke 23. It's always
a delight to be here. As long as I've been preaching,
in as many places as I've preached, I still get stressed out over
it. I don't know why. You'd think after a while you'd
learn something about it, but... Somebody said, boy, so-and-so's
gonna preach. I said, I hope he preaches. I
hope I preach tonight. I really hope I preach. I can
go through an outline. I can read the scriptures. But I hope by God's grace I preach. I preach. Look here with me then
in Luke 23 and verse 33. And when they were come to the
place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him. And
the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left,
then said, Jesus, Father, Forgive them, for they know not what
they do. And they parted his raiment and
cast lots, and the people stood beholding, and the rulers also
with them derided him, saying, He saved others, let him save
himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God. And the soldiers
also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar. and
saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. Save thyself. I want to get my
subject out of verse 34. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
He was out in the garden of Gethsemane praying. He knew His hour had
come. He know the time had come for
them to come and get him. And as the scripture said, be
led as a lamb to the slaughter. And he opened out his mouth.
And a great crowd come to get him. And they come to get our
Lord Jesus Christ. And they took him. And they took
him to Pilate's hall. And as they got him to Pilate's
hall, they put him on trial. They put him on trial. And they
had some witnesses, and those witnesses were liars, false witnesses. They made up things about the
Lord Jesus Christ. And those soldiers, they got
together and they put a scarlet robe on him, and they put a crown
of thorns on his head, and then they bowed down the knee and
took him a reed and held it up like it was this great scepter,
you know, and they're going to bow to the King of the Jews.
Took him from there after they'd mistreated him and beat him and
scorched him so badly. And he was bleeding, mistreated,
and it was a cold night. And they had a fire, you know,
going to keep the peoples warm in Pilate's judgment hall. And
then they took him from there to Pilate. And they took him
to Pilate. And Pilate four times, if I'm
not mistaken, he went out and faced the crowd and said, I find
no fault in this man. Let him go. No, no, no, crucify
him. I find no fault in this man.
No, no, no, no, crucify him. And that went on and on, and
then finally Pilate, willing to content the people, let him
go. delivered Christ to them and
let Barabbas go. And there hangs our Lord Jesus
Christ. They went to this place called
Calvary, and there they crucified Him. Crucified Him. He's nailed
hand and foot to the tree. And as He's hanging there, they're
deriding Him. They're mocking Him. They're
making fun of Him. And even the rulers of the people,
not just anybody, the rulers of the people, people who was
supposed to be somebody, the high priest and all the elders,
they was all mocking him. And oh my, they said to him,
oh, he saved others, but he can't save himself. If he's really
the Christ, why don't he get down off this cross? And I'll
tell you, there was three people, three types of people at the
cross that night. And that afternoon, or excuse
me, that morning, there was three kind of people there. There was
the Jews who hated our Lord Jesus Christ. And they started taking
counsel of our Lord Jesus Christ very early in his ministry and
went with the Herodians how they might destroy him. Started very
early how they might destroy him. And they enjoyed, they was
the one that lied and enjoyed and delighted in his suffering. They said, he's an imposter and
we're not going to have this man reign over us. And then there
were some Roman soldiers there and they were there out of duty. That just happened to be the
duty they had that day, to crucify people, to cast lots for their
garments. And then there was five other
people at the cross. There was four Marys, his mother,
and John, the beloved disciple. So there was five believers at
the cross, five of them there, and our Lord talked to them.
But all of these people there, they was all gathered around
the cross, and oh, how them Jews and Jews and Romans delighted
to see him suffer. He's been treated so cruelly,
the high priest and herd and pilot and the Jews. And when
our Lord would open his mouth, You would think the first word
out of his mouth was, I'm gonna curse every single one of you.
I'm gonna send all of you to hell. That's what I'm gonna do.
I've got the authority and I've got the power. I've got the right
to send every one of you to hell. You'd think that's what he would
say. But instead, he looked at that mob and looked at that crowd
and said, Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. What
a blessed thing. Ain't you grateful? You know,
our Lord Jesus Christ, Father, forgive them. God, forgive them. Forgive them. You read tonight,
there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be feared. Father,
forgive them. And you know the This is a prayer. The first saying of our Savior
on the cross was a prayer. It was a prayer. And He's praying
for His enemies. Father, forgive them. They know
not what they do. And when I say He said, I pray
for them, I think when He says, I pray for them, I think He's
actually praying and said, I pray for them that you gave me. I'm
prayin' for them that I loved with an everlasting love. I'm
prayin' for them that I'm dyin' for right now. I'm prayin' for
them that will believe on me through their word someday. I'm
prayin' for them that as on the cross that ain't even been born
yet, I'm dyin' and I'm prayin' for them. I'm prayin' for my
people. I love my people. I love them. And I delight in them. And I rejoice in them. And oh,
bless his holy name, I believe he prayed for me that day on
that cross. And one day, God in his blessed
mercy crossed my path with the gospel of the grace of God. And
I, God, heard that. Father, forgive him. And you
know, our Lord Jesus Christ has three things about his prayer.
His public ministry started with a prayer. When our Lord was being
baptized of John, The scripture says that when he was being baptized,
he prayed and the heavens were open. You know he can pray and
the heavens will be open. Two times the heavens was open
when our Lord prayed. And he prayed and the heavens
were open. And a voice come out of them
heavens. He said, this is my beloved son.
This is my beloved son. And the second thing is in his
praying, He's praying for his enemies. You know, what kind
of enemies were we of our Lord Jesus Christ before God saved
us in his sovereign mercy? I was an enemy. Oh, I was an
enemy. Oh, I was what kind of enemy
I was. The things I said about him,
the way I treated him, used his name in vain. But here he's praying for his
enemies. And oh, this tells us, oh my,
that nobody, nobody's past the reach of prayer. Nobody's beyond
the reach of prayer. If you have somebody that you
love, a child, a husband, a wife, grandchildren, take them to the
Lord. We sang that old song, take it
to the Lord in prayer. Take them to the Lord. We can't
save them. And we don't care how much we
witness to them, only God can do the saving. And I'll tell
you one thing that I do know this, that a man will never know
what he is, and an enemy of God, until he first sees Christ. Then
he'll realize what he was. You don't see your sin and go
to Christ, you see Christ, and that's when you see your sin.
That's when you see your sin. So he's praying for his enemies.
And the third thing about his prayer was it's effectual. His
prayers are effectual. You know the first person that
was affected by the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ when he
prayed, Father, forgive them, they know not what they do, was
that thief hanging on his side. The first person affected that
his prayer was answered for was that thief right beside him.
He said, Lord, remember me when you come to your kingdom. How
in the world is he going to say who's going to come to a kingdom?
Here's a man who's beaten bloody. His body's emaciated. Blood's
flowing from his head all the way to his feet. It's all over
the place. Blood's everywhere. And he looks
at that bloody man and said, Lord, when you come into your
kingdom, When our Lord prays for a man, mark it down, something's
gonna happen. Oh my, and like the centurion,
look down here, I think it is in verse 47. Look what the centurion,
you're talking about a prayer that affected a man. Look what
he said here in verse 47, Luke 23. Now when the centurion saw
what was done, he glorified God saying, certainly this was a
righteous man. God behold, Lord, I tell you.
And then, on the day of Pentecost, 50 days later, after our Lord
appeared on earth, 40 days, 10 days, on the day of Pentecost,
Simon Peter, priest, and 3,000 souls were added to Christ. And you know what he charged
them with? He said, you, with your wicked hands, the just one
and crucified him and they spoke to him and said, men and brethren,
what must we do? That was the prayer of Christ,
our Lord Jesus Christ for 3,000 souls. And I'd say almost every
single one of them was at that cross that day. And our Lord prayed for us. You
know that before we ever existed. You go to John 17 and you read
that prayer there. And our Lord Jesus Christ over
there said, Father, I pray not for the world, I pray for them
that you've given me. And he said, I pray for them
who are gonna believe on me through these men's words. These men's
words. And that's what he says, you
know, the gospel's in words. Oh, he said I pray for them that
these fellas gonna hear the word one of these days And I'm they're
gonna believe and I pray for them pray for them Let me tell
you when he said father forgive them This is the fulfillment
of a prophecy. It's a fulfillment of a prophecy
look with me over in Isaiah 53 Isaiah 53 You know I wish I could talk about the
Lord and say things about Him without this old flesh to deal
with. Boy, these days are real. Oh, my. But look what He says
down here in verse 12. And I want you to start about
halfway through this verse. It says, Because He hath poured
out His soul unto death. What in the world does you mean
to pour out His soul unto death? What in the world could that
mean? What kind of agony? What kind of pain? What kind
of suffering must our Lord bend in that He says He poured out
His soul? Have you ever? I know every one
of you suffered some emotionally, spiritually, physically, and
you yourself in your heart and soul felt like you're going to
just You're just hurting so much and you pour out your heart and
you pour out your soul to Christ. Well, that's what he did. He
poured out his soul. I don't know what that means,
but whatever it is, he poured it out. And then look what he
goes on to say. And he was numbered with the
transgressors and he bared the sin of many and made intercession
for the transgressors. First, he is numbered with them.
Where's all the transgressors? I'm one of them. Huh? He made intercession for them.
Who? For the transgressors. Father,
forgive them. They know not what they do. He
was despised. Our Lord was despised. He was
rejected of men. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. The scripture said he was wounded,
he was bruised, he was chastised, and they led him as a lamb to
slaughter, and he just loosely did not resist them at all. When
they come to get him, he said, are you looking for Jesus? And
the answer is, I'm here. Our Lord Jesus Christ come to
get him. If somebody comes to get me, I'm gonna struggle. I'm
gonna struggle. I'm gonna struggle. But our Lord
never struggled. You come to get me? Here, take
me. Take me. And he knowed where he was going.
Knowed what he's gonna go through. Knowed what his sufferings was.
Knowed how he'd be treated. Knowed how they'd spit on him.
Knowed how they'd pluck out his beard. Knowed how they'd slap
him. Knowed how they'd beat him. Knowed
how they'd pat that crown with thorns. He knew every, Jesus
knowing all things, went forth. Oh, thank God he did. You know, when they said he saved
others, save yourself and save us too. If our Lord, if he could
have saved himself, he couldn't save us. And the reason why,
he went to do what he did so he could save us. Oh, and I tell
you, here's another thing. When our Lord said, Father, forgive
them. God, Father, forgive them. We
see here what God views of the awful thing of sin, and it's
guilt. You can't have sin without having
guilt. You can't have sin without having
punishment. And under the law of God, it's
required that when you sin, you have to have an atonement, whether
it's the sin of ignorance or whether it's the sin of willfulness.
Have any of y'all ever sinned unwillfully? People say, boy, I wouldn't willfully
sin. How else do you sin? But anyway,
under the law, God required an atonement for sins. And then
there was the sins of commission, sins of omission, but there was
a sin called the sins of ignorance. And you had to have, and that
means that if you didn't know, you'd transgress the law, didn't
know you'd trespass, didn't know you'd sin, and wasn't conscious
of it. then you still, when somebody
draws it to your attention, you had to have a blood sacrifice.
That's why David said, oh Lord, keep me back from my secret faults. Keep me back from my presumptuous
sins. And I was asking Todd, and I
asked this this morning, how do you define sin? Can anybody
here define sin? What is it? What is it? How do you define it? I know it's black. I know it's against God. I know
it's a transgression. I know it's a trespass. Sin is an awful thing. And God
thought it was so awful that he laid it on his son. took sin
and made his son to be whatever it is. That's what God made Christ
to be. I don't know what sin is. I know
that that's what I am. I know I'm a sinner. There's
no doubt about that. But how do you describe sin?
What do you say about it? How can we describe what it is? But here's the thing about it. Christ not only died for our
sins of commission, our sins of omission, but all of our sins
of ignorance. Ignorant before we knew Him.
Ignorant before we knew what righteousness. Ignorant before
we knew what we were. Ignorant of the Bible. But how
many sins do you reckon we commit in a day that we're not even
conscious of? We're not even conscious of.
We're not even aware of. You know God, God, and here's
the thing about a believer. He'll take the blame and own
up to what he is and what he's done. He'll never, if you find
somebody trying to justify their sin, you find somebody that's
blaming God for it. God for it. They might say my
wife done it, but they're saying God done it. If you ever try
to justify your sin, you're blaming God. And God's the only one that
can take away it. He's the only one to deal with
it. And God's standards high. How high is God's standard? How
far, how high is God's standard? There's all these people, seven,
eight foot tall, playing basketball. They can't reach it. Jives can't
reach it. It's way up there. His holiness
is way up there. His righteousness is way up there.
His holiness is way up there. Well, who in the world can go
up there? How are we gonna get as high
as he is? How are we gonna get as holy
as he is? How are we gonna get as righteous as he is? How are we gonna get there? I
can't go. I can't reach that high. Oh, but God met his standards,
his blessed, blessed, glorious son. Our Lord Jesus Christ reached
all the way to heaven, all the way to holiness and righteousness. God Almighty could reach there. and reach down here and get us
at the same time. Oh, God didn't lower his standard.
His son went up to it. His son met it. No wonder he said, Father, forgive
him. He said, Father, not me, Father. My Father in heaven, forgive
them. My Father in glory, forgive them. My Father's holy, forgive
them. My Father's righteous, forgive
them. My Father, forgive them, forgive them. Oh my. Here's another thing when he
said, oh Lord, forgive them. They know not what to do. Here
we see the blindness, hardness, cruelty, and meanness and depravity
of the human heart. Our Lord said, Father, forgive
them. They know not what they do. They don't know what they
do. Huh? Now listen, they weren't
ignorant. They weren't ignorant of the
fact that of him being crucified. They knew that they'd crucified
him. They knew, they cried out for him to be crucified. They
were not angered of the fact of his crucifixion. And they's
the one that kept crying, crucify him. Pilate was the one that
gave him up to the mob. And they see him nailed to that
tree. And they stood there and they
were eyewitnesses of this. But what do you think our Lord
meant when they know not what they do? What do you think he
meant? Well, I think he meant that they
were ignorant of who it was that they crucified. The enormity of the crime that
they committed. Paul said it like this, we speak
the wisdom of God, the hidden wisdom of God in a mystery, which
the princes, the princes, the mighty men, the powerful men,
Ruling men of this world do not, for if had they, they would not
have crucified the Lord of glory. Wouldn't have done it. Oh, my. They were ignorant of the awful,
awful sin of crucifying the Lord of glory. And I tell you what,
they ought to have known. They ought to have known who
they was crucifying. All they had to do was listen
to what he had to say. Listen to his words. Oh, our
Lord's words was full of compassion and mercy and grace and kindness
and forgiveness. And oh, what about the deeds
that He done? Stilled storms and walked on
the sea. And what about the works that
He did? Healed lepers, took a blind man who was born blind and gave
him sight when he was an older man. raised three people from
the dead. You would think, surely, surely
this man has to have some power with God. Surely, surely he knows
God. Surely he's got some power and
glory about him. Crucify him. Crucify him. We'll not have this man reign
over us. And yet our Lord said, Father,
forgive them. They know not what they do. And I want you to see this, another
thing why he said, Father, forgive him. Look over in Matthew chapter
five. Get Matthew chapter five with me. Look in verse 43. Our Lord, this is an example
of what our Lord was teaching and what he said on the cross.
He said, you have heard it hath been said, thou shalt love thy
neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your
enemies. Father, forgive them. Bless them that curse you. Father,
forgive them. Pray for them which despitefully
use you. Father, forgive them. And which
persecute you. Father, forgive them. Every one
of those things, the way they treated him, he said, Father,
forgive them. They know not what they do. Oh,
my. You're talking about grace, grace,
truth that came by Lord Jesus Christ. He was truth personified. He was truth in this world. And we offend in every way possible,
word, tongue, or deed, and yet because he said, Father, forgive.
That shows us that his love covers a multitude of sin. Covers a
multitude of sin. Oh my. And here's another reason
why he prayed, Father, forgive him. And when we see that he
prayed, Father, forgive him, we see man's greatest, greatest
need. We're sinners. I don't know if
you know that or not. I hope you understand that. I
hope that you know that. Hope you know it in the depth
of your heart and the depth of your soul. And men, men have
noble ideas. A lot of folks have some noble,
noble ideas. And they come along and they
make some great, good resolutions. I told them this morning, I remember
when I I guess about 20, 21, and been out of the Marines very
long, and I was a mess. Oh, I was a mess. Didn't want
to get up in the morning to face the day and didn't want to go
to bed to face the night. And I said, well, I made me a
resolution. I said, I'm going to go buy me
a Bible. We lived on East 2nd Street in Dayton, Ohio, in a
little old apartment. Paid $27 a week for it. And I went out on North Dixie
Drive and I bought a Bible, a little old black Bible. I bought that
Bible and I said, now I'm gonna start reading the Bible and I'm
gonna start living right. I'm gonna start living good.
I'm gonna really, really start. I had a daughter about three
and a son about a year old. And I said, oh, I got that Bible.
And I went over there and I started reading the sermon I got through
two chapters, closed it up. I said, there's no way in the
world I can live like that. When you read the Sermon on the
Mount, blessed are they that mourn, blessed are they that
hunger and thirst, blessed are they that weep, blessed are the
poor in spirit. I ain't none of those things.
And I had, you know, God let me know right then and there.
I was wasting my time. I didn't know it at the time.
But oh my, I made a good resolution. I made a rule for myself. I'm
gonna straighten up. I'm gonna fly right. Oh my. And it was vain. It was just
nothing but vanity. And then oh my, bless his name,
one day he crossed my path and he dealt with me of this issue
of sin. S-I-N. I didn't know what it was. until
he made me know. I didn't have a clue what sin
was. I didn't know I was self-righteous. I didn't know I was proud. I didn't know I was a God-hater.
I didn't know I was a Christ-denier. I didn't know any of those things. And oh, God come along. and this
question of sin that I wanted to change myself and change my
heart and change my way of living, all in vain. And God come along
and he settled that sin question for me. Oh my. He settled them
on the cross. He said, Father, forgive them.
They know not what they do. And oh my, when we talk about
sin, what good are shoes if your feet's paralyzed? What good are
glasses if you're blind? What good are crutches if you
can't walk and can't move your legs at all? And I tell you,
it doesn't matter who you are, it don't matter where you're
from, it don't matter who you know. Sin, sin is our nature. It's our nature. Sin, sin, sin,
that's our name. And sin is before an infinitely
holy God. And this is a question of the
ages. This is a question of the ages. And your preachers answered
it countless times over the years. And some of you could answer
that so readily. How can God justly, a holy God, a righteous
God, a law-ordering God, How in the
world can a God, holy and righteous, justly, justly forgive our sin? How could He do that? How could
He take me? And how could He take you? And
when you breathe, you're sinning. If your mouth's opening, you're
saying something you ought not say. When you think, you think
things you ought not think. When you go places you go where
places you ought not go. And we are sinned by nature,
so how in the world would this, how can God justly, justly, stay
God Almighty, stay God, stay holy, stay way up yonder, and
forgive us our sin? How can he do it? Father, forgive them. They know
not what they do. And Paul said it this way, that
through this man, through the Lord Jesus Christ, that through
this man is priest unto you the forgiveness of sins and by him,
by him, you can be justified from everything that there ever
was and everything that ever will be. You could be justified
from all things. Oh my. and to be justified the
same as being righteous. Well, let me give you another
one. He said, Father forgive them, they know not what they
do. And this says, Then said Jesus. I want to talk about the
victory. The victory, the accomplishment. of our Lord on the cross, of
his redeeming love. Then, said Jesus, Father, forgive
them. Then, when the vileness and the
hatred of the human heart was on full display. Then, when man
had done his absolute worst against the Lord Jesus Christ. Then,
when wicked hands had crucified the Lord of glory. Then he said,
Father, forgive them. They know not what they do. He
could have destroyed them. He could have poured his wrath
on them. He could have caused the earth to open up and swallow
them. But in yet still he was subjected to unspeakable shame,
suffering, excruciating pain, despised, rejected. And after
the way he was treated, he still said, Father, Forgive them, they
know not what they do. And I am so thankful that he
prayed that prayer. Oh, Simon Peter, he said, Simon,
oh, Simon felt good about himself. Simon, Simon, Satan sought to
sift you as wheat. He said, but you know what? I
prayed for you. I prayed for you. Oh, you're
gonna fail, you're gonna fail, you're gonna slip right off it.
He said, I prayed for you that your faith fail not. And you
know why our faith doesn't fail? You know, I don't know about you, but I
need Christ every moment of every day. I want to be kept by Him. I can't keep myself. I need His
strength. I don't have none of my own.
And His redeeming love forgives all of our sins. A complete,
perfect, full forgiveness of sins. You know, all my sins were
future when Christ died on the cross. And when Christ brought me to
Himself, all my sins were present. And since I trusted Christ, all
my sins are in the past. So my past is taken care of,
my present's taken care of, and my future's sure. No wonder David said, blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputed not iniquity. In Colossians 3,
13, excuse me, yeah, 2, 13, says this. Having forgiven you all,
A-L-L, trespasses. How many of you reckon that is? Every one of us, every single
one of us, it got enough meanness and sin and corruption in us
that if we spread it around to everybody else, we got enough
to take this whole outfit to hell. Not counting what everybody
else has done. Father, forgive them. They know
not what they do. Oh, what a wonderful Savior is
Jesus my Lord. What a wonderful Savior to me.
He holdeth me up, I shall not be moved. He taketh my burden
away. He hideth my soul in the cleft
of His rock. He hideth in the depths of His
love. and covers me, covers me there with His hand. Oh, what
a wonderful Savior. If you don't know Him, say, Lord, let me see, let me
see, let me see. Thank you.