In Luke's Gospel chapter 23,
if you want to turn there for a text this morning. Luke's Gospel
chapter 23. I want to begin reading in verse
32. Luke chapter 23 and verse 32. And there were also two others,
male factors, criminals, 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 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 beholden,
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. And a superscription also was
written over him in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew, This
is the king of the Jews. Matthew and Mark says this is
Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. And one of the criminals
which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save
thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked
him, saying, Doest not thou 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. 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. And it was about the sixth hour,
and there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour.
And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rent
and mist. And when Jesus had cried with
a loud voice, he said, Father, unto thy hand I commend my spirit. And having said thus, he gave
up the ghost." Now, I don't know how many times I've preached
on this passage. Probably more times than any
other passage in the Bible. I think recently I just preached
a message on this. But I was looking at this and
thinking about this again. I was thinking about this particular
verse here in verse 32. And there were also two others,
criminals, malefactors, led with Him to be put to death. These three men dying. Three dying men upon the cross. And before this day was over,
all three of these men would be dead. I thought about that
and I thought, well, we don't like to talk about death, do
we? Some of you just had a funeral
from a dear loved one yesterday and none of us like to think
and talk about death. We want to talk about life and
living and happiness and health and joy and peace. But here's
the sad reality of all of us faced this morning. We're going
to die. Before this day was over, all
three of these men had died. This was the day that all three
of these men were appointed to die. God had appointed all the
deaths of these men. And you know, you and I have
an appointment with death. It's appointed unto all men to
die, and after that, the Jesuits. And somebody said, we're going
to die like one of these men died. One of these men died for
sin. We can't die like that. Nobody
but Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has ever died for sin as
an atonement for sin. But there's a lot of people died
like this second thief, dying in their sins, perishing in their
sin. And then this third thief died,
as some would say, to his sin. Dying to sin, saved from his
sin. You know death is nobody's friend,
is it? Death is no one's friend. It's not the friend of the lost.
What is death to a lost man but just an entryway out into an
eternity that would be miserable? It's not even the friend to a
saved person. Even though the saved depart
to be with Christ, death is a separation from the body. It's a dividing of the soul and
spirit. That's never a good thing, is
it? God never intended that in the beginning and He still won't
endure it for very long because He's purposed that the last day
that body and soul will be joined together again. So death is even
our enemy. Our Lord said it's the last enemy,
didn't He? The last enemy that shall be
destroyed. And you know death was no enemy
of our Lord Jesus Christ either. Boy, He tasted that, didn't He?
He tasted that bitter cup of death. But thank God, He put
it away. He defeated it. He overcame it.
He's got the victory over it. And someday, the last day of
this universe, the last day of history, when we step off out
into eternity, this is what He's going to say to the grave and
to death. O grave, I will be your destruction. O death, I
will be your plague, and repentance shall be hid from my eyes. death. But you know I don't dread
it like I used to. I just don't dread death like
I used to since I found out that the sting has been taken away.
I don't dread it. So let's look at this this morning.
Consider what Luke says here about these three dying men. Consider the order that Luke
gave us. Here in verse 33 he begins, "...they
crucified Him You know, if you could have come here this day
and just happened upon this crucifixion, you would have known who this
was. If you had never heard of Him
before, if you just stood around this cross and listened, you
would have known who this was. Because they identified Him.
They identified His character, who He was. There was no doubt,
even from His enemies, who this man was. Pilate, we're told here,
put this plaque over the cross, and here's what it said about
him. This is Jesus of Nazareth, the King of the Jews. We know who Jesus is, don't we?
Is it too high, big man? Just turn it off if you want
to. Just flip it off. He said he's Jesus. Now, who is Jesus? Well, that's the name that God
gave him before he was ever born, isn't it? Jesus, His name shall
be called Jesus, for He shall save His people. And what is
Jesus but a very humbling name? It's the name that they give
to His humanity. He was born in poverty. He lived
in a place of poverty, a mean city that no man respected. Jesus
of Nazareth. Jesus of Nazareth. And you know
the Lord Jesus never was ashamed of that name. He wasn't ashamed
of where He was from. You remember when Saul of Tarsus
was on the road to Damascus and our Lord appeared to him and
smote him? And he went down on the ground
and he said, Who are you, Lord? And he said, I'm Jesus of Nazareth
whom you persecuted. So who is this man here upon
this cross? He was the man that humbled himself. was born of a virgin, took the
most common name among the Jews, and made himself of no reputation,
humbled himself, and became obedient to death, even the death of the
cross." There's Jesus. There He is. He's being crucified. Who is this man? Well, they say
He's Jesus. Who says that? Pilate says that. He's Jesus. That's who He is.
He's Jesus of Nazareth. But that's not all Pilate said
about Him. He said, He's the King of the
Jews. Shall I crucify your King, He
said? Your King? And you know that's
who He was, isn't it? He was Jesus of Nazareth. And now His chief enemy that
gave sinners to crucify Him, He said, He's King of the Jews. And you know He's that too. He's
King of Israel, isn't it? Remember when He was born and
the wise men came and said, where is He that's born King of the
Jews? He didn't live 33 years and was
crowned King. He was born the King. He is the
King. And now here He is and He's dying
and who is He? He's the King. He's the King
of Israel, the King of Jews. The Bible says He's the King
of glory. Be ye lifted up, ye everlasting
gates, and the King of glory shall come in." He's the everlasting
King. That's who they crucify. Who
is this on this middle cross? That's the King. That's the King. But that's what Pilate said,
and that's who He is. He said, you call me Lord and
Master, and you say, well, for so I am. That's who I am. He's the King, isn't He? He's
the King. King of the Jews, the King of
Israel, the King of this universe. And then thirdly, even the common
people coming around the cross, and they addressed Him as the
Son of God. If thou be the Son of God, come
down from the cross. And the chief priest and the
elders said, let God deliver Him now if He will have Him,
for He said, I am the Son of God. And both the thieves said,
ìIf thou be the Son of God, save thyself.î And the centurion,
after the Lord Jesus died, he said, ìSurely this was the Son
of God.î Who is that on the middle cross? Who is hanging there being
crucified? Thatís the Son of God, the eternal
Son of God. The chief priest and the scribes
also identified Him like this. They said, let Christ the King
of Israel descend now from the cross and we will believe Him. He saved others, let Him save
Himself if He be the Christ, the Chosen of God. Who is that? He is the anointed
of God, the scent of God, to do the will of God. He is the
Christ of God. And then one of the thieves addressed
Him like this, Lord. Lord. You know what that word means?
It means a sovereign. It means the Almighty. It means
the Ruler, the Independent One, the Free One. Who is Jesus Christ? He is the Lord, isn't He? And
Paul said, if they had known who He was, they would have never
crucified the Lord of glory. So who is this? If you just happened
there on this incident that day, everybody would have known who
this is. This is Jesus of Nazareth. He's
a man in His humiliation. Look at Him. Jesus. He's a King. He's the Christ. He's the Lord. And that brings us to this conclusion,
first of all, doesn't it? Him being such a person as they
identified Him to be, this death was not forced. They did not catch Him and bind
Him and force Him and drive Him to the cross of Calvary. I tell
you, you don't take a King by force. Not this King. You don't
take the Lord of glory with sticks and staves and spears and force
Him upon the cross of Calvary. This had to be voluntary. And that it was. And that's one
of the things that makes it so wonderful and amazing. No man
takes my life from me. You don't have any power at all
against me, He said, unless it was given to you of my Father. No. That's why they never could
take Him until His hour come and He gave Himself to them. There's never been a more voluntary,
a willing, loving, gracious death between the eternities than Jesus
Christ of Nazareth die. I lay down my life. Voluntary, isn't it? Therefore
they crucified Him. They crucified Him. But they did it to accomplish
His own will and purpose. You know this was something that
was planned and purposed from all eternity. And it's the most
stupendous event between the eternities. And the reason the
Bible makes so much of it through all the Old Testament and is
always looking to the cross And the reason we're always looking
back to the cross is because who it was that died on that
cross? The Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth,
the Lord, the King of glory. That gives us three things here
about His death that's very unique. Very, very unique. The death
of Jesus Christ is unique in this sense that it's a death
of substitution. It is the death of substitution.
There I preach the gospel now, haven't I? I can stay down and
say, I preach the gospel. Substitution. Substitution. This man was not dying for himself. He was dying wholly for others. He bore our sins in his own body
upon the tree. Listen to this. Christ hath suffered
for our sins. the just for the unjust. Christ died for our sins according
to the Scripture. He gave Himself for our sins
according to the will of God. Somebody says, well, listen,
Bruce, I'm not going to have that. I'm just not going to have
that He took my sins in His own body and bore them to the cross.
He was a holy man, and I will not have him bear my sin. Then
listen, you won't have salvation. If there's no substitution, there's
no salvation. You can't have what's his if
he can't first have what's yours. He must take your sins and be
punished for them before he can give you his righteousness. Substitution. That's the gospel,
the just for the unjust that He might bring us to God. And
think of this. Think of this. Substitution. What a unique authority this
is. Who ever heard of such a thing
before this or after this? Who has the legal right to take
sins from one man, from the guilty, and lay them upon another man,
the innocent, the just one, and charge them to his account. We've never heard such a thing
happen. You cannot do that. It's impossible. I cannot take my sins and put
them upon you. And then you bear the guilt and
stand responsible for them. But God can. I tell you, brothers
and sisters, if He don't, what's going to happen to us? If He
leaves my sin on me to bear myself, what's going to happen? I'm going
to die. The wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. But your God, who is a just God,
can do this because He's God. And He did it because He's a
God of love. and a God of all grace. And this
is an amazing thing, and you and I never believed this, that
the Bible didn't teach it. That all we lack sheep have gone
astray. We've turned everyone to his
own way, and God has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And Peter says, he bore our sins
in his own body upon the tree. That's the mystery of the gospel,
isn't it? There He hangs, the Lord of Glory, Jesus of Nazareth.
And what do we see? What do we see if we have an
eye to see in His body? We see the sins of all His people
from all ages and all times and all places. Every sin, every
illect soul ever committed is in the body of Jesus Christ. And He bears it as His own. The Father gave it to Him and
said, My son, you're responsible now. You're responsible. When He took our sins and put
them upon Jesus Christ, that relieved us of any and all obligations
to satisfy the demands of justice for our sins. Now, all the obligation
is laid on Jesus. All the responsibility now is
laid on Him. Jesus! If we were standing there
that day and looking up at the cross, we could ask Him, How
do you feel now? What are you going to do now? You know what He would have said? I'm going to suffer. And I'm
going to bleed and I'm going to die until I put these sins
away. You know, if He hadn't overcome
our sins, then that will overcome Him. Aren't you glad, dear child of
God, that He took your sins? That He became responsible for
those sins that you had committed, all of those wretched, miserable
sins? If God takes our sin from us,
which He legally can because He's God, and which He graciously
did because He's love, it stands to reason, therefore, that if
our substitute lives, then we live also. And He lives. That's the first thing. Unique
authority to take the sins from the guilty and put them upon
the innocent, the righteous. But secondly, look at the unique
power. Look at the power. No power had
ever been displayed like this before. Not in creation when
God spake the Word and the heavens and the earth were formed. That's
power. You see His power in providence,
upholding all things, ruling all things. But I'm telling you
here is a display of power that no one has ever seen. this world. And that's with Jesus Christ
bearing our sins in His own body. And the Bible says He was crucified
in weakness. But you know something? He bore
in His body what angels could not bear. The angels sinned one
time. Satan and one-third of the angels
sinned one time. And that sin weighted them down
into chains of darkness. They will never rise up again.
They will never rise from that place of eternal damnation. One
sin brought them there. How heavy is sin? Look what it
did to our first parents. Look how heavy it was on them.
See them going from the garden. with their countenance fallen,
never, never able to deliver themselves again. And look what
it did to us. Has there been a man born of
Adam that was able to deliver himself from the load of sin?
I tell you, sin destroyed an entire world, did it not? Sin
and God's wrath met together in the old world and the flood
came and destroyed them all. And you know the same world now
is reserved unto fire? And this world here that you
and I live in won't fire any better than that world here.
When a man stands before God in his sins and God whips His
sword and punishes that man or punishes the world, no man can
hold up under such a weight. But here was Jesus, the man Jesus. And what was meeting on Him?
I tell you, it had on Him all our sins, and all the wrath of
God against those sins, to punish those sins. And He bore that
in His body. But you know something? He never
died. He hanged there with that on
Him. And yet He did not die. The sword of God was piercing
him for every sin and transgression and disobedience. But he hung
there and did not die until he said, ìItís finished.î Until
the justice of God says, ìI am satisfied with what youíve done.î
And then, he says, ìItís finished.î And gave up the ghost. Even in his weakness, what a
mighty man he was. And you know something? It took
a mighty man. It took the God-man to bear our
sins and to bear up under that load. Unique merit. What about this? Unique merit. He put away our
sins. He atoned for our sins. How?
By the sacrifice of Himself. Merit. the just for the unjust. How just was Jesus Christ? How holy must He be? He must
be the epitome, the apex of all God is. He must be. It would take that kind of merit
to atone for sin, to put it away. He was the just one and the holy
one. It took the merit of an incarnate
God on a tree to atone for our sins. But that He did. That He did. And I love what
Jeremiah chapter 15 verse 20 says. If you've never memorized
this verse, you need to memorize this verse. The iniquity of Israel
shall be sought for, and there shall be none. And the sins of
Judah, And they shall not be found. Why? Jesus put them away. When they crucified Jesus, He
put away the sins of all His people. And when you believe
on Him, the very instant you believe on Him, all your sins
are gone from your conscience. They are washed away. All of
them, all of them. Every last one of them. Quickly, let's look at these
other two men. There were two others, it said in verse 32,
criminals led with Him to be put to death. And one of these
malefactors, we're told, railed on the Lord until the Lord Jesus
died. Last words we know this man spoke,
if you be the cross, save yourself and save us. And the last things
we know for sure that they did to this man was broke his legs
And he died. And he died. I'm not one of those
brothers and sisters. If you want a pastor that rejoices
at the death of lost people, you better get you another one
because I'm not one of those fellas. I'm not one of those
fellas. When you see a lost person die,
that's the saddest thing in this world. And a man who can make
light of and rejoice at the death of a lost man has got something
wrong with his heart. That's a soul that has died.
Can she go back when this little child was born from his mother's
womb and she hung him on her breast? And she loved him and
she nourished him and she watched him learn to crawl. And his dad
rocked him on his knee and they saw him learn to walk and sympathized
with him when he fell and got little bruises on his head. And
they had hopes that he would grow up and be successful and
be somebody in this world. Maybe his dad and mom were godly
parents. Maybe they watched him start
to run with the wrong crowd. And they watched him then go
off into thievery. And his heart got hard. And finally
he was arrested. And the authorities tried him
and found him guilty and sentenced him to death. And now here he
hangs. His last day in this world. And he is a precious soul. And
now he dies. Isn't that sad? That's sad. for someone to die, lost. But I tell you, it's a fearful
thing too, because he was dying in his sins. He not only was
dying because of the crimes he'd committed against humanity, he
was dying because he was living and dying in his sins against
God. This man lost his soul. And you
know something, he lost it forever. The Lord Jesus said, what will
a man give in exchange for his soul? He knows the value of a
soul, doesn't he? It's worth more than the world,
he said. Wayne was talking this morning about the inheritance
of this world. It's nothing, is it? Look what
men trade their souls for. A little pleasure, a little lust,
cares of this world. And then they lose their souls
for all eternity. That's fearful, isn't it? To
fall into the hands of the living God. And you and I are here this
morning. We're free. We're free. I don't have any pain. I feel
so good this morning. I don't have a headache. My arthritis
is not bothering me. I feel good. But while we're
here this morning, having all this liberty, here's a man who
is in torment. He's been in torment now almost
2,000 years. His soul is tormented. The eyes
of His soul is seeing devils. The ears of His soul is hearing
them scream. The lost, the damned that's there
with Him are screaming. His tongue is being tormented
in a flame. He has no rest, day or night.
And as it is now with Him, it will be this way forever. That's
the most fearful thing I can think of. No wonder the Lord
of Glory said, Why will you die? Why will you die? Oh, why will
you die? I can't bear my sins, can you?
I can't bear my sins. I can't bear them in this life
and I can't bear them in the life to come. Oh, I beg of you
this morning, if you're here and you're in your unbelief,
You're still in your nature. You're dead in trespasses and
sins. I pray this morning that with all your heart you'll seek
a saving interest in Jesus Christ. Don't die lost. Don't die lost. Thirdly, this third dying man,
look what a change come over this man. were told by Matthew
that he was mocking the Lord Jesus too. He was in the same
attitude, the same nature the first thief was. But finally
he says here in verse 4, Doest thou not fear God? See, and we
are in the same condemnation. Here is the first change that
always comes over a lost man. Here is the first evidence that
God has begun a work of grace in his heart. He begins to fear
God. And that's grace, brothers and
sisters, because that's not natural for a man to fear God. And I'll
tell you what'll happen when a man fears God. One of the first
things that'll happen, he'll become concerned about his soul.
He'll become concerned about his relationship with God. How
can I be right with God? He begins to think about spiritual
things. He begins to think about eternal
things. He's awakened. His soul is awakened. How can I be right with God?
I'm guilty before God. And here's what he does, and
here's true repentance. He takes the blame. He takes
the responsibility for his sins. What did he say? are in the same shape. That's
what he told that thief. We're in the same condemnation
and we indeed justly. You take people that won't take
the blame for their sins, they start blaming God. Why is this
happening to me? My sins ain't that bad. I'm not
that bad. I can't go to hell. I'm not a
bad person. You know you'll never obtain
mercy that way. That's not the way of obtaining
mercy, and that's evident that a man don't fear God when he
makes something of himself and makes little of sin and of God. Here's a man that made little
of himself. I deserve to perish. And boy,
he made a lot of his sins. My sins are going to damn me.
I deserve to get just what I deserve. We're living in an age of entitlements,
aren't we? Living in an age of entitlements.
Everybody thinks somebody owes them something. If I want to,
I'll just quit work. The government owes me a living.
They won't let me start. They owe me that. I tell you,
God don't owe any of us anything but judgment. Judgment. This man said here with poor
old David, Lord, I confess my sin, he said. I take the blame
for it. that you might be just when you
judge. Because you said, I'm guilty.
I'm guilty. That's all repentance is. I'm
guilty. Is it not? I'm guilty. I'm guilty. People don't want to own that,
do they? Because of the consequences. I'm guilty. And lastly is this. You could tell a work of grace
is beginning in this man because he never despaired. He owned
his guilt. He owned his guilt. And then,
in this dreadful state of pain and guilt, he turns to God's
remedy for sin and says, Lord, remember me when you come into
your kingdom. That's faith, isn't it? That's
where every repentant soul turns to. to Jesus Christ, God's remedy
for sin. Judas despaired, didn't he? He
killed himself. This man didn't despair. He said,
I'm guilty. He looked to God's remedy. He
looked to Jesus Christ. Lord, you're not going to stay
dead, he said. I know you're going to die. I know what you're
doing here now. I know they're going to put you
in the grave, but I know you're coming out of that grave. You're
going to ascend back to heaven. I know you're on the throne there
in glory. Lord, when you're there in your
kingdom, would you remember this poor sinner? That's faith, isn't
it? That's faith in Christ. You mean
a man that's hanging on a cross in utter weakness can save another
man? Can save a thief? Save him from torment? Who is
that man? He's the Lord! He's the King! He's Jesus of Nazareth. And I
tell you, you turn to Him this morning in faith just like this
man did, and you'll witness that power. You'll feel that power.
You'll feel His blood taking your sins from your conscience. The Lord never changed this man's
destiny. Somebody said, boy, you believe
on Christ and He'll change your destiny. Nobody's destiny has
ever been changed. Everybody's destiny is fixed,
isn't it? God fixed everybody's destiny
before the world ever was. Everybody here this morning,
your destiny is fixed. This man's destiny was fixed.
It just wasn't what he thought it was. He thought, my destiny
is hell. And the Lord Jesus said, no,
I'm going to reveal your destiny. Today, you'll be with me in paradise. I lived all through my teenage
years, thought I was destined to hell. I'm going to hell until
the Lord Jesus Christ made me to know. No. I've got other purposes. I've got other plans. Your name
is in the book of life. Oh, there's only one way to learn
your destiny. It has to be revealed. And only
in Christ can you find it out. Only in Christ. Three dying men. Let's pray.