Luke 23, verse 32. Is this mic too high for everybody? Is it too high for you, Larry,
back there? Okay. Luke 23, and let's
begin reading at verse 32. And there were also two malefactors,
two others, two malefactors, two criminals were told they
were thieves. led with him to be put to death. Now this is Calvary. This is
the cross. And when they were come to the
place which is called Calvary, there they crucified him and
the criminals, 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 that 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 said, 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. And one of the malefactors
which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save
thyself and us. But the other, answering, rebuked
him, saying, Dost not thou fear God? seeing thou art in the same
condemnation, the same guilt. 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. We went down to the nursing home
Monday night, and I took this text and preached a message to
them. And I want to look at this again
this morning to you. The gospel is good for old people,
dying people, and it's good for young people. And this is one
of the most solemn, solemn passages. The very concept here that it
sets forth in verse 32. It says here that there were
also two other malefactors led with him, and look at this, led
to be put to death. That's a solemn thing, isn't
it? Led to be put to death. I don't know how they did this.
I don't know if they handcuffed them like they would today. One
soldier was on one side of the criminal and a soldier on the
other side, but they led them to be put to death. And a multitude
of people were there. We're told that there were many
here at this place called the Place of the Skull to watch these
people be put to death. I have seen this. We did have a book way back in
the Ku Klux Klan when they used to hang so many people. And they
had some photographs in their area not far from here, Marin,
Indiana, where they hang people. And when you saw those photographs,
the town would be full of people with their children. And sometimes
they brought their lunches or they set up places to sell lunches. I thought how trivial, what a
trivial attitude, watching people die. Watching people to go out
into eternity. But these people here were led
to be put to death and many people gathered here to watch it. But
this death of these three men wasn't a common death. This was
the death of crucifixion. This was the most gruesome death,
the most dreadful way anybody could die. They took you out,
they laid you on a cross or a pole, and they nailed your hands into
the pole, they nailed your feet into the pole. Sometimes you
would hang for hours, sometimes men would go into shock, and
sometimes they would hang for days. upon this cross. And while men stood around and
watched them, some mocked, I'm sure, and some wept. And before
this day was over, these three men would be put to death. The Lord Jesus Christ died first. That's sort of amazing, isn't
it? And the reason He died first, He told us Himself, no man takes
my life from me. You have taken me, and by wicked
hands you have crucified me, but it is because I have given
myself into your hands." They could not take him until this
hour came. He died before these other two
men died because he yielded up the ghost. He gave his life. Three hours or so he hung upon
the cross. Finally, he cries out, into thy
hands. I commend my spirit. He gives
up the ghost. There is a soldier standing there
with his spirit and runs it up into his side and all of his
blood and all of the water comes draining out of his wound. Blood to atone. Water to sanctify
us. Blood to cleanse the conscience.
Water to sanctify and separate us. He dies. The two thieves hung there. for
quite some time because it was the preparation for the Sabbath.
The Jews said, let's end their lives. They got these mauls or
these huge clubs that they used when they wanted a man to go
ahead and die upon the cross. And they brought those clubs
and they hit each leg somewhere around the kneecap and the leg
was shattered. They did that to each thief,
all the weight of their body came down, and the diaphragm
came up underneath their lungs, and soon they suffocated. Both
men died. All three men were dead before
this day was over. And I want you to consider with
me this morning, in their deaths, the death of these three men,
they represent every man's death. Really, these two thieves represent
the death of everybody that dies. When you die, when I die, we're
going to die in one of these categories. We're going to die
in this thief as he died in his sins, or we're going to die as
this one thief died with hope that as soon as he died, he'd
go into heaven. to paradise. We're going to die
in one of these two categories. All of us here this morning.
Let's consider these just for a few minutes. First of all,
let's consider this first thing. And there's three things that
scares me about this man when I think upon his death. And here's
the first thing that bothers me when I see this man die. His
whole attitude towards the Son of God in his dying hours What
was his attitude towards Jesus Christ? Rage. Did you notice that? He railed
on the Son of God. If you be the Christ, save yourself
and save us. If you be the Christ, how dare
you put yourself through this and us with you? If you be the
Son of God, surely you can do miracles, save us. He railed
upon Him. His heart was full of faithfulness
and His heart was full of unbelief towards the Son of God. If you
be the Christ. Was Jesus the Christ? Yes, He
was. Did He believe it? No, He didn't. You didn't. If you be the Christ. I tell you, brothers and sisters,
it's an awful thing to live with a heart full of enmity towards
Jesus Christ. But it's a fearful thing to die
with a heart full of enmity. It's an awful thing to live with
a heart full of unbelief. And so many do that, do they
not? If there is a God, why do all these things happen? If there
is, of course there is. You don't believe it? It's an
awful thing to live with a heart full of unbelief. But it's worse
to die that way. As long as a man lives, there's
hope. As long as he's breathing, there's
hope. But I tell you, when he's breathed
out the last breath, that's it, isn't it? I fear for this thief
because of his whole attitude towards the Savior, a poor sinner. He railed on him even in his
dying hour. Secondly, I fear for him for
this reason. To think that he had nobody to
blame for his being put to death. He had nobody to blame for being
here but himself. Look what he says in verse 40
again. Look what the other thief says. He said there in verse
39 that Christ has done nothing, this man has done nothing. But
the other answering rebuked him saying, Doest not thou fear God? Sin thou art in the same condemnation,
the same guilt, and we indeed justly, for we have received
the due reward of our deeds. Why was he dying? Why was he
being put into death? Because of what he did. Because
of his deeds. He had nobody to blame but himself. Isn't it amazing how we're living
in a society where everybody's a victim? Nobody wants to take
the responsibility for anything that they've done. They'll live
a life for the devil. They'll serve their sins. They'll
live a life that's against heaven. Then He comes down, they get
sick, or they're ready to die, and they start blaming everybody
else. Why does this happen to me? If there is a God, why? Well, who do we have to blame
but ourselves? I don't know what kind of man
or father or mother this man had. I don't know how he was
raised. I have no idea. I don't know
if his mom and dad were good people. Maybe they were there.
Maybe his dad was standing there by the cross and maybe he was
thinking, son, I told you, I warned you. Your mother from the time
you were an infant and raised you and clothed you and educated
you, did she not warn you? That this world was a dangerous
place? That you could get yourself in
over your head and you couldn't get out of it? Didn't my wife,
didn't your mother tell you of this? Of course she did. Who
you got to blame? Nobody but yourself. You can't
blame your friends. You can't blame society. Why
was he dying? If he had somebody justly to
blame, it may have touched some of the Lord off. But this other
thief had the truth, didn't he? You and I indeed justly. You know what will be one of
the tormenting things to people who go to hell? You know what
will be the chief tormenting thing in hell? Memory. Memory. Son, remember in your lifetime,
you're not here without cause. You're not being punished unjustly. Why are you here? Because of
what I've done, my sin against God. That's why I'm here. That's why this man was here.
I tell you, I'd feel sorry for him. I'd feel sorry for him if
somebody set him up. We used to go down to jail and
preach to those folks down there. And, you know, it's an amazing
thing. Nobody was in jail because they
did something to get there. Everybody in there was set up.
It's, listen, preacher, I've got to talk to you. Can you help
me get out of here? I'm telling you, they set me
up. I don't deserve to be here. I've
not done a thing. And you know when I first went
down there, I was so naive, I fell for that. I went out there the
first two or three times thinking, man, these people are innocent.
Somebody needs to help these people out. And I talked to a
bail bondsman one day. He said, Mr. Crabtree, listen.
He said, every one of those guys are right where they need to
be. And if they get out, they'll be back in there in a short time.
I said, is that right? Is that right? Yeah, that's right. They're just like these fellas.
Just like he said, that's what makes it bad, isn't it? That's
what makes it bad. I'm here because I've got nobody
to blame but myself. Man, that makes me afraid. I
don't want to face death in this man's position. I just don't
want to face death. I may blame everybody else now.
I may blame society, my circumstance and everything else, but I tell
you when I come, when I'm hanging there, and I have to face the
awful reality, that's going to hurt. That's going to scare me
to death. We indeed justly... You know God will never treat
anybody wrong. You know the judge of all the earth has to do right.
And whatever we face and whatever we suffer in this world or the
world to come, He's going to do right. He cannot do wrong. The third thing that scares me
about this man that makes me afraid is this. When he died,
that didn't end his existence. That's what really scares me
about him. And you know that's one of the things that made him
afraid too. You know one of the things that was bothering these
two thieves? One thing that was bothering
them was this. Men are punishing us now. because of crimes that
we've committed against society. But God's going to punish us
hereafter. How did they say it? Doest not
thou fear God? What's he talking about? Why
did he bring God into the equation? He was being punished at the
hands of man, wasn't he? But he said, here's why we're
afraid. Here's why we don't want to die. were guilty before God. That's
what makes men afraid to die. If you could leave here this
morning and you know that all your sins had been washed away,
that all your sins had been forgiven, and heaven holds nothing against
you, you wouldn't be afraid to die, would you? But these men
were afraid to die. They struggled with it. They
were groaning. They were seeking a way out of
it. Some relief from deliverance from death. Why? Because death
don't end it. It just don't end it. That's the truth about the matter,
isn't it? There is a hell to shun. That's what scared this
man. That's what scared him. And he
didn't know how he was going to shun it. There's a heaven
to gain, and he didn't know how to gain it. And he's died there.
I don't want to die there, do you? I tell you, every time I
have loved ones, and you probably go through the very same thing,
I have loved ones and I fear that they're without the Lord
and, boy, they've died. And you lose somebody like that
and you fear they didn't have a saving interest in the Son
of God. You go burdened over that, don't you? I mean, that
bothers you. It's almost like you're standing here before this
thief watching him die again. Watching him die again. I told
Wayne last night about a fellow I was talking to not long before
he died. And I was talking to him about
his soul and about eternity. And I asked him, I said, Are
you afraid to die? Do you have any fear? I knew
the man. I knew him. He was an ungodly
man. Never had any reason to have
any hope. But I asked him, are you afraid to die? And you know
what he told me? Why no? Why no? I ain't afraid to die.
You know, there were those in the Old Testament that said,
we've made a covenant with hell. With death, we are in agreement. I've come to terms with this.
I've accepted it. Death happens to everybody. Why
should I worry about it? Because death doesn't end your
existence. If you're annihilated, all right,
come to terms with it. But, boy, if you don't have a
saving interest in the Son of God, you may die in peace. But one moment after you die,
you're in big trouble. It's a different thing when we
come down to die. Barb's husband had cancer. Went
for almost, what, five years, Barb, before he came back. He
called me and said, I need to talk to you. I got in my car
and drove and met him over in Ohio. And I sat down there in
front of him, almost like Joe and his friends coming. We sat
down there. And when I went in and sat down
with him, I just looked at him. And his countenance was swollen. He had this look in his eye that
I'd never seen in Jim's eye before. And we sat there and said nothing
for a long time. And he said, you know, I'm having
trouble coming to grips with this. I'm having trouble coming
to grips with it. You know why? He knew something
about eternity. He knew when He breathed out
His breath, He would continue somewhere, either in the realms
of the tormented or the realms of glory. I'm having trouble. He'd come to terms with it. But
it wasn't because He'd come to terms with just dying. But He
got a fresh grip on the Son of God who died for Him. And He
died in peace. But this man didn't. This man
didn't. Look at this second thief with
me right quickly. Everything that was said of the
first thief could be said of him. Because the other gospel
tells us that both these thieves railed on the Son of God. Both of them. Heart was full
of enmity. Both of them doubted Him. This
second piece said the same thing the first one said. You couldn't
distinguish between them. But suddenly, while they were
hanging there, something miraculously happened. You couldn't see it. Something was taking place in
his mind. The Holy Spirit was working with
this man. He brought some light into his
understanding. You know how we know that? He
said, why, you're the Christ. You are the Christ. And the Father
has given you a kingdom and you're not going to stay dead. And when
you're raised from the dead and you ascend to heaven in your
kingdom, Lord, would you remember me? What a change of heart. There was a glimmer of hope that
filled his soul. Yes, I'm facing eternity, but
here's the Son of God who is able to save me. Lord, remember
me when You come into Your kingdom. What a glimmer of hope! I tell
you what, it doesn't take much hope to put a fellow praying,
does it? Just give him a little bit of hope in his despair, and
what does he do? Oh, he loves it! Lord, remember
me! Remember you? Why, you were just
cursing the Savior! You poor wretch! Can't you imagine
what the devil told him? Why, you miserable wretch! You
think he's going to have mercy upon you? Look what you were
just saying to him! He would just do right in him.
Your heart was just full of hate towards him, and now you're going
to turn to him? Oh, the devil, he's slick, ain't
he? Paul said we're not ignorant of his advices. He'll tempt the
poor soul to go on year after year in his sins and say, man,
you've got plenty of time. Why don't you just wait? Have
fun. Sow your wild oats. And then
when it comes time to die and you're old, then you can turn
to the Lord. And then when the poor soul gets
old, the devil tells him, it's too late now. You should have
turned a long time ago. Ain't that the way he tricks
us? And I imagine this man had a
little bit of pride. You know human nature. Here's
a man, and he was a thief, probably a bold fellow. And he thought
to himself, am I going to turn now? I'm just going to play the
man. I'm going to be macho about it,
and I'm going to die. I ain't going to humble myself.
I ain't going to start crying to the Lord." But he didn't,
did he? Boy, he didn't do that. He didn't
listen to the devil. He didn't listen to his pride.
He humbled himself and looked over at the man's set hanging
next to him and his Heart said, this is the Son of God who can
save you. And what does He do? Lord, remember
me. When you come into your kingdom.
What a request. What a request. You know what
He is saying? Would you share your kingdom with me? Oh, what a request. What a bold
request. Share your kingdom? Let somebody
like me into your kingdom? I can't merit it. The last thing
I done was rob somebody. And I've not got any opportunity
to make restitution. I'm dying. I can't even be baptized. I'm dying. Lord, my only hope
is this, if you'll remember me. If there's grace enough in your
heart to save somebody like me, then remember me. If all my misery
can pull out mercy from your heart, then remember me. That's
all His plea. I tell you, it doesn't take much
when you come to Christ, does it? I tell you what we do. We
won't come to Him. We try to figure everything out, you see.
We want to figure everything out. And when we've got everything
figured out, all of our doctrines straight and all of our lives
straight, then we'll come to Him. That ain't the way we come
to Christ. We come to Him just like this
thief came to Him. Lord, remember me. Oh, you heard the words of the
Savior. No wonder you love His Word. No wonder you love to hear
the Savior speak. Listen how He speaks. He speaks
like nobody else. Have you ever heard me say, verily? I don't get up here and say,
verily, verily. Even the apostles didn't talk that way. But Jesus
said verily, today you shall be with me in paradise. I've often said this, and I still
say it. I'd rather die with this man's reason to have assurance
than to die like one of the apostles. Give me this man's assurance
over everybody else's and I'll take it. Because he heard the
voice of the Son of God Himself saying, You shall be with me
in paradise today. I never read where He told one
of the apostles that. He's never told me that. But He told this
man. Or if the Lord Jesus comes to
me right now and He says, Bruce Crabtree, today, this Lord's
Day, you're going to be with me. I'd be like, oh, see me.
Lord, let Thy servant depart in peace. I'm ready to go if
You're ready to have me like that. But all the assurance he
had was in the words of Christ, was it not? I bet you he really
felt saved, didn't he? He didn't feel anything but agony
and pain and sorrow. Can you imagine him looking over
there and seeing that big old Roman soldier coming with that
big 20-pound club? He didn't have to ask, what are
you going to do with that? Oh, man. I tell you, the Lord may
save you, but you're still going to reap some things. You're still
going to live in this world, you're going to suffer, you're
going to be sick, you're going to have heartaches and burdens.
Just because He saved you, no sign you're going to be healthy,
wealthy and wise. And you may get out and sow some
of your wild oats in your lost days, and when He saves you,
you may regret a lot of it. It would have been wonderful if
the Lord had saved this man before he started stealing, wouldn't
it? But He didn't. He didn't. He saved him on the
cross in his dying hour. But boy, He saved him good. And
He gave him all kinds of grounds for a share of it. I wonder. I just wonder. The
Bible don't say this, but it's my imagination again. I just
wonder if maybe when he began to doubt, he said, remember what
he said. Remember what he said. That's
your hope. Remember what he said. But he's
dead. Yes, he's dead, but remember
what he said. This day shall you be with me
in your kingdom, in my kingdom. And he looks over there and he
sees the gaping hole in his side. And he sees the blood running
down upon his closed eyes. And he says, there it is. There
is where my sins have been punished in His body. There is my hope. He died for me. Oh, what a wonderful death than
to die in Christ, is it not? Which one of these two thieves
do you want to die like? Do you want to die like the first
one? Complaining right up until the time you breathe your last
breath. Do you want to die like this second thief in Christ?
Trusting in His Word. These things have I written unto
you that believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may
know that you have eternal life. I wouldn't trade His Word for
all the fillings in the world, would you? The old Donnie Bell
told me the other day he was preaching. Talked to Donnie this
morning, him and Mary. And Donnie was in the pulpit
preaching. He said, if I had to go according
to my feelings, he said, I'd close the Bible and go home.
But he said, we've got one thing to go by and live by, and that's
this. This day shall you be with me. Is that enough for you? That's
enough for him. That's all we're going to get.
Lastly is this, and here's the last category, and I told these
old people the other night, I said, you know, maybe one man fits
into this last category. We're going to fit into one thief
or the other, but only one man fits into this last category.
This man on the middle cross, boy, he's unique. Nobody ever
died like him. Nobody ever suffered like him.
I tell you, he suffered more than both of these thieves put
together, did he not? The Scripture says they beat
him. Nothing said about them beating
the two thieves. But his vestige, his face, was
mired more than any man. They plucked his beard out. Put
thorns on his head and drove them down upon his eyebrows.
Whipped him until his bones appeared in his back. smacked him and
hit him with their fist until his eyes and his face were swollen. He suffered awful. But his sufferings
weren't just at the hands of men. His chief suffering was
at the hands of God. He was smitten, afflicted of
God. You who think of sin but lightly,
nor suppose the evil great, Here may view its nature rightly.
Here its guilt may estimate. Mark the sacrifice appointed. See who bears the awful load.
Tis the word of the Lord's anointed, the Son of Man, the Son of God.
How do we know sin is bad? Look at the cross. How do we
know God hates sin? Look at the cross. He punished
His own Son for our sins to save us from our sins. And I tell
you, he didn't do it for good people. Old Scott used to say, do you
want to know if Christ died for you or not? He didn't die for
everybody. If he'd have died for everybody, he'd have emptied
hell out. But Scott used to say, do you want to know whether or
not the Son of God suffered in your place and died to save you? He said, here's one of the ways
you can know it. Do you fit into this category? He died for the
ungodly. He fit that? Well, I'm a pretty
good guy. I ain't done all that bad, and
you don't have a Savior. You don't need a Savior. You
only need a Savior if you're a sinner against God, if you're
an ungodly man. He died for the ungodly. He bore
their sins in His own body upon the This one thief, he was dying
for his own sins. And he's going to suffer for
all eternity because his death couldn't atone for any of his
sins. But Jesus Christ was dying for the sins of this other thief. And for that, he had to be punished. And nobody else fits that category
but him. If God punishes you for your
sins, you'll perish. If God punishes Christ for your
sins, you're saved. Oh, what a wonderful thing. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Believe
that He died in your place, that He took your sins in His own
body and God punished Him for your sins. You can't be saved
without believing that. I told them this story. I've
told this story so many times, but I'll tell you, it's just,
it's a wonderful story. Most of you have heard it, but
I love to tell it. About the wagon train going west.
Had you ever heard that story before? The wagon train, they,
this really happened. This happened quite a bit. When
those families and communities took the wagon trains and they
went west, they'd get out there on the plains and And I've been
out through South Dakota and some of those places. Some of
that grass is high, and it gets brown. And if that stuff gets
on fire as thick as it is, you can't escape it and get the wind
blowing behind it. And they don't know if sometimes
the The enemies set these fires. People wanted to drive them back
east, or sometime it was the weather that caused it, but they
told the story about the wagon train that was going west, and
they were there in that tall grass making their way through
it, and they saw this smoke, big billows rolling, coming at
them. And what they did, they set fire
to a huge area and burned it out, burned all the grass out
of it. And then they encircled their wagons in that burnt out
place. And they all got there where
it was burnt out. And they were waiting. And they
saw the smoke coming. They began to feel some heat.
And one little boy was tugging on his father's pants and said,
Daddy, are we going to be burned up? And he said, No, son. We're not
going to be burned up. And just a minute he tugged on
his pants again and said, But Daddy, I smell the smoke. I can
feel the heat. Are you sure we're not going
to be burned up? And he said, Son, we're not going
to be burned up. He said, Daddy, how do you know?
And he made this wonderful statement. And this, this is our hope. This is our confidence. He said,
Son, listen, we're not going to be burned up. We're standing
where the fire has already been. Ain't that our hope? But why won't God punish my sin?
Don't He hate sin? Yes. He's already punished it
once. His wrath has fallen upon His
Son, upon Calvary, once. And he cannot payment twice demand. He's too just for that. Isn't
that wonderful? That you're standing where the
wrath has already fallen and it cannot fall upon you again.
Oh, that's our hope, is it not? As we face death, as we face
eternity, as we face the law of God, the curse of God, the
wrath of God, we face it all in Jesus Christ because He was
our substitute. He took our sins and He was punished
for them. And now justice that bathed itself
in His blood has rested. And He says, I'll never smile
again. You trust my son, I'll never smite again. And that's
the gospel, isn't it? That's the gospel. Spurgeon told about this thief. He said, when I get up to heaven,
he said, I can picture myself sitting there at the gate. And
he said, I'm sure I'll feel as unworthy there as I am here.
And he said, if I see the Lord coming in with all His holy prophets
in the Old Testament, he said, I can't go in with them. I don't
deserve to be among them. And here is behind them all the
apostles of the Lamb, and they're going in together. And here's
the early church and their following with all their good works and
how they sold their property and gave to the poor. Oh, I can't
go in with them. I'm not worthy to be among them.
But he says, here comes this old faith. The last thing he did in this
world was to hurt somebody. But the Lord saved him from it
and washed him from it. And Spurgeon said, I think I'd
go in with him. I'd go in with him.