Today I would like you to turn
in your Bible to the Gospel written by Luke, Luke chapter 23 at verse
39. Luke 23 verse 39. Let's read these few verses together.
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 that 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 the Lord
said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with
me in paradise. Most of you are familiar with
this scripture. The Lord Jesus Christ was crucified
at Calvary, and on the right and left hand of the Lord Jesus
Christ were two thieves nailed and crucified with the Lord of
glory. Now, throughout the scripture there are many examples of sovereign
grace, the sovereign grace of God shown to guilty sinners.
We see this all the way through the Bible. God saved Noah and
his family multitude of the world perished without hope. Here's
another example. God called Abraham out of idolatry
while the rest of his family died in heathen idolatry. God
removed Lot and his family from Sodom while he rained fire on
those who were left behind. God blessed and loved Jacob while
Esau found no way of repentance. The Lord saved a God-hater named
Saul of Tarsus while his Pharisee friends died in their rebellion.
God had mercy on Peter while he left Judas in his own wicked
devices and to his own wicked heart. Now, in each of these
cases, ask yourself this question. Who made the difference? Who
made the difference? If you believe the difference
was because of the person, it's obvious that you believe that
salvation is by merit and works and something that is earned
and not the grace and mercy of God in Christ Jesus. The distinguishing
difference whether a man is saved or lost is found only in the
sovereign grace and purpose of God. It's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, it's God who shows mercy. Now the clearest example of this
basic biblical truth is found in the case of this dying thief.
Here's a glorious example of God's sovereign mercy. Why was
the Lord of Glory crucified between two thieves? Well, two reasons.
To fulfill all Scriptures. And secondly, to display in the
plainest way how God saves sinners. The case of both of these thieves
were desperate. They were both guilty. Both were
dying. Both were in urgent need of mercy.
Yet only one called on the Lord for mercy. Only one was granted
faith and repentance. Only one was taken to glory.
Now, again, who made the difference? We read in the scripture, it's
God who made the difference. Now, in this text, there are
four things revealed unto us, clearly revealed about this man's
salvation. First of all, we see his faith. His faith. His faith was an operation
of the Spirit of God. At first, both of these thieves
railed on the Lord, but God granted this sinner faith. It pleased
God in His infant mercy to give this man faith to believe. Faith
is not something that's native to the wicked heart. Faith is
a spiritual grace, the fruit of a spiritual nature. It's plainly
the sovereign right and the gift of God to give this faith to
whom He will. God gave one thief, granted him
faith, and left the other one to himself. The second thing
about his faith we see is this. His faith had one distinct object. He fixed his heart and eye on
the Lord Himself. He put his total confidence of
his salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Now, often people
are confused as to the strength and merit of faith. They find
no assurance and no peace because they look everywhere rather than
looking to Him. They look to an experience or
look to ceremony or tradition rather than looking to Christ.
My friend, true faith, God-given faith is focused totally upon
a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. The believer's faith is totally
dependent for all things in salvation on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
it totally rests in Him. We say with Paul, we worship
God in the Spirit, we rejoice in Christ Jesus, and we have
no confidence in the flesh. The exhortation of Scripture
is, look unto Christ, look unto Him. The second thing we see
about this man's conversion, his confession of faith. He had
faith and he confessed it in the Lord Jesus Christ. He confessed,
first of all, fear and respect and reverence for Almighty God.
He said to that other thief, don't you fear God? None of the
Pharisees or this other thief or the soldiers showed any respect
for the Lord. They mocked him. laughed at him
and put him to scorn and railed on him. My friend, true faith
confesses holy fear before God. True faith says holy and reverent
is His name. You see the confession of his
faith? He feared the Lord. The second thing we see that
his faith confessed, he confessed his own sinful condition. He
knew he was getting what he deserved. Did you notice what he said?
He said to the other thief, ìDonít you fear God, seeing that thou
art in same condemnation, and we indeed justly, for we receive
the due reward of our deeds.î This man knew, and he confessed
his sinful heart and sinful nature and condition before God. He
knew he was getting what he deserved. True faith has a right view of
God, a right view of self. Those who God saves know that
they are guilty before God. They've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. They know what they are by nature,
born in sin, shaped in iniquity, and they know what they have
earned. The wages of sin is death. He confessed that he was a sinner. And that's the confession of
true faith. Thirdly, we see this, he confessed the sinlessness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, this man hath done nothing
amiss. He confessed Christ as his substitute,
as his Savior. Although the Lord of glory is
suffering for the sin of His people, dying as their substitute
to put away their sin, He was a spotless Lamb of God who had
no sin, knew no sin, and did no sin. He is the just One. He suffered once for our sins,
the just. dying for the unjust that he
might bring us unto God. He was not only born sinless,
but his whole life he honored and magnified and obeyed the
holy law of God in word, thought, and deed, and in doing so performed
righteousness for us. That's what this thief was confessing
unto the Lord. Lord, You're the sinless substitute. You're the Savior. You've done
nothing amiss. Something else he confessed was
this. He confessed Him as Lord. He addressed Him in verse 42.
He said, Jesus, Lord, Lord. He confessed Him as not only
His Savior, but as His Lord. What a miracle of grace this
is. The Lord Jesus Christ at this
time when He was crucified and beaten and rejected of man, He
certainly didn't look like Lord. Like the Lord and the King of
a kingdom, He was beaten and mutilated and bloody and nailed
to a tree, and yet this man, this thief who was saved by God's
grace, fixed his eye and his heart on Him and called Him and
confessed that He is Lord. True faith has a new eye, has
a new vision that sees things as they really are. We see the
Lord Jesus Christ. True faith confesses Christ as
Lord of all things. by the eternal, unchanging degree
of God. God decreed Him to be Lord. He's not Lord by something we
do. God made Him Lord and Christ. And through faith confesses,
as this thief did, Jesus Christ to be the absolute Lord of glory. Something else we see, we see
the prayer of faith. Not only the confession of faith,
but the prayer of faith. In verse 42, Notice, he said
unto the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, remember me when thou comest
into thy kingdom. Here's a prayer of faith. The
other thief cried out, if you be the Christ, save thyself and
us. He cried out for temporary relief
from physical pain. However, the repentant thief,
whom God saved by his grace, only cried out for spiritual
blessings. Lord, when you come into your
kingdom, Lord, remember me. That was a humble prayer, wasn't
it? He didn't ask for great advancement in the kingdom. Just simply,
Lord, remember. Remember me. To be remembered
by the Lord of glory in loving kindness and grace is all any
sinner needs. Lord, in wrath, remember mercy,
as one prophet in Scripture prayed. Now, lastly, let me give you
this. Here's the answer. to the prayer of faith, found
in Luke 23, verse 43. And the Lord said unto him, Verily
I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Now here's the answer. to the
prayer of faith today. Today you will be with me in
glory." Now we had a paradise once. The first Adam had a garden
that God prepared. And Adam sinned against God.
Adam rebelled against God. And we lost that first paradise. But my friend, the good news
of the gospel is the Lord Jesus Christ has regained and restored
paradise. That's what He did at Calvary.
He prepared a place for us by His planning, His preparing,
His providing at Calvary, dying to put away our sin. In John
chapter 14, when He said, I go and prepare a place for you,
my friend, He wasn't talking about a material place. He was talking about going to
Calvary and by dying as a sinner's substitute and putting away our
sin, that He was preparing a place. in glory in Himself. Salvation
is in a person. By His almighty grace, He not
only prepared a place for us in Himself, but by His almighty
grace, He prepares us for the place by making us new creatures
in Christ Jesus. We read in the book of Jude,
"...to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with
exceeding joy." My friend, never doubt the power and ability of
the Lord to save His people. He's able to save them to the
uttermost. Salvation must be an immediate
and complete act of God's purpose, power, and sovereign grace. God saves whom He saves, when
He saves them, according to His own purpose and grace, and He
saves all whom He saves wisely, just as He saved this dying thief. God saved and had mercy on this
dying thief according to God's own purpose and grace given in
Christ Jesus before the foundation of the world. And my friend,
God saves all whom he wisely saved just as he saved this dying
thief by God's sovereign grace. We say with the Apostle Paul,
by the grace of God, I am what I am. Now, you see the example
and illustration of sovereign mercy and sovereign grace. Here's
two men dying at the same time, both nailed to a tree, and one
confessed faith in Christ, one called on the Lord for mercy,
and the other railed on him and mocked him. Now, do you see who
made the difference? The difference wasn't in the men. They were
both guilty. They were both sinners. Who made the difference was God
Almighty. God called one and left the other. If you would like a copy, of
this message. I'd gladly send it to you absolutely
free. You can call or write to me.
My phone number is 631-9053-631-9053 or you can write to me at Zebulon
Baptist Church, 6088 Zebulon Highway, Pikeville, Kentucky.