Luke chapter 23. Let's begin
at verse 39 and read just a few verses here. We see the Lord
Jesus Christ dying the appointed death, crucified according to
God's determination, Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. But as He dies nailed to
that tree with the sins of God's people upon Him, He's nailed
between these two things. One on the right and one on the
left. These men were guilty of some vile crime and deserve to
die. The Lord Jesus Christ is guilty
of no crime. He's the holy Son of God, deserving
of nothing but God's favor. God said, this is my beloved
Son. I'm well pleased in Him. And
one of these criminals which were hanged with the Lord Jesus
and crucified with Him saying, If thou be the Christ, you save
yourself, and would you spare me this pain, this death? But
the other answering rebuked him, saying, Don't you fear God? Don't
you have any reverence of God, seeing that we are condemned? And we indeed justly, for we
receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man, This man,
this God-man, this mediator, he deserves nothing but God's
favor. And yet we see him here dying
the death reserved for the most vile offender. But this man had
done nothing amiss. He had done no sin. And he said
to Jesus, Lord, remember me. When you come into your kingdom,
you're coming into a kingdom, when you do, would you remember
me? Remember me. What's the Lord of glory going
to say? Look what he says here. This is good news. And the Lord
said to him, truly I am saying to you that you'll be with me
in paradise right soon. You'll be, and the key here is
with me. With me. Paradise without Him
wouldn't be paradise. Salvation is in Christ with Him. Now, throughout Holy Scripture,
there are many examples of sovereign grace, the sovereign grace of
God. And there is no other grace but
sovereign grace of God. There are many examples throughout
the Scripture of the sovereign grace of God shown and demonstrated
to those who are guilty and vile. Let me give you some examples.
God saved Noah and his family while the whole multitude of
the world perished with no hope. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. Noah, God was gracious to Noah. Noah wasn't any more deserving
than any of those others, but God singled out Noah, had mercy
upon him. How about Abraham? Where did
God find Abraham? Down in the house of idolatry. God called Abraham out of idolatry
while the rest of his family died in heathen idolatry. You see, God called Abraham. Abraham, get out and go to a
land that I'll show you. I'm going to make out of you
a great nation. I'm going to bless you. That's
grace. Sovereign grace. God removed
another occasion of sovereign mercy we see in Scripture. God
removed Lot and his family from Sodom. while he rained fire on
those reprobates left behind. God is sovereign in salvation. God blessed and loved Jacob. Jacob have I loved, Esau have
I hated, while Esau found no place of repentance. You see, this is sovereign grace,
sovereign mercy. God will have mercy on whom He
will have mercy. God saved an old, self-righteous,
God-hater, Pharisee named Saul of Tarsus, didn't He? What about
the rest of His Pharisee friends? They perished in their rebellion
and their self-righteousness before God. What made the difference? Who made the difference? God
made the difference. God had mercy on Peter. Peter
denied the Lord. God had mercy on Peter and left
Judas to his own wicked devices. Now, what made the difference?
If you say the difference was in the individual, then you obviously
believe that salvation is in the hand of the sinner, not in
the hand of Almighty God. My friend, I declare unto you
that the only reason for grace and mercy is the sovereign purpose
of God in Christ Jesus. Who made the difference in each
of these cases? God has made us to differ. God
has made us to differ. that we read of in this book
is a matter of God's distinguishing grace. You see, it's God who
determines who's saved and who's lost. It's God who has made us
to differ. It's not of Him that willeth
nor of Him that runneth, but it's God that would have mercy.
He said, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. Now, God's going to have mercy.
Make no mistake about that. He's going to show His mercy.
But He's going to have mercy on whom He will. And he'll save
whom he will. We're born again not of the will
of the flesh, not of the will of man, but we're born of God.
That's what we call sovereign mercy. God will save whom he
will, and all whom he saves, he saves on purpose. Purpose. God never saved a sinner
by accident. If you're saved, it's because
of the sovereign purpose of God in Christ Jesus. That's the sovereign
grace of God that we don't try to cover up and hide. We declare
to all that this is the God that we worship. God is God. Beside Him, there is no other.
Now, one of the clearest examples of this basic Bible truth of
God's sovereign mercy is found here In Luke 23, in the case
of this dying thief, there were two. There were two dying with
the Lord. One is left to his own wicked
devices, and the other cries out for mercy. Now, who made
the difference? God made the difference. God
made the difference between these two. The Lord Jesus Christ is
dying on Calvary's tree, being the appointed Lamb of God. He
dies here between these two thieves to fulfill all Scripture. And
He dies here, and isn't this an amazing thing that God gives
this greatest example of sovereign mercy in the last hours of His
earthly life? He said to that thief, right
now, you'll be with Me in glory. As soon as you die, in heaven. The case of both these thieves
were desperate. They were both guilty. They were both dying.
They were both in urgent need of mercy. Yet only one called
on the Lord for mercy. One was granted faith. One was
given repentance. One was taken to glory. And the
other died a rebel against God. Again, I ask the question, who
made the difference? God made the difference. Now,
this text reveals four things about this sovereign mercy, this
sovereign salvation that we read of in the Bible. The first thing
we see about this repentant thief, his faith. His faith was God-given. At one time, both these thieves
railed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we see this other thief calling
Him Lord and looking to Him for salvation. His faith was God-given. It was an operation of the Spirit
of God. It pleased God in His infinite
mercy to give this man a repentant heart and faith to look to Christ
at first. As I said earlier, the scripture
records in Matthew 27, verse 44, that both these men railed
on the Lord Jesus Christ. But God granted this repentant
thief. God gave him a heart of repentance,
a broken heart, and a contrite spirit. Faith is not something
that is native to our wicked heart. Faith is the gift of God. Faith is the spiritual grace
and the fruit of the spiritual nature. He that's born again,
those who have been begotten of God, those are the ones who
believe the truth and love the truth. A man believes God because
he's been given life of God. He that believes that Jesus is
the Christ is born of God, born of God, and given faith to believe
Him. This man was obviously By nature,
an unbeliever, but by grace, God gave him faith to believe
Christ. Faith is an operation of the
Spirit of God. His faith was an operation of
God. God operated on his heart. God
revealed that his heart was not right, and God made his heart
right. Secondly, his faith had one distinct
object. In verse 42, he cries out, Lord,
Now, he didn't look like Lord, did he? He was beaten and mangled
and bloody and awful looking, and yet, he got beyond all that,
and he looked at Him with an eye of faith and said, Lord,
have mercy on me. Faith has one, true saving faith,
has one distinct, plain object. It's Him. Looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith, he looked to Him not as
a Not as a, even though nailed to that tree, he didn't look
like the Lord, but he worshiped Him as Lord. As King. As King. You know, there was
a sign written over his head. The written word was, He is King. You know, that man saw that and
believed God. He is King. I worship Him as
King. His faith had one distinct object.
Christ. the Lord Jesus Christ. His confidence
of salvation was in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Often people are confused as
to the strength and merit of faith. They find no assurance
in peace because they look everywhere but to Christ. Saving faith doesn't
look to faith. Faith looks to Christ. Faith
is objective. It's looking to and unto our
Lord Jesus Christ. True faith is God-given. It's
focused totally upon Christ. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed and I'm persuaded He's able to keep that which I've
committed unto Him against that day. True faith, God-given faith,
rests completely upon the Lord Jesus Christ. The believer's
total dependence for all things in salvation is looking to Him. In Him dwells all the fullness
of a Godhead bodily, and in Christ we are complete." Complete in
Him. This man is just as much justified
and glorified as any sinner ever was. God said so. You'll be with
Me in glory. How could this sinner be with
the Lord in glory? He made him a new creature in
Christ. That's how. By the sovereign grace of God.
Saving faith looks to Christ and is dependent upon the exalted,
victorious, Lord Jesus Christ, looking unto Him, unto Christ,
who is the author and finisher of our faith. That's his faith. The confession of his faith is
this. He had faith, and he confessed it. He confessed it. He confessed
fear and respect and reverence for Almighty God. Look at verse
40. The one man said, if thou be
the Christ, if you're the Christ, save thyself enough. But the
other answering, rebuking, said, don't you fear God? He had a
reverence and fear and respect for Almighty God. Christ is God. Now, none of the Pharisees or
soldiers showed the Lord any respect, did they? They mocked
Him. They said, if you be the King, come on down, we'll believe
you. They mocked Him in His They mocked him as king, didn't they?
He put a crown on his head and they mocked his kingship. They
mocked him. They put a ring in his hand.
They mocked him as king. This man worshipped him as king.
He respected him as king. None of the Pharisees or soldiers
showed any respect to him. They mocked him. They laughed
at him. They scorned him to death. True faith confesses a holy reverence
before God. True faith does. Holy and reverent
is His name. The fool has said in his heart,
there is no God. But true faith confesses Him
as God and Savior. He confessed fear and respect
and reverence. Secondly, he confessed his own
sinful condition. Look at verse 41. He said, We
indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds.
He confessed his own sinfulness. He's getting just what he deserves. What do we deserve? We've all
sinned. We've all come short of the glory
of God. What do we deserve? We don't deserve mercy. You can't
merit mercy. It ceases to be mercy. We're
deserving of nothing but God's just wrath and punishment for
sin. He knew he was getting what he
deserved. He said, we're getting just what we deserve, death.
True faith has a right view of God and a right view of self. A right view of self. You remember
what Isaiah, in Isaiah 6, when Isaiah saw the Lord high and
lifted up, the angels declared, Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty. Isaiah believed God. What was
the next thing out of his mouth? Woe is me. I'm undone. I tell
you, if you see something of His glory and His holiness, God
will show you, be sure He'll show you something of your own
wicked nature before God, guilty before God. That's what this
man's confessing here. And that's what faith confesses.
Faith confesses He is holy, He's the only Savior, and we're guilty.
We're the guilty ones. We're deserving of God's wrath
and wages of sin is death. If a man says he has no sin,
he's a liar. Truth's not in him. We're guilty.
We're guilty. But you know what? The good news
of the gospel is that the Lord Jesus Christ died for the ungodly. He came to seek and to save that
which is lost. I'm ungodly by nature. By nature,
I'm lost. That's just the very one He came
to save. Lost folks. something else, he confessed
the sinlessness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at verse 41. He
said, this is his confession of faith. I'm a sinner. And then he said, this man, this
God man, this Lord that I'm worshiping, he's done nothing wrong. He's
done nothing amiss. He has no sin. This man is my
substitute. He is the spotless Lamb of God. Although the Lord of glory is
suffering for the sin of His people, dying as their substitute
to put away their sin, He was and is the spotless Lamb of God,
and yet He dies on Calvary's tree with my sin upon Him. He had to be sinless to be my
substitute. The just for the unjust that
He might bring us unto God, suffering for our sin. He was not only
born sinless, but his whole life he honored and magnified the
law of God in word, thought, and deed. Pilate, how many times
did we read? Pilate said, I find no fault
in a man. Herod said the same thing. He
had no sin, knew no sin. Even Judas said, I betrayed innocent
blood. They couldn't find one thing
on him. He had no sin, knew no sin, and he did no sin. And yet
he dies on Calvary's tree, bearing the sin of God's people in his
own body on the tree. The just for the unjust that
he might bring us unto God. He confesses here, this man,
he's the spotless Lamb of God, without blemish and without spot.
And yet he's dying as my substitute, bearing my sin and bearing my
guilt. That's the confession of faith.
Christ is my lamb. I need a lamb. You remember what
Abraham and Isaac, when they went to worship, Isaac asked,
where's the lamb? He knew he couldn't worship God
without a blood sacrifice. My friend, the Lord Jesus Christ
is that Lamb of God. John said, Behold, the Lamb of
God. The Lamb of God. And He dies
as God's sacrificial Lamb. Something else we see. This is
his confession of faith. He confessed in verse 42. He
confessed Him as Lord. Look at verse 42. He said, Jesus,
Lord, remember me. Remember me. When you come into
your kingdom, he knew something of the victory of the Lord Jesus
Christ. When you're coming into a kingdom,
you're the king, and you're going to accomplish your purpose in
salvation, would you remember me? When you come into this kingdom. He confessed him as Lord. What
a miracle of grace. He surely didn't look like, you
imagine what he looked like. Isaiah 52 said, His visage so
marred His facial features so marred that he didn't even look
like an appearance of a man. Just a mangled hunk of flesh. And yet this man gets beyond
all that, sees that word written over his head, believes God,
worships Him as Lord. He confessed Him as Lord. This
is a miracle. Miracle. True faith has new eyes,
new vision that sees the Lord Jesus Christ really as He is. He is Lord of all things. God had made that same Jesus.
Remember the sermon in Acts chapter 2? Peter declared God had made
that same Jesus whom you crucified. God had made Him Lord and Christ. God made Him Lord by the decree
of God. He's not lured by something we
do. We bow to His Lordship. We own His Lordship as King of
Kings and Lord of Lords. God has highly exalted Him. God
has given Him a name above every name. That name, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. You see, this is a confession
of faith. This man knew a lot, didn't he? He knew he was guilty. He knew he needed a substitute.
He knew the Lord Jesus Christ met that, and he worshipped him
as God. Lord, remember me. And that's
his prayer of faith. Thirdly, his prayer of faith.
Verse 42, Lord, remember me. That's a good prayer. That's
a short prayer, but it's a good prayer. Like that publican, Lord,
have mercy on me. Be sent. Lord, remember me when
you come into your kingdom. The other thief cried out, Why
don't you save yourself and save us? He was looking at the physical
aspect of this thing. However, the repentant thief
cried out only for spiritual mercy, spiritual blessings. Lord,
remember me when you come into your kingdom. It's a spiritual
kingdom. God has blessed His people with
all spiritual blessings in the heavenly in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was a humble prayer, wasn't
it? He didn't ask for great advancement in the kingdom like some of those
apostles did. Let me sit with you when we rule. No, he didn't ask for advancement.
He just said, Lord, remember me. You're the king. I'm your
servant. That's what he's saying. I'm
your servant. To be remembered by the Lord in loving kindness
and grace is all any sinner needs. Lord, in wrath, one prophet said,
Habakkuk, in wrath, Lord, remember mercy. Remember mercy. But you
remember me. I'm the sinner, and I need Christ. I need the only Savior. Well,
his prayer was answered in verse 43. Here's the answer to the
prayer of faith. Verse 43, And the Lord of glory
said this, Jesus said unto him, Truly, This is truth. Barely. Today. Today. Barely. I say unto thee that today you'll
be with me in glory. That man went to glory upon the
merit of another, the Lord Jesus Christ. Upon the merit of Christ
justifying Him by His righteousness and by His blood. His righteousness
freely given. Pardon freely given on the account
of Christ putting away his sin. The answer to the prayer of faith.
When you come into your kingdom, Lord remember me. Adam had a
paradise once. Remember? The first Adam, he
lost it. He rebelled against God. Sinned
against God. And that plunged all of us. When
he put Adam out of the garden, put us all out. Put a flaming
sword there. We couldn't get back in. The
Lord Jesus Christ took that flaming sword and opened the way for
us to come in upon His merit. Paradise has been restored by
the second man, the God-man, the mediator. And Adam all died,
even so in Christ shall all be made alive. Where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. Adam lost the way. He lost truth. He lost life. The Lord Jesus
Christ said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am life. In John
chapter 14, turn over there, let's look at this. John chapter
14. John chapter 14, when the Lord
says this, you ever notice how this is connected
here to verse, the last part of chapter 13? When the Lord
said to Peter, verily, verily, I say unto you, that you're going
to deny me three times? The cock shall not crow till
thou hast denied me three times? Peter, that's what you're going
to do. You're going to deny me three times? Peter, you're a
sinner. But let not your heart be troubled. How does that comfort
you? Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are
many dwelling places. Paradise. A kingdom. If it were
not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. What's he talking about right
there? Where's he going? You know what
he's talking about here? How does he prepare a place for
us? It's the cross. He's talking
about going to Calvary to prepare glory for us, to accomplish salvation. I go to prepare a place for you,
and if I go and prepare a place for you, And that's what he did. He prepared a place for us, being
justified in Christ, in him. He said, I'll come again and
receive you unto myself that where I am, there you may be
also. He said, you'll be with me in
paradise, in glory. He prepares a place for us by
His planning, by His preparing, by His providing in Calvary,
dying to put away our sin. And in almighty grace and regenerating
grace, He prepares us for the place, making us new creatures
in Christ, to present us faultless before
His presence with exceeding joy. Now you notice what He said here.
He said, Verily I say unto thee, Today you'll be with Me in glory."
To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.
Now, one thing, this might help you. He didn't say you need to
be baptized before you go to paradise. He said you on the
commandment and the authority and the decree of God, He said
you'll be with Me in glory. Now, if this man would have been
in this situation, he would have confessed to the Lord in believer's
baptism, wouldn't he? He would have followed the Lord
in believer's baptism, but he didn't have that opportunity.
Was he saved? Absolutely. God said so. Now, those who want to argue,
those who believe that we're justified in water baptism, that
were cleansed in water baptism. And when we bring up to them
and present to them that this thief wasn't baptized, yet God
saved him by grace, the argument always comes back from that crowd
that believes in water salvation. They always come back and say,
well, the new covenant wasn't in effect yet. The Lord hadn't
died. Wrong. They're wrong. I can make good on that. Turn
to John 19. This might help you here, if
you ever run into this situation. I had this happen to me one time,
when one of those water preachers came over to my front door, my
study, and tried to invite himself into my pulpit, and I kindly
put him down the road. And then I told him about this
thief, and he said, well, that thief was saved and didn't need
to be baptized because that new covenant wasn't in the force
because the Lord hadn't died. Look what it says here in John
19. Remember, it was a day of preparation, John 19.31. The
Lord said in verse 30, the Lord said, It is finished, and He
bowed His head and gave up the ghost. So He's died. He died there. That's when He
died. He yielded up the ghost. The Jews, therefore, because
it was a preparation for the Passover, that the body should
not remain upon the cross on the Sabbath day, For that Sabbath
day was a high day, besot Pilate, that their legs might be broken,
that they might be taken away." Now, here's what happened when
someone's crucified. They're nailed up here and they
use their legs to take the weight off their arms because their
lungs, so they push up with their legs to take the weight off their
arms so they get a breath. To hasten death. And you know
what they did? They came in there and they took a club and they
broke their legs so they couldn't push themselves up to take a
breath and they'd suffocate. So to hasten the death of these
two thieves, they came and they break their legs. But when they
came to the Lord Jesus Christ, the soldiers came and break the
legs of the first and the other which was crucified. And when
they came to Jesus and saw He was dead already, they didn't
break His legs. Uh-oh, water preacher. The Lord
of glory had already died. You see where I'm going with
this? The new covenant is in effect. This man wasn't baptized,
and yet God said he went to glory. Salvation is by the grace of
God. You see what I'm saying? See,
their argument doesn't hold water, does it? Doesn't hold water,
does it? Salvation is by the free and
sovereign grace of God. by the free and sovereign grace
of God. Those thieves were still living
when the Lord Jesus Christ had died. That covenant of grace
was in effect. It's always been in effect. It's
the eternal covenant of grace. It's the eternal covenant of
grace. Never doubt the power and ability of the Lord to save
His people. He is able to save to the uttermost
all that come to God by Him. Salvation must be an immediate
and complete act of His purpose and power and sovereign grace.
God saves all whom He wisely saves, just as He saved this
dying thief. He saved me exactly the same
way He saved that dying thief. By His purpose in Christ Jesus. Salvation is always determined,
dependent, and accomplished by the Lord of Glory, and He makes
application to our heart by His sovereign power. We believe according
to the working of His mighty power, and we say with the Apostle
Paul, by the grace of God, I am what I am. It's not of works. It's not of works. It's all of
God's grace, God's purpose and grace. He saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
God's own purpose and grace. given us in the Lord Jesus Christ.