And one of the male factors,
criminals, is a better word, which were hanged, railed on
him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked
him, the other criminal, saying, Dost 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. Thomas Brooks once said, He that believes on the Lord
Jesus Christ shall be saved be his sins never so many. He that believes not on the Lord
Jesus Christ shall be damned, be his sins never so few." Now
there are a lot of questions answered in the conversion of
the First of all, he was forgiven
of all his sins and made a child of God in the eleventh hour of
his life. Now no one can deny that as a
man grows older, and in the words of this day, it's harder to reach
him with the gospel. Now we know that a sinner dead
in trespasses and sin is dead and trespasses in sin, whether
he's 15 or whether he's 50, whether he's 20 or 70. And only the power
of God, only the Spirit of God can awaken a man who is dead
and trespasses in sin, whether he is 15 or whether he's 50 or
20 or 70, takes the power of God. Salvation is of the Lord. But nevertheless, because of
the hardness of the heart, because of the continuation in sin. He that being often reproved
and hardeneth his heart shall be destroyed, suddenly destroyed,
and that without remedy. Most people are brought to a
knowledge of Christ in their early years rather than in their
later years. But this man was forgiven and
made a child of God in the eleventh hour of his life. There's no
reason for any person here, whether sixty years of age or older to
despair, saying, well, I've crossed the deadline. I've passed the
day of conversion. There's no hope for me. Don't
say that. Because this man was in the very
closing hours of his life. It wasn't but just a little while
after these words were spoken that he died. He was in the eleventh
hour, and yet he came to the knowledge of Christ. And I would
urge anyone here, regardless of how old you may be, if you've
never been brought to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, if
you've never received and believed on him, trust him today. Rest in him today. Now I think
another question that's answered here is this man lived his entire
life in rebellion. He lived his entire life in sin. There was no commendable virtues
about him. Some people seem to be of the
opinion that if a man is not raised in a Christian home and
is not brought up in the church and does not live a respectable
life, that there's no hope for him. Just give up on him. But
as far as I can detect, this man lived his whole life as a
thief, as a murderer, as a robber, as a criminal. And he was brought
to knowledge of Christ. Actually, those who were brought
up in the synagogue Those who were brought up in religion were
standing about the cross deriding the Son of God, railing on Him.
Those who were brought up in what we call moral values were
the ones that demanded His death and His blood. They were the
ones that demanded that He be crucified. This man lived his
life in total rebellion against God. He lived his life in evil. no commendable virtues at all.
And he was the only one, according to the record of God's Word,
the only one at this crucifixion scene who was saved. Now another question that's answered
here. This man was never confirmed. This man was never baptized. This man never came to the front
of a church. This man never attended communion. This man never received the sacrament. This man never gave to the church. This man never attended a religious
ceremony. This man never celebrated Easter
or Christmas. This man never worked a day in
the kingdom of God. And yet he was totally, completely
redeemed by the blood of the Son of God. He became a child
of the living God. He became Christ's companion
when he entered paradise. All of these things are important
in their proper place. Baptism, communion, working for
Christ, religious celebrations, but none of them contribute to
the cleansing of the soul. That's obvious from this story. These things are obvious. This
man was made a child of God in the very last days of his life.
This man's entire life had been lived in rebellion. Not in Christian
home, not in the church, not in the synagogue, not in giving
thoughts to religion. It was total rebellion. And yet
this man was saved immediately, just like that. One moment a
rebel, the next moment a child of God. One moment an outcast,
the next moment a son of God. One moment a maggot on the dunghill
of sin, the next moment a joint heir with Jesus Christ on the
throne of glory. And yet he never passed through
religious ceremonies, he never passed through the altar of events,
he never came to a mourner's bench, He never came to a baptismal
pool, he never came to a priest or a preacher. The next question
that's answered is this, there were no preachers or priests
or evangelists between him and the Lord. Not one. But I must go to the preacher
and see if I can be saved. He can't save you. The good possibility
he can point you to the Word of God, the possibility he can
that you profit by his experience, there's a good possibility he
can preach to you the gospel. But there was no priest to confess
his sins to here, there was no evangelist, no high-powered preacher
to point the way, there was just the sinner and the Lord. And
this sinner did business with Christ, not with his ambassador,
he did business with the Son of God. And the next thing I see here
is that this man never held membership in a local church. Never was
this man a member of a local church. And yet this man inherited
all of glory, all of glory, all the glory that God gives the
Son. And it was all of grace. Now
if we want to learn the vital areas of the kingdom of God.
The place to learn them is at the cross. If we want to learn
the vital areas of the kingdom of God, the place to learn them
is at Calvary. You can spend a lifetime at Calvary,
you can spend a lifetime at the cross. That's where it's learned. At
the cross, you'll see the wickedness of the human heart. The people who crucified Jesus
Christ were people like you and me. The people who cried, give
us Barabbas, were people like you and me. The people who spit in his face
were people like you and me. Confronted with absolute holiness,
they despised it. Confronted with absolute righteousness,
they hated it. Confronted with God himself,
they demanded his death. At the cross you see the wickedness
of the human heart. Men by nature hate God. One of the most startling things
that we can learn in our lifetime is that by nature we hate God. And I find as I preach up and
down the country and wherever I go to proclaim what the Bible
says, that one of the places that men question my message
most is when I come to this point, they by nature hate God. We don't
hate God, preacher. Well, the Scripture says that
light is coming to the world, but men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds are evil. The Scripture says
that the that man by nature, his mind is enmity against God. Enmity. They hate God. And I'll tell you where you'll
find out this hatred is when the will
of God crosses your will. And we don't hate those who are
far us. We don't hate those who promote
us. We don't hate those who encourage us, we hate those who oppose
us. And when our wills cross the will of God, we find out
that we have hatred for God, enmity against God. The natural
mind is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it
be. At the cross you'll see the love
which God has for sinful men, for God so loved that that He
gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should
not perish, but have eternal life." You want to learn something
of the love of God, you'll learn it at the cross. At the cross you see the holiness
and righteousness of God. The law of God is so important
to the Heavenly Father that He's going to honor that law even
at the expense of sending His Son to His death. I wonder how
many of us love the law that much. Come on now. You say you
do not hate God, you do not hate righteousness, you do not hate
the holy law? Let me ask you this. Suppose that the boy across the
railroad track assaults a young lady. And he's brought to trial, and
you're on the jury. Or perhaps it's just a trial
before one judge, and you're that judge. You look down at
that boy, and he's always been a troublemaker. Played hooky
from school. He stole hubcaps. On Halloween,
he threw mud on your porch. He always sassed his mom and
his daddy. He always chased and mistreated
the little boys. He was always, he was always
a community bully. There he stands before you. He's
about 20 years old now and he's got a snarl on his face and his
hair's all long and beard is growing. His clothes are dirty
and his shoes are scuffed and you look at him, well, he's no
good. Sent him to the pen. He's committed an awful crime.
The law, we can't put up with this in our community. This boy's
been a bad boy. He's assaulted this lovely sweet
girl. Now take him away and put him
in a penitentiary for life. But suppose, suppose one of the
boys here did that. He brought before you. You're
the judge now. You're supposed to be righteous. He comes before you and there
he stands, he's your son, your only son. He's always combed
his hair and brushed his teeth, he's always said yes sir and
no sir, yes ma'am and no ma'am, always made A's in school, never
played hooky. Now what's your judgment? committed
the same crime this other boy committed. What's your judgment?
He's your son, your only son. Now we find out whether or not
you love the law. See what I'm saying? Well, that's
what God was faced with at Calvary. The one who was hanging on that
cross was his only begotten, well-beloved, perfect son who
had never sinned. And yet he was hanging there
as a representative, he's hanging there as a substitute, he was
hanging there numbered with the transgressors. And God so loved,
and God was so righteous, he spared not his only son. The
law must be honored, the law must be satisfied, the law must
be honored. And at the cross you see the
holiness and righteousness of God. unparalleled holiness, unparalleled
righteousness. Now, I believe in mercy. I believe
in giving a man another chance. I believe in justice tempered
with mercy. And we can say, well, this young
man has never done anything wrong before, then let's give him a
break, let's give him another chance. I'm for that. But God could not do that with
His Son. because his son was made sin
for us. His son was taking our place
before the law, and the law had to be honored. The law had to
be glorified. Now at the cross you see something
else. At the cross you see the fulfillment
of all the sacrifices of the Old Testament and the priesthood
of the Old Testament. When you look back beginning
with Abel's sacrifice and come through the Old Testament, you
see Lamb after lamb, goat after goat, heifer after heifer, turtledoves,
you see all of these sacrifices. Has it never occurred to you
that those sacrifices have ceased? There was always a sacrifice
in the Old Testament days from the time of Abel, from the time
of Adam and Eve, up to 1900 years ago. There was always the firstling
of the flock was selected. The owner of the flock would
go out and look over his sheep. He'd pick out the firstling of
the flock, the one without spot or blemish, and he'd bring it
to the priest, and the animal's throat would be cut, and the
blood would be caught in a basin, and the high priest would take
the blood behind the veil into the Holy of Holies and offer
it up once a year as an atonement. The blood would be sprinkled
on the book, the blood would be sprinkled on the priest, on
the people, on the altar. The blood would be sprinkled
on the mercy seat without the sprinkling of blood, without
the shedding of blood. There was no remission of sin.
Has it ever occurred to you that there are not any sacrifices
anymore? That even in the so-called orthodox
Jewish religion that there is no blood shedding? that there
are no sacrifices offered? Why? When did it stop? It stopped at Calvary when the
perfect Lamb of God was slain. It stopped at Calvary when the
fulfillment of all these sacrifices died. It stopped at Calvary when
the picture ceased and the reality appeared. When the type and the
symbol was replaced by reality, by the Son of God, who all these things represented.
They were types of Christ. When Abel brought his blood sacrifice,
he was saying, the Lamb of God will come, the blood will be
offered, the mercy seat will be covered with blood that will
put an end to all of this blood. And at the cross you see the
fulfillment of the sacrifice. You see the fulfillment of the
priesthood. We don't need an earthly priest
anymore. I have no objection to the priesthood.
A man is a fool to say that the Bible does not teach a priest,
a high priest, one who is a mediator and advocate for the people.
But don't look for him here on this earth. He's not on this
earth. Our high priest, we have a high priest, but he's in glory
at the right hand of the Heavenly I'll tell you where we need to
learn. We need to learn at the cross. There you'll see man's
corruption. There you'll see God's compassion. There you'll see true holiness. God dealing in holiness. God
dealing in righteousness. God doing what we wouldn't do.
God sending his son to death to honor his law. The jewel of
heaven being smashed under the hammer of sin. There you'll see
the fulfillment of all the sacrifices. When did they cease? At Calvary.
When did they stop? At Calvary. Why did they stop? Because of Calvary. Where were
they fulfilled? At Calvary. And you stand there
at that cross and you find where the people are. Where are the
people? Look around that cross and you see the brutal soldiers. They deal in blood. Their profession
is blood. The shedding of blood is what
they're trained to do. They're there tasting the fruit
of their profession. But you look and hear around
are the people. They're enjoying. They like bloodshed. Why do people go to boxing matches?
They like to see blood spurt from the nose of victims. Why
do people watch bullfights? Because they like to see blood.
Brutality. They thrive on it. One of the
most horrible things that can take place. But we like brutality. If a wreck is on the side of
the road and somebody's head's smashed in and blood's flowing,
you'll have 500 people around there before you can snap your
fingers. And around this cross was the people who were bloodthirsty. They liked to see agony and suffering
and blood and tragedy. Watch the newspaper. What do
they print? Tragic news. Listen to the television
news. What do you hear? Tragic news.
Everything's tragic because people like tragedy. And at the cross, out yonder
a little further, I want you to look and see where that, where's
the religious crowd? They're there. Whose side are
they on? Are they on the side of the Son
of God? No, sir, they're not. Where are your men clothed in
the raiments of religion? They're standing there smiling
with their big fat stomachs sticking out and the prosperity of their
religion in the shine of their clothes. They put them on that
cross. Well, we got rid of that fanatic. They're not on the side
of the Son of God. They weren't then, they are not
now. Religion is aligned against God. the true God, the true Christ. And at the cross you see substitution
illustrated as well as fulfilled. Barabbas goes free, the Son of
God dies. You see all that at the cross.
You learn at the cross. If you want to see the areas
of the kingdom of God that we need to study, that we need to
look into, you see it at the cross. It's all fulfilled there.
God lets you see the whole scene. God paints the whole picture
at Calvary for you. There it is, the most important
event that's ever occurred in the history of this world, was
back yonder at Calvary. And God Almighty painted that
scene well. He painted in that scene man's
total corruption. He painted in that scene His
everlasting love. He painted in that scene the
fulfillment of all of the sacrifices. He painted in that scene a true
picture of man-made religion. It's all right there in front
of you. Jesus Christ would have never died on that cross in the
purpose of God, yes, but He would have never died on that cross
without man-made religion demanding his death. But I want you to
see something else at the cross quickly. I want you to see God
Almighty demonstrating there, showing us there, how he saves
a sinner. It's all there. Four or five
things. First of all, this man began
the day reviling the Son of God. Turn to Matthew 27. This man
began the day. reviling the Son of God. In Matthew 27, 43, he trusted
in God, that God deliver him now if he'll have him. He said,
I am the Son of God, the thieves, plural, the thieves also which
were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. They said
the same thing, both of them, not one of them, both of them.
Both of these thieves began the day cursing Christ. Both of these
thieves began the day reviling the Son of God, ridiculing Him,
both of them. The one who was not converted
and the one who was converted. He began, he started that day
cursing the Son of God. Now you'd think this man would
be doing something else at a time like this. Hanging there in agony,
hanging there in torture. certain to be dead in a few hours,
instead of confessing his sin, instead of crying for mercy,
he was cursing the Son of God. And yet men today are just as
foolish, for though this man knew he would be dead in just
a few hours, you may be too. Though you do not know it, though
you're not sure that you'll be dead in a few hours, there's
a good possibility you will be, death is just around the corner.
You say, what a fool. Here this man was hanging there
dying. Here he was, death right on his
heels, and yet he's cursing God. Well, how do you know death's
not on your heels? It's appointed unto men once to die. You're
not certain of tomorrow. You're not certain of tonight. How in the world Spurgeon used
to say this, Talking about the human body, he said, I'm surprised
that a harp of a thousand strings can stay in tune so long. What
keeps this body from dying right now? There's so many things can
go wrong. And yet men spend their waking
hours bucking God, cursing God, going against the will, the law,
the commandments of God. What fools we are. That's the
way this man started today, cursing God. rebelling against God. But
now wait. The next time he speaks, Luke
23, verse 39, verse 40, he says, Does thou not fear God? I don't
know which side of Christ this man was on. Some say he was on
the right hand. I do not know. It doesn't make
a great deal of difference. But let's just suppose he's the
thief on this side. Here's the Son of God in the
middle being crucified as our Savior, our substitute. One man,
they say that one man at Calvary died for sin, that was Christ. One man at Calvary died in sin,
that was the rebellious thief. One man died to sin, that was
the one who repented. But here Christ dying in the
center between these two thieves. And this man begins to curse
him when the day started. He didn't. He looked around,
they were nailing up the other thief, and then they nailed him
up, and then they nailed this fellow in the middle. And somebody said,
well, this is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Well, if you're the
Son of God, why don't you save us and yourself? That's the way
he started the day. But after a little while, he
turned to the other thief, and he says, don't you fear God?
Don't you fear God? This man expresses a fear of
God. Now let me ask you, point blank,
let me look right at you now, listen to me. Do you fear God? Now come on, be honest, answer
the question in your own mind. Do you really fear God? Now some people try to avoid
answering that question. They say, we're not supposed
to fear God. That means you don't. Well, we're supposed to love
God. That means you don't fear God. Well, we ought to preach love,
and you ought not try to scare people in the kingdom of God.
That means you don't. A man who fears God will answer immediately,
yes. He won't seek an alibi. He won't seek an excuse. He won't
beat around the bush. He won't avoid the question.
He'll come right out and say, yes, I fear God. Brethren, I'll
tell you this, and I say this as a servant of the living God,
I say this with eternity awaiting, with heaven above us and hell
beneath us, and sin important, and God's Word before me. A man
who does not fear God is not saved, and furthermore isn't
going to be until he comes to the place where he genuinely,
sincerely fears God Almighty. Now, you better buy you a Bible. and by your concordance, and
you look up the word fear, and you'll find in the word of God
that fear is used interchangeably with worship. Man can't worship
God till he fears Him. That's right. Solomon says the
beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. A man takes his
first step toward heaven not when he believes in Jesus Christ,
He takes his first step toward heaven when he feels in his heart
a definite fear of God Almighty. That's right. There's nothing wrong with the
motive of fear where God's concerned. Noah moved with fear. You know
what it says? By faith, you say, wait a minute,
by faith, Noah moved with fear and prepared an ark. I want you to listen to a verse
of Scripture from the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 10, verse
12. Listen to this, Deuteronomy 10,
12. And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee? That's a good question, isn't
it? Rachel, what does God expect of me? What does God require
of me? Number one, to fear the Lord thy God. Number one, to
fear the Lord thy God. Number two, to walk in his ways. Number three, to love him. And
number four, to serve him with all your heart, with all your
soul. What's number one? Fear the Lord. You know what God said to Satan
when he came to him accusing Job? You know what he said? He said, Job chapter 1 verse
1, he said, My servant Job fears God and hates sin. He said Job was a righteous man.
The two characteristics of Job, he fears God and he hates sin. In Matthew chapter 10 verse 28,
I want you to listen to Christ, listen to the Son of God, Matthew
10 verse 28. This is Christ speaking. and
fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill
the soul." You know, that's something that
surprises me. I want you to listen to me a
minute. I want you to listen to me. You fear men? I was in a city not too many
days ago And I watched a group of men who cowed and bowed before another human being. It
made me sick at my stomach. Afraid of him. Feared. Feared
for their jobs. They feared for their success. They feared for something else.
In fact, their fear was so great that they compromised principles
they knew at that moment they were compromising. I knew they
were compromising, but they were scared. Christ said, don't fear these
little peanuts that can't hurt you. Well, they might wound your
body, but they can't touch your soul. I'll tell you whom you
ought to fear. Fear Him who is able to destroy
your body and soul in hell. That's who you'd better fear. Fear God. This man started the
journey toward heaven. And you know how he started it?
He started it with a fear of God. He was afraid of God. Don't you fear God? Notice the
next thing quickly. He then owns and confesses his
sins. He said in Luke 23 verse 41,
he said, Don't you fear God, seeing we're in the same condemnation,
and we indeed justly. We're getting what we deserve.
If you ever really said that, now come on. This man, I know,
we all start the journey of life this way. We curse God and find
fault with the law and hate God and hate the law and do what
we please. But then one day, we begin to
wake, we wake up and begin to think, well, this life's not
old. There's something ahead. There's eternity, there's death,
there's judgment, there's God. And we begin to get a little
bit afraid. And good, that's wonderful. We begin to fear God,
but the next step is this man not only feared God, but he owned
what he was, he confessed his sins. Listen to it. We're in
the same condemnation, and we indeed justly, we're getting
the due reward of our deeds, we're getting what we deserve.
That's what he said, I'm getting what I deserve. The great trouble
today is that men are trying to make out that they're not
sinners. You know the hardest thing to find in this world,
you know the hardest thing to find, hardest thing for anybody
to find, is a sinner. Oh, it's not hard to find a fella
that hasn't always been a good boy. It's not hard to find a
girl that'll say, well, I ain't no saint. But they won't add the next line,
I am a sinner. It's not hard to find a person
that will say, well, I'm not an angel, you know. But I'm not
as bad as most people. In fact, I'm about as good as
anybody down there in that church. How many times have you heard
that, huh? Come on. I'm about as good as anybody
in your church. I expect you are. But they're not too good
either. There's no hope for us until
we come to the place that this man came to here of self, self-judgment. If you judge yourself, you shall
not be judged, Christ said. If you judge yourself, you've
got to judge yourself right. First of all, you've got to judge
yourself according to the law. According to the law. Find yourself
guilty. You've got to judge yourself
truthfully, according to the law. And you've got to come to
a self-judgment. You've got to find yourself guilty. There's no hope till we confess
our sin. Listen to the Word of God. He that covereth his sin
shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh his
sin shall find mercy. Listen to the Word of God. With
a heart man believeth unto righteousness, with a mouth confession. is made
unto salvation. Listen to the word of God. If
we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us. Do you fear God? Yes, preacher,
I do. I fear God. I am in a constant
state of fear before God. You're on good ground. Have you
confessed your sins? Have you taken your place before
God as a sinner? Not as a pretty good fella, not
even as a pretty bad fella, but a sinner. Unadulterated, self-confessed,
rebellious, hell-deserving, wrath-deserving, ill-deserving, law-breaking sinner. No frills, no gingerbread, No
optional equipment, just a bare center. Just an unclothed, naked
center. Just a hell-deserving center.
You ever come to that place? What's the next thing? God's
showing us how He saves men right here at the cross. He's showing
us everything at the cross. The next thing, and He turned
to Christ. He just turned to this man and
said, don't you fear God? We're getting what we deserve.
We robbed and stole and cheated and murdered and killed and hated. We're getting what we ought to
get. We're hanging on a cross. We're paying for our sin. This
is what we deserve. Lord, Lord, this is one of the most extraordinary
cases of faith in this Bible. Abraham was a man of faith. But
God sent Abraham to school for about 25 years. Moses believed God, but Moses
saw a burning bush and a parting sea, and a rock give water, and an army drown. Elijah was
a man of faith, but Elijah saw fire fall from God and burn up
soaked wood and lick up dust. I believe I could believe God
looking at that. But here was a man hanging on
a cross, looking at a Savior whose disciples had forsaken
Him, looking at a mass of flesh that didn't even look like a
man, looking at a fellow that didn't have a friend, looking
at one who claimed to be the Son of God, but even the Heavenly
Father would not own Looking at a man who said he was God's
son, but God who could call down legions of angels from heaven
and rescue him, let him die hanging six thirsty hours on a cross. Looking at a man who claimed
to be a king and didn't have a subject in the world. Looking at a man who claimed
to have all authority, all power in heaven and earth, and yet
he didn't have the power to get himself a drink of water. He
looked at that man and called him Lord. Preacher, I'll have none of your
crucified king. It's all right. Perfectly all
right. Those people didn't have him
either. They wouldn't have him either. They said, we won't have
this man to reign over us if he'll come on a white charger
clothed in the materials of this world identified with the Things
with which we're identified, we'll have him, but not this
crucified, hated, despised lamb. We don't want him. That's all
right. That's all right. The Spirit of the living God,
who alone can reveal the mysteries of the kingdom of God, revealed
this mystery to this thief. The Spirit of the living God,
who passes by rebellious men, the proud and the haughty, He
revealed Christ to the broken-hearted, humble thief. I thank Thee, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth. Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent, and Thou hast revealed them unto babe.
The Spirit of the living God revealed Christ the King to this
man. He saw beneath the crown of thorns.
He saw beneath the bleeding skin. He saw beneath the hated males. He saw beneath the curses. He
saw beneath the filth. He saw the glory of Christ Jesus. And he said, Lord, Lord, you're
not going to stay dead. You're coming into a kingdom.
Remember me. Remember me, a cross and one
that hangs there on in sight of heaven and earth. The cruel
nails are fashed in his trembling hands and feet and his face is
white and changed with agony, the falling head is drooping
heavily, but still again, yet again, his weary eyes are raised
to seek the face of Christ, who hangeth pale upon another cross. He doesn't hear the shrill, taunting
voices of the crowd beneath. He marks no cruel looks of all
that gaze upon that terrible sight, He only sees the face
of Christ upon the cross, oh, the long, long look that searcheth
there the deep and awful things, the mysteries of God. And in
his agony and horror, he remembered that he had joined with them
that spake against the Lord, the Lamb, who gave himself that
day for our sins. But when he met the look of those
calm eyes, those forgiving eyes, He paused that moment, pale and
trembling and stricken to the heart and faint at the sight
of the glory of the Son of God, and his pale lips breathed a
trembling prayer, Lord, remember me. Lord, remember me. The host of God, with angel faces
bending low above their dying Lord, were stirred to wonder
at that cry, not one of them, not one of that shining host
had dared to speak to Christ in that dread hour of woe, when
heaven and earth stood trembling and amazed, and yet, lo, who
is this one who speaks to Him? Who is this one who dares to
pray, O Lord, remember me? Who is this one who cries, remember
me? A sinner? You mean a sinner may
make that pitiful cry to Christ, the sinner's friend, when angels
dare not speak to him?" And sweetly from the dying lips
of the Lord that answer came, O that strange and solemn joy
that broke upon the fading face of him who there received the
promise, Thou shalt be in Paradise this day with me. O Christ the King, I also wander
on the desert hills haunted by Thy call at morning eve. I would not come to Thee till
Thou didst nail me to a bitter cross, and made me look on Thine
face, and driven at last to call on Thee with trembling and with
tears. thou didst look upon me in love,
and upbraided me not, and promised me thy kingdom. And now we see a throne, and
one who kneels before it, bending low in speechless joy. It is
night on earth, the shadows fall like dew upon the hills around
the holy city, but above it is the eternal day Beyond the dark
veil of the sky, beyond the smiling of the stars, these two meet
once more in peace and glory. Heaven is comforted. That strange
warfare is over now. The King has returned to glory
with joy, and one who watched Him that day, O Lord, remember me. And Christ
said today, Thou shalt be with me in paradise. Let us pray. Our Father, break these hard,
cold hearts of ours. Put the fear of God in our hearts. Take away the proud, haughty,
rebellious spirit. Crush us, O God, by Thy Spirit
before we're crushed by Thy wrath. Humble us, O Lord, by Thy Spirit
before we're humbled in hell. Let not our proud, haughty spirits
lead us to destruction. The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day. There may I, though vile as He,
wash my sins away. Bring us, every one, to a true
confrontation this day with our Lord. Take from between us and
Him the prejudices, the traditions, the ceremonies, the religions. Take from between us and Him
the enmity, the hatred, the rebellion, break us at his dear feet, that
by his grace and through his blood we may sit at his feet
forever in endless joy. For it is in the name of Christ
our Lord we pray. Amen.