← Back to sermon library

Please turn with me to Luke chapter 
twenty three. Luke chapter twenty three. Pick up reading at verse twenty 
six and Luke twenty three. Now, as they led him away, they 
laid a hold of a certain man, Simon, a Cyrenian who was coming 
from the country and on him they laid the cross that he might 
bear it after Jesus. and a great multitude of the 
people followed him and women who also mourned and lamented 
him. But Jesus, turning to them, said, Daughters of Jerusalem, 
do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children. For indeed, the days are coming 
in which they will say, Blessed are the barren wounds that never 
bore and breasts which never nursed. Then they will begin 
to say to the mountains, fall on us and to the hills cover 
us. For if they do these things in 
the Greenwood, what will be done in the dry? There were also two 
other two others. Criminals led with him to be 
put to death. And when they had come to the 
place called Calvary, there they crucified him and the criminals, 
one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then Jesus 
said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. 
And they divided his garments and cast lots, and the people 
stood looking on. But even the rulers with them 
sneered, saying, He saved others. Let him save himself if he is 
the Christ, the chosen of God. The soldiers also mocked him, 
coming and offering him sour wine and saying, If you are the 
king of the Jews, save yourself. And an inscription also was written 
over him in letters of Greek, Latin and Hebrew. This is the 
king of the Jews. Then one of the criminals who 
were hanged blasphemed him, saying, If you are the Christ, save yourself 
and us. But the other, answering, rebuked 
him, saying, Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under 
the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we 
receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man has done 
nothing wrong. Then he said to Jesus, Lord, 
remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said 
to him, Assuredly, I say to you today you will be with me in 
paradise. Amen. Well, let us pray. God, 
we thank you for your word. We thank you for your truth. 
And we pray now for the Holy Spirit to be in our hearts and 
in our minds. We pray that he would deal with 
us graciously and mercifully. We pray that he would deal with 
any who do not know the Lord Jesus Christ savingly. We pray 
that today would be the day of salvation, that today would be 
the day when someone believes the truth of Christ and him crucified 
and risen again, that they might know the blessings of everlasting 
life. We just pray that you would forgive 
us now for all of our sin, that you would cleanse us in the blood 
of Jesus Christ and help us not to be confused. But please give 
us the mind of Christ so that we may understand the glory of 
your truth. And we pray, Father, that you 
would just bless the word as it goes forth throughout the 
earth. We pray that it would run swiftly and be glorified, 
that you would cause your face to shine upon the nations and 
that you would let the peoples be glad. And we pray these things 
through Christ our Lord. Amen. Now, you are not theological 
concepts. You are people made in the image 
of the living and the true God. Christianity is about concepts. It's about theory. It's about 
doctrine. It's about propositional revelation 
that must be believed. But it's also about the application 
of that truth to sinners made in God's image who have fallen 
in Adam, who have gone astray. who are like sheep wandering 
from the place where they ought to be. And so, the last couple 
of weeks, we've considered some of those doctrines. We've considered 
justification. We've considered sanctification. 
We saw last Sunday that James teaches the same doctrine of 
justification, as does the Apostle Paul. It is a sovereign act of 
God. James 118 says, of his own will, 
he brought us forth by the word of truth. that we might become 
kind of a first fruits to him. Well, this morning, I want to 
look at the debt. The application of Christ's crosswork to this 
particular thief on his side versus thirty nine to forty three 
illustrate the salvation of the thief on the cross. It highlights 
the truth that God is in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Now, I ultimately do not know 
your hearts. There are those here that are 
heaven bound because of God's grace, because of faith in the 
Lord Jesus Christ. But there are those who are not. 
The Bible teaches that those who are not in Christ will go 
to hell everlastingly. And I want you to pay attention 
this morning. I want you to see what it means 
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Very often, preachers 
get that we come in the pulpits and we tell sinners, believe 
the gospel and you shall be saved. And then people say, well, what 
does it mean to believe the gospel? Well, I think we see at least 
displayed here in the characteristics of this thief as he undergoes 
his glorious change on the cross. And I want to take up two major 
points this morning. First, the conversion of the 
thief and secondly, the response of the Savior. But notice, first 
of all, with reference to the conversion of the thief, this 
man is in what we would call the 11th hour. The 11th hour 
is a bit of an idiom or shorthand to describe that time just before 
we die. You need to remember that this 
man woke up that morning in order to justly suffer for his crimes 
and to be executed by the civil magistrate. This was a day like 
no other day for this particular man. The Bible tells us that 
he was a robber. The Bible tells us, I believe, 
that he was a murderer. There were going to be three 
crucifixions that day. These two men on either side 
of Jesus were Barabbas's partners in crime. And Barabbas is identified 
as a notorious criminal, as a robber, as a murderer. There are times 
when it says that he acted with them. And I believe that these 
two men on either side of Christ were part of Barabbas' gang. They rolled together. They engaged 
in crime together. They committed acts of atrocity 
together. Remember, Barabbas was going 
to be executed as well. But the ungodly and apostate 
crowd said, give us Barabbas. But with Christ, away with him, 
away with him, crucify him. So this man was as guilty as 
was Barabbas. So he woke up that morning ready 
to die for his crimes, ready to be executed, and justly so. Albert Barnes indicates that 
this particular conversion account. This was a case of repentance 
in the last hour, the trying hour of death, and it has been 
remarked that one was brought to repentance there to show that 
no one should despair on a dying bed. and but one that none should 
be presumptuous and delay repentance to that awful moment. You see 
what he's saying. Just read it again, so you don't 
miss it. He said that this was a case of repentance in the last 
hour or the eleventh hour, the trying hour of death. And it 
has been remarked that one was brought to repentance there to 
show that no one should despair on a dying bed. You visit someone 
on a dying bed. You don't tell them there's no 
hope for you. While there is breath in their 
lungs, there is hope. And this thief demonstrates that 
for us. Barnes goes on to say, and but 
one that none should be presumptuous and delay repentance to that 
awful moment. So, in other words, if you are 
here today and you are not in Christ, don't begin to think 
to yourself, well, there's always time. There's always my deathbed. There's always the 11th hour. 
James tells us we are like a vapor. We don't know what a day will 
bring. We're here for a time and then we're gone. You don't 
know that tomorrow is coming. You ultimately don't know that 
the end of this sermon is coming. Now, I assure you, in my power, 
it will come to an end. But God could take you. Some 
of the people that have been here for a while have heard this 
illustration, but it bears repeating. When our children were little, 
we were driving around one day conducting various errands, and 
they were like, specifically one of my sons said, where are 
we going next? What are we doing next? What 
are we doing next? We wanted a sort of a play-by-play agenda. 
We pull into the parking lot of a restaurant, and I got a 
little irritated with him, and I said, listen, you don't even 
know that we're going to make it into that restaurant, trying 
to impress upon him the reality that we can't plan in every detail. 
So, lo and behold, we're getting the other things out, we're getting 
ready, and I look over and the son is there saying, Dad, look, 
I made it, I made it. He was at the door of the restaurant. That illustrates a point, though. 
We don't know. He could have been hit. You may 
be banking on a great long future. You may be young and may be thinking, 
well, I'll always have time to repent and believe the gospel. 
There is something missing today of the urgency of the gospel. God is a holy God and you are 
a sinful man or a woman or a boy or a girl. You want not to rest 
content until you are found in him, not having a righteousness 
of your own, which is from the law, but that righteousness which 
is from God through faith in Jesus Christ. You do not know 
that you're going to have a long and prosperous and happy life. You are not eight foot tall and 
bulletproof. All kinds of bad things happen 
to people. Jonathan Edwards in his famous 
sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, said there are 
innumerable ways of wicked men going out of this world. Consider 
the bodybuilder who looks after his nutrition and his health 
and he eats and he balances all of his food and he exercises 
and he does cardio and he gets his heart rate down and everything 
is set. He walks out in the street one 
day and he gets run over by a car. Consider those who think that 
everything is fine and then they get some diagnosis or some bad 
thing is wrong with that. The point is, brethren, do not 
wait until that hour. Do not wait until the 11th hour. Now is the acceptable time, Paul 
says. Today is the day of salvation. 
These things are making sense to you. Don't put them off. Pray 
them in. Beseech the Lord God to save 
you from your sins. Why leave here is an unconverted 
man, a woman or a boy or a girl. Jesus is a real savior for real 
sinners, as we see when we work through this passage. Now notice 
the glorious change manifest in this particular man. There's 
five elements I want to direct your attention to. The first 
is, is that he shows concern for others. How do you know if 
you believe the gospel? Well, one of the fruits is that 
you care about others. You see, all our lives, up until 
the point that God saves us, we're pretty much only interested 
in ourselves. We may pay lip service to that. 
We may say that I love you. We may say that I care about 
you. But until such time that God gets a hold of your heart, 
you really don't care about other people. When push comes to shock, 
when you boil everything down, the issue is, is that man is 
proud and selfish and thinks that he is the center of the 
universe. Notice on the cross, this man 
begins to evidence concern for others. Verse thirty nine. Then 
one of the criminals who were hanged blasphemed him, saying, 
If you are the Christ, save yourself and us. We need to remember that 
in the gospel of Matthew and Mark, Both of them were blaspheming 
Christ. A glorious change took place 
while this man was on the cross. And the verb suggests that they 
didn't stop. They kept blaspheming. They kept 
mocking him. Consider the scene. Christ is 
on the cross. The whole group of people on 
the ground are mocking him. And so are the thieves on either 
side of him. But somewhere along the line, 
on that day for this man, things changed. And now he's concerned. Verse 40. But the other answering 
rebuked him, saying, Do you not even fear God, seeing you were 
under the same condemnation? This is an evidence. This is 
the operation of faith in the man's heart. Now, I realize we're 
not all Hudson Taylors. I realize we're not all Amy Carmichael's. We're not all as compassionate 
as we ought to be. But brethren made there. There 
has to be a certain element of concern in their heart for other 
people when it comes to the things of God. I believe we all need 
to pray for more, more of a burden, more of a compassion, more of 
a disposition that is affected by the sins of others. But there 
ought to be some degree of it there. We ought not to be able 
to look at a world going to hell and not be concerned with it 
at all. We need to be like that man that 
Pastor Tam read up in Psalm 119. Rivers of waters run down from 
my eyes. Why? Because men do not keep 
your law. And what does that mean? That 
means those men are blaspheming our holy God and those men will 
ultimately end in hell. This thief, converted by the 
grace of God through the power of the Holy Spirit, is now manifesting 
concern. He doesn't want Jesus to be blasphemed. He rebukes him for that, but 
he's also concerned for this man's soul. Notice, secondly, 
he fears God's judgment. Verse 40, the other answering, 
rebuked him, saying, Do you not even fear God, seeing you are 
under the same condemnation? He looked beyond his cross, didn't 
he? He knew it was the Roman government that had hung him 
up on this cross. He was no fool that way, but 
he understood that this was the just judgment of God. He understood that in a moral 
universe, when you sin, when you rob, when you murder, when 
you engage in folly and in crime and in wickedness, there are 
consequences. He knew this. It was underscored 
now for him. The magistrate was executing 
them. Then they would fall into the 
hands of the living God. See, this is another thing I 
just don't think we have today. We think about the here and the 
now we are materialist. If we can't touch it, taste it, 
feel it, see it. It must not exist. This man knew 
there was a judgment to come. This man looked beyond this earthly 
life. And you need to look beyond it 
as well. The Bible says it is appointed unto men once to die. 
And then what? Then comes judgment. Moses, that 
man of God in Psalm 90 says you may live for 70 or 80 years, 
but then you'll fly away. 70 or 80 years seems like a long 
stretch. It is nothing in comparison with 
eternity. And again, some of you live right 
here, right now, no thought whatsoever for what's beyond. No thought 
whatsoever for that day you will stand before a holy God. Remember 
that man whom Jesus spoke of in Luke 12? He was a rich man 
and his ground yielded plentifully. And his problem, I mean, talk 
about a problem. His problem was he didn't have 
sufficient barns to store his goods. I mean, in the grand scheme 
of things, brethren, that's a tough problem to have. Not really. 
So what does he do? He rips down his old barns, he 
constructs new barns, he fills these barns up, and then he sits 
down and he says to his soul, take thine ease. You have many 
goods laid up for many years. He said to himself, chill out 
and relax. Enjoy the benefits of your hard 
work. The Bible doesn't indicate that 
he was a thief, a liar, a cheat, a deceiver. He was a rich man, 
and when he put his hand to the plow, his field yielded plentifully. I'm sure he was the amazement 
of everybody in his society when they saw how successful he was 
in business. God wasn't. God said to him, 
thou fool, your soul is required of you this very night. I'm convinced 
some of you don't live that way. I'm convinced most of us don't 
live that way, that we could end the day standing before the 
judge of all the universe. Notice he owns guilt for sin. He owns guilt for sin. He says, Do you not even fear 
God, seeing you are under the same condemnation and we indeed 
justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds. It's a mark 
of the grace of God. Because up until this point, 
you know what people do? No, that wasn't me. I didn't do it. I 
got framed. I was the victim. Remember last 
Sunday night, we considered Adam. When God comes to address him 
after the fall, what does Adam do? He said he was the victim. 
He would have fit perfectly right in with 21st century North American 
ethics. I was the victim. It wasn't my 
fault. The woman whom thou gavest me, 
she gave me to eat and then I ate. So, he blames first the woman, 
he hides behind his wife. Instead of protecting her and 
guiding her and loving her, he puts her out in front of him 
and says, it was this woman who caused me to sin. And then he 
says, the woman whom thou hast given me. In other words, God, 
everything was fine when it was just me and the animals until 
you put that woman here. If that woman wouldn't have been 
here, I would have never sinned. That's a mark of the unregenerate. 
If you are constantly defending yourself and your integrity before 
a thrice holy God, you don't know grace. If you could be the best defense 
attorney in the world to plead your case, you don't know grace. You know what the godly man does? He doesn't stand and pray thus 
with himself. I thank you, Lord, that I'm not like other men. 
I thank you, Lord, that I'm not like adulterers, that I'm not 
like these unjust men. The godly man, according to Jesus, 
can't even look up into heaven, but he beats his breast and he 
says, God, be merciful to me. The sinner. It's interesting 
in that in that text. God, be merciful. New King James 
translates it a sinner. It's actually got the article. 
Be merciful to me, the sinner. When it comes between me and 
God, I am the sinner. Remember King David of Israel 
in his psalm of penitence in Psalm 51. David did some atrocious 
things horizontally. When it comes time to deal with 
his sin, he says, against thee and thee only have I sinned and 
done this evil. That's what this man manifests. 
He's not trying to say, look, I was framed. I wasn't really 
Wimper Abbas. The cop who drew my picture, 
he got it all wrong. That's not me. No, he says. And we indeed, justly 
for we received the due reward of our deeds. There were going 
to be three crucifixions that particular day. And this man 
now has come to embrace the justness of it because he's a sinner before 
God. Beware, brethren, if your only 
mindset is to defend yourself. I'm not saying that if you haven't 
done anything wrong, you shouldn't defend yourself. You know, there's 
a there's a sense we're in in the image of God. We want justice. 
We want righteousness. We want integrity. There's been 
times people say, wow, you're such a sinner. You don't even 
know the beginning of it. You're so bad. Yeah, well, get 
in line. You don't have a clue. Sometimes this happens in interpersonal 
relationships, right? Oh, you sinned against me. You're 
such a you're you're a horrible monster. Yeah, you're right. 
Praise God that he restrains it from being worse than it can 
possibly be. This man owned his sin. This 
man, fourthly, confesses the holiness of Jesus Christ. What 
he says, this man has done nothing wrong. This man doesn't deserve 
what he's getting. This man is wholly harmless and 
undefiled. He didn't have as developed a 
doctrine of the impeccability of Christ as perhaps we do 21 
centuries later. But he understood this truth. 
Christ was not on that cross because of crimes that he had 
done. Christ was not on that cross because he himself said 
Christ was not on that cross because he himself had offended 
a holy God. He says this man has done nothing 
wrong. This thief joined the ranks of 
a lot of confessors of the holiness of Jesus, the angels in Isaiah 
6. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord 
of hosts. Pilate three times confesses, 
I find no fault in this man. Peter, one of Christ's closest 
earthly friends, can take out of Isaiah's prophecy and apply 
it to Jesus, who committed no sin, nor was there any guile 
found in his mouth. Praise God that the holy, harmless 
and undefiled one went to this place for us. This is what's 
going on here. This is substitution. God made 
him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become 
the righteousness of God in him. This holy, harmless Christ is 
on that cross for you and I. This holy, harmless and undefiled 
Christ is there not because of deeds that he had done. He has 
done nothing wrong, but he is there because we have done things 
wrong, because we are unholy. We are harmful. We are thoroughly 
defiled. We are sinners. Through and through, 
this man sees that Christ is holy. And then notice, fifthly, 
he calls upon the Lord Jesus. Verse 42. Then he said to Jesus, 
Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. Don't miss 
the significance of this passage. Lord, remember me when you come 
into your kingdom. His disciples had witnessed him 
heal people. His disciples had witnessed him 
raise the dead. His disciples had witnessed his 
earthly life and his ministry. His disciples had witnessed his 
teaching. Remember after the Sermon on 
the Mount, what the text says? Everybody was amazed because 
he taught, not like the other scribes, he taught as one having 
authority. That's what his disciples knew, 
and they confessed him as Lord. Remember when Jesus is asking 
his disciples, but who do you say that I am? And Peter says, 
Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Well, Jesus 
acknowledges it was flesh and blood that did not reveal this 
to him, but his father who was in heaven. You know, humanly 
speaking, Peter had good cause to make that confession. Not 
so with the thief. How is he seeing Jesus? He is 
seeing him on a cross. The type of punishment reserved 
for the worst criminal in the Roman Empire. Get this down, 
brethren, that Romans wouldn't execute Romans on the cross unless 
there was a decree signed by the emperor. It was one of those 
things that was so foul and so polluted the Roman citizen himself 
wouldn't go to the cross in the normal scheme of things. He had 
to be a political insurrectionist, he had to be a criminal against 
the state in some big way. That's how we know Barabbas and 
his two compadres were really bad guys. But Jesus went to that 
place, so when the thief looks upon him and calls him Lord, 
He is looking beyond the blood. He is looking beyond the shame. He's looking beyond the crown 
of thorns on his head. He's looking beyond all of the 
chanting of the crowd when they're mocking and saying he saved others, 
but he can't save himself. Ryle said he only saw our Lord, 
by the way, Ryle's sermon on this account is called Christ's 
greatest trophy. He only saw our Lord in agony 
and in weakness, in suffering and in pain. He saw him undergoing 
dishonorable punishment, deserted, mocked, despised, blasphemed. He saw no scepter, no royal crown, 
no outward dominion, no glory, no power, no signs of might. And yet the dying thief believed 
and looked forward to Christ's kingdom. Calvin said, Lord, remember 
me. I know not that since the creation 
of the world, there ever was a more remarkable and striking 
example of faith. It's a beautiful concept. It's 
being mocked, he's being spat upon, he's bloodied, he's wounded, 
he's sore, he's under the smiting hand of God most high. This man 
says, Lord, We got people today, or at least within the 20th century, 
debating Lordship. Do we call Jesus Lord or not? 
You don't call Jesus Lord. You're not saved. It's that simple. You don't call Jesus Lord. You 
have no interest in him. We have people that make Jesus 
Lord. I'm here to tell you, brethren, 
Jesus is Lord. Whether you make him such or 
not. This man saw. This man looked 
beyond the thief saw Jesus in the worst possible condition. Here was truly a scandal to the 
Jews and an affront to the Romans. Remember, Paul says that first 
Corinthians one. The Jews, what do they want? 
They want signs. The Greeks, what do they want? 
They want wisdom. They want to stroke their beards 
and discuss the meaning of life. Paul says, but we preach Christ 
crucified to the Jews. What a stumbling block, literally 
a scandal. The cross was a scandal to the 
Jews, to the great foolishness. Archaeology has uncovered prisons 
or places where there are pictures drawn on the wall of a man on 
the cross with a donkey's head. referring to Jesus, because it 
was such a scandal to the Jew and such folly to the Greek. And this man, by God's grace, 
says, Lord, that's what the power of the Spirit does. Nobody can 
say Jesus is Lord except by the Spirit. Nobody says that Jesus 
is a curse when he really possesses the Spirit. And then notice, 
he believed the soul continues after physical death. Lord, remember 
me when you come into your kingdom. He knew certain truths. He wasn't 
a materialist. Life is going to go on. This 
earthly body is going to pass and then comes eternity. If you've 
not thought that, if you don't think that, please learn this 
lesson from this man. Lord, remember me when you come 
into your kingdom. He seeks Jesus as Lord who possesses 
a kingdom. Again, another thing today, people. 
Oh, this is Jesus King. Yes, he's King. He was King on 
the cross. He is the Lord who possesses 
a kingdom. He is the Lord who is glorious. 
He is a Lord who is enthroned. And then he says, remember me. 
Remember me. That's the issue. He cast himself 
on the mercy of the court. He comes into the courtroom. 
He doesn't say, look, it wasn't me. They got it all wrong. I 
was framed. I didn't. I don't. I this. He 
said, Lord, remember me. He is the equivalent of that 
man in Luke 18. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Have you been there? Have you 
been there? You can be brought up in church. 
You can learn a lot of doctrine. You can learn a lot of Bible 
verses. You can learn a lot of catechism and you can still go 
to hell. Reformed Baptists go to hell too. Reformed whoever's 
go to hell. Evangelicals go to hell. It's 
not a matter of all those dirty, rotten scoundrels. We're all 
dirty, rotten scoundrels. It's not a matter of all those 
wicked people. We're all wicked people. Have you been here? Lord, remember 
me when you come in your kingdom. If you haven't been there, believe 
now. Don't wait, don't say another 
day, I'll think about this. What do you have to think about 
that you haven't already been told? God is in Christ reconciling 
the world to himself. Believe the gospel and you will 
be saved. He sees with the physical eye 
a suffering Savior. He sees with the eye of faith 
a sovereign Lord. One other commentator says Jesus 
himself is revealed as Savior, even while dying for the outcast 
and criminal who turns to him in faith. I am so happy about 
that. I am so glad that that is the 
case. I am so thrilled that in Luke 
15, when the scribes and the Pharisees complained about Jesus 
and they said, this man receives sinners and eats with them, they 
were actually preaching the gospel. This is the foundation upon which 
we stand, that Jesus receives sinners and eats with them. Notice 
the response of the Savior. Three things, then we close. 
The first is that he's a willing savior. Notice in verse forty 
three and Jesus said to him. That's amazing. What do you mean 
it's amazing. You all know what it's like to 
be sick. You all know what it's like to have some sort of a malady. You all know what it's like to 
have some sort of trial or difficulty. Generally speaking, when malady, 
sickness, trial or tribulation comes upon the believer, we're 
not usually others minded. We're not usually others minded 
when we're healthy and strong and fat, but throw a little affliction 
on us and boy, we become even more selfish. Jesus in his dying 
is others minded. Jesus, in his dying, turns and 
says to him, the suffering Savior, the mocked at Lord, the agonizing 
Son of Man, even during the agony of the cross, his eleventh hour. And need I remind you that it's 
not just the suffering inflicted by man. It is the suffering, 
the wrath of God that he is dealing with. Christ suffered hell on 
the cross. The creed that says he descended 
into hell. He was there for three days. 
Does not jive with what we find later in Luke's account. Jesus 
says in your head, I commit my spirit. He says to this man today, 
you will be with me in paradise, which means that Jesus went to 
paradise after the cross. His hell was on the cross. He is bearing the weight and 
the fury and the wrath of God. And yet he says to this man, 
you know, if you ever say, well, is Jesus really willing to say, 
come to this passage, please. Is Jesus really willing to say, 
come and look at him in the 11th hour and see what he's doing. 
You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from 
their sins. What does Jesus mean? It means 
Jehovah or Yahweh is salvation. That's his job. That's his defining 
characteristic. That's what he's about. That's 
what he does. And we see it here displayed 
on the cross in his own eleventh hour, which was filled with the 
gravity of suffering for the sins of his people, he says to 
the man. He looks at the man. He addresses 
the man. Notice he's an able savior. Verse 
43. Assuredly, I say to you, there's 
no hypothetical salvation here. Jesus doesn't come to make men 
savable. Jesus comes to say. He doesn't 
say there's some uncertainty if you position yourself right, 
you do the rest of this suffering thing right, then you'll be with 
me and have assuredly, I say to you. You know that the Bible 
never presents God, Christ, salvation, redemption, any of these concepts 
as probable? You realize that, right? In the beginning, God created 
the heavens and the earth. That is an absolute declaration. In Acts 2, Peter says, Therefore, 
let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made this 
Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. Here our Jesus 
says to this man, assuredly. You venture on him, you venture 
wholly, and he will save you. Assuredly, not possibly. Notice in verse 35. And the people 
stood looking on. But even the rulers with them 
sneered, saying he saved others. Let him save himself if he is 
the Christ, the chosen of God. What's he doing? He's saving 
others. Up until the very end, he's saving others. And then 
notice he is a glorious savior. Assuredly, I say to you today, 
you will be with me in paradise. His last companion in this world 
was a sinner. Beautiful. That's good news for 
sinners. There's hope for sinners. Recently, 
I've been in a bit of a theological debate or discussion with people 
about, you know, contacts and ministering to various people 
and all that sort of thing. And one man said that in his 
church, when single moms would come in or people with tattoos 
or people that maybe from a lower part of society might wander 
in, some of the people in his church were a little bit offended. They didn't want their kids to 
see that. That's your attitude. Repent. Jesus saves sinners. We're all sinners. We're all 
undone. We all stand justly under his 
condemnation. And notice, I believe, brethren, 
and I think you'll agree that paradise is paradise because 
Jesus is there. You will be with me in paradise. I mean, really, what makes paradise 
paradise? Jesus. We sing it in 599. The lamb is all the glory of 
Emmanuel's lamb. In fact, let me just recite or 
rehearse that one stanza that is so glorious in 599. It says the king there in his 
beauty without a veil is seen. It were a well-spent journey. 
Those seven deaths lay between the lamb with his fair army on 
Mount Zion stand and glory, glory dwelleth in Emmanuel's land. And then the writer says, The 
bride eyes not her garment, but her dear bridegroom's face. I will not gaze at glory, but 
on my king of grace. Not at the crown he getheth, 
but on his pierced hand. The land is all the glory of 
Emmanuel's land. Today, he says, you will be with 
me in paradise. And you know what? That man was, 
that man is, and God willing, when we enter in, we'll be able 
to say, we read of you in the scripture. It's a pleasure to 
meet you, brother. Well, brethren, we learned three 
things about Christ. First, a lesson about the Savior. 
He is willing, able and glories in the salvation of sinners. 
This really is what Jesus is about. I'm not hawking Jesus. I'm not bringing him down or 
making him some sort of a of a trinket that you really ought 
to have. But as we look at the Bible, everything that God orchestrates 
is for his glory in the salvation of sinners. Christ is that central 
theme that runs throughout. Christ in His person, Christ 
in His work, Christ in His offices, Christ as prophet and priest 
and king. This Christ is a willing, able, 
and glorious Savior. We learn, secondly, something 
about sovereign grace in this passage. Sovereign grace. Now, I know 
the Bible doesn't go here, but just for a moment, imagine. This 
thief who died had a mother. He had to have. It's a biological 
necessity. How do you think she thought 
about her son being executed on a Roman cross for being an 
insurrectionist, a murderer, and a robber? She probably wasn't happy about 
it. She probably wasn't thrilled about it. She probably didn't 
see all her friends that day and say, hey, let's go watch 
my son get executed justly for his crimes. What's God and His 
sovereignty do? Saves this boy. Isn't that beautiful? There's hope in this passage. Not to promote presumption, there 
is hope. Some of us as parents, some of 
us as husbands or as wives or as people who have unconverted 
family or friends or neighbors or relatives. It is good to be 
concerned about that. That manifests what we find here 
in this thief on the cross as he goes through this glorious 
change. But we live and move and operate in a world governed 
by a sovereign God. Where was Barabbas? What about 
the other thief? There was one man on that day 
that Christ had his eye upon. And we need to take comfort in 
that, because there are men that he has his eyes upon. And while 
there is breath in their lungs, there is hope. We ought never 
to despair. We ought never to wring our hands. 
We ought never to give up. We ought never to conclude, oh, 
they're beyond hope. If ever there was a time to conclude 
that someone was beyond hope, it was this guy. I mean, think 
about it, brethren, if you woke up that morning and you were 
in Jerusalem or you were in the Roman Empire and you went down 
to the market and you saw this guy being crucified just before 
his crimes, you would not think he was going to spend that day 
or be that day with Jesus in heaven. You wouldn't. I have heard, I have not seen 
it, but there's a video called Five People You'll Meet in Heaven. 
There'll be some surprises there. Why? Because God is glorious 
in His sovereignty. I don't doubt that some of us 
will promote surprise on others. I don't doubt that as we're walking 
down those roads, those streets paved with gold, there's going 
to be some people saying, wow, you're here? You're in? It's all by grace. Sovereign grace, glorious grace, 
an able savior, a willing savior. That's what we need to take from 
this passage. We need to understand Jesus in his power and his glory 
and the sovereignty of God's grace. There's hope while there's 
breath. And then thirdly and finally, 
there is a lesson here about salvation. Salvation is never 
by works. We've seen that over the last 
two weeks. We're moving from that abstract theology and we're 
seeing it concretely applied. Salvation is never by works. This man didn't clean up his 
act. He didn't get better. He didn't perform well. He wasn't 
handed a reward for what he had done. He was saved by grace alone, 
through faith alone in Jesus Christ, the Lord alone. Salvation 
truly is of grace. William Cowper was right when 
he wrote this. The dying thief rejoiced to see 
that fountain in his day. And there have I, as vile as 
he washed all my sins away. If you have not come to that 
fountain, Christ is a willing and enabled and a glorious savior. You believe the truth that the 
Bible tells you of him and you will be saved. So that if you 
go out and you get hit by a truck this afternoon. Today you'll 
be with him in paradise. But if you continue to reject. 
If you continue to think I don't really need him. If you continue 
to think that in your own righteousness you can avail with God. If you 
continue impenitent. Here's what Matthew Henry says. 
This gives no encouragement to any to put off their repentance 
to their deathbed or to hope that they shall then find mercy. For though it is certain that 
true repentance is never too late, it is as certain that later 
repentance is seldom true. Believe today. Believe right 
now. And the Bible says, you will 
be saved. Let us pray. Father, we thank 
you for our Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you for his power in 
justifying sinners. We thank you for his death at 
Calvary. We know that he did not deserve this. We know it 
was an act of justice, an act of imputation. You made him who 
knew no sin to be sin for us. And our Father, we praise you 
for these glorious truths. And we would ask that a multitude 
today would believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you, God, 
for your mercy toward us. Thank you that you have not left 
us in our sin. And we praise you for your mercy. 
And we ask now that you would go with each one of us again. 
We pray for those who are ill, those who are ailing. We just 
commit them to you and to the word of your grace and pray that 
you would stir them up and cause them just to continue to look 
to you and find that comfort and that hope in Christ. And 
we pray in Jesus name. Amen.