Principal Lessons

Introduction and Review of the Dying Thief's Conversion

0:04 We turn again this morning to Luke's Gospel, the 23rd chapter, the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 23, and I shall read verses 39 through 43, Luke 23, 39 through 43.

0:27 The setting, of course, being those hours after our Lord was impaled upon the cross and prior to the three hours of darkness, and Luke gives us an event in those hours not recorded by any of the other Gospel writers describing the conversion of this dying malefactor, this evildoer, this thief, and one of the malefactors that were hanged railed on him saying, Art not thou the Christ? Save thyself and us. But the other answered and rebuking him said, Dost not thou the Christ? Dost not thou the Christ?

1:06 Dost not thou even fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds, that this man hath done nothing of this. And he said, Jesus, remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom. And he said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today thou shalt be with me.

1:37 And he said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Today thou shalt be with me in paradise.

1:41 Having completed a very careful study of Ephesians 2, 1 through 10, a portion of the Word of God which perhaps more clearly and comprehensively than any other describes the magnitude and the glory of salvation by grace, for the past few weeks we have been looking at some case histories which wonderfully exemplify and illustrate the truths taught by the Apostle in Ephesians 2. Ephesians 2, verses 1 through 10. We considered for three Lord's Days the conversion of the Philippian jailer and his household. Last Lord's Day morning and evening we looked at the passage that is before us again this morning.

2:25 This trophy of God's grace snatched, as it were, from the very jaws of hell moments before he would have entered that terrible place, rescued by the grace and power of the Lord. The dying Son of God. And I shall only briefly review the exposition of the passage as I sought to lay it out last Lord's Day. I suggested that in thinking our way through this passage, the key to any proper interpretation of it is our Lord's words in verse 43.

3:01 Our Lord himself asserts that this man has come to true repentance and faith. He says that he has been born of the Spirit, for no man can see or enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of the Spirit, unless he repents and believes. And our Lord says that this man has repented and believed, for he is ready to enter paradise with the Lord Jesus. And therefore it is right to see in the words of the dying thief expressions of the actings of his own soul, spiritual awakening, his own repentance and faith.

3:44 And we are not reading something into the words that we ought not to read into the words. We are reading them in the light of our Lord's infallible statement, Verily I say unto thee, Today thou shalt be with me in paradise. And I suggested that in trying to open up the meaning, the significance of these words, we need first of all to consider the native spirit and the spiritual condition of the dying thief. The diamond of God's grace in this passage is set against the dark background of the native spiritual condition of this dying thief.

4:25 And from the passage itself we saw that he was a defiant rebel against the law of God, an irreligious and hardened sinner before the face of God, and a condemned criminal before the bar of God. And having looked at his native spiritual condition, last Lord's Day we then considered the gracious transformation of the dying thief. And we addressed ourselves simply to two questions. How did this transformation come to pass, and what are the evidences of its reality and its depth?

5:04 How was he transformed? And we understand his transformation in terms of two fundamental things. He was given a spirit-wrought revelation of his true condition before God, and he was given a spirit-wrought revelation of and confidence in the Son of God. And how do we know that the transformation was both real and deep?

5:29 Because of those six evidences that I sought to expound last Lord's Day evening, indicating both the reality and the depth of the change that grace effectively did. In this man, it is not my purpose to re-preach the sermons. If your appetite has been whetted, you are not here, I suggest you get the tapes of the sermons for your own edification. But what I wish to do this morning is to come to the third area in which this passage speaks with profound insight and almost overwhelming power with reference to salvation by grace.

Lesson 1: A Singular Manifestation of Christ's Saving Power

6:07 Having looked at the native spiritual condition of this man, the grace of God, the grace of God, the grace of God, the grace of God, the grace of God, the grace of God, the grace of God, the grace of God, the grace of God, the gracious transformation of the dying thief, and in so doing, having expounded the passage, what I propose to do this morning is to draw your attention to the principal lessons contained in this account of the conversion of the dying thief. Having expounded, we now, in the words of the Apostle Paul, seek to extract what is profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction, and instruction in the realm of righteousness. And, because I have much to cover, we will move right into the first profound lesson, the first fundamental principle set before us in the narrative, and I wish to set each one before you in the way of an exhortation to behold something that is here. Exhortation number one, behold in this narrative a singular manifestation of the saving power of Jesus Christ. Behold in this narrative a singular manifestation of the saving power of Christ. Bishop Ryle, in commenting on this incident, wrote, if we search the Bible from Genesis

7:30 to Revelation, we shall never find a more striking proof of Christ's power and mercy Now that's a very sweeping statement. If we search from Genesis to Revelation, we shall never find a more striking proof of Christ's power and mercy. That Jesus Christ was to be a powerful Savior was clearly announced at His conception. Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people.

8:09 From their sins, our Lord Himself announced this as His purpose. The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. But think of the circumstances in which that announced purpose and power of the Son of God were operative in the case of this dying thief. First of all, consider the difficulty of our Lord's own situation.

8:39 His own mind and spirit are oppressed with the blasphemous mockery of His enemies. And never forget that our Lord was a true man. The Scripture records Him as being grieved in the presence of unbelief, being angered in the presence of unbelief, weeping in the face of the separation which death brought in the circle of His own intimate presence. Our Lord was true man, and our Lord knew something of the pain that comes in the face of unjust jeering and mockery.

9:20 And now from every quarter of His enemies, this mockery, this taunting is hurled not only into the ears, but into the soul of the blessed and holy Son of God. It comes from scribes. It comes from the pagan soldiers. Added to this was the pain of the diversion of the disciples.

9:44 Smite the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. And the very Lord who in the impending agony of Calvary cries out as it were for the support of His intimate friends and says to Peter, James, and John, could you not watch with me one hour? If He felt the need of the supportive influence of His intimate companions, then He would do it. And as He approached the agony of Calvary and Golgotha, how much must His holy and righteous soul have longed for the support of just the identification of friendship in those awful hours?

10:26 Yet the Scripture says they all forsook Him, and they fled. The Scripture says crucified through weakness. Think of the difficulties of our Lord's circumstances. His soul tortured with the taunts of His enemies, grieved at the forsaking of His own disciples.

10:45 Add to that the difficulty of feeling in Himself the frown of His own Father. When He who knew no sin was constituted sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. What it meant for the infinitely spotless Son of God to come into such close proximity with the sins of His people, so that on the one hand He is not defiled by it, but so identified with it, that all of the arrows of God are shot into His holy heart and they stick fast. Not only are there the difficulties of our Lord's inward pain, the suffering brought by His enemies, the friends from His Father, but the intensity of the agony of His physical pain. We pick up our Bibles and we read, And they crucified Him, failing to pause and think of the intense physical agony, one of the most cruel forms of punishment ever devised by man. And I will not weary you with flights of fancy and trying to play upon your emotions. This would be a prostitution of preaching.

11:59 I simply call upon you to face tremendous personal difficulties that were heaped upon our Lord. And in that situation, is He really mighty to save? Is He able to deliver from their sins those on whose behalf He became incarnate, lived and died? But now think of the difficulties of the feast situation.

12:25 He too is undergoing the terrible pain of crucifixion and the distraction of mind that comes from intense pain. Think of the difficulty in terms of His associations. Just a short time before, He joins in the chorus of those who taunt our Lord, for the Gospel writers tell us that the thieves, plural, cast the same into His teeth. And now there is the difficulty of His own physical pain, the difficulty of the emotional strain of wrenching Himself loose from that association in blasphemy and mockery and of evil.

13:02 Add to this the brevity of time in which the work is to be accomplished. Just a matter of a few hours and this man will be in eternity. Think of the difficulties of the meager measure of truth that has been proclaimed. Think of the unsympathetic environment, the jeering, the taunting.

13:22 Think of everything that in terms of the world of sense would turn this man away from ever beholding in the sighing, bleeding, bloody form of Jesus of Nazareth, the King of Israel. Heave all the difficulties together. And yet the Lord Jesus says today, Thou shalt be with me in paradise. Though dying through weakness, buried in the agony of His own baptism of suffering, the object of derision and scorn, He reaches out and rescues this man who, as it were, has the flames of hell licking at His feet, and He says, I am mighty to save. In the midst of everything that is unsympathetic to the exercise of my saving power, when the angel announced, Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people. Save I must. Save I will.

14:23 Though every difficulty imaginable shall be heaped upon me, I am the Savior who is mighty and able to save. And so the Lord demonstrates His saving power by enlightening the mind of this ignorant sinner, the dying thief, awakening the conscience of this insensitive sinner, the dying thief, subduing the will of the rebel sinner, the dying thief, implanting faith and repentance in this previously unbelieving sinner. That's what it means to say that Jesus Christ will overcome every difficulty in the external circumstances, in the internal disposition and attitude of all those for whom He came to give His life. And the cross is not alone in itself the pledge of that. The salvation of one who hung next to the Lord Jesus is a singular manifestation of the saving power of Jesus Christ. The salvation of every sinner is a manifestation of His saving power.

15:40 But I say this is a singular manifestation. When He walked by the receipt of custom and called Matthew to Himself, what a display of His saving power. But He did so in the time of His popularity beginning to emerge, the great miracle worker, in the full flush of His manhood, in the demonstration of God's seals upon Him by signs and wonders and miracles. When He speaks from heaven to save Saul of Tarsus, He does so in such a climate of manifested glory that Paul knows he's dealing with exalted deity.

16:17 Who art thou, Jehovah? He says in the Hebrew tongue. And Jehovah says, I am Jesus, a manifestation of the power of God. But all people catch something of the wonder of this.

16:28 Behold what the dying thief saw. Not Jesus of Nazareth in the performance of His miracles, coming as it were before Him with all of His credentials displayed, capturing His heart. But He's there upon a cross amidst all that to the world of sense and sight and human reason would say He's nothing but a miserable imposter and truth has finally caught up with Him and done Him justice. And in the midst of that, today thou shalt be with me in paradise.

17:08 Oh, blessed be God for so mighty a Savior. And my friend, listen. If Jesus Christ demonstrates in this singular way His power to save amidst the most difficult of circumstances, do you not see why it is wicked, wicked unbelief not to trust Him to save you when now He is no longer impaled upon a cross in weakness? No longer is He surrounded by taunts and jeers.

17:40 But the Scripture says He has been exalted to the right hand of the Majesty on high and as the Prince and the Savior He lives to give repentance and faith to all who will call upon Him. I plead with you, dear people of God, to behold in this account a singular manifestation of the saving power of Christ. Or it's not as good English, but I like it better. Behold in it a singular manifestation of Christ's power to save.

Lesson 2: An Unparalleled Display of Salvation by Grace Alone

18:15 Secondly, behold in the account an unparalleled display of salvation by grace alone. An unparalleled display of salvation by grace alone. Look at our Lord's words in verse 43. Today, that is immediately, without passing through any further work of purification, immediately, today, thou shalt be with me in paradise, the realm of perfect light, purity, holiness, and bliss, that realm where none can enter with either the guilt or the defilement of sin. Now think back to the native condition of this man. A few moments before, he was what? He was an impenitent, hardened sinner before the face of God.

19:13 He was a condemned criminal before the bar of God. He was an insensitive, calloused sinner. Now the Lord says, this day, before this day ends, you are going to be in the realm where all is light, all is purity, all is peace, all is blessedness, and you will be perfectly suited for that perfect realm of existence. Now he had no lengthy period of conviction.

19:45 He had no past virtues to bring to the Savior. He had no ordinances, no sacraments to which he could hook into some stream of grace. Though some of the early church fathers tried to find baptism in the water and blood that flowed from our Lord's side, that sprinkled themselves upon him and therefore proved that he was baptized. Brethren, that's the stupidity to which sacramentalism will lead otherwise good men.

20:11 He had no time to bring forth the fruits of love and gratitude except for a few hours, and he certainly had no time to acquire much knowledge. What in the world took him from that state of defilement, impenitence, insensitivity, and guilt, and made him fit to dwell with Jesus Christ in paradise? The answer is, the grace of God and the grace of God alone. Grace that fully blotted out all of his sins.

20:45 Grace that so radically altered his nature that both his guilt and defilement were so dealt with by Jesus Christ that he was fit to enter that world of perfect light and perfect joy. You see, there are two great enemies of salvation by grace alone. Number one is the notion that I must bring something to God before I can gain his acceptance, and the second notion is that I must do something for God after I come in order to add to my acceptance. Get those two things?

21:22 The two great enemies of the biblical doctrine of salvation by grace alone are, number one, I must bring something to God before I can gain his acceptance, and I must do something for God after I've come in order to add to my acceptance. Now look at the dying thief. What could he bring to God? Could he say, now Lord, remember me because you know a few hours ago I was mocking you with my companion.

21:54 Now Lord, I think that'll really help to fix me up for heaven. Lord, remember me and not only remember me, remember my deeds that I bring to you. And Lord, furthermore, remember when I put that man to death in plunder and in pillage. Remember when I...

22:07 No, no. The scripture says this man's character was so much in opposition to the law of God that even the power of the state put him to death and he wasn't framed. He says, we are here justly. Well, this poor dying thief knew that if he was to be made fit for that place to which the Lord was going as the king in the messianic kingdom, that kingdom would one day be manifested at the end of the age if he's to be remembered and to find a place in it.

22:42 He knows there's nothing he can bring to Christ to gain his acceptance. And the Lord did not by a miracle get him down from the cross and let him live out many years expressing the virtues and power of the new life implanted. He says before the day is over, you've had it. And yet he says, you'll be with me in paradise.

23:04 I say this is an unparalleled display of salvation by grace alone. He had nothing to bring to the Lord to gain acceptance and he had no time to do anything for the Lord to add to his acceptance. So there's only one answer to the question, what prepared him to go to paradise with Christ? And the answer is grace and grace alone.

23:33 Oh, hear me dear people. That's the only salvation sent by Almighty God. Salvation which is of grace and grace alone. A salvation in which the sinner's conduct before gaining the favor of God, whether that be good or bad, religious or irreligious, it has nothing to do with the grounds of your acceptance.

24:01 It is Christ and Christ alone. You must not only repent of your bad works, but the scripture speaks of repentance from dead works. That's good things done in your unregenerate state that are a stench in the nostrils of God. And having come in the naked embrace of faith, you must maintain that naked embrace.

24:25 You must not, having been accepted on the grounds of grace, then think that you can free one hand from that grasp upon Christ alone and with it begin to pick up merit along the way that somehow will be attractive to the Lord. No, no. That was the problem of the Galatians. And Paul says, you are falling from the principle of grace.

24:48 When I preached and I set Christ before you, it was Christ and Christ alone. Now that you've listened to these wretched Judaizers, it's Christ plus your circumcision, Christ plus your ceremonial law. No, no, he says. No, no.

25:04 And this passage is an unparalleled display of that glorious truth, salvation by grace alone. But in the third place, behold in this passage a clear demonstration of the sovereignty of God in the salvation of sinners. Behold in it a clear demonstration of the sovereignty of God in the salvation of sinners. Remember the circumstances.

Lesson 3: A Clear Demonstration of God's Sovereignty in Salvation

25:32 Two men, and the Scripture is explicit, saying that they were crucified, one on the one hand, and one on the other. The Lord was not crucified to the left. Look at verse 33. When they came to the place that is called the skull, there they crucified him.

25:53 And here's a historical detail. And the malefactors, one on the right hand, the other on the left, both were within equal distance of the Lord Jesus. They heard with equal clarity all that was said by the enemies. They saw with equal clarity the inscription above his head.

26:16 With equal proximity to every transaction that occurred prior to and during the crucifixion of the Son of God, they had equal opportunity. They came from similar backgrounds. Both were men condemned by common law because of their deeds. Hardened criminals, guilty before the bar of man as well as the bar of God.

26:41 Now the question is this. How do you account for the fact that from similar backgrounds with identical influences, one is melted to repentance and enters paradise? One is hardened in his blasphemy and enters hell. Now how do you account for the difference?

27:01 How do you account for the difference? Unless we are willing to place the ultimate difference in the hands of man and destroy everything that the Bible says, and human experience confirms, the difference must be accounted for in these terms. He was born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And as many as were ordained to eternal life, believe.

27:39 If we could somehow have access to that dying thief as he's been in paradise from that hour, and ask him, why did you come hither while your companion has gone to the place of unspeakable agony and torment and woe? Do you think you could get him for one minute to say that the difference lay within himself? Do you? Well, I tell you, there was a little spark of something in me that really, you know, the Lord got to that, and he fanned it and he blew upon it.

28:13 But my buddy there, the Lord fanned and blew, but the spark just went out. No, no, my friend. He'd be the first to acknowledge in answer to the question who maketh me to differ, he would say, grace, grace, all of grace, sovereign mercy, unfettered but glorious sovereignty that constituted me a vessel of mercy. Let me come as it were to the very gates of hell and feel the flame licking at my feet and rescue me to make it manifest that it is I that is all of God and all of grace.

28:54 Dear child of God, this ought to fill your heart with unspeakable praise. For many of us at this very hour can think of those who were as close to every means of grace that we were brought near to. Every single influence that ultimately proved effectual to our repentance and faith has simply hardened others in a state of impenitence and rebellion against God. And the word in the original here is the one that is often translated.

29:28 In fact, our English word is just a transliteration of the Greek word. The same railed on him, verse 39, it means blasphemed him. The influences that turned one to a penitent believer, Lord, remember me, caused the other one to die with blasphemy upon his lips. Behold this clear demonstration of the sovereignty of God in the salvation of sinners.

29:56 And let your heart run out in praise to him, dear child of God. Let your heart be filled with expectant hope as you pray for others. If God purposes to manifest that they are vessels of mercy, listen, he may let them come right down to the very mouth of hell and to show that it's all of grace, snatch them at the last hour. People say, that's a discouraging doctrine.

30:21 No, no, my friend. It's the most encouraging doctrine in the world. Use your imagination for a minute, will you? This is not exegesis now, but I believe it's sanctified imagination.

30:30 Suppose, suppose that dying thief had been taken to Sunday school somewhere in Israel as a little boy, had been taught the law of God and the truth of God and came from a godly home where parents taught him, instructed him, prayed for him, and then they saw his choice. He began to fall in with bad companions and chose a course of crime until they stand there the day when his sentence is declared and they watch him go out to a place of execution and they feel that all their prayers and hopes have suddenly been dashed and they may go back to their homes to weep and grieve that he lived and died in his sin and went to hell. And they're awaiting that final day for a blessed surprise. Maybe they stood by the cross long enough to hear him joining his companion, railing on Christ, and they said, that's the last straw. Even facing death doesn't sober that boy. God, what can we do?

31:32 They may have turned away in despair. What a surprise they're in for. Because God in his sovereign grace can reach at the last moment and rescue a sinner. And the grace and the sovereignty of that grace is all the more manifest.

31:50 But what about some of you who are not Christians? You say you people preach the sovereignty of God in salvation. That's the most discouraging thing to me. My friend, listen to me.

31:59 If you're letting that truth become a discouragement, it's because of the perversity of your own heart. That's no discouragement. If you really believe the Bible teaches that the God of the universe who made you holds your destiny in his hands and that God of absolute and unfettered sovereignty commands you to seek him while he may be found, you'll be up and seeking. You'll be crying to a God like that to have mercy upon you for the sake of his own dear son.

Lesson 4: How Little of God's Truth May Serve for Conversion

32:29 You'll not sit back passively. Oh God, sovereign salvation, what can I can do? My friend, that's an affront to his sovereignty because that sovereign God commands you to seek the Lord while he may be found and to call upon him while he is near. But in the fourth place, behold in this account, behold in this account how little of God's truth may serve for conversion.

32:56 In the words of Buchanan, if improved by the hearer and savingly applied by the spirit. What gospel expositions did this man hear? Well, you say, he may have heard Christ preach. Yes, he may have, but the Bible doesn't tell us that he did.

33:14 He may have seen the miracles of Christ. He may have, Bible doesn't tell us he did. From what is clearly revealed, we see that this man, we have no grounds to believe he had any sustained, clear, concise expositions of the gospel. The only gospel he heard in these hours of agony upon the cross was the gospel concocted of the taunts of his enemies and the official inscription over the head of Christ and the gospel declared in the words of Christ when he said to his enemies, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

33:52 So here's a gospel that has his point number one, the tauntings of its enemies. If you're the son of God, come down. If you're king of Israel, show your stuff. You saved others, you can't save yourself.

34:08 That's point number one in that gospel sermon comprised of taunts and jeers. Point number two in the sermon, an inscription over the head of Christ. This is Jesus, king of the Jews, an inscription that seems to be mocked by everything the human eye can see. King, what is his crown?

34:27 Made of jewels, made of the stuff of regal crowns, gold and silver, no, no. Thorns, the manifestation of God's curse upon the earth. That curse is symbolically pressing in upon his own brow, drawing forth blood from his holy veins. King, crown of thorns, king of the Jews, declared king.

34:51 That was point number two. It was an inscription that seemed to be mocked by everything in the world of reality. And point number three was the conduct of Christ himself. Father, forgive.

35:03 While he and his companion no doubt cursed those who pounded the nails into their hands, the son of God is a sheep that is led to his shearers is dumb. That isn't much of a gospel sermon, is it? Ah, my friend, it is if the Holy Ghost will lay hold of it and make it effectual. We read in Luke chapter one, one of the most precious words in all of scripture, 137, when Mary said, look, angel, I don't doubt you've come from the presence of God, but when you say that I'm going to be a mother, something's not quite right here.

35:40 I've never known a man. I've not entered into that relationship necessary for the procreation of a child, for the bearing of a child. How can this be? And the answer of the angel is beautifully simple.

35:55 No word from God shall be void of power. If God speaks, God will do it. That's it. And she says, that's enough for me.

36:06 Be it unto me according to thy word. If no word from God is void of power, Lord, I mix faith with that word. And my own conviction is at that point, conception of the Son of God occurred. Think of it.

36:19 The mystery that has baffled the most holy, sensitive minds of the people of God for centuries. The union of the two natures in the one person, God and man. This profound mystery. Mary doesn't trouble herself with the mystery.

36:38 All she says, Lord, it doesn't make sense at this point. Some new factors got to enter if I'm going to be a mother. She says, all right, that factor is God's word. She says, that's enough for me.

36:51 No word of God should be void of power. There upon the cross, He's saved. Ah, that's a word of God. Thou shalt call His name Jesus.

37:01 He shall save. And so the Holy Spirit shines the spotlight upon Christ's position as Savior. And He puts into darkness the context in which it comes. Blessed God, who can take a sermon and wrench some words out of their context, the vile sermon of His enemies, and make it an instrument of salvation.

37:21 What a God we have who takes these fragments of truth and improves them in the words of Bill Cannon to the salvation of this man. Now, this does not negate the responsibility I have as a preacher, all of us have as Christians, when presenting the gospel, to seek to be as comprehensive as possible in declaring the whole counsel of God. You who attend this place of worship know well enough that we're committed to that principle. Now, we haven't done a double take and thrown that over.

37:51 No, no. Our duty is one thing, but the ground of our confidence is quite another. You see, our duty is to proclaim the whole counsel of God, our confidence in the salvation of sinners, not our comprehensive presentation of the gospel, but that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, and He can take either a gram of gospel truth or a ton of it, because the work is God. Now, of course, only the preachers can appreciate why I'm blowing my fuses on this this morning, but the rest of you take my word for it.

38:31 This is the most encouraging thing in all the world. There are some of you sitting here this morning almost totally ignorant of the gospel, and I'm not giving a formal exposition of the gospel. Sounding a few gospel notes, picking out a few gospel strands, what gives me joy? The knowledge that my God, if He pleases, can take some of those little gospel strands, some of the little nuggets, some of the little crumbs here or there, and bring them together and make them essential for your salvation.

39:03 Oh, child of God, do you have loved ones you're praying for, and one of the things that grieves you is, Lord, they go to that abominable liberal church where the only gospels in the hymn books, none in the pulpit, none in the pulpit. My friend, if the gospel's still in the hymn books, they could be sitting there singing a hymn, and there's gospel truth in that hymn. Nobody in the church believes it. The preacher doesn't believe it, but it's there in the hymn books.

39:31 What can God do? God can take the gospel in the line of the hymn and save them sitting right where they are. Now, you ought to try to get them out of that heresy house and where the word is preached. But my child, don't think that their conversion is impossible until you get them out of there.

39:49 God can save them. At least they're not hanging on a cross with their minds and bodies tortured with agony and pain and public shame. No, no. They have many more advantages than he had.

40:01 And yet the Lord took these little fragments of truth and made them effectual. May God comfort our hearts as Christians as we pray for our unsaved loved ones, you men upon whom God's hand is resting to preach the gospel to Mr. Rogers and you brethren that will be going up there to Overbrook to minister to men whose minds many of them are dull and twisted because of sin and for some because of chemical failures in the body and all the rest. May God fill you with joy, brethren, as you go.

40:31 God can take a word of truth here and a word of truth there and make it effectual to the salvation of a sinner. Well, I must hurry on to two other points very quickly. The first is that God is the only one who can save a man from sin. And I'll tell you what God can save a man from sin.

Lesson 5: A Death Blow to Presumption and Despair

40:49 He can save a man from sin by giving him the power of the Holy Spirit. He can save a man from sin by giving him the power of the Holy Spirit. Now, let me explain my two terms, presumption and despair. Some men hear that salvation is completely in the work of another, that is, in Jesus Christ.

41:12 That it's all of God and all of grace. And that it's all of God and all of grace and all of mercy. How can the devil ever take such wonderful things and cover people with it? Well, I'll tell you what he does.

41:30 He takes those things and says to the person, sure, it's all of grace, all of God, all of another, but it's not for me. I've sinned too much. I've sinned against too much light. I've sinned for too long.

41:47 I've been hardened and insensitive and my conscience has stifled, I've stifled the voice of conscience. I've stopped my ears to the overtures of grace in the gospel. It's not for me. My friend, listen, listen.

42:03 This passage is the death knell to unbelieving despair. And on the other hand, then there's carnal presumption. Someone hears all of grace, all of God, not of yourself. Well, fine.

42:17 Just call on the law. All you need to say is remember. And the devil takes the most wonderful truths of the gospel and by mixing his own potions in them, he turns them into poison. Now this passage is the death knell to despair and to presumption.

42:35 How does it strike a blow at unbelieving despair? Oh, dear ones, who could be harder than this thief? Who could be more insensitive at the beginning of the narrative than this thief? And I'm going to tell you a story that I wrote in the book An Incident that is not recorded by the other gospel writers.

42:58 And as one writer quaintly stated it, a rich man who's not about to be bombarded with appeals to his riches does not publish his acts of benevolence to poor people. Here's a wealthy man and he's shown kindness to people in need or to certain institutions and foundations. And if he takes action and acts at his kindness, what he's saying is, I'm accessible to others in a similar place of me. Why did the Holy Ghost move Luke with his careful historical scrutiny to search out an incident that eluded the other gospel writers?

43:37 Why did the Spirit of God guide him to incorporate it into his gospel? Because God is saying, I didn't exhaust the disposition that showed mercy in the last hour. And as one old Puritan has said in his off quote, there is the record of one dying thief, there is one that none may despair. What a wonderful thing to proclaim to anyone in this building this morning, upstairs, downstairs.

44:07 No matter what your past has been, no matter how hardened and insensitive a sinner you've been, my friend, if you go on in unbelief and you say the Savior is because I don't believe he'll save the likes of me, my friend, that's not humility that magnifies Christ. That's wicked, cursed, unbelief. For Christ invites every sinner to come and to rest upon him. But what about the presumption?

44:38 How many dying thieves are set before us in Scripture? How many deathbed conversions are found in Scripture? Only one. Only one.

44:51 The general picture is a man will die precisely as he's left. He'll die precisely as he lived. And you children, you listen to me now, do you know that your basic character is being set, formed and fixed in these days of your youth? You say, I never become the hardened sinner.

45:15 My friend, listen, you children, if you can sit through the kind of gospel preaching that you hear in this place from your pastors, you hear at your family worship, and in the time of greatest tenderness, your youth, if you can harden yourself to that great amount of light, in most cases you'll end up a hardened, impenitent adult who'll simply be marked in time before you drop into hell, even if you live to be 80. That's why God says, Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth, before the evil days come when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. Listen to me, dear young people, listen. When your mind is free from the pressing responsibilities of providing for your children, providing for your household, and the cares of adult life and responsibility, when your mind is most simple in that which it has to be occupied with, and when your life is most or least encumbered with other responsibilities, if all this light of the soul, if all this entreaty comes to a mind and to a body that is not wracked with pain and distracted by agony, if all of that will not be effectual to bring you to the Savior, where will you be in another

46:42 twenty years? Where will you be? That's why this is such an amazing trophy of grace. Most people when they're on a death bed, their minds are so filled with the agonies of the physical disease that is taking life, that they can't take it anymore.

47:04 I've gone into death bed rooms where my mouth was shut. I couldn't even yank it open to speak the gospel. Dear children, dear children, for the sake of your souls, seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near.

47:22 Don't presume. Don't presume. Don't presume. This passage deals a death blow to despair and to presumption and then last of all, behold in this account a sure word of consolation to every dying believer.

Lesson 6: A Sure Word of Consolation to Every Dying Believer

47:41 Maybe some of you are a little disappointed and say, Pastor, you didn't expound verse 43 in the first two messages. I know what I did and didn't do. I saved the dessert till the end of the meal. Behold in this account a sure word of consolation to every dying believer.

48:06 Look at these words. The thief says, Lord, my kingdom. Oh, Lord. Oh, Jesus.

48:14 Look upon me with favor in that hour when you come in glory and power as the returning Messiah to establish your kingdom in the new heavens and the new earth. All I ask is in that day, the day of judgment, the last day that you'll remember me with favor. And the Lord Jesus said, I have something far better than that. And he focuses first of all upon a time.

48:43 Both a prophecy and a word of assurance. He says to him, you're not going to live for three or four days like men often do in crucifixion apart from the Jewish custom to want them dead and out of the way before they keep their religious feast. Height of wicked hypocrisy. He says today, not after a while of soul sleep, not if you pass through so many years of purgatory.

49:09 Today thou shalt be with me. This day you'll know the realized presence of my own companionship. Mr. Dying Thief, your soul is going to be wrenched loose from that body, that violent abnormal wrenching that has been brought about by sin and is only temporary for all men saved or lost.

49:33 Today, you, what constitutes you, essentially you, your soul will be with me. Mr. Thief, you've only asked to be remembered at the last day. And where will it be?

49:51 Paradise, the garden of God, that garden out of which our first father and his wife were driven, that garden which Christ is open for all his own. Revelation 2 and verse 7, to him that overcometh, he says he shall be with me in the paradise of God. And I think it's irresponsible exegesis that men play around with the word our Lord used and trace its origin into a Persian concept and all the rest. What foolery.

50:19 What beautiful dessert. Instead of eating it and letting it roll over the taste buds and licking your lips and rubbing your tummy, you bring in a microscope and try to analyze its constituent physical elements. Today, with me, this place of bliss, place of unsullied joy, with me, this day. What word of consolation could be more certain than if that's not enough, notice what our Lord says verily.

50:50 He puts his amen upon it. Amen. The affirmation of deity. Heaven and hell will not conspire to cancel out this statement.

51:04 And child of God, this ought to be a sure word of consolation to you. For the scripture says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Paul says, I desire to depart and to be with Christ. And with each passing year, some of us will pass the midway mark in ten plus our bonus ten.

51:29 The reality of death becomes more and more real to us. I'm sure to some who've lived out three quarters of it and some who've even had another ten, beyond their bonus ten is dear Mrs. Blair, the reality of death becomes more and more real. And I'll tell you something, child of God, there's only one thing that makes you face it with any degree of confidence.

51:51 It is a growing repose in the almighty power of Jesus Christ to save. You're less and less occupied with your own performances, less and less satisfied with anything that takes the gaze away from the almightiness of the power of Christ to take us through that final crisis when soul and body will be violently wrenched apart for a time. All I need to know is that if I've said, the Lord says to me today, thou shall be with me in paradise. Oh, may God write this word upon our hearts that as we come in the words of Bunyan to cross that river, we may suck sweetness from this word of consolation to this dying thief today. Thou shall be with me in paradise and it's the glory of the salvation of Christ that it needs nothing, nothing added to the perfection of his own grace to fit us to dwell with him. This is the abominableness if I may coin a word of the horrendous blasphemous doctrine of purgatory.

53:20 What can your pains in the fires of purgatory add to the pains of the suffering of the world? And it is a sign that we shall be in paradise without one gram of unmet demands against your sin because following the words of the Savior to your forsakenness plunged into the darkness of hell against your sin Mr. Thief. And when he comes up the other side saying it is finished you don't need the lick of one tongue of flame upon your soul to fit you for paradise. The flames were exhausted in the Son of God.

54:32 Hallelujah. My pains O Christ not mine. But Thou made Christ as your only ground of confidence not in life alone but in facing death. You'll derive little comfort even if God's given you fifty sixty years to serve because you will see with an eye that is more and more perceptive concerning the glory of that other world.

55:14 your only hope is Christ and Christ alone.

Conclusion and Final Exhortation

55:20 Behold in this narrative this singular manifestation of the power of Christ to save. Behold the unparalleled display of salvation by grace alone. Behold this clear demonstration of the sovereignty of God in the salvation of sinners. Behold how little of God's truth may be made effectual to convert a soul.

55:43 Behold, see in this passage, a death blow to presumption and despair. Behold in it, child of God, a sure word of consolation in the face of death. And oh, dear unsafe person, what have you got if you don't have this? What have you got if you don't have this?

56:04 What do you really have if you don't have this? And child of God, if you have this, then it's right for God to say, all things are yours. Blessed be God for so great a Savior and so great a salvation. Oh, dear friend, I hope we provoke you to jealousy.

56:26 I hope if you're on the outside this morning, your spiritual mouth is just dripping, saying, I've got to know something of that. My friend, it's yours in Christ. Lay hold of Him. And it's yours in Christ.

56:41 Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And thou shalt be saved. And thou shalt be saved. And thou shalt be saved.

56:48 Let us pray.