Luke chapter twenty three before we read this I'd like you ask you to pray something just bow your head and say to God oh Lord help me appreciate Jesus more oh Lord help me appreciate Jesus more Here graciously we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Luke chapter twenty three. And we're going to read at verse thirty two. This past week we had an experience of the problems of space travel with the Russian astronauts. And this week I was talking to a friend in Colorado Springs and he was telling me that the astronaut Jim Irwin gave the Colorado Springs Christian school the flag that he had unfurled on the moon for them to sell and get money for the school and somebody bought it for ten thousand dollars. which was very helpful to the Christian school. I'd like to talk a little bit tonight, at least initially, about a man who took a journey, the like of which going to the moon is absolutely insignificant. This man awoke in the morning in a Roman dungeon, He was drug out to a place of crucifixion, and Roman legionnaires were not noted for being easy on their prisoners. And he was nailed to a cross and suffers the most excruciating kind of death. But before the sun was down, He was in paradise with Jesus. And he never lifted a finger to save himself. He was in paradise with Jesus only because of what Jesus did for him. Only because of what Jesus did. Luke twenty three thirty two and there were also two other malefactors led with him to be put to death now this man of whom I speak is one of the two thieves and he is a man who has been found guilty under Roman law justice was real and it was swift and he is condemned to crucifixion for crimes unspecified to us but now Rome had quite a few capital crimes and the most serious was to in any way oppose their rule now he comes with there's these two criminals and there's this other curious individual who is different. But this other individual, the Lord Jesus, is dying exactly where he belongs with the criminals and the murderers. Not because that was where he belonged, but because that was where he belonged when he got my sins when he took my sins his proper place was with the murderers the wicked the vicious of the world and so these three men are brought out to Calvary and when they were come to the place which is called Calvary there they crucified him and the malefactors one on the right hand and the other on the left now as a brother JB observed earlier you know your religion often when you come to crisis is revealed as of no value and these men are wicked men and unbelievably We read in Mark fifteen, thirty-two that both of them were railing on the Lord Jesus. They hear the crowd shouting things and they join in. They're going to be crucified themselves. So we're not talking about people of tender conscience and sensitive individuals. They join with the crowd and says the two malefactors railed on him. That means they kept saying abusive things to him. They just kept saying abusive things to the man in the middle. Then said, Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do, and they parted his raiment and cast lots. And the people stood beholding, and the rulers also derided him, saying, he saved others let him save himself if he be the Christ the chosen of God and the soldiers also mocked him coming to him and offering him vinegar and saying if thou be the king of the Jews save thyself it should never be a surprise that the greatest anger that human hearts can produce is reserved for the greatest good If people were going to say bad things about other people, they should have been saying them about the two thieves. Man, it's stolen. They're crooks. They're criminals. Condemned. But no, all the focus of anger, all the focus of abuse is upon the Lord Jesus. He is getting it all. And these individuals that are around there, There's the people, there's the rulers, there's the soldiers, they come and mock him. And mocking, say, you know, it says King of the Jews. Pilate really slipped up on this one. And they said, if you're the King of the Jews, you know, let's see something, maybe we can worship you. And a superscription was written over him in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew. This is the King of the Jews. But on that hillside, something has changed now. Why? We don't know. Perhaps it's hearing the Lord Jesus say, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. But the Holy Spirit now speaks to the heart of one of the malefactors, one of the criminals, one of the thieves. And something begins to happen. This man who now is hanging in agony is being punished, who was railing upon the Lord Jesus earlier. Here's the other thief say, If thou be the Christ, save thyself and us. Here's a man that had the world's worst theology. He didn't understand anything. And he says that to the Lord Jesus. But now this man, this one thief, answers him. And he rebukes him. And I would like to draw to your attention the steps of salvation and conversion in this man's life. And in one way or another, every person who comes to God comes the same way. There are not two ways to God. Now we may have a wealth of experiences. I, in a terrible state of depression and frustration, having celebrated my twentieth birthday, In Germany, in great despair of heart, remembered that my parents used to read a chapter in Proverbs, and on the twenty-ninth day in that year in December, I opened up Proverbs twenty-nine one, and it said, He that being often reproved, hardening his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy. And the fear of God came upon me. Now I knew from a child. And I like the words that of the dear Mr. Wesley, that day I cast myself with reckless abandon upon the tender mercies of Jesus. We have different experiences, but we come through this. And here this man, this one prisoner, this one thief says to the other, Does not thou feel fear God seeing thou art in the same condemnation? Fear God? That's one of the great things that God criticizes about the world. There is no fear of God before their eyes. You know, I don't know what your heart is like. God knows. And you may have heard many wonderful things about Jesus. And prevailing religious opinion in this nation and in Western Europe is that everybody is going to go to heaven. There is no such thing as hell. Well, let me tell you. If you will not have Jesus as your Savior, you will have him as your judge. I guarantee you will not like him. I guarantee it. And the beginning of this man's conversion experience is an understanding now that what's coming next is God. Don't you fear God? Here you're railing on this man in the middle. Don't you, aren't you afraid? Don't you know? He doesn't know this, but don't you know that it's It is appointed by the man, wants to die. And after this is judgment. Don't you know that? And he comments, he says, seeing, you were in the same condemnation. There's three of us here hanging on crosses. It apparently looks like there's three equal men here. But now look at this next step. The man has had a taste of the fear of God. I tell you, I ask you, do you fear God tonight? You say, well, you mean being scared? Yes, that's exactly what I mean. There is the reverential trust of God by the believer. But let me tell you, God is an angry God. And it says that all those who are not in Christ, it says the wrath of God abides on you. If we could see, as God sees tonight, we could look out at each other and we would see that there are some people here and they've got the wrath of God hovering over them. And God is just waiting and waiting to pour it out. These men are condemned. But he sees something more. And we indeed justly. For we receive the due reward of our deeds. Now this is the noblest theologian of Jesus' day. This man knows more as he hangs on this cross than James or John understood at this time. He knows more. He knows more. some tremendous things he knows that he's getting what he deserves he's getting what he deserves a valuable exercise for the people of God every single morning is to say as you look in the mirror I deserve to go to hell today thank you for the Lord Jesus that is one of the greatest exercises of heart to realize and to understand that what I deserve is eternal punishment in hell. That's what I deserve. And this man sees it. This man says, we're hanging here. We deserve to be here. What a tremendous understanding he gave. I deserve this. You know, if you were involved in the prison ministry, like the Bennett's and so many others in this country, you'd find that the prisons are filled with innocent men. The people that get saved are the men that aren't innocent. They're the men that are despairing. When I read a testimony from a man in prison, and a lot of these men are really con artists, I look for a sense of hopelessness about their sins and the forgiveness of God. That's what I want to see that in the testimony. I want to understand it. This man has some tremendous awareness now. He realizes that he deserves what he's getting. The fact remains that every one of us in this room deserves to go to hell. Every one of us. That is what we deserve. If God gave us justice, we would go to hell. to the lake of fire forever. And this man realizes we indeed justly receive the due reward of our deeds. But he's got something better now. He not only sees himself as deserving of the punishment he is getting, But he looks to the man in the middle cross and he makes a tremendous leap. John Calvin said this was the greatest example of faith in the New Testament. The greatest example of faith. Get the picture. There's three individuals hanging on crosses. Totally helpless. Totally helpless, apparently. And yet this one man, he looks to the middle cross. having seen that he deserves eternal punishment, that he deserves the death he's getting, and he looks to the man in the middle cross and he makes a tremendous judgment. He says, this man hath done nothing amiss. He turns and he looks at Jesus and he says, I'm guilty and he's innocent. He's innocent. This man doesn't deserve to be here. He doesn't belong here. He's done nothing to earn a place here. Now, when you want to come to Jesus Christ, you've got to realize something. That when he was dying on the cross, he was dying for you and for me, not for himself. There was nothing to put him there. And this man sees this. This man understands. He's done nothing amiss. And now comes the great act of faith. He looks at the man. He sees the man in the middle as innocent. But he sees something more. He sees that Jesus is God. He turns to him and says, Lord. He makes a public attestation to the fact that Jesus is the Jehovah of the Old Testament. How did he find out all this? I do not know. He had information. But now he has faith. And here is this man in the middle, dying in agony. But this man's eyes are opened and he sees that Jesus is God, that Jesus is the Jehovah of the Old Testament. He addresses him as God, Lord. But he also sees something else. He sees that what he sees on the middle cross is not the last thing he's going to see of Jesus. He understands now, he sees that Jesus This is not the end of him. The crowd is filled with people that are going to have great glee for the next three days. We got rid of that troublemaker. We finally were able to silence this guy. It could have cost us the whole nation with his terrible words condemning the Pharisees. And we finally gotten rid of him. They said he was a blasphemer. The thief on the cross counteracts the judgment of the high priest. He counteracts the judgment of Pilate. Pilate says, don't you understand that I can do what I want with you? Jesus said, you could have no power over me except that we're given thee from above. And so these people are all filled with tremendous confusion. They believe the enormous lies. The man on the cross, the thief, sees that this is not the end of Jesus and everybody else thinks it is. Say, oh boy, we've gotten rid of him. And so what does he say? He not only sees that this is not the end of Jesus, but he sees what the end of Jesus is. He sees him as the ruler of a kingdom. He doesn't just see that Jesus is going to go on He says to Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. You can see already this man has made quite a journey. Quite a journey. The journey that really matters. The journey toward being acceptable to God. And he turns to Jesus. He reverses the judgment of the court, the judgment of the high priest, the judgment of the mob. He even reverses the judgment of the friends of Jesus who had all forsaken him. Peter had denied him. And here is this man, hopeless. He's dying in agony. And he knows that he deserves to be there. And he has been enlightened. And he sees who Jesus really is. He sees that Jesus is a Jehovah of the Old Testament. He sees that he doesn't belong there on the cross. He sees that Jesus is going to rule. And going into the only place that there was any help, he turns to Jesus and says, remember me, remember me. Now I would like you to turn your attention for just a moment to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I want to ask you, have you taken the journey so far personally? Do you understand that you're a sinner and that you deserve the punishment from God? And listen, I'm not talking to unbelievers alone. Every one of us in this room should come to a recognition, should have as a recognition that we deserve punishment for our sins. We say we're saved by grace, and that's true. But you know, the extent to which you have been forgiven to that extent you love Christ to that extent you love Christ the Lord Jesus said it himself told it in a story this one man owed a great owed a great deal didn't have any money forgave him the man he owed it to another owed a little bit and he didn't have any money and he forgave him and he said to Simon the Pharisee says who's going to love him most and Simon who wasn't totally devoid of all enlightenment, said, I suppose the one who is forgiven most. The person in this room who loves Jesus most is the person who understands they have been forgiven most. That's the truth. That's the truth. This man has come and he's turned to Jesus. You know, Don't you love the phrase, Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast down. Here is this criminal, this scumbag of that day, a man of viciousness who an hour or two earlier was calling Jesus' names and casting abuse in him on his face. How does Jesus treat him? you're not good enough for me he doesn't say that you're too bad for me he doesn't say that I'm not sure I can do anything for you if he was a modern theologian he would have said that but he's not Jesus looks at this man Jesus sees him And everything he asked for, he tops. Now understand, Jesus is dying in agony. You don't want to meet me with a headache. I'd rip you up and down, just in no time at all. I'd get real irritable when I don't feel good. The Lord Jesus hangs there in unspeakable agony. And he had plenty of compassion to turn to this man. Having heard his requests, he tops them all. And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, You called me God, little do you know how right you are. I cannot lie. God cannot change. All these things lie behind these things that Jesus says. I'm making you a promise. I'm telling you something today. I'll tell you what I'm going to do for you. He says, today shall thou be with me in paradise. And before the sun was down, the thief was in heaven with Jesus. Why? Why? He couldn't do anything, could he? What could he do for himself? His hands were empty. His hands were nailed. And he recognized that he himself had been a wicked man deserving punishment. He had nothing. He didn't appeal to God on the basis of something he did. He had no promise for the future. If you do something for me, I'll do something for you. He didn't have anything like that. He cast himself, as Mr. Wesley said, with reckless abandon upon the mercies of Jesus. He said, Lord, remember me when you come in your kingdom. He didn't even have the courage to ask him to save him. Just remember me. Jesus said, you'll be with me. You'll be with me. I appeal to you tonight. In addition to the words of our brother, tonight you must face the fact that you are a sinner. You must face the fact that you deserve eternal punishment. Even we know that there are certain crimes when they're committed against certain people that they're more heinous and more terrible than if they're committed against others. On the day that the President of the United States was shot, Three other men were shot, a press secretary who got quite a bit of attention, a Secret Service man who got some attention, and a Washington City policeman who got some attention. But everybody knew that the most serious thing that had happened that day in Washington was that someone had the assentry to shoot the President of the United States. And we understand that that was more serious That was a greater blow against the citizen of this country than the other shootings. Now I want you to think about this. You take that and you take it to affinity. You take it to infinity and I want you to understand something. One single sin against the infinite God will never be paid for. That's why God has an eternity in the lake of fire for sinners. Because after you have spent two hundred billion years in the lake of fire, you have not paid God for one single solitary lie you ever told. Because your sin has been a sin against the infinite God. And when you sin against the infinite God, you must pay an infinite price. You will never, never, never pay for one single sin against the Almighty God. And so you must realize that you are a sinner, but also that you deserve to go to hell. That you deserve that punishment. You have been a rebel against God. You have lied. You've disobeyed. You've cheated. You haven't loved the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, with all your strength. And you deserve, and I deserve, to go to hell forever. You deserve that. And you must admit it. You must say to God, I know that you're right and I'm wrong. This man on the cross, boy, he really had it together. We receive the due reward of our deeds, but this man, the man in the middle, he's done nothing wrong. And you face the fact that you deserve eternal punishment. You must come this way. There's no other way to come. You must come this way. But then you also realize something else. that the man on the middle cross took the punishment you deserved. In one of the great works of religious writing in the middle age was a man named Anselm and he wrote a book entitled Why a God Man? Why a God Man? And then he talks about why God had to become a man and enter the world. And it was because an infinite price had to be paid for our sins. So it has to be someone, a man who can die, but it has to be God who can take all the anger of his father, all the wrath that God has for sin. It has to be someone who can not only die, but his death has to be able to absorb all the punishment that my sins deserve. And that's why we have a God man. And Anselm. says time and again throughout the book. He says that Jesus worth more than all the worlds. Worth more than all the worlds. And you need to realize that if you know that you're a sinner and you know that you deserve eternal punishment forever, you need to realize that Jesus Christ took the punishment you deserve and you can trust in him tonight. And when you trust in him tonight, you will never pay for one sin again God will be completely satisfied with you why because he took all your sins and all my sins and he placed them on the Lord Jesus he didn't overlook any he didn't miss any all my sins were future to that day of Calvary and God took my sin and he placed them on the Lord Jesus Every lie I've told, every wicked thing I've done, every thought that I've had that hasn't been in accord with what God says. And he took and put them all on the Lord Jesus. And the Lord Jesus, in perfect willingness, takes them all. And then God looks down and he sees on his son my sins and your sins. And he allows his wrath to run riot. And he just pours out his entire anger and hatred against sin upon the blessed Jesus. And Jesus takes it, and on the third day, God raised him from the dead. And my plea to come to God is, I come because of Jesus. The day I go to heaven, I will come with my empty hands, and I will say to God the Father, My right to come in here is what Jesus has paid. He's paid the price. You too can be assured of being in paradise with Jesus. Acknowledging yourself to be a sinner. Acknowledging Jesus to be innocent. Acknowledging that you deserve punishment for your sin. and acknowledging that Jesus took the punishment you deserved you can be totally and forever transformed and forgiven forgiveness is one of the great gifts that God gives us to know that we're forgiven is a great thing to know the one who has made it possible for God to forgive us is even greater you tonight can turn in faith to Jesus. And for those of us who are believers, I know for myself that I am grossly tolerant of the poorest feelings about Jesus. If my heart is cold, I don't even think it's too bad. We should have a much greater sense of appreciation for the Lord Jesus Christ. Our God and Father, you look down, you look upon the hearts, you see those who have already been redeemed. You see us in Christ, seated in the heavenly. You see us forgiven. You see us acceptable. And Father, you look down tonight and you're seeing some people who are going to have to pay for their own sins. We would ask that God the Holy Spirit would take these two messages, take those perhaps that are halting between two opinions, and bring upon them, we pray, a sense of fear, deprive them of any sense of ease or contentment, remove from them the thoughts of foolishness, and give them a sense of the horror of hell. And Father, then we plead that you would draw and attract them to put their trust in the Lord Jesus, who has paid the price. Father, help those of us who are believers to appreciate the Lord Jesus a little bit more tonight. We acknowledge our God that Jesus is the Savior, The absolute and totally innocent one who willingly took our punishment. He took our sin. He hung upon the cross so that we could come to you. And so that you and your holy, righteous character could accept us. We pray, our God, that you would glorify the Lord Jesus in our hearts tonight. For we pray in his name. Amen. Out of my bondage, sorrow and I, Jesus I come, Jesus I come, into thy freedom, gladness, and light. Jesus I come to thee, out of thy sickness into thy health, out of my lust and into thy well. Out of my sin and into thyself, Jesus I come to thee. Verse three, Out of unrest and arrogance pride, Jesus I come to thee. Jesus, I come into thy blessed will to abide. Jesus, I come to thee. How does my death live well in my love? How does this stir if you ask your just love? Upward for I am reached like a dove Jesus, I come to thee.