CHRIST S GREATEST TROPHY Lk. 23:39 And one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. 40 But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds: but this man hath done nothing amiss. 42 And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. 43 And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. Powerful words! In the final hours before He died our Sovereign Lord Jesus Christ spoke words to a sinner that removed from him the everlasting fires of hell. These verses don t tally with the false doctrine of Purgatory, neither do they tally with the equally erroneous doctrines of the Jehovah Witnesses or the Mormons. This Gospel is unique to Christ. When Jesus saves, Jesus saves completely, absolutely and immediately. When I was in Maybole Chrissie, a lady from my previous church in Paisley, phoned me with regards to her sister, Sheila. Sheila had just learned that she only had a few months to live. I went to visit her, and since time was short, I took her to the crux of the matter, - how she must face eternity. Sheila wasn t a bad lady, - she enjoyed singing in the clubs, and that kind of lifestyle. Nevertheless, she wasn t put off when I spoke to her about her need of salvation and read to her from the Scriptures. I was blunt, - I spoke about Heaven and Hell, - for I felt time was so short. About six months later, on a Sunday, I had another phone call from Chrissie saying that Sheila was fast approaching the very gates of death. I couldn t go to see her that day, and neither could I go on the Monday. I went on the Tuesday. First of all I met with the family in the little room set aside for these occasions. After praying with them I went in to see Sheila. She was all plugged into the heart machine and oxygen support, but she opened her eyes, turned and said to me, David, I want to get saved. I read to her from Psalm 23, and she gave her heart to the Lord. It was 2.20 in the afternoon. Shortly after I left, the family went in to see her. She told them about having accepted Jesus as Saviour and Lord. Later in the afternoon Sheila slipped into a coma and never recovered.
D.G. 2 You can never do anymore dangerous a thing than to say, I ll become a Christian when I m older; when I ve enjoyed life I ll settle down. Some people are never given the opportunity. Here in Luke 23, God also was so gracious to this thief, and this thief is in Heaven today. When the blood of the Lamb of Calvary was slain all his sins were washed away. He left this world with Christ, and he entered Glory with Him too. What a privilege, What have I to dread, what have I to fear? Leaning on the everlasting arms. I have blessed peace with my Lord so near, Leaning on the everlasting arms. I was with another lady in her last hour. She was lying on her deathbed and we were all round her. Do you know what she was doing? She was holding her husband s hand and singing all the great old hymns of redemption as she slipped into Glory. What a place to have been there at the cross! Jesus was at His very lowest and still He did a work of redeeming grace. He had been stripped of His garments, sapped of His energy, mocked by the crowds, nailed to a cross, dying in agony, and still He had the power to save! Even God on the cross at His weakest was infinitely more powerful than the strongest of earthly men. And since the Saviour, as He was dying demonstrated so much power, how much more powerful He is as the Risen, Conquering King! Look too at the thief. It s not easy to swim against the tide of public opinion. And neither is it easy to place your faith in a Man Who is being crucified beside you. This, most definitely, was a work of grace, for this thief would never ordinarily have believed in Jesus, He never gave Jesus a second thought any other time, it s a miracle of God that the thief turned to Him now on the cross.
D.G. 3 All the educated people, - the Pharisees and Sadducees, - believed Jesus was a liar and a deceiver. The power of the Roman authorities considered Him as nothing. The crowds could see nothing about Jesus to support His claim of being King of the Jews. And yet the thief on the cross turned to Jesus and said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. We are not going to praise the thief, or even the faith he demonstrated, but we are going to consider God s grace at reaching down and saving such a wretch. CHRIST S LAST COMPANION What sorry company our Lord selected to be His last on earth! He was known as the friend of publicans and sinners right to the end. Isn t that beautiful! When He chose me on to Himself, He didn t choose the best that was available. When you would go out looking for a car and you have 10,000 in your pocket, you wouldn t spend it on an old banger, - you would search out your moneys-worth. There was nothing that Christ would have gained by reaching out for me, and that is why salvation is all of grace. If Jesus hadn t stooped so low He wouldn t have come to me, and I assure you I wouldn t have gone to Him, for if Jesus hadn t have searched me out I would still be lost. He didn t come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. He said, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And there is no doubt about it, this man on the cross beside Jesus qualified as a sinner in need of repentance. There is nobody so bad that Christ cannot save them. This man was a thief, and by virtue of his occupation he would also have been a murderer because the two went together.
D.G. 4 Imagine, to this guiltiest of sinners Jesus spoke with matchless grace. There is no-one, - absolutely no-one, - whom Christ is incapable of saving, no matter how bad you think you are. The Gospel of Matthew tells us that originally this thief mocked Jesus too, Mt. 27:44 The thieves also, which were crucified with him, cast the same in his teeth. Yet, in a moment, he is awakened to the fact that the Person hanging on the cross beside him was able to save him from sin, - yes, in a moment, through the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the blackest soul can be made white. What more worse situation could you imagine than to be a sinner in misery dying such a terrible death on a cross?! The thief was hanging on the cross because his sins had found him out, - he was rightly receiving the reward for his Godless actions. He knew, - and he even said to the other thief, - Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly; for we receive the due reward of our deeds. He knew he hadn t long to live, but he also knew that what was left of life Christ could change! He wasn t trusting in good works, because time had run out, and there was nothing that he could hold on to; he knew that when he would appear before the judgment Throne of God he couldn t say, Now Lord, I wasn t a bad person for he was. And neither would he have got anywhere by saying, Ah! But it wasn t my fault. It was the environment I was brought up in. Yet the Saviour could save him and did save him, and Christ saved him so perfectly. This man had such confidence in Christ, and it wasn t fear that made him believe, - Oh, this is my last chance. I ll try Jesus, - none of that! He believed in Jesus totally and absolutely, and he expressed his faith openly, Lord remember me. The Jewish leaders, the Roman authorities, the crowds of people were all saying something different to how the Holy Spirit was working in his heart, but he prayed the simple of prayer of repentance and faith, Lord remember me.
D.G. 5 If you are not saved, you needn t be as bad a man as the man on the cross to call on to Jesus, Lord remember me. I m a sinner in need of salvation. I don t want to leave it to the very last moment in case I never get another opportunity. But remember it is not the sinner we are highlighting this morning, it s the Saviour. All this is possible because of Jesus being there beside him. If you are believing in a gospel that excludes the atoning work of Christ it s no Gospel at all, - it won t save you. This thief in such a hopeless state found Christ as his Saviour, and on earth he was Christ s Last Companion CHRIST S FIRST COMPANION At the end of the day, when the Roman soldier, went to look at the three hanging on the crosses it was his job to cause them to die quicker, so he had a mallet with him. With this mallet he would break the legs of those being crucified and thus speed up their death. He came to the first cross and the thief was crying in pain; the soldier swung the mallet back and then he hit with an almighty thud the first leg of the first thief and then the other leg, Then he came to the other thief and he did the same thing, - the cries of pain must have been terrible. The Man on the middle cross was already dead. Who was it that entered into Glory with Christ? Was it a great Christian martyr? Or a faithful apostle? a patriarch like Abraham? or someone like King David? No, it was the wretched hell-deserving sinner that hung alongside Him on the cross. The thief was saved in no inferior way. No special efforts more than for a rich man was made. The well-off man is saved in no superior way. All men, women, boys and girls are saved the same way, through Christ, and Christ alone. Christ entered into Glory with such a sinner!
D.G. 6 The man was standing outside the gates of heaven and he heard beautiful music being song. He walked in through the gates and saw a great number standing singing before the Throne. Who are these? he says. He was told they were the prophets of the Old Testament. He sighed and said, Alas! I am not one of those. He waited a while and another company entered singing hallelujahs. He enquired again, Who are these? Where have they come from? He was told, Those are the apostles. Again he sighed, Alas! I am not one of them either. There was another great body of men and women and they were marching in great ranks of victory. He learned they were the great army of the martyrs, and again he wept, Neither can I enter with them. In the end he heard the voices of many people, and saw a greater multitude than before. He saw Rahab and Mary Magdalene, he saw David, and Josiah, he saw Titus and he saw the leper who had been cleansed with the other nine, and he saw the thief. Such a strange company, they all entered in together. He eagerly enquired, Who are these? Then he was told, This is the host of sinners saved by grace. His face bubbled with joy. The tears were flowing, I can go with these, he cried. CONCLUSION. There is so much more that can be seen in these few verses, but we shall stop there just for now. God s grace is an all-atoning work. The praise is His and His alone. There was nothing of the thief that of Himself would have worked this miracle, - Jesus did it! Believer, Jesus did it! Jesus saved you, even dying on a cross, He went there so that you would have new life. Jesus saved you! I told you about Sheila, and I mentioned to you her sister Chrissie. Chrissie was a real character, - she loved my jokes!
D.G. 7 Anyhow, she was going down the town one day and she was sitting in the bus. A car pulled out and the bus had to break quickly. Chrissie hit her head, it was bleeding. She was taken into hospital, a few hours later she died. I officiated at her funeral too. She was saved. She loved the Lord. She hadn t expected to meet Him just so soon, but she is with Him in glory today, alongside her sister. It s good to be sure of your eternity. It s good to be saved. It s good to have the assurance within your heart that when you leave this scene of time you enter into the everlasting presence of God. Sinner, but you re not saved yet. I told you about Sheila at the beginning and how it was in the closing moments of our life that she gave her heart to God. Don t bank on it that you can do the same! This is too important an issue to gamble upon. The offer of free and sovereign grace is being extended to you again today. Don t turn it away as you have in the past. It would break my heart if you were to walk out of this place this morning and death whipped you away into a Christless eternity. Oh! That s never going to happen to me! Don t be a fool. Hell is full of people who entered it by walking out through a church door and past Christ. Jesus is able to save to the uttermost all that come by faith to Him. Think about it most sincerely as we sing the words, The dying thief rejoiced to see That fountain in his day, And there have I, though vile as he, Washed all my sins away.