Take your Bibles and turn to Luke's gospel, if you would. Luke chapter 23. As you're finding that, I want to thank the choir for the beautiful music and the instrumentalists and all that a part in that. We appreciate that so much. It is great to sing these great songs and then to be reminded of this great Easter Sunday truth that He lives. He lives indeed. He's risen. My passage today is from Luke's Gospel chapter 23. I'd like to begin reading in verse 32. And this is not totally about the resurrection, but I think you'll see the bearing of it as we proceed through the message today. So follow along as I read beginning in verse 32 of Luke chapter 23. And there were also two others, malefactors, led with him to be put to death. When they would 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. 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 with them derided him, saying, He saved others. Let him save himself, if he be 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. And a superscription was also written over him in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew. This is the king of the Jews. And one of the malefactors, which were hanged, railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly." Could I pause there just a moment and say this concerning Luke's account of this scene on Calvary? Matthew and Mark and John also say that there were two thieves Matthew says, one on the right hand, the other on the left. And then he says, the thieves cast also the same in his teeth. In other words, and he says, Pearl, the thieves, Matthew said, they also reviled Jesus. Mark said it this way in Mark 15. Two thieves, one on his right hand, the other on his left. And the scripture was fulfilled, which said he was numbered with the transgressors. Now, the Jews and Romans could have put Jesus on a cross, not between two common criminals, but they wanted to humiliate him as much as they could. They wanted to identify him as just an imposter. Certainly, that's what they thought. So, to make him to be as humiliated as possible, they put him between, as we see, two thieves. And notice Mark said also in Mark 15, 32, and they that were crucified with him revile him. So both Mark and Matthew say both thieves joined in the mocking and the reviling of Jesus. John's gospel simply says they crucified him and two other with him on either side and Jesus in the midst. So it's interesting to me that Luke alone records the incident where One of the thieves said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Not unusual for Luke to do that. He was interested. He was the physician. He was interested in the details of people's lives. He alone is the one that recorded the parable of the Good Samaritan. And he followed the Good Samaritan and the man, the victim, all the way to the end where he was taken care of. He is the one that recorded the parable of the lost sheep and of the prodigal son. And Luke is interested in people and in what happens after we see the initials. So he takes time, not Matthew and Mark and John, who just simply said he was crucified between two thieves, but Luke, who said he was crucified between two thieves, but also one of those thieves, Before he died, almost in his dying breath, said, Lord, remember me. And we see what the rest of the story is. And notice the verse 43. Jesus said to him, Verily I say unto you, Today thou shalt be with me in paradise. And it was about the sixth hour, that is noon. And there was darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour. And the sun was darkened, and the veil of the temple was rented in the midst. Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. And having said thus, he gave up the ghost. Father in heaven, I pray this morning that thy spirit who spoke and superintended the writing of this account and all the gospel accounts would illumine our hearts I pray for every person, every hearer here, not only in this place, but worldwide today who's hearing the gospel, whether it be in villages and small gatherings of groups of a few or large congregations, mega churches, as it were. I pray wherever the gospel is proclaimed, that hearts would hear and that people would believe and receive, as did this thief on the cross. who in his dying breath said, Lord, remember me. And Jesus said, I will. And I pray that thou would attend to us here today. I pray that we might see the simplicity, the urgency, the life-changing power in that word, I believe. I pray that thou would show us what you would have us to see out of this wonderful account that Luke, the physician, gives us. In Jesus' name I pray, amen. In just a few moments, I want to show you a few simple things that impressed me about this account that Luke, the physician, gives us about what happened in those few hours on Calvary Street. And I want to just zero in, if I could, on the thief who prayed that simple prayer, Lord, remember me. Jesus, Lord, remember me. And what it says to us, what it says to every soul that reads this account today, five or six simple statements. Would you just follow along with me? You might have heard this before. These may be review to you, but that's okay. They never cease to thrill our hearts to see how simple salvation is, how wide the invitation is. How that anyone, anytime, anywhere can do what the thief did in his dying breath and say, Lord, remember me, and then get saved. Get saved. I would not want to bank on waiting that long. We never know that we have another day or another opportunity to hear the gospel, but certainly we can say with the authority of the word of God that anybody who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, will be saved, definitely. Any circumstances imaginable. Any place in the world. As we see here on Calvary, when a dying thief, barely able probably to get the words out, called out to Jesus. It says several things to me. Number one, I believe that we can see from this passage that he recognized he was a sinner. In fact, he confesses that. He rebuked the other thief, finally. Now he had been joining in the mocking, it says in Matthew and Mark. He had been joining in when they reviled him and said, save yourself if you're the king. Save yourself. But at some point, while he was hanging there upon that cross, he was ready to acknowledge, I am a sinner, I deserve to be here. The man in the middle doesn't. Notice what he said in verse 40, But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Dost thou not fear God? Dost thou not fear God? We deserve to be here, seeing that thou art in the same condemnation, and we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds. He said, But this man hath done nothing best. So he realized, he recognized that he was a sinner. By the way, that's the first thing you need to do is to realize that you're a sinner, to come to Christ. The Bible says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. 1 Kings 8, 46, there's no man that sinneth not. Proverbs 20, verse 9. Who can say I have made my heart clean? I am pure from my sin. Please ask these chapter 7 verse 20. Surely there's not a righteous man upon the face of the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Again, Romans 3, 10 and 12, there's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that doeth good and sinneth not, no, not so much as one. And then that classic verse, Romans 3, 23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So to come to Christ Jesus, number one, gotta recognize you're a sinner. This man did. He was being crucified. He was being, he was given punishment for his sin. He said, we indeed justly, we have sinned. I don't know that the other thief would ever recognize it or admit it at least, but this man did. So number one, recognize that he was a sinner and all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, amen? As we just read many verses, all different parts of the Bible. I think I've only met one person, one adult person in my life that would not acknowledge that he was a sinner. Back in Newton, Kansas, going door to door, visiting people, and I asked him, well-dressed, fine, respectable looking person, just anybody's good neighbor. And he said, no, I've not sinned, I've never sinned. But I think you would today, amen? If you're honest. So number one, all have sinned. And he said, we indeed justly, I'm a sinner. Secondly, notice, he believed that Jesus was the Christ. Notice verse 35. The people stood beholding him and the rulers with him deriding him saying, he saved others. If thou be Christ, the chosen God. Save yourself if you be Christ. Again in verse 39. If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. One of the malefactors said. That was the issue. And that is the issue yet today for many. The deity of the Lord Jesus Christ, is he Christ? He claimed he was, he said he was. But still there are those today who, any of the major cults, as we learned in our Sunday school class today, will deny that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Mormons Jehovah Witnesses we could go down the line others. They will not acknowledge that all day. He's a good man. He's a prophet. I Was in the I've taken the tour with my wife through the Mormon temple out in Salt Lake City several years ago and my goodness as they as they Portrayed Christ with his the pictures and with their stories you would think that they thought he was the only Savior of the world, but they don't believe that Will not acknowledge it And professors who sit in seminaries and teach theology to students, many of them do not acknowledge Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. This penitent thief did. He said, Jesus, verse 42, Lord, Lord means Messiah. Jesus means Savior. And I don't know that there's another place, I didn't study it or research it thoroughly, but I don't know there's, in my thinking right off the top, I can't think of another place where somebody addresses Jesus, Lord. It's like he wanted to make sure he got everything in there. Okay, so he did acknowledge he's the Christ. Because he realized these people were, this was the issue, if thou be Christ. Hey, you're supposed to be the anointed of God. You're supposed to be the long-awaited Messiah, the deliverer of the people of God. Hey, if you are who you said you are, and if you are who people say you are, save yourself and save us. So number two, he believed Jesus was the Christ. Thirdly, notice, he believed that Jesus could forgive sins. Again, look at verse 34. Father, he said, Jesus did. Forgive them for they know not what they do. He heard this plea of the Savior. One of the first words that Jesus said when he was nailed to the old rugged cross, spat upon and beaten mercilessly. And the first words out of the Lord Jesus' mouth was, Father, forgive them. Father, forgive them. And he believed that Jesus could forgive sins. By the way, I'm so glad he can forgive sins, any sins, all sins. Go back to Acts chapter 13, if you would, please, and I want to just show you what Paul the apostle said in one of his great sermons, Acts 13, verse 36. Paul the Apostle, this is his first missionary journey, and speaking in a great city, he said this, a great congregation, probably mostly of Jews, he said, verse 36, for David, after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep, he died, and was laid into his father's and saw corruption, but he whom God raised again saw no corruption, the Lord Jesus. Go on, but he whom God raised against Saul, be it known unto you, therefore, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins. And by him, listen to this, follow along if you've got your Bibles open, don't miss it, and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. Glory to God. read your pedigree and list your sins and put them all under the blood because Paul said, all things are justified by him. And by him, forgiveness is preached to all men and all can be forgiven. All who believe on him are justified from all things. Amen. Glory. Praise God. for the great forgiveness that, and this dying thief heard the prayer, probably, I think he had heard about Jesus before he was hung up on the cross. But at this point, as he was casting in the same thing with his partner in crime, so to speak, with the other criminal on the cross, at some point, the Holy Spirit of God got a hold of his heart must have said in that still, small voice like he said to you and me, listen, Jesus Christ is your savior. Did you hear what he said? Father, forgive them. The Lord Jesus prayed for these, his tormentors. Those who mocked Him, those who spat upon Him, those who disrobed Him, those who hung Him naked on a cross, those who beat Him to a pulp, and Jesus said, Father, forgive them. Who would do that but the Son of God? At some point, that man's heart turned and said, Father, or Jesus, Jesus Lord, Forgive me. He prayed that God would save him. Number four, number four, he recognized, I think he recognized Jesus as Savior. Again, that's the issue. That is the issue, verse 35. He saved others, they said in jest. He saved others. Let him save himself. if he is the Christ. Verse 39, if thou be Christ, save thyself and us. That's one of the malefactors who says, if thou be the Christ, save thyself and us. Don't you know Jesus saves people today? He saved people then. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. Luke says in Luke 19, verse 10, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save. And if you're here today saved, and I hope you are, it's because he sought you. And he bought you with his own blood. And he gave you life in him. He can save, he does save. So the issue was, are you the Christ? Yes, Jesus Lord. Can you save yourself? Yes, he could have called legions of angels. But he did, and he chose to die on the cross for our sins. And this dying thief recognized Jesus as Savior. He recognized Jesus, Savior got saved. Dr. Phil Schuller, who is with the Lord now and had many meetings in our church when he was in evangelism, said this. He said, talked about his brother, Jack Schuller. He said he wanted to be an actor. In fact, he signed a contract with MGM. Even though he was not saved, Dad had prayed and preached to him many times. Nothing happened. When Jack told Dad that he wanted to become an actor, Mr. Shuler, that is the old man, Bob Shuler, in Phil's words, he said, Dad threw him a spitball and told Jack, great. We have businessmen, we have lawyers, we have great minds in the family. It would be good to have an actor in the family. But be a good one, Jack, if you're going to be an actor." Jack said, yeah, I want to be, Dad. And then old Bob said, now, you got to get prepared. And there's only one school I know of in America that that will teach you to be a good Shakespearean actor. That's down in Tennessee. He didn't tell him the name of the school, but it was Bob Jones College. So he said, okay, I'll go. And dad gave Jack just enough money to get to Cleveland, Tennessee, where he was enrolled. And in the meantime, Bob Shuler called Bob Jones Sr. at the time and said, listen, my son's on the way. He says he's not saved. He said, I preached to him. He said, Billy Sunday's preached to him. He said, every great preacher that I get hold of preached to him. Nothing, nothing, nothing. He's still not saved. He said, give it to him, Dr. Bob. Give it to him. Well, as the story goes, as Phil told it, he said, Dr. Jones did give it to him. And Jack did get saved. Bob Shuler said, and Phil Shuler said, it wasn't because of Dr. Bob Jones Sr.' 's preaching or anybody else's preaching. It was because he was given the lead role in the school play. Back then, the school had great, by the way, Arthur's here today. He's majoring in cinema. Arthur Tonalana. Where you at, Arthur? There he is. I saw him earlier, maybe. Raise your hand. He's too bashful. There he is. majoring in cinema, Bob Jones. He said he was given a lead role in the play Barabbas, means he played the part. And it was during that play that God got a hold of his heart and convicted Jack Shuler, who became a great preacher, by the way, of his need for Christ Jesus as Savior. I don't know what it's gonna take to get you saved, sir, ma'am, holding out, putting it off, waiting. Boy, this thief just about waited too long, didn't he? He was in his dying moments, dying hours at least. Don't wait that long. He recognized Jesus as Savior. What's it gonna take for you? You've suffered, you've lost. You've suffered losses, setbacks. You know God's working upon your heart. It brought you here today for a purpose, a divine appointment today to hear this message that God laid upon my heart weeks ago just for you. So that you could hear it one more time, Jesus saves. Jesus saves. It won't be my preaching that does it. It won't be any other preaching. It'd be the Holy Spirit of God that seeks you, seeks you, seeks you, draws you to himself. I pray he will today. Number five, he believed in the resurrection. Notice verse 42 again. Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Amen. That's why I think he'd heard, maybe he was a Jewish boy, schooled in scriptures, memorized some of the Old Testament passages like Psalm 110 that we studied last Wednesday night in prayer meeting. And he knew that God, he knew that Jesus was Messiah, the Lord Christ, and he knew that he was going to have a kingdom. He'd heard that, he'd studied that. Maybe his mom, grandmother read it to him. Maybe he learned it as a child and made bad friends when he got a little older, made some bad decisions and ended up being arrested and crucified on a Roman cross. But all those things came back. As he had joined initially in the mocking of Jesus and then some of those scriptures about the Messiah coming, got a hold of his heart and he said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. He knew Jesus was dying, but he believed Jesus was gonna come into his kingdom. That means he believed in a resurrection, do you? I believe He's already risen and seated at the right hand of God the Father. And I believe that it's appointed unto men once to die and after death the judgment. I believe that unless Jesus comes and rapture for the church, we all here will die someday. But if you're in Christ, if you have trusted Christ as Savior, you will be raised incorruptible, made in His image. He knew that there was a resurrection. Number six, he believed in the reign of Christ. When thou comest into thy kingdom, he knew that Jesus would reign wherever the sun doth its successive journeys run. His kingdom spread from shore to shore till moons shall wax and wane no more. He believed that. Do you? I believe he's going to establish his kingdom. We studied that, I think, again last Wednesday in Jerusalem from Mount Zion. He's coming back, His feet will touch that mountain, split it wide open, and He's gonna, the whole topography of the earth is gonna be rearranged. It's gonna be Edenic-like. He's gonna rule and reign for a thousand years, at the end of which there'll be a new heaven, new earth. But Jesus will reign upon this earth. Glory to God, that's the only way I can sleep at night, to know that He is coming back. He's in control. Just about when this world is made just about as much of a mess of things as they can make, Jesus will come again. He believed that. He believed that. When you come into your kingdom, but one more thing, number seven, he was saved in his dying hour. Jesus said, today thou shalt be with me in paradise. That was a privileged place. That was a place where the departed spirits of Old Testament saints were waiting for the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Paradise. Thou will be with me in paradise. The moment Jesus gave up the ghost, we say He died. We say He was crucified. By the way, you can't kill God. He gave up the ghost. He released, he released his, God went to be with his Father, God the Son. Oh, before that though, they were separated infinitely. Time is nothing with God. Because we're finite, we measure things in time, but not God. He's infinite. He condescends to us and talks to us in our language so that we can understand it and says seven years and a thousand years and a day and so forth, but he's not, he's above time. So when for three hours after the earth had convulsed, the sun blushed to see what was happening on Calvary, God put upon his son the sin of the world. He could not look upon his son. There was infinite separation between the father and the son. Infinite payment for sin. We can't even understand that. We try. Our minds can go so far, but then when we talk about infinite separation, I don't know if you read Daily Bread today, I think it was today, talked about the isolation of the Father from the Son in those moments on Calvary. It's staggering. No wonder Jesus cried out, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, my God, my God, Father, why hast thou forsaken me? It was because of your sins, my sins. And so this thief prayed out, called out as best he could, Jesus Lord, Jesus thou shalt call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sin. He's he is the Savior the world Lord Messiah anointed Remember me The only thing he asked for was grace. That's the only thing to save him grace For by grace, are you saved through faith? Amen out of yourselves it was the gift of God that saved the It was the gift of God that saved him. He couldn't say, God, I've been a pretty good guy all my life. I've been a member of the synagogue. I got into a little trouble here, but I have done my best to keep the ten commandments. He didn't say any of that. Wouldn't have helped if he had of it. Lord Jesus, remember me. I'm a sinner. You're a savior. You can have a kingdom. I'd like to be a part of it. Jesus didn't say, well, I gotta put you on trial. You're gonna have to go to purgatory for a few years. I'll see how you do there. Jesus didn't say, now list all your sins real quick because you don't have long. He didn't say that. Some churches will have you do that. Had a sweet lady years ago that came here and she called me one day and said, oh, pastor, I'm just so troubled. These people in this church came and they told me to write all my sins down on a piece of paper. And I think I might have forgotten one. Praise God, you don't have to do that. He'll take them all and put them under his blood and cast them behind his back as far as the east is from the west. If you say, Lord, save me a sinner, save me a sinner. Got saved by grace. in his dying hour. Some of you probably remember an old evangelist named B.R. Lakin. Some of you don't because you're too young, but some of you remember him. He used to come to Baptist Temple quite a few times back in the years. Then you'd see him on Jerry Falwell sometimes on the gospel hour. But he was a great old preacher from the hills of West Virginia, Fort Gay, West Virginia. He said, I know when I was saved. I know where I was saved. I know who saved me. I'll never forget it. Mrs. Lakin and I went on vacation to our log home in the mountains on 22 acres, Mrs. Lakin and I. I got up one Sunday morning, went down to the creek by the little old church. Some of you can remember something like this. How many were saved down in Kentucky? Well, some of you were. Could have been Iowa. Could have been Wisconsin or Minnesota, anywhere. He said, but it was, for him it was West Virginia. He said, we went down, I went down to the little old church where I got saved. I drove seven miles down the little gravel road, stopped before I got to church and walked, and I walked to the creek. I knelt down under a big sycamore tree where that old cold February 12th morning, they cut a hole in the ice and I stepped down into it and was baptized. I let the water run through my fingers, and I said, Lord, there's been a lot of water run through these rocks, over these rocks since that morning. I went to the church, and there were 42 people there, including my 82-year-old brother and two sisters. My brother asked if I was going to preach to them that day, and I said yes. After the service, my brother and I walked out across the church. We looked at where the old church had stood, the old church had stood. I knew about the exact spot where my knees went down on an old pine floor. On that night at 845 Eastern Standard Time is where Jesus walked down that aisle with a cross on his back and said, what can I do for you? I said, do for me that which I cannot do for myself. There was no great demonstration, but there's a deep settled peace that came into my soul that will stand the crush of woe. When I rose from that little altar, my mama looked like she was walking on a sea of glass. That night when I left the church, the stars came out on dress parade. Trees bowed down their heads and said, we're glad. I walked over the little red clay hills and saying, hallelujah, it is done. I'm a child of the son. I'm saved by the blood of the crucified one. For all the people who've entered the banquet house over which the lovers' banners floated, tasted the Lord, found in a thousand ways that He's good. The one great desire of their hearts is that they might know Him better." Don't you love that? That's what B. R. Lakin said happened to him. You could tell your own story. It'd be a little different circumstance. It'd be a little different setting, but the same truth. Jesus did for you what only He could do. Jesus did for this old dying thief who's willing to say, I'm a sinner. I believe you're a savior. I believe you can't, you could save yourself. I believe you can save others. I want you to save me. Lord, save me. Will you pray that prayer today? Father, speak to our hearts in Jesus' name. Draw us to yourself. Draw us back to Calvary. That person here who's not saved, would you draw them to their knees and that little old pine floor back in their memory, but make it an altar here at Thompson Road or a quiet prayer room where they will say, oh Lord, if you could save that thief, you could save me. He was crucified for his crimes. I've never done anything that bad, but I'm a sinner. If you saved him, you'll save me. Bring that person to Jesus today, I pray in his name.