Alright, if you've got your Bibles, turn with me to Luke 23. And we're going to continue looking at the statements that Jesus made on the cross. On the cross, Jesus made seven statements. There's eight sentences that he'll say. There's 50 words. And I think every word that he says on the cross is a glimpse into who he is, his character and his nature, and what he's on the cross to do. So I think we should study every one of these eight sentences, and every one of these 50 words, and every one of these seven statements. And today we come to statement number two, and it's been said that this statement is the best out of the seven. I think J.C. Ryle said that these words here in Luke 23 should be printed in letters of gold. These are the saving words of Christ on the cross. And J.C. Ryle said this, he said, these words have probably been to the salvation of many souls. Multitudes will thank God for all eternity that the Bible contains these words. So I pray that God would use it to that end today. That there could be somebody in here that hears these saving words of Christ and today that God uses them to save someone. So let's stand together. I want to preach to you today the saving words of Christ. And I want to read Luke 23 starting in v. 39. We'll read through v. 43 and you'll see these words. Again, I agree that they should be written in gold. So starting there in v. 39, the Word of God says, And one of the malefactors, which were hanged, railed on him, saying, If thou be the Christ, save thyself and us. But the other thief answered and rebuked him, saying, 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, but this man hath done nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said unto him, and here's the words, verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. These are amazing words. This is Jesus at the very end of his life and he's still saving souls. These are the saving words of Christ. So let's pray together and we'll study these words. Father, we thank you that this is in the Bible. I love studying about how you save and who you save. This thief on the cross, I believe, is representative of every man in humanity. All of us are sinners. All of us have fallen short. All of us deserve condemnation and hell. We are so thankful that we have a savior who forgives and opens up the gates of heaven to us. And God, I know that You can use Your words to accomplish exactly what You set it out to do, but my prayer is that You would use these words today to not only teach us about salvation, but You'd use these words today to save. I have no doubt that there's someone in this room today who is not saved. And I pray that they would see the way of salvation today in these words. Thank You for these golden words today. And we ask and pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated. Two words can sum up Christianity. Two words can describe the entirety of our Christian faith. Two words that you guys have seen on signs. Two words that you guys have seen on bumper stickers. Two words that can be found in a song even in our hymnal. Two words can define for us the heart of the Gospel. And two words can be the best news that any sinner has ever heard. Two words stand out above all other words. And these two words are, Jesus saves. These two words, Jesus saves, are full of meaning. I mean, you could take these two words and it could be years worth of preaching. Just Jesus saves. These two words, and I want to just start this way, these two words, Jesus saves, shows us Who Jesus is. Matthew 1.21 says, They shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. In the name Jesus is, Jehovah saves. Exactly who He is and what He came to do. He came to save. I've got more for you. Why Jesus came. Luke 19.10 says, For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which is lost. John 3.17, I'm going to give you some more. It says, For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 1 Timothy 1.15 Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. 1 John 4.14 says, For the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. These two words tell us exactly who Jesus is. It tells us why Jesus came into the world. Jesus saves. And it also tells us what our message to the world is. In the book of Acts, you don't need to walk through it, but we could. In every sermon that they preached, the message was, no matter how long it was or who was preaching it, it could be summarized with two words. Jesus saves. There's no salvation in any other. For there's no other name given under heaven among men whereby we must be saved. It's the name of Jesus. Jesus saves. That was the message in Acts. It's the message that's been the church's message throughout church history. If you just follow the Reformers and the Puritans and Charles Spurgeon and George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards all preaching the same message. Jesus saves. There remains a message today. We need to let the world know that Jesus saves. The song in the hymnal goes this way. We have heard the joyful sound. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Spread the tidings all around. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Bear the news to every land. Climb the steeps and cross the waves. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. And here in His dying moments, you know what He's doing? He's saving. I love that. He's on the cross and He's still saving souls. This thief here on the cross is a career criminal. I said a few weeks ago that he's a bad hombre. He's bad to the bone. He's as bad as he can get. He's a picture of human depravity. He's an unbeliever when they nail him to the cross. At 9 in the morning as they're putting the nails in this thief's hands and in his feet and hanging him on the cross, he's an unbeliever. But by the time the sun goes down in the evening, he'll be in heaven with Jesus. How in the world did that happen? Two words. Jesus saves. So I want to show you that today. I want to show you what happened between about 9 a.m. when they would nail him to the cross and about 6 p.m. when he would go to heaven. I want to show you that time period. This is the greatest day of this thief's life. He'd go to heaven and they'd say, what's the best thing that ever happened to you? He'd say, hanging on the cross beside Jesus. I want to show you that time. I want to give you a picture of salvation. And I want to show you not only His story, the story of this man, I want to show you the story of every man because anybody that's ever been saved has been saved in this way. We live in an age today where people in the church have no idea what it means to be saved. They have no idea what Jesus does to save. They have no idea how they're saved and what happens when they're saved. And we've got a picture right here of the basics of salvation and of the Gospel. We can learn so much from the thieves' words and from Christ's words. So I want to do that today. I really only want to give you two points. I want to show you what the thieves said. And I want to show you what Jesus says. So this could be a very great sermon. We can learn a lot from these words. So let's start with the plea for salvation. This will be the thieves' plea for salvation. And let's just walk through it in verse 39. It says, and one of the malefactors. We know Jesus is hanging in the middle between two thieves. And He's hanging there on purpose. He was born into a sinful world. He lived among sinners. Now He's going to die in the middle of sinners. And there's two there. And it says in verse 39, only one of them, get this, only one of the malefactors, which that word malefactor means someone who does evil things. An evildoer. I said it a few minutes ago, he's a bad hombre. Bad dude. He's an evildoer is what he is. So one of the evildoers, we know he's a thief. He's probably a murderer. He's an insurrectionist. He's a terrible guy. He's a picture of us as sinners. He represents humanity. And what's this male factor doing? He's hanging beside Jesus and he rails on Him. He's hurling abuse on Jesus. That's what it means to rail. He is cursing Him. He's blaspheming Him. He's making jokes of Jesus and laughing at Jesus. He's mocking. He's sneering. He's making fun of. He is cussing out Jesus. That's what he's doing. It's ugly. This is a guy on his deathbed or on his death cross and his heart is so defined and so hard that he's cursing Jesus with his last breath. They say that it was sin that caused the nails to go into his hand, but it's the hardened heart of sinners that nailed them there. This guy's on his deathbed, cussing Jesus out. He's saying, if you're the crossed, prove it. Prove it and save yourself and me. You don't look much like a cross now. Here it says one of them said it. But Matthew 27 says that both of them were saying it. The one on the left and the one on the right. That both were railing against Him. Both were making fun of Him. Both were cursing at Him. Both were sneering and mocking and making fun of Jesus. So here in Luke, one of them stopped. One of them is silent. One of them isn't saying it anymore. One of them has stopped the cursing. One of them has stopped the jeering. One of them has stopped making fun. One of them has stopped the cursing. And he's no longer saying anything. And his mind is working and he's thinking. He's stopped it. Just all of a sudden. What happened to him? This man who is in horrible pain in his body is now thinking crystal clear in his mind. His mind is starting to change. Or I could say better, his heart is starting to change. Because look what he does. The other, there he is, verse 40. The other thief, answering, rebuked. And these guys are probably friends. They probably were in the same gang together. Hung out together. Did crime together. And now he looks across the way over top of Jesus and rails or rebukes Him. He corrects the thief. He warns the thief. It's a strong word. And he says, hey, wait a minute. He was just a minute ago doing the same thing and now he's rebuking his friend for doing it. What's going on with this guy? And he says this, and I love this. Watch what he says. If this isn't clear proof that something's going on in his heart, I don't know what is. But he says, he rebuked him and said, again, talking to his criminal friend. These guys might have grew up together. Committing crime together. And now he looks over at him and says, hey man! Don't you fear God? Nobody at this scene has feared God. They've been blaspheming God and cursing at God. There's been no fear, no reverence, no tribbling, no thought of God at all. And all of a sudden, this man on the cross who's dying is fearing God. Wow. Don't you fear God? How could you say that stuff? Aren't you afraid? Here's a man dying. and he's trembling that he might stand before God one day. He's not afraid of dying. He's afraid of dying and standing before God. You can't say those things. Don't speak to Him that way. Do you not fear God? We live in a society today of people who do not fear God. There's no fear of God before their eyes. They say what they want to say. They do what they want to do. Even in churches and behind pulpits, there's no fear of God. There's no reverence. There's no fear of one day I'm going to stand before God and answer for every deed that I've done. People say, oh, don't make people fear. You've got to love people into heaven. I'd rather scare people into heaven than lull them into hell. Too many people coddling people into hell. You're okay. I'm okay. We're all okay. We need to tell people fear God. You will stand before God one day and answer for every deed that you've done. You ought to tremble before God. That's what he's saying. Don't you fear God? How could you say those things? That thing's probably thinking, you were just saying that a minute ago. What happened to you? Since when did you get religion? What's happening to him? Let's keep going. Then he says, watch this. Do you not fear God? Seeing that we're in the same condemnation? And we, get this, verse 41, and we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds. We are getting what we deserve. He not only asked him, do you not fear God? He's saying, don't you see that we're guilty? He sees his sin. He sees who He is. He's getting what He deserves. He's owning His guilt. He's accepting God's verdict. Sin has found Him out. Death is coming. He's a sinner. Hellfire is on its way. We're both guilty before God. He's broken man's law, but more importantly, He's broken God's law. And He's getting exactly what He deserved. Before anybody can ever be saved, I believe this, they must start with the fear of God. It's the beginning of wisdom. And then they must see their own guilt. I heard a story about a preacher who said that he gave an invitation after his church one Sunday morning. He got up and preached and he came down from the pulpit. The music was playing. People started coming forward. This old lady came walking forward. Grey hair. Barely making her way up through there. And she walked up. She said, I want to be saved. He said, alright. He sat down with her and said, repeat after me. God, I know I'm a sinner. She didn't say anything. He said, OK, she's old. She can't hear me. God, I know I'm a sinner. She didn't say anything. He said, will you repeat after me? She said, I'm not a sinner. I'm a good person. He said, ma'am, until you could know that you're a sinner, you'll never be saved. This guy gets it. He knows it. He's guilty. The verdict is he's guilty and deserving of hell. We're getting exactly what we deserve. The due reward of our deeds. I'm going to hell and I deserve it. I'm hanging on a cross and I deserve it. He gets it. He fears God and he knows his own guilt. When a person fears God and they know their own guilt, their eyes are going to turn to their only hope. And look what he says here. I love this. But this man. Are you all following me? Verse 41. But this man. Who's that man? The man on the middle cross. On one side, guilty. Other side, guilty. This man in the middle, he has done nothing wrong at all. He is innocent of all the charges. We deserve this cross. We deserve hell. But Jesus is innocent. He's the only one in the crowd saying that. Everybody else is saying guilty. The sign above his head says guilty. Everybody's saying Jesus deserves it. And this man looks to Jesus and says this man deserves none of what he's getting. He's innocent of all the charges. And not only innocent of all the charges, he's never done a thing wrong ever! Wow! He's got better theology than some preachers. Doesn't he? I've got some preachers I've never heard a thing about fearing God from them. Go to some churches, you'll never hear that. You'll never hear anything about guilt. Oh, we don't want to make anybody feel guilty. We want them to feel loved. If they don't fear God, if they don't know their guilt, they'll never look to the Savior. This thief had incredible theology. And the question is, where did he get it from? What happened to him? What changed? Who showed these things to him? Just a few minutes ago, he was doing the same thing. And now he fears God. He knows his guilt. He sees Jesus as the only innocent one. What happened to this guy? His heart's starting to change. Let's keep moving. You ready? When you fear God, feel the guilt, you will put your faith in Christ. Well, that's what it says. And I've got to turn the page. Look at verse 42. And he said, he called on the right name. He called on the only name given under heaven among men where anybody could be saved. He called on the way, the truth, and the life. And it says there, He called on Jesus. You see, He says, Jesus. Jehovah saves. He calls out to the only One who can save Him. He didn't call out, soldiers, save me. He didn't call out to the priests, come and get me off here. Hey crowd, help me! Mohammed wasn't hanging around there. Krishna wasn't hanging around the cross. When no other religious leader, Joseph Smith wasn't there, Brigham Young wasn't there. None of them was hanging around the cross. He called on the only one that could save him. Jesus. He understands, again, I think his theology is better than some preachers. Than some Christians in churches. He sees here, this thief, the exclusivity of Christ. That Jesus is the only way. Jesus is his only hope. He's on his deathbed, hours away from hell, and all he had was this man on the middle cross, Jesus, to look to. Nobody else could help him. And he says, Jesus, I think that's all you really need to say. Jesus! Jehovah saves! Save me! He looks to Jesus. The song said, all I have is Christ. All he had was Christ. Nowhere else to look. He's going to hell if Jesus doesn't save him. That's all of us here today. We're all going to hell if Jesus doesn't save. So he says, Lord, you see that? Nobody else is calling him Lord. And I love these two words. Remember me. That's loaded. I can imagine that thief had no family around the cross. Had nobody that cared about him, but maybe that thief on the other side. He's going to die and probably have no tomb. He's going to be thrown out in the garbage heap outside Jerusalem. We won't ever know Him. Nobody will ever remember Him. Just another man who died on the cross and was thrown into the trash heap. But He knows the one who needs to remember Him. And He looks to Jesus and says, will you remember Me? This is a cry for mercy. That's what this is. It's a cry for mercy. Mercy is what you ask for when you can't ask for anything else. He can't do anything else. All he can do is mercy, please. Can I be forgiven? Can I have life after death? Can you take me to heaven with you? How did he know Jesus was going to heaven? You get that? I think he even has an eschatology where he's looking to the future and a kingdom later on that the cross isn't the end of Jesus. There's something going to happen later on. Where is this guy getting all this truth? I'm getting there. He's asking for forgiveness. He's asking to be saved. Jesus, remember me. Bring me with you. Into your kingdom. Wow. He shows here. Saving faith. He didn't walk in all did he? Can't walk and I was going to nail those feet. He didn't raise his hand. His hands were nailed to a cross. He can't walk the path of righteousness. He's never coming down. He can't do good works. He can't serve. He can't turn over a new leaf. There's nothing for Him to offer Jesus. Not before He's saved and not even after He's saved. He was evil before the cross. He'll be dead after the cross. He has absolutely nothing to offer Jesus, but save me please! Nothing He brings into His hands. Simply to a cross and a Savior does He cling. If I can't be saved by Him, I won't be saved. There's just faith. He believes in His heart and He confesses it with His mouth. What faith? And I think it's better faith than any of ours. Because He's looking up to a bloody, messy Savior. We think we have to dress Jesus up and make Him all nice so that people will receive Him. We doll Jesus up. He's so loving and kind and gracious and good. And He is. But He's looking at Jesus and He'll look nothing like a king, nothing like a sovereign, nothing like a Lord. He doesn't even look like a man. He's been beaten and so bloody right now. But His faith is in the man on the middle cross who's dying in His place. What faith? And I have to ask this question again. I've asked it everywhere along through here. What happened to this guy? What changed? What a difference in this man. And I looked it up. I thought, OK, what's everybody say? What do the books say happened to this guy? At one minute, he's railing on Jesus. And the next minute, he's believing in Jesus. What happened to this guy? You want to hear what they say? Some people say he saw the sun above Jesus's head as if King of the Jews. And that convinced him. Okay, they say that was written by the very hand of God. And that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the words of God on the cross. And that's what it was. Okay. Okay. You guys can believe that if you want to be wrong. Others say he heard Jesus pray. That Jesus said that the first statement that we studied, that Jesus said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And he heard that. And that's what it was. That all of a sudden he said, oh, well, this guy forgives sinners. I'm a sinner. I'm going to ask him to forgive me. I'm OK with that. I saw another commentator. This guy is brilliant. I thought he's got the answer. If anybody's going to give me an answer to this, it's him. And here's what he said. We really don't know what caused the change. I thought, well, that's not very brilliant. That didn't give me any answers. That this guy could go from railing on Jesus in one minute and believing in Jesus with all of his heart in the very next minute, and this guy did and the other guy didn't? This guy's going to put his faith in Jesus and this guy's going to deny Jesus and cursing all the way to his dying breath? Is this guy smarter? Did he have a better upbringing? And I saw one commentator say, well, maybe he's a Jew. He was brought up to know these things, and he just all of a sudden recognized it on the cross. I think it's easy. When Jesus said, who do men say that I am? And Peter said, some say you're Isaiah, some say you're Elijah, some say you're a great prophet. And Jesus said, but who do you say I am? And Peter said, I say thou art the cross, the son of the living God. And Jesus said, ding, ding, ding, ding, you're exactly right. And how did Peter know that? Jesus said, for flesh and blood did not reveal that unto you, but my Father in heaven has revealed that unto you. How did the thief get it? God showed it to him. This is right here, the thief sovereignly miraculously being born again from above. That's what's happening here. This is a divine miracle taking place on the cross that God in His sovereignty and by His Spirit is opening the eyes of the thief to see what he couldn't see before. Opening his ears to hear what he couldn't hear before. Taking that old stony heart that that other thief had that was nailing Jesus to the cross and softening it and making it a new heart within. This is a miracle taking place on the cross. A miracle took place. It's the only explanation for the thief. And get this, and I'll move on. It's the only explanation for anybody in this room or anybody who's ever been saved. When somebody looks at you and says, since when did you get religion? Since when did you start going to church? Since when? Since when? What happened to you? I didn't turn over a new leaf. I didn't walk an aisle. I didn't raise a hand. I didn't get in the water. I'm a miracle of God. The only thing that could turn me around and make me an entire new creature is the Spirit of the living God changing my filthy, old, dirty, evil heart. And you know what? If that ain't happened to you, exactly what's happened to Him, you ain't saved. Everybody who is saved is born again, regenerated, eyes opened, ears opened, heart changed, converted, exactly how He was. Or you ain't saved. John 3, Nicodemus came walking up to Jesus and said, the most religious man in the world. the teacher of the law. If he had a car, on the tag it would say, law expert, Bible man. And he looked at Jesus and he said, what must I do to be saved? And Jesus said, you must be born again. He said, how can I do that? Did I go back up in my mother's womb and come out again? It's impossible! My first birth was a miracle! And I couldn't do that! Jesus said, bingo. If you're going to be saved, it's going to take a miracle of God. If anybody in here is saved, it took a miracle of God. So now, let's move on. That's the plea. I want to know how Jesus is going to respond. Don't you? That's where we go. I want you to get this. I want to say this several times here. Jesus doesn't have to save this guy. Jesus owes us nothing but wrath and judgment. Jesus could have easily looked at this guy and said, who do you think you are? You were just cursing me. Too late for you, man. And he would have been just in doing so. He could have looked at you and said, nope. It would have been just in doing so. He owes us nothing. Watch what he says. If that was a plea for salvation, I want to show you second, the promise of salvation. And that's what this is. Look what Jesus says. We've had the thief's words and we've had the thief's theology. Now let's look at what Jesus says. And Jesus said unto him. I'm going to stop right there. And Jesus said, verse 43, Jesus hadn't said much on the cross. We've said that. Fifty words. Eight sentences. Seven statements. He'd been on trial. Said just a handful of words. The soldiers had mocked Him. Said nothing. Crowd saying all kinds of evil things about Him. Didn't say a word. He's been basically silent and they couldn't get anything out of Him no matter how hard they tried. We can't get this guy to say a word. I mean, say something! Like a sheep before the shears is dumb, he opened on his mouth. But here Jesus says something. Are you with me? Here Jesus responds. This is the heart of Jesus. I said every one of these statements shows the heart of God. And watch what He does. The priest couldn't get anything out of Him. Nothing on trial. Nothing from the soldiers. Nothing from the crowd. Silent, silent, silent. And all of a sudden the thief says, remember me. And Jesus starts to speak. Jesus is always ready to respond to saving faith. And Jesus is ready on the spot. Jesus is, get this, eager to save. He's hanging there on the cross, saying nothing, listening to the thieves argue now back and forth, and He says, Jesus, Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom. And Jesus looks at him. When you respond by faith, the Bible says very clearly, whosoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Anybody here who puts their faith in Jesus and calls upon the name of the Lord, Jesus will save you on the spot. That's good. And again, He doesn't have to. He owes this man nothing but wrath. Jesus didn't have to save the thief. Jesus didn't have to save you. But He does. Because that's who He is. He's a merciful God. loves to show mercy. Mercy to thousands upon thousands. And he said, and I'm getting to the closing of this. What does he say? And here's the words that should be in gold. Here's the words that should be music to our ears. Here's the words that should cause us to rejoice. The dying thief rejoiced to see. That fountain in his day. And there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away. These words are golden. We should rejoice in these words. Watch what he says. He says, Verily I say unto thee, today. I'm going to stop there. He gives him a present salvation today. I love that. It's today. It's not tomorrow. It's not later on. This is not a process. Salvation is not progressive in that you'll get saved one day. You'll start a little bit here and a little bit there and a little bit later on. It's not that salvation is something that you have to constantly be working at and keeping. But this is something you get right now. This is not a wait and see. In an instant, He is saved. Today, you are now saved. It's not if you be real good, I'll save you later. I want to save you today. Present right now. The very second that any of us puts our faith in Jesus, you are justified. Justified being just as if you never sinned one time. That my whole record is wiped clean. The old account is settled. Jesus says today. I love that. Today, He's justified. Today, He's cleansed. Today, He's pardoned. Today, He's forgiven. Jesus saves him right then and right there. Today, you're saved. The second you put your faith in Jesus, in that moment, you're saved. So it's present salvation. It's a personal salvation today. Shout thou, old King James, you. Let's put it in Josh language. Today, you. You, thief. You, man. I know he's on the cross and he can't point at him, but he looks at him and says, today, you. My eyes are on you, thief. Not this dude over here. Railing against me. Cursing. Blaspheming. Rejecting me with his dying breath. You are saved. He doesn't say generally. He says personally. You. Jesus saves us personally. I love that the Bible says He loved me and gave Himself for me. And He saves me. that the God of eternity past had me on His mind. And the God of the cross had me on His mind. He saved me. He saved the thief. This is personal. I like the very last thing in it. Thee, today shall you be with me. It's also a perfect salvation. Today, shalt thou be with me in paradise. I like that word paradise. You know what that is? The word is garden. Today, you're going to be with me in a garden. In that time, when you call something, what I would say is, I want to go to the beach. Me and Steph look at pictures of people going to the beach right now, and people sitting on the beach, and the water's flowing, and the air's blowing, and you're sitting there. In a picture, it looks like paradise. That's right, it looks like paradise. It's just a picture of paradise, even though when you get there, you're bringing five kids with you and enough stuff. You need backpacks and wheelbarrows. There's not so much paradise when you get there. The sun burns your face. But the picture's paradise. So to me, a beach is paradise. To some, a lake is paradise to them. There's people at the lake even today that all the lake life is paradise! To some people, it's sitting at home. At their own pool. Paradise. To them, it was a garden. When they saw beautiful gardens, they thought back to Genesis 2. Paradise. A garden. And when they went ahead to heaven, it was described as paradise, a garden. So Jesus here doesn't give him a kingdom. He gives him much more than a kingdom. He says you're going to get paradise. I love that. And there's so much more in that word paradise. We can go back to say we got ourselves in trouble in paradise. Jesus gets us out of trouble so we can go back to paradise. Adam got us in trouble in paradise. Jesus is going to get us out of trouble and take us to paradise. We got in trouble in paradise by going to a tree we shouldn't go to. Jesus gets us out of trouble by going to a tree that he didn't have to go to. There's more there. I haven't got time to preach on it. There's more there. But he says, I'm going to take you to paradise. He gave him more than he could ask. More than he could think. He gave him a garden that would be used as perfection, as peace, as happiness, as joy. He gave him more than he could ever imagine. The thief in that moment gained more than he had stolen his entire life. I'll say this, and don't take it the wrong way. He's the luckiest man on earth. I don't believe in luck. I believe in the providence of God. But if you look at Him and say, this guy's a career criminal. His whole life deserves hell. How did he, out of everybody else, end up on a cross beside Jesus? Because God did that. But even better... Again, I love that statement. He gained more in a few seconds than he had stolen his entire life. You gain more in salvation than you'll gain by pursuing all the riches of the world. People don't get that. But even better, watch this. Paradise isn't the key here. Today shalt thou be... I underlined it. with Me. That's even better. It's even better. It's not that you get to see Jesus. Today, you'll get to see Me in paradise. It's not today I'll remember you in paradise. I'll be way over there and you'll be way over here and I'll be thinking about you, man. Jesus says today you'll be with Me. Jesus is going to go first. He dies before the others. So Jesus is going to go on ahead. And I'm sure when Jesus enters into heaven, there's Abraham of old and all the prophets we are told. And they'll be gathered around the throne. And they're probably cheering him on and saying, you know, come on up to the throne! You've accomplished what you were sent to do! All the greatest men who ever lived is there in heaven as Jesus comes from the cross. And now He's there in paradise! And they're all, come on, Jesus! Come on, Jesus! Let's go! And He says, wait just a second. I've got somebody coming with Me. And they're all, who? Who's coming with Him? Is it Peter? What a guy! Is it John? What a guy! And as they break the thief's legs, and his body gives its last breath, and it lays limp on a cross, and this thief's spirit goes to paradise, and the first one he sees is Jesus, waiting on him. And all those prophets and all those heroes of the faith sees this career criminal. And Jesus didn't sneak him in the back. Jesus took him by the arm and let him in. This nasty, dirty, evil, corrupt, depraved, terrible man who'd spent his entire life breaking the law of man and breaking the law of God is now walking into paradise with the King of kings and the Lord of lords. What mercy! Can you imagine that thief? I don't belong here. I don't belong here. I was evil until my last breath. And with my dying breath, I cried out in faith and He saved me! I believe there will be greater singing from that top of sinner in heaven than all those who think they belong. I want to be in that section. I want to be singing with them. I think there's better singing in churches from people who know just how guilty they are. We should be more amazed at grace than what we are. We live in an age today where people are amazed that God is wrath? No. He'd never send anybody to hell. And people are amazed by that. No, we deserve hell. Mercy gives us heaven. We should be amazed. Get this, you should be amazed that that thief got in. If you hadn't been raised in church, and this is the first sermon you ever heard, you'd think that ain't fair. Wouldn't you? We've all heard this. We know this. Downstairs kids know this. We don't know, oh yeah, a thief got in. He doesn't deserve to go in. You don't deserve to go in. I don't deserve to go in. It's all the mercy of God. He gets to go in. And Jesus makes heaven heaven. Today you'll be with Me in paradise. John 14, that where I am, you may be also. That is heaven. That is our picture of paradise. It's not the golden streets. It's not the gates of pearl. It's not all those things that we think about. It's Jesus that makes paradise paradise. So it's a perfect salvation. I've got to hurry. It's a powerful salvation. The thief was a cursed criminal. Hell bound. Hours left to live. Seemingly unsavable. Whole life qualifying him for hell. Probably even feeling the fires of hell burning on him as he's hanging. And now he receives full forgiveness. And now he's on his way to heaven with Jesus. How in the world did this happen? It was all of Jesus. Every last drop of it. All of grace. And I want you to know this, if that was Jesus saving him and Jesus was at his weakest, If this is Jesus at the weakest moment of His life and He still powerfully saves His thief, then how much more is He able to save us who come to Him by faith? This is a crucified Savior and we have a resurrected Savior. What power this is! It wasn't baptism that saved this guy. Baptism can't save. Whether it's a spoonful or a tankful, it can't take your sins away. Only Jesus can take our sins away. This was not do this. Well, some people think that. Salvation is I've got to do something. Salvation is a done thing. Jesus did it. It's not a stop doing this or quit doing these things. I've heard people say that. Well, you've got to quit drinking. You can go to hell sober. You've got to be saved. And only Jesus can do that. It's all of grace. So that when that thief walks into heaven with Jesus, he will not have one single ounce of boasting. What can he say in heaven? What can he say? He has nothing! Nothing! No church attendance. No baptism. He has no Bible studies. He's memorized no verses. He has nothing! The only thing he has is Jesus! That's it! That's all any of us have. If you stand in heaven and one day you say, and Alistair Begg said this and I've listened to it probably ten times this week, He said this, if the first thing you say when somebody asks you if you're saved or if you should be allowed into heaven is, I did something, I did this or I did that, you've got it all wrong. The only answer to if you're saved is Jesus did this. That's all you've got. If you die today and you stand before God and He says, why should I let you in? You better start with Jesus. Powerful salvation. I've got one more if you guys want to stick around. It's a permanent salvation. I skipped that one word there, and I don't know if you all saw it, but I'm coming back to it. Jesus said unto him, because this one word here encompasses the entire phrase, verily I say unto you. That word verily would be truly. That word verily would be an oath. That word verily is Jesus saying with strongest certainty and with absolute assurance that when you die, you will go to heaven. You'll go from a bloody cross to a perfect heaven. He's giving him 100% certainty. That thief can sit there and say, he'll be there for six hours. There'll be a lot that goes on, but he'll sit there and say, I'm going to heaven when I die. And that's on him being arrogant. I'm going to heaven when I die. That's what we need to be. That's called assurance. I'm going to heaven when I die. I want to tell you that today. I know, and I've heard preachers say this, I know that I know that I know that I know I'm going to heaven when I die. I'm saved, my sins are forgiven, I've been justified, cleansed, and I'm on my way to heaven, and if I die today, I'll be with Jesus in paradise. You say, how can you know that? It ain't got nothing to do with who I am or what I did. It has everything to do with what Jesus has said to me. that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." I 100% bank on that promise. I have 100% assurance that Jesus has saved me. There's no purgatory. There's no losing it. There's no hope so. I don't want to hear any of you guys in here today ever say, are you saved? And you say, well, I hope so. That's not the answer. The answer is I know so. And if somebody says, well, that's arrogant. How can you know? Jesus said so. And I'm going to take Jesus at His word. I'm trusting in who He is, what He did, and what He has said to me. It ain't got nothing to do with me. That's not arrogance. That's faith. Some say you can't truly know you're saved until you die. I don't want to wait until then. That's gambling. I need to know now. The thief had a promise. I've got a promise. And I give them eternal life. And they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My father which gave them to me is greater than all and no man is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. Yeah. I'm going to heaven when I die. My sins are forgiven. I've been saved. Jesus saved me. Take that and go. If Satan can't take your salvation away, and he can't, nothing can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Do you know what he wants to take next? Your assurance of salvation. I don't want to take your assurance. I want to give you assurance so that you can walk through life not like a question mark, but like an exclamation point. I'm saved and I know it. That's good. Jesus gives us a permanent, secure salvation. No man plucks us out of his hand. Take that to the bank. It's safer than a bank. I'm in the hands of the Almighty. The thief sitting there on the cross might have even had a smile on his face after that. I don't know. It doesn't tell us a whole lot about the thief, but when it doesn't tell us a whole lot, I can kind of make things up in my imagination. Right? You can't prove me wrong. I think between verse 43 and 44, the thief does... You can't prove me wrong. That's what I think. In my mind, I'm thinking this guy over here is still railing. This guy over here is rejoicing. Jesus saves! Jesus saves! Yeah! The dying thief that song says, rejoice to see that fountain in his day. He can't raise his hands. They're nailed! But he's sitting there with a smile on his face saying, praise God I've been saved! This is the greatest day of my life! You say, that's crazy. He's dying on the cross. How is it the greatest day of his life? Because everybody who's ever been saved, that day is the greatest day of your life. What a promise. You're going to need that one day. You're going to need that one day when times get bad. I'm going to need to hold on to that promise that He said He'd save me and He'd keep me and I'm going to go to heaven when I die. And then one day you're going to be on your deathbed breathing your last breath and you know what you're going to need to hold on to? Not your church attendance, not your baptism, not your good works, not your service, not anything that you've ever done. You're not going to look up on a wall and say, there's my perfect Sunday school attendance certificate. I'm holding on to the words of Jesus as I take my last breath. That today I'll be with Him in paradise. How do you know? Jesus said so. Jesus loves me. This I know. How do I know? The Bible tells me so. We've got a book. It tells us so. We have the words of Jesus. If our faith is in Him, we're going to go to heaven one day. It's permanent. Hold on to that promise. I'm standing on that promise. I'm banking on that promise. It's a guarantee from the very mouth of the Son of God. Put your faith in Jesus. You get a promise too. Wow. I'm done. Maybe. There's three crosses here. I'm going to close. And it's all on purpose. It represents all of humanity. Jesus stands in the middle, hanging in the middle cross, dying for sin, separating all of humanity into two categories. This is all on purpose. Jesus stands there and is hanging in the middle. On the left, we don't know which side. I'm going to begin my imagination. I'm right handed. On the left, you have an unbeliever. Defiant up to the last breath. Stubborn. refusing, dying in his sin. Do you understand that he prayed on the cross? They both prayed. The thief that rejected Jesus and railed on Jesus and made fun of Jesus, his prayer was, if you're the Christ, make my life better right now. Get me down from here. Had no eye to eternity. There's a lot of people sitting in churches today that their prayer has been, Jesus, save my life right now. Make my life better right now. That's not a prayer of salvation. That's a prayer of my best life now. And people in churches all over the place have prayed that prayer. That will not save you. You're out for your best. You have no guilt. You have no fear of God. You have no real need of Jesus other than to give you something here. Make my life better. Give me health. Give me money. Give me this. Give me that. That's all some people want. They want right now. But Jesus is talking about eternal things. There's more important things than right now. It's forgiveness. It's salvation. It's eternity. Eternity is a lot longer than the life we're going to live here. That thief just wanted something now. And he's going to die in his sin as Jesus is dying for sin. My question to you, is that you? Do you still defy it? If that's you today, I have two words for you. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. He said, well, I can put it off. That thief on the right, he waited until the last moment. I'll wait until the last moment. The Puritans say that we have one place in the Bible of a deathbed salvation. So that every one of us can see it's possible. But we only have one. So that we shouldn't put it off until then. I don't even think this was his last chance. I think this was the thief's first chance. I think this was the thief's only chance. And he grabbed it as soon as he could. While the other thief with his dying breath was so hardened, no faith at all. So you better not wait until the end. Not everybody gets a dying breath. And I've seen people on their dying bed, unbelieving, and you're looking at them and saying, you're going to die soon! Put your faith in Jesus. And I've heard them say, I don't want none of that. And they die in their sin and they go to hell. That's that side of humanity. There are some who reject Jesus all the way up to the end. So I ask you today, is that you? Is there somebody in here who's been rejecting Jesus? Trying to get something out of Jesus? Today could be the greatest day of your life if you put your faith in Jesus. Don't you fear God? You're going to stand before Him one day. Don't you know your guilt? You're going to pay for every sin you've ever committed. Look to the man on the middle cross and He'll save your soul. Put your faith in Him and He'll save you today. powerfully, that you walk out of this church today and somebody will look at you and say, well, what happened to you? A miracle of all miracles. Jesus saves. Jesus saves. Now, the other guy on the cross, a believer, begging for mercy, faith in Christ, saved, dies, goes to heaven. And one day, if you're a believer too, I'm going to go check that guy out. I want to ask him some questions. I want to talk to him. And if your faith is in Jesus, just like his faith was in Jesus, you'll see him too. Because you have a promise that you can take with you today and the rest of your life. Because Jesus said so, I'm going to heaven. The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day. And there may I Though vile, just as vile as he, wash all my sins away. Aren't you glad there's a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunged beneath that flood, loose all their guilty stains. Let's pray. Father, I thank you that you sent your son into this world, not to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. And when I say that, I mean, you sent your son into this world to save my old wretched soul. And I thank you for the way you work salvation out, the way you bring us to faith, the way you change our hearts, the way you save in an instant, in a moment, the way you save dramatically, the way you save permanently, the way you save eternally. I'm so thankful for the salvation that you've given me. I'm thankful for the salvation in this room. There's multitudes of people here today who are saved. And they're saved because of what Jesus does, what Jesus has done. We thank you for that today. We rejoice in that fountain that is filled with blood. We rejoice in it. We sing power in the blood. We sing nothing but the blood. We sing all I have is Christ. We sing in Christ alone. Because we know what Jesus has done for us. Thank you for it. And Father, if there's anyone in here today who's an unbeliever, they're here represented by that dying thief who kept railing against Jesus. I pray that you would open their eyes and their ears and let them see and hear the wonder of Jesus crossed on a cross. I pray that today they would fear you, tremble at the thought of standing before you, that they would know their guilt and that they would turn to Jesus as their only hope of salvation. Please God, let the whole world know Jesus saves, Jesus saves. Thank you for these golden words and may they be used to save a multitude of more sinners. And we ask and pray these things in Jesus name, amen.