The Thief on the Cross (Part 1)

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Thanks for tuning in to No Compromise Radio with pastor and author, Dr. Mike Avendrock.

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Today on No Compromise Radio, we'll be hearing Pastor Mike open the Word of God in a recent message he preached at Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, Massachusetts.

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Now let's join Pastor Mike in progress as he preaches through the Scriptures verse by verse with No Compromise.

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Let's turn our Bibles to Luke chapter 23 this morning. You're going to see Christ in Luke chapter 23.

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In a passage we usually call the thief on the cross, but really it puts the focus on the thief when really it's about Jesus and Jesus the

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Christ saving this criminal. And so maybe we'll call it this morning Christ and the criminal.

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And so what we'll do is we'll go through the passage a little bit, verse by verse trying to expose you to what the

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Luke account is telling us, and then we'll give some lessons. I'll give you some lessons, things that we can learn as we see

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Jesus, we can be reminded of just how great He is. And whether you're a man or a woman, boy or girl, you're going to be able to see

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Christ Jesus without any of the paintings of liberalism, without any of the sketchings of social gospel, without any of the caricatures about Jesus is so feminine that He's a perpetual

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Mother's Day Savior. You're going to see Jesus. He is a great King. He is a

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God who sits at the right hand of God the Father, and He's going to come and judge the quick and the dead as the old catechism says, but He's also a

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God who saves. He saves sinners. And so some of you are already fanning yourself after this passage.

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You're going to have to fan a lot more because it's just intense. It draws you in. That's exactly what scripture does.

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It's inerrancy, it's infallibility, it's sufficiency, it's authority, and you get drawn into the passage.

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And one of the things that you'll probably say as we're in the passage is you'll say, you know, that time went by fast.

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Show me someone who's born again and who wants to know the Word. The time goes by fast.

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And so if you don't have a Bible, I'd ask you to take your Bible and turn to Luke chapter 23 as we see the

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Jesus of Luke 23, the Christ Jesus who saves sinners.

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J .C. Ryle called the sinner that Jesus saved, Christ's greatest trophy. And this passage today has smoothed not too few dying people on their deathbed.

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Now let's pick it up in Luke chapter 23, verse 13. We won't get to the resurrection but of course we know

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Jesus was raised from the dead. We pick it up in Luke 23, 13. I'll read several verses until we come up to our passage today but you need to know the context so you can understand what's happening.

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Luke chapter 23, we'll look at the thief on the cross, the Christ of the thief, and then we'll have some lessons. Verse 13,

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Pilate then called together the chief priests and the rulers and the people. And he said to them, you brought me this man as one who was misleading the people.

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And after examining him before you, behold, I did not find this man guilty of any of your charges against him.

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Neither did Herod for he sent him back to us. Look nothing deserving death has been done by him.

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I will therefore punish and release him. We'll skip over verse 17, that's not in the best manuscripts.

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Verse 18, and they all cried out together, away with this man and release to us

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Barabbas, a man who had been thrown into prison for an insurrection started in the city and for murder.

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Pilate addressed them once more desiring to release Jesus. But they kept shouting, crucify, crucify him.

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A third time he said to them, why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no guilt deserving death.

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I will therefore punish and release him. But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified and their voices prevailed.

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So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted. He released the man who had been thrown into prison for insurrection and murder and for whom they asked.

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But he delivered Jesus over to their will. And as they led him away, they seized one

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Simon of Cyrene who was coming in from the country and laid on him the cross to carry it behind Jesus.

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And there followed him a great multitude of the people and of women who were mourning and lamenting for him. But turning to them,

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Jesus said, daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me, but weep for yourselves and for your children.

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For behold, verse 29, the days are coming when they will say, blessed are the barren and the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed.

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Then they will begin to say to the mountains, fall on us and to the hills, cover us. For if they do these things, when the wood is green, what will happen when it's dry?

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And now we approach our passage. Two others who were criminals were led away to be put to death with him.

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Two thieves, Matthew would say, two robbers. And then you know the account, verse 33, and when they came to the place that's called the skull, there they crucified him and the criminals, one on his right and the other on his left.

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We get the word, the Greek word for skull is where we get our word cranium. It's the place of the skull.

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Now, certainly, it wasn't a place where there were lots of skulls laying around. The Jews would have not agreed with that.

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But somehow the side of the mountain or somehow the place looked like a skull. If you go to Israel today, outside of Jerusalem, where one of the possibilities where Jesus was crucified, there's kind of a skull shape with the eyes sunken in for the sockets.

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I'm sure that's not the place. But this particular place, because of its shape, is called the place of the skull.

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By the word, the word skull, in Latin is where we get the word what?

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Calvary, Calvary, Calvary means skull. It's the place of the skull where Jesus was crucified.

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And then with brevity, just with short, compact, not really telling us anything theological at the time, there they crucified him.

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For all the people that want all the overarching, melodramatic way of the cross and all the kind of blood and guts that maybe

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Mel Gibson would show here, it just says very simply, very plainly, they crucified him.

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Capital punishment for the king. And with great humiliation, besides crucifixion, there's a thief on his left and a thief on his right.

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Why? Because he was numbered among his transgressors, right in the midst. He's one of them.

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Here comes the three thieves, the three liars. And Jesus said,

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Father, forgive them, verse 34, for they know not what they do and they cast lots to divide his garments.

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Now if you've studied the Bible at all, you'll quickly realize that out of all the Greek manuscripts we have for the

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New Testament, about half of them have,

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Father, forgive them, they don't know what they do. The other half doesn't have it. We're not really sure. Scholars aren't sure.

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The best manuscripts we have are divided. Did Jesus really say, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do?

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Now certainly if it is in the original text, can you imagine in the midst of all the shouting, in the midst of all the screaming, in the midst of all the chaos, here

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Jesus the Savior is praying, interceding for his enemies.

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And if this is in the text, I find it interesting that Jesus is not saying what he could have said, God with your holy law and your justice, damn them, curse them.

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Jesus praying an imprecatory psalm on their heads, but no, he doesn't do that. They're mocking and Jesus is praying.

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They cast lots to divide his garments. What's the picture that's being painted here? Sheer humiliation.

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They're even going to gamble for his clothes before he's dead. It's one thing to go take somebody's clothes out of the grave.

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It's another thing to say in front of their face, let's divide up their clothes first before they're even dead.

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Now sometimes they would crucify people completely naked. Other times they would leave a loincloth on.

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And I think if you would read John 19 sometime, you'll see that they're gambling for the outer garments of Jesus.

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And look at these kind of people that give Jesus ill treatment. Jesus, the one praying for forgiveness. And now look at these people.

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Verse 35, and the people stood by watching. That's the first group, the people, by the way,

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I could have saved the people because there's a festival. There are thousands of people. And what do they do here?

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It says watching, but other accounts of the gospel say that they were hurling abuse at him,

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Matthew 27. You can imagine it's like a baseball pitcher on the pitcher's mound with a 99 mile per hour fastball, except it's words hurling abuse at Jesus.

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Spurgeon said it this way, like hungry cannibals, they opened their blasphemous mouths as if they were about to swallow the man whom they abhorred.

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They could not vomit forth their anger fast enough through their mouths. Psalm 22 says that they're wagging their head in this derisive

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Middle Eastern way, just showing utter disdain, utter contempt. But not just the people.

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Look at there. There's another group, the rulers. Verse 35, the people stood by watching hurling abuse, but the rulers scoffed at him saying, and by the way, they're not going to say it directly to Jesus.

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In this account, you're not going to see the ruler saying, Jesus, since you're the king, you should save others. They're not even going to give him the courtesy of directing him directly, addressing him directly.

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They're going to talk like he wasn't even there. He saved others. Let him save himself.

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Not ultimate salvation, but off the cross. He saved others by healings, by miracles, by food, by raising people from the dead.

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Let him save other people too, then. If you're such a savior, save people. And the text says they scoffed.

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Literally, it's sneering, sarcastic sneering. You'll get the idea with how gloating this is with the

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Greek word, and it's an onomatopoetic word. It's a word that sounds like what it is. Ekmuk teridzo.

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And I just kind of scrunched up my face a little bit and said, Ekmuk teridzo. That's what they were doing.

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With great Ekmuk teridzo, there's Jesus, and here are the rulers. They're turning their nose up, sneering.

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By the way, these people knew what Jesus did before because they are saying he saved others.

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They knew all about the accounts of Jesus, what he did. Jesus didn't do this in a corner.

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And how much irony is in this account? Jesus isn't trying to save other people, is he? Yes, he is.

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He is saving other people. They want him to save himself, but he's there to save other people. I wonder what

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God the Father will say in about three days to these taunts. Let's talk about him.

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Let's not even address him. If he's the Christ, his chosen one. You can almost hear kids on the playground at school taunting like this.

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The chosen one. Oh, you're the chosen one. Like the brothers of Joseph. Oh, the chosen one.

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Well, there's another group, not just the people, not just the rulers. Look at the soldiers. They're chiming in. I mean, this is an antiphonal choir of mockers.

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And the soldiers also mocked him coming up and offering him some sour wine. And saying, if you're the king of the

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Jews, save yourself. At least they'll talk to him face to face. Now, some people think this was an act of kindness.

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This is sour wine. It's wine vinegar. It's for people who are poor. It's for people that don't have a lot of money.

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And so maybe some say, oh, this is an act of generosity. Here's some wine. It's cheap wine.

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But everything about this regarding these soldiers is rude and boorish.

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Save yourself. I'm under the impression here that this is a negative gesture.

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Hey, let's keep him alive longer by giving him some kind of medicine. It's a big joke to them.

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If you're the king of the Jews, save yourself. How do we know he was the king of Jews?

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Verse 38, there's also an inscription over him. This is the king of the

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Jews. So when you were crucified, they'd put something over your head. Sometimes they'd hang it around your neck on the way to the cross.

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Name, rank, and serial number. Well, not quite. Name and crime. Your name and the crime.

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And the inscription over him said, with more derogatory words like this. This, this, this is the king of the

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Jews. His name, why he's being executed. Actually, the emphatic

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Greek is the king of the Jews, this one. Now, every evangelist,

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Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John have a little bit of what's going on. You say, if I read them, they don't all seem the same.

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Well, they all just took a little bit was on the inscription. But if you put all the inscriptions together, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, it would say this, the full inscription.

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This is Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews. And you know, this is

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Pilate's revenge. You don't think he's the king. I'll tell you he's a king. And what I've said,

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I've said. And now we've come to the fourth group of people that we're going to focus upon today. The criminals, the robbers found in verse 39.

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One of the criminals who were hanged, crucified, railed at him saying, are you not the

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Christ? Save yourself and us. For the sake of argument,

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I don't really believe you're the Christ. But I'm going to say, if you really are, save us. Get us down from here.

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Now, this is just one of these criminals saying that to Jesus. Let me read to you Matthew 27, because the other criminal started off doing the same thing.

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Don't miss this. In the same way, the robbers who were crucified with him also heaped insults upon him.

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They railed upon him. They defamed him. Mark 15, both criminals mocking

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Jesus. Let this Christ, the king of Israel, come down from the cross that we may see and believe.

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Those crucified with him also heaped insults upon him. So one on the left, one on the right.

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They're all chiming in with the people, with the rulers, with the soldiers. And it's this cacophonous sound of mocking both criminals.

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But now all of a sudden, the light, the spotlight shines to this one criminal. The focus on what he's saying, his mocking.

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Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and save us. And now the spotlight goes to the other one.

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Verse 40, but the other rebuked him saying, do you not fear God since you were under the same sentence of condemnation?

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And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong.

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And he said, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus said to him, truly,

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I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise. Now, is that not a fascinating account?

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What can we learn from that account? Let me give you several things. And again, you know, that's code for I've got a bunch, but I'm not going to tell you how many because I don't know how many we'll do.

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This might turn into two parts. If you don't show up next week, maybe I'll just preach to an empty house again.

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By the way, last week, giving was atrocious. You know, what is so awesome about that?

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You know, I never preach about giving unless it's in the text. This is Christ church, and I don't have to beg for money because I think

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God is quite rich. And if we miss a Sunday, some would say never close the church down, because if you close the church down for a natural disaster, giving will be bad.

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All right. Lessons from the thief on the cross.

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Better said lessons that we can learn about Christ and the criminal. Number one, salvation changes the sinner immediately.

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Salvation changes the sinner immediately. So don't be hoodwinked about people believing

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Jesus as savior, but not Lord. Since salvation changes people immediately, don't be hoodwinked, hoodwinked by people who say

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I got Jesus as my savior as fire insurance, but my life is still in the same shambles as it were as it was before.

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And can't you think about that thief on the cross? When the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great

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God and savior, Christ Jesus, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed.

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That passage in Titus two was happening. Then immediately this thief begins to say no to sin.

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Yes, to righteousness, looking for the second coming. When God saves you, you are different. You mean to tell me that the

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God of the universe, the powerful God of the universe can change you and you are the same person you were before you were saved.

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You're a new creature in Christ Jesus. If you're saved, right? Regeneration, old things gone. Behold, new things come used to be a slave to sin.

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Now you're a slave to righteousness. When God declares you righteous, sanctification begins.

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And look at what this thief did. This thief stood up for Jesus. He rebuked the other thief.

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Don't talk to him that way. He feared God. That's the proper attitude when you study

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Luke and Acts. What's the right attitude towards God? The fear of God is the beginning of what?

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Fearing God, not just with reverence only, but fear. Where did this thief get to know about Jesus?

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Did he learn about Jesus beforehand? Did somebody already talk to him? Did he learn about Jesus from people talking at the foot of the cross?

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Did Jesus talk to him? We don't know, but he knew enough about Jesus. And when God saved him, what does he also do?

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He's admitting his guilt. Do you see that in verse 41? We indeed justly were receiving what we deserve for our deeds.

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When God saves a sinner, you forget all this kind of stuff. I'm going to blame all my sins on my parents.

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I'm going to blame all my sins on my job. I'm going to blame all my sins on how

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I feel. I'm going to blame all my sins on my syndromes. I'm going to blame my sins on my diseases. I'm going to blame my sins on all kinds of illnesses that I have.

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No, it's like David in Psalm 51. Against thee and thee only have I sinned and done what is evil in thy sight.

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When God saves you, you realize that even though my sin might be against other people, it's ultimately against God.

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Look at how God changed him on his deathbed. He knew the justice of God.

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We're going to get what we deserve. Look at verse 41. This man begins to preach Jesus as innocent, the spotless lamb.

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See it in verse 41, the end. But this man has done nothing wrong. Literally nothing unbecoming.

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He's done nothing criminal. Pilate says, I can't find a crime against him.

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The thief on the cross says he's sinless. Everybody else is accusing

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Jesus. Shouting, crucify, hate, blaspheme, reviling, derogatory.

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And here's the one guy up there half naked saying he didn't do anything wrong. Salvation brings you to a trusting, saving faith in Christ Jesus.

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Do you see what he said in verse 42? Jesus, remember me when you come in your kingdom. Isn't this fascinating?

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Stop and think about this for a second. The only person to address Jesus by name in any of this.

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The only person to say Jesus is here's this thief. J .C.

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Ryle said he saw no scepter, no royal crown, no outward dominion, no glory, no majesty, no power, no signs of might.

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And yet the dying thief believed and looked forward to Christ's kingdom. I mean, it's one thing if Jesus is miraculously healing ladies who had a bleeding issue for 12 years, healing lepers, raising somebody from the dead.

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But here Jesus is dying on the cross. It's the shame before the glory. It's the cross before the crown and he still believes.

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This thief, you know what this thief knew? This thief knew that Jesus dying on the cross did not mean that he was no longer the

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Messiah, but that he was the Messiah and the kingdom was coming soon. The first confessor of the kingdom of Christ, the thief.

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And you know what? He's got a love for other people. That's one of the true signs of saving faith. When all of a sudden when

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God saves you, he makes you born again, he causes you to believe, you believe.

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And then after you say, thank you, your next utterance usually is what? I better go tell my family members because this is true.

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And if this is true and they die in their sins, they're going straight to hell. It's the same thing with the woman at the well.

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God, the son saved her. She wanted to go tell the town. If there's anyone here today who's trying to play a game with God saying, you know what?

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I'm just going to have you as kind of intellectual faith and not really changed in my life.

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And I'm still doing all the things that I did before. I'm still living an unrighteous life. And I'm a practicing fornicator, practicing adulterer, practicing homosexual, practicing liar, practicing drunk.

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I'm still going to heaven because I believe. Let me remind you, James 2, what use is it, my brethren, if a man continually says he has faith, but he continually has no works?

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That faith can't save him. Faith, if it has no works, is dead.

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Do you think that thief on the cross had dead faith? I don't think so.

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The first lesson from the thief on the cross and the Christ and the criminal is that when God saves you, you are completely different in the sight of God.

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And then you're regenerated and you're new. You still might struggle with sin. But as my old pastor used to say, sin is not your master anymore.

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And righteousness, you're not perfect in external or internal righteousness, but it's not, it's a desire that you have.

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It's your direction in life. You're not perfect, but it's your direction. You want to obey.

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You have a desire to obey. Number two, the second lesson is that Christ has both the power and willingness to save sinners.

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Christ has both the power and willingness to save sinners. So rejoice in God's saving work.

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I mean, aren't you glad that God saved sinners? I'm very glad because if God didn't save sinners, he'd still be

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God. God would be just. God would be holy. God would be righteous. God could treat us like he did the fallen angels.

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Out of all the angels that God created, one third of them rebelled. They went AWOL and they committed treason against God.

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And God gave them what? Justice. Was he still God? Yes, but God's a saving

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God. And look at, look at God's saving action. Even in verse 43, I tell you today, you shall be with me in paradise.

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I love Isaiah 63, this one who is majestic in his apparel, marching in the greatness of his strength.

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It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save. No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Ebendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

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Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 8 .30 and 11 a .m. and Sunday evenings at 6 p .m.

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We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston, Massachusetts. You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org

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or by phone at 508 -835 -3400. The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.