The Thief on the Cross (Part 4)

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ. Based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

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Apostle Paul said, "...but we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you."

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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. Welcome to Bethlehem Bible Church's No Compromise Radio.

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How's that for a change of pace? How's that for throwing somebody a mickey?

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My name is Mike Abendroth, and this is No Compromise Radio, and in the background you heard some saxophone from the band

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English Beat. I think they were actually called the Beat, B -E -A -T, and then there was an American band called the

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Beat, and so there was a lawsuit probably, and then it was known as the English Beat.

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And so kind of ska, little reggae ska, kind of pop stuff, mirror in the bathroom.

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So anyway, I thought of other songs to play, but if you'd know who they were, you might be bugged.

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So I'd rather have you be bugged at other things besides ska. So today on No Compromise Radio, we'd like to continue trying to teach you the

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Bible. As I survey the landscape of evangelical radio, I see lots of good things, actually.

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When you can have J. Verna McGee on, when you can have John MacArthur on, R .C.

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Sproul, Alistair Begg, I think that is wonderful. And to hear these men of God, who are way more gifted than I'll ever be, preach and teach the

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Bible, that is encouraging, and I really like that. I think that there is a plethora of other things on Christian radio, full of financial advice and family issues and things like that.

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It's a free country, and those, I guess, are needed. But there isn't really a show on that I know of.

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There aren't many shows, at least in this part of the woods, where you talk about issues and where you talk about things from a biblical perspective, things that aren't sermons.

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And so in one sense, it's Christian talk radio, but I do a lot of preaching. I actually have submitted some other books to publishers, and many of the publishers have said to me, no, we won't publish it.

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It's too preachy. And so when I get in front of a microphone, whether that's live or memorex,

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I do preach because I am a preacher. Matter of fact, if you want to compliment me or your pastor, then you call him a preacher.

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That's what you do, because we preach the Word. And of course, we're husbands and we're fathers and we do other things, and we're congregants as well and under shepherds, but we are preachers.

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And so I like the idea that there is a niche out there for people like me who just talk about biblical issues that aren't in sermonic form.

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Not in sermonic form. And so today on No Compromise Radio, we'll continue to do that.

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It kind of comes across as a sermon, but it's not in front of a group of people. Actually I'm just sitting here, let's see, who's around here?

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I'm just full of a lot of books. Here in my office, I study, there's a life cycle over there, a desk.

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In front of me is a big picture of Spurgeon and Spurgeon's handwritten notes from an original transcript of the sermon preached by him

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September 7th, 1890 at Metropolitan Tabernacle, London. And so he had some sermon notes that people wrote down from his sermon, and then he amended those notes.

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So we sit here and we're trying to come across from a different perspective because I don't have the gifts of MacArthur, although I do have the

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MacArthur study Bible. I do have the same

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MacArthur, the same Bible that MacArthur uses, that is the MacArthur study Bible. And we're trying to talk about issues that would be provocative.

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After all, it's radio. So I want you to think about things, and I want you to tune in, and I want you to, actually sometimes

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I want you to have some fun. And when Steve's in, we laugh and have a great time, but we still have an agenda. And that agenda is what?

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That agenda is for us to teach you the Bible. So you would more understand the grace of God, the gospel of Christ Jesus.

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I was flying to Baltimore from Manchester about a month ago, and our flight was late, and so there's a lot of connections on Southwest that are made in BWI at Baltimore.

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And the Manchester, NH flight attendant said, you know, we're running late, and everybody's going to make their connections except possibly those that are continuing on to Tamper.

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Okay. Don't Tampa with the Tamper flight. So I found that fascinating.

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So we are No Compromise Radio, and pretty much the schedule is this. Monday is a tape sermon, because I need a day off every once in a while.

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Tuesday, I talk with Pastor Steve, who's my associate pastor and friend, and we discuss issues in the local church, ecclesiology issues, matters pertaining to a local church.

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Wednesdays, I try to interview someone, and whether that's Jeff Strucker from Blackhawk Down or Al Mohler or Michael Horton, I try to interview them.

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I'm trying to get MacArthur on the show, so write Grace to you and tell him that he should be on No Compromise Radio. And then

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Thursdays, I try to teach something that's fairly positive, encouraging. It's K -Love

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Thursday. And then on Fridays, I usually try to take people to the woodshed. False teachers, word -faith people,

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Joyce Meyer, the list goes on, Seventh -day Adventist, Roman Catholicism. So that's called

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Woodshed Friday. I think it is. How much wood could a woodshed shed if No Compromise took people to the woodshed?

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I don't know. So today is a continuation, part four, of The Thief on the

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Cross, wrongly named, I might add. It should be Jesus Christ on the Cross and how

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He dealt with the thief, the penitent thief. So Christ and the criminal, because we want to put the focus on Christ and Jesus.

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If you ever want to ask us a question, info at nocompromiseradio .com. If you ever would like to say we'd like to have this show on.

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By the way, lots of times you write me and you'd ask me to do a show, and I haven't done them yet, mainly because I haven't,

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I had done the research on that particular topic. So if you want to show on infant baptism and why it's not in the

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Bible and that we shouldn't do infant baptism, then it's a lot of that stuff

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I haven't, I mean, I've studied it and I could talk about it in a general fashion, but it's not quite up to snuff for No Compromise standards.

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And so some of these I just have to work on a little bit before we do that. I'm kind of working on a show on the perils of Facebook.

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How about that for a legalistic show? There he goes again. No, say, just say no to Facebook. I think you'll find that not the case, but you might be surprised.

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So who knows? Thief on the cross, lessons learned. First lesson pretty much is let's not call it the thief on the cross, but it's so embedded into my brain.

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When we look at what happens to Jesus and he is being crucified and allowing that to happen, the king of the

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Jews, the king of the universe. And then how he responds to people, how he responds to the rulers or how he responds to the thief.

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It's very, very fascinating. And I just encourage you to go home today and read Luke 23 and you will really be encouraged as you read

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Luke 23. Let me give you another lesson from the thief on the cross.

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And that is to say, when you die, you are with Christ.

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Now I alluded to this in part three, but now let's make the implicit explicit. And so when you die, you're with Christ.

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Remember Luke 23, verse 43. And Jesus said to this criminal, this thief, truly,

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I say to you today, you shall be with me in paradise. You will be with me.

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Now, the one thing I noticed here right off the bat is it doesn't say truly, truly, I say to you today, you shall be with me in purgatory.

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I don't know where we got purgatory from, but I know this. It's not from the Bible. It may be from some apocryphal books.

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It may be from the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church. It may be from the mass magisterium. But the only purge a

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Tory that you're going to find in the Bible is in Hebrews chapter one, where Jesus purged all our sins.

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If you say there's such thing as a purgatory, where there's some more sins that need to be dealt with, then you directly undermine the gospel's account of Jesus's substitutionary death.

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Jesus died for our sins, past, present, and future at Calvary. And all our sins are forgiven because of that great death.

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And we don't have any other sins to pay for. When we do sin on earth and we break communication with the

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Father, that still does not mean that the sins that have kept us judicially apart from God have not been dealt with.

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In other words, when God declares you not guilty based upon Christ's life and death confirmed by the resurrection, those sins are all taken care of.

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They're done. They're gone. And when the Spirit of God regenerates you, you will never have to pay for a sin ever.

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Not one sin will you ever pay for because Jesus paid it all, to quote the hymn writer.

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Now, when Jesus was talking to this thief, there's no special holding place, there's no purgatory, nothing else needs to be done, because here this man with the eyes of faith sees

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Jesus for who he is, Israel's Messiah, even the Savior of the Gentiles, and Jesus gives the promise of eternal life to this man.

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Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his godly ones, Psalm 116, verse 5.

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And I said this last week, but to live is Christ and to die is gain. There's profit because there's union with Christ in heaven forever.

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And Psalm 16 says, in thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore. And so, trying to figure out what happened, where Jesus went, did he go down to Tartarus, where did he go, and all these other things that people want to ask, don't forget that Jesus kept his promise to this man.

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Reminds me of the story of the dying girl and the mother was trying to comfort the girl. There in heaven you will have no pains and no sickness, there you will see your brothers and sisters who have gone before you and will always be happy.

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Oh mother, the little girl said, but there is one thing better than all, then this is Christ will be there.

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So, when it comes to death, here we have a direct promise that Christ is going to save this man.

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And we have a promise too of eternal life that when we die, our body now will go into the ground and our body will suffer rigor mortis and our body will be, you know, decaying.

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But our souls will go to be with God. The Church of England Burial Service interestingly says, at least it used to say, we give hearty thanks for that it hath pleased thee to deliver this our brother out of the miseries of this sinful world.

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That's true. And to deliver him unto the presence, the unbreakable eternal presence of God himself.

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And so what did Jesus go on to say? Truly I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise.

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You're going to be with me now in paradise, not purgatory, but in paradise. The Persian word meaning garden.

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And in Greek language, then it began to develop into the idea of a place of beauty, a place of delight.

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And so the metaphor is beauty, delight, wonder, this park, this garden. Actually, this word is referred to in the

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Greek text of the Old Testament for the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter 2 verse 8.

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The garden, bliss, wonderful comfort, beauty, delight, a pleasure ground, one person translated it, a wonderful place.

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That's the idea. Barnstead means a garden and particularly a garden of pleasure filled with trees and shrubs and fountains and flowers.

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In hot climates such gardens were particularly pleasant and hence they were attached to the mansions of the rich and to the palaces of princes.

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They came thence to denote any place of happiness and particularly the word was used to denote the abodes of the blessed in another world.

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And so we have the qualitative aspect of eternal life. Jesus said in John 17 3, and this is eternal life, that they may know thee and the only true

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God and Christ Jesus or Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

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That is wonderful. And if you're a Christian today and you're on your dying bed, can you imagine the moment of transition from that last breath to seeing

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Christ, to seeing him? That would be an amazing thing. I've been in rooms before where people have died, many rooms, and I especially think of my mother's death.

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I think it was six years ago. Time goes by very quickly. And when the death breaths start and they'll take a deep breath and then you think they're never going to exhale.

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You never think they're going to exhale. They'll breathe in and then they'll breathe out and then you think, you know what, they just breathe out.

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Are they going to ever breathe in again? And then it's, you know, it's a 10 second delay and then a 20 second delay and then pretty soon as time goes on they breathe their last and then it's over.

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To think about going from a morphine drip to keep the pain away, to losing your senses, to losing your ability to think and to breathe and all that.

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And then, and then heaven, Christ Jesus incarnate.

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That is amazing. Listen to what B. Henson said, a preacher of a generation ago, and this is what happened to him.

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He said, I remember a year ago when a doctor told me you have an illness from which you won't recover. I walked out to where I live five miles from Portland, Oregon, and I looked across that mountain that I love.

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I looked at the river in which I rejoice and I looked at the stately trees that are always God's own poetry to my soul.

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Then in the evening, I looked up into the great sky where God was lighting his lamps and I said,

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I may not see you many more times, but mountain, I shall be alive when you are gone and river,

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I shall be alive when you cease running toward the sea and stars, I shall be alive when you have fallen from your sockets in the great down pulling of the material universe.

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That is an amazing thought. And so we have a great savior who saves us and promises us eternal life, promises us a communion with him.

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It doesn't take a reader very long to read John chapter 14 and say, do you know what a great savior we have?

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Jesus said to the disciples, let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me.

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In my father's house are many rooms. If it were not so what I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you.

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And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself that where I am, you may be also, and you know the way to where I'm going.

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Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you're going. How can we know the way? Jesus said to him,

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I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my father also.

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From now on, you do not know him from now on. You do know him rather and have seen him.

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Philip said to him, Lord, show us the father and it is enough for us. Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long and you still do not know me?

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Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the father. How can you say, show us the father? Do you not believe that I am in the father and the father is in me?

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The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority, but the father who dwells in me does his works.

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Believe me that I am in the father and the father is in me or else believe on account of the works themselves.

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Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do and greater works than these will he do because I'm going to the father.

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Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the father may be glorified in the son. If you are asking me anything in my name,

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I will do it. That's John chapter 14, 1 to 14 on No Compromise Radio.

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We serve a great God, a great Savior, and when it comes to saving sinners, there is hope even on the deathbed.

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I think that's another lesson. That's the next lesson from Christ and the criminal, both on the cross.

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The lesson is this, as long as you're alive, it's not too late. You might be the worst sinner.

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You might have the worst record. You might have a criminal past. It might be pages long or you might be someone who's tried to kick the goads of God trying to be good enough to get into heaven and to be a moral person and to be a nice person and have the good outweigh the bad.

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You all stand level ground before the cross, and you are required to look to the cross and live, to believe what

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Jesus said, that he is the only Messiah. All other gods are false gods. He is God eternal.

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He is God incarnate, and you can be like this criminal, this thief, plucked from the fire at the last second.

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If you believe while you're alive, you shall be saved. Acts 16 .31,

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believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved. The youngest faith can still save a man because even though it's not even a day old, that thief's faith was not even a day old, but it was in the right object, and that's called saving faith.

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You have Christ's righteousness. Can you imagine the righteousness of Christ cloaked on that thief and the thief's sin poured onto, not poured onto Jesus, but judicially

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Jesus paying for those sins? This reminds me of Jude 22 and 23, and have mercy on some who are doubting.

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Save others, snatching them out of the fire. And on others, on some, have mercy with fear, hating even the garment polluting the flesh.

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Snatched from the fire. The unbelievers need to be snatched out of the fire that's about ready to take them down into eternal torment.

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You, if you're listening today, and you're 80 years old, you're 50 years old, you're 30 years old, it's not too late.

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You can be on your deathbed. Matter of fact, Spurgeon used to say, regarding this thief, he said, you know, there's only one person who died on their deathbed, that died a deathbed, and had a deathbed conversion.

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There's only one, and it's the thief on the cross. And there's only one so that you don't act presumptuously.

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Hey, I'll just wait to the end of my life and then say, God, forgive me at the very end. Now that is foolish and wrong, and presuming on the grace of God, defaming

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God, blaspheming God. And then the other reason why there's one,

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Spurgeon said, one deathbed conversion so that you could have hope. Said you could go to your grandma's deathbed, preach the gospel to her, and know that the power of God, the gospel of God has got power to save a grandma who tried to live like there was no

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Jesus for 80 years, and God could still save her. Isn't that good? Isn't that encouraging to know?

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So when you go visit people in the hospital, your responsibility is to preach the gospel to them. Because people get saved through the preaching of the gospel.

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People are not saved because they are elect. They are saved because God's election guarantees then his sovereign work in bringing people to preach the gospel.

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They go together, evangelism and the sovereignty of God. And God's sovereignty calls for us to pray and to evangelize.

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And so if you're a person today and you say, you know what, I'm too bad for God to save me. Really? How about somebody screaming at the face of Jesus, you know, that you should save other people, and that you're a criminal too, and you're this, that, and the other, and then

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God saves. This thief wasn't even asking for it, and you today can ask. God, if you're real,

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God, if you're there, God, I need cleansing. I need forgiveness. I need restoration.

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You might lose everything else, but to have forgiveness, isn't that at the top of the list? Some people try to say, you know what, come to Jesus, you'll have a better marriage.

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You'll be a better dad. You'll be a better worker, and you'll have more fun. Friends, if you believe in the

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Lord Jesus Christ, your wife might leave you. Your kids might hate you. Your parents might disown you.

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It happens all the time. You might not get promoted. Actually, you might get fired for your faith.

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And so you don't need to come to Jesus to get things better. Certainly God will give you an abundant life.

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Jesus promised that in the Gospel of John, that he came to give an abundant life. But that's going to be the fruit of the

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Spirit's abundance. That is to say, love and joy and peace, even in the midst of suffering, persecution, hardship.

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Oh, he might give you a wife that loves you more, and that you have a better love for her. Of course, your marriage might be better.

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I think Christians are better husbands. They are better dads. But this isn't come to Jesus to get something.

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This is, do you want to glorify the God who made you? Then bow to the Son. Kiss the Son lest you perish in your way, to use

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Psalm 2 for an illustration. This is not what you're going to get. You've been robbing God of his glory and of his honor and of his majesty.

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And you need to bow before that great King. The metaphor of the King applies here. You've been slandering the

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King and saying bad things about the King. The whole time you've been breathing the King's air and eating the

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King's food and drinking the King's water. And now you're going to get pulled before the King for judgment.

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And your only hope is someone who could stand in your place and take your judgment for you.

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You deserve the judgment. And you need someone like Jesus who could assuage all the wrath of God that he didn't deserve, but you did.

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So on No Compromise Radio, we are big about the gospel. And the thief on the cross next to Jesus, the

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Messiah, gives us a great illustration, not of the thief's faith at the last second, but the faith that he had was the result of Jesus, that Jesus was the

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Savior. Who is the hero of the story? The thief? I don't think so. Jesus. Who's the hero of Daniel in the lion's den?

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God, the God of Daniel, he's the hero. Who's the hero of Caleb? I don't think we can think of anything that Caleb did wrongly.

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It's not recorded in Scripture, at least. Yet Caleb was a sinner, and he served a great

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God. It's the God of Caleb to give him courage and faith and boldness, etc. The hero of the

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Bible is Jesus Christ. And the sooner you realize that, you'll say to yourself, this is the only

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God with whom I have to do, and to him be the glory forever and ever, and I need to bow before this

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King. And so today, if you're a Christian, you can really rejoice. You can rejoice again. The gospel is just not for you when you first get saved.

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The gospel is for you again today. You have a hard day, a rough day, a difficult day, and you remember what you used to be, a sinner, and what you are now, a saint.

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And it was all done by the grace of God. It was all by his own good pleasure, his own free will, his own determination, his own plan, his own election, his own substitutionary atonement, his own indwelling in you.

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This is all the plan of God. Isn't that good? We are recipients of grace. We offer nothing but sin.

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God saves. God saves sinners. We have great guilt. God had greater grace, and now we need to have great gratitude.

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That is the paradigm of the Heidelberg Catechism. Guilt, grace, gratitude. So how's your gratitude going today?

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Go back and remember your guilt and then the great grace of Christ Jesus. or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.

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The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.