The conversion of the thief on the cross, highlighting his remarkable plea to Jesus, "Lord, remember me, when thou comest into thy kingdom." This event is presented as the second cry from the cross, demonstrating that even the greatest sinners can be saved by God's sovereign grace. The sermon contrasts the thief's repentance with the other thief's mockery, illustrating the stark difference between accepting Christ and rejecting Him, and concludes by emphasizing that salvation is available to all who, like the repentant thief, acknowledge their guilt and turn to Jesus.
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Be thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked and saying, Thoth not thou fear God? Seeing thou art in the same condemnation? 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 verily, I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
This is the second cry of the cross. Next week, Lord Willing, we'll speak on the cry of affection. But this is an amazing history, the conversion of this thief. I was thinking yesterday afternoon wondering who the worst sinner who was ever saved would be. In all the history of man, the time man sinned, someone must have been, or will be, the greatest sinner ever cleansed by the blood of Christ. We think of our wicked men. Nebuchadnezzar was a wicked man, and yet there's evidence he turned to the Lord.
We think of the Caesars, we think of men, and we shudder as we think of a Hitler, and we shudder as we think of Joseph Salon, these wicked, ungodly, vile men. Yet strangely it may seem, some men, wicked as they were, have been reached by the sovereign grace of God. I turned over to my Bible yesterday afternoon, and I thought of a king of Israel. Now, some of these other men were not in the nation of Israel. I thought of a king in Israel by the name of Manasseh. And if ever there was a non-godly king, it was Manasseh.
And you can read that if you want over in Second Kings chapter twenty-one. Manasseh, he was the son of a very godly king, Hezekiah. He was brought up under the ministry of Hezekiah. You remember how Hezekiah is mentioned in Isaiah chapter six. In the year that King Neziah died, Isaiah said, I saw the Lord lifted up. So good King Isaiah had this ungodly son born into his family. And he was a godless man. He knew what it was, the sin.
Morally, he also, he burned all the altars of the Lord, and he established idols instead. He made Jerusalem flow with blood on several occasions. He burned his own son on the altar as a sacrifice. And he went on, and he sinned, and he sinned, and his immorality is a shame to read. He was an apostate, an idolatrous man, a man who sobbed out his sickness, and he had many sicknesses. He sobbed out his shame in prison house in Babylon.
And if you read it over in Chronicles, I think it's in the third chapter, he turned to the Lord, and God received him. That was a remarkable case. He lived the longest of any king in Israel, fifty-five years of God's favor. What a merciful God we have. Now we come to this case of this king, or this thief-brother. Two men that morning got up. In fact, three did. Three men got up.
One was the Lord Jesus Christ. It must have been early in the morning. The other two were two thieves, wicked, ungodly murderers. They got up too. We'll find out how they ended that day. All you can see, think of, as you read this portion, and reflect upon the circumstances, the places, and the characters mentioned, before the cross, and we'll see next from the Mary. There are three Mary's, by the way. Mary, the mother of our Lord.
Mary, the wife of Cleopas. Mary, Magdalen. Therefore, the disciples were standing there, looking up. They must have been pretty close. Mary must have been pretty close to the Lord, because he was able to speak amid all the crowds, shouting, crying, that crazy crowd. He was able to say, woman, behold thy son, and to John, behold thy mother. There must have been a terrible scene. with all those fanatical men, as they wind their way down through Jerusalem and through the gates and up to Calvary, crying and screaming and shouting, there's the Lord Jesus crucified.
And as they, I don't suppose they wept only those of his own. The others, they were spitting out their venom upon this man. who claims to be the Son of God. Wonders if Mary were at this cross, kneeling before the Lord Jesus her son. I wonder if there was a broken heart at mother or father kneeling at the other crosses. Sons who turned out to be wicked and godly criminals. It could be. Here you find then the Lord Jesus crucified upon that cross.
Only Mary had a son who never sinned. Millions of mothers in the history of the human race have buried their sons. Only Mary buried a son who was sinless. All the others were sinful. They were sinners, but only Mary buried a sinless son. A lot of mothers have buried saved sons, and that's wonderful. Some have buried unsaved sons. But this is a tragic thing.
And here is Mary. The only man who had a right to live was the man who was put to death. They didn't want it. But he had a right to live, and yet he was sinless. How remarkable the incident is. One thinks of, and I've seen this different times, of fire burning through the bush, and you'll see the wind blowing it, and there's a clump of wood, or it may be a clump of filth. or it may be some coke, and you see it glare as the sun burns it, and the wind blows upon it.
And here the Lord Jesus takes a lump of filth, a wicked, ungodly criminal, and turns them into a Christian. There you see him, a globe of salvation, because he received Christ. We'll go further into this incident of this thief. In the midst of all this shouting, going on, and there was a mob there, in the midst of all that shouting, one of the thieves speaks up. What did he do? He rebukes his fellow criminal.
He says, does thou not fear God? Evidently, This one didn't fear God either. He was a criminal, a wicked, ungodly man. But something happened. He said, Does thou not fear God? Seeing we are in the same condemnation. He rebuked his friend in sin. He acknowledged his own condition. We indeed justly. We received the due rewards of our deeds. But this man hath done nothing amiss. Remarkable of those three things, rebuking his friend, condemning himself, and justifying the Lord Jesus Christ.
This man hath done nothing amiss. When you think of the cross, a number of things can be seen, that is, guilt. Guilty. All men are guilty. This man was guilty. They're guilty. But the Bible says that all are guilty. Every mouth must be stopped, and all the world become guilty before God. A lot of people don't like to think they're guilty. This man was not only guilty of breaking Roman law, he was guilty before a holy God.
He was a guilty man. And why is the person who will admit that? I don't know whether I've told you before about a character up in Canada, and he was a very unusual character. We're having a campaign in Toronto, Canada, and went on for six weeks. One of the brethren, George Walker, a godly man, he says, Brother Lester, this is an unusual young man coming here, he'd been coming, comes out about every Sunday, but he's not a Christian. He's very self-righteous. And he said, he's going to be at these meetings.
He said, I hope God reaches him. After a few nights preaching, he came up after the meeting, he said, would you mind visiting me in my home? I said, I was glad. When I got there, and he was a very educated young man, He was what you call a perfectionist. When I got there, there was two chairs and a table, and there was a Bible on each end. I didn't know whether I'd bring mine or not, so he had one there for me. And he started talking to me and asking me questions, and I didn't say a thing. And he began criticizing this man and this man and the other preacher, the other preacher.
But he did say this. He said, I have found two creatures I think was saved. That's old Mr. Simpson. I know he was saved. And an old man, he said, I think you are. Well, that's quite a compliment. Anyway, he began criticizing everybody and everything. He sat there, I suppose, for a half an hour. I didn't say one word. Finally, he got aggravated. He said, I don't understand it. He said, but I sit out there and your audit... He says, every thing you say hits me. He says, I don't understand. He says, you're sitting there and you're just like any other man. Yeah. I said, you know what?
When you shut your mouth, I'll say so. You spent a whole half an hour talking and criticizing. And when you shut your mouth, I'll have something to say. The same thing happened about a week later. Same situation. Same thing came up, and he began again. Finally, he said, I don't understand it. I don't understand it. He said, when I listen to you preach, he said, I get unconvinced. I said, Ryan, I want to tell you one thing. I'm going to tell you now. When your mouth is shut, I have something to say.
And I said, God won't save you until you do shut your mouth. That's why I quoted this verse, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before God. Another brother was there, and we used to go over to the little chapel and have prayer for the meetings. When I got home, I was staying with a fine young couple, godly young couple, and I was staying with them during the campaign. And when I got home, the young wife said, Did you get a call from Byrne? I said, No. Well, he said he was going to call you.
I said, What's the talk? She said, He picked up that phone this morning, and he wanted you to get in touch with you as quick as he could. She said, The way he talked, he said, Something's happened. Anyway, I finally got in touch with him. And he had come over, and one other occasion he came over, I remember this, and he said, I want to see you again. That morning, I went up, I went up to my bedroom, and I said, I don't want my breakfast this morning. I'm going to spend this time in prayer until a bird gets here. When he got there, he passed the young lady, opened the door, he just brushed by her, and he brushed by me, he brushed thus by the young brother.
Didn't see a word to anybody. He went in and sat down. So I went over and sat beside him. Well, I said, Vern, why did you want to come over here? Brother Wilson, I didn't sleep a wink all night. I just paced the floor. He says, you preached last night about God's Spirit not striving with man. He said, I can't take it any longer. And so I said, Vern, did you see the headlines in the morning paper? No. I didn't even think of a paper. Well, I said, I noticed in there that the Germans just won a big victory over on the continent.
And I said, do you believe that? I said, tell us about the war, right? Sure. Do you believe there's a war going on over there? Sure. Why do you believe? Well, or the men tell us. They'll tell us. I said, do you believe what they say? about how many casualties and how many are being killed and how many ships are being sunk? Yes, I believe it. I said, that's a strange thing. Here you believe about an incident happening thousands of miles away. You haven't been there.
You haven't seen a thing. And yet you believe the witness of men. My Bible says, You believe the witness of men when the witness of God is greater. You'll believe men, and you'll believe what you hear about men, and what's going on. But God is telling you something. You won't believe. And you can't see the incident that happened when Christ died on the cross. But you won't believe God about things you can't see. You must believe by faith. And I said, Burn, you'll never get saved until you shut your mouth.
She was as meek as a lamb as he went out. Then I had my breakfast. Then I went over to a little chapel that I referred to a little while ago to have prayer. Then when I got back home, that's when the young lady said, Did you hear from Burn? I said, No. So I did before the meeting that night. He was just a glow, so happy. Brother Wilson, he said, when I left you, he said, I went home and I hurried up the stairs, going to my bedroom. When I reached the top of the stairs, he said, I saw the point. You believe men, and you won't believe God. He said, right there and then, I said, Lord, I believe.
And he says, I got saved. He's a missionary today. He went to Cuba. After the revolution, after Cuba took over, he came back that he's up in Canada. He can speak four languages, and he wins those to Christ. That young man was a perfectionist. He found out that he wasn't perfect. Other people weren't perfect, and God shut his mouth, and that's when he got saved. And the law was given that every mouth might be stopped, stop and all the world become guilty before God. Needless to say, this thief shall live out.
All he had to say was that his friend was wicked and he rebuked him, and he himself was a criminal. But this man has done nothing amiss. So man is guilty. Another thing man is condemned. We are condemned already. Another thing, the man is a trespasser. He was wounded for our trespasses. This man, I might say, you'll have to believe this, but he was a criminal, a thief. A thief, a robber. Man is robbing God.
God tells us over in Malachi, ye have robbed me. You're a thief if you're not a Christian. You're robbing God. What are you robbing God of? You're robbing God of your faith. You're robbing God of your love. You're robbing God of your time. You're robbing God of your talents. God's not getting one thing out of you. You're just robbing God. You should give him your heart. Another thing. We are enemies if we're unfaithed. When we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son.
And this thief was ungodly. Ungodly. If somebody walked up to you and told you after you had been to church, you're ungodly. They'd be offended. But that's true. Christ died for the ungodly. And if you don't accept Christ, Christ died for the ungodly. So you want to mean that He died for the ungodly, but not for you. You're perfect. And if you don't believe, you believe that Jesus Christ died for the ungodly, then you're out of the picture.
He did die for the ungodly. And so you... If not saved, are in that category, you're ungodly. That's a strong statement but true. You're without strength. This man was without strength. And the Bible tells us, too, about being without strength. He was without Christ. But his sin found them out. His sin found them out. And so will your sin. whatever sin you've committed, that alienates you from God and Christ, God will expose it in the coming day of judgment.
But the greatest sin He'll expose is your unbelief. This thief was helpless, full helpless, nailed, hand and foot to the cross. And when we were yet without strength, Christ died for us. Man is a helpless creature. He cannot save himself. And this man, of course, was a sinner, but Christ died for sinners. Wonderful, isn't it, to know that Christ died for such people as if I were to go into some churches this morning and tell that bunch, all I'm telling you, what they are, they couldn't wait until the meeting got out.
They're about more of me. I told them they were ungodly, they were sinners without strength. They didn't have Christ at that situation right here. And another thing about this man, he didn't have long to live. You may not have long to live. This man did not have long to live. The remarkable thing is that this thief was very observing. He was watching. He was listening to what was being said. And to think of some of the things he did hear said. Out of the crowd a man hollered.
He said, If thou be the king, come down from the cross and say thyself enough, that wicked man preached the gospel, this man said, saveth sinners. That's true. Jesus Christ does say sin, if thou be the Christ, come down from the cross. He that saved others, will you not save us? Jesus Christ has saved others, and he'll save you. How wonderful to think that this thief should hear these remarks, and likely one of the most startling ones, was as he was on that cross.
It's a cry who mentioned last someday. Lord, forgive them. They know not what they do. This thief heard that. In fact, he heard all seven of the cries on the cross. He heard every one. So did the other thief. For you remember when the soldiers came, they were going to break the legs. Of all three. But when they came, they broke the legs of the one thief, they broke the legs of the other. But when they came to Jesus, they break not his legs. He was already dead. And so this thief heard all the seven cries of the cross.
Why, he heard them. How remarkable he saved others. Himself he cannot save. I wonder if this went through the mind of this thief. If he saved others, I wish he would save me. This thief was ready. He heard something else from the crowd. If thou be the Son of God. And this thief was listening. The Son of God. Another shout from the mob. If thou be a king. Is this man a king?
hear these shouts from these people, and this thief was listening to every one of them. Another says, You who promise if you take down this temple, destroy this temple, you'll build it in three days. And all that they were saved were just running through the mind of this convicted thief. And something happened, but he changed. And you think, dost thou not fear God? Why art thou, for we are in the same condemnation, I am condemned. I do fear God.
For the first time, lightly on that cross, he feared God. And so when the Lord Jesus, when he turned to the Lord Jesus, he says, Lord Jesus, will you take me and receive me into your kingdom? I wonder if that wasn't the very moment this man got saved. I believe it was. When he said to the Lord Jesus, he said, will you receive me into your kingdom? And I believe the Lord did it right that moment.
I don't believe the Lord hesitated. I don't believe the Lord Jesus waited any length of time. I believe that very moment when this thief said that, I believe that the Lord Jesus Christ responded immediately and said, Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. I believe that's exactly what happened. The Lord Jesus responded so quickly. He goes to show how quick the Lord Jesus is to respond to guilty convicted sinners. Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
That's a remarkable thing. He heard something. The thief referred to his kingdom. And yet Christ's kingdom hasn't been set up on earth yet. But he says, Lord, remember me. We indeed justly, we receive the due rewards of our deeds. Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And friend, that very minute that thief passed from death unto life. Today, not tomorrow. Today thou shalt be with me when I enter into my kingdom.
Thou shalt be with me in paradise. How remarkable these things should happen to this thief. The last soul that was saved before the Lord Jesus died, established, this converted thief, established all the points I've been mentioning this morning. This faith laid upon the Lord Jesus Christ all the weight of his guilt, his soul, and his eternity. And Jesus Christ accepted it. There's a transition. The Lord Jesus Christ, that very minute, this man says, Lord, the word, Lord, remember me.
When thou comest into thy kingdom, Christ says today, this minute, thou shalt be the day in paradise. And that's how quick the Lord says to people. You don't have to take a course. You don't have to wait. You don't even have to pray. accept this prayer, this plea, Lord Jesus. Remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. I don't care how black your life has been in the past or how it might be in the future. The moment you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, that very minute, God will tricken you into a new creature in Christ Jesus.
How wonderful this is. The thief couldn't come. We asked people to come up after the meeting if they want to be saved. This thief couldn't come. His feet were nailed to the cross. He couldn't touch Christ as the woman touched the hem of this garment. His hands were nailed to the cross. Here is this poor, content, sinful, helpless thief. And he got sick, gloriously saved. And he got the promise from the Son of God himself. Today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
Be something, wouldn't it, if you could get near enough to the cross and listen. Listen to this man. And you asked him, Are you saved? Yes. Well, and you're suffering, all that agony and pain. You mean to tell me that you're saved? Yes, I'm saved. I'm saved in spite of all the agony I'm going through, my physical agony. How do you make that up? Jesus Christ said it, and I believe it.
I'm saved. I'm going to heaven. Friend, in the spite that I have seen some people in agony and pain, and I've seen them except Jesus Christ. Their lips twitching with pain. They made the decision. People say that's a deathbed religion. Sometimes people do claim that they're deathbed. that accepted the Lord. It turned out later that they didn't get saved. Many people have made promises, Lord, if you raise me up or you do this and do that and do the other thing, I'll become a Christian.
Some say, yeah, I agree to that. Later on it proved false. But in this case, It was a wonderful conversion. I wonder, friend, if you want this morning to come to know this same Savior, He saved others. He cannot save. This dying thief got saved, and others saw it. Saved. Born again. I wonder if you've seen others saved, and you're not saved yet. Because the other thief, the poor fellow, he ridiculed Christ.
He ridiculed the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, if you be the Christ, come down from the cross and save thyself and save us. That was the unconverted thief. He wanted Christ to save himself and save him. Put away the cross. He didn't want the cross. There are people today who don't want the cross. Lord, take care of me. I want it with a heaven. And they brush aside the cross. That's what the unconverted thief wants to do. From down to that cross.
Don't bother it. Just do save yourself. Save your own life and save mine. leaving out the cross. No friend, if you leave out the cross, you leave out the very hub of Christianity. And so you see this poor thief who was unconverted. Silent, this unconverted thief also heard the seven cries of the cross. This unconverted thief, he saw the change in his companion in crime. He saw him trust the Savior. He heard the Savior Thomas this unconverted thief that today he'd be with me in paradise.
That unconverted thief with all that he had witnessed that day. Eventually he slipped from the side of Christ and a converted companion and went straight down to hell. I don't know how close the fingers of the Lord Jesus, where, to the outstretched fingers of that feet. We don't have any biblical indication of the distance. It might have been only a few inches. It might have been a foot or two. There's the hand of Christ stretched out to both feet.
One got saved, the other didn't. And to think of that unconverted thief from what his memory must be in eternity, that he saw his wicked companion accept Christ and go to paradise. He himself rejected Christ and slipped from the very side of the Savior down into a lost eternity. Hell from beneath will be moved to meet the upright coming. That's what the Bible says. And that's what will happen to those of you who are slipping so near to Christ, so close, and yet miss it.
That's what happened to this thief. How sad the story is when you think, oh, one thief being saved and the other thief being lost. Two shall be in a field, the Lord says when he speaks. and the cabot is coming, two shall be in the bed. One shall be taken, the other left. Two shall be grinding at the mill. One shall be taken, the other shall be left. Two farmers in the field, one shall be taken, the other left. There you have family life, factory life, farming life.
One saved, the other is gone. One saved goes to heaven, the other lost and goes to hell. The Bible is full of divided families. Some going to heaven and some going to hell. In the connection with wicked Manasseh, his grandson was a godly man, Josiah. And yet here, friend, and even David had... A divided family, Absalom was lost. Absalom was lost. David went to glory. Even Aaron, the high priest, had two wicked sons that God cut down.
And the others were saved. How sad and tragic it is to see families with some saved and some still lost. There's nothing like seeing a family in all of Christ. All have received it. What a family fellowship it is when all are saved. I know my own family. My other sister, Jessie, died in the flu of nineteen eighteen. Was saved. Olive, the next one, also was saved. Doris, saved.
May, saved. My brother, Reggie. saved. I have an adopted brother. He was adopted by my parents at the age of six, six months, and he's not saved yet. And he's just like a brother to me. He looks to me as his brother, not saved. Tragic thing in there. What about your family? And so we have the picture of this dying thief. The one died and went to hell. The other died and went to heaven, went to paradise. There's an epitaph up in Toomsboro, Georgia.
I had the little piece of paper I was looking at last night. And this is what's on a tombstone up there. It says, remember, friends, when passing by, as you are now, so once was I. As I am now, so you must be. Prepare for death and follow me. Someone, heavenly a Christian, scribbled this underneath that. This is what he said. To follow you, I'll not consent until I know which way you went.
And then the question is, which way are you going? Choice is yours. It's up to you to make the dishes. Two thieves, same opportunity, same privilege. One died, a wint of glory. Today, shalt thou be with me in paradise. The other went to hell. The strong statement, we have no other evidence but that he went to hell. What are you going to do with Jesus? What will your answer be?
Someday you will be asking, what will he do with me? Now let us summarize what I've said about these two thieves. That morning two thieves awoke. And that morning they were both guilty. At noon one entered into grace, another one still in his guilt. At sunset one thief went to heaven. The other thief is experienced with the gnashing of teeth forever.
In the morning, guilt for the one thief, grace and glory. For the other, in the morning, guilt at noon, grief, at night, glory, no hell. What a difference between two men. I trust you will think and ponder on these things, for your eternal destiny depends upon the decision you make about the Lord Jesus on the cross. He says to you, like it will say to the dying thief, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
And the Lord responded immediately, Today, thou shalt be with me in paradise. And at the end of that one day, a lot happened. And when the Lord Jesus went to paradise, he had a companion, our friend the thief. I wonder where you were. Is the decision you must make? life or death, heaven or hell, hell. It all depends on what you'll do with a man on the middle cross.
One man died in sin. He died without hope. Yes, the other one died and he was saved and going to heaven. One died without hope, the other died with glory bound, all because the man on the little died for the ungodly. So you see where you are. Three crosses picture you. Are you the one that saved and going to heaven? Are you on the other cross going to heaven?
all because you reject the man on the middle cross. Why did they put him in the middle, likely to imply he's the worst of the three, in the greatest criminal of the three? If they did, that one they degraded is now at God's right hand, glorified. wonderful to know you're saved on the way to heaven. May you make your decision today, make a now. Our Father, we commit to thy presence, may hast thy blessing upon thy holy words. We thank thee for it.
We thank thee for this one thief who made the decision of turning his back on his criminal friend and receiving The Lord Jesus our Savior. What a glorious day that was. We think, Father, of the other day. so close, so near, and yet so far away in hell today. May no one make that awful decision. May they open their heart today and receive Christ Jesus as Lord. We ask it in His precious name.
Amen. Shall we sing in closing, Jesus I come. Three hundred and seventy-six. Three hundred and seventy-six. Out to my bonded sorrow and light, Jesus I come, Jesus I come. Into thy freedom, gladness and light, Jesus, I come to thee. Out of my sickness, into thy health, out of my want, into thy wealth, out of my sin,