We're going to look at the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 23, please. The Gospel of Luke, Chapter 23, Luke 23. And verse 32 is where we're going to begin reading. Luke 23, verse 32. And there were also two others, malefactors, led with him to be put to death. And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary, there they crucified him. And the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left. Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment and cast lots. And the people stood beholding, and the rulers also with them derided him, saying, he saved others, let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God. And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar. and saying, if thou be the King of the Jews, save thyself. And a superscription also was written over him in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew. This is the King of the Jews. And one of the male factors, which were hanged, railed on him saying, if thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, 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. Lord, we ask for your help today and your blessing. God, I ask for your forgiveness. God, I pray that you'll cleanse me and wash me in your blood. May the Holy Spirit have his way in this service. God, do what man can't do. And Lord, you just have your way. God, help us to be what you'd have us to be. Again, I thank you for every blessing of life. I thank you for this beautiful Lord's day you've given us and for every person that's here. I thank you for the blood of Jesus Christ and all the blessings, the spiritual blessings, God, you've given to us. Now just have your way in this service. We ask it in Jesus' name and amen. I'd like to preach on the subject, the believing thief, the believing thief. Isaiah 53, 12 says, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bared the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors. And today, as we look at this, you need to understand that Jesus Christ being crucified between two thieves was a fulfillment of prophecy. Matthew Henry, in his commentary, said he was crucified in the midst between two thieves, as if he had been of the worst of the three. He was not only treated as a transgressor, but numbered with them, the worst of them. There are many great lessons here in this message. J.C. Rowell said that the believing thief was Christ's greatest trophy. Christ's greatest trophy. The dying thief, the dying thief is a monument to God's mercy and grace. A whole series of sermons could be preached on the text I read to you this morning. And I'm just gonna try to skim over it. Matter of fact, I've got 10 points. Won't that be something? 10 points. And I'm not gonna try to keep you. There's some great lessons here, and I'm just gonna hit the high spots today, God being my helper. I wanna say, number one, this is not one of the points, but I wanna say to begin, there's no accidents in a world governed by God. Let me say that again. There is no accidents in a world governed by God. And this is especially true on the day of the Lord's crucifixion. I believe God ordained the man who forged the nails. I believe God ordained the man who swung the hammer. I believe that when the sapling sprung up underneath the leaves, God pointed down and said, that's gonna be the tree. God was presiding over the whole event. He decreed it, the Bible says, from all eternity. It was foreordained before the foundation of the world. Concerning that day, as one commentator pointed out, there was not one in the crowd who said, behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world. But that is exactly what was happening. But I want to tell you today the believing thief found out. So number one, we see the effects of the preaching of the cross. We see the effects of the preaching of the cross. The cross of Christ, the cross of Jesus Christ is to some a saver of life unto life, but to some it's a saver of death unto death. When you preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified, it divides people. To them that perish the gospel is foolishness, but to those of us which are saved, it is the wisdom of God and the power of God. To some, He's a precious cornerstone, but to some, He's a stumbling stone. I'm just telling you today, the effects of the cross of the Christ On one hand was a man hanging beside of Jesus Christ who died without Christ. On the other hand was a man who received Jesus Christ as Savior. I'm telling you today, when a person hears the gospel of Jesus Christ, it divides people. You're either for Him or against Him. There is an effect. Listen, when you say, well, I'm not going to, I'm thinking about it, but I'm not going to, I'm not going to receive Jesus Christ as my savior today. You've basically said no. You've said no. So we see the effect. the dying thief, we see the effect of the preaching of the gospel and of the cross of Jesus Christ. Secondly, we see Christ is mighty to save. We see Christ is mighty to save. I'm here to report to you today that our Savior is mighty to save. And not only that, he's willing to save. And when he looked the most weak, Think about that. Here's our Savior nailed to the cross. When He looked the most weak, He was the most strong. When we look at this dying thief this morning, we look at a man and we can say there is no one who is without hope who will turn to Jesus Christ. Listen. There's people that get their self in such a shape, their life is a wreck, and they think there's no way God will save me. I'm telling you today, God can save you. He is able to save, as Paul said, the chief of sinners. So we see, secondly, The power, we see his power to save. Thirdly, we see a deathbed conversion. A deathbed conversion. One of the Puritans said this, the Bible records but one instance of a deathbed conversion. One that none may despair and one that no one may presume. In other words, today, if you're not a Christian, don't think, well, I'll get saved before I die. You may not have the opportunity to trust Christ before you die. The deathbed is not always the saving time. J.C. Rouse said these verses, the verses that I read to you this morning, tell me above all that repentance and faith are gifts of God and not in man's own power. And that if anyone flatters himself that he can repent at his own time, choose his own season, seek the Lord when he pleases, and like the penitent thief be saved at the very last, he may find at length he's greatly deceived. The Bible says, and I think it's true of men's lives, the place where the tree falleth, that shall it be. There shall it be. Don't put off coming to Jesus Christ. Fourthly, we see that a man has to come to the end of himself. A person, be it a man or a woman, a boy or a girl, has to understand that they're helpless and hopeless and they're deserving. This thief on the cross saw that. He saw he was helpless, hopeless, and deserving. The Holy Spirit drives people by conviction to despair. In other words, if you think I'm all right, I don't need Christ, you're not ready to be saved. If you think I'm a good person, I don't need to be a Christian, I don't need to be saved, you're not ready to be saved. God has to show you that you're a sinner. Let me say it more strongly. God not only has to get you to admit you're a sinner, you have to feel you're a sinner. Just about anybody, I can go up and down this road either way and knock on people's door and say, do you know you're a sinner? And they'll say yes. But they don't know they're a sinner good enough to come to Christ. I can get them to nod their head up and down, do you know you're a sinner? Oh yeah. But they haven't felt the guilt and the conviction that only comes through the Holy Spirit. I want to ask you today, have you seen yourself as helpless, hopeless, and deserving? We deserve hell. Number five, we see great grace. We see great grace. This thief was a wicked man. Some people think that he was probably a murderer. That's why he was on the cross. He was not only a thief, he was a murderous thief. This thief had lived a transgressor's life, and now he was dying a transgressor's death. We see in his conversion, and it was a conversion, we see in his conversion grace alone. We see in his conversion, Listen, the Bible says we are not saved according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Think about this. Here's a man. He's got both of his hands nailed to a cross. He's got a spike driven through both of his feet. What could he do? He couldn't work. He couldn't go. He couldn't do anything. But look, he could do nothing. People think, you know, you talk to people about their soul and they'll say, yeah, you're right, I need to go to church. Well, going to church won't necessarily save you. Some people think, well, I've been out of church. I need to get back and rededicate. Rededicating won't necessarily help you. I'm telling you, you need to see yourself as this thief, helpless, hopeless, and deserving. There's nothing you can do. The old hymn says, doing is a deadly thing. Doing ends in death. His conversion shouts, this thief's conversion shouts to the heavens, not of works. Not of works. What work could this dying thief do? As one writer said, he couldn't raise his hand. He couldn't walk an aisle. He couldn't call a counselor. He couldn't be baptized or join the church. He couldn't pay a tithe. He couldn't do any good work. He was hopeless, helpless, desperate, and dying. But he could do one thing. He could look. Look unto me all the ends of the earth. He could look to Jesus Christ. Number six, we see the meaning of repentance and faith. This man, as little time as they had there, this man actually repented and his life was changed. Even in the very short time that he lived, we see his repentance. He goes from railing on Christ to rebuking his fellow thief. Look at verse 39. The Bible says, and one of the male factors which were hanged reared on him, saying, if thou be the Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, dost thou not fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds. But this man hath done nothing amiss. He goes from reviling Christ to reverencing Christ. He goes, we see this gift of faith. Now, I want you to think about this with me a minute. Faith is a miracle. I've heard people give an illustration. Well, they'll take a folding chair and they say, well, I've got faith in that chair and it'll hold me up. You ever see anybody do that? That's great, that's fine, but that has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. You understand what I'm saying here in just a second. I'm trying not to get excited because I got this camera on me and I don't want to get out of the, I'd like to run the aisle sometimes. This faith, imagine with me if you will, you're strung up on a cross. There's a man in the middle, he's strung up on a cross. Could you imagine, in your wildest dreams, looking at that man and saying, Lord, remember me. Here sits a man, he's beaten beyond recognition, the Bible says. He's forsaken by most of his followers. He's ridiculed by the religious leaders. He's condemned by the world. And this man looks over at him the best he can and says, Lord, do you not understand that's not normal? You know what he said? He said, he looked at Christ and said, I believe you're a king. He looked at a man with blood running down his face and spittle and blood running out of his hands and feet and he said, I believe you're a king and you've got a kingdom. Remember me when you come to your kingdom. Is that not beyond? Do you not understand that's beyond anything you can comprehend? Do you not understand that's beyond belief? Do you not understand that's bigger than anything you've ever heard? I'm gonna tell you that's the most absurd thing you've ever heard in your life. But it happened. You gonna tell me that salvation's not revelation? You tell me that faith's not God-given? Number seven, we see that Jesus is able to save any sinner. Jesus is able to save any sinner. Our Lord is mighty to save. The Bible says that he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. As the old preachers used to say, he's able to save from the guttermost to the uttermost. There's none too bad about that. You ever look at somebody, maybe a family member, maybe a friend, maybe somebody, an acquaintance, somebody you went to school with, and you look at them and you say, my goodness, I don't see any hope for those people. Maybe they're hooked on drugs or maybe they're hooked on alcohol. And you look at him and you say, I don't see any hope. I'm telling you there's hope for those people. He's able to save. As the hymn writer said, the dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day. And there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away. Number eight, we see great assurance. For that man to say, I believe you're a king. Think about it. I believe you're a king. And Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. That is amazing. But what I'm getting ready to tell you now is almost just as amazing. That thief had more assurance of his salvation than anybody you know. That thief had more assurances of salvation than anybody you've ever read about. Look at verse 42. 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. Today shalt thou be with. There's nobody that's ever lived on this planet that had that assurance. Now, I've got assurance, but I don't have that kind of assurance. I want you to notice what he said. He said, remember me. Here's a man that the government was getting rid of. They wanted to forget him. Here's a man that had shamed his family, and they probably wanted to get rid of him. They was probably glad to see him go. But no one in the Bible, and no one since, has ever had the assurance that this man had. Verily, that means truly, verily, I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. That's a wonderful thing, isn't it? That's an amazing thing. I can't imagine. I can't imagine what this thief felt when he was told that. Number nine, we see that when a believer dies, he goes straight to glory. When a believer dies, he goes straight to glory. I don't know if anybody here believes this or not, but there's some folks around here believe in soul sleep. Well, that's not biblical. There is no purgatory. Purgatory, you know what? Purgatory is a Roman Catholic doctrine. They say when you die, you go to purgatory. And if your relatives give enough money, you might get out. That's not in the Bible. Amen. There is no purgatory. When you die, you either go to heaven or you go to hell. There is no purgatory. There is no soul sleep. Jesus said, today, today, shalt thou be with me in paradise. The apostle said, to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. Number 10, we see there's only one gospel. There's only one gospel. You know a lot of folks would look at that man. I'm sure the crowd would look, think about this, that crowd that was gathered around mocking Jesus, all those soldiers, all those religious people, those religious people are probably in hell this morning by the way. All those religious people looked at that thief and said he's getting just what he deserves and I'm glad. Little did they know, Jesus Christ saved his soul. Christ came into this world to save sinners. Christ came into this world to save sinners. I'm glad about that, aren't you? The salvation of the dying thief demonstrates that the Lord is willing and able to save all that come to him. If Christ received this dying thief, then there's no one can despair. As far as the world was concerned, this crucified Christ was finished. He was at his weakest point. When he was hanging on the cross, he was conquering death, hell, and the grave. and it's almost like this. It's almost like Jesus said, I'm dying for the sins of the world, and here, let me reach out and grab this guy. Do y'all understand that? It's almost like the devil said, I've got you, and Jesus said, here, watch this. Do you understand what a marvelous thing it is, what a wonderful thing it is? The dying thief. I want to ask you, has He saved you? Have you looked to Christ? Are you looking to Him now? I wanna remind you in closing, there was two thieves that day. One died and went to paradise, the other one died and went to hell. If you reject Christ, there's no hope outside of this life, folks. That's why the Bible says give diligence to give your calling and election, make your calling and election sure. Make sure you're a Christian. I don't know how to do it. I'd like to do it. I'd like to have the faith of that dying thief. I'm like the man who said, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. What a trophy of God's grace, that dying thief.