to the glory of God. It's fascinating to me that Dr. Luke, the very highly trained, highly educated medical doctor, uses only four words to describe the death of Jesus Christ. In Luke 23, verse 33, Luke wrote, There they crucified Him. That's it. No mention of what the crucifixion did. No mention of how it affected Jesus' heart and body. No mention of any physical effects of the crucifixion at all other than that Jesus died. Just four words. And people throughout the ages have marveled at Luke's understatement of what has to be the single most amazing moment in history. The moment when human beings murdered God. especially seeing as how Luke was trained as a medical doctor and understood human anatomy. But I think one glaring reason for this understatement was because crucifixion was still ongoing at the time that Luke wrote this Gospel record. In fact, there were at least 30,000 recorded crucifixions during the Roman occupation of Israel. And that is before 70 A.D. So to the Romans, the crucifixion of Jesus was not a big deal at that time. It was just one of 30,000 public executions of people ranging from anarchists to thieves to murderers to political terrorists. Now I don't think that we have to necessarily copy Luke here. I think we are free to try to understand all that happened to Jesus as He hung on the cross. As long as we understand that aside from the violence and the brutality that went along with this crucifixion, What God was doing with Jesus in the judicial damning of all of the sins of all of God's elect is what ushered in the glorious salvation of unworthy sinners by the grace of God alone, through faith alone, and not by them carrying out religious activities or by the keeping of sacraments or in putting forth efforts to obtain some form of morality. As long as you understand that, then I think we can examine the crucifixion of Jesus. But we have to understand, dear friends, that the purpose and reason behind all that God does is so that He alone will be glorified. So God does all that He does for His own glory. So nothing means more to God than that He is known and loved and valued and adored and treasured and celebrated above all that is made. So the glory of God is the highest and the best of all goals. There is no more important, there is no more valuable, no more noble goal than anyone could have as to why they do something other than to bring God glory. And if you want to examine this in the reality of our daily lives, you need to consider what it means to eat oatmeal in the morning to the glory of God. I'm serious. that whether we eat or drink, that we do all to the glory of God. So how do you do that? How is that on a practical level? How do you mow the grass to the glory of God? I work in a manufacturing plant, say, and I'm producing cardboard boxes. How do I do that to the glory of God? I'm going to clean my house today. I'm going to get my children dressed so that they can go with me to the store. How do I do that to the glory of God? I would suggest that until we understand how important the glory of God is to God, we won't even be talking about it. And when we begin to talk about it, and we begin to ponder it, and we begin to think about it, we begin to meditate on it, we begin to discuss it with one another, I think then we will see the value of the glory of God more than we ever had before. It's not just something you do on Sunday mornings in church. And the very epitome of the glory of God is the glory of His grace. So what magnifies God the most, what gives God the highest degree of glory, what exemplifies the greatness and the value of God the best, is when His grace is seen and marveled at. And nothing displays God's grace better than sinful rebels being so utterly transformed by what God alone does for them at great cost to Himself, the death of His Son, that they truly delight themselves in Him. What kind of miracle does God have to do to cause a wretch like me to delight myself in God? That brings God the most glory. So what does it say if I do not delight myself in Him? That His glory is lacking. That His power is lacking. Because it didn't have the ability to transform me. And that is what salvation does. It so radically changes fallen humans that the commandments of God are no longer burdensome to them. It so completely remakes the sons of Adam that they treasure Jesus Christ above all things, even their own lives. It so comprehensively recreates fallen man that he sees the exaltation of Jesus Christ to be his highest and best and most rewarding and most noble goal. And more than 22 chapters of Luke's story of salvation has brought us to this point with these four little words, there they crucified Him. And I pray that I can do these four words justice. Now, Dr. Luke begins this amazing passage by reminding us that Jesus was not the only one who was being crucified that day. In v. 32, Luke says, two others also who were criminals were being led away to be put to death with him. Now Luke refers to these two men simply as criminals. But in Matthew 27, v. 38, the Apostle Levi says, at that time, two robbers were crucified with him, one on the right and one on the left. So we get more specific. They were guilty of being robbers, guilty of being thieves. Mark says in Mark 15, 27, they crucified two robbers with Him. One on the right and one on His left. And while John says in John 19, verse 18, there they crucified Him, and with Him two other men, one on either side and Jesus in between. So the scene is that there's a robber, a criminal on this side, a robber, a criminal on this side, two men, and Jesus is in the center. So from this we know that these two men had also been scourged in the same manner as Jesus. They too were compelled to carry their own crosses, or at least the cross piece, to the place where they would be crucified with Jesus. Now as I told you earlier, and we can't prove this, but it is very possible that these two men were accomplices of Barabbas. The man who was freed in Jesus' stead. And we know that because political terrorism was never carried out alone according to both Jewish writings and Roman writings. They always had a group. And these men were in prison along with Barabbas, which we know now as Bar-Abbas, the son of Abbas. And Bar-Abbas was let go in Jesus' stead. So these two men could have, we can't prove it, but they may have been accomplices of him. But in any event, these two men were crucified on either side of Jesus, with Jesus being in the middle. Now look at where Dr. Luke says the Romans crucified Jesus. Luke 23.33 says, When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified Him and the criminals on the right and the other on the left. The Apostle John says in John 19, 17, they took Jesus, therefore, and He went out bearing His own cross to the place called the place of the skull, which is called in Hebrew Golgotha. John Mark wrote in Mark 15, 22, then they brought Him to the place Golgotha, which is translated place of a skull. while the apostle Levi wrote in Matthew 27.33 when they came to the place called Golgotha, which means place of a skull. Now today you go over there and there's this building sitting on top of this place and they're supposed to be and I think my history is correct. The emperor Constantine built that edifice on top of the place where supposedly Jesus was crucified but we don't know that's the location that's that the tradition that that's the location. Here's what I'm saying. The name of the place originally came from the Aramaic word God Gupta. and was renamed by the Jews Golgotha, which in Hebrew meant the place of the skull. And when the New Testament Greek was originally translated into Latin by Jerome late in the 4th century, the Latin word for Golgotha was Calvaria. And when the King James translators were working on a modern English translation of the Bible, back in the 17th century, they simply anglicized the Latin word calvaria instead of actually translating it. And in Luke 23-33, in the King James Version, they used the word calvary for the first time. There is no word calvary. that the original writers used. That is an anglicized transliteration of a Latin word. The Hebrew word was Golgotha. Now according to the Apostle John, Golgotha was located near the city. The writer of Hebrews said that Jesus was crucified outside the gate. And Matthew 27, 39 and Mark 15, 29 indicate that this place was located where people who were passing by could see it. And this was indicative of the Roman custom to always crucify people they considered to be the worst people in town in an elevated location where people could see. This is what happens to you when you cross the Romans. So based on all of that, it is very possible that the original location of Golgotha was actually not where it has been traditionally thought to be. Golgotha is probably the area that was mentioned in Jeremiah 31-39 as Goath, when the prophet was describing the area around the city of Jerusalem. Now there are many legends surrounding why Golgotha was called the place of the skull. Some say that it was because of the many skulls from all the crucifixions that took place. Others say that Adam's skull was buried there. That two men, and I'm trying to remember one of them was Jeremiah, got the body of Adam and buried it there along with his skull. And that's a legend that you can't prove it. Still others say it was because the hill itself resembled a skull. But we can't verify any of these legends. But suffice it to say that by the time of Jesus's crucifixion, Golgotha was known as the place where the occupying Romans would exercise capital punishment against the very worst of criminals. And this is where our Lord was killed. Now, this fact makes me think that the vertical piece was permanently fixed into the ground. Because they were running people through there quite a lot, quite often. So instead of having to put the vertical piece in the hole every single time they crucified somebody, they left the vertical piece stationary. Can't prove that either. They did it both ways. Now a lot happened as soon as Jesus reached Golgotha. It was at this time about 9 o'clock on Friday morning. And if Jesus had carried the entire cross, the soldiers would have taken the cross from Simon, who actually carried it for Jesus, and they would have put the cross on the ground. Then they would have laid Jesus on top of the cross and begun the process of fixing His arms and legs to the cross with rope and nails. The Romans would have tied the arms onto the cross piece and slightly bent the arms and then sought to find the place near the base of the thumb or even the wrist where the median nerve would go into the hand. They would then take metal stakes that resembled long, slender spikes, and they would have nailed Jesus' hands to the cross piece with the median nerve under the nails so that when Jesus' body weight would rest on the nail, it would send excruciating pain throughout His arms. But as the nails pierced His flesh, they would have pushed aside the rounded bones of the wrist so that none of Jesus' bones would be shattered by the spike. So none of Jesus' bones were broken, even in His wrists or His hands. Now if the vertical pole was permanently fixed in the ground before he ever got there, several soldiers would take the cross piece, with Jesus nailed and tied to it, and hoist it up to fit onto the vertical pole by using long poles on each side. And once the cross piece was fitted down onto the vertical pole, they would have positioned Jesus' feet and then tied Him to the vertical pole. And like they did with the hands, they would have slightly bent the legs and then nailed Jesus' feet together to the vertical pole. If the entire cross was on the ground, the soldiers would tie and nail Jesus' feet to the vertical pole before raising the entire cross to slide into the hole. And as I was examining this, the reason they let the arms be a little bent and the legs a little bent, if they wanted to kill them quick, they would have made their arms straight. then he couldn't have moved and he would have suffocated in just a few moments. But they wanted these people to suffer. And so they allowed them to agonize on the cross for hours. The recording we've learned last week and week before, there are records that some people lasted up to three days on the cross. And so this was torturous. They did this on purpose to make... We learned also the word excruciating comes from the word excruso, which means pain from the cross. So it had to be... That word had to be invented to describe the agony of being crucified. Now after many crucifixions, the Romans knew that by bending the legs they could magnify the pain of the condemned as he would push up on the single nail in the feet to exhale and then slide back down to hold his own body weight by the nails in the hands to inhale when the pain became too much to bear. So at this point, Jesus, the Lamb of God, is now crucified. The only sinless man who ever lived is now suspended between earth and heaven, and his death is only a few hours away. Now while it is true that we know how God took all of our sins and placed them on Jesus, we don't know exactly when. But we do know that all of our sins were credited to Jesus. So it may be that God placed all of our sins on Jesus at the same time. It is also possible that the longer Jesus hung there, the more sins God heaped on Him. But we must also allow for the possibility that the act of imputation of all the sins of all of God's elect began not on the cross, but when Jesus was being beaten and scourged. This is what the prophet Isaiah said in Isaiah 53, 3-6. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. but He was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and listen to this, and by His scourging we are healed. So there is a spiritual healing that we receive because Jesus was beaten, not just crucified. And that is a hint as to how God was doing this. All of us like sheep have gone astray, each one of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to follow him. Now many people in the modern church scoff at the notion of the doctrine of original sin. They say it is ridiculous and even unrighteous to assume that a good and loving God would ruin all generations of people by tainting them with the stain of Adam's sin. And as we've already studied, one of the most important times and decisive battles in church history occurred late in the 4th and early in the 5th century when a British monk by the name of Pelagius attacked the concept of original sin. And the heresy that this man brought forth that taught that man is basically good and has not been ruined by the fall was originally called Pelagianism. And later this false teaching morphed into what is called today secular humanism. Pelagianism taught that Adam was the only one affected by his sin and that all babies after Adam are born tabula rasa or with a clean tablet or a clean sheet. You've heard this expression in your life that he's got a clean sheet. That phrase came from this church battle 1,600-1,700 years ago. And it means that the baby that is born does not have the taint of original sin on him. That's the heresy teaches that. It is from the unbiblical concept of secular humanism that we get statements like this. Well, he's a good man even though he may have done bad things. You ever heard that? Or how about this one? Deep down all men are basically good. Those statements came from this battle sixteen, seventeen hundred years ago. The bad guy said this. The guy that wore the black hat said all men are born basically good. And this guy may have done some bad things, but he's basically a good person. The heresy teaches that. The Bible, however, teaches that deep down all mankind are basically evil because they have all been radically ruined by the fall. The Bible goes on to teach that original sin is passed from one generation to the next through the seed of the Father through a process called imputation. Now, you say, golly, Brother Blair, there you go again with all this deep $3 words and theological nonsense. I just want to be very simple and down to earth. Okay, the reason that the government wants to raise your taxes, everybody understand that? Is because there's bad people out there that need to be fixed. Alright, now we're getting real practical. And sociology, which is the science of societies, teaches that all men are basically good. And that it is their external environment, their lack of money, their lack of education, and their lack of opportunity that creates poverty, which creates crime. So if we can address the external things that we find in bad neighborhoods, and let them play midnight basketball, or give them after school programs, or give them things like that, bad people will become good people. because there's nothing internally wrong with people according to the sociologists of our day. And the United States federal government and your state of Mississippi and your state of Louisiana has bought into that and they're raising your taxes to pay for this nonsense. The Bible says that's not true. The Bible says out of the mouth comes all things because what comes out of the mouth comes out of the heart. And so what's wrong with people is not external, as the sociologists and the psychiatrists and the psychologists teach. What is wrong with people is internal in their corrupt nature and their fallen soul. And so the fix, according to the sociologists, is that we tap into the goodness that is within us, reach down deep inside you. Ever heard that? And build up your self-esteem Huh? Getting real practical. It's a lie. It's a heresy. It doesn't work. And their failure at making it work doesn't stop them from raising your taxes. The Bible says what's wrong with you is internal, and the only hope you have is external to yourself in the Bible, on the cross, and in heaven. And so you fix bad people through salvation in Jesus Christ. Alright. Now we've got practical. So, theological $3 words are very down to earth. Huh? Okay. So, your Father imparted the fallenness of your soul through His seed to you. and you're conceived in your mother's womb bad. Boy, am I going to get in trouble with this. You are a God-hater by nature. You seek to do two things. You want to sin and you want to elevate yourself. Huh? And all technological advancements like the internet and computers and automobiles and spaceships are designed to elevate sin and elevate self. As soon as the Berlin Wall fell, Yippee-ki-yay, we broke down the wall. There was the first industry that moved into East Berlin that was not allowed under communism. Pornography. Now they're free to lust. You've come a long way, baby. So we are fallen by nature, not by what we do. We do bad things because we're already fallen in our nature. This is the doctrine of original sin. This is why we need to know this. So, the doctrine of original sin is broken down into two parts. Number one, all children born after Adam had the very same fallen sin nature that Adam had after the fall. Everybody that believes in original sin believes this part. The effect of this truth is as soon as children reach an age where they are able to rebel and sin, they will. If you've ever had children, You can testify, amen, to this. Because you're spending all your time telling them to be good. Telling them to mind. Telling them to obey. Telling them to be sweet. And they're looking you in the face and they're saying... And then as soon as you turn your back, they're in the back room burning the house down. Okay. I'm going to be a fireman when I grow up. Don't disrupt his psyche. Right. So you have to have board meetings, and you have to have discipline, and you have to have, you know what I'm saying? Everybody knows what I'm talking about. And so it's always interesting to me, the next generation is always smarter than we were. And so my oldest son had a child, and he said, I'm not going to raise her like you raised me. I said, OK. He said, we're just going to talk to her. Go for it, Calhoun. My daughter-in-law calls my wife. She says, help! My little girl rebels to my face. And I call my son. I said, you wear suspenders? No, I wear a belt. I said, use it. Until a child is old enough to understand responsibility, the only thing they can understand is pain. And so you inflict pain in the area that God created that's padded, And when you inflict pressure on the gluteus maximus, the cerebral cortex gets a vision from God and they'll be fixed until the next episode. There I go with $3 words again. And if you're a mother, Mother's Day, you do this on every syllable. If you notice that, dads don't do that. Mamas do that. I told you never to do that again. And if you did, I would weep you to an inch of your life. Dad just knocked me across the room. It was over with. Help me, Jesus. And my dad was God and my dad was the law. My mama was grace until she got mad. And my dad was my hero. And he never gave me an inch. He looked at me and said, I know what you're thinking. How does he know? Because I was! I was thinking it! I used to be you. It's in you. Original sin. That's the nature of Adam. Okay. And so all humans are born fallen. They are conceived in sin, shaped in iniquity in their mother's womb. So human beings are not sinners because they sin. They sin because they are already sinners in their nature. But here's the second part that hardly anybody ever talks about. All children conceived after Adam are personally guilty of the sin of Adam. This is also called the federal headship doctrine, where Adam was the federal head of the entire human race, and because we were in his loins, when he sinned, we sinned. It is this personal guilt that allows for people to die. That's why you die. Not just because you sinned, but you did sin, but because of Adam's sin. 1 Corinthians 15.22 says, For as in Adam, all So as also in Christ all shall be made alive. Now how come it doesn't say Adam and Eve? Because Adam's sin was infinitely worse than Eve's. Eve was deceived, Adam was not. Adam went into this with his eyes wide open. He wanted out of the garden. You can imagine that. Esau wanted out of the family. Lucifer wanted out of heaven. So the imputation of original sin onto every human being born after the fall is the first occasion of the doctrine of imputation. Now, many people think that the imputation of original sin onto the sons and daughters of Adam is patently unfair. They reason that each person should pay for their own sin and not be considered guilty for the sin of Adam. Well, so did Pelagius. Secular humanism teaches that Adam should pay for his sins. We should pay for ours because that's fair. Now aside from the fact that this is exactly the reasoning of the heretic Pelagius, the people who complain so easily at the first example of imputation are strangely quiet when we begin to examine the other two cases where the doctrine of imputation exists. The second occurrence of imputation occurred right here with Jesus on the cross. When God the Father took all of the sins of all of God's elect and placed them on Jesus through the process called imputation. So in the first case of imputation, we are credited with the sin of Adam, and in this case, Jesus is credited with our sins. Now Jesus did not personally become sinful when this happened. No, the imputation of our sins on Jesus was in a legal sense, or a spiritual sense, not in a real sense. So in a real sense, Jesus remained perfectly sinless on the cross. But in a legal or spiritual sense, Jesus became pure sin because God credited Jesus with our sins. So in reality, Jesus remained perfectly sinless, but legally or spiritually, Jesus became sin on our behalf. And the Apostle Paul verified this second imputation by saying this, He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. The third occurrence of imputation comes immediately after we repent, believe the Gospel, and put our faith and trust in Jesus personally, and in His finished work for forgiveness. At that very moment, God takes the spotless righteousness that Jesus earned while living on this earth for thirty-three and a half years and never sinning, and God imputes, or He credits, that righteousness to us. Now God doesn't do this third act of imputation as a result of us partaking of the sacraments, as some teach. But He credits the righteousness of Jesus to us by the agency of faith alone. Now here's one of the demarcation lines between whether you're a Protestant or a Catholic. If you're a Roman Catholic, you do not believe that the imputation of righteousness is by faith alone. You believe it is through partaking of the sacrament. It's called sacerdotal righteousness. But the Protestant Reformers taught it is by faith alone, which is why we've got that little Latin phrase on that sign back there, sola fide. I want you to read with me Romans 4, verses 1-5, and forget Protestant or Catholic. Hear the Word of the Lord. What then shall we say that Abraham our forefather according to the flesh is found? For if Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God. If God saved you because you made a decision, not only are you able to take credit for it, you are entitled to the credit for it. The glory. That means God is a thief for wanting all the glory for your salvation when in fact you did something to earn it. So you are entitled to the glory for your own salvation if you earned it by your works. That's what he said here. For if Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the Scripture say? Abraham believed God and it, his belief, was credited to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wage is not credited as a favor, but as to what is due. Stay there a moment. Stay with verse 4 for a minute. You go to work for somebody on Monday morning. He's the boss, you're the slave. He tells you what, he tells you how, he tells you for a wage that you agreed upon. Friday afternoon, he's the slave and you're the boss. He now owes you payment. When He pays you, that's not grace. When He pays you, that's not mercy. When He pays you, it's a wage that is owed. We are not saved by what is owed. We are saved by grace. Meaning you're not entitled to it. You didn't work to labor for it. Hallelujah. Go to verse 5 with me. But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, He has... What? Faith is credited as what? Righteousness! Not forgiveness. Righteousness! So at the very moment we trust and believe in Jesus for forgiveness, we are declared to be righteous by none other than God the Father. And it is this righteousness that makes us fit for all the glories of heaven. Because as far as God is concerned, we are now just as righteous as God Himself is righteous, even though on a personal and real level, we are still sinners. And the reformers of the 16th century had a phrase in Latin that they used to illustrate that born again and justified sinners are made righteous. by faith alone and not through the sacraments. And that phrase is sola fide. So in a real sense, we are still sinful, frail, and weak humans. But in a legal or spiritual sense, this third act of imputation makes us the very righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. So, as saved sinners, we actually hold a dual status with God. We are personally sinful, but we are also at the same time legally righteous. Jesus was just the opposite on the cross. He was personally righteous, but legally sinful. And the phrase that the Reformers used to denote that dual status was simul justus et peccator, which is Latin for simultaneously just or righteous and sinful. Now we have to realize that God taking all of our sins and imputing or crediting them on Jesus and God imputing the very spotless righteousness of Jesus onto us at the moment of justification is not any more fair than God imputing the original sin of Adam onto us. And so if God is wrong to credit us with Adam's nature and guilt, then God would be equally wrong to credit Jesus with all of our sins and to credit us with Jesus' righteousness. And that would mean we are doomed and without any hope at all of going to heaven. So be careful when judging the correctness of a biblical truth by how fair it appears to be on a human level. So even though the Romans carried out about 30,000 crucifixions during their domination of the land of Israel, this crucifixion was unique. Because the crucifixion of Jesus by the Romans was not what it appeared to be. To them, Jesus hanging on the cross was just another condemned man being executed. But this crucifixion was actually the fulfillment of God's original plan that He had before He ever made the world. To magnify the glory of His grace by saving unworthy sinners by what He alone does for them. The crucifixion of Jesus was not simply the execution of a condemned Jew by the Romans. The crucifixion was not merely the result of a kangaroo court. This was not the result of trumped up charges by a sinful and hypocritical religious body. This was not the result of a weak and vacillating Roman governor. This crucifixion was God the Father judging and damning all of the sins of all of God's elect. That's why you get to go to heaven. Your sins were judged and they were damned forever by God. This crucifixion was God pouring out the full fury of His wrath against those sins as they were put on Jesus. The crucifixion of Jesus on this particular Friday was the culmination of hundreds of Old Testament prophecies. This crucifixion was the sovereign adjudication of the righteousness of God that suffered insult because of our sins. This crucifixion was the act of divine justice against God's own Son so that God's mercy could flow to unworthy rebels. This crucifixion was God the Son taking the place of every single one of God's elect and assuming the role of propitiation, appeasing the wrath of God against all of their sins. So we must understand that the crucifixion of Jesus was not providing people with an offer of salvation if they would simply choose to take God up on His offer as so many teach. Now this was the premeditated sacrifice of a spotless lamb that would forever secure the salvation of all of those chosen by God for salvation. The crucifixion of Jesus on that spring day just outside Jerusalem brought to an end the sacrifice of millions of animals. From this moment on, whoever offers an animal as a sacrifice to God commits an abomination. This is the act that sealed the end of the first covenant. Jesus nailed to a tree, screaming in agony, forever ended the need for a Levitical priesthood. It transformed an inferior and temporary covenant that was based in types and shadows and symbols and that had an earthly sanctuary into an infinitely superior and everlasting covenant based in spirit and truth and that has a heavenly sanctuary. This crucifixion was the display of God's righteousness. And there's not five people outside this church on this coast that understands that statement. When you ask people what that was, they'll say that was an example of God's love. And it was. They'll say that's an example of God's mercy. And it was. That was an example of God's grace. And it was. But that was an example of God's righteousness. And they don't understand that. And if you don't understand that, you don't understand who God is. This crucifixion was the exaltation of the glory of God's grace. This bloody and violent and terrible crucifixion was the highest and the best and the most vivid manifestation of the love of God that the world has ever seen. And at that very same time, the crucifixion of Jesus is the single most evil sin that human beings have ever committed since the Garden. And so the crucifixion is both the highest expression of the sovereignty of God, while displaying the lowest expression of the wickedness of man. And this is why we stand silent before it. It is why we put our hands over our mouths. It is why all foolishness leaves and why we are broken before it. We must understand that the Jews did not kill Jesus. We must believe that the Romans did not kill Jesus. We must understand that God killed Jesus. Jesus Himself said in John 10, 17 and 18, For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it from Me. But I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father. So on this cross, on this day, God slays the very best of heaven. God kills the express image of Himself. God takes the life of the darling of the Trinity. Now immediately on being fixed to the cross, indescribable pain shot through Jesus' body. Excruciating agony ripped through His arms and feet up to His brain. And there is no doubt in my mind that Jesus groaned in pain as He hung there. Remember, Jesus has been awake since Thursday morning. And He has endured many hours of interrogation and beatings by many different people. His innocence has been attacked. His character maligned. His sinlessness cast aside. He has been lied about and falsely accused. He has been slapped around and spit on. He has been beaten by none other than Pilate himself. And Jesus has been scourged to within an inch of His life. In absolute humiliation, Jesus has been stripped naked and made to carry His own cross. And as He stumbles through the streets of the city that David once called the habitation of peace, the crowds who once called His name laugh at Him. They throw rocks and food at Him. The people that Jesus fed and healed and delivered from demons now mock Him. Their faces lined with hate and disgust. Some who honestly thought that Jesus was the military leader they were looking for, that would once for all rid them of their Roman tormentors, now were ashamed to see the man whom they held in such high esteem beaten and bloodied and defeated. 600 years earlier, Isaiah told us they would do this when he said, He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And like one from whom men hide their face, He was despised and we did not esteem Him. As the disciples look at their Messiah hanging on the cross, so helpless, so weak, so defeated, the main emotion they had was embarrassment and shame. Here was the man they had left everything for, beaten, and at the mercy of the despised Romans, hanging on a cross just hours from death. They did not have a clue at this point what was going on. They did not know anything about what Jesus meant by what He taught until the Holy Spirit came upon them in the upper room. at the ascension of Jesus, after they saw and touched and talked with Jesus, after He rose from the dead, they went to Him and said, Are you now going to restore the Kingdom to Israel? They were still looking for a military Messiah who would vanquish the Roman army. They didn't have a clue what Jesus was doing. And after they came down from the upper room, they never wavered again. They were strong. They never backed up an inch. They were powerful men and they changed the world. They had to be unbelievably confused and afraid. Jesus is now struggling to breathe. He is constantly pushing up on the single nail that pierced his feet in order to exhale. And as the pain becomes too unbearable, he sinks back down with his full body weight supported by the arms. But then, the searing anguish from the nails against the median nerve caused Jesus to repeat the process. over and over, pushing up, sagging back down. Each time his weakened body has a harder time just to breathe. And there is now no end to the pain. No relief but death. It was during this time that unbelievable verbal abuse and insult was thrown at Jesus. The Apostle Levi wrote, and those passing by were hurling abuse at him, wagging their heads and saying, you who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself. If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross. In the same way, the chief priests also, along with the scribes and elders, were mocking Him and saying, He saved others. He cannot save Himself. He is the King of Israel. Let Him now come down from the cross and we will believe in Him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue Him now, if He delights in Him. For He said, I am the Son of God. The robbers who had been crucified with Him were also insulting Him with the same words. John Mark wrote, those passing by were hurling abuse at Him, wagging their heads and saying, Ha! You who are going to destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! Come down from the cross! In the same way, the chief priests also, along with the scribes, were mocking Him among themselves, saying, He saved others. He cannot save Himself. Let this Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see and believe. Those who were crucified with Him were also insulting Him. Now, if they did this to me and you, it wouldn't be a big deal, because we can't come off the cross. Jesus could have come off the cross. Jesus could have ended this right now. And He heard them, and He looked at them as they were wagging their heads at Him, insulting Him. And He never mentioned anything to them except, Father, forgive them. Luke 23 says, And the people stood by looking on, and even the rulers were sneering at him, saying, He saved others, let him save himself. If this is the Christ of God, his Chosen One, the soldiers also mocked him, coming up to him and offering him sour wine and saying, If you are the King of the Jews, save yourself. Now, Matthew and Mark both say both of the robbers insulted Jesus. Matthew and Mark together said both of the men attacked Jesus verbally. So that's going to mean something in just a minute. Now the Apostle John paid a lot of attention to the fact that the soldiers who were at the foot of the cross fulfilled a thousand-year-old prophecy from King David in Psalm 22 as they began to gamble for Jesus' garments when he wrote this in John 19. Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took His outer garments and made four parts, a part to every soldier, and also the tunic. Now the tunic was seamless, woven in one piece. So they said to one another, let us not tear it, but cast lots for it, to decide whose it shall be. This was to fulfill the Scripture, they divided my outer garments among them, and for my clothing they cast lots. Therefore the soldiers did these things." Now, Dr. Luke tells us it was during this verbal abuse as Jesus hung there with the soldiers, casting lots for His clothes to take as souvenirs, that Jesus makes His first statement while on the cross when He said, Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. So Jesus' response to attacks against His character and those who were at that moment killing Him was to pray for their forgiveness. Every time I read this, I'm reminded of, if you own one book beside the Bible, it should be the Fox's Book of the Martyrs. You need to get that. F-O-X-E. The Fox's Book of the Martyrs. And you ought to read how the martyrs of Jesus in the early church handled their persecution and their suffering. One man was being tortured on the rack. The rack is when they stretch you until they pull you apart. And one of the soldiers was pulling this saint of God apart and threw his shoulder out while he was turning the wheel. And the saint of God turned to the soldier and prayed for him that God would heal him and bless him. And God healed him and blessed him so he could kill the saint of God. And afterward, that man became an evangelist himself. Because you can't destroy the power of the gospel by killing the saints of God. You only promote the gospel when you bring martyrs into the world by killing them. So Jesus prayed for those who were tormenting Him. Jesus prayed for those who were attacking Him. That's the example we need to have in our suffering. So even at His weakest moment, Jesus never lost His compassion. He kept His primary mission and focus that He spoke back in Luke 19, verse 10. The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. Now in verses 39-43, the good doctor gives us a very important narrative that went on between the two robbers and Jesus as they were being crucified. And I really think that this narrative should be in a sermon all by itself. It is that important. But here's what the narrative says. One of the criminals who were hanged there was hurling abuse at him, saying, Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other, answered and rebuking him, said, Do you not even fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds. But this man has done nothing wrong. And he was saying, Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And he said to him, truly I say to you today, you shall be with me in paradise. Now evidently, this happened after the other thief was rebuking Jesus as well, because Matthew and Mark said both of them were hurling abuse at Jesus. So something happened in between that moment and this, because this one man changed. Now, I have covered the issue of paradise versus heaven back when we were in chapter 16, so I'm not going to get into all the details here. But suffice it to say, there was a difference in how the dead were handled by God before the resurrection and how they are handled now. Now, when a saint of God dies, he goes immediately in the presence of the Lord. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. That is since the resurrection of Jesus. Before Jesus rose from the dead, those who died went into a place called Sheol. And Sheol was divided between those who were saved and those who were not. Those who died before Jesus rose and were saved went into a place called Abraham's bosom, while the others went into a place called Hades. And the Bible says there was a wide gulf between Abraham's bosom and Hades where those who were lost could actually see those who were saved sitting at the table with Abraham while they themselves were cast out. So when Jesus says here that this man would be in paradise before the end of the day, He is promising this man that his sins have been forgiven and that he will be in Abraham's bosom before the end of that day. So just what is this paradise? Well, besides right here in Luke 23, the word paradise is only found in two other places in the New Testament. The first one is 2 Corinthians 12, verses 3 and 4, where the Apostle says, And I know how such a man, whether in the body or apart from the body, I do not know, God knows, was caught up into paradise and heard inexpressible words which a man is not permitted to speak." So right off Jump Street, we know that paradise is the heavenly abode of God where there are found things prepared by God for those who love Him which are utterly indescribable. The second place the word paradise is found is in the book of Revelation 2, verse 7, where Jesus Himself says to the church at Ephesus, He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise of God. And if we look at the end of the book of the Revelation, we find that the tree of life is in the heavenly city of God. So, from this we know that whoever goes to paradise will be in God's presence forever and will have access to the tree of life. So this is very good. But it is very important that we understand that going to paradise is not the best thing that could happen to the robber. The most important thing that could happen to this robber is that he is able to be with Jesus. Luke did not simply record that Jesus said this guy would be in paradise. Jesus told the man, you shall be with Me in paradise. And from this amazing account, we know several things. Number one, salvation is a sovereign act of God. The first robber was never convicted of his sin. So even at the point of death, he never woke up to his deadly condition before God. So the notion that many people say today that if a person can sink low enough, he will see the light, is simply not true. Unless God the Holy Spirit sovereignly opens the eyes of a sinful human and sovereignly grants him the gift of repentance, he will never be convicted, he will never repent, he will never be saved no matter how low in this life he goes. Number two, the second robber is not sucked in by the other fellow's railings. At least not completely. And if we are to follow his example, we will have to stand our ground and not be sucked in by the people all around us who say, if your God is so great and so loving, then why were 20 kids shot in Atlanta? Why 16 minors buried in a cave? Why a village slaughtered in El Salvador? Why doesn't your Jesus come down off His perch and do something about all this injustice? The first thing the repentant thief does is not get deceived by the false accusations of the other robber. Number three, the chosen robber was blessed with the fear of the Lord. He asked the one who was railing out against Jesus, do you not even fear God? This tells us that God was real to him. God was his Creator. And he knew that a pot has no right to rail out against the potter. While this man was dying on a cross in excruciating agony, he was graced with the understanding that it is fitting that creatures bow in submission before their Creator and subject all their life to His wisdom. So I'm going to make a statement to you that may sound strange on the surface, but I beg you to meditate on this. Dying is not the worst thing that can happen to you. Losing everything you have in this life is not the worst thing that can happen to you. Going to hell is infinitely worse than dying. Going to hell forever is worse than losing all of this world's goods. Always keep that in mind, that there's something worse than death. So those of you that may think that there's no hope, I'm praying for you right now. I'm speaking to you right now. Those of you that may contemplate suicide, don't. It's not over when you die. You have an eternity to face after that. And you're going to be guilty of murder, and I don't know that you're going to be able to get forgiveness for it. So be careful. Life is a gift from God. The chosen robber was gifted with repentance. He admitted that he had done wrong. We are receiving what we deserve for our deeds. What a statement! He had no desire to save face anymore. He had no more will to assert himself. He was laid open before the God he feared, and there was no way to hide his guilt. I know people right now who are in serious trouble, but instead of laying down their self-righteous defenses, they are devising every means to finagle and distort their position so they can appear to be innocent and remain cool. True repentance gives all that up. As long as you say, well, the only reason I did this bad thing was because somebody else did something else, that's not repentance. When you sit there and say, well, I'm sorry if you were offended by what I said, that's not repentance. You should be sorry you said it. See how quiet it gets? You say amen or oh me, it's the same thing. He understood that his punishment was just. He's dying on the cross. Not only did He admit to wrong and guilt, He accepted His punishment as being deserved. He said, we indeed are suffering justly. This is a gift from God, beloved. And this is the real test of humility before God. Many will mouth the confession of sin. God be merciful to us miserable sinners. But when they don't get what they want, some trouble comes, they get angry at Him. Their anger reveals that they do not really feel undeserving before God. They still feel deep down that they have some rights before God. There are not many people like Job, who when he lost everything said, naked I came from my mother's womb and naked shall I return. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. But this penitent thief did become like Job in the last minutes of his life, and he took suffering without complaint, and he feared God. The next one, he acknowledged Jesus' righteousness. He said this man had done nothing wrong. It didn't make any difference to the first thief if Jesus was right or wrong. He couldn't drive the getaway car. If he couldn't drive the getaway car, that's all that mattered. But it matters a lot to Jesus if we think His life was good or bad. Jesus does not want to drive a getaway car. He wants to be followed because we admire Him. We must say with the thief, this man has done nothing wrong. This man can only do what is good. This man only speaks the truth. This man is worthy of our faith and allegiance and imitation. The thief acknowledged that Jesus is a king. Remember me when you come into your kingdom, He said. So even though Jesus is beaten and bloodied and is dying right along with both of them, this robber knew that Jesus had the mark of a King. For those who have eyes to see, He has a power here on the cross. A power of love that makes Him King over all His tormentors. He is not only good, He is powerful. And one day He will vindicate His great name. And every knee will bow and confess that He is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And so the penitent robber fears God. He admits wrong. He accepts justice. He acknowledges the goodness and power of Jesus. And now he pleads for divine help. Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom. Now keep in mind that both robbers wanted to get off the cross. Both of them wanted deliverance from the crucifixion. Both of them wanted to get out of this death sentence. But only one wanted to be saved from sin. So the one robber says, are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. Because to him, death was more important than anything else. While the other one said, Jesus, remember me when You come into Your kingdom. So from this we know that there is an infinite qualitative difference between one kind of save me and the other kind of save me. So I ask you all this morning, what motive did Jesus give us to follow in the footsteps of this penitent robber? There is a fearful silence that Jesus gave toward the railing thief. There is not a single word recorded that Jesus ever gave him. There may have been a final pitying glance, but no forgiveness, no promise, and no hope. But to the penitent, Jesus says, today you shall be with Me in paradise. And this was almost too good to be true. There would not even be a delay. Today, the Spirit of Jesus and the renewed spirit of this robber who had spent his entire life in wicked sin would be in union in paradise. The promise would be without delay. But in all of this, the one thing that Jesus chose to mention to the repentant robber on the cross, if you can only say one thing to somebody dying, what would you say to them? Today, you shall be with me in paradise. And this is what salvation truly is. Lost people can read their Bibles and go to church and sing in the choir and even preach the gospel. Lost people can want to go to heaven and have a better life and to be delivered from sickness and poverty and terrible things. But only saved people can be with Jesus in paradise. And this is why the writer of the song said, When I come to die, And when I come to die, and when I come to die, give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. Give me Jesus. You can have all this world. You can have all this world. You can have all this world. Give me Jesus. Amen.