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Amazing Facts

Doug Batchelor

The Thief on the Cross

This presentation is brought to you by the Friends of the Amazing Facts Ministry.

There's really only 2 kings in this world.

You can either serve Jesus or you serve the enemy.

People hate to think of it that way, but you've really got Christ or Satan, that's all you have.

Some folks say, well I'm not going to get involved, I'm neutral.

He said you're either with me or against me.

You know I want to share something with you that is always fascinating to me.

It's a passage you find in the book of Isaiah that sort of outlines the science of salvation.

Chapter 6 is where you find Isaiah's conversion experience.

And it says, In the year that King Uzziah died, this is Isaiah 6 1, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple.

He sees the Lord in the year that his king died.

And it tells us above his throne stood the seraphim, these angelic creatures.

With 2 he covered his face, with 2 he covered his feet and with 2 he flew.

And 1 cried to another the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory.

And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.

Now what would you do if you saw something like that?

Well Isaiah saw the glory of God, he saw the holiness of God and he was overwhelmed.

And he said, Woe is me, I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.

He repents and confesses of his sin after he sees the goodness of God and the power of God.

Then 1 of the seraphim flew to me having his hand of coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar and he touched my mouth with it and he said, Behold, this is touched your lips.

As soon as he sees God, he confesses, he repents.

And after he's cleansed from his sin, it says, then I heard the voice of the Lord.

You know, after you come to the Lord, you repent of your sin and you wash from sin, you hear God speaking in a new way.

It's like when Christ came out of the water, there is his voice from heaven.

God speaks to us and guides us through his spirit in a new way when we're converted.

And that voice says, who will I send and who will go for us?

The Bible tells us the goodness of God leads us to repentance.

But it really is all summed up in first he saw the Lord and not only did he see the Lord, the Bible tells us he saw the Lord in the year that his king died.

You know, it's at the cross that we really see the Lord the best.

And as I mentioned in our opening remarks, this is what the world refers to as a good Friday that time when 2000 years ago, Jesus successfully culminated the plan of salvation by living a sinless life and then dying in our behalf.

And when we really see what God has done for us, that has a transformational power.

And you know, that I think is the key to revival.

I want to take you to that and we're going to go to Luke chapter 23.

And this is the message is really the thief on the cross as you've gathered.

Then 1 of the criminals were hanged, crucified, blasphemed him saying, If you are the Christ, save yourself and us.

But the other answering rebuked him saying, Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation?

And we indeed justly, for we receive the due rewards for our deeds.

But this man, Jesus, had done nothing wrong.

Then he turns and he says to Jesus, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.

And Jesus said to him, assuredly, I say to you today, you will be with me in paradise.

Now you don't find this story in Matthew or Mark or John.

It's only here in the Gospel of Luke that he gives that account.

I'm so glad that it's there because this story of an 11th hour conversion really gives a lot of people hope.

Now, I don't recommend that anybody waits till the 11th hour before they make their decision to come to the Lord.

I think it was Matthew Henry that said 1 time, there is 1 example of an 11th hour conversion in the Bible, So nobody needs to lose hope.

But then he added, keep in mind, there is only 1 example of an 11th hour conversion.

I think people that plan on waiting until the final hours of their life before they surrender their lives to the Lord usually doesn't work out that way.

We don't know whether or not we're going to die suddenly.

You want to give the Lord your life and your best now.

Because it's always better to live the Christian life than to wait and live for the devil and offer to the Lord the leftovers just before you drop off into the grave.

Now, there have been some people that praise the Lord.

I was at more than 1 hospital bed when somebody gave their heart to the Lord and I prayed with them in just the final days of their life.

And I believe I'll see them in the kingdom.

But you don't ever want to plan your life that way.

Now, when we're looking at this story, there's so many things we can learn from this.

First of all, the conversion takes place at the cross.

You know, 1 of the great passages in the Bible, it talks about Galatians chapter 2 verse 20.

It is no longer I who live, but Christ that lives in me and the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.

You know, when I read that, it occurred to me 1 time there's only a couple of people that were actually crucified with Christ.

Literally, there were 2 thieves and 1 of them was saved.

So I made it a special interest of mine to study what happened in this example.

Something else about these 2 thieves is it says they were guilty of murder.

Well, Jesus said, if anyone is angry with his brother without a cause, he's guilty of murder.

And we also learn from this story they could do nothing to save themselves.

They're under a death sentence like all of us.

It says they blaspheme Jesus to begin with.

You know, Jesus was on the cross for about 6 hours alive.

And then we learn from this story that they could do nothing to save themselves.

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The Thief on the Cross

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