Sermons
December 3rd, 2023 by Pastor Solley120323AM Two Men Ask; One Saved, One Lost
Sub. Salvation
Theme: Why one man who asked was not saved.
Text: Luke 23:32-45
“Two Men Ask; One Saved, One Lost” Luke 23:32-45
Introduction
The message this morning is about salvation, Bible salvation, real salvation, life changing salvation, eternity placing salvation. Not about the world’s salvation, not about easy believism salvation, not about Jesus gets all of us salvation. The message this morning is about real salvation, about Bible salvation.
Could we say this morning that Jesus Christ came into this world and died on that cross for all? John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Could we say this morning that it is the will of God that all come to salvation in Christ? 2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. Could we say this morning that all who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved? Rom 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Could we say this morning that Jesus will turn none away who come to Him? John 6:37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. We can say all of those things and be found standing on solid Biblical grounds.
I. Yet we do find one in the Bible who asked to be saved and Jesus did not save him: Luke 23:32-45 Three men died on Roman crosses that day. One man was dying for sin, the sins of the world, two men were dying because of sin. One of those men did not need to be saved, two did. Two of those men were found in Paradise at the end of the day, the other was found in hell. It was the man on that middle cross that made the difference.
A. We find in our text that both men asked Jesus to save them: Luke 23:39-42 One of them does ask in a better way but both of those thieves, and they are called thieves in Matthew and Mark, did ask Jesus to save them. – Luke 23:39 , 42 One of them says “Save thyself and us” while the other says “Remember me”, but both do ask Jesus to save them.
1. Yet at the end of the day only two of those men are found in paradise: Luke 23:42-43 Jesus is going to be in paradise because Jesus had no sin of His own and the repentant thief as we call him will be in Paradise because his sin was washed away by the blood of Jesus Christ shed for him and all of us on the cross.
2. The third man on a cross that day would be found in hell: Jesus was very specific about who was joining Him in paradise.
B. But both of them asked to be saved: Luke 23:39 , 42 What made the difference in these thieves? Why was Jesus willing to save one and refused to save the other?
1. Is there a problem with what the Bible says in John 3:16 ; John 6:37 ; Rom 10:13 ; 2 Pet 3:9? Is there a problem with the Bible?
2. Was there a problem with Jesus? Did Jesus not love as He says He loves? Was there a problem with Jesus that day?
3. Or was there a problem with one of those thieves? There is never a problem with the Bible and never a problem with Jesus Christ. When it seems like there is a problem the problem is always with man. There is never a problem with the Bible or with Jesus.
II. I want to look this morning at these men and why one was found in paradise at the end of that day and the other was found in hell when both asked to be saved:
PROP: To be saved one must ask. TS: But one must ask in the right way.
Body
I. Two of those men on those crosses had a great deal in common: That being the two men on either side of Jesus that day.
A. Both were sinners and both were paying the price that government placed upon their sins: Luke 23:32 The Bible calls them malefactors here in the book of Luke. In Matthew and Mark they are called thieves, in John it simply says there are called two other. But these men were sinners and their sin increased as their actions became worse and worse.
1. Being a thief would be bad enough: Someone that steals is a thief, is a sinner, but being a thief hardly seems worthy of a cross.
2. These men were malefactors: Luke 23:32 The Greek word is a base word that indicates their actions were getting worse and worse, that they were out of control, that their crimes were becoming a threat to society and even the state of Rome.
a. The word malefactors points to them being miserably sick with evil.
b. They are being put on a cross before Barabbas and Barabbas was a murderer.
3. These men were paying a price for their sin that government placed upon them: Rome deemed them worthy of death.
4. The Bible tells us what these men were like: Mark 7:21-23 That is what those men were and now they are paying the price for that sin, for those actions, paying the price society and government placed upon their sin.
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B. Both were sinners and both were paying the price that Almighty God placed upon their sins: Two verses tell us they were paying the price God placed upon sin. Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death;…Heb 9:27 And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: People born in sin, people who do sin, will pay the price God placed upon their sin, death.
1. Some ask do we pay the price for our sin nature or for sins we commit? That answer is yes. Because we are born with a sin nature we sin and we then pay the price for that sin nature and our sin actions.
2. Remember what Jesus said to those righteous Pharisees and scribes: John 8:7 So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. They walked away because those self righteous men all knew that they were sinners, born in sin and committed sin.
3. No one is in this building today is without sin: If you are perfect and sinless no reason to be here today, no reason at all.
4. We may never commit a sin so great that we have to answer to government for our sin but we all will answer to God for our sin: The reason each person here will die one day is because we must pay the price God placed upon our sin. The wages of sin is death and it is appointed unto man, all men and women die because of sin.
C. Both had a knowledge of Jesus Christ: How great that knowledge was we do not know but both had a knowledge of Jesus Christ. About three and one half years before the events recorded in Luke 23 Jesus was Baptized by John and began His public ministry.
1. Immediately the Bible tells us this about Jesus Christ: Mark 1:28 And people heard of the Messiah, people heard about Jesus.
Mark 1:45 All heard of Jesus Christ. Matt 4:24 And his fame went throughout all Syria:…Luke 4:14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee: and there went out a fame of him through all the region round about. ; Luke 4:37 And the fame of him went out into every place of the country round about. People alive, people living in what we call the middle east heard of Jesus Christ.
2. Then you have the official presentation of Jesus Christ as Messiah: Luke 19:37-40 This in the same city those malefactors were held in prison waiting their death. Those men heard of Jesus Christ.
3. They knew of the power, of the miracles, of the sin forgiving power of Jesus as well: Those men knew of Jesus Christ.
4. Just like all know of Jesus Christ today: Both of those men had a knowledge of Jesus Christ.
D. Both of those men had Jesus right in front of them and Jesus willing to save them from sin: Luke 23:33-34 They heard those words. We read of them in the Bible and they are words that thrill us, that Jesus is willing to forgive sin, but those men heard those words come from the mouth of Jesus.
1. The one that wants to save them is right in front of them and offering salvation to them: Those men had salvation in front of them.
2. Just like all men and women, boys and girls today: Titus 2:11 How many have Jesus in front of them today? All.
a. Don’t ask me exactly how this takes place in the life of every individual around this world. – Titus 2:11
b. But that is what the Bible says and I believe the Bible. God is able to do this even in the deepest jungle of the world, on the highest mountain top of the world, in every lost corner of this world, our God is able. – Titus 2:11
3. No one will have an excuse for the grace of God offering salvation has appeared to all: Those men had Jesus Christ in front of them just as all people have Christ in front of them today.
E. Both of those men asked to be saved: Luke 23:39 , 42 One in a better way than the other, but both did ask and that leads to the one thing they did not have in common that day.
1. One asked and was saved, was born again, did have sin forgiven and was taken to paradise with Jesus: Luke 23:43
2. The other died and went to hell: Of those three on crosses that day only two went to paradise, the other went to hell.
3. But both of them asked to be saved:
II. Why did Jesus refuse salvation to the one who asked Him first? Luke 23:39 This man asked, this man was not saved, this man is in hell today. Why didn’t Jesus save him? We see things that still keep people from getting saved today. Bible salvation is real salvation and not what that man was after then and not when many seek after today.
A. Salvation does not come in repeating something someone else said: Luke 23:35-39 When one calls Jesus the Christ they are giving to Jesus the title of Deity, they are calling Jesus God. – Luke 23:35 – That lost man called Jesus the Christ, the chosen of God. But that man did it only because he heard others doing it. – Luke 23:35 , 39 – Salvation does not come in repeating something someone else said or told you to say.
1. For many today their salvation is resting on what we call a sinners prayer: And one does need to ask to be saved. The man found in paradise that day would not have been saved if he had not asked. One does need to ask to be saved.
2. But repeating a prayer that someone else had prayed without thought or conviction will not save anyone: You are not saved this morning because someone told you words to say and you repeated them.
a. I see nothing wrong with one asking for help in prayer because they do not know what to pray but no one has ever been saved by “Repeat after me”.
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b. That man repeated what he had heard and that man remained lost.
3. Salvation does not come in repeating something someone else said or words they told you to pray:
B. Salvation does not come when there is no confession os sin: Luke 23:39 That man asked but that man never acknowledge that he was a sinner.
1. Read carefully the accounts in the other three gospels as well as this one and you will find no confession of sin on the part of this man in any of them: That man was going to die that day and all he wanted delivered from was the cross, the physical death.
2. To be found in paradise with Jesus he was going to have to acknowledge that he had sin, he was a sinner and confess his sin: Why would Jesus save him from sin when he refused to confess sin?
3. People who will not confess to God that they are sinners see no need of real salvation: Salvation does not come when there is no confession for why would we need to be saved from a sinners hell of we had never sinned?
C. Salvation does not come when there is no contrition: Contrition goes one step beyond confessing. Confession is the acknowledgment of sin, contrition is sorrow before God for that sin, a sorrow that will lead to a change of action.
1. Ps 34:18 The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Contrition brings a change in action.
2. When David prayed for forgiveness in Ps 51 we know it was as well a prayer of contrition because David’s actions changed: That man, if delivered from the cross would have went right back to a life of sin. There was no contrition.
3. Cain had no contrition, Esau had no contrition and neither one of them found forgiveness for their sin: One can confess but there also needs to be a change in action. We say repentance, one must repent.
4. Salvation does not come when there is no contrition:
D. Salvation does not come when there is no fear of God: Luke 23:39 Take note of the pride in this man even while he was praying for Jesus to save him from the physical death of the cross. – Luke 23:39
1. Even in that prayer that man railed on Jesus: Luke 23:39 That Greek word is translated blasphemy twenty other places in the Bible. It is translated as slander one other place it is found. It is translated as evil speaking nine other places it is found.
2. This man looked at Jesus beside him and blasphemed, spoke evil of Jesus, mocked Jesus: There was no fear of God.
3. Few people fear God today: You are not going to be saved unless there is a fear of God.
a. The “Jesus gets all of us message” is an example of a lack of fear of God.
b. People mocking the Bible and church is an example of a lack of fear of God.
c. People making jokes about hell is an example of a lack of fear of God.
d. People shaking their fist at God is an example of a lack of fear of God.
4. Salvation does not come when there is no fear of God:
E. That man was not saved even though he asked: Why? (1) Salvation does not come in repeating what someone else said or told you to say. (2) Salvation does not come when there is no confession of sin. (3) Salvation does not come when there is no contrition, no repentance. (4) Salvation does not come when there is no fear of God. That man asked but that man asked in the wrong way.
III. But one lost sinner did ask in the right way and that man was found in paradise: Luke 23:42-43 He did much more than say “Remember me”
A. He did acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God: Luke 23:40 , 42 This man does not repeat what he heard others say.
1. He looks at Jesus and calls Him both Lord and King: Luke 23:42 Lord acknowledging His authority, king acknowledging His deity. Only a king has a kingdom and Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords.
2. That man proclaimed what the Bible does before it was written down: 1 Tim 6:15 Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;
3. You must know who Jesus is before you can be saved: Jesus is not what the world and the liberal makes Him out to be. Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the second of the Godhead, the King of kings and the Lord of lords.
4. Do you know who Jesus Christ is? You must of you want to be truly saved.
B. He saw his need and confessed his sin: Luke 23:40-41 People want to blame sin on everyone except themselves. Not this man.
1. He had not been wrongly accused: Luke 23:41 The rewards of our deeds. He had sinned.
2. Society was not to blame: Luke 23:41 The due rewards. He was getting what he deserved.
3. This man saw his sin and confessed that he was the sinner and he was wrong: No one else to blame sin on.
4. You must admit sin and confess sin in order to be saved: Have you seen yourself as you really are before God?
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C. He was broken by sin, there was contrition: Luke 23:42 There is no pride in this prayer, do demand that Jesus must deliver him from the cross, only a cry of please remember me.
1. This man knew he deserved to die on that cross and never asked to be delivered from it: No pride in this prayer.
2. This man also knew he deserved hell and he did want to be saved from that: Please remember me.
3. There is no room for pride in the heart of the one seeking salvation: Luke 18:10-14 That man humbled himself.
4. Have you humbled yourself before God? You must if you want to be saved.
D. He was one who feared God: Luke 23:40 With no fear of God and God’s judgment there is no need to be saved.
1. The unrepentant thief as he is called had no fear of God: Luke 23:39-40 With no fear of God why would one want to be saved.
2. People have little fear of God today: God has been made, Jesus has been made by the liberal to be one just like us.
a. God is a Holy God.
b. God is a righteous God.
c. God hates sin.
d. God will judge sin.
3. Even the Christian should keep a fear of God: 1 Peter 1:17 ; 1 Peter 2:17 ; 1 Peter 3:2 ; 1 Peter 3:15 We need to fear God, even the Christians should fear the one and true, the holy and righteous God who has authority over us.
4. Society has no fear of God: An absence of fear is what brings out the actions of sin. We need to fear God.
5. So many people because of that lack of fear compare themselves to others and never stop to look at themselves, at their life in the light of a Holy God: We need to fear God.
a. The Pharisee in Luke 23 compared himself to the publican and that got him hell.
b. We need examine ourselves in the light of Scripture and in the light of a Holy God.
c. That examination will being a healthy fear of God.
6. You cannot get saved unless you fear God: Do you fear God today?
E. He was a man who asked in the right way and he was saved that day: Luke 23:42
IV. There is also an urgency of salvation: Luke 23:42-46 How long Jesus lived after that man asked to be remembered, how long Jesus lived after that man asked to be saved we do not know. I think it not a very long time.
A. Both of those malefactors lived longer: John 19:30-33 I have always found it interesting that those men lived longer than Jesus did.
1. Both of those men had Jesus in front of them: Between them was the very Son of God, the one who could make that way to heaven, the door to eternal life. There was the Savior of the world and both could talk to Jesus and both did.
2. But one continued to mock Jesus and with pride and no fear demanding Jesus deliver him from the cross: Luke 23:39 He asked to be saved but not in the right way.
3. The other in great contrition and with humbleness asked Jesus to save him from hell: Luke 23:42 He does not ask to be saved from the cross, he asked to be saved from hell.
4. Then before either of them knew it Jesus was gone: Jesus proclaimed it was finished and for those two men opportunity was gone.
a. But one had confessed sin and asked to be saved and he would soon join Jesus in paradise.
b. The other never did and he would be in hell and is still in hell today.
5. There was an urgency about salvation for those two on those crosses:
B. There is an urgency of salvation today: Today may be the last opportunity for salvation. Are you sure you are saved today.
Conclusion
I. Two of those men on those crosses had a great deal in common: That being the two men on either side of Jesus that day. We have in common what they had in common. Both were sinners. Both were about to pay the price for their sins. Both had Jesus in front of them. Both asked to be saved.
II. Why did Jesus refuse salvation to the one who asked Him first? Luke 23:39 , 42 He did not ask in the right way. No acknowledging who Jesus is, no confession, no contrition, no fear, only pride.
III. But one lost sinner did ask in the right way and that man was found in paradise: Luke 23:42-43 He did much more than say “Remember me”.
IV. There is also an urgency of salvation: Luke 23:42-46