The gospel writers tell us very much about the actual events of the crucifixion of Jesus. I want tonight, as we look at the subject of the other two crosses for a moment, to consider what Luke has to say rather than Matthew. I think it to be a bit more full. Luke chapter 23, and let's begin reading in verse number 33. Luke 23 and verse 33. 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. Verse 39, and one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself and us. But the other answering rebuked him, saying, Does 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. Of course you will remember that the day Jesus was crucified, there was not one, but there were three crosses on Calvary. He was crucified as a murderer is crucified. He died as a thief would die and died in fulfillment of prophecy between two thieves. He made his death with the wicked and he made his grave with the rich, buried in the borrowed tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. He had to borrow money to pay his taxes. He had to borrow a tomb to be buried in. He had to borrow a place to sleep. He said, The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests. But I, the son of the man, don't even have a place to lay my head. He had to borrow a donkey to ride into Jerusalem. The only thing that Jesus ever owned that was his own was his cross. On the right side was a man who repented of his sins in the death hour and accepted Jesus as his personal Savior, even on the cross. There is one story of deathbed repentance in the Bible that none might despair. But there is only one that none should presume. On the left, a thief died and went to hell. He, too, was close to Jesus, as close as the man that was saved. But he simply refused to believe and refused to receive. The center cross was the cross of redemption. The right, the cross of reception. The left, the cross of rejection. One man, Jesus, died for sin. The thief on the right died to his sin. The one on the left died in his sin. On which side of the cross tonight are you? Luke says that the two were malefactors. This means a male criminal. We would not say a female factor, but a malefactress would be a woman criminal. A malefactor, a thief, a convicted, condemned murderer. The man on the left had every opportunity to be saved. He saw everything the man on the right saw. He had the same exposure to the gospel. He was so close to Jesus, had his hands not been nailed, in all possibility he could have reached out and literally touched the side of Jesus Christ. Ah, you say, had I been that close to the cross, I would have repented. I would have believed. I would have been saved. But you are that close tonight. And you were that close this morning. As in mine's eye and spiritual power, the Spirit of God took us again to the cross where the blood of Jesus fell on our side and where his hot cheeks coursed down upon ours and reminded us of the suffering that he gave for us. I remind you that this man did not die and go to hell because of what he did. He was a robber, but that's not why he's lost. He was a thief. That's not what made him unconverted. He was worthless. That's not why he is in hell. He was not lost because of what he did at all. He was lost because of what he did not do. He simply did not reach up and avail himself of the opportunity that was his. If a man is drowning in the water and I throw him a life jacket, he doesn't have to take a gun and blow his brains out nor plummet a dagger to his breast or drink poison to die. All he has to do is just do nothing. Just don't take what's offered. And that's all you have to do. The Bible says we're condemned already. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The wages of sin is death. He that believeth on the Son of the Lamb and he that believeth not, the wrath of God abideth. Present tense, now upon him. Now we are lost without Jesus. He was condemned. He was lost. He was so close because he was born a sinner and the sin nature took over in his body as it always does, save for the grace of our living, loving Lord Jesus Christ. I saw a little track once, a gospel track. It said, what must I do to be saved? And there in red letters were the words, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. At the bottom in bolder print in black it said, see other. It said, what must I do to be lost? And it said, see other side. And when you turned over, it was blank. That's what you have to do to be lost. You're lost already. You may be in the church or out of the church, but we're all lost, condemned out of the grace of God, apart from the grace of Jesus Christ. That close, that near he could touch. He didn't die and go into eternity without God because of what he did. So he blasphemed and stole and swore and rebuked, but because of what he didn't do, he simply did not believe to avail himself of what was so closely and obviously offered to him. But there was a man on another cross, just as wicked, just as evil, just as near to Jesus. Yes. And just as far away as well. And he has been these 1900 and more years in heaven. Why? Because of what he did. Well, what did he do? He had a conversion experience, a wonderful conversion. You know, there are a lot of words I like. Bill spoke of liking the word Alleluia. It's one of my favorites too. I don't know what we're going to do in heaven. Whether we will learn music from David and study theology from Paul, as they always say, or just stand and look at Jesus for a first million years. That's a pretty good idea for starters. But one of the things I think we're going to do is stand around and shout Alleluia for a couple of billion eternities. I like that. It's a glorious word. It's the only word in the world that's pronounced the same in every language. Even Christ is Christo and Jesus is Esau and Azus in different languages. But Alleluia is always Alleluia. It's a glorious word. It's a wonderful word. Alleluia, the word that speaks of the glory of God. This man trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. He was so near to him. That's a wonderful word. I love the word Jesus. To speak the name of Jesus. They say that the Truett could speak the word Jesus and that Spurgeon could just say the word Jesus and make you want to weep. I've heard some records of Bill and Gloria Gaither and the one on the Alleluia record where they sing, Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. There's something about the name and I've wept just as I've listened to the name Jesus. But one of the words that charms me the most, one of the words that has the most intrigue in the world and excites me to my very heart is the word conversion. It's an exciting word. It is the dynamic of the Christian faith. The word conversion means with change. It means that something was this and now it has become that. And it has occurred through a dramatic and dynamic change. There's some wonderful conversions. You've seen them. I've seen them. I think of the conversion of Stuart Hamblin, a popular country songwriter whose song was number one on the Western hit parade when he wrote one night in a drunken stupor, I won't go hunting with you, Jake, but I'll go chasing women. So put them coon dogs back in the pen and quit your silly grinning because I ain't going hunting with you, Jake, but I'll go chasing women. And not 48 hours sat down and wrote, it is no secret what God can do, what he's done for others. He'll do for you. I think of Hyman Appelman, a brilliant Jewish lawyer who couldn't speak a word of English coming over from Russia till he was in the first start in the first grade when he was 14 years old, who by the time he was 20 had to have a special court dispensation pass to be admitted to the bar to practice law in the state of Illinois because he was not 21 years of age, already admitted to the bar and practicing law and a graduate of DePaul University, a man that I learned much about preaching from, working with him for three years, perhaps the greatest Hebrew Christian preacher since the days of the Apostle Paul himself, 75 today, and still going strong, bless his heart, preaching 40, 50 revival meetings all over the world every single year. That was a dynamic change. I think of the change that's come in the lives of many of you and of my own heart. But I submit to you there's no more exciting conversion in all the world than this man. Think about it. He was that close, his hands nailed to a cross, blood dripping from the hands that were nailed there and so near to heaven and so near to hell and all of the angels of God hoping and yearning and pleading and the spirit tugging and all the demons in hell pulling him down this way. And yet in an instant the man was saved. I suggest to you that it was a wonderful conversion and I suggest to you that it was an open conversion. Some people say to me, why do you have to come forward? You don't have to come forward. You don't have to live with your wife when you get married. You can say I do and be married legally and go to Africa, never see her. But I submit it is the most normal and logical thing in the world to do. Boy, when I come to Jesus Christ, I just want as many folks in the world to be there. Jesus died for me before everybody. And I want to say to the whole world, I believe in him. I love him. I follow him. Every person Jesus Christ ever called, he called publicly. He said, come on, take up a cross. Follow me. Choose you this day whom you shall serve. Step, step out from the crowd and follow me. And he said, later, if you confess me before men, I'll confess you before my father in heaven. If you deny me, I'll deny you before my father, which is in heaven. You say, does a man have to do it publicly to be saved? Suppose he's marooned on a desert island. Nobody's there. I think he can be saved, but I think where it is possible that it becomes a condition. He said, if you're embarrassed about me, if there's not enough commitment in your heart to real belief in me to let somebody know about it, then there's a good deal of question as to the veracity of a man's profession of faith in Jesus Christ. There were thousands around the cross. What did he say? Lord, remember me. No question about his theology. No question of whom was going to be the Lord of his life. I think he was saying in so many words, if I go to hell, I'll go trusting Jesus. If I go to heaven, I'll go trust in Jesus. Sink or swim, live or die. I put all my faith in the Son of God. I'm not ashamed of him. Lord, remember me. It was an open conversion. It was a simple conversion. He didn't know any theology. Didn't know how to pray. Just said in so many words, help, help. Let me tell you what I think. I think had this man just said, Lord, he would have been saying any expression toward, don't worry about the theology. Don't worry about the sinner's prayer and all the things you're supposed to say. If you go through the Roman road or down the campus crusade road, I don't think the Lord is as concerned with the articulation and the verbalization as much as he is the commitment and the intent of the heart. I believe that he just looked with repentance toward Jesus and just said in his heart, oh, help, I believe God would have saved him. But there's something. It was an early conversion. I said this morning that in order to get a big crowd together, they would have multiple crucifixions and bring people from different parts of the country. So everybody would come to see their boy. Get it. In other words, this man was from somewhere else than Galilee. In all probability, he had not only never heard Jesus, he had never heard of Jesus. Yes, it was his last chance to be saved, but it was the first chance he ever had to be saved. And he wasn't going to let it go by. And as soon as he was that close to Jesus Christ and had the chance, he had the good sense to say now, yes, Lord, today. Suppose the rapture of the church comes tonight. Suppose the world ends tonight. Suppose you die tonight. I stood this afternoon by the bed of a dying man. Suppose that happens to you. Suppose you don't live through this night. What about tomorrow? It's always now. Don't presume because God let a man be saved on his deathbed. You know what a doctor told me? He said, most people today die in hospitals and most people today die unconscious. Don't expect to repent on your deathbed. You'll probably be so filled with painkiller. You won't even be conscious when you die. Well, I must say this word. It was a repentant conversion because the other gospel writers record that one thief railed on him and the other thief railed on him. They were both condemning Jesus and arguing and casting in his teeth. If you're the son of God, save yourself. But now Luke says that one did and one got converted. Now a discrepancy has been supposed, but there's no discrepancy here. The fact of the matter is that to begin with both of them did rail on Jesus Christ. But this man, as he saw Jesus die, changed in his side and his inside. He was transformed. He repented. He said, man, I've been wrong. And only Luke records the change, you see. Now, the person that's going to truly follow Jesus Christ is going to have to turn from what he was and become what he has never been before. To follow Christ means to deny any former acquaintance with yourself at all. It doesn't mean to drag the old man into the new. It means I'm a new man. I'm transformed. He repented. I'll not be with the thief on the left that rejects. I'll be the man on the right that says, yes, Lord Jesus, I love you and I trust you. My question tonight as I close is a simple one. On which side of the cross are you? Neutral you cannot be. The great arms of Jesus hanging on Golgotha have divided long since all the body of men and women in this world, not into the black and white, the rich and poor, the elite and the illiterate, but to the man that knows and the man that does not know Jesus Christ, you have got to be saved. I mean, you must repent and be born again to enter the kingdom of God. Listen, let me offer you one other little thing. That man not only got what he wanted in Jesus Christ, but as is always the case with a dynamic of conversion, he got more than he wanted. He got more vastly so than he expected. You talk of one of my favorite songs. The choir sings is there's more so much more. Oh, listen to me. He said in so many words, Lord, remember me. You see, he didn't know any theology. He was a bum, a drunk, a no good, a scoundrel. He said, Oh God, he was saying some far off day when you come into your kingdom, remember me. Jesus said, man, I'll beat that a long way. I say to you this very day, right now, thou shall be with me in paradise. Folks argue about where is paradise? And you know, our some groups who don't believe you can be saved like that, unless you're baptized or homogenized or pasteurized with something else. Say that this man, Jesus asked a question. He said to him contemptuously, this day shall thou be with me in paradise. Isn't that absurd? And then they argue and say he wasn't really saved because Jesus didn't say I'll take you to heaven. He said the day I'll take you with me in paradise. Well, I could go into a long theological discourse about where is paradise, but let me tell you something. You get the emphasis on the wrong syllables. It really doesn't matter. Don't read it like this. Jesus didn't say today thou shall be with me in paradise. He said today thou shall be with me in paradise. And I don't care if it's up down east. I don't care if it's in Oklahoma. When I die, I just want to go be with Jesus, wherever that is. That's good enough for this country, boy. I'll tell you for sure. You can be with him. I'll tell you when you come to Jesus Christ for the, you may come for the thinnest of motives in the world simply because you don't want to go to hell. I don't think that's particularly a bad motive. I think that's pretty good sense myself. I'll tell you, wherever you do come, you'll find that you get much more than you bargained for when you come to Jesus Christ. Dr. Reynolds had graced us with his presence. We had looked forward to a time of fellowship. The staff was having a lovely luncheon and getting acquainted with him today, and we were looking forward to going. As I was trying to relax a little bit in the office, the telephone called after people had begun to leave. Just today at noon, and a voice on the other end of the phone said, are you that preacher on TV? Well, I didn't know I had been on TV, and I assumed that she had the right number, and I said, yes, ma 'am. And she said, you really like folks as much as you seem to? I said, yes, ma 'am, I do. And she said, would you come a long way and talk to a dying man about heaven? And I said, yes, ma 'am, I would. To make a long story short, by about 2 .30, I found myself nearly 30 miles in the country on the other side of Rosenberg, Texas, trying to follow the directions of this woman and walk into a home where a family of unbelievers, one or two of them, happened to be watching the broadcast on television, and a man 77 years of age, dying of cancer of the throat that had spread all through his body, had just been told about 11 as the doctor left, he had never been, nor would he ever go to a hospital, that he would never live out this day. Well, the woman who didn't know any much except that she didn't think he was going to go to heaven, led me into the room, and I saw a big hulking frame of a man with little on him but skin and bones. And there as his eyes were almost glassy in death, I hoped that he could hear at least, knowing that he could not talk. I talked to him a few minutes, gathered the family around, and had the opportunity to say to this man, if you can hear me, try to move your head. And he did a little bit and uh i told him about jesus and how to be saved no his vocal cords had long since been eaten up he couldn't say a word and i got around very simply to it knowing that life was ebbing indeed from his body and said if you will ask jesus and you can pray without praying out loud just in your heart ask god to be merciful and ask him to save you and come in your heart today i want you to just nod your head back and forth and he lay there for a minute and his head didn't move and all of a sudden i realized that his trembling hand was trying to move and he'd come up just an inch or two with his hand to try to touch my hand and i grasped it and i said god bless you and i prayed and told him to pray in his heart after me and then he did nod his head at the end saying he had done so i do not know that the man is alive or dead but i do know this whether you're 7 17 27 or 77 or anywhere in between every man comes to an ultimate decision a final acceptance or rejection of jesus christ here's a man that played the game ran the risk living in texas not 50 60 miles from this church in the bible belt or probably had heard gospel preaching and waited till the last moments the last hours of his life to nod his head as an expression of his heart that he said i do to jesus christ and i am grateful but is that all that you will give to jesus will you not give him your whole life today nothing but leaves for the master here in the virility of life the blossom of your strength come down this aisle step from the left to the right side of the cross and say i do to jesus he will save you he'll forgive you he'll come he said i don't understand it all this boy was no theologian he was a thief ready to be executed he just said oh god you'll come in whatever words you put it into whatever expression you'll come with whatever understanding you do have just come don't have to have a degree in theology don't have to be a good man man god doesn't save good man he's in the business of saving men that acknowledge i'm not any good he said they that are whole don't need a position if you're well you don't need a doctor if you're perfect what do you need with me no because we aren't perfect that's why we come just as we are without one plea but that thy blood was shed for me by faith this night step from the left to the right side of the cross and trust him as your personal savior will you do it come on let's sing just as i am without one plea everybody