Grace Chapel Bible Ministries
worship call 1108 - 2024/07/10
(upbeat music) (piano music) (piano music) (piano music) (piano music) (piano music) (piano music) (piano music) (piano music) Welcome to Worship Call with Bible teacher Buzz Lawbet. Buzz is the pastor of Grace Chapel Bible Ministries located in Duncan, South Carolina. This ministry is dedicated to the verse by verse teaching of God's word and discipleship programs aimed to strengthening the faith of God's people. Now here's today's message. Behold, everyone who thirsts, comes to waters. This is Isaiah 55. And you who have no money come by and eat, come by wine and milk without money and without cost. Why do you spend money for what is not bread? And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to me and eat what is good and delight yourself in abundance and climb your ear and come to me. Listen that you may live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you according to the faithful mercies shown today. Behold, I have made him witness to the people, a leader to the commanders for the peoples. Behold, you will call a nation and you will, you do not know. And a nation which knows you will run to you because the Lord, your God, even the Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified you. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the righteous man his thoughts and let him return to the Lord. And he will have compassion on him and to our God, for he is abundant, for he will abundantly pardon. This is the fourth day of the week in God's created order. The tenth day of the seventh month, two thousand twenty fourth year of our Lord. And this is another fine day in the Lord. Father in heaven, we thank you for this day. We praise you, open up our hearts to this, this critical time that we're reading about this, this most intense three hours when our Lord hung up, was hanging upon the cross and the darkness was over at Galgotha. And as our sins, as we were all represented there on that hill, as our sins were being poured out upon him. We pray, Heavenly Father, to open our hearts this morning to your word. And we pray these things in Christ's name, Amen. Yes, time, as I've often said, is a grace commodity. And it is a time, and we see here that the Lord is at his vulnerability. He's vulnerable. He's made himself vulnerable as Philippians chapter two says that he has taken in a form of a man. And he has, that which is present, that which people, as John said, and his, his official, that we saw him, we touched him, we talked to him, we laid eyes on him, he has, and when he had come, he came as a vulnerable lamb. And it says here in Isaiah 55, it would seek him while he can be found. There are those that, as we find at the cross, as we've been studying, that were the markers. There were those that, in the time, it was available to them now. Even to the two thieves, we spoke about the two thieves yesterday. They were, they were both in Matthew, hurling insults at our Lord. And while they were also all three suffering on there, and their anger lashed out to him. But what we didn't cover yesterday was a repentance, another view. We have the different views of the, of, of the different takes. And we have four gospels, they have, they emphasize different things. One will miss something, one will add something. And it's all inspired, and it's all real, it's all true. Let's open up this morning to Luke 23, Luke 23, 33. Luke 23, Luke 23, 33. There we go. When they had came to a place called the skull, there they crucified him and, and the criminals, one on the right and the other on the left. But you're just saying, Father forgives them, for they do not know what they are doing. And we've taken, we've taken a little bit of a back step down. We've, and Matt, we have Jesus on the cross and that darkness, but we're coming back to it. Just want to cover a couple other things here. Here it is, that Jesus is praying for his tormentors. Remember what Jesus has taught, pray for your enemies. And beautiful statement here, one of the most beautiful in the Bible is. And it's, here, he's under a mass persecution. He's, he's got people, he's got the leadership, he's got people, he's got, even the, initially, even those on his left, right and on his left, hurling insults and mocking him and throwing his words back at him and all these things. And as we said yesterday, that you heard that little kid thing, sticking stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me. These were hurting. These were, they hurt the spirit, they hurt the soul. Words do hurt. And I have no, I have, I believe that these words were just as hurtful as anything else to the Lord. Here he is in his persecution, in that persecution. He's saying, but Jesus was saying, "Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do." This reminds me of Richard Warmbroth, the voice of the martyrs. He was in a Russian prison, a Romanian preacher. And every day the guard would come by and he would, Richard would have his head bowed and he would, and he would be praying. He'd be caught praying every day. And the guard would drag him out and beat him for praying and put him back in the cell. The next day he'd come by, he'd be praying again. And finally the guard says, "What, what is there that you have to pray about? What is it that you need to pray?" The guard was getting exasperated, he was getting tired of beating him. And Richard looks up at him and he says, "I'm praying for you, praying for my enemies." And this Jesus is the perfect model. He is suffering. He is suffering. Often our suffering brings us back to ourselves, our hurt and our pain and our pain. But no, Jesus looks beyond himself and he's looking and he's telling God, forgive them, opening up the door for salvation. And the Father's going to answer this prayer. Again, the Father can't arbitrarily just forgive them, but the door of salvation is going to be opened up through the Son and a door of forgiveness will be opened up through the Son so that the Father can forgive them without violating His perfect justice. This is the trick. This is the thing you need to remember because you will hear this. And the question over and over again, "How can a loving God cast His creatures until like a fire?" And he has to because his perfect justice does not cannot violate his perfect love or his perfect love cannot perfect to violate his perfect justice. Where there is a crime, where there has been a violation of God's law, there has to be retribution. And the wages of sin is death and we have all sin. It comes short of the glory of God, so we all have a death penalty upon us. God can't just arbitrarily forgive us for our sins. Otherwise, He himself would be unjust. So a loving God can cast His creatures until like a fire. He can still love us, but yet He cannot violate His justice. This is why Christ is on the cross. And this prayer is going to be answered. The prayer in the garden, Father, if it be your will, let this cup pass from me. Not my will, but your will be done. The cup is passed to Jesus. As the sins of the world would be poured out upon Him. But this prayer is going to be answered. But this is going to be working, Bob. And sometimes we have to watch. When we're praying for somebody, we may not like the way the Lord answers it. We may not like the way God answers it, but nonetheless it's answered. It's going to be answered coming up. But Jesus was saying, Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing. They have been deceived. They have been deceived by their leadership. And so He goes on for fulfillment of prophecy here. And they cast lots dividing up His garments among them. And the people stood by looking on. And the rulers were sneering at Him, saying, He saved others. They Him saved Himself. If this is the Christ of God, His chosen one. The soldiers also mocked Him, coming up to Him, offering Him sarah wine. And saying, if you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. And their attitude was, if you are, if you are, as they're laughing, since you are, this if can be a sense in such a word, because since you are the king of the Jews, save yourself. Now, there were also in the Scripture above Him. This is the king of the Jews. Again, all three languages, Aramaic, Hebrew, and Greek. Now, here we go. And the door of salvation is opening. And this is what we have got. Luke is the only one that picks this up about salvation. First of all, Jesus prays for the salvation. Father, forgive them. He prays for the forgiveness. Now, here you've got two criminals. Initially, they were both hurling insults at Jesus. Now, on the 1st 39, one of the criminals who hanged who hung there and hurling abuse at Him, saying, are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us. But the other answer, rebuking Him, and said, do you not even fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? What changed -- we ought to ask ourselves, what changed in the attitude of this criminal? Because it was clear in Matthew that both of them were -- both of these were antagonistic and all of a sudden one. And this should be a lesson for us. It should be a lesson. How do you get -- listen, when you are being hounded, when you're being tormented, when you have your enemies rising up against you, what's the best way to deal with them? Well, if you bring them upon your side, and you bring them over to an agreement with you, then that would be a great way. If you could save them, if you could bring them into the light, then there will no longer be enemies, but there will be friends. There was -- rather than lashing back at the criminals, you could imagine. Here is that one criminal shouting a insults at Jesus. And then all of a sudden he begins listening to Jesus. Father, forgive them for they do not know what they do, and he continued to pray. This was a continued prayer. And one -- one robber, he did not respond. He continued to look into himself. The other one began to recognize something. He has not abandoned his God. He's still praying. He hadn't abandoned his God. Remember, the two great commandments. Love thy, Lord thy God, with all your heart, with all your mind, with all your strength. And love your neighbor as yourself. That one robber was recognizing the love of Jesus for him. While they were still hanging -- while they were dying upon that cross, they were dying together. So it was like the Psalm 23, "Though I walk through the valley of a shadow death, I will fear no evil, because thou is with me. Thou art with me." So let's -- so, but the other answer rebuked him and said, "Do you not even fear God since you are under the same sentence of condemnation?" The thief is now -- he is now persuading. He's trying to persuade. Now, this may be -- this may seem angered, but I think in a sense he's also trying to persuade the other to recognize. He's already evangelizing, I think. Well, I could be wrong on that, but maybe he's just -- maybe he's just chastised them, but on the other hand, he explains. We've -- you know, he said -- and we indeed are suffering justly, for we are receiving what we deserve for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong. He recognizes what's important here is that this -- this robber, he recognizes the perfection of the one who's dying, recognizes that this one is without sin, without a crime. And when we come to the war, we recognize first that we are sinners. We are recognizing that we deserve -- that we deserve death. That the arrogant looks at themselves. The arrogant says, "Well, I'm good here," and they don't compare themselves to anything. The arrogant takes their strengths, and they're -- they're do-good-isms, and they're morality, and they -- they lift that up and say, "I'm -- I'm good to go." But the humble -- remember what Peter says -- humbled myself under the mighty hand of God, and he will exalt you at the proper time. The humble looks outside of himself, and he sees the glory and the righteousness and the righteousness of God, and he compares himself to that, and he says, "I'm not worthy." He says that I am lost, that I am -- that -- that I deserve death, but I'm pleading for life. I'm pleading for life. Yes, I deserve that. I have to look outside of myself. The arrogant looks to save themselves -- operation bootstraps -- to pick themselves up, to save themselves. You cannot do it. It goes all the way back to the beginning with the world, when -- when the -- when Genesis 1 -- 1, 2, but the earth was empty and void, and darkness is over the surface of deep. That's our soul. And it don't care -- give it -- give it a trillion years. That -- the earth could never evolve itself out of that darkness, and neither can we evolve ourselves out of the darkness that we are in. We need an outside source. And so the strength of -- the strength of this robber is his -- is his weakness, recognizing that he can't save himself, and recognizing the perfection of the one who is take eight. Maybe he doesn't have it all worked out, but he does look at Jesus and see the perfection there. And maybe he does have it worked out. Let's look. And he was saying, "Jesus." And on here he was saying, "And this is the perfect active indicative." And it means that he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Okay. Here -- we've got another key right here. Remember me when you come into the kingdom. What is this -- what's he -- what is this robber believing at this point? The resurrection. The believer is -- you see, our hope is the resurrection going back to 1 Corinthians 15. That it is the resurrection of Christ. Let's -- let's bring up -- bring us this up again. It -- it -- our -- this whole point -- the whole spear point of our salvation and our hope is the resurrection. Let's see. We'll go 1 Corinthians 15. And let's see. Coming down. All right. Let's see if we find it now. Let's start with 3. For I deliver to you of -- as of -- oops. There we go. This is Paul speaking. For I deliver to you first of importance that I also receive that Christ died for our sins according to Scripture and that he was buried and that he was raised on the third day according to Scripture and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the 12th. After that, he appeared to more than 500 brethren one time, most of whom remained until now, but some have fallen asleep. Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. And last of all, to the one untimely born, he appeared to me also. For I am the least of the apostles. Did you not fit to be called the apostle because I persecuted church of God. But by the grace of God, I am what I am. And his grace toward me did not prove vain, but I labored even more than them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. Whether then it was I or they who preached and so you believed. Now, if Christ has preached that he has been raised from the dead, how do some of you say that there was no resurrection of the dead? But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain. Your faith also is in vain. Moreover, we are even found to be false witnesses of God because we testify against God that he raised Christ who we did not raise. If in fact the dead are not raised. For if dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless. You are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If you have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most pitied. So we see the position with the thief here. He says, and we indeed are suffering justly for we are receiving what deserve for our deeds. But this man has done nothing. And he was saying, Jesus remember me when you come into your kingdom. There has to be a resurrection. And he is believing in that resurrection. And he said to him, truly, I say to you, today you shall be with me in paradise. And there is argument behind. I say to you, it depends on where there is Commas going to be. I say to you today, this day, that you will be with me in paradise. Or you will be with me today, this day we are going to enter in paradise. This paradise, we are still, we are not in a new testament. Though we are in a new testament, we are still in the prior to Pentecost. And prior to Pentecost, those who died, they go to paradise. They go to Abraham's bosom. The glorification of the Lord and him coming in, going in and emptying out paradise has not yet occurred. So there were still people dying. There will still be more people died after Jesus died on the cross. They will be going to paradise. Well, at that point, as you were, as you were, up to this point up to the cross, they would still be going to paradise. So, truly today, you shall be with me in paradise. And it was now about the sixth hour. And this is where we got to yesterday. And the darkness fell over the whole land until the ninth hour. This is from noon to three. Because the sun was obscured, okay, they blanked it out. And the veil of the temple was torn in two. And that's something that we might have to look a little bit more of that veil and the temple being torn from top to bottom. I've got an appointment today, so I've got to run out this morning. So we're going to cut it off right there. So there it is, Mike, the thief on the cross. So this morning, we continue to pray for another brother who's hurting. He's been hurting for the last week. And we're praying for you. And praying for your cover, praying for JD, and he's hurting as well from cancer, throat cancer. And he's in great torment, great pain. And so that's also, yeah. So let's close it out in prayer. Father in heaven, thank you for this opportunity this morning. Fellowship in your Word. We pray heavenly Father that maybe someone's listened today and they're still looking at this. And maybe the lights start to shine in their heart that Jesus Christ died for them. And they were sinners and they may be at one point markers like this robber on the cross who mocked Jesus and recognized that the door of salvation was opened by this one. And then sought the sort of forgiveness and sought and asking that. And it's also interesting to have a follow. It wasn't him begging for forgiveness. It was him just saying, Lord, just remember me. Remember me when you enter into your kingdom. There's a wonderful kingdom coming. This is the day of the vulnerability of our Lord that he is that lamb, gentle and meek, and we can come to him and be forgiven and be accepted. But there's going to be a time when he's going to be that and he will assume that position of being a lion, the lion, Judah, which will come back to banquishes enemies. This is the day. This is the day that we can take advantage of his vulnerability and enter into that relationship. Thank you Heavenly Father, Your Grace, your Master in Christ's name and pray. Amen. At www.gchappell.org. . [BLANK_AUDIO]