March 19, 2025 • 25 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Thanks for joining us here today on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,
the audio broadcast ministry of Pastor Rick Warren.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Today we continue in.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
A series called the Seven Greatest Words of Love.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
There are seven.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Words in particular that Jesus spoke during his final hours
on the cross that hold the keys for finding fulfillment
in your life, relationships, and even your career. Right now,
here's Pastor Rick with part one of a message called
the Word of Assurance.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
If you have a Bible, you want to open to
Luke chapter twenty three. If you don't have a Bible,
all the verses we're going to look at are in
the outline if you'll take that out the message notes.
And I told you that we're going to continue in
this series on the seven Greatest Words of Love, the
seven last statements of Jesus on the Cross. Now, they
(00:56):
weren't the last statements of Jesus, because you resurrected and
talked a lot after that, But these are the last
words as he is dying on the cross. Now, I
have been at the bedside of I don't know, maybe hundreds,
I don't know how many people who I've watched them
take their last breath, as I've been there as a pastor,
(01:17):
and I want to tell you something. Last words are important.
Not all the time, but a lot of the time.
The last thing somebody says is extremely significant. And that's
why we're taking seven weeks to look at the seven
last statements of Jesus and what they are all about,
the last things that he says. And in this second word.
(01:40):
Last week we looked at the word of forgiveness, Father,
forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. And in
this second word we get the word of assurance. And
it's a word that he says to a thief who's
dying on the cross beside him. As you know, Jesus
was led up the hill to Golgatha. He was between
(02:01):
two thieves. One of them rejected Jesus, the other actually
accepted him on the cross. And today we're going to
look at the conversation between Jesus and that man, and
I call it the word of assurance. Jesus is hanging
between these two criminals. The Greek word literally means evil doers.
They did evil and one of them turns against Jesus.
(02:23):
Blasphemo is what it's actually said in Greek, and one
of them turns towards Jesus, and he saved at the
last minute, hanging there on the cross. This is the
most famous last minute salvation in history. I mean, in
his very dying seconds, he converts, he trusts Jesus Christ
(02:44):
for his salvation, and Jesus says the second phrase, today
you will be with me in paradise now. Because I
was working on this message and thinking about this message
all week, I kept noting this, noticing this phrase saved
at the last minute. And you know, you can read
in the paper about bills and Congress that are about
(03:05):
to be declined and they're saved at the last minute.
And I read about a woman who was captured by
some private some pirates over in Somali and saved at
the last minute. And I read about a suicide pact
of some people, of some teenagers in Germany and the
police found out about it and they were saved at
the last minute. And of course we periodically hear about
(03:27):
people who are on death row and they're getting ready
to be executed. And down in Texas, a judge at
the last second issue a stay of execution and the criminal,
the inmate, was saved at the last minute. Now, nothing
is more famous than this criminal who literally had a
(03:49):
deathbed conversion saved at the last minute. And it's extremely
important Texas Scripture because it tells us in this one
passage what you must know in order to be saved.
It tells us how you can be certain that you're saved,
that you don't have any more doubts in your mind,
(04:10):
and it tells us when and where you can be saved.
I want you to listen to this message as if
your life depends on it, because it does. I'm gonna
explain to you as clearly, as simply, as succinctly as
(04:30):
I know how what it means to be saved, what
it means to know you are for certain going to
heaven when you die. And I know many people who've
gone to church their entire lives and still aren't sure
that they have doubts about their salvation. They have doubts
about am I really gonna get in? Is God gonna
(04:54):
love me? Is he gonna let me into his heaven.
I don't ever want you to have any doubt again
about whether you're going to heaven or not. I want you,
when you finish this message to be absolutely certain confident
with zero doubts, zero fears, zero anxieties, that if you
(05:16):
were to die to night or in the next hour,
you would go straight into the presence of God. I
want you to have that assurance. I don't want you
to ever doubt again, and I don't want you to
have any misconceptions. Now, the first thing that this story
tells us is the five things we must know in
order to be saved. Now, there are a lot of
(05:39):
things you can know about Jesus, but there's some things
you must know about Jesus. So I'm not going to
tell you everything you could know about God, about life,
about Heaven, about salvation. But I'm going to tell you
the minimum. This is what you have to know in
order to get into and there are five Thanks. Let's
(06:02):
read the text, Luke, Chapter twenty three, verses thirty nine
to forty three. One of the criminals hanging beside Jesus
hurled insults at him. So you're the Messiah, are you
prove it? Prove it by saving yourself and save us
(06:23):
two while you're at it. But the other criminal on
the other side of Jesus rebuked him that the criminal
had just said that said don't you fear God even
when you're dying. We deserve to die for our evil deeds.
But this man has done, not, not done anything wrong.
(06:48):
And then he said, he looks at Jesus and he said, Jesus,
remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus replied,
I assure you. This is the word of assurance. I
assure you. In other words, I guarantee it. You can't
count on it, you can take it to the bank.
I assure you today you'll be with me in paradise.
(07:13):
Now what does Jesus tell us in this passage? And
what do we learn about salvation? Because obviously, if Jesus
says you're going to heaven, you're going to heaven, and
he told this guy you're going to heaven. So let's
tear this passage apart a little bit of the time. First,
let's look at five things I must know in order
(07:35):
to be saved. This man is dying next to Jesus,
and he doesn't know much. Probably never been to school,
probably hadn't had a single day of education in his life.
He's a street criminal, he's what people would call low life.
But he did know some things, and he knew enough
to get into heaven. What did he know? Well, the
(07:57):
first thing he knew in the first thing you have
to know, write this down. I must know that I'll
face God after I die. That's the first thing you've
got to know. You got to know that when you die,
you're going to go straight into the presence of God,
and you're going to face God after you die. He
knew that. And when the first criminal joins in insulting
(08:20):
Jesus because the crowd was insulting Jesus and the soldiers
were insulting Jesus, the second one notice he rebukes. He
rebukes Epimeo the first criminal, and the second criminal says,
don't you fear God even when you're dying? What is
he saying there? Don't you realize the seriousness of your situation? Man,
(08:40):
you are about to meet God. You are seconds away
from eternity. Buddy, you may have run from the police
and the law enforcement your entire life. You can run
from God your entire life. But then you can't run anymore.
He said, Man, you are seconds away from meeting all
my mighty God, your Creator. Do you not realize this?
(09:03):
Do you not fear this? Fear God even when you're dying.
You see the reason why so many people ignore God
and live on holy lives is they think death is
just the end, and when I die, it's over. That's it.
No more problem. It's not. Death is not the end
of anything. Death is the beginning. It's the beginning of eternity.
(09:28):
And you're gonna spend far more years in eternity than
you're gonna spend on this planet. You get maybe one
hundred years at the most on this planet. You're gonna
spend trillions of years in eternity. Death is not the
end of your life. It's the beginning of your eternal life.
The rest of your life in one of two places.
(09:48):
So this is not the end. Here. One day you're
going to stand face to face to God and you're
going to give an account to God of everything in
your life. The Bible says this over and over and over.
There's gonna be a judgment day. There's going to be
the counting day of my life. Look at this verse
Hebrews nine to twenty seven. Everyone must die once and
after that be judged by God. And that is one
(10:11):
appointment you cannot counsel. That is one appointment you will
not be late. For you know, the mortality rate in
the world is now one hundred percent. Nobody's gonna skip death.
We're not all the same color, we're not all the
same age, we're not all the same sex, we don't
(10:33):
all have the same amount of money. But the one
thing we all have in common, everybody here and everybody listen,
is this. We're all gonna die. That is the funk
one thing for sure. And it is foolish to spend
your entire life unprepared for something you know is inevitable.
In fact, you're not really ready to live until you're
(10:55):
ready to die. So he says, everybody's gonna die, and
after that you're gonna go face to face with God.
That guy knew this. The second thing the guy knew,
and you've got to know this too, is I must
know that I've sinned against God. I must know that
I've sinned against God. In Luke twenty three, verse forty one,
(11:18):
the criminal says this, we deserve to die for our
evil deeds. Now there's a word for that. That's called confession.
He's admitting I have sinned. We deserve to die for
our evil deeds. Look at this verse up on the screen.
First John one nine. You know this verse. If we
confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just
(11:38):
to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.
This is a promise of God. But we've got to confess.
The word confess is the word homoeo homo meaning same.
We get homogenized milk. It's all the same. Homo legeo
means to speak the same. Confession is to agree with God,
(11:59):
say yeah, God, you're right, that was wrong. That's all
confession means. I admit it. I speak the same about
it that you do. I say the same thing about
what That gossip was wrong, that anger was wrong, that
pride was wrong, that lie was wrong, that cheating was wrong,
that unfaithfulness was wrong. That bad attitude of self centered
(12:19):
greed and arrogance that was wrong. Now, the Bible doesn't
tell us what this guy had done. Unfortunately, it would
have been fun. I mean, wouldn't you like to have
read the National Inquirer notes on this criminal next to Jesus.
It doesn't tell us all he had done wrong. But
you know what, it doesn't really matter because James two
(12:41):
ten says this, if you commit one sin in one area,
you're guilty of them all. And the Bible says that
if you've committed one sin, that makes you a quote sinner.
So what do you mean? Well, let me just ask us.
How many laws do you have to break to be
a law breaker? One? Okay? How many crimes do you
(13:05):
have to commit to be a criminal? One? How many
times you have to be unfaithful to be unfaithed to
be called an unfaithful person once? How many sins you
have to commit to be a sinner? One? So that
puts us all on the same boat. Now, I'm sure
you have committed far less than I have, but you're
(13:28):
still in the same boat with me. All right, We're
all in the same boat. One break one law, you're
a law breaker. Commit one crime, you're a criminal. Do
one sin, you're a sinner. Okay. And so it's all
I mean. If you've got a if you've got a link,
a chain link, and it's holding up a bridge, how
many links have to break for the bridge to fall? One?
(13:52):
Not every link, just one link and the bridge falls. Now,
God does not judge on a scale of one to
one hundred. He just doesn't. But let's just use this
for illustrative purposes. And let's say we've got like a
thermometer here from zero degrees to one hundred degrees, and
(14:14):
we're gonna make a hundred being absolute perfection in your life.
You've never done anything wrong. I mean, you are more
than a saint, you're a super saint. One hundred you
have never done anything wrong in your life. And let's
say zero is absolute incarnate evil. Okay, let's play a
little game here. So let's name some people in history
(14:36):
and rate them. Hitler. Hitler, we'll give him a zero
absolute incarnate evil, killed six million Jews in the Holocaust.
He gets Hitler gets a zero absolute evil. How about
Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa cared for people, She does goodres
(15:00):
for the sick, she cares for the dying. I'm gonna
give Mother Teresa maybe an eighty, maybe maybe even a ninety.
But even Mother Teresa would admit that she was a sinner,
that she wasn't perfect, that sometimes she got impatient, sometimes
she got angry, she didn't always have faith, that sometimes
she doubted. But let's give her an eighty. Let's give
(15:22):
her a ninety. Okay, Now let's get serious. Rick Warren, Okay,
let's give him a fifteen. Okay, Okay, he's trying hard,
but he keeps stumbling over his own shoelaces, which is
why he never puts him in his shoes. So maybe
I get a fifteen. Okay, I get a fifteen. Let's
(15:43):
say you, Okay, I'm just gonna be gracious and say,
how about a forty five for you? Okay? You know
you're probably at least twice as good as me. Okay,
I don't doubt that. Okay. And the point is some
people are better than others, but nobody is perfect. Does
that make sense? Now here's the problem. Heaven is a
(16:06):
perfect place. So there's not a snowballs chance of hell
in hell that I'm going to get into heaven. Because
I'm not perfect and you're not either, you will never
deserve heaven. You couldn't do enough good in your life
to deserve heaven. So God had to figure out a
(16:27):
way to make you perfect in his eyes. Because if
God let imperfect people into heaven, Heaven would not be
perfect anymore. It wouldn't be heaven. It would be filled
with jealousy and gossip and ego and pride and impatience,
and heaven would be just like Earth. That would be hell.
(16:49):
I'm glad I don't have to live on Earth forever. Really,
there's too much sadness, sickness, sorrow, sin, suffering in this world.
It's a broken planet because of sin. I'm glad I
don't have to live on Earth forever. I don't want
to live on Earth forever. I want to live in
a perfect place forever. The problem is, I stop batting
a thousand about my third breath in life, So I
(17:12):
need a plan. God had to come up with the
plan to make me perfect in his eyes, and to
make you perfect in his eyes. That's called salvation. There
is no way you are anybody else on the planet
Earth will ever deserve Heaven. None of us deserve it
because it's perfect and none of us are perfect. So
(17:37):
the thief says this, you might circle it on your thing.
He says, we deserve to die. We deserve to die. Now,
notice this next verse on your outline. Romans six twenty
three is very famous verse. You know this verse. The
wages of sin is what death? But the gift that's
the bad news. Here's the good news. But the gift
(17:58):
of God is eternal life. In Christ Jesus our Lord.
Now circle the word wages and circle the word gift.
I hope you know the difference between wages and gift.
I mean, let's say your employer came into you to
your office wherever you work, you know, when you get
(18:19):
your paycheck, and he says, I have a really gift,
great gift for you. You're gonna love this gift. You're gonna
like me for this gift. And he hands it to
you and it's your paycheck, and you're going, buddy, this
is no gift. I earned this paycheck. I earned these wages.
(18:39):
I deserve you. You're not doing any good thing for me.
I deserve this. These are my wages. They're not a gift.
A gift is something you couldn't afford, you don't deserve,
you didn't ask for. It was just a gift. It's
a gracious gift to you. Gifts are undeserved. You don't
deserve heaven. I don't deserve heaven. I didn't earn it
(19:03):
and I never will. It is a gift of God.
So the first thing he knows, I know that I'm
going to face God after I die. He says, don't
you fear God? You're going to meet him in just
a minute. And I know that I've sinned against God.
He says, we deserve to die for our evil deeds.
And then there's a third thing that this guy knew,
(19:23):
and it's the third thing you have to know in
order to be saved. I must know that Jesus was
more than a man. I must know that Jesus was
more than a man. Notice the third thing this He
says he's uneducated, but he knows the important stuff. And
what he knows in Luke twenty three forty one is this.
(19:43):
I know that this man has not done anything wrong.
Now I want you to circle on your allies the
word anything. I know that this man talking about Jesus
has not done anything wrong. And notice what he doesn't say.
He doesn't say, this guy Jesus hanging here on the
I know he's not as bad as we are. He
(20:04):
doesn't say that. He doesn't compare this guy's not as
bad as we are. We deserve it, but he doesn't
deserve it. No, he says, this guy has never done
anything wrong. The word there in Greek odees literally means zero,
not a nothing, zipped. He's never done anything wrong. Now, question,
has anybody ever said that about you? No? Or me?
(20:29):
Do you know that it's ever been said about anybody? No,
because you can't say that about a mere human being.
You can't say about any human being he's never done
anything wrong. You just can't say it. Because humans are
fail a frail, and we make mistakes, and we have
feelings and sins. And so when this guy says he's
(20:52):
never done anything, not one thing in his life wrong,
he's saying, this guy's not a mere man. This is
not a human we're dying next to. Yes, he's human
and human flesh, but he's God. He's more than a human.
The Bible says in Ecclesiastes seven twenty there on your outline,
(21:15):
there is not a single person in all the earth
who is always good and never since bingo, that's it.
Nobody has ever done anything, never done anything wrong. So
he's saying, this guy is an unusual man. He's more
than a man. Now here's what happens on the cross
(21:38):
Tewod Corinthians five twenty one. God had Christ who was sinless,
And the only person we could say that about is
Jesus Christ. God had Christ who is sinless. Take our
sin so that we might receive God's approval through him.
That's what you call the Great exchange, that's what you
(22:01):
call salvation. Jesus says, I have never sinned, but I'll
take your sin. I've never done anything wrong, but I'll
take everything you've done wrong. I'll take your wrap. I'll
pay the price, I'll pay the ticket, I'll serve the time,
I'll do the judgment. Because somebody's got to pay for
your wrongdoing, either you you can pay for it, or
(22:24):
somebody else. God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should
not perish but have everlasting life. God so loved you,
he said, I will pay for all the things you've
done wrong. That's how much God loves you. That's why
Jesus is the savior of the world.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Hey, thanks for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Pastor
Rick has created a beautifully illustrated book called Journey with Jesus,
and this book is stunning. It's filled with beautiful photographs,
colored mosaics that depict the sacrificial journey Jesus made to
save us. Here's Pastor Rick to tell you more.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Every year, Christians from all over the world remember the
death and resurrection of Jesus Christ by traveling to Jerusalem,
where they walk the path that Jesus took on the
way to the Cross. That path is called the Via
dol Rosa, which literally means the way of suffering. Now,
since you may not be able to ever travel to Jerusalem,
(23:32):
I want to suggest a way for you to celebrate
and reflect on and pray about what Jesus did for
you on the Cross. So I've created a brand new,
one of a kind resource that will take you through
the fifteen stops that the Bible tells us Jesus took
on the road to Calvary and his death on the Cross.
(23:53):
Now we're calling this resource Journey with Jesus. Journey with
Jesus is a deluxe hardcover gift edition book that's illustrated
with really beautiful photos, high quality glossy photos of mosaic
tile artwork that reflect each of the stops that Jesus
made on his journey to the Cross. You're not ever
(24:15):
going to forget this gift. It's a great gift book
to keep and to study over and over again, and
it'd make a great gift for your family and your
friends too.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Grab your copy today by calling eight hundred six hundred
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That's Dailyhope Radio dot com. We hope you'll join us
next time when we look into God's word for our
daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily
(24:46):
Hope and your generous financial support
Thanks for joining us here today on Pastor Rick's Daily Hope,
the audio broadcast ministry of Pastor Rick Warren.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
Today we continue in.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
A series called the Seven Greatest Words of Love.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
There are seven.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Words in particular that Jesus spoke during his final hours
on the cross that hold the keys for finding fulfillment
in your life, relationships, and even your career. Right now,
here's Pastor Rick with part one of a message called
the Word of Assurance.
Speaker 2 (00:35):
If you have a Bible, you want to open to
Luke chapter twenty three. If you don't have a Bible,
all the verses we're going to look at are in
the outline if you'll take that out the message notes.
And I told you that we're going to continue in
this series on the seven Greatest Words of Love, the
seven last statements of Jesus on the Cross. Now, they
(00:56):
weren't the last statements of Jesus, because you resurrected and
talked a lot after that, But these are the last
words as he is dying on the cross. Now, I
have been at the bedside of I don't know, maybe hundreds,
I don't know how many people who I've watched them
take their last breath, as I've been there as a pastor,
(01:17):
and I want to tell you something. Last words are important.
Not all the time, but a lot of the time.
The last thing somebody says is extremely significant. And that's
why we're taking seven weeks to look at the seven
last statements of Jesus and what they are all about,
the last things that he says. And in this second word.
(01:40):
Last week we looked at the word of forgiveness, Father,
forgive them, they don't know what they're doing. And in
this second word we get the word of assurance. And
it's a word that he says to a thief who's
dying on the cross beside him. As you know, Jesus
was led up the hill to Golgatha. He was between
(02:01):
two thieves. One of them rejected Jesus, the other actually
accepted him on the cross. And today we're going to
look at the conversation between Jesus and that man, and
I call it the word of assurance. Jesus is hanging
between these two criminals. The Greek word literally means evil doers.
They did evil and one of them turns against Jesus.
(02:23):
Blasphemo is what it's actually said in Greek, and one
of them turns towards Jesus, and he saved at the
last minute, hanging there on the cross. This is the
most famous last minute salvation in history. I mean, in
his very dying seconds, he converts, he trusts Jesus Christ
(02:44):
for his salvation, and Jesus says the second phrase, today
you will be with me in paradise now. Because I
was working on this message and thinking about this message
all week, I kept noting this, noticing this phrase saved
at the last minute. And you know, you can read
in the paper about bills and Congress that are about
(03:05):
to be declined and they're saved at the last minute.
And I read about a woman who was captured by
some private some pirates over in Somali and saved at
the last minute. And I read about a suicide pact
of some people, of some teenagers in Germany and the
police found out about it and they were saved at
the last minute. And of course we periodically hear about
(03:27):
people who are on death row and they're getting ready
to be executed. And down in Texas, a judge at
the last second issue a stay of execution and the criminal,
the inmate, was saved at the last minute. Now, nothing
is more famous than this criminal who literally had a
(03:49):
deathbed conversion saved at the last minute. And it's extremely
important Texas Scripture because it tells us in this one
passage what you must know in order to be saved.
It tells us how you can be certain that you're saved,
that you don't have any more doubts in your mind,
(04:10):
and it tells us when and where you can be saved.
I want you to listen to this message as if
your life depends on it, because it does. I'm gonna
explain to you as clearly, as simply, as succinctly as
(04:30):
I know how what it means to be saved, what
it means to know you are for certain going to
heaven when you die. And I know many people who've
gone to church their entire lives and still aren't sure
that they have doubts about their salvation. They have doubts
about am I really gonna get in? Is God gonna
(04:54):
love me? Is he gonna let me into his heaven.
I don't ever want you to have any doubt again
about whether you're going to heaven or not. I want you,
when you finish this message to be absolutely certain confident
with zero doubts, zero fears, zero anxieties, that if you
(05:16):
were to die to night or in the next hour,
you would go straight into the presence of God. I
want you to have that assurance. I don't want you
to ever doubt again, and I don't want you to
have any misconceptions. Now, the first thing that this story
tells us is the five things we must know in
order to be saved. Now, there are a lot of
(05:39):
things you can know about Jesus, but there's some things
you must know about Jesus. So I'm not going to
tell you everything you could know about God, about life,
about Heaven, about salvation. But I'm going to tell you
the minimum. This is what you have to know in
order to get into and there are five Thanks. Let's
(06:02):
read the text, Luke, Chapter twenty three, verses thirty nine
to forty three. One of the criminals hanging beside Jesus
hurled insults at him. So you're the Messiah, are you
prove it? Prove it by saving yourself and save us
(06:23):
two while you're at it. But the other criminal on
the other side of Jesus rebuked him that the criminal
had just said that said don't you fear God even
when you're dying. We deserve to die for our evil deeds.
But this man has done, not, not done anything wrong.
(06:48):
And then he said, he looks at Jesus and he said, Jesus,
remember me when you come into your kingdom. And Jesus replied,
I assure you. This is the word of assurance. I
assure you. In other words, I guarantee it. You can't
count on it, you can take it to the bank.
I assure you today you'll be with me in paradise.
(07:13):
Now what does Jesus tell us in this passage? And
what do we learn about salvation? Because obviously, if Jesus
says you're going to heaven, you're going to heaven, and
he told this guy you're going to heaven. So let's
tear this passage apart a little bit of the time. First,
let's look at five things I must know in order
(07:35):
to be saved. This man is dying next to Jesus,
and he doesn't know much. Probably never been to school,
probably hadn't had a single day of education in his life.
He's a street criminal, he's what people would call low life.
But he did know some things, and he knew enough
to get into heaven. What did he know? Well, the
(07:57):
first thing he knew in the first thing you have
to know, write this down. I must know that I'll
face God after I die. That's the first thing you've
got to know. You got to know that when you die,
you're going to go straight into the presence of God,
and you're going to face God after you die. He
knew that. And when the first criminal joins in insulting
(08:20):
Jesus because the crowd was insulting Jesus and the soldiers
were insulting Jesus, the second one notice he rebukes. He
rebukes Epimeo the first criminal, and the second criminal says,
don't you fear God even when you're dying? What is
he saying there? Don't you realize the seriousness of your situation? Man,
(08:40):
you are about to meet God. You are seconds away
from eternity. Buddy, you may have run from the police
and the law enforcement your entire life. You can run
from God your entire life. But then you can't run anymore.
He said, Man, you are seconds away from meeting all
my mighty God, your Creator. Do you not realize this?
(09:03):
Do you not fear this? Fear God even when you're dying.
You see the reason why so many people ignore God
and live on holy lives is they think death is
just the end, and when I die, it's over. That's it.
No more problem. It's not. Death is not the end
of anything. Death is the beginning. It's the beginning of eternity.
(09:28):
And you're gonna spend far more years in eternity than
you're gonna spend on this planet. You get maybe one
hundred years at the most on this planet. You're gonna
spend trillions of years in eternity. Death is not the
end of your life. It's the beginning of your eternal life.
The rest of your life in one of two places.
(09:48):
So this is not the end. Here. One day you're
going to stand face to face to God and you're
going to give an account to God of everything in
your life. The Bible says this over and over and over.
There's gonna be a judgment day. There's going to be
the counting day of my life. Look at this verse
Hebrews nine to twenty seven. Everyone must die once and
after that be judged by God. And that is one
(10:11):
appointment you cannot counsel. That is one appointment you will
not be late. For you know, the mortality rate in
the world is now one hundred percent. Nobody's gonna skip death.
We're not all the same color, we're not all the
same age, we're not all the same sex, we don't
(10:33):
all have the same amount of money. But the one
thing we all have in common, everybody here and everybody listen,
is this. We're all gonna die. That is the funk
one thing for sure. And it is foolish to spend
your entire life unprepared for something you know is inevitable.
In fact, you're not really ready to live until you're
(10:55):
ready to die. So he says, everybody's gonna die, and
after that you're gonna go face to face with God.
That guy knew this. The second thing the guy knew,
and you've got to know this too, is I must
know that I've sinned against God. I must know that
I've sinned against God. In Luke twenty three, verse forty one,
(11:18):
the criminal says this, we deserve to die for our
evil deeds. Now there's a word for that. That's called confession.
He's admitting I have sinned. We deserve to die for
our evil deeds. Look at this verse up on the screen.
First John one nine. You know this verse. If we
confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just
(11:38):
to forgive us and to cleanse us from every wrong.
This is a promise of God. But we've got to confess.
The word confess is the word homoeo homo meaning same.
We get homogenized milk. It's all the same. Homo legeo
means to speak the same. Confession is to agree with God,
(11:59):
say yeah, God, you're right, that was wrong. That's all
confession means. I admit it. I speak the same about
it that you do. I say the same thing about
what That gossip was wrong, that anger was wrong, that
pride was wrong, that lie was wrong, that cheating was wrong,
that unfaithfulness was wrong. That bad attitude of self centered
(12:19):
greed and arrogance that was wrong. Now, the Bible doesn't
tell us what this guy had done. Unfortunately, it would
have been fun. I mean, wouldn't you like to have
read the National Inquirer notes on this criminal next to Jesus.
It doesn't tell us all he had done wrong. But
you know what, it doesn't really matter because James two
(12:41):
ten says this, if you commit one sin in one area,
you're guilty of them all. And the Bible says that
if you've committed one sin, that makes you a quote sinner.
So what do you mean? Well, let me just ask us.
How many laws do you have to break to be
a law breaker? One? Okay? How many crimes do you
(13:05):
have to commit to be a criminal? One? How many
times you have to be unfaithful to be unfaithed to
be called an unfaithful person once? How many sins you
have to commit to be a sinner? One? So that
puts us all on the same boat. Now, I'm sure
you have committed far less than I have, but you're
(13:28):
still in the same boat with me. All right, We're
all in the same boat. One break one law, you're
a law breaker. Commit one crime, you're a criminal. Do
one sin, you're a sinner. Okay. And so it's all
I mean. If you've got a if you've got a link,
a chain link, and it's holding up a bridge, how
many links have to break for the bridge to fall? One?
(13:52):
Not every link, just one link and the bridge falls. Now,
God does not judge on a scale of one to
one hundred. He just doesn't. But let's just use this
for illustrative purposes. And let's say we've got like a
thermometer here from zero degrees to one hundred degrees, and
(14:14):
we're gonna make a hundred being absolute perfection in your life.
You've never done anything wrong. I mean, you are more
than a saint, you're a super saint. One hundred you
have never done anything wrong in your life. And let's
say zero is absolute incarnate evil. Okay, let's play a
little game here. So let's name some people in history
(14:36):
and rate them. Hitler. Hitler, we'll give him a zero
absolute incarnate evil, killed six million Jews in the Holocaust.
He gets Hitler gets a zero absolute evil. How about
Mother Teresa. Mother Teresa cared for people, She does goodres
(15:00):
for the sick, she cares for the dying. I'm gonna
give Mother Teresa maybe an eighty, maybe maybe even a ninety.
But even Mother Teresa would admit that she was a sinner,
that she wasn't perfect, that sometimes she got impatient, sometimes
she got angry, she didn't always have faith, that sometimes
she doubted. But let's give her an eighty. Let's give
(15:22):
her a ninety. Okay, Now let's get serious. Rick Warren, Okay,
let's give him a fifteen. Okay, Okay, he's trying hard,
but he keeps stumbling over his own shoelaces, which is
why he never puts him in his shoes. So maybe
I get a fifteen. Okay, I get a fifteen. Let's
(15:43):
say you, Okay, I'm just gonna be gracious and say,
how about a forty five for you? Okay? You know
you're probably at least twice as good as me. Okay,
I don't doubt that. Okay. And the point is some
people are better than others, but nobody is perfect. Does
that make sense? Now here's the problem. Heaven is a
(16:06):
perfect place. So there's not a snowballs chance of hell
in hell that I'm going to get into heaven. Because
I'm not perfect and you're not either, you will never
deserve heaven. You couldn't do enough good in your life
to deserve heaven. So God had to figure out a
(16:27):
way to make you perfect in his eyes. Because if
God let imperfect people into heaven, Heaven would not be
perfect anymore. It wouldn't be heaven. It would be filled
with jealousy and gossip and ego and pride and impatience,
and heaven would be just like Earth. That would be hell.
(16:49):
I'm glad I don't have to live on Earth forever. Really,
there's too much sadness, sickness, sorrow, sin, suffering in this world.
It's a broken planet because of sin. I'm glad I
don't have to live on Earth forever. I don't want
to live on Earth forever. I want to live in
a perfect place forever. The problem is, I stop batting
a thousand about my third breath in life, So I
(17:12):
need a plan. God had to come up with the
plan to make me perfect in his eyes, and to
make you perfect in his eyes. That's called salvation. There
is no way you are anybody else on the planet
Earth will ever deserve Heaven. None of us deserve it
because it's perfect and none of us are perfect. So
(17:37):
the thief says this, you might circle it on your thing.
He says, we deserve to die. We deserve to die. Now,
notice this next verse on your outline. Romans six twenty
three is very famous verse. You know this verse. The
wages of sin is what death? But the gift that's
the bad news. Here's the good news. But the gift
(17:58):
of God is eternal life. In Christ Jesus our Lord.
Now circle the word wages and circle the word gift.
I hope you know the difference between wages and gift.
I mean, let's say your employer came into you to
your office wherever you work, you know, when you get
(18:19):
your paycheck, and he says, I have a really gift,
great gift for you. You're gonna love this gift. You're gonna
like me for this gift. And he hands it to
you and it's your paycheck, and you're going, buddy, this
is no gift. I earned this paycheck. I earned these wages.
(18:39):
I deserve you. You're not doing any good thing for me.
I deserve this. These are my wages. They're not a gift.
A gift is something you couldn't afford, you don't deserve,
you didn't ask for. It was just a gift. It's
a gracious gift to you. Gifts are undeserved. You don't
deserve heaven. I don't deserve heaven. I didn't earn it
(19:03):
and I never will. It is a gift of God.
So the first thing he knows, I know that I'm
going to face God after I die. He says, don't
you fear God? You're going to meet him in just
a minute. And I know that I've sinned against God.
He says, we deserve to die for our evil deeds.
And then there's a third thing that this guy knew,
(19:23):
and it's the third thing you have to know in
order to be saved. I must know that Jesus was
more than a man. I must know that Jesus was
more than a man. Notice the third thing this He
says he's uneducated, but he knows the important stuff. And
what he knows in Luke twenty three forty one is this.
(19:43):
I know that this man has not done anything wrong.
Now I want you to circle on your allies the
word anything. I know that this man talking about Jesus
has not done anything wrong. And notice what he doesn't say.
He doesn't say, this guy Jesus hanging here on the
I know he's not as bad as we are. He
(20:04):
doesn't say that. He doesn't compare this guy's not as
bad as we are. We deserve it, but he doesn't
deserve it. No, he says, this guy has never done
anything wrong. The word there in Greek odees literally means zero,
not a nothing, zipped. He's never done anything wrong. Now, question,
has anybody ever said that about you? No? Or me?
(20:29):
Do you know that it's ever been said about anybody? No,
because you can't say that about a mere human being.
You can't say about any human being he's never done
anything wrong. You just can't say it. Because humans are
fail a frail, and we make mistakes, and we have
feelings and sins. And so when this guy says he's
(20:52):
never done anything, not one thing in his life wrong,
he's saying, this guy's not a mere man. This is
not a human we're dying next to. Yes, he's human
and human flesh, but he's God. He's more than a human.
The Bible says in Ecclesiastes seven twenty there on your outline,
(21:15):
there is not a single person in all the earth
who is always good and never since bingo, that's it.
Nobody has ever done anything, never done anything wrong. So
he's saying, this guy is an unusual man. He's more
than a man. Now here's what happens on the cross
(21:38):
Tewod Corinthians five twenty one. God had Christ who was sinless,
And the only person we could say that about is
Jesus Christ. God had Christ who is sinless. Take our
sin so that we might receive God's approval through him.
That's what you call the Great exchange, that's what you
(22:01):
call salvation. Jesus says, I have never sinned, but I'll
take your sin. I've never done anything wrong, but I'll
take everything you've done wrong. I'll take your wrap. I'll
pay the price, I'll pay the ticket, I'll serve the time,
I'll do the judgment. Because somebody's got to pay for
your wrongdoing, either you you can pay for it, or
(22:24):
somebody else. God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten son, that whoever believes in him should
not perish but have everlasting life. God so loved you,
he said, I will pay for all the things you've
done wrong. That's how much God loves you. That's why
Jesus is the savior of the world.
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Hey, thanks for listening to Pastor Rick's Daily Hope. Pastor
Rick has created a beautifully illustrated book called Journey with Jesus,
and this book is stunning. It's filled with beautiful photographs,
colored mosaics that depict the sacrificial journey Jesus made to
save us. Here's Pastor Rick to tell you more.
Speaker 3 (23:11):
Every year, Christians from all over the world remember the
death and resurrection of Jesus Christ by traveling to Jerusalem,
where they walk the path that Jesus took on the
way to the Cross. That path is called the Via
dol Rosa, which literally means the way of suffering. Now,
since you may not be able to ever travel to Jerusalem,
(23:32):
I want to suggest a way for you to celebrate
and reflect on and pray about what Jesus did for
you on the Cross. So I've created a brand new,
one of a kind resource that will take you through
the fifteen stops that the Bible tells us Jesus took
on the road to Calvary and his death on the Cross.
(23:53):
Now we're calling this resource Journey with Jesus. Journey with
Jesus is a deluxe hardcover gift edition book that's illustrated
with really beautiful photos, high quality glossy photos of mosaic
tile artwork that reflect each of the stops that Jesus
made on his journey to the Cross. You're not ever
(24:15):
going to forget this gift. It's a great gift book
to keep and to study over and over again, and
it'd make a great gift for your family and your
friends too.
Speaker 1 (24:23):
Grab your copy today by calling eight hundred six hundred
five thousand and four. That's eight hundred six hundred five
thousand and four, or simply go to Dailyhope Radio dot com.
That's Dailyhope Radio dot com. We hope you'll join us
next time when we look into God's word for our
daily hope. This program is sponsored by Pastor Rick's Daily
(24:46):
Hope and your generous financial support
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