The Conversion of a Scoundrel

Over in the 39th verse, the story goes thusly. And one of the malefactors, meaning a male criminal, and a female criminal is not a female factor, but a malefactress, 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, Dost 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. It is a familiar story. One that every Sunday school boy and girl has known from their youth up. On the three crosses were three men. Jesus Christ spread eagle between heaven and earth, Looking into the face of his father and looking down into the face of man. Now both of these men began by rejecting Jesus Christ. But the story recalls that one of them repented, Changed his mind, was saved, And received the Lord Jesus Christ just in the nick of time. There are many wonderful words in the world. Many of them are in the Bible. Any preacher makes a study of words. I love words. The word worry that I talked about last Sunday morning, Wurgen, literally an Anglo -Saxon word meaning to strangle, Has been a very interesting one to me. And the study of it, a very enriching one indeed. How many people have strangled themselves literally and spiritually to death By the sin of worry. The word worship, worthship, another exciting Anglo word, Anglo -Saxon word meaning the way we express our opinion or our worth on something. The word power has always been one of my favorite verses. Words. Oh when the power comes. There is something about power that just speaks to me and thrills my heart. I think of the tremendous thrust of a great rocket as it goes into space. Or the power of the atom. Or the power of a positive approach to a problem. But there is nothing in all of this world as exciting and dynamic as the power of God. I know of few words in the world any more exciting than the word hallelujah. I remember the first time I had heard the hallelujah chorus. I had led a professional dance band before I became a Christian. And I knew more about the Muskrat Ramble than I did about Handel's Messiah. I had been born, bred, and raised on Dixieland. And the first time I had attended Oklahoma Baptist University as a sophomore, majoring in music after I'd become a Christian, and I heard the chorale singing one night, the mighty hallelujah chorus, and everybody stood to their feet. I'll tell you my hair literally stood straight up on top of my head. I never heard anything like it. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. I think that's going to be a word that they'll sing and shout all through, all through eternity. Hallelujah. What a powerful and exciting word is hallelujah. It's one of the few words in the world that is basically pronounced the same in any language. It may be a Texas hallelujah. It may be an hallelujah. But everywhere it is spoken, it is literally seldom changed because something is lost when one gets away from hallelujah. That's just the word. Hallelujah. Say it as you will. It is an exciting one. But I know of no word in all of this world more thrilling and exciting to me than the word conversion. Literally, it is a composite of two words, meaning with a change, one with a kind of a Spanish origin, the other very Anglo once again. But to change, to be something one was not and to become something different. This is the hardcore zenith apex and crux of all the human dilemma. I am in favor of everything sociological that is good. We ought to clean up the slums, but we'll not get the first base changing this world until we clean the slums out of the man that lives in the slum. Jesus Christ met the Gadarenes Gadabout, the demoniac of Gadara, with whom all of the social philosophers had failed. They would chain him and he would break the chains. They'd give him food and he would not eat. They would clothe him and he'd rip off his clothes. He was out of his mind, a madman. They would house him and he'd break out of his housing. But one day he met Jesus Christ face to face. And what Jesus, what the social gospel ears had been unable to do, Jesus did in half a minute when he gave him a good old -fashioned dose of New Testament conversion. He came on the inside and changed his water, changed his want to, changed his desire. He had a genuine, wonderful conversion. The theory that man could be saved by his social environment was blown to bits 6 ,000, thousands of years ago, not 6 ,000, thousands of years ago in the beautiful Garden of Eden, ever how long ago that was. Today, man is still trying to change it from the outside, but the Bible tells us that the problems of the world are the problems of the individual and the problems of the individual are the problems of the human heart. Out of the heart proceed the issues of life and the revelings and the vainglories and the difficulties and the problems and the anarchy and the rebellion that legislation and demonstration are failing with every single day will be only ultimately solved when we get the old -time religion down in the hearts of the inside of people. When a man meets God, he's going to be changed. It is not, nor has it ever been, the mission of the world, the church, to make this world a better place in which to live. It is our job to make better men to live in this world. And until the church gets back to the mission of evangelism and conversion, changing the hearts of men, then we will to that degree fail to be the salt of the earth. Conversion, conversion, conversion. What a wonderful word it is. I want you to get a picture of this man. Here he was, half naked on a cross. Jesus Christ was crucified, unclothed. The artists have been kind through the years, but the thieves who were dying on either side were the day replete with agony and dismay and disgrace as three men, one perfect and two wicked men. Two scoundrels were being crucified on the city, garbage dump just outside the hills of Jerusalem. It was indeed a wonderful, wonderful conversion. Write that down. Mark that in your hearts. Remember it. It was a wonderful conversion. Here he was on his deathbed. He'd never heard of Jesus before. The cross, all around. And with all of the pathos and the agony of a heart just about to slip out into eternity, with all of the sincerity of a man that he could muster, he looked up in the face of Jesus and said, Lord, remember me. Me too. Oh, Lord, remember me too. And Jesus said, this very day, thou shalt be with me in paradise. Excuse me. It was a wonderful conversion. Let me ask you this. Did you ever know one that wasn't? I never did. Oh, I've seen some wonderful conversions. I think of the conversion of Artie Alexander, who was saved in one of my revivals years ago. Artie was a state champion wrestler, the governor's ambassador to the President's Council on Youth Fitness. He was the leading dance band leader in Oklahoma City, a state champion high school wrestler, a straight -A student, president of the student body, president of Oklahoma Boy State, a sharpie, a swinger. If one ever was, it was Artie Alexander. Today he is pastor of the Pilot Point Baptist Church up in northern Texas, an outstanding young man. I think of the conversion of Hyman Appelman, a man who came to this country at 14 years of age, couldn't speak anything but a word, but Russian, not a word of English. He was so big at 14, they had to unscrew two seats and give him two seats to put him in the first grade to start all over again. Now listen to this, couldn't speak a word, 14, first grade. By the time he was 21 years of age, not quite, he had graduated from DePaul University and they had to pass a special dispensation by the Illinois legislature to allow him to practice law to be admitted to the bar before he was 21 years of age. What a conversion it was six years later, though his Hebrew people buried him, though they reckon him as dead and turned their back upon him, that he walked out and became a flaming fire for God, and for 25 years in the 30s and 40s set a fire aflame like a prairie conflagration across the state, the likes of which Texas has yet to behold. That was a wonderful conversion. I think of the conversion of Stuart Amblin, who in a drunken stupor one night sat down and wrote, 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'm not going hunting with you, Jake, but I'm gonna go chasing women, and not six months later he sat down and wrote, it is no secret what God can do, what he's done for others, he'll do for you. What happened? Did he go to a psychologist? Did he resolve his neurosis and his psychosis? Did he settle his inhibitions? No, he went to the cross. He was converted. God did down inside of his heart what all the psychiatrists, God bless them, in this world can never do. That was an outstanding conversion, but there was no more wonderful conversion in all of the Bible, the conversion of the Philippians jailer, Paul on the Damascus road, and all the rest of them like this one. It was an exciting, wonderful conversion. Number two, it was an early conversion. You say, now preacher, this is a case for deathbed repentance. If there ever was one, you're wrong. Oh, to be sure, there is one case of deathbed repentance in the Bible that none might despair, but there is only one that none would presume. But this is no proof text for deathbed repentance. If it is anything, it is a vivid illustration and proof for childhood conversion. It is a case in point for early conversion. For you see, this man had never seen Jesus before. He probably had not only never heard of, never heard Jesus, but had probably never heard of Jesus. To get a big crowd, they would always crucify people when they had to do it on a holiday, when there were people from all over the country in town for the gaieties and the festivities. But furthermore, they would have a multiple crucifixion and bring people from different parts of the country to be crucified. This man lives someplace else from where Jesus lived. He'd probably never seen him, never heard him, never knew anything about him. But the first time he heard, he believed. The girl came to my office. I believe she had probably heard the gospel of Christ, as an 11 -year -old child, almost for the first time in her life. Last Sunday, you said, Preacher, can she be saved? She can be saved. Thank God, the sooner, the better that they come to Jesus Christ. This was an early conversion. Number three, it was a simple conversion. He had no PhDs, never been to seminary, hadn't finished college, never got out of anything, but the school of hard naps in all of his life. He was a scoundrel, a discarder, a rejecter, a misfit, an outcast of no good. There he was dying so close to Jesus, he could have reached out and touched him. He had no catechism. He'd been exposed to no theological primers, but he knew there was something in his heart. And he knew that that man on that cross had what he needed, and he wanted it. That's all he knew. He didn't know any big, fancy words. He couldn't teach a course in theology, but he knew his heart was hungry, and he could teach anybody a course in what it meant to be lost. He looked at Jesus in the best way that he knew how. He said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Me too, Lord, me too. Now I want you to notice this simplicity with which this man gave his heart to Jesus Christ. I've seen people come down the aisle. I've seen them just fall on their face and start praying and crying, never say a word. And I knew that God came inside of them, and they got a dose of real old -time religion. I've seen people so close. I've said to them, man, just say, Lord, save me, and you'll be saved. I've seen people so close that I believe if they would have just said, Lord, just some tangible expression, some physical evidence of a repentant heart, if they would have just said, God, I believe God in heaven would have sent all the power of all the universe bursting into their soul to give them light and life in Jesus Christ. All that he did was just say, me too. Remember me. You say, I have a Buddhist background, or I have a Catholic background, or this or that. I don't know what you're talking about, preacher. They say, who will come by profession? Who will come on? The average man doesn't know profession from possession. Who will come by letter? Who come a statement folks don't know the man in the street doesn't know statement from santa claus or or profession from possession or letter from better you don't have to know anything if you know that you can sense in your heart you are separated from god by your sins and you believe jesus christ died on the cross to pay for your sins you can be saved this night it was a simple conversion when he just looked up and said lord remember me now i want you to know something else it was an abundant conversion he got more than he expected look at it again he didn't know any theology he just said lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom in other words he was saying lord whenever and whatever all this is later on by and by when you go into your kingdom i want to go too jesus said i'll beat that a long way i'll give you a whole lot better than that today right now this very day thou shalt be with me in paradise now the camelites argue and the baptists argue back and forth where is paradise well my friend that's not important you get the emphasis on the wrong syllables the issue is not that he said today thou shalt be with me in paradise and where is paradise the important thing is that he said today thou shalt be with me in paradise he went to be with jesus i don't care where that is i don't give us up or down east or west north or south outer space or inner space i just know when i die i want to go be with jesus wherever he is friend that's good enough where is paradise i've got my my high sounding theological interpretation like all the rest of the preachers but i don't think that's important the important thing is that he went to be with i don't care if paradise is you know what i used to say when i lived in oklahoma i used to say i don't care if paradise is in texas i just want to go be with jesus and i went and spoiled a good joke i sent him back in my car today with a little texas flag singing boomer sooner boomer sooner i've still got some hang -ups i mean i'm still emotionally all involved sideways there ah but listen wherever it is it's with jesus he went to be with jesus that's the important thing it was an abundant conversion he got more than he hoped for he got more than he expected now get the picture he said someday take me with you jesus said i'll beat that a long way today right now you come down the aisle if it is for no other purpose and there's nothing so uh so uh ridiculous about that no for no other purpose than wanting to miss hell that makes pretty good sense in itself for no matter why you come to christ i guarantee you you'll get a whole lot more than you expected more than you bargained for more than you had dreamed in the fullness of jesus christ decisions settled problems resolved situations worked out as you had never dreamed but you must seek first the kingdom of god and then all of the issues of life will begin to revolve into a place of satisfaction about them it was an abundant conversion well another word or two and we're through it was an immediate conversion he didn't say well you go out work out your own salvation you join the church or you you do you you hold on faithful here five or ten years if you do good maybe you'll make it he said today right now this day now thou shalt be with me in paradise i've seen people tremble under the convicting power of god whom i believe the first moment they put that first step out in the aisle and started down the aisle to christ i believe they were saved before they ever went six inches it is an immediate thing when you say yes to god god says an immediate yes to you it was a repentant conversion here this account luke tells us one thief rejected him one accepted him now one of the other gospels says both thieves rejected him a discrepancy an error a mistake not at all they both did reject him earlier but only one of them records the fact that he changed his mind and was saved and that's part of what conversion is a repentance a change of attitude a change of direction a change of mind going from god to god let me ask you a very simple and honest question and it is not my purpose to come and try to save all of the church members but let me ask you an honest question have you genuinely had the ingredient of repentance in your public decision you came down an aisle perhaps someday maybe here maybe elsewhere some other place some other time the preacher stuck out his hand said how have you come you said fine thank you how are you you want to trust the lord yes i do want to join the church Yes. Want to be baptized? Yes. I'll take everything you've got. Fine. Wonderful. Sign the card. Sit down. Be baptized. Good. When did you repent? When did you begin to abhor evil? When did you develop a holy hatred for sin? When was there a life -changing repentance? When you nodded the card, was that repentance? When you said yes to some questions, was that repentance? When you were submerged beneath the baptistry, was that repentance? I have found that when a man really meets God, you do not have to prime him and pump him and encourage him to do right. It is the normal result of a heart that has been affected by the life -changing gospel of Jesus Christ. A repentance must be involved in a conversion. This man had a real repentance. He was converted. He was changed. And he wasn't ashamed to say, I've been wrong and things are going to be different now with this last word I finish. It was an open conversion. Historians say there were probably 3 ,000 persons at least around the cross. He didn't care. He didn't care who looked. He didn't care what they were thinking. He had business to contract with the God of heaven. And he began to pray to his Lord, Jesus Christ, I trust you, save me too. And he did it. And he didn't care if the whole world knew. It was an open conversion. And what of you? Have you the courage to stand to your feet from the balcony downstairs, even in the choir, the very back row, the front row, and say, preacher, I must come clean and be honest with God God. And say that I am not a real child of God. I've never had a conversion experience. I've never been transformed. I've never repented. I've never been changed. I want to be saved and really saved tonight. Then my friend, he says, if you deny me before men, then I'll deny you. You say, preacher, I'm a Sunday school teacher. I'm a deacon's wife. I've been a member of that church seven years. How can I go down and admit that I've never really been converted? How in God's name could I do that? I don't know. I know this. If that could be your condition tonight, our Lord said, if you will confess me before men, then on that day, I will confess you before my father in heaven. But if you find it embarrassing to be identified with me and you deny me, then I must deny you. What will you do with Jesus? It will determine what he will do with you. Let us bow our heads and close our eyes and pray.