Children—John Kaiser
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Everybody, it is a good morning. You know, it's a beautiful day.
Oh, you're looking at the looking out the windows there and you see the clouds, but you know the sun is shining above the clouds.
The sun is shining over this whole half of the world right now. We're just under a few little clouds. It's actually a beautiful day somewhere.
This is what day is this? Yes, it's Sunday. What else do we call it? Yes, the Lord's Day. Yes. And if you learn your memory verse for this morning, what else is it? What other day is it?
If you learn the memory verse for this morning, this is also the day of what?
Salvation, yes, that's wonderful. You know, if the Lord Jesus had never come, we would never have a Lords day and we wouldn't have a day of salvation and you wouldn't be here. I wouldn't be here either.
We're here because the Lord Jesus came.
Who knows why the Lord Jesus came? Why did the Lord Jesus come to die?
Yes, the Lord Jesus came to die and because he died, he rose. And he, he is our Savior because he died and rose. He died for me and he died for you. And that's why we're here this morning. Now, we normally begin Sunday school by singing, and we normally begin by singing generally the hymns off the Backpage.
But we're not restricted to that. The Backpage of the hymn sheet. What hymn shall we start with this morning? Yes.
#46.
What are tidings?
Who knows? What tidings are we just saying about glad tidings? What are tidings TIDINGS. It's a long word.
What are tidings?
Well, that's an old fashioned word for news. So what is glad news?
That's good news. Does anybody here this morning glad? If you're glad, hold your hand up.
OK, what does glad mean?
Yes. What does glad mean? Happy. Good. I'm glad you're happy. I'm happy you're happy.
It's good to be happy. God wants us to be happy. And you know what generally makes us unhappy is sin. That's what makes us unhappy.
And so we have good news or glad tidings. I bring IBRING that Jesus has come to save me now.
It's wonderful news that Jesus came to save me.
If he came to save.
Me. Did he come to save anybody else? Hold up your hand. If Jesus came to save you. That's right, Jesus came to save you.
So we can all sing glad tidings that Jesus has come to save me and he calls and he calls all the girls. What are GIRLS? Girls. Yes. And he wants all the Bo YS2 What a boy. Whoops, I told you what are Bois? Boys. Yes, they're hard to get along with sometimes and they but the girls need to be saved too. Boys and girls need to be saved.
Two TRUST.
What is trust? Oops, I'm getting ahead of myself. What is TR UST spell?
What does trust mean?
What does it mean to trust?
Yes.
To have faith in somebody, yes, or something, yes. How many here walked here this morning all the way from the hotel?
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How many came in cars?
Yeah, a lot of hands go up for card came in cars. How many drove cars?
That means the rest of you trusted them to get you here. You got in the car. Did you come in a car this morning?
Did you worry about the driver? I'm sure he or she's glad to hear that.
Yes, you trusted the person that drove the car. You didn't tell him how to drive, did you? No, you just got in and sat back. And we're glad that you weren't in the rain. All right, How about another song?
The first row gets first choice, but yes.
#5 OK, that's on the front sheet.
Since there's fewer children this morning, we'll sing the whole hymn.
Explode.
And tell them it's dry turns all over all.
My sins are playing.
In the heart and pray.
I'm going to resources.
I believe.
I believe the way I continue to trust the world. My sins are aware.
Now rest my love in my heart.
It's on my blood.
And center rose nor ever from my glory.
Of pregnant for observed.
Unprecedented heartbreak.
My sins away.
He told me to watch and pray.
I will pray the Lord and say every day I.
You know, I have been saying, as I was saying this song, I was thinking, you know, I've been singing this song for over 60 years. And I remember when I was young I used to sing this chorus, happy day when Jesus washed my sins away. And I agreed with that.
But then it says the next line says he taught me how to watch and pray and I.
Thought, well maybe and live rejoicing every day. And I thought.
You know that doesn't match my experience.
Deliver rejoicing every day.
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Are you boys and girls happy?
Every day.
Well, it's because I wasn't reading this carefully. When Jesus washed my sins away, they were all gone at once.
But when Jesus teaches us, it's a learning process and it takes time.
And it says He taught me how to watch and pray and live rejoicing every day. You want to be happy. You need to learn from the Lord Jesus how to be happy. And I can truthfully say I'm happier now than I was a long time ago.
The Lord Jesus has taught me how to be happy every day, and sometimes that's sometimes that involves painful lessons.
But the Lord Jesus is the best teacher, so you can sing this song honestly.
Because He's teaching all those who are listening to him. He taught me how to watch and pray and live rejoicing every day. And if you say well, that I don't rejoice every day, it's something you can learn.
He taught me how to watch and pray and live rejoicing every day. Happy day. Happy day when Jesus washed my sins away. All right, we have time for.
One more.
Right on the end here.
#32 OK, let's see what that is.
All right #32 very appropriate for our lesson this morning. We'll sing the whole hymn.
Obey my sins something but the.
Party's on a storm that's not one spot. 3 days, nothing but the love of Jesus.
All over, perhaps upstairs in front of God makes me quiet a slow.
None of the bother from time though. Nothing but nothing but the blood.
For my part of the sightseeing, nothing but the love Jesus.
Or my pleasure to take this, My pleasure, nothing but the blood Jesus.
Oh, Christ shall set the spot for.
Makes me quiet.
Nothing but apology sauce.
Nothing can, portions of nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Nothing. Good night.
Jesus.
This is all my heart like this, nothing but the blood.
Gives us.
Revenge on my righteousness. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Oh, crush our sins up below. I can't see it like that. Snob. No, no, no, I'm here. I'm tired of time now.
Let's thank him.
Our God and Father, we thank Thee this morning for bringing us together in Thy grace.
To learn of, to speak of the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior and we know that we barely comprehend all that that involves the great work that he has done and the honor do his person, but we thank thee for those.
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Whose hearts have been touched this morning?
To desire to be here for His honor and glory. And we ask thy help this morning that we might learn to appreciate Him better. If there's anyone here this morning, our God and Father, who does not trust, does not rest in the work and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, we ask that that issue might be resolved this morning.
We ask, we all might leave this room in faith. We ask our Father in Jesus name, Amen.
Now we had a memory verse, and there's not very many up here that that might be expected to say it.
Who can tell me? I got the paper here, so this time I'm sure, I think what the memory verse was for. For today, who knows what it was. Anybody. Yes, yes, please.
Salvation.
2 Corinthians.
Very good. Thank you. Anyone else? Go ahead, Paul.
Yes, go ahead, go ahead. You go next.
They have salvation 2nd Corinthians 6 two OK.
Behold.
Is the accepted time.
Second, second. OK, anybody go ahead? Yes.
OK, anybody else say it? No obligation. Behold, now is the accepted time. You know, I before I have Sunday school, I walk around and look at the clocks and see how they agree with my watch and they generally don't. But I want to know what the accepted time is. I have a watch here that tells me what my the time is that I operate on. And I just to be sure, I generally set my watch a little bit fast.
I think I need the extra prodding, but I noticed these clocks here pretty well agree. So I knew what the accepted time was to start Sunday school. They had a matter of fact. They got a schedule here. Tells me says that Sunday school is supposed to start at 9:30 and we started pretty close to 9:30. That was the accepted time. That was the appointed time. And it says behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation.
And you know, we just sang, Oh, happy day, that fixed my choice on thee, my Savior. And my God. That was the greatest day in my life when I got saved. And I can't remember when that was. I was very young when I trusted the Lord Jesus, but I can thank God there was a time in my life when I trusted the Lord Jesus as my Savior.
The day of salvation. I wonder if everyone here has personally experienced a day of salvation.
So everyone here safe, can you look back and say there was a day I trusted the Lord Jesus Christ? There was a day I believed he died for me and his death was enough. You know, there's a lot of people that say, oh, I believe Jesus died for me, but it doesn't seem to help them any because they don't realize that Jesus death.
Was enough, They thought Jesus just didn't do quite enough. But remember, Jesus is God, and God arranged this way of salvation.
He planned, he knew all our need and he was fully able to meet all our need. If we say Jesus didn't do enough, we're saying God didn't foresee enough or wasn't able to do enough and God is able. And the Lord Jesus was saying, that's what I want to talk about this morning, the Lord Jesus death and what it means for us. Now some of you have seen this lesson before.
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And I don't feel sorry for you because I've been giving the same lesson for over 40 years and I enjoy it every time.
What have we got up here on the on this flannel graph?
What's up there?
3 crosses. What do you think those 3 crosses represent? What do you think?
Two thieves and the Lord Jesus. That's right, let's read about it in Luke chapter 24.
And most of us are familiar with the story, so we're not going to read the whole story. We're just going to read the part that is central to the story. Luke chapter 2423. I'm sorry, Luke chapter 23. And we'll start with verse 33.
And it says and when they came to the place that is called Calvary.
There they crucify him and the malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left. So here's the We have 3 crosses here, representing the Lord Jesus in the middle, and two malefactors, one on the right hand and the other on the left. And you notice those 3 crosses look very much alike.
Because if you'd been there and had seen the crucifixion, you it would have looked like 3 criminals being crucified. By the way, what is a malefactor? What's a malefactor? Yes.
Not always. Well, generally speaking, you, you're pretty safe that a malefactor is a thief. Because let me ask you a question. Do you think there's anybody in this room who isn't a thief?
What's the thief?
Right, our King James Version said in Matthew chapter 27. Our King James version tells us these men were thieves. The Darby translation says they were robbers. What's the difference between a thief and a robber? What do you think?
Lots of things and Robert just steals.
I'll tell you something. Not much difference. It's just two different words. I suppose the technically somebody who writes dictionaries could tell you there's much difference between a thief and a robber, but.
There are two different words, so they there's got to be some difference, but there's not much difference. And every one of us in this room are thieves and robbers too, because every one of us probably stolen something in our lives. Anybody here who never stole a cookie?
Or a piece of candy when they weren't supposed to. I don't think so. I'd be very surprised. I know I used to. My mother used to have an heirloom cookie jar. Old, old cookie jar was irreplaceable. And I think she put the cookies in there deliberately because we knew we were scared of breaking that thing that was worse than stealing the cookie. And every time I stole a cookie, I was.
Very careful about how I opened that jar.
And I got to the point where I realized it was wrong to do it. I just wasn't worth it.
You know, the my conscience felt worse than the cookie tasted. And that's good. That's good. When you have a, when we have a tender conscience, well.
We all also, besides stealing things in this life, we rob God of His glory every time. We don't give God what belongs to Him, we're stealing from Him. So we're all thieves and robbers.
Anyway, there were three people crucified up there. If you had looked at them, you would have said, oh, they look pretty much the same if you didn't know what was going on that day, if you had walked by because they crucified these thieves fairly close to what was called a highway in those days, we wouldn't recognize it as a highway, but it was a main road in Jerusalem. And if you'd walked by and said, oh, the Romans are crucifying some criminals today, That's the word malefactor means, by the way, the word malefactor just means somebody who does something wrong. So we're, we're all malefactors, aren't we?
Comes from the word Mal, which means bad and factor which means doer. So we're all bad doers. We're all malefactors. So this is our story and that's what I want us to understand. This is our story. And you know the Bible says there is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And when people looked on the on the Lord Jesus and the two thieves, they would have thought all three criminals. But you know, God sees things differently. The Bible tells us that man.
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Looks on the outside and everybody fixed up their outside to come to Sunday school this morning.
Put on clean clothes and if you didn't comb your hair, somebody else combed your hair for you. If if your hair needed combing. Some people have hair so short doesn't need it and some have so little they don't need it.
We we worry about the outside so much. We look in the mirror. I looked in the mirror this morning, but you know, God looks on the inside.
God looks on the inside, and so the Bible tells us that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
But it also tells us something about the Lord Jesus.
I thought I had the verse. I got these things.
Yes, who would like to read this verse for me? Because we're all familiar with the verse that says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Read the verse for me.
That He was manifested to take away our sins. And in Him is no sin, right? And Him was no sin. There was one person up on Calvary who didn't belong there. If you just look at the matter of human justice, He had never sinned. He could not sin. But here, there it was right up in the middle. And so this is what God saw when He looked.
At Calvary.
He saw one perfect man.
Between 2 malefactors, people like you.
And me.
That's what God saw.
What does God see when he looks down in this room this morning?
Does he see malefactors or does he see?
Perfect people.
Well, we're going to. We're going to talk more about that now. Let's read the rest of the story.
And it says here verse 34 then said Jesus Father, forgive them when they know not, for they know not what they do. Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. The Lord Jesus prayed for the people who were crucifying him.
Now these people were crucifying the Lord Jesus. Were they being kind or cruel?
Cruel. When somebody's cruel to you, what do you do?
Anybody. Has anybody ever been cruel or mean to you? What do you do?
You get disappointed. Is that all? Some people get mad and some people get angry. And if you're if you get mad, what do you gently do? If somebody hits you and you get mad, what's likely you're going to do? Yeah, hit them back. That's right. And you know, the Lord Jesus could have hit back awfully hard.
He could have hit back so hard. He had the power, but he also had the grace.
And he said, Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. And because the Lord Jesus came to forgive and not to judge, that's why he's our Savior. And when we forgive, we're like him. And that's better. It's better to forgive people. You know, the world sees, the world sees forgiveness as weakness.
But that is divine strength. Think about it. That's what Jesus did on Calvary. He had the power to forgive.
How many people really have the power to forgive?
So it says here, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. And it's true. You know, when we sin, we really don't understand how terrible the thing we're doing.
And they party as raiment and cast lots. That means they gambled for his clothing.
And the people should be holding. And the rulers also with him, derided him, saying He saved others, let him save himself, if he be the Christ, the chosen of God. And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him and offering him vinegar, and saying, If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself. And a superscription. A sign also is written over him in letters of Greek and Latin and Hebrew. This is the king of the Jews. So people were making fun of the Lord Jesus, and they still do it today.
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You know, recently there was this fellow that.
Predicted the world was going to end May 21St.
And it didn't you notice? I presume it didn't. And I heard people after that laughing, not just at him.
But at the Lord Jesus as well, Christianity, anything related to the Lord Jesus people still.
Laugh at the Lord Jesus and you go to school, you're going to find out. They'll laugh at him.
But he.
The Lord Jesus is still the Lord and he is going to win. He went, he won there and he's going to win again when he comes back now, it says. And one of the malefactors which were hanged rail on him.
As a matter of fact, if we read another gospel, it says both of them did. But we're concerned with the contrast between the two malefactors here and says one of the malefactors which were hanged railed on him. Railed. What's that word rail mean?
Railed.
Yes, very good very mocked him. They is to say say bad things. That's basically to rail is to say bad things to speak abusively. So they one of these malefactors who hang rail on him and said if you be the Christ, save yourself and us.
Now the other people had already been saying that, and hear this malefactor, this man who was dying, we'll say it's this one here, this man who was dying beside the Lord Jesus, mocked the Lord Jesus.
What a thing to do when you're dying, You know if you knew. Let me ask you if you knew you were going to die today.
Would you want to crack jokes or would you think pretty seriously what you think? What do you think?
Seriously, Absolutely. You would say I want to make sure I do everything right today because it's my last day. Well, this man and, and you know, I, I think of what a dreadful morning. We, we, some of us woke up this morning. We saw rain and thought, oh.
We weren't really excited about it. I don't think the farmers around here need any more rain. I don't know. But anyway, God knows what we need. But we we looked out. I looked out the window and thought that's not what I was planning to walk over here this morning.
And the rain kind of discouraged me from that.
But these two men woke up to something far worse.
If they slept at all last night, the night, the night before, if those men slept at all, What do you think they thought they were thinking about when they woke up? What do you think they were thinking about when they woke up?
Well, I suspect they had already been condemned and knew they were condemned, and we don't know for sure the details, but they knew they were in trouble.
And.
How would you like it if you were in your cell and a Roman soldier came in in the morning and said OK, get up, this is the day you die?
Would you feel very good?
No.
I imagine these men felt pretty rotten.
But this one man, he was joking just the same, and he said, if you're the Christ, save yourself and us. And why thank God, there was the other thief had begun to think differently. He said, he said 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. This man, the other, the other thief, the other malefactor, he realized.
He was getting what he deserved and everyone of us deserves death. We do. We deserve death because the Bible says the wages of sin is death.
But then this other man, this other malefactor, went on to say something very wonderful.
He said Lord, Remember Me.
When thou comest into thy Kingdom, he spoke to the Lord Jesus and said, Lord, Remember Me? He was recognizing the Lord Jesus not only as somebody superior to him.
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But as somebody who was still going to come into his Kingdom, he was recognizing the Lord Jesus as the Messiah.
Have you ever called Jesus Lord? You know, it's a wonderful thing. People talk about Jesus and just use the word Jesus, but I love to hear the word Lord.
He said, Lord, Remember Me when thou comest into thy Kingdom.
And Jesus said to him, Verily I say unto thee, Today thou shalt be with me in paradise. And you know what had started out to be the worst day in that man's life?
Turned out to be the best. Wouldn't it be the best day in your life if today the Lord Jesus said to you?
Today you'll be with me in paradise.
That make my day.
Are you ready to go?
I'm going to ask you a question.
Was this man ready to go to paradise? What do you think?
Oh, how about this man?
What do you think?
Yes, Jesus said he was going to be there. How is he going to get there? Well, he's going to get there through the Lord Jesus. We'll read about that now, it says.
And it was about the 6th hour and there was darkness over all the earth until the 9th hour. God kind of pulled a curtain over the whole scene, you know?
And we'll do that too, just to get the picture.
There was going to be something happen.
And it was God's business. It wasn't man's business. And I want you to know, salvation is God's business. You have nothing to do with it except accept it.
It's all God's business, the Bible says. Salvation is of the Lord has nothing to do with me. It's something that I receive. And so God did some business in the dark, the Bible tells us. And the brother who spoke last night in the gospel reminded us that something wonderful happened in the dark.
And let's read that. Let's see here.
I thought I had these all sorted out here.
Oh yes.
Who wants to read this verse for me? Well, I'm glad to have so many eager readers here. Let's try you.
In his own body, on the tree. That's right.
221 Very good. Christ himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree. He was punished in those three hours of darkness. Now, just to get the picture, we'll pull back the curtain, so to speak, because God when it though he did the business in the dark, He's brought us into the light, so we know what happened.
Remember this thief here who trusted the Lord Jesus, believed the Lord Jesus was who he was. He didn't know. I don't think he knew at all what Jesus was going to be doing, but he believed that Jesus was going to be Lord. And when during the dark, this is what God did.
He took that man's sins, and he took my sins.
And laid them on Jesus, who his own self bore our sins.
In his own body, on the tree, he took my place.
Now, after those three hours of darkness.
This is what God saw on Calvary.
Isn't that amazing?
There was one person there. You notice this. This cross, this center white cross is edged in blue because it indicates the Lord Jesus was holy from heaven. But how about?
That cross that's cross is got red around it. Why would why do you suppose red? What do you think that's all about, Paul?
That's right, we sang. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. And on the cross, the Lord Jesus shed his blood. And no, let me ask you a question.
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Why is that the cross there with the red on it? Why is it white? Why is it a white cross? Yes, go ahead.
Because, because he got, because his son's got washed away and and now we regard as no, that's right. He's, he's perfect. He's white as snow. Now, let me ask you a question. Think about this. Which person up there we can see two people represented by two white crosses. Which one was more perfect? Which one?
That's the question. That's the answer I often get.
Anybody else want to give me a different answer? If you'd like to give me a different answer, hold your hand up.
The answer is they're both the same.
Isn't that amazing?
But we we we know the Bible says the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
I have because of what the Lord Jesus has done for me. I have, as far as my sins are concerned, as much right to be there as He does.
As far as my sins are concerned, because after those three hours of darkness, there was number sin in him, no sin on him, and there's no sin on me. How about you?
You know we, I, I remember, we, we sing a hymn. 18 Little Flock in the appendix. And is it so? I shall be like thy son? Is this the grace which he for me has won?
I'm told that in a Bible study once one of the brothers gave out that hymn.
And the man he was meeting with didn't want to sing that song. They couldn't believe it was true.
We are like Jesus as far as our sins are concerned. No, we don't have His history, we don't have His deity. But when it comes to sin and sinlessness, we're like Him. And is it so? I shall be like thy Son. It is so. That's why that man could be with the Lord Jesus in paradise.
Now our time is almost up.
Everyone of us has a future.
You do. Even if you died today, you've got a future. And each of these men died that day.
This, this one man, this was the greatest day of his life. He woke up hopeless that morning and died and went to be with Jesus in paradise because Jesus died first. Remember, the Bible tells us that Jesus died first.
Well, they took the bodies down from the crosses. Maybe they took the crosses down. I don't know. I presume they did.
And we have here.
What are those things? What are those things you think? What do you think those things look like? What do you think?
Gravestones, right? Because we presume those men were buried, those two malefactors.
There's only two of them.
Why would there be only two? Yes.
Not quite.
I think you know the right answer, but you don't know how to express it. What do you think?
Because he was. He was but.
Because he was putting the.
Well, he was buried. All three were buried where at least all three died. We might assume they were buried somewhere or another. The idea is where those two malefactors, their bodies are somewhere on this earth. Where is the Lord Jesus body?
This. His body is so inevitable. His body is in heaven. How'd they get there?
Yes, go ahead.
That's right. Yes, the Lord Jesus died and he died completely, but he rose again. He rose again. He's, his body is in heaven, a physical body in heaven, and my physical body is going to be there someday too. Someday the Lord is going to come in, the physical bodies are going to go up and be with the Lord Jesus. And this malefactor here, this malefactor who trusted the Lord Jesus, we don't know where his body is now, but someday it's going to be in heaven too. Everyone of us has a.
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Future.
Think of that poor man who mocked the Lord Jesus and we're not told that he ever repented. What do you suppose those things represent?
Got some boys here like to answer questions, how about you?
What are those things that represent what they kind of look like?
Doors. Doors to where?
Heaven and hell, yeah.
You know that's what death is.
Death is a door to either heaven or hell. This life is like a waiting room at a bus station Oregon, a train station Oregon an airport. There comes a time when you have to leave and you where you go depends which door you go out.
You go out and get in the wrong plane, you go the wrong place. You know, if you don't trust the Lord Jesus, where do you go?
Yes.
That's that's putting it very simply, the lake of fire. The Bible tells us it's darkness forever. We have we have a hard time imagining fire and darkness putting together, but there's something comforting about the light of a fire.
There's no comfort in hell, and so the Bible tells us.
It is appointed to man wants to die and after this the judgment. But this man, the thief who believed, the malefactor who believed, he didn't enter into judgment because he trusted the Lord Jesus. Now I said earlier, every one of us is like those two thieves, those two malefactors which.
One are.
You like? Which one are you like? Let's pray.
Our God and Father, we thank you for this time together this morning. We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ.