Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to John chapter 12 and reading
for our text, verse 32. John chapter 12 and verse 32. And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all men unto me. John 12 verse 32 and
what is upon my spirit is being drawn to Christ. We have so much
of this world that is crowding around us and often our sinful
and evil heart is drawn to those things that are a detriment to
our souls. And our old nature, it is drawn
to many things that we see and hear. that may we, as the word
is preached, as the gospel is said before us, we be drawn to
Christ and drawn to him in the word and in the preaching of
the word, and that we be drawn away from this earth and the
things of it and after him, be followers of the Lord and followers
of his people. The Lord has ordained that The
power that he has in his people when he calls them by his grace
is to draw them, draw them from this world and draw them unto
himself. And certainly it is not something
that natural man is drawn to. We read in the passage here of
the many miracles that our Lord did and yet, They did not believe
on him. We might think today that if
only we could go forth into the town of Cranbrook here, if only
we could go forth amongst men and work some miracles, then
surely men would believe and they'd believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. If those miracles were done in
his name, well, they didn't believe when the Lord worked those miracles.
They didn't believe when The disciples were miracles in the
Lord's name, and yet there were those that did believe. And yet
here it's emphasised, it's fulfilled what the prophet said in Isaiah
53, who have believed our report, to whom hath the arm of the Lord
been revealed. And it is those that are drawn,
drawn by the power of God to Christ, is not miracles. Our Lord spoke about Lazarus
and the rich man, and how that the rich man was buried and opened
his eyes in hell, and Lazarus, the beggar, how that he was carried
by the bosom, the angels into Abraham's bosom. Not that he
was saved because of his poverty, but faith in Christ. But the rich man, in lifting
up his eyes in hell, desired that Lazarus would dip his finger
in water, quench the fire that he had. No, that was not possible. One could not come from one place
to another. And so the rich man asked that
Lazarus be sent to his brethren to warn them. And the Lord said,
they have Moses and the prophets. If they hear not them, neither
will they hear, neither will they believe, even if one rose
from the dead. Men think that, yes, if there
was miracles enough and visions enough then men would believe,
but they won't. They won't. And we have today,
in this day in which so many ridicule the Word and don't desire
the Word of God at all, we have the same Word, the same Word
that our Lord said, that if they do not believe that, neither
will they believe if one rose from the dead. In fact, it's
more more than Moses and the prophets, because it is the full
gospel, and it is the preaching of the gospel, and it's the gospel
day. Well, what was being done then
at this time? There had been this voice from
heaven, and the Father had glorified Him, verse 28, The Lord had prayed,
Father glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from
heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. The people therefore that stood
by and heard it said that it thundered. Others said an angel
spake to him. But the Lord answered and said,
this voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. Now is
the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out." And what was the Lord saying? The very
first promise in the Garden of Eden was that the seed of the
woman should bruise the serpent's head. The work that should be
accomplished when Christ, the Messiah, Emmanuel came, was that
he would cast out Satan. He would deal with Satan. And that is what was to be done
at Calvary. That is what was to be accomplished
at this time, when the Lord would be lifted up above the earth,
when the Lord would be glorified. It was in bruising Satan's head. It was in the accuser of the
brethren being cast down that accused them day and night. What
did He accuse them of? Those that had died by faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, in looking forward to His coming,
looking through the types and the shadows of the Old Testament. And Satan said, where is the
blood? It's not shed yet, but it was to be shed and shed at
Calvary. The father had glorified the
name of his beloved son right through the Old Testament. They
drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, that rock
was Christ, right through the wilderness, the children of Israel. He had been glorified, but now
he was to be glorified. His name was to be glorified,
the name of Jesus, For he shall save his people from their sins. And this is what he was to accomplish
at Calvary. The text says, And I, if I be
lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. So I want to look at two points
this morning with the Lord's help. Firstly, the lifting up
from the earth of our Lord. And then secondly, the effect. And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all men unto me. Firstly, the lifting up from
the earth of our Lord. We are told in the very next
verse This, he said, signifying what death he should die. So
in the very first place, the lifting up of our Lord was his
crucifixion. You know, a thousand years before
this time, David in the Psalms had penned about the crucifixion,
all the bones out of joint, they shall look upon him whom they
have pierced. It was prophesied before even
the knowledge of the death by crucifixion was known, and yet
the Lord was to die in this way, and here he signifies it, the
death by the Romans. The Jews, they said, It is not
lawful for us to put any man to death. He had to die the death
that the Romans would inflict, which was crucifixion, most painful,
lingering death. A death that it was preceded
with the skirting to bring the person near to death, weakened
tremendously and then to be hung upon the cursed
tree. The flowers, the scriptures says
again in Psalm 129, have ploughed upon my back. But in crucifixion,
he is lifted up, made a spectacle, crucified before men, lifted
up above the earth. And this our Lord was foretelling.
Our Lord said, no man taketh my life from me. I lay it down
of myself. I have power to lay it down.
I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received
from my Father. Our Lord said to Pilate, when
Pilate said, knowest thou not there are power to crucify thee
and power to release thee? The Lord said, Thou couldst have
no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above. And so the first aspect or teaching
here of the lifting up from the earth of our Lord was the actual
crucifixion. It was vital that it should be
so, that the scriptures should be fulfilled. and that the sacrifice
be offered in such a way that there should be the water, the
blood, the pierced hands and feet as was set forth in Psalm
69 and 22, and the sufferings of our Lord in that way, a spectacle
and yet the miracle I may tell all my bones, was also foretold. And yet the bones of the two
thieves, crucified each side, were broken, but not our Lord's,
because he was dead already. And Pilate marveled that he was
dead already, because he had healed up his spirit. No man had taken his life from
him. So the lifting up of the earth
of our Lord, the actual fact of His terrible death, painful
death, shameful death, the death of the cross. But the second
aspect of the lifting up of the Son of Man, and if I be lifted
up from the earth, which is one offering for sin, Our Lord had
said in John 3, that even as Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but should
have eternal life. So in the very early ministry
of our Lord, He was again speaking of His being lifted up. And this
time in a very specific way, they lifted up as a sin offering. The serpent was a brazen serpent. It was the altar of burnt offering
was a brazen altar. It spoke of sin and it spoke
of an offering in which was lifted up. and which men that were sin-bitten,
those that were in the wilderness, bitten by the serpents, looked
at that brazen serpent and they lived. The Lord's offering at
Calvary was to be an offering to put away sin. He shall bear
the sin of many. He is making atonement. Without
the shedding of blood, there is no remission. This is the
blood, not of bulls or of goats, which can never put away sin,
but this is the blood of God, the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ,
that which does put away sin. In the Passover, as the children
of Israel came out of Egypt, the Lord said, when I see the
blood, I will pass over you. The blood was on their doorposts
and lintels of the houses where they were, and the destroying
angel destroyed them not. The firstborn were not destroyed
when the blood was seen. And so it is on Calvary that
the Lord made the offering and his blood was shed there. So in the Lord saying, if I be
lifted up from the earth, he is lifted up. in making the offering
for sin. But then thirdly, he is lifted
up from the earth in the resurrection. When our Lord laid down his life,
he laid it that he might take it again. And his body was lovingly
laid in the tomb by Joseph of Arimathea and by Nicodemus. Nicodemus that came unto Jesus
by night for fear of the Jews, and Joseph of Arimathea, a secret
disciple again for fear of the Jews. And yet, given such love
to the Lord that they overcame that fear, and the Lord gave
them that grace that when all the other disciples had forsaken
him and fled, they the saw pilot, that they might take down the
body of our Lord, and he was laid in a new tomb. In one place it reads, in Joseph
of Arimathea's tomb, and that tomb for his night hand. So our Lord was laid in the earth,
but then we read on the third day, the angel descended, rolled
back the stone, The Lord ascended from the grave, ascended from
the earth, raised up from the earth. And this also, the scriptures
are very clear, that the third day he would rise again, destroy
this temple, and in three days I will raise it up again. He spake of the temple, of his
own body. And so we have again the raising
up from the earth in the resurrection. Then we also have our Lord's
raising up and lifting up above the earth in his ascension into
heaven. We read of the angels speaking
to the disciples As he had led them out as far as to Bethany,
he lifted up his hands, he blessed them, he departed from them and
carried up into heaven. And the angel said, Ye men of
Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? This same Jesus
which thou hast seen ascend into heaven shall come again in like
manner. And the resurrection was vital,
the ascension was vital. The Lord had taught his disciples,
I must needs go away. If I go not away, the Holy Spirit
shall not come unto you. At that time when our Lord was
taken up, the disciples, they were not to see the Lord bodily
anymore. Yet they returned, introduced
Jerusalem, and were in the temple blessing and praising God, they
now understood, they now clearly saw what the Lord had accomplished
and what the Lord had done. He's lifting up at Calvary, He's
lifting up from the grave, He's lifting up above the earth an
ascension into heaven where He now sits at the right hand of
the throne of God on high. But there is a further lifting
up of the Lord as well, and that is in the preaching of the gospel. The apostle, when he wrote to
the Corinthians, wrote to a church, a troubled church, a church,
he could have easily been drawn into their conflicts. He did
reprove them, but he said to them, I determined to know nothing
among you, save Jesus Christ. and him crucified. It's been
a good word to many of us in the ministry when we've gone
around churches and we've preached to congregations that we know
there's been troubles, there's been trials, there's been many
things and it can easily be that we'd be drawn aside, but how
often that word has been a help to determine to know nothing
among men save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Really, the best
antidote to troubles and trials and sorrows in a church is for
Christ to be preached, Christ to be lifted up, the precious
doctrines of the everlasting gospel set before the people. It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, that sitteth on the right hand
of the throne of God on high. And so it is the preaching of
the cross, which is to those that perish foolishness, but
to them that are saved, both Jew and Gentile, it is the power
of God unto salvation. It is a miracle. Man will say,
how can anything be done by the preaching of the cross, by the
preaching of the Son of Man being lifted up off the earth. But God has said what shall be
done, and God has ordained that way. And again we have through
Paul and the epistle to the Corinthians, Paul says that when it pleased
God, that through wisdom that man should not know God, it pleased
God to say then that belief through the preaching of the gospel God
has not ordained it, that man with his natural wisdom and wisdom
he has, we think of what God has given man to make rockets
that will go to the moon, wonderful creations, wonderful inventions,
things that are amazing to behold. And yet we see the contrast when
it comes to spiritual things, when it comes to believing in
the Lord, then man has no wisdom at all. And even in the lesser
things, we see such confusion. On one hand, we have men saying
that you can change from a man to a woman, a woman to a man. On the other hand, you have science
publicly proclaiming the vast difference between the anatomy
of a man and of a woman. And marveling at that, you're
having those that seeing the creation of God on one hand,
and yet in utter confusion and leaving even common sense on
the other, you have those going into the medical profession because
they see the wonders of the brain. And yet when you speak to them
about the God that created them, then their mind goes blank and
they look as if you're mad. And it is God's judgment upon
man. In the day that thou eatest thereof,
thou shalt surely die. Satan's temptation was that God
knows that in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt be
as God's, known good and evil. And yet man fell from that position
he had. In the image of God, yes, there's
still vestiges of it left, but fallen from that image and fallen
from knowing the things of God to being dead in trespasses and
sins. And from that time and under
the judgment of God, God has judged the world as being dead
and under the sentence of death. And it is only by His grace and
only by His Son being lifted up by the sin put away, the law
satisfied, the justice of God satisfied, that God can then
have mercy upon a sinner and freely open his eyes, give him
to believe, give him to be saved, give him to be delivered from
the justice of God and the wrath of God. And it has pleased God
through preaching, through, as we do this morning, setting forth
the Lord Jesus Christ as the only way of salvation. There
is none other name given among men whereby we must be saved. He that believeth on the Lord
is not condemned. He that believeth not is condemned
already because he believeth not the testimony of the Lord
and the only name whereby we must be saved. The Lord says,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. The truth is in Jesus, and it
is in no other way. He is the key. He is the secret
of all eternal life. He says, I give unto them eternal
life. They shall never perish, neither
shall any man pluck them out of mine hands. If we would know
anything of life, if we would know the secret of the Lord,
which is with them that fear Him, we must look in no other
direction, no other way, but in the Lord Jesus Christ. It
is not our good works that saves us, it is Christ's good work.
It is His perfect life and obedience. He never sinned, never was any
evil in His mouth. No evil thoughts, no evil affections. You and I sin continually, and
for one sin, one sin, we would be condemned and banished to
hell. How foolish the thought of anyone
thinking to trade their sins by some good works, anyone that
points to their charities, their good works, something that they
have done, as a reason why they should be saved, I can tell you
with the authority of God that you will be lost, you will certainly
not be saved. In Romans 10, we have the apostle
despairing or so sorrowful because of his countrymen, because they
had a zeal for God. Yes, you might have a zeal for
God, but not according to knowledge. He said they, were going about
to establish their own righteousness, their own good works, and had
not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. What
we have in the Lord Jesus Christ is a righteousness that shall
be put on the account of those that believe on his name. Say, because he has died for
our sin. Say, because he has suffered
in our place. save because He has made atonement
for us, and save because He has given to us to believe in His
name and to trust in Him for salvation alone. It is by faith
in Christ alone that we are saved, and it is this reason why Christ
must be preached, and Christ alone because there is no other
name. He is the only one of salvation,
and this is what is to be set before men, whether they will
hear it or whether they will not. This is what the Lord says
here, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men
unto me. Well, there is, you might say,
quite a few hundred that may have seen the Lord literally
lifted up from the earth, but there will be countless millions
that see him by faith as the word is preached and as it was
from Jerusalem and will be to the end of the world, he is lifted
up on the pole of the everlasting gospel and preached in a much
clearer way than what the brazen serpent was a type and a preaching
to the children of Israel in the wilderness, if they could
be saved, if they were saved, by looking to that, how much
more shall we see saved in looking to the Lord Jesus Christ who
is preached to us. There's another way that the
Lord is lifted up as well, and that is in the ordinances of
the house of God. God has given but two ordinances
in the house of God, and both of them show forth his death. One is baptism, believers baptism,
buried with him by baptism into death and risen again in newness
of life. The Lord Jesus Christ is set
forth in a public witness for all that believe, the commission,
that we have is, go ye into all the world and preach the gospel
to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, and he that believeth not shall be damned. That is
our commission. And each one that is baptized
is also setting forth the Lord being lifted up from the earth
in his death. then also it is in the ordinance
of the Lord's Supper. Not another sacrifice as is blasphemously
set forth in the mass, the Roman Catholic mass, that say that
the wine is turned into the very blood of our Lord and the wafer
is turned into the very body of our Lord. It is not, it is
wine, it is bread, but it is not a sacrifice, it is a showing
forth. The Lord said, this do ye in
remembrance of me. As oft as ye do eat this bread
and drink this cup, ye do show forth the Lord's death till he
come. This do in remembrance of me. It is a remembrance service,
but it is a remembrance service in which Christ is lifted up
He is shown forth, his death is remembered, it is reminded,
it is set forth to the Church of God, that believers must never
forget that it is Christ that died, yea, rather that he's risen
again, that sitteth at the right hand of the throne of God on
high. And so in these ways, our Lord
in our text says, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, He
is lifted up from the earth in these ways that we have set forth
before you. But then our Lord tells of an
effect. If I be lifted up from the earth
will draw all men unto me. He is speaking of the effect. Let us think about it in an opposite
way. What if there was no effect? What if those that saw it just
did as many did, just wagged their heads? They had no effect
upon them whatsoever. What if there was never a fact
and no one ever was moved by it at all and it just ended up
an event in history that was just forgotten and buried in
some history book and never referred to again. But it did have an effect, it
does have an effect, and it will still have an effect. Our text
says, will draw all men unto me. Well, it's very evident that
all men, as every single individual, man, woman, and child, They are
not drawn unto the Lord. When the early church, when the
word was preached, we read that some believe the word spoken
and some believe not. Then we read that as many as
were ordained unto eternal life believed. So there is an ordaining
unto eternal life. The Bible teaches an election
according to God's grace. It teaches, as our Lord set forth
in John 10, I lay down my life for the sheep. He says to the
scribes and the Pharisees, those that wouldn't hear his word,
those that rejected him, ye are not of my sheep, therefore ye
hear not my word. So in actual fact, he was saying
to them, I do not lay down my life for you. You are not hearing
my word. The very name of Jesus that was
given him, his name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save
his people from their sins. He has a people. He says of his
people, speaking to his father, thine they were and thou gavest
them me. They people that were chosen
in him from the foundation of the world, a people that he came
to redeem and to save, a people out of every nation, kindred,
and tongue. And that is what is meant by
the word here, will draw all men unto me. In John 10, when
he says that he came as their good shepherd, and to
lay his life down for his sheep. He says, other sheep I have,
which are not of this fold, that is, not of the Jews, them also
I must bring, there shall be one fold and one shepherd, and
that is what is meant here. This is taught in Paul's epistle
to the Ephesians as well, is set forth in Acts 10, When the
gospel was first preached unto the Gentiles, it is all men,
not just the Jews, but every nation, kindred, and tongue.
In the Old Testament, it was just the Jews that the gospel,
through the ordinances, was preached to. But now the commission is,
go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. We're not to decide ourselves
who is elect and who is not. The word is to be preached to
all that will hear it. It is set forth as the call of
the gospel, the outward call of the gospel. But then there
is the inward call of the gospel, the effectual call of the gospel. And that is what our text speaks
of. I, if I be lifted up from the
earth, will draw all men unto me. As the gospel is preached,
you Gentile, those from every nation, kindred, and tongue shall
be drawn to the Lord. In John 6, our Lord says, and
teaches very clearly on this, no man can come unto me except
the Father which sent me, draw him, and I will raise him up
at the last day. There were many there in John
6 that could not receive the word of the Lord. They said he
was teaching hard sayings, except ye eat the flesh and drink the
blood of the Son of Man, ye have no life in you. He wasn't speaking
literally. They said, how can this man give
us his flesh to eat? But he was speaking in a spiritual
way. that the very life and death
of the Lord Jesus Christ is our meat and is our drink. This is
why we preach, the word is our meat, our drink. Seek not ye
the bread that perisheth, but that which endureth unto eternal
life. Man shall not live by bread only,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. As Moses
He gave them the manna, God gave the manna in the wilderness.
So it is that the people of God feed by faith upon the Lord Jesus
Christ, the precious truths of his life, his death, his work,
and what was accomplished at Calvary. This is the meat and
drink of the people of God. So the effect here of Christ
being preached and lifted up is that men, shall be drawn,
His people, His elect people, those that are to be saved, they
are drawn to what they hear and drawn to what they see through
the preaching of the Word. May we never, never despise where
we are drawn to the Word of God. If you hear the Word preached
this morning and you're drawn to that, you're attracted to
that, You might not understand it, you might even have risen
up at some things that have been said, and been angry about them,
but nevertheless, if you felt drawn to it, as thinking, we
have not heard these things before, or not heard it in this way before,
and you cannot let it go, but feel that attraction to it, then
this is what is set forth here as God's work to work on a sinner,
work on those that were far away from the Lord, and draw them
to Him, and so that they are brought to believe on His name. The Church of God is a called-out
people, and it is through the Gospel that those that are His
are called out from this world, from false religion, from false
teaching, from atheism, from the world that lieth in wickedness,
and they're drawn to the truth, and they're drawn to Christ,
and they're drawn to his people, and they want to be where they
are here. They're drawn to the church of
God, the gathering of his people here, and they're drawn to that
above at last, a desiring to be where Christ is, and to be
with him in glory, and to be with him forever and ever. We know what it is. If we have
a magnet, and we have a piece of steel, and you put that magnet
near the steel, and it draws the two together, it is an invisible
force, you can't see it, but you can feel the effect of it,
and that is what is spoken of here. You think of it in another
illustration, with a young man and a woman, and they see each
other, and they have an attraction, they love each other, they're
drawn to each other, they can't explain it, but they want to
go where they will see each other, and to be with each other. And
it is this love of God that draws His people, and it is through
His cross, through what He has done for them. God commendeth
His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. And it is this, it is a miracle.
Every soul that's saved, everyone that believes, is a miracle,
a miracle of grace. Why the Lord should open the
eyes and give them to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. The
Lord was asked, what shall we do that we might work the works
of God And his answer was, this is the work of God, that ye believe
in him whom God has sent. Dear friends, may we know this
drawing, this power upon us, and where we are drawn, may we
be drawn to the word of God, drawn to the preaching of the
word of God, drawn to the people of God, but especially drawn
to the Lord Jesus Christ, drawn to him, Our word of our text
says, will draw all men unto me. No preacher wants the people
just to be drawn to him. They want, as it was with John
the Baptist, when he pointed out the Lord and said, behold
the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. His
disciples, they heard him speak. Did they follow John? No, they
followed the Lord. And so may that be with us. may be not following a party,
following man, but following the Lord. But that being said,
we'll go where the Lord's people are, those that believe the same
thing, speak the same thing, preach the same thing, know the
same drawing, and know the same power, and we'll want to be gathered
with them now and gathered in eternity. This is an effect The
Lord says, shall happen. There's a certainty. I, if I
be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. And it is our hope, it is our
expectation, is why we can preach, why we must preach, why we must
set Christ forth, because we know that it is His will and
that it is His power that shall make a believer and shall use
this method of saving his people, saving them from hell, saving
them from the wrath to come, saving them from themselves and
from sin, the power of sin in this world, and saving them to
his everlasting kingdom and to be with him forever and ever. Draw all men unto me. His prayer
was in John 17, Father, I will that they whom thou hast given
me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory. And the Apostle Paul, in desiring
to depart, it was to be with Christ, which is far better. Our desire for heaven will always
be in these terms, to be with Christ, which is far better. May the Lord add his blessing
to these words. And I, if I be lifted up from
the earth, will draw all men unto me. May we know that drawing,
and if we do, bless the Lord for it. Amen.