It's good to be with you this
morning. It's always a joy to come down and be with you folks
and thank the Lord for you. I appreciate friends. Older you
get, the more you appreciate friends and I'm just glad to
be with you and we're thankful for you. He's thankful to the Lord for
what He does for us. And what He has done. And is
also that which He's going to do. So we thank Him and look
to Him. If you have your Bibles this
morning, turn with me to the 12th chapter of the book of John. And we'll take just a few minutes
upon these couple of verses. In the 12th chapter of the book
of John. Familiar verse, but it's a little
different from what I've heard over the years. And I want to look at it this
morning. The Lord said in I, verse 32,
if I be lifted up from the earth, what's going to happen? He says,
I will draw all under Me. Men is in italics. I will draw
all under Me. Now, verse 33, this He said signifying
what death He should die. Now, the lifting up that He's
talking about is His death, isn't it? That's the lifting up. And that's His death on the cross. He knew that He was going to
be lifted up and that's why He came into this world. That was
the whole point of coming into this world was going to the cross
and being lifted up. And He says, surely as I am lifted
up, I'll draw all unto Me. He was lifted up. We see Him
as a sufferer. We see Him as a surety as He
was lifted up, and we know that He was lifted up on behalf of
His church. The crucifixion, we know several
things about it. Our Lord, as He died, crucifixion
was, we know, was meant for the very worst of the worst, wasn't
it? And here our Lord was perfect,
no sin, but yet He underwent that of crucifixion. We see Him
being nailed to that of the cross, His hands and His feet. And we
see that one of the ways that they did, they laid the cross
down and they nailed the person to it. Then they had the hole
and they would drop them right in that hole. And you know how
that would be painful to that of the very body, the torture. But we see this suffering that
it was on account of that of His church. He went to the cross
and this meant our salvation. And it's the eternal salvation
of that of His people. He took responsibility. That's
one of the things I think about when I read the Scripture. of
our Lord, He took responsibility for us. How that He came for us, and
how that He went to the cross, how that He did all of this on
the church's behalf. And He voluntarily submitted
unto it. He came. The Bible talks about
that He could have called twelve legions of angels. Well, you
remember in the garden, He just spoke and it all fell backward. He voluntarily submitted to that
of the cross. He did that to rescue us from
hell itself. We see God's vengeance upon sin. We see that there is an eternal
wrath upon sin. And yet we see our Lord Jesus
Christ coming and going to the cross, being lifted up there. The Bible says He was made a
little lower than angels over the book of Hebrews for the suffering
of death. And as we see Him, none other
was qualified, none other would have been enough. It had to be
the Lord Jesus Christ. We know that sin came in human
form as Adam sinned. And we see that Christ took upon
Himself Abraham's seed. He was made like his brethren
without sin. He was to suffer what the law
demanded. And the law says, pay. If you
break me, pay. And that's what justice demanded.
Now we see the Lord Jesus Christ being lifted up. I submit unto
you today this, if He was not lifted up, there'd be no salvation. It's essential for the salvation
of every soul that Christ be lifted up on the cross. The Old
Testament, the New Testament, you read Isaiah 53, you see the
prophecies concerning Christ. And we know that God has highly
exalted Him. He's lifted up. He's exalted.
He has all authority. I like that verse where it says
all power is given unto Him in heaven and earth. I like that
this morning. And we see Him as He humbled
Himself, and now He's the very head of the church, and this
morning all matters of salvation is put in His hands. I wish our generation could see
this. It's not in free will's hands.
It's in God's hands. I came down the road this morning
and one place it says the Baptist Free Will Church. I tell you,
it's God's will. It's His will. He reigns. He's the Lord of Lords and King
of Kings. And the church is under that
of His care. Where else would you rather it
be than under Him, our Lord and Master? He's the one that supports
it. And He's the one that manages
that of the church. He has authority over it all.
Turn over with me to John 17th chapter and it's our Lord's prayer. As He begins this prayer, look
at it. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. glorify
thy son, that thy son also may glorify thee. To God be the glory. Notice verse 2. Thou has given
him power over all flesh. Now is that true? Is this as
true as it's written there? He has power over all flesh. Now, flesh, it could mean animal
flesh. He has power over that. Or it's
human flesh. He has power over all flesh. That He should give eternal life. Now, a lot of people think that
they give eternal life in different ways. Some think, well, if I
work enough, God will be gracious and give me eternal life. If
I'm good enough. So forth and so on. But here
we know that Christ is the giver of eternal life. Now where else
are you going to get life? Only from the Lord Jesus Christ. And that He should give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given Him. He's going to give eternal life.
And it goes on, it says, this life, this is eternal life that
they might know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom He
has sent. If you know Him, that's eternal
life, isn't it? So we see that He has power.
And He has power over all things concerning us. We fret. I'm guilty. We worry. I'm guilty. And yet He has all
power over everything pertaining to us. He has power over that
which troubles us. Old Job put it this way, he said,
man's a few days and full of troubles, didn't he? He has power over that which
burdens us. Isn't it sometimes just hard
to let go? Here's the Lord. He has the power. I was in the hospital one time,
back when I was 25 years old. About a few years now. And I was pretty down. My mother-in-law sent me a card
while I was in the hospital. And the verse that was on that
card was, cast your cares upon Him for He'll care for you. You know, God sent it just like
it was just, you know, just how it came, just meant for me that
particular time. Cast your cares. Yes, He cares
on the Lord, for He cares for you. Just think about how He
cares for us. How precious it is. Now, Paul's message here, as
he proclaims the Lord Jesus Christ and His crucifixion, his message
is always Christ. And as I've tried to preach these
years, that's all I want my messages.
I want to preach is the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank the Lord for what He's
done. I thank the Lord for instilling
in me what preaching was at an early age. And I've tried to set Christ
forth. And Paul's message as we see
him in different places preaching, and we see his letters to the
churches. Here's John's message as he wrote to us. But Paul wrote
about Christ crucified and proclaiming His person. Proclaiming His perfect
work. Now our Lord, everything that
has to do with Him is perfect. He had a perfect work. He has a finished redemption. We see Him as He did His work,
as He went to the cross, as He finished His work. He's now at
the right hand of the Father. He's there exalted at the right
hand. And here the Lord Jesus Christ
is set forth as our mediator. And I'm glad that we have one,
that we can go to God. We pray in His name, don't we?
We pray in our mediator's name. He's our surety. He's our substitute. One that died for us. Died in
our place. He's our advocate. Now, it'd be good if you was
in trouble, that you hired a good lawyer. But think about sin's trouble. We have an advocate, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's never failed. You might
pay $5,000 for a lawyer and he'll fail you. But Christ has never
failed one of His yet. I was so grateful of that. The
Bible sets him forth as our husband. It sets him forth as the daysman,
a brother, a friend. There's not another. It's only
him. And he's unique. There's only
one like him. And his work is perfect. His redemption is eternal. The Bible says, what has he obtained?
An eternal redemption. That's the kind of redemption
that we have. And the Bible says that we look unto Him. It says,
look unto Me and be ye saved. Behold the Lamb that takes away
the sin of the world. And we don't try to exalt ourselves,
but we exalt Him. Christ Jesus. He's lifted up
as a sovereign over all. This morning, he's over all nations. I don't know how many believe
that. It doesn't make any difference, but he's over all nations. He's
over every empire. You go back and what happens?
He set up empires, he takes down empires. He's over all this morning. He's over the enemies. He's over
the foes. All is under His control. And
I like this, the psalmist said, The Lord reigneth. He says it
over two or three different times. He said, The Lord reigneth. Let
the people rejoice. Now our text tells us that He
says, I'm going to draw all unto Me. Now, what's popular is, well, you
preach Christ, and they say that He's going to draw everybody.
That's what the universalists say, that He's going to draw
everybody, but all's not going to come, but He's going to draw
everybody. Some will, some will not. Well,
I guess that means that some are stronger than the Lord, Now
if He draws all men, every child of Adam, why are so many in hell? Why are so many drawn away by
their own lust? Why are so many drawn away by
their own covetousness? Why are so many drawn away by
their love of money? Why are so many drawn away with
pride? They say, well, Christ. The question
is, can He draw to Himself? Now, the meaning of this this
morning, if you notice, that man is in italics. He says, I'm
going to draw all unto Me. Now, He's going to draw all of
His unto Him. is what He's going to do. He's
going to draw them unto Him. All this He is. Now turn back
to the 6th chapter of John, verse number 44. No man can come to Me except
the Father which has sent Me draw him. And He's going to raise them
up in the last days, isn't He? Verse 45. They shall be all taught
of God. Every man therefore that has
heard and has learned of the Father cometh unto Me. You know the key this morning is
coming to Christ, isn't it? The key is not coming to this
church building. The key is not coming to some
religion. But the key is coming to Christ,
isn't it? He says, I'm going to draw all
unto Me. Verse 37, All that the Father
giveth Me shall come unto Me. And him that cometh to me, I
will in no wise cast out." Now I've heard preaching, and I don't
know how many times over the years, I've heard people quote
the last part of that verse. Him that cometh to me, I will
in no wise cast out. That's true. But I've rarely
ever heard anybody say anything about the first part of it. Have you? Father, give of me,
they shall come to me. They shall come. Aren't you glad this morning
that the Lord said they shall come and you came? You shall
come. That tells us that there's no
failure with Him. Thine are mine and I'm glorified
in them. If I be lifted up, what's going
to happen? He says, I'm going to draw all
unto Me. There's His grasp. There's His
hand. There's His drawing power. And it's mighty. Mighty. I will draw. Now, man by persuasion has never
drawn anyone. Man by his allurements has never
drawn anyone. Man by his promises has never
drawn anyone. But Christ says, I will draw. He takes hold of sinners and
draws them. I tell you, He drew you out of
deep waters. You was drowning. You was in the deep waters of
sin. He draws you out. You was in the miry clay, sinking. He draws you out. You're in life of sin. He draws you out. He draws you out of the world. He draws you to that of repentance.
He draws you to that of His forgiveness. He draws you to peace. You know the world is looking
everywhere for peace. The Bible says Christ is peace. He's that peace that you can
close your eyes in death. He's that peace that you can
live in this world. And it's a marvelous thing when
the Lord lays hold upon one and they bow before Him. They fall at His feet. There's His powerful grace. Christ says, I will draw. I will
draw. That should be our prayer this
morning for our loved ones that Christ would draw on. That should be our prayer as
we would stand and proclaim God's Word to those that sit on the Word
that God would draw on. It's His Spirit. We're nothing. We're just clay. We know that religion draws and
has so many things that it draws to and ways that it draws, but
I want you to know this morning, Christ, when He draws, He draws
to Himself. That's the difference. I know people, they're drawn
to religion. It's large denominations, it's
all about religion. But this Bible says that Christ
draws to Himself. It's to Him. He's the attraction. It's His
person. It's His glories. It's His attributes
that we're drawn to. We're drawn to Him that has all
power in this world. We're drawn to Him as Isaiah
speaks of Him. Who that He is. We're drawn to
His grace. His mercy. And I tell you, those that He
draws, It's Christ. He's dear to the soul. Dear to us. The Bible says, unto
you that believe, He is precious. Precious. Our gaze is upon Him. Our Lord. His glories. The things of Christ. What He reveals unto us. His
grace. His great love. One of my favorite verses of
Scripture is this, I've loved you with an everlasting love. In loving kindness, I've drawn
you to myself. God says, I've loved you with
an everlasting love. Can it be any better than that? This morning? His everlasting
love? There's a cord that can't be
broken. That which is of man can be,
but this is a cord of God's love, of the Holy Spirit, the Son's
love, the very Deity. And there's no failure, and there
never will be one. I'll draw all unto Me." Here again, it's to His glory. And most of what we see today
is of the creature. And the difference between that
of a natural religion and a supernatural is that who's exalted. Who's exalted? Is it man or Christ? We put down man and put up Christ. He must be lifted up above all. The salvation that He gives is
a sovereign gift. He is lifted up. It's a great
salvation. It's suited to sinners. When we take our place as sinners,
it's suited to us. And He saves us, it's all to
His glory. He must reign. It's to His glory. He brings us into the one fold,
and there's one Shepherd and one Lord. What a verse! He says, and if
I, if I be lifted up from the earth,
talking about the cross, He says, I'm going to draw all unto Me. Thus He said, signifying what
death He should die. Our salvation was when He was lifted up. We see Him. He says, I'm going
to draw all unto Me. I tell you, we're thankful this
morning that He's drawing power. We were just drawn away by everything
else. And He came in His power. and His dramas. We had to have it. We needed
it. Aren't we thankful? He spoke to our hearts. He showed us Himself as Savior. Showed us Himself as Lord. We call Him Lord. That's who He is. He's the Lord
Jesus Christ. So we're thankful. We also can think about that
here's a lamb slain before the foundation of the world. But He came. Went to this cross. You know that drawing power has
lasted through the generations. And I don't know how long this
old world is going to last. It doesn't make any difference.
But as long as it does, that's His drawing power. He's going to draw His people
to Himself. He's precious to those that see
Him. They see Him. They bow before
Him. He's more than anything else. He's the precious Lord. We're thankful that He's had
it drawn prior. And as I pray for those that
are lost, that He would draw them to Himself. Thank you.