Let's go back to the book of
John this evening. We'll go back to John chapter
12. As I look at this congregation, I'm
sure that I don't need to remind you, but I'm going to remind
you anyway that the key to understanding the book of God is indeed the
cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no understanding of
the Old Testament apart from the substitutionary sacrifice
of the Son of God. Starting with what God did there
in the book of Genesis chapter 3 when He killed the animals
and He robed Adam and Eve and continuing all the way through
the Old Testament with all of the offerings that He gave to
Israel, all of the sacrifices. appointed all of these animals
that would die indeed in the book of Exodus the way he set
up the Passover with the death of the Passover lamb. All of
these things, all of these things, they cannot be understood except
in the light of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. I read to you there to begin
with from Galatians chapter 6 God forbid that I should glory safe
in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. What did the great apostle
mean by the cross of Christ? Well, we know he's not talking
about that wooden beam, the cross beam, the beam in the ground
and the cross beam. to which his hands were nailed. He wasn't talking about that
cross. He didn't glory in a piece of wood. And he certainly wouldn't
glory in jewelry fashioned after that. Here's what he's talking
about. He glories in the doctrine of the cross. That is substitution. That is the one who died on the
cross, he was there in the stead of his people. He died a death
that God demanded in order that all of our sins be put away.
We've said it a number of times. The wages of sin is death. God
demanded death and he's going to get death. Either the death
of a sacrifice that's suitable, suitable to God. A sacrifice
that he approves of or it'll be the death of the sinner. But
justice, justice is going to have to be answered. The demands
of justice are strict, they're unbending. The Lord Jesus died. a death
of substitution. That's what we're talking about
by the doctrine of the cross. When Paul says he gloried in
the cross, he means he gloried in the doctrine of substitution. Who did he die for? He died for
his people. He didn't die for all men. He
didn't die for all nations. He died for his people. had an
article in the bulletin just two or three weeks ago about,
you know, when the The Israelites, when they went on the Day of
Atonement, when the sacrifice was offered, it wasn't offered
for all of the other nations. It was only offered for Israel,
for Israel. There was no consideration to
the Edomites or the Philistines or name any of the other countries
anywhere in the world that existed in that day. The sacrifice wasn't
offered for any of them. There was only the consideration
of Israel. It was for Israel. And our Lord
Jesus, when He died, the death of the cross, He was offering
Himself up to God on the behalf of His people. These were people
God gave Him. These were people entrusted to
Him. The Father has loved these people
with an everlasting love. As well as the Son of God, He
loved them also, and as did the Spirit of God. And yet knowing
that these would, in due time, fall into a state of alienation
from God, there had to be something done, a provision made by God
Himself for these that He loved. Because though He loved His elect
with an everlasting love, still His justice had to be satisfied
on account of our sin, right? Because God's a holy God. And
therefore, The Lord Jesus, He was appointed to be our substitute. And when he says, when Paul says
in Galatians 6.14, he gloried in the cross of Christ, he's
saying I glory in the doctrine of substitution and in the doctrine
of satisfaction. That God's justice was satisfied. Our Lord Jesus didn't merely
attempt to save his people. He saved his people. He actually
redeemed his people. He actually was the sacrifice
that honored God's demands. You see, every legal requirement
of God. We're not talking about the legal
requirements of men, but the requirements of God. Every legal
requirement of God had to be met and met fully. in order for
us to be saved. And our Lord Jesus did that and
by His death on the cross, He actually saved us. He didn't
make it a possibility for us to be saved. He didn't open the
way for our salvation. Bless His name. He saved us. He reconciled us unto God. He justified us. You read in
the end of Romans chapter 4, Here's what the apostle says.
He talks about being justified that our Lord Jesus was, He was
raised from the dead for this reason. He had justified us,
right? He had justified us. Something
happened on the cross and it was so wonderful and so glorious
that here's what the apostle Paul says, I glory in the cross
of Christ. And he said of those Judaizers,
he said they preach salvation by works because they don't want
people to be offended by them. They don't want the offense of
the cross. There is an offensiveness concerning
the cross of Christ to religionists, to those who seek to be saved
by their works, by their goodness. But those of us who understand
who died, and the reason he died, and the effects of his death,
the everlasting effects of his death, we, like the apostles,
say we glory, we glory in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's where reconciliation was
made, right there. And that's where all of our sins
were put away. I know that the Spirit of God
convinces us of our sins, of our iniquities, of our innumerable
trespasses, and we have this attitude before God, Lord, I
repent of my sins, I repent of my idolatry, I repent of all
of my dead works, all of my religious deeds, I repent of all of them,
but repentance doesn't put them away. No! Repentance doesn't have that
kind of power. It's the cross of the Lord Jesus
that did that. That's what put them away. And
our faith in the Son of God, we believe Him as our Savior.
We believe Him as our Redeemer. We believe Him as our righteousness. We believe Him for all of our
justification, which is a one-time work. I mean, it's done. It's
finished. We're not going to be more justified
than we are now. Not ever. We're accepted in the
Beloved. But that happened at the cross.
And we glory in the cross. That's what Paul says. We glory
in the cross. We look to the cross for righteousness. Where was righteousness brought
in? And I think we need to be very
careful here because I hear some saying that by the life of the
Lord Jesus, He brought righteousness in. Well, we don't deny the perfection
of His life. and the glorious obedience of
the Son of God to all of the laws of man and of God during
His life. But it wasn't His life that brought
the righteousness in, it was His death. It was His death upon
the cross of Calvary. For He, God, hath made Him, Christ,
to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. In the context, He's talking
about reconciling the world unto Himself by His death, by His
cross. That's where it happens. I tell
you, all of this, all of this is tied to the cross of Calvary. There's our salvation. There
it is. We look to the cross for everything.
Why, we even look to the cross of Calvary for our motivation
for living. That's our rule of life. You
want a rule of life? Well, give us some laws to rule
by or to live by. We need some bylaws in the church. Give us some things that we should
be doing. Look to the cross of Calvary.
Do everything out of love for Him who died on that cross. There's
our motivation for living. Everything we need to know from
the Word of God and how to live in this world, We learn from the shadow of the
cross. Have you ever sung that song,
The Way of the Cross Leads Home? It's not even in our book. I
don't know if you know that one, Joe. We used to sing it years
ago. I must needs, I must needs go
home by the way of the cross. By the way of the cross. There's
no other way but this. I shall ne'er get sight of the
gates of light if the way of the cross I miss. Don't miss
the cross. Don't miss the cross. And this
is where people are missing it today in religion. They've got
Jesus as an example. They've got Jesus as the answer
to all of your problems in life. He'll cure this. He'll cure that. Your bank account. Your marriage. Your children problem. All of
these things. He's the answer to all of them.
But here's what they're leaving out. The cross. And if you leave
out the substitutionary death of our Lord Jesus Christ, then
you've just cut the heart out of the gospel. You've got no
gospel. You've got no gospel. And really, you've cut the heart
out of the word of God. Because as I said, there's no
understanding the book of God without the cross of our Lord
Jesus. Here's what I wanna talk to you
tonight about, the magnetism of the cross. The magnetism of
the cross. What does a magnet do? It attracts. It draws. And this is exactly
what the Savior says here in John chapter 12 in verse, look
at verse 31. Now is the judgment of this world. Now is the judgment of this world.
John chapter 12 in verse 31. Here's his, you wanna see his
judgmental power? Look at the cross. In the death of our Lord Jesus,
we see the judgment, the condemnation of the world, the world of the
Jews, the world of all unbelievers. And you'll see the judgment of
all of the sins of all of his people at the cross. And then
he says, now is the judgment of this world, this at the cross,
now shall the prince of this world be cast out. There's another effect of the
cross of Calvary. That's where Satan's power was
broken. I was watching the other day,
I don't look at Facebook very much, very rarely, but I was
watching something, this guy had cut off the head of a rattlesnake. But he then put, he had a hoe
or something, I don't remember what it was, But he put that
down at the rattlesnake's mouth and it kept on attacking without,
it wasn't even attached to the body. And it kept on attacking
that. I'll tell you what happened at
the cross. Our Lord Jesus cut off the head of the serpent.
Now he's still, his head's still attacking. But he is mortally
wounded. Mortally, where did that happen?
It happened at the cross. We glory in the cross because
that's where the tempter's power was broken. He had the power
of death and kept men in fear over that. Read Hebrews chapter
2, it was broken. When was it broken? When our
Lord Jesus died on the cross. Now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. And He says this in verse 32,
And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men
unto Me. All kinds of men. There's the
magnetism of the cross. There's something about the preaching
of the cross. There's a people out here, scattered
throughout the nations. And we just go forth preaching
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And when these appointed people,
they hear it as the Word of God targets their heart. And that's
what's got to happen. The Holy Spirit's got to target
the heart. I was telling somebody the other
day, I said, you know, when I'm preaching, when any preacher's
preaching, it's like a shotgun. I mean, it just sprays out. I
don't know who it's going to hit, but when the Spirit of God
sends it forth, it's a rifle shot. right to the target. And when He sends it to the target
of your heart, something wonderful happens. There is an absolute
saving, saving power in the preaching of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And it's this gospel that draws
men in. You see, by nature we're very
passive. When it comes to spiritual things,
we're not active, we're passive. We're like Simon Peter's sword,
when he drew it out of its sheath, and he went after the high priest's
servant, Malchus, and he cut off his ear. But the scripture
says he drew his sword, The sword, it had no life in it. There's
no power in it. It had to be acted upon. And
the Lord says, He draws us. He said, if I be lifted up, will
draw all unto Me. I'll draw them. They're going
to be passive in this. Because they're dead in trespasses
and sins. I'll do the work. You see, that's
the salvation we preach. That salvation is God's work,
not ours. We don't assist Him. We don't
enable Him to do the work. It's His work fully. He draws
His people unto Himself. This is the absolute wonder of
Calvary. And this is why we keep preaching
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. I've heard preachers say, I've
probably said it before, and we just need to say it a little
bit more, we say, Brother, preach Christ to us. Preach Christ to
us. Well that's not, that sounds
good, but that really isn't enough. Preach Christ crucified to us. That's the key. Because there
are a lot of people who, preachers who preach Christ, in a number
of different capacities. but they don't set him forth
as being Christ crucified. They don't preach the cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, he draws people. He's the drawing, there's a magnetic,
magnetic pull about the cross of Calvary that is absolutely
irresistible. It's like that, and I mentioned
not long ago, It's one of Terry's favorite stories out of the Old
Testament, Mephibosheth. When David sent for him, he said,
fetch Mephibosheth. Hey, where the word of the king
is, there's power. That's right. Where the word
of the king is, there's power. And he said, fetch Mephibosheth.
There is no way in this world Mephibosheth is going to wind
up anywhere else except in front of King David because he gave
fetching orders. And this is the cross of Calvary. It fetches people to the Savior. It draws us in irresistibly. And we do admonish people to
come to Christ. And we say, come close with the
Savior. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But let me tell you something.
The Spirit of God speaks to your heart using this message of substitution
and satisfaction. There's a magnetic pull and power
about the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of a sudden,
you'll be willing to come to Him and be saved His way. He makes you willing in the day
of His power. Before, it was too much grace. I said, well, that's just too
much grace for me. Tell me some things I need to
do. But then he breaks down all the barriers and they all fall. He draws you. There's such a
magnetic pull about the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
we know in verse 33, This, he said, signifying what death is
should die. And here's what the people said
when he said this. The people who heard him, they
said, oh, we've heard out of the law that Christ abided forever. Well, they remember reading in
the Old Testament about a priest who will live forever, about
a king who will reign forever. Well, how sayest thou the Son
of Man must be lifted up? Why are you talking this way?
Who is this Son of Man? See, what they didn't understand
was, here's the way to the crown by way of the cross. This is
the way to exaltation. Of course, what they had in mind
was an earthly kingdom. And they totally miss the idea
of a spiritual kingdom. Well, Jesus said unto them, look
at verse 35. Jesus said unto them, this is
very powerful. Yet a little while is the light
with you. Just a little while. In fact,
it's just gonna be a few more days. Because this is the last
week of his life. And then he's going to give his
life a ransom for many. He'll be raised again, and 40
days later, he's going back to heaven. Just a little while. A little while. The light is
going to be with you. Walk while you have light. Lest
darkness come upon you. Lest the Lord take the light
away. For he that walketh in darkness knoweth not where he
goeth. We said last week the Lord can
take the light away very quickly. You know we can call this the
age of mercy, the era of salvation, call it whatever you want to,
but I know this, that right now the door of mercy is open to
whoever wants to come to Christ. Would you agree with that? I
agree with that. Whoever wants to come, the problem is nobody
wants to come. That's the problem. The problem
is with us. And He does make us willing.
But He says, walk in the light. Walk in the light while you have
the light. And it's just a little while,
He says. That's what kind of got a hold
to me from this passage of Scripture. Just a little while. Hold your
place there. Look over Revelation 2. This
is a Scripture I thought about when our Lord was He wrote these
letters. He gave them to John, these letters
to the seven churches of Asia Minor. And here's, the first
one goes out to the church of Ephesus. He says in Revelation
2 verse 1, under the angel of the church of Ephesus write, These things saith he that holdeth
the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst
of the seven golden candlesticks. Now, Revelation 2.2, I know thy
works, thy labor, thy patience, how thou canst not bear with
them that are evil, and thou hast, you tried them which say
they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars, you've
been true to the gospel, in other words, You've not been hesitant
to expose error, to expose the false prophets, and thou hast
borne, and you've had patience, and for my name's sake, you've
labored, you haven't fainted, you haven't quit, nevertheless,
you've been real active, doing a lot of things, but nevertheless,
I got something against you, because thou hast left thy first
love. Remember therefore from whence
thou art fallen and repent and do the first works. Or else, or else, I will come unto thee
quickly in just a little while. Could I put that in there? Like
you did in John 12. I'll come in just a little while.
I'll come quickly. I'll remove your candlestick. I'll remove that candlestick
out of his place, except I'll repent." He said, there's going to have
to be some changes made. I'll come and take the lampstand
away. Oh, you'll continue in your religion, you'll continue
with your ceremonies, you'll continue with your rituals, but
you won't have any light. Because if He takes the light
away, you know what's left. Darkness. Darkness is error. Darkness is evil. Darkness means
the absence of the Spirit of God, because He brings light. And our Lord Jesus says over
here to hear all these Jews. I told you last week, this is
His last sermon to them. This is His last sermon. And
He says to all of these people, yet a little while is the light. I'm just going to be here a little
while longer. Walk in the light. lest darkness come upon you.
And you go back to the text there, he says this in verse 36, While
ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be children
of the light. These things spake Jesus, and
He departed. And I'll tell you the end of
verse 36, John 12, 36, He did hide Himself from them. He hid Himself. If He hides Himself,
you're not going to find Him. In verse 37, but though he had
done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on
him. And this was prophesied. This
is not surprising. Isaiah talked about this, and
what he talked about is just being fulfilled. He said in Isaiah
53 verse one, Lord, who hath believed our report? And to whom
hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? Christ Jesus is the
arm of the Lord. To whom is He revealed? A couple
of things here. Isaiah is saying, is there anybody
to whom He's revealed? But also remember this, the necessity
of Him being revealed. He's got to reveal Himself. He's
got to make us acquainted with Him. He's got to introduce Himself
to us. We're not out here seeking Him. He's got to seek us. He's got
to come after us. If He waits for us to take the
first move toward Him, we're going to perish in our sins.
That old adage, you know, if you'll take the first step toward
Him, well, He'll meet you halfway. No, we can't take the first step. We're not even interested in
stepping in His direction. If He waits for us, He'll be
waiting eternally. These people didn't believe on
Him. And He won't be believed apart
from Revelation. Lord, reveal yourself to us. I'll tell you what's wrong with
a good many of the people to whom we preach, I'm afraid, they've
never seen the glory of Christ Jesus. See, this is what happened to
Isaiah. Isaiah saw his glory, but the
other people didn't. And we won't, you won't, and
I won't see His glory unless He reveals Himself to us. He
took His three of His favored disciples up on the Mount of
Transfiguration and He revealed His inner glory to them. He didn't
have to, but He did. Lord, reveal Your glory to us
lest we remain in darkness. That's what we've got to have. I'll tell you, it says in verse
39, therefore they could not believe, because as Isaiah said
again, He's blinded their eyes. I'll tell you, this is quoted
what, five or six times in the New Testament. He blinded their
eyes. He hardened their heart. They
couldn't see with their eyes. They couldn't understand with
their heart. They couldn't be converted. It just wasn't going
to happen. They saw all the miracles. He's
casting out demons. He had authority over the winds
and the waves, diseases. They left at His command and
they still didn't believe Him. And He walks off from them and
hides Himself. And Isaiah said these things
when he saw His glory. And this is what's got to happen.
We've got to see the glory of Christ Jesus. I'll tell you when folks will be faithful, they'll
attend, they'll give. Of course, we don't beg anybody
to give anyway, but they won't be necessary to even mention
Stuff like that, when people see his glory. That's what's necessary. Now look at verse 42. Nevertheless,
among the chief rulers, also many believed on him. Well, that
sounds good. But because of the Pharisees,
they didn't confess him. lest they should be put out of
the synagogue. For they love the praise of men
more than the praise of God. Think about the enemies of our
souls. I can identify three or four. First of all, our own sin nature. We're our biggest enemy. We're
the biggest problem we've got. We have a natural desire, and
we will pursue error, and we're blind to the truth. Christ Jesus
came. He is the truth. He's the way.
He's life. People didn't believe him. They
believed this other religion, a religion of works, a religion
of man's own righteousness. The flesh is opposed to salvation
conditioned upon the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ unto
his death. The flesh is opposed to that.
The message of sovereign grace, that God has the right to give
life to whoever he wants to or withhold it from whoever he wants
to, that offends our feelings because we feel like we're deserving.
We're a deserving people. We're attracted to error, we're
attracted to False gospels? I tell you, sin's got a hold
on us. It's got a magnetic pull on us. And we can't break it. We can't
break it. I'll tell you another enemy.
The world. That's our enemy. The world.
Love not the world, neither the things of the world. Covetousness,
sin, for it's idolatry. Remember the parable of the sower?
I'm sure I need not remind you the whole thing, but some of
the seed was sown in ground that was thorny, thorny ground. And it says it began to sprout
a little bit. And then the cares of the world
and riches choked it out, the world. It has such drawing power
to us. It's got a magnetic pull on us.
You can't break that either. And I'll tell you something else
that's got a magnetic pull on us, and that's what we see right
here, the praise of men. See, these are religious people.
And it looks good to begin with when it says, among the chief
rulers, many believed on him, but they were afraid of the Pharisees. and they wouldn't confess him.
They wouldn't confess him. Go back to John 7. The dangerous thing to confess
him. Look at John 7, verse 45. John
7, 45. Then came the officers to the
chief priests and Pharisees. Remember, I gave you the illustration
about the Pharisees sent the temple police to arrest Jesus.
And they didn't do it. They came back without him. So
then came the officers. Here comes the temple police
to the chief priests and Pharisees. And the chief priests and Pharisees
said to him, how come you haven't brought him? How come you didn't
arrest him? And the officers answered, never a man spake like
this man. Then answered them the Pharisees,
are you also deceived? Have any of the rulers, that's who we're talking about
over here in chapter 12 now. Have any of the rulers or of
the Pharisees believed on him? Well, it says over in John 12,
many have believed on him, but for fear of the Pharisees, they
wouldn't confess him. But they go on to say here in
verse 49, but this people who knoweth not the law are cursed.
They're ignorant of the law. These are simpletons. They don't
know anything. They're just deceived. And then
verse 50, Nicodemus, and I'll tell you, I don't know. I don't know about
this guy. I don't know about this guy. He saith unto them,
parentheses, he that came to Jesus by night, being one of
them. That still bothers me. He's one
of them. And far as I can find out, he
never did publicly confess it. He says, Doth our law judge any
man before it hear him? And know what he doeth? They
answered and said unto him, Are you also of Galilee? Search and
look, for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet. Sure would have been
nice if Nicodemus spoke up and said, now wait a minute, boys.
He's the fulfillment of Old Testament Scripture. I believe he's the
true Messiah. I believe he's the Son of God.
This is the Son of God, the Son of David, come to save sinners
from their sin. I sure wish he had said that,
but he didn't. He didn't. I tell you, the praise of men
and the fear of rejection, the fear of being cast out, fear
of losing friends, fear of losing positions, that has a magnetic
pull on people. And I'll tell you this, religious
traditions, boy, they are hard to break. Only one who can break
them is the Lord. Religious traditions. Somebody was telling me, telling
Nancy and I just the other day, was talking about a church. Well,
they were talking about Paul. When Henry left, and some of
y'all, Hunter and whatever, left with him, some man stood up and
said, I love every brick of this church. Every brick of this church. Well, those religious traditions,
you can't break them. It's got a strong pull to it.
I remember my dad pastored in Rock Mountain. First of all,
he pastored way out in the sticks somewhere. And they had opportunity
to, and I was just a kid then, but I remember they had opportunity
to buy a piece of property and some of them said, this is where
my grandparents went to church. This is where my parents went
to church. It's where we go to church. It's where my children
go to church. It's where my grandchildren are
going to go to church. We're not leaving. That's the way people
are. It's got a strong magnetic pull. I'll tell you something else
that's got a strong magnetic pull. The evil one. Boy, he's got a hold of us. Well, here's the thing. What's
it going to take? What kind of power is it going
to take to break our love of sinful self? What kind of power
is it going to take to break our love of the world and the
things of the world? It's got such a magnetic pull
on us. What kind of power is it going
to take to break the religious traditions, the chains that have
bound us and all of our friends and the fear of rejection of
them and their disappointment in us? You're doing what? You're
not leaving us, are you? What kind of magnetic pull is
it going to take to draw us away from that and to draw us away
from the evil one? I'll tell you, it's the magnetic
power of the cross. That's what it takes. It's the
only power that can break all this hold on us. It's the magnetism of the cross. I'll tell you, If God leaves
us to ourselves, we'll never walk in the light. We'll never trust the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I know this, that if we ever
do trust Him and believe on Him, it'll be because like Isaiah,
we see His glory. That's what happened to Isaiah.
In the year that King Uzziah died. And before that, Uzziah,
he was the top dog. There was just nobody like the
king. And Isaiah, he goes along the first few chapters, he's
woeing everybody else. And then he saw the Lord. High
and lifted up. Train filled the temple. He heard
them singing the seraphim, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of
hosts. Whole earth's filled with His
glory. Isaiah said, woe is me. He'd
been woeing everybody else, but he got the sight of the Lord's
glory. See, self-righteous people are
always woeing everybody else. But look at them. They can't
be a Christian, look what they're doing. And woe is them, woe is
them, woe is them. You get a sigh of the glorified
Christ, you say, woe is me. Woe is me. Woe is me. And the Lord sent a messenger
with a hot coal. and put it on his lips, brought
him the gospel, burned its way down in his soul, and he saw
the glory of Christ Jesus. Ah, that's what we need. That's
what we need. There's that magnetism of the
cross. That's why we keep preaching
the cross of Christ Jesus. Oh, it's magnetic. I tell you
what, it pulled you to it, hadn't it? and won't let you go. That's the thing about it. This
magnet, this magnetism of the cross, it pulls you to Christ
crucified and won't ever let you go. No, it won't let you
go. We can't leave. We don't want
to, but we can't. Because He keeps us. He holds
us fast. Oh, let's sing another song about
the cross, near the cross.