One of the things that kind of
came up in the conversation when we were talking about God's election,
reprobation, and things like that, somebody just made a comment,
you know, Jesus said, you know, if I be lifted up, I'll draw
all men to myself. So obviously Christ wants all
people to be saved and that everybody is invited to come. And of course
we hear, even among reformed people, Calvinists and things
like that, We hear people say that Christ's salvation is a
free offer, that it is a legitimate offer to every person and that
he truly, sincerely is offering salvation to everyone. Now, brethren,
I can't find that in the scriptures. I hear that spoken a lot, even
among sovereign grace people, that Christ is sincerely offering
salvation, but salvation is not an offer. Salvation is a gift
of God. It's something that is an objective
thing. It's not a subjective thing.
See, if it's an offer, then it's subject to you accepting the
offer or meeting the demands of what is required to receive
that. Therefore, it would become a
work. Whatever you have to do to get
salvation, therefore, is done in exchange for that already
potential salvation that's out there. However, we learn throughout
scripture that salvation is a gift of God. That salvation is something
that was secured and completed by our Lord Jesus Christ. It's
something that he came to do. The Bible says that he came into
this world to save sinners. He said he came into this world
to save his people from their sin. Therefore, that accomplishment
of that very thing either was done or was not done. He either
saved his people from their sin or he didn't and just made it
potentially possible. But yet on the cross, he cried
out very loudly, it is finished. There was nothing left to do.
Matter of fact, before his death, he prayed, you know, all that
you've given me to do, I've come and I've done. Everyone that
you've given me, I've lost none of them, right? So, whenever
we hear these phrases, and especially as we begin to be shamed a little
by family members and friends and people like that, who want
to tug at heart strings and stuff like that, by saying, you know,
well, you know, what kind of God is that that would do that?
And what kind of gospel is that? And why even preach the gospel
if that's the case? If Jesus has already saved everybody
and, you know, then what's the purpose of the gospel? Brethren,
the purpose of the Gospel, and the reason we preach the Gospel
even as of today, is number one, the Gospel is for the people
of God. The Gospel is the message of good news to those whom the
Lord has saved. It is the heralding, it is the
proclaiming, it is the proclamation of salvation to those whom the
Lord has died for. It is the proclamation to those
whom the Lord has given eyes to see and ears to hear. The
natural man received it, not the things of the Spirit of God.
So until one has been born from above, until one has been granted
faith by Christ Jesus, they cannot see, they cannot understand,
they cannot hear. They may read the words, they
may be able to memorize these things, they may even be able
to get some sort of a two-hour discourse on some of these things.
But yet the spiritual understanding and the faith that it takes to
actually rest in and receive the message of the gospel cannot
be done by the natural man. It can only be done by those
who are born from above. And so all these passages of
scriptures, and getting back to that particular phrase, if
I be lifted up, I will draw all men to me, that has to be taken
in context with the rest of scripture. If Jesus said, if I be lifted
up, I shall draw all men to me, if that all means everyone head
for head, then Jesus accomplished that. Because Jesus said, I came
to do the will of my Father. Everything that He has told me
to do, I have told me to say, I have said. Everything He has
told me to do, I have done. And therefore, I have lost none
that you have given me to save. to die for. Everyone you give
for me to die for shall come to me. And therefore, if the all that
he was lifted up to draw, if the all means everyone head for
head, then everyone head for head will come to him. But see,
we got to keep the Bible in this context, right? Turn with me
to John chapter 12. In verse 31, that's where this
verse is found. And I, as I was looking at this
this morning, and a little bit yesterday, even it was on my
mind. This, there's two main things
that I see in this that I would hope that the Lord will give
me to draw out here. And I pray that it is of the
truth. John 12, and I'm gonna start
reading verse 30. Jesus answered and said, this
voice came not because of me, but for your sakes. God had spoke
out of heaven saying that he would glorify his son, that he
had glorified his son, that he would glorify him again. Jesus
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 if I be lifted up, and I,
if I be lifted up, from the earth will draw all men unto me. Now that right there is one of
those sayings that is a definite saying of Christ that he said,
and I, now if I be lifted up from the earth, you see that's
kind of like a parenthetical verse right there, right? It's
a parenthetical verse. phrase in the middle of what
he was about to say. He says, and I will draw all
unto me. How is he going to do that if
I be lifted up? He's going to draw all to him if he be lifted
up. Now, that is not Jesus saying,
I'm going to try to draw all to me. because I'm being lifted
up. He's saying the very fact that
I am being lifted up is going to have an effect. It's going
to draw all to me. Now again, I ask the question,
if Jesus says my lifting up is going to draw all to me and yet
some do not come, is God sovereign? Did Christ accomplish what he
was sent to do? Was it actually finished? I mean,
those are, I believe, legitimate questions. I don't know about
y'all, but it seems to me legitimate questions to ask of Christ. You
said if you were lifted up, you're gonna draw all to yourself, but
yet we see some going to hell. We see some rejecting you. We
see some who do not believe on you. Why are they not drawn to you?
You said you would if you were lifted up. You were lifted up.
Why are all men not coming? You said, you promised, that
you would draw all men to yourself. So therefore, either Jesus lied,
Jesus didn't accomplish it, and salvation wasn't finished as
Jesus also promised, or there's something else here, brethren.
There is more context to what we need to draw out to understand
this and not stop and cherry pick verses out of the Bible
to support our theological presuppositions. See, we need to quit looking
at Calvinists and Armenians. We need to quit looking at Reformed
and non-Reformed, Protestants and this and that. We need to
quit looking at all that and look and see what does the Bible
say. It doesn't matter what Dr. So-and-so says or Theologian
Yehu says. It doesn't matter what I say.
What matters is what this guy's words say and we get our faith. and I use that in the aspects
of a body of belief, we get our faith that we hold from the Word
of God. He's given to the saints once
that body of faith, his doctrine. And that doctrine has been perpetuated
from year to year to year throughout every generation by his church. And that doctrine has a change. Now, it's surely been obscured
It's surely been lied about. It's surely been falsified by
some. It has been hated by others. It has tried to been squelched
by every generation. But brethren, it has never changed. The gospel remains the same.
If I be lifted up, I will draw all unto me. So we need to figure out a couple
of things. Number one, who is the all, and
number two, what does draw mean, right? Well, turn back with me,
if you would, to John chapter three, because Jesus made the
same comment to Nicodemus. If you remember, when Nicodemus
came to him by night, he came on behalf of all the other religious
leaders. And Jesus had mentioned to him,
Nicodemus said, I know that all the stuff that you've been doing
can't be done unless one's from God. God's with them. And Jesus
cut right to the chase. He said, you're not ever going
to understand this unless you've been born again. You're never going to
understand these things unless you've been born again. So immediately,
that tells us that people are not going to understand the scriptures
unless they're born again. We talk about this Bible. being
given to everybody. This Bible was written to those
who are born again. This gospel message is to those
who have been born again. It's to all of God's elect. It's to the sheep. It's to the
people of God, the child of grace, whatever label you want to put
on them. This Bible and the message that's found in there is only
to and only understood by those who have been made spiritual
by God alone. And so Jesus said, you can't
understand this because it's spiritually discerned. You have
to be born again. And Jesus said, of course, make
your demons try to come back with some natural logic, right?
Well, how can a man be born again? Is he gonna crawl back up in
his mom's womb? Jesus said, art thou master of
Israel, verse 10, and knowest not these things. Verily, verily,
I say unto you, unto thee, we speak that we do know and testify
that we have seen and he received not our witness. The message
has been sent to you in its purest form, in its most clarified way. I mean, you can't get any clearer
than Jesus himself preaching the gospel. Brethren, there is
no man on earth can do what Jesus did and he preached the gospel.
He was the one who had all authority. He is the Word of God. You can't
get a better preacher with a better setting, with a better understanding
and context of scripture than Jesus. He knew exactly every
context because he's the one who put it in context. He's the
one who knows the background of every verse because he's the
one who put it there. And he knew the intent of it
whenever he had it written down. You can't get a better preacher
than Jesus, but yet there was those who did not believe. You
mean to tell me that Jesus couldn't convince somebody? Well, see,
that wasn't the way that it worked. Jesus wasn't there to convince
anybody. Jesus wasn't there to convince
the ones who were not meant to hear the message. Jesus made
that very clear as well. We'll see that here in just a
minute, Lord willing. But he says this, he says, verily,
verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know and testify that
we have seen and you receive not our witness. If I have told
you earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe if
I tell you of heavenly things? and no man hath ascended up to
heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of
Man, which is in heaven." I'm just going to say a side note
there. I'm going to go back and study a little bit about that.
Here the Son of Man was on earth, speaking to Nicodemus at the
time, but yet he says the Son of Man was also in heaven at
the same time. Now we're talking about the flesh
the manhood of Christ. We're not talking about the Spirit,
God. We're not talking about the fullness
of the Godhead that's Spirit, Father, Word, and Holy Ghost.
We're not talking about that Spirit that's omnipresent. We're talking about Christ in
the flesh being omnipresent. Now that boggles my mind, but
yet it's plain as day. Jesus said the Son of Man is
in heaven at the time that he's talking in the Anyway, just something,
some fodder for you to go look at. Verse 14, here it is. And
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up. So again, my question was, is
who is the all? And who is the, what does the
drawing mean? The draw mean? If we understand who the all
is, then we can understand, I think, if the Lord give it to us, understand
who the all, understand the drawing. And if we understand the all
and we understand the drawing, we might also understand the
work of the lifting up. Look with me in John chapter
six, and hopefully the Lord will make this as clear as mud. as
it is in my head. Sometimes these things are vaguely
there, and so anyway, we pray the Lord will bring it to understanding. In John chapter six, Jesus says in verse 37, matter
of fact, I'm gonna start in verse
35, It says that Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life.
He that cometh to me, there's the word cometh, shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. So
here we see that Jesus makes the distinction that the word
cometh is equal to believeth. He that cometh to me means the
same thing as believeth, and you'll see this in the whole
entire context of John chapter six. Matter of fact, Jesus used
those words interchangeably. He that cometh to me and he that
believeth on me means the same thing. To come to Jesus means
to believe on Jesus. Not believe in Jesus, believe
on Jesus. Believe that Jesus is your righteousness. Believe that Jesus was your sin
bearer. Believe that Jesus took the full
wrath of God and substituted everything that he did He did
on your behalf and your slate is perfectly clean in God's eyes.
Your righteousness is completely and totally perfect that all
of the law of God has been and is being kept because Jesus did
it all for you. There is nothing for you to do.
There is no conditions for you to meet. There is nothing that
is required of you for salvation. Jesus accomplished salvation
in and of Himself and that in its fullness, and everything
in that fullness, the Bible now says, ye are complete in Him. That means there's nothing left
for us to do. We don't have to worry about
keeping up religiosity. We don't have to worry about
keeping up the law in a certain amount of way to keep Him satisfied
with us. He was satisfied in His Son. He was satisfied in the work
of Christ. All of our righteousness is with
filthy rags. So everything that we've been trying to put up to
please God and to stay in right standing with God is all filthy
rags. That's why we needed to substitute.
That's why Jesus needed to be lifted up. If I be lifted up,
I will draw all men to myself. See, there is no drawing of men
to himself without the lifting up. The lifting up has to be
done and then the drawing can be done. But let's let's look
here. He says, I'm the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger. He that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I
said unto you that ye also have seen me and believed not. So
there were some there that didn't believe. Now you're going to
say the reason why. Verse 37. All that the father
giveth me shall come to me. That's a quantifier. We've talked
about this before. It's a quantifier. Who are the
ones that come to Jesus? All that the Father giveth me,
and them only. So here again, we have this word
all. If I be lifted up, I will draw all to me. Well, who's the all? Well, here we have the all defined. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. If I be lifted up, I will draw
all men. What is that implying? We've heard it for years and
years and years. What is God drawing you to Himself? He is
wooing you. He is begging you. He is pleading
for you. He is trying to get you to come
to Him and everything. That's what this drawing is.
If you actually look, you've probably heard this before, but
the word behind draw means to drag. Actually, the root word
of that word actually means to take one for Himself. Now is
that not what election is? God took for himself a people
before the foundation of the world? That is the drawing. The drawing, I will draw all
men to myself. I will drag, I will bring, I
will take for myself all that the Father has given to me. The
Bible says that whenever Jesus died that he led captivity captive. He took them all, right? Everyone
that was captive to sin, he took. And he became the victor. And
they overcome by the blood of the Lamb. And therefore, everyone
for whom God has chosen, everyone for whom Christ died, everyone
for whom Christ shed his blood, every one of them shall receive
the inheritance, shall receive the blessing, shall receive the
effect of that salvation, of that death. That's why I mean
that it's objective. It doesn't change. It cannot
change. The recipients isn't added or
taken away. It's all there. All that the
Father giveth me shall. Now you guys have heard the term
hardshell. Oh, they're just hardshell Baptists. That may be new to some people.
Have you ever heard that term? Okay, a lot of people that believe
in predestination election, and especially whenever it says that
everyone will come, they're called hard-shelled Baptists. That's
a derogatory term that was actually given to us. But hard-shelled
Baptists, and it actually came from hard-shall, and it just
eventually morphed into hard-shell. But because we believe these
hard-shalls, Jesus said, all that the Father giveth me shall
come to me, therefore, We believe that they shall come. It's in
distinction, brother, just so you'll know, it's in distinction
because there are some among the Baptists that believe in
predestination and election and absolute predestination. There's
some that believe in, they say they believe in absolute predestination,
but yet they say that God didn't predestinate sin or evil or anything
like that. And then they also believe that
the absolute predestination of God only talks about eternal
salvation, but not about temporal or time salvation, that all of
the stuff in time actually is conditional, that we have to
believe or we don't get saved or we have to do this. So they
believe that we'll be in heaven with Christ because of eternal
salvation, but we may never come to know the gospel or believe
on Jesus down here. That's conditional salvation.
And so we were turned, people like us are turned hard shell
or hard shell Baptist because we believe this verse and others
like it, that they shall come to me. All that the father gave
of me shall come. That's why we believe that everyone
that has that eternal salvation will also have a time salvation,
meaning that they will come to know Christ. They will come to
believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ sometime in this lifetime. It
may be early on in their life. It may be towards the very end
of their life. It may be right before they pass away, like the
people on the cross. We don't know. But we know that
they will be given faith. They will come to know Christ
Jesus. They're not going to enter into heaven saying, wow, what's
all this about? They're going to already know.
They're going to have that given to them because we believe the
promise of God. All that the Father gives me
shall come to me. Now again, there's that word
belief. All that the Father gives me shall believe on me. We can
say that and not arrest the scriptures, not twist the scriptures. And
him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. For I came
down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him
that sent me. And this is the Father's will which has sent
me, that, here it is again, that of all which He hath given me,
I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day.
So therefore, everyone that was given to the Father are going
to be the ones that He's going to raise up at the last day.
Not one will be lost. Therefore, again, the book of
life doesn't have eraser in it. Doesn't have an eraser mark or
scratch out mark. God isn't writing in the old
psalm, there's a new name written down in heaven. No, there's not
a new name written down in heaven. They were all written down before
the foundation of the world. He said he shall lose none, but
raise it up to the last day. If I be lifted up, I shall draw
all men to myself. The word draw here, And we're
gonna see this in just a second. The word draw here means he's
gonna cause them to believe on him, to come. To draw means to
come to him. If I draw you or drag you, you
are coming to me. Now some say, well, were you
doing it kicking and screaming? No, nobody comes kicking and
screaming. Did you come kicking and screaming
to the Lord? I was thirsty. I was hungry. I was thirsty.
There was something there. I need to know. I need to find
out, what is this? Especially whenever the sin and
the weight of sin is shown to you. See, that's whenever we
actually become sinners. See, until the Lord opens our
eyes, we don't see ourselves as sinners. We see ourselves
guilty of doing bad things, but we don't see ourselves as sinners,
meaning that we absolutely missed the mark. That's what the word
sin means, is to miss the mark. To fall short of the glory of
God. Everything that we do is sin
in the natural man because the flesh is flesh and it cannot
please God. Everything done in the flesh
is sin, therefore everything done in the flesh misses the
mark, is not going to reach the glory of God. That's why we don't
live for the flesh. That's why we don't live in the
things that we do for the flesh. That's why we don't exalt the
things that we do in the flesh. That the kingdom of God is a
spiritual kingdom and it has spiritual servants and they serve
in a spiritual way, not in a fleshly way. See, the world can mimic,
the wicked can mimic religious activity. I did for years. I came to church all the time.
I prayed all the time. Matter of fact, I probably prayed
more then than I probably pray now. I probably read my Bible
more then than I do now. I know that's to my shame probably.
I'm just being truthful with you. Back then, I thought everything
was sin and I better stop doing it or God's going to leave me
behind or God's going to, you know, He's going to send a meteor
to fall on my head and, you know, something. It wasn't until the
Lord gave me spiritual understanding to see how justification works,
how righteousness works. Righteousness is not something
imparted in me, it's imputed to me. It's laid to my account,
not demanded of me to keep. If righteousness is demanded
of me to keep, then why did Jesus have to come and keep it for
me? Just give me the power to do it, Lord, and I'll do it.
See, that's what we hear all the time. He's going to give
you the power to do it. Now He's going to give you the
power to believe on Him who did it. That's what He's going to
do. He's going to give you the faith to believe that everything
He did was enough and therefore you can rest in Him. That's what
it means to come to Him. That's what it means to be drawn
to Him. We use that term all the time. I'm drawn like a moth
to a flame, right? What is it? What does it mean to be drawn
to that? You know, I'm drawn to several different things.
You know, I like to fish. I'm drawn to fishing. You know, I'm
drawn to this or I'm drawn to that. What does that mean? That
means that there's an attraction there. There's something there
that has grabbed my attention and it's bringing me and it's
almost like I can't even help it. Like I said to Immaculate
Plane. You know, I think about when our kids were young. What
was that movie that we, what kids movie? Where the bugs lie. They were going through the line.
They were telling them, don't go to the line. They were just being
drawn to the bug zapper. They were telling them, don't
go, don't go. Being drawn to Christ is something
that whenever you're given spiritual life, you get a spiritual hunger,
you get a spiritual thirst. And those who have a spiritual
hunger and a spiritual thirst, God has provided something for
their sustenance. And it's found right here in
John chapter 6. Jesus said, I am the bread which came down from
heaven. What are we drawn to? What are we hungering after?
What are we thirsting after? We're hungering and thirsting
after Him being lifted up. That's what I want to hear. What
does it that helps me? I don't like to go, and I've
mentioned this to Brother Larry. My family knows this. I've been
to churches and Bible conferences and things like that where all
they do is they preach church history at those things. Now, I like church history and
I think it's important. but that's not what feeds my
soul. To hear what people did way back yonder and what they
said way back yonder isn't something that feeds my soul. I go to Bible conferences and
I hear people talk about how we should do this, how we should
do this, or how we ought to get up and do this, and you know,
how to build a, you know, such and such in 10 days, or you know,
all these self-help life lessons. That doesn't feed my soul either.
The reason that doesn't feed my soul is because whenever you
tell me this is what you have to do, I wake up the next day,
if not on my way home from the Bible conference, finding out,
guess what? I can't do that. And even if
I attempt to do that and in some way have a semblance of it, it
wasn't good enough because it was just filthy rags. No, what feeds my soul is to
hear the gospel of Christ, what He did on our behalf, that there
is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus,
that you can rest in Him just trusting that everything that
He has done, He has done for you. That means the wrath of
God was fully taken for you, brother. We're not being punished
in this lifetime because of our sins. We are being chastised
for our sins. But God is not punishing us for
our sins. We will not, in the day when
Christ comes, we are not going to stand and have to give an
account for all that we have done. That verse in the Bible
is not for the child of grace. That verse in the Bible is for
the reprobate. Every one of them who wanted
to establish their own righteousness is going to stand and give an
account for their works, and every work that they put forth
is going to be found wanting. But all the elect of God, when
they stand before God and give an account, the account is going
to be, the old account was settled long ago. It was settled on the cross. It
was settled in Christ Jesus. So all that the Father giveth
me shall come to me, and all that come to me I will in no
wise cast out." Why? Because this is the will of the
Father. This is the will of God. So you're telling me that God
desires everybody to be saved, but some are not going to get
saved, so therefore the will of God is not going to be accomplished.
Especially whenever the Bible says that He is God and He will
do all His will. I mean, it's plain as day, brother,
isn't it? He will accomplish His will. He will do whatever
He wants to do in the armies of the heaven and of the inhabitants
of the earth, and none can say His hand. Except for our will. That's the only thing that can
control God, is our will, our choice. God controls everything,
but He can't control that. That's hogwash, brother. All
that the Father gives me shall come to me. Now, Jesus said this,
And verse 44, this is all going to tie together eventually, Lord
willing. Verse 44, he says, no man can, that's a term of ability,
right? No man can come to me or no man
can believe on me. Remember, in the context here,
Jesus is using the word come and believe. He's not talking
about coming to church. He's not talking about coming
to the preacher and shaking his hand. Coming to the baptistry
waters. Coming to a membership. All those
are important. I believe all those are scriptural.
But, that's not what he's talking about. The word come here is
meaning believing. Coming to Him for this righteousness. Believing on Him for this righteousness.
can come to me except, there's only one way, only one instance,
the only way that anybody can come and believe upon Christ
Jesus is what? The Father which has sent me,
draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. They have
to be drawn. If they are not drawn. So here
again, let's ask these questions. Does God draw everybody? Because
that's the other thing I used to preach, and I heard in that
debate, is God will draw all to Himself. Therefore, He's drawing
everyone. But you can reject that. If you
reject that drawing, then God's not going to give it. No. He
said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, but nobody
can come to me except the Father draw him. except the Father draw
him. As a matter of fact, Jesus said
it even again in verse 65. Starting reading in verse 65,
excuse me, verse 60, he says, many therefore of his disciples,
when they heard this, listen, this whole, this whole passage,
John chapter six is a sovereign grace message. Matter of fact,
you can see all the doctrines of grace. If you want to call
them the five points to look, whatever you want to call it,
Jesus taught all that. before he even got to chapter
six, up to verse chapter three, but by the time he could get
to chapter six, all of the five points, the TULIP, the doctrines
of grace, however you want to put it, all those Jesus had taught
on, And specifically in chapter 6 where he said, the only ones
who are going to come are the ones that the Father has given
me. And the only ones that are going to be raised up at the
end are the ones that the Father has given me. And nobody can
come except that the Father draws them, gives them the ability
to come. And he says, many therefore of
his disciples when they heard this said, this is a hard saying
and who can hear it? There may be some here today
saying that same thing, some listening, saying the same thing.
There have been people that have come and joined us before in
times past. And whenever they have heard
this, they have said, well, they weren't quite as nice as this
and said, that's a hard saying, who can say it never came and
walk with us ever again. They said some choice things
as they left. I'm not going to serve that God.
That's the God of the Bible and I don't want to have anything
to do with Him. These are things that people say in their blindness,
in their ignorance. But here, even among those who
were following Jesus, whenever He said this, He said, They said
it was a hard saying. And when Jesus knew in himself
that his disciples murmured at it, he said unto them, doth this
offend you? What and if ye shall see the
Son of Man ascend up where he was before? It is the spirit
that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. There it is again, the
flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. But there are some of you
that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning
who they were that believed not and who should betray Him. Now
let's stop here. Here's another question. How
did Jesus know who from the beginning were those who would believe
not and who should betray Him? Did Jesus look down the telescope
of time from eternity? and say, oh, little Johnny's
not going to believe that. Is that how Jesus knew that? No. As I've mentioned before, the
only reason God knows anything by foreknowledge is because he
had knowledge beforehand of what he had purposed. God had purposed
all things from the foundation of the world. He decreed all
things that would ever happen Therefore, He knows all things
because He declared all things. That's how God knows it all.
God knew in the Old Testament when He made prophecies about
Christ, He knew those things would happen. The gambling for
His garments, the pulling out of His beard, the spitting on
Him, all those things. How did God know that in such
detail? It wasn't because He looked into a future machine
and saw it happen. He knew it would happen because
He had predestinated that that be the thing. That happened.
By the determined counsel of God, you, by the wicked hands,
have taken and crucified Jesus. By how? The determined counsel
of God. So how did Jesus know these men
would not believe on Him and that He was going to be betrayed
by one of them? Because that was determined by God before
the foundation of the world. Who would believe and who would
not believe? Now, brethren, don't take my
word for that. Is that not what we just read?
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me or believe on
me. You believe not. Why? Because
you were not given to me by the Father. How did Jesus know these
were not believed? Because He knows His sheep. He
knows every one of us. He knows the ones who are going
to believe and the ones who are not going to believe. Why did
He not entrust Himself to certain men? Because He knew them. They
were not His sheep. He didn't entrust Himself to
certain men because He knew them. Verse 65, and he said, therefore, therefore, what does that tie
back to? What he said in verse 64, but there are some of you
that believe not. Therefore, or in light of what
I said, tying back, remember, I just said it a few minutes
ago, no man can come unto me except it were given unto him
of my father. That's what drawing means. Drawing,
if you notice, look with me, if you're on the opposite page,
mine's on the opposite page. Verse 44, no man can come to
me except the Father which sent me draw him. Verse 65, no man
can come unto me except it were given to him. Therefore, drawing
means to be given to him. Drawing, for God to draw all
men, it means they have to all be given to Him. If I be lifted
up, I will draw all men to Myself. How does God draw us? He gives
us the ability. Whenever we're drawn, what do
we do? We come. What does coming mean? It means
to believe. Now, to wrap up my thought, go back again to John chapter
3. All my life, I've looked at this
picture here that Jesus gives Nicodemus, that Jesus spoke of
in John 12, that refers back to, I believe it's Numbers 21,
where the actual event took place. But Jesus said, verse 14, and
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up. How often have I preached? Have
I taught? Have I thought? That means if
I be lifted up and you believe on me, then you will be saved
in the sense of eternal salvation. But brethren, let's think back
to the story of Moses lifting up the serpent. If you remember,
The Israelites had already come out of Egypt. They are already
out of Egypt. He didn't lift up the serpent
so that they would look upon it and then be delivered from
Egypt. They were already out of Egypt. They had already believed. He is talking and that serpent,
whenever it was lifted up on the rod, that brass serpent was
lifted up. It was lifted up to those who
had already been saved to those who had already been called out,
to those who had already been gathered, to those who already
had been believing, but yet the fiery serpents had taken their
eyes off, so to speak, the prize. What did they do? They wanted
to go back to Egypt. As a matter of fact, let's just
go to Numbers 21. starting verse 3 and the Lord
hearkened the voice of Israel and delivered up the Canaanites,
and they utterly destroyed them and their cities. And he called
the name of the place Hormah. And they journeyed from Mount
Hor by the way of the Red Sea to encompass the land of Edom.
And the soul of the people was much discouraged because of the
way. And the people spake against
God and against Moses. Wherefore hath he brought us
up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread,
neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth for this like
bread. And the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of
Israel died. Therefore the people came to
Moses and said, We have sinned, For we have spoken against the
Lord and against thee, praying to the Lord that he take away
the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
And the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent and
set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass that everyone that
is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made
a serpent of brass and put it upon the pole. And it came to
pass that if the serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld
the serpent of brass, he lived. And the children of Israel set
forward and pitched in Obab. Now, brethren, I see this thing
in a little different view than I used to. That brass serpent represents
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a type of Christ. I know
it's funny to say Christ being depicted as a serpent, but if
you remember, the Bible says that he became sin for us. He
was imputed with our sin. He wasn't a sinner. He was made. See, that wasn't an actual serpent
up there. It was one fashioned in the likeness
of a serpent. Christ was fashioned in the likeness
of man, but he was not a sinner. He was made like unto man, yet
without sin. So He was formed in the fashion
and He was imputed with that sin. That's what that form on
that pole represented. But the Bible also says that
He made that serpent of brass. Throughout Scripture, if I'm
not misunderstanding, if I've not gotten this wrong, throughout
Scripture we see that brass is often used in connection with
the teaching or the coming or the execution of judgment. Jesus
comes in and he's got feet like brass. He's coming in with judgment,
right? And it says here that he was
to make this serpent of brass. So not only was it a figure,
not only was it a representation of that which it was supposed
to be, but it was also a bronze or a brass image which signified
judgment. So what was being seen on that
cross was the judgment, but it wasn't the judgment of that particular
person, but for all for who it represented. It was the judgment
that Christ took for us. See, Christ didn't do any wrong,
but he was being judged by God on behalf of all of us who did
sin. And the Bible says that all those
who looked to that lived. And to me this seems as though
it's talking about for whenever we, those who have already been
brought out of Egypt, those who have already been called of the
Lord and gathered together, that whenever we come together and
whenever we preach and whenever we speak of the gospel and we
converse with each other, what does the Bible say? Comfort ye,
comfort ye my people. Speak unto the people and tell
them what the The Lord has done. Whenever we come together and
preach the Gospel, what are we doing? We're lifting up that
fiery serpent and we're declaring to everyone there, the judgment
has already come on Him. And if you'll just look at that,
then you won't be so discouraged about the fiery serpents that
surround you. Paul said, I know that in me
dwells no good thing in chapter 7 of Romans. And he said, there's
a struggle that's within me. My flesh continually bombarded
by sin. Every time I want to do good,
sin is always there with me. I cannot do anything good. Nothing
good resides in this flesh. Those fiery Bites of sin, those
fiery bites. Matter of fact, we read it back
in our passage that Jesus came to the world to destroy the works
of the devil. He come to destroy the seed of
the serpent, which is sin. And whenever we look to that
serpent, that bronze serpent, we see it's been judged. Sin
has been judged on that cross. Our sins have been judged on
that cross. Therefore, there is now no condemnation
to those in Christ Jesus. If we keep looking to that, then
we will live And I don't mean live as far as eternal life. That was given to us by God.
We will live, meaning that we now are not bombarded and dying
in ourselves because of the overwhelming nature that sin is to us. The
overwhelming bombardment that our flesh can do no good and
how unrighteous we truly are. But yet we trust and rest in
the serpent that was hung on that pole, whose judgment was
there in our face. We see Christ became the sinner
for us. Christ became the sacrifice for
us so that our sins would be forgiven. And so if all the judgment
was upon Him, then none of that judgment is upon us. And if it
has been removed from us, then God is not going to require it
of us anymore. I will draw all men to myself. What is the drawing
nature of God? It's the gospel. What is drawing
me to Christ? Not get to work, brother. It's
already been done. It's accomplished for you. And
guess what? All your failings, God's remembering
them no more. They're not even going to come
up. Whenever you stand before God, God is never going to look
at them, never going to see them, never going to bring them up.
They're not there. That's what the brazen serpent
is. Us looking to Jesus, the author and the finisher of our
faith. The one who has given us trust that He alone took all
of our sin and He alone has given us His righteousness. Because
if that brazen serpent is up there, then that means the righteousness
is somewhere else. It's right here. There's been
an exchange. Christ by imputation became sin,
and we by imputation became righteousness. He who knew no sin became sin,
and we who knew no righteousness became righteous. And brethren, whenever we live
in the wilderness as the children of Israel did, whenever we are
surrounded by the enemies of God as the children of Israel
were, Those fiery serpents are always going to be biting at
us. As long as we are looking unto Jesus and not looking at
how am I going to shovel up these serpents? How am I going to fix
myself? See, the people that look to
that serpent, obviously something in their mind had been given
to them to know, listen, I can't fix this bite on my leg. I can't
fix this bite on my arm. I'm going to die. There's nothing
that I can do to remedy the poison that's been injected into me.
I would be him. The child of grace
has been given to know our sin and that there's nothing that
we can do about our sin. I can reign in my sin about as much
as I can reign in the whole ocean. I can't do it. Praise God. My sin was taken
care of by my substitute, by my proxy, by my Savior. Christ Jesus has done that for
us. If I be lifted up, I have to
be lifted up. Why? Because it is up on that
cross, up on that pole, where the sinner has to die. The Bible
says that the righteous requirement of the law was that sin must
be condemned in the flesh. Somebody in flesh had to be lifted
up and somebody in flesh had to incur the whole wrath of God
upon them for sin. because God is holy and righteousness
and He cannot acquit the wicked. He cannot look on sin and say,
it's okay, I'm just gonna let it go. Listen, even though every
one of us that are under God's grace and under Christ's love,
we're gonna stand justified before God and He's never gonna see
our sins, but it is not at the cost of nothing. It was at the
cost of Christ. Somebody had to pay the debt.
God isn't winking at sin. He's not turning away from it
and turning a blind eye to it. Somebody had to pay. And Christ
did that. Christ was the one who was put
on the cross for us. Therefore, God is not unjust
in forgiving sinners. God is not unjust in justifying
His people. God is not unjust in bringing
us into His presence. because Christ paid everything
that was required to be paid so that we as sinners could approach
a holy God. Brother, I don't know about you,
but that makes me want to shout. I don't care if you're Baptist,
you can shout. That is good news. That's good news. But if the
good news is, you know what, you're going to have to lift
yourself up on that cross. Guess what? Even if I could lift myself
up on that cross, the sacrifice wouldn't be accepted. You remember
in the Old Testament, those sacrifices had to be brought a certain way.
They had to be clean. Clean sacrifices. We're not clean. We're unclean.
All of us are unclean. The Bible said, God looked down
upon the heavens and the earth and saw that the intents of their
heart were only evil continually. Only evil. They got a little
good in them. We may have a little good, naturally
speaking. We might have a little morality,
naturally speaking. But whenever it's compared to
holiness, it's all evil. That's why the flesh cannot profit
anything. That's why flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom
of God. Why? Because it's corrupt. It's fallen. It's natural. It's of the earth
earthy. It's full of sin. It falls short
of the glory of God. Therefore, he has a spiritual
kingdom. He is called a spiritual people from the foundation of
the world. who is His spiritual seed that is in Him. That spiritual
seed will reproduce after like kind. The natural Adam reproduced
after His kind, a natural seed. But Christ who is a spiritual
head, He has progenated, if you will allow me that word, a spiritual
seed. We are born from above. We weren't
born here. Have you ever thought about that? The Bible says that we are not
of this world. This is the only world I've ever known. I've not
been anywhere else. This is the only world I've known.
But yet the Bible says I'm not of this world. The Bible says
that we are pilgrims and strangers. That means that we've come from
somewhere else and not from here. Well, this is the only place
that I've been. I've not been anywhere else.
What does that mean? That I was born from above. Well,
wait a minute. Did the born again take place
down here? No, it took place up there. It
was born from above. And it was placed in vessels
of clay. See, we are from somewhere else. The Bible says that one of these
days that we are going to go home. Home is where I came from. What
is that speaking of? It's not speaking of this flesh
and blood. It's speaking of that inner man, that thing that's
in you that is a new creation, not the old worked over. It's
a new creation. And that only happened because
he was lifted up. If I be lifted up, all that the
Father give me back there shall come to me and believe upon me.
And all that believe on me, I will in no wise cast out. And all
that come to me, I will raise them up at the last day. Brother,
if you can't bank on Christ's promise, then you can't bank
on anybody's promise. So definitely don't listen to
me. Definitely don't listen to Brother Larry. Don't listen to
any other preachers that's out there. They ain't going to be
able to promise you anything. If Jesus can't keep his promise,
nobody else can. But Jesus has promised that very
thing. All right. Anybody have any questions
or things you'd like to add or comments? Verses, scriptures,
you can think of that might have gone along? Corrections? One of my favorite, probably
just a few scriptures I asked a guy one time about
this question about sin, who authored sin. This really answered
the question, but much more than that. Beginning with the 13th
verse, Script delivered us from the power of darkness and translated
us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom we have redemption the firstborn of every creature,
for by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are
in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions
or principalities or powers. All things were created by Him
and for Him, and He has been for all reconcile all things unto himself
by him, I say, will there be things in earth or things in heaven? All that evil is not
going to keep anything from happening, right? The big evil Adam's sin
didn't keep God's plan from being messed up. Matter of fact, it
was part of God's plan. It was God's plan. We know that
to be true. Romans 5 tells us the law came
in that the offense might have bound. God gave the law to Adam
so that the offense might have bound. Why? Because he had chosen
to glorify himself in the salvation of a people. Not before anyone
had done anything good or bad. so that the purpose of God according
to election might stand. Brethren, it's good news to those
who have ears to hear. It's not. It's a saver of death
unto death for those who are perishing, right? So I praise
God. I pray that it is a saver of
life unto life to you. Anybody else got anything? We come to you now and we thank
you so much for Christ Jesus. We thank you for this day that
we've had together, together. We thank you for those that you
brought here today, for this family that you brought our way.
Lord, we pray for their traveling mercies as they travel home.
And Lord, we just thank you. And we pray, Lord, that today
that you've edified your people. We ask, Lord, now that anything
that I've said of error, Lord, that you would by your spirit,
teach rightly in the hearts of your people. And Lord, that you
would bring me into correction so that I might not speak those
things anymore. Lord, we do appreciate the grace
that's given to us in the times that we have together in the
worship. Lord, we know that these times may not be here longer
in this world that we live in. And we know that you control
all things and that even if persecution might come upon us and that we
might not ever be able to physically join together again for any reason. Lord, we know that the gates
of hell is never going to prevail against your church. It is not
in all the years that it's been here and it never will. Until
you come again, Lord, we know that your word will always be propagated from the pillar in
the ground of truth, which is the church. So Father, we just
thank you again for your provision that you've given to your people.
We thank you for the gospel. We thank you for the word of
God that has been preserved for us to be able to know you and
to know your salvation. And Lord, we just again thank
you for Christ Jesus. And we ask Lord that our hearts
of worship have truly been to exalt him today, that our voices
being lifted up, we're being lifted up to exalt him. Lord,
I just thank you for giving us understanding of these things.
Even the very things this morning, Lord, just a few years ago, were
foreign to many of us. That, Lord, the understanding
of true salvation and the true gospel and the true church was
foreign to any of us. Lord, we only know that by grace,
we've been given eyes to see. We are no different than anybody
else of the reprobates, Lord. We are sinners deserving of hell,
but by grace you've given us salvation in Christ Jesus. And
so we thank you for the blood of Christ that has forgiven us
of our sins, for the righteousness of Christ that is ours to claim,
not by right, but because we have been made adopted, that
we have been made partakers, that we've been made to understand
and believe. Father, we just are grateful
for all that you've done for the sovereign grace of God and
the salvation of his people. And it's in his name that we
pray.