Good evening. Next to the last
book in your Old Testament, the book of Zechariah, if you turn
with me to chapter 12, there is a wonderful, glorious, precious
promise that the Lord has made to his people here. And if you'll just let your eyes
glance over some of these verses, you'll notice the phrase, in
that day. See in verse three, in that day.
Verse four, in that day. And verse six, in that day. And
verse eight, in that day. Well, this is the day of Christ.
This is the day of atonement. It's when the Lord Jesus Christ
came into the world and satisfied the demands of God's law and
put away the sins of God's people and made himself known. So here we be
in verse 10. And I will pour upon the house
of David in that day and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem
the spirit of grace. Sinners need grace, don't they?
We have no defense for our sin. We have no excuses. We have no
way to atone for our own sins. We can't We can't redeem ourselves. Lord, we need grace. We need
free grace. We need sovereign grace. For
Christ's sake, we need God's grace. And here's our Lord's
promise. I will pour upon the house and
the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplication. And they shall look upon me whom
they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth
for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one
that is in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day shall
there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of
Hadad Rehman in the valley of Meggedon. And the land shall
mourn every family apart, the family of the house of David
apart, and their wives apart, the family of the house of Nathan
apart, and their wives apart, and the family of the house of
Levi apart, and their wives apart and the family of Shimei apart
and their wives apart. All the families that remain,
every family apart and their wives apart. What the Lord is
telling us here is that this spirit of grace is an individual
thing. This is not something that God
pours out corporately. You don't get advantage of this
because someone near you has been given grace. Lord, I need
grace. Verse chapter 13, verse one,
in that day, there should be a fountain open to the house
of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness. Oh, what a fountain. It's a fountain
of blood, isn't it? Drawn from Emmanuel's veins,
washes away all our sin. God said, that's going to be
open. Pray he'll open it again tonight. And it shall come to
pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off
the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more
be remembered. And also I will cause the prophets
and the unclean spirits to pass out of the land." The Lord pours
out that spirit of grace and supplication. All other hopes of salvation
fade away. They're taken away. and we find
ourselves looking to Christ alone for all our hope. Let's pray
together. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for this precious promise. Thank you for sending your spirit
and power to inspire the men that penned your word. Thank
you for the promise of your Holy Spirit now Lord, that you would
enlighten the eyes of our understanding and that you would give faith
through our hearts by your spirit and cause us to mourn after Christ,
to look to him, to know, Lord, that it was our sin that put
him on Calvary's cross and that this fountain would be opened
for sin and for uncleanness. Lord, we are sinners in need
of your grace. So very thankful. for your faithfulness
to keep your promises. We pray that we would know that
faithfulness again tonight. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Let's sing, it is well with my
soul. It should be glued inside the
back cover of your spiral hymn book. When peace like a river attendeth
my way, When sorrows like sea billows roll, Whatever my lot,
Thou hast taught me to say, It is well, it is well with my soul,
it is well. with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Though Satan should buffet, though
trials should come, Let this blessed assurance control That
Christ hath regarded my helpless estate And hath shed his own
blood for my soul It is well With my soul, with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. My sin, O the bliss of this glorious
thought, My sin not in part, but the whole, Is nailed to the
cross, and I bear it no more. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
my soul it is well it is well with my soul it is well it is
well with my soul for me be it Christ be it Christ hence to
live If Jordan above me shall roll, No pain shall be mine,
For in death as in life, Thou wilt whisper Thy peace to my
soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul, with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. But Lord, tis for Thee, for Thy
coming we wait. The sky, not the grave, is our
goal. O trump of the angel, O voice
of the Lord, Blessed hope, blessed rest for my soul. It is well, it is well, ? With my soul it is well ? It
is well with my soul ? And Lord haste the day ? When the faith
shall be sight ? The clouds be rolled back as a scroll ? The
trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend. Even so, it is
well with my soul. It is well with my soul. It is well, it is well with my
soul. Please be seated. But I would not have you to be
ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye
sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so, them also which sleep
in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you
by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain
unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with the shout, with
the voice of the archangel and with the trump of God and the
dead of Christ shall rise. Then we which are alive and remain
shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the
Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore,
comfort ye one another with these words." I love that hymn we just sang,
and I had to read that passage after singing that hymn. What
good hope we have. The Lord Jesus Christ has conquered
death. He is the firstborn among many
brethren, so our hope is to see him as he is and be made like
him. I hope the Lord will keep us looking and watching and waiting
for that glorious day. Let's open our Bibles together
to John chapter 2, last Wednesday night. We looked at the seven
miracles that John writes his gospel account around. And I
mentioned last Wednesday night, if the Lord enabled me, I'd like
to try to preach from these seven miracles. The first miracle is
when our Lord went to Cana and he turned the water into wine. And if you'll notice in verse
11 of John chapter two, this beginning of miracles did Jesus
in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his glory and his disciples
believed on him. I've titled this message, The
Arch Miracle. If you look up that word beginning
in the original language, it is the word arch. We use that word. If we say the
archbishop or if we speak of the archangel or a monarch, it
means to be overarching. It means to not just be the beginning
in terms of time, but it means to be the one miracle that gives
all the other miracles understanding. It is the chief miracle. It is
the principal miracle. It sets everything else in order. It's sort of like the first three
chapters of Genesis. If the Lord's pleased to give
us understanding as to what that beginning is all about, then
all of the Bible fits together with what the Lord has revealed
in those first three chapters. And this miracle accomplished two things. And there, we just
read them in verse 11. Number one, it manifested forth
his glory. And number two, it caused his
disciples to believe on him. You know that's what everything
is about. Everything. I'm not, I'm not
being, I'm not exaggerating here. Everything in this world and
in the world to come is about the glory of God and the salvation
of his people. Just that simple. Everybody's
trying to figure out, you know, what the, what the meaning of
life is and what this is all about. That's what it's about
right there. Just as simple and clear as it can be stated. The glory of God and the salvation
of God's people. And God is most glorified through
the saving of his people. And this miracle tells us about
how it is that God is pleased to save sinners. This is the
arch miracle This is the principal miracle. You know, the amazing
thing here is that the Lord had just been at the
Jordan River, and the Jews sent the Pharisees to interrogate
him, and then he went into the wilderness. And now the first
thing he does is he goes to Canaan and performs this miracle. at a wedding. I want us to look
at this miracle in three things. The meaning of the miracle, the
occasion of the miracle, and the men mentioned in this passage
that were there when this miracle was performed. Let's read it
together, beginning in verse one. In the third day, there
was a marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.
And both Jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage.
And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus said unto him,
they have no wine. And Jesus said unto her, woman,
what have I to do with thee? Mine hour's not yet come. And
his mother saith unto the servants, Whatsoever he saith unto you,
do it. And there were set there six
waterpots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the
Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece. From what I understand of a firkin,
we're talking about 20 to 25 gallons each one of these six
stone water pots. They weren't pitchers. They were
more like sinks or small bathtubs filled with 20 or 30 gallons
of water, and they were set side by side. And so when you went
to this wedding, you would dip your hands in each one of them
ceremonially. purifying yourself and making
you ready for the wedding. And Jesus said unto
them, fill the water pots with water. And they filled them up
to the brim. And he saith unto them, draw
out now and bear to the governor of the feast. And they bear it. And when the ruler of the feast
and the ruler of the feast is the same as the governor of the
feast, just a different title. This is the chief butler. This
is the guy that's in charge of making sure everything works
orderly. And when the ruler of the feast
had tasted the water that was made wine and knew not whence
it was, but the servants which drew the water knew, the governor
of the feast called the bridegroom and said unto him, every man
at the beginning doth set forth good wine, and when men have
well drunk, then that which is worse, but thou hast kept the
good wine until now. This arch miracle. did Jesus in Cana of Galilee,
and manifested forth his glory, and his disciples believed on
him." Now, the first thing we need
to see is that this ceremonial washing was never commanded of
God. It is a picture of man-made,
legalistic religion. The priests were to wash their
hands before they made sacrifice. We see that in Leviticus, but
there was never a ceremony developed like this. But like all man-made
works, religion, men love to add to the law, and so we have
the We have the Talmud and the Jewish writings of hundreds and
hundreds of laws that they added to the things that the Lord had
commanded. Let me show you that. Turn with
me to Mark chapter 7. Mark chapter 7. These six stone water pots represent Man at his worst. Man at his worst. This is man trying to earn favor
with God, trying to work his way to heaven. He's trying to
purify himself. And they are as, these traditions
and ceremonies are as useless as was Pilate trying to wash
the blood of Christ off of his hands. No man is going to be
saved through religious tradition and ceremony or by the law in
any way. You have your Bibles open to
Mark chapter seven. Look with me at verse one. Then
came together unto him the Pharisees and certain of the scribes, which
came from Jerusalem. And when they saw some of his
disciples eat bread with defiled, now defiled means unwashed. So
the Pharisees and the scribes, these self-righteous religionists
who are depending upon their keeping of the law for their
salvation, they see the disciples eating and they haven't properly
washed their hands. It's probably a good idea to
wash your hands before you eat, but that's not what he's talking
about here. These Pharisees were watching for them to ceremonially
wash their hands, not just to go into the laboratory and clean
up a little bit. No, they were watching for the,
for the outward demonstration of a ceremonial washing and they
didn't see it. You're not keeping the traditions
of your father. So they saw them eating bread
with defiled hands, that is to say with unwashed hands, and
they found fault for the Pharisees and all the Jews, except they
washed their hands oft. eat not, holding the tradition
of the elders. And when they come from the market,
except they wash, they eat not, and many other things there be,
which they have received to hold as the washing of cups and pots
and brazen vessels and tables." He's not talking about just,
you know, cleaning your dishes. He's talking about ceremonial
washing. They not only wash their hands
that way, but they wash their plates and their cups and their
dishes, and they made a display out of it to let everybody know
we're keeping the law. That's what those six water pots
are about. In verse five, and the Pharisees
and the scribes ask him, Why walk not thy disciples according
to the tradition of the elders, but eat bread with unwashing
hands?' And he answered and said unto them, Well hath Isaiah prophesied
of you, hypocrites. As it is written, this people
honor me with their lips, but their heart is far from me. How
being in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the
commandments of men. For laying aside the commandment
of God, you hold the traditions of men as the washing of pots
and cups and many such things you do. And he said to them,
full well, you reject the commandment of God, that you may keep your
own tradition. For Moses said, honor thy father
and thy mother, and whosoever cursed the father or mother,
let him die the death. But you say, if a man shall say
of his father or of his mother, it is Corbin. Corbin means that
it's been dedicated to the Lord. It's in my pocket, but I've committed
it to God. So I can't help my mother and
father out because the money that I have really doesn't belong
to me. It's already been dedicated to
the Lord. That's the hypocrisy that they were. Washing the outside of the cup,
the inside was full of corruption. The Lord likened them to whitewashed
tombs that were full of dead man's bones, cleaning up the
outside, but the inside is still full of sin. That's what these
six water pots were about. Men trying to wash their hands
of their own sin by some sort of tradition and some sort of
ceremony and some sort of work. and the whole world is filled
with it. And you and I, you and I have
some of that in us. That's why we have to hear the
gospel, isn't it? That's why we have to be reminded of who
Christ is and what he's done. That's why we had to be brought
back to grace, grace. Oh Lord, I need grace. I'll,
I'll, I'll play the hypocrite. I'll clean up the outside and
think that somehow I've improved my position with God. Lord, I'm
in need of Christ to stand in my stead. I'm in need of him
to fill those water pots to the brim and then to bring in the
new wine. You know what six is a picture
of? It's man. man was created on the sixth
day. It was the sixth hour, noon,
high noon, when the sky was blackened. There wasn't any light at all. And from the sixth hour to the
ninth hour, the Lord Jesus Christ, bearing our sins on Calvary's
cross, was cut off As the God-man, he was bearing in his body of
flesh all the shame and all the guilt and all the penalty and
punishment for our sins. Six is the number of man. And the scripture says that man
at his very best state is altogether vanity. That means two things. The very best thing that you
and I can do in the presence of God empty that's what the
word vanity means it is empty of any righteousness or any hope
of salvation but let me remind you of the second thing that
this that this scripture reminds us of man at his very best state
now who is the man at man's very best state You say, well, how
could you even suggest that the Lord Jesus Christ was altogether
vanity? Well, listen to Philippians chapter
two. Being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made of himself no reputation. You look up that word reputation,
it's the word vanity. He emptied himself on Calvary's
cross. Man at his very best state, the
God-man who buried the sins of his people on Calvary's cross
from the sixth to the ninth hour, God's perfect man emptied himself and took upon him the form of
a servant and was made in the likeness of man. Now here's the
incarnation, here's God Almighty being made flesh, being born
of a woman, being born under the law, bearing the sins in
His body upon Calvary's tree. He took upon Him the form of
a servant and was made in the likeness of men and being found
in the fashion of a man, He humbled Himself, He emptied Himself and
became obedient unto death, yea, even the death of the cross. The Lord Jesus, somebody had
to keep the law. The Lord Jesus Christ kept God's law. He kept it actively in his life
of obedience and he kept it passively when the judgment of the law
was put on him. for the sins of his people. Wherefore, God hath highly exalted
him and given him a name that is above every name, that at
the name of Jesus every knee should bow and every tongue confess
to the glory of God the Father." So these six water pots, stone
water pots filled with water, Picture for us, man-made religion
and the Lord Jesus Christ came and said, fill them up. Can't
get another drop in any one of them, they're gonna be full to
the brim. This number six representing man is brought all the way to
the book of Revelation, isn't it? What is the mark of the beast? Six, six, six. There can be no question that
these six stone water pots represent our attempt to satisfy the demands
of God's law, but our inability to do it. That's what they were
doing. They were just doing their, their
tradition, their Oh, it could be we could we could we could
name a thousand illustrations of how men all over the world
have the traditions of their religion. And even in our own
lives, how we are tempted to think that way. We are all, even
as believers, recovering Pharisees, aren't we? There's there's something
legalistic about us. Oh, I just got to know. When
the spirit of grace and supplication is poured out on the house of
Jerusalem, on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
then we know, Lord, I've got to have grace. Got to have grace. Lord, I can't atone for my sins. I can't excuse them. I cannot
redeem myself. Lord, if you don't have grace
upon me, I'll not be saved. That's what these six water.
And notice they were made of stone. Now that speaks of two
things. It speaks of the inflexibility,
the rigid nature of the law of God. There are no exemptions
to God's law. There are no exceptions. There's
no mercy in God's law. There's no appeal to God's law.
And when God first gave his law, and we're not talking about just
the 10 commandments, although that summarizes everything in
scripture, but when God gave Moses those 10 commandments,
what were they engraved on? Tablets of stone written by the
very finger of God. That law was strict. It was immutable. It was rigid. It was inflexible.
And men think, well, you know, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm trying, I'm
doing my best. How many times have you talked
to somebody about the gospel and they say, well, you know,
yeah, I'm, I'm doing my best. I'm, I'm, you know, God's going
to take that into consideration. No, he's not. No, these are stone
water pots. There's six of them. They got
to be filled up to the brim. The law says this, you and I
must love God with all of our heart and all of our mind and
all of our soul all of the time. That's what God's law requires.
That's the six stone water pots. And here's the other thing the
stone represents. Scripture says that God takes
out a heart of stone and puts in a heart of flesh. You see,
our stony hearts left to ourselves. God leaves us to our own devices. And we try to earn favor with
God by our own ceremony and by our own works and by our own
achievements and our own attainments and our own knowledge and whatever,
whatever. I mean, there's no end to what
we will do. Stone is lifeless. Stone is hard. Stone is cold. That's what the
unbeliever's heart is. God says, I'm going to take out
your heart of stone and I'm going to put in a heart of flesh, a
flesh that's warm and alive and beating, a flesh that's filled
with blood. I'm going to cause you to see
the stony nature of your old man and your dependence upon
the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'm going to put the love
of Christ in your heart. And you're going to love the
gospel and you're going to love God. And you're going to see
that he loves you and what he's done to save you. Notice these water pots were
filled to the brim. In Matthew chapter five, verse
17 and 18, the scripture says, the Lord Jesus Christ said, I
did not come to destroy the law and the prophets. Oh no, I came
to fulfill the law and the prophets. And until heaven and earth pass
away, not one jot nor tittle will pass from God's law until
it all be fulfilled. There's the filling of the water
pots. There's the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Filling
up everything that God requires for the salvation of his people
so that we don't have to follow the traditions of the elders
and keep washing our hands and thinking somehow we're gonna
purify ourselves. And we speak of the law of God.
We're not talking about just the 10 commandments. We're talking
about all the scripture. Begin with Moses and the Psalms and
the prophets. He expounded unto them those
things concerning himself. Everything in God's word has
to be fulfilled. All the prophecies of the prophets
have to be fulfilled. all the types and shadows and
Psalms and all the the laws and commandments of the books of
all that has to be fulfilled and that's what the Lord Jesus
Christ did I did not come to destroy the law
and the prophets I came to fulfill them and these have been written I
said what's the You know, people look at the Bible as some sort
of rule book for Christian living. It's just, you know, a book of
rules and regulations and do's and don'ts and principles that'll
help you to be a better person. I mean, the volume of the book
it is written of me. We don't want to be better people. We want to live our lives in
a way that's going to honor God. But that's not from trying to
figure out precept upon precept and line upon line and here a
little, there a little, it's looking to Christ. He's in the
volume of the book. These things have been written
that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ and that believing
you might have life through his name. This is the filling up. The water is a picture of the
Word of God. The washing of the water of the
Word, the scripture says. And Jude, speaking of the false
prophets, he said they are clouds without water. Without water. if they speak not according to
the law and the testimonies, because there is no light in
them. You see, you either have the
light of the gospel or you don't. And the false religion and false
prophets symbolized by these six water pots that men were
dipping their hands in to try to purify themselves, the Lord
Jesus Christ says, you fill them to the brim. Fill them with the
water. 1 John 5, verse 8, there are
three that witness on the earth, the spirit, the water, and the
blood. And these three all agree, that's
one. The spirit of God, the water
of God's word, and the message of God's word, which is the shed
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, they all agree. You see how this
is the arch miracle? See how this is the preeminent
miracle, not just the first in time, but the one that gives
understanding and explanation and light and truth to all the
other word of God and all the other things that the Lord Jesus
Christ did and all the other miracles he performed are summarized
in this miracle, this miracle. Men will go about trying to justify
themselves. Trying to establish a righteousness. Ignorant of God's righteousness
for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believe it. Another picture of water is the
deluge that God sent in the days of Noah to destroy this world. And it's a picture of how It'll
be the word of God that men will have to stand before in the day
of judgment. God's word is true and faithful. But here's the good news, brother.
Peter put it like this. He said, eight souls were saved
by water. So the same water that came down
and killed every living being on the face of the earth is the
water that lifted the ark and gave life and safety to the eight
souls of God. Eight men, eight people, eight
people. You see what that's a picture
of, don't you? It's the word of God. It's either a saver of life,
the scripture says, or it's a saver of death. The Word of God will
either harden the heart or it'll soften the heart. It'll do one
or the other. It'll either give judgment or
it'll declare justice accomplished and declare us free. Free. Hebrews chapter 10 says, having
a high priest over the house of God, and we do, the Lord Jesus
Christ is our high priest, let us draw near with a true heart
of full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an
evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. The water of God's word, we hear
the gospel. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. And when God speaks and he enables
you and I to be able to say, amen, oh Lord, thank you. Thank you for that good news.
Thank you that I don't have to depend upon my ceremonial washings
for the hope of my salvation. Thank you that that rigid, inflexible,
stony law has been kept. Thank you for taking out my heart
of stone, my unbelieving heart, my rebellious heart. You've given
me a heart of faith and love for Christ. Oh, we still see
that old flesh rearing its ugly head, but every time it does,
the heart of faith rebukes it, doesn't it? Rebukes it? We hate our sin. This is the meaning of this,
of this miracle. This is what the six stone water
pots filled to the brim with the water is all about. And then
the Lord, you know, I mentioned last Wednesday night that, uh,
look in verse eight and he said unto them, draw out now and bear
to the governor of the feast. And then in verse nine, the word
drew the water, but notice the parenthetical statement in the
middle of verse nine, but the servants which drew the water
knew. This word draws only is four
times in the New Testament. In the Bible, this Greek word
for draws only is four times. Two of them right here. two of
them are in the next chapter or in the fourth chapter of John,
where the woman at the well says to the Lord Jesus Christ, but
you have nothing to draw with. I'm not going to break fellowship
with anybody over whether or not the servants got the water
out of the water pots or whether they went back to the well and
drew it out of the well. I like thinking the latter. Scripture's
really not clear. This word draw does mean to draw
up, It doesn't mean to dip out. There's another, baptizo is the
word for dipping out. I like the idea that the Lord
filled up the water pots, the stone water pots with water and
then he told the servants, now go draw out some more water and
take that to the table. And servants brought it to the
head butler first and the head butler tasted it and he went
to the bridegroom and said, now what's going on here? We'll get
to that in a moment. Nevertheless, the water was made
wine. The water was made into something
that it wasn't. And that's what happens to us.
The Lord in the new birth makes us into something we're not.
He takes those who are by nature at enmity with God and makes
them the children of God. makes us kings and priests unto
our God. He makes us something that we're
not. That's the new birth, new creation. All things become new. And the Lord Jesus Christ became
something that he wasn't. Here's the changing of the water
to wine. The Lord Jesus Christ, God made
him who knew no sin to be made sin. We might be made the righteousness
of God in him. So he was made something that
he wasn't. He was made sin. We're made something
that we weren't. We're made righteous. That's
the miracle of this water to wine. Wine is a picture of the
blood of Christ. We know that. And as the water
is necessary for physical life, so the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ is necessary for spiritual life. We see this in the very
first, the difference between the plague that God sent through
the hand of Moses in Egypt was that Moses was a man of the law.
The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by the Lord Jesus
Christ. But what happened in the very
first of the 10 plagues? The water became blood. The very thing that they depended
on for their life was now unable to sustain life. It was blood,
it wasn't water. An act of judgment on God's part.
Here we have an act of grace. The Lord saying to us, life is in the blood. Without
the shedding of blood, there shall be no remission of sins.
When I see the blood, I'll pass by you. A lamb had to die. Blood had to be shed in order
for our sins to be covered. Paul is encouraging the Ephesian
elders in Acts chapter 20. He says to them, take heed to
yourself and to all the flock over which God has made you to
be overseer. feed the church of God, which
he hath purchased with his own blood." With his own blood. So the Lord is taking the water
of his word and he's making it bleed. He's causing us to see
that this water was changed to blood, that life is in the blood. By his own blood, he entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. He went in just like Aaron went
in on the day of atonement once a year and put that blood on
the mercy seat. And God said to Aaron, here, I'll meet with
you right here. And the Lord Jesus Christ went
in and once and for all, he obtained mercy. Hebrews chapter 13, verse 12,
that he might sanctify the people with his own blood by his suffering
without the gate, outside the gate. He went outside Jerusalem. He was the scapegoat, was taken
outside the city and bore the sins of God's people. Here's
what the Lord's doing. Revelation chapter one, verse
five, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins with
his own blood. They were washing their hands.
Oh, can you see them going down the six sinks? And they're so
proud of themselves. Oh, by the way, when they washed
their hands, they washed all the way up to their elbows. You had
to wash to your elbows. If you didn't wash your elbows,
your hands weren't washed. The hand was everything up to the
elbow. I mean, they were very particular about how they did
it. That's what the Pharisees were watching for. I'm going
to change that water into blood. You're, you're doing this in
order to try to atone for your sins, but I'm going to show you
what God requires for atonement. My blood. Second question I wanted to ask
is, what is the occasion of the miracle? We looked at, that's
the meaning of the miracle. That is the meaning of the miracle.
And it's the overarching meaning of all of scripture, from the
beginning to the end. The occasion of the miracle was
a wedding. A wedding, a happy occasion. A time when A man, a woman are
committing themselves to live together as one for the rest
of their life. A picture of Christ and his church. We see it all the way back to
the beginning of time when the Lord took Adam and made a help
meet for him or suitable to him. And what did God do? He put Adam
into a deep sleep. And the Lord Jesus Christ is
the last Adam. He's the one that accomplished
what the first Adam couldn't do. And he went into a sleep,
and as a result of that sleep, you understand I'm using that
symbolically, he died. He died. And in his death, the
Lord took from the bone nearest to his heart. not from his foot
or from his head, but from his rib. And he made him a wife. And the birth of the church came
as a result of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. This pattern
is repeated over and over again. Abraham and Sarah, I was thinking
about that. You know, Abraham, the scripture says, believed
God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Is that not
a symbol? Not only do we, he's called the
father of the faithful and we are to believe God, But Abraham
is a picture of Christ there as well. Abraham believed God. The Lord Jesus Christ believed
God perfectly all the time. And Sarah, at 90 years old, when
she was told she was gonna give birth to a promised child, she
laughed. What do we do as the bride of
Christ? Lord, how's this gonna be? How's this gonna be? If it's gonna be, Lord, you're
gonna have to do it. When Abraham sent Eleazar, his
servant, to fetch Isaac a wife and brought back Rebekah, there's
a picture. God the Father sending the Holy
Spirit out into the world to draw to himself a bride for his
son. See this in Abigail and Bathsheba
and Michael, the three wives, the three predominant wives of
David. And those three wives represent the
assembly. I'm not gonna say the church,
but they represent the people who attend in the church. Abigail, you remember, was the
wife of a churlish man. She came from a very pagan background,
as do some of God's people. Some of the wives of Christ lived
irreligious, pagan lives like Abigail. The Lord made her a
loving wife. then you have Bathsheba who on
the other hand was married to Uriah a very noble man a man
that wouldn't even go sleep with his wife while you know his his
men were out in battle he said oh no I can't do that and so it is with many of God's
wives, many of the Lord Jesus Christ's wives, many of his children. They come from a religious background. When we looked at our nobility
and our virtue for the hope of our salvation, and the Lord taught
us the gospel. And then you have tears among
the wheat, Saul's daughter, Michael, who despised David. She was there,
one of his wives. Christ and his church is pictured
over and over and over again in the scriptures. That's the
wedding feast. That's the significance. You
see it in Gomer and Hosea, don't we? Gomer was a harlot and Hosea
purchased her off the slave block and brought her home and made
her his wife. There we are. Christ and his
church, a wedding feast. If you go to the book of Revelation,
let's do that quickly. Revelation chapter 19. Revelation 19. Look with me at verse seven.
Let us be glad. This is a happy occasion. It's a wedding. Let us be glad
and rejoice and give honor to him, for the marriage of the
Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. And to her
was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean
and white for the fine linen, is the righteousness of the saints.
And he saith unto me, Write, blessed are they which are called
unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he saith unto me, These
are the true saints of God. Oh, the marriage feast and all
of God's bride will be gathered together at his table. Here's
the significance. This is God's being glorified
and his children are being saved. And he's showing us a picture
of man-made works religion versus the accomplished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ in shedding his blood for the forgiveness
of our sin. And it all happened at a wedding. Very quickly, I just want to
try to summarize this in a few words. Mary knew if anyone else, I suppose
there may have been moments of weakness even in Joseph's life,
even after having been told by an angel that this child in Mary's
womb, but you know, maybe in weaker moments, but Mary never
had a doubt. She knew she had never been with
a man. She knew that that child, she watched him grow. She saw
things. And when he said to her, did
you not know that I must be about my father's business at 12 years
old when they lost him in Jerusalem? She pondered these things in
her heart. Don't you know that every day she was pondering in
her heart. She had received grace from the
Lord. She was the one Jewish woman
of all the generations of Israel. that was blessed in birthing
the Messiah into the world. And she knew who he was. And she's trying to push him
into the limelight. They're out of wine. Aren't you
going to do something? This is, you got your disciples,
you've started your public ministry. You know, you've been baptized.
This is your moment. And that's what the Lord was
saying when he said, woman, what do I have to do with thee? For
my hour's not yet come. You're not in control of this.
I am. I am. We were talking about this
before the service when the Lord Jesus stood before those Roman
soldiers at the Garden of Gethsemane and they asked, for Jesus of
Nazareth, and he said, I am, and they all fell over backwards.
These Roman soldiers, these stalwart men, they fell to their faces
on the ground. What's the Lord telling us? They're
not arresting me. I'm in control of this. I'm calling
the shots here. This is all happening according
to my time and my purpose, given to me by my Father. Woman, what
do I have to do with you? My time has not yet come. And
the Lord was putting her in her place. You're gonna have to wait
and trust. You're going to have to be saved
the same way everybody else is, waiting on the Lord. Like Mary, sometimes we think
we know what's best, don't we? But oh, what a blessing it is
when the Lord corrects us and we're able to say whatever he
saith unto thee, do it. She was corrected. She was properly
rebuked. And she knew her place then.
And she said, whatever he says, do it. The governor of the feast, as
I said earlier, was the chief butler. This was a very formal
event, and all these things had to happen according to proper
protocol. And he had all the other servants
working for him, and it was the servants that knew where the
wine came from. the master of the ceremonies
didn't know where it came from. And he was actually rebuking
the bridegroom. When he went to the bridegroom
and he said, you know, normally the good wine's brought out first
and then after men have drunk and they can't tell the difference
as much, then you bring out the cheap stuff. But you've saved
the best for last. You making me look bad. You've
turned my Sarah. I'm in charge of all this. I'm
the guy that, you know, the buck stops with me. And you've turned
it all upside down. Isn't that a picture of the Pharisee? You know, you're not doing this
the way we think you should do it. And you're making me look
bad. I've got my protocol. I've got
my things that I need to do in order to make this work properly. He did not know where the wine
came from. The servants knew where it came
from. The servants still know where
it comes from. The apostles knew where it came from. And the Lord
Jesus Christ was glorified. And the apostles believed. And
this was the beginning, the arch miracle of miracles. The Lord gives us understanding
on this one. Everything else follows in order. Tom, come lead us, please. What
are we gonna sing? 212 in a hardback tenor. Let's stand together,
212.