If you turn your Bibles to John
Chapter 2, there's a wonderful psalm that I spent a bunch of
time studying this week, Psalm 9. I'll just read some verses
out of it in Psalm 9. Psalm 9 verse 8 says, He shall
judge the world in righteousness. He shall administer judgment
to the people in uprightness. And then in verse 9, it's beautiful,
isn't it? The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed,
a refuge in times of trouble. And then this remarkable verse,
and they that know thy name, the name of our God, his character,
his person and his work, they that know thy name will put their
trust in thee, for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek
thee. John very clearly in his gospel
reminds us that he's actually selected from an enormous range
of works of our Lord Jesus, in fact the works of our Lord Jesus
in that time he was on the earth and before and after us such
that the whole world could contain the books that are written. And
so obviously the stories that we have in the scriptures are
particular stories with poignant meaning. And John chapter 2 is
just one of those glorious, glorious pictures. In verse 11 of chapter
2, this is the beginning, this beginning of miracles did Jesus
in Cana at Galilee, and two things, two things flowed from the beginning
of miracles. The miracles have a purpose. and manifested forth His glory. They are there to manifest the
glory of our Lord Jesus Christ and they are there and His disciples
believed on Him. So let's read the story. We'll
only just be looking at it briefly, I'd just like to spend some time
thinking about what it is for him to manifest his glory, to
manifest himself. And 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, when the wine had run out, the mother
of Jesus said unto him, they have no wine. Jesus saith unto
her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet
come. Before we think too much about
it, I won't speak on it much at all, but the word woman there
is actually an address of respect to a married woman, so he's not
being rude to his mother. But also, His hour, the hour
had come for Him to be revealed, the hour of His death hadn't
come, but now after the baptism He was the one in authority. Also, nothing happens in accident
in our Lord's universe and so the Lord in His omniscient power
over all things foresaw that we would be plagued in this world
with the Roman Catholic Church, and the Roman Catholic Church
is the judgment of God upon people. And the scriptures make it so
abundantly clear that the deification of Mary and the worship of Mary
is something that cannot be sustained for one second by the scriptures. And it doesn't matter if 1.6
billion Catholics believe the nonsense that their church proclaims,
to the word and the testimony God's people will be drawn all
the time. His mother, in a sense acknowledging
his right to authority, his mother said unto his servants, whatsoever
he saith unto you, just do it. And there were set six water
pots of stone after the manner of purifying the Jews, containing
two or three firkins apiece. That word firkin is for a big
container, it's 40 litres. So there were six of them with
40 litres in them. 40 litres is one furcan, so they
had, we're talking about hundreds of litres of water. But the spiritual
import of it we'll look at in a little while. Jesus saith unto
them, fill the water pots with water. And they filled them to
the brim. And he saith unto them, draw out now, and bear it unto
the governor of the feast, and they bear it. 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 saith unto
him, Every man at the beginning does set forth the good wine,
and when the men have well drunk, then that which is worse. But
thou hast kept the good wine until now. This beginning of
miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee, which manifested forth
His glory and His disciples believed on Him." That word manifest is
remarkable how often it's used in the New Testament. It's as
similar to the word reveal. And one of the things that was
really interesting as I was looking at it recently is that the two
biblical writers in the New Testament who use it most are the Apostle
John and the Apostle Paul. I use it again and again and
again. means to reveal, to make known. And maybe both of those apostles
had the most extraordinary revelations of the reality of the deity of
the Lord Jesus. John, of course, on the Mount
of Transfiguration and then again on the Isle of Patmos where he
was taken to witness who the Lord Jesus was in all of his
glory in heaven. And Paul, of course, had similar
experiences, which is why this word revealed to make known,
to disclose, to have a light shone on it. is a word which
is so poignant, and it's so poignant, of course, in this religious
world. Throughout the history of redemption,
the whole human race has been in darkness regarding the personal
character of our God. Adam walked with the Lord Jesus
in the cool of the garden. He walked with Him, and all of
humanity walked in Him. But in the fall, Adam lost the
way of God, and he lost the truth of God, and he lost the light
of God, and Adam and all of his posterity then were plunged into
this darkness. And every child of God bears
testimony, bears personal testimony to the fact of his own darkness. And that darkness was not aided
in any way ever by religious activities. You see, that which
is revealed, that which is made manifest, is something which
is hidden from view, isn't it? and it's hidden from view, but
that doesn't mean that it doesn't exist. If I pull the blinds down
here and it doesn't stop the existence of the mountains out
there, the fact that God in His glory is hidden from view doesn't
mean that He doesn't exist. To make manifest is to reveal,
so that which is revealed is hidden from view and it must
exist. And there are two absolute essentials that John speaks of
again and again, and that is to see who God is there must
be a miraculous revelation, there must be light and there must
be sight. But God is hidden from view in
religion and that's one of the themes that John speaks of so
often. But not only does John speak
of it in his Gospel, Isaiah speaks of it in his Gospel. The biblical
writers are continually showing that man in his natural state,
man as he is in Adam, even the most zealous religious man as
he is in Adam, is completely and utterly blind to the things
of God. It's remarkable that in Isaiah
9, those verses that people sing that talks about the people that
walked in darkness have seen a great light. They that dwell
in the shadow of death, upon them hath light shined. But in the very previous chapter, he speaks of the blindness
of the religion of the world. And he speaks of the people of
God, he says, and I will wait upon the Lord that hideth his
face from the house of Jacob. And I will look for him. Our
God in judgment hides his face. But there is a revelation. I
love how Isaiah 53 begins, it says, Who has believed our report
And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? To whom has it been revealed?
If you read the rest of Isaiah 53, Isaiah is fixing to make
sure that you know who they are. The arm of the Lord is revealed
to the lost sheep. The arm of the Lord is revealed
to those who the righteous servant will justify, for he shall bear
their iniquities. He shall prolong his days, and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand." All of
those, as I mentioned in Isaiah 53, the sheep, we have gone astray
and everyone turned to his own way and the Lord has laid on
him the iniquity of us all. There is a particular people
to whom the Lord makes himself manifest. In the days of his
incarnation there was much religion. Paul and the Pharisees and the
Sadducees and the Herodians are testimony to how much religion
there was. And there was a religion with
extraordinary messianic expectations. There was a religion that was
looking for something remarkable to happen from God. When the Lord Jesus comes, what
is revealed is the depths and the darkness and the emptiness
and the shallowness and the hypocrisy and the wickedness of religion. There must be a manifestation
of God. The Lord has never left himself
on this planet without a witness. He always has his witnesses to
who he is, his witnesses to his true character, his witnesses
to his Gospel. In Revelation 11 there is that
remarkable verses that actually describe this world with such
poignancy that it is almost shocking. The two witnesses lie dead in
the streets. They are born witness and they
are dead. Their bodies, dead bodies, shall
lie in the street of the great city which is spiritually called
Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. And then
this is what the world does, in a world where the witness
to the Lord Jesus seems dead in the streets and they of the
peoples and tongues and nations, shall she their dead bodies three
days and a half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be
put in their graves, and they that dwell upon the earth shall
rejoice." Is that not a great picture of our world today? It
is rejoicing that the witness of God has died in the streets. They shall rejoice over them
and make merry and shall send gifts to one another, because
these two prophets tormented them that dwell on the earth."
Such is the world that we live in, brothers and sisters, that
God has his people. He manifests his glory to his
own and his own believe on him. And all who end up believing
on Him by sovereign grace and mercy, as we'll see as we go
through this thing, will say, as Judas, not Iscariot, said
in that last, in that upper room, he said in John 14.22, he said,
Lord, how is it? How is it that Thou wilt manifest
Thyself unto us and not unto the world? What is going to happen? How is it going to be done? Jesus
has the most remarkable answer to him. He said unto him, If
any man love me, How do we love Him? We love Him because He first
loved us. He will keep my words and my
Father will love Him and we will come unto Him and make our abode
with Him. That's how he manifests himself.
He manifests himself spiritually and he manifests himself in his
people. He manifests his glory to his
iron and his iron believe on him. And he manifests the glory
of his person, the eternal merits and the eternal efficacy, the
wonderful, powerful work of His blood and His righteousness,
its eternal activities, saved from the foundation of the world,
saved out of this world, redeemed out of this wicked world. And
those that are redeemed love the fact of His deity and His
sovereignty, that He is one with the Father, He is God over all,
blessed forever. We love the fact that in Him
dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So we know, we know through
His Gospel and through His Word, we know His name and we put our
trust in Him. That's what saving faith is,
isn't it? It's Him revealing Himself as He did to Paul in
His people. I know whom I have believed and
persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have entrusted
unto Him until that day. You see, brothers and sisters,
you like me and all of the children of God, we are shut up to divine
revelation. Saving faith is a divine activity
of God. We are shut up to divine revelation
and divine mercy. We are shut up to divine sovereign
grace and we are shut up to divine providence and we are left We
are left dependent upon His ability. And God makes us to know that's
the case, and God causes His people to delight in it. You see, none but the Holy Spirit
can bring us to see what we are. Speaking of manifestation, Ecclesiastes
says, I said in my heart concerning the estate of the sons of men,
that God might manifest them and they might see that they
themselves are beasts." It's a revelation of God to know that
that's what we are. See, none but the triune God
can work faith and love and humility and self-loathing, a love for
His truth, a zeal for His honour, a love for His people and indifference
to this world. All of our fruit is found in
Him and all of it comes through manifestation of Him, which is
what our story before us in John Chapter 2 is, this remarkable
event, the first of His miracles. It is, of course, the creation
of faith after the manifestation of the revelation of glory. It's a manifestation of creative
glory, isn't it? It's the glory of the Creator. If you look down there in verse
9, when the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was
made wine, If you go back and think about what happened in
this story, there were six sets, six water pots of stone after
the manner of purifying the Jews containing two or three firkins
apiece. Jesus said unto them, fill the
water pots with water. And they filled them to the brim.
And he said, now draw out and bear unto the governor of the
feast. And they bear it. and the ruler of the priests
had tasted the water that was made wine. You see how this wine
was created, this wine that gladdens the hearts of people. He didn't
create the water, he didn't create the wine by touching it, he didn't
even create the wine by speaking a word. He created He made the
water wine by His will. It was just an act of His will. He turns extraordinarily common
water into extraordinary wine simply by an act of His will. You see, these creative miracles
are the exclusive preserve of Almighty God. He revealed the
fact that He is God. He creates with the word, He
creates by His will. So it didn't just look like wine,
it was made wine. It didn't just taste like wine,
it was made wine. It wasn't just treated as if
it were wine, it really was wine. It was made. It's a great word
so often used in the scriptures of God's redemptive acts and
His creative acts and His giving of gifts to men. But all the
maids have their glory in Him, isn't it? He was the Word who
was made flesh. He was real humanity. He really was made. A body was
prepared for him. He was made to be just like us,
sin excluded. He was touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. He was made to be exactly like
us. He wasn't just made to look as
if He was like us. He was made, according to 2 Corinthians
5.21, He was made sin for us. As the water was made to be really
wine, He was made to be really sin for us. And we have been
made the righteousness of God in Him. The wine, of course,
It pictures the Gospel which is our Lord Jesus Christ. A feast is made for laughter
and wine maketh merry. He alone took the winepress of
the wrath of God as our substitute. The Lord bruised him and put
him to grief. But this wine is a wine that
cheers both God and man. It is precious. I love what Peter
speaks of. the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Again and again he speaks of it being this redemption. You are not redeemed with corruptible
things such as silver and gold from your vain conversation,
received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious
blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish or spot. a lamb without any blemish or
spot, precious blood of our sovereign Redeemer. There is a remarkable
verse in the scriptures that says about Him and Him being
made sin, being one with us in that. In Proverbs 18 verse 23,
He speaks of Himself, He says, I was upright before Him. Our Lord Jesus was upright before
Him. And he says, I have kept myself
from mine iniquity. What a glorious, simple statement
about our Lord Jesus Christ. He says, I have kept myself from
mine iniquity. He was perfectly, perfectly sinless
in thought and word and deed. And yet he owns the iniquity
of his own and was treated as if it was his. And God has put
it away forever. He trod that wine press alone. This wine is representative,
of course, of his blood that was shed for us. When Moses went
back to Egypt, that first miracle was he turned the water into
blood. You see, the law is administration
of death. But here in this miracle, our
Lord Jesus turned the water into wine. Because when He comes into
your life, all that is common, everything that is common about
us is made to be different. Even the common things of our
lives are providences of God which He will turn into the wine
of gladness. It is this wine of His grace
and the wine of His redemption that satisfies. It's the good
wine, it's the best, the best wine that's been kept till the
last. His wine, the wine of His redemption
is far better than all of the pleasures that this world can
give. It is a wonderful creative miracle,
a miracle that reveals an abundance. What a remarkable amount of wine
the Lord Jesus created. He's not for one second condoning
excessive drinking of alcohol in any way whatsoever. But this
is an abundance, isn't it? What in the Greek is two or three
metrics of wine, which is 60, so they had 80 to 120 litres
of wine. Six of them is 480 litres of
wine. Or if there were three, it's 720 litres of the best wine. You see, with the Lord Jesus
there is plenteous redemption. We speak again and again of the
unsearchable riches of grace. Plenteous redemption. The public
shame at the wedding is now turned into a celebration of the best. See these Jewish pots of stone,
they were empty, weren't they? Jesus asked that they could be
filled. These Jewish pots that were used for purification, Jesus
asked that they be filled to the brim. And then the hour must
come when the water of that law observance, that legal purification,
reaches its climax and not another drop can be added to it. And
then all of it is completely and perfectly made wine. And so all that the Jews thought
was purification is now only There is no purification outside
of the blood of the Lord Jesus and outside of faith in Him. As Peter said in Acts chapter
15 verse 9, he says, God has purified their hearts. What a remarkable thing. Blessed
are the pure in heart, for they will see God. He's purified the
hearts of His people by faith. Only his blood satisfies and
only his blood gladdens the heart and the whole Jewish system of
legalism and rituals and others is finished and finished completely
and forever. I find it offensive, I hope you
will in time, find it offensive when people talk about the Judeo-Christian
morality. According to this book, there
is absolutely no such thing. If it's Judeo, it is not Christian. If it is Christian, it is not
Judeo. Judaism is still looking to outward
signs and outward activity and outward morality and outward
righteousness. And the Lord Jesus Christ has
filled that to the full and now it's completely replaced with
the wine of His blood and redemption to go back to the water. as the
scriptures keep warning people to go back to those empty stone
pots is to turn your back on the Lord Jesus Christ and say
that I do not need His life, I do not need His redemption,
I do not need His purification, I can do it with a bit of water
and an empty stone pot. It is the miracle of grace, isn't
it, brothers and sisters, to have Him reveal, to have Him
manifest His glory. And as John says in the previous
chapter, he says, there standeth one among you. So He was among
them. He was there among them, but
He wasn't revealed. There standeth one among you
whom you know not, John 1, 26. See, the Jewish religion had
blinded the minds of these people as to who John was and to who
his saviour was. In verse 11, he came unto his
own and his own received him not. He came unto his own nation
and they received him not. He came unto those people who
lived under the laws he gave at Mount Sinai and they received
him not. but by manifestation of His glory. In creation and redemption and
revelation there is amongst the religious world of the Jews There
is His own. He came to His own, isn't He?
As many as received Him, John 1.12, to them He gave power to
become the sons of God, even them that believe on His name,
which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh,
nor of the will of man, but of God, as the water was made wine."
These people are born of the will of God. He speaks of his
own since John 13 in that remarkable verse. This is now before the
Feast of the Passover when Jesus knew that his hour was come,
that he should depart out of this world unto the Father. having
loved his own which were in the world. He loved them to the end. He loved them completely. He
loved them perfectly. He loved them savingly. And he
loved them to manifest himself to them. See, the law and the
prophets were until John, when Christ appeared. Judaism was empty, was meaningless,
was a useless religion and what's left over of it today is just
as useless as it was 2000 years ago. It's just an external form
of man-made religion and absolutely nothing else. wine, this glorious
wine of the Gospel. It makes glad the heart of man. See, Jewish religion had no life
in it. It had no joy in it. And the
remarkable thing about Jewish religion, as you read through
the Gospels, again and again and again, you have the Lord
Jesus manifesting himself to people in his miracles, and there
is a division among humanity. And there are some that are overcome
and overjoyed by the manifestation of His glory, and there are others
that turn in anger and rebellion and abuse. again and again, as
He is manifested, what is manifested is a division in humanity. He
manifested His glory and His disciples believed on Him. As I said earlier, faith, saving
faith, knowing Him, faith in Christ is utterly, completely,
100% dependent upon and is created and sustained
by revelation. That's what he says in John Chapter
6, isn't it? And John Chapter 10, and John
Chapter 8, again and again and again he speaks of the fact that
you cannot come to him. The Father will draw people.
There is a divine revelation which is why again and again
the Gospel is so important. Preaching the Gospel, having
him to be revealed, as it were, through the Word, the Word of
Truth, is just foundational and fundamental to Christian life,
at the beginning, sustaining it until the end. He revealed,
He manifest His glory. He's manifested the glory of
His person. He is God Almighty. He has again revealed Himself
as the Creator come to live amongst us. It's the glory of His redemption. It's a picture of accomplished
redemption again and again in the scriptures. We have never
ever left any doubt about the fact that all that He came to
save, He completely and utterly saved. He makes the water wine
by an act of His will as He makes His people His. They are as much
made the sons of God in all reality as the reality of that wine was. We have the glory of His person,
the glory of His redemption, the glory of all sufficient grace. This was just an act of pure
grace, unmerited. He was there to bless His own,
He was there to save His own, He was there to reveal Himself
to His own. This is the glory again. of his transforming creative
power. So he takes that which is ordinary,
that which is common, and he transforms it by an act of his
will into something that reveals his glory. In the revelation
of Himself, He reveals His glory in the salvation of His people.
He says, Thy glory is great, our God, in Thy salvation. His glory is great in Him. Salvation
and the revelation of His glory is always an omnipotent, creative
power. As he says in Matthew 11, Thou
hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and you
have revealed them unto babes. Not wise, not prudent. Even so, Father, so it seemed
good in Thy sight. You've hidden them from the wise
and prudent, revealed them to babes. May the Lord make us babes. See, to believe is to see His
glory, to see Him high and lifted up, and to see His glory given to the babes and not to
the wise and prudent. As he said when he performed
one of those other remarkable creative miracles at the tomb
of Lazarus, he said, didn't he? He said, didn't I say unto you
that if you would believe you should see the glory Brothers
and sisters, one day soon He will be manifest in the most
remarkable way. May He cause us to simply cling
by faith to Him. I love what Martin Luther said.
People think that so much of genuine Christianity is about
having remarkable, amazing experiences. Martin Luther 500 years ago said,
I have covenanted with my Lord that he should not send me visions
or dreams or even angels. I am content with this gift of
the scriptures which teaches and supplies all that is necessary
both for this life and that which is to come. He manifests himself
in his word, the scriptures, brothers and sisters. He manifests
himself in the hearts of his people by divine and glorious
and marvellous revelation. May that be our portion. Let's
pray.