Chapter 2. Verse 1 says, The third day 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, the
mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. Jesus saith
unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not
yet come. 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. Jesus saith unto
them, Fill the waterpots with water. And they filled them up
to the brim. And he saith unto them, draw
out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they buried. 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 he saith 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 beginning of miracles did
Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his glory and
his disciples believed on him. Now this is the first miracle. The first miracle the Lord performed
on this earth. He turned water into wine. He
made water into wine at a marriage feast in Cana of Galilee. Verse
11 says that by this miracle, by this wonder, Christ manifested
his glory. And the result was his disciples
believed on him. And that's the spiritual message
here. That's what's being shown here
by this miracle. Only Christ can work this miracle. Only he can work this wonder
of grace in a dead sinner. And he does it by manifesting
his glory. He shows us his glory. He manifests
to us that which we didn't see. He manifests his glory within
us. And when he does that, the result
is he separates us from everything that was false and untrue. He
purifies our heart. He gives us faith. We believe
on him. We believe on him. All our Lord's
miracles, physical miracles, are just earthly illustrations
of his spiritual miracles of grace that he works in the hearts
of his people and for his people to heal us and to purify us and
to bring us to him and robe us in his righteousness. These are
things we see in these miracles. So what we see here is in this
first miracle, we see a picture of our Lord manifesting his glory
by which he regenerates and separates and purifies his child in the
heart and brings us to believe on him. This is a picture of
a sanctifying, purifying, life-giving work that Christ does in the
heart. Now, first of all, let's look at the event. It says, verse
one, this was the third day. Now, the third day is the day
of life in the scripture. On the third day in creation,
God made the grass to come forth and he made the tree to yield
fruit, having its seed in itself. That was the third day. And of
course, our Lord arose from the grave on the third day. Also
in the scripture, the third day was the day of purification.
On the third day, a man that had defiled himself by touching
a dead body, which is a picture of us being defiled because we
were constantly touching death. And it was the water of separation
made from the ashes of the red heifer that died in his place.
They would take that water of separation, that water of purification,
and it was to be applied to him on the third day. And so that
applies here because the Lord's working this miracle to separate
and purify to teach a picture of separation and purification.
These pots he's gonna use is what the Jews used to vainly
purify themselves, to wash themselves and purify themselves. So he's
showing us a picture of how he alone can wash us in regeneration
and sanctify us by the Holy Spirit. And it's interesting too that
Moses' first miracle that he worked or among the first miracles
he worked was to turn water into blood, into death, judgment,
condemnation. They couldn't drink it. Our Lord's
first miracle, he turns water into wine. And the spiritual
lesson there is the law came by Moses. Condemnation, death,
the ministration of death came by Moses. But grace and truth
came by Jesus Christ. Life comes by Christ. So this
third day is a picture of life. And it took place at a marriage.
And this is appropriate because our Lord Jesus Christ is the
husband. And his church, God's elect make
up his bride. Our Lord Jesus entered covenant
to come into this world and redeem his bride, to purify his bride,
to sanctify his bride, to make us holy and without spot. We
were like Gomer. We left. just like she left Hosea
and it took some time but Hosea worked and kept putting oil and
wine and wool and flax at her door and kept showing her he
loved her and kept working and kept working and finally brought
her, the Lord changed her heart, brought her down to see and be
contrite and this is what Christ works in his people but it takes
some time. And we can't interfere with it
because it's Christ's not our work. He has to do it. He has
to do it. And when we assemble to hear
the gospel preached, we're hearing God's word. We're bearing witness
of this marriage. I've said to you often when we
come to hear the gospel, it's like coming to a funeral and
to a wedding because we're hearing about how Christ died for his
people and we're hearing how he has married his bride to himself. It's a solemn occasion and that's
what we have here. The place was Cana of Galilee. Cana means a place of reeds.
Weak, flimsy, unwanted, unneeded reeds. And that's where Christ
came to when he came into this world. He came into a place of
reeds. And the reeds are a picture of
you and I. Helpless, weak, unneeded, unwanted, just reeds. But thankfully the scripture
says, a bruised reed shall he not break. He's not gonna take
somebody bruised and wounded and broken and then just slay
you. He's not doing that. He's a kind
and compassionate and loving savior and he's gonna save his
people. He's gonna send forth judgment,
discernment into the heart and he's gonna bring us to him. And
so we have a picture that Cana in Galilee was not a place of
renown. It was not a place like Jerusalem.
Our Lord didn't go there to work his first miracle. He didn't
go among the most pious religious folks of the day to work his
first miracle. This was in a place that nobody
really regarded. It was a despised place, the
Cana of Galilee of the Gentiles. It was just a place that Jews
looked down upon. Our Lord Jesus Christ associated
himself with sinners. The kind of people most churches
won't allow in the doors in our day. As long as you just talk
about it. But if you are really one, you
got to go. Our Lord associated with sinners.
He brought himself near to lowly sinners. Sometimes I wonder Would
we be in the congregation that our Lord associated with? If
we were there, would we be seen with the people he was seen with?
Or would we be in the other camp with the Pharisees? He came to a despised place. He came to a place that wasn't
known, it wasn't regarded by the world. And our Lord Jesus
Christ said, the kingdom of God comes without observation. This
world doesn't notice what's going on. The world doesn't regard
what's happening here today. And our Lord comes to his unnoticed
church, his unregarded church, a place of nothings and nobodies,
and he uses them to work in the hearts of his people and work
this miracle of grace. And the world doesn't even notice
it. And that's what he's doing. He's getting all the glory to
himself. You'll see here as we go through here, not one servant's
name is mentioned. because they're not the focus,
Christ is the focus. He gets the glory. So we have
a picture here of the church. Now look, the mother of Jesus
was there and both Jesus was called and his disciples to the
marriage. Now we know Mary was a sinner
saved by grace just like you and me. She's not an intercessor.
She has no special traits about her. She's just
a sinner saved by the grace of our Lord just like you and me
are. But according to the flesh, through her, Christ came into
this world. Through her, Christ came into
this world. And she typifies the church. The Lord speaks of
the church as the mother throughout the scripture. Says Jerusalem,
which is above, is the mother of us all. And so Christ, the
son of God, he's the son of God given, but he's the son of man.
who in the flesh came through the church. That's why, that
was the picture our Lord was teaching when he said the woman
is gonna have, she's gonna have sorrow in childbirth. And not just physical, but because
from the beginning, the devil was trying his best to prevent
Christ from coming into this world. So he tried to kill all
the Jews on multiple occasions. That's why Herod tried to kill
all the firstborn sons. The devil's trying to keep Christ
from coming into this world. The mother here, the picture
of the church. So you have a picture of the
church assembled, and you have the disciples here. Just like
these were ones he'd already called. So you have a picture
of the church here. And this is how Christ is gonna
work this. He does the calling, he does
the working. And he does it through his church
preaching the gospel of his grace. Now notice, the church appeals
to Christ to provide because we can't do it. He says there
in verse three, when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith
unto him, they have no wine. Now think of the mother here
as you and me who make up the church. What is it that we come
to Christ confessing? When she came there saying they
wanted, that means they came short of it. They didn't have
it, they were out of it. And this was probably some poor
family who didn't have enough to provide for all the guests
there, and so they came short of it. God's made his church,
he's made his disciples to behold that all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. And we come to Christ confessing
that, Lord, we need to be justified freely by your grace. We need
to be given that free redemption that's in Christ Jesus, who God
set forth to be the propitiation through faith in his blood. We
need him. We're short of glory. We have
nothing but sin and no ability in ourselves, and we come to
him just like Mary came saying, we've come short. We don't have
anything to provide our salvation. We're helpless, we're unrighteous,
we're unable to provide anything needed in our salvation from
the beginning to the end. And so we're constantly coming
to our Lord and asking Him to provide life, asking Him to purify,
asking Him to separate, asking Him to keep us because we want
everything due to sin. We lack everything due to sin.
And so we have to come to Him. Our prayer is for Christ to come
and provide all that we need All that we need. And our Lord's
answer to Mary shows his authority over the church. Christ is the
head. He's the ruler. He has the authority. And that's what we see here in
the way he answered her, and it shows her submission shows
our submission to Christ. Look, verse four, 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. Now, woman,
it was a term of respect. He wasn't being disrespectful
to her, but the Lord was letting her know that her authority as
a parent no longer existed with him. He's entered into his ministry,
and he's the Lord. He's the head. He's the king. He's the power and the wisdom
of his church, and he's conveying this to her. He has the authority,
and she's in submission to him, and that's our relationship to
Christ. Christ is the head. You and I are submitting to him. We're submitting to him. And
when he says here, mine hour's not yet come, it refers to the
hour that was set from before the foundation of the world.
God predestinated, he purposed to ordain the very hour when
Christ would permit himself to be portrayed into the hands of
his enemies and go to that cross. They did only what he foreordained
before to be done, and men tried to constantly lay hands on him,
but his hour was not yet come. And they couldn't do it till
that set time, the fullness of time when it was come, that's
when he went to the cross. And he had power to lay down
his life, he had power to take it up again. But there's some
that suggest he meant the hour that I should work this miracle
had not yet come. And I could enter into that because
The Lord has set the time when he's gonna work the miracle of
grace in the heart of every single child. It's called the season
of his love when he comes and works the work in the heart of
his child. And he's gonna wait till we're brought to nothing,
till we're brought to where we see that we're empty and have
nothing and can provide nothing. When he's brought us there, then
that's when he's gonna work this miracle and show you his glory.
And so, without question, He works in the time that he set,
and our times are in his hand. And that's the best place they
can be, because his times are right, they're best. And so when
he reveals this to you, this is what he makes you, this is
the submission he works in our heart. We say, whatsoever he
saith to you, do it. Do it. People wanna ask, well,
what rules the church under? Well, here's the commandment
of our commander right here. And this is what we say, whatsoever
he says to you, do it. What does he say? Come unto me,
all you that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. It
doesn't matter if you're laboring in sin, if you're laboring needing
righteousness and eternal salvation, if you're laboring in this world,
if you're laboring with some heavy burden upon you, whatever
it is that you're burdened with, he says, come to me, I will give
you rest. And he will, he will. He says to us, abide in me, Abide
in me and you'll bring forth much fruit, for without me you
can do nothing. We can't produce any fruit without him. We have
to abide in him. He's the vine, we're the branch.
We have to abide in him. We get everything from Christ. Nothing of ourselves, everything's
from him. He tells us to love one another as I've loved you.
And the only way we can enter into that and have a spirit of
that is to see how he loved us. How he came, not when we deserved
something, not when we had done something to earn his love, not
when we had done anything, when we had totally, thoroughly done
everything to make him hate us, he still loved us. And he came
and laid down his life for us. He took our sin. He bore our
sin. He stood in the gap. He put it
away. He covered it. He blotted it
out. He keeps doing this for us. He
cleanses us and cleanses us and cleanses us. And if it wasn't
for him working this miracle of separation and purification,
we'd be defiled and fall away in an instant. He has to do this.
So whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. Do it. Now next, let's
see a picture of God's elect. Let's see who it is he works
this work in. Verse six, they were sent their
six water pots of stone after the manner of the purifying of
the Jews, which would hold two or three firkins apiece. I think
that's about 20 or 30 gallons, basically, is what they would
hold. Depraved sinners, sinners who
fell in Adam, sinners who conceived in sin, sinners like you and
me and everybody else in this world born of a woman. Sinners
are empty water pots of stone. That's what we are. Just like
these right here. Six is the number of man in the
scripture. The number of man. We're empty
by nature. We're empty. Totally empty. Empty of spiritual life. Empty
of holiness. Empty of righteousness. Empty
of wisdom. Empty. Totally empty. And we're
earthen vessels of stone. We're made of dust. We're made
of the dirt. We're going back to the dirt.
And we have hearts as hard as a stone by nature. We won't receive
the word. We won't receive the gospel.
We're empty. We're hard. Christ has to create
in us a new man. He has to create a new heart. He has to give a new spirit to
his child. These pots were used in vain. These pots were just They were
superstitious invention of man whereby the Jews had these water
pots and they washed in these water pots thinking that by washing
their hands they were purifying themselves and so they wouldn't
be defiled. And it never worked. This is what our Lord was addressing
when he said it's not that which comes from without that defiles
a man. It's not what you eat, drink, do, say, whatever that's
defiling you. It's within. The inside's got
to be purified. The inside's got to be made pure. And that's where he has to separate
us and purify us and cleanse us on the inside. on the inside. We vainly used these earthen
vessels, these empty vessels. We vainly used these vessels
just like they used us. We vainly used our flesh, our
bodies, our earthen vessels to try to cleanse ourselves and
purify ourselves and separate ourselves. And it was all in
vain. We were spiritually dead as these
stones, these stone vessels, as empty as they were, as incapable
of washing and purifying ourselves as they were. But Christ gives
the command in verse seven, he says, fill the water pots with
water. And they filled them up to the
brim. Now the water is a picture of the word in the scriptures,
the gospel we preach, the gospel of Christ and him crucified when
it's blessed by the spirit of the Lord. Ephesians 5.25 says
Christ loved the church and he gave himself for it. He redeemed
us, he put away our sin, he justified his people, he made us the righteousness
of God in him. But now he's got to come and
work this in these stone vessels. And he did it that he might sanctify
and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. That's what we have pictured
here, the washing of water by the word. That he might present
it to himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or
any such thing, but that it should be holy and without blemish.
Those servants filled the water pots to the brim. And we preach
Christ crucified. We try to preach Christ as fully,
as clearly, as full as we can preach Christ crucified as God
will enable. But it takes the Lord to take
the water of the word and fill one of his earthen vessels with
it. To fill us up with this word. to cleanse us by making us hear
that it's Christ who fulfilled the law. It's Christ who satisfied
justice. It's Christ who is our holiness. He is the new heart within. He
is the holiness within. And when he's made you holy within,
you see your holiness is seated at God's right hand. That's where
you're perfect and complete. It's not in us because we still
sin, we still fall, we still stumble, but here's what the
purification does. It makes you not put confidence
in you or your brother. It makes you treat this flesh
like it is, a sinful thing. Get the hints. And he has to
do this by the constant purification and cleansing to make us look
out of ourselves to him and trust him alone. And he has to do the
cleansing. The water of the word purifies
and separates us from lies to the truth. From the lies of us
trying to do this work ourselves to the truth of Christ who is
the truth. Christ who is the way. Christ
who is the light. He separates us unto him by purifying
his people within and making us the righteousness of God in
him. What he does by this is makes you see Christ is all in
all. He's everything. He could have
produced wine without these servants. He could have filled these vessels
without these servants. He could do it without us. He
doesn't need us. But he was pleased to use us.
Why? Why was he pleased to use us?
Because as Paul said, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. We have it in just clay stone
pots just like they had right there. Why? that the excellency
of the power may be of God and not of us. What better way to
show that this cleansing is all of Christ than to take sinners
that he's cleansed within, that he's filled with this water of
the word, and use them to preach it, and they can't do a thing
to make it effectual. But then just through the preaching
of the word, just like that ruler of the wedding, he didn't even
know what had happened. And we don't even know what happened.
The servants know, they understand what's happening. The other brethren
that's experienced this power, they understand what's happening,
but when it's happening to you, you don't understand it. You
just know something's happened. I didn't believe him, now I believe
him. I hated it, now I love him. I love the message of free grace,
sovereign grace by my Redeemer. God has chosen things which are
not, to bring to naught things that are, that no flesh should
glory in his presence. But he that glories, let him
glory in the Lord. This is why he chose to save
through the foolishness of preaching. What does the world consider
just foolish? using foolish nobodies, because it's the way that no
flesh glories in His presence. When you're talking with somebody
one-on-one, it's just so much glorying in the flesh going on.
Nobody's listening to each other. They're both trying to think
about what they're going to say and outwit the other one and
out-Scripture the other one and just whipping each other with
Scripture. God's chosen a way that makes us sit down and listen. Christine said one of the best
things I ever heard. You have to do something to make yourself
not listen. You can't make yourself not listen.
When the word comes and the power comes, you're gonna listen. But
you gotta, it's hard to sit there and close your ears. He's chosen a way that's gonna
show he gets all the glory. We don't get any. We don't get
any. We pray, we study, we preach,
but it's only in the hour appointed that Christ turns the water into
wine. He makes this word. You see here, they put that water
in those vessels. Our Lord didn't even say a word.
He just willed it, and the water was made wine. You see His omnipotence,
you see His power, you see His ability. He just willed it, and
it was so. It's his hour, it's when he takes
this water of this word and he makes it effectual, you start
seeing that blood on every page. And that's the wine, that's the
wine on the leaves well refined, that's the refreshing, that's
the strengthening, that's the rejoicing. And when you start
to see Christ is the key to these scriptures. It's Christ, Christ,
Christ, Christ from the beginning to the end. He's the creator,
he's the light that shine, He's the innocent animal slain in
the garden. He's Abel's offering. He's Noah's
ark. He's Abraham's sacrifice, the
ram caught in the thicket, God providing himself a lamb. All
the way through, you began to see this thread of his blood,
the wine, and you didn't see it before. And he's turned, the
spirit has entered in and made everything to be the wine of
his grace, the wine of his redemption, the wine of his freedom of forgiveness,
the wine of the truth, the wine of Christ, the wine, the wine
that refreshes and rejoices and strengthens the heart, it's Christ. And it's all by his spirit. He
says, then washed I thee with water. He came to you, you was
that infant cast out, polluted in your blood. He said, then
washed I thee with water. I thoroughly washed away thy
blood from thee and I anointed thee with oil. He said, then
will I sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean. From
all your filthiness, from all your idols will I cleanse you.
And when he does this, the way it's all done is he manifests
his glory. They saw a miracle that day.
This water was turned into wine. That was a miracle, that was
a wonder. And when he makes you behold him, you behold the wonder. You behold Him who is the wonder,
isn't that His name? His name should be called wonderful.
That's the word. You behold Him who's wonderful.
You see that He is everything you need. You see He is the only
one God, the Father's purpose to glorify. You see He is the
Savior. He is the salvation. He is your
life. He's the miracle you see. And
you realize it's a miracle that you see him. It's a miracle,
it's a wonder that you believe him and you trust him. You read
Psalm 70 or 71 and the psalmist says, I'm a wonder unto many. and you are a believer, you're
a miracle. How is it you still believe him? How is it in the
midst of this wasteland wilderness with the hurricane blowing and
the winds raging and the waves raging, how is it that God has
kept your little candle lit? How is it he's kept you believing
him through everything you've endured? He's made you to be
a miracle of his grace, a wonder of his grace. He did it, he did
it. He makes you taste and see that
the wine of the gospel and the grace of his glory is the very
best there is. Verse 8. He said to them, draw
out now, bear unto the governor of the feast, and they bear it.
And when the ruler of the feast tasted the water that was made
wine and knew not whence it was, but the servants which drew water
knew it, the governor of the feast called the bridegroom.
And he said to them, every man at the beginning does set forth
good wine. When men have well drunk, then that which is worse,
they set out that which is worse, but you kept the good wine till
now. When Christ works this, we go to Christ, the bridegroom.
We go to him. You cast all your care on him.
You draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith,
having your heart sprinkled from an evil conscience and your body
washed with pure water. You go to him. And it's the beginning
of miracles. Verse 11 says, the beginning
of miracles. It's the first miracle Christ
works in our experience of his grace to bring us into this,
but it just gets greater, more clearer as you go, just like
he told Nathaniel. He told Nathaniel right before,
you're gonna see greater things and greater light. Here it is.
He started showing him right here. And this is the, when he
works this miracle, it's the first one he works in you, and
you, from then on, you see greater and greater light. Because you
see his glory manifest. The glory of his person, the
glory of his redemption, the glory of his sufficient grace,
the glory of his saving power, the glory of his daily works
among you. And then from that first hour, just like them, verse
11, his disciples believed on him. They already believed on
him. He'd already called them. but
he never stops showing you these miracles and you never stop believing
on him. He keeps you believing on him,
seeing him with greater clarity. And here's what I like, I really
like a lot. Robert Hawker made this statement
and this is true concern in all our needs in this life. We don't
need to separate the fact he's our provision for heaven and
he's our provision in this world right now. But Robert Hawker
said this, He said, he that turn water into wine to answer the
momentary feast can soon convert everything, even of evil, into
good. And rather, that his redeemed
shall want anything needful, he will bring resources from
their enemy's table. That's what he did here. All
things shall work together for our good, to the good of them
that love God, the good of them that are called according to
his purpose. because Christ is working these
wonders in our midst. That's why we preach him. God
said, I'm going to take the wisdom of the wise and understanding
of the prudent and I'm going to turn it into nothing. And
he keeps doing that for us too, turning our wisdom into nothing.
But why does he do it? so that as Christ goes forth
in the gospel, we hear this, and we see him, and we see his
glory, and we know Christ is the power and the wisdom of God,
and we glory in him. We cease glorying in ourselves,
and we glory in him. Amen. Let's stand together. Father, we thank you for this
word and we pray now, Lord, you would, by your spirit, turn the
water into wine. Make us truly be cleansed and
separated and purified in heart to behold your glory, to believe
on you. Make us know you're our full
provision for heaven and our full provision in this earth
and all is well. Lord, we ask you keep working
these miracles amongst us. We need you, we want the wine. We can't provide it, we've come
short. We need you to provide all. Lord, please forgive us
our sin and our unbelief and keep us looking only to you.
In Christ's name we ask it, amen.