John chapter 2, and this morning
we'll be looking on our Lord's first miracle at the wedding
that was at Cana of Galilee. Chapter 2 and verse 1, it says,
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 were wanted, 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 to the servants,
Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. And there was set there
six waterpots of stone after the manner of the purifying of
the Jews, containing two or three ferskins apiece. Jesus saith
unto them, Fill the water pots with water. And they filled them
up to the brim, and he saith unto them, Draw now, and bear
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 it knew, the governor
of the feast called the bridegroom, and saith unto him, Every man
at the beginning doth set forth good wine, and when men have
well drunk 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. The title of the message this
morning is The Miracle of Joy, The Miracle of joy. Now as we enter into this chapter
and the second chapter, we must first see that this word in the
beginning here of this chapter 2, the word and, we must understand
that this connects both the first and the second chapter together. This word and connects what went
before in chapter 1, namely the failure of Judaism. The failure of Judaism. The nation
of Israel was so far removed, so far removed from the faith
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that when the forerunner, John
the Baptist, the forerunner of the Lord Jesus came, they did not recognize him. They did not recognize the forerunner. of the Lord, even though John
told them. He said, I am the voice of one
crying in the wilderness. These men who have read the Scriptures,
who studied the Scriptures, were so far removed from God in their
hearts that they did not even recognize the forerunner of the
Christ. And they did not believe His
message. They didn't believe John's message. They sent men
to find out who John was. John told them who he was. And
they did not believe it. In Luke's Gospel, chapter 20,
the Lord was confronted by these Pharisees, and they asked Him,
by what authority do you teach? And Jesus said, well, I'll answer
that if you'll answer this. By what authority did John teach?
Was John's ministry of God or of man? And they thought, and
they said, well, if we say it's of man, then the people are going
to get upset. If we say it's of God, then Jesus
is going to say, why didn't you listen? And so they didn't answer. They said, we're not going to
answer. He said, neither answer I give. Our Lord Jesus knew that
it was of God, and they knew it was of God, yet they did not
believe. And what was John's message?
The message was, behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin
of the world. He pointed out the Savior to
them, and they still did not believe. They were so far removed that
they did not know the Messiah. In chapter 1 it says, Jesus came
unto His own, and His own received Him not. Judaism was dead as
a husk, and the heart and life of the gospel that once flourished
among that nation was gone. It was gone. The only thing that
remained was Christ to come and set aside that old dispensation,
to set aside the law, to set aside those legalists. The law in national Israel served
its purpose. What was the purpose of the law?
It was to reveal Christ. The purpose of the prophets was
to reveal Christ. The sacrifices were to reveal
Christ. And now that Christ had come,
These things were needed. I always use this illustration.
Before I married my wife, we were separated for a time, and
I carried her picture. I carried it everywhere I went.
And every time I thought of her, I looked at the picture. But
when she came, the picture was no longer necessary. I had the
real. Jesus was pictured in these Old
Testament sacrifices. Now He's come. They're no longer
needed. John says darkness is past and
the light now shining. It now shines bright. The legalism
of the Jews was gone. And I'll tell you, the legalism
of all works religion is empty as Judaism. All works religion
is empty as Judaism. Empty of any joy, which this miracle of the wedding
feast is all about. It's all about joy. Joy. At the wedding feast, they were
empty of wine. Now, wine in the Scriptures is
an emblem of joy. In Psalm 104, verse 15, it says,
And wine maketh glad the heart of man. There are many other
scriptures I can go through and show you the picture of wine
being the joy of man's heart. But this is what's missing here
in this wedding ceremony. I'll tell you what, if there's
no joy in a wedding ceremony, something's wrong. But that's
what's missing. The joy. The joy is missing. There's no joy here. How accurate
a picture is set before us of the comfortless hearts of men
who try to be saved by their own works. How comfortless is
that? How restless is that? Is there
any joy in works religion? Is there any joy in trying to
merit God's favor by your actions and deeds and thoughts? No, there's
no joy in that. How cold and mechanical is false
religion? If you'll notice, in this miracle,
the Lord sets forth and sees these six water pots. These six
water pots. If you see that in verse 6. It
says, And there were six water pots of stone after the manner
of the purifying of the Jews. These water pots were meant for
ceremonial Purification. But they were empty. They were
empty. All freewill works religion are
truly empty of anything to cleanse the souls of men from sin. They're empty. And according
to the Word of God, He is not in any false religion. Go over to Jeremiah chapter 23. I know we see the size of these
religions. They're large, aren't they? They
seem to be very powerful, these religions, these false religions. They seem to be very powerful,
don't they? But here's what the Lord says
about false religion. Look at verse 30. Therefore,
behold, I am against the prophets, saith
the Lord, that steal my words, every one from his neighbor." Do not false religion use the
word grace? Does not false works religion
use the words, the Lord Jesus Christ? What are they doing? They are stealing God's words
from His people. Behold, I am against the prophets,
saith the Lord, that use their tongues and say, he saith. What is the power of our message?
The power of our message is, thus saith the Lord. I'll tell
you, I don't want to tell you anything that God doesn't say.
Woe is me if I tell you anything that God does not say. Thus saith
the Lord. That's the power of the gospel
message. And anyone who lies on God, he
says, I'm against them. Behold, I'm against them that
prophesy false dreams, saith the Lord, and do tell them and
cause my people to err by their lies and by their lightness. Yet I sent them not, nor commanded
them, therefore they shall not profit this people at all, saith
the Lord." How much shall false religion profit the people of
God? Zero. How much effect does false religion
have on the gospel of Jesus Christ? Absolutely nothing. Nothing. Men are not saved under false
religion. Men are not saved by God's message,
by the message preached by false religion. Men are not saved by
that message. God said, I didn't send them,
I didn't give them the Word, and I'm not going to profit their
Word. It's empty. If God's not in false
religion, there's no salvation in false religion. I hear a lot of this sentimental
mentality. A man lives in sin all of his
life, has no interest in the gospel, dies, and then people
all of a sudden say, well, who knows? Who knows? Well, God could have been gracious
right there at the last. Well, was there a gospel preacher
there? Did he receive the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ?
Did he hear the gospel? Because if he didn't hear the
gospel, he was not saved. You can be as sentimental as
you want to about it. We should live in reality. We
shouldn't live in this la-la land as to just, gee, I hope
so. Well, we do that for our own
selves, truly. Because of our own sin nature.
We suppose ourselves to be more gracious than God. All who joy in false religion,
who profess a Savior that loves all men without exception, and
died for all men without exception, but bases their salvation upon
the works and free will of man, there is no joy in this, but
there should be shame in that religion. Shame in that religion. Why? Because they have no true
joy, because they have no true Savior. There's no joy without
a true Savior. A true Savior. But here in this
first miracle of our Lord Jesus, we who are saved, we recognize
that our salvation is by the free grace of God. Free. It was unmerited. We who know
a sovereign Savior may have fullness of joy and be comforted in this. that our salvation is accomplished. There's the joy. There's the
joy of the gospel. Salvation's done. Salvation's
finished. Salvation accomplished. Successful
Savior. Jesus Christ the Lord. This is
the message that believers trust and find joy in. Now before we move on to see
the miracle itself, I want us to notice this concerning Jesus'
mother, Mary. When this wedding feast had run
dry of wine, His mother comes and says to Him, They have no
wine. And Jesus says to her, Woman,
what have I to do with thee? Thine hour is not yet come. Now we may see by the answer
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which was a rebuke, that Mary's statement
was not just a statement of fact, but rather she was demanding
of the Lord to make wine. She was demanding of Him to make
wine and manifest His power to these people. She was demanding to make His
presence known in some miraculous way. Was this not the same temptation
our Lord received of Satan? If thou be the Son of God, make
that stone become bread. Show yourself, if you are the
Son of God, show yourself by throwing yourself down off this
temple and raising yourself again. Show yourself. Well, this is
what Mary was demanding. She failed to recognize His deity. Believer, how many times have
we failed to recognize the deity of our Savior? How many times
have we demanded of Him to show Himself? She failed to see He was God
manifest in the flesh and was rebuked for telling God what He ought
to do, instead of trusting Him to do what is right. And I know this of God's people,
when we are rebuked of our Lord for not trusting Him, We take
our place as our sister Mary did. She took our place. She said to those servants, whatever
He says, do it. If He says do nothing, do nothing.
If He says make wine, make wine. Yes Lord! Whatever you want. Whatever you want. Let us learn to do the same,
to trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not to our
own understanding. Believers, we are at times low
in faith, aren't we? And sin, the sin of our hearts
have robbed us of the joy of our salvation. David cried to the Lord, Restore
unto me the joy of thy salvation. Restore unto me the joy of thy
salvation. Because of sin, the joy of our
salvation seems to be as empty and cold as these clay pots. Believer, come to Christ not
demanding. Come beseeching. Come humbly
before our Savior, seeking His hand of mercy and not demanding
it. And He will give us what He promised. What did He promise you? You
who believe, what is His promise to you? What is His promise to
me? Look over at John 16. See what His promise is concerning
this matter of joy. John 16 and verse 22. Speaking of His departure, speaking
of the sorrow His disciples would face, He said, And ye know ye
now therefore have sorrow. But I will see you again, and
your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you. And in that day you shall ask
Me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in My name, He shall give
it you. Hitherto ye have asked nothing
in My name. Ask, and you shall receive, that
your joy may be Ask of Him. Ask of Him to restore the joy
of our salvation and He will. When? When He pleases. How? How He pleases. Submit to Him
and He will perform this miracle. Now this joy that believers have
is not the silly joy of this world. Please, believer, understand
that our joy is much deeper than this silly thing of laughter
and amusement and jovial festivities of this world. Our joy is something
that is not temporary. The joy of this world is temporary. It's temporary. It doesn't last. That's the joy that this world
has to offer. A joy that always ends. A joy
that always ends. Sin promises joy and fulfillment,
doesn't it? What sin doesn't promise fulfillment? When have we not said within
our own selves, if I had this, then I would be happy? No. That is a lie. Don't believe
it. The end of all sin is bitterness. The world calls for the best
wine now. Isn't that what the ruler of
the feast said? He said unto him, Every man at the beginning
doth set forth good wine. Then when everybody is drunk,
then they put forth the worst. That's what sin does. Sin offers
the best now. They offer the best life now. But the end thereof is death
and bitterness and sorrow. But our joy, our wine, saves
the best for last. The best for last. We have joy
because we have peace with God through Jesus Christ. There is
lasting joy. There is something you can hold
on to forever and rejoice in. And though now our lives are
marked with troubles and trials, our joy shall be the fullest
when we see Him in glory at the last. At the last. Our brother John, experienced
that two days ago and is glorifying God in the fullest measure of
joy right now. Yet during his life, he suffered
as we suffer. I know this. Believers, we say
with the psalmist, I shall not be satisfied until I awake in
his likeness. I won't receive the fullness
of my joy here in this world. I know I receive joy. But I know this, I won't experience
the fullness of it till I see Him. Behold, troubled believer, the
fullest of joys that men can have, we have. You have the best
joy any man could possibly ask for. You have it. It's yours. It's yours by promise. And we see this in the miracle
of our Lord. We see how this joy has come
to us. We who are believers in Christ
rejoice in Jesus Christ and have fullness of joy in Him because
of His miracle. And that's what salvation is,
isn't it? It's a miracle. It's a miracle. The joy of regeneration. That's the joy we have. First
of all, see the condition that we were in. And there were six
water pots of stone. You know, six is the number of
man, isn't it, in Scripture? Six is the number of man. And
these water pots were made of stone. They were lifeless. They
were cold. They were useless. Men by nature,
can never experience the joy of the gospel because they're
dead. Dead. You have no joy in the
gospel. It's because you're dead. I'm
not talking about joy in the flesh. Again, that's different.
That's different. That comes and that goes. But
this joy is something that sustains us, that keeps us in our troubles,
in our life. And man without this, no matter
No matter how hard someone tries to give that pot life, no matter
how much a man preaches or weeps or reasons with him, there's
nothing that can penetrate the cold heart of man. There's nothing
that we can do. Do you not feel helpless concerning
your loved ones? I do. I'm helpless. I can do
nothing to save them. Nothing. I could do nothing to
save myself. There was nothing we could do
to please God. These water pots were supposed
to be used for purifying, but there was nothing in them. They
were empty and useless. And unless God does something
for man, He will continually be forever like these cold, lifeless
water pots. Man can never know true joy unless
God fills him with it. You can't know true joy until
God fills you with His joy. Fills you with life and faith
in Christ. And this comes by the water of
the Word. Well, you see these water pots,
they were empty. And what did the Lord command?
He said, fill these water pots with water. This speaks to us
of the command of the Lord Jesus Christ to raise the dead to life. To raise the dead to life. The water here is an emblem of
the Word of God that is used of God to give men life. In Ephesians 5 and verse 26,
the Lord, who loved His church and gave Himself for it, He said
in order that He should sanctify it and cleanse it with the washing
of the water of His Word. It is by what this world calls
foolishness that God has chosen to save His people from their
sins. You who believe on Christ. This
is the means by which God has chosen to feed His people. To
fill you with His Word. To fill you with His joy. This
is the means of preaching the Gospel. And if you'll notice this, that
the Lord doesn't do any outward work in this miracle. I thought that very Peculiar. I've read this many times but
never noticed that until this time. The Lord did no outward
work. You remember one of the blind
men, he spit in the ground and made the mud and put it in his
eye and he received his sight. But this first miracle, the Lord
Jesus Christ did nothing. He didn't touch the water pots.
He didn't pronounce a blessing on the water pots. He didn't
pronounce a blessing on the water or the servants or anything.
He just commanded. He commanded the servants and
they filled the water pots. They drew from the water pots. They bare it to the feast and
the Lord Jesus commanded. That's what He did. He commanded. God has purposed to use human
instruments in performing the wonders of His grace. God has chosen to use human instruments
in performing the wonders of His grace. These servants did
all the work, yet we know this, that this turning of the water
His changing of the water into wine was a divine act. So it is with preaching the gospel.
In preaching the gospel, I draw, I take from the Word of God. I prepare the message for you.
I study the message, I prepare the message, and I deliver the
message. But truly, I know this, if there
is any joy from the message, if there is any love for Christ,
if there is any faith in Christ, it is a divine act. It is a divine act. Salvation comes by preaching,
and faith cometh by hearing, but it is completely the work
of God on the souls of men. And when they fill these pots,
the Lord here says, fill the water pots. And notice, they
fill them to the brim. They fill them to the brim, even
so this shows us the completeness of our salvation. The Word of
God constantly assures us of our complete salvation. That salvation is from eternity. To eternity, the work of God
alone. In Colossians 2, in verse 9,
it says, For in Him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily,
and you, ye, are complete in Him. We preach to you a successful
Savior who has accomplished salvation. That's the word that's filled
to the brim of comfort. Are you devoid of comfort? Do
you have doubts and fears? These are rhetorical questions
because I know I have the same. Where is the comfort? Well, it's
full to the brim. It's right here. Draw out from
this. Draw out from the Word of God.
And you shall receive the best wine The best of joy. And this water fills the souls
of men with refreshing of our hearts. And when it is drawn
forth, it bringeth forth joy and peace. And thirdly, life
and joy comes from the drawing of the Gospel. When the Spirit
fills our hearts with the water of life, the Gospel of Jesus
Christ, after we are born again of the Spirit, Did the water pot change? Was there any change to the water
pot? No. Is there any change to the flesh
when a man is born again? No. The flesh, that which is
born of flesh, our Lord said, is flesh. And that which is born
of the Spirit is Spirit. We're born again, the outside
of this pot, this stone didn't change, but I'll tell you something
that did, the inside changed. You could look at that water
pot just like any other water pot, but until you draw out of
it, you'd never know the difference. The outside of the believer doesn't
change, but God has created in us a new heart. A new heart. A heart that loves Him. Do you love Him? I couldn't help but read this
concerning this miracle. You know this first miracle?
was a turning point in our Lord's life. Because from this point
forward, He had no more privacy. Up to this point, He was a very
private person. There was nothing spoken of Him.
And at this point is when He started to be ridiculed and hated
and mocked. And His march toward Calvary
drew closer on this day. Believer in Christ, we are full
of the wine of His joy, which is a picture of His blood. His blood. Have you read this
word, and sometimes it goes in, and you don't feel any joy? But I'll tell you what, the Lord
will always use it for our good and our joy. I think of the Shulamite
woman in the Song of Solomon. You remember how she shunned
her husband, how she wouldn't get out of her bed to greet him
at the door. And when he was gone, it was
then she went out into the city seeking her beloved. And it wasn't
until she began to talk about him that her heart longed for
him more and more. You often speak of your Lord. You often talk concerning His
great deity and love and mercy and blood. I'll tell you, that
brings our hearts joy to speak of Him. And as God used these vessels,
believer, He will use us. Me? Yes. Yes. Well, I'm nothing but a
leaky old stone vessel. Exactly. but inside he hath made
the water wine." He has changed us. He has made us righteous
and holy before God. And I'll tell you this, only
the humblest people recognize this miracle. Look at this in
verse 9, it says, And the ruler of the feast, when he had tasted
the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was, But
the servants which drew the water knew. Only servants know. Only servants know. Are you a
servant? Are you a servant of the Lord?
Have you humbled yourself under the mighty hand of God and waited
for Him to raise you in due time? Then draw and drink till your
hearts fill. Our Savior has accomplished redemption. And He has filled us with His
Word. He has created in us a new heart, a clean heart. And He is all our joy. I pray that God blesses to you.