John chapter 2. John chapter
2. I titled this message, Made to
be what it was not. Made to be what it was not. That water was not wine, but
he made it to be wine. You know, our Lord, and I'm going
to get to this later on in to the message, but our Lord was
made to be what He was not, made to be sin. That you and I may
be, that we might be made to be what we are not, the righteousness
of God in Christ. That's later on in the message. Alright, in chapter 1, John set
forth the deity, of the Lord Jesus Christ. The word was with
God and the word was God. And then he set forth his incarnation
and the word was made flesh. God was made flesh. God became a man and tabernacle
dwelt among us. and he set forth the superiority
of the Lord Jesus Christ, and telling us what John the Baptist
said, I'm not worthy, I'm not worthy to stoop down and unloose
the latchet of his shoes, his sandals. I wrote underneath this
this morning, have I ever really, really felt unworthy of the grace
of God? Job said, By the hearing of the
ear I have heard of thee, but now mine eyes seeeth thee, and
I abhor myself. I hate myself. Have you ever
really felt unworthy of the grace of God? Have you ever sat down
and just astounded you that God saved your soul? That He called you by His grace
and saved you? That's astounding. That's astounding.
But John also set forth the failure of Judaism. He'd come unto his
own, and His own received Him not. They turned thumbs down
on Him. That's the failure of Judaism. Now in chapter 2 we see His glory,
not by someone like John the Baptist pointing Him out, but
by the Lord Jesus Christ performing a miracle. A miracle. Turning water into wine. Showing
forth His deity by this miracle, by His power, And there was something
that stood out to me this morning that I really didn't catch, and
I've read it. I wrote this outline over four
times, trying to get it, trying to just get the message. I wrote
it out three times and typed it out one time. And this jumped out at me. That
water, that water was turned into wine, real wine now, not
grape juice. Real wine, wine you could drink
and actually get drunk on if you drank too much of it. It
was real wine. Don't say there's sin in drinking
wine. There's sin in drinking too much wine, but the sin's
not in the wine. The sin's in you for drinking too much. That's the problem. That's the
problem. But here, listen, He shows forth
His power by His miracle, but here's something that stood out.
He didn't touch it. He didn't say anything over it.
He changed that water into wine by His will. You and I, we are begotten by
the will of God. We are changed by the will of
God, not some hocus-pocus, but by the will of God, begotten
again by His will with the Word of Truth. He just willed it to be so. This
shows His divine power. This shows whose will really
matters, doesn't it? Not my will, but Thy will be
done. It's not of Him that willeth,
but of God that showeth mercy. He just willed it so, and it
was so. It's interesting here also that
our Lord performed His first miracle at a wedding. It was
at a wedding. A small town called Cana of Galilee
had a wedding. And I'm sure everybody in that
town says it was small, because that was a small town in Galilee
in the hill country. It's a poor town. No rich town,
this is a poor town. He didn't go to Jerusalem to
perform his first miracle. He didn't go to organize religion.
He went to this poor town. Christ came to save sinners. He came to save sinners. Poor,
lost sinners. And he, listen, here in verse
1 and 2, he and his disciples are called to this wedding that's
in Cana of Galilee. He went. Most men won't go to
a wedding. We come up with one harebrained excuse after another
not to go to a wedding. Don't we? I know we do. But he
went to it, he was honored to go to it. You know why? He instituted
it. He instituted marriage. How can
he not go? This is of him. This is of God. This is of God. He is the one
who instituted marriage in the Garden of Eden when he brought
Eve to Adam. They shall be one flesh. Man
will leave his mother and father, cleave to his wife. That's of
God. That's not a human institution. That's a divine institution of
God. And listen, here we see his stamp
of approval on marriage. It is written in Hebrews 13,
verse 4, "...marriage is honorable, and the bed undefiled." Marriage, it is said in Ephesians
5, verse 31-32, marriage is a picture of Christ and the church. You
know, there's no better picture of the relationship of Christ
and the church than when two people are getting married. Don't
lose that image. That's what's going on. It's
a picture. It is performed before our eyes
all the time. It's the one definite picture
we have left. But this is also why Satan tries
to destroy marriage. This is why he seeks to destroy
it. Because of who and what it represents. It represents the
Lord Jesus Christ and His relationship to the church. So Satan tries
to destroy it, and he does also that he might destroy the family
unit that also represents the church, the relationship of Christ
and the church as a family unit. We are a family here. We are
the family of God. We are children of God, born of God. And Satan,
he goes about doing his best to destroy this institution of
marriage because it represents Christ in the church. Now, here's
the situation. Christ and his disciples are
invited to this marriage. Mary is there, it says. I think,
without a doubt, by reading this, Mary had something to do with
this marriage. She's probably involved in it,
setting it up, because she goes to the Lord and tells Him about
the wine. She's somehow involved in this
wedding. Well, Christ and His disciples,
they go to this wedding. And while they are there, they
run out of wine. They run out of wine. The first
thing I thought of was this. This tells me that the bride
and the bridegroom were probably poor. They were probably poor. And too many people showed up.
There was no RSVP. Whatever that is, I don't know
what that is. I see the initials of it. I know
it means to respond. Somebody will have to tell me
after this, oh, what that all means. But there was no RSVP
back in that day, and too many people showed up, and they didn't
have enough wine. Now you think of this. You think,
what would it be like to have the reception and run out of
food? Isn't that horrifying? That's a horrifying thought,
to the mothers especially. It was even more so in that day.
It had real significance in that day. To run out of wine means
to like, it's like they ran out of joy. It's like the marriage
ran out of joy before it even got started. They couldn't run
out of wine. You just didn't do that. It was
humiliation. But this running out of wine
was not accidental. It was not incidental. It was
providential. It was providential. For it was
time for Christ to manifest His glory. It was time for Him to
begin to manifest His glory, His deity, His person. This is
the Son of God. This is the Son of God. A.W. Pink made this observation. concerning
this thing of running out of wine because wine, in the scriptures,
one of the things that it represents is joy. That's one of the things
wine makes Mary the heart, it makes Glad the heart. He made
this observation, Judaism had become nothing more than ceremonies
and rituals. The real joy of the Lord had
run out represented by the wine running out. It had become nothing
but cold, dead, Formalism. The joy was gone. And I wrote
this after reading that. We need to guard against such
a death. Guard against such a death. Don't
think it can't happen. Ephesus. Ephesus, which the Lord
commended in so many ways, so many things that she was doing.
But he said, you have left your first love and I'm going to remove
the candlestick if you don't come back. Don't let this coming here become
dead, cold, just cold, dead formalism. Something you do on Sunday. Something
you're supposed to do on Sunday. Oh, let this be a place where
we're glad to come. Looking forward to come. Lord,
feed me. Give our pastor the message. Give him something to
feed me with this week. And to feed us, the flock. Give
us something to go home with. Give me something to go home
with that carried me through the week." Isn't that why you
come? To glorify Christ and to feed
on Him? There is no comfort, no life
in religion by itself. It's not that... You know, most
of the modern day religion is, alright, we've accepted Jesus,
we've done it, now let's go on and do this, this, and this,
and this. No, let's not leave Him. Let's not leave Him. Everything we do involves Him.
Everything we learn involves Him. Everything. And then in
verse 3 and 4, we have the conversation between Christ and Mary. As I said, she's involved in
this wedding, no doubt. They run out of wine, they need
wine. And Mary goes to the Lord, it
says in verse 3, when they wanted wine, or when they were wanting,
because it ran out, the mother of Jesus, and this is what John
calls her, John calls her the mother of Jesus, saith unto him,
they have no wine. She goes to the Lord and tells
Him they need wine. We need wine. Now she may be
trying to exercise her parental authority, You know how mothers
are. I've told Vicki this more than
once. Our boys are not boys no more. They're men. Don't talk to them like they're
boys. They're men. They're men. And so she goes
there and she's talking to him and probably trying to exercise
a little parental authority. Or it could be that Mary, knowing
more than anyone else there about the Lord Jesus Christ, remember
she pondered these things in her heart, When he was 12 years
old, he said, I must be about my father's business. And there's
a lot of things she saw for 30 years. His obedience in the house,
it was perfect. Just everything about him was
perfect because he's the Son of God. But she knew more about
him, I think, than anyone else. And she knew, she knew that the
Lord had the power to remedy the situation. Or it could be she saw an opportunity
for him to show himself for who he was. Here's an opportunity
to show yourself to the people. She believed him to be the Son
of God. Now I may be getting carried away here because my
mind gets carried away with me. It's kind of like, maybe, maybe
not, but maybe. You know those people who drive
around, they got a sticker on it that says, my student is an
honor student. Here's an opportunity. Here's
an opportunity to show yourself for who you are. I'd like to
go up there and erase that out and say, your student is an honorary
student in what your student is. Maybe an honor, but an honorary
honor student. Because that's what we are by
nature, isn't it? But she knew, she knew, He's perfect, this
is the Son of God. But I don't think she, she didn't
know it like she's going to know it. She didn't know it like she's
going to know it as years go by, after He dies and rises again,
and she's going to know Him like you and I know Him. That's how
she's going to know it. But it's evident here, listen,
it's evident she did not know as much as she thought. Not, no. But look at the Lord's
reply to her in verse four. Jesus saith unto her, woman,
what have I to do with thee? And in the, I think the original
translation is this. What is there common to me in
thee? What is there common to me in
thee? I am from above, you are from
beneath. Jesus says unto her, Woman, what
have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. If
you'll notice here, and even at the cross, the Lord Jesus
Christ never called her Mother. He never called her Mother. The
Catholics call her Mother of God. You know how blasphemous
that is, to call her Mother of God? He never called her mother. He called her woman. At the cross,
He called her woman. And that's not disrespectful.
In that day, that's what they called Him. He would call her
woman. And what Adam called Eve? He
said, she's woman. That was not a disrespectful
term. And He didn't say it disrespectfully. He didn't say, woman? He didn't
say it that way. He just said, woman, I think
he looked at her and said, woman, what have I to do with thee?
What's there common between me and thee? He disowns, first of all, listen,
he disowns any natural relationship as getting special favors. And then he rebukes her, and
I know a lot of times we don't like to put it this way, but
he put her in her place. Do we not need to be put in our
place? I can't tell you how many times
a day the Lord needs to put me in my place. We all need to be put in our
place from time to time. But here, listen, he lets her
know that her parental authority has come to an end. He's not
her son, he's the son of God. He's her Lord. You see, when
He says woman, He doesn't say mother because that would be
a son speaking to his mother. He says woman as God speaking
to her. God is speaking to her. The relationship. She now finally understands there's
a difference. There's a difference in our relationship.
There's a change here. The change was always there,
she's just now realizing it. This is my Lord and my God. You see Mary, God, her womb,
I'm going to say it this way, her womb was borrowed for the Son of God to come into
the world. She had nothing to do with it. Joseph had nothing
to do with it. God used the womb of this virgin
to come into the world. That's what He did. He could
have used any other woman had He so pleased. And he says to her something
important here. Mine hour is not yet come. See, she's wanting
him to... And I can tell this is in reference to what she's
going on in her heart. It's like, here's an opportunity.
And he said, mine hour to be glorified is not yet come. It's not yet come. His hour to
suffer, his hour to die, His hour to rise again had not yet
come." Speaking of His redemptive glory, He's speaking of His redemptive
glory. Listen to John 17.1, these words spake Jesus and lifted
up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Now the hour is here. And listen
here, the hour has come, glorify Thy Son. that thy son may glorify
thee." He's not going to glorify Himself there and have them to
turn and glorify Him. He's seeking the Father's glory.
It's the Father glorifying Him. It's the Father putting His stamp
of approval on Him. And He's speaking of His redemptive
glory, that's His chief glory, His redemptive glory. And Mary
does something that's very honorable here. In verse 5, His mother
said unto the servants, whatever He says, do it. She bowed to
His Lordship. She gave it up. She got it. She gave up all parental authority,
and she bowed to her Lord, and she said to the servants, whatever
He says, do it. Do it. That's what she does. Listen, Mary was highly favored
among women, but she was not highly favored above women. The
angel says she's highly favored among women, not above them.
Not above them. I'm not going to pray to Mary
to talk the Lord Jesus Christ into doing something I want.
I'm not going to do that. You know, we do that at home.
I did that at home growing up. I always went and asked mom to
go to my dad. Every time, mom would go ask
dad if we can do this, if we can go here, if we can go there.
We always went to our mother. We don't go to Mary for anything. Mary has no more power with God,
now you listen to this, Mary has no more power with God than
the least of God's saints, if there is a least. But for making
the point, I'm gonna say she has no more power than the least
of God's saints. Paul said he was the least of the least of
the saints. No, she's a sinner in need of
mercy like you and me. Her virginity did not make her
acceptable to God. She was born with the same nature
I was born with, and you were born with. And she needed the
blood of Christ, the mercy of Christ, forgiveness of Christ,
just like the most wretched person on this earth needs. We're all
children of wrath by nature, even as others, and we need His
mercy. I need His mercy. You need God's
mercy? I need God's mercy. I need Him
to save me. And then look here in verses
6 through 11. We have in these verses, we have
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's our chief focus. He is. We have six water pots
of stone and what they're used for. We have the servants doing
the will of the Lord, filling the water pots with water. We
have the servants serving the water. And as they serve the
water, it turns into wine. We have the ruler of the feast.
We have the bridegroom and his disciples believing. And I'll
cover that quickly. But there's a lot here. Oh, there's
a lot here. There are six water pots of stone. The Word of the Lord... I'm going
to read you what this one man said, I thought it was good,
then I'll get into that. But the Word of the Lord, he
said here, the Word of the Lord Jesus, the water, is introduced.
The water pots fill. The water itself is typical of
the Word of God. You go through the Scriptures,
it's typical of the Word of God. Yet only as Christ Himself is
recognized as the living theme of that Word does it bring the
pure blessing and joy that can fill empty hearts. He does what
the law could not do. He blesses us and gives us joy. No law could do that. Now there
are six water pots of stone here, and six is the number of man.
That's why the Antichrist is 666, failure, failure, failure.
That's what that is. It's just failure, failure, failure.
But six is the number of man. Man was created on the sixth
day. And man's body was made from the dust of the ground.
You know that? You're dust. Your body is dirt. Somebody calls
me dirt. I say, you're right. I am dirt. I was made from dirt. They are earthen vessels. But
now listen. God uses men. God uses means
and God uses men. God uses clay pots. Empty at
first, then He fills them. But they're empty. Until He fills
you, you're empty as can be. And they are earthen vessels.
The Scripture says that God has put this treasure in earthen
vessels." He's put the Gospel in earthen vessels. He's put
the Word, which is the Gospel, in earthen vessels. It's what
He's done. And if you'll notice, He tells
them to fill the water pots with water. The water pots don't fill
themselves. You can't fill yourself. The
Lord filled me this morning. Fill me up with the water of
life. You do it. I can't do it. But God's put
this water, this treasure, I said, in earthen vessels that the glory
may be of God and not of us. He's put it in men. And in the
scriptures, this water is a symbol of God's word, it's the gospel.
That's what I'm doing right now. Because he tells them, and I'll
get to this, he tells them to bear it to the governor. Bear
it, for me, is to preach. I'm bearing it to you this morning.
Listen, but let's get back to my thought here, as the water
being a symbol of God's Word. In Ephesians 5.26, he speaks
of the Lord that He sanctified and cleansed the church with
the washing of water by the Word. Water, the Word of God, which
is represented by water, has a cleansing effect. Wherewith
shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed to the Word
of God. Psalm 119. In John 3, 5, Jesus answers,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water
and of the Word, that water is not baptism, that water is the
Word. It's the Word. Jesus answered,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of the Word,
which is the seed, and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom
of God. So he takes these six water pots
of stone, earthen vessels, And he's going to fill them with
water. He's going to fill them with water. But now don't miss
this. This is interesting. After the
manner of the purifying of the Jews, these water pots were dedicated
to the law. When the Lord first sent the
gospel out, what did he do? He took his disciples from among
the Jews who were under the law. And he filled them with the gospel
and he sent them out. After the manner of the purifying
of the Jews, they were used. This is not the manner in which
God purifies. God never purified one human
being by the law, by ceremonies, pictures and types. It was always
Christ. It was always Christ. It's always
Christ. God's manner of purifying was
standing in front of Him. Jesus Christ is the one who purifies
me before God. The water pots here were used
in ceremonial washings and cleansing, that's what they were used for.
And the Lord took these disciples, as He does us whom He saves,
fills them with the gospel, fills them with His Spirit, fills them
with Himself, and then sends them out to preach the gospel. They were empty until He filled
them with the word of the gospel, and then He sent them out. You
know, until then, we're useless. We're useless. Now notice here also, notice
something else about these pots. In verse 7, Jesus saith unto
them, Fill the water pots with water. See, He uses means. He
uses these servants. And they filled them to the brim.
They couldn't put one more drop in it. It's so good. In Christ, you and I are filled
to the brim. We don't need one more drop.
As Paul writes in Colossians, in Him you are complete. Outside
of Him, I don't care how moral you've been, it doesn't matter.
If you can look back over your life and say, there's nothing
I regret, outside of Christ, you'll perish. In Him, you're
as complete as you can be. They filled it to the brim. There
was not enough room left for even a drop. You're full. Christ has made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. I have all I
need in Jesus Christ and Christ alone. And I look to him for
that. I do. The pots were filled with water
to the brim, which represents Christ, the water of life, who
has filled us full. Full. And he saith unto them
in verse eight, he saith unto them, The servants who filled
the water pots up, draw out now. Draw out now. That's what I was
doing this week, you know that? Yesterday, yesterday I quit about
five o'clock. I was filling the water pot so
that I can come out here and draw out this morning. That's
what I was doing. draw out now and bear, and this
has to do with preaching, preaching the gospel, unto the governor
of the feast. And they did it. They bear it. Which is what I'm
doing right now. I'm preaching. I'm preaching
Christ from this portion of Scripture. I'm preaching what He's given
me out of this Scripture. Preaching it. But I tell you this, the
power to make the change from water to wine is of God. The
change is of God. I'm bearing it, I'm telling you
about Christ, but the power is of God. Now, I almost passed up my title. The water, listen, as they took
the water and they gave it, and it's probably when they put it
in the cup, it turned to wine as they gave it to them. The
water was made what it was not before. That water before was
just that. It was water. It was water. But now it's made wine. Real
wine. Real wine. Look over in 2 Corinthians
5. 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians
5.21. For He, God the Father, hath
made Him, God the Son, to be sin for us, He who knew no sin,
God the Son knew no sin, never did know it by any action, thought,
word, or deed. For He hath made Him to be sin
for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him." That's more than imputed righteousness. We are made the righteousness
of God in Christ. Christ was made to be sin. He
really was. That's more than sin being imputed
to Him. I cannot explain this. Only God
can do that. Only God can take my sin. Now
listen, only God can take my sins and make them His. Only God could take my sins,
hang on a cross under the wrath of His own law and be me. A real substitution. That is
a real substitution. Taking my place under God's wrath
and putting away my sin. That water was just water. Has wine ever been made out of
water? You make it out of grapes. You
can make it out of strawberry. You can make it out of, I guess,
about anything. But you can't just make wine out of water.
Water never turns into wine. I don't care how long you let
it sit. Water doesn't ferment, does it? It doesn't ferment. Just put water in a jar, stick
it on a shelf, come back 50 years later, and it's still water. Here, He takes that water and
completely changes, now listen, the nature of it. It's now wine. Real wine. How? By the will of God. By His will. We are begotten again, it says,
by the will of God. God has given us a new nature.
A new nature. You and I could not make ourselves
believers. We could not make ourselves sons
of God. We couldn't do it in any way, shape, or form. Put
me in a jar, stick me on a shelf, come back 50 years later and
I'm still a wretch. A stinking wretch. Remember when Lazarus
was put in the grave and they said, he's been dead for four
days and he's stinking like hell. We can't do it. We can't change
ourselves. It's totally out of our power.
But God Almighty, by His power, by His Word, by His Spirit, by
His blood, by His righteousness, by Himself can make us sons of
God. Isn't that amazing? He can make
a God-hating wretch into a God-loving son. And that's what He does. He takes
He takes water and makes it to be what it was not. He takes
a sinner and makes that sinner what he or she was not. Righteous? Now are you the sons of God.
Now. And He becomes what He was not. First He became what He was not
as a man. The Word was made flesh. God
became what He was not. Flesh. And then it became even
more than that. He was made, not looked upon,
not looked upon. I mean, there was a real controversy
of this over a few years ago, and I guess it's always been,
but he was made sin. He was made sin. It was more
than a legal charge. It was more than a legal charge.
I cannot explain that. I cannot explain that. I would
destroy it if I tried to explain it. But I do believe that Christ,
the holy, sinless Lamb of God, was made to be sin for me, and
yet He never sinned. Only God can do that. Only God. Because I tell you what, the
law has to punish the criminal, right? The law's got to punish
the criminal. There's a scripture, and I can't
think of exactly where it's at, but in the Old Testament, I'm
gonna paraphrase, it's an abomination to God for an innocent to be
put to death for a guilty. It's written in the scripture,
it's abomination. So what has to happen? The innocent has to
become guilty, that the guilty might become free, might go free. My, my, my, what a mystery. What
God can do. Only God can do that. Only God
can do that. Only God can take my sins, make
them His sins, die under His own law, and set me free. And
be just in doing so. Be just in doing so. And then
verse 9, when the ruler of the feast, I'm going to wind down
here, when the ruler of the feast tasted the water that was made
wine, and he knew not whence it went, he tasted it, tasted
to see that the Lord is gracious. You've tasted, as Peter I think
has said, you've tasted that the Lord is gracious. You've
tasted it. You've seen that He's gracious. But this ruler of the
feast, he tasted that water that was made wine, he said, man,
that's good. And that's good wine. It was
so good, he called forth the bridegroom. But now listen here.
He didn't know where it came from. But the servants knew.
I know where salvation comes from. I know what's going on
this morning. I know if God saves me, if God
saves you, if God saves any sinner this morning, I know where that's
coming from. And it ain't coming from me.
It's coming from Him. It's coming from Him who is life.
It's coming from Him. The governor of the feast called
the bridegroom. He called him. And he said to him, in verse
10, And he said to him, Every man at the beginning doth set
forth good wine. This is just by nature. He's
pointing out human nature here and doesn't even know it. We
sent forth the good wine. And when everybody's drunk, that's
what it is, everybody's cross-eyed drunk and they don't know what's
going on, then you set the bad wine out. You put the good wine
up. You say, that's too expensive.
I ain't wasting that on these guys. When you get them drunk,
then you put the bad stuff out. But he said, you saved the good
wine to last. Did not God save the good wine
to last? The gospel. You know, he gave
Israel the law. He gave them the law, a law that
was never meant to save by. He gave them pictures and types.
We have the gospel. We have the wine of the gospel. We have His blood, which is represented
by wine. We take it at the Lord's table.
His blood is represented by wine. We have the real wine. We have
the blood. We don't have a picture. We don't
have a type. We have the blood of atonement.
Did He not save the best to last? Oh my, my. He sure did. And when He performs the miracle
of salvation, listen, when He performs that miracle of salvation
in you, you will know, you will believe. You'll believe. Not
till then. Not till then. You'll leave just
as dead as you came. who performs that miracle of
salvation, we believe. You'll believe, I believe, we
believe. Look in verse 11. This beginning
of miracles, and I put over that, this chief of miracles. There's
so much in this. His Word, the wine of joy, His
blood represented by the wine, His miracle which was accomplished
by His will, This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of
Galilee and manifested His glory. This is more than just saying,
Behold the Lamb of God. This is Him demonstrating His
power as God to save, to save. And His disciples believed. They
believed on Him. I read another translation on
this and it said they believed in Him. No, they believed on
Him. There's a difference between believing in and on. You can
believe in something. You can believe in your car that
it's able to get you from point A to point B. But you believe
on it when you get in it and drive it to point A to point
B. They believed on Him. They trusted Him. They looked
to Him. And I say to you, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
thou shalt be saved. Amen.