John chapter 2. Now, we looked at the first miracle
our Lord performed, and it was in this little town of Cana of
Galilee. The first 11 verses tell us that
twice. He was in Cana of Galilee. That
was a little mountain town. There was nobody, it was anybody,
that lived there. I love that old black quartet
that sang a song that said, I'm just a nobody trying to tell
everybody about somebody who can save anybody. But our Lord
didn't come for the mighty, the noble. The wise, the mighty,
and the noble became for the nothings and the nobodies. He
came in this world to save sinners. The gospel means good news. It's good news how Jesus Christ
came into this world to save sinners. They're lost. He came
to find them. They're dead. He came to raise
them. They're unrighteous. He came to make them righteous.
Salvation is of the Lord. Complete them. His Word. That's
the good news, isn't it? Salvation is of the Lord. He
came to seek and to save the lost and He finds them. The Gospel
is all about Him. This is a hymn book. This is
not Jewish history. It is his story from start to
finish. He is called the beginning, the
end. Genesis one, in the beginning, God, that's Christ. And all things
were made by him. The last two words in the Bible,
the end. He made an end of sin. He put
an end. He finished the work of redemption.
The Gospel of John, like Matthew and Mark and Luke, is the story
of Him, Him who came to save. To save from sin, to save people
that were in the darkness of sin, and to save people from
the darkness of religion. Scripture says if the light that
is in you be darkness, how great is that darkness. And religion
today doesn't even resemble the truth.
Alright, this is what our Lord did when he came to Jerusalem. Now look at verse 12. It says
after this, after he left Cana of Galilee, that little mountain
town, he went down to Capernaum. He and his mother and his brother
and his disciples, and they continued there not many days. He went
down to Capernaum. Now he left this mountain town
and he descended and went down into this little coastal village
called Capernaum. Now, they were mountain people
up in Canaan. They were nobodies in Canaan.
They were worse in Capernaum. That's near Nazareth. As said,
even Nathanael said, can anything good come out of Nazareth? And everybody in Jerusalem talked
about these Galileans. They're just a bunch of fishermen.
That's all they were. We've got some fishermen in here,
but that's not... Y'all are pretty decent fellas.
Fairly. But we're talking about longshoremen,
men that are out there at sea all the time, cussing, like Simon
Peter. When the Lord left him alone
just for a minute, he reverted right back to that old cussing,
brawling sailor where he found him. And that's what kind of
people lived there. Rough. And that's who he came
down for. It says, He came down, and this
is a picture of how our Lord condescended. He who dwelled
in the heavens, the right hand of the majesty on high. in a
high and holy place. Isaiah said, but his delights
were with the sons of men. He came down and he said, this
to this man will I look. This is who I dwell with. He
is a poor and a contrite heart and tremble at that my word.
Now why would anybody tremble at his word? if he puts the fear
of God in them, if he makes them to know what sinners they are
against God, makes them to know how holy and righteous he is,
how he will by no means clear the guilty, makes them to know
that he's the true and living God who is angry with the wicked
every day. Not like religion says, God loves
everybody without exception. Now, this is the God of the Bible
who's angry with the wicked every day. And when you hear that,
when you find out what you are from God's Word, you tremble. And that's what God said. This
is who I dwell with. This is who I've come for. And
He has to make you tremble. He has to reveal Himself to you
as He truly is. He has to reveal Yourself to
you. to see your need of His salvation. You can't save yourself. You
can't make yourself righteous. That's who He came down for.
He came down. Listen to Ephesians 4. It says that, Ephesians 4, He
ascended. But it says He first descended
into the lower parts of the earth. He that descended is the same
that ascended. But he first, he was, you know, David said, what is
man that art mindful of him? for the Son of God to leave His
throne in glory where everyone loved Him and all the angels
adored Him and sang His praises and it was holy and righteous
and lovely and everything is marvelous to come down to this
place where everybody on this planet said, we don't want you,
get out. And eventually they all said,
kill him. Why would he do that? Because he's God, not a man. They're lost, don't know it.
Dead, don't know it. Blind, don't know it. Hate God
and don't know it. But God. Rich in love. Not everybody, but somebody.
Nobody worth loving, but God. He loves many. Chose to save
many. It is descended for him to come
to this place, this planet, which he calls this present evil world. And for him to come here was
infinite condescension. It would be like us going down
into a cesspool, a septic tank, to rescue some
filthy creature in there. That's exactly it. Everything
on this earth was repulsive to His holy nature. He could read
the thoughts of men. We just see a little bit of mankind's
evil. A little bit. Just a little bit
of what the news shows us or what we hear all around. Just
a little bit. He heard everything. He heard the thoughts of men. But he came to save some. Many he did. He went down to
Capernaum. This is truly a faithful saying.
This is one of our favorite scriptures in it, Brother John. It's a faithful
saying that Christ came into the world to save sinners. What
kind of sinners? Hell-deserving sinners. No good
sinners. That's the only kind there are,
really, but everybody doesn't think that about themselves.
A lot of people think they're moral and, you know, and our
Lord, like the Pharisees, he said, to men you appear white
as sepulchers, but I know you. I can look on your heart. I know
what you're thinking. This is a faithful saying that
worthy of all acceptation, Christ came to the world to save sinners.
And Paul said, and I'm the chief, I'm the word. He said, I'm an
example of who he came to save. Saul of Tarsus, he was in religion.
He was one of these Pharisees that hated Christ. Hated him.
Because he threatened his lifestyle. He rebuked and condemned his
religion for sure. All right, he came down. It says
he and his mother and his brethren, his disciples, preached the message
years ago on he and his. He and his. Oh, our Lord, who
did he come for? Listen to this. I love this. It says he went up into a mountain. They called whom he would, and
they came to him. That's who will come, all that
the Father gave him, the Comforter. It says, He came down with them
and stood in the plain. He came down. He who was on high
came down, way down, stood way down for the likes of us and
stood with them in the plain. a man with a plain, I like to
say a plain brown wrapper. He clothed himself in the likeness
of sinful flesh. He robed himself in flesh, made
of woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under
the law. Robed himself in flesh and very few people knew who
he was because he looked just like a man, and they called him
Jesus, and that's what people call him today. They think of
him just as a man, but no, this is God manifested there. And three men, James, John, Peter,
he took up on a mountain one day and peeled back that flesh
for them to see who he really is. God. And they never called him Jesus.
They called him Lord. Thomas hit his knees and said,
My Lord and my God. Fear the Lord. Fear the Lord.
That's where he came. And it says he stood in the plain
in the company of his disciples. Oh, my. We stand in Him. No, we stand on Him, the solid
rock. We stand in Him, the cleft of
the rock. And brethren, I'm here to tell
you, from the Word of God, He stands with you. He stands with
you. You'll stand in Him if you believe
Him and trust Him and look to Him alone. You'll stand in the
judgment, uncondemned. Faultless to stand for the presence
of His glory. He's the only one able to present
us like that. We can't do it. And He'll stand
with you. Like old Stephen, don't you love
that story of Stephen? When he was being stoned, all
of the religious people were stoned for telling the truth.
About how evil they were, how evil man is, and how holy God
is, and they didn't like that. And how they killed the Son of
God. No, we didn't do that. Yes, you did. I did. Went for years, didn't
give him a thought. That means I didn't care if he
lived or died. But yeah, Stephen was declaring the truth about
man, about God, about Jesus Christ, and everybody took up stones
to stone him for telling the truth. And as he fell down, he
said, Lord Jesus, like our Lord, lay about this to their charge.
And it says he looked up and he says, I see Him, Jesus Christ,
Now Christ, after He purged our sins, Hebrews said, 1, 3, He
says, He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
He sat down. His work was finished. Like the
high priest, I may not get past this verse, but that's all right. The high priest, there were no
chairs in the tabernacle of old because his work was never finished.
No chairs. They had to keep offering the
same sacrifices over and over. Hebrews says it can't put away
sin. It's not possible that the blood of bulls and goats put
away sin. No ceremonies, no rites, no anything we do will put away
sin. But Christ came once in the end of the world to put away
sin by the sacrifice of Himself. By one offering, He said, I've
perfected for every living sanctified. To obtain eternal redemption,
one person for so many. And He did it. He did it. And in old chairs in the old
temple, But in glory, there's no temple in glory. He is the
temple. But it says, he went back after
he finished the work and sat down. Now, you don't sit down
until your job's finished, do you? He sat down. It says, expect it. He's not
standing outside people's heart's door. No, he's seated. Well, when Stephen was being
stoned, it says, I see him standing. The Lord Jesus Christ stood up
in honor of this man who stood for him. The one who died for Stephen
stood up in honor of the man who's dying for him. Oh, my. Okay. Verse 13. Now, the Jews' Passover was at
hand. Hold on. Whose Passover? The first time the word Passover
is mentioned, it's called the Lord's Passover. Right? The Jews didn't know anything
about Passover. They didn't know anything about
Lamb. They didn't even know God until God revealed Himself to
them. Chose them, the Jews. Sons of
Jacob, Jews. And so God was the one who revealed
their need of a Passover lamb. That they were in Egypt. This
is Exodus 12. They were in Egypt, in captivity,
in bondage. In the slime pits, and that's
us, that's planet Earth. They were in Egypt, the world.
In the slime pits, in bondage to Pharaoh, like we are by nature
to the God of this world. In the slime pits, this is a
dung heap, the scriptures call it. That's right here. Can't you smell it? Can't you
see it? And God chose these people, out
of all the people, not the Egyptians, these people, his people, sons
of Jacob, Jacob and Adam, to reveal to them the way out. There's one way, one truth, one
way to live. God's going to kill every firstborn
in Egypt. So God said to His chosen people,
He revealed to them the way, a substitute, an innocent victim,
a spotless lamb who would die the death they deserved because
they were no better by nature than the Egyptians. And God revealed that to all
of them without exception. You're just like the Egyptians. But I came to make a difference
between you and them. And the principal difference
being that Lamb. He gave them that Lamb, that
blood. Who is that Lamb? It's Christ, the Lamb of God.
John in chapter 1 said, Behold the Lamb of God. The Passover lamb. And God said,
you must have a lamb. A lamb for a house. Every man,
every woman has to have a lamb. Why? Because you're all sinners. You can't be righteous. You can't
do it. You can't pay for your sins. You can't do it. There
are too many. And you'll never quit sinning. You see, somebody's got to take
your place. The soul that sinneth must surely
die. So God sent His Son without spot and without blemish, the
Holy One, born of a virgin, no seed of man in Him, no sin in
Him, Son of the Most High God, became a man, took on Him the
likeness of sinful flesh, but no sin in Him. And God was well
pleased, Isaiah says, for His righteousness sat. And God, for
His sinful people, switched places. substitute. He said, son, you
take all of their sin in your body on the tree and I'm going
to kill you for it. I'm going to kill you for what
they've done. I'm going to shed your blood for what they've done. And I'm going to give them what
you've done. I'm going to make them holy and
righteous. I'm going to give them what you've
got. I'll robe them like the lamb
was skinned and stripped of its coat. Our Lord was stripped on
Calvary's trail. And God's people get that robe
of His righteousness to cover our sin. And God said, now when I see
the blood, I will pass over you. Who did He say that to? His people. Those He revealed the need for
a substitute. I will pass over you. And the
plague of sin, the plague of death, will not come nigh you. He that believeth on the Son
shall never die. Why? Because Christ died. Everyone for whom Jesus Christ
died lives. Everyone who had a lamb in Egypt
lived, not one died because of that name. He was called the
Lord's Passover, and that's what he said to his people. He said,
now you do this from now on, typified by the table. a symbol
of Christ crucified, his body broken, his blood shed, the Lamb.
And he said, now this is the Lord's Passover. It's to remember
what He has done. You don't do it as a work. You don't do it as a habit, as
a ritual. You don't do it because you're
supposed to. You do it in remembrance of Him
who did what He did for you. Otherwise, it's an abomination
to God. Otherwise, it degenerates into
ceremonies and rituals and going through the motions. And that's
what religion did and that's what religion does right now. The Jews' Passover. It had degenerated. And these Pharisees and these
scribes and these Sadducees, they were all holy men in their
holy robes and all that, and they all thought they were holy
and righteous and kept the law and all that. And it was an abomination to
God. Going through the rituals was an abomination. Our Lord said, when Daniel, I
wanted to get to Daniel, but I may not. Yeah, turn over there,
turn over to Daniel. When our Lord said, our Lord
said in Matthew 24 concerning the last days, the end times,
He said, when you see the abomination of desolation in the temple,
you know it's not, that he's not, he's coming. Well, what
was it? What was the abomination of desolation?
It was idolatry. It was going through the motions. It was religion for show. It was religion for gain. It
was religion to make money and all that. And Daniel prayed. Look at Daniel chapter 9. I love
his prayer, if we had time. Daniel chapter 9, verse 3, I
sent my face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplication
with fasting and sacrifice and ashes, prayed unto the Lord my
God, and made my what? Confession. Daniel's the finest
man you'll ever see in scripture, but he said, I'm a sinner, I
need salvation. Oh Lord, great and dreadful? Who in religion today knows anything
about the great and dreadful God? Fear the Lord. You don't hear that anymore.
Keeping the covenant and mercy to them that love him. Verse
5, we've sinned, we've committed iniquity, we've rebelled, departing
from thy precept, thy judgment. We haven't hearkened unto the
prophets. Verse 7, O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee. But unto us confusion effaces
with trespass. Verse 9, to the Lord our God
belong mercies and forgiveness, but we've rebelled against him.
That's now, isn't it? Go on down to verse 24, for the
sake of time. Daniel 9, 24. Now this book,
like every other book, speaks of Christ and Him crucified.
That's what the whole book is about. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Seventy weeks are determined
upon Thy people, upon Thy holy city, to finish the transgression,
to make an end of sin, to make reconciliation for iniquity,
to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up the vision and the
prophecy, and anoint the Most Holy. Who's that talking about?
Jesus Christ, who made an end of sin, who put away sin. I've already quoted that. who
made reconciliation for his people, who brought in an everlasting
righteousness, who sealed up the vision, that is, it all speaks
of him, the prophecy, to him give all the prophets witness,
and to anoint him, to crown him, the Christ, the Most High. Read
on. It says in verse 26, after three
score, two weeks, Messiah will be cut off, not for himself,
Isaiah 53, our brother preached from that day. He was cut off
out of the land of the living. Why? Not for himself. He was
a substitute, a sin offerer. The people of the prince that
shall come shall destroy the city, the sanctuary. And down
in verse 27, he shall confirm the covenant with many for a
week. He's confirmed it with us. First Corinthians talks to the
Corinthians about God who shall confirm you. And in the midst of the week,
He'll cause the sacrifice and oblation to cease. He put away
the sacrifices Christ did by His one sacrifice. But now if
you don't know Him, you still need a lamb. quit sacrificing lambs. I don't know when, but when our
Lord came, there's no mention of them ever shedding blood.
You know that? No mention of that. They had completely left the
truth. There was no lamb in their religion. Like Isaac that went up on that
mountain, which Our brother preached on that in Genesis 22. Isaac
went up with Abraham on the mountain to worship God, and Isaac asked
his father. That boy knew what most religious
professors don't know today, what people don't know today.
He said, here's the fire, here's the wood, we got all this Holy
Ghost fire, we got all this wood, hay, and stubble, and all these
edifices, all that in the name of God. Where's the lamb? Isaac
said, where's the Lamb? We can't come to God without
a Lamb, without blood, without the shedding of blood. There's
no remission of sin. God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass it over you. It's for Christ's sake. It's
Him. It should be in the name of Christ. Everything you do
should be in the name of Jesus Christ, for His glory, His honor. Look into Him. Trust in Him alone. Not what you do, not how you
look. Him. Who you look to. Where's the
Lamb? Isaac said. And Abraham answered that prophetic
and all-inclusive statement of the gospel, My son, God, will
provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. Burnt. Why was the
lamb burnt? Because God is a consuming fire. That same God is going to burn
this world up someday. And the modern man thinks that's
old foolish talk. No, that's Bible. So it had become
an abomination. Everything in the temple, everything
in religion today, everything that's not concerning Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. Everything that is not for the
glory of God truly. If it's not giving him all the
glory, it's giving man some of it. If it's not completely in
his name, it's in man's name. It's an abomination. It's the
abomination of desolation. It's an abomination. Desolation.
Ichabod's written over the door. The glory hath departed. The
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
2 Corinthians 4. Look back at our text. So he
came to the temple. Now this is Malachi 3 where it
says the Lord shall suddenly come to his temple. And who shall abide the day of
his coming? He said, he's like a refiner's
fire. Our Lord said, I have come to
bring fire on the earth. Oh, how religion doesn't know
anything about this, this Christ, the true Christ. They call him
gentle Jesus, meek and mild. He said, I have come to bring
fire on the earth. He said, suppose ye have come
to bring peace on the earth? He said, nay, but rather a sword. Didn't he? I've come to separate. I've come to set a man at a burial."
Didn't he say that? You know that. A few people do. But he found in that this is
the Lord who shall suddenly come to his temple, a refiner's fire
and fuller soap, Malachi 3. And he found in the temple, verse
14, those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and changers
of money sitting there, fundraisers. That's what they were doing.
Raising money in the name of God to keep their religion afloat
so they could build more buildings to raise more money. Fundraisers. Salvation is free. You know that? Salvation is by the free grace
of God, the free gift of God. It doesn't cost you anything.
It shouldn't cost anybody anything. He said, come unto me without
money, without price. It's an abomination to charge
money for anything. in the house of God. Anything
that goes on in the house of God, other than the worship of
God, is an abomination to God. You know, it was called the Jews'
Passover. Well, now, today, people go to
church. Used to go to the house of God.
Used to go to worship. I knew a man, a young preacher,
we went, John and I went through the preacher school. And he taught
his children, he told his children, he said, we're going to go worship
the Lord this morning. He never would say we're going
to church. As one wise man said, you don't go to church. You are
the church. Church is not a building. It's
not a place you go to. It's an assembly of the saints.
It's where God dwells. You're the temple of God. This building, this is wood,
hay, and stubble. There won't be one stone left
standing on another. This is not a holy place. Nothing
in this place is holy. That water up there, it's just
Franklin County well water. There's nothing holy about it.
Nothing holy about this place. But He whom we worship is. And
what we do, we do in the name of Christ, for the glory of God,
and worship Him who is holy. And we come doing the same thing
that the people were to do in the Old Testament. A lamb, a
man with a sacrifice, offering up blood before the Lord. And
that's symbolic of the preaching of the Gospel. Paul said, woe
is unto me if I preach not the Gospel. The Church of old did one thing. They worshipped God. They came
together to pray, to read God's Word, to sing the songs of praise
to God, and to hear a man get up with a Bible and preach God's
Word, preach Christ. That's what they did. Nothing
else. And religion today has degenerated from God's house
into a family. This is for the family. Music and singing that's supposed
to be strictly for the glory of God from the heart has degenerated
into entertainment. Rock gospel. There ain't no such
thing. It's an abomination together.
And our Lord took a whip. Now this is who they call gentle
Jesus. And he walked outside carefully and deliberately, and
he's not smiling. He doesn't love these people.
He doesn't love these people. He's angry. And he plaits a whip,
and it says he goes in there and he starts thrashing everybody. And he kicked over those tables
with that money. So you've made it a den of thieves. It's called a house of prayer.
House of worship. You made it merchandise. It's
all about money. It's all about man. It's all
about having fun. It's all about entertainment.
My house shall be called a house of prayer. Sinners praying to
God for mercy. Sinners thanking God for Jesus
Christ coming down to this despicable place and saving it. And he was
angry. And God, this is the same Jesus,
Hebrews 13a, the same yesterday, today, and forever, who's angry
with the wicked right now. And people don't know it. You
know it. You're so blessed to hear what
you're hearing, to hear who you're hearing. And he's coming again, coming
again. To do what? to destroy the world
and take his people through worshipers. Glory be to Him. What are they
going to be doing? The same thing they're doing
now. Worshiping the Lamb. Unto Him. Unto Him. Unto Him. It's all about Him. He said,
okay.