Turn to John chapter 2. If you
want to follow along as I read this morning. John chapter 2. I want to talk to you this morning
about the Cana of Galilee miracle. John chapter 2. Begin reading
of course in verse 1. 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, that
is, they had ran out, that's what he's talking about. When
they had 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, that is the size,
the amount that they would hold. 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 bear it. When the ruler of the
feast had tasted the water that was made wine, he knew not whence
it was, but the servants which drew the water knew. The governor
of the feast called the bridegroom, and saith unto him, Every man
at the beginning 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, I've had these notes, for
the most part, for about two or three weeks now. And I was reminded again, and
Mason called me Well now Sunday had been this actually past week
and we talked for a little. I'm reminded that amongst God's
people, we don't all see the same things at the same time. Mason and I were talking about
the difference between regeneration and conversion. And there is
a difference between regeneration and conversion. And just to make it clear, regeneration is an act of God
himself, period. Conversion is what regeneration
is given for. And conversion takes place through
the preaching of the gospel. But here's the thing, you can't
ever hammer on one to the forfeit of the other. Ever. Because when you do, somewhere
along the line you will go astray. Now I want to give you something
else. Now I mentioned this to Mason,
and we didn't talk about it, but I'd already, you know, this
didn't come up, I didn't decide to preach on this because Mason
mentioned that they're, you know, amongst great, in other words,
amongst great people, not everybody understands or comprehends, or
maybe even I should say the stronger word, even believes the difference
between regeneration and conversion. But there are other subjects
of vital importance as well upon which we do not always agree. There are many reasons as to
why that is so. If you want to bring up a reason
of fault, the fault always lies with us. If we're wrong about something,
we're the problem. But I do think there is an extenuated
problem even amongst God's people. And that is when it comes to
the scripture, How do I want to put this so that there is
no misunderstanding, at least in the way I put it? I think
that oftentimes one of the extenuating problems is we as the people
of God are prone to always be searching for that deeper meaning
of scripture. In other words, God moved these
men to write and to pin down exactly what God intended for
us to have. Now here's the question. Did
God mean exactly what He said? Or is there something below the
surface? Now if we're always looking for
that deeper meaning, then we're going to go astray. Because as one writer and others
have said, if the plain sense makes sense, and I don't mean
it makes sense to you, that ain't the point, but it makes sense
from the word. If the plain sense makes sense,
then seek no other sense. In other words, I try to often
put it this way. God means exactly what he said. And he doesn't even use symbols
and types unless he lets you know from the text that it is
symbols and types to illustrate. In the book of the Revelation
it speaks of, is it three? I think three spirits that will
come upon the earth. And then it says, these work
like unto frogs. So I know that it's not three
toads. But it is like unto. That lets
me know that's a metaphor or a symbol or an illustration.
But when it doesn't say things like that, then take it to mean
exactly what it says. But also another problem is this. We have our preconceived notions
about many things. and we force the scripture into
our preconceived notions so that our consciences are not offended
before ourselves. Now as I said, I want to speak
to you about the Cana of Galilee miracle. Now I will propose four
questions to set the scene to my message this morning. The
first question is this. the most general and most obvious
of the four questions. Why perform this miracle? One,
it was not to feel human need. Though human need played a part
there. But it was not to merely feel human need. They wanted
wine. They ran out. They had no more wine. This was a marriage celebration.
but it was not to fill human need. Nor was the reason our
Lord performed this miracle simply a matter of parental suggestion,
though that was a part of it as well. The text itself tells us why
he performed the miracle. And it's in the first part of
verse 11. This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Canaan of Galilee
and manifested forth His glory. That's why He did it. That's
why He did it. These other things were secondary
causes. They come in as human catalyst but not divine
purpose. That's the best way I know how
to state that. This miracle was done clearly to manifest forth. That's the way they translate
it here and it's certainly appropriate. To manifest forth his glory.
So that's the first question. Why did he do it? To manifest
forth his glory. Second question. What was the
result of this miracle? That too is found in verse 11.
His disciples. believed on him. Now the servants
knew, but it doesn't say they believed on him. Physical miracles do not guarantee
faith. It takes the miracle of God in
the heart, mind, and soul of an individual to guarantee faith.
Faith is a gift of God, period. Believing is wrought through
the preaching of the gospel. What was the result of this miracle?
His disciples believed on him. Christ's glory is never, never
manifest forth to all. Never. In the first account of
mankind in the scripture and the first two sons that were
born to Adam and Eve, God's glory was not manifest to both of them.
Was it? So much so that one became bitter
because of it. Cain became bitter because God
did not do for Cain what he did for Abel. And he slew his brother
Abel. God has never manifested forth
his glory to all. There was no great swelling forth
of universal excitement here amongst the guests. Look at it. I mean, it's actually
a very simple account. And seemingly, in very many respects,
very piecemeal. I would think, when I simply
read this and I thought, you know, me being me, I think, why
is there not more glory here? More excitement here? The ruler
of the feast tasted the water was made not wine and knew not
whence it was. And according to the text of
that, he never did understand it. Never did comprehend it,
never did get excited about it. Never did even realize what had
taken place. And even the servants who knew,
nothing said about any excitement amongst them. But the disciples,
the disciples, they believed on it. So what was the result
of this miracle? The same results of God's free
sovereign grace as always. Some see the glory, some don't. Number three, question number
three. Was there any part of the circumstances surrounding
and including this miracle that were happenstance? Was anything happenstance? From
men's perspective, maybe so. From what men understand, from
what men think, maybe so. But there was nothing happenstance
here. Just a few illustrations. The
third day. What does that matter? The third
day there was a marriage. Why did it have to be a marriage? I see tri-unity here. I see two
different things, two different people becoming one. Marriage.
We talk about a lot of things here. Another thing, and the
mother of Jesus was there. That declares Christ uniting
himself to humanity. What a deep truth that is. And the mother of Jesus was there. That's a profound statement.
But yet this wasn't about Christ's mere humanity and all of that
was it? It seems just a bit happenstance statement but it's not. And both. And both Jesus was called and
his disciples. There you see unity amongst Christ
and his people. And unity amongst Christ's people. Unity, etc. You go on to six
water pots. purified up to the manner of
the Jews, each containing two or three firkins apiece. There's
a lot that we could go into here. That's what I'm simply saying.
Number five, his mother saith unto the servants, whatsoever
he saith unto you, do it. That's sound advice. I could
preach on that. Whatever Christ tells you to
do, do it. Don't ask why, when, where, what. Just do it. And
God's people do it with joy. If you do it as a chore, it's
nothing but human works, human effort. So that's another thing. Now all these things are important.
I believe most everyone here would agree with that. And as
I said before, it's hard to preach to a small group like this. You
might think it's easier in some respects, but it's one of the
things, like I tell you, it's hard to hide in a small group
like this. If I had a couple hundred people, I could hammer
on somebody and just say, well, I didn't really, you know, you're
in a big group. You can't hardly hammer on somebody in a case
like this, and somebody might say, that was me he's talking
about. And I'm not going to hammer on anybody. Well, I don't mean
to hammer on. Let me just stop right there.
You understand what I'm saying? All of these things were important.
Was the water made wine any less revealing? Was it just another... Is it any less telling? Is it
inconsequential? Or is it the crux of the whole
matter? Because this is what it was all
about. everything else led up to this
thing, the water being made wine, did it not? And it was in the
water being made wine that he manifested forth his glory. So the water made wine is kind
of like the crux of the whole thing. If you left that out,
you don't see anything there. Now prepare for question number
four. Was the Lord of Glory mistaken
here? Did Christ capitulate? Look at
it. And when they, verse 3, and when
they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus said unto him, They
have no wine. She didn't tell him what to do. To me that's
just a simple statement. Right? They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman,
what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Years
ago I did not comprehend what he was talking about. Years ago when I read that I
thought, well he's telling her it's not time for me to do my
first miracle. You're kind of forcing this upon
me. No. It has nothing to do with
it whatsoever. Because if it were, if that were
the only thing, then Christ did capitulate. But Christ never capitulated. He is God manifest in the flesh. His face was set like a flint
toward a certain goal when he was here in his condescension. Did Christ, was he mistaken here?
His hour wouldn't come, but maybe really it was. No, that's not
what he's talking about. Or, or is it that Christ took this
opportunity to give an example of what His hour would be when
it did come? Woman, what have I to do with
this? for mine hour is not yet come and it had not yet come.
And it would not come until God's precise ordained time for that
hour to come. Let me try to help us here by giving some examples. Could Christ have not summoned
for money to go buy more wine? Could he not have created money?
You remember some people were asking if Christ paid his taxes,
paid his dues. Peter was actually asking about
this. He said, I tell you what, I don't
owe anybody anything. That's basically what he said.
But lest they be offended, you go out there and go fishing,
the first fish that comes along, you get a hold of it, you bring
him up and you take that piece of money that's going to be in
his mouth and you take it and pay him. Pay the tribute. Now
could he not have done something like that here and just went
out and bought some more wine? Couldn't he have? Sure he could have.
He's the Lord of Glory. But he did not. Couldn't he have
not? God in his sovereign providence,
could not God manifest in the flesh here have had in his sovereign
purpose some rich donor happen by the wedding at that time and
someone say, well we need more wine. He says, I just happen
to have a bunch of it right here. Some real good stuff. Could he
not have done that? Would he not have supplied the
need? Right? But he did not. Could Christ not have just created
wine from nothing? Sure he could have. Didn't he?
He could have created wine out of nothing. But it wouldn't have
manifested forth the glory it's talking about here. It would
not have manifest forth the glory of His hour. He could have just created wine
out of nothing, but he did not. Could Christ not have made the
people to experience the water as wine? Just make us experience
it as wine. Didn't change nothing, just make
them experience it. When they drank it, Joe, this
is good wine. And it still must be water. Could
he not have done that? Sure he could have. But he did
not. We didn't. It says Christ made
the water wine. And it's amazing. I don't mean
to jump ahead too quick here, but he didn't just say John didn't
move to simply write, he turned the water into wine. No, he made
the water wine. When Christ said mine hour, to
what hour did he refer? to what hour was he referring?
It could not have been, let me give you three or four things,
it could not have been the hour that he manifests forth who he
was. That had already taken place on the first day. Now you see
why he said on the third day, but on the first day, who? John
sees him coming and says, behold, the Lamb of God. He was publicly
acknowledged already as the Lamb of God. This wasn't to prove
who he was. That's not the hour he was talking
about. You see that in chapter 1, verses 35 through 42. Now
that had been done the first of these three days. This is
God's Lamb acknowledged publicly. And then even later, the next
day, John is there with two of his disciples, one of them is
Andrew, Peter's brother. And John the Baptist said, that
man is the Lamb of God. And what they do, Andrew and
the other one, they followed him. So it's already clear, he's
already manifest forth who he was. Even the forerunner had
done that. Right? And he was also worthy
to be followed in tandem. Invite others to come along.
Because when Andrew began to follow, he said, wait a minute,
I remember my brother Peter and he's concerned about these things
too. And he ran back home and he said, Peter, we found him,
the one of whom the scriptures speak, the Messiah, we found
him. Did Peter then come along with
him? He manifest his messianic claims
already. The fact that his hour had not
yet come had nothing to do with him manifesting who he was as
the Lamb of God. Also, the second day, on the
second day, if you'll read it, Christ had already manifested
personally his messianic authority. Two or three things here. His
authority to call. Look at chapter 1, verse 43.
He said to the day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee
and find a Philip and saith unto him, follow me. That wasn't their
quest. It was a command with the power
to fulfill the command in Christ Himself. Philip wouldn't go out. What if Philip had refused? He
could not. He could not. He could not. Now there are times
when Christ called upon men to follow Him and they did not.
There were times. He told one, you follow me. He
said, well let me go home and bury my daddy first. He said,
you let the dead bury the dead. If they don't follow along with
me, let them be what they are to you, dead. He'd already manifested
his authority to call. He manifested his authority to
condescend and conceal. That's in chapter 1, verses 43
through 46. Can anything good come out of
Nazareth? Well, it did. It did. He had already manifest
forth his omniscience. He said to Nathanael, before
Philip came, before, he said, I saw you under the fig tree.
And Nathanael was astounded. I'm not going to go into a lot
of that, but see, in other words, Christ's glory was already being
manifested. But here his hour was being manifested
forth. He had already manifested His
omniscience. I knew you before this even happened. Another thing,
Christ manifests His authority over the future. Look at chapter
1 verse 50 and 51. I have authority over the future.
Now when Christ said mine hour and that it has not yet come
again to what hour did our Lord refer? And does not this miracle
by a very connection in here, show us something of the glory
of that hour. Does it not? It's the whole thing. If all it was, was his hour,
meant that he was going to make wine, it's all said and done
once it's over with, that's it. But it's not so. The reason I
know that is because John uses this phrase, either of Christ
or quoting Christ directly, and the majority of the uses of this
phrase is of Christ, John quoting Christ, Jesus. When Christ talked
about the hour, his hour, or mine hour, he had a specific
point of time in mind all throughout the book of John. What relation did Christ's first
miracle in the Cana of Galilee have to do with this? It had
to do with what rather? His crucifixion. That's the hour. You can look at John chapter
7 and verse 30. the phrase is used again. John chapter 8 and
verse 20, the phrase is used again. John chapter 12, verse
23 through 33, and it is undeniably true. That's the hour to which
my face is set. And what shall I say? Father,
save me from this hour, but for this cause came I unto this hour. Christ's whole purpose was to
set his face toward Jerusalem and the crucifixion. And I do
recall what Jim McLarty said, and I never even thought about
it before when he was here. He said, our Lord for three years
stirred up the religious leaders into a frenzy and into such a
frenzy that they ended up killing him on the very day that they
swore they wouldn't. We can't do it on the Passover. We can't do it on the Passover. And then what day did he end
up crucifying him on? The Passover. Because Christ
had stirred him up in such a frenzy because that hour was foreordained
of God Almighty as the crux of all human history. Right there,
it's everything, that's the place to which Old Testament saints,
that which they look forward to. And there is a true sense
in that, that is the event to which we look back to. Even in
glory it will be because of that Lamb who was slain. We'll remember
that event, that hour. So then, also chapter 13 verse
1. Mine hour, Christ's hour, His
hour. So then what relation did Christ's
first miracle, first of miracles in Cana of Galilee have to do
with the crucifixion? Here it is. It's not coincidence. I don't believe anything in this
book. I don't believe anything in this world. Even now today
is coincidence. Now I usually cannot define to
you how it all fits, but I'm persuaded by the testimony of
this book that nothing in this world is coincidence. Whether
it's the deepest, darkest evil that strings from the heart of
men, or whether it's the greatest glory of God manifested. When
Ezekiel's seen them wheels, turn a wheel within a wheel, and all
those colors and lightning and thunders. None of it is coincidence. Here it is at Cana of Galilee,
the water was made wine. At Calvary, when hanging on the
accursed tree, that's the hour. That's Christ's hour. That's
mine hour. That's clear. Read those passages. That's the hour to which you
refer. When Christ hung on that accursed
tree, Christ was made a curse and Christ was made sin. Galatians 3 verse 13, 2 Corinthians
chapter 5 verse 21. Listen, there's one passage I
left out. That's John chapter 17 and verse
1, which we know is his high priestly prayer. Listen, Christ called it the
glory He would receive from the Father, wherewith He in turn
would then glorify the Father. Now, how can God be glorified? Isn't He already as glorious
as He can be? Yes. But yet here is something out
of the pale. Is water being made wine out
of the pale? Is it out of the ordinary? Oh
yeah. This don't happen every day.
If it would, we'd probably all be drunks. If I could perform
that miracle, you probably wouldn't see me as your pastor no more.
I got too much of a propensity toward things like that. Huh? No, this is out of the pale,
but yet it's within the sovereign purpose of God Almighty. I'm
here to tell you, and I don't say this proudly or boastfully,
I don't say this to point fingers, but even amongst God's people
there's disagreement on this subject. but this subject is
clear. Maybe not clearly understandable,
but this subject is clear nonetheless. If you just take the book for
what it says, and don't try to look for some deeper meaning,
or what does it really mean, or give me an interpretation
of that, pastor. You don't need me to interpret
it just to declare it, here's what God says. Christ was made
a curse for us. He was made sin for us. That's no less real than the
water made wine. Did He pretend like it was wine?
Did He just stick a little sticker on it and say, this will be your
wine for today? No, He made the water wine. Now the amazing thing is, John
mentions this very same miracle again in chapter 4 and verse
46. He said, when the water was made
wine, and he uses a different word for made. And I think, why? This is the same guy writing
about the same event. Why didn't he use the same word
made? Have you ever thought about that? Have you ever even looked
up at that? You know, we worry about regeneration and conversion.
Do we concern ourselves with these things? Be careful we don't
start picking and choosing these little what, what, what. This
is important, but don't worry about it. Everything that reveals
the work of God in Christ is absolutely vital. It's vital. Listen, Christ, as I said, Christ
called it the glory he would receive from the Father with
which he would in turn glorify the Father. Let me read that
to you. Is it just 10 minutes to 12? This is going pretty well.
John chapter 17, look, these words spake Jesus and lifted
up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. You see it? Now where's He at?
He's right at Jerusalem now, folks. He's there. He's there! You know? The hour has come. Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son
also may glorify Thee. Now here's the thing, John uses
that he made the water wine, uses one word made in John chapter
two. John chapter four he uses made,
we read it made, but it's a different Greek word. But it lets me know
this, they mean the same thing. Right? But what's amazing is
when you go back to Galatians 3.13 and 2 Corinthians 5.21,
the apostle Paul uses both those words made. And there are over
50 words that can be translated made in the New Testament Scripture. Do you think that's coincidence?
Huh? 50 words in the Greek that are
translated the word made. And yet these two that John uses
says when the water was made wine, Paul then, moved by the
Spirit of God, uses those very two same maids When it speaks
of Christ being made a curse for us, and Christ being made
sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
That's not coincidence. It's not just, boy, ain't I glad
that fits, or my message just seemed to come along so well.
No, there's the truth of God being manifested. When He turned
that water into wine, He was manifesting forth His glory. I say to every one of us here
this morning, Christ being made a curse and Christ being made
sin is the only way the thrice holy God can be just and justify
a believer. It's the only way. There are
four things that hung, that hung on these two mates. Now what
I want you to do, God willing, is go home and see if you can
find those four things. There are four things that hung
on these two maids. Christ made a curse for us, and
Christ made sin, and there are four things directly stated as
hanging upon those two maids. If Christ was not made those
two things, these other things would not happen. They hung upon
these two maids. Now he was already made flesh.
That's as equally as glorious and as real. And it has its proper
place, but that wasn't the hour. The hour wasn't just for him
to be born flesh, was it? It was for him to be born flesh
and put his face toward that hour at Jerusalem. Now here's the sad thing people
will say. Well I, I know that's God's word
and I believe it but I don't believe it like you said it.
I ain't said nothing about it yet. I've just quoted the fact
that it's there. Yeah, well I don't know about that
made sin. Really? God says so. Therefore it is so. Therefore
it is so. And I purposefully did not explain
it, just to show to each and every one of us that the first
time I ever heard somebody, now they probably said it before,
it just went like this. But the first time I ever really
heard it, you know what that phrase did? It angered me. It angered me. Wait a minute,
my Lord made sin? Wait a minute, what? Well he
knew no sin, but in the same passage where it says he knew
no sin, it says he was made sin. So am I picking and choosing
what I want? I found that I was trying to. Because it offended
my, you know it didn't just offend my sensibilities. I had never
thought of it before and I thought, who is he to tell me? Huh? Who is he to tell me? I'm a preacher
of the gospel for land's sake. Huh? I guess a preacher ought
not tell on himself like that. But look up these four things.
The Cana of Galilee miracle was no coincidence. It was no coincidence. The water was made wine. Is that
not what it says? Is that not what he did? The
water was made wine. Christ was made flesh. Did he
pretend like he was flesh? Did He just look like He was
flesh, but He wasn't to men, but He really wasn't? No, He
really was made flesh. And to the same extensity of
degree, He was made a curse for us, and He was made sin. And
these things are vital because by those two maids, He wrought
for us our salvation. Even those two things, they're
harder for me to comprehend than even the made flesh. But you
know why? Because I've been told He was made flesh even since
I was that tall. And it just seemed like that
wasn't so hard to believe. But other things were a little
harder to believe. And there's a lot of made a little lower
than the angels. Do what? Huh? For the suffering of death. Oh, what a glory. Now, God willing,
next week, now we'll have Paul come and preach to us Saturday,
but God willing, next Sunday, we're going to look at those
four things. And we're going to see, God willing, the water
made wine. And I use that metaphor. So there's
no, we'll see the water made wine. I'm not trying to understand
how, I can't explain to you how Christ made that water wine.
Can you? Science can do, they can do all
the, All the stuff they had tried, their experiment, they're not
going to be able to duplicate that. They can't do it. I think that's one of the reasons
they filled it up to the brim so that they couldn't just come
over and maybe pour some in there. No, he made the water wide. There is no explaining it, but
what do you do when you see that happen and you know it happened
like those disciples you believe? You know? You believe Him. And let me tell you, we ought
to thank God. Thank God He was made a curse
for us. And we ought to thank God He
was made sin for us. Why? Because that is some of
the deepest mystery of God Almighty in Christ Jesus. What a glory. Father, may these things be real
to us even though we may not understand their workings, even
though we may feel inadequate to defend them. Yet, Lord, bow
us to the truth of it and comfort us by the truth of it. I ask
it in Christ's name. Amen.