John chapter two will begin in
verse one. I want to read our text this
morning, the first 11 verses, and we'll come back and make
a few comments. And the third day there was a marriage in Cana
of Galilee and the mother of Jesus was there and both Jesus
was called and his disciples to the marriage. And when they
wanted wine, the mother of Jesus sayeth unto him, they have no
wine. Jesus sayeth unto her woman, what have I to do with thee?
Mine hour has not yet come. His mother saith unto the servants,
whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. And there were set there
six water pots of stone after the manner of the purifying of
the Jews containing two or three firkins a piece. Jesus saith
unto them, fill the water pots 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.
And when the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was
made wine, and knew not whence it was, but the servants which
drew the water knew, the governor of the feast called the bridegroom,
and 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 his glory, and his
disciples believed on him. Now there are several important
lessons that we can learn from this passage. The first one is
this, the importance of marriage. You know, God first ordained
marriage before Adam fell. God said when Adam was there
in the garden, you know, Adam saw the animals. They all had
mates, but he didn't have one. And God said, it's not good that
the man should be alone. I'll make a help meet for him.
And God made the woman and he brought her to the man. They
were married. God made marriage. And he did that for the good
of man, for the happiness of man. And because of that, we
ought to treat marriage as something that's very important. And then
our savior came to this wedding feast. And when he did, he put
his seal of approval on marriage, didn't he? And there's a warning
for us. We ought to be careful where
we go. You know, people might see us go somewhere and think,
well, because we're there, we put our seal of approval on whatever's
going on there. Our mere presence somewhere can
put our seal of approval on it. We ought to be careful about
that. When our savior came here, he put his seal of approval on
marriage. And he put his seal of approval
on marriage, which is a picture of the gospel. When a man and
woman are married, scripture says they become one flesh. and
they become one flesh as a picture of the union between Christ and
his bride. So for all these reasons, we
ought to esteem marriage very highly. Marriage is a picture
of the gospel, a picture of the union between Christ and his
people. Second, we learn this, that a party celebrating marriage
is just fine. Our Lord attended a feast. It was a party. It was a big
old party. That's what it was. Now, marriage is to be entered
into reverently, is to be entered into with an understanding that
that marriage is a picture of the union of Christ and his bride.
We ought to enter into marriage very reverently, both bride and
groom looking to Christ. Marriage has very little chance
of success, if you want to use the word chance of success, if
both the bride and groom are not looking in the same place,
if they're not both looking to Christ. But a party to celebrate
the occasion is just fine. Our Lord attended a party. A
wedding is a happy occasion. It ought to be celebrated. Thirdly,
we learn this, that drinking a glass of wine is just fine. The Lord made a great big bunch
of it. He made over 120 gallons of wine. Drinking a glass of
wine is just fine. Sin is not in things. Sin is
not in alcohol. God made alcohol for the good
of man, for the happiness of his heart. Man's the one that
turns it into sin. The abuse of alcohol and drinking
it to excess, that's sinful, just like doing anything to excess
is sinful. But there's no sin in a bottle
of wine or, you know, a great big old stone pot of wine. Our
Lord made the water wine. Fourthly, we learn this. We learn
something about Mary. Now, Mary is the mother of our
Lord Jesus. She's highly favored, highly
graced, isn't she? Among women, not above women,
among women. But Mary is just as much in need
of a savior and just as much in need of a mediator as you
and I are, as any sinner needs a mediator or a savior. You don't
need Mary to intercede for you. Don't ever think you can somehow
pray to Mary and she's gonna get the Lord to do something,
you know, that he doesn't wanna do. Both you and Mary need Christ
to be your intercessor, to intercede for you as the father. In this
text we just read, Mary tried to influence her son to do something
that she wanted him to do for her reasons and those kinds of
things, and it didn't work. So why do you want her interceding
for you? You don't. You need an intercessor just
as much as she does. Now, Mary, I'm sure, is the one
who knew the family. She knew the bride or the groom,
and she was invited because she was a friend of theirs. So our
Lord Jesus was invited because Mary was invited. And they ran
out of wine, and she knew the problem. And she knew her son
could fix this problem. She knew who he was. She knew
he could solve the problem, and she tried to influence him to
do something. And I want to tell you something.
That ought not fly for any man in his 30s. At this point, the
Lord Jesus was a man in his 30s, a grown man. Any man, by the
time he gets to be 30, ought to have cut the apron strings
now. This ought not work for a man in his 30s, much less the
Lord of Glory. However, a man should be respectful
to his mother. He ought to be respectful to
his mother. but he ought to be a man by the time he's in his
thirties. He ought not need his mother telling him what to do
and how to do it. By the time he ought to be a grown man. You
have sons, raise them to be men. Just raise them to be men. And
when our Lord addresses his mother as woman, now he's not being
disrespectful to her. At the cross, remember as he
was hanging there on the cross, he said, woman behold your son,
telling her you take John to be your son. He wasn't being
disrespectful. At this time, when someone used
this term woman, it was a term of respect, just like we use
the term man. He wasn't being disrespectful.
And what he was telling her clearly is his hour is not yet come.
His hour to reveal his glory is not yet come. And that's why
she wanted him to do this miracle. It was the motive behind it.
She wanted everybody to know who he was like she did. So he
said, my hour to reveal my glory has not yet come. But then he
does perform the miracle, doesn't he? He does turn the water into
wine. And that's the fifth and by far
the most important lesson of the text. Our Savior gives us
a picture of how God saves sinners. Now notice verse 11, it says,
this is the beginning of miracles, which Jesus did. Beginning of
miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee and manifested his glory.
That word beginning, it means more than just the first one
sequentially in order. It does mean that, but it also
means this, it's the first one in importance. That word means
that which begins everything else. Scripture calls this miracle,
turning the water into wine, the most important miracle our
Savior performed. It's his first in order and the
first of his miracles in importance. And everything else he did in
his earthly ministry hangs off of, begins from this miracle
of making the water into wine. This miracle shows us, but it
says here he manifested forth his glory. It manifested forth
his glory by showing us what Christ came to do. And when his
disciples saw it, they believed on him, didn't they? Christ came
to save sinners. We know that. This miracle shows
us how Christ saves sinners. So the title of our lesson this
morning is Salvation is Made. Now here's our first lesson in
salvation. Salvation is by the will of God,
not by the will of man. Salvation is totally up to Christ. and you and I have no control
over it whatsoever. Mary tried to influence the Lord
to get him to do what she wanted him to do, and she received a
mild rebuke for it. And when our Lord did that, he
made the order of their relationship clear. Christ is the Savior,
Mary's the sinner. Christ is the Lord, Mary's the
creature. Christ is the Savior, and Mary
is dependent upon him. Christ is the master. He's the
one giving the orders. He's the one in control. And
Mary and all of us, we're just servants who are to do what he
says. And Mary got the lesson, didn't
she? And she gave us a key in verse five. His mother saith
unto the servants, whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. That's the key. Whatever he says,
you do it. Now that holds true for the servants
on this day of the feast and it holds true for us today. Whatever
he says to you, do it. What is it that he says to us
today? He says to us, repent and believe. Then you repent
and believe. It really is as simple as that. He says, beg for mercy and beg
for forgiveness. Then you beg for mercy and beg
for forgiveness. It's so simple. We are to come
to the Lord just like the leper came to the Lord. That leper,
he somehow snuck up there and heard the Lord preach what we
call the Sermon on the Mount. When our Lord was finished, as
he was coming down, that leper came to him. He met him. And
scripture says he fell down and worshipped the Lord before the
Lord ever did anything for him. He didn't know if the Lord would
do anything for him, but he came and worshipped the Lord because
Christ is to be worshipped. That's what we're to do, we're
to come just like that leper and come worship him. And then
that leper said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. Whether or not that leper is
clean, whether or not he's healed of his leprosy is totally up
to the will of the Savior in there. Salvation is the exact
same way. Lord, if you will, you can save
me. Lord, if you will, you can have
mercy on me. And the good news is this, that
if Christ has willed your salvation, you can never be lost because
his will is always done. Notice when they filled the water
pots with water, it was simply the Lord's will that made the
water into wine. The Lord didn't do any motions
over the water. You know, he didn't make any
sign of the cross or wave his hands all around. He didn't get
a censer filled with smoke and blow it all around. He didn't
have a chant. He didn't use any magic words.
He just willed that the water be made wine. And it was simply
by his will. That's salvation. Salvation is
by the will of Christ. He wills it and it comes to pass. Because everything he wills comes
to pass. God's sovereign in salvation.
But we also learn this about salvation by God's will. God
always uses means. He's pleased to use means to
accomplish his purpose of salvation for his people. The Savior told
the servants, fill those pots with water. There would have
been no wine if they didn't fill those pots with water, would
there? Then he told the servants, you take that wine to the governor
of the feast. Well, the governor's glass would
have stayed empty if they didn't carry some wine to him. He used
means. And those servants are pictures
of God's preachers. We have this treasure in clay
pots. That's what those six pots were. They were clay pots, just earthen
vessels. We have this treasure in earthen
vessels. And our job is to preach it. Just simply preach it. Simply
declare it. God's sovereign in salvation.
but he always uses the means of preaching Christ to save them
which believe. God gives faith by means, through
the means of the preaching of the gospel, and we're to preach
it. We can't make it effectual, but we're to preach it, and God
will bless it as he sees fit. Now don't be mistaken, just because
the Lord uses means, doesn't mean that it's up to us. Salvation
is of the Lord. The Lord Jesus told those servants,
you fill those water pots, and they filled them to the brim,
to the very brim. They didn't fill them, you know,
just leave an inch at the top where there was room to add something.
So then they could dump in some wine and you just have water
that tastes like wine, watered down wine. No, there wasn't room
to add anything. They were full. Salvation is
off the Lord. That's what that's a picture
of. There's no room for man to add anything. We don't add our
decision to it. We don't add our will to it.
We don't add our baptism to it. We don't add our church membership
to it. We don't add anything to it. Salvation is all Christ. That's the first lesson here
in the picture of salvation. Salvation is by the will of God.
Now, the second lesson in salvation in this story has to do with
the word made. The water was made one. Now each
of these water pots contain 20 to 30 gallons. And our Savior
made all of that water wine. He made it wine. The water didn't
look like wine. It was wine. The water didn't
just taste like wine. It was wine. The governor said
it was the best wine, didn't he? It was real wine. Our Lord
didn't just call the water wine. It was made wine. Nobody was
pretending this water's wine. It was made wine. The water was
made what it was not. It was made wine. Now here's
the lesson. If God's gonna save a sinner,
there's some people are gonna have to be made what they're
not. And the first one's the Son of
God. The Son of God's gonna have to be made what he's not. He's
gonna have to be made a man. So that's what God did. God's
son became a real man. Look back a page of John chapter
one. Verse one. In the beginning was the word,
the word was with God and the word was God. That word, you
know, that speaking of the son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ,
he was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him. Without Him was not anything
made that was made. It was the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, who said, let there be light. And there was
light. It was Christ who spoke creation into existence. Now
look down at verse 14. And that word, the Son of God,
was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory.
The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. The Lord Jesus was a real man.
Now he's not God who looks like a man. He was made a real man. He had a human body and a human
soul. And that's important. Because
if sinful men are gonna be saved, we've got to have a representative
who can really represent us. We had pictures of that throughout
the whole Old Testament. An animal was a picture. But
that animal could never really represent us. That animal could
be a picture of Christ, but that animal can't represent us. He's
got a different nature than us. If we're going to have a representative
before God, it's got to be a man, doesn't it? It's got to be somebody
just like us. And a sinful man is going to be saved. We've got
to have a sacrifice, a sacrifice for our sin, a sacrifice who
can bear our sin. We're a goat or a bull or a lamb. They can't bear the sin of a
man, can they? Bull doesn't have the same nature as you have.
Goat doesn't have the same nature as you have. All those goats
and bulls and lambs can be as pictures of Christ, but they
can't truly be your sacrifice to take your sin away, because
they've got a different nature than we do. So God's Son became
a man, so he could be the sacrifice for our sin. He came with the
same nature that we have, yet without sin. He was made what
he was not, made to be a man. Secondly, if God's going to save
a sinner, God's got to make that sinner what he's not. God is
going to have to make a sinner righteous if God's going to accept
that sinner. God can only accept perfection. So he's going to have to make
his people what they're not. And that's what the new birth
is that Lord willing, we'll look at in just a few minutes. The
new birth is a new nature being born that's Completely the opposite
in every way of the old nature. Made what we're not. Now it's
a necessity that a sinner be made righteous if we're going
to be saved. And we're not righteous. We've got to be made what we're
not. And that's pictured in our text in several ways. First of
all, their wine failed. The word wanted, when it says
they wanted wine, means that their wine failed. They wanted
wine, but they failed to have enough. They didn't have any.
They wanted wine that was necessary for the feast. It was necessary
for the party that they have wine, but they failed. How embarrassing
to the host to invite all these people to the feast and then
you don't have enough for them. You don't have enough for them
to eat and drink. They failed. And that's what man's done in
Adam. We failed. We failed when Adam fell. Notice
there were six water pots. Six is the number of failure,
the number of man. We need righteousness, but we
don't have any. We failed. And we're embarrassed
because we don't have what God requires. We are left naked before
God. And you know, man by nature knows
this is a problem. We know we've been defiled or
made dirty by sin. And man has created all kinds
of wild ways to try to wash our sin away, make our conscience
feel better, and think God will accept us. But we failed. These water pots were at the
feast for this reason. John tells us that they were
there after the manner of the purifying of the Jews. Purifying
of the Jews. This was just a Jewish ritual
and ceremony. Now those water pots were there
for more than just to have water to wash your hands with for ye.
You ought to wash your hands for ye. But this is a whole lot
more than that. This was a ritual washing of
the hands that the Jews taught actually cleansed them from sin. They failed. They failed to take
away their sin. They're still dirty. But when
God saves a sinner, He makes that sinner what he's not. He makes him righteous and holy. When God saves a sinner, God
justifies that sinner, justifies them in the blood of Christ.
And justified means without sin. If I had a time machine, one
of the things I'd do is try to find out who first made up this
phrase, just as if I'd never sinned, and tape their mouth
shut. Don't say that on whoever said
that first, but they've done horrible injustice to the meaning
of the word justified. It's not just as if I'd never
sinned. Justified means I've never sinned. God causes a new man to be born
who's never sinned, who never can sin. If justified was just
as if I'd never sinned, then the water would be just as if
it was wine. But the Lord didn't make it just
as if it was wine, did he? No, he made that water wine. And in the same way, when God
saves a sinner, he makes that sinner actually to be righteous.
Well, how on earth can that happen? By the will of God. You say it's
impossible for a sinner to be righteous. Well, by the will
of God, he makes the impossible happen. It's impossible for this
water to be turned into wine. That's impossible. But it happened
by the will of God, didn't it? Let me show you that in Hebrews
chapter 10. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 9. Then said he, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second. By the witch will, by God's sovereign
will, we're sanctified, made holy, clean, pure through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. God makes
a sinner righteous by his sovereign will through the sacrifice of
Christ. However, if God's going to save a sinner, Something's
got to be done with their sin. God just can't say, well, I'm
going to ignore your sin. But something's got to be done
to take that sin away. God's holy. So here's our third
lesson in salvation. If God's going to save his people,
Christ the Savior must be made sin for them. Look at 2 Corinthians
chapter 5. Verse 21, for he hath made him sin, for
the father made his son, he made him sin for us, him who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Now a sinner is made righteous
by Christ being our substitute, by Christ trading places with
that sinner. Christ traded our places with
His people. He took our sin. And in return,
He gave us His righteousness. He was made sin and we're made
righteous. It had to be that way. At Calvary,
the salvation of God's elect. If God's going to do something,
it's got to be accomplished in truth and in justice. Well, the Father made His Son
sin. Everybody look up here and listen
to me very carefully. He did not make his son a sinner. That's utter foolishness, just
foolishness. Nobody's saying that. He did
not make his son a sinner. He didn't make him so he committed
sin. He made his son sin. John Gill, this issue must have
been battled for eons. John Gill made this statement.
The father did not make his son a sinner. Gil says he made him
something worse. He made him sin. He made his
son to be a mass of sin. He made all the sin of all of
God's elect of all ages to meet upon his son. That happened in
truth. The father didn't just pretend
there was sin on his son. He didn't just call his son sin. He actually made him sin. Just
like the water was actually made wine. It had to be that way. Remember, the father's holy.
The father cannot punish an innocent man and remain holy. So he made
his son sin. He made his son to be guilty
and he punished him for that sin. Now, do I understand that? Absolutely not. That is so far
above my ability to comprehend anything. I cannot understand
it. Who can understand anything that
God does? I don't understand how God just
spoke the word into existence. I mean, there was nothing. It
wasn't like there was a ball of rock and God made it into
something. No, there was nothing. And God spoke and suddenly it
appeared. I don't have the foggiest idea
how that happened, but I believe it. I don't understand how Christ
could be made sin and I could be made righteous, but I'm telling
you, I believe it. With all my heart I believe that. The only hope that my sin is
forgiven is that God charged it to His Son and His Son put
it away under His blood. That's the only hope I have that
my sin's forgiven is the blood of Christ was shed to pay for
my sin. The only hope I have of being
righteous before God is that Christ was made sin for me. He
took my sin away from me and paid for it so that I can stand
before His Father righteous Christ bore the sin of His people by
being made sin for them. And with His sacrifice, put all
that sin away forever. And their sin, all the sin charged
to Christ is gone. It doesn't exist. The Father
said, I don't see it. It's behind my back. Well, where's
that? God's everywhere. That's figurative
language to show you and me the sin of God's elect is gone. It
does not exist through the blood of the sacrifice of Christ. If
you look at 1 Corinthians 1, I want to show you the results
of that. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30. Because Christ was made sin,
this is the results. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made. He's made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption. One more look over Colossians
chapter one. Colossians one verse 12. giving thanks unto the Father,
which hath made us meet. He's made us fit. How did he
make us fit? By making us righteous in Christ.
He hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light, who hath delivered us from the power of darkness
and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son, in whom
we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of
sins. Now that's the gospel. That's
the gospel. A sinner is made what he's not
because Christ was made what he's not. That's the wine of
the gospel. And by God's grace, we enjoy
a few sips of it now, don't we? Brethren, the best is yet to
come. You know, usually, this is what
the governor said, usually men serve the best wine, the most
expensive wine first. And after men have well drunk,
after they've drunk enough of it that their taste buds are
dulled and their mind is dulled, you know, then they bring out
the cheaper wine that tastes as good and nobody knows the
difference. Usually you serve the best wine. Then you bring
out lesser quality as the evening goes on. Well, there's no different qualities,
I suppose, to the gospel. But I'm telling you, the best
is yet to come. In glory, we're going to drink
this and taste this and enjoy this more perfectly than ever
before. If you enjoy a few sips of this
now, you just wait. The best is yet to come. All
right. I hope the Lord will bless that.