John chapter 2, the title of
the message is The Water Made Wine. Now, verse 11 in our text
tells us this beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee,
and manifested forth His glory, and His disciples believed on
Him. Now, this is the first, the word beginning means first. This was our Lord's first miracle. But this word beginning also
means principle. This is our Lord's most important
miracle. It's more important, it's more
preeminent, it's more principle than all the other miracles our
Lord performed. I didn't know that until I began
studying this this week. This is our Lord's most important
miracle because this miracle manifests forth the glory of
Christ. by showing His redemption, His
glory, His work in redemption more clearly than all of His
other miracles. And this miracle caused His disciples
to believe on Him. And that's my prayer this morning,
that the Lord will enable us through His Word, through the
preaching of His Gospel, to see the glory of Christ and to cause
us to believe on Him. Either to cause us to believe
on Him for the first time. Maybe the Lord in mercy and grace
would cause that to happen. Or maybe He'd cause us to believe
on Him again. To believe on Him more fully.
To trust Him more fully. Because He made the water into
wine. Alright, verse 1 here in John
2. In 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. Now, Joseph is probably dead
at this time. There's no mention of Joseph
at all during our Lord's public ministry, so we think that he
was probably dead at this time. The Lord attended this marriage
and the marriage feast with his disciples and his mother. Let
me give you, before we go on here in this text, a word about
marriage. Christ honored marriage by attending
this wedding feast, and he performed his very first miracle and his
most important miracle. at the wedding feast, at the
feast of this marriage. Now marriage is the first institution
that God gave man in the garden. And marriage is where the Lord
chose to perform his first and most important miracle at this
marriage feast. The Lord showed us he had given
his approval and his honor to the institution of marriage.
And individuals and society as a whole certainly would be far
better off if we would all give the same honor to the institution
of marriage. Now, marriage is something that
the Lord gave man for our good and for our happiness. And you
can understand marriage much better if you understand what
Scripture teaches of marriage. Marriage is a type of the union
between Christ and His bride. And all of us would have a much
more happy and blessed marriage if we looked at our marriage
and disliked what Scripture teaches us, that marriage is a type of
Christ. If husbands would do our best
to love our wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for
it, we'd have a more happy and a blessed marriage. If husbands,
if we would try to give our wives joy like Christ gives his people
joy, we'd have a more happy and a blessed marriage, I assure
you. And if wives tried their best to love their husbands and
to submit to his authority in the home, and be a true helpmeet
to him, we'd have more happy and blessed marriages. We would.
That cannot go unsaid when we look at this text. So you get
that for free about marriage. Now, let's read on here in verse
3. When they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him,
They have no wine. Jesus saith unto her, Woman,
what have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. Now Gil says that the wine here
is wanting because of the family's poverty. They didn't have enough
money to supply a feast for everyone that would come, all these guests.
Now at this time, you know, if we don't have enough money, we
just don't invite as many people. We invite as many people as we've
got money for. That's not the way things worked in this time.
When they had a marriage feast, the whole town came to celebrate,
not just an invited few. And this family just simply did
not have enough money to supply the wine for this many people.
So Mary tells our Lord, they don't have any wine. Now that
seems like a gentle enough hint, you know, to the Lord, but our
Lord rebukes her for this statement. But now when our Lord says, woman,
what have I to do with thee? This word when he uses woman,
he's not speaking disrespectfully to his mother at all. The Jews
actually use this term woman as a way of showing great respect.
And what our Lord is saying to Mary is that he's not in subjection
to her rule anymore. He was as a boy, but now he's
an adult. He's not under her rule any longer. But he still speaks to her respectfully,
doesn't he? As firmly as the Lord, but he
speaks to her respectfully as her son. And more importantly,
what the Lord is saying is he is not in subjection to Mary
as the son of God. This is how he's beginning to
reveal himself, and what he will do in this marriage piece is
begin to reveal himself as the Son of God, and as the Son of
God, he's not under her rule. He's not under any man's rule.
The Lord Jesus is the only mediator between God and men, and Mary
has nothing to do with that work. She has nothing to do with his
work as mediator. She has nothing to do with his
work as Savior. And that's how he's going to
reveal himself here as the Savior. Now our text tells us that Mary
is the mother of Jesus. Mary is not the mother of God.
Mary is the mother of Jesus. And our text, plus this, you
know, rebuke of our Lord should be enough to put an end to the
thought that the Catholics have that Mary is somehow a co-mediator. When Mary went to the Lord and
said they have no wine, our Lord rebuked her. Then why would you
go to Mary and ask Mary to go to the Lord for you? Why would
you ask Mary to use her influence to get the Lord to do something
for you? If she did, wouldn't the Lord just say, woman, what
have I to do with thee? You know, what part do you have
in this work of me doing something for my people? The Son of God
is our only advocate with the Father. Mary's purpose on this
earth was to be the mother of the man Jesus. That's it. Her purpose ended there. She
was never intended to be an advocate with the Son. And our Lord clearly
showed us that here. You don't need Mary. If you're
a believer, you do not need Mary. What you need is Christ. Every
believer has just as much access to the Son of God as Mary did
and does. Every believer is just as holy
as Mary is. We don't talk about Holy Mary
anymore than we talk about Holy H.B. I mean, you're both equally
holy. Mary is favored among women,
not above women, not above the rest of the human race. She's
favored to be the mother of Jesus, but not any sort of an advocate
or mediator. And our Lord tells Mary that
His hour has not yet come. He's not speaking of his hour
of suffering and death as he normally does when he talks about
his hour. What he means here is that his hour has not come
to reveal his glory yet. That will be done. And it will
be done in his time. And it's certainly not time for
him to be subject to the whims of men. You know, Mary just can't
come to the Lord and get him to work a miracle any time she
wants. He's not subject to her whims. It's not time for the
Lord. to be subject to the whims of
men yet. That hour's coming, but it's
not now. So let's read on, verse 5, after
the Lord rebuked his mother. Look how she reacts to that.
His mother saith unto the serpents, Whatsoever he saith unto you,
do it. Now Mary did take this rebuke
very well. Mary must have been a thinking
woman. You know, we read where after the Lord was They didn't
know where he was those three days, and they found him in the
temple, you know, debating with the doctors and the Pharisees
and stuff. Now, our Lord told her, wished she not, I must be
about my father's business. As Scripture says, Mary kept
all these things in her heart. She pondered them. Well, I think
she did this too. She pondered them. She took these
things and she thought upon them. And then she gives some very
wise counsel. She tells those servants that are there, whatsoever
he saith unto you, Do it. It would be good for us to follow
Mary's example here, when things don't seem to go our way. Whatsoever
the Lord does is right. Do it. Whatsoever the Lord does
is right. Bow to it. Now, verse 6, let's
read on. They were set there six water
pots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews,
containing two or three perkins apiece. Jesus saith unto them,
Fill the water pots with water. And they filled them up to the
brim. Now these water pots were basins. From what I read, they
may have been very similar to that great big stone thing. You
saw them, wherever it was, over there somewhere. Great big stone
pot. What they used those things for
was to hold water to wash their hands and their feet. And the
six of them together, depending on how much you think a Perkin
is, is between 120 and 160 gallons of water. A lot of water. A lot
of water. Because it was very important
to the Jews to go through this purifying. Washing their hands
and their feet, especially washing their hands before they ate was
a big deal to the Jews. It was purifying. They called
it purifying. You know, washing your hands
for ye is a good idea. But they did it, not just to
keep germs off their hands before they ate. They did it as a way
of spiritual purifying, spiritual cleansing. And buddy, they all
did it. And all the water is gone. Everybody's
washed and all the water's gone. The pots are empty. Now our Lord
is going to perform this most important miracle. And the Lord
uses means. He tells the servants to fill
the water pots with water. The Lord uses means. Now this
was a command, fill the water pots with water. Now the power
of this miracle did not come from the servants, you know that,
the power came from the Lord. And the fact that the Lord does
use means, in no way does that take away from the glory of the
Savior. Now it's true, there would have
been no wine unless the servants obeyed and filled the water pots
with water. Yet all the glory belongs to the Lord, you understand
that, because he's the one that's going to do this miracle. Now
verse 8, After they filled him up to the brim, he saith unto
them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor of the feast.
And they bare it. When the ruler of the feast had
tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it
was, but the servants which drew 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. Now the water was made wine. The water wasn't made like it
was wine. The water was made wine. The water literally became wine. The water was made when it was
not. It was made wine. And the water
was made wine just by the will of our Lord. The Lord didn't
make a big production of this, did he? Waving his arms and waving
candles and waving incense burners and all. He didn't do that. He
just willed it and it happened. The Lord didn't say, abracadabra,
water be made wine. He didn't do that. He just willed
it and the water was made wine. And these so-called priests today,
Every once in a while I channel surf, and I shouldn't do it,
I stop and I watch and I'm just, oh my. You know what those fellows
are? I mean, they're religious magicians.
They got the get up, they got the hat, they got the robes,
and they got all these motions and stuff, and it's sleight of
hand. All their, what they are is religious illusionists. Whatever
term and chant they use, it's abracadabra. It is slight of
hand to fool men and women into feeling better about themselves.
And they're not performing anything real. But by the will of Christ,
the water was made wine. And it wasn't just any wine.
It was the best wine. The governor and the others who
drank that wine, they never tasted wine this good before and they
never tasted any wine that good again. Now, I don't know how
wine is rated. You know, I see all these ratings
of wine. They've got different numbers and different things
and some of them have medals or whatever. I don't know how
they decide that. But however you judge whether
wine is good or not, this was the best. It had the best flavor. It was the richest, smoothest
flavor anybody ever had. I've seen people, you know, they
swirl the wine around the glass and they sniff it. I don't know
what that means. But this wine had the best aroma.
They look at it, you know, in the light. This wine had the
best color. The Lord made the water the best
wine that was ever tasted. And the governor of the feast
was surprised. He called the bridegroom. He said, usually
men set the best wine out first. And after everybody's drunk the
good wine and their taste buds are dull, then they put out the
cheaper wine and nobody's the wiser. Nobody knows the difference.
But you did something different. You saved the best. for last. Now that's the beginning, the
most important miracle our Lord will perform on this earth. Now
let's see if I can preach the gospel from this miracle and
show you why this is the most important miracle. First of all
in this miracle I see this, the failure of man. There's man's
total depravity and failure here. Now marriage is a type of the
union between Christ and His bride. The father, in eternity
past, chose a bride for his son, and he gave those people to his
son to be the bride of his son. There is a marriage, but there
is no wine. Wine in scripture is a picture
of joy and happiness. There is a marriage, a betrothal
between Christ and his bride, but there is no joy. There is
no joy before conversion, and there can be no joy As long as
we're in our sin and as long as we're in Adam's sinful nature,
there's no joy because of our spiritual poverty. You know,
when the verse three there says they wanted wine, that word wanted
is failed. The wine failed because of the
family's poverty. Well, don't worry, we got six
water pots. Well, six. is the number of failure. I'm
not big on numerology. I know all these numbers are
significant and I'm not really big on it, but this is pretty
plain. Six is the number of failure in scripture. You know, revelations
are the number 666. That's failure, failure, failure.
Man's failed. Well, there's no wine in us.
There's no joy in us because we're empty. We failed. Our righteousness
has failed and there's no water in us either. There's no water
in us for cleansing. God's got to fill us with that,
too. But every sinner who comes to Christ is filled. Christ said, are you thirsty?
Come to me and drink. Out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. We're empty in ourselves. Come
to Christ and you'll be filled. In him you are complete. But the first thing we see here
is the failure of man. Secondly, I see here the sovereignty
of God in salvation. There will be no joy until the
Lord is pleased to move in power and make us a new creature in
Christ. And the sooner we learn that,
the better off we'll be. The sooner we learn, we are totally
helpless. We're completely in the Lord's
hands to do with us as he will. He can damn me and it'll be right. He can show mercy to me and it'll
be right. But I'm in His hands to do with
as He pleases. And the sooner I learn that,
the better off I'll be. The sooner we learn that salvation
is an act of God's will. My will's got nothing to do with
it. Salvation is an act of God's will alone. And the sooner I
learn that, the better off I'll be. There's nothing we can do
to make God save us. Just like Mary couldn't dictate
to the Lord when he worked this miracle, no man can dictate to
God when God will bring in joy. That's an act of God's will alone.
The man who tells you God wants you to be saved is a liar. He's a liar. God Almighty never
wants anything, ever. God wills the salvation of his
people. He accomplishes his will. The people that God has chosen
will be saved as an act of God's will alone. And that truth does
not make a sinner fatalistic and say, oh, well, nothing I
can do about it. You'll never be saved. Nothing
I can do about it. No. The fact that we're helpless,
the fact that we can do nothing to make God save us. The fact
that we know salvation is by the will of God alone makes a
sinner cry to God and beg God for mercy. Now listen, Christ
saves sinners by an act of His will. Then you should ask Him
to save you by His will. It just makes sense. Ask Him
to save you by His will because the only way we'll be saved is
an act of His will. And Mary told the servants, whatsoever
He sayeth to you, do it. Now, He's the Sovereign. Whatsoever
He sayeth to you, do it. Well, what's the Lord told us
to do? Believe. The Lord's told us, believe on
His name. Trust Christ for all of your
salvation. Just quit working and trust Christ
to accomplish all of your salvation by Himself. Just believe Him.
That's what He's told us to do. Believe Him. He's told us to
ask for forgiveness. Forgive us our sins. Ask for
forgiveness for Christ's sake. He's told us, come to Christ
and drink. Are you thirsty? Come to Christ
and drink. Are you weary? Christ said, if
you're weary and heavy laden, come to me. I'll give you rest.
That's what He's told us to do. Whatsoever the Lord has told
you to do, do it, even if you don't understand. I'm confident
those servants had no idea why the Lord told them to fill those
water pots with water. Mary didn't say, if you understand,
do it. She said, whatever he tells you
to do, do it. Whatever the Lord gives you to
do, whatever he puts to your hand to do today, do it. Even if you don't understand,
it's what the Lord's given you to do. I don't have to understand. He does. That's enough. Do it. Third, in this miracle,
I see this. God uses means. The Lord told
those servants to fill the water pots with water. Now, people
needed wine. It wasn't up to the servants
to give people wine, was it? The Lord didn't say, go find
some wine. The Lord said, fill the water pots with water. There
would have been no wine if the servants didn't fill the water
pots with water. But like I said a minute ago, those servants
get no glory. Christ gets all the glory. But the servants still
must obey and fill the water pots with water. And what that
pictures is this. God's got a people and he's going
to save them. And he's going to do it through
me. through the means of preaching the gospel. We've received a
commandment to go into all the world and preach the gospel to
every creature. Preach the gospel to the lost.
Then preach. I mean study and prepare and
pray and preach. Because that's what God's commanded
us to do. And when you've done it, God's
servants get no glory. One planted and one watered.
God uses means. But God gave the increase. He's
going to get all the glory. Fourth, I see in this miracle,
God's grace. And God's grace is plenteous. Plenteous. Those water pots held
120 to 160 gallons. Brother, that's a lot of wine. I mean, that's a lot of wine.
You know what? There's plenty for everybody
at that feast. And now a drop of it went to
waste. They put the lid on and saved
it till the next feast. That wine wasn't going to change.
It wasn't going to rot. It wasn't going to go to waste.
There is an abundance of grace in our Lord Jesus Christ. Look
over at Psalm 130. Abundance of grace in our Lord
Jesus Christ. Grace upon grace. Grace heaped
upon grace. Plenteous grace. David, when he was in the depths
of Psalm 130, he says in verse 7, Let Israel hope in the Lord,
for with the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous redemption. And He shall redeem Israel from
all its iniquities. How do you know he shall redeem
Israel from all of his iniquities? Because with him is plenteous
redemption. There's plenty of grace to be
found in our Lord Jesus Christ. Just like there is plenty of
wine. Both quantity of wine and quality of wine. That's God's
grace. God's grace is the best tasting. I don't know what you want to
call it. Best tasting wine, best tasting
grace for a sinner. That's what Peter said. If so
be ye tasted that the Lord is gracious. You agree. This is
the best. His grace is the best. Look in
Isaiah 25. Not only is it the best, there's
plenty of it. Plenty for every sinner. In Isaiah 25, verse 6. And in this mountain shall the
Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast
of wines on the leaves, of fat things full of marrow, of wines
on the leaves well refined. This is the best wine, the best
tasting wine, and there is an abundance of it. There is an
abundance for a feast to be found in the Lord Jesus Christ. This
wine is the best quality of wine because it pictures the Savior,
the only Savior who can truly save a sinner from their sins.
And there's a large quantity of wine because it pictures abundant
grace. It pictures plenteous grace for
every sinner who ever needs grace. God's grace is plenteous. Fifth,
I see this in this miracle. When God saves a sinner, He makes
a new creature. When God saves his people, he
does with us what he did with that wine. He makes us what we're
not because he made his son to be what his son is not. So that
Christ could take the sin of his people and put it away through
the blood of his sacrifice, through his bloody suffering and sacrifice,
Christ put our sin away. He hath made him, made him to
be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. And it's not that God will make
us holy someday. It's not that God will make us
righteous someday. He hath made us righteous. Listen to these verses. You don't
have to turn to them. I've written them down. Galatians 5, verse
1. Stand fast, therefore, in the
liberty wherewith Christ half made us free. It's not that we're
going to be someday, this is past tense. He half made us free
already. Ephesians 1.6, to the praise
of the glory of his grace, wherein he half made us accepted in the
beloved. You don't have to wait for someday
to be accepted by God. He half made us accepted in the
beloved already. Colossians 1.12, giving thanks
unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the
inheritance of the saints in light. You have to be made, wait
to someday be made fit. He hath made us fit already. In Revelations 1, 6, and hath
made us kings and priests unto God. I'm not a king. I'm not a priest. He hath made
us kings and priests unto our God. The water was made wine. The physical properties of that
H2O was changed to be what it was not. The physical properties
of that water was made the physical properties of wine. It was made
to be wine. The water was made to become
what it was not. It wasn't made like it was wine. it was made wine. Now that wine
could picture righteousness. Look in Judges chapter 9. Wine, as I told you earlier,
is a picture of joy in the Lord. And in Judges chapter 9, we have
a parable of the tree choosing a king. In Judges 9 verse 12. Then said
the trees under the vine. They've been looking all these
different trees and things going to be rain over them. Then said
the trees under the vine, come down and rain over us. And the
vine said unto them, shall I leave my wine which cheereth God and
man? This wine cheers God and man
is righteousness. Righteousness cheers both God
and man. Righteousness satisfies God. That's what he demands is perfect
righteousness and righteousness cheers the heart of man, doesn't
it? Christ's righteousness imputed to us makes us accepted with
the Father. That cheers the heart of a sinner. And you don't put new wine into
old bottles. You don't put this wine, this
righteousness into the flesh. You put wine of the joy of the
Lord, you put this righteousness in a new man. God creates a new
man for his spirit to dwell in. His spirit's not going to dwell
in that flesh. He creates a new man for his spirit to dwell in.
God creates a new man that he puts his righteousness within.
So that wine could picture righteousness. It could also picture salvation
in Christ. Wine is pure. It'll never spoil. You'll never change. Salvation
in Christ makes us pure. You'll never lose it. You'll
never defile it. Christ has made it wine. You'll
never lose it. Wine revives the weary soul. Salvation in Christ gives life
to the weary soul. Gives life to a dead sinner.
Wine rejoices the sorrowful soul. A sinner can only truly rejoice
in Christ our Savior. We rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. And wine is an ancient drink. Salvation is ancient. It's ancient from before time. And just like wine, the Gospel
gets better with time. Look at Hebrews chapter 11. The
gospel gets better with time. Hebrews 11 verse 39, And these all, having obtained
a good report through faith, received not the promise, God
having provided some better thing for us, that they without us
should not be made perfect. These Old Testament believers,
these martyrs that we read about in Hebrews 11, they had the gospel. They had salvation. They had
Christ. But we have it better. We have a better view of the
gospel. We see Christ and salvation in more clearly because he's
already come and accomplished it. We look back and say, I see
what all that Old Testament scripture is talking about now, because
we have the fulfillment of it in Christ. It's better for us
than it was for Moses and Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. And it'll
keep getting better. It'll keep getting better and
sweeter as the years go by. The governor said, you save the
best for last. You save the best for last. And
last, I see here in this miracle, The gospel is much better than
the law. The curse of the law turned the
water into blood, didn't it? Remember when Moses was in Egypt?
Pharaoh wouldn't obey God. He would not let God's people
go. And Moses took his rod and the curse of the law turned the
water into blood. The blessing of the gospel turns
the water into wine. The way of sin is to bring in
the good tasting wine first. Then it brings in the bitter.
Now, you young people, listen to me. This world seems sweet
to you. I know, I know it does. And that's
how sin deceives. Sin brings in the sweet first,
something that tastes sweet to you. And later it brings in the
bitter, so bitter that it brings forth death. But Christ, in Christ,
the best is saved for last. When life on this earth is done,
we'll have the fulfillment of salvation that we have right
now. We won't be any more saved in glory than we are right now,
but we'll have this difference. We'll have the fulfillment of
this salvation, save both body and soul. When life on this earth
is done, it's going to be better. Then we'll not see Christ with
the eyes of faith through a glass darkly. We'll see him face to
face with nothing between. Believers in this life, we've
already been delivered from sin. We've been delivered from the
power of sin. We've been delivered from the damning condemnation
of sin. But when life on this earth is
over, it's going to be better. God has saved the fast for last. Then we'll be delivered from
sin, but we're going to also be delivered from the very presence
of sin. No more sin, no more tears, no
more heartache. Because the presence of sin has
been put away. God saved the best for last.
Then we'll see the water made wine by the will of our Savior. That's why this is the most important
miracle. Because that's what we need the
most. To be made what we're not. To be made just like the Lord
Jesus Christ. And God saved the best for last.
We're going to awake one day conformed to His image. Oh my. And we'll say, wow. He saved
the best for last. Alright. Well, I hope the Lord
blessed that to you.