The second chapter and I want
to look at a very familiar passage with you this morning the first
11 verses the first miracle of our Lord Jesus Christ when he
turned when he made water into wine the water was made wine
and Look at verse 11 this beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana
of Galilee and Manifested forth his glory and his disciples believed
on him His disciples believed on Him. I want to look at three
things this morning. The glory manifested which leads
to belief. Then some incidental lessons.
You might think everything that ever could be said about this
passage has already been said and you're probably right in
a way and I might not say anything that you haven't already heard
somewhere else. But I want to look at just briefly at some
incidental practical lessons and then some spiritual lessons.
As I said it's very well known I was reading in the London Times
yesterday, the Saturday London Times, and they have in it an
article which is called Credo, which is the Latin, I believe,
and it's by a clergyman of the established church, Roman Catholic
or whatever. And the Credo yesterday, it just
so happened to be on this passage, the turning of the water into
wine. And what he said, I was quite surprised because normally
I read it and I know time flat the steam's coming out of my
ears at what they're saying. But it was actually very good what
he said, except for this. It was empty. It was hollow. What he said was quite right,
but it was empty and hollow. Why was it hollow? There was
no Christ in it. There was Jesus. There was Jesus who he knew the
name of Jesus, but there was no Christ. There was no sinner's
friend in it. That's what was missing. So here
we see that he manifested his glory through this miracle and
his disciples believed on him. Why do you believe this morning?
If you believe the gospel of God's sovereign grace, why do
you believe? Well, it's not to be popular,
that's for sure. I think the evidence of that is all around
us. We're very non-conformist. We don't conform. Why? You say,
well, we believe in Jesus and so many people believe in Jesus
and want to worship Jesus. Yes, that's right, but who is
your Jesus? Who is this Jesus? Is your Jesus the one that is
kind to everybody and no problems whatsoever? No, our Jesus is
the Jesus of the Scriptures. He is the one who saves his people
from their sins. He is the one in whom a people
was chosen from before the beginning of time. And it's those whom
he came to save. He came to live for them, he
came to die for them. He didn't come to give opportunities,
he came to save. And in saving, he sent forth
his Holy Spirit. that he might give new life to
those whom he has saved, and give faith, and give belief,
and give trust. And as soon as you start talking
about that Jesus, then you'll find out the difference. Then
you'll find out the true difference that there is between the popular
Jesus and the true Jesus of Scriptures. They're a million miles apart.
They're not the same person. Don't be deluded into thinking
that all who say to me, Lord, Lord, are in the truth. Lots
of people say, Lord, Lord, and he will say to them, depart from
me, I never knew you. The true Jesus is the Jesus of
Scripture, the Jesus of sovereign grace, the Jesus of particular
redemption. I know I keep using those words
but I feel that in these days they must be stressed because
there is a gospel that calls itself Calvinism abroad today
that isn't. It's Arminianism parading as
Calvinism. It's a gospel of man's free will
parading as a gospel of God's sovereign grace and it's not
the truth. And beware, be careful of it. The Scriptures say, beware,
warn us again and again. You look at the epistles, they
warn us again and again and again about being careful to stay in
the truth. So it isn't for popularity that
we believe that gospel. Why is it? It's because you've
seen. You've seen. Not with physical
eyes, but with the eye of faith you've seen something that the
natural man does not see and cannot see. By that gift of faith
from the Holy Spirit, you've seen something of the glory of
Christ. And what is the glory of Christ?
It's that glory that God said He would show to Moses. It's
the glory of sovereign grace. It's the glory that He will be
gracious to whom He will be gracious and be compassionate on whom
He will be compassionate. That is His glory. And His glory
is revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ. Being gracious and being
compassionate being just as God, but yet being the justifier of
sinners because He has come in the place of those sinners and
paid the sin debt of those sinners and blotted out their transgressions
so that they're seen no more. It's that saving grace. And having
seen it, you cannot but believe it. You must believe it. Like
those disciples sitting there with Him in the flesh, they saw
His glory revealed. We have seen His glory, said
John in chapter 1 and verse 14. We beheld His glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And seeing His glory revealed,
they believed. This miracle is very well known. It's the first one. It's recorded
as the first one, this beginning of miracles, verse 11. It was
a family wedding, I believe, because Mary was there and Jesus
was called and He gathered some disciples to Him. And we don't
know how many of the disciples were with Him, There might have
been a full 12. I don't know by this stage. But
there was an extra number come to the wedding. And why do I
say a family wedding? Well, it seems as if Mary was
somehow prominent in the catering arrangements because it was her
that had the concern when there was no wine. And why did they
have no wine? We don't know. They might have
not had any because of reasons of poverty. Or more likely, they
had some, a meager supply, but it had run out, especially as
Jesus and his disciples were called. There were all of a sudden
a lot of extra people there. And they didn't water it down.
I'll tell you a little funny story about a dear relative many
years ago who is now gone. And she'd be making some soup
and there'd be a pan of soup on the stove and the family would
turn up unexpectedly for lunch. And do you know what she'd do?
She'd put the kettle on and she'd water it down. And everybody
still got some soup, but it would be half the strength of the soup
that was there originally. No, they didn't water the wine
down. They'd run out of wine. And so Mary says to Jesus, the
mother of Jesus says to him, they haven't got any wine. In
other words, she's expecting him to do something about it.
She was his mother. She remembered all those things
that were prophesied of him. She'd seen him grow. She'd seen
of the other children that she had, amongst them was this one
who was without sin. Can you imagine that? Even you
children must admit the turmoil that's in your house a lot of
the time. And you know what the reason is? it's the sin that's
in our hearts but in this one in that household she'd seen
him grow up with no sin absolutely sinless and she knew who he was
and she remembered why he had come and she saw him at the start
of his ministry going out and she said they've got no wine
as if he would do something about it and he says to her woman that's
not disrespectful by the way I know if I called my mother
woman it would be with connotations of disrespect. Michael, don't
you dare call your mother woman. She won't take that very kindly.
Not at all. But this wasn't. This was a term
of respect and endearment. Woman. There's no sense of disrespect
at all. But he's saying to Mary, it's
not your place to tell me what to do. I'm grown. I'm of age. This is my public
ministry. My hour has not yet come. I'm
here for a purpose. It's my purpose to bring that
about, not yours. It's not you to tell me what
to do. Nevertheless, she says to the
servants at the feast, because obviously it wasn't so poverty
stricken that they couldn't afford to have some servants at the
feast. And she says to them, whatever he tells you, just do
it. Don't question it. Just do it. And so there are
six stone pots there for the cleansing of the Jews. They were
to be filled with water because copious amounts of water were
part and parcel of the symbolical Jewish cleansing for the service
of the temple. Six stone pots. If my reckoning
is right, and if anything, the figures I'm going to give you
are conservatively small, but each of these stone pots contained
80 liters or so. Each of them. Six of them. Six,
eight, four, 408, nearly 500 liters. capacity in these pots and he
said fill them with water fill them and we don't read a solitary
word of questioning they went and they drew the water and they
filled them to the brim so that they were brim full you touch
them and a bit would fall out a bit would spill out they filled
them to the brim and he said now go and draw he didn't say
a word he didn't touch it he didn't stand up he didn't do
all sorts of other things that he did in other places with other
miracles Just by his will, he said, now go and draw out. And
that wine was the very best. The master of the feast, the
governor of the feast was staggered at the quality of this wine.
Why didn't you get this out to start with? And was it a miracle? I mean, couldn't the disciples
have just slipped a bottle each in under their coats and sorted
it out that way? You know, like we take a bottle
of something when you go to eat to somebody's house? No, no,
no. 500 liters. 500 liters. That's an awful lot. And His
glory was manifested and they believed in Him. They trusted
Him. We've seen in chapter 1 how John
the Baptist came. You link all these together.
Don't take them in isolation. Think how... This is only the
third day. I could get all sorts of significance out of that,
but I'm not gonna waste time. I'm not gonna use up any of my
time this morning talking about the third day. But lots of people
do. But this is very close behind the events of chapter 1. John
the Baptist comes pointing to the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb
of God that deals with the sin of the world. Not that he dies
for the sin of everyone ever who lived, every sin ever committed,
but that he provides the answer to sin, irrespective of culture
and nationality. Not just for Jews as the Passover
in the temple was, the sin of the world. Whether you're in
Asia or America or Australia or China or wherever you are,
the sin of the world is dealt with by this man. Whether you're
living in Islam or whatever it might be, this man is the answer
to your sin problem. The sin of the world. And Nathanael
had seen. What had Nathanael seen? A man
came and told him where he was when he couldn't possibly have
known and when nobody else knew. And in that moment, Nathanael
had revealed to him that here was the omniscient God, the one
who knows everything, the one who's everywhere, omnipresent,
omnipotent, all-powerful. He saw that this one was God
in human flesh. He must have recalled what the
prophets had written. Say unto the cities of Judah, behold your
God. And there was God walking among,
and he said, you are the King of Israel. You are the Son of
God, the King of Israel. In that moment, just seeing that,
And Jesus says to him, you believe because of that, you're going
to see far more. You'll see far more. They beheld his glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. In this miracle they saw his power in creation. What did God do to create the
worlds? He said, let there be light. He said, let there. And it was. And he saw that it
was good. And in a moment, Just by the
application of his will, our Lord Jesus Christ made nearly
500 liters of water into the best quality of wine. Instantly. Instantly. How do you make the
best quality wine? The very best quality? You find
the best patch of land. If you listen to the French,
that's the thing that matters absolutely from top to bottom.
The patch of land you grow it on. And then you give it the
right climate, and the right grape varieties, and you breed
them, and you prune them, and you care for them for years and
years and years and years, because you can't make wine on the first
year or the second. It's no good. It's immature.
But when it's got old and mature, then it starts to produce good
fruit. And then you have to be so careful about the way you
make it, and everything that you do to it to get it exactly
right, and with no contamination, and perfect. And then you lay
it down. in barrels to age until it's
properly aged and it's got that maturity and that complexity
of flavors and it takes years and yet our Lord Jesus Christ
did it in a moment in an instant no no delays at all full of grace
and truth and those disciples sat there with him and saw him
do that they saw it they tasted the wine they saw it and they
knew that here was Emmanuel whose name means God with us. God with
us. Behold your God. These signs,
says Jesus in John 10, 38. He says it again and again. These
signs were not magic tricks. These were not the tricks of
a conjurer. These were to show who He was and His power and
His glory. They were to show that He is
God over all. and outside of the normal laws.
That's what a miracle is. It's a suspension of the normal
laws of science, of nature, that are all around us for His purpose. And He suspended those laws for
that moment. He suspended the laws throughout
the Scriptures. You know, when Israel was fighting
and He caused the sun to stop in the sky and you say, how could
He? He's God overall. If you know who He is and you
see who He is, people say, how can you believe in miracles?
you have to know who God is in Christ when you know who he is
you don't have the slightest problem believing miracles because
you believe him he is able to do everything if he's the one
who is able to put together you and me fearfully and wonderfully
made he can do whatever he wills so he's God over all and being
God over all he's qualified and able to save his people and so
what did they do as they saw his glory manifested It says
they believed on him. Now what is it to believe on
him? What is it? Is it just to believe
that he existed? Is it just to believe, oh, he
is a very interesting man? No, it's more than that. It's
to rely on him. They relied on him. They relied
on him for salvation. They relied on him for righteousness. He is the one that's going to
establish their righteousness. They relied on Him for justice
before the throne of God. For He's the one who's going
to pay for their sins. He is the one, as Daniel said,
He's going to come and put an end to sin. He is that one. They believed on Him. They saw
His glory and they believed and they relied and they trusted
in Him. And there He was, they sat with
Him in the flesh, the Son of God. Wouldn't that have been
wonderful to do that? Well yes, no doubt it would.
But do you know something? the scriptures tell us again
and again Jesus himself tells us in John 15 and 16 that he
must go away so that he might send his Holy Spirit to his people
and thereby we have the things of Christ and thereby wherever
we are here in Nebwith or wherever we are in the world we have the
presence of the living Christ by his spirit all who are his
all throughout the world we have that we see his glory revealed
and we trust Him and we believe. By nature man leans on all sorts
of things, all sorts of faulty frames to lean on. You know you
get tired and you want to lean on something. You see old people
who struggle to walk and they have a walking frame to lean
on. Well in terms of death and sin and eternity and what's it
going to be like for us and you know we put it off and we put
it off and we don't think about it until we see one close to
us die and we think that could be me. And then we age and we
age and we think, that could be that loved one. That could
be me soon. And we start to lean on all sorts of things. We lean
on tradition. What's happened in the past.
We lean on our own worth. Well, I'm not so bad really.
I'm not as bad as others. There are many people much worse
than me. Surely God must accept me. He's going to be very lonely
in heaven if he doesn't accept me. or a faulty view of God's
justice. When God says, the soul that
sins, it shall die, He doesn't really mean that in respect of
me. Oh yes, He does. You see, all of those false frames
that we lean on, all of those false supports that we lean on,
are worthless in the light of God's Word. But if we see His
glory in the Lord Jesus Christ, we believe Him. We rely on Him. We trust Him. We commit our souls
to Him. gladly for He has saved us and
done all that is necessary and we are the true circumcision,
the true people of God who worship God in the Spirit who rejoice
in Christ Jesus and Him alone and have no confidence in the
flesh. They saw His glory, He manifested
forth His glory and His disciples believed on Him. Do you believe
this Savior? Have you seen His glory by His
Spirit through His Word? What He's done for you, in your
place, for eternity, to establish justice, to save you from your
sins, then you'll believe Him. You'll commit your soul to Him.
You'll cast yourself upon Him. You'll rest in Him. You'll look
nowhere else for comfort for your soul other than Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. This is the gospel of His grace.
Now then, secondly, here are some incidental lessons. Some
incidental lessons that we see here in this passage first one
I see is this that Jesus blessed the state of marriage with his
presence it was a marriage there was a wedding at Cana of Galilee
and he went he gladly went he was called he was invited with
his disciples and he gladly went in amongst this ministry that
was so purposeful in amongst this ministry that was so purposeful
he he went there He took the time to go there to this wedding.
He blessed it with his presence. Do you know, here's a fact, and
we see it all around us in our society today, and I'm not going
to get on a moralizing soapbox, but low esteem for marriage is
at the root of so much moral decadence in society. Low esteem
for marriage. I know there are all sorts of
problems. I don't point the finger of judgment at anybody whatsoever
in any situation. However, A low esteem for marriage
in society generally is a problem, a serious problem. The Lord Jesus
Christ blessed marriage by his attendance at this wedding ceremony
in Cana of Galilee. We see it all around us today,
you know, we look at the views, look at the views of politicians.
You know, you may think that when it comes down to it, it's
very hard who to know to vote for. But think about things like
this. I'm not going to make any political
statement. I'm not going to tell you to vote for this party or
that party, but think about the moral basis of the politicians
for whom you vote. What's their view of marriage?
Think about it. You know, I'm not saying anybody's
perfect, but think about it. Because Jesus blessed the state
of marriage. Then the second incidental lesson
that I see here is this. You know, there's all sorts of
superstition about Mary. The Papists make all sorts of
superstitious, unfounded claims about Mary. They venerate Mary. They pray to Mary. They have
little statues of Mary. They sit Mary in the position
of prominence and preeminence with a little baby Jesus in her
arms. They do all of these things.
They say that she was sinless. They say that throughout her
life she was sinless. They say that she remained a
virgin throughout her life. She didn't. She was married to
Joseph. After Jesus was born, she had
a normal marriage to Joseph and they had other children. Jesus
had brothers and sisters. Normal flesh brothers and sisters.
She was a normal person. She was a sinner. A sinner. Mary was a sinner. Absolutely.
She was significantly blessed by being the vehicle through
which our Lord obtained His humanity. He came into this world born
of a woman, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem
those that are under the law. but she was a sinner because
do you know what she said when the angel came and told her how
she was to be blessed she said that her heart she magnified
the Lord it's called the Magnificat and she rejoiced in God her Savior
why would she need a Savior if she was sinless she needed a
Savior because she was a sinner like all men are sinners that's
why she needed a Savior and Jesus here By the Holy Spirit, that
superstition is not on its head. So don't have any truck with
it at all. That's not on its head. Jesus cared for his mother. He respected the one by whom
he came into the world, as we all should. In John 19 and verse
27, when he was dying on the cross, John records one of his
great calls from the cross, which was concerning his mother. He
said to the apostle John, look at this woman. Take her to yourself. Look after his mother physically.
Take care of her when I'm gone. She's a believer. You're a believer. Take care of her when I'm gone.
Yes, there was concern. But all of these superstitious
things are knocked on the head. Woman, what have I to do with
thee? You're not in a position to tell me anymore. The ape and
strings had been cut. He'd grown up. He was a man.
He was the son of God going about his earthly ministry. Working
towards that hour for which he had come. purposing all things
that that hour might be arrived at in the right way woman it's
nothing to do with you what I do next so don't try to control
me you see so it knocks on the head those false papal views
of Mary and then thirdly incidentally again another incidental lesson
there's a lot of nonsense talked in both directions about wine
and feasting in religious circles there are those who say that
to allow wine to pass your lips is to drink damnation unto yourself
and that it's an absolute curse and it's the worst thing you
could possibly do there's not the slightest hint here or elsewhere
in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ that the moderate and
sensible and enjoyable use of wine and feasting is in any way
wrong we read in Psalm 104 and verse 15 about wine gladdening
the heart yes throughout the scriptures excess is always condemned. Be not drunk with wine wherein
is excess. Wine, what they call being a
wine-bibber, drinking too much so that you lose control, absolutely
wrong. Feasting, riotous feasting, without
any control, without any sense of sobriety, is absolutely wrong. And so somebody becomes a Christian
and the places that they used to go to for enjoyment, suddenly
the atmosphere is just not a pleasant environment in which to be. because
the atmosphere there is one of lack of control, of excess, of
going to extremes. But the moderate use of wine
and the use of feasting and rejoicing, it's a good thing. There's nothing
wrong with it. The Lord Jesus Christ sets his
seal upon it. There was feasting and enjoyment
here at this wedding and he was happy to be there and happy to
drink wine with them. So no case can be made against
that. And then fourthly, this is the
fourth lesson I see here. You know that Mary said to the
servants, whatsoever he saith to you, do it. Do you know there's
enormous blessing resulting from unquestioning obedience of the
Lord Jesus Christ. If you hear his voice, and how
do you hear his voice? You hear his voice through the
scriptures, by the Holy Spirit applying the scriptures. Through
the preaching of God's word, you hear his voice. Now when
you hear his voice, obey it. Whatever he says to you, do it. You see, these servants didn't
say, you know what they would have done? They would have looked
at these pots and they would have calculated in whatever units
of measurement they used, that's 500 litres. You're telling us
to fill 500 litres now? We've got other things to do.
We've got plates to clear. We've got this, that and the
other to do. 500 liters of water is the last thing that we need
to have put upon us as a burden to draw out of the well. No,
they just did it. They just did it. And so we,
when we hear his voice speaking to us, we don't look at the unsurmountability
of the obstacles that appear to be in the way. We just do
it. We just do it. So, you know,
we decide on the basis of his word and what he's saying to
us. Crucial things of life. where
we're going to live what we're going to do we don't look at
the obstacles that stand in the way whatever he says to you do
it unquestioningly if he's saying to you don't be in this place
but be in another place because there you'll be able to hear
the gospel of God's grace and you'll be able to meet with God's
people and enjoy the gospel of God's grace together then although
the obstacles may seem insurmountable do whatever you can to do what
he says to you obey his word follow His leading, do what you
can to serve Him and obey Him. So there are some incidental
lessons. I've got some spiritual lessons as we close. Are we right
to look for spiritual lessons? Yes, we've had the spiritual
lesson about seeing the glory of Christ and believing on Him
and seeing that rightly, but then what about going beyond
that? Because you see, there are those who say you mustn't
over-spiritualize the Scriptures. Well, yes, of course, you can
always over-spiritualize. You can read some obscure meaning
into the appearance of every word in the Scripture, and that's
not our purpose. But there is the principle that
the whole of the Old Testament Scriptures are there for one
purpose, not to tell us the story of the history of a nation, they're
to tell us about Jesus Christ and his salvation of sinners.
Those accounts of the history of a people apply directly to
our hearts in respect to the Lord Jesus Christ. So how else
do we read Psalm 22 or Psalm 69, which are the feelings and
the experiences of David, King David, as he went through great
trials. But do we read them like that?
My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? We read it as the
words of Christ on the cross paying for the sins of His people.
And so we're right to spiritualize those things. Psalm 69 is full
of the waters overflowing me of the judgment of God against
the sin of His people which our Lord Jesus Christ bore in His
own body on that tree. We spiritualize it rightly because
without that spiritualization we miss the core, we miss the
heart of the Gospel of Grace. And so here are some lessons,
some spiritual lessons First of all, did you notice that there
were six pots? It has a meaning. There's a meaning
in it. There weren't seven pots. Seven is the number of perfection.
Six is the number of man. One short of perfection. There
were six pots. Short of perfection. Speaking
of the emptiness, they were empty stone pots. They were empty,
cold stone pots. I see there's something talking
about the emptiness of religion without the Lord Jesus Christ.
The emptiness of that article that I mentioned in the Times
that had a few good things in it but there was no Christ in
it. And therefore it was just cold and empty and formal and
dead. And in it there's no comfort
for the soul. That's what we look for. is comfort
for our souls. Isn't that what you want when
you go to hear preaching? You want comfort for your souls.
You want to go away saying, it is well with my soul. You don't
want to go away with a burden of your own inadequacy. You know
all about your own inadequacy. The Word of God is quite clear
about that. You want to go away knowing it is well with my soul
because of what one has done in your place and on your behalf.
No, there's no comfort for the soul burdened with sin. in empty
formal religion. Look what Judaism had become
by the time that Christ came. It had become empty. The rulers,
absolutely the rulers, with one or two exceptions as we'll see
in chapter 3, had no real interest in the coming Messiah. None at
all. It was just formal and cold.
So that in verse 13, the Jews Passover was at hand. Whose Passover
should it have been? It should have been God's Passover.
that which was celebrated because of God's salvation of his people
through substitutionary atonement by the shedding of the blood
of a substitute. That's what it should have been,
but it had become merely the Jews Passover. Empty. Six pots. Empty, worldly religion. Secondly,
Jesus didn't need to, but Jesus used men, the servants, to fill
the pots with water. he used them to fill the pots
with water and they did, they went and did their work and they
tried hard and they filled the pots to the brim with water but
the moment they were filled with water the feast was still not
gladdened there was still no rejoicing in the heart because
it was still only water and it's possible to fill cold religion
empty religion with all sorts of head knowledge with all sorts
like Paul says about the Jews in Romans 10, 1 to 4, he says,
I bear them record that they have a zeal for God but not according
to knowledge. Not according to what knowledge,
Paul? Not according to the knowledge which concerns the righteousness
of God. They go about to establish their
own righteousness but they know nothing of the righteousness
of God. What's the righteousness of God, Paul? It's that righteousness
which alone is established in the Lord Jesus Christ. For Christ
is the end of the law. for righteousness to everyone
that believes. You see? They had head knowledge.
They had zeal. They went about it as if they
were going to earn the favor of God by killing the Christians
in the early church. But it was without that wisdom
and knowledge which is in Christ alone. For in Him dwell all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The righteousness which is in
Christ which God demands. He used men to fill those pots
with water. but it still didn't gladden the feast. And then thirdly,
the water speaks of the Word of God. Ephesians chapter 5 and
verse 26 talks about the water of washing of the Word. This
Word is like the laver at the temple, the place where you washed
before you went into the temple. In it you looked in it and there
was a mirror reflection in the surface where you could see yourself.
We look into this, we can see ourselves because it shines back
our sinfulness and our falling short of the glory of God. And
it's here for washing, the water of cleansing of the Word of God.
But Christ makes that water into wine. He makes that water of
cleansing into wine of gladness. Now, here's something that I
read. Moses was a prophet like unto Jesus. It says that in Deuteronomy,
I think. Moses is a prophet like the one
who would come. Hear him. That's what Moses said
to them. A prophet like me will come. Listen to him. Moses performed
miracles in the house of Pharaoh in the household of Pharaoh when
telling them to let my people go and the first miracle he performed
was turning water into blood he turned the river into blood
water into blood and so it was those those words that we read
at the start of the service 2nd Corinthians chapter 3 verses
7 and 8 but if the ministration of death water to blood The first
covenant, the covenant of law, the covenant of works, was a
ministration of death. The ministration of death, written
and engraved in stones, was glorious. It was a glorious covenant, but
there's a much more glorious covenant coming, is what that
passage says. A much more glorious covenant
coming. He turned water into blood. Jesus turned the washing
of water into wine. He turned it into the wine of
gladness. Gladdens the heart. Wine gladdens the heart. It's
not just speaking about that red or white stuff in bottles
with a bit of alcohol in it that makes us glad. No, it's the joy
of salvation. The joy of salvation. What's
the joy of salvation? It's knowing, you know, if you
have a debt, if you have a physical financial debt, it's a lovely
feeling to have it paid off. to go down to the bank and for
them to write to you and say your loan is paid off your mortgage
is paid off in the Lord Jesus Christ the sin debt the soul
that sins it shall die but in the Lord Jesus Christ the sin
debt is paid and that leads to joy joyful we rejoice in Christ
Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh read the prophets
read Zechariah 10 and verse 7 we won't turn to it for the sake
of time joy he turns water into wine. And then fourthly, what
do I see here? I see a foretaste of another
marriage supper. Here was a marriage supper, the
wedding feast. I see talk of another, a hint
of another marriage supper. In Revelation 19 verse 9, there's
the words, blessed is he who is called to the Lamb's marriage
supper. The marriage supper of the Lamb,
the Lamb of God, the Son of God, and His bride is His people. His church, the new Zion, the
new Jerusalem, the people whom He has redeemed out of this world,
the people who the Father gave to Him before the beginning of
time. Now look at Matthew 26 and with this we'll close. Matthew
26 and we'll have this text as our text for the communion service
later today. Matthew 26 and verse 29, in the
middle of that last supper verse 28 Jesus says this this talking
of the wine this is my blood of the New Testament which is
shed for many for the remission of sins shed for many not all
shed for many for the remission of sins but I say unto you I
will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine until
that day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom
the wine is a symbol in the communion service of the blood of the new
covenant of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which was shed
for the peace with God of his people and he says I'll not drink
this wine again until that day of the marriage supper of the
Lamb that wedding when Christ and his people are united forever
and we remember it every time we remember him in the bread
and the wine of the Lord's Supper and that will do later today