All right, take your Bibles and
turn back to John chapter 2. In keeping with the study in
John chapter 2, I want to look at this miracle which Christ
performed and see if we can draw out some applications to ourselves
and to the ministry in which we are engaged in our day. Now, we talked this morning in
the Sunday school lesson and a little bit last week about
the wedding itself. And this is very important. That's
why I've labored to point out these things over and over. By
his presence and by his participation in this wedding, he gave sanction
to the joining of that couple together in Cana. And he gave
sanction to marriage as an institution in general. And he gave a picture
to communicate that marriage of Christ and his church. That
which was ordained of God and appointed of God. And that's why I believe incorporated
in these things, if you just look at the scriptures that I
read to you in the Sunday school class over in the book of Revelations
chapter 19 where he talks about, and unto her shall be granted
that she be arrayed in fine linen. When you look at it, pure and
white it says. When you look at the old traditional
weddings, what do you see? The bride is always, you know,
she's arrayed in this white linen dress. And then you could just
go on and on and on with these things that he talks about here
in this marriage that are pictured and carried over in this marriage
union of men and women. And even in the ceremony itself,
I pointed this out in Sunday school class, at the very end
of the marriage it says, what God hath joined together. Let
not man put asunder. And here's the great design of
the kingdom of God. The king hath made a marriage
for his son. This is what the gospel is all
about. This is what the gospel declares,
this marriage. And this is what was taking place
here in Cana. And it says both Jesus were called
and his disciples to the marriage. Now this is what this calling
is all about. The calling of the gospel is
not a calling to a lifestyle. It's not a calling to a system
of theology. The gospel calling is not a calling
to a denomination or to an experience. The calling of the gospel is
to a person. That's what it's all about. We're
getting called to Him, called to Christ. I'm not telling you
to go home and study all the books that you can find on Calvinism.
I'm telling you to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm telling
you to call on Him. if He calls on you. And the only
way you'll ever call on Him is if He does call on you. It's a call to receive this union
which God has purposed in eternity and made manifest by the pouring
out of His Spirit and the preaching of the gospel. And this salvation
is altogether in a relationship purposed of God, accomplished
in Christ, received by the Spirit. There's no other way for you
to receive this union than to receive it by the Spirit of God.
He has to convey it. He has to convey it. I can talk
about it. I can write articles about it,
but I can't convey it. Only He can. Only He can. It's received by the Spirit.
It's made sure by His resurrection, and it's made perfect by ours. There's going to be a resurrection
in that day, and that's what he's talking about over there
in Revelation chapter 19. He said, now the marriage is
made ready. It's all set. The bride's here, and the bride's
adorned. The reason why they were in Cana
was a wedding, and the reason there was a wedding in Cana was
because of him. That's why there's a marriage,
period. Here's the reason for marriage
and why it's a Disgrace to live together in sin. Religion boasts
of a Christ with no union. That's what religion is. They
live in sin just like a man lives in sin with a woman when he just
moves in and there's no union. There's no bond of marriage.
There's no covenant. There's no agreement. There's
no joining together before God and these witnesses. It's a sin. That's what it is. And people
can call it what they want to call it. It's a sin. It might
be socially acceptable. But it's a sin before God. And that just pictures religion. They got religion and no union.
They just live together. The gospel Paul said is that
we're dead to the law, he said, and therefore free to marry another. free to marry another. Salvation
is a union with Christ. We wear His name, we bear His
children, we feed His flock, and we wear His garments. They
were called to a marriage. And because of what was taking
place, a special need arose. It says they wanted wine. They
wanted wine. Now, had they been called to
a lifestyle, They might have wanted a certain dress. They
might have needed a tailor because you've got to change your dress.
You've got to lengthen those skirts down a little bit. You've
got to take off those old sloppy sweatshirts and put on a suit.
You've got to change your dress if you're called to a lifestyle.
And if you're called to that type of thing, you might need
a tailor. Had they been called to a decision, they might have
needed a salesman. You might have needed somebody
up there to sell them on this thing and close them on the deal.
They might have needed a salesman. Had they been called to the law,
they might have needed a lawyer to explain and interpret the
words. Had they been called to a ceremony, they might have needed
a priest and a temple and a sacrifice. But they were called to a marriage.
And being called to a marriage, they needed wine. They needed
wine. And the poor bride of Christ
couldn't produce it. Now, the wine in this story represents
the Holy Spirit of God who takes the blood of Christ and He intoxicates
our hearts with it and causes our hearts and minds to just
fall in love with Him, to be married and to be glad and to
rejoice in Christ Jesus. Now, the scene is set and the
people are gathered. Both Christ and His disciples
are here. Now, watch as He unfolds this
beautiful picture of how His bride sees His glory. Born in
a look. You remember what I told you
this morning. Salvation was born in a look, in His look in eternity
when He saw you cast out, lying in your blood, unwanted, uncared
for. And He entered into a covenant
with you and He swore by His own name and He said, You're
mine. Thou becamest mine. And now you're going to do the
same thing. You're going to see Him through the preaching of
the gospel. He's going to manifest His glory.
And when he does, you're going to fall in love. You're going
to be intoxicated by his person. You're going to fall in love.
That's what salvation is. Now, I want you to notice what
Mary tells her servants. And this is good advice. They come and they said they
needed wine. And she conveyed the message to her son. And her
son said, Woman, what have I to do with thee? Mine hour has not
yet come. I think there's a little bit of a rebuke there. I think
she was trying to push those worldly necessities off on him,
and I think he gently rebuked his mother. But let's get past
that into the heart of this story. She doesn't say anything to him.
She accepts the rebuke. Believers will accept the rebuke
of Christ. They won't run over there and
pat in the corner. They'll accept it. They'll understand what they
did, and they'll go on. But now listen to what she says. She
turns to the servant. She doesn't say any more to the
son. She turns to the servant and she says, whatever he tells
you to do, you do it. That's faith. That's faith. Just like that. That's faith.
Whatever he says. Because God's not going to just
speak to you unless he speaks through him. That's right. That's right. God's got nothing to say to man
as absolute God. He says it through His Son. And
I tell you, that's the first thing we're going to learn. Until
you learn that, you're not going anywhere. You're not going to
enter into the marriage ceremony. You're not going to rejoice.
You're not going to be intoxicated with His blood. You're not going
to receive His Spirit until you submit yourself to Him. This
is God's prophet, and whatsoever He says, you do. You do it because
he's Lord. Everything in the kingdom of
God belongs to him. You think Ruth would have questioned
Boaz? Boaz owned a whole outfit. He
owned a field. He owned a threshing floor. He
owned that place. That place was in his pocket.
He owned that place. You think Ruth the beggar was
going to go down there? Well, I don't know if I'm going
to listen to him or not. Her mother-in-law knew who he was
whatsoever. You go down there and lay down
his feet, and whatever he tells you to do, you do. I'm telling
you how this wedding comes to be. And the first thing we do
is we listen to his servants, and his servants listen to him.
That's what this is teaching. They needed wine, and they couldn't
produce any. And so she goes to the only one
who can. The only one who can. I can't
do it. I can't do it. And I can stand
up here. I've got a little outline prepared
and some words and phrases and things that I've tried to carefully
think out and pray over and say. And I'm going to get up here
this morning, and by the grace of God, I'm going to try to say
them. But that's as far as I can go, John. Can't go no farther
than that. Unless he speaks. Oh, when he
speaks. He commanded and it was done.
The whole outfit was done. That's all he did, command. Command. Whatsoever he sayeth unto you,
you do it. You do it. That's faith. That's
how faith is established in the heart, believing God. But there's
more than that. It's seeing the will of God in
the person of Christ and understanding that the Word, the Word was made
fresh. This is the Word. There is no
word apart from Him. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. Do you see that? Now, let's look
at this miracle and see if we can learn something here this
morning. Now, the first thing that takes place, it says there
were six water pots. Do you see it down there? Six
what? Where is that? In verse 6? Six
water pots. Isn't that peculiar? Six is the
number of men. There were six water pots. It's
recorded in verse 6. On the sixth day, God made man. But man fell. Man fell. And he's easily corrupted by
that old serpent, the devil. And being corrupted, he becomes
the beast. And what is the number of the
beast? Six, six, six. Man, man, man. That's all it
is. The religion of this world, it's
all man, man, man. Now here it is, and that's where
he finds his bride, right out here in this mess. Six water
pots, there they sit before him. This man, cursed of God in his
birth, corrupted in his ways. This man who worships himself
and sits in the temple of God as though he was God. Six water
pots. And listen to this, these pots,
what's it say about them? What was their function? You
ever seen that before? It says, used after the manner
of the purification of the Jews. That's what these pots was all
about, religious tradition. Huh? That's what they're there
for. That's what they're there for.
They were set in a particular order with so much water in each
one for the washing of their hands and their feet. Turn over, if you want to, to
Mark chapter 7. Let me show you something over
here. The scribes and the Pharisees,
they saw the disciples come with Christ, and they said to him,
begin to eat, and did not wash their hands. And you know what those scribes
and Pharisees said about them? They said they were defiled.
They said they were defiled. Now listen to this down here
in verse 3 of Mark chapter 7. For the Pharisees and all the
Jews, except they wash their hands off, eat not, holding the
tradition of the elders, and when they come from the market,
except they wash, they eat not. And many other things there be
which they have received to hold as the washing of cups and pots
and brazen vessels and of tables. They didn't just wash because
their hands were dirty and they wanted them to be clean and get
rid of the germs. They washed for religious purposes
because they saw, what's the old phrase, cleanliness is next
to godliness. That's where it comes from, these
old Jewish Pharisees. Six water pots, most likely containing,
I hate to use the term, but it's the truth, holy water. That's
how they looked at it. Anything you can dip your hands
in is going to make you puke holy water in it. Maybe that's
where the Catholic Church gets that from these old traditions
of the Jews. Or at the very least, it represented
such foolishness. There are pictures of men in
their corrupt religious state. It's a vessel filled with religious
superstition. That old godless Jewish church
state was about to come to a close, and our Lord's going to illustrate
it right here. And then secondly, these vessels were stone pots.
They were not chiseled out of stone. They were called stone
pots, more like what we call stoneware. You see these crocks
and things around. That's what they were. They were
made out of clay, they were made out of bones, chicken feathers,
all kinds of things mixed in with clay and they molded and
the potter spun them there on his wheel and then they put them
in an oven and baked them, made them hard and used them for pictures.
That's what they were. They were old stone pots made
out of clay, baked in a furnace. They were earthen vessels, clay
pots. They weren't silver to symbolize
their purity and they weren't gold to represent man's royalty. They were clay pots. representing
a vessel that was of the earth, earthy. And I'll tell you something else.
They were spun on the potter's wheel, just like he talks about
over there in Romans chapter 9. And they could be vessels
of honor, but in this case they were vessels of dishonor, used
for those old religious rites and traditions of the Jews, and
they were set there in their order And according to the historians,
I'm talking about people who just read Jewish history and
take it right out of their own religion. I don't know that much
about it, except just what I read in the scriptures. But they said
these pots, there were certain pots for folks at a lower station,
and as your station went higher and the more important you got,
the pots got fancier. But our Lord said there's just
six pots. He didn't say there's four pots and two fancy pots.
He said they're just pots, that's all they are, just pots. And
then thirdly, these water pots all held varying amounts of water. Now, water in the scripture represents
the Word of God. That's what it represents. And
in these pots, filled with religious superstition, was varying amounts
of the Word of God. That's what he's trying to picture
for you here. Some of them had a lot of the Word of God, some
of them had a little bit. There are two or three firkins
is what it says. They're not all the same. And
I found out when you go to interpret what a firkin is, it depends
on where the Jew lived. What part of whatever nation
it was that historian came from, the measurement changes. It can
vary from four and a half gallons to nine gallons, just depending
on what country. You see what I'm saying? And
that's the way it is in religion. They take the word of God and
it doesn't mean anything. It just depends on where you're
at. geographical location as to what they call righteousness
and what's not righteousness. Whether we can smoke, you come
down here in the south and it's okay to smoke. Go up north, it's
wrong to smoke, but it's okay to drink. It just depends on
where you're at, where you're at. And here's all these pots
used for all these things, filled full of religious superstition. Christ gave himself for the church
that he might cleanse it with the washing of the water by the
Word. This is talking about the Word
of God. He said, In me is a well of water springing up into everlasting
life. And then Paul said, I plant it
in a polished water, talking about the preaching of the Word.
But when a vessel is used in religion, it's never full of
the Word of God. It just has varying amounts,
just enough to give a little hint of whatever it is they hope
to preach. They can't find that doctrine
and carry it throughout Scripture. They just have to find this little
isolated passage and try to stand right there. They can't go over
to Jonah and find it, and they can't go over to Ezekiel and
find it, and they can't find it in the book of Revelations.
They have to come over here somewhere. in a little verse in Acts or
over here in a little verse in Matthew or somewhere, and then
they built a whole church on that one little verse of Scripture. Six water pots of stone, stone
to identify the hardness of man's heart, stone to represent his
cold heart and lack of life. In order that these pots should
be used for the wine of Christ, they first had to be emptied.
That's the first thing. He's going to take this mess
and pour it out. You're going to pour it out, and he's going
to fill it all the way up to the brim, it says, with water. He's going to take the Word of
God, and he's not going to leave any room for your superstitions. You're not going to take your
little cinnamon stick and stir it around in there and make it
taste better, and you're not going to take a little bit of
dye and make it look like wine. All you're going to do is fill
it up full of water. Fill it up full of the Word of
God. And I know some of you in here,
you want to know how to witness. How do you witness? All we know
is what we've been raised to do. All we know is what we've
learned in our background in religion or what we see and hear
on TV and all these things. You want to know how to witness?
Here it is. Fill a pot full of the Word of God. Take that clay
pot, because that's all it is. It's just an empty clay pot.
And it's already half full of mess is what it is. And just
start filling it with water until you get it completely full. Don't
leave any other kind of room. Take these things that we read,
these things that you know by the Word of God, and commit them
to memory. And when you're talking to men, don't try to teach them.
You can't educate somebody into the kingdom of God. Just give
them the Word of God, and then get out of the way. Just get
out of the way. See, you can't turn the water
into wine. He has to do that. All I can
do is fill the pot. Fill the pot. Take the Word of
God. When they ask you a question, give them the Word. I don't know.
I don't know. But here's what it says. Here's what it says. What do you all believe about
election? Well, I believe what the Bible says. And go over here
and read what it says. Or quote to them what it says.
Commit these things to memory so when you're talking to them,
you're not just... If you sit out there and you
give them your opinion and they give you yours, you haven't accomplished
anything. You're just putting some more
junk in the pot. Fill the pot full of water. Fill it full of
the Word of God, right up to the brim. Don't leave any room.
Don't tin it. Don't taste it. Don't do anything. Just leave it alone. Fill it
right up to the top where there's no more room. And I tell you,
you commit these things to your mind and people ask you these
questions, you answer them with the Word of God, sooner or later
they're going to run out of problems. And they're going to have to
face up to the real problem, and that is their rebellion against
the Word of God, because there's nothing else there. You see what
I'm saying? Fill the pot full of the Word
of God. Fill it. Preach the Word. That's what
he told Timothy. Preach the Word. He said, From
a child thou hast known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to
make thee wise unto salvation. His grandmother Lois knew that
she couldn't convert him. She couldn't do anything. She
couldn't make him receive the Word of God, but she could fill
the pot, and she did. And that's what I hope to do,
what my wife's laboring to do back here in the back on Sunday
morning with these little ones is begin to get them acquainted
with the Word of God. Just like Lois did Timothy. Fill
the pot up with the Word of God. You want to know how to raise
your children? There it is. Give emphasis to the Word of
God. Make your decisions publicly known in the family according
to the Word of God. What does the Word of God say?
That's what we're going to do. As for me and my house, we're
going to serve the Lord. That's what the prophet said.
We're going to serve the Lord. And here's how we're going to
do it. We're going to obey His Word. You see what's taking place here?
Fill the pot. Fill it up. Fill it all the way
to the brim with the pure water of the Word. Don't mix any of
my ingredients in with it. All I'm going to do is ruin the
whole thing. You know, he talked about that
altar in the Old Testament. He said, when you build an altar,
you just take the rocks you find, just the way you find them out
there, and you make this altar. He said, for in the day you raise
up your tool upon it, you pollute it. Do the same thing with these
pots. Don't put your spoon in it. Don't
put your dye in it. Don't put your little cinnamon
stick ideas in it. Just fill it up full of the Word
of God and then back off out of the way. Let the Master do
the work. See what I'm saying? It's not
your word. He said it's My Word. My Word,
He said, will not return unto Me void. You want to know where
the magic is? The magic's in the Word. That's
where it's at. Heaven and earth will pass away,
but My Word, He said, is not going to pass away. And it's
not going to return unto Me void. It's going to accomplish what
I send it. If I command there to be a creation, there's going
to be a creation. When He said, Let there be light,
there was light. When He said, Let there be light,
there was light. I can stand up here and talk
about it all day long, but I can't do that. My words aren't like
that, but His is. And that's why I try to fill
my messages full of the Word of God. Just don't leave any
room for mixture. Fill them up. Fill them up. And I'll tell you this. I hope
the Lord will give you ears to listen to me. When you fill them
up, get out of the way. Get out of the way. Just get out of the way. and
watch him work. That's what they did. These servants
filled them pots to the brim. And then they went over to the
corner and stood there and waited on him. Waited on him. They did exactly what he told
them to do. They filled the pots and then
they got out of the way. Paul emphasized a determination
when he comes to the church of Corinth. You remember what it
is I hammer on every time I get up here He said, I determine
when I come unto you to know nothing save Jesus Christ and
Him crucified, in order that your faith should not stand in
the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. That's what's going
on right here with these pots. That's what's going on. Fill
up the clay pots. God empties them out. All right,
now what's this? Down here in John chapter 2 verse
8, He said unto them, Draw out now, and bear unto the governor
of the feast. And they bared. The contents
of the pot is not up to my discretion. What happens in the pot is not
up to my discretion. God doesn't do a work there and
then tell me to judge it. Now watch this. He said, they didn't know what
was in the pot. They know what they put in the
pot. They put water in the pot. That's what it says. They knew,
but the governor didn't know. And he said, you bear it to the
governor of the feast. It's not up to my discretion
what he does in the pot. It's up to the governor of the
feast. Who is the governor of the feast? We're talking about
God the Father. That's whose Lord is this marriage.
The Father has made the marriage for His Son. And you're going
to take the wine to Him. He's going to taste the wine.
Go back in the Old Testament. I think it's in the book of Numbers.
We don't have to look at it this morning, but you can find it
when you get home, where he talks about the burnt offerings. I
think it's in chapter 9 or chapter 19. I can't remember exactly
where it is. But he talks about all these
burnt offerings. a bull or a ram or a kid or whatever it is, all
these offerings. And he goes through them one
at a time, talking about these offerings that you're going to
take in there and throw out on the altar of God, and God's going
to just burn it up. At the end of each one of those
offerings, they were to take a quarter of a hen of wine for
a drink offering. And in light of what was going
on on that altar, they were to pour out that drink offering.
and said, and it was a sweet savor unto God. Now, we're going
to take this thing, this wine that's in this pot, rises up
to him, and he tastes the wine, and he blesses the marriage.
You see what I'm saying? This love, he said it's not our
love, he said, but his love. Not that we loved him, but that
he loved us. This work is of God. We're His
workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. He's going to taste the
wine and tell you how good it is. It don't always look good
to me. But you know what? He didn't
command his servants to even look. He didn't command them
to look. He said, take it to the governor
and fix it. Because he knew what he did. Huh? I don't have to look. All I have
to do is preach. All I have to do is fill the
pumps. He'll do the change. He'll do
the change. Back to the governor of the feast. If the governor approves of the
wine, You reckon the guests are going to disapprove? If he says it's the best wine,
who's going to contradict him? Who art thou that replies against
God? Who's going to contradict him? Into the body of a man, I want
you to listen to me, in this vessel of stone, came the eternal
word of God, and he filled up that vessel to the brim. In him,
it said, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He filled
him up. There wasn't anything left. Nothing
left. Just God. Just God in that man. In that man Christ Jesus. All
the fullness of God. I don't need anything else. That's
all I need. Here is the wine. Here is wine
and nothing more right here in this man, in this vessel, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He came as a representative of
men. He came as a bridegroom to redeem his bride out of poverty
and debt. He assumed her place under the
law, obeyed it in every jot and tittle. He assumed her place
as one arrested under the law, charged with a crime. He went
to the cross. bore her shame, bore her iniquity, emptied himself, gave himself,
sacrificed himself for her, bore her sins in his own body on the
tree. Here is the Lamb, and here is
the offering. And God sees his soul in offering
for sin and raises him from the dead, satisfied. taste of the
wine of the burnt offering and says, thou hast kept the good
wine for now. Bear it to the governor. Here's
what I'm trying to tell you this morning. You know we call strong
drink spirits? Did you know that? A lot of these
little places that sell it, it will say something on there about
spirits. But there's a spirit in the wine. That's why he uses
wine so much in the things of God. these Jews and all these
ones over here, that's why he emphasizes this wine so much.
There's a spirit in the wine. It's not like drinking water
or soda pop. There's a spirit in the wine,
and the spirit makes the heart glad. It causes you to rejoice. That's why folks that worked
all week go down to the bar and get drunk, because they want
to be happy. They're tired of the dull boredom
and the headaches of the week, and they go down there to rejoice.
and have fun and let the hair down. And what he's talking about
here at this wedding is a rejoicing, an intoxication. And we get that
through the wine of His Spirit. His Spirit is what takes the
message of grace and causes it to be alive. He causes you to
experience that grace. And what Peter says, he says,
if so be you tasted that the Lord is gracious. And there is a wine, there is
a wine of God's wrath talked about in the scripture, but our
Lord drank it up to the bitter graves. And then in the book
of Revelations there is a wine filled with another spirit which
all the nations of the earth partake of and drink of the wrath
of the fornication of the great whore. But this is the wine of
celebration, the wine of a marriage, a wine drank only by those called
to the wedding. And this is the pure wine of
God's mercy and grace. And those who drink this wine
agree with the governor of the feast. It's good wine. It's good. It's good. I'll tell you this. Just think
about these things. Don't try to persuade a man in
love about practicalities. You find a young man in love.
My dad, he tried to talk to me. about being practical. Now, son,
be practical. I didn't want to hear that. I
was in love. Don't talk to me about practicality. Don't try
to reason with a man in love about responsibility. She's the
only responsibility he's got on his mind. Huh? Don't try to
convince a man in love that he needs to work. He isn't interested
in work. He's interested in that woman.
Huh? When a man falls in love with
the gospel, you don't talk to him about works, and you don't
talk to him about practicality, and you don't talk to him about
these things. You talk to his heart, because he falls in love. He falls in love. Oh, there's
a spirit in the wine, and that's what he's talking about. There's
a spirit in the gospel, and it intoxicates the heart, and it
makes the heart to rejoice. Oh, I spent half my life filled,
filled to the brim with water. And that's all it was, just water.
It was water. It was the right kind. It was
the Word of God. It was all true. All those things.
But he hadn't turned it to wine. When he changed the water, he
changed the nature. And it becomes intoxicating.
It affects the mind. It affects the heart. It affects
the emotions. And you just eat up with Christ.
That's all that's left. You just eat up with Him. You
don't want anything else. You don't desire anything else.
You're not interested in anything else. Just Him. Just Him. Now listen, don't miss this.
Down here in John 2, verse 11, the last verse that Winston read
to us a while ago. It says, This beginning of miracles.
This is how it begins right here. Did Jesus. Huh? He's the only one who can do
it. In Cana of Galilee, the last place on the face of the earth
anybody thought the Messiah would show up. Cana of Galilee. He did this miracle. And now
listen, "...and manifested forth His glory, and His disciples
believed on Him." Now that's what happens when the Gospel
is preached in the Spirit of God. moves on that gospel and
moves in that heart, they see His glory and they believe on
Him. God give us a heart to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ.