Alright, let's take our Bibles
now and turn to John chapter 2. Last week we talked a little
bit about the place where this wedding was held and this place
to which the Lord and His disciples were called. And we talked a
little bit about the social gathering, the type of gathering that it
was, the way in which they were gathered and
for what reason they were gathered. But today I want to talk to you
a little bit about the wedding itself and marriage itself, this
marriage at Cana. And I titled the lesson, The
Two Marriages at Cana, because I believe this is what transpired.
If you look carefully at the way it is worded in Scripture,
it says, And both Jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage. Which marriage? There was a wedding and a marriage
that took place in Cana. But is that the marriage to which
he refers? To which marriage is he called?
What is this marriage all about? And I touched on that last week,
that salvation is a relationship with God and all these earthly
relationships are given to us to communicate our relationship
with God. And I mentioned some of those,
Father and Son. Now I'm going to tell you, and
you really need to take note of this because I skipped completely
over it last week. Two of the three persons in the
Godhead, their name is Father and Son. You see that? Almost all his
descriptions of believers have to do with this relationship
of father and son. He said, I came not to do my
own will but the will of my father which sent me. I must be about
my father's business over and over and over. He talks about
that. He talks about believers He went down to Egypt and called
out that company of Israelites and called them children of God,
didn't he? Children of God. My goodness. Children of God. Listen to this. The predestination
of God's elect is described as an adoption of sons. Look over
here in Galatians chapter 4 with me for just a second. He says there in Romans 8 that
this predestination of God is to be conformed to the image
of His Son. Now listen to what he says here
in Galatians 4, beginning here in verse 4. When the fullness
of time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law that
we might receive the adoption of sons. We were already sons, but we
didn't know it. We just didn't know it. We were
not aware of it. These things were purposed and
designed of God from all eternity. And He sent forth His Son. When the fullness of His time,
that time designed, designated, decreed of God, when that time
arrived, He sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive this adoption, this adoption of sons. And because you are
sons, you see that? You didn't become sons because
you are sons. God has sent forth His Spirit,
the Spirit of His Son, into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Abba, Father, wherefore thou
art no more a servant, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of
God through Christ. Then there's the bondservant.
Think about that relationship for a minute. Most of you are
aware of that. the law of Israel concerning
the bondservant. He was a servant who in those
days when they owed a debt and couldn't pay it, they didn't
just let them slide, they didn't have bankruptcy. They had to
sell themselves into slavery and serve a certain number of
years to settle the debt. And so this bondservant sold
himself to pay for his debt. He had incurred a great debt.
And his master, whoever it was, that bid on him as a servant,
took him to fulfill that debt. And he served him so many years.
I forget what it was now. I think seven years. But anyway,
he served him until that debt was satisfied. But in the meantime,
this servant fell in love. And he married and he had children.
And he found out that his master treated him better than he treated
himself. He found out that this life of
servitude for a good master was better than his freedom was on
the outside. And so when his time come to
go, he said, I will not go out. I'm not going out. I love my
master, and I love my wife, and I love my children. I will not
go out. And they took him up. John stood
him by the door and took an awl and bored his ear through and
put a little ring in it. He's a bond servant. When Paul
said in Romans chapter 1 that he was a servant, that's what
he's talking about. You look the word up and see
if I'm not telling you the truth. He's a bond servant. And all
the children of God, when they're redeemed of him, they found out
that what they called freedom on the outside wasn't anywhere
near as good as this servitude was. for the good master. And
so we become bond slaves to the Lord Jesus Christ who paid our
debt. And we serve Him out of gratitude.
And then there's the father and the son, the bond servants. And
then there's brothers and sisters. Let's talk about that for a minute.
In Matthew chapter 12, they came to Him and they said, your mother
and your brothers and your sisters are out here. They want to talk
to you. They need to see you. And they interrupted him. It's
not that he didn't want to see them. They interrupted him. He
was doing important things. He was about his father's business.
He was engaged in the ministry. He was teaching his disciples.
And they came and insisted that their kinship be given preference
over this ministry. And listen to what he says here
in Matthew chapter 12. He asks this question, Who is
my mother? Who are my brethren? Verse 49. And he stretched forth his hand
toward his disciples and said, Behold, my mother and my brethren. For whosoever shall do the will
of my Father which is in heaven, the same as my brother and my
sister and my mother. Huh? I didn't say that, he did. He did. In 1 Timothy 5, verse
1, it says, Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father.
Ain't that what it says? Entreat him as a father, and
the younger men as brethren, and the elder women as mothers,
and the younger as sisters with all purity. And in James, where
the apostle talks about what kind of faith you have, You see,
this faith can be justified and must be justified. And that's
what the book of James is about. The book of Romans is about justification
by faith. The book of James is justifying
what kind of faith you have. And in the book of James, where
the Apostle talks about the kind of faith we have and tells us
how true faith is justified before God, he uses this example, James
chapter 2. Down here in verse 15, he said,
"...if a brother or a sister be naked and destitute of daily
food." Now, he's talking about your spiritual brothers and sisters.
I don't want to have to read to you the whole book of James.
But in verse 16, "...and one of you say unto them, Depart
in peace, be you warmed and filled." Now, what's he talking about?
Well, he's saying we're here in the church and we find out
that somebody in here lost their job, lost their home, They've
got no money to eat on. Hard times is here. Falls on
them. And we go hug them and we say,
well, Lord bless you, brother. He'll take care of you. And then
we just go about our business and they walk out the door. That's
not faith. That's not faith. That's not
the kind of faith we have toward them. And it's a sad thing, but
I'll tell you this. If we had a sister, a blood sister
in California, who come down with some kind of ailment, we
get on the first plane to California and fly out there to take care
of them. But our sisters and brothers in the church get sick
and we won't drive across town to see them. That's the truth.
You know it, I know it. And that's what James is talking
about. What kind of faith do you have? What kind of relationship
with God do you have? This thing of salvation is a
relationship. I've been taken out of these
worldly things, taken out of these worldly relationships,
and I've been translated into the Kingdom of God. I don't walk
in darkness anymore, I walk in light. And I've got a new family. Now, if that old family can come
in and not make waves, so much the better, come on. But when
they start to make waves, they've got to go. And they can't have
preference over my spiritual family. They just can't do it.
They can't do it. And I tell you, you do wrong
when you do do it. It's a relationship with the
person of Christ, and because of this relationship, we've got
a new family. I've got a natural family, and
I've got a spiritual family. And I get weary of folks who
profess to be believers who hold their natural families above
their spiritual family. It shouldn't be. It just shouldn't
be. I'm telling you, right here before
the Lord Jesus Christ was His mother, the only mother He ever
knew, there she was, Mary, and His sisters and His brothers.
And He's thirty-something years old, thirty-one years old, thirty
years old, and here He is. And they come up and they want
to see him. And he just ignores them. He totally ignores them. Not because he didn't love them.
And they were believers. But that wasn't the point that
day. The point was that day they were trying to take these worldly
relationships and exalt them above the spiritual relationship. And he was going to point it
out. And he did. He did. There is a relationship formed
by spiritual birth into the kingdom and family of God. Paul said,
you are no more strangers and foreigners. We are not to treat
folks that way. Don't treat folks like they are
strangers and foreigners, but you are fellow citizens with
the saints and of the household of God. Faith sees and hears and submits. and loves and understands that
they have been translated out of that old kingdom into a new
kingdom. And by this translation, they
have been made aware of what God has purposed in eternity. They are brothers and sisters
of Christ, fellow heirs, joint heirs, sons by adoption, sons
by the purpose of God. Let me read you something over
here in 1 John chapter 3. We just totally ignore these
things when we go through Scripture, don't we? Listen to this over here
in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 10. Now, he's going to tell you something
here. In this, the children of God are manifest and the children
of the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness
is not of God. Now listen, neither he that loveth
not his brother. You see that? Verse 11, For this
is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that ye love
one another, not as Cain who was of the wicked one, and slew
his brother, and wherefore slew he him, because his own works
were evil, and his brother's righteous. Marvel not, my brethren,
if the world hates you," now watch this, "...we know that
we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death." You see that? This thing is a relationship.
It's about affection. It's about emotion. It's about
a tie. It's about a bond that binds
and won't let go. Well, Preacher, why are you bringing
out all these things? Because I'm laboring to point
out to you that salvation is a relationship of affection,
of sacrifice and commitment and an unbreakable bond. John later
on, he said, they went out from us for they were not all of us.
If they had been of us, they no doubt would have continued
with us. Who's going to separate you from
the love of Christ? Nothing. Who's going to accuse
you before God? He justified you. He's not going
to let you go. You're not here because you're
hanging on. You're here because you're preserved in Him. Even
your perseverance is preserved in Him. And thousands, I'm telling you,
it's not giving a cent to the doctrines. Do I believe in election? Absolutely. I believe that God
chose a people. I'd preach it here, I'd preach
it at the First Baptist Church if that's where they called me
to preach. I'd preach it in somebody's home if I was invited in and
asked what I believed. I believe in election. I believe
in the sovereignty of God. I believe in all those old doctrines.
I'm a Calvinist. I believe in those things. I
believe in unconditional election. I believe in the total depravity
of man. I believe in all the doctrines. But giving assent
to those doctrines is not what saves me. And I don't arrive
at those doctrines, I don't arrive at Christ and faith through the
doctrines, I arrive at the doctrines through Christ. It's my relationship
to Him that teaches me these doctrines and allows me to rightfully
understand them. And I'm telling you, I've been
there. I've been there. I don't have
to ask you about this. I don't have to read what John
Gill said about it. I've been there, and the Lord
raised me out of it. And I'm telling you, it's a relationship.
It's a relationship. It's about love. He that loveth
not knoweth not God, for God is love. You can't know God and
not love. So if the love ain't there, you
don't know God. That's what he said, not what
I said. And I'm telling you, thousands have consented to these
doctrines who never knew Christ, who never believed on Him. And
Christ came to this wedding. He was called to this wedding
to emphasize an eternal union with Himself whereby the love
and grace of God could be manifested in the marriage of Christ and
His beloved church. That's what He's doing here.
God arranged this wedding. We say it all the time, don't
we? I've only performed tertiary marriages, but when I did, do
you know what the last line was? What God hath joined together.
We don't no more believe that than we could fly. Huh? I took my vows, and the preacher
said those words. What God hath joined together. I didn't even consider it when
I repeated it. This wedding took place in Cana
because God joined them together. And this other wedding that I'm
about to talk about between his believers and him, it took place
because God called him to the wedding. And what God has joined
together, let no man put asunder. Now the first thing I want you
to see is this, at this wedding, is their love for one another
began in a look. I know we'd love to go back,
and all these things are true. I'm not telling you anything
that's not true. I'm just telling you that these
things apart from Christ in this relationship are dead, dry bones. And we like to go back in eternity
and we like to talk about that everlasting covenant of grace,
but when we talk about it, we make it sound like God put on
a blindfold and reached His hand down in the sack and kind of
swirled around a little bit and pulled out a name. It said, Winston
Worley. Huh? That ain't how that happened. Not according to Scripture. Not according to Scripture. It
was born in a look. I'm going to show that to you.
Listen here, over in Ezekiel chapter 16, I want you to go
home after a while and read this chapter. I want you to read this
chapter. But over here in Ezekiel chapter
16, the Lord describes His bride-to-be. And listen to what He says. He
said, I want you, He said, I want my prophet, I want you to go
down to her and make her know her abomination. Boy, that's a strange way to
describe your bride, ain't it? Huh? Make her know her abomination. Her parents didn't know God.
Her father was an Amorite. Her mother a Hittite. She wasn't
even wanted by her parents. She was cast out into the wilderness.
Her little navel wasn't cut. She was unwashed, naked, lying
in her blood. Now, that's what he says. Who's
he talking about? He's talking about his bride. Lying in a hot desert sand, food
for the vultures, helpless, hopeless, none I pitied thee. People walked
by and looked, kept right on walking. None I pitied thee. No one swaddled thee. Now watch
this, Ezekiel 16, verse 6. And when I passed by, what did
He say? Here is salvation, right here,
when He passes by. When I passed by thee and saw
thee polluted in thy blood. That's how He saw you. Born in
a look. Now watch this. I said unto thee,
when thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee,
whilst thou wast in thy blood. Says it twice, don't it? Live. Live. He saw me an outcast. He saw
me unloved. He saw me a prey to the lions
and food for the buzzards. He saw me in my uncleanness,
unwashed, naked, covered in my own blood. But He determined
in a look to have me for His own. Now that's what He's declaring
here in Ezekiel chapter 16. Now He's going to fix her up.
He ain't going to leave her in her blood. And he says unto her, Live. And
he begins to do some things. And she begins to live. Down
in verse 7, And I caused thee to multiply as the bud of the
field, and hath increased, and waxen great, and thou art come
to excellent ornaments. Thy breasts are fashioned, and
thy hair is grown, whereas thou wast naked and bare. How did
she get that way? He said, Live. Now watch this. Verse 8, And
when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was
a time of love, and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered
thy nakedness. Yea, I swore unto thee, and entered
into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest
mine. That's how this thing came about
with a look, Jesse. With a look. Not your look. His. I'm still looking to see what
was there. I'm still looking in amazement to see what he saw. The marriage of Christ to his
church is not this silly sentimental infatuation displayed in the
world. His marriage was arranged by
the Father. Yes, it was. Purposed in eternity
to manifest His glory. He said the Kingdom of God is
like unto a certain king which made a marriage for his son.
Now that's just the way it is. Just the way it is. And everything
about it, everything around it, everything in time and eternity
is made and sustained for that reason, for this marriage. Listen to the vision of John
on the Isle of Patmos. This is getting toward the end
of the book of Revelation. over in chapter 19, verse 1. He said, After these things I
heard a great voice of much people in heaven saying, Alleluia, salvation
and glory and honor and power unto the Lord our God. True and righteous, he said,
are his judgments. For he hath judged the great
whore which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath
avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. And I heard, as
it were, the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of
many waters, and as the voice of mighty thundering, saying,
Hallelujah, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. Here is
God in His absolute sovereignty reigning over all things, judging
all things, judging the whore that corrupts the earth, judging
false religion and the false prophets. And He said, ìLet us
be glad,î verse 7, ìand rejoice and give honor to Him.î Why?
ìFor the marriage of the Lamb has come.î That is what it has
been all about all along. ìThe marriage of the Lamb has
come.î Now listen, ìAnd his wife made herself ready.î Huh? How'd she get herself ready?
Listen, to her it was granted. She didn't have anything put
on. She was poor and naked and blind. But to her it was granted
that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white,
for the fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. It was her desire
and his. And then he saith unto me, Right,
blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the
Lord. And he saith unto me, These are
the true sayings of God. This is what this whole thing
is all about. It's about a marriage union. He's beginning this ministry
on earth, came into the flesh as a man, beginning this ministry
on earth. How's he going to do it? The
very first thing he's going to do, Russell, is tell you what
it's about. And he goes to Canaan to this wedding. And he declares
to us what this whole thing is all about. This book tells us about an eternal
union with his son. And it is declared throughout
the Word of God, relationships with him. You could go on and
on and on. The book of Esther. Here she
is. They've been overcome by the
enemy. She's been exiled, cast out. Her mother and her father's
dead. By one man, sin entered into
the world, and death by sin. You see that? Our parents are
dead. All we can inherit from our parents is death. Death passed
upon all men, for all have sinned. Her parents was dead. And here's
Esther being raised by another. Took her to raise as his own
child. What God do with you? You who
were cast out, you who were fallen in Adam, what God do with you?
He raised you as his own child. Isn't that what he did? And you
know what happened to Esther in God's providence? He married
the sovereign. She married the sovereign. God
in his providence linked her up with the sovereign, this little
cast out Jewish girl. whose parents was dead, had no
money, had no nothing. Married the greatest monarch
in the world at that time. What was his name, Winston Ahasuerus?
Was that his name? Yeah. And then you've got Ruth. What happened to Ruth? Her husband,
they left her because of a great famine. They went into another
land and he died and his brother died and his father died. It's
always about that death and that, I mean. But she, you know the
one thing that held Ruth to her mother-in-law was this relationship
that I've been talking about. She loved her. And she said,
whether thou goest, I'll go, and your God will be my God. And she went with her. And she
come up there, and there she is, poor, begging, out gleaning
in the field. But who sees her? The sovereign
of the land, Boaz. Takes her to be his wife and
redeems her out of all her debt. Restores that family back into
unity. It's always about this relationship.
You just go on and on and on with these women. Here's Sarah,
past the time of childbearing. Abraham, past the time of childbearing. Both of them dead in their bodies
as far as producing any kind of life. But God's promise is
this, at this time, Sarah is going to have a son. And his
name is going to be called Isaac, and through Isaac shall thy seed
be called. And he does it. You could just
go on and on. The whole nation of Israel were
all related, weren't they? One family. One family. And this is the type of the church.
All of them children of God. And then turn with me to Hebrews
chapter 8, and I'll wind this thing up. This everlasting covenant of
grace that we talk about so much, I wish I could enter into this
more and hammer on this more. But he said that old covenant
that was given to him back under the law, he said, I found fault
in that. He said, I found fault in that.
Look here in Hebrews chapter 8. And verse 8, and here's where
the fault is, for finding fault with them. There was no fault in the covenant.
The fault was in the people who couldn't keep the covenant. Finding
fault in them, those who had no respect for His name, His
purpose, or His glory. Those who would not submit themselves
to His covenant. Finding fault with them, He said,
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I make a new covenant
with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not
according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in
the day when I took them by the hand and led them out of the
land of Egypt, because they continue not in my covenant, and I regarded
them not." There was no love there. There was no compassion
there. There was no keeping of the covenant. There was no union.
I don't care how far he led them through the wilderness and how
many blessings he bestowed on them, their heart was still in
Egypt. And salvation is a heart work.
Now watch this. For this is the covenant that
I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord, I'll put my laws into their mind and write them in
their hearts. And I will be to them a God and
they'll be to me a people. And they shall not teach every
man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the
Lord. For all shall know me from the least to the greatest. For
I'll be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and iniquities
I'll remember no more." What she is by nature and choice
and practice, she sees exposed in Christ on the cross. And what
she hopes and desires in love, she sees declared in the resurrection
of her husband into glory. That's what she hopes for. The
gospel is a betrothal, and faith is her answer and pledge. The
gospel is His appearing to her in a look, and faith is that
invisible magic that causes the heart to bind itself to Him.