2317. Obeying Christ’s Orders

No. 2317-39:337. A Sermon Delivered On Thursday Evening, June 13, 1889, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.

A Sermon Intended For Reading On Lord’s Day, July 16, 1893.

His mother says to the servants, “Whatever he says to you, do it.” {Joh 2:5}

1. It does not need a strong imagination to picture Mary, probably at that time the widowed mother of our Lord. She is full of love, and of a naturally kind, sympathetic disposition. She is at a marriage; and she is very pleased that her Son is there, with the first handful of his disciples. Their being there has made a greater demand on the provisions than was expected, and the supply is running short; so she, with an anxiety that was natural for such a mother of her years, and of her gentle spirit, thinks that she will speak to her Son, and tell him that there is a need, so she says to him, “They have no wine.”

2. There was not much amiss in that, surely; but our Lord, who does not see as man sees, perceived that she was putting her motherly relationship to the forefront at a time when it was necessary that it should be in the background. How necessary it was, history has shown; for the apostate church of Rome has actually made Mary a mediatrix, and prayers have been addressed to her; she has even been asked to use her maternal authority with her Son. It was good that our Saviour should check anything that might tend to give any countenance to Mariolatry, which has been altogether so mischievous; and it was necessary for him to speak to his mother somewhat more sharply than, perhaps, her conduct, in itself alone, might have required. So her august Son felt bound to say to her, “Woman, what have I to do with you in such a matter as this? I am not your son as a miracle worker; I cannot work to please you. No; if I work a miracle as the Son of God, it cannot be as your son; it must be in another character. What have I to do with you in this matter?” And he gives his reason: “My hour is not yet come.”

3. It was a gentle rebuke, absolutely necessary from the prescience of all that would follow. You can easily picture how Mary took it. She knew Christ’s gentleness, his infinite love, how for more than thirty years there had never come anything from him that had grieved her spirit. So she drank in the reproof, and gently shrank back, thinking much more than she said; for she was always a woman who laid these things up, and pondered them in her heart. She says very little, but she thinks a great deal; and we see in her later conduct, in respect to this very miracle, that she thought very much of what Jesus had said to her. Brethren, you and I, with the very best intentions, may sometimes err towards our Lord; and if he then in any way rebukes us, and puts us back, if he disappoints our hope, if he does not allow our ambitious plans to prosper, let us take it from him as Mary took it from Jesus. Let us just feel that it must be right, and let us in silence possess ourselves in his presence.

4. Notice, then, this holy woman’s tranquillity, ceasing to say a word, quietly drinking it all in; and then observe her wise admonition to the servants who were there to wait at the feast. Inasmuch as she had run before him, she would have them to follow after him, and she very wisely and kindly says to them, “Whatever he says to you, do it. Do not go to him with any of your remarks. Do not try to press him forward; do not urge him on; he knows better than we do. Stand back, and wait until he speaks; and then be quick to obey every single word that he utters.” Beloved, I wish that, when we have learned a lesson, we would try to teach it. Sometimes our Master gives us a sharp word all to ourselves, and we would not tell anyone else what he has said. In our private communions, he has spoken to our conscience and to our heart; and we need not go and repeat that, as Mary did not. But, having learned the lesson well, let us then say to our next friend, “Do not err as I have done. Avoid the rock on which I struck just now. I fear that I grieved my Lord. My sister, I would not have you grieve him; my brother, I would try to tell you just what to do that you may please him in all things.” Do you not think that we should minister to mutual edification if we did that? Instead of telling the faults of others, let us extract the essence from the discoveries which we make of our own errors, and then administer that as a helpful medicine to those who are all around us.

5. This holy woman must have spoken with a good deal of power. Her tone must have been particularly forcible, and her manner must have made a great impression on the servants, for you notice that they did exactly what she told them to do. It is not every servant who will let a guest come into the house, and set up to be mistress; but it was so when she spoke to those servants, with her deep, earnest tones, as a woman who had learned something that she could not tell, but who yet, out of that experience, had extracted a lesson for others. She must have spoken with a wonderful melting force when she said to them, “Whatever he says to you, do it”; and they were all looking on with awe after she had spoken, drinking in her message to them as she had drunk in the message of the Lord.

6. Now I want tonight just to try to teach that lesson to myself and to you. I think that our own experience goes to show us that our highest wisdom, our very best prosperity, will lie in our cautiously keeping behind Christ, and never running before him, never forcing his hand, never tempting him, as they did who tempted God in the wilderness, prescribing to him to do this or that; but, in holy, humble obedience, taking these words as our life motto from now on, “Whatever he says to you, do it.” I will handle my text in this way: First, What? Secondly, Why? Thirdly, What then?

7. I. WHAT IS IT THAT WE ARE HERE TOLD TO DO? In a word, it is to obey. You who belong to Christ, and are his disciples, take heed to this word of exhortation, “Whatever he says to you, do it.”

8. I want you to notice, first of all, that these words were spoken, not to the disciples of Christ, but to the servants who, in the Greek, are here called diakonois, the people who were brought in to wait at the table, and to serve the guests. I do not know whether they were paid servants, or whether they were friends who kindly volunteered their services; but they were the waiters at the feast. They were not told to leave their master; they were not told to give up their job as waiters. They were servants, and they were to continue servants; but still, for all that, they were to acknowledge Christ as their Master without shirking their obedience to the governor of the feast. Mary does not say to these people, “Put down those pots, stop carrying those dishes”; but while they continue to do what they were doing, she says to them, “Whatever he says to you, do it.” I thought that point was well worthy of our notice, that these servants, still remaining as they were, yet were to render obedience to Christ.

9. That obedience, in the first place, would be prepared obedience. Mary came to get their minds ready to do what Christ should tell them. No man will obey Christ suddenly, and keep on doing so. There must be a weighing, a considering; there must be a thoughtful, careful knowledge of what his will is, and a preparedness of heart, that whatever that will may be, as it is known so it shall be done. At first these servants did nothing. The guests needed wine, but the servants did not go to Jesus, and say, “Master, wine is needed.” No; but they waited until he told them to fill the water-pots with water; then they filled them to the brim; but they did nothing until he told them to. A great part of obedience lies in not doing. I believe that, in the anxiety of many a trembling heart, the very best faith will be seen in not doing anything. When you do not know what to do, do nothing; and doing nothing, my brethren, will be found to be sometimes the very hardest work of all. In the case of a man in business, who has come into a difficulty, or of a sister with a sick child, or a sick husband, you know the impulse is to do something or other. If not the first thing that comes to hand, yet we feel that we must do something; and many a person has aggravated his sorrow by doing something, when, if he had bravely left it alone, believingly left it in God’s hand, it would have been infinitely better for him. “Whatever he says to you, do it.” But do not do what every whim or fantasy in your poor brain urges you to do. Do not run before you are sent. Those who run before God’s cloud, will have to come back again; and they will be very happy if they find the way back again. Where Scripture is silent, be silent. If there is no command, you had better wait until you can find some guidance. Do not blunder on with a headlong anxiety, lest you tumble into the ditch. “Whatever he says to you,” do that; but until he speaks, sit still. My soul, be patient before God, and wait until you know his bidding!

10. This prepared obedience was to be the obedience of the spirit, for obedience lies mainly there. True obedience is not always seen in what we do, or do not do; but it is revealed in the perfect submission to the will of God, and the strong resolve that saturates the spirit through and through, that what he tells us we will do.

11. Let your obedience, in the next place, be perfect obedience. “Whatever he says to you, do it.” It is disobedience, and not obedience, which prompts us to select from the commands of Christ such as we care to obey. If you say, “I will do what Christ tells me as far as I choose,” you have in fact said, “I will not do what Christ tells me, but I will do what I please to do.” That obedience is not true which is not universal. Imagine a soldier in the army, who, instead of obeying every command of his captain, omits this and that, and says that he cannot help it, or that he even intends to omit certain things. Beloved, take heed of throwing any precept of your Lord on the dunghill. Every word that he has spoken to you is more precious than a diamond. Prize it; store it up; wear it; let it be your ornament and your beauty. “Whatever he says to you, do it,” whether it relates to the Church of God and its ordinances, or to your walk among your fellow man, or to your relationship in the family, or to your own private service for the Lord. “Whatever.” See, there are to be no trimmings here, no cutting off of certain things: “Whatever he says to you, do it.” Breathe this prayer at the present moment, “Lord, help me to do whatever you have said! May I have no choice; may I never let my own will come in to interfere; but, if you have told me to do anything, enable me to do it, whatever it may be!”

12. This obedience, then, being prepared and perfect, is to be also practical obedience:“ Whatever he says to you, do it.” Do not think about it, especially for a very long time, and then wait until it is more impressed on you, or until there is a convenient time: “Whatever he says to you, do it.” One of the great evils of the times is that of deliberating about a plain command of Christ, and asking, “What will be the result of it?” What have you to do with results? “But if I follow Christ in all things, I may lose my position.” What have you to do with that? When a soldier is told to go up to the cannon’s mouth, he is very likely to lose his “position,” and something else; but he is bound to do it. “Oh, but I might lose my opportunities for usefulness!” What do you mean? That you are going to do evil that good may come? That is what it comes to. Will you really, before God, look that matter in the face? “Whatever he says to you, do it.” At any expense, at any risk, do it. I have heard some say, “Well, I do not like doing things in a hurry.” Very well, but what does David say? “I made haste, and did not delay — to keep your commandments.” Remember that we sin every moment that we delay to do anything commanded by Christ. Whether every moment of delay is a new sin, I cannot say; but if we neglect any command of his, we are living in a condition of perpetual sinning against him; and that is not a desirable position for any of Christ’s disciples to live in. Beloved, “whatever he says to you, do it.” Do not argue against it, and try to find some reason for getting out of it. I have known some believers who have not liked to have certain passages of Scripture read at the family altar, because they have rather troubled their consciences. If there is anything in the Bible that quarrels with you, you are wrong; the Bible is not. Come to terms with it at once, and the only terms will be obey, obey, obey your Lord’s will. I am not holding this up to you as a way of salvation; you know I would never think of doing that. I am speaking to those of you who are saved. You are Christ’s servants, his saved ones; and now you have come to the holy discipline of his house, and this is the rule of it, “Whatever he says to you, do it.” Do it practically. Have we not been talking too much about what should be done by our friends, or observing what others do not do? Oh, that the Spirit of God would come on us, so that our own walk might be close with God, our own obedience be precise and exact, our own love for Christ be proved by our continual following in his steps! Ours should be practical obedience.

13. It must be also personal obedience:“ Whatever he says to you, do it.” You know how much there is done by proxy nowadays. Charity is done like this. A is in a great deal of need, B hears about it, and is very sorry indeed, and so he asks C to come and help him; and then he goes to bed, and feels that he has done a good thing. Or else, when A has told his story to B, B tries to find some Charity that will help him, although he never subscribes to the Charity, because he does not think of doing that. His part is just to pass A on to C, or to the Charity: and, having done that, he feels satisfied. Do you wish the Saviour to say, in the last great day, “I was hungry, and you sent me to someone else,” or, “I was thirsty, and you directed me to the parish pump for a drink?” Nothing of the kind. We must do something personally for Christ. So it is in the matter of endeavouring to win souls to Christ. There is nothing like personally speaking to people, button-holing them, looking them in the eye, relating your own personal experience with them, and pleading with them to flee to Christ for refuge. Personal obedience is what is needed. If one of these people who were waiting had said, when the command had come from Christ to fill the water-pots, “John, you go and do that; William, you go and do that”; he would not have obeyed Mary’s command, “Whatever he says to you, do it.” Do I touch the conscience of anyone here? Well, if so, from this time on cease to be a servant of God by proxy, lest you are saved by proxy, and to be saved by proxy will be to be lost. But trust Christ for yourself, and then serve him for yourself, by his own mighty grace: “Whatever he says to you, do it.”

14. It must also be prompt obedience. Do it at once; delay will take the bloom from the obedience. “Whatever he says to you,” stand ready to obey. The moment that the command “March,” is given to the soldier, he marches. The moment a command comes to your heart, and you see it to be really in the Word of God, do it. Oh, the murdered resolutions that lie all around most men’s lives! What they would have done, what they could have done, if they had only done it; but they have been building castles in the air, imagining lives they would like to lead, and not actually doing Christ’s commands. Oh, for a prompt, personal, practical service to the Lord Jesus Christ!

15. And in our case it is to be perpetual obedience. Mary said to these waiters, “Whatever he says to you, do it.” “Keep on doing it; not only the first thing he says, but whatever he says to you. As long as this feast lasts, and he is here, do what my Son commands you.” So, beloved, as long as we are in this world, until life’s last hour, may the Holy Spirit enable us to do just what Jesus tells us to do! Can you say, my brothers and sisters, —

    Jesus, I my cross have taken,
    All to leave, and follow thee?

Is it your wish that, until you enter into his rest, you should always bear his yoke, and follow his footsteps? Temporary Christians are not Christians. Those who ask for furlough from this divine service have never entered it. We have put on our regimentals never to take them off. As certain old knights in times of war slept in their armour, and had the lance and shield always ready at hand, so must the Christian be, from this time on and for ever. “Ours not to reason why,” ours not to delay when the command comes; but ours, while there is breath in our body, and life in our spirit, to serve him who has redeemed us with his precious blood.

16. So I have feebly set before you what it is that we are called to do, that is, to obey Christ’s orders.

17. II. Now for a few minutes let us ask, WHY IS THIS TO BE DONE? Beloved, why were these men to do what Jesus told them? Let that melt into, “Why are you and I to do what Jesus tells us?”

18. First, Christ is by nature worthy of obedience. I consider it an honour to serve Christ. Oh, what is he? Perfect Man, rising nobly above us all; perfect God, infinitely majestic in his two natures. Why, it seems to me as if we ought to love to do his bidding, and long to be conformed to his image! Here is the rest for our aspiring spirit. Here are the glory and the honour and the immortality for which we pant. By the glory of Christ, whom you unseen adore, “Whatever he says to you, do it.”

19. Besides that, Christ is our only hope. All our prospects for the future depend on him. Glory be to his blessed name! There is no one like him. If he were gone from us, and we could not trust in him, life would be an endless darkness, an abyss of woe. By all the glory of his nature, and all that we owe to him, and all that we look for from him, I charge you, beloved friends, “Whatever he says to you, do it.”

20. More than that, he is all-wise, and so fit to lead. Who but he could get these people out of their trouble at the feast when they needed wine? He knew the way out of it all, a way that would reveal his own glory, and make his disciples believe in him, and make everyone all around him happy. But if he did not show the way, no one could. So let us obey him, for his commands are so wise. He never has made a mistake, and he never will. Let us commit our way to his keeping; and whatever he says to us, let us do it.

21. Besides, beloved, Christ has so far rewarded our obedience. Did you ever act correctly, and after all find it a mistake? Some of us have had to do very grievous things in our time, that have gone greatly against the grain. Would we do them again? Indeed, that we would, if they cost ten times as much! No man has ever, in looking back, to regret that he followed the voice of conscience, and the dictates of God’s Word; and he never will, though he should even go to prison and to death for Christ’s sake. You may lose for Christ, but you shall never lose by Christ. When all comes to be tallied up, you shall be a greater gainer because of the apparent loss. He has never deceived you, and never misled you. Obedience to him has always brought you real solid peace. Therefore, “whatever he says to you, do it.”

22. Yet once more, Christ is our Master, and we must obey him. I hope, beloved, that there is no one among us here who would call him Master, and yet not do the things that he says. We do not talk about him as one who was once great, but who is gone away, and whose influence is now on the wane, because he is not up to “the spirit of the age.” No, but he still lives, and we still commune with him. He is our Master and Lord. When we were baptized into his death, it was no mere matter of form; but we were dead to the world, and we lived for him. When we took his sacred name on us, and were called Christians, it was no sham; we meant that he should be Captain, King, and Master of our spirits. He is no Baali, that is, domineering lord; but he is Ishi, our Man, our Husband; {Ho 2:16} and, in his husbandly relationship he is Lord and Governor of every thought and every motion of our nature. Jesus, Jesus, your yoke is easy, and your burden is light! It is enlivening and joyful to bear it. To get away from it, would be misery indeed; and that is one reason why I say to you tonight, “Whatever he says to you, do it,” because if you do not, you cast off your allegiance to him; and what are you going to do then? To whom will you go if you turn away from him? Every man must have a master. Will you be your own master? You cannot have a greater tyrant. Will you let the world be your master? Are you going to be a servant of “society?” There are no worse slaves than these. Are you going to live for money, for honour, for what is called “pleasure?” Ah, me, you may as well go down to Egypt, to the iron furnace, at once! To whom can we go? Jesus, to whom can we go, if we go away from you? You have the words of eternal life. “Bind the sacrifice with cords, even to the horns of the altar.” Throw another bond of love around me, another cord of sweet constraint, and let me never even think of parting with you. Let me be crucified to the world, and the world to me. Do not your hearts pray in that way? Oh, to be wholly Christ’s, entirely Christ’s, for ever Christ’s! Yes, yes, we will listen to the command, “Whatever he says to you, do it.” I have given you the reason why we should obey Christ’s orders.

23. III. And now, beloved, let me occupy the last few minutes in answering this question, WHAT WILL FOLLOW FROM THIS OBEDIENCE? Suppose we do whatever Christ commands us, what then? I will tell you what then.

24. The first thing is, that you will feel free from responsibility. The servant, who has done what his master has told him, may in his own mind fear that some dreadful consequences may follow, but he says to himself, “It will be no fault of mine. I did what I was told to do.” Now, beloved, if you want to get rid of the whole burden of life, by faith do whatever Christ commands you. Then, if the heavens should seem about to fall, it would be no business of yours to shore them up. You do not have to mend God’s work, and keep it right. I remember what Mr. John Wesley said to his preachers: “Now, brethren, I do not want you to alter my rules. I want you to obey them.” That is pretty strong from John Wesley; but from our Lord Jesus Christ it comes most suitably. He does not want us to get altering, and mending, and touching up, and looking at consequences. No; do exactly what he tells you, and you have nothing to do with the consequences. You may have to bear them, but for that he will give you grace; and it shall be your joy to bear all the bad consequences that come from firm obedience to Christ. This kind of doctrine does not suit these times. If you go over to Scotland, and see where the Covenanters’ graves are, anyone who thinks according to the spirit of this age will say that they were just a set of fools to have been so stubborn and so strict about doctrine as to die for it. Why, really, there is not anything in the new philosophy that is worth dying for! I wonder whether there is any “modern thought” doctrine that would be worth the purchase of a cat’s life. According to the teaching of the broad school, what is supposed to be true today may not be true tomorrow, so it is not worth dying for. We may as well put off the dying until the thing is altered; and if we wait for a month, it will be altered, and so, at the last, you may get the old creed back again. May the Lord send it, and send us yet a race of men who will obey what he tells them, and do what he tells them, and believe what he teaches them, and lay their own wills down in complete obedience to their Lord and Master! Such a people will feel free from responsibility.

25. Then you shall feel a sweet flow of love for Christ. The disobedient child — well, he will not be turned out of the house, because he will not do the bidding of his mother and father; but when he does not submit to the rule of the house, he has a hard time of it, and he ought to have. There is that evening kiss, it is not as warm as it would have been; and that morning greeting, after long disobedience, has no happiness in it; and, indeed, the more kind father and mother are, the more unhappy he is. And the sweet love of Christ is such that it makes us unhappy in disobedience. You cannot walk contrary to Christ, and yet enjoy fellowship with him; and the more dear and near he would be to you, so much the wider does the gap seem to be when you are not doing his bidding.

26. Besides, there is no carrying out your faith except by doing as he tells you. That faith which lies only in a creed, or in a little pious book, is not good for much. Faith does what Christ tells it to do, and it delights to do so. It rejoices to run risks, it delights to launch out from the land, and get out to sea. It is glad to sacrifice itself when Jesus calls for it, because faith cannot be satisfied without bearing fruit, and the fruit of faith is obedience to him in whom we believe.

27. Beloved, I also think that, if we will obey Christ in what he says, we shall be learning to be leaders. Wellington used to say that no man is fit to command until he has learned to obey; and I am sure that it is so. We shall never see a race of really first-rate men unless our boys and girls are made to obey their parents in their childhood. The essential glory of manhood is lost when disobedience is tolerated; and, certainly, in the Church of God, the Lord puts his leading servants through very severe ordeals. The best place for the books of a minister is not his library, but a sick-bed very often. Affliction is our school; and before we can deal with others, God must deal with us. If you will not obey, you shall not be ready to command.

28. And lastly, I believe that learning to obey is one of the preparatives for the enjoyments of heaven. Why, in heaven, they have no will but God’s will! Their will is to serve him, and delight themselves in him; and if you and I do not learn here below what obedience to God is, and practise it, and carry it out, how could we hope to be happy in the midst of obedient spirits? Dear hearers, if you had never learned to trust Christ and obey him, how could you go to heaven? You would be so unhappy there that you would ask God to let you run into hell for shelter, for nothing would strike you with more horror than to be in the midst of perfectly holy people who find their delight in the service of God. May the Lord bring us to this complete obedience to Christ! Then this world will be an inclined plane, or a ladder such as Jacob saw, up which we shall skip with holy gladness until we come to the top, and find our heaven in perfect obedience to God.

29. It is not Mary who speaks to you tonight, but it is the Church of God, the mother of all who truly love Christ; and she says to you, “Whatever he says to you, do it,” and if you will do it, he will turn the water into wine for you. He will make your love more glad and happy than it ever would have been without obeying him, and he will provide for you. Obey him, and he will comfort you. Obey him, and he will perfect you. Be with him in the ways of duty, and you shall be with him in the home of glory.

30. May the Lord grant this, by his infinite grace, giving to us to know the will of Christ, and then working in us to will and to do his own good pleasure! Amen and Amen.

 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Spirit of the Psalms — Psalm 84” 84 @@ "(Song 2)"}
 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “The Christian, Desires After Holiness — Holiness Desired” 653}
 {See Spurgeon_Hymnal “Spirit of the Psalms — Psalm 23” 23 @@ "(Version 2)"}

Exposition By C. H. Spurgeon {Joh 2:1-11}

Our Saviour had lived on the earth for about thirty years, and had worked no miracle. There was the hiding of his power. He had been subject to his parents, and had lived in obscurity. Now he has broken through the obscurity, and he begins his public ministry by working a miracle.

1. And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee;

“The third day.” John keeps a kind of diary for Christ. In those first days there was something for every day, and they were a sample of the whole life of the Saviour. He could never say, like Titus, “I have lost a day.” Every day had its deed, glorifying to God, and blessed to men. Let us also try to labour for Christ every day; let there be no day without its mark. May God grant that there may be something to make every day memorable! “And the third day there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee.” The first miracle of our Lord was not done at Jerusalem; but away there in the back settlements, in “Galilee of the Gentiles.” It was necessary for him to be seen, and to work miracles which might be seen; but he began in an obscure region, among a despised people.

1. And the mother of Jesus was there:

This expression leads to the belief that there was some kind of kinship between the bridegroom or the bride and the mother of Jesus, for it is not said that she was invited to be there, but that she “was there.”

2. And both Jesus was called, and his disciples, to the marriage.

Happy marriage, where Christ is invited to be present! Where Christ goes, his disciples go. If they suffer with him, they also rejoice with him. If he goes to a feast, they must go too: “Both Jesus was called, and his disciples.” They were only five; but five is a large number to add to a poor family’s wedding party. It shows the generosity of their heart that they invited Jesus to come and bring his disciples; and he went to put honour on marriage, especially as he foresaw that the day would come when the apostate church of Rome would consider marriage to be dishonourable, and not permit one who was married to officiate as a minister.

3. And when they needed wine, the mother of Jesus says to him, “They have no wine.”

I notice that John calls Mary “the mother of Jesus.” I suppose he had in his mind the dying word of Christ, “Behold your mother!” Such things make a deep impression on us; and we are apt, when writing, to use the phrases that have been burned into the memory. “The mother of Jesus.” Because she has been too much exalted in the Roman Catholic Church, I fear that we run to the other extreme, and think too little of this woman to whom the angel Gabriel said, “Hail, you who are highly favoured, the Lord is with you: blessed are you among women.”

“They needed wine.” They had not been married for long before there was a need in the house. Even in the brightest days of life, they needed something more; and the mother of Jesus saw that they were in need, and that the marriage festival would be dishonoured; so she went to her son and she said, “They have no wine.” I fear she spoke a little like an ordinary mother addressing her son; but the time had come when that discipline was to end. Mary was not his mother as the Son of God. He was about to work a miracle, and he would have her and all his relatives know that he would not use his miraculous powers merely for their advantage; but for the glory of God and the instruction of men.

4. Jesus says to her, “Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour is not yet come.”

It was a very difficult position for him to be in, to act the part of a loving and obedient son as far as his manhood was concerned, and yet, as the Son of God, by no means to compromise his divine character, but to stand out there as being under no influence of the flesh. Just as we are not to know Christ after the flesh, so he no longer knew mother, or brother, or friend, according to earthly relationships; and when Mary intruded her motherhood on him, it was only right and proper that he should say, “What have I to do with you? My hour is not yet come.” The Saviour had an hour for everything; an hour for suffering, and an hour for working; and he did everything punctually, promptly to the minute. That was one of the beauties of his life: “My hour is not yet come.” Perhaps he meant, “My hour to work this miracle is not yet come”; and he would not be rushed by anyone. Beloved, it is not easy to be familiar with Christ, as I trust we are, and yet always to maintain humble deference to his sacred will. Never let us pray as if we were dictators, or his equals. We must keep our place, however near we come to the dear bosom of our Lord. He is still in heaven, and we are on earth. He is the Master, we are the servants; and even if we are as favoured as his mother was, we must not go too far, as she did.

5. His mother says to the servants, “Whatever he says to you, do it.”

This holy woman took the rebuke in silence. She said nothing; she felt the force of Christ’s words, she proved that she did by now fully believing that he would do something or other. Had he not said, “My hour is not yet come?” Did that not mean that the hour would come, and that he would do something eventually? So she quietly accepted his reproof. Oh, you who are in great trouble, you feel as if you could force the hand of Christ; but you must not think of doing that. Even if you could have power over him, you would be very foolish to use it. Leave him alone; he knows best how and when to show his grace towards you. Keep silence before him, and in patience commit your way to him.

6. And there were set there six water-pots of stone, after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three firkins apiece.

I admire the accuracy of the Holy Spirit. John does not know exactly how much these vessels held; they were not made to measure things in, so he writes, “containing two or three firkins apiece,” or twenty or thirty gallons each. Let us always speak correctly; sometimes, “almost” or “approximately” will be words that will just save our truthfulness. Let us not speak positively when we do not know; and when the accuracy of a statement is necessary, and we cannot give it in terms that are definite, let us give it in words like these, “containing two or three firkins apiece.” These were large “water-pots of stone.” Stone will not, as a rule, hold the flavour of anything that has been in it, like a clay vessel would do; so these pots, which had contained nothing else but water, could not be suspected of having any lees of wine concealed in them, or any flavouring material that would make the water taste like wine. No, they were genuine stone water-pots.

7. Jesus says to them, “Fill the water-pots with water.” And they filled them up to the brim.

There was no fear of anything but water being there: “They filled them up to the brim.” They obeyed Christ to the letter. If Christ says to you, “Fill the water-pots with water, fill them up to the brim.” Never cut down his commandments; carry them out as far as the largest interpretation can go. When you are told to believe in him, believe in him up to the brim. When you are told to love him, love him up to the brim. When you are commanded to serve him, serve him up to the brim.

8. And he says to them, “Draw out now, and take it to the governor of the feast.” And they carried it.

“Draw out now.” “Now.” He had not turned the water into wine by any incantation. He simply willed it, and it was done. He said, “Draw out now.” He did not want to leave it unnoticed, because he had not worked a miracle before, and he could not say whether this was one. He was sure it was; so he said to the servants, when they had filled the water-pots with water, “Draw out now. Do not bring it to me for me to taste it; I know what it is. Take it to the chairman of the festival, to him who sits at the head of the table, and is the judge of the wine”: “and they carried it.” The holy confidence of Christ is admirable. May we be able, by faith, so to work, with a calm consciousness of divine help! But notice this. Whenever the Lord fills any of you with a blessing, think that you hear him say, “Draw out now.” He does not fill these pots so that they may remain full. “Draw out now.” Did you have a good time last Monday night at the prayer meeting? Some of us did. “Draw out now.” Have you lived near to God recently, and are you very happy? “Draw out now.” If he has filled you up to the brim, draw out now; for, if you try to store it up, it will become useless. Selfishness will poison it all.

9. When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and did not know where it came from: (but the servants who drew the water knew;) the governor of the feast called the bridegroom,

There was no collusion, for the governor, who tasted it, did not know where it came from; and the servants, who knew where it came from, did not taste it, so that they did not know what it was like. If anyone objects to the Saviour making wine, I think that the best reply is that all the wine which is made from water will do no one any harm, and the more of it the better; and this was certainly made that way. They say that there is a devil in every grape. There were no grapes here; and I am afraid that there is not much of them in most of the wine that is made nowadays; there is something worse than devil in that.

10. And says to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out good wine; and when men have well drunk, then what is inferior: but you have kept the good wine until now.”

The governor of the feast did not understand what happened, but he admired it; and here is a picture of what our Lord always does. He gives his people the best last. At first, the wine of the kingdom is mingled with much bitterness, salt tears of sorrow flow into it, but it improves as we go on; and when we shall drink it with him, in the kingdom of God, what will it be like? The joy of Christ’s love on earth is heaven, but when we get to heaven, and drink it fresh from the everlasting spring, what will that joy be? Oh, the blessedness laid up for the people of God! We pick some of the fruit from the trees, and eat it; but the fruits laid up in the fruit cellar, to get ripe eventually, are the very pick of the fruit of the tree of life. You who live for the world have had your best already; but, as for our feast with Christ, we go from good to better, and from better to the best.

11. This beginning of miracles Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and revealed his glory;

Moses turned water into blood; Christ turned water into wine. One brought a curse on the common things of daily life; the other put an added sweetness and blessing into them.

11. And his disciples believed in him.

They believed in him before; but now they had a visible demonstration of his divine power and Godhead; and they believed as they had not believed before. May you and I often make distinct progress in faith, so that it may be said of us also, “His disciples believed in him!”

Spirit of the Psalms
Psalm 84 (Song 1)
1 How pleasant, how divinely fair,
   Oh Lord of hosts, thy dwellings are!
   With long desire my spirit faints
   To meet the assemblies of thy saints.
2 My flesh would rest in thine abode,
   My panting heart cries out for God;
   My God! my King! why should I be
   So far from all my joys and thee?
3 Bless’d are the saints who sit on high
   Around thy throne of majesty;
   Thy brightest glories shine above,
   And all their work is praise and love.
4 Bless’d are the souls that find a place
   Within the temple of thy grace;
   There they behold thy gentler rays,
   And seek thy face, and learn thy praise.
5 Bless’d are the men whose hearts are set
   To find the way to Zion’s gate;
   God is their strength, and through the road,
   They lean upon their helper, God.
6 Cheerful they walk with growing strength,
   Till all shall meet in heaven at length,
   Till all before thy face appear,
   And join in nobler worship there.
                           Isaac Watts, 1719.

Psalm 84 (Song 2)
1 Great God, attend while Sion sings
   The joy that from thy presence springs;
   To spend one day with thee on earth
   Exceeds a thousand days of mirth.
2 Might I enjoy the meanest place
   Within thy house, oh God of grace!
   Not tents of ears, nor thrones of power,
   Should tempt my feet to leave thy door.
3 God is our sun, he makes our day;
   God is our shield, he guards our way
   From all th’ assaults of hell and sin,
   From foes without and foes within.
4 All needful grace will God bestow,
   And crown that grace with glory too;
   He gives us all things, and withholds
   No real good from upright souls.
5 Oh God, our King, whose sovereign sway
   The glorious hosts of heaven obey,
   And devils at thy presence flee;
   Bless’d is the man that trusts in thee.
                           Isaac Watts, 1719.

Psalm 84 (Song 3) <148th.>
1 Lord of the worlds above,
   How pleasant and how fair
   The dwellings of thy love,
   Thy earthly temples are!
   To thine abode,
      My heart aspires
      With warm desires,
   To see my God.
2 Oh happy souls that pray
   Where God appoints to hear!
   Oh happy men that pay
   Their constant service there!
   They praise thee still;
      And happy they
      That love the way
   To Zion’s hill.
3 They go from strength to strength,
   Through this dark vale of tears,
   Till each arrives at length,
   Till each in heaven appears:
   Oh glorious seat,
      When God our King
      Shall thither bring
   Our willing feet.
4 To spend one sacred day,
   Where God and saints abide,
   Affords diviner joy
   Than thousand days beside:
   Where God resorts,
   I love it more
   To keep the door
   Than shine in courts.
5 God is our sun and shield,
   Our light and our defence;
   With gifts his hands are fill’d;
   We draw our blessings thence;
   He shall bestow
      On Jacob’s race
      Peculiar grace
   And glory too.
6 The Lord his people loves;
   His hand no good withholds
   From those his heart approves,
   From pure and pious souls:
   Thrice happy he,
      Oh God of hosts,
      Whose spirit trusts
   Alone in thee.
                        Isaac Watts, 1719.

The Christian, Desires After Holiness
653 — Holiness Desired
1 Lord, I desire to live as one
      Who bears a blood bought name,
   As one who fears but grieving thee,
      And knows no other shame.
2 As one by whom thy walk below
      Should never be forgot;
   As one who fain would keep apart
      From all thou lovest not.
3 I want to live as one who knows
      Thy fellowship of love;
   As one whose eyes can pierce beyond
      The pearl built gates above.
4 As one who daily speaks to thee,
      And hears thy voice divine
   With depth of tenderness declare,
      “Beloved! thou art mine.”
                  Charitie Lees Smith, 1861.

Spirit of the Psalms
Psalm 23 (Version 1)
1 My Shepherd will supply my need,
   Jehovah is his name;
   In pastures fresh he mikes me feed,
   Beside the living stream.
2 He brings my wandering spirit back
   When I forsake his ways:
   And leads me, for his mercy’s sake,
   In paths of truth and grace.
3 When I walk through the shades of death,
   Thy presence is my stay;
   A word of thy supporting breath
   Drives all my fears away.
4 Thy hand, in spite of all my foes,
   Doth still my table spread;
   My cup with blessings overflows;
   Thine oil anoints my head.
5 The sure provisions of my God
   Attend me all my days;
   Oh may thy house be mine abode,
   And all my work be praise!
6 There would I find a settled rest,
   While others go and come;
   No more a stranger, or a guest,
   But like a child at home.
                           Isaac Watts, 1719

Psalm 23 (Version 2)
1 The Lord’s my Shepherd, I’ll not want
   He makes me down to lie
   In pastures green: he leadeth me
   The quiet waters by.
2 My soul he doth restore again,
   And me to walk doth make
   Within the paths of righteousness,
   E’en for his own name’s sake.
3 Yea, though I walk through death’s dark vale,
   Yet will I fear no ill;
   For thou art with me, and thy rod
   And staff me comfort still.
4 My table thou hast furnished
   In presence of my foes;
   My head thou dost with oil anoint,
   And my cup overflows.
5 Goodness and mercy all my life
   Shall surely follow me;
   And in God’s house for ever more
   My dwelling place shall be.
                        Scotch Version, 1641.

Psalm 23. (Version 3)
1 The Lord my Shepherd is,
   I shall be well supplied;
   Since he is mine, and I am his,
   What can I want beside?
2 He leads me to the place
   Where heavenly pasture grows,
   Where living waters gently pass,
   And full salvation flows.
3 If e’er I go astray,
   He doth my soul reclaim;
   And guides me in his own right way,
   For his most holy name.
4 While he affords his aid,
   I cannot yield to fear;
   Though I should walk through death’s dark shade,
   My Shepherd’s with me there.
5 In spite of all my foes,
   Thou dost my table spread;
   My cup with blessings overflows,
   And joy exalts my head.
6 The bounties of thy love
   Shall crown my following days;
   Nor from thy house will I remove,
   Nor cease to speak thy praise.
                        Isaac Watts, 1719.

Psalm 23 (Version 4)
1 The Lord my pasture shall prepare,
   And feed me with a Shepherd’s care;
   His presence shall my wants supply,
   And guard me with a watchful eye;
   My noonday walks he will attend,
   And all my midnight hours defend.
2 Though in the paths of death I tread,
   With gloomy horrors overspread,
   My stedfast heart shall fear no ill,
   For thou, Oh Lord! are with me still:
   Thy friendly crook shall give me aid,
   And guide me through the dreadful shade.
                     Joseph Addison, 1712.