John Chapter 2 details what we know as the very first miracle in the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ. This, of course, is not the first miracle associated with the Lord Jesus Christ. At the very beginning of time, we read that he created the heavens and the earth. You can read about that in John Chapter 1. The Apostle mentions that also in the book of Hebrews, by the Lord Jesus Christ, the world's That's a great miracle to create everything out of nothing. That's something you and I can't do, but he can, and he did. He's sovereign in that. He didn't need any help in creation. Likewise, he didn't need any help in salvation. None of us were there when he created the world. None of us could help him when he saved our soul because we were dead in trespasses and in sins. Every time a person is born of the Holy Ghost, that's a great miracle. From the beginning of time, the first era promised being born again, up until the last, that is a miracle. That is a beautiful blessing. Every time a man comes up and preaches the gospel with power, that's a great miracle. When you are able to hear it, receive it, and amen it, that's a great miracle. There's two miracles that happens when a man is blessed to preach, and you're blessed to hear. In that he's blessed to preach, you're blessed to hear. And we pray for that. We pray. The day of miracles is not over. I pray there be many miracles this morning. If I'm blessed to preach, thank the Lord for that. If you're blessed to hear, then thank the Lord. We've got a lot to be thankful for, and certainly do. But in the ministry, as he came into this world, was born of Mary, and was raised by Mary and Joseph, and began his ministry, the first of recorded miracles. As a matter of fact, it is the very first one that John tells us was found, as recorded in the Gospel according to John, chapter 2. We read in the third day, there was a marriage in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there. And both Jesus was called and his disciples to the marriage. And when they wanted wine, the mother of Jesus saith unto him, They have no wine. I remember growing up and going to church meetings, my mother having four boys that could eat an entire house. She would check out how much lunch the brothers and sisters brought. And if there wasn't much, she had a conference with me and my brothers. And she said, you just get one thing. You get one piece of chicken, you get one vegetable, and you eat it, and that's all you get. And she watched us like a hawk to make sure we did. She had eyes in the back of her head. The only time all four of us ever got a whooping was when I took an extra cookie, one cookie, and all four of us got a whipping. They haven't gotten over it yet. I think it's funny, but anyway. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a very perceptive woman. When the Lord was born and the angels came and gave the news to those shepherds, and the shepherds came and found the Lord lying in a manger. They told Mary and Joseph about it. Scripture says they wondered at these things. But then it says of Mary, she pondered these things and kept them in her heart. I believe of all women, she was the most blessed. The Lord chose her to bear his son. And she thought and she pondered, and where a lot of people would miss something, Mary got it, Mary understood. And she noticed as this wedding and the feast began to unfold, the day had run out of wine. Now that would have been a great embarrassment to the bridegroom as he was responsible for providing for the wedding. It would be like today if you had a wedding and somebody forgot to bring the cake. That would be a disaster for me. You know, I'll go to your wedding. I'll put up with your lovey-dovey. I'll suffer through your vows. I'll let you kiss the bride, I'll say how sweet, but you better serve me cake. And if I go to your wedding and I don't get cake, I'm cheated and something needs to be done about it. Can you imagine having a wedding without wedding cake? It was like this, they have no wine. She told the Lord, her son, they have no wine. This is what I like to call an implied order. Sometimes, and I'm always getting sermon ideas from my kids, the phone will ring. And one of my kids will say, the phone's ringing. Well, duh. Wow. Is that what that sound is really? I've always wondered what that noise was. You mean that's the phone? That's the phone ringing? Are you telling me that's the phone ringing? Sometimes I won't say anything. They'll say, Dad, the phone's ringing. And I'll act, well, answer the phone. But they mean answer the phone or the doorbell. Someone's at the door. Are you kidding me? Seriously? That that's that ding dong sound. I've always wondered what that was. Now I know. Robbie would say at two o'clock in the morning, the baby's crying. You know what she meant by that? Go get the baby. I've had that baby all day. It's your turn. You have the night shift. You ever worked a night shift with babies? You don't get paid enough for that, do you? I had four of them. I had four of them. The baby's crying. Right, people in the next county know my baby's crying. But you go pick up the baby. You take care of the baby. They have no wine. The Lord knew everything. He's omniscient. But by this statement, she's saying, do something about it. His response is very interesting. In verse four, he says, What have I to do with thee? Mine hour is not yet come." Now, if I had said that to my mother, I wouldn't be standing here today. It's not like to say I wouldn't even be standing. Children, don't try that at home. Woman, don't say that to your mother. What have I to do with thee? My hour is not yet come. Well, how could the Lord say that to his mother? Well, I just answered the question because he's the Lord. You see, there's a dynamic between Mary and Jesus. We will never understand. She was his mother. But he was her Lord. She was his mother. But he was her creator. She was his mother. But he was her savior. She was his mother. But he was her sovereign lord and king of kings. And when he spoke to her like this, he was the Lord. He said, My hour is not yet come. It is not. And I'm sure I'll get corrected if I'm wrong, but but since I'm preaching, I can tell you what I think about it. I really believe that it was not. The intention of the Lord to reveal himself at this time. And yet we know how this miracle plays out. He did provide wine. This teaches me that in everything we encounter, every decision, every problem, we need to take it to the Lord. And he may bless us beyond all expectations. Certainly, we want the will of the Lord done in our life. But the Lord teaches us that we ought to pray for it. We ought to pray without ceasing. We ought to take it to the Lord in prayer. We ought to ask the Lord, we ought to beseech him with thanksgiving. I need this. I'm in trouble. I don't know what to do. There's no way out of this situation. I can't handle this. I need your amazing power. And I know, my beloved friends, that his answer is always right. It may not be what you want. But it's exactly what you need at the right time and in the right way. You can't go wrong in prayer. My hour is not yet come, but I love what she did next. In verse five, it says his mother saith unto the servants. Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. That's good advice, isn't it? You know, when the Apostle Paul had his experience on the road to Damascus, he asked the Lord a question. You remember what the question was? Lord, what will thou have me to do? That's a good question. It was good for Paul. It's good for us. Do you know what the answer is? Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. You know the answers to life's questions are in the scriptures. The answers are already there. You may not have the questions formulated yet, but the answers are already there. That ought to make us feel good. And in Paul's question, which would happen years later, here's the answer. What will thou have me to do? Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it. You may be asking a question. What is my responsibility in the church? What vocation should I take? Whom shall I marry? Where should I live? Take that to the Lord and whatsoever he saith unto you, do it and do it with all your might, do it in faith, do it according to his will. So she left that in the hands of the Lord that that sometimes that's always the best thing to do. Leave it to the Lord and wait, and when the direction comes, we'll understand it. We'll know it. Whatsoever he sayeth unto you, say to the servants, do it. Verse six, and there were six, there were set there six water pots of stone after the manner of the purifying of the Jews, containing two or three Perkins apiece. Jesus sayeth unto them, fill the water pots with water and they filled them to the brim. And they, and he saith unto them, draw out now and bear unto the governor of the feast. And they bear it. This was about 128 gallons of water. That's a lot of water. He said, you fill the water pots. Then you take it to the governor. He's the caterer. He's the guy that's in charge of the decisions and the feast and the wedding and preparations and all that kind of stuff. Now, they don't have any wine. You fill these water pots with water and you take the pots to the governor. Just bring it to the governor. Verse nine, when the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, just did you get that? Just slide that in there, Holy Ghost. The water was made wine. When they filled it, it was water. But in the process of carrying it to the governor, it was made wine. They had nothing to do with water being made wine. But they carried it. May I say that that's the job of disciples today, is to carry the message of the gospel wherever the Lord will lead us. And that may be a stretch. But as I like to tell my young preachers, you're allowed one over-spiritualization per sermon. All right, that's my over-spiritualization. We got that out of the way, now we can go on. But they bore it to the governor. And by the time it got to the governor, the water was made wine. I love this reaction. When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water that was made wine, and knew not whence it was, but the servants which drew the water knew, The governor of the feast called the bridegroom and saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine, and when the man hath well drunk, then that which is worse. But thou hast kept the good wine until now." No matter what we do, the Lord can do better. No matter how hard we try. The Lord can always do better. I know the Lord's a better preacher than I am, because I've tried to preach without him. I can't even remember my first name when the Lord's not here. You can't even call it a sermon. I've tried to stretch time out with the Lord not here, it just makes it worse. The best thing to do is sit down, but you don't want to do it because you thought, well, I'll just keep trying. I'll keep trying. It just gets worse and worse. As a matter of fact, I've learned not to even ask my wife on the way home how I did it. I know better than that. I know better than that. Because when I do, she'll tell me the truth. I remember one time we were at the Rich Mountain Association, Elder Sam Bryant was there. And he talks about a time he preached and it was just so bad that he asked them to give him the master copy of the sermon. And on the way home he stopped by some river and he threw the master copy into the river. Now he had the, I don't know what you'd call it, he had a senior moment, but he told me, Mike, and Tim about it. And you want to know what Mark said? He said, Brother Sam, did you see any dead fish floating up? And Brother Sam preached that morning. And he told about it, and he said, now one of the Montgomery's said, they're all capable of saying it. See, me and Tim are always getting blamed for what he does. It's all his fault. He said it. I was just standing there. I was just drinking coffee. I was trying to give Brother Sam some consolation. I know what you're feeling. There's a lot of master copies. I want to get back. I know, I know, I know. I hope it was a deep river. I understand. Blah, blah, blah. He says, did you see any dead fish? And then I get the blame for it. Well, I have had experiences like that. I've had experiences like that where I've tried to preach. I don't have the ability to do it. I don't know, I just know that it takes the Lord to bless when we try to get up here. But he said, you kept the good one. He didn't know that there was a better bridegroom at the wedding. Now, you had the bridegroom, but you have the bridegroom. You've got the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we are going to try to prepare for a meeting. We're going to have a checklist. We're going to get everything ready. We're going to invite brethren to preach. We hope they study. We hope they're in prayer and everybody's praying for them. But when they get up in the stand, it's all up to the Lord. It's up to him. They ought to study. They ought to study. They ought to prepare. They ought to pray to the Lord. But my friends, when it comes right down to it, it's all up to the Lord. And when the Lord blesses, that ought to make us feel good. We ought to be shouting happy and thankful to the Lord that he did bless us, that he blessed us. That's the Lord in our midst. That's a great thing. May I say that's a miracle that the Lord will come down and meet with us here in Nashville, Tennessee, and bless me and Mike Montgomery to preach. Now, that's a great miracle. Amen and amen. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. And that we came here maybe with some trouble, some depression, some things last week, some bad news, all the trouble that happened with the weather, et cetera, et cetera. But someway, somehow, when it's all over with, we feel better. We feel better. We still had last week. We still have things to face, but the Lord was with us and everything is all right. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah for that. Amen. No, I can't get enough of that. And that never amazes, ceases to amaze me. And I forget about it. I forget about it. I thought, well, it's just Sunday. It's time to preach. I think I'll preach on faith. Well, I'll think I'll preach on the eighth chapter of Romans. I think, I think, I think. And then when the Lord blesses us, I'm surprised by it. Like, well, isn't that why we came here together? Isn't that why we're here in church? We come to hear Jehovah speak. We sing that song to hear the Savior's voice. Wow. Sometimes a lot surprises the Christian while he sings. You ever been singing? And you say, man, I've never noticed these words before. Man, I've been singing redeeming love. I really get it now. How firm a foundation? I really get it. How sweet the name of Jesus sounds in believers ear? It really is sweet. That's the Lord. It is the Lord that crieth. It's the Lord that's with us. It's the Lord that's singing with us. It's the master preacher. He's a better preacher than any of us are. He's a better preacher than me. He's a better preacher than Mike. He's a better preacher than brother Ronald, better preacher than him. He's a better preacher than all of us put together. He's a preacher of preachers. And when the preacher shows up, you'll have church. I can't probably say, well, I hope the preacher shows up today. Well, I hope he does too, but it ain't me. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. If that preacher shows up, it'll be all right. That'll be all right. If the Holy Ghost shows up, it's going to be okay. My friends, I'll tell you what. And I'll tell you what, the Lord, the Lord can take our small gift. The Lord can take our collective gift. The Lord can take us in the state that we're in. No matter what we have gone through in the past week, the Lord can take it, multiply it. Grace and mercy be multiplied unto us. And we may be crawling the church and we would just, just, just, just jump on out. We're just happy. Like that lame man. He was lame, but by the time he was blessed of the Lord, he was leaving. He was leaping and praising God, and he went straight into the temple. That's what I hope happens today. Not because of me, but because of the Lord Jesus Christ. You kept the good wine until now. Well, that's the wine that that bridegroom brought, but a better bridegroom was there. A better bridegroom was there, and it is better. It is better than anything we can do. I like to run that in several different ways. As I've tried to study the Old Testament in the law service, the Old Covenant, the First Testament, the Old Testament, that was an impressive service. That temple that Solomon built was probably the most beautiful building ever constructed. I did a little bit of research on that and to the best of my abilities in modern day If we were to construct Solomon's Temple, it would cost us $54 billion. Now, if two years ago, Brother Ronald brought some plans before Bethel Church and said, now I've got a beautiful building, it's going to cost us $54 billion. Y'all would give him the fish eye, wouldn't you? You'd look at him a little funny. Like, Brother Ronald, you need to take that way down. But he built that building, dedicated to the glory of the Lord. And even that, he said, this building's not worthy of you. He said heaven and earth couldn't contain the Lord, much less this building that I've made. And amen to what Solomon said. We look at the Old Testament worship, the priesthood. You know, to be a priest, you had to fit certain qualifications. You had to be of a certain family. You couldn't have certain physical defects. 99.99% of primitive Baptist preacher wouldn't make it in the Old Testament priesthood. They couldn't have a big nose. They couldn't have a wart. They couldn't have this. They couldn't have that. Well, that, that, that canceled all of us out. We wouldn't make. They had to be good-looking. They had to be, you know, good-looking. They had not have any physical defects. They had to be tall, straight, handsome, and all that kind of stuff. They had professional singers. They studied and practiced. They sang the songs, the psalms, that David wrote, the sweet psalmist of Israel. High Priest wore these beautiful garments. It was an impressive service. But he's kept the good wine until now. What we've got in the New Testament far exceeds what they had. We've got a better covenant. We've got a better promise. We've got a better priesthood. We've got a better hope. First church I ever served was down in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas, about 20 miles from Mexico. About seven or eight folks way down there in South Texas, they couldn't sing their way out of a paper bag. Best singer was me, and that ain't saying much. And I think it's good for us to strive to do as best as we can. But when the Lord blessed us to sing down there, I wouldn't take it for anything. I can still hear their voices today, 25 years later. They're all gone. They're with the Lord. They're singing pretty good right now. But the memories of those precious saints and how they would put everything they had. I felt just blessed to be there. You want to know what makes good singing? It's when the Lord is with us. When the Lord is singing with us. You say, boy, that's good singing. Well, thank the Lord for it. The Lord is with us. When that singing fills enthuse your soul." That's not us, friends. That's the Lord of heaven. What would you exchange for the message of sovereign grace? That Jesus Christ died for sinners like us, and we had nothing to do with it But he came to this world to save us and he did it and preserved us and we can't fall from it. Is that not pretty good news to you? Is that not very pleasing to you? Is that not better than anything anybody else can tell you? That's better than You know, winning the lottery, getting the crossword just right. That's better than having a good day. Everything is going to be all right. You're going to paradise because of what Jesus did. Glory, hallelujah to that. That's what we've got. That's what we've got. You know what they had in the Old Testament? You all, you've got to get it right. You've got to get it right. And you may have gotten it right today, but you got to get it right tomorrow. You got to get it right the next day. Every year, every year, every year, every year. If you break one commandment, you're breaking the whole thing. The law was a schoolmaster, a taskmaster, and it pointed the way to the better covenant, the better testimony, the Lord Jesus Christ. It said you can't do it. The law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did. By the which we draw nigh unto God. We're in it today. He's kept a good one until now. Better singing, better preaching. I think about when I first understood the gospel. I believe we're all naturally born Armenians. Let me explain that. I grew up in the primitive Baptist. That's all I've ever known. I was a week old. Mom and Dad took us to Bethel Church in McMahon, Texas. I don't remember that, but they said they did. I remember hearing my granddad preach, my dad preach. I remember the first time Mike got up to preach at the age of 17. I thought I was so glad it was him and not me. He got up there. He's 17 years old. He's crazy, but, you know, the Lord is good. And then. They asked me to preach, I can't believe it, I can't believe I said yes. I first believed the gospel at the age of 10, I was 10 years old when I really began to love the Lord Jesus Christ. But I was so shy and nervous as a child, I couldn't go up the aisle and join the church. This is for me to stand up in front of you is not me. It's not my personality. I'd rather be in the back. I don't like being in the center of attention. And I thought that for five years. Every Sunday, I just cry. I want to join so bad, but I just couldn't do it. One day, my brother Paul joined the church. I said, buddy, you got to do it. And I joined the church at the age of 15. You talk about a burden. that was lifted. I wasn't worried about my salvation. I just knew I had a duty to do it. I wasn't doing it. And I was ashamed. And to be free of that was amazing. And I remember when my dad baptized me. And when I came out of the war, I could have sworn that I was in the company of angels. And everything was just marvelous. There was no such thing as a bad sermon back in those days. Every sermon I heard preached, I was just right there on the edge of my seat, just getting every bit out of it. I studied my Bible. I began to hang around the preachers and ask them questions. I went to meetings. And it was a wonderful time of my life. But he's kept the good wine until now. It just keeps getting better. You know, friends, you haven't reached the pinnacle yet. This may be the best meeting you've been to. But the next one may be better than this. I'll go home and Robbie say, how was the meeting? I said, it's the best meeting I've ever been to. She said, you always say that. I got to think about, well, it's true. Best meeting I've ever been to is the last meeting I've been to. The Lord was there. It's the best meeting I've been to. It could get better than this. But right now, I'm not complaining. It's better now, even when I first knew the Lord. Now, there have been ups and downs during that time. But the Lord is so gracious and I have not gotten tired of hearing the doctrine of salvation by grace. I've not gotten tired of singing with the heart that the Lord gave me. I've not gotten tired of hearing the prayers of the Saints. I can't wait to get back to it. And the more I put into it, the more I get out of it. And it just keeps getting better. He's kept the good wine until now. My friends, I pray not because of who I am or who came or whatnot, but I pray that the Lord would bless us, that this would be the best meeting you've ever been to. He can do it. He can do it. He can serve the good wine. You think it's good back in the old days. Friends, these are the good old days. These are the good old days. It wasn't better back then. It's better now, and it's going to keep getting better if we attend and the Lord continue to bless. Let's pray to that end. He's able. Let's just pray for it. Brother Ronald's a good preacher. He can be a better preacher. I know I could be a better preacher. These brethren can. You can be a better listener. I know I can be a better member. I can be better at all these things, but I tell you what, my friends, he can't be a better God, but he can reveal more and more of himself to me. And the more I get that, the better it gets, the better it is. As I'm going into middle age and begin to wonder about things, and I can't do what I used to be able to do 30 years ago. I could go to these meetings and stay up all night. and just visit and fellowship and hard sell and go the next day. There's no way I can do that now. I walk out on preachers at 1030. That's my limit. I don't care if you've got a special revelation on Melchizedek. I'm going to bed. You can say that tomorrow. Melchizedek can wait. I've got a date with a beautiful pillow. I'm not going to. I don't need to say you're not that important. I need to get to bed. I need to go to sleep. And really, we ought to do that. We ought to take care of ourselves, get a good night's sleep so we can give the best when we're in meeting, when we're in service, because he deserves the best. But my beloved friends, I begin to worry about things. Well, you know, you're just going real quickly to old age. You know, life just goes into overdrive over and over and more and more and more. Time just keeps going faster and faster. But my beloved, it's still the good wine. The good wine is right now. Amen. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. But I'll tell you this much, my friends. I'll tell you this much. As good as we've had it, and we've got it better than we think. I know I need to be more thankful than I am, because I've heard sermons that have changed my life. I mean, continue to change my life and put me back on the right road. I've had conversations that were just, that just was just a blessing. I've heard singing that I thought the angels came to church today. And as good as that is, as good as that is, there's going to be a day that when we stand in paradise and we see the face of the Lord Jesus Christ, And we'll say he's kept a good one until now. As good as this is, something better is coming along. Something better is coming along. Something better. Something better than anything we can imagine. We cannot even begin to think about how beautiful heaven must be. But I'll tell you what, I can't wait to find out. I'm looking forward to the day that the Lord comes back. for the Lord to take us home. Don't you like going home? Amen. Amen. I mean, I'll get on that plane and we're going back to Texas. I'm going home. I'm going home. But there's a better place than San Antonio, Texas. There's a better place than the old home place. Everybody talks about where I grew up, the old home place, old home scenes, memories and all that kind of stuff. That's good. That's fine. But there's something better than that. There's something better than that. There's something better than what we think. There's something better than what we can hope for. There's something better than our best dreams and our noblest intentions. When the Lord sees us and when we see him, when we see our deliverer face to face, what a day that will be. What a glorious, glorious day that will never end. Amen. I look forward to that. That's going to be the best. The best is yet to come. He saves the best for last. Heaven is coming. Glory is coming. Paradise is going to come down. Jesus will come down. He'll take us home. We're going home. We're going home. I want to go home. Don't you? This world is not our home. We're just a pilgrim, we're a stranger, we're just passing through. This is just a little bit of time that we spend, but when we get up yonder, all my friends, in a place where there's no time, in a place where there's no disappointments, with all this peace and love, we're going to continually say, he's kept the good wine until now. All who can paint the scenes of glory with a ransom dwell on high." Oh, my friends, I don't know what heaven is going to be like. I've speculated. I've speculated a lot about it, but it's just speculation. I do believe we'll know one another there in a more glorious way, as Brother Mike said. But I'm looking forward to feeling like I've never, ever felt before. And that feeling is called satisfaction, when we awaken as like this. We're content here, but we're satisfied there. There's nothing to fix. It's all glorious. So until then, let us spend our days in honor and glory