Let us turn to God's Word in the portion we read, the book of the Prophet Zechariah. And turning once again to chapter 13 and the opening verse, verse 1, we read, In that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin. and for uncleanness.

In Zechariah 13 and verse 1, in that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. To say something then with regards to a fountain opened for sin. And as we consider the words of the text it's one I'm sure not unfamiliar to most of you probably all of you are familiar with this remarkable opening verse of this chapter as we consider it I want to divide what I say into three parts first of all to consider the fact that this is a promise the promise of God and then to consider just what is being promised which is of course the forgiveness of sin, pardon for sins and then thirdly to consider those to whom the promise is being addressed it's addressed to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem first of all to consider the promise itself and it is in fact a gospel promise it's a gospel promise observe the opening words those three words in that day and it's interesting how this particular phrase keeps on recurring throughout the chapter we have in time and time again look at the verses for example in the following verse verse 2 which shall come to pass in that day and really what we're having here is a continuation of all that's been said previously even if we turn back to chapter 12 it's even more striking really there Verse 3, in that day. Verse 4 of chapter 12, in that day. Verse 6, in that day. And so on. Verse 8, in that day. Verse 9, and it shall come to pass in that day. And then again at verse 11, in that day.

Surely there's some significance. We know that there's no vain repetition anywhere in the Word of God. Why is it that the Prophet, under the inspiration of the Spirit, is moved to repeat this expression time after time after time? What is the day? It must be a special day, surely, that's being spoken of. Well, it is, of course, the day of the Lord. It's this day in which we're living, the last days. It's the gospel day. The apostle writing there to the church at Corinth in 2 Corinthians 6 says, As the mouth of God I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I suckered thee. Behold now is the accepted time. Behold now is the day of salvation. And so in the whole context here, We see that it's this present time in which God in his goodness has appointed that we should be living our lives the day of grace. That day.

And what a promise it is that we have previously there in verse 10 of chapter 12. the promise of the Holy Spirit I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications well this is that day the dispensation of the Holy Ghost the whole period that follows the fulfilment of the day of Pentecost what we read in Acts chapter 2 and it's all really fulfilled isn't it ultimately in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Zechariah is a strange book in many ways. There are remarkable visions that are spoken of. It's not a book that's easy to interpret or understand but it's quite clear that Zechariah is ministering at the time when they return from the Babylonian captivity and they're engaged in the rebuilding of the Temple of the Lord.

and words are addressed to Zerubbabel for example and he will lay the top stone with shoutings of grace, grace onto it we read well that's the historical context but greater than Zerubbabel is here are these people engaged in the temple of the Lord?

Well, what do we read concerning the Lord Jesus Christ himself speaking there in the second chapter of John's Gospel? Destroy this temple, he says, and in three days I will build it again. He's speaking, of course, of himself. He's speaking of his own body. He's speaking of the resurrection the Jews didn't understand. In their ignorance they thought he was speaking of the temple that was standing there in Jerusalem. But after his resurrection it was the disciples who remembered those words that the Lord had spoken concerning himself as the temple of the Lord. And previous to the temple of course, Israel would worship at the tabernacle.

And isn't the tabernacle a remarkable type of the Lord Jesus Christ? Hebrews 8 and verse 2 we read of the true tabernacle which the Lord pitched and not man. That true tabernacle, that's the Lord Jesus Christ himself. It's his human nature that's being spoken of.

In the opening verses of 2 Corinthians 5, Paul again speaks of our tabernacle, our bodies as a tabernacle, a tent, a temporary dwelling. We have never dying souls, and when we come to die, the body returns to the earth, returns to the dust as it was, and the spirit goes to God who gave it. So when we read of that true tabernacle which the Lord pitched, it's speaking to us of the Lord Jesus Christ, and it's speaking of his human nature.

And Christ, of course, is present in remarkable ways in what we read in these verses.

in that 10th verse the ministry of the Spirit the Spirit of grace and supplications they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him who is the one who is pierced here in chapter 13 the end of verse 6 we read of those wounds those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. And then verse 7, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered, and I will turn mine hand upon the little ones.

All this one, you see, who is to be smitten by the wrath of God, is God's own fellow. The Lord of Hosts refers to him as my fellow. He's God, he's equal to the Father, he's equal to the Holy Spirit. It's the divine nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. If the tabernacle refers to the truth of his human nature, well, when we read him as the Lord's fellow, that reminds us that he has a divine nature. He has two natures. And yet he's one person. The wondrous person. The God-man. The Lord Jesus Christ is the one that's being spoken of, the one that is being promised.

And now the Spirit comes, and He comes very much as the Spirit of Christ. Now, when He reveals the Saviour, and Christ in all His sufferings, all His great sin-atoning sacrifice, when the eyes of the sinner are open to see what salvation costs, what mournings there are. That's a tremendous passage at the end of the previous twelfth chapter. The great mourning in Jerusalem, it says, is the mourning of Adad-Rimon in the valley of Megiddo. And the whole land is mourning, all the families of the land mourning.

That's there in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ that we see the great horror of what sin really is. Surely it is. I know we speak of law work in terms of the conviction of sin. By the law is the knowledge of sin. And yet surely for the Christian believer it's when we have a right conception of Christ and his sufferings and those sufferings brought upon him because he must be the sin-bearer for his people, he must stand in their place, he must suffer in their stead, substitutionary atonement. All the horror of what sin is in the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Hart says, doesn't he, in the hymn, Law and terrors do, but harden all the while they work alone, but a sense of blood-bought pardon. soon dissolves the heart of stone. We need our hearts to be melted then by a right understanding of the awful character of our sin and the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ.

What is the promise here then? It's the promise of the gospel. And what is the subject matter of this promise? In the second place, Doesn't the fountain direct us to the Lord Jesus Christ? There's a sense in which this is one of the names of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is a fountain. A fountain opened for sin and for uncleanness.

Think of those words that we have in another prophet, Isaiah. Of course, Isaiah's book is full of gospel truth, isn't it? And there in Isaiah 12 and verse 3, with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation. Christ is the wells of salvation. There's only one Lord Jesus Christ, but of course there we have the plural, the wells, because it indicates to us the remarkable fullness of that salvation that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. As if it's a multitude of wells. But it's one well, it's the fountain that has been opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Oh, it's the Lord Jesus Christ and that precious blood that was shed for sinners. A man, oh a man there is, a real man with wounds still gaping wide from which rich streams of blood once ran in hands and feet and sides. how his sacred body was bathed in blood as he made the great sacrifice for sins. This is the provision that the Lord God has made in a fountain. A fountain of blood for sin and for uncleanness.

It's not like a cistern that's full of stagnant water dirty water and yet remember how the Lord God rebukes Israel of old in the language of the prophet Jeremiah my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and yearn for themselves systems broken systems that can hold no water

Well, what are those wells of salvation? Well, what is a well? It's a spring. It's a spring as it were dug out. And it's interesting because even this word a fountain is derived from a Hebrew word that literally means to dig or to bore. There's a spring there that There must be some action, there must be some work, there must be some digging. And this is actually that God himself has done. It's what God has purposed. It's all the work of God. And it's that purpose from all eternity being fulfilled in time in that day. Or when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his son made of a woman made under the law. No, we're reminded of that, aren't we, in what Paul writes there in the epistle to the Hebrews. In Hebrews chapter 10, he's quoting from the Old Testament, from the book of Psalms, from Psalm 40. You remember the passage? Hebrews chapter 10, verse 5 following.

wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith and then the quotation from Psalm 14 sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not but a body as thou prepared me in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure then said I know I come in the volume of the book it is written of me to do thy will oh God

It's interesting, he's quoting from the psalm, from Psalm 40, but he doesn't quote it literally. In a sense, we might say there's an interpretation of the psalm. In Hebrews, it says, "...a body as thou prepared me." Back in Psalm 40, in verse 6, it says, "...mine ears as thou opened," or, "...mine ears as thou digged," is what the margin has. And that's an interesting statement that the psalmist uses, Meinias as thou didst. Because it reminds us really that Christ comes as that one who is the willing servant of the Lord.

Remember the law in Israel, the great day of release, those who had to sell themselves into servitude and slavery were to be released. But if there was some servant who didn't want to be released from his master he had such a love for his master what were they to do with him? they were to take him to the door post and they were to bore his ear with an awl it says we have it there back in the book of Exodus in Exodus chapter 21 and verses 5 and six if the servant shall plainly say I love my master my wife and my children I will not go out for him then his master shall bring him unto the judges he shall also bring him to the door or unto the doorpost and his master shall bore his ear through with an awl and he shall serve him for ever now isn't that what the Psalmist is saying of the Lord Jesus there in Psalm 14 verse 6 mine ears hast thou opened or mine ears hast thou did Christ is that one who comes as the willing servant of the Lord or he comes most willingly behold my servant says God whom I uphold mine elect in whom my soul delighted I have put my spirit upon him.

Or this anointed one, this Christ. He comes as God's willing servant. He will do all that God has engaged him to do in the eternal covenant. Now he will be obedient and obedient even to the cruel death of the cross again. The remarkable words that the prophet Isaiah is using. There in chapter 50 of Isaiah. Isaiah 50, I think it's verses 5 and 6. The Lord God hath opened mine ear, and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame and spitting." Of whom is the Prophet speaking? This is the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the Lord Jesus Christ as that one who is a willing servant. He's digging, you see. His ear digged. The whole bone into his ear because he wants to serve his master and he will serve. He'll serve all his days and here you see we have this fountain. this spring has been digged out it's now a fountain and it's opened and it's there for sin and for uncleanness oh how the Lord Jesus Christ is that one who the prophets delight to speak of he's the spirit of prophecy of course throughout the old testament And we can't really do justice to any part of the Old Testament prophetic books except we desire to find the Lord Jesus Christ here. Even in such a strange book as this, the book of the Prophet Zechariah, we see Christ.

Now, in order that this fountain might be provided, He's obedient. Always obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He finishes the work. I have glorified thee on the earth, he says in his great prayer. I have finished the work that thou gavest me to do. In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. We sang of it, didn't we? There is a fountain filled with blood. drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains. We haven't sung it yet. God willing, we'll sing it presently, that lovely hymn of William Cooper's concerning this fountain that God himself has provided in the person and the work of his only begotten Son.

And David, Or David drank of it, did he not? We read there, don't we, towards the end of his days in 2 Samuel 23. David longed, it said, and said, or that one would give me drink of the well of Bethlehem, which is by the gate. The well of Bethlehem. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. That was the very place of his nativity, Bethlehem. He's the well of Bethlehem. is the fountain opened for sin and uncleanness. We see then the promise is a gospel promise, therefore the promise centers very much in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. But let us come to those to whom the promise is made, the people spoken of here. and who are they? well they're sinners and they're spoken of here under the name of the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem what's the significance of those names?

well when we think of the house of David of course the Lord Jesus Christ himself comes of the house of David in Revelation 22 16 he is the root and the offspring of David. He's both David's son but he's also David's Lord. That's the wonder of it, isn't it? His human nature. Both his mother, Mary, his supposed father, Joseph, they were each of them of the house of David. and his mother was with child of the Holy Ghost but that human nature, that only thing that was conceived in her virgin womb by the Holy Ghost that human nature came of his mother and she was of David's line Christ is that one then who is the offspring of David and yet at the same time when we think of him in his divine nature he's the root of David, he's David's Lord remember how the Lord speaks of these things there at the end of Matthew 22 verse 42 and the following verses you can read that through where the Lord is disputing with one of these lawyers amongst the Pharisees concerning David and the Christ He is very much of the house of David.

But when we read of David's house here, what are we to understand? What's the significance of such a name given to those for whom this fountain is opened? Does David's house need cleansing from sin? Cleansing from uncleanness?

Well when David comes to the end of his days and we read of what he said there in 2 Samuel 23 the last words of David although my house be not so with God although my house be not so with God he hath made with me an everlasting covenant ordered in all things and sure this is all my salvation and all my desire though he make it not to grow though my house be not so with God though he make it not to grow there's something with David's house

and of course it's really speaking of his descendants speaking of his family his children he's lamenting really the sad state of affairs in his own house what was the cause of it? well it was the cause himself the faithful words of the prophet Nathan when he confronts David in 2 Samuel chapter 12 he is guilty isn't he of gross sins he's an adulterer he's a murderer the business with Bathsheba and her husband Uriah the Hittite and Nathan so faithful confronting the king fearless before the king David thou art the man oh David thou art the man and then he conveys to David the word of God and this is the word of God 2 Samuel 12 10 now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house because thou hast despised me and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife that was the word of God that the prophet spoke to the king the sword shall never depart from thy house and David lived to prove it

Though my house be not so with God. How awful it was, the matter of Amnon and Tamar. They were half-brother and sister, but how Amnon lost it after his half-sister, and forces himself upon her, then, having had his wicked way, what does he do? He despises the woman, rejects the woman, and there is her brother. that her half-brother, her brother is Absalom and Absalom's enraged and Absalom slays Amnon and then Absalom rebels against David and we have all the sad accounts there in 2 Samuel 15 David having to flee from Jerusalem Jerusalem was where he established his capital. He'd taken it from the Jebusites. It was in the reigns of David that Jerusalem became the very city of God. It was there that he would establish the Tabernacle. It was there he wanted to build the Temple. It was not to be David, it would be his son Solomon. But all David's house, you see, time and time again, even after David's death, Adonijah tries to seize the throne Solomon was the one that was to be the king but Adonijah tries to take the throne although my house be not so with God the sword never departing from this man's house there was so much sin really that's what it was sin and sin upon sin and all coming from David's great transgression.

David was forgiven. God forgives, but how he took vengeance upon all his inventions. How the Lord dealt with him. But you see, the fountain for sin and uncleanness is for the house of David. For the house of David. It's for sinners. Not only for the house of David, it's for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And as I said, that's the city of David, Jerusalem. But think of the significance of Jerusalem in relation to David's greatest son, the Lord Jesus Christ. When Peter makes his remarkable confession at Caesarea Philippi, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God and Christ tells him flesh and blood had not revealed it to him but his father in heaven it was a great confession thou art the Christ the son of the living God upon this rock Christ says I will build my church and it was significant because we're told subsequently there in Matthew 16 21 from that time forth began Jesus to show unto his disciples how that he must go onto Jerusalem and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised again the third day Jerusalem he must die at Jerusalem Peter took him and began to rebuke him Be it far from thee, Lord. He shall not be unto thee. And the Lord turned and said, Peter, get thee behind me. Satan. He calls him Peter, he calls him Satan. He turned unto Peter and said, he turned and said unto Peter, get thee behind me, Satan.

The man who had just declared to be so blessed because the Lord, you see, knew He knew He must go up to Jerusalem He sets His face to go to Jerusalem in Luke chapter 9 and He makes that final journey to the citadel All Jerusalem is a significant place when it comes to the sufferings of the Lord Jesus Christ What do they say there? The Jews are gathered together, it's the Feast of Passover Away with Him! Away with Him! Crucify Him! That's the cry of those at Jerusalem. His blood be on us and upon our children. All Jerusalem sinners are great sinners, the greatest of sinners. And yet for these great sinners, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the house of David, There is such a remarkable provision being made by the Lord God. It's for great sinners, this fountain. The greatest of sinners.

When it comes to the proclamation of this message, what do we read at the end of the Gospels? In Luke, for example, Luke 24, verse 47, repentance, and remission of sins should be preached in his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. It all begins, you see, where there's the greatest sinners. It's a gospel for sinners. The Lord himself had told them, you shall receive power after the Holy Ghost has come upon you and be witnesses unto me at Jerusalem. and Judea and Samaria and the uttermost parts of the world it all begins at Jerusalem that's where the sinners are to be found doesn't John Bunyan have that remarkable sermon on the Jerusalem sinner the Jerusalem sinner saved all their salvation for the greatest of sinners and when we see the Lord Jesus there dying upon the cross and amongst those seven sayings on the cross he addresses one doesn't he who was surely a great sinner that that dying thief and the Lord says today they shall be with me in paradise that's how he addresses a sinner

The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day. And thereof I, though vile as I, washed all my sins away. The fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness." Or we read of that woman in the house of Simon the Pharisee, how she was a sinner. And she was a great sinner. But she found forgiveness. She was the one who washed the Lord's feet with her tears and dried them with the hairs of her head. And the Lord rebuked Simon. He not even attended to the Lord properly, decently, but this woman. And what does the Lord say? Her sins, which are many, are forgiven. a multitude of sins and gone removed as far as the east is from the west infinity buried in the depths of the seas or this fountain that's open for sin and uncleanness

it's interesting how We read of Jerusalem here under siege, don't we, time and again? Back in chapter 12, verse 2, Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of trembling unto all the people round about when they shall be in the siege, both against Judah and against Jerusalem. It's repeated, in a sense, at verse 9. It shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And thinking of Jerusalem, the spiritual Jerusalem, isn't that the people of God? And isn't there a sense in which God's people are under siege? We know that Jerusalem was often under siege. It was besieged by the Assyrians, by the Babylonians time and again. The problem was it's in that fertile ark when they come from the east they don't come directly to Jerusalem they come and attack from the north really but time and again these empires rise up and they come up against Jerusalem Jerusalem always being besieged well isn't that true also of God's spiritual Jerusalem under siege there's an adversary the devil as a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour there's a world that lies in wickedness Christ says in the world you shall have tribulation that's a lot of believers in this world not only Satan but the world itself in the world tribulation be of good cheer Christ says I have overcome the world

But not only are there fightings without with the believer, there's fears within. There's inward enemies, there's the old nature. Paul says, I know that in me that is in my flesh there dwelleth no good thing. The good that I would I do not, the evil that I would not that I do. All this wretched man, bearing down upon him all the time. But there's a fountain open, you see. What is the call of the people of God? Well, they're called to sanctification, they're called to mortification. They have to mortify the deeds of the body. If she through the Spirit, Paul says, to mortify the deeds of the body, that means put them to death by the Spirit, ye shall live. We have to live that life, that life of complete and utter dependence upon the Spirit of God

but we have that promise of the Spirit of grace and of supplications back there in verse 10 of the 12th chapter all the provision the provision that the Lord God has made for His people in the person, in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ the fountain that is open for sin and for uncleanness. Now we have to look to Him. Or we have to continually look to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul says, doesn't he, to those Corinthians, of Him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us. Wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. That as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. all our salvation is only there and the Lord deals with us in such a way to bring us to realise that time and time and time again in all His dealings if we want salvation it's there in Christ if we want sanctification it's there in Christ the way the Lord deals with us to cause us to see that we must be ever looking away from ourselves but looking on to Jesus. And we look on to Him even for our faith, looking on to Him who is the author and the finisher of our faith. Oh what a day, what a provision, what a privilege is ours that we hear this glorious message, the Gospel of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ in that day.

There shall be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. O the Lord be pleased to bless the truth of it to us and to grant that we might know what it is to drink of those wells, the water of those wells of salvation in our Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord bless his word to us. Amen.