There is a fountain filled with
blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath
that flood, lose all their guilty stain. That was the verse, it
is said, that William Cowper was reading when he wrote that
hymn in chapter 13 of Zechariah 7 verse 1, which says, in that
day, what day is that? That's the day of our Lord. there
shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness." And
that fountain, of course, is the fountain of the blood of
Christ, which leads to another fountain, the fountain of the
Holy Spirit's life-giving power to bring us to a saving knowledge
of Christ. Zechariah, in his prophecy had
been speaking of that future day of salvation for God's chosen
people, not only among the Jews. Now he specifies a lot of his
prophecy is concerning God's remnant in the Jewish nation.
The Jewish nation as a whole forsook the Lord God, forsook
Christ, but there was always a remnant. And Zechariah has
a lot to say about that remnant, that remnant according to the
election of grace. But he didn't neglect to make
sure that we understand that God has a remnant not only out
of the Jewish nation, but he has a remnant out of the Gentile
nations too. And so, back over in Zechariah
chapter 12, verse 10, I've got this cited in your lesson. God's
prophesying that he's going to bring this remnant of grace You
know, Paul spoke of it in Romans chapters 9, 10, and 11. He's
gonna bring them to faith and repentance. And look at what
I wrote here, what I copied here from the scriptures. In Zechariah
12 and verse 10, he prophesies, he said, I will pour upon the
house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace
and of supplications, and they shall look upon me whom they
have pierced. That's obvious reference to Christ
on the cross. And they shall mourn for him,
as one mourneth for his only son. Now that could be considered
the remnant of the Jews who took part in that crucifixion, in
what we would call from the viewpoint of man murder, but we know it
was all of God, God's providence. It was God that smote him, and
so but they're gonna look on him whom they pierced. Well,
we participated in that too spiritually because it was Jew and Gentile.
And he said, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that
is in bitterness for his firstborn. And that speaks of the work of
the Holy Spirit bringing sinners who have by nature rejected the
Lord God in Christ to be mournful, to be repentant, to be faithful,
to look to him. whom we rejected. You know, rejecting
Christ is the equivalent of saying crucify. Do you know that? When we hear that, when we first,
all of us by nature reject the gospel message until God the
Holy Spirit gives us a heart to believe it. But when we reject
it, when we ignore it, and even being ignorant of it, it's the
same as being with that crowd and saying crucify. That's what
we need to understand. And so what he's done in the
power of the Holy Spirit, and that's all based upon what Christ
would accomplish at the cross, that fountain open, he's given
us a heart of repentance, looking upon him whom we have pierced.
And so all of this revolves around the fountain open. Now here in
Zechariah 13, he speaks of that day when the ground of salvation
of God's people would be realized and established in history in
that day. I think it was what we read last
week or the week before, said he's gonna remove the sins of
the people in one day. That's the cross of Christ. By
one offering, he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. And so he's going to shed his
blood, the fountain open. There is a fountain filled with
blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And the shedding of his
blood would be for the sin and the uncleanness of his people.
He identifies them as the house of David and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. And what he's speaking of is
his sheep. He said he died for the sheep.
He's not talking about just the nation Israel there. Because
if that were the case, then the whole nation would be saved.
Gentiles would be excluded. But when Christ identified the
people for whom he died, he said the good shepherd gives his life
for his sheep. And who are his sheep? Well,
they're the ones who hear his voice in the gospel. So he speaks
of that day when Christ's sheep experienced the reality in ourselves
by the power of the spirit of our redemption, redeemed by the
blood of the lamb, of our justification. when we look to Him we see that
our sins are completely forgiven because that fountain was open
on our behalf, the blood of Christ. Our justification, righteousness
established because we're just before God based upon his righteousness
imputed. And that includes the forgiveness
of sins, the cleansing of our souls, the life-giving spirit,
and it couldn't mean just the physical inhabitants of Jerusalem.
How do you know that? Because the blood of bulls and
goats could not accomplish that. Could not accomplish it at all.
It refers to the spiritual inhabitants of the heavenly Jerusalem. That's
who it's talking about. which includes God's remnant
from the Jews and the Gentiles. And Paul dealt with that. He
speaks of that in his epistles. He clarifies that so well. He is not a Jew which is one
outwardly, but he's a Jew which is one inwardly. Who are the
children of Abraham, the seed of Abraham? They're the ones
who have been brought to faith in Christ and repentance. And
look at verse two, he says, it shall come to pass in that day,
saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the
idols out of the land and they shall no more be remembered.
And also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass
out of the land. Now, when, you know, our nation,
our world is full of idols, and full of false preachers. I mean,
they're numerous, and Christ said that. That's gonna be up
until the time he comes. Well, the nation of Israel, Judah,
was full of idols and full of false prophets. What he's speaking
of here is the spiritual condition of the church, the true church
of Christ. It's not gonna be an idolatrous
nation. It's not gonna be full of false
prophets. It's gonna be worshiping the true and living God. We are
the circumcision which worship God in the spirit. We rejoice
in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. The true church
is not a place of idolatry and false doctrine. False prophets. The world is
still full of it. So that's what he's talking about.
When this fountain is open, the people of God are brought to
Christ, they're going to believe in Him and repent of idolatry
and dead works. Now, we still have a spirit of
the flesh that tries to draw us away from Christ and tries
to get our minds on other things, even idols sometimes, and we
have to fight that spirit But our spiritual condition before
God is sinners saved by grace, washed in the blood of Christ,
clothed in his righteousness imputed, and that can never change.
And he's given us the truth. The truth has set us free. What
truth? The gospel truth of how God saves
sinners. Now look at verse three, he says,
and it shall come to pass that when any shall yet prophesy that
his father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him,
thou shalt not live. His own mother and father would
say, he shall not live. For thou speakest lies in the
name of the Lord and his father and his mother that begat him
shall thrust him through when he prophesied. Now you know that's
a reference back to the old covenant. You know what was to happen to
false preachers, false priests in the old covenant? They were
to be killed publicly, judicially, not with some lynch mob, but
that was the penalty under the old covenant. Well, we don't
live under the old covenant, and we're not commanded to go out
here and kill false preachers and kill idolaters. We're not
commanded to do that. But what he's simply saying here
is that we're to recognize the fact that those who worship false
gods, those who believe false gospels, that they're lost even
if there are nearest or dearest relatives in the flesh. And you
know that's true because Christ himself spoke of this. He spoke
of how a man's foes would be those of his own household. his
mother and his father, the child, the gospel, listen, the gospel
brings a glorious unity and fellowship between the people of God, but
it brings division between us and the world, even our families
who are in the world. And you remember even Luke said
over in Luke 14, I've got this side, those who hate not mother
and father, more, you know, they cannot be my disciple Christ.
What he's saying there is not that we're to have a sinful hatred
towards our mothers and fathers or any family member, because
that's sinful. In fact, we're told in the Bible
to love our enemies. But what he says that, what does
he mean? Is he being contradictory? No, he's saying this, we're to
love them and pray for them, pray for their salvation, but
we're to reject them as to religious fellowship. We're to recognize
that if God doesn't bring them to saving faith in Christ, they're
under his wrath and condemned. And that's the point that Zechariah
is making here while living under the old covenant. Under the new
covenant, we have that command to pray for our enemies, bless
them that despiteful use, but that doesn't mean have religious
fellowship with them. That doesn't mean compromise
our principles and our convictions. in order to have peace with them.
Remember Christ said, I didn't come to bring peace, but a sword.
And that's when he said a man's foes will be those of his own
household. So in other words, Zechariah is making it clear
now, this is not going to unite the physical Jewish nation, this
fountain open. It's going to divide. Even mothers
and fathers and their children, it'll divide them. But he says,
look at verse four, he says, and it shall come to pass in
that day that the prophet shall be ashamed every one of his vision,
every one that is ashamed. When he hath prophesied, neither
shall they wear a rough garment to deceive. Now what's that all
about? Well, he's simply telling us
a fact. There are gonna be some false
preachers who will be converted. Amen. I know every one of you can think
of one glaring example of that, can't you? Who would it be? Anybody know? Paul. The Apostle Paul. And there were
others. Paul was a false preacher and
he was converted. There'd be some false preachers
and some priests converted in that day. And it says they'll
be ashamed, every one of his vision. The vision means they
claim to have the word of God, but what they claimed was the
word of God, when they're converted, they'll be ashamed of that. Preaching
a false gospel. I preached a false gospel before
God brought me to a saving knowledge of Christ, and I'm ashamed of
what I preached. Well, what about this wearing
a rough garment? Well, back then, a prophet wearing a rough garment
was like a man saying, I'm in the lineage of Elijah who wore a
rough garment. And they wore those to appear
to be prophets. And you know, false preachers
and false prophets, they're big on appearance. Remember Christ
said to the Pharisees, he said, you do indeed appear to be righteous
unto men. You want to stand out there and
appear to be a prophet. But God's true prophets know
that the only garment that means anything before God is the garment
of his son's righteousness imputed to him. So in other words, we're
not gonna stand on appearance. My salvation and my acceptance
with God is not in how I look or what I wear. It's in Christ. I'm accepted
in the beloved. And so I'm not gonna put on airs
like that. He says in verse five, but he
shall say, I am no prophet. I'm a husbandman for man taught
me to keep cattle from my youth. In other words, they're gonna
stop prophesying lies and go back to keeping cattle. That's
really what that's saying. They're gonna do something useful
now. They're gonna be farmers. Now I never was a farmer and
I didn't go back to farming when I became converted. That's the image that we're having
here. That these guys who are converted,
they will praise the Lord, they will be ashamed of their message,
and they'll go back to doing something useful, something productive. Because false prophecy is nothing
but leading sinners on the broad road that leads to destruction.
And that's certainly not productive or useful. In verse six he says,
and one shall say unto him, what are these wounds in thy hands?
Then he shall answer, those with which I was wounded in the house
of my friends. Now I believe he's talking about
the false preachers here who've been converted. Some people apply
this to Christ because the wounds in his hands, but he says those
which I was wounded in the house of my friends. If it did apply
to Christ, It would be something to the equivalent of saying like
we read in John 1 11, which he said, he came unto his own and
his own received him not. But I don't have any other reference,
I've only found one person who made this an application to Christ
himself. No gospel commentator that I've
read has done that. And so what I think it's saying
here is that these false preachers who are converted, who are ashamed
of their message, who go back to doing something productive,
people are going to come and say, what in the world has happened
to you? What's happened? And they're going to say, well,
he'll answer, those are the wounds. The wounds being the convictions
of the spirit. He's been wounded. And that's
what the Spirit does when he brings us to Christ, doesn't
he? He wounds us, he slays us by the law, he brings us down
off of our pride and into the dust, and then he lifts us up
with joy to Christ. What's happened to you? You remember
that happened to Paul. There were people saying, is
this really Saul of Tarsus? Is this the same guy? You're
consorting with him? You remember Ananias, when he
got the vision from God that Paul was coming to him, he was
afraid. He said, are you this guy now? What's happened to him? Have
you ever had people ask you that? Or in some way, when you got
brought out of false religion, they said, well, what's happened
to you? Well, we've been wounded with the wounds of a friend.
And that friend is Christ. Well, look at verse seven. He
says, Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man
that is my felon. Now this is speaking of Christ
here. Christ, and some of these words
here, Christ himself quoted, applying it to himself in Matthew
26, and I've got that cited. But here's what we know, that
Christ is the shepherd, the great shepherd, the good shepherd,
the chief shepherd. who laid his life down for his sheep.
And he is God's fellow. Now that means God's equal. Somebody
said it's partner, but it's God's equal. Christ is the Son of God
incarnate. And he's equal with the Father
and the Spirit. And saith the Lord of hosts,
smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. Smiting the
shepherd. This is God smiting the shepherd. This is God giving that command.
Something similar to what you read in Isaiah 53 10, it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. So he was not, listen, he wasn't
taken by force. You remember that in the garden
when the soldiers came to get him and they said, he asked,
who do you seek? And they said, we seek Jesus
of Nazareth. And he said, I am. And they fell back. Peter tried
to stop him. He cut the guy's ear off and
Christ picked up the ear and put it back on. He said, this
is what he came into the world to do. This was his purpose. But he was smitten of his enemies,
and the sheep would be scattered, and I will turn mine hand upon
the little ones. When he was arrested and when
he went to trial, his disciples scattered. And then later on,
after his death, burial, resurrection, and ascension, his disciples
were scattered throughout the world, and that ended up spreading
the gospel into the Gentile world. So that's what he means. He gathers
us together in his bosom, the scripture says. But in this world,
we're scattered out. We've got brethren all over this
world. They're not the majority. There's a few of them, but they're
out there. So we're scattered, and verse
eight says, and it shall come to pass, then in all the land,
saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die, but
the third shall be left therein. Now this is not literal math.
This is just simply saying that the majority of the world will
reject Christ and die in unbelief and end up condemned. But there's
a third part, and it's not literally a third, so don't get out your
calculators and say, well, what's the population of the world?
And say a third of them are believers. But a third of them means it's
just a small remnant, a small part, the vast minority. And he says in verse nine, and
I will bring the third part through the fire, that's the trials,
the sufferings, the persecutions we go through, and we'll refine
them as silver is refined, that's what God's doing to us through
these trials, these sufferings, these chastisements, and we'll
try them as gold tried, and they shall call on my name. How are
you gonna know who this remnant is? How are they gonna be identified? Well, they'll call on his name.
What is His name? Well, He's got many names. But
He's God our Savior. He's Jesus Christ, crucified,
risen from the dead. He's Emmanuel, God, we could
go on. He's Jehovah Sid Canoe, the Lord
our righteousness. His name is how He's identified
and distinguished in this book. Who is Jesus Christ? The glory
of His person, the power of His finished work, the success of
it. And He says they'll call on His name and I'll hear them.
That's grace. That's mercy. How do you know
if you call on the name of the Lord, he'll hear you? Because
he said he would. And he's faithful to his promises. He never goes
back. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. And he said, I
will say it is my people, and they shall say the Lord is my
God. That's that spiritual, eternal, unbreakable union. between the
Lord God and his people through Christ. That's like a marriage,
that's a covenant that cannot be broken. He says, this is my
people. And they'll say, the Lord is
my God. Amen.