Okay, if you would now open your
Bibles with me to Genesis chapter 29. Genesis 29, we'll read the first
11 verses. And Jacob went on his journey
and came into the land of the people of the east. And he looked
and behold a well in the field. And lo, there were three flocks
of sheep lying by it. For out of that well, they watered
the flocks. And a great stone was upon the
well's mouth. And thither were all the flocks gathered. And
they rolled the stone from the well's mouth and watered the
sheep, and put the stone again upon the well's mouth in its
place. And Jacob said unto them, my
brethren, whence be ye? And they said, of Heron are we?
And he said unto them, know ye Laban, the son of Nahor? And
they said, we know him. And he said unto them, is he
well? And they said, he is well. And behold, Rachel, his daughter,
cometh with the sheep. And he said, lo, it is yet high
day. Neither is it time that the cattle should be watered
together. Water ye the sheep, and go and feed them. And they
said, we cannot, until all the flocks be gathered together,
until they roll the stone from the well's mouth. Then we water
the sheep. And while he yet spake with them,
Rachel came with her father's sheep, for she kept them. And
it came to pass when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban,
his mother's brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's
brother, that Jacob went near and rolled the stone from the
well's mouth and watered the flock of Laban, his mother's
brother. And Jacob kissed Rachel and lifted
up his voice and wept. Thank God for his word. Let's
bow together in prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven,
holy and reverent is your matchless name. Lord, we bow before your
throne of grace carefully and reverently and thankfully this
evening. So thankful that we can come
before you accepted in the person of Christ our Savior. pleading
his righteousness, his obedience as our only righteousness, pleading
his blood as the only cleansing we have from our sin, the only
payment that we have, the only way we could possibly be accepted
in thy presence is in thy dear son. And father, how thankful
we are that you've made your people accepted in the beloved,
that you have put away the sin of your people, that you put
away the sin that separated us from thee and that you drew us
near. Father, how thankful we are.
And Father, I beg of you this evening that you would enable
us to worship you in spirit and in truth. Father, be with me
as I attempt to preach your gospel. I pray you'd uphold me with thy
spirit, enable me to rightly divide the word of truth, to
preach in the power of thy spirit, not in man's eloquency or in
man's powers, but Father, in the power of thy spirit. Father,
be with your people as we hear. enable us to hear and believe,
to find our hearts comforted and assured with one more time
hearing of Christ our Savior, that he truly is everything that
we need. And Father, we pray for those
who are away from us this evening, those that you brought into the
time of trouble and trial, those who could not be with us for
whatever reason. Father, I pray you'd be with
your people. I pray that you'd comfort your people, that you
brought into the valley of trouble, that you'd Comfort their hearts
with your presence. Pray for your hand of healing
and deliverance upon them as far as only you can. And Father,
how thankful we are for this place that you've given to us,
a family of believers you've called together. Father, I pray
your continued blessing be upon each home, upon each one of us.
Father, that you'd cause us as a church body to be faithful,
to preach the gospel to our generation. We pray you bless your word as
it goes forth. All these things we ask in the
name of and for the glory of Christ our Savior. It's his name
for his sake we pray. Amen. I've titled our message
this evening, Christ Opens the Wells of Water. Tonight I want
to look at Jacob as a picture of Christ who opens the fountains
of water spiritually for his people. Our text begins verse
one, And Jacob went on his journey and came into the land of the
people of the East. Now this is the very morning after Jacob
had met the Lord at Bethel. He woke up in the morning and
he continued on his journey. And the marginal reading says
that Jacob lift up his feet. He woke up that morning going
off on his journey. He was just like he was walking
on air. He lifted up his feet. He was so happy because now he
knew the Lord was with him. The Lord had been with him before.
Jacob didn't know it. Now he knew the Lord was with him and
he was so happy. Now this journey that Jacob's
taken to go find a wife at his uncle's house was around 500
miles. He's doing that on foot all alone. I would imagine that felt pretty
scary and probably should have been, you know, at that time
people traveled in big caravans cause there's safety in numbers.
But up till now, Jacob had been all alone. But now, he felt safe. He had no worry. His heart was
just light and happy because the Lord was with him. He knew
the Lord was guiding him. He knew for sure now, I'm going
to arrive at my destination safely. I'm going to find my wife. I
know I am because the Lord's with me. The Lord's leading me.
After he met the Lord, Jacob's heart just wasn't happy anymore.
I mean, don't you imagine as he took off from his parents
even though he had a very difficult relationship with his brother
Esau. He's leaving home, he's leaving his brother, he's leaving
everybody he's ever known. And it's his fault. Reagan, his
heart was heavy at that. His heart was heavy with worry
at this journey that he was taking. But now, this morning, he wakes
up. His heart is light, and that made his feet light. He'd lift
up his feet, just like he's taking this journey, 500-mile journey
on air. And you know, as I read that,
I thought there is a definite connection between the believer's
heart and the believer's feet. It's our heart that directs our
walk. It's our heart that directs how
we walk, how we conduct ourselves, and what we do. Just like we
looked Sunday morning in the Sunday school lesson, it's the
believer's heart that leads us unto good works. It's your heart
that leads you to do those things. But the believer's heart also
directs how we walk. Our heart directs our attitude.
in doing what we're doing. And Jacob's attitude was happy. He was delighted. He was lighthearted
because he knew now the Lord was with him. And the picture
here, this is how Christ came to save his people from their
sin. He did it joyfully. He didn't come dreading his mission.
He knew he would be successful in this mission to find his sheep. Other sheep I have, which are
not of this fold, them also I must bring. There'd be one fold and
one shepherd. He knew he'd find all of his
sheep. He knew he would redeem them. He knew he'd have them
all. Even when it came time for him to go to the cross, his body
seemed to rebel against what was getting ready to happen to
him. His body, he sweat great drops of blood. He was in such
anguish. He thought he'd die at just the thought of going
to the cross. Just the thought of being made
sin. But you know how scripture describes that time? That awful
time there in the garden, he prayed on his father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, thy will be
done. That seems like such a time of
anguish to us, doesn't it? But you know how scripture describes
that time? Hebrews 12, 2, who for the joy that was set before
him, That's why He endured the cross and despised the shame.
For the joy that was set before Him. The joy of redeeming His
people from their sin. That's the thing about our hearts
tonight. Thinking of the Savior. Thinking
of His joy. He counted it a joy to suffer
and die for your sins. That make your heart light? That
make your feet just wanna... Bob Boyd tells me every once
in a while after a message he said, If I was a young man, I'd
jump up and click my heels. Doesn't make you want to jump
up and click your heels. Your feet are light because your heart is light
in thinking of the savior. Not only how he suffered and
died to put your sin away, but it was a joy to him because he
loves his people. Oh, that affects our heart, doesn't
it? Well, verse two, and he looked
and behold a well in the field. And lo, there were three flocks
of sheep lying by it. For out of that well they watered
the flocks. And a great stone was upon the well's mouth. And
thither were all the flocks gathered. And they rolled the stone from
the well's mouth and watered the sheep, and put the stone
again upon the well's mouth in its place. And Jacob said unto
them, my brother, whence be ye? And they said, of Heron are we.
And he said unto them, know ye Laban, the son of Nahor? And
they said, we know him. And he said unto them, is he
well? And they said, he is well. And behold, Rachel, His daughter
cometh with the sheep. Now Jacob came to the exact right
spot. Now he'd never been to visit
his uncle before. He didn't know where his uncle lived. He didn't
know the neighborhood or any place around there. How on earth
did Jacob end up at the exact right spot? I mean, he went 500
miles. I mean, you think he could have
veered a little to the left or a little to the right, you know?
How in this world did he end up at the exact right spot without
a map and without a GPS, without knowing where he's going. The
Lord directed Jacob, didn't he? He brought Jacob exactly where
he was supposed to be. And this is how the Lord leads
all of his people. He leads all of his people. He
does. And this you can rest assured of, he'll lead you right. He'll
bring you to the right spot. Well, verse seven, Jacob said,
lo, it's yet high day. It's high noon. It's in the heat
of the day. Neither is it time that the cattle
should be gathered together. You boys, you're here too early.
Now water ye the sheep and go and feed them. And they said,
we cannot, until all the flocks be gathered together, until they
roll the stone from the well's mouth. Then we water the sheep.
Now Jacob told these boys, it's high noon. It's high day. It's
the heat of the day. There's no shade for these sheep
to lie down in. Let's water these sheep. So you
can take them and go feed them. Let them go lay down some shady
pastures till the heat of the day passes. And these other men
said, we can't do it. We can't do it. And there are
several reasons why they couldn't water the sheep at that time.
Number one, they felt like they didn't have the strength to do
it. They didn't have the manpower to roll that stone away from
the covering of the well, so they couldn't water the sheep.
I did some reading on this, and normally, It took several men
to roll this stone from off the mouth of the water, and they
just felt like, well, there's not enough men here. Now, I have
to tell you, I think plus they're kind of lazy. I mean, they didn't
even try. Get a couple of you fellas to
get together and try, you know? And why are you here if the heat?
Why aren't you back out there in the pastures where, you know?
They seem like they're lazy to me. Seems like they're not doing
a very good job. So they would not and they could not roll the
stone from the mouth of the well. Second, they could not roll the
stone away from the well without breaking their own law. Now,
for whatever reason, this was a hard and fast rule. I have
no idea why they made this rule, but this is the rule they made.
Nobody watered the sheep till everybody was there at a set
time of day. I don't know why they did that,
but that was their rule. So if they did have the manpower
to roll the stone from the mouth of the well, they'd break the
law that they made up. And thirdly, They wouldn't roll the stone
away and they wouldn't water the sheep because they cared
more about their traditions. They care more about all the,
you know, everything looking just right. Then they cared about
being helpful and being merciful and taking care of the sheep
that they were in charge of taking care of. Now I ask you, isn't that a picture
of man's religion? Man's religion leaves us with
such a need for Christ. We need Christ because first
of all, we don't have the strength to roll the stone from the mouth
of the well. We don't have the strength that it takes to earn
eternal life. We don't have the strength that
it takes to get to the water of life for ourselves. We lack
the power to do it. We lack the power to do it because
we lack the spiritual life to do it. We can't do anything for
ourselves. So we need someone to come who's
got the strength to roll the stone from the mouth of the well.
and to give us the water of life. And that someone is the Lord
Jesus Christ. The father saw the need of his
people and he sent his son to do a job on a mission to save
his people, to give them eternal life. And I'm telling you, God's
son came with a power. He came well equipped to get
the job done. Christ came with the power to
save his people from their sin. He came with a power to deliver
them from the power of sin and the condemnation of sin. He came
with a power to put sin away. And I'm telling you, it wasn't
hard work for him either. And I'll show you more of that
here in just a minute. But we need Christ because we don't
have the strength to get to the water of life. Second, we need
Christ because if God would just give us this water, the water
of life, he'd violate his own law. He violate the demands of
his own holiness and his own righteousness and his own justice. If he didn't first meet his holy
requirements, God cannot violate his law. He cannot do it. God
has a holy nature, holy character. God's heart directs what he does
to God has a holy character and he cannot violate his holiness.
He cannot violate justice in order to save centers. See, these
other shepherds felt like, well, you know, nothing we can do.
We can't violate the law. If we roll the stone away from
the wall, we'd be breaking the law. So we're just going to sit
here and let the sheep suffer and do nothing. This is one of the millions of
reasons we're thankful God's not like us. God could not violate
His holy law. Not an option for God. But instead
of doing nothing like these fellas, the Father sent his son to do
the job that needed to be done. He sent his son to keep the law
for his people. He sent the son to establish
righteousness so that the father could do something for himself.
He sent his son to be the perfect sacrifice so the father could
do something for himself to satisfy his holiness and his righteousness
and his justice. Once God did something for himself,
then God could do something for you and me. Then he could do
something for sinners. The son came to fulfill all of
the law for his elect. He came to make sure every requirement
of God's law was met for God's elect so that the father could
be both just and the justifier of the ungodly. Thirdly, we need
Christ because we can't gain access to the water of life and
we can't gain access to it Because we're spending far too much time
caring about our religious traditions and caring about making a big
show of public religion so everybody else will see how religious and
how orthodox we are. Man's religion gets people so
caught up in religion, we miss Christ. Oh, I pray God will deliver
us from that. Because this is our nature now.
The nature of our flesh is we care a whole lot more about our
religious traditions We care more about those religious traditions
than we do seeking mercy from God. And that's true of even
believers. Years ago, Brother Henry and
I were talking, and he told me, he said, now, you're going to
be somebody's pastor someday. And I thought, Henry, you're
crazy. You're nuts. That's not going
to be. But one of the things he told me was this. He said,
now you get to be a pastor someday. Don't you go changing a bunch
of things right off. He said, wait a year, or two,
or three. Wait till you become the pastor. Wait till you earn people's trust.
Because you go messing with people's traditions, you go messing with
the way we've always done things, and people aren't going to like
you. That's believers. We care about our traditions,
don't we? We care about the way we. We got to be careful we don't
get so caught up in those religious traditions that we miss Christ. That's what's happening here.
We care. This flesh cares about making
a big show of public religion. So people think how good we are. And we're caught up trying to
gain a reputation for ourselves and we miss Christ. This is such
a polluted way of thinking, our flesh. We want to make a big
show of public religion to get people to look at us. And what's
our goal? John the Baptist told us what
our goal is. Behold the Lamb. We ought not
be wanting to get people to look at us. Our desire is to get people
to look at Christ. Go to Him. Look at Matthew chapter
23. I see that clearly in the picture
there. This is man's religion. And this is what our Lord told
the Pharisees their problem is. In Matthew chapter 23, verse 23. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
you're hypocrites. For you pay tithe of mint and
anise and cumin, these little, the smallest little herbs and
things, you know, that nobody ever even noticed. But you, boy,
you pay tithe of those things, but you've omitted the weightier
matters of the law. You've omitted judgment, you've
omitted mercy, you've omitted faith. These ought you to have
done and not to leave the other undone. They're caring so much
about their religious traditions and the laws, they're missing
mercy, they're missing faith in Christ. Now look where that
leads to in verse 28. Even so, you also outwardly appear
righteous unto men, but within you're full of hypocrisy and
iniquity. Oh, you've got the right form
of religion, don't you? You made a big show of religion
to make people think how good you are, but you've got no life
in you. You've got no cleansing in you.
We need Christ, don't we? Now Jacob, look back in our text
here. Genesis 29. That's those fellas. They just
didn't seem to care about mercy for the sheep. They didn't care
that the sheep out there in the hot sun needing something to drink.
But Jacob sees Rachel. cared about Rachel. And since
he cared about Rachel, he cared about her sheep, too. Look at
verse nine. And while they yet spake with them, Rachel came
with her father's sheep, for she kept them. And it came to
pass when Jacob saw Rachel, the daughter of Laban, his mother's
brother, and the sheep of Laban, his mother's brother, that Jacob
went near and rolled the stone from the whale's mouth and watered
the flock of Laban, his mother's brother. And Jacob kissed Rachel,
and lift up his voice and wept. Now that might seem odd to us,
this woman you've never met before kissing her and lifting up his
voice and weeping, but that was like a sign to them, just overflowing
emotion. Jacob felt love at first sight. That's exactly what was going
on with him. We first laid eyes on her. I mean, she's beautiful,
she's just, oh my goodness. He must have got just a big rush
of adrenaline or something, I don't know. But I mean, you all know
how men are. Men see that, you know, a beautiful
girl, first time they ever see you, want to show off for her,
show off your strength, show off your manliness, trying to impress
her, you know. That's what Jacob felt. Oh, he
felt love at first sight. And he wanted to impress her.
And he went to that stone and rolled that stone away all by
himself. And he went out and watered all those sheep. She
didn't have to do it. He did it all for her. Now normally, remember,
it takes several men to roll this stone away, and Jacob did
it by himself. I don't know, maybe if the Lord
gave Jacob superhuman strength or something, and something happened,
didn't it? It was adrenaline, whatever it was, you know. The
old Jewish writers, and that's what it's worth category, as
they tell this story down through the ages, they say those men
were amazed that Jacob could roll that stone away from the
well by himself. They'd never seen anything like
it, you know. And I'm telling you, his motivation was seeing
Rachel. That's what it was. It just gave
him strength and things. He's showing all four. That's
what he's doing. Now all of that is given to us as a picture of
Christ our Savior. How he came in the strength of
God to do for his people what we could not do for ourselves. I don't know if the Lord gave
Jacob some sort of superhuman strength But I know this, the
Lord Jesus Christ did have, does have superhuman strength. Excuse
me. He has divine strength. He came
with the strength of God and that's what enabled him to redeem
his people from their sin. He came with the strength of
God to obey the law for his people. He came with the strength of
God by the power of his blood. He sacrificed himself and put
away the sin of his people so that their sin is gone. That
it is no more. All the power of that. You and
I can't stop ourselves from one sin. Christ had the power to
put away all of the sin of all of his people in one sacrifice. Excuse me. I don't know what's
got in my throat. But Jacob, he rolled that great
stone from the mouth of the well all by himself. That's a picture
of Christ redeeming his people by himself, by himself. And I told you earlier, this
wasn't hard work for the Savior. Y'all bet Jacob, he sees Rachel
coming, he's thinking, I gotta impress her. He rolls up his
sleeves, he spits on his hands, I mean, he gets himself in just
the right position. He put his leg muscles and his
back muscles and his arm muscles, he's clenching his teeth doing
everything he can do to roll that stone away so he could water
those sheep. He had to do that, wouldn't you
say? When the Lord talks about redeeming His people from their
sin, He talks about using His arm. Singular. The Father redeemed
His people from their sin He says with his mighty stretched
out arm, singular. Now I'm not saying that the work
was light. No, it's the hardest, most difficult, most complicated,
most intricate work ever done in creation to put away the sin
of God's people. It was an enormous work. But the arm of the Lord accomplished
the redemption of his people by himself. And who is the arm
of the Lord? The Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
arm of the Lord who accomplished the redemption of his people
by himself. Christ came. He removed every
great stone. He removed every great obstacle
that would keep his elect from coming to the water of life and
drinking it freely. Now, how's that for an introduction? Now let me quickly give you four
wells of water. I thought, I know there's got
to be more, but I thought of these four. wells of water that
the savior opened for his people. Now I say that Christ opened
these fountains, but really truth be told, Christ is these fountains
of water. He is eternal life for his people.
He is the water of life for his people. And this is the water
that Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep gives to all of
his sheep. Now first look at John chapter
four. Christ opened the water of life.
for his people. John chapter four, verse five. Then cometh he to a city of Samaria,
which is called Sychar, near to the parcel of ground that
Jacob gave to his son Joseph. And Jacob's well was there. Jesus,
therefore, being wearied with his journey, sat thus on the
well, and it was about the sixth hour, noon. There cometh a woman
of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, give me
to drink. For his disciples were gone away into the city to buy
meat. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, how is it that
thou, being a Jew, askest drink of me which am a woman of Samaria?
For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Jesus answered
and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is
that saith to thee, give me to drink, God would have asked of
him and he would have given, given the living water. Christ gives this living water
to his people. Like I said a second ago, more
accurately, Christ is the living water for his people. Christ
is eternal life for his people. He said, I am the life. I am the life. He said, come
unto me. Don't go to religion, don't go
to the ceremonies and traditions of man's religion. Come unto
me and drink and live. He said, if you drink of me,
if you drink of my blood, of my sacrifice, you'll never die. The Savior opens the well of
eternal life for his people by giving them faith to drink of
him and to have eternal life. And I'm telling you, if you drink
of him, you'll never thirst again, never thirst. That brings me
to the second thing. Christ opened the well of water
that makes his people righteous. Now we feel thirst and we say
I'm thirsty. The reason we feel thirsty is
that it's our body's way of telling us you don't have enough water
in your body. It's our body's, you know, kind
of like those little lights that come up on your dash, tell you
something's wrong with your car, you know, you need something.
Thirst is our body's way of telling us, you don't have enough water
in your body. Before God shows mercy to his people, the old
timers used to say he salts them. He salts them. He makes people
hungry and thirsty. They hunger and thirst after
righteousness. They're thirsty for righteousness
because God's made them realize, I don't have any and I need some. I need righteousness. And you
know if you hunger and thirst after righteousness, if you find
yourself needing Christ, your righteousness, you need righteousness,
you find out that I must have Christ. If God's made you thirst
like that, my friend, you're blessed. God has blessed you.
Because you know what the Savior said in Matthew 5, verse 6? Blessed
are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for
they shall be filled. If God salts you and makes you
thirsty, thirsty for righteousness, he'll fill you, he'll fill you. And the Lord tells this Samaritan
woman he's talking to here that the spiritual water he gives
his people makes it so they never thirst after righteousness again.
They don't thirst for righteousness because he makes them righteous,
makes them righteous. Look at verse 13. Jesus answered
and said unto her, whosoever drinketh of this water, shall
thirst again. We're talking about something
a whole lot better than physical water. But whosoever drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that
I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing
up into everlasting life. Oh, if Christ is your righteousness,
you'll never thirst again because you are righteous. You're eternally
righteous. You've got a well. You didn't
just get a drink of water. You got a spring of water springing
up in your heart. Christ, our savior, has opened
the fountain of righteousness for his people. He makes them
righteous by dwelling in them. All right, now look across the
page to John 5, verse 1. Here's the third thing. Christ
has opened a fountain of healing for his people. After this, there
was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. Now,
there is at Jerusalem by the sheep market a pool, which is
called in the Hebrew tongue Bethesda. having five porches. In these
lay a great multitude of impotent folk, blind, all withered, waiting
for the moving of the water. For an angel went down at a certain
season into the pool and troubled the water. Whosoever then first,
after the troubling of the water, stepped in, was made whole of
whatsoever disease he had. And a certain man was there,
which had an infirmity 30 and eight years, when Jesus saw him
lie and knew that He had been now a long time in that case.
He saith unto him, Wilt thou be made whole? The impotent man
answered him, Sir, I have no man when the water is troubled
to put me into the pool. But while I am coming, another
steppeth down before me. Jesus saith unto him, Rise, take
up thy bed and walk. And immediately the man was made
whole and took up his bed and walked. And on the same day,
was the Sabbath. Now the Lord healed this poor
man just by speaking to him. He didn't need to trouble the
water and help the man into the water. The Lord healed him just
by speaking to him. Just like he does everything
else, he healed this man all on his own, didn't he? Just the
power of his word. Our Lord is the great physician. It's him. If we ever have any
physical ailment, and we get healed of it, the Lord did it. The Lord did it. Now he almost
certainly is gonna use means, doctors and nurses and medicines
and these kinds of things. If you got something wrong with
you, go to the doctor. But if you're healed, the Lord
did it. He uses means, but the Lord did it. But spiritually
speaking, it is the Lord. Christ our savior who heals his
people of every spiritual disease that we have. And it's a good
thing because we don't just have a spiritual disease. Like, you
know, it's, it's, I got something wrong with me inside. You know,
you really can't see it. I got a leaky heart valve say,
but you know, you can't see it. That's not the kind of disease
we're talking about. All we are is a mass of spiritual disease,
wickedness and uncleanness. And the Lord takes His people
and He heals every spiritual wound, every bruise, every putrefying
sore that had been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with
ointment. It's Christ who makes His people whole. You don't need
the troubled waters of Bethesda to be healed if you have Christ. You don't need the ceremony.
You don't need the tradition. didn't really look at this this
week, but I remember seeing this before that some of the commentators
think that people probably were actually healed here, but there
was a lot of acting going on. You know, somebody just said,
oh, you know, I got a hurt ankle, and they just pretend like the
waters were troubled. They'd jump in, then they'd jump
out and say, ooh, you know, I'm healed. Everybody would think,
you know, how special they are. They think there was a lot of
trickery going on on there. You don't need that ceremony.
You don't need that tradition if you have Christ. And just
like our shepherds there didn't care much about the sheep, the
Lord did this on the Sabbath day. The man took up his bed.
He'd been laying there how many years? Took up his bed and walked
home. And all the Pharisees could care
about was this man was carrying his bed on the Sabbath day. You're
breaking our laws. You're breaking our tradition.
It never crossed their mind the power and mercy of God to heal
this man. See how easily it is to get hung
up on those traditions? They were mad. Oh my goodness. We're a mess, aren't we? Well,
you'll be set free from all that if you have Christ. Now look
at Zechariah chapter 13. Here's the last thing I want
to show you. Here's how the Lord heals all
the sin sicknesses of His people. Christ has opened a fountain
of water for the cleansing of his people. Zechariah 13, verse one. In that day there should be a
fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. And here Zechariah
is prophesying of the death of our Savior. He's not just talking
about a fountain of blood. I have to confess to you, when
I read that verse, I typically think about a fountain of blood.
He's not just talking about a fountain of blood. Zechariah is prophesying
about a fountain of blood and water. Blood and water that gives
the double cure for sin. When that Roman soldier pierced
the side of our Savior, he's already gave up the ghost, he's
already dead, but just for meaning's sake, he poked that spear in
the side of our Savior. What happened? John said, I saw
this. Out flowed blood and water. A
fountain of blood and water that gives the double cure for what
Zacharias says here is sin and uncleanness. We need both. Sin's
gotta be taken care of. Sin's gotta be paid for. And
we've gotta be washed from our uncleanness. We need blood and
water. The fountain of cleansing that
came from our Savior's side. We need blood. His precious,
sinless blood to atone for sin, to pay for sin. And we need that
water, that pure water that flowed from His side to cleanse us from
the uncleanness of our sin, the filth of our sin. And if you've
been washed in that fountain, that fountain of water and blood,
you don't ever have to worry about sin and uncleanness ever
again. You've been washed. If you've
been washed in that fountain that flowed from our Savior's
side, the blood and water, you're white as snow. You're debt-free,
and you're white as snow, and you always will be. Oh, what
a fountain our Savior has opened for His people. Aren't you glad
He came and by Himself rolled that stone away and gave this
water to His sheep? All right, I hope that'll bless
you. Let's vow together. Our Father, how we thank you
for your word this time we've had together to look into it.
How we thank you for Christ, the water of life. Father, I
pray you'd come as our great shepherd and water your sheep,
water your sheep, feed your sheep tonight. We've gathered together
in the heat of the day, in the heat of the middle of this week,
the heat, the dry, barren deadness of this world. Father, I pray
you'd roll the stone away Let that water of life, the refreshing,
cleansing water of life flow out on your people. Enable us
to go home tonight like Jacob left Bethel so many years ago. Let us lift up our feet. Let
our hearts be light. Let's lift up our feet. Go home
on clouds. Thankful, thankful for the sacrifice
of our Lord Jesus Christ and his love and his care for his
people. Father, bless us for Christ's sake, we pray. Is it
his name for his glory? We pray. Amen. All right, Sean.