Okay. When our Lord began his public
ministry in Nazareth, he went to the synagogue where he had
been every week for 30 years and took the scroll and stood
up and read from Isaiah chapter 61. Among people who knew him, where
was he wounded? In the house of his friends.
And he said, the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he has
anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. Are you poor? He has sent me to heal the broken
hearted. Are you broken hearted? To preach
deliverance to the captive. Are you captive? recovery of sight to the blind.
Are you blind? And to set at liberty them that
are bruised, to preach the year of jubilee, the acceptable year
of the Lord. Every 50th year, the law stated
that all the property that had been sold went back to its original
owner, all debts were canceled, and all slaves were set free.
And that's what the Lord came to preach. The property that
you lost. That your father Adam had when
he walked with God in the cool of the day has been restored.
The debt. For sin. Has been. Taken care of and paid. And the
slavery to sin. An unbelief. Set free. That's what he came to do. He'd
be pleased to do that here today. Let's stand together. Tom's going
to come lead us in number 143. Rejoice! Rejoice! The Lord is King. Number 143. ? Rejoice, the Lord is King ? Your
Lord and King adore ? Rejoice, give thanks and sing ? And triumph
evermore ? Lift up your heart Lift up your voice, rejoice again,
I say rejoice. Jesus the Savior reigns, the
God of truth and love. When he had purged our stains,
he took his seat above. Lift up your heart. Lift up your voice. Rejoice again. I say rejoice. His kingdom cannot fail He rules
o'er earth and heaven The keys of death and hell Are to our
Jesus given Lift up your heart Lift up your voice, rejoice again,
I say rejoice. Rejoice in glorious hope, our
Lord the Judge shall come, and take his servants up to their
eternal home. Lift up your hearts, Lift up
your voice, rejoice again, I say rejoice. Please be seated. For God's call to worship, please
turn with me to Ephesians chapter four. Ephesians chapter four. And Paul is preaching to the
Gentiles in Ephesus. And he's sharing with them the
mystery of the gospel, one of the mysteries, about the dual
nature between the flesh and the new man. And in verse 17,
Paul says, this I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord that
ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk in the vanity of
their minds. having they had their understanding
darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that is in them because of the blindness of their heart, who
being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness
to work all uncleanness with greediness. That's the way we
came into this world. A nature, we're all the same
nature, came in with one nature, that we inherited from our father
Adam and Eve, a nature that is in bondage to sin. And we spend
our lives trying to satisfy the lusty desires of our heart and
mind. And if God doesn't intervene,
we die in that nature. But oh, thanks be to God, he
does. He says in verse 20, but you
have not so learned Christ. You've learned Christ, you're
different. If so, be that you have heard him and have been
taught by Christ as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off
concerning the former conversation, the old man, that old man that
ruled you no longer rules you, which is corrupt according to
the deceitful lusts. and be renewed in the spirit
of your mind and that you put on the new man, which after God
is created in righteousness and true holiness. One of the mysteries
is, is that that old nature doesn't die. It remains with us, doesn't
it? And it's, as they explain, it's like a weight on our back
we carry with us every day. and I'm sure I speak, I know
I speak for me, it doesn't get any better. That's the difference
to me between religion and the gospel. Religion's always trying
to reform the old man, and it can't be reformed. The gospel
says look to the new man, look to Christ, look to Christ. I'd like to, I'm not very smart,
so I'd like to take other people, something that's blessed me,
The words of John Newton. Mr. Newton says, I am not what
I ought to be. And I am not what I want to be. And I am not what I hope to be
in another world. But still, I'm not what I once
used to be. There's a new man. And by the
grace of God, I am what I am. God gives us by his spirit, makes
us a new creature in Christ. And we are not what we used to
be. And one day we'll be like him.
That's the hope of every believer. Let us try to go to the Lord
in prayer. Lord, we ask this morning that you enable us to
worship you in truth And Lord, that you would meet
with us and speak to us. We pray for our brother and for
your people wherever they meet for the gospel preacher you sent.
Lord, that you anoint them with your spirit and you give them
the ability to speak Christ clearly and concisely and completely. And as your people, you give
us the spirit of your faith to believe on you and to rest in
you and to rejoice and to worship you. And we thank thee, Lord,
that you have made us a new creature in Christ. Lord, and we confess that salvation
is all of the Lord, and we pray that you receive all the glory. Amen. Let's stand together once again.
We'll sing the hymn that's on the back of your bulletin. This promise is proclaimed to
all who trust in Christ. Christ Jesus keeps his saints
secure. They cannot be condemned. Though oft I sin, I know, And
feel so very low, Nothing I say, or feel, or do, Will change my
God, I know. His word can never be broken
or changed at all. This sinner justified by grace
from grace can never fall. No sin can justice charge against
my ransomed soul. When Jesus died, he paid my debt,
not part, but paid in whole. Please be seated. Our text will be found in Zechariah
chapter 13. Again, verse 1 this morning. If you'd like to mark your Bibles
there and then turn with me to Revelation chapter 7. I want
us to look at a verse of scripture by way of introduction on this
message of a fountain opened. A fountain opened. That's the
title of this message. Verse 13 of Revelation chapter
7 and one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these
which are arrayed in white robes? And whence come they? John has
been given a revelation of heaven, and he sees a multitude of people
that are all robed in white. And I said unto him, Sir, thou
knowest. And he said to me, These are
they which came out of the Great Tribulation. Now, contrary to
what the religionists will tell you, the
Great Tribulation is not some period of time where all hell's
gonna break loose in this world. All hell's already broke loose
in this world, and the Great Tribulation is the entire history
of this world. So this is for me and you. We've
come out of the great tribulation. God's people, the Lord says,
in this world, you will suffer tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world. I've
conquered this world, and in me, you're going to be brought
out of the great tribulation. These are they which came out
of the great tribulation and have washed their robes and made
them white in the blood of the lamb. Every single person when they
leave this world will either be whitewashed or they will be
washed white. Whitewashing is what religion
does. The Lord said of the Pharisees,
he said, you're whitewashed tombs. And it's just a thin cover of
white chalky paint that doesn't last when the rain comes. And
when the rain of God's judgment comes, no whitewashing will be
sufficient. We've got to be washed white,
not whitewashed. Man-made religion is all about
cleaning up the outside, making a man look better on the outside. But for us to stand in the presence
of this company in glory, we've got to have a robe that's been
washed white in the blood of lamb and that is the fountain. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners, sinners, they got
to be a sinner, that's a qualification. The sinners plunge beneath that
flood shall be washed white from all their stains. All their stains. Turn to me to Zachariah. Zachariah Chapter 13. We saw. From. Last Sunday, how many times
this phrase in that day is mentioned? And I want to say again. By way
of. Remembrance that that day is
today. It's today. This is the day. There shall be a fountain opened
to the house of David. This fountain isn't open to everybody.
It's opened to the house of David. It's opened to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. No one else is interested in
this fountain. I told the men in the study this morning that
I spoke to two men this week, two men. Invited them to services,
tried to talk to them about the gospel, and asked them to go
online and check out some things about the church. And the first
one was a young professional man who was climbing the ladder
and obviously had already achieved some success and had great goals.
And he literally looked at me and scoffed and thought, you
think I'm so foolish that I need that? The second one said, I've
already got plans to go to another church this Sunday. Thank you
very much. We're not interested. How thankful I am for you. How thankful I am for the difference
that the Lord has made of us, causing us to be thirsty. You
know, they say you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make
him drink. You can lead a man to the fountain, but you can't
make him drink. But what you can do is let a horse lick on some
salt block for a few minutes, and he'll want to drink. And
the scripture says that you are the salt of the earth. The gospel
is like salt. It makes men thirsty. And it
makes us want to drink from the fountain that flows freely. from
the veins of our Immanuel. The Lord said of the world in
Jeremiah chapter 2, you have committed two evils. You have
forsaken the fountain of living water. That's the gospel of God's
free grace in the glorious person and accomplished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's what he said to the woman
at the well. He said, he said, if you knew who it is that saith
unto thee, give me to drink, you would ask of him and he would
give you living water, living water. You wouldn't have to depend
on the water of this well. You'd have water flowing up from
your belly or from your soul. That's what we need. We need that water that flows
clear as crystal from the throne of God and from the Lamb. And this book concludes with,
if any man thirst, if any man thirst, let him come and drink
freely. from the water of life. But the
Lord says of the world, you've committed two evils. You have
forsaken the fountain of living water and you have hewned for
yourself cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water. That's what men do. They hew
for themselves broken cisterns. They put all their hope in accomplishing
some material success and wealth in this world, like the first
man I tried to talk to this week. Or they hew for themselves the
broken cistern of man-made religion where they are put under the
law and forced to bear the burden of their own sins by trying to
atone for themselves. The Lord says there's a fountain.
A fountain should be opened and it's going to be open to the
house of David. It's going to be open to the
inhabitants of Jerusalem and I'm going to feed them the salt
of my gospel and they're going to come and they're going to
drink freely from that fountain and they're going to be delivered
from their sin and from their uncleanness. The Lord said, I
did not come for the righteous, but for the ungodly and for sinners. You see, the self-righteous have
no interest in this fountain. They're satisfied with their
broken cisterns. that have a few drops of polluted
water in the bottom oven, and they're lapping up that water
and getting sick with the lies of this world, and they have
no idea that there's a fountain open to the house of David and
to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to which God calls his people
to come and drink freely. The Lord said, the well not need
a physician. The well don't need a physician,
but the sick, the sick, the broken, the sinner. You see, this fountain
is open for sin and for uncleanness. And so unless you are a sinner
and unless you are unclean, you have no access to this fountain. And this fountain is the first
and it's the last, and it's the only solution to sin and uncleanness. This is a faithful say worthy
of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save centers. Preach the gospel to the poor,
the brokenhearted, the bound, the enslaved, the blind. That's who it's for. The world
sees no need for it. They see no need for it, but
you do, don't you? Why? Because God's made you to
be a sinner. Don't take that away from me.
You know, what does the world say? I'm not a sinner. Well,
I'm sorry. There's no hope for you if you're
not a sinner. That's what the Pharisees said. Are you suggesting
that we're blind? And what'd the Lord say? If you
were blind, then your sins would be forgiven you. But because
you see, therefore your sins remain. Salvation's only for
the sinner. It's only for the unclean. We
don't call men sinners in order to excuse sin. And we don't call
men sinners in order to put on them a burden of shame and guilt
so that they're led to some sort of self-atonement. That's not
why we call men sinners. We call men sinners because it's
the only hope of their salvation. Being a sinner and being unclean
is what delivers me from the guilt and the shame of sin. What'd the Lord say? Stand fast. in the liberty wherewith Christ
has made you free. And be not entangled again with
the yoke of bondage. Don't go back to Egypt. Don't
go back to the law. Don't try to atone for your own
sins. Don't go back to that broken cistern. There's a fountain that's
been opened. And it's for sin and for uncleanness. Now really there's two fountains
spoken of in the scriptures. One's a fountain of blood. And
that's for sin. And that's drawn from Emmanuel's
veins. A sinner's plunge beneath that flood will lose all their
guilty stains. And then there's a fountain of
water. The fountain of blood is for justification. You and
I are not going to be justified before a holy God apart from
the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's got to put his blood
on the mercy seat. But by that blood, we are justified. And sin is put away. And then
uncleanness has to do with water and it has to do with sanctification
that has to do with made being made holy. And where do we find
that water? Where do we find it? We find
the same place we find the blood, but the water spoken of in the
scriptures is the word of God. It's the washing of the water
by the word of God. What does the Word of God do?
The Word of God reveals the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
So every time we go to God's Word, what does this tell me
about Christ? What does this tell me about the fountain that's
been opened? What does this give? How does this passage of scripture
give me hope? I'm a sinner and I'm unclean? Turn to me to 1 John 1. 1 John
1. You see, only the thirsty will
come to this fountain that's been opened. Only the unclean. Will go to the scriptures. To
look for hope in Christ. Only the center. Will come to
the altar where the blood has been shed. And look to that same
sanctifying, justifying blood of Christ that God's looking
to. 1st John chapter 1, verse 8. If we say that we have no sin,
now the word sin there is used as a noun. In other words, if
we say that we're not sinners, if we say that we have not, it's
not used as a verb here, it's used as a noun. Any man say that
he's not a sinner, that he has no, that he's not, but you see
sin is what we are by nature. The scripture speaks of sin and
transgression and iniquity. Sin is what we are, transgression
is what we do when we violate God's law, and iniquity is what
we do when we try to atone for our sin. Okay? So the scripture says if any
man say that he have no sin, that he's not a sinner by nature,
that everything about him is not sinful. We deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us. Oh, being a sinner is my hope
of salvation. The fountains only open to sinners.
We're not calling each other a sinner to justify sin. We're
not calling each other a sinner in order to try to try to put
a burden of shame and guilt on men. It's being called a sinner
that drives me to the fountain. It's the only hope that I have.
And if we say that we have no sin, the truth's not in us. If we confess. I've told you
this before, I don't like using Greek words because it makes
people sometimes think, well, if I don't know the original
language and a Greek scholar, I'm not a Greek scholar, but
this word's very simple. It's very simple. The word homo,
which you know means the same. Homo, H-O-M-O. It's a Greek prefix
in many words. And the word logos, and that's
the word for word. The Logos dwelt among us. Homologia, that's the word for
confess. What is God saying? When he says
confess your sins, is he saying make a list of all your sins?
You don't have the time nor the ability to do that. What is God
saying? Speak the same thing about your
sin that I speak about it. That's what it is to confess
sin. It's to say, yes, Lord, I am vile. It's to say, yes,
Lord, in me dwelleth no good thing. It's to say, yes, Lord,
every thought and imagination of my heart is only evil, and
that continually. Everything about me is sinful.
I confess. I agree with God. I speak the
same word about myself that God says about me if we confess our
sins. You see, Forgiveness can only
be had through confession. Confession can only be had through
faith because you're not going to see yourself as a sinner until
you see him as holy, undefiled, sinless, and separate from sinners. Only when Isaiah saw the Lord
Jesus Christ high and lifted up did he say, woe is me. Only
after the Lord God spoke to Job did he say, behold, I'm vile,
I'm a sinner. So that's why we preach Christ,
because Christ Jesus the Lord is the standard of sinlessness.
And we look to him and we say, Lord, I need a fountain. I need
a fountain for sin and for uncleanness. If you confess your sins, he
is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins and cleanse
you of all of your unrighteousness. Now look at verse nine. If we
confess our sins, now that's a verb. In other words, when the spirit
of God convicts you is something you've thought or done is sinful,
wrong before God, confess it. Agree with God about it. Don't
excuse it. Don't blame it on somebody else. Can you imagine how many accusations
David hurled at men for those nine months between the time
he went into Bathsheba and the time Nathan came and said to
him, thou art the man? Nathan gave him a scenario of
a man who had taken his neighbor's one ewe lamb and slayed it for
his guest. And David was enraged, he was
furious. He said, kill him, take everything
from him, restore him to what he's stolen. And would Nathan say, David,
David, you're the problem. You're the man. That's what confessing
is. Confessing is taking full responsibility
for your sin. And let me say this. Two people,
whether it be a husband and wife, or whether it be brethren in
Christ, or whether it be, accept full responsibility for their
own sin, instead of pointing the finger to the other and saying,
you're the problem, there's not a single problem that can't be
solved. Not a single problem that can't
be solved. Our problems are caused because we're pointing the finger
at somebody else, trying to blame them for our faults, aren't we? If we confess our sins, he is,
if we say that we have not sinned, that's the verb. We make him a liar and his word
is not in us. You know, the world says it's not
your fault. You go to therapy or counseling and they're going
to try to find something, a problem with the way you were potty trained
or the way you were raised or something that happened in your
life and you're going to have this to blame or that to blame.
It goes all the way back to the garden when Adam said, the woman
that you gave me, she's the problem. She's the problem. And you see that in our nature,
don't you? What parent doesn't feel the
burden for the problems that their children go through? Not
just a burden because they love their children, but the burden
of guilt because they know in their heart of hearts. Why did
David grieve so much after Absalom's death? Why did he grieve so hard? He loved Absalom. No doubt he
was his son. But David was a horrible father. And David knew that what
Absalom did was largely the responsibility of the things that he failed
in. Now, the scripture says, let
no man say, our fathers ate sour grapes and our teeth are set
on edge. In other words, you can't look back at your father
and blame something that happened back there for your sin. And
every man's got to stand before him before God by himself. He
can't point his finger back. But what father? But mother. Doesn't look at the sins of their
children. And thank all. Now I'm not saying this to put
guilt on you. I'm saying this because it's
true. And you know it's true. And I don't say this in order
to get you to feel sorry for me, in order to get you to compliment
me, in order to get you to say, well, preacher, it's not your...
Every problem that goes on in this church, I feel partly responsible
for because I am. I am. If I prayed as I ought for you,
if I could preach the gospel like I ought, If I could be the
pastor of that, you know, maybe we wouldn't have so many problems,
but we do, don't we? And I bear part of the responsibility. But I don't say that because
I'm trying to atone for my sins or I'm trying to, you know, bear
some sort of shame. I'm saying that because that's
what drives me to the fountain for cleansing. You see, it's
not until you accept full responsibility for your sin that you're going
to go to the fountain and drink freely. from that river of blood
and that river of water for sin and for uncleanness. When Daniel prayed, the scripture
says that he prayed for his sins and for the sins of his people.
Nehemiah did the same thing. Isaiah did the same thing. Jeremiah
did the same thing. When they went before God as
the prophets of God, they bore their own sins and the sins of
their people. You see, the truth is thou art
the man and thou art the man. And that's the only truth. that's
going to drive you to Christ. Because as long as you're blaming
somebody else, you're not going to need the fountain. You're
not going to be a sinner. You're not going to be unclean. My prayer is that we not go out
of here shameful and heavy burdened because of all of our failures
and all of our sins, but that we leave this place free Knowing that our sins have been
put away. That's what the Lord saying.
If you confess your sins, he is faithful and just to forgive
you of your sins and cleanse you of all your unrighteousness. The fountains, but you see anyone
who's not an inhabitant of Jerusalem or of the house of David's not
going to believe what we're saying. They're going to say, it's not
my fault. I didn't do that. When was this fountain opened?
Behold, in that day, there should be a fountain open to the house
of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And it's for sin
and it's for uncleanness. If you're not unclean and you're
not a sinner, you don't need the fountain. When was it open? When the Lord
Jesus Christ entered into a covenant with his father to be the surety
of his people and became the lamb that was slain before the
foundation of the world, the fountain was opened. This is
an eternal fountain. When was the fountain opened?
It was opened prophetically when God took out his sword of justice
and slew that innocent lamb in the garden, shedding its blood
and taking that white fleece to cover the nakedness of Adam
in his failure to cover himself with a fig leaf. That's when
it was open. Adam had dug for himself a cistern,
a broken cistern. God said, here, I've got a fountain. The horror that must have gripped
Adam's heart. I can just imagine that that
lamb that God slew in the garden right there in front of Adam
was probably Adam's favorite pet. And the horror that he'd never
seen death. There was no death in the garden.
The insects didn't die. Nothing died. There was no such
thing as death. This fountain was opened when
it was consecrated in Egypt, when God instructed Moses for
every man to take a lamb, every man, and slay it, and take that
blood and put it on the doorpost and the lentils of the house
and eat the lamb, every bit of it, and whatever you don't eat,
burn it with fire so that there's nothing left. The fountain was
opened. God said, when I see that lamb
and I see his blood, I will pass by you. The blood of untold millions
of sacrificial lambs flowed in Israel over the next 1,400 years
for sin and for uncleanness. Then at the appointed hour in
the Garden of Gethsemane, the fountain began to flow as drops
of bloody sweat that fell from the body Of the Lord Jesus Christ
and wet the ground as he pleaded with the father to find another
way. Nevertheless, father, if it be
thy will. Not my will, but thine be done.
Submitting himself. To his father and beginning the
agony of opening the fountain. The fountain gained in its course
as streams of blood flowed from the crown that was pressed into
our Savior's brow and flowed down his cheeks, mixed with tears
on the face of the one who was perfectly innocent, the fountain. It increases in its intensity
as the blood splatters from the only back that's strong enough
to bear the full weight of our sin and satisfy the demands of
God's holy justice. The fountain's being opened,
brethren. It's been opened. It's been opened in the covenant
of grace from eternity past. The Lord Jesus Christ came and
he opened it and he opened it more. When the hammer of God's
justice slammed those coarse Roman nails through his hands
and through his feet. And in case you weren't here
this morning, I am not trying to get you to feel sorry for
God. But to show you his love for
his people. The opening of the fountain.
the opening of the fountain, he was wounded for our transgressions. His sinless hands and sinless
feet were pierced for us and a full river of grace flowed
from that fountain when a Roman sword pierced his side. And what came out? What came
out? They say that a person being
crucified would die from a heart attack. And that the liquid would, the
water would build up in the pericardium, the sac around the heart, and
that when that sword went through, it had to pierce the the pericardium
first and then into the heart. And so the scripture says that
out of his side flowed water and then blood. The fountain was open. There's
a full river now flowing. For uncleanness, for uncleanness,
that's the water. For sin, that's the blood. The church is seen as we saw
in Revelation 7, verse 14, as having washed their robes and
made them white in the blood of the lamb. So my question is,
do you want to stand before God whitewashed or do you want to
stand before God washed white? Revelation 21 verse 6. I will
give. I will give. I will give. Of him that is a thirst. Of the fountain. Of the water
of life. Freely. Freely. It's all of his grace. Can't
buy it. Can't, can't manipulate God. Sinners come. Plunged in that
fountain. There is a fountain. There is
a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and
sinners plunge beneath that flood. Lose, lose, lose all their guilty
stains. Yes, you're guilty and I'm guilty.
But the fountain is only for the guilty. It's only for the
guilty. Tom's going to come and lead
us in that hymn. What's the number, Tom? 222. 222. Let's stand together.
Number 222. There is a fountain filled with
blood Drawn from Emmanuel's veins And sinners plunged beneath that
flood Lose all their guilty stains Lose all their guilty stains
lose all their guilty stains. And sinners plunge beneath that
flood, lose all their guilty stains. The dying thief rejoiced
to see that fountain in his day. And there may I, though vile
as he, wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. And there may I, though vile
as he, wash all my sins away. Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious
blood shall never lose its power, Till all the ransomed Church
of God be saved to sin no more. Be safe to sin no more, be safe
to sin no more. Till all the ransomed Church
of God be safe to sin no more. E'er since, by faith, I saw the
stream Thy flowing wounds supply, Redeeming love has been my theme,
And shall be till I die. And shall be till I die And shall
be till I die Redeeming love has been my theme And shall be
till I die When this poor lisping, stammering tongue Lies silent
in the grave, Then in a nobler, sweeter song I'll sing thy power
to save. I'll sing thy power to save. I'll sing thy power to save. Then in a nobler, sweeter song,
I'll sing thy power to save.