Seeking once again the help of
Almighty God to grant me the words to speak to you this evening,
I'd like you to turn to the prophecy of Zachariah chapter 13 and the
text you'll find in verse 1. Zachariah 13 and verse 1. 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. Zechariah was a prophet of the
Lord chosen by God just like Jeremiah, chosen before the foundation
of the world, set aside for the ministry of the Word, set aside
to be a prophet of the Lord. Approximately 500 years before
the Lord Jesus Christ came he was used of God to to prophesy
regarding the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and even in these
two chapters that we read and if you go to chapter nine you'll
see there another prophecy regarding the Lord Jesus and how it was
fulfilled in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ in Chapter
9 and verse 9. Rejoice greatly, O daughter of
Zion! Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, thy King cometh unto
thee. He is just and having salvation, lowly, riding upon an ass, and
upon the colt, the foal of an ass. We know when the Lord Jesus
Christ entered into Jerusalem he went upon the Anas' cult and
they cried out, Hosanna, blessed is he that comes in the name
of the Lord. We see the different prophecies
regarding the Lord Jesus Christ even in Isaiah and how detailed
it is regarding his coming, how he will be, what will happen
to him, how the Lord is going to lay on him the iniquity of
us all and by the travail of his soul he was going to satisfy
the wrath of Almighty God and so detailed, yet it's so far
off from taking place 500 years, 700 years, even the beginning
of the scripture, the seed of the woman. There were these prophecies
that were prophesied concerning the Lord Jesus Christ, yet they
took time to be fulfilled. It took time. And you remember
that it is God who invented time. which is God right at the beginning
of the Bible speaks to us about the creation of time in the beginning
God and he created the day and the night and there was those
six days in which he did his work and there was that one day
in which he rested from his labours and so he set us that seven day
week, he set us the times and the seasons and the days by which
we can work and the nights by which we can sleep And then he
rose up his prophets and they prophesied concerning a day,
a certain day that was going to come. A day. You notice in
chapter 12 how often it's speaking about this day, this specific
day or a day that was going to take place. Chapter 12 and verse
3 it says, and in that day I will make. Verse 4, and in that day
saith the Lord. Verse 6, and in that day. Verse
8, and in that day saith the Lord. Verse 9, and it shall come
to pass in that day. Verse 11, and it shall come In that day shall there be great
mourning in Jerusalem as the mourning of that in the valley
of Migdon. And so he's speaking about a
specific day that was going to come. In our text it says, in
that day there shall be a fountain opened, a day that was going
to come. We know that all prophecy was
to be tested by the prophet, by the prophecy coming into fulfilment. And those prophets who prophesied
and their prophecy didn't come about, they were to be stoned
to death. And we see even in our reading
that after this day was to take place, the prophets were to be
ashamed and they would say that their mothers and their fathers,
their parents would say to them, don't prophesy lies in the name
of the Lord. Verse 3, and it come to pass
When any shall yet prophesy then his father and his mother that
begat him shall say unto him thou shalt 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 prophesies. And so there was going to be
this prophet that was going to come to fulfil all prophecy. But there was these false prophets,
even in the time of Jeremiah, that prophesied false things,
things that were contrary to the will of God, things that
were pleasing to the ear, things that people wanted to hear. And those prophets, they were
to be destroyed. They were not true prophets of the Lord. They
were false prophets preaching lies against the will of God. And so we see that there was
this day prophecy prophesied regarding a specific day that
was going to come regarding the fountain being opened for sin
and for uncleanness and for the proof that the prophet was speaking. These prophecies must come about
and it was going to be a day a specific day that changed everything. changed the course of the world.
All these prophets were pointing to a specific day that was going
to take place. A specific person was going to
come into the world, the Lord's servant, the Lord's messenger,
the one of the line of David with the eternal kingdom. This
specific day was going to come. But It doesn't say it's going
to be a happy day. It's going to come about with
a lot of mourning. The day was going to be a day
of mourning. Verse 10 of chapter 12. and I will pour upon the house
of David, upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace
and supplication, and they shall look upon me, whom they have
pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for
his own son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one is
in bitterness for his firstborn. In that day there shall be great
mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning in that valley, and
the land shall mourn, Every family apart. The family of the house
of David apart and their wives apart. And it goes on and on
and on regarding this mourning. It was not going to be a joyful
day. It was going to be a day of mourning. They were going
to look upon someone that was pierced. And in fact the word
says me. They're going to look upon me
that they have pierced and they're going to mourn. as one mourns
for the loss of their own son, for their only son. And they're
going to be in bitterness. And so this day was going to
be a day, yes, of rejoicing. Yes, of a fountain open for sin
and uncleanness. Yes, as we saw on the Lord's
Day, a putting away of all of this bloodshed, all of these
animals that were being slaughtered day after day after day. going
to be a putting away of that and this true founting for sin
and uncleanness was going to be opened but it was going to
be of a bitter anguish and mourning and sadness upon that day. A day of great sorrow. And we read in the book of Matthew
regarding the death of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is what this
prophecy is about. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ
was betrayed into the hands of sinful men. He was placed under
arrest. He was taken to the temple. He
was then taken to the Roman government. It was there that he was charged
and told he was going to be crucified. All of this was to fulfil the
will of God. curses everyone that hangs upon
the tree and he is taken then to Golgotha where he is nailed
to the cross and he is lifted up as the Lord Jesus says that
he would be just as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness
so the son of man is going to be lifted up and as he is lifted
up they part his garments among
them to fulfil prophecy and among my vestiges did they cast lots.
In Matthew 27 and verse 36 it says, and sitting down they watched
him there. And sitting down they watched
him there. The prophecy says they will look
upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him.
as one that mourneth for his own son. And so some were sitting
down watching the Lord Jesus Christ. They were the soldiers
and there was no mourning in their hearts. They were hard
men, untouched by what they were doing. Yes, one of them was confessed
later that this is indeed the Son of God. But there were those
of his disciples who looked upon him and the women that were there
and they mourned the Lord Jesus Christ. They sat down and they
watched him there. They looked upon him whom they
had pierced, but not for long. Not for long. They couldn't look
upon him for long. They couldn't look at the suffering
servant very long upon the cross because God hid it all from them. The Bible tells us there was
darkness. Verse 45, now from the sixth
hour there was darkness over all the land until the ninth
hour. this one that they were looking
upon whom they have pierced was indeed the Son of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh. And what was taking
place on that cross, although they sat down and they watched
him there, was so horrendous was hidden from human view for
three hours. As Christ cries out, my God,
my God, why has thou forsaken me? As God is forsaken of God
and Christ becomes the scapegoat, the lamb of God, the substitute
for his people, as the wrath of God is poured out upon his
beloved son. There's darkness. this suffering servant and all
that he is passing through spiritually that is hidden from view. And this is the day that Zachariah
is speaking about. This day that had been chosen
in eternity past revealed to Adam and Eve that the seed of
the woman would bruise the serpent's head 3,000 years or so. The world had been waiting for
this day, a specific day that God himself had chosen. The Galatians
tells us when the fullness of time had come, God sent his son
into the world made of a woman. This day is what they all looked
for. And this day is the day that
completely transformed the history of this world. that Christ was
crucified upon the cross, that he was made the Lamb of God,
he was made, he drank up the wrath of God for the sins of
his people and he rose again on the third day. These events
altered the history of the world completely and have altered millions
and millions and millions of people's lives completely. As a day in the history of the
world altered the history of the world, so a day in the life
of a believer when the Lord met with them and they were born
again of the Spirit of God, their lives were changed, transformed
by the Spirit of God. Their lives were altered, they
changed course, they turned away from their sin and began to follow
the Lord Jesus Christ all because of This a day, you see, if this
a day had never happened, you and I would be continuing in
our sin. We would still be on that broad
road that leads to destruction, still be in the darkness. If
there was no sacrifice for sin, all would be lost because of
this a day. This day that the Lord made and
Christ died upon the cross, we're enabled to be free. We're enabled to have our sins
forgiven. And this is the day. And Jesus
calls it in John, chapter eight, when he is speaking to the Pharisees. And they are reasoning with him.
And he says, before Abraham was, I am. In verse 56, he says, it's my day, my day. Your father Abraham rejoiced
to see my day and he was glad in it. And so the day of the
Lord Jesus Christ was the day in which he had been born into
this world. He came to die. That was his
day. For this reason, he says, came
I into the world. For this specific reason, it
was to die upon the cross for the sins of his people, the prophets,
saw it afar off. We look back. We still see it afar off. We
read about it in the scriptures, all that took place. There was
this a day. This a day that the Lord Jesus
Christ came and opened the fountain for sin and for uncleanness. A day in which the Lord Jesus
Christ was born. It was God's day. and it was
done in God's way. The Lord Jesus, as we looked
at on Sunday, there was a day in which he was born, and a day
in which he died, and a day in which he rose again, and there's
a day in which he's coming back again. And so God sent his son,
his beloved son, to open a fountain for sin and for uncleanness.
For the house of David to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for
sin and for uncleanness. You'll remember that as the children
of Israel left Egypt they went through the Red Sea and they
wandered in the wilderness and they grumbled and they complained.
They didn't have water, they didn't have food. And God told
Moses to strike the rock. and the rock spewed out water. And that water followed them
through the wilderness, through the desert, which provided them
with water for thirst and for washing and for cleansing, for
ceremonial worship. And that water continued with
them. In Psalm 78, it tells us there
what God did for them. We know that water is essential
for life. No water, there's no life. In
verse 15 it says, he claved the rock, he split the rock in the
wilderness and gave them drink out of the great depths. He brought
streams also out of the rock and caused water to run down
like rivers. And they sinned yet more against
him by provoking the Most High in the wilderness. And they tempted
God in their heart by asking meat for their lust. Yea, they
spoke against God. They said, can God furnish a
table in the wilderness? Behold, he smoked the rock that
the waters gushed out and the streams overflowed. Can he give
bread also? Can he provide flesh for his
people? And he goes on in the psalm,
revealing all that the Lord did and provided them with meat.
But the book of Corinthians tells us that this rock that followed
them, this rock that spewed out water was Christ. Christ. And as Moses struck the rock,
water spewed out and satisfied the people. And as we see God
the Father striking his son for the sins of his people, we see
that from him now flows this fountain. of cleansing water for the sins
of his people. A fountain was opened on that
day. It says the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
You remember that the Lord Jesus Christ came to his own and his
own received him not. And he was speaking to the lady
who was begging him to heal her daughter who was possessed with
a demon. He says, I have not come except for the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. The 70 were sent out, they were
sent in to the children of Israel first. The Jews rejected the
Lord Jesus Christ. They did not want him. We will
not have this man to reign over us. Crucify him. Crucify him.
Crucify him they said. And so as they rejected Christ
so this fountain that was open for sin and uncleanness now is
ushered and flows after into the Gentile world so that the
Gentiles may be cleansed from their sin. With the river that
followed the children of Israel as we saw on the Lord's Day there
was that constant shedding of blood, that constant ceremonial
cleanness and so they needed water for that. for washing. The high priest needed to wash
to go into the Holy of Holies. The sacrifices needed to be washed
with water before they were offered up. The people had to be washed.
And so there was that constant need of washing. But Jesus opened
a spiritual fountain, not for external cleanliness, but for
internal cleanliness, for cleansing from sin and from uncleanness. Sin is what defiles us. Sin is what
causes us to be separated from God. Sin is what stops us from
entering into the presence of God. We are unclean. Remember
the lepers in the New Testament. They had to cry out, didn't they?
Unclean, unclean. Sin has contaminated you and
I. We have to cry out unclean, unclean. But the Lord Jesus Christ opened
a fountain for sin and for uncleanness. And that fountain is his precious
blood. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
cleanses us from all sin. In Isaiah, tells us there. Isaiah 55. How everyone that thirsteth,
come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come
ye buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without
money and without price. Says how everyone that thirsteth. And so water satisfies the thirst
but is also for cleaning. We're invited, if we are thirsty,
to come to this fountain, to come to this river and to drink. Jesus says in his sermon, blessed
are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. Part of the work of God in the
heart and the soul is to bring someone to an understanding of
their sin. To see that they are unclean,
that they are dirty before a holy God. The scripture tells us we
are all of an unclean thing, as a filthy rag before a holy
God. And that knowledge that he gives
us, that sight that he gives us of ourselves makes us pour
in spirit. And we mourn over our uncleanness. We mourn because we need to be
satisfied with this spiritual drink. But Jesus says they shall
be comforted. It takes away our pride. we looked at before, prayer brings
a sinner to the right place, brings us to the footstool of
the Lord Jesus Christ and so Jesus says, blessed are the meek
for they shall inherit the earth. So there's this process in which
the Spirit of God works upon a person by showing them their
uncleanness, showing them their sin, showing them they have nothing
of themselves, humbling them at the feet of Christ, which
brings about a mourning, a sorrow, which brings them a thirst, a
desire for cleansing. How have you got to that point?
Is that how you are even this evening? Do you realise that
you're at the footstool of the Lord Jesus Christ? You have no
hope. You're as a beggar coming to Him. You are thirsty. You have no drink. You need to
be satisfied. You are dirty in His sight. You're
asking Him to cleanse you. You're asking Him for mercy. You're asking Him to purify you. Well, to these people is that
invitation given to come. To come to the Lord Jesus Christ
if you are thirsty, if you are dirty. Because he has opened a fountain
to cleanse you from all of your sin. Not your outside, Not ceremonially
clean like putting on your chapel clothes. But his fountain that
he has opened is a fountain that cleanses the heart and soul from
all sin. And that sin will be washed away
and remembered no more forever. If you've ever washed children
in the bath After they've been playing all day and they've been
having a good time, the bath water turns brown. You get them out and you say
to them, how lovely and clean you look. Look how dirty the
water is. And you pull the plug and you
let all the water go. It's gone. You don't remember
it anymore. You look at your clean children
and you say, look how clean you are. They've been washed. That's what Jesus has done. He's washed you. He's made you
whiter than snow. And your sin, as it were, has
gone down the plug hole into the depths of the sea. And it
will be remembered no more forever. Yes, you will continue to sin. But Jesus says he who has been
washed doesn't need to wash again except his feet. And there must
be and there is in the life of a true Christian that ongoing
washing, that ongoing seeking for cleansing, that ongoing repentance
and sorrow for our sin. But all of our sin, Jesus says,
I will remember it no more. Why? Because on that day, the
day that God chose, a fountain was opened for sin and for uncleanness. Now the Christian, once he has been washed, likes
to stay clean. He doesn't want to be like the
dog who returns to eat his vomit. He doesn't want to be like the
pig who once washed runs back into the mud again. The true
Christian, once he has been washed and made whiter than snow through
the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ, he doesn't want to go
back to his old dirty habits. He wants to stay as clean as
possible. And so he desires to follow the
Lord Jesus Christ. He desires to be obedient to
the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants to walk a holy and a
godly life. And when he does get dirty, when
he does sin, it makes him sad. And he is always sorry for the sins that he commits.
and he always asks to be forgiven. I used to use the example when
I was in Kenya of the ladies there on the way. They would
walk through the mud and they would try as much as possible
not to get their dresses dirty. They would hoik them up and walk
through the puddles and then when they get to the church they'd
wash their feet clean all the dirt off and then enter in. They
tried as much as possible to keep their clothes clean. And
that is like a Christian. Once he has been washed he tries
as much as possible. to live a life that is pleasing
to the Lord Jesus Christ who has cleansed him from all of
his sins. I wonder if we are thankful for
that day. Have we had a day when the Lord Jesus Christ came and
washed us from all of our sin? Are we rejoicing that day, the
day that we would be born again, the day we can remember that
the Lord Jesus Christ came and met with us and said, son, thy
sin which is so many has been all forgiven. the reason why
he can say that, because only God can forgive sin, it was on
that day that the Lord Jesus Christ paid the debt of sin. While they looked upon him whom
they had pierced, he was paying the penalty for the sins of his
people. In chapter 14 and verse 8 it
says, And it shall be in that day that living water shall go
out from Jerusalem, half of them towards the former sea and half
of them towards the hinder sea in summer and in winter shall
it be. And so this water, this fountain,
this spring that ever bubbles up is like a living water that
goes into all the well. As the gospel is preached and
it cleanses people from their sin and they in turn turn and
follow the Lord Jesus Christ and they say like we finished
with, it is my people and they shall say, the Lord is my God. Amen. Well, let us sing the hymn number
1049 to the tune Submission 421. The Christian navigates a sea
where various forms of death appear. Nor skill alas, nor power
has he a right his dangerous course to steer. Number 1049. The Christian love negates the
sin. Where various forms of death
appear. No skill, alas, nor power has
came. A righteous danger's cause to
share. ? To lend from shore ? ? And dare
so many deaths to praise ? ? Because the land of rights above ? ?
And all the meadows of the way ? ? The box divine ? ? Where all
is torn will be repaid ? ? And though unskilled for weak
and blind ? ? Yet Jesus built it up again ? And thinks his doors will soon
be o'er. Expect some favour of the great,
We'll waft him quickly to the shore. and he enjoys the sight no more. Nor does he now believe it true
that he had ever seen ? To fill his heart should overwhelm
? ? He'll reach the pause for which he's bound ? ? For Jesus
knows that all is well ? Heavenly Father we do thank Thee
for this fountain that has been opened for sin and uncleanness
and we thank Thee for that invitation for those who are thirsty and
those who are dirty to come and to wash in that fountain and
their sins and their iniquities will be remembered no more. We
pray Lord that we may be enabled to wash daily and cleanse us,
Lord, from our sin. We ask that Thou be with us now
as we depart from each other. Do return us here upon Thy day
and do bless us in the interval we ask of Thee. And now may the
grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father,
with the fellowship and the communion of the Holy Spirit, do rest and
abide with us each now and for evermore. Amen.