Let's go to the book of Zechariah
chapter 13. And we've been in this grand
old prophecy for several weeks. We're kind of drawing near the
end now. But there's a lot of rich portions
and words to be noted even yet. This morning, I invite
you to Zechariah chapter 13. And I'll begin by reading verse
1. Of course, last Lord's Day, I
brought you a message on a fountain opened. And I want to kind of
use that and go forward a little further in this chapter. But
here's what the Lord's servant has to say. In that day, in that
gospel day, the gospel age, which is the age from when our Lord,
or the era in which our Lord lived when he was on this earth
to the very end of that which we call time, this is the gospel
age. It's a wonderful age to be living
in. Some people have said to me before,
I wish I'd been living in the days of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, I don't. Because I wouldn't wish anything
that was against the will of God. I wasn't meant to live then. I was meant to live in this age,
in the gospel age. You have to remember back then
that all the scriptures that they had was the Old Testament
scriptures. And of course, this book wasn't
even written yet when the people who were living in Jerusalem,
having come back from Babylonian captivity, they didn't have these
prophetic books like we do. We've got all of the Word of
God. I'm thankful for that. We're
not going by symbols and typology anymore. We deal with realities. The Savior has come. I know all
of those typologies and symbols of Him are laid out in the Old
Testament, and we're always looking for Him, but my soul, Christ
has already come, and we rejoice in the pictures of Him, but we're
even more joyful in the person of our Lord Jesus and the work
that He's already accomplished for us. He has come. Rejoice,
saints of God. You see, back in the Old Testament
days, Gentiles weren't given the fullness of the Spirit like
we are now. Why, we walk in the Spirit. We
don't walk according to the flesh. God's given us the Holy Spirit
based upon the successful work of our Lord Jesus. And the Spirit
of God works in our hearts and He's teaching us. He has gathered
with us this morning because we're never without His presence. You who are the Lord's people,
who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you're never by yourself,
you're never alone. The Spirit of God indwells you. It isn't that He's just with
you, but He indwells you. Christ in you, that's the hope
of glory. It's such a wonderful, wonderful
time to be alive. You say, but there's so much
evil in the world. There's so much evil in me. You can go ahead and talk about
the vileness of the world, and you're not wrong. But there's
a vileness that troubles me even more. That's in my heart. And don't you find that to be
true if you're honest? If you're honest, we can talk
about what's going on out there. I tell you what troubles me is
what's going on in here. And I wish that I loved the Lord
with all my heart, mind, soul, and strength. I wish I loved
you like I love myself. I'm a failure on that. I'm a
sinner. But I have the Scriptures that
say, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. What's that? Christ Jesus came
into the world to save sinners. So I'm not without hope. I'm
not without salvation. I'm not without righteousness.
I'm not without forgiveness. I have all things in Christ Jesus. It's a wonderful time to be alive. It's just wonderful. So David
says, or Zacharias says, he's going to speak of the house of
David, he says, in that day, in that gospel day, and I think
he's even narrowing it down to a specific day. That's the day
the fountain was opened. And it was opened to the house
of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And it was opened
for, or here's the reason, it was opened for sin and for uncleanness. I got seven questions I want
to ask you. So I'm at the end of my introduction. I want to get right into the
heart of the message now. Stay with me. Number one, who
is this fountain? There's a fountain that's been
opened, and the fountain is our Lord Jesus. He is the fountain
of life. He is the water that flows freely
from the very throne of God. The Son of God, the Son of Man,
He is the fountain. You see, our Lord, our God, the
triune God in eternity past purposed salvation. When our Lord Jesus
was nailed that day on the cross of Calvary, that wasn't God's
knee-jerk reaction to something that men did. Why, our Lord had
been purposed to be the fountain opened before the foundation
of the world. He is the one that God sent, the Father, the Son,
and the Spirit. They met together, as it were,
in perfect, divine, Trinitarian unity, and ordained this great
salvation before time ever began. And it was the Son of God who
took full responsibility for all the sins of all of His chosen
people. And in the Old Testament, as
you go from Genesis through Malachi, Go through the Pentateuch, the
first five books of the Bible. Go through the historical books
from Joshua through Esther. Go through the poetic books from
Job to Song of Solomon. And go through the prophetic
books from Isaiah all the way to Malachi. And if God the Spirit
opens your eyes, you'll see that all of the Old Testament sets
before us our Lord Jesus Christ and his saving grace for his
true Israel. I know there's a lot of focus
today upon the nation of Israel, and our hearts go out to them.
And I ask the Lord if it please Him that these who butchered
so many Israelites or Israelis, that they would suffer a punishment
that's worthy of the crimes that they have committed. But the
Bible speaks of another Israel, and the other Israel is God's
spiritual Israel, the true children of God. Ron read to us just a
few moments ago, and I like the way he emphasized certain words
in that. They that are Israel are not
all of Israel. The children or the seed of Abraham
are not the children of God, the children of the covenant,
the true seed. That's the children of Abraham.
And so as you go through the historic or through the prophetic
books, you've got to be noting the difference between national
Israel and spiritual Israel. And I know a lot of people, a
lot of preachers are coming out of the woodwork now, and they're
preaching prophetic messages, and they're talking about Israel,
and that the Lord is protecting Jerusalem. But what is missing
from their preaching is the absence of our Lord Jesus Christ manifesting
Himself to His people in His sovereign saving grace. That's
what's missing. The blood of the covenant, that's
what's missing. The salvation by grace, that's
what's missing. And their focus today is on a
nation and not on a person. That's a big mistake. A big mistake. Because national
Israel, you see, the majority of them have lived and died in
unbelief. And today they don't even believe
that the Savior has come, the Messiah has come. You see, true
Israel are those that God has set apart from before the foundation
of the world to be His children, adopted into His family, and
redeemed by the blood of the Lamb of God, who is the fountain
open for sin and for uncleanness. The fountain is our Lord Jesus. He's the water of life. Do you
remember when the Israelites, they had escaped Egyptian bondage,
had crossed the Red Sea, and they go out to the wilderness
into the Valley of Sin, had come to a place called Rephidim. You
remember reading about that in the Old Testament, in the book
of Exodus, Rephidim. You know what Rephidim means?
resting place. But it was anything but a resting
place for Israel, because they were thirsty. There wasn't any
water. There's no rest. If you're thirsty,
if your babies are thirsty, if you're thirsty, if mama's thirsty,
if grandma and grandpa are thirsty, and your cattle are thirsty,
that's not a resting place. And they went to Moses. Why'd you bring us out here to
die of thirst? And Moses went to the Lord in
prayer. He said, Lord, they're about
to kill me. They're about to stone me. And the Lord said,
I'm going to stand on a rock. And you go, you take the elders
of Israel. It's not going to be done privately.
It's gonna be done publicly. And take that rod, the rod with
which you smote the Nile River and it turned to blood. You take
that rod with you, and I'm gonna stand on a rock. And you hit that rock with that
rod. That rod's the rod of judgment. That rod's the rod of wrath.
You smite that rock. And I'll tell you when he did,
water came out. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 4 says,
that rock was Christ. That's exactly what Paul said.
That rock was Christ. What happened? There was a fountain
open. The fountain of water was open. And it was an abundance of water
to meet the needs of all of true Israel. Spiritualizing it now. His fountain is Christ. He's
the rock. So who is the fountain? The fountain
is Christ. And let me tell you something.
There is no rest till you rest in him who is the fountain. of
life smitten by the rod of God's justice. It's only in Christ
crucified, buried, risen, and exalted when God brings you to
that fountain And you drink, you drink in your soul, you drink
in the precious death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. You
see Him as the Son of God. Jesus of Nazareth is no less,
He was no less than the Son of God, the Eternal God. When you
drink of Him, you drink in the water of life and you'll never
die. Are you thirsty? Come and drink.
There's an abundance of water. When I was little, my parents
used to take us to Myrtle Beach. That's where my mom and dad went
on their wedding trip. That's where Nancy and I went
on our wedding trip. We still go back. Why do you
go back? Well, I'm a sentimental slob. That's why. We enjoy going back
and kind of reminiscing. But when I was a little fella,
you know, we'd be building sand castles and all that. Of course,
back then we didn't have plastic buckets. There was ten buckets,
you know, you had to be careful. And go down and dip that bucket
into the water and bring it back. You know, you dig a hole and,
boy, you make yourself a little lake, you know. And I'm sure
that when I dipped that little bucket down in the Atlantic Ocean
and pulled that water out, there was one bucket less in the ocean
than it was before I dipped it in there. Let me tell you something. Our Lord Jesus is an inexhaustible
fountain. Millions upon millions have drank
of the water of life to live forever, and there's just as
much water left after we drink than it was before we drank.
It's inexhaustible. That's the reason that Isaiah
says in Isaiah chapter 12, therefore with joy shall we draw water
from the wells of salvation, The wells of salvation. Why is
it in the plural? Because it's the well of God
the Father, the well of God the Son, and the well of God the
Spirit. And the Son himself is the fountain
and we draw water from him. The water of salvation, the water
of life, the water of forgiveness, the water of righteousness, the
water that we must have. And only then when we drink of
the water of life will our souls have rest. We'll have a resting
place. Who is the fountain? Christ is,
number two. I asked you, who opened this
fountain? God the Father did. It was purpose from old eternity,
but God is the one who opened the fountain. Isaiah chapter
53 reads, it pleased our God, it pleased the Lord, it pleased
Jehovah to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. when thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin. Who made his soul an offering
for sin? Not Pilate, not Herod, not the
Jewish Sanhedrin, not the Gentile soldiers. Our God made him to
be the fountain of life. Our God smote him with wrath,
wrath that would Satisfy divine justice. And all of the wrath
of God for all of his people was poured out upon Christ because
all of our iniquities were made to meet on him. Isaiah 53 verse
six. And it pleased, it pleased our
Lord to bruise him. What does that mean? It satisfied
him. You remember reading in the book of Ezekiel, the Lord
has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. What does that
mean? It means that God has no satisfaction to his justice in
sending a sinner to hell. That's why hell is unending. There's no satisfaction. But
there was satisfaction at Calvary made to the justice of God. Who
opened the fountain? Read again in Acts the second
chapter and Acts the fourth chapter. It was our God. It was our God. Who is the fountain? Christ is
the fountain. Who opened the fountain? Jehovah
opened the fountain. Number three, why was it opened?
To do something about sin and uncleanness. What great evils
these are. What great evils. Sin and uncleanness. Christ came to do something about
those two. He come to make an effort to
do it or try to do it or make it possible to do it. He came
to do something. He came to die in the stead of
his people to do something about sin and uncleanness. Sin, that's
our problem. And we're all different in a
multitude of ways. But we all got one thing in common,
and that's sin. I don't care who you are. Education's
got nothing to do with it. Possession's got nothing to do
with it. If you're a human being, you've got the same problem I've
got, sin. And in that sense, we're all
alike. But you see, that's the reason the Son of God came, to
do something about the sins of His people. And to do something
about our filthiness. We've got to be made clean in
the eyes of God. How can I be clean before God? See, that's the only way I can
be accepted. That's the only way I can be welcomed at the
throne of grace, is to be clean. I must be washed from my sins,
bathed in the blood that flowed from the Emmanuel's veins at
Calvary. Are you washed in the blood of
the Lamb? That's what we sing, isn't it?
Well, are you? Has God given you a bath? My
dear wife has been quite sick, as you know, for a month. And
I'm going to tell this on her. Forgive me, honey. Remember,
I'm your caregiver. But the other day, she's lost
her sense of smell. And the other day, she said,
do I smell? I said, well, it's not real bad. She said,
and then about a day later, she said, I'm getting my sense of
smell back. She said, I think you need a
bath. I'll go draw it for you. I said, I'll turn the water on
for you. Forgive me, honey. It's a good
illustration used because you see, there's a stench about us
spiritually. And it's sin. It's a filthiness. I'm not jumping on you. I'm telling
you it's the way it is with all of us. We need a bath. We need
God to give us a bath. And the bath is the crimson flow
that came from Emmanuel's veins. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
cleanseth us, 1 John 1 and 7, cleanseth us, keeps on cleansing
us from all sin. Oh, my friend, listen, you need
a bath. You need a bath. I pray that
God will enable you to just take a plunge into the fountain open
for sin and for uncleanness. Number four, when was this fountain
opened? So now we know who the fountain
is. We know who opened the fountain.
We know the reason why the fountain was opened, to do something about
sin and uncleanness. Here's the fourth question. I'll
ask, when was this fountain opened? When? Well, number one, it was
opened really from eternity. From eternity. God Almighty determined
He would save a people, and He would do it through the Lamb
of God, that is, the Son of God, who would assume, take into union
with Himself our nature, and He would come into this world
and live and die for sinners to satisfy God's justice. Something's
got to be done about God's justice. Not too many preachers are talking
about that today. It's not just about, you know,
what can this do for you? God had to do something for himself. I remember Brother Richardson,
Scott Richardson said that a number of times and I picked up on it
many years ago. God had to do something for himself
before he could do anything for us. Had to satisfy us justice. So the fountain really was open
in the mind and purpose of God from eternity. Therefore Christ
is said to be the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
And secondly, this fountain was open for us when our Lord Jesus
came and offered himself up for our sins and iniquities. The
fountain was open. You see, a sealed fountain cleanses
nobody. I'm thankful for His incarnation
here in a couple of months. Practically all the Western world
is going to be singing about Jesus being born of a virgin,
and I'm thankful He was born of a virgin, but His birth didn't
put sins away. We're never told in the Scriptures
to remember His birth until He comes again. What we're told
is, remember His death. That's what did it. That's what
sealed the deal. And His perfect life, I know
that was necessary. A man broke God's law. A perfect
man's got to keep God's law. But had he just been born, lived
an innocent life, and kept the law of God, and then gone back
to glory, the fountain would not have been opened. So we'd
still have the sin problem. We'd still have the uncleanness
problem. He was open. He died for our
sins according to the scriptures. The fountain had to be open.
Yes, God the Father purposed it. The Trinity purposed it.
And the Son of God actually died. He laid down His life in the
stead of His people. It's like, you remember that
story in Genesis chapter 22 when Abraham according to God's command, took
Isaac up on the mount to offer him as a sacrifice to God. A
burnt offering, the Lord said. I mean, it's not just put him
to sleep, it's offering him as a burnt offering. And Abraham, in obedience, took
Isaac up on the mountain. Isaac said, I'm carrying the
wood. I can just see him carrying that
wood strapped on his shoulders, you know. He wasn't a little
boy. He was a young man strong enough to carry the wood. And
had the fire. Abraham had the knife. And Isaac
said, but there's no lamb. There's no lamb. I heard you
tell, I heard you tell the servants, those two servants, I heard you
tell them, you stay here. I am the lamb. Go in yonder and
worship. Daddy, where's the lamb? We can't worship God without
the lamb. And we want to say that to preachers
and religions that do not speak of the lamb of God. Where is
the lamb? You can't worship God without
the lamb. Abraham said, God will provide
himself a lamb. So Isaac's up on the altar. Abraham's
got the knife in his hand. You got it in your mind's eye?
I can see it, can't you? And Abraham's ready to thrust
that knife in the heart of his son. And the Lord says, stop! I see you, believe me. There's a ram caught in the thicket
by his horns. You release Isaac and you go
get that ram and kill that ram in his stead. There's substitution,
you see. That's substitution. And Isaac lived. Isaac lived. This fountain was opened at Calvary. And I'll tell you this thirdly
under this point, this fountain is opened to us through the preaching
of the gospel. I'm not saying Christ is reopened. No, we don't have a mass. That's what's wrong with the
mass. It's one of many things wrong. It's killing Christ all
over again. We're not killing Christ all
over again, What I'm doing to you is breaking open the gospel,
the alabaster box, the delightful fragrance and perfume of the
gospel of God's free and sovereign grace. I'm breaking it open to
you this morning and I say drink and live forever. The fountain is open for cleansing. And the fifth question is, for
whom was this fountain open? It says, for the house of David
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. It was open for a specific people.
Not for everybody. But for a people that God entrusted
his son with before the world began. God said, you go save
him. The son said, I will. He volunteered
to go. It's open for the house of David
and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And then, let me just go ahead
and ask you this question, number six. What happens when a sinner
sees the fountain open for their sins? Because you see, in conversion,
That's when you see, that's when you're made to realize by the
work of the Spirit of God, the reason that fountain was opened
was for your sins and your uncleanness. Listen, our Lord Jesus would
not have had to have suffered any more than he did just to
save one sinner. Just to save one sinner. You see, we would never limit,
we would never limit the power behind the atonement, but rather
the Lord himself limited the effect of the atonement to those
the Father gave him, the house of David and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. What happens when we see the
fountain open? Look at verse two, it shall come
to pass in that day. Watch this. Saith the Lord of
hosts, I'll cut off the names of the idols out of the land.
They shall no more be remembered. And also I will cause the prophets
and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land. Here's what
happened. I'll tell you what will happen. If the Spirit of
God ever shows you Jesus Christ and Him crucified for your sins,
for your uncleanness, here's what's gonna happen. Those idols
that you've been worshiping, they'll go. That's what the apostle Paul
said to the Thessalonians in chapter one in verse either eight
or nine, right around there. He said, here's the evidence.
He gave up your idols. You see, the idol of your imaginary
Jesus is not going to stay when the sovereign Jesus Christ the
Lord enters into your heart and stakes a claim to you. That false
Jesus has got to go. That pitiful Jesus that doesn't
have power. That pitiful Jesus who is dependent
upon you exercising your will. That's the wrong Jesus. When the Son of God, the Savior,
the Lord of glory comes in, He drives that out. The idol leaves. And it says in the last statement
of verse 2, the unclean spirit's going to pass away. He's going
to drive the devil out. When I was a kid, I remember
my parents would say to me every once in a while, you're just
full of the devil, aren't you? Well, really I was. But the Lord
drove him out. The Lord's going to take away
idolatry from us. When Christ comes in, idolatry
is leaving. And I'll tell you something,
something else, this gospel must be believed. even if the family,
your family doesn't believe or your family must believe even
if you don't believe. Look at verse three, it shall
come to pass that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father
and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, you're not
gonna live. You're not fit to live. Well,
what's he talking about? He's talking about a son who
becomes a false preacher. He becomes a false prophet. And
mom and dad love the gospel of God's free and sovereign grace,
salvation by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. They raise
a son according to the commandments of God, teaching him the gospel.
Then he begins to spew out a false gospel. Mom and dad will say,
you're not fit to live. You're preaching a false gospel. Tell you what, one of these days
God's gonna shut the mouths of these false preachers and false
prophets. And when he does, we all gonna
say hallelujah. I hate error. I hate religious
lies. I turn on the television, I see
men and hear men spewing out their venom against the God of
glory. Preaching a salvation dependent
upon the sinner. Lord, save him or take him away
from here. That's what I pray. It's an awful thing for a man
to lie against God. That's the reason you go back
to the law of God. Parents had a son who began to preach false
gospel. They thrust him through. They
kill him. Have that man killed. God's going
to take care of false prophets. And then look at this, verse
four. It shall come to pass in that day that the prophets shall
be ashamed every one of his vision when he hath prophesied, neither
shall he wear a rough garment to deceive, but he shall say,
I'm not a prophet. You know what this is? This is
the salvation of a false prophet. He said, has God saved false
preachers? Saved Saul of Tarsus, didn't
he? He saved Martin Luther, didn't
He? He saved John Calvin, didn't He? He saved me! He saved me! I tell you what, God's able to
save anybody He wants to. He can bring you to the end of
yourself, and I hope that He will. I pray that He will. Here's
the false prophet that God saved. He says in verse 5, I'm not a
prophet. I'm not a preacher. I got no
business preaching. I'm just a farmer. That's an
honorable profession. For a man taught me to keep cattle
from my youth. And then, here's another thing
that happens as a result of this fountain being opened. Verse
six, one shall say unto him, who is this? This is a man who's
been converted by the grace of God. And he says to the Lamb
of God, look at verse six, what are these wounds in thine hands? And then Jehovah our Savior shall
answer. those with which I was wounded
in the house of my friends. And when by faith I see the wounds
of the Son of God, and knowing that he considered me to be his
friend, remember the reading that I began the service with
out of John chapter 15. I wounded him. I bruised him. The chastisement of my sins,
my iniquities was upon him. And with his stripes I'm healed.
And here's the last question. Has the fountain been opened
for you? Has the fountain been opened
for you? Have you seen your sins nailing him to the cross? Well,
you'll be brought to mourn. to believe and to look on the
fountain open for sin.