Thank you, ladies. That's a beautiful
old hymn, and we appreciate hearing it once again. Let's go back
to the prophecy of Zechariah, and we'll go to chapter 13, the
portion of scripture that was read to us a few moments ago.
I'll endeavor to bring you a message from the first verse on a fountain
opened, a fountain opened. Many of you have studied the
Old Testament tabernacle. In fact, if you were here some
time ago, I brought a series of messages on Lord's Day mornings
on various parts of the tabernacle. Those only who could enter into
the tabernacle, I mean into the building itself or into the tent
itself, were the priesthood. A regular Israelite couldn't
do that. But let's say a priest was coming
to fulfill his obligations in the tabernacle. And they had
several groups of priests, and they came on a regular schedule
to fulfill their responsibilities as priests. Let's say one of
them came, it's his time to serve. The first thing he had to do
is he had to bring an animal for an offering unto God. The largest piece of furniture
in the tabernacle was the brazen altar. And he had to bring his animal to another priest And then he
would lay his hands, this man, no doubt having his family with
him. His family couldn't go in, but
he'd bring his family with him, because they wanted to worship
God. He'd lay his hands on the head of the, it could be a bullock,
it could be a lamb, or a goat, or a ram, or whatever it was
that he brought. He'd lay his hands on it and
confess his sinfulness, and that he ought to die. because of his
sins, because the Bible says the wages of sin is death. But he would say to the priest
who was dealing with him, he'd say, I bring this offering and
I kill it. And he would kill it. And then
the other priest, he'd catch the, in a basin, he'd catch the
blood of the animal. And that other priest would take
the carcass and put it up on the brazen altar, and then it
would be consumed in fire. The blood poured around the base
of the altar. And what that illustrated, what
that typified, and what that taught was, you can't come to
God without a blood sacrifice. They couldn't back then. We can't
now. Now, we don't bring an animal.
But we do come to worship our God in spirit and in truth through
another Lamb, the Lamb of God. Because you can't worship God
without the sacrifice of the Son of God. So once that priest
had offered his sacrifice to God at the brazen altar, you
with me? That was for the atonement of
sin. He was acknowledging he was a
sinner and his family behind him, that's probably his wife
and three or four kids, whatever. He says, we're all sinners, we
all deserve to die, but I'm bringing this ram or goat or whatever
it was, I'm bringing this to die in our stead. as we look
ahead to that time when God is going to send his only begotten
son, the Lamb of God, to die for our sins. So that's the first
thing. He had to offer a sacrifice for
sin. But he still couldn't enter into
the tabernacle. So as he walked toward that tent,
There was another piece of furniture out there, the brazen laver,
and it was filled with water. And he would wash his hands,
that priest would wash his hands. He's already offered the sacrifice,
but he can't go in to take care of his duties as a priest until
not only something had been done about his own sinfulness, but he has to be washed because
he's defiled. So he'd wash his hands in that
cool, clear water and wash his feet. That was for cleansing. And then, then, He could enter
into the tabernacle. Then he could enter into the
presence of God. Then he could serve the Lord
in his capacity as a priest. No doubt he'd go in and take
some oil and fill the golden lamp stand, fill them with oil. And then the bread on the table
of showbread, he could then eat that bread, the bread of fellowship,
the bread of communion. But now he couldn't do those
things until he had a sacrifice for his sin, until he was washed
also. You got it? That's very important. And then perhaps he may go and
then burn incense at the altar of incense, which pictured the
intercessory work of our Lord Jesus Christ. What I want you to take away
from that is that two things were absolutely necessary before
he could enter into the presence of God. There had to be a sacrifice
that was for sin. And there had to be washing,
that was for his uncleanness. Now let's read this verse of
scripture again. The first verse of Zechariah
chapter 13. And this is talking about our
Lord Jesus. Look at chapter 13 verse one.
In that day, and I'm gonna come back and we'll talk about virtually
each one of these words. But in that day there shall be
a fountain opened to the house of David, and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, and it's for, number one, sin, and number two, uncleanness. Now here's the thing. Back there
at the tabernacle, and then also later in the temple, There were
two locations that a priest had to go to. He had to go to the
brazen altar for the sacrifice, and then go a little further,
and then the second step was there at the brazen laver to
wash. But God says, and He has Zachariah
write this, there is coming a day when both the offering for sin
and that location for cleansing is going to be all at one place. And that's in the substitutionary
sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Got to have the offering. and
got to be washed. In fact, you can read Exodus
chapter 30 verse 21. If he didn't wash at that laver,
he'd die. If he tried to enter into the
presence of God, he's going to die. Now you hear me. You cannot enter into the presence
of a holy God without a sacrifice for you. See? and without being
purified, made holy, made thoroughly clean through the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Otherwise, you're not gonna dwell
in eternity with the Lord. You can't, you can't. So in this message, let me raise
and answer four questions. Let me see if I can help you
understand this verse of scripture. Number one, who is this fountain? You see, this fountain isn't
something, it's somebody. It's somebody. Our Lord Jesus
Christ, he is the fountain. He is the fountain that God has
opened. He is the fountain that God has
opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem
because of two things that we need. We need our sins atoned
for. Something's got to be done about
our sins. Let me tell you that. You say,
I want to spend eternity with God. I want to go to heaven. When I die, I want to dwell with
the Lord. I want my sins forgiven. The
only way they could be forgiven is by the bloody sacrifice of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the fountain that God opened. But the removal of the guilt
of sin, that's one thing, but there's another thing that we've
got to have. We've got to be washed. We've
got to be cleansed. In other words, we've got to
be holy. We've got to be righteous before
God. Well, where do we find the holiness
and the righteousness? Well, we find the holiness and
the righteousness the same place we find the pardoning grace of
God and the death, the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And if you have any interest
in coming near to God, you want to worship God, I do, I really wanna worship
God. The only way I can worship God,
and I'm a preacher, I'm a preacher, but that doesn't put me above
everybody. I gotta come the same way y'all
come. We all come the same way. I've got to come by way of this
fountain that God himself has opened. And this fountain is none other
than the Lord Jesus Christ. Throughout the Old Testament,
our Lord is likened to a fountain. Psalm 36, you don't have to turn
there, I'll read it to you. Psalm 36, seven, eight, and nine. How excellent is thy loving kindness,
O God, Therefore the children of men put their trust under
the shadow of thy wings. They shall be abundantly satisfied
with the fatness of thy house, and thou shalt make them drink
of the river, the river of thy pleasures. For with thee is the
fountain of life. There is a fountain of life that
God himself has opened up. And He says, in thy light we
shall see light. We go to this fountain that God
has opened up, this fountain of Christ Jesus and His substitutionary
sacrifice. We find there the refreshment
for the soul thirst that God gives us to be right with God,
to be righteous with God, to have our sins forgiven. Anybody
thirsty for salvation? Has God created within you a
supreme desire to be pardoned? To stand before God with no sin? He's given me that thirst. He
opened a fountain. That fountain is the Lord Jesus
Christ. Here's another verse, Psalm 68,
verse 26. Bless ye God in the congregation,
even the Lord, the fountain of Israel. He is the fountain. And
God opened him. God opened him for sinners. Jeremiah
chapter 17 and verse 13. Oh Lord, the hope of Israel,
all that forsake thee shall be ashamed and they that depart
from me shall be written in the earth because they have forsaken
the Lord, the fountain of living waters. If you have no interest in the
fountain of living waters, the Lord Jesus Christ, hear me well,
you need not expect to go to glory when you pass from this
life. That's not going to happen. That's
not going to happen. That's impossible. No one laden with sin and guilt
and impurity is going to enter into the presence of God and
abide there. The Savior is the fountain of
life. And he made this promise in John
chapter four. He said, 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 until life everlasting. He said in John 7, verse 37,
the last day of the feast of the tabernacles. In the last
day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried saying,
if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. There's a fountain open for anybody
here who's thirsty. I speak to you who are watching
by way of the internet. Are you thirsty? I speak to each
of you in this congregation. Are you thirsty? Do you thirst
for God? You know what David said? As
the heart, as the deer panteth after the water brook, so panteth
my soul after thee, O God. I thirst for God. That's what
David said. And if you thirst for God, There's a fountain open. Christ said, come to me and drink. He's the fountain. He's the fountain. You see, we draw from him the
water of life. He is the fountain open. He's
not a well that we have dug. He's not a cistern. where the water grows old and
stagnant. He is a fountain open, a fountain
open, always full of life-giving water. If you're thirsty, come
and drink. That's what the Word of God says.
You say, well, what is the qualification? Thirst, thirst, What is a qualification? Impurity? Our text speaks of a fountain
open for sin and for uncleanness. Those are the requirements. If you're not thirsty, you're
not going to come anyhow. And if you haven't seen that
you're unclean by the Revelation of the Spirit of God, you're
not gonna come for cleansing. But I say if you have an interest
in the forgiveness of sins, an interest in the salvation that
is in Christ, behold the Lamb of God suffering, bleeding, dying,
behold the fountain opened by God himself for sin. You see, we have a dual problem. We're sinful and we're filthy. We're dirty, we're dirty. And
the filthy and the dirty, the defiled are not gonna enter into
the kingdom of God. It can't be, it just can't be. God's holy, God's righteous,
God's just. You're not going to glory, you're
not going to spend eternity in the presence of the Lord Jesus
Christ forever. You're not going to glory unless
you're washed from your sins, unless you're made pure in the
righteousness and holiness of the Son of God. And here's the thing, all that
you need and all that I need is in Jesus Christ crucified,
buried, risen, ascended, reigning on high. He's all I need. You
thirsty, come on. You dirty, come on. So Christ is the fountain open
for sin, number two. Okay, when was this fountain
open? Well, it's interesting the way
this begins in that day. And what Zachariah does, he looks
ahead to a particular day, a particular time, a particular event that's
going to happen, and it did happen. When like a glorious fountain,
our Lord Jesus was open for sin and for uncleanness. If you want
to do a little word study, take that expression, in that day,
and just go to a concordance, or if you have a pretty good
Bible, some Bible, a Bible software, just search that expression,
in that day. You'll find in the book of Zechariah,
it's used 20 times. And in the last three chapters,
it's used 16 times. And it's like the deeper you
get into the book and as you get toward the end, the ink pen
of Zechariah is focused more and more upon one specific day
and one specific event. He's more and more focused on
something that's going to happen. What is that something? It's
the day when the fountain was opened. That's the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, in that day. In that
day, our sins were paid for. In that day, righteousness was
brought in. In that day, the justice of God
that demanded death for sin, it was satisfied. In that day, all of the sins
of God's people were found upon the Son of God, our scapegoat,
our substitute, and God's sacrifice for sin, and the wrath of God
was poured out upon his holy soul. When was this fountain opened?
At Calvary. At Calvary. The fountain for
sin and for uncleanness was opened that day. Which tells me a couple
of things. Number one, we must really be
bad off if it took this fountain to be opened to put sin away. and to make us clean. Would you
agree with that? We must really be in bad shape. And it tells me this. God must
really hate sin. You may trivialize sin. And we may say, well, you know,
that this is a light sin, this is a heavy sin, this is an insignificant
sin, this is a really terrible sin. We may do that. All sins
are against God. He doesn't put them in categories.
What is sin? It's a violation of God's law. Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. That's what God said. How many
gods do you have before him? Be honest. I tell you, we're all We're all
sinful people. Sin is a serious thing. We must be bad off if Christ
had to die to put him away. And sin must be very offensive
to God if the only way he could put it away and save us was by
the death of his only begotten son, one equal to himself. If we're to have pardon and purification,
Christ must die. One of the hymns that I picked
out was by William Cowper. We sang it a few minutes ago.
There is a fountain filled with blood. Where you think that song
was taken from? Taken from this verse of scripture
right here. This verse of scripture, there
is a fountain filled with blood. Where'd it come from? It's drawn
from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners who plunge, take
the plunge beneath that flood. You know what happens? Lose all
their guilty stains. Even you. Even you. And even me. It was a fountain opened. For
you see, a fountain closed, not gonna do anybody any good. If this fountain, if Christ hadn't
come to this earth, if the word hadn't been made flesh and dwelt
among us, and then laid down his life for his sheep, to satisfy
God's law and justice, if that fountain had remained closed, sin and impurity would still
exist with us. A closed fountain would do nobody
any good. And I'll tell you something else,
a closed fountain wouldn't bring the glory to God that the open
fountain did. Because the fountain open for
sin and for uncleanness is a fountain open by God himself. He purposed
that the fountain be open before the world began. He's the one
who sent his son to die. He's the one who controlled all
the events leading up to and including the substitutionary
sacrifice of Christ. It was God who directed the hand
that held the hammer that drove the nails through His hands and
His feet. It was God who worked in all
things to bring His Son to the cross of Calvary. Because there
was no other way for God to save us, to put away our sin and to
wash us and cleanse us, except Christ died. In that day, a fountain was opened. None could open this fountain
but God. It was opened by the justice
of God. And I'll tell you this, when
God ordains a good supply for our needs, we may be assured
It's a real and sufficient provision. Because what God has opened,
nobody can close. Third question, for whom was
this fountain opened? Well, it gives a group of people.
It says, to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. the sinful and the unclean can
come. There's the qualifications. But
it's for a specific people. Let no one miss the specific
intent of the prophet's words. Christ is a, he is the specific
fountain for a certain group of people. The house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
There's a lot of talk today about Israel. And I pray, be the Lord's will,
that all will work out well for the nation of Israel. But you
need to understand something. There's another Israel that God
is concerned about, it's spiritual Israel. That's the Israel God's
concerned about. His focus is upon saving true
spiritual Israel. I know there were national promises
to the nation of Israel, but those were not spiritual promises
and they're not spiritual blessings. And you can get all caught up
in that. I'm all for helping them, but
don't misunderstand me. But the Israel that God is interested
in, the Israel that God loves with an everlasting love is the
house of David, the house of Christ Jesus himself, the elect
of God. And that's who the fountain is
open for. It's open for the house of Israel.
You say, well, why would, why do you insist upon that? I don't
know why you men have to insist upon this fountain open for specific
people. Well, number one, we have to
say it because the Spirit of God insists upon it. The Spirit
of God's the one who had Zachariah write a fountain open to the
house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. He didn't say it's
a thousand open for everybody, all people of the human race,
didn't say that. God the Spirit narrowed it down. Did you notice there in the last
verse when Ron read verse 9 of this chapter, it says, excuse me, verse 8, and it shall
come to pass that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts
therein shall be cut off and die, a third shall be left. That's a remnant according to
the election of grace. Two thirds going to be cut off. God always has a remnant. Read Romans chapter 11. Even
now, there's a remnant according to the election of grace. And
our Lord Jesus Christ came. He's the fountain opened by God
for a particular people, the house of David and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. And that's spiritual language.
It's open for the house of God. You say, well, how do I know
I'm one of them? Well, I can tell you this, you're
not gonna climb up into heaven and look at the Lamb's Book of
Life, see if your name's in there. You're not gonna find out that
way. You know how you find out if you're one of the ones for
whom the fountain was opened? You get thirsty. You get thirsty for the gospel.
And the Spirit of God, in the mirror of the Word of God, you
see your filthiness." He said, man, I need a bath. I need a
bath in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you're thirsty
and you're impure, hey, you're one of the ones. You're an occupant
of the, Inhabitant of the city of Jerusalem, the city of peace,
you see. And you're one of the ones of
the house of David. Number four, here's the last
question. Is this fountain still open? I don't read anywhere that God
has ever closed it. You ever read where it's closed?
I never read where it's closed. It's open still, number one,
listen to this, for the people of God. As the children of God, don't you still feel your spiritual
uncleanness, the impurity of your heart, your conscience,
your mind? I was talking to somebody the
other day, and we were talking about the subject of losing your
first love for Christ. That happens. Preacher, I've kind of lost that
edge. I don't love the Lord like I
used to be so excited about the things of God, and now it's like
so many other things have kind of crowded into my mind. Come
to the fountain again. Just come and drink of the sweet
gospel of God's grace, of his saving mercies. Come back to
Christ crucified, buried, risen again and reigning. Come and
be spiritually refreshed. Come and see your sins washed
away by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Come and see the
power of the blood. There's power in the blood of
Christ. and it keeps on cleansing us
from sin. 1 John 1, 7 says that. And then secondly, it's open
still for sinners. I can't do anything about your
sins. I can't do anything about my own sins. But I'll tell you this, if God
the Holy Spirit would work in your soul, and bring you by faith
to the Lord Jesus Christ, the fountain that God Almighty has
opened for sin and for an uncleanness, you will find that you will be
welcomed by the Lord himself. He has never turned anybody away
from this fountain. You say, I'm too filthy. No. Oh, you're not too filthy. Filthiness
is a requirement. I'm too sinful. No, you're not
too sinful. And don't try to limit the power
of the blood of Christ by saying, well, I don't think his blood
can save me. His blood has already saved his
people. We just find out about it in
regeneration. Come on. Come to the fountain
open for sin and for uncleanness. You'll be welcomed. And thirdly, let me say this. Let me just give you a final
word to our church. See the work of our church. You
know what our work is? Preaching about this fountain.
Telling people about a savior. that God himself sent into this
world and God opened him up for sinners. You see from his side when the
soldier came with the spear and out came blood and water. Blood
for the sin, water for the cleansing. See, you put it all together.
It's beautiful. It's just the glorious gospel
of the Son of God. Don't tarry. What I pray is that
God'll give you a thirst. You're not gonna come to you
thirsty. And I pray that God'll show you
uncleanness, because when you see what you are in yourself,
you ain't gonna hesitate. You're coming. Lord, wash me.
Cleanse me in the fountain filled with blood. Well, may the Lord
bless his word. invite you to take your hymn
book now.