If you want to turn with me to
Zechariah chapter 13, I appreciate your pastor and his
wife. I appreciate this congregation especially. I've known most of
you for decades. And you that are coming here
from other places, it's so good to see you. May the Lord be gracious
this morning to let us say a few words for His glory and the encouragement
of His church. He'll be pleased today to find
one of His lost sheep, put Him on His shoulders and bring Him
home. I just have one passage of Scripture I want to read in
Zechariah chapter 13 and verse 1. Zechariah chapter 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. And that day there
shall be a fountain opened. Most of you know that I was raised
here on the Cumberland Plateau. I was born just north of here,
Monterey, and I was raised in a little community called Banner
Springs. I was raised until I got married and left this mountain,
and I still miss it. I miss it desperately sometimes.
And one of the things I miss about this mountain is not far
from my house where I was raised, there was a, we called it Squirrelly
Hole, it was a creek down here, but we called it a river up home,
I guess. I used to fish that river. Fished it a lot. Went down there by myself when
I was 10 and 12 years old and spent all day fishing. And one
of the things I enjoyed about fishing on that creek more than
anything else was springs of water. There was one spring in
particular that never went dry. Every time I went there, I would
rake the leaves back from that spring and drink that cold water. And the creek was so cold you
couldn't hardly swim in it because it was fed by springs. Springs
of cold water gushing up into that creek. They tell us that
some of the best water will never be drank, never be tasted by
human lips because it has no access. It cannot get from deep
within the rocks. It's not a fountain opened. So
it's useless to nobody. Aren't you glad that there's
been a fountain opened? God Almighty Himself has opened
a fountain. There is a fountain filled with
blood, but it's opened. And that day there shall be a
fountain opened. Sometime when you see this word
in that day, it doesn't mean literally a day it could mean
several years hundreds of years Sometimes you don't know what
it means But here it's so plain what this means in that day There's
a day when this fountain was open If you and I go back almost 2,000
years ago now Outside the old walls of the city of Jerusalem,
there was one hanging on a cross, the cross of Calvary. That was Emmanuel, God with us,
hanging on a tree. And what do you see there? But blood. There was blood on His brow where
they drove the thorns down over His crown. There was blood on
His face where they plucked the beard from Him. He was bleeding
from His pierced hands and His pierced feet. You walk around
the cross and the whites of the bones appeared and blood was
running from His back. And then when he said, it is
finished, a soldier took a spear and put in his side. And all
his blood and water came gushing out. And brothers and sisters,
that's the fountain. The church can look back in the
history of this world and find where she was redeemed. No religion
can do that. The religions of this world are
always pointing to the future. I need to do better. I haven't
done enough. I've got to live long enough
to be perfect so I can be accepted with God. Only the church can
look back in history and say, there's where I was redeemed.
There's where the fountain was opened. The very fountain of
Emmanuel's blood. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. Isn't that amazing? A bloody
cross, wasn't it? A bloody cross. You and I have
a bloody religion. Sometime over the Thanksgiving
dinner, I love to pray that way. Lost people get sick when I start
saying, thank you for the precious blood. Oh, the blood that cleanses
us from sin. Thank you for the blood. And
you can almost feel the lost people saying, would you get
off of it? Would you quit? You're going to make us sick.
Aren't you glad for the fountain, brothers and sisters? In that
day, there shall be a fountain open, and bless God it was open.
It was open. He tells us here in our text
why it was open. For sin and for uncleanness. It was open for sin. It was open
to atone for sin. It was open to put away sin. There's where God dealt with
sin. At the cross. Well, this tells us something
that God did. He took notice of sin. God takes
notice of sin. Every sin He takes notice of.
He's the God who sees everything. He sees right into the very souls
of every individual in this world, all at once. And if He sees sin,
He takes notice of it. Whether it's the sin of the lost
people or the sin of His saint, God cannot look over sin. He's too holy. Even when David
sinned, God saw it. It grieved His heart that David
had did this. Those Corinthians that had sinned
against the Lord by not discerning His body, He saw it, didn't He?
He took notice of it. This world thinks that God is
just so merciful or God is so loving that He overlooks sin. He never has. He never will overlook
sin. The judge of all the earth must
do right. He must judge sin. But what the
cross tells us is He has dealt with our sins. He looks at us and says, I don't
want you to ever even dream or ever think that I can be in agreement
with sin. Or I can never sweep it under
the rug. I cannot. I will not. But I want you to
know this. I have dealt with your sins at
the cross. At the cross. And what did it
do? That must have come from the
mountain. And what does it do, brothers
and sisters? It's for sin. I tell you what
the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son does. It will stay the wrath
of God from your soul. Nothing else will do it. Aren't
you and I concerned about this? The most dreadful thing I could
think of in this world would be to face God in His wrath.
To have God angry with me. Men can lay down and sleep in
their sins because they have no idea that God is angry with
them. But down in Egypt, the Lord told
His people, I'm going to pass through at midnight, you put
the blood of that lamb over the doorpost. And at midnight when
I pass through, I'll see the blood. and I will pass over you. The wrath of God cannot touch
those who are behind the blood of Jesus Christ. It stays the
wrath of God. I'll tell you what else it does. It will cover your sins. It will
cover sins. I used to be, I heard when the
Lord first saved me, I would hear somebody talking about the
blood being, the sins being under the blood, and I thought, I don't
want my sins under the blood. I want my sins washed away. But
I began to think, the Scripture says, says, blessed is the man
to whom the Lord will not impute sin, that He forgives his iniquity
and covers, He covers his sins. What covers sins? The blood of
Christ does. But what's the significance of
that? Well, here it is. It covers it from the eyes of
God. You see them. I see them. They're not covered from our
sight, but they're covered from God's sight. So when you look
at your conscience and you see sin all in you, just remember
this, they may be exposed to your eyes, but the blood of Jesus
Christ, God's Son, hides them from God's eyes. He cannot see
them. I used to say this all the time.
Before the Lord saved me, I could not see my sins, but God did. when He saved me, now I see Him,
and He never does. The blood of Jesus Christ is
for the covering of sin. And I tell you this much too,
it's to wash sins away. What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood, but it
can. There's a passage, I don't know if I can quote it, I think
it's over in Colossians chapter 2, that He has quickened us together
with Christ, having forgiven us all trespasses. We have redemption through His
blood, even the forgiveness of sins. How many sins? All sins. Every sin that you've ever committed. None of us know much about sin. Somebody said that last night.
I don't know when I committed my first sin. I don't remember when I first
sinned against God. I've sometimes said if you was
out on the east coast over there in Virginia, and every time you
took a step you confessed a sin, you'd run out of room on the
west coast where you'd run out of sins to confess. How many
sins have we committed? Oh, we've sinned against the
person of God, the person of Christ, we've sinned against
the Holy Spirit, we've sinned against the Law, we've sinned
against the Gospel, we've sinned willfully, we've sinned ignorantly,
we've sinned against life. Sin, sin, sin. Everything we
do is mixed with sin. What does the blood of Jesus
Christ do? Cleanses us from all those sins. Isn't that amazing? This fountain
has been opened on purpose to cleanse away every sin. And when it touches your conscience,
brothers and sisters, it doesn't leave a sin. It never left a
sin before the face of Almighty God who sees and knows all, and
it won't leave a sin upon your conscience before God. And Scott
used to say the same thing that it takes to satisfy God, it takes
the same thing to satisfy the conscience. And what is that?
This open fountain. And it's there to wash us. And
it's there to reconcile us. We're reconciled to God through
this open fountain. Through the cross, the blood
of Jesus Christ. I can't think of a more glorious
thing than God being a Father to me. A tender Father, forgiving
me, and put it in my heart to cry, Father, Father. Don't you
find great comfort in that? And sometimes when He comes to
us and chastens us sore, we don't want to call Him our Father.
and He rebukes us for it, don't you dare refuse to call me your
Father, because in Christ my Son, you've been reconciled to
me. And though you feel so sinful
in yourself, I'm still your Father, because my Son has made perfect
reconciliation. He's our Father. The blood has
done that. And not only does it forgive
all sins, it forgives all kinds of sins. all kinds of sins. I've committed sins, brothers
and sisters, if you knew about them, I'd despair. I could never
look at you in the face if you knew some of the sins that I've
committed. Abominable sins, wickedness before God, right in the face
of God I did it. All manner of sin and blasphemy
I've committed, and yet it's been washed It's been forgiven,
it's been put away by the blood of God's own Son. What can wash
away my sins? This can. This can do it. There is a fountain, and it's
open, and it's open for sin. And why must we emphasize this? That God is now satisfied. The Law of God has been honored
and magnified. Heaven is satisfied. Jesus Himself
is said and resting in heaven because His work is completed.
It's done! And we must tell sinners this
for this reason. Sometimes, sometimes when a man
or woman begins to see their misery and their wretchedness
and feel the awful wrath of God in their conscience. They can
despair. We had a lady at the nursing
home when we used to go there to worship. Her name was Susan
McDonald. And we went there one night,
and I preached there. And I left, and one of the ladies
called and said, when you'd gone, a lady came up to me and said,
she looks awful. And said, she had to talk to
you, she wants you to come back down here. So I went back down
there and I found her. I've never in my life, that lady
was sitting in a wheelchair, oxygen in her nostrils. I've never seen such despair
on a woman's face in my life. Her eyes were red, her voice
was trembling, tears running from her eyes. And she said,
preacher, you don't know how I've sinned against God. You
don't know how to live my life. And she said, I know God is never
going to forgive me. I know that when I die, I'll
surely wind up in hell. And I tell you what, I didn't
have my Bible with me. I quoted every verse I could
think of about Jesus Christ satisfying God for sin. about His precious
blood atoning for sin, that God is not angry with those that
look to His Son and believe in His Son anymore. I quoted her
every scripture I could think about, and when I left, I thought,
Lord, if you don't break through the darkness of this woman's
mind and reveal Your Son to her, then she's going to die in misery,
and she's going to live in misery for all eternity. I saw her the next time we went
there, just a few days later. She wasn't at the service. I didn't know what her name was,
didn't know how to find her. We left. The same lady called
me again and said, this woman down here, Susan McDonald, she's
tangled up in her oxygen cord and she couldn't get to the service.
She wants to talk to you and I went down there and walked
in her room. And you talk about a beautiful
countenance. I said, what's going on? And
she said, I did just what you told me to do. She said, I went
to the Lord and told Him how I'd sinned against Him. And how
miserable I was. And I asked Him if He'd be pleased
to save me. And she said He did. I cried
and she cried and she said, I'm waiting now and just praying
now that when it pleases Him to take my life that He'll receive
me into Heaven. She died two hours later. I stopped by the funeral and
talked to her daughter. And she said, my mom has been
in despair for decades. Decades. Said all she did was
cry and weep and thought about death. Satan's like that, isn't he?
There's no hope. There's no hope for you. He told
the young people that in Jeremiah's day. We've left strangers, so
after them we'll go. There's no hope for us. One reason,
brothers and sisters, we must preach Jesus Christ so freely and so lovingly, and so accepting
of those who come to Him, no matter how wretched they are,
is because Satan tempts people to despair. That prodigal left home, miserable
child he was, so disrespectful to his dad, but he came to himself. He said, I'm going home, I'm
perishing. I'm perishing out here, and I've sinned against
my Father. Can you imagine all the thoughts that went through
his mind? And Satan said, you'll never be received. Your father's so angry with you.
But he said, I'm going home. We'll see. His father was watching for him.
And when his father saw him, what did he do? He ran. Luther
used to say, rich men don't run. But this one did. And Luther
said, why did he run? He said he didn't want him to
despair and go back to the pig pen. So he runs and he falls
on his neck and he kisses him. And just as he says, I'm not
worthy to be called your son. He said, bring the best robe
and put on him. Put the ring on his hand. Set
the table. We're going to eat and drink
and be merry. This my son was lost and he's
found. I've never preached Jesus Christ
so freely to sinners as He preached Himself. When Jesus preached Himself,
He preached Himself so full of mercy, the great physician that
would heal the broken in heart. All the publicans came to listen
to Him. I wish we could make Him appealing
to sinners. instead of being repulsed by
Him. I don't want to preach a Savior that repulsive, men. He's not
repulsive to me, is He to you? Oh, there's a fountain open,
and it's open for sin. Spread the message far and wide. Tell every sinner that you can
find, come to Christ. Come and welcome. God is not
angry anymore. God is satisfied. The fountain
has been opened. Charles Spurgeon said this, he said, It's the nature of sin
when the soul begins to know the bitterness of it, it makes
us fear that sin disqualifies us for mercy. And the reason
why we should not come to Christ as the propitiation for our sins.
He said, Dear guilty soul, you are not barred from this fountain
by any amount of sin you?ve already committed. If there is a fountain
open on purpose to remove filth, that man must be insane who shall
say that he needs to be washed, but because he?s filthy he?s
disqualified from coming. Don?t we think that way? I'm
lost. I know Christ has come to save
sinners, but I'm too lost. I know He's come to save sinners,
but I'm too bad of a sinner. Oh, brothers and sisters, being
a sinner doesn't disqualify us. That's what qualifies us. Tell us more and more of our
sins. Expose it to our conscience.
And the more you convince us of that, the more we're convinced
that Jesus Christ is just the Savior we need. The fountain
has been opened. One of the reasons I emphasize
this is because the context of this text is found here in chapter
12 and verse 11. And you'll see everyone here
he's talking about is so bitter in spirit. In verse 12, and the land shall
mourn every family apart, the family of the house of David
apart, their wives apart, the house of Nathan apart, their
wives apart, the family of the house of Levi apart, their wives
apart, the family of Shimei apart, their wives apart, all the families
that remain every family apart and their wives apart, everybody's
weeping. Everybody is broken in heart
and everybody is feeling bitter in their spirit. They're crushed. And just about the time, everybody
is ready to despair. Lo and behold, he said, wait,
the fountain is open. Don't despair. The fountain is
open. I wanted to emphasize this today
because I'm here to blame myself and confess myself. I'm not preaching
the gospel. I'm not preaching Jesus Christ
as freely to sinners as I should. Maybe it's out of fear. Reckon? Do you preach Him as freely as
He preached Himself? I wish we could. The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day. And there may I, though vile
as he, wash all my sins away. Oh, we say it's a bad time. We
talk about how bad the time is. We watch the little news and
we say, there's never been a time like this. Oh, it's so bad. But
is the fountain closed? No, it's opened. It's still open,
isn't it? And I'll tell you who else it's
open for. For those who've already come and washed in it. It's open for all the saints. Dear dying lamb, thy precious
blood shall never lose its power. Till all the ransomed church
of God be safe to sin no more. I need it now, don't you? We
live in this awful, sinful world, and we're sinful. We get this
road rage in us. I sit in my living room sometimes,
and I wind up getting road rage. Nobody around but me, and I've
got full of road rage. And I start thinking these awful
thoughts, and have this awful unbelief. And I say things, and
then I do things, and I dirty my conscience. Is there a place
I can come and be refreshed and be washed? Yes. This fountain
is open for all the saints. And you can wash in it as often
as you feel you need of it. There Jesus saves me and keeps
me clean. And you can't walk through this
world without dirtying your conscience. And this fountain is open just
for that reason. I didn't open it. God opened it. And He opened
it for that reason that His children may come and wash in it. If we
walk in the light, it's His in the light. We have fellowship
with Him. And the blood of Jesus Christ
God's Son cleanses us. And He cleanses us. And He cleanses
us. And He cleanses us. And He'll
just keep cleansing us, brothers and sisters, till we're home
and need the fountain no more. I'll tell you something else
about this blood. It not only cleanses from the guilt of sin
and to stay the wrath of God, it not only will justify you,
reconcile you, wash all your sins away, but when it touches
your conscience, The very first time it touches your conscience,
it will cleanse you from the very principle of sin. And I
mean by that this, it cleanses you from the love of it. I used
to try to save myself from sin all through my teenage years.
But I never could stop loving sin. I loved it. I loved it. I made God all kinds
of promises. If you'll not kill me tonight,
I promise I'll do better tomorrow. But I love my sins. You know
when I first hated my sins and myself because of it? When that
blood touched my conscience. I've often said this, you'll
never love the law of God until you're free from it. Men talk
about the law as the rule of life. You ll never have the law
in your heart to love it and to delight in it until you know
that in Jesus Christ, you re absolutely free from it. When
you re free from it, you say, Lord, I love thy law. I love
it. And when the blood touches your
conscience, you say, Lord, I hate every false way. Oh, wretched
man that I am. I had a man say to me one time,
he said, if I believed what you preach, I'd live like the devil.
It's not that way, brothers and sisters. No, this blood puts
a new principle within, and it's a hatred for sin. That Sal went
back to the wallet in the bar because she loved the bar. The
dog turned to that filthy vomit because he loved this vomit.
But let the blood of Jesus Christ touch our conscience. Let Him
wash us and make us clean. We'll hate the filth of sin.
And we can't live in it and delight in it. One more thing. In Revelation
chapter 7, would you turn over there and let me read this in
closing? I was reading a commentator one
time, In Revelation chapter 7, the commentator was saying that,
no doubt he said that when the resurrection is finished
over, the saints have been raised from the dead, the Lord Jesus
Christ will not have the wounds in His body anymore. That'll never be so. That's His
glory. And I think we have that here
in the scriptures that tells us that. He's the Lamb of God
with the wounds in His body now and the saints will look upon
those wounds for all eternity and rejoice. They'll never forget
what got them there. The price that was paid to redeem
them from this ungodly world and take them to glory. Look
how he says it in chapter 7 in verse 9, Revelations, After this
I beheld and lo a great multitude which no man could number, of
all nations, and kindred, and people, and tongues. They stood
before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white
robes, palms in their hands. And cried with a loud voice,
saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth upon the throne,
and unto the Lamb. Our God is the Lamb, and He sits
on the throne. And all the angels stood round
about the throne, and round about the elders, and the four beasts,
and fell before the throne on their faces, and worshipped God,
saying, Amen, blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving,
and honor, and power, and might be unto our God forever and ever,
and amen. And one of the elders answered,
saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes,
and whence come they? And I said unto him, Sir, thou
knowest. And he said unto me, These are they which came out
of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made
them white, in the blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before
the throne of God, and serve him day and night in his temple.
And he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them." You
ask the church in heaven, how did you get here? They'll tell
you. Just the same thing the church
on this earth tells them. How are you going to get there?
One way. I've washed my robes. I've washed
my conscience. I've washed in the same thing
that satisfied God in the blood of the Lamb. And if your faith
is in the blood of Christ, you live by faith here and someday
you'll be with Christ yonder. Thank you, Don. Boy, that must hurt.