Would you turn for a moment to the book of Nehemiah? I mean, well, I'm messing them all up tonight. Ezra. I'm thinking about Nehemiah because when I finish Ezra, I want to start preaching through Nehemiah. Chapter 5, verse 1, then the prophets Haggai and the prophet Zechariah. The son of Iddo prophesied unto the Jews that were at Judah and Jerusalem in the name of the God of Israel, even unto them.

Now this is after the building had stopped. And these two prophets, Haggai, we considered him last week, and we're gonna consider Zechariah tonight, they prophesied to the people. And they heard this prophecy. that we're going to listen to tonight. And that I find to be exciting.

This is what the Lord used to stir them up, to once again rebuild the temple and the walls of the temple. Now, Zechariah chapter 12, verse nine, And it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications.

I love the way the Lord says, I will pour. There's our hope. He says, I will pour. And I pray that he does that in our midst even now. I will pour upon the house of David. and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications." Now, some have thought this is a prophecy concerning the future conversion of the Jewish people. Something's going to happen in the end times that there's going to be a great calling out of the Jews shortly before the coming of Christ. Now, if that's what the Lord's going to do, I hope he does. Well, if that's what he's going to do, he will do it. And we rejoice in that. I hope there is a great calling out of the Jewish people.

But this is talking about spiritual Israel. This is talking about the true circumcision. This is talking about every true Jew. You see, God doesn't have two different programs, one for national Israel and one for the church. Same thing. And this is talking about all of God's elect, all of the house of David, those in Christ, those in Jerusalem, the church of the living God. Now, I love the way he says, I'll pour upon them the spirit of grace and supplications. Grace.

And when the Bible talks about grace, it's talking about saving grace. There isn't any other kind of grace but saving grace. Inherent in grace is free grace, is sovereign grace, is saving grace. And if it's not that, it's not God's grace. This spirit of grace and supplication, saving grace.

And you know what supplication is? Supplication is a desire for God's favor or a desire for God's grace. When God pours his grace out upon a people, you know what they want? Grace. That's what they desire. They desire grace. If God gives you grace, all you want is grace. You want all your salvation to be of grace. It's much more than something you are subscribed to and give agreement to, you must have grace. If God gives you grace, you must have grace. The spirit of grace and the spirit of supplications, you don't want to come to God on the footing of your own works, but solely on his favor, his gracious favor. Now, I pray that the Lord spears pours forth on me upon you, the spirit of grace, which will be manifest by desire for grace. Oh, how you desire for God to give you his saving grace. Now here's what takes place when he does, verse 10. And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and supplications. And here's what takes place.

When he does this, they shall look upon me. That's what happens when God gives a man or a woman grace. They shall look upon me. They shall look upon me. First, they look upon me. Second, they look. upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. They shall look upon me whom they've pierced and they shall mourn for him.

True mourning for sin doesn't take place unless I'm looking upon Him whom I pierced. Anything else is superficial. The only true mourning for sin comes from me looking upon Him whom I have pierced. It's only when a man sees the cross that he mourns over sin. Now there can be a mourning over the consequences of your sin. whether eternal consequences or even consequences in this life. It's not mourning over sin. There can be a mourning over the punishment your sin may bring you, there can be the embarrassment over your sin, but that's not the mourning of the second beatitude we're reading of here. Mourning over him whom we have pierced. As a matter of fact, a man doesn't really understand sin until he sees and believes The message of the cross, they shall look upon me whom they have pierced.

Here's what I'm guilty of. I have been guilty of putting to death the Son of God. I was with those men when they were driving the nails in his hands and his feet, I have been guilty of the murder of the Son of God. Now that's what true conviction, seeing is. Now I realize we're convicted about things we do and so on, but everybody is to one extent or the other. This is talking about that mourning that comes from me finding out that I am guilty of piercing the Son of God. That is when true mourning takes place.

Hating Jesus Christ to the extent that I participated in his murder. Now, when Adam sinned, I sinned. By one man, sin entered the world, and death by sin. So the death passed upon all men, and then all sinned. When he sinned, I sinned. It's not just that his sin was charged to me. When he sinned, I sinned. And when those men drove the nails In the hands and feet of Christ, it was me doing it. Somebody says, I couldn't have done that. Yeah, you could. Yes, you did.

That's what God holds men accountable for. Now, sin is seen when the cross is seen. That's when I begin to mourn over my sin. and it would take nothing less than the death of Christ to put away my sin. That's when I mourn over sin, when I see what it cost Christ. I see it was my sin that he bore. It was my sin that he experienced the wrath of God for, that he was forsaken by his father for. I see that's all because that's what I deserve to happen to me. I see he bore it and that is when I mourn over sin.

Now, if all I see is the bad things that I've done, I've not seen my sin. I've only seen my sin in light of looking upon him whom I have pierced. All else is a superficial mourning. It's not real. It's not true. And notice, he says, they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. Here's the issue. Who is he? That's the only issue. There are no other issues. What about Set-Aside? The issue is who is Jesus Christ who was pierced. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced. I love what Peter said on the day of Pentecost.

This same Jesus whom you crucified, God hath made him both Lord and Christ. And when they heard that, They were pricked in their heart for the first time. This was God, the Holy Spirit, pricking their heart, finding out what they were guilty of. This one you crucified, the Lord Jesus Christ. God has made him both Lord and Christ. He's the Lord.

That means you're in His hand right now. I love saying that. I'm in His hand right now. Everyone's in His hand. He is in absolute control of everybody and everything because He's the Lord. He's the Lord. But not only is He the Lord, I love Him being the Lord, but He's God's Christ. He's God's prophet. He's the very Word of God. He's God's priest.

He's the one, if He represents you, You'll be saved. You are saved if He represents you. He's God's King. He's the one who can cause you to do His will. He's the one who can give you faith. He can give you repentance. He can give you love to Christ. He can give you a new heart. He's both Lord and Christ. They said, men and brethren, what shall we do? Their heart's being pricked and I love Peter's answer.

Repent. Everything you think is wrong. Repent. Repent of all your thoughts of God. Repent about all your thoughts of yourself. Repent of all your thoughts of salvation. Repent, change your mind. And be baptized, every one of you. Everybody that repents, you know what they wanna do? They wanna confess Christ in believer's baptism. He said, I love the way he says this to these people. He says, repent. And if you're sure your repentance is sincere, no, repent. Confess Christ and believe with baptism.

They shall look upon me whom they have pierced. Now can you say with the centurion that one who presided over his death, he was the foreman over his death, telling all the other fellas what to do, but he watched all this. And the scripture says when he saw that he so cried out, And that's talking about his cry of, it is finished. When he saw that he so cried out, he said, surely this man is the son of God. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced.

And I don't want to miss this. They shall look. Forget doing. Altogether, forget doing. Well, I'm gonna straighten things up. I'm gonna turn over a new leaf. I'm gonna make things right. That's doing. Look. Look away from yourself. Look away from everybody else. Look to Him. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced."

The children of Israel had got themselves in a mess. That manna that came down from heaven, they said, our souls loathe this light bread. That which at one time was manna coming down from heaven now is light bread. insubstantial bread. And what did God do? He sent fiery serpents into the midst of the children of Israel. Now, most of us are squeamish about snakes. They were too. Can you imagine how terrifying just the sight of these things were? But there were fiery snakes biting much of the people of Israel. And many people of Israel died and they came to Moses.

They said, Moses, we speak against the Lord. We speak against you. Pray for us, that the Lord will get us out of this. And Moses went and represented them, and the Lord said, you take a brass serpent in the likeness of that serpent that's biting, and you put it on a pole. And what were the children of Israel to do? Look. Now, I would have been trying to figure out ways to keep the snakes out of my house, wouldn't you?

I'd stuff every hole in the, Look, and everyone that looked lived, looking unto Jesus. That's the only time that particular word in Hebrews 12 too is used in all of the scriptures. And it means look, so as you turn away your eyes from everything else to this one object. looking unto Jesus. How do I look to Him? As the one who is the author and the finisher of faith. I love looking to Him in that light. I don't even have to come up with the faith. He's the author of it. He's the completer of it.

Who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross that He knew only He knows the agony of the cross, only He knows what it is to be forsaken by the Father. When He was thinking of the cross and sweating great drops of blood, it wasn't because of dread of the pain, although I wouldn't be dismissive of that. It's because He knew He was going to be made sin and be forsaken by His Father. But He dismissed all that, despising the shame for the joy that was set before Him, the joy of glorifying His Father, the joy of saving His people. And he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high, looking.

You know, looking's so simple. If I say, look at me, nobody says, what do you mean by that? No, you look. You look to him. You don't look anywhere else. You look to him. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn."

Now, this is where mourning for sin comes from, and this is the promise of comfort. Now, mourning. Blessed are they that mourn. True mourning only comes from a view of the cross. Anything else is not the mourning that our Lord speaks of when he says, blessed are they that mourn. True mourning.

Now, I guarantee you, I've done some mourning over my personal sin. I thought, oh, I wish, because the troubles brought into my life. I've mourned over sin in that sense. Wish I didn't do it. Wish it never happened. Oh, how I've mourned because of the problems it brought me.

But you know, that's not mourning over sin. Mourning over sin is when you see the way sin is removed only through the cross of Christ. You do not mourn over sin until you see your sin in that light. The more we see of him, The more we'll mourn over sin. And if I'm not presently mourning over my sin, the reason is I'm not presently looking to him. You look to him, you will mourn over your sin.

And I think this is so important. Notice what it says about this mourning. In that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, this is verse 11, as the mourning of Hathadrimmon in the valley of Megiddon, and the land shall mourn every family apart, separately. The family of the house of David apart. and their wives apart, the families of the house of Nathan apart, and their wives apart.

Now this mourning of sin isn't some kind of ostentatious display of how sorry I am for my sin. This is before God. This is apart. This is not for others to see. Nobody else is gonna enter into this. I know because some people can put on these long faces, oh, I'm mourning over my sin. That's not mourning over sin. You do this apart, by yourself. 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. This morning is not public.

It's not putting a long face on and trying to show everybody how sorry you are for your sin. This is before the Lord, seeing what your sin, how it had to be put away and what the Lord had to experience in putting your sin away. That is what creates a true mourning for sin.

Chapter 13, verse 1. In that day, 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. There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.

Rock of ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from thy riven side which flowed be of sin the double cure." And he's talking about this Fountain open for sin and for uncleanness. Be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure. Now notice, in that day there should be a fountain open to the house of David, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. When that fountain was open, And that spear was pierced through the Lord's side.

What came out? Blood and water. John points out not blood only, but blood and water. Now this is what is for sin and for uncleanness. blood and water. And this is illustrated so clearly in the Old Testament. When you went into the courtyard of the tabernacle, what's the first thing that had to take place? Blood. That animal had to be slain.

And then there was the labor of water to wash in. Now it's sad that People said, well, the blood justifies you, but you got to wash yourself to be sanctified. That water represents the continual cleansing of the blood of Christ. Now, I need the one time sacrifice where he by himself purged our sins and he sat down and it was over. No more offering for sin. It's over. Thank God for that. By one offering he had perfected forever. Them that are sanctified by that one offering.

How I need that. But I find that I get myself dirty and defiled every single day. And I need the continual cleansing of the blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanseth us, present tense, right now, from all sin. A fountain opened. Not closed, but opened for sin and uncleanness. If we confess our sin, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and to cleanse us from all iniquity. Turn with me for a moment. Hold your finger there and turn to Revelation 22. These two things are mentioned in verse 11. This is talking about Judgment Day.

He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. And he which is filthy, let him be filthy still. The result of being unjust, the filthiness of sin. Fountain was for sin and for uncleanness, the filthiness of sin. And he that's righteous, every believer is righteous before God. Believe that. You stand before God righteous, righteous, altogether righteous. And he that is holy, let him be holy still. You know, you're never going to be anything but that throughout all eternity, righteous and holy.

In that day, there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. It's open right now. I don't care how defiled I am. I don't care how filthy I am. The fountain's opened. Whosoever will, him take the water of life freely. The fountain is opened, and it shall come to pass in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered.

And also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land. When you believe the gospel, you will have zero toleration for that which is not the gospel. When you believe the gospel, you will have zero toleration for that which is not the gospel. The idols are passed out of the land. Look what he says in verse 3, this is to what extent.

It shall come to pass that when any 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 prophesieth." Speaking lies in the name of the Lord thrusts him through. Now is that telling us that we ought See somebody preaching another gospel, you ought to take a spear and throw it.

Of course not. But this is our attitude about anything which is contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified. If it's not this, thrust it through. Even if it's your children, you have no mercy for that which is not the gospel. You have no toleration for that which is not the gospel. Now this is the inspired word of God. And this is these people's reaction when hearing the truth. This is how they feel about that which is false. Look in verse four.

And it shall come to pass in that day that the prophet shall be ashamed, every one of his vision, When he hath prophesied, neither shall they wear a rough garment to deceive, but he shall say, I'm no prophet, I'm a farmer. Man taught me, God didn't teach me. Man taught me to keep cattle from my youth. Acting ceases. When the gospels believed this act, I'm no prophet, I'm nothing more than an actor. It was all alive. Acting ceases when we have been bathed in that great fountain for sin, fountain open for sin and uncleanness, verse six. And one shall say unto him, what are these wounds in thy hands? And you know exactly what wounds he's talking about. Then he shall answer. those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends."

You know who Jesus Christ died for? His friends. Who are his friends? What was his greatest criticism? He's the friend of sinners. If you're a sinner, he counts you his friend. his real, true friend. And he died for you. And that's where those wounds in his hands came from.

Verse seven. Awake, O sword, this is the father speaking, against my shepherds. and against the man that is my fellow, my equal, one with me, saith the Lord of hosts, smite the shepherd. And the sheep will be scattered. This is quoted in the New Testament. They all scattered, hid. That's what happened when the shepherd was smitten by the father. This shows where we came in. We all ran in fear.

And I will turn mine hand, and I have no doubt this is talking about mercy, I will turn mine hand upon the little ones, the insignificant ones in their own eyes, the little ones. And it shall come to pass that in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut off and die, but the third shall be left therein, this is talking about the remnant of his people, and I will bring the third part through the fire. You know, when he went through the fire of God's wrath, they went with him. And I will bring the third part through the fire and will refine them as silver is refined and will try them as gold is tried.

And they shall call on my name. Now when God refines you, as silver and gold. Here's what you begin to do. Lord, save me. You call upon his name. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You're calling upon every one of his attributes to save you. This is what happened when he refined you as silver and gold. You call on his name. And I will hear them. You call on His name. You call on His name right now. He hears. He hears you. I will hear them. I will say, it's my people. That's my people. You call on His name. He only says about you, that's my people. That's my people. And they shall say, the Lord, Jehovah, the self-existent One, is my God.

And that's what happens when the Lord pours out the Spirit of grace and supplications on His people. When He pours His grace on me, well, I'm going to want grace. That's all I'm going to want. passage to think about as we prepare to take the Lord's table.

But isn't it glorious to think that these people back then, this is what they were hearing from the prophet Zechariah. And they prospered, the scripture says, under the prophesying of Haggai and Zechariah. But let's take the Lord's table together now with this message of this fountain open. for sin and for uncleanness. It's something to rejoice in. Let's pass out the bread and wine.