Let's look in our Bibles again
to Zechariah chapter 12. The prophet Zechariah lived at the
same time Haggai and Ezra lived. Zechariah wrote to encourage
his brethren to devote themselves to the work that God had given
them. God had given them the work to return to Jerusalem and
to rebuild the temple. And they needed encouragement.
They met with a lot of opposition. They met with a lot of difficulty.
And Zachariah wrote to encourage his brethren with the same message
that we use to encourage our brethren today. God's preachers
are not to encourage God's people by beating them over the head
with the law. We're not to encourage believers
to worship and to serve the Lord by threatening them. I remember
when I was a, my mom told me when I was a baby, Just I was
two weeks old or something, you know, and they took me to the
surface. He said, we shouldn't have took you out in the middle
of winter like that. We're afraid God kill you if we didn't go
to the worship surface. That's not the way to encourage
people to serve the Lord. Not at all. You got a newborn,
you ought to keep them at home for a while until they get, you
know, where they can build up some immunity. Use common sense
God gave you. I'll tell you how Zechariah encouraged
his brethren to serve the Lord. His name tells us how He did
it. His name is a combination of two words that mean remembrance
and the Lord. He encouraged His brethren by
reminding them of the Lord, by reminding them of the Lord's
mercies and grace to them. And that's how God's preachers
still today, we still have the same message. We encourage God's
people to come to Him, to serve Him, to worship Him by preaching
Christ to them. You who believe, you know this
is true. Nothing encourages your heart.
Nothing strengthens your heart. Nothing encourages your heart
to worship and to serve the Lord other than to be reminded of
Christ. Be reminded of his sacrifice,
to be reminded of his love for his people. This is why the Lord's
table is always such a special time of worship because we're
clearly reminded of the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ for
his people. And throughout his prophecy, that's exactly what
Zachariah does. He prophesies of Christ. In just
14 chapters, Zachariah gives us more prophecies of the coming
Messiah than any of the Old Testament prophets, with the exception
of Isaiah. And my desire this morning is
to encourage your heart by preaching Christ to you. And I hope that
somebody here needs some encouragement. Because if you do, I've got a
message of encouragement to you. It's also my prayer that there's
somebody here this morning that God has caused to truly mourn
over your sin. Now, I know that's a miserable
condition to be in. Holy Spirit conviction of sin.
But God's made you miserable because of your sin. He's going
to send you a message of comfort. And this is the message of comfort.
It's good news in Christ. Zachariah tells us what God's
servants are constantly telling us, to look to Christ. In a sentence, this is the message
this morning. If you're miserable because of
your sin, you're mourning over your sin, you look to Christ
and be saved. The title of the message is Repentance
and Cleansing. If we're going to understand
repentance and cleansing, first of all, we've got to understand
where does repentance come Repentance is a gift of God, it comes from
God. Look here at verse 10 in our text, Zechariah 12. And I
will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem
the spirit of grace and of supplications. And they shall look upon me whom
they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth
for his only son. It shall be in bitterness for
him as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. They see repentance
as a gift of God. God said, I'm gonna pour this
upon my people, upon spiritual Israel, the house of David, the
inhabitants of Jerusalem, that's spiritual Israel. And I'm gonna
pour upon them the spirit of grace and the spirit of supplications. The spirit of grace is God giving
us grace to repent, giving us grace to look to Christ. And
if God doesn't give us that spirit of grace, we'll never repent.
will never repent until God gives us the grace to repent and the
grace to look to Christ. And He'll pour upon us the spirit
of supplications. That's the spirit of prayer.
I said this in the class this morning. You're going to cry
for mercy. You're going to ask God to forgive
you, but He's going to have to put it in your heart to do it.
He's going to have to put it in your heart to pray, Lord,
save me. Lord, forgive my sin. Lord, cleanse
me of my sin. That's the spirit of supplication.
Repentance is a gift of God, a gift that He pours out upon
His people. Repentance is a gift of God just
like faith is the gift of God. And you know both of those gifts,
repentance and faith, they're given at the exact same time.
Brother Henry said so often repentance and faith is a piece of paper
with two sides. You cannot have one without the
other. They can't be divided. Repentance simply comes from
faith in Christ. Our text says, they shall look
upon me whom they've pierced and they shall mourn. No one
can ever repent of their sin. No one can ever mourn over their
sin until God gives them faith to see Christ. Repentance is
a whole lot more than feeling sorry for your sin. Repentance
is a turning to Christ. We turn to Christ from our idols
And nobody will turn to Christ until God gives them faith in
Christ. So repentance, where does it
come from? It comes from God. It's a gift of God. And maybe
a better way to say that is nobody will ever mourn for their sin. Nobody will ever repent until
by faith we see Christ suffering for our sin. And that's the second
point. We have to understand, if we're
going to understand repentance and cleansing, we've got to understand
what true repentance is. Now, true repentance is a mourning
over your sin. It's turning from your sin, turning
from your self-righteousness and turning to Christ. Now, repentance
is not only feeling sorry for your sin or being sorry that
your sin is exposed. That's just being sorry that
God sees everything. That's just being sorry you got
caught. That's not repentance. Repentance is not being sorry
that God will send you to hell for your sin. That's just being
sorry that God's holy. Repentance always has reference
to Christ. Always. Repentance always has
to do with seeing Christ. I'll tell you when I'll mourn
over my sin. I'll tell you when I'll repent
of my sin. It's when I see Christ. When
I see his holiness, when I see his love, when I see his perfection,
then I'll see everything I'm not. When I see Christ, that's
when I'll see, oh, I'm defiled with sin. Now I see how unholy
I am, because I've seen Christ in His holiness. Now I see how
ugly with sin I am, because now I've seen Christ in His beauty.
And then I'll mourn, and only then will I repent. God says
His people will mourn when they see Christ whom they have pierced. You'll never truly mourn. You'll
never truly repent of your sin until you see the suffering that
your sin caused to save you. Your sin. We'll repent when God
enables us to see what it took to put my sin away. That's when
I'll repent. Now, I know this. Christ died
for a host no man can number. I'm thankful, I'm truly thankful
it's that way. But you know, I've always, I
mean, I can't remember a time I didn't believe that. But I
never repented until I saw it was my sin, my sin, that nailed
the Savior to the cross. People love to argue. about who
killed Jesus. I saw a show on TV about this
a few weeks ago. Who killed Jesus? Was it the
Jews? Was it the Romans? We'll never
know the answer to that question until God reveals to us, I'm
the one who killed Christ. I'm the one. What does Scripture
say? He was wounded for my transgressions. He was bruised for my iniquities. Look in Acts chapter 2. This
is what Peter preached. while the crucifixion of Christ
was still fresh on everyone's mind, while everybody was there
still living who had part in that whole transaction. You'd think how bold Peter was
to preach this message to them in Acts chapter 2. And he concludes
his message in verse 36. He says, Therefore, let all the
house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same
Jesus whom you have crucified. both Lord and Christ. Now when
they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto
Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what
shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, repent
and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ
for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of
the Holy Ghost for the promises unto you and to your children
and to all that are far off, even as many as the Lord our
God shall call. Well, you say, well, now these
were the folks who were, they were actually there in that mall.
They actually cried crucifying, crucifying. These people actually
said, give us Brabus. Well, that's true. They were,
but so were we, so were we. We're just as guilty. We've got
the same nature and listen, Our sin has got to be put away the
exact same way as their sin. They're no worse than we are.
Our sin must be cleansed the same way their sin was cleansed.
Now, no child of God is going to argue against this. It's my
sin that nailed the Savior to the tree. Now, I hate that. I hate that my sin caused my
Savior to suffer so much. He loved me with an everlasting
love and look what my sin caused him to suffer. I hate that. But I joy in that because my
only hope of salvation is that Christ died for my sin. So I'm not going to argue against
this, this truth, my sin nailed into the tree. And true mourning,
true repentance over sin is not just an outward show of religion.
It's true heart mourning. Zachariah likens the mourning
over sin to the way a parent mourns when their only child
dies. Now, I simply can't imagine how
horrible that would be. But Zachariah says the mourning
over sin is worse because my sin cause the Son of God to die. And I didn't just stand by and
watch helplessly as he died. I put him to death with my sin.
And that makes me mourn. That makes me turn from my sin
in disgust and turn to Christ. You see, repentance can only
come from a broken heart. Just like that parent that lost
a child. They're not pretending. They're not putting on a show
for public. Their heart's broken. And if we ever see our sin in
the light of Christ, we'll be broken hearted. It won't be a
show we'll put on for our friends. We'll be broken hearted. And
I know this about repentance. Repentance and mourning over
sin is not a one-time thing. We can't say, I repented. No,
I repent. I repent right now. True mourning
over sin will never stop as long as we're in this flesh. Zachariah,
again, he likens this to the mourning over the loss of a child. You reckon that parent who loses
a child ever stops mourning? No. No, they never stop mourning. They never forget. And that's
what mourning over sin is. It never ends. And mourning over
sin is very personal. I truly regret to see what sin
has caused in our world. I regret to see what sin has
caused in our country, in our area. But I tell you what causes
me to mourn, what causes me to repent, is my sin. It's very personal. Look here
at verse 11. In that day shall there be a
great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning of Hadad-Rimon
and the valley of Megiddo, and the land shall mourn. every family
apart. The family of the house of David
apart, and their wives apart. The family of the house of Nathan
apart, and their wives apart. The family of the house of Levi
apart, and their wives apart. The family of Shimei apart, and
their wives apart. All the families that remain,
every family apart, and their wives apart. Now you know what
that's saying? Each person, each family mourns
apart. Because mourning for sin is personal. It really doesn't matter if your
parents know the Lord. It really doesn't matter if your
parents have repented and turned to Christ in faith. You have
to turn. You have to repent. You have
to call upon the Lord. It doesn't matter if your parents
have been cleansed in the blood. You have to be cleansed in the
blood. You must come to Christ. Repentance is an intensely personal
matter. Well, here's the third thing.
Now we get to some very good news. Every person who mourns
over their sin, every person who repents of their sin is going
to be washed in the blood of Christ. Look at chapter 13, verse
one. In that day, there should be
a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness. Now, Zechariah uses
this phrase, in that day, 20 times in these 14 chapters. He
says here, in that day, in that day, there should be a fountain
open to spiritual Israel, the house of David and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. That's spiritual Israel. In that
day. And what he's speaking, he's
not speaking of many different days every time he's, he's talking
about one day. He's talking about the gospel
day, the day of the gospel. There's a fountain open. This
fountain is the cleansing blood, the fountain of blood drawn from
Emmanuel's veins. And when Zacharias says that
day, he means the day of salvation, the gospel day. And that day
really, it's not even just one day, it's several different days.
When was the fountain of blood opened? Well, first the fountain
of blood was opened when God in eternity purposed to save
his people. In that day, the elect were washed
in the blood, They were washed in the blood of the Lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. Then second, the fountain of
blood was opened to the Old Testament believers when God gave them
pictures through animal sacrifices. All those animal sacrifices,
they were slain, their blood was shed, they were all pictures
of Christ. It caused those Old Testament
believers to look past the ceremony, to look past the animal and look
to Christ who would come. whose blood would put away sin. Then thirdly, the fountain of
blood was opened when our Lord was crucified. Now God in eternity
purposed to save the people. He chose a people to save. But
now the blood had to be actually shed in time. The debt had to
be actually paid. In the mind and purpose of God,
it was already done. But now it had to happen in time.
The sacrifice had to be offered before the Father. The blood
had to be brought behind the veil into the holiest of all,
to the presence of the Father. And that day, the fountain was
opened when Christ was crucified. And then four, the fountain of
blood is opened in the day that we believe on the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ. In that day, in that gospel day,
the blood's applied to our heart and we're cleansed from all sin. Now is anybody here a sinner? I mean a sinner who mourns over
your sin, bitterly mourns over your sin. Well, I hope so. Because I've got good news for
every sinner who's miserable, just in misery in their sin and
filth. There's a fountain. Oh, there's
a fountain of blood open for you. Now you come wash and be
cleansed. There is a fountain filled with
blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners, I mean real
life sinners, plunge beneath that flood with all their guilty
stains. Isn't that what our text says?
That's what Songwriter says. Is that what God's Word says?
It is. Our text says there's a fountain
open for sin and for uncleanness. The fountain of the blood of
Christ cleanses a sinner from all sin. The blood of Christ
cleanses us from sin, our sin nature. The blood of Christ cleanses
us from the sins of the world. All those sins that we've committed,
His blood cleanses us from all sin. This fountain is the double
cure. Remember what we read to open
the scripture in John chapter 19? When that Roman soldier with
his spear pierced the side of the Savior, What flowed out of
his body? John said, blood and water. The
double cure, the fountain was opened and the double cure flowed
out. There's blood to justify, blood
to pay for sin, water to sanctify, water to give new life and the
new birth. There's blood to pay for sin
and to satisfy the justice of God. And there's water to give
a new nature and make us accepted in God's holy presence. Now sinner,
the fountain's open. Now you come wash. You come and
be cleansed. You come and be saved. The fountain's
open. God says, I opened the fountain. Well, no man's ever closed it.
God never has either. The fountain of the blood of
Christ is still open for every sinner who needs cleansing. The
dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day. There may
I, though vile as he, wash all my sin away." Even 2,000 years
later, the fountain's still open for the vilest of sinners. And
this fountain's easy. Easy to find. It's easy to wash
in. It's not a myth. I remember hearing
stories about all those explorers that used to go searching world
over for the Fountain of Youth. They were convinced it was there.
They never found it. The moment you begin to search
for this fountain, you'll find it. That's how easy it is. There
is no obstacle between you and this fountain of blood unless you're not a sinner. If
you're a sinner with no hope, with no way of salvation, there's
no obstacle stopping you from coming to this fountain. There's
nothing stopping even the chief of sinners from coming to this
fountain. God's opened it for sin. And what's been opened? Not a
pond. Not even an ocean. A fountain. A fountain that continually springs
with fresh, life-giving blood. You remember the Old Testament
priests? God gave us many pictures. We've got to be cleansed from
our sin. Those Old Testament priests had
to wash all the time. They had to do that to give us
a picture. We got to be cleansed. Well,
what did they wash in? They had that brazen labor, didn't
they? But they had to keep filling that thing up. They had to empty
the dirty water out. They had to keep filling it up.
The gospel of Christ, Christ himself is always infinitely
better than the picture. Christ gives us a fountain of
blood, a never ending fountain of blood that all of God's elect
can be washed white as snow in. That brazen labor is just for
the priests. If you're from the tribe of Benjamin, you better
not wash in that. That's for the priest. The fountain
of the blood of Christ is for every sinner. Now you come wash. Dear dying lamb, thy precious
blood shall never lose its power. All the ransomed church of God
be saved to sin no more. There's a fountain open for sin
and for uncleanness. Now you come wash. You come be
cleansed. But now when we're cleansed,
two things that gotta go. When we see Christ, by God's
grace, he enables, he gives us the faith to see Christ, there's
two things that have got to go. The first one's idols. Look here
at verse two. 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. Well, of course, once you see
Christ, the idols got to go. Once you see Christ, you've been
washed in His blood. You can't worship anyone or anything
other than Christ the Savior, can you? Of course the idols
have to go. But now this gives us a hint
of how gracious our God is. God chose a people to save. And
when He chose a people, He chose sinners. I mean He chose the
worst of sinners. even idolaters. God opened the
fountain of the blood of his son for idolaters to come wash
in. People who worship the creature
rather than the creator come to this fountain and are cleansed. Now that's grace. Oh, that's
grace. So idols gotta go. Here's the
second thing that has to go. We see Christ and we're washed
in his blood. False prophets gotta go. That
just makes sense. If an idol has to go, somebody
who preaches an idol has to go too, don't they? Verse three.
And it shall come to pass that when any shall yet prophesy,
when this is speaking of the false prophet, that 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
what he prophesied." Now once you've seen Christ, you hate
false prophets. You hate them. And scripture
says even parents will thrust their son through with a spear
when he preaches a false gospel. Now that sounds very harsh, doesn't
it? But let me ask you this question. Who do you love more than Christ? I want you to answer that question
in your heart. Who do you love more than Christ? Who do you need more than Christ? Well, if you've seen Christ,
the answer is no one. Now listen very carefully. I
don't recommend anybody killing their child. Don't do that. I
don't even recommend you going out and killing a false prophet.
Don't do that. But I'll tell you what this is saying. If you
choose anyone ahead of Christ, you've never seen Him. That's
what this is saying. But isn't this a picture of what
our Heavenly Father did for His people? How did the Jews crucify
the Lord Jesus? They accused Him of being a false
prophet. And when God's Son became guilty
of the sin of His people, who put Him to death? The Father
Himself put His Son to death. But now remember the theme here
is the grace of God to his people and giving his son as a sacrifice
for sin that causes his people to repent, that makes his people
clean and pure in the blood of Christ. God is so gracious. His grace is infinite. The blood
of Christ is powerful. God is gracious and merciful
enough. Do you know that there's even
hope for false prophets? There sure is, look at verse
4. And it shall come to pass in that day that the prophet
shall be ashamed of 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 husbandman, for man taught me to keep cattle
for my youth. Now in that day, in that gospel
day, in that day of salvation, when by God's grace even a false
prophet sees Christ, whom he's pierced with his sin, that prophet
will repent and be ashamed. Yeah, he will. Now remember,
repentance is a turning. When that false prophet sees
Christ, he's going to turn from his idolatry and turn to Christ. He's going to turn from his self-promotion
and turn to Christ who has all glory. And he'll be ashamed. Rightfully so, he'll be ashamed
of that false gospel that he used to preach. But he won't
do it anymore. Now he quit that. He'll quit
acting like a preacher. He says here, neither shall they
wear a rough garment to deceive. Elijah wore a rough garment and
the Jews thought Elijah was the best prophet, you know. So they
try to wear clothes like Elijah wore. They're pretending to be
somebody they're not. They're not going to do that
anymore. Not once they see Christ they won't. Just like men today,
you know, they pretend to be somebody that they're not. Brother
Henry told me, this is the only advice he gave me about being
a pastor. He said, don't try to be me. Don't imitate me, just
be yourself. Well, men, they wear a suit or
they wear a robe or they wear their collar around backwards,
you know, trying to look like something that they're not. This
false prophet, once he's seen Christ, he's not going to try
to deceive anybody anymore. He's going to clearly say, I
was a false prophet. Don't you listen to what I, if
there's a recording where I used to preach, don't you listen to
it. I wasn't taught to be a preacher. I was taught to be a husbandman.
Now, you know, he could be saying, I was taught to be a farmer.
You know, my father was a farmer. He taught me to be a farmer.
That's all I ever learned. Nobody ever taught me. God never
taught me how to be a preacher. But there'd be no shame in that,
would there? You know, a farmer is a hardworking,
respected man. I'll tell you what he's saying.
He's saying, I was a false prophet. I was a husbandman. I wasn't
a shepherd. A shepherd feeds the sheep. A
shepherd takes care of the sheep. A shepherd, he protects the sheep.
A shepherd gives his life for the sheep. But a husbandman,
he lives off the sheep. A husbandman fleeces the sheep.
He doesn't care for the sheep. He'll use the sheep to protect
him if he can. He raises the sheep. He feeds
them. That's true. But you know why he does it?
He does it to fatten them up so he can either kill them or
he can sell them to the highest bidder. I've got a good friend,
Danny Belcher. He raises cattle. He cares for
the cattle. He's there when they're all born,
and he's watching them. Very carefully, he watches over
these cattle. But you know why? Because at
the end of the year, he's either going to kill it and butcher
it and put it in little packages and give us a few packages, or
he's going to sell it to the highest bidder. That's what he's
going to do. And we're going to eat it in goulash or spaghetti.
That's what we're going to do. That's a husband. You won't find
a shepherd doing that. He's not going to kill the sheep.
He's not going to live off the sheep. He'll give his life for
the sheep. And if that false prophet ever
sees Christ, that's going to be the end of him living off
the sheep. Be the end of it. But I'll tell
you what it's going to take to do it. It's going to take him
here in the gospel of Christ. And it's going to take God pouring
out upon him the spirit of grace and supplication. And that's
what happened to this false prophet. Look here at verse six. And one
shall say, one of these false prophets shall say unto him,
what are these wounds in thine hands? And he shall answer those
with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. The false
prophet asked this question, what are these wounds in your
hands? Why is he asked that question? He's seen Christ pierced at me.
He's seen him pierced. What are those scars? Why did
you suffer so much? And look what the Savior answers
in verse seven. He says, Awake, O sword, against
my shepherd, and against the man that is my fellow, saith
the Lord of hosts. Smite the shepherd, and the sheep
shall be scattered, and I'll turn mine hand upon the little
ones. Now here's how Christ, the great shepherd, how he saved
his sheep. His friends betrayed Him, didn't
they? Judas betrayed the Lord to the Pharisees. The rest of
the disciples forsook Him. The Jews betrayed Him. He came
unto His own. His own received Him not. But
I tell you what made His suffering worse. Even the Father forsook
Him. The Father turned His back on
His Son. And the Father Himself plunged
the sword of justice into the heart of His Son. You remember
when Adam sinned. God cast him out of the garden.
God put an angel there with a flaming sword that turned every way to
keep Adam from coming back to the tree of life. But Calvary,
Christ took the sin of his people and his own body on the tree.
And the father took that flaming sword of justice and plunged
it into his son, the sinner's substitute. But what happened
to that sword? It's gone. Now the way to life
is wide open in the person of Christ, our substitute. The sword
of justice is gone. The shepherd was smitten when
he gave his life as a substitute for the sheep. The sheep were
scattered for a while, but he's going to gather them all back
together in his time. Now, remember, I want to give you this in closing.
This is written to encourage God's people. This has been encouragement
for a sinner. You come to Christ. You look
to Christ. You come to this fountain to
be cleansed. I want to give some encouragement here to the elect. Do you believe Christ? Do you? What if you do? Your salvation
is sure. You shall be saved. No doubt about it. Look at 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, but the third
shall be left therein. God has an elect people. Now
they're just a small remnant at any time. He describes them
here as just one third, just a small remnant. I'm telling
you, those elect shall be saved. Christ shed his blood to pay
for their sin. They're going to be saved. And
the only reason this remnant saved is God opened a fountain
for sin and for uncleanness. God took them and washed them
in that fountain. They're not washed because of any of their
goodness. They're washed because of the goodness of God, to choose
them, to bring them out, to bring them and wash them. They're saved
because of the mercy of God, the grace of God. They're saved
because of the power of the blood of Christ. Their salvation, sure,
because it's all in Christ. Doesn't have anything to do with
them, does it? It all has to do with Christ and who He is.
Now, that's encouragement. Our salvation is sure because
of Christ. When I sin and stumble and fall
and think horrible, wicked thoughts and I just think, oh, no excuse for it, but it's not
going to cause me to lose my salvation because it doesn't
have anything to do with me. It all has to do with Christ. Now,
does that encourage you to worship the Lord and serve Him? And here's
more encouragement. Those elect, those who've been
washed in the blood, they're going to be a tried people. Now,
I don't say that to discourage you. They're going to be a tried
people. But God's going to hear them when they call to Him. God
Himself said it here, verse 9. And I will bring that third part.
I'll bring that elect remnant. I'll bring them through the fire.
They're not going to go through the fire accidentally. They're
not going to stumble and fall into it. No, I'll bring them
through the fire, and I'll refine them as silver is refined, and
I'll try them as gold is tried. They shall call on my name, and
I will hear them. And I'm going to say, it's my
people, and they shall say, The Lord is my God. Now, God's people
will be a tried people. They're not going to be a punished
people. Now, they're not going to be punished because God doesn't
care about them. They're going to be a tried people because
God does care about them because they're his silver and his gold.
And they're going to go through the fire. No point pretending
it won't hurt. No, it's going to hurt. It's
fire. It's going to hurt. But our Father,
will bring us through that and he's going to do it to burn off
the draws and to make us more valuable. And when they're in the affliction
of furnace, the furnace of affliction, hot furnace. They're going to
cry to God. And God will hear him. Did you hear that? God will hear. Don't go into the furnace and
stay silent. Call to your Father. He said,
I'll hear. And I'm going to say, that's
my people. That's my people. And they'll
say, the Lord's my God. God will hear. He'll comfort
and He'll save. Now I ask you, what's more encouraging
than that? I don't care how bad your situation. I don't care how bad you think
your sin is, don't ever let your sin stop you from coming to Christ. Don't think, oh, my sin is so
bad he won't take me. I promise you this, your sin
is worse than you think it is. Don't let your sin stop you from
coming to the Savior. Why did the Savior die? For sin
and for uncleanness. I don't care how bad you think
your sin is, You look to Christ. You come to Him and be cleansed
of all of your sin and this fountain open for sin and for uncleanness.
And in the time of trial, trouble and affliction, now don't quit. You look to Christ in faith,
didn't you? Now don't quit. Keep looking to Him. You hope
in Christ, didn't you? You first hoped in Christ. When
you first heard the gospel, all your hope was in Christ. Don't
lose your hope. Keep hoping in Him. You look
to Christ. Now keep looking to Him. You
called on Him and He saved you. Isn't that right? He said, Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. You called
on Him, He saved you. Well, don't stop calling. Keep
calling Him. You first came to Christ completely
depending on Him, didn't you? Depending on His grace to save
you, depending on His mercy, depending on His blood to cleanse
you from all sin. Well, then keep hoping in Him.
Keep hoping in His blood, in His mercy, in His grace. Because
I tell you what, that's a good hope. That's a hope that will
see you through any day. All right, let's bow and pray. Our Father, we thank You. How
we thank You for our Lord Jesus Christ. How we thank You for
Your infinite mercy and grace that You'd choose the very worst
of sinners to put in Your Son to be cleansed from all their
sin, from all their uncleanness in the fountain, that precious
fountain of blood that You'd open for the sin and uncleanness
of Your people. I thank you that this is that
day, that day, that gospel day, the day of salvation, the day
where salvation in Christ is preached. Father, I pray that
you'd use the word preached to encourage the hearts of your
people, to encourage us to look to Christ, to encourage us to
come to Christ, to encourage us to worship Him and serve Him
out of love and thanksgiving, to encourage us to keep looking
to to keep believing and resting in Him, for He is our God. Oh, how we thank You that You've
made us Your people that cause us to rest and to look wholly
and only to our Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we thank You for this
food that we're about to eat. We thank You for the occasion.
We thank You for Sean and for all the many gifts that You've
given him. We're thankful that You give him to us. We pray your
continued blessing be upon him and upon his family, how precious
they are to us. Father, bless us in this time.
We thank you for the food. We thank you for this time of
fellowship. We pray you bless it for your glory and for our
good. All these things we ask and we
give thanks in that name which is above every name, the name
of our Lord Jesus Christ.