It's been a long, long time since
I heard that song. I recognize, consciously aware
of the fact that we are all individuals with many, many different things
that distinguish us from one another. Some are real smart,
some of us not so smart. Some of you are highly educated,
most of us not terribly educated. Some of you are young and strong,
appear to have a long, full life ahead of you. Some of you are
getting older, weaker, strength declining and health declining
every day. But there's one thing we all
have in common, one sad, sad fact, true of us all. All have sinned. We are all sinful, men and women. No matter how young, no matter
how old, corruption is what we are, by nature, by choice, by practice, corruption. We are all filthy and need cleansing. We are all guilty and need forgiveness. And I believe God's given me
a message for you. Turn to Zechariah chapter 13. Sin is the plague of our hearts,
and it is a plague incurable by any human earthly means. Religion works at hiding it,
but it can't remove it. Religion tries to persuade you
that it's not so bad, but it can't convince you. Religion
tries to ease you of the guilt, but it can't take away the guilt.
Sin is the plague of our hearts that is incurable. by any human
means, but blessed be God, it is not absolutely incurable. God found a way to deliver us
from this plague, to save us from our sin. He found a way
to cleanse the guilty, to remove defilement, to take
away corruption. Are you interested? Would you be clean? Clean before God and clean in
your conscience. Would you be all together clean? Zechariah chapter 13, 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." The Lord Jesus Christ, God's
darling Son, obviously is the fountain here spoken of. It is
the fountain that God has opened. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
fountain God has opened for sin and for uncleanness for His people. Men often dig wells and find
water beneath the surface of the earth. Men often hew cisterns
in rocks and catch water as it falls from the But none can open
a fountain except God Almighty. Back in Genesis chapter 6, when
the Lord God looked on earth and saw every man gone astray
and every man corrupting himself continually, every man only doing
evil continually before God, He opened up the fountains of
the deep to destroy the world in His wrath. But here he opens
the fountain of his own being in the person of his darling
son, by the sacrifice of his son to save sinners who deserve
his wrath and his infinite mercy. Let's look at this line by line. In that day, in that day. The text opens with those three
words, and these words, if you will sit down and read these
fourteen chapters of Zechariah's prophecy at one setting, and
just mark them, you will find them used at least twenty times,
and if you look at it as on that day or at that day, more than
that. Zechariah, throughout these fourteen
chapters, is speaking of a specific day, a specific day. As he comes closer to the end
of the prophecy, in the last three chapters, he uses these
three words, in that day, sixteen times. I think he intends for
us to have our minds fixed on one thing. He's turning the attention
of the people to whom he writes. He's turning the attention of
the faithful among the children of Israel away from the carnal
temple they were in the process of building. He's turning their
thoughts away from the ordinances of the typical dispensation,
the sacrifices and the ceremonies, away from those things to Him
who was to come and Him who has come, Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. He speaks of that day, and He's
talking about this gospel day. The day of God's free saving
grace fully accomplished in Jesus Christ the Redeemer. The day
that began with the incarnation of God Himself. When God stepped
into the world in human flesh, that day began. When the Word
was made flesh and now forever dwells among us, that day began. And that day is the last day. You remember John said, it is
the last day? Quite literally, the last tick
of the clock. These days, prophecy idiots,
and they are just that. Everybody who thinks they've
got prophecy figured out is an absolute idiot. Prophecy idiots,
and they know they are. They know they don't have it
figured out, otherwise they wouldn't have to change it every year.
They change it all the time. The folks who, they've got this,
oh the last day is almost here. It's been here for 2,000 years.
Read the book. John said it is the last day.
This is the last tick of the clock. This is the day for which
God made every day the day when God would save His people by
the sacrifice of His Son. Christ Jesus is that fountain
open for sin and for uncleanness. That fountain by which God takes
away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. The fountain was opened,
of course, before the world began from the foundation of the world.
And had it been opened in the decree of God, it must be opened
in time. In that day are the words Zachariah
uses to point God's elect ever to Christ. That day was the day
of our Lord's crucifixion. Let me show you. Turn to John
chapter 19. John the 19th chapter. The fountain for sin was open.
The fountain for uncleanness was open when the Lamb of God
was pierced by the decree and purpose of God as our substitute. Looking to Him, Christ crucified
as we take our place at Mount Calvary at the foot of the cross.
We see that day being accomplished. John 19, verse 34. One of the
soldiers with a spear pierced his side. Why on earth do you
reckon he did that? Why do you reckon he did that?
They've already looked at him and said, no need to break his
legs, he's dead. Well, why do you suppose he pierced him? He
didn't do it to the other two fellows. Why did he pierce his
side? Why did that soldier, knowing
full well that the piercing of his side with his spear would
do nothing to add to his pain, It would do nothing to add to
his agony. It would do nothing to add to
his suffering. Why do you reckon he pierced
his side? Why do you suppose? It looks as though he turned
back to Zechariah chapter 12 and verse 10 and said, Oh, I'm
supposed to pierce his side. He did it because God Almighty
would show us he's in absolute control of this whole thing.
He pierced his side and forthwith came there out blood and water.
And he that saw it bare record, and his record is truth, and
he knoweth that he saith truth, that you might believe." In other
words, John said, I ain't lying to you. I saw the same thing,
what I saw. For these things were done for this purpose, that
the scripture should be fulfilled. A bone of him shall not be broken,
and again another scripture saith, They shall look on him whom they
have pierced." This is the day Zachariah saw. That day was the
day the Son of God saved His people by the shedding of His
precious blood as our substitute. It's promised that in Zachariah
9, verse 16. And the Lord God shall save them
in that day. Save them as the flock of His
people. Not one at a time, calling them
by His grace, but in that day when He was pierced for us, in
that day when He died for us, He didn't just offer the possibility
of salvation, darling, He saved the whole flock. He saved them
as a flock, as the flock of His people. For they shall be as
the stones of a crown lifted up as an incense in His hand
in that day when Christ died. when he was pierced as our substitute,
when this fountain was opened for sin and for uncleanness,
at one time with his blood he saved every sinner for whom he
died. Let no one ever speak to you
about the possibility of Christ dying for nothing. Hear no one
who suggested to you the idea that somehow there's a sense
in which Jesus died to save everybody. If He died to save everybody,
His blood's got nothing to do with the salvation of anybody.
That's just absolute fact. Anybody with good sense understands
that. Either He saved His people or He didn't. The book says here,
in that day, He saved the whole flock. In that day. That's the
day when God pours out His Spirit upon the chosen redeemed sinners,
each one, one by one, granting them repentance and faith in
Christ. In that day, oh, may it be that
day for you this day. When God pours out His Spirit
upon the redeemed sinner, the fountain is opened, opened to
your faith. open to your soul, open for you
to fly to it and be made clean. By the outpouring of His Spirit,
our great God and Savior opens the fountain of His blood to
us. And not only does He open the
fountain to us, He plunges us beneath the cleansing stream.
Look at the next line. In that day there shall be a
fountain opened. Our Lord Jesus throughout the
Scripture is spoken of in these terms. In Psalm 36, He's called
the fountain of life. In Psalm 68, He's called the
fountain of Israel. In Jeremiah 17, He's spoken of
as the fountain of living waters. He is a fountain open, and this
fountain that is a fountain open is the only fountain of life
there is. Not only is He the fountain of
life, He promises. 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 living water springing
up unto everlasting life. I am the fountain open. I am the fountain of living waters,
and if you drink of this water, There shall be in you a constant
springing fountain of living water unto everlasting life. This he speaks of the spirit
that he gives. We draw water, the water of life,
not from a well dug, but from Christ the fountain opened. Multitudes. Multitudes. Folks only act this foolish when
it comes to religion. If I'm not mistaken, Brother
Larry, on the piece of ground you've got up there, you've got a whale
out there, an artesian whale coming right up out of the ground. It'd be kindly dumb. You'd look
at him and think, buddy, he needs to go to the funny farm. If he
goes right beside that artesian whale and decides to dig a well. I want to dig me one now. This
one, the water's fresh, it's bubbling, and it's abundant.
But I believe I'll dig me a well of my own, that way I can say
I dug that. Only in religion, only in religion,
men pass by the fountain God has opened. Passed by the simplicity
of Jesus Christ crucified. Passed by the sacrifice of Christ
the sinner. Passed by free grace. Passed
by free justification. Passed by free righteousness.
Passed by free redemption. We need to dig now. We need to
dig a fountain for ourselves. How many times I've heard preachers
in the pretense of their pseudo-intellectualism. Say, now to get this, you've
got to dig for it. Let me tell you something. If
it comes to the revelation of God, when it comes to the revelation
of God, if you've got to dig for it, it ain't so. This is not the book of God's
hiding, it is the book of God's revealing. He didn't hide himself
from us in the scriptures. He reveals himself to us in the
scriptures. But men like to dig fountains
with their deep, dead doctrine, their deep, empty rituals, their
deep, empty theological theories, their deep denominational dogma,
their deep historic traditions. Leave those empty, broken cisterns,
those wells without water, and drink from the life-giving fountain. We draw the water of life not
from the broken cisterns of our stony hearts, or our legal obedience,
or our religious experience, but from Christ the fountain
opened. Our Lord lays discharge. He says, My people, have committed
two evils. They've forsaken Me, the fountain
of living waters, and have hewed for themselves, hewed them out
cisterns, broken cisterns that cannot hold water." You wonder why your religion
leaves you thirsty? I can tell you why. You're trying
to find water in a broken cistern. It's something you've done. and
something you think you are, and something you have established
for yourself. Christ is the fountain. He's the fountain opened by God,
the fountain who is God, the fountain that none could open
but God Himself, opened in God's decree, opened at Calvary, and
opened to our souls by the effectual grace of His Spirit. Look at
the next slide. And I want to camp here for a
minute. we're told is that fountain that's opened for a specific
people. In that day, there shall be a
fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. Now those words, as I've shown
you many, many times going through the book of Zechariah, and I
will repeat it, cannot possibly refer to any, in any physical
way, to the physical descendants of David or the physical children
of Abraham. Not possible. Not possible. If
those words are taken by men as they often are to refer to
someday Christ returning to the Jews and opening grace to the
Jews, it must be to all or none. Every last one of them or none
of them. It's not talking about something
physical. But rather these words, the house of David and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, are the words that God used throughout the Old Testament
to identify his covenant people. We who are Abraham's true children,
we who are Abraham's true tabernacle, both Jew and Gentile, scattered
among all the nations of the earth, called in the scripture
the Israel of God, the seed of Abraham, the children of Abraham. called the people of God. This
band of people, spoken of here as the house of David, spoken
of as the inhabitants of Jerusalem, refers to the whole family of
God throughout the ages. The whole church of God, all
alike, are unclean by nature. And all alike are made clean
by this fountain. Christ Jesus the Lord. Did you
hear me? All alike are unclean. All alike are unclean by nature. Oh, but Brother Don, I never
did this. I never did that. The fountain has not been opened
to you yet. Not been opened to you yet. You're
not going to hear one sinner who's ever seen himself as he
is talk about something he's not. It ain't going to happen. It
ain't going to happen. Now, what is it that's not in
you? What is it you said was in your heart? Unclean. and the Celeste Peterson
and her daughter, all alike, unclean by nature. Look at Bob Ponce and his wife,
unclean, all alike, unclean by nature, all alike. Just like every harlot, just
like every murderer, just like every rapist, Just like every
abuser of children. Just like every vile thing that's
ever creeped across the earth under the name of humanity. Unclean. No difference. All difference
in outward morality and outward show and outward pretense because
those differences cost if you don't maintain them. They'll cost you something if
you don't maintain them. Folks will look at you and say, You're
not worth keeping company with me because I'm better than you.
You can't do this because I'm better than you. But at heart,
unclean, all alike. Now hear me. And all alike made
altogether clean by Christ. All alike made altogether clean
by Christ. Religion talks about holy men,
holier men, and the holiest of men. Find me that in this book. Find me in this book. Religion
talks about godly men, godlier men, and the godliest of men. Find me that in this book. Find
it for me. Religion talks about righteous
men, more righteous men, and the most righteous of men. Find
me that in this book. Find it for me. Only if your
righteousness and your godliness and your holiness is something
that is made and done by you are there degrees in it. No,
no. All who are made clean by Christ
are made completely clean by Him. But no one missed the specific
intent of this prophet's words. Christ is a fountain opened for
a specific people. The fountain is not now and never
was opened for all people. but specifically for God's elect. Oh, Brother Don, if you don't
say, if you don't tell sinners that there's a sense in which
God died, Christ died for everybody, that God loves everybody, then
you can't preach the gospel to them. I reckon I can. I just
have evidence. I'm not going to preach the gospel
to you by lying to you. I'm sure not going to preach
the gospel to you by dethroning God. making Christ something
less than an effectual Redeemer, making Him something less than
an almighty Savior? The house of David and the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, are they for whom the fountain is opened? If you
look at the last line of the last verse of the last chapter
of this book, you'll see that the Holy Spirit inspired Zachariah
to specifically exclude the Canaanite. He said, in that day, And that
day, hmm, how many times did he use those words? Twenty times. Sixteen of them in the last three
chapters. I think he's talking about the same day. I think that's
safe to assume. And that day, there shall be
no more the king or knight in the house of the Lord of hosts. The reprobate is excluded. You may wonder, well, Brother
Don, why do you keep bringing this fact up, that Christ died
just for his elect, that he redeemed just his elect, that he reconciled
only his elect, that he put away the sins of his elect, that he
suffered the wrath of God for his elect? I keep bringing it
up because folks keep denying it, and I keep bringing it up
for a better reason. that Christ died for all men
is the declaration that Christ died in vain for some men. In vain. In vain. How many of you men
have ever been real pleased with doing something in vain? To no purpose. To no purpose. I like to think I'm a fairly
patient man. But when I had worked at something
and it turns out not good, don't talk to me about it. My wife
will tell you. Don't talk to me. I don't want
to discuss it. We worked out here all day the
other day, laying some rocks alongside the road, inside the
driveway. She and I were working together all day long, digging
and moving those huge rocks. Got back and looked at them.
Said, let's take them up. They don't look good. So we got
out and took them all up. The whole labor was for nothing. No honor in that. Nobody's going
to look at that and say, my, look what a good job he did.
Nobody's going to look at that and say, oh, man, you're talented. Nothing. Meaningless. Useless. Now, next time you hear
a preacher talking about Christ dying in vain for somebody, this
is what he's saying. His death is meaningless, useless,
less than insignificant, a failure, a shame, a reproach. Oh, nobody ever used to think
about that. I've heard them, you have to,
oh, won't it be a shame that Jesus died in pain for so many. Won't it be a shame to Him? To Him? And I'm here to tell
you there is no shame to Him. to suggest that Christ died for
the multitude who perish under the wrath of God anyhow is to
deny the love of God, to make it nothing but a passion that
has no meaning. It is to make the wisdom of God
ignorance. It is to turn the justice of
God into injustice. It is to deny the very Godhead
of Christ, our Redeemer, for if He tried to do what He failed
to do, He's not God but an imposter. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. To suggest that he died for someone
other than those who are actually redeemed by his blood is to declare
that he can never see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Oh, blessed be his name, the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ shall never be discovered in
miscarriage. We declare that Jesus Christ
died for and redeemed those, all of those, and only those
who are actually saved by His grace. And in doing so, we say
to sinners, trust this mighty Savior. If you can trust Him,
it's because He's redeemed you. To declare to sinners, trust
this Savior who might can save you if you pretty please will
let Him. is to say there's no need to trust him at all, but
rather to declare that man's his own Savior. Dear dying Lamb,
thy precious blood shall never lose its power till all the ransom
church of God be saved to sin no more. Now look at the next
words. In that day there shall be a
fountain open to the house of David, and to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem for two things. And I love the language God uses
here. For sin and for uncleanness. To put away sin. The opening
of the fountain. puts away sin, to make an end
of uncleanness. The opening of the fountain takes
away uncleanness. Sin could not be put away in
any other way except by the sacrifice of God's dear Son to the full
satisfaction of divine justice. And justice, once satisfied,
demands no more sacrifice for sin. died the just for the unjust
that He might bring us to God, that God might be a just God
and a Savior. Christ Jesus is that fountain
open for sin, and now by His sacrifice, by mercy and truth,
iniquity is purged. But why does the Spirit of God
here speak of our Savior as the fountain open for sin and for
uncleanness? Sin has reference to our offense. Sin has reference to our crime. Sin has reference to our violation
of God's holiness. Sin has reference to our attack
upon God's character. Sin has reference to the evil
that we have done. for which Jesus Christ suffered
the horrid wrath of God to the full satisfaction of justice,
and by his sacrifice put away our sins. But uncleanness speaks of corruption, personal
defilement, the baseness of my passion. the obscenity of my thoughts,
the vileness of my heart, the evil of my being. And there is
no cleansing for such a loathsome thing as I am, but the opening of Christ the
fountain to me. To me. As God pours out His Spirit
and causes me to look on Him whom I have by my sin, whom I have by my transgressions
wounded, whom I have by my iniquities put to grief, looking on Him. I find what I'd never hoped to
find, a fountain that has cleansed
me before God. How much more shall the blood
of Jesus Christ cleanse your conscience from dead works to
serve the living God? by the sprinkling of the blood
and the clean water of His grace in regeneration, the Lord God
cleanses us from all sin in the sweet experience of grace. The more I know myself and the
more I know of myself, the more loathsome I am in my
own eyes. And the more I abhor what I know
I am. I acknowledge my transgressions. I confess my sin. And I am compelled by everything
I know, like the leper, to put my hand over my mouth and cry
continually, unclean, unclean. And that's the only kind of person
who ever comes to the fountain. One of these days, my grandson
will shoot me for telling you this, but he's only six now,
so I'll get by with it. Do you know how often he wants
to get in the bath? I can remember how often I wanted
to get in one when I was six years old, because I was so dirty
I couldn't smell myself. I'm not dirty. I had a bath last
week. I don't need one now. I'm not
dirty, and the only time the child ever wants to get in the
bath is when you give him the choice of the bath or pain at
the only time, at the only time. Or if he's so dirty, so vile,
so filthy that he sees everything that he cherishes, he And everything he is, is dirty. Papa, I believe I better take
a bath before we go anywhere. Only the unclean will willingly
plunge into the fountain and be made clean. If we confess our sins, he's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to what? cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And now, this fountain, typified in the Bethesda, typified
in the Pool of Siloam, takes the sinner who by the call and gift of God's
Spirit, steps into the fountain. And God says, clean. Clean. Clean. Don Fortner is clean. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Immanuel's veins, and sinners plunge beneath that
flood, lose all their guilty stains forever. Amen.