A Fountain Opened

This morning we're going to open
our Bibles to the book of Zechariah. Zechariah. That's next to the
last prophet in the Old Testament, Zechariah. Now, I've preached several messages
through the years from Zechariah, so some of you are familiar with
the book, but even to the youngest novice here this morning. There are several scriptures
in this book which reveal the objective of the book, the message
of the prophet. It's Christ of whom he speaks. If you'll open your Bibles first
to the sixth chapter of Zechariah, you'll recognize this prophecy. You remember, Jeremiah talked
about the branch. Notice the capital letters, B-R-A-N-C-H,
God will raise up a branch. Jeremiah talked about that. Well,
listen to this. Zechariah 6, 12, And speak unto
him, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of hosts, saying, Behold
the man, the man, the God-man, whose name is the branch. He shall grow up out of his place
as a tender root, as a tender plant, and as a dry root. He shall build the temple of
the Lord. Even he shall build the temple
of the Lord. That's the living temple of living
stone. And he shall bear the glory and
shall sit and rule upon his throne. And he shall be a priest upon
his throne. a king-priest, and the counsel
of peace shall be between them both." That's Christ. Unquestionably,
Christ Jesus. All right, turn to Zechariah
9. Listen to this prophecy. Zechariah
9, verse 9, "...rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion, Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem,
behold thy King cometh unto thee. He is just and having salvation,
lowly." That's not the way kings come. This one did. He came as
the Lamb, the sacrifice, riding upon an ass, and upon a coat, the foal of
an ass. That's Christ, that prophecy
fulfilled when he rode into Jerusalem. All right, Zechariah 11, verse
12, here you recognize the voice of Judas who betrayed the Lord
Jesus. And I said unto them, Zechariah
11, 12, I said unto them, if you think good, give him a price,
and if not, forbear. So they weighed for my price
30 pieces of silver. You remember he brought it back
to the priest and said, I betrayed innocent blood. And they said,
what's that to us? And he cast it on the floor of
the temple. And they picked the money up.
He went out and hanged himself. And they picked the money up.
And they said, this is the price of blood. We can't put it in
the offering plate. So they bought a field, a potter's
field to bury strangers in. Read verse 13. And the Lord said
unto me, Cast it to the potter. A goodly price that I was prized
out of them. And I took the thirty pieces
of silver and cast them to the potter in the house of the Lord. All right, now I want you to
look at Zechariah 12. This is my text this morning.
I'm preaching. from Zechariah 12, verse 9 and
10, on the subject of fountain open, of fountain open. It says in verse 9 of Zechariah
12, 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, the Spirit of grace, and they shall look upon me,
whom they have pierced, they pierced my hands and my feet,
they're going to look upon me, and they shall mourn. And they
shall mourn for him as one mourned for his only son, and shall be
in bitterness for him. as one that is in bitterness
for his firstborn. Verse 1 of chapter 13 will also
be included in this text. Chapter 13, verse 1, And in that
day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David,
to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. Concerning this text, back in 1860, 134 years ago,
Charles Spurgeon brought a message. 1860, almost a hundred years
before the little nation Israel was reestablished over across
the water. And back in that day, Spurgeon
had this to say. This prophecy from Zechariah,
first of all, and as I've told you so frequently, scripture
is bifocal. It has a first application, and
then it has another application, or several other applications.
Any scripture that refers to Israel as a nation, most refer
to spiritual Israel, a redeemed people. That's right. We talk about a lion out of the
tribe of Judah redeeming Israel, at Christ redeeming His people
of all nations. So, but Spurgeon said this, first
of all, this prophecy refers to the Jewish people. And I'm
happy, he said, that it confirms my heart in the belief of the
good which the Lord shall do to Israel. I know of a surety,
because God hath said it, that one day the Jews will be restored
to their land." That was quite a few years before
they were recognized in 1948. And that they shall inherit the
country which the Lord hath given to their fathers by covenant,
he said, forever. But better still, better still, many of those Jews will be converted
to the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. And they shall see in
him the Messiah for whom their fathers looked with joyful expectation. They shall see in him that Redeemer
of whom the prophets spake, but who was despised and rejected
by his own nation. O happy day, not only when the
Gentiles but the Jews will be found worshiping the Lord Jesus
Christ. our great Redeemer, our great
High Priest. We have that promise. And we expect the fulfillment
of that promise when the due season arises, Israel shall bow
to her King. Perhaps so. But I intend to use
this scripture In Zechariah 12, verse 10, it says, "...our poor
upon the house of David, inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace."
I intend to use that text to speak about true Israel, about
spiritual Israel. You know, when Paul wrote to
the church at Galatia, he had this to say about Israel. over here in Galatians chapter
3 verse 7, he says, Know ye therefore that they which are of faith,
they're the children of Abraham. Men are not children of Abraham,
seed of Abraham, because they trace their lineage back to Abraham,
they're sons of Abraham by faith. He says in verse 29 of Galatians
3, And if you be Christ, if you belong to Christ, You're Abraham,
see, according to the promise. So, I'm speaking this morning
to true spiritual Israel, and I'm talking about a subject that's
of vital importance. It says, "...I will pour upon
the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, a spirit of grace
and supplications. And they shall look upon me whom
they have pierced, and they will mourn." We're going to talk about
looking and mourning. We're going to talk about believing
and repenting. Someday Spurgeon says Israel,
national Israel, is going to own her king. But as they own
their king, they'll mourn for him as a man mourns his only
son, his firstborn. That's how they're going to mourn.
If they come, they'll come in repentance and faith, just like
you, just like I came. Paul, when he departed from the
elders at Ephesus, he said, I have not shunned to declare unto you
all the counsel of God. I have gone from house to house
preaching two things, repentance toward God and faith in Jesus
Christ. That's what I preach. Look and
mourn. Believe and weep. Faith and repentance. One cannot have faith without
repentance. Impossible. One cannot have repentance without
faith. Impossible. Here's a piece of
paper. Got two sides. Impossible to
have a piece of paper without two sides. See what I'm saying?
Impossible. And even so, it's impossible
to turn to the living God without turning from the idol. And if
you turn from all idols, you've got to turn to the living God.
There's no alternative. And yet most repentance and faith
comes from seeing Christ in His holiness. They shall look upon me. I'm
going to pour out upon Israel mercy and supplication. And they're going to look and
they're going to mourn. The mourning comes as a result
of the look. That's what Isaiah said. He said,
in the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord high and
lifted up, and his train filled the temple. And the seraphims
cried, holy, holy, holy, holy. And I cried, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips. I
dwell among a people of unclean lips. I saw the Lord. And I wept. I looked at him, and I mourned. I saw him, and I repented. Job,
what did Job say when he saw the Lord? Listen to him. Over
here in the book of Job, he said, Lord, I've heard of you by the
hearing of the ear, and how not I seeth thee. Wherefore I hate
myself, I repent in destination. I put my hand on my mouth. I've
spoken things too wonderful for me. I won't say anything else."
Look and mourn. See Him and repent. Believe Him and find grief over transgression. Which comes first, repentance
or faith? I'd say it'd be impossible to
say, wouldn't you? I believe it'd be impossible
to say, but I will say this. I suppose more repentance is
produced by faith than faith produced by repentance. In other words, there'll be more
grieving and mourning over sin by seeing Christ than seeing
Christ by grieving and mourning over sin. Huh? That's what it says about the Apostle
John, about Isaiah. John wrote about Isaiah. Turn
to John 12. Which comes first? If I had to
be pinned down, I'd say faith. I saw Him and I cried, woe is
me. I saw Him and I hated myself. I looked to Christ and I mourned. The more I see of Him, the more
I see of myself, the more I see of Him, the more I see of my
weakness and inability, the more I see of His holiness, the more
I observe my evil. So there's more repentance that
comes as a result of faith than faith that comes as a result
of repentance. It says in verse 41 of John 12,
these things said Isaiah, when he saw his glory, he spake of
him. When did he speak of Christ?
When did he speak of Christ? When he saw his glory. When did he speak of Christ?
When he saw his glory. When did these people mourn?
When they saw him whom they had pierced. That's the reason Paul
came to Corinth saying, I determine not to know anything among you
save Jesus Christ and him crucified. You've got to see Christ and
him crucified for any effect to take place. See him. You see a view of Christ will
produce true repentance. There is no true repentance without
a view of Christ. And a view of Christ will always,
a true view of Christ will always produce true repentance. And
a true view of Christ will produce true faith. And a true view of
Christ will produce true worship. And a true view of Christ will
produce true salvation. Will it not John on the Isle
of Patmos said, And I fell at his feet as a dead
man. The sight of him smote me. A view of him put me down. My eyes filled with his glory
broke my heart. And in that lies the whole problem
of my religious generation. They've never seen it. They have
never seen. They've seen a babe in a manger.
They've seen a smitten figure on a cross. They've seen a good teacher holding
little lamb. They've seen all these things
that their preachers have talked about sweet little Jesus, boy.
But they've never seen Him. That's right. Not like Isaiah saw Him. Not
like Job saw Him. Not like Abraham saw him, not
like Moses saw him, not like John the Baptist, not like John
on Patmos. I saw him, and I fell. The one we're talking about today,
it makes the band play a little louder and the singers sing a
little louder and sway a little more and put on a little more
garb and makeup and jewelry and makes the preacher run up and
down the aisle. But when I saw him, I fell at his feet. And I put my hand on my mouth. It'd be a good idea if 99% of
us put our hands on our mouths and shut up. That's exactly right. Don't say nothing else about
God. Nothing else. I shut up. I saw Him. My generation hasn't seen Him. Because the result is not there.
If they see Him, it's automatic, the result is there. Repentance
follows the sight of Christ. All right, look at this. I want
to divide it in five parts. Five parts. First of all, it says this. God
said, I'll pour out upon the house of David, upon the inhabitants
of Jerusalem, a spirit of grace. I'm going to pour it out. Revival
comes from God, not stirred up. This site, God have mercy on
us. God says, I'm going to pour out
upon my people a spirit of grace, grace and supplication, not religion,
not form, not ceremony, grace, not works, grace, not activity,
not walking for Jesus, grace, supplication. I'm going to pour
it out. And listen, he says the house
of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Who's Jerusalem
there? Look over with me at the book
of Hebrews a minute. Hebrews chapter 12. Hebrews chapter
12. Listen to this. Hebrews chapter
12 and verse 22. Listen to this. He says, but you're come unto
Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God,
the heavenly Jerusalem. We're not talking about that
Jerusalem over there. We're talking about the heavenly Jerusalem,
to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly
and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven to
God, the judge of all the spirits of just men made perfect. Heavenly
Jerusalem. That's what he's talking about
here. I'm going to pour out my spirit, the spirit of grace and supplication
upon Jerusalem. Heavenly Jerusalem. Let me show
you another scripture that refers to that. Galatians 4. Listen
to this. Galatians 4, 26. He talks about the bondage of Mount Sinai. But verse 26 of
Galatians 4, But Jerusalem, which is above, is free, the mother
of us all. Now, that's who he's going to
pour it out upon, not the whole world. I'm going to pour out
the Spirit of grace and supplication on Jerusalem, heavenly Jerusalem,
on the house of David. All right, what's the next line
now? And when I pour out my Spirit of grace, and supplication on
these chosen people, they're going to look upon me. They're
going to look upon me. Our Lord said in Isaiah 45, 22,
look unto me and be you saved. I'm God. Look to me. Look to
me. Charles Spurgeon was brought
up in a in his grandfather's home. His grandfather was a Presbyterian
minister. He was born to his mother and
father, and they had other children. They had a difficult time taking
care of all of their families, so they left him with his grandfather.
And his grandfather was a pastor. a devout preacher of the gospel
of God's grace. And Spurgeon was brought up in
that home until he was seven or eight years of age, at the
feet of his grandfather. And his grandmother taught him,
or had him memorize not only scripture, but the old songs,
the old hymns. And all his life he was a scholar
and a student of the Word. Even after he left his grandfather's
house and went back home, he was still a student of the Word.
But he couldn't find peace. He knew the doctrines, he knew
the scriptures, he knew the hymns, but he didn't know the Lord.
He could find no peace. But he always went to the house
of God, every Lord's Day. One Sunday morning he started
for his church where he usually attended, and there had come
a great heavy snow. And he realized he couldn't get
to that church on time, so he wouldn't go if he was going to
be late. He said, I wouldn't interrupt the people's worship.
If I'm going to be late, I won't go. And so he stopped in. That's the providence of God,
too. There was a little primitive Methodist chapel, just a small little building,
a small group of people meeting. And he stopped in and sat down
back in the back. They've got a plaque there in
that little chapel on the pew where he was sitting that Sunday
morning, still over in England. The pastor wasn't able to get
to the church services because of the snow. So one of the men
of the church, one of the elders, preached that Sunday morning.
I've never seen his name. Don't know who he was. Don't
know whether Spurgeon knew him or not. But he preached that
Sunday morning. And he preached from that scripture,
look unto me, look unto me, look unto me, all the ends of the
earth, look unto me, I'm God, there's none else, look! And during his message, he looked
back at Spurgeon, he said, young man, you look so miserable, so
miserable, why don't you look to Christ? It's not your doctrine,
it's Christ that saved you. It's not your theology, it's
Christ. And Spurgeon said, it just seemed like God pulled the
curtain back and let me see Christ. Let me see Christ. And I looked.
And I went out of that place rejoicing, and I've rejoiced
ever since. Look, I looked to Christ. You
know, when we say, look, they shall look upon me whom they've
pierced, look unto Christ, many people get confused. And they
say, well, preacher, show him to me. And I looked. If he were
here, I'd look. If he's in Jerusalem, I'd go
over there and sit at his feet, look at his face like Mary of
old. And people show us pictures,
and they say, look at this picture. They show us a cross, and they
kneel before the cross. We looked across. We're like
Nicodemus. We're bound to this flesh. Our
Lord said, you must be born again. Nicodemus said, how? Can I enter
my mother's womb and be born? We look to the flesh. We're bound
by the flesh. We want to see something. We
want to feel something. So we give people what they want.
We burn candles and we have crosses and we have pictures of Jesus
and we have all these little Saints running around with their
robes on, and the Catholics put their priest in these funny-looking
hats, and people want something they can see. Looking to Christ
has nothing to do with your natural eyes. It has nothing to do with
your natural hands. It has nothing to do with your
natural body. It's mind and heart looking to
Christ. You see that? Look into Christ has nothing
to do with its flesh. In fact, what you see might distract
from looking to Christ. That's right. What men do, what
you see, what the religious atmosphere and the things that they put
on to help you to Christ may hinder you from coming to Christ.
That's right. You don't need a college degree
to look. You don't need to be able to read a book to look.
You don't even need to have eyes to look. You don't even need
to be able to see to look. You may be destitute of all virtue. You may have no merit. But you
can look. A cat can look at a king. And this sinner can look to Christ.
But looking only requires my interest. Looking requires my
attention. You can pray for me, but you
can't look for me. You can exhort me and encourage
me, but you can't look for me. You can cry over me, but you
can't look for me. You can instruct me, but you
can't look for me. You can point, but you can't
look. I've got to look. And that's what we've done, that's
what this preaching today, they've been doing it. I watched a man
this morning, I turned on the TV in order to record my program,
and there he was with people over here, and he said, now you
pray after me. You say after me. You do, Lord
do this. You can't look for me. You can't help me to look. I've got to look. I've got to. They shall look. I'm going to pour out grace.
and supplication on Israel, on Jerusalem, on the heavenly Jerusalem,
on the house of David, and they're going to look. They're going
to look. They're going to look away, they're
going to look to me. They're going to look to me,
me. They are going to look to me. Nothing to distract their look.
They're going to look to Me. Everything else, house, family,
job, wife, friends, ambition, blueprints, not going to get
in the way of that look. You'll seek Me and find Me when
you search for Me with all your heart and not until. They're
going to look. They're going to look. Watch this. They're going to
look upon Me whom they've pierced. Whom they pierced. Whom they
pierced. Who nailed Jesus Christ to the
tree? Romans? The Jews? Who nailed Him to the tree? What
held Him to the cross? Human weakness? The Roman law? The nails in His hands? Who crucified
Christ? The naughty whip, the rugged
nails, in vain do I accuse. In vain I blame the Roman bands
and the more spiteful Jews. T'was you, t'was you my sins,
my cruel sins, his chief tormentors were. Each of your crimes became
a nail and your unbelief the spear. T'was you, You that pull
the vengeance down upon his guiltless head. Break, break my heart,
weep my eyes. He died in your stead. I crucified
Christ. My hands are dripping with the
blood of the Son of God. I talk about Pilate washing his
hands. Mine hadn't been washed. Have they? They got the stains
of his blood. I said, let him be crucified. I have no king but myself, my
ambition, my pride. Oh, it was you, my sins, my cruel
sins, his chief tormentors were. Each of my crimes became a nail,
an unbelief to spare. They're going to look upon me
whom they pierced, whom they pierced. And you know what they're going
to do? They're going to mourn. That's when they'll repent, and
not until. Organize them, send out your
soul winners, your bucket parade, your brigade, knock on the doors
and win them to Jesus. You go right ahead. But I'll
tell you when they're going to repent, and when they're going
to mourn, when they look at Him. That's right. And that true mourning,
that true repentance, have I repented? You don't have to ask that question
if you have. That's right. If you have to ask that question,
then you have. Have I believed? You don't have
to ask that question if you have. Do I love Jesus? If you have
to ask that question, you don't. Peter didn't have to. The Lord
of Glory asked him that question. He said, you know I love you.
That issue has been settled a long time ago. They'll look at me
and they'll mourn. That's a natural reaction. True
mourning for sin has a distinct, direct, constant reference to
Christ. That's where it is. Repentance
and mourning for sin has to do with Christ. Now then, if I hate
sin because I'm exposed I haven't repented. I merely regret that
I've been exposed and found out. That's all. If I hate sin because
I'm afraid of going to hell, I haven't repented. I only regret
that God is just. I wish He weren't. If there were no hell, I wouldn't
repent. That's the attitude. But if I see my sins as David
saw his, against God. He said, Lord, my sins are ever
before me. Against Thee, Thee only have
I sinned. Done this evil in Thy sight,
that you may be justified when you speak, and cleared when you
judge. True mourning come from a sight of Christ.
They shall look upon me, not with these eyes, but eyes of faith, heart, whom
they pierced, and they go mourn." How deep is the mourning? Listen,
as one mourns for his only son who's dead. As David mourned
for Absalom when he walked apart After they told him the young
man was dead, oh my son, my son Absalom, my son, would God I
had died for you, my son, my son Absalom. Great bitterness. Now, you see
any repentance today? Not much. I see a lot of arrogance
and a lot of pride. I see a lot of self, I see a
lot of self-praise, I see a lot of real satisfaction with myself
and my doctrine, my position, my goodness, but I don't see
much bitterness over sin, mourning over sin. Not much. Especially not this kind, as
one mourns for an only son. That's the one thing, the one
thing that's useful after it's broken, and the only thing. You can't drink from a broken
glass. You can't write with a broken arm. You can't walk with a broken
leg. You can't see in a broken mirror.
But God is nigh unto them of a broken heart. And true mourning, true repentance
is right here. It won't come till God pours
out upon us grace and supplication. And when he does, you know what's
going to be the reaction? They're going to see me. They're
going to look to me, whom they have pierced. They're going to
know why I died. They're going to know how I died.
They're going to know who was responsible for that horrible
manifestation of justice and righteousness at Calvary, they're
going to know, and they're going to mourn. They're going to be
so brokenhearted, it'll be like, it'll be like a man weeps and
mourns over his only son who's dead. Not going to be ashamed of it
either, like that woman that came into the Pharisee's house,
And she wasn't aware of anybody else being there. She saw her
eyes. She had eyes only for one. And
there he was, neglected, despised, rejected, his dirty feet protruding
out. No kindness, no recognition,
no respect. And she went and knelt beside
those precious feet and began to weep. She broke an alabaster
box of precious ointment and poured it on his feet and kissed
them. and un-plaited her hair. She was alone with him and dried
his hair, dried his feet with her hair. She wasn't even aware
of anybody else. She saw him. She had eyes for
him. She was weeping over her sins,
mourning over her transgression. And my Lord said, Her sins, which
are many, are forgiven. Mercy is found at the feet of
Christ. I want to be found there. And then, verse 1, chapter 13,
I'll close. In that day, that day of grace, that day of
supplication, that day of a view of Calvary, in that day, in that
day, there'll be a fountain Open to that house of David,
open to those inhabitants of Jerusalem, open for sin and uncleanness,
open. I wonder if William Cowper was
reading that verse when he wrote, there is a fountain filled with
blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and centers, real centers,
real centers. Oh, to find one, plunge beneath
that flood. lose all their guilty state. Ever since, by faith, I saw that
stream, his flowing wounds supply, redeeming love, been my thing. It will be, Lydon. Is a fountain
open? Open. I know it was open back yonder
in the councils of eternity when he was the Lamb slain. I know
it was open when he came to this earth and died on that cross.
Ah, but I'll tell you this, when it's open, I'll tell you when
it's open for me, when I see him, when I see him, when I see
him, I'm going to pour out some grace, God says, in supplication on some people, and they're going
to And when they look, they're going to mourn. They're going
to look upon me whom they perished. And they're going to mourn with
a bitterness that's only experienced by those who've lost a firstborn. And in that day, in that day,
they're going to see something else. They're going to see a
fountain open. my sins, my wicked sins." But
then he said, look, there's a fountain for cleansing, for cleansing,
to put away sin, huh? There's a fountain drawn from
Emmanuel's veins. Sinners plunge beneath that flood.
You see the fountain when you see Him from whose veins it flows. That's it. You're never the same,
never the same. All the pettiness and foolishness
and religion is cast aside, you're never the same. You walk with
the kid.

A Fountain Opened

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