A Fountain for sin

Zechariah 12:1 –13:1

Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 28 Oct, 2007 Ref: j2810_zech12,13.indd

ISN’T THAT a wonderful promise ― a fountain for sin! Of course, it's for the Jews to be the first to use it. After all, the day is coming when they will finally acknowledge Jesus.

One day, they will discover that their nation rejected God’s own Son, and crucified their King. Imagine the bitter tears! Imagine theirl cry to God for pardon! And see God reach to them in full, complete forgiveness! Israel’s transgression cleansed in a day. Suddenly they see that, from the side they pierced, a fountain flows to cleanse them from all sin; Suddenly they see on Calvary the Passover Lamb slain for their redemption, the sin-offering sacrificed in their place. What a happy day!

²⁶ And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written:
  “The deliverer will come from Zion;
   he will turn godlessness away from Jacob.

On that day, too, the full count of Gentile believers will be brought in. Our history is bound with Israel’s.

...because of their transgression, salvation has come to the Gentiles to make Israel envious. 12 But if their transgression means riches for the world, and their loss means riches for the Gentiles, how much greater riches will their fullness bring!

Yet there is so much more. This text, written for Israel, belongs to us as much as to them. In the gospel, no promise is quarantined, or reserved for a single nation. There is now

...neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

What a great promise! Take it up right now!

Three key points together explain the verse.They tell of a fountain, a fountain opened, and a fountain still open.

I. A fountain.

What is this fountain which is opened? When was it opened? How was it opened?

It is a fountain opened to the house of David, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity.

God has acted to deal with those twin great evils ― sin and impurity. We have have fallen; our sinful deeds just prove our fall. Sin separates us from God. It brings God’s just anger upon us. And impurity blocks our return to our heavenly Father. We are not merely people who have sinned, we have a bent to sinning.

God sees this great, two–pronged evil. And he can’t ignore it. That would be cruel. God sees the evil, and prepares to remove it.

But God can’t hide filthiness away, or excuse transgression. He never trifles with sin. Never think that God’s offer of full, free, immediate forgiveness for the most hardened sinner means he doesn’t care about sin. The price of pardon was the death of his Son. There is no other way for him to be merciful yet just.

When God substitutes Jesus for you and me, justice and mercy peacefully embrace.

And this applies to everyone! From the greatest king from David’s house to the poorest beggar in Jerusalem, this fountain is open. If you feel yourself a hopeless sinner, God has made a way to free you from your sins!

We have seen sin’s evil has a double nature. But God’s provision meets that twin evil head on. The fountain is opened for sin.

It’s like how washing our hands properly removes visible dirt, which may contain harmful or poisonous products, and also kills many dangerous bacteria and viruses. The one operation has a double action.

So, have we sinned? Here’s the answer: God himself has punished that sin in the person of his own Son. He has carried out his threats, and proven the truth of his word. Jesus is our perfect substitute; in him your guilt and mine is put away, yet God, the great lawgiver, remains just.

And is our nature corrupt, combined with past sin into a moral and spiritual cancer? Once again, the cross of Jesus, the fountain opened wide, washes that, too.

The fountain cleanses both. It washes past sin; it cleanses present sin, and, by constantly providing a fresh start and a renewed relationship with the indwelling Spirit of God, it breaks the power of sin over our lives as well.

God has done it all: he opened that fountain to cleanse sinful people, and made it

...of sin the double cure.

It simultaneously cleanses from sin’s guilt and sin’s power through a single supply ― devised, planned, and prepared by God himself. It covers every spiritual need! The fountain is opened for us to wash in! As John writes,

If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, God’s Son, continually cleanses us from all sin.

Jesus’ sacrifice is more than enough, a flowing fountain to satisfy our heart’s longings. It constantly bubbles up, always enough mercy and forgiveness for all who come. From Adam to the very last repenting sinner, it’s enough.

But when was this fountain opened?”

Historically, it was opened when the Lord Jesus died. God, the everlasting Word, was made flesh and dwelt among us, and at the right time the full weight of human sin was laid on him. To put that sin away he had to die, because death is the penalty for guilt. He went to the cross, endured dreadful agony, and died.

When the soldier plunged his spear into Jesus’ side, blood and water gushed out. and the fountain for the cleansing of sin was opened wide. Jesus takes away sin’s offence against God, and its defilement in our nature.

Evangelistically, the fountain is opened to each of us when we hear the gospel.

When it says,

In that day a fountain shall be opened,

it means that whenever the gospel of Jesus Christ is preached, the cleansing power of the atonement of Jesus is no longer a sealed fountain, but opened to all who hear.

And experientially, this fountain is opened in the day when you or I repent of sin.

Can you find a Saviour until you truly repent of sin? Who washes his hands when he thinks them clean? God is always willing to forgive: are we willing to be forgiven?

A German prince on an official visit to France toured a prison. In honour of his visit, he could choose one prisoner to be freed. The prisoners knew of this decision.

Each man told the Prince that he was innocent, condemned in error, a victim of injustice.

Only one confessed his guilt.

“I have no reason to complain of my hard labour” he said, “I deserve it, I deserved death.” He confessed how evil his life had been, and how just his sentence was.

The Prince freed him. He said, “This is the only man here fit to be pardoned. He knows his crimes: he can be trusted in society.”

God bypasses those who secretly mutter, “I am not guilty, I am no more sinful than others. Sentencing me to hell would be too harsh!”

But if you know you are really guilty, a sinner deserving God’s wrath, then God’s word declares a fountain opened for sin and uncleanness. To experience it is so simple: confess your guilt, and plead with God for pardon.

Never rest until the atoning blood makes you clear of guilt. After all, how sad it would be to die unwashed beside the fountain, wretchedly perishing forever in sight of the Saviour!

II. A fountain open.

This is really the key in many ways. The fountain has been opened for you and me.

Right now, anyone at all can access the means for sin and sinfulness to be put away. The atonement is no secret, hidden fountain. It isn’t locked and bolted, it is an open fountain.

This doctrine is so straightforward. There’s no need for pretty pictures or wordy arguments. It is God’s word: the message of pardon for sin and the removal of uncleanness. It it plain, simple good news.

God has provided a fountain which is open to this day. It is open because the gospel is preached to be understood, in a language you know. The gospel is preached worldwide in simple, plain words, so that all may hear it.

The news is that God must punish sin, but he has laid the punishment on Christ. Whoever believes in Christ Jesus is forgiven. So why don’t people accept the Saviour? Why do they refuse to come and trust him? When they trust him they are saved at once!

It is not because they don’t know how. If the gospel is hidden, it is hidden to the lost, whose eyes the god of this world has blinded. Jesus is the substitute for sinners, and you must simply trust in him to be saved. To believe or not ― that is in your hands, But we all know the way.

The word is plain ―

There is life in a look at the Crucified One.

You know that, as you look to the Crucified one, you find eternal life. Hear the words: and experience the blessing!

The fountain is also open because Jesus’ blood covers all religions and races. Peter once seriously doubted that a Gentile could be saved. But God showed him differently. The gospel is for Jew and Gentile alike.

Is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also.

By his death, the Lord Jesus has torn the curtain, and pulled down every wall of separation. The same Messiah who was sent to Abraham’s human descendents is also sent to us Gentile sinners, who became Abraham’s children when we believed in Christ, because Abraham was the “father of the faithful.”

Furthermore you and I can personally approach the cleasning fountain without some fanatic trying to stand between us and this grace. They say, “I will catch the water as it flows, and you can drink from my hand. But, never go to the fountain for yourself!” What a travesty! The fountain of salvation is open for us to come personally, directly, and without intervention.

There is one Mediator between God and man, the Man Christ Jesus,

― and no other mediator.

Don’t be taken in! Just look to Jesus in the open heaven; and find rest. The Bible clearly teaches justification by faith: why submit to captivity? Don’t let them steal your freedom in Christ!

And don’t imagine that your sin is so great that it would stop the fountain working. Some still stand outside the cleansing flow saying, “I can’t bathe because I am filthy.”! What nonsense! If the fountain is open for sin, then sin is a qualification for washing in it. Christ is the Saviour for sinners; logically, if I am truly a sinner then Jesus is the exact answer I need.

Murder, adultery, whatever your crimes: none of it prevents your being washed in the fount of atonement. Christ died to take it all away!

A Christian lady met a girl of around twenty years old, who had fallen into prostitution. After many talks the girl began to repent. But the poor girl wailed, “I can never be restored, I am so bad, nobody would ever take me in.”

It turned out that the girl’s mother was dead and she was estranged from her father.

The girl didn’t even want her father to know where she was, and she was certain he would not take her back home. “If I were in his place I would not receive someone like me,” she said.

She was so ashamed that she believed there was no point in contacting her father.

The lady was unconvinced. If the girl was truly repentant, why shouldn’t her father receive her back gladly?

You know how it worked out. The visitor wrote to the father, and the next post brought the girl a letter, marked URGENT. Her father’s note came to this, “Come home: you are welcome, I am ready to forgive you; I have been praying night and day that you might be restored to me.”

Isn’t that father, in his tenderness and readiness to forgive his daughter, just like God is to us sinners? We are far less willing to come than he is to receive us. The answer to every prayer for mercy is, God is ready. Our guilt is no valid reason to reject the provisions of grace.

It’s not about performance, either. God easily does what humans can’t! The fountain is open for this very reason: to put away your uncleanness. Christ’s blood is more than a match for the evil of your heart; his Spirit can refresh you, and transform your mind; God will fulfil his promise:

“Behold, I make all things new!”

You don’t even have to prepare yourself first. The fountain is open, you are filthy, you are welcome to come. Only believe in Jesus and repent of your sin. Jesus himself gives you the faith you need and the Spirit to take away your love of sin. Believe now, and by believing you will receive perfect pardon and renewal.

What can shut up the fountain from the sinner? The fountain is open for all,

...the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

Don’t let anything discourage you. Nothing can shut what God declares to be open. If you come to Christ in faith, what can shut up the fountain of life or keep you uncleansed and unhealed, unless your own heart is closed, and your pride forbids a response?

There is a fountain opened by God for sin and for uncleanness, and you and I have enough of both, so come, just as you are. If you desire forgiveness, take it. Jesus says,

Whoever comes to me I will in no wise cast out.

III. A fountain open still.

So, be encouraged! The text says the fountain is opened, and I can’t see that it declares anywhere that it has been shut again; there is no clue that the opening was for an occasion only; everything shows that it remains open. What a blessing to every child of God! The fountain is still open for sin and uncleanness!

Many newly converted people imagine that they will never sin again; but temptation strikes, they fall into sin, and then the devil cries, “You aren’t saved, see where you are now!”

When sin is seen to be still with us, what a comfort this text is, that a fountain is opened! You went at first to Jesus, you can go again. The fountain is not shut; you have washed in it once, it is not dried up, wash again. The same Christ you wanted when you first believed is there now as ready and willing as ever. His blood is equally effective: go, and wash again.

We know about life. Every day every one of us comes back soiled from our own failures and from the dusty path we walk through life.

Hang onto this truth: every night there is a fountain opened. To-day’s sins can be as easily put away as yesterday’s sins; and to-day’s sinfulness can still be conquered. I can go to Christ again and say, “Let your blood kill this sin of mine, and soften my heart into tenderness and holiness once more.” The fountain is still open, and no man can shut it.

Your inner life will be again refreshed as you wash in the life-restoring fount prepared for you.

Don’t go off to your own self and your own works of self–improvement. Turn again to Christ, cling to the cross, and never let go of your hope. There is a fountain open still,.to purge away corruption, and work in you mightily, and preserve you to the Lord’s eternal kingdom and glory.

Conclusion

Let’s close with this thought. This scripture defines our work is as a church. Our task is not to provide an atonement for sinners, but to point them to the fountain which is already opened.

Let’s determine to be always telling others of the way of salvation. “It is so simple,” you say. Well, then there is no excuse if we don’t tell it.

The fountain is open! Let’s call all people to it to wash and be made whole!

AMEN

Based on a sermon preached by Rev C.H Spurgeon 22 January 1871

© Peter R. Green 2007. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. Portions also copyright The Bible, NIV (Zondervan Ltd.)