Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2431
“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. And it shall come to pass in that day, says 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.” Zechariah 13:1,2.
WHEN you read a letter, it is well to notice the date upon it—you may make mistakes if you do not. The promise in our text is dated, “In that day.” If we look a little way back, we shall find, in the 10th verse of the 12th chapter, these words, “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.” When the soul learns to mourn before the Cross, then it shall perceive that there is cleansing from sin. If you have looked to Christ whom you have pierced and, if so looking, you have come to lament and loathe your sin, it is in that day that God reveals to you the fountain opened for your sin and for your uncleanness! Are any of you, here, broken down under a sense of sin? Then I am glad that I have such good news for you as my text contains. It is for sinners that Jesus bled and died! It is for you who are conscious of your great guiltiness that the fullness and the freeness of His Grace are manifested. If you are a sinner and Jesus is a Savior, you are well met. If, by faith, you will look to Him, it is a proof that He is looking to you, and He will take away your sin and you shall go your way taking with you a song of love and praise unto Him who has so graciously saved you! So, you see that where there is mourning for sin, there is pardon for sin! When the eyes are full of tears of repentance, they are most fit for looking to Christ who takes all our guilt away. God help every mourner, here, to rejoice in Christ Jesus and His great salvation!
According to my text, this cleansing from guilt and sin is followed by a reformation. There is a fountain opened, first, for the putting away of sin and uncleanness as to the past and present, and there follows upon this that God takes away the idols out of the land and even cuts off the very names and memory of them. God’s flowers generally bloom double—and when He gives us the flower of pardon, He gives us the flower of regeneration with it! He that is made clean is also made new! He that takes away the guilt of sin also takes away the tendency to sin. God will not forgive you and still leave you to be what you were before, but, forgiving you, He will make a great change in you, so that you shall no more love the ways and the wages of iniquity, but you shall become, henceforth, a lover of holiness—one who desires to follow the Lamb wherever He goes and to walk in His ways at all times.
I think there are some who will hear this message who will jump at such good tidings! They are saying in their hearts, “That is just what we want. We do not merely wish to be forgiven our old faults—we long to be made altogether holy. We desire to be set on the road to Heaven and to become pure in heart and holy in life.” Well, this is just what God is prepared to do for you! And they who look to Christ shall see in the blood and water streaming from His riven side, the double cleansing that they crave—the blood to atone for guilt and the water to wash away the tendency towards future sin! These two things, of which I have spoken to you these many years, are what I have to speak about, again, at this time. But I do not want to merely speak about them and let it all end in talk. What is a mouthful of words worth? They will never feed the hunger of the soul. I want you to come to a personal dealing with God and to lay hold upon Christ and eternal life! I pray that you may find these two great things of which I have to speak—first, the cleansing from uncleanness, and then, afterwards, the cleansing of the life. So will you receive a gracious answer to the prayer with which we began our service—
“Plenteous Grace with You is found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams abound, Make and keep me pure within. You of life the Fountain are, Freely let me take of Thee Spring You up within my heart, Rise to all eternity!”
I. To begin with the first cleansing—I will keep to the words of the text, for there are no words like the words of God—and the words of the text are the best part of the sermon. This, then, is the first head of my discourse, A CLEANSING FOUNTAIN OPENED. “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.
In the first place, uncleanness is, in itself, a loathsome, foul thing. It used to be thought, in the Church of Rome, I believe, that if a person never washed himself, he might acquire the odor of sanctity and become a great saint. We believe no such thing! We fancy that cleanliness is the next thing to godliness and, somehow, we loathe to be put into association with people who abhor cold water and never wash themselves. Personal uncleanness is a disgusting thing and those who work very much among the depraved find it one of the hardest parts of their work, to have to put up with filthiness and uncleanness. Well now, that uncleanness of body is a picture of what uncleanness of soul is—a sinner is disgusting to God. Notwithstanding all the love that He has towards men and His desire to bless them, yet sin is a thing which the soul of God abhors! All unrighteousness is most obnoxious to Him. The doing of wrong is a thing which God cannot endure. He reckons it to be a filthy, loathsome, horrible thing. He says to the ungodly, “Oh, do not this abominable thing that I hate.” He cannot endure sin—it is contrary to His holy Nature—it revolts Him. This is how the Lord sets forth sin to us—it is uncleanness in His sight.