The Double Cleansing
(No. 2431)
INTENDED FOR READING ON LORD'S DAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 1895.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
SEPTEMBER 18, 1887.
"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.
Dear Friends, I would not wonder if we feel that as sin is a filthy
thing to the eyes of God, and He loathes it, we look upon ourselves as
filthy beings and we loathe ourselves. It is a good sign of the working
of Divine Grace in the heart when a man begins to feel himself
filthy–when he says, "I cannot rest till I am washed. I cannot endure
this uncleanness any longer. Time was when I was willing, even, to
wallow in sin, but something has happened to me that has awakened up my
conscience and touched my heart–and I cannot bear to remain as I am.
Lord, wash me! Wash me! Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse
me from my sin." You are in a good way, my dear Friend, when you begin
to feel obnoxious to yourself, even as your sin has made you to be
obnoxious to God! Self-loathing is one of the early stages of helpful
spiritual life. I remember when I would have given all the world if I
had possessed it, to escape from myself–when, as I remembered my sin,
I wished I could have ceased to be that I might have escaped from all
my past iniquities and from the sin that I felt sure would, in the
future, come out of me while the fountain within was so foul and
polluted! I pray God that everyone I am now addressing who has never
been washed in the open fountain may be made to be loathsome to
himself, even as his sin makes him loathsome to God!
You remember, beloved Friends, that in the Tabernacle of old, between
the tent of the congregation and the altar, was a laver where the
priests might wash themselves before they offered sacrifice to God. In
Solomon's Temple there was a molten sea, with ten lavers of brass,
because God would not have anybody present himself unclean in His House
of Prayer. So, our text first represents us as being by nature unclean
and, therefore, we need washing. We cannot go into God's Holy Place and
have fellowship with Him as we are. Do you think that God can speak
with you as you are? Can He have commerce with sin? Can He wink at
iniquity? Can He tolerate that which His Justice must condemn? Ah, no!
As the unclean man, under the Jewish Law, was cut off from all
fellowship with the worshippers of God, so is every sinner at a
distance from God until he has been washed! I wish you would look at
yourself, my dear Hearer. Unless you are washed in the blood of the
Lamb, you must be regarded as out of fellowship with God, shut out from
His Presence, under His ban, unable to draw near to God while your
filthiness is upon you! This makes uncleanness a very dreadful
thing–it is loathsome to God and loathsome to ourselves–and makes us
unable to have fellowship with the thrice-holy Jehovah!
At the same time, under the Law of God, an unclean person defiled all
that he did. Wherever he went, he polluted everything. If he sat on a
chair, it became defiled. If he drank out of certain vessels, they had
to be broken. If he touched other people, he spread the defilement
wherever he went while he was, himself, in a state of ceremonial
uncleanness. Such was the rigor of the Law and until you are washed in
the blood of Christ–it matters not who or what you are–you defile
everything! If you pray, it is but the prayer of the unholy. If you
sing, there is no music in the melody to the ear of God. Your need of a
new heart has defiled it. All that you do, as it springs from your
heart and conscience, which are impure, is defiled. Can a polluted
spring send out clear streams? How can your life be right till your
heart is right? And how can your heart be right till God, Himself, has
renewed it by the power of His eternal Spirit and the merit of the
blood of Christ? So you see what an awful thing it was to be unclean.
The unclean Jew could not worship. He could not do anything in the
midst of his brethren–he was cut off from the Tabernacle of the Lord
until such time as he was purified.
We have had enough of that terrible truth if you truly feel it and
personally realize it, for now our text sweetly leads us to proclaim
that God has provided a way of cleansing us from sin–"In that day
there shall be a fountain opened." God has provided a means of putting
away human sin! The newest gospel, which is no Gospel at all, denies
this! It will not have it that the evil of the past life can be
obliterated and the guilt of sin can be removed by the blood of Jesus.
But, in the face of this lie, we declare, in the name of the
Everlasting God, that there is free and full forgiveness for every kind
and sort of sin through Jesus Christ our Lord! There is a fountain open
and, though your life may have been as black as a life can be, we are
bound to tell you, in the name of Jesus Christ, that He has come into
the world to save sinners, even the very chief of them! And if you
believe in Him there shall be no condemnation unto you! All the guilt
of your past life shall be as though it had never been–it shall be
cast into the depth of the sea where it shall never be brought up
again! It shall be blotted out from the very book of Divine
Remembrance. This is the Gospel we are sent to preach to you–
"Pardon for crimes of deepest dye, A pardon bought with Jesus' blood,"
and this pardon for everyone who, with a sincere heart, looks to Christ
upon the Cross and trusts in Him.
Note that it is God, Himself, who has provided this fountain. It was
God, Himself, who came from Heaven to earth to be this fountain! It was
the Son of God, Himself, who had His own heart set abroach to be the
fountain out of which should flow the cleansing stream! I delight to
dwell upon this theme! Were I but capable of speaking of it as it ought
to be spoken of, I would be glad to proclaim day and night this blessed
news–not to you sham sinners who have no sin, so you dream–but to you
real sinners, you out-of-the-way sinners, you who have gone farthest of
all astray from God! It is to you we tell this gladsome piece of news,
"In that day there shall be a fountain opened for sin and for
uncleanness."
Next, this source of cleansing is described as a fountain because of
its abiding efficacy. In the Tabernacle and the Temple, there stood, as
I have already told you, those great bronze lavers. They were enormous
cisterns holding vast quantities of water, but they were only cisterns,
so that, when many had washed their feet and their hands in them, there
was great need that even the lavers should be cleansed and that fresh
water should be continually poured into them. But God has not given us
a bronze laver or a molten sea, but a fountain, a fountain always
flowing and never, itself, deified! However many sinners come and wash,
the fountain washes all uncleanness away! It is not, itself, polluted,
and the cleansing stream is always springing up, up, up! I think I see
Paul as he washed in this Fountain. Oh, what filthiness came off Saul
of Tarsus, but after he had washed, the Fountain was just as effectual
for Timothy and all whom Paul brought to the Savior! And now, 1,800
years later, we stand by the same Fountain where Paul was washed, and
we still sing–
"There is a Fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Immanuel's veins!
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains.
The dying thief rejoiced to see That Fountain in his day And there may
I, though vile as he, Wash all my sins away!"
It is not a cistern, nor a well into which waters run, but a Fountain
from which there is a perpetual welling and bubbling up of fresh
cleansing power–"In that day there shall be a fountain."
Notice, too, that this is an opened fountain. I know that some people
say, "We like to hear about the Gospel, but it does not seem as though
we could get at it." Why not? It is open! When there stands in the very
middle of the street a drinking fountain, why is it put there but that
everybody who is thirsty may come and drink? Does anybody say, "I am
not fit to drink at that fountain"? How is that? Whoever said anything
about fitness? That poor boy who has been turning cartwheels in the mud
may come and drink if he likes. Her ladyship is going by with her
carriage–she may stop and drink if she likes. Who is the more likely
of the two to do it, however? It is your grand, noble, gentlefolk, as
people call them, who do not like to come and drink! Some of you may
fancy that you are too good for Christ to cleanse, too good to be
saved–but the poor boys that make the cartwheels do not think
themselves too good to drink at the fountain! They are thirsty, so they
come and drink. May the Lord grant that many here may just come and
receive Christ in that way! He is an opened Fountain, free to all who
will to come–and if any do not will to come, it is their own
fault–and on their own heads must the blame lie if they do not come,
for the Fountain is opened, and opened on purpose that the vilest of
the vile may come and wash, and be clean!
"A fountain opened"–that is, accessible, available. We try to preach
about it to make it more open, but I believe that there is some
preaching that shuts it up. People cannot understand the minister's
philosophy–they cannot make heads or tails of it, they say. But I have
desired to use nothing but Saxon speech and to speak to you with great
plainness that you may understand the message of the Gospel. Jesus
Christ took the sin of men upon Himself and suffered in their place, so
that whoever believes in Him might not perish, but have everlasting
life–and if you believe in Him, you are washed from your iniquity
through the blood-shedding of the Lord Jesus Christ! If He paid our
debts, they are paid. If He bore the penalty of our sin, it is not to
also be borne by us, and we accept Him by faith to stand for us. We
are, ourselves, accepted in the Beloved, set free from guilt, and saved
in the Lord with an everlasting salvation! Well did Joseph Hart sing–
"This Fountain, though rich, from charge is quite clear, The poorer the
wretch, the more welcome here! Come needy, and guilty, come loathsome
and bare, You can't come too filthy, come just as you are! This
Fountain in vain has never been tried– It takes out all stain whenever
applied: The water flows sweetly with virtue Divine, To cleanse souls
completely, though leprous as mine." I do not know where you happen to
be, poor despairing one. Perhaps you are away there at the back of the
gallery, but I am sent especially to you who are most despairing, to
you who seem to be in the iron cage and cannot get out. Behold, I
wrench away the iron bars with this Gospel word–"Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved," for there is a Fountain opened
for sin and for uncleanness, for the great ones if they will come–for
the house of David and for the poor ones if they will come–for the
inhabitants of Jerusalem! If they do but come and wash in this
Fountain, they shall be cleansed!
Sing that one verse now in the middle of my sermon–
"Dear dying Lamb, Your precious blood Shall never lose its power, Till
all the ransomed Church of God Be sa ved to sin no more."
II. There follows, upon the opening of this cleansing Fountain, A GREAT
CHANGE OF CONDUCT. In the second verse of our text we read, "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."
When a man finds pardon, he says to himself, "Now, away go my sins;
away go my sins. I will not spare one of them." If he has been guilty
of drunkenness, away go the pots! If he has been a man who has used
foul language, I have often noticed that that is a temptation that
generally goes, directly. It has often amazed me that men who have for
50 years scarcely spoken without an oath, from the moment they are
converted never swear again! That seems to be a sin that dies very
quickly–one stroke, and away it goes! I wish that all other sins went
half as easily! But the pardoned man wakes up and finds that he has a
great deal to do in clearing out all manner of mischief and rubbish and
defilement–but if the Lord has really forgiven him, he says, "Out you
go, all of you! None of you are going to stay here. I must have done
with you forever. I will not spare one of you guilty things that made
my Savior bleed!"–
"'Twas you, my sins, my cruel sins, His chief tormentors were! Each of
my crimes became a nail, And unbelief the spear."
This clearance of sin should be very thorough. There are some who do
not begin the new life well–they are halfhearted in giving up sin and
they always, sooner or later, give up their profession of Christianity,
for there was never any reality in it. But where it is the real work of
God's Grace, there the man says, "No, no! I do not want any sin to live
and, by God's Grace, it shall not." Perhaps he cannot, for the moment,
overcome all sin. Old habits are still strong upon him, but he says, "I
will never rest until they are all overthrown, for I will not continue
under the power and sway of any one of these, my old idols. Down they
shall come. Dagon and all the hellish crew shall be broken in pieces."
So did we sing just now–
"Oh, how I hate those lusts of mine That crucified my God! Those sins
that pierced and nailed His flesh Fast to the fatal wood! While with a
melting, broken heart, My murdered Lord I view, I'll raise revenge
against my sins, And slay the murderers, too."
And that is not all, for the Lord says not only that the idols shall
go, but he declares, "I will cut off the names of the idols out of the
land." Their very names were to be forgotten. The Jews did not like to
pronounce the names of any of the idol gods–they thought that it
polluted their mouths to do so. They often gave to them names in
mockery, on purpose, to avoid using the real names. And the child of
God says, "I do not want to even mention sin." There is great wisdom in
what Paul says concerning all uncleanness, "Let it not be once named
among you, as becomes saints, for it is a shame to even speak of those
things which are done of them in secret." It is defiling to the mind of
the Christian to even speak about some of his old ways.
"Oh," says one, "you are a very rigid Puritan!" I am and in this age we
need a great deal more than we have of rigid Puritanism! We are to hate
even the garment spotted by the flesh! Years ago, when they dug into a
disused pit in a village, they took up some old rags and, as a
consequence, nearly all the people in that village died of the plague.
They did not know what was in the old rags buried in the pit. We are
afraid of the old rags of sin–we do not like digging them up! I
believe that some of you, who used to drink, had better go seven miles
round rather than pass some public house doors where you formerly went.
Some of you cannot do without awful peril what other people might very
freely do because there is a special temptation for you about that
particular form of evil. You must not even mention the names of the
sins, for there grows up in a man who has been long used to sin, a
passion for it, a passion against which he cannot readily guard
himself. Stay away, stay away! Remember the old Jewish proverb about
the Nazarite who had been pledged from his youth to drink no wine. The
proverb says, "O Nazarite, go about, go about and walk not through the
vineyard!" Keep as far as you can away from temptation!
So, you see, when the Lord works this great change in us, He makes us
to feel that we do not like to even mention the names of our old
idols–we would put them away out of our mouths altogether.
Yes, and God goes further than that, for He says that He will put away
the very remembrance of them–"they shall no more be remembered."
Augustine, before his conversion, had been in the habit of associating
with a woman of vicious life. After his conversion, she passed him in
the street and said to him, "Augustine, it is I," and he, as he could
not go by without giving her some answer, replied, "Yes, but it is not
I!" That is to say, "Augustine is now another Augustine. He can have no
more to do with you, for he is a changed man, he forgets his old
pursuits." This is what the Lord would have us do. If there is anything
which has pleased you, but has grieved Him–if there is anything that
has defiled you, then if you have been washed with the blood of your
dear Savior's heart–forget that sin! Be today as though you had never
known it. Forget its sweetness and only remember the bitterness it
brought to Him! Forget its charms as you would forget the azure scales
of the serpent and remember only its sting, when it has stung you
so–yes, and stung your Savior to the death! God help us in this, dear
Friends, not to even remember the names of our old sins, or the sins
themselves with any sort of love.
Notice, also, that the Lord went still further than that, for He said.
"/ will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the
land." The prophets were to pass out of the land. "We have no prophets
now," says one. But you know what these prophets did–they led the
people to worship false gods. So, when God forgave His people, they
sent these prophets packing. Have you any prophets of this sort? I will
point out one. He will be outside the Tabernacle, tonight, to meet you.
He will come to you and say, "Now, old Friend, come with me, and go to
such-and-such a place." On the road he will speak to you in such a way
as will drive out of you every impression you have received. It often
happens that it is absolutely necessary to say–
"My old companions, fare you well! I cannot go with you to Hell."
There are connections that must be broken and the sooner you do it, and
the more fully you do it, the better for you if there are false
prophets who have led you astray–companions who have jested with you,
or associates who have led you into vice–and the devil has many of
these prophets who seem to be more industrious to damn men than we are
to save them! They compass sea and land to make proselytes for
infidelity and vice! You know the men and the women, too, and the
diligence with which they pursue their evil calling. Come away from
them! Come away from them–there are better companions to be found than
these. I like to see the workman in the workshop, when he finds that he
has to toil with ungodly men, keep himself to himself, or get with some
others who are of his own way of thinking and acting–and not mixing
with those who are engaged in evil pursuits.
Perhaps there are some young persons here, tonight, who have just left
that pretty country village and the old Baptist Meeting House where
they have always gone since they were converted, and they are in London
for the first time. Now, mind these false prophets that are about! You
will find them everywhere–perhaps lads of your own age, or possibly
old men, steeped up to their lips in filthiness–they will count it
their pleasure to degrade and pollute you! Get away from them! Have
nothing to do with them! Fly for your life, even if, like Joseph, you
have to leave your cloak behind you! Away, away, away, if God has
forgiven you. If not, get forgiveness now. Before you go out of this
building, seek Jesus, that you may be washed in His precious blood, and
then say to yourself, "Now I am the Lord's. The blood that has cleansed
me has bought me. I am Christ's man and for Him I will live. I cannot,
I will not, have idols! Neither will I hear nor even talk about them,
or seem to have any connection with them. I am, if not in the common
meaning of the term, yet spiritually, I am a Nonconformist. I will not
be conformed to the world, but be separated from it, that I may be
conformed to Christ and follow Him in holy ways in the midst of this
evil generation."
Look first to my Lord upon the Cross, and when you have looked until
your sin is gone, then lift up your hands to Him and solemnly say, "My
Lord Jesus, as You have died for me, I will live for You as You shall
help me." Amen, so let it be, for Christ's sake!
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: PSALM51; ZECHARIAH 12:10-14; 13:1-6.
We will first read Psalm 51. If we need any music to this Psalm, we
must have the liquid melody of tears, sighs, cries, entreaties. It is
above all the others, the penitential Psalm. It is the Psalm of David
when Nathan the Prophet came to him after he had committed his great
sin with Bathsheba. Thus, David prayed–
Psalm 51–Verses 1-3. Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your
loving kindness: according unto the multitude of Your tender mercies
blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and
cleanse me from my sin. For / acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin
is ever before me. And there is no hope of pardon unless we do this! We
must not try to cloak or hide our sin from God, but we must acknowledge
our transgressions. Our sin must be always before us–a ghost that
haunts us–a black cloud that hangs over us, which we greatly dread.
4. Against You, You only, have / sinned, and done this evil in Your
sight: that You might be justified when You speak, and be clear when
You judge. Whatever God may say to us, however sharp it is, and
whatever God may do to us, however terrible it is, we deserve it! And
when we are in a penitential frame of mind, we feel that it is so.
5-7. Behold, / was shaped in iniquity; and in sin did my mother
conceive me. Behold, You desire truth in the inward parts: and in the
hidden part You shall make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop, and
/ shall be clean: wash me, and / shall be whiter than snow. David does
not hope to wash himself! He does not trust in outward ceremonies–he
appeals to God, the God against whom he has sinned–"Lord, cleanse me.
You alone can do it."
8. Make me to hear joy and gladness; that the bones which You have
broken may rejoice. When God's Spirit deals with sinners, He does not
play with them. A sense of sin is like the breaking of bones, but God,
who breaks the bone, can heal it! He that takes away our joy, when we
are under a sense of sin, can give us back that joy by a realization of
pardon!
9. Hide Your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. "And
when You have done that, change my nature, that I may not sin again."
10. 11. Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit
within me. Cast me not away from Your Presence; and take not Your Holy
Spirit from me. He might well be afraid that, after so foul a fall, so
disgraceful a crime, God would cast him away, but he prays that it may
not be so–"Cast me not away from Your Presence."
12, 13. Restore unto me the joy of Your salvation; and uphold me with
Your free spirit. Then will / teach transgressors Your ways; and
sinners shall be converted unto You. "I will tell others what You have
done. Your Free Grace, Your pardoning mercy shall not be hidden away in
my breast, but I will begin to be a preacher of Your love. Yes, and I
shall have converts, too, for the news of Your Grace to me shall draw
others to you–'Sinners shall be converted unto You.'"
14. Deliver me from blood-guiltiness, O God, God of my salvation: and
my tongue shall sing aloud of Your righteousness. He puts his finger on
the sin. He might have said and, at one time he did say, that he did
not kill Uriah the Hittite. Ah, but when he is right with God, he makes
no pretences! He does not mince the matter, but he confesses the
blood-guiltiness, for he was guilty of Uriah's death–"Deliver me from
blood-guiltiness." Be honest with God. You will not receive pardon till
you are. He can see through you–what is the use of attempting to hide
anything from Him? Out with it, Man, that God may out with it, too!
Confess it, that God's pardon covering your confession may cover all
your sin.
15-17. O Lord, open You my lips; and my mouth shall show forth Your
praise. For You desire not sacrifice; else would / give it: You delight
not in burnt offerings. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a
broken and a contrite heart, O God, You will not despise. Are you
bringing this sacrifice to the Lord? Are there some in this House of
Prayer who have greatly sinned and who are now greatly ashamed of
themselves? Take heart of hope, poor Sinner, for God delights to accept
a broken and contrite heart!
18, 19. Do good in Your good pleasure unto Zion: build You the walls of
Jerusalem. Then shall You be pleased with the sacrifices of
righteousness, with burnt offering and whole burnt offering: then shall
they offer bullocks upon Your altar. Now turn to the prophecy of
Zechariah, chapter 12, verse ten.
Zechariah 12:10-14. And / 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 mourns for his only son, and shall be in
bitterness for Him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. /n
that day shall there be a great mourning in Jerusalem, as the mourning
of Hadad Rimmon in 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.
Zechariah 13:1, 2. /n 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. How much God can
crowd into a single day!
2. Says the LORD of Hosts, that / will cut off the names of the idols
out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered: and also / will
cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land. God
will not only destroy the idols, but He will cut off the very names of
them out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered.
3. And it shall come to pass that when any shall yet prophesy, then his
father and his mother that begat him shall say unto him, You shall not
live; for you speak lies in the name of the LORD: and his father and
his mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesies.
It was a part of the Law of God in the Book of Deuteronomy that any man
who professed to be a prophet and who sought to turn the people aside
to the worship of idols, should be put to death. And it is here
declared that when God had cleansed the land, there would be no false
prophets! And if any man pretended to be a Prophet of the Lord when he
was not sent of God, his own father and mother would be the first to
execute judgment upon him!
4. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the prophets shall be
ashamed, every one, of his vision, when he has prophesied; neither
shall they wear a rough garment to deceive. Imitating Elijah's garb,
the false prophets hoped to win the attention of the people by the
roughness of their dress. But all this would be dropped, for the people
would be so well instructed that they would refuse to hear the false
prophet.
5. But he shall say, I am no prophet, I am an husbandman, for man
taught me to keep cattle from my youth. They shall be so ashamed of it
that, to have kept cattle shall seem to be a far more noble employment
than to have falsely set up to be a Prophet of the Lord!
6. And one shall say unto him, What are these wounds in your hands?
"You wear the marks usually seen in God's servants–you have scarred
yourself as His prophets were accustomed to do–you have, as it were,
tattooed yourself with the name of your God. What does it all mean?"
But he shall be so ashamed of it that–
6. Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of
my friends. He shall say anything rather than confess that he is a
false prophet, he shall be so ashamed of himself! What a mercy it is
when God makes men ashamed of sin, and when He makes them so ashamed of
false doctrine that they cannot bear it and will not any longer
proclaim it! Oh, that that day were already come!