A FOUNTAIN OPENED

Zechariah 13:1 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 words In that day are listed twelve time in chapters twelve through fourteen of Zechariah. They speak of the time of Messiah’s kingdom, the present age of the church.
In the previous verses the Lord has told his prophet that in the church age he will pour out the spirit of grace and supplication upon his people. And the results would be that they should look upon the Lord Jesus whom their sins had pierced. They would see the glory of the cross! And they shall be granted a true repentance to mourn over him as one mourns over the death of an only son. (12:10).
Their mourning should be as the mourning in the valley of Megiddon. For that was the great mourning over King Josiah, a glorious type of Christ, as recorded in 2 Chronicles 35:24 His servants therefore took him out of that chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had; and they brought him to Jerusalem, and he died, and was buried in one of the sepulchres of his fathers. And all Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah. 25 And Jeremiah lamented for Josiah: and all the singing men and the singing women spake of Josiah in their lamentations to this day, and made them an ordinance in Israel: and, behold, they are written in the lamentations.
Then we read in the following verses (12:12-14) that this blessed mourning (Matt. 5:4) shall extend to all kinds of peoples. But it shall not be on a group, or national basis. For even though it shall be unto every kindred, people, nation, and language, it shall be on an individual basis. For we are continually told that all in these various groups shall mourn apart! So it shall not be all men, without exception, but all kinds of men, without exclusion! But it shall be an individual faith and repentance! Revelation 5:9 And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;
It was a day that God’s friend, Abraham saw and rejoiced in! John 8:56 Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. He took his son, Isaac up on the same mountain with the wood on Isaac’s back, and the fire and knife in his own hands, to offer him as a sacrifice in the Old Testament, as the Father would the Lord Jesus Christ in New Testament. And he even saw the resurrection as he told the servants who stayed with the mules, “we will come again to you!” (Gen. 22:5).
The Lord Jesus took the wood of the cross on his back on the same mount, now called “Calvary,” and the Father’s knife of justice, and the fiery judgment of God fell upon him as he was made sin for us! For as Abraham stated by faith to Isaac, “The Lord will provide himself a sacrifice!” And so he did! For the dying Lamb was none other than God, the Son! – Blessed be his name! “It pleased the Lord to bruise him.” (Isaiah 53:10).
Our eyes are most blessed in this day of accomplished redemption! Those of us who have that redemption applied by the Holy Spirit can see the glory of the cross! And that spiritual look continues to sustain us! Hebrews 12:2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3 For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.
We should rejoice more than Abraham, as we can see historically, the day has occurred. But we can also see, by the Spirit, the glory of this day, causing us to be changed into the image of the Lord, as we see into the face of our Lord Jesus Christ! Matthew 13:17 For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.
2 Corinthians 3:18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
A Fountained Opened
We notice in our verse that it is not a well, but a flowing fountain that is opened. The full effect of this opening is not here seen in the 1611 English. Let’s look at this same Hebrew word as it is translated in Nahum 3:13. There it is given in the English as, shall be set wide open! And it is not just wide open for a short time, but it is “set” wide open! And this is said of the Sovereign One who opens and none can close! Revelation 3:7 And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no man openeth;
You see, dear reader, the Lord Jesus does not just provide the door of entrance to God, he IS the Door! John 10:7 Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep. 9 I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
In like manner, the resurrection is not just an event as Martha and most religionists of our day believe! Christ IS the Resurrection! John 11:24 Martha saith unto him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day. 25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
Therefore we are freed from the law of ordinances concerning continual washings! Colossians 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; Praise his holy name!
Permit me to list out for you a rather lengthy passage for such a small article. But it is most blessed for your soul. Hebrews 9:8 The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing: 9 Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience; 10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation. 11 But Christ being come an high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building; 12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. 13 For if the blood of bulls and of goats, and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctifieth to the purifying of the flesh: 14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
Christ IS the Fountain!
Not only is Christ our Resurrection into life, (the first resurrection in Rev. 20 is regeneration!), and our Door of entrance to God, but he is also The Fountain! Listen to God, himself instructing us of this! Jeremiah 2:13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
Jeremiah 17:13 O LORD, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the LORD, the fountain of living waters. In both these verses the Lord refers to himself as the fountain of living waters!
Would you like to see this in the New Testament? John 7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. 39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.) The Holy Ghost is said by our Lord to be the river of living water!
And listen to the Lord revealing himself to the Samaritan woman who had come to draw water from Jacob’s well. John 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water. 11 The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep: from whence then hast thou that living water? 13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:14 But 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 water springing up into everlasting life.
The Lord Jesus Christ is presented to us as The Word, who is with God, and who is God! He is said to be the Word become flesh to dwell among us! (John 1:1,2,14). And as the Holy Person of the Word, we have the refreshing waters of this fountain opened to us. Proverbs 10:11 The mouth of a righteous man is a well of life: but violence covereth the mouth of the wicked. 16:22 Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly. (1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding,). Proverbs 18:4 The words of a man’s mouth are as deep waters, and the wellspring of wisdom as a flowing brook.
For Sin and Uncleanness
We must not forget the reason for this fountain set wide open by God! And we see that those cleansed are said to be a specific people! They are listed as the inhabitants of Jerusalem! The Apostle Paul instructs us that those of the earthly Jerusalem are in bondage. But that Jerusalem which is above is free, and is the mother of us all. (Gal. 4:25, 26). And this is that city, the church, which John saw coming down from above in Revelation 21:2, 9, 10. He gives unto these sheep eternal life and they shall never perish!
In his great High Priestly prayer, recorded in John 17, we have the Son speaking unto the Father concerning the understanding of the GodHead concerning redemption. John 17:10 And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them. It was the understanding of the Trinity that all that were the Son’s to die for where those of the Father’s in eternal election! The Son was not to die for one more, or less than those given him of the Father! And the Father would have every one whom he elected in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4), to be atoned for by the blood of the Lamb of God! John 6:37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
These waters would wash the Bride of Christ, the church, from sin and uncleanness! And as Christ is the word, we see this set forth in Ephesians 5:25 and 26. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,
This effect of the cleansing, spiritual word flowing out from the Person of God, beginning at Pentecost, was shown to the Prophet Ezekiel as well. Consider these verses:
Ezekiel 47:1 Afterward he brought me again unto the door of the house; and, behold, waters issued out from under the threshold of the house eastward: for the forefront of the house stood toward the east, and the waters came down from under from the right side of the house, at the south side of the altar. 8 Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed. 9 And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh.
The sea is the masses of humanity into which the gospel shall be preached, and from whom a multitude that cannot be numbered shall be spiritually cleansed. Revelation 17:15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. The Sovereign Lord shall calm the stormy, sin-agitated waters with his word! Mark 4:39 And he arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. Mark 4:41 And they feared exceedingly, and said one to another, What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?
And the phrase, a very great multitude of fish, also gives us insight to the Sovereign’s power in the effectual call of the gospel! For he told his disciples to leave their nets and follow him. Mark 1:17 And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me, and I will make you to become fishers of men.
Let us take care as to how we hear the gospel, so as not to be cast away from it’s inclusive net. Matt. 13:47 Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: 48 Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. 49 So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just.
Pastor Gene Breed
July 3, 2011

Determined Weeks

Daniel 9:24 Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.

The scriptures teach us that all times are appointed by God! They are predestinated according to God’s purpose. Ephesians 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

Ecclesiastes 3:1 To every thing there is an appointed time, even a time to every purpose under the heaven. This chapter instructs us that, not only are the “great things,’ like birth and death appointed, but so are even the ‘smaller things,’ like picking up rocks and casting them away (vs. 2,5). Of course, we generally accept planting and harvest times as established, which are also revealed in verse two. And should it then seem strange to us if The Almighty, Sovereign Lord should have a “determined” time for his Son to make an end of transgression on the cross?

For when do the scriptures teach us that the Eternal Son of God came to die? Was it not in the fulness of time? Gal. 4:4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5 To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And can we not read that he accomplished the very thing, at the very time that Gabriel informed Daniel that he would? For Gabriel said the Messiah would make an end of sins. And can we not read in Hebrews 9:26, … but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself? The very work that Gabriel spoke of is here stated as that which Messiah accomplished! So he did that which was foretold, at the time that it was stated!

And why is it important that we see God’s absolute control of all things? Let’s let Him tell us. Isaiah 46:9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:

God, having revealed the end from the beginning, reveals that he alone, is very God! There is no other God! This prophesy brings one to the character of God! To deny his revelation is to deny the character of his person! The scriptures instruct us  that the Word was in the beginning, and the Word was God! To believe in the Person of God, one must believe His word!

Our Lord settled this matter in John 5:39, which states, Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. The Holy Scriptures are but a testimony of his Person!

The Lord Jesus Knew This!

Our Lord would do nothing out of it’s rightful time and order. John the Baptist said, ‘Lord, you’d better baptize me!’ But the answer to him was that John must do the baptizing in order to fulfil all righteous! (Matt. 3:15).

And we also read in John 2:4, Jesus saith unto her, Woman, what have I to do with thee? mine hour is not yet come. And in John 13:1 we read, Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And also in John 17:1 as he prayed to his Father, he faces Him with this knowledge, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:

Sabbath Rest

2 Chronicles 36:20 And them that had escaped from the sword carried he away to Babylon; where they were servants to him and his sons until the reign of the kingdom of Persia: 21 To fulfil the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, until the land had enjoyed her sabbaths: for as long as she lay desolate she kept sabbath, to fulfil threescore and ten years.

The Babylonian bondage of seventy years was largely for the sin of sabbath breaking. The length of time the bondage was to endure was to allow the land to rest the exact amount of time that it would have rested if Israel had been obedient to God! The Lord kicked his land holders out in order that the earth could recover from their constant cultivation. For the land was to rest, as was the Israelite who worked it, not just every seventh day, but also every seventh year! Then it was to rest the 50th year as well.

Leviticus 25:3 Six years thou shalt sow thy field, and six years thou shalt prune thy vineyard, and gather in the fruit thereof; 4 But in the seventh year shall be a sabbath of rest unto the land, a sabbath for the LORD: thou shalt neither sow thy field, nor prune thy vineyard.

Lev. 25:8 And thou shalt number seven sabbaths of years unto thee, seven times seven years; and the space of the seven sabbaths of years shall be unto thee forty and nine years. 9 Then shalt thou cause the trumpet of the jubile to sound on the tenth day of the seventh month, in the day of atonement shall ye make the trumpet sound throughout all your land. 10 And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof: it shall be a jubile unto you; and ye shall return every man unto his possession, and ye shall return every man unto his family.

Just as in the 50th year of Jubilee, the Lord would proclaim liberty for those in Babylonian bondage at the end of this appointed sabbath rest of the land! And then there was to be seventy weeks of years determined until Messiah would come and finish the transgression, so that redemption’s liberty could be proclaimed by the gospel to all those in sin’s bondage! The Lord’s first recorded public reading reveals this! Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

For the Lord Jesus Christ is our Sabbath rest! Hebrews 4:9 There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. 10 For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his. Harlot religion sets forth a ‘works’ righteousness which continually plows the soul with the fear of never having ‘done’ enough. This will lead into eternal bondage, from which there shall never be a pardon! But true religion sets forth the only way of soul rest as recorded in the gospel – justification with God by grace through faith!

Titus 3:5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost; 6 Which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;

Ephesians 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. True salvation is never the result of religious works! But it always, without fail, produces good works that follow the believer as a witness of the inward change by grace! And these are the works by which Christ shall judge the entire human population to separate the sheep from the goats! (Read Matthew 25:31-46).

490 Years Before

According to Leviticus 25:8, listed above, 7 sabbaths of years would be 49 years. Therefore, if God adds a zero to that, making it 70 weeks, we arrive at 490 years. So what happened 490 years earlier that started God keeping a record of missed sabbaths? Approximately 490 years earlier Israel turned from God’s rule over them to a human king! In this God instructed Samuel (1 Sam. 8:7,8) that they have rejected me, that I should not reign over them. They then, like Americans today, turned to human effort, and human government to take care of them, abandoning faith in God! They rejected God and rejected his sabbaths, which were to reveal a resting by faith in God for their sustaining.

Matthew also has a very important verse to shed light upon this area. He sets up three segments of fourteen generations from Abraham to Christ. Matt. 1:17 So all the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations; and from David until the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations; and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations. Therefore from the times of Israel’s first kings there were fourteen generations of trusting in man, until the next note worthy segment – the Babylonian bondage!

Jeremiah 17:5 Thus saith the LORD; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the LORD. 6 For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh; but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land and not inhabited. 7 Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is. 8 For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green; and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.

The Next 490 Years

And as that first Israelite set his foot outside the city limit sign of Babylon to start back to Israel, God started the clock ticking on the Seventy Weeks Determined (approx. 490 years) to bring in Messiah and the end of sins! Israel would suffer Babylonian bondage for 70 years. But mankind would suffer sin’s bondage for the next 70 weeks of years (Lev. 25:8) until the Lord Jesus Christ should come and,  once for all, should put away sins by the sacrifice of himself!

We read in our beginning verse that Daniel was instructed by Gabriel that the Lord Christ would come to finish the transgression! That word, “finish,” is the same word used in Genesis 8:2 concerning Noah’s flood waters. Verse one of this chapter states, God remembered Noah. And in verse two we read, The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; That Hebrew word translated, was restrained is the exact same Hebrew word translated, “finish” in Daniel 9:24! For just as not one more drop of rain fell, but their fall was completely restrained, so the Lord Jesus Christ would completely deal with sin on his cross and cry out, It is finished!

And God’s faucet doesn’t drip! Not another single drop of rain fell in that flood! And not one single sin from those for whom Christ died (of His elect church), is without atonement. Insomuch as God, the Father was completely satisfied for the first time with redeemed sinners! Isaiah 53:11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied:

We also read in out verse that Christ shall make reconciliation for iniquity! How precious! 2 Corinthians 5:18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Redemption completed allows not one sin to be held to the account of true believers! For Christ did such a perfect job that there is no longer any imputing of trespasses to them!

Pastor Gene Breed