Our text this morning is Zechariah 13, but the message is a continuation from Zechariah chapter 12. And I want you to see that before we start reading it. Last week we saw in Zechariah 12, God's plan to intervene in human history through sending his son Jesus. And as history comes to an end, Zachariah told us that the Lord will bring all nations against Jerusalem. He will graciously grant victory to his people. He'll establish salvation among the Jewish people when they look with saving faith on the Lord Jesus whom they crucified. So look back at chapter 12, verse 10 for a moment, and I want you to see a statement there. It says, I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplication. Then they will look on me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn for him as one mourns for his only son and grieve for him as one grieves for his firstborn. You can see there, how this is God's plan of salvation to be poured out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And now opening chapter 13, the plan to pour out salvation on them is described as opening a cleansing fountain to the same people. Chapter 13, in that day, A fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for uncleanness. It shall be in that day, says the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land and they shall no longer be remembered. I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the land. And it shall come to pass that if anyone still prophesies, that his father and mother who begot him will say to him, you shall not live because you have spoken lies in the name of the Lord. And his father and mother who begot him shall thrust him through when he prophesies. And it shall be in that day that every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies. They will not wear a robe of coarse hair to deceive, but he will say, I am no prophet, I'm a farmer, for a man taught me to keep cattle from my youth. And one will say to him, what are these wounds between your arms? Then he will answer, those which I was wounded in the house of my friends. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is my companion, says the Lord of hosts. Strike the shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. Then I will turn my hand against the little ones, and it shall come to pass in all the land, says the Lord, that two-thirds in it shall be cut off and die, and one third shall be left in it. I will bring the one third through the fire, will refine them as silver is refined, and test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will answer them. I will say, this is my people, and each one will say, the Lord is my God. In the late 1700s in England, there was a man named William Cowper. Cowper's family would have been considered essentially upper middle class. He was well provided for in his youth. He was well educated. He thought of himself as a bit of a poet. He was established by his family into the banking industry in London and actually advanced to the position where he would be one of the head clerks in parliaments. Yet for his whole life, he considered himself literally damned, beyond hope, wracked with guilt and paralyzed with depression. After his third attempt at suicide, Cowper was admitted to St. Alban's Asylum for the Insane. He remained in that asylum for just under two years. It was during this time that Cowper met two separate men whom the Lord would use to great effect in his life. The first was a man named Nathaniel Cotton. He was an old doctor at the asylum who took pity on Cowper, witnessed to him, led him to faith, in the Lord Jesus. And when he was released from the asylum, Calper soon met the second man, the pastor of a church named John Newton. Now you know John Newton because he's the man who wrote the song Amazing Grace. Newton took Calper under his wing. He encouraged him to use his talent for poetry to glorify God. The two of them set together on the task of writing a new hymn book for their church. And it was while reflecting on Zechariah chapter 13 that Calper wrote the words that you just sang. There is a fountain filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. E'er since by faith I saw that stream, thy flowing wounds supply, redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die. Back in Zechariah 12, The Lord God promised to restore and save His people in the nation of Israel. They will be saved when they mourn their rebellion and sin. They see the crucified Lord Jesus as their Savior. Zechariah 13 continues that story. What is it exactly that they come to understand? Very simply, they come to grips with the truth about Jesus, their Messiah, and they will embrace that truth. They will embrace it in chapter 13 so fully that they will passionately reject idolatry and false teaching. They will look on the crucified and resurrected Messiah King Jesus and realize this simple truth that Zechariah 13 teaches. God cleanses his sheep through the death of his shepherd. God cleanses his sheep through the death of his shepherd. This morning we're gonna look at the way Zechariah presents this chapter in three phases. There is the source of cleansing in verse one. And then verses two through six, the signs of cleansing. And then in verse seven through nine, the sword of cleansing. The source of cleansing, verse one, is in that day a fountain shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness. Zachariah begins to describe this day of salvation from the Lord. He uses a metaphor that is used widely throughout the Old Testament of a fountain. Psalm 36 verse 9 says of God, for with you is the fountain of life. Jeremiah described the disobedience of the people as being guilty of two great sins. First was rejecting and forsaking the fountain of living water that comes from the Lord God. And the second sin was digging out for themselves empty and broken cisterns that cannot hold water. The prophet Ezekiel recorded the promise of God to cleanse his people from their sins by pouring out water on them and giving them a new heart and a new spirit in Ezekiel 36. In the New Testament, Jesus, in John chapter four, Jesus sits tired and alone at the side of a well in Samaria. And when a sinful Samaritan woman comes to draw the stagnant water out of that ancient well, Jesus told her, if you knew who was talking to you, you would have asked him and you would receive a fountain of living water gushing up into everlasting life. For Zachariah, he picks up this theme of a cleansing, life-giving fountain, and tells us in these chapters that this fountain does not cleanse a single sinner until they see their own guilty hands and their need for salvation. Remember back in chapter 12, verse 10, the people saw the Messiah for who he is, and they mourned, they mourned for his death at their own hands. They grieve over their sin and their rejection of their Savior. And now in Zechariah 13, that guilt is washed away by a cleansing fountain opened by God. Verse 1 says that fountain is for sin and for uncleanness. So really, you have to understand Zechariah 12.10 and Zechariah 13.1 together. When you combine those two verses together, you understand that the idea is that the Lord God is going to pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Holy Spirit, which leads them to contrition, it leads them to supplication, appealing for mercy, because it convicts them of their sins. They will look on Yahweh himself, whom they've pierced, and they will mourn, they will grieve. And in response, in that day, a fountain of cleansing is opened to wash away their sin and uncleanness. That promise here in verse one of a source of cleansing, a fountain opens to wash away sin and uncleanness, tells us that the greatest stains of guilt are washed clean by the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. even, according to Zechariah, the guilty stains of being responsible for the death of Jesus the Messiah, right? This is what they were mourning over, and then that death of Jesus the Messiah actually provides them the fountain of cleansing to wash away their guilt. After the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, the disciples, find themselves going through the streets of Jerusalem on Pentecost proclaiming this saving cleansing is available to all. They would condemn the people, right? They would not be shy about saying that the people themselves are guilty of the first degree murder of the second person of the Godhead, right? God has made Jesus, whom you crucified. both Lord and Christ, and yet repentance of sin and faith in Jesus as master and Messiah assure a cleansing from the greatest guilt. That fountain is available for us today as well. First John 1.9 says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Zechariah 13.1 here speaks of the source of cleansing. There are signs of cleansing in verses two through six. When the people, specifically the Jewish people in this text, repent of their sin and embrace faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, that cleansing is gonna be accompanied by some signs. They will not only embrace the truth of Jesus, they will passionately reject the falsehood and lies told about him. Look at verses two through six with me again. It shall be in that day, says the Lord of hosts. that I will cut off the names of the idols from the land and they shall no longer be remembered. I will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the land. It shall come to pass if anyone still prophesies, then his father and mother who begot him will say to him, you shall not live because you have spoken lies in the name of the Lord. And his father and mother who begot him shall thrust him through when he prophesies. And it shall be in that day that every prophet will be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies. They will not wear a robe of coarse hair to deceive, but he will say, I am no prophet, I am a farmer. For a man taught me to keep cattle from my youth. And one will say to him, what are these wounds between your arms? Then he will answer, those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends. When the people are cleansed from sin, the signs of that cleansing include separation from sin. That's what verses two through six are all about. First, when they're cleansed from sin, they will abandon their idols. The sin of idolatry in its most blatant form is worshiping man-made creatures, man-made idols, statues, images, as if those things were real, as if they had power, as if they were gods. But along with that, the commandment to not make any graven images also forbids worshiping the true God through making any images that supposedly represent him. These two sins, creating some false god through an idol or creating some image or idol and saying, well, this is the true God, are equally condemning. One denies the true God and says that some fictional deity like Baal or Molech or any of hundreds others is a God. The other denies the truth of God, pretending that you can reduce the creator God to some image, to some statue. There's an excellent book called Knowing God from a man named J.I. Packer, and he says this, quote, it needs to be said with the greatest possible emphasis that those who hold themselves free to think of God as they like are breaking the second commandment. In other words, when people say, I don't like to think of God as a judge. I like to think of him as my loving father. They are guilty of idolatry because they are making God into their own image. We aren't free to pick and choose which aspects of God's attributes we like. We must submit to the revelation that God has given of himself and his word and any deviation from that is idolatry. God says here that he's going to cut off the names of the idols from the land in verse two. That's significant because in ancient cultures the name represents a character or essence or the reputation of a person to erase an idol's names means that God is gonna utterly destroy their credibility in the minds of the people and hence it goes on to say they will no longer be remembered. They won't even be thought of. So the first sign of cleansing is the removal of false idols. The second sign of cleansing is the removal of false prophets. Listen to me carefully here. The truth comes from God alone through the Holy Spirit of God and it is found in the infallible Word of God. And just like all truth comes from God alone, untruth, falsehoods have a source of their own, and it is a demonic source. Look at the end of verse two. It says, I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the lands, to banish the falsehoods and lies God promises to remove, the false prophets and the demonic influence that promotes their falsehoods. Remember both verses 1 and 2 tell us this is futuristic of in that day, right in the last times. Revelation, if you remember, graphically pictures the falsehood and lies that are perpetrated in the last days as having a satanic source. Revelation 16 verses 13 and 14 says, I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon. out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet for they are spirits of demons performing signs which go out to the kings of the earth and to the whole world to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty. We live in a time where even Christians attempt to downplay the importance of truth and of sound doctrine. We hear things like, well, you know, doctrine divides. What we believe is less important than what we do. And that sounds great. But it is contrary to what God says. Just ask yourself this, how seriously does God take false teaching? Well, the people in verse three will embrace the law of Moses and putting God's word into practice. They are willing to turn out their own family for speaking lies in the name of Yahweh. In fact, I won't read it for you this morning, but you can make a note of Deuteronomy 13 verses 5 through 11 and go and read it for yourselves. Moses essentially tells the people, if your brother, if your son, if your daughter, if your wife, if your friend who is like your own soul, secretly entices you to turn away from Yahweh and serve other gods. Do not consent to them, don't listen to them, don't pity them, don't hide it, don't keep it secret. Instead, your hand shall be first against him to put him to death. Now relax, since we're not Old Testament Israel, we're not going to have any putting people to death ceremonies this morning. It's not the letter of the law for us to follow. Titus 1.9 says that when we encounter this, we're to hold fast to the faithful word so that with sound doctrine we can exhort and convict those who contradict it. But it is for us to understand that God takes false teaching seriously. He does not tolerate false teaching. Lies come from a satanic source. Verses three through six tell us that when Israel is saved, at this time in the future when Israel comes to faith in Jesus, they will apparently embrace the law of Moses and begin to institute this death penalty for those who persist in false teaching. Now there seems to be an opportunity for those false teachers to stop, right, to turn away from promoting their lies. Verse three says, if anyone still prophesize, the idea being that they prophesy more, that they prophesy again, that they'll be turned out for execution. Verse four says that they will stop wearing robes of coarse hair to deceive. So like the Old Testament prophets, Elijah and Elisha, or in the New Testament, John the Baptist, who wore that coarse camel hair. Apparently these false prophets had been dressing the part. But the day is coming when they'll be ashamed of their lies. In fact, Micah chapter three verse seven says, the seers shall be ashamed, the diviners abashed. Indeed, they shall all cover their lips for there is no answer from God. In verse five, the description is that they'll deny that they ever claimed to be prophets. They echo the words of Amos, the true prophet of God. When they are accused of being false prophets, they'll say, well, I'm not a prophet, I'm a farmer. I've always been a farmer. That's what I was taught to do when I was a kid. In verse six, Y'all, I've heard verse six just taken by itself as if it pointed to the Lord Jesus. The idea that the wounds in Jesus's hands were wounds that he received in the house of his friends. And while Jesus did receive wounds when he should have been among friends, I think the context of verses two through six make it clear that that's not what's pictured here. What do you think about in 1 Kings chapter 18 when Elijah challenged the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel? They tried and tried and prayed and prayed, appealing to Baal, that false idol, to answer them. And it even says that they cried loudly and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lancets until the gud gushed out of them. The idea was that they were screaming and appealing and cutting themselves. as an appeal to the false idol. That sort of ecstatic self-mutilation was common among the false prophets. I think verse six describes a time where people are so appalled by false prophets that one of those false prophets is seen with the scars of that self-mutilation on their arms and they're challenged because it exposes them for what they were. And so they are asked, what are these wounds between your arms? And their answer is to answer with more falsehoods. No, no, no. I'm not a false prophet. That's not where those came from. It's when I was horsing around in a friend's house. Verse two through six describes a complete separation from sin, from false idols, from false prophets. The signs of cleansing that come through faith in Jesus are evident. The people embrace truth and the liars are the ones who are ashamed of themselves. Starting at verse seven, you'll see the sword of cleansing. Awake. O sword against my shepherd, against the man who is my companion, says the Lord of hosts. Strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter. Then I will turn my hand against the little ones. Let's be clear about this. Verse seven is about the Lord Jesus. He called himself the good shepherd. He said his sheep will hear his voice. A good shepherd, he says, will give his life for his sheep. When the Lord Jesus completed that final Passover celebration, he instituted the Lord's Supper, he sent Judas out in order to do his wicked work of betraying the Son of God. When all that was accomplished, he spoke this word of warning and hope. to his disciples just before he was arrested. In Matthew 26, verses 30 through 32, this is what he says. It says, they sang a hymn and went out to the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus said to them, all of you will be made to stumble because of me this night, for it is written, I will strike the shepherd and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. But after I have been raised, I will go before you into Galilee. Jesus quotes Zechariah 13 verse 7 and says that it's about him. And so it is about him. That does not mean that everyone accepts it or that everyone accepts it without argument. There are some who want to argue. When you look at verse seven, this can't be about Jesus because Jesus died by being crucified. And here it speaks of a sword. It says that the shepherd will be put to the sword. And certainly that is what it says. We have to understand the prophets use symbolic language sometimes. The sword here is symbolic of violence, of death, of wrath. Listen, we understand that in other texts. For example, Jeremiah speaks. of the people talking to the sword of the Lord, Jeremiah 47 verse 6, Obviously, they thought the sword of the Lord is a metaphorical way of describing God's wrath and judgment. Now, is that what Zechariah intends here in verse 7? Yes, I think it is. This is obviously a symbolic sword. Look at verse seven. If this was saying that the Lord Jesus had to literally be put to death with a sword, if it was a literal sword, you would never start this by talking to the sword and telling it to wake up. Now if you want to debate that, I'll be glad to find an actual sword and we can set aside some time for you to come and scream at it until it does what it is that you want it to do. But until then, I'm gonna stick with verse seven describing God, speaking about the weapon of his wrath and judgment being brought to bear. And what is it brought against in verse seven? Against my shepherd. In fact, just listen to verse seven and sense the tension that it contains, that the Lord of hosts, Yahweh, the God of armies, is awakening his sword of wrath to execute judgment against, it says, my shepherd against the man who is my companion. Settle in there for a moment. The sword of God's wrath and judgment is awakened in order to strike the shepherd. But he's my shepherd, Yahweh says. That is, the sword of wrath is brought against the very individual who is responsible for the safety and well-being of God's sheep, of God's people. And this shepherd, it says, is my companion. The word describes there in verse seven, the close associate or an equal. It's translated in other versions as my fellow, my associate, the man who stands beside me. Now that this shepherd being talked about as a man is clear, as Yahweh calls him, the man who is my companion. But there is no mere mortal man who could ever be described truthfully with this word companion by God. One well-known theologian, C.F. Kyle, rightly said that God would not assign this title to any godly or ungodly man who he might appoint shepherd over his nation, right? There must be a man being talked about here, but more than a man, because this man is equal with God. The Good Shepherd sermon in John chapter 10 seems to exist as a commentary on this chapter of Zechariah. In fact, just turn to John chapter 10. I want you to turn there, we'll look at it. We'll close soon. I don't want to turn there and try to preach all of John chapter 10, but it contains the promise that Jesus is the true shepherd because he's the door of the sheep. He's the good shepherd. He describes himself. So in verse seven and eight of John chapter 10, Jesus calls himself the door of the sheep and says, all whoever came before me are thieves and robbers. In verse 11, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep, right? He's going to be smitten by that sword of God's wrath in their place. Does that mean that the father is disappointed in him? No, he is a companion. He is equal with the father. Verse 15, as the father knows me, even so I know the father and I lay down my life for the sheep. And the people hear this message and they struggle with it, right? Is this Jesus, is he the real deal? Can he really be the good shepherd or is he some false prophet who's peddling demonic lies? And so in verse 20, many of them said he has a demon and he's mad. Why do you listen to him? Others said these are not the words of one who has a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? And they won't leave it alone as they, As they struggle with this, they follow Jesus to the temple and they accost Him in the temple courtyard. And so Jesus says, look at verse 27. My sheep, hear my voice. and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my Father's hand. I and my Father are one. Here in the person of Jesus, The shepherd of Zacharias prophecy has come and he's gonna go to the cross. He's gonna give his life for the sheep. He's gonna be smitten by the sword of God's wrath and yet he is also the companion. He is the partner. He is the equal of God. I and my father are one, he says. What's the people's reaction to this statement when he says, I and my father are one? Did they understand what Jesus meant by that? Absolutely they did. Verse 31, they took up stones in order to murder him because in verse 33, you being a man, make yourself God. Yep, that's exactly what he's doing. That's exactly what Zachariah had promised. They pick up stones to kill him when they should have fallen to their faces and worship him. Zachariah tells us that someday the Jewish people will worship Messiah Jesus as their shepherd savior. And even we have the opportunity to repent of sins and turn by faith and be saved through the work of Jesus as the good shepherd. Through the person and work of Jesus, God has opened a fountain of cleansing. Zechariah 13 tells us that the blood of Jesus is that cleansing fountain because God cleanses his sheep through the death of his shepherd.