(Through the Bible) Zechariah 13-14 — Chuck Smith

The Fountain Open for Sin and Uncleanness

And in that day, in that day, in that day, here it is again, in that day there shall be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and uncleanness. Reminded of that beautiful song, there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.

But the fountain will be open in Jerusalem as they recognize Jesus Christ as the Messiah and as the Lord. And they turn their hearts towards Him because the Spirit of God will open their eyes and the veil that has been covering their eyes will be taken away.

And they will recognize Jesus as Lord and the fountain for sin open to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And it shall come to pass in that day, in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land.

Idolatry and Sacred Relics

Now here's the prediction that of course, Israel would go back to idolatry and of course they do have today, uh, not little idols in, in the sense of carved out images, but, uh, they are extremely materialistic and they do have their shrines, the tomb of Rachel, the tomb of Abraham, the tomb of David and all, uh, even the Western wall has become sort of a, uh, a place of, uh, almost idolatry in the sense that, uh, they, they feel that they are closer to God in these particular places.

And they like to go to these places to feel close to God. They say, if you want to be close to God, go to, go to the place where a man of God exists and because God exists with that man. But that in a sense is the consciousness of idolatry because, uh, an idol is actually something to remind me of the presence of God.

When a person creates an idol, it is always indicative of the fact that he has lost that valuable consciousness of God's presence and somewhere deep inside he longs for that which he has lost. So he creates a reminder.

There's a place, oh, there's where I met God. And it's amazing the things that people can more or less make religious relics out of. I went to a church one time that had ugly platform furniture. I mean, it looked like it came from the Goodwill.

The overstuffed chairs were ripped and I mean, it was just, it was just ugly. It looked like nobody cared. And so I announced to the people my intentions, because I love to get in buildings. I announced my intention to remodel the platform.

We're going to get new furniture up here. We're going to get a new pulpit and all this, you know, I'm going to build a new pulpit. Oh, after service, a woman came up and she's absolutely livid. Brother Smith, you can't get rid of that pulpit.

Twenty years ago, this evangelist was here and he's the one that donated the pulpit and he preached the first sermon from that pulpit and he cried and the pulpit was stained with his tears. And oh, so many glorious sermons been preached from that pulpit.

You can't get rid of that pulpit. I said, it's ugly. Oh, but you can't get rid of it. And it was an ugly piece of furniture. So we bought the new platform chairs and I purchased some veneer plywood and I built a whole new pulpit around the old one, leaving the old one there.

But I, you know, just completely, it looked like a brand new pulpit, but still the old one was built into the thing on the inside. And she came to church, let out a gasp when she saw the new pulpit. I had desecrated the house of God.

And she was so angry. She was ready to leave the church. I said, oh no, no, come here. Let me show you something. And I took her behind here with the ugly old doors and everything else, you know, the ugliness was behind it.

The people couldn't see it anymore. And that satisfied her. The old pulpit, tear-stained pulpit was still there, you know. But that's tragic when people get attached to things. In the days of Hezekiah, the people had begun to worship the brass serpent that Moses had made in the wilderness.

It had become an idol and they'd begun to worship it. They were longing for the presence of God that their fathers had in the wilderness. They were longing to see the power of God that their fathers saw in the wilderness.

And they began to worship the relic. But Hezekiah broke the thing in pieces. And he said, Nahushtan, that's not a God, it's a thing of brass. Nahushtan, a thing of brass. He called it what it was. That pulpit's not a sacred relic.

It's an ugly piece of old furniture. Nothing sacred about a relic. Just because at a place the Spirit of God has moved in the hearts and lives of people doesn't make it a sacred place. God doesn't dwell in places.

God Dwells in His People

God dwells in the hearts and lives of His people. And we could move outside and worship the Lord outside and be just as close to God as we are inside. We're not any closer to God here than we are at home.

God does not dwell in buildings made with man's hands. The heavens of heavens cannot contain Him. But a person loses that consciousness of the presence of God. And somehow he is longing for that which he has lost.

And so he builds a relic. Or he takes a relic that reminds him of God's presence and he begins to worship near that. Or he begins to worship the relic itself. Even worse. But God said, I'm going to cut off all the idols and they shall no more be remembered.

And also I will cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to pass out of the land. That is the false prophets and the unclean spirit. And it will come to pass that when any shall yet prophesy, then his father and his mother that begat him will say to him, thou shalt not live for you are speaking lies in the name of the Lord.

And his father and mother that begat him shall thrust him through when he prophesies. And it shall come to pass in that day that the prophet shall be ashamed every one of his vision. And when he has prophesied, neither shall they wear the rough garments to deceive.

But he shall say, I am no prophet. I'm a husbandman. I'm a farmer for a man taught me to keep cattle from my youth. I'm a rancher. And one shall say unto him, now he leaves now the false prophets. And he comes now back to the one who was pierced.

And one shall say unto him, what are these wounds in your hands? Then he shall answer those which I was wounded in the house of my friends. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts.

Smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered and I will turn my hand to the little ones. Now, the problem and the question arises, does verse six fit with verse five or does it fit with verse seven?

The author of the living Bible, which is an interesting interpretation of the scripture, but an extremely poor translation. It's one man's interpretation. Dr. Taylor evidently feels that verse six fits with verse five.

I personally disagree with him. I believe that verse six fits with verse seven. But he gives a, what I consider almost blasphemous interpretation of verse six, you know, what are these wounds? All these I got when I was in a drunken brawl at my friend's house, but I believe that they are referenced to Jesus Christ again when the Israel recognizes him by the wounds in his hand and they say unto him, what are the meaning of these wounds?

And he will answer very softly, very tenderly, those which I was wounded in the house of my friends. Now, verse seven, we know refers to Jesus Christ because it was quoted in the New Testament when Jesus was arrested and all of the disciples forsook him and fled that the scripture might be fulfilled, which said smite the shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered.

The Refined Remnant and Jacob's Trouble

So, uh, that is used in the New Testament to refer to the fact that the disciples all fled at the arrest of Jesus. So we know that that one definitely refers to Jesus Christ and it is my personal opinion that six fits with seven and it shall come to pass in all the land, saith the Lord, that two parts therein shall be cut off and die, but the third part shall be left therein.

So again, the Jews are going to go through a great Holocaust in which two thirds of them will die. Only one third will come through. The Antichrist is going to make a covenant with the nation of Israel, but in after three and a half years, he's going to break the covenant as he comes to Jerusalem and declares that he is God and seeks to show that he has gotten demands to be worshiped as God and the faithful remnant at that time will flee to the wilderness and the Antichrist will then seek to destroy all of the Jews that remain in the land and two thirds of them will be destroyed.

One third shall escape and I will bring the third part through the fire and will refine them as silver is refined. That is, they are going to go through the fire of persecution once again in this last seven years.

This time is known in the scripture as the time of Jacob's trouble. We also call it the great tribulation and I will try them as gold is tried and they shall call on my name and I will hear them. I will say it is my people and they shall say Yahweh is my God.

So here those that remain, there will be again that glorious grafting back into the tree. The branch that had been cut off will be grafted back again. The unfaithful wife will be received and restored again as God washes her and cleanses her according to the prophecy of Hosea and brings her back unto himself.

Oh, love that will not let me go. Though I stray and turn my back and walk away yet God will not let me go in his love but he draws me back to himself and restores me into fellowship. Oh, how gracious and glorious is the God that we serve.

And Israel who has failed will be brought back again by God and joined to him after the refining process of the fire. Behold the day of the Lord comes and thy spoils shall be divided in the midst of thee for I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle and the city shall be taken and the houses rifled and the women ravished and half of the city shall go forth into captivity and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

Jerusalem, Armageddon, and the Return of Christ

Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations as when he fought in the day of battle. So the prediction of this coming day when Jerusalem will be destroyed. Actually, this will be by the Antichrist who will come to Jerusalem.

He will be heading up the a ten nation European Federation. He will come to Jerusalem. First of all, making a covenant deceiving the people being declared as the Messiah and then breaking the covenant after three and a half years demanding to be worshiped as God.

The Jews will rebel. He will take Jerusalem. He'll cut the people off and those who have followed the advice of Jesus and have fled to the wilderness will escape. But then the Lord is going to fight against the powers of the Antichrist and his feet.

The nations will be gathered all of the nations against Jerusalem be gathered together in the valley of Megiddo, the kingdom of the North Russia, the kingdoms of the East China joining together coming against the European Federation and the final great battle.

The Battle of Armageddon fought there in the valley of Megiddo and at that time the Lord shall come. His feet shall stand in that day on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east. And the Mount of Olives shall split in the middle toward the east and toward the west.

And there shall be a very great valley and half of the mountains shall remove towards the north and half of it towards the south. So a tremendous cataclysmic kind of a change will take place in the geography there around Jerusalem when Jesus comes puts his foot on the Mount of Olives and that whole thing is just going to split half towards the north half towards the south and this great new valley formed going down to the Red Sea.

Now as this split takes place the geological formations are changed a vast underground reservoir of water river underground river will spring forth from the area of the throne in Jerusalem. And this river will flow forth from Jerusalem going down this valley half of it will turn and go towards the Mediterranean Sea.

The other half will flow down to the Dead Sea and it will make that whole area along its banks extremely fertile. And when the waters come into the Dead Sea the Dead Sea will be healed. It will no longer be a Dead Sea but it will be healed and there will be multitudes of fish in the Dead Sea and it will become a great fishing resort.

And along the shores there and Getty they will dry their fish nets and all. And the whole scene geography will be changed as a result of this probably great earth we would call it an earthquake splits the Mount of Olives right in two.

And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Ezel. Yea ye shall flee like as you fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah the king of Judah.

And the Lord my God shall come and all of the saints with thee. Behold he cometh with ten thousands of his saints to execute judgment upon the earth. Paul the Apostle said and when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory.

The Church’s Return with Christ

Revelation chapter 19 and he saw Christ sitting upon the white horse and the armies that came with him on their white horses clothed in fine linen pure and clean. And we are told earlier who those people are clothed in the fine linen pure and clean.

They are the church the body of Christ and the pure linen is the righteousness of the saints which is of course that righteousness imputed to us by our faith in Jesus Christ. So the coming again of Jesus Christ with his church.

So the Lord is coming first of all for his church to snatch it out of the earth and then to bring to pass his judgment upon the earth and upon the inhabitants of the earth for their rejection of his plan of salvation.

We will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. We will be invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb blessed is he who is invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb and we with John will behold the events of the great tribulation from a grandstand view in heaven.

But then in chapter 19 when Jesus comes back to the earth to set his foot upon the Mount of Olives to stop the great battle of Armageddon. Then we will return to the earth with Jesus and we will then reign with him upon the earth for a thousand years as priest and as a kingdom of priest actually.

So there are those especially Jehovah's Witnesses also so misinterpret prophecy and they say all you believe that you're just going to go up in heaven and you know you're going to stay in heaven going to be in some cloud and filling on a harp you know and I want to be here on the earth and I want to you know help rebuild the world and so forth.

Well the Bible doesn't teach we're going to be forever in heaven. The Bible does teach we're going to be forever with the Lord and of course where he is it's heaven but when he comes down to the earth is going to be heaven on earth.

You're going to see the earth that God intended. You're going to see the kind of world that God intended that man should live in a world that is filled with righteousness and peace for the kingdom of God is not me to drink but righteousness peace and joy in the Holy Spirit and you'll see the world is God intended to be but will be forever with the Lord when the Lord is in heaven.

Hey we're his bride the bride goes with the groom. So while he's in heaven we'll be with him but we're not going to take a honeymoon down here and stay up there. We'll come back with him with his saints to reign over the earth and then when God establishes the new heaven in the new earth wherever however we'll be right there with him wherever he is there will we be with him forever with our Lord.

That's the promise and that's the hope of every child of God and I love it and I can hardly wait. Oh should we really sit and mourn and mope over those who have gone to be with the Lord already. No you want to sit and mope mope over yourself because you're still here but rejoice for them.

They've got a good head start on us and his feet will stand on the Mount of Olives the split and so forth and you shall flee to the valley and the Lord should come with all the saints verse six and it should come to pass in that day that the light shall not be clear nor dark.

In other words it'll be sort of a twilight zone not really clear not really dark sort of the twilight. You know I love the evening twilight it's almost my favorite time of the day but it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord not day nor night but it shall come to pass that at the evening time it will still be light.

So it's going to be a very interesting astronomical phenomena that will take place and just how God is planning to work it out I really don't know but it'll be interesting to find out. And it shall be in that day that these living waters that is they give life to the Dead Sea when they flow into it shall go out from Jerusalem half of them towards the former sea and half of them towards the hinder sea half towards Mediterranean half towards the Dead Sea and it will flow all year round and the Lord shall be king over all the earth in that day and there shall be one Lord and his name one.

The Kingdom Age and the Feast of Tabernacles

The glorious kingdom age he will be king over all the earth thy kingdom come thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven. Oh how we need to be praying this especially as we see the deterioration of the kingdoms of man in these days and all the land shall be turned as a plane from Giba to Rimman south of Jerusalem.

It shall be lifted up and the inhabitant in her place from Benjamin's gate to the place of the first gate to the corner gate and from the tower of Ananiel under the king's wife wine presses. He's talking about the extension of the city limits of Jerusalem and they've already extended beyond these places and men shall dwell in it and there should be no more utter destruction but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited.

And this is fascinating to me shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem. Those that have fought against Jerusalem God's going to fight against them and the plague will be their flesh shall consume away while they're standing on their feet their eyes shall consume away in their holes and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

I would encourage you to read accounts of the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and you find that these are the things that happen. These are the results of a nuclear holocaust. A nuclear bomb and the Lord significantly prophesies that this is the way the people will perish their flesh consuming away upon their bodies while they're standing there.

In Nagasaki the eye sockets melting the eyeballs melting and rolling down the cheeks. The eyes consume in their holes their tongue consume in their mouth. And it shall come to pass in that day that a great tumult from the Lord shall be among them and they shall lay hold everyone the hand of his neighbor and the hand shall rise up and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbor.

And Judah also shall fight at Jerusalem and the wealth of all of the heathen roundabouts shall be gathered together gold and silver apparel in great abundance and so shall be the plague of the horse the mule the camel the ass and all of the beast and that shall be in these tents as this plague.

And it shall come to pass after this great horrible battle of Armageddon that everyone that is left of all of the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship those that are left not many will survive but those that will go up from year to year to Jerusalem to worship the king the Lord of hosts and to keep the feast of the tabernacles the feast of the tabernacles was commemorative of God's preservation through the long 40 year experience in the wilderness and bringing them into the promised land.

We will be keeping the feast of the tabernacles in the kingdom age for God brought us through the long wilderness but God will preserve us. God will keep us. We survive from the living water out of the rock Christ Jesus.

And it shall be that who so will not come up of all of the families of the earth to Jerusalem to worship the king the Lord of hosts even upon them shall be no rain. So you don't want to come all right and I get any rain on your crops.

If the family of Egypt go not up and comes not they'll have no rain and there shall be the plague where with the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of the tabernacles and this shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all the nations that come not to keep the feast of the tabernacles and in that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses holiness under the Lord.

Holiness to the Lord in the Kingdom

I mean bumper stickers everywhere glorious day glorious day beautiful graffiti. We have a Calvary Chapel in San Pedro which is in a very rough area of town over there. They used to have their building constantly painted with graffiti and they were constantly have to repaint the thing because all the dirty words and all that were painted on the sides of the building.

So the pastor finally went out for the blacks break in. After he had painted the building put his own graffiti on painted on it. Jesus loves you and and all kinds of things like this on the side of his own building painted it with this graffiti and he's not been problem since.

In that day on the bells of the horses holiness under the Lord and in the pots of the Lord's house shall be like the bulls before the altar. Every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts and all they that sacrifice will come and take of them and see therein and in that day there should be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.

Transition to Malachi and the New Testament

So the glorious day of the kingdom age. A lot could be said our time is run out but. Some night we will spend some time talking about our place in that kingdom age during the thousand year reign. What people will be on the earth.

What kind of a control we will exercise over these people. The makeup of the population and so forth at that time and we'll go into that some night when we have more time next week Malachi. The last of the Old Testament fascinating prophecy the last word of God before the Messiah.

After Malachi the silence the silent years until the voice crying in the wilderness make way the path of the Lord make straight his path John the Baptist. But we get into Malachi and then the following week moving into the New Testament.

May the Lord bless you. May the Lord give you a beautiful week a fellowship with him as you walk with the Lord in the light of his word. May he just spread his glory on your way and may you just experience more and more the love of God and the grace of God is his spirit works in your heart the spirit of grace and supplications.

God bless you and keep you in the name of Jesus Christ.