The Cleansing of Israel (A)

John MacArthur: But God isn't through with His vineyard, if you will. God isn't through with His olive grove. God is not through with Israel. God is a God of forgiveness, and that's what I want you to get. God is going to forgive Israel, and God is going to cleanse Israel, and God is going to restore Israel to the place of blessing.
Phil Johnson: Welcome to Grace to You Weekend with the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. I'm your host, Phil Johnson. A great preacher once said, “There is as much joy in the heart of God when He forgives as there is in the heart of the sinner when he is forgiven.” Now, is that how you see God? Do you see God as a Father who is willing, even eager, to forgive His children, or do you assume God is a stern judge who might forgive, but only reluctantly? Consider that today, as John MacArthur shows you a picture of God's character from an Old Testament prophecy about the future of Israel. Today's lesson is part of John's current study titled The Return and Reign of Jesus Christ. But before the lesson, I have a letter here from a listener who wanted to let us know how God is using Grace to You in her life. Here's what Wendy told us. She writes:
Phil Johnson: “I grew up in a Christian family, and I always thought I was a Christian, but I didn't understand the Bible, and I created my own version of God that I felt comfortable with. At the age of 21, I read a book that convinced me that the Bible is actually God's Word and not influenced by men. For the first time, I realized I had it all wrong, and I started to read the Bible. But who could help me understand what I was reading? “About a year later, I stumbled upon John MacArthur's sermons on YouTube, and I was hooked. John taught me how to study the Bible and how to apply it to my daily life. I still read my MacArthur Study Bible daily. Little did I know that God was preparing me for a much more difficult time in my life. Due to several chronic illnesses, I currently live in pain every day, and I'm almost homebound at the age of 26. But I'm also really thankful that I have faith that gives me hope no matter my circumstances. And my faith is based on unshakeable truth, thanks to John MacArthur's teachings.” She signs it, “Wendy.”
Phil Johnson: Well, Wendy, we're grateful for how God has worked through Grace to You to strengthen you in these very difficult circumstances. Thank you for sharing your story. And friend, this kind of life-transforming ministry is made possible because of the support of listeners like you. To help put sound biblical teaching in the hands of people like Wendy around the world, consider partnering with us. I'll give you more details on how to do that before we end today. But right now, let's get to the lesson, to continue his study called The Return and Reign of Jesus Christ, here is John MacArthur.
John MacArthur: God has in mind a wonderful day coming for Israel. Zechariah calls it the cleansing of Israel. In chapter 13 and verse 1, he says, “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.” Zechariah predicts a day when Israel is going to be cleansed of sin and uncleanness. This is God's plan for His people Israel. Now, I want to back up from that future day to the past a little bit. And I'd like to have you look with me to the fifth chapter of Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 5, the great prophecy of the man of God, Isaiah. Now here the Lord is referring to the people Israel under the terminology of a vineyard. Verse 1, “Now will I sing to my well beloved, a song of my beloved, touching his vineyard.” My well beloved, who is God, has a vineyard, who is Israel, in a very fertile hill, which obviously are fruitful hills, which obviously would have reference to Canaan. God is the well beloved, who has a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. And he dug it, and he gathered out the stones, and he planted it with a choicest vine, and he built a tower in the midst of it, and also made a winepress in it, and he looked for it to bring forth grapes, and it brought forth wild grapes. God had a design for His people. He made the place for them, He cleaned it out, He prepared it, He planted them, the object of His love, and He waited for them to produce the grapes that He desired, and instead they were wild grapes, foreign to His plan. Foreign as it were to the seeds He planted. Verse 3 says, “And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem, and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, between Me and My vineyard.” When the vineyard brought forth wild grapes, the vineyard became the object of judgment. And God is about to move on His own vineyard. “What could have been done more to My vineyard that I have not done in it? Why, when I looked for it to bring forth grapes, brought it forth wild grapes? And now I will tell you what I will do to My vineyard. I will take away its hedge,” that is its protection. “It shall be eaten up. I'll break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down. And I will lay it waste. It shall not be pruned nor digged, but there shall come up briers and thorns. I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it. For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah His pleasant plant, and He looked for justice, but behold oppression; He looked for righteousness, but behold a cry.” Now, God says I made a vineyard, and I planted it, and I expected it to respond to that in a way that it was reasonable to respond, and instead it rebelled, and it brought forth wild grapes, and thus I will judge it. I will tear down its hedge and its wall, and its protection is gone. I will lay it waste. It will neither be pruned nor digged, it won't be cared for, briers and thorns will come up, the clouds will no longer rain rain upon it. God is here speaking of judgment upon Israel. And the reason God is judging Israel is because of Israel's unbelief and Israel's rebellion. You say, “Well, in Isaiah chapter 5, God really was upset with His vineyard, and He just said, ‘That's it.’ And He laid it waste.” That's right. Doesn't this indicate to us that God is really finished? That God, as far as Israel is concerned as a vineyard, is done with them? Look at Romans chapter 11. In Romans chapter 11, he's saying the church is like a grafted-in branch in a wild olive tree, from a wild olive tree. But in verse 24, he says to the Gentile church, “For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature and grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree,” in other words, the church was literally grafted into the place of blessing, the covenant place, place of salvation, “How much more shall these who are the natural branches?” And who would that be? Israel, “be grafted into their own olive tree?” A time is coming when God's going to put that that natural branch right back in. God's going to replant that vineyard. God's going to restore that vineyard. Verse 26 says, “So all Israel shall be saved.” So God isn't through with His vineyard, if you will. God isn't through with His olive grove. God is not through with Israel. God is a God of forgiveness, and that's what I want you to get. Even though Isaiah was so firm about God's attitude, and even though Jesus was so firm about it, God is a God of forgiveness, and God is going to forgive Israel, and God is going to cleanse Israel, and God is going to restore Israel to the place of blessing. One of the great preachers in American history was a man by the name of Henry Ward Beecher. Henry Ward Beecher characterized God's forgiveness with these words. Let me read them to you. “Let me go and saw off a branch from one of the trees that is now budding in my garden, and all summer long there will be an ugly scar where the gash has been made. But by next autumn it will be perfectly covered over by the growth. And by the following autumn it will be hidden out of sight. And in ten or twenty years you would never suspect that there had been an amputation at all. Now, trees know how to overgrow their injuries and hide them, and love does not wait so long as trees do. It knows how to throw out all divine and beneficent juices, as it were, and hide from sight the wrongs done.” And God says He forgives in the same way. He will never again make mention, as He declares in Ezekiel, to His people of their sins. He will never taunt them with them. End quote. God in the wonderful love and grace that He sheds on Israel will overgrow the scars. And when God restores Israel, it will be as if God never ever broke the branch off, as if God never laid waste to the vineyard. No wonder the prophet Micah in the seventh chapter and the 18th verse said this, “Who is a God like unto thee, who pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger forever, because He delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, He will have compassion on us. He will subdue our iniquities, and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.” No wonder Micah said, “Who is a pardoning God like unto thee?” All that Israel did in the past, or the prophets, as Isaiah stated it, all that they did to God's laws and commandments, all that they did in the life of Jesus Christ to the very Son, is going to be forgiven because God is a God of forgiveness, a God who wipes out scars. That's the nature of God's grace. You know, the whole Old Testament talks about God's forgiveness again and again. The whole sacrificial system is predicated on a forgiving God. In Psalm, I think it's 103:12. I could be wrong, let me see. Yes. “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” I love this. “As a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him, for He knows our frame, He remembers that we are dust.” And you can't expect a whole lot out of dust. You got to give a little. So God is a God of forgiveness. In Jeremiah, the wonderful chapter of the New Covenant is 31. And in Jeremiah 31:34, it says, “And know the Lord, for they shall all know Me from the least of them to the greatest,” saith the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity,” then this great statement, “and I will remember their sin no more.” God forgets. He removes it as far as the east is from the west. In Acts chapter 3, verse 19, Peter says, “Repent therefore,” and I love this, “and be converted, that your sins may be,” what? “blotted out.” Blotted out. Totally removed. So God is a God of forgiveness. God forgets, He blots out, He throws in the depth of the sea, He removes as far as the east is from the west. And it doesn't really matter what Israel has done in the past. It doesn't really matter even what they did in the time of Jesus Christ ultimately. I say it doesn't matter, I don't mean that in a total sense. I mean it doesn't affect His nature. It lays nothing to bear on His nature that would change Him. And no matter what they have done, He is still a God of forgiveness, and He will come to them in forgiveness. And that is the message of Zechariah chapter 13. God is a God of forgiveness. And that forgiveness is promised in the 13th chapter. That cleansing is promised to Israel. Now, as we come to the 13th chapter, Zechariah, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, outlines for us the elements of this cleansing. There are six. Israel is going to be cleansed, and there are six elements to this cleansing. There are six elements, and we'll see them as we go. Let's just begin with the first one. First of all, Israel will be cleansed from the defilement of sin. From the defilement of sin. Verse 1, “In that day,” in that day means the Day of the Lord, and it also means the day when Israel repents, “there will be a fountain opened to the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.” Now, those two terms are used to show the totality of this cleansing. The house of David speaks of the royalty, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem speak of the laity, as it were. So common person and royal person alike will enter into this cleansing. And this fountain will be opened to them for sin and for uncleanness. In other words, this cleansing will be a cleansing from the defilement of sin. Frankly, this is the supreme need of the Jew, and I would add it is the supreme need of the Gentile, to be cleansed from defilement. The Bible says that every man is a sinner, that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. That no one escapes. “There is none righteous, no, not one,” said the apostle Paul. We are sinners, and cleansing and regeneration is needed. Particularly in relation to Israel, Zechariah is is speaking here. Israel has been defiled for many reasons. Number one, because of historic disobedience to the law of God. Number two, because of an outright wholesale rejection of Jesus Christ as the Messiah. These things have brought about the defilement of the people of Israel. And they are guilty, and they are kept from salvation by these rejections and by continual hardness of heart and continual unbelief. In Romans 10:3, the apostle Paul says, “For they being ignorant of the righteousness of God, go about to establish their own righteousness.” They are self-righteous, they are trying to to establish their own righteousness, Paul says, and have not submitted to the righteousness of God. They have authored a system of works, rather than the system of faith and grace that God authored. And in this state of rejection, unbelief, hardness of heart, Israel is guilty before God of sin. And of course, the greatest sin of all is to reject Christ, and they have done that. But what happens in that day is wonderful, look at it. “In that day, a fountain.” `Maqor` in Hebrew, it it means, it comes from a root verb which means to dig out. It could be a well, or a spring, or a fountain. And that's just what it means. A gushing fountain. Jeremiah 2:13 and Jeremiah 17:13 use the very same Hebrew word, and they talk about “the fountain of living waters,” gushing out, that's the idea. Psalm 36:9 uses it and says, “For with Thee is the fountain of life.” It speaks of something just gushing out of a source. Now here it is not used as the source of life or the source of refreshment as in those other texts, but as a means of cleansing and purification. Now, notice the word `opened` there. The word `opened` in the Hebrew has with it the idea of continuance. Continuous, permanent opening. This thing, once it's opened, will be perennial. And it will be available as a source of perennial purification. Beloved, whenever God opens the fountain of cleansing, it's perennial. Now, frankly, the fountain of cleansing was opened at Calvary. Is that right? On the cross of Calvary the fountain was opened. And it's been purifying souls ever since. And yet Israel has never been able to enter the purification because of their unbelief and hardness of heart. But the fountain has been opened for a long time to the whole world. But it won't be opened, as He says here, to Israel with a perennial cleansing until Israel comes in repentance. But I want to speak to you on this idea of the opening being a perennial thing. Once the fountain was opened at Calvary, John says this, “And the blood,” 1 John 1, “and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, keeps on,” what? “cleansing us.” It's perennial. The fountain was opened at Calvary, and the flow is perennial. As long as there is sin, there's cleansing for the one who believes. And someday that perennial fountain will be open for Israel, for the house of David, and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And when they come in repentance, and that fountain opens on a national basis to them, notice the end of verse 1, “It'll be for sin and uncleanness.” The word `sin` is significant. It means in the Hebrew `to miss the mark`, `hata'th`, to miss the mark, to go in the wrong way. It was used in reference to sin against men and sin against God, a very common Old Testament word. But its root idea is you went wrong. You went the wrong way, down the wrong path, the path of disobedience, the path of indifference, the path of rebellion. It has to do then with what a person does, going away from God, behaving in a manner inconsistent with God's pattern. The second word `uncleanness` is a word that means something that is to be shunned, or something you are to flee from. The word is used, for example, with any kind of ceremonial impurity in the book of Leviticus. And it has to do with those things that would ceremonially defile somebody, like a dead body. So it has to do with defilement, something to be shunned, something that would bring defilement. And so, the point is this: Israel will be cleansed of its own moral defilement and of its tendency to behave and go in the wrong direction. So this is twofold. Israel's cleansing will have to do with what it is and what it does, you see. Because that's how sin manifests itself. It is a matter of what we are and consequently, it is a matter of what we do. And so this will come as a cleansing from the defilement of sin. And this is the thing that everybody needs. I thank God that there are some who've already entered into the fountain that was opened at Calvary, some Jews, Jewish Christians. You're part of the remnant of this day. And you've entered into the fountain that yet has to be opened for the nation when the nation repents, when Jesus returns. But all of us need this cleansing, because all of us are defiled. We all have that moral defilement in our nature, and we all walk in a way that is wrong, away from God. Solomon said, when he dedicated the temple, he stood up and he said in 1 Kings 8:46, “There is no man that doesn't sin.” And that's true. And if it's true, then there is no man who doesn't need cleansing. David, the Psalm singer of Israel, said in Psalm 14, “The Lord looked down from heaven on the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are all together become filthy, there is not that doeth good, no, not one.” And Paul reiterated that text in Romans 3. You say, “Well, how do you get into the cleansing?” By faith, by looking at the one who was pierced, just like 12:10 says, by looking at one who was pierced for you on the cross, and one who came out the other side of the grave and did it for you, bore your sin, and believing in Him and receiving Him as Savior. And His cleansing is applied to you. In that future day, Israel is going to experience that as a nation. They're going to come back into the place of covenant relationship with God. Only the blood of Christ can cleanse in that way. It's the only fountain that can do it. In Hebrews 9:13 it says, “If the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of an heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctifies to the purifying of the flesh, 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?” The blood of Christ can purge.
Phil Johnson: You're listening to Grace to You Weekend, the Bible teaching ministry of John MacArthur. John's current study is titled The Return and Reign of Jesus Christ. Well, friend, as I mentioned before the lesson, we are able to bring verse-by-verse Bible teaching to people all over the world because of the support of listeners like you. So if you'd like to partner with us in this strategic mission, express your support when you contact us today. You can send your gift by mail to Grace to You Weekend, Box 4000, Panorama City, California, 91412. You can also make a one-time donation or set up a convenient recurring donation when you visit gty.org, or when you call 800-55-GRACE. Again, that's 800-55-GRACE. Also, keep in mind, there are a wide range of free Bible study tools available at our website, gty.org. You can download over 3,600 sermons, you can listen to Q&A's with John, you can read the Grace to You blog. You can also download the Grace to You app that gives you access to all of John's entire sermon archive. Again, that's more than 3,600 messages, wherever you take your mobile device. All of that and more is available free of charge at gty.org. Now, for our entire staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Remember to watch Grace to You Television Sundays on Direct TV Channel 378. And then be back next week when John MacArthur looks at what death means for the believer and for the unbeliever. In both cases, the end is not the end. That's the title of the study John begins next week. Don't miss the next 30 minutes of unleashing God's truth, one verse at a time, on Grace to You Weekend.