And if you will, please turn with me to Zechariah chapter 12 for the preaching of the Holy Word of God. Now, as you know, we are assembled here this evening in order to prepare our hearts corporately for the receiving of the Lord's Supper, which will, Lord willing, be administered tomorrow morning. Now, we have this great duty and this privilege of preparing ourselves for the Lord's Supper for several reasons. Perhaps the most obvious is the fact that we are commanded by God in scripture to do so. He commands us to prepare our hearts and to examine ourselves to ensure that we don't dishonor him by taking this beautiful sacrament in an unworthy manner. You see, by partaking in the Lord's Supper, we are declaring to God and to each other and to the world, in a sense, that we are united to Christ and that we are, in fact, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. and that he's feeding and nourishing our souls by his spirit, working in and through his word and sacrament. To declare such to be the case, when it's not actually true of ourselves, is to abuse the sacrament. It's to dishonor the very flesh and blood of Christ. And so we ought to examine ourselves, as Paul said in 2 Corinthians, to see whether or not we are in the faith. We ought to ask ourselves if this union with Christ that's expressed in the sacrament of communion is a reality for our own souls. And if it is, then you could be assured that you're welcome at the Lord's table. You can be assured that he rejoices in your presence at his table. But if you've not been united to Christ by faith, if you've not been convicted of your sins, and if you've not repented of your sins and turned to the one who's both willing and able to forgive you for your sins, then you are not invited to feast at the table of the Lord. You see, everyone who sits at his table will be examined as to whether or not he wears a wedding garment. That is, whether or not he has come to the table with a heart of faith. And so we're told in 1 Corinthians 11, Whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. Proper preparation, therefore, is necessary before we can properly partake of the Lord's Supper. And it's my deepest hope and desire this evening that our time here tonight will be a helpful and useful aid for you as you prepare your own hearts for receiving the sacrament. We'll turn now to our text in Zechariah chapter 12, we will consider verse 10 of this chapter. Zechariah chapter 12, verse 10. Read with me. And I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications. And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. This verse shows to us the true nature of faith and repentance. We'll consider these things by breaking this verse up into three parts. The first is the source of faith and repentance. The second is the site that is true faith. And the third is the sorrow that comes with a genuine evangelical repentance. So the source, the site, and the sorrow. We see the source of faith and repentance in the first portion of our text. It reads, and I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications. The speaker here, as you might have guessed, is Jehovah himself, the Lord God. He's prophesying here concerning the pouring out of his spirit upon his people. Now this might lead you to think of Pentecost. that day in which thousands of Jews were converted in a single day. They reflected upon the crucifixion of Christ and they began to mourn for what they had done in killing him. And God certainly poured out his spirit among them, adding to his church about 3,000 souls that day. And yes, this promise was literally given to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. And we certainly pray for their conversion. And we believe that such will be the case among the Jews in the day of God's choosing. But we also know that all the promises of Abraham have been given to the Gentiles by faith. we have received the same promise of the Holy Spirit. And so this prophecy continues to be fulfilled even today among the Jews and the Gentiles alike. Anytime a person comes to saving faith in Jesus Christ, it's because God has poured out his spirit of grace upon him. A man in his fallen state would never come to faith apart from the Spirit being poured out upon him. Just think about how the Bible describes you in your natural state. It says you fall short of the glory of God. You're dead in your sins to the point that you would never seek God of your own volition. In fact, you are incapable of doing anything acceptable to God whatsoever. Romans chapter three, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good, no, not one. The Bible describes you in your natural state as a slave to sin. You're a lover of darkness that flees from the light. Your heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And if these things are all true, and they certainly are, then how could you ever come to faith in Christ? It certainly cannot be of your own choosing. it must be by the supernatural work of the Spirit of God upon your soul. Ephesians chapter two describes the regeneration of man in a powerful way. It says, in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. Among whom also we had our conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. And we're by nature even children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sin, he hath quickened us together with Christ. And then Paul says, for by grace ye are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. The source of our faith is not our own will. It's not our intellect. It's not our ability to live a moral life. The source of our faith is the spirit of grace poured upon us, working faith in our hearts. And this faith, as we'll see, produces within us a genuine repentance. Faith and repentance go together in such a way that they can't really be separated. Thomas Watson called them the two wings by which we must fly to heaven. When a person comes to Christ by faith, he comes in repentance. And when he repents, he does so with a believing and a faithful heart. You can't truly have one without the other. And so if you've found yourself weak in your faith, Your preparation for the supper has been cold and heartless. Perhaps your repentance has been dry and maybe even feels superficial at times. Or even if you're dead in your sins and you need to be brought to life, then come to the source of faith and repentance. come to the spirit of grace and supplication, and he will apply all the benefits of Christ to your soul. He's the spirit of adoption, the one who makes us children of God, and by whom we cry, Abba, Father. See here, so we see that when we receive the grace of the Spirit, we receive a heart of prayer. The more we have of him, the more we will be a people of prayer. And so pray to God and ask him to pour out this spirit upon you. God, it's you that must begin this work in me. It's you who must pour out your spirit upon me. My soul, Lord, is thirsty for your grace. pour your spirit upon me that I may look to you in faith, that I may truly mourn for my sins that I've committed against you. If your soul is cold and your heart is hard and your life hasn't been bearing the fruit of faith, then come to the source of grace and you will be strengthened. Let your soul be refreshed by this fountain of life. And if you're here today and you are without faith in Christ, then come, come to this fountain. When God pours out His Spirit, it gives life. I love what the canons of Dort say on this topic. It says that the work of the spirit is not inferior in efficacy to creation or of the resurrection of the dead. So that all those in whose hearts God works in this marvelous manner are certainly infallibly and effectually regenerated and do actually believe. Basically, what that means is that when God pours out his spirit and chooses to bring spiritual life to one who is lifeless, he does not fail. Just as God said in creation, let there be light, and there was light. So he says to our cold, dead hearts, let there be life, and there is life. At creation, when God commanded the light to shine in the darkness, it came to pass. And so when God chooses to recreate us, and he commands the light of Christ to shine in the darkness of our hearts, it will come to pass. And so if your spiritual life seems to be flatlining and you need to be resuscitated, there's only one source of life. Turn to him in faith. And that is exactly what follows in our text. I will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and of supplications. And they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. Now this looking is not a looking in a physical sense. It's not done by the physical eye. but it's done with the eye of faith. It's the soul searching for a remedy for the guilt of our sins and continually casting its gaze upon the only one who can save us. This language of looking is used throughout the Bible to illustrate the receiving of Christ by faith. We can consider various examples. For instance, Isaiah 45, 22, Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. We look to Jehovah and we look nowhere else for the forgiveness of sins. And who is it that may look upon him for forgiveness? It's all people. There is no one left out of this call to faith. Look unto me, all the ends of the earth. You may feel like you're excluded from this call to faith because of the heaviness of the guilt of your sins. You might be thinking, sure, God calls some men to repent, but not me. I'm too far gone. You don't understand the extent of my sins. But no, there is no one excluded from this call. Your sins may be great, but the grace of God in the face of Jesus Christ is greater. He's calling all the ends of the earth not to live a good enough life before they come to him. not to do all that they can do and hope that God makes up the difference, but he calls us simply to look. Simply cast yourself upon the Savior and you will be saved. We can also think of that account in Numbers 21 where serpents were sent among the Israelites in response to their sin. but God was merciful and he provided a remedy for them. Make thee a fiery serpent, he told Moses, and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to pass that everyone that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. Jesus parallels himself with this serpent in John chapter three. He says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Do you see the connection there? The looking upon the serpent was an illustration of the believing upon Christ. And so the look we ought to cast is not upon some vain idol or image. It ought to be upon Christ himself. And we cast this look with a look of faith upon him as he's set forth in the gospel. You see, we have to have a correct understanding of Christ, at least to some degree, if we will indeed look upon him with saving faith. We need to know him. We need to see him as he is set forth in the gospel. Our text tells us to look upon him as the one who was pierced, as the one who bore the sins of his people on the cross. as the one who Isaiah said was wounded for our transgressions and was bruised for our iniquities. And it's through his stripes that we are healed. We ought to look upon him as the lamb that was slain, that taketh away the sins of the world. It was his body that was broken. It was his blood that was shed, that we may have peace with God. It was Christ who endured all the pains and torments of hell on the cross for our sins. And now we have life through his death. We are healed by his wounds. We have peace through his pain, so long as we come to him by faith. And if we have, then he has become for us the righteousness of God, so that we may not only be cleansed from our sins, but that we may also stand before God, holy and blameless, being clothed in the righteousness of his Son by faith. For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. that we may be made the righteousness of God in Him. When we look upon Christ with the eyes of faith, we rest in this peace, that we are completely justified before God. This truth ought to bring a quietness to the conscience of those who are in Christ. And what is self-examination if not a trying of your own conscience? It's a testing of yourself to see whether or not your conscience is in good standing before God. If you find that your conscience accuses you before God, then look to Christ. He is the source of your peace. Hebrews 10 tells us to draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. The health and the welfare of your soul depends upon the state of your conscience. Look to Christ. And may your conscience be cleansed by his blood. Now, as we've said, Lord willing, we will have the sacrament of the Lord's Supper tomorrow. And in this sacrament, we'll have the broken body and the shed blood of Christ expressed for us in the elements of bread and wine. Now, these elements are things that we can look upon with the physical eye. They're a parable to the eye, as Matthew Henry said. But by the grace of God, may we look with the eye of faith upon the crucified Christ, which the elements represent. May we see Christ as it were in all his works of redemption, from the manger to the cross, in his incarnation, in his preaching, in his suffering and in his death. They are all proclaimed for us in the sacrament of the Lord's supper. But as we look upon Christ in the sacrament, may we not be content with a general acknowledgement of his sufferings. We must not be content with a mere theoretical and abstract recognition of his death and crucifixion. But we ought to seek a particular and a personal acknowledgement of our own consent and participation in his death. Our text says, they shall look upon me whom they have pierced. There's a personal acknowledgement of guilt in the death of Christ for those who look upon him in faith. As we meditate on the broken body and the shed blood of Christ, may we not think it removed from us. It's not a mere historical reality that may move our emotions. No, we are looking upon the consequences of our sins. I am the one who pierced Christ on the cross. It was me. I did it. He was wounded for my transgressions. He was bruised for my iniquities. My sin was the cause of his death. There was once a man who took his son shooting out in the woods, and there was an accident. Something happened and the boy was shot by his father. And so the father picked up his son and rushed him to the hospital. He took his bleeding child into his arms and rushed into the emergency room screaming, I did it, I did it. And he was filled with so much sorrow for what he had done. that he could never look upon a gun again. That is like the Christian who looks upon the crucified Christ. He takes the broken, bleeding body of Christ in his arms, if you will, and he recognizes the fact that he is responsible. I did it. I did it. It was for my sins that he was pierced. It was my sin that made this necessary. And how could we ever look to our sins again? They put your spouse to death. They pierced his hands and feet. They put his soul through the pains and torments of hell. How could we think so little of them? Samuel Rutherford gives us a strong warning in this regard. He said, the willful sinner who takes sin into his bosom is cruel to his master. If Christ be your husband and you be his wife, then sin slew your husband. Will the wife love the knife that cut her husband's throat? You will say the wife does not love the husband if she takes the man into her bosom who pursued her husband to the death and helped to execute him on the gallows. Should the redeemed of the Lord then love their lusts that pursued Christ to the death and nailed him to the cross? Then beware, he said, by going on in sin, of saying amen to the shedding of Christ's blood. Your sins are not something to play with. They're not small. They're not insignificant. They're not harmless. Your sins pierce the Savior. You cannot claim to love Christ, to be looking to Christ, if in the depths of your heart you're still yelling, crucify him, crucify him. But then here we see the closeness of the relationship between faith and repentance. For in faith, we look upon Christ and in repentance, we mourn for our sins in response to the sight of the Savior. A true faith leads by necessity to a true repentance. And just as we continually look upon Christ by faith, so we will continually repent of our sins. We won't ever be free from sin in this life, but a true believer is marked by his mourning over the fact that he has offended Christ by his sin. This is our third and final point of this text, and it pertains to the sorrow that attends a true evangelical repentance. They shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn. This was the response of the Jews on the day of Pentecost. Peter preaches before the Jews. He says, therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God made this same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. He pointed them to Christ, to look upon what they had done to the Savior. And then we're told, When they heard this, they were pricked in their hearts and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said to them, repent. May this be our response this evening. We've been shown that our sins have crucified Christ. Has this pricked our hearts? Can we even think such a thought and not be stirred to repentance? If your piercing of Christ does not pierce your heart, I want you to see from our text that it's due to a lack of faith. The thought of having crucified Christ leads the believer to mourn, to sorrow, in a way that can't be expressed with words. Our text compares it to mourning for losing a son, your only son. That pain is unimaginable. It runs deep. It's something you can never recover from. It will follow you all the days of your life. But such a sorrow is only a picture. Both believers and unbelievers can experience that kind of sorrow. But repentance is a saving grace. It has a supernatural source. This sorrow ought to cut even deeper. We have killed the Lord of glory. If this doesn't break your heart, you ought to go before God and cry out to him for a softened heart. God wants a people with hearts that are broken for their sins. Rend your hearts, he tells us, Psalm 51, the sacrifices of God are a broken and a contrite heart. True repentance comes with a broken heart and a mourning for sin and also a hatred for sin. Our text tells us that we ought to be in bitterness The word here implies something so bitter that it's nauseating. It so disgusts us that we have an impulsive aversion to it. Any sweetness that we find in our sins ought to be overshadowed by the bitterness we feel in our mourning for them. Thomas Watson beautifully wrote, the more bitterness we taste in sin, the more sweetness we'll taste in Christ. And the amount of bitterness that we taste in sin is in proportion to the extent to which we are looking to Christ. If you have a dim sight of Christ, you will have a dim and shallow repentance. There is certainly no sin as sweet as communion with God. This communion brings joy to the soul and gladness to our hearts. Yes, we ought to mourn for our sins. We ought to lament the fact that we have crucified Christ. But the story doesn't end there. The Lord's response to our repentance is as it was in Hosea 14. I will heal their backsliding. I will love them freely for mine anger is turned away from him. We serve a merciful God who calls all men everywhere to look upon him and be saved. Look upon him and experience this peace to your soul. Look upon him and rejoice For through his death, you may have life. Through his condemnation, you may be saved. Through his wounds, you may be healed. Amen.