When I visited the city of Rome and
toured the excavated ruins of that ancient civilization,
I pondered on the brevity of life in
this world, that no matter how powerful a
certain government is at a particular time in
history, it can all turn to rubble within
a generation.
So it was with the once powerful Caesars
who ruled the world with an iron fist,
but today Rome's not a superpower, but a
spectacle to visit.
And what caught my attention in that eternal
city, as it is called, were the beautiful
fountains that are so plentiful throughout the city
of Rome.
Now some of you who have visited Rome
know about those lovely fountains of which I
refer to, and perhaps you visited the ruins
of the Colosseum where the early Christians were
tortured and butchered and torn by wild beasts,
and I'm sure you'd agree it is sobering
to behold to think that it meant something
to be a follower of Christ back then,
that it was either Caesar's Lord or Jesus's
Lord.
And if you renounced Caesar and proclaimed Jesus,
your home was ransacked, your family members arrested
and put in prison, and some put to
death for the sake of the gospel.
Both the Apostle Paul and the Apostle Peter
were martyred in Rome for their faith in
Christ Jesus.
The blood of the martyrs was the seed
of the early church, that their blood was
poured out for the sake of Christ and
the gospel made them like their master who
poured out his own blood on a tree
for sinful man.
How his very blood was like a fountain
as it flowed down that rugged cross on
Calvary.
I can't think of that without contemplating the
hymn of William Copper, There is a Fountain
Filled with Blood.
Its original title was Praise for the Fountain
Opened.
A few sing it today.
A few teenagers in the church have ever
even heard it.
It's a shame.
It needs to be brought back again and
sung in our sanctuaries for it's a vivid
description of Christ's redemptive work on the cross.
That man in his sins is alienated from
God and he's unjustified.
His sins are unpardoned and he's unreconciled.
And what a tragic and dangerous position man
stands in apart from Christ.
How at any moment he can die and
enter another world quite unprepared for it.
How man's life is but a vapor that's
here for a little while and then it
disappears.
Life in this world is severed by death
and eternity is entered upon.
Either peace with God in heaven or misery
in a place called hell.
Unless a person is under the blood, unless
that person's sins have been washed in that
fountain of blood, they are lost forever.
The title of my message this morning friends
is Christ the Fountain.
Allow me to read us the hymn of
William Copper.
I have it before me.
You can look in your hymnals.
It's hymn number 196.
There is a fountain filled with blood drawn
from Emmanuel's veins and sinners plunged beneath that
flood lose all their guilty stains.
The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain
in his day and there may I, though
vile as he, wash all my sins away.
Dear dying lamb, that precious blood shall never
lose its power till all the ransomed church
of God be saved to sin no more.
E'er since by faith I saw the
stream of that flowing wound supply, redeeming love
has been my theme and shall be till
I die.
When this poor lisping, stammering tongue lies silent
in the grave, then in a nobler, sweeter
song, I'll sing thy power to save.
Friends, in that hymn is the gospel of
the Son of God.
That gospel has power to save, but one
has to come to that place of crucifixion
and behold that bloody cross through repentance and
faith of poor sinner kneels there and sinners
plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty
stains.
Not self-righteous man, I do not come
to that fountain as a self-righteous man,
but no, I see myself unworthy.
In fact, I see myself as vile as
that thief on the cross and God in
his electing love will bring every one of
his ransomed church of God to himself to
sin no more.
But listen, friends, the very thing that takes
away my guilt, that gives me pardon, that
justifies me in the sight of the Father
is the blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins.
He was the sacrifice for sin.
He paid my sin debt, which I could
never pay on my own.
Jesus, as a slain lamb, took the wrath
of the Father on my behalf.
I deserved hell, but I was shown mercy.
I came to that fountain filled with Christ's
blood.
Where would I be without Christ the fountain?
But let me ask you, friends, why is
it necessary to be plunged beneath that flood
as the hymn writer says?
And this is where I want to camp
out this morning on two aspects of Christ
the fountain, why we need Christ and who
are the ones who will seek him.
First, we need pardon to be reconciled back
to God because we've transgressed God's holy law.
We're guilty rebels.
We're lawbreakers because of sin.
And we stand beneath the weight of those
sins that must be punished.
That sentence must be carried out against us
unless we are people who've been pardoned for
without pardon, God comes upon the sinner and
requires the debt of punishment because the sinner
did not pay the debt of obedience.
God requires perfection to get into his kingdom
and no one's perfect.
Save Jesus Christ.
Listen, friends, our very best day can't save
us.
We can't come to God in our own
merits for third, but filthy rags in God's
sight.
So we have a dilemma.
We have a need.
We must come to Christ and get under
that fountain of blood.
Ephesians one seven declares in whom we have
redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,
according to the riches of his grace.
Listen to this offer of pardon that's found
in Isaiah.
Turn in your Bibles to the book of
Isaiah in chapter fifty five.
I want to read us verse six and
seven for these verses speak of an offer
to pardon.
Seek ye the Lord while he may be
found.
Call ye upon him while he is near.
Let the wicked forsake his way and the
unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return
to the Lord and he will have mercy
upon him and to our God, for he
will abundantly pardon.
You see, friends, before our sins were pardoned,
we were a Christless people.
Ephesians declares that at that time you were
without Christ.
But now in Christ Jesus, you who sometimes
were far off are made now by the
blood of Christ.
So Christ is the fountain where we come
for mercy and pardon to have our sins
washed away, as seen in Isaiah fifty five
seven, which states and he will have mercy
upon him and to our God, for he
will abundantly pardon.
That means reconcile us back to God through
the forgiveness of sins.
Our sin gets paid by the blood Christ
shed on that cross.
So the first aspect of Christ, the fountain
is this.
It's our need of him for without him,
we are doomed and damned for all eternity.
I know I'm a sinner and I need
a sin substitute in the person of Jesus
Christ.
And so do you, friend.
So do you now want to look at
the second aspect of the gospel invitation of
pardon, which is to whom is it offered?
Surely the gospel is freely offered, but only
certain individuals will partake of that offer.
Who are they?
The gospel is for the person who sees
his need of a savior.
Look at verse one in Isaiah, which states,
oh, everyone that thirsts to come to the
waters and he that has no money, come
by and eat.
Yeah, come by wine and milk without money
and without price.
Christ is the fountain open.
He is for the person who is thirsty,
who's hungry, who has a need.
The gospel will never be received by a
self-righteous person who has no need.
There must be a plowing work done by
the Holy Spirit, which shows man has lost
condition apart from God convicts him of his
sins and shows him his need of a
savior.
That person must be thirsty for Christ to
come to Christ, the fountain of living waters.
Listen to how Jesus dealt with a woman,
the Samaritan woman at the well, as seen
in the gospel of John and chapter four.
In this passage, we see a weary Jesus
take rest on Jacob's well, and he encounters
a woman who is weary of her sins.
Jesus tells her, whosoever drinketh of this water
shall thirst again, 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.
Christ is the fountain of living water, and
he deals with this sinful woman the way
each one of us should deal with lost
sinners.
We should get them lost and get them
thirsty.
At first, the woman wants the water.
She tells him, sir, give me this water
that I thirst not, neither come hither to
draw.
But that woman wanted the water carelessly and
casually to make her life a little easier
so she won't have to come to this
well every day and have her reputation precede
her in that town.
You can just picture her walking to that
well each morning with her head down and
her face covered with a scarf to hide
her shame.
When we present the gospel, we give this
water out to freely to those who aren't
really thirsty and they don't have a need
of it, but they take it carelessly and
casually because it's free.
And they're like the stony ground hearers who
take no root through a false profession.
But notice how Jesus deals with this sinful
woman by confronting her with her sins.
He tells her, go call the husband and
come hither.
You see, friend, before a person can drink
at Christ the fountain, they must first be
thirsty.
You can lead a mule to water, but
you can't make him drink.
You can offer Jesus and people all day
long.
But if they are not thirsty for him,
if they do not see their need of
him, they will not partake of that living
water savingly.
They're not thirsty.
This is why modern evangelism has damned its
millions by making false converts, by shoving a
Jesus down their throats when they're not hungry
or thirsty for him.
So they take your Jesus casually and carelessly
before they're brought to see their lost condition
and convicted of sin like that woman was
at the well.
She first wanted that living water in a
careless and casual way because she wasn't yet
convicted of sin and showed her desperate need
of Christ the fountain.
But Jesus brings this woman to a place
of conviction of her sins, and then she
gets to the place where she has a
need.
She's conscious of her need and she's thirsty
for Christ and weary of her sins.
That's the kind of person who can say,
what must I do to be saved?
As soul winners, we need to be busy
to get lost sinners to that place of
a conscious need for that living water and
then show them the pearl of great price,
Christ the fountain of living water.
I like what the Puritan Bible commentator Matthew
Henry has to say about this passage from
the Gospel of John.
I have copied his words for you this
morning.
Listen to what he has to say for
it is the real gospel friends.
The next subject of discourse with this woman
is concerning her husband.
What Jesus had said concerning his grace and
eternal life, he found made little impression upon
her because she had not been convinced of
sin.
Therefore, waving the discourse about the living water,
he sets himself to awaken her conscience, to
open the wound of guilt, and then she
would more easily apprehend the remedy by grace.
How discreetly and decently Christ introduces this discourse,
how industriously the woman seeks to evade the
conviction and yet insensibly convicts herself and before
she is aware admits her fault, she said,
I have no husband.
How closely our Lord Jesus brings home the
conviction to her conscience, how mildly Christ tells
her of it.
He with whom thou livest is not thy
husband, and then leaves it to her own
conscience to say the rest.
That's conviction of sin, friends.
Old Matthew Henry knew what he was talking
about in the way to bring a person
to Christ, to shut them up to God
and get them lost, get them conscious of
their need of a remedy for sin.
Then that sinner can come to the fountain
filled with blood and partake of that fountain
of living water.
Christ the fountain, Christ the redeemer who satisfies
that thirst, but sin has to be pardoned
before we're saved.
God's and we stood at a distance.
God was our enemy and we were his
enemies.
There's a mountain of sins which separate us
and him.
But oh, I thank God, friends, for that
fountain filled with blood that washed my guilty
sins away.
I'm thankful for Christ, the fountain of living
water that never runs out, that always satisfies.
So these two aspects of Christ, the fountain
must be addressed in our day of a
diluted gospel and false professions.
As soul winners, we must bring people to
that fountain filled with blood and let them
know that such a fountain exists and tell
them about Christ crucified for sin.
Then we are saved by his death and
with his blood who we must repent of
our sins and get under that blood.
And once we exercise repentance toward God, we
can come to that fountain of living water
and drink through faith.
But we must first get lost.
There must be a need for a savior
from sin that the invitations of the gospel
are for the hungry, the weary and the
thirsty.
Are you hungry for God?
Are you weary of your sins?
Are you thirsty for Christ?
Then come, ho, everyone that thirsteth.
Come ye to the waters and he that
hath no money.
Come ye, buy and eat.
Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money
and without price.
And Jesus gives the gospel invitation in Matthew
in chapter 11.
He says, Come unto me all ye that
labor and are heavy laden and I will
give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of
me, for I am meek and lowly in
heart, and ye shall find rest unto your
souls, for my yoke is easy and my
burden is light.
And in the gospel of John, chapter 7,
we read, In the last day, that great
day, the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying,
If any man thirst, let him come unto
me and drink.
He that believeth on me, as the scripture
hath said, out of his belly shall flow
rivers of living water.
But the problem was, friends, when Jesus stood
up in that vast assembly that day, he
was addressing Pharisees who weren't thirsty.
They saw no need of him.
They not only had no need of him,
they wanted to kill him and rid the
world of him.
It was as if when Jesus said to
them, If any man thirst, let him come
unto me and drink, the Pharisees responded by
saying, We're not thirsty.
And Jesus came back and said, I wasn't
talking to you.
I was addressing that poor sinner standing next
to you who has a need, who's hungry
for the bread of life and thirsty for
the living waters.
That whosoever will of the gospel invitation is
true, friends, but nobody will come unless they
are first thirsty.
But listen to the good news of the
gospel.
If you're thirsty, you're invited to come and
the spirit and the bride say come and
let him that hear it say come and
let him that is a thirst come and
whosoever will let him take the water of
life freely.
Dear friends, the gospel is for the hungry,
the weary and the thirsty.
Are you thirsty?
Then come, come to Christ the fountain for
sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their
guilty stains.