Christ the Fountain

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.