Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Chapter one, if you're using one of the Pew Bibles, that's page 1159. I'm going to be reading several passages of Scripture tonight.
[00:00:11] We're going to focus first in Ephesians 1 and then spend a lot of time in Hebrews 9 and 10.
[00:00:20] Well, the title of the hymn that we're studying tonight has a few variations.
[00:00:27] Some hymnals title it There Is a Fountain, while others expand that title to There is a Fountain Filled with Blood, which encompasses more of the opening line of the hymn.
[00:00:41] Now, if you're prone to interpret things very literally, that full title is not very appealing, is it?
[00:00:49] The literal concept of a fountain filled with blood is rather grotesque.
[00:00:56] Certainly not something to sing about.
[00:00:59] But of course, we're not thinking in literal terms.
[00:01:03] This is metaphorical. The words represent a concept, a much deeper meaning, and in our context, a deep spiritual meaning and very important to our faith.
[00:01:17] This hymn was actually a poem written by William Cooper in 1771.
[00:01:25] Cooper battled serious debilitating depression most of his life.
[00:01:30] It's said that he suffered a mental breakdown that he never fully recovered from.
[00:01:35] When he faced the pressures of a final law exam before the House of Lords in England.
[00:01:41] He was sent to St. Albans asylum for 18 months, where he began to read the Scriptures, which brought peace to his mind, and he was able to leave and go live with his good family friend, John Newton.
[00:01:55] Yes, it's the same John Newton that wrote Amazing Grace.
[00:02:00] Newton was very instrumental in Cooper's recovery and his understanding of the Scriptures. And it was during this period that he wrote the poem that was then arranged into the hymn that we now sing.
[00:02:13] There's one collection of hymns that was published in 1779 that titled the hymn Praise for the Fountain Opened.
[00:02:22] And that title comes from Zechariah 13. 1. It says, on that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.
[00:02:36] Now, imagine we've all seen fountains.
[00:02:41] And so I asked my family the other night, what comes to your mind when you think of a fountain? And they said, water.
[00:02:47] Okay. That didn't help me in this illustration. So I'm like, okay, when the Scripture's referring to a fountain, it's looking towards something that is abundant and flowing and unending and provision.
[00:03:06] So that's what we're thinking of tonight, that imagery from Zechariah 13 of a fountain opened from God that will never cease, that is abundant and overflowing.
[00:03:21] So the opening line of this hymn says, there Is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel's veins, its source?
[00:03:30] This source is the fountain. Of this fountain is Emmanuel, God with us, the incarnation of God in the person of Jesus Christ.
[00:03:42] And this fountain is flowing not with water, but with blood. And its source is the eternal God made flesh.
[00:03:49] So why is this metaphoric language of a blood filled fountain something that we would sing about?
[00:03:58] Well, the answer lies in understanding what has been accomplished.
[00:04:03] That verse from Zechariah says the fountain open and it cleanses from sin and uncleanness.
[00:04:10] And that's the great news for us, and that's why it's worth singing about.
[00:04:15] So in the remaining moments we have together, we're going to explore a biblical understanding. It won't be exhaustive of how the blood of Christ cleanses us from sin and uncleanness so that we have a biblical basis for what we sing about.
[00:04:32] Now, I asked you to turn earlier to Ephesians 1, so read along with me just one verse. Verse 7.
[00:04:39] In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to how hard I've tried to obey God's commands.
[00:04:52] Is that what you're. You got a different translation?
[00:04:56] Let me try again.
[00:04:58] In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace.
[00:05:08] Now, I'm being facetious in the way I read that the first time, but I do that to stress a point, because that's sometimes how we live, thinking that we still need to earn God's favor.
[00:05:22] We read the word of God, we see the words, but somehow we live contrary to that.
[00:05:29] Friends, we live by grace.
[00:05:32] We have redemption by grace through the blood of Jesus.
[00:05:38] So what is redemption?
[00:05:41] In technical terms, it means to purchase from. To buy back. It's actually an ancient legal and economic term that means to pay a price or ransom to release a slave or captive.
[00:05:57] So this language implies that we're owned by another.
[00:06:02] And indeed we are.
[00:06:04] For we are born sinners and are by nature slaves to sin.
[00:06:10] Before conversion, our only desire is for sin. So therefore sin is our slave master.
[00:06:18] But when the mercy and grace of God come, a conversion takes place, a dead heart is made alive to hear and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ and to repent of sin.
[00:06:32] We are released from that old sin master.
[00:06:35] The Lord Jesus Christ becomes our master. And by our union with him we have a new desire for righteousness, a new obedience.
[00:06:47] Our redemption, though, is not measured in currency, but in the immeasurable value of life.
[00:06:55] Jesus declared in Matthew 20:28.
[00:06:58] The son of man came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many friends. The price of our redemption is the blood of Christ.
[00:07:12] When the Bible speaks of the blood, it's not merely referring to bleeding, as if I cut my finger and I bleed, but it's speaking of death.
[00:07:24] For life is in the blood, and the blood of Christ is his death on the cross.
[00:07:32] Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. There's no forgiveness of sin.
[00:07:37] When Adam and Eve sinned against God, he clothed them with the skin of an animal. It was the first death as the direct result of sin.
[00:07:47] And when God led his chosen people out of Egyptian slavery, he did so by a demonstration of his great and awesome power, bringing death to all the firstborn throughout Egypt, except where the blood covered the doorpost.
[00:08:02] The blood of a lamb, the angel of death, passed over because the blood covered them.
[00:08:08] Then God revealed through Moses how this delivered people would come near him and worship him in the tabernacle.
[00:08:16] The Mosaic covenant established how God would dwell among his chosen people.
[00:08:21] The place of his dwelling was the tabernacle and the holy of holies, containing the ark of the covenant and the mercy seat.
[00:08:30] No person could enter the holy of holies without first being consecrated, purified by a blood sacrifice.
[00:08:40] Leviticus 8 goes into the details of how Aaron and his sons were consecrated as priests by the sprinkling of blood from bulls and rams sacrificed on the altar.
[00:08:52] The contents of the tabernacle were also consecrated by the blood of a sacrifice.
[00:09:00] But these sacrifices were limited.
[00:09:04] They couldn't accomplish everything.
[00:09:06] They had to be offered continually for the sins of the people.
[00:09:13] I'd like for you to turn now in your Bibles to Hebrews chapter nine.
[00:09:19] If you're using a chair Bible, that's on page 1192.
[00:09:25] The writer of Hebrews explains that the earthly tent of meeting that Moses was instructed to build, just as God had told him, was pointing to something better, something that priests and rituals and animal sacrifices could never accomplish.
[00:09:43] Follow along with me in Hebrews 9. Starting at verse one, I'm going to be reading through several verses in the chapter.
[00:09:52] Now, even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the presence.
[00:10:04] It is called the holy place.
[00:10:07] Behind the second curtain was a second section called the most holy place.
[00:10:12] Now look down to verse six.
[00:10:14] These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section performing their ritual duties.
[00:10:21] But into the second only the high priest goes. And he but once a year, and not without taking blood which he offers for himself and and for the unintentional sins of the people.
[00:10:36] So the high priest could only enter before the mercy seat of God by the means of the blood of bulls and goats as a sacrifice for sins.
[00:10:47] But the new covenant established by the blood of Jesus Christ our Savior through his death on the cross is an everlasting covenant.
[00:10:59] The shed blood of Christ on the cross accomplished for us what these animal sacrifices could never do.
[00:11:06] Look down at verse 11.
[00:11:08] But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things that have come, then through the greater and more perfect tent, not made with hands, that is not of this creation, he entered once for all into the holy places, not by means of the blood of goats and calves, but by means of his own blood, thus securing an eternal redemption.
[00:11:36] For if the blood of goats and bulls and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer sanctify for the purification of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God?
[00:12:03] So how is the blood of Christ sufficient for our eternal redemption and able to forgive all of our sins?
[00:12:13] Well, we know that the first covenant established the law of God.
[00:12:18] The law of God is the requirements for righteousness, the requirements to be in right standing before him.
[00:12:27] So for there to be a once and for all sacrifice, which we just read about, there had to be a perfect law keeper.
[00:12:36] Jesus said in Matthew 5, do not think that I've come to abolish the law or the prophets.
[00:12:42] I've not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them.
[00:12:46] And that's exactly what he did.
[00:12:48] Jesus was never a lawbreaker. His perfect obedience to the law qualified him to be the sacrifice that would satisfy the justified wrath of God for our sins once and for all.
[00:13:05] Look now in Hebrews 10, starting in verse one, we're reading a lot of scripture because I want you to see it.
[00:13:17] For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never by the same sacrifices that are continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near, otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins.
[00:13:43] But in these sacrifices there is a reminder of sins every year, for it is Impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
[00:13:53] You see, it's just a logical conclusion that if those sacrifices had been sufficient to take away sins, it'd only been needed one time.
[00:14:04] But the righteous requirement of the law is that it must be kept.
[00:14:09] Again in verse five. Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body you have prepared for me in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure.
[00:14:24] Then I said, behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the bread.
[00:14:32] You see, it was the will of God to crush his own Son under judgment for our sins.
[00:14:40] Jesus fulfilled all of the law and the prophecies that were written of him, so that we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.
[00:14:53] Christ Jesus is the fountain opened for the forgiveness of sins.
[00:14:58] He is the eternal high priest that will forever make intercession for us, so that when the Father looks upon us, he sees the blood of His Son and declares, righteous forever.
[00:15:14] Look down to verse 19.
[00:15:18] Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the holy places by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain, that is, through his flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith.
[00:15:38] With our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.
[00:15:51] For he who promised is faithful.
[00:15:56] Friends, the blood of Jesus. The death of Jesus Christ on the cross is the payment for our redemption, the forgiveness of every sin, past, present, future, and all of that according to the riches of his grace.
[00:16:15] We didn't earn one bit of that.
[00:16:18] It will never lose its power to save. It is an eternal fountain of grace from our eternal God and Savior.
[00:16:27] So that we can sing.
[00:16:30] There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And sinners such as all of us, plunge beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains.
[00:16:44] Romans 3 tells us we all have sinned and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.
[00:17:03] Isn't that amazing?
[00:17:05] The guilty stain of our sins removed.
[00:17:10] It is true, we're sinners. We're guilty.
[00:17:13] Yet through the blood of Jesus and by the grace of God, we're justified, meaning declared not guilty by faith, which is a gift from God.
[00:17:25] We have the incredible privilege to claim the perfect righteousness of Jesus as our own.
[00:17:32] And that should lead to our rejoicing.
[00:17:36] The hymn says, the dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day, and there may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away.
[00:17:50] The thief on the cross realized his unworthiness.
[00:17:54] He realized the death that he was facing was just.
[00:17:58] He deserved it.
[00:18:01] He earned it as a lawbreaker.
[00:18:04] But, oh, the grace, as our dying Savior told him he would join him in paradise that very day.
[00:18:13] And so it is for us.
[00:18:15] We rejoice when we see that our sins are cleansed, washed away by the blood of Jesus. And that rejoicing increases as we realize more and more our unworthiness.
[00:18:30] You know, songs affect us because they express our emotions.
[00:18:36] That's why we're doing this series, because these songs stay with us and they contain profound biblical truth.
[00:18:46] And that biblical truth playing over and over in our minds increases our knowledge of our God. And that's a good thing.
[00:18:54] How should these poetic words that flow from biblical truth make a difference in our lives?
[00:19:01] How's this going to work out in your life and my life an hour from now, Monday morning, throughout the rest of this week until we get together again?
[00:19:15] How's this going to impact real life?
[00:19:19] When you feel unloved and forgotten by others?
[00:19:23] When your spouse lets you down for the umpteenth time, when your children frustrate you and disappoint you, when the doctor's report devastates your plans, When a friend betrays your trust, when you've given in to temptation to sin again and the guilt and the shame's overwhelming, when the sufferings of this life weigh down your soul, return to this truth.
[00:19:55] This is the reset for all these sufferings that you are justified, forgiven, and eternally loved by your Savior.
[00:20:07] It is through the eyes of faith that we see more clearly the love of God expressed in the cross of Christ.
[00:20:16] The song says, ere since by faith I saw the stream thy flowing wounds supply.
[00:20:23] Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die.
[00:20:30] Friends, nothing shall ever separate us from the redeeming love of our Savior.
[00:20:36] Though we live now in this fallen world and we suffer under the consequences of sin, both our own, our internal battle with sin from the unredeemed flesh and the external battle from an enemy that's real and does not like us, hates us.
[00:20:56] Yet we have a living hope.
[00:21:00] It's said of William Cooper that he developed a stammer as the result of his mental struggles.
[00:21:08] So it must have been a joyous contemplation for him to envision a day in the future when he would be in the presence of God, singing to our Lord a sweet song of redemption. Without those imperfections of that stammering tongue, the fountain opened and God our Savior, is our unending source of hope.
[00:21:35] Death is not the end for the Christian, it's just the beginning.
[00:21:40] Friends, the blood of Christ informs and transforms us to long for a day.
[00:21:45] When ushered into paradise, we too will sing in endless perfection a sweeter, nobler song of his redeeming love and his power to save and church. It's our mission, our incredible privilege to declare to a lost world the glorious truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
[00:22:08] We can remain steadfast in that mission because Christ is building his church and not even the gates of hell are going to prevail against it.
[00:22:20] The power of the blood of Christ has ransomed a people that will gather before him and sing a new song.
[00:22:29] We just need to tell them.
[00:22:32] Revelation 1:5 says, worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals. For you were slain and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation.
[00:22:48] Dear dying Lamb, your precious blood shall never lose its power till all the ransomed church of God be saved to sin no more.
[00:23:01] Don't you long for that day when you will sin no more?
[00:23:07] To worship our Savior with no taint of sin.
[00:23:12] Think of that.
[00:23:14] To worship from a completely pure heart, just pure praise and thanksgiving.
[00:23:22] Don't you feel the tension that the apostle Paul expressed when he said, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death?
[00:23:32] Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
[00:23:37] Yes, the precious blood of Christ is the power to rescue us from sin and death.
[00:23:45] Saved to sin no more.
[00:23:49] May this be our daily song.
[00:23:52] Redeeming love has been my theme and shall be till I die. Let's pray.
[00:24:02] Oh precious Lord, we praise you for your blood shed for us redeeming love that has justified us and brought us forgiveness of our sins.
[00:24:24] We praise you that it's your righteousness we claim and Lord, cause our hearts to sing this song of your redeeming love and its power until you call us home.
[00:24:41] May we live in a manner that is worthy of you, glorifies you.
[00:24:48] We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.
