Sermon Tone Analysis

The text of this hymn was written by Robert Robinson, who was born into humble circumstances at Swaffham in Norfolk, England, on Sept. 27, 1735.

His father died when he was eight, and in 1749 at age fourteen he was indentured by his mother to a barber in London.

While in London Robinson did not choose his friends wisely.

For several years he was associated with a notorious gang of hoodlums and led a debauched life.

However, in 1752, at the age of seventeen, he heard a sermon preached by George Whitefield.

He and his friends had gone to the meeting for the purpose of scoffing at religion, but Whitefield's message convicted him.

The sermon’s topic was on the Wrath to Come, and it’s message haunted Robinson.

After three long years of spiritual turmoil, he professed faith in Christ in 1855 and shortly afterwards, at age twenty, became minister of a Methodist chapel at Mindenhall in Suffolk.

However, a few months later, he left the Methodists and organized an Independent congregation at Norwich.

In 1759, Robinson again changed religious affiliation and became minister at the Stone Yard Baptist Church in Cambridge, where he remained until his death in 1790.

With very little formal education, Robinson became known as a prominent preacher, scholar, and writer.

He wrote this hymn in 1758 as a prayer to the Holy Spirit to flood into his listener’s hearts with His streams of mercy.

It first appeared in a hymnal aptly entitled: A Collection of Hymns.

The tune is a traditional American melody that first appeared in a hymnal published by John Wyeth.

In the index, no composer's name is given, but it is identified as a “new tune.”

Thus, it is not known precisely where the tune came from nor who was responsible for it.

The song has gained a new degree of popularity in recent years, due in large part to an arrangement of it by Mack Wilberg, the new Music Director of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

The arrangement was first sung by the Brigham Young University Choir at the end of one of their concerts in 1994 and has become an audience-favorite.

The hymn praises the Lord as the source of everything good.

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I. STANZA 1 Points out That the Lord Is the Fount of Every Blessing

"Come, Thou Fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;

Streams of mercy, never ceasing, Call for songs of loudest praise.

Teach me some melodious sonnet, Sung by flaming tongues above.

Praise the mount!

I’m fixed upon it, Mount of Thy redeeming love.”

#.

Robinson opens his hymn with a testimonial of praise and adoration

#. he has come to know the living God, and he is so exuberant with joy that he can hardly contain himself

#. he invites God—the Fount of every blessing—to take his heart and to teach him how to sing Thy grace

* /"But let all who take refuge in You be glad, Let them ever sing for joy; And may You shelter them, That those who love Your name may exult in You.

12For it is You who blesses the righteous man, O Lord, You surround him with favor as with a shield."/

(Psalm 5:11-12, NASB95)

#. like David, Robinson had taken refuge in the grace of God, it saved him from damnation and hell, and his new heart of flesh compels him to sing about this grace

!! A. GOD OPENED A FOUNTAIN FOR OUR SALVATION

* /"In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants ofJerusalem, for sin and for impurity."/

(Zechariah 13:1, NASB95)

* /"Jesus answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; 14but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”/

(John 4:13-14, NASB95)

#. the fountain that Zechariah speaks of refers to natural springs that gush forth great quantities of water

#. in his mind’s-eye, Zechariah might be thinking of the headwaters of the Jordan River or the spring at En Gedi on the West side of the Dead Sea

#. there is a time coming, he predicts, when the a fountain will be opened that will wash away, once and for all, all of Israel’s sin and impurity

* ILLUS.

William Cowper, a 19th century English poet and hymn writer, using this passage as his text wrote.

/“There is a fountain filled with blood Drawn from Immanuel’s veins; And sinners, plunged beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains.”/

#.

Jesus picks up on Zechariah’s theme in his dialogue with the Woman at the Well when he offers her living water that will be like a well of water springing up in her life

#.

that phrase well of water springing up refers to an artesian well

#.

these are places where the water pressure in rock strata is high enough to force the water above the water table out into a natural spring

#. as long as the aquifer the well draws from remains steady, the flow of water will remain steady—you can’t turn it off

#. Jesus uses this picture to describe God’s saving grace in the sinner’s life

#.

God’s grace is an aquifer of love that produces never ceasing streams of mercy

#. on the day of Christ’s crucifixion the fountain of God’s forgiving grace was opened for all who repent and call upon His name

#. that fountain turns into streams of mercy that never cease to flow to the beneficiaries of God’s grace

* /"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ!

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen him, you love him.

Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls."/

(1 Peter 1:3-9, ESV)

#. once experienced, this grace puts our heart in tune with God

#.

His will becomes our will

#.

His agendas become our agendas

#.

His desires become our desires

* /"The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul; the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple; the precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart; the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold, even much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb."/

(Psalm 19:7-10, ESV)

* /"In the path of your judgments, O Lord, we wait for you; your name and remembrance are the desire of our soul."'

(Isaiah 26:8, ESV)

* /"You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing."/

(Psalm 145:16, ESV)

!! B. THIS FOUNT OF BLESSINGS CALLS FOR SONGS OF LOUDEST PRAISE

* /"Through Him then, let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that give thanks to His name."/

(Hebrews 13:15, NASB95)

#.

God’s fountain of grace is a blessing to us

* /"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ,"/ (Ephesians 1:3, NASB95)

* /"Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow."/

(James 1:17, NASB95)

#.

Robinson ends the first stanza with a note of triumph

#. he has climbed the Hill of Calvary, firmly planted his feet upon the mount of God’s redeeming love

* ILLUS.

/Mercy there was great, and grace was free; Pardon there was multiplied to me; There my burdened soul found liberty, At Calvary./

!II.

STANZA 2 Points out That the Lord Is Our Helper

"Here I raise my Ebenezer: Hither by Thy help I've come;

And I hope by Thy good pleasure Safely to arrive at home.

Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wandering from the fold of God;

He to rescue me from danger Interposed His precious blood."

#.

Robinson begins his second stanza by remembering how he arrived at Calvary

#. it was not by his own desire, or power, or ability

#. he understands that his salvation is by Thy help, and that it is only by Thy good pleasure that he will safely ... arrive at home

#.

Robinson understands the great truth that was re-captured by the Protestant Reformation—that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone

#. to commemorate this moment of grace when God came pouring into his life like a great fountain breaking forth, Robinson is going to raise a spiritual Ebenezer

!! A. GOD, IS THE AUTHOR AND FINISHER OF OUR SALVATION

* /"What then shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, who is against us?

32He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?"/

(Romans 8:31-32, NASB95)

#. many of the hymns that we sing contain specific scriptural allusions and seek to make application of those

allusions to us

#.

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing is one a perfect example

#. it refers to an event in the life os Samuel.

#. the Hebrews had once again fallen into sin, and abandoned the worship of Jehovah