(read Jeremiah 2:9-13)
In his commentary on the book of Jeremiah, Andrew Blackwood says this:
“Many Palestinians were dependent upon cisterns, laboriously carved from the rock. Cistern water at best is flat and tasteless; it is easily contaminated with various types of growth that produce a smelly scum. When the cistern is cracked, even the stale water leeches away; the person who turns to the cracked cistern is totally disappointed. The religious forms of idolatry might look quite impressive, but they did not contain the spirit of the living God.”
-Andrew W. Blackwood Jr.
I want to begin today, pointing out that the very term, ‘broken cisterns’, implies two levels of disappointment. The cistern has no intake, other than the rains, or someone pouring water into it, and no outlet. The water just sits there, and the longer it sits there, the more contaminated and putrid it becomes. So imagine having to use this water, day after day, to wash clothes, to bathe in, or to have to boil it prior to cooking with it or drinking it. The deeper disappointment though, is when that cistern is cracked. It obviously then cannot hold water, therefore, the quality of cistern water becomes a moot issue, since the one coming there to find water will only find dryness; emptiness; futility.
God’s charge against the nation of Israel, through Jeremiah, was two-fold. His disappointment was doubled also.
1. They have left springs of living water, 2. They have dug cisterns for themselves, which cannot hold water.
Keep in mind that it is the preincarnate Christ, speaking of Himself, who says, “They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters”.
This is very important for us to grasp, because it is through Christ that you and I have been granted access to the Throne of Grace. Through His sufferings, he has brought many sons to glory. That’s you, if you are a believer in His death and resurrection as payment for your sin and provision for your life.
It is He that the children of Israel had forsaken, and it is He whom our nation, the great United States of America, has forsaken, and it is He whom we often forsake in our fleshly responses to life.
We’ll look more closely at all of this now, to see that God’s charge against Israel is a valid charge against us also.
I want you to see; 1. THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE CHARGE, 2. OUR OWN BROKEN CISTERNS, and 3. GOD’S PROVISION FOR THE REPENTANT
THE SERIOUSNESS OF THE CHARGE
a. WHEN THE LORD CONTENDS WITH YOU (vs 9 & 29)
If you glance at verse 29 in this same chapter, you’ll see God asking the same question of them that I imagine He asks of us today. “Why do you contend with Me?” That word ’contend’ means to strive against...complain against someone. ‘What complaint do you have against Me? You are the ones who have been unfaithful!’
And if you follow these verses to verse 35, you’ll see that ultimately He wins the argument.
“Yet you say, ‘I am innocent; surely His anger is turned away from me’. Behold, I will enter into judgment with you. Because you say, ‘I have not sinned’.”
Christian, please do not be found contending against God.
You know, when a pastor is counseling with someone who has just suffered a loss in the family, or some other tragic turn in their lives that they don’t understand, it’s not uncommon to hear words of anger or resentment or disappointment expressed against God.
In those times, the pastor has to remember that this person is in grief or emotional turmoil, and gently lead them through with prayer and assurances.
But I’m not counseling you today; I’m preaching the word of God and I’m admonishing you; don’t be found contending against God. He deserves your uninhibited praise and your unconditional surrender to His will. He does NOT deserve your criticism or your unbelief.
But here is the more serious warning; watch out, when you give God cause to contend against YOU.
In this New Testament dispensation, the believer’s sins are paid for and all under the blood of the sacrificial Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world.
If you have placed your faith in Christ’s work on the cross of Calvary, you stand before God justified...accepted forever in His Son.
But don’t say that you do not have sin. And when you sin, do not call it what it is not. Because God still says today as He did then; “Behold, I will enter into judgment with you, because you say ‘I have not sinned’.”
How can I say this? Because the Holy Spirit let us know through His New Testament writers that God has not changed in the way He looks at sin OR our owning up to it.
“If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us...If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” (I Jn 1:8&10)
Be careful not to give God cause to contend against you.
When the religious elite of His day rejected Jesus, He quoted Psalm 118 to them, saying, “THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE CHIEF CORNER STONE” Then He followed with this warning for them:
“Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces; but on whomever it falls, it will scatter them like dust”. (Lk. 20:17,18)
This is the Stone we serve. He is the Stone which the builders rejected; and even though we haven’t rejected Him as Savior, we do reject Him as Lord, when we serve sin; and He can still crush to powder
Many Christians there are in this world, ...in this town, ...in these two churches, ...who are saved, and He preserves their souls until that wonderful day of glorification. But in the meantime they are presuming upon His grace with their lifestyles, they strive against Him in their hearts when life is not what they think it should be, and the circumstances of their lives continue to grind them to powder, because their disobedience expresses unbelief in His goodness and His provision, and He cannot let that sin go unchallenged in those He calls His own.
When, in our thinking and our behavior and our witness to the world, we fall on the truth of His Word, we are broken to pieces; Christian or non-Christian. But when the truth of His Word finally falls on us, in our unbelief, in our complacency, in our presumption, we will be scattered like dust; for He cannot deny Himself!
b. THE PAGANS JUDGE YOU (vs 10,11)
Going back to Jeremiah 2:10,11 God begins to address His contention against them by drawing their attention to the pagan cultures around them.
“Take a little trip” He says. “Go over to the coastlands of Kittim (Cyprus) or go the other way, to Kedar (in the Northern part of the Arabian desert) and study what you see there.”
You won’t even find there, among heathen tribes, this spiritual adultery that you perform against ME! God is incensed, and rightly so!
They worship gods that are not gods in that they are dead idols; and they are faithful to them!
But My people have the glory of the immortal, invisible God,...and happily exchange that glory for darkness and spiritual poverty!
“Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures”. (Rom 1:22,23)
Christians! Go over to the Catholic church and listen carefully. They worship gods who are not God, because they pray to idols and they deny the fundamental doctrines of God’s grace. Go learn about the Mormons and see that they deny the very deity of our Risen Savior. They call themselves Christian, but worship demons.
BUT BOTH GROUPS ARE MORE FAITHFUL IN THEIR BELIEFS AND IN THEIR PRACTICE THAN THE VAST MAJORITY OF THOSE IN FUNDAMENTAL CHRISTIAN DENOMINATIONS, WHO PROFESS FAITH IN THE TRUE CHRIST!
God has cause to contend against us today, Christians; and the pagans themselves are judges against us in their devotion, just as the pagans of Kittim and Kedar judged the people of Judah.
c. HOW GOD SEES IT (vs 12)
Do you want a glimpse of how God sees this apostasy; both theirs and ours? Read verse 12 in our text.
“Be appalled, O heavens, at this...”
The earth itself is too corrupted by sin to notice. But be astonished, you stars and moons and planets...some of the things these people turn to in worship...be embarrassed that these people have exchanged the glory of the incorruptible to pay you homage.
Angels of Heaven; you who rejoice when one sinner repents; be appalled at the behavior of God’s own people, as they turn from Him that you live to serve, to worship cold, empty, useless stone and wood.
Gods without life. Cisterns without water.
OUR OWN BROKEN CISTERNS
Let’s talk about some of the broken cisterns we’ve hewn out for ourselves in this age.
a. AS A NATION
As a nation; the United States of America, well, they should be pretty obvious to us by now.
A nation that was founded upon Christian principle and a bold declaration of belief in a Creator God has, slowly at first, but with ever accelerating deliberateness, abandoned springs of living water to hew out the cisterns of:
Evolution
Science
Finance
Philosophy
Religion (and by that I mean the worship of religion itself)
and the lesser gods of apathy, indifference, political correctness, hedonism, and more.
We have had our final warning. Shortly after WWII ended, General Douglas MacArthur, addressing the student body of one of our largest universities, warned that Armageddon is at our door. He predicted that if our nation did not return to God in repentance and humility and reverence, we would soon cease to exist as a free nation.
His words were not heeded, any more than the words of godly preachers and public servants over the decades have been heeded, and now it may be too late.
God says, “MY PEOPLE HAVE COMMITTED TWO EVILS; THEY HAVE FORSAKEN ME, THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS, TO HEW FOR THEMSELVES CISTERNS, BROKEN CISTERNS, THAT CAN HOLD NO WATER”
And that declaration is as much for the United States in the 21st century, as it was for Judah in Jeremiah’s day.
I’ll name them again, and you tell me which ones can hold water. You tell me which ones have quenched the insatiable thirst of our nation:
Evolution, Science, Finance, Philosophy, Religion, and the lesser gods; apathy, indifference, political correctness, hedonism, ...whatever we can find to take the place of God on the Throne over our country.
Tell me which of these cisterns continues to hold stale, putrid water, and not disappoint entirely.
.
b. AS A PEOPLE
As individuals, as citizens of a republic, we hew out our own cracked cisterns. That’s why the larger problems exist, because we have taught our young to do this, then they grow up and become the nation’s leaders and they only continue what they’ve been taught.
In our homes and businesses; in our own private lives, we’ve not drunk from the living springs. We’ve left them for that which disappoints:
Look at the home shopping channel. See what people are buying. Sit quietly at Arvin’s or at the truck stop some morning and eavesdrop on what people are discussing. Glance at the magazine covers near the checkout stand. Notice what are the main focuses of commercials and the stock market reports on CNN. Check into the money and effort business has put into training its people to be politically correct in all their dealings, even at the compromise of moral or religious values. Listen to politicians and legal experts talk, and earmark the things they refer to with confidence and trust and a twisted sort of love, to solve our nation’s ills...and you’ll get a glimpse of the cisterns that our country has dug for itself, one person, one family at a time. Broken cisterns.
c. AS CHRISTIANS
Are we innocent in the church? Far from it. We are the most guilty of all. We have the truth. We who believe have the indwelling Holy Spirit of God. We have His warnings and His promises at our fingertips in the scriptures that we profess to hold as Holy and unchangeable.
But when we are cast into trial; when adverse circumstances come our way, do we run to the fountain of living waters? Seldom.
We grab our picks and our shovels and boy, do we commence to digging!
At best, we run to the self-help books. Never mind if their advice is biblically unsound; as long as it’s sold in a Christian book store or recommended by a church member, or endorsed by a celebrity.
And if someone makes a movie of it; why, that’s the final stamp of approval on any work!
Most of us in the church would rather call a radio preacher for counsel than go to prayer.
Draw out the credit card like a six gun to solve a financial problem, rather than wait and trust God’s promises concerning provision.
Cling with the tenacity of a pit bull to traditions of our church, refusing to learn something new from scripture concerning them, just because that’s the way it’s always been done; and if it hurts a brother or sister or drives out a seeker, TOO BAD!
Broken cisterns.
GOD’S PROVISION FOR THE REPENTANT
Well, I’ve ranted enough; and it’s time to talk about this One whose constant call through the ages, whether in the form of warning or pleading, has always been a call to repentance, sweetened with divine promise.
a. WHO IS THIS FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATERS?
Who is this fountain of living waters?
Well, I think we all know the answer to that one, but it’s fun to look anyway.
In Isaiah 55, the prophet cries out to get the attention of the people. “HO!”
He is about to make a proclamation of hope and joy for the one who heeds and comes to receive.
“HO! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come; buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost.”
Then, in John 7, Jesus echoes the sentiments of the prophet; and to the educated Jewish ear, He would have been proclaiming Himself as fulfillment of the prophet’s words.
Jesus also, cries out with a loud voice, as Isaiah did. And He gives His invitation:
“If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘from his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water’.” (vs 37,38)
So Jesus is the fountain of living waters, as He referred to Himself through the prophet, Jeremiah.
He confirms this also in the fourth chapter of John, in his discourse with the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well. “Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” (vs 13,14)
So it is well established for us, and the Holy Spirit confirms to our hearts, that this ‘fountain of living waters’ referred to in Jeremiah 2 can be no other than Christ Himself. He was that to His people, even before His incarnation. He has always been the source of life for His creation.
There’s more to say about this, but before we go on, let’s talk for just a minute about whether it’s too late for us or for our nation, to turn from broken cisterns to the Living Fountain.
b. IS IT TOO LATE?
Is it too late?
The Lord does not criticize His people for thirsting; He brings charges against them for how they are seeking to satisfy their thirst.
“They have forsaken Me...for broken cisterns that can hold no water”
Is it too late for our nation?
Christian, if you’ve been turning your back on your Lord to pursue the things that do not satisfy; worldly pleasures that are putrid at best, and in the end always empty; is it too late for you?
Let me answer this way.
A natural spring that bubbles up out of the ground, it’s source being some mountain lake higher up, will not dry up simply because you’ve brought bottled water to your nearby camp.
You are not taking advantage of it, but your neglect does not affect the spring. It is there, flowing, clear, cool, fresh, constant.
No, it is not too late for the repentant sinner, or a repentant nation, to turn from futility and once again own the Fountain of Living Waters.
I know from experience, my own and what I’ve witnessed in others, that sadly and too often, people have to be crushed by the consequences of their sin; poisoned by the putrid water in their own laboriously hewn cisterns, before they turn back to the Living Fountain in repentance and faith and receive His grace and mercy and healing.
But it doesn’t have to be that way. He is not as far from you, erring Christian...not as far from our ailing and dying nation as it feels when we’re steeped in disobedience and sin. He is so close to you and to our country, that if you, if we as a people, if we as the church, would turn around...turn away from futility to Him, we’d find Him so close that we’d already be in His arms just for the turning.
c. SPRING UP, OH WELL, WITHIN MY SOUL!
Ps 63:1 says, “O God, Thou art my God; I shall seek Thee earnestly; My soul thirsts for Thee, my flesh yearns for Thee, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.”
We could all have this same yearning for the Lord that the psalmist had, believer.
There is one difference between physical water and the Living Water that Jesus is; that difference is that it is lack of physical water that makes us thirsty and thirstier; whereas, the more we have of Jesus; the closer we are to Him, the thirstier we get for His kind of water.
Ps 143 says “...I meditate on all Thy doings; I muse on the work of Thy hands. I stretch out my hands to Thee; My soul longs for Thee, as a parched land.”
What keeps the soul longing for God? Meditation on His works...stretching the hands toward Him like a loving child wanting to be closer to Daddy. Wanting Him for who He is, not for what He can do for us. That is the kind of relationship with God that both satisfies and makes thirsty for more.
Going back to John 7; after Jesus shouts out His invitation to come and drink of the living waters, the gospel writer explains this:
“But this He spoke of the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.” (vs 39)
Believers in Christ, He has been glorified. The Spirit has been given, and if you have recognized your sin and repented of it, and turned to Christ through faith in His shed blood, then the Spirit does indeed live in you, and verse 38 is referring very specifically to you.
“He who believes in Me, as the scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water’.”
Turn from your broken cisterns, believer. Whatever form they’ve taken, no matter how impressive they look, they hold stagnation and disease, and in the end, they will leave you dry and empty.
Recognize that within you, if you are His, spring up the waters of eternal life. Not only do they nurture and refresh you, but as any flowing stream, they are meant to flow out to others, so that they might have life.
Our land can be healed. But at this point the healing will have to begin within the true church, and come from the true church, because all else in which our nation has placed its trust and confidence is just broken cisterns.
You can be healed, Christian. Turn back in repentance to the Fountain of Living Waters and let the flow begin again.
You can know the freshness and the cleansing that come with repentance and properly placed faith; and you can, today, find yourself singing a new joyful song to Him.
