BROKEN
CISTERNS OR LIVING WATER?
Text;
Jer 2:13 For my people have committed two evils; they have
forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out
cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
John
7:37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and
cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
John
7:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his
belly shall flow rivers of living water.
Intro;
Jeremiah had a most difficult job. He witnessed to a disobedient
people who hated him and his message. They even blamed the messenger
for the evils their own disobedience brought upon them. They chose to
believe the false prophets who tickled their ears with falsehoods.
Why
are men constantly searching? Why are God's people so dissatisfied?
Why
are churches so disspirited? Why is society disrupted? Perhaps God
has the answer in our text.
I.
The Broken Cisterns. It is bad enough to have to drink stale water
filled with wiggle-tails and scum but it is worse yet to find that
the cistern has emptied itself!
A.
The broken cistern is a promise that cannot fulfill its
expectations.. Man's carnal nature is such a broken cistern.
1.
False teachers. Jude 1:12 These are spots in your feasts of
charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear:
clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose
fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
Jude 1:13 Raging
waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to
whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
False
religion always appeals to the carnal nature of man. Healing,
excitement, social events, salvation by works, ritualism.
2.
Those things man seeks as 'fulfillment' The vanities spoken of by
Solomon in Ecclesiastes
3.
The promise of pleasure without cost is a broken cistern.
4.
Church- hopping Christians who look for something which will please
them are trying to drink from a broken cistern. Better to simply seek
His will!
5.
Many seek the wrong thing from God's service and are left wanting.
Peace
is not to be found in searching but in submitting!
II.
The Living Water available.
John
4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of
God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou
wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living
water.
John
7:37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and
cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
John 7:38 He
that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly
shall flow rivers of living water.
On
the last day of the feast they were going through an empty ritual
which was but a broken cistern!
A.
This water satisfies the one who has it. There is no satisfaction for
the spirit in that which appeals to the flesh.
1.
Out of his belly. This satisfaction doesn't depend on the
preacher, the song service or the attitude of others. It comes from
within the individual.
2.
To enjoy spiritual things one must BE spiritual.
For
this one MUST be born again. 1 Cor 2:14 But the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are
foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are
spiritually discerned.
1
Cor 2:15 But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself
is judged of no man.
1
Cor 2:16 For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may
instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.
1
Cor 3:1 And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual,
but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
3.
Jesus was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.1
Pet 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for
the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the
flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:
THEREFORE;
1 Pet 4:1 Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the
flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath
suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;
1 Pet 4:2 That
he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the
lusts of men, but to the will of God.
4.
To drink deeply of the living waters, one must crucify the flesh--and
realize that we are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God.
B.
Through this water we too can experience the contentment of Paul and
the peace of which Christ spoke.
C
This will make us to become a blesing to those about us. Are you
one?
