Broken Cisterns or Living Waters

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 dispirited? 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 of Ecc.
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 blessing to those about us. Are you one?