I can't tell you how delighted
I am to have Brother Fred Evans, a dear friend of mine, to come
here and to have him visit in with us and haven't seen him
in a while. It's good to see you, brother.
He's the pastor of Redeemer Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky,
and he's going to come preach the gospel to us. You come now,
brother. What a privilege. A privilege
to be here. I pray that God would bless us
as we come and worship him. If you'll take your Bibles and
turn with me to Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 3. Jeremiah chapter 3. And our text
will be found in verse 13. The title of the message this
evening is Forsaking a Free Fountain for Broken Cisterns. Forsaking
a Free Fountain for Broken Cisterns. The Lord says, 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." This message that Jeremiah is preaching
to the nation of Judah was not in a time of captivity as of
yet. Matter of fact, it was a time
of great religious, seeming religious prosperity. It was a day when
Josiah was king. Josiah was a good king. He did that which was right in
the sight of God. Unlike his father before him
and his grandfather, which were these previous kings, set up
false gods and false idols, and they caused the worship of Jehovah
to cease. They set up even false gods in
the temple of God. But Josiah was a king that heard
the Word of God. He heard the Word of the Lord
and he believed. And he cast out all of those
false gods. He began to rule and decree. We don't have kings today, but
this man was a despot. This man, when he decreed something,
it happened. And he decreed that the living
God should be worshipped. He decreed that the false gods
should be put out and the false prophets and priests were to
be killed. In 2 Kings 23 and 25, it says
about Josiah, "...and like unto him there was no king before
him, that turned to the Lord with all his heart, with all
his soul, and with all his might, according to the law of Moses.
Neither after him arose there any like him." Notwithstanding,
the Lord turned not from the fierceness of his great wrath. Wherefore, his anger was kindled
against Judah because of the provocations of Benassah that
had provoked him withal. Even though Josiah had turned
to God, still God did not turn from his anger. Why is that? Seemed like everything was going
well. Seemed like that the worship
of God was restored. Why is it that God would not
return, turn His anger? Well, it's because this was only
a religious reformation, not regeneration. This was only a
reformation, not regeneration. God says in the first chapter
of Jeremiah, he says in verse 16, I will utter my judgments
against them, touching all their wickedness, who have forsaken
me and burned incense unto other gods, and worship the works of
their own hands. Let me ask you this, is this
not exactly what is happening in our day? Is this not what's
happening? There seems to be religious prosperity. There seems to be religious reformation. The problem is there's no regeneration. We live in such a day where there
are more churches per square mile than in any time in the
history of the world. There are more professing believers
now than any time before, and yet immorality, murder, turmoil,
corruption breeds. It continually is to wax worse
and worse, not better. This is because it's only reformation
and not regeneration. If this nation that has more
Bibles, more churches, and more preachers than any other nation
in the world, why is it so corrupt? It's because men have a form
of godliness but deny the power thereof. They claim to have salvation,
they claim to be righteous, they seem outwardly religious and
pious, but because they deny the salvation is of the Lord,
their salvation is vain. That's not a popular message,
is it? Neither was it for Jeremiah. Not a popular message then, it's
not a popular message now. It's just the truth. Just the
truth. The Apostle Paul calls it will-worship. He says, "...touch not, taste
not, handle not, which things perish with the using after the
commandments and doctrines of men, which things have indeed
a show of wisdom in will worship and humility and in neglecting
of the body, not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh."
What is will worship? I'll tell you, it's self-worship.
It's man worship. It's will worship. Therefore,
like those under Josiah's reign today, they have all the correct
terminology. They have all the correct names,
Jesus. They use the words of Holy Scripture, grace, faith,
mercy, forgiveness of sins. But in their hearts, they do
not know God, nor do they worship Him. As God had promised judgment
on that nation of Judah, I declare unto you that God has also promised
a greater judgment on men who will not come to Christ, who
will not believe on the only begotten Son of God. And therefore, in this verse
here, there are two great evils that God speaks of. And from
these two evils flow all other evils. All other evils. Look at your
verse there in verse 13. For my people have committed
two evils. Here's the first one. They have
forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. There's the first. They have forsaken me. And the
second. They worship false gods. They have hewed out for themselves
cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. Imagine with me the scene that's
set before us here by Jeremiah. Imagine the beautiful mountains
set in the background, the majestically high mountains as the backdrop
of this scene. And from the distance you spy
a fountain, beautiful fountain, flowing from the icy caps of
the mountains. The stream of water flows down
the hills into the valley below, and the river is open, it's wide,
it's fresh, it's bubbling. On every side of this river there's
vegetation and fruits of all kinds, and it's welcoming, it's
inviting, it's freshing, it's refreshing. A stream in the desert. There's a problem. Nobody's there. There's a stream in the desert
flowing from the high mountains. It's fresh, it's clear, it's
free, it's open, and yet nobody takes advantage of it. And in
the distance you hear something. You hear a clanking sound, hammers. You walk away, he's in the distance
and you see a quarry, a pit. And in this pit you see men with
hammers banging away at the rocks. What are they doing? They're
making out cisterns. All these men are working hard.
You peer down into that pit, you see them sweating it out
in the heat of the day, chiseling away at the rock to build cisterns. There's a river, and yet you
see men building cisterns. What for? They're chiseling away at the
rock. They work tirelessly, night and day, until he supposes he's
built his great cistern. This man is so proud of himself.
He calls his family, his friends, his neighbors, and says, come
see my work. Come see what great things I've
done. I've built a cistern. His family comes in and they
wait for the rain to come, and the rain comes and pours down,
and he walks out expecting to have a great pool to drink from,
only to find it empty. There's a problem. His cistern
has a fatal crack in the middle, a hole. The porous rock sucks
down all the water, and by and by he's disappointed. He's disappointed. It cannot hold water. All his
work is in vain. His labor cannot sustain his
life in such a wilderness. This, my friends, this man in
the quarry is all of us by nature. What a sad condition. What a
sad condition. Man by nature has rejected the
fountain of living waters which is God, his Maker. For what? To work his own salvation. To work his own salvation in
building a cistern that can hold no water. First of all, let's look at this
fountain. Who is this fountain of water? Friends, it is our
God. It is God who is this fountain.
He says, you have forsaken Me. The fountain of living waters. This is the word that God declares
to sinners. This is a message of free and
sovereign grace. It is a message from the throne
of God. Salvation without the deeds of
the law. Is that not a refreshing spring?
Is that not a refreshing spring? It flows from the throne of God. The source of this fountain comes
from the head. It comes from the Father. It
comes from God the Father, who has out of His own sovereign
electing love, chosen people to be His own sons. In love He
predestinated them to be holy and without blame, and prepared
for them a kingdom before the foundation of the world." Is
this not a glorious fountain? Rich, sweet. Blessed be the God
and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as
He hath chosen us in Him, before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy. we should be holy and without
blame before him in love having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children this message of elections a message of love in love having
predestinated us according to the adoption of children by Jesus
Christ. According to what? The good pleasure
of His will. This is where salvation flows.
It flows from the mountain. It flows from the heights of
glory. It is God the Father who has
chosen a people. Chosen to save a people according
to His own mercy and grace. Jesus says to those in the end
of this, when this is all over, he says to those of his sheep,
he said, come you blessed of my father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you. When? From before the foundation
of the world. Come, what a fountain. Therefore
in love He purposed His Son that He should be our representative.
Our representative, the representative of His precious elect people.
The Father purposed the Son should be our surety, our Redeemer,
our Savior and our King. And because these chosen vessels
of mercy All these vessels of mercy were
not to be born holy. No, we weren't born holy. We were born sinners. Therefore, the Son of God must
have become one of us. He must have condescended to
take upon Him our flesh, so that He might redeem us and reconcile
us to God. See, God could not die. Therefore,
God must have become a man so that He might make a blood offering. This stream of salvation then
that flows from God the Father, it flows from God, which is Christ,
And He has come down. You see the fountain? It's flowing
from the mountain. And what does it do? It comes
down. It flows down into the deepest valley. Humanity. The Lord Jesus Christ became
one of us, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. He condescended
from the heights and riches and glory to such depths of poverty
and shame we would never be able to understand. He being found in fashion as
a man humbled himself and became obedient. Which of us was obedient? Now one, Jesus was obedient to
the law of God. Why? So that he should provide
a righteousness that we could not provide. A righteousness. The righteousness of God. That's
why Jeremiah later says in chapter 23 in verse 6, he says, when
he shall come, he'll be called the Lord, our righteousness. He became a man to fulfill the
righteousness of God for his people. And because we had sinned
against God, the justice of God must be satisfied. Therefore
the Son of God, the spotless Son of God, laid down His life. You suppose you sacrificed anything
to come here? Oh my, you should be ashamed
of yourself. You think you sacrificed a little
to get here. when your Savior had come down
so far as to die in your stead. Stricken, smitten, and afflicted,
see Him dying on the tree, tis the Christ by man rejected. Yes, my soul, tis He, tis He. Tell me, you who hear Him groaning,
Was there ever grief like his? Friends through fear, his cause
disowning, foes insulting his distress, many hands were raised
to wound him, none would interpose to save. But the deepest stroke
that pierced him was the stroke that justice gave. And when the justice of God fell
on his own darling son, when justice could demand no more,
The blood streaming from our Savior's hands, feet, and side.
Matter of fact, His whole body. And when justice said, that's
enough, Jesus said, it is finished. Can you see the river? Can you
see it flowing? Sparkling streams flow. It says
it's finished. Justice satisfied. This is the
fountain of grace, even the blood of the Son of God. He's finished salvation. This
is a message of the gospel. When Darwin preaches it in a
minute, he'll tell you again. This is the gospel. It's finished! Our message is always the same.
It's finished. The apostle said, who being in
the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person
and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had
by himself purged our sin. I'm not a Greek scholar. I'm not an English major. That's
past tense. He purged. It's done. The Scripture
says in Hebrews 9 and verse 27, it says, And as it is pointed
unto men once to die, and after this the judgment, so Christ
once offered Himself. He once offered Himself to bear
the sins of many unto them that look for Him. He shall appear
the second time without sin. Why? It's gone. It's gone. Sin's gone. Hebrews 10, 14, four by one offering
he hath perfected, how long? Forever. Them that are sanctified. Be it known therefore unto you,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins. And by him all that believe are
justified from all things. from which you could not be justified
by the law of Moses. There's the stream. There's the
water. It flows from the throne of God.
And as Moses struck that rock in the wilderness, even so God
struck his son and out flowed the fountain of living water.
The blood that cleanses us from all sins. There is a fountain
filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. Sinners plunge
beneath that flood, lose all their guilty stains. And now He is risen, has sent
His Holy Spirit, and I tell you wherever this gospel is preached
and wherever the Spirit of God goes, this river goes. Ezekiel
tells us that, and you read it later for yourself in Ezekiel
47. Read about that river, how it trickled out from the throne
of God, the temple, and it flowed down, and Ezekiel tried to get
in a little bit on his ankles, and he went on up, and then pretty
soon he was drowning in it, and had to be rescued, brought to
the side, and they showed him that river. And wherever the
river went, there was life. Wherever the river goes, there's
life. Oh, weary, thirsty sinner. There's life. Christ is life. Humble yourselves. Stoop down and drink. And drink
as much as you want. Drink as much as you want. This
is the fountain of never-ceasing grace. never ceasing grace. Oh, how great then is the sin
of unbelief. Is it not the chief and root
of all other sins? To refuse Christ, to refuse to
drink this water, you're doing nothing but hewing out for yourselves
cisterns that have and can hold no water. Let's look at that. Compare this cistern now. Behold
now and compare the cisterns to God's grace. You who will
not come to Christ, you're hard at work, aren't you? You're hard at work. You're hard
at work making cisterns. that can hold no water the first
system that can hold no water is this all sisters are made
by me and all sisters are made by men what is this issue we
don't have any tanks of water because i guess you had in california
you know you you need water so guess you you make sisters in
the desert i know you do i when i was flying over i saw this
big green patches in the middle of the desert and each one of
them had these little pools of water they had to They had to. Cisterns, tanks to hold water. All cisterns are made by man.
And there is nothing more foolish and more wicked and abominable
in the eyes of God than idolatry. Yet all men by their depraved
nature are drawn to it. All men know there's a God, yet
they don't know who He is or how to approach Him. So what
do they do? They make for themselves gods. David said in Psalm 115, he said,
their idols of silver and gold are the work of men's hands.
They have mouths, and they can't speak. They have eyes, and they
can't see. Ears, they can't hear. Noses,
and they can't smell. Hands, they handle not. Feet,
they walk not. Neither do they speak through
their throat. They that make them are like unto them. So is everyone that trusted in
them. Spurgeon had this illustration concerning a Catholic sculptor
who on his deathbed was visited by a priest and the priest said,
you're now departing out of this life and he holding up the beautiful
crucifix said, behold your God. And the sculptor said, I made
that. There was no comfort for him
in the work of his own hands, and there will be no comfort
for you who make unto yourself broken cisterns. The heathen bows down to false
deity, but the true God he has never known. We commit two evils
insomuch as we forsake the living God and turn to idols. These
gods of men are broken cisterns and they cannot save you. And
yet still millions upon millions are bowing down to statues of
Jesus and Mary and the apostles. They bow down to crosses and
altars made by the hands of men. Which are no gods at all. No
gods at all. They cannot save you. There is
no life in them and there is no life in those who worship
them. They will. Then why will men
continue to trust in gods that cannot save? Come to Christ. Come to Christ
and drink by faith in His blood and forsake those false gods! Forsake them! They're nothing!
I love this, I'll give you this illustration because it's so
great. In Mexico they have a lot of those statues and one young
man was saved and his father had all of these statues in his
house and he kept telling his dad, believe on Christ, forsake
those, they don't have any power. He said, no son, these are our
gods. And one day the boy took a hammer and he smashed all of
those idols. And he left one and put the hammer
right beside it. His dad got home and he was very
angry, very upset. He said, son, what did you do?
You smashed my idols. He said, no, he did it. He did
it. He said, son, that's foolishness.
He can't do that. He said, that's what I've been
trying to tell you. He has no power. The second broken cistern is
the picture's all works religion. The natural man is bent on the
false idea that he can earn favor with God by his works. Man's
conscience bears him witness that he's guilty. His heart bears
witness there's a God and he's guilty. But because man is naturally
ignorant of the righteousness of God, he goes about to establish
his own righteousness and use out him for himself a God. And
then what does he do after he has a God? He has to invent a
religion to go with the God. Therefore, he goes about to establish
his own religion so that he can quiet the conscience of his own
heart. How? By his own works. This is
a broken system. It cannot hold water. This is the God of modern Christianity. The God of modern Christianity
is a God who loves all men without exception. The God of modern
Christianity is a God that sent His Son to die for all men without
exception, leaving the work up to man. This is no God at all. A God that needs you is no God
at all. God doesn't need me. I need Him. I need Him. There Jesus died for all men
without exception and leaves the work, the power up to the
will of man. And he must make up the righteousness
of his Christ by the exercise of his own obedience. Now I tell
you, I bear them record, they are workers, aren't they? Man,
they do a lot of work. They're busy. They're busy. They work day and night without
end. Why? Because they're never finished.
The work is never done. Oh, let the wicked forsake his thoughts.
His ways, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him
return unto the Lord." Why would you work so hard when the fountain's
free? Why would you do that? Sinner,
forsake the cistern of works, free will, religion, and come
to the water that's free, and drink. Come to Christ. He's accomplished
salvation. He's finished the work. No more
work necessary. Free. Free. The third broken
cistern is worldly satisfaction. Oh, how men labor at this, to
satisfy the lust of their flesh. This cistern's appealing. It's
very appealing to the eyes. Very beautiful. But no matter how attractive
this cistern is, it cannot ever be satisfied. Vanity of vanities,
all is vanity. Solomon said, he that desires
silver will not be satisfied with silver. The flesh always
says, if I could just have blank, then I would be happy. Who has found that to be true? And when they get it, it's never
enough. They've always got to have more.
Do you see the cistern is always flowing out? Never full. Never full. Earthly cisterns
are broken cisterns and can hold no water. Believer in Christ,
let us ever be watchful for these cisterns of which our flesh is
prone to wonder. Prone to wonder, Lord, I feel
it. Prone to leave the God I love. Believer, let us be warned of
these broken cisterns. They're nothing but depleting
and useless. They're depleting water. They
cannot hold your soul. We sang that song, Rock of Ages. There's another verse to that.
It says, Foul to the fountain fly. Touch me, Savior, or I die. May God keep our hearts and souls
refreshed at the fountain of never-ceasing grace, which is
Jesus Christ our Lord. There is a river that flows from
God above. There is a fountain that frees
the soul from sin. Come to this water. There is
a vast supply. Christ is the river that never
shall run dry. O sinner, why will you continue
to labor for that which does not satisfy the soul? Behold the river, Christ. Now drink. How? Faith. Rest. The work is finished. It's done. Why will you labor for that which
satisfies not? Those are just broken cisterns. I'll have Christ.