I've taken the title of tonight's
message from verse 13. The title is The Fountain of
Living Waters. The Fountain of Living Waters.
And before I get into these first 13 verses, I want to just give
you sort of a brief overview of the pattern of Jeremiah's
preaching. Where he starts and where he's
headed. And I want to show you some things
here that that I believe are of interest and very helpful
in our understanding of the scriptures. Understanding of God's word,
especially in light of the gospel of his free and sovereign grace
in Christ. And of course, where we're headed
to this evening is to preach Christ, who is the fountain of
living waters. And we'll see more and more of
that. But here's the first thing that you need to see in the pattern
of Jeremiah's prophecy. as he prophesied, preached to
the people of Judah and Jerusalem in his day. And the first thing
is this, that here's Jeremiah, he's been called of God, he's
been equipped by God, we read about that in chapter 1. And
upon having been given the vision of the almond tree, you remember
the hastening tree? God's judgment is coming fast,
coming soon, and the boiling pot, that pot, that seething
pot, boiling over, which represented Babylon in the north, ready,
boiling over with their lust for power, their greed for land,
and Jeremiah having seen that, he's now going to warn Jerusalem,
this capital city of the southern kingdom, the city of peace, the
city where Solomon's temple is, the city of the king, he's going
to warn Jerusalem that because of her sin, and that's the sin
of the whole nation of Judah now, not just the one city, but
Jerusalem is representative of the whole city, that because
of her sin, that God was going to destroy her soon by sending
the Babylonians from the north, And in this chapter, chapter
2, on to chapter 6, what he's going to be talking about is
Judah's great apostasy. Now you know that word apostasy,
what it means. It means falling away. It means
going away. And Judah had gone away. She
had fallen away, gone away from and forsaken the Lord God Almighty. That's what she had done. And,
of course, we see a great picture there of our fall in Adam. We
fell in Adam. We all, by nature, have gone
away from God. That's why we need salvation.
We've all sinned. When Adam fell, we fell. And
as in Adam, all die, the scripture says. Death passed upon all men. And we're born spiritually dead
in trespasses and sins, what God's Word says. And we go astray
ourselves by our own depravity, our own wills, our own way. And
we see a picture of our own sin and depravity here in Judah. And so from chapters 2 to 6,
that's what Jeremiah is going to be talking about, Judah's
great fall away from God, her apostasy. Now, the second thing
that Jeremiah is going to prophesy about is he's going to warn Judah. He issues a warning, even in
light of this destruction that's coming from the north, which
is God's judgment. And he's clear on this now. I
mean, they can fear the Babylonians and they can hate the Babylonians
because of their lust for power and all of that. But ultimately,
this is God's judgment against Judah. and so jeremiah in his
prophecy he's going to warn them that even in light of this destruction
and i want you to get this now if judah would repent and return
to the lord god in his mercy would yet spare her from that
destruction he tells him that if and i want you to think about
if men and women would repent that's the key that's a big if
Because the fact of the matter is, in Judah's case, she would
not repent and return to the Lord, and neither will any fallen
son or daughter of Adam. You know, there's a popular verse
that's quoted among a lot of Baptist churches around what
we used to call Revival Time. You all familiar with Revival
Time? We used to have a week's revival in the fall and a week's
revival in the spring in the southern Baptist churches. I
don't know about the rest of them, but we'd always have a
guest preacher in. And this was a popular verse
that was quoted during revival time. And it's also quoted in
light of our nation today. It's been quoted quite a bit.
And it's in 2 Chronicles chapter 7 and verse 14. And let me just read it to you.
And this is where the Lord tells the people of Israel. second
chronicle seven fourteen he says if my people which are called
by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and
turn from their wicked ways then will i hear from heaven and will
forgive their sin and will heal their land now that's a promise
from god but i want you know something about that promise
it's a conditional promise it's a conditional promise that god
made to a sinful people. Now what's the problem with that?
Well, the problem is that Judah would not and did not repent.
Israel would not and did not repent. What we see in that history
and under that conditional covenant And you see, that's what that
old covenant was, that law of Moses that Israel was under as
a nation from Sinai to Calvary for 1,500 years. It was a conditional
covenant towards that nation. And why was it given? Well, the
Bible tells us in several places in the New Testament, Romans
5, Galatians 3, for example, that that covenant, that law
was given for one purpose. mainly. Now there were other
purposes, but for one purpose mainly, and that was to show
them their sinfulness, their depravity, and the utter impossibility
of sinners being saved based upon their works. That's why
it was given. And you remember there in Romans
chapter 5, that's where he said where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. What this is, it's a testimony
to the fact that any time man, fallen man, sinners, are placed
under a conditional covenant, we are failures. We won't make it. People today
still, in pride and self-righteousness, seek salvation by a conditional
gospel, false gospel. Israel failed, they might say,
but in the future, we'll be better than them. Is that so? The answer is no. The reality
of the message of God's prophets is that if anyone is saved, anyone
at all, it is totally 100% by God's free and sovereign grace
in Christ and the prophet does speak of a brighter future but
it's not under this conditional covenant it's under another covenant
a new covenant that's not conditioned upon the sinner but conditioned
on a substitute one whom God appointed before the foundation
of the world One who is able to save sinners and one who's
willing to do it. And his name is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And you know in that future promise, that bright future
that the prophets spoke of, Isaiah spoke of it, Jeremiah spoke of
it, they all did. It's not if my people will repent,
they won't. Man by nature and on his own
will not repent. That means you, that means me.
It doesn't say God will bless them if they repent. I'll tell
you what that new covenant says. It says God in his power by the
by the glory of Christ will bring his people to repentance. And
I'll show you that in just a moment. But that's the pattern of his
preaching there. In fact, the Lord told him. They won't repent. Look back up at Jeremiah 1. Verse
19. and they shall fight against
thee." Does that sound like repentance? They're going to fight against
you, Jeremiah. Do you remember when the Lord
called and commissioned Isaiah to go preach? Remember what he
told Isaiah? They're not going to hear you.
Remember how Isaiah 53 starts? Who hath believed our report?
That's a question of amazement. I'm preaching the gospel, Isaiah
says, and nobody believes it. And here he tells Jeremiah in
Jeremiah 1 and verse 19, They shall fight against you, but
they shall not prevail against thee, for I am with thee, saith
the Lord, to deliver thee. Well, here's the third thing,
and that's what I've already talked a little bit about. Jeremiah
is going to come to the realization that Judah will not repent. He's
going to come to the realization that there's no hope for the
nation. And therefore the only option they have is simply to
surrender to God's will in this matter, surrender to Babylon.
And that's the only way to be spared of even greater destruction.
It's almost like Jeremiah's going to tell them this. He's going
to say, you take sides with God against yourself. In other words,
you come to this point. God, I'm only getting what I
deserve. It's like the psalmist said,
Lord, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, who would stand? You know, that's where God brings
his people to when he brings them to repentance. He brings
us to a realization and an admission and a confession that if God
were to damn me, he'd be just in doing so. So there's no hope of salvation
in that nation. And then the fourth thing that
Jeremiah brings out in his prophecies is that there is hope for the
future in the coming of Christ, the Messiah. Salvation of spiritual
Israel, not just the Jews, but God's people out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue, and nation. And so he directs the people
to look beyond the physical and look to the spiritual, God's
grace in Christ. That's our only hope. That's
the only hope for this nation. God will save His remnant out
of the Jews and the Gentiles. And He'll save them by His grace
in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. The fifth thing that Jeremiah
brings out in his prophecy is that he also shows how God would
eventually destroy Babylon. That even though God used that
evil nation to execute His justice on His own people, Israel, against
the sins of Judah Babylon was evil and idolatrous and Babylon
was going to get the judgment of God now here you see that
that great principle of truth that's brought out so well in
the episode in the life of Joseph and the episodes that he had
to put up with with his brethren you remember he told him he said
you meant it for evil but God meant it for good Babylon, when
she comes down upon Judah, she's not doing it for the glory of
God. She's doing it because of her
own greed and lust for power. She's an idolater. But God overrules
the sin of men. If you don't believe that, don't
ever quote Romans 8.28 again. Because you don't believe Romans
8.28. God overrules. God is not the author of sin.
But I want to tell you something, God is in control. Now He is. If He's not, then we're of all
people most miserable. And then the sixth thing Jeremiah
brings out in his prophecy is the destruction of the temple.
That great and glorious temple that Solomon built. God enabled
Solomon to build that temple. Which, Jeremiah tells them, is
the abolishment of the old covenant. to make a way for the new covenant
a one that's to be written in the hearts of God's people and
then seventhly and lastly Jeremiah's prophecy is set for the divine
purpose of God to reveal himself to his people and let me just
show you that that summarized in in Jeremiah chapter 9 there's
two verses there that that most of you are very familiar with
Jeremiah 9 and verse 23 In other words, this sets the
stage for the divine purpose of God to reveal Himself to His
spiritual people, His elect people out of every tribe, kindred,
tongue, and nation. And that's where it says, Thus saith the
Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the
mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in
his riches, but let him that glorieth glory in this, that
he understandeth and knoweth Me. that I am the Lord which
exercise loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth
for in these things I delight, saith the Lord. And that's a
summation of the hearts of God's spiritual people in Christ. Now
with that in mind, let's look back at chapter 2. Here begins
a description of Judah's apostasy. What Jeremiah is going to do,
God is going to bring charges against Judah through the prophet
Jeremiah. And the first thing he brings
up to enhance and bring these charges in their fullest, how
awful it is, what Judah did in their sin, is in the first three
verses here, he talks about his favor to Israel. Look at it. He says, Moreover, the word of
the Lord came to me, saying, Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem,
saying, Thus saith the Lord, I remember thee. He says, the kindness of thy
youth. Now, as you read this, the way it's translated is kind
of a little bit misleading because it seems like he's talking about
Israel's kindness to God. But he's not talking about that
at all. He's talking about his kindness to Israel. When he says
the kindness of thy youth, he means the kindness that God showed
Israel in Israel's youth. Now, when was their youth? Well,
when they were in Egypt. And he brought them out of Egypt.
And he protected them. And he brought them across the
Red Sea and brought them to Sinai and made a covenant with them.
Now, if you read Israel's history, if you read their history there,
there were small groups within the nation who were faithful
to God There were times where the people followed God, but
very few. They were a bunch of complainers,
a bunch of unbelievers, a bunch of murmurers. You remember the
murmur? That word murmur, that means
complain. That's unbelief. Even when they
came up to the brink of the Red Sea, what did they do? They forsook
God and said, oh, Moses, why did you lead us out of Egypt?
We had plenty there. They longed for the flesh pots
of Egypt. When they were on the foot of
Mount Sinai, Moses was up receiving the law. What were they doing?
They were fashioning and worshiping a golden calf. When they got
into the wilderness and they came up to the brink of the promised
land, what did they do? They denied and disbelieved God
and as a result they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. Is that right? So whose kindness
is at the forefront here? God's, not Israel's. That's the
way it is in salvation. It's not our kindness towards
God that saves us, it's His loving kindness towards us in Christ.
Understand that. God doesn't save those who are
kind to Him. He doesn't love those who love
Him. 1 John 4, 10. Herein is love,
not that we love God, but that He loved us and gave His Son. To who? To enemies. to be a propitiation
for our sins. So he says, I remember thee the
kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals. This is talking
about God joining himself to Israel in the sense of a temporal,
physical covenant. God was their husband. Israel
was his bride in that sense. And you remember over in Deuteronomy
chapter 7, he said, I didn't love you or choose you because
you were better or greater than any of that. You were the least.
If you were going to take a tally of all the nations of the world
and judge them by their number and their greatness, Israel would
have been the last one that God would have chosen. But you see,
that's how God works in His sovereign majesty. with the foolish things
of this world, the ignoble things of this world. Incidentally,
he talks about, you remember this time the northern kingdom,
Israel, Samaria, had already been destroyed and scattered.
This is the kingdom of Judah, and Jeremiah reminds them. In
fact, if you want to see that, look, it's in Jeremiah 31, if
I've got it here, I think. You see, God joined himself to
the nation Israel. No, it's not in Jeremiah 31. I'm sorry. I've got another passage
there I'm going to look at. Stay at Jeremiah 31. But God
joined himself. He married Israel in a temporal,
physical covenant. That was a temporary thing. And
he tells them through the prophet Jeremiah that he gave Israel,
the northern kingdom, a bill of divorcement. He divorced himself
from Israel. Now, what were the grounds of
divorcement in the old covenant? It was abandonment or adultery. Well, what had Israel done? They
abandoned God. What had they done? They committed
spiritual adultery. God divorced himself from it.
And Jeremiah reminds them that and he says this, he said, but
Judah didn't take that to heart. They didn't take note of that.
They didn't take that example. They're doing the same thing.
They've abandoned God and, and they've committed spiritual adultery
too. And God's going to divorce them. But look at chapter 31. You see. He became their husband and they
became his spouse, his bride, but their marriage contract was
conditional upon the bride. And the bride failed and God
divorced them. He says that. Got it written
down somewhere, but we'll see it here. But let's look at Jeremiah
31, look at verse 31. Now here's the new covenant.
He said, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make
a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house
of Judah. Now I believe that's talking about spiritual Israel
there, the United Kingdom. But some say, well, that's talking
about physical Israel. Well, look at it now. Verse 32.
Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers
in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of
the land of Egypt, which my covenant they break. They broke it. Although I wasn't husband to
them, saith the Lord. Now he gave them a bill of divorcement.
But he says in verse 33, but this shall be the covenant that
I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. I'll put my law in their inward parts, in their
heart. Write it in their hearts and will be their God and they
shall be my people. They shall teach no more every
man his neighbor and every man his brother. Say, know the Lord,
for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest
of them, saith the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity
and I will remember their sin no more. Now this covenant is
not conditioned on the bride. Who is the bride of Christ? That's the church. Brought under
the headship of Christ. And that marriage contract between
Christ and His church is not conditioned on the bride. It's
conditioned on our husband Christ. And He doesn't break the covenant.
He's perfect. He's righteous. Therefore we'll
never be divorced from Christ. Like Israel and Judah were. Look
back at Jeremiah 2. He goes on, he says, verse 2,
he says, When thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land
that was not sown, and what that means, it wasn't a fertile land,
but God fed him with manna from heaven, with the quail, gave
him the water out of the rock, He said, verse 3, Israel was
holiness unto the Lord. Now, what that means is that
it doesn't mean that any of those people or that nation was morally
perfect. It means that God separated them. He chose them out and He sanctified
them or separated them for Himself, even against their will. He said,
there were the first fruits of his increase. This is the first
fruit. This old covenant in time was
the first covenant as compared to the new covenant. That which
was first in time is taken away. And he says, all that devour
him shall offend. Evil shall come upon them, saith
the Lord. God protected them. Anybody that came against Israel
under that old covenant was cursed. Remember, that was the promise
he gave to Abraham. Well, look at verse four. Now,
here's Israel's great apostasy. And what he's saying here in
these first three verses just kind of heightens the sinfulness
and the depravity that goes along with this apostasy. Verse four.
Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob and all the
families of the house of Israel. Thus saith the Lord, what iniquity
have your fathers found in me that they are gone far from me
and have walked after vanity and become vain? In other words,
what have I done? to bring this on. God hadn't
done anything. God hadn't done anything good for them. Verse
6, neither said they where is the Lord that brought us up out
of the land of Egypt that led us through the wilderness through
a land of deserts and of pits through a land of drought and
of the shadow of death through a land that no man passed through
and where no man dwelt. They wouldn't seek the Lord.
That's what he's saying. No man asked where is the Lord.
They wouldn't seek the Lord. That's man by nature. You see,
this is a great picture of man by nature, all of us in our sin. None righteous, no not one, none
good, none that doeth good, none that seeketh after God. Verse
7, I brought you into a plentiful country to eat the fruit thereof
and the goodness thereof. That's the promised land. But
when you entered, you defiled my land. See, when they got in
there, what'd they do? Read about it in the time of
the judges. They defiled the land. and made mine heritage
an abomination." They took the things that God gave them and
made them an abomination. Now again, that's us by nature,
isn't it? Don't read this and say, well,
those dirty, rotten Israelites, I sure wouldn't have been doing
that. No, you would have been right. I would have been right
with them now. We're sinners. That's why we need grace. That's
why we need abounding grace, isn't it? That's why we need
Christ. Verse 8, the priests did not say, where is the Lord?
That's the religious leaders. And they that handle the law
knew me not. That's the interpreters of the law, Moses. The pastors,
that is the princes, what he's talking about. Those are the
shepherds, the leaders of the people. Also transgressed against
me. And the prophets, they were false
prophets. How do you know? They prophesied
by Baal and walked after the things that do not profit. Remember
in Romans 3 there it says they are all together become unprofitable?
Talking about all of us by nature, that's what it is. You see, salvation
any other way but by God's grace in Christ is totally, totally
unprofitable. No gain there, Paul said, that
which I thought was gain now I count but loss that I may win
Christ. In verse 9 now, he brings his
charge. Now there's their apostasy. Now
he brings the charge against Israel. And he says, For this
reason I will yet plead with you, saith the Lord, and with
your children's children will I plead. Now when it says God
is pleading, it does not mean that God is begging them. Doesn't mean God is pleading
with them or to them or begging them. The plead here is a legal
term, which means God in his plea is bringing forth a charge. He's charging them with sin and the charges stick. Remember
David said, blessed is the man to whom the Lord doth not impute
or charge iniquity. meaning those who God charges
righteousness without works. But here's the charge that God
brings. That's what He means. And it's
to the children's children, their children and their grandchildren,
proving this, that physical heritage and pedigree cannot save you. Being Abraham's physical seed
will not help them. Only the grace of God in Christ
can help them. And then look at verse 10, he
said, for Passover the Isles of Chittim, and see, and send
unto Kedar, and consider diligently, and see if there be such a thing. What he's saying there is that
Israel, what Judah and Israel had done, is worse than the sins
of the immoral, idolatrous Gentiles. In other words, what God is actually
saying here is this, through the prophet, There's never been
anything like this. Look at Kedar, look at Chittim,
idolatrous places. They're not the chosen people
of God. They didn't have the law of Moses. And look at them
and consider them diligently and see if there is such a thing
as this wretched, rotten people who have forsaken their creator,
their maker. That's what he's saying. How
awful it is to sin against the light. Remember Christ in Matthew
chapter 11, he told the cities of Bethsaida and Chorazin and
the cities of the other city he was talking about there. He
said, it'll be more tolerable for Sodom and Tyre and Sidon,
infamously adulterous, idolatrous, immoral places. It'll be more
tolerable for them in the day of judgment than it will be for
you. Isn't that so? And that's what
God's saying here. Verse 11, look, hath a nation
changed their gods which are yet no gods? But my people have
changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Change
the glory of God into something that's wicked. That's what they've
done. And then he says, be astonished.
Verse 12, oh ye heavens at this and be horribly afraid, be ye
very desolate, saith the Lord. This is bad, you see. This is
the worst evil. Sinning against the light, unbelief,
the mother of all sins. And then he specifies it. Verse
13, for my people have committed two evils. I thought about that. You think about it. You know,
the Bible teaches that when God saves a sinner, He washes away,
He covers a multitude of sins. Am I right? I mean, there's no
way that we could honestly count our sins. You think about the
sins of omission, sins of commission. I mean, oh my soul, we're drowning. That's where sin did much more
abound. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. That sin abound is like we're
drowning in a sea of sins. Sin is not only what we do, it's
what we are by nature. And yet he says they've committed
two evils. How would you like to stand before God? And he'd
say, well, you've only committed two sins. Well, that would be
amazing. It's not going to happen, is
it? But I want you to notice what this is. My people have
committed two evils. The evils that these people have
committed cover all sins, embrace all sins. These two evils here are the
mother of all sins. It's unbelief and idolatry out
of pride and self-righteousness. And listen, this is a summary
of man's depravity. It's not that they had just committed
two sins. They committed a multitude of
sins. You can't count them. But these
two evils, as they're described here, are a summary of man's
whole depravity and sinnerhood. These encompass all sin, all
evil. And what are they? Number one,
they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. What is that?
That's man forsaking Christ. John 1.11, he came unto his own
and his own received him not. You see, a sinner's only hope
by the grace of God is Christ, the living water. Look over at
John chapter 4. Christ here at the woman of the
well. You know the story of the Samaritan
woman, the adulterous Samaritan woman. He came up to the well and he
said, woman, give me to drink. And she was astonished that a
Jew would ask a Samaritan for something to drink. He just didn't
do that. In verse 10 of John chapter 4,
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. Now you know why men and women
by nature won't ask? Because they don't know the gift
of God. Remember he said that if thou knewest the gift of God,
why don't we know the gift of God? Because by nature all we
know is trying to earn our way into God's favor. And until God brings us down
off that self-righteous high horse and shows us that there's
nothing good that God can give us that we earn or deserve, except
hell, and that's not good, nothing God gives us that we deserve.
Listen, by way of salvation and blessing, it's all of grace. It's all of grace in Christ.
It's all the free gift. the gift of Christ himself he
that spared not his own son how shall he not but delivered him
up for us all how shall he not with him freely give us all things
that's the gift and listen if we have Christ the gift of Christ
we have everything we have the forgiveness of sins freely a
gift based on oh it cost him his life his blood but it cost
us nothing We have the gift of righteousness in Him justified
before God. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. He rather
is risen again, seated at the right hand of the Father. That's
a gift. We have the gift of spiritual life. We didn't earn that. It
didn't come by our wills or our cooperation. It was given freely. Look at verse 11 of John 4. She
said, The woman saith unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw
with, and the well is deep. From whence then hast thou that
living water? Art thou greater than our father
Jacob? The answer is yes. Which gave us the well, and drank
thereof himself, and his children, and his calf. And Jesus answered
and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall
thirst again. But whosoever drinketh of the
water that I shall give him shall never thirst. that the water
that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing
up unto everlasting life the fountain of living water Jeremiah
speaks of that again over in Jeremiah 17 let me just read
it to you verse 13 Oh Lord the hope of Israel all that forsake
you shall be ashamed and they that depart from me shall be
written in the earth because they have forsaken the Lord the
fountain of living waters God's grace is compared to water because
it's so cooling and refreshing. Christ said, blessed are those
who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. This
water is cleansing and it brings forth fruit. This living water,
it quickens dead sinners. It revives thirsty sinners. It
supports and maintains spiritual life. It issues an eternal life. It continually flows forever
and ever and never stops. It's a fountain because that
denotes its origin. It originates in Christ as the
source of it and it's abundant. Isaiah the prophet spoke of it
over in Isaiah chapter 55. Listen to his words here when
he calls Israel, calls in his day Judah. This is about a hundred
years before Jeremiah and he calls them to repentance But
they would not repent And he says in verse 1 ho everyone that
thirsteth come ye to the waters and he that hath no money Come
ye buy and eat. How you gonna buy with no money?
You receive it as a gift. He says yay come buy wine and
milk without money without price Why do you spend money for that
which is not bread? and your labor for that which
satisfies not. Hearken diligently unto me and
eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself
in fatness, incline your ear and come unto me." Come unto
Christ. I think about that portion of
scripture in John chapter 7 when the people of Israel had gone
through a religious ceremony. I think it was the Feast of Tabernacles
that they had kept. And after they were finished,
Christ stood up. In the last day, it says, the
great day of the feast, he stood and cried, saying, if any man
thirst, let him come to me and drink. He that believeth on me,
as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers
of living water. Religion will not quench that
kind of thirst. Only Christ, the fountain of
living waters. Revelation speaks of it. Christ
says, He will give to him that is thirsty the fountain of the
water of life freely. The Spirit and the Bride say,
Come. And let him that heareth say,
Come. And let him that is a thirst come. And whosoever will, let
him take of the water of life freely. Jeremiah says, They forsaken
the fountain of... To forsake Christ, my friend,
is to forsake God, for He is God. To forsake Christ is to
forsake salvation. But here's the second evil, verse
13 of chapter 2. He says, they hewed them out
cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. And that's
just another way of describing man in his depravity of religion
trying to establish a righteousness of his own. Trying to dig a well
and set it up, but it's broken, it'll hold no water. Let me show
you this to close with. Look at Romans chapter 9. This
sort of sums up what it means for men to seek to hew out cisterns,
broken cisterns that can hold no water. And here's what it
says, Romans 9 and verse 31. We've read it before. It says,
but Israel which followed after the law of righteousness hath
not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore, or why? They didn't
make it. They were trying to be righteous,
but they didn't make it. They fell short. Why? Because
they sought it not by faith. Now, what is it to seek righteousness
by faith? Well, hold on. He says, but as
it were by the works of the law. If you're seeking righteousness,
how are you seeking it? by something you do, or something
you're unable to do, or something within yourself? Well, that's
the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumbling
stone. This is a prophecy from Isaiah.
As it is written, Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone, rock
of offense, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Now, you know that's Christ.
To seek righteousness by faith is to seek righteousness in Christ. That's what it is. How do you
know? Look at verse 1 of chapter 10.
Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that
they might be saved. I bear them record they have
a zeal of God, they're religious, but not according to knowledge.
For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about
to establish their own righteousness, they're hewing out cisterns,
broken cisterns that can hold no water. They've not submitted
themselves unto the righteousness of God. Here's the righteousness
of God. Verse 4, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe. You see in Judah, you know what
you think about in Jeremiah's prophecy, you're going to see
this. In Judah, you're going to see man at his worst, sacrificing
his children to a false God. Can you get any worse than that?
I don't think so. You'll see man at his worst,
and then you'll see man at his best. You're going to see a time
of reformation for Judah under Josiah. You're going to see that
reformation. Getting religious. But in all
of it, here's what you're ultimately going to see. Man cannot save
himself or make himself righteous. At his worst and at his best,
he is totally, totally at the mercy of God. Totally dependent
upon the grace of Almighty God in Christ. And there's no other
hope. But that is a hope, isn't it?
That's a good hope, isn't it? My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. All right.