Broken Cistern / The Church Today

THE CHURCH / A BROKEN CISTERN

Jeremiah 2:13 (KJV 1900)

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.

What was a cistern - In the Bible, sometimes the word for cistern is translated “pit.” Such cisterns, or pits, could be dug deep in the ground to store water where men worked in the fields or took care of the flocks. When the people moved to another area, the cistern simply became a dried-up pit as in the time of Joseph.

INTRODUCTION

Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille gave a good explanation of Jeremiah 2:13:

A fountain has an unlimited supply of water. When people forsake God who is a fountain, they hew out for themselves cisterns which are man-made and which hold only a limited amount. If the cistern is a fifty-barrel one, fifty barrels is the maximum supply a person can get from it. When people forsake God, the fountain of living waters, they hew out for themselves, not fountains, but cisterns.  Furthermore, those cisterns are broken cisterns; always leaking away their limited supply.

Israel was placing their trust in other gods (broken cisterns), instead of the one true God.

     Cisterns served an important purpose in Bible times, but they could leak and had only a limited supply. However, we put our trust in the one true God, “the fountain of living waters” that will never go dry.

While this Scripture was written by the prophet Jeremiah to the people of Judah; its truth can be applied to the people of God today. The question is often asked, “What is wrong with the church today?” “Why does she have so little power?” The answer is to be found in the Word of God. There are three things that have a great deal to do with the powerlessness of our churches today.

We will get to those in a little bit. Here are some alarming stats concerning Christianity Today.

Stats Concerning the decline of the Church:

America's Christian majority is shrinking, and could dip below 50% by 2070 The U.S.'s Christian majority has been shrinking for decades. A Pew Research Center study shows that as of 2020, about 64% of Americans identify as Christian. Fifty years ago, that number was 90%.Sep 15, 2022

Christianity is declining rapidly in America. Over approximately the past decade, the percentage of Americans who identify as Christian has gone down 12% – from 75% to 63%.

These are alarming facts concerning the church in the word of God it shows two important facts about the people of God back then that relate to the church of today.

They forsook the Living Water.

They dug their own cisterns.

Jeremiah 2:13 (KJV 1900)

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.

Both these actions were done willfully by God’s People no one forced them to abandon the fountain of living waters. They decided to dig their own cistern in another words they started to things their way.

Cisterns throughout Israel were often hand-cut or chiseled into rock approximately 15-20 feet in the earth. These pear-shaped caverns typically had an opening 2-3 feet wide and once carved, the people would draw water from a well, haul it over to the cistern, and pour the water in – as a storage supply for the entire village or town.

God’s accusation of His people is that rather than live from an endless supply of water, they seek out their own source and in self-effort try to carve out a supply of the life water they need.

To make matters worse, these self-produced cisterns have cracks and all the water tossed into them seeps into the ground and is lost.

What a tragic picture of humanity’s effort to produce life outside of Christ … and what a convicting illustration of what we as Christians often do to attempt to live out the Christian life.

The key word here in Jeremiah 2:13 is that they forsook the Lord. Here we can learn something very powerful tonight we see that we too can forsake the word of God in our lives and begin to live on our own terms. What lead to this way of thinking and living is a mindset of Compromise, Complacency, Confusion

First Point: THERE WAS COMPROMISE INSTEAD OF CONVICTION

Conviction - a firmly held belief or opinion.

Compromise - accept standards that are lower than is desirable.

Illustration:

An Amazing Fact: In 2005, cancer patient Georgia Hayes won a $2.2 billion court settlement against her pharmacist, who had diluted her chemotherapy drugs with water. In the process, she had lost her best chance for recovery. While $2.2 billion is a lot of money, it’s little comfort when you don’t have long to live.

Dilute: to make thinner, to lessen strength, to adulterate, to reduce value or efficiency, to make fainter, or to water down

The church has allow itself to:

A. Compromise with the world and this has led to a lukewarm church.

The word of God has been diluted it has been comtaminuated with the worlds ideals and standards. This is happening today in the Christian Church the truth of God is watering down to appeased the caranal appettite for sin.. This is nothing new in church history

The Apostle Paul had to deal with the dilution of truth. Look at what he said in Galatians 3:1: “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth.”

What happened was, this church was being influenced by a different message. They received a message of freedom, but another message was being preach to tried to dilute the truth they had initially received, in an attempt to take away their freedom.

let’s look at the strong delivery by the Apostle Paul He saids:

a. O foolish Galatians! The strong words were well deserved. Paul did not mean they were morally or mentally deficient / Here Paul used the ancient Greek word anoetos, which had the idea of someone who can think but fails to use their power of perception.

i. The principles Paul referred to are things the Galatians knew, things they had been taught. The knowledge and understanding were there, but they were not using them.

b. Who has bewitched you: Bewitched has the idea that the Galatians were under some type of spell. Paul didn’t mean this literally, but their thinking was so clouded – and so unbiblical – that it seemed that some kind of spell had been cast over them.

The Bible saids 1 Timothy 4:1 NKJV

Now the Spirit [a]expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons,

In another translation the word deceiving reads seducing.

Seduce - attract (someone) to a belief or into a course of action that is inadvisable or foolhardy.

James 4:4. 4 Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

B. Compromise with sin. Isa. 5:20.

Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

This is happening all across America in the Christian Church were sinful behavior is accepted as good.

C. Compromise of Bible doctrine. 1 Tim. 4:2

Now the Spirit [a]expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,

Dictionary meaning of the word conscience an inner feeling or voice viewed as acting as a guide to the rightness or wrongness of one's behavior.

Conscience - The conscience is the God-given moral consciousness within each of us:

Romans 2:15.

15 who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them)

If the conscience is “seared”—literally “cauterized”—then it has been rendered insensitive. Such a conscience does not work properly; it’s as if “spiritual scar tissue” has dulled the sense of right and wrong. Just as the hide of an animal scarred with a branding iron becomes numb to further pain, so the heart of an individual with a seared conscience is desensitized it’s moral pangs.

Pangs of the Conscience - A feeling of shame, guilt, or embarrassment, resulting from behavior which one regrets.

The meaning of having their conscience seared:

Their conscience, which at one time would have convicted them of their departure from the truth, now doesn’t reply at all. It is as if the nerve endings of their conscience have been burnt over and are dead to feeling.

Second Point II. THERE IS COMPLACENCY INSTEAD OF EXPECTANCY.

complacency - a feeling of smug or uncritical satisfaction with oneself or one's achievements.

expectancy - the state of thinking or hoping that something, especially something pleasant, will happen or be the case.

A. The early Christians were looking for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostles preached it.; Titus 2:13;

1 Thessalonians 4:13–18

But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore comfort one another with these words.

Titus 2:13

Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;

B. Turning to Acts we see how they reacted under this belief.

1. They were a praying church. Acts 1:14

Acts 1:14

These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brethren.

2. They were a witnessing church.

Stats on the decline of Evangelism in the Christian Church: This Survey taken by Lifeway Research

Just 46% have shared a verse or story, and 43% have invited a non-Christian loved one to church services or a church program.

Just under Four-in-10 Have Shared the Salvation Message

When it comes to self-described Christians sharing how to become a believer, just 38% report doing so for a friend or family member over the past six months.

Speaking With Non-Christians About Salvation

While 40% reported speaking with these individuals about faith, just 34% invited someone they don’t know to church, and only 30% discussed how to become a believer.

And 39% shared a story about “what God has done in their lives,” according to Lifeway.

Lack of Familiarity

The final statistic worth pointing out is that 66% of self-described Christians report they “aren’t familiar with any methods of telling others about Jesus.”

The World and Christianity Stats

• Despite Christ’s command to evangelize, 67% of all humans from AD 30 to the present day have never even heard the name of Jesus Christ. (Baxter 2007, 12). • In the last 40 years, over 1 billion people have died who have never heard of Jesus, and around 30 million people this year will perish without hearing the message of salvation. (Baxter 2007, 12).

Third Point: III. THERE IS CONFUSION INSTEAD OF CONTENTMENT STEADFASTNESS

A. Today there is confusion as to belief. This is traceable to the fact that God’s people are failing to stand for the truth.

John 7:17.

17 If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.

B. Confusion as to God’s plan for mankind.

C. Confusion as to salvation, a readiness for eternity.

2 Tim. 4:6–8.

6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.

Closing: We must as a church as individuals stay connected to cistern fill with the living water of the Holy Ghost where there is comfort strength, healing, guidnance, assurance, purpose.