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JEREMIAH 2:13

"BROKEN CISTERNS"

Intro: Next to air drive, our thirst drive is the strongest drive we have. Water is essential
       for life. We take water for granted. Should our Public Works System fail, the first and
       primary concern would be to find a source of water. God's cry against Israel was...

I. 'THEY HAVE FORSAKEN ME, THE FOUNTAIN OF LIVING WATER."
        A. Living water was running water.
                1. A stream or river.
                2. The fountain was the source of the stream.
                        a. The spring.
                        b. The place where it came out of the ground. 
                        c. There the water was in its purest state.
        B. Jesus often referred to Himself as the water of life.
                1. On the great day of the feast, He stood and cried, "If any man thirst..."
                        a. His reference was to the spiritual thirst in every man.
                        b. His method was to start with the physical which all understood and
                           lead to the spiritual which so few understood.
                2. To the woman at the well in Samaria, He started talking about being thirsty.
                        a. She could relate to that.
                        b. He led her to the water that would end her thirsty.
                3. The last invitation in the Bible is, "Let him that is athirst come, and
                   drink of the water of life freely."
                        a. That is the gospel the Bible proclaims - "God has provided for
                           thirsty man through His Son Jesus Christ."
        C. God's complaint against Israel - "They have forsaken me."
                1. Incredible!  In vs. 10, God challenges them to search the world to find
                   people who have changed gods.
                2. People are devoted and faithful to their gods.
                        a. But the irony is, they are not true gods.

II. "THEY HAVE HEWN OUT CISTERNS."
        A. Man is instinctively religious.
                1. He must live by some creed, philosophy or ideal.
                2. He begins to carve out his own system.
                        a. Evolution, communism, humanism.
                                1. These all have their creeds.
                                2. They all demand faith - blind faith.
                                3. They require devotion.
                        b. Philosophy - system of thought on God.
                                1. His god is the creation of his own mind.
                                        a. Hence it is limited to his own stupidity.
                                        b. Man, poor man, so ignorant in that...
                                2. The supreme good is pleasure (Epicureous).
                                3. The supreme good is power.
                                4. The supreme good is knowledge (Socrates).
 
                3. What is the common factor in each of these systems?  They can't hold water.
                        a. The evolutionist must manufacture, or distort evidence. In many
                           cases, conceal or destroy.
                        b. They cannot satisfy man's deepest needs.
                        c. They will all of them leave you still thirsty.