“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns—broken cisterns that cannot hold water.“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut out cisterns for themselves: broken cisterns that can’t hold water.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.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.
11 sermons cite this verse
… cross-reference in the margin of my Bible that takes me back to Jeremiah chapter 2, where God says to the prophet, my people have committed two evils. One, they've forsaken me, the fountain of living water, and they've dug out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. They've left spiritual satisfaction. They've gone over to idolatry, and they're never satisfied. Jesus is employing that familiar text or that idea. So what I'm learning and what this means is God is searching for true worshipers inside Israel as well as outside Israel. okay now i want to open my heart right i've made observation interpretation how do i apply this to my life i know what it says i know what it means what does it mean to me well now i start asking personal questions like how does that passage apply to my life and i'll tell you on a personal level as i read this what first struck out to me is this idea of worship jesus said woman it doesn't matter what mountain you worship on, whether here or in Jerusalem, the father is looking for true worshipers. And those are the ones that will worship him in spirit and in truth. So I'm struck with that, that it's not where I worship is the issue. Should I go to Calvary and worship today? …
… We see Him characterize through His elements, the elements of water. Jeremiah 2.13, God names Himself the fountain of living water. Psalms 23 and 2 says, He leaded me beside still waters and restored my soul. He can lead me by the same thing that He uses to restore me. Isaiah 51 says, hold everyone that thirsted, come ye to the waters. In John chapter 4, Jesus is talking to a Samaritan woman who has a bucket and coming to a well because she thinks the thirst that she has is internal when it's really spiritual. And Jesus says, you can keep coming back to this same well, but you're going to keep ending up thirsty. But if you take of the water, I have. I'll give you water and you'll never thirst again because water is a thirst quencher and Jesus quenches every thirst and so we see he satisfies the dry and he washes the filthy this is water but but but then there's fire Fire gives light and warmth, and we see God in fire. …
… and that he ought to be finding in his spouse. So Jeremiah 2.13 says this, my people have committed two evils. What are the two evils? The first evil is they forsook me, the fountain of living waters. Second evil is they hewed out cisterns for themselves, holes in the ground that would hold rainwater, broken and cracked. They couldn't even hold water to begin with. How many sins did they commit? Two. One, you forsook God where you were supposed to find meaning and fulfillment and purpose and joy. That's sin number one. Sin number two, the other side of that is you created an idol, a false God to try and obtain the things that you should have been getting from God that you no longer wanted to find in your heavenly father. I point this out because a lot of times we reduce sin, the bad deeds we do to others. And that's certainly part of it. But the primary wickedness of sin is that we forsook God and replaced him with something else. We got a good heavenly father who loves us and created us to be full of him, to be joyful in him. And we said, no, you are not good enough. You are not enough. I don't trust you. Same thing a man does essentially to his wife when he betrays her. And then we turn to other gods to replace what we were no longer finding in God. That's why the wrath of God is upon the human race, because it's ultimately …
Because if not, you'll go after broken cistern love. Jeremiah 22, my people have committed two sins. They have forsaken me, the spring of living water, and they have dug their own cisterns, broken cisterns, that cannot hold water. the problem is a lot of us we choose broken cistern love over living water love and i'm just here to tell you today living water love will satisfy and complete and fulfill you broken cistern love will love you for a moment but cannot fulfill forever why because broken cisterns they leak. In fact, put this on the screen. Broken cisterns promise more than they can deliver. They cannot hold what your soul needs, and eventually they leak. This is the type of love that we think is going to fulfill us or complete us. By the way, let me just remind you, a human can complement you but cannot complete you. Only God can complete you. A human was never created with the ability to fill a God-sized hole. …
… The prophet says, Jeremiah 2, My people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. They've rejected the joy that I have offered them. And they've hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. It's two evils. Rejecting fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. and then hewing out cisterns, idols, trying to get the joy that they rejected here from the sand. They're eating sand to try to find the joy their soul craves. He calls those two great evils. That's what it's like to live in sexual sin. And if you've lived in sexual sin for any amount of time, you know what I'm talking about. You know what he's talking about. they're never going to find blessedness there. You are never going to find blessedness there. You're going to find it by running as hard as possible away from there and into fellowship with Jesus. Purity is a means of seeing and enjoying Jesus more. And enjoying Jesus more is a means of pursuing greater purity. …
… declares the Lord for my people have committed two evils so what is evil in this verse my people have committed two evils Jeremiah 2.13. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living water. Two, they have hewn out, dug out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. So what is evil? I think this is the essence of all evil this is the evil of evil the evil of evils is to taste God sample God and turn away and say yuck Hell is not an overreaction to that indignity. Yuck. And then you add to the yuck by turning to the desert floor and digging and digging and getting your tongue down there and covered with sand. and calling it, oh, that's good. It's insane. It's a great evil. It's a great evil. Most of the world doesn't have a clue what evil is. They think evil is treating other people badly. That's a spinoff. The great evil is looking God in the face and saying, you are very unattractive. …
Be shocked. Be utterly desolate, declares the Lord, for my people have committed two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. That's Isaiah 55 term. And they have hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water. So here's the two evils. Real joy is offered to meet your thirst in the living waters of the fountain, who is God himself. And evil is looking at that fountain and saying, I'll turn to drink elsewhere. I will try to find my satisfaction elsewhere. I will try to hew out. I will try to dig out my own cisterns. be at the edge of the fountain and instead of drinking let me just try digging right here that's the nature of evil that's the nature of our sin that's why we haven't taken up our God on this lavish offer like we ought to and we are culpable for it in our sin So how is it that this offer of real joy can go out to sinners, the wicked, unrighteous like us? …
… Lord." Verse 13, "'For My people have committed two evils. They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water, a way to describe idols. Verse 17, Have you not done this to yourself by your forsaking the Lord your God? Verse 19, Your own wickedness will correct you, and your apostasies will reprove you. Verse 21, he says, "'You turned Yourself before Me into a degenerate shoot of a foreign vine.'" Verse 22, he adds, "'The stain of Your iniquity is before Me,' declares the Lord God." Verse 29, "'Why do You contend with Me? You have all transgressed against Me.'" Verse 32, "'Can a virgin forget her ornaments or a bride her attire? Yet My people have forgotten Me days without number.'" In Deuteronomy the Lord says, "'If you forget Me, you will perish.'" And Jeremiah indicts them by saying, "'That's exactly what you have done. You have forgotten God. You have defected. It's apostasy. It's rebellion." This is not new. …
… Hear the words of Jeremiah, who faced the same reality. Jeremiah 2.13, for My people have committed two evils. They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew out for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. My people have forsaken Me. Apostasy is nothing new. And by the way, both prophets, both Isaiah in chapter 22 of his prophecy in Jeremiah called for weeping and wailing over this defection. This is the most serious of all issues, and it calls for weeping and wailing. Listen to the words of Jeremiah 9, "'O that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I may weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of My people. Jeremiah says, I wish my entire head was a fountain of tears. Later in that same chapter, he says, Send for the wailing women. Let them make haste and take up wailing for us, so that our eyes may shed tears and our eyelids flow with water. …
… Be appalled, verse 12, O heavens, at this, and shudder, be very desolate, declares the Lord, for My people have committed two evils. They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hewn for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water." Why would you do that? This kind of language is telling us that you can't link Satan to God in any kind of spiritual enterprise, if you go in the direction of Satan, you've left God. Turning the church into some kind of racist, feminist, homosexual welcoming club in the name of the gospel is to exchange God for an empty cistern. The kingdom of light joining with bitterness and vengeful, graceless philosophies of the world. This is to abandon God. Partnering with the world, unacceptable. To join in any other common cause with the world on the world's level, like you might want to help people with some charity or some philanthropy is fine. But to assume that any alliance with the world is a part of the gospel is to pollute the gospel. …
… 했 be appalled oh heavens at this be shocked be utterly desolate declares the lord for my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed out cisterns for themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water here's what god says okay picture these words he's in heaven going are you guys watching this are you guys as appalled in evidence like look at i don't understand it completely but he's saying be appalled oh heavens like we're all the angelic beings he's going man look at these people what are they doing he's saying we should be appalled at this oh heavens then look at these two evils that these people down there on the earth are doing number one they've forsaken me they don't want to come up the mountain to meet with me they don't even desire me that the spring of living water but the other evil is they're digging their own cisterns that hold no water it's like they're trying to find fulfillment and all these other things see that's at the root of the sin it's not just pursuing the sin itself it's saying no you you actually forsook jesus you're going you're not enough you're my shepherd but i still want so many other things because you're not good enough you're not enough for me and so i'm going to try to find fulfillment and all these other things and God's just going are you seeing this these guys they don't really want to be with me man I'm like the spring of living water man their cups would …