Sunday School Lesson

Crackpots
Examining Jeremiah 2:13
An article by Revivalist Mark E. Herridge Sr.
Posted by Joey Kelly

Jeremiah 2:13
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.

Introduction

The second chapter of Jeremiah is a blistering denouncement of God’s chosen people and from the first verse all the way through to verse thirty-seven God exposes, condemns, and promises judgement. There was a controversy between God and those that He had selected to bear His name. It was a dark hour. Everything was out of sorts. Much like the Church of the today.

Look at the accusations that God lays out in this chapter – it is enough to make person blanch in horror as God places the burden on the Prophet Jeremiah. Such a burden! And this burden would soon turn all of Israel, including his family, against the weeping prophet named “God will rise” - a burden that would eventually cause the people of Judah to view Jeremiah as a traitor.

In verse two God reminds Israel that they once loved Him when they were a young nation. Now that they were in their mid-life they had found other loves.

In verse three God sarcastically declares, “Israel was Holiness unto the Lord.” Such a statement from a Holy God! At one time Israel was like unto their God and walked in holiness. Now they had soiled their moral purity with idolatry and whoredom.

In verse five God asks Israel: “What iniquity have your fathers found in me?” God wanted to know what sin He had committed to have been treated so callously and coldly by a people that He had brought from nothing to statehood simply because He chose them from amongst all other people.

On and on and verse by verse God addresses one sin after another. From the priests, the prophets, the princes and on to the people – they had utterly forsaken God and turned to their own lusts. God had been completely and forcefully forsaken. You can almost hear the pain of rejection in the words that God speaks to Israel through the Prophet Jeremiah.

Yet, when you get to the thirteenth verse it all comes together with this statement: “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 powerful statement sums up the sin of Israel by showing first their Rejection of God and, second, their Replacement of God.

Rejecting God is bad enough. Attempting to replace him is even worse. This is what I want to focus on in the rest of this article. We must see that what had taken place in Israel long ago has unfolded today in the modern Fundamental, Holiness, and Pentecostal churches.

Two Evils

Jeremiah recorded all of this for an example. If we are careful we will heed his warning. If we are foolish we can brush it aside and say that “All is well” only to go our merry way as things continue to deteriorate around us. Israel ignored the warnings and they were carried away into captivity. So many today, that were at one time free, are now captives to sin. The bondage is spiritual but no less real. Geographically we may remain in the same place but we are now a long way from where we once were.

Israel was in a spiritually backslidden state and under the judgment of God. Jeremiah said that they had committed two evils – one of commission and one of omission. One of doing evil and one of failing to do what is good. One of rejection of what is right and the other of replacing it with wrong.

Israel’s first sin was forsaking the Fountain of Living Water. The words of verse thirteen says, “they have forsaken me” – this was the great sin of Israel for they had forsaken God Almighty. God is pictured here as a “fountain of living water”, or an artesian well of fresh cool water. The sin of Israel was that they rejected God – they rejected life. What God had given Israel many generations past was life. They were brought out of obscurity and placed in a prominent place of blessing. As long as they followed God they enjoyed His favor and it was apparent to all of the heathen nations surrounding them.

Second, they had hewed out broken cisterns to replace God. Israel had rejected the fresh fountain of life and had replaced it with a cistern, a water-catcher. The cistern may be good in a crisis but it is no substitute for fresh flowing water. A cistern is a container made of stone or wood that was used to collect rainwater during the rainy season for use during the dry season. This was not good fresh water but stagnant, tepid water. Some cisterns were small enough for a single family and would be similar to a rain barrel. Other cisterns could be quite large and were much like a well carved into the rock where they could serve a small town.

The sin of Israel was two-fold because first they rejected God and second they tried to replace him. No one in their right mind would ignore the fresh water springing up from a mountain spring only to choose the tepid stagnant water of a rain barrel. But this is just what Israel had done. They were drinking muddy water when they could have been drinking sparkling water!

Rejection and Replacement! This was the sin of Israel. This is the sin that we find today in societies that had once had a fear of God.

- Mankind has rejected God and replaced Him with atheism.
- Mankind has rejected God and replaced Him with humanism.
- Mankind has rejected God and replaced Him with communism.
- Mankind has rejected God and replaced Him with socialism.
- Mankind has rejected God and replaced Him with materialism.

As bad as these may be, the greater problem is in the Church. For mankind may have rejected God and replaced Him but those that claim to be the Children of God have done so as well. In many ways society is a reflection of the Church. As the Church goes - so goes the world. This is the greater sin and God will not be silent.

The Broken Cistern of Psychology

Our modern society thinks we can solve the ills of mankind by means of psychology. Sadly, so does the Church. Examining the mind by means of humanistic dogma will not solve the mental problems of our society. Sin cannot be measured by means of a Rorschach test.

Mankind’s problems are spiritual and it is only through the spiritual that we will find the help we need. There will never be a natural solution to the spiritual dilemma of our world. Man must return to God and the only way that he can do so is through repentance and faith in Christ.

Like Israel of Old, the Church has rejected God. Churches that once preached on repentance are now given over to “Support Groups”. They have forsaken the fountain of living water only to replace it with the broken cistern of humanistic psychology. It is a double-edged sin. The cost of this is being seen in our churches where the membership is so worldly that most Pastors cannot find any men qualified to fill the office of Deacon. >From the musicians to the singers, from the pulpit to the foyer, and from the pews to the Sunday school classrooms there are not enough spiritual people anymore to properly fill these positions. So what are most Pastors doing? Simply by lowering the standard. We would be better off calling a month long meeting to fast and pray for revival.

Those that practice Psychology are Crackpots – they are broken cisterns. The problem with men and women in our churches is not mental but spiritual. These people are in rebellion against a holy God and the only way to set things right is for them to repent. They must turn from all known sin and practice righteousness.

We don’t need another self-help message. We need the authority of the Bible preached with power and the anointing. If our Pentecostal-Holiness preachers would spend less time counseling and more time preaching “Thus saith the Lord” we would see Revival.

Throughout my 26 years as Pastor in Southeast Texas I was constantly being bombarded with people wanting to sit down with me for counseling. I know there are times that may be necessary but I discovered that most of the problems brought to me in a meeting room could have been more easily dealt with around the altars of prayer. It seems that people will do almost anything to avoid the altar.

What our churches need are Preachers! Away with the sissy counselors! Away with the soft-spoken psychologists! They are crackpots. They are “Broken Cisterns” and they cannot even hold a muddy drink. Give us men of integrity that will come from the prayer room with a fire in their bones and a glint in their eye.

Psychology has failed. They did not use it in the first century Pentecostal Church and that church turned the world upside down. They did not use in the “Re-Awakening of Pentecost” at the turn of the 20th Century and once again the world felt the shockwave of revival. We must return to the fountain of living water – we must return to the absolute authority of scripture, to the power of anointed preaching, to the heaven-kissed prayer meetings, to sound doctrine, and holy living.

The Broken Cistern of Education

Western Civilization thinks this is the cure-all, be-all of our society. They think if you can educate everyone enough we will have no problems. The only problem with this assumption is that some of the worst crimes in our history have been committed by highly educated men. Men like Hitler, Lenin, and Stalin were all educated but they were still mass-murders.

Education definitely has its merit but it will never satisfy the thirst of mankind. What is true in our society is equally true in our churches. We are never going to educate ourselves into revival. We will never educate ourselves to the point that we experience another Upper Room outpouring. The only hope for revival is found in a return to the Living Water.

The Pentecostal and Holiness Churches in America have tried for years to educate their preachers with hopes that this would bring about a new outpouring of the Holy Ghost similar to what took place a hundred years ago. The result is that we are farther from that realization today than we were when we started this quest by building Bible Colleges and Universities. It seems our utopian idea of educated preachers being the next hope for our Pentecostal churches has collapsed on us. Instead of producing revival as we had hoped it has opened the floodgates of doubt and humanism.

Once again we have forsaken the Fountain of Living Water and put our trust in a Cracked Pot. This time it was education. Education, though merited in many ways, is not the answer. Education is just a tool – it can never be the source. Many of these preachers coming out of the Bible colleges have less respect for Biblical authority than they do for science. They have reframed their views of a six-day creation to accommodate the Big Bang. It seems the science book holds more weight with them than The Book. This is what we get for putting our faith in a Broken Cistern.

We must return to the Fountain of Living Waters if we expect to experience a evival in these last days. Those that waited in the upper room were not attendees at a 10-day seminar. No! They were in a soul-searching “tarrying meeting” waiting to experience what God had promised He would do. No one in that Upper Room thought if they learned a little more of the Hebrew language it would bring Revival. No! They were simply on a quest to find God and all that God had for them. That was the condition then and the condition for every Revival since. Let us return to the Fountain that flows to quench our thirsty soul.

The Broken Cistern of Government
So many people today are looking for the government to solve all of their problems. They look for the government to feed them, clothe them, heal them, and support them. People are becoming more and more dependent on government and it is quickly evolving into the “Big Brother” that so many science fiction writers spoke of fifty years ago.

The Church is just as guilty in leaning on the government for help as the world is. Our preachers are so caught up in politics that they know more about the Republic than they do Repentance. They are more concerned about a Republican candidate being in office than they are a Revival sweeping across America.

Americas problems are not going to fixed by the government. The problems in Europe are much too big for a government. Mankind’s problem is that we are in rebellion to a holy God and must repent. The church's problems are that they are far from God and must repent.

Government is a broken cistern! It is a Cracked Pot! We need to turn off the conservative talk radio and fall in the altars and call upon the God of Heaven to come down and quench the thirst within our souls. That is our only hope.

Conclusion

There are many other Broken Cisterns out there. A broken cistern is a crackpot and anything that we look to other than God to solve our problem will ultimately fail us. We must return to the Fountain of Living Water. We must walk away from these Crackpots that we have been trying squeeze water from. They cannot quench the thirst. They will never pull the thirst man back from the brink of death. Only the fresh, sparkling, pure water of the Living Christ can truly meet our need.