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There are times that we do not quickly understand some passages of the Bible or are not able to easily apply them to our lives because they reflect radically different ways of life than we are used to. In Jesus' day they walked everywhere they went and reclined on their sides to eat rather than sit at a table. Upon entering a home one would immediately remove their sandals and wash their feet with water provided at the door. If the house that you had entered was a wealthy one, then a servant would come and wash your feet for you! And then you would proceed into the home barefoot and refreshed. Understanding little cultural distinctions like this, help better understand the Word of God and from the language of thousands of years ago, we can pull principles that are timeless and that apply just as much to our lives today as they did back then.

Nowhere is there a greater difference between modern and Biblical culture than that of getting water in the homes. We walk to a faucet and -- hopefully you've paid the water bill -- and turn the handle and out fresh, drinkable, fairly-nice-smelling water flows out. We even have one side for hot and one side for cold and we rarely ever think about it. Such is the marvels of modern convenience. And if you don't like the taste of the tap water, then you can buy bottled water or a water filter and get your water anyway you want it! And then there's frozen water readily available and "do you want it crushed or cubed?" Water is essential to life and an absolute necessity, but never before have we had so many options in how we get our water!

All of this was missing in the Jewish homes of the Old and New Testament. To get water into your home, you had to somehow carry it there. And the females in the audience will be glad to know that usually this was the woman's job. Usually early in the morning and late in the afternoon, the women would head to the nearest water source and fill up clay pitchers and return to the home. Ice was unheard of except in the dead of winter and the taste of the water depended upon the source.

And in most of Israel, water did not come from the lake of Galilee or the Jordon River. For most of Israel, getting water meant either finding a spring or digging a well. Finding a spring of "living water" was the most preferable but such springs were relatively rare or quite a distance from the towns and settlements where the people lived. A well -- if dug deep enough and at a place where it could tap into an underground source -- was the next best thing. And then as a last resort, the Jewish people would build what were known as "cisterns."

A cistern was a fairly shallow hole in the ground -- usually from about 4 to 10 foot deep -- and as big around as the person dared to dig. It was basically a big cave carved out in the ground in such a way as to leave a smaller entrance. When it would rain, water would flow and collect in the cisterns and seep in from the sides. The nicest cisterns of the rich were much bigger and hewed in limestone and sealed with a clay-like substance to hold the water more securely. But more common was a cistern that was lined with broken pieces of pottery shards and primitive, mud-like cement in an effort to slow down the water seeping out. Such cisterns were known as "broken cisterns" because they did not work too well -- pardon the pun. And so most of Israel had a decision to make everyday: do I make the extra effort to travel to and from a well or a nearby spring and get fresh water, or do I use the less appealing water of the broken cistern here in my yard?

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Now you have learned enough cultural background to understand the spiritual application of our text in the book of Jeremiah. Using the common water sources of the day to represent spiritual things, God said:

God here is referred to as "the fountain of living waters!" He is the stream of life, the fresh spring bringing pure and refreshing cool water to quench the thirst of the people. And the ways of sin -- to which Israel had resorted at this time -- is likened as "broken cisterns that can hold no water." And so the analogy is a very clear one: God's ways and Spirit and blessing and commandments are a living fountain of waters and the ways of sin and disobedience are like the waters of broken cisterns. There are several timeless principles that we can learn from this comparison today, because the God who does not change is still like the refreshing fountain of living waters, and sin -- although it often is packaged today in much prettier wrapping -- is still like the broken cisterns of old. It would be useful, then, to compare and contrast the difference between the waters of a fountain and the waters found in a broken cistern because such are still the differences between God and sin today!

First, broken cisterns can only collect what water happens to fall in them and can't totally hold that either. Broken cisterns leak. When you are counting on them the most, they tend to dry up, and you can never be sure that what was stored in them will be there when you need it because they are unpredictable and unreliable and often end up giving different results than you what you planned.

As those broken cisterns, so is choosing the plan of sin for your life. It seems to hold promise and seems to hold success and happiness but it always lets you down when you least expect it. Sin's promises sound great and look great, but they just can't hold water and it is not too long until you discover that it cannot quench your thirst as it claimed to be able to do!

But our God is a different story! Like our other text in Psalms said:

God's love and God's blessings are a "river of delights" and He is truly a "fountain of life!" Simply put, if you will "taste and see that the Lord He is good" you will discover that God's promises not only hold water but they flow with such velocity and force that after your thirst is quenched, there will always be a surplus! The greatest thirst can easily be quenched by just a brief trip to His blessings! The most tired worker can easily be restored by His flow of strength! His fountain is always flowing faithfully whether you need it or not and far exceed any possible expectation! Truly His mercy and His way is a "river of delights!"

A second characteristic of broken cisterns is that they are dependent upon the seasons and therefore full in the rainy season and dry in the summer. In the time where you need the cistern the most, it fails you. In the seasons of life that are the hottest, is when the cisterns are the emptiest.

Such is sin: when things are going good and the rain of blessings and the spring and fall of life are in effect, things seem okay depending upon sin's cycle. But it is when you hit bottom and a drought time in your life that you find sin deserts you. While you smile, the world smiles with you -- cry and you cry alone. While you've got money and something seemingly to offer society, you have friends and fame. When you are broke and you go through a dry season in life, you are there alone. Such is the broken cistern of sin!

But our God's blessing and goodness flows the same no matter the season! That is because He is a fountain of living waters that is not dependent upon surface situations but rather has its source deep underground. What you see of God's blessings in your life are just a very small part of a deep river of goodness and mercy that flows strongly far beyond the reaches of the seasons of life! And even if it be in the driest, hottest time of your life, you will find just as much water flowing as there was in the spring! And in the winter times, when the cold winds blow across your life and the chill of death impacts you, you will still find the living water there just as it was in harvest time in the fall. Between God and sin there can be no comparison: one is in every way unfaithful and the other is in every way faithful and unchanging! The God who changes His Word for nobody, also never changes His faithfulness in fulfilling His promises!

A third issue with broken cisterns is that the water is still and quickly grows stagnant with a putrid taste. It is only fresh for a very short time at the very beginning. As it sits, bacteria begins to form in it and the tastes of the soil around it soak into it making it very unappetizing the longer that it is there.

Such is sin. The Bible admits that there is pleasure in sin, but the Bible correctly states that there is "pleasure in sin for a season."(Hebrews 11:25) It's fun at first but it is a very short season of pleasure indeed, because "the wages" or end result of sin is death and its waters quickly turn putrid and bitter because they are the product of a broken cistern. What seemed a sweet drink, quickly turns sour and causes all sorts of pain and suffering. I'm surprised that so many people are surprised when things grow worse and worse in their sinful situations. What did you expect? When you reject the ways of God, you are drinking from a broken cistern. It's not capable of producing what a living fountain of water can produce! If you choose to willfully sin, then enjoy that moment of pleasure because certainly a lifetime of hurt and pain will follow it!

But not so with our God and His ways! His way is to flow more and more blessings and touches and anointings into your life so that His water never has a chance to grow stagnant or bitter to the taste. To those who choose to live at the source of His Spirit and drink heavily everyday from His fountain, they know that His waters always remain fresh and pure and always quench their thirst. And the longer you drink from His fountain, the sweeter and sweeter He becomes! Far from letting you down, He just gets better and better until even after you have well drunk, you can proclaim with the governor of the feast in John 2: "you have kept the good stuff until now!" If you think that God is great at first taste, just wait until you have been serving Him a while -- it only gets better!

Yet a fourth issue with broken cisterns, is that even in the short time that they work, they have a limited capacity. It matters not how much water pours from the sky, they can only hold so much after which the rest is just wasted and unavailable. And so it is with sin: even on the days that you are happy, there is a limit to your happiness and even when things seem peaceful and worry free there is a limit to such contentment. Even when you feel "blessed" while in sin and things seem pleasant, there is a limit to such feeling and states because sin can only fulfill you so much. It can only quench your thirst for a moment and for a limited time. Its shortcomings far exceed what people really desire in life.

But we serve a God whose fountain of waters is such that it makes our "cups runneth over!" We serve the God who takes the limits off and gives you a "peace that passes all understanding." He loves us with a love that is as great as the sky above us! He is the God who:

With God there are no limits except those that we place upon ourselves! Because He is a fountain of living waters; a river of delights that never stops flowing! God's goodness and way of living so far surpasses that of sin, that really there is no comparison between the two!

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Now perhaps you can understand why our text said:

"Angels, gasp and put your hands over your mouth in disbelief." "Twenty-four elders drop your crowns in shock!" "Living creatures spin around and around in horror at what is happening on earth." And all of them join in the question of heaven, "why on earth would men turn to the broken cisterns of sin when God's great fountain flows so freely available!?" All in all, when you think of it, it is a shocking and strange thing!

And notice the words of our text about "cisterns that they hewed out with their own hands." In other words, God said "they created their own things to rely on and they invented their own methods of quenching their thirst and it took more work to do so and it still failed to do what they wanted! And yet everyday they get up and return to it!

And so we come to greater realization of what is meant by "broken cisterns" here. It is not just sin in general, but the sins that people return to time and time again -- the things that constantly do to try to make it work -- and try to quench their thirst. How crazy is it that most of humanity continually goes to the same muddy pit and yet expects refreshing water over and over and over! The angels are shocked that people would be so foolish to turn to the same things over and over again and yet expect different results.

Reminds me of the story of the woman at the well in the 4th chapter of John. Jesus passed through Samaria and had an encounter with the woman at Jacob's well. We find that He used the well there to bring up a spiritual analogy in much the same way as the prophet Jeremiah. Jesus told the woman:

I found out something that somewhat shocked me a few weeks ago. I was reading a story of certain men who traveled around to Biblical sites in the mid 1900s and reported visually on what they found there. These guys went and visited Jacob's Well in Samaria and were astonished to find from talking to the natives that there is a season of several months when the "well" goes dry. This is because the well is not deep enough to tap into a main water source and relies on ground water seeping in from the sides during rainy seasons. In other words, Jacob's Well is more of a cistern than a fountain of water! No wonder that Jesus used it as a type of sin in comparison to the fountain of water that He had to give!

And so the analogy fits perfectly within our message today. The woman had been drinking both physically and spiritually from broken cisterns and Jesus had come to show her a new fountain, one that would never grow dry and that could flow from within her. He -- of course -- was talking about the Holy Spirit and yet He first had to get the woman away from the broken cisterns of her life. That is why we find this exchange:

What amazes me is how many times the woman had returned to the broken cistern of relationships expecting different results! Married five times and now living with a guy and still thirsty?! But things were about to change because the seventh man had just walked into her life and this guy was the fountain of life; not a broken cistern!

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We are no different from the woman at the well or Israel of Jeremiah's day. It is an amazing thing: why would people return repeatedly to the muddy waters of their broken cisterns and not go drink freely from the fountain of life? In prayer and thinking about it, I was able to come up with only three reasons why this could be so. Why would people return time and time again to their broken cisterns?

1. Because they don't know the fountain of living waters exists!

Such was the case of the woman at the well in John 4. She did not know that the living waters of Jesus Christ were even currently available. Could it be that there are some here today who walked in here not knowing that the rivers of blessings of God are not only still available, but He wants to place it within you? There is something greater than what this world has to offer and it is found through the infilling of the Holy Ghost! God still feels people with the Holy Ghost! God still fulfills people's thirst and quenches what they had been turning to sin trying to satisfy! If you like the woman at the well have come here drinking spiritually from the same murky waters that you have always done, I have good news for you! Jesus Christ is here and you can leave here today having received the inflow of the fountain of life! You can drink from the spring of God's anointing today!

And perhaps there is another reason why some people return repeatedly to the bitter waters of the broken cisterns of sin:

2. Because cisterns are more convenient than going to the fountain.

Chances are that the cistern of sin has been in the family a while and requires no work from you. It has always been there from a child up. Chances are that you sipped from it first after watching mom and dad sip from it. And so returning to the cistern seems natural and normal. You've gotten used to the bitter, muddy taste and the things that go with it. To go the fountain of life would mean leaving your comfort zone and walking a path that you have never walked. It would mean stepping out in faith and getting beyond the normal. It would mean going beyond what the rest of your family and friends are doing and going further in God. And so because of all of this, many people, sadly just keep returning to the broken cistern in their life!

It may take some extra effort to get to and drink from the fountain of God, but you will find that it is well worth it! Like the woman at the well, even confronting her fears and past was worth getting to drink from the everlasting springs of Jesus Christ! It could be that there are those here today who are thinking "is it worth the effort and the ridicule of being different?" And I am here to tell you to "taste and see that the Lord is good!" You will find that His blessings and refreshing is far worth whatever sacrifice or effort required to get there!

And so we have discussed some reasons why some people who have never tasted of God's goodness return to the broken cisterns of sin, but what of those who have tasted of it? What of those people who, like the children of Israel in our text, "have committed two evils" by first turning from the God of the fountain of waters and then returning to their broken cisterns? Why would someone who has tasted before turn away and return to the things of sin? It could be that the convenience of sin is why, but there is another possibility, namely:

3. Because they have forgotten what the fountain of waters tastes like!

It's one thing to never have tasted the goodness of God and turn to the murky waters, but it is quite another to have drank freely of His blessing and Spirit and then turn away. How quickly we forget how great the Spirit of God felt in our lives! How quickly we push aside in our memory that incomparable feeling of His love permeating and saturating our every part and of His peace and joy sloshing over the rim of our soul! For someone to turn from such things, they have to forget the taste of God's living water and convince themselves that it wasn't nearly as good as it seemed.

But I'm here today to remind somebody that it was a good as it seemed and would only get better if you returned and kept drinking! Once you have tasted of the pure living flow of God Almighty, you will never be satisfied with the things of this world again! Don't let the devil try to dull the memory -- you've never been the happiest and the most content as you were when you let God quench your appetites!

God help us to be more like King David of whom the Bible says:

David was in the middle of a fight, and the enemy had seized Bethlehem and was trying to destroy David, but he did not forget in the midst of great adversity and fighting what the cool, refreshing water of the well of Bethlehem had tasted like! Go read the story some time: some of his mighty men heard his sigh and three of them fought through the camp of the enemy and drew water from the well and brought it back to him!

Oh, that we who have tasted of the living water of the One born in Bethlehem would never forget the pureness and refreshing taste! And oh, that like the mighty men, we would realize that even if I've got to fight through some things the living water of the One from Bethlehem is far worth the struggle! There is nothing like it! There is no well of this world that can compare! There is no cistern that can equal its product. Let us never forget how great the things of God truly taste! And let us long for His living water with a longing that surpasses everything else!

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And so I'm preaching to you today: Heaven sits in amazement at some of our trips and actions. They watch in shock as we return to the same broken cisterns of godless relationships, immorality, alcohol, money, power, prayerlessness, dry religion, ritualism, or whatever. And they are amazed that we return once, twice; five, six times expecting different results!? It's a broken cistern! It doesn't have the ability to fulfill your thirst! It doesn't have the ability to make you happy for forever! For that, you are going to have to go to the fountain of life. But you will not be able to go to the fountain until you realize that the broken cisterns in your life are not working. Until you realize the foolishness of your behavior of trusting in yourself and sin. Jesus knew how many husbands that the woman at the well had had, but He asked not for His knowledge but trying to get her to see the fruitlessness of her actions! He was waiting for the revelation of the barrenness of her broken cisterns to come to her! And until that revelation came, He could do nothing for her.

Heaven sits watching today and it is the will of God for someone to see your sin and lifestyle for the broken cistern that it really is! Repeating your behavior and turning to the things that you have always turned to, will lead to the same results that you have always gotten! But if you will realize that it cannot quench your thirst, then you need to know that there is something greater: the fountain of blessings of the Spirit of God.

And so I close with this:

For the last few months I've been doing a private study on the times that Jesus showed extreme passion. I've been interested, for example, what it was that caused Him to get angry and turn His belt into whip. I've looked at what it was that caused Him to respond with vengeance and passion. And so one of the things that I've noticed is there are a few times where Jesus was so adamant about something that He didn't just say it as a teacher normally would in that day but rather He screamed it to the top of His lungs with a loud voice. There were some things that Jesus was so adamant about that He yelled it to the crowds, crying it out! And one such time is this:

It was as He viewed the crowds watching the pouring out of the drink offering. And as He looked at the crowds of people who were returning so faithfully to the cisterns of sin and ritualism that it just got ahold of Him! And Jesus couldn't help Himself, but He -- crying out and interrupting the entire event -- He screamed "if anybody is thirsty, then let him come to me and drink!" And the Bible tells us that He was talking about the Holy Spirit which had not yet been poured out but that whose price would be soon be paid on Calvary and would be poured out on those who freely desired it!

Jesus screamed, "if anybody thirst, let him come to me and drink!" In other words, stop going to your broken cisterns and the wells of this earth for your spiritual nourishment! Stop returning to the mud pits of sin! And I wonder if we could tune into heaven's response to our lives today, if we would not hear the gasps and the shocked utterances as heaven reacted to our returning time and time again to the broken cisterns of our life. And yet if we would not hear over this the voice of a Savior crying out, reverberating around heaven. Crying "why do you return to such things over and over?" "If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink!"

The Holy Ghost has now been poured out and it freely available to whosoever will turn from their sins and come to Him! If you've never tasted of it, come and partake because there is nothing in this world like it! If it has been too long since you have drank freely from it and you have allowed the things of this world to dull your memory of its greatness, then come and take long drinks again until you are so full of God's goodness that you can never forget its greatness, even in the middle of the hardest time of your life! The God of the fountain of the living waters is here and anxious to quench your spiritual thirst. Leave the broken cisterns of sin and come to God's river of delights! Come taste and see that the Lord truly is good!