We turn the sacred scriptures this evening to Jeremiah, chapter two. Jeremiah, chapter two. We read the first 30 verses. Moreover, the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness in a land that was not sown. Israel was holiness unto the Lord and the first fruits of his increase. All that devour him shall offend. Evil shall come upon them, saith the Lord. Hear ye the word of the Lord, O house of Jacob and all the families of the house of Israel, thus saith the Lord. What iniquity have your fathers found in me that they are gone far from me and have walked after vanity and are become vain? Neither said they, where is the Lord that brought us up out of the land of Egypt? That led us through the wilderness, through a land of deserts and of pits, through a land of droughts and of the shadow of death, through a land that no man passed through and where no man dwelt. And I brought you into a plentiful country to eat the fruit thereof and the goodness thereof. But when he entered, he defiled my land and made my heritage an abomination. The priests said not, where is the Lord? And they that handle the law knew me not. The pastors also transgressed against me, and the prophets prophesied by Baal, and walked after things that do not profit. Wherefore, I will yet plead with you, saith the Lord, and with your children's children will I plead. For pass over the aisles of Kittim and see, and send unto Keter and consider diligently and see if there be such a thing. Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? But my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid. Be ye very desolate, saith the Lord, 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. Is Israel a servant? Is he a home-born slave? Why is he spoiled? The young lions roared upon him and yelled, and they made his land waste. His cities are burned without inhabitant. Also, the children of Nath And to happen these have broken the crown of thine head. Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, and that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God when he led thee by the way? And now, what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt to drink the waters of Sihur? Or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria to drink the waters of the river? Thine own wickedness shall correct thee. And thy backsliding shall reprove thee. Know therefore, and see, that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee, saith the Lord God of hosts. For of old time I have broken thy yoke, and burst thy bands, and thou saidst, I will not transgress. When upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot, Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, holy, a right seed. How then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? For though thou wash thee with niter and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God. How canst thou say, I am not polluted? I have not gone after Balaam. See thy way in the valley? Know what thou hast done? Thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways. A wild ass, used to the wilderness, that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure. In her occasion, who can turn her away? All they that seek her will not weary themselves. In her month, they shall find her. Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst. But thou saidst, there is no hope, no, for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go. As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed. They, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets, saying to a stock, thou art my father, and to a stone, thou hast brought me forth. For they have turned their back unto me and not their face. But in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise and save us. But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? Let them arise. They can save thee in the time of thy trouble. For according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah. Wherefore will ye plead with me? Ye all have transgressed against me, saith the Lord. In vain have I smitten your children. They receive no correction. Your own sword have devoured your prophets like a destroying lion. We read thus far God's divinely inspired and infallible word. The text for the sermon tonight is the 13th verse. 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. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, the kingdom of Judah from Rehoboam, now remember, David, then Solomon, then the division of the kingdom, Jeroboam, the first king of Israel, the ten northern tribes. Jeroboam. Rehoboam, the first king of Judah after the division. In Judah, from Rehoboam all the way to the Babylonian captivity, there was a period of about 330 or so years. Jeremiah prophesied to Judah during the last 40 or so years of Judah's existence, up to and even past the Babylonian captivity. That is, he prophesied in Judah at a time in which her rebellion against God was so wicked that God could no longer forbear, but he had to cast them off into captivity in Babylon. Those were the conditions in which he prophesied. We have already noted in connection with chapter 1, that God came to Jeremiah one day and told him, before you came out of the womb, I ordained you a prophet. So now Jeremiah knows he's been called to be a prophet. And then we've also considered the Word of God to Jeremiah. How he had to encourage him because Jeremiah's response to his calling was, Ah, behold, Lord God, I cannot speak. I am a child. I don't have the experience. And evidently, he was also afraid of the possible faces that he would receive from the people. So, the Lord encouraged him. He strengthened him. He gave him his charge. Go and speak My Word. Speak all that I command thee. And so, Jeremiah was called a prophet. He was commissioned. He was given his charge. And now God sends him out into Jerusalem among the people of Judah to speak His Word. Chapter 2 begins with these words, The word of the Lord came to me, saying..." And now here comes the word of the Lord to Jeremiah. Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem. This is urgent. Go. Cry. "...Thus saith the Lord." Verse 2. And the Lord begins His first word to the people from and through the mouth of Jeremiah by calling them to remember the good days. Remember the days of your youth? The love of thine espousals? Remember when we were engaged and everything was well? And you loved Me? And you were excited? And you were holiness unto the Lord? You were devoted unto Me? Remember those days? What happened? What changed? The Lord God, through Jeremiah, gives His own assessment in verse 13, the text. This is what happened. 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. The text, that is God's own assessment of what happened in Judah, is a description of apostasy. Apostasy is the sin of forsaking God as He is revealed in the truth of Jesus. Apostasy was the sin for which Judah was guilty when Jeremiah came to speak to her. The value of the text tonight is that it teaches us something very important about apostasy. Namely, apostasy is evil. And in the second place, apostasy always includes not one, but two evils. Whatever person, nation, church, or denomination apostatizes, they will necessarily be guilty of two evils. The word is a warning tonight to every true church of Jesus Christ of what she needs to know and of what she needs to guard against. In the battle to remain a true church of Jesus Christ. Let's consider this 13th verse now under the theme apostasy's two evils. First, identified second manifested Third, experienced. The two evils of apostasy. What are they? How are they manifested? And what is the experience of these two evils? The text tonight is a description of apostasy. Apostasy is the sin of forsaking God as He is revealed in the truth of Jesus by those who worshipped God and maintained the truth of Jesus in some outward sense. Apostasy is a biblical word. It is found in 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 3, where the Apostle Paul warns about the coming day of the Lord and says, let no man deceive you by any means, for that day shall not come except there come a falling away first. And that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. Except there come a falling away first. That phrase is a translation of the Greek word apostasia. Literally, except there come an apostasy first. That same word, in its Hebrew form, is used in the Old Testament only a couple of times. Interestingly, one of the appearances is in the chapter, Jeremiah 2, verse 19. Thine own wickedness shall correct thee. Literally, thine own apostasy shall correct thee. The text tonight treats the subject of apostasy. That the topic of the text is apostasy is indicated by this phrase in the text. They have forsaken me. That's apostasy. That is the very definition of apostasy. That is the idea of apostasy. To forsake God. The text treats the subject of apostasy. But not only the text, the whole chapter. In fact, the whole book. But explicitly, the whole chapter deals with apostasy. Verse 2 Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord, I remember thee the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me, but you no longer go after me." That's apostasy. Verse 5, Thus saith the Lord, what iniquity have your fathers found in me that they are gone far from me? Apostasy. Verse 17, Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God?" Apostasy. Verse 19, Thine own, literally, apostasy shall correct thee. And then to the end of the verse, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God. Apostasy. The whole chapter, including the text, treats the subject of forsaking God. That is apostasy. We ought to know that the sin of apostasy only takes place in the sphere of the church, as is implied in the aforementioned definition of apostasy. Old Testament Egypt will not be judged by God for the sin of apostasy. Old Testament Assyria will not be judged by God for the sin of apostasy. For the sin takes place in the sphere of the church where God is revealed in the truth of Jesus. Where one has an opportunity to forsake the truth of Jesus. Apostasy takes place in the sphere of the church. That is, in the Old Testament, in the nation of Israel, in Judah, and nowhere else in the Old Testament. Apostasy is an important biblical subject. It is important, first of all, because the entire history of the church indicates that apostasy is always a threat. Secondly, The circumstances and conditions of the church world today indicate that apostasy is still a grave threat. Thirdly, Jesus Himself prophesied that one of the outstanding signs marking the nearness of His return is apostasy. In fact, the aforementioned 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 3 stated that Jesus cannot come. He will not come. Except first, there be a great falling away. Apostasy is an important biblical subject. And anyone who has even a basic knowledge of biblical and church history knows that apostasy is always a threat. We know something of apostasy in our own history, the mother from which we came. In the year of our Lord, 2012, does not look like she did when she cast this out in 1924. And certainly does not look like she did in 1857 when she herself had to leave the Reformed Church in America because of its apostasy. Anyone with a basic knowledge of church history knows the continual threat of apostasy. It has always been present. It is present today. It will always be present until Jesus Christ returns. The value of the text tonight is that it teaches us a fundamental lesson about apostasy. This lesson, apostasy, is always characterized by two evils. The first evil of apostasy is the forsaking of God. The forsaking of God as revealed in the truth of Jesus. God uses a figure in the text in order to teach this. The figure of a fountain. He says, for my people have committed two evils. Now this is evil number one. They have forsaken me. The fountain of living waters. God uses a figure that was common to all of the people of Israel. The inhabitants of Jerusalem. A fountain. Down below the surface of the ground is a spring. And that spring causes water to shoot forth through and out of the ground into the air. A fountain of living water so that animals and people come to the fountain to have water coming out of the ground. A fountain of water that is refreshing and cool and pleasant and satisfying to those who drink of it. An unending fountain because it arises out of a natural spring that was not made by man. And so the fountain runs continually. A fountain of living water. That's a picture of God. For My people have forsaken Me. The fountain of living waters. That fountain is a picture of God in four respects. Number one, God is the fountain of life in Himself. No one made God. God was not created. An idol has to be made, but God in Himself is a God of life, just like a fountain out of the ground, a God of life. In the second place, He is life-giving. Creatures come to Him to receive life. His own people come to Him to receive salvation. The living waters of salvation He gives life. Idols don't. God does. In the third place, He is refreshing and satisfying. All those who come to God and receive His salvation of everlasting life are refreshed and satisfied. And in the fourth place, He is unending. His fountain of salvation and life never dries up. It never stops running. God is the fountain of living water. But even the Israelites knew that the fountain ultimately was referring to the Messiah Jesus Christ. That was made plain even in the Old Testament. For example, Zechariah the prophet said in Zechariah 13 verse 1, in that day, not now, but there's a day coming, In that day, there shall be a fountain open to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness." And he's referring to the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ. He will be the fountain. And then, of course, when the Messiah comes and He begins His earthly ministry, He passes right through Samaria and He stops by the well and He talks to the Samaritan woman and says, as recorded in John 4, verse 14, "...but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." The fountain of living water is Jesus Christ Himself. He has all life. He was born, He died, and He arose again on the third day with all life in Himself. New Resurrection life. Jesus Christ is life giving. Come to Him and receive the salvation and forgiveness and eternal life that He gives. Life giving. Jesus Christ is refreshing and satisfying to the soul as no one and nothing else in His salvation. It is delightful to taste of Him. And He's unending. His fountain of living waters never runs dry. Never into all eternity. Jesus Christ is the fountain of living waters. Now, the way of salvation, the way of blessedness in the covenant, The way of God's favor in Old Testament Israel and in the church today is to thirst after Jesus, the fountain of living waters, and to receive Him and have your soul satisfied by Him. And so we sing. Psalter 114, stanza 1, as thirsts the heart for water brooks, So thirst my soul, O God, for Thee, as Thou art revealed in the truth of Jesus Christ." That's life in the covenant the people of God thirst for and receive the satisfaction of the living waters, Jesus Christ. The first evil of apostasy is that, one, who in some sense had contact with the fountain of life, who was associated in some sense with the fountain of life, who had an intellectual knowledge of the truth of the fountain of life, turns and walks away from the fountain of life. That's the first evil of apostasy. That doesn't happen overnight. It never does. It's always a process. Slowly but surely, gradually, one turns from the fountain that is God revealed in the truth of Jesus and goes another way. They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters. That is the first evil of apostasy. That's universally true. That is always the case in apostasy. It is a forsaking of God as He's revealed in the truth of Jesus. It doesn't matter if the one who apostatizes is an individual, a church, or a denomination, or Old Testament Judah. A forsaking of the fountain of life. However, it's not as if one is by the fountain of life and deliberately chooses to turn his back on the fountain and now spends the rest of his life meandering through the wilderness with nothing that never happens. Never happens in apostasy. That one forsakes the fountain and then meanders. The text tells us. The second evil of apostasy is that the one who forsakes the living waters will then go, as Judah did, and hew them out cisterns. Broken cisterns that can't hold no water. That is, apostasy is never characterized by one evil. There is always a second accompanying evil, whether it be an individual, a church or a denomination. The second evil of apostasy is embracing man-made idols. That, embracing man-made idols. The text says, for my people have committed not one, but two evils. They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can have no water. A cistern today is a big tank, perhaps made out of concrete. You can store water in the tank. In Old Testament Israel, a cistern was a big pit that was hewn out of the rock ordinarily. Out of the rock, and now a big pit. You can store water in the pit. And God uses that figure to describe the second evil of apostasy. Everyone who apostatizes is going to leave the fountain and he's going to go dig a cistern. Embrace idols. Know about the cistern. Number one, a cistern has to be made. Someone has to dig it. No one makes God, but you have to make an idol. A cistern must be made. Number two, A cistern is not alive and life-giving like the fountain. It's just a dry pit. There's no life in a cistern. The same thing is true of an idol. There is no life in an idol. There is in God, but not in an idol. The worshipper has to ascribe properties to his idol. He has to give his idol life, for it has no life in itself. Number three, cisterns do not provide pure, clean, refreshing water, but the water in a cistern is standing water. There it says. It's not moving. It's standing water and often contaminated. It's not pure. An idle God does not provide pure, refreshing waters, but bitter waters. And number four, a cistern is not a never-ending fount. In fact, the text explicitly says that they hew out cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water. What water the cistern may hold, well, it has cracks and holes and all the water is gone. God's fountain never runs dry. What little bit of water an idle God may have, that is, what little bit of pleasure you may get from an idle God, it only lasts a season. And then it's gone. It drains away. And it's even artificial pleasure. Man is thirsty. Every man is thirsty. Every man is religious. Every human being is spiritual. Every man worships. Every man in his soul thirsts. for something. The child of God thirsts for the living waters and his soul is satisfied. But in apostasy, a man, a church, a denomination is not satisfied with God as revealed in the truth of Jesus, but thirsts after and will find some satisfaction in the cistern he has hewed out for himself. Idle gods. These are the two evils of apostasy. Forsaking God as He's revealed in the truth of Jesus, and always embracing man-made idols. That's the identification of the two evils of apostasy. However, before we move on and consider their manifestation, we ought not go any farther until we underscore what the text is teaching us tonight. Namely, the two evils of apostasy are evil. The text uses that word. These are not merely the two characteristics of apostasy. They are the two evils of apostasy. Something is evil if it is that which God hates and does not bring glory to God. Apostasy is evil. And we could come up with many reasons for why apostasy is so evil. The context presents at least two of them to us. Number one, apostasy in its two characteristics is so evil because you will not even find this kind of wickedness in the world. God says, verses 10 and 11, pass over the aisles of Kittim and see, and send unto Keter and consider diligently and see if there be any such thing. Look over the aisles of Kittim That refers to all of the land touching the Mediterranean Sea. Where Judah was, to the west, there were cities along the Mediterranean Sea. And then further west, the islands like Cyprus in the Mediterranean Sea. And then go farther west, there's Macedonia and what we know as Greece and Rome. All of those lands, the Isles of Kittim, everything touching the Mediterranean. Look at all of that to the west and the north. And then go look at Keter. Keter refers to the desert land, the wasteland of the Arabians where the nomads and the Bedouins travel. Go look at Keter, the deserts, to the east and to the south. Look everywhere around you in Kittim and in Keter. And see if there be such a thing. Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? Look at the heathen ungodly. Look at the pagans. And you will not even find among them what I now see in Judah and what's found in the Christian church. Isn't that interesting? The wicked never change their gods. When the wicked take an idol god, they never forsake him. And they never change and go to another idol. Look! Go to Kiddom. Go to Teter. Look among the Canaanites in Canaan who have never forsaken Baal. Go to Mecca and see the Muslims who have never forsaken Allah. Go to Greece and see the Grecians who have never forsaken Zeus. And go to Hollywood and see the worshippers of sex and drugs and alcohol and debauchery and riotous living. They have never forsaken their God. They are faithful to their gods. They are no gods. Verse 11, have the nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods. They're not really gods. They're just idols. But they don't change their gods. They faithfully maintain their gods and are devoted to their gods. And now look at my people. who have changed their glory. That's me, the glorious Jehovah. They have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. So evil is the sin of apostasy that one will not even find it in the wicked world. The ungodly pagans will be judged for one fundamental sin. Breaking the first commandment. Idolatry. The ungodly will be judged for one fundamental sin. Apostate Christianity and apostate Christians will be judged, not for one, but for two sins. So great a wickedness is not even found in the wicked world. And that's why God says in verse 12, Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid Be very desolate, saith the Lord." It's almost as if the heavenly bodies, the sun and the moon and all of the stars that you see at night are looking down upon the world. And God now says to them, He commands them, be astonished, be appalled. and be horribly afraid. That is, shudder and shake in terror at what you see. Not at what you see in the world. Not at what happens in Canaanite groves, and Muslim mosques, and Grecian temples, and Assyrian palaces, and the White House of the United States, and in the immoral scenes of Hollywood. Don't shudder at that. but be astonished at what you see in Judah and in the Christian church today. That's what God says to the heavens. And it's almost as if, figuratively speaking, when you see the stars blinking, they're shuddering, because they have to look down upon this world. And in the world, they see the Christian church forsaking God and turning to man-made idols. And the very stars of the heavens, they shake in horror. So great an evil is not even found in the world, the evil of forsaking God, Christ. In the second place, we can say tonight that apostasy is so evil because it is a revelation of hatred for and ingratitude to God. Certainly, to forsake God is hatred and ingratitude. But to forsake, to use the language of verse 11, glory for that which doth not profit. That's even worse. That's even greater hatred and ingratitude. Now, to use God's own figure in verse two. Remember our engagement, the love of our youth. To forsake us false is hatred. and ingratitude. But there's something worse. There's greater hatred and ingratitude, and that's to forsake a spouse for someone else. For a career. For the pleasure of earthly life. That's even worse. And so it was in Judah, they not only forsook God, the God of all glory, That's hatred enough for God to leave him. But they turn to hew out their own sisters. That's even greater hatred and ingratitude. Interesting, the text literally reads, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters and not and not and. Although that's part of the idea. And here comes the second evil. But, they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters in order to hew. That's purpose. In order to hew. It's not simply the result that they hewed out cisterns. Some were at the fountain of living waters, and over the course of time, now they went over to hew out cisterns. That's the result. They hewed out cisterns. That's not merely the result. It was the very purpose in their mind, while they were at the fountain with the living God, they purposed in their heart that they would go hew out cisterns of living water, rather of bitter water. While they were with Him, they already had their eyes on the idols. They forsook Him with this purpose, that they might go and hew out cisterns. broken cisterns which can hold no water. Hatred for and in gratitude to God and thus the text says, for my people have committed two evils, evils. Those are the two evils of apostasy. They come to manifestation. They did in Judah. Judah forsook God. That's the first evil of apostasy. And that was manifested in Judah. They forsook God as he was revealed in the truth of Jesus God, the God of all glory and salvation in the temple. He revealed himself to Judah there in the most holy place where there was the Ark of the Covenant. and fellowship with God. He revealed Himself in His grace and mercy and lovingkindness as all that blood was flowing from the altars, and it was pointing ahead to Jesus Christ and the forgiveness in Jesus. He showed Himself to Judah and the prophet and the priest and the king, who were always pointing ahead to the great office bearer, Jesus Christ. He showed Himself in the book of the Law of Moses as they opened it up, and it recorded the history of how God brought their fathers out of Egypt and into the promised land of Canaan, the very land on which they were now standing in Jerusalem. God in the temple revealed in Jesus Christ was the fountain of living water and salvation, and Israel and Judah forsook Him. That is, they left the temple and the proper worship of Jehovah in the temple. They went out of the temple. They forsook Jehovah revealed in Jesus. That was the manifestation of their first evil. And then they went to Baal, to Ashtoreth, to the groves of the Canaanites, where all the pagan practices took place. Now, instead of blood and mercy and reverence and awe, according to the book of the law, there was drunkenness and riotous living and partying, which always accompanies the worship of the Canaanite gods. Now, instead of offering incense to Jehovah, they were offering incense, as chapter 1 taught us, to Baal. Come, let me show you, said the priests, this is how you worship Baal. And up went the incense to Baal. Instead of worshiping God, they had their hunks of wood and their carvings and their stones and their stumps and they said, these are our gods. And then came the lawless living that always accompanies idolatry because the idols don't have a law. Verse 18, And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt to drink the waters of Sihor? That's a branch of the Nile. You're drinking the Nile. Why are you drinking the Nile? And you go off to Assyria to drink the waters of the river, the Euphrates. That is, they went to Egypt and said, we need help with our enemies. Will you help us? And then they went to Assyria and said, we've got all these enemies. We want to make an alliance with you. Will you help us? They put their trust in the wicked nations of the world. And that was the manifestation of their second evil of apostasy. They forsook God revealed in Christ. And then they embraced all these man-made idols. The Word of God tonight must expose the rampant apostasy in the church world in which we live. But the Word of God may not make us smug or arrogant. It must humble us tonight. Because the two evils of apostasy can be manifested in our own personal lives. Note well. An elect child of God can never apostatize and fall from grace. Judas Iscariot did, but he was not an elect child of God. An elect child of God will never apostatize and fall from grace. But that's not to say that we, as God's children, do not struggle. We do. Isn't this the great struggle of life? Day after day? Week after week, year after year, we have God. The fountain of living water revealed in Jesus Christ. We have the Word of Christ, the truth of Christ, the forgiveness that God gives us in Christ as we ask for it and confess our sins every day. The fountain of living water, but so often we drift. And we drift. And we want to turn with our affections and desires toward the things of the world. That will satisfy us. That's the great struggle of every child of God. Every day he faces that. The temptation by the wicked nature to drift away from God and the water of life and to find something in the world. Thanks be to God that Jesus died to forgive. of that sin in us. And that the Spirit of Jesus is powerful to quicken in us a turning so that God always turns us back to Himself. But these two evils can be found even in our own personal lives because of our wicked nature. The truth of the passage may not in any way make us smug or arrogant, but the text must expose The rampant apostasy in the church world today. God is speaking not to an individual in the text. He's speaking to the nation of Judah, most of whom in their impenitence will be destroyed in the judgment of the Babylonian captivity. But God is speaking to them and to even to the elect remnant. To turn them. And he will redeem them in judgment. God is speaking to Judah. And the word of God tonight exposes apostasy in churches today in the Christian church. There's this evil forsaking God. The truth of Jesus Christ, even as it is set forth systematically in the orthodox confessions of the Reformed creeds, having the fountain of living water in the truth of Jesus, and so many today now are turning away from the truth of Jesus. But that's only the first evil of apostasy. There is the second evil turning to hew out cisterns embracing idol gods. Many in the church world today have forsaken the God of awe and majesty and holiness and glory and reverence, who demands that we worship Him with reverence and in awe, in spirit and in truth. Now, that's evil enough to forsake that God. But man today has embraced the idol god who wants the worshippers to be happy and emotionally charged, and who comes down to relate to man on his own level. That's the God in many churches. He's on man's level. And He gives to man what He wants and allows irreverent self-worship and man-centered activities and dances. And how the pagans must smile. Yesterday, you worshipped the majestic God. Today, you worship a God just like ours. An idol of frivolity. And how the heavens must shudder. And how Christ must be displeased. Many today in the church world have forsaken the righteous God of strict justice. That's evil enough. But have now hewn out the new cistern. A new idol God whose heart is so large that He finds it in Himself. to take everyone to heaven. How the pagans must smile, for yesterday you worshipped a God of strict justice who required the atonement of Jesus Christ to pay for the sins of the elect. And now today you worship a God whose heart is so large that He will welcome everyone into heaven. Come as you are. God will fellowship with you. And how the heavens must shudder And Christ, who made that atonement to satisfy the strict justice of God, must be displeased. Many in the church have forsaken the God of power and glory, who by the almighty power of His Word created the whole world out of nothing in six literal, successive, 24-hour days. That's evil enough to forsake that great God of glory. But now man bows before the idol God. In Christian churches, bows before the idol God of evolution. and theistic evolution. That idle God who had something to do with the creation in the beginning, but then let it go and over millions of years, things developed in the creation. And how the pagans must smile. And in the universities, yesterday you said your God created everything in the beginning by His power. And now you, Professor, today are teaching In this Christian college, you're teaching the God of evolution. That idle God of evolution and blind chance. How the heavens created by God on the fourth day must shudder at what happens in Christianity. And how Jesus Christ, who was there in the beginning creating, must be displeased. Many in the church world today reject the God of sovereign double predestination who saves all those and only those for whom Christ died, namely the elect, and who by the irresistible power of His grace takes a dead heart and makes it alive. which is evil enough to forsake that sovereign God of salvation. But now a man hews out the cistern again, the old cistern of Pelagianism and Arminianism and worships an idle God who loves everyone and gave Jesus Christ to die for everyone and now pleads with everyone, won't you open up your heart and exercise your free will and accept Jesus into your heart? That's an idle God. He's weak. Man is sovereign and how the pagans must laugh. We've always worshiped gods who are weak and we are sovereign and we determine things. And now, alas, you and the Christian church are worshiping again, like us, a weak god and how the heavens must shudder and how the sovereign savior must be displeased. Many today in Christianity have forsaken the God who instituted marriage between one man and one woman for life, which is serious enough. But now bow down before the idol God who wants you happy in marriage. If that means you divorce and remarry, and divorce again and remarry, then you keep on remarrying. If that means you want to get married to one of the same sex, Is that what will make you happy? to have a male-male relationship, that's what you want, then you have that. And so mainline Protestant denominations today sanction homosexual relationships and how the pagans must smile. We've worshipped this idol god of homosexuality all the way back in Sodom. And you had your god of marriage. Alas, you and the Christian church are bowing before our idol god and how the heavens must shudder And Jesus Christ, the faithful groom, must be displeased. Many have forsaken the God of the Ten Commandments. And hew out new cisterns now. New cisterns. You can cut the fourth commandment right out of the law. God wants you to be happy. If you want to golf and go to the beach and work and do whatever you want to do on Sunday, then you do that. You don't have to worship me. You do what makes you happy. Now man bows before the idol God, who has no commandments. Or only some commandments. And how the pagans must smile. Away goes the law. How the heavens must shudder. And now Christ who died for law-breaking sinners must be displeased. And finally, we could say tonight that many are forsaking the God who inspired the Bible. That's evil enough. But now they are turning to the idolatry of confessing that the Bible is authored by man, and is fallible, and has mistakes, and is not trustworthy, and how the pagans must smile, and the ungodly professors must smirk in the Christian colleges or in the public universities, how they must smirk. We've always said, this book is an ordinary book. We've always said that. It's fallible. It's not trustworthy. And now we have Christian professors in Christian universities teaching the young people, this book is not infallible. Alas! You hew out our cistern and you bow down before our idol God and how the heavens must shudder and the Word incarnate must be displeased." The two evils of apostasy. Forsaking the truth of Jesus and then turning to man-made idols. Evil in experience. The experience of apostasy is evil The experience of faithfulness to God is satisfying. Drinking of the fountain of living water. Is there anything so delightful as wandering through a waste, howling wilderness of sin and souls that are parched because of sin and wickedness and rebellion, only to come to the fountain of living waters, Jesus Christ, and to receive His salvation and be satisfied? That experience is delightful. That's not the case. with drinking from the broken cisterns which hold no water or contaminated water. As the picture itself indicates to us, the experience of apostasy is evil. First of all, the experience is that one is not satisfied. One is never satisfied. Now, God might use that to bring one who has apostatized back. That's always our hope. That one who apostatizes and leaves and walks away from the fountain may say in his soul, I'm never satisfied. I need to go back to the fountain. But that's true then. There's no satisfaction in bowing before the idol god of Arminianism. Well, it gives some pleasure to know that I have to do something to be saved, and I can boast of my works. It never brings true satisfaction like relying exclusively upon Jesus. bowing down before the idol god of homosexuality. That doesn't bring pleasure. The homosexual is not satisfied. He's miserable. She's miserable. There's no satisfaction. That's dirty, contaminated water. No satisfaction in apostasy. Ho! Everyone that thirsteth in apostatizing churches, come to the living waters of Jesus Christ in a true church and drink. Salvation for your soul. There is satisfaction. It would take the Babylonian captivity for God to draw the elect remnant back to Himself as the fountain. But He would. And they would come. And ultimately, the experience of apostasy is death. Under the judgment of God, death. There may be believers in apostate churches. There are believers in apostate churches. They will survive. They will go to heaven. But they don't flourish and they don't have the satisfaction they could have. But most importantly, there are children and grandchildren. And in the generations, there will be death of soul in the judgment of God. And now what parent will give his child a glass of cold, crystal clear drinking water, but will stay in an apostate or apostatizing church while the little child's soul wilts? There's no water there. Oh, everyone that thirsteth, come and may God give a true thirst to such and bring them out to the living waters of Jesus Christ. Our experience tonight, humble gratitude. That ought to be what resonates in our soul because you know your nature and I know my nature. We always struggle because by nature we want to turn away from God. And how in the world could there ever be a true church with all kinds of sinners that are faithful to God? It's mercy. It's God's mercy in us. It's the power of Jesus Christ, the only reason we are faithful and drink of the living waters and are satisfied. God's faithfulness and mercy in the covenant so that our experience tonight is humble gratitude to God. And in conclusion, Our experience tonight must be refreshing satisfaction. We know Jesus. The Jesus of truth. We drink of Him. The fountain of living waters. Doesn't that taste good to your soul? That's our experience tonight. Drinking of Jesus. We are at the fountain. This is our prayer now. God, in our generations, keep us here. Keep us at the fountain of living water, lest we turn away and hew out our own cisterns. God is faithful. May God keep us at the fountain with our children. Amen. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank Thee for life and continue to work life in us. A life that shows itself in love for Thee. Love for Thee with all of our hearts. And may that be our life, that we love Thee and say, Lord God, we will never leave Thee. Help us in our weakness. Strengthen us and our children to remain faithful to Thee. For Jesus' sake, Amen.