Silent Pulpits

Holds No Water part 1



A Ugandan Christian told me that once, Ugandans assumed that Westerners were Godly, they were called “Godly people.” Not now. Now, Ugandans refer to white people from the US as “Abaseaga,” which means “homosexual!”

1. Context of the text—the lawsuit: Jehovah v. Israel—2:9-11, the effect will continue for generations!

a. First, the charges are laid—God will specify their offense against Him

b. Then, a thought from God, how stupid could these folks be—even the pagans from Cyprus in the far west of their known world to Kedar in the eastern desert, had never heard of even the pagan nations changing their Gods!

c. Israel’s glory had been Jehovah—(Psa 106:20)

(1) Israel was exalted as God’s Chosen

(2) Israel was exalted by having been given God’s Word.

(3) Israel was exalted because she had the way of salvation revealed to her.

(4) God Himself was Her Glory, and He had revealed His Glory to Israel.

d. Israel had mixed the worship of Jehovah with paganism, and they had practiced the perversions of the pagan religions

(1) Molech and Baal demanded infant sacrifice

(2) Baal worshippers practiced every kind of perverted sex

(3) Some of the kings had even rearranged the house of God and imitated the worship of the pagans—2 Ki 16:9-18

(4) The preachers of the day went along with and cooperated in these abominations

e. Why Was Glory Rejected in Favor of Lies?

(1) The unread book – Judah declined and fell into ruin because of rejecting God and His Word—Josiah’s discovery (2 Kings 22:1-13) shows how the Word had been forgotten

(2) The Unpreached Truth—There were few men of God in the land, and from the least to the greatest, with a very few exceptions, there was a famine of the Word--(Amos 8:11-12)

(3) The Path Without Profit— Judah had followed the counsel and the way, and sat in the seat of the pagans around them—THEY HAD IGNORED THE COMMAND OF THE Psalmist (Psa 1:1-2)


2. The shock and Awe of the Crimes—2:12

a. God calls the Heavens themselves to witness

(1) To the principalities and powers in the heavenlies, God says: LOOK AT THIS UNBELIEVABLE THING

b. He uses three very powerful verbs here— shamem, (shaw-mame'), sawar , chawrab

(1) “shamem,” to Be astonished, to be horrified, absolutely appalled. An example was the devastating destruction of Egypt as it was conquered by the Assyrians. (Ezek 32:10

(2) tremble—(sawar) As if you were facing a violent storm

(3) Be Devastated—(chawrab) like in a desert, be absolutely dried up and blown away by what Jeremiah is about to say.

c. The crimes of Judah were so wicked that the Heavens themselves are called to be completely torn apart because of the crimes


d. God’s Illustration—A Fountain vs. a cistern

(1) God is a Fountain of life.

(a) Psa 36:9
(b) Prov 14:27
(c) John 4:14
(d) John 7:38
(e) Rev 21:6

(2) Our ways are cisterns—in ancient Israel, the shepherds would attempt to build cisterns which would hold water from the few rains in the dry scrubland. Usually, these cisterns either yielded stagnant water, or, because of a crack or imperfection in these man-made cisterns, the water flowed out.

(3) Manmade cisterns—man’s works are nothing. Man’s abilities are nothing, man’s plans are nothing.


(4) Broken cisterns—even that which man imagines he has done successfully, will usually be buried with him, and often breaks long before he is taken away.

(5) Their way held NO water!

(6) “At best, cisterns often yielded stagnant water, at worst, they cracked and allowed the water to seep out. Dead Gods cannot impart life.” Charles L. Feinberg, Expositor’s Commentary


e. Doctrine: If a man or woman, a church, a state, or a nation rejects God’s ways for their own, they are foolish and set to be destroyed, as Judah was.

 

Holds no water part 2

1. Application to America—we in this land have been blessed with God’s Word from the beginning.

a. The Glory of America was found in her faith— Our nation was founded by God-fearing people who loved the Bible

b. Our nation and our laws were established upon Godly principles from the Word. “…Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. ----John Adams


d. The Schools of America were founded for Godly Purposes

(1) Harvard University—The declared purpose of the college was: to train a literate clergy.
(2) The founders of Harvard believed that: All knowledge without Christ was vain.
(3) Princeton University’s official motto was: Under God’s Power She Flourishes.
(4) The first president of Princeton University, the Rev. Jonathan Dickinson, stated: Cursed be all that learning that is contrary to the cross of Christ.

e. Our nation became an example to the world in our schools, our churches, our mission organizations—But, except for a Godly remnant, our nation has rejected its very foundations

(1) Our nation and our laws have been perverted from the Godly principles of our establishment

(2) The wife of our pastor in New Jersey attended Temple University, which was, only two generations ago, founded by a fundamentalist Baptist church. Her professors laughed her to scorn for being a born-again Christian.

(3) Our nation is the home of the pornography industry, and behavior that used to be a shame to mention even in private is now carried out publicly—

(7) Too many Bible-believing Christians are satisfied to sit in their padded pews and hope the rapture comes before it gets too bad. Or worse, they go along with this Christ-denying, God-hating culture and think that by making peace with evil that they can somehow build the church—that is deranged, insane, mad, crazy!

2. We need to seek the fountain of living Waters, and we need to shout aloud that some things are broken cisterns that hold no water—

a. When they say that Religion is to be banned from the public square, that we should keep our faith at home and in private, THAT HOLDS NO WATER!!!

(1) The Lord and His Apostles took the faith to the streets—read the Gospels and the book of Acts, or better yet, hear this COMMAND from our Savior Himself

(Mat 5:13-16)

b. If they say the cross around my wife’s neck may offend someone; my lapel pin or tie tack with the symbol of the fish may shock some poor soul; your little girl’s student Bible may psychologically injure some unsuspecting student; THAT reveals the broken cisterns of our society, That HOLDS NO WATER!!!

c. When a teen aged Kentucky boy in Owen County, KY, has to go to the Federal Court of Appeals to get the right to say that homosexuality is a sin against God and man, something is wrong—THAT HOLDS NO WATER.

d. When they tell us that our pledge containing the words “One nation under God” may make someone feel excluded; THAT HOLDS NO WATER!!!

e. If the champions of all that is indecent say that “In God we trust” may injure the pride of someone with no trust in anything; THAT HOLDS NO WATER!!!

f. If we are told that The ten commandments, which are posted on the walls of the Supreme Court, might hurt the feelings of someone who recognizes no law nor any restraint, so the 10 must go—THAT HOLDS NO WATER!!!

g. If they say that the “rights of women” mean that the murder, the GENOCIDE of the innocents THAT HAS CONSUMED 50 MILLION UNBORN INFANTS is to continue without hindrance— THAT HOLDS NO WATER!!!

h. If the law tells us that Men are to marry men, women are to marry women, and for that matter, any possible combination will be accepted— THAT HOLDS NO WATER!!!

i. Does anyone think it will stop here? What unnamed perversion will be the next “taboo” to fall? Do you think that they will stop at this? THAT HOLDS NO WATER!!!

j. And if these things continue, I say to you that the free expression of opposition to perversion, sin, degradation, atheism, and every other evil—that free expression which is the blood-bought right of every free American—that expression is to be termed “hate speech” and banned from the public forum—if they tell you that they don’t want that—they are lying! THAT HOLDS NO WATER!!!

k. Even now the pulpits are being warned to be silent on the great moral issues of the day, or the thought police of the Anti Christian Lawyers Union will report them to the IRS! THAT HOLDS NO WATER!!!!

3. The Cure—This is no natural crisis, it is a supernatural, spiritual conflict between the forces of darkness and the forces of Truth.

a. We don’t need help with our issues, we need an Awakening, a Reformation, a shaking to the core of our churches and our nation!

b. We need the fire in the pulpit that flowed from the Wesleys, Whitefield, and Jonathan Edwards

c. We need an army of sold-out, young, fearless, fiery, obstinate, well-grounded and taught prophets of God! We need preachers, not socializers—proclaimers, not apologizers—teachers, not questioners—straight-talking men, not entertainers, WE NEED MEN WHO WILL RELEASE THE PENT UP POWER OF GOD’S HOLY WORD AND UNLEASH THE WORD OF GOD!

d. We need men of the Word and prayer, not errand boys!

e. We need men, who if you cut them, they will bleed Bible!

f. We need Christ-loving, man-ignoring faithful and true preachers that will warn multitudes of the wrath to come if they do not turn from their sins and to Christ for salvation!

g. And we need churches that will find true men of god and call ‘em, love ‘em, protect ‘em, get behind ‘em, and stand side by side with them in this war against the dark and evil forces of Satan!

h. And, as believers in a nation that has lost its foundations, we must realize that this is all OUR fault!

i. We need to repent and return to the fountain of life!

(1) Let judgment begin at the house of God.

(2) American Christians, turn from the broken cisterns of perversion, sin, and secularist lies!

(3) American Christians, turn from the perverted “gospels” of prosperity and ease!

(4) American Christians, defend again the faith once delivered to the saints.

(5) Lost American church members, hear the words of the Lord Jesus Himself—Repent and believe in the Gospel!

(6) Turn away from the unread Bible, the unbowed head, the unteared eye, and the unbended knee!

(7) If America falls, it will be because the churches let her fall, indeed helped cause her to fall.

j. Return to the fountain of Living waters! Jeremiah 3:22, (2 Chr 7:14)

 

300,000 pulpits silence? Seems a bit over inflated to me. While i would agree that a lot of churches and probably some pretty influential ones will not touch some of those topics with a 10 foot pole, i'm just not so sure about the 300,000 number.
I know in my own preaching i mention many of those topics and have mentioned them in sermons. While i don't do topical sermons on them...mainly because i don't do topical sermons, i do mention the horror of abortion when teaching on the 10 commandments (do not murder) and how homosexuality is wrong even in our pluralistic society when teaching on Jesus being the truth and we need to stand on truth.
I would be interested to see where they get their statistics from.

 

Me, too. Can I steal your sermon outline?

 

It will cost you a cup of coffee sometime--and NOT Starbucks (a.k.a. "Fourbucks.").

 

I too, enjoyed your posts, this is very true. We wouldn't want to offend anyone.

 

Pulpits are silent

:thumbs:

I too enjoyed reading your posts. So true, we wouldn't want to offend anyone would we?

 

Mjr. B:

That was a very humbling post to read - pray through. I needed that and continue to need it daily.raying: