Let's pray together. Almighty God, we come before
Thee in the name of the precious Saviour, Jesus Christ. And we
thank Thee that Thou has given us this opportunity to worship
Thee, that Thou has given us this place where we can gather,
and that Thou has promised to grace this place with Thy presence. We pray therefore that thou wilt
give us also an attentive ear and a heart that is softened
by thy grace that we might hear the things that the Lord God
would say this night. And we pray that as we part that
thou wilt be pleased to bless the hearts of each one here.
Our God, thou knowest the needs that we have, each one, and we
pray that this night will be significant in our lives as the
Lord Jesus Christ himself is pleased to speak to our hearts.
For Jesus' sake we ask it. Amen. I want to read some verses to
you this evening from Mark's gospel. Mark's gospel chapter
four. It's just a few verses, but we
are going to read from Mark chapter four and verse one. I think you'll be familiar with
this little passage. It's the Lord Jesus Christ that
is teaching and it says this, And he began again to teach by
the seaside, and there was gathered unto him a great multitude, so
that he entered into a ship and sat in the sea. And the whole
multitude was by the sea on the land. And he taught them many
things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine, hearken,
behold, there went out a sower to sow. And it came to pass,
as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and the fowls of the
air came and devoured it up. And some fell on stony ground,
where it had not much earth, and immediately it sprang up,
and because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up,
it was scorched, and because it had no root, it withered away. And some fell among thorns, and
the thorns grew up, and choked it, and it yielded no fruit. And other fell on good ground,
and did yield fruit that sprang up and increased, and brought
forth some thirty, and some sixty, and some one hundred. And he
said unto them, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. That's a fairly familiar passage
perhaps to some of you. We often hear about the Lord
Jesus Christ speaking about the sower and what happened when
the seed was sown. And of course it's a parable,
it's a picture story. And while we understand the aspect
of the seeds and the earth and the birds, it of course has a
deeper meaning, a greater significance, and it has to do with the way
in which the gospel is preached and how it is received in the
hearts of men and women. This evening I want to speak
from a verse that you find in the Old Testament. That was a
reading from the New Testament. But there is a little verse which
has to do with sowing and seeds and farming and harvest in the
Old Testament as well. And it's found in Jeremiah chapter
8 and verse 20. Here's what it says. It's just
a short verse. And it's a very straightforward
and simple verse to understand. It says this, the harvest is
past, the summer is ended and we are not saved. The harvest
is passed, the summer is ended and we are not saved. I've come
in this afternoon from Shoto and we're passing all the fields
and there's still a few harvesters, combine harvesters out there
but The vast majority of the work is done now up there on
the bench and there isn't much more harvesting to be done at
all. But this little verse from Jeremiah,
it speaks about harvest and it speaks about summer. It speaks
about the end of those things. And it tells us about time passing. And it tells us about missed
opportunity. And it tells us about loss. I
wonder if there are any farmers here this evening or people who
have worked with farm machinery or been engaged in some aspect
of agricultural life. Timing is important on the farm. Most important, much more important
than I ever realized, is timing. You have to get it just right.
And farmers are men that are often watching the calendar.
But I remember thinking about that, when to plough, when to
plant, when to harvest. I remember learning about a harvest
moon. And I'm sure everybody's heard
the song about the harvest moon. But it took me a long time to
realise that the harvest moon was not the moon that shone during
the harvest. The harvest moon was the moon
that told the farmer in the olden days, now is the time to get
out and cut your fields. This verse that is before us
speaks about missed opportunity. And it has to do with a battle
that was being fought in the land of Judah many years ago
in the Old Testament times. It has to do with an attack that
was happening on Jerusalem. And the people in Jerusalem were
facing a mighty enemy. And they hoped that help would
come in the form of an even stronger force, an ally that they hoped
would come and deliver them from their enemies besieging their
city. But the time of deliverance was past. The harvest was past,
the summer had ended, and the hope for forces that they thought
would relieve the siege had never come. And the writer says, we're
not saved. Has anyone ever seen the film
The Last of the Mohicans? Yeah, one of my favourites. I
just love that music in The Last of the Mohicans. You might remember the story
that there was a man there called Colonel Edwin Monroe. He was
the commander of Fort William Henry. And it was a time of the
colonial wars and the French and the English were trying to
battle out to see who could get the most territory in this land
of America, long before it was the United States. The French
had some Native Americans, some Indians with them on their side,
and they were holding out. The British were holding out
in that fort against the French, and they were waiting for someone.
They were waiting for a man called General Wade, who was only a
few days' march away, and they were hoping that he might come
from Fort Edward on the Hudson and relieve the fort there that
was surrounded by the enemy soldiers. And if you know the film, you
know the story, you'll know that those reinforcements never came.
The story unfolds and the inhabitants of the fort end up getting massacred
and butchered. That Bible verse is a verse that
a soldier on the fort might have uttered if he was a religious
man waiting for his reinforcements, his relief to come. He might
have quoted as he felt the time running out and as the French
closed in and the bombardment continued on top of the fort,
the harvest is past, the summer is ended and we're not saved. Our deliverance hasn't come. The second thing that this verse
tells us about is being in danger. And if you need to be rescued,
if you need to be saved, it's because you're in danger. In
fact, being saved is only meaningful if you are in danger. You don't
need to be saved if you're not in trouble. You don't need to
call help if you can look after yourself. I read a story about
an old man. He was an old man. He was well
into his 80s and he was out on the hills. And he was a walker. He knew how to handle himself
out on the hills. And he was what they called a
wild camper. So he was out there on the hills. He'd gone up with a group and
they'd got caught in a storm. And he got separated from his
group. But he knew how to handle himself
up there. And so he started to pitch his
tent and just bed down when the night came in and there was a
storm. But the group went back to the base camp and they realised
he wasn't there. So they raised the alarm for
this guy. And there was a big search party
went out. There were people looking all
over the place for him. He was okay. He was in his tent. He knew what he was doing. They
found that guy four days later walking down the hill and a lady
met him who was out doing some photography and she said, are
you the man that they're looking for? He said, nobody's looking
for me. He said, I'm fine. He said, I
had seen the search parties down in the valley and I never even
shouted to them because he thought he was... You don't need to be
rescued if you're not in trouble. You don't need to be saved if
you can handle things for yourself. But here we're told in the Bible
that people have got a problem. And even although they may not
know about it, the Bible tells us that it is appointed unto
men once to die. And after that, the judgment. There is a judgment that is promised
to all men and women in this world. And we will be answerable. We will be accountable for the
things that we have said and done, for our words, for our
actions, for our thoughts. And God who is holy will hold
us all accountable for all the breaches of his law and all our
disobedience against his word. We may not appreciate that we're
in danger, like that man on the hill, but we are when we think
about what the Bible has to say. The book of Ephesians was written
by a man called the Apostle Paul. He said this in chapter 5 and
verse 5. Know this, know this he says,
no whoremonger or unclean person or covetous man who is an idolater
hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no man deceive you with vain
words. For because of these things cometh
the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. The same man says in Galatians
6, verse 7, Be not deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever
a man soweth, that shall he also reap. The third thing that this verse
tells us here is of the possibility of salvation. The Bible has a
lot to say about salvation. The Bible tells us that it comes
from God. The Bible tells us that it's
a gift of God's grace and His goodness. And the Bible tells
us that it is a very rare thing. There are many more people think
they're saved than actually are. Salvation, deliverance, redemption,
pardon. These are all words that the
Bible uses to explain the salvation that God gives to men and women
because of the judgment that is coming. And there's an urgency
about the salvation of God. Because time is not on our side. The harvest is past. The summer
is ended. And we are not saved. Genesis
chapter 6 verse 3 says, My spirit shall not always strive with
man, for he also is flesh. And pretty soon, these bodies
of ours are going to have to be laid down. And pretty soon,
these bodies of ours are not going to live and breathe anymore.
And there is a day of judgment coming. John the Baptist could
speak of fleeing the wrath which is to come. And the last thing
I want to say, and then we're finished this evening. Thank
you for your attention. Thank you for your courtesy.
is that there is also a great sadness about this verse. Time
had passed. The opportunity had passed. The
relief forces had not arrived. The harvest was passed, the summer
was ended, and we are not saved. The opportunity was gone. Jesus Christ is God's way of
salvation for sinners, like me and like you. Jesus Christ, if
he is neglected, Jesus Christ, if he is despised, Jesus Christ,
if he is not considered in our lives, while we have opportunity,
while we have time, while it is yet light, then that opportunity
will pass. We have to realize that we are
in danger. We have to realize that time
is short. We have to realize that there
is an accountability coming and a judgment is sure. And we have
to know that only in the Lord Jesus Christ is there a way of
salvation. What a terrible day it will be
when we realize that the opportunity has passed and we are outside
of Christ. So I finish with a question.
What is the state of your soul tonight? What do you think about
Jesus Christ? Proverbs 27 verse one says, boast
not thyself of tomorrow, for thou knowest not what a day may
bring. The harvest is past, the summer
has ended, and we are not saved. The time is now. May God grant
us salvation before it's too late. Thank you for your attention. Thank you for listening to what
I've had to say. I'm going to say a quick prayer
and then the meeting will be finished. Heavenly Father, we
thank Thee for the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, the good
news that there is salvation for sinners before it's too late. We pray that thou wilt bless
the things that have been aired this evening and considered.
And that little verse that we read together with respect to
the sower and the seed, we pray that thou wilt give us eyes to
see and ears to hear. And we pray that the seed that
has been sown will land in good ground and there it will grow
and be fruitful and be blessed. For Jesus' sake we ask it. Amen. Thank you, gentlemen.