The harvest is past, the summer has ended and we are not saved

BALTEAGH PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 12 OCTOBER 2025 - MR GRAHAM ORR

JEREMIAH 8 VERSES 4 - 23

As we come to this familiar text in verse 20 we are asked the question "Are you a Christian? Are you saved?" Jeremiah was known as the weeping prophet. In chapter 1 verse 1 we read that he came from the priestly line at Anthoth. He was called to be a prophet of the Lord, to bring God's message to the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. His message was one of God's judgment because of Judah's sin, their corruption and idolatry as well as the rottenness of society at the time. This led God to judge the people. We know that this is what happened in 587 BC as the Babylonians came in and destroyed Jerusalem and the temple. The people were carried into captivity for 70 years. God did bring judgment. Jeremiah suffered for his message. He was mocked, ridiculed and put in prison, even in a well at one point. But "the word of God burned in his bones."(chapter 9 verse 1) This was Jeremiah's heart. He was not bringing a message of joy but he had a burden of judgment. He ministered with tears. There is a reminder here that a day of judgment is coming for all of us. Just as Jesus wept over Jerusalem in his day. Think of Jesus on the cross of Calvary when he prayed "Father forgive them for they know not what they do."  There are consequences for those who continue in their sin. The day of the Lord is coming for Judah and for us too when Christ will come again. 

The harvest is past. The harvest has been gathered in already. Scripture reminds us that there will be a spiritual harvest in the last day when Christ comes again. Revelation 14 verse 14

I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” 16So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested.

Christ will come one day. It will be the day of God's wrath. We read elsewhere of the separation of the wheat and chaff, the sheep and the goats. Matthew 25 verse 34

Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.

And he will 

separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. ... Then he will say to those on his left, 'depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

This passage in Jeremiah 8 has to do with wheat or barley harvests. The barley and wheat harvests in Israel at that time were between April and June. There are many lovely pictures of harvests in our bibles. We think of the illustration in Ruth. Naomi had lost her husband and sons and Ruth the daughter-in-law returns to Bethlehem with Naomi. When Naomi arrives in Bethlehem she tells everyone to call her Marah  which means loss and bitterness. Ruth is now coming into a foreign land. She tells Naomi "I will not let you go. Your God will be my God, where you go I will go." Then we read these wonderful words "It was the beginning of harvest." Ruth encountered Boaz who showed kindness to her. Boaz is a picture of Christ. She receives great grace in the providence of God. She comes into the line of Christ. At the end of Ruth we read she had a son Obed who became the father of Jesse, David's father. Here we see the grace of God. Galatians 6 

7Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. 8Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.

That is what Ruth knew - grace, life everlasting. She was looking forward to Christ.  Now in Jeremiah we see that the harvest is past. God's judgment has been pronounced on his people. Verses 4 to 7 

Say to them, ‘This is what the Lord says:

“‘When people fall down, do they not get up?
    When someone turns away, do they not return?
5 Why then have these people turned away?
    Why does Jerusalem always turn away?
They cling to deceit;
    they refuse to return.
6 I have listened attentively,
    but they do not say what is right.
None of them repent of their wickedness,
    saying, “What have I done?”
Each pursues their own course
    like a horse charging into battle.
7 Even the stork in the sky
    knows her appointed seasons,
and the dove, the swift and the thrush
    observe the time of their migration.
But my people do not know
    the requirements of the Lord.

Jeremiah is warning the people but no-one was listening. Like horses charging into battle. You would think they would turn but no, they continue their own way. They refuse to return. Continuing on, stubborn in sin, no genuine repentance. What about you? Do you say "I am good enough, I am happy where I am?" Have you heeded the central message of the Lord? Have you repented for the kingdom of heaven is at hand? Have you come to true repentance? Jeremiah 17 verse 9 

The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?

 They had done things, said things, broken God's holy law. They had transgressed, fallen short of the glory of God. When we examine ourselves before God we all fall short. We continue in this way. Even the birds know their time of migration but this people don't take heed to this opportunity. The time of opportunity is come for you this week. We are wise, we know God's law yet we continue in our own ways.

In verse 9 we read they rejected God's words. Have you rejected God's word? Even the priests and prophets have done it too.

Therefore I will give their wives to other men
    and their fields to new owners.
From the least to the greatest,
    all are greedy for gain;
prophets and priests alike,
    all practice deceit.

They dress the wound of my people
as though it were not serious.
“Peace, peace,” they say,
when there is no peace.
Are they ashamed of their detestable conduct?
No, they have no shame at all;
they do not even know how to blush.

They put a cover over the people's sins. But it was no good. They needed a deep change in the heart. Nothing can be done with the multitude of sin. Perilous times would come. Paul wrote in 2 Timothy 3

There will be terrible times in the last days. 2People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— 5having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.

The Israelite leaders were full of their own pride and self. There was all manner of evil underneath. Are they ashamed of their conduct? No, they have no shame. They'd don't even known how to blush. Does that not sound like our society today? People engage in the most awful sexual sin possible. The gift of intimacy was given in the marriage relationship and anything outside that is wrong, it is sinful. Our streets are full of sin and there is no blushing, no shame today. We know of all the pornography on our phones at the press of a button. People are living together before marriage and they don't care. But there is one who does care - God. Paul warns people to flee from sexual immorality for it will destroy you. The awful thing is - judgment has been pronounced and no-one cares. Romans 1 verse 24 

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another.

Genesis 6 verse 3 tells us

My Spirit shall not always strive with man.

Have you spurned previous opportunities to repent? Have you rejected God in times past?

The summer is ended. If the barley harvest failed the people could look forward to the fruit harvest later in the summer but if that failed then it was really disastrous. 

I will take away their harvest declares the Lord. There will be no grapes on the vine. There will be no figs on the tree and their leaves will wither. What I have given them will be taken from them.

A picture of God's judgment. Imagine no fruit or flowers to set before the Lord. In Joel's prophecy we read that there was nothing to bring into the house of the Lord. A great devastation. A great urgency. Is there a fruitfulness in your life? Is there any evidence of grace? Or it is all just leaves?

We are not saved. How many harvest services have you had the privilege of sitting in? God does not see Presbyterian or Baptist or Methodist or Reformed or Muslim or Hindu. He sees those who are either saved or lost and that is it. What category are you in today? Saved by the grace of God? Do you know you are are saved? That you are on your way to heaven? Or are you on the broad road of which many are on? The fields are white unto harvest Jesus says.

Do you not say, Four months more and then the harvest? I tell you open your eyes and look at the fields! They are ripe for harvest. John 4 verse 35

If you are under the conviction of sin you must turn, heed the word of God. Maybe you think your life is so messed up, that the catalogue of sins in your life means you have no hope. There is hope. 

Even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love and he relents from sending calamity. Joel 2 verses 12 and 13

There was a great turn around in Joel. God calls you to give your heart to Christ.

What shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Mark 8 verse 36

It is so clear - you can know his mercy. Isn't God kind and patient to us. Jonah went to preach the word of God to the people of Nineveh. They heeded the word of God, fasted and turned. 

Who knows God may yet relent and with compassion turn from his fierce anger so that we will not perish. When God saw what they did and how they turned from their evil ways, he had compassion and did not bring upon them the destruction he had threatened. Jonah 3 verses 9 and 10

Salvation is all of God. God chose a people to draw them to himself, to know the freedom that comes with salvation. To look to the Lord. To be obedient to the Lord. To know his salvation. We are still in a time of grace. Listen to what God says. 

If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness we lie and do not live  the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. 1 John 1 verses 6 and 7

The people of Judah were deceiving themselves. Jesus Christ, the Son of God loved me and gave himself for me. 

Is there no balm in Gilead? Is there no physician there? Why then is there no healing for the wound of my people. Jeremiah 8 verses 22 and 23

There is a balm in Gilead today - it is the blood of Christ. We step out in the promise of God. We are under the blood. We can know his cleansing. Instead of continuing in our sin God gives us his righteousness. Only then can we have the assurance of eternal life in heaven. 

Remember the sentiments of the saintly Samuel Rutherford writing from his prison cell in the granite city of Aberdeen. he was reflecting on his pastoral charge in Galloway in south-west Scotland when he wrote:

Fair Anwoth by the Solway, to me thou still art dear,

E'en on the verge of heaven, I drop for thee a tear,

oh, if one soul from Anwoth, meet me at God's right hand,

My heaven will be two heavens, in Immanuel's land.

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This is a Great Work

COLERAINE EVANGELICAL CHURCH

SERMON NOTES FROM SUNDAY 5 OCTOBER 2025 - MR HENRY CASKEY

NEHEMIAH 6 VERSES 1 TO 4

Nehemiah is an interesting character. On many occasions I have been encouraged and challenged as I go through this book. I see something of the great lengths he would go to to serve God. He left a palace behind him in Shushan. As he gazed out from these walls he could see the ruins. He was the man you would go to in time of trouble. He shows tremendous leadership. He comes down to Jerusalem. He united the people. They were discouraged and displeased. The first thing he brings them together and guides them through dark and difficult days. He has left a great legacy. This sets the same example for pastors, elders, Sunday School teachers, youth leaders - not to be scared away from the work of God. There is a stamp on this man's character - verse 3 "I am doing a great work". What had happened? The enemy tried everything in its power to stop this work, to bring this man down. He used threats, violence, to stop him in leading the people to rebuild the walls. Nehemiah says "No I am doing a great work." The enemy came after him with threats and violence. Now they come and say "let's stop and talk about the issues facing us." It might have been a good chance for him to take time off the work. He was about the king's business and it required haste. Nothing would stop him. Doesn't the devil do that with us? He will set up road blocks and try to tell us we need to take a rest. It would be easy to do that. Have you ever looked at the work of God and thought "it's a great work"? We see people coming in through the doors, getting out in the street preaching the word of God but we need to be careful. We can see the enemy coming in as the wolf dressed as a lamb. Nehemiah tells them he is doing a great work. Looking at this great work. Lets stop for a moment. There are people who come around you and do that. They tell you how good a person you are. At the same time they want to pull you down.

The vexing here of the work. The work was being attacked, criticised, despised by all its enemies but Nehemiah did not see that. Imagine coming in from Shushan the palace. He had heard what was happening in Jerusalem chapter 1. He hears of a work that breaks his heart. The walls are broken down, the gates are burned with fire, the people are depressed and scattered. The work was in an awful state. He gets down before God and weeps. He confesses and seeks God about it. Let's not make the excuses today. Let's get down before God and begin to pray. "You will seek for me and find me when you seek for me with all your heart." To pray without ceasing. I am sure in reality it was worse than he heard. Nehemiah saw a great work he was involved in. He was so privileged to be in it. Is that our mind today? Do we feel privileged to do God's work? The gates were burned down, the walls demolished, the people had given up. Today we see churches under attack. Has it ever been any different? In Acts 12 verse 1 we read that Herod the king stretched forth his hand to vex certain of the church. Those who were preaching the word of God. The church was being attacked. Men and women were being redeemed. Herod arrested James and killed him. When he seen this pleased the people he decided to arrest Peter also. Nehemiah left Shushan behind and travelled to Jerusalem. God had placed it in his heart to rebuild Jerusalem's walls. He was coming with a different spirit. His enemies Sanballat and Tobiah heard about him and it grieved them exceedingly. A man was coming to seek the welfare of the children of Israel. Caleb had a different spirit. Remember when the spies were sent out into the land of Canaan and brought back their reports. Caleb followed the Lord with all his heart. He believed that if God was for them they could then take the land. The people rose up to kill Caleb. They were vexing Caleb. "I will build my church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it." Some times we get discouraged. Paul had a different spirit. He was rejected from town to town. Christ had a different spirit when he hung on the cross. We will be opposed as we seek to follow the kingdom of God. Are we holding on today? Have we the intention of building God's work?

The vocation of the work. This was God's work. This is the work God has called me to do. Never lose sight that this is God's work. Never lose sight of God's calling on your heart. God has placed it there. You are responsible for it. One day we will give an account of what God has given to us. We are not here for riches and prosperity but to see God honoured. God has called Nehemiah to do this work. He was following God's plan. God's work done in God's place. Wouldn't it have been lovely to see into Nehemiah's mind. He was in the palace, a responsible job, number 2 to the king. No-one could come in to see the king without Nehemiah's say so. He was there working. Then he went to Jerusalem. He sees the rubble, the dirt, stones and ashes. People could neither lead them or drive them yet he says "it is a wonderful work." Nehemiah tells us in chapter 2 verse 12 "I arose in the night." Many a time we will waken in the night. God stirs you with the responsibility of his work. The burden he carried. "Neither told I any man what God had told me in my heart what to do in Jerusalem." That is why he is there. That is why he could say to the enemy "I cannot stop, I am going to make sure I will do it to the end." They tried to stop him with threats, blackmail, by deception. "I am not stopping, this is a great work." Nehemiah was where God would have him to be. That is important - that we realise that God has us in his place, right where he could use us. Elijah had called down the fire from heaven. Next he is fleeing from Jezebel. She threatened to put him to death. He went out into the wilderness. Sitting in a cave God comes to him "Elijah what doest thou here?" He was not where God would have him to be. Not in a cave feeling sorry for himself. Nehemiah was here because God sent him there.  That makes the different. An old pastor once said to me "make sure wherever you go that you have the word of God to back it up because there will be many a time you have to prove God in that situation." Nehemiah was in this place Jerusalem because God had sent him there. This was his vocation. The calling of God for his life. He had a meeting with God. He got down before God praying and pleading. The right man was chosen for the task. "God does not promise you an easy life, sometimes there will be temptations, tests and tears." The old preachers used to refer to it as stickability, sticking at the work. It is very easy to give up but Nehemiah was not for giving up. In Acts 13 in the little church in Antioch there were in the church certain teachers and prophets. Each was doing their own task and as they ministered to the Lord and fasted the Holy Ghost said "separate unto me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them." This little church was working for God, doing all sorts for the Lord but also listening to the Holy Spirit. Maybe today God has a task for you today do. God can use you if you are willing today.

The value of the work. In chapter 2 Nehemiah goes out by night to assess the work. He sees the walls in ruins and the gates burned. He is on a donkey surveying the work. He has to get off at a certain place because the donkey cannot walk through it. The old devil says you will never see that person saved, come into church, see the work revived. Sometimes it is hard. Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. He looks at the rubble and ruins. He says it is a great work. There must have been mountains of broken down stones, awful dust and ashes yet he did not look at that but rather at the work of God. He saw so much to discourage them. Those he thought who would stand behind him and encourage him didn't do it. Nehemiah says it is a great work. How do you value the work of God today? How do you value that little task God has given you? "I am only a Sunday school teacher." It is a great work to instil and nurture someone. They could be saved from their sins, they could know that God loves them. Maybe you are saying "I don't have any job except being a door keeper." Some of us couldn't even do that. Maybe you are a cleaner - wouldn't it be awful to see cobwebs when we come into God's house? Forget about the enemy telling you it is no work - it is a great work. No matter what you are asked to do, do it for the Lord. Have you taken time to ask the Lord for a task? Have you shared it out with everyone else?

The victory of the work. Nehemiah kept at it after he made his inspection. He knew it would not be easy. Nehemiah 2 verse 18 "then I told them of the hand of my God." He was starting to speak to them now. God has told me the way to go. When the people heard him they said "let us rise up and build and they strengthened and the work began." The enemy tried all along to stop this work but they couldn't. Nehemiah 6 verse 13 "the wall was finished in 52 days." The enemy had to concede for they perceived this work was wrought of God. What a blessing. Nehemiah was. What a blessing you could be in this work. 

The story was told of an evangelist in Wales many years ago. He went into a village to do a gospel mission and preached for 3 weeks night after night. The sad thing was no-one came. Night after night he went through the same thing. On the last night he put out the lights and locked the doors. Six months later he was passing through the village. He stopped in one of the shops. A lady standing at the counter said to him "you are so and so, you came about 6 months ago to the little hall down the street. You went in every night and preached but no one turned up." He said "that is right". The lady said "I got saved after you left. When I thought that you would do that then you must have some God. I cried out to the Lord for forgiveness of sins. He saved my precious soul." Don't give up. You are doing a great work. God's blessing will come.