It's an absolute joy to be with you this weekend, for my wife and myself, and to enjoy your friendship, your fellowship, and the hospitality of Ronnie and Olive. If you want a good feed, go up to Olive's. She's a great cook, and I'm sure she'll welcome everybody next Sunday afternoon. If you just want to go up, she'll have a roast for you, and you'll have a great time. So, honestly, a great word of thanks for the warm welcome, and feeling right at home here, and again, through a new fellowship with Ian and I know Your pastor has been a great blessing to you over these last years, and we praise God for that. I want to turn again to a very familiar portion of Scripture, and I'm sure nearly every harvest service, weekend service, sometime this passage of Scripture has been either preached upon, read, or quoted, or whatever, and you know it so well. But Jeremiah chapter 8 and verse 20 is what came to my mind when I was thinking about the meeting tonight. It's just one verse. Jeremiah chapter 8 and verse 20. The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not The harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved. Solomon, that great king that we read of in the Old Testament, the son of David, in Ezekiel chapter 3 and verse 2, he writes this, a time to be plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted. That there's a time to plant and a time to pluck up that which is planted. No one knows that better than farmers. And I know there's a lot of farmers here this evening, I would think that, anyway. And you know all about the harvest. You know all about the sowing and the preparing of the ground and the sowing of the seed. You know all about listening to your boy Mitchell and the Oster TV to get the weather forecast and all the rest. Make sure the right weather's coming your road and you pick the perfect time. And your eye is always upon the crop. Because you're looking for the first shoots of the harvest, the first promise of a harvest to come. And of course you look after the ground, and you feed the ground, and you tend the ground. And finally the harvest day comes. and you get in with the reapers or whatever you get in with, I'm a wee bit old-fashioned, I'm talking about reapers, but you get in with the silice cutters, whatever it is you have, combine harvesters, and you take in the harvest. And everything that you've been waiting for, everything that you've been longing for, everything that you've been working towards, now you get it gathered into the barn, and the harvest is over. Can I say to you something this evening, dear friends? The Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, is coming again. He has promised to come again. He says, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. I believe in the rapture of the church of Jesus Christ. I believe it's the next great event in God's prophetic calendar. I believe that we are at the very doorstep of that great event. I believe there's nothing left to be done. as far as the preparation of the world stage for the return of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is only the long suffering of the Lord, I believe, is preventing that coming right now. For the Lord is willing that none should perish. But make very, very sure in your heart and soul this evening that you know that one day the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come to bring in the harvest. the harvest of souls, men and women that have been born again, men and women that have been washed in the precious blood of the Lamb. There's going to be a day when the harvest of souls, sea of souls, is going to be gathered in to heaven. And I wonder tonight, dear friend, if the Lord Jesus Christ were to come right now, would you be ready? Would you be ready to go? Would you be ready? Pastor! Oh, pastor! I'm a good person. You go anywhere and ask anybody. Ask the neighbors. I'm the best neighbor they could ever have. If they're in Boulder, I'm there. I'm a good person. I don't need this salvation. I'm a good person. Can I tell you something? Can I shock you this evening? There's no good people. Alright? There's not one of us good. Do you know what we are? We're bad people that occasionally do good things. That's what we are. There is none righteous. No, not one. Oh, but pastor, why does God allow so many bad things to happen to good people? That's the wrong question. The question you should be asking is this, why does God allow so much good things to come into the life of bad people? He's willing that none should perish. There's a harvest being prepared on planet earth at this very moment. The gospel is being preached throughout the world. Men and women are getting saved and born again. They're passing from death to life, from darkness to light. They're being gathered in, and the fields are white unto harvest, the Lord said. And soon the reaper's going to come in, and the harvest is going to be taken. I wonder, are you ready this evening? The Lord Jesus Christ is coming again. And there's three thoughts about this moment. that I want to leave with you, that we find in this verse, the harvest is past, the summer has ended, and we are not saved. I want you to see a time that's past, first of all. A time that's past, the harvest is past. Do you know what we call the day that we're living in? It's called the day of grace. In biblical terms, it's called the day of grace. Well, Pastor, what does that mean? Well, I'll tell you what it means. It means this is the space of time between Calvary and the rapture of the church when Jesus Christ is saving souls, where men and women can be born again, where sinners can be saved, where men and women corrupted by sin can be new creatures in Christ Jesus and know what it is to have their sins forgiven, to know what it is to have security of soul, to know what it is to know that they're going to heaven come what may. That's the day of grace. You're living in it. Right now, you're living in the midst of the opportunity that God has given for souls to be saved. The span of time that God has stretched out between Calvary and the rapture of the church, when new people can be saved. Gracious God. Up to this moment, it's over 2,000 years, that gap. God has been merciful. God has been gracious. sad space that God has allotted for man to realize his sinful condition. But it's a time that's going to pass. The Lord said to His disciples in John chapter 4, He says, say not that there's another four months to the harvest. Say not that you've got time to wait, that you don't have to have urgency, that you don't have to have concern about your soul. He says, look, and you'll see that the fields are already white unto harvest. I wonder, can I say something to believers, to Christians? You folk that are saved, or you say you're saved, Do you have a burden for souls? Do you? Do you have a sob in your soul for the lost souls of men and women? Are you like The disciples here, we've got time to worry about that. Pastor, I have a mortgage to pay. I have a career to look after. I have children to rear. I have this, that, and the other thing to do. There's time enough to worry about souls. Say not there's another four months. Fields are already white on the harvest, but the laborers are few. And I wonder, believers, in this meeting tonight, have you a burden for souls? Are you concerned about the spiritual well-being of the souls of men and women? The farmer, if you can picture the scene, he's out and sowing the seed. He has prepared the ground. He has spent much sweat and energy making it as perfect as he possibly could. And he plants his seed, and he waters it, and he tends it, and he looks after it. And he sees those first shoots growing up, and there's great expectation, and there's great hope. And the day of harvest comes. The day he's been waiting for. The day he's been longing for. The day he's been working towards. And he goes in, and he brings in that harvest. Can I tell you, dear friends, there's coming a day when the Lord's going to bring in his harvests, and there's nothing going to be left. There'll be a day, dear friends, when the Lord says to the church, come up hither, and we'll be away. And you'll come, oh, I'll have to go to church. I'll have to go to Refrain and Baptist on Sunday morning or Sunday evening. And you'll land down to the church here, and you'll lock the door, and the door will be locked. And no, the believers will be there, and there'll be half a dozen folk maybe standing at the door, wondering why the church is not open. We've heard of so much calamity in the world and the news, so many things have happened, but surely Refrain and Baptist will be open. Surely the believers will be there. But no, the light will not be on. And the door will be locked, and you'll stand, and you'll look. You see, the believers are going to be gone. Do you ever look at a field when the harvest has been taken out of it? What do you see in it? Crows and seagulls, picking and scratching, trying to find something, trying to find something that was left behind. I want to tell you, there's going to be men and women that will be standing at the door of this church building, scratching and picking, trying to find something that's left behind. And it'll come into your mind this gospel meeting that you sat in, where you heard the gospel, where you were warned that the Lord was coming, that time was running out, that there's a harvest almost ready to be gathered in to the barns of glory, and you ignored it, and you rejected it, and you said, I've got time, I don't have to worry about it. And the harvest will be passed. And time will be up. and you'll stand at the door, nobody will let you in. Can I again press upon your sin-sick soul this evening, dear man, dear woman, dear young person without Jesus, that there's a harvest time that's coming, there's a time that's going to pass, the harvest. Jesus will come again. A time passed. But I want you to see something else. I want you to see a season ended. A season ended. It says here that harvest is past. Summer is ended. We all look forward to the summer. I love the summer. The minute my summer holidays are over, I'm counting round to the next summer holidays. And I torment the heart and soul of the West. Where are we going next year? When are we booking it? And it's something to look forward to. And we love the summertime. The summertime is full of expectations. It's full of excitement. It's the time for holidays. It's the time for, as it were, having a good time, forgetting about the pressures of life, forgetting about the struggles of work and careers. It's that fortnight or three weeks or a month in the year when you set aside and you sort of can just get away from it all. And it's wonderful. It's a great release. There are many men and women, and they live their lives in a spiritual holiday. So they are. They're just living life for what they can get out of it. They think that they have enough time. They're never concerned about heaven and hell. They're not concerned about their soul, and they never give it any time. No, I'm enjoying life. I've got too much life to live. I've got too many things that I want to do. But one day, dear friends, God will say enough. He'll say enough to your sinning. He'll say enough to your rebellion. He'll say enough to your rejection of my grace and my love and my mercy. There'll be enough. And the summer will be ended. And then will begin the cold chill of death and the fires of a lost eternity. Just before I get saved, As I said this morning, I was safe when I was 14. And I was invited to a coffee bar mission in Kells and Connor Orange Hall. And I didn't want to go to that mission, but my friends said to me the first day of the mission, they came up that day and they said to me, we're going to smash it. we're going to wreck it. We're going to turn over the tables and the chairs and we're just going to bring it to a grinding halt. Are you wanting to go with us?" And I says, I'm your man. And we planned, there was about a dozen of us gathered up and we went to the mission. And I don't know whether they saw the devilment looking at us or not, but they separated us all, rammed us into rows of seats and sat on top of us more or less so we couldn't move to the end of the meeting. So we'd never get smashed in anything. But I listened to what was being said, and for the first time in my life, I realized I was a sinner. I was brought up in a good family. I went to a Presbyterian church. I was dotting all the A's and crossing all the T's, taking all the boxes. I was all, right, why do I need to get saved? But I realized I was saved that night, and I went home, and I went to bed. And don't be thinking I'm going mad here. Don't be pulling on my coattail. He told me if I go off the rails, he'd pull my coattail. But I went to bed that night and I fell asleep and I had a dream. And I dreamt it was Judgment Day. I dreamt the harvest had been gathered in and the souls of men and women were standing before Almighty God. Now don't ask me what was it like, Pastor, for I don't know, I was that scared I couldn't open my eyes. But all I could hear was this voice saying, who's this? And another voice says, it's Alan Hoey. And it was as if there was a big ledger in heaven. And someone was going down, Hoey, Hoey, Hoey. Yes, Alan Hoey. And I woke up. And it just, my wee heart at 14, I knew nothing. But it just seemed to me as if God hadn't made up his mind, heaven or hell. that just hadn't filled in that space that would determine where I would spend all eternity. I was so scared I wouldn't even go to the mission the next night. They sent the minibus up and I wouldn't even go out to tell them I was that scared I wasn't going. The minibus went away. The next day I get onto the bus and all I wanted to do was get back into the card school. All I wanted to do was get amongst my friends so I could get rid of this old feeling that I had. And I got onto the bus and there was the card school up in the top right-hand corner of the bus. And everybody was there except one person, my best mate. We were best mates right through primary school and then through secondary school. And I looked around and there was Davey sitting down about the middle of the bus on his own. And I went over, I says, Davey, you're not playing cards. And he says, no, no, I'm not playing cards. He says, I could see it. I got saved. And I just collapsed on the seat beside him. Let me tell you, I have to go back, because I forgot a wee bit I wanted to say. On the Sunday night, I had another dream. Had another dream. And I dreamt I was standing just in front of these big gates, and if you want to call them the pearly gates, you can call them whatever you want, but a big set of gates leading into heaven. And I seen this man walking up the road. to go to the pearly gates. And I was sitting up in the hill and I was watching him. And I could hear him. And I could feel all the emotion that he felt. And he was coming up thinking, well, I hope I've done enough. I hope I get into heaven. I hope I've been good enough. I hope I've done everything right. I hope everything's all right. And he got to the gates and there was a great voice said, welcome ye into, and the gates flung open. And the man thought, I've made it, it's heaven. And the voice said, enter ye into hell. And the flames just roared right up. And for one split second, I could feel the anguish of that soul being lost for all eternity, and it terrified the heart out of me. And I get onto the bus the next day, and Davey said he'd get saved, and I just collapsed onto the seat beside him, and I says, Davey, Davey, I need to get saved. Well, he says, you can't get saved today, because the meeting's not on the night. You'll have to wait till the morning. Well, that was as much Davey, he was only a day saved. He didn't even know any more than I knew. I didn't know and he didn't know that I could just get saved sitting in the bus. But here's the thing, folks. I says, that's all right, Davey. I'll come on Tuesday night and I'll get saved. I was standing on the very doorstep of heaven and I could go to hell. Because I was willing in my stupidity to think I could get another day. But I could say, I'm okay to Tuesday. I'm okay to Tuesday night and God and his grace and his mercy spared me to Tuesday night and I got to the wee coffee bar meeting. I don't know, don't ask me what the preacher preached on for, I don't know. Don't ask me who sung and what they sung for, I don't know and I couldn't have cared less. The minute that meeting was over, I ran up to the boy that was taking the meeting and the best Balaamian accent, hi boy, I need to get saved. And I'm sure he wondered what kind of a boy I was. But he took God at his word, and he took me into the wee kitchen, and he led me to the Lord, and that's 43, 44 years ago, whatever that may be. But I was so close to heaven that Monday, and yet equally close to hell. How many times, dear friend, have you sat in a gospel meeting, and you've stood on the very doorstep of heaven, And it was as if you could hear audibly the pleading of the Holy Spirit in your heart to come, to trust Christ, to be saved. But you said, no, I'll have another day. I'll have another week. How many years ago was that? How sad it would be. How sad it would be if this were to be the last day, if this were to be the last meeting If this were to be the last opportunity, pastor, oh pastor, I'm enjoying life so much. I don't want to be a Christian. Have you ever looked at Christians? Man, they would scunnery. They would put you, look at their faces. There's not a happy one between them. You couldn't get a happy Christian anywhere. What would I want to be the God for? Well, can I tell you, I was the very exact same. I thought that Tuesday night when I was going to get saved, and I'd made up my mind I was going to get saved, but I thought I was going to be miserable for the rest of my life. Because that was all I knew about Christians. They're miserable. They're the most unhappy people in the world. Even when you tell them somebody gets saved, they go, well, that's great. Praise the Lord. We'll give it six months and we'll see what they're like in six months. Oh, happy day that fixed my choice. And that was my only experience of Christians. But I thought to myself, you know, I would rather be miserable and go to heaven as happy and go to hell. I did. But you know, I sat in a wee plastic chair in the kitchen of Kell's in Corner Orange Hall, and I trusted Christ. And he gave me a joy unspeakable and full of glory. And the half was never yet been told. And I never knew what happiness was to have trusted the Lord. Never knew what it was. I never knew what real joy was to have trusted Jesus. Are you happy all the time, Alan? No, I'm not happy all the time, but I'm joyous all the time. I rejoice in the Lord. When I've got nothing on earth to be happy about, I can be happy I'm saved. When you have nothing else in the world to be happy about, what can you be happy about? And I want to tell you, dear friends, if you're saying to yourself, my life's too good, my life's too happy, boy, the devil has you filled. He has pulled the wool over your eyes. My savior says, I've come that you might have life and that you might have it more abundantly. I've come to give you peace that passeth all understanding, joy unspeakable and full of glory. Christian, did you hear that? Did you hear it? Oh, listen, as the people of God, we need to show the joy of the Lord to men and women. Folk are miserable. They're getting it tight. They're stressed out, all roads and directions. They don't know what's going to happen in government. They don't know what's going to happen in their careers. They need the joy of the Lord. That's the strength. Oh, dear, I'm saved tonight. If you're sitting in your seat and you're saying, oh, life's too good, you're such a fool. The devil has you fooled. Because the true life and the true joy that the soul craves for, that you crave for, is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. Summer, this life that you're holding on to, these things that you think are more important, these joys that are fleeting and transcendent. I want to tell you, dear friends, one day when you die, you can't take them with you. You can't take the big house with you. You can't take the career with you. You can't take the Porsche with you. You can't take the money with you. All the things that you think tonight are going to give you joy and contentment, you can't take them with you when you die. Here's the only thing you can take with you, either saved or lost, either heaven or hell. Oh dear friends, this evening, this season, this day of grace that we are in, it's a time to be saved, but it's a season that's passing. And don't waste your life chasing the false promises of the devil. And the fleeting joys of this world, they don't last. But you come this evening and trust Jesus Christ as your Savior and your Lord. A time passed. Harvest is past. A season ended. Summer has ended. But hear the cry, and we are not saved. And we are not saved. Can I put that in the first person? Harvest is past. Summer is ended and I am not saved. Oh, says you pastor, listen. What did I tell you pastor? I have this all figured out, you know. Because one second before I die, I'm going to trust the Lord. But when I'm lying on the deathbed and the family's surrounding me and all the rest of it, and the minister comes in or whoever it may be, I'll get saved then. I'll get saved. Is that not what happened to the thief on the cross? Sure that's what happened to the thief on the cross. He was on the cross and he was dying. He had only moments left. And he trusted Christ. That's what I'm going to do. Oh dear friend. Have you forgotten? Have you forgotten the other thief? Who saw the exact same as that other thief saw? Who heard exactly the same as that other thief had heard? and yet cursed God and died. Never trusted the Lord. Remember the story told of a man who was dying and the minister come in and tried to seek to win him for the Lord. He says, listen, you're dying and you need to get saved. And the man on his deathbed said, I have no concern for my soul. I've no interest in it." He says, there was a time when I sat in a gospel meeting and the preacher made an appeal. He says, if you're concerned about your soul, will you lift your hand up? He says, I sat back in my chair and stuck my leg in the air. He says, God never spoke to me again. And he died without a savior. Listen, you're not guaranteed a deathbed. You're not even guaranteed the next breath in your body. And the Lord could just turn the light off like that, with no moment to be saved, no time to reconsider. And you would be standing in a lost eternity amidst the flames of hell, crying out, harvest has passed for me. The summer, the good time, life is over. And I am not saved. How many years have you spent not saved, dear friends? How many years have you spent not saved? Can I tell you this, you'll spend all eternity not saved in a lost Christless hell. What's holding you back tonight? Because there's folk in here and you know you need to be saved. And I would even go as far as saying you want to be saved. but there's something holding you back. I had a young girl came to me in a gospel meeting one night after the service was over. Her brother came with her to me. She's a young girl, about 18, 19. And her brother was saved, but she wasn't saved. And he come and he says, my sister wants to get saved tonight. I says, that's great. I said, come on into this wee room. And the three of us went into the wee room and I explained the gospel to her and as best I could took her through the scriptures and showed her how to be saved and how to trust the Lord and what it meant. And I says, now listen, here's what it means. It means you must forsake the old life and all the things that you were doing. And you're to follow Christ with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. You're to give to him everything. And I says, now, I'm going to pray. And I'm going to thank the Lord for bringing you to this meeting tonight. I'm going to thank the Lord for speaking to your heart and to your soul. I'm going to thank the Lord for bringing you into this wee room to the very presence of God and at the very doorstep of heaven. And when I stop praying, I want you to pray. And I just want you to ask Jesus to save you. Simple as that, just say, Lord Jesus, I'm a sinner. And I believe that you have died for me. And I am trusting you tonight as my savior and my Lord. I am repenting of my sin." And I says, just pray a wee simple prayer to God. So I said, let's pray. And I prayed. And when I finished praying, there was silence. And I waited for a week while and the silence never was broken. And I looked up and she was sitting with her eyes open, calm as you like. And she says, pastor, I can't pray that prayer. I can't let go of my social life. I can let go of the discos, the dances. I can't let go of the drink. I can't let go of it. And I said to her, well, dear, I have nothing else to offer you. There's no plan B. And I have nothing else to say to you. For if you will not have Jesus on God's terms, then you must not have him at all. And she walked out. I don't know if she ever gets saved, I don't know. But she couldn't let go of what was holding her back. Now listen, I don't know yous. So nobody can say I'm preaching to anybody individually. But I'm asking you, what's holding you back tonight? What's holding you back from doing what you know you should do and you need to do? What's holding you back from getting safe? What's holding you back from knowing that your sins are forgiven? What's holding you back from the grip of sin to be broken in your life and to be set wonderfully and gloriously free? Listen, you can have all the gold in the world. You can have all the jewels in the world. You can have all that this world wants to offer. Take it all, but give me Jesus any day of the week. But what's holding you back? Will you allow that friendship that you shouldn't be having to keep you from getting saved? That man, that woman that you have a relationship with, that you shouldn't be having a relationship with, and you're allowing it to keep you away from God, because if I get saved, well, I'll have to break up that relationship. There's no relationships in hell, folks. And God has something far better for you. Pastor, it's a social life. It's a social life. I like the drink. I like the partying. I like getting out with my mates. The Lord talks about Lazarus and the rich man. Remember that? Luke 16. And the rich man lifts up his eyes in torments, being in hell in torments. You know what he says? He says, Lazarus, send him to my brethren. Send them to my brethren and warn them of this place lest they come to this place. Warn them of it. Folks, listen, there are no good times in hell. And God has something far better for you. For when you get saved, you fellowship with him. Pastor, I don't know what my friends will say. If I was to get saved, boys, I would be kept going Well, what makes you different from any of the rest of us? We all get kept going. We were all poked fun at when we could see it. But I have discovered that many of those people that poked fun at me were the very ones who came in later years to talk to me about Jesus. I wanted to know why I am the way I am. And when they were stuck in life, they knew there was a number they could ring. Can I tell you a story? Here's something I'm finishing now, but I'm going to tell you this wee story to finish with. This is a true story. We had a mission in a wee hall in Limavady a few years ago called the Victoria Hall, but it's known as the drop-in because there's a Christian work there. And we had a gospel mission in it. trying to reach out into the area because drugs is a big problem in Nimavadi. And the first night of the mission, the hall was well-filled, but down in the bottom right-hand corner, there's about a dozen young folk come in from the estate, and they're teens and early 20s. They come in, and I thought, my word, I'm going to have baller. I thought these boys are coming in, they're going to cause me wild baller, it's going to be a wild trail. I says, Lord, will you just do something? And those dozen young folk came every single night of the mission and never caused us any bother. And we had a wee cup of tea and everything at the start of the mission. It was great. We had a great time with them. But there was a young man, Ben. He was 19. And I sort of took a liking to Ben. The first night Ben came, he was that high on drugs. One eye was looking for you and the other one was looking at you. And the police actually came in one night during the mission and took them all out and took the drugs off them and sent them back into the gospel meeting again. That's the kind of boys we're talking to. But I took a likening to Ben, and Ben sort of took a likening to me. And there was one night he was sitting on his own before the rest of them had come into the mission, and I sat myself down beside him. He had been arrested for grievous bodily harm, and he was going in front of the courts, and he thought he was going to be going to jail to McGilligan. And while he was trying to put on a brave face, I knew he was scared. And I took just my wee card, wee visiting card out of my pocket, and it had my home number and my mobile number on it. And I says, Ben, I want to give you this. He says, why? Why? And I says, Ben, one of these days, you're going to need somebody to talk to. One of these days, you're going to be alone. And one of these days, you'll need somebody just to be at the other end of the phone. And I promise you now, that 24-7, whenever you ring any one of those two numbers, I'll be at the end of the phone for you. And I just want you to know that I care for your soul. I care for you. And he took it. I thought, that's great. That's great. Six months later, they found his body in the graveyard in Limavary where he committed suicide. Lost for all eternity. 19. Couldn't let go of the drugs. And he was lost. What's the cry that rises from a lost eternity? Well, surely amongst all the many millions of cries that could be heard from a lost Christless hell, Surely this one cry must ring clear and loud above them all. I am not saved. Dear unsaved in this meeting tonight, the harvest will soon be past. And the summer will be ended. And you're not saved. Don't say it can never happen to me. It's happening to millions of people every day. Souls are perishing every day and going to Christ's hell. But the day of grace is open to you and you can come tonight and be wonderfully and eternally saved. Don't miss this opportunity tonight. If the Spirit of God is striving with you and you know in your heart and soul that you're a sinner and you know that you need to be saved, don't let this moment pass for you may never get another one. Amen. God bless. Thank you very much.