Once again, just thank you to our brother Paul. It's encouraging to me to see him using the talent that the Lord has given to him. Now, I'd like to just acknowledge the remarks and the welcome that Albert has given to myself and Rosemary this morning. Certainly, as I stand before you here, my mind floods back and is full of memories. Way back, twenty-five years and five days ago, These doors were opened by the moderator for the preaching of the gospel, and certainly that was a time to remember. It was a time of harvest in a spiritual sense. I don't want to put too much emphasis on any one during that mission. The preaching was good and we enjoyed the preaching, but the salvation of souls are not due to the preacher or to one person. Some of you here this morning, you prayed and you laid hold upon the Lord. You prepared the ground, you prepared your own heart. And God wonderfully and graciously answered prayer. Some of those who walked the aisles way back those years have gone to be with the Lord. Others of you, twenty-five years and five years later, you're here this morning and still enjoying the Word of God because Everyone who prayed and gave themselves to the business of seeking souls and inviting souls will share in the great reward on that day when Jesus comes to make up his jewels and to gather his children home. It was certainly a time of blessing and visitation from the Lord. Eighty-two souls were counseled. There wasn't one single night that there was somebody who walked these aisles for Christ. If they weren't trusting the Lord within these walls, outside the walls, And I would like to thank all of you here today whom the Lord has so graciously spared for inviting me along, the session for inviting me along to minister to you and just to recall those wonderful times of blessing that we have had from the Lord. I could write a book about the memories of raising this building but I'm not going to go into that apart from in 1985 we had a mission here And Reverend William McRae was a preacher. And one night he was preaching. There were a couple of you who brought this wee man along and he was worse than aware of his drink. And during the service, he got up and walked up the hill and said, I wonder if William McRae saved me. And I got him by the elbow, took him out into the porch and talked to him, thinking it was the drink speaking. But 20 years later, those couple had brought him round me to say he was in Montgomery House. If I was over that way, would I call and see him? But I'm very seldom over that way, but I said, I'll go over and visit the wee man. Rob Turney, he called him. I went over to see Rob, and I told him who it was, and I said, Rob, you remember a way back a number of years ago in a church in Coleraine? You were in a gospel service. He says, I do. I says, Rob, do you remember what you did that night? He says, I do. I says, were you in earnest? He says, I was. I says, Rob, I didn't know that, but I want you to ask you this. Have you ever thought about it since? He says, I think about it every day. I said, Rob, would you like to come to the Lord now? He'd like to trust the Lord. He says, I would. I was on a Friday. I led him to the Lord on Friday. He lived witnessing to the nurses and the staff in Montgomery House all day on Saturday, and the Lord Jesus Christ called him home to be with himself. So, the Lord answers prayer in some very wonderful ways. I had a telephone call from a sister-in-law to inquire if it was true that Rob would come to the Lord. I says, yes. Well, she says, me and my husband have been praying for him for 22 years, and God answered prayer. So, that's why I say to you that those of you who prayed on that mission, incidentally, we had the building finished here 10 days before it was due to be opened. Now, 10 is a very significant number in the book of Acts. We gave our hearts and our minds and our wills to prayer. And God answered those prayers in a very wonderful way. And you know, the wonderful thing about it is, He's still the same today. He's able to do much more exceedingly abundantly than ever we can ask or think. I think of a time, we had our times of joy, our times of sadness, but I think of a time of joy and sadness too. We were here in the kitchen and Charlie Reynolds was with us. And we had the rafters on the ceiling of the kitchen there, and we had planks across the rafters. And Charlie, he was wheeling mortar to the brickies. And he was going at a hundred miles an hour. And I said to Charlie, Charlie, if you don't watch, you'll go down through those rafters. Ten minutes later, Charlie disappeared down through the rafters. And I went down, he's gathering himself up. I said, Charlie, you heard. He says, Mr. White, I needed a good culinary sess. So, looking back on it now, I'm glad there are no bones broken, but it gave it a wee sense of humour and all the rest of it. And we do rejoice in that and praise the Lord for that. So, we commemorate those days 25 years, 5 days ago, and we join together in this harvest service today and the combination. Incidentally, our closing hymn will be a harvest hymn, but I don't think I've forgotten about the harvest. Thank you again, brother, for your ministry and song. Thank you all again for coming. Thank you for the warm welcome you have received here this morning. Would you turn with me to the hymn number 700? Now, if you have your Bible with you, would you turn with me this morning to Matthew chapter 13? Matthew chapter 13, commencing our reading at the verse 18. Matthew 13, 18. Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower. When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the wayside. But he that receiveth the seed into stony places, the same as he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it, yet hath he not written himself, but dureth for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, by and by he is offended. He also that received seed among the thorns is he that heareth the word. And the care of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becometh unfruitful. But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word and understandeth it. which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is like unto a man which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his enemy came, and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also, So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? From whence then hath it tares? He said unto them, An enemy has done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up? But he said, Nay, lest while ye gather up the tares ye rid up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, And in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn." We will end our reading there at the verse 30. Now, I'm not making any excuses or apologies this morning, but this is the first Sunday service I have conducted since the end of May. So, that is just a few days ago, short of six months. If I get a word wrong, or a date wrong, or a day wrong, or somebody's name wrong, or something like that, I trust you'll understand, because that's just sometimes the way it is, and I have got to accept that. So, I know that you'll pray for the preacher this morning, that the Lord will give him utterance in the Holy Ghost. I want to turn your attention to four words in Matthew 13 and verse 30. But gather the wheat. But gather the wheat. This is a time of commemorating the goodness of the Lord and the abundance of the earth. It's a time to remember, of course, all those years back I have mentioned already. It's a time also to hear once again the Word of God. For though this congregation has changed in twenty-five years and five days, the Word of God is still the same. There are faces missing here today that were here twenty-five years ago. There are people I don't know here today that were not here twenty-five years ago. But you see, the Lord may bury the preacher or bury the saint, But the work of God always goes on, because the work of God is greater than any preacher, any prophet, any patriarch. We need never lose sight of that great fact. But it was Jesus who said, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Whenever the words of this text are fulfilled, the whole purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ coming into this world will have been fulfilled. Make no mistake about it, for he that sent forth the prophets and the patriarchs and the apostles, and he that still sends forth his messengers today to sow the good seed of the Word, is guaranteed an abundant harvest. Isaiah the prophet said in chapter 53 and verse 11, He shall see of the trouble of a soul and shall be satisfied. Now, I just want to say something outside of that here a wee minute. The reason I speak with the bell-tone voice, as it is called, is because I want everyone to hear. There might be some here They're a wee bit like meself. You're not deaf, but you're hard of hearing. You're not blind, but you're short-sighted. So that's why I want everyone to hear. And I try and adjust my voice according to the measure and capacity of the building. That's why I'm not going to lower my voice away down to a whisper that you'll not hear. I want you to hear every word. He shall see of the trouble of a soul and shall be satisfied. And like the psalm, as David said in Psalm 126, verse 6, he that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoicing. Then not only will the purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ have been fulfilled to the very uttermost to the jot and the tittle, but all the labor that the devil has exerted himself with over the years, since the beginning of time, will have been seen to have come to naught. It was his purpose, as we have been reading this morning, to sow the tares among the wheat, that he might injure the wheat, that he might in some way hinder its growth. But when the Lord Jesus Christ comes, it will be in the appointed time, when the harvest is completely ready. when the last soul for whom Jesus Christ died is safely gathered in, when that last ugly stone is taken out of nature's quarry and shaped and molded and reshaped into what the Lord would have it be, then the trumpet shall sound, then time shall be no more, then the great victory which will belong rightfully to the Lord will spell out the doom and the damnation of Satan and his work forever. You see, in many ways he is wise, but he is never wise enough to believe the important things of the Word of God. Because the Word of God says in John 6, 37, one thing the devil never believes. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. The enemy of your soul never learned the truth of that verse, nor does he want to. All his cunningly devised plans, his schemes, his plots, and often we think he had the victory. And often we rubbed our hands, and often we shed a tear, and we thought the devil was having his way. But on that day, the Lord Jesus Christ's presence will bring it to naught. Revelation 22 and 11 says, in that day, he that is filthy, let him be filthy still. What a day of rejoicing in this great worldly harvest, in this great final ingathering of every soul, black and yellow, red and white, from the north to the south, from the east to the west. all for whom Christ shed His blood. I tell you, the Bible says, angels rejoice more over one sinner than repentant. What will the rejoicing not be in heaven on that day when every repentant sinner is gathered in the presence of God, clothed in righteousness divine, a body like unto his own glorious body, never more to sin, never more to shed a tear, never more to know a pain or an ache, never more to know the interference of the devil. My mother used to tell me when I was only a wee boy, three and four and five years of age, a wee verse. I think I've told it to you many times before whenever I was here. Four corners to my bed, four angels round my head, one to sing, one to pray. and two, to carry my soul away. Angels are God's messengers, overlooking us, guiding us, protecting us. But remember this, it's not so with everyone. And it's not so with everyone in this congregation here this morning. Because this text I have read in your presence is this, but, and when you see the word but, Look out for a contrast. Look out for the other side of the picture. Look out for something different. And here this word, but, spells out a word of separation. A word of separation. That's what it's going to be. The harvest of the world is going to be a harvest of separation. God the Holy Spirit is gathering out one here and one there and some elsewhere. But on that day, this is the day of the Great Separation. It is a great sorrow for God's people to abide side by side with the ungodly, with the ungodly laws, with the ungodly judgments that are being passed, with the ungodly practices that prevail. We can do very little about it. But Jesus said, it must be so till the end of time. Let both grow together. For the ungodly in the Bible looked upon us thorns and briars. And how true it is that those thorns and briars can reside very close to us. Because the Bible again says, a man's enemy shall be they of his own household. You would think they would be our supporters, would be our encouragers, but they are those who hinder us most. And it's no good trying to escape, for God says both must abide side by side. Good men have emigrated with good intentions, the intention that they would raise up families of the saints of God. But in their midst and before their very face, in their presence, there was raised up sinners. Others have gone into monasteries, into nunneries and convents, trying to escape the influence of sin. But again, this is a way of foolishness. For once again, I repeat, let both grow together. Of this separation, First of all, it is an essential separation for such a state of affairs as we experience today and will tomorrow and on to the end of our life. It will not improve. It will get worse. And we need not look to this world to be a happier place for the child or the children of God. This separation is an essential separation. It must be so. However dearly that mother or father may love that child, however dearly that husband may love his wife or wife love the husband, if that wife is unsaved and the husband saved, if that son is saved and the father unsaved, this is coming the day of their separation. They will never see each other again. They will go each of them their different ways. And I know it is the will of every parent to be able to say regarding their children when they come to stand in the presence of the Lord Jesus, to be able to say, Behold I and the children that was given me. Maybe there's one here and you're not praying enough for that son or for that daughter or for that child. Don't let the devil deceive you. This day of separation, and it is an essential separation, the weak cannot forever and will not be allowed forever to abide with the chaff. God knoweth what we can endure. And there is that day of essential separation because if the weak is ever to be what God intended it to be, It must be separated from the chaff. The chaff is to be whatever God intended it to be fit for the burning. It must be separated from the wheat. For neither can be used for its real purpose until one is removed from the other. The chaff is dependent on the wheat for its safety. That's why God couldn't send His angels of wrath to Sodom and Gomorrah while Lot, even his backslidden child, was within those walls. Tell me the answer to a simple question. I maybe don't know you. I maybe haven't seen you before. But tell me this. Are you trusting in your mother's Saviour? Are you looking to your Father's God? Mother, Father, could I say that about a son or a daughter? Because if not, even the whole church of Jesus Christ could come and plead for you upon the grounds of a good, moral, upright life. You'd never be gathered with the wheat. Because you may have the name of the wheat, And you may pass for being a child of God, but you do not have the nature of the wheat. You never come, confess your sin in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. There never will be fruit worthy of this great harvest. Luke 16 tells us very clearly in verse 26, that there is a great gulf. But whenever the separation comes, that gulf is fixed. So that they which are come to you from us cannot. There's no going over. You see, there's only one way. Jesus is that way. It's going to be an essential separation. But what makes it even more Heart searching is. It's going to be an eternal separation. For there's no hope or possibility of change in the world to come. How death leaves us, judgment finds us. Ecclesiastes 11 and 3 says, As the tree falleth, so does it lie. Ah, but preacher, I'm young yet and I have plenty of time, and I'll get saved someday. That's the devil's language. The devil will never hinder you from coming to a gospel meeting. He'll never hinder you from listening to the gospel of brother and sister witnessing to you. He'll never hinder you from being prayed about. But there's one thing, and he'll hide this from you. You can be saved. But wait until tomorrow. Isn't that right? You're waiting until tomorrow. And you're listening to the devil. And you're accepting the devil's time. Listen, this is an eternal separation. I've been long enough in the ministry to see those cut off like that. I could tell you story after story after story. I'm not here to do that this morning. One moment in time, next moment in eternity. One moment in life, next moment in death. No testimony. Thank God for the times when there was a testimony. You see, someone might ask, why is there such a difference? Well, no preacher sets the difference. God sets the line of demarcation. God says light can never mix with darkness. Iron can never mix with clay. Right can have no fellowship with wrong. God cannot fellowship with Satan. Therefore, what is sown by the Son of Man is the good seed of the gospel. And what is sown by the devil himself is the tares and the seed of damnation. Matthew 25 and 33 sets it like this. It says, And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on his left. Once those two people differed in nature, now they differ eternally. There's a difference between the child of God. There's a difference between the possessor of salvation and the professor of a mere belief. I trust to death I'm speaking to someone like that. Ask God to show you the difference. For time is moving on. And the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. There is an essential separation. There is an eternal separation. That is what I want to say this morning about separation. But the wages of sin is death. But the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. But is the word of separation. But gather. We have here now a word of congregation. It always has given me great pleasure in the work of God. To see God's people gathered for the preaching of the gospel. To see them gathered in the house of God and the place of prayer. To see people giving their time, giving their talent, giving their tithe. To do the little bit they could do. Some of them felt, well, I can't do very much. No, dear brother or sister, we all need to learn this. Little is much when the Lord is in it. Didn't the Lord commend the widow who cast the two mites into the treasury? Not so much those who cast out of their wealth, out of their abundance, but she is given more. Oh, what little I can do, what little you can do. Do it willingly and do it for the Lord. This gathering is a very astonishing gathering. Congregation is a very astonishing congregation because there is only gathered in a select remnant. Every one of them, every single one of them is loved, is chosen, is redeemed, is justified in the sight of God. Everyone wears the wedding garment. They are equipped to stand in the presence of a holy God, not by their own merits or righteousness or their own works or doings, but by what Jesus Christ had done for them in Calvary. He had died. He had taken away their sin. He had written again. He had justified them. And God said, because of that, I have cast thy sin behind my back." Where is behind God's back? No such place. Therefore, sins cannot be found. They're buried, as an old man, John Greer, used to say in Ballymena. He used to say they're buried in a Sadducees grave. And the Sadducees are sad, you see, because they don't believe in the resurrection. There's a word here of congregation, and only the select remnant will be gathered. Want to know the word for select? It's the word sealed. In Revelation 7, verse 3 and verse 9, and in that chapter, "...touch not the earth, nor hurt the earth, nor anything in the earth, until I have sealed the servant of the living God in their forehead." Dear child of God, there's a seal on you today. There's an unknown seal on you only God knows. There's an invisible seal. After that, you believed you were sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. Who can break that? Not a devil in hell. Not a man on earth. I give unto my sheep eternal life, and they shall never perish. Oh, we may err in our judgment, but the Lord knows, according to 2 Timothy 2, verse 19, The Lord knoweth them that are His. So do the angels. They have been given their role. They have been given their instruction. Seal the servants of the living God. We often err in our judgment, but there's no error here. They have not come to seal whom they think are seafaring. But they have come unto the strict orders of God, but gather the select remnant. But not only are they to gather the select remnant, they are to operate under a very strict regulation. Only, only the saints of God. What a shambles we would make! What a place heaven would be if it was left open for us to make our judgment. And who should be there and who shouldn't be there. But God has chosen the angels to gather His saints under a very strict regulation. And according to that regulation, every tear is removed. There's none in this congregation. They're pure. They're spotless. They're white. They're clothed in that spiritual fine linen. Angels have no choice in the matter. It is just simply theirs to obey. That gentle man clothed into his home. That lady clothed into her home. They can't do the things now they would love to do or once they did. But they can still pray. And because they knew the Lord, they shall rise to glory. And there are many in this world who have risen to the heights of worldly religion. They shall be damned in hell forever. A select remnant only. A strict regulation only. But gather, this is to a special recluse. What does that reclose? I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you. You who are converted. You who are saved. You who are going to be gathered by the angels because of what my son has accomplished in Calvary. You're going to be gathered with Adam. You're going to be gathered with Eve. You're going to be gathered with Seth. All the prophets, the patriarchs, the apostles, all redeemed of the Lord. Do you ever have any desire in your heart to speak to those men and women who thrashed the mountains of sin as we read about in the Old Testament? That is going to be your experience one day. For remember what Jesus said, Where I am, ye cannot come. Lord, if you come now, there's a separation in this congregation. Lord, if you come now, there's a congregation coming out of this congregation. And woe to that man or that woman who was sought unto the sound of the gospel and the never-sent and born again of the Holy Spirit. Serious matter, isn't it? A word of separation, but. A word of congregation, gather. A word of designation, gather the wheat. You have a designer. That brings us back to the source. It brings us back to the sower. Psalm 19 tells us, He sowed the star-spangled heavens to give light unto the sons of men. That was the outward light. But He had to come to Calvary to suffer and bleed and die. To give the inward light to the soul. the sower, the designer that came, and his design and his purpose, he shall gather together a people redeemed by blood, saved by grace, and kept for the power of God. And I quote here again, in that day he shall save the trouble of a soul and shall be satisfied. You're saved. Praise the Lord. Why are you saved? Not because you're any better than anybody else. Some of us are a lot worse. You're saved because God chose you. And one day the Spirit of God came and sowed the word of conviction in your heart. And you trembled. And you shook. And you feared. You never did that before. And you could find neither peace nor rest until you came and openly confessed your sin and asked Jesus Christ to save you. Remember this. I told this to the wee congregation whenever we started up Bush Mills. Remember the wee division was then. There were those who tried to harm the work. I said to the wee congregation at Bush Mills, I said, listen, here's what God says. Every plant my father's not planted shall be rooted up. This work is still in the planting business. Other works are rooted up. Where are they? Nowhere. What have they done? Nothing. Yes, the designer here is a sower. But this brings us back to the ultimate because there's the source. It takes us right back to God. It takes us right back to God when Jesus came to show eternal life. It was because when the fullness of time was come, Galatians 4 and 4, God sent forth His Son, His only begotten Son. And it is said by someone regarding what Jesus has done, God thought it. Jesus bought it. And praise God, there were many who got it. How rewarding will this harvest be? How wonderful an experience will this harvest be? All the Father giveth me shall come to me. Has that been fulfilled? Look, John 17. This is the day I'm speaking of. The harvest has come and gone. Separation is made. Eternity is blossomed. Time is no more. There's Jesus. There's His church. As the sand of the sea that no man could number. Stars of the heavens promised to Abraham. Jesus looks into the face of the Father. He says, Father, all that Thou has given me, have I lost none? They're all there. Oh, dear child of God, it was depending on you and me, the way we stumble and stammer through life, the way we feel one day in the mountain, the next in the valley, one day being with joy, the next down in the dumps, and we'd never get there. But there's a seal upon us. The seal of the promise of God. Come from the source of God. There flows from the throne of God a river of the clear crystal of salvation. Be very sure of this. As God has gathered some of us as the wheat to his barn, he may also have to gather us, some of us here this morning, as tares for the burning. What will it be? Only you can answer. Only you can make the response positive or negative. I would encourage you in closing to use the words of the psalmist David in Psalm 26 and 9. Gather not my soul with sinners, nor my life with bloody men. I'm closing now with that challenge. What will it be? The ingathering of the good things of the earth, the beauty of the earth, the food of the earth, What God has given to us to keep this physical frame sane and keep the ribs together. He reminds us, man shall not live by bread alone. It's essential. But we're talking about salvation. It's the Word of God. Are you saved? Do you know the Lord? If you don't, just when we're singing the closing hymn, will you bow your head and ask the Lord to save you. For one of these two destinations will be yours, with the wheat in the barn or with the tares in the burning.