The lesson is in Jeremiah 8:2020The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved. (Jeremiah 8:20), "The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved." I shall take as my text the last two words, "not saved." I will not ask you to follow me through the textual windings of these words, or their historical setting, but to think for a few minutes of some things they suggest. To me there are some things which make my heart sad.
I am saddened by the thought that there are many who haven't missed a service who are described by those two words, "not saved." I want you Christians to think of that awful fact. And I want you to pray that many here tonight may be saved.
God knows I'm speaking the truth when I say it. When I'm weary and want to sleep, some sad, weary face haunts me. I know the possessor of it didn't yield to Christ when he ought to have done so.
It is about as much as I can bear. I know just enough to make me understand a little of the disappointment of the Son of God when He wept over Jerusalem and said, "How often would I have gathered thy children together... and ye would not!" Matthew 23:3737O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them which are sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children together, even as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not! (Matthew 23:37). Oh, unsaved men and women, I pray God you may never meet with a disappointed Christ. It will be an awful moment for you if you do.
Here you sit, and on your poor soul is written, "Not saved." Think of it! And God has brought me, a gypsy boy from his tent, one who never had your opportunities and advantages, to shame you, to humble you, and he has been trying these days, pleading with you, coaxing you, striving with you, warning you. He has not spared you a moment's rest in his efforts to win you for Christ.
You have sat here throughout all these appeals, pleadings, and prayers, and yet some of you have never really been moved! It seems as though God cannot get at you. He calls, but you have so hardened your conscience and heart by sin and worldly pleasures that it seems as if your soul has lost its fine feeling. And this big hammer of the Word of God-instead of softening when you hear it, your heart now hardens and you are "not saved!"
And oh, His love! Is it nothing to you? Oh, the height and depth of it! Oh, the compassion and the heartbreak of Jesus Christ, the Wonder of the Ages, the Warmth of Heaven, the Song of Angels, and the Hope of Man and the Deliverance from Sin! Is He nothing to you?
You will bolt the door when you get home; you will see the windows are fastened; you will not leave a five dollar bill exposed if you think anybody will steal it; you will lock up your treasures and jewels, and yet you expose your soul and your eternal interests. With these dangerously exposed you go to sleep without a thought and without a care. May God open your eyes to see. See what, you say? Ah, the love of the Savior!
None of the ransomed ever knew
How deep were the waters crossed,
Nor how dark the night that the Lord
passed through
Ere He found His sheep that was lost.
Out in the desert, He heard its cry,
Sick and helpless and ready to die.
Ah, His great love! Well might the poet sing:
Oh, Christ, what burdens bowed Thy head?
Our load was laid on Thee,
Thou stoodest in the sinner's stead,
To bear all ill for me.
A victim lead, Thy blood was shed,
Now there's no load for me.
Ah, His great love!
See! From His head, His hands, His feet,
Sorrow and love flow mingled down.
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
Or thorns compose so rich a crown?
Love! Why, when God made the world He did it with words! Words were worlds when He willed. Planets from His fingertips! But to save one soul it meant death―Christ's death!
Will you end this madness? Will you end this moral and spiritual suicide? We are saved by grace through faith in Christ. Won't you have the sense to surrender and believe? "Whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life." John 4:1414But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. (John 4:14).