Summer Is Ended Harvest is past summer is

Summer Is Ended “Harvest is past, summer is ended, and we are not saved” Jeremiah 8: 20

Background • The occasion: Judah was facing Babylonian captivity; Judah was looking for salvation in Egypt; Judah was not saved because of their abandoning of God • This a proverb-like saying

Background • The object: harvest • The opportunity: summer • The limitation: past, ended • The neglect: we are not saved

Background • Perpetual backsliding (8: 5) • Rejecting God’s word (8: 7, 9) • False peace (8: 11) • Not ashamed (8: 12) • Idolatry (8: 19)

Background • They looked to the wrong help • They trusted in their outward privileges • They wanted to continue in their sin • They focused on physical salvation • They neglected their opportunity

Background • The meaning: 1) opportunity lost is acknowledged; 2) neglect is confessed; and 3) doom is incurred • The application: many will squander their season (opportunity) of salvation in favor of remaining lost

Harvest Is Past • Harvest is plenteous (Mt. 9: 37 -38) • Harvest is come (Mk. 4: 29) • Harvest is already (Jn. 4: 35)

Summer Is Ended • God gives us a gracious season to be saved: opportunity, life, knowledge, privileges, etc. (Mt. 24: 37; Lk. 12: 48; Rom. 2: 4; 1 Tim. 2: 4; 2 Pet. 3: 9) • This season may pass due to unbelief, hardness, neglect, procrastination, etc.

Summer Is Ended • Season of refreshing (Acts 3: 19) and righteousness (Rom. 3: 26) • Season to wake up (Rom. 13: 11) • Season to reap (Gal. 6: 9) and to preach (2 Tim. 4: 2)

We Are Not Saved • “We are (“I am”) not saved” is the saddest statement in scripture; the language of final and absolute despair • The unprepared, unrepentant sinner at judgment is the saddest picture (Mt. 7: 23; 25: 10 -12, 41 ff; Lk. 13: 25)

We Are Not Saved • Regrets of not being saved are awful: expressed now and in eternity • Regrets spoken will be of no avail (Lk. 16: 23 ff) • Are we wise (Prov. 10: 5)?