It is this thought of finishing things that
I think God wants to speak to us
about today.
We are finishing, this morning, our ministry in
this place.
At least, we are gathering this Sabbath morning
within these walls for the last time.
For two years and one month the Lord
has permitted us to labor in this place
that was built for the worship of God,
afterwards given to secular business, and finally desecrated
in the devil's employ.
It has pleased Him by a miracle of
providence to give us, just at the time
we needed it, this place for His work,
and for twenty-five months He has permitted
us here to do as much work, perhaps
as many churches do in five or six
years a good deal more than I ever
did in six or seven years before, even
counting by the number of services.
We have had about one thousand one hundred
religious services in this place within the time
I have mentioned.
Many of them were for the comfort of
Christians and the building up of God's church
and people, and therefore have not had the
same visible results in the way of salvation,
but almost every evangelistic service that has ever
been held here has been followed by the
conversion of souls.
I have made no attempt to keep record
of these names, but I should judge that
at least as many as a thousand souls
every year of our work here, which is
only about twenty a week, have been awaited
and talked with on the subject of their
salvation, sometimes a great many recently, in connection
with our mission work, this number has been
more than doubled.
The Lord has permitted us, during these two
years, to bring perhaps many souls to the
feet of Jesus, whom we have not been
able to follow afterward.
God only knows, and I am sure that
tens of thousands have come in here once
or twice and passed on, having heard the
word of eternal life.
I shall never cease to thank God for
the wonderful providence that opened this place, and
the still more wonderful grace that made it
a perfect delight to minister and serve Him
here.
I thank Him also for the dear people
that have gathered, for the laborers that have
been always willing to lead souls to Christ,
for the way in which He has raised,
I think, at least twenty-five thousand dollars
in these two years and met the needs
of the work without our going to man.
I don't speak at all of the money
given for the new tabernacle, I don't speak
of the money given to establish a home
and sustain a training college, I don't speak
at all of the work done in connection
with the work for which the Lord has
made me personally responsible, but for the work
of this church God has put it into
the hands of you simple people to sustain.
I thank Him the more because there has
been nothing on our part to cause it,
there has been nothing of human ability, but
simple dependence in Christ.
You know very well the truth given here
has been very simple, and wholly designed to
lead sinners to Christ and to lead Christians
closer to His side.
You know there has been no great business
capacity in management of things, no ecclesiastical experience,
we have been simply humble instruments of Christ,
and He has seen fit to lead us
on and to bless us, and we do
this morning give Him all the praise and
glory, place ourselves at His feet in great
humility, and ask Him to use us.
Still, now, this is a most serious thought,
this thought of finishing our work, finishing even
this stage of our work.
How much it means for this work, and
how much it suggests for our whole Christian
life and work.
There is nothing, I think, in Christian life
so sad as unfinished work.
There is no memorial in the cemetery that
brings the tears to our eyes more quickly
than the broken column which tells of a
life broken in the midst, and as I
look around me I see so many broken
columns in human life.
Someone said to Napoleon, in one of his
pageants in Africa under the shadow of the
pyramids, as his veterans were marching in review,
Emperor, what is lacking here?
Nothing, nothing, said he, but continuance.
He knew that in a little while these
squadrons would dissolve and life itself be perhaps
a bitter disappointment, and so, in the work
of God we have seen so much that
was incomplete.
I have seen so much in my own
work that I have cried to God, that
even if He gave me a very little
work it would all be clear work that
it would be all finished work.
I remember that when, five years ago, this
work began, how delightful it was that there
were only a dozen or twenty members, and
to feel that we were all on a
scriptural foundation, and the desire has never left
me that whatever we do may last until
the Master comes, even if it be humble
work.
As I look over the work of God,
I see this curse incompleted work strewing the
way all along with miserable wrecks.
I find the book of Judges telling us
of five hundred years of declension because God's
people did not complete their work when they
were in possession of Canaan.
They conquered Jericho, they conquered thirty-one kingdoms,
they divided the land among twelve victorious tribes,
but they left herein their little strongholds that
were not subdued, little tribes that could not
or would not be driven out, and it
was not long until they brought Israel under
subjection, and neutralized all the work of Joshua's
conquest.
I look again at the life of poor
Saul, and I see that the one turning
point in his life was where he stopped
short of finishing God's work, where he let
his own fleshly heart control him, and left
God's work unfinished, and the curse of God's
rejection fell upon him.
I look at the ministry of Elijah, and
never has the world seen anything more sublime
than his victory on Carmel, but Zero, who
has not wept at the reaction of the
morrow, when at the shaking of a woman's
finger he fled into the desert and left
the field in possession of God's enemies, from
which Israel never again recovered, but went down
and down, until it passed away not in
captivity, but in extinction, and so it is
not enough to go on for a while.
It is the last step that wins, Zero.
May God put on our hearts, as we
leave here, this great thought, that I may
finish my course with joy in the ministry
that I have received of the Lord Jesus
to testify the gospel of the grace of
God, how this has often been brought to
my own heart, until it seemed to me
that I could see nothing but just the
closing days of life, the thought when it
would all be finished and handed over to
his hands, and there were the two pictures,
the one the thought of much accomplished, but
much lost, something done, but something undone, and
the sad bitterness of the thought, oh, it
is almost better not to have lived than
to have failed to complete my one life,
and yet to know that I can never
live it again, and that something is left
out for evermore, and then came the other
picture, the soldier pressing on until the last
hour and flinching, unweary afraid even of the
thought of weariness, and, at last, looking back
and saying, by the grace of God there
is nothing left out that the Lord had
in his heart to give me to do,
I have fought a good fight, I have
finished my course, henceforth it is all victory,
and, as you go forth in this spirit,
you will find that while you keep your
eye on the end, it will give impulse
and power to every step of the way,
then, as we look at finished work, how
much of it do we find in the
work and word of God?
We find, in the first chapter of Genesis,
when God began the work of creation, he
left nothing undone, so God finished, as we
are told, the heavens and the earth, and
God saw everything that he had made, that
it was good, and then he sat down
and rested on his own Sabbath day, there
was nothing left undone, take the most finished
work of art and compare it with God's
smallest creations, and you find the sting of
the bee is superior to the most perfectly
wrought needle that ever came from the factories
or the tools of man, you find that
the most perfect polished surface under the magnifying
glass seems like a great mass of hills
and valleys compared with the surface of your
hand, the wing of the smallest insect is
all spangled and shining with burnished, radiant splendour,
and no matter how carefully you inspect it,
there is no Floyd is all perfect, you
find the little blade of grass is made
as carefully as the immense pine tree, all
God's work is well done, and myriads of
things seem to be made that produce no
adequate return, on every side of us there
are things that we do not seem to
understand the use of, everything is done with
a prodigal bountifulness, and yet all are perfect,
we read again about Moses, that he finished
his work, in the last chapter of Exodus,
we have this description, so Moses finished the
work as the Lord commanded, so did he,
his work was all done, and then God
came in and took possession, and made it
his dwelling place, God does not want to
come in and dwell in unfinished things, if
you build a house and put no roof
on it, it will fall to pieces, and
so unfinished work will fail, again, we find
that Joshua finished his work, and that was
the secret of his power, so Joshua took
the whole land, according to all that the
Lord said unto Moses, there was not a
city that he did not take and there
failed not one word of any good thing
which the Lord had spoken unto the house
of Israel, he finished his work through and
through, and all his life God's blessing was
on that work and on the people, and
it was when Joshua passed away that they
began sliding the work and then came the
declension and ruin of the period of the
judges, again we read of Nehemiah, that he
finished his work, the prophet Haggai had said
about this restoration, the hands of Zerubbabel have
laid the foundation of his house, his hands
also shall finish it, and ye shall know
that the Lord hath sent me unto you,
so we read about Nehemiah, so the wall
was finished on the fourth and twentieth day
of the month, there was no gate left
out, no hinge broken, no breach in the
walls that was not completed, no unfinished work,
but every little thing, every bark, every hinge,
every river, was all secure, then God blessed
and established the work, we read about the
dear Lord Jesus, he finished his work, I
must be about my father's business, I must
work while it is day, or, as it
is in the original, I must work all
the day long, every hour of the day,
for the night is coming, my meat and
drink are to finish the work, which my
father has given me to do, and the
hour came at last when he could say,
I have glorified thee on earth, I have
finished the work thou gavest me to do,
and now I come to thee, his last
word on the cross was just one little
word, finished, and when he rose from the
grave there was such a wonderful quietness and
deliberateness about him, such an evidence of everything
being orderly and completely done, that even the
napkin was found wrapped together in a place
by itself, and his grave clothes were all
folded up in order, there was not a
trifle left undone, the Lord did everything perfectly,
easily and well, we read about Paul that
his one mission was to finish his course,
and the time came when, within the sight
of the Ostian gate where he died, he
could say, I have fought a good fight,
I have kept the faith, henceforth there is
laid up for me a crown of righteousness,
which the Lord shall give to me in
that day, and not to me only, but
to all them who love his appearing, he
finished his work, and had he his life
to live over again, perhaps there is nothing
more he could add to it, and now,
dear friends, how about your work and mine?
Let us look into it to-day, you
are standing within a few steps of a
border-line, when this period of your life
will close up for ever.
Have you accomplished that which you set out
to do?
Have you finished that which you began?
How is it about your Christian character as
it entire, or is it incomplete?
I pray God to sanctify you, wholly, entirely,
and that your whole spirit, and soul and
body may be preserved blameless unto the coming
of the Lord Jesus.
Is that fulfilled, or are you only saved
in spots, only cleansed here and there, and
great blotches of sin are like a moth
-eaten garment?
That is not God's plan.
God's idea for you is entire wholeness of
character, your spirit, your soul, your body all
sanctified unto him.
Why not?
It is because you have not taken God's
word.
It is because you have not been willing
to enter into God's blessing and God's will.
If you have not entered into here, it
is not going to be any easier to
enter into it anywhere else.
Zero, before this day shall close, just go
to him to give you that complete transformation.
It is not a thing that you grow
into, it is a thing that you take
from him as the free gift of his
grace.
May God help you today not to seek
human perfection, not to say there is no
room for progress, but to take and have
the perfect Christ reaching every part of your
life and going ever in your complete being,
a perfect child, perhaps, but just as perfect
as a perfect man.
You know what it is to be a
perfect babe.
It is a poor, weak little thing, but
it is perfect.
You know what it is to have a
poor, mutilated body with a hand off or
an eye out.
Now, God wants you to be a perfect
child to be complete, to be finished in
all your parts, although with room for boundless
expansion in the growth of your future life.
The dear Saviour has it for you, and
you are sliding his costly purchase if you
do not receive it.
Again, have you entered into the complete plan
and purpose of God for your life.
Paul prays for the Thessalonians that they may
know all the good pleasure of his goodness,
and that the Lord will fulfill in them
his perfect will.
Are you reaching out to that for which
you were apprehended by Christ, or is God
all the time having to drive you forward
and press you on?
God calls you to a complete conformity to
his will that you may be holy and
please God, and he will give you the
grace to do it.
How about your work?
Have you finished that?
Have you started, and then got tired and
dropped it?
Have you been sent to some service, and
at some little discouragement put it aside?
Have you brought some soul to Christ, and
then left it again, never prayed for it,
never sought to finish the trust that God
gave to you?
Have you promised anything, and never fulfilled it?
God calls us to-day, before we leave
this place to balance all our accounts with
him, and to go away with the blessed
thought that we have nothing more to do
that could have been done, and he does
not call us to anything unreasonable, extreme, or
impossible.
And then, as a church, have we finished
that for which God sent us to this
place?
When we have passed away from twenty-third
street to return, perhaps, in this sense, no
more shall we be able to say, I
am pure from the blood of all men,
I have not shunned to declare the whole
counsel of God, I have held up Christ
before his coming to all I could reach,
I have done all that I could do
in these meetings to bring souls to Christ,
I have finished the work that thou gavest
me to do, even Samson, in the last
moment of his life, accomplished a life's work
in an hour.
May God help you to accomplish the trust
that has been committed to your hands, to
leave nothing at least undone.
So, in this special enterprise, as a church,
let us finish our work.
We have started to secure our new church
home, let us finish it.
We have given our honour before God and
man that we will independently, even at great
sacrifice, purchase a house for God.
Have you finished your part?
Have you done what God has called you
to do?
Is it finished?
Shall we go there with no raveled ends,
with no loose, unfinished work, but with that
promptness and that obedience which God loves, and
on which he pours out his perfect blessing,
even in financial matters, for he blesses his
church for generosity quite as much as he
does for faith and prayer and Christian work.
And I am sure that the blessing has
come to this people, because we have been
liberally meeting the claims of Christ in these
past months.
And then our life work, dear friends, oh,
is that going to be a completed scroll,
or is it going to be a torn
parchment, unfinished?
I don't believe God wants it to be
so for you or for me.
Oh, what a precious life yours and mine
is!
Only once can it be lived, never again
can we traverse this ground.
Oh, remember as, you go forth, I shall
never pass this way again, and so let
every earnest fibre of your being be laid
at his feet, and do it as you
would wish it done in that day when
you shall look back upon the life that
shall come no more.
I say this for myself, he say it
for you, dear friends.
Someone has said, for at my back I
always hear time's swift-winged chariot hurrying near,
and onward, all before, I see deserts of
vast eternity.
And Dr. Boner reminds us, not many lives
have webbed one, one, only one.
How precious should that one life be that
narrow span, day after day filled up with
faithful toil, year after year still bringing in
new spoil!
I heard, somewhere, of a poor fellow dying
on the railroad track, and, as they picked
him up all mangled, his face pale and
blood flowing from every wound, he just had
strength to say one sentence, oh, if I
only had!
Nobody knew that terrible regret that came surging
up in his memory, something he had meant
to do and just put off that day,
something he had promised God to do but
he did not, and never could it be
done again, oh, if I only had!
Oh, it speaks to me as the signal
of an unfinished life saved, perhaps, but not
what God saved it for, coming in, but
coming in to lose the crown God would
have given.
Happy, I hope, oh, yes, in heaven you
will have happiness even in the lower place,
but the one that could be content to
take the lower place has got a mean
soul and cannot be very happy anywhere.
It is said that one of the old
translators of the Bible, as he was finishing
his work, felt the cold damp of death
coming over him, calling his scribe.
He said, all is done but just one
half a chapter, and, as his pulses grew
colder, he summoned up his faith and courage,
and called his amanuensis, and said, write quickly,
and he began to dictate, and words poured
from his lips as fast as the hand
could write, be quick, he said, be quick,
the sands are running out, and the words
poured out as the last drops of the
stream of life, and when he had finished
it, he clasped his hands, and said now,
glory be to the Father, and to the
Son, and to the Holy Ghost, and his
lips were cold and his work was done,
there was nothing lacking, the last line had
been added, and the English Bible was put
in the hands of man, that was finished
work, God has something for you to do
until it is all done, and then when
it comes to the end, oh, it will
be sweet to say like Lady Huntingdon, my
work is finished, and I have nothing to
do but die, so may the dear Lord
bless our living, and then I am sure
he will glorify our dying.