Finishing Well

Thanks so much, Bob. Bob, I don't know if Milton said this, but was actually a missionary in Haiti, back when Crossworld was called UFM. And, And was on our board for a number of years. In fact, Bob left the board right when I came on the board, so I had to fill his shoes.

So that was quite a tall order there. but we're very, thankful for Bob and, and appreciate him coming out and sharing this morning and, you'll have a, a final opportunity after the service to, to give to the Haitian Frond if the Lord so leads. one of the things I do appreciate about Bob and his wife, Betty, is, these are folks that have ministered for Christ their whole lives and on into their, elder age, they're, moving with their boots on. And, this is a man that is finishing well.

And, that's the, the title of our sermon this morning. I'd ask you to, open the 2 Timothy 4:7. 2 Timothy 4:7, we've been talking here in, in 1 Timothy about widows and qualifications for leaders of widows. Milton will pick up that next week.

And, But my task this morning is to Is to take a look. At this concept of finishing and finishing well, we have in First Timothy a list of qualifications, that any widow or any person really would want to ascribe to in order to be considered, worthy of leadership at the end of their days and. Each one of us should be obviously considering and thinking about not just where we're at now, but where do we want to be when we hit the age of Bob Bob Bell or Ron Needham or, or Randy Thompson or Phyllis Thompson.

what are we doing now to prepare to finish and to finish well?

Paul says in 2 Timothy 4:7, I have fought the good fight. I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. And, I don't know about you, but I don't wanna just start the race.

I wanna finish the race. In 1968 in the Olympics in Mexico City. At the end of the marathon. Just about everybody had left when the final runner, a Tanzanian runner, came into the stadium and hobbled around the 400 m track, and the few remaining spectators rose and applauded him.

As though he were the winner. After crossing the finish line, he slowly walked off the field without turning to the cheering spectators. In view of his injury and having no chance of winning a medal, a curious spectator asked him why he did not quit the race, and this Tanzanian runner replied, My country did not send me 7000 miles to start the race, but sent me 7000 miles to finish it. This morning I want to ask, I want to ask you.

To ask yourself two questions. We're going to try to answer these two questions this morning. The first question is, will I finish? The second question is, will I finish well?

And when you consider the, the daunting task and the enemies that are out there before us, these are no small questions. When you look at those, many people in scripture and, and in history who have started the race and have not finished or have not finished well. there is a sense of fear that I know rises up in my heart and probably rises up in the hearts of many believers when they consider the fact that so many that have gone before us have not finished or not finished well.

You can look in the Old Testament at King Hezekiah, who seemed to have a great faith in the Lord, and it seemed like the Lord had done actually many great things for him.

And then at the end of his life he caves in to idolatry. You can look at King Solomon, who was given such wisdom and such a gift from the Lord and had King David as his father, who gave him great instruction and at the end of his life we see much turmoil. You can look at someone like Samson who was used as a judge of the Lord, and throughout his life we have difficulties and tragedies and his life ultimately ending in in death and blindness because of bad choices and sin. We look at our mortal enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil.

And if we're honest with ourselves, and if we're really considerate of these formidable enemies, it can lead us to ask the question, Will I finish? Will I finish? Well, the Bible gives us warnings. Let him who thinks he stands, take heed lest he fall.

If we can look out at the people that have gone before us, look out at our enemies and not ask the question, Will I finish, I would just ask, are we, do we really understand what's going on here, that this is, we're in a war, many people have died. We have many enemies and And so there is, there is something to fear. There's something to be concerned about, but let's, let's look at this first question. Will I finish?

and I want to answer this question in 3 different ways. And the first answer to this question is, is you will finish biblically if you keep moving. If you start a race. And you keep moving throughout that race, you will finish.

If you stop in that race, you won't, right? And there's biblical teaching that exhorts us to keep moving. To endure To persevere. Let's consider some of these passages together.

Hebrews 12:14. The writer of Hebrews says strive for peace with everyone, and for holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. We're called to strive to keep moving towards holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. We see in Matthew 24, a passage like this, where Jesus says, many will be offended and betray one another and will hate one another, then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.

Many will be seeking truth, so to speak, and yet be deceived by false prophets. And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold, but he who endures to the end shall be saved. He who keeps moving shall be saved. There is on the pages of scriptures this concept of enduring, of moving, of persevering.

Colossians 1, we see Paul says this, and you, who were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and blameless, and above reproach in his sight, if Indeed, you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which you heard. Paul acknowledges that in his audience as he's writing to the Church of Colossi, that there are those in his audience that will be found blameless and above reproach in the sight of the Father.

But those that will be found blameless must keep moving, must endure, must continue in the faith. We also see in the book of Hebrews.

Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, but exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened to the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end. These are some pretty big ifs. That I don't know about you, but in me puts a little sense of godly fear.

If we hold fast our confidence steadfast to the end. So we will finish the race if we keep moving, if we persevere. If we progress throughout our lives in our sanctification, and this is, this is a clear teaching in Scripture. But if we stop with this teaching of scripture, we are going to be woefully short of what the complete teaching of Scripture is about finishing.

Because if we only stick with these passages that speak of our perseverance, if we only stick with these passages that speak of our remaining, And our continuing, then we will not see the source. We will not see the power that gives us that is behind us as we persevere. And so let's, let's look at the second. Answer this question.

Will I finish? You will finish if you keep moving. You will finish if God is for you. If God is for you, you will finish.

You understand that concept? we got the Super Bowl coming up here soon. And somebody might walk up to you and say, so who are you for? Are you for the Saints or are you for?

the Colts. Right? So what who are you for? And someone could walk up to God and say, God, who are you for?

Are you for Mike? Are you for these people? Are you for the church? What's the answer to the question?

Is God for the church? We see many precious promises in Scripture that indicates that God is for His children. Spurgeon calls these promises on the pages of Scripture, God's kisses, that, that, that move away this fear of aging, God's kisses, or God kisses away the fear of aging with his promises, Spurgeon says. And so let's consider some of these promises that demonstrate that God is for you.

Isaiah 46 would be one. Hearken to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been born by me from your birth, carried from the womb, even to your old age, I am he. And to gray hairs, I will carry you. I have made and will bear, I will carry and will save.

Obviously, in context, this is talking to Israel, but by way of application is we see one people of God throughout all of Scripture, we can see this is applying to ourselves, that God is the one who is, will carry us in old age. God is the one who has made us and will bear us. We see passes like Philippians 1:6, being confident this very thing that he who has begun a good work will complete it until the day of Christ Jesus. Here we see Paul speaking of our finishing as as if it's all upon God.

He's the one that began it, and he will complete it. 1 Corinthians 1:8. who will also conform you to the end, confirm you to the end that you may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful by whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

We see similar concept in Jude 1:24. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy to God, our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, now and forevermore. Turn with me to Romans 8. Romans chapter 8.

Is a great passage of, This unbreakable golden chain that started with God, and ends with God. And where we see that our salvation is from beginning to end. God, starting in verse 29, for whom he foreknew. He also predestined.

This doesn't say for what he foreknew. It doesn't say for these facts that God foreknew or for the choices that God foreknew, but for the people that God foreknew. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many, many brethren. Moreover, whom he predestined, these he also called, whom he called these he also justified, whom he justified these, he also glorified.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? Answer to that question. No one.

God is for us. If God has foreknown you, if He has predestined you, if He has called you, if He has justified you, He will glorify you because He is for you, because you have become a partaker of Christ. Let me give you a true false question. True or false.

Some are lost. On the road from justification. To glorification, true or false. False.

Some are lost on the way from justification to glorification. If we understand this passage correctly, that is false. All who are justified will be glorified because God is for the justified. He is for you.

Here we see that it's in our justification that God has made us right in his sight, those who have been made right in his sight will be glorified. Their perseverance is not the means by which we get God to be for us. It is the effect. Of the fact that God is already for us.

You cannot ever make God be for you by your good works. Because true Christian good works are the fruit of God's already being for you. We don't get God on our side by persevering. He got us on his side.

And he is the one. That will cause us to persevere, to finish. He is for you because you are in Christ. If you believed in Christ, then he is for you, and you cannot improve on the perfection of Christ.

He is as much for you now as he ever will be. Unless you believe that someday you will get a little better and will add to the perfection. of Christ May never be So when did God Become for you. Does God become for us?

When we stand at the judgment throne and God determines how well we persevered, is that when he becomes for us? We say no, scripturally, God became for you when you were justified and joined the Christ because he became for you because he is for Christ and all those that are in Christ, the Father is for. Amen. So he is for you at the moment of your salvation.

And those who he is for. We'll finish. This is not mainly a fight to do. But a fight to delight in Christ.

Consider also passages that speak of our sealing in the Holy Spirit in Him, you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, and then in Ephesians 4:30, do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. It's an interesting passage, Ephesians 4:30. What we see here is, it's possible for sealed believers to grieve the Spirit. But we see nowhere in the pages of Scripture that it is possible for sealed believers to become unsealed by the Holy Spirit.

We are kept, preserved. because of the indwelling power and ceiling of the Holy Spirit, this is preservation. If we understand this finishing concept properly, there is a human responsibility that we see on the pages of Scripture. There's a responsibility that I have and you have to persevere.

To endure to the end. But there is something that God does called preservation, that is the very basis for my preservation. For me to persevere, I must have God preserving me and giving me the power. Notice like Luke 22, the story where, Jesus says to Peter, he says, Simon, Simon, indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat.

But I have prayed for you, that your faith should not fail. And when you have returned to me, strengthen your brethren. That's an amazing passage if you think about what's going on in the spiritual realm there. No doubt this is not just, I'm, I'm sure that the devil and his demons have not just asked for Peter, but have asked for many of us.

And yet Jesus says, I have prayed for you. Jesus prayed for us in John 17. Jesus is at the right hand of the Father right now, praying for us. And does, does the Father answer the prayers of the Lord Jesus Christ?

Yes, he does. Jesus is for us. God is for us. We are sealed by the Spirit to the day of redemption.

And so we come to this final answer of will I finish? And letter C really joins the two answers, the two first answers, and that is, you will keep moving if God is for you. Will I finish? I will finish if I keep moving.

If I endure to the end. He who endures the end shall be saved. I will finish if God is for me. If God is for me, who can be against me?

The conclusion, the summary of this doctrine is, is you will keep moving if God is for you. If you are justified, you will progress in your sanctification. If God is preserving you, you will persevere. If God is for you, no one can be against you.

These are two parallel truths that we must keep together on the pages of Scripture, the human responsibility that we bear, and the grace that undergirds that. The power that has been given to us by our Lord. Consider Philippians, we see many passages in Scripture that join these two concepts of our responsibility, and God's sovereignty in our lives. And we need to keep them both together.

Philippians 2:12 and 13. Paul says, therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. That is keep moving, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. There are things to fear.

There is a reason to tremble. And we are called to keep moving, we are called to endure, we are called to persevere, to continue in the faith. And we look at various warnings on the pages of Scripture, and there's a sense of fear and trembling, but then we remember. What Paul says in the rest of the passage, for it is God who works in you, both to will and to do for his good pleasure.

Where does that working out my salvation? Where does the power to work out my salvation come from? Where does the power to endure come from? Where do I get the function to keep moving?

It is God. Who works in me both to will. He gives me the volition and to do, He gives me the action for His glory, His good pleasure. We see, again, that Jesus.

When he prays for Peter, he says, When you have returned. Strengthen your brethren. Consider also what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15:10. But by the grace of God, I am what I am, and His grace towards me was not in vain.

But I labored more abundantly than they all, I labored, I worked, I endured, I kept moving. Yet not I, but the grace of God which was in me. It was God moving in me. So we summarize in this way, will I finish?

Will you finish? You will finish if you keep moving. You keep putting 1 ft in front of the other, you will get there. You will finish the faith.

And you will finish if God is for you. And you will keep moving. If God is for you, you will be sanctified. You will be glorified if you are justified.

You will persevere if God is preserving. God will preserve you, if he is for you. He is for you, if you're in Christ Jesus. And so I just asked you this morning, are you in Christ Jesus?

Have you believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and trusted him as your Lord and Savior, the only one that can rescue you from hell and sin and death and judgment. If you are in Christ and you trust in Christ alone for your salvation, do you love His appearing as Paul says? Are you looking forward to his appearing? Do you love the Lord Jesus Christ?

If the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you believe in him, then you will finish. Look at what we see the Lord, the Spirit speaking to us. He's speaking to Israel here in this new covenant passage, and then this passage gets applied to all of us in the New Testament in Hebrews 8 and other places, but Jeremiah 32:40. I will make an everlasting covenant with them that I will not turn away from doing good to them.

That's God's part. He will finish it. He will preserve. But I will put my fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from me.

He puts the fear in us, and we will not depart. I will not turn away from them. That's preservation. They will not turn away from me.

That's perseverance. Two parallel truths that we see on the pages of scripture. So, brother, sister, if, if you have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, Look at what the Word of God says. And have faith and hope that you will finish, not because of your own works, but because of the finished work of Christ.

He will cause you to persevere, He will strengthen you. He's begun this work, and he will complete it to the day of Christ Jesus. It is Jesus who is the author and the finisher of our faith. It is Jesus who has said it is finished.

And so you will finish, but I want to ask a second question. I want you to ask a second question of yourself. I will I finish well. If we further examine this concept on the pages of Scripture, We noticed that it is possible for people to finish the race, and yet some to finish better than others, right?

one of my heroes in the Old Testament is King David. And we see that he is a man after God's own heart, and there are so many things to commend him, but there are other things that we would look at his life and say, he didn't finish as well as he could have. And we look at someone like Daniel or Joshua, and we say, they finished pretty well. We look at Moses and all of the ways that the Lord used Moses and, he's listed in Hebrews 12 or 11 and 12, or chapter 11 in this hall of faith.

And yet towards the end of his life, He did his finish as well as you would hope. Will I finish well? And there are so many different things that we could say. to answer this question, I want to, I'm gonna give you 10 quick encouragements to help you finish well.

All of these encouragements come right out of the scriptures. We're going to quickly try to refer to these passages. But I've plagiarized John Bunyan in Pilgrim's Progress here. Every one of these.

Encouragement comes right out of Pilgrim's Progress, and he got it right out of the Bible. There's many other things you could say, but Let me first say encouragements to help you finish well. Look to Christ. Look to Christ.

Hebrews 12:1, therefore, We also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight and sin which so easily ensnares us and let us run with endurance. The race that is set before us, how looking unto Jesus, the author, and finisher of our faith. How can we finish well, is to make a conscious effort throughout our lives, moment by moment to look to Jesus, look at his life, how that he lived a perfect life for you. I remind my children often whenever they fail and sin and misbehave, we go through the discipline process and then I ask them, How many times did Jesus disobey his parents?

And I don't ask them that question to browbeat them into trying to get more and more like Jesus so that they could somehow perfect themselves like Jesus as a child. I asked them that question, to remind them that they are wrapped up in the righteous life of Jesus Christ, that while they've disobeyed Mommy and daddy, Jesus never did. And Jesus' righteous acts are credited to their accounts. And that motivates us to finish well.

Look to Christ's life, look to Christ's death, that he died on the cross for us, and that every one of our sins has been appeased and propitiated. There no no longer remains any wrath. Look to the resurrection that Jesus has been raised, and now we have the same power that raised Jesus Christ from the dead is available to us. If, if he died and has been raised, we've died with Him, and we've been raised, and we can walk in newness of life, and we can reckon ourselves dead to sin, as Paul says in Romans 6.

Look at Christ's ascension, the fact that he intercedes for us at the right hand of the Father, and all of his prayers get answered. Look at the fact that Christ will come back and, and he will rectify our wrongs and whip up on the enemies of our souls. And eventually, while the devil has been dealt the death blow, he will be thrown in the lake of fire in the end, and Christ will reign eternally. Look to Christ as an encouragement to finish well.

Look at your coat. pilgrim is Christian is, is, is challenged to look at the embroidered coat that he's been given, this righteousness that we've been given in Christ that we are not dressed in our own righteousness, but we are dressed in his righteousness. It is Christ, who has become wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, we are dressed in his good works. And when we fall and fail and sin, we look at our sins, and we, we confess, and then we look immediately at the righteousness of Christ and what He has won for us in His righteous life.

Find encouragement to finish well, by remembering God's promises. There are so many amazing promises on the pages of Scripture. God kisses away our fears with these promises, as Spurgeon says, promises like we find in John chapter 6, where Jesus says, All that the Father gives me will come to me. Have you been given to Jesus by the Father?

If you are a love gift to Jesus, you will come, and Jesus will not cast you out, and he will raise you up at the last day. No one can come to me unless the Father draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. Jesus says, if you have come to the Lord Jesus Christ, you've been drawn, and Jesus will raise you up at the last day. He has begun this good work, and you will complete it to the day of Christ Jesus, and Jesus will lose none of his children.

Jesus is the one that goes out after that one sheep that goes astray. It's not the will of the Father that he should lose one of his children. Right, and Matthew? chapter 18 there.

So remember God's promises, it's a Pilgrim and his compatriot. hope are locked in the dungeon of despair in the, in Pilgrim's Progress. They, they take a wrong path. They end up getting into this dungeon.

They're being beaten up by this big giant called despair. And I think it's, it's, it's a really amazing picture in Pilgrim's Progress because it reminds us that one, our Christian life is filled with challenges and temptations. And while we will stay on this path, many times we get off the path. And here you have these people who love the Lord Jesus Christ that are caught in despair, and you should read the dialogue between Pilgrim or Christian and And, and hope sometime and, and see what types of things that they do, and talk about in that particular section.

But suddenly Christian realized, well, I've got this key that I forgot about and the key represents the promises of the Lord Jesus Christ, the promises in the Word of God, and they take this key, and they bust out of the dungeon of despair. Remember the promises on the pages of Scripture. Another thing that can encourage us is to follow right leaders. Encouragements to help you finish well is follow the right leaders.

Follow the right leaders. There are those Jesus warns that in the last days, there will be false prophets, and there will be people that will heap up for themselves, teachers to scratch their ears, and we want to look for who are those that are preaching the Word of God? Who are those that are setting the world behind them? Who are those that are holding high the Word of God?

And this is one of the means to help us finish well. As soon as a pilgrim or Christian enters into the interpreter's house, the Holy Spirit begins to share with him and show him different images. The interpreter comes and the first image he shows him is a portrait of a man of God who is preaching the Word, and he says, Look at this guy. And that's the person you want to follow.

Knowing that the Christian will face many false teachers as he goes throughout his life. You want to finish well, find the right leaders, find those that love the sheep and are not just charlatans who are trying to harm the sheep. A 5th thing is make a right use of the law. We don't try to persevere merely by looking at all of the laws of Scripture and saying, OK, I'm going to try to keep these laws.

We understand the right use of the law, and that is that the law raises up to our consciousness, our sin and impresses us towards the gospel. We the law excites. The knowledge of sin, the gospel is the one that represses sin in our lives. So you can look at Romans, chapter 5, we had time.

Wait for the best things. Wait for the best things. We look for a heavenly kingdom. We look for those, spiritual things, the eternal things that are unseen, as Paul says, not the physical things that are seen.

We are waiting for our heavenly retirement, not merely our present retirement. I don't think there's necessarily anything wrong with retirement. We've seen in the Old Testament, priests retiring from their priestly duties, but there is something wrong with retiring spiritually and trying to find our comforts in this age. John Piper says that the modern American concept of retirement is because most of our people don't believe in heaven anymore.

And so we must find heaven here. We want to go down with our boots on and realize that we're in a battle to the day that we die. And spiritually, we're pressing and moving. And we don't want to retire spiritually.

We want to keep moving on for Christ. Would that more and more believers when they retire from their work would give full time service to Christ and His church, and go out with their boots on. Piper says, what a tragic way to finish the last mile before entering the presence of the King, who finished his last mile so differently. Jay Oswald Sanders wrote a book a year after he was 70 years old.

He died at 89. He wrote 19 books, the last 19 years of his life. You look, even, just look at our own Senate and our leadership, the folks, the age of the folks that are leading our country, many of these folks are in their 60s and 70s and 80's and very productive for the country. How much more for the kingdom of Christ?

There's many, many a man or woman of God that their ministry just got rolling about 65. And so we encourage you to wait for the best things, work now, rest later. There's a day coming when no man can work. Remember, who maintains the work of grace in your soul, be encouraged that you will finish well as you, as you look and see that it is Christ that is maintaining the work of grace in your soul.

While the devil may be trying to pour water on the fire of grace, Jesus is behind the curtain pouring oil on it. He who began the good work will complete it to the day of Christ Jesus. Take finally, your last couple things, take scriptural warnings seriously. We see many, many promises in the Bible that remind us of where we're going, that we're going to get there.

And at the same time, we have these warning passages that warn us that let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. We have many warning passages in Hebrews 3, Hebrews 10, Hebrews 12, that believers should look at and consider and take seriously. Christian, when he walks through the interpreter's house, he comes to a man who's in a cage, who was a professor of faith in Jesus Christ. And Christian says, why are you in this cage?

And he says, because while I was once a professor, I gave my heart and soul over to my lust, and now I cannot get out of this cage. The interpreter, Christian says, what does this mean? And he says, this has been given to you as a warning that you should avoid the traps and avoid the temptations that this man has fallen into and has been caged. Yes, there are many promises, but part of God's method of getting us on the road and staying on the road with those promises is also to warn us.

And to and to call us to watch out, to be circumspect. We also If we are to finish well, we want to fight hard. Paul says that He competes for the prize, not as for a perishable crown, but for an imperishable crown in 1 Corinthians 9. I run thus not with uncertainty, I fight, not as those who beat the air, but I discipline my body into subjection.

We take the kingdom by force and violence. In the church, I think sometimes we grow up with a little bit of a wrong use of the of certain doctrines of, of grace and promises and whatnot. And if we apply them in the wrong way, we get soft. We need to realize that we're in a battle.

And there's something, there's something in the scripture called fighting and warfare, and, and getting wounded and getting back up and, and persevering and realizing this is going to be a tough, long, hard battle, and the rest is coming, but it isn't now. We need to arm ourselves with that mindset and thought and train our children to have that mindset and thought. And then finally, encouragements to help you finish well. Never forget the day of judgment.

We know that Jesus Christ will return with a trump. With the voice of the archangel, and he will come and, and he will call his children up to be with himself, and then he will come and deal out judgment, the sheep and the goats. He comes in his first coming as savior, he comes in his second coming as Judge of the world, and he will pour out fire upon his enemies on all those who do not believe the gospel. And this judgment is not just given to put fear into the hearts of unbelievers, it's also given to remind Christians of what we deserve outside of Christ and to maintain in us a sense of a biblical and holy sense of fear and trembling.

The final image that we see. In the interpreter's house in Pilgrim's Progress is a man that wakes up trembling, and he's putting on his clothes and, and Christian says, Who is this man? And the man speaks of the dream, and he says, I saw the Lord Jesus Christ splitting the heaven split open and fire came out from the mouth of Jesus Christ. He came and burned up all of his enemies.

And I saw the righteous go up into his right hand, and I saw hell open by my feet. This is an image that we should keep before us, that will cause us to persevere and finish well. If we do not keep the stakes before us, there can be the temptation to think that there is not much mighty to lose. That maybe Christ's death and the cross really doesn't speak as much of God's holiness as the Bible says it does, and God's righteousness.

There are enemies out there that will lose their lives, because they will not follow Christ, and we must ever keep the judgment before us if we would finish well, these are just some encouragements to help us finish well. If you don't remember any of those of the 10, but one, remember the first one, and that is look to Christ. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ. And so, let me just, finish with this.

I think if we understand the foes that are before us, there can be a fear of finishing. But as we look at the Lord Jesus Christ, we look at the prize, there's every hope. We have great hope of not just finishing, but finishing well as we keep our eyes fixed on the price, a runner that is running a race, whether it be a marathon or a sprint, Has certain dangers that can get them off the path. You never see a good runner looking at their feet.

You never see a good runner looking up into the stands. You don't see a good runner looking behind their shoulder, especially in a sprint. What you have is a runner that is fixed with their eyes forward. And we fix our eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord Jesus Christ. Let's, let's pray. And let's have our ushers come forward. Prepare to take the offering.

Lord, we thank you so much for your