Biblical Examples of Work Brought to Completion 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, O, 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 flaw it 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 four 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?