Thank you. I taught them everything they know. Please stand for the reading of God's Word. The reading this morning is from the 11th chapter of Hebrews verses 13 through 16. If you are following in the Pew Bible, that's page 1,08. All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God for He has prepared a city for them. Maybe seated. Thank you. In the past traditions of churches where I've served, we've always had the people stand for the reading of God's Word in honor of the Lord and His Word. And so I'm very thankful that you would agree to stand if you are able. The struggle with this tradition is that you might stand up but not really be reveling in the Lord. It's like the little boy who said to his mother after she finally got him seated in the back seat and had his seat belt strapped around him. And he said, Mama, I'm sitting down on the outside but on the inside I'm standing up. And the struggle for us as we stand to read God's Word is that we might be standing up on the outside when in reality we're seated on the inside. So I would ask that the Spirit of God would work in our hearts in such a way that when we do stand, we stand with the reverence that is honoring of the Lord. Another thing that we have done in the past is after the reading of God's Word we'll say the Word of the Lord and the people who respond, thanks be to God. And so we'll begin to do that in our services. I want you to feel more comfortable with it. And I'd also like you to know a little bit of the thinking behind it. Now, our passage this morning and the title of the sermon is called Finish Faithfully, Finish Faithfully. I'll never forget my very first hospital visit in Charlotte, North Carolina. While I was in Charlotte, I served with a senior pastor who was kind enough to train me on hospital visitation. And so we got in his car and we drove over to Presbyterian Hospital in 1983. And he said, one of the things I do before I visit is I say a prayer. He let us in a prayer. And then he said, just watch what I do when I enter the room. And you can learn just the basics of hospital visitation. And he said, by the way, never sit on the bed or stand on a tube. And I said, that makes perfectly good sense to me, Ross, thank you. Well, we entered the room and I'll never forget. There was an elderly saint who was a world famous evangelist. And I thought, oh my goodness, I'm about to visit this world famous evangelist, my very first hospital visitation. And he had a mask on his face for oxygen. And so as soon as we walked in the room, he looked at me and he knew I was the new youth pastor. And so he pulled that oxygen mask off and he said, Timmy, come over here. So I walked right over to the bed and he goes up close, close. So I leaned in right next to his mouth and he said, I'm about to spend $30,000 trying to stay out of the place. I've been begging people to go my whole life. And we just laughed and then we prayed together. And when I left, I felt so ministered too. And that is usually the case, by the way, when we make hospital or home visits, we leave blessed. And I want you to know that for many of us, it's not that we're afraid of what awaits us after our death, it's the process of dying that is scary for us. The struggle as we work our way toward heaven. And I want you to know that God will give us grace even in our struggles of dying. He will meet with us in such a way that we see more and more of his glory as we approach heaven. And in his kindness, he moves us to the point where we can't wait to get home. I remember, as my mother was dying of cancer in 1995, I went by to visit her. She lived in St. Louis and I said, Mother, how might I pray for you? And she said, son, pray that either God heals me or he takes me home. And it made me sad to hear my mother say that, which such resolve. And I said, you're ready to go home, aren't you, mom? And she said, yes, with a smile on her face. You see, the Lord prepares His people to take them home. And I want you to know that this concept of finish faithfully, the title of this sermon, is really tied to the one who finished faithfully. The Lord Jesus Christ. He is the one who finished faithfully. And we walk in His wake, if you will. Now I want you to recognize here in this passage, verses 13 to 16, they're really a bit of a hiatus in the text, editorial comments by the author. I want you to recognize that what this author does is he talks us through these first twelve verses or so, and then he backs away from the text. And he looks at it and he says, let me bundle this text up for you a little bit. Let me tell you the marks of these people that you've heard. I've said their names and the names have been preceded by two little words, by faith, by faith, by faith. He's like, let me unpack that a little bit for you. And so he does. And if you'll return your eyes to the text and see verse 13, you'll see, the very first phrase our author uses is, these all died in faith. What did these people have in common? They all died in faith. What does that mean? They hadn't received the essence of the promise. They had received the promise, almost like a grandchild. And the grandparent says, now sweetie, after school today I'm going to pick you up and I'm going to take you out for ice cream or for coffee, depending on the age of your grandchild. And the grandchild has this promise, but they haven't received the substance of the promise yet. And that's where we find these people. These people, they all have in common that they haven't received the substance of the promise when they died. And so they saw the promise from afar. Now I want you to imagine in the Old Testament, the people knew the promise of Messiah. And they would look forward down history. And as we walk through the books of the Bible, as we move from the Torah or the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Bible, into the historical books of the Bible, what we find is in the Pentateuch, in the Torah, we have this image of this one, this seed of the woman who will come to crush the head of the seed of the serpent. And we have this idea and they're out there. And as we walk into the historical literature of the Old Testament, we get a greater sense, we get a sense that, oh, it'll be like a judge or like this king, even the monarch. King David. And as we approach the New Testament, we begin to realize that it's not just this seed of the woman, it's not just a person, it's not just a man, it's the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we get more definition as we move through the Old Testament text. These people died with this hope forward of the work of Christ. And when we die, we'll look back and say, our faith is in that completed work of the Lord Jesus Christ on behalf of His people. We're saved the same way we have this faith in Christ. Now for some of you who are theologically oriented, you're thinking, okay, is this the preservation of the saints or is this the perseverance of the saints? If I were to give you a test right now and say, a, this text is about preserving the saints or b, this test and text is about the perseverance of the saints. Now if you've answered now, you've answered too soon because the third option is seed. The text is about God's preserving the saints and the saints persevering because God and His wisdom and then His sovereign rule has allowed and facilitated both of those. I know you believe both because you said both in our affirmation of faith. We said the third line from the bottom. He also preserves me. So this is all about God, isn't it? God's preserving me. God's preserving His people throughout the history of time. But I also know it's about, it's about our persevering. Look at the very last line, therefore, by His Holy Spirit. He also assures me of eternal life and makes me heartily willing and ready from now on to live for Him. It's both end, isn't it? The old Puritans called this dying well. They knew that Jesus said, unless a man persevered to the end, he won't be saved. He also knew that Jesus said, not one of mine will be plucked out of my hand. So as a saint here this morning, you're in a very, very secure place because you're in Christ. So when you think about the faithful finish, I want you to recognize that one of the marks of these people is that they died in faith. H.A. Ironside says it like this, to relinquish present things in light of future blessings is to openly declare that you seek and are citizens of another country. And that leads me to my second point, the first point they died in faith. And by the way, if you ever want to figure out my outlines a week ahead of time, just read the Bible because the outline will come from the text. The second point is they admitted they were aliens. Once you notice it starts in verse 13 and then says, these all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them, greeted them from afar and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. They acknowledged that they didn't really belong here. Now if we were to follow you around this week, would we think that this is really your home or you're just a passing through? It's hard, isn't it? Because this is kind of my home. It's my home for a while, but we want all the comforts of home. We're going to be surrounded with things like hot water, clean clothes, full refrigerators. Now I want us to recognize that one of the marks of a person who dies in faith is someone who admits they're an alien. In other words, they're looking for another country. They're not thinking about going back to their old country. And they're not overly satisfied in the country where they live. They're looking for another country. There's a call of another country that consumes them. Now I want us to recognize that. We don't really belong here. Do you know for decades, I tried to belong here. When I was a little boy, I tried to be a very, very good student. And as an athlete, I tried to be a very, very good athlete. Those were the idols of my little heart. And I spent my waking energy seeking to do well in school, knowing that if I got a good education, it would be a great foundation for the rest of my life and indeed it has been. And thinking that if I were a good enough athlete, I could possibly get a scholarship to play footballer baseball in college, and sure enough, that happened too. But guess what? It didn't satisfy my soul. And I looked for those things that satisfy my soul and they didn't. And through a series of very painful events, I realized that I've been trying to fit into this world. And I've been trying to be accepted by this world, only to realize, and I really want you to hear these words, I don't really belong here. This is not my home. I'm not called to belong here. I'm just a passing through. And I want you to recognize that one of the marks of these people, not only was that they died in faith, but they admitted they were aliens. Now I'll never forget the first time I rode a horse. I mean, other than when I was in third grade and I got a picture taken on a pony, I actually went for a real ride on a real horse. There is a friend of mine in high school named Susan, whose father was a bit of a rancher there in Arizona. And so she said, we have wonderful quarter horses, why don't you go for a ride with me. I said, that'd be great. So we hopped on our quarter horses and we took off and we went across the pasture through a fence out into the wilderness of Arizona. And I noticed that I had to continue to prod the horse to get it to go. But when I did prod the horse, if you know anything about quarter horses, it took off. I could barely stay on it. But I had to prod the horse to keep it going. But the moment we turned around and started heading back to the barn, I kind of had to hold the horse back. So going away, I had to prod him and coming home, I had to hold him back. Because the ranchers call it, he's smelling the barn. And what he's smelling is he smelling the comfort of the barn and the food and the water of the barn. I want to ask you a question, I don't care how old you are. Are you smelling the barn? Do you know where your true home is? Do you know where your greatest satisfaction will be? Because if you're smelling the barn, you've got some momentum in your step. You're moving with a purpose because you're on your way home. And you can't wait to get home. I want you to think about that when you think about who you are and when you think about how you spend your life. And some of you are thinking, Pastor Tim, you know what, I'm tracking with you here. But what does that mean? What does that look like to smell the barn? Would you learn in church today? Smell the barn. How's that going to translate to your friend in the office tomorrow? Looking Colossians chapter 3, Colossians 3 verses 1 through 4, if then you have been raised with Christ, if then to argument, if then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God, set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth where you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. I want you to be heavenly-minded. I want you to have an eternal perspective. In other words, view your situation now in the light of eternity. Now some people are so heavenly-minded, they're no earthly good. Now I'm not calling you to be that person. I'm calling you to be a person who views the reality of their life. I'm a student in school. I'm a mom taking care of my family. I'm a single person. I'm a married person. I'm a grandparent. View your life in the light of things eternal. And you'll feel purpose begin to well up within you because your purpose is to be thoughtful of your King Jesus, who is the faithful finisher. He's the author and finisher of our faith. Thirdly, God is not ashamed to be called their God. Comes right out of this text. He's not ashamed to be called their God. That seems ridiculous. If He knows me, there should be some sense of shame in the relationship.
But I want you to know that Christianity is not a shame-based religion. We don't motivate people by shame. We motivate people by grace. You don't serve the Lord because you have to. You serve the Lord because you want to. You don't wake up and read your scripture every morning because you have to. You wake up and read your scripture every morning because He's delivered you from seeking idols and temporary fulfillment and temporary things. He's delivered you to the eternal. And so you have a jewel, he's saying, of course I read the scriptures this morning. You think I'm a fool? I don't know. You read the scriptures this morning. Now I'm doing this on purpose, stick with me. Don't beat yourself up yet. Now is our motivation to read the scriptures because we'll be ashamed if we don't? Of course our motivation to read the scriptures to say, oh, show me Jesus again. Oh Lord, show me yourself again. Let me see your beauty. Oh yes, Lord, of course there are days I don't read the scripture. Please forgive me. I'm a foolish person, sinfully struggling, but I come to you in grace. To be ashamed means to be socially vulnerable. People spend their entire life seeking to be socially secure. Well, here we are today. So glad you came to first Presbyterian Church of Chattanooga. I've got a wonderful message for you and all buttoned up and ready to go. But the gospel isn't just for people who are all buttoned up and ready to go. The gospels for sinners. Those who are socially vulnerable. You see, when you're ashamed, you usually retreat. Why? Because you're socially vulnerable. Oh, I'm not going to go to church anymore because they found out my sin. So I don't want to be with those people. I'm going to hide from those people. That's not the kind of church we are. We're a hospital for sinners. So we've leaned towards sinners. We don't run from them. We go find them and we say, don't hide from us. I'm like you. We're the same. This is a grace-based church. It's not a shame-based church. So you're welcome here. You come on in, unbutton, pull off a coat, kick off your shoes. Because we're here because of what Christ has done for us. This is a safe place. It's a place where you'll find restoration. It's a place where your sin won't be ignored or winked at. It'll be dealt with in grace. You see, God's not ashamed to be called their God. That's the mark of a believer. They die in faith. They recognize this isn't their home and they realize. God's not ashamed to be called my God. That's awe-inspiring. You ever see a person caught in their sin and you just run over to him and say, I love you so much. We're together, aren't we? And they melt. Why do they melt? Because they can't believe you love them. Even though you know them, you see a true child of God not only has right doctrine, but that right doctrine leads us to loving living. We should be the most humble people on the face of the planet. At least try to new God. They should look and go, you know what that person's so humble? I bet they're a member of First Prince. They know they're so simple and they so desperately need Christ. Look at them, they're so kind. You see, most people when they get caught in sin, they go to the liberals. Why would they go to the liberals? Because the liberals have lowered the standard of acceptance so low that everyone's welcome. But they're not really exercising mercy. Because mercy is given to somebody who deserves wrath,
but instead they get mercy. So one of the marks of our church is that we serve a righteous God who graciously gives us mercy. So we don't lower our standard, but we also don't snub sinners. We welcome them. I welcome you. A fellow sinner welcomes you here to this place. You know, recently I was in a taxi cab on the way from the Dallas Airport and a man named Salim was our taxi driver. We got the talking. And I said, Salim, where are you from? And he said Ethiopia. And I said, Ethiopia, are you a Muslim? And he said, yes, I'm a Muslim. I said, well, what do you believe you have to do in order to be accepted by Allah? He said, I have to do more good things than I do bad things. I was like, oh, oh, you're in trouble. I said, because you know, I try to be good all the time. But I don't think I could say I do more good things than I do bad things. I said, what do you do that's good? Salim, I mean, this is your game. You set the ground rules. How good are you? What do you do to show you're good? And he's like, well, I love my wife, and I love my children. And I said, well, you know, Salim, I bet a lot of Muslims do that. You're still not gonna make the cut. What are you gonna do? I said, my wife and I just got back from Africa where we fed the poor. We gave medicine to people who have AIDS and HIV. We loved widows and orphans. As a Muslim, do you do stuff like that? Kind of got silent. Got a little awkward. And then I shared the gospel. I said, you know, my only hope is that Jesus Christ is perfectly righteous. And so my hope isn't in myself trying to self-justify by doing more good things and bad things. My hope is in Jesus Christ. And we hope that your hope will be in Jesus Christ one day too. And why did I say that to him? Because I love Salim. I want Salim to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's deceived. And I also happen to know that thousands of Muslims are professing Christ around the world every day because of the gospel. You see, we don't have a shame-based religion. We have a grace-based relationship. And these people understood that. Now, what would that mean for you? What would it mean for us in terms of application? I want to apply this text in three specific areas. First of all, spiritual, second of all, financial and thirdly relational. First of all, I want us to recognize spiritually that we approach God's throne in all in worship right now today. As we were singing, right now today, we're worshiping the Lord. And that should be our daily response to him. If we are a person who is gonna die in faith, we should be a daily worshiper. Remember what the Apostle John said in Revelation 1? He turned to see the voice that was speaking. And he saw the Lord Jesus Christ and what did he do? He fell on his face as dead because he was in awe of the Lord. Let's do that together daily as his people. Let's fall on our faces before him in response to this grace-based relationship. Secondly, I want to encourage us to practice the presence of God through prayer. Constantly pray all day long. You bump into a friend as you go out to look at the different ministry, fair opportunities. And somebody shares their heart with you. Just take their hand and say, let's pray right now. I want to walk through the quarters of our church and find people just simply quietly praying in the corner. Just stopping where they are and said, let me pray for you. We're praying church because wouldn't it be wonderful if the Lord Jesus Christ returned and caught you praying? Let's think a little bit about finances. By the way, I will preach regularly on finances not just when we need money because the American culture is a greedy culture. And if you don't have greed as an idol in your heart, I'll be very surprised. Because it's where we live. And it's how we live. Financially in response to this, I want you to be very intentional about how you invest your money. I want you to purpose to tithe and to save and to pay your taxes and then budget the rest of your money. I want you to purpose to live below your means. Purpose to live below your means. Whatever your means are, I don't know. But live below your means so that you're not a slave. You don't get caught up in the need for more. You say, you know what? This is enough for me. Enough is enough. How much is your enough? Have you set your enough yet? Because if you haven't set your enough yet, do you know what you are? You're after more. So you need to say, you know what, honey? Enough is enough. Or if you're single, sit down with a friend and say, you know, I make this amount of money and I've decided that I'm gonna live on this amount of money. I'm not gonna live on credit. I'm gonna live debt-free other than an appreciable asset like a home. I'm gonna live debt-free so that I'm not captive to this money. You know, I just have to mention this seminar that we have coming up Thursday night. That is a wonderful opportunity to come and think about how you can live and spend your money even after you've passed to heaven. And then lastly, relationally, I want you to think of the key word as being purity. Keep short accounts relationally. If right now you have a sense, you know what? Somewhere in my heart, the spirit has prompted me that I've got a problem with this person. I want you to go to them. Not to correct them, but to reunite with them. Go humbly for purity of the church and say, you know, we're gonna be living together forever in heaven. I don't know exactly all the ways I've offended you but all the ways I understand I've offended you, would you please forgive me? I'm so sorry that I have wounded one of my brothers or sisters in Christ. You see, there's relational implications to this. Now I want to close with a little story and I want to tie it into the Lord Jesus Christ. A few years ago, I was in Mexico on a missions trip and we were building a school for children and we were doing vacation, Bible school in the park. Just some of the wonderful things we do on missions and by the way, as a senior pastor of this church, it's my hope that every single one of us would be involved in home missions and world missions and not only send by giving money but also go. Well, I was in Mexico and our week was kind of wrapping up and they said, hey, let's go to a soccer game at Aztec Stadium in Mexico City. And I said, that is awesome. Aztec Stadium, like hold over 100,000 people. I mean, it's bigger even than Jerry World in Dallas. I'm not if you're familiar with this new worship arena we have in Dallas area. But we went to the Aztec Stadium and while we were at the Aztec Stadium, we watched a soccer game between the Mexican national team and the Jamaican team. And as we watched him play, I was pretty impressed with the Mexican team before they started playing because all my friends were telling me, oh, we're great and compost is in gold and they were telling me all these stories. And I'm not impressed. They just were not playing with freedom. They were not passing crisply. They just never even threatened the goal. So I was under impressed and at their little half-time break we were talking about it, but then at the beginning of the second half, they came out and they got a quick goal. And then the Jamaican gold tender made a mistake. Boom, they got a second goal. The next thing you knew, you could see it in the Mexican players. It's like they began to run with freedom and energy and joy and their passes became crisp and aggressive and they moved the ball down the field. Lo and behold, they scored a third goal which at that level of soccer means one thing. It means we can't lose. And you know I noticed a market difference in the way they played. They ended up beating Jamaica five to nothing. And they lied and they ran hard and they had joy and they executed and they loved playing the game. And it's because they were convinced they couldn't lose. The Lord Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of our faith. And I want you to know what that means. It means you can't lose. You couldn't lose if you tried. Because the Lord's already completed our work. And so when you come in here on a Sunday morning I really do expect to see a little jump in your step. And I'd love to see you with just a little twinkle in your eye because you're walking in here and you're thinking, five nothing, five nothing, we can't lose.
Run toward the barn with joy and take as many folk as you can along with you. Because Christ is really the only one who finished faithfully. But he's ours and we're his. And this isn't our home and we're gonna die in faith. That he's done for us what we can't do for ourselves. And we don't live in shame, we live in grace of his love for his people. Let's pray together. Father, we find such a joy in your word. And we're so thankful for the way that you have inscripturated some of your thoughts so that we can read a little passage in Hebrews 11. And we can feel the Holy Spirit lapping against the shore of our hearts day after day after day convincing us a new
of the completed work of Jesus Christ, our captain. Oh, captain Jesus, thank you for doing for us what we could never do for ourselves. We rest in you. We pray for a lost world filled with men and women and boys and girls like Salim who are ashamed of their life and who serve an impersonal idolatrous God. We serve the great one true God who loves us in grace through the Lord Jesus Christ. We make our prayers in Jesus' name and all God's people said, amen. Would you please stand to receive the benediction? Now may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord cause his face to shine upon you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace both now and in the life everlasting. Amen.