Living as Citizens of Heaven in an Anti-God World

"True the newspapers are a very perfect representation of the mind of the world. Look at them, look at what they say, what they teach, what they insinuate. Look at their representation of life, look at what they're advocating and all these other instruments, television, Wireless, and so on. They all belong to the world. The power controlling them is what the Bible calls the world. They never urge us to think about the soul and our relationship to God and Eternity. No, no, it's all Earthbound, it's all within the temporal, the material, the physical, and there it is, and it hates this, it's anti-God." [00:18:47]

"The Christian has to realize that all this is against him. It's the devil using the visible, the scene, to get down God's people, to bring them into confusion, to entangle them, to ensnare them, and thus to stand between them and the blessings that God is ready to give them. Now, our Lord puts it quite plainly. How slow we are to realize this. He says, if the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. Don't be surprised, he says. We've got to realize that the world is against us." [00:20:00]

"Obviously, a very essential part of putting on the breastplate of righteousness is just to realize that you can afford to take nothing for granted, that you've got to be on the watch always. You've got to be vigilant, you've got to walk circumspectly, for the times are evil. We are surrounded by that which is utterly opposed to us and trying to get us down. That is the world, the mind, the Outlook, the organization of man and all his thinking and all his activities." [00:21:40]

"Your biggest ambition this morning is not World reform; it is your citizenship in heaven if you're a true Christian. You know this world will never be reformed; it can't be reformed. It's under the devil. This world is under the Doom of God; it's under judgment; it's going to be destroyed. Therefore, a man whose whole idea this morning is to make the world better and who spends his time thinking he's a Christian in doing things to this world, he's denying the very teaching of the scripture." [00:23:11]

"We must have a more active realization of the character of the place to which we are going. You see, here's the idea: we're Travelers, strangers, and pilgrims. The world, as a poet put it, is but an inn in which you spend the night, pay your bill in the morning, and go on. That's all. We are but traveling through this. Where are we going? Well, to realize that again is a very vital part of putting on the breastplate of righteousness." [00:24:37]

"Preparation now, this again is something the Bible puts everywhere. You see, if you take this idea of the Christian as a journeyman, as a stranger, as a pilgrim, well, obviously such a man keeps in the center of his mind, in the Forefront of his thinking, the place to which he's going. He can do certain things on rote, but if you set out upon a journey, surely your object and your objective is to arrive at your destination." [00:25:22]

"Listen to Paul putting this in writing to the Romans in Chapter 13, beginning at verse 11: and that knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep, for now is our Salvation nearer than when we believed. What he means is this: you started the journey there, you're going there. Well, now you've moved, you're nearer to the goal than when you started. You've traveled a given number of miles. Our Salvation is nearer than when we believed." [00:26:39]

"Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Let us walk honestly as in the day, not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but putting on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof. You see the argument. This is putting on the breastplate of righteousness." [00:27:30]

"Blessed are they that do his Commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the city. For without are dogs and Sorcerers and mongers and murderers and idolators and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. Here's the picture, my friend: you're approaching the gates of the city, and remember that it is called the holy city. There are certain people who are not admitted into that City." [00:29:19]

"The chief ambition of a Christian is to enter through those Gates and to begin to partake of that tree of life forever and forever. Very well, if he really means it and believes it, this will be the first thing in his life he'll be preparing for. That he knows it's coming. Our Salvation is nearer than when we believe. The night is far spent, the day is at end. We are drawing nearer." [00:31:07]

"Therefore, now, if you like, if you ask to put in a word what it means to put on the breastplate of righteousness, I would say it means that you understand the meaning of the word therefore in the New Testament Epistles. It's all there, it's all there. But of course, it isn't enough to leave it like that, is it? The apostles themselves don't leave it like that because having started with the therefore, they proceed to work it out for us." [00:36:01]

"Set your affections on things that are above, not on things that are on the earth. Set them, that's putting on the breastplate of righteousness. You've got to set them as if you're setting a compass, setting a clock. You've got to do this day by day deliberately. Set your affections. The world won't help you. The world will do everything else. You start with your newspaper in the wireless, you'll be setting your affections Elsewhere." [00:45:20]