Pilgrims on the Earth
By Dr. J. D. Watson
From
the back cover of the booklet: In our day of social upheaval and
political unrest—even in America—what is the Christian’s position? In this
message—which was preached on November 19, 2000 in the midst of the
presidential election controversy—the author offers the Biblical answer. Based
on Hebrews 11:13 and Ephesians 2:19, he demonstrates that while we are
inhabitants of this earth and residents of a particular country, we are
actually only “pilgrims on the earth” and our true citizenship is in Heaven.
To illustrate the importance of the pulpit ministry, this
booklet contains the message exactly as preached, except for very minor
adjustments that are needed for print. Some additional material on the First
Amendment was also added to this printed version for the sake of clarity.
Pilgrims on the
Earth
Hebrews 11:13 and Ephesians
2:19
A message preached on the
Lord’s Day, November 19, 2000
Grace Bible Church – Meeker,
CO
Dr. J. D. Watson –
Pastor/Teacher
I
would like to call your attention this morning to two texts. Hebrews 11:13 is
our main text: “These all died in
faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and
were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were
strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” Also coupled with that verse, Paul writes
to the Ephesian believers in Ephesians 2:19, “Now therefore ye are no more
strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the
household of God.”
Beloved, what I want to share with
you this morning is something I’ve had on my heart for about two weeks. In
light of what is transpiring in our nation as we speak, I want to share these
verses with you this morning. I’d like to share with you the burden the Lord
has laid on my heart.
In light of it also being the
Thanksgiving season, I want to begin by saying that I have never in my entire
Christian life been more thankful to be a Christian than I am right now. Never.
The reason I say this is because I am so thankful that my citizenship is not
here. I was born in America, I am a citizen of this country, and all of that,
as everyone here is, but I am reminded again of where my true citizenship is.
That while physically I am a citizen of America, and while I used to be—and I
use this word in this way purposely—“proud” of that fact, I no longer am. I am
blessed and thankful to be an American, and am thankful from the bottom of my
heart for what this country used to be, on what she was founded, the principles
on which she was founded. But I am no longer proud to be an American. I don’t
believe in pride. Pride, as I’ve shared
with
you many times, is never used in a positive way in God’s Word. Not
once.
Pride is totally of self. But I am still thankful to be an America. I am
thankful for what this nation is and what she used to be. But more than that, I
am thankful that my true citizenship is in Heaven. I am thankful that I
am a citizen of Heaven, that I am not a part of the squabbling, corrupt,
ungodly, and immoral people that are prevalent in this nation today.
Being a student of history, I have
seen that never in this country have we seen what we have seen in this nation
in the last eight years. To me what has transpired and what is going on right
now is absolutely incomprehensible. For those who might be listening to this on
tape, we are right in the throes of this whole election controversy in the year
2000. It is absolutely unbelievable. Indeed, I have never seen what is
transpiring here. Never has this country seen the lack of integrity, the lack
of honesty, and the lack of character that we have seen in the last eight
years. And I can say from being a student of history, we can’t even come close
to this.
Do I mean that there has never been
corruption in our government? No, of course there has been. There’s been
corruption throughout our history, but never have we seen the ignoring of the
rule of law, never have we seen the blatant breaking of law after law after law
that we have recently witnessed.
I shared this with you awhile back,
but I want to do so again because I believe it’s the best way I’ve heard of
summing up what we’ve seen. While this statement was made by a secular talk
show host who I’m sure is not a believer, it is very accurate. He said, “We
have witnessed the most criminal regime in the history of America.” And if I
may add to that statement, it continues unabated and unchallenged. No one who
has the authority to do so has had the courage to stand up and say, “You will
cease and desist from breaking the law.” No one seems to want to do that, and
we wonder where it will all end.
Beloved, in the shadow of all this,
where does this put us as the children of God? What should our attitude be to
all this? I want to share with you this morning that what our attitude should
be is expressed in our text. Just as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were, so are we—strangers
and pilgrims on the earth. And as Paul tells us we are fellowcitizens
with the saints, and of the household of God. We are citizens of glory. Our
true citizenship is in heaven. We are only—and this is the point of this
message—pilgrims on this earth.
I’d like to share with you this
morning two broad principles. First, the Pilgrim’s Journey, and second, the
Pilgrim’s Life. First, based on our Hebrews text, which relates directly to Old
Testament believers, and we see
I. THE PILGRIM’S JOURNEY
What
is our journey all about? Beloved, we are believers, we are Christians, we are
more than the so-called “Christians” that are spoken of so loosely in our day.
We are supposedly—and if this were not so tragic, it would be laughable—living
in a “Christian nation.” Unbelievable. What is transpiring in this nation is
incomprehensible. Every day we become more socialistic. Every day we become
more jaundiced and calloused to law, morality, and just simple right and wrong.
But as true believers, what is our
journey? Our text tells us. The writer has been referring to several believers
in the previous verses. He speaks of Abel
the first martyr. He speaks of Enoch
who was translated and did not see death. He speaks of Noah who built the Ark for the saving of his house. He speaks of Abraham who went out, not knowing where
he went. He mentions Isaac and Jacob, heirs with Abraham of the same
promise. After listing many others, he then gives the marvelous summary, “These all died in faith, not having received
the promises, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them, and
embraced them,” and then he adds the very important words, and confessed that they
were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” Their eyes were not on
the earth; their eyes were not here. Even though they never saw those promises
fulfilled in their physical life, their eyes were ever on that goal. They never
considered themselves anything else than strangers and pilgrims on the earth.
A pilgrim is one without a
fixed habitation, one who is journeying through a strange and foreign land. We
read back in verses 14, “For they that say such things declare plainly that
they seek a country.” Are we seeking a country today? If we say, “No, I’m not
seeking a country because I’m already the citizen of a country,” then we’ve
missed the point. While physically we are citizens of America—born here, raised
here, educated here, part of the voting public—this is not our true country.
And this is equally true of all the people of God in every age of the world.
These words therefore apply to us in a very real way. Let’s trace six aspects
of the pilgrim’s journey.
First, the pilgrim’s original home was the city of
destruction. Abraham, for example, was born and educated in that far off
country. He lived and dwelt there. There he was employed in some temporal way
as everyone else. But in this state he was far from God, far from peace, far
from safety. He, like everyone else, was an alien without God, without hope, a
child of wrath even as others. The pilgrim starts out without a country. He
might be in a country but he cannot claim that country as his
own. He starts out alienated. He truly is in a place of destruction. Likewise
it is true of us. As Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:1-5:
And you
hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins: Wherein in time past
ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his
great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath
quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved).
We
were “children of wrath.” We were in a
place of destruction, a place that was cursed under the wrath of God. We were
dead in trespasses and sin. We walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air. That’s where we started out.
Second, the pilgrim’s pilgrimage begins through the
influence of the gospel on his heart. When he comes to Christ, his real journey
begins.
Beloved, do you find living exciting?
Do you find in each day something new and exciting? While every day is in one
way routine and mundane, in another way is each day a new experience, an
excitement? If not, we’d better look at our hearts, because this challenges us
to realize that we are not looking at every day as part of our pilgrimage as
Christians. Even though many days will be the same, each day is still a new day
in our journey with Christ. And it all begins through the influence of the
gospel. Our true journey really began when we came to Christ.
Do you remember that day when you came to Christ? One day you realized what you had without Christ—which was nothing—and the next day when you became a believer your whole life changed. Everything changed: your values, your philosophies, your attitudes, your actions, your goals, your desires. And I am convinced, in light of our day, that even our politics should change when we become a Christian. Why? Because Christ changes our entire value system and morality system.
If I may be so blunt, how in the
world can someone who claims to be a Christian follow the liberal causes and
socialistic agenda of the world? Most political and social philosophy today is
ungodly and even anti-God. I was speaking to a fellow believer just a
couple of days ago who said, “Anyone who would vote for Al Gore and call
themselves a Christian, I just want to shake them. How can you vote for someone
who wants to kill babies, someone who lies constantly, and someone who has no
integrity or honesty?”
Beloved, I am convinced that when we
come to Christ our entire life must change. Everything changes as our
real journey begins. We see in our text that the truth came to the pilgrim. His
misery and peril and personal wickedness were exposed. His life then changed.
“If any man be in Christ, he is” a what? “A new creature. Old things are
passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Cor. 5:17). His life
changes. If his life does not change, he has not come to Christ. Christianity
is a life-altering experience. The pilgrim’s condition of ruin was declared,
and escape and instant flight were urged upon him. A better land was revealed
and gospel salvation, including present rest and future glory, were made known.
Receiving the truth of the gospel, he abandoned the city of guilt and death,
and fled for refuge to the hope before him. Each one of us came to Christ by grace
alone thru faith alone. And when we did, we left the land of destruction.
This leads to the third aspect of
the pilgrim’s journey.
Third, by faith in God’s testimony the pilgrim sets his
face towards the heavenly Zion. He believed God, and therefore set his heart to
seek “a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb.
11.10). The pilgrim sets his mind, sets his sites on the glory of Heaven.
Again this pictures the New
Testament believer plainly. We too seek that heavenly city. Matthew 6:33 is the
key to our understanding of this: “But seek
ye
first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things [that is,
temporal needs] shall be added unto you.”
First you seek the kingdom of God.
You don’t seek welfare. You don’t seek socialism. You don’t seek—contrary to
the popular anthem of the last eight years—“the will of the people.” You seek
what is right. You seek what is the law. You seek what is true.
You seek what is moral. You seek God. This must be the desire of
the true believer. The true believer who understands the truth of God, the
morals of God, and the righteousness of God will always vote that way and stand
that way without compromise. His views will never even hint at socialism or
“the will of the people.”
Again, nowhere in the annals of
history has there ever been a nation like America. 224 years ago an incredible
thing happened. But she is collapsing; she is crumbling from within. Why?
Because there’s no truth anymore. There’s no longer any desire for truth or
law. When you study our history, you discover that much of our law was based on
the law of God. Read William Blackstone’s (1723-1780) Commentaries on the Laws of England and discover the true
foundations of America.
When was the last time Americans
read the Preamble of our own Declaration of Independence?
When in
the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the
political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the
powers of the earth the separate and equal station to which the
Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitles them, a decent respect to
the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which
impel them to separation.
Commenting
on those eight words, Blackstone described the Law of Nature as “the will of
[our] maker,” and described the Law of Nature’s God as the direct revelation of
God as revealed in the “doctrines . . . and
. . . law . . . that are to be found in the holy scripture.” He then
concludes:
Upon these
two foundations, the law of nature and the law of revelation [or the law of
nature’s God], depend all human laws, that is to say, no human laws should be
[allowed] to contradict these.
Can
we say that this is still true in our nation today? How many laws today
contradict the laws of God?
Beloved, when we come to Christ, we
indeed set our face toward Him, toward the City of God.
Fourth, the pilgrim claims no possession in the country
through which he passes. As Paul wrote, “Set your affection on things above,
not on things on the earth” (Col 3:2). Does this mean that we must take a vow
of poverty and live the ascetic life of a monk? Certainly not. Nowhere does
God’s Word say that money is the root of all evil. What does the Bible actually
say? It says, “the love of money is the root of all evil” (I Tim. 6:10).
We should also note that the modern translations that read “All kinds of
evil” are wrong. Literally the Greek reads, “For a root of all the evils is
the love of money” (Young’s Literal Translation). All the evils of this
world can ultimately be traced back to money in the end.
Rather what Paul is speaking about
is not what we have but what we want. He is asking, Where are
your affections? Where are your values? What is it that you really want? As
someone has said, “The Pilgrim considers all around him as changeable, and
therefore he buys as though he bought not, rejoices as thought he rejoiced not.
He considers the world as the desert in the way to Canaan,—the sea over which
he crosses to the shores of glory.” That is all this world is. We are traveling
over a desert on our way to glory. There’s nothing here we want to take.
There’s nothing in a dry, barren desert that we really want and that is worth
having.
The true Christian pilgrim
understands that “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also” (Lk.
12:34), and his treasure and heart are set on heaven. I again use that word
“true” purposely. The word “Christian” is thrown around today. There are
millions in this country who claim to be Christians but who clearly are not.
Their life does not give evidence of that fact. Their treasures are not in
Heaven. They have not set their affections on things above. They don’t seek
first the Kingdom of God. They say the word “Christian” like it is something
positive, but it was never used as a positive term. Acts 11:26 tells us that
“the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch,” but this was to cast
aspersion on them. They were calling the disciples “little Christs,” and they
hated them because they imitated Christ. Oh, but today “everyone is a
Christian.” While in many countries to be found out to be a Christian means
death, in this country we no longer embrace the true meaning of the word. The
true Christian has his heart and treasure set on Heaven.
This leads to another aspect of this
journey.
Fifth, the true Christian pilgrim is often not even
welcome in the country in which travels. In this country we have the term
“illegal alien” who is not welcome here. Some who actually become legal
citizens are still not welcome by certain groups. Likewise many Americans find
out they also are not welcome when they travel to other countries. I am
convinced that the latter is not just due to jealousy or “sour grapes,” but is
due to the fact that America no longer stands for what she used to stand for.
The things that have transpired in the last twenty or thirty years are
unbelievable. We have betrayed and lied so often that we have little
credibility.
Out text says Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob were strangers and pilgrims on
the earth. In the ancient world strangers—which
translates the Greek zenoi—were
often regarded with hatred, suspicion, and contempt. They had very few rights,
even by the standards of that day. They were also pilgrims (parepidemoi), that is, exiles, strangers.
They were refugees in their own Promised Land. They were not welcome in the
very place that God had given them.
Beloved, this challenges all of us
that the true Christian will often feel out of place. It bothers me greatly
when a professing Christian is comfortable in socialism. It bothers me greatly
when they can vote for people or measures or legislation that is ungodly,
immoral, or murderous.
I am compelled to trace the demise
of this nation to 1973. Of course, 1962 and 63 were pivotal. That’s when it all
began when God was kicked out of the public school system. But I believe the
spoiled fruit of that event was born in 1973 with Roe v. Wade, and we
have been murdering over a million babies a year since. But in the minds of
most people in this country, it’s no big deal. Most don’t even think about it.
And any professing Christian who says, “That’s a mother’s choice,” is ungodly
to the core. Such language upsets many people today, but it’s the truth. It’s
absolutely unimaginable that a Christian could say such a thing. But
I’ve read evangelical leaders who say that in some instances abortion is okay,
such as when the mother’s life is in danger. But may we ask, where is the
sovereignty of God here? Where is God’s will and power in all this? How do they
know the mother’s life is in danger? We just don’t stop and think. We
don’t discern. We don’t stand upon the truth of God. We just think it up as we
go along.
I am truly convinced that we don’t
truly understand where America is. Who knows how this election will come out?
If the rule of law is followed, Mr. Bush will be the President. If the rule of
law is not followed, Mr. Gore will be the President. But either way, will it
get any better in the long run? Oh, one or more persons in an office might stem
the tide a little bit; it might slow down the demise. But since 1973 our
conscious minds have been so seared —as Paul proclaims in I Timothy 4:2—that we
can no longer feel anything, not even the simplest, most basic morality of the
sanctity of life. What hope is there then for this nation?
This is hard for me to say. I love
this country. In my younger days I was willing to go to war for this country,
and I probably still would. But it’s hard to imagine doing so for what she is
today. I think of the tens of thousands of individuals who have died for this
nation, and then I weep as I look at what she is today.
How thankful I am that my true citizenship is in Heaven. How thankful I am that when I look around and am saddened and burdened by the condition of this nation, I can then say, “Thank God I’m going to Zion. Thank God I’m just a pilgrim here.” I look around and am grieved—just as our Lord was grieved and wept over Jerusalem and her wickedness. The prophets pleaded with her to repent. We too weep over America and plead with her to repent, but our sights are set on someplace much higher—the glory of Heaven.
Would you ponder something else with
me? As any foreigner, we speak a different language than the world. So many
today want to make everything multilingual, but is this not silly? This is
America. We speak English—or more accurately, we speak American. If I go to a
foreign country, I should not expect the inhabitants to speak American. I’m an
alien there. I’m a foreigner. Likewise, the true Christian speaks a different
language. It’s alien. The inhabitants of this world will not understand us. We
have different customs,
different
values, different morals. Everything about the Christian life is different. The
world will look at that and say, “You’re an alien. I don’t know if you’re from
another country or maybe even a different planet.” They simply will not
understand, and we should not expect them to. We will be misunderstood by the
inhabitants here and disliked because we are a “peculiar people” (I Pet. 2:9).
The Greek word behind “peculiar” does not mean “weird,” but in the context of
our day, it will often still apply.
So may we be challenged that we
should fully expect to feel out of place. And frankly, if we don’t feel out of
place, we’d better take a step back and take a look. Where is my heart? Where
are my affections? Where are my treasures? Am I really a foreigner in this
country or am I part of the inhabitants?
Sixth, and finally, the pilgrim continually travels onward towards the city of habitation. He
doesn’t put down roots. He goes from place to place, from experience to
experience, from dawn to dusk, from birth to old age in constant spiritual
growth. He advances in knowledge, love, obedience, and holiness, and therefore,
increases in heavenly mindedness. All he does here continually prepares him for
an eternity in glory. True Christianity is progressive, deepening, and ever
expanding. As Paul declared of himself after 30 years of ministry (Phil.
3:12-14):
Not as
though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after,
if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do,
forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things
which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of
God in Christ Jesus.
I want to make special note of the word “apprehended.” It
translates the Greek katalambano, “to
lay hold of, to seize with eagerness.” Paul uses it here in reference to the ancient
Olympic games. He is saying in essence, “While I am strenuously contending for the
prize, ever eager to seize it, I have not yet attained it. I have not arrived
yet. I therefore continue to reach forth, to press toward, to pursue, to go
after the prize of the knowledge of Christ.” Paul says this after thirty years
of being a Christian and a servant of God. Thirty years! I haven’t been in the
ministry quite thirty years yet, but Paul had been. After preaching and
planting churches all over the known world, he was saying, “I haven’t made it
yet. I haven’t reached that goal, that prize of perfect knowledge of Christ, so
I continue to reach for it, to seize it, to grasp it, to contend for it like
the athlete contends for a temporal crown.”
Beloved, that is what it
means to be a pilgrim. To be a pilgrim means that we are continuing to travel
onward, progressing, growing, and maturing in Christ.
With the pilgrim’s journey in mind,
please ponder a second principle.
II. THE PILGRIM’S LIFE
This principle is inseparable linked
to the first. Without the one, there cannot be the other. Let me share just a
few thoughts here before we close this morning.
First, there is the pilgrim’s heart, which is a renewed heart. It is a heart that has been
delivered from the love of sin and the world and one that has a heavenly
nature. It is a heart that has spiritual attractions and is moved by spiritual
influences. Of all the things that make a pilgrim a pilgrim, this is first and
chief. In other words, he is born again. It’s not just “believing in Jesus” or
some other “faith in faith” concept that is propagated in our day. Rather, he
is one who is a true child of God, one who has been saved by grace alone,
through faith alone, in Christ alone, one who has repented from his sin, and
who is committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. He simply cannot make the
journey without this heart of a pilgrim.
Second, there is the pilgrim’s head. There must be the knowledge of what it means to be a
Christian pilgrim and how to walk in that way. Again, to so many people today,
being a Christian is just something ethereal and mystical, and can mean
something different to each person. What then is our guide for walking as a
pilgrim? Our guide is the Word of God and that alone. Without It,
we will be no better than the inhabitants of this country, who are without any
guide or authority. Without the Word of God controlling our thinking, we’ll
first accept and then believe anything that comes along. And
masses of professing Christians are doing that today. They first tolerate
and then ultimately embrace anything because it sounds good. We never
stop and think, we never ponder, we never discern, we never look at God’s Word
for the values, desires, methods, or philosophies that are behind a certain
thing.
Beloved, we need to think. We need
to use our heads. And what are we going to think with? Our own ideas, opinions,
political agenda? No, we’d better think with the mind of Christ as revealed in
His Word. If we don’t, we’ll remain in the shape we’re in right now. When we
kicked God out of our society and our government, that was when we began our
downward spiral.
Before going on, let me interject that all that I’ve shared here and other statements that I could make are commonly dismissed out of hand with the statement, “Oh, but all of this violates the separation of church and state; the First Amendment prohibits religious values in public affairs.” We have heard this rhetoric for decades, but does the First Amendment really say that? The First Amendment reads thusly:
Congress
shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the
free exercise thereof.
Not
only are the words “separation of church and state” not found in the First
Amendment, they do not appear in any
founding document. What then does the First Amendment mean?
The U.S. Congressional Records of
June 7 through September 25, 1789— the dates in which the Founders framed the
First Amendment—clearly demonstrate the Founders’ intent. The Founders wanted
to ensure that what happened in England did not happen in America, namely, that
the federal government would not be allowed to establishment a national
denomination to the excluding of all others. The records show that in all the
discussions and early wordings of the First Amendment, the Founders used the
word “religion” interchangeably with the word “denomination.” They had absolutely no intention whatsoever
of excluding Biblical principles and religious values in public affairs.
Just one example of many is Fisher
Ames, who, according to the Congressional Record of September 20, 1789, was the
man who actually offered the final wording of the First Amendment. In an
article in a national magazine dated January 1801, Ames wrote of his concern
about all the new textbooks that were appearing. He said that while these are
good, the Bible still must never be replaced as the number one textbook in our
schools:
Why then, if these books for
children must be retained, as they will be, should not the Bible regain the
place it once held as a school book? Its morals are pure, its examples
captivating and noble.
So,
the Bible did not violate Fisher Ames’ view of the First Amendment. Several
other Founding Fathers, such as Benjamin Rush, Noah Webster, John Adams, and
George Washington all warned that removing religious and moral principles from
the classroom would result in serious social problems. And this is precisely
what has happened in America.
From where, then, does the phrase
“separation of church and state” come? It first appeared in a letter written by
Thomas Jefferson in 1801, who was then President. This letter was a reply to
the Danbury Baptist Association of Danbury, Conneticut, who heard a rumor that
the Congregationalist denomination was going to be made the national religion
and wrote Jefferson in protest. In his reply, Jefferson assured them that they
should have no fear of this because:
. . .
I contemplate with sovereign reverence that act of the whole American people
which declared that their legislation should “make no law respecting an
establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” [i.e., The
First Amendment], thus building a wall of separation between church and state. [The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Memorial Edition (Washington: The
Thomas Jefferson Memorial Association of the United States, 1903), pp. 281-282.]
The context and intent of Jefferson’s letter had nothing whatsoever to do with removing the Bible and morality from government, rather it dealt with the original intent of the First Amendment, namely, that there would never be a national denomination.
But in spite of these historical
facts, in 1962 the phrase “separation of church and state” was ripped
completely from its context and intent. On June 25, 1962, in the court case Engel
v. Vitale, the Supreme Court used that phrase to redefine “church.” For
170 years before this case, the court defined “church” as being a federally
established denomination, but it now meant any religious activity
performed in public. And as we’ve seen, this ruling set America on her downward
course.
The facts are that the intent of the
Founding Fathers was never, never, NEVER to separate God and government.
They believed that God must be at the center of government. Tragically that is
not the case today and we see the results. Yes, we must think and use our head,
but our head must be the Word of God.
Third, there is the pilgrim’s spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who indwells the believer and imparts
spiritual qualities.
(1) The Holy Spirit creates in us
the spirit of devotion, praise, and worship, all of which are alien to the
world.
(2) The Holy Spirit creates in us
the spirit of self-denial and self-sacrifice. These too are way beyond the
world today, where self-esteem is a god, and each person’s feelings and desires
are supreme.
(3) The Holy Spirit creates in us
the spirit of faith and hope, of believing and trusting in His truth no matter
what. This too is alien to the world.
(4) The Holy Spirit creates in us
the spirit of vigilance and discernment to watch against enemies and danger.
Again, this is alien to the world, but also to much of the Church. There is
little discernment of anything today. “If it feels good do it” has been a creed
since the anarchy of the 1960s.
(5) The Holy Spirit creates in us
the spirit of perseverance and commitment to continue the journey and not stop
along the way and settle in. Once again, not so the world. It always wants to
settle in, to go with the flow. It wants to go with “the will of the people in
our democratic society,” both of which are unconstitutional concepts. We do not
live in a democracy, rather we live in a representative republic, and
what really matters is the rule of law not the will of the people.
Fourth, and finally, there are the pilgrim’s resources. Even the resources of the
pilgrim’s life are vastly different than those of the country thru which he
travels. The country through which he journeys will have all kinds of seemingly
powerful resources, but the pilgrim’s are very simple.
(1) The ancient pilgrim had a staff
on which to lean. Throughout Scripture the staff is a picture of support for
the weak. What then do we lean on? The promises of God. Just believe God. Just
trust His Word.
(2) The pilgrim’s provisions are the
bread and water given him from heaven. As Moses wrote to the nation of Israel,
“And [God] humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna,
which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee
know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live” (Deut. 8:3). What will feed us on
the journey? The Word of God. Likewise Job declared, “Neither have I gone back
from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more
than my necessary food” (23:12). Job is saying that I would rather starve to
death than be without the Word of God. Can we say the same thing today?
(3) And finally the pilgrim’s
raiment is also different. I don’t mean the physical attire we wear, rather our
spiritual attire; we put on the armour of God as listed in Ephesians 6. Truth
is the foundation garment. Is this not significant in light of our day? Truth
today is in short supply. It depends upon “your point of view,” many believe,
but that’s not what God says. Righteousness is our breastplate. The
gospel is our sandals. Faith as our shield. Salvation is our
helmet. The word of God is our sword. And prayer is the
empowering force that energizes it all.
Yes, everything about the Christian
pilgrim is different. I want to close with words I heard uncounted years ago
and have never forgotten. Vance Havner once said, “We are not citizens of this
world trying to get to heaven, rather we are citizens of heaven just trying to
get to thru this world.” Why? Because, as we quoted earlier, this world is just
a desert.
The question arises in the minds of
many Christians, “Should we vote?” I firmly believe that we should. I believe
it is an opportunity to stand for morality, truth, and what is right and
lawful. And I firmly believe it is a public testimony to that stand. But when
we are tempted to get caught up in the world’s politics, may we remember where
our true citizenship is. May we indeed stand for morality, righteousness, and
truth on this earth without compromise, but ever onward we are on our way to
glory.