Could we turn to Hebrews chapter 11 this evening? The book of Hebrews, the chapter 11, a most well and familiar chapter in God's word. Hebrews chapter 11. We'll read the first 16 verses off the chapter. And again, we welcome you in the Savior's lovely name. We appreciate you being here. I know that you're out on Monday night, and others will be out again on Friday night. And so it is a busy week, but you've made the effort. May the Lord bless you even for that. And those who are watching in online, whether near or far, we welcome you in the savior's lovely name let's read from the verse number one hebrews chapter 11 now faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen for by it the elders obtained a good report through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear. By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts, and by it he being dead yet speaketh. By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death and was not found because God had translated him for before his translation he had this testimony that he pleased God but without faith it is impossible to please him he that cometh to God must believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him By faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for inheritance, obeyed, and he went out not knowing whether he went. By faith, he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed and was delivered off a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. 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. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country, And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. amen and we'll conclude at the end of the verse 16 our bible reading for this evening as we continue our studies on christian identity we're coming to an eighth designation that god ascribes to those who have come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Just to very quickly refresh your memory, as believers we are those who are united to Jesus Christ. We have been justified. We are a child of God. We're part of a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. a peculiar or a purchased people. We thought about those four, last four on the last occasion. Well, in tonight's message, we want to think tonight about our status as a stranger and as a pilgrim. A stranger and as a pilgrim. Our pilgrim status is one that the English Puritan John Bunyan employed to great effect when he wrote one of the most outstanding pieces of English literature that has ever been penned, The Pilgrim's Progress. The full title of Bunyan's book is this, The Pilgrim's Progress from this world to that which is to come. He would begin his work and complete his work when he was under His Majesty's arrest in Bedfordshire County Prison for violations against the Conventigle Act of 1664. That act, the Conventigle Act, prohibited the holding of any kind of religious services outside the auspices of the established Church of England. And so Bunyan refused to do that. He continued to serve the Lord and was put into prison. for a number of years. The plot of that fictional book centers on a journey, the journey of a man from his home city called the City of Destruction, and his destination was to be the celestial city or heaven itself. At the beginning of the book and the beginning of the journey, Christian who is formerly known or before he comes to Christ is known as graceless. This man is weighed down with a great burden. That burden is a picture of the knowledge of sin. Which Bunyan, or Christian, believed came from his reading of a book that he found in the attic of his home. That book was the Bible. Burden became so unbearable that Christian began to seek deliverance from it. And he found that place of deliverance at the cross of Calvary. From that moment onwards, Christian is now termed as a pilgrim. A pilgrim bound for the celestial city. That journey, the journey from his home place, and from the cross to the celestial city, is fraught with many dangers. And yet, Christian is joined by many other pilgrims, all bound for the same destination, that encouraged pilgrim, or Christian, heavenward and homeward. It is worth the reading, this book, if you have time to do so. All who come to faith in Jesus Christ are strangers in this world, and they are pilgrims bound for the heavenly land. This is the phrase that the writer to the Hebrew Christians employs regarding men and women of faith. These men and women of faith that he writes about in this great chapter of faith, Hebrews chapter 11. Having recounted a little of the personal histories of Abel and Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Sarah, the penman to the epistle now comes to make the following summary statement about such people from the verse number 13. These all died in faith, speaking about those that he has written about, that 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. For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country, And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they had come out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now, they desire a better country that is unheavenly. Wherefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. Notice how in verse 13, these people are called strangers and pilgrims. That designation is not only used by, many believe the Apostle Paul wrote the book of Hebrews, but it is also used by Peter. If you want to turn a number of books over there to 1 Peter chapter 2. We spoke on verse nine the last time, but your chosen generation, a royal priesthood and holy nation of peculiar people, that you should show forth the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in time past were not a people, but now the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts. which war against the soul. In fact, this designation was used hundreds of years even prior to the New Testament era because this designation was also used by the Psalmist David. Because in Psalm number 39 in the verse 12, speaking about himself and his forefathers, David made this prayer. Hear my prayer, O Lord, and give ear unto my cry. Hold not thy peace at my tears, for I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, or a pilgrim, as all my fathers were. Do you remember whenever Jacob comes down into Egypt and Pharaoh asks him his age? And Jacob relates the age, and he speaks about the days of his pilgrimage. Days of his pilgrimage were short and evil and few, is how he describes it in the book of Genesis. He speaks of himself as being a pilgrim. And so these titles or these designations, stranger and pilgrim, are those that are designated to the child of God. And we want to simply think about those two terms tonight and remind ourselves Remind ourselves that we are strangers and pilgrims simply passing through this weary world. This is who we are as Christians. I am a stranger. and I am the pilgrim. So consider firstly with me the Christian as a stranger. Now speaking of our spiritual state or the spiritual state of the believers in Ephesus prior to their conversion, the Apostle Paul, he speaks of them as being strangers in Ephesians 2 verse 13, that at that time you were without Christ being aliens, Foreigners from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. Paul refers to these people as being strangers from the covenants of promise. It's really a statement that refers to them as being non-Jews or being Gentile people. The word stranger refers to a person who is a foreigner or someone who is an alien. Not, as we say, the little green fictional man with eyes on top of their head. But an alien is simply someone who isn't a citizen of a country. We hear about illegal aliens. If you're watching anything about the American presidency, you'll hear a lot about that. That's one of the main things that they're talking about in these days in the lead up to their election about illegal aliens, people who have come from foreign countries into the nation. And so a stranger is someone who isn't a citizen of a country, but simply they are a visitor. They're a visitor. The thought behind the word stranger then, as applied to us as believers, is that we are not to see ourselves as a permanent resident of this world. We are not to see ourselves as a citizen of this world. Now, yes, we're citizens of this great United Kingdom or this United Kingdom as it probably is now. But we have got a different citizenship. We've got another citizenship. Our citizenship is in heaven. And so we are strangers. In what way are we strangers? We're strangers by nature. As those who have been born from above, our lives are different from those who live around us. We have become partakers of the divine nature. We have been given a new nature. The old nature is gone, and now we are possessed with a new nature. And that makes us different from those who live in this world without Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ said, or John says, and how true that is. Yes, we are in the world, but we're not off the world. We don't belong to this world. We are of a different nature. We are strangers, not only as to nature, but also as to citizenship. In this fallen, sinful, cursed world, we are aliens and we are foreigners whose privileges and whose citizenship are connected with another city whose builder and maker is God and to another country, to a heavenly country. We read about that country, the country that these strangers and pilgrims were looking for. It's the same country that we look for. We're also strangers as to pursuits, the child of God, ought not to have the same desires, the same aims, the same affections, the same pursuits as the ungodly. Why? Because they've been given a new heart and they've been given a new nature. And that's why at times I find it very hard to fathom why Christians, professing Christians, to continue to invest their time and their money and their energy into those pursuits that they once had before they trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes it's hard to fathom. Oh, be very careful, child of God, that you don't erect the idols that were torn down from your heart when you first trusted in Jesus Christ. You're of a different country now. You have a different citizenship. You've got a different nature with new ambitions and desires and longings and cravings. Don't be going back to the world. Don't be going back to your idols. Don't be going back to the things that you once invested your time and energy in. Words of the writer to the Hebrew Christians in Hebrews 10 and the verse 38 come to mind. Don't be drawing back. Don't be going back. Don't be going back to the world. You don't belong to the world anymore. You don't belong. That's not your citizenship anymore. You're a stranger to the world. You ought to be. You ought to be. You see, a stranger could be someone that is described as a non-conformist. A non-conformist. What I mean by that language is that, or what I mean by that is that by their language and their diet and their culture, their dress, their appearance, their behavior, a stranger will stand out from the natives. of the country in which they reside you know what it's like whenever a stranger comes into a church there's a stranger or you see someone walking down the street and they're maybe dressed in a different kind of dress well you say well they're a stranger they don't live here they don't live in this country they're someone who is a foreigner an alien with regard to the citizenship of the country. A stranger is someone who doesn't conform then or should not conform their lives to the standards and the norms of society at large. Because it is a society that is anti-God. It is an unrighteous society. And therefore for us as believers to conform our lives to the standards and the norms of such a society is to deny this status of being a stranger. Such as to be the state of the Christian in the world, we're not to conform ourselves to what is trending in society at this moment of time. We hear a lot about what's trending. what's in vogue within society. We are not to be like that. I remember a man told me many, many, many, many years ago, and I've probably said this before. He said, if you're a Christian and you hold to certain convictions, I don't know what those convictions would be, but you hold to certain biblical convictions. He said, hold to those convictions for 10 years and you will find that the church And professing Christendom has gone so far from those convictions that you will look from them, or as they look on your life, you will look as though those who were like the Amish. And that's true. You think of convictions that were held by Christians 10 years ago. What is held now by Christians? It'll amaze you. It'll amaze you. What Christian parents will now let their children do in our society? It'll amaze you. And the more the world, and the more the world gets into the church, well then the more, the more it seems to be that those who hold to biblical convictions are looked at as oddities. But we are to be strangers. We're to be strangers. We're not to be strange, but we're to be strangers. We are to be those who recognize that this is not my place. This is not where I find my pleasures. This is not where I find my satisfaction. No, I find that in my God. I am a stranger. Oh, for that to take possession of us again, brethren and sisters. And so we are, with one regard to how society goes, we are to be non-conformists. We're not to be like the world. Sure, do we not read that? Does John not tell us that? Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For if any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. Oh, brethren and sisters, let us fall out of love with the world. Let us fall in love with Christ again. And so we're not to be like the world. We're not to be so like the world that there cannot be told the distinction between the Christian and the non-Christian. You see, the dialect of the Christian is to be different. The language that the Christian employs from day to day, at school, at work, wherever you are, it's to be different. It's to be different from the language of the non-Christian. And yet, sometimes it is the case that there can be those who profess to know Jesus Christ, and they can sing the songs of Zion on the Lord's day. And they can take that same tongue and use it to spread filthy jokes. I and even to curse at their work colleagues on the Monday morning. Well, James tells us, out of the same mouth proceedeth blessings and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. You say, well, that could never happen. Well, James says it happened, and he was writing to believers. Out of the same mouth proceeded blessing and cursing. It was hard to fathom all the challenge goes to us all, we must, what we talk about, the language we employ, it must reflect that we're strangers on this earth. The Christian's dialect is to be different. The Christian's diet is to be different. You'll know that's a foreigner comes in, into the country, they're not going to go for spuds and cabbage. No, they're eating maybe curry or something like that. They're something that's foreign. Well, it's not foreign now, but I'm sure it was whenever Such people came in. The diet was different. The diet of these people was different. And so our diet is to be different from the worldlings' diet. You see, what does the worldling feed on? I'm speaking about a spiritual diet. I'm not saying that you don't go and get a curry. What I'm saying there is what you feed your soul on, what you feed your mind on, what you feed your heart on. And what does the worldling feed on? They feed on the television soaps. Oh, they know what's happening in Carnation Street and East Enders and all the... That's what they feed their souls on. They think it's reality. Someone dies in the soap, well, they go into mourning with regard to the person. It's reality to them. There's this line between reality and fiction that has become so blurred. And they fill their minds with magazines and popular music and all the junk on the Internet. Christians and all they do is they get their Christianity from YouTube. And then they're filled with all the kinds of rubbish. And there's others and they fill their minds with romantic novels. Oh the Christian, you're not to feed yourself on those things. No problem in keeping up with the news and that. But to feed your soul on these things, is that your diet? Oh no, we're to feed our souls on Christ, we're to feed our souls on the milk and the meat of God's Word. Whenever you think about your diet as a Christian, your spiritual diet, let me ask you, did you feed your soul on the Word of God today? Over the past week? What have you taken in through the eye gate and through the ear gate? Have you binged upon the rubbish of the world or have you satisfied your soul with Christ and his word? Oh, to have a renewed appetite for the word of God and for Christ. Yes, the dialect of the stranger, the Christian stranger. The Christian's diet and the Christian's desires ought to distinguish them from being different from the world. Oh, the worldling, the ungodly only want to fulfill the desires of the flesh. But the Christian, oh, they desire to glorify God in their body and in their soul. And that makes a Christian a strange oddity in the world, that you want to glorify God, that you want to live for God, that you want to, as it were, throw away, as it were, as they look at it, your ambition and business to become a preacher, to become a missionary, is that what you want to do? Oh, you're looked upon as someone that's old, a strange individual, a strange being. But brethren, sisters, we are to be strangers in this world. Beloved, do you feel like a stranger in this world? Do you feel out of place? One who lives differently from how the ungodly live. You know, if so, you're only evidencing the reality that you're a stranger in this world and that you belong to another world, a world that is beyond this world, a world that is beyond the veal of death, a world that is yet to come. The Christian should never feel at home in this world. This is alien territory for us, brethren and sisters. This is alien territory for the person whose citizenship resides in heaven. Paul writes of those who have been saved by grace in Ephesians 2 verse 19, that ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. J.C. Philpott, let me give you this quote. He says, as Abraham was a stranger in the land of Canaan, as Joseph was a stranger in the palace of Pharaoh, as Moses was a stranger in the land of Egypt, As Daniel was a stranger in the court of Babylon, so every child of God is separated by grace to be a stranger in this ungodly world. And if indeed we are to come out from it and to be separate, the world must be as much a strange place to us. For we are strangers to its views, its thoughts, its desires, its prospects, its anticipations in our daily walk, in our speech, in our mind, in our spirit, in our judgment, in our affections. We will be strangers from the world's company, the world's maxims, the world's fashions, the world's spirit. Oh, again. I must emphasize that we are not to be strange, we're not to be odd, we're not to be queer, and I'm using that word as how it used to be used. You know, you ever hear someone say, there's a queer being? We're not to be like that, we're to be affable, we're to be approachable, we are to be amicable, but never forfeiting or compromising that which distinguishes the child of God from the child of wrath. May we never get to the place in our Christian lives where we find ourselves at home in this world. May there always be that sense that we just don't belong. As much as we love our work colleagues, our coworkers, and our friends, and our family, as much as we love them, we just don't belong here. We're strangers, we're foreigners. We belong to another country. It's a better country. We belong to another jurisdiction. Heaven. And so we're strangers. But consider in the second instance, the Christian as a pilgrim. A pilgrim is a person who is only in the place where they now are for a short period of time. We read about Abraham's pilgrimage in this particular chapter. We read there in verse number nine or verse number eight that he was called to go out to a place that he should have to receive an inheritance. And we all know how God called him from the Earl of the Chaldees and called him to go to a place where he had never, ever been before. And the amazing thing is that Abraham never, ever owned a piece of ground. He never built a building, a home made of bricks and mortar, and put whatever he had on the roof. He never did that. He always lived in tents. And we read of that. We read about that with regard to him living by faith. He sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country. There it is again. It's a strange country to Abraham. Oh, it was going to be the home of the family, but was a strange country, even to Abraham, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. Now, Abraham did own a parcel of ground, you know that. It was his burial plot. It's the only thing he ever owned, the cave of Machpelah. That's what he owned. But never, ever did he set up a home and settled down. He was always a nomad, traveling. It was a picture. I'm not saying that you go home tomorrow and put your house on the market and go home and then go to, I don't know, where you buy a six berth tent and you go and live there. That is not what you are to do. But it was a picture. This is what you are going to be as a person of faith. What Abraham does physically, you are to be spiritually. You're going to be a pilgrim. You're going to be just simply a person who is at and in a place for a short period of time. As I said, pilgrims don't put down their roots in any particular place. Pilgrims are what? They're journeying towards a final destination. That's what a pilgrim's doing. They're headed towards a final destination. There's a goal. that they're heading for. You see, the world, they live their lives like headless chickens. They're going here, there, and everywhere. But they're not thinking about the final destination. But we are. As pilgrims, we're headed. The compass is set. The road has been paved. It's the King's Highway we're walking. And it's going to end in the Celestial City, the place where the streets are made with gold. The word used here by the Spirit of God in Hebrews 11 for the word pilgrim, it means a resident foreigner, a by-resident, one who lives by another or among people who are not their own. Thayer defines the word pilgrim as one who comes from a foreign country. into a city or land to reside there by the sides of the natives. Martin Vincent, in his word studies of the New Testament, writes that the word pilgrim refers to persons sojourning for a brief season in a foreign country. The word carries the thought of one who resides as a visitor in a country that is not their own. By confessing that they were pilgrims on the earth, these Old Testament saints were saying that there was nowhere in this world that they could call their home. and no different for ourselves. There is nowhere in this world that we can really call our home. Yes, we live in houses, we call them home, but they're not our final home. What's a little hymn, this world is not my home. I'm just a passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me and heaven's open door and I can't feel at home in this world anymore. Our final home. is in heaven. How could we describe this world? We could describe this world as simply a staging post, or a stopover. I'm sure you've maybe traveled, like we would do sometimes in England, and we would travel to the south of England, but the journey's a little bit long, and so we stay a night in maybe a hotel, a travel lodge, or a premier inn. It's not the final destination, it's just a stopover. There's a final destination of you, and that's what our brief little time on this earth is. It's just a stopover, but oh, the value of it. Oh, what we must do in that time as we stop over as pilgrims in this world, investing in those things that are eternal, and treasuring up for ourselves those things that moth and rust cannot corrupt and what thieves cannot break through and steal. 19th century American theologian Nathaniel Edmonds wrote, pilgrims never feel at home. They find no place which they can call their own, where they reside as long as they please. They are constrained to go from stage to stage and to change their situation from day to day. And though they may sometimes find pleasant and desirable places, yet they find no place at which they can feel at home. Oh, if you feel at home in this world, truly at home, what about then this profession of being a pilgrim? What is there in this world for us, really, child of God? Apart from family and friends and the fellowship of the saints, what is there that really makes us want to stay here for an extended period of time? Is there anything? I think there's very little. Every Christian, suffers from an illness that is a terrible illness. I remember experiencing it once in my life. There's no pill for it. There's no medicine for it. There's no cure for it. What is that illness? Do you know what it is? Homesickness. Have you ever experienced homesickness? I experienced it. Living in Edinburgh, I just returned, came to the Lord. December 1997, I remember going back to Edinburgh, and within a week, I was homesick. Boy, I was homesick. And there was no cure for it. Missed home, missed Christian company. Now, you see, everything had changed. There was now a new nature. I didn't want to be there anymore. And I felt homesick. And every child of God, every Christian pilgrim is homesick. We long for home. We long for a heavenly home. James Smith, he sounded this warning to every Christian pilgrim. Let us keep a proper distance from the customs, pleasures, and practices of the world. Let us beware, lest its politics, speculations, and schemes swallow us up. We are not placed here to amass a fortune or gain a name, but to glorify our Father who is in heaven. I got a little book this week I spent A couple of pounds, that's as far as it went. And the first little book of illustrations, very interested to read the very first illustration. There's a place in North Wales called Ballagh. And if my memory serves me correct, I think Ballagh was the place that Mary Jones went to to get her Bible. Remember that little girl who saved up all her money? She walked for miles to Ballagh. to get her Bible. Whenever she got there, all the Bibles were sold. The man gave her her Bible. Mary Jones, they still talk about her in Wales. And here's this little illustration. It says Ballin, North Wales is a very Welsh town. The language spoken in the homes and shops is Welsh. And the names on houses are, with very few exceptions, Welsh. One of these exceptions is a nameplate on a house that is passed if you enter the town on the Dogagall Road. That's not how it's pronounced, but that's how I'll pronounce it. The name is Prose Cariton, Carion, sorry, Carion. It's not Welsh, but Greek, and it means for a while, for a while. Whoever gave the name to the house had wisdom and understanding. He knew that no home is permanent in this world. The house may stand for a hundred years or more, but we are only here for a while. Here is a solitary reminder of a basic biblical truth. Life for us in this world is temporary. Pros carry on for a while. And that's all we are here for, for a while. The Christian, though at rest with God, is a restless soul in this world. The Christian pilgrim is the one who longs for their day of departure from this world of sin and sorrow in order that they might take up their residency in heaven, their eternal home. Let me ask you, child of God, as I close, time's away. Are you looking for the better country, the heavenly country? As a Christian pilgrim, are you homesick for home? Like Abraham, are you looking for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God? You know, as a wise pilgrim, you'll not encumber yourself with anything that will impede your progress towards home. No, what you'll do is you'll lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset you, lest such would impede your journey to your heavenly home. And as to our responsibility to our fellow pilgrims, what's that? Well, let's not place anything in their way that would impede them or trip them up on their journey towards home. And let us encourage our fellow pilgrims along the narrow way, spurring them on to quicken their pace. Home's up ahead. and to keep in the way, and don't go off into bypass meadows. Oh, fellow pilgrim, press on toward the mark of the prize of your high calling. Don't be slackening the pace. There's a race to be run. There's a crown to be won. Travel on in the strength of your Savior. Don't be entangled, and don't become entangled in the snares of worldly prosperity and financial prosperity. And as for rest, That comes whenever we reach home. But until then, let us labor for the master while we continue on our earthly pilgrimage. Who am I as a Christian? I'm a stranger, and I'm a pilgrim, but I'm a pilgrim going home, and so are you, so are you. Oh, may we help one another along the road, Just the same way as Mr. Helpful and Mr. Hopeful and all their individuals who met Christian on that great Pilgrim's Progress book. They encouraged Pilgrim along the road. Let us all encourage one another along the road because maybe tonight we'll reach the end of the road. and we'll find ourselves in the celestial sight. May the Lord bless the word to our hearts. Let's quickly bow in a word of prayer together. Oh God, our Father, the devil too often, we freely confess, has done a good job on us, Lord, to have us in this kind of settled state. where we think that all there is in this life is this world and all the things that this world has to offer. Oh Lord, help us to be strangers and pilgrims in this world. Help us to understand that we're just passing through. Help us to hold loosely to all the things that we possess because we'll leave them all behind and they'll probably end up, most of them, either in a skip or in some charity shop sold for a few pounds, and we gave our lives to them. Oh, to live for thee, to serve thee with a glad and a willing heart. And help, Lord, help us all to encourage one another along the road. And Lord, if we are odd, and if we do appear to be strange to the world, so be it. So be it, Lord. Just help us to honor Thee, be faithful to Thy word. Bless my brethren and sisters, I pray. Help them on the journey heavenward and homeward, and may be here at the end of life's journey. Well done, well done, my good and faithful servant. We offer prayer in and through the Savior's lovely name.