Sunday, July 2, 2017

Conclusion to The Hebrews Series. Looking Forward to Another City

Hebrews 13:10–16, 11:10, 13–16

I. You Are a Citizen in the City of God

A. God Is Building a City

B. God’s City Is in the Future

1. Old Testament Believers Were Looking for the City of God
Heb. 11:10, 13--16; Gen. 47:9; Heb. 4:8

2. New Testament Believers Are Still Looking for the City of God
Heb. 13:14; Rev. 21–22; Phil. 3:20; Col. 3:1–4; 1 Pet. 2:11; Heb. 12:27; Ezek. 38:20

C. Believers Are Already Citizens of That City

Heb. 12:22; Heb. 12:28

II. You Are a Resident Alien in the City of Man

A. Believers Are Alien Residents in this World, Neither Citizens Nor Tourists
Heb. 11:13

B. Believers Are Alien Residents to Seek the Good of this World

Jer. 29:28; Heb. 13:1–3

III. The City of Man Is Against the City of God

A. Remember That this World Is Against God
Heb. 13:13; 2 Tim. 3:12; 1 Cor. 1:22--24; Jn. 15:18–19; Heb. 11:26; Jas. 4:4

B. Expect That There Will Be a Point of Conflict in Your Experience as a Believer

1. We Do Not Respond to That Point of Conflict with Either Avoidance or Assimilation

2. We Respond by Living with the Tension, Neither Avoiding or Assimilating.

C. We Must Always Maintain a Counter-culture. Live In, But Not Be Poisoned by this World
1. Realize That this Balance Will Be Very Hard to Maintain

2. Remember That the Love of the World Will Be Difficult to Detect

3. Recommit Ourselves to Measuring Everything According to God’s Word

D. We Are Called to Love the City of Man That Will Never Love You Back
Heb. 13:13, 15, 16
Quotes

“For the city of the saints is above, although here below it begets citizens, in whom it sojourns till the time of its reign
arrives.” —Augustine, City of God, Book XV

“As redeemed children of God, our primary and decisive citizenship is in heaven, not in America or any other country.
With the transfer of our citizenship to heaven we have become sojourners and exiles in America —and everywhere else
on earth.” John Piper

“Worldliness is that system of values and beliefs, behaviors and expectations, in any given culture that have at their
center the fallen human being and that relegate to their periphery any thought about God. Worldliness is what makes sin
look normal in any age and righteousness seem odd.” David Wells, God in the Wasteland

“I think that the church in American today is so obsessed with being practical, relevant, helpful, successful, and perhaps
even well-liked that it nearly mirrors the world itself. Aside from the packaging, there is nothing that cannot be found in
most churches today that could not be satisfied by any number of secular programs and self-help groups.”
Horton, Christless Christianity

"One thing needs always to be remembered in the Christian Church: True Christianity, now as always, is radically
contrary to the natural man, and it cannot possibly be maintained without constant struggle. A chip that floats downwards
with the current is always at peace, but around every rock the waters foam and rage. Show me a professing Christian of
whom all men speak well, and I will show you a man who is probably unfaithful to his Lord." J. Gresham Machen

“World is an atmosphere, a mood. It is nearly as hard for a sinner to recognize the world’s temptations as it is for a fish
to discover impurities in the water. There is a sense, a feeling, that things aren’t right, that the environment is not whole,
but just what it is eludes analysis. We know that the spiritual atmosphere in which we live erodes faith, dissipates hope
and corrupts love, but it is hard to put our finger on what is wrong.” Eugene Peterson

“Jesus lost the city that was so that we could become citizens of the city to come, making us salt and light in the city that
is.” Tim Keller

“They share their table with all, but not their bed with all. They pass their days on earth, but they are citizens of heaven.
They love all human beings but they are persecuted by everyone. They are poor but they make many rich. They lack all
things, but they have everything they want. They are insulted and they repay the insult with honor. To sum up, what the
soul is in the body, that’s what Christians are in the city. As the soul is dispersed through all the members of the body,
Christians now are scattered through all the cities of the world.” The letter of Diagnitus