- A privileged citizen is a person who is granted a special entitlement or immunity by a government or other authority
- Do you have what is necessary to be a citizen?
- Check your citizenship & heed the warnings.
- There is a sign posted at a service station perched on the edge of the Mojave Desert.
- It proclaims the startlingly simple message of
— "Stop here, or Else!" —
- It is, of course, a great marketing tool.
- Because everyone stops - even those with full tanks of gas and empty bladders.
- Everyone knows that what lies ahead is dangerous and uncertain
- They trust the sign's warning and stop.
- Few are foolish enough to barrel by a sign so brazen in its message.
Warnings
- v. 6-9 - The “Stop or Else” sign
- Carnal – Sensual, Fleshly, Sinful nature, Obsessed with self
• Death Awaits – v.6
• Enemy of God – v.7
• Aggravated God – v. 8
• Alienated God – v.9
The Privileged Citizen
- Problem is we act as beggars
- Legend birth of Cyrus King who conquered Babylon
- Astyages determined the death of the infant Cyrus who in a dream would destroy his empire. He had, an officer of his court, to destroy this baby. His officer gave the baby to a herdsman that he might leave him to die in the mountains. The wife of the herdsman, adopted the baby instead. Therefore Cyrus grows up in the peasant’s hut. He thinks the herdsman and his wife to be his parents. Ignorant of his birth, of his rightful destiny, of the palace and kingly state which were really his, he thinks himself only a peasant’s child. At last the secret of Cyrus’s birth and rightful place gets known and he goes on to be the rightful king of the Meds & Persians.
- What may be only legend about Cyrus is too sadly fact about too many Christians.
- They too often think themselves but weak peasants when they are really kings.
- They dwell in huts when God has given abundant blessings
As Citizens There Is:
1. No Condemnation (ver. 1)
- He declares not guilty
- When? – It is “NOW”
- Why? – Because “IN CHRIST JESUS”
- Fled to the place of refuge
2. Spiritual Ability (vers. 2-4).
Christ is not simply for the Christian in the no condemnation; Christ is also in the Christian in the
indwelling Spirit of life.
3. Relationship (ver. 14-17)
i.e., there is for the Christian a genuine son placing.
4. Inheritance (ver. 17). Poor the Christian may be here, but he walks the earth with all the wealth of heaven in reversion.
5. Purpose (ver. 28
- Certainty that all things work together for good.
6. Nothing That Can Really Baffle Him, (vers. 31-39).
Victory is ours
God is on our side
Chrysostom - 347-407
- Early Church father, Preacher
- Stood before the Roman
- The emperor threatened him with banishment if he
still remained a Christian.
- Chrysostom, “Thou canst not, for the world is my
Father’s house; thou canst not banish me.”
- “ I will slay thee,” said the emperor.
- “Nay, but thou canst not,” said the noble champion
of the faith again; “for my life is hid with Christ in God.”
- “I will take away thy treasures.”
- “Nay, but thou canst not,” was the retort; “for, in
the first place, I have none that thou knowest of. My treasure is in heaven, and my heart is there.”
- “ I will drive thee away from man, and thou shalt
have no friend left.”
- “Nay, and that thou canst not,” once more said the
faithful witness; “for I have a Friend in heaven,
from whom thou canst not separate me.
- I defy thee; there is nothing thou canst do to hurt
me.”
