Shall we read some verses in the second chapter of Ephesians, please? Ephesians chapter two. And we read from verse eleven. Ephesians two, verse eleven. Wherefore, remember that ye being in times past Gentiles in the flesh were called uncircumcision by that which is called the circumcision in the flesh made by hand, that at that time ye were without Christ being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now, I love that, but now, in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace. And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby, and came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh. For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now, therefore, ye are no longer, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God, and are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom all the building fitly framed together, growing unto an holy temple in the Lord, in whom ye also are building together, for an habitation of God through the Spirit. May God bless the reading of His own precious Word. We shall refer to some more scriptures as we go along, but we use that just as background. Our subject tonight is our heavenly citizenship. Now we have been taking up over the weeks a series of the great things that God did for us the moment we were saved. I enumerated them last week. We received forgiveness. And we read a few extracts last week about these things that happened to us, that they were not progressive things. They took place at once. They were not progressive. And they were not related to any human merit, whatever. and they were eternal in their character. God did them of his own volition without any marriage of ours, and he did them for eternity. And they are known and revealed only by revelation. We never would have known them but by the revelation of God. They were wrought by God alone and not wrought by man. And these are the things we've talked about. The moment we were saved, we received forgiveness, eternal forgiveness. We were justified. justification. We were reconciled to God. We were sanctified, forever sanctified, set upon to God. We received an eternal salvation. We were adopted into God's family. We received a new birth. And last week we were talking about the fact that the moment God saved us, we were freed from that awful law, God's law which was just and holy and good and true, but which was a tyrant. And the apostles themselves said we could hardly live under the yoke of the law. It was so severe. God's law. God's law was you. must not, do not, do not, do, do, do, the things we must do, the things we mustn't do, and we broke all the lot. And we could never get to heaven under the deeds and the works of the law impossible. And only by the law did we find a real knowledge of sin. God says, do this. I say, I haven't done it. So I'm a sinner. And that reveals to me that I'm a sinner, God's law. But he freed us from it. When the Lord Jesus said it is finished, on the cross, Christ was the end of the law for righteousness to them that believed. And so we are freed from that awful law. And I think we mentioned last week that although we are freed from it and the consequences of it, because the Lord Jesus bore the consequences of the law, the wages of sin, his death at the place called Calvary, still every one of those Ten Commandments except one are mentioned in the New Testament. And there's still a good mode, good code to live by. And we have a power in us now to do the things we couldn't do before, because we have the Holy Spirit living in us. But we are not under law. The only one that is not mentioned in the New Testament is we remember the Seventh Day to keep it holy. That's not mentioned in the New Testament. The Sabbath was finished. When the Lord Jesus died, that was the end of the Sabbath. Although there's a whole group of people called Seventh-day Adventists who are trying still to keep the Sabbath. But the Bible is very, very, very clear that at the end of the Sabbath, it says now at the end of the Sabbath, as it began to dawn towards the first day of the week, a new era. And we're in that new era, the period of grace. And the one day we have is the first day of the week. And that wonderfully God's arranged it, every seven days. We don't have to wait from year to year annual feasts like the children of Israel. Year week by week. This is because week by week we're expecting the Lord Jesus to come back. We're not waiting a year. We're waiting from Lord's Day to Lord's Day. And as we gather on the Lord's Day, as He's bidding us, we came together on the first day of the week to break bread. And as we gather on the first day of the week to break bread, we just start a fresh, a new week, waiting for the coming of the Lord. Do this until I come. And then another week comes. And so it goes by. Lord's Day. to Lord's Day week by week. That's the only period. We don't have Christmas. We don't have Easter. We don't have these feasts of the church in the New Testament. They're not there. They're all man-made. We have one day, first day of the week, not the Sabbath. What I want to talk tonight about is another thing which happened to us the moment God saved us. We became citizens of heaven. We received a heavenly citizenship. Now, this is a wonderful, wonderful thing. You know, we were all proud. We are all proud of our earthly heritage. It's natural. In whichever country you were born, you're naturally. You were brought up in the very atmosphere and the history of that country, and I love it. And you're proud of it. But when I was a boy in England, I was brought up in England. I used to think the British Empire was the greatest thing this world had ever seen, you know. And when I used to read about the Roman Empire lasting so many, many years, and then disintegrating. And another empire come up and disintegrate. I used to think, ah, but not the British Empire. This is... But where is it today, then? And we used to sing about the, all the maps were marked with all the British possessions marked red. And they say it's the empire upon which the sun never set. And we were proud of it, you know, brought up, naturally brought up. Then a time came in my life when I became an American citizen. And I had to renounce every other potent king, ruler and all the rest of it, and swear allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. and the Republic for which it stands and so on as you know. And that was a great experience too. And we are proud of our citizenship. When I lived all those years in Greece I used to work with a Greek colonel, a very proud, tall, handsome officer in the Greek Air Force with rows of medals and he was a great proud man. And in his office he had a map of the ancient Grecian Empire. The Empire of Alexander the Great. And he used to say to me, that's Greece. That's Greece. Where Alexander the Great conquered all the known world and got right down into India. And he'd say, that's Greece. Not this little thing here that we live in today, but that's Greece. That's the greatness of Greece. He was proud of it, you know. The Great Greek Empire. He loved it. And we were proud of our citizenship. Now let's see what God says about this pride of race that we thought so much about. You see, this is as we view it as ordinary human beings here on earth. But God looks at things in a totally different way. God knows the plan of history. God has it all outlined in this book and thank God because we have some knowledge of this book. We have some knowledge of God's plan for the nations. We know the British Empire will never rule the world again. We know that's not in here. We know the United States will not rule the world. It's not in here. We know that the next great world empire is going to be this great ten-kingdom empire which is coming up and already starting in Europe. I think all for all attention will be focused very soon on Europe. Other things this country, sad to say, in which we're living today, much as we love it, this country is going to decay internally, disintegrate internally by wickedness and sin and disobedience and lawlessness and forsaking of God and God's Word. It's already happening, as you know. And the thing that's going to come up and is coming up is what God has said. The revived Roman Empire is coming into being. We're going to see some of it before, I believe, before the Lord takes us away. Well, we are seeing it. It's coming into being. According to God's plans. We know God's plans. So God has a plan, and we might be proud of our earthly heritage in our earthly countries, but God looks down from heaven. And let me tell you what he thinks about what we used to be. You see, God only chose one nation here on earth. He chose the children of Abraham, the Jewish nation, and they were his people. And he gave them a commonwealth. And he gave them a heritage, and they were his people. And you and I, we were Gentiles. We were outside. The Jews would have called us Gentile dogs. We're nothing. And God tells us something about what we were in his sight before. Let's read it again, the eleventh verse of the second chapter of Ephesians. Remember that ye being in times past, Gentiles in the flesh. Verse twelve. At that time ye were without Christ. And I was born under the British flag. Yes, but without Christ. And you were born under the stars and stripes? Yes, but this is what God says. You were without Christ. Aliens, you say, an alien? No, I'm a citizen of the United States of America. He says, listen, this is how I'm looking at you, God says. Aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel. You see, I said God had a favored nation, his own people, and we were outside. So we were aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel. We were strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. We started out without Christ and we finish up without God in the world. That's how God looked upon us. Breathe that case, then. And all the proud men and all the great rulers. And all those who have high office in the governments of this world, and are so proud of it, God looks down upon them and he says, You're without Christ, and you're without hope, and you're aliens, and strangers. So I look at you. I don't think he looks like that exactly upon his own people of Israel, you know, that's come back now that a new state of Israel formed. I know they formed without God and they're doing it their own way, but they're still God's favorite people. But that's how he looks at you and me as Gentiles. And that's how we were. What we were by birth, citizens of this earth, ah yes, but in God's sight, we had no hope. We were without God, we were without Christ, and we were lost. That was our position. What citizenship had we, or citizenship in some country here, but what does that mean? These nations rise and nations fall and they disappear, and what's the good of that citizenship? But when God saves us, miracles took place, as we have been seeing over these weeks as we have been speaking. The moment God saved me, this is one thing that happened. He made me a citizen of heaven. Never mind all the other citizenships. He made me a citizen of heaven. I didn't know it, you know. All I knew is that I had salvation. He that believes on the Son has everlasting life, and I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and I was saved, and I was happy and rejoiced in it. And as the years have gone by, I've learned many of the things that happened. And one of the things that happened at that wonderful moment was that I became a citizen in heaven. From then on, my relationship changed. I didn't belong to this world. I belonged to heaven. And my citizenship, I was saved when I was over in Great Britain. But the citizenship changed from a British citizen to a heavenly citizen when God saved. I didn't know it then, but I learned about it. That's what I want to talk about tonight. By the natural birth, we were foreigners, strangers, without Christ, aliens, no hope, without God. But by the new birth, look at verse nineteen, look at verse fourteen. No, verse thirteen. But now, but now, in Christ Jesus Christ. We who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. We were away from God outside of the covenants of promise, strangers from God's covenants with Israel. And now through the blood of Christ we're made nigh. Made near to God. We're actually in his family, you know, the moment we accept Christ as our Savior. And look at verse nineteen. Now, therefore, ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God." There's a dignity in my judgment in that term, the household of God. You know, I've been in London, England, and I've stood outside the gates of Buckingham Palace and looked across the great quadrangle there and seen the guards standing there with a scarlet. uniforms, but I never got inside. I never got inside. And I don't suppose I ever would. But look what happened here. Not only did we get inside of the parish, get into the city, but we have become fellow citizens with the saints and of the household of God. It isn't that we had a look through the gateway, but we are now members of that rural household. You know, that's a big thing to be a member of the household. It's all right to go as a visitor to Buckingham Palace to be a member of the household. That's tremendous. And that's what God's done for us. He's made us members of his household. And he's made us citizens. with the saints, fellow citizens with all the saints. I don't think this only means Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. I mean, I think it means all the saints of all ages who believe in God. We are fellow citizens with them. And let's look back a minute at Hebrews chapter twelve. You see, these old, wonderful old men of the Old Testament, take Abraham in particular, who are very men of faith they were. Let's look at Hebrews twelve verse eight, Hebrews eleven verse eight. By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an 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 tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for a city. is a man living in a tent, living in a desert, and he looked for a city. Now, wait a minute. If you think Abraham once lived in a city, do you know that? God called him out at the end of the eleventh chapter of Genesis. And it's in the eleventh chapter of Genesis that men began to build their skyscrapers. They said, Let us build us a city. And they were building their great cities. And they were building their multi-story buildings, their skyscrapers up to heaven, you know. God came down and confounded the whole thing. And God said to one man, you come out of this building business, come out of this city business, I got a city for you. And he said, you live in a tent. He said, now listen, I had a lovely home, you know, with A couple of good bathrooms and all the different rooms and appliances, and now you want me to live in a tent like an Arab. Is that what you want me to do? They didn't. When God called Abraham, Abram arose and went. And it says, By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise, because he looked for a city. And I'll tell you something, he never saw it. He looked for that city. He left the city. And God said, I'm going to give you a city. I will make a city for you. He never saw it. It was all by faith. He's going to see it. He sees it now, isn't he? Let's go reading a little bit further. He looked for a city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Verse... Well, let's read verse eleven. Through faith also Sarah herself received strength to conceive seed. and was delivered of 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 sea shore 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 confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth, for they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country." This is citizenship we're talking about. Citizenship. These men were citizens of heaven, dwelling in tents down here on earth, but citizens of heaven. They 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 return. But now they desire a better country that is in heavenly. Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, because he has prepared for them a city. A city. Citizenship citizens of heaven. Abraham was a citizen of heaven. and they lived in a tent in the desert. And you and I are citizens of heaven. Called from above and heavenly men by birth, who once were but the citizens of earth. He's given us a heavenly citizenship. We're made nigh. We are no more strangers and foreigners. We are fellow citizens with the saints and the household of God. Hebrews twelve, verse twenty-two. You remember how our brother in the conference spoke about this. Hebrews twelve, twenty-two. But ye are come. Neil Dougal spoke on this. But ye are come unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the General Assembly and Church of the Firstborn. We have already, in God's reckoning, come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, and the heavenly Jerusalem, in God's reckoning. I said when I started that all these things were accomplished by God. It was not on a merit system. We don't get this by merit. God freely and voluntarily gave us these blessings when we accepted Christ as our Savior. All we had to do was receive the Lord Jesus, believe in him, and be members of his family, be born again into his family, and he gave us all these things. He gave us a heavenly citizenship, and we belong to heaven. Look with me at Luke chapter ten. Luke chapter ten. And verse twenty. You see, he sent out the seventy of disciples. He sent them out and they come back and told him of the wonderful things that had happened to him. And they returned, verse seventeen, with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name. And he said unto them, Behold, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing should be in any means hurt you. Notwithstanding, in this rejoice not. God gave these men grave power. He said, don't rejoice in this. This is what you should rejoice in. Notwithstanding in this rejoice, not that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. Isn't that wonderful? Rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven. And we sometimes say, there is a new name written down in heaven. and his mind. The moment God saved me, my name was written down on the scroll up there, on the tablets of heaven. And I have a heavenly citizenship. And I believe that I belong to that wonderful city of the living God, the new Jerusalem, heaven itself. I belong. That's what God did for us. Now I said all these things are given to us by revelation. We would never have known that we became citizens of heaven when we were saved, but for the revelation of God in this blessed word. It's given to us by revelation. And we became citizens of heaven. Look at Philippians chapter three, verse twenty. A very, very well-known scripture. And I can assure you, every time we read this word, we're reading the right word. Philippians three, verse twenty. It says, for our conversation, but that conversation is not the right word. The Greek word is politivma. Our politivma. Now, polis is city. Hence the word polisman, you see, is a man of the city. Polis is city. And politivma is to do with the city or with our our official position as citizens in a city, you see. And our citizenship, our politimma, called conversation here, our politimma is in heaven from whence also we look for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. How clearly it states here that our citizenship is in heaven. Now we are citizens here on earth, and there are certain privileges, and we have, as citizens of heaven, We come to that presently. As citizens of heaven, we have certain responsibilities here on earth. Let me read just as we pass in Romans chapter thirteen a moment. A few things about our earthly citizenship. Romans thirteen verse one. It says, let every soul be subject to the higher powers. And by the higher powers, he's not meaning heavenly powers here. He's meaning the earthly administration, the municipal governments and the federal governments or the state governments, whatever it is we come under in God's plan for our lives. Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. There is no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained of God. Whosoever therefore resisted the power resisted the ordinance of God. See, this present spirit of rebellion, and I'm going to do my thing and do just what I want to do and nobody's going to tell me what to do, that's not God's way at all. God's way is a way of discipline. And he's given powers and rules that we should be disciplined and obey them. If I go to college, I must abide by the rules of the college and be subject to the president of the college. If I live in the United States, I must abide by the rules of the government of the United States and be subject to the president of the United States. That's God's rule. We have to be subject to the higher powers. God tells us that. As citizens of heaven, we have to be subject here on earth to the citizen, to the country in which God has placed us. That's a Christian's Judy he's got to do that. God tells him to. We can't be amongst these rebellious people. That's not God's plan for his people. They have to be a subject people. So we are heavenly citizens. Our citizenship is in heaven. But you know, there's not one of us here tonight that's ever yet. walked on the golden street of heaven, man. We've never walked the golden street of heaven. We've never heard the angel choirs of heaven yet. We haven't had the first living insight. We live by faith. Like Abraham. They saw cities. They didn't see the city. Abraham never saw that city. Yes, he did. He saw it by faith. Yes, and he saw Christ. The Lord Jesus said, Abraham saw my day and he rejoiced. And I believe personally that when Abraham stood on the top of Mount Moriah, had he just been delivered from delivering up his own son as a sacrifice. And he turned around and there was a ram caught in the thicket and God said, Stop. And then God said, Now listen, Abraham, now I know, now I know that you believe in me. And he called the name of that place, Jehovah Jireh, in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen. What was seen on that mount? I tell you what was seen on that mount Moriah. Two thousand five hundred years later. Two thousand years later. There was a cross set up there. And the Lord Jesus Christ was hanging upon that cross on that very mount Moriah. And I got a notion, I may be wrong, I got a notion that somehow Abraham looked on. And he saw that altar there where his son was to be, had been laid, and where his son would have gone into death if God hadn't intervened. And somehow he looked down over the ages to come, and he saw a cross, perhaps he didn't see a cross, but he saw an altar on Mount Moriah. And the Lord Jesus said of Abraham, he saw my day, he saw my day, Abraham saw my day, They had wonderful, wonderful sight, these old fellows, you know. They didn't see these things where they're naturalized. But they saw them by the eye of faith, and Abraham saw a city whose builder and whose foundations are of God. A city that has foundations, whose builder and maker is God. And Abraham saw all that, although he lived in a tent. Now, this is just how we are today. We are cities in the heavens. We haven't seen it yet. We haven't walked down the golden street of heaven yet. We're going to. Paul says in second Corinthians chapter five, verse eight, he says, now the Lord could take me there right away. He says in two Corinthians five, verse eight, we're confident, I say, and willing rather, to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. He said, if the Lord liked, he could this moment snatch me up. And I'd be up there amid the glory of heaven. And I'd be in the full enjoyment of my citizenship as a citizen of heaven. But not yet. Not yet for you and me. We still have to live in a tent. Now some of us have some very nice tents to live in, but still. We still have to live in a tent. And we still have to look on to that wonderful city. although we are citizens of heaven. But how is this going to affect us? Our names are written there. As sure as God is God, we know we are going to be there because God's word can never, never fail. And all these things he's given to us, as I said before, they're eternal things. We'll be there all right, but we're not there yet. So then we are heavenly citizens on earth. heavenly citizens on earth. Hebrews eleven thirteen says that they confessed. Let me read that again. We read it. Hebrews eleven thirteen. They that do such things 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. I love it. They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on earth. Now this is our position. We confessed that we were strangers and pilgrims on earth. Once upon a time we rejoiced in our earthly citizenship. We were proud of the country in which we were born. We were proud of the flag under which we were born, and we still are proud of the flag. Yes, but we don't belong to that country anymore in God's reign. We're strangers and pilgrims, and we confess that we belong to another country whose builder and maker is God, another city whose builder and maker is God. Let's turn to First Peter chapter two a moment to get some thoughts on this. I Peter chapter two. And he says in verse eleven, dearly beloved, let's read from verse ten. In times past ye were not of people, but now are the people of God, which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims abstained from fleshly lusts which war against the soul, having your manner of life honest among the Gentiles. Now we're citizens of heaven dwelling in another land down here on earth, and we have to have our manner of living honest among the Gentiles. And we have to submit ourselves, verse verse thirteen, to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake. whether it be to the king as supreme or as unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and so on. That's God's plan for us. As citizens of heaven, subjecting ourselves for the time being whilst we live in this tent, until he folds up the tent and takes us to be clothed upon with that house which is from above, you know. And we enter into that heavenly city of which we are now apart. St. Corinthians chapter five. St. Corinthians chapter five, verse seventeen. Therefore, if any man being Christ is a new creature, a new creation, old things are passed away, behold, all things have become new. You see, the past is behind now. What we were and what we belonged to, that's all past tense now. We belong to something else. and we're a new creation in Christ Jesus and all things passed away and all things are of God and God has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and then he's given us the ministry of reconciliation he reconciled us to him And then he gave us the ministry of reconciliation. And we've got to go out to the world to wit that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their transgressions unto them, and have committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ. As if God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God. Now God reconciled to us, us to God, and then He gave us the word of reconciliation, and He sends us back into this world as ambassadors with the word of reconciliation. And we have to say to men and women all around us, we used to belong to these things therein. We used to belong to this organization, organization, and all this world set up that they're in and so proud of, and we have to go to them and say, be reconciled to God. We've got to win them to God. and bring them to him. And we are ambassadors. Now an ambassador does not belong to the country in which he is doing his ambassador's work. He lives in the embassy of the country, but he doesn't belong to that country. When I lived in Greece on the, used to be the king in those days, on the king's birthday or some other occasion, we used to get invited to the British embassy. and everybody was dressed in their best clothes, you know, and there'd be a garden party and a tea party and all this sort of thing. And we went to the British Embassy and we met the ambassador and shook hands with the British ambassador. And he represented the king, you know. He represented the king out there when I lived in Athens. He represented the king of England. That's the nearest I ever got to the king. Well, no, one day I talked to his brother. One day when I was serving in the British Air Force and attached to the Greek Air Force in Egypt, the Duke of Gloucester came to our camp and I had to interpret for him. He was talking to the Greek officer and I walked between the Greek officer and the Duke of Gloucester, interpreted for nothing nearest I ever got to royalty, I think, and talked to him, the King's brother. But we are ambassadors for Christ. We... here on earth, living in a tent, belong to heaven, we're citizens of heaven, and we're here representing God in a foreign country. This country that we once loved so much, we were so proud of, now God's called us out, made us citizens of heaven and sent us back to this country we love so much to be ambassadors for God, to be a seat man, to be reconciled to God. That's our position then today. What a wonderful thing it is, to be citizens of heaven. You know, when I became a citizen of the United States, they have certain rules. If you come to the United States now and you want to become a citizen, you've got to wait five years. You can't be a citizen unless you've been here five years. I sometimes go over to this Dr. Salazar here, the Cuban doctor, and sit down in his office and talk to him sometimes. And he shows me the picture of his two hundred bed hospital that he owned in Havana, in Cuba, and what a wonderful job he had there. And then Castro came along and took it all away from him, and he became a refugee and came to Miami and had nothing. And one of the things that he's most sore about is that he had to wait five years, although he owned his own hospital, and is a surgeon and a good surgeon, although he owned his own hospital, he had to wait five years before he could practice in the United States. Do you know why? Because he wasn't a citizen. You've got to wait five years to be a citizen of the United States. But when God saved me, He made me a citizen, right then, that minute, when I accepted Christ, I became a citizen of heaven. I didn't have to wait five years. And when we became citizens, we became citizens of the United States up there in Wilmington, Delaware, and we had to get two sponsors to come along and sponsors, and there were seventy-seven people that day became citizens at that court. We were two of the seventy-seven. And we went through all the formula there and swore allegiance to the flag. And then the judge made a speech, and I'll never, never, never forget it. I'll never forget it. And I tell you why it meant so much to me. Because the next night I had to speak at a Christian Businessmen's Committee in the town, the city of Johnstown, a way up in the hills of Pennsylvania, where they once had a terrible flood when the dam broke many years ago. And I was going up there the next night, to preach at a CBNC banquet, and I could not get a subject. And I was worried about it. And all through this ceremony of becoming a citizen, I was trying to think out a subject for tomorrow night, you know. And what do you think he said? The judge. He said, now I want to talk to you people that become citizens today. He said, this is a tremendous thing that's happened to you. He said, there is one word in the English language, and I don't know the meaning of it. To me it's an awful word, but it's in the English language. It's the word alien. Alien. I don't know what it means because I've never been an alien. But you have. Every one of you people are aliens in this country. You don't belong here. You belong to some other country. And the United States, until today, you've been called aliens. And today that ends. And what do they do, you say? Today you become fellow citizens. I said, thank you, Lord. That's my serving for the long night. Fellow citizens. And next night I spoke on the subject, I am a citizen. But he said, you become fellow citizens today and no longer aliens. You belong to us. You're part of us. But he said, I want to tell you something. He said, it didn't cost you much. To be a citizen, you paid a few dollars, and you come together, and you've taken an oath today that you will swear allegiance to the United States and so on, and disallegance to all other countries and potentates. Didn't cost you much, but I'll tell you something, he said, your citizenship costs a lot. And they gave us a little flag, about as big as that. I've got it now. silk flag. We both have a flag of the United States. They gave us that little silk flag. He said, now we've presented you with a flag of the United States and that means something. I want you to go home and look at it. And he said, you'll see that that flag has three colors on it. It's red and it's blue and it's white. He said, you didn't pay anything for your citizenship. But it wasn't free. You see that red on that? That stands for the crimson blood of men who laid down their life to get this freedom and this citizenship that we're giving you today. It's not free. You're getting it free. But it casts a crimson blood of the men of the history of this country who built the United States. What a message. You and I have received the citizenship of heaven. We got it for nothing. But it cost a lot. Our citizenship cost the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, who at the place called Calvary shared his precious blood that you and I might become citizens of heaven. Oh, beloved, let's realize the dignity of the position that's ours. And as we go around day by day, let's keep our chins up. We're still living in a tent, perhaps, but we don't belong to the tent. We belong to a wonderful city with streets of gold and jeweled doors and wonderful walls and all the glories described in the Revelation. That's ours and our names are written up there already and in God's eternal purposes, we're going to be there. Let's go about the citizens of heaven now who've been redeemed to God by the precious blood. of the Lord Jesus Christ, who shed his blood, that we might be citizens of heaven. Shall we pray? Blessed God, our Father, we thank thee that when we accept this, he is our Savior, the Lord Jesus is our Savior. Thou didst fix it up, and that moment do wonderful, wonderful things for us. We thank you for that moment when we were redeemed, when we were forgiven, when we were adopted into thy family, when we became sons and daughters of God,