341. Of Whom the World Is Not Worthy

If we begin to live by faith, it will not take long before the world is not worthy of us. The more you surrender yourself to God, the more His Word is able to work in you so you become obedient; and the more you allow the Holy Spirit to lead and guide you, the more opposition you will encounter from so-called Christians. As you forsake the world and the religious world with its denominations and parties, you will find yourself excluded from the synagogues and hated by all men for Jesus’ name’s sake. Matt. 10:22.

Why is this? It is because the so-called Christians do not live according to the Spirit but according to the flesh. They judge and live according to the dictates of their natural senses, just like brute beasts. When fallen human nature is to judge spiritual things, it judges with the carnal mind, as did the Pharisees who crucified Jesus. This mind is enmity against God. Rom. 8:5-8. When an eloquent speaker who is full of Bible verses uses his carnal mind to interpret the Word of God, it sounds absolutely horrible to one who has a spiritual ear which has been exercised in listening to Him who speaks from heaven.

You will never hear a word from carnal preachers about the battle between flesh and Spirit, about fellowship with Christ in His sufferings, or about being crucified with Christ. They want the flesh to live and prosper; so to mention this process of death is forbidden.

There will be warfare between a spiritual person and a carnal person. When this war surfaces in a religious assembly, the carnal preacher will apparently get the victory because what he says sounds so good and is easy to understand for an assembly that lives in the flesh, thinks in the flesh, and speaks in the flesh. Their preacher gets the majority on his side, and the man of the Spirit is voted out by an overwhelming majority. The world is not worthy of him.

But God has not rejected him, because it is written: “Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious.” 1 Peter 2:4.

The victorious one is left with his carnal majority—a true assembly of the dead. There vanity, respect of persons, unrighteousness, and every other kind of wretchedness develop in secret and also openly. The man of the Spirit is cast out; the prophet who has the light of God is disregarded. The chastening that the light brings has now been eliminated, so the congregation has peace, the peace that the world gives, which is the peace of death.

In this murky semi-darkness, people can busy themselves with their carnal business in peace and quiet. The man of the Spirit who had continually and untiringly cast light into the darkness and disturbed their idyllic world is now silenced. Now they can feast in peace—as long as the glory lasts, until one or more of them are discovered to be living in manifest sin. That will cause a bit of a disturbance, but soon it will pass, and, rejoicing in false freedom, their jubilation will be heard on the rooftops. In this way their precious life is dissipated in a whirl of pleasure—a sort of spiritual intoxication.

Meanwhile the man of the Spirit, the one they rejected, is out on the street. Everyone regards him as the black sheep. Everyone warns against him. “Watch out for him!”

But God who lets His light shine out of darkness creates a dark background for this man of the Spirit. He is dark but lovely. And so God kindles His clear light and uses precisely this despised, dark, rejected man to help people to experience growth and development. Read about Joseph and about Jesus Christ.

His “rejecters” are exposed, and in the light of the Spirit their assembly is clearly revealed for what it is: an “assembly of the dead.”

This is marvelous in our eyes, but it is the Lord’s doing.

Anoint your eyes with eye salve, you who imagine you can see, you who teach and teach and never come to the acknowledgement of the truth, you who throw out the holy ones of God. What you are left with reeks of flesh, and you call this the church of God.

No, the church has been cast out, and it gathers around the man of the Spirit. It is to this church God desires to add all who allow themselves to be saved from the world and from the harlot.

This is how God redeems us from the earth and from people, because we are to be a firstfruit unto God and the Lamb. He places us on thrones and teaches us the new song. Rev. 14.

Who really knows what is going on in the minds of those who continue to throw out God’s saints? Are they acting according to the good and perfect will of God and according to the working of the Spirit? Or are they in the flesh and in darkness where Satan has power?

Answer me, because I will gladly vindicate you if you deserve it. Arm yourselves before the face of God and use the sword of the Spirit if you have one, and have power to use it, because the weapons of human opinions and carnal platitudes are too weak to use against men of the Spirit.

Be of good courage, brother and sister, who are now being excluded by these denominations and parties that are so contrary to the Word of God. Go out from them joyfully so that death and the harlot are not able to infect you. In the coming days those “outcasters” will get plenty of practice throwing people out. They will become quite skilled in the trade.

Therefore, let us go to Him outside the camp bearing His reproach, because the world is not worthy of us.