Not of the World but in It 1975

A few years ago, in a body of Christ all over the earth, a change began to occur. Not that there haven't been changes in the history of the church since its beginning, but something rather unique. Almost all over the earth at the same time, or within a matter of a year or two, people began to wake up.

We began to wake up. And we began to realize how shallow our lives really were. And how tangled up in the world were our minds and spirits.

And it began to become clear to us that we either are going to have to commit ourselves in a radical way to Jesus, or we're going to have to forget the whole thing. There's nothing in between. And this garbage we're trying to mix the two, you know, is a waste of time.

It's an abomination, not only to God, but us as well. We began to hear the call of the Spirit to come out of Babylon, to love not the world, to do nothing for it. And so a new species began to show up on the surface of the planet, among the people of God.

A group of people who, with a uniformity probably unique since the Apostolic Age, began to realize that it was necessary to live a life that is separate from this world. And they began to draw a sharp line between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this age. Communities began popping up all over the planet, made up of people whose hearts were set, not on the treasures of this world, but on the treasure of God's kingdom.

And among these people, very often there would be our worship is just heavenly. You walk into their midst and know you're stepping right into heaven. Now, we here have been touched by all this.

I doubt if there's anybody in this place right now who's in the kingdom at all, who has not gone through some radical changes in the last five years. Our eyes have seen and our hands have handled the supernatural operation of the Spirit of God in the body of Christ. We have tasted the glory of the coming King in many ways.

And we have seen visions of the coming days of trial that have shocked us and made us to know that there's no way that we can ever go back to that old life of compromise. But now, we, along with believers all over the earth, are running into a new danger that's becoming more and more apparent, I believe, every day. See, if the enemy, the devil, can't mess us up by making us worldly, then he's going to mess us up by trying to get us to be otherworldly.

If he can't destroy us by a life of compromise, then he's going to try to destroy us by a life of false separation. He's going to try to make us separate ourselves from the world in the wrong way. And what we have now are communities of believers, or believers, however they are, all over the place, who are beginning to raise up walls around themselves.

And then they're trying to serve God behind the wall and keep the world out. And all their energy and all their thought and all their love is expended on the community on this side of the wall. And so they are strongly occupied in looking after one another and loving one another and serving one another and shepherding each other and discipling each other.

Almost as if the kingdom of God had already come here in its fullness and the world had already passed away. See, now there's no doubt we are told by the Spirit to love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. And it's doubtless true, see, that time and again the seed of God's Word has been choked out by the cares and the riches and the pleasures of this life.

And we are to indeed come out of Babylon and have no part of it, never go back there again. We are not to be taken up with Satan's world system. But while all of this is true and while we are to be living radically different lives, we are nevertheless to remain in very close touch with those people who are being ground down and messed up by the evil of the world.

Go into the streets and lanes of the city, and where is the city but the world? And bring in the poor and the maimed and the hawk and the blind. Now you can't do that when you're out of touch. See, how in the world are we going to be able to even see the poor and the maimed and the hawk and the blind, much less go after them, when our eyes are blinded by a super preoccupation with our own holiness or the condition of our own fellowship? Back into John 17 again.

And this prayer that he's praying for the disciples doesn't just include the twelve, but it includes us. And he says to the Father concerning us, But now I am coming to thee, and these things I speak in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them thy word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth.

Thy word is truth. As thou didst send me into the world, even so I have sent them into the world. Now, we may not be of the world, but we are sure in it.

We've been sent into it. And every time we try to escape the world by getting behind some kind of wall, whatever kind of wall that may be, we're running away not from the devil, but from the Son of God. The quickest way for people, believers in Jesus Christ, to get flaky is to break all contact with people who don't believe in Jesus.

Spend all your time with Christians. Surround yourself with a 24-hour-a-day Christian environment. And pretty soon, very soon, you're out of touch, not only with man, but with God.

The only people who can survive that kind of Christian atmosphere all the time are those who may be just recently born again. Bring them in, and maybe they're to stay inside the hothouse atmosphere for a brief time. But most of us who have long since been in that far too long need to be getting out where we've been sent.

Otherwise, we're going to wither away. We're going to dry up like the man who buried his cow. You know, people say, but wait a minute.

You have no idea what temptations there are out there. And nobody can survive out there very long. And when we say such things or think such things, this indicates where we are with, what kind of a God do you think you have? Don't you think that the God who brought about the miracle of faith in your heart in the first place and drew you to his Son in the first place, do you think this God is unable to preserve the life that he brought forth in you? See, I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one.

That's what Jesus prays for us, that we're going to be kept from the evil one. Don't you think the Father's able to answer that prayer? God isn't going to take us out of the world until our work is done. But he is indeed going to keep us from the evil one, provided we go along with his program, provided we fit in.

You know, if we move in the will of God, we're invulnerable, really. Satan can't touch us. He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

I will say of the Lord, he is my refuge and my fortress, not those walls, not some other rules and regulations that we set up. He is my refuge and my fortress, my God. In him will I trust.

Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler and from the noise and pestilence. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wing shall thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and buckle.

Satan absolutely cannot touch us and can't destroy us, provided we do two things. Provided, first of all, we dwell in the secret place of the Most High, which means we go where we have been sent. And that means we're going to be in the world.

Turn around and run away, hide behind walls, surround yourself with a Christian atmosphere, so-called, and very soon, you know, the protection of God is gone. The shadow of the Almighty withdraws. We have to be physically present in the world.

And the evil one is going to try to tempt us to become physically withdrawn from the world. We don't like to be physically near the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blinded. We don't want them near us, because they make us uncomfortable.

And we don't like to be around people who ruffle us or who despise us, and we know it. And so we're going to stay in here, and we're going to try to keep them out there. But when we finally break down and do what we know God is calling us to do and move out physically into the midst of the poor and the maimed and the halt and the blinded, and all that stands for, immediately we begin to experience the presence of God around us as never before.

And we are covered with the wings of God's holiness. And we are to be mentally in the world. And the evil one, see, tries to get us to develop a mentality which is utterly out of touch and then think that we're obeying Romans 12, which says, Be not conformed.

And we're so out of it that we don't even know anymore how these people think or feel. See, and when our minds are so far away from the mind of the hungry man or the sick woman or the thief or the addict or whoever it may be, we haven't just lost touch with men, we've lost touch with our God. And we're like salt that has lost its savor, and our minds are stamped not with a mark of God but with a mark of a beast which is indifference.

And we're even to be spiritually in the world. Now, sometimes we, again, you know, think, Well, okay, I'm down here, but my spirit is up there. In a sense, that's true.

It's true. It's like your spirit alternates, as did Jesus. He was in heaven and on earth, in a sense, at the same time.

But his spirit was down here, always present. His spirit was ready to catch those shrieks, you know, those desolate shrieks of the demon-possessed and the pitiful cries of the lepers and all these broken souls. He was there and ready so that he could respond to those needs as they came.

Whereas you and I are all too often totally unprepared. You know, we blow opportunity after opportunity. When the cry comes, we're not there.

Our bodies are there, and our minds are kind of spinning in neutral, and our spirits are somewhere off where the devil lured us, you know, up on cloud nine thinking we're in ecstasy, and we're actually, you know, in a delusion. We talk about, you know, and theorize about healing. When somebody's sick comes along, we just don't know what to do for them.

You know, whereas if our spirits are down on the earth where they belong, in the name of Jesus, ready and waiting for these needs, when they come, you know, healing will go forth, life will flow out. We'll be preserved against the wiles of the enemy, provided we are where we're supposed to be, which is in the world, and secondly, provided we allow God's truth to be our shield and buckler. And so all through this passage I've read, Jesus says, I have given them thy word.

Sanctify them in the truth. Thy word is truth. So that while we're in the world, God's word is burning in us, keeping us alive.

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you. It's the spirit that quickens, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life.

See, the picture that we have here is not a bunch of saints gathered behind ten walls, sitting up against the wall, reading their little Bible. But here we have the picture of saints who are out in the storm, and the word of God is no longer just a book. Which is, by the way, I mean, it's not equivalent.

It becomes the word of God when it speaks and when I obey it. The printed page is not the answer. Otherwise, you know, everybody would already have been saved.

Just put a Bible in his pocket and he's saved. It's got to get in his heart. But the picture we have here is of saints who had the word of God spoken, and they're burning in their hearts as they move out there in the storms.

It's when we're in the storms and we don't know which way to go, and we have to cry out to God, it's when these friends of ours come at midnight and we have nothing to set before them, and we, in desperation, have to cry out to God, that the word of God then begins to break open to us. And we understand it's meeting, and God speaks to us, and shows us, Lord, speak to me. Tell me, give me some bread to feed these hungry.

And then it happens. But we have to expose ourselves to the word. You know, I'm not trying to depreciate the scriptures.

Our Lord was steeped in the scriptures. He said, well, after all, he was God the Son. He was born with it.

No, he wasn't. He was indeed God the Son. But he was now flesh, and he had to go to the synagogue, and he had to just pour over the scriptures just like you and I have to.

And they were kept in his heart. He loved that. But we need to do the same.

The word of God can't sanctify us if we don't expose ourselves to it. And what all too often happens is that we're not doing it. We're not getting into the word.

When we first became believers, it was wonderful. You know, great enthusiasm. We hungered and thirsted for the word of God.

We longed to hear God speak. But after a while, we began to think we understood it all. I read that five times already.

I know it. And we began to dry up. And we lost our zest for it.

May God restore this to us. You know, all through the Psalms we have this, you know, to ministers for God speaking. I will delight myself in thy commandments which I have loved.

My hands also will I lift up to thy commandments which I have loved. Not just out in thin air, but to thy commandments, to a spoken word, to a command. And I will meditate upon thy statutes.

The more deeply we are immersed in the shadows of the city of this world, the more deeply we need to penetrate the blazing light of God's spoken word. As thou didst send me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. May God help us every single day to find that place where we literally touch the world.

You know, some man or woman or child whose wounds have not yet felt the balm of Gilead. And we'll find ourselves probably doing less and less preaching and a great deal more listening and sharing of the things, even material things that we have. Ministering in whatever the need, you know, whatever that need may be.

And if we haven't found that place, and if we're not touching such people daily, may God show us the steps we need to take. And may God also bring us to the place where not one day goes by, not one day where we aren't touched by the living word. How in the world can we possibly survive if God isn't speaking to us? Unto thee will I cry, O Lord, my rock.

Be not silent unto me, lest, if thou be silent unto me, I become like them that go down into the pit. If God isn't speaking to us, we don't live. He will speak to us when we open our ears and our hearts.

In the days to come, we're all aware of the fact, I'm sure, that there will be many casualties. We think there's a sifting going on now. We ain't seen nothing yet.

But those casualties, I believe, will be found mainly in these two places. They will be found among those who are trying to escape the world by hiding behind walls instead of going where God sends them. And they will be found among those who have hardened their hearts to God's word so that they no longer hear Him speak.

But those who dwell in the secret place of the Most High by going where they're sent, into the world, with their Lord, and those who allow God's truth to be their shield and buckler because they obey it, will not only survive, but they will go from strength to strength, no matter what kind of storm is coming. May we be found among those people. Lord God, You know the fear in our hearts of the uncertain future and of tomorrow and of man.

And You know how we're clutching on to the familiar and sticking to the rut as much as we can. And You know how most of our impatience is directed out toward brothers and sisters instead of toward the rut we're still in. And we pray that this day, by the power of Your Spirit, we may all of us be pried loose and set free.

And that without fear, fearing only Thee, O God, we may move forward now and do the things that we know we're being called to do. Grant, Lord God, we also pray that, as a confirmation of the things that You're telling us, we may hear Your Word clearly, hour by hour this day, very clearly in the days to come, and come to life under the hearing of that Word as we do it. We ask it for the sake and because of the cross, the blood of Jesus.

Amen.