Outcasts of the World

Do You Feel Like an Outcast?

Christians should feel like outcasts of the world.

Ways in Which Christians Are Treated as Outcasts. Regarded as strange, hurtful things are spoken of you for abstaining from sin.

1 Peter 4:3-4 (NKJV) 3 For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles — when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. 4 In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you.

Ways in Which Christians Are Treated as Outcasts. Regarded as strange, hurtful things are spoken of you for abstaining from sin. Excluded by others.

Luke 6:22 (NKJV) Blessed are you when men hate you, and when they exclude you, and revile you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of Man's sake.

Ways in Which Christians Are Treated as Outcasts. Regarded as strange, hurtful things are spoken of you for abstaining from sin. Excluded by others. Opposed by family members

Your stand for the Lord may be put to the test in your own home! Matthew 10:34-36 (NASB) "Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. 35 "For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; 36 and a man's enemies will be the members of his household…

Who is it that we love the most? Matthew 10:37-39 (NASB) "He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 "And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 "He who has found his life shall lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake shall find it.

Ways in Which Christians Are Treated as Outcasts. Regarded as strange, hurtful things are spoken of you for abstaining from sin. Excluded by others Opposed by family members Your own brethren may even “cast you out” for doing what is right!

Sometimes persecution can come from our own brethren, “false brethren” (2 Cor. 11:26), who have gone back into the world.

1 Tim 6:20-21 (NASB) 20 O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you, avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called "knowledge" — 21 which some have professed and thus gone astray from the faith. Grace be with you.

Instead of the desire to study the Scriptures and work out differences, you are labeled a “troublemaker,” excluded, and mocked!

Isaiah 66:5 (NASB) Hear the word of the Lord, you who tremble at his word: "Your brothers who hate you and cast you out for my name's sake have said, 'Let the Lord be glorified, (they scoff) that we may see your joy'; but it is they who shall be put to shame.

Why are Christians Outcasts? The world hates Christians just as they did Christ.

Matthew 10:24-25 (NASB) 24 "A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a slave above his master. 25 "It is enough for the disciple that he become as his teacher, and the slave as his master. If they have called the head of the house Beelzebul, how much more the members of his household!

John 15:18-19 (NASB) 18 "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. 19 "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

John 15:20 (NASB) "Remember the word that I said to you, 'A slave is not greater than his master.' If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

James 4:4 (NASB) You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

Why are Christians Outcasts? The world hates Christians just as they did Christ. The world hates us because we belong to Christ, not the world.

John 17:14-16 (NASB) 14 “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. 15 "I do not ask Thee to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one. 16 "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

1 John 4:4-6 (NASB) 4 You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. 5 They are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them. 6 We are from God; he who knows God listens to us; he who is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

Why are Christians Outcasts? The world hates Christians just as they did Christ. The world hates us because we belong to Christ, not the world. We are outcasts because we refuse to conform to this world.

We are outcasts because we refuse to conform to this world. The way we think, speak, clothe ourselves, and the way we behave is contrary to the world. By refusing to conform to this world, you set yourself apart and open yourself up to close scrutiny and criticism.

Romans 12:2 (NASB) And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

We don’t think like the world does.

We don’t talk like the world does.

We don’t dress like the world does.

Our commitment to marriage is different.

Our commitment to training our children in the way of the Lord.

Our abstaining from “worldly” entertainment and recreation.

As a Christian… you must keep yourself from being “spotted” by the world by its immoral filth and pollution! (James 1:27b; cf. 2 Cor. 6:14-7:1)

Don’t Be Afraid to be an Outcast. Fear can prevent us from taking a stand for the Lord.

John 9:18-19 (NASB) 18 The Jews therefore did not believe it of him, that he had been blind, and had received sight, until they called the parents of the very one who had received his sight, 19 and questioned them, saying, "Is this your son, who you say was born blind? Then how does he now see?"

John 9:20-21 (NASB) 20 His parents answered them and said, "We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; 21 but how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age, he shall speak for himself. "

John 9:22-23 (NASB) 22 His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed, that if anyone should confess Him to be Christ, he should be put out of the synagogue. 23 For this reason his parents said, "He is of age; ask him."

Fear to confess Jesus or stand for what is right can cost us our souls Fear to confess Jesus or stand for what is right can cost us our souls! (Mat. 10:32-33; Rev. 21:8)

Don’t Be Afraid to be an Outcast. Fear can prevent us from taking a stand for the Lord. There is a great reward in Heaven for those who are “cast out” for Christ’s sake!

It is not easy to live life as an outcast, yet there is no comparison to the great reward that will follow!

Luke 6:22-23 (NASB) 22 "Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and cast insults at you, and spurn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man. 23 "Be glad in that day, and leap for joy, for behold, your reward is great in heaven; for in the same way their fathers used to treat the prophets.

Hebrews 11:13-14 (NASB) 13 All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. 14 For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own.

Hebrews 11:15-16 (NASB) 15 And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But as it is, they desire a better country, that is a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.

Let us rejoice when we are treated as “Outcasts of the World Let us rejoice when we are treated as “Outcasts of the World.” Such treatment by the world is an indication that we are like Christ!