Now we come to the last point of following the Lord Jesus during the time of His rejection. The way to follow Him is to be absolutely outside of religion. In Matthew 15 there was a Canaanite woman who was enjoying Christ as the crumbs in a living and nourishing way. While this Gentile woman was enjoying Christ in such a way, the priests were worshipping in the temple, offering sacrifices and burning incense to God. It is very likely that these two things were occurring simultaneously. In a Gentile land far away from the holy place, there was a Gentile woman who knew little about God, the Scriptures, the temple, the altar, the sacrifices, the priesthood, and the worship of God. Although she knew little of these things, she was enjoying Christ as her nourishing food. At the same time, many priests who were trained in the proper worship of God were worshipping God according to the Scriptures. In a sense, these priests had much knowledge about God and what they were doing in the temple was for God and toward God.
Suppose you had lived in the land of Israel at that time. Which side would you have taken—the side of the priests worshipping in the temple or the side of the "Gentile dog"? I do not believe that any of us, including myself, would have taken the side of the "Gentile dog." We surely would have all joined the priests who were in the holy temple with the sacred Scriptures. In the holy city everything was proper and nice, but in the Gentile world there was a Gentile woman who was considered as a dog. Would you join yourself to such a person? Where was God at that time? God was with a Gentile dog. Strictly speaking, the Lord Jesus was God Himself, and He was with that woman. He was the very God whom the religious people were worshipping in the temple. However, God was not with them in the temple. He was far away in a place which was considered unworthy of Him.
The principle is exactly the same today. Christianity as a religion worships God according to the Bible, but I am afraid that God is not there. Where is God? God is wherever the Lord Jesus is. And the Lord does not care about the outward situation. He only cares for one thing—that people will take Him into them. This is completely different from religion. The Lord did not tell the woman of Canaan, "You must learn how to worship Me. I am the very God of Israel." The Lord did not say such a thing, and He did not speak about anything religious. He did not talk about worshipping God. Instead, He talked about bread and about dogs. Isn't this strange? Once again we see that Christ is versus religion.
If we would follow the Lord Jesus during the period of His rejection, we must realize five basic things: Christ, the church, Satan, the cross, and the self including the soulish life. These are five basic matters which we all must know while we are following Him in the kingdom. All of the kingdom people must be familiar with them. If you remain in the "holy place," these five items cannot be revealed to you. You must leave Jerusalem, the holy place, and go to Caesarea Philippi. You must leave that religious territory in order to see a vision of these five things.