Colossians Part 5

Sin stinkified your body and your body ceased to be a body and became flesh, and sin indwelled your body and declared war on your soul. And the fallen man became body, soul, and almost not a spirit. So, he moved from soul, body, and spirit to flesh, soul, and almost no spirit.

When Jesus Christ resurrects your spirit, there for an instant, you have a living spirit like Adam, and that’s wonderful, because before that, your spirit was dead to the Lord. Jesus Christ comes and resurrects your spirit, and just for a moment, that’s the wonder, how short it is. I don’t know the wonder of having your spirit back, but then He does something very glorious at the same time. He comes and brings His life into your spirit. He brings His spirit into your spirit and puts divine nature into your spirit. He puts divine life into your spirit. He puts the Father into your spirit. He puts the highest life there is in your spirit, and you literally take on another life form. Are you following all that? And so suddenly, thank God you are somewhat spirit, soul, and body, which is the order He was always after.

I want you to know something, brothers and sisters. That’s going to get better. But because the highest life dwells in your spirit, we have to say that your spirit is first in the eyes of God. Your soul is second. When He resurrected your spirit from the dead, He saved your soul and cleansed it. And then what did He do with the flesh? He looked at it and said, “Hmm, forget it.” And therefore, he destroyed it.

Now you are not aware that He destroyed your flesh, but He did. This too is one of those things that is not confined to space and time, but from the moment Jesus Christ died on the cross, your flesh has been done away with. Your flesh, for a definition, is your body plus sin, therefore, corrupted. And there is literally something living inside your body: it’s sin, and he’s in there. A form of something that can indwell you is in your body.

And Paul speaks that many, many times about how it is your body, your members that sin, get really sick sometimes. We’re talking deathly ill and trying to sin. You just can’t do it, you can’t come up with, you can’t get angry, you can’t lust, you can’t desire. Your body is so close to dying, you can’t sin. You’d take a great effort, which you don’t have to sin. And it’s not emitting from your soul; it’s emitting from your flesh.

Here’s your flesh. Here’s your spirit and here’s your soul. This is you, the soul is really, truly you. What’s the flesh doing? Well, it’s not trying to fight with the spirit. It’s fighting to take over the soul. Okay. All right. Now, you’re right. But what’s the spirit doing? Spirit is doing the same thing. The battleground is your soul.

Well, before you were Christian, there was no spirit worth talking about over there to do any fighting for your soul. So, who was winning? The flesh. Well, Gene, I wasn’t a bad person. That really means the flesh had you. Did you follow that? All right, Gene, I was a terrible person. Well, the flesh had you, too. It doesn’t matter what it is. The flesh was winning. Now, the spirit and the flesh fight over the soul. If you take a knife and cut off a piece of flesh, that’s a different kind of flesh; that’s the skin. I said there were four kinds. Does that in any way help you in your battle with the flesh? It is of no consequence whatsoever, and that’s not all. It’s not a real circumcision; it’s a picture of circumcision. There is a real circumcision, and every person in this room has had a real circumcision. Jesus Christ has crucified your flesh. Not a fleshly piece of skin, but your flesh. And having circumcision that is nothing but a picture of real circumcision in no way edifies, no way helps you in the war, in the indulgence of the flesh. Did you follow all that? Okay.

So, we have been warned about the Greek. Now we have been warned about the Jew. But Paul will not give up this subject. He’s going to go on, come back to Christ again for a moment, and then he’s going to remember these things again. Alright, are you with me?

Right above the middle of the page, you were circumcised in Christ. It had nothing to do with the cutting away of skin, but by the taking away of the real flesh. You have all been plunged into Christ. Christ is a watery grave here. He is a coffin, He is a grave, He’s in the grave, and you were not put in the grave with Him, you were plunged into Him while He was dead. You were buried, immersed into Christ, and when you were buried in Christ, immersed into Him, you know what that means? That means that everything surrounding you was Christ when He was dead, and you were dead. Everything touching you was Christ. Now then, you have not only been buried with Him and immersed in Him when He’s dead, you’ve also been buried in Him. Immersed in Him when He rose. When He died, you died. You were immersed inside of Christ. When He came alive, did you stay dead?

Did you learn in physics that all things tend to come to the same temperature that surrounds them? You didn’t learn that. You did. Does anybody remember this? It’s the law of physics. And you put spinach on the table, and you put ice cream on the table, and one’s smoking hot, and one is really cold. You come back 30 minutes later and they’re the same temperature. They have yielded to their surroundings. Brothers and sisters, despite all your good efforts, you were dead in Jesus Christ. You were in the grave with Him; everything around you is Christ. And then God awoke His Son, and despite all you could do, He awakened you too. And you were immersed and surrounded by life, and just as you had been immersed and surrounded by death, now you’re immersed and surrounded by life. And when He rose from the dead, so did you. And the flesh stayed in the grave.

That’s who we are! That’s who we are! Amen! That’s who we are, that’s who we are. We are those who are in Christ, risen from the dead. Now, this just blows the entire issue of circumcision higher than a kite. Now isn’t this neat? Isn’t this wonderful? We will continue here. Now, we move into the after the resurrection, and we move into aspects of your salvation. You also were raised with Christ. All of you were raised with Christ through faith by the working of God while you were still in your trespasses and dead in your trespasses and in the uncircumcision of your flesh. It was at that time that Christ raised you up from the dead and made you alive together with Him. That would really be well translated and made you alive and one with Him. You are in Him, and He has raised you from the dead.

And together with Him, He did this by having forgiven you of all your trespasses, He did that on the cross. Do you think you have followed me up until now? I don’t think you heard a word I’ve said. Why? Was that you, Robert? Did you say that? Robert, you get the big cigar.