The Following Message Has Been Transcribed For
Clarity, Continuity Of Thought, And Punctuation By
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COLOSSIANS, CHAPTER 2
Verse 1. For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh.
The Greek word translated conflict here, when I looked it up in the Greek, is talking about a contest. The Interlinear says struggle, but the Greek talks about a contest. I want to suggest to you that Paul is wrestling with their carnal mind. He is talking to the Colossians here and he is telling them that he is having some fight with their carnal minds. I want to tell you that that fight is sometimes in the natural. Sometimes it breaks out into a verbal argument or verbal rebuke, but lots of times it's in the spirit. If you're a minister of this type that Paul was, it can come at a time when the person is not even within miles of you. It's a spiritual thing when the attack comes upon you. Paul is saying that he is wrestling with the carnal minds of these people. Why? Because the people at Colossia and the ministers at this level, whoever they are, and the people they are ministering to, are frequently not aware enough of the workings of their carnal mind to come against their own carnal mind. Their carnal mind is trying to hurt Paul badly enough to back off from these people and stop ministering to them. Why? Because it knows that if Paul's ministry to the carnal minds of these people is successful, it will mean the death of their carnal mind.
That carnal mind is attacking Paul, as well as the person, except that if the person is not that spiritually developed, they are not aware that even their own carnal mind is attacking them. As you become more and more spiritual, you will become aware of the spiritual warfare that never ceases. It never ceases. The spiritual world is very real, but you have to become sensitized to it. The more time you spend in the spirit, the more sensitized you are to it. I had an awesome experience several months ago. I had been studying all day, and I usually get very spiritual when I study, especially when I am in prophesy, and I was in the Book of Daniel. I was alone in this house and alone in that office, and all of a sudden I had an awareness that someone was watching me. I looked up and I sought the Lord, and it was somebody's carnal mind, and they were looking at me. They didn't like me because I was shaking the boat. I know who it was too. I was shaking the boat of the vessel that they lived in. I was shaking that boat enough for that Serpent to stir up in the sea and take one good look at me. No one had ever touched me to that measure before. This was a very defensed mind. There I am, working late, around 2:00 A.M. I almost got scared, except that I rebuked it. I said, you're not going to scare me. That is pretty awesome to see someone, an evil thing looking at me. I want to tell you, brethren, that the carnal minds of men laugh at the Christian. They don't even give a second look at the average Christian. When a son of God comes along, and starts jostling their boat, they are going to say, who are you? Where did you come from? I have to touch them.
Paul is wrestling with the carnal minds of the Colossians, and they are giving him one run for his money. He is not keeping it a secret from them either. He says, I want you to know the trouble I have on your behalf because I've come to minister Christ to you, and I've come to impregnate you with Christ. I want you to know that I am in some battle for your soul, also for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh. Brethren, Paul was a father in God. That means he came sowing the seed of Christ. He came as the sperm or as an eagle that carried the sperm of the Lord Jesus Christ. He had the ability to impregnate men with the life of Christ. Anyone that has this high office, will not only impregnate you, but will wrestle with your carnal mind until you are strong enough to wrestle with them yourself. Paul didn't make any secret about it. He wasn't behind some closed door binding and losing. Why? Because he wants the people to know that this situation exists. Why? So that they could start fighting themselves. I just have a note on Laodicea. This is one of the churches mentioned in the Book of Revelation, and it is cited by the Lord Jesus for being lukewarm, blind, and uncovered. Supposedly, it is a very carnal church, a very intellectual church, a very prosperous and wealthy church. It's a lot like our denominations today. Unger's Bible Dictionary says that they were so prosperous they pretty much didn't need Jesus in the church. They had so many rituals, and they felt so good by their rituals that they really didn't need the Lord. Unger's Bible Dictionary goes on to say that this church was known for her false doctrine. We know the more carnal a church is, the more false doctrine they have. We see it all through the denominations today. They are just locking Jesus out of the church, and they are preaching all kinds of things like homosexuality and abortion is okay. All kinds of compromise is going on in the church today.
Verse 2. That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.
Now he is wrestling with their carnal minds so that their hearts might be comforted. Your carnal mind is your heart. Your carnal mind is your heart, but those of us that are in Christ, have two hearts. What Paul is saying is that he is wrestling with your carnal mind so that the heart of Christ, in you, can be comforted. That's what he is saying. He is wrestling with your carnal mind so that the mind of Christ, in you, or the heart of Christ in you can be comforted so that it can be protected, so that it can grow up, until it is strong enough to do the job itself. That their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love. Now that word, love, is the agape love. How are we knit together? How is the only way that we are knit together? Where is the unity in Christ? In what part of our spiritual being? What part of the mind and which mind? The mind of Christ, and more specifically, which part of the mind of Christ? It is the human spirit, that part of our human spirit that is in Christ. We are joined together in Christ, more specifically through the human spirit. There is never any union in the carnal mind. Everybody comes to blows sooner or later. We are a fallen creation, brethren. No matter how hard we are trying, something goes awry. The knitting together or the building or the joining of the body of Christ is through the joining of our human spirit that is entering into Christ.
He is struggling with our carnal mind so that the heart of Christ, in us, can be conquered or assisted. Have you ever heard the expression, you shall not give aid or comfort to the enemy? It doesn't mean that you are going to comb their hair. You are not going to assist them in their military escapades. He is wrestling with our carnal minds so that the mind of Christ can be aided in this battle. Through that protection that he is giving the carnal mind, that we should be knit together in our human spirit in the agape love, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. The agape love is only in Christ, so he says that our human spirit are knit together in the agape love, which is Christ. Unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, that we should be joined together, brethren, in the agape love, which is in Christ, and partake of all of the riches which fully assure us of the understanding. What riches? The riches that are in Christ, brethren. We should be knit together in Christ, in which is found the riches of His Spirit, which fully assures us of the understanding of the acknowledgment of the mystery of Christ.
Let me take that again. The translation isn't too good. We are going to be knit together in the agape love or the mind of Christ, so that all the riches of His Spirit is available to us, which riches fully assure us and help us to understand the acknowledgment of the mystery of God. That we should be fully assured and understand this acknowledgment, this recognition of the mystery, or the hidden truth of God, which is in Christ. One more time. We are knit together in Christ, and in Him is the richness of His Spirit, which provides us with full assurance and understanding of the acknowledgment or the recognition that the mystery of God, which is the Father and of Christ, is available to us in His heart. We are knitted together in Christ, in which is the full assurance which comes when we understand that the mystery of God is acknowledged to us by God, who is the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son. He has acknowledged us, in Christ. In Christ, He has acknowledged us.
Verse 3. In whom (speaking about Christ now) are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
Brethren, wisdom is speaking about spiritual insight, and knowledge is speaking about information that can be learned. There are certain things in Christ that can be learned. We have a lot of basic principles. We have history books. There is much that can be learned. There are certain things that can only be understood by the wisdom or the mind of God. Let me take this one more time. In Christ, we have the wealth of His Spirit, in which resides the full assurance and understanding that the mystery of God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, has acknowledged us. We have been acknowledged by them, and that this is the mystery of God. In them, the Father and the Son, are hidden all of the treasures of the wisdom and knowledge of the spiritual realm of God.
Verse 4. And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with enticing words.
This I say, lest any man should deceive you. My margin says deceive, not beguile, with enticing words. What is he saying? He is saying that there are men out there, there are preachers out there that are preaching out of a wisdom that is not out of Christ. It is a knowledge that is not out of Christ, but they sound good. They have charisma. Either they have charisma and they sound good or you like what they are telling you or both. He said do not be deceived by these men.
Verse 5. For though I be absent in the flesh, yet am I with you in the spirit.
Paul said it is possible to be absent in the flesh and to be with you in the spirit. Brethren, I have experienced this. I have had people as real to me as if they were standing next to me, and they are far distances away. I've had conversations with them. The Lord would bring me into a conversation with them. It's been proven to me that they received the wisdom that I impart to them. I've experienced spiritual ministry. I will talk to them, I will rebuke them, and sometimes I shake my finger at them. Then when I see them, perhaps in a day or a couple of months, and I will know that they received the wisdom. Now I do not do this of myself. This is done only in Christ. It is a spiritual gift, brethren, of the imparted anointing. Paul was not present in the flesh, but he was always with them in the spirit. Why? Because God put them in his heart. When God joins a disciple to your heart, no matter how far your body might travel, you will remain joined or knit together in that spirit until such time as God separates you.
Joying and beholding your order, rejoicing and looking at your order. I want to suggest to you that this is speaking about the fact that these people have Christ as their head. Now we know that when you are in an ungodly order, Satan is your head and underneath him the carnal mind. I want to suggest to you that Paul is rejoicing because he is acknowledging that Christ is the head of these people. I want to remind you that in this hour, in this day and age, Christ cannot be your head without a warfare. If you are not willing to fight the warfare, the carnal mind or Satan through his carnal mind is your head. If you are not doing anything, if you are just rolling through, the carnal mind is your head. If you're not in a warfare every day, it is not likely that Christ is your head. Paul is saying that he is rejoicing as he beholds their order, that Christ is their head, and the steadfastness of your faith in Christ. He is rejoicing as he beholds that Christ is your head, and that they are steadfast in the determination that Christ should be their head. They are fighting this battle every second, every minute, every day, every week of every month, of every year, and he is rejoicing that he is not wrestling with their carnal minds in vain. He is delighted to see fruit coming forth in the people that he is fighting for.
Verse 6. As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him.
Let me remind you that Christ Jesus is the second generation of Christ, and it is talking about the Christ who is appearing as the conscious mind or the new heart of the believer. He says, as you have received Christ Jesus, the Lord, so walk ye in him. Brethren, that's what I have been preaching here for years, only I use different words. Paul is saying, you have got to live out of Him, if you have received Him, if you have conceived Him. It does not say the Holy Spirit, brethren. Now come on, you have got to start coming out of this baby stuff. It does not say the Holy Spirit. It says, as ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord. You have got to be pregnant. To have this scripture apply to you, you must be pregnant with Christ. Brethren, if you are pregnant with Him, walk in Him. Paul said, if you have received Him, you should walk in Him. What is the reverse inference? If you have received Him, you may not be walking in Him. Amen. It is possible to not be walking in Him. If it was not possible, why would Paul be telling you to walk in Him? Amen.
Verse 7. Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught.
Rooted in Him, conception, and built up in Him. Here we see the evolution of His life. It starts as the conception of the mustard seed. First, you are rooted, you are conceived, and you are built up in Him. He grows in you, He increases, and He evolves in you. Established in the faith. The word established means testing. Paul is showing us a sequence here. First you conceive Him, then He grows up in you, and then comes the testing. Amen. Testing in the faith. Once Christ is being formed in us, He becomes our faith. Who wants the faith of our carnal mind? The faith of our carnal mind does not get us very much. First He is conceived, then He grows up, and then our faith, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory, is tested or shall be tested. As ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. This word, abounding, means to go beyond. What am I suggesting to you this means? It says He is conceived in you, He grows up in you, you are tested in the faith of Him that is in you, and then you go beyond, and you overflow, which is the same thing as saying to be filled up with the fullness and overflowing with God. It's full stature. Go through your testings, be conceived, and let Him grow up in you. Go through the testings of the Christ in you, which is described by the parable of the soil. You will see all the things that could go wrong if you read the parable of the soils, and then go into full stature with thanksgiving. You never heard Colossians preached like this, did you? This is a very exciting message tonight.
Verse 8. Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.
Paul is warning you, do not let any natural man deceive you. Do not be one of those Christians that takes this scripture as an opportunity to say they can only hear from the Spirit of God, and they cannot learn anything from another man. You are deceived by the pride of your own mind. God teaches through men. God ministers through men. What this scripture and other scriptures like it means do not take ministry from the carnal mind of a man. Do not take ministry from someone's carnal mind. Do not take counsel, do not take teaching, do not take spiritual ministry from the carnal mind of a man. If it is Christ in a man, you can receive it. If you lock yourself in a corner, and you say you can only learn from the Christ within you, you are severely denying yourself the blessings that are available to you in Christ, and it does not glorify God. Sooner or later, you will have to be judged for your pride because that is what it is. It is pride. Glory to God.
Verse 8. Beware lest any carnal man spoil you through philosophy.
That word, spoil, in my margin says rob you. Rob you of what? Rob you of the true teachings of Christ or the true ministry of Christ through philosophy, through intellectualism, through intellectual understanding of this word, through the letter of the word that would steal the move of the Spirit in your life. Do not let any carnal man steal your inheritance in Christ through an intellectualized teaching or ministry, and with vain deceit. The word vain means without truth. The word, deceit, means seduction. Do not let them steal your inheritance through intellectualism or through seduction, which lie to you. Lie to you about what? Lie to you about what you will be able to attain through implementing these philosophies. Do not believe the lies. Do not believe the seduction which are without truth because you like the promise; no judgment, no pain.
Some people teach it is alright to fornicate. We have one preacher on this TV who sits there, boldly smoking a cigar as he preaches. He is still on and has got a lot of money. All kinds of people sending him money, every dime they can spare. He is a millionaire, and sits there smoking a cigar, saying it is alright to fornicate. Showing his race horses, he goes on and on. He has got thousands of people, their own building, their own satellite. There is no problem raising up people to fund him, and he preaches the word of God.
I will tell you something even funnier. When Jimmy Swaggert had his crisis, there was not one preacher on that TV that preached the truth of that situation. God spoke through this man. He was the only one who spoke the truth about the situation. You cannot put God in a box. You have got to hear the word of God wherever it comes from. I want to tell you, if God has something to say to His people, and He cannot get a preacher to say it, He will get a non preacher to say it. He will get somebody to say it. Do not let any natural man rob you of your inheritance through intellectual teaching of the Scripture, and through seductions which are not true, which are after the tradition of men. Seductions which are not true, but are after the traditions of men.
Brethren, you are not saved because you have received Communion or Confirmation. You are not saved. You are not saved because you have gone to Confession. It is a tradition of men. Do not let your inheritance in Christ be stolen from you because you have believed a tradition of men. Only the truth of God can save your soul. Something that is not true, something that is a tradition of men, may give you comfort for the moment. It may make you feel clean. It may give you an emotional release, but it will not give you eternal life. Do not believe the seduction, and do not believe the lie. Only the very person of the resurrected Christ, growing in your heart, will give you eternal life. I am not talking about the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the male seed, and He is sent to bring forth Christ. He must be born in you, brethren. You shall be saved in child bearing, brethren. You must have the baby if you want eternal life.
After the rudiments of the world and not after Christ. This word, rudiments, says in my margin that it means principles. I looked it up in the Greek and it means the first in rank, he rudiments of the world. He is talking about the carnal minds of men, which in this hour are in first place. All you pharisees who are screaming and yelling and shutting off the tape, you miss out when the carnal mind is in first place, brethren. If God were to wipe him out tonight, we would all die because Christ is not mature enough in us to sustain our bodies. I tell you the truth. The carnal mind is founding this whole world system in this hour. Now we are involved in an evolution of the life of Christ. It is not going to stay that way. He is coming forth. The Lord Jesus Christ is coming forth. Shortly He will appear, and He is going to switch us all over from that foundation or power base of the carnal mind on to His power base. When we are safely rooted in Him, He will destroy the rudiments and the principalities which sustain and have incarnated this world. Oh, they are screaming, I can hear them saying I'm in the image of Christ. No, you are not. You are not. It is a lie. It is false teaching. Alleluia.
Can you just imagine Noah preaching for a hundred and twenty years to a world that had never seen rain. He was saying it is going to rain, and if you do not build an ark, you are going to die. They threw him out, saying he's a false teacher. Brethren, if you do not get that ark growing inside of you, when it starts to rain, you are going to die because the rain is going to wipe out this whole world system, including your carnal mind which is sustaining your life. It is going to rain and rain like you never saw before. It is going to be a spiritual rain. It is going to be something that has never happened before. Jesus said the world has never seen a tribulation like this, and it will never see it again. We will see how many men make it to the other side of the flood. Alleluia. Beware, lest any man steal from you your inheritance in Christ because of intellectualism and seduction, seducing lies which are not true, after the tradition of men. It is what man has made up salvation to be, after the rudiments of this world, after that which is being taught by the principalities of this world, and not by what Christ is teaching.
Verse 9. For in him, in Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
In Christ, dwelleth all of the fullness of the Godhead in a bodily shape, in a bodily shape. The glorified Christ, brethren, is a man, but He is a different kind of man than we are. He is a glorified man. He is a spiritual being of a higher order than we are, but He is very much a man. He is different than a spirit, which is vaporous and has no form or shape. The glorified Christ has form and shape and substance, and He is a man. What Paul is saying is beware lest any man rob your inheritance. Take your teaching from the bodily form of Christ. Take your teaching from the man which is Christ. I repeat this to you again, do not fall prey to this lie, that is spread throughout the kingdom church today, that has got pride filled people locked in corners of their houses, saying all I have to do is read newsletters and listen to a tape here and there. I do not have to belong to a local fellowship. I do not have to learn how to submit. I do not have to take correction. I do not have to learn how to work out my problems with other people. I do not have to learn to say I am sorry and I made a mistake. I do not have to learn how to suffer the wrong. I am going to sit back in the corner of my house and hear from the Christ in my own mind. It is a lie.
Verse 10. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.
This is not a very good translation. Let me try and give this to you. What it is really saying, if you study it in the Greek, and ye are complete. That word complete means to be filled up. Ye are filled up, it is saying, because you are in the one who has been filled. You are in him, the one having been filled. Jesus is the one that was filled up with all the fullness of God, and because you are in Him, you too, are all filled up. In Adam, all died, and in Him, all are made alive. Levi paid tithes in the loins of Abraham because Christ was all filled up with the fullness of God. The church stumbles over this. They think they have all the fullness of God now, but what it is saying is you now have this inheritance, you now have this inheritance because He has it, it is yours. It has to be made real to you. You could be the beneficiary of a Trust, but it has to become a part of your life. You have to start getting the benefits from it. There are all kinds of rules and regulations. God help us. There is a whole church world full of people running around saying they have got something. If they would just open up their eyes they would know that they did not have it. They are in total fantasy.
And ye are complete in him and you are in Him, the one having been filled. You are in the one who has been filled, which is the head of all principalities and power. Principality, talking about the principal elements, that which was from the beginning. I want to tell you that the principalities of this world system are Satan and Eve. They are at the foundation of this world system. They are the building blocks of this world system. Jesus is the invading force. Satan stole the authority in the creation to reproduce. He brought forth his bastard offspring, the carnal mind. The principalities are Satan and Eve, and the power, which means mental strength, mental ability, and liberty in that mental power. That is the carnal mind. It is saying that Jesus is the one who is the head of Satan, Eve and the carnal mind. The man has returned to His house, and the woman does not like it. She wants to rule, but whether she likes it or not, whether she accepts it or not, whether she is living it or not, Jesus is the head of all principalities and power. Do not be deceived because He is not putting you in your place at the moment that you transgress. Do not be deceived because He is the head and He will get around to you sooner or later. You would do better to start working on it now and judge yourself, lest you be whipped real hard. I'm telling you the truth. I tell you the truth, brethren. Repent !!! Alleluia.
Verse 11. In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.
Also again, we are talking about Christ. You are in the one who is all filled up with the Godhead, so you have access to the fullness of God. Also He is the one who was circumcised, so in Him you have the ability to be circumcised. Brethren, we have done a lot of teaching here about the circumcision of Christ in you. Christ in you is your male organ. We are talking spiritually now, if this is the first tape that you are hearing. If you do not have a male sexual organ, in the realm of the spirit, that makes you a woman. Christ is your male sexual organ. When you have Christ, it makes you a man. You cannot be circumcised if you do not have a male sexual organ. I just heard in the spirit, well, they circumcise women in Africa. Well, let me tell you this. The true circumcision or the circumcision of the scripture is of the flesh covering that covers the male organ. The circumcision in Africa is nothing that was ever ordained of God, and it is not a true circumcision in that it is not the cutting off of a piece of flesh that covers over the sex organ. They call it circumcision, but it is really not. The true circumcision is the cutting away of the flesh covering that covers your male organ. You cannot be circumcised if you are not a man. In Christ, you cannot be circumcised if you are not a man. If you have just the Holy Spirit, you are not going to be circumcised. You have got to have Christ formed in you. Is everybody okay?
We are talking about Christ. In Christ, the one in Christ, also ye are circumcised. You have access to circumcision because Christ is in you. Without Christ you do not have any access to circumcision. Remember the seed of God is injected into your carnal mind, and your carnal mind is the spiritual womb that Christ starts to be formed in. As he grows up, the carnal mind becomes the covering. The Scripture likens the carnal mind to the grape skin, and Christ is the fruit of the grape. That grape skin, that sheath, or that placenta that covers the baby. I am sorry, it is not a placenta, it is an embryotic sack that covers the baby. In utero it has got to come out, it has got to come off. It has got to come off. In accordance with the covenant that God has made with His people, it has got to come off. Paul is saying that if you have Christ, you know you are circumcised in Him, with the circumcision made without hands.
Let me remind you of the circumcision made without hands. I do not hear much teaching about it. I looked up the word circumcision in the Concordance and there really is not anything explaining what it is in the first glance at the scripture. It just has come forth in the deep teaching that the Lord has brought forth here. The circumcision without hands is the piercing through of the Christ, which is being formed underneath the carnal mind, piercing through the carnal mind which covers it, and forcing the carnal mind to the inside. In the natural, when a man is circumcised, the foreskin is discarded, but in the realm of the spirit, it is not discarded. It is forced inward. Christ, who is underneath the foreskin becomes outside and becomes predominant. That is the circumcision without hands. It is not done by man. Paul is saying, if Christ is being formed in you, you have access to the circumcision, because there is no circumcision if there is no male organ. God help us.
Verse 11. In whom ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands.
Here he tells you what it is. In putting off the body of the sins of the flesh. Now the body of the sins of the flesh. We have had a lot of teaching here that this Greek word translated body is not talking about the physical body. It is the Greek word that does not mean physical body. It is the Greek word that means spiritual body, and it is talking about our fallen Adamic soul which is covering over the Christ in us. It must be put off. It must be ceased from covering the Christ in us. Now I have heard a lot of preaching that says put off the old man, and die to the flesh. They talk a really good game, but how do you do it, brethren? How do you do it? I want to declare to you that it is Christ that is circumcising Himself. We cannot do it. All we can do is be as faithful as we can be by attending meetings, read the Bible, and serve Him in the ways that He shows us. The work is His. The work is His. The work is His. You do the best you can with what He has given you, with what He has shown you. You pray, you tell Him you want everything He has to offer, and He must come and do it for you. You must wait in faithfulness. Sometimes, it is with much frustration until the time comes for the increase.
Just for the record, in case someone is hearing me preach for the first time, let me give you the exact wording here. The putting off of the body of sins of the flesh, is talking about the soul that is filled with sin. The word body here, really means soul. The word body, which is the hidden way of saying soul, is modified by sins of the flesh.
We know it is not the soul of Christ. Why? Because the soul of Christ is not filled with the sins of the flesh. What is the flesh? It is the carnal mind. Anybody not following me? The circumcision which is made without hands is the putting off of the soul which is filled with the sins of the carnal mind. You cannot do it by saying it, because when it is put off, brethren, you are going to be without sin. It is His work in you.
Verse 11. In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.
That which covers Christ, in you, must be put off or cut away. The Lord has shown us where Jesus Christ of Nazareth experienced this in the garden of Gethsemane. We looked up every word in the Greek, and we found out that when He sweat blood, He was not so nervous and distressed about being crucified that He was begging God to get Him out of it. He was asking the Lord for permission, if it were possible, to circumcise His soul. He was asking the Lord for permission to pass into the second stage of resurrection. I want to suggest to you that He had not passed into the second stage of resurrection before the crucifixion. I am not truly convinced that He could have slain the enmity in His flesh while He hung on the cross. We found this in the Greek. Even knowing this, that the crucifixion could have been in vain, He still humbly asked the Lord, just hours before the crucifixion, is it possible to circumcise His Adamic soul, and the Lord said yes. The Scripture says He did so with a great agony of mind, with great mental effort. To be honest with you, I really do not understand it, but of course I am not in the first stage of resurrection yet. Hopefully, when I am in the first stage of resurrection, I will understand it. Let us just get first things done first here. We are having enough trouble standing up in full stature here, amen.
Verse 12. And also in Christ, we are buried with him in baptism, wherein you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who has raised him from the dead.
We are buried with him in baptism. Brethren, baptism is an unmodified word. We do not know what baptism the Scripture is talking about. To assume that the Scripture is speaking about water baptism is naive. There is only one baptism, brethren, and that is the baptism into Christ. It occurs in many stages, starting with water baptism. I want to suggest to you, that of all of the stages of baptism, water baptism is the only one that has no spirituality to it at all. It is a carnal act of your will, which engages the covenant that Jesus is offering to you. He said, if you do your kindergarten stuff, I will do the rest. I suggest to you the Scripture is not speaking about water baptism. What does baptism mean? Baptism means to go down under the water. I want to suggest to you that the real us is Christ, and that when Christ begins to be formed in us under the carnal mind, under the fallen Adamic soul, we are buried with Christ. That part of our human spirit, which is in Christ, is buried underneath the foreskin of the carnal mind. He has buried us in the baptism of the waters of the carnal mind with Him, with that seed of Christ that has been imparted to us. We, our human spirit, is buried with the seed of Christ, that has been imparted to us under the waters of our fallen Adamic soul. Is everybody with me?
Our true reality is buried with Christ underneath our carnal mind, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God. That Greek word, translated operation, is Strong's #1753. It is used only of super human power, according to Thayer. You have penetrated into the Christ, and therefore are together, buried with Him under the baptism of your fallen Adamic soul. You are also risen with Him through the faith of the supernatural power of God. Now, brethren, the faith of the supernatural power of God is Christ. The faith, which expresses the supernatural power of God is Christ. If your human spirit is penetrated with Him, you are down there dwelling with Him. If your human spirit has reached out from your fallen Adamic soul, and joined Him, you are buried with Him in baptism, and you are also risen with Him through the supernatural. Let me give you the exact phrase here. You are risen with Him, through the faith (Christ), which is the supernatural operation of God, who has raised Him from the dead. It does not mean that you are already raised from the dead, brethren. Let us not be ridiculous. You are not raised from the dead. You are as carnal as everybody out in the world. What this means is the potential to rise from the dead is in you because life is in you.
There is not a question of a doubt that He is full well able to rise from the dead in you. You are buried with Him underneath your fallen soul, where ye are also risen with Him, through faith or through Christ, who is the supernatural power of God the Father, who has raised Christ from the dead. He has already been raised from the dead. Brethren, that means that life is dwelling within you. Life is dwelling within you. I do not think I have made my point. Let me try it again. You are buried with Him under your fallen soul, well therefore you are also risen with Him because you are in Christ, and Christ has been raised from the dead. Brethren, it is what we have been teaching here. The resurrection of the dead is by penetrating into Christ. That is what this is saying. That is what this is saying. When the seed of Christ is implanted in you, and your human spirit starts to penetrate Him, you are baptized because you have gone down under the water of your own fallen soul, and He is already raised from the dead. Brethren, even though He is in your heart under your Adamic soul, He is alive. He has already been raised from the dead. Even though you are in there with Him, under your fallen Adamic soul, in this fallen body, by getting into Him you are raised from the dead.
Brethren, we are in the process of being raised from the dead. We must be or we could never be listening to this teaching. Our true reality, our human spirit, must be penetrating into Christ. We are being raised from the dead because life is within us, deep down in our belly. True life, eternal life is inside of us. It is not out there. It is not after your body dies. It is not on Mars. It is inside of you as if you swallowed a pill, and you have to penetrate into it. He is already raised from the dead. Life is within you. The hardest part is over. We just have to join with it. He did it. He did it. The Father raised Him from the dead, and He is inside of you. Now all you have to do is get inside of Him. Jesus!
Verse 13. And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all your trespasses.
And you being dead in your sins, what that means, brethren, is when we are living out of the carnal mind, which is filled with sin, we are dead. When we are living out of Christ, we are alive. Now the Scripture is not saying that your body is alive. Brethren, this body is dead. This is a great mystery. If this body were alive, and you cut the arm off, another arm would grow out. You can only kill something that is dead. Something that has the life of God in it, you cannot destroy by taking a slice out of it. You cannot destroy it. Does anyone not know what I am talking about? The only reason these bodies die is because our spirit is dead, and our soul is dead. When Paul says here, that you have been quickened together with him, it does not say your body, and it does not say your soul. I suggest to you it is speaking about your human spirit.
The resurrection of the dead is in three stages, spirit, soul and body. All you have to do is be honest with yourself, and you know that our bodies are still dead, and you know that our souls are still dead. Why? Because we still sin, and there is no sin in the life of Christ. There is only sin in the death of the carnal mind. We have been quickened together with Him, brethren, which is the beginning of the process which is raising us from the dead. You, being dead, is because you are living out of the body of your sin. Paul told you up above to put it off. He says put it off, circumcise your flesh. Do all these things. Then he says you have not done it. You are dead in your sins, and you are living out of your carnal mind, and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He just told you above how to do it, but now he is telling you that you did not do it. He is giving this instruction, that you should be circumcised, and that you are buried with Him in baptism, and all these wonderful things. Then he says, in verse 13, but you see it is not a reality for you. You have not put it off. You are dead in your sins. Why? Because you still sin, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, your carnal mind, is still covering over Christ in you, but He has quickened you together in your spirit. Having forgiven you, He had made you alive, together with Christ, in your spirit, which is touching Christ, having forgiven you all trespasses, having forgiven you all sin. This is how He is going to forgive you all sin.
We went over this in the Book of Ephesians. There is a big fantasy in the Church today about what forgiveness of sin is. Brethren, when God says I forgive you your sins, it has to be made a spiritual reality in your life. If you are dying from a dread disease, and the Lord says to you, by giving you a prophesy, that you are healed, that is wonderful to hear from God. Brethren, until it becomes a reality in your flesh, what good is it doing you? Likewise, when the Father says to you, your sins are forgiven, that forgiveness must produce a purging out of you of that which enables you to sin, and any fruit of that sin. You are not truly forgiven or that forgiveness has not been made real to you until you are incapable of committing that sin, and you have been purged of all the iniquity which has resulted from it. It is very nice, thank God, that He has forgiven us, brethren, so let us start doing our part. It includes confession, and repentance, and deliverance. The deliverance is not real for you until it has been made real to you. You are not raised from the dead until you stop dying.
Verse 14. Paul goes on to explain how this forgiveness of sin takes place. Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.
That Greek word translated blotting out means to obliterate or to erase by anointing or washing in every place. Can you see it? He has forgiven you all your trespasses by, verse 14, blotting out, washing you completely, brethren, in every place. The word also means to complete. I want to suggest to you, brethren, that the true sin is your carnal mind. Your carnal mind is sin. If you never do anything, if it were possible that you never thought a sinful thought, which I do not think is possible, just the fact that your carnal mind had not yet been brought into total submission to Christ to the point of its paralysis, you would be guilty of sin. This word, blotting out, means to complete. We are complete or we are all filled up when we are in Christ. What this means, brethren, is that the true forgiveness of sins is entering into Christ and living out of Him so completely that our carnal mind is totally paralyzed. That is what this scripture is saying.
Verse 14. Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances.
Handwriting means engraving and ordinances means law. I want to suggest to you, brethren, that Paul is very clearly speaking here about the engraving or the mark, which the law is dealing with. What is the mark that requires a law? The law is not for a righteous man. I suggest to you that he is talking about men that have the nature of Satan. He is talking about the men, which is everybody, whose soul is engraved with the nature of Satan and therefore need a law.
They therefore are subject to the law of law and love is Christ. He is blotting out the handwriting of ordinances, completely cleansing, filling up or completing the mark, which is the nature of Satan, that was against us. This Greek word translated against can also be translated upon us or throughout us. Brethren, the engraving of Satan's nature is throughout every cell of our being, physical and spiritual. His nature is in our human spirit, which is our spirituality, which brings forth witchcraft, and his nature is in our soul, which is the carnal mind, which was contrary to us. This word, contrary, can be translated adversary. Brethren, adversary is another name for Satan. He is the adversary or the accuser of the brethren. He is going to be washing and completing us in the areas where we are lacking. What are those areas? It is the areas in which we have the nature of Satan, which is throughout our being, which is an adversary to what his nature in our own being is an adversary to us.
When we did Daniel 7, we found that the principle parts of the living soul, when they rose up and broke the bones of Christ said, let us accuse, let us be the accuser of the brethren. This was what they said to one another, as the carnal mind came into formation. That nature, which is the accuser of the brethren is the nature of the carnal man. He is throughout every cell of our physical and spiritual being. It is our nature to be an accuser, to be a betrayer, to be disloyal. When you see qualities opposite to this in men, it is because they have been trained contrary to their nature. That is why, brethren, when you have children, you must train them up. You must paddle them when they demonstrate the reality of their true nature, which is Satan.
Verse 13. You who have been dead in your sins, because you have been living out of your carnal mind, and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him by erasing, completely washing, and filling up the emptiness of the nature which is subject to the law, which is throughout all of our being, which is an adversary to us, and he took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.
That phrase, out of the way, it says in the Interlinear, and he took it out of the midst of us. Brethren, He took the carnal mind out of the midst of us. He took the nature of Satan, which was upon Eve, and He took it out of the midst of us. He has done it by faith, brethren, and it must happen to you. It is very nice. He prophesied to me that He would heal me many years ago, and He is healing me very slowly. Fourteen years ago He promised me full healing. I am almost there, but I am not really there. I have struggled all these years. Brethren, it has to happen to you. It has to get from the realm of the spirit down into the realm of the soul, and it takes time. One day to the Lord is a thousand years to us. If His promise is made full to you, in one lifetime, you are a blessed person. Why? Because in many instances the promises of God are not realized until future generations. I tell you the truth. The blessings of God and the promises of God are frequently fulfilled in future generations. Why? Because it takes so long to get things from the realm of the spirit to the realm of the soul. I do not know why. If you have had a large measure of healing, both physically, emotionally, and spiritually, and your whole life is turned around in one lifetime, you are very very blessed.
I do not hear this preached, brethren. I want to tell you, the Lord has turned my whole life around. I am with the Lord for fifteen years. He has turned my whole life around. Although things are a hundred percent better, I look out to the horizon now and I see things working in my life that give me cause to expect even better and better and better things over the next fifteen years. If somebody had told me fifteen years ago that I would have to wait this long to see things just start to change, I would have been shocked. Well, they have been changing all along. That did not come out right. They start to change from the minute God makes you the promise, but depending on how troubled your life is, and my life was troubled, it has taken fifteen years for Him to neutralize the evil in my life. Now I see great promises coming, but no one told me it would take fifteen years. The Scripture says it, do not be weary in well doing, because you will reap in due season if you do not faint. Well, that does not sound like one year to me, but I never heard anybody preach it, brethren. They told me I was a king's kid, and I was suppose to be healed overnight, and if I was not, there was something wrong with my faith. If I needed prayer for the same thing more than once, I was reprobate.
He took it out of the midst of us, brethren, by nailing it to His cross. What is His cross? What is the cross of Christ? Yes, His carnal mind, His fallen Adamic soul that He inherited from His mother, that was under the complete authority of the Christ, and therefore incapable of sin. It was still very much alive. He took sin and the nature of Satan out of the midst of us by nailing that Satanic nature to Himself. If you look that phrase up in the Greek, brethren, the scripture says, and He nailed it to Himself. He nailed His Adamic nature, He nailed His carnal mind to His true self, which was Christ. This was and is the crucifixion of the world within the man or the crucifixion to the world of the man, and in the man, Jesus of Nazareth. Corporately, we stated that He is crucified to the world, meaning that the Christ within Paul, was crucified, nailed to, joined to the carnal mind within him. Brethren, Paul was in full stature. Jesus of Nazareth was in full stature, and the Christ within Him, was nailed to His cross, the carnal mind, which He inherited from His mother. His cross was His human personality. The cross, meaning that which was made out of wood, was His humanity. His cross was His humanity. His cross was His humanity, and He nailed the Satanic nature that He inherited from His mother, to the Christ in Him, that His humanity that was completely under the control of Christ was now slain. This is the slaying of the enmity, which was in the flesh that He inherited from His mother.
Brethren, do not tell me Jesus did not have a carnal mind. You cannot be a man without having a carnal mind. It is part of being human. In the fallen man, your carnal mind has authority. In the man that is in right standing with God, your carnal mind is in submission to the Christ in you, and not doing any damage. Part of your manhood is to have a carnal mind. Do not tell me that Jesus did not have a carnal mind, all you religious people out there. You are opposing yourself. You are enmities of God in your own mind, fighting against this glorious truth that the Lord would give you. He took it out of the midst of us, that nature of Satan, by nailing it. He was the nail. Christ is the nail, and He nailed it, He penetrated it, and killed the enmity in His flesh.
Verse 15. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.
Having spoiled principalities. This Greek word translated spoiled means to wholly put off from oneself. He obeyed the instruction in verse 11. He put off the body of the sins of the flesh. Only down in verse 15 it says He spoiled or put off the principalities and powers. Remember, the principalities are Satan and Eve and the powers are the carnal minds of men. He totally put off from Him the foundation of this world system, and He made a show of them openly. This made a show of them means disgraced. He disgraced them openly. That word, openly, means in public. Now brethren, how did the Lord Jesus Christ disgrace this world system in public? He disgraced them by showing them to be powerless. The grave could not hold Him, brethren. They could not kill Him. When men did everything to His body that should have killed any fallen man, the Father raised Him from the dead, and He did it publicly. He showed Himself to hundreds of people. He made an open show of Satan, Eve, and the carnal mind. He said you are defeated and your days are numbered. Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin. The Lord is not pleased with you and your days are numbered.
Verse 15. Having put off the powers and principalities, he made a shew of them publicly, triumphing over them in his cross.
This word, triumphing, means to gain ascendency through military strength or authority. Brethren, this tribulation, this warfare is going to cause Christ to prevail over your carnal mind. It is a military action. We have found many scriptures describing the strength of the carnal mind as a military strength. This tribulation or this warfare between Christ and the carnal mind is a military action. There is no way, if you are nice to your carnal mind or your lower self, that Christ will ascend. Brethren, Christ will ascend through the destruction of the body, of the sins of your flesh, which must violently and militaristically be put off. If you believe otherwise, you have received a lie that you are warned about in verse 6, the philosophy of vain deceit, after the traditions of the minds of men or the doctrines of men. He triumphed, militarily triumphed, over Satan, Eve and the carnal mind in His cross. Brethren, your victory over your enemy, over the enemy of your soul, will be through the crucifixion of it, which is the third stage of your resurrection. What He did in the man, Jesus of Nazareth, He will do in you.
Verse 16. Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect to a holy day, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days.
Let no man therefore judge you in meat or in drink, or in respect of a holiday, or of the new moon, or of the Sabbath days. This Greek word translated judged means separate you. He is saying, do not let any man separate you from the body of Christ. Brethren, we can separate people in our minds. Mind control is a very wicked thing. If someone makes a judgment about you, and separates you from the body of Christ, and makes a decision that you are not of God, that thought has power. It can damage you. It can hurt you. Brethren, I want to encourage you, all of you, to not draw conclusions about other people that are not substantiated. If it is somebody that you love, and you are trying to help them, go to them and say is this true about you? If it is, I want to work with you on it. Maybe the conclusion that you are drawing about somebody, to their mind, is not true. If you continue to believe the conclusion that you have drawn, you are sending curses against them. If you draw a conclusion about them having a particular problem, and it is not true, you have not analyzed it properly. They do not have this problem, and you build on this decision, and start to think about what is going to help them, and how are they going to get delivered from this problem, then you are praying this problem on them.
Does anyone not know what I am talking about? This is a very important point. We must take authority over our mind. Do not let any man separate you by the way he thinks because you do not give the meat offerings or the drink offerings or you do not celebrate Christmas or any of the other feast days. Do not let any man tell you that you are not a Christian. Rebuke him openly. Do it in as much love as you can do it, but rebuke him openly, brethren
Verse 17. These things are a shadow of things to come, but the body is of Christ.
These things, these rituals that we do, they are a shadow or a type of the things to come. Brethren, that includes the communion. I went to a service this morning in another church. What is happening in this church is very interesting. God is bringing them up, but they are all involved in a lot of very carnal things at the same time God is bringing them up. The assistant pastor prayed or read from the Bible before the communion, and he said, I want you to know that there is nothing magical in this little piece of bread or in this wine cup. He said all the right things, and then they formally lined up and took these beautiful shiny trays, and passed out all of the bread and the wine. Then everybody solemnly waited to eat together. Brethren, God has better things for you than this. Give up your doctrines of men, give up your rituals, and give all of your energy to move into the Spirit. You are suppose to be a spiritual people, brethren. All of these things, what you eat and what you drink, your grape juice and crackers, and all of your holidays and celebrations are just a shadow of the things to come, but the body is of Christ. That word body means soul, and it is of Christ. The soul is of Christ. The reality, the type and shadow of things is in the flesh, and it gratifies your fallen soul. It gratifies your fallen soul, but the true soul is of Christ. The true life of God is in Christ. Christ does not do these things, brethren.
I know when I first got the revelation that I was not to participate in this carnal ritual that the Church calls communion. I was in a church where there was a lot of ritual, and I spoke to the pastor about it, and he said to me that he had studied it from top to bottom, and he could not make a decision. I found out the truth of the matter, that this man had borne a great deal of persecution over other things such as Christmas, deliverance, and many other things, and he was not prepared to face more persecution over this issue. He was not prepared to preach that this is not of God, this ritual that we do. He said to me, you are free to partake or not partake as you like in the service. The pharisees in the church rose up as one man and descended on the pastor. They wanted him to crucify me because they saw that I was not partaking in the communion, and he was forced to preach it. Alleluia.
Brethren, these things are frequently a comfort to your soul. During this period that preacher would not preach it. I am not criticizing him for it. I fully understand what he must have been going through with all the persecution. During this period that he would not preach it, for about three months he had just not had communion, without taking a stand. He told me that a man came to him and said, Pastor, why have we not had communion? I feel like I am dying spiritually. We have not had communion in three months. He had not had a little piece of bread and a cup of grape juice. The Pastor said, brother, if you are dying from that, you really have a problem. Brethren, the true life is in Christ. The reality behind these rituals is in the life of Christ. These religious rituals will satisfy your fallen soul. Do you hear what I am saying? These rituals satisfy your fallen soul.
Then the Lord sent me to another ministry, a much smaller ministry. I was there for six months. At that point, I did not even think twice about it, and I just passed the dishes along and did not partake of the communion. The woman, whose job it had been for years to prepare the communion, had one of the most violent manifestations I had ever seen. She was almost in hysteria. The pastor started preaching against me. All of a sudden, I realized every Sunday he was preaching against me. The preacher knew how important it was to take the communion. Finally, when I realized what was happening, and I saw the distress of this woman, I went up to him one day and I said, Pastor, I want to apologize to you if I have caused any kind of a disruption in your ministry. I would like you to understand that I do not partake of this form of communion. I explained to him why, and he received the teaching. The woman who was manifesting all over the services now found out that not only was I not taking communion, but the pastor was not going to have it anymore, and she had to get deliverance. Now check this out. I found out that the reason she was so upset was that this was her ministry. Preparing the communion was her ministry.
Brethren, remember the story about Diana of the Ephesians, and the riot that we read about in the Book of Acts? These Christians were preaching against idolatry. They were taking away the employment of multitudes of idol makers. Brethren, I took her job away, and her ministry, her job, meant more to her than the truth of the Spirit of Christ. Hear it brethren. All these things that the people do, brethren, they are a shadow of the things to come. They gratify your fallen soul, but the body, the true soul, is of Christ, and He does not do this stuff, brethren.
Verse 18. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshiping of angels, intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind.
These last few verses get a little difficult. I have some alternate translations for you. Let no man...and again no natural man, let no natural man beguile you. This word, beguile, the phrase beguile you of your reward, is one Greek word, and it means declare you unworthy of salvation. Brethren, do not let any natural man declare you unworthy of salvation. Do not let them tell you that you are in rebellion because you will not partake of their rituals, or you will not partake of their doctrine of demons, or because you will not obey their carnal commands. Do not let any man declare you unworthy of salvation. Why? Because the Scripture clearly states that you are worthy. You are worthy, not because of anything that you have done, but because of that which the Lord Jesus Christ has done on your behalf. You are worthy. He has died for you. That makes you worthy.
There is no sin that is not forgivable or pardonable. There is no trespass that cannot be corrected. There is no behavior that you are engaged in that is going to blot you out. It is between you and God. You are worthy. I know the Scripture says there are those who are going to be blotted out of the Book of Life, but not because you are not taking their communion. I am fully convinced that Scripture that is as severe as that, is speaking about people who knowingly, willfully, and wickedly, turn their back on the Lord and walk away. I want to declare to you that the love of the Father is in you. I have seen people where Christ aborted, but it is because God has come to them, and convicted them, and begged them to repent, and they just would not do it because of the wickedness of their heart. It is not because they would not take the communion, brethren. Even people like that, He will give them another chance.
Let no man declare you unworthy of salvation. If you wind up truly losing your salvation, it is not because you are not worthy of salvation. It is because of some kind of trespass that the Lord made this judgment to cast you out. The whole human race is worthy because we are made out of the substance of His life, and because He died for us. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility. This word, voluntary, means determined. Humility means a lowliness of mind. Let no man declare you unworthy of salvation, but be determined, despite what they are saying to you, to stay in a lowliness of mind, in a humble condition. Let me give you some more translations here before I go on. This word, worship, means external ceremonial worship. It means external ceremonial worship, and that is exactly what we are talking about, the communion and all other kinds of rituals in the Church, and angels. I do not know about you, brethren, but every time I ever read this scripture, I always thought it was talking about the worshiping of evil angels. Let me remind you, brethren, that angels are the Christ in you. Your spiritual man is an angel. Peter came knocking at the door after the disciples in the upper room prayed him out of jail. When they heard about it, they could not believe that he was out of jail. They said it must be his angel. It must be the Christ in him. It must be his spiritual man traveling in the spirit.
Please bear with me. This is a difficult verse. I am going to try and give it to you. Let no man declare you unworthy of salvation, but in lowliness of mind and deep humility with regard to this carnal ritual of men, who were really spiritual men. This is talking about men who have Christ being formed in them. You do not have a spiritual man if Christ is not being formed in you. In lowliness of mind, submit to these carnal rituals of men, who should know better, because Christ is being formed in them, who are intruding or pushing into, or asking questions of one which has already determined the answer. Paul is talking about carnal Christians who have Christ being formed in them, who are coming to you, you who are more mature, and challenging you on what you are doing, asking you questions, the answers of which they really are not interested in hearing.
We have had this right here in these meetings. People have come in asking me questions to try and snare me, not really listening to my answers. I have told them every time it happens to me, I will answer any honest question you put to me, but if you are asking me a question, not really listening to the answer, just hoping to prove me wrong, I have nothing to say to you. They do it in the Church, and that is what Paul is saying here. These spiritual men who have Christ being formed in them, that are still engaged in all this carnal stuff, when they come to you to challenge you by asking you questions that they have already answered for themselves, remain very humble before them. That is what he is saying here, because they are intruding into something that they really do not understand. This word, seen, of which he hath not seen, means they have not experienced it. Even though they have Christ being formed in them, they have not experienced Him the way you have. They do not understand and the reason that they do not understand, we are told here, is because they are vainly puffed up by their fleshly mind. Vainly, meaning without cause. They are puffed up without cause because they are thinking with the mind of the flesh, which is what? It is their carnal mind.
Paul is saying there are men in the Church that have conceived Christ, who are not living out of Him, who should be submitting themselves to you for teaching, that are coming to you all puffed up without cause because they are thinking with their carnal mind, and they are going to challenge you with questions about what you are doing, that they have already answered themselves. This is the scriptural definition of fool, brethren. They cannot even recognize their elders when they see them. Before we can teach them, brethren, the Lord is going to have to whack them a few times, and put them in their seats. We do not have that authority. God has to put them in a seat and make them stay there. Our authority is only to teach. It is not our authority to try and force them into the seats.
Alternate Translation, Verse 18. Let no man declare you unworthy of salvation, but determine to humble yourselves before the ceremonial rituals of those members of the body of Christ, who desire to prove you wrong by insincere questioning of what they do not understand, and who without cause, make themselves great in their own eyes because they think with their carnal minds.
Did anyone ever get anything like that at all out of this verse? Does anyone have any trouble receiving this translation? Let me read it again. Let no man declare you unworthy of salvation, but determine to humble yourselves before the ceremonial rituals of those members of the body of Christ, who desire to prove you wrong by insincere questioning of what they do not understand, and who without cause, make themselves great in their own eyes because they think with their carnal minds.
Verse 19. We are continuing along with that same idea. They are thinking with their carnal mind. And not holding the head from which all the body, by joints and bands having nourishment ministered and knit together increaseth with the increase of God.
Holding means to hold fast in order to not be sent away. And not holding the head. I want to suggest to you that Paul is saying that Christians that have conceived Christ, are doing these things because they are not holding fast to the Christ in them. I've used this expression. When you let go of Christ, what happens? You default to what? You default to your carnal mind. The carnal mind, brethren. They let go of Christ, and it is the carnal mind, but they think it is Christ. They are not doing everything they can to hold on to Him. Brethren, if you are not exercising every strength that you have, the chances are excellent that you are thinking and living out of your carnal mind. This is a warfare. This is not a joke. In every situation, you have got to pray through, no matter what your opinion is, no matter what is happening. You have to go before God and say, Father, if this is not your thought in the circumstance, please change my mind. I want to tell you something, when you are convinced that you are right, and it turns out that it is your carnal mind, you are going to be ashamed.
This is all happening to them because they have not held fast to Christ, the one from which all the body of Christ, by joints and bands having nourishment ministered. These last few verses are very tough. The word, joint, is Strong's #860 and it is talking about the place where two things are joined. I would like to suggest to you that human beings are joined in Christ in the spirit. The joints, therefore, are the human spirits of men. Yes, the human spirits of men. Next is joints and bands. I thought I looked up bands, but I did not write it down. I remember bands is talking about that which joins together. The joints is the place in which men are being joined, and the bands are that which is joining. The joints of the human spirit and the bands is talking about the life of Christ in you, and the life of Christ in me. Other than that is the sticky stuff. That is what is holding us together, because if we do not have Christ, our human spirit is just dead, and it is not going to join.
This is happening to them because they were not holding fast to Christ, and the body of Christ, which is suppose to be joined together in the spirit through Christ, which ministers. The word nourishment means supplied. It means that the strength to join together is supplied because Christ is in their human spirit, and knit together. When your human spirits are being joined, and Christ is present in your human spirit, and He is sticking you together, He is that which is holding it together, and knitting it together again in the agape love of the mind of Christ. This is a very difficult verse. Will increase, and the word increase means to grow or become greater with the increase of Christ. He is saying this is happening to you because you did not hold fast to Christ. If you had held fast to Him, it would help you to join together in the spirit because of His presence in your life which would cause you to increase and grow in Christ.
Alternate Translation, Verse 189: They are thinking with their carnal minds because of their failure to agree with Christ in their thoughts, the one, Christ, who supplies their human spirit with His own life, which is what they need to knit together with each other, and increase with the growth of God.
Paul is saying, that for these men in whom Christ is being formed, that are giving you such a hard time with your deep doctrine, it is because, even though Christ is being formed in them, they are not holding fast. They are not living out of Christ, because the power to be unified in the spirit, brethren, is in the love of God. It is in Christ. We are to be unified. We are to be unified. We are not to be divided. This is an abomination to the Lord to be separated, that the stones of the body of Christ should be separated. It can only happen when one or more persons fall out of Christ. I said that earlier.
Any kind of a disagreement, whatsoever, means at least one person is not manifesting the mind of Christ in that particular situation, in that particular instance. Sometimes, it is both people, but it has to be in at least one person, who is not in Christ, if you are having a disagreement. Christ is not divided. He does not disagree. Let me give you this again, verse 19. They are thinking with their carnal minds because of their failure to agree with Christ in their thoughts, Christ, the one who supplies their human spirits with His own life, which is what they need to knit together (meaning the agape love of the Lord Jesus Christ) with each other, and increase with the growth of God. Everybody should increase with the growth of God, but this division tears down the body of Christ. It is competition and it is carnal, and to God it is wicked.
Verse 20. Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?
Now look at this word dead, wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ. First of all, the Interlinear says died, wherefore if you died with Christ. There are several Greek words that can be translated dead. This is one of the Greek words that can mean physical death or moral death. I want to suggest to you that this scripture is talking about moral death. Wherefore, if you died with Christ, from the rudiments of the world. This word, rudiments, means first in rank. Rudiments means first in rank. The rudiments of the world, the ones, we had this earlier. The ones that are first in rank in this world. The carnal mind is first in this world. I know it is not that way in the spirit, but it is that way down here. The Scripture says Jesus is the head of all powers and principalities in heaven, and soon to be in earth, but not in earth now. The carnal mind rules. Satan is still the prince of the power of the air down here. He still has enough authority over us to make us sick and torment us in a variety of ways. I do not know anybody who is without any form of torment at all in their lives.
Verse 20. If we died with Christ from the rudiments of the world.
This Greek word translated world is cosmos. There is more than one Greek word translated world. This is the Greek word cosmos, which means the world system and the planets. It does not mean the age. This world with our moon is an arrangement. A cosmos is an arrangement. Also, each one of us is a cosmos. We are an arrangement. We have a sun, and a moon and stars within us, spiritually speaking. We have a structured being. What Paul is saying, if you died by joining with Christ, if you died to the arrangement, which is first, which is your carnal mind. That is what he is saying, if by joining with Christ, you die to your carnal mind. Is everybody okay? If by penetrating into Christ, you have died to this world. The Church will preach die to the world, brethren, die to the world, die to it. Brethren, I want to declare to you the only one that has died to it is the Lord Jesus Christ. How do you do it? Stop telling me what to do. Tell me how to do it. The point is you cannot do it. The work is Jesus'. There is only so much that you could do to meet Him where He is. The work is His. Now you have to do your part. Do not listen to me and cop out and say the battle is the Lord's while they do nothing. You have got to do something. You have to do whatever He tells you, but the power comes from Him.
He is saying here in verse 20, if you really died with Christ, if you really died to the carnal mind as Christ did, why are you living in the world as though you are subject to its ordinances? Why are you living in the world, why as though living in the world are you subject to its ordinances? You see, Satan, you are not really dead. It is as clear as a bell. If you really died to the things of this world, if you really died to your carnal mind, if your carnal mind is totally under the dominion of Christ in you, and you are not living out of it at all, you are dead to it, why are you subject to the ordinances that affect your carnal mind? Because the law is not for a righteous man. The law is for the carnally minded man, so we have got a problem here, brethren. You are living a fantasy. The word ordinances means the law which applies to those who have Satan's nature. If you died with Christ, if you really have the same experience as He had, if you have died to your carnal mind, how come you are living in this world and are subject to the laws that apply to the carnal minds of men?
Verse 21. Now this is interesting. He talks about some of the things that you are subject to: touch not, taste not, handle not.
I always thought that this referred to carnal rituals, to the Jewish dietary laws, but that is not what it refers to, brethren. What he is saying here is that there are certain prohibitions to the carnal Christian that do not apply to the spiritual Christian. We have touched on many. The carnal Christian is afraid to talk to someone who has a different belief. They are afraid to talk to a Jehovah Witness. They are afraid they are going to be seduced. They are afraid they are going to lose their salvation. Fear all through the Church and fear is not of faith. Everything that is not of faith is sin. Listen to what these words mean. Let me say this, that if you are a very carnal Christian, you should not be debating them. What Paul is saying, you certainly should not be afraid to say hello to them. You might want to avoid talking doctrine to them, but what Paul is saying here is, that when you are a spiritual Christian, you are suppose to be engaging in relationships with them. I have been teaching that here for a long time. This gets me so excited. Very frequently, I will teach something and I finally find a scripture to prove it, and I get all excited.
Check this out. The word touch means to attach or to fasten yourself to. It also means to set on fire. The world and the Church is saying, do not talk to the drug addicts, do not fellowship with the homosexual, and the spiritual leper. Now that is good counsel, because if you do not have your armor on, you will get polluted. Paul is saying, if you have truly died to your carnal mind, and you are living out of Christ, and you are a spiritual Christian, why are you still afraid to join yourself to the spiritual leper? Do you not know that if you are truly in Christ, that you will set them on fire, which is another translation of this word touch. Do you not know that if you attach yourself, if you let yourself get a soul tie to them, if you let yourself be fastened to them, that the Christ in you will burn the sin out of them? Now, if you do not have Christ, it could be very dangerous to you. If you have not died to your carnal mind, if you are carnal, and if you do not have Christ in you, it could be dangerous forming a tie with these people, but you are telling me that you are dead to the world. Why are you not acting like Christ? Why are you not taking the spiritual leper into your life, and why are you criticizing and giving a hard time to the spiritual Christian who is doing it? I cannot tell you how many people have told me not to do some of the things I have done, when the Lord has told me to do it. I am talking about relationships. I want to tell you, brethren, when you try to obey Christ and be a spiritual Christian, the whole world and the whole Church world are going to come to you and tell you that you should not be doing that. They are going to put fear in you. They are going to do everything they can to turn you away from what God is telling you to do. They will come out of the woodwork to tell you not to do it.
Verse 20. Touch not, do not fasten yourself to someone who is spiritually unclean.
Do not set them on fire because they may get healed. They just may get healed if you let them attach themselves to you. They say they will take advantage of you because you are too weak to know how to deal with them. You will fall prey to all of their weaknesses. Do not do it. Let them die. Do not taste. This word taste means to experience. Do not experience their pain because, brethren, when you let a severely troubled person join into a strong soul tie with you, you will experience their pain. I tell you all the time that I go through this. You will experience their suicide. You will experience their depression. You will experience their torture. You will experience it as if it were your own, and it is no fun, but it is what Christ has called us to do, if Christ is being formed in you. This is the ministry of the spiritual Christian, but the world that is in the Church says, do not do it. Do not join with them in a soul tie, and do not experience what they are experiencing. Now any carnal person listening to this tape or reading this transcript, I am not in any way suggesting that you physically engage in their sin, or that you spiritually engage in their sin. Sometimes you just do experience what they are feeling.
It does not mean that if you take a homosexual in, that you should go become a homosexual. What it means is that you will experience the conflict that they experience, and you are suppose to fight it off. By fighting it off, you give them the strength to fight it off, and you give them the victory. I want to tell you something, that if God brings somebody to you that is severely disturbed, and if for any reason, Christ in you is not taking the victory, the person will be removed from you. Do you trust the Lord or do you not trust the Lord? If He sends somebody to you that is highly demonized, and you are fighting valiantly for their life, and you fall prey to wickedness in them, your soul is overtaken against your will, to some wickedness in them, do you think He is going to let you die? He will remove that person from your midst. That which you have given to them, that degree to which you have died for them, will not be wasted. It will not be lost, and if you have been hurt in any way, you will recover, and hopefully be stronger in that area.
How much do you trust your God? How far will you go for Him? Brethren, listen to me, you cannot do this of your own will and accord. It has to be an assignment that He sends to you. Do not go out and attach yourself to some reprobate person that God did not send you to because you could fall. Wait for the move of the Spirit. Wait for the assignment from God. The fact that He is not assigning anybody to you does not mean that you should go out and do it yourself. If the Lord is not giving you an assignment, well then you labor in whatever way He shows you. Maybe you are not ready for this kind of ministry. Stay away from it. You should be under an elder when you first start doing this kind of ministry. You should be under an elder. There should be a second witness for you out there. You should not be doing this alone. Touch not, do not attach yourself to some sin filled person because Christ in you just might burn their sin away. Do not experience vicariously when they are wracked with desires to commit suicide. Do not experience that because maybe you will be strong enough to help pray them out of it. Do not do that.
Do not handle them. The word handle is very interesting. The Greek word translated handle means to injure or to do violence, to touch impure things, and injure or do violence to them. Does anybody know what that is referring to? It is talking about the ministry of the two witness company. We will injure, when eventually, the sons of God will be standing in full stature. Our ministry is to injure their carnal minds, to wound their carnal minds, even more than deliverance. Deliverance will cast out a demon, but the injuring or the wounding of their carnal mind imparts the seed of Christ to them. It is higher than deliverance. It is talking about the ministry of the immature sons. Why do I say the immature sons? If you are a mature son, you are not going to have the other two problems. You are not going to be worried, at all, about attaching yourself to them or experiencing them. You are going to be in full stature. We are talking about the two witness company here.
The world and the world in the Church is saying to you, do not attach yourself to the spiritual leper. Do not experience their pain and help pray them out of it. Certainly, do not wound their carnal mind and impregnate them with Christ. Let me encourage you. If you have ministered to people who have been spiritually impure, and you have been disappointed or you have been hurt, let me encourage you with these scriptures. If God sent you into this battle, if it was truly God, and you have let yourself be attached to a spiritual impure person, and you have experienced their sin, I want to encourage you to believe that you have wounded their carnal mind, and that they have been impregnated because of your sacrifice for them. The world and the world of the Church says do not do it.
Paul is saying, you are going around saying that you are dead to the world. If you are really dead to the world, why are you not living the ministry of Christ? Where are you? Why are you still in church doing the same things you have been doing for twenty five years? There is nothing wrong with prophesying and dancing in the spirit, brethren, but it is not the real thing. That is the schoolroom, brethren. That is the schoolroom. When are you going to walk out on a limb for the Lord? How long are you going to be a baby?
Verse 22. Which all are to perish with the using.
All of these impure unclean people. They are all going to perish with the using. The word perish means to be destroyed. With the, means because of the, and using means misuse or abuse. This carnal thought pattern is saying, why are you bothering with these spiritual lepers? They are going to be destroyed because of the misuse or the abuse of their lives. Why are you bothering with them? Brethren, if God sends you to somebody, then go. The Church world needs a lot of work. Someone said something like that to somebody about someone, saying that person is bad news. What do you mean by they are bad news? Who is good news, brethren? What does that mean when you say to somebody they are bad news? Are you telling me that I should not try and help them? That is what you are telling me. Brethren, God has not given up on anybody.
This Presidential election is neck and neck. Two weeks ago, the media tried to say that the election was over and that Clinton had won. We have a commentator here in the New York area that I happen to be enjoying very much. He put the fat lady on his program, and he said this election is not over until she sings, and she has not sung yet. Let me tell you something, so long as your body is alive and kicking, the fat lady has not sung yet. Jesus has not given up on anybody and neither have we. If you have given up on somebody, you better check out your motive why. If your motive is because they have hurt you or someone you love, you had better get on your face before God, brethren. You have a carnal attitude in your heart.
We see in Colossians, Chapter 2, that the ministry of the spiritual man is to the spiritual leper, the hopeless ones, that the world and the world in the Church said, they are turned over to destruction anyway. I want to suggest to you that these scriptures are talking about Christians that have abused and misused the Spirit of God that has been imparted to them. They are going to be destroyed anyway. Why are you bothering with them for? The whisper of the Serpent, brethren. Beware of the whisper of the Serpent. Which all are to perish because of their abuse after the commandments and doctrines of men. This is the teaching that you are going to hear. This is what you are going to hear, which is after the commandments or the laws, and the doctrines or the teaching that comes forth from the carnal mind of men. If you are telling me that you are not carnal, if you are telling me that you are dead to this world, if you are telling me that you are fully risen in Christ, how come you are not acting like Christ? How come you are all into self preservation, and you will not take a chance with anybody because you are so worried about your own safety?
Verse 23. Which things have indeed...this is talking about these men that are not socially acceptable or acceptable to the Church, that have been rejected by the Church. Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship, and humility, and neglecting of the body; not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh.
Does that make any sense to you? It never did really make much sense to me. I have an alternate translation on this one too. Jesus! Which things have indeed a show of wisdom. This word, show, is Strong's #3056, and I do not know why they translated it show. It is talking about words which are spoken. This word, wisdom, Strong's #4678, is talking about the wisdom of men. These things which are spoken comes forth from the wisdom of men, the show of wisdom in will worship. Will worship is Strong's #1479 and it is talking about worship that comes forth from the carnal mind, worship that you will of yourself. It is a worship that you work up yourself. Speak in tongues now, everybody. It is a worship that does not come out of the realm of the Spirit, but that is commanded to come forth by the commandments of men. This word, humility, means to have a humble opinion of oneself. What are we saying here? Which things, all of this counsel, is spoken out of the wisdom of the carnal mind and results in your submission to her.
This word, humility, after I have studied it in the Greek, means because you are doing this, because you are hearing these words spoken out of the wisdom of the carnal mind, and you are submitting to them, they will cause you to underestimate your spirituality. This is a negative understanding of the word humility. It is used negatively here. Listening to these words that are spoken out of the wisdom of the carnal mind, and results from your submission to her, will result in your underestimating your spirituality, and the neglecting of your body. That word, neglecting, is Strong's #857 and it means unsparing severity. You are going to have an ungodly humble underestimation of your spirituality. You are going to be humble to a fault, and you are going to be unnecessarily severe upon your body. That is the Greek word, Strong's #4983, and it is talking about your spiritual body. What it is saying, is that when you submit to the carnal mind, it will result in you being unnecessarily severe on your spiritual body, which is what? It is Christ in you.
Brethren, if you submit to your carnal mind, you are going to underestimate your spirituality or your potential in Christ, and you will be grieving the Christ in you. That is what this is saying. You can only have one master, brethren. You cannot serve two masters. You cannot serve two masters. Listen everybody, it is not in any honor, to the satisfying of the flesh. This word, honor, is Strong's #5092, and it is talking about valuing something by which the price is set. It is talking about evaluating something and setting a price on it. What are we saying here? You are going to underestimate your spirituality, and you are not going to recognize the value of Christ's sacrifice for you because of the satisfying of the flesh, because the carnal mind is being satisfied. When you satisfy your carnal mind, you are going to have an ungodly humility. You are going to put yourself down. You are going to deny who you really are in Christ. You are going to deny the value of His sacrifice for you. You are going to deny that you have this ability in Christ, and you are going to do all these things which will grieve the Christ in you because the carnal commandments of men are satisfying your flesh. That means either you like the approval of men or you are not willing to pay the price of their disapproval, which can be very painful and powerful witchcraft. The disapproval of men can be very painful and powerful. I suffer severely from people's disapproval. I am waiting for God to strengthen me in this area. I do what God tells me. They cannot change my mind, but I pay the price through pain in my emotions. I experience people's disapproval very severely. You do it because you want the approval of men or because these rituals just satisfy you or because you just do not want to pay the price.
Alternate Translation, Verse 23: Which things are spoken out of the wisdom of the carnal mind, and results from your submission to her. They also cause you to underestimate your spirituality, and inadequately value Christ's sacrifice for you, which result in your severe denial of Him as your new mind because these carnal commandments satisfy your flesh.
Hallelujah! I bet you never heard that before. I was surprised myself to find it in there. I am so glad we did Colossians. This really blessed me because it is talking about what is going on in this ministry. That is what is happening in this ministry. Everything that is in there, I have experienced. People told me not to do this, do not do that, and why are you doing that sister? God told me to. That is not good enough for them. Oh no, you should not be doing that.
COMMENT: I am glad you clarified that in verse 23 of the neglecting of the body. I thought that was where they beat their body.
PASTOR VITALE: There is a Greek word that means physical body. This is not it. This is specifically referring to the soul.
11-15-09 mjs
