Total Death
One big problem with Christianity today…
Everyone wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die.
Physically and Soulically
Col 2:6 – 3:17
6 As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving.
We must be rooted by Him, built by Him and established by Him.
1 Pet 5:10 But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.
8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.
Don’t let someone rip you off – or put you in bondage
There are many who want are looking for those who will side with them, agree with them, and be manipulated
Some even come in the name of Christianity
Be ruled by your spirit, not your soul – live by the Word
Prov 14:12 There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.
9 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;
10 and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
Money will not make you complete.
Nor will a career, education, stardom, not even a spouse.
Eph 4:6 one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.
11 In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,
12 buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
Our spirit has already buried and raised with Christ through faith.
A direct correlation between our new life through faith and Christ’s resurrection is made
The same power that raised him from the dead is alive in us.
Phil 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
13 And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses,
14 having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
He made a spectacle out of Satan and all of his demons by His triumph in resurrection.
Gen 3:15, first prophecy of the Messiah, God is cursing the serpent.
Rom 6:10-16
10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.
11 Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13 And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
15 What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!
16 Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?
16 So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths,
17 which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.
18 Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind,
19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.
20 Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations--
21 "Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,"
22 which all concern things which perish with the using-- according to the commandments and doctrines of men?
23 These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh.
Obviously there were Jewish believers among these Gentiles.
They were pushing them to uphold parts of the Jewish law.
They were mixing law with grace. Hoping that at least one was right.
Putting old wine in new wine skins.
Life in the Spirit calls for total death.
Christians do that today, with soulical prayers:
Horoscopes, Superstitions…
Cleanliness in next to Godliness
We want to mix our old life with our new life.
CHAPTER 3
1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.
5 Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.
6 Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience,
7 in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them.
8 But now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth.
9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds,
10 and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him,
Paul encourages us to put the flesh to death.
Paul reminds us that our spirit already died and was raised again through Christ.
Paul we need to move on from the deeds of the flesh into life in the spirit.
11 where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.
12 Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering;
13 bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do.
14 But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection.
15 And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
Jesus wants you dead!
Dead to yourself, so He can live through you.
We need to put this flesh to death so we can begin enjoying our new life in the Spirit.
Life in the spirit calls for total death, no mixture.
Christians are prolonging their death.
They are suffering far more than they should be.
(I Pet. 5:10) “after you have suffered…”
Christians have been sitting on death row for too many years.
It is time to die so you can live.
