The Living Dead
Colossians 2:20-23 · Mike Doyle · Oct 25, 2026
Colossians, No. 13
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/1025261917207283

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Well, good morning, everybody. I think we've got some interesting verses today that probably will challenge you a little bit, which is okay, and hopefully give you some spiritual food to cause you to grow. Let's start with a moment of prayer. Dear Father, we thank you today for the opportunity to be together as a body of believers. We all trust you with our life and with the new life we have in your Son. We ask today that you would bring us clarity and understanding, not only from me, but from those who will hear, that we may grow in the knowledge and grace of your Son, the Lord Jesus. We thank you that we can do this in your Son's name, amen.

So, the verses I'm gonna cover today are 20 through the end of the chapter. And what's gonna happen over the next couple of weeks is that These verses are gonna be an application of two great spiritual truths. The first one is our death in Christ and how important that is to us. The next one, Miles gets to pick up next week, is our resurrection in Christ and how that works. I mean, if you think about it, if you were crucified with Christ and resurrected with him, well, I know about all the things that need to be crucified, but what do I know about what it is to be resurrected with Christ? Well, that's what Colossians 1, 3, 1 starts with. So that's next week. And the big thing here is that these verses are God's answer to the sin nature. And so today we're gonna discuss what the world thinks its answer is to the sin nature, and then God's answer, because they're not the same.

So if we look back at verses 12 and 13 here, we see that Paul tells the Colossians, having been buried with him in baptism, fact, which you were also raised up with him through faith in the working of God and who raised him from the dead. So we're included in that process. And verse 13 says, and when you were dead, separated from God, your transgressions and uncircumcision of your flesh, what did he do? He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all trespass.

So from now, from verse 20 to 23, we're gonna look at the consequences or the effects of being dead with Christ. Am I really dead? Did I really die? Did I really get separated? What is established here is our being dead with Christ results in having nothing to do with nature or the world when it comes to the things of God.

And when we get to Colossians 3 next week, as I mentioned, from the first verse on, we'll talk about resurrection, but today we're gonna talk about death. The use here that's made of our death with Christ has really nothing to do with our redemption. It has to do with our separation from sin. And so we're not talking about redemption today.

In this point of view, the blood of Christ is constantly the thing that's made prominent out in front. It's not that forgiveness of sins or trespasses are omitted, but the death of Christ and our identity with him The most important doctrine there is, I think, in Christianity is our identity with Christ, with his death, burial, and resurrection. It's the most important part. And it goes much farther, and it introduces another whole truth together. I think it's possible for someone, a believer, to see the offering of the body of Christ and the shedding of his blood and not have seen their own personal demonstration of our death with him. I think you can be saved, you can understand salvation, and not ever know that you died with him.

So, the whole force here, of the world's religion. Now I'm going to refer to religion, use the word a lot, and I'm probably ought to define the word. Anything that's not of Christ that has to do with the spiritual content in the world is religion. Religion is the source of, the word religion is a Latin term that means regulation. So what these verses are going to tell us, I hope, is that Religion does not see and it will not admit to the total ruin of the natural man as he is an atom.

And the reason is they're always trying to fix him up, make him do better. What the world thinks in religion is that we'll do something that will suit everybody in every adaptation we can arrive at. Human wisdom will be applied and provide for each and all for the enhancing religious observance of an entire population of a land.

Let me give you an example of that. Christmas. How biblically sound is Christmas? A fat guy with a white beard that rides in a sleigh with reindeer that can fly. That's what the world system is. How about Easter? Easter is a bunny that lays eggs. That's the world's wisdom. But look how it invades Christianity.

So what's the result of that? I'll keep up with my slides here. What's the result of that kind of viewpoint? It results in a church of all decent people, all who have not been disgraceful in their lives, and who are made worshipers, and who have a religion that's adapted to their thoughts of themselves. and God, and mainly occupied with what man comes up with, what you can do for God. And it's a mixture of paganism with Jewish forms, and it finds its ingredients in certain abstinences that would give one a pseudo holiness. Now, I've, I came out of a denomination that they're masters at this. They are really good at this. And they'll adapt to cultures of different countries so that they can keep this process going. So there's a problem with this system though. What is that problem?

There can be no positive enjoyment of the resurrected and glorified Christ. Their whole premise of religion is negative requirements, and there are the essential characteristics. Do this, don't do that. Do this, don't do that. Consequently, you find that under every advantage of this kind of worship is somehow a Levitical law system is in there somewhere. You can tell even with the way the church is laid out, its floor plan. Besides the restraint put on man's will morally in the Ten Commandments, specific meats and drinks are forbidden, all kinds of stuff.

When I grew up, we couldn't eat meat on Friday. I never did figure out why we couldn't do that. Maybe the guy that needed to sell more fish, I don't know. So we're not even to touch certain ceremonial or unclean objects. If I do that, I somehow have violated the religious principle.

Now if you think about it, God has already instituted a program like this, embodied in the elements of Judaism, which was a religion of the flesh and worldly protections. He himself instituted, and I really think I would call it an experiment, so to speak, of an immense system of restrictions which only conceive a plan for a man as such to be holy to the Lord. Consequently, we find that every advantage of that kind of worship is Levitical, like I said. And so this has to do with man in the flesh trying to please God. That's really where it comes down to. Every person on the earth is born with and has a sin nature. And at some point in their life, they begin to discover that this sin nature is uncontrollable. And so what does the natural man do?

Well, if lying is what I can't stop, then I'm going to make a resolution that I'm not going to lie anymore, and I'm going to tell the truth. Well, how long does that last? Until the next time you're challenged. Or I'm going to I'm not gonna do this thing or that thing and I know it's sinful and it's been a problem my whole life and I've never been able to overcome it. So I'm gonna just, with as strong a will as I can, I'm not gonna do that anymore. About making a commitment during Lent. I always thought, gee, what I ought to do is make a commitment to what I can do during Lent, not what I shouldn't be doing. Like, I should eat more chocolate during Lent.

The problem is that men are conscious of sin no matter where they go. I got to thinking about these people that or up in the space station, and if they end up on the moon, and if they go to Mars, you know what's gonna happen? Sin is there, because all the guys they're going with, and all the women they're going with, they're sinners. So what do you do about that? Men are conscious that sin is everywhere, and you can't escape it. How do you get rid of it? How do you get outside of it? You can go on vacation. but you can't get rid of it.

So here's a list of human methods to deal with the sin nature. The first one is that they try to tame it or control it, the sin nature. It's like being in the military with a lot of discipline that can get you to act and function a certain way. The problem with the Marine Corps, it's never solved the problem of sin. The remedy is to apply human viewpoint to the sin nature, and we call that legalism.

Then there's these other people, which the Colossians were struggling with, using asceticism. They're just going to withdraw from the world. You know, if a man decides he's going to go into a monastery and become a monk, and I've been in a couple of those places, they're pretty severe. The problem is the sin nature goes in with them, and everybody in there has a sin nature. So you try to withdraw from the world, but that's a human method.

And then there are those that say, the sin nature doesn't exist anymore. If you're a one nature person, you say that, well, the sin nature died, Well, my question is, well, how come you're still sinning? Well, I have memory problems, or I have habits that I just got into and they're sinful. No, the sin nature exists, or I might, oh, I'm trying to think of what's, and I met one of these pastors a couple of weekends ago, oh, the Nazarenes. They say, well, now that you're a Christian, they don't sin anymore. Well, having been in the real estate business and done business with some Nazarenes, trust me, they sin.

So, and the last one is, I can control the sin nature by psychological counseling and medication. Really? How does that work out for you? Sin's there and you can't control it. Man does not have the answer for the sin nature. Does not. And could not because God's method of dealing with the sin nature is what? The death of Christ. Death is the only answer.

Now, in the verses we're studying today, sin nature, if you have died with Christ, And by the way, if there is not, maybe you did, maybe you didn't, that's a first-class conditional clause that says, since you died with Christ, since that's true, and I died to the elementary principles of the world. So the question, Paul asks, why? As if you're still living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees such as don't handle stuff, don't taste anything, and don't touch? Why do you do that if you're dead?

And then he explains them. He said, these are matters of self-made religion, self-abasement, severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value against fleshly indulgence, or put another way, against your sin nature. Those things have no value whatsoever. With those being the verses, it brings up a personal question, and your handouts today really are just questions that I thought of as I was going through this.

How dead am I? Have you ever sat before the Lord and said, Lord, am I really dead? Because, boy, I'm telling you, sin is everywhere, including right here. I used to sort of make a joke about this by saying, well, I know the Word of God says I'm dead to sin, but every time the music starts, my feet start to move. I don't even have to think about it. They do. there comes some issue, I'm in. I don't even have to try, I'm there. So the question comes up, well, am I really dead or am I not?

If you're dead with Christ, where is the value of a law that says don't touch anything, don't taste anything, and don't handle anything? The problem is that when you die, things disappear. Those three things disappear, and why? Because I'm already, and actually I am dead, and you're dead with Christ. And the day that you became a believer, you died, you got separated from the sin nature. The word of God says so. So what happens? I've really been placed by God outside of any kind of language or ideas that have to do with sin.

I'm still in the world, but I'm not of the world. We may as well exhort a dead man as to his old wants and duties. I'll talk a little bit about that here in a second. The old religious systems of the world designed by men in the flesh is absolutely done for with a Christian. The biggest problem we have is that we're religious. It isn't that we're a bunch of bad people who ought to go to jail. The problem is we're religious. So we use human wisdom to conduct our lives. It's to contradict the foundation of which we stand.

When you were spiritually baptized into Christ, what was the first thing you were put into, according to Romans 6? Don't you know when you were baptized, you were baptized into his death? That's the first thing. So, if I'm gonna understand what it means to be in Christ, the very first part of that is that I must understand the meaning of being in Christ.

I started with death, because he didn't take the old sin nature and put it in Christ. I had to die in Christ's death to that. So then I can say, well, I can say that about sin. But it's a little more difficult to say that in Christ, the believer is dead to the world.

If a Christian associates with the world's religion, he invariably loses. What does he lose? He loses having a sense of being dead with Christ. He doesn't think about the fact that he's dead. He just loses that over time. and true judgment of the world in men. He doesn't truly judge things from the viewpoint of I'm dead to that.

So, when a man physically dies, what's he leave behind? Well, it's pretty simple stuff. His wealth, his rank, his ease, his reputation, his trophies, his energy, his status, his family, everything that constituted his enjoyment in this life. That's what he leaves behind. So you have to ask the question, when a believer dies spiritually, what does he leave behind?

The world and its entire system of religion. Not to mention the sin nature. Not to mention I'm in the earth but not of it anymore. I died to all the elementary principles of the world. All of them. Not just some of them. Not just the ones I want to keep because they feel good. All of them. All human remedies for overcoming sin. You died to all of that.

So When you look at these verses and it says, well, what is the phrase, why as though living in the world, what's that do to expose the believer? In other words, my question here is, as though living in the world, what does that mean? It shows that we are not truly true to our position. And what's our position? We're seated in Christ in the heavenlies. It shows as well that Christ is not our life. We want to be alive like men in the world. We want to be one of them. So, how do I say this? Saints in the Old Testament had resurrected life, but they didn't have identity with Christ and his death. They didn't have that. We're unique that way. The world and its spirit and all of the religion of the world we got crucified to.

I know I'm repeating myself a lot, but it's so important to understand, wait a minute, that's not That's not who I am anymore. If you look at another translation of verse 20, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourself to regulations? Why would you? Because I don't know anything better, that's why. because I'm supposed to get along. I'm supposed to not be a problem in the world. But now that the Lord Jesus has come, and we know him, that is true, and he is the substance and fullness of truth, we are known now as Christians. We belong to him. Now the great thing about when the Lord Jesus was here is that he always comported with what was required of him as an earthly human being.

But once he was crucified and resurrected, he never went back to the synagogue. And nobody ever laid a finger on him after that because he was dead to the world. Now, when we have new life, which is life from him who is dead and risen. This has now brought us into a condition of death to all that's in the world. So it shows that there's not true to our position as well as to Christ. We are as men alive in the world. A Christian has in principle is really done with it as Christ himself had after his death. The taking up of the elementary principles, or the King James calls them rudiments, of the world is then a flat practical contradiction to our death with Christ.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Well, I'm gonna go to Parker, buy 10 acres, and I'm gonna live in the trees, and I'm never coming out. Well, there are monasteries for that. The problem is we have to live physically here could live like this. That's a hard thing. That's a really hard thing. So if I say to you now, I don't want you anymore to submit yourself to decrees, like don't handle this and don't taste that and don't touch this. Decrees is really interesting.

It's to subject yourself to ordinances And it's usually passive when you see this word. You don't submit yourself to letting someone decide about how you're going to live. You don't touch things. You don't fasten yourself to or cling to. And this refers to a conscious effort to touch. Every one of us is speaking as a man. We all have things that we really like and we want to identify with. The problem with that is that I don't need to make a conscious effort to be successful in the world system. I don't need to make a conscious effort to be wealthy. Or all of those things that I mentioned, what does a man leave behind when he dies? Because all those things are going to perish. And he'll say that in a minute.

Handle here means to handle in a superficial or transitory way prohibits relate to defilement. So you have to say, is there anything I can do before I come to church on Sunday that would defile me, which would keep me from coming to church? No, there isn't. There's nothing to keep you from joining with the body of believers who are in Christ.

And taste just refers to meats and drinks. Again, I told you about when I grew up, we could only eat fish on Friday or we couldn't eat meat. Maybe that's a better way to put it. So, the real question is, where is Christ and what's he doing now? Well, Colossians 1.18 told us he is the head of the body, the church. That's what he's doing now. He's the beginning. He's the firstborn from among the dead. That's who he is. So that he himself might come to have first place in everything. That's what he's up to. And then 19 says, and because in him God was well pleased that all fullness be permanently at home.

So people say, when I die, I'm going to heaven. I'm not going to heaven. I'm going here. I want to go to this place where the fullness of the Godhead is pleased to dwell. That's where I want to be, with him there. I don't care about this place called heaven. This is the place I care about.

Next week, Miles will talk about where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. That's where I want to be. And that place is not a world construct of heaven. That place is described in verse 19. It's the place where it pleased God all the fullness would dwell in Jesus Christ. That's where I want to be. That's different. Now, a Christian, on the contrary, belongs to heaven.

And I think if there's any If there's any principle that is really hard for us to grasp, hold on and get our arms around, is that we belong, I said heaven, but we really belong to the Lord Jesus. We are his property. He bought us, he owns us. He paid every price for us. And yet he didn't do it just so he could brag about having possessions. He did it because he wanted us with him.

So there's an error of embracing the elements that World practically denied this, and especially his being dead with Christ. If you don't understand death with Christ, you certainly don't understand what it is to be alive in him. The only sure way to judge anything is to bring it and measure it next to Christ. Is this of him or isn't it? If it isn't, it's the world. If it is, I'm in. The question here is how does Christ stand in view of the elements of the world? He is totally separated from them.

And verse 22 says, which all refer to things destined to bear perish with the using in accordance with the commandments and the teachings of men. What's more severe? Except sacrificing Christ's person. In other words, if I, because of the sin nature, I decide or accept something into my life that puts the person of Christ out of my life, there's nothing more severe than that. We all talk about, well, I sinned by this thing or that thing or whatever the commandment said. Well, what about this thing? How about putting Christ out of your life so I can do this? If I compared them and I brought them together, where are you gonna go? Does it fit with Christ or doesn't it?

Those who seem to have the truth, which a lot of people do, but refuse to act upon the truth, before long they become enemies of the truth, which they don't follow. What am I saying there? If I don't understand that I've been crucified, separated, dead to the things of the world, it isn't long before I'm back into that system, now with pouring holy water on it, and I don't follow it anymore. The religion of the world has to do with this creation, the first creation. It belongs to those things which people say, don't touch, don't taste, don't handle it, don't do this, don't do that, don't do this, do that, tithe, do all of those things, but they don't have anything to do with the Lord Jesus. 23 says, these are matters which have to be sure. They have an appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement.

I'm not going to take a shower for a month. I'm going to some parts of the world to wear these things called hair shirts. I remember being in Mexico the first time and women were on their knees with flowers going down the street to go into the church to put them before the Virgin Mary. That's called self-abasement. And serve and severe treatment of the body. They're of no value against fleshly indulgences.

And I have to tell you, I think most of the world is probably tied up in this kind of thing, because it just seems like I can add to what God has done, or I need to show him something that I'm serious about what I'm doing, so I'm gonna I'm gonna give all my money away, or I'm gonna do something that will show, like he doesn't understand or know who and what you are. The Colossians here were in danger of these kinds of snares.

They didn't see why, because they were Christians, that they should leave off what seemed good enough among Jews and Gentiles. If you're a Christian and somebody brings Judaism, and you say, well, wow, that sounds good. I ought to be involved in that. They wanted to hold on to the truth of Christ, but at the same time, they wanted to keep up or adopt along with it religious and worldly forms which have been observed in olden time.

What's Paul's answer to that? He says, no way. It is Christ who is all our good and nothing but Christ. We need nothing else. Christ is all. So I have to ask you political hacks. Was Jesus a Republican or a Democrat? Was he conservative or liberal or moderate? He's none of those things. None of those things. Was he competitive? No. He's the God of the universe. Who is he going to compete with?

So we live and breathe in the most exclusive club in the world, in the universe, and that club is Jesus Christ and his cross. It's a very exclusive place. And yet we may say, oh, I want more than that. Well, if you happen to read a verse that says, in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, what can you add to that? You can't add anything to it. So we're receivers, not adders.

So I've already talked about what this, It's not the power of the Spirit of God unfolding, is it not? It is not the power of the Spirit of God unfolding things of Christ, but something that relates to self, chiefly a negative thing. If you analyze what religion does, it's pretty negative, because the burden's on you to perform. Such was the old dealing with the law of sin and the nature in the evil world. This is not God's will, but man devising means of pleasing him out of his own head. Religion is a man-fostered thought. Now, this is exactly what philosophy does. It denies the proper place of your body. Ever think about that? One of the things about asceticism is that you deny your body. The New Testament brings out a vast importance of the body. Do you know how important your body is? It proclaims, for instance, that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.

For itself, the effect of redemption is the true ground for Christian morals. Take up your members as Yield up your members as instruments of righteousness to God, which is your reasonable service. Present your bodies, the living sacrifice, reasonable service. Everything that you are, even though your body is physically dying, it's used because it's indwelt by the Holy Spirit for the benefit of the body of Christ and for the Lord.

So, I think to close up, what can a man give, what can give a man such power against religion, sin, self, the world? I think Christ known gives a man power and full deliverance of grace. So we've talked a lot about that over the years, that how wonderful the doctrine is that we study and that we learn. But the real issue is how well do we know, personally know the Lord Jesus Christ? What God did with crucifying us, burying us, and resurrecting us with the resurrected life of Christ, he gave us the capacity to know the Lord Jesus personally. And where do you find him? You find him in his word. Second Corinthians 318 has always been my favorite verse, because I always ask that question. If I want to know Christ, how do I get to know him?

Beholding is in a mirror the glory of the Lord. What's the mirror? The mirror is the word of God. Beholding the glory of the Lord, imagine that. Beholding by the word of God, what happens? There's this thing that happens to us. transformed into his very image, from one state of glory to the next, to the next, to the next. And so what's happening? The more I know Christ, the more I am personally acquainted with him, the more I'm like him. The more the world is not satisfying to me, the more I'm involved with him and what he's up to. I find it interesting that we talk a lot about doctrine, we talk a lot about different things within the Christian environment, but we don't really talk much about, if I'm dead and risen with Christ, where is the old man? Where is he?

He doesn't exist in the sight of God. Now, I'm not saying, I'm not taking the one nature position, because the sin nature is still in you. Therefore, we should not allow it in the sight of men. In other words, from God's viewpoint, he doesn't see you with a sin nature anymore. He sees you in Christ only. But he left us in this body with a sin nature, because he gets more glory that way.

Imagine that. You live your life. Walking around with this big, huge weight on you is called the sin nature, and yet in the middle of all of that, you live a godly life, and the sin nature doesn't control you. That brings great glory to God. Faith is now entitled to look at Christ in heaven. Myles will talk next week about since you're risen with Christ, go to church, read your Bible.

No, seek those things which are above. Is there not an answer in Christ to all these wanderings of the human mind? Don't you ever wonder, does God have an answer for all of this? You know, the answer is so simple. Back in Matthew, of all places, he says, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

Now, at first you don't think that rest is a valuable commodity. But if you've lived a while, you understand that rest is a huge thing. You can't get rest in the world. You can't. It's not there. I don't care how wealthy you get. I don't care how famous you get. I don't care about any of that. You cannot find rest in the world.

And you know why? Because the consequences of Adam's sin was unrest. There's a reason that the Bible calls the world the cosmos. You know what the word cosmos means? It means chaos. We live in absolute chaos all the time, surrounded by it. But the Lord Jesus said, if you come unto me, I'll give you the one thing you can't find in the world, and that's rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am gentle and humble in heart. and you will find rest for your souls. Rest for your souls. It's just amazing.

Receiving the truth, receiving the truth in him, we get that which defeats the object of Satan. By the Holy Spirit alone makes it the truth in us. It may be received, May it be received in love, that therefore there may be abundant fruit of righteousness by Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. The more you know the Lord Jesus Christ, the more your heart wants to do whatever you can do in Christ through the Holy Spirit for God's glory and his praise, not you. The thing that we all got we all got when Adam sinned is self. That was the gift we got from Adam, self.

So a couple things I'm gonna end up with here. If one hesitates to agree that if a man professed to understand what it is to be dead in Christ and yet went on with the elements of the world, he would show himself to be a thoroughly dishonest man. Pretty harsh statement. The next statement I found from J.B. Stoney, I thought this was great.

He said, I have found nothing so difficult to myself and I perceive it in others as to realize practically as an absolute fact that my old man is gone in the judgment of the cross from the eyes of God. He perceives nothing more difficult than that. If we accepted this simply, we should neither look for good or bad from that which is judicially crucified and then As this is realized and counted upon, the Lord Jesus would be our entire object. And our entire occupation, the Spirit of Christ, would lead us to nothing else.

So. Have we in grace made up our minds for his sake to be counted from the world's viewpoint fanatical, or maybe foolish, or maybe proud, or hard, or narrow, or weird, or odd, committing these and all other misinterpretations to him who loves us and knows the end from the beginning? Are we willing? We are willing to let the Lord Jesus, because he's already taken care of the hurdle, just to be focused in on him and him being the importance.

I died in Christ and now I'm alive in Christ. Let's close. Father, how simple sometimes it seems. the words that we spend our time with and talk about and seek answers. And the answer really is the person of your son, the Lord Jesus. We're so thankful for him. Our desire is to continue to grow every minute of every day in the knowledge of him. And we pray in his precious name, amen.