Facing the Last Days - Continued - by Pastor Doug Riggs
by John Mark on 07/17/24
This
message was originally recorded January 31, 2016.
My
notes:
As
Doug opened this session, he was directing the beginning of the message to an
individual there in our assembly - but it certainly relates to all of us. As he
describes some of what the work of counseling SRA survivors required and the
reality of Satan, he challenged the listeners, "God can only be a reality
to you in the measure in which Satan is a reality to you... Can you think you
can know God without knowing the adversary?" A statement we've heard along
the way: "Satan is God's most unwilling servant." God uses Satan to
test us - to see what we're made of - not that He needs to see it, but we need
to see it. "And you shall remember all the way which the LORD your God has
led you in the wilderness these forty years, in order to humble you, putting you
to the test, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His
commandments or not." (Deuteronomy 8:2)
Do we
have an entitlement mentality that God owes us something? That just because
we're Christians, is God obligated to keep Satan away? Job is our example of
one who served God, even in the midst of an unbearable trial of affliction. How
did he serve God? "By suffering... he never preached; he just suffered
unfairness; falsely charged... he served God by suffering and enduring."
Here's a great reminder to have before us:
"... if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow
heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be
glorified with Him" (Romans 8:17), and "If we endure, we will also
reign with Him" (2 Timothy 2:12).
Doug
shared the motivation for why he worked with SRA survivors, "I want to see
people become one person so the Lord has His place." It isn't about
getting people saved. Most, if not all, that Doug worked with are Christians
who were being robbed of their inheritance in Christ and God was being robbed
of His inheritance in them. "How can He have His place if there's the
dividedness either internally through fragmentation and trauma, or just a
person who is not D.I.D. and they're divided in their heart. (They say) 'I'll
give the Lord a little bit of time here, but the rest of my life is mine.' ...
The whole motive in doing this work as an assembly as we've taken this on is to
find a place for the Lord."
We've
heard often Doug warning the church that judgment is coming, that judgment
begins at the household of God (1 Peter 4:17). Why is that? "It has to
begin with the house of God. Why? How could God judge the unrighteous unless He
judges His people first?" So, what is the basis God judges His people?
"The churches (Revelation 2 & 3) are judged according to the Man; that
is the meaning of judgment, the measuring line of God is His Son." Doug
has often warned us that whatever is not out from Christ will not survive
either the fire here on earth (i.e.: 1 Peter 4:12), or the fire at the judgment
seat of Christ (1 Corinthians 3:13-15).
We
may think the word 'salvation' only pertains to what we receive when we first
place our faith in Jesus Christ and receive Him as our eternal life. However,
as we learn from Doug, the word is also used in the sense of a 'final
salvation', that which we are looking for as the rescue and snatching out from
this world what we know as the rapture. In fact, salvation can be seen as 'we
were saved' (initial salvation); we are 'being saved' (sanctification /
progressive salvation); and we 'will be saved' (upon our passing away or
rapture).
When
will the rapture happen? Is it a day on God's calendar? It will be when the
fullness of the Gentiles is complete and the church attains to the measure of
the stature of the fullness of Christ; but there are other considerations that
must happen before the rapture. Doug gave a series of messages called The Prerequisites
for the Lord's Return
(https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtE2EQ9mIvN_Zdr9lQUf15rM3Hj2gWMoq).
"There are moral and spiritual conditions that have to be in place before
the rapture occurs."
1
Peter 2:12 warns us to keep our behavior excellent because the world is
watching, and when they see immorality or other behavior not according to
Christ, they take the opportunity to slander and mock the church. We see that
in the downfall of spiritual leaders caught in immorality more and more as what
is hidden in darkness is being brought into the light. As the day of visitation
continues to unfold, we see it as "two-sided depending on where you are.
If you're Laodicea, vomiting out of God's mouth, it's judgment; if you're
Philadelphia, the answer is found in 1 Peter 5 verse 6, 'Humble yourselves
therefore under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you at the proper
time.' At the revelation of Jesus Christ, there's going to be exaltation if
you're on the side of Philadelphia. If you're on the Thyatira side, you're dead
- the day of visitation, you're going to be dead. And if you're Sardis, you're
shocked and unprepared. If you're Laodicea, you're vomited out of the Lord's
mouth... if you go back to the Old Testament, it means you lose your
inheritance, because the land vomited out its inhabitants because of
idolatry."
So,
what is this revelation of Jesus Christ at the end of the church age that is
seen in a remnant? "There will be those moral features that are going to
be the crescendo, the crowning of the suffering saints throughout the ages that
will come into manifestation in terms of exanastasis (out-resurrection)."
This will incite Satan to try to devour the man child (Revelation 12:4).
"There's a holocaust coming to the body of Christ... it's coming! And you
know what's going to survive? Philadelphia... those who are alive, the living
ones, and the surviving remnant (1 Thessalonians 4:15, 17) shall be caught up,
snatched, taken out. Why taken out? (1 Thessalonians 4:15, 17) Because 1
Thessalonians 1:10, He comes to rescue those from the wrath to come. It's a
rescue. The devourer will come, and he will devour everything that's not
according to Christ, and that's God's perfect way of judging anything and
everything that is not according to Christ. What a perfect instrument there is,
the accuser of the brethren, to search out and find anything in you and me
that's not according to Christ. The adversary knows... he knows reality. So as
God brings us more and more on to the ground and moral conformity to the person
of Jesus Christ, like Jesus said, 'The prince of this world is coming, and he
has nothing in Me.' That will have a final outworking in the body and bride of
Christ at the end. The prince of this world will come, and there will be a
company of people that he will find nothing in. And then the rapture will occur."
Link
to Audio: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/1-31-16+facing+the+last+days.mp3
Link
to Discussion: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/1-31-16+discussion.mp3
Resource
mentioned:
Men Whose Eyes Have
Seen the King by T. Austin-Sparks
https://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/men_whose_eyes_have_seen_the_king.html
Art
Katz: The Holocaust -
Where Was God?
https://benisrael.org/product/the-holocaust-where-was-god/
Doug
Riggs: The Day of
Visitation (https://www.dougriggs.org/Videos.html#anchor_63)
Maranatha!
John Mark
...hereby committing this unto the
providential care of the enthroned Head of the Church; whose Name is
blessed forevermore, Yeshua Mashiach - Jesus Christ!