“Prepare a Way for the Lord” by Pastor Doug Riggs

This message was originally recorded February 1, 2015.

My notes:

Some make the mistake of assuming the account in the early chapters of the book of Genesis is the original creation. However, as Doug explains, this is the restoration of the world that followed its annihilation and destruction due to the fall of Lucifer and the angels who rebelled with him. If you look at our solar system, you should ask the obvious question: "Why is planet Earth so beautiful and full of life when all the other planets are devastated and dead?" We clearly see the judgment of God in the scars of a horrendous and unimaginable demolition. Clearly the universe existed far longer than six thousand years. "The [original] creation of the earth was before the event that we see mentioned in Genesis 1:2." THE beginning is found in John 1:1. "The beginning of all things is God." So, we see there is more than one 'beginning'.

In this message, though not contemporaneous with the last series I posted, we continue the theme, "What is man, that You are mindful of him?" The restored earth is for man - the opportunity for humanity to not only take up residence on this particular planet, but to have dominion over it, to guard it, to populate it, and cultivate it. However, due to the failure of the first Adam, we focus our thoughts on the last Adam, the second man, who will be crowned with glory and honor, and finally presented the legal right to rule and reign over the heavens and the earth. Jesus individually attained to this, but the process of the corporate Christ is ongoing.

Prior to the first advent, there was a man sent from God. His name was John. Doug asks the question as to the anticipation of another man prior to the second advent, "Where's the man? ... That man will be a corporate manifestation of the manhood of Christ." We heard all about that in the last series of messages posted. John was a light that bore witness to the coming Christ. "That light must have a corresponding realization in the church prior to the rapture. There must be a conclusion, a consummate revelation of Jesus Christ in the church to the angels - to Israel - to prepare Israel, to provoke them to jealousy so there'll be 144,000 from the 12 tribes of Israel sealed." ... "There can be no 144,000 until this testimony is brought to fruition and manifestation upon the earth through the body of Christ."

"'John was the lamp that was burning and shining'... you cannot separate grammatically the burning from the shining." Should we expect anything different from what John experienced? For people to see the shining of Jesus in our lives, it requires our 'burning', being consumed - the crucifixion and reduction of who we are in Adam. "This shining is a demonstration of the character of the man. That burning was consuming everything that would be contrary to the character of the man who was a witness." And what is a witness? "One who is being consumed and one who is shining."

We should contemplate the question: "What has to be burned in order that He might shine? He's the light - we're not." "For the church to be that man which is sent from God... it results and prepares the way for the Word to become flesh. For Jesus Christ, the Word, to become flesh in His church, there's a lot that's going to have to go... a lot of decreasing... a lot of burning. And the day of visitation will be God's means and time in history to bring that to pass."

Doug asks a probing question: "How could Jesus Christ become the head unless the head of John the Baptist was removed?"

"How does that which represents a witness prepare for the Lord's coming in our generation? God's dealings will be no different with that righteous remnant than it was with John. There's going to be a wilderness period; there's going to be a time of obscurity, unknown to man, but there becomes a time when that witness becomes public and it's a final confrontation with the established order of religion, the powers of darkness; and that instrument will be sacrificed so that the headship of Jesus Christ can be established. He will lose his head. Whether that's martyrdom or whether that is anything to do with man being the head, it's gonna go; there's only going to be one head at the end. The head of that body is going to be Christ." Wow!!! I don't want to say too much here, but I believe this speaks to our situation as a local church losing Doug - I believe to martyrdom - and the increasing reality of Jesus Christ becoming the head.

Doug challenges the institutional church where people follow men or certain ministries instead of the head of the body, the great Shepherd of the sheep. "Where do you see in the early church where you have a person standing up, and then everyone that is in the congregation of the Lord's people all looking at the back of people's heads once on Sunday?... one man who is paid to give the message, and then we don't see each other the rest of the week. That's not the church."

Doug concludes this message: "There needs to be today a people that will give birth to that which will give God what He requires and what He needs for Jesus Christ to return. There has to be this witness; there has to be that burning and shining lamp; there has to be those who are willing to decrease that He would continue to grow in them, that they would become less and inferior and decrease so that testimony can come forth and bring this age to its consummation in preparation for the Lord's return."

Recommended Resource: Art Katz - True Fellowship (https://benisrael.org/product/true-fellowship-church-as-community/)