Transition from the Outer Man to the Inner Man - Session 2 - by Pastor Doug Riggs

This message was originally recorded March 16, 2016.

My notes:

In this message, Doug mentions the often incorrectly interpreted scripture about the two grinding at the mill, and one is taken. The one taken is not referring to the rapture, but taken into judgment, and the one remaining goes into the millennial kingdom. This was the same correction I heard Doug teach way back in the late 70's that the Lord used to open my ears to hear Jesus as my Shepherd speaking through Doug. How grateful I am that God shut my mouth and opened my ears those many years ago.

Doug speaks of a time Satan was cast out. "The flesh - the old man is the interface between Satan and this world - the old man... When God dealt with sin in the flesh, that is, what we are in Adam, Satan is cast out." This occurred 2,000 years ago, but the means of casting Satan out of our lives now goes back to that principle that the only ground Satan has in us is that old man (flesh). When we put that off and put on the new man in Christ, Satan loses his access in us. Satan, as "the prince of the power of the air rules this world through that which is the unregenerate man. He can also have rulership and authority over uncrucified flesh in Christians. The cross is God's only provision for that which is uncrucified flesh practically to be dealt with, and to whatever degree that has occurred in our lives, Satan is out."

"God not only dealt with sin, but when He dealt with sin, when He dealt with the old man, when He dealt with the flesh, He dealt with Satan." - "As we face the end leading up to the rapture, when the prince of this world comes corporately to the body of Christ, that which is not Philadelphia is going to be his. He will devour it." This past weekend we heard the news that the 1st Baptist Church building in Dallas was burned to the ground (the original structure). No one was injured or killed, but I was thinking about this. Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy. God allowed him to destroy the building. I believe it is a portent of more destruction to come on the organized institutional church. God graciously spared lives, but that won't continue if we understand what the warnings to the church are.

In the Gospels we read of the time prior to the cross when Jesus said His hour had not come yet. He also said that Satan had no ground in Him. "Satan, and all of his instruments, could not take His life. That same Christ is in us. We can't be removed from this earth unless His hour in us has come." Additionally, Psalm 90:12 speaks of the number of our days along with Job (14:5), “Since his days are determined, the number of his months is with You (God); and his limits You have set so that he cannot pass."

In this session, Doug is bringing up many of the positional truths revealed in the scriptures, especially those related to who we are in Christ. We died with Him; we were buried with Him; we were raised with Him; we ascended and were seated with Him, etc. Though these are true, we must by faith come into the good of all these experientially as our personal reality. When we fail to appropriate positional truth, we falter and fail in living the resurrection life secured for us in Christ. To better understand all this, Doug often recommended The Complete Green Letters by Miles J. Stanford (https://www.wob.com/en-us/books/miles-j-stanford/complete-green-letters/9780310330516/CIN0310330513G?gad_source=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwqf20BhBwEiwAt7dtdaKvrQwpfDIRyBjdDOPOielxulKeB1tLQ170Imvhv2kKhQTAgg7wihoCY7YQAvD_BwE)

Doug mentions Watchman Nee's book, Sit, Walk, Stand, and describes the three steps that are so important in our Christian walk: 1) positional truth (Ephesians 1-3) - we need to know who we are in Christ before we can walk: "where are you seated?"; 2) our conduct - appropriating by faith these truths (Ephesians 4-6:9) - "as you received from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God" (1 Thessalonians 4:1); 3) once we know who we are in Christ and walk it out in obedience, "having done all, to stand" (Ephesians 6:10 ff).

We are challenged to not only learn about Jesus Christ, but learning Him (Ephesians 4:20). "Learning Him is much more closer to communion and union with Him than learning about Him."

What is 'experiential sanctification'? It is "continually becoming what we already are in Christ". This is why knowledge of positional truth is so important. We cannot effectively live the Christian life without faith. ("As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him" - Colossians 2:6) Where does faith come from? "Faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ." (Romans 10:17) The word of Christ declares what is true of us, and by faith we recon it to be true in us and appropriate it in our conduct and obedience. "There is the carrying out by faith (experiential sanctification) of that which is already true of us" (positional truth). We are to put off by faith what Jesus put off 2,000 years ago as us (the old man, Adam, the sin nature); and we are to put on by faith the new man, what Jesus became in resurrection as the head of the new creation, with us as members of His body. "In Him as the second Man is the fullness of that which represents our potential perfecting."

Link to Audio: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/3-16-16%2Bwednesday%2Bassembly.mp3

Additional Resource mentioned: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/3-16-16%2Bwednesday%2Bassembly.mp3

Eric Ludy's The Blanket Carriers https://vimeo.com/158713792

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!