Morning Star Testimony - Sermon Notes
Jesus' Flesh - The Way Into the Most Holy Place Into the Very Presence of God - by Pastor Doug Riggs
by John Mark on 10/20/24
This was originally recorded on July 23, 2017.
My notes:
"Jesus
Christ is our access into the presence of the Father."
"The
human spirit has to be so released to come into a place of ascendency in our
life that God in Christ through the Holy Spirit is governing the mind, emotion,
and our wills."
"From
the fall (of man), the body, the soul, and the spirit is the way we relate to
reality; this is how we determine reality until the sanctification process
begins (after new birth). Then that whole thing is reversed and becomes spirit,
soul, and body." (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
You'll
hear Doug say, "If we are to go on be being filled with the Holy
Spirit...", it may sound like there's an extra "be" in that
sentence. In an earlier message that Doug gave, he broke down the grammatical
verbs and tenses used in Ephesians 5:18, "be filled with the Holy
Spirit". More literally, though not great grammar in English, it says for
us to be (passive) being (present) filled. In other words, to allow yourself to
continually be in the state of being filled. He continues, "We've got to
understand that the soul can only be filled with the Holy Spirit to the degree
that the human spirit has been released from the flesh, the foreskin of the
heart." What is true circumcision? "It is by the Spirit where the
heart is circumcised... If we still have the foreskin over our hearts... then
there's a veil... that veil is called the flesh." This is how "the
god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might
not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God."
This veil doesn't just disappear when we're born again. It takes the work of
the cross, dying to self, the knife of circumcision to cut it away so we become
sensitive to the leading of the Holy Spirit indwelling our human spirit.
Without this, there is no filling with or by the Holy Spirit.
"We
all enter heaven with a different measure of Christ being formed in us."
Therefore, as the Apostle Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 15, "star
differs from star in glory. So also is the resurrection....", we see that
there are vast differences in the display of the glory of God in Christ shining
through us. This relates to the shakedown at the bema seat where all that is
worthless is burned, and only that which conforms to Christ is left.
We
also discover it's not every man for himself. We have the example in the Old
Testament with Israel conquering Canaan. They had to help each other gain their
inheritance which qualified them to obtain their own. "The measure of
Christ to come to fullness in one another is interrelated and interconnected
with others coming into that fullness together."
So,
what about the life of Jesus while here on the earth? He lived in complete
dependence on His Father. "If we're to walk as He walked, that means He
had to walk our walk first... He's the prototype; He's the template. For that
work of the Spirit in Him in the days of His flesh to be transferred to us,
there has to be a circumcision; there has to be a removal of the veil."
As
this message is titled, Jesus' Flesh - The Way Into the Most Holy Place Into
the Very Presence of God Himself, Doug explains Jesus' flesh is a veil. Like
the veil in the temple that hides the Holy of Holies, "His unglorified
humanity, His flesh, is a veil." So, how do we gain entry into the Holy of
Holies? Through Jesus' humanity - His flesh - His humanity that was sacrificed
on the cross that resulted in the physical veil in the temple being torn top to
bottom. Jesus had no uncrucified flesh; but we do. It's a veil that keeps us
from dwelling in the Holy of Holies until it's circumcised. "We're already
positionally there. In Christ we live in the Holy of Holies. We are in the
presence of the Father. That's positional truth. But experientially, where are
we? We're only there experientially in the reality of the most holy place that flesh in us has been
rent. And the tearing of that veil is really painful."
A
question comes to mind: How many times have we heard bible teachers, preachers,
pastors, evangelists, or anyone else talk about an inheritance to be gained and
potentially lost? If at all, they might want to equate the inheritance to
salvation, so if you’re saved, you have your inheritance; they assume the
inheritance is eternal life. "It's one of the most dumbed-down theological
realities that I've ever seen." As Doug taught us often that salvation is
a free unearned gift, and is a personal individual transaction with the Lord.
However, the inheritance is only gained through conquest, by dispossessing the
enemy and laying claim to our inheritance in Christ. It is accomplished
corporately as we fight not only for our own inheritance, but that of our brothers
and sisters in Christ.
Earlier
this morning I listened to a re-posted message by Jamie Walden originally
broadcasted August 23 of last year that is all about faithfulness, semper
fidelis, always faithful (see resources below for the link). It goes very well
with Doug's message. "When there's an exhortation to enter in, to come
into the fullness of that which redemption has provided, it always has to do
with an inheritance; full reward... That glorifies God to the hilt!"
Link
to Audio: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/7-23-17%2Bsunday.mp3
Link
to Discussion: https://s3.amazonaws.com/bookministry1/assemblies/7-23-17+discussion.mp3
Note:
Transcripts won't be available for some time.
Resources
Mentioned: An Asian Harvest:
An Autobiography by Paul Hattaway
Major
Ian Thomas: The Saving Life of
Christ and the Mystery of Godliness
4
Audios of Major Thomas: https://bookministry1.s3.amazonaws.com/audios/Saving+Life+01.mp3
https://bookministry1.s3.amazonaws.com/audios/Saving+Life+02.mp3
https://bookministry1.s3.amazonaws.com/audios/Saving+Life+03.mp3
https://bookministry1.s3.amazonaws.com/audios/Saving+Life+04.mp3
Gary
Huffman & Doug Woodward: The Revealing: Unlocking Hidden Truths
on the Glorification of God's Children
C.H.
Mackintosh: Notes on the
Pentateuch
Chuck
Missler: The Mystery of
Melchizedek (I'm not sure if this was what Doug was
referring to in July 2017.)
Watchman
Nee: The Release of the
Spirit
Jamie
Walden: SEMPER FIDELIS: An
Invincibility Complex For The Days Ahead
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!
God's Flexible Sovereignty and Man's Responsibility - by Pastor Doug Riggs
by John Mark on 10/16/24
This was originally recorded on April 9, 2017.
My notes:
This
is a good follow-up to the last message I posted, "The Lord has Numbered
our Days"?.
We've
learned there is the direct will of God and there is the permissive will of
God. We know God is sovereign. We know God is immutable, which means He does
not change. There are things we see in the word of God where there is no
flexibility as to the timing and circumstances things will happen. "But as
to timing and the manner in which they are fulfilled, where there is no
specificity, there's flexibility." In this message we are introduced to a
term that may be new to some of us, "flexible sovereignty". We may be
able to "effect the contouring and the sculpting of the manner and way in
which His prophecies which are certain are fulfilled... He has chosen to limit
or contour His sovereignty based upon a fellowship and a working together with
His people."
Think
of the Assyrians living in Nineveh. They were warned they would be destroyed in
40 days. Jonah didn't give them a gospel message or offer them the opportunity
to become proselytes of the Jewish faith. He warned them of God's certain
destruction on their city. It appears Jonah wanted their destruction. After
all, the Assyrians were some of the most brutal and savage enemies of God's
people. For sport they would capture Israelites and have contests to see if
they could skin them alive before they succumbed to death. The Assyrians
deserved to die. Jonah wasn't very happy when he discovered the flexible
sovereignty of God when He ended up staying His hand because the people took
Jonah seriously and cried out in contrition and repentance.
In
this message, Doug gives a wonderful explanation of what the fruit of the
spirit "self-control" means. "It means you're in control of
yourself? Are you kidding me? Have you tried to master self?" No! Rather:
"There's one in me that can take dominion over my self. There is that
which only the Lord can be the master of; He's the only one that can master
self... It is a rule and dominion that is exercised from within in the person
of the Holy Spirit."
The
second part of this message could be better titled: "Being Good Stewards
of our Physical Bodies". As for the previous message posted, the context
of Doug giving this is the reality of some very serious life-threatening
physical sickness in the assembly.
As
our bodies, redeemed by Jesus, are members of Christ, and the temple of the
Holy Spirit, and therefore for God, we also see God is for the body (1
Corinthians 6:13). When it comes to what we put into our bodies, Doug explains
all that is called 'food' is not necessarily food. "On our part, we want
to make sure that we are ordering things in our life so that our bodies are for
the Lord. And then I think we'll begin to more and more discover what it means
for the Lord to be for the body."
"Is
there anything on our part that the Lord would bring into adjustment that would
give the Lord the opportunity to be for the body?" ... "We don't
belong to us; our body is not our body."
"There
are rules for winning the prize. There are not rules for getting saved and
staying saved. There are no rules. We're kept; it's a standing in grace (Romans
5:1-2). It's about winning the prize... The rules are in association with, 'If
we endure with Him, we shall reign with Him' (2 Timothy 2:12). That's the
context."
Link
to Audio: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/4-9-17+sunday.mp3
Link
to Transcript: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/2017_04_09+God's_Flexible_Sovereignty_and_Man's_Responsibility.pdf
Recommended:
Erich Sauer's King of the Earth
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!
"The Lord has Numbered our Days" - by Pastor Doug Riggs
by John Mark on 10/13/24
This was originally recorded on March 29, 2017.
My notes:
This
message was delivered in the midst of serious physical health challenges in the
assembly, Doug cites Psalm 31:15 "My times are in Your hand." On my
motorcycle jacket I have a large conspicuous patch that reads:
"Immortal... 'til Jesus takes me home". No one nor any thing can take
our life unless the Lord gives the ‘OK’. Job 14:5 reads, "Since his days
are determined, the number of his months is with You; and his limits You have
set so that he cannot pass." Psalm 139:16: "... in Your book were all
written the days that were ordained for me." And when did God ordain the
days we would live? The verse concludes, "When as yet there was not one of
them." Before we were ever born, our days were determined by God.
"Whatever
the disease that's afflicting different people in this assembly, that does not
determine the number of our days... It does not have authority over that which
the word of God defines our stay here on earth."
As
Doug was reading the details of the awful disease and discomfort Job
experienced, I could not imagine going through something so horrible. It puts
all of my afflictions in the 'not-all-that-bad' category.
No
one could kill Jesus before His time. Since it is His life in us, no one can
kill us anymore that they could kill Him until the time determined by Him. 'Our
lives are hid with Christ in God.' "Until His (and our) mission is
complete, they (whoever wanted/wants to kill Him - or us) can do nothing."
"From
new birth to the time of our departure, our life, our times are in His hands
(Psa. 31:15), and they're in the person of Jesus Christ. His time in each one
of us is His time." Doug exhaustively demonstrates how all of time is in
God's hands, and He is sovereign; not Satan, not circumstances, not fate, not
disease, not happenstance. That should remind us of Romans 8:38-39: "For I
am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor
things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any
other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord."
"All
of hell could not lengthen or shorten anything with reference to the purpose of
God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when He comes into us at new
birth, that same Christ who had His hour then, has His hour in your life and
mine. And so, we stand on that - we stand on that fact. Is sickness real? Yes!
Is it Lord? Absolutely not!!... God's purpose and His faithfulness to the Lord
Jesus in your life and mine is what we stand on." Something Doug used to
say which I so appreciate: “Is it real? Yes! But what is the truth?”
Link
to Audio: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/3-29-17%2Bwednesday.mp3
Link
to Transcript: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/2017_03_29+The_Lord_has_Numbered_our_Days.pdf
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!
Two Men in History – Only Two - by Pastor Doug Riggs
by John Mark on 10/09/24
This was originally recorded on February 5, 2017.
My notes:
"Anyone
that's trying to live by the law is living in a shadow. Anyone that's trying to
press into the Kingdom by observing the Torah is still in the shadows... still
practicing a religion that does not have its source in Jesus Christ Himself,
who is the perfection as man for man in obedience to that law. And Christians
are just as much under law as these Jews were today. Any Christian that's
trying to live by rules, trying to live by outward observance to the law is
under 'Christian' law... Anything that is not Christ Himself is a shadow
religion... it's bondage."
As we
will see, there are only two men - two species of humanity, the first man,
Adam, and Jesus Christ, the second man. "The law is one hundred percent
addressed to the man in Adam, what we are by nature in Adam. The law is not
addressed, and not even given, to the new-creation person in Christ." The
only law the new man in Christ is under is the law of life, the law of the
spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
God
sees us as who we are in Christ and doesn't relate to us in the old man.
"The cross is the only place He (God) can meet us to whatever degree we
still experientially have not made the transition from the outer man to the
inner man... The short time that we've been given on this earth is for us to
experientially make the transition from Adam to Christ."
How
do we make this transition between the old man and the new? There's only one
way: the cross; dying daily. "I die daily; I pick up my cross; I deny
myself; and I'm following Jesus." Recently we listened to a message by
Lance Lambert. Speaking of our crosses, he made it clear the cross is not our
spouse; not our children; not our job; not our aches and pains. "The cross
is THE CROSS." The cross is what we die on. It's not an attractive piece
of jewelry; it's not a statue of a dead man hanging on it. The cross is where
we say "No" to our soul-life and "Yes" to what it means to
follow Jesus.
Doug
challenges us to be those who want 100-fold blessing and reward from the Lord.
It's not about those who tried, strained, or sweated the most to earn the
100-fold. It's "those who understood and appropriated the most grace in
this life."
Speaking
of the old man, Doug says, "That race cannot be redeemed; it has to be put
to death." When first hearing that, it didn't sound right to me. But as
Doug went on to explain it, it made more sense. God did not redeem the old man
to make it better - to improve it - to get it good enough to save. He put it to
death on the cross in Jesus Christ, the representative man in Adam. Instead of
resurrecting that old man, he buried it. It's still there in the tomb. It
wasn't raised. Jesus Christ as the last Adam was crucified and buried. Jesus
Christ as the second man, the Lord from heaven, was raised and we His body as a
new man were raised in Christ. We are a new creation in Christ, not the old
creation redeemed, resurrected, or glorified.
Jesus
Christ didn't spare us, the old man in Adam, from the cross; He didn't die
instead of us; He didn't take our place so we didn't have to die. No, He took
us with Himself on the cross and we in Him died. "I am crucified with
Christ!" says Paul (Galatians 2:20). He wasn't crucified instead of me; He
was crucified as me. Jesus died for our sins, paying the penalty we owe; Jesus
died AS us, taking the entire human race in Adam with Himself into death.
"There is a cross that says that which has its source in Adam cannot
inherit (the kingdom of God)."
"God's
epitaph over the race in Adam; it's a dead loss. That race cannot be redeemed;
it has to be put to death. And redemption is realized in union with Him in
death and burial, and out into resurrection when we become a partaker of that
new creation of that inner man, who is the second man."
For
those who think we receive the Holy Spirit at some subsequent time after we are
born again should reconsider. The godhead cannot be divided. The three persons
of the godhead are not independent from each other, though they are
three distinct persons. "The Lord Jesus, who is now present and active in
the person of the Holy Spirit - so, the whole of Jesus, all of Jesus, and all
of the Father in Jesus, one hundred percent of the godhead is in every
believer. The godhead is not divided."
"The
soul ... still has its roots in Adam; it has to go into death, it has to die to
make way for the inner man, the hidden man of the heart, so that can come into
ascendency, and represent the second man from heaven. God's going to transition
us from our roots in earth to be rooted and grounded in Christ in heaven... the
law giver and the law fulfiller. Then we become heavenly people."
"That
sharp two-edged sword that's coming out of the mouth of Jesus Christ in
Revelation Chapter 1, that sword touches the churches first (Chapters 2 and 3)
before it touches the nations, Revelation 6 through 19. That sharp two-edged
sword coming out of the mouth of Jesus Christ, Revelation Chapter 1, has been
dividing asunder soul and spirit in our lives since the day we were born again
to the present." Doug had often said, "Whatever will not appear in
the resurrection, I want it gone in this life." Often many of us prayed
that we want everything that can be burned to be burned off here in time, so
when we arrive at the judgment seat of Christ (the bema), as the fire tests our
works, there will be nothing to consume, and it will all be gold, silver, and precious
stones... full reward. "We shall all pass through the fire."
Comparing
the church age to the age of Israel, "In our dispensation, there is a step
further than walking with God. It's called walking in God; and Him walking in
us in the person of Jesus Christ." God was with those in covenant
relationship with Him; God is in us in the person of Jesus Christ through the
Holy Spirit, and we are in Him."
Doug
does a deep dive into the mystery, the sacred secret. The mystery that was
hidden from everyone until revealed by the Apostle Paul was not that Gentiles
would be saved. "God's secret is a Person (Colossians 2:1-3), the mystery
of the Christ." The mystery Israel knew nothing of was that there would be
a whole new race of humanity that would be created and completed before they
would be able to reach their foretold destiny. It included the reality that
their Messiah would not only be one single person, but that this Messiah would
include a corporate man, a many-membered body of Christ with Jesus Christ as
its head.
"The
mystery of Christ; the mystery of godliness; that's what birthed our assembly,
the revelation of that mystery which was hidden in God, but has now been
revealed through His saints, through the apostles and prophets... has been
revealed."
Link
to Audio: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/2-5-17%2Bsunday.mp3
Link
to Transcription: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/2017_02_05+Two_Men_in_History-Only_Two.pdf
Link
to Discussion: http://d1kefhswa49zcj.cloudfront.net/assemblies/2-5-17+discussion.mp3
Resource
Recommended: The
Great Transition from One Humanity to Another by T. Austin-Sparks (http://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/great_transition_from_one_humanity_to_another_the.html)
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!
Jesus Christ: The Heavenly Man The Prototype of the Corporate New Man - by Pastor Doug Riggs
by John Mark on 10/06/24
This was originally recorded on January 29, 2017.
My notes:
"For
me to live is Christ, and to die is gain." (Philippians 1:21) "For me
to be living is not doing something... it's a Person." And what is
"to die is gain"? "You gain Christ in fullness." "We
need to know what that is. Otherwise, we're living under the law; living under
rule; living under some sort of obligation... There's Somebody that's already
lived your life for you; He's already walked your path... We don't try to
imitate Him... His walk is recreated as we begin to walk out by faith in the
Son of God." Jesus walked in the power of the Holy Spirit in complete
surrender and dependence on the Father, and this is to become our walk.
As
Doug was speaking of manhood, "He who looks at a servant of God and sees
Jesus Christ, well there's something of manhood there. To whatever degree
people do not see Jesus Christ in us, we're still living out of an old Adam,
and the second man, His features have not come forward in us yet."
"Jesus
Christ is the only heavenly Man; He's the only one who knows what a man
is," man as God intended man to be, as Major Thomas would say.
"Everything about who He is in His manhood as the second man has no roots
or history in Adam or this earth, although He walked this earth. It was
completely one hundred percent a life out from God as the source."
Doug
reminds us there's a huge difference between entering the kingdom of God and
having an inheritance in the kingdom of God. "When you're born again, you
enter; but inheriting, that's a whole other matter. That's conquest.
Inheritance; it's always related to conquest." Apart from Jesus we can do
nothing (John 15:5), but we "can do all things through Him who
strengthens" us (Philippians 4:13). We are to "be strong in the Lord
and in the strength of His might" (Ephesians 6:10). "What a distance
there is from new birth, being begotten of God after the patter of which He
(Jesus) was begotten, to come to that place where people begin to see God the
Father in us in the person of Jesus."
What
about the cross of Jesus Christ and His resurrection? "As the last Adam, I
will terminate that species. As the second man, I bring in a new species; I
bring in a new creation."
"A
heavenly man - a spiritual man - is the consequence of a soul-life that's
dying, a soul-life that's crucified; a soul-life that is not here for self
anymore; but a soul that's under the government of the human spirit in union
with the Holy Spirit that's here to do the will of God. A spiritual man can be
determined rather 'Do you know what the will of God is? Do you know what the
purpose of God is? And are you doing it the best that you know how, in the
light that God has given you?' And does it cost? The spiritual man knows it's a
cost, and it's always a cost."
"I
am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you, that is the Christian life. He is
the Christian life... He, as the last man, (the Lord) from heaven."
Link
to Audio: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/1-29-17%2Bsunday.mp3
Link
to Transcription: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/docs/2017_01_29+Jesus_Christ-The_Heavenly_Man-The_Prototype_of_the_Corporate_New_Man.pdf
Link
to Discussion:
https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/1-29-17%2Bdiscussion.mp3
Resource
Mentioned: Bruchko: The Astonishing True Story of a 19-Year-Old
American, His Capture by the Motilone Indians and His Adventures in
Christianizing the Stone Age Tribe (https://amzn.to/4ekN024)
Maranatha!
John Mark