Morning Star Testimony - Sermon Notes

Chapter 1 - Our Heritage

Dear Saints,

This series originally posted in September and October of 2014.

My notes:

As Doug introduces us to this message from Hebrews, he breaks down the word 'heritage' as another word for 'inheritance' - a word we are much more familiar with and hear so regularly in Doug's teaching over the years. The other point to be made is that that inheritance is ours, even as the land of milk and honey was given at the beginning of Israel's journey out from Egypt, but it had to be occupied and fought for - to be theirs it required dispossessing the enemy and possessing the inheritance. For the church, the heritage (inheritance) is ours in Christ and obtained through and by Christ in us. "'You HAVE come' - with the fact and reality that you remain there forever.

The concept of inheritance is two-fold: God has us as His inheritance (Ephesians 1:18); and Christ is our inheritance (Ephesians 1:14). As the inheritance is promised to us, it requires us to fight for it and possess it. The promised land to Israel is the example we have. Though the entire land was promised, they had to conquer it but dispossessing the enemy and possessing the land. As we've heard Doug teach many times, salvation is given to us as a gift without works; the inheritance is obtained by conquest: "heaven suffers violence, and violent men [seize] take it by force" (Matthew 11:12)

[Doug] "So our inheritance in Him is complementary and completely dependent on Him obtaining the riches of the glory of His inheritance in us."

[Sparks] "In Christ God has wholly, fully consummated the redemption, the new creation, and you and I have no part whatever in making that, but you and I are called to inherit it." "God has in Christ com­passed all that is bound up with man's glorious de­stiny, and has offered it to faith."

[Doug] "When we're born again, we have a responsibility to possess our inheritance - and to keep it and to guard it... we have immense responsibility upon us to enter into and come to the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."

Speaking of our entering into our rest, Jesus Christ being God's rest, Brother Sparks adds, "If Christ has really become our home in terms of rest, has He not become the very centre and sphere of our delight, of our pleasure? ... Christ in Person and Christ's work: our pleasure, our delight."

In our Father's house where there are many abiding places, we "come to the place where we can abide for­ever and go no more out and find eternal satis­faction and rest ... And where, in all God's universe will that be if it is not in Christ? He is our abiding place."

"So Christ should be all this to us, because He is all this to God. God has come to rest. God has come to settlement and to certainty in the Person and work of His Son. God finds all His pleasure in Him and all His interest in Him. All that. And God has given Him in all these terms and senses to us as a heritage. It is a challenge to faith isn't it? Is Christ to us rest, our delight and pleasure, our abiding place, our one absorbing interest?"

In Doug's conclusion of this message, he challenges us: "The message of Christ and His inheritance has to be true of us. We can't be just people who believe we have an inheritance in Christ. We have to be those that are actually coming into possession. We have to be in some measure in possession of what we're reading here in this first chapter."

      Link to Audio: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/9-14-14+Sunday+Assembly.mp3

The Discussion following the message went very deep and includes Doug's very emotional testimony. This message by T. Austin-Sparks obviously had a tremendous effect on the assembly.

Link to Discussion: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/9-14-14+Sunday+Assembly+-+2.mp3

Chapter 4 - The Universal Range of the Eternal Purpose

Dear Saints,

This message originally posted in December 28, 2014.

My notes:

As Brother Sparks instructs us of God’s eternal purpose, he identifies that which is most important for today – the culmination and consummation of the church age that will bring about the day of the Lord and the millennial kingdom: “What the Lord is after, what the Lord needs, what the Lord is seeking to possess Himself of is a vessel in such relationship to Himself and His throne in the heavens, as will bring that throne and that heavenly dominion and authority very mightily to bear upon the whole spiritual system of His enemy, the principalities and powers and the world rulers of this darkness and the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenlies, as they have control of this cosmos; to register the throne of God upon those forces and upon the cosmos.”

Doug refers to this as the purpose and reason for Morning Star Testimony Church and its ministry to SRA survivors.

I wonder if most Christians think God’s eternal purpose is getting people saved so we can go to heaven. Once we have that ‘ticket’ to glory, we can just sit back, enjoy God’s abundant life, and wait for that glorious day Jesus comes for His church. Do many of us know there’s a warfare we’ve been conscripted to fight in? Do we know there’s an enemy totally invested in keeping us dumbed down and ignorant of our spiritual calling? Do we believe that since it’s in the Bible and has been prophesied that it will automatically happen? Didn’t Daniel believe Jeremiah’s prophecy that the captivity of Israel would end after seventy years? Why pray for something that is going to happen anyway?

“God does nothing but in answer to prayer.”  John Wesley

“It is on prayer that the promises wait for their fulfilment, the Kingdom waits for its coming, and the glory of God waits for its full revelation.” Andrew Murray (With Christ in the School of Prayer)

Daniel was God’s prayer instrument through which the prophecy is fulfilled. Had Daniel just went with the flow there in Babylon and decided he had more important things to do than pray three times a day, day after day, God would have raised up another. Instead of seeking his own interests, Daniel travailed for the Lord’s interest. Therefore, Daniel was entrusted with such a far-reaching prophecy we are only now coming into its revelation as to what will happen as Satan’s kingdom is destroyed and God’s kingdom is finally established on Earth.

As Doug read, “The testimony of Jesus… (we are) joined with Him in His heavenly position for that testimony not only to men, but to men by reason of having dealt with the spiritual powers and intelligences back of men”, he identified this as the purpose of our corporate weekly prayer meetings for about 40 years.

“Not all the members of the Church which is His Body are there, or are going on there, but the Lord will from His people obtain a company which will be the vanguard of the whole, and which will go on with Him and take the heavenly place and be His instrument for the breaking through and leading a way for the others. That is the peculiar vessel upon which the heart of the Lord is set.” If we don’t answer God’s call, others will, but will result in our ultimate loss of potential reward. Spiritual infants will not be those ruling and reigning with Christ in His soon-coming Kingdom. This is a matter of sonship – those who attain to sonship in which God can entrust His authority. “The vessel, the Church, the Body, will be the instrument of administration; administrative in relation to the throne.” The “prodigal son” for a time only sought for self-interest, but when he repented and returned to his father in humility and submission, he could then, and only then, be entrusted with the father’s robe and ring.

“We must be crucified to the world, and crucified as men to the flesh, and thus must any ground of Satanic activity be taken away from him so that he has nothing which is his essential occasion for bringing about an arrest in the testimony. That is essentially the meaning of our being in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus.” We must experientially come to an end in who we are in Adam, dead in trespasses and sins, and experience resurrection life in Christ with no ground, no foot-hold, no occasion for Satan to thwart our purpose for being here in this particular time when Jesus is finishing the process of building His church. Once that is complete, the fulness of the Gentiles, the number of those chosen in Christ before the foundation is reached, and the goal attained, “the unity of the faith, and of the [full] knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect [mature] man [i.e.: sonship], to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ”, then the day of the Lord can commence, and 7 years later the Lord and His bride come to Earth to wipe out the enemies of the Kingdom and establish His rule and reign. Satan is doing all he can to thwart that day – or at least delay it indefinitely – but as prophesied, it will come to pass. It’s our opportunity to hasten that day: “what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God.” (1 Peter 3:11-12)

Link to Audio: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/12-28-14+Sunday+Assembly+edited.mp3

Chapter 3 - The Basic Principle of Spiritual Effectiveness

Dear Saints,

This message originally posted in December 24, 2014.

My notes:

Once again Brother Sparks challenges where we are in terms of moral correspondence with Jesus Christ, not in the positional sense as to who we are in Christ, but who we are in our day-to-day life and experience. "No life can be spiritually effective, can count for God in the spiritual realm, bring in the government of God, can uphold or maintain or advance the testimony of Jesus, stand against the powers of darkness, bring the consummation of the ages nearer, which is the overthrow of the whole satanic kingdom and the bringing in of the universal rule of the heavens, only in so far as that life is in a position of absolute separation from everything in that realm against which that testimony of Jesus stands. If you have one link, one point of contact voluntarily with that system through any medium, you are crippled, you are paralyzed."

If you break down this sentence into a list of our potentiality as to sonship, those who are spiritually mature and equipped, it’s a real eye-opener. You’ll hear Lori in the Discussion referring to this also:

ü  bring in the government of God (i.e.: the personal rule and reign of Jesus Christ in the millennial kingdom – see 2 Peter 3:12);

ü  uphold the testimony of Jesus;

ü  maintain the testimony of Jesus;

ü  advance the testimony of Jesus;

ü  stand against the powers of darkness;

ü  bring the consummation of the ages nearer;

ü  overthrow of the whole satanic kingdom;

ü  bring in the universal rule of the heavens (now as well as the millennial kingdom).

"Just think, that all the mighty power of the God of the heavens, the kingdom of the God of the heavens is suspended in our lives if there is a questionable thing between us and the Lord, a thing about which we have doubt. Yes, we bind the hands of heaven if we are not absolutely clear on every detail with the Lord and there is not the most complete break at every point with that whole system against which we are here as a vessel of the testimony. Holiness is necessary, separation is necessary; an uncompromising attitude between everything that the Devil offers as a link between us and his system." As Daniel "purposed in his heart" - and he didn't even have the indwelling Holy Spirit as we do - so may we purpose in our hearts to be separated from the world, the devil, and the flesh and live our lives as those who honor God - vessels of honor.

This message goes down deep into the core of our souls – or shall I make it personal? – it went down deep into the core of my soul. Am I hearing from the Lord as He touches that in my life that needs adjustment, correction, or even painful circumcision? Am I willing to discover those issues in my life corrupted with an earth-touch – or worse, a satanic-touch? – and am I willing to cooperate with the Lord as He ‘scourges’ me and make the adjustments and corrections He puts His finger on?

“My son, do not regard lightly the [instructive] discipline (child training; ‘whipping was accepted, along with other disciplinary measures’) of the Lord, nor faint when you are reproved* by Him; for those whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and he scourges (‘to beat with a whip’) every son whom He receives.” (Hebrews 12:5-6)

This is again repeated in Revelation 3:19, “Those whom I love (phile? - ????? – a relationship love; ‘a love founded in admiration, veneration, esteem’), I reprove* and discipline.”

*Note: reproved – “generally with a suggestion of shame of the person convicted; by conviction to bring to the light, to expose; to reprehend severely, chide, admonish, reprove; to call to account, show one his fault, demand an explanation; to chasten, to punish.

"You want God to come in? God will come in in the measure in which you go out. The heavens will come in in so far as we are emptied and stripped of all natural resources, and if we are emptied out to the last drop, that may be God's way of making room for a larger manifestation of heaven."

"When you are weak and conscious of personal helplessness, that is not the time to throw up your hands and say: ‘I am no good for anything and never shall be,’ that is the time to say there is plenty of room for the Lord, and to exercise faith in the Lord to come in, and the Lord's providences and sovereignty operate along the line of weakening us to make us strong."

This message has so much to do with the cross. “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” This is discipleship – being a follower of Jesus. The cross is the negative side of discipleship – but resurrection is the result. As the cross was not the end of Jesus’ life, the cross is not the end of ours; it’s a means to an end. Our decrease results in the increase of Christ in our lives.

I believe you will also enjoy listening to the discussion that followed.

Link to Audio: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/12-24-14+Wednesday+Assembly.mp3

Link to Discussion: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/12-24-14+Discussion.mp3

Chapter 2 - Hell's Hatred of the Vessel of Testimony

Dear Saints,

This message originally posted in December 17, 2014. This was the second session for that day – and I have to say you are in for a real treat! Please forgive me for not being brief in my notes… I definitely got carried away.

My notes:

If you were thinking our individual Christian lives don't really amount to much in the 'big picture' of eternity, think again. Brother Sparks encourages us with an alternative: "Do you realize and recognize that you in all the weakness, the feebleness, the poverty, the insignificance of your own personal life, your own human constitution, your position, if vitally, truly spiritually linked in with God's eternal purpose in and concerning His Son Jesus Christ, chosen in Him before the foundation of the world, called by grace and having responded to that call, a partaker of the heavenly calling, you are moving with God in the Holy Ghost, if that is true of you then you are a part of that vessel through which the government of the heavens is being made manifest in the unseen, and vitally related to the course of this world's history, giving significance to all the happenings of the course of this world; that you are spiritually what Daniel and his three companions were in Babylon." Adding to this, he says, "That is no small calling for you or for me."

Brother Sparks continues to enlighten us as to our significant calling and what it requires: "There has got to be something in our relationship to heaven and God's specified purpose which makes possible the manifestation of that mighty, devil-conquering life in us. We have got to know the power of His resurrection. That is essential to the vessel of the testimony at the end time, unto the end, to get through to the end: it means that we must be that in which the power of His resurrection is manifested. That is not merely an obligation, that is a privilege. It is a costly privilege, but that is what the Lord needs."

As for the end of the church age - that which we certainly are in - Brother Sparks speaks of a testimony to be, manifested in the church, the body of Christ, where death is swallowed up in life - resurrection life: "You and I are called to be a part of that vessel in which the power of His resurrection is manifested, that the murderous plottings of hell are eluded, are overcome, and that the murderer who comes out to destroy before the Lord's purposes are accomplished shall be baffled by the power of His resurrection in us. When we ought to have been dead a dozen times we are still alive. Yes, the Lord wants an adequate vessel for that..."

So what is keeping us from becoming such an 'adequate' vessel? The longer we remain spiritual babies feeding on mothers' milk (1 Cor. 3:1-3; Heb. 5:12-13), the longer it will take for the church to "attain to the unity of the faith, and of the [full] knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." (Eph. 4:13) Remember, all who are born again are children of God; but not all children are adult sons capable of carrying on the Father's business.

When the three refused to obey the law requiring them to serve the gods of the Babylonians nor bow down to its image, did God deliver them FROM the seeming certainty of a very painful death? "Not that they are delivered from the fiery furnace - keep that in mind - not that God comes in and opens a way of escape for them, but the Son of God associates Himself with them in the fire, and the result is that everything goes down before them morally and they come out as kings, they reign morally." God delivered them THROUGH it, not from it. "God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it." Such 'escape' isn't from it, but through it. "Because you (Philadelphia) have kept the word of My perseverance, I also will keep you from the hour of testing..." (Revelation 3:10) - ["from" = ?? (ek) i.e.: from the midst of - not apo (i.e.: from without)]

 "The distinction is largely seen in this, that apo suggests a starting point from without, ek from within; this meaning is often involved in apo, but apo does not give prominence to the "within-ness," as ek usually does." [Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Words]

Later in the message, Brother Sparks adds, "The sovereignty of the heavens does not always work by delivering us out of the trouble. It comes in through the trouble. It is through the trouble that the heavens come in. God gets more by it than by delivering us from it."

God is seeking Daniel companies - those who will take "a strong, though costly stand ... at great cost, which may involve you in a good deal of suffering", "men and women who will take a personal stand, at any cost, upon what they know to be according to the mind of God." This is not easy when we worry about what others will think, what others will say, or how we might be persecuted. "Will the Lord require that? If so, that is the only ground for me to act upon." And when we take such a stand, we just might discover that others around us are influenced to join with us when they see our willingness to be obedient at such cost.

I was struck with this warning from Brother Sparks and recognize this is not just something by the way, but is essential to having authority and power in our lives: "Any professing child of God who has some compromising thing in their life, something that forms a link, be it ever so small, between them and the spiritual system back of this world, they are robbed of power with God and with men and it is not until that thing is dealt with and thoroughly put away that they have any kind of spiritual or moral ascendancy. Until that thing is repudiated from the heart God cannot come in and communicate Himself to them."

"Now what is the dominion of the Son of man over the antichrist in the Church, the vessel? It is the absolute distinctiveness of that vessel, separation, holiness; its complete break with the whole system of the Evil One at every point, and not allowing one touch of defilement with that system." Even though the church will not be here to face the one Antichrist, as the Apostle John tells us there are many antichrists - and the spirit of this age is antichrist. Did you notice Brother Sparks identifying "the antichrist in the church"?

Speaking of our need to walk in holiness and moral ascendancy, Brother Sparks lays out some very practical advice as to what to do when the enemy seeks to draw us out: "He will put a temptation in your way, he will put a suggestion into your mind, he will make suggestions to you, put thoughts into you. In thousands of different ways he puts out a gangway, and he wants you to cross that gangway, to accept that gangway, a link between you and his system. There is no wrong in temptation, beloved, most believers know what it is to have evil thoughts suggested to their minds. It does not mean they have sinned because an evil thought has been suggested, but at the point where they entertain that, respond to that, allow that, they have sinned and made a link with the enemy, and before long that very link is the means of their undoing, their weakness, breakdown, and not until they get back to the Lord and say: 'I allowed that to linger, I added another to it.' or in some way the enemy put out, and we took on, and that has been completely dealt with, wiped out by the Blood, we do not get back our position. The rule of the heavens through the instrument in overthrowing the power of evil demands no defilement, no contact." As he speaks of a 'gangway', we should remember Ephesians 4:26: "do not give the devil an opportunity" (i.e.: ground; a place; power; license).

Brother Sparks continues: "the basic principle of spiritual and moral ascendancy, of dominion, of overthrowing the power of the enemy, of having authority over all the power of the Devil is not in our language, our phraseology, is not the volume of our voice, the forcefulness of our effort, our manner, it is the moral purity of our lives."

He nears the end of this message with this word of encouragement: "The testimony means that up to the hilt there must be no compromise on moral principles; you may stand to suffer, it may be a den of lions. Ah yes, but stand, and in the end you will stand and the other things will have gone, but you will be there. Heaven is on your side; you may lose for the time being, but heaven is on your side and the kingdoms of this world will pass, but the kingdom of the God of heavens is an everlasting kingdom, and it is a kingdom to be given to you if you will stand." Four times we read in the Book of Daniel that "the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses", and once adds, "and sets over it the lowest of men". Wow!

Of this message, Doug says, "That's as hefty as it gets! That's pure gold!" I definitely agree!

Recommended Resource:

T. Austin-Sparks: The Supreme Vocation

https://www.austin-sparks.net/english/000529.html

Eric Ludy: The Two Trees

https://vimeo.com/109009388

Link to Audio: https://dougriggs.s3.amazonaws.com/Assemblies/12-17-14+Wednesday+Assembly+-+2.mp3

Chapter 1 - The Abiding Message of the Book of Daniel

Dear Saints,

This message originally posted in December 17, 2014. Doug mentioned his desire to move from the last series of messages, The Fight of the Faith, on to this series. I’m certain you won’t be disappointed he selected this as next.

My notes:

As we take this journey into the prophecies of the Book of Daniel, Doug answers the question, Why are we here? "We're being prepared for that final release of divine power for the destruction of the kingdoms of this world so the Lord and His Christ can take the helm of world history."

Though the church and the age of grace (i.e.: the church age) is hidden as a mystery throughout the Old Testament (the 'sacred secret' - we heard that message in the last post), once we came to the time where the mystery is revealed, we can now see the bigger picture of what the Old Testament reveals. They didn't know what all this meant back then - but since the revelation of the mystery was entrusted to the Apostle Paul, we can now be in the good of such great revelation when we read and study the Old Testament.

As the church should expect tribulation and persecution (John 16:33; Romans 5:3; 12:12), Brother Sparks further defines its source, "If you come by the Holy Spirit into God's immediate age-purpose spiritually, livingly, and range yourself with Christ as Lord, to be a witness unto Him and His Lordship in this earth, you range yourself against hell and hell at once takes account of you and you become an object of significance and importance."

Are we are willing to be a 'Daniel instrument' in these last days? - a company of believers that gather on a regular basis as a prayer ministry to the Lord and be brought "into a living and experimental (experiential) relationship to Himself" as the One who will consummate this age? "Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God..." (2 Peter 3:11-12). As we can see from this passage, we have the opportunity to hasten the coming of the Lord by our conduct and testimony. Though the destiny of Israel was foreknown and foretold, it took a Daniel to pray three times a day for 69 years. Beginning in 1727, the Moravians prayed 24/7 for 110 years* and the result was the reformation - the age of Philadelphia (Rev. 3:7-13).

“God does nothing but in answer to prayer.”  John Wesley

“It is on prayer that the promises wait for their fulfilment, the Kingdom waits for its coming, and the glory of God waits for its full revelation.” Andrew Murray (With Christ in the School of Prayer)

*https://www.revivalandreformation.org/resources/all/the-moravian-100-year-prayer-movement#:~:text=The%20Moravians%20filled%20all%20168,went%20on%20for%20110%20years!