Repentance - Session 2

This is the second of seven messages Pastor Doug Riggs gave in his interviews with GeorgeAnn Hughes in her podcast, The ByteShow recorded November-December 2011.
Here are my notes:
o This installment of messages deals not only with individual believers’ need for repentance from dead works and from sins we commit, but also the church in general.
o Doug addresses how we quench the Holy Spirit by our dead works in the old man,, and how we grieve Him through our disobedience and sins.
o “The measure in which we learn to abide in Jesus and to appropriate His life daily, appropriate His character, His patience, His love, His righteousness, His sanctification, that is the process of being conformed to the image of His Son. The Holy Spirit is there to help us.”
o “In order to repent from dead works, we gradually come to see that anything we do apart from Him is dead works.”
o Doug addresses examples of church discipline which requires repentance on the part of the offenders as well as repentance if the church needs to make adjustments. This requires exercising apostolic authority as given in the word.
o What was Jesus’s last call for believers to repent? It is what will be required for the church to be raptured in these last days.
o “Revelation 2 and 3 – the whole emphasis is repentance; to be a prepared people for the Lord’s return.”
o John the Baptist’s ministry was to prepare Israel for the 1st Advent and make ready the way for the Lord to come; the ministry in these last days of the church is to prepare for the 2nd Advent and to make ready the way for the Lord to return. Both require repentance.
o “When Jesus Christ returns for His church, judgment will have already begun at the household of God. It will have reached a point where only that which is Philadelphia is left.” – These are ‘those who are alive and survive’ (1 Thessalonians 4:15, 17). “There’s going to be a reduction.”
o Doug gives a very helpful understanding on what Jesus meant when He admonished the church at Ephesus that they had left first love. As we are to love Jesus Christ, we also are to love what He loves – the church, His body.
o Loving what Jesus loves – “to endure, to suffer with Christ until Christ is fully formed in His people. You can’t have a corporate love for Christ as just some separate thing without loving the members of His body… and that love is sacrificial, and seeks the other’s highest good and best, even at the expense of his own well-being.”
o “You can have an orthodox fundamental bible church and not necessarily be a light that reveals Christ in your midst… It’s got to be more than just sound doctrine. It’s got to be Christ in evidence in His people corporately as raised from the dead, the testimony of Jesus – the lampstand revealing the innermost character and nature of Christ to the world – and when we gather together. It’s ‘Christ all and in all.’”
o “If Christ is first love, we’re going to love what He loves most, and that is preparing His bride. We cannot just love Christ and make Him our own private object of devotion, unless we’re loving what He loves.”
o Doug’s prayer: “Grant me the grace to repent every day for the rest of my life; teach me how to walk in repentance every day so that it’s not I – but Christ living in me.”
Resources recommended: https://www.dougriggs.org/Videos.html
The Blessed Hope; The Day of Visitation; The Final Revelation of Jesus Christ
T. Austin-Sparks: Stewardship of the Mystery (read Vol. 2 first)
https://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/stewardship_of_the_mystery_volume_2_the.html
https://www.austin-sparks.net/english/books/stewardship_of_the_mystery_volume_1_the.html
Ruth Paxton: The Wealth, Walk, and the Warfare of the Christian
https://www.lulu.com/shop/ruth-paxson/the-wealth-walk-and-warfare-of-the-christian/ebook/product-12vkgk6n.html?q=The+Wealth%2C+Walk%2C+and+the+Warfare&page=1&pageSize=4
Watchman Nee: Sit, Walk, and Stand
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=sit+walk+stand+watchman+nee&crid=1ZS2H33N86AKC&sprefix=sit+walk+s%2Caps%2C72&linkCode=sl2&tag=tausspaaud-20&linkId=dd6d5d38b2df05fe357a04dca63d9d6a&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl

www.dougriggs.org
www.bookministry.org