Know the Righteousness of the Lord

Micah 6:5

Most Christians claim that they know what it takes to be righteous. Things such as reading your Bible, having a daily prayer time, giving in the offering and going to church regularly will usually find their way onto the list. All of these things are great, but none of them make us righteous. These things come from those who are righteous, but they in no way improve upon their righteousness.

Believers are made righteous because Jesus was made to be sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). Our right standing with God comes now, not because we keep all of the law perfectly, but because Jesus did, and the Father accepts Him. If God accepts Jesus, then God shows us His righteousness by accepting us (Romans 3:26). If we see how righteous that He is through His acceptance of us, then we have an insight into the righteousness of God.

God spoke through Micah, stating that Israel could know how righteous that God was by remembering the story of Balaam and Balak. Balak was the king of Moab, and he watched as the nation of Israel marched past his kingdom in the book of Numbers. He consulted with the wizard Balaam to place a curse on God’s people as they were encamped in the valley, taking Balaam to a high mountain to show him a fourth part of the camp. Balaam agreed to do it for the money, but found that every time that he opened his mouth to curse God’s people a blessing came out instead. What God has blessed, no man can curse!

After repeated attempts at cursing God’s people, Balaam made this very telling statement about how God views His own:

“He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them” (Numbers 23:21).

Even though God’s people had complained over lack of water in chapter 20, and had mocked God’s provision of manna in chapter 21, God still sees no iniquity in Jacob or perverseness in Israel. How can this be? Surely not everyone in the camp of Israel had no sin in their life. Remember, Israel has just put the brazen serpent on a pole in chapter 21 and all who looked upon it were healed. That serpent was a type of the cursed Christ at Calvary, of which all who look upon will be saved. Because Christ took the curse, we CANNOT BE CURSED! Thus, when God looked down into the camp of Israel he saw no sin in Jacob or perverseness in Israel.

God specifically uses “Jacob” and “Israel” in His description, though we know that they are the same person. Jacob means “supplanter” or “heel-catcher”. In other words, he was a cheat by nature. Israel means “prince with God”. One represents the hopeless, while the other represents the hopeful. Notice that God saw no sin in Jacob, though by his name he is a cheater. No matter what stage of development that you are in while living for Christ, Jesus is in you as the hope of glory, and you are viewed as sinless in God’s eyes. Praise God!

See how righteous that He is in you by remembering that what God has blessed, no man can curse. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

• Paul White Ministries wants to wish our Music Director Michael White a very happy birthday today!

Find the Right Mountain

Obadiah 1:15-17

Obadiah says that the “day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen: as thou has done, it shall be done unto thee” (1:15). For those who have not accepted Christ, this is a pretty frightening thought! The prophet proceeds to explain that as Israel had heard from God on his “holy mountain”, so the heathen will drink the same thing at this mountain that Israel did. What mountain is he talking about, and what drink will they drink?

The 17th verse answers our question partially, “But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance” (1:17). There is a contrast between two mountains. The first is God’s holy mountain where Israel drank at first. This can only be Mount Sinai, where Moses spoke with God and received the Ten Commandments and all of the written ordinances of the law. Israel drank of God’s wrath from this mountain on more than one occasion and all because they were disobedient to the law that came from the mount.

Mount Zion is never mentioned while Israel is wandering in the wilderness. Of course, that makes sense seeing as Mount Zion is in Jerusalem, and Israel has yet to arrive there, but for the time period that Israel was in while in the wilderness, there is only one significant mountain and that is Sinai, the birthplace of the law. All of Israel was judged there, by the pristine, perfect standards of God’s law.

The author of Hebrews describes two mountains: Mt. Sinai and Mt. Zion (Hebrews 12:18-24). The first burned with fire, was black and dark and the voice that spoke from it could not be endured (vss. 18-20). The second is described as the city of the living God, with many angels, where the church lives with Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant (vss.22-24).

Mt. Sinai represents the law and all of its demands (Galatians 4:24). While telling man how to live, it provides no help in keeping those demands. It came so that sin would explode in man’s heart, showing him his need for a Savior (Romans 5:20; Galatians 3:24).

Mt. Zion represents the New Covenant and the grace of God. There is no fear in approaching it because Jesus lives there, and His blood is speaking great things about our redemption (Hebrews 12:23).

Obadiah’s prophecy shows us that man will ultimately be judged by the Law, because without Jesus, the only other mountain for him is Sinai. When someone rejects Christ, they are rejecting God’s offer of a New Covenant from Mt. Zion. Because of this, they are left only with Sinai and its demands.

As a believer, you should live and dwell and worship at Mt. Zion, where grace flows in abundance. Any attempts at keeping the law to achieve righteousness places you at the base of Sinai, where not even the great Moses could keep from quaking in fear (Hebrews 12:21).

Preachers must move their pulpits from the darkness of Sinai, where the law is preached with trembling and fear; and station themselves in the heaven of Mt. Zion, where the loveliness of Jesus is presented and the New Covenant is free for all by the precious blood of Jesus.
Go to the right mountain today!

Not One Feeble

Psalms 105:37

On the night before God delivered the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, He sent the angel of death to each home in the land. The target was the firstborn of every house, including the cattle. This was to be the last of a series of plagues against Egypt that was to convince Pharaoh to let God’s people go. The difference in this plague from all of the others was that Israel, though not the target was vulnerable to the angel as well; but God had a plan to save His people from death before He delivered them from bondage.

The first Passover happened that night, as God instructed the Israelites to kill a lamb and mark their doors with its blood. They were to then stay in their home all night while the angel of death passed over. While inside, they were to eat all of the lamb, roasted with fire, saving none of it until morning. They could rejoice and sing or cower in the corner in fear; none of that mattered, only the blood.

When the angel of death came over and saw blood marking the doors of the homes, he moved on to the next house as the blood showed him that something had already died there. If one sacrifice had been made, there was no reason to shed more blood in that house. God maintained His righteousness through this act, and He showed us how His heart of judgment beats.

When God put your sin and sickness into the body of Jesus, He did not do it because Jesus deserved it; but rather because Jesus had lived spotless and was qualified to bear the sins and sickness of the rest of the world. Upon shedding the blood of the Lamb (Jesus), God was satisfied with the sacrifice for sins. When you accept Christ, the door of your heart is marked with the blood of that Lamb, thus God sees only the sacrifice of Jesus when He looks at you. If God were to then judge you for your sins, He would have to ignore the blood that was on the door, doing dishonor to the finished work of His Son.

As the sun broke over the eastern sky in Egypt on the morning of the deliverance, the children of Israel opened the doors to their homes and walked out in perfect health. There were nearly 3 million Israelites that came out of Egypt and the Word says, “there was not one feeble person among their tribes” (Psalms 105:37). How is it possible that among any group of 3 million people in history there would be none feeble? Even more impossible would be to find no feeble in a population of slaves that have toiled every day under the hot desert sun of Egypt. Something mighty must have happened behind those blood stained doors!

Jesus’ death at the cross provided more than your forgiveness of sins; He provided for every single thing that you would ever need. Under strict instructions to eat all of the roasted lamb, God was painting us a picture of Jesus on the cross. The believer is to consume all of the roasted, crucified Jesus. When we consume Him as our sacrifice, we partake into us the health and wholeness of our heavenly Lamb. The ceremony of communion that we observe is a shadow of the substance of the cross. We eat into us His health as we see our sickness and disease in Him. When we do this with revelation, there is not one feeble among us either.

His death has provided forgiveness of sins and freedom from sickness. May we go forth from our spiritual Egypt with the knowledge that He has been so good to us.

Roast With Fire

Exodus 12:8-10

When is the last time that you observed Communion? God gave the church this glorious ceremony as a way of remembering the perfect price that His Son paid for us at Calvary. Each time that you partake properly, you are showing forth the Lord’s death, while exercising your faith in His finished work. Miracles never come by our works, but they do come because of His finished work.

On the night before Israel was to come out of Egyptian bondage, God gave them instructions for what would come to be known as Passover. They were to kill a spotless lamb and mark their doors with its blood. Then they were to roast the lamb with fire and eat all of it. These two were the shadow of a future substance (Hebrews 10:1); the blood on the door being the shed blood of Jesus, applied to the heart of the believer and the roasted body being the body of Christ, judged at Calvary by the fire of heaven, broken for our wholeness.

It was crucial that the Israelites follow the instructions to the letter. Each step in this ceremony is a perfect type of the work that Jesus would accomplish at Calvary. The roasting by fire was symbolic of Jesus receiving into His own body, the judgment of heaven. He was made to be sin for us so that we could be made the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:17). They were told, “Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water” (Exodus 12:9) because we must always see Jesus as crucified and judged for us, not as a baby in a manger. Any reference to Jesus as deliverer that excludes the finished work of the cross is partaking of Jesus raw and soaked with water.

They were also told to eat “his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof” (verse 9). This meant that the Israelites were to consume everything, leaving nothing until the next day. The “purtenance” includes the kidneys, liver and intestines, meaning that God was serious about this lamb! Each part that they ate was a type of Jesus, with them taking His strength for their needs into their own bodies.

Psalms 105:37 says, “He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes”. It seems impossible that of nearly 3 million slaves, there would not be one person who was sick or feeble, but the text bears it out. How might this have been accomplished? It was the roasted lamb!

If their intestines were hurting, they ate the intestines of the lamb. If their head was wounded, they ate the head of the lamb. If their eyes were failing, they ate the unfailing eyes of the lamb. When Christ died on Calvary, His appearance was so marred that no one could look upon Him (Isaiah 52:14). The reason for this was that Jesus took upon Him all of our cancers and tumors and diseases while He hung on Calvary and died. Matthew said, “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses” (Matthew 8:17).

When you partake in communion, see your sickness and your disease in the body of Christ. He said to His disciples, “Take, eat; this is my body” (Matthew 26:26). Don’t wait for your local church to have communion again, partake on your own. Paul said, “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup…” (1 Corinthians 11:26), so there is no such thing as too much!

Know the Righteousness of the Lord

Micah 6:5

Most Christians claim that they know what it takes to be righteous. Things such as reading your Bible, having a daily prayer time, giving in the offering and going to church regularly will usually find their way onto the list. All of these things are great, but none of them make us righteous. These things come from those who are righteous, but they in no way improve upon their righteousness.

Believers are made righteous because Jesus was made to be sin (2 Corinthians 5:21). Our right standing with God comes now, not because we keep all of the law perfectly, but because Jesus did, and the Father accepts Him. If God accepts Jesus, then God shows us His righteousness by accepting us (Romans 3:26). If we see how righteous that He is through His acceptance of us, then we have an insight into the righteousness of God.

God spoke through Micah, stating that Israel could know how righteous that God was by remembering the story of Balaam and Balak. Balak was the king of Moab, and he watched as the nation of Israel marched past his kingdom in the book of Numbers. He consulted with the wizard Balaam to place a curse on God’s people as they were encamped in the valley, taking Balaam to a high mountain to show him a fourth part of the camp. Balaam agreed to do it for the money, but found that every time that he opened his mouth to curse God’s people a blessing came out instead. What God has blessed, no man can curse!

After repeated attempts at cursing God’s people, Balaam made this very telling statement about how God views His own:

“He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel: the LORD his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them” (Numbers 23:21).

Even though God’s people had complained over lack of water in chapter 20, and had mocked God’s provision of manna in chapter 21, God still sees no iniquity in Jacob or perverseness in Israel. How can this be? Surely not everyone in the camp of Israel had no sin in their life. Remember, Israel has just put the brazen serpent on a pole in chapter 21 and all who looked upon it were healed. That serpent was a type of the cursed Christ at Calvary, of which all who look upon will be saved. Because Christ took the curse, we CANNOT BE CURSED! Thus, when God looked down into the camp of Israel he saw no sin in Jacob or perverseness in Israel.

God specifically uses “Jacob” and “Israel” in His description, though we know that they are the same person. Jacob means “supplanter” or “heel-catcher”. In other words, he was a cheat by nature. Israel means “prince with God”. One represents the hopeless, while the other represents the hopeful. Notice that God saw no sin in Jacob, though by his name he is a cheater. No matter what stage of development that you are in while living for Christ, Jesus is in you as the hope of glory, and you are viewed as sinless in God’s eyes. Praise God!

See how righteous that He is in you by remembering that what God has blessed, no man can curse. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

• Paul White Ministries wants to wish our Music Director Michael White a very happy birthday today!

Find the Right Mountain

Obadiah 1:15-17

Obadiah says that the “day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen: as thou has done, it shall be done unto thee” (1:15). For those who have not accepted Christ, this is a pretty frightening thought! The prophet proceeds to explain that as Israel had heard from God on his “holy mountain”, so the heathen will drink the same thing at this mountain that Israel did. What mountain is he talking about, and what drink will they drink?

The 17th verse answers our question partially, “But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance” (1:17). There is a contrast between two mountains. The first is God’s holy mountain where Israel drank at first. This can only be Mount Sinai, where Moses spoke with God and received the Ten Commandments and all of the written ordinances of the law. Israel drank of God’s wrath from this mountain on more than one occasion and all because they were disobedient to the law that came from the mount.

Mount Zion is never mentioned while Israel is wandering in the wilderness. Of course, that makes sense seeing as Mount Zion is in Jerusalem, and Israel has yet to arrive there, but for the time period that Israel was in while in the wilderness, there is only one significant mountain and that is Sinai, the birthplace of the law. All of Israel was judged there, by the pristine, perfect standards of God’s law.

The author of Hebrews describes two mountains: Mt. Sinai and Mt. Zion (Hebrews 12:18-24). The first burned with fire, was black and dark and the voice that spoke from it could not be endured (vss. 18-20). The second is described as the city of the living God, with many angels, where the church lives with Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant (vss.22-24).

Mt. Sinai represents the law and all of its demands (Galatians 4:24). While telling man how to live, it provides no help in keeping those demands. It came so that sin would explode in man’s heart, showing him his need for a Savior (Romans 5:20; Galatians 3:24).

Mt. Zion represents the New Covenant and the grace of God. There is no fear in approaching it because Jesus lives there, and His blood is speaking great things about our redemption (Hebrews 12:23).

Obadiah’s prophecy shows us that man will ultimately be judged by the Law, because without Jesus, the only other mountain for him is Sinai. When someone rejects Christ, they are rejecting God’s offer of a New Covenant from Mt. Zion. Because of this, they are left only with Sinai and its demands.

As a believer, you should live and dwell and worship at Mt. Zion, where grace flows in abundance. Any attempts at keeping the law to achieve righteousness places you at the base of Sinai, where not even the great Moses could keep from quaking in fear (Hebrews 12:21).

Preachers must move their pulpits from the darkness of Sinai, where the law is preached with trembling and fear; and station themselves in the heaven of Mt. Zion, where the loveliness of Jesus is presented and the New Covenant is free for all by the precious blood of Jesus.
Go to the right mountain today!

Not One Feeble

Psalms 105:37

On the night before God delivered the children of Israel from Egyptian bondage, He sent the angel of death to each home in the land. The target was the firstborn of every house, including the cattle. This was to be the last of a series of plagues against Egypt that was to convince Pharaoh to let God’s people go. The difference in this plague from all of the others was that Israel, though not the target was vulnerable to the angel as well; but God had a plan to save His people from death before He delivered them from bondage.

The first Passover happened that night, as God instructed the Israelites to kill a lamb and mark their doors with its blood. They were to then stay in their home all night while the angel of death passed over. While inside, they were to eat all of the lamb, roasted with fire, saving none of it until morning. They could rejoice and sing or cower in the corner in fear; none of that mattered, only the blood.

When the angel of death came over and saw blood marking the doors of the homes, he moved on to the next house as the blood showed him that something had already died there. If one sacrifice had been made, there was no reason to shed more blood in that house. God maintained His righteousness through this act, and He showed us how His heart of judgment beats.

When God put your sin and sickness into the body of Jesus, He did not do it because Jesus deserved it; but rather because Jesus had lived spotless and was qualified to bear the sins and sickness of the rest of the world. Upon shedding the blood of the Lamb (Jesus), God was satisfied with the sacrifice for sins. When you accept Christ, the door of your heart is marked with the blood of that Lamb, thus God sees only the sacrifice of Jesus when He looks at you. If God were to then judge you for your sins, He would have to ignore the blood that was on the door, doing dishonor to the finished work of His Son.

As the sun broke over the eastern sky in Egypt on the morning of the deliverance, the children of Israel opened the doors to their homes and walked out in perfect health. There were nearly 3 million Israelites that came out of Egypt and the Word says, “there was not one feeble person among their tribes” (Psalms 105:37). How is it possible that among any group of 3 million people in history there would be none feeble? Even more impossible would be to find no feeble in a population of slaves that have toiled every day under the hot desert sun of Egypt. Something mighty must have happened behind those blood stained doors!

Jesus’ death at the cross provided more than your forgiveness of sins; He provided for every single thing that you would ever need. Under strict instructions to eat all of the roasted lamb, God was painting us a picture of Jesus on the cross. The believer is to consume all of the roasted, crucified Jesus. When we consume Him as our sacrifice, we partake into us the health and wholeness of our heavenly Lamb. The ceremony of communion that we observe is a shadow of the substance of the cross. We eat into us His health as we see our sickness and disease in Him. When we do this with revelation, there is not one feeble among us either.

His death has provided forgiveness of sins and freedom from sickness. May we go forth from our spiritual Egypt with the knowledge that He has been so good to us.

Roast With Fire

Exodus 12:8-10

When is the last time that you observed Communion? God gave the church this glorious ceremony as a way of remembering the perfect price that His Son paid for us at Calvary. Each time that you partake properly, you are showing forth the Lord’s death, while exercising your faith in His finished work. Miracles never come by our works, but they do come because of His finished work.

On the night before Israel was to come out of Egyptian bondage, God gave them instructions for what would come to be known as Passover. They were to kill a spotless lamb and mark their doors with its blood. Then they were to roast the lamb with fire and eat all of it. These two were the shadow of a future substance (Hebrews 10:1); the blood on the door being the shed blood of Jesus, applied to the heart of the believer and the roasted body being the body of Christ, judged at Calvary by the fire of heaven, broken for our wholeness.

It was crucial that the Israelites follow the instructions to the letter. Each step in this ceremony is a perfect type of the work that Jesus would accomplish at Calvary. The roasting by fire was symbolic of Jesus receiving into His own body, the judgment of heaven. He was made to be sin for us so that we could be made the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:17). They were told, “Eat not of it raw, nor sodden at all with water” (Exodus 12:9) because we must always see Jesus as crucified and judged for us, not as a baby in a manger. Any reference to Jesus as deliverer that excludes the finished work of the cross is partaking of Jesus raw and soaked with water.

They were also told to eat “his head with his legs, and with the purtenance thereof” (verse 9). This meant that the Israelites were to consume everything, leaving nothing until the next day. The “purtenance” includes the kidneys, liver and intestines, meaning that God was serious about this lamb! Each part that they ate was a type of Jesus, with them taking His strength for their needs into their own bodies.

Psalms 105:37 says, “He brought them forth also with silver and gold: and there was not one feeble person among their tribes”. It seems impossible that of nearly 3 million slaves, there would not be one person who was sick or feeble, but the text bears it out. How might this have been accomplished? It was the roasted lamb!

If their intestines were hurting, they ate the intestines of the lamb. If their head was wounded, they ate the head of the lamb. If their eyes were failing, they ate the unfailing eyes of the lamb. When Christ died on Calvary, His appearance was so marred that no one could look upon Him (Isaiah 52:14). The reason for this was that Jesus took upon Him all of our cancers and tumors and diseases while He hung on Calvary and died. Matthew said, “Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses” (Matthew 8:17).

When you partake in communion, see your sickness and your disease in the body of Christ. He said to His disciples, “Take, eat; this is my body” (Matthew 26:26). Don’t wait for your local church to have communion again, partake on your own. Paul said, “As often as you eat this bread and drink this cup…” (1 Corinthians 11:26), so there is no such thing as too much!

Find the Right Mountain

Obadiah 1:15-17

Obadiah says that the “day of the Lord is near upon all the heathen: as thou has done, it shall be done unto thee” (1:15). For those who have not accepted Christ, this is a pretty frightening thought! The prophet proceeds to explain that as Israel had heard from God on his “holy mountain”, so the heathen will drink the same thing at this mountain that Israel did. What mountain is he talking about, and what drink will they drink?

The 17th verse answers our question partially, “But upon Mount Zion shall be deliverance” (1:17). There is a contrast between two mountains. The first is God’s holy mountain where Israel drank at first. This can only be Mount Sinai, where Moses spoke with God and received the Ten Commandments and all of the written ordinances of the law. Israel drank of God’s wrath from this mountain on more than one occasion and all because they were disobedient to the law that came from the mount.

Mount Zion is never mentioned while Israel is wandering in the wilderness. Of course, that makes sense seeing as Mount Zion is in Jerusalem, and Israel has yet to arrive there, but for the time period that Israel was in while in the wilderness, there is only one significant mountain and that is Sinai, the birthplace of the law. All of Israel was judged there, by the pristine, perfect standards of God’s law.

The author of Hebrews describes two mountains: Mt. Sinai and Mt. Zion (Hebrews 12:18-24). The first burned with fire, was black and dark and the voice that spoke from it could not be endured (vss. 18-20). The second is described as the city of the living God, with many angels, where the church lives with Jesus, the mediator of the New Covenant (vss.22-24).

Mt. Sinai represents the law and all of its demands (Galatians 4:24). While telling man how to live, it provides no help in keeping those demands. It came so that sin would explode in man’s heart, showing him his need for a Savior (Romans 5:20; Galatians 3:24).

Mt. Zion represents the New Covenant and the grace of God. There is no fear in approaching it because Jesus lives there, and His blood is speaking great things about our redemption (Hebrews 12:23).

Obadiah’s prophecy shows us that man will ultimately be judged by the Law, because without Jesus, the only other mountain for him is Sinai. When someone rejects Christ, they are rejecting God’s offer of a New Covenant from Mt. Zion. Because of this, they are left only with Sinai and its demands.

As a believer, you should live and dwell and worship at Mt. Zion, where grace flows in abundance. Any attempts at keeping the law to achieve righteousness places you at the base of Sinai, where not even the great Moses could keep from quaking in fear (Hebrews 12:21).

Preachers must move their pulpits from the darkness of Sinai, where the law is preached with trembling and fear; and station themselves in the heaven of Mt. Zion, where the loveliness of Jesus is presented and the New Covenant is free for all by the precious blood of Jesus.
Go to the right mountain today!