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White Horse Media

Christ our Righteousness

Steve Wohlberg

Christ our Righteousness - Part 1

Dear Father, Heavenly Father, what an awesome privilege it is to be here in Michigan before pastors and teachers and Bible workers and conference leaders.

Lord, you know that we are in amazing times.

There's a lot happening in the world and there's a lot happening in the church, in your church.

You know the difficult travel, travel trip that I've just had.

And thank you for bringing me here safely, in spite of the weather and the delays and the rerouting of my flights and a flight in the middle of the night.

Help us to be like little children listening to your voice.

Okay, I would like to start with a number of verses in the book of Revelation.

Revelation chapter 14, I'm assuming you have your Bibles.

It's great to be in the Michigan conference.

Elder Gallimore is on our White Horse Media Board now, which is a big blessing to us.

Revelation 14, we know the 3 angels' messages, we need to know them better, but at the end of the 3 angels, this is something I've just recently been really thinking about and impressed with.

Revelation 14, verse 14, when the 3 angels' messages are done, when the work is done, after the loud cry and the close of probation and the time of trouble and everything that is ahead of us.

Verse 14 says, "'And I looked and behold a white cloud.

And upon the cloud 1 sat like the son of man, having on his head a golden crown and in his hand a sharp sickle.

And another angel came out of the temple crying with a loud voice to him that sat on the cloud, thrust in your sickle and reap for, and then What does it say?

For the time has come for you to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.

I've recently just been thinking about that 1 little phrase there, the time has come for you to reap.

And recently I've been doing a lot of study concerning Lucifer's rebellion in heaven, Patriarchs and Prophets chapter 1.

There's a lot of light in that chapter about what Lucifer went through and his arguments to convince the angels to join his side in his warfare against God.

And it's very clear in Patriarchs and Prophets 1 that the reason why God didn't destroy Lucifer right away was because he wanted to give him time, time to develop his character.

Because the angels at that point had never seen rebellion before.

They had never seen anything like this before.

And if God just eliminated him, there'd be a lot of questions that would still be there in his universe.

He wanted everything to be out in the open so everybody, all the angels would know why his way is the right way.

But he couldn't do that without allowing Lucifer time to develop his principles.

The rebellion had to get ripe, if you know what I mean.

And so that's really the whole reason why God has allowed this whole great controversy to go on in the first place.

He's given a period of time, 6, 000 years approximately, to allow the great controversy to develop so that the whole universe and eventually all humanity, that we can all see what is the real fruit of evil and what is the real fruit of righteousness.

What does evil really look like and what does righteousness really look like?

And of course, 1 of the biggest demonstrations was on the cross, when the universe saw Satan in his hideousness.

And they saw God and his love in the most incredible way that's ever been revealed.

Now, as I'm thinking about the last days, it seems to me that God is following the same principle with what's going on in the world and in the church.

And when things develop, we're told that the wheat and the tares grow together until the harvest, right?

And this verse in verse 15 says, the time is come for you to reap for the harvest of the earth is ripe.

That tells me that the Lord is gonna wait until the harvest is fully ripe before he returns and puts in the sickle.

So I think we're seeing this in the world, and I hate to say it, but I think we're gonna see things in the church as well, that we're gonna see evil ripen, like we've never seen it before.

And by contrast, if evil is gonna ripen, then what else is going to ripen?

Both sides that are going to ripen are pinpointed in Revelation 22, verse 11.

He said to me, seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book, for the time is at hand.

There again we have timing, just like the time has come to reap, the time is at hand.

And then verse 11, Jesus says, he that is unjust, let him be unjust still.

He which is filthy, let him be filthy still.

He that is righteous, let him be righteous still.

And he that is holy, let him be holy still.

And behold, I come quickly, And my reward is with me to give every man according as his work shall be.

So we have his coming after both sides are completely crystallized, right?

Probation closes, the 2 groups are fully ripe, and then Jesus returns.

On the 1 side, we have those who are unjust and those who are filthy.

So if we wanna, you know, kinda put some words to what it's like to be on the wrong side, those are the 2 words that the Lord uses at the close of probation.

So we can expect to see a lack of justice and injustice growing and getting ripe.

And we can expect to see filthiness getting ripe in this world.

And on the other side, we can expect to see, Jesus says, he that is what?

He that is righteous, let him be righteous still, and he that is holy, let him be holy still.

And as I was just thinking about these verses, it just impressed me that the harvest is ripening and God wants to ripen us on the right side.

He wants us to be getting, he wants righteousness to be growing among his people and he wants holiness to be growing among his people at the same time that injustice or the unjust and filthiness is growing at the same time.

I mean, the Lord just draws the line, puts both sides right there.

So tying this in with righteousness by faith, The only way that we can be, as Jesus says here, he that is righteous, let him be righteous still.

That's where righteousness by faith comes in.

The message of the righteousness of Christ is a message that is going to develop God's people so that they are righteous.

And that's what I hope to sort of unpack this workers' meeting.

How does that become practical so that we can be in this group?

And the only way we're gonna get righteous is by faith.

The only way we're gonna get righteous is through Jesus Christ.

Christ our Righteousness - Part 2

Dear Father, dear God, thank you for bringing us together to look at your Word and at Bible truth and that Jesus Christ is our righteousness.

And you are calling your people to give your message to the world.

And we need to understand it and experience its power.

And we pray for your blessing right now in Jesus' name.

Revelation 14 verse 9 says, the third angel followed them, saying with what kind of a voice?

I really believe that the time is gonna come when the third angel's message is gonna be shared loudly with this world.

I, my conviction is that God has allowed the technology that is here, He's allowed this for a reason because he wants to use it to lighten the earth.

Now technology isn't gonna lighten the earth, it's the message of Jesus that's gonna lighten the earth, but he's gonna use technology.

You know, it's really interesting that if you go back 2, 000 years ago, it said, the Bible says, when the fullness of time was come, God sent forth his son.

And in Desire of Ages, it talks about how part of the fullness of time was the fact that there was 1 dominant Empire, which was the Roman Empire, and there was generally a common language.

And then there was a common system of roads.

And there was a whole situation that God had been developing and that he knew this is the context, that I'm gonna spread the message of Jesus and his resurrection and the Holy Spirit coming down on the day of Pentecost into the Roman world.

And that's what allowed Christianity to spread out and to become what it became just a few years after the resurrection.

There was a common language, there was communication, there was roads, there was 1 empire.

The time was ripe for the gospel to spread in the Roman world.

And I think we're just about there again, that we're getting close to the fullness of times.

And to me, it's not an accident that this technology is here, that we can be recording these programs, and these programs can go out online, and people can watch them or listen to them.

Our ministry, White Horse Media, we feel deeply convicted that more and more God wants us to be using the technology that's available through Facebook and Twitter and YouTube.

We know the devil's using technology, we know that, but the Lord is using it too.

And I believe God is getting things ready for the final burst that's gonna lighten the whole earth with its glory.

Just think how amazing, I've often thought about this, how amazing it was when Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego were thrown into that burning, fiery furnace.

And then Nebuchadnezzar thought that they were all gonna burn up, and then he looked, and they were still standing there, and then he said, there's a fourth 1 in there.

And that fourth 1 looks like the Son of God.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, come out.

I thought if I would have been Shadrach, I wouldn't have come out right away.

I would have, you know, if I'm there in the fire with Jesus, I would like to stay there for a while and talk to the Lord.

I have a higher king that I'm following, not Nebuchadnezzar.

So who knows how long they stayed there and talked to Jesus, but eventually they came out.

And have you thought about that moment when these 3 men walked out of that pit, whatever it was, and they walked out in front of the whole Babylonian kingdom of all their administrators.

And at that moment, the eyes of all the administration, they were glued to these 3 men who were not burned up, who walked out of that fire.

I mean, that must have been 1 of the most powerful witnessing moments in history.

The whole Babylonian Empire, at least those that were, the administration as far as we know, they were all there and they were staring at these 3 men, 3 men.

First angel, second angel, third angel, 3 angels.

And the time is gonna come when God's message of the 3 angels is gonna command the attention of the world.

And just like Babylon looked at those 3 men, so the world is gonna look at the 3 angels.

And I think that technology is gonna be part of this.

God doesn't need millions and millions and millions of people to finish his work.

He's gonna finish his work with the group that he needs, you know, his 300 or his 7, 000 or however many he has.

I'm gonna go back to Revelation, but another verse just came to my mind.

And I'm just gonna be honest with you, I don't have a lot of notes in front of me right now.

These are 6 presentations that your conference president has asked me to put together in a short time and I've had a lot of other things on my plate and I've been, you know, had travel problems and but I know this information in my mind and so I've just been praying, Lord as I stand before this crowd in Michigan, you know, guide my mind to what you want me to talk about.

Just like I'm wearing my poncho because I don't have any other clothes because my luggage hasn't gotten here yet.

Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved.

But if we think that we're gonna finish the work, it's not gonna get done, because we just can't finish the work.

There's too many people in this world for us to finish the work.

But the good news is the Bible doesn't say, we're going to finish the work.

The Bible says, he will finish the work, right?

There's the message of the righteousness of Christ.

He will finish the work and he will cut it short in righteousness because a short work will the Lord make upon the earth.

When his people are ready, just like Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, when we're ready, God's going to finish this work.

Just like the Babylonian world looked at those 3 men, the world is going to look at us.

God's going to use technology and he's going to use his prepared people to get his message out rapidly.

An angel's gonna come down from heaven with great power, and the earth will be lightened with his glory.

God's gonna take the reign into his own hands, the reign's into his own hands.

So who knows exactly what God has in store for us this week.

The third angel, verse 9, says, the third angel followed them, sang with a loud voice.

Years ago, as White Horse Media was developing, God convicted me that if I, as the Speaker Director of Whitehorse Media, want the Lord's blessing upon our ministry, then I need to do His will, not mine.

I need to get behind his message, not mine.

Christ our Righteousness - Part 3

We pray again for the Holy Spirit to please be here.

Lord, you know I'm very small and I want Jesus to increase as I decrease.

We want to sense the Holy Spirit and to have your direction.

So we pray that you will bless right now and that you will use these recordings to ripple out around the world to instruct your people on the message of Christ our righteousness.

Okay, righteousness, righteousness by faith.

Matthew chapter 6, verse 33 is a verse that I think we all know.

This is a verse that my family, when I dabble playing guitar sometimes, and I know how to play a little song called Seek Ye First, the Kingdom of God.

And it's based on this verse, Matthew 6, 33, where Jesus said, seek, and what's that next word?

And all these things shall be added to you.

It's not our righteousness that we're looking for.

Seeking for His righteousness, Jesus said.

And once we find that righteousness, then everything else will be added to us.

In other words, that's really the basis of everything.

That's the most important thing that we can do, is to seek the righteousness of God.

Now, when we talk about righteousness by faith, it's a term that we're all familiar with.

Those of you who have grown up in the church have heard it over and over and over and over and over and over again.

There's all kinds of different views on righteousness by faith.

And if I were to ask the average crowd, I don't know exactly what all of you would say, but if I were to ask the average crowd, what is righteousness, I'd probably get quite a lot of different definitions.

And I have learned in my journey and in my studies that understanding what righteousness is is absolutely critical to this whole topic.

Now, if you have your book, a copy of my book that you've been given, most of you have been given, God's Last Message, Christ Our Righteousness, I want you to turn to page 31.

Page 31, and there's a quotation here from Wagner and the reference, the footnote there is number 3.

And for the benefit of those who are not here and don't have this book and who are listening to this as a recording, this is from E.J.

It's called Living by Faith, pages 9 and 10, reprinted by Lehman Ministry News.

And years ago when I was at Weimar trying to figure this out I remember reading this quote, this is page 31, 30 and 31.

I read this quote and it really just spoke to me.

And what's happening here is Wagner is talking about the term righteousness, the righteousness of God.

Romans chapter 1, verse 17, talks about how I'm not ashamed, Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation.

And then he talks about the righteousness of God is being revealed from faith to faith.

So Wagner comments on this in your book here, page 30 at the bottom.

It says, this expression, and the expression has to do with the righteousness of God, this expression has been the subject of much learned discussion by theologians.

And very few of them are agreed as to its meaning.

The fact that learned men are disagreed in regard to it need not frighten us with the thought that it cannot be understood, for we read that the things which have been hidden from the wise and the prudent are revealed to the babes.

If we are but simple enough to accept the obvious scripture meaning as explained by the scriptures, We need not be in darkness.

So I was reading that when I was at Weimar and I thought, okay, keep going.

And then he says, next paragraph, 1 of the greatest causes of the failure of many people to understand the Book of Romans, and indeed any other portion of Scripture, is a failure to hold to first principles and Bible definitions.

Men attempt to define some terms according to their theological training, and they find it hard work to make them fit.

Then if they at any time accept the Bible definition of a term, they do not adhere to it, but give it some other meaning the next time they meet with it.

This can lead to nothing else but confusion." And isn't that true?

The cause of the difficulty in understanding this text, which he's commenting on Romans 117, is a failure to cling to the Bible definition of the term, the righteousness of God.

And then he says, we have already seen that it is an expression indicating God's character and that character is set forth in the 10 commandments.

And what Wagner then does in his little book, and he does this in many other places in his writings, is he proceeds to quote Bible verse after Bible verse after Bible verse, showing that the term righteousness is defined by the 10 Commandments, which is an expression of the character of God.

Now, I was talking with Elder Mischief a little while ago, and he was thrilled that we were gonna take a look at some Bible verses.

So let me just get a couple of volunteers here.

If you, and then somebody else find Isaiah 51 verse 7.

And then somebody else, find Romans chapter 9, or I'm sorry, Romans chapter 8 verse 4.

Okay, Romans, okay, now we're gonna save Romans 9.31.

My tongue shall speak of your word for all your commandments are righteousness.

Okay, my tongue shall speak of your word For all your commandments are righteousness.

Okay, my tongue shall speak of your word, for all your commandments are righteousness.

We have it here, and wait till you get the mic so we can get this On the recording.

Listen to me, you who know righteousness, you people in whose heart is my law.

He says, listen to me, you who know righteousness, you people in whose heart is my law.

So he's using righteousness as a phrase that is defined by his law.

We've got this over here, okay, or here we've got it over here.

The righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit." Okay, notice the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled.

I think you had it, this young lady over here.

You had Romans 9, over here, Romans 9 31.

Let me open my Bible, because I wanna 0 in on this text.

Christ our Righteousness - Part 4

Heavenly Father, in the name of Jesus, we pray for the Holy Spirit to be our teacher.

Jesus, you said, my sheep hear my voice, and I know them and they follow me.

And may I just be a channel for your voice.

Help us to understand righteousness by faith and use these recordings to speak to people all over the world.

And when Ellen White went into vision, she would say, glory, glory, glory, glory.

The Bible says that the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, the third angel is glory.

It warns, if any man worship the beast and his image and receive his mark, I'll talk about that tomorrow, some of the details of the warning of the third angel.

But the third angel is a powerful message.

Here are they that keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.

It's a verse for Seventh-day Adventists and it's a verse for the world.

Now, let me share a couple of sentences from my book, God's Last Message, Christ Our Righteousness.

If you have this book, grab this book and look at page 118.

For the recording, this book is available from White Horse Media.

It's probably available in an ABC near you.

Series

Christ our Righteousness

Christ our Righteousness - Part 4

Transcript

Parent Series

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