THE "OLD MAN" IS DEAD – Andrew Wommack Ministries

Mark 14:41 "And he cometh the third time, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough, the hour is come; behold, the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners."

It is not our individual acts of sin that make us a sinner. It is our sin nature that makes us commit individual acts of sin. Adam’s one sin produced a sin nature in all men that in turn, caused each person to commit individual acts of sin. Jesus not only dealt with the original sin that contaminated the human race, but He also dealt with each individual act of sin.

Anyone who is trying to obtain righteousness through their actions is totally missing the point. Believers are made righteous through faith in Christ, independent of their actions. It’s the same way that everyone was made a sinner: through Adam’s one sin, not through our individual sins.

At salvation, our old man (Rom. 6:6) or sin nature died, but the tendency to sin remains in the thoughts and emotions that the old man left behind. No longer does the Christian have a sin nature that compels him to sin, but he must simply deal with renewing his mind.

Sin ruled like a king through condemnation to bring death upon everyone.

Condemnation is like the general of sin that enforces its power. Likewise, God’s grace now rules like a king through righteousness to bring all who are in Christ into eternal life. Righteousness is the general of grace who defends us against all the wiles of the devil.

Remove guilt or condemnation and sin loses its strength to rule (1 Cor. 15:56). Remove the knowledge of righteousness by faith, and grace loses its power to release eternal life into our daily lives.

OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS IS IN CHRIST – Andrew Wommack Ministries

Matthew 22:11 "And when the king came in to see the guests, he saw there a man which had not on a wedding garment:"

MATTHEW 22:8-14

In this time, it was customary for the host to provide their guests with wedding garments to wear to the wedding. It was an insult of the highest degree to refuse to wear the clothing provided since the guests were brought in directly from the highways and streets. The wedding garment speaks of the righteousness of Christ that God so graciously provides for all who accept His invitation into the kingdom. It must be put on by both good and bad (Mt. 22:10).

Right standing before a holy God is not to be achieved in keeping the law but in humble trust in the person and work of Jesus Christ. No one, who is trusting in his own righteousness, can have the benefit of Christ’s righteousness. The righteousness that gives men relationship with God is the RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD, and it comes freely through faith in Jesus Christ.

The way we obtain this righteousness is by putting faith in what Christ has done for us. When we place our faith in Christ, then the righteousness that Jesus obtained by His faith becomes ours.

Through faith in Jesus, we can receive the very righteousness of God as a gift. God’s righteousness is infinitely more in quality and quantity than man’s puny righteousness. No one can ever be justified in the sight of God based on his own righteousness which comes through acts of holiness. One must have God’s righteousness which only comes through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior. Paul said in Philippians 3:9, "And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith." This is "the righteousness of God."

RIGHTEOUSNESS DEPENDS ON GOD, NOT ON SELF – Andrew Wommack Ministries

Matthew 21:28-30 "But what think ye? A certain man had two sons; and he came to the first, and said, Son, go work to day in my vineyard. He answered and said, I will not: but afterward he repented, and went. And he came to the second, and said likewise. And he answered and said, I go, sir: and went not."

MATTHEW 21:23-24; MARK 11:27-33; 12:1-2; LUKE 20:1-9

This parable was given in response to the religious leaders rejecting Jesus’ authority. Through this parable, Jesus reveals God’s rejection of the Jews in response to their rejection of His Son. Jesus is showing that those who do the will of God are actually the ones invested with God’s authority.

These leaders had a form of godliness like this second son, but they were not doing the will of God. The publicans and harlots had no form of godliness, but when confronted with the preaching of John, many of them repented and began to do the will of God like the first son in the story.

These religious Jews, who sat in the seat of Moses, disqualified themselves from being God’s representatives here on earth, because of their hypocrisy and hard hearts. Even the publicans and harlots, who repented at John’s preaching, were ahead of them. There is no sin more frequent among religious people than that of self-righteousness; that is to honor the Lord with the mouth when the heart is far from Him.

These sinners were entering the kingdom of God ahead of the very religious Jews because they knew they were sinners and they put their faith in a Savior. One of the deadliest things about religious self-righteousness is the deception that we will be saved because of our good deeds. We cannot save ourselves regardless of how good we act. Who wants to be the best sinner that ever was sent to Hell?

Romans 5:17-18; For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by One, Jesus Christ). Therefore as by the offence of one (Adam) judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of One (Jesus Christ) the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life.

RIGHTEOUSNESS IS A GIFT – Andrew Wommack Ministries

Luke 18:9 "And he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and despised others:"

LUKE 18:9-14

People who are self-righteous often despise others. No one can compare himself with God’s perfect standard and feel good about himself. To trust in ourselves, we have to constantly compare ourselves with others. This breeds a critical attitude towards others that exalts self by debasing others.

No one can ever be righteous in the sight of God through his own righteousness. Our actions benefit us in relationships with people and prevent Satan from having an opportunity against us, but they cannot make us right (righteous) with God. We must trust in God and receive His gift of righteousness completely on the basis of faith in what Christ did for us. This is the truth that this parable is presenting.

Most people are unaware that there are two kinds of righteousness. Only one type of righteousness is acceptable to God. One form of righteousness is our own righteousness. These are the acts of holiness that we do in an attempt to fulfill the commands of the Old Testament law. This is an imperfect righteousness because human nature is imperfect and incapable of fulfilling the law.

God’s righteousness is not something that we do, but something that we receive as a gift through faith in Christ. It’s not possible to trust in our own righteousness and in God’s righteousness. A person who believes that he must earn God’s acceptance by his holy actions must not believe in God’s righteousness, which is a gift. It has to be one or the other; we cannot mix the two. Righteousness is not what Jesus has done for us plus some minimum standard of holiness that we have to accomplish. God’s righteousness is perfect. Accept this gift He offers to you.

Romans 3:22; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference:

Philippians 3:9; And be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:

All That Jesus Is Before God, You Are – From Joseph Prince Ministries

2 Corinthians 5:21; For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

When an Israelite brings an animal as his sin offering, he lays his hand on it before killing it. (Leviticus 4:1–4) By laying his hand on the sin offering, his sins are transferred to the innocent animal. The animal dies for his sins and he goes free.

In contrast, during the burnt offering, when the Israelite lays his hand on the animal (Leviticus 1:3–4), the beauty, worthiness and acceptance of the unblemished animal are transferred to him. God accepts the perfection of the animal sacrifice on his behalf to make atonement for him. Because God accepts the unblemished burnt offering, the offerer now has right standing before God.

Do you know that the two offerings speak of Jesus’ one offering of Himself when He hung on the cross? He is both our sin offering and burnt offering—“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us [as our sin offering], that we might become the righteousness of God in Him [as our burnt offering]”. The moment you put your faith in Him, just by His one sacrifice, your sins were transferred to Him, and His righteousness was transferred to you. That is the grace of God toward you!

As our sin offering, He offered Himself once and for all. (Romans 6:10) The sin offering was never a daily offering because God does not want His people to be sin-conscious. However, the burnt offering was both a morning and evening sacrifice (2 Chronicles 13:11) because God wants His people to be righteousness-conscious.

Beloved, God wants you to lay claim daily to Jesus as your burnt offering and say, “Father, I thank You that Jesus is my burnt offering. All that Jesus is before You—His righteousness, excellence, beauty and perfection—has been transferred to me. Jesus has Your unclouded favor, so I enjoy Your unclouded favor in my life. Jesus is the righteousness of God, so I am the righteousness of God in Christ. As He is before You, so am I.”

Because Jesus became your burnt offering, what He is to the Father today, you are! That is what it means to be in Christ.

THE BEST SINNER – From Andrew Wommack Ministries

Matthew 5:20, "For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed [the righteousness] of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven."

MATTHEW 5:17-22

What did Jesus mean? Since the Pharisees fasted twice each week, does this mean we have to fast three times each week? Since they paid tithes on everything including spices, does this mean that anyone who fails to tithe is doomed to hell?

No! Definitely not. The Pharisees’ righteousness was based on their actions. Jesus is advocating a righteousness that is based on faith in what He did for us.

Trusting in our own actions will never grant us access to God. We may be better than others, but who wants to be the best sinner that ever went to hell? We have all sinned and come short of perfection which is what God requires (Rom. 3:23).

The only one who was ever good enough to earn right standing with God is Jesus. And His righteousness is offered as a gift to anyone who will put their faith in Him as their Savior.

Jesus offers us a righteousness by faith that is so far superior to the self righteousness that the Pharisees had that there is no comparison. This is the righteousness that we need and which is available to us only through faith in Christ.

Galatians 5:5; For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.

The Holy Spirit led me to read Galatians 5. When I got to verse 5 He showed me the last part of the verse “HOPE of righteousness”. Then He led me to look us the greek meaning of “hope”, which I’ve read before, but not all the way. The part He showed me was “expectation of evil, fear; expectation of good, hope”. We know hope is expectation. I never looked at hope having to do anything with evil. He said when we fear we hope/expect to happen. But when we have faith we hope/expect good to happen.

Good example is in the area of healing. When we believe His Word that we are ALREADY healed, then healing is visible. Each time we see in the Bible when people got healed, as soon as the Lord spoke it, it became visible. It was manifested (revealed; shown; visible; established; expressed) for all to see it. When the Lord spoke it, it happened right there at that moment. Faith in the Lord’s Words made it happen. Last year I met this lady from the homeless shelter spoke how she was called by God. But in another voice she talked a lot about sickness. She believed God allowed sickness to come on her to give her a “healing ministry”. That wasn’t the 1^st time I heard that. There was another woman who told us (the congregation) that she got sick, so she could have the power to heal. The Holy Spirit said that’s a lie. When this woman from the shelter said that to me the Holy Spirit began to teach me and He said “WHY WOULD I ALLOW SICKNESS WHEN I GIVE HEALING”. That made so much sense. Why would God make anyone sick when His Son got beaten so we could have healing, deliverance, forgiveness of sins, wholeness, etc. If what they were saying were true, then that would make God double minded; And we know God IS NOT double minded. The Bible tells us “a double minded man is unstable in all his ways”. God is steadfast. God IS God. Well, this lady believed herself sick. She spoke it constantly and accepted it from God. She believed herself into cancer. The last time I saw her was when I visited her in the hospital after her surgery. She was still believing the same lie. When you look at most people, getting cancer is scary and causes some to look at their lives and see what’s wrong with it. I’m not judging her because she was blind. The god of this world (satan) blinded her from the truth of God’s Word which is BY HIS STRIPES WE ARE HEALED. To be honest, there is no “healing ministry”. The Lord has given His disciples the power to heal. We already have that authority/power to cast or demons and heal a person of sickness. The ministry we are supposed to be a part of is to be disciples; who are FOLLOWERS of Jesus Christ. Disciples follow what Jesus Christ did. We ALL are called to be His disciples. The Lord told us we will do the greater than He did. Not saying we are greater, but we will be doing more because we will be healing more people than He did while He was on earth because He was going back to the Father (John 14:12; Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father). Not one disciple of Jesus Christ got sick so they will have the ability to heal someone. If that’s the case, then the Lord Himself would have gotten sick just to be able to heal someone. For the record, the Lord Jesus came down with ALL power. And that includes the power to heal. When you think about it, if we got sick so we could heal someone, won’t that cause the glory to come on us and not the Lord.

You may say then expectation also means to hope for healing and if I continue to hope for my healing, then I will receive it. I looked up “expectation” in the Bible and nowhere does expectation have anything to do with healing. Peter talked about expectation, but it was talking about the people had expectation for him to be removed from prison. Paul talked about expecting in Philippians 1, but it wasn’t about healing. Several months ago the Lord taught me about healing and how it is RIGHT NOW. I shared this before, but I’ll mention it again to help make this point. For months I had pain in my feet. The pain was so bad it was hard for me to stand. I could rest for hours and when I stood up the pain would still be there where I could barely walk. I would get up in the middle of the night and had to lean on chairs and dressers just to walk. After the Lord taught me about how healing is instant I spoke it and said my healing is instant. At that moment the pain left and I was able to walk with no help. It was because I believed. I had faith in the Lord’s promise that I am healed. I didn’t have to wait because the healing was already made possible for me. It was already made possible for us.

That lady (and others) expected sickness and got what they expected. She didn’t realize she was expecting evil. Sickness IS evil and not from God. It IS NOT His will for us to be sick. The Lord said He did not come for men to perish/die, but to save them. Sickness causes us to perish. Some sickness causes us to die naturally, but some aren’t deadly to the point it brings physical death. But it causes spiritual death. Waiting for sickness to leave can cause us to doubt. We waver and doubt it’s God’s will for us to be made whole. Not only is it His will, but it is His Word. It is His desire. Why wait for something that’s here for us right now.

Last week I heard a man give a testimony about being healed from cancer. He attributed his healing on the fact he exercised and believed God. But while he was telling his testimony, he was speaking more highly on the fact he exercised and then he mention in an “oh yeah” manner, Jesus. He gave more credit to working out than all the credit to Jesus. The Holy Spirit said that was wrong. The Word the Holy Spirit said was “bodily exercise profited little”. If this man’s exercise was the factor to his healing, then this man gets the glory and not God.

There are so many factors that cause us to not receive healing RIGHT NOW. Pride, unbelief, fear, deception, and not knowing we already have to power in us (His awesome Holy Spirit). Pride keeps us seeing we are not in faith. Some say things like “I’m the righteousness of God” and think just because they are the righteousness of God that healing is going to come just because of your stance. The key to healing is BELIEVING. So many pray without believing. So many pray with positions in mind and think that’s going to bring healing. Some also realize they don’t believe God’s Word and don’t think it’s His will for them. They think healing is for others but for them. That’s not fair to God. He has no favorites. He tells us in His Word. Then some have no knowledge of the truth that they can be healed at that moment. They feel it’s something they may have to wait for. Then there’s some like the lady who thought she had to get sick in order to have the power to heal someone. She was deceived by satan. Sadly, there are so many in leadership positions who believe that and teach it to others. They taught that lie to me. When we received Jesus as Savior, His Holy Spirit came inside us. And that means His power is inside us to cause healing to be manifested. The Lord tells us in Luke 10:19; “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you”. The Lord has given us power of that evil, sickness. Healing is already in our tongues. It’s already abides in us because Jesus (our Healer) Holy Spirit resides in us. We have authority over satan to tell him to leave. We don’t have to take it no more. This is our year because we are going to walk in our authority and receive what God has already given us.