Kenneth Copeland - Faith Chooses Life Words
Hello everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland. It's Tuesday. Isn't that wonderful? Had you ever realized that if Jesus walked into a place and said, "Is this a wonderful Thursday"? And somebody said, "Sir, no, it's Tuesday". Not anymore it isn't. Because the minute he said it, all the calendars changed because he has what he says. He lived by faith too. You understand that? Thank You, Lord. Welcome to the Believer's Voice of Victory Broadcast. And this is Kenneth Copeland Bible College, and the student body here. And we welcome you to this Tuesday's edition of this broadcast. Glory to God. Thank You Lord.
Now, all last week we had a faith refresher course, and we just looked under every leaf and ever rock and just talked about faith because faith is our way of life. Faith is not something we do occasionally when we really need something from God. No, we live by faith. That means we walk by faith, we sleep by faith, we do everything we do by faith, and we die by faith. I don't intend to be sick another day in my life here after forever. No, I don't have time. Amen. Praise God. So all this week, we're discussing life and death, blessing and cursing. Really that's it in a nutshell. The way of sin is death. Amen. Now we've all heard this. "When it's your time to die, you're just going to go and that's all there is to it". No sir, that isn't true. In Genesis 6, that's right at the front of the book. And first mention and first words carry all the way through the rest of the Bible.
So when the 91st Psalm says with long life, he'll satisfy you and show you his salvation, that's based on 120 years. All of the food laws in Leviticus are based on living 120 years. Amen. I don't eat that way because it's a law, I eat that way because it works. You can do what you want to do, however, the Lord leads you or what you decide to do. But the things in that list that say don't eat, don't eat it. Like the guy said, don't do it. Stop and think a moment. There are some beautiful women in this school, you know that? And some fairly good looking guys too. But anyway, I was looking at these beauties as I walked over here. God created every living thing to be nourished. Every living thing. I don't care what it is. If it's alive, it has to eat. That's the reason you can catch a fish. Particularly if you use bait, he has to eat. That's the reason you can get a big buck deer during rut season because you catch him when he is chasing girls, he doesn't have good sense.
"Brother Copeland, you mean to tell me you kill deer"? "Yes. And I eat every one of them". Yes, I do. They're magnificent. The white-tailed deer is a magnificent animal. And God put them here for food. And they highly qualify. So does the Buffalo. And my being part Indian, I've been Buffalo hunting. To me they are not bison. They're buffalo. The legal name is bison. And if you want to go out to the Crow Indian Reservation and get all the Crow there, all of them that live there, just holler Buffalo hunt and whoa, and we had the privilege of doing that. It was a time when the Buffalo patch was closed because it was rather dry and so forth. But Jesse and John and I were there, and the principal chief, and the vice president born again, spirit-filled man. And so we had sat in on their tribal council, and they said, "How'd you like to go kill a Buffalo"? I said, "Do you have to ask"?
And we had the privilege of hunting what they call the buffalo patch. They roam free, just like they did many years ago. And what a magnificent animal. God put those animals here for food, and it's good. So life and death. In Genesis 6:3, the Lord said my spirit shall not always strive with man for that he also is flesh yet his days shall be 120 years. All right. Now turn with me to the book of Hebrews, and we'll read this from the ninth chapter of Hebrews. Again, the 26th verse. For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world. But now once in the end of the world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.
Then we read in the Classic Amplified in Proverbs 3. My son, forget not my law or teaching, but let your heat keep my commandments for length of days and years of a life worth living, tranquility inward and outward continuing through old age till death. These shall they add to you. A life worth living. That's a life full of faith. Until through old age, until death. You could say until you're 120 years old and die, the only thing that's going to cut my life short of December the sixth 2056 is the coming of the Lord. That'll be fine. That'll be just fine, thank you. Amen.
Now, let's take a look then at the 90th Psalm. Psalm 90 and 91 is accredited to Moses. A prayer of Moses, the man of God. Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Thou turned man to destruction; and says, return, ye children of men for a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night. You carriest them away with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning, they are like grass which grows up. In the morning it flourishes and grows up; in the evening it is cut down, and withers. For we are consumed by thine anger, and by thy wrath are we troubled.
See, this is a morning, an interceding song. Thou has set our iniquities before thee, our secret sins in the light of thy countenance. For all our days are passed away in your wrath: we spend our years as a tale that is told. The days of our years are threescore and ten or 70: and if by reason of strength they be fourscore or 80, yet is their strength labor and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away. Now, the footnote in the Classic Amplified. This Psalm is credited to Moses who is interceding with God to remove the curse which made it necessary for every Israelite over 20 years of age when they rebelled against God at Kadesh Barnea to die before reaching the Promised Land.
Now that's in the 14th chapter of Numbers 26-35. They had mumbled and grumbled against God to the point where he had to cut them off to save them. Judgment is mercy in action. Always. God is always merciful. And when we judge ourselves, we're not judged with the world. So in order to have an army that absolutely would go after, he had to have men that were born in that desert. Moses says most of them are dying at 70 years of age. This number has often been mistaken as a set span, the life of mankind. It was not intended to refer to anyone except those Israelites under the curse during that particular 40 years. 70 years never has been average span of life for humanity. It never has been. When Jacob, the father of the 12 tribes had reached 130 years, he complained that he had not attained the years of his immediate ancestors. In fact, Moses himself lived to be 120 years old. Aaron, 123. Miriam, several years older. Joshua, 110 years of age.
Note as well that in the Millennium, a person dying at 100 will still be thought a child. Now that's Isaiah 65:20. It has been a miscarriage of the Word. It never has been normal span of life. People or reprobates go to prison sometimes and live to be 75 or 80 years old. And people picked that up. Well, he only promised us 75 or 80 years. He didn't promise you 75 or 80 years. Didn't promise you anything of that kind. He did say with long life, I'll satisfy you. So you ought to live a long satisfied life. We just read about a long satisfied life. A life worth living. A life worth living is a life full of faith. A life without sickness or disease. Prospering spirit, soul, body, financially, socially. Every way of life, glory to God. Regardless of what your background is, regardless of the color of your skin, regardless of... I mean, hey that's God. That's God. That's Jesus. Jesus was not a white man. He was, and he still is a Jew. He's a bronze-colored man. Read the book, it'll tell you. Amen. But what color is he to you? When you close your eyes, what color is Jesus? There is neither male nor female. I'm quoting the Word to you. There is neither male nor female, Greek or Jew. All in the body of Christ equal with Jesus. We're joint heirs with him. Hallelujah. Glory to God. I'm excited about this.
Now, let's go back where we were in the book of Deuteronomy. In the 30th chapter, verse 14. The word is very nigh under thee in thy mouth and in thine heart. Does that sound familiar to you? How about the Jew of the tribe of Benjamin, Saul of Tarsus? That when he came into a covenant with God, his name was changed to Paul. He quoted that in the 10th chapter of the book of Romans. Amen. And being an Orthodox Jew, being a Pharisee, he could quote all five of these books. That was the only Bible there was at that time. But then when you moved on over into the rest of the law and the prophets, but the Pentateuch, took the first five books. That's where we get the word, Pentecost. 50 days, five books, the Pentateuch. As a Pharisee, he would be able to quote those first five books by the time he was this teenage boy. Amen.
So he quoted it. He quoted the Psalms. Ain't this book marvelous? So I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his commandments and his statutes, and his judgements that thou mayest, read it. Live and multiply and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land wherever you go to possess it. 18th verse. I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish; and you shall not prolong your days upon the land that you passest over the Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have... Now listen, this is God saying, "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing therefore you choose. You choose life that both you and your seed may live. That you may love the Lord thy God. That thou mayest obey his voice. Thou may cleave to him for he is your life and the length of your days that you may dwell in the land, which the Lord swore under their fathers to Abraham, Isaac and to Jacob". Amen.
So what's the length of the days he's talking about here? 120 years. Praise God. Isn't that amazing? That you may dwell. That for he is your life. He is our life. He is the life that is on the inside of us. He is the life of our spirit man. He is the life of our intellect. He's the life in your memory, in your brain. He is the life in your eyesight. He is life. He is life. Praise God. Thank You, Lord Jesus. Oh, praise God. Life words. The words of life. You choose. Now, what does that say to you? Well, I'll tell you what it says to me. He's already made his choice. He said, "I sat before you life and death, blessing and cursing. You choose". He has already chosen you. He has already chosen me. All you have to be for God to choose you is breathing. Now, after you step out of that body, it's a whole new thing. This physical body is our authority in the earth. Human beings have authority in this earth. Whether they know it or not. Whether they ever do anything about it or not, you can go to hell if you want to.
Now, John said there is a sin under death. And I do not ask that you pray for that or for him. There is a sin under death. Now, I'll cut that short for you. This is a person born again, and it's all right there in the book of Hebrews. Born again, filled with the spirit, operating in the gifts of the spirit, and has made the decision to trample underfoot the blood that sanctified it. It's not that God will not forgive him or her, the book just says it is impossible to bring them to repentance. They know what the book says. They can quote parts of it too. Brother Hagin talked about a man that came into one of their services, and we're out of time. Thank You Lord. Glory to God. We are blessed. Thank You, Jesus. Glory, glory, glory.