Kenneth Copeland - Death Is Swallowed in Victory
The 15th chapter of First Corinthians. Yes, we'll take our medicine to begin with today. Oh, thank You, Jesus. It starts off, "Moreover brethren. I declare unto you the gospel which I preached under you, which also you have received and wherein you stand". Do you stand in the gospel this morning? It is the gospel that death has been destroyed. Yes, it is the gospel that we have been delivered from fear. It is the gospel, glory to God, that he destroyed sin. Oh, glory to God. You just start in. You take time to do it. You take time to read the entire 15th chapter of First Corinthians. It just starts getting better and better. 28th verse. When all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all and in all. Whoa. Glory to God.
Verse 42. So is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption. It's raised in incorruption. Sown in dishonor, raised in glory. Sown in weakness, raised in power. Sown in a natural body. It's raised in a spiritual body. There's a natural body. There's a spiritual body. So as it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul. The second or the last Adam was made a living spirit. Glory to God. He's our Lord. Verse 47. The first man is of the earth, earthy. The second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy. And as the heavenly, such are also those that are heavenly or heavenly minded. You just keep reading. Verse 51. I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump. For the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible. And we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption and this mortal must be put on immortality.
Oh my God. That's the way I want to go. That's the way I want to go. I'm telling you, we're so close. We are so close to this. There's coming a day. Very soon it will be. The Lord is going to be calling me. Hey, come on. We're right on top of this thing. Like Gloria says, I want to go in the big one. Oh yes. Glory to God, hallelujah. Where you're just going along one day and man, the horn and the wind and the whole thing happens. You're just out of here. Glory to God. We're all going, yeah, but I'd like to be doing something here. I'd like to be standing here preaching and .... I do presume that all in this room would go. If not, you better get yourself ready. That's what the parable of virgins was all about. You better be prepared. You better get ready. Glory to God.
There was a very close friend of mine. The man was doing the preaching. I didn't know him personally, but I knew a lot about him from my spiritual father Oral Roberts. My good friend went to hear him. It was in Fort Worth and it was back in the early days of Fort Worth. Where the Fort Worth Convention Center is now, there used to be a movie theater. That was torn down when that convention center was built. It's right there. It used to be a Vaudeville theater. It had all of the Vaudeville apparatus in the back, then it had a movie screen. He was preaching on a Sunday afternoon and Charles went to hear him. He said, "Now I know this rascal. Oh, he could preach, man". Said he started preaching from those verses right there. He started in and he went. He went all over the Bible, talking about the catching away of the church. He preached in a solid white suit. He had that old Vaudeville spotlight right on him.
The stage was black and he was in that white suit. He was talking about the angels. He was talking about the mighty trumpet sounding. He preached. He had stationed several people up behind in that catwalk with big diesel truck horns and compressed air in bottles and the orchestra pit right in front of the stage. Right in the middle of his sermon, all those horns went off at once. The spotlight widened and there was a coffin right in front and the lid popped open. This woman in flowing white went out of the coffin and out the roof. Out of sight, up into the catwalk. Everybody in the theater hit the... hit the... Oh my God. I don't want to miss this. Charles said, I knew I was saved. I knew I was ready. I know this bean head did that to me. But he said, I couldn't help it. I prayed anyway. He said, man, I'm telling you talk about an altar call. There was nobody sitting down. Hallelujah, glory to God. I think we need to pull some stunts like that once in a while. Shake some of this lazy bunch up. Hallelujah. Glory to God.
Just go through all those scriptures and all of a sudden the horn blows. Hallelujah. But here it is. So then this corruptible shall have put on incorruption. This mortal, glory to God, shall have put on immortality. Then shall be brought to pass the saying that it's written. Death is swallowed up in victory. Dying is the easiest thing you and I will ever do. Glory to God. It's swallowed up in victory. That means that sickness and disease is swallowed up. That means all of the bad times are swallowed up. That means that poverty is swallowed up. Glory to God. That means it's swallowed up in the blood. It's swallowed up in the glory. The pain is swallowed up in him. Hallelujah. Glory be to God. Death. Where is your sting? Oh, grave. Where is your victory?
The sting of death is sin. The strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which gives us the victory through the Lord Jesus Christ. He's talking about victory over death. He's talking about victory over the grave. He's talking about victory over hell. He's talking about victory over sickness. He's talking about victory over sinus problems. He's talking about victory over cancer. He's talking about victory over bad disc and bad back. He's talking about victory over bad habits. He's talking about victory over homosexuality. He's talking about victory over lesbianism. He's talking about victory over pornography. He's talking about victory. Glory to God. That's the reason this is called The Victory Channel. That's where we got it. Glory to God. There's victory in the house today. There's victory over pain in the wisdom teeth. There's victory over sinus problems. There's victory over ear draining and ear problems. There's victory over sick babies.
I want you to know, bless God, there's victory over that little synthetic virus. It's not God that mishandled it. It's men that just don't know what to do. So afraid of it. There's your vaccination right there. There it is. V-I-C-T-O-R-Y-O-V-E-R-D-E-A-T-H. Victory over death. Victory in life. A life worth living. All the way through old age. It gets to the point where your and my funeral is a joy fest. We get there and just shout glory. Don't you be messing around trying raise me from the dead. I'm not coming back. And I'm not leaving until the time. You have more to say about it than you think you do. Be seated, please. Glory. Thank You, Lord Jesus. Oh, glory to God. Once again, from the Classic Amplified. Psalm 145. My favorite Psalm. My second favorite Psalm is the 91st Psalm. Psalm 145. Glory to God. Thank You, Jesus.
Look at this. I will extol you, oh my God. Oh, king. I will bless your name forever and ever with grateful affectionate praise. Every day with its new reasons will I bless you. Affectionately and gratefully praise you. Yes, I will praise your name forever and ever. Great is the Lord and highly to be praised. His greatness is so vast and deep as to be unsearchable. One generation laud your works to another and shall declare your mighty acts. On the glorious splendor of your majesty and your wondrous works I will meditate. Men shall speak of the might of your tremendous and terrible, or your awesome acts. I will declare your greatness. They shall pour forth like a fountain. The fame of your great and abundant goodness shall sing aloud of your righteousness and justice.
The Lord is gracious and full of compassion slow to anger and abounding and mercy and loving kindness. The Lord is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works, the entirety of things created. He is good to all and he's filled with compassion. He's slow to anger. He's good to all. He is a good God. He's never done anything bad. He's never created anything bad. He created Satan, the most beautiful of all the angels and iniquity was found in him. He had no tempter. That's the reason there's no salvation for him. Iniquity was found in him. He's the father of lies. And my God is the Father of truth. He's a good God. And he's good to all. I'm going to quote Gloria again. She said it like this. The sun will shine on anybody that'll get out in it.
Now that's a Gloria-ism. The sun will shine on anybody that'll get out in it. But you have to get out and get in his goodness. You have to believe that goodness. You have to talk that goodness. You have to think about that goodness. Because goodness is living on the inside of you. You can walk in love. Let's go there to Ephesians chapter five, verse one. Classic Amplified. Hallelujah. Therefore. The King James says followers. That Greek word is M I M E T E S. We get our word mimic from that. Imitator. Therefore be imitators of God. Copy him. Follow his example as well beloved children imitate their father. And walk in love. Esteeming and delighting in one another as Christ loved us and gave himself for us a slain offering and sacrifice to God. Glory to God.
Imitate God and walk in love. All it takes is a decision. Why? The love of God's been shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Ghost. Because he's in there and he has faith but he is love. He is there. John, the apostle of love, was the only one they couldn't kill. He didn't get to be a martyr. But he did get to write the book of Revelation. And he did take care of Jesus' mother. Now why would Jesus turn his mother over to him? Because he was the one that walked in love. It was Peter, James and John. James was his brother. This says a whole lot for Mr. Zebedee, their father. Mr. Zebedee and Peter were in the fishing business together. They were wealthy men. These boys were wealthy boys. Amen. Are you listening?
You and I are born of love. Love has been born inside us and the love of God has been shed abroad in us. We have a commandment. We're responsible for the commandments of God. You read that 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17th chapters of John. All of that was in the meal that changed heaven and earth forever. The most important Seder meal ever done. That supper. There is John. He called himself the one. The disciple that Jesus loved. He was there when Jesus said, you have what you say. He kept saying, I'm the one that Jesus loved. That's me. He was lying on Jesus' bosom. That's the reason that Gentilized picture of them all being at a table doesn't work. You know, I'm not... Well, yeah, I am knocking that. It doesn't work. Do your homework. It was in the middle of the night and if they had a table at all it would've been very low and they're literally sitting on the floor. That's the way it was practiced. Amen.
You read those words, all the way through that. He that loves me is the one that keeps my commandments and my Father will love him and I will love him. And I will manifest myself to him and he manifest himself to you right now. In whatever way you need it. Glory to God. Thank You, Jesus. But then Jesus said, Love the Lord, your God, with all your heart, all your mind, all your soul and all your strength. Love your neighbor as yourself. Fulfilling all the law and the prophets. What about the new commandment? He said, I give you a new commandment that you love one another, even as I have loved you. And all men will know that you're my disciples by the way you love one another. All you have to do is make up your heart and your mind. I'm going to keep that commandment. I'm going to imitate God and walk in love. I'm going to keep that commandment. I'm going to do this. I can do this, because the love of God has already been shed abroad in my heart.