Kenneth Copeland - You Can Trust the Promises
Turn with me now to II Corinthians chapter one. "Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, and Timothy, our brother, under the church of God, who is at Corinth with all the saints which are in Achaia. Grace be to you and peace from God our Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort". Now that ought be enough to put you on a run. Look at it, look at it again. Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort or healings, who comforts us in our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them, which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also are bound by Christ. Whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual enduring the same sufferings which we also suffer, or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope of you is steadfast knowing that as you are partakers of the suffering, so shall you also be partakers of the consolation. Now that word is encouragement. He's the God of comfort and encouragement. For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble, which came to us in Asia. That we were pressed out of measure above strength in so much that we despaired even of life, but we had the sentence or the answer of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God, which raises the dead, who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom we trust. And he will yet deliver us.
Now you come on down. I want to come down here to this 18th verse. But God is true. Our word or our preaching toward you was not yes and no. Well now Brother Copeland, now just wait a minute here. The answer might be yes. The answer might be no. And the answer might be wait a while. You have some scripture for that, please. Yeah. It's third somebody else. I've heard that. It might be yes, it might be no, it might be wait a while. So there's no ground for faith there. Without an exceeding great and precious promises, you don't have anything to stand on. Neither does anyone else because all of these exceeding great and precious promises, as I said, are blood bought. Now Brother Copeland, is that all you preach about? Yes. That's what this book is about. It's a blood book, the blood of animals, the blood of men and the blood of God. Thank You, Jesus. Amen. Amen is allowed in this congregation.
Okay, good. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, who was preached among you by us, even by me and Silvanus and Timotheus was not yeah, not yes and no. But in him was yes for all. I'm going to add to this a little bit, for all of the exceeding great and precious promises of God in him are yes and amen. Glory. It's his Word. Where's that other podium? Podium people. I've had it all up here on the roof. I need to go down there. I need to step on somebody's toes. Down here where I can talk to you. Oh, yes. The weather's better down here. In him. In him. Yes and amen. Before the resurrection, there were a lot of trials and tribulations and troubles that had to be dealt with in order to get back to the Garden of Eden. It took centuries, not just days. The prophets.
Well, you say there's the major prophets and the minor prophets, hey, they're prophets. They kind of divide them up so we know how to study. Don't be doing that. Scripture says prophet is prophet, and some of the minor ones said the biggest stuff, like Micah. Bethlehem Ephratah, in you, in you will be born a child. 715 years later that came to pass in Bethlehem. Now that word from God, that exceeding great and precious promise controlled armies. It controlled kingdoms, because Jesus had to be there. Mary and Joseph had to be there on time. The reason there was no room in the inn because they were late getting there. A woman pregnant on a donkey for 90 miles. That hurts just thinking about it. But angels were involved. And don't you know that little donkey, he came back saying you should've seen what happened to me. The mother of God rode on my back. That little donkey's probably in heaven today. Maybe he's become totally white, like the white horse Jesus ride.
I don't know, one way or the other. But I do know this, that word from Micah control the stars, the movement of the heavens, so the magi would be able to see that star at the proper place at the proper time and follow it. All because of what Micah said. No, Micah, didn't say that. God said that. And Micah is the one that uttered it. That's amazing, but it was an exceeding great and precious, priceless promise for the future. And it worked. And you and I are here tonight because it worked. We're in this place of worship tonight because it worked. And there are people around the world that are tuned to Victory tonight because it worked. Thank You, Jesus. So it is the faith of God and Jesus is the author, the finisher or the developer of our faith.
If you were building a beautiful new home, quite expensive, thank you very much, and you just happened to be Gloria Jean Copeland and you have designed everything in this house. And so the cabinets are just perfect. You don't want some heavy handed carpenter to come in there and work on those cabinets for some great big old hammer and knock half moon dents when he's driving a nail. Who do you want? You want the finish carpenter. That's what he's called. He's the one that is skilled to finish this cabinet. That piano one time was a tree. And you have to have the right wood. And here again, it's the finish on it. It's a good piano, but you don't just, not paint the thing or anything. Just all got knots and stuff all around it. It's the finish. Jesus is the finisher of our faith. He's the one that by the Spirit of God has helped us to develop it and to learn about it and understand things about it, to know how it works.
And the great cloud of witnesses that went before us have taught us. Kenneth Hagin, Oral Roberts, T.L. Osborn, like I said before. They taught us and now we are going on and we are teaching our young people and teaching you. Amen. And so wound up with Kenneth Copeland Bible College. Now I don't know how in the world that happened. It just did. Well, Terri's to blame for that because she wanted this and thinking about it and praying about it and confessing it and all that and going over and over and over again, and the Lord obeyed it. Her faith worked for that because of her desire to teach faith and to preach faith. Faith in God. We will be in heaven, not ever having plumbed the depth of it or the height of it and it's enormous magnificent power.
And Jesse Duplantis talking about when he was in heaven and the angel was leading him around, that God would just, when God tries to whisper something and it's just so full of power, it's just, and it's faith power, the faith of God. But he had to have the exceeding great and precious promises for those exceeding great and precious promises are filled with his faith. Because faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. Let's go to the 10th chapter of Romans. Now it isn't right just to pick that out in the 17th verse. So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. No, chapter 10, brethren my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that it might be saved for I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. Or in other words, just incorrect. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
What's happening here? These are words of correction, For Christ is the anointed one in his anointing is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. For Moses describes the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which does those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise. Say not in your heart, don't be saying this now. Saying, saying words, words. Words were never to be for communication primarily because in the beginning God said. Words release power. Words release faith. Words release fear. Words release joy. Words release hate and trouble and pain. Words. Governments are run by words. And some people spend all their time trying to figure out how to break a contract. Well, our contract is written in blood. You don't break this one and you don't alter it. It doesn't need upgrading every few years.
And I dare say that's the reason the Constitution of the United States has stood strong is because they are divinely ordered words. It's been attacked from every side and mostly because of different judges. But it's still there. It's still there. Now our granddaughter Jenny's husband is Greek. And they came over for Christmas and so forth. And of course, when immediately when he got here, he got his Green Card because he's married to an American citizen that's living in Greece. And so they showed him some things about the United States. And he said, "245 years, is that all"? He's from Greece. But The United States of America has been a nation with one Constitution and one form of government longer than any other nation in history. It has not been changed. Because he's our God and we are his people. It's come under a lot of fire. But it's held because so much of it came from the Bible for we the people. Who shall descend into the deep that is to bring up Christ again from the dead? But what does it say?
Now, wait a minute. What are we talking about? The righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise. The word is nigh thee even in your mouth and in your heart, that is the Word of Faith which we preach. We didn't make that title up. Kenneth Hagin didn't make that title up. The Spirit of God made that title up through in the heart of this great apostle. The Word of Faith which we preach, that if you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in your heart God has raised him from the dead you shall be saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, the scripture says, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed for there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord overall is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
How then shall they call on him in whom they've not believed? They can't. And how shall they believe in him of whom they've not heard. They can't. How shall they hear without a preacher? They can't. And how shall they preach except they be sent? They can't. And as it is written, how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring the glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah sayeth Lord, who have believed our report? So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. You can read those words and hear people preach on it all your life and never pay a lick attention to it. wind up sometime, realizing you're not even saved. But then one day you heard it. One day you heard it.
You've me tell this before, but Gloria and I had, we came in on a weekend from Tulsa to preach there at Grace Temple, Harold Nichols' church. And of course when we walked in the door, and it was late that evening when we got there. And so I don't know. The minute we walked through the door, my mother just grabbed Gloria and they headed back to the back part of the house. I don't know what they were going. I said, "Mother, you got any tapes"? "Yeah. Right there on that tape recorder". And she walked in there and just handed me this big white box. And it was a tape by Kenneth E. Hagin.
Now I saw him in a Full Gospel Businessman's Fellowship, but I never did hear him preach. I knew little, nothing about him. Big seven inch reel. On one side, You Can Write Your Own Ticket With God. And on the other side Paul's Revelation. I started listening to that and I could stop it and play some of it again. I never heard anything like that in my life. Never, not ever. Faith came. I heard it with my spirit for the first time. I heard you can have what you say. Oh. Now I carried my New Testament in my pocket because that's where I used to carry my cigarettes. They got replaced. God forever. And I had my New Testament in there. I got it out and I'm reading there. And then... And then of course we wound up, you know, Mark 11:23. And I read that. I said, "Oh God". And he said it, "You can trust this. You can trust the written Word like you trust a highly trusted friend or a lawyer or a doctor. You can trust this Word".