Kenneth Copeland - What It Means To Be Unequally Yoked
— Well, hello again, everybody. We're having such a good time here on the Believer's Voice Of Victory broadcast. A couple days ago, whenever it was, we read from Romans 5, talking about the Spirit now, that the love of God has been shed abroad, excuse me, in our hearts, by the Holy Ghost. I intended to read this out of New Living, and it slipped my mind, but I want to read it to you here. "This hope will not lead to disappointment, for we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love". Isn't that's good?
— It is real good.
— I like the New Living. There's some translations I don't have much use for, but I really do this one. And I use it a lot too, in my study time. I use the King James 'cause that's where I learned it, and that's where most Christians are. But then I like the Classic Amplified. It just explains a lot of things that you wonder about. Well, yeah, and this one does the same thing. Thank You, Lord. Now let's go today to 2 Corinthians in the 13th verse. Now we're faith people, right? We, which is in, I'm in 2 Corinthians chapter four.
— Chapter four. Okay.
— We, he's writing, he's saying, I'm writing this letter to you and, "We, having the same Spirit of faith according as it is written, I believed and therefore have I spoken, we also believe, and therefore we speak knowing that He which raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise us up also by Jesus and shall present us with you. For all things or for your sakes. And the abundant grace might be through the Thanksgiving of many rebound to the glory of God". Now, the apostle Paul here, Greg is writing about himself. And we know that because he gets over here in the fifth chapter and, "He died for all, and so any man therefore that's in Christ is a new creature". That happened to him, 'cause he persecuted the body of Christ. Now, you come down to this sixth chapter, "We then as workers together with Him, beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vain". Now, the thing I wanted to get to here, oh, there's so much in here. "But in all things, approving ourselves as ministers of God in such patience, in afflictions, necessities, distresses, stripes, imprisonments, tumults, labors, watchings, fastings, by pureness, by knowledge, by long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost," the Spirit of Power. There it is again. "By love unfeigned," is not phony love, "By the Word of truth, which is the Word of Faith, by the power of God".
— There it is.
— "By the armor of righteousness on the right hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor by evil report, good report, deceivers yet true, unknown and yet known, as dying and behold we live, as chasing and not killed, sorrowful yet always rejoicing. As poor yet making many rich. As having nothing and yet possessing all things. Oh, you Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you. Our heart is enlarged". Now look at this class in the 14th verse. My, my, my, my. "Don't be unequally yoked together with unbelievers". It didn't say not witness to them.
— That's right.
— It didn't say not love them. You want me to tell you what it said? Don't go in business with them. Don't marry them. I've seen that so many, "Well I'll change him". No, you won't. Now if you...
— I wrote covenant right on the outside of that. Don't covenant...
— Don't covenant. Well, that's good, Greg. That's what he said. Unequally yoked. Don't go into covenant with them. Don't go into partnerships with them. Now notice this, "For what fellowship has righteousness with unrighteousness"? He's calling us righteousness. Well, the reason he did that, because right over here, he just got through saying, "For He have made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him". So that's already established. Unequally yoked, don't go into covenant. I wrote out my margin, how can God and Satan work together? He can't. Now, let me say this class, particularly to the radio and television. If you find yourself in that position, the Bible takes care of that, that they may be won by the godly lives of their wives. And so anyway, "What communion hath light with darkness? What concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part have he that believes with an infidel? What agreement has the temple of God," that's us, "With idols? For you are the temple of the living God". Now get this. I tell you, I underline this in red. Oh, and it just gets all over me when I read it. "God hath said," God said this. "I will dwell in them and walk in them. I will be their God. They shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them and be separate, sayeth the Lord. Touch not the unclean thing and I'll receive you. I'll be a Father unto you, and you'll be my sons and daughters, sayeth the Lord Almighty, El Shaddai".
— There it is. Yeah. Yeah. People say, "Where did God say that"? Well, how about is Ezekiel, Zachariah, Exodus, Jeremiah. I mean, he said it all the time.
— He's quoting...
— He's quoting several places in the First Testament where he said, this is what you're going to be, and this is who you are. We live on that reality of it now. We're not accounted righteous. We are righteous. And this is why you cannot covenant. Lucifer knew this. And here's how he knew this; when he went and said, "You got this guy Job down there". And He said, "Consider my servant Job". And He said, "Here, you can strike his stuff. You can do all these things. You can't kill him. You can't touch him. You can't kill him". He kills everybody except Job's wife, and she's causing him problems. But he doesn't. And I always look, Lord, why didn't you? Why didn't Lucifer? 'Cause they're one. Lucifer knew that.
— Now remember, there was but one sin in the book of Job, one. Curse God. Now he made a lot of mistakes. But you have to remember, he's not a New Testament believer. It's the oldest book in the Bible. So he began. That was it. He'll curse you to his face. So now his method of operation, he has to get cursing on somebody's mind. The culprit here and all of this death and all of that was not Job's fault. He said, "The thing which I so greatly feared has come upon me". But is his wife that said it, "Why don't you curse God and die"?
— That's it.
— She's the one that opened the door to the devil, not Job. Now he said, "The thing I so greatly feared has come upon me". His fear was part of it, but she's the one that said it.
— And Lucifer can't touch her because they're one.
— That's it.
— They're married. You'll see the same thing with Sarah. I mean, God protects her when even Abraham messes up with her because this is covenant. This is why if he can get you unequally yoked, what that means is this. They used to team two ox together. You don't put a big old ox with a small little Shetland pony and yoke them together. You'll kill that Shetland pony. And you can't do that. How can two walk together unless they be agreed? You have to get them yoked.
— That's the reason they're called a team...
— A team.
— A team of oxen, a team of mules, a team of horses. And here's why it's a team; this has been scientifically proven that if they are equally yoked, they have the power of three, not two. It's called synergy. Now, Gloria and I are not unequally yoked. Well, in some ways we are. She's smarter than I am, whole lot better looking than I, but we agree on things. We just agree on things. I mean maybe some little old something, but she's right most of the time. But we're strong. We're as strong as three people because we're in agreement.
— And that's the three chords.
— Yes it is. It goes right back to it. And it's a triune God.
— Yes. Right. And they're in agreement.
— They're in agreement.
— Always in agreement.
— Always in agreement.
— "Words I say are what I heard the Father say. The Holy Spirit speaks not Himself"...
— Ought to hear him say, I want to do what I see Him do.
— Absolutely right.
— Total agreement all the time.
— And they're in total agreement about us. I had the Lord say that to me once, "Greg I'm in total agreement. My Father and I are agreement where you're concerned". And I just, "Well, of course you are".
— Of course you are.
— But, it was a revelation to me. They are in agreement where I'm concerned. I need to quit fretting about this thing and trying to use my faith on this thing, because they're already in agreement on my status and where I'm at. So what he is talking about here is being unequally yoked together with unbelievers. Because we are not in agreement. We'll never be in agreement.
— That's it.
— We can't be in agreement 'cause we got light and darkness.
— There was a young man that was in our prayer department before he left, went out in his own ministry, and powerful young man of prayer, man of faith. And he's one of those guys that, I mean it either is or it isn't. And there was a woman called in, she wanted her husband back. And she insisted that she have her husband back. So he took the scripture and says, "If you're married to an unbeliever and the unbeliever wants to leave, let him go. Let him go". He read that scripture. She said, "I know how the Bible says that. I want him back". And he said, "I have a pretty good idea why he left". She hung up, of course.
— Yeah. She didn't want to hear that.
— But that's why...
— Well, some people won't let the Bible get in the way of their own will...
— Oh, that's right.
— ... or their own theology. And that sounds like that was the case.
— That's a powerful statement, Greg.
— They won't. Some people will not allow the Word of God to get in the way of their own theology or their own will.
— Oh, there's a lot of that.
— Even when they see it, even when they know it. Jesus will make a statement, "If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not".
— Boy, that's it.
— That's in John 10:37.
— I'm energized by the Spirit to bring this up. Let's go back to the first chapter of the book of Revelation.
— Yeah, let's do it.
— I have reason. I have biblical reasons to believe this. "The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to show unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass. And He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John".
— Messenger, Malak in Hebrew.
— Yes.
— Angel.
— Lucifer, before he fell, I'm totally convinced was Jesus angel.
— Yes.
— He's an archangel. The most beautiful of all. The angel of music and praise. And his name meant the morning star. Well that's what they call Jesus. I'm biblically convinced that he was Jesus' personal angel and he just couldn't take second place anymore. He said, "I will be like the Most High God".
— Yeah, that's right.
— "I will be like him". That cost him his existence as an archangel.
— He is the anointed cherub that covereth. He quit covering...
— Yes.
— ...and wanted to be exalted himself. John will see, Jesus will talk to John. He'll say about the seven stars in his hand. And that goes to what John was facing with Emperor Domitian. There was a coin made where his son, his dead son was considered to be a god. I can show you a picture of the coin. He's sitting on Jupiter and there's seven stars. Well, Jesus will use that in this first chapter. "I am the one who was dead and I'm alive forevermore, and I have the seven stars. Not this emperor who's persecuted".
— I didn't know that's where that came.
— That's where it came from. It's a coin that John probably would've bought bread with and he sees it every day. And he's under persecution and he's on Patmos because of this emperor. And Jesus says...
— No, that's right. Nero.
— Right. He says, "He's not the son of God. I'm the son of God. I was dead. That kid's still dead. I'm alive forevermore. And I hold the seven stars". And that's what that's all about when he says that. It's a picture for John to know. And then he starts talking about the candles and the different churches. And it's a revelation of Jesus Christ. "I'm the one who was dead. I am the first and the last, the beginning and the end, alive forever more. And I control the heavens. I'm the one who created the heavens".
— Praise God.
— And that's part of the revelation. And we begin to have Jesus revealed more and more as we go through the book.
— Now, I just heard the Spirit of God say to go to the 10th chapter of the book of Romans.
— Okay.
— 'Cause we talk about this a lot. But Word of Faith is not something that somebody made up, because this is what the apostle Paul preached. In the 10th chapter of the book of Romans, "Brethren, my heart desire and prayer to God for Israel that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have the zeal of God, but not according to knowledge". Then you come on down. "Christ is the end of their law for righteousness, for everyone that believes. But the righteousness which is of faith speaks on this wise, say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down from above. Or who shall ascend into deep? That is to bring up Christ again from the dead. What sayeth it? What does faith say? The Word is nigh thee, even in your mouth and in your heart. That is the Word of Faith which we preach". That's not a Kenneth Hagin slogan. It is what the apostle Paul preached. Now, you remember David and Justice Du Plessis from South Africa. Now, their dad is the one that was sick unto death. The doctor came by and examined him, said he had to die, and left the death certificate to come back by later and sign it. They didn't believe in doctors because they didn't want an autopsy or an inquest. So, she called the doctors to keep that from happening. The church gathered around in the family and prayed over him. He broke out in a sweat, got up, got dressed, milked the cows, walked to town and took the doctor his death certificate back. Now, Justice Du Plessis became close to us. I met him first in Memphis, Tennessee. I was preaching there at Full Gospel, Memphis, Tennessee, and that's the reason I brought this up. He sat down next to me. I was just preaching the Word of Faith. And he said with large table there together in the restaurant we were having. And he sat down next to me. Well, at the time, I didn't know who he was. He said, "Young man," he said, "I interpreted for Smith Wigglesworth, and you are preaching exactly the same message that he preached. And in some ways you sound like him".
— Praise God.
— I just sit there and shook. Later came time for him to retire, and he had nothing. So he moved to Fort Worth at our request and he went to EMIC, and EMIC put him on retirement. And he was right here when he went home to be with the Lord.
— Praise God.
— And so Pastor George and all the rest of us learned a whole lot from Justice Du Plessis. I'm giant of faith. Amen. He went to Andrew Murray's church.
— Wow. Wow.
— And talk about people of faith. See, by the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Power, this man labeled it. Well, that's where all the rest of us got it.
— That's right.
— The Word of Faith, which we preach, "That if you shall confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and believe in that heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shall be saved". Now what they heard when they got this in Greek, Sozo. Oh, well, saved, healed, everything's in that. Instead of fighting small wars, just because of the ignorance of the language. They saw it all as a package, but is by faith. "For with the heart man believes unto righteousness. With the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, whosoever believed it on him shall not be ashamed". And he comes on down and he just, "For whosoever call on the name of the Lord, be saved. How does he call on him if they hadn't believed? Then how can they believe in whom they have not heard? They can't. And how can they hear without a preacher? They can't. And how can they be preach except they be sent or anointed? They can't. It is written how beautiful of the feet of them that preach the gospel of the feet that bring glad tidings, or good things. they've all, obey our reports over". "So then, so then faith comes," there is no question about it. "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing, and hearing, and hearing, and hearing, and hearing by the Word of God". Faith is coming right now because we're teaching it and preaching it.
— Right.
— It's coming. You're in a place just little tidbits of information puts you in a place where boy, tell you what, I can believe that.
— Look at that. It's written.
— And then you make a decision to believe it and then say it. 'Cause that's how it happens. I think you're going to find out someday in the future, in the kingdom, that messages you preached sounded just like Jesus.
— But it'd have to somewhat.
— It'd have to. Well, they said that to the Galileans, "You Galileans, you sound like we're preaching the same..".
— We're out of time again today. Come on, give the Lord a praise. Yes. Amen. I receive that, praise Jesus. I receive that. Praise God.