Kenneth Copeland - Forgiven and Free
Now, there are four kinds of confessions in the New Covenant. So we'll look here in the third chapter of Matthew. "In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. And the same John had his raiment of camel's hair, and a leathern girdle about his loins; and his meat was locusts and wild honey. Then went out to him Jerusalem, and all Judaea, and all the region round about Jordan, And were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins".
Well, now you can go back and find out what John's name was. Baptist is not his last name. But that's what he was called to do was baptize. And so they called him John the Baptizer. John the Baptist. Amen. So no more than Jesus' last name is Christ. You can go back and figure out what his last name is. Jesus is Joshua Ben Gamla... Not Joseph. Amen. And they have the story of John. Why his name was John. What his dad's name and all that. You can find that Baptist is not his last name. But now they were confessing their sins and he was demanding, if you read all of that, he was demanding... The Lord through him was demanding restitution from soldiers. I mean, but that was the baptism preached by John, a Jew to Jews. And that's the very first one. When you say I mean, come on, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. So that's the first record.
Now, let's turn over here to Romans Chapter ten, and you'll see here why. And the Lord has led me to pray this way so many times, because in studying faith in the 10th chapter of Romans. "Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. 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. For Christ, the Anointed one in his anointing is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth. For Moses describeth the righteousness or right standing with God... which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh..."
Now here we have it again. Speaketh. God spoke, "righteousness, which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? That is, to bring Christ down from above: Or, Who shall descend into the deep? That is, to bring up Christ again from the dead. But what does it say? The Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the Word of Faith, which we preach;" Brother Hagin didn't make that up. But he preached the Word of Faith. And there are people still today, they say, "Where did you faith guys get that term"? We have a book. We got it out of this old book. If, say if. "If you shall confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation".
So now there we have it. The confession of someone coming to the Lord is to confess him as Lord. This is one of the places in the very beginning that I began to say, Jesus is Lord. Well, I found it again over in the gifts of the Spirit. No man can say Jesus is Lord, except by the Holy Ghost. And I just started writing in on everything, Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord, Jesus is Lord... all over everything. And I made a little card and I drew a little world, because here's what I heard Brother Hagin say. I'm going to preach this gospel that Jesus saves, that Jesus heals, that Jesus baptizes in the Spirit in the Holy Ghost, and he's our soon coming King. And I'm going to preach it from border to border, from coast to coast and even up into Canada. And he said, And I've done it. I heard him say that.
So I started saying it. I came home from school one day and I said, "Gloria, I'm disturbed in my spirit. I don't know". Well, I'm just going down here to the riverbed. Arkansas River comes through Tulsa, and sometimes there's a lot of rain. Well, they're pretty full, but it's a big wide river. And it just wasn't hardly any water down there. And so I just walked, but back in those days it wasn't but across the street, they made a double road there now. But anyway, I walked over there and I began to pray in the Spirit. And I kept hearing nations, nations, nations in a day. And I don't know, nations, nations. What does that mean? Well, anyway, so, nations, okay, nations. So I began to say, I'm going to preach that Jesus saves, Jesus heals, Jesus baptizes in the Holy Ghost and He's our soon coming King. And I'm going to preach it from the top of the world to the bottom and all the way around the middle.
Now let's go to John chapter 16. Now we know that John 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17, all of those chapters are in that final Passover meal right before Jesus went to the cross. And it's very interesting reading and study. You go in there and study that. And he had to get Judas out of that room. And the Bible said he knew from the beginning who would betray him. So now notice this, in the 7th verse, hang on, John, 16:7... "Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you. And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: Of sin, because they believe not on me".
Now that is the sin that will send you to hell. People say, "Well you'll go to hell for lying as you will for stealing". No, that's just something to say. You could have said that possibly in the first covenant... not anymore, because by the blood of Jesus, the sin that's hanging over the world, not holding their trespasses against them. That's the reason it's so important to hear the message, because the only sin... Now, since Jesus shed his blood, went to hell and paid the price for it, is not believing on him or completely, totally rejecting him. In first John, he said there is a sin onto death and I don't say you should pray for it. Well, that's in the book of Hebrews, someone that tramples under foot, the blood by which he was sanctified. But if you read that, you will find out that that person must be an adult believer in order to even commit that, little baby Christian... no. But anyway, now, when we understand this, that's should make an evangelist out of everyone of us.
So now we understand, "Of sin because they believe not on me; Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more; Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged". He left there. "Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you". That hit me. I'm telling you that. Look, All things that the Father has are mine, therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. We have access to everything the Father has by faith. By faith, we have access to the knowledge of the ages. So we have access to the mind of Christ. We have the same anointing available on our minds as Jesus had on his while he was here teaching, preaching and healing, Amen.
Let's go over to first John chapter one, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled the Word of life". What do you mean our hands have handled? I mean, they live. They lived with him. When I first started preaching the Word of Faith, well, I listened to Brother Hagin on tape. I didn't try to sound like him. I heard him so much that I sounded like him. Mac we were in a Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship. He was at his book table, and I was at my book table. He walked over there. He looked at my tape and the title, he looked at his. He said, "Kenneth, at least you could have changed the title". I said, "No, sir, I'm not about to". I said, "That's the title to it".
Oh, okay. And I told him, I said, "Now what if you had put this in a book? You think I'm going to change the title of your book? This is where I learned it. And that's it". Well, I listened to him so much, I started sounding like him. And I thought about this. Peter preached the first sermon on the day of Pentecost. He stood up and began to preach. I dare say he sounds so much like Jesus because he was with him night and day, and so was John. And so is James. Don't you know, they sounded like him. Don't you know they tried to sound like him. And the only revelation they had was the name. And it built from there. The man at the Beautiful Gate. What did Peter say? Why do you look at us by our holiness or I'm an apostle. He wasn't an apostle yet.
When Jesus sent them, they became apostles. They were just disciples up until then. And he said, "It's the name, faith in the name of Jesus made this man strong". Faith in the name. And I am bold to say, I expect Peter preached that and sounded just like Jesus. I mean, he listened to him. He lived with him. He had him in his home. Just like I did with Brother Hagin. Well after a while, I didn't sound like that anymore. Now, the first I heard Oral Roberts and Evelyn Roberts told me one time she said, "Kenneth, you don't look anything like Kenneth Hagin. But when you start laying hands on people, somehow you look like him".
Well he laid his hands on me, you see the point... So, now, these are so important. Now, watch this very carefully. This, then, "is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light. He is light, and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship, one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just or righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness". When? When you confess it, not when you feel better about it. But now that's where faith comes in.
"So now if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness". So I realized that what I must do, I must confess with my mouth, my sin before him, and believe by faith I receive my forgiveness and cleansing based on that Word. Because that's where my faith is, is in this covenant word. Well, on the other hand, somebody says, well, you just give people a license to sin. And in a minute I heard the Lord say, people sin without a license. Well, they kept coming. They kept coming to Jesus. Well, how many times should we forgive? Well seventy times seven... that many times? That's when they said, increase our faith. Amen. No.
If you go ahead and read the rest of first John... Well, in fact, let's go over here to the 5th chapter, verse 16. "If any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death: I do not say that he shall pray for it. We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not;" Really? "but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not". This is where we found out that God is love up here in the 8th chapter, 8th verse of the 4th chapter, we know whosoever is born of love. "Whosoever is born of love, sinneth not. But he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not."
Well, we also found out that in the 13th chapter Jesus said, "I give you a new commandment that you love one another, even as I have loved you and all men will know you're my disciples, by the way, you love one another". That's our commandment. So one translation said that a Christian does not continue to practice sin willfully. He just got through telling us how to get rid of it, in the first chapter. Here it is in the 5th chapter that says you don't want to be doing that, because right in the very first he told us how to repent and do it by faith and confess it before the law. Amen.