Kenneth Copeland - Mercy Is God's Favor
Hello, everybody it's time for Wednesday's edition of the Believer's Voice of Victory Broadcast. And we are studying what Jesus said in John 8:32. Well he said it in the eighth chapter of John, let me put it like that, because we need to read that whole chapter. There's a direct comparison, he said to the Jews that believed on him, "You shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free". No, if you continue in my Word and you will know the truth and the truth will make you free. And then he said to those around that didn't believe him, he said, "My Word has no place in you".
So we talked about that. But now we've been majoring on the fact that there's a difference between "a" truth and facts and "the" truth. And very few people know what we're talking about. To know the truth and to know it and know it until it makes you free. And you come to that place where something happens, you think, now what does the Word have to say about that? I don't know about that. And I'm not going to just take that just off the cuff. I want to know what the Book has to say about it, because it's in here somewhere. And when you find something you like, take a tab there, and you're like me, I put this Bible into service 5/9/09 and oh, it's beat up and it's been torn. And there's this Scotch tape on the edges of the pages. But I don't, oh... Our dear Brother Spurgeon said, "If you find a Bible that's coming apart, you usually find a Christian who's not".
They're not coming apart. When you find one, their Bible's coming apart and we praise God for it, but we're talking about the truth. So what did we learn? We have learned that Jesus said in the last Passover supper, right before he went to the cross, he said, "I am the way, the truth and the life. And no man comes to the Father except by me". And now I won't take time to look this up. He also said in the 13th chapter of John, "I give you a new commandment that you love one another as I have loved you, and all men will know you're my disciples, by the way you love one another". But now John wrote a letter and he said, "We have known the love". But he also said, "We believe the love".
That's where a lot of people miss it in not believing the love. And you asked someone, what are the Christian commandment is. Oh, you know that we love one another. Well that's... No... You go over the first John and you find out is believe on the name of his Son Jesus and love one another as he gave commandment. So what are we talking about? They were talking about an idea. We're talking about truth, because that's what the Book says. And then you continue to read there in first John, and we find out perfected love casts out fear, that's truth. And when I learned that back many years ago and began to confess that, glory to God, love is perfected in me, love is perfected in me and I don't know it just seemed like the more I said that and read that and looked at that and preach that, it just seemed like just the faith, I mean, the fear just left. You get to where you don't have any fear of death.
Now you're not stupid. One of my instructors, it was the... I was training on the Lockheed Jetstar, which was a four-engined jet. And he knew you know, that I was a preacher. It was kind of funny the first day we were there... And now they do it with computers. The only computer in that Jetstar was a slide rule. It was all everything. It was all analog. So they had just cardboard pictures of the cockpit. And we were just sitting there going through the different things, name's Jim Bertram, and he worked for Lockheed. And he looked at Win he said, "You have any questions"? He said, "No, sir". He said, "Kenneth, do you have any questions"? I said, "No, sir". He said, "Well, I do. What about tithing? I know what's right, but I want to know".
And I had my Bible and it was so we had a... Now he said, now here's what he said. He said, "I know you're a man of faith. But there are some things we don't do by faith. We do by the Book". In other words, you do what this manual says and you keep the regulations by faith. You don't say, "Oh, we just believe God, we got enough fuel to make it". The graveyards full of people like that. And you stick that thing up like a dart somewhere and you got a bad day. That manual, the AFM, the manufacturer's manual is the truth about that airplane, but it was amended from time to time because they found a better way to do it and they changed the size of that fuel pump, or they changed the direction of the fuel routing or something. And then you find, Oh yeah, that was upgraded and then you go to the check list. Oh yeah, that was upgraded and shows the date... This doesn't need upgrading. This is the manufacturer's manual, not an AFM. This is the WFM world manufacturer. Amen, that's what this is. He's the Creator and we are who we are because we believe that. Amen. He is truth.
Now then, we found out that the written Word is truth. So and then yesterday we moved over end of the Psalms. And I want to go over there again today and we're talking about the word Hesed and the difficulty of explaining it to the English speaking mind or really any language except Hebrew, unless you have a Hebrew scholar teaching it. Well, I remembered so I finally went back and in my notes here: covenant mercy Hesed... Now how many times you hear this: Son of David, have mercy on me. Bartimaeus, he's not blind Bartimaeus, he's just Bartimaeus now. And Jesus was right there.
Now, Bartimaeus was a legal beggar. There were people you know, try to fake blindness. But when the priests judged you and knew for a fact you were blind, you wore a coat that signified that. He kept saying "Son of David", well he knew that's Messiah. And you find that in the book of Matthew that Jesus asked the Christ, the Messiah, who is he? Son of David. Well, he knew who he was. "Son of David, have mercy on me, Son of David, have mercy on me". And he stopped. They got on him. Shut up. Just shut up. You know, I mean, the star Jesus himself is coming though, but Jesus stopped and said, "Send him to me". They would say "Oh, he calls for you". That got his attention. Son of David "Hesed" cause he wasn't speaking English. Son of David, do Hesed for me. Hesed - favor from the greater... favor from the king. Favor from the God of the universe on an equal basis.
Bartimaeus, Syrophoenician woman and that battle in second Chronicles when they sent the singers out. I used to think the Lord said to do that but Jehoshaphat conferred with the people and they were singers. What were they singing? The Lord is good and his Hesed endures forever. The moment they started that, the Bible said God sent ambushments against them, they turned on themselves and killed one another. And the Prophet had said, "You will not have to fight in this battle, the battle is the Lord's and the victory is yours". And that victory came from mercy. That victory came because they called on Hesed. So... The Syrophoenician woman and anyway... David... Oh, David.
Okay, let's turn to the 23rd Psalm. I've got this 23rd Psalm marked up from almost every... it's just almost yellow in my Bible. "The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul:" That's the reason he lead you beside the still waters, to restore your mind and your emotions, he's your shepherd... "the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me;"
Why don't we fear evil when we're in the valley of the shadow of death? Because he's there and he's the biggest thing in the valley, and after all it wasn't death, it was the shadow of it. And the devil will use the shadow and if you believe it, he can scare you away from the table. "He preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and 'hesed' shall follow me all the days of my life:" and because of that, "I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever".
And David depended on it. When he sinned and did wrong, he called for Hesed, mercy. Calling for favor from the King of the universe. And he forgave him. And he's still doing the same thing today. Hallelujah. Does this excite you the way it does me? Glory to God, this is the truth about the thing. So now... and remember what we found in the 85th Psalm, the 10th verse, mercy and truth. "And you know the truth and the truth will make you free", because you have favor from the greater "are met together..." Of course they do. How could it be any other way? Because of Jesus. He brought all of us.
Until Cornelius, it was a Jewish church. But then when you find... Then you get looking at the centurion, the centurion that had the sick servant. I will come and heal him, the centurion, the centurion. It was Cornelius. No wonder he said this must be the Son of God. I didn't understand that until I realized it was the same, there's not but one centurion there. He's equal today of what's called a garrison commander. He's commander of the garrison where he was, nobody higher there than him. Now that didn't mean he's anywhere outside of that. Being a centurion meant he had at least 100 men under him. Could have been more, but he had at least 100. And from what he said, he came up through the ranks. But he called on Jesus. He called on him.
Jesus said, "I'll come heal him". He's not a Jew, he's a Roman. He said, "I'll come heal him," but listen to what he said. One translation said, "I'm not important enough for you to come under my roof, but you speak the Word only and my servant will be healed". Jesus said, "I've not found such great faith in all of Israel". Well there were 12 guys standing right there with him... to hear that, because all it took was the Word, why? His Word had authority. His Word was greater than sickness or disease. His Word is truth. And he believed it. Couldn't get it out of his heart and mind. Started praying, praying. He was a giver. He built that synagogue in Capernaum.
Jairus was the leader of the synagogue and Cornelius is the one that built it out of his own pocket. That was the synagogue that Jesus, that was his home synagogue in Capernaum. My, my, you start finding the pieces. What's it forming? The widescreen truth of the matter. Amen. So, and now look at this. Now I want to... Hang on here just for a minute now. Psalm 85, we saw that one.
Now I want to look at the 98th Psalm. Oh, I just keep coming back. Yes Sir, I need to do this, in the 89th Psalm. verse 22. "The enemy shall not exact upon him; nor the son of wickedness afflict him. And I will beat down his foes before his face, and plague them that hate him. But my faithfulness and my hesed shall be with him: and in my name shall his horn be exalted. I will set his hand also in the sea, and his right hand in the rivers. He shall cry unto me, Thou art my father, my God, and the rock of my salvation. Also I will make him my firstborn, higher than the kings of the earth. My hesed will I keep for him for evermore, and my covenant shall stand fast with him".
I have red lines around that. The word that came for me in Venezuela. 8/28, Praise God, 2015 Hallelujah. He's talking about me, that's the way you stand on truth, you stand on it. That is the fact. I don't care what else is happening in Venezuela. That's the fact. And I was going there to preach. He said, "I'll take care of you. I'll put my words in your mouth," hallelujah. Now then, glory to God. I get so excited about this. Well, I'm still going to the 98th... oh there's the 91st one. Oh Lord dear God dear Lord, dear God. And it's so marked up some time I have a hard time reading it. What did I say? 98th Psalm? Yes Sir.
Now, this is the one... this class now is advanced in this, this is week two, day three, this is advanced class. The 98th Psalm, verse 2, "The Lord hath made known his salvation: his righteousness hath he openly shewed in the sight of the heathen. He hath remembered his hesed and his truth toward the house of Israel: all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all the earth: make a loud noise, and rejoice," because you know the truth and the truth is made you free, glory to God.
Now I don't care what the world's facts are, they can't change that. I'm the only one that can change this for me by deciding, no, that's not my truth right now. Lord, I'd rather choke than to say that. That's the truth. And anybody that'll believe it and take hold of it and use it and stand for it and meditate on it, think about it and think about it and think about it. Now let's go to the Book of Joshua, the fifth book. I'm going to answer something here, it just came up in my spirit.
Now we understand and we know Matthew, Mark, Luke and John I just have time to introduce this. We know that I mean, those are our people. We know how that happened. But how did Moses learn all this? Now we know what Joshua's writing what he actually experienced. But how did Moses know about Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers Deuteronomy? How'd he know that's what happened? Well, he spent six weeks in God's presence and he neither ate nor drank. He gave him the commandments and we're out. Okay. We'll be back in a minute.