Kenneth Copeland - Love God by Keeping His Commandments
Faith works by love, we know that. Love never fails. Turn with me, let's go back here to the 13th chapter of the Book of John. "Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own", Having what? "Having love his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. And supper being ended, the devil having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray him; Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God;" He came from love and went to love. "He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel, and girded himself. After that he poureth water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded".
Now and you know, Peter argued with him there a little bit, "He that is washed needeth not save to wash" and so forth. "For he knew who should betray him;" verse 11, "therefore said he, Ye are not all clean. So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord: and ye say well; for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet; ye also ought to wash one another's feet".
Now, to us, I mean, we all wear shoes. They didn't, at the best they had sandals. It was nasty. That's the reason Peter said no... He didn't understand what Jesus was doing. I mean, it is filthy. You just walked around dodging all different kinds of things in the street. And here they had gone to this place at night, in the middle of the night. It was dark and artists don't read the Bible. They just make up stuff, that big long table with everybody on it and Jesus in the middle, no. They were on the floor. Any table would have been mats and so forth on the floor. It was night and it was lit by oil lamps, it was dark in there, very intimate. And they were just all piled in there together. And Jesus was serving that last Passover meal.
Oh, all kinds of things that he did. He took Messiah's Cup and turned it up and the linen napkin with matzo bread where you take out Abraham, put him back, Isaac, put him back, Jacob, so forth. And you take out Isaac and break him. Why? He didn't do that. He took that middle one and broke it and he said, "This is my body broken for you". Oh, this is my body broken for you. Notice what he said here verse 20, this is a book of exchanges, you remember I said that. "Truly, truly, I say unto you, he that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me. When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in Spirit, and testified, and said, Truly, truly, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me. Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake. Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved".
He believed the love, that reason he wrote what he did in the letter in first John. He knew it and he believed it. And he's the only one that lived a long, long, long, long, long, long time. Nobody could kill him. They boiled him in oil and he didn't stay boiled, so they threw him away, threw him out on a horrible place called Patmos. And he wrote the Book of Revelation. And you come down to the Book of Revelation and it says "The End". The End, yes. I've been rereading it. It's a letter. Don't get all over into the weeds. Just start out it says, "Blessed is everybody that reads this". Okay just take that and go for it. It's a vision. Anyway.
Oh, let me ask you something else. Do you ever wonder why Luke's account of the birth of Jesus is so more detailed than the others? I did, but I just thought, Oh, well, until Rick Renner sent me his book Christmas, The Rest Of The Story. Well of course Luke went to Ephesus and interviewed Mary, and John was there. So John didn't see any use to write another one. I'll tell you, that's a marvelous book. You just need to get one or two or three or four and everybody pass them out during Christmas. And all of the art work is done by a Russian Jew that's very, very close friend of Rick Renner's. It is magnificent. Now, I found out that the reason everybody in Nazareth knew him at that little town of Nazareth never had over 120 to 150 people in it. But they knew everybody, we know that young'n, too familiar.
The word carpenter from the Greek word "Techno", technician or technologically advanced. There wasn't a whole lot of wood for him to be a carpenter of because everything was built out of rocks and stone. But he was a very, very advanced man and he was wealthy to start with, and so was his wife. So Rick went into the background of both of them. This poor carpenter, he wasn't poor, he never was poor a time. He became poor when he just dumped everything. None of his disciples were poor. Anyway, all of these things are important. This book of covenants and history, the good, the bad, the ugly, the wonderful. But all of it a book of love, "that one of you shall betray me. Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake. Now there was leaning on Jesus' bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake".
Can you say this now? I mean, they're all tucked in there together, and Peter looks over and says, "Ask him, you ask him". John saying, "I'm not going to ask him". "No, you ask him. Peter, James and John". It says a lot for Mr. Zebedee. Amen, a lot. Peter, James and John. So the one that stayed with Jesus all the way through the whole thing, he didn't get out away from him at all. Not any time through the trial, through everything else, all of the terror of it all. He was there. He stayed right with him. He wouldn't leave him. Because love casts out fear, he had no fear of it. And he had fallen in love with this man. He loved him so. Followed him all the way to the end. And he stayed all the way to the end. He was the last one and he died an old man. They tried to kill him, they tried everything they could do to get rid of him. But the apostle of love, faith works by love, the apostle of love.
So I want you to see it right there in that place. "He then lying on Jesus' breast saith unto him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, or a morsel when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the sop Satan entered into him". He entered into him, not on him. He entered into him. "That thou doest, do quickly. Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him. For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we have need of against the feast; or, that he should give something to the poor". It is the middle of the night in a Passover meal, and they thought maybe he sent him to give something to the poor.
Now what kind of reputation does that take? What do you have to do to get that reputation? You give to the poor all the time. So no way he could be poor, if he gives to the poor night and day... You know, I mean, some people, you know, in our circles would have thought, you know, well, the guy had to use the restroom I guess, having no idea what was happening in the Spirit, completely oblivious to the Spirit realm. Well, of course they were. They were not born again men. They were still natural men, natural thinking. They had followed him night and day for three and a half years with little sleep. Saw all kinds of miracles. But we find out and you need to watch, "That could have been sold and given to the poor," said Judas.
Well, read the rest of it. He cared nothing for the poor for he was a thief and he was stealing out of that bag and that 30 pieces of silver looked good to him. I'm convinced after reading this Book for many, many years that you think about and go back in there and look at all the times that well, right there at Nazareth, they don't push him off the cliff. And he just walked out from among them. And how many times that happened? He just disappeared and just showed up somewhere else, whether their minds and eyes were blinded to him because it wasn't his time. I'm convinced that Judas had the idea, that's exactly the same thing he's going to do and we're going to... and I'll cover this, I'll cover it up and then when it's all over with, he'll reinstate Israel and then it'll all be over and that's it.
Now Abraham is called the covenant friend of God, even in the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus called Judas friend. He could have repented. But then Peter preached later and said he went to his place. His major problem in his terrible remorse and fear, he hung himself. He still could have repented, Jesus would have accepted it. But he didn't do it. Well, I'm not to judge, thank God. But you know that was hard on the Lord. And he knew this young man from the very beginning. Anyway, now here it is, verse 31. "Therefore, when he was gone out", verse 30, "He then having received the sop, the morsel, went immediately out: and it was night. Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, 'Now...'" He had to get that devil out of that room before he could go any further. Not Judas. He had to get Satan out of that room.
"Now is the son of man glorified and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me: and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now I say to you. A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another".
Simon Peter said to him, Lord, where are you going? Where I go, you can't follow me, but you shall follow me afterwards. 14th chapter. "Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also. And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know. Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou going; and how can we know the way? Jesus saith, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me. If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father". That word known is known, known, known. It's the same word.
"Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. Truly, truly, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father. And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. If ye love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: or orphans... I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see me: because I live, ye shall live also. At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him".
I'm telling you, love is the key to success.