Kenneth Copeland - The Four Fundamentals of Faith
Hello, everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland. Welcome again this week to the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. Now, all last week, Gloria and I were talking about the fact that we've been redeemed from sickness and disease. Let's go back to where we were in the third chapter of the book of Galatians And we read it. It's talking about faith all the way through here the 13th verse. Christ... Don't you love it?
"Christ the anointed One and his anointing has redeemed us or bought us back from the curse of the law being made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: so that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise or what the Spirit promised through faith. Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ".
Now you've heard Gloria say this a lot. I have said it many, many times. I'm going to say to you now. At the first sign of any symptom, resist it. What a way to resist. Anything that Jesus bore for us on the cross. He bore our sins in his own body, on the tree that we being dead to sins should live under righteousness by whose stripes we were healed. If we were healed, then we are healed now, according to Scripture. So we resist sickness and disease. We resist sin. We put up a resistance in the name of Jesus. Now two places we'll turn to. Number one will be in the book of James and in the fourth chapter and the seventh verse.
Now listen to this. "Submit yourselves therefore to God". That's the first step. Father, I submit myself to you. "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you". It's not just resist the devil and he'll flee from you. No. He's fleeing from the name of Jesus. He's fleeing from God. Let's read it again. Let's start with verse six. "But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you". Oh praise God.
Now, First Peter, Chapter five. This is huge. "The elders which are among you I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of Christ," now listen. "And also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed: Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre," or just to get money "but of a ready mind;" Now, let me stop right there. Ministries need money to function, but there have been charlatans that I'm thinking of one right now, right here in the state of Texas, years ago. He memorized some Spurgeon sermons, Oral Roberts sermons, and he went out preaching. I mean, people got to say, well, "Brother Copeland, was it a real salvation"?
Well, certainly he was preaching the Word, but he took up offerings. Oh, he's starting to take up an offering. He just took up an offering. Oh, he took... He got caught at it. And they put him in jail and put him in prison for fraud. But here's the big thing. He had memorized all those sermons and he got saved, he got born again in prison on his own preaching, praise God. Isn't that wonderful. But you see what he was doing. This is what the apostle was talking about. You don't do it just for offerings. You do it for the proper purpose. If you feed the flock of God.
Now notice as he said, "Filthy lucre". He didn't just say money, but filthy is for the wrong purpose and the wrong kind. "Neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble".
Now listen, humble yourself, "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:" God is not... He's not against you or me or any other believer from being exalted. What is wrong is for us to attempt to exalt ourselves in order to get money and that kind of thing. And I'm thinking about another young man right now. Really sad situation. Anyway, "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:" How do you do that? "Casting all your care..." All right.
Now, hang on here just a moment. Let me get the big Book. All right, now, that's First Peter, First Peter five. "Therefore humble yourselves [demote, lower yourselves in your own estimation] under the mighty hand of God, that in due time He may exalt you," listen now. "Casting the whole of your care [all your anxieties, all your worries," I'm reading this out of the Book. This is a command. "your concerns, once and for all on Him, for He cares for you affectionately". Casting all that worry over on him, stop worrying about things. Rick Renner is such a special long time friend. He and Denise. He said he worried, if he wasn't worrying, he didn't think he was doing well. He said he worried because he wasn't worried and he just worried. And he worried. And he worried. And he worried. And he worried. I watched him teach this on television. And he said and he had ulcers as a young man.
And then he went to the doctor and he's had... and he's having a blood transfusion. And then somebody said something about AIDS, and he said he worried about having AIDS when he got tested. He didn't have AIDS. But he said, "Finally I stood on that scripture right there," and it changed his entire life and ministry. It did the same for us many, many, many, many times. There was a time, long years ago and you've heard me tell this before, but it is worth reaching into right now that there is a series of events that over a long period of time, we came to a place where we were behind $6 million on our TV bills. And so anyway, I waited till about midnight the night before the board meeting because I did not want to go before that board and tell them this.
So Pastor George and being CEO, he brought all the reports to me so I could go over them. I just see this in my mind, the best year we've ever had, the best year we've ever had, the best year we've ever had. TV 6 million in the red, the best year we've ever had. And the Lord said, "See there you've had the best year you've ever had. You didn't know it". And right in here he said, "The only one in bad shape is the one you tried to carry and worry about". And you knew better than that. Gloria are already gone to bed. So I woke her up, got her down there, I said, "Now look". And she looked at that. "Yeah", she said so the two of us turned to that scripture right there and we caught hands and we cast the whole of this care over on our God, Hallelujah. And just got rid of it.
Well, then that brings in Second Corinthians chapter ten. "For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but dunamis, powerful through God to the pulling down of strong holds;" That 6 million was a stronghold. In my mind. I couldn't see anyway. It built up to be so big and strong, "Casting down imaginations," the cross reference says reasonings "and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of the Word of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience," Now I put in there "or thought"... "when your obedience is fulfilled. Do not look on things after the outward appearance".
Okay. So I said, "Father, in the name of Jesus, I will not touch that in my thought life anymore. And that 6 million..." No, no, no, no, no. I don't touch that. No, I don't. No, no, no, no. I don't touch that with my thought life. I noticed after a week, it wasn't nearly as much and I just get mean about it. I said, "No devil. No, you're not putting that in my mind. No, no, that's God's problem, not mine". Why? Because the same apostle said, "We walk by faith and not by sight". Glory to God, I said, "We have it. Glory to God. We have it by faith".
All right. It was in record time. Up to that time we had paid that TV bill in two installments each month. That 6 million was wiped out. And if you hear Pastor George say, I mean, every day, the whole staff... I mean, they're praising God for it. And after that, we paid it in one bill. It surpassed what we were behind in and came out to victory. Glory to God, Alleluia. So now then we keep talking about faith. Let's go over here to Romans three. I want you to listen to this. Romans 3:27. Let's go back up here. Verse 24: "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood," we keep talking about faith, "that are past, through the forbearance of God; To declare..." One translation says through the blotting out.
Now we're in Romans Chapter three, verse 27. "Then what becomes of [our] pride and [our] boasting? It is excluded (banished, ruled out entirely). On what principle? [On the principle] of doing good deeds? No, but on the principle of faith. For we hold that a man is justified and made upright by faith independent of and distinctly apart from good deeds (works of the Law). [The observance of the Law has nothing to do with justification.]" So we're talking about the law of faith. Now, wait a minute. Let's just get over here and find out what faith is, because here it said the law of faith. There are fundamental laws of faith. We walk by faith and not by sight. We are not moved by what we feel or what we see. And we'll see that in just a moment. The Classic Amplified. Faith is now, hope is in the future.
"Now faith is the assurance (the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for, being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to the senses]. For by [faith, trust and holy fervor born of faith] the men of old had divine testimony borne to them and obtained a good report. By faith we understand that the worlds [during the successive ages] were framed (fashioned, put in order, and equipped for their intended purpose) by the Word of God, so that what we see was not made out of things which are visible". It is made out of something we can't see. It was made out of this Book.
The author of the Book, the Almighty God, in the beginning, Elohim created the Heaven and the Earth. "L" God. Elohim is plural. God, the Father, God, the Son, and God the Holy Ghost created all of this. He put all this thing. I love it. Glory to God. So faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. So faith is this powerful, unseen force that was born into you and into me, the moment we accepted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. That very moment. And you've heard my testimony.
Now, Gloria said, "I'm not going out in public with you anymore". "Gloria, why"? "Well, it's your dirty mouth". I said, "Well, what the... did I say? It's such a habit. I came in from that trip that night, and the Lord put it to me". I just went and I said... "Yeah, I know what..." He said, "If you don't get right with me, you headed for devil's hell". I said, "Yes, I know it. What do I do now"?
I heard Mrs. Taggart's voice. Mrs. Taggart was a widow and she just a little, little small lady. And she wore black dress all the time and a little black hat with little artificial flowers in it right here. And she was our Sunday school teacher. And we let the Sunday school superintendent know, you know, the Southern Baptist Church, it's so much like school. They promote you every year. We let them know without Mrs. Taggart, we're not coming back. So she just promoted with us. "Boys, you have to ask Jesus to come into your heart". I thought, "Well it sounds just as dumb as it did the first time I heard it. But here we go. Jesus, come into my heart".
From that day to this, that was the first week of November of 1962. From that day until this profanity was wiped out of my life forever, I became a new creature. I didn't know that was in the Bible, but it happened to me and I had evidence of it. Now, you may not receive that kind of evidence, but you believe it because of the covenant says it. The blood of Jesus ratified all the previous covenants in the first or the old covenant. So this Book is blood bought, blood washed in blood back, Glory to God and all of those tabs all over this thing are healing scriptures and deliverance scriptures where you can just sit down and just go through them all. Praise God and you can minister healing to someone.
Jesus said to believe and lay hands on the sick and they will recover. So we need to be doing that kind of a job. So the fundamentals of faith, this powerful spiritual force, I'll give you the steps and then we'll go to another... How much time, thank you Tim. The fundamentals of faith. Number one, believe it in your heart. Then say it with your mouth. Mark 11:23. Romans 10:10. Second Corinthians 4:13. Luke 6:43 to 45. Matthew 12:35 and 37 Mark 5:25 and 34. Matthew 21. Well, see, there's more than just one or two witnesses.
Number two, faith will not work in an unforgiving heart. We'll see that in a moment from Mark 11:25 and Galatians five, six and Ephesians four and Romans 5:5. Abraham's blessing cannot be received with Thomas' faith. Romans 4:17 through 20, John 20:24 through 29. Second Corinthians 4:18. Faith calls things that be not as though they were. Romans 4:17, Philippians 4:6 through 9. Genesis 17:1. Genesis 25:1 and 2, the Covenant and the contradiction. And Professor Stephens and I just finished the book with that title. Brother Hagin preached a message of that and we gave him credit in our book together, The Covenant and the Contradictions. So as a symptom of sickness and disease, well, I'm healed. Well, that sickness and disease is a contradiction of the Word, but the Word wins always, always the Word wins.
Now, in closing this, we'll introduce this right now in Mark chapter five. "There cometh one of the rulers of the synagogue, Jairus by name; and when he saw him, he fell at his feet, And besought him greatly, saying, My little daughter lieth at the point of death: I pray thee, come and lay thy hands on her, that she shall live. And Jesus went with him;" He just went with him. So what happened? Faith put him towards Jairus' house. Now he was right there in Capernaum and that's where his headquarters was there on the seaside. But there was always a crowd thronging him all the time. But he just went with him.
So easy to receive from him. And it still is when you follow the directions of the manufacturer's handbook. Praise God. Well, Tim, that's what you do. In general, most people don't read the book on their new car or their old car. They have a flat and say, "What do I do now"? The first car that we provided Kellie, it was a new one and she was thrilled, thrilled with it.
I said, "Come on, Kellie, let's go out here in the driveway". "Okay". I said, "Look there in the glove box and get the operator's handbook for this car". "Okay". I said, "Now find in the book how to open the trunk". "I don't know". I said, "Find it in the book". So she found it in the book. I said, "Now, how do you get that Jack and that tire out of that"? "I don't know". I said, "It's in the book". She sat down out there on the driveway and read in that book, jacked her car up, changed the tire, put another one on it and fashioned it down. I said, "Now, girl, you get stuck out in the boonies somewhere and change your own tire because it's in the book". Amen. And we're out of time. I'll be back in just a moment.