Kenneth Copeland - The Fundamentals of Faith - Part 1
Open your Bibles to Romans Chapter 3, verse 27. Romans 3:27. Verse 26. "To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No: but by the law of faith". We will look at the fundamentals of faith. What are you watching when you watch World Cup? Masters of the Fundamentals. What are you watching when you watch the Super Bowl? Masters of the Fundamentals. Wimbledon. Masters of the Fundamentals. The Green Jacket of golf and Augusta, Georgia, coveted by the best in the business, Masters of the Fundamentals.
And Vince Lombardi, arguably the best football coach, especially of his time. He absolutely refused to have a losing season, he even got close to it. He would open up spring training and he'd say, "Gentlemen, this is a football". Really? Go back to the basic. The basics, blocking, tackling. Get on that tennis court. And I mean, you play till you have blisters on your hands. The Olympic champions, they're the ones that don't quit when everything in their body is hurting. They don't quit, but there's always fundamentals to everything. So the fundamental of the Word of God and there are basic fundamentals of faith. And the law of faith means that it's predictable. It is a spiritual law. And we'll get the definition of it again from Hebrews 11. "Now, faith is", all right. Now... faith is in the now. Faith is always now. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Now there's no condemnation. Now there's no condemnation. Every time you say it, it upgrades. Now. Say now, See, that was a while ago.
"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. Prompted, actuated by faith Abel brought God a better and more acceptable sacrifice than Cain. Verse 40. Because God had us in mind and had something better and greater in view for us, so that they these heroes and heroines of faith should not come to perfection apart from us before we could join them. Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses who have borne testimony to the Truth, let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us, Looking away from all that will distract to Jesus, Who is the Leader and the Source of our faith giving the first incentive for our belief and is also its Finisher bringing it to maturity and perfection".
Have you accepted him as the perfector of your faith? He can't perfect something that's in a box somewhere. So you use it every day. You pray all the time, all the time. Here's what happens when we get in the airplane. First I'll pray it the way I pray it in the cockpit. Before I start an engine, stop right then, "Father, in the name of Jesus, I plead the blood of Jesus over this airplane for protection against every evil spirit, every evil, wicked plan of the devil. Every wicked person in the name of Jesus. Thank You".
Ministering spirits, lift us up in your hands lest we dash our foot against a stone and keep us in all of our ways, according to the 91st Psalm. And bless our partners all over the world. Every time. I do the same thing when I'm in the cabin. But when I'm in the cockpit, I'll say, "Now I have the mind of Christ. And today I receive the flying mind of Christ and all the things that You've taught me and all the things that my instructors have taught me over these many, many, many, many years. And I will not forget anything because I praise You and thank You that flying is a discipline and safety is an attitude. And I thank You for it". Do it in your car. Are you going to drive out in all this traffic without pleading the blood over that car? Now you're not going to fly it, but there are other people trying to fly theirs. And you just plead the blood over that car. Ministering spirits, you see to it that this car bumps nobody and nobody will bump it? No, no. I have angels around this car and they see to it. Hallelujah. Thank You, Jesus.
That's what you do all the time. You begin to walk in the grocery market. Lord, thank You. If there's someone in here, I can witness to, help me, someone that needs prayer. And before I go in here, I forgive everybody in the place. So there's no way that they can offend me. Unoffendable. You can't offend me. And I've had some pretty ugly things said about me. Amen goes right there. What did we read this morning? They become offended. Then Satan steals the Word. He can't have it. He is a thief. And Jesus said this. The thief comes only but to steals, kill and destroy. What do you come to steal? The Word. If he can steal the Word, he can steal your finances. If he can steal the Word, he can destroy your finances, He can destroy your body. He can destroy everything around you... if he can steal it.
No, when you come to that place where you're like Stuart Hamblin and you're beating on Billy Graham. "I got to get save tonight" and finally let him in the room. Brother Graham said, "This is between you and God". "I don't care, let me in there". And he began to sing at the Billy Graham crusades and he wrote songs with that, hallelujah. So fundamentals, number one, believe it in your heart. Then say it with your mouth. Mark. 11:23 Romans 10:10 Second Corinthians 4:13, Luke 6:43-45 Matthew 12:35-37, Mark 5:25-34. Let's go over here to Mark five. You're familiar with this. "And they came over unto the other side of the sea, into the country of the Gadarenes".
Get a map of the Galilee. These are areas around and calling it the Sea of Galilee is not a stretch. That is a big lake. It's really, it's huge. Anyway, "Come out of the ship, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit, one. He had his dwelling among the tombs; and no man could bind him, no, not with chains: Because that he had been often bound with fetters and chains, or shackles. The chains had been plucked asunder by him, and the fetters broken in pieces: neither could any man tame him. And always, night and day, he was in the mountains, and in the tombs, crying, and cutting himself", he was a cutter, "When he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit". And so forth and so on.
Now look at this. "And they come to Jesus, and see him that was possessed with the devil, and had the legion, sitting, and clothed, and in his right mind:" So faith prepares before you go. So Jesus knew exactly what he was going to do, and he's going to call this man to preach. So he took clothes with him to clothe him and sent him home to his friends and his family... Looking good. Hallelujah. So faith, prepare, so now... And then you go like to Hebrews 10:23 and you find the promise. Then you base the faith on the promise in the book. If it's financial, you go to financial scriptures, go to the redemption of the curse of the law, because it's Abraham's blessing. And Isaac, his supernatural son, they talk about faith. The word of the Lord came to Abraham and said, "Offer Isaac as an offering to me". He didn't argue with it. He just went and did it. And he carried all of the stuff up to the mountain. And he told a man there and he said, "Wait here, the boy and I'll be back, the lad and I will be back". Went up there.
Now think about the faith that Isaac had in him. I mean, he had the wood and he had Isaac get up on that wood. And right there in the book of Hebrews by faith, he received Isaac, raised from the dead in a figure, and he raised the knife. He fully intended to see him, offer him as a sacrifice and God raise him up out of the dust. And an angel said, "Stay your hand". Why did he do that? Why did he do that? Look at it in the book of Hebrews, he offered his only begotten Son not because he was coming a day and he was his... He was God's covenant partner. And he did exactly what he told him to do all the time. He was fully persuaded. He was able, he knew there was coming a day when it would happen, that Jesus would say, Father, "If there's any way, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will but yours be done".
So he could not... not do what his covenant partner was willing to do. You see, the covenant connection between the two, it's powerful. It's necessary to know that, it's necessary to become covenant-minded and to become made the righteousness of God-minded instead of sin-minded all the time. Well, I'm just so unworthy. I'm just not a worthy. No, you're not. Stop that. Are you a new creature? Then God didn't make any new unworthy creatures because you're the righteousness of God, in him, it's his righteousness. Hallelujah. Glory to God. He's had half his day here. The fundamentals. Faith will not work in an unforgiving heart. Mark 11:25, Galatians 5:6, Ephesians 4:32 and Romans 5:5. Mark 11:25.
So we go on over there. "Verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses". And that includes politicians. So much of the time, what Jesus prayed is the truth. Father, forgive them. They know not what they're doing. And it didn't say agree with his politics. It said forgive him or her or whomever it is.
Have you ever been Prime Minister? Have you ever been President? No. Neither have I. And I don't want to be. But you and I don't understand what they put up with. We don't understand the people that are behind the scenes that are putting pressure on them to do or say certain things that they even don't want to do or say. And somebody has given them a great campaign idea. Really? "Yea, but now you can't say this". "I can"? "Oh, no, don't ever say that". "Why"? "They might not like it. It's a cinch, they're not going to like it". That's like they came up to Jesus and said, "By what authority do you do these things"? He said, "Let me ask you one thing. Was John's baptism of God or a man"? They reasoned among themselves and said, "Well, if we say this, he'll say that. If we say that, he'll say this and we don't know".
There was a time President Lyndon Johnson in the United States and let's turn over because I already had this in my heart that it was going to happen. So here's the place. We're going to do it, First Timothy and thank You, Jesus. Chapter 2: "I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men; For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty. For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour; Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time".
Glory to God. Well, I didn't like him. I didn't like the decisions he was making. And I just... And so the Lord said, "Do you know him"? "No, sir". "Do you know anybody that knows him"? "No, sir". "Sounds to me like you don't know much". I said, "That's right". "Have you not read First Timothy Chapter two"? "Yes, sir". "You pray for him". "Okay". So this was back in the day before they had the kind of hotel keys that they have now. You know, just the plain old key. So, you know, you leave the television up loud. And so I walked in there and there was something else on, and I just walked in and started taking off my tie. And they introduced President Lyndon Johnson.
When I heard his voice, the love of God rose up on the inside of me, and I began to pray. I said, "Lord, look what he's having to deal with. I pray for the man, I hold him up before You". It changed my life. I don't know what it did for him, but I do know that Billy Graham went to visit him not long after that on his ranch in Texas. And he came out and said, "I will not accept, I will not run for nor will I accept the nomination to run again for president from my party". And he retired and not too terribly long after that, he died. He had a heart attack and then he'd go and go down and was gone. I'm so glad that the Lord dropped that scripture inside me. That's a faith fundamental. All that are in a cathartic, College presidents, head of hospitals, Hallelujah... All that are in authority.