Kenneth Copeland - The Covenant Versus the Contradiction
— Praise God for evermore.
— Amen. Thank You, Jesus. Thursday's edition. And we're talking about covenant, right? God, The Covenant And The Contradiction. Now, July the fourth 1776, is when they signed the Declaration of Independence.
— That's correct.
— Then they had to fight a war to keep it. And all of the grievances were in that declaration. We declare we're independent. Now, what are you going to do about it?
— And here's why. All those grievances are why we're doing this.
— And there was a soldier by the name of George Washington, and he came up well taught... his parents were godly people. He was well taught. And he was taught that you don't lie about anything, ever. The day was April 30th, 1789. This was a day of making a covenant with Almighty God for the United States of America. A proclamation was made for the sacred gathering at Federal Hall. Come and see your president. Take his oath and pray that God will accept this land as his. Now, that was 234 years ago. In God's time, 15 minutes. Because to him, a day is as a thousand years and a thousand years as a day. But Moses said that and Peter said that. At 9 a.m., the bells rang throughout the city. George Washington made his official oath of office in New York City. There wasn't any Washington, DC. That's a long time later. He laid his hand on the Bible, not just merely upon the Bible. He specifically opened it up and laid his hand upon the covenant God made with Abraham in the 17th chapter of Genesis. Then lifting his arm upward toward heaven, Washington made a vow to lead our nation and honor the God of Israel and his covenant. Now, what did God say that Abraham when he changed his name? Nations will come from thee. This one came from him.
— That's right.
— Abraham Lincoln.
— He kept this nation together.
— Yes.
— And he stopped slavery in the world. Not just in this country. It was a huge industry all over the world. But when the United States stopped it, it all of a sudden just fell like dominoes all over the rest of the world. Heads of state were kicked out because of it after the war that was fought here. And Abraham Lincoln knew he was named after Abraham of old. and that he would one day do what he did. After Washington invoked his oath and covenant under the Lord and sealed it with so help me God. He bowed his knee to the ground in reverence and kissed the Bible. Afterward, Washington called the senators and newly elected officials to join him as they walked arm in arm down the streets of New York to St Paul's Chapel. There, they bowed together, prayed and dedicated this land, our beloved America, to God. The day that George Washington was inaugurated was the day that covenant was invoked. America belonged to God Almighty and St Paul's Chapel in New York City survived 911. Everything fell around it. The wounded and the injured were brought in there. That very chapel is where the first elected officials of this nation dedicated it to God, in a covenant...
— That's correct. Now, we had a contradiction to that promise, that covenant. The contradiction... Abraham Lincoln will take care of the contradiction of slavery.
— Yeah. And Washington was one of the ones that insisted that you put in there that all men are created equal.
— That's correct.
— Now, expecting that to stop slavery. But it took a long time for it to happen. Now, he had slaves. But in his household, they were paid well. They were treated as family members, not as slaves. And there were a lot of people that would really would like to be in his household because of that. And then there were indentured slaves that nobody ever talks about that. These are people that wanted to come into this country so badly that they would sell themselves to someone for so many years and work that out.
— That's correct. Happened a lot.
— There are people down there on the border right now. This is the only nation I know anything about that there's nobody trying to get out of it unless you're running from the law. And everybody in the world is trying to get in. And you just think about him. I don't know how many people are trying to get into Australia or Canada, but you see where they are. They're on the border of this nation.
— I think it goes to that covenant. It goes all the way back there because the covenants were supposed to... And I want to point that out with the contradiction to what he said was slavery. Because it doesn't happen overnight. You start a direction, you make a commitment to the Lord Jesus Christ. You're going to give your heart, your life to him. You confess him with your mouth. If you were overweight when you did that, you're still overweight. Now he's going to begin to work on the inside to change those things. So and as you learn to honor your covenant and honor him, he'll begin to change things in your life. Honor is the seed. I sow it, I can choose not to sow it but when I sow it, adaptability happens. I begin to adapt to whatever is needed for a situation. Joseph shaved his beard and didn't look like a shepherd when he went to Pharaoh. Why? The Egyptians didn't like beards. Esther bathed herself in oil, prepared herself for the king. She adapted. Daniel adapted to the culture. He didn't become the culture, big difference. But he adapted to it in order to speak to Nebuchadnezzar and all. A man hanging on a cross next to Jesus. He loses an entire lifetime of failure and sin with one conversation because of who he honored. This day you'll be with me in paradise.
— Now the reward system didn't work for him because he just barely made it.
— Yes, he did. But he made it.
— But it's way ahead of the alternatives.
— That's right.
— Because the other two... Now, the moment they went into hell, the moment they were there, then they saw all this other. They saw the one there in that upper region there and in the bosom of Abraham. And they're down here burning. How do we know that? Because what Jesus talked about the rich man and Lazarus.
— That's correct. Imagine that thief walking in there to Abraham's bosom. And there's David, there's Abraham and all the people that prophesied this. He walks in there with nothing, you know, he just got saved. He walks in there, you know, "What are you doing here"? Well, the guy in the middle said I could be here, you know, and that's just it. What are you doing here? He said I could be here. But see, this all started with the sinless man, Adam and Eve in the Garden with God. They fellowship with him daily. Let me read if I could, here out of page 41 on God, The Covenant, The Contradiction says this: "Filled with his glory as his children. They had confidence both in the spiritual and natural realms. They also had direct access to heaven's throne of grace". We give several verse references there. All Adam and Eve had to do to keep living the dream was abide in the Eden Covenant conditions of which they had agreed to. Those conditions included one restriction. Here it is. The Lord God commanded the man, saying of every tree of the garden now must eat freely. But the tree of the knowledge of good and evil Thou shall not eat of it for the day thou eat of it, thou surely die. There was only one contradiction. There was only one thing that they were supposed to do. And Lucifer heard it, twisted God's own words to get them to dishonor, if you will. We have to honor our covenant. You're in a covenant, whether you realize it or not. There's a covenant on this nation.
— She added to the...
— She added to it. Yes, she did.
— We're not supposed to look at it or touch it.
— That's not what he said. They had to touch it if they were going to tend to it. She was satisfied that that was their time.
— I can see that. I believe it.
— If they had obeyed it at a certain time, because Jesus knew good and evil and didn't commit it. But at a time appropriate, he would have called them in. And when that fruit was ripe, he would have called them in and said, "Now, since you refuse to listen to that snake, I'm going to teach you the difference between good and evil". Or if Adam had owned up to it, but he blamed it on her
— and he blamed God too, the one you gave me.
— So here it is. Romans Chapter four. Here is the covenant and the contradiction. This is in one or two verses here. "Therefore it is of faith, that it might be by grace; to the end the promise might be sure to all the seed; not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham; who is the father of us all, As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations, before him or like unto him whom he believed, even God, who quickeneth the dead, and calleth those things which be not as though they were. Who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be. And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old," There is that contradiction. But he did it by faith. "Neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone, that it was imputed to him; But for us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead; Who was delivered for our offences, and was raised again for our justification". There is no way, impossible for a 100 year old man and a 90 year old woman to have a baby when she's barren anyway. That's the contradiction. But it was a special shot. Faith changed them both. She accounted him faithfully. You find that over in the 11th Chapter of Hebrews. She accounted him faithful.
— She judged him. She sat there and remembered all of this that happened. You start looking at them and their covenant promise. With Abraham, it was a blessing. Just like Adam, it started with a blessing again and you'll never walk in the blessing unless you have your covenant. I mean, you can understand blessing. You can understand covenant when you marry the two... That's what she did. She judged him faithful. Genesis 12:1-3. "Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him", singular, "that curseth thee: And you're all the nations of the earth shall bless". There's a lot of blessing in those words. Even the curse in the covenant of Abraham is actually a blessing. I'll curse the one that comes against you. There's no curse on you. See, the reason that can be is because it'll be Abraham seeing Jesus that will become the curse, Brother Copeland. So the curse is even a blessing in Abraham. Moses is a different matter. But in this covenant of Abraham, it's a blessing. He was the promise, one that will deal. And he is the one that will become responsible for, Abraham will become responsible for the seed coming into the earth. Now, there's another contradiction besides that one. It's Ishmael. He tried to do this by the flesh, or Sarah did. And so now we have another contradiction because we have another seed there.
— And you look at her.
— It's the unexpected contradiction. She's dealing with being barren. She's looked down upon. And deeply concerned about the reputation of her husband. You know, I mean, this is a very, very prosperous man. And he's had covenant with God back before his name was changed. And she's an embarrassment. Well, we're still suffering from what she did. But to give you an idea how powerful faith is and Sarah died. Abraham remarried. Now he was dead at 100. He remarried and had six more sons. Now, here's what most people, yours truly included until the teaching of it from her name. Her name is an African name. So his six more sons were most likely... She's most likely a black woman. And isn't that just like God, that thrills me through...
— Because Moses will do the same thing.
— Yes, he did.
— And people got upset about it and they paid for it. Contradiction. There was a natural contradiction. They were too old. Faith overcame that. They created their own contradiction with Ishmael. God overcame that. So this is why there's two fathers and two sons. So God's going to walk this thing through. I am the father of the promised seed. You're going to bring the natural seed. If you're Jewish, you're part of the natural covenant, whether you choose to be or not. If you're a believer in Christ Jesus, Galatians 3 tells you you're part of Abraham seed and you're now part of this covenant. You're a part of the covenant. Whether you ever choose to walk in the fullness of the blessing of it or not, that's up to you. Don't create your own contradictions by trying to work it out when he's already done it. He's given us all things that pertain to his righteousness. And now this is done by faith. My obedience is through my faith. So this is proof that Abraham is fully persuaded and is no longer trusting in flesh because he's willing to kill Isaac. No longer trusting in flesh. I'm willing to kill Isaac because you'll raise him. So first it was the blood of animals. Then it was Abraham's own blood. And then it became the blood of Isaac, which God stopped him. It'll become the blood of the seed of Isaac, which will be Jesus Christ himself. And that's the redeeming blood that has redeemed us once and for all into this glorious covenant that we get to walk in. That's why the blessing is so attached to covenant.
— Now, all of this, once you study these thing, all of it is in the 10th and 11th and 12th chapters of the book of Hebrews, the priesthood, all of it is there. They have to remember the Apostle Paul spent an undetermined amount of time in the Arabian Desert. He was caught up into the third heaven and there received things unlawful for him to utter. In other words, he was not allowed to write it down and tell it to anyone. But then all of it is here. "God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us, should not be made perfect. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher and developer of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself..."
— There it is. That's the whole book right there. The Lord, boy, he sat me down. except I liked to kill myself doing it. He said, "You mistook the anointing for strength". And he said, "The things would pass through your spirit. And you would stand out there on the platform and say, 'We're going to do this. We're going to do that. Glory to God.'" And he said, "Now you're stuck with it. Because you publicly announced it".
— That's correct.
— You didn't inquire of me when or where or even... So I preach myself to exhaustion twice. And when I got short of breath, then they checked my heart. I didn't need a stent. I didn't have a blood problem. But I exhausted myself twice. And the stress of that on my heart kicked it into AFib. And here we are out of time. And I don't do that anymore. And I'm not going to get usher jackets either... We'll be back...