Kenneth Copeland - A Covenant of God’s Lovingkindness
— Hello, everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland. Welcome to Monday's edition of the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. All last week, we pretty well majored on the Hebrew word, "hesed" that covenant word in English, we were discussing this with the class. Oh, and Greg Stephens. Yeah. You know him... Loving kindness. Well, so what? My mother had loving kindness. But we're talking about God's loving kindness. In my opinion, this is the thing that David did. David, the King, more than anyone else. He wouldn't do anything without inquiring of the Lord. And we're going to learn some different things then about Gideon. And we talked about this last week. So let's take the two places. One of them here in Job. In the 10th chapter. Now for the radio television audience as Christian people in particular, those of us who won't live by faith, we can find all kinds of mistakes that Job made. But his mistakes are not the issue here. There's only one sin involved, one. The devil said to God, "You do these things. He will curse you to your face". That was the only accusation that the devil made. That's it. But now, look here. In the 10th chapter of Job, let's read the ninth verse. "Remember, I beseech thee, that thou hast made me as the clay; And wilt thou bring me into dust again? Hast thou not poured me out as milk, And curdled me like cheese? Thou hast clothed me with skin and flesh, And hast fenced me with bones and sinews. Thou hast granted me life and hesed". He granted it to him. He said, "You granted me this". So what is he saying? You granted me this. Now you're responsible. Listen. That's what God was looking for. He wasn't looking for... It wasn't accusing God of anything. God is looking for those covenant words. All right.
— But look what he said at the end. And thy visitation hath preserved my spirit.
— There it is. He's not talking about his body here. He's talking about his spirit man. Granted me life and hesed, favor and preserved my spirit. The description in chapter 11 or verse 11 there, it's all about his body. He has learned the difference between your spirit and your body.
— And what was he? The richest man in the East?
— That's exactly right.
— His wife said, "Why don't you curse God and die"?
— Bang! That's what Lucifer said he would do. Now, here's the thing. You always have to pay attention to the conditions, especially with Job. The conditions that God said was he withdrew his hand from him. Okay. But you can't kill him. That's what he said. You can't kill him. And I always wondered why that mean old lady who said that to him... his wife... How come she didn't die? And I realized something. Even Lucifer knows you can't kill Job. They're one. The wife... He couldn't kill the wife either, because they're one. That's the power covenant.
— Now what that opens up is you see the devil's tactics. He had to get that on somebody's mind. For her to say it, she had to be thinking it.
— That's right.
— If Job thought it, he didn't say it. He wouldn't say that to God. Never did. Now, she opened the door but Job didn't. So now then we have back here in the... No, wait a minute. I went in the wrong direction. In the book of Daniel,
— Chapter one verse, verse nine.
— Okay, Verse eight. Daniel purposed in his heart. He what? Now this man... Did you know Daniel was a magi? He was a magi. And what the King James Bible calls the wise man. No, it was the Magi from the East. Powerful. And the reason it upset Herod so badly about them coming, he knew one word from them and his kingdom is dust. Anyway... "He purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king's meat, nor with the wine which he drank: therefore he requested of the prince of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself". Now God had brought Daniel... Who? God had brought Daniel into hesed and tender love with the prince of the eunuchs. So what does that mean? That eunuch didn't know what he was talking about. But he set hesed in his heart for Daniel.
— That's right. David understood it. I'll tell you somebody else that understood it. The thief on the cross hanging next to Jesus understood. He received tender mercy, loving kindness that day from a man who in horrible pain and becoming sin for us. Still...
— ...he honored it.
— He honored it. He had to. We're going to talk about this week learning. And you will see it from Gideon, learning to speak from your covenant. David learned to speak from his covenant. We need to learn to speak from the seal of our covenant because each covenant had a promise and a seal to it. They guaranteed it. And this is part of that guarantee.
— I've remembered it in times past, particularly people trying to keep our ministry from doing what it's supposed to do. And it may be some government official or something like that, and I just tell the Lord, no. That uncircumcised Philistine can't do this to me, very seldom, but very seldom had to do that. And there was one situation I don't even remember what it was about now, some kind of lawsuit. And I had to be there in deposition. So I just laid my Bible down there. And one of the attorneys said, "Reverend Copeland, I noticed you have your Bible open there". I said, "Yes, I do".
— Would you like to tell me what passages you are reading? I said, "No, I don't mind at all. It's from the 54th chapter of the book of Isaiah". And I just read it, "Every accusation that is cast at me, I condemn for this is the heritage". She said, "Very interesting". A few minutes later, I walked out of there. I just left the book...
— Yes, vengeance is mine, saith the Lord. You let the covenant do what the covenant does, that's what you did.
— Well, I expect she knew good and well that I didn't have any business being there. And she wanted to know. And I just had to leave it there. And I'd refer to it with a smile. But that's what we should do. And to the radio, television audience, listen to this. Well, Brother Copeland, I don't know if I'm righteous or not. Well, number one is Jesus Christ, your Lord and savior?
— Well, yes.
— Then you have been made the righteousness of God, according to Second Corinthians. Read the whole fifth chapter of Second Corinthians. It is all explained. "He who knew no sin was made to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him". He had the authority to do that. Now, when you get back to that, I'm required by the Lord to shed some light on that. He said to Abraham, "I have made you the father of many nations". Now, as for me, this is my covenant. So what about you? I have made you the father of many nations and he's 100 years old.
— It was already done. The moment God said it, it was done,
— He had the authority to do it. So there was an incident in the life of Napoleon. Napoleon was a short man in stature and he was a brilliant tactician, he always wrote a big horse. And he was reviewing the troops on that big horse. And it was infantry troops. And they're all there. And he just riding along and that big horse bolted and this young man grabbed it by the reins. He said, "Thank you, Captain". He said, "Sir, I'm but a private". He said, "Captain, call for a horse. Put the captain on the horse. He's going to review the troops with me..."
— ...just like that.
— He had the authority to do it. Now, those of you that may or may not be familiar with this. There was a man by the name of Robert Scott. World War II and went to West Point. Brilliant man... and there were Japan and China and all of that theater. Well, he was a major. And the general said, "Scotty, I need a full colonel in this theater, I've been thinking about this". He's a general. And he said, "I just thought maybe you could wear my colonels". He had authority to do that in the field. So he instantly became a full colonel because that general made him a colonel. Little Audie Murphy from Texas. There's another little David, if you will.
— Oh, you're not kidding.
— And he went all the way, became an officer.
— Field grade officer.
— That's right. And they wanted him in West Point. But he had such a serious injury. He was the most highly decorated soldier in World War II, and he was so short and little, the other services wouldn't have him. And later they thought,
— messed that up, didn't we?
— But he would take command and something else would happen, he would take command. Something would happen. He would take command. This is a book of command authority. And the ultimate authority is the Almighty God. Then through Jesus, we have his authority.
— Well, think about the centurion. I'm a man under authority. And he recognized authority.
— Cornelius.
— Yeah. And he obviously had come up through the ranks,
— I believe it.
— And which made him wealthy and the way the Roman soldiers were. There were certain spoil. And you were in the battle. I mean, you got part of it. And so he built the synagogue in Capernaum. He's the one that stood there and said, "This must have been the Son of God". And I wondered for years why that was so, until it went wildscreen with me. And I saw it was the same man that built the synagogue. He saw that authority in him. And he spoke the Word. And his little slave boy was healed. He just said it. And then he saw the way he died.
— Became fully persuaded then.
— He saw the way he died. There's no telling how many crucifixions he had... He had authority over.
— Hundreds...
— And he saw this man as he shouted with loud voice "My God. My God. Why hast thou forsaken me"?
— It is finished. Those two weren't dead yet. This must be the Son of God. And he couldn't stand it. He sent for Peter. You knew him. You come preach to my house. You knew this man. An angel has come before me.
— He's in Caesarea. That's how we know it's him. He's in Caesarea. Caesarea is where Pilate's headquarters was. That's where the Roman garrison stayed. We come to Jerusalem. The government is out there, they govern from Caesarea....
— ...and he's head of it. When you see all of these different Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and Acts. Put all those pieces together, especially take out of the book of Luke. The book of Luke and the book of Acts are documentaries. You could put the book of Luke and the book of Acts side by side. And then you see to whom it was written.
— Yeah, written by the same person.
— Yes.
— But he interviewed everybody, he's highly educated, man. He's a physician. And I daresay he spoke several languages.
— I guarantee you.
— Well, in those days you had to because Greek was the predominant language. But then there's Arabic and then there's Hebrew and all of these. It's obvious that he spoke those. He interviewed Mary.
— He did.
— He talked to her about it. She told him what happened. That's the reason Matthew and John don't have it. That's the reason the book of Luke is so highly important.
— Think of the book of Acts as written testimony for Paul's trial in Rome.
— Yes.
— And you'll see it for what it is. Because he'll tell you I was this. He gives his personal testimony more than once. I was fighting against Jesus. Here's what happened. Here's my conversion. He does that twice in there. I literally believe it was a brief it was a testimonial brief for his trial. And it was all written because you would send those papers, you would send the testimony ahead of you before you went to the trial. Now, why did Jesus not call Cornelius a dog? But he called the Syrophoenician woman. He marveled at both of their faith. The reason why, you just said it a while ago. It goes back to covenant. Genesis 12:3. I will bless those that bless you. I'll curse him that curses you. If you'll read that story or that account... It's not a story, what happened that day, the Jews come to Jesus and said, "There is a centurion. He built a synagogue for us". They're saying because of Genesis 12:3, I'll bless those that bless you. He deserves for you to go to his house. This lady didn't have any record of ever doing anything for the Jewish people. This is why she's called what she is. He has a case covered. He has a covenant case for a Jewish rabbi to come to his house and heal that servant because he's done, he's blessed us.
— Yeah, he built the synagogue.
— And if you've done nothing else but blessed Israel, you have a covenant case.
— Particularly if you build a synagogue and at that time, the most important city, Jesus set up his headquarters there. Jairus was the leader of that synagogue that Cornelius built. And he was in love with the Jewish people. He'd been sent there to corral them and hinder them. And he didn't do it. He loved them. That's why he said, "I'm not worthy, you can't come under my roof, I'm a man of authority. I recognize that I give a command and they do it. And you have authority over that sickness. You speak the Word. He will be healed". That, to me, was an act of hesed.
— Yeah, absolutely it was
— because he's a Roman
— and he knew that the problem it would cause for Jesus to go to his house. He knew.
— Sure he did
— what the Sanhedrin would say and everybody else would say. But you had Genesis 12:3. He had done this. I've been in that synagogue. I stood there in Capernaum in the ruins of it. Now the Byzantines, later built a synagogue on top of... But you're standing on the original foundation. I can show you the foundation stones of the synagogue. And to stand there and say that was his house down there in the street, I show you his house where Jesus lived and Peter. And you walk down that street and here's the synagogues on that main corridor. And you look around at the scenery and you say, "I'm standing"... Somewhere the woman that had the issue of blood was somewhere on this street. And to see that is still standing right there in Capernaum. So she's a member of that congregation where that Jairus is the ruler over.
— And when I realized that the interaction between the two and she's thinking, I'm going to do this anyway, cause I've heard of him. And there's Jairus. He has the authority he can stone me.
— Absolutely.
— She didn't know that Jairus was on the way to get his daughter healed. He didn't care what she did.
— 12 years and 12 years. She'd been sick for 12 years. This little girl's 12 years.
— It didn't bother him one way or the other. He's after getting his daughter healed. She got healed. So what? I tell you what he was thinking. Jesus, I know this woman, she can talk.
— And he goes, "Can we get an usher right there"?
— and talk and talk. And the guy comes up and says, "You little daughter's dead". I knew it. She talked too long. Jesus answered in the book of Luke, "Stop the fear. She will be made whole. Believe only she will be made whole. Now you stop it". Jairus never said another word.
— That was authority speaking again.
— Jesus just turned and Jesus answered. And when the Death messenger came, Jesus answered and said to him. He didn't pay any attention to what the other person said. But you have to realize there's a multitude there, always in Capernaum. They were jammed in there together, and I can just see him this close. He just turned around. "Fear not. Stop the fear and believe only, she will be made whole". I can say that to you. Stop the fear. Believe only, you will be made whole.
— Receive that. Listen. Receive that, what he just said.
— Yes. And we're out of time. Glory to God. We'll be back in just a moment. Praise God forevermore. Thank You, Jesus.