Kenneth Copeland - Why Was the Virgin Birth Important?
— Did you finally get the living room cleaned up? Probably not and a lot of good things are happening around the house. But I want to talk to those of you that didn't have much of a good day yesterday. Let me talk to you for a moment. There's a Savior in the world. And he's not only a Savior, he is a Provider. I'm talking to a young widow right now. And if you'll study carefully the 54th chapter of the book of Isaiah, the Redeemer is now your husband. The Redeemer is your husband. That means Jesus takes his place. There was a widow woman told me one time, and by this time, she was quite elderly. She said, "I stood on that scripture" and she said, "Now, Brother Copeland, there was something happened in the bathroom and that old toilet wouldn't work". And she said, "I said, Jesus, you're my husband and my husband used to fix these things, now you do something". She said, "That thing went blub, blub, blub". It has worked ever since.
— Hallelujah, amen, Hallelujah.
— He's your husband, he'll take care of the house. Hallelujah. I didn't plan that. It just rose up in me. And I just want to speak to you, sweetheart. And to a man that's lost his wife or there's been tragedy in the family. We've had tragedy in our family, serious tragedy, Gloria and I have in our family. And you deal with it by faith and by joy, and you put it in the hands of Jesus. The sorrow is there. But don't yield to grief. Don't yield to it. Yeah, it's easy for you to say, no we've been there. Don't yield to it. Grief is kin to death. And you can grieve until it kills you and opens the whole house for death to come back in again. Jesus said, My words are Spirit and they are life. And I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly until it overflows. And we bless the Lord for being in your household. Father, we thank You today and we praise You for this marvelous story and we pray for the people that have had a rough time this Christmas financially and so forth. We understand that because we've had those times. We thank You and praise You in Jesus' name for Your deliverance. Amen. That was tough when Gloria's little brother was killed in a truck wreck. But God's faithful. And then there was a woman had a vision of him. So you don't start out with, why this and why that? No. You say, "Lord, you'll show me why and you'll show me how to overcome it". Amen. Now, here's the question. Let's go back to the first chapter of the book of Luke and verse... "And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary". Well, we know that, but why? Why did there have to be a virgin birth? And it had to be... the lineage had to be from the House of David. So since I don't know much about it. Well, I know a little. But Professor Greg has studied it, and he will line it out to show you. The devil has never learned yet that he's nowhere near smart as God. How could he be? God created him. The Scripture said he was perfect in the day that he was created, but iniquity was found in him. He had no tempter. Therefore, there is no salvation for him. Amen, Professor.
— So Lucifer thought he had God trapped with something and he didn't. Let's go to Matthew, Chapter one. Beginning with verse 18. Matthew and Luke both record this early time of Jesus, but they're different. Matthew, doesn't that tell you about the birth really. Tells you about everything above it. There's two genealogies, verse 18. "Now the birth of Jesus was on this wise when as his mother, Mary, was a spouse to Joseph", there's the spouse. Get Rick Renner's book, The Rest of the Story, Christmas, The rest of the story, talks about what espousal is. It's as if they're married, but they're not married.
— They're engaged.
— They're engaged, it was a year.
— There is a... it is an engagement that can't be broken.
— That's right, you'd have to be divorced from the espouse. So here it says, "Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David," There's covenant there.
— Yes, it is. "...fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: Yeshua, for he shall save his people from their sins". Yeshua means Savior. "Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, meaning God with us, Then Joseph being raised from sleep did as the angel of the Lord had bidden him, and took unto him his wife: And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name Jesus". Now Matthew and Luke both tell the story, but they're not the same. Matthew doesn't really tell us about the birth of Jesus. Luke is the one that did that because he interviewed Mary. Matthew instead tells us where Jesus came from, tells the story through the eyes of Joseph in many ways. Now the focus is important. Luke will focus on Mary. Matthew will focus on Joseph because he's presenting the Messiah's legal right to the throne. They both go back to David and then they both go back to Abraham. They don't go back to Moses here because Abraham is the covenant fulfillment on this. So now here's where we may have a problem. First of all, a virgin having a baby is a problem. But a bigger problem is that is, let me show you Jeremiah Chapter 22, verse 30, I'm going to read it to you. King David has a son Solomon. And then all the generations from there, Jeremiah, 22:30, one of David's grandsons, the Lord will say this. "Thus saith the Lord, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah". Well, God just did a blood curse on this man, on his seed, and nobody will ever sit on the throne from him. Well, when that happened, the priest of the temple of that day ripped their garments and put ashes on their head because the covenants have been broken. The seed of David is supposed to sit on the throne. The Messiah is supposed to come from this, but God just cursed it. Now, Lucifer thought he had him. Satan thought he had him. I just made God blood curse David's line. This is why a virgin birth will need to be required. Because somehow we've got to get past that curse. Cause everything hangs by the Word of God. The worlds were framed by the Word of God. If God said it, it's so. But now we've got him saying this blood curse. This is why there's two genealogies in the Scripture. How can God fulfill his covenant promise to David yet honor this? All right. Answer is in the genealogies. Luke, the physician focuses on the humanity of Jesus. Matthew focuses on the Messiahship of Jesus. And so they're both correct. I gave you a little chart of the House of David. David and Bathsheba have Solomon. And if you follow the line from Solomon all the way down, you'll see on that page, there's the guy who's highlighted name who the curse hit.
— Yeah, Jeholachin.
— And no one after him can sit on the throne. The problem that we have down here is Joseph is in that direct line. So Joseph can't be the natural father of Jesus because he's got a blood curse on his line. Jesus would be ineligible to sit on the throne, however, not so fast. There's another son, Bathsheba and David have another son named Nathan. Now, he never sat on the throne, his brother did. But Nathan's genealogy is listed to us by Luke. And if you go all the way down, there's no curse. There's no blood curse on Nathan's line seed of David. Who would have been an heir to the throne should Solomon have died. He would have come right in because he's his brother. And you go all the way down, you go right there to Heli, you get to Mary's father is right there. Mary is the seat of David without the blood curse. So if I have a virgin birth Brother Copeland,
— That's right.
— I have the seat of David.
— Came though her.
— With no blood curse. And this is why we had to have a virgin birth. It came through her.
— And so Isaiah prophesied it and put it in place where it could come to pass.
— So there's another little rule here that had to happen. Okay, so why did he have to marry her? He could have just come through Mary and she could have been a single mom, you know, had Joseph been... No, no, no, no, not so fast. In the time of Moses, all of that, because of their unbelief, they died in the wilderness. And so there was a guy who had four daughters. His name was Zelophehad. Zelophehad had four daughters, and he died in the wilderness, unbelief, now the four daughters are not married. He had no sons, so what are we going to do? So they inquire of Moses. Moses goes to the tabernacle to inquire of the Lord what should be done. And the Lord gives a ruling. And he says that anyone that has daughters but no sons, if their daughters marry within the tribe. So if they marry within their own tribe, like if you're from Judah, if you'll marry in Judah, you get an inheritance of Judah. If you're of Gad and you marry in Gad, you'll receive inheritance of the land from Gad. So Joseph is from David or from Judah. Mary is from Judah, if she will marry within her tribe, she receives full inheritance. This is why the angel spoke to her and said... Spoke to Joseph in Matthew and said, "You need to marry her". So he went ahead, and if you read that what I just read to you, he went ahead and married her before he was born. But he didn't sleep with her.
— No, that's right.
— But he went ahead and covered her, married her, which is reminiscent of Boaz again in that lineage. So Mary does it. She marries within her tribe, receiving full inheritance.
— Praise God.
— So Jesus, excuse me, is legitimately seat of David on both sides full inheritance into the covenant of promise, bypassing the blood curse that was upon that side on Joseph's line, because he doesn't have any of the DNA of Joseph, but he has the blood DNA to the throne. So Lucifer thought he had him, but he didn't have him. John 8, verse 40, John 8 verse 40 and 41. Jesus is speaking. He says, "But now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I have heard of God: this did not Abraham. Ye do the deeds of your father". Well this is when they're questioning Jesus. "They said unto him, We're not born of fornication. We have one Father, even God". They tease Jesus all the time and they research Jesus and the Pharisees were throwing out at him, you're not legitimate. You're born out of fornication. His natural brothers were born under Joseph's line, which had that blood curse. Jesus didn't have that. You and I are not under any curse now.
— That's right we've been redeemed.
— We're born again under the line of Jesus. See, when I was born again, I was born again. I was grafted in under the line of Jesus. I'm an heir, which means I'm a joint heir to that Davidic Covenant. I'm a joint heir to that Abrahamic covenant, and there's no curse on me. He became the curse, there's no generational curse on me. There's no generational curse on my ancestors. I had ancestors that fought. I have ancestors, one grandfather fought for the South in the war between the states, in the Civil War. But that generational curse is not on me because I'm of Christ. I'm that seed. If God went to this much detail, Brother Copeland, to prophesy it before it ever happened, to bypass that little blood curse thing by having a virgin be born, have the angels watch over her, to go tell Joseph, "No, you need to be married to her," here's why. How much more for us is he still watching over our lineage. He's still watching over your seed. The seed is an important thing.
— Oh my, it's everything.
— Satan comes to steal the seed.
— Yes he does.
— And so I take these and all of my household shall be saved. The curse that was on my family is gone because of the blood of Jesus. This is what you do when you plead the blood. You're breaking that bloodline curse. I had a total blood transfusion when I was born-again.
— Yes, amen. I'm not under any of that.
— Old things passed away.
— All things...
— And behold, everything became new.
— So Jesus has legal right to the throne of David. And when people tapped into that in his ministry and called out Son of David, that's what they're talking about. Because he was teased about being illegitimate. They threw that in his face all the time. And that's for somebody that... somebody has teased you all the time that you don't have a mother and a father or whatever, you do. You do have a Father.
— Yes, you do.
— You have a heavenly Father and you've got the royal blood of the Most High Son of David flowing in you. You're a new creation that never existed before. You're not under any curse. You're not going to be like your old uncle was.
— I've ministered for years in prisons and different situations. And Burel Cain was in Angola and records show that he's the only warden that lasted over five years in Angola and they called him the pastor of Angola and he saw to it that every inmate, male or female, from their window could see a church steeple, to see to it, to give these fallen people hope. And they could see it through the window. Well, Jesus in the Scripture by the Holy Spirit, the Apostle Paul wrote, "There is therefore now no condemnation". Now, how could he write that? Because he hauled Christians into a place, I don't think he really ever got over it. He believed through it. But Jesus put a stop to it on the road to Damascus. But he said, "There's therefore now no condemnation to anyone, for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of sin and death," and that's power in Christ Jesus in the resurrected Lord. So in this situation, we've been redeemed from the curse.
— Mary had no brothers. So she falls under that exception in the law of Moses from numbers 26, where she can marry within her tribe. Now Paul will write to us and said, "We've been married to Jesus". We're not married to that old way anymore.
— Well, and now you have two of his half brothers, James and Jude, writing in the New Testament.
— That's right. They became believers after his resurrection.
— Well, he appeared to upwards of 500 at one time, and they couldn't understand him when he was on the earth. Now, I'm completely, totally convinced that Mary didn't say anything to them about that, about her virgin birth, because that... you just... that's just, it said she pondered it in her heart. And they couldn't understand him either way because when he came up and then he began to minister, he wouldn't promote himself. And the scripture said they thought he was lunatic. They thought, he's crazy. What's the matter with him. He didn't do anything you're supposed to do. But think about it now. When they saw all that happened under his hands, he has to be so special. Well, then it came out. Of course it did. And then she's standing there looking at him. And then they realized who he was, just like Cornelius did. So now all of this was done. You go all the way back to the blessing and listen to what Jesus said. A young lawyer came and he interrogated him with it. He wasn't brutal. What is the greatest commandment of all? The greatest commandment of all is love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength, love. The second is liken to it. Love your neighbor as yourself. Because on these two commandments, hang all the law and the prophets. So they're hearing him say things like that, that it had to be everything all the way through the law and the prophets and the curse that had come which these people had been in Egypt all these years and came out. Now they had to have such a display to get through to them.
— 430 years of it.
— Yeah, 430 years that in the first place they ate anything they get their hands on just to survive. So that had to be straightened out and the Egyptians, no telling what they ate, anything they wanted to. So you have those two mountains and you got a million people on each side shouting back and forth across there... This is what you don't do, this is the curse and it'll come on you for violating the commandment and this is the blessing of Abraham. Well, over here on the blessing side, I brought this up for this reason. Over here on this side was the lineage of David. The tribe of Judah over on the blessing mountain. And so was the tribe of Benjamin, from whom the Apostle Paul came.
— And when the kingdom split, Benjamin stayed with Judah, didn't go off with the other ones.
— So we've been redeemed from the curse of the law.
— Yes, we have.
— Hallelujah. And we're out of time at this point. But I'll add this and we'll take it up tomorrow. That all of that came to pass to kill that curse, because these are covenant situations. And bring us into a place where we're redeemed from the curse. But it's because God never planned for it just to be a Jewish church. It was worldwide, go into all the world and preach and we'll be back in just a moment