Kenneth Copeland - Accepted of God by Faith
Hebrew chapter 11, we'll go to 1 Corinthians 5 first, or 2 Corinthians. "For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan earnestly, desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven. If so be that being clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened. Not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon".
See, he's on the positive side, clothed upon. "That mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now, he that hath wrought for us the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given us the earnest of the Spirit, therefore we are always confident knowing that whilst we're at home in the body, we're absent from the Lord. We walk by faith and not by sight. We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord, wherefore we labor that whether present or absent, we may be accepted of him". How? By faith.
"For we must appear before the judgment seat of Christ and everyone that received the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are made manifest unto God. And I trust also are made manifest in your consciences. For we commend not ourselves again to you, but give you occasion to glory on your behalf, that you may have somewhat to answer them which glory in appearance and not in heart. Whether we be beside ourselves, it is God, or whether we be sober, it is for your cause. For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all, then all were dead. And that he died for all, that they which should live, but henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh, yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh. You now henceforth know him no more. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new".
What old things passed away? That old sinful nature. "And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, given to us the ministry of reconciliation to know that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses," no, "not holding against them their trespasses. And hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, you be reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God". For he who knew no sin was made to be sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He had the authority to do that. I have made you the father of many nations. God had the authority to do that.
There's an old movie about Robert Scott, "God is my co-pilot". He wrote a book. Have any of you seen that? It's a very interesting thing. But I want to point out something. It's wartime. And they called him Scotty. Well, he was a major in the United States Army Air Corps. It should be Major Lieutenant Colonel, Colonel. Full Eagles. And the general said, Scotty, I need you. I need you in command. So, I'm designating you the rank of full colonel. So he said, I brought the ones that I used to wear. You put these on. And he said, "You know, they'll bring you luck" or something. He skipped a grade because the general had the authority to do it. Well, Scotty didn't say, oh, general, I don't deserve that. I need to go through that other. No, he pinned them on there. Why? He needed the rank. He needed the man to be in that rank to command what he was after. God had the rank to make you the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
God had the rank and still does. Amen. It's very important. It is extremely important that we understand that. He had the rank and the power to make you a new creature. Amen. Changed everything. But the people that don't know it and have not had that preached, when that happened to me, I never heard of it because I was scripturally illiterate. I just know I couldn't shut my mouth and profanity was gone forever. I thought, that's great. But I had to learn that I was a new creature in Christ. And I learned it rather one step at a time. And the revelation of these things, the Spirit used Brother Hagin to teach these things, that I am a new creature in Christ. I am the righteousness of God. Don't let righteousness, that's an old English word. It literally means right standing.
Keith, did you ever hear anyone talk about an engine, a big race engine? And they said, "Man, there's something wrong with this thing". And the other guy said, "Well, I'll make it righteous some way or another. I'm going to fix this thing. I'm going to find out what it is. I'm going to make a righteous engine out of this thing. I'm going to right it and straighten it up". That means there's nothing wrong with it. Oh, but it gets so religious. The righteousness of God. As if you could attain it. No, that's holiness. The moment you were born again, you were made the righteousness of God. You were made in a right standing by being a new creature.
So we must settle that before you ever get anything out of the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews. "So now faith is the substance of things hoped for. It is the evidence of things not seen. For by it, the elders obtained a good report. Through faith, we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God, and so that things which are seen were not made to appear by faith. Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain". Okay, let's stop and talk about that. Don't just take some ideas, somebody's idea about it. Go read it. It wasn't because he didn't offer a lamb. There are people who say, well, he should have gotten a lamb from Abel. No, that would have been unjust. He's not a shepherd. He's a farmer.
Now, if you read that, you'll find it says, in the process of time. I don't like hollering at you from up here. In the process of time. Well, I won't go through. I'll just tell you what that means. The Roberts family raised corn. Their dad said, "Now, when we go through our corn crop, we don't eat the best, we eat the nubbins and plant the best. Then over a period of two to five years, the nubbins will be as good or better than our seed corn was to start with. If we just keep doing that, we will improve our corn seed". Praise God. For God so loved the world he gave his best, his only begotten Son. Let's go through this. We're new creatures now. We've been made the righteousness of God. There is a bottom line to this. This is where we're going.
Now, Abel, go read that. It would have been wrong for God to demand that Cain get a lamb. That's unjust. But he wasn't bringing his best. He was eating the best and bringing God the nubbins in the process of time. So as you go back and read that, you'll notice it. Well, and God's dealing with both these boys. Did you notice there's not any women mentioned? Where did he get his wife? Did God create another woman? No. Would you like to know? For additional tapes, by the way. No. The rabbis teach that Abel had sisters, but only the two men are mentioned. So one of them became his wife and he was banished. But he added to his curse and God didn't correct him. God told him what was going to happen. He said, "All men are going to try to kill me". God didn't say that. He did.
So there wasn't anything God could do to change it. It's good to read the fine print. All the print would be a better way to say it. So here we are now. These people are the righteousness of God. "Without faith, impossible to please him, for he that comes to God must believe that he is, and must believe that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him". There are a lot of people that believe and then don't believe he's a rewarder. By faith, Noah being warned of God, things not seen as yet. It had never rained. The water came up from below and watered the garden. No, it never rained. What is a boat? A boat? What do boats do?
Now, this is interesting. At the Naval Academy, midshipmen were given the task of designing a ship and for its ability to take heavy seas. So these two young men got together and went to the Bible and got the dimensions of the ark. It's all in there. Then they took it to scale and they built one. They had these long pools where they could just create all kinds. They could not sink that ark. It would not capsize. I don't care what they did to it, you couldn't sink it. Well, of course, I don't know. Once they did that, it's probably a while before any of the rest of us... There was a big lesson in that. One of the lessons was that God knows what he's talking about and the other one is the Bible is true. Of course, they know where it is now. It didn't say that it landed on the mountain of Ararat. It said it landed in the mountains of Ararat. It was a pilot flying over, saw the outline of it.
If you watch Rick Renner, which you should on the Victory Channel, he took his team there and taped from there. People have used radar imaging and so forth and it's all under there. Anyway, let's go on here. "By faith, Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear or reverence, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by the which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. By faith, Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed. He went out not knowing where he went. By faith, he sojourned in the land of promise as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles and with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs of him for the same purpose. For he looked for a city without foundation, whose builder and maker is God. Through faith, also Sarah received strength to conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. Therefore sprang there even of one of him as good as dead. Many as the stars, therefore sprang there even of one and him as good as dead".
Talking about Abraham. "So many as the stars of the sky in multitude and the sand which is by the seashore innumerable. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced them". What does embrace mean? I mean, they hugged it up and they did it because it was a blood backed promise and didn't recall from it. "And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might've had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country that is an heavenly. Wherefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them a city. By faith, Abraham..."
Now, I don't know how many times I've read this. I don't know how many times I've read it. And it just fires a thrill through my spirit every time I've read it. "By faith, Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac. And he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son of whom it was said that in Isaac shall your seed be called, accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from whence also he received him in a figure". Now, why did God do that? He's in covenant with this man on purpose. Well, he'd raised that boy right. I mean, he put him up there on that... He said, "Dad, where's the sacrifice"? So he said, "Climb up there on that pile of wood". He just got up there. He received him in a figure, because there would come a time when his only begotten Son would say, "If there be any way, take this cup from me". He couldn't. He is, by covenant, bound to a man that would raise the knife and was willing, believing God could raise him from the dead. An angel had to put a stop to it.
So now, Jesus had to believe that his Father could raise him from the dead. I've been in a pretty long prayer session with the Lord one time, meditating on a lot of things. And the Lord said, "What was the greatest expression of my power"? I said the creation of the universe. Now, listen to what he said. No, he said, that was easy. He said, it was when I raised Jesus from the dead. He said, "Everybody was against me. All of my people were against me. And the devil fighting me. And my Son and I were in this thing alone. And I had to get him into hell to defeat the devil and defeat him in his own domain. I had to get him into hell and then get him out. And it was hard". And he said, "All were against me". So he had to connect.
Now, all of this was planned before the foundation of the world. He had to have a covenant partner that was willing to do the same thing. And once he's bound together, then he couldn't back out. No way. So what'd he do? He had David put it in a psalm. He gave him a weapon. He gave him a weapon. That psalm, are you listening to me now? That psalm, that 22nd psalm was Jesus' pain killer. In hell. My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? It is finished. Read it in the Classic Amplified. It's all there. So he had it foretold. So he had to give him a weapon. That's the way that book works. He put things in the first covenant that had to be brought to pass in the second covenant that it might be fulfilled, that which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, that it might be fulfilled. Well, now it's all fulfilled.