Kenneth Copeland - The Hall of Fame of Faith
So here we are now. These people are the righteousness of God. "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 and 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. 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, 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". And this is the wall of fame, the hall of fame of faith.
"Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure. By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come. By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff. By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones. By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; Or they saw that he was a special child, and they were not afraid of the king's commandment. By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. Through faith he kept the Passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them. By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned. By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days. By faith the harlot Rahab..."
Now, why does he keep bringing up the fact that she's a harlot? It's important. We don't have a right to call her that. She's Jesus' great-grandmother. Glory to God. But he keeps pointing that out. Why? That was back then becoming a new creature. The new birth wasn't available. But they keep pointing that out, that her sin didn't stop him. He didn't look at that. He can handle that. But she kept her word. Now, here's something I want to show you. Hold your place there, and turn with me to the book of Joshua. It was an 11-day walk from the Red Sea to where they were going. Why did they spend 40 years there? Because of 10 unbelieving preachers came back. Oh, it's a land flowing with milk and honey but there's giants in the land. Oh, here we go about giants again. There's giants in the land.
In the 2nd chapter, and they went and came into a harlot's house named Rahab and lodged there. Verse 4, "The woman took the two men and hid them and said thus, There come men unto me". I don't know where they are. "It came to pass the time of shutting of the gate when it was dark and the men went out". Verse 6, "She had brought them up on the roof of the house and hid them with stalks of flax which she had laid in order on a roof. The men pursued after them the way to Jordan". I read all that because I want to get down to this. Verse 8, "And before they were laid down, she came up unto them and said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land and that your terror is fallen upon us and all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you".
Now listen to this, "For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red Sea when you came to Egypt. What ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath". They had it done. Where have you been? Our hearts melted. No faith in what God said. They did not believe he loved them and they wandered around out there for 40 years, but she let them know. Now I'm going with you. I don't... we don't take time. I'm going with you. You're not going to leave me here because I hid you. He said, "Okay, girl, come on". So that's where Rahab the harlot came from.
Now, isn't that interesting that she stepped in there and she was the one that hid those men and let them know. She let them know. Now, Joshua and Caleb knew better than to send out 10. They sent two because you know, all that story. That's why she's in the book. She went on with them. Well, they kept calling her that in order to impress us that faith delivered her out of that lifestyle and she's part of Jesus' lineage. Somebody ought to say amen. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Isn't that wonderful?
All right, let's continue. Well, let's go back over there... "By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them", by faith. Are you hearing it? By faith, Rahab. That's the reason she's in the hall of fame. By faith, she perished not with them. She's a faith woman. Somebody ought to say amen right there. By faith, Rahab. By faith. Don't you love it? "By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace. And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae;"
Let's talk about Samson for a moment. Samson went into a harlot in Gaza. I don't believe he was a... well, he must have been a good looking man, but I don't believe he was anything extra in the way of size. But, oh, when the power of God come on him, I mean, he'd tear the building down, but he's in the book. Now, we're going somewhere. "Accounting that God was able to raise him up even from the dead by faith, the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, but she had received the spies with peace. What shall I say more? For the time would fail me to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthae, David also, and Samuel of the prophets, who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again. And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection".
That's the apostle Paul. And others. "And others had trial of cruel mockings, scourgings, moreover of bonds, imprisonment. They were stoned. They were sawn asunder". You know what that means? They sawed some of them in half and it wasn't a phony carnival trick. They cut them in two. Oh my God. "Slain with a sword, wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect".
Oh my God. "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses". Now you know who qualifies for a great cloud of witnesses. Who are they? They are heaven's advisors. They're the ones that heaven's council comes together. God's not running this thing by himself. He turned it over to men. And now there are current day, great witnesses that are part of this. Now there's a lot of people in heaven, but not if they didn't live their lives out by faith. They had faith enough to get there and that's good. That's wonderful. "Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight and the sin which does so easily beset us. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher 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. Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be wearied and faint in your minds".
The shame, the artist's renderings, put the little clothes on there. That's just to be nice about it. Here's the Son of the living God, a sinless man, hanging out there stark naked in front of his mother, just despising the shame. But he knew something they didn't know. I'll be back in three days. It was a high Sabbath. It didn't start on Friday. You can't get three days and three nights out of that. He said it'd be like Jonah in the belly of the whale, three days and three nights. It was a high Sabbath and John records it. It started on Wednesday. "Consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds. Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth".
See there now, he'll put sickness on you. What did that say? God dealeth with you as sons. You come up to me and tell me A.W. Copeland's going to put sickness on me. You better duck. He's just correcting me. Now, he did not spare the rod. He never beat me with a rod, but he spanked my little heinie. He said, and I told you how he would do it. He'd say, "Kenneth, you do that again, I'm going to spank you". And he kept his word. And he never asked me permission. Kenneth, I'm going to... Okay. I'm going to, okay. I would have said, "No, it's not okay". Don't ask a six year old permission to correct him. Get out of town. Okay. Okay. Yea. You're okay. You're good looking. You know that? Yeah, you know that. Okay. It's just... And he would wait. And one day he said, "I told you, didn't I"? I said, "Yes, sir". Well, he said, "Go in there in the closet and get a belt". And it was one I had made for him. I got it.
You think that treadmill make you sore? But see, I still remember it. My mother was a switcher. She'd take something and get it behind my legs and beep. I'd say, "Mama, no, no, no". I remember it. And I honored my father and my mother. I still do. And I'm living long on the earth. Well, it's time to close this. So we come... "Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers for thereby some have entertained angels unaware. Let your character be without covetousness, being content with such things as you have. For he has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me. Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the Word of God: Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever".
We were in Hawaii and we had... we've been three weeks there. It's been a tough meeting, but a good one. And in this particular hotel, you come down for breakfast and you could go out there by the pool and have breakfast. And that's what we had been doing. So we got everything all packed up and I said, "Okay, I'll be down. I got the baggage all done". And so Gloria was there. And then I walked up behind her and the hostess came over and this man just went like this and said, she said, "Where would you like to sit"? He said, you know, by the pool. So we came by. I thought, and she said, "Where would you like to sit"? And Gloria said, the pool. She said, "No, it's full out there". She said, "Follow me". Okay. I was tired anyway. So we followed and we went back through this dining room. I knew that one was there. Then we went through into this dining room, I didn't know that one was there. Then we went through into this dining room and walked up to this table.
And so the waitress pulled out a chair for Gloria over here. I sat down here. Gloria said, no, I want to sit over here. So she walked around and sat down and bumped this chair. And this woman turned around and said, "Oh, Gloria. I'm new to all of this. But I told the Lord, if I ran into you for breakfast, I wanted to give you my ring". It was a little small ring. It had two offsets. The diamond, there it is. That's it right there. She received it. And we got on that airplane coming across the ocean and she's doing that. And the Lord spoke to her and said, "Gloria, that's like my hundredfold return. It's always working". I guarantee you that was an angel. The bottom line of this book is faith in God.