Kenneth Copeland - God's Command to Love and Be Loved
Hello, everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland, and this is the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. Now, we've been talking about the curse and the curse of the law and so forth, but I want to mention something to you before we do. I started to mention this in one of our other classes, and then I got sidetracked. Pat Boone and I have been friends since I was in high school, and then he said, "I'm going to set you up with lunch with Jack Hayford, my pastor". And I said, "Great".
Well, at this time, I'd never met Jack, and later I... But anyway, I'll go into this. And we sat down in his office, and he said, "Copeland, I don't think you're balanced". And I thought, whoa. He said, "You're not supposed to be... You're a faith specialist, and don't let anybody take that away from you". Well, I wasn't about to call myself a faith specialist, but Jack Hayford did, and he's a blessed man, and wrote a lot of music. And I was there... I won't go into all that, but anyway, Pat and I are still close. Shirley went home to be with the Lord, and that hit him hard, but we still talk a lot.
And how many of you know what grits are? One hand went up. You've got to be way south to know what grits. He texted me the other day, and he said, "I've written a new song". I said, "What is it"? Well, he's a southern boy. He's in Tennessee, and grits make a lot of sense. Well, I'm a Texas boy, and grits are good. Anyway, those that don't know what grits are, look it up. Hallelujah. I'm so excited about all of this. Now, it's time to come over from the first covenant over into the second and the last covenant.
John 13, verse 31, "Therefore when he was gone out," who's that? Judas. Jesus had to get him out of that room. But this is amazing. Then, for some of them thought, because Judas had the bag that Jesus had sent unto him, buy those things which we need for a feast, or that he should give something to the poor. Now, this idea that Jesus was poor, no, that's just an idea. Poor men do not need a treasure. He said, "Take no longer clothes. The workman is worthy of his hire". In other words, you're working for me.
I've heard people say, well, he was obviously poor. No, he was obviously not poor. There wasn't anything poor about his earthly dad, Joseph. Anyway, "Therefore when Judas was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. Little children, yet a little while and I'm with you. You shall seek me, and as I said to the Jews, where I go, you cannot come. So I say to you, a new..." Hey, commandment, command authority of a follower of Jesus Christ. This is the Christ speaking.
"A new commandment I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you. You also love one another. By this shall all..." now notice men is in italics. "By this shall all men, all people know that you're my disciples, if you have love one for another". Now look in the 14th chapter, excuse me. We'll bounce through these for now. Look at the 13th verse. "Whatsoever you shall ask in my name", oh, in my name, okay, "the Father may be glorified". Now what did he say? He said, "You of your father the devil". Jesus introduced the devil. That's the first time they'd heard anything about him. And he let the world know about him. I was there when he was cast down. I saw him fall like lightning.
"Whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask anything in my name, I'll do it. If you love me, keep my commandments, love one another. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another comforter". Okay. Now comes the Classic Amplified. Glory to God. Okay. He shall give you a comforter. 14:16. Are you ready?
"And I will ask the father and he will give you another comforter, counselor, helper, intercessor, advocate. He'll be your lawyer for you. Strengthener and stand by that he may remain with you forever. The Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, welcome, take it to its heart because it doesn't see him or know and recognize him. But you know and recognize him for he lives with you constantly and will be in you". Glory be to Jesus. "And I will not leave you as orphans, comfortless, desolate, bereaved, forlorn, helpless. I will come back to you".
Now, 16. Now, and I'm telling the class, read all of this and every translation you can get. These two in my opinion are the most important, but the New Living is good. But this Amplified is extremely accurate. John 16. Let's go to the 19th verse. "Jesus knew that they wanted to ask him and he said to them, Are you wondering and inquiring among yourselves? What I mean when I said in a little while you'll no longer see me and again in a short while you will see me? I assure you", listen to this. "I assure you most solemnly, I tell you that you shall weep and grieve, but the world will rejoice. You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will be turned to joy. A woman, when she gives birth to a child and has grief, anguish, agony, because her time has come, but when she has delivered the child, she no longer remembers the pain and trouble and anguish because she is so glad a man, a child, a human being has been born into the world".
I stood over Gloria when she was in labor. I tell you, I cried like a baby to see her hurt like that. I tell you, I stood there and wept and wept and wept, but it was over in a little while. You will need to ask me no questions. Are you here? Are you here? When that time comes, you will ask. When that time comes, you will ask nothing of me. You will need to ask me no questions. I assure you most solemnly, I tell you that my Father will grant you whatever you ask in my name as presenting all that I am. He's the great I am. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Praise God. He is the great I am. No wonder I'm so excited over this. Bless God, if I wasn't tied down, I'd run around this room. I mean it. Thank You, Jesus.
"Up to this time, you've not asked a single thing in my name as presenting all that I am" and the Classic Amplified puts that in capital letters. God said, "I am the great I am". He said, "I am". "But now ask and keep on asking and you will receive so that your joy, gladness, delight may be full and complete". How do you keep on asking? You go to the Word and you're inquiring of the Holy Spirit because he said, "I'm sending him to you". Amen. Oh, glory be to God forevermore.
Chapter 17, John chapter 17. "These words spoke Jesus, lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify thy Son that thy Son also may glorify thee. Thou has given him power or authority over all flesh that he should give eternal life to as many as thou has given him. And this is life eternal that thou might know thee as the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent". He's praying as the Messiah. Jesus, the Anointed one that you've sent. He called himself Messiah. He knew who he was. "I have glorified thee on earth and I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, oh Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had before the world was".
Before the world was. Those of you at home, how do you just sit there? Before the world was, I don't know how to get out there. There's coming a day, very soon it will be the voice of the Lord will be calling me, I'm going home. The horn will blow. The angel will cry. The Father's love will fill the sky. Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir. The great catching away of the church. Oh, "I have manifested thy name unto men which thou gavest me out of thine own". Oh, let's go here. "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which believe on me through their word".
Now, hey, you ready? The first time I read this, I'm telling you, I didn't know whether, I was there in Tulsa. I never, and I had said, well, I'm going to agree with everything here. "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word". And here we are reading it. Here we are reading it. Here we are reading it. Centuries later and we're still reading it. Bless God. "That they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee, that they also may be one in us that the world may believe that thou hast sent me and the glory which thou gavest me I've given them, that they may be one even as we are one. Listen, I and them and thou and me, that they may be made perfect in one that the world may know that you've sent me and has loved them as you loved me".
It hit me so hard. I said, "Do you mean to tell me that God loves me as much as he does Jesus"? I walked around that little room. I was shaking. I'd never read anything like that before. And I kept saying, "God loves Kenneth as much as he does Jesus. God loves Kenneth as much as he does Jesus". And I began to shout it. God loves Kenneth as much as he does Jesus. Glory be to God. Hallelujah. And I realized, of course he did. He sent him to the cross for me. He went to hell for me. Of course he... Father, I also, verse 25, "O righteous Father, the world hath not know thee, but I have known thee and I have known that..." Wait, we're going somewhere. "And I have declared unto them thy name and I will declare it that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them".
Thank You, Jesus. Thank You, Lord Jesus. Glory to God. And a little bit later, Peter cut Malchus' ear off. But that's for another day. Thank You, Jesus. We just need to just praise God here for a few minutes and just worship him. These blood covenants and the amplification of it. Hallelujah. We have five more minutes here. Let's go over here now. Thank You, Jesus.
Oh. 16th verse of the 17th chapter. "They are not of the world, worldly, belonging to the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them, purify, consecrate, separate them for yourself. Make them holy by truth. Your Word is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. And so for their sake and their behalf, I sanctify, dedicate, and consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified, dedicated, consecrated". These are exceeding great and precious blood-backed promises, because he's about to go to the cross and shed his sinless blood.
I was with Jerry Savelle, and he said, the Lord said to him, he said, "Now close your eyes and imagine you're standing there at the cross". And so I did. He said, "Now close your eyes and go around behind the cross and see those stripes... for us". Glory to God. "Neither for these alone, I pray".
Verse 21, "That they all may be one just as you, Father, are in me and I, and they also may be one that the world may believe and be convinced that you've sent me. I have given to them the glory and honor which you have given me, that they may be even as we are one. I in them and you in me, in order that they may become one and perfectly united, that the world may know, identify, and recognize that you sent me and you have loved them even as you have loved me".
Thank You, Jesus. Well, praise God. Hallelujah. Now, in all of this, we are rapidly headed to the book of Hebrews. In all of this. Because the apostle Paul is writing to the book of Hebrews, and you see, well, the author is not known. Yes, the author is known. Because he mentions Timothy, his son. Then, and it's his style. But then, Jesus appeared to Brother Hagin and said, "Come up here, come up to the throne of God".
Well, that statement is made in the fourth chapter of the book of Revelation. So he was there. He just asked him, he said, "Jesus, did the apostle Paul write the book of Hebrews"? Well, of course he did. He said, "I called him to do that. I called him to write all of those books. All of them. I didn't leave that one out". That's the way the King James says it. The apostle Paul's letter to the Hebrews. Amen. So, now, where do we go from here?