Kenneth Copeland - The Birth of Jesus
Hello, everybody. I’m Kenneth Copeland, and this is the Believer’s Voice of Victory broadcast. And Merry Christmas. Thank you for allowing us to come into your home on Christmas Day. It’s a big, huge honor for Gloria and for me and for all of us here at this ministry. So today, let’s open our Bibles to the Gospel of Luke. And let’s go to… okay. All right, let’s begin here in this first chapter. «There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias of the course of Abia, and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elizabeth. And they were both righteous before God, walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless. And they had no child because Elizabeth was barren, and they both were now well stricken in years. And it came to pass», don’t you like that, it came to pass? I like that.
«And it came to pass that while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his course, according to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord. And the whole multitude of people were praying without at the time of incense. And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias saw him, he was troubled and fear fell upon him. But the angel said unto him, Fear not, Zacharias, for thy prayer is heard, and thy wife, Elizabeth, shall bear thee a son, and you shall call his name John. And thou shalt have joy and gladness, and many shall rejoice at his birth. For he shall be great in the sight of the Lord, and shall drink neither wine nor strong drink, and he’ll be filled with the Holy Ghost even from his mother’s womb. And many of the children of Israel shall he turn to the Lord their God, and he shall go before him in the Spirit and the power of Elias to turn, boy, the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord. Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? For I’m an old man, and my wife stricken in years. And the angel answered him, said unto him, I am Gabriel, that stand in the presence of God, and am sent to speak unto thee, and to show thee these glad tidings. And behold, thou shalt be dumb and not able to speak until the day that these things shall be performed, because you believe not my words».
And he had to close his mouth because he really didn’t believe it. So he had to shut him up where he couldn’t say anything else. And if you notice it over that period of time, he lost his hearing too. Anyway, «He came out and could not speak unto them. They perceived that he had seen a vision in the temple, for he beckoned unto them and remained speechless. And it came to pass that as soon as the days of his administration were accomplished, he departed to his own house. After those days, his wife Elizabeth conceived, and hid herself five months, saying, Thus saith the Lord, thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked upon me to take away my approach among men. And the sixth month of the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin, a spouse to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. And the virgin’s name was Mary. And the angel came into her and said, Hail, thou art highly favored, and the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women».
Whew. Yes. «For thou found favor in with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and you shall call his name Jesus. And he shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end».
Now, I want you to notice the difference between what Zacharias said and what Mary said. «Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore, also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And behold, your cousin Elizabeth has also conceived a son in her old age. And this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God, nothing shall be impossible». I like that. With God, nothing shall be impossible. Who are you with? I’m with God. Amen. Now listen to what she said. «Mary said, 'Behold the handmaiden of the Lord. Be it unto me according to your Word.' And the angel departed». Look at the difference. How am I going to know this? And she said, «I don’t understand it, but be it done unto me as you have spoken».
She humbled herself, and then you know the rest of the story. «It came to pass that on the eighth day that they came to circumcise the child, and they called Zacharias after the name of his father. And his mother answered and said, Not so, but he should be called John. And they said unto her, There is none of your kindred that is called by that name. And they made signs to the father how he should be called». So I suggest this to you. He stayed in that state of unbelief until his hearing went along with it. But know what? «They made signs unto his father how he to call. And he asked for a writing table and wrote saying, His name is John. And they marveled all, and his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spoke and praised God». He spoke and praised God. That should be our testimony. We speak and praise God. Praise.
I heard the Lord say one time, «Praise is the big gun of faith», to praise and worship. Just praise him and worship him. And I just fell on my face. I’d been reading about the full armor of God, and I just was almost overwhelmed of it. That’s the armor of God. Amen. So when you praise, suit up and put the faceplate down. Because the Lord said to me, «That’s my fighting suit. You put the faceplate down and you don’t speak anything but faith. Then the devil can’t tell whether it’s you or me». But you put that down and then you start whining. Well, no, you got somebody else’s clothes on. Did you ever see those pictures of full suit of armor? In the front of the armor is always a six pack right there. And some guy had to squeeze into that. Make him look good. Sure does. And above all, taking the shield of faith, for you can quench all of the fiery darts of the wicked, or all of the missiles.
Back in the day, the long bow. And you’d take that thing and dip the end of it in something like kerosene or coal and pull that thing and let it go. And a fiery arrow would fall. The apostle Paul got that from the Roman soldier. Above all, taking the shield of faith. And the Romans had what they call the turtle maneuver. They would hook their shields together like this and start moving as one unit. And the fiery arrows would just bounce off of the top of their shields of armor. So the apostle took that and wrote that to the Ephesians. Glory to God. Above all. Well, that had two meanings. It’s impossible to please God without faith. We know that from the book of Hebrews. And we know from the 11th chapter of the book of Hebrews, faith is now the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And the Amplified Classic says, the title deed of those things hoped for and the guarantee, title deed and guarantee of the things you can’t see.
So God didn’t, and it talks about God creating. Well, when he put this universe into motion, one translation said he propelled this universe at the speed of light. The first 24 hours, 186,000 miles a second. The sun wasn’t created until four days later. Praise God. So he propelled, he slung it into place. Something like 14, 15 billion miles of universe in 24 hours. Well, why all these other planets and so forth? They should have… I like to say it like this. The earth was the pilot project. Had Adam even repented, and God gave him time to repent. And his answer was, «That woman you gave me». He blamed it on God. Well, read the book. He wasn’t off somewhere in the garden. No, it says she gave him to eat beside her. And so the first sin, it dropped the light line. And then they were frightened and they sewed together fig leaves.
So in the garden, I’ve seen artists paint an apple, didn’t say anything about an apple. It was fig leaves. It was a fig tree. And that fig tree in the book of Mark got blamed for it. And Jesus cursed it. It was an opportunity then. Peter said, «Master, the fig tree, which you cursed is withered away». Have faith in God. Have the faith of, let’s turn over there, Mark 11. Praise God. «And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up by the roots. Peter calling to remember saith unto him, Master, behold, the fig tree, or look at the fig tree, which you cursed is withered away. Jesus answering again saith unto them, have faith in God».
The cross reference says, «have the faith of God. For verily I say unto you that whosoever,» this is a whosoever thing, «Whosoever shall say, whosoever shall say, whosoever shall say unto you that whosoever shall say unto this mountain, be thou removed and be thou cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass, he shall have whatsoever he saith. Therefore, I say unto you,» so he just turned around and put it into motion right there, «what things whoever you desire, when you pray, believe that you receive them and you’ll have them». When? When you pray, not when you see it. That’s faith. «And when you stand praying, forgive if you have ought against any, that your heavenly Father, which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses». That’s good news.
Now let’s go over to first John. Thank You, Jesus. Praise God. First John chapter one, «That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes,» we’d call that a personal witness, wouldn’t you? He was at the cross and Jesus said, «Behold your mother, woman, behold your son». And so he took care of Jesus' mother and he outlived all of the others. He was the apostle of love. «Our hands have handled the Word of life for the life was manifested that we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life, which was in the Father and manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus. And these things write we unto you that your joy may be full.
This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. And if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us». You remember Jesus said, «You’ll know the truth. The truth will make you free». He didn’t say it sets you free. He said, it’ll make you free. Hallelujah. Well, that night in North Little Rock, I was free and didn’t know it because I was scripturally illiterate.
Now look at this now. «If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his Word is not in us. My little children, these things write I unto you that you sin not. If any man sin, we have an advocate or an attorney with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous, and he is the propitiation or the sacrifice for our sins and not for just ours only, but for the whole world. Hereby we do know that we know him if we keep his commandments». Praise God. And you’ve heard me tell this story in South Florida and I lost my temper. And I didn’t cuss, but I thought about it.
Anyway, I won’t go into all that. But anyway, I was just walking around the room there. I said, «Lord, I’m not going over there. You just have to get you another boy» and right down… anybody, any Christian, if you develop your ear to hear, hear, you can hear his voice. And I prayed in the Spirit there a little while and I heard it in here. Didn’t you confess that before me? Didn’t you turn to 1 John chapter 1 and confess that before me? I said, «Yes, Sir». Well, a great revelation came. He said, «Kenneth, when you confess that sin is not when I found out about it. No, that’s when you got rid of it». And it broke all of that and the freedom came up in me.
So listen, let me tell you something right here on Christmas day. If there’s anyone in your life, just go before the Lord and see, are you holding anything against anyone? Well, Brother Copeland, you don’t know what they did to me. I know what it’s doing to you now. They’ve probably forgotten all about it. This just keeps coming up over and over and over and over again. So pray about it. Go to these verses and believe you receive your forgiveness, not because you feel like it, but because it’s backed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This man, John, was a witness and we’re out of time. We’ll be back in just a minute. Hallelujah.