Kenneth Copeland - Choose Your Covenant Over the Contradiction
Hello, everybody. I’m Kenneth Copeland and this is the Believer’s Voice of Victory broadcast. Now, we’re changing the format here at God’s direction. If this broadcast, any time or other, this ministry has helped you grow spiritually, we want to hear from you. We want your testimony. Praise God. Kcm.org/BVOVstory. I love it. Whoa. I love to hear it. Like the woman on the radio that… Well, back in the radio days. I have two testimonies of her. She said they came in and told her, «You’re going to die».
I said on the radio, «You’re not sick and you’re not going to die». I thought, whoa, what about that? She said, «I’m not»? Well, to make a long story short, we heard from her. She sent somebody out to get her a Bible and then they paid off her husband’s truck and they all went in the ministry. Now, there’s a small Americanized hotel in Ukraine and we flew the Lockheed Jetstar there back in the day. Constantine, young man that spoke Russian. They said, «Well, get in there before four o’clock in the afternoon because the controllers will be drunk».
We did. He’s up front trying to translate the Russian into English. English is the international language. They spoke Russian some and English some. Anyway, we got in there, little Americanized hotel and we filled it up. I was looking around and I just looked up and it’s just a little small road there. They were doing the lugging and I just looked up and here are two men right there. I mean, as close as from almost of me to you. I looked up, there’s two men there, one of them smoking a cigarette, another had a drink and there was my picture preaching in Russian in Ukraine. Yeah, I’ve been there. Oh, glory to God. Hallelujah.
Oh, Father, thank You. We praise You and we honor You in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
I’m going to be teaching this morning out of Greg and my book, God, the Covenant and the Contradiction. So open to the 17th chapter of the book of Genesis. When Abram was 90 years old and nine, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am El Shaddai. Now, El, God, Shaddai, referring to a woman’s breast or a nurse and the God that’s more than enough.
Now I refer to Gloria. She was, when Kellie was born, she was her food. She was Gloria Shaddai. She really was. John was born. He’s here this morning. She was everything to him. And because she was his food, she was his nourishment. She gave birth to them. Now notice this. I will make my covenant between me and thee and will multiply you exceedingly and Abram fell on his face and God talked with him. So you can think about this. He fell on his face in God’s presence. As for me… he didn’t have to do it. I’ve chosen you. What are you going to do, buddy? As for me, my covenant is with thee and thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall your name be anymore called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, Hashem, the name, Yod-Heh-Vav-Heh, the name above every name that’s named in the middle of this man’s name.
Now think about it. He’s a hundred years old and he’s going around saying, I’m the father of many nations. Uh, how are you going to do that? God, the covenant and the contradiction. That was the contradiction. He’s a hundred years old, but the great part of it is he never did try to reconcile it. He just believed it and took the heat for saying he’s the father of many nations. I’m an old guy. Amen. But notice this. Neither shall your name be called, but Abraham, I will make you… He had the authority. I will make you exceeding fruitful. I will make nations of you and kings shall come out of you and I will establish my covenant between me and thee and your seed after you and their generation for an everlasting covenant to be a God to you and to the seed after you.
Whoa. Oh, as for me, he didn’t have to do it. He could have said, «Remember what the priest said, how am I going to know this? I’m an old man»… and his name’s going to be John. He didn’t believe that angel, but this wasn’t an angel. This is God. That’s big. There’s a difference. And now let’s talk about the name change. And you’ve heard me say this before, but many, many of you in the television audience may not have thought about this. That’s the first covenant name change recorded. Now in here, Gloria Jean Neece became Gloria Jean Copeland on April the 13th, 1962, about eight o’clock in the evening. She still is. And I asked her to marry me on the first date, as many of you know, because she’s so beautiful. And I thought, this is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen in my life. It just started.
So I walked up on her porch. I said, «Gloria, will you marry me»? «Okay». «What»? She walked in the house and said, «What have I done? I don’t even know this guy. Oh, well, I’ll get out of it later». A couple of days ago at the time of this, 63 years, she’s not out of it. And we started this ministry together as you know. So now that is so big… as for me. He picked Abram because he would teach his children. I want to remind you of something. George Washington turned in his Bible right here, opened his Bible right there. Now class, this was back before people had middle names. That didn’t happen until the Civil War because the Southerners wanted to be Billy Bob and you know, H-O-W-I-Z-E-M-I-Z- how’s your mama name… You know, that’s where that came from.
Billy Bob and Susie Jane and that’s where the middle names came from. So George Washington opened his Bible right there. He had on a brand new brown suit. He was an elegant man, very tall and taught himself how to survey. And so he opened his Bible right there. Then he shocked everyone. He got on his knee and he kissed the Bible and he said, «You’ll be our God and we’ll be Your people». Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and George. Glory to God. Hallelujah. Yes. Don’t ever forget that. That’s the reason the devil’s fought this nation and everybody else has fought it, but nobody’s trying to get out of it. They’re all trying to get in. Glory. So the strangers from the covenants of promise without God, that’s Ephesians. We’ll get over there later.
Now, Romans 4. The great apostle Paul. You have to remember now, untold amount of time in Arabia, obviously out there alone, obviously praying in tongues. Amen. Because he said, he told Corinth, he said, «I pray in tongues more than all of you put together». Glory to God. Thank You, Jesus. Oh, and every time you read first and second Corinthians from the book of Acts on in the letters, Christians say, well, I don’t know who I am in him. Well, I didn’t either. I didn’t hear that until I heard Brother Hagin. But then you look up all of the in him, in whom scriptures and whatever it says in him, that’s what we are and that’s who we are. Just for the television, radio and television audience.
Now then verse four, we just talked about Abraham, right? What shall we say then that Abraham, our father, as pertaining to the flesh has found? We just went from that name change. Hang on a second. You lived in this world without God and without hope, but now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far from God, but now you’ve been brought near to him through the blood of Christ. Thank You, Jesus. There is no stronger agreement than one that is based in blood. And there are still tribes and peoples of the earth today that still do it. The Native American people did it. The African people did it because of its close relationship. And we don’t have time to, it’s in the book, but we don’t have the time here to go in and discuss all of those about Stanley and so forth and how he got into Africa. But it’s all here.
If you get the book, you can still order it from us and Amazon and so forth. Now, what shall we say then that Abraham, our father, pertaining to the flesh has found? For if Abraham was justified by the works, he hath whereof glory, but not before God. Not before God. No. Now God said, «I have made you the father of many nations». He had the authority to do that. Now to him that works is reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that works not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Well, second Corinthians chapter five. Amen. To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. To be present in the body is to be absent from the Lord. But we walk by faith and not by sight. And any man in Christ is a new creature.
All right, I won’t take time to turn that. You know as well as I do. Old things have passed away and all things are of God and all things are new. What passed away? That old sin nature. And I’ll tell you my testimony again. I didn’t know that. The night I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior for about 30 or 40 seconds, I couldn’t shut my mouth and profanity was gone forever. And then I found out later I was a new creature. I’m scripturally illiterate. Glory to God. And you need to read all of these. We don’t take time to do it here.
Let’s come on down. Verse 12, The father of circumcision to them that are not of circumcision only, but who walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham, which he had being uncircumcised. That’s huge. That’s huge. He had it before he was circumcised. Now why the circumcision? He shed his blood. He shed his blood. Now there’s a key element there. And well, I’ll go ahead and touch on it now. God asked him to offer up Isaac. We’ll see it in the book of Hebrews. And he’s ready to do it. It’s his only begotten son. And that angel said, Take your knife… But he said before he left, we’re going up to the boy and I’ll be back. The lad and I’ll be back. But he’s the father of many nations. He’s going to kill him and watch him be raised from the dead.
In the book of Hebrews said he received it in a figure. So he really meant to do this. Why did God do that? Because his covenant partner was willing to offer this miracle child born when he’s a hundred years old to offer him up on the sacrifice, knowing that his Son was going to cry, «My God, let this cup pass from me». «I can’t, I can’t, son. No, my covenant partner was willing. I have to turn my back on you». And you go over to the 22nd Psalm, My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? Well, no, no, no, no. You don’t get it. Read that 22nd Psalm that David wrote and looked into the future. It’s in the Amplified, the Classic Amplified, which we have, if you want to order it from us, it’s a KCP publication now, but it begins that way.
My God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? And ends with it is finished. Now, what was that class? He went into hell with what David had already written so that it was already written. He had a weapon. That’s the way the book works. It had to be prophesied over here in the first covenant and to prophesy to get it in here in the second covenant. Because once God got it in here, there wasn’t any way the devil could get it out. It’s here. The book of Micah, old Bethlehem Ephrata, Jesus born in Bethlehem. David was born in Bethlehem. Okay. Are we ready? For the promise, what promise? That blood backed promise.
And you can find it in Galatians 3.14, but we won’t go there right now. For the promise that he should be heir of the world was not Abraham… heir of the world. I could show you that over in the first covenant, but I don’t have time to do that. Or his seed through the law, but through the righteousness, the right standing of God of faith, believing it. Praise God. That’s not holiness. It’s just simply right standing with God. The old word is righteousness. But you know, go to the Classic Amplified and it brackets and shows you these kinds of things and gives you cross references to it. Because the law works wrath and where no law is, there’s no transgression. Well, class, what does that mean? Cain murdered his brother, but it wasn’t against the law. No way. Absolutely no possible way. Read it. It only talks about the two boys. It doesn’t talk about the girls. So where’d he get his wife? One of Abel’s sisters.
Well, Brother Copeland, hey, come on class. There wasn’t anybody else on earth. He couldn’t go off to Canaan land. It wasn’t any Canaan land. And I actually saw this, the original couple, she had an apple in her hand. It was a fig. It wasn’t an apple. They called themselves a fig leaf. You understand? And then that fig leaf that Jesus cursed paid the price for it. But they had belly buttons. I looked at that and the man who was with it and looked at it and looked over there at me and said, and the guy said, «Isn’t this beautiful artwork»? I said, oh yeah. The guy don’t own a Bible. Well, that’s for sure. But that, I pointed that out and we bring this to the television, radio and television audience. People don’t think about that.
Well, you need to think about that. You need to know what’s right from this book, not from what some artist does. And it was beautiful painting. I mean, whomever it was, it was really good. They just needed the book like this one. So here it is. Because the law works wrath for where no law is, there is no transgression. Therefore, like Brother Hagin said, if the word’s therefore, see what it’s there for. Therefore, it is of faith so that it might be by grace. It wasn’t by grace so that it could be by faith. No, grace doesn’t come on its own. Therefore, it is a faith that it might be by grace to the end, the blood-backed promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only, which is of the law, but to that also, which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. Yeah. He’s the father of us all, class. The father of us all.
Thank You, Jesus. As it is written. That’s the way the book works. It was already written in order to get it over here. As it is written, Genesis 17:5 is a cross reference. As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations. I have a little one there. Or like unto him, like unto God whom he believed, who quickens the dead. He makes alive the dead. And he calls, he speaks, he calls things that be not as though they already are. King James uses the word «were». So what do you do? I call my body well. I call my body pain free. Well, I have to go to where it’s written. And I got to tell you this. I got up at three o’clock this morning. I just woke up wide awake. I said, glory to God. And I just got my Bible. And it wasn’t this one. I keep one right there next to my bed. Went all the way through all these healing scriptures. Went back to bed. So now all I have to do is thank and praise. And we’ll be back in just a moment. Thank You, Lord. Hallelujah.