Kenneth Copeland - Believe the Covenant, Not the Contradiction
Open your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter four we're just going to begin there because for the sake of time and we're talking about of course all last week and this week on the fundamentals of faith and this one, the fourth fundamental as we said yesterday is, and at least in my opinion, the most difficult of all and calling things that be not as though they were.
Now Romans chapter 4 verse 16 therefore it is a faith that it might be by grace to the end the 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's the father of us all. As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations. I'm not going to make you the father of many nations. I have already made you the father of many nations. Before him whom he believed, even God who quickeneth the dead and call it those things that be not as though they were.
Now we closed yesterday just turning to the 17th chapter of the book of Genesis. Let's go back there today. Now, this is what the Holy Spirit through the apostle Paul, this is what he was referencing. You following me now? You remember the apostle Paul was the most educated of all the apostles. Amen. A Torah scholar. So let's go here. In chapter 17 of the book of Genesis. When Abraham was 90 years old and nigh, the Lord appeared to Abraham and said unto him, I am the almighty God. Now stop right there. I am El Shaddai. El the almighty God. Elohim. I am El. The almighty God, Shaddai. Shaddai refers to, it literally says the breasty one, referring to a nourishing mother.
Now, God is just as much female as he is male and he's everything. Amen. So he is the nurse. He is the mother and the father of all mankind. He is the more than enough God. He is all sufficient God. He is now, the Word God came out of German theology. This was back when Germany was one of the most evangelicalism nations in the world. And the word Gott replaced the word God, I mean replaced what was used. I dunno, a shortcut, if you will, and just say God. Well, Hey, God has more names than anybody. I am Jehovah Rafa. I'm the Lord that healeth thee. Amen.
Now, if healing's passed away, when did he change his name? No way. No, that ain't happened. He's the same yesterday, today and forever. He never changes. So see, by not having that, uh, religious minded people to answer spiritual problems with the carnal mind, it just fouls up everything steady to show yourself approved. You study these things, praise God, and you're very, very blessed to have Greg Stevens as a teacher. You're very very blessed. Very blessed. I mentioned Greg simply for the fact that he is a Hebrew scholar and when I get in a trap, I can call Greg. Amen, so praise God.
Now I want you to get that I will make my covenant between me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly. Abraham fell on his face and God talked with him saying, as for me, that is huge. As for me, I've made up my mind that I want you as a covenant partner, but you don't have to accept it. I'm not pushing anything off on you. I'll get me somebody else. The reason I'm coming to you is because I know you'll teaching children. That's the only qualification the man had. See how big it is to God. You'll teach your children. And this covenant needs to go all the way down to Fort worth, Texas in 2020. Hallelujah. Woo. Glory to God.
Now then my covenant is with thee and thou shall be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name any more be called Abram, but thy name shall be called Abraham. The H in Hebrew represents God, so he put his name right in the middle of his name indicating we are one. We are one together. Let me remind you, when Melchizedek came to, came to Abraham and said, blessed be Abraham of, there's the covenant. Blessed be Abraham of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth. He didn't call God possessor of heaven and earth. He called Abraham, possessor of heaven and earth and you can prove it. You can prove it. Praise God right there in the book of Romans.
How did he become the father of many nations? By faith, glory to God. All right. I will make thee exceeding fruitful. I will make nations of the and so forth. I will establish my covenant between me and thee, and thy seed after thee for their generation, for an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee. I will give under the, into that seed after thee, the land and so forth and so on. And God said to Abraham, thou shall keep my covenant, therefore thou now seed after the. So, he has spoken to Abraham and he has dealt with Sarai's name to Sarah. And he said, the two of you are going to have a child. And there is an absolute contradiction to that promise. God the promise and the contradiction. No way, you can't do that. There's an absolute contradiction to what he just showed him he'd do. Can you see it?
So how did Abraham reconcile the promise and the contradiction? He didn't. He didn't reconcile it at all. How am I on time, Tim? So what did he do? He considered not his own body, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb, but only that which God had promised the covenant, brother. I only consider the covenant I have with God. You and I have a healing covenant with God. He didn't promise to heal you. Healing is not a promise. It's a fact. Amen. By his stripes, you were healed. You were calling things that be not as though they were. Are we getting anywhere? Amen. So, glory to God.
Now, considering not, that's not enough, you can't just consider not. Did you know unbelief is not non belief. You just believe in the wrong thing. You're believing something all the time. You are a believing being. You're created to believe. Well, I just can't believe that, you can believe anything you want to believe. You believe you can believe you drink grape juice and it'd come out your ear. I can believe that if I want to, it's stupid, but I can believe it if I want to. If that wasn't true, there would be no con artists. You're a believer, so what we do, we direct our believing to covenant. We enter into, in fact, let me put it this way. When we were born again, we entered into covenant with God.
Now in the first covenant, the old covenant, the first one, there were consequences to breaking that covenant. And then in some places and instances it was death was very severe because God was protecting the gene pool. That's what caused the flood. He was protecting the gene pool. He had to watch over this thing. I'm telling you, he's the El Shaddai God. I mean he's, he's watching over this, uh, like, like a mother hen cause he's, he has a pure son coming and he's working toward that end all the time. All the time. He's working toward that end, well, I just don't understand. I know it, but he's working toward that end. All those little babies that got killed looking for Jesus. Well sweetheart, they were the first martyrs. God's working on something. He's working towards that end all the time. All the time. All the time. He never ever changes. And he said it before the foundation of the world. It's going to turn out this way.
Now I'm on challenge you, who's the biggest loser of all? No, he wasn't. God is, he lost his Archangel. He lost his first created being. He lost command of the planet, but he never accepted defeat. He'd already said it. Now, you're saying it again. He just put it in a book so you could say it, the assignment and ministry of the prophets, when you analyze it and see what their assignment was and what they preached and what they did, nobody in the first covenant was born again. It was a, it was set up for the future. So it was the job of the prophet to give the people something to say. You say this, you obey the prophet and you prosper. So what's he saying? You say what he says, because he's representing God. So you put God's Words in your mouth. What are you going to get God's results? Well, we're talking covenant relationship here. Everything you, everything you have belongs to God. Everything he has belongs to you.
So now, let me throw a little wrench in this deal. I was, uh, I was out at the airport, the first little twin engine airplane that the Lord put in their hands and I was out of the airport one day and I'm shining polishing this thing. And a couple of younger preachers came out to see my airplane and said, Oh man, this is nice isn't it. I said, yeah. They said, think about it's God's airplane. I said, no, it ain't mine. Well, you thought I slapped him with a wet rag, you know, I said, no, it isn't God's. It's mine. He gave it to me, and if you don't ever take possession of it, it's open game. Jesus. God gave that promise land to them, but they had to go possess it. They had a covenant with God. God said, I have given you this land. It flows with milk and honey. Now go possess it. Amen. And they refused to do it. They refused.
Listen to me. They refused to put the promise in their mouth. We're going to die in this desert, and he sent us out here to kill us. We're going to die in this desert. We're going to die in the desert, we're going to die in the desert. So now what? God has no choice. His covenant people, Hey, he's in covenant with these people. They keep saying, we're gonna die in this desert. He does not have any choice. They had him pushed into a corner to the place where he had to say, alright, you will die in this desert. That's worth three scoring ten four scores by strength came from, that was the term you're going to die in this desert and nobody over 20 got out of it. I don't mean they went to hell. The only thing God, the only thing in the covenant of God and the law of the law of first mention comes in here.
When it's first mentioned in the Bible, then it remains through out the Bible. The first mention of age that God said in Genesis 6:3 is the days of man shall be 120 years. God said that he didn't say 70 or 80. See how that's been with, Oh, well he promised the 70 or 80 years he didn't have anything to do with that. He never promised you 70 80 years, he promised you 120. So I had to learn to be like Abraham. I consider not my body now 83 years old, but only that which God had promised 120. So now with his help and his grace by covenant, he was see to it that I get there. In most people's mind today, there ain't no way Copeland, you're just shooting off your big mouth was just hang around and watch. I consider not the contradictory evidence, but only that which God had promised.