Kenneth Copeland - God's Covenants Of Promise
Hello everybody, I'm Kenneth Copeland. Welcome to the Believer's Voice of Victory Broadcast. Let's have a word of prayer, we'll get right into today's Bible lesson.
Father, we thank You today, we praise You, and thank You in the mighty Name of Jesus, and we give praise and honor, opening our hearts and opening our minds to receive revelation from heaven. Oh Lord, I've prayed this so many times and it's just come up in me again, words, words that move heaven on the earth through the covenants of God. And we thank You for it, and we praise You for it and we're blessed today in the Name of Jesus, praise God.
Kenneth Copeland: Join me everybody in welcoming Professor Greg Stephens to this broadcast.
Greg Stephens: It's an honor.
Kenneth Copeland: I tell you what. We've had a historical time on this broadcast, because what we thought, started out was two weeks on the covenant, we couldn't do it. We did three and we didn't do it, and now we're about to do two weeks more, amen. We've never had that happen on this broadcast before, and the context of it is the reason why. So, let's go over to the book of Ephesians, that's been our golden text throughout this entire study. From Ephesians chapter two, and let me explain something to you about Greg Stephens. He is associate pastor at EMIC, but he teaches and trains students at Kenneth Copeland Bible College in the Old Testament, or the first covenant. I learned that from you and I really like that, because it says more than Old Testament, New Testament. First, testament just means covenant. That's the way it's really written. And it's the first covenant which gave birth to the second covenant, and it's very simple. The blood of men and the blood of God, but you had to go through the first one to get Jesus into the earth, that had to take place.
Greg Stephens: That's right.
Kenneth Copeland: And it began in the Garden of Eden. So this, well, let's go here and you. This couple of verses of scripture right here, is the foundation knowledge of why so little happens in the Western world. Take the same Bible, take it to Africa, it's not because the people there haven't heard anything, they have. Missionaries have been going to Africa for centuries, but they're covenant-minded people. Western people are not. You say the word covenant, and it doesn't even mean anything.
Greg Stephens: To us it's a contract, it's just a contract.
Kenneth Copeland: Yeah, it's a contract.
Greg Stephens: It's not a contract.
Kenneth Copeland: And the only time in the natural world that you ever hear the word covenant used, are neighborhood covenants where they don't let you paint your house pink or you know, something like that. It's asinine, and it boils down to nothing. And it's right here. It'll tell you right here, in this second chapter of Ephesians, verse 11. "Wherefore remember, that you, being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called uncircumcised", and that's covenant. I mean, it's headed right into it. This whole book is two covenants, everything in it has to do with that. "By that which is called the circumcision in the flesh, made by hand. At that time, you were without Christ". You were without the Anointed One and His anointing. You were without it, it was not in your lot.
Greg Stephens: Not available to you.
Kenneth Copeland: No, it was not. "And being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants", both of 'em, "Of promise". Make a big note out of promise, covenants of promise. What is the Word of God? Well, it's the Bible, no, it's His bond. He's honest, His word's good. And it's blood. Now, "Having no hope, and without God in the world, but now, in Christ Jesus, you who were sometimes afar off made nigh by the blood". The blood of that covenant, see.
Greg Stephens: There it is.
Kenneth Copeland: We've become family. Now, here's the deal. Covenants of promise have become religious. True Covenant is hope which is coming from religion to reality. 54th chapter of Isaiah. 53rd chapter, Jesus is on the cross, and raised from the dead. 54th chapter is speaking to the Church. Now, you can read all of that and it's, boy, it's exciting. This covenant talk all the way through it, but now notice in verse eight. "In a little wrath, I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee saith the Lord thy redeemer". Look at this, "for this is as the waters of Noah unto me, for as I have sworn", say sworn. He swore it, and He did it in blood. The covenant, the blood covenant with Abraham was the first of its kind in the world, and it became the base of all blood covenants on earth and they are still being practiced in certain places around the earth. "This is as the waters of Noah over sworn, that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have I sworn", say it again, sworn. "'That I would not be roth with thee, nor rebuke thee, for the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of My peace be removed', saith the Lord that has mercy on thee".
Greg Stephens: That word, sworn in the Hebrew, is the Hebrew word, shaba, shaba means to exchange oaths, or to solemnly swear. The Father God, is solemnly swearing an oath, that's strong.
Kenneth Copeland: Oh, it is.
Greg Stephens: And that's what that word means. And so, there's a reason you pointed to sworn, you said that two times, notice that word. "I have solemnly exchanged oath, I solemnly swear to you".
Kenneth Copeland: So help me God.
Greg Stephens: That's what He's doing.
Kenneth Copeland: And He didn't have say that.
Greg Stephens: No, He is that.
Kenneth Copeland: He is God.
Greg Stephens: That's what's happening.
Kenneth Copeland: Greg, the Church doesn't know that. Well, you know, that it's God that brought that tornado through here. He's gonna teach people something. He's angry about all that sin. No, He's not angry at all, He's disappointed. But He's given His promise. My wrath has been satisfied, I poured it out on Jesus and it's all over.
Greg Stephens: That's exactly right.
Kenneth Copeland: And I'm just sitting back and having a good time.
Greg Stephens: He cannot go back and undo that.
Kenneth Copeland: No He can't.
Greg Stephens: To do so, would mean He would no longer exist, and that's not gonna happen. He watches over this Word, to perform it. And He's not forgotten what He promised Noah. He's not forgotten that, that's still in effect as part of the everlasting covenant. It's a covenant that He, this is not a covenant with Israel. This is a covenant with mankind and the earth.
Kenneth Copeland: That's right, and the animals.
Greg Stephens: Yes, Sir.
Kenneth Copeland: 'Cause it was everybody. 'Cause He's not doing that anymore.
Greg Stephens: No, and that was a one time thing. Now, there will be a new heaven and a new earth, that's in front of us. But this covenant symbol, and He gave us...
Kenneth Copeland: He swore to do that, just the same as He swore to do this.
Greg Stephens: Yes sir.
Kenneth Copeland: The new heaven and the new earth.
Greg Stephens: And that will happen, it's in our future. So He put a covenant symbol like He did for Abraham. He made a covenant symbol, so that we can see it and be reminded of it, and that was the rainbow. That every time you see that, you remember, Jesus will quote this, about the days of Noah.
Kenneth Copeland: Greg, I've done it, I've seen a rainbow, and particularly up in the mountains of Colorado you'll see double rainbows a lot, and I'll see it and I'll say, "Caw, look at that, my Father's not mad at me. He loves me. And He doesn't rebuke me, He just talks to me and He corrects me and so forth". And I read that over in the book of Hebrews, where He chastises me, and say see there, He's mad at you. No, He's not, look the word up, come on man and women also. And look the word up, it means to train like a child. It means to discipline, but, well now, there you have it, He disciplines. Yeah, but He does it with a smile on His face.
Greg Stephens: Let me tell you another thing I always think about when I see the rainbow. Because Jesus says, what they're asking about, Your coming, when You return. He said, "As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be". And so every time I see a rainbow, I think about this. There were three groups of people in the earth in the time of Noah. Those that were saved in the ark, it was a family. And then there were those that perished outside the ark. And then there was one guy, that was prophesied that the destruction would happen, when his son died, Methuselah, and that's Enoch. Enoch, one body was raptured out of the place, before this all happened. And so, I'm looking at our day, there's a body, the body of Christ who will go up outta here. There will be a group that'll be protected during that very short tribulation time, and the others will perish. And we're living in that razor edge moment, Brother Copeland.
Greg Stephens: Greg, it's just a little sliver, any way you figure it. Just a little sliver of time, and we're there.
Greg Stephens: Amen.
Kenneth Copeland: Oh, glory to God.
Greg Stephens: So I know that when I see a rainbow, it's soon, I'm coming out, because He's not forgotten this covenant.
Kenneth Copeland: That's right.
Greg Stephens: And Jesus will quote this covenant.
Kenneth Copeland: And He's smiling.
Greg Stephens: Yes, He is. He's not angry at me, the war is over, the enmity between us. And you read in Ephesians, we were strangers, with no promise and no hope, and now I have that. In Christ, I've been grafted in. I wasn't born of natural Israel, I didn't live there, but I'm part of this covenant. And Jesus, you mentioned a while ago, where I said first covenant, second covenant. I got that from Jesus. I got that in Matthew chapter 13. Matthew 13, He leaves His house, He goes in sits by the seashore, and they come to Him. And this is the approach I take with Kenneth Copeland Bible students. Let me read this to you real fast, verse 52. He said in Matthew 13:52, "then He said unto them, Therefore, every scribe, teacher, which is instructed under the kingdom of Heaven is like a man that is a householder, which bringeth forth out of his treasure, things new and old". So, let me read that out of the Passion. Now, the Passion translation says this, "He responded, every scholar of the scriptures who was instructed in the ways of Heaven's kingdom realm, is like a wealthy homeowner with his house filled with treasures both new and old. He knows how and when to bring them out". And so that's what we're doing, we're bringing out these things from this first covenant, in order to understand this second covenant. The Old Testament was types, and the New Testament, it's revealed.
Kenneth Copeland: He's the reality.
Greg Stephens: The reality. You will not understand Leviticus, if you've never read the book of Hebrews. Just, you just can't. You won't understand Daniel, had there not been written Revelation. And so, you have to marry them together, because it is the same covenant, it is an everlasting covenant, and they're just revealed differently. Now, we live on this side of the finished work of Jesus, His blood.
Kenneth Copeland: The rose died, then the next rose was born out of that one. To me that...
Greg Stephens: That's it, absolutely the case. So, this is what we're doing. We're not, I don't live in the Old Testament, I live in this New Testament, but I study that, so that I can get greater revelation of what I walk in now. I get a greater understanding of what Jesus actually did.
Kenneth Copeland: Now, here Greg, this is where the Lord has directed us, I believe to go. This week is into the new covenant. The first covenant was a national covenant, ours is a healing covenant. It is what belongs to us. It belongs to us. I mean, Jesus belongs to us. Jesus belongs to the whole world. Gift to the whole world. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. Well, now He's not the only begotten anymore. He was, as long as the first covenant was enforced, which, all the way through His ministry, up until there was until the resurrection, and that brought the new one in right there. It happened right in front of everybody's eyes. And people struggle with healing and struggle with all of this. Well, I just don't know if it's God's will. It's because of error that we fixed over there in the 54th chapter of Isaiah. He fixed the outline. Surely, it belongs to you, 'cause Jesus belongs to you.
Greg Stephens: Absolutely true.
Kenneth Copeland: Yeah, but I need to know the will. He is the will. He said, "I came to do the will of My Father". Turned no one down. Everything He did when He was on Earth, He did as a man, carrying out the will of His heavenly Father.
Kenneth Copeland: That's exactly right. And He's fulfilling something that hadn't been fulfilled before, and now He's given us an assignment to fulfill what He started. That's something, 'cause that's what He said when He left. Go to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, the uttermost parts of the earth. He gave us an assignment, just like He was on an assignment. In John chapter three, He's going to use a really interesting phrase. He's gonna talk about, that the Son of man has to be lifted up, and He's gonna requote, like the brazen serpent. When the serpents were biting the children of Israel, that was a covenant thing for them, they were look upon that pole.
Kenneth Copeland: That thing really bothered me. I said, "Lord, why in the world did You put the snake up there", and then He says it's to represent Christ. I don't get it. And He said, "Well, will read Second Corinthians 5:17". Yeah, I know. "Any man that's in Christ is a new creation. Old things are passed away from them". He said, "Old things passed away". He said, that represents what Jesus would do, when He took upon Himself death. And He took upon Himself our sins and our spiritual death, and suffered. He never sinned, but He bore the sins. And so, He took the nature of Satan on Him, not in Him. On Him, so that that old sin nature could could be removed. Old things, that old sin nature. God, Glory to God, I'm a new creature. That's not who, that's who I was, that's not who I am. But that's reason that they had to represent that.
Greg Stephens: And He's training them, your redemption is going to come from a tree. It started at a tree.
Kenneth Copeland: Now that part I didn't get.
Greg Stephens: It started at a tree. Think about that. When Eve with that serpent at the tree.
Kenneth Copeland: At the tree.
Greg Stephens: Talking to her.
Kenneth Copeland: That's right.
Greg Stephens: And your redemption's gonna come from a tree, with a serpent, and you see that serpent on it. All what you just said, it's all tying together. He's fulfilling everything to the letter when He does that. And Satan twisted her words. That's what he always does, he doesn't have anything new. Because what was the instruction? You don't eat of that tree. And she said, she changed it, we're not supposed to touch it. She might have been leaning up against the thing, while she said it, or had her hand up on it. She's touched it, she has to tend to it.
Kenneth Copeland: You can't, that was God's fruit.
Greg Stephens: Yes, that's right.
Kenneth Copeland: It had to be their tithe, 'cause it was God's, but it was in their garden.
Greg Stephens: Under their care.
Kenneth Copeland: Yeah.
Greg Stephens: Under their stewardship.
Kenneth Copeland: Now, and then he comes right back. Comes right, just immediately go from that scene over to Cain and Abel, and they fought over the tithe. So, God had taught him tithe somewhere in there. He covenanted with them that, and I'll submit this to you. I believe it with all my heart. Had they not did what it did, and when the time came, when the fruit became ripe, then they would have picked it. They would have taken it to the Father. Then He would have taught them the difference between good and evil without their having to experience it.
Greg Stephens: That's right, that's right.
Kenneth Copeland: But the whole thing was over the tithe.
Greg Stephens: Now, you realize Adam's not fallen at that state when that happened, and God breathed into him life, blessed him. And so the nature of God went in him. He had the mind of Christ.
Kenneth Copeland: Oh yeah, sure he did.
Greg Stephens: So he knew.
Kenneth Copeland: Perfectly.
Greg Stephens: Yes.
Kenneth Copeland: He was not deceived as scripture said, she was.
Greg Stephens: Yes.
Kenneth Copeland: But he wasn't.
Greg Stephens: He knew what he was doing when he did that. But so anyway, the whole thing is, it was on a tree. Your redemption's gonna come on a tree. And then we go to Galatians, "Cursed is everyone that hangs on the tree, that the blessing", what blessing? That blessing all the way back in the beginning, that Abraham tapped into by faith. It's the same blessing, God's just getting it back into the earth and He's doing it through the promised seed. And this is why we have our faith in that promise, and it's going to come on a tree.
Kenneth Copeland: Now, let me say something. I want to say this to you in the audience, the radio and television audience. This is all exciting and it really gets your blood up, but it isn't any good, unless you come to that place where you mix it with faith and you begin to say, "This thing belongs to me and I'm not turning it down. You not, Satan, you can't take this away from me, God has sworn it to me. He has sworn that I'm healed. He has sworn that I'm prospered, and I am a tither, and you can't do it devil, you can't touch me". The blessing of the Lord is up about me, just like it was Job. That blessing of all, glory to God. You can't touch me, I'm the blessed, and I'm the healed.
Greg Stephens: Because that's part of the covenant.
Kenneth Copeland: That's covenant. I have a sworn oath of God in the blood of His Son. It has to be mixed with faith or it's just more of this happy religion we have.
Greg Stephens: And it just becomes an empty promise, and we're not walking in the fullness of it. And I think that's where so many people have missed it. Is they've not mixed faith with knowing the character and nature of the person that made the covenant.
Kenneth Copeland: And we're out of time.