Kenneth Copeland - The Covenants Of Promise
Kenneth Copeland: Hello everybody, I'm Kenneth Copeland and this is the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. Let's have a word of prayer and we'll get into a really, really exciting broadcast today and all of this week. I can tell you right now, you're going to like this.
Father, we praise you and we thank you with all of our hearts. We honor you in worship and praise God. We praise our heavenly father. We thank you, Lord Jesus. Greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world and we're glad about that. We're thrilled about that and for every word that's said and every deed that's done on this broadcast, oh, we ascribe all the wonders and the glory to the matchless name of Jesus. We open our hearts. We open our minds for revelation from heaven, words, the word of God, the living word of the living God that moves and releases heaven on the earth. We thank you for it in Jesus' name, amen.
Kenneth Copeland: Glory to God. Would you join me today and welcoming professor Greg Stephens to this broadcast again? Praise God. Now first all, let me introduce this man properly. Greg is an instructor, Kenneth Copeland Bible college, and his specialty in the Bible college is Kenneth Copeland Bible college old Testament survey and syllabus. And I have, this was the first year that I have in my hands, and his knowledge, the reason he is and deserves the title of professor is his knowledge of the Hebrew language. And, and I get, I get thrilled with him. I mean, you know, I'll be going through things and I'm just teaching it, he's over there, he's over there reading it in Hebrew and I'm thinking "I better get this right". Welcome man.
Greg Stephens: Thank you.
Kenneth Copeland: I invited, I invited Greg in here for this reason. He knows things we don't know. He understands. Now I have described certain things the very best that I know how to describe, the covenant meal, what's been called the last supper, that covenant meal Jesus in the gospel of John 13th, 14th 15th 16th 17th chapter of John. We're right there in that covenant moment in that, that that covenant preciousness. And so I have asked Greg to come and share with us his knowledge of what that Seder meal actually is and how it works and so forth. And I didn't ask you this earlier, are you going to demonstrate that this week or next week?
Greg Stephens: I will. I have some of the elements with me. We'll go through it.
Kenneth Copeland: Oh, wonderful man.
Greg Stephens: Take a look at it. Cause when you see it, it comes alive too because you see, we see looking back to the cross, the typology, everything in the Word of God connects.
Kenneth Copeland: Oh absolutely.
Greg Stephens: It's not, you know, Sunday school lessons.
Kenneth Copeland: Lets go over here, I didn't read our golden text. I'm so excited.
Greg Stephens: I know, I just want to jump in here.
Kenneth Copeland: I want to go here.
Greg Stephens: Yes sir.
Kenneth Copeland: We've got two places. Ephesians chapter 2 verse 11, "wherefore remember that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh who are called uncircumcision", that's covenant, "By that which is called the circumcision in the flesh. Circumcision in the flesh made by hands". Now listen to this. "At that time you were without Christ being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants, both of them, strangers from the covenants of promise". I want you to see covenants of promise. What is a promise? I could put it to you like this, Greg, if I promise you something, I am actually giving you my word.
Greg Stephens: Big deal. Yes sir. Yes, sir.
Kenneth Copeland: This word, the whole thing is God's bond. Now I learned of this through my dad. My dad's word was his bond. I'm telling you if he promised you something or if he just said it, he didn't have to promise you, he just said it. You bank it. Man of his word.
Greg Stephens: Yes sir.
Kenneth Copeland: Swear to his own hurt and unchanging. I've seen him do it. Now, and we're talking about promise here. Let's go to second Peter. We're interested in that word "Promise". Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ. I love this word, to them that have obtained like precious faith with faith with us.
Greg Stephens: Yes sir.
Kenneth Copeland: Well, I remember, man, I mean when I first saw that, I thought 'you mean I have got the same faith as Peter?' Well, yeah. Where'd he get it? Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. According. Now, here it is. Get this. Listen, are you listening? According as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that have called us to glory and virtue, or excellence, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises that by these, by what? By these promises, Greg, you might be partakers of the divine nature.
Greg Stephens: Yes, sir.
Kenneth Copeland: Hallelujah.
Greg Stephens: Made available in this covenant.
Kenneth Copeland: Yes, sir. Yes, sir.
Greg Stephens: Now, when God approached Abraham, he did not approach Abraham. It's very interesting. I pay attention to details. He approached Abraham. He did not come up to him and say, now here's the thing you've been worshiping idols and I kind of want to fix that. He didn't do that at all. He made a promise to him. He offered him a promise and that promise developed into a relationship and that relationship developed into an everlasting covenant that we are partakers of. And that's what that whole covenant meal was about.
Kenneth Copeland: He said, as for me, my covenant, it is between me and thee. Now that that's not correct English. He supposed to say between you, you and I. No, no, it was correct. But because it's the greater entering into covenant with the lesser, and making him an equal.
Greg Stephens: Yes sir. And as a result of that, I can walk in what Peter just said, that divine nature.
Kenneth Copeland: That divine nature because I'm a new creature.
Greg Stephens: That never existed before.
Kenneth Copeland: Glory to God.
Greg Stephens: And that what we call the last supper, that Passover Seder meal is that Jesus is transitioning them now into a different, once you understand that covenant, you go into a different level of righteousness that Abraham didn't have. It was accounted unto Abraham.
Kenneth Copeland: That's right.
Greg Stephens: But you are now the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. So all of the symbolisms in there are pointing us to where we are today. And it began, it actually began, you know, Moses and the children of Israel, but again began before that. This is not a Jewish feast. It's the feast of the Lord. You find it over to Leviticus chapter 23, the Lord spoke to Moses saying, speak to the children of Israel and say to them the feast of the Lord. And he mentioned the first one Passover, and it will be on a certain month. And that's the beginning of the religious new year.
Kenneth Copeland: And that is so interesting.
Greg Stephens: And so it's the feast of the Lord. It's the feast of the Lord. It's not Jewish. It belongs to us just as much. And the reason why back in that golden verse you had, in Ephesians where it talked about you were strangers, that's a key word in there. You were at that time, Gentiles in the flesh, you were without Christ. Being aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, strangers and covenant and promise are key words right there. Because God's not going to do anything. How did they get into Egypt? Well we know that Judah sold, Judah and his brothers sold Joseph, they ended up down there. They were there for a long period of time, 400 years. But God says, I can't do this without telling my covenant friend. And if you go to Genesis 15 I'm setting up Passover here, you go to Genesis 15 verses 13 and 14 I'm gonna read it to you. Genesis 15 verses 13 and 14, then he said to Abram, know certainly that your descendants will be strangers. There's the word.
Kenneth Copeland: There it is.
Greg Stephens: But your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs and will serve them and they will afflict them 400 years. He's telling his covenant friend what's going to happen. And also the nation whom they serve I will judge afterward, they shall come out with great possessions. Now Paul writes this over here in Ephesians that we were. So the Passover meal is talking about the natural descendants, but Paul just tied us to that, the natural and the Gentile, the nations and the Jews are both strangers to this covenant promise. But because of what's going to happen at Passover, because of Jesus fulfilling Passover, we're going to be brought together. Isn't that beautiful? Galatians 3 says, a curse is everyone that hangs on the tree, the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles. So I've been brought into that as well. So Genesis 22 starts to set this up. Here's Abraham again. Then he said, take your son, your only son, Isaac. That's key to passover, whom you love. That is a promised child.
Kenneth Copeland: Yes it is.
Greg Stephens: Abraham is the promise. That's what he promised him at the beginning. I'm going to give you and Sarah child, uh, go to the land of Moriah and offer their a burnt offering. That's key. And one of the mountains, which I shall tell you. So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey. Now let's look at this. Look at the pictures of this and took two servants with him. So you have Isaac and two unnamed men with him. Now think of, think of Calvary. Think of the crucifixion. You have Isaac, the promised seed, and two unnamed men with him. This is a picture of what happened and split the wood he said for the burnt offering and they arose and went to the place where God told them. Then on the third day, Abraham lifted his eyes and saw... you're grinning and you're laughing over there cause you get it too. We, we look back at this and see it. And Abraham said to the young man, you stay here with the donkey. The lad and I will go younger and worship. Look at what he says and we will come back.
Kenneth Copeland: We will be back.
Greg Stephens: We'll be back.
Kenneth Copeland: We'll be back.
Greg Stephens: So Abraham took the wood. Now look at this symbolism, took the wood of the burnt offering and laid it on Isaac, his son, Isaac carried the wood for that sacrifice up the mountain just like Jesus did. It's a perfect picture of this. And so he took the fire in his hand on the knife and the two men went together. But Isaac spoke to Abraham, his father, and said, my father and he said, here I am my son. Then he said, look, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering? Now Abraham is going to make a covenant demand right here. He said, my son, God will provide for himself the lamb. He set something in motion when he said that. Now he's perfectly willing. He's planned on killing Isaac.
Kenneth Copeland: We know that from the book of Hebrews.
Greg Stephens: Yes sir.
Kenneth Copeland: He saw him raised from the dead in a figure.
Greg Stephens: Yeah, absolutely right. And so he said, God is going to provide. Now God's in covenant with this man and God is now bound by that. I will provide the lamb. This is why he made that promise.
Kenneth Copeland: That's why he did that in the first place is to bind himself, because God sees the beginning from the end and all the middle, he had to do this because it's going to be really, really hard. It's going to be so hard on the heavenly father, almost unbearable. When Jesus would say, if there is any way, let this cup pass from me. He couldn't do it because Abraham was willing to sacrifice his only son and now he is bound to this. He cannot back up and he has to go through.
Greg Stephens: When it all comes down to it and they're on the mountain, the angel stops him. I mean the knife is on the way down. The angel stops him and there was a Ram caught in the thicket by its horns, by its head. Now, so a thicket, if you've ever, if you've ever done any quail hunting or whatever, you know what thick it is. You walk through and those thorns are grabbing you and holding you back. It's thorns. And so this Ram has thorns on his head. It was no accident what they did to him that day.
Kenneth Copeland: Oh no.
Greg Stephens: When they put that on there, because where did thorns commence? Part of the curse. It was in Genesis 3 that because the land will have thorns, you're going to work hard and you're a sweat by the, by your brow. So when blood was released right there, that curse of sweating, working hard all day long and never getting anywhere that's gone by the blood of Jesus. Everything I put my hand to now prosperous.
Kenneth Copeland: Yes sir.
Greg Stephens: As a result of that reversal of that curse. So the Ram is caught. See that goes back to the burning Bush where it all started with Moses. That's an Acacia Bush. He sees a Bush, a thorn Bush. Thorns are part of the curse rabbinically and it's being burned, but it's not being consumed. Fire is part of judgment. So here's the curse being judged but not being consumed. That's weird. No, that's a picture of what's going to happen with Jesus. He will become the curse. He will be judged, but he won't be consumed. He's not going to leave him in hell that he should see corruption. So all of these things, we can look back at it and rejoice now, but all of these were pictures for them. Symbols so that they would recognize it when it happened and when they would see it, and Jesus didn't do anything by accident. Everything he did is fulfillment of something that happened. I'll show you some really exciting ones of these as we go forward in this week. So getting into Egypt now that first Passover was the last of the plagues. Moses goes down there, um, and, and you see it here. I'm going to read this verse 12, For I'll pass through the land of Egypt on that night, I'll strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. Now the blood shall be a sign and you shall for you on your houses where you are. And when I see the blood, I will pass over you. It's where we get the name Passover, and the plague shall not be on you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt, and none of you, now this is key. Think about the Passover night with Jesus. None of you shall go out of the door of his house until morning. In other words, stay inside. Don't go out into the night because we're children of the light. Don't go into the night and you'll see this with Judas. There's a word in there that John will write, I'm getting ahead of myself. Well it's exciting. For the Lord will pass through to strike the Egyptians and when he sees the blood, now listen to this, on the lintel of the tube or doorposts and on the top I will pass over the door and not allow, listen to this, and not allow the destroyer to come on your houses and to strike you. So now think about this for a second. On-picture the door, there's blood on this side, there's blood on this side, and there's blood right here. What I just make, that's a cross.
Kenneth Copeland: Yes sir.
Greg Stephens: That's exactly what he did that night or that day rather on Calvary. And he even will say when the judgment is coming down on Jesus at that point he'll even say, father, forgive them. He's praying that it will pass over. Remember the sky went black and went night. It became nighttime because the curse came in, was judged. And so when you see all these, this is setting us up now for the Seder. And the Seder just simply means set order and it's the story of redemption. How will God will bring them out with a mighty hand. And in Hebrew, you would say L'dor V'dor, meaning from generation to generation, you're to keep this, it's the Lord's feast. You're to tell your children and you're to do this from generation to generation. So there are several Passovers in the life of Jesus, the Bible records them. We only think of this one is the Lord's supper. But there were several, I'll talk to you about those as Lord leads, but the very first one that's recorded in scripture, he was 12 years old. It was Passover when he was left in Jerusalem. And so when you look at all the different Passovers in his ministry, it begins to make sense. You begin to see his purpose in fulfilling all these. I'll give you an example; the feeding of the 5,000 was Passover. Loaves and fishes and he multiplied it, and he starts talking about manna to your forefathers. I'm telling you, this thing gets exciting, amen.
Kenneth Copeland: Yes sir.
Greg Stephens: It gets exciting. So in the next one, we'll uh, I'll, I'll bring out the Matzo. I'll show it to you, show you some symbolism and one of them is broken and why that one was broken and all the types and shadows.
Kenneth Copeland: Why we break Isaac.
Greg Stephens: Why do we break Isaac and not Abraham or Jacob.
Kenneth Copeland: Yes, amen.
Greg Stephens: And so, and it's pierced and Stripe. Well, you'll see all that. So that we're talking about the Passover that he takes right before his death, burial, and resurrection. And all four of the gospels talk about it. John talks about it differently. John records you a prayer that he'll pray for you. And then he prays for me.
Kenneth Copeland: Greg, I want to... and how much time? We've got one minute. Get that Gentile-ized picture of the last supper out of your mind. Get it off your wall. That's just a made up thing without, I don't know. There wasn't a Bible in the room I don't guess when the guy that painted it. They were not at a table.
Greg Stephens: No reclining on the floor.
Kenneth Copeland: They were on the floor. Now to match that, John was laying on Jesus' breast. If you take that picture and put John up there in his lap, I mean, come on.
Greg Stephens: John was sitting to his right. Probably to his right. Judas was probably sitting to his left.
Kenneth Copeland: On the floor.
Greg Stephens: Yes sir.
Kenneth Copeland: Not at a table.
Greg Stephens: Well there might've been a table there.
Kenneth Copeland: But nobody's sitting up there and one at this end and all that.
Greg Stephens: No, no, no, no.
Kenneth Copeland: Like the guy said, if you want to get into the picture, sit on this side of the table.
Greg Stephens: Yes sir.
Kenneth Copeland: That's just how ridiculous that whole thing is. Get the proper thinking in your mind and we're out of time.