Kenneth Copeland - The Difference Between Sin, Iniquity and Transgression
— Hello everybody, I'm Kenneth Copeland. I love daily television. Glory to God, hallelujah. Man, sometimes it just brings me to tears and I liked to lost this out of stupidity. Not anymore. I love it. We're studying with professor Greg Stephens. And for those of you that are new around here and you haven't yet... I mean, if you don't know who this man is, this is probably the first time you've ever watched one of these broadcasts. Greg Stephens is professor of First Covenant Studies at Kenneth Copeland Bible college. And his knowledge of the Hebrew language is extensive. In studying this first covenant that already... I mean, just yesterday, he opened our eyes to things that "Ah, oh yeah," that kind of thing.
— Thank you.
— And we're talking about here. What happens? What does it mean when sin is full? The short answer to that is, when sin is full judgment comes.
— Has to.
— So, it has to.
— Has to. God in His holiness, it has to.
— It has to. And besides that, He's not going to just sit by, unless something keep going and keep going until it destroys everything. That was not God.
— He swore His name onto this planet, into the earth, so His Son, He's involved. People all the time say "God's sovereign, He's not involved in the affairs," but yes He is. Oh yes, He is. He's in very but much involved.
— His sovereignty has caused Him to be involved. He is sovereignly involved, because this thing belongs to Him. It's foolishness... Well, no, it isn't foolishness. It's lack of knowledge and of the Word. And I think it's... I know there was a time in my life, there was so much happening that I didn't understand. That I didn't understand why God didn't do something here. But then I found out He's already done something. And now it's up to us to get in and take advantage of what He's already done.
— Jesus is the head. We are the body. It's up to us to do it.
— That's right.
— He's done everything.
— Let's go back over here to 15 chapter.
— Yes, sir.
— And you go in and you read.
— Okay, this is when God is speaking to Abram and we'll take a day here and unpack all of this, but let's finish up on what iniquity is. In the middle of His discussion with Abram, as they're cutting covenant, He's telling him what's going to happen to his descendants, what's going to happen to him in the future. People always say, "Well, we can't know God's will or His ways". Well, yeah, He'll tell His friends. And He gave you the Holy Spirit to reveal things to you. He'll tell you what's about to come. Look at this in verse 16, "But in the fourth generation, they shall come hither," again, talking about his descendants, they'll come back to this place, they'll come back into the land. "For the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full". I mentioned
— Now wait. He said... So say something about that 14th verse, Greg. "And also that nation whom they shall serve, will I judge".
— Yes sir.
— "I will judge Egypt".
— Yes, sir. And He did.
— And He did, it was a long time coming.
— 430 years, 400 years.
— And boy, He hit them like a hammer on a rock. "And afterward they shall come out with great substance".
— Yes, sir.
— Now let's touch on that a minute.
— Yeah.
— That's His plan all the time.
— All the time.
— Is great substance. They didn't have great substance. God wants us to have great substance. He doesn't want us bowing down to anybody to get substance.
— So in the age of the Amorites' iniquity, you're still prosperous.
— Yeah.
— He's letting him know about it because it's not going to affect you.
— Go ahead.
— Okay. And so He adds this phrase. We talked about who the Amorites were. The original Amorite came from Canaan, the son of Ham. And then it wasn't tied to a people anymore, it was tied to the people that were living in the promised land of Canaan. They're mentioned with all the Canaanites and all the other people that are in there, but it's a spirit about them. These people have a spirit about them. And I'll tell you a little bit about them. But we started to defining what iniquity was. What is this iniquity with them? And we went over to Psalm 32. David writes, in Psalm 32, concerning this. Psalm 32 starts with this line, a Psalm of David. And then it says, "Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man whom the Lord appeared with not iniquity. And in whose spirit there is no guile". Iniquity is tied to your spirit. It is not an outward flesh action. It's not even your soulish. And so I define to you what hata, pesha and avan mean. There are three Hebrew words that are used for sin. Hata means to miss the mark like an arrow shot at a target and it ended up over there. That could be accidental. Pesha means transgression. It's translated mostly in English is transgression. It's a willful rebellion. And I mentioned to you yesterday, that's what Adam did. Eve, I believe committed sin, Hata. She missed the mark. Adam willful transgression knew in his own soul.
— Well our scripture says so. The woman was deceived. The man was not.
— When he did it, avan entered him. Iniquity entered into Adam, at that moment, into his spirit. A spirit man changed. He became separated from God. It's a spirit thing of twisting and perverting God's ways into your own will and ways. Okay. So I just read you that. Let me put those words, those definitions in there, and I'll read it to you again. "Blessed is he whose transgression , willful rebellion is forgiven. Whose, missing the mark is covered". All I did was add the definitions from Hebrew into the words. "Blessed is the man whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity," perversion, twisted, distortion "and whose spirit there is no guile". Now, one of the things I love there, the root for the word forgiven there is nasah in Hebrew. It means to lift it up or to carry it away. Jesus is going to say, "If I be lifted up, I'll draw all men and me. I'll carry this stuff away". So blessed is he whose willful rebellion is lifted up and carried away. That's what Jesus is going to do.
— Well, hey. David, of course, is a type and shadow of Jesus.
— Absolutely.
— Jesus is the son of David.
— Absolutely.
— Look what else he said in the 32nd Psalm. When, after he said that he comes down to the fifth verse.
— Yes.
— No, fourth verse. "For day and night. Your hand was heavy on me. That moisture has turned into the drought of the summer. I acknowledged my sin under thee and mine iniquity have I not hidden? I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord. And you forgave the iniquity of my sin".
— Okay. In Hebrew, he used all three words.
— He did, didn't he?
— He didn't just say sin. We say sin all the time. He used all three words that are now... The theologians will tell you, David will do this. This is right after Bathsheba.
— Oh dear.
— That whole thing. He'll end up getting a man killed. He's about to lose the kingdom. All kinds of things because of this right here. So let me go through this again. Let me do that verse, chapter, verse five here with putting those definitions in there. "I will acknowledge my missing the mark".
— Yes.
— Brother Copeland, if we could just get people to acknowledge it when they miss it. That's first John 1:9.
— Yes, it is.
— I acknowledge, Lord, that was so carnal to me. That was not righteousness. I am righteous and I acted unrighteous.
— I did. I did that. I said that and I shouldn't have done it.
— And sometimes you miss the mark, you don't realize you miss the mark. I mean, you don't realize it. That's transgression, when you willfully know I'd missed the mark. And so this is why I have an advocate before the Father making intercession on my behalf, when I don't know. But once I know it, then I'm going to get that thing under the blood.
— Yeah.
— It'll never be brought up again.
— Amen.
— I'm not getting saved again. I'm just getting that gone. Cleansed.
— Cleansed of all unrighteousness.
— Cleansed. Right. Having my feet washed, is what I'm doing. Okay. So I acknowledge my missing the mark, my sin unto thee and mine iniquity, perverted character and the twisting of truth. See that? "Have I not hid? I said, I will confess my transgression, my rebellion to your authority unto the Lord and thou forgave," or you took up and carried away my twisted character of my sin, of my mistake.
— Woo. Praise God.
— You read it that way. When you put the definitions in it now that's the great translation, there. It helps me see it.
— Let's move on down in that Psalm.
— Okay.
— In the place that I not only have highlighted, underlined it with everything I could and made a little arrows at it. The eighth verse, "I will instruct thee and teach thee, in thee way that thou shall go. I will guide thee with mine eye. Be ye not as the horse of the mule, which have no understanding whose mouth must be held in a bit and bridle, lest they come near onto thee". Don't get to the point where God has to push you into repentance.
— Right.
— Because He's got to put a bit in your mouth. If He has to put a bit in your mouth to save your life, He'll do it.
— Yes.
— But I had trouble with that. I had to get to that place where I just immature Christian, immature preacher. But people would say something bad about me and make me so mad, I wanted to just spank them. Well, one guy... Hey, I ought to boy, I've got Greg. I've got really... Oh, I got close. Came up to me with a big smile on his face. He said, "Brother, I want to tell you something. I've never seen or heard anyone that raped the scripture like you did in the service tonight". I think I met him.
— Oh, I had a guy stand up in the service one time to call me the whore of Babylon. And walked out. Oh, I'm thinking, "Well", he said, "You're sending all these people to hell". "No, I'm just reading the Word. David's the one"...
— There's one, I'd like.
— Well, there's one... I about told him "I've been there. I don't like the way you ran the place". But I didn't say that.
— But now, this goes to all of this. Being immature, doing and saying things that are stupid when you said it and knew it, but you just got the best of you, you did it anyway. And I was preaching down in Florida, three weeks down there and I'm just preaching the Word of Faith. And every service, man, we're doing two services a day and we're in a tent meeting right outside the church there. And he's receiving the offering for Brother Copeland every day, every service. This is all for Brother Copeland. And it's for Brother Copeland. Well, I was seeing the offering plates. I mean, there's money coming in there. And he... The last service, the last evening service. We've been there three weeks, man. And the little tent was full. Handed me a check for $252. I came out $55 in the hole. Staying in the pastor's home. I found out later, bless his heart, the pastor had that meeting in order to raise money for the church. Had they told me that, together we would have done that. He didn't have to lie to me.
— Right.
— Well, man, I told... Man, I'm telling you it really got to me. And I got up real early the next morning, Gloria says, "You better be quiet, you know better". So we drove from there, we're down in Florida. So we drove through Arkansas, stayed all night with Gloria's mother and dad. And then we going on home. And we got in there and I'd driven all day. I stopped for lunch in Monroe, Louisiana. And a good friend, in fact, he was responsible for helping me do the first album I ever did called Jesus Country. He's the sweetest guy. Had lunch with him. Well, I forgot all about this other guy. At least I had $252, you know? Right. But we got into Mary and Babe's house and Babe said, Gloria's dad said, "We got a phone call from the sheriff here. And he wants you to call him". "What does he want to talk to me for"? He said, "Mr. Copeland"? I said, "Yes". He said "This man wants you to call him back just as quickly as you can, please". It's my friend in Monroe.
— Oh, amen.
— He said, "Brother Kenneth, would you please forgive me"? I said, "Well, what in the world for"? He said, "The Lord told me to give you $300 and I didn't do it. And I want you to know, no, there's a check coming in tomorrow".
— Praise God.
— Covered my whole meeting, all my expenses. And I came out of there with a little money left over.
— All because you checked that in your spirit. Before...
— I even got his paper out of the front yard, I said, at least he's not going to get his Sunday morning paper. Gloria said, "Put that paper back right now. You put the paper back right now". I said, "Yes. Ma'am". She said, "You be nice about it". I was going to throw it. I got out of the car and put the paper and got into the car. But my wife kept me from ruining the budget of that meeting. Because that took care and had money over for what it actually cost us out of pocket.
— Right.
— God saw to it.
— But you were faithful at that 300 mark. So then when it became 3,000, when it became 30,000, when it became...
— Now, this is like David. That taught me not to do that anymore.
— David's heart attitude right here is what made him attractive to God. He's a man after God's own heart. That right there. Being willing, I acknowledged my sin under thee, my iniquity. I didn't try to hide my wicked heart from you. He already saw it.
— Yeah. He knew it, anyway.
— I will confess my transgression.
— During that meeting that I was talking about, that guy made me so mad. And I was right there in my, where we're staying in it. And I said, "Lord, I'm not going back over there, tonight". "Why not"? "Oh Lord, you know why not"? He said, "Why not"? I hear it again. I said, "Because of what I said". He said, "Kenneth". I said, "No, I'm not going back over there. I should Jesus, get you another boy. I'm not going over and preaching". Because this whole meeting was just strife, just hard-fought thing. I was, "No, I'm not going over there". He said, "I don't know what you're talking about". I said, "What do you mean? You don't know what I'm talking about". He said, "Didn't you confess this"? I said, "Yeah". He said, "I don't remember".
— That's why we have 1 John 1:9, so that it's never brought up.
— And I learned that all in that meeting, Greg, I got up and went back over there and just preached faith and love, like nothing had ever happened. And then they hit me again with this other deal and my loving wife wouldn't let me see it again.
— Right.
— That meeting taught Gloria and me as much as any meeting and all of these 54 years that we've been doing this.
— Well, I'm grateful.
— And I'm just a little squirt, spiritually. I didn't know anything. I knew Mark 11:23 and 24 and 25, but that's about it. But now when you bring this onto a national level.
— Worldwide level.
— Yeah, worldwide. But I'm talking about our case here in the United States. This is national. It's grown to the place where it is a national thing. Abortion has become ho-hum. Perversion has become, "so, what"?
— So iniquity is twisted character. It is perversion. It's perversion. It's twisting the character and the Word of God for your own purposes. Up is down, good is bad. They twist everything. You ever been around anybody that ever just twist everything you say?
— Oh yeah.
— And that's exactly what this is. So in essence, what he said to him in Genesis 15 is until the very essence of wrongdoing, immoral and wicked twisting of God, order is full. I'm holding off until that gets full. Once that gets full, he's going to strike and we'll break this down some more, I'll show you...
— Doesn't that fall, right in in your opinion when Jesus said "This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached to all nations with evidence".
— Yeah. That's right.
— With signs and wonders following. Then the end will come.
— That's right. And we're vastly approaching that. I believe, and I'll show you some things this week on a timeline, even in an American history timeline. Oh, we are on Heaven's time right now. Let me show you a verse. Because we're getting ready for the resurrection Sunday and all that. Isaiah 53, verse six, you know this verse, this is so good. "All we like sheep have gone astray".
— Oh yes.
— "We have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid on him, Jesus, the iniquity," the character of perversion that Lucifer developed. He laid that on Jesus.
— Yes he did. He was wounded for our transgressions...
— Transgressions.
— He was bruised for our iniquities...
— Iniquities.
— But the chastisement of our Shalom...
— Shalom.
— Peace, prosperity, nothing missing, nothing broken. Glory to God.
— Jesus carried more than just missing the mark on Calvary.
— He became that.
— Yeah.
— He became...
— He became the very enemy of the Father Himself that was laid upon him.
— Throughout eternity.
— This is how, because He came out of the grave and like I said, we're getting ready for resurrection Sunday here. When He came out of the grave that allowed me to have a Adam twisted iniquity character in me, when I became the age of accountability. That allowed me to become a new creation that never existed before. When I accepted Him. That's the great exchange that happened.
— Throughout eternity, we'll spend...
— And that's the strength of your identity of being born again.
— Yes.
— You won't fall for this other stuff. Once you get a revelation of the character, that the very character of Him, now came in me. That same spirit that raised Him out of hell. Now dwells in you. That's what I am.
— He'll will make alive your mortal body.
— Yes. Quicken your mortal body. Now I can handle sin and transgression, all that other. That can all be handled because I'm renewing my mind by the Word of God.
— Yes.
— Replacing all those thoughts...
— That's what those experiences did for Gloria and me.
— Absolutely right.
— But we renewed, a particularly me, because Gloria has never natured that way, anyway. She just doesn't retaliate, at all. Thank God. And she just tempered me all the time. And we're out of time.