Kenneth Copeland - God's Goodness Brought THE BLESSING Back
— Hello everybody, I'm Kenneth Copeland. Once again this is the... What is this? Believer's Voice Of Victory broadcast. And we have a magnificent group in here today, and two very special people from India, glory to God. Welcome to this broadcast today. Praise God, forever more. I tell you what. I love it, man. Don't you?
— Yes, sir.
— Hallelujah. Let's go back there Greg. Oh, and forgive me, everybody for the eight people in the world that don't know who Professor Greg Stephens is. He is First Covenant's professor and Kenneth Copeland Bible College. That's still kind of strange to me and my name on a Bible college, but they did it anyway. So...
— It's an honor to be part of it.
— Praise God. Thank you, sir.
— Thank you.
— And that his knowledge of words. People are saved and healed by hearing words. This book is a book of words. Covenants are made in words and words are the most powerful thing that exists in the human experience. God used words to create the universe. Faith filled words dominate the laws of sin and death. And faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. And again, let me remind you, this is referred to as the Word of God, because it is record of two covenants.
— Yes, sir.
— Both of them. Well, the first one began with the blood of animals. Kill the animal, not the man. And then, through circumcision, the blood of a man. And then in the second, or what's referred to as the new covenant is an extension of the first one. We have to stay covenant minded all the time. Cause you get lost in the importance and the power that's involved in words. And to make it simple two blood covenants. First, two parts. Blood of animals, blood of a man through circumcision. The second, the pure sinless blood of God. Then the whole thing began right in the very beginning. And we won't go into all that. But now when we have this in mind that these two covenants, does God heal you because you have faith? Well, it takes faith to connect with that healing. He does it because He loves you. And He's so good that sickness and disease is an absolute abomination to Him. Because He created this body for Himself.
— Yes He did.
— He created this human body in Adam in which God could dwell with him. And we know what Adam did. Messed up over the tithe. So, God began immediately to get the blessing back that He conferred on Adam through covenant...
— He used covenants to do it.
— Only a good God would go this far. And that's good God to get that blessing back. This is the biggest thing in His heart and mind is to bless. And sin's in the way. And through the prophet, Isaiah, he said, "Even I am He who brought about your transgressions for my sake". For His sake? Yes. If He remembered your sin, He couldn't bless you.
— That's right. And sin required a curse. It required judgment. Notice what he did as I was prompted this while you were talking there. When Adam rebelled, committed treason and messed up over the tithe, God did not curse whom He had blessed.
— No, He didn't.
— He didn't curse the man. He cursed the ground.
— Yes.
— So He's now going to use man to redeem the ground. He'll start with Noah. He'll curse the earth again, but then Noah will begin to redeem it. Now will replenish this exact same blessing. And throughout the time, man is redeeming the earth because it had been given to us.
— Yeah, it belongs to mankind.
— But He didn't curse his man, He cursed the ground.
— That's right. He'd already blessed mankind.
— That's right.
— He'd already blessed mankind.
— That's right.
— And I'm going to say this again because I especially want the radio and television audience to listen to this. Two things you cannot depend on: Wikipedia.
— Well, it's got wicked in it.
— Yes. And an artist who paints Adam and Eve with a belly button. I've seen that.
— They weren't the Pillsbury Doughboy where God just...
— Adam, a scar, yes. But that's it.
— That's it, that's exactly right. And in his side exactly where Jesus will have a scar in His side.
— Now, you cannot trust what people say about the goodness of God. You can't say what history says about the goodness of God. An insurance policy calling a tornado, a hurricane, an act of God. That's ignorance of the natural man concerning God.
— Trying to understand something with your natural mind. And I believe that's what that rich young ruler guy, this guy who came to Jesus, I think that's where he is.
— It's obvious that's where he is because he really wants the answer to this question. I mean, he came to him. He humbled himself before Him and came to Him. Praise God.
— Amen.
— In that 18th chapter of Luke and the 18th verse "And a certain ruler asked him saying, good master, what shall I do"? Or good rabbi. That's actually, what he said. Good rabbi. What's he saying? You're the smartest, you're the wisest rabbi I ever heard anything about. You are really good. I mean, you just don't mess up. And he was excited. You can tell that. Good master. Good rabbi. "What shall I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus said unto him, why callest thou me good? None is good, save one. That is God. You know, and all these things"... And he just keeps telling him, sell all that you have and distribute unto the poor. That's the first thing Jesus has called to do is preach the gospel to the poor. So what's He kind of trying to get out of him? He's trying to get him... You come with me, come on, dump all this stuff. What had He said to His own disciples? Don't take anything with you working for me now. I'll take care of everything. I'll take care, of you just dump all of that. Just dump the biggest seed you could imagine.
— And that Greek word we learned from Renner yesterday is a philanthropist.
— Yes.
— He's putting him in business, of blessing people.
— Yes he is.
— I pay attention to the conditions today.
— Had that man, had he been aware of the Jubilee. Had he really been aware and what Jesus actually preached the acceptable year of the Lord, which is supernatural debt cancellation and return to all your wealth and riches He would have said, let me have some of this. Get rid of all this.
— Write the check right now here. Yeah, absolutely.
— And the one point of this out to me, once Greg, he said I would have directed his giving. I wouldn't have just, if he had said I'll do it, then I would have directed his sowing and his giving so that it wouldn't be just random. It would have produced the most harvest, the best harvest available. And he would have been right there at my side all the time. I would have been directing him all the time. And the tradition says it was Barnabas.
— Yeah. Yeah.
— Now who started that big giving thing in the church?
— He learned...
— Barnabas.
— He learned from it, yeah he learned from it.
— And he was there all the time. You know, he was there at the cross, you know he was there all the time. He saw it all. Amen.
— So if you pay attention to what he says, because pay attention to what they say. That's who sets the conditions.
— That's right.
— It happened with a woman caught in the act of adultery. Jesus set the conditions. Listen to this good master Rabbi Tov, what shall I do, to inherit eternal life?
— Yes.
— Now you're going down, and so he told him, why do you call me good? He stopped him right there. You know the commandments, these are all the things you do. Verse 21, "All of these, I kept". He's pointing to himself and his self-righteousness. Well, Jesus, isn't going to have any of that. The minute you start that, now put it in context of everything else that's happened in this passage. In this passage, you have a woman who comes before an unrighteous judge and she won't stop hitting the unrighteous judge. Well, God's not the unrighteous judge. I was taught that when I was a kid. This is the way you got to pray. You just got to keep hanging on. You just got to keep beating on God until He finally relents. Well, you're saying that God's an unrighteous judge then. And that's not going to work.
— And that's where my being a Scripture ... came in real handy.
— But we were taught that. That's the way you pray. You just keep going and you just keep doing it and you keep doing it. Well see, that's not praying in faith at all. That's trying to make God do something that He already wants to do. In that same passage, you have a Pharisee praying who's standing and he's "I thank you, Lord, that I'm better than this guy over here". So this is all happening in context with this. Now this guy comes in and he's boasting like the Pharisee did of what I must do and what I have done.
— I've already done all of that. I've done that since... I would add this. I've done that since I was 13 years old. Probably when he had his bar mitzvah. I've done that since I became a man at 13. And I have kept the law.
— So Jesus, in this passage, it's the same Greek word that we saw yesterday in Rick Renner. Agathos, it means a moral goodness in relation to God who is morally perfect. And it causes, out of that goodness to come out of you, to bless people. So that philanthropist thing. So it's clear from the rest of their conversation, that His response is trying to get to the root cause. Jesus is getting to the root cause of this man's heart.
— Oh, that's good.
— And that's what he's doing. No one is good except God alone. So now everything Jesus does in this second Testament in the second covenant is fulfillment of the first one. I didn't come to change the law or to condemn the law, but to fulfill it. Well, he quoted Scripture right there. Psalm 14. Psalm chapter 14, verse three is written, "There is none who does good. Not even one". Jesus is quoting that in answer to the man who's kept the Scripture all his life. So he's not saying I'm not good. Only God's good. He's quoting what the Psalmist wrote. He goes on to say to the eternal life, you got to obey the commandments. Well, the commandments are the ones that are going to tell you, you need a Savior. Savior is standing right in front of him, but he's not looking at the Savior. He's looking at himself. He says, you've kept all of these since your childhood. Earlier he got him to slow down a little bit to think through it. What do you mean by good? That's what he's doing. He's trying to stop him. The man still thinks he's righteous though, by what he did and what he's doing.
— That's what he wants to continue to do... to gain eternal life. Let's look at that again. "What must I do to inherit eternal life"? There's nothing that I could do to inherit what A.W. Copeland owned. That's his business. That's what he wants to do with what he has is his business. Not mine. Now, when people try to get into that and get to trying to get somebody, to make them an heir, you know that's wrong. When you even start thinking about that, you know that's wrong. What must I do to inherit? That statement doesn't come together. What must I do to inherit? Or what must I do to gain favor with God so He will give me that? And by covenant, He already had it.
— He already had it. He's a son of Abraham. He has all of this. He comes right to the point. Jesus cuts right to it in the 21st verse of Mark 10. The third statement.
— No, wait a minute. Let's get over there, Mark 10.
— I'm sorry. No, right here. You see it in Luke. And then I'll show you this in Mark.
— Yeah, I want to see it in Mark.
— "Jesus heard these things. One thing, lackest thou, sell all that you have, distribute unto the poor. Thou has treasure in heaven". Here's the deal. Come follow me. He's trying to get him off of the law of do-do do what I've done into. I'm the answer to this. I'm the answer to the law, which proves you need a Savior. He didn't stay to hear the sermon. He didn't stay to hear the rest of it.
— And what did He say? You come join my team.
— Yes. Come follow me.
— Come follow me. Just get in here with this. Forget about what you've been doing. Forget about your job. Hey, are you listening to me? Forget about your job being your source. Forget about all of that. I didn't say go quit it. I said, forget about it as your source. That's not your source. That's possibly a channel, but hey, if that job is not good enough, praise God. Believe God and wait for another one. That's better.
— Right.
— But forget about that. You are born again, child of God, you have already all that you need. You seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, Jesus said that kingdom is in you right now. Everything you need is right in here and faithful. Pull it out.
— Right. Amen. Now think of that. Come follow me. What's he trying to do? He's trying to get him to become part of the team. Follow me. Think back now to Acts 10:38 for God was with him. You're going to see healings like you've never seen before, when you're with me. He's trying to get him to be with me. See, we have him with us. God with us. All the time. He's trying to get him into that position of relationship. But this is all about relationship into a covenant relationship with Jesus.
— He would have been there. Since I recognized that he was Jesus' replacement for Judas. And I realized that he would have been there then all the time. He would have been right with them all the time. He would have been right there. He would have been so close and so involved in everything that he did. Then when Judas pulled what he pulled, he would have been next in line.
— Or the Lord might have even made a change... In His staff. Which, not a bad thing. It's a good thing. Because He is good. If you look at the same thing in Mark chapter 10, here's the exact same...
— Mark 10, go ahead.
— Exact same thing in verse 17, "And we had gone forth in the way there came one running and kneeling to him and asked him good master, what shall I do"? There it is again. "That I may inherit eternal life. Jesus said unto him, Why you call me good? There's none good. That is but God. Thou knowest the commandments, do not commit adultery, do not kill. Do not steal. Do not bear false witness. Defraud not. Honor thy father and mother. He answered unto him, master all these I observed from my youth. All of them I did. Then Jesus, beholding him," I love this, "Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him", and said he wasn't mad at him.
— No. The look of love. "Beholding him, loved him". So he didn't have a chastising tone in his voice. "One thing you lack, brother, go sell whatever you have and give to the poor. And you will have treasure in heaven and come take up the cross and follow me. He was sad at that saying, went away grieved for, he had great possessions". And he just left just a second or two too quick. "And Jesus answered and said, verily, I say unto you". Yeah. Thank You, Lord. I will. "And the disciples were astonished at his words, but Jesus answers again. And sayeth unto them, Children, how hard it is for them to trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God. It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God". They were astonished out of measure. They were all rich men when God called them. They had money. But they did what this man refused to do. They did it. They just sold it, dumped it, walked off. And then Jesus said, when I asked you to leave it all behind, did you lack anything? They said, no. We lacked nothing.
— Which shows you where his trust was. His trust was in what he had, what he had accomplished, what he had done. And he said, I'm trying to get you to let me be with you. And God was with them. I'm trying to let that happen for you. If you'll be in my presence, you'll see things you've never seen before.
— His biggest mistake was leaving. He walked away. That was his choice. He walked away.
— When you look at this chapter in context, they're teaching about, the Pharisees are trying to trick him on divorce and remarriage. And so once again, it's a fair ascetical, it's a conflict with them and this is what boils it out. The same thing in Matthew, you have the same subject being approached here and say, well, now that doesn't there's a contradiction here. That doesn't line up. No, it does line up. You have a woman who's going before a judge and they're talking about divorce. I think it's two parts of that. I think that was the parable of the sermon. He's teaching on marriage, divorce and remarriage, when this guy comes up. Which takes you to the law, which is why Jesus pointed him to the law, which takes us to the goodness of God that created male and female. All of this ties to goodness, brother. And when you put it all in context, you begin to see it. Each little piece ties together. See God is holy. And so there's a holy standard, the law. And he's trying to say you haven't met that, but if you believe on me, you'll meet it. If you'll come with me, follow me. Like these guys did, you'll meet that standard because He breathed on them. Saved them. And he didn't, you got to understand, and I want to point that out again, He was not angry at this guy. He looked at him and loved him. And so even when we miss it, when we sometimes make mistakes and don't understand something, He never is angry at you because He's good.
— And we're out of time. Aren't these five minute broadcasts fun? Come on, Jeremy son.