Kenneth Copeland - Why We Study God's Goodness
— Hello everybody, welcome to the Believer's Voice of Victory broadcast. Father thank you. Oh, glory to God. Your goodness is just so wonderful. To me, it's rather overwhelming and it just keeps growing and growing in my heart and mind, your goodness and your wonderfulness and your grace and goodness to us. And your goodness sent Jesus into this lost dying world. And we praise you and thank you in his name. Amen. Now let's go back to Hebrews 11:6, once more, "Without faith, it is possible to please him". Impossible. Why is it impossible to please him without faith? Well, it finishes it to tell you. He'll tell you right here, "For he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he's the rewarder". Without faith, there's the spiritual connection isn't there with which to reward the blessing. He can't bless you unless he can get to you. And you have to remember, he created this earth for human beings.
— That's correct.
— Not for himself. And I like to say he needed a family and he built on. And he did when he created this planet. That's that was a reason for it. Now why? Well, I mean, why go to all this? Why study all this? What does this lead to? Well, let's go back to the book of Proverbs in the Classic Amplified in the third chapter. "My son, forget not my law or teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments;" listen, "For length of days and years of a life worth living and tranquility inward and outward and continuing through old age till death, these shall they add unto you".
— Amen.
— Tranquility a life worth living. A life broke and financially down and shake... you may be alive, but it isn't worth living. I know I've been in so much pain, I didn't know what to do. And I'm pain-free glory to God.
— Amen.
— And it was faith in God and knowing how to use it.
— Right. You had faith in his goodness. You didn't have faith in... Well, you probably tried to teach me something by doing this to me, you didn't have faith in that. That's not faith.
— I never heard that until I got around preachers.
— You'd still be hurting if you believed that.
— And one man, I heard him preach it. I was there. I was sitting right in the audience when he said, "God will break your leg to prove can heal it". I thought, no, the God I used to serve would do you that way. Not the God I serve now.
— And God doesn't have to do anything to prove anything.
— No, he doesn't.
— He is.
— No.
— He just is.
— The proof of his life is right there.
— Yes, sir.
— If you believe this and notice, I don't know where you can see it from where you are. You can see where the "where" is in my Bible. Now Greg studied the first covenant. That's where his calling is. Mine is over here. And so these pages over here are dog-eared and torn up and then some of these kind of stick together. Of course I study this.
— But you can see what I've done.
— Well, yeah.
— To remind myself that all of this study culminates right here, this is where I live.
— That's where it is.
— This is where I live. This is the fulfillment of all of this.
— That got me this.
— Absolutely.
— Because, this had to happen to get Jesus in here.
— That's right. That's exactly right.
— And you talk about 2000 years there in 2000 years to God that is only two days.
— Right. Right.
— Amen.
— It's absolutely true.
— Absolutely true, it's only two days. So now I want to get in. I want to go back and get in our study of this. God is a good God, Luke 18:8 and 19 and so on. God has never created anything that was bad because he is so good. Then something wasn't good and man was alone. And he created Adam a woman. And I just, every time on every time I think about that, that had to be one more good looking woman. God, I mean made in heaven, you know?
— He named her. Adam named her.
— Yes. So, and I know how he felt, because I remember how I felt when I saw Gloria Jean Neece. Yeah. Oh yeah. That's good.
— That's right.
— And so anyway, what about the devil?
— Yeah. What about him?
— Well, he was good in the day that he was created.
— Absolutely. Because God cannot create anything that's evil. Well, then, people now, the minute you say that they'll argue with you. So let's go back. Let me show you Genesis chapter two. When was iniquity found in Lucifer? When did that happen? Because he was created good. All the virtues of godliness were found in him. He was perfect, the Scripture says, in all his ways, full of wisdom, perfect in beauty. So there was something that triggered it and I've studied this now for about a year solid. Just trying to figure that out. Genesis chapter two, look down here to verse eight, "and God planted". Well, let's look at verse seven, "and the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground". So now we were made from here. Lucifer is not made from here.
— No, no, no, no, no.
— We're made from here. We're the ones that will reunite heaven and earth or mankind will, a man will. And it was supposed to have been Adam. He was given the assignment to replenish the earth. Anyway, let me get going. Verse seven, "The Lord God formed man in the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Man became a living soul". I absolutely got such a revelation Brother Copeland when you told the story of what you saw, where he picked him up.
— Yeah.
— And breathe into him.
— Now, I said that in just a few seconds, minutes, but I had been praying about that off and on a long time. And I'd been in prayer just for long time. And I had the image of what people's imaginations did where there's just dirt there and then it just did like this. And I thought, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That doesn't fit. God spoke. God spoke and it was. God's spoke and it was. God's spoke and it was. And what I found in the rabbi's office, "light be, light was", "man be, man was" and so forth. And after that I saw it. I saw it in the spirit as plainly, as I'm looking at you. I saw him, I saw what he looked like and he was gray and lifeless and he was exactly. Because, people don't understand what happened in creation. You can find it in the New Testament, but God... Actually, it was Jesus that was doing the speaking. God gave him the words for all things were created by and for him that's the way people get over into the oneness thinking. And thinking that it's just all Jesus. But it isn't. Anyway, God was telling Jesus what to say, because he's going to live here.
— That's right. Because of before the foundations of the world, he's already committed himself.
— Yes.
— It's absolutely true. And so put it this way. Maybe you can understand it this way. God is the architect. He drew up the blueprint and the plans, Jesus is that contractor that's taking the plan and making it happen. When Adam walked with him in the cool of the day, he's walking with Jesus.
— I saw him holding that lifeless body and they were exactly the same size. And he spoke into his face those words and Adam didn't hear any of those words, and we looked it up in the Humash here. He became a speaking spirit like God.
— That's right. That's right.
— He was identical to Jesus.
— But he was made from here.
— Yes.
— Which is what bothered Lucifer. Now let me keep reading this here, "And the Lord God formed him of the dust of the ground. Breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, man became a living soul," verse eight, "And the Lord God planted a garden". Who planted the garden? God planted the garden.
— God planted that garden.
— "Eastward in Eden," east of where he was created. And the rabbis will tell you he was created right there at the temple Mount and the garden was east of there.
— Whoa. Now that's real.
— Yes. That's why there's so much over that little spot right there. That's where...
— Glory to God. You talk about a golden nugget right there.
— The garden is eastward. Well, we know that it was near the Tigris, Euphrates rivers. We know all the rivers that were... Well, that's over towards Iraq and Persian and all over there. And that's east of Eden, where he was created. He plants a garden east of there, but he was created in Jerusalem. Let me read it again. I'll submit it to you.
— Glory to God.
— "And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden". And I believe it was the dimensions... I believe all of Eden was the dimensions of heaven, the same...
— I do too.
— The same size. All right. "And he put the man whom he had formed in that garden". Okay. And then he made everything to grow and we know why everything that happened. So now what happened to cause this to go backwards. Angels, including Lucifer are not expected to visit this garden without permission. He put man there. Now I'm going to submit some things to you here from some of the sages. Now, when I say the sages teach this, it's more like commentary. I mean, the scripture will allude to it, but it's not the same as we're reading the actual verses.
— It doesn't affect your eternal salvation.
— Right. It shines some light on it.
— The more of this light that you see, and then you can see it in scripture then you get a deeper insight into God himself and why Jesus did what he did and why he's doing now, what he's doing.
— Okay, flip to Ezekiel 28. We covered this a week or two ago concerning Lucifer and who he was and what he looked like. So if angels don't have access to this, because remember he places two angels to guard the way.
— That's right.
— At the end of this, he placed them. God would walk with man in the cool of the day in this garden. Now there is an anointed cherub that covereth that would have gone with Jesus. His angel would have gone with him. Look at verse 15, Ezekiel 28 verse 15, "Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee". So, "you were perfect till iniquity was found in you". So you go on down, "By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled" all this. Thy heart, here's verse 17, "Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee". He talks about all the defilement that was there. But if you begin to look at this in verse 13, this is before the iniquity.
— Yes.
— Okay, verse 13. Look at what God said to him, "Thou has been in Eden the garden of God". It'd be like one of us coming home, and my mother would say, "you've been in that dirt pile, you've been in that creek".
— "I told you not to go down there".
— God said to him, "You've been in Eden". Isn't that something? "Every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire". And then he goes in here, "the anointed cherub that covered; I set you so: you were upon the holy mountain; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. Thou wast perfect in all thy ways. From the day that thou wast created till iniquity was found in thee". So somewhere after he was in the garden, iniquity was found in him. So here's what they teach, it was after Lucifer ate of the tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, that iniquity was found in him.
— He went in that garden first. He went in there, uninvited. It wasn't made for him. He went in there, he, well-
— And he was lifted up in pride. Let me show you verse 17. After he ate of it, "Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy"... "Thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness. I will cast thee to the ground. I will lay thee before Kings". The thing about himself, he then had the knowledge of judgment. He could now judge, which is not his position. God's the author of judgment. We showed you this week already that maturity and judgment. He began to look at himself "I am more beautiful than this man that was created. And I'm more beautiful than any of this. I'm more beautiful than all of it". And he said, "I will ascend". So he begins to get lifted up in pride. I believe after he ate of this. I just quoted it, Isaiah 14 verse 13 and 14, "for thou has said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I will sit also upon the Mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high". So I believe, and I think there's something to this. This is how he knew to tempt Eve with this tree, because he had already eaten of it and became lifted up in pride.
— He was here.
— He was here.
— He was here before Adam was ever created.
— It's correct.
— We see that right there in the book of Isaiah.
— And he watches Adam get made out of the dust of this place. And he sees God breathing into and call him a speaking spirit. He sees all of this happened. He sees Adam name things like God named it. He sees him name Eve. All of those things he sees and he's here. And this is why God took him and placed him in a garden to protect him. And I believe that the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was in the garden. So it was right next to the tree of life. Because if you read it, the scripture says they were in the middle of the garden. Now he can eat anything in there except that one. And I believe that when they ate of the tree of life, they're looking at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Matter of fact, some rabbis say the root systems were intertwined with one another. And this is why it was removed. The tree of life was removed from there. But when they're setting their eating of that tree, they're looking at the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Now that tree we know, represents the tithe. But look at this thing, he said, "You can eat of any of the trees that have seeds for fruit," like fruit, apple tree there. You can eat of any of that. Not that one. The very first rule, if you will, or law, if you will, that God gave man had to do with his diet, Brother Copeland.
— Yes it did.
— And so it's not unusual to get into Leviticus and he starts to tell you all the things that you shouldn't eat.
— Then how did Satan tempt Jesus?
— The very first temptation.
— After he had fasted until starvation had begun. He was so hungry. He said, "Turn these stones to bread".
— It's the exact same temptation of Adam and Eve. The difference being, Adam has a multitude of things, he's not starving. He has a lot to eat from. Jesus didn't and Lucifer said to him, take those stones and turn them into bread. He would never use that as a temptation if that wasn't real.
— Well, yeah.
— If Jesus couldn't have actually done it and that's why it was a temptation to him. And so I'm telling you and Christians don't like this, but one of the major avenues that Satan uses has to do with our diet.
— Yes, it does. Again, making our own decisions.
— Judgements.
— Based on feelings.
— Yes.
— Based on... We were talking about that with Dr. Colbert, I remember the Lord said to me, well, two things I'll tell you well, actually it was all put together in one. He brought this up and I continually fought with my weight to keep it down because I promised him I would. And anyway, he was correcting me and it was pretty rough correction. He said you would fire anybody that put the wrong grade of fuel in your airplane. You would fire a mechanic that would put the wrong weight of oil. Well, I would. He doesn't care any more than that, he's about to kill my family.
— Right.
— But he said, now look at yourself. He said, "You don't read anything on the labels, he said, if it looks good, smells good, you just eat it. You don't read the labels on cans. You don't read the labels on anything and you're about to put it in your body". So he said, "You're killing yourself".
— Which is the temple. Your body.
— And that's what he brought up. And he said, "What would you think about some fellow that went into a gasoline station"? And he's getting just as ridiculous with me as he can to mark my thinking and come in there and say, "You know, y'all have any of that pink gas"? What? "The pink gas. Pink gas. Yeah, you know the one that smells so good and looks so good". "Oh, You mean this"? And he said, "Yeah, that's what I want". "That'll ruin your car". "Oh no, no, no, no. Don't no, no. Don't put that new oil in there. Do you have any of the reconditioned oil"?
— It's like putting diesel into a regular gasoline engine or unleaded into a diesel truck.
— I'm glad you brought that up. I was on my Goldwing, we had sold our property up there in Colorado, which we later bought back. But I left my motorcycle up there in storage and I went up there to get it and rode it all the way back home. I stopped in a service station coming on to the interstate and filled up with gas and then rode across the interstate and had lunch. Got back on my bike was started out of there and all of a sudden that thing started barking and blowing and I knew exactly what I had done. I had pumped diesel fuel into that thing, not paying... And the pump handle's green.
— Right? That's different. Yeah.
— I knew what I'd done. And then I'd revved it up and the eased the clutch out and it and run a little and clunk, bang, bang, backfiring all over the place that engine is trying to die. And I saw a Honda sign. I got over there and none of the mechanics were there and I'm on a schedule. I had to siphon all of that diesel and thank God I carried a siphon hose with me everywhere I went. Spit that stuff out. But think what I was doing to my body all the time. And we're out of time.
— We're out of time.
— Come on, son, help us here.