Kenneth Copeland - Living In the Right Kind of Denial
Matthew 19 and verse two. Great multitudes followed him, and he healed them there. Mark chapter six. Now we're going to see here what happened. Thank you, Jesus. And verse 56, wheresoever he entered into villages or cities or country, they laid the sick in the streets and besought him that they might touch him if it were but the border of his garment, as many as just touched him were made whole. Now back up in the fifth verse. This tells the story. He was not healing to prove his divinity, because if he was, he failed here at Nazareth. The fifth verse, he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk and healed them. And he marveled because of their unbelief. I mean, it was his will that they be here. I mean, he went ahead and laid hands on him anyway.
And if you look that up, people were sick with minor ailments. No mighty works, no blind, no deaf. No. They wouldn't have anything to do with it. Who does he think he is? He didn't think who he was, he knew who he was. And we read it over in the fourth chapter of the book of Luke and we see it. They marveled at the gracious words that came out of his mouth. But when he said this day this scripture is fulfilled in your ears, they got furious, this day? He called himself a prophet. He called himself more than that. He called himself the anointed. We know his mother and daddy and his brothers and his sisters. How can he say that? Every prophet had a mother and a daddy, I don't care who he was.
Not too long after by the spirit of God Brother Hagin separated me to the office of the prophet. And I'm a member of our family, bless his heart. And he loved me, but he said, "You think Kenneth is a prophet". And one of the other members of the family said, "Yeah, I think so". "Well, he's our kin folks". Well, every prophet's kin to somebody. Jesus was kin to a lot of people. He's kin to John the Baptist, his cousin. Had a bunch of kinfolk. Amen. But that's the devil moving in on familiarity. Hometown boy, why who could he be? Anyway, you understand that. So, that's the only record of that kind, but that's all we need. The people that didn't receive it are the ones who didn't believe it. What did they not believe? They didn't believe what he preached.
What did he preach? "The spirit of the Lord is upon me for he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor". He's an anointed me to preach, teach, and heal, and to preach the acceptable year of the Lord which is supernatural debt cancellation. He didn't want anybody in debt to anybody but Him. Glory to God. Thank you, Jesus. And he certainly didn't want anybody to walk off sick. Thank you, Lord. Now Luke chapter four. I particularly like this one. It's about the same as what we just read, but it's a little more descriptive. Luke four and verse 38. He arose out of the synagogue and entered into Simon's house.
Now this is what we read in Matthew chapter eight, but I want you to see something. Luke's writings in the gospel of Luke and the book of Acts. Two things. One, he's a physician. So, when it came to sickness and disease, he's very descriptive. We'll see it here with this. And another thing, he wrote in documentary style. He questioned people that were there. He questioned different ones. And he was very educated man. And he and the Apostle Paul, he was educated in medicine and the Apostle Paul was educated in the covenant. And they got along really well, and they traveled together. Wouldn't you like to have been a fly on the wall when they were together? Glory to God. So anyway, we got better than that because we have everything they said. But I want you to look at this now. Verse 38, he arose out of the synagogue, and entered into Simon's house. Simon's wife's mother was taken with a great fever. A great fever.
This then, I said something yesterday about it being COVID and all. It wasn't. I think this was more in the order of typhoid. It's a killer, a great fever. This woman was dying. And with this great fever, they besought him for her. He stood over her. Rebuked the fever. He talked to it. You better talk to it. You better talk to it. Talk to that fever. Don't let it get away with anything. I said it before, and I'm going to say it again. I've been accused of being in denial, and it's absolutely the truth. I don't deny that the disease exists. I deny its right to exist in my body. I deny its right to exist in Gloria's body. And when the children were young, I could deny its existence in their body. And I remember early on when the stuff like the Hong Kong flu and swine flu. And I'm taking the flu off a hog. I mean, come on. The chicken flu? Get out of town. Anyway, and we still lived over there where the big green footstool was.
So, I called the kids in. They were young. I said, "We're going to take our flu shot today". Boy, John's eyes got big. So, I gathered them around that big stool and we got on her knees running. And I had my Bible. I had it opened to the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, be smitten with fever and consumption. But Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. So, we went from one to the other. Flu is a curse of the law. But I don't have flu because flu's under the curse of the law, and I'm redeemed from flu. And we went back and forth and back and forth. I don't know how many times we went back and forth and back and forth. I said, "Now you have been vaccinated against the flu". And John went... He wasn't going to get a shot. They never had colds, they never had the flu, until they grew up and got out on their own. But even then, Kellie was in high school. She came home one day. And when she got in from school, she said, "Daddy, all the symptoms of the flu came on me today".
Now in the past on television, you probably heard me say this, you've heard Gloria say this, but it just came out my mouth that day. So, adopt this saying. So, she told me all the symptoms. I said, "Kellie, you are not the sick trying to get healed. You are the healed, and the devil's trying to take your health away from you". She stood there and looked at me for a minute. She said, "I'll be right back". She went into her room, and she stayed in there for a little while. And before supper came, she came out, all the symptoms are gone and that was it. Luke 4:38, he arose out of the synagogue. Verse 39, he stood over her, rebuked that fever, and it left her. Immediately she rose and ministered unto them. Now when the sun was setting, all they that had any sick with divers diseases or different diseases brought them unto him. He laid his hands on every one of them then healed them.
Devils also came out of many crying out, and saying, thou art Christ the son of God. He rebuked them, suffered them not to speak for they knew that he was Christ. And when it was day. When it was day. Do you see what that said? Our sweet Jesus, our sweet savior, our sweet healer didn't finish until all of them were healed, and it was daylight. Oh, Jesus. He is so good and easy. All you had to do was show up. Didn't make any difference. You're possessed with devils. Didn't make any difference. Only thing of it is, the devil cried out. He told him to shut up and get out. They left and all's well. And of course, probably I would say at least 98% of them were sick because of the devil that was in their bodies. So, they were part of the sick. Amen. So, praise God. Now Luke six, this also is amazing.
Luke 6:17. And we're just about there. He came down with them, and stood in the plain, the company of his disciples and a great multitude of people out of all Judea, Jerusalem, and the sea coast of Tyre and Sidon, which came to hear him, to be healed of their diseases. And they came to hear him, not just to be healed. They came to hear. They came to hear. He preached before he laid hands on most people. Now, there are occasionally that he didn't. Like the man at the pool of Bethesda, he just walked in there. But there was only one. That thing was full of sick people. That's the only one that his Father within directed him to, so that's the only one he ministered to. But 99% of the time, he did more teaching than anything else. And they came to hear him. Listen, they came to hear him. Oh, to hear the Master himself talk about faith. No wonder.
Talking to Rick Renner, our Greek scholar, a apostle to Russia, glory to God. A very, very close friend, discussing this with him. He said, "It's a settled fact that there was anywhere from 20,000 to 35,000, 40,000, even in some cases 50,000 people following him everywhere he went. This is the reason they didn't even have time to eat, and they got so weary and tired". But we don't follow that example because, hey, they only had three-and-a-half years. They didn't know it, but Jesus knew it. Then they had to rest later, and he told him to rest. Amen. So anyway, they came to hear him and to be healed. They heard about the healings, but they heard about the messages.
The woman with the issue of blood had heard of Jesus. Somebody relaying the messages. And she lived right there in Capernaum. That's where he lived. And he continually came back home, and they had lookouts waiting for him. "Here he comes. Here he comes. Here he comes. Here he comes". Glory to God. So, glory to God. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Lord Jesus. They came to hear and to be healed of their diseases. And they that were vexed with unclean spirits, they were healed. Now see, that's what I was talking about before. They were vexed or possessed with unclean spirits, but they were sick. And they were healed. And the whole multitude sought to touch him, for there went power out of him, and he healed them all, glory to God.
Luke nine, verse 10. And the apostles, when they were returned, told him all that they had done. He took them, and went aside privately into a desert place belonging to the city of Bethsaida. And the people, when they knew it, followed him, and he received them, and spoke unto them of the kingdom of God, and healed them that had need of healing. Praise God. What did he tell his disciples? Preach, teach, heal, cast out devils, and raise the dead. Freely you have received, freely give. That's your job, go raise the dead. Well, the church lost that. I've experienced it twice. And I'll tell you right now, it's indescribable. But I don't have time to get into it this morning.
Now I want us to look at Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10, verse 46. They came to Jericho, as he went out of Jericho with his disciples, a great number of people and blind Bartimaeus. I don't call him blind Bartimaeus anymore, but he was blind at that time. Son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging. And when he heard it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry and say, "Jesus". Now wait a minute. Hold your place. Turn to Matthew 22:42. While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them saying, what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? They say unto him, the son of David. Now they already knew. They already knew. He just said the Messiah. Christ, same thing. The Messiah, whose son is he? Son of David. This is a key phrase. Watch for it all the way through the gospels. The Syrophoenician woman, some say she knew nothing of him. Oh, yes, she did. She kept crying, son of David, son of David, have mercy on me. She called him Messiah when even his own disciples didn't know it yet. Vital information.
Now notice it again. Verse 46, verse 47. When he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry on and say, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. Jesus, thou son of David, have chesed on me. He's a Jew. He understood chesed, covenant chesed. The bigger blessing, the smaller on an equal basis. David was so disturbed with chesed because Jonathan had been killed and he was his blood brother. And he was so hurt because Jonathan and Saul were both dead, and he's crying, he's hurting. Covenant is driving him. This is a picture of God. It's driving him to give. It's driving him to give and to do something for somebody in Jonathan's house. What was driving him? Chesed. Chesed. Read it for yourself. Is there nobody left in that household to which I can show kindness? No, no, no, no. Look it up. It's chesed. To whom I can show chesed?
And they said, "Well, there's this one little fellow. He's a crippled boy, and he lives down in Lo-debar," which was just a slum area. He said, "Go get him. You go get him". David had an actual scar where he had made covenant with Jonathan, and listen to what he said. I'm just using my words. That little fella will sit at my table. In other words, he's my family by covenant, and whatever I have is his. Now remember, he was crippled in his feet. You couldn't see those cripple feet under the king's table. He said, "I have to have somebody to whom I can show chesed". That's what was happening right here with blind Bartimaeus. And he said have chesed on me. Many charged him that he should hold his peace. But he cried more the great deal. Son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus stood still. He stopped him. He stood still.
Now you're about to see something that is a true act of faith. And commanded him to be called. And they called the blind man saying, be of good comfort, rise, he calls you. And he had on a legal garment. You were tested by the priests that you were actually blind. You were given the right to beg. The man at the beautiful gate had to prove that he actually couldn't walk to be legal for him to sit at that gate and make his living by begging. What did blind Bartimaeus do? I don't need this anymore. Where is he? Don't you love it? What an act of faith. Jesus saw that and that did it. And I can just see this next one, and we'll close with this. But now watch this. Notice Jesus answered and said unto him, what wilt thou that I should do unto thee? Well, it ought to be obvious, Jesus. The man can't see. No, no, wait a minute, no, no, no. No, he saw his faith when he dropped that coat. But now Bartimaeus needed to say it.