(Singing) I know my God has made the way for
me. I know my God has made the way for me.
ANNOUNCER: Everything in this world is subject to the
faith of God. He has put all things under your feet.
Join Kenneth and Gloria Copeland today as they share
more Bible truth. Next, on the Believer's Voice of Victory.
KENNETH: Hello, everybody. Welcome to the Believer's
Voice of Victory broadcast. Father, we thank You
today. We worship You, Sir. We open our hearts, and we
open our minds for revelation from heaven. We look to the
greater One that dwells within us, the great teacher, the Holy
Spirit of the living God. GLORIA: Thank You, Lord.
KENNETH: And we look to You, Holy Spirit, to reveal things to
us today about living the life of faith, faith in God, faith in
the name of the Lord Jesus, faith in Jesus Himself. And we
thank You and praise You. And, Lord Jesus, we give You all, all
of the glory, all of the praise, all, all, all. GLORIA: Praise
You. KENNETH: You are all. You are everything to us. Thank You,
Sir. We pray it all in that wonderful name, the name of
Jesus. Amen. Glory to God. We're talking about--(Clears Throat)
Excuse me. We're talking about faith, yeah, but--yesterday, we
were talking about, "Why you talk about it so much? Why you
teach on it so much? Why do you preach on it so much?" Well, we
listed these yesterday, and I'm going to add another one to it
today. I told you about six things yesterday: Can't be saved
without it, can't live the Christian life without it
because the just shall live by faith, can't walk the Christian
life without it because we walk by faith and not by sight, you
can't fight the Christian fight without it because we fight the
good fight of faith. Number five, it's impossible to please
God without it. Number six, you can't overcome the world without
it. "This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our
faith." Now, let's add--the seventh one is--let's look over
in the book of Ephesians, Gloria, in that 6th chapter and
in the--let's begin reading in the 13th verse. "Wherefore take
unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to
withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand
therefore." Thank You, Father. Praise You, Father. "Stand
therefore, having your loins girt about with truth," or the
Word of God, "having on the breastplate of righteousness;
your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of
peace." You know, the apostle Paul said, "I'm not ashamed of
the gospel, for it is the power of God unto salvation." So he's
saying here, "You walk in power," this armor. GLORIA:
That's right. KENNETH: "Above all--" Do you see that, Gloria,
where it says that? GLORIA: Above all. KENNETH: Above all.
GLORIA: I think that means above all. KENNETH: If the Bible says,
"above all," it's above all. "Above all, taking the shield of
faith, wherewith you shall be able to quench all the fiery
darts of the wicked." You can't--you can't quench the
fiery darts of the wicked. That's against your mind without
faith. GLORIA: That is--that's a victory statement right there.
KENNETH: It is a victory statement. Now, why is it above
all? Okay. You can't preach the Gospel without faith. You can't
have your loins girt about with truth if you don't mix truth
with faith. That doesn't work. We found that in the book of
Hebrews. Amen? Didn't we see that in Hebrews where it said
they didn't mix it with faith, so they fell in the wilderness?
The Gospel was preached to them the same as to us, but they
didn't mix it with faith. So-- GLORIA: Now, that's saying to me
that faith is the most important thing. KENNETH: That's the
reason it said, "above all," because faith makes it all work.
GLORIA: That's right. KENNETH: Prayer doesn't make faith work.
Faith makes prayer work. GLORIA: That's right. KENNETH: Now, the
breastplate of righteousness, how do you receive the
righteousness of God? The Scripture said it is a free
gift, but it is by the faith of Jesus Christ. You have to--you
have to be--receive righteousness by faith because
your mind will tell you, "You're not righteous. Who do you think
you are?" I remember the first church that I preached that we'd
been made the righteousness of God in Christ made some of the
folk mad. But some of them were just as glad as the others were
mad. GLORIA: Yeah. KENNETH: But their--one of the reasons why
and because--you know, I'm--I'm--in their eyes, I'm
just a young preacher just getting started, and they've
been studying this book for many years, and, "He's going to come
in here and tell me I'm righteous, and the Scripture
says 'There's none righteous, no, not one.'" Well, if they'd
just gone down two verses, it'd have said they'd been made the
righteousness of God. GLORIA: Yeah. KENNETH: But anyway... By
faith--see, you have to, by faith, "Let this mind be in you,
which was also in Christ Jesus: who thought it not robbery to be
called equal with God." Now, it takes faith to believe that.
GLORIA: Mm-hmm. KENNETH: The grounds for faith is not how you
feel. The grounds for faith is not what I said. The grounds for
faith is not what Gloria said. It's not what Brother Hagin
said. It's not what Creflo said. It's not what Jerry Savelle
said. It's not what Jesse Duplantis said. No, no, no, no,
no. It's not what Bill Winston said. It's not what Billy Graham
said. It's what the Bible said. GLORIA: That's right. KENNETH:
That's the grounds for faith. Hoo-hoo-hoo. GLORIA: And we have
a Bible. KENNETH: Yes, amen. GLORIA: Hallelujah. KENNETH: We
go to the Scripture. And Jesus said it works. That means it
works. If it didn't work, it wasn't Jesus that lied, and it
wasn't the Word that failed. No, it was--it was us
not--most--well, I--that'd be too early to get into that.
Anyway, "Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith you
shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And
take the helmet of salvation--" Well, now, hey, you can't be
saved without faith. GLORIA: That's right. KENNETH: And
that's the reason it's above all. That shield-- GLORIA:
Everything works by faith. KENNETH: Now, you don't ever
want to leave the house undressed. Ha-ha-ha. No, no, no.
Put that armor on. GLORIA: That's right. KENNETH: Put that
armor on. Now, I want you to notice something else about this
armor. "--taking the shield, be able to quench all the fiery
darts of the wicked. Take the helmet of salvation, and the
sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God." The Word of
God, more powerful than any two-edged sword. It is the
sword. But now notice this, "Praying," this is prayer armor.
You put this on and pray. Now, let me--let me--ha-ha-ha. Thank
You, Lord. I--Yes, thank You. I wondered how You's going to do
that. Now, notice back in the 12th verse, "We wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and
against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto
you the whole armor of God--" Now then, slip right back over
to the 1st chapter of Ephesians, the 16th verse, "I cease not to
give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may
give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being
enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling,
that you may know what the riches of the glory of his
inheritance is in the saints, and that you may know what is
the exceeding greatness of his power toward us who believe,
according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought
or worked in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and
set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far
above--" GLORIA: Hallelujah. KENNETH: "--all
principalities--" What did He just say we wrestle with? We
wrestle with principalities. "--and power--" We wrestle with
powers. "--and every--and dominion." We wrestle against
the rulers of the darkness. That's dominion, the rulers of
darkness of this world. "--and every name that's named, not
only in this world, but also in that which is to come: and hath
put all these things--" all things, all things, all things,
all things, all things," A-L-L, all things. Now, notice this--
GLORIA: Now, that--to me, that says that all things are subject
to faith. KENNETH: Everything. GLORIA: Everything. KENNETH:
Everything. GLORIA: Life, death. KENNETH: Yeah. GLORIA: Hmm.
KENNETH: Now, "Every principality, power, might,
dominion, every name that's named, not only in this world,
but also in that which is to come: and hath put all things--"
Notice in the King James, when you see a word in italics, it
means it was added by the translators. So they had the
privilege of putting it in there. We have the privilege of
taking it out. So let's read it without it. "And hath put all
under his feet." GLORIA: Yes, amen. KENNETH: All. "--all is
under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all to the
church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all
in all." Verse 6, "And hath raised us up together, and made
us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." GLORIA:
With all things-- KENNETH: We are sitting-- GLORIA: --under
our feet. KENNETH: Yes, yes, yes. But without faith, you
can't get into any of it. GLORIA: Yep, that's right.
KENNETH: You got that when you were born again. You made Jesus
Christ the Lord of your life, at that moment, you were made the
righteousness of God in Him. GLORIA: Praise God. Thank You,
Lord. KENNETH: You're as righteous as you're ever going
to get. Now, don't confuse righteousness with holiness. You
know, religion thinks they're both the same thing, but they're
not. Righteousness was the rebirth of your spirit in right,
absolute, through grace. Ha-ha. Hey, huh? GLORIA: And it's your
breastplate. KENNETH: Saved by grace through faith. I'm working
on something here. Faith, faith, through faith, through
faith--grace, but through faith. GLORIA: Mm-hmm. KENNETH: Now,
the moment you accepted Him as Lord, you sat down on the right
hand of Jesus, who is on the right hand of God, in the same
authority-- GLORIA: Thank You, Lord. KENNETH: --He said, "All
authority--" King James says "power," but it's the word for
"authority." "All authority's been given unto me both in
heaven and earth. Therefore, you go, you take my name, you
preach, you lay hands on the sick, you cast out the devils."
GLORIA: "You sit with me." KENNETH: Yeah. Yeah! That's
good. "Sit here with me until I--Sit here with me until I make
your enemies your footstool." GLORIA: That's right. Praise
God. Glory to God. KENNETH: Oh, Gloria, that's just massive,
isn't it? GLORIA: It is. It's awesome. KENNETH: Now think
about--whoa, whoa, whoa. Errrk! Back up just a little bit.
Clunk-clunk-krr. Put it in reverse and back up here just a
second. When you receive Jesus as your Lord and your Savior,
what happened? "Well, Brother Copeland, I was born again."
That's exactly right. Now, let's just step right over here two
books to the book of Colossians, in the 1st chapter, Verse 9,
"For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not
cease to pray for you, and desire that you might be filled
with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual
understanding." Doesn't that sound like what He prayed for
the church at Ephesus? Yeah. GLORIA: Mm-hmm. KENNETH: Now,
"That you might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing,
being fruitful in every good work, increasing in the
knowledge of God; strengthened with all might." The word
translated "might" is dunamis, which is the same word--this is
not "power and authority." No, no. "How God anointed Jesus
Christ of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and dunamis." And Jesus
said, "Go to Jerusalem. Go there. Receive the Holy Ghost,
and you shall receive--" GLORIA: Power. KENNETH: "--dunamis."
GLORIA: Mm-hmm. KENNETH: All right. Now, "--according to his
glorious power, unto all patience and longsuffering with
joyfulness; giving thanks unto the Father, which has made us
meet," or able, "to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints
in light," that we talked about in Ephesians 1, ho-ho-ho. "--who
hath--" Notice, "H-A-T-H," hath? GLORIA: Mm-hmm. KENNETH: That's
past tense. GLORIA: That's right. KENNETH: "--who hath
delivered us from the power--" That's not power. That's
authority. GLORIA: Praise God. KENNETH: That's the Greek word
"authority." "--who has delivered us from the authority
of darkness," glory to God, "and translated us
into the kingdom of God's dear Son: in whom
we have redemption through his blood,
even the forgiveness of sin: who is the image of the invisible
God, the firstborn of every creature." Ha-ha-ha. GLORIA:
Hallelujah. KENNETH: Hallelujah. Hey, you tell me why--why faith
is up there, right up front, right up top, right up first of
all. GLORIA: We've been delivered, and we've been
translated. KENNETH: Yes, we have. GLORIA: Glory to God.
KENNETH: Now, we--we nailed these--we nailed this--this
together. Let's drive the nail through the board and clench it
on the back. GLORIA: Okay. KENNETH: Why faith first? You
ready for this? Go back to the book of Romans, and let's take a
look at Chapter 4, Romans 4:16. "Therefore it is of faith, that
it might be by--" GLORIA: Grace. KENNETH: "--grace." Now, grace
is the right standing with God. Grace is God's overwhelming
desire to treat you and me as if sin had never happened. Glory to
God. That's why the blood. That's--that--oh, listen. Now,
what are we talking about here, Gloria? We're answering the
question, why it is impossible to please God without faith?
GLORIA: Yeah. That's right. KENNETH: Because look at this
now, "It is of faith, so that it might be by grace." GLORIA:
Faith. KENNETH: We're-- "Faith, so that--" GLORIA: Yeah. Faith
opens the door to favor, to grace. KENNETH: Yeah, it
receives it. GLORIA: The blessing. Mm-hmm. KENNETH: Yeah,
it takes it. GLORIA: Mm-hmm. KENNETH: The grace is there.
GLORIA: If you hear that good--those good scriptures that
belong to you and say, "Well, that won't work for me," it
won't work for you. KENNETH: No. You--but faith will cause it to
work for you because God's no respecter of persons. And all
the promises of God in Christ Jesus are "Yes" and "Amen."
There's not one promise in there where He'll say, "Well, you'll
have to wait awhile." There's not one--you will not find that
anywhere in the New Testament. No apostle said it. No prophet
said it. No--I--it's not in there, okay, that God, "Well,
you know, sometimes He says, 'Yes,' and sometimes He says,
'No,' and sometimes He says, 'Well, wait awhile.'" Where'd
you get that? "Uh, I don't know." Well, that's where it
comes from. It come out of the--out of the etheric
somewhere of, "I don't know." I don't know whether that's a word
or not, but it should be. Ha-ha. GLORIA: It's a good one.
KENNETH: Yeah, it's a good word. So, anyhow, no, that's man's
natural mind making up excuses for why God didn't do something.
You know, sweetheart, it's not God that didn't do something.
It's you and me that don't receive it. We're either so
spiritually dense we didn't hear it, which that's been my case a
lot where you just--and finally, just one day, it kind of hits
you in your head, and you thought, "Why didn't I see that
at--over the last 45 years I've been reading this?" Revealed
knowledge is what the Spirit of God reveals to your spirit,
bypassing your physical senses. But, baby, if you don't ever
spend any time in the Word, if all you--if all you're doing is
just, you know, a little promise here and a little promise there,
and, you know, you go to a "passed away" church where
everything's passed away, well, it's all passed away to you.
GLORIA: Forget it. KENNETH: Yeah, well, you're not going
to-- GLORIA: It's history. KENNETH: And I'm not--hey,
listen to me. Sweet people, listen. There's darling, sweet
people that actually believe that that's true, but it's not
New Testament. It's religion. It is based on the natural mind
through, in some cases, a hurt heart. You got a pastor that
doesn't know why. "I mean, we prayed and we prayed, and it
didn't come to pass. And I don't know, I just--" You know, and
you get in there at the funeral, and then you preach something so
stupid that it should never have even come out your mouth. "Well,
God giveth and God taketh away." "Well, Brother Copeland, that's
Bible." Yeah, it was Bible. Job said it. But he was wrong when
he said it, and God chastised him for it. And--huh? "Well, I
just don't understand it." I know you don't understand, but
that's your and my fault, not God's, not if you have one of
these. "Well, how am I going to find out?" Well, baby, hey, I
just read to you from two different places here. Oh, you
got your shouting--you got your shouting shoes on? Ephesians 1,
"I cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my
prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of
glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being
enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of his calling,
and you may know what the riches of his glory is in the
inheritance of the saints, and his exceeding greatness of his
power toward us who believe." GLORIA: Amen. KENNETH: Pray
that. Pray it for yourself. Pray it for your family. Pray it for
your pastor. Pray it every day, day in, day out, day in. Put
your name in there. "The eyes of understanding may be
enlightened, that Kenneth and Gloria may know what is the hope
of his calling." GLORIA: Yes, amen. KENNETH: Dear, Lord, I've
learned a little bit, just a little bit. The more I--the more
I find out, the more I learn, the more I figure out and know
how much I don't know. "Man, I know this much, and there's that
much I don't know yet." GLORIA: You know, it's gigantic. Grace
and faith working together is gigantic. KENNETH: It's the
biggest thing there is, Gloria. It's the biggest thing there is.
GLORIA: That's true. KENNETH: And we're out of time. GLORIA:
Oh, no. KENNETH: We'll be back in just a moment.
ANNOUNCER: We hope you enjoyed today's teaching from Kenneth
Copeland Ministries. And remember Jesus is Lord.
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét