Kenneth Copeland - Faith Is the Creative Force of God
Hello everybody, I’m Kenneth Copeland, and again, this is the Believer’s Voice of Victory broadcast. This is Thursday, and our golden text is faith-filled words dominate the laws of sin and death. Say that with me. Faith-filled words dominate the laws of sin and death. Now, my son John and I were watching this little program. I said, «John, don’t tell me there’s not some evangelism left». Here are some young men. I don’t know what part of Africa this is from, but they would be… and the… was part of their language. I don’t know what… means, but to them, … is a word. That… means something. It didn’t mean a thing in the world to me. But I woke up to him, I said, what does… mean? He didn’t understand anything I said either.
So I need somebody that can… translate that. Making their own arrows. John and I are very interested. I mean, both of us enjoy archery and hunt that way. They made their own equipment. They made everything. I noticed he was having a hard time chewing the meat that he was eating, because it was a baboon. A little tough. He didn’t know any better. What would be interesting to me is the average lifespan of that tribe or whomever they are, and go find out what the Bible says about eating a baboon. You don’t eat primates. That’s the reason the food laws are in the book. And the reason people are in the United States, in the condition they’re in physically, is most of them don’t pay attention to those food laws either. And that’s not all of it. But I want to bring that out. We still have a lot of people. Somebody have to go in there and translate… into the Bible some way or other.
So I’m interested in supporting whomever that is, and we’ll find out. Now, so, then we take no thought for tomorrow, Matthew 6:34. Today is the result of what we said yesterday, Matthew 12:34, and 37. So let’s turn there again and refresh our memory about that. 35th verse, A good man out of the treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things, an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But I say unto you, that every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment, for by your word shall you be justified, and by your words you shall be condemned. Well, praise God, I’ll see y’all later if a train don’t hit me. Ha ha ha… That is an idle word. You keep saying it.
The reason I brought that one up is because I know of a case where it did. Well, he lived through it, and he learned better than to say that. What did Jesus say? Let it be yes and no. Let it be yes and no. If you’re pastor of a church, yes or no. Evangelist, yes or no. I had a man call me. Brother Copeland, sure would like you to come preach in my church. I’m giving you an invitation to come preach in my church. Well, I prayed about it, and the Lord said, «No, he won’t receive your message at this time, and I don’t want you to go there». I said, well, will there ever be a time? I didn’t get anything. He called me back. He said, «Are you coming»? I said, «nope». «Why»? Well, he said, «Why not»? I said, «I don’t want to». Why not? He just keeps on. Did you pray about it? I said, «Yes, I did». «You’re not coming»? «No». «Will you pray about it some more»? «Yes». «Do you think you’ll come»? «No». He couldn’t handle that.
Well, I didn’t want to hurt him, and then later on, I’m just learning this myself. So later on, I realized I was too abrupt with him, and I called him back. And told him the results of that. But I said, «You know what Jesus said about idle words, yes and no? I’m just learning». And so we had a good conversation. That is the end of it. I never did go there to preach, because the Lord said, «He will not receive your message. And he is not your kind. In other words, he doesn’t know anything about the Word of Faith, and about the saying part. And you’re going to just saw right straight across his doctrine». But anyway, that’s the end of that. Today is the result of what you said yesterday. For by your word, you shall be justified. And by your words, you shall be condemned.
Faith-filled words dominate the laws of sin and death. All right, let’s look at that in the book of Romans once again. Put our eyes on it. There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after… What does that mean, who walk not? That’s not their way of life. What you do every day. What you think every day. What you say every day. Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit, or after the Word. For the law… Now, what is something about a law? A law is predictable. The law of gravity is predictable. And until someone invented the parachute, a fall like that will kill you.
So someone had to invent something that would stop that fall from happening. You understand? There is the law of lift. Birds knew it all the time. But these two young bicycle mechanics, who’s dead, and this seminary is still there now, Wright Seminary in Dayton. They just kept on and kept on and kept on and kept on until the law of lift was revealed to them. They studied birds. Then they went to England and telegraphed to demonstrate their flying machine. And Bishop Wright telegraphed, Wright, fine, don’t drink her wine. The law of lift, it’s predictable. So the point is, I’m talking about laws here. There’s laws of faith, there’s law of faith, and so forth. And we see in the book of Galatians, faith works by love. Hallelujah. The law. Well, not law of work, no, the law of love.
So to point that out, laws are predictable. That’s a huge part of this. And if you just read that whole eighth chapter of Romans, and the 39th verses, talks about being conformed to the image of his Son, firstborn of many brethren. So Jesus is not the only begotten Son of God now. There’s many. Now, I want to share this with you. We have the adoptive, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. That doesn’t say a whole lot to us, but in Judaism, an adopted son or daughter has firstborn status, because they couldn’t choose to whom they were born, but they were chosen. So that child has firstborn status. Jesus was firstborn. Amen. And that had to do with inheritance and all that kind of thing. But we cry, Abba, Father, because we are of the firstborn. And this is huge.
Now, I’m bringing this up for this reason. There’s all kinds of problems where adopted children are concerned. Do we tell him or her? Well, absolutely. And you start at the very beginning. I mean, at the beginning that you’re special. You are very special. You’re extremely special because you belong to us. And Jesus was the firstborn. And so now you are my firstborn. Now, my mother and dad were advised not to try to have any children at all because of my mother’s condition. They tried anyway. You won’t live but 10 years. They’d been married nine before I was born. And they tried again and stopped it. But in that case, wanted a child, advised not to do it, and adopted. Raised that child, knowing it’s so important because now you have the opportunity. You have the opportunity to raise that child in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Well, what if there’s bad blood in there? Well, change it with the blood of Jesus. Hallelujah.
Now, so we’re just going down through here. What is faith? Faith is the creative force of the creator of all things. Five, faith is the anointing connections. What does that mean? Romans 3, Romans 3, 27, verse 25. Let’s back up. 22, Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. Now, come down here to verse 10. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. And oh, there’s a certain denomination I’m thinking about. Oh, there’s none righteous, no, not one. For we have all fallen short of the glory of God. As it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon them that believe, for there is a difference.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation or sacrifice through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins… Can you see there? You can just take a word or two and snatch it out of here and make a killer doctrine out of it. Like Gloria says, it can be hazardous to your health to go to some churches. I was in the back seat, Abilene, Texas. I said, «Mama, I’m going down front». She said, «Kenneth, you sure you know what you’re doing»? «Yes, ma’am. I’m going down front».
That’s what all of my… we’re going to join up here. So I went down front. I filled out a card. Pastor shook my hand. Nobody prayed. Nobody prayed. But I was a member of the church. I was nine. Later on that summer, I was standing out in the driveway at our house at 1118 Blair Street in Abilene, Texas. Our phone number was 3036. And I’m walking around out there. I’m going to do it. I’m going to do it. Even if it kills me, I’m going to do it. Why you? I was just talking to a water hydrant. I talked ugly to the rocks. I told the lawnmower where it could go. Gloria Jean said, «Kenneth, I’m not going out in public with you anymore». «Why»? Now, I actually did this. Because of your dirty mouth. I said, «What the hell»? Oh! It brought me to tears because it hurt her.
I flew a man by the name of Weir. He was with the Arkansas, Louisiana natural gas company. You’ve heard me tell this. And I never, I hadn’t heard about a new creature. I didn’t know anything about it. Anyway, she waited up for me. I can see it in my mind. She’s over there. And I got out there and I heard in my spirit, «Kenneth, you don’t get right with me. You’re headed for devil hell, son». I said, «I know it». I did. I was raised right. That’s right. I know it. What do I do now? Mrs. Taggart. She was about that tall. She was a widow woman. She wore a black dress to church every Sunday and a little black straw hat with two little artificial flowers right here in the top. And we told the Sunday school superintendent that if Mrs. Taggart wasn’t our teacher, that we weren’t coming back. So she just promoted right along with us. Boys, you have to ask Jesus to come into your heart.
I said, that’s old lady Taggart. She called herself old lady Taggart. All right. I said, that’s old lady Taggart, but I’m going to do it. Jesus come into my heart. And there was peace on the inside of me. And for about 35 or 40 seconds, I couldn’t close my mouth. I didn’t know I was a new creature, but I needed some evidence. Profanity ended that day until now. I had a lot else to learn, but it happened. Faith is the anointing connection. Roman 3, 27, 25, Whom God has set forth a propitiation or sacrifice through faith in his blood to declare righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him, which believeth in Jesus.
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? No, but by the law of faith. Therefore, we conclude that man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law, the law of faith. Galatians 5:6. Thank You, Lord. Galatians chapter 5, Christ has become of no effect unto you, whosoever you’re justified by the law, you’re fallen from grace. For we, through the Spirit, wait for the hope of righteousness by faith, for in Jesus Christ, neither circumcision availeth anything nor uncircumcision, but faith, which works by love.
Well, so just with those few steps and the couple of places here in the New Testament, we have straight… what does doctrine mean? It just simply means teaching. But, with those few verses of scripture, scripture… we see how this works. Now, you can’t do that in all cases, just trying to make a point. And Judas hung himself, go thou and do likewise. No, but you ought to have better sense to do that in the first place. The point is, the book is self-explanatory, but not little verses here and there. You read the text, you read down into it, in Jesus' name, and we’re out of time. Glory to God. Give the Lord a praise.