← Believer's Voice of Victory Audio Podcast
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- [00:03]
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I move by what I feel. I don't live by what I see because my God has made a way for me. Hello, everybody. I'm Kenneth Copeland. Of course, you know who he is. That's Professor Greg Stephens. I have a wonderful announcement. Those of you that really, really do just love the Amplified Classic. Would you like to have a new one? Well, it is now KCM Amplified Edition. And thanks to members of the staff of which one of them is sitting right here that had presence of mind enough to call and ask. So it's new and in October it will be in leather back really nice and will have all of our reference notes in it and everything so you can get a new Classic Amplified that's not all beat up and torn up. Father, we thank you for things like this and we praise you and honor you in Jesus name. It is a good thing to serve the Lord our God. Thank you. Praise you for it. Amen. Let's open our Bibles. We're going to be talking about God, the covenant and the contradiction. And that's the title of Greg and my new book. So talking about that and. But it'll. It'll come up right now. Let's. Let's go to the 17th chapter of Genesis and the 16th verse of the. Of the 16th chapter. Abram was four score and six years old when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram. And when Abram was 90 years old and nine, that's old, the Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I am the almighty God. He said, I am El God Shaddai, the God who's more than enough. The nurse, the caretaker. Greg. Same thing with you. Gloria was everything. Kelly was first everything to her, then everything to John. Everything. She was their food. She was the. She took care of them. She was with them night and day. I wasn't. She could understand them. I couldn't understand the thing they said. But I said, why did she tell me what they said? And I learned from that. And that's what that word means. I'm the God. That's more than enough. Later came Jehovah. Jehovah, the God of power. But. So let's go here. He appeared to him. That's interesting. Unto him I am El Shaddai. Walk before me and be perfect. Be blameless and we'll talk about that. And I will make my covenant between me and thee and will multiply thee exceedingly. Abram fell on his face and God talked with him, saying, as for me. Excuse me. As for me, you don't have to accept this. It's not going to stop my plan if you don't. But you're a first choice. Now, Abram can be thinking, wonder if he's chosen somebody else and they didn't do it. As for me, behold my covenant. It's. My covenant is not yours yet. You're not part of it yet. There are conditions to this thing. My covenant is with thee. And thou shalt be a father of many nations. Neither shall thy name anymore be called Abram, but thy name shall be called Abraham. For a father of many nations have I made thee. The cross reference says, a father of a great multitude. So as we've considered before, this is the first known time any kind of covenant where a name was changed and both the man and the wife, their names were changed. They're one.
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Because they're one.
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They're one. That has to happen. It had to happen. So Abraham Hashem is the H. And Yud. Hey, that's correct, Bob. Hey. Which is the unspeakable name of God? But now you can speak it when you call this man by his name. Now, he is obligated in front of Everybody else at 100 years old to start telling people I'm the father of many nations. And you, old lady, you what? How could this possibly be? That's the key. How could this possibly be?
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That's the contradiction.
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Yeah. It could not possibly be right. Because they're too old. That's the contradiction. And Abraham never tried to reconcile it. He just took it. And we'll see that in just a moment. And I will make you exceeding fruitful. I will make nations of thee. And kings shall come out of thee. I will establish my covenant between me and thee. And your seed after you. That's where we come in, in Galatians 3:29. And your seed after thee. In their generations. For an everlasting covenant to be a God unto thee. Elohim, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. All three of us are here for you now. It was El Shaddai. He introduced himself over here as El Shaddai. But here he introduced himself as Elohim. And I'm thinking that Abram went, what? Elohim? Where's the rest of them anyway?
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It's a plural word. That's why you're saying that I will.
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Give unto thee and to thy seed after thee the land where thou art a stranger and all the land of Canaan for an everlasting possession. I will be their God. And God said to Abraham, thou shalt keep my covenant Therefore thou and all thy seed after thee in their generations. This is my covenant, which you shall keep between me and you. Your seed after you. Every man child among you shall be circumcised. And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin. And it shall be a token of the covenant between bloodshed. Now let's go back a little. In the 15th chapter of Genesis, animals were killed.
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That's right.
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They shed their. Their blood was innocent. They didn't do anything. They paid the price for Adam's sin. So what happened in that garden? This man had dominion.
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That's right.
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Over everything. Everything that flew the whole planet. He committed high treason, threw it away. An animal shed its blood to provide clothes for them. And his sin was? He chose his wife over God. So now how are you going to get that back? It has to be something. It's life. And we have. We have to go somewhere with this. I created them and their life is in their blood. So there you have it. And when Greg and I were proofing the manuscript for this and Michael was there and I had to keep inserting the word blood or covenant just becomes some kind of grievance. That's right, there are covenants, but they're not in blood.
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That's correct.
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Red ink is not good enough. The words of the Master are in red. Wonder why they didn't do it in blue. That was stood out. You can't do it in blue, you have to do it in red. Now I wanted to get down to this. Go to 21st verse. My covenant will I establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this same time next year. I mean, he put a day on. Yeah, he did. This is important. And Abraham took Ishmael, his son, and all that were born in his house and all that were bought with his money. Every male among the men, Abraham's house. And circumcised the flesh of their foreskin in the self same day. That's why he chose him. He would teach his children and he'd do it. Now he didn't wait and think about it and think how this is going to hurt. Now let's go over there to Romans 4, verse 1. What shall we say then? That Abraham our father, as pertaining to the flesh hath found. Aha. Here we are. This whole chapter is teaching of that verse 13. For the promise that he should be heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are of the law are Heirs faith made void the promise made of non effect. The blood oath was made of non effect. You have to put make notes in your Bible and just blood promise. We go over there when Peter said exceeding precious promises they were all in the blood of Jesus himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree. That we being dead to sin should live unto righteousness. And by his stripes we were healed. Okay, as you keep on reading verse 16. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace to the end. The promise might be sure to all the seed. Not to that only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. As it is written, I have made thee a father of many nations. Well, we just read it before him, or like him whom he believed. Even God, who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be not as though they were, who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations. Well, that was the first day, because he went and did nothing's happened yet. According to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be. Being not weak faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about a hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able to perform, and therefore it was imputed unto him for righteousness. The moment. How did he know he believed it? Because he had corresponding action the very same day when he shed his blood. Now the covenant was active.
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In Genesis 15. He didn't do anything except provide the animals.
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No, that's all he did.
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And God took him out of the equation and pinned him to the ground. Paul is explaining in this chapter in Romans what was happening in Faith in Genesis 17. He's explaining because if you look at this, let's see. Therefore it is of faith that it might be by grace to the end of the promise was made sure to the seed. Not only there's seed, but if you go back here up he talks about for the promise that should be the heir of the world may not be to Abraham his seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith. You go back and you look at Genesis 17:11 and you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin. It shall be a token of the covenant. It wasn't the covenant. The covenant was faith.
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That's right.
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The circumcision is A token. Abraham cannot offer himself to fulfill the covenant, nor can he offer Isaac. It's a token of the Promised One that'll come through the seed of Abraham. So that covenant becomes where it was placed on his body, becomes a covenant mark. For us, it'd be water baptism. I was crucified with him. I was buried with him. I rose with him. It was a covenant mark in blood, Brother Copeland, that the seed of Abraham passed through the bloodline into Sarah.
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That's right.
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And so that's. That's what it's about.
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Of course, God's pressing for something. He's pressing for the fullness of time and so obedience to that covenant. And today it is not the state of Jacob.
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No.
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Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Here's another name change. Israel. All of these things.
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When you face a situation like he did, where God spoke to him, you have to make a choice. You're either going to do it God's way or you're going to do it man's way. And that's where faith comes in. Are you going to do your thinking or covenant thinking? Abraham switched to covenant thinking immediately. And he went. Even Ishmael was circumcised that day. Yes, every single one of them. Because we're going to do what God said. I'm going to do his way. I'm going to think covenant way.
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Now, the moment the blood was shed, now, faith to do was by faith so that it might be by grace. And it was imputed unto him as righteousness. Righteousness then came through the blood of Jesus.
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That's right.
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Because he's righteous. But faith is the connector.
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So that Abraham's got his faith in that future, hope of that seed.
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Yes, he does.
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So his faith in Jesus the moment.
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Blood was shed now. Now we have a blood union between God and a man and a woman. In order to produce an impossible child, A very special child. In order to produce a very special child who was circumcised on the eighth day.
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That's right. Now God will get mad at Moses because he wasn't willing to circumcise this one son.
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He said, no, no, no, no. On account of his wife.
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On account of his wife. Same thing.
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Or she got furious at him.
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What happened where they got off in the time of Jesus, in the time of Paul, is they were looking as circumcision as the act of the covenant, as that's what made you righteous. No, it's faith that made you righteous. The circumcision is only an outward sign.
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It was accounted unto him as righteousness.
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That's exactly right.
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Because of his faith.
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That's right.
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Now listen to this. For the promise to Abraham, his posterity, that he should inherit the world did not come through observing the commands of the law, but through righteousness of faith. That's it right there. Now, if in adherence to the law, who made errors, then faith made futile and empty of all meaning and the promise of God is made void and is annulled and has no power. For the law results in. In divine wrath. But where there is no law, there's no transgression of it either. That's the reason murder was not against the law.
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That's right.
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So it called for exile. And that's what happened to him, what happened to Cain. But then there had to be a law. That's the reason the first five books of the Bible are the law now. Murders against the law. So then that had to happen, had to take place.
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That law was inserted so that we would know that we needed to use our faith for righteousness, that we would never be worthy by trying to keep laws and regulations. It was to drive us to faith in that seed, that promised seed.
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And this may sound funny, and it is funny. My uncle. My mother's youngest sister, I was named after. Her name is Maxine and I'm Kenneth Max. And so. And she was my hero. My mother or dad would. She came and lived with us and went to drawings, business, college. And my mother would start to spank me. She'd grab hold of me and run away and said, no, you're not. Her husband, Lawrence Powell knew exactly what he's going to be. He wanted to be a detective, but he wanted to do it on the federal level. So he started out in the post office carrying a leather sack on his back. And he works his way up in the post office all the way to becoming an inspector. And you remember the Brinks bank robbery? They called him in on that because he was so good at what he did. And anyway, he said, would you like to get on a lie detector? Yeah. He said, and the guy that's done it, you know, he's sitting over this. He said, you mind if I ask you some personal questions? I said, no. He said, son, you just lied. I knew I'd want to do it. I didn't want him asking me any personal questions. That thing went like that. God has one of those. Amen. And we need to understand. I remember that. We need to understand that since they're not allowed to ask anything but yes or no questions, I should have been so brutally honest with him because he can't ask me any more than that. But God can. Now. My point is this. We are in a blood relationship with God. We need to be so brutally honest with him because his machine will do that. Like that time down there in Florida. He asked me, he said, didn't you confess that sin? I said, yes, I did. He said, kenneth, when you confessed, it is not when I found out about it. He said, when you confessed, it is when you got rid of it.
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That's right.
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So we have a covenant with God. One of the articles laid out in First John if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness. And we're out of time. Not eternally, just for Monday. Monday time too. We'll be back.
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Discover how simple the answer to every question and every problem in life can be in the Covenant and the Contradiction, a new book by Kenneth Copeland and Greg Stephens. In this approachable book, dive deep into what a covenant is and what it's for. Discover what your covenant does for you, and learn to overcome every conflict, contradiction and obstacle. With every covenant promise comes a contradiction. When you read in the Bible that by Jesus stripes you're healed and the diagnosis comes back incurable, or when you're facing a towering stack of unpaid bills, when you read that God promises you prosperity, common sense and human reasoning rise up to shout, there's no way that God's promises will happen in your life. Thank God. Covenant men and women throughout time have refused the contradiction and praised through in faith to the end result the blessing promised by God. And you can too see the Bible unfold more clearly than ever before in the Covenant and the Contradiction.
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The Covenant and the Contradiction by Kenneth Copeland and Greg Stephens is available to you now at a special limited time price of $13.99. Order your copy today at kcm.org tv special or call 800-600-7395. Downloadable options are also available, so share this valuable resource with your family and friends. This special offer is good for only 60 days outside the U.S. shipping charges may apply. Contact your regional office for more information. Take the Word of Faith wherever you go with the Believer's Voice of Victory magazine. Build your faith through powerful articles from Kenneth and Gloria Copeland and other guest authors. Read encouraging stories in testimonies of real life victory and equip your kids for spiritual growth in Commander Kelly's corner. Download a digital copy for your tablet or mobile device. Sign up for your free monthly subscription or download your copy today@kcm.org the Believer's.
- [26:59]
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Voice of Victory Broadcast Study Notes will help you dive deeper into these powerful word based teachings. Get all 5 days of notes at one time. Use them during the week for your personal study time. Download them free@kcm.org notes create a special family devotional time to follow along with the notes as you watch the broadcast. Study the Scriptures with your children and begin instilling God's Word. Now use these notes to build your faith library and build up a heritage of faith.
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I know we said a lot of things today to lay the foundation for this week and and all of next week, but this is so vitally important and it's important for our own nation and we're going to we'll get to that before we before we get done. So and be sure and get online and get the notes of all of this so you can teach it and live it and study it and work with it because God will show you things that we didn't even get into in here. But until then, remember this. God loves you and we love you and Jesus is Lord. So give the Lord a praise and Thanksgiving for the day.
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Find out more about Kenneth Copeland Ministries and how we can help you grow in faith. Visit our web site, kcm.org.