2014 Southwest Believers' Convention: Have We Really Understood the Gospel? (3:00 p.m.)

well if you have your Bibles Lissa let's eat I got us a snack for you let's go and begin this afternoon I'm mom I got a question I want to deal with and this afternoon is going to be about a lot of detoxing so don't get mad at me but just remember you're detoxing so I might say something and you might kind of be doing this and it might be an involuntary response just go ahead and get all that I okay and so I ask the question have we really heard the gospel because in this country we've we kind of pride ourselves in being the carriers and the preachers of the gospel but when you get down to really looking at it have we really heard the gospel number one do we really understand the gospel number two and have we taken the small understanding and boxed it up as if there's nothing else involved in it and so this afternoon I I thank God for the grace to be able to show you that the grace is the power of the gospel and we'll do like we did last night we'll we'll go through some things each time you hear a message on grace it produces questions and then you get another understanding and produce more questions than your more instead but you stick with it you stick with it and it begins to renew your mind and brings you to an understanding and you begin to to experience the freedom of grace I had a friend say to me one time and it just really blew my mind he said until you're free to fail you'll never be free to succeed and I was like what in the world is that me and I had to take it in and and go through it and look at something so let's uh let's go to the book of Romans chapter 1 the gospel is the most basic foundational message of the New Testament yet it's it's the most misunderstood because today's religious system is not preaching the same gospel that Paul did they mix it with law and that isn't the gospel at all but the book of Romans was written to explain the gospel so that anybody would be able to understand it and Paul the writer made it so simple that you'd have to have somebody to help you to misunderstand it and unfortunately we've had a lot of help Amen so let's begin this afternoon in Romans chapter 1 and let's start at verse 16 here's the Apostle Paul in Rome in verse 15 he says he says I'm ready to preach the gospel to you that that are at Rome also and verse 16 he says for I am not ashamed let's read verse 16 together for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes to the Jew first and also to the Greek now this is this is a radical statement now I want you to look at the word gospel now in the original Greek this word it was just very seldom used because of what it really meant we know that the gospel is good news amen but it goes a little further than that when you study in the Greek it is the almost too good to be true news and the reason why I bring it up is because it wasn't use very much because what was it in those days and times that was almost too good to be true so when the word gospel was used it was the almost two to be true news now think about it what is it that's almost too good to be true the gospel they almost too good to be true news nearly too good to be true it wasn't a whole lot of things in Paul's day that was nearly too good to be true but Paul said it was that he was not ashamed of the gospel and why he makes it plain here he says for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth now let's just milk this just for a moment I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation now salvation or the Greek word here so so which not only means born again but it means so so it means preservation it means deliverance it means soundness it means prosperity it means healing it includes all of the finished works of Jesus Christ and what he says here is the gospel is the power that will bring you to deliverance preservation soundness born-again prosperity so now if the gospel is that power again what is power power is the ability to get results so the gospel is the ability to get results in where healing is concerned deliverance is concerned soundness is concerned prosperity is concerned the gospel is the power that will give you the results of those things so now all of a sudden we need precision we're understanding what the gospel is it can no longer be a general religious understanding of the gospel it can no longer just be well good news precisely what is this gospel because we do know this and here's a radical statement we do know the gospel is the power that will bring you deliverance salvation soundness and prosperity so I want to make sure I understand Monteux Talley what is the gospel are you ready for this now what is the gospel you sure you ready for this okay let's go to the latians chapter 1 because once we discover what it is you discover the power that will bring you your ass ozone are you following me galatians chapter 1 and here's paul here in verse 1 paul an apostle not of men neither by man but by jesus christ and the gun and god the father who raised him from the dead and all the brethren which are with me unto the churches of Galatia grace be to you and peace from God the Father from our Lord Jesus Christ the Anointed One Jesus Christ who gave himself for our sins that's good news in amen he gave himself for our sins that that he might deliver us from the present evil world according to the will of God and of our Father you're going to find out a little later on just plainly speaking this gospel and and I think the Bible defines it best we got to be careful not to redefine grace the gospel is I love that the amplified bible it defines it perfectly it is unmerited undeserved favor that's what it is now some people say well the gospel is power no the gospel will produce power the gospel will produce healing it will produce power for healing it will produce power for deliverance but but but let me let me back up a little bit the gospel or grace is unmerited favor grace is undeserved favor grace is not power but we know that God's undeserved favor will produce power does everybody understand what I'm saying it will produce power for deliverance and so forth and so on so this unmerited favor think about it this unmerited favor the grace of God the on merited favor of God now notice here what he says in verse 6 I marvel that you are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel they ain't that interesting you can see what he's implying here he says I'm surprised that that your call from the grace of Christ this from the unmerited favor of Christ into another gospel implying that this grace of Christ is gospel and look what he says in the next verse he says which is not another in other words there's no such thing as the gospel of prosperity it's the gospel of grace and unmerited favor produce prosperity it's not the gospel of healing it's the gospel of grace and the gospel of grace produce the power for healing see there is nothing there's just one gospel and it's the gospel of God's unmerited favor because we can't do nothing without him can't get nothing without him or we are nothing without him it is it is the it is the nearly too good to be true news about this unmerited undeserved favor that comes from God and he calls it here the grace of Christ but then notice how he uses and use it interchangeably with the gospel of Christ verse 7 he says which is not another but there be some that trouble you and would pervert watch this the gospel of Christ see the there nearly too good to be nearly too good to be true news is about this unmerited favor of Christ there nearly too good to be true news is about this undeserved favor that called and declared men righteous without their works that God was calling men righteous without their works that's nearly too good to be true that you can be declared righteous without your works that nearly too good to be true news that the blood of Jesus has cleansed us of our past and our present and our future sins nearly too good to be true oh but brother dolly I don't have any problems with God forgiving me of my past sin or my presence in but future now how can you say God gonna forgive you of your future sins well listen when Jesus died on the cross everybody's sin was in the future are you listening to me nearly too good to be true the good news about the grace of Christ this unmerited favor of Christ and this grace of Christ is also called the gospel of Christ so I submit to you that the gospel of Christ is the gospel of grace the gospel or the grace of Christ is the gospel of Christ let me show you one more scripture with that the holy place the angulation because I want to show you more stuff but look in acts 20 verse 24 acts 20 verse 24 I am attacking your religious belief system and that's why you feel weird and you're just kind of detoxing so just going detox I saw just for mister what look at acts 20 and verse 24 verse 24 says but but none of these things move me neither count out my life dear unto myself so that I might finish my course with joy and the Ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God the amplified says I have obtained from which in verse 24 he says which was entrusted to me by the Lord Jesus faithfully to attest to the good news the gospel of God's grace his unmerited favor of spiritual blessings and mercy so I go back to Galatians chapter one so I submit to you that the gospel is the grace of Christ the gospel is the grace of Christ now I don't know what we've been calling the gospel but here he makes it plain that the gospel is about this grace of Christ that the gospel is about this unmerited undeserved favor of Christ that is the gospel now go back to Galatians chapter chapter one you can see he had some challenges with this uh starting in verse six again he says I'm surprised I'm marvel that you are soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel he implies that this grace of Christ is gospel and that you've been called into another gospel which is not another he says ain't no other gospel he saying although this gospel this is the nearly too good to be true news he says which is not another but there be some that trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ but though but though we or an angel from heaven preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you let him be accursed verse 9 as we said before so say I now again if any man preach any of the gospel unto you then that you have received he said let him be accursed sounds like a double curse well my mama ain't raised no food and this that doesn't require much explanation here he says if you're if you're preaching anything other than this good news other than this there's nearly too good to be true news okay then let him be accursed that's a double curse well what happens if you decide to preach the gospel this nearly too good to be true news he says a double blessing in these last days all of these guys that are preaching this deception all of this stuff telling you that God go get you and God gonna punish you and God's gonna get you by twelve o'clock and you're gonna go to hell cause you forgot to read your Bible and you ought to be ashamed of yourself and you're condemned he got to shut that stuff off he got to shut that stuff off that can't continue to go on because what happens is it'll count nation keels and if you keep subjecting yourself to a place where you're going from one place of condemnation to another place of condemnation out of condemnation gives birth to fear and out of fear give birth to doubt and shame and unbelief and the things that you don't believe won't come to pass because this new covenant has to have you believing so this gospel is going to be preached see it's already written on your heart but it's your head that you're struggling with your heart got it and there'll be a time where you're like BAM I got it it's already there but it's ahead just struggling it's what religion feeds you it's what you've heard over and over again is what you set it over it over again and now there's a there's a shakin goin on just with your mindset God's already taking care of your heart you know this to be true you know and you'll know it this is to be true but not you got to work at our light in your here that's why renewing the mind is so important and if you're new in your mind is not a one-time event it's a lifetime process something we're doing all the time and then he says in verse 10 so he says for do I now persuade men or God or do I seek to please men for if I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of God he says you know what to be a man pleaser is to be somebody that will refuse to preach this nearly too good to be true news since you have to build man pleasing because man when you preach this there's gonna be some detoxing going on and there gonna be some people that used to like you that ain't like you noble so are you gonna be a man pleaser and stay away from what you know true or are you gonna say now I'm not gonna be a man pleaser I'm gonna preach this gospel are you listening to me all right now let's go to see when you understand the gospel when you understand this grace of Christ it'll release the power of God into your life and that's huge when you understand that it will release the power of God in your life go back to Romans chapter 1 how many you want the power of God released in your life let me say like this how many of you want the ability to get results in the areas of the finished works of Jesus released in your life well the way that happens is once we understand this gospel of grace and this gospel of Christ then it'll release the power of God and you're like look what he says in the verse we're not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ for it that gospel and that's powerful let me say like this since you know what it is now you know that the gospel is the great server has you have you seen that it's pretty plain in scripture right so you know that the power to get results in your life is the grace of Christ hallelujah the power to get results in your life is the grace of Christ it's that unmerited unearned undeserved favor hallelujah that is the power when understood that will cause results to come into your life now notice what he said in verse 17 he says now there in in this gospel of grace there in is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written the just shall live by faith I noticed something about this verse notice that righteousness is not revealed from law to law notice that righteousness is not revealed from good deed to good deed how is it revealed from faith to faith now here's a good piece of information I don't want you to consider now this is to me careful because this is this is going to bring a question up in your mind which I'm going to answer I know it's gonna bring question up it's designed to bring the question up and here it is we are getting from the grace of God from the gospel we are getting from faith to faith not from louder law not from good deed to good deed you're not you're not righteous from good deed to good deed you're not righteous from good need to good deed your good deed didn't make you righteous Jesus made you righteous and when you accepted Jesus into your life he declared your righteous you are righteous because God said you are hallelujah you are righteous because of what Jesus has accomplished you are not righteous because you go to all the church revivals you are not righteous because you sing in the choir you are not righteous because you tithe see time they won't make your righteous but righteous people time singing in the choir won't make your righteous but righteous people love to sing and praise God but your good deeds won't make you righteous now listen to me carefully ho boy here we go sin won't stop the power of God for salvation in your life sin will not stop the power of God for salvation in your life sin will not stop the power of God for deliverance in your life sin will not stop the power of God for salvation in your life none of those areas but I'll tell you what will when you trust in your own good works that'll stop the power of God oh I know that freaks you out cuz religion has taught you oh you know you got to do good or you know Gaza won't be good to you God's not good to you cause you've been good do you think God delivered the children of Israel out of Egypt because of their good behavior no no God's good because he's good he wants you to trust in His goodness and not in your good neat good deeds to deserve His goodness this is not about what you deserve this is about all all about what you don't deserve under the Covenant of grace you get what you don't deserve under the Covenant of law you get what you deserve say this out loud I have under the covenant of grace and abundance of undeserved favour how many believe that you have an abundance of undeserved favor now I prophesy if you can get ahold of this gospel that I'm preaching to you that you are about to walk in a bunch of undeserved favor you're about to bump into stuff that you know you didn't deserve but the grace of God showed up and cause it to show up in your life anyway when you experienced something like that you know you cannot both because it was God's unmerited favor that brought it to you and that came how by trusting him but religion has taught us it comes by working you you got to be careful you can even take a spiritual thing and turn it into the works of the flesh are you I said I'm saying hey it's good to pray but now if you're not careful your turqu tape praying and turn it into a work of the flesh and all of a sudden now I got to pray a certain amount of hours a certain amount of days to try to get things to happen I'm not saying don't pray but when you take prayer and use it as a work of the flesh or a good deed to try to get God to do something that is already done then that's you trying to deserve favor rather than you believing that Jesus has already done it and receiving undeserved favor see whenever you try to deserve it when you try to do something to deserve it I mean that just that just thinks with self effort it's a difference between favor and favoritism and religion has taught us to work for favoritism are you with me you receive the righteousness of God by grace through faith go Ephesians go to Ephesians chapter two and eight you receive the righteousness of God through faith by grace through faith I'll show this let me show you this this'll just really get your thinking going in the right direction God won't withdraw his power because of sin in your life that's why it's nearly too good to be true news I got you I'm setting you up like a mullet I know it's like what you're thinking cuz I thought the same thing five years ago when I'm going through this thing I couldn't put my Bible down hours and hours when the Lord spoke to me said he said will you become a student of grace and the problem was as a pastor I saw people doing everything right I saw them making their confessions I saw them doing this I saw them doing that and what happened and I'm thinking something's not right and I need to know because this is freaking me out because these people they're good people they're doing they know to do and the Lord asked me will you become a student of grace I got something to show you says yeah whatever that it means I'll do it and I went through this process first thing I did is I looked up every Scripture in the Bible that had anything do with grace and God's unmerited favor and I sat there and then I got I got to study and I got to looking and I got the bumping in and stuff like this and I have to walk out my house and say now wait a minute are you saying this and I know already know the questions you got in your head cuz I had him in mind and I didn't realize how infected I had become with religion and I thought after over thirty years that I had this thing down and imagine being challenged after all of those years of ministry being challenged and saying will you be a student of grace I want to now show you something and to just turn on the dime to stand up before my congregation say alright now we're getting ready to go to a place where we're gonna make a lot of adjustments and I asked them this will you trust me and they said yes and to those who didn't left but you know what happened because of God's unmerited favor it got bigger television viewership increased three times my offices are exploding and I can't take any credit for it it's God's unmerited favor because God loves to be trusted and depended upon to do the work and all of a sudden as I walked through this thing and I'm seeing more and better results than I've ever seen before I'm like something that's to this Lord show me every area of my life has been impacted by this unmerited favor my marriage my children my church me as a leader I have more peace I'm chilling out I'm not trying to impress the Jones I'm cool whether you like me or not I love you I'm all right and watch this I sleep at night I get up in the morning I've lost the fat I'm all of the things because of God's unmerited favor and I told Jesus that I would tell the entire world about this nearly too good to be true news and I'll hammering and hammering and Hammer it until they stop inviting me or they get it but I ain't preaching on nothing else this is all I got to talk about yes cuz I'm tired of seeing people broke I'm tired of seeing you busted I'm tired of seeing you to feed it I'm - I'm decide I'm tired of seeing you walking this this Christian compulsive disorder where you're going around beating yourself up because you didn't pray enough or you didn't fast long enough or I didn't witness to somebody right here oh I didn't say praise alone without all of that got to do with how God has already decided to love you and responded [Music] [Applause] so just look at me as your detox drug counselor detoxing from religion praise God so that God is now able to do everything he wants to do with us in these last days and now that we are out of the way the king of glory can show up and begin to produce in US and through us what he wants to produce in our lives and it starts with an understanding of this unmerited favor but look at what he says in verse 8 Ephesians 2:8 for by grace his unmerited favour are you saved what could we have possibly done to deserve to be saved please explain it to me what is it that we could have done to earn or deserve to be saved and yet his unmerited favor came and we were saved by grace see Grace has made everything available to us that we need in this life for we were by grace are you saved how do we get it through faith it's our response to what grace has already done you got to get it through faith grace has already made everything available everything you'll ever need has already been made available but it's gonna take faith to bring in the manifestation into our lives and guess what God did God gave you the grace and then he and then he gave you his faith over to God I said he gave you grace and then again he gave you his faith and that not of yourself that's what he's saying through faith that's not of yourself it's a what it's a gift of God so you didn't deserve the grace and you didn't deserve the faith look what he says he says you didn't kids get say not of works lest any man should boast you didn't get saved it wasn't it wasn't works that saved you you didn't get saved by your works you got saved cuz he loves you and decided to do you a favor and give you grace and faith so that you can come out of darkness into the marvelous life I think we need to give our God a praise for that this happened to have hallelujah now however when you talk about this people with a religious mindset immediately say well what about sin what about sin this sounds like you're just giving people a license to sin and you know what brother Copeland always say you were sending for you gotta like amen ladies and gentlemen I am not advocating sin while I will say to you very boldly sin will not unravel your righteousness however your decision to sin will unravel your life your decision to sin will always have natural consequences sin will not unravel your righteousness but think about it I'm going to show you why I can't it can't but it will unravel your life it'll destroy your life but don't you know God understood that he he if we just will trust what he says and believe in him he got that cover are you listen to me you know and people always say to me they say well you know you can't keep preaching that because you need to preach to people about about sin they need to be aware of their sin and they need to bear be aware of the wrath of God you know honestly if you keep reading in Romans chapter 1 verse 18 he tells us that you already know about that could you could you go there Romans chapter 1 he says he says you already know about that you sitting around here wondering whether or not I'm gonna tell you but look what he says in Romans 1 verse 18 if you're there say Amen he said for the wrath of God now this is right after he's talking about this righteousness which is by faith and this righteousness which is revealed to us from this gospel from faith to faith it is written to just shall live by faith so he knew the question in in vetch next verse 18 he addresses the situation about sin he says for the wrath of God is already revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness because that which may be known of God is manifest in them for God has shown it unto them notice it says it manifests in them not to them for God has shown it unto them God has put in every single person who has ever breathed on intuition an intuitive knowledge that they are a sinner and that they deserve rejection and acceptance they already have it I don't need to tell people they already know it you knew what was wrong before you got saved he put it on inside everybody you are when you when you cuss mr. Sam I you knew that was wrong you didn't need Jesus to tell you that was wrong you knew that was wrong huh when you took something that didn't belong to you you knew that was wrong you didn't need me to be telling you about that you knew it was wrong it's built on the inside everybody that's alive a day every one of all of us have it on the inside of us an intuitive knowledge about what's going on there and yet we won't it preach it all the preaching on sin only thing that doesn't make you more conscious of sin you already got the intuitive knowledge now you come to church and guess what you give them you come to church a weekly dose of sin consciousness where do you go to get more sin consciousness Church and now now we have this issue of a question how come people in come to church like they used to because they're they're tired of going to church and here you tell them what they already know about themselves you don't need to tell them that that they're theirs that they're a sinner and ain't no good they already know they ain't no good that's why they staying home and smoking a weed because they already know I might as well stay here they smoke my weed and drink my liquor cuz I already know I'm a sinner I already know I'm going to hell I already know I ain't no good I only need to waste my time and go their hair him tell me that we are not called to convict people of their sins but we're called to convince them that they are that the only way they can obtain righteousness all right standing with God is how through putting faith and what Jesus did for them not through something they have done but put faith in what Jesus has done for them my faith is in what Jesus has done for me so when they come to church let them hear about what Jesus has done what the blood has done how Jesus has set them free but that's what I need to hear is everybody with me now huh in fact now let's show you something go to Titus I didn't get a chance to get to that last night but Titus find Timothy and make a right chapter two I think sometimes there's this fear of receiving the gospel of grace is because I don't know maybe some people are convinced that you can just sin under grace and I'm telling you you're not going to this is God's unmerited love and once you taste this love you're not gonna want to do what you used to do but look what he said in Titus chapter 2 verse 11 for the grace of God his unmerited favor the unmerited favour and undeserved love of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men salvation grace has allowed salvation to appear before all men question if salvation has appeared before all men how come all men are not saved because even though it's been made ready it still requires you believing it to receive it it's been made available oh Jesus came the Bible says he died for the sins of the whole world he didn't just die for the sins of those of us are here today he died for the sins of the whole world how come the whole world won't receive what do you did cuz they have to receive it they got a sign for the package but I noticed what he says here he says this grace has been made available to all me that's not knows what it will do teaching us that denying ungodliness and denying worldly lusts that we should live soberly and righteously and godly in this present world did you notice that grace wants to teach you how to live righteously and grace wants to teach you how to live godly and grace wants to teach you how to live soberly that's what grace does Grace will teach you how to live godly when you trust and believe in this unmerited favor and you trust what the blood of Jesus has done for you grace will teach you Grace will rearrange stuff on inside of you stuff you've been trying to get rid of in your life through your own self-effort once you deal to this grace and trust that what Jesus has already done in his finished works grace will take the desire away from you and you'll find you don't want to do what you used to do and you're look in the mirror one day and say what has happened to me grace invasion that's what has happened to you you've allowed grace to renovate you on the inside but think about if you if you if you if you keep saying well you know don't do that don't do this don't do this don't do this don't do this don't do this don't do that you become so progressively aware of what not to do you find yourself doing it anyway remember the illustration about the pink elephant you've heard I the pink elephant I said a pen I say don't think about a pink elephant do not under any circumstances think about a pink elephant don't you think about a pink elephant what are you thinking about a pink you see the blood of Jesus has delivered us ladies and gentlemen has delivered us from all of the all of the bow shell knots to one thou shalt what's the one - out that we've been delivered to that shall love as God has loved you but we keep dependent on our own self-effort to stop doing stuff like sin grace we'll teach you how to do it trust God trust God you delivered trust God that you're free trust God you see if you don't ever come to the point of believing that you are who God says you are and he says you're righteous because you're born again if you don't ever get to the point - up to the place where you believing I'm the righteousness of God if you don't believe I'm the righteousness of God you know you'll never do righteous you got to believe it the way you respond to the covenant of grace is you got to believe it there's two ways to respond to the Covenant grace I know of besides love I know of I believe it and thank you I read about what this covenant sorry about what blood is done I believe it and thank you and from that point on you now collaborate you now cooperate with what Jesus has already made available to you and you say all right Jesus said I'm healed I'm the righteousness of God therefore he'll I'm the righteousness of God therefore I'm delivered I'm the righteousness God therefore I'm holy I'm the righteousness of God therefore I have wisdom but until you believe you're the righteousness God you won't act right let me show you something you can uh you know as faith people we can have a big list of stuff we release in our faith on faith for a job and and you know faithful healing and faithful family member and and faithful raised and and it goes on and on and on and it gets real big I mean you show people your list it's like 10 pages long hear all the things I'm believing for I hope you get what I'm about to say if you can release your faith in one area it'll attract everything else if you can release your faith in this I am the righteousness of God by faith and Christ Jesus then everything else will attract to you you sound believe in God for cancer to be delivered off my body so instead of you I'm believing for delivery from cancer unbelievably the first base has got to do this I believe I'm the righteousness of God so you can believe God delivered me from cancer I believe I'm healed but then you'll start looking at certain things in your life and then it'll question whether or not you believe you're the righteousness of God because all of a sudden you think you're righteous by what you do instead of you righteous by what Jesus has done oh my god I'm still sick this cancer still there maybe I must not be doing something right maybe I didn't pray long enough and what happens the condemnation causes you to fall out of grace back into self performance instead of saying Lord I believe I'm the righteousness of God I believe I'm the righteousness of God pain comes I believe I'm the righteousness righteousness of God lack comes I believe I'm the righteousness of God made a dumb decision to do something I believe I'm the righteousness of God what happens faith in your righteousness will attract everything there scripture for that you limber Matthew mix 33 seek ye first what the kingdom of God watch this and his righteousness and what happened and all these things you need shall be what add it unto you but the right priority is for you to seek after the identity who are you now under this covenant of grace I am the righteousness of God not by my works I'm the righteousness of God not my good deeds I'm the righteousness of God by faith in the blood of Jesus I have been made righteous I didn't become righteous because what I did I have been made righteous let me ask you a question how much righteousness do you think it takes in order to be come righteous well in order to answer that you got to ask like I said last night how how much sin does Jesus have to do to be made a sinner well we know Jesus never seen he was made sin he who had never said so we could be made righteous he who had never been righteous glory be to God I did not become righteous I was made that way call it be to God I've been made the righteousness of God I am the righteousness of God toda guy one time he was struggling with with drugs and III couldn't put him money any more rules I used to be a therapist I couldn't put him on any more rules you know just like marriages I'm not gonna put my marriage on the rules I'm gonna put my marriage under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and he'll tell me how to treat my wife but I said to him do you believe you're righteous I don't know I said are you born again I am I said well you're the righteousness of God well I don't feel righteous why cuz I keep doing this see that's what the devil wants to do attack your righteousness based on your behavior I said okay let's make a deal every time you think about weed every time you get ready to roll weed every time you light it up even if you happen to smoke it I want you to declare just make this promise I'm the righteousness of God somebody said now come on see that's your issue you want to get cute about it at church but you we use this stuff practically in our lives he did it he say they started talking thing about weed he says I'm the righteousness of God he said he rolled it he says I'm the righteousness of God he said he smelt he said I'm the righteousness of God see what's happening he's having problems believing that he's righteous he lit it up I'm the righteousness of God he took a puff he said I am the righteousness of and he said man I don't want this I'm the righteousness of God and hadn't touched it since hadn't touched it since instead of me trying to modify his behavior I went and got him to begin to believe that he is who God said he was God made him righteous now will you receive the righteous will you believe you're righteous when you believe you're the righteousness of God then everything else you need deliverance will show up God healing will show up because you have a right to it because you believe you've been made righteous not by your behavior by what Jesus has done for you somebody shout I'm the righteousness of God by faith in Christ Jesus but now don't get the idea now that this is well oh man I think I can have my cake and eat it too no no no God will still love you no matter what you do but if you decide to sin there are consequences for sinning see if you decide to steal something and the Popo come pick you up God still love you and you still the righteousness of God but you you do Popo gonna pick you up come what you do so you won't unravel your righteousness but the decision the same will unravel your life and why who I mean once you get a relationship with Jesus and you begin to experience the the unmerited favor and love of God that's in hot pursuit of you trying to run you over with his blessing once you realize how much he loves you who wants to spend their some time trying to figure out ways to sin and and and who wants to do that you really won't do that see the last time before you got saved you were sinning and they didn't bother you but now that you're born again you sin you it bothers you because you have company inside now Jesus is with you now you ain't smoking that weed by yourself no mo Jesus is in there with you and he is gonna be with you he is never gonna leave you nor forsake you because he is committed to you to counsel you out of your danger and as soon as you fall in a ditch he goes to work at trying to get you out of that situation but who won why would you want to sin and open the back door for the devil to come in and read havoc in your life but it still won't unravel your righteousness and if you believe you're righteous in every one of those situations man God Almighty is going to be able to drop some things to your life even when you mess up the grace of God to still be working to try to restore you back to a place where you need to be but your life I mean well I'm the righteousness of God and I'm in heaven at twenty why cause their consequences for seeing when the sky is the limit will you still choose Christ yeah see cuz we can get together pretend like we're doing all the faith stuff and shouting holla you know you're not you know you're not cause when you're living on the law there is seeing somewhere in your life because under the law living under the law is what increases seeing so you can come here and say hallelujah glory to God still live on the law and you're stuck you're just gonna still be stuck in the thing that increases sin but until you believe this gospel of grace and receive what Jesus has done only then when you know and experience real Liberty that comes from knowing Christ and this gospel of grace I'm in now let's uh uh oh yeah let me show you one other thing huh Jude go to Jude Jude has only one chapter there right before um revelations verse 4 I heard this the other day some guy said I tell you what these preachers are going around here and turning grace into lewdness and I thought to myself what part of grace can be turned into lasciviousness uh uh like there's something in grace that can turn into Silla seriousness and this word came from verse four Jude for for there are certain men crept in unawares who were before of old ordained to this condemnation ungodly men turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ now underline that word turning that word turning comes from a Greek word which means to transpose it means to transpose and when you transpose something you take the place of or you change places with so the grace of God is not is not it's not is you're not going to be returned the grace of God into lasciviousness or lewdness lasciviousness means without restraint but it's transposing grace with lewdness in other words you are substituting grace with lewdness or lasciviousness here's the message here if grace is not being preached and if you're not understanding grace what remains is lasciviousness what remains is lewdness grace is not turning into lewdness when you choose not to believe this grace and not to receive this gospel of grace then lasciviousness is will take the place of grace so it's transposing turning grace into lasciviousness substituting grace for lewdness or lasciviousness and when you find where grace is not being ministered whether it's a church or a community or neighborhood when they've decided not to submit to the grace of god then you'll find lasciviousness no restraints I want to stop doing it and one more time to come one more time becomes one more time and I can't get out of this and addicted behaviors and all these things are going on because they've substituted grace and the citizeness takes the place of it it's the substitute you understand that I don't want you to come up with this idea of you know somebody can turn grace into lewdness no the only way lewdness is going to show up if when there's not grace amen now let's go on a little further can you can you take some orders now let's let's give an illustration of what we've talked about so far let's go to Luke Luke chapter 18 my wife warns me a lot she says when you're when you go out in public to preach remember you're not at home at the church so don't try to pick up where you left off last week at church he says cuz you've been preaching this for five years there they don't know what you talking about if you don't you know take them on a journey with you and that is so true so are you still on the journey with me and you quiet because you're listening you're quiet because you're thinking hmm your quad because you don't want to miss nothing in there right [Applause] you're listening you get in this ancient there's some detoxing going on there's something happening on the inside of you all right Luke chapter 18 here's the story of the Pharisee and the publican now look at this in in light of what we're talking about verse 9 and he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous they trusted in themselves look there that's always a problem with God it's it's when you trust in your works and when you trust in your ability and when you trust in yourself it's gonna always be a problem with God because he wants you to trust him and everything you do you gotta ask yourself am i trusting God or am i trusting myself my plan my program do I have a bunch of good ideas or they God ideas I know what's this two men went up into the temple to pray the one a Pharisee the other call other words our republic has almost a Republican the other one the the other was a publican verse 11 and the Pharisee stood and prayed now watch what he said he prayed thus with himself God I thank thee that I am NOT as other men are extortioners I'm not unjust I'm not an adulterer or even as this publican I tell you what he is though self-righteous and if you talk about unrighteousness self-righteousness is unrighteousness self-righteousness is when is when you look at what somebody else was going on in their life and you raise yourself above that and sin saying now he doing that at least ain't doing that oh you just became self righteous which means you are the same level of unrighteousness as their and you got to be careful see a friend of mine said he said he said I never I've never smoked he says I've never used profanity he says I've never been to a party I never drank anything he says I've been in church all my life he said in God spoke to me that I had issues with him and he said Lord what it was he says you're self-righteous your good morals have diseases deceived you into thinking that you don't need me and that you and your morals are good enough to get in and to make it happen without me and he says huh that's called self-righteousness so you got to be careful how you look at other people and not and be careful not to say oh look at what they did at least ain't never did that before look at them and I almost feel a little proud that hmm I thought they were all this but look at what they're doing not you self-righteous [Laughter] thing okay and so this Pharisee is going on man I mean he is just so self-righteous I'm not like one of these I fast twice in it this week I give tithes of all of I that I possess look at this guy man and the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven but he smote upon his breast saying God be merciful to me a sinner jesus said I tell you this man went down to his house justified or declared righteous rather than the other oh the other with his righteous deeds Wow for everyone that exalteth himself shall be abased and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted what a powerful parable see he's saying that if a person is putting faith in all of their religious acts and all of their holiness then that will actually block them from righteousness and relationship with God but the person who maybe hasn't been as good yet they've humbled themselves and cried out to God this is the one who enters into right standing with God but religions told us we got to do all of these things to be right with God and grace says will you believe what Jesus did to be right with me will you finally come to me and say Lord I know I have a lot of experience in this area but I need you help me look what he says in Romans chapter 9 flip over there right quick Romans chapter 9 Oh am I gonna get there Romans chapter that hang on rush some time I come these meetings I rush I ain't rush I just made my mind playing Russia no mo I get what I get in and you know we'll pick it up later I see you around the world some other time I ain't rushing look at Romans chapter 9 verse 30 and 32 what shall we say then that the Gentiles which followed not after righteousness have attained to righteousness even the righteousness which is of faith but Israel which followed after the law of righteousness has not attained to the law of righteousness wherefore because they sought it not by faith because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law so this is talking about two types of righteousness faith righteousness and works righteousness now look what he says here and verse 32 professori 32 wherefore because they sought it not by faith but as it were by the works of the law for they stumbled at the stumbling stone self-effort performance works of the flesh they thought that would get them in but it says no they stumbled there it did not get them in now let me show you something are you are you are you may I trust that you are with me so far on this journey and I can get a little bit radical [Applause] take a deep breath detox alright go to Romans chapter 4 alright first one what shall we say then that Abraham our Father as pertaining to the flesh has has found what do we say about Abraham my Father as pertaining to the flesh or works of the flesh has found for if Abraham was justified that means declared righteous if Abraham was justified or declared righteous by works he hath wear up the glory he sent but not before God God does not get the work or get the glory from works all right and someone says although we've been made unto good works exactly he gets the glory from somebody who has been saved by grace and born again and received it through faith and grace produced the labor not you came up to do it it's it's what grace calls to happen in you and moved you to do versus you sitting there thinking I'm gonna do X Y & Z so I can move God you see I'm saying he says for Abraham were justified by works he hath we're up to glory but not before God for what saith the scripture Abraham did one believe God and what happened and it was counted unto him for righteousness Abraham said god I believe it God say it you're righteous it's not what he did it's what he believed you're made righteous not by what you do about what you believe somehow shout I'm the righteousness of God by faith in Jesus and his blood and heaven said you're righteous and I watch this verse for now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace but of debt so the guy that works well you owe him something you're in debt to him because he worked somebody's got paying verse 5 but to him that worketh not but believeth on him that declares righteous the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness look at this again but to one who not working by the law trust he believes fully in him who justifies the ungodly his faith is credited to him as righteousness the standing accepted to God and notice what he said he's declaring righteously ungodly and there believe it he says they're righteous now what's this we're gonna go step farther he use Abraham's example but let's look at let's look at David as an example even as david also describes the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputed righteousness without works that word impute means to credit to credit to your account to hold to your account it's an accounting term to credit to your account to hold in your account to impugn imputed righteousness without works four seven saying blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered honey no it's a blessing to know that God has forgiven you of all of your sins it's a done deal I said it's a done deal you need to understand what I'm saying he has forgiven you of all of your sins once and for all time Jesus is not coming back on the earth climbing on the cross again just when you decide to sin if he did that he'd be high all the time cuz people are sending all the time what he did he did once and for all times if you'll notice the high priest and under the Old Covenant he there was not a chair in that place there was not a chair because it was it was forbidden up forbidden furniture in that holy place Carles the priest had to be standing the whole time because work work work but when Jesus the final sacrifice got on that cross for the first time he said he sat down you know that means that's finished it's done and the Bible says when he comes back again it'll not cut it he will not be coming back again unto sin he's done with that we're the only ones still fooling around with that he's done with that he's already settled that it is settled it is done with he's already taking care of it the blood of Jesus is already taking care of the thing as a done deal we want to keep dealing with it and he's trying to get us to to enjoy the freedom of this grace and we can hardly do it because of our sin consciousness so conscious of sin and some of you got up this morning to say Lord forgive me for the sin I ain't even committed yet you won't receive there's righteousness all right now watch this saying blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven whose sins are covered but now what's this here's the part this is radical I believe you can take it I believe you can take it I don't know if I'm speaking faith or what but I believe you can take it verse 8 blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin [Applause] blessed is the man whom the Lord will not that's a double that's a double negative assertion will not in other words under no circumstances will it happen he said for the righteous man God will not hold to your account sin now I gotta keep talking because religion that's all religion does religion gets you to struggling over your sin what you're gonna do about the sin for the day what you're going to do about syphilis and see your so sin conscious you're not paying attention to the fact that as you walk under this covenant Grace and as you believe you're the righteousness of God and that seed of the new creation has been put on inside of you you're not gonna be doing the things you used to do because you're so focused on this unmerited love and favor but he says I will not impute sins I'll not hold against you sins if I gave you my master's car told you to go find a Neiman Marcus and everybody that's in this session go to Neiman Marcus and you may purchase anything you want it will not be put on your account but hold on a minute somebody got to pay for it it may look free but nothing's really free somebody's got to pay for it and so I asked a lot I said Hina work and I preached it I said what do you mean you're not gonna you're not gonna charge me with it if I make a decision is sin you're not gonna charge that on my account he said no I said I can't preach that that's almost heresy he said no you don't understand I said well I'm open he said why should I charge sin to your account when I've already charged it to the account of Jesus what he says I have already charged your sins oh my goodness on the body of Jesus Christ and I will not dishonor the blood of my son his blood got the job done now will you receive it his blood took care of your sins now will you receive it I will not impute sin to your account because I've already held all of your sins your past presidents in has already been placed on the body of my son and through his precious blood he has paid the account he has taken care of everything that was due to you there's another place where this double assertion is used in Hebrews I believe 13 and five where he says I will not leave you nor forsake you what he says it'll never happen I'm never gonna leave you or forsake you and I thought we I thought I was driving the Holy Ghost away I thought that he he I did something and I fell in the ditch it he don't want happening to do with me no more well who in the world do you think it is that's gonna get you out of the ditch he says I am never gonna leave you nor forsake you now you can ignore me and you can act like you don't want to talk to me but I am going to be there if you go here I'm gonna be there with you if you go to church I'm going there with you if you go to the liquor bar I'm going there with you cuz I gotta talk to you out before you kill yourself if you go there I'm going there with you I am NOT gonna leave you I have too much invested in this relationship I will not I will not it will not happen I will not leave you I'm not gonna leave you I will not leave you whoo I will not leave you when that brother dollar I don't think that's right well you remember when Cain the first murderer killed his brother go back and read it again right after he killed his brother guess what God was still talking to him God was talking to Cain saying boy this what you did you know how to do what's gonna happen men are gonna treat you like a vagabond they're gonna go around and do this and came to Ola and God say I tell you what I'm gonna do God talking to the first murder after murder he says I tell you what I'm gonna do see if it comes time you get yourself in a situation God is there to work on getting you out of that situation he is there with us so he can lead us and guide us and he wants to do us good and he said to him I'm gonna put a mark on you and that mark was to indicate that you are under my protection that mark is not a mark that spread and that's where black folks came from that is not what that is that is not a mark and you heard that well you know it's a mark put on Cain and Cain turn black and so that all black people curse I'm black I am NOT cursed I am blessed I am last black people on that curse they are blast so if your preacher is still preaching that telling me give me a phone call telling CREP alone talk to him a little bit but God put that mark on him as an identification to warn people if you come against him you come against me if you mess with Cain you mess with me now how is God defending the first murderer and he won't take care of you because you made a bad decision he will not leave you he will not forsake you he will not impute sin on your account he is your God you have been made righteous by this dog it'll not happen if you receive it I said if you receive it I said if you receive it see under the new covenant of grace it's not about all of your doing it's about all of your believing you keep thinking that you're doing its what Jesus has done I heard brother Copeland say something he was describing righteousness and how everything had been taken away and he used an illustration a vacation house he had that was torn down and he said the only thing that remained of that house was in his memory that everything else had been wiped away and as soon as they took care of the memory part that was gone - I'm telling you Jesus has taken care of everything and if you'll take care of the memory and start renewing your mind in this grace and renewing your mind in this righteousness and renewing your mind in believing what he's done you cannot live right if you don't believe right and if you don't change the way you think you won't change the way you live and you will continue to live a tormenting life as a Christian working hard to try to get God to move when in fact he's already moved working hard to try to get healed when in fact you have already been healed working hard to prosper when he's already prospered you Grace has made this already will you believe all of your time needs to be spent and see what you believe is what you'll say what you believe is what you say after a while you can't keep saying you believe some that you don't say I believe it's almost said I'm on my mind for I'm the righteousness of God God is with me God is for me God is on my side hallelujah hallelujah who can be against me God is with me God is for me God is on my side who can be against me hallelujah thank God for His grace I'm already healed I'm already delivered what am i doing I am now collaborating and corresponding and cooperating with what grace has already made available I'm responding to what grace is already done if I'm already healed and sickness it's my body now how will I respond will I respond in line with what Jesus is already done or will I respond in line with what the doctor just said was wrong I'm not just talking this is July this time last year I was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer and they said boy you're gonna have to hurry up and deal with this because this is moving and I didn't hurry up on that God told me to slow down hold up hold up he said do you believe the love I have for you yep I said you love me and I started feeding off that God you love me you love me you know you love yourself some creme flow dollar with an undying unconditional ever lasting love I know you love me yes sir you love me you love me he said do you believe you're righteous I said because you love me I'm the righteousness of God not by my works glory be to God but by what Jesus has done for me and I believe in Jesus and I believe in the blood and I took communion and I did I mean I did all I know to do to correspond with what was already done not to try to get God to do something but to correspond to line up with what was already done first sign that something was going on was when I went and had a type of where they call it thing when he puts you under this in this barrel and they look at Joey inside there yeah I'm one of them scan things MRI scan thing right so uh I went to the best I went to Chattanooga Tennessee that's the best yeah boy doc got in there and he started looking around and he started looking and saw looking and started looking and he kept me in there extra out then he gave me something to drink and look more and kept looking and kept looking and kept me and then he said uh doc could you come by my office I see I beeped in a minute he King met he met me in front he said come on back here I want to show you something and he had all these big screens and stuff up there and and he said nah I didn't go on in and out I'm gone around and through I'm going inside right side right - he said I don't see it it ain't here I've already seen it before holman Parliament I've already seen it I know what this is I know that this number shows up it lights up like a Christmas tree in here I don't know what's going on in here now he stopped the screen I ain't playing with y'all my son was sitting there with me he stopped the screen when he stopped the screen the the stuff on the screen formed the face of Jesus listen I looked at the screen and I looked at my son and he looked at me and I'm looking around I'm like y'all seeing what I'm seeing there's a man in me man the man Christ Jesus he's living in me hallelujah whoa glory to God Oh with his strikes what's this I was already here I'm already in righteous I'm already seated with him in heavenly places I'm already delivered I'm already rich now tomorrow if I if I get a chance tomorrow morning I'll have much time in the morning but I want to talk to you about grace based financial prosperity and I want to show you how to apply the covenant of grace to your prosperity so that you can start walking in it immediately I'll say this I declare now I ain't got the clinton as i teach it tomorrow while you're seated listening you will become successful y'all better listen to what I'm sayin what I have preached to you this afternoon ladies and gentlemen is the gospel this is the gospel and our country brags about being carriers of it and and a whole lot of this nation hasn't heard this gospel and when this gospel has been preached in all the world then the end will come this gospel I'm in lift your hands I'm saying out loud with me I'm a believer now not a doubter I believe in this gospel in this grace of Christ I receive what Jesus through his blood has accomplished for me I'm already healed I'm already delivered I'm already hold I'm already sound I'm already prosperous I receive everything that grace has made available to me and I release my faith and respond to all of the Finnish works of Jesus I am free from every compulsive disorder [Applause] God loves me and I know it I'm righteous by faith and I know it sin cannot stand against my righteousness by faith therefore I will not be governed condemn shame by sins pass but whom the Sun sets free is free indeed I am free indeed come on give the Lord a shout and giving praise hallelujah woo

Channel: Kenneth Copeland Ministries

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Length: 82min 52sec (4972 seconds)

Published: Wed Aug 23 2017