627-1 THE AMEN CORNERAugust 16, 1981
Henry F. Kulp
Hebrews 11: 1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
This morning we want to talk to you about a very important subject—the subject of faith. Many people talk about faith, but they have little understanding of faith. You know we are saved by faith, we live by faith. So faith is very important in the believer’s life.
1/ The word, substance, is HOOP-STAS-IS / TITLE DEED / EVIDENCE OF OWNERSHIP.
So faith is the title deed of things hoped for. If someone would challenge your ownership of your automobile, or your home, the property there, you can prove it by the title deed. You can go into court, and if the title deed is valid, you can prove that this land or this car belongs to you. So faith is a title deed—proof of ownership.
2/ Then we have the word, evidence. This Greek word is used in John 8: 46
Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me?
Here where Jesus Christ says, Which of you convinceth me of sin? The word, convinceth, is the same Greek word, means the convincing, the proof, it means assurance.
3/ Of things not seen. That is a pretty tall order. Faith is the title deed of ownership of things not seen. It is the evidence, the assurance of things not seen.
4/ So faith is what God has declared gives the individual absolute assurance and firm conviction of the reality of things which the natural eye has never seen. Yet these things are very real to the man of faith. Even though he cannot see, feel, taste, smell, or handle. He knows his senses may deceive him, but the Word of God is infallible.
5/ Hebrews 11: 27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.
Here we have an example of how faith works. Moses was literally a big man in Egypt. Riches, position was all his. He was trained in all their knowledge, in all their wisdom, and he forsook all this for the Hebrew Messiah. So, for the Messiah’s sake, Moses forsook Egypt. By faith, he gave up all his privileges there, and in spite of great trial, endured as seeing Him who is invisible. So faith enabled him to see the invisible, and this faith was stronger than all the pull of the advantages of Egypt.
6/ Let us look at the word, faith, and the English word, believe, come from the same word, the same Greek word.
7/ Genesis 15: 6 And he believed in the Lord; and he counted it to him for righteousness.
If I were to ask you where do you find in the Scriptures, the word, believe, for the first time, it would be in this Scripture. Here we have recorded, God making a covenant with Abraham. God told Abraham something and Abraham believed it. Then, because he believed, he had faith, for it is the same word. It was counted to him for righteousness.
8/ But the interesting thing here is the Hebrew word, is our English word, Amen. So literally we could read it And Abraham said, Amen, And God counted it to him for righteousness. So faith is actually saying Amen to what God has said. In other words, so be it. That is true.
9/ The word, faith, occurs two times in the Old Testament.
First of all Deuteronomy 32: 20 And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.
Here God’s covenant people are accused of having no faith. The word, faith, here is translated from the same Hebrew word as believe in Gen. 15. It still gives us our English word, Amen.
10/ Habakkuk 2: 4 Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.
The just shall live by faith. Again the word, faith, is from the Hebrew word that gives us our English word, Amen. The just shall live by His “Amen”. It is the Hebrew word, AW-MAN’ So faith then, is saying Ah-men, so be it to anything that God has said.
11/ NO MATTER WHAT THE SCRIPTURE SAYS, FAITH BOWS ITS HEAD AND SAYS, THIS IS TRUE, AMEN.
12/ Romans 3: 23 For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;
Let us get an example. There is no difference, all have sinned. And what does faith say? Faith bows its head and says, Amen, it is true.
Romans 6: 23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
For the wages of sin is death. Faith says, Amen. The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord, and faith says, Amen. It is true.
13/ IS IT NOT WONDERFUL THAT YOU CAN BE SAVED BY JUST SAYING, AMEN?
14/ Romans 4: 20, 21 He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform.
Again, we have a Scripture talking about Abraham. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief. God gave him a promise, he did not fail to say, Amen. He was fully persuaded when he said, Amen.
15/ That is all there is to it.
16/ Isaiah 53: 1 Who hath believed our report? and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?
Faith to some people, is something that is miraculous. Something that is supernatural—it is something more than just saying, Amen. And would you say, Oh, that’s true, I’ll say, Amen to that.
Let’s look at our Scripture. Who hath believed our report? Again, that is the word, Amen. Who has said, Amen to our report? To whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? So all God says, Who is willing to say, Amen—So be it—to our report? There is nothing miraculous or supernatural, about that. You see, when you were born into this world, you were given the privilege of volition. You are constantly making choices, and here your choice is I say, Amen, I believe what God has said.
17/ Psalm 27: 13 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Here is one of my favorite passages. I had fainted unless I had believe, had said, Amen, to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.
Everywhere I look, I see trouble, I see anything but goodness, sin is everywhere, but by saying Amen to what God has said, I see the goodness of the Lord amidst all this sin and rebellion and trouble and trial.
18/ The believer has three visions: The eyes, the physical. The unsaved man and animals have this also.Then, secondly, eyes of reason. The unsaved have this as well. Number three the eye of faith—that eye that says, Amen. Only the believer has this.
19/ Exodus 4: 29 - 31 And Moses and Aaron went and gathered together all the elders of the children of Israel: And Aaron spake all the words which the Lord had spoken unto Moses, and did the signs in the sight of the people. And the people believed: and when they heard that the Lord had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped.
God sent Moses and Aaron to the people—they were in the house of bondage in Egypt, and they were in terrible slavery, And Moses and Aaron went and gathered all the elders of the children of Israel, and Aaron spoke all of the words which the Lord had commanded unto Moses, and did signs in the sight of all the people.
Notice, signs are a birthright if Israel, and the people believed, the people said, Amen. That’s all they did—nothing miraculous about this. They just believed what they heard and what they saw, and they bowed their heads and worshipped. Saying Amen caused them to bow their heads and to worship God. They believed what God had said.
20/ Deuteronomy 27: 15, 16 Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen. Cursed be he that setteth light by his father or his mother. And all the people shall say, Amen.
Here it tells us all the people shall answer and say, “Amen”. That is our word, faith, our word, believe.
21/ Nehemiah 5: 13 Also I shook my lap, and said, So God shake out every man from his house, and from his labour, that performeth not this promise, even thus be he shaken out, and emptied. And all the congregation said, Amen, and praised the Lord. And the people did according to this promise.
Here God says, So God shake out every man from his house and his labor that performeth not this promise. Even thus shall he be shaken out and emptied and all the congregation said, “Amen.” “So be it,” and praised the Lord. Here is our word, faith, here is our word, believe, again. So be it—as God has said.
22/ There has been nothing miraculous, nothing supernatural, it is the individual using his volition and saying, Amen.
23/ I John 5: 9 - 11 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son. And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.
If we say, Amen, to things that men write, and of course, we do, we can certainly say, Amen, to the things that God writes. His witness is far greater than man’s.
24/ The words, witness, record, and testify are all one and the same in the Greek, so in the two verses, (three) let us use the word, testimony instead of witness and record. And we come to the 10th verse. I want you to see two things, to believe the testimony is to believe God, for He is the One Who did the testifying, all you are doing is saying Amen to the testimony of God or what God has said. Secondly, you believe what the One God is testifying about, that is His Son. All you are saying is Amen, he that doesn’t have the Son, he doesn’t have life, but he that has the Son, has life.
25/ Romans 10: 6 - 8 But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:) Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.) But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
We hear about the righteousness which is of faith. Of Amen. We are not saying in our heart, who shall ascend into Heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above, Who shall descend into the deep, that is to bring Christ again from the dead. No. It is the Word of faith, the word of Amen, which we preach.
26/ Romans 10: 14 - 17 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
How are they going to call upon Him whom they have not said, Amen, to? How shall they say, “Amen” to His report, if they haven’t heard it? If it hasn’t been published, proclaimed. There is no still voice that is heard. There was no miracles that we behold. It is the Word of God that is preached. Without the Word to hear, there is no belief. One cannot say, Amen. So the Word of God and faith, Amen, believing, go hand in hand.
27/ James 2: 19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble.
In other words, you say, Amen, there is one God, but so do the demons, so believing there is one God, saying Amen, to one God, will not save you. There is no saving faith in saying I believe there is God, there is only one God, No where in the Bible does salvation depend on saying only, there is one God. You will find there are millions of people who believe there is only one God.
28/ John 5: 39, 40 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me. And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
Here we have the Pharisees searching the Scriptures and they imagine they have eternal life, but they fail to see that the Word of God, the Scriptures testified of Jesus Christ, and they wouldn’t say, Amen, to Christ that they could have life. This is what these leaders of the nation had to do. Search the Scriptures and see Christ and say, Amen, Christ is what the Bible is all about. We have millions of people today who believe the Bible is a good book. A fine book, and they read it, and study it, and they hear sermons from it, but they fail to see that the Bible is about Jesus Christ. And they might even say, Amen, the Bible is the Word of God. But they fail to see that they must say, Amen, Jesus Christ is what the Bible is all about. He is the object of the Bible. He is some and substance of the Bible. You must say, Amen, about what the Bible says about Jesus Christ.
29/ John 3: 11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
Verily, verily, that is literally, Amen, Amen, I say unto thee. We speak that which we do know and testify to that which we have seen, and ye received not our witness. You won’t say, Amen, to what we have said.
30/ There are those who say you don’t believe with your head, you BELIEVE WITH your heart, you are just 12 inches off.
I have heard so many evangelists and Bible teachers and pastors say this, and of course it is utterly ridiculous. I don’t mean to insult anyone, but it is pure nonsense. You can only believe, you can only say Amen, with your mind. Your lips may say it, but it is your mind that is telling your lips to say it. Your heart has absolutely no ability to say or to think, all it does is pump blood throughout the body. Of course the word, heart, is symbolic. It is only a figure of speech.
31/ Genesis 6: 5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
This is the first mention of heart in the Bible, and you can’t say your heart thinks only evil continually. Of course not.
32/ Matthew 9: 4 And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?
Think ye evil in your heart. The Hebrew word for heart is translated twelve times with the word, mind—so you see they are synonymous.
33/ So you either believe, or you don’t believe. You either say, Amen, or you don’t say, Amen. There is nothing miraculous about it. It is using your volition.
AMEN
Ref: 08/16/1981 / 627-1 THE AMEN CORNER / 02/08/2021
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