Alright, if you will, let's open
to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. I was going to say this would be
a really good message if someone was visiting with us and they
had never heard the gospel. But that's me. Today is a new
day. I need to hear it again. Tell
me an old, old story. It doesn't change for us, does
it? Romans chapter 10, we'll read our text here, beginning
verse 11. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall
not be ashamed. For there is no difference between
the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. 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. that they have not all obeyed
the gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath
believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. The title of my message this
evening is Call on Christ. call on Christ. Our salvation
and our righteousness before God is by the grace of God through
faith that He gives His people. It's the only way we have either.
We have any salvation, we have any righteousness, the Lord's
gracious to His people and He gives it to us. And when saved
people, that's the believers, those in Christ, children of
God, saved folks, When saved people have Christ revealed in
them, they believe Christ and they call on Christ. They believe
Christ and they call on Christ. What is it we call on Him for?
Children of God are given faith to believe on Him, but we call
on Christ for life. Lord, give us life. We call on
Him to heal our souls, to provide all things physical for us, everything
materially in this world. Lord, if I eat, you have to give
it to me. And more especially, we call on Him for all spiritual
blessings. Anything that's required of me,
Christ must provide it. We call on our substitute for
our righteousness. Lord, don't let me show up my
own righteousness, not my own filthy rags, calling you for
your righteousness. We call on Christ to give us
peace and true rest in Him. That's where our comfort lies,
in Him. We call on Him to lead us, call
on the Spirit to lead us. Psalm 23, lives by those still
waters. Keep us, Lord. Give us peace
and lead us. Your will be done. That's what
we pray. And we pray that Christ is with us always. We're calling
to Him, Lord, don't leave me nor forsake me. Stay with me.
I'm calling Christ to receive all the glory for every bit of
that. Lord, you have the glory. Call
to Him. This saving faith to believe
on Christ and to call on Him is an evidence of that circumcised
heart. It's evidence of a heart work
that the Lord's performed in His people. It is substance for
you and I that believe that He's given us faith, that He's saved
us, He's done a work for us. It's further proof that salvation's
of the Lord. If we have saving faith, we know
the Lord gave it knowing. Hebrews 11 says, Now faith is
the substance of things hoped for. We hope for Christ. We believe Him. We call to Him. But we hope to see Him and be
made like Him one day. Until then, the Lord gives us
faith. That's our substance. We have that. We possess it.
He gave it to us. Now, faith is the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Well, how
do you know that God's real? I believe Him. He gave me faith to believe Him.
It's true. How does the Lord open our hearts
and our eyes to see Christ, to believe Him, and to call on Him
for everything that the Lord requires of us? He sends His
Word to His people. Through the preaching of the
gospel, He quickens our souls and makes His own word effectual
in us, so that He gets all the glory. When we get to the end
of this passage, I've got to preach on preaching for a little
bit, and that's always awkward for me. But the Lord makes it
clear, He has to be sent. For me to stand here before you
and preach tonight, there's no glory in myself for that. He
has to enable us. But Paul is speaking about the
saving faith here in chapter 10. And he says there in verse
6, but the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this
wise, say not in thy heart. He's saying this is what the
righteousness of faith does not say. Who shall ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down
from above. Saving faith, true faith in Christ, believe in Him
and call on Him, does not say we did something to make Christ
save us. I let Him, I chose Him, I did something. It does not
say that. Verse 7, or who shall descend into the deep? That is
to bring up Christ again from the dead. Righteousness that
is of faith, true saving faith, does not say we need to do something
after Christ redeemed us. Christ bought us, He paid for
us in His blood, now we've got to do something. True faith doesn't
say that. What does it say? Verse 8, Romans
10 verse 8. But what saith it? The Word is
nigh thee. The Lord is present with us.
Christ be with us. Even in thy mouth and in thy
heart, that is the Word of faith which we preach. That if thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, if we're given
the ability to call on Christ, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised Him from the dead, if we believe Christ,
if we call on Him and we believe Him, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart the man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation." If we believe on Christ and we call on Him,
we shall be saved. If the Spirit hadn't come to
somebody and convicted them that they're of sin yet, if the Lord
hadn't done a work in them yet, that doesn't mean anything. If
I had to get out of jail free card right now, if I could get
away with one parking ticket, But I ain't got no parking tickets.
It don't mean a hill of beans to me, does it? I pray the Lord
to convict us of what we are, what we deserve, what we have
coming to us if we're outside of Christ. Who does this apply
to? This saving. Saved from eternal
damnation. Saved from a curse of the law.
Saved from the curse of what we deserve. The worm that never
dies. Is that me? Am I eligible for
this? Can I be a partaker in this?
Is it you? Who is it? Who can be made righteous and
who can be saved? Look here in verse 11, Romans
10, 11. For the Scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall
not be ashamed. Look at verse 13. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Let me turn over to Isaiah 28.
Isaiah 28. Paul writes here in verse 11,
"...for the Scripture saith." This truth that a person given
faith to believe Christ and call on Christ and be saved, this
isn't an idea that Paul's coming up with. This isn't something,
oh, this is the New Testament doctrine. No, no. He's showing
here that this has been the Gospel from the beginning. Nothing's
changed. He's showing that the Old Testament
and the New Testament, they're in perfect agreement. There's
no difference. Isaiah 28, verse 16. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried
stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation. That's that
foundation of heavenly Zion, the Lord's kingdom. That's Christ.
He laid Christ as our foundation. And it says, colon, gives us
some information about this, concerning this. He that believeth
shall not make haste. Who's the he? It doesn't say
that the Jews that believeth shall not make haste. It doesn't
say the Gentiles that believeth shall not make haste. It doesn't
say good little boys and girls. The person, he, whosoever, there's
no qualifications to that, is there? We'll see that in a minute.
We're all the same. Every one of us. Whoever it is that believeth
on Christ, shall not make haste." That means they're not going
to be eager to search for anything else. They're going to be settled. Calm. Not hasty. Calm. The Lord reveals himself to somebody
and you know, Christ saved me. If I have any hope of salvation,
it's Christ. All of a sudden, you're just calm. You get hasty
during the day, you get hasty at work, hasty because the lawnmower
won't start or whatever. And you think, Lord, save me.
The cross came to this earth, bore the law for me, bore all
the wrath of God that I deserved for me. All of a sudden I ain't
too hasty. You won't be either, will you?
We've returned to Him. Now back to our text there in
Romans 10. We're given rest and we're made
to not be ashamed. But it's whosoever. Whosoever. Who is that? Paul explains it
a little bit for us here. Romans 10 verse 12. For there
is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same
Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon Him. Paul's hitting
this hard because those Jews that he's speaking with and those
that he preached to when he first started his ministry, they were
raised from birth They didn't call them Gentiles, called them
Gentile dogs. That was the lowest form of life.
And he's saying there is no difference between a Jew and a Greek. Same
lords overall. I thought while I was preparing
that, I wonder how that was preached in the 1800s in our nation. It
doesn't matter if you're a sharecropper, a slave, or a plantation owner. The same lords overall. But all the people are the same.
Talk about division among people. How do you end racism? That's
run rampant in our country right now on both sides of the fence. Guess what? We're one race. We're
Adam's race. We're all born of Adam and we're
all in trouble. We all have a deadly Hereditary
disease in us that encompasses us. Now some don't want to fight
our neighbors so bad, do we? We're in the same boat. Same
boat of corruption, but the same boat. Have the same need. Paul
told us that in Romans 3. He said, for all have sinned.
We're all in the same condition before God. Everyone born of
Adam is a sinner. We're all unprofitable, we're
all unable to save ourselves, and there's no difference between
any of us. We saw the news last night. There in Philadelphia,
they're having riots and breaking into stores, much like they did
just right up the road here a couple months ago. Those people walking
up down there, it's easy for me to, well, I'd drown if I got
my nose any higher than it rained, huh? I wouldn't do that. Well,
I shouldn't be doing that, that's wrong. I ain't no different than
they are. The Lord just hasn't took His
hand off of me yet. It's all in difference. His restraining
grace, His restraining love. And, not only am I no different,
the same God of salvation that saved me will be the same Lord
that saves any of those, or anybody else on this earth, that He chooses
to save. The sinner don't change, and thanks be to God, He doesn't
change. The Lord of our salvation doesn't change. There's been
many times, and I'll probably admit too much to you all of
my wrongdoing, but I wear my heart on my sleeve and I don't
care too much, but there have been a lot of times that people
said, well, what do you believe? Years ago, you had played at
night at work or something, tell me what you believe. You go to
church, what do you think? And foolishly and shamefully,
I'd say, you won't believe me. You wouldn't believe me if I
told you. for a multitude of reasons, but half because it's
coming out of my mouth. How horrible. Just like Jonah,
not willing to go preach to Nineveh. I wish the Lord would keep me
from that. But the same Lord that rules and reigns over this
whole universe is rich to whosoever calls on Him. He's rich to them. What's that mean? What's Paul
getting at? Turn over to Ephesians chapter 2. Just a few pages there.
Ephesians chapter 2. We're all dead in sin, all of
us. And the same Lord that saved
us by giving us faith in Christ, by making us call on Christ,
is the same Lord that was merciful to Abraham. That's the same Lord
that was merciful to the apostles. It was the same Lord that was
merciful to all the saints back in the 1500's. Same Lord is merciful
to you and I today, and as long as He allows this earth to keep
spinning, as He calls His people out, He'll be the same merciful
Lord to His people in the future. Nothing's going to change. Ephesians
2 verse 4, But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love
wherewith He loved us. Who's that us? Whosoever. Whosoever. Even when we were dead in sins,
hath He quickened us together with Christ. By grace are you
saved. Those given faith to believe
and call hath raised us up together and made us set together in heavenly
places in Christ, that in ages to come He might show the exceeding
riches of His grace in His kindness towards us through Christ. Those
of you that know Him, How rich is the Lord to us in mercy? It's a struggle for me to get
up here and talk for 30, 45 minutes to you. I should do everything
in my power to limit it to that. Our Lord's rich in mercy. And
it says that in ages to come, He might show the exceeding riches
of His grace and kindness towards us through Christ Jesus. We only
see a scratch on the surface. Our blessings in Christ, He's
going to reveal those to His people. He's going to continue
to show those to us. Verse 8, For by grace are ye
saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Many times
people use those words, whosoever, to just butcher the Gospel. To twist it to man's works, to
his will. And so while I called on Him,
I believed that's boastful. And it says, it's not of works
lest any man should boast. Well, that sounds like you're
saying that God has to make us believe and make us call on Him.
Absolutely. He does. It doesn't matter if
you're a sinner that's a Jew, if you're a sinner that's a Greek.
It doesn't matter if you're rich or poor. If you got a PhD or
you didn't even graduate grade school. If you're religious or
you've never opened a Bible, if you're the Pope or you're
a drug pusher, it don't make a difference. The source of all
spiritual blessings is the Lord of our salvation and that's in
Christ our Lord. That's where it all comes from.
If we have any hope and any salvation, that's the Lord that's going
to save us. He'll have to do everything for us. Ephesians
1, 3, it said, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly
places in Christ. In Him is where any blessings
want to come from. Now turn over to Joel, chapter
2. Joel, chapter 2. You've got Ezekiel,
Daniel, Hosea, Joel. And if you go to Amos, you've
been too far. Now remember our text says, for
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Paul is quoting Joel here. Joel 2 verse 32. Joel 2 verse 32. And it shall
come to pass shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on
the name of the Lord shall be delivered for in Mount Zion and
in Jerusalem shall be deliverance as the Lord hath said and in
the remnant whom the Lord shall call." We just said whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord and that said the Lord shall
call them. Yes. Is that a contradiction? No.
He's going to call you to call on Him. There shall be salvation
for everyone that calls on the name of the Lord, but that remnant,
that small amount of people, will be called of the Lord first. He'll call them for them to call
on Him. Men and women will not call on
the Lord until He calls us first. But we must call on the Lord.
We must call on Him. Whosoever shall call, those that
Christ was sent to save, will call on Him. He'll give us faith,
that substance of faith to call on Him. And whoever He sends
to call, they shall be delivered. Now what is it to call? Our text
said, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. What's this calling? It's not just saying some words.
Oh, Lord save me, I'm a sinner. Nope, that ain't gonna do it.
It's not just the mouth only. We've already seen that there's
a belief in the heart. The Lord gives us a heart to
believe. He plants an incorruptible seed in us. Gives us life to
believe on Him. This calling on Christ is the
action of that new heart. That's the performance of that
new heart He planted in us. It's like a cry of a child. We
was talking the other day. Those little babies, you'll hear
them cry, and you'll say, ah, what's going on? And then you
hear a different cry, and you come off the couch. You know
the difference between they stubbed a toe and somebody's bleeding,
don't you? Parents act a lot different. But sometimes it's
a cry of a child to a father. Other times it's a look. Jared
was fishing one time and caught a big old halibut. And he didn't
even speak. I got a picture of it. He just
looked over at me. locked eyes with me. And in those
eyes, he didn't have to say nothing. He said, Dad, I'm in trouble.
You're able to help me. Please come help me. That's all
I had to do, just look at me. My eyebrows changed, didn't they? To call on someone is to trust
they are able to help in time of need. If I saw fire coming
over the hill, I'd call the fire department. Why? They're able
to help in time of need, anything. That's called faith. Call 9-1-1,
you see flames, you have faith in the fire department. If we
call on our Lord to save us, we have faith in Him to do so. The apostles called to our master,
didn't they? As on that boat, storm came.
Lord, save us! The publican called on the Lord
in that temple. He said, Lord, be merciful to
me, a sinner. Well, watch somebody's mute.
The Lord saves some people who can't talk. I can't outwardly
say it. That woman with the issue of
blood called on Christ by believing Him and by touching Him. We read
that in Matthew 9. We can turn over there. Matthew
chapter 9. Matthew chapter 9 verse 20. And behold, a woman which was
diseased with an issue of blood twelve years, came behind him
and touched the hem of his garment. In some of the other books, this
woman had spent every dime she had trying to fix this issue
of blood. Nobody could heal her. And she
came behind him and touched the hem of his garment, for she said
within herself, Within herself. She didn't brag to everybody
in town. She didn't get a bullhorn and stand on a corner and tell
everybody. She said within herself, but if I may but touch his garment,
I shall be whole. But Jesus turned about him and
when he saw her said, daughter, be of good comfort. Thy faith
hath made thee whole. And the woman was made whole
from that hour. Right then. The Lord shed strong faith. Well,
that's a gift of God, isn't it? Lest any man should boast. We
can't even boast in our faith. He gave it to us. So we know that calling on Him,
calling on someone is to trust they're able to help. Knowing
they're able. And it's not only trusting that
they're able, we know that they're willing. They're willing to help. They're willing to come to us.
If I knew that I called 9-1-1 for that fire, and I knew that
them fire trucks wasn't coming, that they wasn't willing to come,
I wouldn't call them, would I? I have to know they're able,
and I have to know they're willing. We saw that in Ruth, that kinsman. He has to be related to us, he
has to be able to redeem us, and he has to be willing, willing
to redeem us. Our God delights to show mercy. God delights to show mercy. He
said in Micah 7, Who is a god like unto thee that pardoneth
iniquity and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? Lord, you pardon sin. He retaineth
not his anger forever because he delighteth in mercy. He's
willing. Zephaniah 3 says, for the Lord
thy God in the midst of thee is mighty. He's with us. He will
save. He will rejoice over thee with
joy. He will rest in His love and He will joy over thee with
singing. I don't think I'll enter into
that fully in this life. Like a prodigal son coming home.
He'll joy over us with singing. Put on the best robe, put the
ring on him. That's beyond me. But our God,
the God of our salvation, is not only able to save whosoever
that calls on Him, any tribe, tongue, nation, creed, doesn't
matter. He's willing to save them. He delights in mercy. We see what calling is, to look
to, to trust, to know that they're willing to help us. What is it to call on the name
of the Lord? In order it is to call to Him,
what is it to call on His name? It is to call on who He is, on
what He's accomplished, why He did what He's already done, and
where He is now. That's calling on His name. The
names of the Lord declare who He is, who we are, what Christ
accomplished, and that He receives all the glory for saving His
sheep. I've touched on these once before, but hopefully down
the road the Lord will give us time to look through these in
depth. We see Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will provide. Lord,
I can't come to you. I need a substitute. My blood
won't suffice. The Lord will provide Himself
a lamb. Jehovah-Rapha, the Lord that
healeth. Lord, help with my infirmities.
Jehovah Sitkenu, the Lord our righteousness. Any righteousness I have to come
before God's holy throne is Christ's righteousness. That's His name. Do I call Him my own? I call
Him the name of the Lord. Jehovah Sitkenu. Jehovah Silom,
the Lord our peace. Jehovah Reha, the Lord my shepherd. He leads us, guides me by the
still waters. Lord, continue to lead us. Jehovah Shammah, the Lord is
present. What we read? The Lord's nigh
unto thee. He's with us. How close? He's made one with
us. And then we glory only in Him. Jehovah Nissi, the Lord,
our banner. What flag do you fly? What you
proud of? What are you proud of? God saved me. In spite of myself, the Lord
saved me. He gets all the glory. All that call on the name of
the Lord shall be saved. That's certainty. It doesn't
give you a shot. It doesn't give you a chance.
You shall be saved if you call on His name. The Lord has given
you faith to believe Him and call on Him. How will we know
to call on Him? Now back to our text in Romans
10. How are we going to know to call
on the Lord? Well, you just go lock yourself in a... He's gone,
that Mordecai Ham from the late 1800s, early 1900s said he bought
about $600 worth of books back then and locked himself in a
cabin and six months later said he knew the Lord. I don't know
what kind of books he's reading, but the eunuch Ethiopian eunuch
had just went to a big religious festival, didn't he? All kinds
of religion going on, and he was heading back to Ethiopia,
and he was reading Isaiah 53. That's what we read for our scripture
reading. Now, if you were going to figure out the gospel by you
sitting down and reading by yourself, that would be the text to read,
wouldn't it? That would be a good text to
read. But what happened? The Lord sent Philip to him.
Philip heard him reading out loud and said, you know what
that means? He said, how can I know unless some man tell me?
As Don said, he said, scoot over and I'll show you. Let me hop
up there and tell you all about it. Whosoever calls on the name
of Christ and whoever believes shall be saved. Philip asked
him, he said, do you believe with all your heart? He said,
I believe that Jesus is the Christ. I believe with all my heart.
Look at verse 14. How are we going to know? Are
we going to be indifferent? How then shall they call on Him
in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe on
Him in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? That word heard there, obviously, the Lord saved some
deaf people too, hasn't He? That's an understanding. The Lord has
to teach us. He has to give us understanding,
give us wisdom. And how shall they hear without
a preacher? We homeschooled children. If
Kimberly took all our children and trained them from birth,
2 plus 2 is 3. 2 plus 2 is 3. And she told them that for 10
years. And they went out on their own. And she would go around
town saying, I taught my children mathematics. Probably didn't learn nothing,
did they? They weren't taught right. Listen to me. The Lord
can take an unbeliever and make them tell the truth. The Lord
will not save an unbeliever by a lie. They're not going to learn
mathematics by knowing 2 plus 2 is 5. And you're not going
to be taught who God is by being told lies. How do we know that? Jeremiah told the Lord, prophesied
through Jeremiah, that ain't going to happen. It ain't a matter
of if he can. He said, I won't. They won't
profit my people. They can't be taught. They can't
hear. They can't hear to believe on him and to know him. If that
preacher is telling them something that ain't right. God sure works. You didn't hear
the right thing. You can't know on him. You can't
believe him. 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. I have no pride to be had. If I say something and it blesses
you, most of the time if you comment on it, it's not something
I thought was a good thought anyway. The Lord uses that to
bless His people as He sees fit. But how beautiful are the feet
of them that preach the gospel of peace." I'll tell myself one
more time. When I was five, I heard this. Donald Stewart Fortner came to
stay at our house, like he did a lot. Henry preached and said,
Oh, how beautiful are the feet of them that bring the gospel.
I thought, I know that guy who preaches the gospel, whatever that is.
Him, my dad, and my mom was up real late at night around the
dining room table talking. They had their shoes off. I low
crawled through that house. I said, I want to see this man's
feet. They must be special. Must be different. I saw them. I said, they look just like feet.
Special about that man. How beautiful is the foundation
of the one that brings the gospel. How beautiful is that cornerstone,
the chief cornerstone that they stand on, that carries them all
the way there and bring glad tidings of good things. Those
things are special, aren't they? Now read it backwards. Read it
backwards. This is how we see it come to
pass in our lives. God sends a preacher. They declare
that all flesh is grass and that salvation is of the Lord. They
tell us the truth. The Spirit opens our ears and
we hear that. For the first time, we hear it.
We didn't just listen to it, we heard it. And once we hear
this good news of Christ, we're given new hearts and we believe
on Christ. We say, that's the truth. I believe
that. The Lord put a new seed in me
and I believe what that truth-sayer is saying. He's speaking the
truth. And when we've heard and believe
on Him, now we call on Him. We trust Him. We know He's able
to save to the othermost. And we know that He delights
in mercy. Lord, You're able and You're
willing. I've heard of you, I believe you, and I'm calling to you.
Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner." But that's an effectual call.
That's a work that the Lord does in His people. There's also a
general call. When the heavens opened up, when our Master was
baptized and said, this is my Son in whom I'm well pleased,
that's a true gospel message. That's a truth. On that Mount
of Transfiguration, the heavens opened and the Father said, This
is My Son, in whom I am well pleased. Hear ye Him. That came
with a command. That came in power to us. That's what the Lord does in
power to His people. Makes them believe Christ and
call on the name of Christ. Verse 16, But they have not all
obeyed this gospel. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath
believed our report? If we invested everything we
could to be on the daily news in this county, broadcast on
satellites and overhead projectors, whatever we could to hear this
gospel, our attendance probably wouldn't change too much. And
I'd be like Isaiah, Lord who's believed me. But that would prove
that the Lord has to send it, doesn't it? Verse 17, so then
faith cometh by hearing. We have faith by the Lord teaching
us faith and hearing by the Word of God, both by His written Word
of truth and by Him speaking into the hearts of His people.
Follow me. And they followed Him. Fear not,
and you quit fearing by His Word. It's my prayer that our Lord
would see fit to have me preach the good news of salvation in
the person and the work of my Lord Jesus Christ. I could tell
the truth of what the Lord says about His Son and about man.
And that He would cause His people to hear that message. Make us
hear. We're ruined by the fall, we're
redeemed by the blood, and the Holy Spirit must regenerate us.
That those chosen children of God, whosoever they are, whoever
it be, that we believe on Christ alone and that we call on Him
for all things. I've told you the truth. If the
Lord is gracious enough to make you hear, make you believe Him,
call on Him. Call on Christ. You won't be
ashamed. You will not be ashamed. Amen. Let's pray together.