In Genesis 4, verse 25, it says,
Adam knew his wife again, and she bare a son, and called his
name Seth. And this is why she called him
Seth. For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead
of Abel, whom Cain slew. So Seth's name means what Eve's
explained here. God has given me another seed
instead of Abel. He was a substitute. His name,
Seth, means substitute. Which helps us understand the
significance of the next verse. It says, And to Seth, to him
also, there was born a son, the son of the substitute. And he
called his name Enos. Then began men to call upon the
name of the Lord. And I've entitled this message
just that. Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord.
Now, according to Robert Hawker and to John Gill, the name Enos
means weak, frail, miserable, mortal. I think that's very interesting. Doesn't that describe all of
the people that the Lord saves? Weak, frail, poor, miserable. Enos lived to be over 900 years
old, it says in verse 7 of the next chapter. that actually in verse 9, Enos
lived 90 years and begat Cainan and then he lived after he begat
Cainan 815 years and all the days in verse 11 of Enos were
905 years and he died. Now that's old compared to us. It wasn't as old as Adam, or
not even as old as his father Seth, or as old as the people
who were after him. Perhaps he had some evident weakness. But we know that the Lord doesn't
write anything by accident. We know that God put this here
to teach us something. What I see here is that the children
of the substitute call on the name of the Lord because they're
weak and poor and frail and miserable, and in themselves they're nothing,
and they are taught that by God. They call upon the name of the
Lord. And so we want to consider this very simple thing from Scripture,
and yet very profound and very comforting, that here men began
to call on the name of the Lord. This is the first place it's
mentioned that men call upon the name of the Lord. No doubt,
though, that Abel called. Remember, Abel offered unto God
a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by the which God said he
was righteous, because God testified of his sacrifice, of his gift.
And it was because of the sacrifice, when Abel offered that sacrifice,
In faith, he was looking at the Lord Jesus Christ as his only
access to God, as all of his propitiation, all of his salvation. In offering the sacrifice, he
was testifying, confessing in what he did, Christ is all my
hope. And God looked at that outward
sign of Christ, and he took so much delight in that, because
it reflected what his son would do. So Abel definitely called
upon the name of the Lord and no doubt Adam did too because
he would have taught Abel what God had done for him and his
wife Eve when he clothed them with the skins of those animals
in chapter 3 in verse 21 to point to Christ, the Lamb of God. That's
what the scripture is about. It's about Christ, the Lamb of
God. If you miss everything else in
scripture, if you don't understand anything, but if you understand
that, And you've understood the message of this book, the Lamb
of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so men did call upon the
name of the Lord before Enos, but it's mentioned here. And
notice that in this time, at this time in history, there were
no Jews, there were no Gentiles, there were just people. And these
people, though they were through the line of Seth and not through
the line of Cain, who killed Abel, Yet we see that there was
no Jews and Gentiles, and that gives us a ground of assurance
that even those who were not the children of Abraham by physical
birth have a right to call upon the name of the Lord, because
these men here did. They called on the name of the
Lord. And there's no mention of those in Cain's line calling
upon the name of the Lord. But there is a mention here in
Seth, which, as I said, his name means substitute, reminds us
of our Lord Jesus Christ. In Hebrews chapter 2 verse 13
it says, Behold I and the children, the Lord Jesus said this, Behold
I and the children which God hath given me. He would declare
his name, the name of God, his own name, to the children which
God had given him. And that was quoted from Isaiah.
So the Lord gave his people to Christ to save and they were
called his children. He's called in Isaiah 9 verse
6, the everlasting father. And so we know that the people
of God are not just the people, the children of God the Father,
although we are predominantly that, but we're also called the
children of Christ in Scripture. So here we see the children of
the substitute calling on the name of the Lord, and that gives
me great comfort. Because when we call, it's an evidence that
we are the children of Christ, the children of our God and Savior.
And I want to look at some scriptures with you through the Bible that
deal with this thing of calling upon the name of the Lord. What
does it mean to call on the name of the Lord? Why do men call
on the name of the Lord? It's a simple word, isn't it?
Call. Remember when Peter was on the sea, he had asked Jesus,
Can I come to you? If it's you, Lord, let me come
to you on the water. And Jesus said, come. He gets out of the
boat. He's completely naked. He takes
off on top of the water. And he's walking on the water.
And as soon as he looks at the waves, because it was a stormy
night, he looked at the waves and he was afraid. And he began
to sink. And when he saw that he was sinking,
he called on the name of the Lord. Do you know what he said?
He didn't recite a lot of scriptures. He didn't have to recall a lot
of things from the Old Testament. He just said, Lord, save me. That's calling. That's what it
means to call. If you remember that, then you
won't get too far afield of the truth of what this means. To
call on the name of the Lord. Look at a couple of scriptures
with me. Look at Joel. Joel is right after
Hosea, which is right after Daniel. So it's near the end of the Old
Testament. Joel chapter 2. Here's a promise of God in Joel
chapter 2 verse 32. It says in Joel 2 verse 32, this
is also quoted in the New Testament two times. In Acts chapter 2
at least two times. Acts chapter 2 verse 21 and Romans
chapter 10 verse 13. But here's where it starts. It's
summarized here as a prophecy of what would happen after the
Lord Jesus went to the cross, accomplished our salvation, obtained
our redemption, and rose again from the dead, ascended to heaven,
and took his place in the right hand of God, praying for his
people. It says in verse 32, it shall come to pass that whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered or saved. For in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
shall be deliverance or salvation, as the Lord has said, and in
the remnant whom the Lord shall call." That's the promise. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be delivered. Look at Romans chapter 10. Hold
your place there, Joe, we'll come back to it. But Romans chapter
10 In verse 9, I want to read this
to you. Romans 10 is talking in the beginning
about how Paul was expressing his one desire that his brethren,
the children of Israel after the flesh, would be saved. But
he also said that they have a zeal of God, but it's not according
to knowledge in verse 2. And the reason that he knows
this is because they're ignorant of God's righteousness, which
is the obedience of Christ in His death and all of His sufferings
throughout His life, in doing the will of God to save His people.
But they're ignorant of Christ and His righteousness, so they
go about to establish their own righteousness, and they have
not, they would not submit themselves to the righteousness of God,
which is Christ. Which he says in verse 4, Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. And
then he talks in verse 5 about how Moses described the righteousness
which is of the law. That righteousness required a
man to do the law in order to live. In verse 6 and 7 he says,
this is what the righteousness of faith says. Don't say this
in your heart. Who shall ascend into heaven?
Because to ascend into heaven means to take the place of Christ
on the throne of heaven having accomplished our redemption.
So you can't say that because only Christ can do that, the
one mediator between God and men. Or, he says in verse 7,
who shall descend into the deep? Don't say that because only Christ,
the Son of God, could bear the sins of His people as the substitute
and pay for those sins. So don't think of any of those
things as doing anything. You can do nothing in order to
obtain this righteousness by what you do. It's the work of
Christ alone. That's what verse 6 and 7 is
stressing. It's Christ's work, not your work. So he says in
verse 8, what does that righteousness of faith say? The word is nigh
thee in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith
which we preach. The word of faith is the gospel
of what Christ has done. In verse 9, listen to these very
precious words. That if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus. Now think with me because we
often get We look at simple words like that and we don't understand
the impact of them. But in Acts chapter 2, the men
who crucified Christ were there hearing Peter in his sermon then. They had crucified the Lord of
glory, he said, by wicked hands. And yet God had raised him from
the dead and sat him, Christ, on the throne of heaven. Now
he reigns as king, as Lord over all, triumphant in our salvation. And he says, that one that you
crucified, is the Lord you have to call upon. So he says here
in verse 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth, you who
crucify the Lord of glory, you whose sins were the cause of
the death of Christ, Confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus. Jesus is his name because he
shall save his people from their sins. Lord is his place because
he did what he came to do. And, he says, he goes on, and
shall believe in thine heart. that God has raised him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved. To believe in the heart means
not to do something outwardly. That's why he emphasizes the
heart. It's not the heart in distinction from the mind. Understand
that. A lot of people say you have
to believe here instead of here. But that's not the point of believing
in the heart. Where in scripture does it say
don't believe in your mind? as in contrast to your heart.
I can't find it. Because as a man thinks in his
heart, so is he. It's not a contrast between our
thinking and our feeling. It's designed to teach us a contrast
between outward show and inward reality. What we believe in our
heart is what we truly are. That's what we think about things.
That's what we're convinced is the way things are. If a man
believes truly in his heart, if God has convinced and persuaded
a man the truth of the gospel of Christ, that God has raised
Christ from the dead. In other words, that he has put
his stamp of approval openly testifying to the fact that Christ
finished our salvation. He's the Lord. That's why he's
sitting on heaven's throne. If you confess with your mouth,
the Lord Jesus, the one who came, who walked this earth, in weakness,
apparent weakness, and was crucified in apparent weakness. He's the
Lord of all, the King of glory. He's the one who rose from the
dead because He accomplished the salvation of His people.
If you confess Him as the Lord, because you can't do so without
the Spirit of God, and you believe in your heart that God has raised
Him from the dead, you shall be saved. For with the heart
man believeth unto righteousness." It doesn't mean that our believing
causes us to be righteous or that faith is a substitute for
obedience. It means that we believe and
we receive in believing that righteousness which Christ has
already established. That's the way in which God gives
it to us personally. We receive it as those who don't
see it or understand it or are persuaded of it until God grants
us that faith to see and be persuaded and lay hold of it. This is mine.
It's all mine. It's my only hope what Christ
has done. That's what a man does with his
heart. With a heart, man believeth unto
the receiving of righteousness. And with the mouth. With the
mouth, confession is made unto salvation. When we speak of Christ
as our only hope, we're saying, this is the Lord Jesus Christ
is all my coming to God. He's all my standing before God.
And we say that heartily with our mouth. Even in opposition. to all that would oppose that
truth, even at the expense of our life and property and our
reputation, whatever follows. We're going to be honest about
this. Look, I have no other way of coming to God except by Him. And in coming in Him, I can come
to God in the full righteousness. that God accepts perfection in
every way. That's what we confess, right?
This is all my salvation and all my desire. David said it
in 2 Samuel 23 5, but here he says, now listen, in verse 11,
For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be
ashamed. Jesus gave an analogy. He said,
whoever builds his house on the rock, One man built his house
on the sand, and when the storms came, like those people who build
near the coastline, you see them as we drive down the coast, right
on the coast there, and the water is crashing against that, you
think, that house someday is going to fall. It can't not happen.
If you build your house on the sand, anything but Christ is
sand, then your house will fall. You will be put to shame in the
day of judgment. But here, if you build your house
on Christ, in other words, He's the only foundation. 1 Corinthians
3 No other foundation can man lay than that is laid, which
is Jesus Christ. If your house, your life, eternity,
if you venture upon Him and say, if I perish here, I perish. Christ
is my all and I have nothing else to bring to God. And I believe
that in coming by Him I have sufficient warrant to come. Then you will not be ashamed
before God. In the day of judgment, all will be put to shame but
those who are found in Christ. Verse 12. For there is no difference
between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all, because
He is God over all, and He is rich unto all that call upon
Him. And here's that verse from Joel
2.32. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. What a blessed promise. Don't
you find that to be a blessed promise? Whosoever. My name is
there in that whosoever, isn't it? Whosoever. How often have you wondered about
that? Lord, have you noticed where this place is in scripture?
Right after in the book of Romans, in chapter 9, God has given us
that austere chapter of election. How God, before the foundation
of the world, chose his people in Christ. And men are concerned
about that. Well, if God chose us, then I
can't do anything, and my destiny is determined, and what's the
use? That's not what this verse teaches,
is it? It doesn't say, what's the use? It says, no, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You see,
if we rightly understand the doctrine of election, then we
take confidence in the fact that if God has chosen a people, then
there's hope for me. Because if he hasn't, then there
is no hope. Unless the Lord of hosts had
saved for himself, reserved for himself a very small remnant,
then we would have all been destroyed, like Sodom and Gomorrah. God
has chosen to save some, and that's the reason any are saved,
and that's the reason any call. Look at Romans chapter 9 verse
23. He says in verse 23, that he
might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy
which he had aforeprepared unto glory, even us whom he hath called
Not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. For he saith
also in Hosea, or Osea, I will call them my people, which were
not my people, and her beloved, which were not beloved. And it
shall come to pass that in the place where it was said unto
them, You are not my people, there shall they be called the
children of the living God. God put his call, his name, on
his people And that's the reason they call. But here in Romans
chapter 10, lest any be concerned that, well, if I'm not one of
God's elect, then I don't have any warrant to call. How do I
know I'm one of God's elect? I don't know. I don't feel the
right thing. I don't do the right thing. I
know I'm a sinner. What hope do I have? Whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. You don't need to worry about
your election. You need to call. You need to
call on Christ. That's the Lord he's speaking
about here. The Lord Jesus. That's who he
said in Romans 10.9. If thou shalt confess with thy
mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath
raised him from the dead, and set him on his throne, With a heart man believeth unto
righteousness. And then he goes on and he says
here, The same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon
him. That's the Lord Jesus. Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord, Jesus. He doesn't say Jesus here, but
that's who he's speaking about. How do we know that? Well, look
at Joel chapter 2 again. Joel chapter 2. He says in verse
32, it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord, capital, all uppercase, L-O-R-D. The Lord there in Old
Testament scriptures, when it's all uppercase, means Jehovah,
the Lord. To call on Jehovah, the Lord. But here in Romans chapter 10,
the Lord is the Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Acts chapter 4. Keep
your place there and joke, because we will come back to that. But
look at Acts chapter 4. In verse 10, Peter is preaching
to those men who were very familiar with Jesus as a man and didn't
think He was anything more than a man. But he says in verse 10,
Be it known unto you, be it known unto you all, and to all the
people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth,
Whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by
him doth this man stand here before you whole, the lame man
who was healed. He says in verse 11, this is
the stone which was set at naught of you builders, which is become
the head of the corner. Neither is there salvation in
any other, for there is none other name under heaven given
among men, whereby we must be saved. Now, if the Lord says,
call upon the name of the Lord, and there's no other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved, then that means
that Jesus Christ is the Lord. Jehovah God, one with the Father
and with the Spirit. Look at Isaiah chapter 45. See that there? This is where
the Lord Himself has explained it. In Isaiah chapter 45, in
verse 21, He says, Isaiah 45, 21, Tell
ye, the Lord says, Tell ye and bring them near. Yea, let them
take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? He's challenging all the false
gods of the idolaters. He says, Tell ye and bring them
near. Yea, let them take counsel together.
Who hath declared this from ancient time? What has been declared
from ancient time? Who hath told it from that time?
What? What? Have not I, the Lord, that
there is no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior? There is none beside me. What
has God been saying from the foundation of the earth? That
there is no God beside me, a just God and a Savior. Here the Lord takes that quality
of himself and declares it to us, this is my glory, forgiving
iniquity, a just God and a Savior. How could any be both just and
justify the ungodly? Because that is his name, a just
God and a Savior. Now look on. He speaks. The Lord hears the one speaking.
He says, Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the
earth, for I am God and there is none else. And now in verse
23, this actually is quoted in the New Testament in Romans 14.11
and applied to the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, I have sworn
by myself, the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness
and shall not return. Then unto me every knee shall
bow, and every tongue shall swear. To who? To the Lord Jesus Christ. You see it also in Philippians
2 verse 9-11. Every knee is going to bow, every
tongue is going to confess to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
the Lord. And yet, here he tells us now,
before that day, look unto me and be ye saved all the ends
of the earth for I am God and there is none else. Verse 24,
surely shall one say, Not just one, but many. But we who believe
say this, in the Lord have I righteousness and strength, even to Him shall
men come. And all that are incensed against
Him, that means they are absolutely livid and angry against the Lord
Jesus Christ. All who are such incensed against
Him shall be ashamed. But those who come say this,
in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall
glory. This is the one we're to call
upon. This is the one we call. Look
at Joel chapter 2 verse 32 again. He says, there and it shall come
to pass that whosoever shall call on
the name of the Lord shall be saved. You know, I think that
word, whosoever, is a wonderful word, isn't it? Doesn't that
word give you comfort? I read in the news, it's a very
sad thing, there's so many sad things to read in the news. I
read in the news about a woman who was about to be sentenced
because she had embezzled 1.2 million dollars and she took
her life because she knew that was coming. What a tragedy. That's
a tragic thing, isn't it? Someone takes their life. I can't
think of a worse thing to do. Well, there is actually. But
anyway, that's a tragedy. But though we bear the blame
of our sin, and though we may have to suffer the consequences
of it in jail or wherever, with the Lord, there is forgiveness. And that none should despair,
whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." That's amazing, isn't it? Whosoever. Jesus said in Matthew 11, 28,
"'Come unto me, all ye who labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest.'" Does that exclude any sinner?
No. It opens the door to every sinner. You who labor and are heavy laden. You who labor and are heavy laden.
You labor because you wonder. How can a man be just with God?
How could I possibly be accepted by God? He knows my heart. He
knows my thoughts. He knows that I have no spiritual
value before Him. I can't bring anything. I can't
bring my tears. They're not enough. Even if I
could bring them, if I could cry them. I can't bring my sorrow. It comes and goes. I can't bring
even my faith because when I begin to look for my faith, it disappears.
It's like one of those things. You look for it and it's gone
because it's never meant to be seen. Faith looks to Christ. You can't find faith within by
looking for it. You only find faith when you
see Christ and when your trust is in Him. But whosoever, it
excludes none. It allows all who call to come.
What does it mean to call on the name of the Lord? First of
all, consider these words here with me carefully from Joel chapter
2. He says, "...whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord
shall be delivered, or as it's quoted in the New Testament,
shall be saved." Therefore, if we call, why are we calling? We're calling as a sinner. aren't
we? We're calling as a sinner to
be saved. We're calling on the Lord. I
want to read this verse to you from Jeremiah chapter 17. In
Jeremiah 17, verse 5, he says, Thus saith the Lord God, Cursed
be the man that trusteth in man, that maketh flesh his arm, and
whose heart departeth from the Lord. A man who trusts in himself,
or trusts in any who is not the Lord, is a man who is cursed. But in verse 7 of the same chapter,
Jeremiah 17, he says, So it's the Lord we trust, the Lord we
call upon. And I just read those verses
from Isaiah to prove to you that this is the Lord Jesus Christ.
And whosoever shall call on Him, we call upon Him because we are
sinners, don't we? No one will call on the Lord
who doesn't know he's a sinner. There's no point. Why would I
call on the Lord if I'm not a sinner? The Pharisee in Luke chapter
18, he prayed with himself, Jesus said, when he said, God, I thank
thee that I'm not like other men. Other men are. I fast twice
in a week. I give tithes of all that I have.
I'm not like this publican over here. I haven't extorted someone.
He came to God boasting in himself, presenting himself to God for
acceptance. That's not calling upon the Lord.
He used God's name. Those men in Matthew 7, 21 and
23, they said all that they did, they did in the name of the Lord
Jesus. They didn't call upon Him though,
because they were lost. All who call on the name of the
Lord are saved. Therefore, all who are lost have
never called on the name of the Lord. We call when we're sinners. And sinners call for salvation.
Hold your place in Joel and look in Psalm 116. This is a blessed thing. Psalm 116. This is really an endearing chapter
of the Bible. He says this in verse 1 and 2. Listen, it sums up the whole
Psalm in verse 1 and 2. We'll read that first. He says,
Psalm 116. I love the Lord. Why? Because he hath heard my voice
and my supplication. Because he hath inclined his
ear to me. Therefore will I call upon him
as long as I live. Why do I love the Lord? Because
he heard my cry. But how did I know what to cry?
Is calling on the Lord repeating some words that the preacher
gives you? I know that that's a popular
thing for men to do. They write it down and they put
it on websites and stuff. Just say this prayer after me.
Lord, I know I'm a sinner. Lord, I know I'm a sinner. And
so on. I believe that if someone has
to give you the words to say, if God hasn't put it in your
heart, then you haven't called on the name of the Lord. And
I don't say that to be mean or to be arrogant. When Peter was
drowning, he didn't have to go back to find out what John thought,
how to call. He just said, Lord, save me.
That was simple, wasn't it? The thief on the cross, Lord,
remember me. The blind man, what do you want
me to do for you? Lord, that I might have my sight. The leper
comes to Jesus and he says, he worshipped him. He says, if you
will, you can make me clean. You see, calling is a simple
thing. God puts it in your heart as a sinner. God, be merciful
to me, the sinner. You call when God calls you. And here the psalmist says, I
love the Lord because he hath heard my voice. Because he hath
inclined his ear to me. Before I knew what to call, he
gave me the words to call. And He put it in my heart, that
desperation. How am I going to come before
God? How am I going to answer Him? And they raise the question. And then the answer always comes
from God. He hems you up. He puts you in.
He might take years, depending upon how much invested we are
in our own righteousness. He might take years to break
you down and to bankrupt you. But He's going to do that and
He's going to come to that point where you say, I don't know what
to pray. The only thing I can say is,
Lord Jesus, save me. If you are not all of my salvation,
I have no hope. And so the psalmist says, that's
what he did for me. He heard my cry. He heard my
voice and my supplication because he inclined his ear to me. Therefore
will I call upon him as long as I live. Look at in verse,
the same chapter. He says in verse, let's see,
which verse is it? Here it is. No, that's not it.
Sorry. Here it is, verse 4. What does
a person who calls on the name of the Lord call for? He calls
for salvation. Verse 4, Then called I upon the
name of the Lord, O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Why did he do that? Because,
he says in verse 3, the sorrows of death compassed me, and the
pains of hell got hold upon me. I found trouble and sorrow. You
see, the grip of fear of facing God with my sin got hold of me.
And I called upon the name of the Lord, the one who is my judge. I called upon him as my Savior. You're a just God and a Savior. Find a way, Lord, to save me,
this pitiful, helpless, ruined, lost, frail, weak, miserable
sinner. That's why men call upon the
name of the Lord, because like Enos, they need the Lord. We
know it's about salvation because look at verse 12. He says, What
shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?
I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the
Lord. So calling upon the name of the
Lord is calling upon the Lord Jesus Christ because there's
no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved. He's the Lord. We confess that
Jesus is the Lord and that God has raised him from the dead.
So calling upon the Lord is calling upon Christ, and is calling upon
Him as a sinner with no hope, helpless, ruined, and needing
to be saved, and calling upon Him as my Savior. That's His name, isn't it? Jesus.
He shall save His people from their sins. Their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. We call upon Him, the One who
saved us. This is my covenant unto them,
when I shall take away their sins. That's what we need, don't
we? Now look at John chapter 4. John
chapter 4. The woman at the well called
upon the Lord Jesus. But not at first. She was a sinner. But she didn't want to admit
it. And so Jesus asked her for a
drink. And in verse 10 of John chapter 4, after she was going
back and forth about why are you talking to me, I'm a woman,
I'm a Samaritan, Jesus answered and said to her in John 4 verse
10, If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee,
Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would
have given thee living water. To call on the name of the Lord,
is to ask. Ask Him, Lord, save me. Lord, give me what I don't have. I need life. I need to have my
sins taken from me. I need to see that the Lord Jesus
Christ is all of my life, all of my salvation, the propitiation
to God. The satisfaction. The fulfillment
of all my righteousness. My redemption. My righteousness. My remission. My reconciliation. He's everything. I need to see
that. And I need to be convinced of it. Lord, persuade me. But she goes on. In John chapter
4, Jesus said this in verse 22. Well, she had asked this question.
She said, in verse 20, in 19 and 20, she said, I perceive
you're a prophet. Our fathers worshipped in this
mountain, and you say that in Jerusalem is the place men ought
to worship. Jesus answered. He said to her, Woman, believe
me, the hour cometh when you shall neither in this mountain
nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship you know
not what. We know what we worship for what? Salvation is of the Jews. How do we worship God? There's
only one way you can worship God. As a needy sinner, seeking
salvation, finding it in Christ. That's the only way. Salvation
is of the Jews. Verse 23, But the hour cometh,
and now is, when the true worshipper shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him,
not in a place, in Jerusalem or Samaria, but in the heart,
in spirit, and in truth, the truth of God declared to us concerning
Christ. The woman said to him, I know
that when Messiah comes, which is called Christ, when He has
come, He will tell us all things. Jesus said to her, I that speak
unto thee am He. And then jump over to the next verse,
verse 28. Then the woman left her water
pot empty at the well. She went her way into the city
and said to the men, Come, see a man which told me all things
that ever I did. Is not this the Christ? She left. She forgot that she was thirsty
for the things of this world because she found everlasting
life in Christ, the fountain of living water. She was made
to call upon him. He revealed himself to her. And she said, This is it. He's
the one. And she worshipped God the Father
when she worshipped Christ for His salvation. So calling upon
the name of the Lord is coming to Christ, coming to God in Christ,
and calling upon Him as a sinner and worshipping God as one needy. Look at Psalm 50 verse 15. Psalm 50. This is the Lord. He teaches
us. He says this in Psalm 50, verse
15, "'Call upon Me in the day of trouble.'" Enos, your name means frail and
weak and sick and mortal, miserable. "'Call upon Me in the day of
trouble. I will deliver thee, and thou
shalt glorify Me.'" We become the objects of God's saving grace
when God works in our heart and convinces us that Christ is all
and as needy sinners we lay hold on eternal life in Him. We take,
we drink, we eat, we come thirsty and without anything to pay and
anything to offer, no promises to make because what could we
do to fill them? And what good would it do if
we could fill them? God has found righteousness in His Son. He
provided it and accepted it. Raised Him from the dead and
we believe in our heart. That's all God is looking for.
And so we call in the day of trouble. When our sin is troubling
us, when the troubles of life, when health, when judgment day,
when our conscience, it doesn't matter what it is, we call upon
the name of the Lord. And when we call, God gets the
glory because He saves us. Well, we say, well, I didn't
see a change in my life. No, you did. You called. You were a blind and helpless
sinner, but you didn't know it. And then God made it known to
you. You called and you looked. You said, Christ is my all. Then
God is glorified. Faith glorifies God because faith
agrees with God and says the same thing. Gives praise to God
for the truth He's revealed to us. It's a call, isn't it? Whosoever shall call on the name
of the Lord shall be saved. And men say, well, I remember
back when I was seven years old, I went forward. I did that. I
personally did. I went forward in church. I did
what the preacher said. I shook his hand. I told him
why I came down there. I want to ask Jesus into my heart.
That's what you said I need to do to be saved. I don't want
to go to hell. I was even afraid to say that. to the preacher,
but I did what he said to do. And sometimes people look back
and say, see, that was what happened. I called then. If we have to
look back at a time to find out when we called, we haven't called. Because the one who calls didn't
just call once at memorable time. It might be memorable, but we
call continuously. There's never a time when a believer
isn't calling. Yeah, sure, I know that sometimes
we get ourselves wrapped around different problems, even our
own sin, and we are distant. It seems that God's presence
is so far from us. It's as if we had never known
the truth. And we come back and God brings
us to that point and we say, I don't know what is wrong with
me, but I know I need to be saved. Save me, Lord. Save me from my
sin. Deliver me. I can't deliver myself. Save
me by your grace. And lo and behold, there we are,
depending upon Christ. Call upon me in the day of trouble.
We call. Look at Psalm 116 again. He says
this, there, Psalm 116. And then we'll go back to Genesis
in verse 26, in chapter 26. He says in Psalm 116, he says, in verse 17, verse 16 says, O
Lord, truly I am thy servant, I am thy servant and the son
of thine handmaid that has loosed my bonds, You might wonder, what
does all that mean? Well, it has to do with the fact
that God has called the Church of God his bride, his wife. And she's the one through whom
God births his people. Because the Gospel goes out from
the Church and the Spirit of God working through that Gospel
gives birth to those that are the Lord's people. And he says,
I'm the son of your handmaid. Verse 17, I will offer to thee
the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of
the Lord. What does the believer do? He
heard my voice, I love the Lord because he did, and therefore
I will call upon him, verse 2, as long as I live, and then he
goes on, not just once, but as long as I live, and then he says,
and I will offer the sacrifice of thanksgiving. Look at Genesis
chapter 26. Isaac is there in Genesis chapter 26. And he does something. In Genesis
chapter 26, in verse 24 it says, Genesis 26, 24. And the Lord
appeared unto him, to Isaac, by night, the same night, and
said, I am the God of Abraham thy father. Fear not, for I am
with thee, and will bless thee, and multiply thy seed for my
servant Abraham's sake. And verse 25, that's where I
wanted to read. And Isaac built an altar there, and called upon
the name of the LORD, and pitched his tent there. And there Isaac's
servants digged a well. That's interesting, isn't it?
God came to Isaac and made himself known. Isaac built an altar. Isaac pitched his tent there.
Isaac's servants dug a well. And there Isaac stayed. What
is the altar? The Lord Jesus Christ is our
altar. He's the priest. He's the sacrifice. He's the
altar. The gift has value because of the altar. Christ offered
himself to God because of his value to God. He has to be the
altar. He's everything. So Isaac built
an altar, and there he called on the name of the Lord. Because
we only can call on God in Christ, through Christ, looking to Christ,
because of Christ. God never gets tired of hearing
us say, Lord, receive me for Christ's sake. I'm coming to
you again. receive me again for Christ's
sake." He never gets tired of that. The blood always has efficacy
with God. God is the one who said, whosoever
shall call. The Lord Jesus Christ himself
said, whosoever shall call. He has a heart that wants his
people to call upon him. And so Isaac calls Because of
the altar. Because of Christ. Not built
with stones that He had hewn. Not built with anything that
He had done. Built out of earth. Out of stones. Untouched by man. No contribution. Christ alone
is my access to God. And so He calls here. He worships
God in Christ as a calling, needy sinner. And he pitched his tent
there. This is where I'm staying. Right
here. I live here. This is my life. I live by the
faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And
he dug a well. The wells of salvation are right
here. This is my place. I'm just going
to stay right here. This is where we're going to
gather. This is where we're going to worship God in Christ. I'm
gonna call on the name of the Lord. Whosoever shall call on
the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's the way we worship
God. We come as sinners, we come to
Christ, we come for salvation, and we look to Him for everything. We call upon Him for everything.
The children of the substitute, the frail and the weak, they
call on the Lord. Let's pray. Lord, we know that
we call upon you because you called us. From eternity you've
put your name upon us. You've called us by your grace. And we know that, Lord, because
you called us then, your disposition towards us never changes. None
of your gifts will be taken back. Everything will be given. You've
lavished everything upon us in Christ, and yet in our own experience,
We find such frailty and weakness and hypocrisy even, but we find
this, that you've given to us, you have made us call upon you,
we look again to Christ, we come as sinners with no other place
to go, needing him always. and you've put that in our heart.
Lord, you've promised whoever calls on the Lord Jesus Christ
for salvation and for all things shall be saved. What a promise,
what a revelation of your own desire for your people to come
to you, not with something, but to have everything and find it
all in Christ. What a blessing this is, in Jesus'
name we pray, amen.