Back in verse 13 of Romans chapter
10, the Apostle Paul, inspired by the Holy Spirit, makes this
statement, and it's a beautiful statement. For whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Salvation is
just a matter of calling upon the name of the Lord. And as
I preached a couple of weeks ago, on this issue, whosoever,
anyone, any one, any sinner, no matter how bad he thinks he
or she thinks themselves to be, or we think they are, or we think
ourselves, no matter, any sinner who desires salvation, God's
way, shall have it. God has never and will never
turn away any seeking sinner who desires to come and receive
salvation God's way. Now what's the problem then?
Why aren't millions coming? Why aren't we seeing such a revival
that would just overwhelm us. Why isn't this building full?
Why isn't the gospel preached all over? Well, here's the problem. By nature, according to our natural
birth, we fell in Adam and were born dead in trespasses and sins,
and we are totally depraved, evidenced by the fact that we
just do not want salvation God's way. That's what the scripture
says. That's what it means when it
says things like, the light has come into the world, but men
love darkness and hate the light, John 3. What is it about darkness
that men love? It's the darkness that cloaks
the things that we're so proud of. thinking that they recommend
us unto God, our works, our deeds, our experiences, our decisions. That's what we're proud of. And
when the light of the gospel comes in, the light of Christ,
the glorious person, and the finished work of Christ, his
shed blood, his righteousness, when that comes in, It excludes
all the things that we're so proud of, all the things that
we worked hard to do, thinking all the time that that would
recommend us unto God, that that would make us righteous, that
that would gain us some ground with God. And it exposes those
things as being evil, not because they're immoral in the eyes of
men necessarily, but because they are in opposition to the
glory of God in the salvation of sinners based upon the merits
of his beloved son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We see a beautiful
example of that in Philippians 3. Paul talked about all the
things in his life as a natural Jew that he thought saved him
or contributed to his salvation or made him righteous before
God. I was a Hebrew of Hebrews, a Pharisee, circumcised the eighth
day, but he says when he saw the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in Christ, when he saw the righteousness that
God required, the perfection of righteousness in the law that
can only be found in the person and work of Christ, he said all
those things that I was so proud of, I became ashamed of. I count
them but loss, I thought they were gain, I count them but loss,
I thought they were beautiful, now they're dung, he said. And
that's what the natural man hates. People want salvation. How many
people are in church this morning, unquote. They want salvation,
but they want it, we want it by nature, we want it our way.
The broad way that leads to destruction. There is a way that seemeth right,
but it's a way of death. We want it our way. We don't
want it God's way. The Bible says, the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, neither can he
know them. They are spiritually discerned.
And by nature, we're spiritually dead. But that doesn't change
this truth here. In Romans 10, 13, whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, by nature,
none of us will call upon the name of the Lord, not the name.
What is his name? It's that which identifies and
distinguishes him in this book. In other words, if I'm going
to call upon the name of the Lord, it must be his name as
he gives it in by revelation in this book. It's not, it's
not how I think him to be. That passage where God says,
you thought I was one such as yourself, but you were wrong. When people think about God's
love, how do they measure God's love? They measure it by their
own selfish love. God's love is free and unconditional
towards sinners. But the reason people, when they
hear things like Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated, that God doesn't
love everybody, what is so offensive about that? I'll tell you what
it is, because in our pride, we think we deserve God's love. And what the Bible teaches us
is that none of us deserve God's love, not even Jacob. If God loves any of us, it is
free and unconditional towards us. And then God's love is based
upon justice satisfied. Here in his love, not that we
love God, but that he loved us and gave his son to be the what? The propitiation. The justice
satisfying sacrifice that turned back his wrath. That's the basis
of God's love. There's no love from God without
justice satisfied. There's no mercy from God, no
grace from God without righteousness and peace have to kiss each other.
What the Bible says. And so when you talk about God's
love apart from justice satisfied, which you do if you talk about
God loves those who perish, Christ died for those who perish. What
you're saying is you're talking about an unjust God and people
say, well, but I didn't know that. Well, ignorance is no excuse.
Here it is in God's word. All you have to do, for example,
to understand that as far as a mental understanding is go
look up the word propitiation. But you see, that's not a word
we use much today. It's only found, what, three
or four times in the New Testament. And the word derivative, you
know, in the Old Testament, mercy seat. Why did Christ have to
die? You see, this is how God identifies
His name. In His glory, in the salvation
of His people, through Christ, who is God manifest in the flesh,
who accomplished and secured the redemption of his people
through his obedience unto death. And so that's his name. That's
the gospel. So to call upon his name is to
call upon Christ as he's identified and distinguished in the word
of God in the gospel. It's to call upon him in light
of our sinfulness and our depravity and our need of a righteousness
we cannot produce. All of that. Now, he says, whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. By nature, if left
to ourselves, none of us will call upon his name, but there
are some who have and do call upon his name, the Bible tells
us. What does it take? What does
it take for you, for me? to call upon the name of the
Lord. I'll tell you exactly what it takes. This is what Romans
10, 14 on tells us. It takes a miracle of the sovereign
power, goodness, and grace of God to bring a sinner to call
upon the name of the Lord. And listen to how he puts it.
Verse 14, how then shall they call on him of whom they've not
believed? To call upon the name of the Lord is to believe on
him. It takes faith, and we don't have it by nature. Ephesians
2, 8, for by grace are you saved, through faith that not of yourself,
it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast,
for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,
which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. We have to have faith. Now, what
is faith? Well, faith involves a work of
the Holy Spirit. Imparting, you wanna talk about
what's imparted? All right, spiritual life is
imparted. That's where God says, I'll give
you a new heart. I'll give you a new spirit. I'll
give you ears to hear and eyes to see, which we don't have by
nature. We have eyes and ears physically. We can hear the words,
but to bring us to Holy Spirit conviction and drive us to Christ
by God-given faith, we have to be born again. Am I right? You
look over at John chapter one and You know, for years I would
read these words, but they just didn't mean that much to me,
and I didn't see the reality of what it's talking about. But
it says in verse 10 of John chapter one, Christ was in the world,
and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. Didn't
know him. Didn't know their own creator.
Think about Isaiah one, it says, even the dumb ass and the ox
knows its master. But by nature we don't even know
our master. And then it says in verse 11,
he came unto his own and his own received him not. That's
all of us by nature. But look at verse 12. Now you
could put it this way, his own called upon his name not, but
as many as received him, as many as called upon his name. by God-given
faith, it says, to them gave he power. Now the word power
there is not the word that is used for ability. The word power
there is the word that's used for right. You have a right. In other words, what right do
I have to call myself a child of God, to say that I'm saved? What right do you have? And it
says, as many as received Christ, which is the same as calling
upon his name, To them gave he right to become or to be called
the sons of God. There's the true sons of God.
Sons by electing grace, sons by adopting grace, sons by redeeming
grace, sons by regenerating grace. And he says to believe on his
name. Even them that believe on his
name, that call upon his name. Look at verse 13, now what makes
the difference? Well, why is that so important? I'll tell you why. Because God
has determined that in this matter of salvation, he alone gets the
glory. You're not gonna get any of it.
I'm not gonna get any of the glory. God forbid that I should
glory, save in what? The cross. All right? So what made the difference?
You know I was in a crowd one night and the preacher was preaching
and the organ was playing softly and I made a decision But you
know what that guy beside me that stayed in the pew. He didn't
make the decision. I came forth he didn't That's
what made the difference. Well now who gets the glory there
Christ died for him to died for me, but I made the dip now who
gets the glory there I You say, well, we don't really glory in
that. You don't know human nature. You give a sinner, a spiritually
dead sinner, a penny, he'll glory in it. 99 and 44% of God, but just that
little bit of me, I'll glory in it. That's us by nature, isn't
it? I've told you the story about
the fellow who did some work on my guitar. When I gave him
that guitar to work on, it was in an old shabby case. And when
he returned it to me, he put it in a brand new hard shell
case. And those things are not cheap.
His name was Ted, he was a brother in Christ. And when I got that,
I said, Ted, where'd that case come from? He said, I'm giving
it to you. I said, Ted, no, no, no, that's
too much. Let me pay you for it. He said, no, I'm giving it
to you. I said, no, Ted, let me pay for
it. He said, do you know what a gift is? And it hit me. By nature, we
don't know what a gift is. I mean, when it comes to salvation.
Well, what made the difference? Look at verse 13 of John 1. Which
were born, not of blood. Now that's saying that it's not
by my first birth, not by my pedigree. That was really significant
with the Jews because we'd be children of Abraham. But it's
not of blood, it's not of heredity. It's not by natural birth. Nor
the will of the flesh. Now I believe that's really referring
to the works of the flesh. Nor the will of man. nor of your
decision, but were born of God. That's what it takes to bring
a sinner like me and like you to call upon the name of the
Lord. And this is what he's saying, go back to Romans 10 now. How
then shall they call on him of whom they've not believed? Well,
you're gonna have to believe and you won't believe. unless
God, by his power in the new birth, gives you ears to hear
and eyes to see, and a new heart, gives you faith to believe. Look
at the next line, and how shall they believe in him who they've
not heard? Look over at Matthew 13. Now, can you hear? Well, people
would say, well, sure, I can hear. I can hear what you're
saying. Is that what he's talking about though? No. He's talking about hearing with
the spiritual ear. Hearing with an ear of a sinner
in need, a sinner who's being convicted of sin, of righteousness,
of judgment, who wants to hear the good news of how God saves
sinners. Do you know that ear, that hearing,
is a gift from God, just like faith. Look at Matthew 13, look
at verse 10. The disciples said unto Christ,
why speak thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them,
because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the
kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. And he says
in verse 12, for whosoever hath, the hymn shall be given, and
he shall have more abundance, but whosoever hath not from him
shall be taken away even that he hath. In other words, they're
rejecting what they had. Verse 13, therefore I speak unto
them in parables because they seeing, see not. Now that's spiritual
sight. Remember Christ said you must
be born again or you cannot see the kingdom of God. That seeing
there is seeing with the understanding. Oh, I was blind. Now I see. Well, who gave me
that sight? Just like who gave me physical
sight? God did. Who gave me spiritual sight?
God did. It's a miracle. And he says, he says, therefore
I speak because they seeing, seeing and hearing they hear
not. Neither do they understand. So he's talking about hearing
and seeing with the understanding. The Bible says in 1 John 5, the
Son of God hath come and given us an understanding that we might
know him. He shows us who God is in his
glory, in his holiness, in his justice. And he shows us in his
sovereignty, he shows us who we are in our pitiful state of
deadness and sin. Then he shows us the glory of
God in Christ and drives us to Christ. Well look over at verse,
well look at verse 14 of Matthew 13. And in them is fulfilled
the prophecy of Isaiah which saying by hearing you shall hear
and shall not understand and seeing you shall see and shall
not perceive for this people's heart is waxed gross. That means
grown hard. and their ears are dull of hearing,
their eyes they have closed. This is what we do by nature.
If left to ourselves, this is what we'll do. We'll close our
eyes to the glory of God revealed in Christ. We'll always choose
our way. See, that's why man doesn't have
a free will. His will's in bondage to sin
and self and pride, darkness. lest at any time they should
see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand
with their heart and should be converted. Now what is this conversion? It's the same kind of conversion
that Paul described in Philippians 3. What I used to be so proud
of and what I used to think recommended me unto God and gained me points
with God, now I count it but a loss. That's conversion. I
count it but done that I may win Christ and be found in him,
not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith. That's conversion. That's what
Paul, when he talked about the Jews, that they were ignorant
of God's righteousness, going about to establish a righteousness
of their own, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. For Christ is the end, the fulfillment, the perfection,
the finishing of the law, for righteousness to everyone that
believes. In other words, they stop trying to make themselves
righteous in the sense of trying to earn their way into God's
favor, and they submit to Christ's righteousness. His righteousness
imputed and received by God-given faith. That's conversion. They
didn't want to let go of their religion. They didn't want to
let go of their works. They didn't want to let go of their experiences.
They didn't want to let go of those things that were, they
didn't want to repent. That's what it takes. And that
repentance is God-given, just like faith. And he says in verse 16 of Matthew,
but blessed are your eyes for they see. You see what they don't
see. Your ears for they hear. You
hear what they don't hear. Go back to Romans 10. So how
shall they believe in him of whom they've not heard? But what is it we have to hear?
We have to hear the gospel. How do you know that? The gospel
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it.
For therein is, to the Jew first and the Greek also, for therein
is the righteousness of God. We have to hear about Christ
in the glory of his person, who he is, and in the accomplishment
of his finished work on the cross as our surety, our substitute,
our redeemer. We have to hear about that blood
that was shed that effectually secures the salvation of his
people. We have to hear about his righteousness,
the merits of his obedience unto death, which justifies sinners
before a holy God. Paul talked about to the Thessalonians,
he said, we give thanks because God has from the beginning chosen
you unto salvation through sanctification of the spirit, sanctification
of the spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto he called you
by our gospel. And that's what it takes, and
that's why he says in verse 14, and how shall they hear without
a preacher? It's the preaching of the gospel.
Now what we're talking about is the gospel has to be communicated. All right? It has to be communicated. It
may not be me standing behind a pulpit, we can be talking,
or you can read sermons in books or whatever, but they have to
be gospel sermons based upon the word of God. God does not save sinners under
the preaching of a lie. How do you know that? Because
he said it. A corrupt tree will not produce good fruit. That's the way it is. The truth
shall make you free. The gospel is the power of God
unto salvation to everyone that believe. And there's only one
gospel, there's not two. There's not a gospel light. There's not, it starts out in
Arminianism, then becomes Calvinism, because it has nothing to do
with Arminius or Calvin. It's God's word. the word of
truth, that's what he's talking about. That's what it takes to
bring a sinner to call upon the name of, you gotta hear who he
is, what he did, why he did it, where he is now, all of those
things, that's the gospel. And so he says in verse 15, and
how shall they preach except they be sent? God always sends
his truth to his people. At that appointed time, God's
appointed time, Paul said it, when it pleased the Lord to reveal
his son in me. And when that happened to Paul,
he wasn't seeking the Lord, but God did bring him to seek him. As Brother Mahan used to say,
Paul wasn't on his way to a prayer meeting on the Damascus Road. He wasn't on an evangelistic
effort or mission. But whenever one of Christ's
lost sheep meets the shepherd in whatever means God uses to
get the gospel to that sheep, that's what happens. There's
sin of God when it pleases God. Some of you, it may have been
early in life. Some of you, it may have been later. But he's
gonna get the gospel to you. That's how he works. That's what
it takes to bring us in. He says, as it is written, how
beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace.
And how's peace made? That's reconciliation, the gospel
of reconciliation. It's made by the blood of his
cross. It's the righteousness that God provides for his people
through Christ, which he has imputed, charged, accounted to
his people. whereby he brings them to be
reconciled to God on that same ground, pleading the blood of
Christ, pleading his righteousness alone. And so how beautiful are
the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. And that beauty there is the
gospel. It's not just they had got a
pedicure or anything like that. It means they're moving, they're
walking, to bring the gospel to God's people. And it's where,
think about how beautiful Philip's feet were to that Ethiopian who
was sitting in that chariot. Who's this prophet talking about? And Philip began to preach unto
him Jesus. That's a beautiful thing. It
was a beautiful day, I don't know the day, I really don't,
when I began to really hear what the preacher was saying, who
preached the gospel to me, because I can remember a day when I hated
every word of it. That's the miracle that it takes.
So he says in verse 16, but they have not all obeyed the gospel.
Now that's true. Everybody who hears it doesn't
obey it. For Isaiah saith, Lord, who hath believed our report,
our doctrine, the hearing of us, some of them say. The gospel,
we're to preach the gospel to everyone who'll listen. Go into
all the world and preach the gospel. How many times have you
heard people say to you, say, well, if I believed what you
all believed, I wouldn't go preach. Or somebody, I think, asked one
of the old preachers, said, why don't you just preach to the
elect? Well, God didn't give us a list of names and addresses.
He just said, you go out and preach to everybody, everybody
who'll listen. and salvation is of the Lord. You know I'd love to see this
building filled up. But if I ask myself this question,
what can I do to get more people in there? You know I've left
the scriptures. What can I do? I'm gonna make it available,
we're all gonna make the gospel available. We preach it out on
television, we get it out on the internet, we tell people.
Give out books, literature, CDs, or whatever. You know, we do
everything we can. But salvation's of the Lord. And if I preach
Christ, you know, Paul said this, he said, if I preach Christ,
it's the savor of life unto life to some, but it's the savor of
death unto death to others. Either way, I'm victorious. I'm
successful. Because Christ has been preached.
Isn't that amazing? I've often asked the question,
here's the Apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost in Jerusalem
preaching, and 3,000 souls were brought to Christ by the power
of God. What success. Then you turn over
a few pages and you see a fellow named Stephen preaching in the
same city, and nobody came. In fact, they killed him. Now
who was more successful? Peter wasn't any more successful
than Stephen. Stephen was just as successful
as Peter because Stephen preached the same gospel. But you see,
the world doesn't measure success the way God does. The success of the churches that
I grew up in was, put that plaque on the wall and say, how many
in attendance? We used to have a Sunday school superintendent.
He said, now our goal this Easter Sunday is to have 300. I'd rather have three who see
the glory of God in Christ to have 300 who don't. But see,
that's not the success of the church. And Isaiah, you know,
it's almost like if you go back there and read Isaiah 6, when
he was commissioned to preach, God told him, he said, I want
you to go preach, but nobody's gonna hear you. Boy, what an
encouragement for evangelism. If we'd have said that in the
old seminary I went to, they'd have looked at me like I had
a third eye. Well, look at verse 17. He says, so then faith cometh
by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Now he says, who
hath believed our report? It seems like nobody's here.
But he says, faith comes by hearing, God-given hearing. God-given
faith comes by God-given hearing and God-given hearing by the
word given by God. That's how it comes. That's what
it takes to bring a sinner. Well, let me just read these
last. He says, but I say, have they not heard? Yes, verily,
their sound went in all the earth and their words unto the ends
of the world. That's the general preaching of the message. Many,
many people have heard it. And when he says, have they not
heard? Yes, their sound. Well, they're
hearing the gospel and we're gonna preach the gospel. And
he said, go preach in every corner of the earth. That's why it's
the commission. Verse 19, but I say, did not
Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke
you to jealousy by them that are no people. And by a foolish
nation, I will anger you. Israel heard the gospel through
Moses. The law was given to convict
them of sin. They had the types and the pictures
and the prophets to point them to Christ. And God even said,
I'm going to provoke you to jealousy. You know how he did that? I'm
going to call some Gentiles into the kingdom. Even that provocation. This is
God's means. And so he says in verse 20, but
Isaiah is very bold and saith, I was found of them that sought
me not. Now by nature, none of us are going to seek the Lord.
The Bible says that. But here he's specifically speaking of
a prophecy of the salvation of God's elect among the Gentiles.
And he says, I was made manifest unto them that asked not after
me. But to Israel he saith, all day
long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient and
gainsame people. So he held Israel accountable
for their unbelief. You know what gainsaying is,
don't you? That's contradicting. God's preachers and God's prophets
say, here's the way salvation is. And man by nature says, no,
it's not that way, it's this way. That's gainsaying. And it
comes from unbelief. So God is a miracle worker. Not just in physical things,
the creation, physical, but oh my soul, what a miracle it is
when a sinner is brought by God to call upon the name of the
Lord. Okay.