Let's turn our Bibles again to
Romans chapter 10. I have a message this morning. A message of good news for every
single person here. You might have been getting ready
this morning and wondered, Did the Lord give the pastor anything
for me this morning? Maybe He gave the pastor something
for somebody else. I'll just have to sit there until
they get it and go home. Did the Lord give the pastor
a message for me this morning? He did. He did. I promise you
He did. The title of the message is whosoever.
I don't have a message for men or women. I don't have a message
for the young or the old. I don't have a message for the
rich or the poor. I've got a message for whosoever. That's all of
us, isn't it? For all whosoever. I have this
morning a message of salvation to any sinner who needs Christ
to save them. If you need Christ to save you,
He will. No matter who you are, no matter
what your background is, no matter what it is you're planning on
in the future, whosoever, if there's any sinner here this
morning that needs Christ to save them, He will. I love how the scripture uses
the term whosoever. It's used in our text this morning.
I have two points about whosoever. There's two points to the message.
There are these. Whosoever believes Christ will
be saved. And whosoever calls on Christ
will be saved. The word whosoever means anyone. It means exactly what you think
it means. It means anyone. It means all manner of people,
any different kinds of people, whoever it is that needs Christ
shall be saved. Now, you notice the scripture
doesn't say whosoever knows the right doctrine will be saved.
It doesn't say whosoever joins the right church and has the
right ideas will be saved. It doesn't say whosoever lives
the right kind of moral life will be saved. If it said that,
that would leave some people out, wouldn't it? How do I know
if I know enough doctrine? How do I know if I've joined
the right church? How do I know if I've lived the right kind
of life? I try to live good, but if I live good enough, how
do I know? But that's not what the scripture says, is it? What
does it say? Whosoever. All manner of people,
any kind of people. There are no qualifications to
meet. You just have to be a whosoever. Whosoever needs Christ. Now that
includes every one of us in this room this morning. We've all
come. You have different walks of life,
different jobs, different backgrounds, different hobbies, different
likes. Some of you watched football yesterday. Some of you are happy
this morning. Some of you are sad this morning.
We've just got all different kinds of needs, don't we? But there's
one thing everybody who came here needs this morning. I don't
care who you are. I don't care how long you've
been hearing the gospel, how long you believe Christ, or how
long you haven't been. There's one thing everybody in
this room needs this morning. It's Christ. We need Him. And if we leave here this morning
lost, if we leave here this morning without Christ, without salvation,
without peace with God, it's going to be our own fault. If
we leave here this morning without Christ, if we leave here without
salvation, it's only one reason for it. We think we don't need
Him. It's the only reason. We don't
believe in Him and we won't call on Him because we don't believe
Him. But whosoever. No matter what, all manner of
people, any kind of whoever it is that believes Christ and whosoever
calls on Christ shall be saved. That's what God's word shows
us and that's what I want us to see this morning. So here's
my first point. Whosoever believes on Christ
will not be ashamed. They will be saved. Romans 10
verse 11. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. I'm going to say this
a few times because I'm afraid we need to be reminded of this.
The key to salvation and the key in these verses that we'll
read this morning is not whosoever. That's not the key. Don't when
you read this first, don't stress whosoever. Whosoever, when scripture
says whosoever, that does not mean that salvation is up to
our decision, you know, whosoever will decide to do this. That's
not what it means. Salvation. Remember this salvation
is not in whosoever. Salvation's in Christ, isn't
it? So it's not whosoever. The emphasis cannot be on whosoever.
The emphasis cannot be on you and me. The emphasis has to be
on Christ. He's the Savior. The emphasis
is on the name of the Lord. Salvation has already been accomplished
by the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn't need us to do anything
to make it effectual. He already did it, didn't he?
He's already accomplished salvation for his people. And that salvation
is received through faith in Christ. We must believe. What
must I do to be saved? I must believe. I have to believe
on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now we need to be saved. What we need to be saved. We
got lost somehow, haven't we? How do we get lost? I mean, how
is it that we got in this place? We need to be saved. Well, we
got lost in Adam. We became lost in sin when Adam
sinned against God. Adam was our representative.
He represented everyone who would come from his loins, and that's
everyone. Adam was our representative, and we did whatever it is Adam
did. We are guilty sinners because
we actually did what Adam, our representative, did. That's what
God says. Look back a few pages at Romans chapter 5. Verse 12, wherefore is by one man, Adam,
sin entered into the world and death by sin. So death passed
upon all men for that all have sinned and literally translated
that means in whom all sinned. We all did what Adam did. We
sinned in our representative Adam. So we became lost through
representation. We're going to be saved by representation
too. Sinners, all of us were made
unrighteous by representation, by what Adam, our representative,
did. But sinners are made righteous through representation, too,
by the Lord Jesus Christ, the second Adam. And if we believe
Christ, we have faith in him, we're joined to Christ by faith,
and he's our representative, and we did everything he did,
so that we are actually righteous. It's not just like we're righteous,
because it's like we did what Christ did. God's people are
literally righteous. It's just like we did what Adam
did, literally. God's people literally did what
Christ did, so we are righteous in Him. And we receive that righteousness
through faith in Christ. That's what God says, Romans
4 verse 3. For what saith the Scripture?
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace,
but of death. But to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. We lay hold on the righteousness
of Christ by faith. So whosoever, anyone, all manner
of different kinds of people, whoever it is that believes on
Christ, shall not be ashamed. What does that mean? Why does
he say shall not be ashamed? Well, you know the story of Adam
in the garden. What's the first thing that happened after Adam
made that first thing? Adam and Eve became ashamed.
They knew they were naked. They were naked all along. Why
weren't they ashamed before? The moment Adam sinned against
God, Adam and Eve were ashamed. It wasn't just the shame of their
naked physical bodies. I tell you what they were ashamed
of. They were ashamed of their nakedness before God. They had
no righteousness before God. They were so ashamed, they found
fig leaves growing on a tree, picked them off and tried to
sew them together to cover their nakedness. And that's a picture
of man's works, trying to get something that we can do and
put it together, patch it together to cover our nakedness before
God. It's a picture of works, religion.
And they put those fig leaves on, they put those fig leaf aprons
on, covered their bodies. Didn't take away their shame,
did it? It didn't help their shame one bit. When God came
walking in the garden in the cool of the day, what'd they
do? They ran and hid in the bushes. Why'd they try to hide in the
bushes? They're already covered by the fig leaves. The fig leaves didn't
work. Because the real problem was
not physical nakedness. It was spiritual nakedness. It
was being naked before God without a holiness, without a righteousness,
and nothing that they could do, nothing they could put together,
could cover that spiritual nakedness. they couldn't make themselves
righteous. And that's the same thing is true of you and me.
No matter how many laws we try to keep, no matter how many religious
traditions we try to observe, it doesn't matter. Nothing that
we do can cover our spiritual nakedness. Nothing we do can
make us righteous, so we're ashamed before God. Adam was our representative,
so we still are what Adam is. Adam knew he was naked. We do
too. We do too. All of us know we're
spiritually naked. You know how I know that? I defy
you to find a person that doesn't think they got to do something
good. They at least think, well, you know, I got to, I got to
do some good things. So when I appear before God or appear
before, they know I got to go to judgment somehow. They don't
know everything about it, but they just know at the end of
this life, I got to have some good things I put in the bank
to help me here. You know, they think everybody thinks my goods
got outweigh my bad or something. You know why we think that by
nature? We know we're spiritually naked. We know we don't have
a righteousness before God. But Paul says, everyone, whosoever,
I don't care who you are, what your background is, what you've
done, what you haven't done, whosoever, anybody, all manner
of people who believe on Christ will never be ashamed. You know why? Because Christ
did what we can't do. We can't keep the law. We can't
produce a righteousness. But the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of God in a human body, did. He obeyed God's law perfectly
and produced a righteousness that he gives to his people.
Now, this righteousness is not just a robe that covers our sin,
covers our shame. No, this righteousness of Christ
makes his people, like I said a minute ago, makes them actually
righteous. The righteousness of Christ doesn't
just cover the sin that we should be ashamed of, but it's still
there. No, the righteousness of Christ takes that sin away. So there's nothing left to be
ashamed of. Christ makes his people righteous,
so they're not ashamed. Now, this is whosoever. And you
might be thinking, wait a minute, that doesn't apply to this whosoever.
I still see my sin. Of course you do. We all do.
That's always if we're looking at ourselves and thinking, I
see something good in there, we got a problem. No, of course,
all we see about ourself is sin. But this is what matters. God
doesn't. God doesn't see the sin of his
people. What do you say? There's sin and iniquities. I
remember no more. God doesn't remember because
they're not there. Why aren't they there? They've been washed
away. under the blood of the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So they're not left for God to
remember. And we're joined to Christ by faith, we're joined
to Christ, our righteousness, just by believing Christ. What must I do to be saved? Believe,
just believe Christ. And that applies to every sinner,
any sin, whosoever. Now, whosoever. It's not because
of who we are, and I'm going to keep repeating this. It's
not because of who we are. It's because of who Christ is.
That's why a sinner is saved, who believes on Christ. Not because
of us, but because of who He is. Four, verse 12, here's why
this is true. Four, there's no difference between
the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is
rich unto all that call upon Him. Whosoever believes on Christ
shall not be ashamed. because there's no difference
in any of us. We all need the exact same thing. We're all lost
in sin. It doesn't matter who you are.
The religious Jew isn't more savable than the Gentile heathen. Just because we attend here,
you know, we're faithful to attend to serve us. And this is the
gospel now. This is the gospel. But just
because we show up here and we support it, you know, That doesn't
mean we're more savable than somebody else. No. We're just
as lost as the heathen. I mean, it doesn't matter. Whosoever. We're all lost in sin. No matter
who we are. No matter where you find somebody.
If it's bound down to an idol or if it's in the pew of a sovereign
grace church. I don't care where you find them.
By nature, we're all lost in sin and we all need to be saved. There's no difference. We all
need the exact same thing. Thank God this is also true.
Whosoever believes on Christ shall not be ashamed. You know
why? Because God's rich in mercy. Don't we have a lot to be ashamed
of? Yes, we do. We've got more to be ashamed
of than we know. But you know why we won't be ashamed if we
believe Christ? Because God's rich in mercy to whosoever. It doesn't matter what your background
is. It doesn't matter what you're currently doing. It doesn't matter
if what you think about yourself is good or bad. It doesn't matter.
There's no difference. We all need the same thing. And whosoever
believes on the Lord Jesus Christ shall not be ashamed. They'll
be made righteous. Because God's rich in mercy.
God is so rich in mercy to his people. You know what he did
to save them? He sent his son to take their
sin away from them. He took his son and he made his
son sin for his people. And then he killed him for it.
He sacrificed him for it as a burnt offering to God so that God's
justice would be satisfied. Now God can let his people go
in justice. Christ has paid for their sins.
He's washed their sin away. Now that's mercy. That's mercy. I love you all. I mean, I love
you. But I'm sorry to tell you, I
wouldn't kill one of my daughters for you. I mean, I just couldn't
do it. God took His perfect, only begotten
Son, the Son of His love, the Prince of Glory, made Him sin,
humiliated Him by making Him appear in human flesh as a servant,
humiliated Him further by making Him sin for His people, withdrawing
His presence from Him and sacrificing Him for the sin of totally depraved
rebels. Now, that's not mercy. I don't
know what is. That's rich mercy. Thank God
for his mercy. And that's true for whosoever. Whosoever. It doesn't have to
be good people. As a matter of fact, it has to be bad people.
It has to be sinners. Because salvation's got nothing
to do with who we are. And everything to do with who
Christ is. And the sinner is saved. faith
in Christ. Whosoever. Whosoever. I want
to show you two examples of that. John chapter 11. Whosoever believes shall not
be ashamed. John chapter 11 verse 26. You know the story here is our
Lord talking with Martha after her brother Lazarus has died.
And he said unto her, Verse 26, Whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Believest thou this? You believe
this? That was said to a Jew. Whosoever believeth in me shall
never die. Or I look at Acts chapter 10. In Acts chapter 10, the Apostle
Peter has been sent to Cornelius, a Gentile. He preached an outstanding message. And look how he closes his message,
verse 43. To him give all the prophets
witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall
receive remission of sins. Whosoever believes Christ, their
sin is forgiven. It's taken away. That was said
to a Gentile, wasn't it? Whosoever, all manner of people.
Now one more, 1 John chapter 5. 1 John 5 verse 1. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. And everyone that loveth him
that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. Whosoever
believes Christ is born again, is already born again. And that's
said to both Jew and Gentile. This epistle is a general epistle
to all believers. This is said to whosoever, whosoever
believes shall not be ashamed. Now you notice here, we're not
born again because we believe Christ. No, we're not born again
because we do something. We believe Christ because we
have been born again. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born, is already born of God. Now, we may not
know it at first. We may not. We just all we know
is I believe it. We may not exactly know we've
been born again, but you'll know it eventually. You'll know it
eventually. You know, when a new baby is born, that's a live birth. You know what that baby does?
It does the only thing it knows how to do. It cries. That baby
is not alive because it cries. It cries because it is alive,
because it's been given life. Now that baby doesn't know anything
yet. I mean, it doesn't know anything. It doesn't know anything
about life. It doesn't know anything about
how it got here. It doesn't know anything about where it's going or what's going
on all around it. It just cries. It doesn't know anything about
life, but it will soon enough. It will soon enough. Well, the
same thing's true for that babe in Christ who's been born again.
He doesn't realize, he doesn't know how he's been born again
or why he's been born again. He doesn't know what happens.
All he does is all the things he knows how to do. He just believes. He just believes Christ. He can't
help it. Because that's the new nature
that God gave him in the new birth. And that will mature with
time. But right now, he just believes. He believes because he's been
born again. And whosoever believes Christ shall be saved. All right,
here's the second point. Back in our text, Romans chapter
10. Whosoever calls on Christ shall be saved. Romans 10 verse
13. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Someone might wonder,
well, all right, how do I call on the name of the Lord? You
just tell me how to do it and I'll do it. See if I can be saved. Well,
I can't tell you exactly. I can't tell you the steps, what
to go through to call upon the Lord. But I promise you this,
if God ever gets you in trouble, you'll call. You'll call. If
you're lost, you'll call for help. You will. If you're lost
so that you cannot get out, If you're lost in the woods somewhere,
you have absolutely no idea where to go, you'll call. Then you'll
call for help. And you won't be shy about it.
You know, if I stood here screaming right now, help me, help me,
somebody come get me, you all think I'm crazy. And I wouldn't
do it because, you know, if I'm lost in the woods and can't find
my way, I have no earthly idea which way to go. I'm going to
call and not be ashamed because I'm lost. I'm in trouble. If
God ever gets you lost, you're not going to worry about what
anybody else thinks. You're going to call upon the
name of the Lord because you have to get to Christ. Let me
give you an illustration. You all know my sister-in-law,
Stacy. She's been around long enough. You know this. She's
quiet. She's quiet. She's meek. She's very thoughtful. I admire this about she. never
pops off. She just never says the first
cruel thing that comes out of her mouth, you know, and then
she's sorry for it. She thinks about everything she's going
to say before she says it, and she just, she's so unoffensive. I've never even heard a woman
yell about anything. I, she's a big, I love her anyway. She's a big Michigan fan. I've
been with her in Michigan basketball, hit a buzzer beater to win the
game. Shawn, you and me would be jumping
around and yelling. Our neighbors would know we're watching a game.
Stacey said, in just this volume, good shot. That's it. I've never heard her raise her
voice. But a few days ago, I was over at her house helping Jonathan
with something upstairs. And I heard a blood-curdling
scream. And it wasn't just one. It was
several screams, one right after another. Man, I thought somebody
cut their arm off or something. I was really scared. And Jonathan
was unfazed. And he said, you all right? She
said, I'm fine. And he said, she saw a spider. I said, how
do you know that? He said, it's a spider scream.
I know that. Stacy's scared to death of spiders. When quiet,
thoughtful Stacy got scared, she got in trouble. She thought
she was in trouble. You know what she did? She called. Unmistakably,
repeatedly, she called. She's in trouble. I hope the Lord ever gets us
in trouble. If He ever gets us lost, we're going to call. If we're ever in the darkness,
the darkness of our own sin, the darkness of our own rebellion,
I know I'm lost. I got some idea of that, but
I can't see. I can't see the way out. You
tell me there's a Savior, but I can't see Him. If God ever
gets you in that shape, you don't need anybody to teach you how
to call. You're going to call. You'll hear. The Lord said, I'm
going to save my people from their sin. God's going to elect
people and He will save them. He'll not let anybody, not one
of them perish. And you know what you'll say?
Lord, save me! The Lord said, I'm going to wash
the sin away from somebody. Lord, wash my sin away. The Lord
said, I'm going to give sight to somebody. That's the way that
they could identify the Messiah. He gave sight to the blind. Lord,
make me see. You'll be like blind Bartimaeus.
You won't shut up. Lord, help me. Save me. Give me sight. You'll call. And you will immediately be saved. Now, to call on the Lord, it's
not an audible call. It's a call of the heart. To
call upon the Lord is to humble yourself before Him because you're
helpless. And beg Him to do something for
you you can't do for yourself. Lord, I don't need help. I need
you to do it all. That's to call upon. That's to
humble yourself. Lord, I need you to save me.
I need you to forgive me. Do it all for me. And when we
call on the Lord for mercy, we call on the Lord for forgiveness
and peace. He will save us. I know that
so because that's what he says. That's what God says. Paul here
is quoting the prophet Joel. Joel's the first one in scripture
that said this. Peter quoted him, too, on the day of Pentecost. So this is the whole message
of the Bible. Old Testament, New Testament,
no matter who you are, no matter which preacher you hear, this
is their message. Call upon the name of the Lord
and you shall be saved. His ear's not heavy that can't
hear. He hears the calls of his people. He hears the call of
every helpless, needy sinner who calls upon him, whosoever
they are. All manner of different kinds
of people. Let me remind us again, the emphasis is not here whosoever. It's not on whosoever will call.
No, the emphasis is on whom we call. We must call on the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only savior of sinners. And the name of the Lord describes
who he is. It's not just using his name.
Jesus is the name that describes who he is. If I would be saved,
I must call upon the Lord Jesus Christ because He's the only
Savior. I'll give you an example. At
Mount Carmel, those servants of Baal cried, didn't they? Well, it's not just whosoever
cries, is it? No, they cried. They cried a long time. They
cried loud. They cried very sincerely, didn't
they? But they didn't receive any help.
God went merciful to them because they're calling on the wrong
name. Look in Acts chapter 4. Here's the name that we must
call upon. It's the name that describes
who the Savior is. It tells us exactly who it is
we're calling upon. Acts chapter 4, verse 12. It's not just calling. It's on
whom we call. Acts 4, verse 12. You got it?
Neither is there salvation in any other, for there's none other
name under heaven. given among men, whereby we must
be saved. There's just one name. It's the
name of the Lord. The name of the Lord, the name
of Jehovah, tells us what the Lord is like. So we know the
difference between the Lord and an idol. The name of the Lord
is Jehovah Jireh. The Lord will provide. He will. Then I call upon the Lord. to
provide for me everything He requires and everything I need,
because I can't provide anything. So I call on the name of the
Lord who will provide. The name of the Lord is Jehovah
Rapha, the Lord that healeth. You know why I call upon the
name of the Lord? Because I need Him to heal me of all my sin
sicknesses, my wounds and bruises and putrefying sores that can't
be bound up or mollified with the ointment of man's religion.
I call upon Jehovah Rapha, the Lord that healeth. I call upon
the name of Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our peace. In Adam, I've
declared war on God. I can't win the war, and I can't
make peace. You know, some preacher, some
false prophet tells me, well, go make your peace with God.
Well, this is what I found out. I can't do that. So I call upon
Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our peace, who made peace with God
for His people through the blood of His sacrifice. I'm lost. By nature, I'm a lost singer.
So I call the name of Jehovah Rea, the Lord my shepherd. I
call because I'm a lost sheep. I'm out there wandering from
the shepherd. I can't find my way home. Everywhere I go is
the wrong way. So I call upon the Lord my shepherd to come
and find me. Pick me up, put me on his shoulder,
and carry me all the way back home rejoicing. That's who I
call upon. The name of the Lord is Jehovah Sid Kenu. Lord, our
righteousness. I call upon the Lord, our righteousness,
because I'm all unrighteous. I can't do anything righteous.
I don't have any righteousness. I'm naked and ashamed before
God. So I call upon Jehovah Sidken, Lord, be my righteousness. Make
it so that I'm not ashamed. See, that's calling on the name
of the Lord. That's who he is. Who he is matches
your need. So you call upon him. But, you
know, calling on the Lord is an intelligent call. It is. It's an intelligent call. Now,
listen, I'm not saying you have to be intelligent to call upon
the Lord. Not at all. Not at all. It's an intelligent
call in this way. You know on whom you're calling. You're calling upon the savior
of sinners. Now, remember, our first point
was this. Whosoever believes Christ will not be ashamed. Well,
how do I get that faith? How do I get this faith that
believes Christ? It's by hearing the gospel preached,
by doing what we're doing right now. The only way God Almighty
will give you faith in Christ is through the preaching of the
gospel. Faith comes from hearing the
gospel that declares who we are, declares our need, and declares
who Christ is. The only way we can have any
faith in Christ is if we know who He is. Verse 17. So then, faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. That's how I get this faith that
believes Christ, by hearing the gospel preached. All right, our
second point was this, whosoever calls on Christ shall be saved. Well, how do I learn who he is
so I'll call upon him? By hearing the same gospel preached.
You can't call on Christ if you've never heard of him. How can you
call on a name you've never heard? Then where do I find out who
Christ is? By doing what we're doing right now through the preaching
of the gospel. But be very careful. It's not
just any preaching. It's the preaching of the gospel.
Scripture tells us there are many false gospels out there.
There are many other Jesus's and those other gospels don't
have good news for whosoever. They don't have good news for
sinners. Any message that tells you you've got to be good enough
to be saved, you've got to do this and this and this and follow
this formula and say this and say this and don't say this,
then you'll be saved. Any gospel, so-called gospel,
any message that tells you that you've got to do something good
enough, you've got to stay good enough in order to keep your
salvation, that's not the gospel. That's not good news to a dead,
helpless sinner, is it? So it's not the gospel. The gospel
is good enough. The gospel, Paul says at the
end of verse 15, is the gospel of peace that brings glad tidings
of good things. That's the gospel. The gospel
is glad tidings of good things. We find out who Christ is from
the gospel. And there's only one gospel because
there's only one Savior. The only way we'll ever hear
good tidings of glad things is by really hearing who the Lord
Jesus Christ really is. There's no good news in this
Jesus to just save anybody if they just let Him, you know,
be not powerful enough to save you, you know, and violate your
will. There's no good news there. There's good news in hearing
who Christ really is. He's the Savior of sinners. He's
the Savior everyone the Father gave Him to save. Whoever it
is He died for is saved because He's the successful Savior. Well, if we're going to find
out who Christ really is, somebody's got to tell us the truth, don't
they? Who will dare tell us the truth? Huh? God's a preacher. How shall they hear without a
preacher? The only way we can hear, the
only way we can hear who Christ is is from the preacher sent
by God. He's the only one God given a
message. Look at verse 15. How shall they preach except
they be sinned? God sends his preacher to his
people. That's how they hear. Now, if
God's going to save anyone, I'll tell you how he does it. He sends
him a preacher to tell him who God is, to tell him who they
are, and to tell him who Christ the Savior is. Now, you might
be thinking, Well, you're exalting preachers, you know? No, I'm
not. I'm not. Could God save somebody
without a preacher? He sure could. I mean, could
God speak directly to somebody and save him? He sure could.
Will he? No, he won't. No, he won't. You
know how I know that? He said he wouldn't. It's pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Now,
We don't know much about the Ethiopian eunuch that Philip
went to preach to. But this is my guess. He's an
intelligent man. He couldn't have accomplished
everything he accomplished. He couldn't have risen so high
up and empower the queen's court there, you know, and she had
trust him with her treasury, unless he's an intelligent fellow.
He went to Jerusalem, got a copy of Isaiah, the gospel of Isaiah. And this highly intelligent man
is right in his chair reading it. He got no idea what it says. Philip comes up to him asking,
you know what you're reading? He said, no, I don't. It's impossible. How can I know what this says?
Except some man should guide me. Well, Philip showed up because
God sent him to guide him. And Philip began right where
he was reading in that scroll. And you know what Philip did?
He didn't try to indoctrinate him in the Jews religion. He
preached Christ. Right at that very scripture.
Just open up the Bible and preach Christ. And that's what Philip
did. And that unit heard. They're riding along that chair.
He said, stop everything. Stop everything. Stop right here.
What did hinder me from being baptized? Philip said, if you
believe Christ. Just exactly what Paul said.
If you believe, you may. He said, I believe. I believe
that Jesus is the son of God. And Philip says, let's go down
to the water. And he confessed Christ. It wasn't because he
was so smart, was it? God sent him a preacher. God
gave him faith to believe. God gave him an ear to hear.
The only way I can be taught my need of Christ is by hearing
the gospel preach that tells me I'm nothing but sin. The only
way I can believe on Christ is by hearing the gospel preach
that says Christ is the savior of sinners. But when will I hear
the gospel? When will a sinner hear the gospel? And God sends him a preacher,
gives him faith to believe. The best I know how, that's the
gospel. You've heard the gospel this
morning. Like I said to open the message, if we leave here
without Christ, if we leave here without salvation, this will
be our own fault. God spoke in the gospel this
morning. My prayer is this. Lord, would you give us faith
to believe it? Would you give us faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ? Would you have mercy upon us?
Give us a heart that believes and a heart that cries after
him. If he does, we'll be saved. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, how we thank you
for the plain, simple declaration in your word. of salvation in
the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not difficult to understand. A small child can understand
what your word says. Salvation is for any sinner that
needs Christ. But Father, we freely confess
our problem is our dead nature, our refusal to bow, our refusal
to believe Christ. Father, we beg of thee this morning
that you'd give us here right now faith to believe that at
this very moment, right where we sit, we might believe on the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ. As we sit here in silence, Father,
give us a heart that calls, that calls upon the name of the Lord
Jesus Christ, that calls upon Him for salvation. And we pray
You'd reveal Your Son to us and in us. It's in His matchless,
precious name, for His glory, we pray and give thanks.