I invite you this morning to
take your Bibles and turn with me to Romans, the tenth chapter. This is not going to be so much
an exposition from this chapter, although I'm going to go over
some of the things that it says, but I'm using these verses as
a springboard to talk to you about that name. Whosoever, he
finally says over here in Romans chapter 10 and verse 13, for
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And that's what we're going to
talk about this morning. But in Romans chapter 10, the
Apostle Paul expressed a sincere desire for his kinsmen, the Jews,
for his kinsmen according to the flesh. His heart was broken. He was
a Jew. These were his brothers and sisters.
This was the place where he grew up. This was the atmosphere in
which he was raised. He loved these people. He knew
how they thought. He knew their foundation principles. He knew their religion. He himself
was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. And the Jews were a typical people. It's important that you understand
this. They are a typical people. What
do I mean by that? I mean that they stood in figure
of something. This whole generation, I was
talking to a guy one time and I read him two or three scriptures
that plainly say, and I'm going to read them to you here in just
a minute, that the Jewish nation is not true Israel. But they
stood only in type and figure of true Israel. And all through
those five books of Moses I taught this morning in the Sunday school
class, he's laying down fundamental principles. He's laying down
in figure and type and picture all that he will do in time.
And Israel was a typical people. And I read him these scriptures,
and he said, well, just in case, I ain't going to say anything
bad about Israel. Well, there is no just in case. They either
are or they're not one or the other. They can't be both. But
listen to this. In Romans chapter 2, just hold
your place there in Romans 10, flip back a few pages back to
Romans chapter 2. And if you care to read this
chapter after a while, he'll tell you up here in this chapter
exactly what made up a Jew, exactly what this Jew was and why he
thought he was saved and why he thought himself to be a teacher
and why he thought all these things. But he works his way
down in the chapter and then in verse 28 he says, He is not
a Jew which is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew which is one
inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit,
and not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but of
God." Now, I don't see how you can read that and still consider
that nation to be the true Jew. Listen to this, Romans chapter
9. Flip over there for just a minute. He uses even clearer language
over here. In verse 6 of Romans chapter
9, he said, For they are not all Israel which are of Israel,
neither because they are the seed of Abraham are they all
children, but in Isaac shall thy seed be called. That is the
promised seed. That is, they which are the children
of the flesh, these are not the children of God. Now, can words
be any clearer than that? But it's obvious that God had
a purpose in Israel. He had a purpose in this nation,
and his purpose was strictly figurative. Were any of these
Jews saved? Well, sure they were. Sure they
were. Moses was. And you can go on and on. Caleb.
Joshua. All the prophets. There was a
lot of people saved. He told Elijah in that cave who
prayed and said, I'm the last one. He said, oh no, you're not
the last one. I've got thousands, thousands that I've preserved
who have not bowed the knee to Baal. A lot of the Jews were
saved, but being of the seed of Abraham did not constitute
that salvation. That bloodline from Abraham did
not constitute being a Jew. A believer is what constitutes
you being a Jew. and circumcision of the heart."
He is talking about regeneration and conversion. Those to whom he gave power to
become the sons of God, talking about those Old Testament saints
over in John chapter 1, that believed on his name, were born,
he said, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of
the will of man, but of God. That's what constitutes being
a Jew. They were a typical people with
a typical priesthood, typical sacrifices, typical blessings. Read the book of Hebrews. He
uses terms like a figure, a shadow, a pattern, patterns of things
in the heavens, shadows of good things to come. They had a typical
priesthood. And a typical promised land,
which was the figure of heaven, a tabernacle not made with hands. He talks about that coming Redeemer
who is going to accomplish this work, not in a tabernacle made
with hands, but in a tabernacle not made with hands, that is
to say, His body. Their law, their covenants, their
history, all typical. In the book of Galatians, you
find these two sons, the son of Abraham's natural reasoning
and logic, where he went in to save his handmaid and had this
child, Ishmael, and then the promised son, Isaac. And it says
these two are an allegory, they are whole lies. And being only a figure, and
having not received the Christ of God, they are also a figure
of false religion. They are an exact picture of
false religion. And I can prove that to you in
the Scriptures by how our Lord talks about them, and how the
apostles talked about them. He called them dogs. He called
them the concisions. that their father was Satan.
He called them devils. He said, you serpents. Isn't
that what he said? You vipers. He talked about beware
of the leaven of the Pharisees. That leaven always represents
sin in the Scripture. Beware of it. Beware of it. Of their religion. He warns his disciples about
it. He calls their leaders hypocrites and blind. And also, he told them, he said,
you know, it's going to be better off in the day of judgment for
Sodom and Gomorrah than it's going to be for you. That don't
sound like the same people to me. They represent false religion. And then he likens them all through
the Old Testament. He likens them unto a harlot.
who dresses and puts on her makeup and stands outside and tries
to attract men into her house. She's after a play and she gets
them into the house and listen to what it says. She woos them, it says, with
her lips and she convinces them and forces them. How? By deceit. by deceit. She promises them good, and the
result is that they wind up in hell. Her speech causes them to yield
and forces them with her flattering of her lips. You can read that
over in Proverbs 7, verse 21. I said that to say this. We live
in an age where everybody is at ease. Nobody is in trouble. Nobody's in trouble. I was talking
to a man right after that storm hit, and he's got a half a tree
laying on his house, and he don't know God from a billy goat, and
he told me, he said, I wish the Lord would just come and get
me. I'm ready to go. Ready to go. Are you that confident? I tell you, This place would run out the
back door if God showed up. I'm telling you the truth. We
don't think about it. There's no telling how much unbelief
is in our hearts simply because of the world that we live in
and the day we live in. Everybody's at ease. Nobody's
in trouble. You know, just a few years had
passed by from Abraham to Moses. And here comes Moses, and the
Lord appears to him in a burning bush. And he starts to approach
the bush, and the voice tells him, Take your shoes off. Now,
there was nothing holy about his bare feet, and there was
nothing unholy about his shoes. What was he telling him? That
I'm not common. I'm not ordinary. I'm not like
things that you approach on an everyday basis. You and me are
not on a first-name basis. Now, you take your shoes off,
and you approach me carefully and prayerfully and fearfully,
for I am God. Now, that's what he was talking
to Moses about. This generation knows nothing
about that. Just rushing to the presence of God. It's frightening. It's scary to me. When I read
in here of the person of God and his majesty and the glory
of his name, and I realize how ignorant we are, we are just
dumber than a box of rocks when it comes to God. We live in a generation and a
day when religion has all but convinced the world that God
is altogether love. Yet I find in the book of Acts,
which records the entire beginning of the church, all the way through
the book of Acts, I can't even find the word love. It ain't
in there anywhere in the whole book. But you'll find the word
righteousness in there, and holiness, and justice, and judgment. You'll
find that all the way through them books. But you won't find
that word love. This whole generation, they're
convinced that God is altogether love. They are convinced that
God wants everybody, every living being to be saved, but he cannot
violate the will of man, and so in spite of his desire to
save everybody, he can only save those who will let him. That
is not the God I read about. That's not the God I read about.
We live in a day of man-centered religion, freewill works religion. It appeals to your natural reason,
your natural logic, your natural ways, your natural desires. It appeals to it. It appeals
to it in their windows and in their scenery and in their pictures
and in all their visual aids and crosses and steeples and
all that type of thing. It appeals to your flesh. But God's not flesh. God is God. We know nothing about God except
what he reveals to us. And you cannot take what he reveals
and try to reason it out naturally. It's not going to fit. It's not
going to fit. It's like trying to take a square
block and put it in a round hole. It just won't fit. man-centered religion, free will,
works religion. And this is that day of which
Paul describes, saying that man would oppose all and exalt himself
above all that is called God. It is what the Bible calls the
spirit of Antichrist. And he is, as the Jews were at
his coming, Antichrist. That is man. When you go to proclaim
God as he is, and man as he is, they are anti-Christ. Now, they
love their Jesus, but not the Christ of God. They believed in a Messiah. The
Jews believed in a Messiah. They looked for a Messiah. But
when this Messiah came back, what He was going to do was establish
the nation of Israel. He was going to bless the nation
of Israel. And He was going to fix everything up. And they were
going to go right back to those days of honor and prestige and
glory and world fear, all the way back there like it was in
the days of Solomon. And everybody is going to look
at them and say, wow, man, look at them. Look at them. That's
what they thought. Well, what's religion talking
about today? Boil it down. It's pie in the
sky and a sweet by and by. That's what they're talking about.
It's all man. It's all health and wealth. God
doesn't want you sick. He wants you well. Then why'd
He let you get sick? Is there something outside His
power? Something outside His will? Something that can be accomplished
that He don't permit? You see what I'm saying? It's
man-centered. It's all together man-centered. They saw their
deeds as good works. They saw their prayers going
up to God and being accepted. They believed their temple worship
to be in accordance with the Word of God. They were doing
what their fathers told them to do. And with all their history and
all their zeal and all their traditions and all their ceremonies,
they didn't know God. They didn't know God. This world,
I'm telling you, just on the way over here, I've seen hundreds
of cars going to this church, that church, some other church,
people dressed up, going out there to worship. They know not
what. You go talk to them. They know
God, don't they? They think they do. They have a zeal of God, Romans
10, verse 2. That's what Paul saw. He grew
up in it. He knew what it was. He knew
what it was about. And he said, I bear witness they
have a zeal of God. They have an active zeal, a want
to, a desire to serve God. They have that. He said, I don't
deny that. Some of them are sincere. He was. But, he said, being ignorant
of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own
righteousness, had not submitted themselves unto the righteousness
of God. They were ignorant of God's essential
righteousness. God is righteous beyond your
wildest imagination. He is righteous. He cannot do
wrong. He cannot. People approach me all the time
about some dead relative and want to know, you know, do you
really think they were saved? And they were unsure about it.
And if you talked to them about their own salvation, they'd be
a little unsure about it. And here's what I tell them,
and it's what I'm going to continue to tell you if you come to me
with this question. I put them the same place I put
my relatives, into his hands. He cannot do wrong. And if he
judges them and sends them to hell, I'm going to have to say
amen because he cannot do wrong. It's not that I believe what
they deserve. It's what he says and what he
does. It's right. He can't do wrong.
He always does right. This is what they were ignorant
of, this essential righteousness of God. He cannot do wrong. He
does only right. And he cannot do wrong as a compromise
to save your soul. He must do it righteously. Righteously. They were ignorant of God's essential
righteousness. And they were ignorant of God's
redemptive righteousness in Christ. And they were ignorant of God's
requirement of righteousness. And they were ignorant of God's
imputed righteousness by faith. Now look here at verse 4. How did he know that? He grew
up with them. He knew what they were about.
But how did he know that? He was in darkness, same as they
were. Where was the light? What did he use? You see what
I'm saying? What was the key to that? What
opened that up for him to understand? Listen to this. For Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. Everyone. Everyone. I don't know if it's this way
anymore because I haven't been to one in a long time. Used to,
we'd go into a theater. That was a big thing when I was
a kid. You'd get to go to picture shows on the weekend and we'd
go up there on Saturday and matinee and go in. Sometimes we wouldn't
come out until late that night. We'd just stay in there and watch
the same thing over and over and over. But at the end of the
movie, these great big letters come up that said, The End. The
End. What does that mean? Huh? What does that mean? It's over.
Ain't that what it means? It's time to go home. There's
nothing less to tell. The story has been told. The
end. Don't sit there expecting something
else. Get up and go home. It's over.
Everything that was purposed to be said was said. When he
said the law, Christ is the end of the law, to everyone that
believes us, he's telling you there's nothing else left to
be said. The whole revelation has been
declared in him. The law is your schoolmaster
to bring you where? To Christ. He brings you to Christ. I don't need a schoolmaster anymore,
do I? It's the end. It's the consummation
of the law. It's the goal of the law. It's
the summation of the law. And it's the honor of the law. And righteousness. Now, listen
to me. Righteousness is a major part
of God's name, but it's not all of His name. It's just a part
of His name. God is just. He's not going to
compromise His justice. Read Romans chapter 3. We're
justified freely by His grace through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus whom God is set forth to be a propitiation for
our sins. to declare him to be just in
justifying you. You see what I'm saying? He declares
the justice of his name and the glory of that justice. And in
the salvation of sinners, and you can go on and on, God is
love. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. God
is love, but he's not all love. God is merciful. God is gracious. by compromising some other part
of his name. In the salvation of sinners,
Christ is the only place where his whole name can be manifested
in harmony without compromise in Christ. This is where that
name, it's not just righteousness, it's not just justice, but it's
also mercy and grace and kindness and love. Everything that makes
God, God. All his perfection. are declared
in this person Jesus Christ and how he saved sinners. Listen to this. He goes on to
say in this chapter, in Romans chapter 10, he said, don't say
in your heart who is going to send up to heaven to bring Christ
down. Who is worthy? That's what he's
saying. Who is worthy to have brought
Christ down? Don't say to yourself, I'm going
to try to be worthy enough to merit Christ coming down to save
my soul. Don't say to yourself, I'm going
to ascend into the deep. Question whether or not you can,
whether or not it's a possibility. Faith doesn't look for a Moses
to ascend up into the mountain. Maybe this is what he's talking
about. They had Moses, Israel did, ascended up into the mountain
and brought down the message of God, brought down the law,
read them the law, explained the law, taught the law to them.
He said faith doesn't look for that. That's already been accomplished.
Faith doesn't look for a jonah to go down in the belly of the
whale into hell and then be delivered up to you with a message from
God. Faith sees these things already
accomplished in Christ. The righteousness of faith is
not in heaven for us to climb up to and get, or at the bottom
of the sea to be out of our reach. But Paul said, it's nigh thee. This salvation is nigh thee. It's right on your lips. It's
on your tongue. It's in your heart. It's the
message of grace that he preached. It's the gospel he preached.
It's brought now by a preacher. It's brought now by the Spirit
of God. It's brought now by the providence
that leads you to me and me to you. It's brought now to you. It's not way up here out of reach.
It's not way down there out of reach. We're not waiting on something
else to happen. It's here, he said. It's accomplished. It's finished. And it's brought
to you through the preaching of the gospel. And it's so close
to you that you can taste it on your lips. That's what he
told them. It's nigh thee. It's nigh thee. Oh, it's nigh you. And listen to this, verse 10.
For with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness. That's the
only way he can get it. That's the only way he can receive
it. You'll receive it that way or you won't get it at all. The only way we can be seen of
God and have fellowship and communion with Him, the only way He can
be approached by guilty sinners, the only way we can be saved,
that's what Paul's talking about. He's talking about Israel being
saved. Religious, but lost. How are
they going to be brought to God? They're going to be brought to
God by faith in Christ and accomplished work in that substitute. Well,
they ain't coming. They ain't coming. Verse 11,
for the Scriptures say, Whosoever believeth in him shall not be
ashamed. And the Old Testament where he
quotes this verse from, it doesn't use the word ashamed. It uses
the word shall not make haste. And then here in Romans 10, he
uses the word ashamed, and in 1 Peter 2.6, When it's quoted,
he says, they shall not be confounded. Now, look at that word, confounded
and ashamed of. They're the same word, same Greek
word. And the man who believes on Christ
is not a man left in his ignorance and darkness of his folly nature. God's not going to leave him
there. He's going to send him light. He's going to give him life.
He's going to give him reason. He's not left without a basis
of hope. He's not left without reasons
and evidences of life. And when he says he shall not
make haste in the Old Testament, those who come to believe on
Christ, they don't come by a hasty, impulsive decision pressed on
them by some preacher trying to get them to walk down an aisle,
join a church, be baptized, something that It's an impulsive thing. They play on your emotions. They
play on this type of thing. And they could care less what
you believe if they could just get you down, get your name on
the book, send you out the door with a hope. And I know you think,
well, how could anybody believe in that? I watched her mother
die with that hope. Went to church two or three times
in her life. A preacher talked her into making
a profession of faith, and she held on to it until she died. People are going to hell over
this type of thing, and somebody is going to stand up and give
an account for it in that day for what they say. False hope. The only way you can be seen
of God and have fellowship and communion with God, the only
way you can worship God is through Him. It's through Christ. The only way He can be approached
by sinners Oh, His hope does not leave us
in our guilt, ashamed. It does not leave us confounded.
It does not leave us knowing not how we stand or why. It gives us reasons. Reasons. Real saving faith understands
who and what it believes. It is a hope built on spiritual
revelation and understanding. 1 Corinthians 2. Read the chapter. Based on the Word of God and
gospel declaration, it is the convincing of the mind and heart
of the gospel of Jesus Christ and Him crucified, and a convincing
that this is the message of God to chosen sinners. And saving
faith is described throughout the scriptures by examples. And listen to the language they
spoke. Listen to this. In Romans chapter
3 verse 28, Paul said, and we conclude. Huh? Conclude? Yeah, conclude. By the revelation of Christ in
the gospel, by all those things I quoted to you a while ago from
Romans chapter 3 being justified freely by His grace, that propitiation
of Christ, That declaration of God that he is just and justifier,
Paul said, therefore, we conclude that a man is not justified by
the works of the law, but by faith. It is a conclusion based
on real reason, real evidence, based on the Word of God. It
is a conclusion. Abraham staggered not at the
promise of God through unbelief, but was thoroughly persuaded
that what God had promised he was able also to fulfill. Paul,
that man of God, he said, I am persuaded that he is able to
keep that which I have committed unto him against that day. Persuaded. How? Through the revelation of
God, through the declaration of the gospel, he is convinced
through the Word of God. That's how. A man stands up and
preaches, and he sits there with an open Bible, and he looks,
and he listens, and he looks, and he listens, and he looks,
and God opens his heart to receive it. And all of a sudden, it becomes
clear. And it's real reason. It's real
foundation. And he can lay himself on it
and receive it and rejoice in it and stand on it. Something
solid, not emotional. He's persuaded, persuaded, persuaded. I'm telling you, there's a thread
that runs through the Scriptures talking about believers that
uses this word know and knowing. You remember that when you read
in here. Go through the book of 1 John.
See how many times he used that word, know. And we know. And
we know. And we know. You better. You better know. Knowing that the old man is crucified
with Christ. Knowing that the law is spiritual
and we are carnal, sold unto sin. Knowing that in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing. Knowing that all things work
together for good to them that love God. to them who are the
called according to his purpose. Faith is an understanding of
the righteous character of God and the redemptive glory of his
righteousness manifested in a crucified substitute. That's what it is. Romans 10, verse 12. There's
no difference between the Jew and the Greek. There's no difference
between religious men and men in the bar. There's no difference
in them. They're both ignorant. Paul said way back here in Romans
chapter 3, he said we have before proved both Jew and Gentile.
They are all under sin. There is no difference. Your
being religious is not going to get you one iota closer to
God than that man down in the bar. You have no more righteousness
sitting in a church pew listening to a man than you do if you are
sitting in a bar drinking a shot of whiskey. None! There's no difference between
the Jew and the Gentile. The difference is Christ. Now, you come to Christ and receive
Christ, and you'll leave the barstool, and you'll leave that
church pew, too. And you'll come to somebody that's
declaring the name of God. There's no difference, he said,
between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord is over all,
and he is rich unto all that call upon him. Whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, and he shall
be saved with reason and revelation and understanding." Then here
are some questions. How shall you call on him in
whom you have not believed? How shall you believe in him
of whom you have not heard? How are you going to hear without
a preacher, and how is he going to preach unless God sends him?
Now, listen to me. The name of the Lord is not his
earthly name, Jesus. That is a revelation of his name. It means Savior. Jesus, the name, signifies a
part of his name. And the Lord signifies a part
of his name, but again, it is only a part of it. God reveals his name from beginning
to end, all through the scriptures. This book tells one story, front
to back. And in the Old Testament, there
are names that reveal God as God Almighty, as absolute God. And they're frightening. These
names are frightening. God does all he wills to do. Moses said, when I go down there
and tell them that God sent me, when I go down there and tell
them, let your people go, they're going to ask me who sent them.
Who sent me? He said, what am I going to tell
them? He said, you tell them I am sent you. And that's all
they need to know. That's all they need to know. These names he gives to describe
himself as God are these. The first of those names is Elohim. That means worshipped one. His
name is El or Eli. Abraham called the place where
God confirmed his covenant to him Beth-El. It has to do with
that name of God. And on the cross, you remember
when Christ cried out and he cried out in that language, Eli,
Eli, lema sabachthan. That's that name, that E-L-I
or E-L. And that name has to do with
God Almighty. Mighty God. Mighty God, why hast
thou forsaken me? Elohim, E-L-I-O-M, means Most
High God. It has to do with supremacy,
majesty. Shaddai means all sufficient,
able to do His will. to do his pleasure. Sabioth has
to do with the Lord of Hosts. He is Lord over all his creatures. Adonai, it looks and understands
God as the first cause of all things. This word E-J-E-H, Ejah,
I guess is how you pronounce it. It means I am. I am that
I am, the God of revelation. Kyrios in the New Testament Greek
means absolute, total dominion over all. And God, as it is revealed
in the New Testament, has to do with His absolute holiness,
righteousness, knowing all things, seeing all things, bringing all
things to pass. And these nine names have to
do with God in His true character as absolute God. And I'm telling
you, in as plain a language as I know how to tell you, you want
nothing to do with this God. For you to rush into the presence
of this God would be like a moth flying into a bonfire. Just like
that, you'd be gone. Satan, with just the thought
in his mind of doing something, was cast out of glory. Just the thought, it just popped
in his head. I think I'll do this. Just popped
in his head just an idea. He's gone. Reserved in chains
of darkness under everlasting judgment. You don't want anything
to do with this God. And I tell you this, this is
that character of God. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes
back in his full glory, this is the character in which he'll
appear to this world as absolute God. And he will sit on that
throne of his father, and he will judge in this absolute character. And this is what Paul says over
there in 1 Timothy, chapter 6, verse 15. He said, In which in
his times he shall show who is the blessed and only potentate,
the King of kings and Lord of lords, who only hath immortality. dwelling in a light which, now
listen, which no man can approach unto, whom no man hath seen,
nor can see, to whom be honor and power everlasting." That's
that revelation of God as absolute God. And you don't want any part
of that, any part of it. But God also reveals himself
by his name Jehovah. Now, here's what Jehovah means.
Literally, it means Savior, and it means to be. Now, here's what
he's saying. With the term Jehovah, he's talking
about how God can become a Savior to be. How God can be a Savior
to fall in me. That's what the name means, to
be Savior. And the name is always found
in the Bible, and he gives fourteen variations of it, and it's all
a compound of Jehovah. You won't find it apart from
this term Jehovah. And so here's what he's doing,
is he's revealing to us his redemptive character. How God can be absolute
God and yet save. How can he do it? Through a Redeemer.
through this Savior who is to be, Jehovah. Jehovah. Jehovah is God's covenant redemptive
name. And as Jehovah God, he engages
all of the perfections of his character and power to redeem
chosen sinners from their sins. And in the Scriptures, he gives
fourteen compound revelations of this redemptive glory in Christ.
I'll just go through them quickly. Jehovah Jireh. the Lord will
provide. This Savior, in order to be the
Savior of men, he must provide. You see what he is saying? Jehovah-Jireh. Jehovah-Rapha, the Lord that
healeth thee. To be the Savior, in order for
God to be your Savior, he must heal you. You see it. You see how he reveals
his redemptive character. Jehovah Nissi, the Lord our banner.
To be your Savior, he must be your banner. He must be your
ensign. Jehovah Kadish, the Lord that
sanctified thee. To be your Savior, he must sanctify
you. Jehovah Rea, the Lord our shepherd. He must be your shepherd. Jehovah
Hosonoo, the Lord our maker. Jehovah Eloheinu, the Lord our
God. Now, watch this. Here are three
variations of this. Jehovah Eloheinu means the Lord
our God. Elohika means the Lord thy God,
and Jehovah Elohe means the Lord my God. All three of those things. Jehovah Shalom, the Lord our
peace. How can God be my Savior and not bring me peace? Do you
see how he unites these things? Jehovah Shalom. And then Jehovah
Sabaoth, the Lord of hosts. Jehovah Helion, the Lord Most
High. Jehovah Sidcanu, the Lord Our
Righteousness. And Jehovah Shema, the Lord is
there. the Word being made flesh and
dwelling among us. Jehovah! Jehovah! And I'm not
trying to make faith complicated to you. I'm just trying to show
you, you can sit and call on Jesus until you're blue in the
face. God's not going to hear you. He's going to hear those
who call on His name. On His name. The only way you
can call on His name is to learn it and hear it and understand
it. Then you can call. And you will
call him once you learn his name. Because in learning that name,
you're going to learn yours. And you ain't going to like it.
You ain't going to like it. And you're going to see where
you're at and see yourself helpless. And he'll not be known or called
upon by baseless, superstitious concepts of ignorant men. In
Acts chapter 4, Annas the high priest and Caiaphas and Alexander
and all these religious men, all the kindred of the high priest,
gathered in Jerusalem, sent Peter and John out for healing that
man. You remember the story. Silver and gold have I none,
but such as I have given unto thee in the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth. Rise up and walk. And they called
him into question about what they did and what they said.
And he said in verse 9, If we this day, Be examined of the
good deed done unto the impotent man, by what means he is made
whole, 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 now
stand before you whole." Now listen, this is the stone that
you builders cast aside. That's what I'm telling you this
morning. This stone, this revelation of God's glory, this person,
the builders of our day cast it aside, laid it aside, just
like the Jews. And they built their temple and
built their worship and built their church and built their
hope and all this. It didn't have that stone in
it. But he said God made this stone the head of the corner.
And that's what these messages are going to be about that I'm
going to bring to you. I'm going to try to show you.
where we are at and why I say that and how the Word of God
relates us to Him and who He is. And in His absolute glory
and holiness in person, these two are so far apart. They are
poles apart. They cannot come together. They
cannot be reconciled apart from this man.