Would you turn to 1 Corinthians
1. 1 Corinthians 1, I'm going to read
verses 1 and 2. Paul called to be an apostle
of Jesus Christ through the will of God. and Sosthenes, our brother,
unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them that are
sanctified in Christ Jesus, call to be saints with all that in
every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both
theirs and ours. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that we might be
enabled by your grace, by your spirit, to call on your name. Lord, teach us what it means
to call on your name and cause us by your grace to call on your
name. May your gospel be preached in
the power of your spirit, May we be enabled to worship. Lord,
we confess our sins there ever before us. Forgive us of our
sins for Christ's sake. Give us grace to love you more,
to trust you completely and love one another more. Bless this
time for Christ's sake. In his name we pray. Amen. I want to try to speak upon calling
on his name. Now, there isn't anything more
important than that. You believe that? Calling upon his name. This is what saints do. Look
in verse two. Under the church of Corinth,
the church of God, which is a Corinth to them that are sanctified in
Christ Jesus called to be saints. Here's what saints do, here's
what those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus do, with all
that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our
Lord. Now, have I ever called upon
his name? If I have, that's what I'm doing
right now. I'm calling upon his name. There
is no salvation apart from calling upon his name. Calling upon his
name is the act of worship. Now let me repeat that. I want
you to think about it. Calling upon his name is the
act of worship. Now let's go to Genesis four.
This is where it's first mentioned. Genesis chapter 4. First chapter
after the fall. That's how early this comes up. Verse 25. And Adam knew his wife again,
and she bare a son and called his name Seth. For God, said
she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain
slew. Seth is the one who substitutes
for Abel. Thank you, Dwight. Seth is the
one who substitutes for Abel. Verse 26, and to Seth, to him
also there was born a son, and he called his name Enos. Then
began men to call upon the name of the Lord. Now Seth means substitute. Enos means mortal man. And it's
taken from the word that means weak and frail. What do weak,
frail men do? They call on the name of the
Lord. There's nowhere else for them to look. They call upon
the name of the Lord. Look in Genesis chapter 12. This is Abraham. Genesis chapter 12, verse 7. And the Lord appeared unto Abram
and said, unto thy seed will I give this land. And there builded
he an altar unto the Lord. What's an altar for? For sacrifice. He knew there was no approaching
God apart from sacrifice. He builded an altar unto the
Lord who appeared unto him, and he removed from thence unto a
mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, having
Bethel on the west, and High on the east. And there he builded
an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord." Now
there's no calling upon his name apart from this altar. There's
no really understanding of God apart from the sacrifice of Christ.
You can't call on his name and not see the necessity of the
altar and sacrifice. Look in Genesis chapter 26. Verse 24, this is about Isaac. And the Lord appeared unto him
in 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 he built an altar there,
and called upon the name of the Lord. And this is where he pitched
his tent, and that's where he dug a well. That's so significant. This is where I want to pitch
my tent, at the altar, calling upon the name of the Lord. This
is where the well of salvation is. This is where the water is,
calling on the name of the Lord. Now, turn with me for a moment
to Joel chapter 2. Book of Joel chapter 2, it is
right after Hosea. There's Daniel, Hosea, and Joel,
and Peter quotes this on the day of Pentecost. Verse 32. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever, Joel 2, 32, and it shall come to pass that whosoever
shall call on the name of the Lord shall be delivered. For Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, in the remnant
whom the Lord shall call. Now, the people the Lord calls,
you know what they do? They call. Every one of them,
they call. Turn to Acts chapter two. And
you see the significance of this in scripture. Acts chapter two,
when Peter's bringing that message on the day of Pentecost. He says
in verse 16, but this is that which was spoken by the prophet
Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last day, saith God, I'll
pour out my spirit upon all flesh and your sons and your daughters
shall prophesy and your young men shall see visions. And your
old men shall dream dreams. And on my servants and on my
handmaidens, I will pour out in those days of my spirit, and
they shall prophesy. And I will show wonders in heaven
and signs in the earth, heaven, earth beneath, blood and fire
and vapor of smoke. Then the sun shall be turned
into darkness and the moon into blood before that great notable
day of the Lord come. And it shall come to pass that
whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord. shall be saved. I turn to Romans 10. Paul quotes this in verse 13, for whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now let's see what led
Paul to make this statement. Look at the first of the chapter. Brethren, my heart's desire and
prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. Now, two
things are apparent in that statement. They were not saved. And the
next thing is apparent is that Paul wanted them to be saved.
He desired their salvation. And look what he says. For I
bear them record that they have a zeal of God. He's talking about
the God of the Bible, but not according to knowledge. For they
being ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish
their own righteousness have not submitted themselves unto
the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Now, I have to
have some understanding of the character of God for me to call
on his name. It's impossible not to. I have
to have some understanding of his righteousness or I will not
call upon his name. You see, you can't call upon
his name if you don't know who he is. If you don't know something
of his isness, he that cometh to God must believe that he is.
that he is, calling on his name is believing who he is and calling
on that name. Now let's go on reading, verse
five. For Moses described with the righteousness which is of
the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. The righteousness of the law
is due. That can summarize it. Here's
what you need to do. That's it, here's what you need
to do. Verse six, but the righteousness
which is of faith speaketh on this wise. First tells us what
not to say, say not in your heart who shall ascend into heaven,
that is to bring Christ down from above, or who shall descend
up into the deep, that is to bring up Christ again from the
dead. Now, what's that mean? Don't say in your heart, what
can I do to get Christ to come down here and do something for
me? Don't say that. That works. Don't say, what can
I do to make what Christ did for me work for me when he died
and was buried? What can I do to get that to
work for me? Get doing out of your thinking. Go on. Nothing you can do. Let's go on reading. But what
sayeth it? The word is nigh thee. It's so close, even in thy mouth
and in thy heart, that is the word of faith which we preach. It's right here. I can say this
to everybody sitting in this room. It's near you. It's near
me. You don't have to go somewhere
and find it. It's very near. Verse 9, that if thou shalt confess
with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, the one who is Lord. Now that's
not just an empty title. That means he's the Lord of creation.
He's the creator. He's the Lord of providence.
That means he's the one who controls every single event. I love thinking about that. He's
in control of me. He's in control of you. He's
in control of what's going on through your mind right now.
I love saying that. Somebody says, I don't believe that. Well,
he's in control of that too. He's Lord. He's the Lord. And he's
most especially the Lord of salvation. salvation's in his hand. If thou
wilt confess the Lord Jesus, look what it says next. If thou
shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe
in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. Now, it doesn't simply mean you
believe in his resurrection. Well, I believe Jesus Christ
was raised from the dead. Here's the issue. Why was he raised
from the dead? Why was he raised? Because he succeeded in what
he was doing. He was representing His people
to put away their sins. You know what He did? He put
them away. He made perfect satisfaction to God. And God raised Him from
the dead. The very justice of God demanded
His resurrection. Let's go on reading. If you confess
with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that
God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with
the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation. Now, this is so important because
I, how many times have you worried, I'm afraid I just believe in
my head and don't really believe in my heart? You ever worried
about that? I sure have. And I would dare
say you have too. Now, what is meant by believing
with the heart? Well, believing with the heart
means believing with the whole man. You begin with the understanding,
the affections, what you love, your will. That's what is meant
by the heart, the understanding, the affections, and the will.
Now, I understand. I don't completely comprehend
this, but I understand that the only righteousness I have is
the righteousness of Jesus Christ. Not only do I understand that,
I love having His righteousness as my personal righteousness
before God. It moves my affections. I love this. And if given my
choice, would you rather be saved by His righteousness or yours?
You know which one I'll choose? His. It's a no-brainer. With
the heart, man believeth under righteousness, and with the mouth,
confession is made to salvation. You see, what you believe in
your heart, you will confess with your mouth. You're gonna
stand for that. This is where all my salvation
is. Verse 11, four, the scripture
saith, and this is our appeal, the scripture. This is our appeal,
let me repeat that, the scripture. For the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed. They won't be ashamed
of what they believe, nor will they be put to shame. They glory
in this. For there's no difference between
the Jew and the Greek. I want to repeat this. You take the best person you
know and the worst person you know, and you can see a big difference,
can't you? What about in God's sight? No
difference. No difference. Between the Jew
and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that
call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Verse 14, I'm gonna come back
to verse 13, but four hows. And this gives us some understanding
of calling. How then shall they call on him in whom they've not
believed? It's impossible. You can't call
on somebody you don't believe. And how shall they believe in
him in whom they've not heard? Well, you can't believe on somebody
you've never heard of. And how shall they hear without
a preacher? Now somebody says, are you saying
God has to have a preacher? No, I'm not saying that. God
could save you using an angel to preach or without preaching.
God's all powerful. God could do this, but that's
the wrong question. Does he save without a preacher? How shall they hear without a
preacher? without a preacher. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And that's not putting
the focus on the importance of the preacher. It's the means
God has ordained. God has manifested his word through
preaching. And how shall they preach except
they be sent? The fact of the matter is, they
can't. Now, There are four things that I
would like to point out about verse 13. Whosoever shall call
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. You know what the most
important phrase in this verse is? The name of the Lord. The name of the Lord is who he
is. It's not just verbally articulating
his name. It's knowing the person behind
the name. The name of the Lord represents his attributes. his
characteristics. Remember when he proclaimed his
name to Moses? The Lord, the Lord God, merciful
and gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth,
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty. Now, his character is defined
in how that he is utterly just and will by no means whatsoever
clear the guilty. And yet he's merciful and gracious
and forgives sins. You know, the cross is a manifestation
of the character of God. Now, when I'm calling upon his
name, I'm calling upon his attributes to save me. Lord, save me as
an act of your sovereign will. Command my salvation. Lord, save
me. Lord, save me by your justice. Save me in a way that honors
and magnifies your justice so my sin is actually punished and
you do something about it. Lord, save me by your wisdom.
Save me by your omnipotence and your power. You're calling upon
his name. You're calling upon every attribute
of who he is to save you. And that's what I'm doing right
now. Lord, save me by your will, by your grace, by your power,
by your wisdom, by your sovereignty, whatever attribute, by your immutability,
by your independence, save me by who you are. That's the important
word. the name of the Lord. You're
calling upon His name. Now the next word is a word that
I dearly love. It's the word whosoever. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Now, you know, if it said, if
an elect sinner calls upon the name of the Lord, he'll be saved.
You know, that true, but it wouldn't give me any comfort. If it says
somebody that Christ died for, if they call upon the name of
the Lord, they'll be saved. That's true, but that doesn't
really give me any comfort. Whosoever, whosoever, I'm one
of them. If it said Todd Nybert, I know
for a fact that there are more Todd Nyberts than this one. It
might've been a different Todd Nybert. But I am a whosoever. I can fit myself into that group.
Whosoever. Whosoever. Are you a whosoever? That's all I'm asking. Are you
a whosoever? Then this promise is for you. Whosoever. Here's the third word,
and it's an easy word. shall call. Help. That's what that means. When Peter is sinking in the
water, Lord, save me. He's calling on the name of the
Lord. What about the leper? Lord, if you will, you can make
me clean. He's calling upon the name of
the Lord. What about the thief? Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. I know you're not gonna stay
dead because you're the mighty king. Well, whatever you, you
can't fail. You're gonna come back as a reigning
king. Oh, remember me. The Syrophoenician woman, after
the Lord had said, I'm not sent but to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel, the scripture says, then she came and worshiped
him saying, Lord, help me. If you don't help me, there's
no hope for me. I've got to have you do something
for me. Like the publican in the temple. God be merciful, be propitious
to me the sinner. Do something about my sin. I
can't do anything about it. I can't make it go away. I can't
stop sinning. Do something about my sin. You're
calling upon the name of the Lord. Now whosoever shall call
On the name of the Lord, listen to this, shall be saved. And we're talking about God's
salvation. And when somebody says, I got saved, don't talk
like that. Don't even talk like that. The
Lord saved me. You know, I like what the Philippian
jailer said. He said, what, he didn't say,
what must I do to save myself? He said, what must I do to be
saved? Big difference. Infinite difference. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. That's a sure word. Now, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's the
act of worship. That's the act of faith. You're
calling on His name. And the one evidence that you
have called upon His name is that you're calling on His name
right now. Right now, in your heart, you
are calling on His name. Lord, save me. Amen.