Is not that I did choose thee? Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nyberg. We are located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside of Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 1030 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
945 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m. Nursery is provided for all services.
For more information, visit our website at toddsroadgracechurch.com.
Now here's our pastor, Todd Nibert. I've entitled the message for
this morning, Would You Be Saved? In Romans 10, beginning in verse
11, For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall
not be ashamed. You won't be put to shame, and
you won't be ashamed. in believing on him. And then
Paul says in verse 12, for there is no difference between the
Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all
that call upon him. Now here's my text. Four, whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Would you be saved? Every now and then it's important
to bring a message, probably a whole lot more often than we
realize. It's important to bring a message
with the assumption that no one listening is saved and that everyone
listening wants to be saved and wants to know the way of salvation. Now I'm going to assume in bringing
this message that you are not saved and that you want to be
saved. Paul began this chapter in Romans
chapter 10 verse 1, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer
to God for Israel is that they might be saved. Now Paul says
two things by that. He says, they're not saved and
I want them to be saved. And my dear friend, I want you
to be saved, whatever that means. I want you and I want myself
to be saved. Now, we have this blessed promise,
whosoever, I'm in that demographic, shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. Now let me read the verses immediately
following that statement. Paul says, how then shall they
call on him in whom they've not believed? There's something to
be believed before you're able to call. And then he asks this
question, how shall they believe in him in whom they've not heard? There must be something you hear
before you can believe. And then he says, how shall they
hear without a preacher? you're gonna have to hear, I'm
gonna have to hear a preacher, someone sent of God with God's
message. And how should they preach except
they be sent, sent of God. Now, if I'm sent of God, that
means I have a message given to me by God for you. Now, if God has sent one with
a message, I want to hear what he has to say, don't you? And
I want to listen very carefully. Now, if I was to tell you that
I'm going to tell you how you can make $1 million this very
day, you'd listen very intently, wouldn't you? You would be interested
in what I have to say. But if I say I'm going to tell
you how you can be saved That is of infinite more importance
than gaining a million dollars. Oh, may the Lord give you grace
to listen intently as we consider this passage of Scripture concerning
salvation. Now, in verses 9 and 10 of Romans
10, we read, that if thou shalt confess with
thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine 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 here we read of being saved
and salvation. So the first thing we need to
deal with is the need of being saved. Have you ever dealt with
the need of being saved? Now, in the Garden of Eden, we
read of Adam and Eve, our first parents. You notice in verse
11, I've already read this once, for the scripture saith, whosoever
believeth in him shall not be ashamed. They shall not be ashamed. Now when we read of our first
parents in the Garden of Eden, we read where they were naked
and were not ashamed. They were buck naked and they
had no sinful thoughts. They had no shame. Why? Because they had not yet fallen. They didn't have the sinful nature
that you and I do. But when Adam and Eve ate of
the forbidden fruit, their eyes were opened and they knew they
were naked and they were ashamed. They had a sinful nature. They had an evil nature that
they didn't have before. And now they were ashamed and
they knew they were naked and they ran into the woods and tried
to make themselves a covering of fig leaves to hide their shame. Now, do you know, do I know what
really happened in the Garden of Eden? Now God said to our
first father, in the day you eat thereof, you shall surely
die. Now, Adam did not die physically
upon that day. As a matter of fact, he lived
over 900 years, but he did die spiritually. His spirit that
he had before the fall died. and he became dead in trespasses
and sins. What's that mean? That means
he lost the ability to not sin. All he did was sin. When he woke up, he sinned. When
he ate his breakfast, he sinned. When he went out to work, he
sinned. Because he had a sinful nature,
and everything he did was sin. Now that's the case regarding
you and I. We're born into this world with
sinful nature. Somebody says, well, what exactly
do you mean by sin? People have different definitions
of sin. Well, the Bible doesn't. The
Bible says sin is the transgression of the law. You take the Ten
Commandments, there is sin. If you put any God before God,
it's sin. If you concoct an idol, a false
view, a false imagination of God that makes you feel more
comfortable with yourself, that's sin. If you fail to reverence
His holy name, that's sin. If you fail to rest, that's sin. If you fail to honor authority,
that's sin. If you murder, that's sin. Somebody says, well, I haven't
done that one. Well, have you murdered somebody's character? Have you
spake ill of somebody? That's sin. To commit adultery,
to commit sexual sin is sin. To lie is sin. To steal is sin. To covet, to desire that which
God has not given you is sin. And if God gives me and you a
view of what we are, we're going to see that we haven't kept one
commandment one time. All we've done is sin. If not
in the actual act, it's in the heart. As a matter of fact, sin
comes from the heart. And a sinner is somebody who
all they do is sin. Now, Adam became dead in sin,
unable to do anything but sin. And when he ate that fruit and
fell, he did what he did as a representative man. when he sinned, he did so
as the representative of all our race. Romans 5.12 says, By
one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, so that death
passed upon all men, in that all have sinned. When Adam sinned,
you and I sinned. When Adam became dead in sins,
we inherited his evil nature, hence the need of being saved. I need somebody to save me because
I certainly can't save myself because the scripture says I'm
dead in trespasses and sins as a result of what Adam did, as
a result of what I did in him, and as a result of what I've
done in myself. I've heard people say, how can
we be held responsible for Adam's sin? Well, okay, if you weren't
held responsible for Adam's sin, how have you done on your own?
It doesn't help you any. you sinned enough yourself to
where if Adam's sin wasn't charged to you, you'd be condemned anyway.
But it's still true that what Adam did, he did as a representative,
and that's given to teach us that what Christ did, he did
as a representative too. If we can be condemned for somebody
else's sin, we can be saved by somebody else's righteousness.
Now, saved in such a way that we have positively absolutely
nothing to be ashamed of. Oh, I find that so attractive
to stand in judgment day and there's nothing for me to be
ashamed of. I've never done anything wrong and I've always done that
which is right. That's the only way you can truly
not be ashamed and that's how he saves. Now let's go on reading
in our text in verse 12. Paul says, for there's no difference
between the Jew and the Gentile. There's no difference. For the
same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. Now,
who are the Gentiles? Well, they're people without
a Bible. There were the Jews, the people
with a Bible, the people God gave a revelation to, and there
were the Gentiles, the people without a Bible. Now, the Gentiles,
Even though they didn't have a Bible, they still had no excuse,
because God's law is written in the heart of every man, and
every man knows the difference between right and wrong. Every
man is born into this world knowing it's wrong to steal, it's wrong
to murder, sexual sin is wrong. We're born with that knowledge
in our heart, and even though they didn't have this written
revelation, they still knew the difference between right and
wrong, and they are without excuse. Now, the Jews are the men and
women that were born with a revelation from God. They were given a Bible.
And you know how much good it did them? Not a bit. Paul said
in Romans chapter 3 verse 9, we have before proved both Jews
and Gentiles that they are all under sin. As it's written, there's
none righteous, no not one, there's none that understands, there's
none that seeks after God, they are gone out of the way, they
are together become unprofitable, there's none that doeth good,
no not one, no Gentile, no But look what Paul says, there's
no difference between the Jew and the Gentile, and then he
makes this glorious statement, for the same Lord over all is
rich. unto all that call upon him."
Now, there's no difference. There are no distinctions. There
are no advantages one man has over another. No racial or ethnic
distinctions. We are all made of one blood.
We all have the same father, Adam. If you shake your family
tree long enough, Adam will fall out. We all come from Him. There's
no distinctions. There are no educational distinctions. There's no economic distinctions
or societal distinctions. There's no intellectual distinctions.
You take the most moral man on the earth and the most immoral
man on the earth and you know there's no difference. Not before
God there's not. There's no difference. Genesis
chapter 6 verse 5 says, And God saw the wickedness of man was
great in the earth, every man, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. There is no difference. They're both equally evil before
God, but for, that doesn't make us lose hope, for the same Lord
over all is rich unto all that call upon Him." Now, He is Lord,
and He's the Lord over all. He's the Lord of the Jews. He's
the Lord of the Gentiles. I heard a preacher say this week,
Make Him the Lord of your life. Newsflash, He is the Lord of
your life. Whether you know it or whether
you do not know it, whether you love it or whether you hate it,
you are in His hands and He is your Lord And there's nothing
you can do about that. Now you can rejoice in it, you
can be angry about it, but He is the Lord of your life. You
don't make Him Lord. God beat you to it. God hath
made this same Jesus whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. He is the Lord. He's the Lord
of creation. He spaked this world into existence.
He's the Lord of Providence. That means everything that happens
in time, He's in control of. And the first cause behind it,
even the fall of a sparrow, He's in control of it. He's in control
of every event. Everything that happens is His
will taking place. And He's most especially the
Lord of salvation. That means if you're saved, it's
up to Him. It's not up to you, it's up to
Him. The leper understood that when he said, Lord, If you will,
you can make me clean. My salvation is ultimately up
to Him. It's not up to me. It's up to
Him. He can save me to the praise
of the glory of His grace, or He can pass me by and let me
be damned to the praise of the glory of His justice. Whatever
He does is right. He's the Lord. The same Lord
over all. This Lord who is omnipotent,
omniscient and omnipresent, the one who's absolutely sovereign,
the one who really is Lord, not an empty title. He's the Lord.
He is rich unto all who call upon him. Now, if you call upon
him, you'll find him to be rich toward you. And this thing of
calling upon the name of the Lord, was introduced very early
in the scriptures. We read it in Genesis chapter
4 verse 26. Then began men to call upon the
name of the Lord. And all the patriarchs of the
Old Testament, they all had this in common. They called upon the
name of the Lord. When Peter was preaching that
great sermon on the day of Pentecost, where 3,000 people were converted
through this message, he began it with this quotation by Joel.
Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now here we have this glorious
assurance. This same Lord over all is rich
unto all who call upon him. And then in verse 13, we have
what is one of my favorite verses of scripture in all God's Word.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved. Do you hear that? That means
if you call upon the name of the Lord, you shall be saved."
Now, we're going to come back to this verse in just a minute,
but look in verse 14. It says, How shall they call
on Him in whom they've not believed? Now, you will not call until
you believe the gospel. And then it says, How shall they
believe in Him in whom they've not heard? You can't believe
something you've not heard. It doesn't just fall into your
heart all of a sudden. No, you've got to hear the gospel.
And it says, how shall they hear without a preacher? It pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. And
how shall they preach except they be sent, sent of God? There was a man sent from God
whose name was John. You cannot call on an unrevealed
Lord, the gospel. must be revealed to you." Now,
what is the gospel? You're going to have to know
the gospel before you'll call on the Lord. This isn't just
some kind of calling out like people get in trouble. What's
that country song that came out in Jesus Take the Wheel? Like
whenever you're in trouble you call out and then there he is
there to hear you. No, nothing like that. You don't
call on someone that you don't know who he is. Now, what is
the gospel? Well, I could give so many verses
of scripture concerning the gospel of God's salvation, but listen
to this one. This was found in the opening chapter of the New
Testament. Matthew 1, verse 21 says, Thou
shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from
their sins. Now, do you hear that glorious
statement? The Lord Jesus Christ, He shall
save. Not He'll make salvation available. Not He'll give people an opportunity. He shall save His people. Not everybody. Christ didn't
come to save everybody. He came to save His people. He
came to save those the Father gave Him. He said, I came down
from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him that
sent me. And this is the will of Him that sent me, that of
all which He hath given me, I should lose nothing, but raise it up
again at the last day. He said in John 17, 9, I pray
for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which you have given me. He shall save his people.
Now, the Bible makes that distinction. A lot of times preachers don't
make that distinction. It's because they don't really
know the gospel. He came to save his people, and he came to save
his people from their sins. That's what I need to be saved
from, my sins, my sins that I can't put away. I need to be saved
from my sins. That's what Christ came to do.
He came to save His people from their sins. He came to save His
people from the condemnation of sin because He bore the condemnation.
It's called being justified. He took my penalty and now The
law looks at me and says, he's not guilty because my sin became
his sin and he put it away and he justified me. He came to save
his people from the power of their sins. Now there was a time
when I was completely unable to believe. Didn't even know
what it meant. There was a time when I was completely
unable to repent. Didn't even know what it meant.
There was a time when I was completely unable to love God. I was under
the dominion of sin. That dominion has been broken
when He gave me new life. And now I can believe. Now I
can repent. You know, there was a time when
I thought I could prevent sin if I was put in the right place.
And that's when I was under its complete dominion and power and
control. It had me fooled. But I've been
delivered from the power of sin. Delivered from the very presence
of sin in that we're already glorified in Christ Jesus if
he's glorified I am too now what a gospel he came to save his
people from their sin Now do you believe he did that? Do you
believe that when he said it is finished it was finished and
his people were saved from their sins and Now listen to this scripture
again. You just heard the gospel, what
Christ actually accomplished. Christ is the gospel. He came
to save His people from their sins and He said it is finished. They were in fact saved from
their sins. Now listen to this verse. Now
who is this promise for? Whosoever. What if I said, if you're over
six foot six, this promise is for you? Well, that would knock
a whole lot of people out. What if I said, if you're good,
this promise is for you? Well, that would knock a lot
of people out. What if I said, this is only for God's elect? Well, you may fear you're not
one of those, and it may make you afraid to call. But what
a blessed word this is, whosoever. Are you a whosoever? Then this
promise is for you. That's the demographic our Lord
is speaking to, whosoever. What a glorious word. I am a
whosoever. whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord." Now here's the important word in this equation,
the name of the Lord. The name of the Lord is who He
is. It's the person behind the name. Let me read a scripture to you
from Exodus 34. Verse 5, And the Lord descended
in the cloud, and stood with him there, and proclaimed the
name of the Lord. And he goes on to name his attributes,
his characteristics, the person behind the name. And the Lord
passed by before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful
and gracious, long-suffering and 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 that's who the Lord is. the
one who's abundant in goodness and mercy, who forgives iniquity
and transgression, and yet who will by no means, under no circumstance
whatsoever, clear the guilty. He's the only one able to do
that. And if you're saved, it's because you've been justified.
Now that's the Lord we're calling on, the one who's able to do
that. The one who is able to forgive iniquity and transgression
and sins and at the same time by no means clears the guilty.
That can only be understood in light of the cross of Christ.
That's what he accomplished. He made a way for that to be
done. Now that's the Lord I'm calling on. I'm calling upon
His name. I'm saying, Lord, save me by
Your grace. Save me by Your power. Save me as an act of Your sovereign
will. Save me by Your justice. Save
me by Your wisdom. Save me by Your mercy. That's
what it is to call upon His name. We call upon who He is. And here
we have this simple little word, whosoever shall call. Like Peter did, Lord, save me.
Call, Lord save me. Peter began to sink in the water
and he said, Lord save me. Now if you call upon the name
of the Lord. The scripture promises you shall
be saved. You're saved. Your salvation
is absolutely sure. You can't be anything but saved. Notice it says they shall be
saved every time. Why? Why? If you call upon the
name of the Lord, you shall be saved because God chose you to
be saved. That's why you call in the first place. You shall
be saved because Christ died for you and put away your iniquity.
You shall be saved because God the Holy Spirit has given you
a new nature to call upon His name, and that's why you're doing
it in the first place. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved. If you call, you're saved. Saved from your sins. Saved from
the devil. Saved from yourself. Saved from
the wrath of God. Saved from God himself. You see,
your big problem and my big problem is not the devil, it's God himself. He's the one who judges and punishes
sins. And if you call upon the name
of the Lord, you will be, you are saved. Now may God give me
and you the grace, if we never have before, to do this right
now. Call upon His name. Don't call
the preacher. Don't come down to the front
of the church. Call upon the name of the Lord,
and you shall be saved. Now, we have this message on
DVD and CD. If you call the church or write,
we'll send you a copy, or email, we'll send you a copy. This is
Todd Nyberg, praying that God will be pleased to make Himself
known to you. That's our prayer. To request a copy of the sermon
you have just heard, send your request to messages at toddsroadgracechurch.com. Or you may write or call the
church at the information provided on the screen.