Amen.
The title of my sermon this morning is The Sinner's Prayer.
The Sinner's Prayer, and I'm going to focus in, to start with, on Romans chapter 10, beginning
in verse number 8.
This is one of the most key passages on this doctrine of what the Bible calls calling upon
the name of the Lord, or what a lot of people today would refer to as the Sinner's Prayer.
Look if you would at Romans chapter 10 verse 8, but what sayeth it?
The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is the word of faith which
we preach, that 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.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation.
For the scripture sayeth, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed, for there is
no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for this for all is rich unto all that call
upon him.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed, and so on and so forth.
The doctrine of calling upon the name of the Lord is something that's found throughout
scripture.
In fact, it has its origin all the way in Genesis chapter 4 verse 26, you don't have
to turn there.
The Bible says unto 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.
So calling upon the name of the Lord goes back to literally the first generation of
human beings on this earth.
You know when Seth's son Enos was born, I mean Adam and Eve are still alive, that first
generation of people are all still alive, and at that time the Bible says, men began
to call upon the name of the Lord.
So this is a doctrine that we can trace all the way through the Old Testament, all the
way into the New Testament.
Now in the Old Testament, God was known by a few different names.
He has many names.
For example, in Exodus chapter 6 verse 3, he says, I appeared unto Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was I not known unto them.
So in the days of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, in the days of Job and his three friends,
the primary name that God was known by was God Almighty.
Then from Moses and the burning bush forward, the primary name in the Old Testament where
God is known by is Jehovah or the Lord.
And then when we get into the New Testament, the name that is above all names, the primary
name that we call upon is the name of Jesus.
That is the name that's above every name.
So that's why the Bible in the Old Testament can say, whosoever shall call upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved.
Whether that's Abraham who called upon the name of God Almighty, Isaac called upon the
name of God Almighty, that's found in Genesis 12, Genesis 13, and Genesis 25.
Or whether that's David calling upon the name of the Lord, calling upon Jehovah.
Or in the New Testament, that is calling upon Jesus.
Now you cannot separate verse 9 and verse 13 because they are talking about the same
thing.
See the Bible says in verse 9 that 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 notice the next four verses, what word do they all start with?
Four.
So it's a continuation of that same thought, because this, because this, because this.
So he's saying that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart
that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.
Why?
Because whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
That's why.
So that goes to show that confessing with your mouth the Lord Jesus is the same as calling
upon the name of the Lord because Jesus is the name of the Lord.
That's his name.
The Bible says that every knee should bow and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Not only that but in Acts chapter 2, you don't have to turn there, but in Acts chapter 2
when Peter is preaching he states that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved in Acts chapter 2 I believe verse 21.
So let's look at this carefully here.
It says the word is nigh thee in verse 8, even in thy mouth and in thy heart, that is
the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God hath 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 let me start out by saying this right away lest anyone misunderstand me or misconstrue
the sermon this morning.
Everyone who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is saved.
Nothing could be clearer in the Bible than the fact that salvation is by faith.
Not of works lest any man should boast.
Nothing could be clear.
John 3.16 tells us of course that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have
everlasting life.
Jesus said whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
He said verily, verily I say unto you he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
The Bible says for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it
is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.
And I'm not going to belabor the point by quoting a hundred plus verses that I can quote
right now telling you that salvation is by faith, that salvation is by believing on Jesus
Christ.
We all understand that.
We all know that, okay.
People will sometimes misconstrue this doctrine of calling upon the name of the Lord and here's
what they'll say.
They'll say, well you're saying that if you believe on Christ but don't call upon him
you're not saved.
Now I've never said any such thing, okay.
I would never say that someone who believes on Jesus Christ is not saved because everyone
that believes on Jesus Christ is saved, okay.
Can we just settle that right now that if somebody believes on Jesus Christ they're
saved and that I in my 11 years of being pastor of this church have never said otherwise than
that, never.
I've never said, hey this guy believes in Jesus but he's not saved.
I've never said that because that's a false doctrine and I challenge you to find me ever
saying that but people will accuse me of saying that because they're just lying about me.
They'll accuse me of saying, oh well if a sodomite believes in Jesus they're not saved
or if, you know, I never said that.
I said sodomites are reprobate and rejected of the Lord.
They'll say, oh you said that if you believe but don't call you're not saved.
That's a lie, I've never said that.
Everyone who believes is saved so let's just settle that, let's just put that to bed so
that we can move on with the rest of the sermon, okay.
Calling upon the name of the Lord is part of salvation and is tied in with salvation,
okay.
Now people will balk at that and get upset about that but the Bible's pretty clear in
this passage that calling upon the name of the Lord is part of salvation.
The Bible says here in verse number 9 that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt
be saved.
Why?
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation.
So right there it says that with the mouth confession is made to salvation.
The Bible over and over again emphasizes calling upon the name of the Lord in order to be saved,
in order to get to heaven.
From the Old Testament to the New Testament and everywhere in between.
Now let me just go through this point by point and then we're going to get to some
other scriptures to support this.
But it says in verse number 11, for the scripture sayeth, whosoever believeth on him shall not
be ashamed.
Now stop right there because this is an often misunderstood verse and I want to explain
to you that the word ashamed in the Bible has multiple meanings.
Now when we think of the word ashamed, we think of embarrassment, right.
But actually the word ashamed has some other meanings as well.
If you would flip over to the book of Joel chapter 2, go to Joel chapter 2 in the Old
Testament and then we're going to go to Psalm 25.
We're going to hit a few scriptures in the Old Testament to help us understand what the
Bible means here when it says, for the scripture sayeth, whosoever believeth on him shall not
be ashamed.
Now if we were to take our common 2017 meaning of ashamed there, then that wouldn't really
make sense to say that anyone who believes on Christ is not going to be ashamed because
unfortunately there are people who are saved but yet they are ashamed in the sense of embarrassed
of Jesus.
A perfect example of this is the Apostle Peter.
Peter clearly believed and confessed that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, was the Son
of God.
I mean he'd been following Jesus for years, preaching the gospel for years.
I think it's very silly to say that Peter was not saved.
But yet Peter in a moment of confusion about the way the evening was going, in a moment
of fear, in a moment of weakness, he denied knowing Jesus because people were questioning
him and saying, hey you were in the garden with him and Jesus is under arrest, Jesus
is being tortured and beaten, he's going to be killed, and Peter denied Christ.
I mean he said, I know not the man, I know not what thou sayest.
Now at that point, by the definition of embarrassment, Peter was ashamed of Jesus at that point.
He was embarrassed, he was not wanting to openly stand with Jesus.
And here's the thing, there are all kinds of Christians who are weak and lack faith
and don't have boldness that at times are ashamed of Christ and his word.
It's a tragedy, but it's true.
So this is not saying, well whoever believes on him is never going to be embarrassed about
that.
They're always going to be willing to take a stand for that.
They're never going to be ashamed of that in that sense.
Actually what the word ashamed often means in the Bible, of course yes it often does
mean embarrassment as we would think, but often what the word ashamed means in the Bible
is to be let down or disappointed.
To be let down would be a good definition of it.
Let me show you some scriptures where it's used in that way.
Joel chapter 2 verse 26 says, and ye shall eat in plenty and be satisfied and praise
the name of the Lord your God that had dealt wondrously with you and my people shall never
be ashamed.
And ye shall know that I'm in the midst of Israel and that I'm the Lord your God and
none else and my people shall never be ashamed.
So he's saying you're going to have everything that you need.
You're going to have the food that you need.
You're going to be taken care of.
You're not going to be ashamed.
You're not going to be let down.
Look if you would at Psalm 25.
This is a song that used to be pretty famous when I was a kid.
This was one of the most famous scripture songs.
It seems like now when I sing this song, nobody's ever heard of it.
Okay.
This song that goes on to the Lord.
Do I lift up my soul?
Who knows the song?
Put up your hand.
All right.
This is the most hands I've ever gotten knowing the song.
About 20 people know it.
So that was a really popular song when I was a kid.
I grew up singing that song.
Oh my God, I trust in thee.
Let me not be ashamed.
Let not mine enemies triumph over me, right?
So in this song, notice what he's saying there.
Let me not be ashamed.
Let not my enemies triumph over me.
He said, look, I'm trusting in you, Lord.
I don't want to be let down.
I don't want to lose this battle.
I don't want my enemies to triumph over me.
I don't want to be ashamed.
Yea let none that wait on thee be ashamed, it says in verse 3.
Let them be ashamed which transgress without cause.
Go to chapter 31 verse 1.
It says in Psalm 31, 1, in thee, O Lord, do I put my trust.
Let me never be ashamed.
Deliver me in thy righteousness.
Okay, so if we look at the context of these verses, you can see that being ashamed carries
with it the idea of being let down or being disappointed, being confounded as opposed
to God coming through for you.
Okay, verse number 19 of Psalm 37 says, they shall not be ashamed in the evil time and
in the days of famine, they shall be satisfied.
So the contrast of being satisfied in famine would be being ashamed.
Not talking about embarrassment, but rather the fact that you don't have any food to eat.
Now go if you were to Romans chapter 5, back to Romans chapter 5, Romans chapter 5.
Now you can see why these two meanings of ashamed are connected, right?
Because if you put all your trust in the Lord and then God were to not come through for
you and you were to be ashamed, that could also be embarrassing or humiliating and so
forth.
These two meanings are connected, but they're not the same, okay?
When the Bible says that whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed, it's saying
God's going to come through and do what he said he would do.
Now look at Romans chapter 5 verse 3, it says, and not only so, but we glory in tribulations
also knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope
and hope maketh not ashamed.
It's not saying, hey, hope's not going to embarrass you necessarily, but it's saying
hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost which is given unto us.
He's saying you go through tribulation, tribulation teaches you patience, right?
Patience gives you experience because you've had some experiences of going through troubles
and trials and tribulations and patiently enduring and so you've had some experience
with that and because you've experienced that, you have hope for the future that if God came
through last time, God's going to come through next time and that hope is not going to make
you ashamed, meaning that God will come through for you as he has promised.
Romans chapter 9 verse 33, Romans chapter 9 verse 33, it's always good to get a biblical
understanding of key words because sometimes just opening a dictionary can give you a great
definition for a word but sometimes the author of the dictionary doesn't necessarily understand
everything in the Bible and the usage in the Bible so sometimes we need to see how the
words are used in the Bible to get a deeper understanding of the word.
Romans 9, 33, as it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of
offense and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Now let's go to Romans 10.
With all that in mind, what we've just learned, look at the context now of Romans 10 and you'll
see clearly that that's what it's talking about here.
It says in Romans chapter 10 verse 10, for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed for there is no
difference between the Jew and the Greek.
Now why are they not going to be ashamed?
They're not going to be ashamed, if you actually read the sentence, they're not going to be
ashamed because there's no difference between the Jew and Greek because 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.
The reason they're not going to be ashamed is because God will save anyone who calls
upon him by faith.
So they're not going to be let down.
They're not going to be disappointed.
If they put all of their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ to save them, he's going
to come through.
They shall be saved, whether Jew, Greek, bond or free, they shall be saved.
The reason I'm making such a big deal about that word ashamed and spending the time to
teach you this is because of the fact that, you know, I don't want you to misunderstand
this and make you think that in order to be saved, you have to publicly, publicly confess
Jesus to prove that you're not embarrassed or something.
You know, that's how some people have misconstrued or misunderstood this passage.
That's not what it's saying.
It's not saying, look, if you confess with your mouth, the Lord Jesus, and believe in
your heart that God raised with it, you'll be saved.
Why?
Because with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession
is made into salvation.
Why?
Well, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed because whosoever calls on the
name of the Lord shall be saved.
So it makes sense with that definition, with that understanding.
But then it says in verse 14, how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?
You see, if a person prays the sinner's prayer, if a person calls upon the Lord Jesus Christ
to save their soul, but they don't believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, they're not going
to be saved.
They could pray that prayer every day and not be saved.
You know, a perfect example of this is the Orthodox Church, okay?
The Russian Orthodox, Greek Orthodox, the Ethiopian Orthodox, Romanian Orthodox.
Actually the Orthodox Church is just like Roman Catholicism.
And people will try to argue with that, but look, if it looks like a duck and quacks like
a duck, it's a duck, okay?
And these people, they put on all the dresses and the robes and the pomp and circumstance
and the funny hats and they do all the liturgy and they believe in a workspace salvation,
and by works, and they pray to Mary and they pray to the saints and they go through monasteries,
just like the Catholics have monasteries when there's no such teaching in the Bible of monks
and monasteries.
That comes straight out of Buddhism, 500 B.C., 500 years before Christ, Buddhism had their
monks and nuns and monasteries and all this.
Look, I'm not going to preach a whole sermon against the Orthodox Church, I've already
done it, but it's just as bad as Roman Catholicism and in some ways it's even worse.
Some ways it's even more false.
You know, instead of praying to a three-dimensional statue, they pray to a two-dimensional picture
of Jesus, it's still idolatry when you're worshiping images.
Any image that you worship becomes idolatry at that point, whether 3D or 2D.
But a perfect example of this is that in the Orthodox Church, they do chanting.
Just like the Roman Catholics, they chant, right?
They'll chant 30 Hail Marys, they'll chant 30 Our Fathers.
Well, the Bible says that when you pray, you should not use vain repetitions as the heathen
do, for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
Be not ye therefore like unto them, for your heavenly Father knoweth what things you have
need of before you ask him.
So chanting is unbiblical, but they chant this thing in the Orthodox Church where they
say, and I don't remember exactly how it goes, because I don't care, because I don't chant
it a hundred times a day, but it's something along the lines of, Jesus Christ, Son of God,
be merciful to me, a sinner.
Jesus Christ, Son of God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
You know what?
That's pagan and wicked to chant.
No chanting.
Now look, I don't know about you, but my wife and I, we hate it when our kids chant.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
Everybody with little kids knows what I'm talking about.
Mom, I want a bowl of cereal, mom, I want a bowl of cereal, mom, I want a bowl of cereal,
mom, I want a bowl of cereal.
I need a glass of milk.
Who knows what I'm talking about?
My kids do that.
I think every kid does that.
Every kid I've ever had has done that.
And you know what?
That doesn't make you happy.
And you know what?
God is up in heaven saying, I heard you the first time.
Just like we're saying, I heard you the first time.
You know, why?
Because the Bible says, your father knows what things you have need of before you ask
him.
Use not vain repetitions.
Now my children are talking to me and telling me about their needs and asking me for things.
That's great, but chanting is annoying.
Okay?
And your Heavenly Father is not into it either, according to Matthew chapter 6.
And you're not going to be heard for your much speaking.
In fact, I tend to tune out when the chanting starts.
You're less likely to give them what they want.
Okay?
So, orthodox monks can spend three or four hours a day chanting, Jesus, Son of God, be
merciful to me.
That's not going to get them to heaven.
They're going to go straight to hell.
You know why?
Because they don't believe in Jesus.
That's why.
Because believing in Jesus doesn't mean you believe he exists.
It's not like when people say, I believe in aliens, means they believe that aliens exist,
right?
Believing in Jesus means putting your trust on Jesus, putting your faith on Jesus.
You know, for example, if my son were going to go play in a soccer game and I said, Son,
I believe in you, I'm not saying I believe you exist.
What am I saying?
I'm saying, you know what?
I trust that you're able to do what you've trained to do.
I trust that you're going to go out there and do a good job.
I trust that you're going to give it your best.
I have faith in you.
I believe in you.
So when it comes to believing in Christ, what that means basically is that we're trusting
Christ to get us to heaven.
We're trusting his death, his burial, his resurrection.
Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved
us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost.
We're putting our faith in Jesus to save us.
So if a person says, I believe in Jesus, but I'm going to heaven because I did X, Y, and
Z and I did works, that person's not saved.
Because they're not believing in Jesus, they're believing in themself.
You can't have part of your faith in Jesus and part of your faith in your deeds, your
works, your self, your church, your baptism, your sinless life, whatever.
You have to have all of your faith and trust in Jesus.
And if you believe in Jesus and confess that with your mouth to the Lord, you shall be
saved.
So here's the thing.
Calling upon the name of the Lord saves you, but only if you believe.
How then shall they call on him in whom they've not believed?
You know, if you don't believe in Christ, then it's just words coming out of your mouth.
You could pray a sinner's prayer.
That's not going to get you to heaven.
It's your faith in Christ that saves you.
Because with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made on salvation.
You see, what comes out of the mouth when the sinner's prayer is prayed is simply just
a reflection of what's in the heart.
Why?
Because out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh.
So it's our faith in our heart that saves us, and that is expressed out of our mouth,
and it's a reflection of what's in our heart.
That's what the Bible's teaching here in Romans chapter 10.
Now go, if you would, to Matthew chapter 7, and then we're going to look at Luke 11.
Go to Matthew 7 and Luke 11.
Let me just right away debunk the false doctrine that's out there that says that if you teach
that people should call upon the name of the Lord to be saved, you're teaching a work salvation.
There are people out there that will say, calling upon the name of the Lord is a work.
That's a works-based salvation.
Now when you hear people attack this, you have to ask yourself, where is this attack
coming from?
Why is it that they want to stop us from doing this?
I personally believe that the attack on the sinner's prayer is because of the fact that
going out and preaching the gospel to people and assisting them in calling upon the name
of the Lord is an effective soul-winning method.
And because it's effective, of course the devil would love for us to not do it.
He would love for us to use foolish methods that are not effective.
Obviously if we're going out there and we have an effective soul-winning plan, an effective
method, and we're going out there and we're seeing success with it and results and doing
great things for God, obviously the devil's not going to like that.
So he's going to try to sow confusion, to get people to stop using good methods and
to use inferior methods or to just get disillusioned with soul-winning altogether and just say,
oh, soul-winning doesn't work, soul-winning is not biblical.
Like many lazy Christians and false teachers will assert, hey, soul-winning is no good.
And look, if you think soul-winning is no good, you're in the wrong church.
This is a soul-winning church.
Now the methods that we use at our church for soul-winning, they work.
They're effective.
Many people that are sitting here right now were saved through hearing the gospel out
of my own personal mouth, doing my soul-winning plan that I've been using all these years.
And it's not original to me.
I didn't make it up.
It's the Romans road.
And I've added a few verses and done a few, you know, personalizations because everybody,
you know, obviously when they preach the gospel, it's going to be a little different.
You know, God uses us all and our personality, we all are a little different to reach different
people.
But, you know, the Romans road is a great plan for winning people to Christ.
I mean, it's a great, it's a great just simple way of explaining the gospel.
The most effective soul-winners at our church are the people who actually have the most
basic soul-winning plans and that kind of don't try to reinvent the wheel.
You know, when people are trying to reinvent the wheel with really avant-garde soul-winning
methods, usually those methods are not as good.
You know, it's good to use a tried and true, and I'm not saying to be a robot, obviously
you're going to personalize it, maybe add a few verses that you like, but honestly,
you know, reinventing the wheel doesn't make any sense.
You know, I inherited my soul-winning methods from the people who taught me soul-winning
from my parents, from the churches that I grew up in.
I made a few improvements on it and then that's what I've taught for the last, you know, 15
years that I've taught to other people.
And you know what?
I've used it effectively for 18 years of soul-winning now and lots of other people have used the
same soul-winning method and it's worked for them and it's been effective.
It's just preaching the gospel in a clear, simple way that people can understand.
And I'm not going to go into all the details of that for sake of time, but people are always
coming along with all their goofball and usually it's like a new believer, okay, who comes
along and just says, well, you know, you guys, your soul-winning is all wrong and they want
to change the methods to inferior methods, okay, methods that don't work, methods that
are not affected, methods that have not been tried and true and they want to criticize
the methods that we use to go soul-winning.
And these people have usually, you know, not even read the Bible cover to cover one time
and they've been saved for a year or two, but they're ready to just come in and tell
you how it's done.
No, look, I got saved when I was six years old, but I didn't become a soul-winner until
I was 17.
That's because at age 17, I got into a soul-winning church and here's what I did.
I went out soul-winning as a silent partner.
I learned the ropes from someone else and I did it the way they did it, right?
First I learned how to do it their way.
Then once I got comfortable doing it their way, I thought to myself, you know what?
This can be improved a little bit.
There are a few points here that are a little weak.
Let's strengthen that part on eternal security.
Let's strengthen that part on faith alone just by adding a couple of verses and then
I continued soul-winning with that method from then until now.
It works, but people come along and they say, oh, well, praying with people is unbiblical.
The sinner's prayer is unbiblical.
You know, that's works-based salvation because you just finished telling them it's believe-only
and now you're telling them to call upon the Lord.
Now you're saying that it's faith and works.
Now, let me just debunk that.
Let's just put that to bed.
Look at Matthew 7-11.
The Bible says, if you then being evil, know how to give good, what?
Gifts unto your children.
How much more shall your father which is in heaven give good things to them than ask him?
Let me ask you something.
If you ask for something, does it stop being a gift?
Because in this verse, you ask your father and what does he give you?
A gift.
Why?
Because asking for something is not earning it, okay?
Go to Luke 11 verse 13.
Asking is not works.
Asking is not earning it or paying for it.
That's ridiculous.
What if I went down to the welfare office, right?
And I asked them for a welfare check.
Would anybody say that I worked for that money?
I earned that money.
I earned that check.
That's funny because if I went down and asked, give me food stamps, nobody would say, well,
he worked for it.
He earned it.
I mean, he asked for it, didn't he?
That would be ridiculous.
What if I said, hey, I have a free gift for you after the service.
I've got a free gift.
It's up here in the pulpit.
If you come up to me and ask me for it, I'll give you your free gift.
What person in their right mind would say, well, that's not a free gift then because
I had to ask for it.
But this is the kind of stupidity and vain jangling that people are teaching today when
they attack the sinner's prayer like, oh, well, you've got to ask for it, that's works.
What?
There's no other area in life where we would believe that.
If you have to, hey, come ask me, I'll give you a free gift.
Okay, can I have it?
Here you go.
Sure.
You earned it.
You worked for it.
You paid for it.
It's wages.
It makes no sense.
Now look at Luke 11, 13.
It says, if ye then being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much
more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them than ask him.
Now go to John chapter four, John chapter four, and you know, I'm trying to make this
simple this morning and I hope that this clarifies any confusion that some people might've had
on this issue as we go through this, but it's our faith that saves us, but our faith is
reflected in what comes out of our mouth.
I mean, I believe therefore I've spoken.
The Bible says, look at John chapter four, verse 10.
The Bible says, Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knewest the what, if thou knewest
the gift of God and who it is that say it to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have
asked of him and he would have given thee living water.
Now that right there is Jesus saying, I'm not going to give you the living water unless
you ask, but I'm still calling it a gift because no one in their right mind thinks that asking
for something causes it to not be a gift.
Okay.
But not only that, it says, if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that said unto
thee, give me to drink, he doesn't say you might've asked him, it says thou wouldest
have asked of him and he would have given you living water.
So here's the point.
If I give somebody the Gospel and that person understands the gift of God and that person
believes that it's Jesus Christ that's offering them that free gift of salvation, then they
will call upon him and he will give them that living water.
That's what the verse says.
If you know the gift of God and you know Jesus, you will ask him and he will give you the
living water.
The only reason why a person would never call upon the Lord is because they do not believe
that he exists or they do not believe that he can save them or they don't desire to put
their trust in him to save them.
Go to 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 13, 2 Corinthians 4, 13, and then also you can go
to Psalm 116 if you want to put your finger in both places, Psalm 116 and 2 Corinthians
4, 13.
The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4, 13, we having the same spirit of faith according
as it is written, I believed and therefore have I spoken.
We also believe and therefore speak.
Let's go see where that's written.
Psalm 116 is where that's written.
So let's look up that quote.
It says in verse 10, I believe, therefore I have spoken.
I was greatly afflicted.
I said in my haste, all men are liars.
What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?
I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.
Now Jesus said to the woman at the well, you would have asked him and he would have
given you living water.
This is the exact same illustration of a cup of living water to drink where he says, I'll
take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.
But he said in verse 10, I believe, therefore I have spoken.
So salvation is a calling upon the Lord by faith.
It's a confessing of your mouth, the Lord Jesus by faith.
We believe, therefore we've spoken.
That's what it says.
Go, if you would, to Luke chapter 18, Luke chapter 18.
Another cute thing that people will say when they're attacking the doctrine of the calling
upon the name of the Lord, which is a biblical doctrine, is they'll say, well, we're not
saved by our words, they'll say.
You know, we're saved by our faith in Christ.
We're not saved by our words, they'll say.
But here's what's foolish about that is that the words that come out of our mouth reflect
our belief, which is why the Bible says out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speak
it.
Peter and John said we cannot help but speak the things that we've seen and heard.
You know, whatever's in your heart is going to eventually come out your mouth.
Now in Matthew 1237, you're in Luke 18, but in Matthew 1237, the Bible clearly says for
by thy words thou shalt be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.
So to sit there and say, and the reference there is talking about the great day of judgment.
So if we're talking about the great day of judgment and he says by thy words thou shalt
be justified and by thy words thou shalt be condemned, how can anyone say, well, our words
don't justify us.
It's our faith.
We have to choose between the two when the two are one and the same.
Okay, now could someone lie about what they believe?
Of course.
But obviously between us and God, there's no lies there.
I mean, he knows our hearts, he knows everything.
And if we confess to our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart, we shall be saved.
He knows whether it's legit.
Now we might hear someone pray a sinner's prayer and think that they're saved and they
could be just lying to us, right?
We don't know their heart, but God knows their heart.
Look at Luke 18 verse 9, it says he spake this parable unto certain which trusted in
themselves that they were righteous and despised others.
So look, here is the example of what I was talking about earlier, about trusting in yourself
instead of trusting in Jesus, right?
We have to believe in Jesus to be saved, meaning trust in Jesus.
Here's an example of someone who trusted in themself that they're righteous.
Instead of admitting that they're a sinner and that they don't deserve to go to heaven
and putting all of their faith and their trust in Jesus to save them, this is a person who's
putting their trust in themself that they are righteous.
They're trusting in their own righteousness to get them saved.
Two men, that's what this parable is about according to verse 9, look at verse 10.
Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican.
The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not his other
men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican, I fast twice in
the week.
I give tithes of all that I possess.
And the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven but
smote upon his breast saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, justified is used synonymously
with saved, okay, in Romans 3 and elsewhere.
Justified means you're declared righteous in the sight of God.
This man went down to his house justified rather than the other, meaning that the Pharisee
is not saved, he's not justified.
The publican went to his house justified.
Now look, if you go down to your house justified, you know what that means?
That means you weren't justified when you went there.
Then you went there, you prayed that prayer, and now you're going home justified.
That's what it says.
This was the point when that publican got saved at that point.
When he prayed this prayer, that's when he got saved, he went home justified as a result.
I tell you that this man went down to his house justified rather than the other.
For everyone that exalted themselves shall be abased, and he that humbleth himself shall
be exalted.
You see, part of being saved is that you have to have enough humility to not trust in your
own righteousness but to put all of your faith on Christ.
You see, it takes a humble person to admit, I'm a sinner and I deserve to go to hell for
my sins.
I mean, that's going to take some humility.
Because a prideful person is going to say, well, no, I'm a pretty good person.
Yeah, I mean, I think I deserve to go to heaven, I've never done anything that bad.
That's pride.
That's arrogance.
The humble man admits that he's a sinner and asks not for a reward from God to reward his
wonderful life by letting him into heaven, but rather he asks for mercy.
God be merciful to me a sinner.
What is mercy?
Mercy is something that you don't deserve, that's extended to you, grace that's extended
to you, that you don't deserve, that you didn't earn, that you didn't work for.
Now look, if I told you I have a special gift for you in the pulpit here, in order to get
that gift, you're going to have to go to church every Sunday in 2017.
That's not a gift.
That's not free.
Because by going to church, you're earning it.
You're earning a prize.
That'd be called a prize or a reward, okay?
The Mormons, because they're a fraud and a cult, amen?
The Mormons, they go down to Guyana and they actually pay people to get baptized down there.
They'll pay somebody 50 bucks or 20 bucks to get baptized down there.
Why?
Because they're a fraud and a cult, started by a con man who was a treasure hunter turned
preacher, a fake treasure hunter, a polygamist, a pedophile, everything else.
They go down there, they pay people to get baptized.
Okay, well here's the thing.
Those people are earning their 20 bucks.
They're earning their 50 bucks by selling their soul, but they're doing something to
get it.
They have to perform some action or work in order to get it.
You know, baptism has nothing to do with salvation, okay?
So here's the thing.
If you had to be baptized in order to get saved, that would be works.
Because at that point, you're having to perform something.
You're having to do something, okay?
But just asking for ... If they walked up to the Mormon missionary and said, give me
50 bucks, and the Mormon missionary hands them 50 bucks, that's a gift.
They didn't earn that, they didn't work for that.
If the Mormon missionary says, hey, get baptized and I'll give you 50 bucks, they're earning
it.
They're working for it.
You know, because if they don't do that, they don't do that action, they're not going to
get the 50 bucks.
They're earning it because now the Mormons can pretend that they have more members and
more followers, and then they can, you know, build a momentum of, look at all these baptized
comers.
Look, you say, oh, you're lying about ... No, I'm not.
I can speak from personal experience, because my ancestors, some of them were Mormons, and
they were paid by the Mormons to join the Mormon church, my ancestors, okay?
This is how it worked.
My ancestors lived in Sweden.
They wanted to come to the United States.
And the Mormons went over there and said, hey, we'll pay you to come live in the United
States.
We'll pay your way and we'll give you a huge amount of money, and you will have to become
a Mormon, and that's the deal.
So my ancestors were what's known as a Jack Mormon.
They go through the motions, but they don't really believe in it.
But the sad thing is that many of their children that grew up in it, they did believe it.
And the grandchildren did believe in it.
So I have a lot of second cousins that are devout Mormons, because they grew up in that
cult.
But the people who originally came over, they didn't really believe in it.
They were doing it for the ticket to America.
I mean, don't you think that there are a lot of people in foreign countries today that
would love a ticket into the United States?
And you know, today in Sweden, they're probably not lining up to come to the United States,
but we're talking about 100 years ago, okay, when yeah, they wanted to come to the United
States.
They wanted that opportunity to live in Idaho, outside of Salt Lake City, Utah, and be a
potato farmer and own land and do all that.
And that's why they came.
And even on my great grandfather's tombstone, there's even a little metal emblem about the
fact how he came over by faith and the Mormons brought him over.
But they're paying him to join their religion.
Okay, he earned his money, right?
He earned his money by coming over here and moving his whole family, going to that wicked
satanic church, the Latter-day Satan church, okay, by going to that church and brainwashing
his kids with that garbage and teaching his grandkids that garbage that he didn't even
believe in.
And now he's burning in hell right now because he lived such a happy life because money coming
to the United States and having money and prosperity brings you so much happiness that
he took his own life in his 50s, okay?
You know, in a way that I'm not going to describe, but it was, you know, it was brutal.
Okay, so the point is, you know, if you had to be baptized, join a church, join a religion,
follow that religion, put money in the offering plate, do good things, stop doing bad things,
repent of all your sins, that would be earning it.
That would be working for it, right?
But if you just have to ask Jesus to save you, that's free.
That's just a gift.
Lord, give me that living water.
That's it.
Now, the prayer that you pray is not important because, you know, this guy said, God be merciful
to me, a sinner.
You know, what about the thief on the cross?
He said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
That's not really the best salvation prayer I've ever heard.
In fact, if you were to take him fully literally what he said, Lord, remember me when thou
comest into thy kingdom, you know, okay, and then the guy dies and goes to hell and thousands
of years later, Jesus says, yeah, I remember that guy, you know, so, but here's the thing.
When he said, remember me when thou comest thy kingdom, Jesus knew what he meant by that.
What did he mean by that?
He means, look, save me.
Don't leave me out in the cold, I don't, or the hot rather, you know, I don't want to
be left out.
I want to be a part of the kingdom.
He didn't know all the doctrine, but one thing he knew, he said that he was a sinner because
he said, look, we're up here justly.
We deserve to be here.
He told the other thief and they looked at Jesus and said, this man had done nothing
amiss and he said, and what did, what was Jesus being accused of saying that he's the
son of God, blasphemy, making himself equal with God.
So Jesus is accused of making himself equal with God, claiming to be the son of God.
He's got a sign over his head that says, this is Jesus, the king of the Jews.
His accusation was written.
This is Jesus, the king of the Jews, and the thief on the cross says, well, this guy's
done nothing amiss, meaning he's not guilty.
And then he says, Lord, Lord, he's calling upon the name of the Lord there because he's
looking right at Jesus.
There's no confusion about who the Lord is for him.
Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.
And Jesus said to him, today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
So it's not the exact words.
It's not a magical formula.
It's not a praying of a prayer, but it is calling upon the name of the Lord that saves
us.
Why?
Because it's just an expression of the faith that's in our heart.
Now, I don't understand why people get so hung up on this because I don't think it's
confusing.
I don't think it's complicated.
And I've believed this my whole life, and I've never been confused by it.
You know what I mean?
Like I got saved when I was six years old.
I knew that I was fully trusting Jesus.
It was all by faith.
It was by him alone.
It was not my goodness, not my righteousness, nothing like that.
And I prayed and called out to Jesus as a six-year-old boy, and I got saved.
And I've never been confused by this subject.
Let me just give you an illustration here.
Come on up, Dominique.
You're always in my illustrations.
Brother Shelley, you got a kid on your lap.
You can set him down.
All right.
Be good now.
So let's just say in this illustration, let's step over here so everybody can see better.
Let's say in this illustration, okay, Dominique's going to represent Jesus, okay, in this illustration.
And Brother Shelley's representing the sinful, unsaved, wicked...
No, I'm just kidding.
But anyway, this is the lost person, okay?
And I'm the preacher.
I'm preaching the gospel to him, right, okay?
So let's just pretend for a minute that instead of talking about the gospel, instead of this
being Jesus ready to save him, let's pretend that Dominique is a famous doctor, okay?
And he's got this amazing cancer treatment.
It's 100% success rate and, you know, nobody knows about it though, right?
It's new.
And he has total confidence in it.
I have total confidence in it, right?
And my friend here has got stage four terminal cancer, right?
And so let's say I want to convince him that this guy can save you.
I mean, this guy can fix your illness, right?
But you're going to have to trust him.
You're going to have to get the medicine from him, right?
So as I'm telling this to him and I'm convincing him, look, Dr. Dom here, Dr. Dominique, you
know, can cure you.
He can fix you.
Here's all the other people that have been cured.
I used to have cancer.
I was cured, you know.
Here's the testimonials.
I explain everything.
The altars are already filling.
No, I'm just kidding.
Anyway, I'm explaining all this to him and I tell him, look, do you believe that Dr.
Dominique can cure you?
I mean, do you believe that?
Yeah, do you believe?
Are you willing to fully trust this treatment?
And in fact, you're going to have to forsake other treatments.
You're going to have to cancel.
You're going to have to cancel the radiation, the chemo, okay?
Because the way this treatment works is it has to be your only treatment.
So in fact, you're going to have to cancel these other treatments, okay?
And are you willing to fully trust him and get on board with his program?
Yes.
Okay.
So here's the thing about that.
What's the next?
Now, Dr. Dominique is standing right here.
So what do you think is going to happen next year?
So you're ready to trust him?
Yep.
Okay.
All right.
Dominique, can you give me the treatment?
All right, go ahead and sit down.
Now, wouldn't it be kind of weird?
Don't you think it'd be kind of weird to just talk about him in the third person?
He's standing right there and we just ignore him, just totally ignore him and just talk
about him.
Oh yeah, he could cure you.
Are you willing to trust?
Oh yeah, I'm willing to trust him.
Wouldn't it make sense at that point to be like, okay, save me.
I'm trusting you.
Listen, the only reason why a person would not acknowledge or speak to God in any way,
in any words is because they don't even believe in him.
That's why.
Okay.
I mean, think about it.
Even atheists talk to God.
I talked to a guy who was raised as an atheist his whole life, but then later he got saved.
But he said even when he was an atheist, sometimes when he was all by himself and nobody was
around, he'd be like, God, if you're out there, you know, he'd be talking to him and everything,
trying to seek God a little bit.
The point is when people sit there and tell you, well, I believed on Jesus for five years
since five years ago.
I've never one time told that to him.
I've never one time confessed that to him.
That's weird.
Like that doesn't even make sense.
I talked to God every day.
Who talks to God every day of your life in this life?
Yeah, look around.
You're not normal if you're not talking to God.
It doesn't make any sense not to, not to, to confess that to God, to call upon the Lord
and say, Lord, give me that gift of eternal life.
Give me that living water, Lord.
Give me salvation, thanking him for it, praising him for it, talking about it.
Just look, if that's what's in your heart, it's going to come out of your mouth period.
And this is what people are choking on and misunderstanding.
Now look, if you disagree, cause there are some people that just say, Oh, I still don't
agree.
If you calling on the name of the Lord has nothing to do with being saved, this is what
they'll say.
I don't know how they can say that when there's verses about, but they'll say, well, you know,
it's just, it's just extra.
It's not needed.
Well, here's what I, here's what I would say to those people.
I would say to them, you know what?
You're still saved as long as you believe in Christ as your only way to heaven because
everybody who believes in Christ as their only way to heaven and as their trust name
is saved period.
Now people who, who have this, this doctrine, if they then go out soul winning, right?
And they're like, well, I'm never going to lead anybody in prayer.
I'm just going to preach them the gospel and just leave it at that.
Well, here's the thing.
If you did that soul winning method where you just go out and you just preach the gospel
and leave it at that, you're going to get some people saved.
People are going to get saved that way because if people hear the gospel, many of them are
going to be saved.
I mean, you know, if the gospel is being preached, people get saved.
Okay.
But that is not the most effective soul winning method.
So yeah, you can go out soul winning and not pray with people and some people will
get saved, but you're using an inefficient, ineffective method.
It's better to bring that person to a crisis where you basically, you show them everything,
you go over the gospel with them, and then once you get it clear in their mind that they,
that they understand it and that they believe in it, then I always say to them, okay, well
I would like to pray with you right now after I verify they believe it, I want to pray with
you right now and just help you to tell God that you believe that right now so that you
can be saved right now and not have to have any doubt about it.
Okay, great.
And then I pray with that person, they confess it, and then it just kind of seals the deal
for them, for everybody.
It's just a better way of doing it.
Okay.
Now people say, yeah, but is it possible to get people saved without doing it?
Here's the thing, it's possible to use a pair of pliers to put on a pair of pants.
You can put on your pants with a pair of pliers.
But it doesn't mean it's the best way to do it, it's not the most efficient way to do
it.
Now, let me also go on to say this.
If you go out and go through this soloning method, your avant garde soloning methods
that don't involve praying with the person, do not come here and report a salvation.
Okay, we, we try to keep track of numbers of people saved, numbers of people baptized,
things like that.
And the purpose of keeping track of those numbers is just to motivate us and just to
make sure that what we're doing is effective and that we're being efficient.
And so we want to stay motivated, we want to work toward goals and things like that.
And the Bible records all kinds of numbers of people being saved, people being baptized.
The Bible records, in fact there's a whole book called Numbers.
People get mad about fundamentalists for loving numbers, but you know, God loves numbers.
So he wrote a whole book about it.
They're like, oh, you're too judgmental.
Well, he wrote a book called Judges too, you know.
But anyway, so the thing about that is that we want our numbers to be as accurate as possible.
Now is our number 100% accurate?
No.
How could it be?
When we can't see the heart, we don't really know 100% sure whether a person is saved or
not because we can't see in their heart, they could be lying to us.
But because we do a very thorough job of preaching the Gospel, because we use methods that are
effective and because we are careful to ask the person questions and talk to them and
then we pray with them and go through the whole thing with them, I feel like our number
is very accurate.
Now there are some times when I give the Gospel to somebody and I don't pray with them, okay,
that they might, because they didn't seem like they fully understood it, right, so I
don't pray with them because they didn't seem to fully get it.
You know, maybe that person is going to think about it more after I'm gone and digest it
and then they might pray on their own, you know, and then settle it in their heart on
their own the next day or after I'm gone or whatever.
I'm sure that happens.
There could be other situations where I give somebody the Gospel and I pray with them,
but then something about what they say or how they act gives me doubt like, you know,
I'm not really sure this person got it.
You know what I'm talking about, right?
You give somebody the Gospel, you pray with them, but you're like, man, I'm not really
sure they got it.
I never count that person.
You know, when in doubt, I don't count it, you know, I count the people that are firm
on it, you know, they understand it, they believe it, they confess with their mouth,
they pray the sinner's prayer, that's what I'll count toward them and here's the thing,
if you're not, listen, you can disagree with me all you want, but I'm still the pastor
of the church, okay, even if you disagree with me and you don't have to agree with me
on everything.
I'm not demanding you, total obedience, total agreement, but here's what I am saying though,
I am the leader, I am the pastor of the church.
We have a soul winning program in this church, okay, that was laid out and defined by moi
and if we count the numbers, we don't want to count you going around talking to people
that you didn't pray with and counting that as a salvation.
That's all I'm saying.
So you can, if you want to go out, now if you go out and preach a false gospel, that's
not acceptable, but if you go out and preach salvation by faith alone but you have a poor
soul winning method that doesn't involve praying with people, that's fine, just don't come
back and count that number because I don't want to count that number because I don't
want a bogus number, you know, I want the number to be as accurate as possible and obviously
no number is going to be perfect, we'll have to get to heaven when we find out, but I guarantee
you that our church wins more people to the Lord than what's on that number anyway because
that's just the people that we deal with one on one.
That's people, look, that number in the bulletin that says salvation, here's what that represents,
we gave a clear plan of salvation to somebody who when we got there gave us the wrong answer.
When we got there they said, I hope I'm going to heaven, I'm a pretty good person, I'm living
a pretty good life, you know, when we got there they had a wrong answer or yeah, of
course you can lose your salvation, you can't just live however you want, you know, they
came at you with a false answer when we got there.
We then thoroughly went through the Gospel with that person using lots of scripture,
explaining it thoroughly, we questioned that person to make sure that they understood and
believed what the Bible said, then we led that person in prayer to receive Christ as
Savior, that's what that number represents.
Where we walked away pretty confident that that person got it, that's what that number
represents.
People that were not in that number, people that we didn't pray with or people that were
a little shaky.
Now, I've had a situation where I prayed with somebody and I felt like they might be a little
shaky on it, so I didn't count them.
A week later I'm soul winning in the same neighborhood, I saw that same person, I walked
up and talked to them and they were solid on it, they were solid, they were for sure
saved, they knew what they believed, then I went back and counted it because I was like,
well, you know, I was able to confirm that person.
Here's what doesn't count in that number, all the thousands of people that are saved
through listening to the preaching that's uploaded to the internet, which I get emails
every single day or some kind of a message or email or text or whatever, saying from
somebody, hey, I got saved listening to your preaching, you know, I got saved listening
to the plan of salvation at the end of after the tribulation movie or whatever where the
gospel is presented.
And the other thing that that number doesn't count is when brother Garrett Kirschway or
myself or one of us from our church goes into a public school, preaches the gospel
to 500 high school students at once, has them raise their hands if they want to receive
Christ as Savior, then bows all their heads and leads them in a group prayer to receive
Christ as Savior.
You know what we count that as?
We count that as zero.
But I'm sure that many of them got saved, they heard the gospel clearly, they prayed,
they called upon the name of the Lord, but here's the thing, because we can't talk to
them one on one, we're not going to count that because we want our number to be conservative.
So don't come at us and act like, oh, faithful words got all these wild numbers of salvation.
No, no, no, that's an extremely conservative number.
Way more people than that are being saved.
But you know what?
People don't want to believe that number because they're a zero.
And zeros hate big numbers.
People who win this many people the Lord, they don't like that number.
People who don't go soul winning often don't like that number.
Now look, if your heart's in the right place, even if your name is Mr. Zero, you should
still rejoice in that number, amen?
At least you could be glad, well, you know, I don't go soul winning, but at least I go
to a soul winning church.
At least I support the church.
At least I throw in my tithe and I show up and sing the songs and I'm in encouragement
or whatever.
I mean, at least have a good attitude about it.
But I'm telling you, there are people out there who are zeros and they sit there and
they get mad at those numbers.
It's wicked.
You got to rejoice in those numbers.
And you say, oh, those numbers are crazy.
Look, there's nothing crazy about 209 people getting saved in Jacksonville when you had
122 people out soul winning the whole day.
You go out preaching the gospel to people all day, you're going to get a couple people
saved.
So why would it be crazy if 122 people go out soul winning the whole day and they get
209 people saved?
That's pretty realistic.
That means every person averaged about two people saved, spending four or five hours
out there of actual production time, of actually giving the gospel, talking to people.
You know what?
That's realistic.
The people that don't believe in it, they're the people who knock three doors and go home.
They knock three doors and then they go home and they're like, well, I just don't believe
those big numbers coming out of faithful word.
Well, yeah, because if you knock three doors, you're never going to see those numbers.
You see those numbers not by three doors, but by three hours of work.
And look, there are plenty of times that I've gone out soul winning for eight hours and
had nobody saved.
Other times you go out for one hour and get a few people saved.
You never know, right?
Just depends on who you talk to.
Depends on whether the seed's fallen on a good ground or not.
You don't know what you're going to find.
But we need to make sure that our soul winning methods are legit.
And don't you be sucked into goofball soul winning methods that you see, even if you
see them in this church.
Because there are some goofball soul winning methods that have crept into our church over
the years.
I don't know of any right now, but that's why these teachings need to be constantly
emphasized because everybody's soul winning great, everybody's doing great, they're preaching
the gospel, they're getting people saved, and then you don't have any training for a
year or two.
And then you start seeing all kinds of weird methods popping up.
Here's my advice to you.
Don't try to reinvent the wheel.
Don't just jump.
And if you see somebody doing a really off the wall soul winning method, don't just jump
on that.
I like that, you know, and just get into something, you know.
Don't look, don't get into trend.
Don't be trendy.
Look, beware of trendy doctrine.
Beware of trendy soul winning methods.
Beware of pastors who dress trendy, amen.
Why?
Metal not with them that are given to change.
Don't be trendy.
You know what trendy is?
It's being carried about with divers and strange doctrines.
It's being tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.
That's what trendiness is.
This is not a trendy Baptist church, this is a fundamental Baptist church.
If you're looking for something trendy, go to a church that's called like ocean.
Go to a church that's called sandals, right?
Go to a church that's called cross point center, you know.
Go to a church that's called, you know, I don't know, you know, Galilee.
These are the kind of trendy like, you know, non-denom, they kind of spring up overnight
because they're weeds, you know, they grow real fast.
And you know, it's rock and roll, purple light, smoke, and you know, the pastor comes out
in his skinny jeans and a graphic tee and he's got holes in his jeans and he's got the
short hair but the really long beard and then the skinny jeans, the lumberjack kind
of, you know, and he comes out and he sits on a bar stool, you know.
If you're looking for that kind of church, it's out there.
It's not hard to find but this is not that, this is faithful word Baptist church.
And this church, if you would have come here 10 years ago, was way smaller.
Ten years ago, there would have been instead of, you know, 275, 300 people, there would
have been about 20 people 10 years ago.
But you know what?
It would have been pretty much the same as it is now.
The preaching was pretty much the same.
The soul winning was pretty much the same.
The music was pretty much the same.
We didn't have a brass band but the music was pretty much the same.
Look, I'll change if something can be improved.
But I'm not going to change for the sake of changing.
I want to be stable, okay?
Not wishy washy, toss to and fro and trendy.
No trendy doctrines, no trendy soul winning methods.
Stick with the, and you know what?
Why don't you let Brother Jimenez teach you how to go soul winning, you know?
I mean Brother Roger Jimenez, like he's a good soul but here's the thing, he's been
doing it for 15, 20 years, right?
Wouldn't that make more sense to learn soul winning from me or Brother Jimenez or somebody
who's been in our church for a long time than to just learn soul winning from somebody who
just started like a month ago, right?
Doesn't really make any sense, you know?
Learn, and look, I think that if you go out soul winning, if you show up for soul winning
and be a silent partner, go with a variety of partners.
Don't just go with one person and just stay with that one person all the time.
Go with a variety of partners to make sure you get the best methods, you know, and make
sure you get the best training.
Don't just get in a rut where you only go with that one person, you know?
Show up for soul winning times and go with somebody new each time and learn good, sound
methods, not just one person's avant garde crazy method.
Let's bow our heads in our board of prayer.
Father, we thank you so much, Lord, for the clear teaching of your word, and thank you
that you saved me, Lord, when I was a six-year-old boy, when I called upon you by faith, kneeling
in prayer by my mother's bedside after she showed me from the scripture how to be saved.
Thank you for saving me, Lord.
Thank you that salvation is eternal, and Lord, I thank you that I found that soul winning
church when I was 17 that I could learn soul winning, Lord.
Thank you for the people I've been able to teach, and Lord, help us all to do our best
out soul winning to be thorough and to do a good job, Lord, and please help us to squelch
this confusion that some people have about the sinner's prayer or calling upon the name
of the Lord.
Lord, help us not to listen to the Calvinists and the Paul washers and all the false teachers
that want to attack this clear biblical doctrine, but help us to understand that calling upon
the name of the Lord starts in Genesis 4, and it goes all the way to Revelation 22 when
you offer that water of life freely, Lord, and we just pray that you would bless our
soul winning program, bless our church, and bring us back safely this evening, Lord, and
in Jesus' name we pray, amen.
The Bible over and over again emphasizes calling upon the name of the Lord in order to be saved,
in order to get to heaven, from the Old Testament to the New Testament and everywhere in between.
Now let me just go through this point by point, and then we're going to get to some other
scriptures to support this, but it says in verse number 11, for the scripture saith,
whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Now stop right there because this is an often misunderstood verse, and I want to explain
to you that the word ashamed in the Bible has multiple meanings.
Now when we think of the word ashamed, we think of embarrassment, right?
But actually the word ashamed has some other meanings as well.
If you would flip over to the book of Joel chapter 2, go to Joel chapter 2 in the Old
Testament, and then we're going to go to Psalm 25.
We're going to hit a few scriptures in the Old Testament to help us understand what the
Bible means here when it says, for the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not
be ashamed.
Now if we were to take our common 2017 meaning of ashamed there, then that wouldn't really
make sense to say that anyone who believes on Christ is not going to be ashamed, because
unfortunately there are people who are saved, but yet they are ashamed in the sense of embarrassed
of Jesus.
A perfect example of this is the Apostle Peter.
Peter clearly believed and confessed that Jesus Christ was the Messiah, was the Son
of God.
I mean he'd been following Jesus for years, preaching the gospel for years.
I think it's very silly to say that Peter was not saved.
But yet, Peter, in a moment of confusion about the way the evening was going, in a moment
of fear, has misconstrued this doctrine of calling upon the name of the Lord, and here's
what they'll say.
They'll say, well you're saying that if you believe on Christ but don't call upon him,
you're not saved.
Now I've never said any such thing.
I would never say that someone who believes on Jesus Christ is not saved, because everyone
that believes on Jesus Christ is saved.
Can we just settle that right now?
That if somebody believes on Jesus Christ, they're saved, and that I, in my 11 years
of being pastor of this church, have never said other than that, never.
I've never said, hey this guy believes in Jesus, but he's not saved.
Never said that, because that's a false doctrine.
And I challenge you to find me ever saying that.
But people will accuse me of saying that, because they're just lying about me.
They'll accuse me of saying, oh if a sodomite believes in Jesus, they're not saved.
I never said that.
I said sodomites are reprobate and rejected of the Lord.
They'll say, oh you said that if you believe but don't call, you're not saved.
That's a lie, I've never said that.
Everyone who believes is saved.
So let's just settle that, let's just put that to bed, so that we can move on with the
rest of the sermon.
Calling upon the name of the Lord is part of salvation, and is tied in with salvation.
Now people will balk at that and get upset about that, but the Bible is pretty clear
in this passage that calling upon the name of the Lord is part of salvation.
The Bible says here, in verse number 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord
Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt
be saved.
Why?
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation.
So right there it says that with the mouth confession is made to salvation.
Man the title of my sermon this morning is the sinner's prayer.
The sinner's prayer, and I'm going to focus in to start with on Romans chapter 10 beginning
in verse number 8.
This is one of the most key passages on this doctrine of what the Bible calls calling upon
the name of the Lord, or what a lot of people today would refer to as the sinner's prayer.
Look if you would at Romans chapter 10 verse 8, but what sayeth it?
The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that is the word of faith
which we preach, that 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.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto
salvation.
For the scripture sayeth whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed, for there is
no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for this for all is rich unto all that call
upon him.
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed, and so on and so forth.
The doctrine of calling upon the name of the Lord is something that's found throughout
scripture.
In fact it has its origin all the way in Genesis chapter 4 verse 26, you don't have to turn
there, but the Bible says unto 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.
So calling upon the name of the Lord goes back to literally the first generation of
human beings on this earth.
You know when Seth's son Enos was born, I mean Adam and Eve are still alive, that first
generation of people are all still alive, and at that time the Bible says men began
to call upon the name of the Lord.
So this is a doctrine that we can trace all the way through the Old Testament, all the
way into the New Testament.
Now in the Old Testament, God was known by a few different names.
He has many names.
For example, in Exodus chapter 6 verse 3, he says, I appeared unto Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob by the name of God Almighty, but by my name Jehovah was I not known unto them.
So in the days of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, in the days of Job and his three friends, the
primary name that God was known by was God Almighty.
Then from Moses and the burning bush forward, the primary name in the Old Testament where
God is known by is Jehovah or the Lord.
And then when we get into the New Testament, the name that is above all names, the primary
name that we call upon is the name of Jesus.
That is the name that's above every name.
So that's why the Bible in the Old Testament can say, whosoever shall call upon the name
of the Lord shall be saved, whether that's Abraham who called upon the name of God Almighty,
Isaac called upon the name of God Almighty, that's found in Genesis 12, Genesis 13 and
Genesis 25, or whether that's David calling upon the name of the Lord, calling upon Jehovah,
or in the New Testament, that is calling upon Jesus.
Now you cannot separate verse 9 and verse 13 because they are talking about the same
thing.
See the Bible says in verse 9 that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus
and shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead, thou shalt be
saved.
Now notice the next four verses, what word do they all start with?
Four.
So it's a continuation of that same thought because this, because this, because this.
So he's saying that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart
that God has raised him from the dead, you shall be saved.
Why?
Because whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
That's why.
So that goes to show that confessing with your mouth the Lord Jesus is the same as calling
upon the name of the Lord because Jesus is the name of the Lord.
That's his name.
The Bible says that every knee should bow and that every tongue should confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
Not only that, but in Acts chapter two, you don't have to turn there, but in Acts chapter
two, when Peter is preaching, he states that whosoever shall call upon the name of the
Lord shall be saved.
In Acts chapter two, I believe verse 21.
So let's look at this carefully here.
It says the word is nigh thee in verse eight, even in thy mouth and in thy heart.
That is the word of faith which we preach that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God has 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 let me start out by saying this right away lest anyone misunderstand me or misconstrue
the sermon this morning.
Everyone who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is saved.
Nothing could be clearer in the Bible than the fact that salvation is by faith, okay?
Not of works lest any man should boast.
Nothing could be clear.
John 3 16 tells us of course that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have
everlasting life.
Jesus said whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.
He said verily, verily I say unto you, he that believeth on me hath everlasting life.
The Bible says for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it
is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.
And I'm not going to belabor the point by quoting 100 plus verses that I could quote
right now telling you that salvation is by faith, that salvation is by believing on Jesus
Christ.
We all understand that.
We all know that, okay?
People will sometimes.