straight into the sermon there. So you're open there in Romans chapter 10. Look at verse
number 13. Romans chapter 10 verse number 13. It reads, For whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Okay. So the title for the sermon this evening is
calling upon the name of the Lord. We're up to part three. Are we? Is this part three?
No, part four. I think we're up to part four. I don't know. I can't remember right now of
our soul winning series, right? And so let me just remember what was part one? Who remembers
that? What was part one? The importance of going soul winning. Number two was on the power of God
unto salvation, which was the gospel presentation. Is that right? What was number two then? Oh, yeah,
that's right. Number three was presenting the plan of salvation. And then number four now is
calling upon the name of the Lord. Number five is going to be on the being ambassadors for the Lord
Jesus Christ. And I think I'm going to have another sermon for all the other things that I
wanted to cover. But you know, they just I had to edit them out. And I'm just going to do like a
bonus sermon. Yeah, okay, just the last one in this series. So what are we to turn to do, if you
can please turn to First Corinthians chapter one, please turn to First Corinthians chapter one. We
are going to come back to Romans chapter 10. We're going to look at that quite in depth, but I want
you to turn to First Corinthians chapter one, please, and verse number one. So we have the
Apostle Paul right into the Corinthian church. And I want you to notice what he says about them.
Okay, in verse number one, First Corinthians one, one, it says, Paul, called to be an apostle of
Jesus Christ, through the will of God, and Sostenese, our brother, unto the church of God,
which is at Corinth, to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all
that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both theirs and ours. And so you
can see the purpose for this letter. Paul the Apostle is writing to the Corinthian church, right,
he refers to them as saints, right, says in verse number two, to them that are sanctified in Christ
Jesus, called to be saints. You know what you are, brethren? You're saints. All right, you know,
the Roman Catholics, they believe the saints are the most important Christians that ever lived,
right? They performed miracles, or after they died, they performed miracles, and then they set
up statutes to these saints, and they pray to the saints. Well, you know what, brethren, we're all
saints. If you're saved, you're a saint, okay? To be a saint means that you're sanctified, okay?
That means the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed you from all sins, and we stand before God in the
imputed righteousness of Christ, this makes us sanctified. And because we're sanctified,
this makes us saints, okay? Now Paul is writing to the saints in Corinth, the saints at the
Corinthian church, but then he says this, is it just to that one church? No, he says,
we've all, so he's writing to another group of people, we've all that in every place call upon
the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both theirs and ours. And so who else is writing to? To
everyone who has called upon the name of the Lord. So that's something I want you to understand,
in order for you to be a saint, in order for you to be saved, you must have called upon the name
of the Lord, okay? This is an important part of our salvation message. The reason I'm preaching
this is, number one, you know, I am doing this soul-winning series, but you'll find,
if you haven't found already, there are people that are against praying the sinner's prayer.
There are people that are against calling upon the name of the Lord for salvation. I'll give
you the reasons why. And I think sometimes they mean well, but if you're not careful,
if you go down this rabbit hole, you're going to find yourself, you know, teaching false things,
okay? Or potentially not even, not even causing somebody to be saved because they've not even
asked the Lord for it, okay? And so there are extremes to this, okay? Let me show it to you
what the extremes are. Number one, some people teach that in order to be saved, you have to just
call upon the name of the Lord. Well that's true, but the extreme view is all you have to do is call
upon the name of the Lord. And so people would come, you know, and this is where you get the
people accusing some churches of being one, two, three, repeat after me, okay? So you knock
someone's door and you introduce yourself. They're not sure they're on the way to heaven,
they say. You say, you know what? You know, we can make sure that you're going to heaven right now.
Just say this prayer. Let's just call upon the name of the Lord right now. Dear Jesus, I know
I'm a sinner. You died for me. I believe in you. Please save me and take me to heaven when you
died. Did you pray the prayer? Yeah, you called upon the name of the Lord. Yeah, that means you're
saved. That's one extreme, but we've covered this. What are they forgetting? They're forgetting the
gospel, okay? They're forgetting for that person to actually have placed their faith and trust in
Jesus. And so calling upon the name of the Lord alone does not save anybody. They have to believe
the gospel, all right? So you have, yeah, I'm against that. If that's what people say is one,
two, three, repeat after me, I'm against that. In fact, that is a false gospel, all right? That is
a false gospel. That is another gospel. If you're just getting people to say some prayer and the
problem, and we've seen this, I've seen this in churches. I'm sure you've seen this in churches
where someone says, yeah, I'm saved. Why? Because I just prayed a prayer.
You know, did you believe in Jesus? Do you know what Jesus did for you?
Do you trust his death, burial and resurrection? Or did you just say a prayer? What was in that
prayer? What's the special? Listen, praying a prayer does not save anybody unless they have
first believed the gospel. So you can see some people are against calling upon the name of the
Lord because they have this idea that it's just this one, two, three, repeat after me,
and you're claiming them to be saved. That's not what we teach. You know, as I've gone through
presenting the plan of salvation and the power of God unto salvation, we've seen how important it is
for us to communicate the gospel message, the death, burial and resurrection, and for them
to believe and understand what Christ has done for them before they call upon the name of the Lord.
Okay? But then you have the other extreme where it says, well, you know what? There are more verses
in the Bible that say salvation is just by believing. And so if you're asking somebody
to call upon the name of the Lord, aren't you adding to salvation? You know, Jesus has done
everything necessary. Yeah, right? Of course he's done. And the Bible says to believe,
for whosoever believeth in me shall not perish, but have everlasting life. And, you know,
obviously there are a lot more verses that are about believing, about your faith than about
calling upon the name of the Lord. And therefore, they'll conclude that you're adding to the gospel.
Maybe you're, you know, you're adding works to salvation, or it's borderline works. I've heard
that statement before. It's borderline works, you know, for people to call upon the name of the Lord.
And so, you know, I don't know. I don't know if you've come across this. I have. I have come
across this. And so this is why it's important to teach. Now, you know, when we present the gospel
and we lead somebody in the sinner's prayer, or we get them to call upon the name of the Lord,
one thing I've realized in Australia, and it's difficult sometimes, you present the gospel,
and then you've got that awkward moment where, you know, you're asking them to call upon the Lord,
you're asking them to pray. And the reason why it's an awkward moment is because in Australia,
we don't have a praying culture. We just don't. Okay. In the United States, there is a praying
culture. Okay. I mean, these days in parliament, you know, during their meetings, you know,
they always open in prayer. But these days, they're praying to the devil. I don't know if
you've seen videos of that. These days, they're praying to Buddha and they're praying to every,
any kind of God and any kind of, you know, religious figure. But here's the thing. And look,
that's wicked. That's wicked as hell. Okay. But here's the thing. You can see that they still
have a praying culture, even if it's praying to the devil. They'll pray, okay, in America.
And so one thing that I've discovered, one of the differences in Australia is you can get to the
door and you can preach the whole gospel to somebody. And you get to the point where you
want to get this person to call upon the name of the Lord. They just refuse to do it. They just
don't do it. In fact, sometimes they're just shy. They're not used to praying. In fact, the guy
that I got saved the other day goes, how long is this going to take? I don't know what he was
expecting, a half an hour prayer or something. How long is this going to take? Right. And I said,
all right, just a few seconds, right? Because it's what you believe that matters. We're just
calling upon the name of the Lord now. You're telling God what you believe. But, you know,
we don't have that. And what I find is, you know, somewhere between, and I don't know, maybe you've
experienced something different. You know, once you give the gospel somewhere between three to
four times, you give someone the gospel, they're going to be willing to call upon the name of the
Lord. That's what I found in Australia. And I would see, you know, American preachers basically say,
every time I give the gospel from start to finish, people are going to call upon the name of the Lord
and they get saved. And I just thought, what's wrong with me then? Why is it that, you know,
these other preachers seem to be so successful in getting people to call upon the name of the Lord,
but I just keep failing at this. What is it? Only to find when I went to the United States and I
went preaching the gospel, every time I gave the full gospel presentation, they always got saved
because they've got a praying culture. It's normal. It's just normal to just bow your head
and pray to God. Okay. Whereas we find that a little bit more difficult in Australia.
We just don't, like we don't have that church going culture. We don't have that praying culture.
Like it's not unusual for America to have days of prayer. You know, whether you agree with who
they're praying to and why they're praying, but it's not unusual to hear that kind of stuff in
the United States. It's very unusual to hear about something like that in Australia.
All right. Now, as I said, some people, you know, are against calling upon the name of the Lord,
because as I said, they think that you're just getting them to say a prayer and you just,
you know, you're just saying they're saved. We've looked at that. I'm against that as well.
You know, this is why it's so important. It's why I'm going for this Soul Winning Series.
So we explain what the gospel message is. They can understand the gospel message. They understand
what Jesus has done for them. They can believe that. And then they can call upon Jesus Christ
to be saved. Okay. And as I said, there are some that, you know, and look, that would be
a vain repetition. Just getting them to say some prayer, just call upon Jesus and you'll be saved.
It's just a vain repetition. It means nothing. Okay. You're not getting people saved. In fact,
you can cause people to, you know, make a false profession and assume they are saved because they
said a prayer. Now, if you can please turn to Colossians chapter four, please turn to Colossians
chapter four, verse number 12. So, as I said, the three main reasons that people think that,
you know, it's wrong to call upon the name of the Lord because they think we go out and just
make people to pray, some quick prayer. All right. Number two is because they view it as a kind of a
workspace gospel. Colossians chapter four, verse 12. Colossians chapter four, verse 12. This is
the verse that I've seen people turn to teach that praying is a work. Colossians chapter four,
verse number 12, which reads, Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you always,
look at this, always laboring. So what's laboring? That's like working, isn't it? You know, working
hard, always laboring fervently for you in prayers that you may stand perfect and complete in all the
will of God. So they say, see, praying here is a work. You know, this man is laboring in prayers.
You're making someone to pray. Well, you know what you're doing? You're making them, they say,
to do a work, to labor hard in order for them to be saved. So you're adding works to the gospel.
Now, let me explain a few things here. All right. Number one, let's look at this. First of all,
is Epaphras praying to be saved? No. Is he praying for himself?
No. He's praying for the church in Colossae, right? And is he saved? He's already saved. So
he's a saved man praying for others, right? When we talk about calling upon the name of Lord,
we're talking about an unsaved man praying for himself, praying and asking for Jesus to save
them. And so when people turn to this to show me that, you know, praying the sinner's prayer
is work, it's like, are you nuts? This guy's already saved. Okay. This guy's laboring for
others. He's praying for others. Okay. He's not just asking God for the gift of salvation. That's
number one. But number two, when we ask people to pray, we're not telling them that this is what
saves you. We're not telling them that you've got to put your trust in your prayer to save you.
It's not the prayer. It's the person to whom they are praying to that saves them. Okay. Their faith
is not in words. Their faith is in who they're talking to, okay, which is the Lord God, which
is the Lord Jesus Christ, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
Okay. Their faith, they're calling upon the person that they are acknowledging is the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so look, you know, I never walk away and say, well, listen, you're saved because
you said a prayer. We always, and I know because I've got so many with all of you. I always hear
you guys, if we get someone saved, the reason you're saved is because you believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ, because you're trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not just because you opened
your mouth. It's because it's where your faith is. Okay. So understand, understand when we
ask people to call upon them the Lord, we're not asking them, all right, trust the words you're
about to say in order to be saved. No, trust in the one who you're speaking to. Okay. This should
be common sense. Okay. But as I said, there are people that will use these verses, okay, or say
that we believe in some type of false gospel because we ask people to call upon them the Lord.
Can you please turn to John chapter four? Please turn to John chapter four.
John chapter four.
And we're going back to the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman. We're just pulling that
another truth from here in this story. John chapter four, verse number seven.
John chapter four and verse number seven. It says,
There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, Give me to drink,
for his disciples were gone away unto the city to buy meat. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto
him. How is it that thou, being a Jew, ask of drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria,
for the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans? Now, before we read verse number 10,
we've seen this before, right? This is Jesus' soul winning. We get an example of the soul winning
Jesus Christ and the important things that he covers. Now, did Jesus Christ come teaching a
workspace gospel? No, right? Jesus Christ came, right? He was sent by the Father.
You know, he is the grace of God. He came, you know, full of grace and truth. And what he comes
presented to the woman is a free gift. Salvation is free. It requires no work, okay? It requires
no merit of man. It is freely available to all that would believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And Jesus Christ says in verse number 10 that it is a gift. Because it says here,
Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God. So is Jesus Christ offering a
gift? Absolutely. Are gifts free? Yes. Do gifts require works? No. Okay. Now, for those that say
praying and prayer is works, well, they're going to have a major conflict with Jesus Christ, okay,
as we keep reading this passage. Because in verse number 10, it says, And who it is that sayeth thee,
give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.
So Jesus Christ says, Look, I want to give you a gift. There's a gift available to you. It's free.
It requires no work. But what do you need to do to have it to Samaritan woman? He says, Look,
if you knew what I had, you would come and ask me for it. Oh, Jesus is preaching a workspace gospel.
Oh, Jesus Christ is borderline works. Rubbish. That is stupidity. Okay, simply asking Jesus
for the everlasting life everlasting water is clearly not a work. It is still a gift.
Otherwise, Jesus Christ is contradicting himself. And of course, it's not Christ is contradicting
himself. It's those that are against calling upon them the Lord that contradict themselves.
Okay, they're the ones causing confusion about this. Listen, asking somebody for the free gift
is not work. All right. I mean, if you know, we let's say we had Christmas not long ago,
there were Christmas gifts, right? If one of my kids came up to me and said, Dad,
can I open one of the presents? You know, I can see this gift has my name on it. Dad,
can I have this one? Can I open this one now? Oh, you're working for it now, son. Oh, man,
you've labored fervently for this gift now. Stupidity. That's so stupid. All right,
simply acknowledging the one who gives you the gift is obviously not works. Otherwise,
Christ would have been teaching a workspace gospel here. Okay, and we know Christ is offering a gift.
Gifts are free. Gifts are without labor. They're without work. Can you please turn to Luke 23,
verse 42. Luke 23, verse 42. Luke 23, verse 42. I love this passage. I love the thief in the cross.
You know, it's my favorite. It's one of my favorites, you know, how somebody who's on
literally on his way to hell, okay, who's literally on his deathbed, can just so easily
place his faith on Jesus and be sure of heaven immediately. Okay. Now, what does the thief on
the cross do? Does he call upon the Lord? Of course he does. Luke 23, verse 42. He says these
words, and he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said
unto him, verily I say unto thee, to thee shalt thou be with me in paradise. So what does the
thief on the cross do? Did he ask something from Jesus? Yeah, he asked Jesus, remember me, Lord,
when thou comest into thy kingdom. Is he just saying a prayer or does he believe something,
something very important when he says those words? Well, he knows that Jesus is about to die on the
cross. He knows they're both about to die on the cross, right? And so if he thinks that Jesus
Christ is going to come in his kingdom, doesn't he believe that Christ is going to be resurrected
from the dead? Amen. And he says, Lord, when you're resurrected from the dead and you start
your kingdom, can you remember me because I want to be part of that kingdom? Hey, his faith was
on the resurrection of his Lord. He calls him Lord, does he not? Lord, remember me when thou
comest into thy kingdom. So listen, the sinner's prayer, you know, it doesn't have to be this
formula. It's perfect. Now, I reckon the best thing to do if you're going to lead someone
to call upon the name of the Lord, just summarize the gospel once again. Dear Jesus, I know I'm a
sinner. I know I'm on my way to hell, but I know you died for me, Lord. I'm only trusting you.
Please give me everlasting life and take me home to heaven when I die. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
That's fine. Okay. But listen, you know, it's good to say, you know, the gospel once again
in a summary form just to nail it home another time. But listen, if all they said was remember
me when thou comest into thy kingdom, guess what? They're saved because it's what they believe that
matters. Okay. Their faith is not on what they said. The faith is on who they're speaking to.
All right. The thief on the cross, his faith was on the Lord Jesus Christ as he came back,
you know, and resurrected himself from the dead. Can you please turn to Luke 18. Luke 18.
Because to be against the sinner's prayer, to be against calling upon the Lord makes no sense
when we have various verses, various stories of people literally calling upon Jesus,
asking him something and then getting saved. It's almost like people just don't know what to
argue about anymore. They don't know what to fight. They don't know how to pick their fights.
Instead of fighting against the devil, they want to fight amongst themselves. And look,
I'm more wise because I don't think you have to call upon the Lord. We see that it's clearly,
clear as day that people called upon the Lord. Listen, when we talk about calling upon the Lord,
we're talking about praying. When we talk about praying, what are we saying? About asking
something from the Lord. Okay, that's what prayer means. When you say, I pray thee, you're asking,
hey, can I ask something of thee? You're asking the Lord for salvation. Look at Luke 18, please.
We have the story, I won't go through it all, the story of the Pharisee and the publican.
And you know, they both go and pray. The Bible tells us that the Pharisee prayed to himself.
He thought of himself as a God, as it were, you know, right. And but we see the publican be a
little bit different. Hey, what kind of prayer did the publican have? Luke 18 verse 13. It says,
and the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much his eyes unto heaven,
and smote upon his breast saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Hey, that's his prayer. God be
merciful to me, a sinner. And we know that he was made righteous with the Lord God. Okay, because he
humbled himself. He acknowledged himself as a sinner. Okay. And he knew that only through God
that he could receive salvation. It's only for him. It's only through God that he can be just.
It's only by acknowledging his sin and calling upon God that he realized he could be justified
in the eyes of God. Listen, we have various stories in the Bible, where people literally
call upon the Lord, and they say different things at different times. Okay. This is why I don't make
it a big deal exactly how you say the sinner's prayer. That's why I don't recommend you to use
the track and say, hey, let's pray this together, because you don't want to emphasize the wrong
things. You don't want to make people to think that if I just say it perfectly, that's why I'm
saved, and they trust in the prayer instead of trusting the one they're praying to. Okay. So
don't worry if you forget, you know, you forget to say, you know, take me to heaven when I die,
or something like that. Don't worry. Okay. The fact is that, you know, as long as they believe
the gospel and they're acknowledging the God who saved them, the God who died for them,
then they're going to be saved. Okay. So we don't want to make this a very complicated thing,
but at the same time, we need to, you know, give it proper attention, because praying or asking
the Lord for salvation is important. It's in our Bibles for a reason. Okay. It is vitally important.
Now, can you please turn to our Romans, back to Romans chapter 10. Romans chapter 10.
Turn to Romans chapter 10. You say, well, you know, some people have said,
you know, I believe the gospel. When I heard the gospel, I believed it, but I've never
called upon the name of the Lord. Now, I haven't heard that too often. I would say I've probably
heard that two or three times in my life. You know, I've believed the gospel. I just never
called upon the name of the Lord. Not because they're against calling upon the name of the Lord.
They just think it's an unnecessary step. Okay. And here's the, you say, what about that? You know,
well, here's the thing. I find it impossible. Impossible. Okay. For somebody to hear the gospel
message, you know, to repent from their false beliefs, what they used to have, and believe
the true gospel. Okay. And appreciate what God has done for them. Realize that Jesus has done it all,
that it's a free gift. Okay. And you tell me you've never acknowledged God your whole life.
You've never said, Lord, can I have salvation? You've never said, Lord, I want to go to heaven.
You've never said, Lord, you know, I'm a sinner. I failed. I realized I can't go to heaven on my
own. You've never said, Lord, thank you for this free gift of salvation. You've never acknowledged
God. That's impossible. That's impossible. Listen, I think when people say this, I never
caught upon them, Lord. What they're saying is, I never said the prayer word for word in a gospel
tract or something like that. Okay. But somewhere in them, they must have, whether verbally or
internally, I believe you can call the Lord internally. Okay. Whether verbally or internally,
and even if it was just, thank you, Lord. Even if you'll just remember me when thou comest into thy
kingdom. Are you telling me you've never acknowledged the one who died for you? The one
who saved you? You've never acknowledged that he's the one that saved you? You've never caught
upon the Lord? Impossible if you truly believe the gospel. Okay. And I'll show you why it's
impossible. You know, first of all, the Bible tells us in Matthew 1234, just read it to you,
it says, for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Out of the abundance of the
heart, the mouth speaketh. Hey, what are we to believe with? We're meant to believe with our
hearts. If you truly believe the gospel in your heart, are you going to tell me it's not going
to come out of your mouth? That you've believed in the Lord Jesus Christ? That you've acknowledged
him? Listen, this is normal. You know, if somebody's always talking about money,
guess what's in their heart? Money. Okay. If someone's always talking about God and
church and the Bible, guess what's in their heart? The Lord's in their heart. Okay. People,
you can't help. If you're into some type of sports and some type of sporting team,
guess what's going to come out of your mouth? Talking about the sporting team. That stuff is
going to come out. Okay. Whatever your heart is, it's going to naturally come out of your mouth.
And if you truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, guess what's actually going to come out of your
mouth? Thank you, Jesus, for dying for me. That's actually going to come out of your mouth. Okay.
This is just, you know, believing with a heart and calling upon them a Lord. You know, these aren't
two steps. They're actually one and the same thing. I'll show you this. Go to Romans chapter
10, verse number 9. Well, actually, let's read verse number 10. Romans 10, 10 first.
Let's read Romans 10, 10. It says, for with the heart, right, there it is, man believeth unto
righteousness. Oh, see, it's just believing. Well, yeah, of course, it's just believing.
But then it says this, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
So some people might say, well, hold on, see, there's two parts here. First, you believe,
and then you make confession with your mouth. It's two parts, see, Pastor Kevin?
And the Bible says it's just believing, and so you're adding something more to the gospel. See,
it's after the believing. But look at verse number 9. If it's two separate things,
look how verse 9 is written. That if thou confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus,
so now it's confessing first, and shall believe in thy heart, thy God have raised him from the dead,
thou shalt be saved. Guess what? Now it's reversed. Verse number 10 was believe and call. Verse number
9 is call and believe. You know why? Because it's one and the same thing. That's why. Because
calling upon the name of the Lord is not a separate step. Calling upon the name of the Lord
is the expression of your faith. It's what you believed. It's not some other step. You're just
confessing. You're just saying, this is what I believe, and you're telling God what you believe.
Instead of just telling a man, you're telling God, God, I believe this. That's calling upon
the name of the Lord. You're confessing Jesus Christ. Lord, I believe it's Jesus who died for
me and rose again, and it's through Jesus that I can go to heaven. Praise God. You're confessing
your faith. That's what you're doing out of the heart, okay? It comes from the heart, and if it's
in your heart, guess what? It's going to come out of your mouth. It's going to come out of your
mouth. Why are you preaching this, Pastor Kevin? Because I want you to, when you go soul winning,
okay, and you explain the gospel, and the person, you know, you ask them, do you believe this? Or
you ask something like that, right? And they say yes. Don't stop there. Don't just say, ah, well
done. You're saved, okay? Because you said you believe it. No. Now they have to acknowledge
their Savior, okay? If they truly believe in the heart, they're going to say it.
Listen, people can lie to you at the door. You know what's very hard for people to lie to God,
right? Like someone can say to you, I believed it, but you know how hard it is for someone to
say to God I believe it when they don't mean it? When they'll, you know, some people at the
door just want you to go away. Oh yeah, I believe it. Okay, well done. You're saved then.
We've got to be careful of this, okay? And you're just explaining the gospel to someone. Do you
believe this? Oh yeah, I believe it. Okay, well done. You're saved. No. They've got to call upon
the Lord. They've got to express their faith to the Lord in order to be saved. And some people
don't know how to pray. Like I said, we don't have a praying culture. There's nothing wrong with you
leading someone in prayer. Hey, let me help you pray. Just repeat after me. It's not the words,
it's what you believe that matters. We're just telling God this is what you believe. Okay,
you've told me, now let's tell God. Now let's tell Jesus that you've believed on Him. Okay,
let's ask Jesus for everlasting life. So you can see there, I like Romans 10, 9 and 10,
because it's the other way around. It's like which one, which one, what, they're both believing is in
the heart? The mouth is the expression that you've believed in your heart. That's it. Okay,
it's not some other step. Okay, it's not something extra to believe in on Christ. It is your faith.
Okay, when you call upon the Lord, it is your faith being expressed by your mouth. And look,
as I said, I realize that some people can call upon the Lord internally. Okay, but when we count
as salvation, I want you, because you don't know what's happening internally. Do you? You don't
know if someone's been born again. You don't know someone has truly believed. But what you
can be a witness of is if someone opens their mouth and acknowledges God as their Savior,
and acknowledges the death, the resurrection, that's something you can witness. And that's
something you can put down and say, hey, this person has called upon them Lord, meaning that
they believe the gospel. And I've seen it, I've been a witness of this. And you text the church
group, and we celebrate and we rejoice over that salvation. Those are the ones that we count. You
don't just count some that says they believe, and then they refuse to pray. Okay, now look,
I've had times where there's this one time in particular that I remember, I was speaking to
this Aboriginal lady. And she was really keen to listen to the gospel. You know, she was responding
well. She understood it. And then I asked her, listen, do you want to just tell God right now
that you believe this? She's like, yes, I do. I'm like, praise God. So I start open, you know,
I'll say, look, I'll lead you in a word of prayer. I'm like, dear Jesus, quiet, nothing.
And I'm like, you know, you can just repeat after me. Alright, so dear Jesus,
nothing. I'm like, is there something wrong? And she was a bit shy. And she goes, Oh,
is it okay if I just pray within myself? You know, she goes, I'm a little bit shy just speaking out
loud. Can I just pray in my heart? And I said, look, if that's it, yeah, you know, if you're
comfortable doing that, absolutely. And then I just led her in a prayer. And I just gave I just
went quiet to see if she's gonna repeat that herself in her heart. I hope she did. I in fact,
I believe she did. I believe she caught upon them Lord through her heart internally. I believe she
saved. But guess what? I did not count her as saved. I did not message the church and say, Hey,
we have a salvation here. You say why not? Because I did not witness her calling upon them Lord.
That's why. Okay, I did not witness it. Number two, we want to try to be consistent. When it
comes to, you know, recording those that got saved, you know, let's be a little bit modest
about it. Let's, let's make sure that we're a bit conservative with our numbers. You know,
I'd rather think we got less people saved, and then go to heaven and realize there were so many
more people that actually got saved. Then assume we had all these salvations, we get to heaven.
It's like, Lord, where are those 2000 people that we got saved? It wasn't 2000 Pastor Kevin,
just 10 over here. I mean, thank God for the 10. But you know, you know, we want to be a little
bit conservative. We want to make sure that we've gone through the whole process. They believe,
they quote upon them, Lord, then we've counted them for seven. There's nothing more we can do.
Okay. If they confess it with a mouth, that ought to be a representation of what they believed.
Now, is it possible for someone to confess the Lord to pray and just be doing it out of motions
and not truly have believed and have lied to us they believed? It's possible. Okay. But we can't,
we don't have control of that. All we have control of a brethren is preaching the gospel
and witnessing someone call upon them, the Lord. That's all. Okay. And when that happens,
praise God, they're saved. Find out later on in the future, actually, that person never got saved.
Well, you know what? There's nothing you can do about it. Like there's nothing more you could have
done about it at that time. Okay, so don't feel bad about it. The reason we tell people when
people, you know, expressed when someone gets saved, isn't because we're trying to puff ourselves
up. You know, when I went on that 40 days, when I went out 35 days, you know, soul winning,
I kept taking pictures to you guys. I'm not doing it because, hey, look at Pastor Kevin,
he's going soul winning every day. That's not what, look, I don't want the praise of men.
The reason we do these things is so we can rejoice together. So we can be, we can get motivated,
right? We can go soul winning, we can be encouraged to know, hey, there are my brothers
going out soul winning together. This is why it's good to go out together is because we provoke one
another, we encourage one another to get out there and do the work together. It's a lot easier when
you have others around you, right? And so we don't do it to puff ourselves up. We don't do
it to promote ourselves. We do it to promote the gospel. We do it to promote the great commission
that Christ has left us to do. What passage are you guys in? Romans 10. Look at verse number 11.
Romans 10, verse 11. It says, for the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be
ashamed. 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. Listen, this is biblical. Jew or Greek, if you call upon the Lord
Jesus Christ, you will be saved. Look at verse number 14. The 13th, for whosoever shall call
upon them, the Lord shall be saved. Now look at verse number 14. How then shall they call on him
in whom they have not believed? So it's just believe in Pastor Kevin. It's not calling.
Let's think about it. What's this verse telling us? Well, let's read the next phrase there. It
says, and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear
without a preacher? Let's understand this a little bit further, okay? What is the Bible
telling us here? It says, how shall they hear without a preacher? So in order for them to truly
hear, what do they need? They need a preacher. In order for someone to truly hear the gospel,
they need a preacher of the gospel. Amen? What else does it say there? It says, and how shall
they believe in him on whom they have not heard? And so in order for you to truly believe,
what have you had to experience before you can truly believe? You must have heard the gospel,
right? You cannot truly believe without hearing the gospel, okay? Do you understand what I'm
saying? Okay, so let's keep going. If we go back a little bit further up there, then it says,
and how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And so in order for someone
to truly call upon them the Lord, that means they must have believed the gospel. This is a
natural progression, okay? Someone that has believed, it's because they had to hear it.
And if they heard it, it's because they had to have a preacher. Well, if they called upon the
Lord, it means they must have believed the gospel message, okay? So here's the thing about calling
upon the name of the Lord. Those that call upon them the Lord, it's because they have truly
believed the gospel, okay? So it's not some extra step. The reason they call is because they
believed. That's why, okay? We're not adding more to the gospel. We're not adding words to
the gospel. This is a natural progression. This is what God teaches us in the word,
to encourage people to call upon the name of the Lord. Once again, do we emphasize the prayer
or do we emphasize the one they are praying to? We emphasize the one they are praying to.
That's their Lord. That's their Savior, okay? And you're simply asking the Lord,
please save me. I believe the gospel. Yes, Lord, I acknowledge you that you are my Savior. Please
save me, regardless of how they say it. There was one time, I remember, it's maybe happened
more than once, but there was one time where I was done preaching the gospel up on the Sunshine
Coast. This guy was a surfie, okay? I think he sold surfboards or something. He had a little
business in his house. And I'm giving him the gospel and he's like, man, that's the greatest
news ever. And I'm like, hey, how about we call upon the name of the Lord right now if this is
what you believe? And I was like, all right, you know? And I was like, did Jesus? And he stops.
And I'm like, oh man, oh no, something went wrong here. And he goes, you know what? Can I just pray
this on my own? And I'm like, okay, well, I guess he's gonna like, tell me to go. I hope he prays on
his own. And I was like, well, yeah, I guess, you know, if you really want to pray this song, you
can. And right there in front of me, he starts praying. In front of me, Jesus, I realize you
died for me, you rose again. And I believe you've done this for me, Lord. And I'm, you know, please
give me everlasting life. And listen, he said all the right things. But at the same time, the prayer
was really rough. You can tell this guy doesn't pray. Okay, this guy doesn't know really how to
pray. Listen, it was rough. It was on his own. In fact, it was one of my best experiences just
hearing a man of his own, not wanting me to lead him. But you could see this coming from his heart.
You know, this is something he truly believes in. He wanted to acknowledge God in his own words.
And listen, it's not how I would have led him in prayer. But he said at least the right things. I
could see that he understood the gospel clearly. He called upon the name of the Lord. It was a
little bit messy. But guess what? He got saved. Okay, he got saved. It doesn't matter how messy
the prayer was. His faith is not in the prayer. His faith is in who he is praying to. This is a
natural progression from having believed the gospel. I wish it was always like that. But more
often than not, you're going to have to lead somebody in a word of prayer. Right? Can you please
turn to Psalm 116? And we'll wrap it up here. Psalm 116, verse number one.
Another reason why people are against calling upon the name of the Lord for salvation
is because they see in the Bible saved people calling upon the name of the Lord.
Now do saved people call upon the Lord? Yeah, all the time. Okay, Abraham's a really great example
where multiple times in his life story he calls upon the name of the Lord, right? He builds an
altar and on that altar he calls upon the name of the Lord. You know, you see this happen several
times in his life or in the lives of others where they call upon the name of the Lord. But you know
that guy's already saved. And so people that are against calling upon the name of the Lord will
say, see, calling upon the Lord is not for salvation. This is something only saved people do
when they go and just pray. And look, I agree with that in of itself. I agree that we're all
required to call upon the name of the Lord. We should call upon the name of the Lord every single day.
Listen, when you go and pray, we pray in Jesus' name, don't we? That's the Lord. We call upon the
name of the Lord all the time. We should be anyway. We should be praying all the time, okay? Now what
I like about Psalm 116, verse number one, is we have examples of calling upon the name of the Lord
for salvation and examples of calling upon the name of the Lord as someone who is already saved.
So we're going to end on this passage. Psalm 116, verse number one, begins by saying, I love the Lord
because he has heard my voice and my supplications. So you know supplications there is asking what
you need, you know, to supply your needs. This is this, because he has inclined his ear toward me,
therefore will I call upon him as long as I live. Hey, this Psalmist knows what he's talking about.
Should we call upon the Lord as long as we live? Of course. Every day of our life we should be
calling upon the Lord, okay? So you can see this part of calling upon the Lord has nothing to do
with salvation. Otherwise you'd have to call upon the Lord every day of your life as long as you
live in order to be saved. No, that's not right. We call upon the name of the Lord once. We place
our faith upon the Lord once, all right, in order to be saved. But this one is about living the
Christian life and calling upon him on a regular basis. But look at verse number three. It says,
the sorrows of death come past me and the pains of hell get hold upon me. I found trouble and
sorrow. So you can see the Psalmist here has a concern, you know, it goes back to a point here
in his life where he had concern over death. He had a fear of death. In fact, he had a fear of
hell. He was concerned that that hell was going to consume him. He was on his way to hell. He did not
know, you know, salvation. But look what he says in verse number four. Then, so this is what he
does. Then called I upon the name of the Lord. So now you can see this is at a time in his life
when he was not saved and he calls upon the Lord. What does he say? He says, oh Lord, I beseech thee,
deliver my soul. So this time when he calls upon the name of the Lord, he's saying, look,
save my soul, Lord. Why? Because he had a fear of hell. He had a fear of death. Look at it.
It keeps going to number five. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful.
So look, the Lord is gracious. You know, dispensationalism teaches that we're living
in the age of grace. You know, ever since, you know, sometime after the Lord's resurrection or
at the Lord's resurrection, they teach that now we're in the age of grace. Well, tell the Psalmist
that he was living in the wrong time then because he was relying on the grace of God, wasn't he?
He says right there in verse number five, gracious is the Lord. So he calls upon the Lord knowing
that God is gracious. How else was this guy saved? He was saved by grace as well. Listen, God's always
been gracious. God's been gracious in the Old Testament. God is gracious in the New Testament.
It's always been grace. Salvation has always been by grace. It's never some other way in some other
time. Gracious is the Lord and righteous. Yea, our God is merciful. Isn't that what we want from God
when we call upon him to have mercy upon our souls, to save us? Verse number six, the Lord
preserveth the simple. I was brought low and he helped me. So he says I was brought low. He humbled
himself before the Lord and he says the Lord preserveth the simple. Hey, he did not believe
in the perseverance of the saints. He believed in the preservation of the saints. He says it's
the Lord that preserves me. Hey, this man believed in eternal security. He knew he could never lose
it because the Lord will preserve him forever. Verse number seven, return unto thy rest oh my
soul for the Lord have dealt bountifully with thee. For thou has delivered my soul from death
mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling. Then he says this, I will walk before the Lord
in the land of the living. So now that he's saved, he says look I'm going to walk in the
ways of God now. And that's the right approach. That's the right response to someone that's saved.
I'm going to walk in your ways now Lord in the land of the living. Verse number 10,
look at this. Verse number 10, I believed therefore have I spoken. I was greatly afflicted.
Hey, guess what? He called upon the Lord. Why did he speak? Why did he call upon the Lord?
Because he believed. You see how believing means that he's spoken, right? I believe therefore have
I spoken. This is a man who called upon the Lord because he believed in the Lord. That's why.
His faith was on the Lord, not on what he spoke. But he did speak. Okay, this was the witness.
This was a testimony that he had placed his faith on the Lord. Verse number 11, I said in my haste,
all men are liars. What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me?
So he says, look, what shall I render unto the Lord? Is there anything that I can do to be saved?
No, he's saying there's nothing that I can do. All men are liars. All these other preachers are
saying you've got to render unto God to be saved. You've got to turn from your sins to be saved. You
got to go to church to be saved. You got to get baptized to be saved. And you got to live a
righteous life. And you got to do what God will. You got to get, you know, whatever to be saved.
All men are liars, he says. It's all a lie. All these other ways. He says, no, in verse number 13,
I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.
So when you call upon the name of the Lord, what are you taking? You're taking the cup
of salvation. Wasn't Jesus Christ offering water, everlasting waters?
Okay, well, that's, you know, what's happening. When you call upon the name of the Lord,
you're drinking of that cup. Lord, I want that water. Okay, you can see how many times
does he call upon the name of the Lord. This passage is all about calling upon the name of the
Lord. Sometimes for salvation, sometimes it's just what he does in his life. Let's keep going. Verse
number 14, I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people. So he's like,
now that I'm saved, I'm going to go to church. You know, that's where I'm going to be, you know,
amongst the people of God. Verse number 15, precious in the sight of the Lord is the death
of his saints. Now he knows where he's going to go when he's going to die. Before he was worried
about dying and going to hell, now he says, man, when I die, it's going to be precious in the eyes
of the Lord. Okay, not just me, but all the saints when we die, because we're going to be in the
Lord's presence. Verse number 15, verse number 16, sorry. Oh Lord, truly I am thy servant. I
am thy servant. Now did he have to serve God to be saved? No. Now that he is saved, he says,
now I'm a servant of you, Lord. Now I'm going to serve you with my life. I am thy servant,
and the son of thine handmaid, thou hast loosed my bonds. Look at this, I will offer to thee the
sacrifice of thanksgiving, and will call upon the name of the Lord. So listen, calling upon the name
of the Lord here is in reference to the sacrifice of thanksgiving. You know what, now that we are
saved, we should always be thankful to the day we die for the great sacrifice of our Lord Jesus
Christ that has given us a free gift of salvation. And as we offer our sacrifices of thanksgiving,
we ought to also call upon the name of the Lord. This is all the days of our life. To the day we
die, we should be calling upon the name of the Lord. But I want to show you in this passage,
there was a time he did it in order to be saved, in order to be delivered from hell. Hey, he
believed, therefore have I spoken. He spoke, he called, he expressed his faith on the Lord.
This is him taking the cup of salvation. All right, so in order, you know, for those that
teach that this is a work or an unnecessary process of salvation, I don't know what to say
to these people. You know, either they're just babes in Christ, just that carnal that just missed
this point, or they're not, you know, they're false brethren. That's very possible, you know,
that there are false brethren out there that are trying to trip you up, trying to confuse you.
The Bible says believe, why are you making them call? Because calling is believing. That's why,
right? It's a natural process. Believing means you heard. Calling means you believed. We saw
that in Romans chapter 10. This is not some separate process we're asking people to do.
Let me just end on this. You know, when we get to the Gospel presentation,
you really want them to get to the point where they're calling upon the Lord. They understand
this is part of me receiving Christ. This is me telling God that I believe in him. As I told you,
it's quite natural for a person behind the door to tell you that they believe what you said, okay?
It's easy to lie to a man. It's not easy to lie to God. Say, hey, let's pray together and let's
tell God this is what you believe. Sometimes people refuse because they simply don't
believe even if they told you they believe. They truly didn't believe, okay? And as I said,
there are other times where they're just not comfortable because we don't have a praying
culture. And this is why it's so important that you lead them in prayer. You don't make it awkward.
Hey, you told me you believe? Let's tell God right now this is what you believe. Let's make sure
you're going to heaven right now. Let's receive the gift of salvation. Let's pray before I leave
and knock the next door. Make it simple. Make it easy. How long is this prayer going to be?
A few seconds. Don't worry. It's like the guy told me the other day. All right, brethren,
calling upon the name of the Lord, very important part in our gospel presentation. Make sure
you only tell us, you only communicate to the rest of the church when someone gets saved if
you've been a witness of them calling upon the name of the Lord. Okay, let's pray.