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Okay, let's get to the sermon. Turn to 1st Corinthians chapter 1. 1st Corinthians chapter 1, and I'll be preaching the same thing I preached on Sunday. Nah, just some of the leftovers that I had from 1st Corinthians chapter 1. Unfortunately, my printer's run out of toner, so I've got to use my computer again, so I hope that's okay. Let's have a look here. 1st Corinthians chapter 1, and the title of the message tonight is, Call upon the name of the Lord. Call upon the name of the Lord. If you noticed what we read in Romans chapter 10, it had mentioned there a few times about calling upon the name of the Lord. The title is, Call upon the name of the Lord. Let's look at 1st Corinthians chapter 1 verse 1. Paul called to be an apostle of Jesus Christ through the will of God, and Sosthenes our brother. Pay attention to verse number 2. 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. Okay, so what do we see? This letter was written to the church in Corinth. We know that. That's why it's called Corinthians. 1st Corinthians. But it's not just written to the saints. It's not just, well, it is written to all the saints. It's not just written to that one church. It's written to all that in every place, not just Corinthians, not just Corinth, in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Okay, the first thing I want you to notice, it's for all saints. Okay, what are the saints? Okay, if you've come from a Roman Catholic background, they'll tell you that the saints are these special Christians. They'll tell you that the high, mighty, and exalted Christians who had performed many miracles in their lifetime or miracles after their death somehow. Right, they'll call these people the saints. They'll idolize them. They'll worship some of the, sometimes in some, you know, the Catholics will pray to certain saints. You know, my wife was telling me, I think, once she had a pet dog and the dog was sick and she prayed to the saints of the animals to look after the dog. Right, the saints of this, the saints of that, you want to get your answer, your prayers answered, you know, God's overwhelmed with all these requests. That's why these saints step in and can cover these other requests. Not so. That's not what a saint is, okay. The Bible says here that a saint is one that is sanctified in Christ Jesus. Sanctified in Christ Jesus. The word saints comes from sanctification. It comes from sanctified. What does it mean to be sanctified? It means to be set apart. It means to be holy. Once you've believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for your salvation, you've been set apart by God, you've been made holy for his work, okay. Now for some reason our world has this upside down. We like to use the word Christians. We like to use the word Christians as the main term for believers, but really the word Christian in the Bible only appears three times and every time it's about those that are just like Christ. It's about those that are walking after Christ. It's about those that seem to reflect Jesus Christ. In fact, if we're going to use a term that exalts a believer, Christian's probably the better term because you're saying you're Christ-like. Saints is the general term. We've all been made sanctified because of Christ, right, and we're Christians because we follow Christ, okay. So I just want to point out that difference in the world we have today. We want to be as biblical as possible, you know. It's fine to call one another saints. There's nothing to be embarrassed about that. We're not exalting ourselves when we say we're saints. We're saying we're sanctified by his sacrifice. We're sanctified by his blood. Now I want to talk to you guys about calling upon the name of the Lord. Now I truly believe this is a sermon that the Lord wants me to preach, okay. I truly believe that. Every sermon I've preached, of course the Lord wants me to preach it because it comes from his word, okay. If it comes from his word, the Lord wants you to preach it, but sometimes as a preacher, especially when you're preaching often week in week out, there are some sermons that come to you that you don't want to preach. There are some sermons that come to you that you don't even think about day in day out, but then you realize I've got to preach on this, and that's when I realize it's of the Lord. I realize that's when the Lord has pressed something upon me, something that I really don't want to preach about. I'm not really that interested in. I don't think maybe it's necessarily that important at this point in time, but the Lord's put this upon my heart, right. I had prepared some notes for Sunday. I realized I had to set this aside. Then we visited a church on Sunday night. This was mentioned as well. Then I think on Monday or Tuesday, I can't remember which day, I got a call from a friend asking me about this question as well, so I'm like, okay, Lord, you want me to preach about it? I'm gonna have to add a bit more meat to the bone there and preach a little more in depth about calling upon the name of the Lord. Now, what do I mean by calling upon the name of the Lord? This is what I mean. Once someone has understood the gospel, okay, once someone has believed and understood Jesus Christ, death and resurrection is my way of salvation, then we as soul winners ought to encourage that person to call, to pray, to thank God verbally with their mouth and acknowledge their Savior, acknowledge Him by His name, acknowledge the Lord. Calling upon the name of the Lord is basically praying, speaking to the Lord. We ought to encourage that behavior to that person, okay. That's what I mean by calling upon the name of the Lord at this point in time. Now, some people are against calling upon the name of the Lord, right, and I actually think these people are well intended. They have good intentions. They've understood the Scriptures in a certain way and they think, well, that's an unnecessary step. There's no need to call upon the name of the Lord. Some people go even as far as saying, well, calling upon the name of the Lord must be a work because they separate it from believing on Jesus Christ. Now, let me tell you three reasons that I could think of why people give this a bad, reflect on it in a bad way, in a negative way. I'll give you three reasons. Now, again, this is not a sermon I really wanted to preach because it's not something that I've ever really thought about. You know, sometimes, you know, you go about life as a Christian. You read your Bible. You're interested in certain doctrines. You don't think about certain things until someone starts asking that question. You're like, where did that come from? You know, you don't think about it and then you realize, well, maybe other people do think about it, so maybe it needs to be preached on. The first thing is people are against calling upon the name of the Lord, praying to the Lord for their salvation because they've heard people say they're saved because they prayed a prayer. And I've met people like that. You ask them, how can you be sure, you know, that you're saved? They say, well, I'm saved because I prayed the sinner's prayer. I prayed some prayer. Now, is that how you get saved? Do you get saved because you've prayed a prayer? It's wrong because your faith, when you say that, your faith is in a prayer. No, your faith ought to be on the person you're praying to, right? It's not the prayer. It's the one you're praying to. Your faith is upon the object of that prayer, the Lord Jesus Christ. So I get concerned, just like anybody else, if someone says, yep, I'm saved because I prayed a prayer, then you don't, you just have totally not recognized. I don't know what prayer you prayed. Did you pray to Buddha? Did you pray to Allah? What did you pray? I mean, did you pray the rosary? Is that the prayer you prayed? You know, you're not giving me any information. So yes, I can understand why someone is, and I'm against it, I understand why someone's against it, if they're concerned that people are basing their salvation on their prayer rather than the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. I understand that, okay? The second reason, and by the way, am I against the sinner's prayer? Obviously not. That's why I'm preaching about calling upon the name of the Lord. All my children that have been led to the Lord that are saved, they've all believed the gospel, and they've all called upon the name of the Lord. They've all said something to the Lord along the lines of, you know, please save me. Just something along those lines, okay? But if you ask them, if you ask them right now, you know, why do you believe you're saved? They're going to tell you, because I've trusted on the Lord Jesus Christ. I've believed on his death, burial, and resurrection. They understand that the emphasis is on Christ. They understand the emphasis is their faith on Christ, even though they've prayed the prayer, okay? So I understand why people can be against, you know, praying the prayer if the emphasis is on the prayer for salvation. The second reason why people might be against calling upon the name of the Lord is because there are... I've never met anyone like this. I've never gone soul-winning with anyone like this, but I have been told that there are certain Christians that go go to those soul-winning, and instead of explaining the gospel, it'll be like this, you know, sir, do you believe you're going to heaven, or would you have some doubts? Oh, I have some doubts. All right, sir, pray this prayer after me, and you can be sure of heaven. Dear Jesus, I know I'm a sinner, right? Some people call that quick prayerism. Quick prayerism. Just get them to say this prayer and, you know, say they're saved, so you can go back to your church and say, well, I got someone saved today. I'm against that, okay? I am against forcing someone or making someone say some prayer, some vain repetition that means nothing, when they haven't understood the gospel, when they haven't believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, I can understand that is a negative reflection upon calling upon the name of the Lord, but here's the thing. There are churches like us, we don't do this in our church, right? We make sure we spend time with the person so they understand the gospel. We spend time so they understand that it's not of works, that it's based on the work of Christ, on his sacrifice, right? Once they've understood it, and we have the confidence that they've understood it, we then invite them there to pray, to call upon the name of the Lord, right? Once they've understood it, and even then, when someone says, yes, I'd like to pray, I always make sure and I tell them it's not magic words. I don't want you to think you're saying some magic, repetitive words. It's about what you believe in your heart, and you're just expressing that to the Lord Jesus Christ. You're just expressing that to God through your mouth, you're talking to him, you're calling upon the name of the Lord, so they realize, yeah, afterwards they understand, yeah, it's my faith on Christ that saves me, right? Not my magic prayer that I said, right? Trusting in some repetition. But here's the thing. There are churches, okay, there are independent, fundamental Baptist churches that would look at a church like ours and say, well, they teach quick prayerism, right? They go door-to-door, you know, we rejoice in their salvation, and we're very conservative with our salvation, right? We're very conservative. We make sure that person has fully understood, but they'll look at us and say, well, that church, they're just getting them to say some prayer, and that's very offensive. It's very offensive to be accused of just getting someone to pray some prayer when that's not what we do. When they don't know that's what we do, but they say that that's, look, I'm not sure if someone has ever said that about this church, but I know pastors have said that about my former church, or all they do is go out and make people say some say some prayer. They've never come to our church, they've never gone door-knocking with us, they're just false accusations, right? And shame on them because there are people in their church that will say, yeah, that door-to-door stuff doesn't work. All they do is make them say some prayer. Shame on them because they're going to discourage other Christians from going and preaching the gospel because they think, yeah, this is just a sham, it's a waste of nothing, all right? So I, look, I'm against both of those things. I'm against someone trusting in a prayer, that's all, not Christ, to save them, and I'm against people just trying to get people to repeat some prayer. In fact, I would go as far as saying that's another gospel. That's a false gospel to teach people they can just be saved by repeating some prayer without understanding the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. And if there's anyone in this church that does that, you're getting kicked out because that's another gospel. Thank God no one does that, right? But I'm just saying to you, if that's what people do, that is another gospel. It's not the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The third reason why people are against calling upon the name of the Lord for salvation, I believe, is because they equate it with work. They say, well, calling, saying something to God is a work, and we know that salvation is not a work. Turn to Colossians chapter 4. Colossians chapter 4 verse 12. Colossians chapter 4 verse 12. Now, for those that have said to me, and there's not been many people, but for those that have said to me that it's, you know, isn't calling, and look, they're just asking the question, okay? They're just asking. I'm not saying these guys are heretics, they just want to grow in knowledge, okay? Sometimes as leaders, as pastors, you know, someone generally just wants to ask a question, you think you're being challenged, and then you accuse them of, you know, nah. You know, sometimes people have genuine questions and want the questions answered, right? This is a genuine question that I've heard Colossians chapter 4 verse 12. Let's read it. Colossians chapter 4 verse 12. Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, salute of you, always laboring. What's laboring? Working, right? Doing a work. Always laboring fervently for you in prayers, that you may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. Now, this is the only verse that I could think of that has some relation of prayer as a work, and I actually believe that as a believer, when you pray, when you intercede for other people, you are in fact working. I actually believe that, right? There we see it. The laboring fervently in prayers, okay? We don't need to twist the scriptures. Prayer for a believer is work, but let me ask you a few questions. Is Epaphras asking for the gift of salvation here? No. Is Epaphras even praying for himself? No, he's laboring fervently for other people, for the church in, the Colossian church. Is Epaphras a saved man or an unsaved man? He's a saved man, right? He has the Spirit. Think about that now. Is prayer physically demanding on your body, or is it demanding on your spirit? Think about it. Is prayer a spiritual work, or is it a physical work? It's a spiritual work, right? You're praying in the Spirit, okay? You're praying in the Spirit. It is a spiritual work. So the man who is unsaved and says to God, save me, is he working in the Spirit? First of all, no. He hasn't even been born again, okay? First thing. And some people say, well, what about Jesus? When he prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane, didn't he sweat great drops of blood, as of blood, or whatever it says? Jesus wasn't sweating because his prayer was that late. He was sweating because of the crucifixion. He was concerned about dying on the cross and going through that. That's why he was praying. In fact, it was his prayer that comforted him. It was his prayer that encouraged him, right? So I don't believe you can take this passage of a saved believer who's not even praying for salvation, who's interceding for a church, and is working in the Spirit, laboring in the Spirit, and then equate that to a man who's asking the Lord for salvation. That's comparing apples with oranges. You're not even comparing the same thing. So I do not accept that Colossians 4.12 proves that calling upon the name of the Lord for salvation is work. It's got nothing to do with salvation. I don't believe it can be proved for anything. Now turn to John chapter 4. John chapter 4 verse 7. John chapter 4 verse 7. Because is calling upon the name of the Lord a work? Is asking the Lord for salvation, or just telling God, I receive the gift of salvation, is this a work? John chapter 4 verse 7. John chapter 4 verse 7. The story of the woman in Samaria, the woman at the well. There cometh a woman of Samaria to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, give me to drink. Verse 8. For his disciples were gone away into the city to buy meat. Then saith the woman of Samaria unto him, how is it that thou, being a Jew, asketh drink of me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings with the Samaritans. Now the key thing that I want you to focus on is here in verse number 10. Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God. What is Jesus offering this Samaritan woman? To work? Or is he offering a gift? He's offering the gift. You guys got so many, you know when we explain the gift of God, we explain that gifts are free. If there's any work, if there's any money transaction, it's no longer a gift. Right? Because they're working for it. Gifts are free. Jesus is saying, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water. Is asking Jesus for eternal life for living water a work? It cannot be a work because it's the gift of God, Jesus says, right? And if Jesus says calling and asking, how do you want to term that? Praying, calling, asking, if Jesus is saying that is a work, I mean if we're saying that is a work, we're not aligned with Jesus Christ. Jesus is not saying that this is a work. Opening your mouth, acknowledging God, how can that be a work? What are you doing? You're just, God please save me. Gifts are free without works. Does Jesus equate asking for salvation as a work? No. Okay? Again, if you're equating asking as work, then you're not aligned with Jesus Christ. Or you're saying that Jesus Christ is saying you've got to work for your gift. There's no way around it. There's no way around that. And that's not the only one. I'll just read to you Luke 23 42, the thief on the cross, I love the thief on the cross, I've said it before, and he said unto Jesus, what did the thief say to Jesus? Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. What did the thief ask for? To be remembered. Is he, does it seem like he really fully understands everything? Is he the most educated man in the scriptures? Not really, but he says what he knows, right? He recognizes that Christ is dying on the cross. He says, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. So he must have known that Christ was going to be resurrected to have this kingdom that he's going into. Can I be part of that? Jesus says verily I say unto thee today thou shalt be with me in paradise. Did Jesus say, hold on, you're working for it because you're asking me for it. You know, just, no, don't ask, right? No, it's fine. Asking is just fine. It's not a work. Okay? What about the publican? You know the publican and the Pharisee praying in the temple. Luke 18 verse 13. I'll just read it. 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. That's what he said. God be merciful to me a sinner. He's asking the Lord. He's calling upon the Lord. I tell you, Jesus said, I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. So do we have examples in the Bible where people call on the Lord for salvation? Asking for it? Yes, we do. Does Jesus say to work? No, he still calls it a gift. Should we have a problem with people praying a prayer for salvation? No. I don't know what the problem is. I don't know what the controversy is. I don't understand. I don't want to preach this. I'm just being honest with you guys. I don't get it. I don't get the controversy. I hope there's no controversy in this church. I don't get the controversy. I'm not preaching this because I think there's a controversy in this church. Honestly, I just think the Lord has laid this upon my heart and wants me to preach this. Just in case we get accused of saying something like that. I don't know. Now why I think, now I don't know because I'm not one of these people, but why do I think some people think calling upon the name of the Lord is a work? Because they're saying it's a work or it's like borderline works, whatever that means. It's a work or not. This is why I think and this is what I think people struggle to understand. Think of the repentance. We know this very well. Repenting of your sins. We believe in repentance. We believe you must repent from your false belief. Wherever your faith is, when we talk about repentance for salvation, we're talking about your faith. We're talking about repenting or changing where your faith is at. Is the faith in false religions? Is it upon dead works? Is it just not upon Christ whatsoever? When we talk about repentance, we're talking about changing that faith onto Christ. When we say believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are automatically in that saying you've got to turn from your false faith, false belief, and that faith needs to be transferred onto Christ. To us, it's the one step. We've believed on Christ and because we believed on Christ, we have automatically believed not the things that we used to believe. It's one step. But then there are those that teach you know that repentance is not your faith. Your repentance is in your works. You need to turn from your bad works and start doing your good works in order to be saved and they say it's a separate step from believing. A separate step, right? You guys have heard probably Ray Comfort say, you know, you've got to live holy. You've got to turn from your drunkenness. You've got to turn from your fornication and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, okay? What's the mistake they make? They make it a two-step process. Believing is not enough. You also have to do the works to justify yourself before the Lord, okay? Now we would look at someone like that and go you've got it messed up. You're creating two steps. That's why you're adding works to the Gospel, right? And we say no, it's one step. It's believing and believing. Within that believing, it also means you've changed your false beliefs because you've put it all on Christ. Let me put it to you this way as well with the calling upon the name of the Lord. Those that say that it's of works have done the same mistake. They've now separated the works away from believing. They've said well hold on, is it just, you know, it's the Bible because the Bible does emphasize belief. The Bible does emphasize faith and they're like saying well there's that but now you're saying you've also got to say something and they separate. They make it a separate step like okay I've believed but now that's not enough. I now need to say these words. No, that's not what we believe. We don't believe it's some separate step away from faith and because they think it's a separate step from faith, they then say well that is probably works then because it's not a faith. I hope that kind of makes sense to you and I don't know. I don't know because I haven't, I've had part conversation about this. I don't fully understand why they say it's works but I think that's the reason. I think the reasoning is that it's a separate step away from faith. It's a separate step away from belief. Whereas I say to you calling upon the name of the Lord is the expression of your faith. It still is your faith. We're not doing anything other than where is your faith? It's on Jesus Christ and then you express that faith to Christ. Is that unreasonable? Is it unreasonable to say Jesus I believe on you? You know I'm not saying you need to say exactly what our church tract says but there must be some acknowledgement. Lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Be merciful to me a sinner as long as you believe the gospel. You know you're confessing that with your mouth. Is it unreasonable for us to ask that from people? And let me tell you this, there's been times where I've knocked doors, I've explained the gospel, they've understood the gospel, they've told me they believe that but then they don't want to pray. They don't want to ask the Lord. They don't want to acknowledge God. I say well I don't know if they really believe then. I mean look from a human perspective they've told me they believe I can believe them but I do not understand why they cannot acknowledge that to the Lord. All right let's give you one another example. I was out soul winning, woman said yep I believe, I believe all that and then we got to the you know she wanted to pray with me. You know dear Jesus I know I'm a sinner, I know I'm a sinner and I know I deserve hell and I uh no wait wait a minute wait a minute do you and then I had to stop and I'm like hold on do you do you recognize that without the Lord Jesus Christ you were dead in trespasses and sin and you were on your way to hell she'll know no you know and it's like well hold on you know I did my best to carry on and explain it once again and then we prayed it again but again she refused you know now look could she have truly believed I'm probably maybe all right but just her lack of wanting to even say to God that you know I'm a sinner and I deserve it she wouldn't acknowledge that it's like she she and because the other thing was she kept saying to me I'm already saved I already believe all this yeah but you she didn't believe all that right so I didn't put it down as saved even though she ended up saying the words with me I realized she was really struggling to acknowledge her sin before God so if you don't acknowledge your sin before the Lord then what's the point of a savior do you understand what you're doing right there's been other times I've prayed you know we've gone to the point there's another lady I'm thinking of we prayed together and the whole thing went well the only thing is she was laughing through the whole thing she was laughing through the whole gospel presentation she was laughing through the whole prayer ha ha giggling and I'm doing my best because you know she's letting me talk so I'm preaching the gospel but she prayed and then me my son and partner said look I don't know I mean was she just giggling was she just making fun of us or you know did she just have a social problem and maybe I don't know we don't know we want macro safe now look she could work very well be saved I'm not saying she's not saved all I'm saying is if we have some doubt I don't want to count that as a salvation I'd rather be conservative with the the the numbers of salvations that we talk I'd rather go to heaven and say Lord you know we got 500 people saved during the church you know and the Lord says no no no it was 2000 or something I'd rather that happen then Lord you know we got 2000 saved and I was 50 you know you know look the numbers are there just to encourage us just to get us motivated and I just you know sometimes I'm not saying anyone in this church I'm just saying I think sometimes just people just want to get the numbers so they can glory in themselves look what I did look what I achieved okay I don't want to be a church like that turn to Romans chapter 10 Romans chapter 10 we read from the book of Romans and I've gone off my I've gone off track a little bit so sorry go to Romans 10 I'm going to read to you from Matthew 12 34 while you while you turn there Matthew 12 34 the second part of it says out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaker out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speak more often than not what the person says out of the mouth reflects what's in their heart if you ask someone what do you what do you believe someone has to do to be saved oh you've got to be a good person guess they said that out of the mouth that's what they truly believe right if someone says oh it's believing on the Lord today we had to Matt we had someone that was already saved believing the Lord Jesus Christ cannot it cannot be lost we didn't lead him to say that he said it that means he believes it that's coming out of him right we didn't make him say those words he was already saved praise God that they're ready people saved here on the Sunshine Coast but Romans 10 verse 9 Romans 10 verse 9 I just want to show you just how related it's not separate just how related it is confessing with your mouth the Lord Jesus calling upon the name of the Lord is with believing in the heart the two things go together verse number nine that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thine heart that God have raised him from the dead thou shall be saved for the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation now notice verse 10 what's first the heart believes then the mouth confesses but look at verse number nine confessing with the mouth and believing with the heart you see how God puts one and then the other one then it's oh it's gonna be that way as well that it goes together it's not like it's a separate step these two things are the same you know if you say to me Kevin I don't know if I you know I believe the gospel I don't know if I ever can you know I don't remember calling upon the name of the Lord I don't remember what I said look I find it impossible to believe impossible to believe that you can understand the gospel be fully trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ and you've never once said to the Lord thank you Lord for the salvation you've given me you never once said to the Lord please save me you never once said to the Lord thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ there must have been something right I'm not saying it may have been immediately or whatever but there must be some acknowledgement with a mouth and I actually believe that acknowledgement can be from the heart as well okay because some people might just pray quietly the Lord hears our thoughts and our the words and from our heart as well but more often than not for the soul winner you know we're talking to someone you know 99.9 percent of people have a mouth right they can speak and so you know the expectation is that they would say something to the Lord they can lie to you it's much harder for people to lie to the Lord than to lie to you okay those two things confess in your mouth believe because here's the thing for some people the moment they confess with the mouth is the moment they've truly believed okay for some people I've believed it thank you Lord Jesus and for some other people I'm that actually when they're saying it that's when they yes Lord I'm acknowledging you I want you to you know impute that righteousness of Christ upon me that I'm truly believing that you know I don't know at what point I'm not you know these are matters of the heart these are matters of the spirit these are things that we cannot see outside but what can we see and what can we hear the confessing of the Lord the calling upon the name of the Lord look at verse 11 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 what are we talking about salvation believing with the heart confessing with your mouth this is not confused this shouldn't be confusing as I say I don't want to preach this because I didn't think I'd have to preach this okay the Lord wants me to preach this verse 13 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 okay I won't go into all of that but I just want to show you that calling verse what verse 14 what verse 14 helps establish is that calling you might in order for you to call you have to believe right and you know like I said there are those that just or just call just repeat this prayer and you're saved I haven't believed how shall I call on him in whom they have not believed okay so that that's what I'm saying to you it's another gospel those that force people to say some prayer without first explaining and expounding the gospel to that person turn to Psalm 116 Psalm 116 Psalm 116 is this a new testament teaching is this some new testament teaching is this a new teaching or is calling upon the name of the Lord for salvation always been the teaching from the old testament to the new testament just to show you here in in Psalms 116 verse 1 now look let me just confess something to you I got saved at an early age I don't remember what I said I don't remember what I said but I know what I believe okay I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ his death bearing resurrection I'm only trusting him for my way to heaven not my works and my performance not my church not that I'm a pastor of a church none of those things right I know what I believe and so whatever I said reflected that belief right even if I just said be merciful to me you know a filthy sinner whatever it is or even if it just was expressed from my heart to the Lord whatever it was I called upon the name of the Lord and again I just cannot understand why people make this an issue I don't it's a it's a work or I just I don't understand I I almost feel like people just have too much time on their hands you know there's many battles to fight there's lots of wars to fight as a Christian and like we try to find any other thing to fight about and argue about I don't I don't really get it Psalm 116 verse 1 the Psalmist says I love the Lord because he have heard my voice and my supplications what are supplications your prayers your requests he says I love the Lord I love him he hears me he hears my prayers verse 2 because he have inclined his ear unto me therefore will I call upon him as long as I live as long as I live for my whole life I'm going to call upon him now this brings us to an interesting point because is you know when we get saved and we call upon them the Lord yes for salvation but that's not the end of you calling upon the name of the Lord your life for as long as you shall live ought to be a life that you call or you pray you bring your supplications before the Lord look at verse number three because now he's saying to us that his whole life he's calling upon the name of the Lord when did it begin when did he start calling upon the name of the Lord verse number three the sorrows of death surpass me and the pains of hell get hold upon me I found trouble and sorrow this man had a fear of death this man had a fear of hell do you see that he's expressing here in this psalm a point in his life when he was not saved when he still had the fear of hell in him verse number four then called I upon the name of the Lord oh Lord I beseech thee deliver my soul that's his prayer that's his prayer oh Lord I beseech thee deliver my soul that's what he said verse five gracious is the Lord and righteous yay our God is merciful he knew that the Lord God will have mercy upon him because of his grace because the Lord is gracious and let me just quickly say this false doctrine of dispensationalism this age of grace you know we're living now in the age of grace you know God's grace has finally come upon this world you know God's grace wasn't there in the Old Testament we have God's grace now through Christ is a false doctrine we say here in the Old Testament that this guy that calls upon the name of the Lord recognizes God's grace he says gracious is the Lord he was gracious in the Old Testament and he's gracious in the New Testament that is our Lord because his mercies are new every morning the reason why he can be gracious and give us undeserving favor and undeserving love is because he's a merciful God Old Testament New Testament right Jesus Christ the same yesterday today and forever he recognizes God's grace for by grace are you saved through faith verse number six look at this the Lord preserver the simple I was brought low and he helped me he's just saying I've got to persevere no he says he recognizes that God preserves me my God preserves the simple it's God's preservation he recognized eternal security God's going to keep him saved as long as he lives eternal security not because of his works but the Lord preserved him he did not preserve himself the Lord preserved him okay verse number seven return unto thy rest oh my soul for the Lord have dealt bountifully with thee so he's saying now look he's no longer afraid he's no longer afraid of death no longer afraid of hell he says my soul you can rest you can rest once again all right we're no longer afraid because the Lord have dealt bountifully with me verse eight for thou has delivered my soul from death mine eyes from tears and my feet from falling I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living look at verse number 10 I believed therefore have I spoken what does he speak he speaks of his faith he speaks of what he believed he speaks because he believes those two things go hand in hand right if we can understand that someone who has genuinely believed has genuinely repented if that's easy enough for us to understand why then is it hard to understand that someone who has genuinely spoken someone who has genuinely caught upon them the Lord has genuinely believed it's the same thing it's believing it's where your faith is at right your faith was in the wrong place you repented from that you recognize you understand that your faith must be on Christ you call upon him you acknowledge that your faith now is upon Christ it is faith okay it's not faith on your prayer it's faith on the person on the object of who you're calling upon I really want that to you know stay in your mind okay when we ask people to call upon the name of the Lord it's not because we're wanting them to trust their prayer we want them to trust on the one they're praying to the Lord Jesus Christ verse 11 I said in my haste all men are liars what shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits toward me so now you know he's saying what shall I render to the Lord what should I do you know unto the Lord there's nothing like he's essentially saying there's nothing that I can do for all the benefits he gives me eternal life eternal security salvation from hell salvation for my sins what can I render he recognizes nothing of myself right it's nothing of me he recognizes nothing that he can bring for his salvation he cannot save himself he cannot offer anything for his salvation look at verse 13 I will take the cup of salvation how did he take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord that's how he took the cup of salvation there's a shift that takes place in verse 14 a shift he now identifies himself as one of the saints in verse 14 verse 14 I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people so I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people so after he's been saved at this point now following on from his salvation following on from taking the cup of salvation by calling upon the name of the Lord he now says that that he would do the works basically that he would do the works and be a blessing toward other believers in the presence of all his people right we're together as a church we work together we bless one another that's basically paying our vows doing what we need to do for one another in the church verse 15 precious is the site of the sorry precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints and what is he saying I'm one of the saints right precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints this proves that he counts himself as one of the saved this proves that he counts himself now one of the saints death was once something he feared hell was once something he feared now he sees his death as precious precious in the sight of the Lord see do you see how he's changed how he started and now where he's at you know saved assured of his salvation now trying to walk the way of the Lord verse 16 oh Lord truly I am thy servant I am thy servant and the son of thy handmaid thou hast loosed my bonds I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving so he says Lord I'm going to thank you this is my sacrifice to you do the works thank you you know pay my vows to the in the presence of your people and will call upon the name of the Lord notice the same phrase this man's already saved and he says I'm going to thank you Lord calling upon your name calling upon the name of the Lord and this might be another reason just come to me now this might be another reason why people reject calling upon the name of the Lord for salvation because there are references here and there are references of Abraham where he's called upon the name of the Lord but he was already saved because he believed God and his faith was counted for righteousness later on in Genesis he builds an altar and calls upon the name of the Lord okay so this might be where people might say see I can prove to you that calling upon the name of the Lord is not for salvation because it's done by people who are already saved well that doesn't prove anything all that proves is that we ought to call upon the name of the Lord all our lives from the moment we're saved to the moment we go to the grave right we ask the Lord for our prayers we go to him for our prayers and supplications we go to him without requests that's calling upon him okay that's calling upon the name of the Lord that might be another reason though I'm just I'm just putting out there I don't know verse 18 I will pay my vows unto the Lord now in the presence of all his people in the courts of the Lord's house in the midst of the old Jerusalem praise ye the Lord I don't have anything more to add there just to finish the chapter that chapter off but just in case because I was talking to some of the men on Wednesday I don't know maybe was it Wednesday yeah and I said I think I said to some of you guys that sometimes people ask questions and they're not clear about what they're really asking to trip you over you know to make you like not be sure like you might answer one way but really the question they had formed was another way kind of like like how the Pharisees were trying to trip over Christ you know Christ would answer their questions but Christ was always he always knew where their heart was he knew they were trying to trip him over he knew but I don't have that knowledge because I'm not God right someone might ask me a question I might give an answer thinking that's the question the answer they were looking for but really they meant something else by that question I don't know so just in case just in case someone accuses hold on Kevin you know you've emphasized faith you've emphasized believing and now you're saying you've also got to call upon the name of the Lord calling upon the name of the Lord again is your faith is the expression of your faith okay what's happened in your heart is been expressed through your mouth calling upon them or just in case someone's saying Kevin you won't say I don't know I'm just throwing that out there okay because again the Lord wants me to preach this so I want to cover all my bases as much as possible these are the tracks we've been using since the church launch okay we've used the same tracks in 2016 when we had the Soviet marathon it was the same it was a little bit different but the content was exactly the same let me just read to you what our track says very quickly so once the gospel has been explained it says this the choice is yours heaven or hell it is the most important decision you'll ever make so the choice now is saying no I will reject the gift of God or yes I will accept the gift of God then it says let us help you word a prayer realize it's not mere words that save so again we're not saying it's just say these words and that will save you it's not the mere words that save but your faith in Jesus Christ we emphasize the believing we emphasize the faith all right dear Jesus I know I'm a sinner and deserve hell but I believe you died on the cross for me and rose again to pay for my sins please save me right now and give me eternal life I'm only trusting you Jesus amen that's what we've always had in our tracks since the church launched since 2016 when we went to the Soviet marathon okay now just in case my sending church the church that ordained and sent me the church in punchbowl has this on their tracks for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved Romans 10 13 if you call upon the Lord Jesus Christ you'll be saved forever God cannot lie and this is his unchanging promise to anyone who asks him a simple prayer might sound like this the Jesus I know I'm a sinner I know I deserve hell but I believe you died for my sins and rose again I now trust you alone to save me from hell please give me your gift of eternal life amen have I differed from thy sending church I've not differed right I'm not changing you know I've done this before when I preached on repentance I showed you from my previous churches that I've not changed my position of repentance from what that church was teaching before okay I've not changed that and I showed you proof from that I read from their websites I read from their statement of faith and so on and so forth I'm doing the same thing right now what about the church that sent my church that's sorry the church that sent the church that sent me lighthouse baptist church right ordained victor sent him to start the church in punchbowl what about that church what are they teaching on this topic this is what I found on the website for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved Romans 10 13 if you will simply receive God's gift of eternal life by trusting the Lord Jesus to save you and calling upon his name you can now know for sure that you are going to heaven won't you trust Jesus today bow your head and pray this simple prayer the Jesus I know I am a guilty sinner I know I deserve to go to hell for my sins I trust you now as my personal savior and call upon you to save me from hell and take me to heaven amen okay now what about the church that I was baptized in the church that I got married in okay what about that church because God got baptized in that church meaning I believe the gospel that was being taught in that church what's on their website Southland Baptist they called now Romans 10 13 says for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved God has promised that if you will confess your sin to him trust him alone to save you from your sinful condition and ask him to save you he will you can make that decision today by praying from your heart something like this dear God I know that I am separated from you because of sin I confess that my sin that in my sin I cannot save myself right now I turn to you alone to be my savior I believe that Jesus died for me and rose from the dead I ask you to save me from the penalty of my sin and I trust you to provide eternal life to me amen what about the church that I spent nine years in that I served two years as a deacon that I preached for some four or five years in served as a Sunday school teacher what about that church right the church my kids were born in and grew up in as children Victory Baptist Church this is what's on their website receive Christ by calling upon him right now for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved they all use the same reference Romans 10 13 or was it Romans 10 Romans 10 13 are they all this I think they are Romans 10 13 dear God I know I'm a sinner in your sight and need Christ as my savior I now trust his death as the payment for my sins and call upon him to save me and give me the gift of eternal life amen are they are all these churches consistent have I changed or something am I preaching something that's brand new what's going on right it's the same and look I'm not quoting these churches because I based my doctrine on church I taught from the bible of beginning I'm just showing you that hey we've not deviated from what we teach on the gospel what about pillar Baptist Church right we've been invited to go so winning with this church right what do they believe pray and ask Jesus Christ to save you it's on their tracks that if thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shall believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shall be saved Romans 10 9 if you believe that Christ paid for your sins then all you have to do is call out to him for salvation just admit or confess that you are a sinner in need of a savior and ask him to save you let us help you word of prayer Jesus I know that I am a sinner and condemned to hell I believe that you died on the cross were buried and rose from the grave to pay for my sins please save me and take me to heaven when I die amen even the churches we've worked with believe the same calling upon the name of the Lord please if I haven't explained something clearly or I've confused you further I really want this to be understood I wanna we need to be on the same page here okay we need to be on the same page when you go and you see souls saved I want you to have heard them acknowledge God in some way shape or form not you okay not just you yeah I believe that let just say look is it unreasonable am I asking for something totally unreasonable here that we would expect them to say something and if they don't say something don't count them as saved okay don't count them as saved now could they be said yes could they close the door and just there the Lord Jesus saved me yeah could they have just confessed that in their heart yeah in fact there's a recent time preaching the gospel the woman wanted to receive Christ I said okay you know I can lead you in prayer if you want she said okay and then I started praying she didn't repeat she didn't repeat so and then she's like oh I'm really embarrassed I'm like well you know she said can I pray from my heart I said like quietly she goes yeah okay I said all right it's and then so I prayed I gave a moment to sort of pray from my heart again you know I believe she got saved okay because she was the one that wanted to pray with her heart but did I count her as a saved person no I didn't because I want to have consistency in the way we do this right she could very well be saved God knows right we rejoice in heaven when we know for sure but I did not hear that and in order just for the consistency in this church so there's no confusion so we're on the same page so that we can walk together as a church then you know I didn't count that as saved and please the same do the same thing there was another guy a week and a half ago I asked him do you want me to lead you in prayer and I think this might even be the first time the guy goes no I'd rather just pray by myself and I thought okay he's gonna you know I don't know and then right in front of me did Jesus I believe that you died on the cross for my sin out of his own mouth I didn't have to repeat you know he didn't have to follow my words it was a bit rough it wasn't exactly the way I would have but how he came from his heart he came out of his mouth I could hear that I could uh uh what's the word I'm looking for testify of the fact that this man had called upon the name of the Lord and he didn't really say it quite right he was but he obviously said that you know he was putting his faith all on Christ and his death bearing resurrection that was enough for me okay however you say it however you say it I'm not I'm and then you got some people and look I'm going over time you got some people that say this well if you didn't ask and you just thanks Jesus then you're not really saved right if you instead of you going Jesus please save me instead like if someone says Jesus thank you so much for dying on the cross for my sins I receive you now as my savior you know thank you you know um for your sacrifice in Jesus name amen oh no he didn't ask he didn't do you really think that man's going to get to heaven and God's going to say you know oh well did you ask me for it you only thanked me for it you know you only thanked me for that and then you've got those that say well if you ask and you're not going to I heard this on youtube some guy what's his name Robert breaker Robert breaker hyper dispensationalist guy well don't ask because it's like God's given you the gift and you know it's like let me let me let me uh give you an example uh Paris here's the gift now ask me for it no I'm giving it to you why are you asking I'm giving it to you see and you're not saying because you're asking for something that's already been given to you you know just I don't know where people come up with these things there's too much time in their hands go and preach the gospel and get people saved let's pray