(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

So look at verse 13 where the Bible reads, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now this is just one of the greatest verses in the Bible. I love this verse. I think a lot of people in this room could probably quote this verse, but unfortunately a lot of people attack this verse specifically. And it comes in a lot of subtle or sly attacks, but ultimately this verse has value. And what I'm specifically gonna be preaching on this evening is calling upon the name of the Lord, calling upon the name of the Lord. And there's this stupid doctrine out there. There's this false doctrine out there that teaches that you do not have to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved, which flies in direct contrast to this verse that I just read for you. If that was true, this verse has no meaning. This verse has no point in even being in the Bible. If you don't have to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved, then why would it even be included in the Bible when that's exactly what it says? Yet there's many people, and sometimes this false doctrine could even creep into a church like ours, where they teach that praying or calling upon the name of the Lord is adding to the gospel, okay? Now, to make sure that I'm, to demonstrate for you that what I'm saying tonight is not just some random straw man argument, I've printed out an article. This is from soulwinning.info, soulwinning.info. It's one of the most popular soulwinning web pages. It's run by a guy named David J. Stewart, David J. Stewart. Now, this guy also has a popular website called Jesus is Savior. He has another site called Jesus is Precious. If you've ever been to one of his sites, you know if you've been to one of his sites. It looks like you're on an LCD trip, okay? It's like the most insane website. There's just links everywhere and crazy pictures, and just, there's no organization whatsoever. But this person who, you know, I've kind of been neutral on because a lot of the information he has is pretty good. But the article I'm gonna be reading that he wrote is one of the worst articles I've ever read. It's wicked. The title of it is The Heresy of Having to Pray, quote, unquote, to be Saved. He says, the heresy of having to pray, quote, unquote, to be saved. And he attacks calling upon the name of the Lord in this article. Now, just so you make sure that I'm not just making this up, I'm gonna read this article, and then we're gonna look at the Bible, what the Bible has to say about this. But I've seen this. I've talked to people. People get confused on this. I've gone soul-winding with people, and they're like asking them questions after they preach the gospel to them. And if they confirm, they're like, well, you already saved. There's no need to pray. That is a wicked doctrine, okay? And I'm gonna prove everything that I say here in a moment. But he starts out the article by quoting 2 Corinthians, chapter number 11. You don't have to turn there, but it basically talks about being corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. And he says that adding prayer is corrupting the simplicity that is in Christ. Now, I'm gonna read for you in this article. He says, the simplicity that is in Christ or the danger of adding praying to the gospel. He says, in hindsight, the main reason why I struggled with the assurance of my salvation as a teenager was because I had never heard a clear, simple presentation of the gospel. Ironically, I was faithfully attending an independent, fundamental Baptist church and also enrolled in the church's Christian school. And I dearly loved them all then and still do today, albeit from the very beginning, my only concept or conception of the plan of salvation was the format of one, two, three, pray or one, two, three, follow me. So he's saying, David J. Sturt is saying he grew up in an independent, fundamental Baptist church, but he was confused on the gospel because he felt like he'd never been clearly explained to him. And the only thing he had been explained to him was this. Point one, all men are sinners, Romans 3.23. Point two, there's a penalty for sin, Romans 6.23. Point three, Jesus died on the cross for our sins, was buried and resurrected, 1 Corinthians 15, 1-4. And then four, simply pray and ask Jesus to save you. Now, mind you, he's saying this is what they showed him, but he says no one has ever showed him a simple plan of salvation. Keep that in mind, okay? He's like, nobody had just made it clear and simple. That was pretty simple. I mean, that's taking our presentation and even simplifying it even more, right? I mean, that's like real basic. That's like the bare necessities of what you'd have to show someone. That's probably not enough to get very many people saved because they have a lot of other false doctrines. You gotta show them things about eternal security and other verses. But I mean, that's an essence we have to believe, isn't it? I mean, what else do you need to add there? Well, this is what he says. It was the fourth added and unnecessary step to God's simple plan of salvation that caused me seven years of intense emotional pain, worry, tears, concern, and frustration. You didn't know that when you pray to someone at the door, you were gonna cause them seven years of worry and pain and intent. What a snowflake. I mean, man, you had seven intense years of pain and suffering because someone told you you should pray and ask Jesus to save you from hell. That the insanity of this article, okay? But I'm trying to just get through this article for a moment, all right? He says, in my mind, I kept wondering if I had prayed, quote, unquote, correctly. I must have prayed the sinner's prayer 50 times during the next seven years, each time attempting to ensure that I was really saved. I prayed out of fear and worry. I had been repeatedly taught that the way to be saved is to pray, quote, unquote, in response to believing the three aforementioned biblical facts. That sounds pretty good. I mean, it's like, hey, you believe you're a sinner? You believe Jesus died and paid for all your sins? It's like, yeah, then pray and ask him to save you, right? That's what he's saying that he had been taught, but it was confusing him. He says, I was taught that you have to, quote, unquote, ask God to save you. He says this, nothing could be further from the truth. You do not have to ask God to save you because that he's already promised in 1 Corinthians 1 21 to save them the belief. Now go to 1 Corinthians 1, all right? Go to 1 Corinthians 1. He says, well, the Bible says that he's gonna save them that believe, therefore asking and praying and all this other stuff's unbiblical is what he's trying to say. Well, it's interesting because in order to get to verse 21 in 1 Corinthians, you have to pass other verses in the Bible, right? Well, let's look at verse number two in your Bible. It says, under 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. So notice in the same chapter, he's saying, hey, everybody that's saved is all the people that called upon the name of the Lord. And then later in the chapter, when it says they believe, he tries to say that's different. He tries to say, oh man, you're adding to the gospel. Well, I guess the apostle Paul's adding to the gospel too, isn't it? By saying the people that are saved are the ones that called upon the name of the Lord. Now, we're gonna prove this to be silly in a moment if you don't already believe that, but hopefully I'm preaching to the choir this evening. But it's important to still preach these things and understand these things. Now, I'm gonna keep reading this article and I'll show you a lot more Bible in a second. But he says this, respectfully, I even went to my beloved pastor at age 17 and I told him that I was struggling with the assurance of my salvation. So he concluded that if I wasn't sure, it must mean that I wasn't saved. So he led me in a sinner's prayer. Oh boy, that was the whole problem, that is praying to be saved. Consequently, I still worried that I might miss out on heaven and go to hell. I'm not criticizing my pastor individually, for this is the popular method of soul winning in thousands of churches all across America. I'm not saying that all those people didn't get saved who said a sinner's prayer, but I am saying that like me, many of them have been misled and confused, concerning exactly what the gospel is and what God expects of them to be saved. This is what happens when well-meaning men add to the gospel. So he says that when he comes to his pastor and says, I don't even think I'm saved. And the pastor is like, sounds like you're not. That's what I do when I got soul winning, right? And he's like, explaining him the gospel again, he's like, sounds like you need to pray and get saved. And he's like, acting like he's still confused. Well, that's his problem. That's not his pastor's problem, number one, okay? Number two, notice he's saying, all these churches are doing soul winning contrary to what I'm teaching. There's thousands of Baptist churches, they're doing soul winning exactly opposite of what I'm teaching. Who does it like him? Him, that's who does that. People that do this type of method are basement dwellers. They're internet trolls, they're losers. They're not the pastors of Baptist churches. They're not these churches that are winning thousands to Christ and bringing in the shes. And they're like, look guys, you're screwed up on the prayer. Look at what we're doing successfully. It's all these internet armchair quarterbacks that have to go and criticize people that are actually soul winning and actually getting people saved with their philosophy, their vain philosophy and their deceit. But you need to consider the source in any information that you get. Hey, here's a church that's not wanting anybody to Jesus Christ. Well, let's go ask them how to get someone saved. Hey, let's ask this guy that has these weird psychotic websites what he does for soul winning. No, how about you find a church that's actually winning people to Christ and say, hey, what are you guys doing? How about you look in the Bible and find people that are getting saved and see what happened with them and start modeling that, all right? And we're gonna get there in a minute. He says this in his article, remember when you believe the gospel, you are saved right there. You don't have to pray, quote unquote, a prayer to be saved. To quote unquote, pray is not required by God. It is a false doctrine to teach that praying is mandatory to be saved. All God expects is that we acknowledge our sinnership and then believe the gospel. Wait a minute, I don't have to pray to be saved. I don't have to say anything. But then he says, all God expects is that I acknowledge our sinnership. How do I acknowledge my sinnership? Like praying and telling him that I'm a sinner? I don't know. He doesn't explain that, he just brings that up. All he expects is to acknowledge your sinnership and believe. Well, what was that part? He doesn't explain that. Inherent contradiction immediately. But then he says this, neither does a person have to ask, quote unquote, Jesus to save them. He says, nor does a person have to say Jesus is Lord or turn from their sins to be saved. Beware of extra requirements which well-meaning preachers often add to the gospel. Now he conflates two things. He says that if you tell someone they need to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved, that's the exact same as telling them they have to quit drinking. They have to quit fornicating and repenting of their sin. He says that's the same. And then on top of that, he says both people are well-meaning. Think about what he's saying. He's saying the guy that's trying to get someone to pray to get saved is well-meaning and the guy that's teaching you have to quit fornicating and quit sinning and quit drinking to get saved, that guy's well-meaning too. That guy's not well-meaning. That guy's a false prophet and a false teacher and he needs to be rebuked sharply. The other guy's right, okay? That's why there's an important distinction between these two. And this guy is super confused or unsaved. I don't know which one it is, but it's wicked, all right? He says this, beware of those that say you must invite Jesus in your life to be saved or tell Jesus you want him to come into your heart and transform your life. You hear these heresies on Pacific Garden missions popular in Shaq radio program. And he goes on and blabs for that for a moment, okay? Well, obviously, if someone's teaching a workspace salvation, we need to call that out. We need to be leery of adding to the gospel for sure. But the question is here is asking Jesus the Savior's praying, is calling upon the name of the Lord somehow works? Is that somehow adding to the gospel? The answer is definitively no, but I'm gonna prove that. But he's conflating them in this article. Now, I wanted to get through this article and before I, you know, finish start, I want to finish this article before we go through the Bible. But I know it's taking a minute, you don't have it in front of you, but just pay attention. He says this, as the years passed since I first believed the gospel at age 13, I began to wonder if I had left something out when I quote, unquote, prayed to be saved. I was so worried, it was my unbiblical focus on praying to be saved that confused and misled me concerning the gospel, I was saved. I just didn't understand it enough to nail it down. The additional requirement of quote, unquote, pray and confuse me, this is why I no longer lead people to pray a prayer to be saved. There's the agenda, isn't it? He wants you to stop praying and getting people saved. He wants you to stop compelling people to call upon the name of the Lord, and that is wicked. I don't care if he's saved or not, that is a wicked false doctrine. And that's the conclusion that these people come up with, and I've seen it. I've been out with people and they say, oh, it's no big deal if you pray or not, you're already saved, see you later. And I'm thinking like, no. I'm thinking like, what are you talking about? And look, that garbage can creep into a church like this. It can creep into any church. That's why it constantly needs to be rebuked and preached against, all right? He says this, he quotes John 3.16 that whosoever believes in him, and then he points out the simplicity of Christ again. But here's my question. Let's go with his folly for half a second. Let's say I don't have to pray, quote, unquote, which is false, all right? I'm just pretending that that's true for a moment. If we pretended that was true, how would you know that you believe? Like, what's the signal, what's the evidence that you believe, what is it that transformed, what transpired, what was the transition from you hearing the gospel, understanding it, and then truly believing it? Like, how did you understand that you believed it? Or you just acknowledged it in your head? Like, what's the transformation? You know what the transformation is? It's called calling upon the name of the Lord. That's how you knew that you believed it. That was where the transition came into play. When you start teaching you don't have to pray, now all of a sudden it's confusing. Well, when did you believe? I don't know. How can you even trace that? You believe different stuff every moment. I mean, some people are, like, crazy in their beliefs. They're crazy in their viewpoints. You know, it's an identifying moment in time when you said, hey, you know what, I believed the gospel, and then I decided to pray, and I decided to call upon the name of the Lord. That's why when I go soul winning, this is what I say. This is how you believe. Because here's my question. If it's not by calling upon the name of the Lord, how do you believe then? What's the signifying event that you did? I believe it. Like, oh, it's like, how do you know that you really believed it? There is no evidence at that point. Now, this is what he says in this article. He says, he talks about how the word repents, not in the book of John, which it's not, and how that's dangerous and a slippery slope and teaches a false gospel. And then he compares that again to praying. He compares repenting of your sins to praying. And he says this, do you see the potential problem of leading people to pray a sinner's prayer? I don't. He says, not one verse in the Bible teaches us to pray to be saved. So even though we just read Romans chapter number 10, he says, not one verse, okay? Now the next sentence, this is what he says. The word call in Romans 10, 13, so he brings up the most obvious verse right away, right? The word call in Romans 10, 13 means to invoke not to pray. Well, let's fact check this for a moment, okay? Let's just see how truthful this type of person is, all right? So what I did is I went to Merriam-Webster's dictionary and I put in the word call, and just to see what pops up. The first definition of call in Merriam-Webster, to speak in a loud, distinct voice so as to be heard at a distance. Shout, that was the sentiment. That sounds like talking to me. I were gonna try and figure it out. The second definition, to make a request or demand. Now that's an important phrase because we're gonna see this phrase in a lot of different other words. To make a request, to make a request. He says call is to make a request, all right? I actually searched, and I mean, it was like 18 pages that I could print from the definition of the word call. You know a word I never found in any of them was invoke. But I did find the word ask. I found ask in all this. I never found the word invoke. Here's other ways that it can be defined. To utter in a loud, distinct voice. To announce or read loudly. To get or try to get in communication with. Here's another one. It says to call upon. So it then throws in the word upon and says, when you use the word call but with the word upon, this is what that means. It says to make a demand. It says in another definition of call, the act of calling with the voice, shout, a call for help. Here's another one. An instance of asking for something, a request. I mean, I don't feel like I'm misunderstanding the word call here, okay? Or call upon. I looked at the verb. It says to tell, order, or ask. Now this is important, why? Go into your Bible to 1 Samuel chapter one. 1 Samuel chapter number one. And I'm gonna show you something here. But the word pray in the Bible means ask. They're interchangeable, in fact. And let me prove this to you. Go to 1 Samuel and look at chapter number one, because we're defining words here. And I use the dictionary and I use the Bible, because I think you should use both when trying to understand words. But look at 1 Samuel chapter one verse 27. The Bible says, for this child I prayed, and the Lord hath given me my petition, which I asked of him. Notice what he called praying, asking. Notice what he called it, a petition. So it's a petition, it's asking, it's praying. It's all used interchangeably. Go to John 16, and there's many examples of this. I just pulled a few. But if you look at John chapter number 16, and look at verse number 26 in your Bible, again, we're going down the folly. He claims that the word call doesn't mean to pray. It means to invoke, okay? Which then it tries to basically support his idea that there's no verse in the Bible that says to pray to be saved, which we've already read, we already understand is false. We're just proving how stupid this truly is, and how biblically ignorant this person is. John chapter number 16, look at verse 26. The Bible says, at that day ye shall ask in my name, and I say not unto you that I will pray the Father for you. So notice he says, hey, when you ask, it's like me praying. Why? Because it's the same word. What does it mean to pray? It means to ask. What does it mean to ask? It means to pray. A lot of times in your Bible, people are just asking someone something politely, and they just say, I pray thee, tell me. It's not like they're actually getting down and kneeling. It's just the word ask, okay? Go if you would to 1 John, 1 John chapter number five. Let me prove this again. And I think it's good to nail these things down, and so you get a firm understanding of them. 1 John chapter number five, look at verse 16. The Bible says, if any man see his brother sin a sin which is not unto death, he shall ask, and he shall give him life for them that sin not unto death. There is a sin unto death. I did not say that he shall pray for it. So notice he's saying, hey, when you ask for life for your brethren, that's praying for it. Why? Because the word ask means pray. So when I look up the definition of the word call, and it says ask, but it doesn't say invoke, you know what that tells me? It's more similar to the word pray than it is to the word invoke. But I'm gonna prove to you that it actually means both, all right, because this guy's just really a fool at this point. I looked up the word invoke in multiple dictionaries. I could never find it. But then finally, I thought of this and I was like, well, sometimes people go to the 1828 Merriam-Webster just because that's like one of the oldest dictionaries, even though that's pretty far removed from 1611, okay? But I looked up in the 1828 Merriam-Webster dictionary, the word call, it does have the word invoke. It says this, to invoke or appeal, it's the 12th definition. So the 12th one down, it says to invoke. And many of the other ones are to make a request, to ask, so it's very similar, but it does have to invoke. In that same one, it says to ask or to request is another definition of the word call. And another place it says to call on. So it's defining the word call in the 1828 Merriam-Webster dictionary. It says invoke as a possible definition. It then also gives you examples of how calls use in a sentence, and so use it with other phrasing. It says to call on. It says, so when the word calls use, to call on, this is what it means. It says, in a theological sense, to pray. It says, and then it says as, and it gives an example, to call on the name of the Lord. So if you were gonna use the 1828 to find the invoke as being different than pray, pretty big failure there. Well then I looked up the word invoke in the 1828 Merriam-Webster dictionary, all right? This is what it says. This is the definition of invoke in the 1828 Merriam-Webster dictionary, to address in prayer. I mean, you can't even make this stuff up. I mean, it's saying the word invoke means prayer. Why, because it's the same thing, okay? Invoke, pray, ask, call upon, it's all the same. It's just like the difference between believe and faith. If someone were to say, you don't believe in Jesus, you have faith in Jesus. You're like, it's the same thing, you moron, okay? Oh no, it's trusting in Jesus, it's not faith in Jesus. It's like, it's different ways to word the exact same thing. To call upon, to ask, to pray. And this is the type of scholarship you get from people that start attacking the Bible. When people start attacking the Bible, this is their type of scholarship. Oh, the thing you don't understand that word means to invoke. It's like when people start trying to tell you the difference between everlasting and eternal. It's like, you just can't reason with these type of people, unfortunately. Now, I'm gonna keep reading in this article. I don't know why, because it's already so bad. But look, I don't want this to ever creep into this church. And I'm gonna preach pretty hard against it this evening. But it says in this article, he says, I even heard a popular religious singer summarize her alleged Christian testimony on a radio interview by saying, I prayed the Jesus prayer when I was a little girl. Folks, that is not the gospel. He says, quote, unquote, praying is not the way to be saved. He says, unsaved heathens pray. He says, I've been indoctrinated to follow a one, two, three type of method where you pray a little prayer to complete the process to be saved. For years, that is how I preached the gospel to others. That is, you have to believe these three things and then pray. So basically, he's claiming that he was a soul winner for a long time, and then he gets mixed up in this false doctrine. That also tells me that even though you are going out soul winning and believe the right things, you can get caught up in bad doctrine. And I doubt this guy goes to church. I can't say that for sure. But I seriously doubt he's plugged in to a fire breathing, soul winning, Baptist church. He's just doing some weird stuff, okay? And when you get out of church, you start believing weird stuff. These internet bozos, these internet armchair quarterbacks, people get disgruntled against church, and then they just start believing weirder and weirder stuff by the second. And then pretty soon, they're a flat earther with tinfoil on their head, and it's over at that point. I mean, you can't even reason with those people. It's just done. Now go to Acts chapter two, Acts chapter number two. He's gonna give us another example of how praying is unbiblical. He says, it's okay to pray to God if you'd like to when you believe, but it's not necessary, and is a false doctrine if someone requires to be saved. Please notice in Acts 2.41 that the apostle Peter did not lead the 3,000 souls to pray to be saved. Instead, the Bible says that Peter simply preached the gospel, and those that heard the gospel gladly received, quote, believed it. And then he quotes Acts 2.41, okay? So let's address this verse, all right? Because he's saying, well, Peter's just preaching, and then just bam, saved. You know, it's just like bam. You know, they just believed, bam. They didn't even think about praying, okay? Well, let's just back up a few verses again, because I just love reading things in context. It seems like it's better. Look at verse 21. This is also what Peter preached. And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. So he's preaching to a group of people that you need to call upon the name of the Lord, but they don't believe in Jesus. So you know what they need to do? They need to first repent, and then guess what? Call upon the name of the Lord. But he's saying, well, in Acts 2.41, it doesn't mention all that. Well, let's read Acts 2.41, okay? And then let's read the next verse. Well, let's read the verse 41. Then they that gladly received his word were baptized, and the same day there were added unto them about 3,000 souls. See, Pastor Shelley, it says they receive, which means believe. It does mean believe, but it means something else too. Let me prove this to you. Why don't you go to Matthew? Go to Matthew, chapter number 14. Or no, Matthew 21, I'm sorry. I can't find that in my notes, but I can remember. Matthew 21. Let's see what the Bible says it means to receive, okay? Matthew 21, look at verse 22. And all things whatsoever you shall ask in prayer, believing ye shall receive. So how does the Bible say you receive something? You ask in prayer, believing. So you know what it tells me when they received? They must have been asking in prayer while believing. And that's how they got saved. They called upon the name of the Lord and they got saved. To tell me that they were adding to the gospel pray here is just asinine, it's idiotic, and it's heresy. It's wicked, it's attacking people getting saved. Why would Peter tell these people to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved if that's such a false doctrine? What a bad sermon he preached then. I mean, what a bad job the apostle Paul did in Romans chapter 10, verse 13, to give us a worthless verse. Imagine, I say, you know what? You don't have to ever pray to be saved. It's never needed, it's not part of the gospel. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. What does that mean? It has no meaning at that point. They're ripping the meaning away from the clear verse that's taught to you in the scriptures. This is the type of scholarship you get from this person. Go back to Romans chapter 10. Let's go back to Romans chapter 10 for a moment. Now, he's gonna point out a verse that destroys his doctrine again because he's just blinded or something. He says in Romans chapter number 10, 10, he quotes this in his article because he says this. The truth is, I'm gonna back up because I'll give you more context. He says, although it's certainly permissible for a sinner's prayer to accompany one's belief in the Lord, it has caused so much confusion since it has first been used and it's not necessary to be saved. Please do not misunderstand what I'm saying. Millions of people have been led to the Lord by use of a sinner's prayer, which demonstrates their faith in Jesus Christ. But the truth is that they were already saved before they ever opened their mouth to pray. That is a bad teaching. That is a horrible false doctrine. Then he quotes Romans 10, 10 and says, for with the heart, man believeth in righteousness and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. He literally uses that verse to prove his point. And he says, salvation's of the heart. Wait a minute, it said with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation. He literally just swaps them. This is the type of scholarship again. He says, we believe in our heart to be saved. Well, look, of course, it's our faith that saves us. No one's denying that fact. No one's denying that reality. The question is, how do I believe in Jesus Christ? It's by calling upon the name of the Lord. How do I signify to God that I believe in him? With my mouth I confess. That's how I signify. The Bible says out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. That's how you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Look, it's not just believing the gospel that saves you, it's believing in the gospel. It's believing on the gospel. It's trusting in the gospel. It's theoretically possible for someone to acknowledge that the gospel's true and not believe in it. So how do you distinguish between someone who acknowledges it's true and someone that decided to put their faith in it? The one who called upon the name of the Lord. That's the one. Because it's not an assent to knowledge that saves you. It's putting your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. How do I pick up my faith and put it in Jesus? By calling upon the name of the Lord. That's how I do it. He's looking for you to put that faith in him. And I'm gonna prove this a little bit more, but I'm done with this article. It's terrible, all right? It's garbage, all right? Now it's funny, if you go to the same site, the main page, there's a huge link right in the very beginning. It says how to go to heaven. On the same website, it says how to go to heaven. What? It gives you like Romans 3.23 and Romans 6.23 and Romans 5.8. Then it gives you Romans 10.13. Seems like a bad verse to give if you don't believe in this prayer thing. And then he says this. Surely you realize, he says this, whosoever includes you. So he said, for whosoever is called upon the end Lord shall be saved. Shall be saved means not maybe nor can, but shall be saved. Surely you realize you're a sinner. Right now, wherever you are repenting, lift up your heart to God in prayer. In Luke 18.13, the sinner prayed, God be merciful, be a sinner. And then he gives you a command, just pray. And then he gives you a sinner's prayer how to pray to get saved. So the guy who has an article saying that, adding prayer to the gospel's heresy and that it's wicked and adding confusion on his own site of how to get saved, he has a sample prayer of how to get saved and tells you to pray. That's how bizarre these folks are, okay? And it also tells me this. Sometimes bad people say the right thing and they don't really even understand what they're saying. So you got to catch the bad stuff that's coming out of their mouth. And when someone starts giving you these subtle hints out soul winning, like, well, I think he was already saved. He didn't have to pray. That's a big red flag. Even if he can say both things that are right, I'm nervous about the bad thing you said. I'm not nervous about the right thing you said. And Jay Stewart makes me nervous, all right? Now, I have three points for this evening. Number one is, why call? Right, who serves a call upon the name of the Lord? Why call? Because that's how you believe. And that's how I always word it. I try to be pretty non-controlling and I don't try to micromanage anybody with their gospel. But I strongly recommend that when you're preaching the gospel to somebody and you get to the point when you need to show them how to pray, to word it exactly like I'm saying and say this is how you believe. Because I've heard a lot of bad ways to explain this. I've heard, okay, all you have to do is believe. Now there's another thing you have to do to be saved. And I'm like, another thing? You just told them for like 10 minutes that there's one thing and then you said, or they'll say this, there's two things you have to do to be saved. And I'm like, what? There's not two things. There's one thing, it's just believe. It's just Romans 10's clarifying you how to believe. It's instructing you what it looks like to believe. It's giving you the instructions and practically what it looks like of how someone believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not two things. It's not a bunch of things. It's one thing. It's believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. The question is, how do I do that? Well, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord. That's the person that believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how you do it, okay? And then it gives you also a lot of other instructions in Romans chapter 10, making it very clear what's happening specifically. Look at verse number nine. It says, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised from the dead, thou shalt be saved. This is why also, before I pray with someone, I always say this. Now, I pray, but I don't believe it without saving. And they always say no, virtually, because I've usually explained the gospel very well to them. And they understand it's not a prayer that saves you. There is no special prayer. There is no incantation. There is no magical words. It's your faith that saves you. But the calling upon the name of the Lord, the asking, the praying is how you actually believe, okay? So it has to go in tandem with one another. Notice it's saying you have to confess with your mouth and also you have to believe in your heart. Verse 10 explains why. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. How do I get salvation? With my mouth. It's crystal clear. You say, do you have to pray to be saved, Pastor Shelley? Yes. Absolutely. And it very clearly says in verse 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. But it does explain that. It's not just a prayer, because in verse 14 it says, how then shall they call on him when they've not believed? Meaning if I say all the right words, but I don't believe, I'm not saved. Because guess what? I didn't believe. The way that I believed was calling upon him in faith. And when I did that, I received salvation. You must, you must instruct people that they have to call upon the name of the Lord to be saved. That is clearly what the Bible teaches from Genesis to Revelation. You say, why call? Because it's how you believe. I'm not gonna just leave somebody, hey, there's this great cure out there. How do I get it? See you later. Hey, there's this great cure. It'll fix all your problems. It's completely free. How do I get it? Bye. You already have it. You didn't even know that, did you? No. You just explained, hey, all you have to do is believe. All you have to do is just trust in Jesus Christ. All you have to do is put your faith. Wouldn't a logical question be like, well, just how do I do that exactly? See you later. It's nonsense, okay? You're gonna explain to somebody then, this is how you believe. This is what it actually looks like. This is what it means. Because people will interpret the word to believe in all kinds of different ways, won't they? You ask a lordship of salvation what it means to believe, to have good works the rest of your life. Well, if you believe, all right, you're gonna have the works. But is that what the Bible said believing means? Is that how the Bible instructed you to believe in Jesus? Did it say, for whosoever shall follow in all the good works and believes shall go to heaven? No, it says whoever calls, then they're saved. That's what it looks like to truly believe in someone and truly put your faith in someone is to acknowledge that with your mouth. Point one, why? Because it's how you believe. Now, let me prove this from a lot of places in scripture. Go to Luke chapter 23. Let's just find people that actually get saved and see what happened. I love getting to see how people get saved in the Bible and think that's what we should do. Why not? You really think God's gonna give you a book and say, I'm not gonna give you examples of anybody getting saved or how to get saved, but it's the most important thing, by the way. No, he's gonna give you plenty of examples of people getting saved. Let's see how people get saved in the Bible. Luke 23, verse 42. This is the thief on the cross. He says, and he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Now, what did Romans 10, nine say he had to do? Confess the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God will raise him from the dead. You know what he just did? He first of all called upon the name of the Lord. He called him Lord. And secondly, by recognizing that he's gonna enter in his kingdom, he's recognizing that he's gonna be what? Risen from the dead. And guess what? He was saved. He didn't just look at Jesus and like, I don't save. Nope, he called upon the Lord sitting right there and he got saved. So here's an example of someone calling upon the name of the Lord and getting saved. You know why? Because everyone that gets saved in the Bible confesses. There's only one example that people try to bring up and I'll just prove that, but there's only one example. Every example of someone getting saved, you know how you recognize they got saved? They said something. Go backwards, go to Luke chapter 18 and look at verse 13. Luke chapter 18, look at verse 13. This is Jesus giving example to men going up to pray, which means to ask. And you notice that the Pharisee doesn't really ask anything. He just prays himself. He's like Donald Trump. Thank you. I'm just such a wonderful person. I'm not like this publican. I'm the greatest. You know, thank you, I'm so wonderful. That's not asking. He wasn't even praying. He's just glorifying himself. What does the next person say? Okay, look at verse number 13. And the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes into heaven, but smote upon his breast saying, God be merciful to me, a sinner. Again, what is he doing? He's invoking the name of God. He's also asking for something called mercy. Notice he's asking. He's saying, hey, be merciful to me. He's asking God to do something for him. And what is that? To be merciful unto him. And he recognized the fact that he's a sinner. There's so much just in that simple little phrase. In order to recognize he needs mercy, he has to realize there's a punishment for his sin, doesn't he? In order to ask for mercy, he realizes God's the one that can give mercy. This guy got saved. What does Jesus Christ say about him? Verse 14, I tell you that this man went down to his house, justified rather than the other. So notice the one guy goes home justified. From what? What he prayed, what he asked, what he had put his faith in when he called upon the Lord. Go to John chapter four. Go to John chapter number four, flip to the right. Now, some people would say, oh, you think you have to ask for salvation? Why would someone ask for salvation? Well, what did Jesus say? John chapter four, verse number 10. Jesus answered and said unto her, if thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have already been saved. No need to pray. Is that what it says? Nope, thou wouldest have asked of him. And notice, and he would have given the living water. What is the living water? It's a picture of salvation. He's saying, hey, if you understand the gospel, if you understand that I'm the one that can give it to you, you know what you would do? You would ask for it. Notice he didn't say I would just hand it to you because you understood it. No, there's plenty of people that understand the gospel and they're not saved. You know why? Because they never asked in faith. I've been to plenty of people and talked to them and they said, you know what the Bible says? That salvation is a free gift. It's all bought and paid for by Jesus Christ. There's nothing you'd ever do to lose it. All you have to do is believe one time. I mean, they're crystal clear in their gospel. Do you believe that? Nope. They're not saved. It's not an acknowledgement of the gospel is true. It's putting your faith in the gospel that's true. And how do you do that? By asking for it. Look at the woman who gets saved in this chapter. Verse 13, Jesus answered and said unto her, whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, but whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life. So what did he just say? If you understood the gift and who's talking, you would ask, right? Well, what does the woman say? Verse 15, the woman saith unto him, sir, give me this water. You know how she got saved? She asked him for the everlasting water and he gave it to her. Notice he didn't just say, okay, got it. No, she asked for it. It's nonsense, okay? She got saved because she confessed. She asked him for the gift. Go to John chapter nine, go to John chapter number nine. And I'm not showing you every example, but let me just make it clear. Everyone that gets saved confesses, all of them. It's not a confusing doctrine. It's a clear doctrine. John chapter nine, look at verse 35. Jesus heard that they had cast him out and when he found him, he said unto him, dost thou believe on the son of God? And he answered and said, who is he, Lord, that I might believe on him? And Jesus said unto him, thou has both seen him and it is he that talketh with thee. So he's like, who's Jesus Christ, who's the son of God? He's like, it's me. Another proof of Jesus saying that he's the son of God. FYI, for all you Jovis false witness and Muslims and whatever other unsaved false prophets exist. But he's saying, hey, I'm the guy that's the son of God and I'm talking with you, okay? Now, if Jesus just said, do you believe in the son of God? Do you believe me? You think that I'm Jesus Christ, okay? What do you think's the best way to indicate to Jesus that you actually believe that? Yeah. Just something internal, right? Maybe you could open your mouth and tell him if you believe in him or not. What is the next verse? And he answered, or he says, and he said, Lord, I believe. He confesses that he believes in Jesus. What was Jesus wanting him to do? To confess that he believes in him. That's how you know he was saved. And he wasn't saved before this. He didn't even know who the son of God was because God oftentimes would heal people physically to represent what spiritual salvation was, but that doesn't mean they were always saved. But most of the time they were because he would let them know thy faith has made thee whole. And he's pointing to what spiritual salvation looked like, taking the blind and giving them sight. Those that are thirsty, giving them drink. Those that can't hear, allowing them to hear. That's what the gospel's like. That's why the world doesn't understand the truth. That's why the world believes lies and deception and frankly, they're morons today. Because whenever you believe the gospel, it enlightens you. Now you understand the truth. Now you have a greater understanding and a greater wisdom that the unsaved do not understand, okay? So point number one, why call? Because that's how you believe. Number two, how do you call? Well, first of all, you have to say Jesus' name. Number two, you have to believe in the resurrection. And number three, you have to ask for it. And haven't we seen that as a consistent theme throughout? People asking for it, people believing in Jesus, people acknowledging the resurrection, okay? Now I wanna go to Genesis, all right? Let's just show how the calling upon the name of the Lord has always been the way that people have been saved too. Because some people get confused. They think, well, yeah, that's like a New Testament thing, but it wasn't like always the case. Look, it's always been the case. Everybody's always only been saved by calling upon the name of the Lord in faith. Period. Now, obviously, as we've seen evidence for us, a lot of people pray different things. People have different levels of understanding when they get saved, but they're all believing the same thing when they get saved. They're all having faith in Jesus and Him as the one to pay for all their sins. They're not trusting in their works. They're not trusting in their righteousness. They're asking for God's mercy and they're asking for Him to save them. In the Old Testament, they may not have fully understood all the details of the death, burial, and resurrection, but they knew that one would come and sacrifice himself for them and take away their sin. They knew there was a coming Messiah that would deliver them and save them and they were trusting in His grace. Now, after the gospel has been clearly revealed, the death, burial, and resurrection, at that point, you have to take knowledge of the full gospel in order to be saved. There's not even a question. You have all the full details that are laid before you, but it's still the same concept of putting your faith in the Lord, trusting in His sacrifice, recognizing that it saved you. Whether you're looking towards the cross or looking back to the cross, it's the same cross. It's the same sacrifice and it's still faith in His name. Genesis 4, it says in verse number 26, And Asath to him also there was born a son and he called his name Enos, then began men to call upon the name of the Lord. So you barely get into the Bible and you already have the plan of salvation. You already have people calling upon the name of the Lord. You already have people getting saved. Notice which family line's getting saved here. Seth, not Cain. Cain's not calling upon the name of the Lord. And very clearly, when you look at Psalms 14 or Psalms 53, the two chapters that say exactly the same thing except for a few words. And it's talking about the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. It says they are corrupt. They've done abominable works. It says that they call not upon the Lord. That's what they do. The unsaved don't call upon the name of the Lord. The saved call upon the name of the Lord, okay? There's a huge difference. Now obviously it's always in context of your faith. Go to Genesis 12. Here's a hero of the faith. Who's one of the most recognized people for having faith and that saving them? Abraham. And the Bible starts off the story with Abraham with him doing something very unique. Look at Genesis chapter number 12. And let's look at verse number eight. And he moved from thence unto a mountain on the east of Bethel, and Piscis tent, having Bethel in the west and Haei in the east. And there he built an altar unto the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. So Abraham called upon the name of the Lord. You see them getting saved at the beginning. You see them getting saved through Abraham. And look, Romans chapter four makes it crystal clear that Abraham believed God. And it was accounted unto righteousness. It was imputed unto righteousness. Whether that's in James or Romans, whatever you're quoting, it's the same thing. Now let's go fast forward, go to Psalms 116. Go to Psalms 116. So we have at the very beginning, people getting saved by calling upon the name of the Lord. We have Abraham getting saved by calling upon the name of the Lord. We have the time of David. People calling upon the name of the Lord. Dispensationalism, which most people in this room probably aren't that familiar with that doctrine, but they try to teach sometimes that there's multiple ways to get saved throughout time. It used to be you would call upon the Lord, and then it used to be by works, and then it used to be by the sacrifices, and now it's by faith again. And then the future, it's not taking the mark of the beast and having faith. It's just a really confusing doctrine. And virtually all dispensationalists have their own form of dispensationalism too. And you know, it's based on their chart that they drew. They all have their own little chart that they drew on the wall, and it has all this weird nonsense. Look, I'm not gonna get up here and draw all these charts to try and prove you the Bible. I just want you to follow the scriptures. And you know what, I've drawn charts, and I love drawing charts, but at the end of the day, they better match the scriptures. And it's not, if you can't understand it from just reading the Bible, you need the chart, it's wrong. You can get it from the Bible. The chart just sometimes is a visual aid helps you put pieces together, but you should be able to see every point from the Bible clearly. Psalms 116, look at verse 13. I will take the cup of salvation. Say, how do I do that? How do I get the salvation? And call upon the name of the Lord. Man, I feel like the Bible has a consistent theme here. Go over to Acts, chapter number eight. Acts, chapter number eight. Now again, how do you call? You confess Jesus and you believe in the resurrection. Isn't that very clear? We saw that in Romans. It's very important that you understand that's how you call because you can't call on him if you haven't believed in him. And obviously, we're not the type of church that believes you go out and you just say, hey, do you believe in Jesus? Yep, let's pray. Oh, saved, yeah, woo! Another one on my belt. Ready, you believe in Jesus? Yep, saved and saved and saved. Hey, I got 20 people saved in the one hour soul wedding, Pastor Shelley. No, you didn't, Judge Trowbridge. No, you didn't, Tyler Doka. No, you didn't, Justin. You know, I don't know the fake. Well, I don't know what his last name is. It doesn't matter. Obviously, we go out and we have to thoroughly explain the gospel. It's the belief that gets someone saved. It's just at the end, how do you signify to them or how do you teach them to go from just acknowledging the gospel's true to deciding to put all their faith in Jesus Christ? That's through the calling upon the name of the Lord. And it's a very important step. It's something that's always acknowledged. You say, if you wanna baptize someone, Pastor Shelley, and someone came up and you said, hey, I believe the gospel, Pastor Shelley, but I've never called upon the name of the Lord. I will not baptize you. And I'll tell you, you need to call upon the name of the Lord. And look, I've known people. They like to brag about it. I got saved eight years ago, but I never called upon the name of the Lord. Why would you even say that? It's like you're mocking God or something. It's like you're falling and you're like, I just haven't quite pulled the parachute yet. Woo! Hope that thing better work, you know? Because if you don't pull the first one, then you don't have a chance to pull the second one either, you know? It's a silly riding on a line. Why would you wanna dangle on that line? Some people wanna know exactly where the line is to sin so as to get as close to it as humanly possible. I'm not looking to see how close I can get to hell. I'm not looking to see how close I can get to sin. I wanna be as far away from the line as possible. I'm not saying, what's the exact hair length I can have and it's still short. No, I want it to be nice and short. I want it to be no confusion. No one's like, well, that's kinda close, you know? I don't wanna be really close to effeminate but not quite there. I wanna be all the way to manly. You know what I mean? Some people, they really dabble in the gray area of effemacy. Please don't at this church. I mean, don't just come over here. No, let's read the Bible. I mean, people, and they're like, I believe in Jesus. Hey, Pastor Shelley. It's like, wow. Just grunt or something at me. You're like, hey, Pastor Shelley. I'd rather you do that than talk like a queer, okay? And when it talks about going to heaven or hell, why would I dangle on the line if I'm saved or not? Well, I believe, I didn't call. It's like, what are you doing? It makes me doubt that you believe. It makes me feel like you don't really believe it now. And you know, hopefully God, I believe God feels that way too because that's why I clearly said, for who serves a call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, right? But let's see what Philip thinks about baptizing someone. He says in verse 35, Then Philip opened his mouth and began at the same scripture and preached unto Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came in a certain water and the eunuch said, see here's water, what doth hinder me to be baptized? Philip said, if thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest. So I guess they're just gonna get baptized. He's believes already. Well, how does he decide if this guy believes or not? And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God. He confessed with his mouth, his belief. What if he just said, okay, that's what you have to do. All right. So can we get baptized? Well, do you believe? Let's get baptized. I don't wanna answer that question. Why do you not wanna answer that question? What are you so afraid of? Like it's weird at that point, okay? Now, go if you would to Acts 22. Everybody that's getting saved, I feel like I see a constant pattern of what? Them confessing Christ, them praying to Christ, them asking Christ for salvation, them calling upon the name of the Lord. Everyone that's getting saved in the Bible is opening their mouth boldly. They're calling upon the name of the Lord. They're just making it manifest that they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts 22, look at verse number 10. And I said, what shall I do, Lord? And the Lord said unto me, arise and go into Damascus, and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed for thee to do. So this is the apostle Paul. He's explaining his conversion story, him getting saved. He says in verse 11, and when I could not see for the glory of that light, being led by the hand of them that were with me, I came in Damascus. And one Ananias, a devout man, according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews which dwelt there, came unto me and stood and said unto me, brother Saul, receive thy sight. In the same hour I looked up upon him. And he said, the God of our fathers hath chosen me, that thou shouldest know his will, and see that just one, and shouldest hear the voice of his mouth, for thou shalt be his witness unto all men of what thou hast seen and heard. And now why terriest thou? Arise and be baptized. And notice this, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord. So how did Ananias tell the apostle Paul, arguably the greatest Christian ever, how to get saved? How do you wash away your sins, Paul? Call upon the name of the Lord. You know what he didn't even say? He didn't say believe. You know why? Jesus wrapped into calling upon the name of the Lord. Why would he get, according to David J. Stewart, he gave him a false gospel plan. So the greatest Christian didn't even get saved apparently, because he called upon the name of the Lord, but it didn't say he believed. Obviously he believed, because that's how you call upon the name of the Lord. It says, how shall I call on them and whom they have not believed? How can I even call on Jesus if I've never heard of him, if I've never believed in him? It's the logical step after you believe in him. So how do I call with my mouth? The Lord Jesus, I believe in my heart, and that's how I get saved. So number one, why call? Because that's how you believe. Number two, how do you call? By confessing Jesus and believing the resurrection. Go back to Romans chapter number 10. Go back to Romans chapter number 10. My third point this evening is, intellectual assent is not salvation. And I've already kind of addressed this, but I'm gonna hammer it in a little bit more. Intellectual assent is not salvation. And it gives us a plan of how someone gets saved right here. What does it say in verse 13? For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, verse 14. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how should they believe in whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how should they preach except they be sent? So the Bible teaches if we want to get people saved, we have to do something. We have to send people out to preach. That's why we have a soul winning time on Wednesday at 5.15. That's why we have a soul winning time on Sunday at two. That's why we have multiple soul winning times at the church. That's why we have multiple soul winning times in the regional areas. Because how are people gonna get saved if we never send anybody out to preach? And notice, they have to have another step. They have to actually hear. So it's not street preaching. It's not preaching to the wind. It's actually preaching to some person. It's actually identifying a person, getting them to pay attention. You preach unto them. You preach unto them Jesus Christ, just like we had in Acts chapter number eight. We had Philip the evangelist, started the same scripture and preached unto him Jesus. Then what's the next step? They have to actually believe it. But does it stop there? It does not stop there. Then it says what? Then they call upon the name of the Lord. So in fact, we're following exactly what the Bible says to a T. We're not adding anything. We're not taking anything away. We're trying to follow exactly what the Bible teaches. David J. Stewart doesn't even know how to look up words in the dictionary. And he doesn't even know how to correct his own website when he teaches that prayer is a false doctrine. And then he has it in his own website. But if I understand the gospel's true, and I never call upon the name of the Lord, I am not saved. It is not, reprobates have the truth of God, but they deny it. They corrupt it. They pervert it. They change the truth of God and turn it into a lie, okay? And now that verse can be applied to a lot of truths, but one specifically is the gospel. That's why when you preach the gospel to a fag, they never believe it. They never get saved, because they can't believe. They hate God. And because they hate the truth, they're never going to believe the truth. So they're never going to decide to want to call upon the Lord. And even if they did, word some special prayer, they didn't get saved because they never believed it. And just because you acknowledge the gospel's true, will never save you. You have to call upon the name of the Lord. That's how you get saved. That's the entire point of this chapter of salvation. I pray that he wants Israel to be saved. My heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. Let me explain to you how they get saved. Oh yeah, praying. And you know what? Let me prove to you that the sense of knowledge doesn't save you. Look at verse eight. But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the word of faith, which we preach. So the apostle Paul is saying, salvation is in your mouth. Salvation is in your heart. The problem is you guys just don't believe it. And you haven't confessed Jesus. And you say, what does that mean, Pastor Shelley? It means every time I go out soul winning, you know what I can do? Hey, what's John 3.16? And they say, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but everlasting life. How come they can quote that verse and they're not saved? Because they never believed it and they never called upon the name of the Lord. Yet the word is nigh thee. It's in your mouth. You didn't even need me, theoretically. But you do need me because the Bible teaches that salvation's from faith to faith. And there's another rant that I'm gonna go on for a second, okay? You have to have a saved person preach you the gospel or you won't get saved. And I've heard this and it's bizarre how people try to teach this. But let me prove that to you for a moment. Go to Acts chapter 15. You have to confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus. You have to believe in your heart. And that's how you get saved. You call upon the name of the Lord. It's not just acknowledging that it's true. And a lot, how many people acknowledge that John 3.16's true? I mean, two billion people on this planet acknowledge John 3.16, yet they don't believe it. Yet they've never called upon the name of the Lord in faith, have they? They pray in vain and their prayers are not heard. They're like the Pharisees. They think they'll be heard for their much speaking, but their heart is far from Him. They've never believed in their heart. They've never confessed with their mouth and they're not saved. That's why it's important that we tell them this. And even when I talk to somebody at the door, I say, there's people that pray every single day and they're not saved because they just haven't believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a one-time putting your faith in Jesus Christ that saves you. And what's really necessary is someone that actually is saved already preaching you the gospel. Otherwise, salvation cannot occur. And I don't care what you think. I don't care what logic you come up with. I don't care what Bible verse you twist. Salvation's from faith to faith, period. Some people teach that I can just hand you a piece of paper with the gospel on it and you get saved. False. And what is this guy doing that's attacking, soul winning? Oh yeah, he's just writing how to get saved on a website. He's not going out and preaching them. He even said very clearly, I don't tell people to pray anymore. Well, you just stop getting people saved then. Yeah, but they're like, oh, but look at all these people that read my website. You know, look at all these people that read the track. You know, I've never met a single person that even claimed that they got saved from reading a track. I'm not saying that people don't claim that because I'm sure there could be someone that even claims that. I'm saying I've never met a single person that's ever told me, why would I teach a doctrine and say, you know what, you can just read a track to read something and get saved. But I've never seen anybody that ever got saved that way. Sounds like it's a bad method at best. Sounds like it's pretty ineffective. But if you believe that, all you'd have to do, let's just get everybody's address, we'll just mail them a track and we'll go home. We're done. What's the point in going out and preaching? The point of going out and preaching is so that people get saved. Okay, now let me give you a verse here. Look what it says in Acts chapter 15, verse 21. For Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath day. You know what the Bible says? They all had the Bible. But I guess the apostle Paul didn't need to go out in every city and preach the gospel. They already got Moses. Just let them hear him. Just hear Moses and you'll get saved. Look, you need someone that's already saved to come and explain the verses to you. We already read Acts chapter number eight. He said, understand is what thou readest. How can I, except some man should guide me. Why would you make such a statement if, yep, I'm saved now. Yep, just read it, got saved. I didn't even have to pray. I didn't even have to have a saved person come and tell me the gospel. That's a false doctrine. Go to 1 Corinthians chapter two. Let me prove to you why this is so bad. 1 Corinthians chapter two is gonna point to you why this is impossible, okay? But it says in 1 Corinthians chapter number, I think that's the verse I'm wanting you to go to. Yeah, 2, 14. The Bible says, but the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned. How can you tell me that an unsaved person can just read the Bible and understand it? That flies directly in the face of clear scripture. Clear scripture tells you an unsaved person cannot understand the Bible, period. Martin Luther did not read the Bible under a tree, drinkin' a beer, and get saved. And guess what, he never believed it. He said faith alone, but he didn't really mean it. He didn't really believe it when you start lookin' at what he actually taught. You need someone that's already saved to come and guide you and teach you how to get saved. That's why we never want to slip on this doctrine. We need soul winning. We need to add soul winners. We need to send as many people out to preach the gospel. You say, you know what, Pastor Shelley, I've never opened my mouth and preached the gospel. Shame on you. Shame on you, because you know what? No one can get saved unless you do. Well, I write down how to get saved on a piece of paper. Well, great, great, okay, but you need to open your mouth and preach it to someone. You need to go out, and you know what? This church has a soul winning time virtually every day of the week. You get plugged into a soul winning time, and you open your mouth boldly, and you make known the mystery of the gospel, and you know what? You compel them to pray. You tell them to call upon the name of the Lord and get them to pray. Go to Luke chapter eight, last place I'll have you turn. What's the transition from acknowledging the gospel's true to getting saved? It's calling upon the name of the Lord. And I hate leaving someone when they don't pray. It's frustrating to me. I don't like it. And so I don't sit there and just say, okay, cool, see you later. I try to compel them to pray with me. And this is the verse that always comes to my mind. This is a verse I often even show them because this is exactly what the devil wants. The devil wants them to not call and then forget and then not get saved. The devil wants them to lose out on that opportunity that they had to strike while the iron was hot. If the spirit had whisked Philip the evangelist away before he confessed Christ, he wasn't gonna get baptized. He wasn't gonna be saved. It was a crucial moment. This guy has the moment to get saved. And you know what? Let's be honest. You're probably not gonna knock on that door again. You're probably not gonna see that person again. This is their opportunity to get saved. We need to compel them to get saved. They just listened to you for 10 minutes preaching the gospel, compel them to call upon the name of the Lord. I did think of one other place I wanted you to turn. So sorry, all right. But I do wanna show you this verse. Luke chapter number eight, look at verse 12. The Bible says, those by the wayside are they that hear then come with the devil and take away the word out of their hearts lest they should believe and be saved. The Bible says that you can actually receive God's word in your heart and not be saved. There's people that hear the gospel. They understand the gospel. They decide not to believe and not to call upon the name of the Lord. And then later the devil comes and that Catholic devil mama there comes and takes the gospel away. That false prophet Pope or their false prophet teacher at their church come and plants a work salvation in their heart. And it chokes that seed. They take away that seed. The devil wants to destroy the gospel being preached. And so when we have the moment to get someone saved we need to compel them to get saved. Now I wanted you to go to Matthew chapter 14. And I had a few other places in mind but it's already been a long sermon. I think you get the point. Point one, why call? Cause that's how you believe. Point two, how do you call? By confessing Christ and believing in your heart. The resurrection. Point number three, intellectual assent is not salvation. You must call upon him to be saved. Now I'm gonna give you one more in my mind clear example of why this is so foolish, okay? That someone could believe this. And you know, there's somebody, this is what people say. Cause you'll say, you think you have to pray to get saved? I'll say, yeah. Well, what if someone believed in Jesus, but didn't pray? Cause the Bible says it whosoever believeth, you know. First of all, it's a bad question. First of all, it's a foolish question, okay? Let me answer it. It doesn't exist. Okay. But let me give you an example in the Bible. I'm gonna talk very clearly of what that would look like and I'll prove to you how stupid it is, okay? Look at verse number 29, Matthew 14, verse 29. And he said, come, this is Jesus talking to Peter. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw the wind boisterous, he was afraid and beginning to sink, okay? So we have Peter, he's on the water, he's walking to Jesus, but then the storms come and he starts sinking. Now this can be used in a lot of different ways. Let's use it in salvation. This is every unsaved person. They're sinking, they're drowning in their sin and their sin's gonna take them to hell. Jesus is right there. Peter's sinking and dying. He could go to, he could die at any moment, right? Now imagine I'm there too. And I say, hey, Peter, Jesus is there. If you believe in Jesus, all you have to do is just ask him and he'll save you. I know you're drowning. If you try to save yourself here, you're not gonna make it. You explain to somebody, work salvation's never gonna get you into heaven. You can't do it on your own. The winds are too strong, the water's too deep, it's too boisterous, you're not gonna make it. You need help, but guess what? Jesus is right there. And you know what? He'll save you for free. All you have to do is just believe in him, just call him, just ask him to save you. And Peter's just like, in his mind, I know that's true, what's gonna happen? He's gonna just go straight in the water and drown and die. Oh, I believe that that was true. You can believe that. If you believe that true, you know what you do? Well, let's keep reading the verse, all right? Verse number 30, in the beginning of the sink, he cried, saying, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand, and immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him. Imagine, you explain to somebody, hey, all you have to do is just ask Jesus for salvation, just believe in him, and they're just like, cool, see you later. That person didn't get saved? Peter, if you asked Jesus to save you, he would save you. He's like, yeah, yeah, I know that would happen. Dead, drowning. When did someone believe that they didn't ask? Then they didn't believe. That's like when people say, what if a fag believed? He didn't believe, okay. What if you believed and had the mark of the beast? You didn't believe. Or you didn't get the mark of the beast. You know, they try to build these like paradoxes. What if God lied? God can't lie. The truth can't be a lie because it's the truth. If you believed in Jesus Christ, you called upon his name. And look, if someone's going around teaching this garbage, I will throw you out of church. I don't take attacks on the gospel lightly. And you know what? If you hear somebody teaching this, you rebuke them sharply when you're going out soul winning. There is zero tolerance. If it's like a brand new visitor and they have some weird goofy thing on this, you could maybe just reprove them lightly, okay? But if it's somebody in this room, if it's someone that goes to our church soul winning and they even hint at this wicked false doctrine, you rebuke them sharply. And if they don't immediately repent, you tell me. And I will fix the problem because you can go soul winning somewhere else, but not this church. I'm not gonna let that stupid, wicked false doctrine come into our church. David J. Stewart is in some serious problems here. I question his salvation believing that. I don't know how anybody can believe such weird nonsense. And to think that praying to save you caused them seven years of turmoil. I'm just... It's bizarre, folks, okay? Let's not let these type of weird, creepy false doctrines get into our church. Let us champion forth the gospel. And you know what? There's gonna be attacks. Don't think that this is just a straw man argument. It happens even in churches like ours, okay? And we wanna be rock solid in what we believe. How do you believe? Call upon the name of the Lord. Let's close the prayer. Thank you, Father, so much for your word. Thank you for giving us such so much clear scripture. Thank you for making salvation so simple and so easy that all we have to do is just call upon your name and faith and believe the gospel. I just thank you for doing all the hard part. I thank you for giving it to us as a free gift that we know that we don't have to work for it or earn it, but we simply just receive it by faith. And I thank you for giving us just the easy way to understand our faith by calling upon the name of the Lord. I pray that you would just add more soul winners to our church, that we would go out and we'd champion forth the gospel, that we would get people saved, and we would help them to call upon the name of the Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.