Here is a verse of scripture which is fundamental to the work of the super-evangelist. And I’m not being entirely facetious when I say that, because it really is a definitive declaration. No doubt I have referred to it at least a thousand times while preaching from other texts, but I have never addressed it directly – an error which I will correct this morning.
While being simple enough for the child to understand, it is complex enough to keep the interest of the most knowledgeable theologian. Unfortunately, most of us fall somewhere in between, so we may have our work cut out for us this morning. Let’s start at the conclusion and basically work forward.
I hope that you don’t think that this is overkill, but once again I want to briefly explain what that salvation is. If you think that this is redundant, boring, or useless tautology – to use our word of the week – If you think that this is being overly redundant this may be a symptom of spiritual disease. If you can’t hear another message on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, then perhaps the problem is that you have no love for Him and He is not your Saviour. If you refuse to hear another message on salvation, you may either not saved or you have forgotten the depths of your sin and what was necessary to deliver you. And you appear to have no interest in the salvation of others. Salvation and Christ should be subjects that the child of God enjoys hearing again and again.
Paul said, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is, that they might be saved.” In the context of that statement he reminds us that salvation refers to righteousness. Salvation is not religion or a zeal for God. “For I bear them record that they (my brethren, the Jews) have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God’s righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.” Every human being to have ever walked this planet, apart from Jesus of Nazareth, has been a sinner and thoroughly unrighteous. As such we have all been spiritual castaways – separated from the Lord – because He is absolutely holy. But through the substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, sinners may be declared righteous by God and delivered from all the effects of their sin. One aspect of salvation is “justification,” in which God, gives to some sinners the righteousness of Christ. Unfortunately, out of the billions of people on earth, a relatively few have been justified.
Without directly saying so, this verse implies humanity’s universal need of salvation. “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,” otherwise those people are still eternally lost. We could turn to a hundred other verses which declare this great need. “For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” And “the wages of sin is death.” “There is not a just man upon the earth, that doeth good, and sinneth not.” The only people who are not still included in this need of salvation, are those who have called upon the name of the Lord. We might refer to these people as those who are excluded from the Lord’s greatest gift.
As I began meditating on this verse, I wondered if I could preach the whole message from the context of Pharaoh – a man who we are studying in our Adult Sunday School class. I probably could, but I decided that I didn’t want to make our study more of Pharaoh than of Romans 10:13. For example, yet as I was preparing for our other study from Exodus, I kept asking myself, why Pharaoh didn’t just submit to the Lord and spare himself all those plagues? Why didn’t Pharaoh call upon the name of the Lord? Must we say that he wasn’t included in that “whosoever?” No, by definition “whosoever” includes everyone – even Pharaoh. The reason that he didn’t submit to the Lord was because his heart was totally antagonistic toward God. Like Paul’s brethren the Jews, He was so filled with his own self-righteousness that he refused to submit himself to the righteousness of God. His heart was as hard as granite, and not even the judgment of God was softening it. Moses made the invitation again and again, “bow before Jehovah – repent – let God’s people go.” But Pharaoh either refused to permit, or retracted his permission, once the judgment was withdrawn. In fact the judgments of God seemed to make that hard-hearted man even more hardened. And this is true of every human being – we all have the same kind of obstinate heart. It is not until the Holy Spirit of God softens the sinner’s heart, sometimes after completely breaking it, that the wicked soul is willing to accept the word “whosoever” as his own.
I read of a preacher who once said that he was delighted with the way that Romans 10:13 was worded. He said that if his own name was inserted in that verse rather than “whosoever,” it might have caused him a great deal of worry. Is that really me, or is there another person with the same name as mine whom God intended to save. Have you ever googled your name? I might say that only egomaniacs would do such a thing, but then so do Baptist preachers, so I won’t say that. It is an interesting and perhaps frightening thing to do. In my case, when I searched for “Kenneth David Oldfield” I came up with 45,500 references. The first five were not references to me. Then simply “Kenneth Oldfield” gave me 409,000 links to chase, and “David Oldfield” gave me 252,000. “K. David Oldfield” provided me with more than three quarters of a million references. Fortunately, the first on the list was actually referring to me, but that was the only search which gave me the number one position. Like that preacher from a hundred years ago, my point is this: If the Lord had put my name in Romans 10:13, I might have reason to worry, because He could have been thinking about some other Kenneth David Oldfield. Praise God, however, He didn’t use my name – rather He put in a word which by its very nature must include me. And it includes you as well. If you will call upon the name of the Lord, you shall be saved.
After the stubborn heart of the sinner is softened – or I could even say “regenerated” – He will couple to repentance and faith call upon, the name of the Lord. He will make an “application” for salvation – pleading for deliverance from his sins. There are people who believe in sovereign election, who do not believe that this application is necessary, but they are wrong – deadly wrong, and perhaps dead wrong. God does not save anyone against his will, but the Lord does change that man’s will to be saved. I don’t know if it is better to say, “You MUST call upon the name of the Lord” in order to be saved, or “you WILL call upon the name of the Lord,” but calling upon the name of the Lord is a part of the divine equation.
However, this call, even though it may involve the mouth and lips as suggested in verse 11, it is not a plea of the lips alone. Although I have never met a parrot that could say more than a few words, I understand that some can. I have heard lots of jokes about what those parrots can say and do, but I don’t know how much to believe. I suppose that with enough time and training, it might be possible to teach a parrot to say, “Lord Jesus, I am a sinner, please save my soul; forgive me, deliver me, redeem me.” I also understand that parrots can live to be very old, and I’m sure that some parrots are greatly loved by their owners. But to teach that parrot some form of “the sinner’s prayer,” is not going to ensure that he will live with his earthly owner throughout eternity.
And neither will the parrot-like prayers of empty-hearted, or rock-hard-hearted sinners, like Pharaoh or Judas. This application to the Lord and His salvation cannot be artificial; it must be thoroughly heart-felt. In other words, this verse doesn’t give any grounds to the shallow evangelist who tells his victims, “Just say this little prayer, and the Lord will save you.” This calling upon the Lord is not merely an emotional reaction to a sob-story delivered by an eloquent preacher. It has to flow out of a heart made ready by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. “How shall they call on him in whom they have not believed” – the next verse – “ALREADY believed.” This application to Christ for salvation is not the same as faith in Him, but it is definitely related.
I noticed that one scholar used the word “call” to take his readers back to the beginning of the Old Testament. Genesis 4:26 – “And to Seth … also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.” The man suggested that this was not merely prayer to God, but the worship of the Lord. This calling upon the Lord, which results in His blessings, demands a trust and dependence in Him. It demands a relationship to God which might be summarized as worship. If there is no reverence for the Lord mixed with this calling upon His name; If there isn’t any faith that the Lord will grant our request, then the calling upon His Name becomes nothing more than the squawk of a parrot of the caw of a crow. Paul was actually thinking about another Old Testament scripture as he made this statement. Peter, too, made use of this scripture, when he was explaining the events of that first great Pentecost. Turn to Joel 2:28-32 – “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions: And also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my spirit. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call.” By using this original reference we can begin to see what it is to be saved. Joel was speaking about the judgments of God, which shall fall upon the world and upon Israel during the Tribulation. The great and notable day of the Lord – Jacob’s Trouble – will eventually bring Israel to its knees in repentance and faith. For more than 2,000 years they have been living in rejection of their Messiah. They need personal and national salvation. But then the 144,000 and the two witnesses, will be given miraculous powers and also the gospel of Christ. They will go about proving that their Messiah has come, and that He is coming again. And “whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
And did you notice once again who that Lord really is? I don’t have the slightest doubt that Paul was thinking about the Lord Jesus Christ. That was one of the first things that Paul learned about Jesus when Ananias came to baptize him. “Brother Saul, the LORD, even JESUS, that appeared unto thee in the way as thou camest, hath sent me, that thou mightest receive thy sight, and be filled with the Holy Ghost.” When Ananias called Jesus “the Lord” those two words became permanently tied together in the heart of the Apostle to the gentiles. And when he quoted Joel, Paul was still thinking of “Jesus,” even though the old prophet was saying “Jehovah.” Here we have another incidental, but extremely important, declaration of the deity of Christ Jesus. If the sinner doesn’t call on the Name of LORD Jesus Christ, then it is proof that He has not been born again.
So I say once again, Paul was thinking primarily about his self-righteous and self-seeking brethren in Israel. Just as Joel prophesied – for the most part they were ignorantly ignoring their Saviour. But, if they, or anyone else for that matter, would humbly, repentantly and trustingly call upon the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, God has promised that He would save their souls.
This calling is the most important thing that any sinner can ever do. God’s salvation is incalculably important and valuable. Have you called upon the Lord like this?