Call On His Name

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on the first Sunday in Lent, the 6th of March, 2022, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is: 

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDIz4WuP8igQstkEOq1AMTg.  Look for the video of our recorded services on our Vimeo channel:  http://vimeo.com/pilgrimreformedchurch.]

Family, the Christian season of Lent began this past Wednesday, which we observed here with our Ash Wednesday service and some good fellowship and food afterwards.  We are now in a period when believers are asked to engage in deliberate repentance, and personal reflection upon all that Jesus has done for us.  It’s a time to ask ourselves, as individuals, “Just what does it mean to me personally that Jesus allowed Himself to be ridiculed, beaten, and nailed to a cross just for me?”  “How does it make me feel that He died on that cross just so I would not have to endure eternal suffering?”  “What is the full impact of His sacrifice, not only on me but on the whole of mankind?”

I believe that the Apostle Paul and his life’s example can serve as a very good answer to those questions, especially the last.  Please listen and follow along to the reassurance Paul gives us in chapter 10 of his letter to the church in Rome, and I’ll be reading this from the New Living Translation of our Holy Bible…

1 Dear brothers and sisters, the longing of my heart and my prayer to God is for the people of Israel to be saved. 2 I know what enthusiasm they have for God, but it is misdirected zeal. 3 For they don’t understand God’s way of making people right with Himself. Refusing to accept God’s way, they cling to their own way of getting right with God by trying to keep the law. 4 For Christ has already accomplished the purpose for which the law was given. As a result, all who believe in Him are made right with God.

5 For Moses writes that the law’s way of making a person right with God requires obedience to all of its commands. 6 But faith’s way of getting right with God says, “Don’t say in your heart, ‘Who will go up to heaven?’ (to bring Christ down to earth). 7 And don’t say, ‘Who will go down to the place of the dead?’ (to bring Christ back to life again).” 8 In fact, it says,

“The message is very close at hand;

it is on your lips and in your heart.”

And that message is the very message about faith that we preach: 9 If you openly declare that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is by believing in your heart that you are made right with God, and it is by openly declaring your faith that you are saved. 11 As the Scriptures tell us, “Anyone who trusts in Him will never be disgraced.” 12 Jew and Gentile are the same in this respect. They have the same Lord, who gives generously to all who call on Him. 13 For “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

--Romans 10:1-13 (NLT)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You for devising a means of reconciling us to You, of making us right with You.  It hurts us to think that Your only Son had to suffer and die to this mortal life just so we could live forever in Your heaven if we only accept Him as our Lord.  Please help us better understand and appreciate the full impact of His sacrifice and Your mercy.  Help us be better servants of our Master so that we are more worthy of His love.  And Father, please protect us from Satan and from those who work his evil plan.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, worship, and service, and healthy and safe through these trying times.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Show us just how important our faith is to each of us personally.  May we always trust in You and call on the name of Your Son in all things.  This we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

In an article for "Reader's Digest", Luanne Oleas wrote:

When the 1960s ended, San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury district reverted to high rent, and many hippies moved on down the coast to Santa Cruz.  Like most, they got married and had children, though not necessarily in that order.  But they didn't name their children Melissa or Brett.  Folks around Santa Cruz grew accustomed to their children tossing Frisbees with little Time Warp or Spring Fever.  And eventually Moonbeam, Earth, Love, and Precious Promise all ended up in public school.

That's when the kindergarten teachers first met Fruit Stand.  Every fall, according to tradition, parents bravely apply name tags to their children, kiss them good-bye and send them off to school on the bus.  So it was for Fruit Stand.  The teachers thought the boy's name was odd, but they tried to make the best of it.

"Would you like to play with the blocks, Fruit Stand?", they offered.  And later, "Fruit Stand, how about a snack?"  He accepted hesitantly.  By the end of the day, his name didn't seem any more odd than Heather's or Sun Ray's. 

At dismissal time, the teachers led the children out to the buses.  "Fruit Stand, do you know which one is your bus?"

He didn't answer.  That wasn't strange.  He hadn't answered them all day.  Lots of children are shy on the first day of school.  It didn't matter.  The teachers had instructed the parents to write the names of their children's bus stops on the reverse side of their name tags.  The teacher simply turned over the boy's tag.  There, neatly printed, was the word "Anthony."

As a child of that era, I remember some of the weird names children were given.  Fortunately, I don’t recall anyone in these parts being saddled with Moonbeam or Earth Child or Sundance.  But I don’t think I ever heard of any of those children complaining that their names caused them grief in life.  Like little “Fruit Stand”, I guess folks just got used to the odd names and it was no big deal.

The name we call someone can make a big difference, though, especially in our relationship with them.  Had those teachers called the child “Anthony”, I’m sure he would have been far more responsive to them.

Our choice of words are important; they matter.  We need to stop and look at all sides of a person before we attach a name or label to them.

Jesus has many names and labels attached to Him.  Lord, Master, Son of God.  Christ, Messiah, Savior, Redeemer.  The prophet Isaiah added these:  Good Servant, Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  The beloved Apostle John called Him the Word, and the Light of men.  Jesus even had some He called Himself: Good Shepherd, Vine, Living Water, Bread of Life.  And then there’s my personal favorite…  Jesus: Friend of sinners.  My Friend.

All of these names, all of these additional labels, serve to identify Jesus in some way, by what He does and what He is.  And they acknowledge His promise to us.  For it is through that name - that beautiful name of Jesus - that we who believe are saved.

Paul makes the point that trusting in the Law of Moses for salvation is misplaced trust.  This goes to the issue that there is nothing we mortals can do ourselves to save us.  We’re not capable of adhering strictly enough to the Law to be saved.  And if the Law were sufficient, God would not have needed to send His Son to fulfill the Law for us.

It is by fully believing in Jesus and accepting Him as our Lord that we are made right with God.  We need to trust in God and His mercy, not the Law, and certainly not any mortal man.  For anyone and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved.

You know, our Bible really is a very fascinating book.  Of course, we need to read it and study it a bit to see some of the more interesting points that are revealed to us in it.  Take for instance what happened at Pentecost.

After God’s Holy Spirit touched the believers that day, some of the witnesses began to question what they had just seen, even to the point of declaring that those who had been affected by the Spirit were just under the effects of fermented spirits – that they were drunk.  The Apostle Peter stood up to refute this and answer some of their questions.  In his impromptu sermon, Peter included these words, as saved for us by the Apostle Luke in his Book of the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2, verses 16 through 21…

16 "[But] This is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:

17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God,

That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh;

Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

Your young men shall see visions,

Your old men shall dream dreams.

18 And on My menservants and on My maidservants

I will pour out My Spirit in those days;

And they shall prophesy.

19 I will show wonders in heaven above

And signs in the earth beneath:

Blood and fire and vapor of smoke.

20 The sun shall be turned into darkness,

And the moon into blood,

Before the coming of the great and awesome day of the Lord.

21 And it shall come to pass

That whoever calls on the name of the Lord

Shall be saved.’"

--Acts 2:16-21 (NKJV)

Did that last part sound kind of familiar?  Peter quoted the prophet Joel as saying that, “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved”.  In our scripture reading, Paul also quotes from Joel’s writings, putting it like this:  “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Now Paul was not present at Pentecost, at least not that we know of.  But he was familiar with the scripture and the prophets.  And I believe he received the same message as Peter from Jesus and God’s Holy Spirit.

We see this frequently in our Bible, where more than one person can give the same account even though there appears to be no connection between them.  Yes, our Bible is a fascinating book.  It’s a shame it doesn’t get read all that much.

So here we have both Paul and Peter repeating the words written by Joel that anyone and everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.  Do we sense some special emphasis here?  Do you think maybe we should treat this as something that God wants us to understand, that it is important enough to be stated three times like this?

What does it mean to call on the name of the Lord?  Well, first off, it means that we must believe that we can indeed by saved by merely calling on the Lord.  To believe that, we must believe in the Lord, in His power and ability, and in His promise, to save us.  We must believe that He is the Lord, the one true Son of God, the Messiah sent to offer us salvation, the Christ who came to redeem us.  And if we believe, if we truly, fully, believe, then we will accept that Jesus is our Master and we will do what He says.

To call on the name of the Lord Jesus is to show that we truly believe.  Jesus made it so that anyone can call on Him, because He wants for everyone to be saved.  God sent His Son into the world not to condemn the world, but that the world - the whole world - through Him might be saved.

Jesus is our Lord.  Call on His name.  In the blessed name of Christ Jesus.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Father God, I’ve said it often and I’ll keep saying it… thank You for our Bibles and the great lessons they contain.  Thank You for breathing Your word into the men and women who penned these pages.  And thank You for repeating and emphasizing the points that are most important for us to grasp.  Father, too often we let the busyness of life pull us away from spending more time with You and Your word.  Sometimes we just can’t grasp what we read.   Forgive us, Father, when we don’t take the time to study.  Forgive us when we hesitate because we don’t think we’ll understand what You’re trying to tell us.  Please help us understand, help us grasp what You are saying to us, help us take hold of what is important, and help us trust in Your word.  And Father, please help us remain strong, faithful, and true through all that we face in this life.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You have been given many names and labels, but the most important is “God”.  You are God.  You, along with the Father and the Holy Spirit, created the universe and all that is within it.  You hold our eternal lives in Your hands.  And so, dear Jesus, we call You Lord, we call You our Master, and we who truly believe this try our best to do as You command us.  Too often, though, Lord, our faith is tepid.  We are only lukewarm in our service to You.  Please, Lord, help us be better servants.  Help us more closely follow Your voice.  Remind us of all that You have done for us.  Make it clear in our minds and in our hearts that we cannot receive eternal salvation through our own efforts, but only by calling on Your name.  Forgive us, Jesus, when we hesitate to tell others about You, when we fail to love others as You love them.  Help us reach out to the lost souls of this world.  And Jesus, please strengthen us through these very difficult times.  Heal the hurts that separate and divide us.  Help us remain trusting and obedient no matter what we go through.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on what this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.