Saved by a Cry
“Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall he saved,” — Romans 10:13.
THERE is no excuse for any man’s not know¬ ing the way of salvation, for the Bible makes it as plain as day. There is no excuse for any man’s not taking the way of salvation, for God has made that way so simple and so open to every¬ body that “whosoever will” may “come.” Many years ago, together with a friend, I was making a pedestrian tour through the Saxon Switzerland, in Saxony, Germany. One day we struck off from the main road and began to go across country by a by¬ path. We suddenly ran upon a signboard with a crown upon it and the information that that road was for the king and for the king alone, and that common mortals were not allowed that way. But God’s way of salvation is open to all, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
The way of salvation is stated in the Bible in a variety of forms; so that everybody can get hold of it. In one place we are told that we are saved by just coming to Jesus. He Himself says, in Matt. 11:28: “Come unto me, all ye that labour and
HOW TO BE SAVED
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” and He says again in Jno. 6:37, “Him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” In another place we are told that we are saved by just believing on the Lord Jesus. Paul said to the jailor of Philippi when the jailor had cried, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved”, “Believe on the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). In another place we are told that, We are saved by just receiving (or, taking) the Lord Jesus. John’s words are, “As many as received him, to them gave he the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on his name” (Jno. 1:12). In still another place we are told that, We are saved by just looking to Jehovah, Jesus. Jehovah says in Isa. 45:22, “Look unto me, and be ye saved.”
But to my mind, the simplest statement of all is that of our text to-night, where we are told that, We are saved by just calling on the name of the Lord, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord spiall be saved” (Rom. 10:13). Saved simply by a cry, a cry to the Lord Jesus; for that Jesus is “the Lord” in this passage is evident from the ninth verse of the same chapter, where we are told, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.”
The statement of the way of salvation contained in our text is so simple that some stumble at its very simplicity. “Oh,” they say, “God can’t mean that all I have to do to be saved is just to cry to the Lord Jesus, simply call upon the name of the Lord.” But that is what God says, and do you not think that God knows enough to say exactly what He means?
In order that there might be no possible doubt that He meant just what He said, God has put this state¬ ment in three different places in the Bible. You will find it first of all way back in the Old Testament, in Joel 2:32, where we read, “Whosoever shall call on the name of Jehovah shall be delivered.” Then Peter repeated the statement on the Day of Pentecost, saying, “And it shall be, that wThosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Acts 2:21), and Paul repeats it again here in our text, Rom. 10:13, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” It is very seldom that you can find the very same statement made three different times in the Word of God. Can you doubt a statement God takes pains to repeat three times?
And that is not all. Besides this, God gives us in the Bible a number of examples of men who were saved just this way, just by a cry, just by calling to the Lord Jesus for deliverance. Peter is as good an example as any. Peter was sinking in the Sea of Galilee as he tried to walk across the waves to meet Jesus, and in his terror he just cried to Jesus, just as he was going down, “Lord, save me.” “And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and took hold of him” (Matt. 14:30, 31). Saved just by a cry, and anyone who is sinking in a sea of sin can be saved in precisely the same way. Jesus is ready to take hold of you to-night if you only cry to Him, and if He takes hold of you, your rescue is sure.
HOW TO BE SAVED
There are three important questions suggested by our text:
ist. What is the salvation promised?
2nd. How can we get this salvation?
3rd. Who can have this salvation?
I. What is the Salvation Promised?
The first question is, “What is the salvation promised?” The answer to this question is very plain and very easily understood. Listen to the text again, “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Saved from what? If you will go back to the preceding chapters of this same book from which our text is taken you will get your answer.
1. First of all, The one who calls on the name of the Lord will he saved from the guilt of sin. This comes out in the third chapter, verses 23-26, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime in the forbearance of God; for the showing, I say, of his righteousness at this present season: that he might himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath faith in Jesus.” We see from these verses that the one zvho calls on the Lord Jesus gets for himself justification, i. e., deliverance from condemnation, salvation from the guilt of sin, that the Lord Jesus made possible for us all by dying as a propitiation for our sins on the cross. The same thought of salvation is found in Gal. 3:10, 13, “For as many as are of works of the law are under a curse; for it is written. Cursed is everyone who continueth not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to do them.... Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of
the law, having become a curse for us; for it is written, Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.” Christ took our place on the cross of Calvary, and the moment we believe on Him we step into His place of perfect acceptance before God; not only is every one of our sins blotted out, but His perfect righteousness is put to our account; and the simplest and most practical way of expressing our faith in Him is by just calling upon Him. Crying unto Him for pardon is the proof that we believe on Him; and so in crying unto Him we are thereby justified. This we are told also in the very next verse to our text, Rom. 10: 14, “Hozv then shall they call on him in zvhom they have not believed?” The moment we thus call upon the Lord Jesus, all our sins are blotted out, God Himself erases everything He has in His books against us, and puts the perfect righteousness and acceptability of Christ Jesus to our account.
2. But that is not all: in the second place, The one who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus gets salvation from the power of sin. This we see in chapter 6, verse 16, compared with Jno. 8: 34, 36. In Romans 6:16 we read, “Know ye not that to whom ye present yourselves as servants unto obedience, his servants ye are whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?” The word translated “servants” in this
HOW TO BE SAVED
verse, means literally “slaves.” Every sinner is a slave of the sin to which he has yielded obedience, but the moment he calls upon the Lord Jesus he gets deliverance from this bondage, just as the demoniac who cried to the Lord got deliverance from his bond¬ age to the demon, and the leper who cried to the Lord got deliverance from his leprosy. The Lord Jesus Himself puts it this way in John 8:36, “If therefore the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.”
Our Lord Jesus not only died for us, and thus made salvation from the guilt of sin possible for us, but He also rose again and thus also made salvation from the power of sin possible for us. This thought of the saving power of the risen Lord Jesus comes out right in the same chapter from which our text is taken, three verses back, “If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: for with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation” (verses 9, 10).
3. In the third place, The one who calls on the name of the Lord gets also salvation from the penalty of sin. This also we see in chapter 6, verse 23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus, our Lord.” The one who calls upon the name of the Lord, and the context shows that the Lord here meant is the Lord Jesus (verse 9), the one who cries unto Jesus as his Divine Lord, for deliverance, gets deliverance from the death that is the penalty of sin. What this “death” is in its full outworking and significance we see in Rev. 21: 8, “The fearful, and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.” Hell, in spite of all its awful and everlasting shame and pain, has no terrors whatever for the one who calls upon the name of the Lord Jesus; for he knows on the authority of God’s own sure word that no matter how great a sinner he may have been, he has no part in the eternal shame and torment of hell.
To sum it ail up: Salvation from the guilt of sin, Salvation from the power of sin, Salvation from the eternal penalty of sin, is the salvation one gets by just calling on the Lord Jesus for such salvation. That certainly is a glorious salvation. But even that is not all; for we are not only saved from something, but we are saved to something. We are not only saved from the guilt of sin and from the powrer of sin and from the eternal penalty of sin, but we are saved to liberty, to sonship of God, and to an inheritance, even a “Joint Inheritance with Jesus Christ” Himself. This we read in the eighth chapter and second verse, “For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death,” and in the fourteenth verse, “For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God,” and in verses 16, 17, “The Spirit him¬ self, beareth witness with our spirit, that we are children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.”
HOW TO BE SAVED
II. How Can We Get This Salvation?
Now the question arises, How can we get this salvation? The text tells us that we get this salvation by simply calling “Upon the name of the Lord”: “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
What does it mean to “Call upon the name of the Lord?” It means just what it says, all any one of you has to do to be saved is to call upon the Lord Jesus (verse 9) to save you. This is evident from the preceding verse, “For there is no distinction between the Jew and Greek: for the same Lord is Lord of all, and is rich unto all that call upon him.” Bartimaeus was blind, and he got sight by crying, “Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me” (Mark 10:47 ff-)- The leper got cleansing by cry¬ ing to the Lord Jesus, “If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean,” “And being moved with compassion, he (that is, Jesus) stretched forth his hand and touched him, and saith unto him, I will, be thou made clean” (Mark 1:40, 41). The publican got pardon by just crying, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner,” and so we get salvation from the guilt,
THE POWER AND THE PENALTY OF SIN BY JUST CRY¬ ING to the Lord Jesus for it.
Of course, the cry to the Lord Jesus that really gets salvation must be a real cry, it must be genuine, it must be sincere, it must be honest. I hear a good many call, “Lord Jesus, save- me,” and they do not get saved. Why? Because the cry is not real, it is not genuine, it is not sincere, it is not honest, it is not earnest.
What does a real call upon the Lord Jesus for salvation imply f
i. First of all, A real call upon the Lord Jesus implies a realization that we need salvation, a realization that we are sinners, a realization that we are lost. No man is going to call upon the Lord for salvation in any real way if he does not realize that he needs to he saved. To call upon the Lord Jesus to save you when you do not know you are really lost, or do not believe you are really lost, is a mockery.
A good many, however, call upon the Lord Jesus in these days without any genuine realization that they are lost. A good many cry in this day, “Lord Jesus, save me,” and yet if you should ask them, “Do you really believe you are lost, do you really believe you are a guilty sinner before a Holy God, do you really believe you are under the curse of the law of God which you have broken, do you realize you are a slave to sin, do you realize you are sink¬ ing down into an everlasting hell, do you believe that you are a poor, vile, miserable, worthless, hell¬ deserving sinner,” they would very likely flare up and say, “I am nothing of the kind, I am just as good as you are. I don’t believe that old worn-out superstition about human depravity and everlasting perdition, and all that.” Well, then, you cannot genuinely call upon the Lord Jesus to save you, and you cannot be genuinely saved. You are mocking God when you do call upon the Lord for salvation when you do not really think you are lost, hopelessly lost, without the Lord Jesus. There is no more hideous
HOW TO BE SAVED
mockery than for a man who does not believe that he is lost, to call on the Lord Jesus to save him.
2. In the second place, A real calling upon the Lord Jesus to save, implies a sincere desire for salvation. A great many men call upon the Lord Jesus to save them who do not really desire to be saved, they think they do, but they don’t. I have seen men kneel down and cry, “Lord Jesus, save me,” and they did not want a bit to be saved. Perhaps they thought they did. They wished to be saved from hell, but that is not the essential point of salvation. Everybody wants to be saved from hell. Even the rankest infidels want to be saved from hell. Nobody wants to spend eternity in hell. But being saved from hell is not the essential thing in real salvation, and desiring merely to be saved from hell is not really desiring to be saved. Many desire to be saved from the trouble and misery that sin has gotten them into. There is not a person in the county jail that does not want to get out. But desiring to be saved from the consequences of sin is not a true desire for salvation. A true desire for salvation is a desire for salvation from sin itself, that is the most important thing about it; and the man who does not desire to give up all sin, and not merely the sins that are getting him into trouble, does not really desire to be saved, and a call of such a person upon the Lord Jesus is a mockery and will do him no more good than whistling “I want to be an angel.” This is why the cries of many of you for salvation do you no good whatever. You don’t really wish to be saved from sin, but merely from the unpleasant consequences of sin. A man in Chicago was once lamenting to a friend of mine that he could not be saved. My friend answered bluntly, “You don’t want to be saved.” “Yes, I do,” the man answered with tears. “No, you don’t,” my friend insisted. Then he asked him, “Do you want to quit drinking?” The man was silent a while and then said, “I don’t know as I do.” That is the way with thousands. Others may wish to quit drinking, but there are other sins they do not wish to quit. Do you really desire to quit all sin, to quit doing anything and everything that displeases God? If you do, you have a real desire for salvation, and if you cry to the Lord Jesus He will save you, “Blessed are they,” says Jesus Christ, “who hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matt. 5:6).
The desire for salvation must, of course, also be earnest, it must be a desire to be saved at any cost. When a man so earnestly desires salvation from the guilt, the power and the consequences of sin, that he is willing to pay any price to get it, he will get it; and not until then. God says in Jeremiah 29:13, “Ye shall seek me and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart”
3. In the third place, A real calling upon the name of the Lord for salvation implies a throwing away of all confidence in anyone else and in any¬ thing else and everything else as a zvay of salvation. The man who is trying to save him¬ self cannot honestly call upon the Lord Jesus to save him; and the man who is trusting in his own good works, his own personal piety and his own benevolence, his turning over a new leaf or any
HOW TO BE SAVED
other thing he can do, to save him, cannot truly call on the Lord. This is the trouble with many of you, you have not gotten to the end of yourself and your own efforts; you still hope to do something to commend you to the Lord. It is the man who realizes his own helplessness, his own inability to do anything to cover his guilt or to break away from sin or to escape its consequences, that can throw himself in utter helplessness on the Lord Jesus and just cry unto Him to save him, just cry as poor, sinking Peter cried, “Lord, save me.”
4. There is one more thing that An honest call upon the Lord Jesus implies, and that is faith in him, faith in his power to save. This comes out in the verse immediately following our text, Rom. 10: 14, “How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed?” If my cry to the Lord Jesus means anything, it means this: faith that Jesus can and will save me. This faith may not be very strong, it may not be very confident, it may be very weak, but there must be faith enough to call with some expectation, no matter how small, that we shall be saved. We may have to come to Jesus with just a little faith, like the man whose son was a demoniac, and he cried to Jesus, “If thou canst do anything, have compassion on us and help us.” Jesus, as you know, said unto him, “If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.” “And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief,” And the Lord Jesus did respond to his feeble faith, and helped his unbelief by doing what he sought (Mark 9:22, 27); and so will He do for us if we come in that honest, earnest way, even though our faith is small. All one needs to do
THEN, IN ORDER TO BE SAVED IS, FIRST OF ALL, TO REALIZE HIS OWN NEED OF SALVATION; SECOND, TO EARNESTLY DESIRE TO BE SAVED; THIRD, TO THROW AWAY ALL TRUST IN ANYONE AND ANYTHING ELSE
but in Jesus Christ; and fourth, to believe He
CAN AND WILL SAVE, AND THEN JUST CALL UPON
Him to do it. That is all, 44 Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13).
III. Who Can Have This Salvation?
Now, just a few words on, “Who can have this salvation.” The answer to this question is very plain, as set forth in the text, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved” (Rom. 10:13). The Greek words translated, 44 whosoever,” mean “everyone who.” I sometimes wish that the verse had been translated literally and so read in this way, “Everyone who shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” That surely means everybody. It means rich or poor, wise or foolish, learned or ignorant, good or bad, moral or vicious. John Berridge once said in preaching on this text, 44 I would much rather it be written 4 who¬ soever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, than, 4 If John Berridge shall call on the name of the Lord, John Berridge shall be saved, because how do I know but that there might be an¬ other John Berridge in the world to whom these words were addressed? But when I read, 4 Whoso¬ ever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be
HOW TO BE SAVED
saved, I know I must be included.” Yes, thank God, that is the way it reads, “Whosoever (or, everyone who) shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” The good man can get salvation in this way and in no other way, and the bad man can get salvation in this way and in no other way. All any man needs to know in order to be saved is just enough to call upon the name of the Lord Jesus. The skeptic may be saved this way. He may have many doubts, but if he believes he is lost and honestly desires to be saved, and will throw away confidence in everyone and everything else, and have enough faith to just call, even though it be almost in despair, on the Lord Jesus, he can put to a practical test this promise, “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Many are saying, “I have sinned away the day of grace and therefore I cannot be saved,” but God says, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” All you then, as well as anybody else, have to do is just to call. Just call then. Another says, “I have committed the unpardonable sin, therefore there is no hope for me,” but God says, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Just call, then. Another says, “But my sins have been so many and so black there is no hope for me,” but God says, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Just call, then. Another says, “But I have had so much light and sinned against it, there certainly can be no hope for me,” but God says, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Just call, then. But another says, “I have no feeling, my heart is hard as a stone.
Surely there is no hope for me,” but God says, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Just call, then. But another says, “I am sure I cannot hold out even if I start, so there is no hope for me,” but God says, “Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Just call, then. 44 Whosoever,”” Whosoever,” “Whosoever.” This wonderful text sweeps away all our excuses. It throws the door wide open for anyone here to-night who has any real desire to be saved, to enter. “Some old divine pictured Peter preaching on the Day of Pentecost, a man pushed his way through the crowd and said, * Peter, do you think there is hope for me? I am the man who made that crown of thorns and placed them upon Christ’s brow, do you think He will save me?’ 4 Yes,’ said Peter, 4 Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved,’ and you are a 44 Whosoever;” if you call he will hear your cry. He will answer your prayer and save you, Another man pushed his way up and said, 4 Peter, I am the man who took the reed out of his hand and drove it upon that cruel crown of thorns, sending it into his brow; do you think he will save me?’ 4 Yes, said Peter, 4 Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, You are a 44 Whosoever,” and you call upon the name of the Lord and you shall be saved, Another man, elbowing his way through the crowd, pushed up to Peter and said, 4 1 am the Roman soldier who took the spear and thrust it to his heart, when there came out blood and water; do you think there is hope for me?’ 4 Yes, said Peter, 4 There is a nearer way of reaching his heart than that: ‘Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved ’ ( Pith & Point in Story and Saying, pp. 1 6, 17). Yes, it is true, “Whosoever,” “Whosoever” “Whosoever” shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” Who will call to-night? Who will awaken to-night to the fact that you need salvation, that you are a poor, vile, lost, worthless, miserable, hell-deserving sinner? Who will let God to-night put into his heart a real desire to be saved, to be saved not merely from the un¬ pleasant consequences of sin but to be saved from sin itself? Who will right now throw away all confidence in any one else or in anything else and every¬ thing else as a way of salvation, except the crucified and risen Son of God? Who will to-night put faith enough in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ’s ability to save him, just to call upon Him, even though it be with very feeble expectation of being heard? Salvation stands waiting at the door to enter the heart and life of every unsaved man, woman and child here to-night. All you have to do to open the door wide for salvation is just to “call upon the name of the Lord” Jesus. Will you do it right now?