Invocation Of Christ
Adapted from a Sermon by
George Burder
For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
(Romans 10:13)
Our verse this morning is verse 13 of the chapter we have just read in Romans: For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved as we consider the Invocation of Christ, or calling on the name of Christ, the act of invoking the name of the Lord.
The Jews were for many ages the peculiar people of God. The introduction of the Gentiles into the church, was a mystery which had been hidden from the world; and therefore when that great event took place, it was difficult to reconcile the Jewish Christians to it. The apostles themselves, who were Jews, were not naturally inclined to obey their Master's command.---"Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation."(Mark 16:15) God led them to it, as it were, by miracles; and the apostles found it necessary to quote passages from those prophets who had predicted this event; and to show the Jews how they were then being fulfilled.
Of this nature and purpose are the words of our text, which are quoted from the prophecy of Joel, Chapter 2, verse 32, which Scripture was a prediction of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, on the day of Pentecost, and is so applied by the apostle Peter, in the second chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. The words of our text are, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" in the prophet Joel, it is, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord (Jehovah) shall be saved." Doubtless, Jesus Christ is the person intended in the text, as all the verses connected with it clearly show: and, if so, this passage of Scripture, like many others, proves that Jehovah, the name of the divine essence, is applicable to our Lord Jesus Christ, and provides, among many others, an undeniable proof of his divinity.
For the illustration and profitable use of these words, we will,
First, Consider a few observations upon them; and,
Secondly, See how particularly Jesus Christ is properly an object of religious worship.
In the first place we will make a few observations on the words of the text---"Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."
1. Salvation is the grand concern of an awakened sinner. It is the grand concern of everyone who “calls on the name of the Lord," as the words "will be saved," plainly show. This was the object the apostle had in view, as you find in the first verse of this chapter---"Brothers, my heart's desire and prayer to God for them (Israel) is that they may be saved;" and in the ninth verse, "if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved." Salvation is deliverance---deliverance from imminent danger, the danger of God's eternal wrath---the "wrath to come,"(1 Thessalonians 1:10) and which will ever remain, "the wrath to come."
The person who calls on the name of the Lord, is one who has been convinced that he has broken the holy law of God, and incurred its dreadful penalty, which is eternal death; he is afraid of God's judgments; and well he may; for "it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."(Hebrews 10:31) And so he anxiously looks out for help; his inquiry is, "What must I do to be saved?"(Acts 16:30)
We should each one examine ourselves to see whether we have been brought into this state and whether we have called upon the name of the Lord, from a sense of danger. You know in what manner the Scriptures represent the condition of the sinner---sometimes it is that of a guilty and condemned criminal, in danger of punishment; sometimes it is that of a sick man ready to die, under the power of disease; sometimes it is that of a sheep, which has strayed from the fold, and is in danger of being devoured by wild beasts. Indeed, every expression of danger is employed, in the illustration of the case of a sinner; and we should all be concerned to know that this is our condition, that so we may be induced to call on the name of the Lord.
2. Calling on the name of the Lord is an expression of faith in the heart.
No one calls, on the name of the Lord, until he is persuaded that the Lord can help him in his particular case; and this is evident from the fourteenth verse of this chapter; "How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed"---believed in what? That which is called, in the eighth verse, "the word of faith that we proclaim;" the word of the gospel, which a man "believes and is justified;" for "faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ"---believing the testimony and promise of God in the gospel is supposed in this case; and the apostle particularly refers to believing, in the heart, the resurrection of Christ.
In the ninth verse, it is said, "If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved:" because the resurrection of Christ is the great proof of his ability to save, and that he is accepted of the Father, in the character of a Savior: for, as the apostle elsewhere argues, "if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins."(1 Corinthians 15:17) And in another place, "if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain."(1 Corinthians 15:14) But Jesus was both "delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification;"(Romans 4:25) so that we may join in the language of the apostle Peter, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead."(1 Peter 1:3)
3. Again. You will find this calling upon the Lord, is accompanied with confession: "With the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved;"(Romans 10:10) there is a confession suitable to all Christians, in their joining some Christian gathering, in order to partake of divine ordinances; for though no particular form of doing this is specified in the Scriptures, yet, almost all churches require some open profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; and doubtless our Lord himself requires it, for he has said, "Everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven."(Matthew 10:32)
4. But the text certainly has a particular reference to prayer---calling on the name of the Lord in prayer, and this necessarily supposes a belief that he is able to hear and to answer prayer; which he could not be, if he were a mere man, existing only in one place, and able to hear one petition only at a time, and that, where he is physically present: whereas Jesus says, for the comfort of his followers, "where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."(Matthew 18:20)
Calling upon the name of the Lord, includes a personal application to Jesus for salvation; renouncing all dependence upon our own righteousness. It is the reverse of that for which the Apostle so much blames his countrymen in the third verse of this chapter; "for, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God's righteousness."(Romans 10:3) Calling on the Lord implies a submission to the righteousness of the Lord, and the one who calls in this way, must believe that "there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved,"(Acts 4:12) but the name of the Lord Jesus.
We go on, in the second place, to show more particularly that Jesus Christ is properly an object of religious worship.
Indeed, this is already sufficiently proved, for reliance upon Christ, and calling upon him as a Savior, are the highest acts of worship we can perform; and it would be the height of folly to suppose that, if he were not God, he could save all the millions of sinners, who in all ages and countries have called on him.
But that Christ is an object of religious worship not only to men but to higher beings, appears from the letter to the Hebrews, where Jehovah says, "let all God's angels worship him;"(Hebrews 1:6) and we also see this in the visions of the apostle John, "I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing."(Revelation 5:11-12)
It is evident from several parts of the New Testament, that it was the character, the distinguishing mark, of the first Christians, that they "called on Christ." In the 11th and 12th verses of this chapter, it is said, "everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him;" which supposes that all persons of this description, all who are real believers, do call on him; for, in order to show there is no difference between Jew and Greek, he says "the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him." He is the Lord both of Jews and Gentiles, and he is rich to all who call on him. This supposes that all the saints do call on him; and he is rich, inexhaustible in the riches of his merit and mercy, and exceedingly generous in his saving blessings to all sorts of persons, of whatever rank or nation---to all and every one who invokes and worships him as a divine Savior.
If we look into the history of the early Church, in the Acts of the Apostles, we find this was their character, they called on the name of the Lord. For instance, in the 9th chapter of the Acts, and the 13th and 14th verses, Ananias says, concerning Saul of Tarsus, who had just come to Damascus, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he has done to your saints at Jerusalem. And here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name." It is evident that all real Christians, or Saints, were persons who "called on the name of the Lord."
See likewise the twenty-first verse, "all who heard him," that is, converted Saul, "were amazed and said, Is not this the man who made havoc in Jerusalem of those who called upon this name?" And in the first epistle of the apostle Paul to the Corinthians, first chapter and second verse, the apostle gives this description of Christians "to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, both their Lord and ours."
Nothing can be more clear than that this was the character of the first Christians, that they called upon the name of the Lord Jesus, our common Lord, whom we, and all true Christians join in acknowledging and adoring as their Lord and ours.
Once more, we find a similar expression in the twenty-second of the Acts of the Apostles, and the sixteenth verse; there it is said to one, "why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord." Here "calling on the name of the Lord," is united with baptism, which is certainly a solemn act of religious worship; and it is performed in the name of Christ, equally as in the name of the "Father and of the Holy Spirit." The commission is, "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."(Matthew 28:19)
Baptism is an ordinance of consecration, or dedication to the service, of whom? The Father, Son, and Spirit, as one God; and it may well be that this is the meaning of what we read of, in a very early part of the sacred Scriptures, namely in the days of Enosh, the son of Seth. "At that time people began to call upon the name of the Lord."(Genesis 4:26) Various views have been given of that Scripture, but "the name of the Lord" is very frequently a title given to Jesus Christ, in the Old Testament; and calling upon the name of the Lord, may have the same meaning there, that it afterwards had; distinguishing between true believers in the Son of God, and those who rejected him.
We also have instances of pious individuals calling upon the name of the Lord, and in the most peculiar and trying circumstances. For instance, the first Christian Martyr, Stephen. While they were stoning Stephen, he was calling upon God, or invoking, and saying, "Lord Jesus, receive my spirit."(Acts 7:59) Who but God can receive, and preserve the departing spirit of a saint? and it is notable that these are the same words, or nearly the same words, which our blessed Lord addressed to his Father in his last moments on the cross: so that this petition of Stephen ascribes the same power and grace to the Son, that the Son of God himself ascribed to the Father.
The Apostle Paul likewise speaks of himself, as paying this honor to the Son---when he earnestly desired the removal of that thorn in the flesh, which he thought might hinder his usefulness---"Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me."(2 Corinthians 12:8-9) Jesus Christ is, doubtless, that Lord upon whom he called, and from whom he received this answer.
I will mention one more instance, that of the Apostle Thomas, after that fit of unbelief, as it may be called, when he declared he would never believe the resurrection of Christ without visual proof of it: but, when he was convinced, "Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God."(John 20:28) Here was a solemn invocation; and it was as much as to say, You are my Lord and my God; though I did have doubts, I now am perfectly convinced.
And finally note how the Apostle John recommends this worship of Christ, in his first epistle, "I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him."(1 John 5:13-15) Now it is notable, that, earlier in the same epistle, the same type of expression is used with reference to God the Father, "Whatever we ask we receive from him."(1 John 3:22) Surely then, this is proof that the Lord Jesus Christ is properly the object of divine worship.
That these were the views of the early Christians, will can see from several instances recorded in the history of the Church, a few of which will be mentioned.
Ignatius, of Antioch, who suffered for the faith, about the year 117, and who had conversed with some of the apostles, thus begins one of his epistles;---"I glorify Jesus Christ our God, who has given to you this wisdom."
Again, Polycarp of Smyrna, another martyr, who suffered in the year 167, said, "The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and Christ himself the eternal High Priest, the Son of God, build you up in faith, and truth, and in all meekness, to live without anger..." and when he was brought to the stake, he concluded his last prayer with this doxology to the Trinity, "I bless you, I praise you, I glorify you for all things, together with the eternal and heavenly Jesus Christ, your beloved Son, with whom, to you, and the Holy Spirit, be glory, both now and forever, world without end;" which doxology seems to have been common in Christian churches, from that time to this.
There was another eminent man named Justin Martyr, who flourished about the middle of the second century; he uses these words, "We worship and adore the God of righteousness, and his Son, and the holy Spirit of prophecy." Yet, a little after, he tells the emperor, "We hold it unlawful to worship any but God alone."
And finally Pliny the historian, writing to the emperor concerning the Christians, mentions it as a common custom among them, to meet, on a certain day, before it was light, and sing a hymn to Christ as God. The testimonies fully prove that Jesus Christ was considered by the first Christians, as a proper object of religious adoration; or, according to the words of our text, that "they called on the name of the Lord."
As we close,
Is calling on the name of the Lord, the practice of real Christians?---have we then done it? Do we know anything of calling upon the name of the Lord? Some perhaps call on the name of the Lord in a light and profane way; this, sadly! is to call down condemnation on their own souls; and it is sad to hear men, and women too, in the street, exclaiming, "O Christ!" But it is a blessed prayer, "O Lord, hear us and help us!" and what an encouragement does this text give us when calling upon him! It is a positive promise, like that well-known Scripture---"Whoever comes to me I will never cast out."(John 6:37)
With what confidence may we call on the name of the Lord, seeing that he is the Almighty God! We may derive much encouragement from the success of those who, when our Lord was on earth, called on him for various purposes. Let us remember a few instances.
You remember the poor miserable leper who fell down before him and said, "Lord, if you will, you can make me clean."(Matthew 8:2) The gracious answer of our Lord was, "I will; be clean."(Matthew 8:3)
When the centurion applied to Jesus on behalf of his servant, who was lying paralyzed and suffering terribly, he immediately said, "I will come and heal him."(Matthew 8:7)
When a certain ruler worshiped him, and said, "My daughter has just died, but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live;"(Matthew 9:18) Jesus heard, and it was done.
Again, a poor woman, who had been long diseased touches the hem of his garment; her heart called on him, though her lips were silent; the cure was granted, and "instantly the woman was made well."(Matthew 9:22)
Two blind men cried aloud, "Lord, have mercy on us, Son of David,"(Matthew 20:30) and their eyes were opened.
The friends of a mute man cried to him for help, and the mute spoke.
Peter, sinking into the sea, cried, "Lord, save me!"(Matthew 14:30) The compassionate Savior caught him, and saved him.
When the Canaanite woman cried, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon;"(Matthew 15:22) Jesus heard, and replied, "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire."(Matthew 15:28)
Time would fail us to recount all the instances of success, with which those who cried to the Lord for temporal benefits were blessed; and can we suppose the compassionate heart of Jesus will feel less for us, when we call upon him for the salvation of our immortal souls?
One instance more must be mentioned. When he was hanging on the cross, between two criminals, and when there seemed to be the least encouragement to call on him as a Savior, one of the sufferers, whose heart God had touched with contrition, called on him, and said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom;"(Luke 23:42) he did not call on him in vain; Christ immediately and graciously answered, "Today you will be with me in paradise."(Luke 23:43)
O, then, with what confidence may we call on him, and rely on him; and unite with the apostle in saying, "I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day."(2 Timothy 1:12 NKJV)
Each of us has an immortal soul; what have we done with it? To whom was it offered? How was it employed? In the service of Christ, or of Satan? Have we committed it to Christ for salvation? He will receive it; he will keep it: he will be faithful to his trust. Well, then, let each of us resolve---"I will call on him as long as I live."(Psalm 116:2)
Now to him, with the Father, and the Holy spirit, the one God of our salvation, be glory in all the churches; now and forevermore.