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Thank you all for being here. Well good morning everyone, welcome to Mountain Baptist Church. Take your song books and turn to song 442. Song 442 will sing, We Gather Together. If you would stand, we'll sing song 442. He forgets not his own. Beside us to guide us, our God with us joining, ordaining, maintaining his kingdom divine. So from the beginning, the fight we were winning. Thou Lord was at our side, glory be thine. We all do extol thee, thou leader in battle, and pray that thou still our defender will be. Let thy congregation escape tribulation, thy name be ever praised, oh Lord make us free. Let's pray, Heavenly Father Lord, we just want to thank you God for this beautiful day you've given us God, to meet in your house and hear your word preached. I pray Lord that you would just be lifted up, and I pray Lord that you would receive all the honor and glory for Amen. All right you may be seated, and turn your song books to song 441. Song 441 will sing, Great Is Thy Faithfulness, song 441. Great is thy faithfulness, O God my Father, there is no shadow of turning with thee. It's not that compassion's they fail not, as thou hast been, thou forever will be. Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, numeracies I see, all I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. Summer and winter and springtime and harvest, sun, moon, and stars in their courses above, join with all nature in manifold witness to thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love. Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, numeracies I see, all I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide. Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow. Blessings all mine with ten thousand beside. Great is thy faithfulness, great is thy faithfulness. Morning by morning, numeracies I see, all I have needed thy hand hath provided. Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me. Easy there, Thunder. Amen. Well, welcome to Mountain Baptist Church on this Sunday morning. All my stuff's out of place here. All right, so just some general announcements here. Just welcome everybody. And we have our normal service time times today. And so that means that our soul winning time is going to be at 1 p.m. So we'll give you a little bit of time to get some lunch. But we're going to try to do something different with the children's choir, meaning that some people can't make it for the afternoon service or whatever reason. And so we want to be able to let the kids have as many practices as possible. So we're going to try to do it right after the morning service, as far as that practice goes. And so we're going to try to do that today. So just a heads up there instead of trying to do it after the afternoon service. And also, it's a long day. So I know that once that afternoon service is done, a lot of times you're wanting to get out of Dodge and get home and everything else. So but we're going to try that today. So just keep that in mind. We'll try to give you a reminder. Maybe Brother Dave, you can give a reminder when you do your last song. But don't forget about the regional soul winning times on Tuesday and Wednesday. So Brother Charles leads up the Tuesday time. And then Brother Richie leads up the Wednesday time there. And then our chapter memory for the month is Jude. And that's also a book. But but also our memory verses is Psalm 116 and verse 13. And I just want to read it so I don't mess it up. But I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. And so I'm going to be hitting on that this morning. It's kind of interesting how certain things happen. And it's just kind of coincidental because I was actually going to be preaching on the subject I'm going to be preaching on this morning anyway. Actually, I was supposed to preach on it probably weeks ago, to be honest. Questions got brought up. And, you know, you forget about things or you preach on different things and everything else. But it's kind of pertinent. If anybody's online, there's a discussion going on about it. So I'm going to show you what I believe the Bible teaches on that, but also another aspect there. And then upcoming events. We have the men's prayer meeting this coming Friday. And so Black Friday. So get done with your shopping, men, women. Anyway, I saw who was the person to meet? I think it was Brother Matt. It's so true, though. It's like you have an item that's like a certain amount. It's like hold the line, hold the line. I'm not going to do it until Black Friday. Then they up the price, put it down on the sale at the same exact price. I understand because there are people like, no, you actually get deals. I understand that. But at the same time, that happens a lot. Let's just be honest. That happens a lot. And, you know, you go to certain stores and you're like, you saved $200. It's like, no, I didn't. You just put the price up so high and then gave all these rebates to make it look like I saved $200. Anyway, I hate shopping. Does anyone not know that? So Black Friday is like the worst day for me. Now, people like shopping, and that is not a sin, you know, to like shopping. Just because I don't like it, you know, they'll think that you have to be like me, but I'm right. Now, the women's prayer meeting is going to be that next Saturday, and so that's on the 4th. And then also the next, the Saturday after that, we're going to have the Christmas party. So I had tentatively put there 4 p.m., 4 p.m. for that party. I think that gets it around dinnertime, but then it's not super late either to where, you know, we have Sunday the next day, so we don't want to be up too late. But so we have a sign-up sheet on the refrigerator, so it's going to be kind of like a potluck type thing. But, you know, anything that, you don't have to bring anything, but if you want to bring something, the sign-up sheet is meant there to see what is being brought so that not everybody brings the same exact thing, or if everybody's just bringing pies, then maybe we should probably get some other things or something like that to where we're not just eating pie for the dinner. So anyway, that sign-up sheet is over there. And general church announcements, obviously the offering box is in the back there. We have the mother-baby room, which is for the mothers and babies only. And birthdays, birthdays, birthdays. We do have some birthdays. We've got a lot on the 25th. That's actually my younger brother's birthday. So brother, so brother, what is today? 21st, so brother Aaron. We'll have to get him, get him later. And then we have Juliet. How old is Juliet? She'll be four. And time flies. And then we have Elijah. So we're going to have to get brother Aaron and Elijah next time. And then, and then Mrs. Spina will get you next week. So you're not until, oh wait, not Mrs. No, that's Anna. I saw Amanda, so sorry. I, if I could read then, yeah, we'll get your daughter. We'll get your daughter next week. Oh, how did I miss Bella? Sorry, Bella. Well, I was looking on the calendar here, and I'm always looking like what's past that date that we're on right now. I'm sorry. Yeah, well, let's get the one that's birthday is today. So Bella's birthday is today. So we're not going to miss Bella. So we'll get, we'll sing for Bella and for Juliet. And yeah, we'll do that before we do our last song here. And then on the pregnancy list, we have a lot of ladies on here. We have eight ladies that are pregnant. And we have Miss Rachel added on the list here. And so be in prayer for all these. And we have three that are coming up here in December. So just be in prayer specifically for those that are coming up soon. But again, be in prayer for all because when you're in that first trimester, it means a lot of prayer. When you're at the end, when it's, everything's uncomfortable and the delivery, you need a lot of prayer. When you have the baby, you need a lot of prayer. Two, three years after that, you need a lot of prayer. Because so, but just be in prayer for all these. It's very exciting. We need to get our addition. We need to get an addition started on this building because that mother baby room is going to start busting out here soon. We'll just, we'll just, we'll extend that out right now. That's right. This will be the mother baby room. That'll be the preaching room, right? So anyway, exciting stuff there. And then yeah, so all the service times are normal there. That's about all I got for announcements. Brother Dave's going to come and sing Happy Birthday and then sing one more song. And then I think Brother Joseph, right? No. Oh, Brother Levi. Sorry. Brother Levi's going to be reading Romans chapter 10 for us. All right. Take your song books and turn to song 428. Song 428 in your song books. We'll sing It Came Upon a Midnight Clear. But before we do that, we need to sing Happy Birthday to Jules and to Bella. How old's Jules going to be? Four. And that's a Thursday? Is it on Thanksgiving? Is it? Oh, awesome. Awesome. So four and then Bella, your birthday's today and you are 13 years old. I've got two 13, two teenagers. This is, it's depressing. Still look good though. All right. So if you all will stand, we'll get you, we'll sing Happy Birthday. And there we go. Ready? Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday, God bless you. Happy birthday to you. Happy birthday to you both. And we will sing song 428. It came upon the midnight clear, that glorious song of old, from angels bending near. The earth to touch their harps of gold. Peace on the earth, good will to men, from halves all gracious king. The world in solemn stillness lay, to hear the angels sing. Still through the cloven skies they come, with peaceful wings unfurled. And still their heavenly music floats o'er the weary world. Above its sad and lonely plains, they bend on hovering wing. And ever o'er its babble sounds, the blessed angels sing. And ye beneath life's crushing load, whose forms are bending low. Who toll along the climbing way, with painful steps and slow. Look now for glad and golden hours, come swiftly on the wing. Oh rest beside the weary world, and hear the angels sing. For lo the days are hastening on, by prophet bards foretold. When with the ever circling years, comes round the age of gold. When peace shall over all the earth, its ancient splendors fling. And the whole world give back the song, which now the angels sing. All right, take your Bibles and turn to Romans chapter number 10. Romans chapter number 10. We'll have Brother Levi come and read that for us. Romans chapter number 10. Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record that they 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 everyone that believeth. For Moses, describe with the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth those things shall live by them. But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise. Say not in thine heart, who shall ascend into heaven? That is to bring Christ down from above. Or who shall descend into the deep? That is to bring Christ again from the dead. 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. That if thou shall confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shall be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the Scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach, except they be sent? As is written, How beautiful are the feet of them which preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For as I saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. But I say, Have they not heard? Yes, verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you. But as I saith, is very bold, and saith, I was found of them that sought me not, I was made manifest unto them that asked not after me. But to Israel, he saith, all day long I have stretched forth my hand unto a disobedient and gang-saying people. Let's pray. God, thank you for today. God, thank you for your word. Let's pray that you be with pastor as he preaches, and help us to learn and pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. So you're there in Romans chapter 10, and I'm going to be preaching a sermon dealing with calling on the name of the Lord. But specifically, actually, I'm going to be dealing with something where people take it too far. Now, I'm going to lay the groundwork that we do believe calling on the name of the Lord for salvation, but I'm just going to tell you that there's people that are teaching that if you can't hear, if you're literally deaf, you can't get saved because you can't hear the word of God and get saved. And that if you can't speak, if you're mute, then you can't get saved because you can't, with your mouth, vocally call upon the name of the Lord. And that is just ridiculous. Okay, so that's just, that's false doctrine. It's not true. I'm going to be hitting on that as far as how that's insane and how the Bible obviously doesn't teach that. So we're going to be getting into what does it mean to hear and what does it mean to call as far as like, you know, the aspects of that. But I do want to hit on the aspect of calling on the name of the Lord. First of all, I want to lay that groundwork that we do believe that for salvation, calling on the name of the Lord is a part of that, you know, action of getting saved, if you will. And so people can take it one, they can take it too far in both directions, right? The calling on the name of the Lord can go so far to where we're like, you can't, if you can't speak, then you can't get saved, right? That's too far, okay? Like you're literally like, you can't speak, for whatever reason, right? Then you can't get saved. That's ridiculous. But then you can take it over here too far where people actually believe that calling on the name of the Lord is adding works to salvation. Do you see how like there's two like things that are wrong there? And so here's where the truth is, right here in the middle. Okay? And I'm going to preach on this and, you know, give you my thoughts as far as how this goes, because I'll say this, besides that one that I'm going to be preaching on, I don't understand that. I don't understand how someone gets that far or how they go that extreme with it, because just the truth of the matter, you're getting into Calvinist type stuff. You're getting into the idea that certain people are unable to get saved. Like inherently born that way, can't get saved. That's ridiculous to me. The other idea as far as obviously adding works to salvation, that's ridiculous too. But where people are questioning the fact of, okay, you know, believing and calling and when does someone get saved? What's going on there? That's a legitimate question, okay? That's a legitimate thing that people could ask and wonder about, okay? So let's just put that on the table that everybody's probably thought of that, you know, as far as, you know, what's going on here? What's the idea? And I'm just going to tell you straight up what I believe is I believe that when you call upon the name of the Lord, that is when you are putting your faith in Christ. That's when you are pulling the trigger, if you will. That is when you are deciding, choosing and communicating with God that you believe that. That's when you get saved. And the idea of God being outside of that, that there's no communication with God and salvation is ridiculous. And a lot of times what people are bringing up is they're bringing up hypotheticals that don't exist. Well this person is a believer but they've never talked to God. That's ridiculous, okay? You're talking about a hypothetical that's insane. You're like, you know what, this King of King and Lord of Lords that saved my soul from hell, I haven't communicated with him yet but I believe in him, I trust in him, but I don't want to talk to him. But you know, it's like that is where it gets into the idea that there's hypotheticals that just aren't real. The idea of a believer becoming an unbeliever. They're hypotheticals that aren't real. They're not true. They can't happen. And so I want you to know that this is an argument that saved people can look at and get wrong. This is an argument that saved people can look at and wonder about because maybe they're just not understanding what's going on there. And so let's look at Romans chapter 10. And by the way, this is the soul winners passage here. I mean this is the Romans road, if you will. And so this passage is dealing with salvation. I mean the beginning of the chapter starts off, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. I mean this whole chapter is talking about salvation, eternal salvation. That is the subject. That is the whole context of what's being talked about there. So to try to separate calling on the name of the Lord from eternal salvation I think is not, I don't think you can do it. And I'll just say this and I'm just telling you straight up what I believe right now and then I'll get into it. There are cases in the Bible where people call upon the name of the Lord and it's not for eternal salvation. I mean you'll find where Abraham builds an altar and calls upon the name of the Lord. I mean he's already saved. I mean by faith he left his land and went into a land that was not his own and obviously the passage is there. But he calls on the name of the Lord multiple times after that. So calling on the name of the Lord can be something that is something you do afterwards. But here's the thing. Believing on Christ and putting your faith in Christ for certain things in your life can happen after salvation too. You can call on the name of the Lord for physical salvation. But it doesn't mean it doesn't apply to eternal salvation. And that's what people will do is a lot of times they'll be like well see over here he's calling upon the name of the Lord and it's for physical salvation. It's like yeah but that doesn't mean that it doesn't apply over here for eternal salvation. Or this person over here they believed in the Lord and they brought them through the Ninevites. They believed God and they repented and turned from their evil ways yet they were saved physically and that belief caused them to get saved from that physical judgment but that's different than eternal salvation. That's different than believing on for salvation. And so context matters but in this case I don't see how you get around it. And sometimes what people will say and I understand their argument and I'm not saying it's not true in some places in the Bible but they'll say well you know calling on the name of the Lord is a product of getting saved. Basically you believe on Christ and those that believe on Christ are going to call upon the name of the Lord but it doesn't say for whosoever is saved shall call upon the name of the Lord. It says for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's what's going on there. And the idea that verse 13 there notice what it says for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on him in whom they may not believe and how shall they believe in him in whom they may not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher and how shall they preach except to be sent as it is written how beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things but they have not all obeyed the gospel for Isaiah saith Lord who hath believed our report so then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. To try to say that for whosoever to call upon the name of the Lord is not talking about eternal salvation, what are you talking about? Right? So that's my stance. Like you can't, when you look at verses in the Bible you can't just negate them, you have to answer them. Okay? And obviously I understand that throughout the Bible it's, you know, when you look at most the cases of salvation you're dealing with believe, believe, believe, trust, believe, believe, right? But the question is what's the point? Why is this being brought up? Well I believe the reason why calling on the name of the Lord is an important thing to understand and an important thing to know why it's being brought up here is because salvation happens in a moment. Salvation is a choice that's being made. There's a time when you get saved. Okay? There's a moment in time when you get saved. And notice what it says, go to Psalm 116 verse 13. Psalm 116 verse 13. And this is why we pray with people at the door. Okay? Because someone, they have to make a decision. It's not just understanding and believing that's how you get to heaven, they have to make a decision that that's what they're trusting in to get them to heaven. See the difference here as far as salvation goes is you can take that inwardly and say I believe that's how you get to heaven and you can understand that. But the difference is that it has to go out toward God as far as the fact that I'm trusting in God. You're putting that faith, like you're understanding it, you're believing that that's how you get to heaven. But you believing that inwardly is not, as far as like to yourself understanding it, it doesn't apply until you put it on Christ and say I want that. And how many times have we gone out souling where people will say well I believe that, I believe that's how you get to heaven, I believe that's what the Bible says, I'm just not ready to do that right now. Literally we'll say that. I'm not ready to put my trust in that right now. And we're baffled as believers like what? How do you, like if you understand that hell exists and that Jesus saved you from that and that it's a free gift and all you have to do is just ask him for that free gift and put your faith in him when you're doing that, how, why wouldn't you do that? And you know it's kind of baffling but it happens. And the question you have to ask yourself is that person saved? I don't believe they are. Though they understand, though they believe that's how you get to heaven, you know though all the elements are there for them to get saved, it's not until they take it, it's not until they put their trust in Christ. And that's where they're a believer, that's where they put their faith in Christ. And I don't believe you can separate being a believer from those that call upon the name of the Lord. Because the argument that you would have is the fact is, okay this person you know you're given the gospel, they believe on Christ, this is the hypothetical but it's not until they call on him that they're saved, what if they died in between there? Now you have a believer going to hell. Well I believe that you're talking about a hypothetical that doesn't exist. Because the person right here, if they're a believer then they've already called on the name of the Lord. Now there's a lot of people that have done that before we even get to the prayer. I'll show you an example in the Bible of somebody that gets saved before they would ever get to a prayer. And that happens I believe, but here's the thing, we don't see in their mind, we don't see in their heart, so we can't know that for sure. And how many times that when you get to the, okay can I lead you in a prayer that that's where the road meets the road. And then they're like, well I already believed that. I was already saved. And they're not getting it. It's not clicking with them, hey what I believe was sending me to hell, I need to get saved, and there's a choice to be made here. And the idea of calling upon the name of the Lord is that you're not saved by osmosis, you're not tricked into being saved, you are making a conscious choice to choose the Lord. And like I said, what I'm going to be getting to is the fact that this could happen inwardly, but it has to happen. There has to be a time where you have communicated that with God, and that you have pulled the trigger, if you will, on your faith. And now in Psalm 116 in verse 13, what does it mean, what happens when you're calling upon the name of the Lord? Well it says in verse 13, I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. See when we go out soul-winding a lot of times we're showing them salvation, we're showing them, and they're agreeing, right? They're like, yes, that makes sense, you know, yeah I never saw that before. And they're understanding it, but when you get down to it they have to choose it. They have to choose whether they want that or not. They have to choose whether they're going to believe in this or not, whether they're going to say, I don't believe in that anymore, I believe in this. That has to happen at some point. And I do believe sometimes it does happen when, hey, you have to make a choice right now. Do you want to tell God that's what you believe right now? And that happens when you pray with them. That happens when they're calling upon the name of the Lord for salvation. The thing is that a lot of times people get, they look at too much stuff that's not there. And we've got to look at what's there. The Bible does say that whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And, you know, the verses before that it says that thou shalt confess with thy mouth to the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath 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. I believe these things are happening synonymously when someone gets saved. I don't believe there's like minutes apart from these things. I believe you either believe or you don't. You either call upon the name of the Lord or you haven't. And there's a moment when this happens. But in 2 Corinthians chapter 6, 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 1, I just kind of want to hit on this idea that there's a time when this happens. There's a time when you get saved. And when we go out soul winning, and I'll just say this to our soul winners, if someone doesn't pray, we don't count it. That doesn't mean that they didn't get saved, okay? I'm not saying that I know everything or you know everything, but we don't count it, okay? And the reason is, is because if someone doesn't pray, then all I can take from that is that they haven't chosen to believe on Christ yet, okay? They understand it. They understand what they need to do. They understand what they need to believe, and that is their choice that they have to make. And in 2 Corinthians chapter 6 and verse 1, it says, There is a day when you get saved. There is a time when you get saved. And an accepted time, the day of visitation, you know, the Bible uses these terms as far as salvation is concerned, that there's a time when you get saved. Now, do you need to remember the date? No. I don't believe you need to remember the date, the hour, or even the month. You just remember there is a time when you saw it, you believed it, and you got saved, right? That you've called on Him for salvation. And the thing is, you're like, well, I don't remember praying a certain prayer. Well, here's the thing. You know what? That can happen inwardly. That can be something as quick as I believe that, Lord, you know? Like, I mean, it doesn't have to be some formal prayer that we do at the door. The reason we do a formal prayer at the door is so that we're giving them every reason to, like, have confidence that they've done what they should do, right? Why would we just, like, just relax and easily be like, all right, well, do you believe in the Lord? All right, let's tell the Lord you believe in the Lord. I believe in you, Lord. All right, you know what you're saying? It's like, sure. Sure, that works, right? I'm not saying that's not, you know, valid. But at the same time, as you're praying with them, they're stating, I believe this, I believe this, I believe this, I believe this. And they're going to look back at that and be like, I remember saying that I believe that he died on the cross for my sins and rose again the third day and that he'd give me eternal life and that I'd be, you know, to save me. And you know what? The more detail you can put into it, the more they're going to remember it, the more they're going to be confident in their salvation. And what I find a lot of times is people, and I was there too, meaning this is that people lack confidence in their salvation because they can't, you know, they're not like, well, when did I get saved? Now, people, and the old IP is guilty of this, they put too much emphasis on the exact time, right? But I'll say this, if you say to yourself, if I ask you, do you believe that Jesus died on the cross for your sins and rose again the third day? Do you believe that you can never lose your salvation? Do you believe it's eternal life? And you're like, yes, I believe that. Then you're saved, okay? Then you have called upon the name of the Lord. The idea is that you've got to look at the fact that you know what you believe. You may not know the exact time when you pulled the trigger on that, but to say that there was no communication when you got saved I think is ridiculous. I think you're talking about something that's not real, right? And go to Acts 24, I'm going to read to you Deuteronomy 30 and verse 19. It says, I call heaven and earth to record this day against you that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore, choose life that both thou and thy seed may live. See, salvation or life, if you will, eternal life is a choice. Unlike the Calvinists, they don't believe it's a choice. They believe that you're forced to be saved. But salvation is a choice, and you have the choice whether you're going to put your faith in Christ or not. And I believe if you try to take out the calling on the name of the Lord, you're taking away that time where you're making that choice with God. And again, the way I describe this at the door is that I say, well, you know, the Bible says we need to believe, now I'm saying call. And what I say to that is that, well, you've called out to God many times, I'm sure, for salvation, right? You prayed to God, you talked to God. But it said, the Bible says, how then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? So I say, well, did you believe what we showed you right here back when you called? And if you didn't believe that, did that save you? And what I tell them is I say, so you can believe this is how you get to heaven. You can believe this is the way. But until, you know, you have to put your faith in that. You have to choose to put your faith and trust wholly in that, and that is where you communicate with God. Because I said, I'm just a man. Obviously, I'm an ambassador for Christ, and we have the Word of God that we're showing them. But ultimately, it's God who saves them, okay? You know, we water, we plant, but it's God that gives the increase. And to think that, you know, we're communicating with this person, but that God's not going to be in that communication. I mean, the Holy Ghost is there working on this person. If you're walking in the Spirit, you're abiding in Christ. Christ is there. I believe the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are there when you're speaking to somebody. And to think that no communication between that person and God is happening when they get saved, I think is just ridiculous. And I think we can nitpick it and put things that aren't there, right? Where it's like, well, you have to say this, and you have to say this. Like, it doesn't say exactly what you have to say, okay? There's not like this outline template of like, this is what you must say, right? But the idea there is that there is a call that's going out to God. There is, you know, a communication, if you will, that's going out to God as far as I want that, I believe in that, I'm trusting you, you know, whatever the case may be. Now, in Acts chapter 24 and verse 24, this is where Paul is speaking to Felix. And notice what it says in verse 24, it says, And after certain days, when Felix came with his wife, Drusilla, which was a Jewess, he sent for Paul and heard him concerning the faith in Christ. And as he reasoned of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come, Felix trembled and answered, Go thy way for this time, when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee. Now, this is obviously talking about Felix calling for Paul, right? But do you notice that there's a time when he calls, there's a season when he calls? And the thing that I want you to understand about calling on the name of the Lord is that there's a time when it happens. There's a time when you believe on Christ. It's not osmosis, it's not this drawn out space of time, like, well, you know, I started believing and then I just, ah, I got saved, right? Like, I'm believing, believing, believing, believing, ah, saved. No, it's either you believe or you don't, right? It's either you're not saved or you're saved. You believe that or you don't believe that. And you're either trusting or you're not trusting. And like I said, to think that calling on the name of the Lord is not happening there, I think, is just something that's not real. And notice in, go to Matthew chapter 7, and what people will say, sometimes they'll say, well, you know, isn't asking, you know, asking for something, that's a work, you know? Belief isn't a work, you know, we'll agree on that, but asking for something, that's a work, you know? If you have to ask for something, then it's not a gift. Okay, well, let's see what it says in Matthew chapter 7, verse 11. It says, If ye then, being evil, know how to give, what, good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father, which is in heaven, give good things to them that ask him? Well, it doesn't sound like asking negates it being a gift. How about this, go to John chapter 4, John chapter 4, John chapter 4. Again, my take on the calling on the name of the Lord is the fact that that's when you're pulling the trigger. That's when you're making the choice to believe. You understand all the facts. And how about this? When it comes to people, they can take it in and hold the truth, right? But there's some people that hold the truth in unrighteousness, meaning they hold the truth in, they know, they tasted the good word of God, they know the way. But what's the difference? They don't put it on God. Okay? Those people that are reprobate, that hold the truth and they know the way of salvation, they know how to get saved. They know what to believe, right? It's not that they don't understand or they don't believe that that's the way. They know that. But the difference is they didn't put it on Christ. They turned from the holy commandment that was delivered unto them and the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. They held the truth in unrighteousness and their foolish heart was darkened. You know, that's what I believe can happen to a lot of people. And I think that's what does happen to a lot of people is that there are people that know the gospel, they believe that's how you get to heaven, but they haven't believed in it. And there's a difference between believing that's the way, believing how, and putting that faith in Christ. Okay? And that's where I believe the calling is coming in there and the fact is that there are people that believe that's how you get to heaven. There are people that believe that's the way, but they don't believe in it. Okay? And that's my take on it. And, you know, there may be people out there that would be like, well, you know, that's not a strong enough stance, you know, like as far as the calling on the name of the Lord. I don't care what you think. Okay? That's what I see. That's what I believe. I don't believe there's a separation where someone believes on Christ and is a believer and calling on the name of the Lord is separated in a space of time to where if that person died, they died as a believer and went to hell. Okay? That doesn't reconcile to me. What reconciles to me is that putting your faith in Christ is the moment you call upon the name of the Lord. That is when you're putting your faith in Christ. Before that, you only understood it, believed that's the way, but you didn't put your faith in it. Okay? That's my stance on that. But in John chapter 4 and verse 10, notice what it says, This is a woman at the well. Well, I guess it negates it being living water and a gift now. The idea obviously is that if you knew the gift and knew who He was, notice these two elements that are there. You know what the gift is and what's the gift of God? It's eternal life. And you knew who it is that's saying unto you, give me the drink, meaning that you know who is giving you it. Okay? And the woman said unto him, Sir, thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From whence then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father Jacob, which gave us the well and drank thereof himself and his children and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again, 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. The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. Now she asks here, but there's an element that she's missing. She doesn't know who he is. Right? Because at this point, he's saying, Are you greater? The answer is yes. Okay? But after this is when he says, Well, call thy husband, because she's missing an element here. Right? It's kind of like the idea of salvation. If someone understands that salvation is eternal life, but they don't realize it's in Jesus, they're not getting saved. Right? Because you can believe that salvation is eternal life, and you can never lose it, but if you don't know who's giving it to you, you don't know who the Savior is, then you can't get saved. Right? So, obviously, you know the story. You know, basically, this is a clear example where he says, I am, you know, we know that Messiah's cometh, which is called Christ. I am he that speaketh. You know, he basically just straight up tells her, I am the Christ. And I believe at that point is when she gets saved as far as she not only knows that he has the gift of eternal life and that he is who he is and salvation is taking place there. Now, a lot of times in the Bible, we just don't see what's going on inwardly. We don't know what's going on in our heart. We don't know what they're doing. Right? So we don't see all those elements that are going on there. But, you know, the thing that I want to get to, and I hope that makes sense. I hope that's as clear as can be. I hope you don't come out and be like, that was clear as mud. Okay? I hope it's very clear that calling on the name of the Lord is when you are pulling the trigger on your faith to believe in God. Okay? That is an outward communication with God, meaning that you're speaking to God. You are communicating that with God. Right? It could be as much as, Lord, I believe. Help thine, mine unbelief. It could be as much as the thief on the cross that says, when thou comest into thy kingdom, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. It could be many different ways that you're communicating that with God where you're pulling the trigger on your salvation and taking that cup of salvation. Okay? But that has to happen. And that's when you are a believer. That's when you put your trust in Christ. Okay? Now let's get into, you know, the idea that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. And there's this ridiculous thought out there that there's people out there that can't hear, they're deaf, therefore they can't get saved because faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. They can't hear the word of God, therefore they can't get saved. Now, when things like this come up, well, they can't get saved because thou must confess with thy mouth, right, meaning like you have to outwardly speak it or calling upon the name of the Lord, right? That has to be an outward, you know, expression or vocalization. When you hear stuff like that, it should be automatically dismissed as being ridiculous. And here's why. In 2 Peter 3, I want you to go to 1 Timothy 2, I'm sorry. Go to 1 Timothy 2. I'm going to read 2 Peter 3, verse 9. It says, the Lord is not slack concerning his promise that some men count slackness, but his longsuffering to us were not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. So the reason this should be rejected out of hand is because God wants everybody to get saved. And if he wants everybody to get saved, he's not going to make it impossible for some people to get saved. Now, in 1 Timothy 2 and verse 3, it says, for this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who will have all men to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for some. Is that what it says? Who gave him a ransom for those that aren't deaf or mute? No, it says, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. How about Titus 2 and verse 11, it says, for the grace of God that brings salvation hath appeared to all men. How about the fact that in Romans chapter 12 and verse 3, it says, For I say, through the grace given unto me to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God had dealt to every man the measure of faith. So God deals the measure of faith to every person, but he doesn't give the ability for that person to get saved. Is that what you're telling me? That he wants everybody to get saved, but because you have a disability, then you're unable to get saved. There are people that are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, but they didn't start out that way. I mean, how many people did Jesus heal that were both dumb, meaning they can't speak, and the modern vernacular would be mute, right, or deaf? And why, and the Bible says this, and I don't have it in my notes, but I think it's at the end of Mark 1 or Mark 2 or Mark 3 or something like that. Why couldn't he do many miracles in some places because of their unbelief? And they say he saw that that person had faith to be healed. So that's interesting. He heals people that are deaf. He heals people that are dumb and can't speak, right? How's that possible? So what I want to get across here is that out of hand, you should say that's retarded. That's dumb. That's false doctrine. That gets into Calvinism, really. That gets into the fact that there's people that are born damned. There are people that are born that have zero opportunity to be saved. I don't believe that for one second. I believe that everybody that's born into the world has a chance to be saved. There are people that have a greater chance because of their demographic, but ultimately everybody can get saved if they really wanted to get saved. God will send somebody, even if he has to send an angel, to send for someone else. He will do it, and he'll give them an opportunity to get saved. Because he's not willing that any should perish. And if he's not willing that any should perish, and he'll have all men to be saved, guaranteed there's an opportunity there. And so it's kind of ridiculous that this stuff gets brought up, and I think it's where sometimes I think people just want some new thing. They want to say, you know what? Or they want to be more extreme than the next, right? Because obviously I believe calling upon the name Lord is part of salvation. But we don't want to take that too far. We don't want to take that to the point of ridiculousness, to the point now we're saying that some people can't get saved because of a disability. Now, let's talk about, there's two things that were brought up. And the name of my sermon is, How Shall They Hear and How Shall They Call? That's in that passage that we read. But did it say, you know, how shall they call on him in whom has no way to speak? How shall they call on him if they have no way to speak? No, it says, how shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? How shall they hear if they can't hear because they're deaf? No, it says, how shall they hear except, you know, how shall they hear without a preacher? Okay? So, you know, that's in the Bible. It's like talking about how shall they call, how shall they hear. But people are literally saying, how shall they call and how shall they hear if they're deaf and mute? That's not what that's talking about. Now, when it's talking about faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, what it's talking about is the fact that you have to understand the word of God. You have to know what it says. Okay? Now, go to Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13 and verse 13. Now, for the majority of people, I mean, you can hear the word of God. And I think the premise that you're getting here is that faith is not by sight. Right? If you said, you know, faith comes by reading and seeing the word of God, then people would probably go, oh, it's by sight then, you know, because you're seeing it on the page. Yeah, but here's the thing. When you're seeing it on the page, you're seeing ink and you're seeing paper, right? But it's the words that you're seeing. And when it comes to hearing and seeing, there's an aspect to that that comes into play here is the fact that when you say, I heard that or I saw that, that could be talking about physically, like audibly hearing something and physically seeing something because it came through your eyeballs and light reflected off that and it came into your lenses of your eyes and you literally saw that physically, right? But a lot of times in the Bible when you're talking about hearing and seeing, it's not talking about the physical aspect. It's talking about the inward aspect of it. And, you know, have you ever said this when someone's talking to you and be like, oh, I hear you? Are you saying that you physically heard them or are you saying, no, I understand what you're saying? Or you say, you know, they're trying to explain something to you and be like, oh, I see. I mean modern vernacular, that's what we use all the time, but the Bible does the same thing. How about blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God? What's that talking about? It's talking about knowing God, perceiving God, right? And when it says, he that hath an ear, let him hear, you know, or he that hath ears, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the church, you know, the idea that's being said there is the fact that you have ears, but are you listening, right? Because you can hear what I'm saying but not understand what I'm saying. You know, and you could be dull of hearing meaning that you understand what's being said, like you understand the words that are coming out of my mouth, but you don't understand what I'm trying to get across. And that's the aspect that we're dealing with with salvation is when it says, how shall they hear without a preacher or how shall they believe in whom they have not heard? Obviously there's the idea of like hearing about it, right? But the idea is there that you can't believe until you understand it. And that's why when we go out soul winning, we want to be very thorough. We want to be thorough because they need to know what they're believing. They need to understand what they're believing. And like I said, some people stray away from the calling on the name of the Lord because there's a camp out there where it's like one, two, three, repeat after me. And they focus all on the prayer and they don't focus at all about understanding it and believing it, right? It's just all about the prayer. And that's wrong, okay? You pray a prayer and you don't understand what you're believing, then you're not saved, okay? But just throw out the baby with the bathwater because there's people out there that do that, that just reject this passage out of hand because there's people out there that just pray prayers with people but they don't show them what they need to believe. I think that's not the right answer. But in Matthew chapter 13 and verse 13, notice what it says here. Therefore speak I to them in parables because they seeing see not and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. So when it says seeing they see not and hearing they hear not, is that talking about the fact that they're hearing but just kidding, they're not really hearing? Or is that saying they're hearing it but they're not really hearing it? And what does it mean? They're not understanding it. They're hearing it, not understanding it, they're seeing it but they're not perceiving it, okay? Notice what it says here, keep reading there. It says, And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear and shall not understand, and seeing ye shall see and shall not perceive. Notice how when it's talking about seeing it's talking about perceiving, when it's talking about hearing it's talking about understanding. For this people's heart is waxed gross and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them. Blessed are your eyes for they see and your ears for they hear. So when we're talking about seeing and hearing here, what are we talking about? Understanding. Understanding what's being said. The whole premise here is that why is he speaking to, why are you speaking to them in parables? So that they don't see and they don't understand. They don't perceive what I'm saying, they don't understand what I'm saying because he has hardened their hearts, okay? But he's like, you understand, you're perceiving what I'm saying, you're understanding what I'm saying, you have the same, you can hear what I'm saying just as much as they can. You can see what I'm doing just as much as what they can. The difference is you understand it, they don't. So when it says faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God, obviously the word of God has to be there, okay? The question though is does it have to be audible? Does it have to be audible? Go to Revelation chapter 1, Revelation chapter 1. And again it's where people, I think people take things that are, they take good things and take them too far. Notice what it says in Revelation chapter 1 and verse 3. Blessed is he that read it and he and they that hear the words of this prophecy and keep those things which are written therein for the time is at hand. So reading is not hearing, that's seeing it on the page and reading it. Hearing it is an audible thing as far as like you're reading it or you're hearing it. I think both are a blessing, okay? But what if someone's blind, right? Well, I think they can still read. And I think they can still even hear, you know obviously they can hear because they're blind. But let's take Helen Keller for example, okay? Helen Keller was someone that couldn't see or hear. But yet she could still, she learned to communicate. She learned to both read and communicate. Now I don't know if Helen Keller got saved, okay? I'm not here to like talk about her salvation. But I do believe that it was possible for her to get saved. Even though she couldn't hear the word of God and even though she couldn't vocally call upon the Lord because obviously if you're deaf a lot of times you can speak. I'm not saying that she couldn't physically speak. But if you're deaf, I mean you're not hearing what you're saying, it's not going to sound great, okay? Especially if you've never heard it, how are you going to speak it, right? How are you going to, I mean you're talking about someone that was born like that, okay? And the thing is is that you can learn to read the word of God even though you can't hear it or see it. And that has to be, and I'm going to be getting into the fact of God is not bound by things that are audible, things that are seen. You know, you can get the word of God and you can believe on Christ and you can communicate with God without any of those elements, okay? Now how about Matthew chapter 24? Matthew chapter 24, you say well, you know, you have to hear to understand it. Oh, okay. Let's look at that. Now we're in the end times prophecy right now with Revelation, so this should be very familiar. Matthew 24 and verse 15, it says, When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, whoso readeth, let him understand. Well, I guess you just ask them to do something they can't do then. Because you're saying, well, you got to hear to understand. Well, would anybody say that what he's telling them to read is not the word of God? He's telling them to read Daniel where he's talking about the abomination of desolation. So he's saying, let him that readeth understand. That means that you can understand by reading. And it says the same thing in Mark chapter 13, let him that readeth understand, about the same passage, parallel passage. But this is where, okay, you take something that's a good principle, like people aren't going to get saved off of Bible tracts. But you have to ask your, the question you have to ask yourself is why. Why are they not going to get saved off of Bible tracts? Well, if the Bible tract is just Bible verses, how shall, you know, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, and how shall they hear without a preacher? And obviously the Bible teaches that how, you know, the Ethiopian eunuch says, you know, understand what thou readest? How can I accept some manage of guidance, okay? It's possible for people to get saved through text, okay? Meaning that, but the thing is the why tracts aren't going to get someone saved most all the time is because there's no communication that's going on there, right? Now our, and you say, well, some tracts have some communication. It's so minimal, I don't believe that's enough, that's going to be enough for someone to change their mind and actually believe it, right? You're talking about Bible verses and then there's like maybe like a couple sentences here or there, okay? How many times have you gotten someone saved with that little bit of communication, okay? I think that it's, if you have, like let's say you had a whole dissertation on how to get saved and there's Bible verses in there, I think someone could get saved. You know, when it comes to like, let's say you wrote a letter to somebody and you put the gospel in there and you wrote it out for them, I believe that it's possible for them to get saved like that, okay? Obviously having a one-on-one conversation where you can go back and forth is going to be better, right? Than like having a pen pal where you're literally like writing letters back and forth to each other. Listen, in our modern day and age, obviously that's kind of like in the past, what do we have? We have social media. Could you go back and forth on Messenger with somebody where you're typing out verses and explaining it to them, they're coming back with a question, you're explaining it back to them, no audible noises are being made besides the clicking and clacking of your computer, can they get saved? I believe they can, okay? But the reason why tracks don't work is because that's not actually what's going to happen with that track. It's a one-way communication, right? You're giving that information out, there's no chance for them to respond back to you, okay? And with the letter, obviously if it's longer and you're giving more explanation, it's possible I think, but at the same time, like I think there's going to have to be some back and forth because there's going to be questions, there's going to be, you're going to have to go back and forth with this person and tear down some false arguments, whatever the case may be. That's why it's not working. So they take the idea that well, a track isn't going to get someone saved because it's just words on a page, they have to hear it audibly. That's not why I believe tracks aren't getting people saved, okay? It's kind of like this false premise that that's why. You know, or a straw man argument. It's kind of like well, why don't you believe queers are going to get saved? Because of what they did? No, it's because that their heart is hardened and they're unable to believe. That's why, okay? And the reason that tracks aren't working is because, let's just face it, most of those tracks are all wrong anyway, okay? Most of those tracks people are handing out are saying, put your sins. So if you're saying all that stuff, then you're not going to get someone saved by talking about lying about things and giving false information. But let's say you made a track and it was all good. Again, it's kind of this one-way communication where there's no back and forth. Possible because it's just as possible for someone to get saved if you preach them the gospel and there's no communication coming back, right? But let's just be honest. Who here knows that more people get saved when you have communication going back and forth and one-on-one conversations? I mean, that's just facts that are going on there. So I hope that you understand that hearing the Word of God, when I read it, guess what I'm hearing it? Maybe not audibly, but I'm hearing it. Why? Because I'm reading it, I'm understanding it just as much as if I hear it, okay? Now, what about praying, okay, or calling on the name of the Lord as far as if you can't speak? Well, go to 1 Samuel 1, 1 Samuel 1, and this is where Hannah is requesting for a child. And this is where it comes into the fact that when someone gets saved, I believe they can get saved before you even get done talking to them. But it doesn't mean that the calling doesn't happen within that, okay? And, you know, because I think that's where people get into, like, well, you got done talking to the person and they're just like, I believe that, I'm saved, you know, all that. It's like, well, you're assuming they didn't call on God while you were talking to them. You're assuming there's no communication between them and God by the time you got done with that conversation when you were talking to them, okay? And I'll give you an example in the Bible of someone that got saved before they were even done talking. So it's obviously possible for someone to get saved before the soul winner leads them in a prayer. But, again, it's this idea like, well, they didn't call. Does it say they didn't call? Right? Show me, if the burden of proof is on you, just show me where someone got saved that didn't call on the name of the Lord, okay? Because nowhere does it say, this person believed but they didn't call. They're going to heaven. That's not there, okay? So the burden of proof is on you because the Bible says, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Okay? So that, to me, is going to negate your philosophical hypotheticals, okay? Because I'm going to take the Word of God and I'm going to say that's what reality is. How does that fit in reality as far as what we see and, you know, observe, okay? So 1 Samuel 1 and verse 9, it says, So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh and after they had drunk. Now Eli, the priest, sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the Lord. And she was in bitterness of soul and prayed unto the Lord and wept sore. And she vowed a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if thou will indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid and man child, then I will give him unto the Lord all the days of his life and there shall no razor come upon his head. So notice she's praying and it even tells us what she prays, right? There's this whole communication that's going on right here, okay? And notice what it says here in verse 12. And it came to pass as she continued praying, so she's still praying, so there's more that she's praying that we don't see because now it's getting into what does Eli see, like what's going on with Eli here, as she continued praying before the Lord that Eli marked her mouth. Now Hannah, she spake in her heart, only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard. Therefore, Eli thought she had been drunken, okay? So is it possible to pray without speaking audibly? Case in point. It is possible. And she wasn't just, she was saying something and it literally tells us what she was saying, but it was in her heart, okay? And it wasn't vocalized out audibly and Eli obviously misjudged her because in verse 14 it says, And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? Put away thine wine from thee. And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord. I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit and have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the Lord. Count thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial. Now I love this because it's like what's associated with being a child of the devil? I don't think that I'm like this reprobate over here, you know? So like obviously there's no esteem for children of the devil. The idea is like children of the devil are liars, they're drunkards, you know, all that stuff. So anyway, it says, For out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto. Okay? So she's speaking and it says that, you know, she prayed, but she didn't vocalize. Nothing came out audibly. Verse 17, Then Eli answered and said, Go in peace. And the God of Israel grant thee thy petition that thou hast asked of him. So not only does it say, you know, that she prayed, but she's saying, I spoke. And Eli is saying, You know what? What you've asked, let it be done, you know. That all happened without any vocalization. So tell me that someone that can't speak can't get saved. Okay? Because let me ask you a question. Did God hear her? Yeah, I mean, you know the rest of the story. So God heard her. And by the way, God knows your thoughts. He knows what you're going to pray before you ask. And listen, is calling on the name of the Lord for salvation, does that have anything to do with who's around you? It has only to do between you and God. And obviously, we help people in a prayer because we want to help assist them and make sure that they feel like they've done what they have to do as far as believing on Christ and give them that confidence that, hey, I got saved today. But do they really have to have us there? Do they really need us to pray that prayer with them? No, but they must communicate with God. And every time that I pray with someone, I say, hey, repeat after me, but we're going to pray this to God. This is to God. Because this is where you're taking it in, you're holding it, they're holding on to it. But when do they get saved? When they put it on Christ. And that's where the calling on the name of the Lord takes place. If you hold on to it, but you don't put it on Christ, then you're not saved. But here we see someone that's not speaking audibly, but prays to God, speaks to God, and asks a petition of God. And God hears that petition. In this story, I don't think this is by accident because you may look at this and be like, what's this here for? Maybe for this sermon. Maybe for people that literally think that people that can't speak can't talk to God for some reason. Or can't call on God. Hannah called on God, nothing audibly came out of her mouth. Now go to Luke chapter 1, I'm going to show you another example. Another example is Zacharias. That's John the Baptist's dad. And you know the story, right? I mean, the angel comes to him and says that his wife is going to be with child. Notice what it says in verse 18, it says, And Zacharias said unto the angel, Whereby shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife well stricken in years. And the angel answered and said unto him, I am Gabriel that stand in the presence of God, and am sent to speak unto thee, and to show thee these glad tidings. And behold, thou shalt be dumb, and not able to speak, until the day that these things shall be performed, because thou believeth not my words, which shall be fulfilled in their season. So basically, he doubted what the angel said was going to happen. He's like, you're not going to be able to speak. You're going to be dumb until this is fulfilled. And that happened. But notice what happens before he's able to speak. So the child's born, and on the eighth day they circumcised the child, and that's when they give him the name. Okay, notice what it says in verse 62, And they made signs to his father how he would have him called. Why are they making signs to him, right? Because they can't speak, okay? And it says in verse 63, it says, And he asked for a writing table. Let me ask you a question. How did he ask for a writing table if he can't speak? So he asked for a writing table and wrote, saying, His name is John, and they marveled all. And his mouth was opened immediately, and his tongue loosed, and he spake and praised God. So before his tongue was loosed, he spoke, or he wrote saying something, okay? So he wrote it on a table, right? He wrote it, it's like, his name is John, right? But he showed it to them. They understood it. Guess what? He communicated without audibly saying anything. This would be the, it's not the equivalent, but this would be the idea of like sign language, right? And the idea is that sign language is a language, and it's a way to communicate with other people, right? And go to, I don't know how far I want to go with this. For example, I'm going to give you the case in Acts chapter 10, where someone, I believe, gets saved before the soul owner is even done talking. This is the case where Peter comes and reaches to Cornelius in his whole house. So I'm not here to say that, you know, there aren't a lot of people maybe that we win to Christ that are saved before we even get to that prayer, okay? But that doesn't negate calling on the name of the Lord, okay, for salvation. Does that make sense? That doesn't negate it. Why? Because it can happen inwardly in the heart. Because they can pray to God in their heart before you even get to that point. Now, in Acts chapter 10, verse 43, it says, To him give all the prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins. It sounds like he's hearing the gospel here. Now, I'm giving you a little snippet here, so obviously there was more that was said. It says, so you hear that portion, and then it says, While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word. So that means they got saved. As he was speaking, they got saved, and the Holy Ghost is falling upon these Gentiles, which are marveling at it. And it even says in verse 47, Can any man forbid water that these should be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we? And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord, then prayed they him to tarry certain days. So before Peter's even done speaking, they're not only saved, the Holy Ghost is coming upon them, but see, someone could look at it and be like, see, there's no calling there. Again, Hannah's a great example of someone that can call and pray without even speaking. I don't believe that Cornelius literally just audibly started praying to God while Peter was speaking. I believe that he's just listening, but as he's listening, it clicks, he believes it, he puts his faith in Christ. He communicates that with God, and then the Holy Ghost is coming upon him, and not just him, because everybody else there as well. And so there's an example of someone getting saved before you even get to the sinner's prayer, if you will. But I don't, that doesn't negate the calling on the name of the Lord. Go to Psalm 19, Psalm 19. And the last thing I'm going to show you here is that in Romans 10 and verse 18, it says, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. It says, but I say, have they not heard? Yes, verily their sound went into all the world, all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. This is a quotation that's coming from Psalm 19. And what I want to show you here is that there are certain things that are speaking, or basically being noised abroad, that are things that are not actually audible. Notice what it says here in verse 1. It says, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. Notice that it's saying, uttereth speech. Now, I don't believe someone's getting saved off of looking at the sun, moon, and stars, and looking at creation to be like, I see the creation, and they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't believe that. But what it's giving an example here, it's likening how the creation, everybody sees it, and it's uttering speech to them, meaning they're getting some kind of communication with what they're seeing, right? And how he likens that to the word of God, and the fact that the word of God has gone everywhere. Notice what it says in verse 3. There is no speech nor language which their voice is not heard. And he's likening this to the word of God. Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath he set a tabernacle for the sun. And it says, which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoices that as a strong man to run a race, his going forth is from the end of the earth, and his circuit unto the ends of it, and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof. Meaning this is that as much as the sun hits every part of the earth, and as much as everybody sees the sun, moon, and stars, that's where his word's at. And he's basically stating here that even as the sun, moon, and stars, and everything in the firmament, as uttering speech, that's how the word of God is going forth. But notice that that's not even audible. So obviously most of the time the word of God that's being preached to people is audible, because most people can hear, and you're going to speak to them and talk to them about it. But to just throw out people that can't hear is ridiculous. And throw out people that can't physically speak, that's ridiculous. I mean it goes against so much of the Bible. So in the end you should throw it out without argument, and the fact that, hey, this is ridiculous because God wants everybody to get saved. He's not going to have someone born deaf just so that they can go to hell and didn't have an opportunity to be saved. I mean that should just go without saying because the Bible's so clear on the fact that he wants everybody to get saved. But then you should look at, okay, what's their arguments? Well, faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Okay, well, hearing, you can hear something that's not audible. You can understand something by just reading it. And that doesn't mean that you have to audibly hear the word of God. You can read the word of God. But if you're reading the word of God, there has to be an explanation, right? That doesn't negate the fact that, hey, someone could just get saved by reading the Bible, okay? Because I don't believe someone's going to get saved by just reading the Bible because they're spiritually discernible. You know, the natural man receiving not the things of the Spirit of God. So they have to have someone guide them. But I believe you can guide somebody with sign language. You can guide somebody with, you know, just any type of communication. You could guide somebody with Braille, right? Let's say they can't see and you gave them something that was in Braille and they can feel it. I mean, Helen Keller would be that example, right? Because they can't hear, they can't see. You would have to communicate with her through touch. But listen, is there any language that God is bound by? Isn't that what the Bible says? It says there is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard. No, everybody. That's just a definite that everybody can understand it. Everybody can hear it. And hearing isn't always an audible thing. And like I said, there's cases in the Bible where it's like they heard a voice. You know, they saw a man but they heard no voice. And then in other places it says they heard a voice but, you know, but it's talking about understanding, right? Because there's a lot of times where someone's saying something to me and I'll be like, sorry, I didn't hear you. Did I not hear them at all? Did I not hear noises coming from them? Or even if I heard exactly what they said, I'd be like, sorry, can you repeat that? I didn't hear you there. What I mean is I didn't understand what you're saying, okay? And so that being said is that I hope that helps there. I hope that helps with the calling on the name of the Lord and the fact that calling on the name of the Lord is a part of salvation but you don't take it to the extreme where someone that literally can't speak or hear can't get saved. That's insanity. It needs to be nipped in the bud and that type of stuff is going to cause harm to the cause of Christ because you're being too extreme, you're going too far when it comes to what the Bible teaches and it's going to make calling on the name of the Lord look like it's crazy or something like that. And then you don't want to go the other direction and be like, calling on the name of the Lord, that's adding to salvation because it's just faith. Well, now you're negating the Bible where it says calling on the name of the Lord for salvation. You can't go those extremes, you have to be right here where the Bible's at. That believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. But when you put your trust in Christ at that moment, you are communicating with God and calling on Him for salvation and if you're not communicating with God, then you're not putting your trust in Him. That's what I believe on that case. And the other thing with people not being able to call or not being able to hear, that's just crazy. It doesn't fit the Bible. It should be rejected out of hand and if you have any questions about that, let me know. But there's some verses for you on that. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for today and thank you for your word. And just pray that you'll be with us throughout the rest of the day. Pray that you'll be with us as we go soul winning. And just pray that you'll be with us throughout the rest of the week. And Lord, we love you and pray all this in Jesus Christ's name. Amen. I pray that you'll come and sing one more song and that will be dismissed. All right, song one hundred and eighty three in your songbook. Song one hundred and eighty three will sing. Oh, how I love Jesus. And if you would stand, we'll sing song one hundred and eighty three. There is a name I love to hear. I love to sing it's worth. It sounds like music in my ear. The sweetest name on earth. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Because he first loved me. It tells me of a savior's love who died to set me free. It tells me of precious blood, the sinner's perfect plea. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus. Because he first loved me. It tells me what my father hath in store for every day. And though I tread a darksome path, yield sunshine all the way. Oh, how I love Jesus. Oh, how I love Jesus.