(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Matthew Sucky here and I want to make a quick video on the topic of calling on the name of the Lord calling on the name of the Lord. This is a topic that is very controversial one and you know it's sort of controversial because sometimes people that are well-intentioned and really want to defend faith alone they go a little bit overboard and unfortunately they use just their fleshly earthly wisdom rather than just seeing what the Bible says and I'm making this video because of the fact that I had somebody messaged me the other day and I mean they asked they put a friend request out and sent me a message and then all of a sudden I saw on their Facebook wall that they posted a video of me preaching the gospel and said I was preaching a work salvation because I said you need to call on the name of the Lord and so I don't know why they sent me a friend request I don't know what the purpose was and they said well we'll take this video down if you you know you change your stance on this otherwise I'm gonna keep this up I said hey by all means keep it up because I was preaching the gospel and people were hearing the gospel being preached but I wanted to talk about this issue of calling on the name of the Lord and is it works to tell people to call on the name of the Lord now this video is not meant to be comprehensive you can preach a whole sermon on this topic and many pastors have preached whole sermons on it but I just want to show you that calling on the name of the Lord is not a work according to the Bible and what we believe is Bible believe in Christians is what does the Bible say that is how we determine what we believe Romans 10 verse 8 the Bible says but what sayeth it the word is naive even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is the word of faith which we preach oftentimes we focus on Romans 10 verses 9 through 13 and those are great verses Romans 10 is an awesome chapter in the Bible it's a very important chapter but Romans 10 8 really kind of sets us up by saying you know what the word is naive even in thy mouth and in thy heart that is a word of faith which we preach and so what Paul the Apostle said is we tell people you've got to believe in your heart and then you confess with your mouth it's in your mouth and it's in your heart and that's the word of faith which we preach so if it's the word of faith which we preach what that tells you is that telling you to confess with your mouth is not works it's the word of faith which we preach and we're saved by grace through faith according to the Bible so Romans 10 verse 8 if your Bible believe in Christian look at that verse and what it shows you is that you know what calling on the name of the Lord is not a work also in Matthew chapter 7 verses 7 through 11 this is what the Bible says here Matthew 7 verse 7 asking it shall be given you seek and he shall find knock and it shall be opened on you for everyone that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened or what man is there of you whom if his son ask bread will he give him a stone or if he ask a fish will he give him a serpent if ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more so your father which is in heaven give good gifts good things to them that ask him so how much more so your father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him and he just talked about that you know being a gift know how to give good gifts unto your children and what that showing you is asking from the father for something is not a work it's actually a good thing is actually a gift according to the context so by asking for the gift of eternal life that's not work salvation because according to Matthew chapter 7 verse 11 if ye then being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more so your father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him so telling people that they need to ask for the gift of eternal life that is not a work according to Bible according to Romans 10 verse 8 according to Matthew 7 verses 7 through 11 but specifically verse 11 that by asking for the gift of eternal life that does not negate the fact that it is a gift that you're receiving by asking for it that is not a work according to the Bible and people try to use logical arguments like why you know the Bible says but wait a minute what is about what is the Bible say not just what are your own thoughts what is the Bible say they say well I mean don't you wouldn't that be a work if you had to ask for it that's more than just believing but what is the Bible say Romans 10 verse 8 Matthew 7 verse 11 it's not works if you have to ask for it now I want you to understand something I do believe that anybody that believes is going to go to heaven whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life but I want you to understand the difference between something if somebody truly believes about salvation that does not mean that they're going to get baptized that does not mean that they're going to come to church that just means that they believed they put their full trust in Jesus they quit trusting their own works and what they received was everlasting life however I want you to think about this logically I don't like using logical examples I like to just use verses which I just showed you but think about this logically if you are in a burning building and you know that you're going to die you have no hope of escaping but you see somebody standing outside of the building and he's not looking at you he doesn't know that the building is burning you know what because you believe that and because you believe he can save you it will be automatic that you cry out help save me or if you are basically drowning and somebody's beside the water and they don't realize you're drowning you know you're going to cry out help save me it's common sense and if somebody believes that Jesus Christ is their Savior but that they deserve hell and they need help they need salvation it's it's common sense that they're going to ask for it if they actually believe that in their heart and you know what this is not just a logical argument I'm saying this is actually what Jesus Christ said in John 4 verse 10 Jesus answered and said unto her if thou knewest the gift of God what is the gift of God eternal life if thou knewest the gift of God and who it is that sayeth to thee give me to drink thou wouldest have asked of him and he would have given thee living water so Jesus says if you knew what the gift is and who it was that was telling you this you know you would have asked for that gift and he would have given the living water right after that we see the woman praying and basically asking for that water however the problem was she didn't actually believe it in her heart and so the conversation goes on for quite a while longer Jesus says if you understand the gift and who it is that saying this you're going to ask for it however she then asks but she doesn't actually believe it yet and what that shows us is there's no question that people can pray and you think that they get saved but they don't actually believe it in their heart which is why we're not one two three pray after me because the salvation comes down to what they believe in their heart and we need to make sure that they actually believe it we need to make sure we spend the time that they understand what salvation is that what the gift is is eternal life not conditional life and we have to understand that they know who Jesus Christ is they have to you know basically believe that Jesus would do what he said he do which is give us eternal life and that he was who he says he was which is the Savior the Christ God in the flesh the eternal Son of God who came and died and paid for our sins they need to understand that but if they understand that the Bible says that they will ask so you say brother Stuckey if it's automatic that they're going to ask why do we even try to get them to ask because the reality is that if we just explain the gospel and never told people to call in the name of the Lord the reality is that many people would still get saved because many people would believe it in their heart and just kind of a natural outflow is that they would ask for salvation and look I even believe that when we preach the gospel many people get saved before the end of the conversation because they believe it in their heart and just it's just kind of natural to ask for it and they might not do it audibly but they might do that in their heart but those same people are going to ask for it a couple minutes later when you say well if you believe this can we pray right now you say but why do we even go through the prayer well because of the fact many people are still not really quite sure up until the point where you put them on the brink with the prayer see many people are hearing what we're saying we're explaining the gospel but inside their heart they're not necessarily sure they're still undecided it's making logical sense but that doesn't mean that they actually believe it in their heart and so you know it's a great way to end the conversation where we're getting them to that point and then all of a sudden they're understanding this and it's like what do you believe you know it's time to make a decision and that is a way to get people to make a decision whereas without doing that a lot of people that would be getting close to the point of fully believing they still might be up in the air about it and not sure about what they believe and they might never make a decision to believe on Jesus Christ with their full heart so the bottom line is by bringing to the point of asking for that gift of salvation that is going to help people make that decision to believe on Jesus Christ whereas if they don't have that then many people that would have gotten saved just wouldn't get saved here's the thing if somebody gets saved earlier in the conversation they believe with their whole heart and they ask for it there's no harm in spending a couple more minutes make sure they get it and nail down a moment so if there's any question of whether or not they get it or not boom they're calling on Jesus right there now if they haven't done that already inside their heart the other thing is this the the prayer is very helpful for the soul winner to realize and know whether the person gets it or not all of us that are soul winners have gotten to the end of conversations and we try to get people to pray and they're just like well you know I'm not sure now why is it that they're not sure if they want to pray well because they probably don't believe in their heart yet they're probably still undecided whether they believe this or not and they're still thinking I got saved 12 years ago and they're just not sure what they believe at this moment so if you do a good job preaching the gospel the prayer is very helpful as it shows you as a soul winner are they believing this or not and if there's any hesitation to make that prayer it's probably because they don't quite grasp it yet in their heart and so that shows you as a soul winner maybe I need to go over some things and you could ask a question is there any part of this that you weren't sure about is there any part of this that you you didn't believe or you're not a hundred percent on and you can find out what's actually inside their heart so look the the prayer is a very helpful way to find out if the person's getting it and to bring them to that moment to force them to make a decision and you know what some people at that point would say no and then all of a sudden they're just like yeah you know I still believe in the Catholic Church I still believe that you know your works are required and basically they reject that message of salvation but by going to the point of the prayer that puts them to the brink of that moment where they've got to make a decision now is it possible some have already made that decision inside their heart and called of course but at the same time it doesn't harm to just go through it you know audibly you know double check this and make sure they get it and the bottom line is it's not a work to ask for the gift of eternal life because in Romans 10 verse 8 it said it's in your mouth and in your heart and that's the word of faith which we preach and in Matthew 7 verse 11 it talks about asking for good gifts and you know what it's not a work it's still a gift the gift of God is eternal life and by telling people hey you know believe and call for it you know what that is not a work that you're telling people I get it that there's a lot of 123 pray after me I get it that it's annoying that you see people that get 25 salvation's in one hour because they're making salvation a joke and it's embarrassing it's annoying when people do that because basically it it makes it look like the work rack actually doing by spending hours soul-winning is meaningless it has no value but the reality is if you want to do a thorough job preaching the gospel you need to get them to the point where basically they're willing to pray and ask for salvation and if they never do that honestly you just don't know if they really believe that in their heart or not of course it's possible someone would ask for it like the woman at the well in John 4 and maybe you don't realize that they don't get it and you know of course we're going to have false conversions however we want to be as thorough as possible and make sure people are getting it and so we should end conversations by trying to get people to call in the name of the Lord if there's any hesitation with that that shows you as a soul winner there's something that's just not clicking they just don't quite believe it yet thank you and God bless