FOUR SIMPLE TRUTHS ABOUT SALVATION

Romans 10:1-13

            The humorous story is told of a baseball manger who decided to play a rookie in right field one day. The regular fielder wasn’t happy about it and loudly makes it know from the bench that it was a big mistake to play the kid.

            As it turned out the rookie was so nervous that he messed up big-time. He made a couple of errors and misjudged several other fly balls that should have been called errors. Each time he messed up, the veteran complained loudly from the bench.

            Finally, late in the game the manager replaced the rookie with the veteran, mostly to shut the veteran up. Not long after, the veteran mishandled the first ball hit to him for an error. As he came off the field at the end of the inning, everyone on the bench got very quiet so they could hear what he would say.

            The manager was waiting for the veteran, but before the manager could address the man, the veteran ballplayer slammed his glove down in disgust and said, “Skipper, that kid has right field so messed up nobody can play it.”

            Far too many preachers and pastors have messed up the doctrine of salvation. In our text we have salvation in simple language that the everyday person can understand.

Romans 10:13 contains four of the most impressive truths man can ponder. These four impressive  truths are found in the simplest statement on salvation in the  Word of God. Could the gospel message ever be reduced to simpler terms?

Romans 10:13 is the sweetest and the simplest as well as the profoundest verse in the Bible to me. Romans 10:13 ought to comfort and encourage any heart that will give  meditation to it.

            John Phillips has said, “Where, within the compass of one short verse, can be found a better statement of the scope, the simplicity and the substance of the gospel?”

I.          The WIDEST conceivable HUMANITY

I.          The SIMPLEST conceivable ACTIVITY

III.       The GRANDEST conceivable PERSONALITY

IV.       The GREATEST conceivable REALITY 

I.    The WIDEST conceivable HUMANITY - “Whosoever”

            “Whosoever” is the widest scope or reach of humanity one can possibly imagine. “Whosoever” is a Scriptural word of immense importance. It is general,  and yet it is particular.

A.            “Whosoever” means ALL

                        There are no exceptions!  The love of God knows no exceptions.

                        C. H. Spurgeon once said, “I have often thought that if I had read in Scripture that ‘if Charles Haddon Spurgeon shall call upon the name of the Lord, he shall be saved,’ I would not have felt as sure of salvation as I do now, because I would have concluded that there might have been somebody else of that name, and I would have said, ‘Surely it did not mean me.’ But when the Lord says, ‘Whosoever,’ I cannot get out of that circle.”

            B.  “Whosoever” means ANY

                        There are none excluded. “Whosoever” means anybody!

            C.  Whosoever” means YOU

  I read about a man who was reading his Bible when a man passing by stopped and  said, “That book isn’t for you.”

                                “Indeed it is.”

                                “How do you know?”

                                “My name is in it!”

                                “Where?”

                                “Why right here,” and he began to read loudly John 3:16 until he came to the word “whosoever,” and then slowly spelled it out, and then he  concluded his remarks  by “There it is.” 

II.         The SIMPLEST conceivable ACTIVITY - “call”

            “Call” means to cry.   The first thing a child does when it is born is cry. You don’t need to teach it to cry, it just cries. I never needed to teach any of my children to cry. It is simple and easy to cry.

            There is not a man or woman, boy or girl who cannot cry.  How does humanity get saved, by the simplest act? It is not baptism or the Lord’s Supper or church membership. It is simply crying out to God in humble repentance and faith.

            How easy it is to become a Christian? Occasionally someone will remark, “Preacher, you make salvation so easy.” However, the truth is, I did not make it easy, but God sure did. Salvation is so simple that the smallest child who understands right from wrong can accept it and be saved. Salvation is so simple that anybody who recognizes that they are a sinner and realizes that by faith they can receive Christ as Saviour can be saved.

            Satan has tried to complicate God’s simple salvation. He has attempted to add more to it. “You must burn some candles to be saved,” the devil may suggest. Now you may get saved with candles burning, but you will not get saved by the candles burning.  “You must be baptized to be saved.” Now, you may get saved in the baptistery but the baptistery will not save you.  

            To be saved, you must simply call upon the Lord in humble repentance and faith. Believing in Christ and calling upon Him is in effect the same thing; as calling upon God necessarily connects and supposes faith in him. Calling upon the name of Jesus is the testimony of true faith in God. See verse 11. It is a great day when a human heart turns to Jesus for he will immediately find Jesus rich unto all that call!

            Anybody who knows he is a sinner and knows that he is condemned before God to die and realizes that Jesus Christ died on the cross for sinners (you in particular) and will simply come to God and call out to him, can be saved.

III.   The GRANDEST conceivable PERSONALITY -  “the name of the Lord”

            Acts 4:12

            Only one name that salvation is found in. Only one person that salvation is found it.

A.  Jesus is the exclusive name

                        John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him...”

                        There are many ways to come to Christ, but only one way to get to heaven. It is Jesus Christ or eternal tragedy for everyone!

B.  Jesus is the essential name

                        Acts 13:38,39 “Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren,....”

                        The remission of sins, the removal of the penalty, power, and the pollution of sin comes alone through this man, whom ye crucified, and who is risen from the dead. “by him all that believe are justified from all things.” The means of our forgiveness, “by Him” Christ; the must of the subjects forgiven by him, “all that believe”; and the measure of our forgiveness, (not from some, but from “all things”).

IV.  The GREATEST conceivable REALITY - “shall be saved”

            It is not a might be saved, or a can be saved, or hope to  be saved. It is a SHALL BE SAVED!

             God stakes His character on His word. I have eternal salvation because of the blood that secures it, but I have security because of the Book that assures it.

            You may question me, “What have you got for your salvation but a piece of paper with writing on it?”  I would answer, “Yes, but it is God’s writing that is on that piece of paper?”

            John 5:24 “Verily, verily......”

            John 3:36 “He that...”

            I John 5:10-13 “And this....”

            Someone once said it is presumptuous to declare that you know you are saved. The truth is it is presumptuous to doubt what God has said in His eternal Word.

            John 10:28,29  “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand.”

           John McGraw was the legendary manager of the New York Giants baseball team from 1902 to 1932. He was manager in a time when major league baseball was a rough-and-tumble game, and some of the players were regarded by decent folk to be little more than hoodlums.

                McGraw fit this image perfectly. He was called the Little Napoleon because of his autocratic style. His players feared him. McGraw hated umpires, but one umpire name Bill Klem,  was just as legendary as McGraw and  just as tough. On one occasion during an altercation a furious McGraw roared, “Klem, I ‘ll have your job for this.”

                Klem roared back, “McGraw, if you can have my job, I don’t want it.”

                Bill Klem understood a basic principle about security. He recognized that if his job was so insecure and angry manager could get him fired, then he might as well go on to something else because the job really wasn’t his to begin with.

                The same truth applies to the salvation, If the salvation that Jesus gave me is so insecure that the devil can get cause me to lose it anytime he feels like it or if you or anyone else on earth can do something to take you out of Christ’s hand, then the salvation you were given was not  eternal to begin with.

            My security is in a place but in a person.  Thank God it is in a person who did not, cannot, and will not lie.

Conclusion:

            Romans 10:13 is a profound and yet simple verse in the Word of God. It contains four of the most impressive truths one can ever contemplate in the simplest of terms.

            What will you do with these four profound and yet simple truths about salvation?
Yours because HIS

Bro. Jimmy Chapma
Yours because HIS

Bro. Jimmy Chapman