Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible

Narrator (Male): The Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals presents the timeless teaching of Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse.

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: A man may be unwilling to listen to truth, may stifle the voice of God as easily as a man can reach out his hand and tune out a radio program, turning to something that is more palatable to his natural desires.

But man is fully accountable and will give answer to God for what he has done with the good news that is proclaimed to him. The good news is that God has nothing against you and that he has done all that is necessary to have you reconciled to himself.

Guest (Male): God's word is for God he gave, to teach, rebuke, correct, and train, equipped by him we can be sure, to do the work God has for us to do. God's word is for the Christian means, to grow in grace and do good deeds.

Narrator (Male): Over a half a century ago, the late Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse, then pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, saw the need to spread God's word beyond the hearing of his local congregation.

He started the radio ministry which has become known as Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. The application of God's word as taught by Dr. Barnhouse is as relevant today as when he first taught over the radio airwaves decades ago.

The message we'll be featuring on today's edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is entitled "Call on His Name." You should call 911 if you are in danger and need to be rescued.

But if you are in spiritual danger and want to be rescued from eternal condemnation, you must call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible promises that everyone who will call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Have you called upon his mighty name for yourself?

The scripture text for this edition of Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible: Romans chapter 10 and verse 13. Here again is Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse with a message entitled "Call on His Name."

Dr. Donald Grey Barnhouse: Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come unto thee, our Father and our God, and in the Holy Spirit. By the processes of radio, we can speak the word into a microphone and it can be brought to the ears of the listeners, but only thou canst state the truth the long distance from the ear to the heart. Wilt thou speak in this day and bring truth to men? For thy dear name's sake, we ask it in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

We come today to the text that is in Romans 10:13, "For whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." Here is one of the great texts of scripture. It is a part of the great simplicity of the gospel, which sets before man the open way to God and lets him know how easily God can be reached and how accessible he is to all men at all times. Surely God has made the way of salvation so simple that no man can claim any excuse whatsoever.

Our text is again one of the great universals of the Bible and reaches to the heart of every man. Whether or not you will answer to that which God speaks to you is another question. The way of salvation is clear and open. Your response is deep in the recesses of your heart. The very proclamation of truth adds to the responsibility of every one that hears. The good news is that you may be saved, that eternal life may enter into you, and that you may enter into eternal life.

There are four parts to our text: "Whosoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved." I will not tarry long here on the nature of being saved, for we have treated that at some length in previous studies. Nor is it necessary that we should reiterate the universality of the call. "Whosoever"—that means you, me, or anybody else. There is no member of the human race who may not be included in this whosoever.

We will expand slightly on the third point, "the name of the Lord," and then we will go on to find the meaning of what God wants us to do in calling upon him. The name of the Lord, we read in the Proverbs, "The name of the Lord is a strong tower. The justified man runs into it and is safe." The previous verse in our Romans study has set forth that the name of our Savior is the Lord. In fact, that he is Lord of all. This is the declaration of his identity.

We are not dealing with the meek and lowly Jesus, but we are dealing and will deal with the one who has been appointed heir of all things and who has been appointed by God to judge the world at his return to the earth. And yet, the wonder of the name of the Lord is that it begins in the incarnation with the announcement from the angels that the baby that would be born would not have a human father, but that he would be begotten by the Holy Spirit and that his name would be called Jesus, Savior, because he would save his people from their sins.

Everything that God has for man is included in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And everything that man needs in any realm is to be found in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the great comprehensive that includes all things, material and spiritual. This is that which enfolds the emotions, satisfies the intelligence, quiets the conscience, and brings peace to the heart.

This is that which tames the willful, balances the neurotic, straightens out the confused, and gives direction to the man who has been going around in circles. When all other streams have dried, this is the full flowing fountain. When all other things are shaken, this is that which remains. When physical death comes, this is that which causes the soul and spirit to issue forth into life eternal.

God announces that whosoever calls on this name shall be saved. So what is it to call on the name of the Lord? A man may open his mouth in a time of distress and cry, "Lord, help me," without necessarily calling on the name of the Lord in the sense of our text. We might say that he has the words, but not the music.

For calling on the name of the Lord is the going out of the whole of the being—heart, soul, mind, and strength—in a movement that has turned away from any hope in self and that has come to an utter confiding in the Lord Jesus Christ. If we turn back through the Bible, the word of God, we find scores of instances of men calling on the name of the Lord.

Three times in the life of Abraham, we find him calling on the name of the Lord. It is significant that each time he is standing at an altar of blood sacrifice when he calls on the name of the Lord, Jehovah. This shows us that from the beginning, calling on the Lord was connected with the blood atonement. In the story of Elijah, we have the great incident of his conflict with the priests of Baal.

A sacrifice was to be prepared by each camp. Then said Elijah to these false prophets, "Let two bulls be given to us and let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. And I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood and put no fire to it. And you call on the name of your God and I will call on the name of the Lord. And the God who answers by fire, he is God."

Now here, the calling on the name of the Lord was not only connected with blood sacrifice, it was something that put God to the test and which showed the utter faith which Elijah had in him. And as we remember the old story, it was so wonderfully answered by God who did answer by fire to the confusion of the false prophets and to the glory of the name of Jehovah.

Now in the Psalms, God tells his people to call upon him and then tells them what he does for them when they obey him and do call upon him. We read in Psalm 50, "Call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me." In a later Psalm, Psalm 81, God has Asaph sing, "In distress you called and I delivered you; I answered you in the secret place of thunder."

There are scores of other verses which speak of the blessing of calling on the name of the Lord and the misery that comes from not calling on him. But I confine myself to two that are found in the prophecy of Jeremiah. The first of the texts is of double importance because it enlarges still further on this idea of calling on the Lord, noting some of the conditions attached to the calling.

God is speaking to his ancient people and telling them of the deliverance that he has in his purpose for them. We read in Jeremiah 29, "For I know the plans that I have for you, says the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord."

Now this helps us to see that calling upon the Lord is to seek him with our whole heart, that we may come to him and that we may pray to him. The other passage in Jeremiah is a declaration of the power of God and an invitation for us to avail ourselves of that power by calling upon him. We read in Jeremiah 32 at the end of the chapter and in 33 at the opening of the chapter, "Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me? Call to me and I will answer you and will tell you great and hidden things which you have not known."

Now putting all these thoughts together, we may arrive at the conclusion that to call upon the name of the Lord is to believe all that the name of the Lord stands for, to know the Lord in his qualities as Savior God, Lord of all, to approach him through the altar of the cross, to recognize that there is no strength in ourselves but that all power dwells in him, to commit ourselves to him in faith, desiring that he should act for us as he sees our need.

We know, both from the study of the word and from our own lives, that calling on the name of the Lord is a short experience and a long one. At times, when we are in danger and trouble, our calling on the Lord is like a stabbing upthrust of a drowning man who clutches at that which can take him out of trouble.

At other times, when we are in sorrow and tribulation, our calling on the Lord is like a continual leaning of a wounded man who comes to rest upon a bed. And it may well be that our calling on the Lord may be the sudden thrust that turns into the constant trust. Consider the example of John Newton. This man who did so much for God in the history of England had a remarkable life.

He had been brought into this world by a very godly mother who had taught her child to memorize verses from the word of God and who had guided his infant steps until she herself died when he was a child of seven. He later wrote of her influence. We find him saying in his diary, "I was born in a home of godliness and dedicated to God in my infancy. I was my mother's only child, and almost her whole employment was the care of my education."

But at seven, upon the death of his mother, he was taken into the home of a wicked uncle. And at eleven, he ran away to sea. Later, he tells us, "I went to Africa that I might be free to sin to my heart's content. I went to Africa that I might sin my fill." He was shipwrecked and fell into the camp of a Portuguese slave trader who had a harem of black women, one of whom hated the young Englishman and who made him her slave when the Portuguese master was away.

Newton had to grovel on the ground before her and take his food with his mouth from the dirt so that all of his food had the taste of dust. A slave of a slave in Africa. Again he ran away, and after extraordinary dangers, was rescued by a ship that was returning to England. Newton writes that he had learned so to curse that it was said that he could swear and blaspheme for an hour without repeating himself.

And on that voyage back to England, there arose a great storm. The masts were blown away and the ship was rapidly filling with water. And in that extremity, Newton the blasphemer called on the name of the Lord. Read the account in his own diary: "That 10th of March," he says, "is a day much to be remembered by me, and I have never suffered it to pass unnoticed since the year 1748.

For on that day, March 10, 1748, the Lord came from on high and delivered me out of the deep waters." The storm was terrible. Moment after moment, the waves engulfed the ship. And many expected that when she plunged down into the trough of the waves, she would not come up again. Newton went to his place at the pumps and said to the captain, "If this will not do, the Lord have mercy upon us."

He was startled by his own words: "The Lord have mercy upon us?" He describes his feelings in his diary later: "But what mercy can there be for me? This was the first desire I had breathed for mercy for many years. About six in the evening, the hold was free from water and then came a gleam of hope. I thought I saw the hand of God displayed in our favor.

I began to pray. I could not utter the prayer of faith. I could not draw near to a reconciled God and call him Father. My prayer for mercy was like the cry of the ravens, which yet the Lord Jesus does not disdain to hear. In the gospel," Newton concludes, "I saw at least a peradventure of hope, but on every other side I was surrounded with black, unfathomable despair."

It was on that chance of hope that Newton staked everything. He had called on the name of the Lord. In the darkness of the storm, he had said, "The Lord have mercy upon us." That was his call. But it was enough. Years later, when he had become one of the leading figures in the life of England, preaching before king and Parliament, a man called by historians the second founder of the Church of England, Newton wrote: "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see."

The grace of God had come through the darkness with light forevermore when Newton called on the name of the Lord. "Lord have mercy upon us" was the cry. The answer was physical safety and rescue, and spiritual light and eternal life. Someone asks, "Can it be that simple?" Oh, how simple it really is, we can see in the verses which we might call synonyms of our text.

There is no phase of man's makeup that has not been studied by God and a way found to reach from man's need to the greatness of God's love and God's supply. Every one of the five senses and all of the actions of life are bound up in the call of God to us and our answer to him. "Call upon him," says our text. And one man might think, "I cannot call because my vocal cords are paralyzed and I'm dumb."

To such a man, God says, "Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Happy is the man who takes refuge in him." And the man who thus takes refuge has tasted indeed that the Lord is gracious. But another man may complain that his taste buds are insensitive and that he knows no sensation of flavor. Then, "Lay hold of eternal life," the Lord says to him. "Take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord."

"But I cannot lay hold or taste," says another man, "for sin has paralyzed me and all objects fall from my nerveless grasp." Then use your eyes, says God. "Look unto me and be saved, all the ends of the earth." This was the text that was so used of God on a snowy morning in London so many years ago. A 15-year-old boy was stopped by the snow from going to his own church and entered the little chapel in Artillery Street in London, where only a dozen members braved the storm to attend the first service of the year 1850.

Robert Eaglen was the preacher chosen to address the little group. He was later described by his famous convert as "a poor, thin-looking man, a shoemaker, a tailor, or something of that sort." But Eaglen took as his text that morning the words of Isaiah, "Look unto me and be ye saved." And the 15-year-old boy looked that day and was saved. There is a marble slab on the wall in that little chapel which tells of the conversion of that boy.

For it was none other than Charles Haddon Spurgeon who sat there that snowy day. It was January 6, 1850. His heart was so heavy with the conviction of sin. He said afterwards, "I counted the estate of everything that God had made far better than this dreadful state of mine was. Yea, gladly would I have been in the condition of a dog or a horse, for I knew that they had no souls to perish under the weight of sin as mine was like to do."

Many and many a time, Spurgeon's son wrote, "My father told me that in those early days he was so storm-tossed and distressed by reason of his sins that he found himself envying the very beasts in the field and the toads by the wayside." Storm-tossed and distressed. But that day, he looked to the Lord Jesus Christ and was saved. And so may you if you will look. But one man says, "I'm blind; I cannot look."

To you then, the Lord says, do what a blind man must do: feel. Paul told the men of Athens on Mars Hill that God had made them and set the bounds of their habitation, that they should seek God in the hope that they might feel after him and find him. "But," wails another man, "my soul is night, my heart is steel; I cannot see, I cannot feel." Then says the Lord, "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. Hear, and your soul shall live."

But a deaf man might read this and say, "But I'm deaf and cannot hear." Then says the Lord, "Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart." And the Hebrew word for delight carries with it the warm thought of a mother who nuzzles her baby, smelling the warmth and the fragrance of the little life. "But I cannot smell," says yet another man. Then replies God, "I'll feed you with the living bread from heaven."

"I am the living bread which came down from heaven," said the Lord Jesus. "If any man eat of this bread, he shall live forever." And if you cannot take strong food, then you may come on a liquid diet. For Jesus said, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. Let him that is athirst come, and whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely."

And he'll give you more than water, for he said as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby. And in addition to water and milk, there is the wine of joy. He bids us come, saying, "Ho, every one who thirsts, come to the waters. And he who has no money, come buy and eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price."

Is there anything that God has left out? Is there any excuse that a man can possibly give which God has not met in advance? And if some man be so argumentative that he would say that he could never be reached by these invitations to the senses, God says to him, "Come now, let us reason together," says the Lord. "Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow."

And if a man claims that he is not an intellectual and knows nothing of reason and logic, the Lord will come straight to his emotions and call upon the man to love him. "Do you love me?" Christ asked Peter. And earlier, he had said the night before he died, "If you love me, keep my commandments. If a man love me, he will keep my word. And if you loved me, you would rejoice."

Oh, what more can he say than to you he hath said? Call upon me and I will answer you and you shall be saved. Taste and see that I'm good. Lay hold upon me; take me. Look unto me and be saved. Feel after me. Hear my word; hear me. Delight in me. Eat of me; drink of me. Reason with me. Love me. There is no loophole for any man to think that he is not included. This is all for you, whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.

And we ask thee our God that the Holy Spirit may do his work in the hearts of many listeners and that there shall be those who shall be made alive by the quickening spirit and pass out of death and into life as thou dost meet them in their need in the way that they most need to be met. Hear and bless, we pray thee, and we give thee the praise through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Narrator (Male): Have you called upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and received forgiveness of sins and the gift of eternal life? You've been listening to Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible. We hope you've benefited from today's message, "Call on His Name."

You may listen to additional Bible teaching by Dr. Barnhouse via the internet by visiting us online at alliancenet.org. An audio copy of today's teaching is available by calling us toll-free 1-800-488-1888. Request the message entitled "Call on His Name" or simply request message number R10-13.

We would also like to make available to you a free copy of our booklet entitled "How to Live a Holy Life." God commands us, saying, "Be ye holy for I am holy." But how can we live a life of true holiness and reflect his character to others?

This free booklet will set you on the path of biblical holiness by helping you to find God's will in his word, know the power of his love, purify yourselves in the blessed hope, and experience transformation by his spirit. Ask for your free copy of "How to Live a Holy Life" when you call or write.

Dr. Barnhouse and the Bible is a radio ministry of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. We exist to promote a biblical understanding and worldview.

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