If He Meant "Some," He Would've Said, "Some."

What if the lie keeping you from Jesus is that your sin is somehow bigger, badder, and stronger than His grace?

In this episode of Black, White, & the Red Letters, Ed and Camy talk about the Hebrew word kara — “to call” — and why everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

No mask. No merit badges. No spiritual password.

Just mercy . . . incredible mercy.

#BlackWhiteAndTheRedLetters #RedLetters #GraceOfGod

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Two guys. Friends, brothers, pastors, Jesus freaks.

SPEAKER_00 0:05

One's Lily White and formerly a Jewish guy. Yeah, he's still recovering from that. And the other one's a Haitian-born actor who spent many years in Hollywood.

SPEAKER_01 0:14

So yeah, I'm thinking this oughta go well.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

Yeah. I'm coming. And I'm in. And every week we sit down and talk about real life.

SPEAKER_01 0:21

And we do it without turning it into a Sunday morning sermon. We're talking culture, faith, purpose, scripture, and race and truth and the stuff that most people avoid. And we're running it off with the words of heat. Dude, those red letters, they just don't play. No filtering. And no pretending, no churchy cliche. We're just having real conversations about a real savior. This is Black, White, and the Red Letters. Hey guys, welcome to another episode of Black, White and the Red Letters. See, we tried to say that together. And we uh we're gonna talk today about a about a Hebrew word. Uh, and we're not really gonna talk about the Hebrew word, we're gonna mention the Hebrew word, we're gonna talk about Jesus, but but this word and it it really comes from the Old Testament, and then Peter uh quotes that in the book of Acts, but it's the word Kara and it means to call. Sometimes it means to proclaim, but it really means to to call.

SPEAKER_00 1:33

Yeah, you know, the we have a a call on our lives, you know, when it comes to you know being even placed on the earth, man. I mean, everybody comes here with a purpose, a reason for being here, and God has a calling on your life. But you know, when you take a look at what is written, it's it it sounds too simple to be true. You know what I'm saying? Lots of times, you know. Uh God is really not complicated. He's deep, but he's not complicated. You know, and in this verse, like in Acts uh 221, and it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. This calling um shall be saved. Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall I mean that's just too good to be true, too simple to be true, so it seems. And I think that's where people get end up having a problem with it. They want it to be complicated.

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Well, and and it doesn't say half the people that call on his name, or 25%, or all the purple people, or the Muslim people, or the Jewish people. You know what I mean? Exactly. Everyone.

SPEAKER_00 2:45

Everyone. You mean everybody and anybody, and I think that's what you know, I I think sometimes people think that the sin or their past or whatever they were, who they were, what they didn't didn't do, that all those things supersede or and are over the power of God to save. You know, people end up thinking that there's something that you can do that God didn't pay the price for through the blood of Jesus.

SPEAKER_01 3:16

Yeah, it's everybody but me.

SPEAKER_00 3:18

Everybody but me, you know. I and and and I I guess is that is that pride? Is that because you gotta be, you know, what what are audacity to think that God can save everyone but you.

SPEAKER_01 3:33

It's like you have bought this lie from the devil that your sin is greater than God's grace.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

And it is prideful. It's prideful. And and and to think about it too, it's like, you know, you you have to, you'd have to think that you can out God God. You know what I'm saying? You know, that you are actually bigger than God because it's God showing us, revealing to us, that through the blood of Jesus, through the love that He so gave His, you know, so by His love that He gave His Son to us for the purpose of salvation to forgive us of sin, which means that I don't care what mark there was, you missed it. And so whether it's you, whether it's me, whether it's her, whether he, you know, everybody has missed it. And if you will call, though, the the provision has been made. You know, it's almost like, you know, me saying to you, hey man, I'm gonna give you $100, you know, go to the store and buy this thing that costs $100. Well, the provision was made. Now you can go to the store and think that you can't do it. You can go to the store and not do it, but it wasn't because the provision wasn't made, you know, and so when God makes provision for whatever your sin is, and not only for whatever your sin is, but for whatever all the sins of everyone. Yeah, that's mind-blowing. Dude, that is mind-blowing.

SPEAKER_01 5:01

And you know, that's the you know, when when uh Camille just he read that verse from Acts, that's Peter preaching this message right after Jesus ascends to the Father. You know, he's he's crucified, he's dead as a doornail, crammed in a tomb, he comes out 100 billion percent alive, you know, we serve a living God, right? And then six or seven weeks later, he ascends to the father and he births the church. Yeah, there wasn't a church before that. He births the church. And Peter preaches this message, and he's quoting the prophet Joel when he says, Everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved, and that's that word that is used. And it's so um in in context, if you it's hard to even get your mind around there was no church, and then all of a sudden, before we started this this podcast, Kami said that was when 3,000 people were saved. That's the first 3,000 people that were saved in the church era.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

It's unbelievable through a man who did what denied the Lord, right? Through a month three times. Three times, three times, and the thing about it that the Lord told him, You are going to deny me three times. And what did he say? I ain't gonna do that, not me, right? You're talking about John, you're not talking about me. You're talking to me, right? And so this guy who denies Christ three times, lied, start cussing even, just to show that he was not like the man with the man. I mean, went overboard. And yet when Jesus rose, he said, go tell the disciples and tell Peter, pointed him out by name. So I don't care who you are, what you think, what you've done, how bad you think it was, you are within the heart and the mind of the Father God when he sent his son, realizing you that you have need.

SPEAKER_01 7:08

And the Holy Spirit had just descended on them. So Peter's filled with the Spirit, starts preaching, and so it's not of course it's Peter's mouth and Peter's vocal cords and all that, but it is the Lord through his Holy Spirit speaking through Peter. He is spirit empowered. That's right. I mean, you want to talk about soul power, that is soul power.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

And and that's what we all need. The whole point of Jesus coming. And you know, we we we talk about a lot of things, and and it's not that they're not true. Of course, he came to that that we might have life have it more abundantly. He came to uh save us from sin. He he came for whole so many other things so many things. But the reality is that when we take a look at Genesis, we see that Adam and Woman had Adam and woman. She got a name now. Well, you know, she got a name after she fell, though. But she got a name. Her name before she fell was woman. Uh-huh. Okay. And so the bottom line is that Eve is her sinful name. Now there's a purpose for it, meaning that she's the mother of all living, but the bottom line is that she didn't have a name that was separate from Adam, the man, before she sinned. And so the thing about it is that we see that the glory, the the presence of God is what is what left. They saw themselves in a way that only sinful flesh could see, only what they are now, now their fake father was showing them that they were. And so now Jesus comes back and they had lost a relationship with the presence of God, who is the Holy Spirit. And so God sends his son so that all of us now would not only have the you know uh relationship, because you know, it's like, hey, you know, you have the spirit that's gonna be among you, but now he's gonna be in you. And so now you got Peter filled with the Holy Spirit, revived, brought to life to a God man that proclaims the word out of the Holy Spirit. 3,000 souls get saved. Man, I wish I could have been there. Bruh, you know, the the thing about it though is that that same spirit that happened that did that is available and wants to do it through us. But we've we we first got to believe.

SPEAKER_01 9:35

We gotta believe to that extent, and it's everyone who calls upon upon the name of the Lord, and like Peter's not saying uh wasn't saying then, and he's not saying down, you know, down the corridor of time to me and you. He's not saying just say the right religious words and you're good. You know, we get sold that lie too. You know, you gotta say the sinner's prayer, and I'm not hating on the sinner's prayer, trust me. But it's not about the words, it's not about the right words, it's really not about any words. You cut however you call upon the name of the Lord. It for me, it was in my truck on January 17th of 2001, and I said, Lord, have mercy on me, a sinner. Yeah, you know, and I was I had just read that in you know in Luke, but that's it's not about these these magic words, it's not about having a spiritual password, you know.

SPEAKER_00 10:26

But you know, you said those words, but those words were filled with the belief behind them. Oh, yeah, they were, you know, and that's when they count because you know, I mean, hey, I'm in the acting field, right? And so we say all kind of words. We have a script, we take it on, we say those words. That doesn't mean that's who we are, that's what we believe, you know, and so you're dealing with people, how many think of how many people have played Jesus in the entertainment realm, right? And still have two or three women on the side. Because those words didn't mean anything, they didn't have anything on the inside. And so when we believe the words that we say, we tap into something because who do men say that I the son of man am? You have to there's a believing in him as who he is that makes the word have meaning. And so that call that you make on him is to really believe that he is Lord and that calling on his name will bring about the very thing that he said. That is that's crucial.

SPEAKER_01 11:34

Yeah, and it's and it's not, and he Jesus even addresses this in the gospels when he says, you know, there's a lot of people gonna say Lord, Lord.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

There you go.

SPEAKER_01 11:42

And he doesn't say it, but they didn't really mean it, you know. And so it's not even like say Lord, Lord, and then keep living like an idiot, but you got the Jesus fish sticker on the back of your car, and therefore you're okay. Um, it's it's that's we get the the word, it's interesting. Um, we would say that person is a hypocrite, right? And that word, it's crazy, but that word comes from a Greek word. This is not a word class or something, but there's certain ones that are interesting. The word is hipocrites, and it was used in the acting field, yes, and it was the mask. So if you had a play that had 15 characters, but you only had two actors, they would take a mask to become something that they weren't.

SPEAKER_00 12:31

That they weren't. That'll preach. That'll preach. And and but the thing about it that with Christ and with Christ, the Christ in you, again, whoever will call on the name of the Lord, whoever will call, you are basically, if you want to take a look at it, taking off your old mask and putting the face of God on you. You know, because when you call upon him, he transforms you. When you receive him, he he translates you from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of his dear son. And so there's a whole shift and a change that happens when you call on him out of a out of a sincere heart and you realize that this is the one given. There's no other name given under heaven, that this is the one given by which all men shall be saved. And you really believe that, and you begin to follow him, call on him in that perspective, because the the reality of who he is and what he did is real, whether we call on him or not, whether we believe it or not. But it just doesn't believe come become true until for us personally, until we believe it. I mean, hey, you know, it's it's it's the atmosphere is is impacted by the life that he has already lived from 2,000 years. But you have to decide to breathe that in for yourself, you know, and that's what that call is. You know, you're you're finally saying, you know what? You're Lord, I'm not, I need a savior. In order for you to be my savior, I you have to be my Lord. I call upon you as Lord. And he'll take all he takes on the rest of the work, man. He begins to work in your life, man.

SPEAKER_01 14:12

And isn't it interesting the way that you just said that? Because you have this one end of the spectrum of the people that's that have bought this lie that my sin is greater than God's grace. But the other side of that spectrum is you will never call on the name of the Lord if you don't think you're you need rescue. Yes. You know, if you're just like, nah, man, I'm good. Yeah, I'm good. Whatever good means.

SPEAKER_00 14:40

What you know, you know. Well, that falsity you're under. That's right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:44

And that was me. I mean, and it wasn't even um, I just didn't think about it.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

You know, what we didn't even know, we didn't even know how bad we were, we didn't know that we needed a savior. Blindness is blind, you know, and so when before you even get a uh an inkling that there is something askew, there's something missing, there's something that you need. God allows out of his love, he'll allow you to uh go through certain aspects and issues in life that point you back. He orchestrates life in such a way, even before you ever called on him, in order for you to get to understand that you need to call on him. And that's the love that he is, just to get you to know that you need to do it.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

You know, if if I don't know I'm drowning, and you're throwing a rescue buoy to me, like what are you doing that for? Right. I'm not drowning, bro. Right, because I don't even know that I'm drowning. So there has to be a point, and probably God can orchestrate and cause whatever he wants because he's God and we're not, but at a minimum, he uses all those events. And I Romans 8.28 is absolutely fact. Yes, that he's gonna take all of the for those that love him, he's gonna take all of those the good, the bad, and the ugly experiences, stir them up in a bucket and use them for good, for his good. Ultimately for his glory and for my good.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

Amen. And the thing about it is that whether it is something that someone does to you upon you, that causes an issue or a circumstance in your life that gets you to be a to be at a point where you, man, you know you're crying out for help, or whether it's the, you know, our own stupidities, you know, the stuff that we decide on that uh uh causes all hell to break up break loose in our lives. The bottom line that He has provided the answer. He is the answer. And it's not until some kind of cataclysmic sometimes things happen in our lives where we cause it or it's caused unto us, that we realize, man, I I can't do this on my own. I can't do this by myself, I'm not able, or whatever. That's when you get to that good place where God can now be your rescuer and show you his intent for you before the foundation of the world. That's the good God. That's the one and and and and that call that is caused to occur in your life. Don't think of it as, oh my God, God is God is mad at me, God is angry with me, God is, you know, uh, you know. No, he's revealing his love and showing you that with him in your life, that's when life begins.

SPEAKER_01 17:47

And do I have to clean myself up first for that to begin?

SPEAKER_00 17:51

Can't do it. And that and that's part of the revelation. You know what I'm saying? That's part of the love revelation is that yeah, the provisions have been made because you can't. It was already, you know, it's like when we take a look again back back back to Genesis, you know. Hey, God put Adam in the garden. The garden was made before Adam was. All right, so the provision was already there. All of what Adam was going to need forever was already made before he was even put in that garden. And life was good once the Lord put him in the garden. Lord have mercy. Thank you. And then he gave him a woman. I mean, shall we take a moment and pray? No. You know what I'm saying? Because I mean, think about it. Because he brings this entity, this person, and Adam within himself knew that this was the beginning of all things in the natural, because he's talking about for this cause shall a man lead his father and mother. They they had none. And yet they were gonna be the first ones. And so he knew, he was almost prophesying into the lives of his sons. This is why. This is what's this this is what's gonna happen, and here's why it's gonna happen, and it's God for it to happen, you know, and so we get an opportunity to see even in Genesis when the Holy Spirit, when the presence of God is within man, man already has answers to things to questions that have not even been asked. The power of that, you know, the the awesomeness of that. And so he makes provision for us to have that again. And then Susan ate the apple. Uh Susan, I didn't say that. Uh if you're listening, Susan, that was not my voice that said that.

SPEAKER_01 19:54

But you know, you fast forward down to as the fall happened in the garden, and you have generation after generation of fallen people and fallen people, and a fallen mom and daddy big begot of another fallen little boy or girl or whatever. But then it is this calling on the name of the Lord because all those people, me included, you included, um, are wearing masks to varying degrees and pretending, but calling on the lame name of the Lord is the cry of somebody who has finally stopped pretending. That's right. At some point, whatever circumstances I guess caused it, it's it's it's a sinful person crying out, Lord have mercy on me, a sinner. You know, if the because the lifeboat's there, it's been there the whole time. The rescue buoy, I don't know, whatever we would call it, has been there all the time. But it's a drowning man who finally quits critiquing the lifeboat and starts screaming to be rescued. You know, that's the way that God works, and that just makes this message that Peter, um, the apostle Peter preaches at Pentecost, it makes it so powerful because he's not preaching it to people who have cleaned themselves up.

SPEAKER_00 21:12

He's not preaching it to people who have cleaned themselves up, and and he's preaching it to a people, though, who were under the law, who thought that they could clean themselves up and didn't come to the place in a point of realizing that the whole law aspect of what they had was to show them that they couldn't. And so I think that people struggle with how simple it is because they think that there has to be something else that they have to do. I don't care what religion that you're in, all right? Because this is not a religion, it's a relationship with the true and living God. This is like love coming to you and saying, Let me love on you.

unknown 21:59

And with

SPEAKER_00 22:00

Which is not religion at all. Right. Right. And so religion makes you think that there's something that you have to do, and yet you can't. And the whole purpose of God was to get them to understand look, man, you're not able. So therefore, the call is necessary. I'm going to I'm going to be the answer, and I'm going to show you that the answer was already there. And then I'm going to tell you, all you have to do is call me for the answer, call me the answer. And I, and you don't have to do anything else. And I think people still have a what do I have to do? Mind you.

SPEAKER_01 22:33

Sure. Well, every you started to say you were talking about every other religion on the planet that's ever existed. It's all about doing.

SPEAKER_00 22:39

It's all about doing. It's all about paying the price yourself. And we can't pay the price.

SPEAKER_01 22:45

No, we can't.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

And and and and the true and the living God is the only one that said, since you can't pay the price, I'm going to pay the price for you.

SPEAKER_01 22:54

And that truthfully, it that makes no sense. Because grace really doesn't make sense because every, for the most part, every experience, every aspect of our lives is cause and effect. I do this, I work hard, I get a job, I get a paycheck.

SPEAKER_00 23:13

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:14

I do something as a kid, I get in trouble, I get a spanking from my dad.

SPEAKER_00 23:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:18

You know, whatever it is.

SPEAKER_00 23:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

And grace is the complete opposite of that.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

Yeah, but think about it. Yeah, because you know, you bring such a phenomenal point here because it makes no sense because it's anti-sense, you know, in the earth realm, seed time and harvest, right? Like you said, cause and effect. I get a tree, I get a place, I get a this. But what Jesus does, and or the Father does in sending Jesus, we were living in a if I do this, then I get that. Now we live in a, since Jesus did this, I have this. So it's a whole different frame of mind. Before we had to do something, everybody, but it's actually a principle of the earth. Everybody has to do something first. But God said, you know what, I'm going to be first, because if I'm going to be the greatest of all, right? He gives us a principle. I'm the one that has to go, right? And so he gives us, he he comes and he does it first. But now we're living in a because God has done this, now I do this. And so our life is a response to what God has done, not an initiator for God to do.

SPEAKER_01 24:43

And finally, I know for again for for me, when I got to that that place of realizing, I guess that I was drowning, if that's the if that's the metaphor, it was a really a place of realizing finally that I bring, and I think the Lord impresses this on me every day even more. I bring nothing to the table except the sin that put him on the cross. Like I bring nothing. I got nothing, I bring nothing.

SPEAKER_00 25:12

I got nothing. I got nothing.

SPEAKER_01 25:14

It's like, Lord, I I don't know, but I got nothing for you.

SPEAKER_00 25:17

You know, present your body a living sacrifice. Look, here, here's the dirt that you made, you know, in in human form. I mean, let me let me give you back the dirt that you made, and you do something, you make something out of that. Because we have absolutely nothing that we can give to a holy God, to the Almighty God, the to the creator God, but to believe and to trust him.

SPEAKER_01 25:40

And isn't it crazy? The one that you're asked to trust, put saving faith and trust in, is the one who the whole thing, the whole message in in Acts chapter 2 from Peter, that it's all about that. It's all about him. And he's not giving whatever the number of people that are there, who are probably five, six thousand, I don't know, but he's not giving them a motivational talk. He's not saying, hey, I know you guys, you messed up a little bit, but your hearts are really in the right place. No, scripture says your heart is desperately wicked. Wicked. So, no, he's not saying your heart's in the right place because later on in Acts chapter 2, he's he says, This is such an indictment. He says, This Jesus, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. That's the guy that God has made both Lord and Christ the one who you crucified. Well, brother, that's not like fluffy seeker-sensitive sort of language.

SPEAKER_00 26:43

No.

SPEAKER_01 26:43

He looks at the crowd and said, You killed the Messiah.

SPEAKER_00 26:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

I looked at myself 25 years ago and said, I killed the Messiah. And but in that, what's so crazy about that message is it's so indict on them and on me and you. Because I remember thinking, oh my gosh, it was my sin that put him on the cross. It was my sin that, and I remember seeing the movie The Passion of the Christ, and and having envisioned in my mind what that crucifixion looked like. And that movie, I was overwhelmed with grief because I'm like, holy mackerel, I did that. Yeah. Like I caused that. And so it's it's kind of crazy in that same message that Peter preaches with that indictment. He then says, All you gotta do is call upon the name of the Lord and you shall be saved. And I remember reading that the first time, and I kind of closed the Bible and said, Wait a minute. That doesn't make any sense. What? I gotta do something. Because my Jewish upbringing, I gotta do something. How are you gonna save me if I didn't do anything? Again, it just makes no sense.

SPEAKER_00 27:56

It's a gift. By grace are we saved through faith, not of ourselves. It's a gift of God.

SPEAKER_01 28:03

But I don't deserve the gift.

SPEAKER_00 28:04

That's what makes you deserving. Because you don't deserve. You know, it's like I'm saying it's it's anti-sentence because it's it's your undeservedness that makes you the right candidate. You have to be when you come to God, you have to not deserve. So unless you don't deserve, he can't do nothing with you. If you think you deserve, you're in the you you're where Satan was. You're in that pride state, all right? If you think that you deserve all of this, you've missed the whole point. The whole thing is that none of us deserve the goodness, the salvation of God. It's his love for us, his grace upon us, his mercy to us that makes the way for us to come and just say, you know what? Take my undeserved self, please. And he says, Hey, been waiting for you. You know, I did this for you so that you can come. All right. So he's not waiting, you know, on on to do something for us. He's already done it. He's waiting for us to just understand and accept. Because again, it's to those who believe, to those who accept what he who he is and what he says, that's who has the power to become sons of God until you just accept it. See, and that word accept is hard for people to grapple with. Of course it is. Because you have to, you know, be because you you really have to look at yourself and say, it's nothing I can do.

SPEAKER_01 29:27

And if your starting point is, no, no, no, what I deserve is to get thumped off the planet. That's it. And if we all got what we if that's the way it all worked, this this paradigm, then the earth would be empty because we'd all have been thumped off the planet and in the pit of hell.

SPEAKER_00 29:45

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

And if that's my starting point, man, the gospel, it's the greatest deal ever.

SPEAKER_00 29:52

This is the greatest, you know. Um, I heard a minister say it's it's the almost too good to be true news because you're it is it's so simple, so outside of me having to do anything, so merciful, so gracious, so loving, that we can't contemplate that it is for me. We can't, we we we're we're so unlike unlike God when we come to him that we can't contemplate on that on that level to understand that a God who is holy, who doesn't look upon sin, who is totally opposite of sin, can find a way to crawl into flesh that could have sinned and allow himself to take on all of man's sin, past, present, and future, so that now sin has no dealings in our relationship.

SPEAKER_01 30:58

And all that was done for everyone. For everyone, which is I struggled with that thought too that uh because we play favorites as humans, right? You know, only we we only the deserving, you know, well, I don't know, whatever it is, but um, but that what that means is the gospel is both exclusive and and at the same time the most inclusive thing ever because it's exclusive in the sense that there is but one way, that there's a narrow gate. Yeah, and it's a it's just one way.

SPEAKER_00 31:36

One way.

SPEAKER_01 31:37

Um there's not it's not this uh this pluralistic culture that we live in now that that that kind of says well we're all gonna end up in the same place, but there's different ways, everybody has a different way to get there. No, it don't it don't work that way. That's not the way it works. Salvation is only in the name of Jesus, and that that name every knee will bow. And it is interesting too, I think, that generally speaking, you will rarely ever hear someone Jewish say the name Jesus. The night I told my parents I got saved, my mom said, Um, you don't really believe that he came back to life. My dad said, How many people have been murdered in his name over the last two? They wouldn't say the name. The name, everybody that calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And there's something of I don't know it what it is, but there's something about the name. I'm just looking at the shirt I'm wearing. Y'all can't see my shirt, right? But it is it's quoting Philippians 2 9 and it says Yeshua on Yeshua. Yeah, so it's it's cool. And there's not 12 doors, you know, there's not there's not a bunch of uh of of ways to get there. Jesus said pretty clearly, I am the way, the truth, and the life. I'm not like one um I'm not the olives on the schmorgis board of of life, of all the different ways of salvation. I am the only way.

SPEAKER_00 33:15

You know, but guess what, Ed? Uh, we're gonna have to find our way, our way out of this conversation.

SPEAKER_01 33:23

Oh, yes, we are.

SPEAKER_00 33:24

Man, I tell you what, time flies. You know what? Uh God has given us an opportunity to uh Ed and I to come together and to declare him and uh be an example, you know, together. And we are so grateful to be in your lives and for you uh giving us a time to speak truth. Um, because that name, the name of Jesus, is given to you, just like he's given it for us. And if you will call upon his name, with no respect of a person to go to for you for what he did for us. Until next time.