Sent to Speak and Called to Believe

A sermon preached from Romans 10:13–21 by Pastor Simon Chilongoshi

Click here to listen to this sermon.

My name is Simon Chilongoshi, and I am one of the pastors here at Kitwe Church. It is always a joy to meet together in the presence of the Lord.

Please turn to the book of Romans, chapter 10. For the sake of context, I will begin reading from verse 13, which is where we pick up today.

“For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, ‘How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!’ But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?’ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for ‘Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.’ But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, ‘I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.’ Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, ‘I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.’ But of Israel he says, ‘All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.'”

A Brief Survey of Romans So Far

For those who have not been following this series through the book of Romans consistently, I want to briefly survey what we have covered so that we are all on the same page.

In chapters 1 through 3a, Paul establishes the nature of man: that man is sinful by nature, corrupt, desperately wicked, and has fallen short of the glory of God. That is the scriptural description of humanity. When God looks from heaven, he sees a rebellious people. Chapter 3, verses 9 through 11 tells us that all are running away from God — that is what we do by nature.

From chapter 3b through chapter 4, Paul introduces the righteousness of God that came in Christ Jesus our Lord, who justifies us by grace through faith alone.

Chapters 5 through 7 explain the change of kingdoms — the change of our nature and of our master. We have been bought across into a new allegiance in Jesus. Paul also addresses the struggles that believers face with sin. In chapter 7, he describes a man who, trying to do what is right, finds himself doing the very thing he does not want to do. He encounters a new law — the law of sin in his members — and cries out: “Who will deliver me from this body of death?” And then the answer: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

Chapter 8 is the culmination of the book of Romans. There we see our complete victory in Christ Jesus through his work on the cross. We are children of God, and nothing shall separate us from his love — not sin, not death, not anything in all creation. There we find the golden chain of salvation: God foreknew, God predestined, God called, God justified, God glorified. He planned all things. At the appointed time he called us. He justified us in Christ Jesus, adopted us as beloved children, and positionally we already stand glorified in the heavens. We are simply waiting for the consummation of that glorification when Christ Jesus himself comes to take us home.

Looking across all those chapters, we notice one consistent pattern: it is God, and God alone, who is active in the work of man’s salvation. The very best that man contributes to the work of salvation is his sin. We come to him just as we are, and it is God who works in us throughout.

In the previous passage, Elder Sande helped us to see that the way to righteousness begins in the mind and desire of God — seen reflected in the desire of Paul. It requires that we know ourselves as sinners before God, incapable of saving ourselves. It requires that we believe and confess Jesus as Lord. And finally, it requires calling on Jesus Christ.

Today we take up from verse 13. The text and theme I want us to hold together is this: Sent to Speak and Called to Believe. There are two major movements in this passage.

Part One: The Certainty of Salvation (v. 13)

We begin with verse 13: “For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”

Notice the certainty. It does not say “might be saved.” It says he will be saved. Friends, this is the salvation we have. When someone calls on the name of the Lord, because of what Christ has done, salvation is certain.

That certainty rests entirely on what happened two thousand years ago. Christ obeyed the law that you could not obey. He did what you could not do. He died on the cross, bore the sin of his people, and paid in full to satisfy the wrath of God. He paid it all. He secured your salvation and mine, and he has given to us eternal life.

And the scope of this call is universal. God calls Jews, Gentiles, people of every background. Revelation makes it plain: before God in heaven, we will see all peoples, all nations, all languages, every tribe. There is no partiality with God. All who call upon his name stand equal before him. Salvation is certain for all who call.

Part Two: The Means of Salvation (vv. 14–15)

Verses 14 and 15 present four rhetorical questions:

“How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?”

Paul is not asking these questions to puzzle us. He knows exactly what the mind of God has purposed. He is demonstrating how our sovereign God — the God of mercy, the God of salvation — has provided not only the salvation itself, but also the very means by which each individual will receive it. When we say that salvation is by grace alone, this is what we mean: even the details of how you come to hear the Word of God are arranged by God. It is not the result of your own initiative. It is not because one morning you woke up and decided to become a Christian. It is God, all the way through.

For you and me to believe in God and in the work of his Son, we must hear the clear and simple message of the gospel. We must hear the good news that Christ came to save sinners. And it is only when we believe this truth — when we are convinced and convicted of our sin and unrighteousness by what we hear — that we are able to call upon him to save us. This is the wisdom of God on display.

God foreknew. He planned our salvation. He provided a Savior. And he has also provided the person who will explain this good news to us. That is what these rhetorical questions are tracing, step by step, from the sending to the preaching to the hearing to the believing to the calling.

I do not know the exact circumstances of your own conversion. Some people say they had a dream that shook them awake, trembling, and that is when they sought God. But even then — if that dream contains no gospel, it contains no salvation. If it is not rooted in the truth of what Christ has done, there is nothing to believe. Friends, a dream in itself cannot save. The gospel saves.

This is why I want you to appreciate the importance of the local church — a place where there is faithful preaching of God’s Word by pastors and mature men who carefully study and handle the Scriptures, who prepare with prayer and diligence, who listen to what God is saying and bring it faithfully to the congregation. We need to avail ourselves to that preaching. And we need to bring others in — those who are on the streets, those who are outside right now. Let us invite them. Let us plead with them. When they come, they will hear the Word of God, and God may grant them salvation.

Parents, where are your children this morning? Did you leave them sleeping because they were out late the night before, because they were watching television? Do not leave them. Wake them. Bring them. It may feel as though you are forcing them — yes, bring them anyway, because they are in danger. The stakes are not small.

And to you who are not yet a Christian: why are you still rejecting the Word of God that comes to you week after week? You have heard the clear message, and you keep postponing, procrastinating. How long will you say tomorrow? Next month? Next year? The Word you are hearing today is the Word of God. It will not be a dream that saves you, nor a vision, nor a miraculous sign. As Luke’s Gospel tells us, even someone returning from the dead would not be enough to convince a heart that has closed itself to the Scriptures. You have Moses and the prophets. You have the Word of life. You must hear it. You must believe it.

As verse 17 states: “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” That is the source of our faith.

Now a question for those of us who are Christians. We have come to church. We are saved — praise God. But have you joined in the effort of this church, individually and corporately, to bring the good news to sinners? Or have you settled into a comfortable gratitude — relieved that you are not going to hell, glad to be going to heaven, enjoying the fellowship of believers — while forgetting that your uncles, your fathers, your friends, your workmates, your classmates are still without Christ?

This call is to all of us. “How are they to preach unless they are sent?” Who are they? It is you and me. This is the commission Christ left us before he ascended: go and make disciples. And this is what Paul is reminding us. We have been sent. We must go into the streets and lanes of Kitwe, across Africa, and to the ends of the world, and preach the good news.

Are you alive to the fact that men and women are dying without Christ? Does it grieve you that Zambia calls itself a Christian nation while the Word of God is often preached with little faithfulness — compromised, turned to serve the interests of those who preach it? There are men who call themselves men of God who are drawing people to themselves rather than to Christ. They boast of statistics: one hundred and twenty new members. But those members are candidates for hell if they have not heard the true gospel. The true gospel is what you and I have been commissioned to take out there.

We must also think about missions. We were praying this morning for Ishmael, who is serving in South Sudan. When war breaks out in his city, he moves with his wife to another town, pitches his tent again, finds one or two people, and begins the work again. When war reaches that town, he moves again. Why does he press on like this? Because we have been called to preach the gospel, and he has taken that calling seriously.

You may say: I do not have that kind of courage. But you can still be part of this work. You can bruise your knees in your room and pray that souls will be saved. Spend ten minutes remembering our missionaries by name. You may not be able to join Ishmael in Sudan, or João in Angola, or Brother Lazarus in Kasama — but you can stand with them in prayer, give toward their support, spend three minutes calling them, letting them know that you are praying. That is partnership in the gospel.

Paul himself constantly asked for prayer — pray for us, that the gospel would advance, that the work of Christ would be fruitful. Have you been praying for our missionaries? The task belongs to all of us.

The Beauty of Faithful Feet (v. 15b)

Verse 15b quotes Isaiah 52:7: “How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news.”

In the ancient world, a messenger would run on foot — literally run — across great distances to carry news. Sometimes it was news of liberation, news of freedom. By the time they arrived, their feet were dirty, blistered, sore, smelling from the journey. And yet Isaiah says: how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.

It is not the feet themselves that are beautiful. It is the message they carry, and the one who sends them. As those messengers ran to deliver good news, God looked upon them and was glad. He rejoiced in them. That is where the beauty comes from — not from the feet, but from the faithfulness of the one running.

Will you be part of those whose feet are considered beautiful before God? Will you be a messenger, going out and telling men, women, and children that they are sinners — and that God has provided salvation for them in Christ Jesus?

Part Two: The Call to Believe (vv. 16–21)

The second movement of our text is the call to believe. Verses 16 through 21:

“But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, ‘Lord, who has believed what he has heard from us?’ So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ. But I ask, have they not heard? Indeed they have, for ‘Their voice has gone out to all the earth, and their words to the ends of the world.’ But I ask, did Israel not understand? First Moses says, ‘I will make you jealous of those who are not a nation; with a foolish nation I will make you angry.’ Then Isaiah is so bold as to say, ‘I have been found by those who did not seek me; I have shown myself to those who did not ask for me.’ But of Israel he says, ‘All day long I have held out my hands to a disobedient and contrary people.'”

As we go out and preach, we have one hope: that after we have reasoned with people, shown them from the Scriptures, demonstrated the truth to them, they will say, “Yes, I believe.” But sometimes it does not go that way. And we need to know that our calling is to be faithful — not to guarantee results.

The people Paul is primarily referring to here are the Jews. They heard. They understood. And yet they rejected their Messiah. They had been expecting a different kind of savior — one who would liberate them from Roman occupation. That was the savior they wanted, and so the true Savior did not fit. Isaiah and Moses both lament the hardness of Israel’s heart.

This is not unique to Israel. Men and women today also come to Christ with their own expectations, wanting a Jesus who will give them what they desire rather than what they need. And many who call themselves ministers of God have accommodated that desire — preaching what people’s itching ears want to hear, entertaining rather than proclaiming truth, drawing crowds without making disciples.

Do you have someone in your life whom you have been pleading with, day after day? Perhaps your children — you open the Word faithfully, you bring them to church, you invite them to every event. And yet their heart seems only to harden further as you do so. Do not despair. Salvation belongs to God. We must be faithful. Let us continue calling them. Let us continue pointing them to the cross. Some people would rather die than believe in Jesus Christ — and we must simply go on being faithful.

Luke 14:15–24 gives us a vivid picture of this:

Luke 14:15-24: When one of those who reclined at table with him heard these things, he said to him, Blessed is everyone who will eat bread in the kingdom of God! But he said to him: A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, Come, for everything is now ready. But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, I have bought a field and must go see it, please excuse me. Another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen and go to examine them, please excuse me. And another said, I have married a wife and therefore cannot come. The servant reported this. Then the master became angry and said, Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame. And the servant said, Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room. And the master said, Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.

Men and women would rather die than come to the saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Look at the excuses in that parable. Are any of them yours? You have been hearing the gospel week after week. What has been your excuse? I must finish school. I need to get settled first. Let me find work. Let me finish this project. Let me just get married first. No excuse will stand. If you reject the Word of God, nothing remains.

For those of us who are believers, no excuse should make us relent. We must press on until that person comes to the saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.

The call to believe is this: that you cry out today like those who heard Peter preach in Acts 2. When Peter proclaimed the gospel on the day of Pentecost — that the Jesus whom they crucified is both Lord and Christ — those who heard were cut to the heart and cried out: “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter’s answer was: repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. That is the call this morning. Cry to God: what must I do to be saved? Believe in Christ. Receive him. Salvation has come to you today.

But there is a warning for those who keep postponing. Hebrews 3:7–11:

Hebrews 3:7-11: Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers put me to the test and saw my works for forty years. Therefore I was provoked with that generation, and said, They always go astray in their heart; they have not known my ways. As I swore in my wrath, They shall not enter my rest.

This is the warning for you who keeps postponing — for you who has decided that this life and what it offers is of greater importance than eternity. Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your heart. Cry to him. Just as you are, say: Lord, save me. As the hymn goes: while others thou hast saved, do not pass me by. Let that be your prayer this morning.

Conclusion: A Matter of Urgency

In summary: salvation has come — to the poor and the rich, to every nation and tribe. We have the certainty of salvation. Everyone who calls on his name will be saved. Are you the one who will call upon him today?

How will they hear? How will they believe? How will they call upon one of whom they have not heard? The proclamation of the gospel is, friends, a matter of urgency.

Consider a firefighter who sees a mother and child trapped in a burning building. What does he do — wait to gather more people? Stop to consult a plan? No. He breaks the door, goes in, and brings them out before the fire takes them. The world around us is standing before the fire of hell. We must go. We must snatch them out. With what? With the simple, good news of Christ.

Why is it urgent? Because none of us knows when we will die. None of us knows when the person beside us will die. And none of us knows when Christ will come to wrap up history and judge the world. We cannot be casual about the gospel.

Thank God that he has chosen people like you and me — sinful, ordinary vessels — to be the means by which men and women will be saved. God could have written his message in the sky. He could have sent angels. But he chose you. He chose the person reading these words. To be the vessel through which that neighbor, that family member, that friend will hear the gospel and receive the Savior. What a privilege. What a dignity. We are co-workers with Christ in his kingdom.

Will you take it seriously? Let us go, all of us — let us contend for Kitwe, for Zambia, for our politicians, for our communities — that they would come to the saving knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Even the corruption we lament will find its answer there. If they believe in Christ, things change.

Closing Prayer

Father in heaven, we thank you for your Word that has come to us today. When we ask how they will believe — the answer is: only when they hear, and are convicted and convinced of their sins and of your righteousness. O Lord, send us forth as your children to carry this good news. Help us, O God. Forgive us for our coldness, our unseriousness, our lack of commitment to the task you have given us. May we go out from this place resolved to serve the living God. Be with us. Forgive all who come to you in repentance and faith. May heaven and earth rejoice when they turn to you and seek you. This is our prayer and our desire — in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.