Sunday Sermon: In View of the Mercies of God (Romans 12:1)

You're listening to the preaching ministry of Gabriel Hughes, pastor of Providence Reformed Baptist Church in Casa Grande, Arizona. Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday on this podcast, we feature teaching through a New Testament book, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and our Q &A on Friday.

Each Sunday we are pleased to present our sermon series. Here is Pastor Gabe.

The Revival of Nineveh and God's Mercy

In the history of humanity, from Adam to the present day, there is not recorded for us as large and as great and as sudden a revival as what happened in Nineveh when Jonah went there preaching, as our brother Alan had read for us this morning.

Not even the great awakening of the 18th century was as great a revival. I think on American soil, when we start talking about revival and the history of revival, that's where our mind goes. The great awakening that was led by Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield, well, there were as many people living in all of New England when Whitefield and Edwards preached to them as in Nineveh at the time that Jonah preached to them.

And the revival that happened in New England was not total. It was not all of New England. The estimate was somewhere between 20 to 40 percent. Whereas in Nineveh, this was the entire population of this capital city of Assyria that was convicted by the preaching of Jonah and is said in Jonah 3 .10, when God saw what they did, the fast and the prayer that the king mandated for all of the people, that even the animals should be covered with sackcloth and ashes.

They turned from their evil way. And when God saw this, God relented of the disaster that he said that he would do to them, and he did not do it. At the previous small group that we had hosted in our home, we we joked about a week and a half ago about churches that will schedule revivals.

Mark it on your calendar. We're going to have a revival on this day. Well, if it's all the Christians that are gathering for a revival, that's not a revival. We've already been revived. Even more humorous is when they will schedule an annual revival.

This is our annual revival. One of these years, the Holy Spirit is going to show up and revival is going to break out. But as we considered last week in that doxology at the end of Romans 11, can you schedule God?

Can you obligate him to meet your expectations? For as we read in Romans 9 15, God says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion. And it's in view of God's mercies, his compassion toward us when we know what we deserve is judgment, that we are investing our study this morning.

God had mercy on Nineveh. And God has had mercy on us. He has relented of the disaster that was to come upon us because of our sin. And the thing that has made God pass over us when what we deserve is his judgment is the precious blood of Jesus Christ, that he has applied to us by his mercy.

As I've said to you this morning, for 11 chapters in the book of Romans, we have been hearing about God's mercy on us wicked sinners. We've read of our sin and the judgment that we all deserve in chapters one through three.

We read of justification by faith from chapter three, verse 21 through the end of chapter four. We read of our expectation, the hope that we have in Christ chapters five through eight, and then our restoration or having been chosen by God by his mercy in verses nine through 11.

And it's in view of these mercies that we have read about that we have this transitional phrase at the beginning of chapter 12. I appeal to you, therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.

It's in light of what we've read in the first 11 chapters that we're going to be studying the next five chapters. And we've read of our being justified by faith. Now we're going to read and study about what it means to live by faith.

Remember that reference from Habakkuk and the thesis to this letter, the just shall live by faith, Romans 1 17. So for our outline this morning, we want to consider once again the introduction in chapter one, verses one through 17.

We'll consider our condemnation in verse 18 through chapter three, verse 20. Our justification, chapter three, verse 21 through chapter four, our expectation in chapters five through eight, and then our restoration in chapters nine through 11.

And at the conclusion, we will then even look ahead at what is to come in the remainder of our study in the book of Romans. So let's come back to the introduction and follow along in your Bible. So I'm just going to follow Romans from chapter one all the way up to the start of chapter 12.

Let's begin in Romans one once again. Now remember that I said to you in the introduction to the book of Romans, this is an expository sermon. The book of Romans is an expository sermon. Just like your elders do weekend and week out for you, laying out a passage of scripture and giving the sense so that you may understand it.

This was what the priest did for Israel in Nehemiah 8, 8, that you have even the definition of expository preaching right there in Nehemiah 8, 8. So as Paul has written this letter, he has written it as an exposition of Habakkuk 2, 4, which says the righteous shall live by faith.

Paul quotes that verse in his thesis to the letter Romans 1, 16 to 17. Right from the first sentence of the letter, Paul has been presenting the gospel. Look at Romans 1, 1, where he says that he was set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the holy scriptures concerning his son.

Verse 4, it is through Jesus Christ, our Lord, that we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all nations, the gospel that is proclaimed and how that gospel even brings about the obedience of faith, which is the next length of Romans.

When we go from chapters 12 to 16 in verse 14 here, Paul mentions how the gospel has come to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish. And so he means to preach the gospel also in Rome, the capital city of the world at that time.

And it's there then that we have the thesis statement to the letter, everything in the letter revolving around what we have in Romans 1, 16 and 17. For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.

For in it, in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. The book of Romans is nothing less than the gospel. We are made alive by the righteousness of Christ, which we receive not by our works, but by faith in him.

And how shall the righteous live by faith? So now after this introduction, Paul labors from verse 18 through chapter 3, verse 20, to bring all men that he just mentioned into condemnation, Jews and Greeks, the wise and the foolish, so that all may see and understand the wrath of God that is upon them and their need for that savior whom the apostles preach.

In verse 18, we read, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. Paul goes on to explain that what can be known about God, and when he says what can be known about God, he's referring to naturally known about God by general revelation.

What anyone can know about God is clearly seen in all that has been made. We know even the wrath of God. We know his invisible attributes. Verse 20, namely his eternal power and divine nature are clearly perceived in everything that has been made so that man is without excuse.

But why is it that there are men who still do not know? Well, because of what is said in verse 18, they suppress the truth with their unrighteousness. They love their sin rather than their the creator.

They would rather worship the creator or the created things than the creator who made them. They would rather have the blessings of God than God himself. So they refuse even to give thanks to God. So God has given them over to a depraved mind to then be consumed by those passions that they have and do what ought not to be done.

We read about how men in their lusts burn with lust for each other, women for other women. They exchange the natural function for that which is unnatural because of their spite for the God who created all.

Paul goes on to lay out all other manner of unrighteousness. Verses 28 to 31 mentioning evil, covetousness, envy, murder, strife, gossip, slander, disobedience to parents, even becoming inventors of new evil.

You know what? There's just not enough evil for me to do. I'm going to come up with new evil that I can do. And that is the sinful condition of everyone's heart. And my friends, we should be able to look at that list that we have there at the end of chapter one in Romans and go, man, I've done some of those things.

Yes, right. It's not a comprehensive list. It's not a list that lists every sin in the world, nor is it a list that says all of the sins that you're guilty of. Nor does it say that you have to do all of the sins that are listed there in order for you to be guilty before God.

But in reading that list, we should recognize I have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. We should be able to study that autobiographically. And see, some of what I've done is right there in Romans one, verse 32 says, they know that those who do such things deserve to die, but they not only do them, they give hearty approval to those who practice them.

There are some sins in there we may not have done, but we're OK with somebody else doing it. We might even fight for their right to do it. And this is the wicked condition of man that has been laid out for us here in Romans one.

But lest anyone look at another who do such reprehensible evils and think that they're better because they don't do such things, Paul says in chapter two, verse one, you have no excuse. So, man, every one of you who judges for in passing judgment on another, you condemn yourself because you, the judge, practice the very same things, quit being so high and mighty.

And thinking that you've done better than everybody else, this was especially in the context of the Jews who thought because they had the law, they were better than those who did not have the law. But Paul pointed out to them, no, it's actually worse for you because God told you what should not be done.

And then you went out and did it anyway. So who are you to pass judgment on anyone else? And how many of us who grew up in Christian households could probably be said the same of us. I heard God's word all the time.

I heard the difference between right and wrong. And yet I went out and did the wrong thing anyway. In verse four, Paul says, do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?

Verse nine, there will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek. But glory and honor and peace for everyone who does good, the Jew first and also the Greek.

Again, Paul bringing all into condemnation with the words that he says here. So that everyone understands the sin that they've committed against God and their need for Christ. Paul lays out the argument that the law is written upon every heart, look at verses 14 and 15 of this chapter, when Gentiles who do not have the law by nature, by their nature, they haven't even heard God says this, don't do that.

But by their nature, they do what the law requires. They are a lot of themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show that the work of the law, the natural law that God has given is written on their hearts while the conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or even excuse them when God will judge the secrets of all men by Christ Jesus.

Verse 16, this is to show that God is just to judge all men for their wickedness, whether or not they had the law written on stone tablets. No man on the day of judgment will have any excuse to say we didn't know.

And if you'll remember back to when we were in chapter two, I had given you the illustration of the person whose moral judgments has been recorded their entire lives. And at the day of judgment, all God would have to do is play back for you all the moral judgments that you made about other people your whole life.

He doesn't even have to show his own law. He could just show you the law that you were imposing on everybody else. And you would hear as those moral judgments are played back to you. I could not even keep my own law.

You could be judged by your own law and perish. And again, demonstrating our need to be saved from the judgment that we all deserve. In chapter three, Paul summarizes his argument, demonstrating that this teaching on the depravity of man is no new doctrine.

It was testified to by the prophets long ago in even the fullest of terms. Look at Romans 3, verses 10 through 12. We read none is righteous. In case you haven't got the point yet, he goes blunt from the Psalms.

There is no one good, not one person. No one understands. No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. And why is it so necessary for Paul to hit us over the head with this again and again?

As said in verse 19, it's so that every mouth may be stopped. No one is able to declare their own righteousness before God. For no human being will be justified in his sight since through the law comes not righteousness, but knowledge of sin.

When we heard the law, our keeping did not make us righteous because we didn't keep it, we broke it. So instead, rather, in the hearing of the law, we become aware that we've broken it and we've sinned before God because that's what sin is.

Sin is lawlessness, as said in first John. And as stated here, we became worthless before God, he did not make us worthless, but we became worthless because we went after our own desires instead of worshiping the God who made us.

Yesterday, Josh and Rebecca hosted a celebration for one year of marriage, and they shared a video highlight of their wedding, which I delighted to see because I was unable to attend the wedding last year.

Pastor Chris officiated the ceremony, and in his remarks, he said, Josh looked upon Rebecca desiring a wife, and he saw that she was good. And brother Josh said, Amen, there you go. But Chris went on to say that God looked upon us and he saw that we were not good.

Nor were we worthy. Together, we had become worthless, but God didn't leave us dead and worthy of his judgment, he didn't leave us there, he didn't leave us to be worthy of his judgment. In his love, he sent his son to make us worthy to be his bride.

And so, it is in this next portion of Romans that we read of our being justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Paul says in verse 21, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned, Jew and Gentile, as Paul has just laid out, and fall short of the glory of God.

By the way, if you're using a highlighter and going through all of this, is all of Romans just like in yellow for you now? We're just highlighting everything as we go. And this whole portion right here, you could highlight or underline from verse 23 to 26.

Because this really is the summation of everything that Paul preaches in the book of Romans. Let me read it for you aloud, beginning in verse 23. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

I don't know how you get out of the book of Romans not seeing the doctrine of justification by faith alone. It is not by our doing that we're saved. It is by God's doing, and he affects that salvation in our lives, pours out his grace and his mercy upon us when we believe in Jesus.

It's grace that brought us to faith. It's grace that's poured out upon us that we may have faith. It is his grace that sustains us in that faith. It is all of God through faith in Christ. In chapter three, Paul summarizes his argument demonstrating that this teaching on the depravity of man is not a new doctrine.

He summarizes that this teaching on justification by faith is not a new doctrine when we jump into chapter four. Because we see there in four, Paul draws Old Testament examples to show that those who were likewise made righteous were done by faith.

He singles out Abraham and David. He quotes from Genesis 15, 6 in Romans 4, 3. Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. He quotes from David in verses 6 through 8, who spoke of the blessing of the one whom God counts righteousness apart from works.

We also have that beautiful statement in verse 5 that kind of summarizes it. And to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness. Later in verse 13, Paul says, the promise of Abraham and his offspring that he would be heir of the world did not come through the law but through righteousness of faith.

We've heard this as we've been going through Romans 11, considering how we are true Israel, we who have faith in Jesus Christ. Paul had been laying out that point back in chapter four, where we are justified not because we were ethnic descendants of Abraham, but spiritual descendants in that we believed as Abraham believed, and it was counted to him as righteousness.

We've been made fellow heirs through Abraham, not through ethnic parentage. It came through a spiritual adoption by faith in Jesus Christ. As said in verses 23 to 25 of chapter four, the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone.

But for ours also, it will be counted to us who believe in him, who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. And so now, having read the introduction, having read of our condemnation, having read of our justification, we go to the next section of Romans, which is our expectation, the hope that we have in Christ, that Paul lays out in chapters five through eight.

And chapter five begins this way, both summarizing the argument in chapter four and launching us into the effect of this faith in our lives in the next portion. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And Paul, for the next several chapters, laying out what that peace in the life of a believer looks like. We've been justified by faith. What is this peace that we have? It is a peace that allows us even to rejoice in our sufferings, Paul says, because suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.

And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. A beautiful verse to memorize, one that my daughter quotes to me often, is Romans 5 .8.

God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. In Romans 5 .12, we read of that doctrine of original sin, where it is stated that just as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, so death spread to all men because all sinned.

But just as sin came into the world through that one man, so justification came into the world through one man. And that is Jesus Christ who accomplished everything that Adam failed to do. Verse 19 there of chapter 5, for just as by the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous.

Into chapter 6, Paul contests with that person who wants to argue, are we to continue in sin so that grace may abound? Paul, you're talking about the grace of God. You're talking about how we cannot be saved by the law, it's by faith.

It's by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ. So should we just keep on sinning? We'll just sin and sin and sin so that God's grace is greater and greater and greater. Is that the argument? And what does Paul said?

No, I woke somebody up just in case you were falling asleep. By no means, how can we who died to sin still live in it? And chapter 6 becomes that argument of how you should no longer be submitting the members of your body as members of unrighteousness.

If you've been saved by Christ, you don't even wanna do that. I remember John Piper talking about how when he came into the doctrines of grace, he was contesting against them for a long time. Contesting against the sovereignty of God, he just didn't wanna believe it.

He said, I was rabidly Arminian. And he contested with one of his professors one time. And he said to his professors, you mean that now that I have, I've been justified by faith in Jesus Christ, I can do any sin I want.

And I'm not gonna lose my salvation. I'm not gonna be lost out of election. I can do whatever sin I want and God's just gonna forgive me for it. And the professor asked a simple question that just rocked his world.

The professor said, why would you even want to? I can sin, I can do any sin I want. Why would you want to? And Piper was like, yeah, that if I've been changed in Christ, why would I even want to go on sinning?

Silly arguments that people will bring up against like a doctrine of the preservation or the perseverance of the saints. You just go right on sinning all you want all your life and you think that God will save you.

Well, the argument being made in Romans 6 is that if we have been transformed in Christ, we won't even want to. We won't even wanna keep on sinning. We will want to submit our bodies as members of righteousness and do that which is in the righteousness of Christ that we've been clothed in.

Paul says in verse 12, let not sin reign in your mortal body to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life.

And your members to God as instruments for righteousness, for sin will have no dominion over you. You are not under the law, but under grace. And we have that beautiful passage in verse 23, for the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

So that even now, we should desire to live in that eternal life, demonstrating the righteousness of Christ that we have been given. In chapter 7, chapter 7 is where we have that wrestling in our flesh of wondering, okay, so I now in Christ Jesus am supposed to be living in righteousness.

Then why is it that I keep sinning? I still sin. So if I've been given the righteousness of Christ, why do I still sin? Paul says, while we were living in the flesh, this is verse 5, while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.

But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the spirit and not in the old way of the written code, okay, all well and good. But why do I still have this desire in my heart?

And I hate it, I hate it. I hate that every once in a while, this sinful tendency wants to rise up within me. I hate that when I wake up in the morning, I'm grumping about waking up instead of praising God that you didn't snatch the life right out of me last night.

Why this consistent tendency to fall back into my flesh? Paul even goes as far as saying here in chapter 7, verse 18, I know that nothing good dwells in me. This is a present tense statement. He's not talking about his past self, who he used to be.

He's talking about himself now. I know nothing good dwells in me, that is in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. I wrestled with this so much when I was a young man, and you have probably wrestled with it too, even as older men and women.

I do what I do not want. It is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me, verse 20. So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. The thing that I want to do is not the thing that I keep on doing.

I keep going back and doing the thing that I don't want to do. And man, I'm loving hearing Paul say that when I'm reading that, because I'm like, yes, Paul, I just totally identify with this. What is the solution to this problem that still exists in our flesh?

And Paul says in verse 24, wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So essentially his answer to that question, who delivers me from this body of death, answer, another dead body.

But it's the dead body of Christ that rose from the dead. So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin. An argument then for us that we would walk in the spirit and not in the flesh.

And that's exactly where Paul goes next in Romans chapter 8. But we have that beautiful declaration in Romans 8 .1. There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But there are those who will continue to walk in the flesh.

If you walk in the flesh but not according to the spirit, those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh. Verse five, those who live according to the spirit set their minds on the things of the spirit.

For the mind that is set on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot.

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you, however, Paul says, to the believers there in this church. The spirit says to the believers in this church today, you, however, are not in the flesh but in the spirit if, in fact, the spirit of God dwells in you.

And verse 11, if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.

Are you looking for the ability to do that which is right? God has given his spirit to you to raise your dead man to life so that you can walk in the righteous way of Christ. The same spirit that brought Christ out of the grave is the spirit that leads us in righteousness.

In verses 12 to 17, Paul lays out how we've been made fellow heirs with Christ. In verse 18, talking about our future glory, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

In verse 26, the spirit helps us in our weakness. The spirit himself intercedes for us. He who searches hearts knows what is the mind of the spirit because the spirit intercedes for the saints. Verse 28, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good for those who are called according to his purpose.

And then that beautiful declaration of our having been predestined for this, those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. Verse 30, those whom he predestined, he also called.

Those whom he called, he also justified. Those whom he justified, he also glorified. Paul is setting up and he's laying out here that if you have been made a Christian by the grace of God, it was foreordained from before the foundation of the world.

And God is not going to let that which he foreordained fail. He will sustain you all the way to your glory. And so assuring is this, that Paul says, if God is for us, who can be against us? In verse 31, and in verse 33, who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies. Verses 37 to 39, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I don't know who in the church in Rome was designated to read this letter, but I just have to wonder, how many times does this guy have to stop and wipe tears from his eyes so that he can focus on the text again and continue blessing the church with it?

What are we seeing again, and again, and again? The mercies of God. The mercies of God upon us wretched sinners. But lest there be somebody who's now looking around the room, and they're going, Paul, but what about the Jews?

It was to them first came these oracles, and so many of them have turned away. They're perishing in their unbelief because they don't come to Christ. Have the promises of God failed? So what assurance do we have of these promises then that are given to us?

And this is the argument that Paul then wrestles with in chapters 9 through 11. And we read here of our restoration in these three chapters. Paul grieves with tears over his kinsmen according to the flesh.

He says in verse 3, they are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever, amen.

Yes, to them, all of these things came as well as to us. But it is not as though the word of God has failed, Paul says, for not all who are descended from Israel belong to Israel. He uses the twins as an example, talking about Esau and Jacob.

Though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, God chose one rather than the other, in order that God's purpose of election might continue, not because of works, but because of him who calls.

And as it is written, verse 13, Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated. What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God's part? No, for as I've already quoted to you this morning, verse 15, God said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion, verse 18.

So then he has mercy on whomever he wills, and he hardens whomever he wills. And so you don't have to waste ink or highlighter, highlighting all of 19 to 24. Put a bracket around that, because it is asked, why does God then find fault for who can resist his will?

And the response is given to us, but who are you, O man, to answer back to God? Well, what is molded, say to its molder, why have you made me like this? What if God, desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of what?

Mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory. Even us, whom he has called, not from the Jews only, but also from the Gentiles. God's mercy that has been shown to us. Now once again, Paul comes back to that argument of justification by faith, even at the end of chapter nine.

The Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have attained it. That is a righteousness that is by faith. But Israel, who pursued a law that would lead to righteousness, did not succeed in reaching that law, because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were based on works.

The reminder comes to us again, that our being justified is by faith and not by our works. And so in chapter ten, Paul says, the blessing and the mercy that comes through faith in the gospel of Christ is still for everybody.

It is for the Jew as well as to the Greek. For, as said in verse nine, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. And as said in verse 13, everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. And then that beautiful missions passage in verses 14 and 15.

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?