Stop Trying And Start Trusting
Stop trying and start trusting. I heard a sermon the other day by Pastor Adrian Rogers where he said these words. Stop trying and start trusting. This is my advice to you tonight, stop trying and start trusting. I plead with you to do this because most people think they are good. I have a friend in Rolla, MO who says that about 95% of the people he asks if they are good respond yes. He asks more people than I do, but I’d say it’s closer to 99% for me. Most people think they are good.
Every Way Of A Man Is Right In His Own Eyes
Proverbs 20:6 states: Most men will proclaim every one his own goodness: but a faithful man who can find? Proverbs 21:2 says: Every way of a man is right in his own eyes: but the Lord ponders the hearts. So it shouldn’t surprise us when people say they are good. People do what they do because they think what they are doing is right. An adulterer will justify his affairs. A thief will justify stealing. Liars justify lying. Idolaters justify their false gods. Drunkards justify getting drunk and most will claim they can quit at any time, but usually they can’t without some sort of help.
Most people say they are good because they are trying to be good enough to go to Heaven. Even unbelievers do this. They will argue with you until they’re blue in the face and then say something like, we’ll, even if I’m wrong, if there is a God, He will accept me because I’m good.
Working Their Way To Heaven
Some people are trying to work their way to Heaven while others are trying to do more good than bad. The false religions of the world promote this. They are not the genuine faith, they are all counterfeits. So most proclaim some truths which shouldn’t surprise us because even the Devil pretends to be an angel of light. Islam, Buddhist, Hindus, Catholics, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons and all cults promote some sort of works based righteousness.
None of us can save ourselves, but these cults all promote that you do your best, you do more good than bad and God will accept you. He will weigh your good and bad in the balances and if you have just a tiny bit more on the good side, you’re in. But when you ask people in cults if they have done enough good, they typically say “I hope so.”
This isn’t the way of salvation and even if hypothetically we say that it is, the problem with this kind of thinking is that none of us have any good on the good side of the scale. But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away (Isaiah 64:6).
You Can’t Earn Salvation
I’m no Bible scholar, but I’ve heard more than one preacher say that what filthy rags means here is a menstrous woman’s used rag or tampons. This isn’t a very pleasant thought, is it? Your very best, your most righteous deeds are as filthy or menstrous rags to God. Now this doesn’t mean that we aren’t supposed to be kind and help people. It’s just pointing out that you cannot do enough good works to earn your salvation.
None of us are good or righteous. What then? are we better than they? No, in no wise: for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles, that they are all under sin; As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one (Romans 3:9-12). None of us righteous on our own. We’ve all gone astray from God. None of us can save ourselves.
God Demands Perfection
You see, God demands total perfection and none of us are perfect. God made Adam and Eve, they were perfect and God put them in a perfect setting and guess what? They messed it up. Adam and Eve rebelled against God. They marred the perfection of the garden of Eden and God cast them out of the garden. None of us are perfect either. We have all sinned against God. We have all gone astray. Listen to what Jeremiah 17:9 reminds us: The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?
Folks, I’m pointing this out tonight because none of us are good, so if you think you are somehow working your way to Heaven, you are not. You are working your way to physical death and spiritual death. Spiritual death is the second death and it is never ending. For the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23). All you are working for in this life on your own is death. Physical death and the second death.
So You Need To Stop Trying And Start Trusting
So you need to stop trying and start trusting. Trying leads to death, but trusting leads to life. Romans 6:23, the full verse says: For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Stop working for death. Stop trying to earn God’s favor. You can’t do it. But you can start trusting. Trust in Jesus Christ our Lord. Only trust Him, only trust Him, only trust Him now. He will save you, He will save you, He will save you now.
Trust Jesus is because He is the only Savior. He is the only one who can wash away your sins. Jesus Christ the Lord is the only one who can take your sins and give you the righteousness you need to be able to stand before our Holy and righteous God in Heaven. Only Jesus saves.
The sinless Son of the living God is the only sacrifice that is acceptable and pleasing to God. Jesus is the one who never sinned. Not one time. Yet He died the death of a guilty criminal, even though He was innocent. He took the place of guilty criminals like you and me. Jesus never sinned, but he paid the price of guilty sinners. He bore God’s anger over sinful people as He hung on the old rugged cross. Jesus died, was buried, and rose again the third day. God offers eternal life to all who repent and trust Jesus.
You Can Have Peace With God
Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1). And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die.
But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life (Romans 5:5-10).
God demonstrated His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Jesus died for us. Christ died for the ungodly. That’s you and me. We are the ungodly! Jesus died for us. When you repent and put your faith in Jesus, then you are justified through Him. You are seen as just by God. You are seen as righteous by God. Not for any righteousness that you may have (remember all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags), no we are seen as righteous through Jesus Christ alone.
When you truly turn from your sins and turn to Jesus, God’s anger no longer abides upon you. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him (John 3:36). You are no longer seen by God as the guilty sinner that you are. You are no longer God’s enemy, when you repent and trust Jesus.
Make no mistake, God hasn’t made Himself an enemy to us, we are the ones who make ourselves enemies to God. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God (James 4:4). You don’t have to continue being God’s enemy. You don’t have to remain guilty with God’s anger over your sins abiding upon you.
Today Is The Day Of Salvation
Today is the day of salvation. You can be saved. Godly sorrow works repentance unto salvation. Be saved today. Confess and forsake your sins. Cry out for God to have mercy upon you. Repent and surrender your life to King Jesus. Receive the free gift of salvation. For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast (Ephesians 2:8-9).
Salvation is of the Lord and it is a free gift, but you must receive it. Repent and believe the Gospel. You know the most familiar verse in the Bible – John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
When God convicts you over your sins and reveals His Holiness to you, this verse becomes personal to you. Then you no longer just see it as written to whosoever. No, it becomes personal, it becomes real to you. When you are convicted over your sins and that Jesus is the only Savior, John 3:16 becomes God speaking to you, yes you! For me, it is For God so loved Dennis, that he gave his only begotten Son, that when Dennis believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Is God Convicting You Over Your Sins?
Oh, my friend, this could be you tonight. If God is convicting you over your sinfulness and showing you His glory, you can receive everlasting life. When God opens your eyes through the Holy Spirit, you see God speaking directly to you in John 3:16: For God so loved (blank) fill in your name, that he gave his only begotten Son, that when (blank) fill in your name believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Choose life today. This night we set before you death and life. What do you need for death? Nothing. Just continue walking down that broad to destruction that you are currently walking on. You really can’t be perfect (none of us can), but let’s say hypothetically that from this day forward you lived a perfect life. You literally never sinned again another day in your life.
What would happen after you die? You’d find yourself in the flames of Hell. Why? Because even if you lived perfectly from now until your death, you didn’t live perfectly up to this point in your life. You would suffer the torments of Hell forever because you cannot wipe out one little sin, let alone all of your sins.
Working For Death
Romans 6:23 told us earlier that you are working for death. So to receive physical death and then the second death or never ending death after that, you don’t have to do anything. You’ve already sinned enough to earn everlasting damnation. One little white lie will send you to Hell for all of eternity.
Oh, but if you admit that you are a sinner, confess and forsake your sins, put your trust in Jesus, you can receive life, everlasting life. Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? (John 11:25-26).
Choose life tonight. Choose eternal life. Come to Jesus Christ. He is the only Savior. Christ Jesus is the only way of salvation. Repent and surrender your life to Jesus. Call upon the name of the Lord and be saved. Trust Jesus with all your heart. Submit to His Lordship. Repent and believe the Gospel. Do this today. Stop trying and start trusting. Trust Jesus and be saved.
(This message was proclaimed in downtown Springfield, MO on June 23, 2017)