In this sermon, the preacher shares a story about children walking across a bridge and trusting it to hold them up. He uses this illustration to highlight how people trust in man-made things like bridges, but often struggle to trust in God. The preacher then shares a personal experience of trying to lead someone to salvation, but they hesitated to fully trust in God. He emphasizes that being saved is about recognizing God's love and accepting Jesus as our Savior. The sermon concludes with a reminder that we can always love God, even if we struggle to fully trust Him.

I was glad to hear that word of personal testimony. Salvation is something that happens to real, live, normal people. And I was glad to hear it. I remember hearing an elderly man give his testimony in Colorado Springs one time, and he told how God had dealt with him and led him to the knowledge of his Jesus' salvation, and he finally trusted the Lord and was saved, and he climaxed and ended his testimony with these words, and I was there when it happened. I'd like to talk to you tonight, beginning with John 3.16. I'm not going to talk very long, and I'm not going to talk very loud. I'm going to be like the first alarm in one of these silent, well, not silent alarms, that's a contradiction of terms, but one of these clocks that just dings, dings, dings, dings a little bit. Perhaps it'll wake you up, and then, if you don't wake up, it jumps a little. Well, perhaps I'm just going to be the ding, ding, ding, and maybe Oliver will make you jump a little, but that's right. Now, I want to talk tonight, and I want to be genuinely helpful. I'm supposing that this audience tonight has heard the gospel in many instances, many, many times, and I'm going to try to help and be genuinely helpful to those who have had genuine and real problems in the matter of accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as their Savior. It has been said in the Scripture, there are many ways to Christ, but only one way to God. The Lord Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Only one way to the Father, but many ways to Christ, and the Scripture uses a variety of terms in the matter of laying hold of the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, in the matter of believing on him, and the matter of that vital contact between the soul and the Lord Jesus Christ. And we want to talk about those variety of ways which the Lord uses, the terms that he uses, in order that we might make that living, vital contact with the Lord Jesus Christ. First of all, we read in 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. We become saved when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not a matter of believing about him, it's a matter of believing on him. But you know, I've had so much experience recently with people who try to make a Savior out of belief. I talked with a young woman at camp this year about the matter of believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, and it was a sad case indeed. Perhaps this is the problem of some of you here. She had made a false profession in years gone by. She thought she had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and she found out that she had made a false profession, that she was not really saved. I talked with her again and sought to lead her to the Lord. I couldn't. Vain is the help of man, but she stumbled over this fact. She seemed obsessed with the fact that she was going to make another false profession, and she withheld her trust from the Lord Jesus Christ, simply because she was afraid that if she placed her trust in him and she believed on him, that she would go astray again and she would not be saved. It was one of the saddest cases I've ever seen. She wept, and I sought to present God's way of salvation before her. I tried to slip up on her spiritually speaking. I tried to get her to see it before she realized that she was believing, and it seemed that we were at the point in one of the places of that conversation where she was just about to place her trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I saw her set her feet. So to speak, I believed that she was just about to trust the Lord, and it flashed across her mind. You're just about to believe, and she withheld her trust. She was making a savior out of belief. Now, there are lots of people that think they have to have a special kind of belief, a special kind of faith, strong faith, faith that rather takes over. But the matter of believing on the Lord Jesus Christ is the matter of just exercising the faith in him that we exercise in the doctor, that we exercise in the dentist, that we exercise in the bus driver or the airplane pilot. It's not the kind of faith, but it's who the faith is in, and there are lots of people that are afraid that they don't have the right kind of faith, and they're trying to make a savior out of their faith. I think sometimes that we as Christians are to blame for this, because oftentimes when we give our testimony and when we tell others about the Lord Jesus Christ, we say, I believe this verse, and I was saved. Well, we don't get saved by believing the verse, John 3.16, but we get saved by believing on the Savior that's presented to us in John 3.16. It's a matter of trusting Christ. It's a matter of coming to a person and trusting him. It's a matter of accepting the Lord Jesus for ourselves. And so, the scripture says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. I've talked with people in the matter of salvation, and they keep saying, well, I just can't believe. I just can't believe, and I feel like saying sometimes, and do, well, now, just who is it that you can't believe? It's a matter of believing him. It's a matter of believing God. It's a matter of giving God credit for telling the truth. Now, this Bible tells me that Christ died for my sins. It says Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and he was buried, and he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. Now, God tells us that our sins are gone. What do you say? He tells us our sins have been paid for. What do you say? I wish that I could get people to consider that. I wish that they would stop and realize who it is that tells them that he loves them, that they are lost, that their sins are a barrier between their souls and God, but that he paid the debt of our sins, and that Christ died for our sins. It's a matter of our sins already being paid for. It's a matter of salvation's work already being done, and all you and I do is give God credit for telling the truth, and resting where God rests, and taking God at his word. I don't see why anybody, and yet I do see why people falter on this word belief. But, you know, the scripture does not bind us up to the word belief. John chapter 1 is considered John 3, verse 16. John chapter 1, verse 11. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Now, here we use another term. It's a matter of receiving Christ. Now, somebody says, I don't understand what that means, and I don't think it should be a great barrier, but perhaps this is the problem of someone in this audience tonight. How do I receive Christ? Well, I think the scriptures are plain how some did not receive him. Notice them. Verse 11. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. Perhaps if we can find out how they didn't receive him, we may find out how we can receive him. What did his own people say of him? His race, the Jewish race? They said, away with this man. We'll not have him for reign over. They didn't want him. He didn't fit into their plan, and they said, we don't want him, and they sent him back to heaven on a cross. They didn't receive him. We certainly know when we have been received by others. If I were to come to your house, knock on the door, and I saw a flurry of the curtains, and I knew you were at home, and yet you didn't answer the door, and I knocked again, and you still didn't answer the door, do you think I would know when I was being received? I certainly would, wouldn't I? I certainly would. But if you opened the door and invited me in, would I know that I had been received? Certainly I would. The Lord Jesus Christ came to the Jewish nation, and they turned him away. They didn't want him. They rejected him. They did not receive him. But the scripture says, for as many as received him, then gave he power to become the son of God, even to them that believe on his name. Well, perhaps that has helped. I don't know. Shall we consider a third one? 2 Corinthians, chapter 1. The third avenue to Christ, the third way in which the scripture uses in regards to our trusting him. 2 Corinthians, chapter 1, and verse 9. For we have the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raised us the dead. Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us. Now, here the word trust is used. We have the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raised us the dead. The apostle says, we did not trust in ourselves, but in God. Now, trust is simply relying and depending upon God. Faith is exercise, but when we trust the Lord, we depend on him. We trust each other. We rely upon each other. We depend upon each other. And when we do it in the case of God, when we just simply leave the matter in his hands and rest on what God has said about the matter of our sins in God, rest and relax, we get a blessing. I have thought to use the expression and the illustration many times past, dealing with a chair. And I believe I used it successfully in the case of one soldier a number of years ago. And I said, now suppose that you come in from your work and you're desperately tired. And I said that you see a chair sitting over there and you say, my, that chair looks good. But I said, you look at the chair, you're convinced it will hold you up, but you don't sit down on it. Is it going to give you any rest? No, you can stand there and look at it indefinitely. If you do not sit down on that chair, it will not give you any rest at all. I used that illustration with a soldier boy once, and I thought he was on the verge of salvation. And he went to the base, back to the base again, and I was supposed to see him again, but I didn't. Something very embarrassing happened to this soldier just a month. And he was confined to the base, and he was isolated, but when he could, he got to a telephone and he gave me a message that I appreciated. He says, I sat down on that chair, and I knew exactly what he meant. He had put his faith in Christ. He rested on it. You can know about the truths of salvation. You can know that God loves you. You can know that you are lost. And you can know those things and go to hell, because we do not trust, we do not trust upon the Lord Jesus Christ. I had an occasion, a number of years ago, of taking a busload of children down from Colorado Springs Christian Home for Children to the Royal Gorge. And we took the children out on the bridge, and it was a windy day. Some of you have seen that bridge. It's over a thousand feet above the Arkansas River, and it's a suspension bridge, and the wind was blowing down the canyon at a very brisk rate, and that bridge was swaying and bucking, and you just had to stretch your legs up like a sailor in order to get across that bridge. And I said, Oh my, how many of these children are going out on this bridge? As long as you could see down through those planks, and there were cracks big enough that you couldn't fall through, that you could see it mighty well, and the silent river so far below you, you couldn't even hear the roar of it, and those children could walk across those planks and see down there, and see that river. Well, not a one of those children held back. They went out on that bridge, spread their little legs apart, got their sea legs, and walked across that bridge. But one little girl said something to me that I've never forgotten. She says, Uncle Ken, isn't it funny how people will trust their lives for this bridge, but they won't trust the God that made the world before the bridge? Quite profound, wasn't it? They would trust, they would depend, they would rest their weight on that bridge, but they won't trust the God that made the world that holds up the bridge. I wish tonight that some soul in this audience could find that he could give God credit for telling the truth, that he could rest, that he could let the matter of salvation rest on the fact that God is satisfied with the work of Christ, and trust it, and rest. Remember, the chair will never give you any rest until you sit on it, and when you sit on it, pick up your feet and put all your weight on it. There's another avenue, there's another approach to the matter of making that living, vital contact with our Lord Jesus Christ. Another one we have been quoted, Matthew 11 and 28. Another avenue to the Lord Jesus Christ. Come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you bread. Now, perhaps we can't believe. We're trying to make a savior out of deletion. We can't receive him. We don't know how. We can't trust him. Perhaps we can come. The Lord Jesus says, come unto me, all ye that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Someone says, how do you come to the Lord Jesus Christ? He is up in heaven, and I'm on the earth. How do I come to him? Well, I'll make a simple illustration, if I can. Suppose that you were standing across the street, and you were to call to me, Tim, come over here, I want to talk with you. I would move towards you. I would come within comfortable speaking range, and we would converse. The matter of my coming to you would be coming close enough to you to converse with you. The matter of coming to the Lord Jesus Christ, I believe, is the matter of speaking to him. It's a matter of approaching him. And you certainly know how to turn and go the other direction. Believe me, we know how to turn our back on it. We know how to go the other direction. Let's turn it around 180 degrees, and come to the Lord Jesus and talk with him. I tell anybody, I challenge anybody here tonight, who really genuinely wants to be saved, to tell the Lord Jesus Christ what you think about the fact that he died on the cross, to put your sins away, and that he loves you. And talk with him about the matter of salvation. Certainly, coming to the Lord Jesus is a matter of telling him, is approaching him, and talking with him about what he has done for you. I've had two occasions this past summer of seeing that, I believe, in effect. Dear Bert Ebenel, known to Brother Kepler here in Houston, was dealing with a girl at camp. He approached this girl with everything he had to show her the way of salvation. She did not get saved while he was talking with her. And how many times do we have that experience? In leading a soul to Christ, we can take them by the hand, so to speak, and we lead them along toward the Lord Jesus, through the avenue of the scriptures, and then there's a point where we've got to leave them. They're on their own. They meet the Lord Jesus Christ alone, and they are there with him alone. And he did that in the case of that young woman. He says, I have told you all I can tell you. It's a matter of you getting into the presence of the Lord Jesus. Now, I'm going to lead you. You'll have a talk with him. He left her, and when he came back, she was gloriously saved. She had been in the presence of the Lord. She had come to him. Well, Romans 10. We need a read of another wonderful scripture. I think we'll start with verse 9. That is, thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead. Thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture says, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be saved. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. For the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Peter prayed the shortest prayer in the scripture. There were two of them, as we've been reminded. He was thinking these are the ways. And Peter said, Lord, save me! And the Lord Jesus Christ reached down and saved Peter from the angry ways. He called on the name of the Lord. Now, I know that when we call on the name of the Lord, we're believing, we're trusting. But at least it's a different approach. Have you ever called on the name of the Lord? Have you ever asked him to save you? By virtue of the fact that he died on the cross to take away your sins. Certainly, we can call on the name of the Lord. Perhaps that will not make it plain. There's just one more that I want to mention before I give way to our brother Smith. 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4, verse 10. Herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loves us. And sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Lots of people are taking the Ten Commandments as a rule of salvation. They believe the Scripture, the Ten Commandments. It says, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, strength, and mind. And thy neighbor is thyself, and it's time to love God in order to be saved. Have you ever tried to love anybody? It's hard, it's time to love anybody. But the Scripture tells us, when we hear in his love, not that we love God, but that he loves us. And sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins, the sacrifice for our sins. Being saved is not forcing oneself to love God. Being saved is a matter of seeing God's love to you. When he sent his blessed Son to die on the cross, and that he genuinely wants you and loves against love. We read in the 19th verse of this same 4th chapter, 1 John, we love him because he first loved us. May I suggest to you, if you can't believe, if you can't receive, if you can't trust, if you can't come, if you can't fall, you can love him, can't you? You can love him when you realize that he loved you so much that he died on the cross for you. I think sometimes, I think sometimes that I am going to speak that way, on making up a matter, an issue out of a matter of love. There is a Scripture that says, we do want to turn this thing around, if any man loves not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed. That's what happens when they don't love him. I'll tell you that one thing I think we should be able to do, is we'll only consider it, just bathe in the rays of God's mercy and love at the cross of Calvary. Just sit there and bask, until that love tingles a love in your heart for the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a serious thing not to love him, but we'll never love him thinking of our duty to do so. Consider the cross with Christ, how much he loved you. Let that tingle a love in your heart for the lover of your soul. God grant it to you, my dear. I hope that I've been helpful.