The Gospel Is the Power of God — Eli Brayley

It's always an honor to preach the word, and whenever it seems like I'm going to preach the gospel, the devil always comes with his lies and his doubts. Whenever God calls you to do something, always the devil will be there.

As Paul said, the door is open, but many adversaries are there as well. So the devil will say, well, you're not qualified to preach the gospel. Well, I'll say to the devil, who is qualified to preach the gospel?

Who is worthy? As Paul said, who is sufficient for these things? Nobody. God is sufficient for these things, and God lives in us. And we know that apart from Christ we can't do anything, but with Christ we can do all things.

Through him he strengthens us. Amen. So turn with me to Romans chapter 1, and I'll open in a word of prayer before we begin. But I'm excited to bring the word this morning. I feel like God has something really important for us to hear.

Father, I thank you for your many blessings. You are the God of all grace. Your grace isn't just isolated to one thing. But Lord, I thank you that every day when we wake up, it doesn't matter what happened yesterday or what's going to happen that day, but Lord, your grace is completely sufficient for us.

Lord, you are well able to accomplish all your purposes in us. Lord, I pray that you would this morning lift our vision much higher than it is, that we would see past, God, just the mundane. We would see past just the day-to-day flow of life.

We would see into eternity, Lord, this morning. And God, we would see that you reign on the throne this morning. God, I pray that you'd open our eyes, that we would see as you see. We need your grace for that.

Open our ears to hear your word too, Lord. Lord, I pray for every single person here that you'd bless them. Bless me, Lord, to speak the word. And if there's anyone here that doesn't know you, Lord, I do pray that this morning you would speak to their hearts.

The Gospel as the World's Greatest Power

And we just praise your holy name, Lord. You do all things well. Thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name. Amen. I want to ask the question this morning, what is the most powerful thing in the world? When we think of the word power and what has power, what is powerful, what are we thinking of?

What comes to mind? For some people in the room, I know Dan, you like cars, you know? And I'm sure there's others too. How many of everyone else here is into really powerful automobiles and stuff like that?

Alan, I don't know. I'm not so into that, but a lot of people are, and I can understand why. Bob has a really nice motorcycle, you know? And when you get together with people who are like-minded, you talk about the engine and you talk about the power of this machine and what it can pull and how fast it can go, and people just grunt and go, so powerful, you know?

And these things, the world talks about as these are powerful things, powerful vehicles, powerful machines, or construction machines, powerful machines that can demolish buildings. If you work in landscaping, it's amazing what these machines can do.

You look at a mountain, they can just decide, okay, we'll get rid of it. Bring in the machines, and it's all gone. Fill in the valley, whatever, and there's power there. Or we think of the rocket that can shoot a man up into space.

That's a powerful thing. You have a heavy spacecraft, and the power, the energy that is released from the engines can shoot that thing. I mean, Dave, you know what I'm talking about. Dave was telling me that when they do tests sometimes, they put the engine or the rocket on these stands and just let them go, and it lights up like the whole sky or whatever.

I mean, there's power there, right? There's a lot of power in machines and things that we create. But on the other hand, there might be other people that think of power in a different way, and you think, well, you see power in the arts.

Like I saw a really powerful movie, and I want to share it with my friends and others. So what do we mean when we say there's a really powerful movie or a powerful piece of artwork? You see it, and you're just, your breath's taken away.

It has the power to move your emotions. And some would say, well, the machines are more powerful. And then when other people think of power, they think of force of arms and nations, like Napoleon and Hitler and Mussolini, the guys who built these amazing armies, and they had parades, and they stood there in their uniforms, and they watched the armies go by, and the sense of power and authority that they had, that at their word anyone could be killed, and at their word anyone could live, and they felt that they had the power just to take over the whole world.

There's a real sense of power there. But I want us to be clear that compared to all those things, we could talk all day about supposed powers in this world, but the most powerful thing in the whole world is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Do we believe that? The most powerful thing in the whole world is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and what He did. That is more powerful than any machine or any movie or any nation, but the power of God in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And look in Romans 1, verse 16. Paul says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. The gospel is the power of God.

The gospel is the power of God. That means you and I were saved by the power of God. You ever thought of it like that? We know the gospel saves us, the gospel that saves our soul, but that is the power of God.

You and I were saved by His power and not by our own power. It wasn't by our own strength that we were saved from sin and from the wrath of God, but through His mighty power. His right arm saved us. His strength came in when we didn't have any strength, the Bible says.

Salvation Through Divine Power and Human Weakness

In Romans 5 it says, When we were without strength, when we were powerless to save ourselves, then God came and saved us with His power. He's the one who saved us. In 1 Corinthians 1, verse 18, it says that the preaching of the cross is foolishness to those that are perishing, but to us who are saved, it is the power of God.

The cross is the power of God. When we think of the cross, we see weakness. We see a man hanging there on the cross who is helpless to get off it. He's pinned, and people are mocking him. This isn't just Jesus, but any man who was crucified.

It's just as one hymn says, The cross is the emblem of suffering and of shame. I like that line because it really is. When we think of a cross, I know as Christians we do think it is the power of God, but there's a contrast.

When Paul says that the gospel that saves us is the power of God, there's a contrast. Wherever God is strong, that is where man is most weak. Wherever there's the power of God, there there's the impotence of man.

On the cross, the power of God was displayed, but the weakness of man was at its most. You see, when Jesus in his manhood was there on the cross, utterly weak, utterly powerless. Now, in his Godhood, sure, he could have just ripped himself off that thing and declared himself Messiah.

That wouldn't have done any good for anybody, though. But in his manhood, he was just weak. He was physically exhausted. He was mentally exhausted. He was spiritually exhausted. And God had forsaken him.

So there's a contrast between the power of God and the impotence of man. And when we think of the gospel that saves us, as Paul reminds us so well here, I'm not ashamed of that because it's the power of God.

You know, a lot of people are ashamed because of their weakness. I'm not ashamed of the gospel because it's the power of God. But a lot of Christians, even, are ashamed of their own weakness. The world doesn't glory in weakness.

But you know, in 2 Corinthians, Paul says, I'd rather glory in all my infirmities than my weakness because that's where the power of God is strongest in me. That's where it's manifest. When I can't do anything, and yet God does it in me, then he gets all the glory.

When I can't save myself, and then God saves me, who gets the glory? God. If I can't preach the sermon, and then God preaches it through me, who gets the glory? God. God, God, God gets all the glory. And where there's a division in the labor, there's a division in the glory.

You see? Are we ashamed of our weakness, or do we glory in it? Do we glory in our weakness because that is where God's glorified, in our weaknesses. And we are weak. We are mighty weak. We don't realize it, though.

You're blessed if, before you were saved, you were made to know your weakness. A lot of Christians, you know, they come into the kingdom, but they still think that it was because of something that they did, because of their own arm, their will, their decision, their moral resolution, their repentance, their faith.

The Fall, Sin, and the Need for Righteousness

And God has to take that all away and show us, no, no, no, you are weak. I am strong. Now, in the next verse, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. Verse 17 says,.

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. You see, the gospel reveals God's righteousness. It's righteousness that we need. The gospel is what works in its power to give us righteousness, and righteousness is what we need.

Righteousness is the dilemma. When men fell in Adam, you see, the Bible refers to all of us, brothers and sisters, before we're saved, as sons and daughters of Adam. It's a Hebrew term, and it's translated in our Bibles as son of Adam, or son of daughter of Adam.

And it's relaying the fact that we're all from him. We all resemble him. We're all made in Adam's image. We all fell with him. We've come from him. His seed was corrupt. And we all could put our own name there in the first account, the first chapters of Genesis.

And you should do it sometime. When you read Genesis 1, 2, and 3, you should put your own name in Adam and Eve. If you're a male, put it in Adam, and if you're a female, put it in Eve. And, you see, when men fell, several things happened.

He came under a curse. His relationship with God was completely severed when he fell through sin. There was no more relationship with God possible because of sin. The curse brought death. It says in Romans that through sin, death entered the world.

Before sin, there was no death. There was no aging. There was no decay or corruption. Can you imagine the shock of Adam and Eve? I can't even fathom what it would have been like to make that transition from a state of pure health and life to death.

What would it have felt like in their bodies? And then as time goes on, how old do you think they looked at 900 or 800 and something? And then to actually expire. And to hear the news one day that your son Cain just killed your son Abel.

That was the first murder. We hear it on the news all the time. That's terrible on the news. Terrible. Next. Heard that before. But can you imagine for the first time hearing of a murder and it being your own son murdered by your own son.

The horror of their sin in the garden would have been screaming in their hearts. You see? We're so desensitized now in the year 2008. You've had thousands of years of getting used to sin. I pray that God would undesensitize us to sin and we would see it as it really is.

That every sin that we've committed, that we commit every sin daily is an aggravation. It's just a continuing of that great rebellion that happened in the garden. That severing of the relationship with God.

It's not helping. Why do we all die sin and yet we continue to sin? Feeding it like the flames of the fire with the fuel of sin. Not only did we fall and our relationship with God was severed. Death came in.

But death didn't come in just physically but death came in spiritually. That our hearts suddenly were twisted. That we died inside as well. And when Jesus said you must be born again He was addressing that very fact that inside you need spiritual rebirth.

You need a spiritual regeneration. Because inside, now your heart is filled with the knowledge of good and evil. And guess what? It's going to go towards evil. Inside your heart suddenly pride just entered.

The seed of the serpent in you. Antichrist in you. God hating. I mean we won't read the description in Romans 1 but we know what it is. Professing themselves to be wise they became fools. Knowing God they rejected God.

It wasn't long until God had to destroy the whole earth. Out of necessity. Because it was so evil. You know as I read the Old Testament there's no resolution in the Old Testament. Now there's promise of resolution but there's no resolution in the Old Testament.

By the law there's no resolution. There's no hope given in the Old Testament that as we read oh I can see that one day Israel is going to get better. You ever notice that as you're reading? I can see that man will be improving.

We read from the very beginning the fall, the murder, the flood. Then after the flood Babel. Then Abraham is chosen by grace. Who himself isn't the perfection of morality by any means but he's chosen by grace.

Then he sins and Ishmael comes along. Ishmael and Isaac are fighting. Then Jacob and Esau quarrel. Esau wants to kill Jacob. Jacob flees. Then Jacob has Joseph who's sold by his brothers into Egypt. Then Potiphar's wife tries to commit adultery with him.

Then Moses comes along after Israel is in Egypt for a long time. Moses by God's hand delivers Israel with mighty signs and wonders. Signs and wonders that most of us will not see in our lifetime. I've heard it so many times and I've said it myself oh Lord I wish I could see some of those things.

Because then I would be on fire for you. If I saw a miracle then oh then would I have faith to believe. Then I would follow all your commandments oh Lord. Oh yes then I would do it. Just give me a sign.

Just give me proof. Do you know the arrogance of that statement and the ignorance of that statement? That is so ignorant. So Israel delivered through the Red Sea. Anyone had anything like that happen in their lives here?

Okay you've got an army behind you perhaps the greatest army the world's ever known. You've got a sea in front of you that there's no passing through it's deep. And all of a sudden God tells Moses can you imagine being an Israelite there?

Just like in total despair it says they were like oh God why did you bring us out here to die in the wilderness? And then all of a sudden Moses who himself was despairing goes out into the water and well before that what does God say to Moses?

Israel's Rebellion and God's Commitment to His Glory

Stand still and see the salvation of God. Stand still. Be still. And know that I am God. Be still. Sometimes when we quote that psalm there be still know that I'm God we think of just being quiet and knowing that I'm God.

But be still. Don't exert your energy. You've got nothing you can give here. You can't save yourself in this situation. You've got a sea in front of you an army behind you and you're toast. But just stand still and let me do the action.

You see the Red Sea parts and they go through. But how many people know how many days was it before they forgot what he did? Who knows? A month? A week? Three days. Three days. That would be Wednesday from today.

So if God parted like I don't know Bear Lake and we were there today by Wednesday we'd forget. By Wednesday. And murmur and complain and forget that God cared for us and did that for us. And I was doing a study on this and I was writing down all the times they complained and rebelled against God.

I mean I'm not going to go through it all now but it was like three days one week one month after miracle after miracle after miracle and there was no resolution. There's no hope that they're going to get better.

They come to Mount Sinai and they see the flames and they see the smoke and they see God in His Majesty speaking to them and they're saying okay, don't say anything else because if you say anything else we'll die.

And how long until they start building a calf and going naked and worshipping it? After God tells them that He alone is the God is God don't build any graven image. They're building one and worshipping it.

God said at that point I'm going to destroy them. I'm going to destroy these people and Moses interceded for them. And you know they come to the border of Canaan the whole purpose of them coming out of Israel they come to the border now God says okay, go in and take it.

You've seen all my miracles. You know that it's not of your own power but it's of mine. Go in and take it. And what do they do? Well, they go in they see that the land is excellent it's perfect but there's big giants in there so they come back out and they say okay, no.

I mean, it's crooked land but we can't do it. We can't do it. And that is the last straw with God. I mean, we don't appreciate the story unless we know if we consider the history of it of all the miracles that God has done so far and at that point God says I'm going to destroy them all once and for all right here.

And I know I'm rabbit trailing on this point but this is perhaps one of my the greatest passage in the whole Bible is here in Numbers 14. I wasn't going to share this but I have to. It's the greatest passage in the whole Bible.

God says I'm not doing it justice the incredible event that's taking place but God says Moses, don't bother me right now. In a moment I'm going to wipe these guys all out. And justly so. You know, if God had done it he would have been totally just.

Were it not for his promise. But Moses fell on his face and Moses had before a few times already done this and interceded for them and he used different arguments and he said things like God, if you destroy Israel all the nations around are going to say that you just brought them out to kill them.

They're going to misrepresent your character. Your character will be misrepresented if you do that. They're just going to say you brought them out to wipe them out. Okay, I won't do that. That was Moses' argument in the past.

But now Moses has a new argument because that argument is not going to work anymore. And this is what Moses says. He says, God, if you destroy Israel the nations around are going to say that you brought them out of Egypt and that you couldn't bring them into the land.

Do you see what's at stake? Do you see what's at stake here? You got impotent, sinful, undeserving Israel that deserve death but God's glory and His power is at stake. If you don't if you destroy them here the nations will say you couldn't bring them into the land.

And what does God say? The best verse in the whole Bible. God says I swear by myself that the whole earth will be filled with my glory. Get that. Against all odds. Without the help of man. All the nations will say you couldn't do it.

The whole earth will be filled with my glory. How? It's impossible, God. In this moment you say that? You don't say that in a good moment. He didn't say that when David was marching into Israel dancing with the ark and everything was going well.

He said that the worst moment possibly the worst moment in all of Israel's history besides when they crucified Jesus. And He says the whole earth will be filled with my glory. It's a bold, radical statement by God that He's going to do it by His power without the help of man.

He's going to do it. He's going to change their hearts. He's going to forgive their sin. He's going to establish them in the land. And it's not because of them and their worthiness or their strength but because God alone is going to do it.

Isn't that a beautiful, beautiful thing? That's so beautiful. Righteousness is revealed in the Gospel. That is the dilemma here. God can't bring them into the land. God can't just overlook their sin but yet at the same time He's going to bring them into the land and He's going to receive glory from them.

But how? He needs righteousness. They need righteousness. And what is righteousness? Righteousness is the character or quality as the Vines definition, I like this the best, it's the character or quality of being right or just.

When God looks at you, you're clean, you're right, you're just, you're acceptable, you're righteous. There's no fault. There's no error. You're righteous. You are qualified to receive His blessing because He made you righteous.

You can go into the land and inherit it because you're righteous. And this is what the Gospel works, is righteousness. So by the fall, we incurred the curse. We die physically. We die spiritually. We need regeneration.

Our relationship with God severed. We need a mediator. We need reconciliation. We're under sin. We need redemption. We're going to die. We need resurrection. But to put it all into one word, we need righteousness.

We need righteousness. Because if we have righteousness, we have all those things. And it is absolutely impossible with men. How are we going to get righteousness? How will man be right with God? What is the solution?

Human Works Cannot Produce Righteousness

Do we join church and hope for the best? Do we read the Old Testament and say, well, Israel, they don't... I mean, from Genesis to Malachi, it doesn't look too good. Maybe I can do better than they can.

I know they broke all the commands and I've broken some commands, but maybe I can change my life a little bit and stop a little bit of sin. Then God will say, you are righteous. You're righteous and you're worthy of resurrection.

Your works have saved you from the grave. There's a question in the Psalms. He says, the redemption of the soul is precious to save a man from the grave that he doesn't see corruption. And the psalmist is kind of just pondering.

He's seeing that everyone goes into the grave. His friend goes into the grave, his best friend. He's going into the grave and they rot and turn into dust. And he's pondering and saying, what can I give God to save me from corruption of the grave?

Because we all go to the grave and we die. But what can I give? What is the price that can be paid to save me from death that I don't see corruption in the grave? Which is what I deserve and what we all deserve.

What can I give God? The Bible is clear. It says that all our righteousness is filthy rags. There's a statement in the Bible that says, who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean thing? Through sin and the fall, you've defiled yourself.

You're dirty in God's sight. And when we mean dirty, we don't just mean you got a little dirt on your face. You're morally unacceptable. You're morally filthy. And all your righteousness is our filthy rags.

You're helpless. You could think that your good deeds and your good works would be a price for redemption. But the Bible says they're dead works. Anything you could offer God is dead. Anything. Now this is radical stuff.

I know it is. Because in our little deceived hearts, that's desperately wicked, who can know it, we look at some nice people and we go, God, what about those? They're so nice. They're so nice. And what about this good deed that I did?

I mean, it's so, in my eyes, it's so, yeah, worthy, you know? That's got to get me brownie points. See, we're either not seeing our own sin in comparison, we're not seeing the nature of the rebellion against God that's already taken place in our own lives, and we're not seeing the righteousness of God and what He requires.

He doesn't require your shoddy good work on Monday. I ask Mormons, I say, okay, you think you're pretty good, you're not perfect, right? You think you're a good person? Okay. What if you're a good person on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and a bad person on Tuesday and Thursday?

You think God thinks you're righteous? Is that acceptable? You're good most of the week, and the rest of the week you're bad? Is that okay? Does God say, ah, that's good enough, save you from the grave?

Or what if you wake up in the morning, and you're, you know, you're a good person, but by evening you're a bad person? Yeah, like a lot of people. It's easy to be good in the morning, well, maybe not always.

But, okay, what if you're good, you know, so part of the day? No. How low a view of righteousness is that? The Bible says in Romans 3 .23 that, and we read this many times, I think we miss this glory, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

When we think about that, all we think about is all have sinned and fall short. That's what we think of when we think of that verse. All have sinned. I've sinned, I'm not up there. We don't see it from the other end.

The glory of God is the only thing that's acceptable. Nothing short of the glory is acceptable. Only perfect glory is what God will accept. And it doesn't matter if you're 99%, you fall short of that, your whole thing is rejected.

It's worthless. All your righteousness is filthy unless it's perfect righteousness. It's the glory of God. It's the obedience that fulfills the righteous law and requirement of God. Nothing less than the glory.

And let me ask you, do you, even as Christians, feel that day by day, you are living up to the glory of God? There's a Puritan prayer that says, there's not a day that goes by when I don't prove myself guilty in your sight.

A Christian prayer. Is it true, brothers and sisters? Or was it only in the past? Before I was saved, I was falling short of the glory. But now that I'm saved, I mean, I know I'm not perfect, but God accepts my works.

He accepts my righteousness. Now that I'm saved. There's people that actually believe that as a Christian, Jesus Christ saves you and helps you establish your own righteousness before God. They say, well, I know I need forgiveness, but God forgives me and helps me to get to a place where I can stand on my own two feet and trust in my own works.

Whereas Christians, are we even aware that in the present sense, all have sinned and fall presently short of God's perfect righteous standard, which was embodied in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The only one you can say that he lived the glory of God is Jesus. And anyone who would presume to say that they are righteous by their works is ignorant and arrogant in saying that they're as good as Jesus and they deceive themselves.

It's his glory that is at stake. If God were to accept anything less, it would be a shame on his own character. It's his glory, his righteousness. And far be it from us to ever think, presume upon God that we can stand upon our own good works even as Christians apart from his righteousness that he gives.

The Gospel Reveals Sin and Gives Righteousness

The gospel, I'm not ashamed of it. Are we ashamed that we're sinners? When Paul says, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, he's saying, I am a sinner, but he's... the power. The righteousness of God is revealed in the gospel.

My sinfulness is also revealed. I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed. I'm not ashamed to confess to my brothers and sisters that I have sinned. I'm not ashamed to confess that I'm not keeping God's commandments as I ought.

I'm not loving my neighbor as I ought. I'm not loving God as I ought. I'm not ashamed of saying that. It's no excuse. We don't say, Oh, praise God. I'm a sinner falling short of God's glory. And say, well, can't do anything about it, let's go sin.

No. But the confession, the agreeing with God that I'm a sinner who falls short of God's glory doesn't excite us, it saddens us, but it makes us glory and praise God for the gift of his righteousness that he's given.

And that love and that gratitude and that glory, that is what changes us. We need righteousness. We don't need the power of machines and nations and artwork. Those are wonderful things. But those won't make us right with God.

There's a lot of power in an atom bomb. There's not enough power to make you right with God in an atom bomb. You can sacrifice yourself by blowing yourself up with one, and there's not enough power there.

It's infinitely impotent to make you righteous with God. And not only are you helpless to save yourself by your own religious works, if you gave all your money, I mean, if you were to give all your money right now to the church, a mathematician might say, well, if you were to give all your money away to the church and devote your life to prayer and fasting and isolation like the monks of today, but of the olden day, a mathematician might say, well, it's probably better if I kept working and just funneling my money towards the church.

Maybe I'll get more points that way. I can make more money and give it. If you were to do that, devote your whole life to God, give all your money away to the church, and make yourself go into isolation in order for you to suppress the sin that's in your own heart, cease yourself from sinning, come back into the world and love every single person that you could ever love, let's just suppose it would be possible for you to do that.

All of it is impotent to make you right before God because it falls short of His glory. But the Bible doesn't say we're just helpless, we're hostile. You would not do that. A rich young ruler came up to Jesus and said, what can I do to inherit eternal life?

The narrative says he fell on his knees before God. I mean, it's kind of pious, you know. Fell on his knees before God. Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life? Jesus says, keep the commandments.

Why did Jesus say that? If you've studied the text, you know that that's not the way of salvation. He said it to show this man something. The man thought he was righteous in his own works. All these have I kept since I was a youth.

And Jesus, loving him, said the most loving statement he could have to him. He didn't say, no, no, no, no, all those are nothing. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me.

He didn't say that. That wouldn't have been appropriate for that man. He said, okay, you think you're pretty hot, don't you? You think you're pretty good. Alright, sell all that you have, give to the poor, then come follow me.

Not that that would save a man, but to reveal his heart. And what did the guy do? Pious Mr. Rich Man, keeper of the commandments since the youth, gets up and leaves sad because he had great wealth and he wouldn't do it.

Because he was selfish, he was greedy. There was something else that had the love and his affections in his heart than God. Just like in all of us, Jesus just revealed it. There's a sinful heart that won't obey God.

There was a command. That was a simple command. I mean, Jesus wasn't making it complicated. Sell everything you have, come follow me, you'll go to heaven. It's not like he didn't understand it and he went away sad.

We can fool ourselves when we lower the standard like that rich man, think we're doing okay. Let God, allow God to show you how high the standard is. Go away sad. Walk away from the law sad. It's better than being deceived.

Jesus did him a great favor. Francis Schaeffer, the late Francis Schaeffer of La Brie, Switzerland. You familiar with him? He had a great quote from one of his books. He says, How many finite buckets of righteousness does it take to fill in an infinite chasm of guilt?

Salvation Is Impossible With Man but Possible With God

Keep on pouring. So, not only do we need salvation from this grave, we will all die. Not only do we need forgiveness of our sins, but we need a change of heart. An inward change of heart that is not proud, but humble.

That isn't boasting about what you've done, but is contrite and thanking God for what he's done. A heart that sees the contrast that we are talking about, like Paul. So, without God, I hope we see that the situation is bleak.

There is no resolution in the Old Testament, and there is no resolution in your own efforts to make yourself righteous before God. Try as hard as you will. Many people try. Some people don't try very hard, so they deceive themselves, like the rich young man.