Excuses for Rejecting God
Faith Basics, part 5
Wildwind Community Church
David K. Flowers
September 23, 2007
Jesus told a story about the excuses people make for rejecting God.
Luke 14:16-24 (NIV)
16 Jesus replied: "A certain man was preparing a great banquet and invited many guests.
17 At the time of the banquet he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ’Come, for everything is now ready.’
18 "But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said, ’I have just bought a field, and I must go and see it. Please excuse me.’
19 "Another said, ’I have just bought five yoke of oxen, and I’m on my way to try them out. Please excuse me.’
20 "Still another said, ’I just got married, so I can’t come.’
21 "The servant came back and reported this to his master. Then the owner of the house became angry and ordered his servant, ’Go out quickly into the streets and alleys of the town and bring in the poor, the crippled, the blind and the lame.’
22 "’Sir,’ the servant said, ’what you ordered has been done, but there is still room.’
23 "Then the master told his servant, ’Go out to the roads and country lanes and make them come in, so that my house will be full.
24 I tell you, not one of those men who were invited will get a taste of my banquet.’"
I want to call attention to verse 18, which says, “They all alike began to make excuses." They made excuses, because they did not have any to offer without making them. A man has a feast and his friends make no excuses; but God has a feast, and not only prepares a table, but He goes out and invites people to come. They cannot go; they would like to go, they say, but cannot possibly, they have so much to do. Folks, today I want to show you what these excuses are, and you will see that actually they are downright lies. The Scripture says, "They began to make excuses." If those men had been invited to clean portajohns, if they had been invited to go to a hospital to witness some terrible operation, or if they had been invited to an execution, they would have had some reason for giving excuses; but these men were invited to a royal feast. It is not often that common people like you and me get an invitation to a royal feast. If Queen Elizabeth were to invite us to a feast at Windsor Castle, do you think we’d regard that as a huge honor? Do you suppose you would make excuses? I want to talk to you about an invitation today that is a thousand times beyond that. It is from God himself. It’s an invitation to join him in a feast at the end of time, when he calls his church to himself to be with him forever. It’s going to be a feast, a party, a huge banquet, and he wants to see you all there. The invitation is to every one here. All are invited - the lowest, the highest, the richest, the poorest, all can come. If they will. And that’s the catch.
Let’s look at the excuses of the three men mentioned here. Now you might say, “You can’t pick this apart, it’s just a story.” It is. But this story is meant to put the lie to our excuses, so let’s see if these excuses hold water. You already know the answer to that.
The first man had bought some ground, and he needed to go and see it. I ask you, why didn’t he see the ground before he bought it? If he had been a good businessman, he would have seen it first. That would have been the better way. But he said he must go and see his ground. He had an invitation to the supper, and said, I would like to go, but I can’t." And he said to the servant, "Tell the Lord I would be delighted to be there. I do not know anything that would please me more than to go, but business is so pressing it will be utterly impossible for me to go. I just can’t do it – what can I say, I can’t!" If God’s enemy the devil can get us off into some cradle of excuses and rock us off to sleep, that is all he wants. If would have been better if this man had been honest and said to the servant, "Tell the Lord I don’t want to go to the feast." It is better to be honest than to seek a refuge of lies and false excuses.
The other man could not accept the invitation either. I suppose he thought to himself, "How shall I get out of it?" So he said, "I have just bought five yoke of oxen. I will give that as my excuse." Perhaps he asked his wife, "What shall I tell him?" Perhaps his wife told him, "Say you have just bought five yoke of oxen, and that you have to go and make sure they are good." Now again, why didn’t he do that before he bought them? And besides, did he not have plenty of time to do it? It was not necessary for him to go just at the hour of the feast to do this, was it? He manufactured the excuse. The third man’s excuse is more absurd than the others. He said, "I have just married a wife." What difference did that make about his going? Why didn’t he take his wife along? You can see that that excuse was a downright lie. So these three men made excuses, and when the messenger came back and gave the excuses to the Lord, he said, "Not one of those that were invited and have refused shall taste of my supper. Go and get the beggars from the highways and hedges, and the tramps and the poor, the lame, the maimed, the dumb, the blind, and if these men won’t accept the invitation, let those who will, come. Let those that will accept the invitation and press into the Kingdom. Thank God that His Gospel is for the poor as well as for the rich. If the rich won’t have it, thank God that the poor are pressing in.
I want to call your attention to the fact that recently we are becoming very wise, or we think we are, and we say, "We have now outgrown this old Bible, and are now living in a more intellectual age. People are wiser than they used to be. They have got a great deal more culture; they have a great deal more refinement." But, my friends, with all your culture and all your refinement, can you find one person who has any better excuse than these three men had? I have dealt with a lot of people in thirteen years of ministry, and I have yet to find anyone who has a better excuse. My friend, what is your excuse? Have you got a better one? Why do you not accept the invitation? God invites you. Let’s look at common excuses we make today for rejecting God.
I have often heard people say "I would like to be a Christian very much, but it is so hard to serve God." Is that true? Is God a hard master? Is the devil an easy one? Some of you in this room today have served both masters during certain times of your life. Do you find that God is such a hard master? Does He require you to do more than you can? Does He reap where He has not sown? Is that your testimony? There never was a greater lie forged in hell and told on earth than that. The truth is that the way of the sinner is hard." Ask the people in prison, ask the addict, ask the found-out adulterer if the way of the sinner is one of ease.
There’s another group of people who say, "I believe that. I believe the most delightful service in the world is serving Christ. That is not my excuse, but my excuse is this: There are so many things in that Bible that are dark and mysterious. I don’t understand the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. If I could understand the Bible on reading it through once, I could accept the invitation; but there are so many dark and mysterious things in the Bible that I cannot accept the invitation," and so we find a good many giving the Bible as an excuse. I contend there is no book under the sun that has been so misjudged as the Bible. Of all the skeptics and infidels I have ever met, I have yet to meet the first one that has read the Bible through from beginning to end. Now, if a book comes out and you have not read all of it, and you are asked your opinion of it, you say, I have not read it through yet, and don’t like to express my opinion until I have more carefully read it." But people are not afraid of expressing their opinion of God’s book after having read a few chapters (or less, or none), and because they don’t understand what they have read, they condemn the whole thing.
Let’s say I have a little boy about four or five years old, and I send him to school tomorrow, and he comes home, and I ask him, "Hey buddy, do you understand all about geometry? Have you finished your algebra?" "Daddy!" he says, "what are you talking about? I have been trying to learn what A, B and C are." "What!" I say, "have you not finished your education? I will take you away from that school right now if you have not." Now there is just as much reason in my doing that as there is in a person taking up the Bible and condemning it before he has studied it, and that excuse that people give that they cannot accept the invitation because they don’t understand the Bible, simply doesn’t hold water.
Another person says, "My trouble is not with the Bible, which I believe in from end to end, nor do I think it’s all that hard. The trouble I have is in seeing so many hypocrites, and I am not going to join the Church because there are so many hypocrites. I know a person who cheated me out of $5 and that same person pretends to be a Christian, and so you must not ask me to associate with hypocrites." Well, I say, if you don’t want to associate with hypocrites, you had better get out of the world as soon as you can. You will find one hundred hypocrites outside of the Church for every one in it. If you don’t want to associate with hypocrites, you had better accept this invitation at once. When I find people who are hypocrites, and betray the cause of Christ, it only makes me want the love of Christ all the more, and I want to serve Him all the better. Because this or that man is false, and a hypocrite, is it any reason that I should like less the cause they betray? That is no excuse either, then. It is a personal, an individual matter with you. Suppose almost all people on the face of the earth are hypocrites, it is no sign that I or you should be one. Is that any reason why you should not become Christ’s follower?
The next person says, You haven’t touched on my case at all. My trouble is different. I would like to become a Christian, but if I become one, I am afraid I won’t stick to it." That’s a common excuse, but let me ask you, is it our job to keep ourselves, or is it the work of the shepherd to keep the sheep? The work of the shepherd is to take care of the sheep, and not the sheep to take care of the shepherd.
But there is another excuse, and a good many of the young people give it. Many younger folks say, “I don’t want to be a Christian, because Christians don’t have any fun.” But that’s not accurate at all, because true religion, truly serving God,should make you happy and joyful. Picture a guy on the way to execution, when suddenly a pardon from the Governor is put into his hands, and three hours later this man goes home to his family. Do you think that is going to make him bummed out, serious, gloomy, and depressed? C’mon, that is what the Gospel is. A pardon comes from the throne of Heaven, and that is not going to make us gloomy, is it? If a man dying for bread is given bread, is that going to make him gloomy? That is what the Gospel is - bread to the soul. If you give water to a man dying of thirst, isn’t that going to make him happy? Christ is the water of life. My friends, it does not make people gloomy. It makes people gloomy to want Christ, to be in need of him and not to have him. There are many who profess Christianity that don’t have a living Christ in them, and those are the people who are gloomy. But when Christ is with us a living well of water gushing up, it is a living well of joy. And so, young person (old person) don’t give that for an excuse. Don’t say, "I will not accept of this invitation because it will make me gloomy and sad." That is not the experience of the true Christian. If you want to see a person truly happy, with a joy that the world does not know anything about, you must go to those that have been Christ’s, and have caught the spirit, for He brings us joy and true peace and happiness.
Then another thing. There are a great many people that want to come, and they say, "Wait until I am a better person, and then I will come. I don’t have it all together yet – wait until I have it all together – or least at least more than I have now." I have never known a person to come to Christ in that way. You cannot make yourself any better. You cannot cleanse yourself. Hear me, every day, ever hour, that you are staying away from Christ you are getting worse instead of better. The very act of your staying away is a sin, and so instead of trying to get better, and getting ready to come, just come as you are and be clothed with the garments of salvation. He will clothe you with His own righteousness.
Galatians 3:27 (NKJV)
27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
We’re in a time of war. When people enlist, the one who comes with a fine suit of clothes on, and one who comes in rags both have to take off their clothes and put on the uniform of the United States Government. And so, when people come into the Kingdom of God, they have to put on the clothing of heaven, to put on Christ, so to speak. My friends, you cannot stand before God in your own righteousness. Come to God as a poor beggar, and He will have mercy on you.
There is a story of an artist who wanted a model for the Prodigal Son, the boy in the Bible who takes his inheritance and runs away from home and blows it on parties and hookers and ends up destitute and slopping pigs to survive. This artist went to many institutions and prisons, but could not get a man who suited his ideas of the Prodigal. One day while walking down the street, he met a poor miserable tramp, and he suited the artist’s eye, so he asked him if he would be willing to sit for his portrait. The tramp said he would, if the artist would pay him for it. The artist promised and set a day and hour for him to come. At the appointed time, when the artist was sitting in his studio, the man came in, but he was so well dressed, the artist didn’t know him, and told him he had no appointment with him. When the beggar told him the circumstances, the artist said, "What have you been doing?" "Why,’ said the man, I thought if I was going to sit for my portrait, I would get a new suit of clothes." "Ah," said the artist, you won’t do now; I wanted you just as you were." So, when you go to Christ, go just as you are, with all your rags, your filth, and your sin, and He will receive you. I don’t care how bad you are. He came for that purpose, and there is not a man or woman in this room today that is so bad that Christ would not have you if you will only come. You may be a thief, a drunkard, a libertine, polluted with sin, and corrupt as the devil could have you, and yet the Lord Jesus Christ will receive you if you will just come, and come without delay, just as you are.
I need not go on listing excuses; if you drive a person from behind one excuse, they take immediate refuge behind another. If you drive them from that, they get behind another like a flash. You cannot exhaust excuses. They are more numerous than the hairs upon your head. I will tell you what you can do with them. You can take them up and bind them in one bundle, and mark it, "Lies, lies, lies" in great big letters. God will sweep away those refuges of lies. It is only a question of time. By and by you will be left without an excuse. The day will come when the one who does not accept the invitation will be without God, and without excuse. Do not think of giving excuses here. If you have any excuse that you call good, if you have any excuse that you think will stand the light of eternity and of the judgment day, if you think you have any excuse that God will accept, do not give it up for anything I have said. Take it into the grave with you. Let it be buried with you, and when you stand before God, give it to him. If not, then give up your excuses today. It is easy to excuse yourself into hell, but you cannot excuse yourself out of it. It is easy to take a seat here, and to make light of everything you hear, and go away laughing and scoffing at the whole thing; but it will be terrible one day to stand before God without an excuse.
One of the most solemn things in Scripture is that none of these men that were invited to the feast would taste of the supper. In other words, God actually excused them, taking them at their word. It will be a terrible thing to be excused from that feast. Do you really want to be excused? Is there a man or woman here that will say honestly that he or she would willingly be excused? Why not accept of the invitation now? Let the plough stand in the field, let the oxen stand in the stall until you accept the invitation. Let your business go until this question of eternity is settled with you. It is better for you to press into the Kingdom than it is for you to attend to any other duty. That is the first thing. A person must first attend to the soul’s salvation. If your wife won’t go, leave her at home. If you cannot get your family to join you, go alone. Make up your mind that today you will be up and pursuing that one object. If your companions make light of it, let them do it. It is Christ that invites you.
Suppose here we just write out a refusal of the invitation. "To the King of Heaven. While sitting in church on a beautiful day, September, 2007, I received a pressing invitation from one of Your servants to be present at the eternal feast of Your only Son. I pray Thee accept my excuses.” Now, who would come forward and take a pen, and dip it in the ink and put his name to that?
Let us instead write out an acceptance "To the King of Heaven: September, 2007. While sitting in the church meeting, I received a very pressing invitation from one of Your messengers to be present at the supper of Your only begotten Son. I hasten to reply. By the grace of God I will be present." Who will sign that? Will you say from the depth of your heart, "I will do that?" Will you?
I want to tell you something. What you have just heard this morning was not my original sermon. What you just heard was a sermon preached by D.L. Moody in January of – 1859. 148 years ago. Moody’s sermon was called Excuses of Men. All I did was update some of the language. I tried to keep it as much Moody’s sermon as possible. Now what were the excuses people gave for rejecting God 148 years ago? The same ones they are giving today.
It’s Too Hard to Serve God; There’s So Much I Don’t Understand; I Don’t Want To Be One of Those Hypocrites; I’m Afraid I Can’t Do It; Serving God Is No Fun; I Don’t Have My Act Together Yet.
My friends, the excuses never change. And Moody was right. Let’s be honest, the excuses are lame, and they are lies. We know they are lies, but we are rarely challenged on them. I’m challenging you this morning. God is calling you to be with him, to know him, to live for him, and to spend eternity with him, beginning right now. Will you accept, or will it be another excuse?
I’m not going to ask you to come forward this morning. You can give up your excuses right there where you are. I’m going to pray and if that prayer expresses what is running through your mind and on your heart right now, just pray it along with me.
God, I have come to the end of my excuses. I know they are lies that I’ve been telling myself and telling you. I know I have no real excuse – I’ve just been making them because I’m afraid of what you might ask of me. But right now I surrender my excuses and I accept your invitation to the feast – I want to be with you. I want to get to know you and to know you are living inside of me and helping me learn how to live the incredible life you want me to live. Jesus, I repent of my sin and excuses. Thank you that you have already paid the price for my sin on the cross. Holy Spirit, will you make your home in my heart and life? I won’t worry about sticking to this, God, I’ll just trust that you will finish what you started. Thank you for inviting me. I accept.
If you prayed that prayer with me, then your life has changed. You may feel great, you may feel nothing, but your spirit has sprung to life. Things of this world will seem different to you, and the ultimate result will be life forever with God in the next world. Do without God now and you do without him in eternity. Begin life with God now and that life with him just continues in eternity. If you prayed that prayer with me today, if you committed your life to Christ, would you please do me a favor and indicate that on the card you’re being given right now? We want to come alongside and help you know what to do next. In next Sunday’s service I’ll be passing out a CD that will also contain some instructions for what you can do now, but please let us know today.
