United Church of God

What's Your Excuse?

You are here

What's Your Excuse?

Downloads
MP3 Audio (15.22 MB)

Downloads

What's Your Excuse?

MP3 Audio (15.22 MB)
×

What's your excuse for not obeying God. There is no excuse that we can give God that would please Him. We must repent of all our excuses, and ask God to create in us a clean heart, and renew a right perspective in each one of us.

Transcript

 

If you'd join me this afternoon, I'd like to begin to turn to 2 Chronicles 7:14. This is a very important scripture that has great meaning for all of us, and especially those of us who called in the Church of God. It's something we need to remember in our own personal lives but our nation certainly would need to take heed to this very, very important scripture. It says the following:

2 Chronicles 7:14 - "If My people which are called by My name…" Well, there's the spiritual aspect of that. That'sallof us who have been called to be a part of the Body of Christ in the Church of God. He says, "…shall humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

That's a wonderful promise given in the Word of God not only for us as individuals, to always walk humbly with our God, to seek God's face, to receive His healing hand in many areas of our lives but certainly our nation is in a very critical time right now, and this would be a very wonderful thing if our nation would adhere, with fear and understanding of the Word of God, and humble themselves instead of walking in arrogance and pride. And if this scripture would be embraced by the masses of our people our problems in our country could turn around; but right now they're quite obviously not going in the right direction.

Our people are talking about our country as hurting, and so we're going to have to wait and see what the heart of the nation is, because the heart of the nation will be determined by the election coming up, and we will discover whether or not we're going to remain basically a republican form of government, although they call it a democracy, but it was based on republicanism, and the first one hundred fifty years, and then we have been moving very steadily toward this thing of progressive socialism, and it's going to be, as some people say, "A validation of whether we're going to be based on the principles of our founding fathers or whether we're going to be a European style America in the future". So it's something to pray about; I just wanted to mention that to you as a beginning point of interest. A scripture that sometimes is not taken to heart to heart by individuals, and we can not only get the benefit of this individually but our nation certainly could be blessed for it if they would embrace it wholeheartedly.

All right. Now what I'd actually like to do is to point out something today in a topic that really impacts all of us as men and women, young and old, because we're all guilty of this particular situation,, problem  that I'm going to address. Nearly everyone is guilty of making an excuse; an excuse at one time or another because we live in a world of excuses. And this is very important for us to consider today because it's interesting how the word excuse, how it developed in the English language. It meant originally, listen carefully, "To give a defense or a reason for something." So when somebody asks you, you'd give an excuse as a reason or a substantive defense for a particular action."

However, what has happened: it has come to mean something totally different. It has come to mean, "An unjustified or false reason for something; a false reason given to cover up a real reason." And that, again, what we see all around us today, and many times we've been guilty of the same thing.
Young people, growing up, have a problem with parents sometimes. They'll do something, and they'll ask them, and they'll give an excuse why certain things, and of course that's not the real reason. So we're going to look at this subject because it plays a very important part.

People often give excuses for not doing the will of God. And you and I have been called to do the will of God, so we're going to take a look at this because we're all guilty. You and I have all made excuses at times, for one reason or another to justify our lack of doing the will of God.

Remember, this is an important subject because it says, "The lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh, and the pride of life is all going to fade away, but those that do the will of God will endure forever"; they'll abide forever. That's where we want to be with our God and our Creator and our elder brother, Jesus Christ, who gave His life for us so that we might have an opportunity for this great, great calling of life. What I like to call a chance of a lifetime to be part of the very kingdom of God.

So let's take a look at this because many today, who claim to be Christians are very much guilty in devising ingenious excuses, ingenuous excuses, you know, for example: if a subject like the Sabbath comes up, and the Bible makes it very clear to remember the Sabbath. The Sabbath is the seventh day. Then people look around and they say, "Well, why are the vast majority of people keeping the first day of the week, Sunday?" And they have their reasons.

They'll say, "Well, it's because Christ was resurrected on a Sunday", and yet, this is not what the BIBLE says. And when you seek to "prove all things and hold fast what is true" you'll find out that that resurrection actually took place at the closing hours of the seventh day Sabbath because He was the Lord of the Sabbath. And what we then begin to discover is that there is an excuse made.

"Ah, well, ah if I'm supposed to keep the seventh day and I'm on the first day, well, all these people can't be wrong." Oh yes, all these people can be wrong. And we just address these subjects one by one as we face circumstances in life, and it's amazing what we will discover concerning excuses, and so I've entitled this sermon, and this is the title: "So, What's Your Excuse?"

So, what's your excuse for not obeying God? We need to ask ourselves that because we're guilty of it from time to time. We make excuses, and we'll discover some of these things as we go through this message today.

Excuse making is very old and very common. If you stop and think where were the first excuses given? If we go to Genesis, which means the beginning, let's go back to the book of Genesis 3. You're already ahead of me; those of you who are knowledgeable, and have studied the BIBLE. You know where we're going on this one, and it's a little humorous in a way, but not so much in terms of the problem that was created by the particular action that transpired in the Garden of Eden. Beginning of verse 9 in Genesis 3:
Genesis 3:9 – We have the following, it says, "And the Lord God called unto Adam…" because he had been with him in the garden, and they had walked together and talked together, "… and He said, ‘Where are you?'" Well, He didn't have a problem before finding Adam. Adam was in the garden. Where was Adam?

V. 10 - And he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself." Now isn't it interesting? These are some very important principles to keep in mind, that when things are not going right, and we are doing what is wrong, we tend to hide from God. You never drift toward God; you always drift away from God. That's an important thing to keep in mind. All of our problems are when we drift away from God because we don't drift toward Him. We have to seek Him, and if we seek Him with all of our heart He will be found. The BIBLE gives us the formula for doing that. Then it goes on,

V. 11 – He says, "…Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten of the tree wherein I commanded you that you should not eat?" Now here we go. Get ready for the first excuse recorded in the BIBLE for our learning. Remember Romans 15:4 – Everything that is recorded is written for our learning.

Now we're talking about a subject today that impacts all of us. It's called excuses; we've all made them, so again, what is your excuse? What is my excuse for not obeying the will of God? This is why we're begin to see there are problems that are outlined and recorded for our learning in the BIBLE.

Because again, God values free will. He values free will to such a degree that He allows things to happen that many times people don't understand, but it is revealed from scripture. It tells you by your action and by your behavior it is a defining moment for you as an individual. It defines who you are, and whether you want to obey God or whether you want to go in a different direction, and pretend that you are God, and that you have the knowledge of good and evil and can determine for yourself what is right and good and proper. And obviously we've all sinned, and come short of the glory of God. We've all misappropriated things that are not for us. And notice, as He goes on to say, (this is Adam now, replying back to God).

V. 12And the man said, "The woman whom you gave unto me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat." In other words, "Why are you upset with me, God? It's the woman's fault. She's the one that messed me up, here. And I ate because she gave it to me." And so, here again, the scripture clarifies that the women, in this case, womankind based by Mother Eve, she was deceived, but Adam was not. Adam could have corrected the situation but he chose not to. He went along for the ride, and so he fell, he acquiesced his responsibility.

V. 13And the Lord then turned to the woman, Mother Eve, "What is this that you have done? And the woman replied -You notice they didn't say either, "I have sinned, Lord God. Please forgive me. I have done what you had told me not to do." That's not what's recorded. What's recorded is, "It's that woman that you gave me, God." So it goes right back, almost putting the blame, pointing a finger at God in this matter.

And then, Mother Eve, what does she say? "…The serpent beguiled me." So, she kicked the can down the road. "Well, I've gotta blame somebody. I'll blame that serpent that did this to me, and I did eat."
V. 14 - And the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, you art cursed… and you know the rest of the story there. But the bottom line is, when anyone knows the will of God and violates it anyway, said person is without excuse. We have no excuse. We did it. Adam should have said, "I did it." "Mother Eve" should have said, "I did it." But what did they say?

They practiced the blame game. That's what's in our world today. Who can we blame? Who can we make a target so that it shifts the blame away from us and puts it onto somebody else's shoulder so we can say, "Ah, it's not me. It's this over here that did it."

Excuses. God has a lot to say about excuses for all of us to stop and consider. That's why I've chosen this topic. It's an interesting analysis for us to look at. Looking at ourselves. Remember, the BIBLE says it's like a mirror. You look into the mirror and it reads you, and it reflects back, and that's what God wants us to look and consider.

Mother Eve, in our modern day speech might use, more or less, the following terms that we've all heard. The devil made me do it. The devil made me do it. The truth of the matter is the devil can't make you do anything. The devil is restricted. He is limited to temptation, and seducing, befuddling the mind but the action is on the part of the individual. God will not allow an individual to be taken in that direction by Satan. He puts a barrier there. It's the person who then gets seduced, and does what? Complies with the temptation, or the thought that Satan is putting forth.

Adam not only blamed the woman but he blamed God as you saw in verse 12, …the woman that you gave me. It should have never happen. God has given responsibility to the man, and it was his responsibility to watch over Eve, which he did not do.

I'd like to share several other things too with you here, and make you realize the type of things, how people rationalize them, the reason, and how they make excuses.

Several years ago when tensions were very hot between Iran and the United States there was an American visiting in Iran, and he was in a vehicular accident. What transpired is that this crash, this bang up, whatever happened, they finally brought this American before an Iranian judge, and the final verdict was determined as such: The Iranian court had declared that it was the American's fault, which it was not. It was the other guy's fault but here's how they rationalized. They said that if the American had not been there in Iran this wreck would never have happened. That's how they justified it.

Now I could be wrong on this but I've been told that if you're a tourist in a taxicab in Turkey, that their laws are somewhat similar to that. If you are involved in a vehicular accident the first thing you do in that taxicab is jump out of the car. Get out of there before the police come, and the reason why is they will do the same thing. This accident would not have happened if you had not been in that taxicab, and driving to that location. Now, it defies logic but, again, people have funny excuses.

I remember years ago an incident that happened. It used to be the talk around the campus in Big Sandy, Texas. It was regarding an accident that happened when this older gentleman was in his pick-up truck and he always used to travel regularly on the highway, and always turn at this particular location. Well, on one particular time he miscalculated and another vehicle plowed into him, and they had a wreck. So, again, he had to go before the judge, and the story as we heard it at the time, the judge says, "Well, you know, you made an illegal turn right in front of him there and he banged into you. You know, it was your fault."

And the gentleman just got all upset with the judge and says, "Your honor, that's not good enough for me. He should of knowed I was turning there. I've turned there so many times in the past he should have knowed. He should of knowed."

How in the world could the guy have known that was the case but in that man's mind, he said, "Look, I've been here doing this many a time and then this guy plows into me here. It's his fault." But no, it wasn't. But this is the kind of thing that will come up in their minds. They have excuses, excuses. They justify, and that's what happens.

See, originally it was meant to give in a defense or a reason for something but it has come to mean many times a justification, a cover-up for the real reason. The real reason, he was negligent. But he didn't want to say, "Well, I was negligent." So he said, "That other guy should have knowed; he should have knowed I was turning there." Well, people do these funny things, and it's part of life. We all have to deal with it.

Let's go to another biblical character that we all are familiar with. His name is Moses, a mighty man of God, Moses. Now Moses had an interesting time. Let's go to Exodus 4 because there's some things here regarding Moses, and some things we can learn from his situation.

Now Moses, of course, he – remember, his life was divided into three sections. He had his first forty years. He was living in Egypt as the adopted son of Pharaoh. Then he had the forty years in the wilderness in Midian. And then he had the forty years when he came back to lead the Israelites out, and it came to one hundred twenty years for Moses but it was in three stages in preparing him for that major responsibility that he would have. Now, when God finally was dealing with him, notice verse 1.

Exodus 4:1 -Then Moses answered and said, "But behold they will not believe me nor hearken unto my voice; for they will say, 'The Lord has not appeared unto you.'" In other words they would want proof.

And so, in V. 10 - Moses said unto the Lord, "O my Lord, I am not eloquent, and neither therefore, nor since you have spoken unto your servant: but I am slow of speech, and of a slow tongue". Now this is interesting because what you're reading here in this chapter is the excuses Moses was coming up with as well. "How can I go and lead them. They're not going to believe me. Besides I'm not eloquent, I don't know how to talk all that much. But remember he's talking in the presence of God.

Now when you go back to Josephus and read some of his things about those early forty years, you read that Moses was a general in the Egyptian, he led an Egyptian army into Ethiopia and claimed various victories. Now I want you to stop and think about that. He's telling God here that he is slow of speech, and he has a slow tongue; he's not eloquent, and yet he's a commanding leader of a military unit going into war.

Now, if you've got your soldiers behind you, and you're the leader, the one thing you do not want to do is say, "Bababapaba, Mememe, now you can't be slow of speech or stuttering, or anything of that nature. You have to be able to bark out a good command, "Follow me," and lead the… and that's what he did.

But here he's saying, "Ah, hehehe, ahhha…, I can't speak." And God did what? God gave him Aaron. He said, "Look, I'm going to bypass that. You're going to use that excuse, well, I'll just give you someone who can speak that. I'll give you Aaron. He'll be your spokesman."

So here again, we see that they won't believe, then they see that he's not a good speaker, and yet, nevertheless, he did develop these talents, and he did become a great servant of God.

Now let's go to 1 Samuel, and we'll notice something here regarding the first king of Israel, whose name was King Saul. 1 Samuel 15, now Samuel was the prophet and servant of God, and he was sent to Saul.

I Samuel 15:1 – "…and the Lord sent me to anoint you to be king over his people, over Israel: now therefore hearken you unto the voice and the words of the Lord." Now this is a very important thing that is referenced in scripture. You and I are told we have to hearken, listen carefully, to what God says, and how He says it, and what He wants you, or I, or anyone to do.

Now this is where our struggle of overcoming is. You know we're hard-wired as we are right now as sinful creatures. You know, we cannot look at ourselves as if we are so righteous. We all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We're not practicing sin, hopefully. We don't want to sin but the struggle, and the power of the wicked one is constantly out there pulling and tugging away at the human nature that we all have.

That's why we're admonished, "Come out of her, my people." Back away, don't get absorbed in the mindset of the world you live in. See it for what it is. Be objective. Follow the word of God which gives objectivity and clarity of thought.

So Samuel is now sent to go and take King Saul, make him the king, and V. 2 – "Thus says the Lord of hosts, notice, I remember that…" Now if you know the story, when Israel came out of Egypt they were given a charge to go a certain way, but because of the Amalekites and King Haggai they were taken a different route by God because God knew that was a very vicious individual and a very vicious group of people that wanted to waylay the people of Israelites, and they weren't strong enough to deal with it, and so God took them off another way.
Now, because of the background and the attacks which the Amaleks always had against Israel, He says,

V. 3 - Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant, suckling, ox, sheep, camel and ass. In other words God said, "Their sin had come to the full, and it was time to annihilate them. Now, human beings don't quite understand that God is the author of capital punishment, and He says, He will do what? Vengeance is mine, and I will repay, and because of incidents that have happened but were in the past, notice, he didn't say in verse 2 – "Thus says the Lord, I remember."

Now God has a good memory. When He wants to forget He can practice perfect forgetfulness, but when He wants to remember, He remembers very well. Remember the Israelite spies when they went into the land?

He says, "These ten times you have made these comments against me. I have heard you, and so God watches His people. His eyes are everywhere, and He hears and He understands what people say, and what they do. Now, He said in verse 3 they were to go and smite Amalek. Well, what happened? God's instructions were very plain, very clear. Now down in verse 17, it says that Samuel came back after the incidents in ????

V. 17 - … "When you were little in your own eyes…," because he says, after this event here, he says, "When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel" You came from the smallest tribe, and here now you were made king over Israel.

V. 18 – He says, "Now the Lord sent you on a journey (mission), and said, 'Go, and utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites, and fight against them until they be consumed.' Now, God is the author of life, of all life, and we know that He is the one who has the power of life and death over all creation. And notice how He goes on to say,

V. 19 - "Wherefore did you not obey the voice of the Lord?..." Now this is interesting because God says, "He did not obey the voice and the commands which he was given, but you did what? "… you fly upon the spoil, and did evil in the sight of the Lord? Yet notice Saul's reaction in V. 20 – He says,

V. 20 - And Saul said unto Samuel, Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag the king of the Amalekites, and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

V. 21 - But -- here comes the excuse. Samuel, I have an excuse. I have a reason for why I did what I did, and so I obeyed, but Samuel said, "No you didn't. You didn't follow instructions from God." But notice his answer: But the people took (of) the spoil, the sheep and oxen, the chief of the things which should have been utterly destroyed, because why? They wanted to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal. Oh, they had the most wonderful reason for saving these things, "We wanted to make sacrifices to You, God. And then what does He say? "Behold, he says, "to obey is better than sacrifice. And then He goes on in,
V. 23 – He says, "For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness (is) as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord,… Notice how powerful this is. When God speaks His word takes preeminence. He says, "Because you rejected it, you rationalized and you've excused yourself from executing what was said." He says, "…he has rejected you from being a king."

Now I submit to you, dear brethren we are all in training to become kings and priests in the kingdom of God. That means we need to listen carefully to the words that God speaks and records in His word because again, Samuel had to give him strong rebuke because the real truth was being made manifest. He feared the people, and he obeyed their voice.

You see, we're called to fear God and keep His commandments, and to do those things pleasing in His sight. We're not called to fear men. But human beings fear what they see. They dismiss sometimes what they do not see, and we are called to see what most people can't see, and to not be intimidated by the things we do see. Very important! God wants us to see it from His perspective for is the great Creator God.

Jesus dealt with this very subject of excuses, and we'll find one here. Let's see this one particular situation He encountered and gave. You know, Jesus always spoke in parables, and He told His disciples who asked Him the question. They said, "Well, why do you speak to them in parables?  When you speak to us you're right straight forward; you just tell it like it is."

He said, "Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. To them it is none given," meaning at that time. Everyone will have a time and a chance by God's decree. But here in Luke 14 something came up and so, beginning in verse 15 -

Luke 14:15 - And when one of them came and sat at meat with him (Jesus)heard these things, "He said unto him, Blessed is he that eats bread in the kingdom of God." Now, who is the Bread of Life? Jesus Christ.

The more we understand our relationship with Jesus Christ and eat His words in the vernacular, just like you would eat physical food, the more you embrace those words, the more you will be able to understand how to function in service in God's kingdom in the future. So, He gives a parable, and He gives this parable for our learning. And He said,

V. 16 -  …A certain man made a great supper, and bade many: (He invited a lot of people to come.) Now, remember, many are called, and few are chosen. And we are all brought into this wonderful relationship, a calling that comes from God, and we must be prepared for the kingdom of God. We can't just float into it. We have to be prepared for it. So we preach the gospel, prepare the people, and show what we must learn in our everyday activities.

And what is it? What are we talking about today? So, what's your excuse? What's your excuse for not obeying the word of God? The world is filled with excuses, and people love these excuses, and they follow these excuses, and they justify why they will not obey the word of God "because everyone else is going this way." Well, Jesus put it this way, "The broad way leads to destruction." We have to go the straight and narrow path; stay right on course with the word of God. So, He goes on and He says,

V. 17 - And sent his servant at supper time to say to them that are bid to come, Come; for all things are now ready. So things are getting ready now for the big event.

V. 18 - And they came with one consent,…. They came to make, what, excuse? There, you have it right there. They came with excuses, and He used the parable to show the people then that they were making excuses. And many of us even in God's church have made excuses for different things; for example, there are times when people will make excuse for not attending service. They'll say, "I'm tired." Where's that in the BIBLE that says when God commands you to come before Him and you say, "Well, I'm tired."

Now there are some legitimate times when we can't always be in services, please understand. There's a balance here. Sometimes it's a health problem. Sometimes it's other reasons that might impact. Even God shows His love and His mercy that when sometimes something comes up and you can't be there on the Passover on the fourteenth with the rest of the body, what did He do? He had a second Passover, showing the importance of it. Now when we get to that one, then, it's very important that you follow through. Now that's what God's guidance is. He's always there to help us.

V. 18 - And they all with one consent began to make excuse. The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground,… Well who cares about that? You can buy a piece of ground anytime. Right now is the feast, the great supper. God has given to us the call to come.  … and I must needs go and see it:… Well, you can go buy property unseen. It's not good to do that but, again, it's an excuse. So he says, …"I pray that you will excuse me."

V. 19 - And another said, "I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them; I pray thee have me excused."

V. 20 - Still another said, "I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come." When you get married, you know, that interferes with everything. So what he's showing here again, people come up with all kinds of what they consider reasons, but they are in essence, what does the BIBLE call them? Excuses. Excuses.

Because God must come first and foremost in our thinking then we have what? Then our loved ones come in next, and then our friendships with our spiritual brothers and sisters, and then with all mankind. We have to learn to love everyone in the process. And so God does what? He brings us together from all walks of life, and we have to learn how to adjust to one another, how to appreciate one another, what God is doing in each of our lives, because we all want to be a part of the kingdom of God. And those that don't want to be a part of the kingdom of God have a different destination, according to the BIBLE. It's a place that we do not want to end up in ourselves.

So there again, the excuses, and He gave that very powerful example to show us that many today, even in our day and age today, excuse themselves for various reasons: buying a house, having to sell a house, cleaning, remodeling, landscaping, buying a car. It could be a dozen and one reasons that people can come up with and justify why what God is asking them to do at that moment is second place. God says, "I need to be first place in your heart."   

And you see we have a heart, Jeremiah 17:9 heart that is not a good heart. We like to think our heart is better than it is, but it's not. It is a heart that is poisoned. It has been violated by sin, and because of that we have to constantly fight it, and we have to realize that without the help of God and His spirit, and the blood of Jesus Christ that cleanses us of all sin then we can't extricate ourselves from this problem and difficulty we all fight and struggle with.

No, these different excuses, whether it be things on the farm, whether it be business, you name it, excusing family relationships. All these things are nothing more than human excuses that God says He will not validate. And that's why we have to look at ourselves because are we making excuses for why we don't pray, why we don't study, why we don't fast? You know, it's a busy world today. You have to really redeem the time like the scripture says. You've gotta make time for God because, again, we drift away from God. We don't drift toward Him.

Now when you have a whole world that is drifting further and further away from God you don't want to be a part of that. You have to fight the good fight of faith, and do what God says in order to extricate yourself from that direction.

Now let's take a look at some of the typical excuses today that you and I see. We hear this kind of stuff constantly. Modern man makes excuses for his sinful behavior. He makes excuses for his sinful behavior. We've heard these excuses, whether they come from the Congress of the United States, you hear it from Hollywood celebrities, you hear it from individuals.

For example, some excuse themselves by saying the following: "I can't help it."

"You can't help what?"

"It's just the way I am."

"What do you mean, just the way you are?"

"I was born this way."

"Born what way? The way that the BIBLE condemns? You say God allowed you to be born that way?" No, that's an excuse. It points at again, if I was born that way, that if I am this way, then the way I am is a sinful way of living, then it's God's fault because I was born that way. And this is how many justify some very, very unsavory behavior according to the BIBLE. You and I know, perceive very clearly what we're talking about from the Word of God. He tells us very plainly that those individuals who have this kind of sinful behavior will not enter the kingdom of God.

Let's take a look at 1 Corinthians 6:9 - He says, "Know you not that the unrighteous…" now when you define those words, what makes a person unrighteous? One who is not striving to live by the commandments and the laws of God. A person just lives his or her own way, and it goes on and says, individuals, "…Know you not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God?..." The door is slammed shut. They will not be in the kingdom of God. "…Be not deceived: neither fornicators, (nor) idolaters, (nor) adulterers, (nor) the effeminate, (nor) abusers of themselves with mankind,

V. 10 – "... thieves, (nor) covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, (nor) extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

V. 11 – "And such were some of you:…" In other words if these type of behaviors are not repented of it will forfeit that individual from being in the kingdom of God. This is what Paul is plainly saying. "…but you are washed,…" In other words, you may have come from bad backgrounds, you may have come from bad things you have done in the past but God will mercifully, lovingly, because He loved us; He's always loved us, and always will love us right to the very end, and gives us that loving affection as revealed in scripture. He says, "…but you are washed, you  are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

So here we have a powerful example in scripture that it says we can't say. "I can't help it. I have to do this wrong thing because I just can't help it, or to say the devil made me do it." No, he may have tempted you but it's not the devil doing it.

Let's take a look at the book of James 1 and see what his particular writings have for us to learn.
James 1:19 – He says, "Wherefore, my beloved brethren,…" Notice, he's talking to convertedmen and women, calling them brethren. He says, "…let every man, every woman, be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath:

V. 19 – "For the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God." In other words when we get all upset and all bothered, and we start reacting, and we don't react according to the word of God properly, then it's not going to produce the right result. That's what he's saying, in essence. He says it does not produce the righteousness of God. So we are to do what?

V. 21 - Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. This is something that will have a powerful, good effect for all of us. And then in verse –

V. 22 – He says, "But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves."

If we were to be here to hear the word of God today as we're going through the study of scripture, considering this subject, and then we just walk out the door after the Sabbath, and we go back into the world, and just do the same old things we've always done back in our carnal, pre-converted days, then we have made a defining moment in our life. We are saying, "I hear, but I don't do." And so this becomes very important because again, if you're not doing, what are you doing? You are making excuses for not doing.

Now God was not interested in excuses. This is one thing we find very clearly depicted in scripture. Now think if you will how this impacts our family. For example, young people have been known to say the following, and I'm sure you and I have heard this. Maybe we've even said it ourselves in the process of growing up. And during that time you'll say, "Well, everybody else is doing it."

"Oh, they are? Well, what is it you're doing?"
"Something that the word of God says we shouldn't do. But everybody else is doing it so that justifies, that's the excuse why I can do it."

"Everybody else is wearing it." This is where you come away, sometimes parents sometimes say, "You're not going to school wearing that kind of outfit." If you're a girl, you're a guy, makes no difference. How you dress needs to be acceptable, and it needs to be high caliber. You don't want to wear something, and that something portrays you as something else.

Just as an example: if I were to come here, and I had an armband on here, and that armband had a swastika on it, what would you all be thinking? You'd be asking a question to yourself. "Why's he got that swastika on his arm? Is he a Nazi?"

"No, I'm wearing inappropriate attire. I don't need that because I'm not a Nazi, and you don't want to wear something that telegraphs to other people, "Hey, you see these shirts that say, "Hey, I'm easy? Easy what? An easy target? An easy prey? An easy what? You come from New Orleans, the big easy? Is that what it is?"

You see, you've got to be careful because this kind of stuff is going on around us all the time. And people wear these things, and excuse themselves, but God says, "You have to have appropriate dress." That's an important thing. You can't make excuses by saying, "Well, everybody else is doing it." We have to do what we know God would be pleased with.

Sometimes a war begins between teenagers and parents, over these things, and that war really is for teenagers to understand they're at war with God, not mom and dad. Mom and dad are just representatives of the commandment, "Honor your parents." And so when children, teenagers, young men and women begin to vie against their parents, "Well, why can't I go out on Friday night?" Because God is telling you, daughter, telling you son, that's not where you need to be. It's important because if you don't bring them up in the fear, and nurture, and admonition of God, who will? The world certainly will not.

They won't tell you that you're a created potential for a son or daughter of God. They'll tell you that you somehow evolved out of nothing. And so what does that translate to; that we're nothing but a bunch of nothings? God says we're something pretty great. His Son died for us, and that doesn't mean we're great of and by ourselves but we have a great potential that God, Himself has ordained for us, and if we develop these talents according to His guidance and His direction we have a destiny that is beyond words to describe.

And Paul said it, he says, "It can't be compared to, whatever you're going through now can't be compared to whatever God has purposed for us." And he got a glimpse of it. He was so inspired by it he just had to talk about it. He was alive with it, and he wanted people to understand this, and this is why he would talk about it. He didn't hide, and run away in a corner somewhere.

You see this is so important because if we don't develop those talents, and those abilities, notice Romans 12:2. The admonition is that we are not to be conformed to this world: but be transformed, it says, "by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."
You see, our minds have to be altered. They have to be changed, and God's spirit is what works in and through us to allow us to have the mind of Christ so that we can begin to realize that this is what I stay away from. This is what is acceptable. And it's not based on what other people say, it's based on what God says to us as men and women, and all of us need to, again, hear the word of the Lord. That's what the scriptures constantly refer to. Don't dismiss it. Hear it, and listen carefully. Now that's a struggle because there's a lot of interference today.

If you've ever had a radio station, and you've been trying to tune into a radio station, and you get all this fuzziness in there, and static; aggravates the daylights out of you. You can't hear the program you want to listen to. You hear all this static. Satan has created a lot of static so that we don't hear the word of God like we should, and we have to all back off and ask ourselves, "Am I doing it like I'm supposed to?"

No, teenagers need to understand: they have a relationship with God as well. That's why it says to parents, "Bring your children up in the fear, nurture, and admonition of God." Remember, parents cannot convert their kids; they can only make their kids aware of God. And by your example you have a powerful impact on your sons and daughters as they grow up because they see you walking in the footsteps of scripture, and then they have a role model they can relate to called mom and dad.

Now none of us has had perfect role models, and there's a lot to be said on these different issues, but the word of God is the standard. It's the ideal set before us, and then we make the best of what we have to deal with as we live life like God says. Live your life, but don't give me excuses. This is very important.

You've seen from the beginning excuses when sin is involved there's going to be excuses. If we're flirting with sin in different areas and that is a violation of God's law, 1John 3:4, then it says, what? We're gonna try to justify our actions. We'll say, "Because of this I couldn't do this, but this is the real reason down here."And we don't want to do that. God does not want us to play games.

Remember who the first one was that played games? His name was Lucifer. He was created in all, absolute, fantastic capability. God has a great love for free will, and He loves His angels, and He created them with free will just like he has created us with free will. God, in His infinite wisdom, knew always that the potential for disruption could occur.

When you give somebody free will, for example, you might not like somebody doing a certain thing a certain way but if you were to take away their free will you have robbed them of the choice they just made. And so you and I are in the same situation. If we take away their free will, then we have to have our free will taken away, and God will not take away free will. Rather, He says, "You must choose with the free will." You must choose life or death, blessing or cursing, but then He admonishes, "Choose life." Choose the right thing. Go for the right blessings.

I don't know how inspired you are by these Olympics that they've been having but some of these re-plays on the Olympics are, I just can't believe how awesome these kids,… and they're learning, and they're running, and the women have just been fantastic this year. Boy, don't call the woman the weaker vessel, and claim that she can't do anything. Boy, these gals have been something else. Watching the gymnastics has just been phenomenal.

And what did they do? What did they have to go through to get those gold medals? They had to work and work and work and work. And do you know there were many others who went through that Olympics in London who had worked and worked and worked but didn't qualify to run in the actual, all they could do was go to the Olympics, walk around in the introduction with all the rest of them but many of those names you don't know because they didn't meet the qualifications of the race. The only ones you have known are the ones that got the gold medal, the silver medal, or the bronze medal. The rest you don't know about but they worked just as hard but they didn't quite make it. Now they have to try for the next go around to see if they can do it the next time. But the ones that got the medals, they really had to put themselves into it to get it.

You saw how the Chinese were doing so powerfully. They were winning medals left and right. Well, they showed how they trained them back when they were young children, and it's amazing to see a grown man put his foot on the legs of a young child, and you could see the excruciating pain on the face of the child. Now what was that for? To teach them to endure the pain for the benefit of the reward. That's what were training, their Chinese, and when their bodies were not what they needed to be they whacked them. They hit them on the backside, said, "Straighten out that body so you have the precision so that you're like you're supposed to be when you do the event."

Well, life is much like that. Life sometimes will do what? Smack us once to make us straighten up and fly right. Things come along to teach, and God says we need to be extremely mindful that all these things are here to teach us what we need to be, and to develop the talents God has given to us.

You know, young teenagers, when they realize that they have a relationship that functions with divine principals, then it becomes a one-on-one with God. You're not the enemy. The enemy has turned their heart in a wrong direction.

Now Satan, when he first did what he did, he had all these marvelous talents, and God built that in but he did what? He used his free moral agency, his free will, and the scripture tells us that the only one who could spot it was God Himself who created him. And He said, "You know, you were perfect in all your ways until iniquity was found in you - spirit of lawlessness, where you wanted to step outside and do it a different way."
So God, in His great wisdom, knew that potential. He had to know that something like that could happen. The thing that throws people a curve is that, why would then, God allow Lucifer, who became Satan, to destroy and cause all this upheaval, and that's where we come in on the scene?

God says, "This is perfect. This is just what I need."

You know, the angels look into these things for what reason? The same thing we have to learn. You know, if you don't have something to compare you don't understand. You have nothing to relate to. So what ends up happening? God has the perfect way of life. Everyone's living the perfect way of life. Now one begins to echo, "Well, why should we do it His way?"
Enters Lucifer who becomes Satan - he influences a third of the angels to follow him in this rebellion. God allows all this destruction to go on in His physical universe for what purpose? To show us something. What happens when you step outside the way of peace and the way of love that God outlines in His way of life.

So now you have this one over here, the dark side of the force, and you have over here the good side of the force, and you and I are smack, dab in the middle, and we have to choose. Now if you'll listen to Darth Vader he'll say, "You don't know the power of the dark side."

And God says, "The dark side is where he's going to be. In the dark, when it's all said and done he's not going to win." The BIBLE tells us that, plain and simple. But God wants us to make the free volition choice that we know His way is the right way.

And so, through all our stumbling through life we do what? We cry out to God, "Please help me, Lord. Forgive me where I have failed."

Well we are sinful creatures, folks. You know, we're all going to come before the judgment seat of Christ one day, and what's he going to do? He's going to ask us, what's He going to ask us? He's not gonna say, "Did you keep the Sabbath? Did you keep the holy days?"

What is He going to ask? Food for thought, isn't it? What would your response be? I've wrestled this through my mind, and all I could come up with, "Oh God, Most High, be merciful to me for I'm a sinful creature." I can only ask for God's forgiveness. That's all you can ask for. If He forgives us, well and good. If He doesn't, there's no hope for any of us. "Except you repent you will all likewise perish."

That's frightful to think about these things. You've got stories about the Galileans and so forth that come into your mind in the book of Luke, when it talks about that massacre up in Wisconsin, I think it was. The Sikhs that were murdered up there. Basically just a peace loving people minding their own business, and this guy goes in there and does this terrible thing. Jesus would ask the question today, "Do you people in the twenty-first century think that those Sikhs were the worst sinners of all that that happened to them?"

He says, "I say, except you repent you will all likewise perish." Same thing like it was in the days, the Roman days." These things have always gone on.
God wants us to understand, the people who claim to be Christians today are offering Him a lot of flimsy excuses for what they do in the name of Christianity because what they do is not biblical Christianity. You and I have to constantly be mindful of this because it's too easy. You know, people do things like this. "Well, I don't have time to teach the BIBLE to my kids but at least I don't let them go hungry." You shouldn't let them go hungry but you should teach them and bring them up in the fear, and nurture …. I don't have time." It's an excuse.

They need to know about the BIBLE. That's where they discover God. They‘re not going to discover it in some evolutionary book. Scientists, hey, we're told to avoid science, falsely so called, that do not deal with the factualities of God's law.

What about those that excuse themselves and say, "Well, I'm not as bad as some people I know?" Maybe that's true but you're still bad. You‘re still bad, and you need to repent. You see, this is where people excuse themselves.

Some say, "I'm not a strong Christian but I'm not a hypocrite like some in the church that I know." Well, here we have people judging people in the church and saying that, "Hey, so and so's …, Well I may not be as bad but well, these people are hypocrites, and "Hey, everybody's got issues, folks." Everybody's got issues that need to be repented.

God looks and He's not condemning. He's not throwing stones. He's saying, "Repent! Don't give me flimsy excuses. Just do what I say. You don't study your BIBLE like you should. You don't pray like you should. You don't fast like you should. And these are dangerous days.

When the enemy's approaching with all his evil forces this is the time to armor up. This is the time to draw close to God, and not offer excuses. And I'm afraid we offer too many excuses in the church of God. I see too many things in people's lives that tell me that, well they kind of rationalize and say, "Well, I think God understands."

Oh, He understands very well, and it's scary brethren because it's we who don't understand. We don't understand that we're standing on flimsy excuses that will not hold water when standing and talking to the Son of God in the Day of Judgment.

All we can do is ask for His guiding hand and direction. He will not accept these feeble, sorry excuses that many people in the world have embraced. But it has influenced us as well. We're part of living in this world. We can't say, "We have never used excuses." We're all guilty in this area, and we all need repentance in this area.

Romans 1:20 – It says, "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without (what?) excuse:"  You see, this word excuse pops up more and more.

In the lives of the people God showed how the people He worked with in the past had excuses. He shows how in a parable that He doesn't want people coming with excuses and He shows right here again that when things are right there in front of our face, and we don't act on it accordingly then we are without excuse.

The whole world is without excuse because they're making excuses. When you say evolution is the source. All you have to do is ask one question like we were saying in the sermonette message. Do you want to ask a question? Here's what you ask: Show me the intermediary species, and how a man became from nothing to a man, and a woman became from nothing to a woman exactly at the right time so that the human race could exist. Show me the intermediate species and how that happened. The answer is it can't because there are none.

It's not there. God said He created them. Evolution did not create. And so society today is a twenty-four/seven bombardment of lies. And you and I are told to understand that we're living in that kind of sordid mess, and to come out of it because, again God wants us to be well aware of the fact that He is angry.

Let's look at Romans 2:1Therefore… notice, you are what? …you are inexcusable, O man, whoever you are that judges: for wherein you judge another, and you condemn yourself;… For you have judged. You're doing the same thing somebody else is doing, and yet you're pointing the finger at them.

Well, the goodness of God leads us toward repentance as it says in Verse 4. So what we're seeing here is that the master Himself feels angry when people refuse the invitation to accept  Jesus Christ as their Lord, and Savior, and Deliverer. And today, there are people that want no part of Jesus Christ, and if that is their attitude of heart, Jesus will say, "And I want no part of you."

"Depart you who work iniquity. I never knew you." Boy, those will be shocking words burning into the minds and the hearts of individuals as Jesus Christ says those words, to that individual. God the Father provided redemption for us as human beings and He's angered when people make excuses for not accepting His precious gift of salvation through Jesus Christ.

So, again, what is our relationship with the Son of God? Do we hunger and thirst? Do we want the same mind that's in Jesus Christ. It's something I think we should consider it because the BIBLE makes it very plain. There is no excuse for sin. That's why God is going to punish a sinful world  for its sinful behavior.

Let's take a look at the book of Jude, verse 14 – It talks about Enoch, the seventh from Adam, who prophesied this saying, "Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of his saints,

V. 15 - To execute judgment upon all, and to convince (or convict) all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

They murmured, they complained, they went after their own lusts, they had the admiration of men looking for advantage. No excuses will be accepted on judgment day. God makes that very plain. And He tells us here that He is going to convict those who make excuses for why they did what they did rather than obey.

In conclusion, I would just ask where we started in the sermon. What's Your Excuse? What's my excuse? What's any one of us, what's our excuse for not obeying God. There is no excuse that we can give God that would please Him. We just must repent of all our excuses, and to ask God to create in us a clean heart, and renew a right perspective in each and every one of you. Remember what Samuel said, "To obey is better than sacrifice." Let's make sure we're working hard to obey to our God.

Comments

  • Cureyourosity
    A simple but powerful question in relation to serving God. It certainly pricked my conscience.
  • KARS
    Thank you for this posting. It was well thought out and put together for edification, reproof, and for self improvement. Very helpful for the Passover season of preparation.
  • Join the conversation!

    Log in or register to post comments