Making Progress or Making Excuses?

I'd like to begin with you today if you turn with me to Romans 6, verses 4-5.

And it's here, as I'm sure we have read once or more times over these past few months as part of God's holy day season, these verses where Paul reminds us of our commitment to live in newness of life. And so I just want to refresh our memories, refresh our sense of our direction that we are to be taking, even in parallel with what the holy days were about, after Pentecost's reposayne receiving God's Holy Spirit, where do we go from there? Romans 6, verses 4-5. Paul writes, he says, Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of his death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of his resurrection. And so, with the help of God's Holy Spirit dwelling in us, we are to be internalizing the very mind of Jesus Christ and clothing ourselves with Christ. In every aspect, in the totality of our new walk of life, we are to be coming like God and Christ. And we certainly face challenges on our walk. We've heard some of the challenges that we can undergo in our prayer requests and updates, for example. But there are also the challenges that come our way because we are still human. We are still in the flesh. And our old sinful self still strives to rule over our hearts and minds. One challenge in particular we face as human beings is that of making excuses. I don't know if you've had any experience with that.

We all make excuses at times. Now, some are valid. Some are not. Making excuses might seem like a little thing, but a bad habit of making excuses can turn us from God in our place and keep us away from our place in the kingdom of God. In today's message, we will consider our need to stop making excuses and to be making progress in newness of life. I've entitled the sermon today as a question, Making Progress or Making Excuses?

Let's begin by considering why we make excuses. Why do we make excuses? There are times, and I understand in my own life experience, there are times for giving sound reasons or valid excuses for something we did in an attempt to explain a fault or an offense we've committed. We do that in hope of being forgiven, for being better understood for something we did. For example, I think we've all been to school at least once in our lives here. If we're from school or perhaps we've ever been late to work, we would give an excuse that it's truthful and valid. We should give an excuse that it's truthful and valid, being followers of Christ, such as that we were ill, we were sick, couldn't make it to school, or perhaps we were in a traffic jam. And yes, believe it or not, even where I live in Little Hawkins, Texas, six miles down the road, you can be in a traffic jam when the train stops right there on the highway and everybody stops. Or maybe you've been in an accident. We have to say something. We have to make real valid reasons, excuses, why we're late. But making excuses, that phrase making excuses means something quite different. Making excuses means being less honest, typically. It's being less honest and more misleading in an effort to protect ourselves and our self-image. We're trying to protect ourselves or our self-image. We may make excuses to procrastinate and to avoid what we find unpleasant or difficult, and also for those things we simply don't want to do. And that's true. Some things we just don't want to do, and we may make excuses to avoid it. So we might make the excuse, these are some I thought of, maybe you've heard of them before, I just don't have enough time. I don't know if you've heard that one. Or maybe you've heard one, I'm afraid what others might think. Those are excuses that can keep us from doing what we really should do. Now, in a sense, making excuses is our self-defense system. I'm sure you've heard of self-defense. I'm seeing it a little bit differently, aren't I? Our self-defense system. The self goes on defense whenever it feels threatened by anything, such as punishment or embarrassment, hurt of any kind, confrontations, perhaps unfamiliar situations, new experiences. Now, sadly, we can become very good at making excuses to avoid some other things, to avoid things that we should not be avoiding. We can become very good at making excuses to avoid giving, and serving, and helping, sacrificing, or even in making commitments. Now, those sort of making excuses are very bad. They are very bad, you see, because making excuses like that keeps us from making progress in the newness of life. And so, making excuses can often be a way of holding on to the old man, holding on to the old man in his rather than putting on Christ. We justify what we want to do in order to avoid doing what we should do. And if we're not careful, if we're not careful, we'll find ourselves making excuses to God for sin. In fact, we probably do. We probably do.

Is making excuses what God really wants to hear from us? What do you think? Is making excuses really what God wants to hear from us?

No, I don't think so either. In fact, the Bible contains many accounts about people who made excuses to God, and as we're about to see, it did not go well for them. Like us, they made commitments to submit to God, but then their faith, for various reasons, their faith, their trust in God faded. It faded away at times, and they made excuses instead. And so, we're going to turn to a few places in Scripture, consider a few biblical examples of people making excuses to God, not to make us think we're better than they are by any means, but to help us learn from their examples so that we don't do the same thing.

I'd like for us to begin at the very beginning, and we'll talk about one of the oldest varieties of making excuses recorded in the Bible, and that's going to be in Genesis chapter 3. So, this is our first example. The oldest variety of making excuses recorded in the Bible, that oldest variety of making excuses is to blame others for one's own bad choice.

Blaming others is done in the attempt to avoid personal responsibility and accountability. If those words don't mean much to you, let me put it this way, we blame others simply to keep ourselves out of trouble. We don't want to be the ones in trouble. We try to pass it on to somebody else. The blame game, as it's often called, has been a human practice since the Garden of Eden, and the disobedience of eating the forbidden fruit. Adam and Eve, we know, chose for themselves right from wrong. Let's notice Genesis 3 verses 11-12.

Here we read how Adam blamed Eve for his sin, for his bad choice. Here we're going to break into the account where God has come down and He's asking them directly, questioning them about what they have done. Genesis 3 verses 11. And He, God, said, Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?

Then the man said, The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate. And the Lord said to the woman, What is this that you have done? And the woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate. Now, for the record, because this is important, in 1 Timothy chapter 2 verse 14, and I, you can turn there if you want, but I'll read it for you myself, it's very important to understand that Adam was not deceived, but Eve was.

And here Paul writes in 1 Timothy 2, verse 13, he says, And Adam was formed first, then Eve, and Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived fell into transgression. I always like to point that out that Adam did know better. He was not deceived. He knew God's command, but he willingly chose to follow his will and not God's. By blaming Eve, and if you notice rather indirectly, God as well, notice there in verse 12, he said, The woman whom you gave to be with me.

It's not so subtle way of saying, this is partly your fault, God, that this happened. I don't recommend we do that, any of us. Well, by blaming Eve and indirectly God as well, Adam was trying to deflect God's anger away from himself, and he's trying to deny full responsibility. But he should have known, as we should know, that God is never deceived. God is never deceived, especially if he's not deceived by our tricks, or word games, or excuses we may try. The result of their failure to obey God is that they are both cast out of the garden, and humanity has continued as it has until this day.

Now, there are other examples of the blame game we can turn to, but I'll let you jot down these scriptures. This would be a nice little study, something more for you to read about on your own, perhaps today. Other examples of the blame game include Aaron's excuse about the golden calf.

That's in Exodus 32, 21-24. I love those verses. I don't love the verses, but they're humorous if they weren't so serious. Aaron essentially says, I put in this gold and out came this calf. I don't think that's how it works. And, of course, he tried to shift blame onto the people. And another one that was blaming the people for his choice, of course, is King Saul.

He could jot down 1 Samuel 15. King Saul's excuse for not destroying the Amalekites as he had been commanded was to blame the people. The people made me do this. So, again, I encourage us to read those on our own. Scripture is clear on this account that blaming others to protect ourselves for our own sinful choices gets us nowhere with God. It really doesn't. In fact, it will hinder us from becoming more like God, because that is not the way God is.

That's not the way God wants us to be. A second type of excuse people often make is to claim ignorance. Maybe you've heard of that. People like to claim ignorance. If you look in Genesis 4, Scripture reveals that Cain was the first human being to make this excuse. That's the first record we have of it, anyway. He was the first human being to make this excuse, and the claiming of ignorance has been much used ever since. And, of course, again, we are familiar with this account. We understand what happened.

Two brothers, Cain and Abel, offered sacrifices to God. They had been instructed, obviously, to do this. They knew that they were expressing a commitment to God in doing this. God accepted Abel's sacrifice, but not Cain's. Something wasn't right with Cain's attitude. Something wasn't right with his heart. As a result, God, not being pleased with his sacrifice, Cain became very angry. And then, sometime later, he rose up in the field, and he murdered his brother. He murdered Abel. God, again, as he had with Adam, directly questioned Cain about what he had done. We see this question in a Korean, Genesis 4, verse 9.

Then the Lord said to Cain, Where is Abel, your brother? And Cain said, I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper? Or maybe I should say, am I my brother's keeper? Maybe he was still angry. God obviously, of course, knew that Cain had murdered Abel. But it seems he wanted to know if Cain... Well, what do parents do? I think I've mentioned this before. Parents see chocolate on their kids' face, right? We know, as parents, what our kids have been up to. They have committed an infraction. They got into the cookie jar.

We know it. We look at them. We're not stupid, most of the time, as parents. We're still learning to young people. And so will you one day, should you be so blessed. But we ask questions, and I think that's where I'm coming from here with God's questioning of Cain. He knew what he had done. But just like a parent today in our lives, we have done this. We seem to want to know, how will they respond? Will they respond with repentance? Will they respond with some sort of regret? Will they say, I'm sorry, what will they say? We as parents want to know what is their character like? What is going on in their minds?

But Cain didn't express any of that. No remorse, no regret, certainly no repentance.

So saying, I do not know, well, that's just a bold lie, flat-out lie. And then when he asked, am I my brother's keeper? That was another poor attempt on his part to make excuse for his sin through claiming ignorance, as if he didn't know that. But of course he knew that he was to keep and have care and, yes, even love for his brother. Cain was trying to avoid responsibility, and foolishly so. Lying by a claim of ignorance may be the worst variety of making excuses, and we hear it often when people disingenuously say, well, I didn't know that was the wrong thing to do. When they disingenuously, you know, I didn't know the speed limit was 30. Maybe you did. If you didn't, you have a valid excuse. Perhaps you'll still get the ticket. But if you're lying about it, then you've just committed a very silly excuse, a poor excuse. And God holds us responsible, personally and accountable for the excuses we make. We keep on that way, let it build in a bad habit. We will certainly not stay right with God. Now, there is a third type of excuse people often make, and you could be turning with me to Numbers chapter 13. Numbers chapter 13, we see an example of this sort.

And this third sort of excuse people often make, it's called self-handicapping. I wasn't as familiar with this one. I knew what I was looking for, and here's the name that came up when I did my research. A third type of excuse people often make is the self-handicapping excuse. And we find an example of it here in Numbers 13, verses 30 through 33. Here in Numbers 13, it's the account of the 12 spies. At this point, the 12 spies were, God had told Moses to send out 12 spies, 12 men to spy out the land of Canaan. God's intention at that time, not all that long after they'd left Egypt, was to go on up into Canaan. And so here, in Numbers 13, 30 through 33, we read about 12 spies in their report after they came back from the land of Canaan. They had been gone 40 days, and now they returned. Now upon their return, as you will recall, only two men, their names were Caleb and Joshua, reported that the inhabitants could be easily conquered. Numbers 13, verse 30. And then Caleb, speaking on behalf of both men, then Caleb quieted the people before Moses and said, Let us go up at once and take possession, for we are well able to overcome it. Caleb and Joshua with him had total faith that God would help them. Let's go for it. But the ten other men gave a terrifying report, verses 31 and 33. But the men who had gone up with him said, We are not able to go up against the people, for they are stronger than we. And they gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land, which they had spied out, saying, The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants. And all the people, all the people whom we saw in it, are men of great stature. There we saw the giants, the descendants of Anak came from giants, and we were like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight. Obviously, these ten men do not trust God to help them in their fight. These ten men were scared to death. They were scared. They were scared. So, like we can do when we're scared, and maybe not quite strong in faith and trust, we might do what they did. They made self-handicapping excuses for not entering the land, because they were convinced that they would fail. Before they even tried, they had already decided they were going to fail. So, why even try? I don't know if you've ever done things like that. They created obstacles for themselves. They said they are stronger than we are. And we're little. We're like grasshoppers in our own sight. What do they think of us? Their excuses were meant to keep them from even trying, and also to protect themselves, of course, from harm. They lacked faith. They lacked faith in trust in God. Now, such...you might agree with me, these are rather exaggerated excuses. Were they really, literally like grasshoppers? No. They were doing a little exaggeration in making their excuses. Exaggerating excuses to convince ourselves and others that we can't do something before we even try, that's not unusual when people are scared, when people want to avoid harm and danger, when people want to avoid even damaging their self-image. We can understand that. But in their case, it's really amazing because it's as if they had no memory whatsoever of how God had miraculously delivered them from Egypt, and then how He had divided the sea so they can walk through it dry shod without getting their toes wet and their sandals wet. It's amazing.

God did hear them, though. God hears. God is not deceived. God heard the poor excuses for refusing His commands, and He made Israel wander in the wilderness for 40 years. 40 years. As we walk with God, we need to recognize what God has done for others, such as recorded in Scripture for us. These are real men and women, flesh and blood, like us, strengths and weaknesses, like us, fears, like us, but also very courageous and strengthened with God, like us. We need to recognize what God has done for others and what He can and does do for us. We don't need to make self-handicapping excuses. We don't need to say things such as, Well, I don't have the skill set for that, so then we don't stick our necks out at work or wherever it might be to try something. We don't need to say things, Well, that's not my job. That's not my pay rank, or whatever it is. We don't need to say things, Well, I'm not strong enough. I'm not smart enough. If that's not a valid excuse, then we really ought to try. And we can ask God to strengthen our faith and trust in Him so that we will avoid making poor excuses like the self-handicapping one. And when we do that, God will definitely help us make better progress in newness of life. God is absolutely faithful to help us. Absolutely.

Now, I'd like for us next to take a little more time discussing this next type of excuse-making. This next type of excuse-making, well, they all directly impact us in our relationship with God and with others. But this next illustration really goes a long way to explaining why it's important that we be careful of our excuses, because it can keep us from salvation. Let's be turning to Luke chapter 14 in the New Testament. Luke chapter 14. And I said here we're going to take a little more time to read and learn. From a parable Jesus Christ spoke here, it's a parable of the Great Supper. It's a parable of the Great Supper. With this parable, Jesus addresses what should be for us our urgent need to remain committed to God with no excuses allowed. No excuses allowed.

Now, prior to reading this parable itself, it's important and helpful, frankly, if we understand more about the context. No more about where was Jesus when he gave this parable, what was the situation, because it does inform what the parable is about. It helps us to understand. So if you look with me here in Luke 14 verse 1, we're going to see when and where this happened. Verse 1, Now, the they being referred to here, as we'll see, are other Pharisees who have also been invited to this Sabbath meal with Jesus Christ.

And what I'm going to point out and become rather apparent here, that Jesus was not among the friendliest of company. These are not all people that just really liked him. They are people struggling to understand him and some that just didn't like what he was doing. I'm not going to read every line here of the verse. You can perhaps go back and reread this in your study afterwards. But I just want to highlight some of the things that happened here as part of the context. And so we see in verse 2 through 4, just summarizing here, he was not in the friendliest company and it became less friendly because, in verse 2, we're told that he healed a man there of dropsy.

Pharisees did not like him, generally speaking, healing people on the Sabbath. They thought it was work and thereby he was breaking the Sabbath. He was breaking God's commandment. Dropsy is an older name for edema, the retention of fluid. And it can be very painful and miserable. And Jesus, out of compassion and mercy, healed this man.

They're among them. And after he did that, he began to tell them, well, he began to instruct them, frankly. He tried to teach them. He tried to get through to their minds to help them become better people, to help them change. And so we see there in verses 7-11, he warned them about their pride. They had a problem with pride and arrogance. And so he pointed out to them how they needed to stop trying to get the best seats at the wedding feast.

It was all important. You've got to have the chief seats, so to speak. And after that, he encouraged them to invite to their own feasts, their own suppers, probably people that weren't there with him in the room. We see verse 12. Let's see, am I got that right? Verse 13. He wanted them to be inviting the poor, the maimed, the lame, and the blind. It's probably not the group of people that were with him then at that supper. So Jesus did say, let's just go ahead and read that verse 12. When you give a dinner or supper, because this is still a lesson for us, let's not think this is passe and no longer appropriate for us either.

When you give a dinner or a supper, do not ask your friends, your brothers, your relatives, nor rich neighbors, lest they also invite you back and you be repaid. But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, and you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just. Now, at this point, you would think by now the Pharisees really should have welcomed Jesus' instruction. He's talking about mercy. He's talking about humility. He's clearly talking about love towards neighbor.

These are all the qualities necessary to keeping God's law, to keeping God's commandments. And the Pharisees had committed their lives to studying God's law, and to living according to His word. In fact, for lack of a better word, they took pride in that they were very good at that. So they should have been receptive to Christ's words. But the sad fact is, as Jesus' own examples here show, many of them had become deeply entangled in the ways of the world.

And they had become very comfortable in the ways of pleasing the self. It's implied through His instruction, His corrective instruction here. Now, things did become a little more interesting, and this takes us to the parable now. That when Jesus mentioned in verse 14, you shall be repaid at the resurrection of the just.

That one of the other guests there responded to what Jesus said. We see that in verse 15. I'll read there now. Verse 15. And one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things. Heard what Jesus was talking about. It seems like the word that made me speak up was the word resurrection. When He heard these things, He said to Him, Blessed is He who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God. He looked forward to the kingdom of God. They had different ideas about what that meant. But they did understand something about the kingdom of God. Now on its face, there's nothing wrong with what the man said.

He was probably a Pharisee, and He may have said those words because He assumed that because He was a Pharisee, doing everything right, that He would automatically be in the kingdom of God. He'd made it. He would be there, and He was looking forward to that time. In any case, His statement led Jesus to tell a parable about a certain man and in His great supper. That's the words used here. So what we're going to do now, we're going to read verses 16 through 24.

I'm just going to read. We're going to read this together. Read the whole parable, and then we're going to come back, and we're going to start taking it apart to glean a little more meaning from this. So let's read. Verse 16. Here's the parable. Here's what Jesus told this group of Pharisees who He is trying to get through to help them see and to repent. Verse 16. And then He said to him, speaking directly to this man, but of course to the whole crowd, He said, A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, Come, for all things are now ready.

But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused. And then the other said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them. I ask you to have me excused. So the other said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.

So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor, and the maimed, and the lame, and the blind. And then the servant said, Master, it is done as you commanded, and there is still, and still there is room. Then the master said to the servant, Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled.

For I say to you that none of those men who are invited shall taste my supper. And there it ends. There it ends. That's the end of the parable of what we now call the parable of the Great Supper. What does a parable mean? Well, the Bible doesn't record Jesus' explanation about this parable. It does in some of his other parables, but not this one, not here. But we can draw from it certain lessons about making excuses about the direction we need to be going in life.

If we read verses 16 through 17 again, we read, Then he said to him, A certain man gave this great Supper, and invited many. He sends out a serpent at supper time to say to those who are invited, Come for all things are now ready. Now, these opening lines are very similar to a parallel of this parable that is recorded in Matthew 22.

So mark your Bibles, Luke 14, and let's turn to Matthew 22. And I'm just going to read the first few verses of Matthew 22, the parable there. And we will see who this certain man is and what this great Supper is all about. We're going to take a tip from Matthew 22, verses 2 through 3. Matthew 22, verses 2 through 3, we read, The kingdom of heaven...

I should pause. Why are there differences in parables? Chances are it's very likely that Jesus gave these same parables over and over again. A great teacher, and Jesus was the greatest teacher ever, has great lessons, and they will keep using those lessons and tweaking them and using them over and over again. He probably did this for those three and a half years. So sometimes they were recorded differently by different inspiration, through different authors. So the parallel is a little different, but it helps us when we put them together. When we stitch them together, we come up with a little larger picture at times.

And that's what we see here. That's what we're doing here. Matthew 22, verse 2, The kingdom of heaven is like a certain king, a king, who arranged the marriage for his son and sent out his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding, and they were not willing to come. So we get some interesting facts here to add to what we read in Luke 14.

Matthew's parallel account reveals that a certain man in Luke's account would be a king, who is giving a great supper, or what we can now understand to be the marriage supper for his son. And there's more. The references to a great supper and a marriage for his son would also correlate with the description of the marriage we see described and talked about in Revelation, in book Revelation. Oftentimes these parables referring to the kingdom, this is like the kingdom of God, we know that there is a larger spiritual message here.

Let's look at Revelation 19, verses 7-9. This references to a great supper and a marriage of his son, for his son would correlate with the description of the marriage of the Lamb, found in Revelation 19, verses 7-9. And there in verse 7 we read, Let us be glad and rejoice, and give him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready.

And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. And then he said to me, Right, blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb. And he said to me, These are the true sayings of God. So returning now back to Luke 14, we can understand this parable pertaining to the kingdom of God. This parable is, we can understand the parable referring to that future marriage of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, to the church, God's elect, God's saints.

And Christ returns to establish God's kingdom on earth. Very important. It gives new meaning to what we just read, this parable, the Great Supper. In addition, this parable has been understood to broadly parallel our calling. It broadly parallels our calling by God to salvation. On this point, scholars have provided us some rather helpful information. According to the New Testament study Bible, referencing ancient wedding customs, especially customs still being applied during the time of Christ when he was teaching.

According to the New Testament study Bible, ancient customs dictated that wedding guests received two invitations. The first invitation was to the marriage supper, and the second invitation arrived when the supper was ready. Guests who received and accepted the first invitation made the commitment to attend the marriage supper. Once they committed to attending, to coming, that host, the host fully expected them to come.

Then it could be days or weeks later, whenever the preparations were all ready, in our day and age of electric ovens and microwaves and catering services and people you can easily hire to bust dishes and whatever, we can put on a grand affair rather quickly. But back this time, all these things took a long time, possibly. And so they get the first invitation to come to the supper, then they had to wait until everything was ready. When all the preparations were done, the food was ready, the host would then send his guest the second invitation. Sometimes it's called the summons. Whenever they received that second invitation, the guests were expected to come without delay.

For a guest to receive his second invitation and not come, and to not honor his commitment, was considered a grave offense in that culture. And it was a personal insult to the host. Yes, the host would be very angry. Now again, scholars have noted this, and it does fit with what we see here. This parable broadly parallels our calling, as we would understand it, to salvation. Our first invitation to salvation, to the marriage supper, occurs when God the Father calls or invites us to salvation, John 6, 44. Accepting God's invitation or calling is the first step to the lifelong process we call conversion.

The second invitation would then equate to that future time when all the preparations for the marriage supper of the Lamb have been completed, Christ has returned in its time. But, as we're told in Mark 13, verse 32, we don't know when that is. But of that day and hour, no one knows, but only the Father. What do we do in the meantime? We're to be preparing ourselves. We're to be ready. We're to be ready when that summons comes. What happens if one should choose not to come when that second invitation or when that summons to the marriage supper arrives?

That's what we begin to see as we continue now in the parable. We learn the answer reading verses 18 through 20 when those three invited guests refuse to come. We're going to look at their excuses here a bit, too. It's over verse 18, but the all with one accord began to make excuses. We're still doing that today, aren't we? That's a little funny. Making excuses. The first said to him, I have bought a piece of ground and I must go and see it.

I ask you to have me excused. Now, surely this wealthy man would have viewed this land before he bought it. I ask you, would you buy a piece of property without looking at it? Oceanfront property in Arizona. There's a song about that, right? We wouldn't buy a sandwich without seeing what we're buying first. But this man said, I have bought a piece of ground and I must go and see it. I ask you to be excused. Why would this man do this now in Miss the Marriage Supper? Clearly, this is a poor excuse. Verse 19, another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen and I am going to test them.

I ask you to have me excused. Well, this was also a very rich man. To buy 10 oxen would be like buying 10. I don't even know what the full name of the tractors are now. They don't even look like tractors I grew up with. They look like what we used to call caterpillars, bulldozers. It would be like buying 10 of those without trying them out. You should have tried them out earlier before buying them. But now he wants to go test them.

Why would he do it now in Miss the Marriage Supper? It's a poor excuse. Verse 20, and this one, I'm sorry if I chuckle, another said, I have married a wife, therefore I cannot come. Now, just so you understand, in that culture, marrying a wife is no valid reason for not attending a marriage supper. Frankly, if you look at the way this third person asks to be excused, he isn't even asking to be excused. Did you notice that? He's rather rude.

He doesn't even ask to be excused. He just curtly says, I cannot come. I can't come. And so each man, though each man knew what was expected of him, and each had made the commitment to attend the marriage supper when it was ready, when the time finally came to come, they chose not to come. They gave poor excuses. Now, what were their real reasons? What were their real reasons for not coming? If you go back and look at those three excuses, you can find the hint that points to the real reason within their word choices. Their word choices, their poor excuses, their actual reasons are there.

You see it with their pronoun choices. They over and over again say, I, I, I, me, me, and so on. In other words, I think it's fair to say that they were focused on pleasing themselves. They were focused on doing what they wanted to do, doing their own thing. So when the time came to attend the marriage supper, their initial commitment now interfered with their own personal interests and desires. They did no longer care to attend because they no longer valued their commitment.

Neither did they any longer respect their master when we have learned as a king. Their poor excuses were flimsy attempts to deflect their master's anger. Verses 21-22, continuing, tells us that yes, their master was angry, and rightly so. But their refusals, notice, did not prevent the marriage supper from happening. The marriage supper happened no matter whether they came or not. Verse 21, so that sermon came, reported these things. The master is angry, and he sent him quickly in the streets and lanes of the city.

And as we've read, he invited the so-called worthless people, who the rich and famous and powerful and wise of the world consider worthless. It's interesting, God does not consider them worthless by any means. The poor, the maimed, the lame, and blind. He invited seemingly worthless people, the same sorts of people Jesus had just instructed the Pharisees to be inviting to their suppers and their feast.

Verse 23, there still remained room for even more guests. And so he went out, the servant was sent out into the highways and hedges. It seems to be a strange place to look for people, but it seems to be referring to the idea of travelers, people that really don't have a sense of a place. You don't have a sense of home, or a sense of belonging, perhaps. The vagrants, the wanderers, those that don't quite fit in, perhaps.

And he said, the hedges, of course, hedges referenced there, hedges were places where a lot of the poor people would camp out overnight, find some bit of shelter. And he also said, compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. Now here, the word compelled is interesting because if this is parallel, in parallel meaning to our calling, to compel would, on the surface, suggest that the king was telling the servants to force people to come to the supper.

That doesn't fit, that meaning wouldn't fit what we understand about God. He does not force anyone to come into his kingdom. He doesn't force anyone to accept salvation. He makes it very hard to not want to come to salvation. He stacks the deck, so to speak, in his favor that we just want to come and feel the need to come, but he will not make us come. Compelled, you see, can also mean something quite different than force. Compelled can also mean to convince and persuade.

To convince and persuade through argument, you might say, through compelling reason. And so, the house became filled. The house became filled. All the seats, all those needed for their marriage supper, they are plenty now. But what are the men who lamely excused away their commitment and refused to come? The master judged them unworthy to come. Verse 24, None of those men who were invited shall taste my supper. Each night I'm going to let them get one little lick of one little delicacy. Not even a taste.

In other words, if we want to look at this as a parallel to our calling of salvation, in other words, God will not allow those who reject Him in salvation to have the slightest part of salvation in the kingdom of God. It's not going to happen. Now, could we ever make such poor excuses as these men made? They made the first commitment and not the second. They made excuses along the way. Could we make such poor excuses as these men made?

We probably already do at times. I did a little research. What is this type of excuse-making called nowadays that these men were doing? Derek McCullough, I do not know this man. All I know from the website is he is a personal development blogger. Probably a young person. A personal development blocker. He has a fitting name for those types of excuses we see these three men making, and I like it. He calls their type of excuse the, I know I need to, but excuse.

Did you get that? I know I need to, but excuse. That rings a bell in my head. I know I need to come to the marriage supper, but I need to test my oxen. Doesn't that really sound lame when you put it like that? It does to me. How about us? Could we ever make that kind of excuse? I know I need to receive salvation in the kingdom of God and receive this glorious, immortal spirit being, but I need to do... I need to make big money. I need to get a really cool car, but I need to get married first.

But I need to give my children an inheritance first. But I need to do this sin first. I don't know. Again, when you put it that way, I know I need to, but excuses, they really sound lame, don't they? They really sound lame. If we don't stay focused on God and dedicated first and foremost to His way of life, we too will excuse away our commitment to God and to salvation in order to pursue our own self-centered wants and desires.

And those whom God invites in the marriage supper of the Lamb, they are, we are, to be preparing ourselves for His kingdom. We are to be preparing ourselves to be among the first fruits of salvation. Their commitment to come to the marriage supper means that they will never quit but persevere always until God summons them to come to that marriage supper of the Lamb.

And so this parable, yes, was a warning for the Pharisees. But if we only look at this parable as a warning for the Pharisees, then we need to pop ourselves in the side of the head or turn on our hearing aid, get a new battery.

We need to be hearing. We need to be hearing with our hearts primarily. We need to be taking this warning to heart. Are we doing what God and Christ expect us to be doing? To walk in newness of life means stop making excuses for sin. Instead, the right alternative, rather than making excuses, is that we repent and confess, admit our sins to God, so then that He may forgive us.

Confessing sins to our Father, to our God, is not a complicated matter. It may be a bit painful and difficult at times, but it's not a complicated matter. Confessing our sins means we must be totally sincere, totally honest before God. Again, God already knows what we did. He's wanting to see if we have enough love for Him and enough humility and repentance, enough desire to be with Him forever and our brethren too, that we'll come to Him and admit what He knows we've already done. He wants to see what kind of child we are. So we need to be able to admit our sins.

I recommend maybe we try doing this to see how well we're doing when we come to God, when we come to God with our sins before Him in prayer. I've been trying to do this, and it's been eye-opening for me at times. I recommend you might try this. When you go to God in prayer asking Him to forgive your sins, to confess your sins, listen closely to the words we use. Listen closely to how we approach God with our sins. Are we bluntly admitting our sins? Are we just kind of putting it out there in all its ugliness and ick and terribleness that our sins are, confessing what we've done? Or are we trying to soften them a little bit with excuses? Are we trying to soften? Well, I did this, but if I didn't have all my friends with me, I wouldn't have done it. Is that something we might do? I think you get the idea. We need to bluntly admit our sins before God confess them. Don't soften them with excuses. You see, God understands proclivity to make excuses. He understands how we like to justify ourselves, how we like to use our self-defense system. But again, does God want to hear our poor excuses? Nope. Not at all. He wants to hear heartfelt confession. When we do that, then we'll be making real progress in the newness of life.

Like 1st Corinthians, Psalm 32 provides us an inspired example from God, preserved for us thousands of years to help us learn from what we need to know to continue forward. This is an example from King David. Psalm 51 we're very familiar with. Another great place to go for an example of how to confess our sins, the right attitude and approach we need to have. But in Psalm 32, David describes his own experience of having to get over himself, he might say. How he had to get over himself, get over his stubbornness, because he was having trouble going to God and confessing his sin.

And I suspect God knew we'd still have that problem today, and he wanted us to be learning from David's example. Here in Psalm 32, David neither tells us why he didn't go to God more quickly, why he didn't go more quickly to repent, but neither do we see David making excuses, which is refreshing. In fact, this psalm is really not about making excuses at all. The psalm is about confessing our sins to God.

This psalm provides us a powerful example, then, of why we need to repent and confess our sins to God every day, every day in our walk with God. Verses 1-2, David begins by praising God for blessing us with his forgiveness, forgiveness for our sins. He says, Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven. Blessed is the man, the woman, whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered.

It's covered by sacrifice and forgiven. Blessed is a man to whom the Lord does not impute iniquity, sin. Blessed is a man, in other words, in whose spirit, last line there, in whose spirit there is no deceit. There's no falsehood, no lying. Here, notice, then, that those whose sins are forgiven don't go to God with deceit.

They don't go to God spouting lies. That means that God doesn't listen to anything akin to blaming others, or to claiming ignorance, or to self-handicapping excuses, or the, I know I need to, but excuse. He's not going to hear that. He does not want to hear that. What God wants to hear is us fully accepting personal responsibility and personal accountability for our sins.

He wants to hear us say, I did this, and I was wrong. I sinned. Verse 3 through 4 reveals how David sometimes did find it difficult to approach God, just like we do. He found it difficult to tell him truthfully about all the terrible sins he did. We bottle it up. Verse 3, David said, When I kept silent, my bones grew old through my groaning all the day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me, weighing on his conscience with his guilt. My vitality has turned into the droughts of summer. David is using here figurative language. He's not literally saying this is what happened to his body.

He became mummified or something like that. He's talking about this is what it felt like. I grew listless. I grew despondent. I grew depressed. I was bothered. I couldn't be relieved by this. It probably happens to us, and we don't go to God like we should. Our shame over sin, I know, can hold us back from going to God. But that is not what God wants us to do. He wants us to come to him. Verse 5, David reveals what we need to be telling God and what God wants to hear from us. And again, it's not excuses. Here's what David did. Here's what we need to do.

Verse 5, I acknowledged. I admitted my sin to you. In my iniquity I have not hidden. He admitted it. That's what a confession is about. I said, looking back in time, David's explaining his process, I said that I will confess my transgressions to the Lord. And then the next line says, And you forgave the iniquity of my sin. So between David saying, I said I would do this, and then God forgiving, we can understand in that blank space there, David actually did it. He did the action. He went in prayer to God.

He did it. He's jumping to the conclusion of his action, of his right action. David trusted God. God, our loving Father, wants to hear our humble, our truthful confessions of sin, our repentance. He wants to forgive us. And he will through our faith in Christ's sacrifice.

In verse 10 through 11 we see how David rejoiced in the forgiveness he received, and knowing that his sins were gone. That takes belief. You have to believe that God forgive you. You're not going to suddenly get up. God's not going to give us this little spiritual smiley stamp to put on our lapels to say, okay, you've been forgiven. There's not going to be necessarily a physical symbol that we've been forgiven. That's part of the faith. We have to believe he has forgiveness. We did what he said, and we believe it, and he's loving, and he does this is what it says, and he does it.

We have to go on in faith and not repenting. Excuse me, and repenting, not sinning, but repenting always. Verse 10 through 11, David says, Many sorrows shall be to the wicked. The wicked are the ones that refuse to repent. But he who trusts in the Lord, mercy shall surround him. It's going to envelop him. It's just going to envelop him, envelop him. Verse 11, Be glad in the Lord and rejoice, you righteous. That's how we stay right with God.

And shout for joy, all you upright in heart. The upright in heart are not better than you and me. The upright in heart are those that recognize their sins. They judge themselves. They repent. They confess their sins. And then God gives them mercy. He forgives them. Have you noticed how people might confess their sins to others? They'll confess their sins to strangers. You ever listen to these talk, show, radio programs? Some of these people, yeah, they have troubles.

But they'll open up their lives, their sins to strangers. They'll open up their sins to friends and family. And yes, we open up our sins sometimes. We confess our sins to our brethren because we can help each other. That's all fine as it goes, but that will not forgive you of your sins. There's only one way to have our sins forgiven, and that's by going to God in prayer. Only God can extend His mercy and forgive our sins.

Only God can forgive us and forget that sin. We're in the neighborhood here. Let's look at Proverbs 28.13. Proverbs 28.13. Powerful statement of great wisdom. The Scripture, believe it, practice it, it will get us well down the road, the newness of life. Proverbs 28.13. He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. That reads as a promise. Could there be any more futile effort than to try to cover and hide our sins from God? Again, He knows them all, and all their excuses will be far wiser and much happier when we repent and make confession.

Let's also look at 1 John 1. 9. Final Scripture to send us on our way. 1 John 1.9. God in His mercy will forgive us. It's a promise because God is faithful. That's what we read here. 1 John 1.9. If, that was one of the most powerful words in the English language, it all hinges on us.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's what we need. That's what we should want. If during the sermon we have come to see in ourselves complacency about our commitment to God and His ways, if we have come to see in ourselves a bad habit of making excuses or a bad habit or fear of trusting God, then through living faith in Jesus Christ we need to repent.

We need to confess our sins to God. We need to seek His forgiveness. He will forgive. And then with the help of God's Scripture, His Spirit, and our brethren, the church, the body of Christ, we can and we must walk on in humble submission to God and keep at it, just keep at it, until that summons to the marriage supper the Lamb has come and we are welcomed into the kingdom of God. Again, now is our time to prepare to be firstfruits in the kingdom of God.

God wants us to be at our place at the marriage supper of the Lamb. I'd encourage us all, let's not make excuses. Let's make progress in our walk with God.