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It's a song permanently imbedded in my mind as sung by the Men's Quartet of First UPC of Oil City, Louisiana in the early 1980s. The name of the song was "Excuses" and I tried to find all of the lyrics for you. As a kid, we requested this song over and over until everybody else was probably sick of it. But we liked it. It was fun. And as I was to learn later, there was some truth hidden subtly in the lyrics. The chorus of the song went something like this:

So to keep those folks away from church he offers them excuses.

Verse 1 (as sung by the deep voice of the bass singer)

The verse ended with something like:

Human beings are the only created beings that make excuses, and we are the kings and queens of them. Making an excuse is an inherent human trait and all of us have done it. "The dog ate my homework." "Oh, sorry I didn't show up in court, but I forgot about that." "Oh, officer, I didn't notice that the inspection sticker and both headlights were out and my bumper was dragging the ground making loud scraping noises that woke up the entire neighborhood. What? My muffler is gone? I didn't even realize that?" Yeah, right! We are the king of excuses! But is my desire to begin to try to transform that trait of ourselves today -- particularly when it comes to spiritual excuses. I come today bringing some thoughts about excuses from the greatest measure of truth in existence: the Word of God! And the Bible will prove to you today, that there is never an excuse for a bad excuse!

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You have to look no further than the third chapter of the Bible in Genesis to find the first recorded excuses. God was looking for Adam and Eve and they were hiding in the bushes because they had disobeyed the commandment of God and eaten the forbidden fruit. When God confronts them, we find the first excuses from the lips of humans:

"Adam, that's a bad excuse!" He was implying that his listening to the voice of Eve to do evil was somehow God's fault because created her! And just as quickly, Eve kicks her thumb over at the serpent and says, "it's not my fault, he deceived me into eating it." If it had not been so serious blow to the spiritual condition of humanity today, their excuses would almost have been comical! "The serpent certainly didn't cram the fruit down your esophagus, Eve, because he ain't got no hands!" You ate the fruit because you desired it and you bit into it and you swallowed it. Adam ate the fruit because he was a wimp and wouldn't stand up for what he knew was right. Adam blamed God, and Eve blamed the devil, and those are the culprits that people most often try to pass the blame on still today, but both are a bad excuse for what really happened: you are trying to cover up your sin and disobedience to God by shifting the subject and the blame!

From these first excuses, we discover several fundamental truth about excuses that you and I would do good to remember. First, excuses to God are always a result of disobedience to His Word in our lives. There were no excuses in the world until sin came into the world and so as we move on through the Bible and read of excuse after excuse, it becomes clear that every excuse made by man to God was a direct result of sinfulness and disobedience. If nothing has been done wrong, then there is no need for an excuse. In fact, a spiritual excuse being offered is usually proof that the person making the excuse is lacking in their obedience to God!

And from the excuses recorded in scripture a second fundamental truth about all excuses emerges, and that is all excuses are a lie that leaves the truth unstated. Remember the story of Lot and the angels urging him to get out of the valley and into the mountains before the plain was destroyed? Lot responded in Genesis 19:19 by saying "oh, I'm afraid of the mountains. What if something evil attacks me and kills me?" What a poor excuse for not wanting to leave Sodom! "If you stay in the plain, Lot, you are about to be the first fried human!" That lame excuse was hiding the truth of the matter and that was that Lot liked Sodom. He liked living among the sinful elements found there. He enjoyed sitting in the gate and having all of the pleasures of sin. His excuse was a lie that was offered to avoid stating the blunt truth of the matter.

We find a similar situation when Moses was met by God in the form of a burning bush and when God commanded Moses to go back to Egypt to speak to Pharaoh, immediately the excuse was given, "Lord I cannot speak." Let me take a moment and just tell you that Moses' excuse was a bunch of baloney, so to speak. Moses didn't have a problem conversing or speaking in front of people. He had been trained by the finest Egyptian professors and given a king's education in case he should one day take the throne of Egypt -- that education included experience at public speaking. Later on, before he would die, Moses would make a farewell speech to Israel and his farewell speech -- which we call the book of Deuteronomy -- runs thirty-four chapters long, thirty-three of which are Moses speaking (you thought the pastor was long winded!). In fact, after this little burning bush episode, we never find Moses mentioning his "speech problem" again. I don't think that Moses had a speech impediment or was even shy. I think that it was just an excuse.

The real issue was sin in Moses' life. He was in the wilderness in the first place because he had murdered an Egyptian trying to make the will of God "happen." He had fled from Egypt to save his skin when word of his deed had gotten out. To go back to Egypt meant possibly having to face his guilty past and even standing trial for it. And so once again, we find both principles of excuses present in Moses' poor effort: the excuse was a result of his disobedience to God's Word in the first place, and the excuse was really a lie trying to mask the truth that he did not want to admit -- that he was scared for his life going back to Egypt. And so the startling truth becomes clear: every negative spiritual excuse is a result of sin and is a lie!

The "dumbest-excuse-in-the-Bible" award has to go to Aaron, Moses' brother. In the 32nd chapter of Exodus we find that Moses is meeting alone with God on the Mountain of Sinai and the people of Israel become disheartened and discourage and come to Aaron for him to build them an idol. Amazingly, Aaron agrees and takes the gold jewelry that they had spoiled from the Egyptians and that was supposed to be given to God to make the furniture and furnishing for the new tabernacle, and Aaron melted them down and formed a giant golden calf. When Moses came down and saw the people dancing naked around the calf, he became so enraged that he broke the tablets upon which the ten commandments had been written and angrily demanded of Aaron, "how did this come to be?" Aaron answered -- and get ready because this has to be the lamest excuse of all time:

Aaron said, "I threw the gold jewelry into the fire and, presto, this beautifully formed golden calf came out!" Riiiiiiiiiiiggggghhhhhtt! Suuuuuuure! That's almost as lame as some people's excuse, "I was just walking along and out jumped sin and threw itself on me." Riiiigggghhhhtttt! Or they go like Adam and Eve to the blame the God and blame the devil card: "Well, the devil made me do it!" Don't kid yourself, the devil doesn't even have to get involved as long as you keep giving into your flesh! Or how about this one: "If God hadn't invented the chemicals that people can form into crack and heroin, then I would have never fried my brains on the stuff." Yeah right. I guess it's God's fault that people shoot people because God invented lead and steel with which man uses to form bullets and guns! Those are all bad excuses because just because God created the metal for man to be able to form a hammer, doesn't mean that it's His will to beat your face in with it! We need to remember the words of the James in the first chapter when he said this:

The truth of the matter is that we deceive ourselves and lure ourselves into the traps of sin, and God and the devil have little to do with it. God warns us of the trap, the devil tries to blur and bring confusion to your mind of what God has said, but ultimately when we fall we only have ourselves to blame.

What all of this means is that your excuse doesn't have to be as lame as Aaron's to be a bad excuse. In fact, if all spiritual excuses are a lie to cover the truth and if all of them are a result of disobedience to God's Word, then no matter how clever they may sound, all of them are poor excuses of why we have fallen short. In short, every spiritual excuse is a bad excuse, and there is never an excuse for a bad excuse! The truth of the matter is that we can try to blame whomever comes to mind, but ultimately the responsibility of our disobedience lies within our own heart and mind.

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Unfortunately, none of these excuses of the Old Testament are as poor or as lame as the bad excuses that people today give for not serving God or selling out to Him completely. In our text in Luke, we find that Jesus likened the kingdom of God to a great dinner feast prepared by a rich man and for which free invitations were sent out. When the dinner was ready, a servant was sent to call those who had been invited to attend and the scriptures say:

The invitation was free, and all they had to do was come and join the festivities and feast on the good things laid out, but all of them began to have excuses as to why they wouldn't come. One said that he had just bought a field and needed to go see it. Another said that he had just bought oxen and had to go test them. Another said that he had married a wife and couldn't come. All seemed innocent and genuine enough, until you realize that although they sounded plausible, they were still excuses and therefore told to cover up with a lie the truth which was that they just did not want to come. Instead of bluntly stating the truth, "I do not want to come to your dinner," they all gave excuse hoping that it would hide the real reason.

A great dinner is a great metaphor for the kingdom of God today. God -- a rich and mighty king -- has at great expense and great effort laid out a spiritual meal for men to come and feast upon. There is nothing like drinking from the living water of His Spirit and feasting upon the good bread from heaven, the Word of God. There is no spiritual meal to compare and yet the invitation has been given to "whosoever will." God's grace and mercy and blessing and healing and Spirit and gifts are free for all, and everyone is invited. And they are freely given to all: king and pauper alike may partake of His goodness. And yet, unfortunately, men and women today still make excuse as to why they cannot partake of the things of God. They still make great excuses for why they cannot sell out to this kingdom which contains so many abundant blessings. Here today, two thousands years later after the telling of this parable by Jesus Christ, God has again prepared a banquet of blessings and people are still giving excuse as to why they cannot partake.

And people's reasoning as to why they offer their excuses are still the same as those of old. The men invited to the great dinner feast had enough conscience to know that they should accept the master's invitation, and so they offered an excuse as a way of justifying their disobedience. None wanted to say bluntly, "we do not care for your feast or for your invitation," so they masked their true feelings with an excuse. As one preacher said, "you cannot quite extinguish your conscience, which is the candle of the Lord, and therefore you put it under the bushel of your excuse." It is said of David that "his heart struck him" and so is our conscience often a hard and pressing sword pressing into our soul. We know what we ought to do and we know that we should just obey, but we will not dare because of our conscience just say the blunt truth of "I do not want to obey God's Word," or "I do not desire to serve God and be completely obedient to His commands." We know that we shouldn't say such things, so we mask such feelings of our heart with excuses. Somehow, we think that if we have an excuse, then it is not as bad as it is. If we have an excuse, we feel better at blatantly rejecting the Word of God. If we can form an excuse, then we can appease our conscience from the hard truth that we are in rebellion to what God has said. And so an excuse deceives nobody but oneself. It deceives us into thinking that we are more religious than we really are. That we are more committed than we really are. That we are alright when we really aren't. Because in our minds, the excuse soothes the conscience and makes the prick of its sword upon our mind less sharp. Man -- given enough time and enough excuses -- can justify anything to himself, but that doesn't make it alright! There is no excuse for a bad excuse, and -- as one preacher said -- "a bad excuse is worse than none!"

Let me throw some common excuses given by men and women today as to why they cannot serve God and obey full His Word. And let us bring them up to expose them for the lie that they really are. All of these are bad excuses; perhaps you have heard some of these; perhaps there are some here today who are using some of these:

The devil cannot make you believe a lie, but he can supply the excuse for the lie. And there is no greater excuse given and used by the young than this one. To the teenager and young adult, the devil whispers the excuse and they repeat it: "it's too early to serve God wholly committed." This is the lie of Lot used in Sodom. "I'm not ready to be delivered yet. Religion is for older people. Totally obeying the Word of God is for older adults. What a lie from the pits of hell! The truth is that you -- like Lot -- have allowed yourself to be overcome with the sins and lusts of this world. You like your sin and just don't want to say bluntly, "I like my sin more than the things of God." You don't want to say, "I feel invincible as a younger person and feel as if I have all of the time in the world and I don't need God right now." You don't want to be so audacious to say such things so your mouth forms the excuse, "it's too early in my life to give myself to God."

Let me counter with, "it's never too early to serve God wholeheartedly." In fact, the earlier that you start, the more wounds and hurts that the truth of the Word of God can keep you from! You are listening to the words of a preacher who received the Holy Spirit at the age of nine and who has lived for God ever since. There are some wounds and scars that I will never have in my life simply because I listened to the voice of God at a young age! It's never too early to stop using bad excuses to keep yourself from selling out to God!

Go to the cemetery and look at the birth dates and the death dates and do the math. You will find plenty who died at your age no matter how young that age is. You are not invincible. You do not have forever. That is just an illusion of youth. You need a savior and you need Him now.

I have heard many times the regrets of an older person lying on their death bed when they exclaimed, "oh that I would have served God sooner." Or, "oh that I would have not wasted the early years of my life." But on their death bed, I have never heard anyone moan that they gave their life to God too soon! Or that they totally committed to early! Living for God is a blessed thing and a better way to live. The only regrets come to those who wait to do it later in life!

Which brings us to our next common, bad excuse:

How the devil lies throughout a person's life! At first, he tells them that they are too young, and then at the end of their life, he tells them that it's too late! But let us expose the lie of this excuse for what it really is. The scripture reads:

As long as you are alive, there is hope for you! You have not gone too far or lived long enough to escape the invitation of mercy and grace! Perhaps you have not lived lion-like and regal all of these years, but if you are breathing, then something can still be done about it! As long as their is breath in your body to cry out to a merciful God, it is not too late. The old saying is "better late than never" and this applies nowhere as serious as it does to eternity! To the last breath there is hope!

And let me say this, don't even for a moment believe the lie that you are too far gone or your sins have removed you from the reach of the hand of mercy. Jesus said, "The well need not a physician, but the sick." He came to die for sinners. He came to pay the price of sin for sinners. He came to seek and save those who were lost in sin. I get so tired of hearing people say, "but you don't know what I've done and then try to give a list of past sins as if that list impresses God or me." I careless about what precisely you've done wrong and more about what you are going to do with those sins! Place them under the blood of Jesus and they simply become the forgiven past! Don't praise and magnify your sins to try to make them larger than our God!

And if you are one of those people who have placed their sins under the blood, but still allow the devil to beat you up with their memories, then let me say you are foolish, foolish, foolish. The excuse of "I still can't get over what I've done despite the work of Calvary" is just a lie masking the truth that you are still too proud of your sins. You are still finding your identity in your sins. That's why you bring them up. That's why you go drag them out from under the blood. That's why you hold onto them and refuse to let them go. Because you are glorying in them and deriving your self image from them instead of the cross. Take the bad excuse away and admit that you need to rethink who you are and allow the Master Potter to remold you into the person that He wants you to be. Holding onto the past because you need the image is a poor defense mechanism and a bad excuse for not allowing Him to thoroughly cleanse you. If you have been born again, then you are a new creature; all things are passed away and behold everything is new! Find your identity in His life and not in your past!

To the young, the excuse whispered by Satan is "you're too young." To the older, it's that "you are too old." But in the middle years of the clock of life, the most common excuse is:

Oh, how we hear this excuse in America today. "I'm too busy to pray." "I'm too busy to come to church." "I'm too busy to witness." "I'm too busy to be sold out to God." And just a few moments of honesty will reveal to you how lame this excuse is. You may be too busy to fit God into your schedule, but you find time to do the things that you want to do. If you don't believe me, then make up a schedule and record what you do every hour for a week. Then take a highlighter and mark the activities that are not of necessity for life and not of eternal consequence. Mark the time you spend reading novels. Mark the time you spend playing on the computer. Mark the time that you spend with friends just hanging out. Mark the time that you spend in front of the television/DVD player. Mark the time that you spend talking on your mobile phones of trivial things. Add all of that up and present it to God and then make your excuse.

The truth is that people fill their time with things to give them an excuse and to appease their conscience in their rejection of God. If something is important to you, you make time for it. The real issue is that God is not important to you as your agenda and what you want to do. That's why you volunteer to work overtime. That's why you get a second job. That's why you schedule family activities and time with your kids at church time. God is well down on the list, and it shows up nowhere greater than in what you make time for. Everyone of you -- no matter how busy -- find time to eat sometime in the day. You find time to dress and bathe. But -- you say -- those are fundamental things of live that we must do just to live. And so is praising and communing with God. Humanity was created to have a relationship with its Creator. Your breath exists to praise Him! Your mind exists to understand His Word. Your sole reason for existing on this planet is to please Him. That's why everything of this world leaves you so empty inside. You are leaving out the fundamental reason why you exist: God.

Which brings us to a very similar excuse:

This is the excuse given by Felix in our other text. As Paul preached to him of Jesus and judgment and things to come, Felix was so moved and stirred that he trembled. He knew that he should respond. He knew what he was hearing was truth. But the scriptures say

I cannot do it.

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