A Bad Excuse Is Worse Than None
DELIVERED ON SUNDAY MORNING, JULY 3, 1864, BY THE REV. C. H. SPURGEON,
AT BAYSWATER.
"And they all with one consent began to make excuses." Luke 14:18.
THE provisions of the Gospel of Christ may well be compared to a
supper, provided as they were, in the evening of the world–"in these
last days." The description, "a great supper," is well borne out if we
consider the greatness of the provision–how much love and mercy God
has displayed towards the sons of men in the Person of Christ
Jesus–how much power and gracious working He has shown by His Holy
Spirit. A great supper it is if we think of the richness and sweetness
of the provision–it is a feast worthy of the great King. The flesh of
Jesus is our spiritual meat and His blood our choicest wine. Our souls
are satisfied with Covenant mercies, most fitly set forth as "A feast
of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of
marrow, of wines on the lees well refined."
A great supper it is, moreover, when we consider the number of guests
invited. "Go you into all the world and preach the Gospel to every
creature." The call of the Gospel comes to every man and woman within
hearing of the ministers of God–
"None are excluded there, but those Who do themselves exclude! Welcome
the learned and polite, The ignorant and rude."
No other king ever sent out an invitation so broad as this! Wisdom
"cries at the gates, at the entry of the city, at the coming in at the
doors. Unto you, O men, I call. And my voice is to the sons of man." Is
it not strange that when the householder made so great a supper–when
he offered it without money and without price–that all his neighbors
should with one consent begin to make excuse?
He did not call them to prison or to misery! How, then, came they to be
so unwilling to obey the summons? Why this unanimity in the rejection?
We find good men differing as to how it is that evil men can hold
together so well. What? Not one who has respect enough to his generous
friend to sit at his table and receive his bounty? Not one. Truly,
here, Brethren, we have a picture of the universal depravity of man!
All men are thus vile and refuse the mercy of God. We never know how
bad man is till the Gospel is preached to him. The Gospel acts as a
white background to set forth the blackness of man's heart.
Here human nature reaches to the greatest height of sin's enormity!
Spitting forth his venom against the Lord of Infinite Love, man proves
himself truly to be of the serpent's brood. The Gospel is preached to
thousands and do all make excuse? So the parable has it and truly so
the fact proves it. What? Is there not one whose free will is inclined
towards Christ? Is there not one of so good a natural disposition that
he will come to Jesus? No, the text says, not one–"They all with one
consent began to make excuses." How thoroughly has father Adam ruined
our understandings! What fools, as well as rebels, we are to refuse to
partake of the banquet of love! We are altogether become unprofitable.
There is not one who seeks after God!
You will, perhaps, remind me that there were other men besides those
who made excuses. Most true. But these were in the highways and hedges,
or in the streets and lanes of the city. And so those who do not hear
the Gospel and therefore are not guilty of rejecting it, yet
nevertheless are far off from God by wicked works and strangers to the
commonwealth of Israel. Thus, taking the two characters to represent
all mankind, we find all to be enemies of God. Those in the highways
need to be "compelled" to come in–they had a natural reluctance to
feast at the good man's table. And so all sorts of men are averse to
the Gospel. They are perfectly willing to sin–content even to perish
in sin! But to come to Christ, to accept the great Atonement, to put
their trust in Jesus–this is a thing they care not for and with one
consent, when they hear the Gospel–they begin to make excuses.
We fear that there are many in this meeting house this morning who have
been blessed with hearing the Gospel for years but up to now the only
treatment they have given to the gracious message is to make excuses
about it. I hope to deal with such very simply and very
affectionately–earnestly desiring that they make their last excuse
this morning and that it may meet with its death blow. O that they may
come to the feast which they have long rejected and rejoice in the
mercy of God in Christ Jesus!
Why did they make excuses? Let us, first, try to account for their
conduct. Secondly, what excuses did they make?– let us recount them.
And thirdly, how foolish thus to make excuses!–here let us encounter
them.
I. Let us try to ACCOUNT for the fact, the sad fact, that men are so
ready to make excuses rather than to receive the Word of God. We
account for it in the first place by the fact that they had no heart at
all to accept the feast. Had they spoken the truth plainly, they would
have said, "We do not wish to come, nor do we intend to do so." If
man's heart were not so deceitful, it would not make excuses, but it
would say outright, "'We will not have this Man to reign over us. We do
not feel our sinfulness. We will not, therefore, accept pardon. We
believe that we can work out our own salvation with our own doings.
"Or, if not, we are content to take our chance. If it shall go ill with
us, it will go ill with a great many people. We will run all risks–we
do not need salvation–we choose rather to have our full swing of
carnal delights. Your religion involves too much self-sacrifice. It is
altogether contrary to the lusting of our minds and therefore we
decline it." This is at the bottom of it. Some of you, my Hearers, have
often been impressed and partially convinced of sin but you have put
off Christ with excuses. Will you bear with me while I solemnly assure
you that at its core your heart is at enmity to God? Your excuse may
look very pretty but it is as flimsy as it is fair. If you were honest
with your own soul you would say at once, "I do not love Christ. I do
not need His salvation."
Your put offs, your false promises, your excuses are worthless. Anyone
with half an eye can see through them, they are so transparent. You are
an enemy of God! You are unreconciled and you are content to be so.
This truth may be unpalatable but it is nevertheless most certain. May
God help you to feel this and may it humble you before His Presence.
Still, if they would not come to the good man's feast, why did they not
say so? If the real secret of it was that they hated him and despised
his provisions, is it not melancholy that they were not honest enough
to give him a "no" at once? Well, they certainly were not and one
reason might be because they wished to be upon good terms with their
conscience. They felt they ought to go. He was one who had a claim upon
their courtesy, if not their gratitude, and therefore feeling that they
ought to go and yet not intending to go, they sought to compromise by
an excuse.
Conscience is a very unamiable neighbor to men who live in sin. It is
said of David, "David's heart struck him," and it is a very hard blow
which the heart is able to give. In order to parry the blow men hold up
a shield of excuses. You cannot quite extinguish your conscience, which
is the candle of the Lord and therefore you put it under the bushel of
an excuse. The thief fears the watchdog and therefore throws him a bone
to keep him quiet–that bone is made of excuses. John Bunyan tells us
that Mr. Recorder Conscience, when the town of Mansoul was in the
keeping of Diabolus, used sometimes to cry out at such a rate that he
made all the inhabitants afraid and so they put him in a very dark
place and tried to put a gag in his mouth to keep him quiet. But for
all that, sometimes when his fits came on he made the town feel very
uneasy.
I know what conscience tells some of you–it says to you, "How is it
you can forget Divine things? How can you trifle with the world to
come? How can you live as if you never meant to die? What will you do
when you come to die without an interest in the Lord Jesus Christ?" And
so that conscience may be quiet awhile, you make an excuse and
persevere in refusing to come to the feast. It may be that you make
this excuse to satisfy custom. It is not the custom of this present age
to fly immediately in the face of Christ. There are not many men of
your acquaintance or mine who ostensibly oppose religion.
Your father fears God. Your mother is a woman of great devotion. Your
friends go to the House of God and speak experimentally of Divine
things–you do not like, therefore, to say to them, "I will never be a
Christian! I dislike the ways of God! I do not choose the plan of
Sovereign Grace," and therefore to spare their feelings you make an
excuse. You do not want to grieve dear friends–you are afraid if you
spoke out honestly what your soul feels it might bring your mother with
gray hairs to the grave, or make your father's heart break–and so you
make an excuse. And you think that they may entertain a comfortable
hope whereas, while you make excuses, there is no hope for you at all.
For my part I would rather you speak outright and say what you mean! I
would that you would say, "I am an enemy of Christ. I do not believe
His Gospel. I will not serve Him!" This might sound very badly but it
would show, at least, that there was some sincerity in you and we would
hope that before long you might be bowed to the will of Christ. Excuses
are curses and when you have no excuses left there will be hope for
you!
It may be you make these excuses because you have had convictions which
so haunt you at times that you dare not oppose Christ to His face. You
have gone home from the services to weep. That little chamber of yours
is a witness that you cannot live altogether without prayer. The other
day when you went to a funeral you came home with your mind very solemn
and you thought, then, that certainly you would yield to the commands
of Jesus. When you were sick and had that week or two upstairs
alone–then you vowed and resolved–but your resolves melted into thin
air.
The tear starts in your eyes–you are almost persuaded to be a
Christian–you breathe a prayer! But ah, some ill companion tempts you
the next morning and there your are, according to the old proverb, "The
dog has returned to his vomit and the sow that was washed to her
wallowing in the mire." Ah, how many times did I have convictions of
sin and terrible ones, too, and yet I said, like Felix to Paul, "Go
your way for this time. When I have a convenient season, I will call
for you"?
But I could not quench these convictions by downright opposition to
Christ. I knew too much and felt too much to do that, and so I tried to
patch up a truce between my soul and my convictions. Satan is always
ready to help men with excuses. This is a trade of which there is no
end. It certainly commenced very early, for after our first parents had
sinned one of the first occupations upon which they entered was to make
themselves aprons of fig leaves to hide their nakedness! Read the
Scriptures through and you will find that excuse-making has been a
habit in all ages and among all classes of people.
And till the last sinner shall be saved by Sovereign Grace, I suppose
men will still be setting up their vain excuses in the temple of God!
If you will fire the gun, Satan will always keep you supplied with
ammunition. When he thinks that a Truth is about to come home to you,
if you cannot frame an excuse he will do it for you. He will run
between you and the cannon shot of God's Word to prevent your being
wounded by it. If the preacher's sword should be too sharp for you and
make your conscience bleed, the Evil One has a Satanic plaster with
which he very soon binds up the wound! The natural self-righteousness
of man prompts him to frame apologies. We are all the best men in the
world according to our own gauge and measure. If we could sit as judges
upon ourselves, the verdict would always be "Not guilty."
Sin, which would be very shocking in another, is very venial in us. No,
what would be abominable in other men becomes almost commendable in
ourselves so partially do we judge our own case. The sinner cannot
think it quite right for himself to be an unbeliever in Christ–and
since his enlightened conscience will not let him say that he is quite
safe while he refuses to fly to the wounds of Jesus–he runs to excuses
in order that he may still say, "I am rich and increased in goods," and
not be driven to the unhappy necessity of crying, "I am naked and poor
and miserable."
Sinful self is hard to conquer, but righteous self is the worst enemy
of the two. When we can make men plead guilty, then God pronounces
absolution upon them. But while men will interpose their extenuations
there is little or no hope for them. O great God our Master, tear away
the excuses from every sinner here and make him stand guilty before
Your bar in his own consciousness, that he may cry, "God be merciful to
me, a sinner," and find pardon through the blood of Jesus Christ! Take
heed, O you ungodly ones, lest you go on excusing and excusing and
excusing, until you excuse yourselves down to the pit of Hell! Know
this–you will never be able to excuse yourselves out again.
II. We come to RECOUNT these excuses. Many will not come to the great
supper–will not Christians be on the same ground as those in the
parable? They are too busy. They have a large family and it takes all
their time to earn bread and cheese for those little mouths. They have
a very large business–many servants in their employ–and from the
first thing in the morning to the last thing at night, if they do not
see after business, their affairs would go wrong. Or else, if they have
no business, yet they have so many pleasures and these require so much
time–their butterfly visits during the morning take up so many
hours–the dropping of their small pieces of pasteboard at other
people's doors occupy all their leisure and they really have no
opportunity to think about matters so unpalatable as death and
eternity.
This excuse scarcely needs a word from me to answer it because every
man knows that it is grossly false. Nobody goes starving because he has
not time to eat. Now, if God has given time for us to support our
natural frame, much more has He given us time to feed the soul. I do
not find my friends in the street half dressed. But I find some of them
spend many a half-hour over that other pin and that other ribbon. Now
surely if they have time to dress the body, they must have had time
given them in which to put on the robe of righteousness and array the
soul!
If you have not the time, God gave it to you and you must have misspent
it. God gives you time as a steward and if you say to your Master, "I
have it not," He will reply to you, "I entrusted it to you. You must
have spent it on yourself. You have robbed God." A little earlier
rising, a little less time at the table–either of these might give you
time enough. You know you have the time and when you say you have it
not, the lie is too thin–you can see through it. O Soul! O Soul! When
holy men can find hours for prayer–when such a man as Martin Luther,
when he was very busy, used to say–"I must have three hours prayer
today at least, or else I cannot get through my business"–do not tell
me that you have not time to seek the Lord!
Besides, it is not an affair of time. Salvation may be worked in an
instant! There is life in a look at the Crucified One. There is life at
this moment for you. And between now and the time when this service
shall have gone, there is time enough for you to have laid hold upon
eternal life and to have received Christ Jesus to your soul's
salvation. That excuse will not do. But then they fly to another. They
are too good. When I have preached Free Grace and a full Christ, I have
heard some say, "That is a good sermon for the crowd in a theater–for
ignorant, low-lived people. But we respectable people do not require
such salvation. To offer a free salvation to men who are neither
drunkards nor swearers–why the thing is ridiculous! The sermon was
very good for Magdalenes, for thieves and such like–but not for us."
No, you are too good to be saved! You need not a physician because you
are whole. Your own table has enough upon it. You do not need to come
to this feast. But think, I pray you, whether this is not all a
mistake! In what are you better than other men, after all? What if you
do not indulge in open sins–does not your heart often go a-lusting
towards evil? Does your tongue always speak that which is right and
true? If you cannot remember sins of commission, what about the sins of
omission? Have you fed the hungry? Have you clothed the naked? Have you
taught the ignorant? Have you loved God with all your heart and soul
and strength? Have you given Him all that He demands of you? Why you
cannot say this!
Now the perfection, the holiness which God demands in order to
salvation must be like a perfect alabaster vase–if there is a single
crack or spot on it–all is spoiled. You may say, "Well, it is not much
broken. We have not seriously damaged it." No, but God requires it to
be perfect and no matter how slight the damage it may have sustained,
you cannot enter Heaven upon the footing of your good works–you are
cast out forever! Hear these words, "By the deeds of the Law there
shall no flesh be justified in His sight." "Cursed is everyone that
continues not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to
do them." And, "As many as are of the works of the Law are under the
curse." God save you from that false excuse!
Another class says, "We are too bad to be saved. The Gospel cries,
'Believe in Jesus Christ and live,' but it cannot mean me. I have been
too gross an offender. When I was but young I went into evil and since
then I have gone from bad to worse. O Sir, I have cursed God to His
face! I have sinned against light and knowledge, against a mother's
prayers and tears. I have spoken evil of God's Word! I have laughed at
the very name of His Son Jesus Christ! I am too evil to be saved." Here
is another bad excuse. You know, Sinner, if you have been a hearer of
the Gospel, that this is not true! For bad as you are, no man is
excluded from Christ on account of his vileness. "All manner of sin and
of blasphemy shall be forgiven unto men."
The invitations of the Gospel do not stop at a certain point of sin. On
the contrary, they seem to select the worst sinners first. What did the
Savior say? "Begin at Jerusalem." But, Lord, the men who crucified You
live there! "Begin at Jerusalem." But, Lord, it was in Jerusalem that
they shed Your blood and thrust out the tongue and laughed at You and
made a mockery of Your prayers! "Begin at Jerusalem"–the worst
first–just as the surgeon in a battle is apt to look to the worst
cases first. Here is a man who has lost his finger. Ah, well, let him
bide awhile, we will see to that. But here is another who has lost a
limb and he is bleeding fast and if the blood is not stopped, his life
will ooze out. The surgeon sees him first.
O you great sinners, you who feel yourselves to have been notorious
offenders, I pray you are not so guilty as to make this an excuse for
not coming to Christ! On the contrary, use it as a reason why you
should fly to Him at once. The more filth, the more need of washing.
The more sick, the more need of a physician. The more hungry, the more
welcome to the table. Come to Jesus just as you are, with all your
sins–"Though they are as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow.
Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as wool." No form of
sin imaginable or unimaginable can by any possibility be a bar to any
man's salvation if he will but believe on the Lord Jesus Christ!
Then comes another excuse, "Sir, I would trust Christ with my soul this
morning, but I do not feel in any state to trust Christ. I have not
that sense of sin which I think to be a fit preparation for coming to
Christ–
" 'If anything is felt, 'tis only pain To find I cannot feel.'"
Ah, my dear Hearer, this is an excuse which looks like a very good one,
but it has no truth in it! There is no fitness needed before you may
trust in Christ! Whatever may be your present condition, if you trust
Jesus Christ with your soul you are saved on the spot! Your sins are
forgiven you! You are made a child of God! You are accepted in the
Beloved! Where do you read of fitness for Christ in the Scriptures? Do
you think the dead whom Jesus restored were fit to be raised? Why,
Martha said of her brother, "Lord, by this time he stinks, for he has
been dead four days"! Was there any fitness in Lazarus for a
resurrection? And yet Jesus said, "Lazarus, come forth!" Does the
Gospel say, "He who is in a certain state, and then believes, shall be
saved"? No, but, "He that believes and is baptized, shall be saved."
How am I bid to preach to you? Am I to say, "Whoever feels this is to
come"? No, but, "Whoever will, let him come and take the water of life
freely." Are you willing to have Christ? Then you may have Him, for
Christ is as free to every needy sinner as the drinking fountain in the
street is free to every thirsty passer-by. Trust Jesus, even if your
heart is hard as granite–He can soften it! Trust Him though conscience
is asleep–though all the mental faculties are perverted! Trust Him! It
is His business to make you holy, not your business–trust Him to do it
all! He is called Jesus because He saves His people from their sins!
Trust Him to overcome your corruptions, to kill your evil temper, to
subdue your will, to soften your heart, to enlighten your conscience,
to inflame your love–trust Him to do it ALL! O, be not so foolish as
to say, "I am too ill to send for a doctor–when I get better, when I
feel better, then I will send for him." Do not say, "I am so dirty. If
I felt more clean, I would wash." No–wash because you are dirty! Wash
because you have nothing but filth about you! Send for the Great
Physician because there is no health in you! There is nothing in you
but wounds, bruises and putrefying sores. Therefore let your faith
entrust your healing entirely to Him.
Here comes another: "O Sir, I would trust Christ with my soul, but it
seems too good to be true that God should save me on the spot, this
morning. You little know where I was last night, or what I did
yesterday. You cannot tell who I am nor how bad I have been and you
tell me that if I trust Jesus Christ, I shall be saved. Sir, it is too
good to be true! I cannot imagine it." My dear Friend, do you measure
God's corn with your bushel? Because the thing seems an amazing thing
to you, should it therefore be amazing unto Him? What if His thoughts
should be as high above your thoughts as the heavens are above the
earth? Is not this just what He has said in Scripture? I know you find
it hard to forgive your fellow man, but my Father, my God, can readily
forgive you!–
"Crimes of such horror to forgive, Such guilty daring worms to spare–
This is Your grand prerogative And none shall in the honor share."
He creates like a God! He does not make a few insects, or here and
there a star! This great world He fashioned and He scattered the starry
orbs about with both His hands. So when the Lord comes to pardon, He
does not pardon some small offenses and wink at trifles–but the whole
mass of sin He cleans away in a moment and all manner of sin and
blasphemy, in an instant He casts behind His back. Believe that God is
God and not such a one as you are! Believe that He is capable of doing
greater things than you can dream of! Trust Him! Trust Him NOW and
however good the things are you shall find them true! However great,
they shall be yours! I think I hear one say, "It is too soon for me to
come. Let me have a little look at the world first. I am scarcely
fifteen or sixteen. There is plenty of time for me."
Have you been to the graveyard" Are there not there the records of
those who have found fifteen or sixteen none too soon, for lo, at that
age they were taken away to their last account? Too soon? Is it ever
too soon to be happy? If religion made you miserable I might advise you
to put it off to the last, but inasmuch as to be in Christ is to be
happy, you cannot be in Him too soon! I have sat by many deathbeds and
heard many regrets, but never did I hear a Christian regret that he was
converted too soon! I have received many young converts into Church
fellowship, but I never heard any one of them say they were sorry to be
called by Grace so early!
If I were condemned to die and anyone should bring me a pardon, I
should not think I received it too soon! The wrath of God abides on
you–can it be too soon to escape from it? You are the subject of daily
temptations and you daily add to your sins–can it be too soon to have
a new heart and a right spirit? Others will row in the opposite
direction, pleading, "Alas, it is too late!" The devil first puts the
clock back and tells you it is too soon–and when this does not serve
his turn–he puts it on and says, "The hour is passed, the day of Grace
is over! Mercy's gate is bolted, you can never enter it!"
Let us answer this at once. It is never too late for a man to believe
in Jesus while he is out of his grave. While the lamp of life continues
to burn, the vilest sinner who returns shall find Christ ready to
receive him. There have been men converted at a hundred years of
age–we have instances on record of persons who have even passed the
century and become children of Christ Jesus! How old are you? Are you
in the sere and yellow leaf of eighty? Ah, you have many sins, but what
a triumph of Grace it will be when eighty years of sin shall all be
washed away in a moment! I tell you that if you were as old as
Methuselah and in every year of that long life you had as many sins as
you have already committed in the whole eighty years, yet the Grace of
Jesus Christ is sufficient to put all this away!
Your sins may mount up like mountains, but the love of Christ, like
Noah's flood, can go twenty cubits upwards and the tops of the
mountains shall be covered. It is not too soon! It is not too late!
Neither of these reasons are of any value though they delude many.
"Well," says another, "I would believe in Christ but I do not know
whether I am one of God's elect or not. Sir, that doctrine of election
troubles me and staggers me. If I knew I was one of the elect, I would
trust Christ."
That is–if God will show you His secrets then you will do God's will.
And so the Almighty is to bend to your conditions and then you will do
as He bids you? You will come to feast at the man's table if he will
take you into his secret closet and show you all his treasure! He will
do nothing of the kind! How foolish this talk is about election! The
doctrine of election is a great and precious Truth of God, but it never
can be a valid reason for a man's not believing in Christ! You are ill
today and the doctor comes, "There," says he, "there is the medicine, I
will guarantee if you take it, it will heal you." You say, "Sir, I
would take it at once, but I do not know whether I am predestinated to
get over this fever. If I am predestinated to live, why then, Sir, I
will take the medicine, but I must know first." "Ah," says the doctor,
"I tell you what. If you do not take it you are predestinated to die."
And I will tell you this–if you will not believe in Jesus Christ you
will be damned, be you who you may–but you will not be able to lay it
at predestination's door! It will be at your own. A man has fallen
overboard. A rope is thrown to him, but he says, "I should like to
grasp that rope only I do not know whether I am predestinated to be
drowned." Fool! He will go down to the bottom with a lie in his mouth!
We do not say, "I would sit down to dinner today, but I will not eat
because I do not know whether I am predestinated to have any dinner
today." We do not talk so foolishly in common things! Why, then, do we
so in religion? When men are hard up for an excuse they are glad to run
to the mysteries of God to use them as a veil to cover their faces. O
my dear Friends, you must know that though God has a chosen people–yet
when He commands you to believe in Christ–His having a chosen people,
or not having a chosen people cannot excuse you from obedience to the
Divine Command–"Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be
saved."
I could not attempt to go through all the excuses and therefore after
handling two more, I will have done. "Well," says one, "if I were to
believe in Christ I should be as bad, after a short time, as I used to
be. I might be a little better for a time, but I should go back
again–so it is of no use trusting Christ." That is to say, dear
Friend, Jesus Christ says if you trust Him, He will save you–but you
say if you trust Him, He will not save you! That is what it comes to.
Jesus Christ promises that if you trust Him, He will save you from your
sins. You say, "No, I should go back to my sins and be as bad as
before."
Which am I to believe–your excuse, or His promise? Why, Christ's
promise, surely! "But I tried once before," says one. Very likely you
did, but Christ never tried! If He had tried He would have succeeded.
"Well, but, I did hold on a certain length of time." I dare say you
did–you held on. But if Christ had hold of you, He would never have
let you go.
When you get hold of Christ you may soon drop Him–but when Jesus gets
hold ofyou, He says, "I give unto My sheep eternal life and they shall
never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand." If you
had greatly trusted Christ He would not have suffered you to become
what you used to be. "Well," says one, "I cannot trust Christ, I cannot
believe Him."
You talk Latin, Brother! You talk Latin. "No," you say, "I do not talk
Latin." Yes, you do. I will translate that word into the English for
you. It means, "I will not." When you say, "I cannot," it means, "I
will not." And understand, whenever the minister says, "You cannot," he
means, "you will not," for he does not mean that you have any natural
inability, but that you have a moral inability caused by your love of
sin–a willful inability. "I cannot," is the Latin, but "I will not,"
is the English of it. A man once sent his servant to a certain town to
fetch some goods. And he came back without them. "Well, Sir, why did
you not go there?" Well, when I got to a certain place, I came to a
river, Sir, a very deep river–I cannot swim and I had no boat–so I
could not get over."
A good excuse, was it not? It looked so. But it happened to be a very
bad one, for the master said, "Is there not a ferry there?" "Yes, Sir."
"Did you ask the man to take you over?" "No, Sir." Surely the excuse
was a mere fiction! So there are many things with regard to our
salvation which we cannot do. Granted, but there is a ferry there!
There is the Holy Spirit who is able to do all things and you remember
the text, "If you, then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto
your children, how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give
good things to them that ask Him?" It is true you cannot make yourself
a new heart, but did you ask for a new heart with sincerity and truth?
Did you seek Christ? If you say, "Yes, I did sincerely seek Christ and
Christ would not save me," why then you are excused.
But there never was a soul who could, in truth, say that! There never
was a sinner yet who perished seeking Christ and there never will be!
And if your heart's sincere desire is after the salvation which is
treasured in Christ Jesus, then Heaven and earth may pass away but
Christ will never cast you out while His own Word stands, "Him that
comes to Me I will in no wise cast out." "Still," you say, "I cannot
trust Christ." Now, I am at issue with you here–I am at issue with
every awakened sinner. I agree with you if you will let me give my own
translation of the word "cannot"–that you will not–but if it is to
stand as the word is generally used, I am at issue with you.
Suppose that you believe me to be an honest man. Would it be fair after
that, to say, "Sir, I cannot believe you"? Now, if you believe me to be
a liar, I can very well understand that you cannot trust me. But if you
take it for granted that I am incapable of telling a falsehood and yet
do not believe what I tell you, you are a liar! Now, you believe that
Christ is incapable of falsehood–you are not like those who are
ignorant of the Character of Christ and therefore you know Him to be
incapable of untruthfulness. And then you say you cannot believe Him?
Seeing that Jesus Christ cannot but speak Truth, it cannot be a
difficult thing for any man to believe what He speaks! If you have
sufficient light given you by the Holy Spirit to know that Christ is
the Truth, I believe you have sufficient power from the same source to
believe what Christ says.
I trace this to God's gift, but I pray you to exercise the power which
you certainly have. Tell Christ you cannot believe Him? Will you tell
Him that to His face when He sits upon the Judgment Seat at last? Will
you dare to say this when His eyes of fire shall look you through and
through? "Most holy Christ, I could not trust You! Most truthful
Savior, I could not believe You! I suspected You. I doubted You!" "Why
did you doubt Me? What cause had I ever given you? Why did you think Me
a liar? In what had I ever broken My promises, or when did I err from
the Truth?" "He that believes not," says John, "has made God a liar,
because he believes not the record that God gave of His Son." O, think
of this and never make that excuse again! Instead of saying, "I cannot
believe," say, "I cannot make God a liar, I must therefore believe, for
I know God is no liar–I must therefore trust His Son Jesus Christ!
I have recounted a few of the excuses. Perhaps you will make another
batch before the evening comes on–you who determine not to be saved.
It is only the mighty Spirit of God who can sweetly constrain your will
to yield to Christ and so I close with these two or three words, upon
the third point.
III. HOW FOOLISH THUS TO MAKE EXCUSES! For first remember with Whom it
is you are dealing. You are not making excuses before a man who may be
duped by them–you make these excuses before the heart-searching God!
My dear Hearers, let me speak very solemnly and push this point closely
home. You know that God can see through all this–why, then, do you
hang up such thin veils? Confess before Him now your folly–"Lord, I
have been an enemy to
You. Lord, I have been averse to Your Son, Jesus Christ, and therefore
have I dreamed up these excuses–forgive me. I see how foolish I have
been. Grant that I may do so no more."
Remember again, what it is you are trifling with. It is your own soul,
the soul which can never die! You are trifling with a Heaven which you
will never see if you keep on with these excuses. You are trifling,
Sinner, with that Hell which must be your never-ending portion if you
continue as you are. Can you play with Hell-fire? O, can you make sport
of Heaven? Can you laugh at the blood of Jesus? You are really doing so
while you are thus halting between two opinions. If you must play the
fool, find something cheaper to play with than this! O Sirs, if you
must have mirth, I pray you have it out of something else than this.
To be saved! Listen to Heaven's music! To be lost! Listen to Hell's
groans! Neither of these things are matters for you to play with. Say,
as now you are sitting here–I pray God help you to say it before you
leave this building–"Lord, I have been trifling with eternity. I have
been making frivolous excuses rather than I would accept Your love in
Christ. I have trifled with Heaven and Hell–grant, Lord, that this may
be brought to an end–that I may love and trust You this day."
Remember, again, that these excuses will look very different soon. How
will you make excuses when you come to die, as die you must? When death
gets the grip of you and the strong man fails. When they wipe the death
sweat from your fevered brow. When the glaze of death's night is coming
over your eyeballs–what will you think of these excuses then? It may
be you will rave with very fury at yourselves that you could have
played with your souls to such an extent. What will you do with your
excuses when you stand at the bar of Judgment? The trumpet rings, you
have awakened from your grave, you stand amidst the myriads to be
judged. The books are opened and Christ proclaims your doom–"Depart,
you cursed, into everlasting fire." Will excuses comfort you then? Will
you be able to say, then, "Lord, it was too soon! Lord, it was too
late! Lord, I was too great a sinner to believe in Jesus! Lord I did
not need a Savior"?
No, when the trumpet peals and the heavens are in a blaze. When the sun
is turned into sackcloth and the moon into blood and the stars fall
like fig leaves from the tree, you will find other work to do than
excuse-making! You will weep and wail because of sin and when you are
cast into Hell what will you make, then, of your excuses? Written in
letters of fire you shall see in one tremendous arch above your heads,
"You knew your duty, but you did it not! You heard the Gospel, but you
made excuses!" Thundering more tremendous than the trump of
resurrection shall come these words to you, "Because I have called and
you refused, I have stretched out My hand and no man regarded, I, also,
will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when your fear comes. When
your fear comes as desolation and your destruction comes as a
whirlwind. When distress and anguish come upon you."
O, the Lord have mercy upon you, excuse-makers, and bring you to look
to Jesus now! Now, I say, for the Scripture says, "Today is the
accepted time, today is the day of salvation." The only way to end your
excuses is not by praying nor resolving, but by looking to Christ.
There hangs the bleeding Savior on the Cross. He dies–the Just for the
unjust–to bring us to God! He suffers there that sin may be forgiven!
Look to Him! Trust Him and you shall be saved! My Hearer, I give you
now in God's name this invitation, this command–trust your soul to
Jesus, the Son of God, who suffered for sin–and you shall be saved!
But mind you, I may never meet you all this side the grave but I will
meet you all at God's Great Day and if you receive not Christ and trust
in Him, I am clear of your blood. Upon my garments your doom cannot
fall. You have heard the Gospel! You have been told to trust Jesus as
you are! You have been assured that He is able to save to the uttermost
them that come to Him! You have been bid to come and now on your own
heads be your soul's ruin if you come not!
May the Spirit of God take these things and apply them to your souls.
May He be as a fire and as a hammer in your souls–as a fire to melt,
or as a hammer to break. And may you, today, with brokenness of heart
take Christ to be your Savior, both now and forever. Amen.