Mission 25 - Your Excuses Won’t Work

Noel leading the meeting tonight and her sister there and the

fellows who are their pieces in song, particularly that last

piece, I think is very fitting without refereeing on Prepared

to Meet Thy God. Luke, chapter 14, please.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

I want to turn to that portion of God's Word, Luke's Gospel

chapter 14. Good to be back with you again

tonight. Encourage with you turning out

night after night, coming along and supporting the meetings.

It means a lot, of course, to everybody one another and

especially to the preachers. Luke chapter 14.

Luke 14 · chapter mention

We're going to read from the verse 15, and we're going to

read down to the verse 25 or 24, Luke chapter 14, verses 15 to

Luke 14:15–24

24. Hear the word of the Lord, it

says, and when one of them that sat at meet with him, that is of

course with the Saviour, heard these things, he said unto him,

Blessed is he, blessed is he that shall eat bread in the

Kingdom of God. Then said He the Saviour unto

him, a certain man made a great supper, and be it many, and sent

his servant at supper time to say to them that were bidden

come, for all things are now ready.

And they all with one consent began to make excuse.

The first said unto him, I have bought a piece of ground, and I

must need to go and see it. I pray they have me excused and

an hour said I have bought 5 yoke of oxen and I go to prove

them. I pray they have me excused and

an hour said I have married a wife and therefore I cannot

come. So that servant came and showed

his Lord the things. And 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 hit her the poor,

and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.

And the servant said, Lord, it has done us, thou hast

commanded, and yet there is room.

And the Lord said unto the servant, Go out under the

highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house

may be filled. For I say unto you, that none of

those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.

Amen. May God bless the public reading

of His word. Just for a moment.

Again, let's seek His face in prayer.

Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for the meeting that Lord we

are in at this moment in time and all that is gone before the

singing Lord of these lovely gospel hymns that always warm

and throw our hearts, although Lord we have sang them hundreds

of times, Lord have come home with fresh power.

Lord, even tonight and for the pieces that were rendered in

song, we thank your Father for a family whose heart is towards

thee. We think of Joshua who said As

for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.

And those pieces, Lord, were rendered in Gospel's song with

that single aim, Lord, of your glory.

We thank you, too, for the reading of Scripture.

We have a book in front of us, Lord, from which we can read

freely tonight. And now the hour has come.

Blessed are for the preaching of a Word of God.

The need of the hour is for the preacher to know that powerful,

gracious infilling of a Holy Ghost.

Let Your Word Lord have free course and be glorified, and use

it, Lord, in the salvation of a lost soul, the restoration of a

backslider, the reviving and the edifying of the people of God.

For we ask it in Jesus name, Amen.

Amen. It's parable that the Saviour

told came on the back of an observation which was well

worded in verse 15. When one of them that sat at

meet with him heard the things, that is, the things that had

gone before, he said unto him, blessed that word blessed means

happy, powerfully happy, madely happy is he that shall eat bread

in the Kingdom of God. And then their Lord told this

parable to them and he talked about a great occasion, a great

supper to which many were invaded.

We would call it a big feed, wouldn't we?

That'd be the maybe our colloquial way of putting it.

There was a big feed and many were invited to go.

All things were were ready and all the guests had to do was

just to turn up, find a seat and they eat the good things.

But they are surprised if we were reading this for the first

time, they are surprised We would find that this gracious

and gentleness invite was turned down on block on block because

it says they're in the verse 18 there.

And that's what we're taking as our text tonight.

The verse 18. It says they're they all with

one consent, with one agreement, they all began to make excuse.

I am sorry I cannot be there. I will not be coming because and

the excuses were all different excuses.

But you'll also notice that they were all silly excuses.

They didn't stand up to reason. If you look there at the first

excuse that was made, the first said onto him I have bought a

piece of ground and I must needs go and see it.

Now you would imagine, wouldn't you that he would have looked at

the ground before he bought it. And even if he hadn't the whip

to do that, surely he had the whip to know that the ground was

still going to be there in the morning time or whenever the

feast was over. So here's an excuse that just

didn't add up. And in the second fellow he says

there verse 19 and or said I have bought 5 yoke of oxen and I

go to prove them. And once again you would imagine

that all the proving had been done beforehand.

You don't buy oxen and then go and see if you have got your

money's worth out of them. You do your homework beforehand.

You go and you watch them in action.

And then if you think they're worth the money, well, then you

give the money. Or once again, if the deal has

already been done, then go after the feast.

And then we get this fella in verse 20.

And another said, I have married a wife.

And therefore people are smiling.

Is it the way I'm pronouncing this here?

Do you hear the little bit of mockery in my voice?

I have married a wife and therefore I cannot come.

You know, sometimes when young fellas are getting married, I

say to them, and this isn't marriage counselling.

And by the way, on my part of the little bit in in in jest to

them, I say to them, you start as you mean to go on and never

worry about the tears. And I'm thinking about your

tears. You start as you mean to go on,

and here's a hen packed husband if ever there was one.

I have married a wife. I assume he had only married her

and therefore I cannot come. Could he not bring her with him?

I'm sure everybody would have been delighted to see the new

bride if that's what she was. And if she was that odd, then he

could leave her at home and calmly.

I'd be glad to get away from her maybe for a night out.

But this was his excuse. He looks the servant in the eye

and he says I have married a wife and therefore I cannot

come. And they're they're all silly,

aren't excuses. And you can see that in verse 21

when word came back to the master of the house, it says he

was angry. He was angry because he was

snubbed. And then of course, he sent out

and and he invaded ours to come. And it's not hard tonight to see

the gospel here. If you have any knowledge of the

gospel. The Kingdom of God, verse 15 is

at the very heart of the gospel. It's the message of the new

birth. Except the man be born again, he

will not see the Kingdom of God. I look at the parable here.

I see this certain man, bearing in mind that it is a parable,

This certain man is God the Father.

I see him sending forth his servant.

It's always in the singular I I feel that that is Christ

himself. Behold my servant, mine elect.

And nowadays, nowadays it's the Christians.

It's the Christians who go out with the invite to the great

feast. It's the Christians that give

out the tracks and knock the doors and invading sinners to

come to the great Gospel feast because the Great Supper.

It's all the spiritually nourishing truths of the Gospel.

When we preach the gospel, we preach forgiveness of sins.

That's a tremendous blessing to have all your sins forgiven.

We preach cleansing by the blood, the pollution of sin all

taken away. The blood cleanseth us from all

sin. We we preach the the the message

of liberty deliverance whom the sun sets free is free indeed a

home in heaven when we die, not tremendous, all heading to the

grave. Or maybe we're heading to the

sky. The Lord might come first, but

whatever the child of God has a place reserved in heaven for him

who are the invaded ones, the gospel invitation, the free

offer of the gospel, whosoever will let him come, take freely

of the water of life. All things are now ready.

Because our Saviour on the cross cried.

It is finished. The glorious cry of the cross.

It is finished was His cry. And then later on you have the

mansion there. Special mention of the poor, the

hope, the Liam, and that's a picture of the Sinner.

But we have somebody else here we want to look at and

concentrate on tonight. We have the excuse makers.

That's where we're going to focus tonight.

The teaching is very obvious. It says there at the end, those

men who made excuse would not make it to the Kingdom of God.

We come round a full circle. Blessed is he that eats the

bread and the Kingdom of God here.

Our people, they will not eat the bread, they will not be

there, they will be absent elsewhere.

The Saviour said to such Ye will not come to me that ye might

have life. We're going to think just for a

few moments that are left to us hear about some of these excuses

or one excuse in particular that may quote old Billy Sunday

again, I quote him regularly. He said a reason is not an

excuse. He said an excuse is just the

skin of a reason, but it's stuffed with a lie.

And sinners have the knack for its well honed now over a

thousands of years of inventing excuses as to why they will not

come to Christ. And tonight I want to take one

of these excuses. Always what we hear for a while,

but we're just going to take the one and we're going to refute an

excuse. Sometimes it is vocally

articulated. There are those who would dare

to say this thing, and then there's others who maybe

wouldn't articulate it, but this is what they're trusting and

they get them to heaven. This is why they will not come

to faith in Jesus Christ. What does this excuse men make?

Some say I have done my own deal with God, I have done my own

deal with God. And they believe that they will

get a specially negotiated pass into God's heaven.

And as a gospel preacher tonight, I must challenge that,

I must reject that, and I must expose that.

And here's why #1 I say to you, if that's your possession

tonight, you are in no position to negotiate with God.

You're in no position to negotiate with God.

You do not come to the table. He has not invited you to come

to the negotiating table. He has invited you to come to

the gospel table. And when you come to that table,

you do not come as an equal. Apart from the fact that God is

your Creator. He is the Almighty God, apart

from the fact that you are totally dependent on Him for all

things, including the very breath that you draw and your

ability to draw it. The issue goes much deeper than

that because God is the one against whom you have wilfully

and deeply sinned all your life. He is the holy God of heaven and

earth. You are the Sinner who has

sinned against God, and you stand before him and all your

you stand before him. He is the target of all your

crimes. And my little rough notes that I

had and I had the word victim, and I wondered about that

because God is still the Almighty God.

I hesitated to cast him into the role of a victim, but he is the

target. I thought that might be a better

word. He is the target of all your

crimes. And not only that, he is also

the judge, but he's the judge of all the earth.

He is also the jury and he is also, as it stands, your

executioner. The reality is this, You have no

negotiating power at all. You have nothing in your hand

that you can bring but your past guilt, your present corruption,

and your future fantasy. That God, when you come, that I

is going to roll out the red carpet and bring you in because

of your imagination, because of the vanity of your imagination,

you think he's going to open the door and he's going to invite

you in because you have struck a deal with him and as alone you

should stand down. Your claim it is but an excuse.

It's a fig leaf. It's an unreliable argument.

In this most serious matter. You're in no position to

negotiate, and you never were #2 God has already done a deal.

He has. The language that we would use

is that He has covenanted to save His people from their sins.

It's not that God is not interested in saving sinners.

We know, we know that He is. But the gospel may be summarised

in these great words of John 316 and 17.

For God so loved the world, this world of sinners lost, ruined by

the fall. God so loved the world that He

gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him

should not perish, but have everlasting life.

For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world,

but that the world through him may perceived.

And the theologians tell us, based of course, on the

Scriptures of truth in the great past, eternity before time

began, before the world was created, we have God.

In the glorious Trinity of His Persons, we have God the Fower.

God the Fower planned to save his people from their sins, and

he planned to do that by sending his Son into the world, as we

have already quoted, to bear their sins and to provide their

righteousness. That's the work of God the

Father. And then in that great eternity

there was God the Son. And then this great covenant

that was made, He willingly undertook to come.

He was not forced to come. He wanted to come.

He was willing to come. His delight, he said, as to do

thy will, O God my Father. And he would come and die on the

cross for his people, burying their sins on his own body to

the tree. And then there's God, the Holy

Ghost, the Holy Spirit. He undertook to apply this work

of Christ, bring it to the hearts of those whom God had

determined to see. If they call this the covenant

of redemption, and it must be emphasised very, very strongly,

there's no other package, there's no other way and there's

no other deal. Peter when he preached of

Christ, he said of him, neither is there salvation in any other,

no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be

saved. Jesus himself in John chapter 10

John 10 · chapter mention

said in the verse 9 he said, I am the door.

Notice a singular I am the door by me.

There's a singular again, if any man enter in, he shall be saved.

John 14 verse 6 Jesus said aye, there's a singular I am the way,

John 14:6

the truth and the life. No man cometh under the flower

but by me, and that blows tonight if there's one goer with

this thought, I have my own deal with God.

I am putting to you before your eyes.

Your deal is blown out of the water.

It has always been this way. That there's only one God and

one mediator between God and men.

It has always been this way from the very beginning of time, and

it will be to the very end of time.

Matthew 2414 says the Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in

all the world for a witness, a witness to all, to all the

kingdoms. Then shall the end come, but

what you're saying, and in fact you're challenging that and

you're telling us here as it's going to surprise, as it's going

to shock us that you should think that this you're telling

us that God has changed his mind and this is not so because of

Malachi 3 verse six. He says I am the Lord who

changes not. Therefore you, sons of Jacob,

are not consumed, James says in the New Testament.

With God, there is no shadow cast by turning.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.

And even if we were to downplay the Bible in this matter and do

so for the sake of argument, just to, just to boost the word

of God, I can go down this road. But even if we were to downplay

the Bible in this matter here, here, here's a question for you.

I, I hope your little deal can just take a little prodding

here. And I hope I can bear up to this

here. Here's a test for it.

If God did not keep his deal with his Son, whom He sent to

the suffering, and the anguish, and the abandonment of the

Cross, at the Cross where He poured all the fury of the

Divine wrath upon him. For it says, God spared not His

only Son, but delivered Him up for us all.

If God has abandoned His deal with His Son, what makes you

think they and they are not tow you along, and then leave you at

the last with your supposed deal?

Think of a young woman, nice young girl, marriage,

marriageable age. She falls in love.

She plans to marry a man. Not just any man, a man who

assures her that he loves her so much that he is willing to leave

his wife and his children, divorce her or just walk out and

marry this beautiful young woman.

What council would you give to a young woman like that?

Would you encourage your daughter to marry someone?

He went up the Isle of a church. He vowed he would love his wife

till death to part. But now he has cast his eyes

upon another and his first wife in the little family is blew out

because he says he wants to marry your daughter.

What? What counsel would you give to

your daughter like that? You would say this man, for all

his haunted words, he's a fraud, he's a liar, he's a cheat, he's

a perjurer. Don't marry him.

Don't go down that road. That must cast a dark shadow

across your so-called deal. Thirdly, we say that your

so-called deal falls under the severe judgement of several

verses of Scripture. We're back on the Scripture

ground again. The first verse that come to my

mind was Proverbs chapter 28 and the verse 26.

Proverbs 28 · chapter mention

We quoted it earlier on in the week 1 must quote it again.

It says there he that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.

And that's what they're doing. It wasn't God who negotiated

this deal with you. This deal sprung up out of your

own wicket and deceitful heart. And other words.

You're bluffing yourself. Or as it is worded in my second

verse, Isaiah 44, verse 20, it was said of one that He feedeth

Isaiah 44:20

on ashes. A deceived heart hath turned him

aside. To what end?

That he cannot deliver his soul. The failure and the cause of it

is LED bare here. It is a delusion.

Defeat in ISIS is is to be deluded and I cannot despite its

claim, despite how attractive it might look to you.

It has obviously appealed to you.

You're telling us this is my deal that I have done with God.

It cannot and it will not deliver your soul.

Third verse that it falls under any one of these is a fatal

bullet that will kill it. Proverbs 14 verse 12 There is a

Proverbs 14:12

way. There is a way that seemeth

right onto a man, but the end thereof is the way of death.

It does not deliver the soul, the everlasting life in heaven.

It doesn't book you a seat in the Kingdom of God where you'll

sit down and you'll eat the bread there with the Saviour.

It leads a man at the last the everlasting death and an

everlasting hell. There's another verse.

There are a couple of verses together.

I think they're very fearful verses.

Second Thessalonians and the chapter 2 and the verse 11, it

talks about those who received not the love of the truth that

they may perceive. Listen to what it says for this

'cause this is judicial. That's how it's reasoning behind

it. Here is justice in action for

this, 'cause God shall send them strong delusion that they should

believe a lie, that they all may be damned who believe not the

truth, but had pleasure in on righteousness.

And if you want the slander God's character, which you are

effectively doing, do not be surprised if God leaves you to

your delusion. If you refuse the love of the

truth, do not be surprised if you are given over reprobate it

to your chosen delusion. It's the same as Proverbs 14

Proverbs 14:12

verse 12. They end their off as the ways

of death. It says here that they may be

damned who believe not the truth.

How many people will stand on the left hand side of God and

that great day of judgement? And they will think to

themselves, I have done this great deal with God.

I told people about it. My heart told me that this will

get me into heaven. And yes, there were evangelical

type preachers. I sought maybe one night in a

gospel mission and he tried to make me doubt, but I held on.

I was so sure, I was so sincere in this matter.

What a shock, what an irrecoverable loss to hear God

say to you and your useless little deal.

Depart from me. He cursed.

It's a cursed deal. You have made a covenant with

hell. It's it's a lie and you have

believed that lie because there's no love in your heart

for the truth. Fourthly and lastly, Howard,

here's an exhortation. I exhort you in the name of the

Lord Jesus, the only Saviour, if you want to have peace with God,

if you want to have all your sins forgiven, you want that

seat at the table in heaven where all the redeemed of God

will be unhappy. You've got to come God's way.

I quote those verses again John 14 verse 6.

John 14:6

Jesus said I on the way the truth and the life I am the door

by me of any man enter in, he shall be saved.

And you come simply as a loss centre, not as a negotiator, not

as someone who can sit down and coach God and do a little deal,

meet you halfway or whatever. You come as a loss centre, a

loss centre to the cross of Calvary.

You come as the beggar on the dunghill.

There's no preached last night. You come bankrupt, you come

naked, as it were, spiritually naked.

All your righteousnesses, you, you, you repudiate them as

filthy rags. You come as a Sinner to the

cross of Calvary. You know Calvary puts the nails

into the coffin lid of yourself concocted and yourself delusory

level. Deal.

I just point you to the cross. I point you to the Son of God as

he hangs in Yonder tree, and I say that puts your deal not only

into the shade had ought to put your little deal into the grave.

The Sadducees grave never mention it again, never

resurrected it again. The Bible says while we were yet

without strength, no negotiating power while we were yet without

strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

See yourself as ungodly, see yourself as the Sinner.

Jesus came to see of common repentance.

You know what repentance means that it's root a change of mind.

If you've embraced this notion that you've done a wee deal with

God or any of its many variations I can see of myself

or whatever, then then then cast it aside that there be a change

of mind, a casting off a leaving it behind common faith.

Put in all your trust in the Saviour.

Come now, all things are ready. All things are ready.

It is time now to seek the Lord while he is to be found.

Come and enjoy and know so salvation and that's worth

having. You see, the child of God is not

only saved, but he knows that he's saved.

He said I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded that

he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against

that they. That's not based on our her

brain scheme, void of Scripture, void of reason and logic.

What you have is just an excuse and it's not going to stand.

Excuses don't work, they don't work.

They let you down when you need them most, but you come and base

your salvation on the written word of the unchanging God, God

who cannot lie, God who says he that believeth in me hath

everlasting life and shall not be ashamed.

He owned yet the day of judgement we talked about those

on the left hand side of God, the deal makers, the liars, the

murderers, the atheists, they're all there.

The religious people are there if that's all they have.

But there's a crowd on the right hand side that's the redeemed of

earth. The sea of diverse shall go over

on the our shore under them. He says, Come, come, ye blessed

of my Father, you have an abundant entrance into

everlasting Kingdom of our God and Saviour.

Two ways this night before you lie, and you the choice must

make. The one leads upward to the sky,

the hour, the hour to the lake. The house is fast filling.

There is yet room to spare that a seat will be empty.

Will you be there? That's by our heads in prayer.

The meeting will soon be over. We're just going to sing a

couple of verses of a hymn. And I want you to think in your

heart, just for a moment or two as we're praying.

How do I stand with God? But am I leaning on tonight, say

with a hymn writer, I dare not trust the sweetest fame, but

holy lean in Jesus name. The name of the Lord is a strong

tower into which the righteous run and is safe.

And just as you're sitting in your seat, you lift up your

heart to God. Say Lord, that's man's right.

That's man's right because he preached your word and he's just

taken the rug from under me. And I'm confused about this

matter. Tell the Lord that in your heart

ask him to save you. That clinches the deal.

Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.

Or if you want to speak with us afterwards, well then we're

willing to speak with you. But don't leave the meeting on

converted. Let's get this matter sorted for

all eternity. Heavenly Fowler, thank you for

your word tonight. Thank you Fowler that the things

that need to be said, it's not always a pleasure to preach

things like this. We understand the even the the

way we wound people with what we say.

We can offend people with these things, but then we remember

that the Lord wounds and then he heals.

He cuts out all that is bad and all that needs to get out the

deadly stuff and he heals the wounded, broken hearts.

Lest I were to each and every heart, we would pray in Jesus

name, Amen.