“Then said he unto him, A certain man made a great supper, and bade 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 needs go and see it: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to prove them: I pray thee have me excused. And another said, I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come. So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. 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 hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind. And the servant said, Lord, it is done as thou hast commanded, and yet there is room. And the lord said unto the servant, Go out into 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.” (Luke 14:16-24)

In the story Jesus told, three men are set forth with three excuses why they could not honor to a great supper.

The first man said he had purchased a piece of land and had to go inspect it. The man was either a fool, or a liar. If he really purchased a piece of land without assessing its value, then he was a fool. Such a person could be sold the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, or a piece of swamp land in Florida. If the man did not buy some property than he was an outrageous liar.

The second man said he could not come to the great supper because he had bought five oxen and had to go and examine them. Again, the man was either lying, or he had been very foolish to buy expensive animals without knowing if they were strong and healthy.

The third man gave an excuse that might make one smile under a different circumstance. He indicated his wife would not allow him to attend the Great Supper. If that were true, then the man was foolish for not being the head of his family and doing what was right. If her resistance was not true than the man was a liar.

Collectively, the excuses of these men came with a penalty. The time came when those who were bidden were forbidden to take of the Great Supper. Spiritually, there comes a point of no return for those who have been invited to have fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Bible says, “Today if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness. (Heb. 3:8,9)

It is foolish to offer to God excuses for not becoming a Christian. Billy Graham once listed reasons he had heard for rejecting the gospel, and the Church.

First Excuse: “I cannot understand the Bible.”

The Biblical remedy is to pray and ask God for understanding. “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and without reproach; and it shall be given him. (James 1:5) The Bible also says to study Scripture and to “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Tim. 2:15, 16)

As the Bible is studied, God will grant understanding. But knowledge of the Scripture does not negate the basic command of God to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Augustine was a man of great intellect, and yet he did not understand the Bible. After his salvation he said that he had to understand Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle before he could believe them. With Jesus Christ, he believed in Him first, and then came to understand.

We believe in many things without first understanding them. We use electricity without understanding it. We eat food but do not understand how it becomes blood, and hair, and bone, and muscle, and fingers, and nerves, and brains, and teeth, and skin. We do not understand how a black cow can eat green grass and give white milk.

To come to Christ is to come believing that He is the Son of God, and He is the Savior of the world. A person does not have to understand all the mysteries of the Bible, theology, or God in order to be saved. What is required is childlike faith in Jesus. By human wisdom, man knows not God. (1 Cor. 1:21)

For a brilliant professor, for an intelligent college student, and for a person filled with great pride, it is insulting to be told their human knowledge does not understand spiritual matters. And so many refuse to humble themselves and like a child come to Christ.

That is tragic because no one will fully understand God. It is impossible to grasp how God never had a beginning, and will never have an ending. The Bible says that God is the Eternal One. There are facets of God’s essence that are unfathomable. We look on Him and cry with the angels, “Holy! Holy! Holy! Is the Lord God Almighty!”

What can be understood is John 3:16 which consists of twenty-five words, to form a miniature Bible.  The text says that man is a sinner, God loves sinners, Christ died for sinners, and the way of salvation is by faith alone in Christ alone. For whosoever believeth in Him shall be saved. And when one’s own name is substituted by faith for “whosoever” (or literally, “any one”), that person receives everlasting life.

It is foolish to refuse to become a Christian because the Bible is not understood. Mark Twain once said, “It ain’t those parts of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it is the parts that I do understand.” What really bothers people is to be told they are a sinner and going to hell. That is something they can understand, and that truth is rejected with fury.

The disciples of Jesus were not educated men. Yet, by faith they believed Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Their faith led them to help turn the world upside down, or better yet, the world right side up for those who also believe in Jesus.

Second Excuse: “I want to make a commitment to Christ but I am too sinful.”

The Bible says that the chief of sinners has already been saved, and his name was Saul of Tarsus. The world knows him as Paul, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. Led by the Holy Spirit, in a letter to Titus, Paul wrote, “This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (1 Tim. 1:15).

Sometimes, when a person says they believe they are too sinful for Christ to forgive them, they are telling a lie because if someone agreed with them, and said they are very wicked indeed, their pride would be offended. A false sense of humility is a sure way to be eternally lost.

The truth is this. The Bible teaches there is power in the blood of Christ to cleanse us of all sin (1 John 1:7). Some of the meanest and cruelest people on earth are found in prisons. By God’s grace, many are confronted with the evil they have done. Countless inmates repent of their sin, ask for God’s forgiveness, and try to find a way to make restitution for the evil they have done.

Anyone can come to the Cross and find cleansing and forgiveness there. If someone truly believes they are beyond hope because the weight of sin is a burden to them then the message for such a person is this.

“It is good you feel the weight of the Law on your soul. That burden is designed by God to bring you to Christ who can remove that burden from you because He died for your sins. Jesus went to Calvary to bear the ultimate burden of sin, which is hell, that you might have His heaven. At the Cross, your burden can be removed.”

I remember when my burdens rolled away;
I had carried them for years, night and day.
When I sought the blessed Lord,
And I took Him at His word,
Then at once all my burdens rolled away.

Rolled away, rolled away,
I am happy since my burdens rolled away.
Rolled away, rolled away,
I am happy since my burdens rolled away.

~ Minnie A. Steele

Third Excuse: I am self-sufficient, I do not need Christ.

This is not an excuse for not becoming a Christian; it is a confession that one has become their own god.

A gifted doctor once said that He hates God, and wants nothing to do with the Church. He did not believe God exists. He said the grave was the end of everything.

One day he had to go to the Emergency Room. He was admitted to the hospital. Two days later he had two stints put in his heart.

Hopefully he had different thoughts when facing his own mortality.

It is easy for a person in the prime of life to be self-sufficient, especially if they dismiss the reality, they did not make themselves. No one gives themselves the innate intelligence to be a doctor, a lawyer, or a great architect. No one willed themself to be born in a country where a great education is possible, and the ability to make money. It is a foolish person who believes they are a self-made individual, and so can be self-sufficient, and without need for God. Psychology calls such people a narcissist. The Bible calls such a person a fool.

The gospel message for those who are self-sufficient and do not need God or the Church is this.

“Prepare to meet thy God. One day you are going to die. One day you are going to face your Creator. One day you will give an account for your life. The Bible says it is appointed unto men once to die, and after that, the judgment. One day you will have to explain why you rejected the gift of God which is eternal life through Jesus Christ, the Lord. One day, you will realize that you are not self sufficient enough to stay out of hell. Do not reject God’s mercy. Today is the day of salvation. You need Christ.”

There are four words to remember: FACT, FAITH, FEELING, FRUIT.

The Christian experience begins with a Fact. You and I are great sinners, and Christ is a great Savior. There is no other name given under heaven by which a person can be said.

“For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures” (1 Cor. 15:3, 4).

Once that Fact is affirmed, then Christ must be received by Faith. There must be Faith in the Fact that we are great sinners, and that every person can still be saved by grace through faith in Christ, and not of works lest anyone should boast (Eph. 2:8,9).

When a person is saved by grace alone, in Christ alone, there is often a Feeling of relief, happiness, and joy. Jesus has promised to give to His disciples, a joy and a peace which the world cannot know. The love of God comes to fill the heart, and overflows with love toward others, so that good works are produced. The Fruit of the Spirit is manifested, and others are blessed. The Bible says, “By their fruits you shall know them.”

Herein is the essence of the Gospel, and the Christian life: : FACT, FAITH, FEELING, and FRUIT. Our sufficiency is not in ourselves, but in Christ.

Fourth Excuse: “There are too many hypocrites in the Church.”

This is one of the most foolish of all excuses. For one thing, it exposes a person’s self-righteousness. Such an attitude is nothing more than virtue signaling, and relative righteousness. A person compares themselves with someone else and feels morally superior. In reality, such a person is a hypocrite.

The self-righteous know there are bad doctors in the medical field, and yet, they seek out a physician when they are sick. They know there are bad lawyers, yet they seek legal counsel. They know there are bad people who work in the grocery store, yet they continue to shop and buy food.

To say there are hypocrites in the Church is to hold up a mirror to oneself.

It is foolish to go to hell because someone has been a bad example while professing to be a Christian.

The way forward is to become a Christan and be an example “of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity” (1 Tim. 4:12).

We live in an imperfect world. No one is perfect. The family is imperfect. Society is imperfect. The Church is imperfect. We will not be perfect till we reach heaven.

Until then, the gospel invites us come to a perfect Savior, Jesus Christ. In Christ one will find the perfect place of rest from being upset and critical of others.

There is a place of quiet rest,
near to the heart of God;
a place where sin cannot molest,
near to the heart of God.

O Jesus, blest Redeemer,
sent from the heart of God,
hold us, who wait before Thee,
near to the heart of God.

~Cleland Boyd McAfee

Why not put aside all excuses and simple come to the Great Supper the Lord of the Manner has prepared? There is wisdom in arresting any excuse that might come to mind and say to one’s self, “I have a great invitation. I will go to the Great Supper that the Lord’s house might be full and I will be blessed.” And the Spirit says comes. Come quickly. Come now.