A BAD EXCUSE IS WORSE THAN NONE – Charles Spurgeon
A Bad Excuse is Worse Than None
I. The Provisions of the Gospel
The provisions of the gospel of Christ can be compared to a grand supper, prepared in the evening of the world—”in these last days.” The description of a “great supper” is indeed fitting when we consider the greatness of the provision. How much love and mercy God has displayed toward mankind in the person of Christ Jesus, and how much power and gracious working He has shown through His Holy Spirit! It is a great supper, not only because of the greatness of the provision but also because of the richness and sweetness of it. It is a feast worthy of the great King. The flesh of Jesus is our spiritual meat, and His blood is 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.”
Moreover, it is a great supper when we consider the number of guests invited. The gospel is extended to all—”Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.” The call of the gospel reaches every man and woman who hears the Word of God. No one is excluded unless they choose to exclude themselves. “None are excluded there, but those who do themselves exclude! Welcome the learned and polite, the ignorant and rude.” What other king has sent out such an invitation so vast and inclusive? 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.”
II. The Unwillingness to Respond
It is truly astonishing that when the householder prepared such a great supper and offered it without money and without price, all the invited guests began to make excuses. He didn’t call them to prison or misery—why then did they refuse to obey the summons? Why this unanimous rejection of a gracious invitation? This reflects the universal depravity of mankind. When the gospel is preached to thousands, many will refuse it. The parable highlights this grim reality, and, indeed, the fact proves it. The text says, “They all with one consent began to make excuses.” Not a single one accepted the invitation, and this is a true representation of human nature at its worst—man refuses the mercy of God and demonstrates how deep the fall of humanity really is.
What an indictment it is that when given the chance to partake in the banquet of God’s love, no one responds. The people’s free will is so inclined to reject Christ. Even those who might be considered good by society’s standards, who have the natural disposition for kindness, refuse to come to Jesus. No one seeks after God on their own. It is as if all of humanity—since the fall of Adam—is in a state of refusal when it comes to the gospel.
You may feel convicted, but instead of responding, many find themselves making excuses. This morning, I hope that those of you who have long heard the gospel and continually made excuses will make this the day you stop excusing yourself. I pray you will come to the feast of grace that you have rejected for so long and receive the mercy God offers in Christ Jesus.
III. The Excuses People Make
Why do people make excuses? Let us attempt to account for this sad reality by examining the reasons for these excuses, what specific excuses they make, and, ultimately, how foolish these excuses are.
First, the lack of a genuine heart to accept the feast is at the root of the excuses. If people were honest, they would simply say, “We do not wish to come, nor do we intend to do so.” The truth is that many reject the gospel because they love their sin and prefer it over the invitation to salvation. Deep down, they believe they can work out their own salvation, or they are content to take their chances, whatever they may be. The gospel requires too much self-sacrifice, too much humility. It demands that they turn from their own desires and submit to God’s plan. Thus, they choose to make excuses to avoid confronting the reality that they are unwilling to accept Christ.
Perhaps, some of you, like many who have heard the gospel repeatedly, have been convicted, but you continue to make excuses. Your excuses may appear legitimate, but at their core, they are flimsy. If you were honest with your own soul, you would admit that you do not love Christ and that you have no intention of accepting His salvation. It is easy to disguise your resistance with excuses, but the truth remains—your heart is at enmity with God. You are unreconciled, and you are content to stay that way.
It is foolish to continue this way. Men do not make excuses when they truly want something—they simply accept or reject it. But in the case of rejecting Christ, excuses are often used to cover up the true unwillingness to come. These excuses may arise because of conscience, which reminds us of our duty to God and the salvation He offers. But rather than facing the reality of our sin, many prefer to hold up the shield of excuses to quiet the voice of conscience.
IV. The Folly of Excuses
Let us now consider how utterly foolish it is to make excuses in response to God’s invitation.
One common excuse is that people are “too busy.” They claim they have too many responsibilities—whether at home, work, or in leisure activities—to focus on matters of eternal significance. They argue they have no time to think about God, death, or eternity. But this excuse is flimsy and false. No one goes hungry because they don’t have time to eat. If God has provided time for us to maintain our physical bodies, He has certainly provided ample time for us to tend to our souls. People manage to find time for what they truly value, whether it’s dressing themselves, attending social events, or pursuing hobbies. If you can find time for earthly matters, you certainly have time to seek the Lord.
Another excuse people use is that they are “too good” to need salvation. They think that because they haven’t committed “open” sins, they don’t need Christ’s atonement. But this, too, is a mistake. God’s demand for righteousness is absolute, and none can meet it. If you believe that your good deeds are enough to merit salvation, you are deceived. God requires perfection, and without Christ, we all fall short.
Ultimately, many people make excuses because they are filled with self-righteousness. They consider themselves better than others, comparing themselves to those who are more obviously sinful. But the truth is, we are all sinners in need of grace. The gospel is not for the “good” person who can earn their way to heaven, but for the one who acknowledges their need for a Savior and comes humbly to Christ.
V. The Ultimate Consequences of Excusing Yourself
As we consider the excuses people make, it is crucial to remember that they carry eternal consequences. The gospel is urgent. It calls us to accept Christ today, not to wait until a more convenient season. Excuses may delay the inevitable, but they cannot change the reality that every person will stand before God one day, and every excuse will be laid bare. No one will be able to excuse themselves out of their responsibility to respond to God’s call.
Let us pray that you, dear listener, will stop excusing yourself today and that you will come to Christ. Let the last excuse you make be the final one, and let it meet its death today. The invitation is still open, but time is short.
Conclusion
My friends, do not be like those in the parable who, despite a generous invitation, made excuses. Do not continue to put off Christ and salvation for another day. Recognize the folly of your excuses and come to the feast of grace that God offers. Lay aside all false pretenses, confess your need for salvation, and receive the mercy of God in Christ Jesus.
Do not wait until the end of time to regret the excuses you made. Today is the day of salvation—accept the invitation and come to Christ.
Excuses That Prevent Salvation
Introduction: The Excuse of Vileness
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 the light of God 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 wait a while, 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, do not use this as 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!
Excuse of Not Feeling Prepared
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 that 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 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 who 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!
Excuse of Doubting God’s Will
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 cleaner, 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.
Excuse of God’s Grace Being Too Good to Be True
Here comes another: “O sir, I would trust Christ with my soul, but it seems too good to be true that God would 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, or 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 to 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, but 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!
Excuse of Being Too Young or Too Old
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 15 or sixteen; there is plenty of time for me.” Have you been to the graveyard? Are there not records there of those who have found 15 or 16 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 of them say they were sorry to be called by grace so early! If I was condemned to die, and anyone should bring me a pardon, I would 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?
Excuse of It Being Too Late
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 100 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 withered and yellow leaf of eighty? Ah, you have many sins, but what a triumph of grace it will be when 80 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 80 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 20 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.
Excuse of Not Knowing if You’re Elect
“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,” he says, “here 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!
Excuse of Past Failures
“Well,” says one, “if I were to believe in Christ, I would be as bad, after a short time, as I used to be. I might be a little better for a time, but I would 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 would 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!
Conclusion: The Foolishness of 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 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 soon look very different. 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, and 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 trumpet 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 of 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 who 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.
—Charles Spurgeon