NO EXCUSES ACCEPTED 

ROMANS 1:18-23 

          In verses 14 through 17 of this chapter Paul speaks of the relationship that a person may enter into with God through faith, which is yielded ness and trust.  He starts the passage that we have just read by talking about the wrath of God that will be endured by all who deliberately blind themselves to God, choosing to worship their own thoughts and idols rather than God.  In these verses Paul explains why these people will suffer the wrath of God.  One reason he says is because they have ignored God though all the visible evidence around them points to the invisible God.  He says in verse 20 “For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead”.  What Paul is saying here is that even though God is a Spirit and thus is invisible to man, God has made provision for us to see and understand what He wants us to know about Him through the visible creations that he has made.  So Paul says that the man who ignores God is without excuse.

          If we feel no love for those who are today unsaved in the world, or if God had not left the church with the task of evangelizing the world, then we could take the selfish attitude and say if people don’t want to get saved then they will suffer the wrath of God and it will be their own fault because they are without excuse.  Now we know that the Bible teaches that man will be without excuse, but many people feel that they have legitimate reasons for not following Christ.  We know that to be untrue.  So I want to talk this morning from the topic of “No Excuses Accepted”.

          Now I want to approach this not from the view of God’s judgment on the unbeliever, but rather from our view as we witness to others about God.  In other words, since God will accept no excuse when they stand before him in judgment, let us set a goal that we will accept no excuse when we attempt to share God’s plan. 

          In our witnessing we will come across many different types of people with a variety of excuses, but none of these excuses will be accepted in heaven.  We may not have the answer for all of the questions and excuses used by man for not yielding to God’s plan, but through the Spirit of God we have access to the answers.  Let’s prepare ourselves to take away the excuses.

1.     The excuse of the Atheist

          The atheist will say that there is no God.  He believes the scientific view of creation and thus that science hold all of the answers to the existence and behavior of man.  He believes man is wicked because of bad genes, and that death is a natural and final step in the cycle of man.  What is God’s response?

          PSALMS 14:1 – Now of course we are not going to go around calling people a fool.  But what we should do is become an expert at pointing out to them the foolishness of their thinking.

          I TIM. 6:20-21 – True science will support God.  But when we apply our limited wisdom to our limited understanding of science many stray away from faith in God.  Many through their limited understanding of science choose to place their faith in the wisdom of a man and his scientific theories.  But in I Cor. 2:5 Paul warns the people, “That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”  Many would rather believe a theory that makes no sense but was devised by a man that they can see rather than believe that an all powerful God can do as he pleases.  But unfortunately many of us don’t take time to understand enough science to help them see the error of their ways.  We just right them off as lost souls.  We can’t even ask intelligent questions that would cause them to reconsider what they believe.  But they sure do it to us.  (So you believe in evolution.  I find it quite confusing.  Maybe you can help me with a few questions or at least tell me where to look for the answers.  Most evolutionists only seem to talk about living organisms.  Did the earth, sun, moon and planets just evolve also?  When the earth was evolving what happened to make it tilt on its axis and to make the tilt exactly what it needed to be to sustain life on Earth.  What happened to make the moon begin revolving around the earth?  In fact what evolved first and how did it affect the perfect evolution of the rest of celestial space so that everything is exactly where it needs to be at the proper time to generate and sustain life on earth? )  Can we affect the atheist in such a way as to make him rethink his science? 

                    Is man wicked because of our genes?  Well does our gene pool come from our parents and ancestors? So does this mean that we must all go back to the same ancestors?  Does that mean that only two people evolved and they just happened to be a man and a woman so that they could procreate? Can we make him rethink his concept of death? (HEBREWS 3:12 – The Bible teaches that it is our heart or nature that is evil.)

                   Is death really the end of it all?

          ACTS 9:1-9 – If death is really the end, what motivated Saul who was dead set against the Christian belief, to change his whole way of thinking.  What made a man who was killing people for breaking the law (both spiritual and political) by claiming to be followers of this dead Jew decide not only to become a follower but also to become a chief leader?  Could it be that he met a dead man and came to understand that death does not end life, but rather it moves life to a new location. 

         HEBREWS 9:27 – In so many places in the Bible the life of man after his death is spoken of.  The strange thing is kids believe that Tupac is still alive though others testify that he is dead.  Many believe that Elvis is still alive somewhere though his wife testified that he was dead.  Neither of these two claimed to be God and no one has stepped forward and claimed either verbally or in writing to have seen either one of them.  We have written testimony from Paul and from Peter and yet many refuse to believe.  (Acts 2:32 - This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.)

        You may not know the answer to every question that the Atheist asks you but with each interaction your knowledge base should increase.  Learn what he thinks and then ask God how you are to counter his beliefs so that he too can be won to the kingdom.

2.  The excuses of the deceived.

        The person who is deceived says my way of living is alright.  I am a good person. I go to church and I do my part to make the world a better place for those who are less fortunate than me.  What does God Say?

PROV. 14:12 – Who is defining right (Working math problem example)

I SAMUEL 16:7 – When God judges the heart of man what he has found is

JEREMIAH 17:9

MARK 7:21-23 – When God looks at the heart of man, this is what he sees.

MARK 10:18 – They called Jesus good and he who was without sin replied there is none good but one and that one is God.  Obviously God must have a different definition of good than we do.  For certainly we would have considered Jesus to be good.  If he was not good then for sure we who can put our finger on at least one sin that we have committed, cannot believe ourselves to be good. 

        And to be honest we should thank God that entrance into heaven is not based solely on our actions, for we have not yet been able to do as God ask on a consistent basis.  In fact we struggle to make it through a week doing as he ask, we certainly could not make it for a lifetime.

JAMES 2:10

EPHESIANS 2:8-9 – God offers salvation to man not based on what man has done but rather based on his grace.  The plan of salvation was not instituted because man deserved it for his sterling works on God’s behalf.  The plan was instituted by God of his own free will because he loves us.  In love God offers us a gift and his greatest desire is that we will accept the gift.

JOHN 3:3 – God did not make works the key that opens the door to heaven, but there is a key.  The door will be locked to all who are not born again, that is all who have not been born of the spirit.  Our task is to help those who have been deceived into thinking that their high opinion of themselves is nor relevant to God.  In fact God is not interested in our assessment of our worthiness because he has already declared that no man is on his own worthy of heaven. 

HEBREWS 10:28-29

Man whether individually or collectively can continue to attempt to justify himself before God.  But if God allowed no excuses for Israel when they disobeyed the laws given to Moses for the people, what makes man think that God will excuse him for rejecting the sacrifice of God’s own son.  There is no excuse that a man can offer God that will make his rejection of Jesus acceptable to God.   Why because there is no acceptable excuse for rejecting such a great sacrifice of love.