The Golden Excuse

Introduction

Well, Sean has done an excellent job in leading us in song. Thematic at that. Way to go, Sean. And again, tonight we are blessed with a number of visitors. Some of you were here this morning. Some of you just appeared this evening. And it’s good to have all of you here. As I mentioned this morning, this is somewhat of a sad day for us as some of our little chicks are growing up and leaving the nest. We have three that I know of traveling to other places. Elena’s going to be the closest. But then Brett is going to Florida and Matt’s going to California. And those of us traveling with them this week, Tim, who’s got the longest drive ahead of him, and Brett and I are headed to.

Brett’s over here tonight. Throwing me off. Brett’s headed to Florida. Brett and I are headed there later this week. And so we would pray for, we would ask you to pray for our successful journeys to those places, and we’re going to miss you guys terribly. But to help us some of that, we’ve got some who have gone off in the past back with us. We’ve got Taylor here tonight, and Bess here tonight. Stacey, well, she’s been here for a while. So it’s been good to have some of those faces returned to us every now and then. Y’all need to come back to help us with this problem we’re going to have. But anyway, it’s great to be with you tonight, and we wish our young people who are, and even those local, like Dustin.

We wish you well in your college days ahead of you.

It’s what people say when they’ve messed up. Perhaps it is to deal with the sting of their own guilt. Or to silence their accusers. When we know we’ve done something that we shouldn’t have done, and perhaps somebody is calling our attention to it, we learn it as children. And perhaps learn to masterfully apply it. As adults. And what I speak of tonight is the golden excuse. I mean, the Olympics are concluding. We’ve been dealing with the Olympics for a couple of weeks now, and so we had to have something golden tonight in the lesson. And so we’ve got the golden excuse. And when using this excuse, no one can really take exception to it because of its validity. And because of the truthfulness of it, one is left with no other option than to accept it.

The golden excuse, of which I speak, and which you almost saw on the slide.

1. The Perfect Excuse: I'm Only Human

Have you heard somebody say that about their misdeed? I’m only human. Have you ever used that one? Perhaps you’ve been taught and you don’t use this excuse, but perhaps we say it in other ways, but are still saying basically this. I messed up because I’m human. If you’ve ever used it or heard somebody use it, well, it’s the perfect excuse. That’s why I called it golden. And the reason why it’s often deemed the perfect excuse is, as I said, it contains truth. Isn’t that, though, the prerequisite of a lot of lies and deceit? For them to work really well, you add in or mix in a little bit of truth, and it makes it more palatable to people. That’s how false doctrines work in our times.

You mix in a little bit of truth, and people will swallow it. And so this excuse contains some truth to it. However, what are we really saying? Perhaps it’s somewhat like the thing that we want to deny, as evolutionists would have us say that we’re just a more highly evolved animal. That’s what the wisdom of this world said. Now, if we really were just animals and had descended from apes, ooga, then really we would have a pretty good excuse. I’m just an animal. And you know what animals do? They act upon instinct. They want something, they get it. They’re hungry, they eat. And it doesn’t matter what stands in the way, they’re going to have their meal. And so animals have an excuse for their behavior.

That’s the way they are made. And sometimes when people say, I’m human, it’s almost as if that we’re lowing ourselves down to the level of animals, and we just barely could help ourselves with this particular problem. And so it contains some truth. We are, in fact, human. And so you can’t say, oh, you’re not really human. Well, let’s see. Some of you. No, you’re all really human out here tonight. So there is an element of truth in it. And I’ll tell you what else it does. And the reason why it’s the golden excuse and the perfect excuse is because it admits guilt. It involves a confession of sorts. We won’t have to stand here and argue about whether or not you messed up because you’re acknowledging it.

I did it because I was human. Now, if you’re approaching someone about a particular kind of behavior, something that they did, and they say, I’m human, well, okay, they’re admitting to something here. And so you automatically have this confession inherent within most excuses is an admission of guilt because if I wasn’t guilty, I wouldn’t need an excuse. And sometimes we pawn off our behavior with a lot of excuses, and one of the most popular is the influence of someone else. Someone else did something, and that caused me to do the thing. You know, they’re human too. They did something, and that caused me to do something, and others have played a big role in this. And let me just tell you about all of our failures.

The fact is that other people can play a role in those. And even share the guilt. Even in marriage, we’re told in Matthew chapter 5 that the one who puts away his wife for a cause other than fornication causes her to commit adultery. Now, the person who has been caused to commit adultery can’t say, Well, I’m innocent. It’s all my husband’s fault because he put me away unscripturally. He didn’t have a cause for doing that, and so I have a right to go do this particular act. No. Jesus still calls it adultery. But another person is implicated in that transgression. So you’ve actually got three people involved. You’ve got the person putting the person away. You’ve got the put-away person who’s now marrying someone else committing adultery, and the person that they’re marrying.

And so you’ve got all of these people involved in the transgression. And sometimes when people sin, there are other people involved. And sometimes mightily so. I mean they’ve pushed every single button that you have. They have turned up the heat. They know where you’re weak. And they have laid the trap for you. And you stumbled, and you can say, well, they’re to blame. Yes, they are, but you still are the one who’ve committed the error. And so a lot of people want to blame someone else. We’ll say sometimes, well, nobody put a gun to your head. Well, what do we mean by that? It wasn’t one of those things, either you do this or you die because I’m going to kill you. You still made the choice to do the thing that you did.

Many real factors can contribute to our mistakes. Okay, so this is a perfect excuse because it meets some guilt. And again, it disables the accuser. There’s no, and this is what really drives us mad when somebody’s guilty. We’ve got them dead to rights, and they say, I’m innocent. Gary Sanduskin. And others who will not admit Jerry Sandusky. Man, I said Gary Sandusky, that’s the preacher. He’s innocent. Not Gary Sandusky, Jerry Sandusky. Been a while since I heard his name in the news, and I got it messed up. But people say they’re innocent, and we know they’re guilty. And that drives us crazy. And so if you’re trying, if you have to go and speak to someone that you caught in a trespass, Galatians 6 and verse 1, that’s a very uncomfortable situation.

And so you’re having to talk to someone to try to encourage them to correct their course, and they say, Well, you know, I’m only human. Well, they’re acknowledging again some guilt. And so that disables the accuser who’s come to say, now you know you’ve committed a transgression. There’s no proclamation of innocence. And so we offer the perfect excuse. The golden excuse. I’m only human. The excuse gets us where we want to go. You just need to accept it. I have. Let’s go on. Let’s get past this. And it is the great equalizer. When we mess up, we are equals to all. Because we have the Bible to back us up on this. For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There’s the human condition right there.

We’re all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. You’ve messed up too. And who can say, no, I’ve never messed up? Well, if you’re before the age of accountability, I guess you could, but you’re usually not involved in those kinds of conversations. It’s usually adults, and yes, as a human being, I have sinned and transgressed and fallen short, and so I’ve messed up too. And so it is the great equalizer. And we have a lot of things in common in our humanity, foolish things that we do. Perhaps it’s like this. How many of you have ever been, and this is embarrassing when this happens, you walk down the sidewalk and you trip. It happens out here all the time. The uneven sidewalk. Has anybody not done that?

Seriously, not out here necessarily, but any time in your life, you’ve never tripped over a sidewalk. I don’t see any hands. We’ve all done that. And it can be really embarrassing. Logan, yes, you have. And if you haven’t, you’re now going to. Or even worse. Now, I don’t think everybody’s done this. Have you ever been just walking along and not paying attention? And you ran into a stationary object? Like a street sign. Or worse yet, you are not paying attention, you’re texting in your car, and you run into a moving object. Or a stationary object. That would be really bad. I’ve had that embarrassing situation where I’m walking and just not paying any attention. Always keep your eyes on the road in front of you. I think there’s a passage about that too.

2. It's Still a Lousy Excuse

And just not paying any attention whatsoever, bang. You know, that’s that’s sort of embarrassing. We’ve all done embarrassing that’s humanity. Is that what we’re talking about? Well, I’m human. All of these things they befall humans. Well, while all of those might be reasons why this I’m only human is the perfect excuse, I want to tell you tonight, it’s still a lousy excuse. However great and however golden this excuse may be, it’s still a lousy excuse. Because in the fact of humanity, we are not inherently evil.

But we have sought out many inventions. Always like that verse in Ecclesiastes chapter 7 and verse 29. In evil, Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and verse 20, in evil we are to be babes or to be innocent in evil. However true some aspects of the excuse are, it is not a worthy excuse, because here’s the point tonight. There is no excuse for sin. There’s no excuse for the very first transgression that we commit. Even if it’s not a huge splash in sinfulness as we might define it, some kind of sexually immoral act, or drinking, or some other big sin, regardless of what it is, a little white line. There’s no excuse for it. Because God is a God of truth who always speaks truth and as his children who are to be innocent, as babes in regard to evil, when we sin, we have chosen a different path for ourselves.

Sin is a transgression of the law. 1 John chapter 3 and verse 4. That’s why we are admonished in Ecclesiastes chapter 12, after the statement in 729, at the end of the book, fear God and keep his commandments, because this applies to every person. I’m only human is not God’s reasoning. But it’s one of the devil’s patented deceits that he gets us to use to minimize our wrong behavior. And I want to tell you, we are very prone to that. Because when our conscience is stinging us and telling us you did wrong, even worse when somebody else notices that we’ve done wrong and tells us about our error, that stings even more. Perhaps we need to work to the point where, whether anybody else sees it or not, it still stings the same.

I just came up with that. Think about that for a minute. We need to get to the point where when it stings, it stings the same whether anybody else knows it or not. But when that moment comes, we want to lessen the pain of that. We don’t like to acknowledge it. Some of us have a view of ourselves that makes acknowledging that difficult. It’s hard for all of us to some degree to acknowledge I’ve really messed this thing up. Well, I’m only human. Well, there’s some truth in that, but that excuse is really fool’s gold. I want you to turn to Proverbs chapter 10. Proverbs chapter 10 and verse 23. And let’s just get to the brass tacks about our choices to do wrong. Whatever they may be, whatever the sin is, and we’ve been hearing about the nature of sin and what it is for a long time.

Whatever it is, Proverbs chapter 10 and verse 23, and this is very general. This is every kind of transgression. Doing wickedness is like sport to a fool. And so is wisdom to a man of understanding. What a great verse that is. Which sport do you like the best? Doing wisdom or doing wickedness. Proverbs chapter 14. Proverbs 14 and verse 16. A wise man, a wise man is cautious. And listen to this wisdom. A wise man is cautious and turns away from evil. But a fool is arrogant and careless. You don’t have to turn over there, but Isaiah 32 and verse 6, the fool speaks nonsense, and his heart inclines toward wickedness in regard to transgression. We are being admonished over and over again in Scripture to choose better than that.

3. What Being Human Really Means

I want to talk to you about what being human really means.

What human really means, in contrast to the animals, is that I’ve been made in God’s image. You’ve heard the passage many times in Genesis chapter 1, that He made us in His image. That made us unique. That made us the pinnacle of God’s creation. We’re not merely animals. And as the pinnacle of creation, as David said in Psalm chapter 8, what is man that thou art mindful of him? That ought to boggle our minds. That God has placed us in such an awesome position in his creation. And with that comes awesome responsibility. Now you may not, I didn’t sign on for this. I didn’t ask to be born. But here you are. The object of God’s special care and his love. And he is, aren’t you glad you’re not a dog or a frog?

I mean, dogs have it pretty good in our culture, most of them. They get treated like kings, but I’ll tell you, I’m still glad I’m not eating Alpo. I like roast beef and mashed potatoes and steak and all that good stuff. Hamburgers. Aren’t you glad you’re not a dog or a frog? Here we are, the pinnacle of creation. And with that comes awesome responsibility. Made in God’s image. We have the capacity to learn. That means I have the ability to know better, as we say. And if I can know better, then I need to strive to do better. And that’s exactly what my creator wants and expects me to strive for. I am not an animal. I am made in the image of God. And neither should I act like an unreasoning animal.

It’s interesting that false teachers are compared to unreasonable and unreasoning animals in 2 Peter chapter 2 and verse 12. And the reason why we are not animals is that we’re going to be held accountable while the dog is not. We’re going to stand before God in judgment. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 10, 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 6. He who does the will of God abides forever. The animal has no hope of that. God is going to hold me accountable, whether I hold myself accountable or not. May the thought be ever present. I am not just human.

4. God Made Us for More Than That

I am made in the image of God and given the capacity to learn, and God expects more from me than that. We have the ability to achieve something greater. Animals, well, as I said, they merely want to be meet their basic needs. God made us for more than that. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verses 8 and 9, as we are admonished in that context, in light of the fact that the Lord is going to return and come as a thief, that we are to be sober, we are to be watchful and prepared and alert and be spiritually sensitive. He says in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 8, since we are of the day, don’t go about drinking and getting drunk. As those who do that do that at night, he said in the previous verses, we are of the day.

Let us be sober. This is what he wants us to do. Having put on the breastplate of faith. Confidence in God, confidence in his word, people of worship and trust. Put on the breastplate of faith and love. This governs all of our activities and interactions with other people. And that’s a tall challenge. Animals can’t do that. But I’ve been given that responsibility. Put on the breastplate of faith and love and put on as a helmet. Again, the animals can’t do this. The hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. I looked up this word destined. It is the Greek tithami, which means to advise, commit, ordain, propose, conceive, set forth, lay down, settle, sink down.

It’s translated actually a lot of different ways in the New Testament. A synonym of tetithimi is the word chemai, and Paul used that earlier in 1 Thessalonians 3 and verse 3 when he talked about being destined for sufferings. He said, I have been destined for this. That’s interesting to me. What have we been destined for? As those made in God’s image. I said we had the capacity to learn. In Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 10, we’re admonished to try to learn what is pleasing to the Lord. We have the capacity to choose the will of God. Do not be conformed to this world. You know, when we sin, we say, I’m only human. Go on excuse here, I’m only human. Everybody’s made mistakes. Paul is telling us in Romans 12 and verse 2, avoid that, if at all possible.

Do not be conformed to this world. But be transformed by the renewing of your mind. That’s changing the way you think. That you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. We can choose the will of God, and we can choose to be a Christian. How exalted is that. Sometimes I think I need to baptize my cat because he does bad things. I think about baptizing him sometimes. But God did not give him that option. But to us in John 1 and verse 12, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God. Listen. If you’re of the age of accountability in this audience, if you have transgressed the will of God, I want you to see the privileged place that you occupy, that he has given you the right to become a child of God.

To make the choice to be a Christian, to believe in His name. And by being a Christian. That means, as we rise to walk in newness of life, we become a new creation, Paul talks about. How privileged is that? We’re not only made in the image of God, but when we become spiritually rebirthed or reborn, we’re created anew. A new creation, Paul says. And I like this passage in Ephesians too. You’ve heard it many times. For by grace have you been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And all that means is not that you don’t have to do anything to be saved because you do. You have to choose faith and obedience.

But what that’s saying is that your salvation is completely dependent on the things that God has done. You didn’t manufacture it. You didn’t dream up the plan of salvation. He instructed us and gave it to us so that we could know it and do it. That’s what he means. It is the gift of God that no one should boast. I don’t come to God and say, well, look what I did. Look at this great feat that I performed. No. He gets the credit. But what does he go on to say? In verse 10, after we have been saved by grace through faith, he says, We are his workmanship. What we become in awe, and I’ve said this many times, what that we what we become in Christ is ultimately, God gets the credit for all of that.

We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for what? Good works. When you serve someone else, when you put someone else’s interests above your own, when you do something that’s completely selfless because it betters another person, whether it’s your brother in Christ or someone in your home or someone at work. Your neighbor, love your neighbor. When you do something that is completely selfless because you’re a Christian, because you want to mold yourself after the image and example of Jesus Christ, you are achieving this lofty ideal that God has for us. That we would be created in Christ unto good works. So let’s not talk about humanity as something being low and awful and mistake ridden. Oh, yes, we have that commonality of having sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

But we, as the people of God, as those who can learn the will of God and do the will of God and be a Christian and perform these good works to the glory of God, we have been destined for more. Perhaps you’ve never excused the excuse to justify your behavior or to lessen the sting of guilt. Maybe you’ve never said, I’m only human. And that’s good. But what I want you to understand about your humanity tonight is that with being human, there is great and awesome responsibility. And there is great and awesome opportunity to fulfill God’s purposes for man when he made us upright. Ecclesiastes chapter 7 and verse 29. Okay, we’ve had the golden excuse tonight. Now I’ve got to talk about the Olympics again.

5. This Is Gold Medal Living

Did you watch any of it? I know some of you probably didn’t watch any. Most of you watched a little here and there. The track and field has just blown me away. As I watch them, and they when they show the side angle, you know, right down low, and you see the guys run across the hundred yards. That almost doesn’t look human. That they can go that fast. It’s like they got some kind of motor back here. I’m sure they do. How can anybody run like Usain Bolt? That’s crazy. And I marvel at what they’re doing. You know the decathlon doesn’t get a lot of press and publicity like the 100 and the 200 and being Usain Bolt, but I’ll tell you, those decathletes are something else.

And two Americans finished gold and silver in the men’s decathlon. They’ve got to do all of it. They got to run, they got to throw. They’ve got to hide jump. They’ve got to do everything. That’s a tremendous accomplishment. But I didn’t hear Hussein Bolt, despite his great athletic accomplishment. Greatest friender of all time, probably. I didn’t hear him give praise and glory to God. As some of them did, thankfully. They are able to achieve that only because God gave them a miraculous ability. Well, not miracle in the sense of Bible miracle, but in the way we use that term, it’s extraordinary. But what was interesting, the decathlete, Ashton Eaton, who won the gold medal for the United States, his interview really stuck with me. He was almost saying, I don’t know what’s left.

I don’t know what to do now. Basically, my life is over. I’ve done it. That’s it. He had nothing else. He goes, I’m going to have to dream up a new goal, I guess. I mean, but it was like, okay, now that I’ve become the gold medal winner in the decathlon, there’s nothing else beyond this. There was nothing left to achieve in life. Oh, but there is. This is what it’s really all about. This is gold medal living, folks. Choosing holiness. Resisting the adversary. Worshiping our Creator as we’re doing today. And don’t forget this. Displaying daily loyalty to God. That is awesome humanity.

That is gold medal living. That is human excellence. And so as we think about these Olympic champs and what they accomplished, extraordinary as it is, you’ve got to remember something about every achievement and everything in this world that does not have other world implications. It’s all stamped temporary. All of the achievements of this world, if they don’t have other world God’s immortality, if they don’t have those things stamped on them, ultimately all of those other things are temporary, all those metals tarnished, all of those feats are forgotten. You know, they start talking about some of the people who had done things in the Olympics in the past. Oh, yeah, I’d forgotten all about him.

A hundred years from now, Usain Bolt, if this world still stands, he’ll merely be a footnote. People will probably still be talking about Napoleon and not Usain Bolt. But really, even Napoleon is a footnote. Everything in this world that does not have other world implications is all stamped temporary. All flesh is as grass and the flower thereof. But the word of the Lord endures forever. 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 25. And if I have lived merely for this world accolades and achievements, you know, would you listen to the wisdom of Solomon in Ecclesiastes chapter 3? He said, If I did, I really know better than the animals that perish.

6. We Must Not Marginalize the Death of Our Lord

Because it’s all forgotten. Choose, because you’re made in the image of God, choose to live for something more. Getting back to the golden excuse. We must not marginalize the death of our Lord. And as I’ve told you many times, only one transgression. One sin, just one. And most of us in this audience have committed at least one. Just one. Put Jesus on a cross. And that’s why we must never marginalize anything that is a transgression before God. And when we say, well, I’m just human, that’s really what we’re doing. Not really that big a deal. Well, yeah, it sort of is. Because in Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 6, if we go on in sinfulness, we crucify afresh the Son of God. Do you hear that language in Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 6?

Crucify afresh? It’s as if we put him on the cross all over again. As horrible as that was, we’re doing it again. Don’t want to fall into that. We were redeemed not with perishable things, but with the precious blood of a lamb without spot and without blemish. One who did not deserve to die, one who had no guilt, died for the guilty. And that’s us. And that’s every time we sinned, and every time that transgression is called to our attention, and thankfully it is, every time it’s called to our attention.

The precious blood of the Lamb is needed. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin and we have fellowship one with another. That can only go on. Fellowship of God and fellowship with one another. It can only go on after any transgression because of the death of Christ. The precious blood of a lamb. And we are released from our sins by the blood of Christ. Don’t ever cheapen that. And as I preach to you, I’m here to confess that I’ve done it. When we discount the significance of sin, we have cheapened the blood of Christ. I’m only human.

But it is really no excuse at all. Scott Lowe, who’s a friend of mine who attends at Southside, Scott was in my wedding 24 years ago. Scott Lowe sent me this quotation recently. He said, a denominational friend gave him to the, gave him this quote in high school, and he still refers to it to this day. He said, Everything that you do is based on the choices you make. It’s not your parents, your past relationships, your job, the economy, the weather, an argument or your age that is to blame. You and only you are responsible for every decision and choice you make, period. It’s not your brethren or your parents or the difficulty of your circumstances either. And I add those things. When we err, it is simply because we chose to.

Suffer hardship with me as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier. And also, if anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules. Paul is telling Timothy, choose human excellence. Be a good soldier. Be strong in the grace that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Just as one who competes in athletic competition has to compete according to the rules. You choose to compete according to the rules. Achieve human excellence. We must not baby ourselves in our failures. And I think sometimes that’s what we’re prone to do. Well, everybody else has made mistakes too.

Conclusion

We’re human. Well, God knows I’m going to make mistakes. We have been redeemed for higher and nobler things. We can do better than we’ve done. Have you chosen the high road of service to Jesus Christ? Have you been compelled by the fact that you realize that by your sin Jesus had to die so that you might live? We ask you tonight to respond to the invitation and embrace life while there’s time and opportunity and strive for human excellence. While we stand and sing.