We are looking for sermon transcribers/transcript reviewers.
Email [email protected] to serve or to report transcription errors.

Matthew 12 really speaks about the rejection of the King. It speaks about how the religious leaders in particular will not believe in Jesus. They accused Him of being a servant of the devil, they claimed that He is not the Son of God.  They blasphemed the Holy Spirit working in the life of Jesus Christ. And in this segment, we are going see them continue to reject Christ and continue to spin excuses.

So today, we are going to look at the subject on excuses.  Spiritual excuses that we can make to deflect away the blame or responsibility of believing in Jesus Christ. I think excuses are something very familiar to all of us. I think children are experts at excuses.  Don't you think?  Excuses for not bathing.  Excuses for not studying.  Excuses for not working.  Excuses for not eating.  A lot of excuses! I remember one particular excuse, I asked my son for permission to share and he gave me.

So it was some months ago, Mr. Lum had just passed away.  And it was around that time on Sunday that my son, Matthias was also rather disobedient in Sunday school, rather cheeky. So the Sunday school teachers said to him, “I'm going to film you.  And if you continue to be naughty, I'm going to send this video to daddy and mummy.”  To which Matthias immediately replied, “Please don't do that, Teacher! Because my parents will be very sad, Mr. Lum had just passed away.” He's an expert at deflecting pain and consequences onto himself.

But excuses is not unique only to children.  We, as adults are great at excuses. It's very hard for men, for people like us to admit our faults.  Very hard for us to say, “We are all to blame.” So, we are very quick to blame others.  We are very quick to transfer the faults also to share amongst others.  We give excuses so that we don't have to do what we are supposed to do. So if we do not like to work, or if we don't do well in our jobs, we come up with excuses.  And the Bible does speak about excuses.

The Bible says in Proverbs [22:13], “The lazy man says there is a lion outside, I shall be slain in the streets.” This is an interesting little sentence that tells you the psyche of a man who spins excuses for himself.  This is a man who wants to be lazy.  He doesn't want to get out there to work.  So he comes up with a lame excuse, as lame as you can think of.  There is a lion in the streets.

It's like a Singaporean say, “The mom says to the son, “Son, you got to go find a job.”” He says, “Mom, I'm afraid to get out of our flat because there's a lion downstairs.” I mean, ridiculous excuse!  But Proverbs tell us when a man doesn't want to do what he doesn't want to do, he comes up with excuses. If you really want to do something, you will find a way to do something.  If you really don't want to do something, you will find an excuse not to do something.

So here, we are looking at spiritual excuses.  And when I meet with people who are not Christians and want to share with them about Christianity, sometimes I hear excuses. Some people have questions in their life, they genuinely want answers. But some people, they don't want answers but they just want to throw you some questions as excuses.

For example, they say, “I can really, I can never really understand the Bible.  It's too profound! It's too mysterious! No one can understand it, right?”  And so with this kind of a statement, they are immunizing themselves from the blame to really investigate the Gospel.  To really find out more about Jesus and God's Word. It's a convenient excuse!

Now, I'm not saying, I'm not saying that everyone who says, “I can never really understand the Bible is spinning an excuse.”  Some people really think that way. But I'm talking about some who perhaps have already decided in their hearts – “I don't want to know more about the Bible.” So to push people away, to shift the responsibility away, I just say, “God has given a book that no one can understand. No one can really grasp it, so don't blame me if I do not know the Gospel.”

Maybe another excuse people may spin is, “I've never seen God.  Have you seen God? If not, then why would you want to believe the Bible? Why would you want to believe the Gospel?”  So again, the blame is shifted to someone else, to God.  “He has not revealed Himself to  me.” Some people have excuses like, “How can I really be sure if Jesus is real? Have you seen Him?  Have you spoken to Him?  How do I know if Jesus is real?” And if you cannot know Jesus is real then I don't really need to understand the Gospel or the Bible or about Him.”

Maybe some people say, “I need some sign from God. I, I will not believe in Christianity. I will not believe in the Gospel, the Good News of Jesus Christ because I need some sign from God.” Well, these are convenient excuses we may think of in our day.  But excuses are common, even in the times of Jesus.

So this morning from Matthew chapter 12, we are going to look at how Jesus dealt with some excuses. The religious leaders are now going to spin one, in particular, excuse for us to consider. The Bible says, “Then some of the Scribes and Pharisees …” [verse 38] This refers to religious leaders.  They are the gurus in the times of Christ, who teach people God's laws.  But actually they don't really understand God's laws. Actually, they don't really love God.

So when Jesus came along, they are exposed.  And so some of the Pharisees, Scribes, when being rebuked by Jesus said, “Teacher, we wish to see a sign from You.” So the word, “then”, tells us, you got to read this in the context of the story. The story than as I've mentioned, is that Jesus has come along in the scene of Israel. People are following Him, He's teaching amazing stuff.  He's done amazing miracles and the Pharisees and Scribes being jealous, being insecure about their position as religious leaders, began to attack Jesus.

They said, “Jesus is a servant of the devil.”   Now Jesus, of course, rebuked them and they're confronted them and exposed their wickedness; their sins. Now the proper response for the Scribes and Pharisees after being rebuked by Jesus, should simply be, “I'm sorry.  We are wrong.  We should repent and believe.”

But no, they do not want to believe. So because they do not want to believe, they've got to come up with an excuse. So their excuse now is, “Teacher, we can't believe You until you show us a sign. We wish to see a sign from You.” [verse 38] This is their excuse. I say it's an excuse because Jesus has already performed bus-loads of miracles.

He has already performed amazing things.  The blind could see.  The lame could walk.  The leper was cleansed.  The, the storm was calmed.  The dead was even raised to life. I mean, what else!  If anyone of you today could cause a dead man to rise, I say, “You are the Messiah, man.” Well, Jesus did all that.  And they still have the cheek to say, “Not enough.   We need to see one more sign from You.” It's like the lazy man who says, “There's a lion in the streets.”  They just were spinning lame excuses.

Now, by the way, they not only said this excuse here.  But later on, when we journey further in Matthew chapter 16 [verse 1], they will say it again, “The Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test Jesus.”  And they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven.  They just demand signs. In fact, it is so common that Paul would write later on in 1st Corinthians 1:22, that the problem with the Jews, the problem with the Israelites is that they just won't believe Jesus is the promised Saviour.  “And they constantly demand signs.”

They are stubborn.  They are rebellious. They are tee kee[stubborn in Hokkien dialect], ngan kheng [stubborn in Cantonese dialect] Whatever you want and to justify their positions they keep asking for excuses in the form of signs.

Now, Jesus holds back no punches. He absolutely exposes the real problem.  The, the heart of the problem, as we said last week is a problem of the heart.  And so Jesus said, “This is why you ask for a sign, not because you really need a sign, but you are an evil, an adulterous generation.” [verse 39]

The problem is not about the insufficient signs.  There are more than sufficient actually.  The problem is your heart. You are simply evil and adulterous.  You just wouldn't want to believe. So you say, “What is an excuse? How would you define a spiritual excuse, biblically speaking?” I think as I look at this text, I think a spiritual excuse or spiritual excuses are evil. They come from an evil heart, alright.  They are evil deflections of responsibility or blame away from ourselves unto God or others. The Jews won't own up to their responsibility to repent and believe.

In fact, they want to justify their perpetual stance not to believe and say, “The reason why we don't believe is because of you lah, God.  Because of you lah, Jesus.  You never gave us enough signs.” It's an evil attitude deflecting responsibility or blame away from ourselves unto God and others. Actually, why do I say children are good at spinning excuses? Why do I say, even we, adults are good at spinning excuses?  Because I think excuses, evil deflections of responsibilities and blame are the result of the fall of men.  I think they are the result of sin.

I think it all began in the garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve sinned against God, they took of that forbidden fruit, look at what they said. God said to the woman, “Eve, what is this that you have done?” You know what Eve should have said that day?  She sinned.  She broke God's law.  She rebelled against God.  She's now found out.  What do you think Eve should have said when God says, “What did you do Eve?”

“Sorry, I took a fruit.”  That's right!  That's should be the bi .. not biblical, that should be the right response, right. “Sorry, I took the fruit.”  You know what she said?  Yah, she said, “Not, not my problem. It's because of the serpent.  That lousy serpent! Deal with that serpent.  I think that's hinted or insinuated in what she said, she didn't own up.  She said, “It's the serpent who deceived me.”  You say, “Pastor, this one not very clear.”

Okay, let's go to the man, usually it's clearer, oops.  Actually, God spoke to Adam first, alright. So God spoke to Adam, “Have you eaten of the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”  [Genesis 3:11-12] What should Adam have said, “Yes and I am sorry.”  Sorry, seems to be the hardest word for men. Hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, hah, coming from a lady, alright.

“Sorry, I blew it!”  Should have been the response.  But Adam said, “The woman whom you gave to me to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate.”   What did Adam do?  He excused himself and shifted the blame to his, to his, to his wife.  That's quite common in life, right?  But more than that, he shifted the problem, the blame to his God.

"Le kua lah, le kua lah" [see, what’s happening in Hokkien dialect]  If, if garden of Eden was in Hokkien, it will be like this "le kua le, an jua ho wah jit kuan ay?” “Why did you give me such a woman? It's something wrong with Your design.  It's something wrong with Your creation. Something wrong God. You gave me this woman.  It’s not my fault.  It's her fault and actually God, it's Your fault.”

That's the result of the fall of men. Your heart is now corrupt and now you see yourself as righteous and you see God as evil.  By the way, that's what happens today right? People ask, “How can a good God allow sin in this world?” It's as if we are the righteous one and God is the evil one.   We have totally depraved and corrupt minds.  But that's what spiritual excuses are.  They flow from a heart of wickedness.  And they deflect responsibility and blame away from ourselves. It's the symptom of the curse.

So, the scribes and Pharisees, gave themselves, this weak; lame excuse.  Hoping that this would sort of immunize them from the blame. Well, Jesus was very clear, He exposes them, says that, “They are evil and adulterous.”  Actually Christ should have, could have, not should have, could have ended it right there, “You are evil and adulterous, you seek for a sign.”  But He was gracious, He was gracious to say, “Well, it's your heart that is the problem.  But I'm going to give you one sign.”

He says, “But no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.” [verse 39] “You are an evil and adulterous generation, actually all the signs are sufficient but nevertheless, I'm still going to give you one sign. This is the ultimate sign.  No other sign is needed.  This is the ultimate sign.” And what is His ultimate sign?  The sign of the prophet Jonah.

Now, some of you are not Christians, some of you never read the Bible before, I totally understand that.  And if I were to be new in church, I'll say, “What is the sign of the prophet Jonah?”  Well, actually this is a very simple story found in the earlier parts of the Bible.  We call that the Old Testament.  And in one of the stories of the Old Testament, the first half of the Bible, there is a man whose name is Jonah and he's a prophet.

He's, he's supposed to speak on behalf of God to people, but this prophet one day was called to preach to an evil city. called Nineveh.  And Jonah, somehow felt that this is not quite right. They're so wicked, so evil, they should not be given a chance.

So this Jonah prophet was very rebellious, ran away from his mission.  And God worked it in such a way that Jonah will be thrown into the sea and swallowed by a big fish. Jonah will be in that fish for three days and three nights.  And after a while, after three days and three nights, the big fish vomited Jonah out i[nto the] onto the beach. So that's what happened to Jonah in the fish belly three days, three nights.  Very unique experience.

This is an amazing tour, the cruise, called the, ‘big fish tour or cruise’, cruise to don't know which beach. God did it! And so this story is now going to be the story, we parallel the sign that Jesus is going to give. “For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” [verse 40]

What is this speaking about?  The, the death, the burial and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now, what is special is not that Jesus died for three days.  Anyone of you can die for three days but the problem is that it is that you died for three days and onwards, and ongoing number of days.  But Jesus died for three days and that's it. He rose from the dead!

So Jesus died for three days but this is a little bit troubling, for me and for many people who read this at a superficial level. The Bible says, “The Son of Man will be three days and three nights.” Now, let's try to be exact, when did Jesus die? On which day of the week? Friday.  That's why you celebrate Good Friday.  That's why there's a public holiday.  It's Good Friday.  We all remember that.  That is the day Jesus went to the cross.  And then He was in the tomb on Saturday, nothing much happened. It was a day of uncertainty for the world and then which day did Jesus rise? Sunday.

Sunday is the first day of the week, is the day where Jesus rose again.  Because in the morning, His disciples went to the tomb and found that He was not there.  So Jesus was risen early Sunday morning. Now, let's do some math. Friday, what time did He die?  3 PM on the cross.  He shouted out, “My God, My God why has, has Thou forsaken Me.” And so on, at 3 PM, He died.

So He was there on Friday, dead on Saturday, probably Sunday morning. So for the Jews that will be considered three days. How many nights? Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday, no night.  You go hotel, you book hotel, you say, “Three days, two nights.” You, you don't pay for more night.  You pay one more, one more night is a lot of money.

So this becomes a little bit troubling. Now, it is troubling I found out to us because the way we count time or reckoned days, is not the same as the way Jews reckoned their days.  So the scholars, the commentators, the preachers, would tell us this.

For example, Carson, he says, “As the Jews reckoned time, three days and three nights meant three full days or any parts of three days.” So that's the way they speak, one day, one night means the whole day or part of the day.

Likewise MacArthur, John MacArthur, “The phrase, ‘a day and a night’ simply was a phrase referring to a 24-hour period or any part of that period.”

So if you say, “I was there for two hours you can still say it is a day and a night there. That's how the Jews reckoned time.  That's the way!  How you pay your parking fees also, right. You park in this car park, or this area, $0.60 per hour or part thereof.  If you park for 10 minutes, they also charge you two dollars or $0.60.  It's the same.  You park for the full hour or you park for part of the hour, you are charged the full rate.

So whether it's full day or part of the day, the Jews still consider it a day and a night.  That's the way they reckoned their time.  But this, I think is a technical area. I thought it's good to explain.  But I think we need to get back to the main gist.  The main gist is that Jesus is saying, “The ultimate sign that proves Jesus is the promised Saviour, is His death, burial and resurrection.”

How do we know Jesus says, “Jesus is the promised Messiah.”  Because of the sign of the prophet Jonah. This is very definitive because earlier on in the book of John, the Jews said to Him, “What sign?” [John 2:18-19]  You see, they are always demanding a sign.  So, they ask, “What sign do you show us for doing these things? Why do you throw out the people in the temple?  What gives you the right to do so?  Show me a sign?”

What did Jesus say?  “Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up.” What temple is He talking about?  Not the physical temple, that is the building or the mortar and bricks.  But He's talking about this temple - His body.  Because the temple is the dwelling place of God.  “I am where the fullness of God dwells.”   So, He's saying, “Destroy this temple, kill Me and in three days I will raise up.” It's the sign of the prophet Jonah phrased in another way.

Romans chapter 1:4 tells us, “Jesus is declared to be the Son of God.” Why or how?  By His resurrection from the dead.  The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the cardinal proof and evidence, Jesus is the Christ. 1st Corinthians chapter 15:3-4, What is of first importance in the Christian message?  What is the most important truth that we need to establish? “That is Christ died and was buried and was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures.”

You don't believe this, you don't have Christianity.  This is the bedrock of our faith. So what Jesus is saying is, “I've given You the signs. I've done many things, but in My mercy, I will still give you one more sign.  This will be the ultimate sign, the sign of the prophet Jonah.”  It is more than enough!  No other signs will be needed.

Long time ago, there used to live a man called Bertrand Russell. He is a non-Christian who attacked Christianity.  He is a philosopher, well-known philosopher. He wrote a book called, “Why I am not a Christian.” And he was asked once in the interview, why would he not believe the Bible? Why would he not believe the Christian faith? And how would you answer the Divine Being, should there be a Divine Being? How would he answer the Divine Being when he dies if he should meet with the Divine Being?

Bertrand Russell was asked, “How would you defend your position for not believing?” He said very quickly, “Not enough evidence.” That's his excuse! Why?  Because Jesus says, “I've already given you the ultimate evidence.  That I die, and that I will be buried and that I will rise again according to the Scriptures.

Now, some of you then ask, “Is this really enough?  Is this sign of the resurrection of Jesus Christ really enough?”  You know, Jesus now gives you two examples to tell you it is more than enough.  Two examples to show, you don't really need so many signs. The reason why you ask so many signs is because your heart is not willing to repent. Because I'm going to show you that through these two examples, it's more than enough.

Example number one takes us back to Jonah. Example number one says, “The men of Nineveh … remember I said to you, “They are evil people, terrible people, murderous people, violent and vicious people.”  Well, the men of Nineveh thought they are very wicked and evil.  “They will rise up at the judgment with your generation, with you guys, you, scribes and Pharisees and condemned your generation.” [verse 41]

Why? Because these wicked men of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here and you won't repent.  Of course, the something here refers to Jesus Christ.

Now you think about it, during the time of Jonah, the people of Nineveh, didn't have the signs.  See any lame man walk or blind man see or lepers cleansed or dead raised to life.  All they had was a super reluctant prophet, right? A prophet who probably very ‘bei song’ [relunctant in Hokkien dialect].  “Hey you all listen ah. I'm, I had a hard time but I have to tell you, if you don't repent, you will perish. Bye, bye.”

I think maybe not a lot more from Jonah.  He's not very happy. He didn't bother to do any signs but the Bible says, “The whole city of Nineveh repented.”   Do you need a lot of things? No, you can repent, even at the preaching of a reluctant prophet.  And by the way, Nineveh didn't have a lot of Bible knowledge. They didn't have a lot of access to the teachings in the Bible, yet they can repent.

You contrast that with the generation of Jesus Christ, that time they had the Bible.  They had the Old Testament.  They knew the teachings.  They knew a lot about the Bible.  They saw many signs and yet they say, “Give us more signs.”  So you can see how ridiculous it is when you compare it with a previous generation who had very little but still could believe.  You see that now, the reasoning of Christ.

Christ and gave a second example, He says, “The Queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.” [verse 42] So Jesus is saying, “I'm greater than Jonah. If people in those days can listen to Jonah, surely you can listen to me. I'm greater than Solomon, if the Queen of Sheba would travel a thousand miles to hear the wisdom of Solomon, surely you will listen to My wisdom.”

But no, they wouldn't. So on the day of judgment, think about it, on the day of judgment perhaps the scenario may be those in Nineveh, would truly say to those in the times of Jesus, “You really have no excuse, we could believe when we had so little, you should have believed when you have so much.” So Matthew 12 is really about excuses or at least these four, five verses is really about excuses.

So this morning, I want to say, some of you are genuinely seeking you, you do have questions about the Christian faith. I'm not saying that the search for the Christian faith is one where you have to block out questions.  No, I really think you should look into all the questions you have and seek to find the answers from the Scriptures.  And if you're someone like that, I hope what I'm going to explain would be helpful to you.

But if you're someone who, in your heart has already decided, you don't want to believe.  And you're just having excuses to make yourself feel better, to give yourself convenient ways to deflect blame and responsibility away. I hope you will repent of that and also diligently seek for answers in the Bible.

But some common excuses I think people have still in our day and age is, “I’ve not seen God, so I can't really know God, right?” Well, what does the Bible say?  What does the Bible say?  If someone comes to you, so let's say you have a friend, you want to share with him the Bible, about the Gospel, you tell him you need to believe in Jesus.

He says, “Don't tell me about this God thing.  Don't tell me about this Bible. I can see your Bible, but I've never seen God.”  How do you proceed?  Scratch your head. “God, can you show yourself, please?” Do you need to do that?  What do you do?  There many ways, I guess to go around it, but I generally like to just go to the Bible and let the Bible speak and answer for itself.  And so, I like to tell the person Romans 1 tells me that , “What can be known about God is plain to them.” [Romans 1:19]

The Bible says, “What you need to know about God is obvious to you.”  Plain to you.  It's simple.  It's not complicated.  Because God has shown it to you.  Huh? What? “No, God never show me anything!” No, no, God has shown it to you.  Where”  “For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made.” [Romans 1:20]

“O, you mean God has revealed Himself in creation?”  Absolutely!  So that they are, what? Without excuse.  I am not quite a nature person by nature that doesn't quite come out quite right. I'm, I'm not quite a, I'm not quite a lover of the wild and stuff like that.  But my sons are and they have introduced me to a whole new world.

We go out to have, hunt for creatures, insects.  We dig, I, I think I have shown you the videos before we dig the soil.  And everything they found, so many things, and one of the things that astound me is when we go for such little trips.  I always think about how amazing God's creation is.  Nobody bothers about these creatures.  Nobody, right?

You walk along the soil and you say, “Wah, look at the millipedes!  Look at the ants! Wah, look at the spiders!” You don't!  Yet, God has His fingerprints everywhere. If you just stop in your tracks, rest for a while and consider the heavens, consider the skies, consider the tree, the flowers, consider the animals, the insects around you, consider your own body, we are without excuse.

It's an evil heart that suppresses the knowledge of God.  It's an evil heart that says, “I've never seen God.”  No, no, no!  We can.  The Bible says, “It is clear.”  How about those who say, “I cannot know the truth. I tried reading the Bible.”   Someone says to you, “You know, I really tried reading the Bible, I started with Genesis, I found it very interesting.  Then somehow, when I came to Leviticus and Numbers, I died. The Bible is just impossible to read.”   You say, “So I give up. I don't think Christianity is for me.”

Well, for those who say, “I can't know the truth.” I, I tell them, “Reading the Bible is both easy in some ways and also very difficult in some ways.”  I've read the Bible 20 over years of my life.  I preach the Bible here but I'll say to you, “Reading the Bible is not easy for me.”  It takes effort.  It takes research. It takes diligence in checking to make sure things are rightly understood.  It's not easy, but it is not an excuse for us to say, “It cannot be known.”

The Bible does say that, “The household of God, which is the church of the living God, is a pillar and buttress of the truth.” God's wisdom, God's plan and design is that He has given to the world today, His church.  And His church is supposed to hold up to display, to show forth, to teach His truth.  And man who desires to know truth can hear the truth from His church.

And by the way, the church is not just Gospel Light.  The church has been in existence for more than 2000 years.  And there's an accumulated wealth and treasury of biblical teaching that helps people understand God's Word.  And so, if you're someone who says, “I want to know God, but I could never know the truth,”   Then, let me say, “Get the church to help you.” Of course, find the church that teaches the Bible and not teach men's opinion. I think that's very important!  Of course, but there is help if you are sincerely seeking to know the truth.

Maybe another struggle people have is -  I can't be sure about Jesus.  I'm not really sure if He is the one.  How would you answer someone who says, “I'm not sure if Jesus is the One.”  “No sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah.  I will tell them,  “The death and burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ proves He is the one.”

There many religions in this world, isn't it?  Which religion tells you that a God, the God has died and risen again for your sins?  None.  Religions today in general teach you to worship someone who has died.  But Jesus is the risen Saviour. That is the proof, Jesus is the only way, the only truth, the only life.  No man comes to the Father but by Him.

So the resurrection is that incontrovertible proof that Jesus is the One.  That's why it's so important the, the Bible is very, very careful to preserve for us the veracity, the truthfulness of the resurrection of Christ. 1st Corinthians 15:6 tells us that, “Jesus appeared to more than 500 brothers at one time.”  He has more than two, three witnesses. He has more than 500 witnesses.  And all that is to show us this is truth.

Charles Colson has a very interesting insight. He says, “If one is to assail the historicity of the resurrection and therefore the deity of Christ…” Let me just stop here.  If one is to assail, that is to attack.  If one is to attack the veracity, the truthfulness, the historical [accurate] accuracy of the resurrection, if one attacks that, they also successfully attack the deity of Christ.  If Jesus didn't rise again, He's not God.

So he says, “If one is to attack the historicity of the resurrection and therefore the deity of Christ, then one must conclude that there was a conspiracy, a cover-up.  If you will by 11 men, that is the apostles of Jesus, together with the complicity of up to 500 others. You see, 500 over people say, “Jesus is risen.” And if it is not real, then you've got to believe that the 500 over, over people combined together to have a, a great conspiracy, cover up.

And then he goes on to say, “To subscribe to this argument, one must also be ready to belief that each disciple was willing to be ostracized by family and friends, live in daily fear of death, endure prisons, live penniless and hungry, sacrifice family, be tortured without mercy and ultimately die, all without ever once renouncing that Jesus had risen from the dead.”  It's not 500 lousy witnesses.  It's 500 over witnesses who will not renounce that Jesus rose from the dead, even if they had to sacrifice their own lives. That's how rock solid the Scriptures have given to us with regards to the resurrection.

Josh McDowell, he says, “After more than 700 hours of studying this subject and thoroughly investigating its foundation, I've come to the conclusion that the resurrection of Jesus Christ is one of the most wicked, vicious, heartless hoaxes ever foisted upon the minds of men, or it is simply the most fantastic fact of history, that Christ is risen from the dead.”

He also says, “There is more historical evidence that Jesus rose from the dead than there is that Julius Caesar ever existed.” So I think the Bible is really tight here.  There really is no excuse that man can spin and makeup before God for not believing in Jesus Christ.

So my dear friends, I just want to say what DL Moody has to say, “Excuses are the cradle that Satan rocks men off to sleep in.”  “Lullaby baby have...” It, it's, it's so comfortable in your excuse, you think you don't have to believe.  And you are  lulled, year after year after year, you know somewhere in your heart, you know there's a niggling thought that maybe the Christian faith is real.  I need to believe in Jesus, but year after year, you give yourself an excuse.

“Look at him, he's not a good Christian. I don't want to believe in Christianity.” “The Bible is so hard, I cannot believe.”  “I've never seen God, until He show me, I wouldn't want to come to Him.” And so year by year, you give yourself excuses.  Until one day, you're rocked not to sleep, but to eternal damnation. Don't ever do that!

Well, if the Pharisees and scribes were rebuked for not believing in Jesus, we today, I think receive the greater condemnation if we don't believe.  Don't you think?  Because now, we look back at the reality of the resurrection already. But the good news is this, if a wicked city like Nineveh can repent and believe, so can you and me.

I pray this message will help you soften your heart.  That you would know excuses do not stand before God.  And that you will humbly like a child, admit your need for salvation, for Jesus who came to die on the cross to save you from your sins.  Repent and believe, and you will be saved.

Let's bow for a word of prayer together. I hope this message will be an encouragement to you as you pursue the Lord. This is not meant to shut the doors in your face at all.  Please don't misunderstand me. But I hope you will also not be contented to hide behind excuses. One day, everything will be brought in the clear, in the light.  And I hate to think that you will be in that position, hiding behind this fig leaf called, ‘excuses’.  They don't cover you before God.

The good news of the Bible is that Jesus Christ is God's Son who died and rose again for our sins. Hallelujah, praise God!  He is the Saviour.  The lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world.  Stop hardening your heart but repent of your sin and believe in Jesus Christ and be wonderfully saved.

Maybe you have friends today who have been spinning excuses.  Even as you want to share the Gospel with them, I hope this message will encourage you to dig deep in the Scriptures.  This message will encourage you to anchor all that you have to say on the Gospel of Jesus Christ - Christ died and rose again. We don't have to be too clever.  We don't have to come up with humanistic reasoning.  We just need to preach, like Jesus preached and trust God to work in hearts. In Christ alone, our hope is found.  May you be leading generations into a life changing relationship with Jesus Christ.

Father, thank You for this morning, we can hear Your Word.  Thank You for revealing to us so much in the Bible.  Oh, it is so scary when man can know so much and still reject. So we pray for Your mercy to be upon many hearts today, those who are new, those who are old.  But for those who do not know Jesus as yet, Lord work in them, grant to them, repentance and faith, save them.  May we not hide behind excuses anymore. So thank You and we pray all these now in Jesus’ Name.  Amen.

We are looking for sermon transcribers/transcript reviewers.
Email [email protected] to serve or to report transcription errors.