Job 40:8

Wilt thou also disannul My judgment?

Wilt thou condemn Me, that thou mayest be righteous?

The excuses of sinners condemn God

I. Every excuse for sin condemns God.

1. Nothing can be sin for which there is a justifiable excuse.

2. If God condemns that for which there is a good excuse, He must be wrong.

3. But God does condemn all sin.

4. Consequently, every excuse for sin charges blame upon God, and virtually accuses Him of tyranny. Whoever pleads an excuse for sin, therefore, charges God with blame.

II. Consider some of these excuses.

1. Inability. It is affirmed that men cannot do what God requires of them. This charge is blasphemous against God. Shall God require natural impossibilities, and denounce eternal death upon men for not doing what they have no natural power to do? Never.

2. Want of time. If God really requires of you what you have not time to do, He is infinitely to blame.

3. A sinful nature.

4. Sinners, in self-excuse, say they are willing to be Christians. But this is insincere, if they persist in remaining in their sins.

5. Sinners say they are waiting God’s time.

6. They plead that their circumstances are very peculiar.

7. Or that their temperament is peculiar.

8. Or that their health is so poor they cannot get to meeting, and so cannot be religions.

9. Another excuse takes this form--My heart is so hard, that I cannot feel. Learn--

(1) No sinner lives a single hour in sin without some excuse, by which he justifies himself.

(2) Excuses render repentance impossible.

(3) Sinners should lay all their excuses at once before God.

(4) Sinners ought to be ashamed of their excuses, and repent of them. (C. G. Finney.)