You can turn in your Bibles to Proverbs chapter 28. Proverbs chapter 28. Since we finished Matthew 22 last week and Chris Santiago will be preaching next week, I thought we'd take a couple weeks from our studies in Matthew and this morning look at Proverbs 28 verse 13. Proverbs 28, 13, He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy.
Let us pray.
Opening Prayer
Our Father, we thank you for this pact statement and we pray that you would help us now to consider it in all of its beauty and glory, help us to understand these things, God, and to that end we pray for the ministry of your Spirit We thank You for the Holy Spirit. We thank You, Lord Jesus, that You've not left us as orphans in this world, but You've given another Comforter. We pray that He would comfort and encourage and strengthen us even now as He teaches us truth. We ask that You would forgive us for all of our sins and everything that darkens our understanding.
Cleanse us afresh in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and help us to receive these things. And we pray through Christ Jesus our Lord. Amen.
Introduction
Well, I want to jump right into this particular text, and I think it breaks down for us into two particulars. In the first place, there is a problem addressed, and secondly, there is a solution offered or given.
The Problem: Covering Sin
Note the problem addressed. He who covers his sins will not prosper. And then the solution given is found at the end of verse 13, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. So let's look first at the problem addressed under four considerations.
Assumptions in the Text
The first is the assumptions in the text. The assumptions in the text. Solomon, the author, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, assumes at least two things here. He assumes in the first place that people sin. the Bible assumes and demonstrates everywhere that people sin.
Notice, he who covers his sins, the assumption being that persons sin. And I think that as we consider Scripture, we see that presented from Genesis to Revelation, and it would certainly fill an hour's sermon to just look at passages that deal with what men have called total depravity and or total inability, the idea that man sins. You might hear that phrase applied to sin in reformed churches. We call it total depravity.
And persons hear that and they say, wait a minute, I'm not as bad as I could possibly be. That's not what total depravity teaches. It does not teach that man is as bad as man could possibly be, but rather it teaches that every part, power, and faculty of man's nature is corrupt. In fact, all of man is affected by the fall in Adam.
Sin is something that is a part of our nature. Sin is something that not only we do, but sin is something that we are. And as I said, the Scripture demonstrates this in several places. We'll just look at a few specimen passages. just to establish this reality that all men sin.
In Genesis chapter 6, if you don't get the time to turn to all of these, you can email me later and I'll send you the notes so you can look at these particular texts in their context in more detail at your own leisure. But in Genesis 6, we know the particular instance. It is prior to the flood. It's after the fall of man into sin.
We see not only Genesis 3, when Adam plunges the race into sin, but right on the heels of that, in Genesis 4, Cain murders Abel. Well, it doesn't take long for that depravity to spread throughout the earth. And in Genesis 6.5 we read, Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. It's a pretty terrible description, and it does help us to understand why the flood.
God made man upright, according to Ecclesiastes 7.29. But they have sought out many devices. And as we read, prior to the flood, the earth was exceedingly corrupt and filled with violence. Why?
Because man sins, and man is a sinner. It's his very nature. And then in Genesis chapter 8, verse 21, again, just a few specimen passages as we look at this first assumption that man sins. Genesis 8, 21.
The Lord smelled the soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. I mean, that's a terrible description of man. That's what we are by nature.
Turn over to the book of Psalms. Psalm 51. David is tracing back his native depravity, and he traces it all the way back to the womb. And in Psalm 51, very specifically in verse 5, he says, Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.
Now don't get David wrong. David's not saying the act of conception was sin. David is saying that at the moment of conception, as soon as David was, David was a sinner. That's something we inherit from Adam.
We have that nature. And because we have that nature, we engage in the actual practice of sin. It is like sport to us, as the Proverbs say. It is like drinking water.
Notice Jesus' assumption in the very passage that we read in Matthew 7. He says in verse 11, if you then, being evil, love to give good gifts to your children. Well, why would Jesus say that? Because he understood the doctrine of total depravity.
He understood the reality that we sin. All men, all women, all boys, all girls, everywhere. Those in Adam sin. Even those in Christ have remaining sin.
It's something that we continue to do. And in case you are a little perplexed at what David says here, tracing his depravity back to the womb, look at what he says in Psalm 58 verse 3. The wicked are estranged from the womb, they go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies. You see, the Bible doesn't have this idea that all persons are delicate little snowflakes and individually perfect and beautiful and wondrous.
No, they go estranged from the womb, speaking lies as soon as they are born. I was just listening to Dr. Davis last night, a sermon that he preached, and he cited that statement from Luther that I myself have cited in this pulpit, where Luther heard that persons were being called Lutherans, and Luther said something to the effect, why would anybody want to identify with me, a miserable, stinking bag of maggots? I mean, that's a very vivid description, isn't it, by Dr.
Martin Luther? Well, in many respects, it doesn't go far enough. Maggots don't sin. Maggots are disgusting, and maggots are something you want to keep far from your home, and maggots are certainly things that you don't want in your kitchen, but they're not sinful.
Maggots do what maggots were created to do. In other words, a stinking bag of maggots has something more commendatory about it than sinners. Because we have violated the law of God, we have raised our fist to Him, we have resisted His ways, we have resisted His will, we have resisted His mind. The doctrine of total depravity.
Ephesians 2 verses 1 to 3, the Apostle Paul sets up a contrast. What we were prior to Christ and what by God's grace we have become. And in Ephesians 2.1 He says, And you who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. In other words, we were lifeless, helpless and hopeless because of sin.
So going back to our statement, or going back to our proverb in chapter 28, 13, Solomon assumes that men sin. And that's a right assumption, as we've seen from Genesis all the way to the book of Revelation. We see that man sins. But Solomon makes another assumption.
Solomon assumes that people will try to cover their sin. They will try to cover their sin. The covering in view is to conceal it. In fact, many of your translations has that.
He who conceals his sins or he who conceals his transgressions will not prosper. Cover is another legitimate translation. Some translations out there have hide. He who hides his transgression.
Now it's legitimate according to Proverbs 10, 12 for us to hide the sin of our brethren. It is legitimate, according to Proverbs 10, 12, to overlook their sin, or to conceal their sin, or to hide their sin, or to let love cover a multitude of sins done against us. But it is wrong for us to try and cover our sin. Notice, when it comes to this whole idea of covering sin, people do this during the act of sin, don't they?
Have you ever noticed that when you sin, you don't typically call people and tell them to watch you? Have you noticed that? Hey, come on over, I'm going to yell at my wife. Be there at 8.30 because I'm going to scream at my children.
Be in my workshop, oh, say 11.20, because if I whack my thumb, I'm going to let fly all manner of horrible words. We typically hide the act of sin. We don't say, come and see me sin. In fact, there's an illustration of this in Proverbs chapter 7.
Proverbs chapter 7, there is a woman, an adulteress, that is trying to entice a young man. And it's intriguing when this takes place. Proverbs 7, 6, For at the window of my house I looked through my lattice, and I saw among the simple, I perceived among the youths, a young man devoid of understanding, passing along the street near her corner, and he took the path to her house. I mean, that is absolutely insane.
Young men, if you ever read Proverbs 7, take a hint. Do not pass along the street near her corner, and certainly do not take the path to her house. But note when the young man is doing this, according to verse 9, in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and dark of night. Why?
Because he doesn't want to be seen. He is trying to cover, conceal, or hide his transgression in the act of it. This is typical. This is the way that we operate.
This is the way that we function. A man or a woman who's addicted to Internet porn doesn't do it right in front of their family members. They wait till people go to bed, or they wait till they're gone. They wait till they're alone.
They wait till they have a situation described in the twilight, in the evening, in the black and the dark night. They don't call parties over of persons to celebrate their iniquity or their sin. He who covers, hides, conceals his sin will not prosper. Certainly it is done in the act, but it's also done in the aftermath.
And I believe that's what Solomon is addressing in this particular text. The aftermath of sin. In other words, sin is accomplished. Sin is done.
What do we do with it? We try to hide it. We try to conceal it. We try to Get rid of it.
Now,
Biblical Examples of Sin-Covering
consider secondly a few biblical examples of this very practice. You look at the garden, in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. What did they do after they ate that forbidden fruit? Their eyes were open.
They knew good and evil. They perceived now that they were naked. So what do they do? They try to hide.
They try to conceal. They try to cover their sin. They sew these fig leaf coverings together to hide themselves. And then, one step further, they go and hide themselves among the trees.
Look at the folly involved in that. The God who made the trees, the God who made them, the God who knows absolutely, sovereignly and comprehensively all things, they're trying to hide from Him. Why? Because they were sinful.
They cover it, they conceal it, they try to deal with it in a way that is ungodly. Consider the occasion of Achan. Remember, there was sin in the camp of Israel. God the Lord commanded the Israelites to go and destroy AI.
What happens? They go and they lose. I mean, this should have been a no-brainer. This should have been the occasion of a 240-pound, rip-chiseled man fighting a 90-pound weakling.
It should have been absolute devastation and decimation. And yet Israel goes, and they lose in battle. And Joshua is agonizing before the Lord, and God says, get up. In the morning, we're going to deal with this.
And he says specifically, there is sin in the camp. And then Joshua is able to isolate it down to Achan. And what does Achan say? I saw it, and I coveted it, and I took it, and I hid it in my tent.
Now, his family would have been party to that, and that's why they join him in the punishment that is inflicted. He's trying to hide the fact that he was a sinful man. Consider King David of Israel. When kings go out to battle and David should have been with them, he goes up on his roof and he sees Bathsheba, and he calls for her to come to him.
And he lay with her, and he impregnates her. And instead of confessing, and instead of forsaking, what does he do? He tries to hide it. He tries to conceal it.
He tries to cover it. The way that he does that is by compounding the sin. You see, what this passage teaches us is what Bridget says. Both God and man cover sin.
God in free, unbounded grace and mercy, but man in shame and in hypocrisy. And that is precisely what David does in 2 Samuel 11. Instead of being out with it, instead of confessing and forsaking it at the time, he calls for Uriah to come back from battle with the intent and the hope and the desire that Uriah will lay with his wife. such that when she's found out to be pregnant, they can look at the gestation chart and say, well, it happened when Uriah was back on military leave. You see, David didn't bargain for the fact that Uriah was a man of integrity.
Uriah reckoned the way the king should have reckoned. And Uriah said, how can I go into my wife, how can I drink alcohol when my fellow soldiers are out in the battlefield? Well, this just won't do. So David has to continue to up the ante, to try to hide his sin, to cover it, to conceal it.
So he writes a letter for Joab, puts it in the hand of Uriah, and tells him to take it to Joab. Do you ever wonder if Uriah looked at that letter? I believe I would have. I don't know.
If somebody gave me, well, I shouldn't say that. If you give me something in confidence, I like to think I wouldn't. Imagine that the press, though, or the rub, or the pressure to read this note, and it's his own death warrant. He gives the letter over to Joab, and Joab reads it, and it says, put your eye on the front part of battle so he dies.
What's David doing? He's covered. What about Saul prior to David, 1 Samuel 15? God gave Saul a very specific command concerning the Amalekites.
He says, I want you to utterly destroy the Amalekites. I want you to kill everything that lives and breathes and has its being in Amalek. I want you to kill Agag, the king of the Amalekites. I want you to destroy their lives.
I want you to kill everything. So what happens? Saul returns from battle. Samuel asks him, how'd it go?
And he says, it went perfectly, splendidly, beautifully. And Samuel says, well, why am I hearing these lowing of the oxen? Why am I hearing the bleeding of the sheep? Those sheep and those oxen were testifying that Saul was a rebellious wretch who didn't go and utterly destroy everything.
So what does Saul do? He blames the people of Israel. He covers, he hides, he conceals his sin. Consider one New Testament example in the case of Ananias and Sapphira.
God's not a communist. God doesn't tell you to give everything you own to the church. But if you say you're giving everything you own to the church and then you keep back some, you have engaged in hypocrisy. You have engaged in deception.
You have lied. And so the Lord God strikes dead Ananias and Sapphira. Their crime? They've lied to the Holy Spirit.
They tried to cover. They tried to hide. They tried to conceal their sins. So we see the assumptions in the text.
We see some biblical examples fleshing out the covering of the aftermath of sin.
Means Sinners Use to Cover Sin
What are some means by which sinners do this? How do men cover sin? Again, I hope all of us at the end of this sermon are going to say, I want my sins covered in the blood of Jesus, because that's the only means whereby sin is covered. I want my sins hidden under that fount which is open for sin and uncleanness.
I want to be washed and purified. I want to be justified and sanctified. I want to be heaven-bound because of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a legitimate means of cover, of concealment, of hiding, of getting rid of sin.
How do sinners attempt to do this without recourse to our Lord Jesus Christ? There are several ways, and this is just suggestive of a few things that we ought to tease out.
Denial of Sin
In the first place, they deny it. They just flat-out deny sin, don't they? If you don't know this, you're not talking to the right people, or you're not reflecting upon your own heart outside of Jesus. Consider Proverbs 30 and verse 20.
This is the way of an adulterous woman. She eats and wipes her mouth and says, I have done no wickedness. Are you kidding me? You're an adulterous woman.
Are you kidding me? You have compromised the covenant that God has placed you in. How in the world could you wipe your mouth and act like this is just an ordinary course of events? Charles Bridges says he would cover it, if possible, from himself, putting it out of mind, denial, getting rid of it, banishing all serious thoughts, stifling conviction, and then trying to persuade himself that he is happy.
That's why I encourage you, if you're not a believer here this morning, continue to come to church. Continue to be exposed to scripture. Continue to feel the guilt and the sting of conscience because of your sin and rebellion against God. You heard that before?
I don't want to be around those Christians. All they ever do is, you know, peddle guilt. You know, a bit of healthy guilt in the soul of a man makes a man a seeker after the grace of God. Please don't absent yourself from scriptures which tell you things you need to hear. which rightly describes the condition of your heart, the denial of sins committed.
Minimizing Sin's Gravity
A second means by which men cover sin is to minimize the gravity of it. to minimize the gravity of it. Again, maybe this doesn't describe you, but I think somewhere in this you can be found. You either deny it or you minimize the gravity of sin. The one who covers in this manner engages in redefinition.
Adultery is playing around. Telling lies are only little white lies. Right? It's redefinition.
It's holiness through redefinition. I'm not so bad, as you may suggest, because after all, I'm married to a wretch of a woman or a wretch of a husband. You know, persons in my shoes would have committed adultery a long time ago. Or they engage in rationalization.
Well, the government steals from me constantly, so they deserve it when I cheat on my taxes. Has God prescribed such thought processes to us? Has God given us such license to rationalize sin? Has God said, well, I know you've had a pretty tumultuous time over this last period of time, so you go ahead and indulge your lusts for a period or for...
No. Not to minimize the gravity of sin. Every sin is an offense against a holy God. The Westminster Shorter Catechism asks the question, what does every sin deserve?
The answer is very precise. Every sin deserves God's wrath and curse, both in this life and that which is to come. I mean, imagine hearing that published abroad. How many things do we just assume?
Jerry Bridges, prior to his death, wrote a book called Respectable Sins. This happens in the church, as long as we're not smoking crack, as long as we're not out engaged in prostitution, as long as we're not out robbing banks. You know, we don't care one whit about slander, or about gossip, or about hypocrisy, or about a self-righteousness, or those sorts of respectable sins that we have taken into our bosom and made our own. We are not to minimize the gravity of sin.
Shifting the Blame
In the third place, there is this attempt to shift the blame. Now, all of you who are parents have probably undergone this in your own homes. It wasn't me. It's never anybody, right?
It wasn't me. It wasn't me. You see this pattern of shift blaming in the very beginning. What does Adam do when God comes to him?
In fact, when God says, where are you, Adam? Do you think God's looking for information? God's not looking for information. The question is for Adam.
It's like when we know what our kids have done and we say to them, what have you done? Is that really because we're trying to ascertain the situation and we want them to feel miserable? No, we're good parents. We don't ever do that.
Yeah, maybe a little bit. What have you done? This is what God does with reference to Adam. And who does Adam blame?
Now, the basic response is his wife. He does, but he first blames God. Imagine that! The first man has the audacity to blame God.
But you know, we're just like the first man. If we can blame God to get out of culpability, to cover, to conceal or to hide, then we will do it, right? Adam has the gall to say to God, the woman whom you gave me, what's the implication? God, everything was fine.
While I was naming dogs and sheep and cows, everything was great. It's not until she came on the scene. And you're bidding, God, that these terrible things have happened. And then he blames her.
The man was made to protect his wife and now he's pulled her up and he's trying to make her a shield to deflect the vengeance of God. Truly reprehensible to shift the blame in that manner. It's a means to cover, to hide, to conceal sin. Saul does this, as I've already said, in 1 Samuel 50.
The people did this! Doesn't Aaron do this in Exodus 32? Moses comes down from the mountain. What are the people doing?
They're celebrating, they're dancing, they're engaged in revelry before this golden calf. And what does Aaron do when he's pressed? Aaron said, well, you know the people. They're just kind of like this.
It's just got a hankering in their hearts to go after calves. He blames the people, and then he blames chance. I don't know how else to describe it. He says, they gave me all their gold, all their earrings, I threw it into the furnace, and out came this golden calf.
It's bizarre, isn't it? But we do that. Children do that. I don't mean to pick on children.
I don't know what happened. I was just playing with what you told me not to play with and it broke. I don't know. It's because you played with something you were told not to play with and you dropped it.
That's why it broke. It wasn't chance. It wasn't fortuitous. It wasn't some haphazard event.
If you hadn't have touched it, it wouldn't have broke. But we want to blame everybody and everything. It's never our problem. Our culture has created this and has fostered it.
Or not created, it was created by Adam. But it's been fostered and nurtured and taken to new levels in our society. Nobody is responsible for their wickedness. Nobody is accountable to God.
Well, it's the way the Lord made me to want to be a sodomite. It's the way God made me to make me a man trapped in a woman's body. It's the way God or society has made me, or the way my dad or my mother. Now, there's certainly influences upon persons that I do not dismiss.
Brethren, it is an attempt to cover, to conceal, to hide sin. Just own it, confess it forsaken, find mercy.
Covering Sin with Good Deeds
Another means by which persons will hide sin is to attempt to cover them by good deeds. You say, well that seems paradoxical. Yes, but I think it is true. Go back to 714 in the book of Proverbs.
It's intriguing to me. This woman is enticing this young man. This woman is married. She is an adulteress.
Notice in 7.10. And there a woman met him with the attire of a harlot and a crafty heart. She was loud and rebellious. Her feet would not stay at home.
At times she was outside, at times in the open square, lurking at every corner. So she caught him and kissed him with an impudent face. She said to him, notice verse 14, I have peace offerings with me. Today I have paid my vows.
Now, some commentators take this this way. When the worshipper offered the peace offering, a bulk of it or the fat of it was given to the priest so that they could eat. All of it was returned to the worshipper so that they could eat it at home. She could be trying to entice him.
I have these peace offerings. I've got meat. What better way to entice a young man? Their own sexuality and meat.
I mean, this man is just going to go off to his destruction like a bird in a trap, is what Solomon tells us. But just think about this a little bit further. She was at worship the morning. She went to the temple.
She took her animals. She received back her portion from the peace offerings. She had the guise of religion. If you saw her on that morning, you wouldn't conclude she's an adulteress.
If you saw her on that morning, you wouldn't conclude that, wow, she's going to go have illicit relations with a young man that she's corrupting. Sometimes sinners busy themselves doing good things to try and hide, to try and cover, and to try and conceal sin. I think Israel's guilty of this in Micah 6. You can turn there.
Micah chapter 6, again just teasing out some of the ways that men, women, boys and girls will try and attempt to hide sin. Micah 6, 6. after they are reproved by the prophet and condemned for their sin against God. Notice in verse 6, with what shall I come before Yahweh and bow myself before the high God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old?
Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams, ten thousand rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? In other words, what they're saying is, if God's so angry with us, should we just multiply our sacrifices? If God's so upset with us, can we just add to what we offer?
If God's so upset, can we give a child out of our own family to try and appease Him? I mean, in this they sound like Moloch worshipping wretches. Do you see the idea? If I do enough good things, I can hide, I can conceal, I can cover my sin.
Consider those two men who went to pray in Luke's Gospel, in Luke 18. The one man stands and prays thus with himself, I thank you, Lord, that I'm not like other men. I thank you that I'm such an awesome human being. I thank you that I'm such a respectable person.
I thank you that I tithe. I thank you that I fast. I thank you that I'm not like other men. It's to hide, it's to conceal, it's to cover.
I wonder how many persons that profess saving faith are in their sins and yet busy themselves with these sorts of deeds so to hide, to conceal and to cover their own sin. And then the final way that sinners do this is to completely abandon all thought whatsoever of sin. Forget it. I'm not even going to try anymore.
Hebrews 6, Hebrews 10 describes apostasy. Again, a reason why you ought to be under the means. Do not let it get to the point where you throw off these things. So back in Proverbs 28, we've seen the assumptions in our text, the biblical examples in or that illustrate the text, the means employed by sinners to cover, and
The Cursed Result
the final thing we ought to observe with reference to the problem is the cursed result. He who covers his sins will not prosper. You may be here this morning covering, hiding, or concealing sin. Listen to Solomon.
You're not going to prosper. It's just not going to happen. You know, there are those out in this world that are idolaters. They worship their money, or they worship their success, or they worship themselves, or they worship women, or they worship men, or they worship who knows what, and they have this outward appearance of happiness.
The Bible tells us otherwise. In Proverbs, specifically in Proverbs 13, verse 15, it tells us the way of the unfaithful is hard. Young people, listen to Proverbs 13. The way of the unfaithful is hard.
Do you know why your parents preach the gospel to you? Do you know why they schlep you to church every Lord's Day? Hopefully morning and evening so you're under the means. It's because they understand the ramifications of Proverbs 13, 15.
The way of the unfaithful is hard. It's not good, it's not happy, it's not soft. You see, whoever covers his transgressions will not prosper. His way will be hard.
It will be embedded with thorns and thistles and difficulties. What does Jesus teach us in John's Gospel in chapter 8? He tells us whoever commits sin is what? He's a slave of sin.
And if I saw some slave getting beaten by the whip and he had a big smile on his face, I wouldn't necessarily conclude that he's a happy man. Yet, that's the way that we operate. And then the vivid illustration of this principle in this age. We're talking about this age right now.
We're not talking about the age to come in just a moment. Do you know I prosper in this age? Have you ever seen somebody use drugs? You don't have to nod, you don't have to say yes, or, you know, maybe you didn't, maybe you haven't seen that, maybe you haven't been exposed to persons who begin to bow at an idol.
And at first they have control over the idol, and at first everything is good for them, at least as far as they think. They bow to whatever it is, whatever drug, or it could be alcohol, could be sex, could be money, could be whatever. They start out small. They don't give themselves totally and fully in their allegiance to this thing right off the bat.
But if you see them a while later, what do they look like? You see the effects of the idol all over them. In the case of drugs, it does leave a physical effect. Teeth have holes in them, they've got bags, they've got all sorts of health problems and issues.
This is not good. They're not prospering. They're not thriving. They're not flourishing.
They're not in a good place. But the text also indicates, he who covers his transgressions will not prosper in the age to come. See, there is a world beyond this world. There is a heaven to be won by the grace of God or a hell to be punished in for our rebellion against Him.
Matthew 10, verse 28, our Lord Jesus says, And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul, but rather fear Him who has the ability, the power and the authority to kill both body and soul in hell. What about Revelation 21, verse 8? It describes those who are in the lake of fire. These are persons who sought to cover their sins, whether it be idolatry, whether it be sexual immorality, whether it be lying, whether it be whatever manner of sin and depravity they've engaged in.
You see, the point is, with reference to the problem addressed in this text, if you are not a believer, if you are not in Jesus Christ, your problem is a lot more severe than you've ever bargained for. Your problem is massive. Your problem is huge. Children and young people, if you're not believers, that's why your parents pray for you.
That's why your parents hold your hands and push you. Not push you physically, but want to press you to the Lord Jesus. That's why you get the nudges in church, so you'll pay attention, because your problem is massive. It's huge.
It's got major ramifications.
The Solution: Confess and Forsake
Notice, Solomon doesn't leave us just with the problem. But He provides the solution. Notice, first, the exercise of faith. He who covers his sins will not prosper, but...
Isn't that beautiful? There's a but there. Buts in the Bible are good. If I'd have kept reading Ephesians 2, for, but, God.
Ephesians 2, 1-3 describes us as lifeless, helpless, hopeless, but God, who is rich in mercy. You see, we could just end here and be of all persons the most depressed and the most discouraged. Butler told us about our problem, and it sounds miserable. My way in this life is going to be hard.
My way in the life to come is going to be judgment, hellfire, burning, everlasting destruction. It's a terrible view, isn't it? There's a blot in the text. Blot, he says.
Whoever confesses. I think this has reference to faith in Jesus Christ. This is not confession to a Roman Catholic priest. This is not just some therapeutic exercise.
Go sit somewhere and chant off your sin. No. It is to lay hold of the mercy offered in Christ. It is to lay the hand on the scapegoat.
It is to confess the sin. It is to realize that there is a God in heaven who will most certainly punish transgression, but who has sent one to save sinners from their sins. Whoever confesses. You see, this is the means.
This is the hope. This is the solution. Don't hang on to it. Don't continue to cover, conceal, and hide.
But confess it to God. Lay hold of Christ. Believe on Him. Vomit it out.
You know, sometimes after getting sick, the best thing to do is to vomit, isn't it? Just to get it out. You feel better after. That may sound sick and disgusting, and you don't want to hear about vomit before lunch, but you know what?
Deal with it for just a moment. You come to the throne of grace, and what is one of the best things about that throne? We get to vomit out our sins and see them covered in the blood. It's beautiful.
This is siding with God. This is casting oneself upon the mercy of God. Listen to Bridges commenting on whoever confesses. He says, God needs not confession for His own information, but He demands it for our good.
It brings no claim on His mercy, but it is a means for the reception of it. Christ has fully satisfied the claims of divine justice. And this confession of sin acknowledges Christ. Gil, likewise, and though it is known unto him this sin unto God, yet he requires an acknowledgment of it, which should be done from the heart with an abhorrence of the sin, and in the faith of Christ as a sacrifice for it.
It's beautiful, isn't it? He who covers his sins will not prosper, but... That's a but you can hang your soul on. But you can bank your soul on, your life on, whoever confesses.
Lay your hand on Jesus. Believe in Him. Look to the One in whom alone there is forgiveness to be had. Isn't this precisely what happened with David?
You see, I sketched previously David's sin, not only the adultery with Bathsheba, but the murder of Uriah, to cover it. In chapter 12, Nathan the prophet is dispatched by God Most High. And Nathan tells David this story about a man who had a little ewe lamb. And another rich man comes and takes that ewe lamb away from him.
And David is incensed. David is upset. David is angry. And Nathan says, Thou art the man.
Talk about a crushing sermon. Talk about being laid low. David's upset about this story, and it turns out the story illustrates his practice. God says, I gave you everything, David.
I gave you houses, I gave you this, I gave you that. And God says, if it wasn't enough, I would have given you more. What does David do? At this point, he doesn't cover, he doesn't conceal, he doesn't hide.
He confesses, and his confession is brief, but beautiful. He says, I have sinned against the Lord. Now, be honest. Do you think David got off light?
Sometimes we can be tempted that way, can't we? All you have to do is say, I've sinned against the Lord, and he receives forgiveness. Yes, because he laid his hand upon the sacrifice. Yes, because he trusted in the one alone who is able to forgive.
That's what he writes about in Psalm 32, verses 1 and 2. Remember we read that all about 40 minutes ago, way back when? How blessed is the man, how blessed is the man to whom the Lord does not impute transgression, the one to whom the Lord forgives. He says in verses 4 and 5, when I kept silent, my bones hurt.
You see, again, if you were looking at David in that interim period between the time that he actually committed adultery, the time that he actually committed murder, and the time that he was reproved by the prophet, there was probably a series of months there. If you looked at David, you would have thought, wow, successful king, military leader. Savvy that is admired by all the pagan kings around him. But he's miserable inside.
The way of the unfaithful is hard. His bones hurt. He was in turmoil. He was in agony.
But back to his confession. It's simple. It's sublime. All he says is, I have sinned against the Lord.
There's a German Bible called the Berlberg. I'm probably butchering. Anytime I say German words, I feel the the press that I'm getting it wrong, but this was written in 1726 to 1729. It wasn't written, obviously.
The Bible was there, but they put this Bible together, a German study Bible, essentially. And it deals with the simplicity of David's confession. Watch it before you say, well, you know, that's it. David did horrendous things.
Doesn't he have to go out and feel bad for a while before God forgives him? Doesn't he have to go out and be nice to cats for a while before God forgives him? Do you have to go out and do some community service first before God forgives him? I mean, he did horrible things.
And all he says is, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan assures him that the Lord will cover his sin. Listen to the Berlberg. It says, the words are very few, just as in the case of the publican in the Gospel of Luke.
Remember? God, be merciful to me, the sinner. He says, or they say, but that is a good sign of a thoroughly broken spirit. There is no excuse, no cloaking, no palliation of the sin.
There is no searching for a loophole, no pretext put forward, no human weakness pleaded. He acknowledges his guilt openly, candidly, and without prevarication. In other words, he's not trying to be evasive. In that one brief statement, I have sinned against Yahweh, he is acknowledging God's just judgment of him, and he is acknowledging God's just provision of the mediator, Jesus Christ.
This is confession. It's not just going through the therapy of getting rid of the vomit. It's to lay hold of Christ. It is to believe the Gospel.
It is to understand what 2 Corinthians 5.21 means. It is to understand 1 John 1.9, that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Brethren, have we forgotten how wonderful forgiveness is? Have we forgotten how wonderful texts like these are?
I think Davis is right. Our public worship, we go through the motions, we acknowledge these things, we sing them to be sure, but do our souls, have they lost their goosebumps? Brethren, this experience of God's mercy and God's grace ought to promote in us a joy when we sing something like, My sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin, not in part but the whole, is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more.
Praise the Lord, O my soul! That's what David felt. That's why David rehearsed this in the Psalms. That's why we have Psalm 32, when he talks about us shouting for joy and rejoicing.
Why? Because God has imputed the righteousness of Christ. God has forgiven your sins. It's beautiful, blessed, and wonderful.
Forsaking as Fruit of Faith
Notice, what follows the exercise of faith? But whoever confesses and forsakes, you know from your Theology, you know from your confession to faith, you know from the Bible that faith and repentance are two sides to the same coin. Faith and repentance always go together. It is a penitential faith.
It is a believing repentance. And when the man, the woman, the boy or the girl confesses that sin, laying hold of the mercy offered in Jesus Christ, there is a forsaking of it. They don't continue in it. Jesus will save his people from their sins, Matthew 1.21.
We are to pursue holiness without which no one will see the Lord. Hebrews chapter 12. Those are just things we must know. You believe the gospel, you repent of your sin.
You marry the bride, Christ, you leave off the harlot, sin. It is that simple. It is that evident. It is that obvious.
Listen to Bridges. He says, Penitent faith confesses in the act of laying the hand upon the great sacrifice, and hence draws strength of purpose to forsake all that has been here confessed. For while the hypocrite confesses without forsaking, the hearty forsaking is here the best proof of the sincere confessing. In other words, the repentance, the forsaking of the sin manifests the reality that it's been confessed, that we've laid hold on the mercy offered in Christ, and that by God's grace, we have been brought out of darkness into marvelous light.
So you see, he says, whoever covers his transgressions will not prosper. We saw the various things involved in the problem and the very cursed result. He will not prosper in this age or in the age to come. We see the same sort of thing here, but whoever confesses and forsakes, there's a blessed result, isn't there?
Cursed result in the first half, he will not prosper. Blessed result in the latter half. But he will find mercy. He will have mercy, both in this age and in the age to come.
You confess, you lay hold of Christ, you believe by God's grace, you repent by God's grace. Make no mistake about it, you are absolutely dependent upon the grace of God. Faith and repentance are gifts given by God. They are gifts given by God.
That ought to humble you, it ought to lay you low, it ought to put you at the mercy of God, which is the very best place to be. It is the most excellent place to be, at the mercy of one who is most merciful. But notice, as I've already mentioned, when we have that mercy, we'll have the ability to identify with blessed passages of Scripture. If our hearts aren't jumping out from texts like these, we need to reassess our lives. our position in the world.
If you can read Psalm 130, verses 3 and 4, and not be delighted or have those goose bumps on your soul, what does the psalmist say there? If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand? It's a terrifying thought, isn't it? If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand?
That is a terrifying thought. Imagine that right now, if you're not a believer. Consider the fact that God, if He marked your iniquities, it doesn't say that He doesn't know them, He knows every sin. But if He called you to account right now, if you, Lord, should mark iniquities, If you, Lord, should rip the breath out of a living human being and summon them to stand right before you and give an account for deeds done in the body, whether good or evil, that would be terrifying, wouldn't it?
Yes? Possibly? Maybe? I'm a believer and it would be terrifying.
If you, Lord, should mark iniquities, oh Lord, who could stand? What's David saying? There's nobody righteous. No, not one.
There's nobody perfect, nobody excellent, nobody that's engaged in that law keeping. If you should do this, Lord, who could stand? He goes on. He says, but there is forgiveness with you that you may be feared.
Brethren, do you read that and rejoice? Do you read the end of the prophet Micah when you see that God goes deep sea fishing with our sins? Do you rejoice? Do you realize that by the grace of God I have confessed, I have forsaken, and I have found mercy?
When we sang this morning, no condemnation, now I dread. Jesus, with all in Him, is mine. Alive in Him, my living head, enclothed in righteousness divine. Bold I approach the eternal throne and claim the crown through Christ my own.
You see, I submit that mercy received in this age will produce worshippers of God in this age. that when we reckon with the reality of amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me, when we wander into the public worship of God, and we find our hymn books or we find our Psalters, and we're called to stand and praise God, we will do so as those who have been covered, those who have been forgiven, those who have been washed and purified. We have found mercy from a merciful God in this age. What happens in the age to come? What happens in the age to come is the exact opposite of those who do not prosper.
They will suffer at the hands of a thrice holy God. We will be blessed infinitely. We will be blessed immeasurably. We will be in Emmanuel's land and we will see the one who died for us.
We will see the one who rose for us. We will see the one who ever lives for us. It's truly, truly an amazing text in terms of what it holds out.
Application
Well, in conclusion, just a quick exploration of the problem. The law of God is a great means to help you assess your situation. You know, there's this idea today where persons think, you know, I'm not that bad. No, you're a lot worse than you can ever imagine.
Again, we just sketched a few specimen passages in the scriptures. We referred to Luther as a miserable, stinking bag of maggots and said, you know, that would be an improvement on our nature. The Scriptures are clear. Remember a couple of weeks ago we considered that statement or that question posed by the Pharisaic lawyer to Jesus, which is the great commandment in the law.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and the second is like it. You shall love your neighbor as yourself. The Heidelberg Catechism rightly asks, how do you know your sin and misery? The law of God.
And what does the law of God say? And it cites Matthew 22. Do you keep the law of God? No, by nature I hate God and I hate my neighbor.
That's what that law will demonstrate to you. That's what that rule of life, that standard of absolute truth will tell you. You've got problems. You've got issues.
You may think everything's great. You may be physically attractive. You may be prospering at work. You may have people who like you and people who say nice things to you, and it's easy to get into this mindset that everything's great, but you're going to stand before this God one day.
And right now, consider the demands of the law of God that you love Him with your heart, soul and mind, that you love your neighbor as yourself. How many times do you violate that? How many times do you break that in a given day? And then consider the reality that instead of dealing with it like a big boy or like a big girl, confessing it and forsaking it the way God says, you cover it, you conceal it, you hide it, you deny the fact, you'd be caught in the act.
You just see the picture of the kid. You've told them, don't eat that chocolate bar. They come wandering out and they got a ring of chocolate right around their mouth. You say, did you eat that chocolate bar?
No! What do you do as a parent? Oh, okay. I don't want to violate your delicate psyche.
No, you say, I don't think so. You got a chocolate ring right around your mouth. You press them. They confess.
Finally. Wouldn't it be nice if they said, yeah, I eat the chocolate. Please have mercy on me. I confess it.
I'll forsake it. I won't do it again." Wouldn't that be great? They're obstinate. I'm not picking on kids.
I was there. I do the same thing as an adult. No, I didn't do that. I'm going to rain chocolate around my mouth.
Did you take the biggest one, Jim? No, I didn't. You know, we see it with a child, and we sort of expect it, because they're a child, they're children, but with adults, Quit hiding sin. Quit playing games.
Quit trying to be something you're not. Don't conceal, don't hide, don't cover, but confess it, forsake it, and you will find mercy. That's the blessed promise of our text. If you confess by the grace of God, if you forsake by the grace of God, what will you find by the grace of God?
A storehouse of mercy for this age and the age to come. But before we leave this particular text, this text speaks to believers as well. This text deals with our relationships one to another. We've seen a lot of that in the Sermon on the Mount.
How do we relate to one another? Well, Proverbs 28.13 feeds that as well. Man, if your wife comes and says, you sin, don't hide, don't conceal, don't, you know, I didn't do it, it wasn't me. Did you check the kids?
I'm sure they did it. Don't do that. Gil makes this wise observation when believers are approved by fellow Christians. He should not cover it, that is, he should own it.
For not to own and acknowledge it is to cover it. He should not deny it, which is to cover it with a lie, and is adding sin to sin. Nor should he justify it as if he had done a right thing, not extenuate or excuse it, or impute it to others that drew him into it. If your brother, if your sister, if your husband, if your wife, if your parent, if your child comes to you and reproves you for a real sin, Don't cover it, don't conceal it, don't hide it.
Confess it, forsake it, and guess what? You'll find mercy. This is the way we're supposed to deal with one another in the church. I know it's zany, but that's the way we're supposed to deal with one another, faithfully, righteously, and biblically.
And I mentioned bridges earlier, and I want us to close with this thought. He says, with reference to Proverbs 28, 13, God and man each cover sin, God in free unbounded grace, man in shame and hypocrisy. confess it, forsake it, and you will find mercy. May those words be with you throughout this day and in days to come, and may God's Holy Spirit screw them into your conscience and give you the grace to believe and to forsake, so that you might have that mercy. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Father, we do thank you for the Word of God, and we thank you for your mercy to us, and we pray that you'd help us to to deal faithfully one with another, help us to deal righteously one with another. And God, I pray for any and all who are not believers this morning, those who are not Christians. We don't want to pick on them, God. We want You to save them.
We want You to open their eyes and hearts to receive the truth of Proverbs 28, 13. They would stop and cease from hiding and covering and concealing sin. They would take it to God Most High. They would confess.
They would forsake. And they would find that mercy. And may they do so by your grace and for your glory. And we ask these things through Christ Jesus our Lord.
Amen.