Let's pray together once more. Heavenly Father,
we are thankful for your help and guidance in
the meeting thus far. We're thankful for your
continuing work of the Holy Spirit that calls
men and women, boys and girls unto yourself.
We pray that indeed that work might continue,
that we might see more and more come to repentance
and faith. We're thankful for this time now that
we have to open your word and hear from you.
We pray that indeed you would own your word,
that you would fulfill your promise, that it
would accomplish all of your perfect purposes
in the hearts of your people. I pray for myself
that you'd enable me to bring forth all the truths
that you have given to me this week and that
it would be brought forth in a way that is honoring
and glorifying unto you and helpful to all who
hear. So we do pray that you would own this time
for your glory, the advancement of your kingdom,
and we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Turn with
me once again then, if you will, to Proverbs.
We've been looking at various Proverbs in the
last several weeks. So we're going to look at
this Proverb found in chapter 28. Verse 13. This
isn't even off. Alright, in verse 13 we read,
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper,
but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall
have mercy. So indeed it is a wonderful promise
there that those who do not attempt to cover
their sins because they won't prosper. So what
does it mean to cover your sins? It means that
you try in your own power and in your own strength
to somehow get forgiveness. We know some people
think that good works will overshadow all of
their bad works. That's an attempt to cover their
sin. So some people think that they do so many
good works or so many... works of penitence.
Their sins will by doing that be covered. So
that's what it is we're not to do. We're not
to cover our sins by our own devices or by our
own thinking or reasoning or by what we do or
by what we don't do. We cannot cover our own
sins. That's what the Bible's making plain to
us. Well, what what do we have to do? Well, we
have to confess and forsake them So we have to
own our sin We have to realize who we are. We're
our sinners We're not God. We're not the creator.
We're the creatures and we have a sin problem
And I shouldn't have to stand here and say anything
more than that All you have to do is read the
news. All you have to do is Go out into the outside
world And all you have to really do is take an
honest look at yourself and you'll know for a
certainty that mankind, whoever they are, has
a sin problem. So that's evident. So I don't
want to go any further with this until we look
at the sign. I don't know if you got my email
or not, but if you did, hopefully you were able
to read ahead and you were going to realize that
we were going to use Psalm 32 as a commentary,
more or less, on this proverb. Because Psalm
32 speaks directly to this issue. So let's turn
over there then to the Psalm. And this psalm
is a, well, it's called a maskel, or it's called
a psalm of instruction. And you say, well, there's
instruction in all the psalms. There certainly
is. But there's a half a dozen or so of the psalms
that have this designation. So we can probably
learn from that that this is a pretty important
instruction. This is something that we should
be paying particular attention to. Maybe it's
an indication that we should read it more often
than we do. For whatever reason, it's designated
particularly as a psalm of instruction. So we'll
read then here the first two verses. Blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose
sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit
there is no guile So here we have this bold statement
blessed overwhelmingly happy Overwhelmingly at
peace Blessed it's a state of blessedness that
a Christian possesses Why because his sin is
forgiven We need to focus our attention as already
been said many times this morning That we have
to remember and focus our attention on The finished
work of Christ and what a blessing it is to be
his We are Christ's We're no longer ourselves.
We are Christ's and that is a blessed place to
be That's what the psalm is telling us so Here's
the particulars. It gives three types, perhaps,
or three designations of sin in these two verses.
So the first sin that is mentioned here is transgressions.
And if you're familiar with the children's catechism,
you'll know that a transgression is any violation
of the law of God. That's what it taught us.
But it's a willful doing what you know you shouldn't
do. We're given instruction from Christ Himself.
We heard the Sermon on the Mount reference today,
full of instruction. So we do know what we should
do. We get instruction all the time, from the
Word, from the meetings together. Perhaps you
get instructions from talking to your husband
or your wife. So the problem is not that we don't
know what to do. The problem is that we don't
do it, or that we do something that we shouldn't
be doing. It's a transgression then. That's the
first designation. The second is sin. And so
the theological definition of sin, you've probably
heard it hundreds of times, is a falling shard
of the mark. It's a falling short of the mark.
It's not doing what you should do Transgressions
doing what you shouldn't this the word sin is
generally understood to be not doing what we
should do So those are the really that really
covers the the sin but the Bible goes on and
talks about iniquity as the third element or
description of sin And the Bible uses this word
in at least a couple of different ways. So the
one way it uses is the perversity of sin, the
ugliness, the grossness. It's iniquity. It's
iniquitous. So it's something that's used to
describe some perhaps grievous sins. that people
fall into, iniquity. And that's not the way it's
used here in this psalm. It's used in the second
way. And that is, it can be translated, and you
may have it translated so in your Bibles, as
guilt. So along with sin comes guilt. Along with
doing what you shouldn't comes guilt. Along with
not doing what we should comes guilt So sin is
ugly It's worthy of the wrath of God it's worthy
of death So we need to understand as well and
I don't know that this is well understood or
well remembered We don't sin against each other
We hurt each other. We treat each other badly.
It's certainly true that we don't do all we should
do for each other. But how can we sin against
somebody who hasn't told us what to do or not
to do? Sin is against God, folks. That's where
our sin lies. And that's who we have to primarily
deal with, first of all, in sin. David makes
the confession against you and you only have
I sinned So yeah, we do a lot of ugly things
that have a lot of ugly effect upon everybody
else But our sin is against God and we need to
deal with our sin with God Primarily first of
all, perhaps I should say our first obligation
is to clear ourselves with God clear our sin
with God Now you know that this happens when
you're converted, when you're saved. That's the
beginning of the whole thing. All of these descriptions
of sin were certainly true of all of us when
we were lost. Just as they're true of every lost
man still today. So when we're converted, we
had a day of reckoning, we had a day of coming
forth, we had a day of the first day in our lives
probably that we were totally honest. and we
came forth and agreed with God and we said, yes,
I am a sinner against you, Lord. I have offended
you. I have done grievously before you. That
all happened to us in some form or another when
we were converted. If you never had a change
of mind about your sin, you had never been converted.
At the same time, when you were converted, you
had a different view of God. Before you were
converted, you didn't want nothing to do with
God. You didn't care what He said. You didn't
love Him. You didn't care anything about God,
how He felt about you, whatever. That didn't
interest you. When you were converted, you got
a big increase in the way that you felt about
God. You went from really rebellion and hatred
to love for God when you were converted. You
began to understand. just who God is and all
that He's done for us when you were converted.
So you had a big change of mind over sin and
over God. So that's where it all starts. So if
you've never had any of these experiences, if
you never come to submit yourself unto the Lord
in repentance and faith, I urge you this morning
again to do so. Get with God. Confess your sin.
Express your desire to be saved. And He's told
us that all that come to Him, He will receive.
So when you do come to God in repentance and
faith, you will be saved. Until you do, you won't.
That's all. Well, along with the three types
of sin that we have here, we have the three Shall
we say remedies of God for our sin? The first
remedy is forgiveness. We've been forgiven. And
we hear about this every Sunday just about, during
the communion time. Our sins are forgiven. And
glory to God, they're forgiven. It's like the
pilgrim's progress. Pilgrim's trudging along
to get to the cross and he's got the burden on
his back. Right? And he finally gets to the cross.
He finally sees Christ. And what happens? The
burden of his sin falls off and tumbles on down
the ravine never to be heard from again. His
burden is lifted. His sin burden is done away
with. Forgiveness through Christ. Owning your
sin and confessing it to Christ is guaranteed
forgiveness. First John tells us he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins when we confess
them unto him. First John. So, forgiveness. It's
a beautiful thing. It's wonderful to have the
forgiveness of God. The second is that our sin
is covered. We can't cover our sin. There's nothing
we can do. We have to fly to God We have to ask
him to do it. How does he do it? He covers us
with the precious work of Christ That ugly filthy
mess that we've made of ourselves The big old
ugly pit that we dug the miry clay that was stuck
in all the descriptions of a man in sin It's
all cleaned up. It's all covered. It's gone.
What? In the finished work of Jesus Christ. He
not only forgives our sins, but He gives us an
actual righteousness in Christ that covers all
of our sin. When God looks at us, He sees the
righteousness of Christ. That's what He sees.
We're covered. Our sin is covered. This is what
we think about, this is what we remember. And
then last thing, the remedy here, he says that
he will not impart or impute iniquity. He will
not give unto the believer guilt. He won't reckon
the sinner guilty. He doesn't impute iniquity.
He does impute righteousness to us, as we've
just said, but by doing so, that prevents or
completely eliminates the Christian's guilt.
Now these are glorious truths, and hopefully
they still stir our hearts. We've been hearing
this for as long as we've been Christians. and
we're basking in the glory of these truths, hopefully.
Hopefully we are. So, the lesson doesn't end
there though. What the last sentence says, and
if I was to read this without the... The middle
part, verse two would read, blessed is the man
in whose spirit there is no guile. Now here's
where we get into trouble as Christians. Here's
where the problem rears its head. Guile. What's
guile? Deceitfulness. Pretending. Perhaps. Rationalization.
None of those things can be found or should be
found in a Christian. We're done with that. We're
done with that pretending that we're these perfect
people that walk around without any sin. We're
done with that. We've already owned our sin.
We've already said that God has forgiven our
sin. And again, in John, he tells us, confess
our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive us
our sins. In other words, sin is an ongoing problem
with the Christian. It's not a one -time act
and everything's disappeared. Yeah, your sins
are forgiven. You're right with God. You're guaranteed
to be carried along by God. But that does not
eliminate the probability of sinning. We still
have to deal with this flesh that embodies our
spirit. And we still have to be watchful and
mindful and open to the fact that we've got some
sin problems. We still sin. We still need forgiveness.
We still need to confess that sin. Now, I think
I know all of you here as well as I know myself,
and we all know that's true. Is there anybody
going to deny that they don't sin? Of course
not. Well, how are you going to deal with it?
How do we deal with our sin? Do we try to cover
it? Do we try to rationalize it? Do we ignore
it? I know I'm forgiven. Does it matter to us
that we sin? Does it matter that we're offending
God when we sin? Does it matter that we're trampling
on the grace and the blood of Christ when we
sin? Do those things matter to us? Well, I think
again most of us here would say yeah, they do
So it's important that we don't be deceitful
about our ongoing problem with sin and we Bring
them to the next Perhaps implication perhaps
is the fact that we have forgiveness of sins
and we have the ongoing forgiveness of sins from
God Has got to definitely affect the way that
we treat each other Look we don't expect everybody
to be perfect. We don't expect to never be hurt
by people we're in a close relationship with.
We don't expect that. In other words, we are
those who forgive. We forgive when sin occurs.
We forgive when we're hurt by someone. Or whatever
the case may be. Because we have been forgiven
so much, it should be easy for us to forgive
others. If we have a proper view of ourselves,
and know what big sinners we are and how much
God has freed us and given us the forgiveness
that we didn't deserve or earn, it should make
it that much easier to be forgiving one another.
Hopefully that's true. It should be. As far as
I know, there is forgiveness here. There are
no grudge keepers here. There are no folks that
gonna dwell on the past and past hurts and it
gonna Allow a wedge to be driven in between them
Everybody's gonna do their level best to forgive
each other So I'm just encouraging you to continue
to do it You know David David was a he has some
sin in his life, you know the story of David
He wasn't perfect, but God claimed him to be
a man after my own heart So Sin as long as it's
continued to deal with properly is not going
to be a hindrance to your relationship with the
Lord But it can be and this is the next verse
where David gives his testimony He says when
I kept silence my bones waxed old through my
roaring all the day long For day and night thy
hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned
into drought of summer Sila In other words, he
was covering his sin. He was denying it. It was
rationalizing it. However, whatever excuse you
want to give He was he didn't confess his sin
and God's hand was heavy against him He lost
his relationship. He lost the joy. He lost the
blessedness of his relationship. He didn't lose
his salvation, but there was an interruption
in his daily communing with God because he refused
to acknowledge and confess his sin to God. I
don't know if anybody here has ever experienced
that. Hopefully you've not, but you will. Unless
you're honest with yourself over your sin, and
you need to be confessing it unto God. Now, obviously
I'm not saying every single little sin that you
confess, that you commit, you have to confess.
There just has to be this willingness to do so.
There has to be this, when you know you've sinned,
you need to actually confess it. Probably just
as many times, and maybe more than, we don't
even realize our sinfulness. So it's pretty,
that's not what we're talking about. Once you
come to a realization that you have committed
sin against God, you need to confess it. That's
what David said and that's what he didn't do.
That's a personal testimony that we all learn
from. God doesn't allow us to go on in sin. He
brings his heavy hand upon us to work repentance.
Those whom he loves, what? He disciplines. We've
already seen that from the Proverbs. So what
was the remedy? How did David get back? In verse
5, he says, I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and
thine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will
confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and
thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Seel it.
So that's the remedy. That's what we've just
been discussing and talking about. The remedy
is being totally honest and open with God and
yourself. Confess your sin. Ask forgiveness.
Go hard after God. Don't just slough it off.
It's a big deal. It should be a big deal. You
should make every effort to own your sin. and
repent from it. You can't ask forgiveness for
something that you have every intention to do
it again. That's just hypocritical. That's just
fire insurance. And that's not what the Bible's
saying. Now I understand also and again that
we do battle with sin. We're all subject to a
particular sin perhaps. more than others and
it is going to be harder to truly repent about
from that sin but indeed it has to be the desire
of our hearts to be free from sin we long for
that day as we've sung and as we heard already
for what when we're at in glory with God and
we will no longer be in the battle with sin the
ultimate victory is ours we know that That's
the attitude. We want to be sinless. We want
to be free from all of the temptations that confront
us. We want to be free from our own sinful desires
that hinder us. And we own that with God. He
already knows it. He already knows all about
it. We're not telling Him anything new. We're
just agreeing with Him. over our sin issues.
And we're making every effort to stop it, to
correct it, to start doing what we know we should
do. Just a brief word here about this. Seal it.
I don't know, not all of the translations have
this, but this is a pause. It's an indication
of a pause in the teaching. It's giving time
for consideration. It's giving time to meditate
on what has previously been said. So if you do
have it, that's a good thing. So the need to
consider is what they're asking us to do here.
Learn something. Look at the word. Take it into
your heart. Meditate upon it. Don't keep reading.
Wait, wait. Get the point from what you've already
read, then go on. In verse 6, then, we read,
For this shall every one that is godly pray unto
thee in the time when thou mayest be found. Again,
there's how many times God is able to be found
now. He's ready now Nobody knows if we've got
tomorrow how many times if we heard that Now
is the time You can't put it off The verse that
tells us pray to God while he can be found and
this is the time now If you need to confess now
is the time and that's just that's that's what
he's saying If you, when you come to realize
your sin and your need of forgiveness, now is
the time to pray to God for it. Because it's
the only time that you have. And you know what's
really fantastic about it is there's no difference
among any of us. We all have 24 hour days. Some
people aren't given 20 hours and some are given
28. No, it's everybody has the same 24 hours
in a day. And God expects us to use those 24
hours responsibly and wisely. Well, I don't have
time to pray right now. Well, yeah, you do. You
just won't do it. That's all. It's not that we
don't have time, in other words. God gives us
ample time. It's how you use it. What are you
going to do with it? What's the most important
thing in your life? Is it your relationship with
the Lord or something else? That's usually what
it comes down to. So he says that we should pray
unto thee in the time when thou mayest be found.
And he doesn't say that some of the godly do
this. He doesn't say those who are super godly
do it. He says what? Everyone that is godly should
be doing it. So, first of all then, we got to
get right with God. We got to get the forgiveness
that God promises to give us. Then what? Well,
then you've got to make every effort not to repeat
the sin that you've just confessed. And then
lastly, you've got to go to the person whom you've
offended. If you know that you have offended
somebody, you've hurt somebody, you need to go
to them and confess that to them and ask for
their forgiveness. That's the circle. That's
what we should all do. And we shouldn't be afraid
to do it because we know that we're going to
be received by God and the person we've offended.
That's what we already talked about. A forgiveness,
a forgiving spirit that we all should possess
because we've all been forgiven so much. Then
in verse 7, we read, Thou shalt compass me about
with songs of deliverance." Selah. So there it
is. God is our hiding place. God is going to
preserve us. God is going to surround us with
songs of deliverance. That's what happens when
our sins are forgiven. That's what happens when
we repent. That's what happened when you were
converted, didn't it? Didn't you have a great
time with the Lord when you were converted? Was
it like choirs of angels were singing? When the
light came into your life and you were finally
free from your sin and your guilt and the ugliness
of it, that's what it was. We have a hiding place.
Everybody needs a hiding place, folks. realize
it are the blessed ones. We can't do this ourselves.
We can't go through life ourselves. We need a
hiding place. We need somebody that has more
strength, more power, more love, more willingness
than we do in order to be kept, in order to get
from this life to the next. That's what a hiding
place is. He's going to preserve me from all
my trouble. We persevere and God preserves, and
He does. He loses nothing. No one that He set
His love upon in this life will fail to reach
heaven, will fail to reach glory. He will preserve
us. That's the promise. So then we get God's
response here in verse 8, and here's probably
why they call it a massacre. In verse 8, he says,
I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way
which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine
eye, or I will counsel thee. Mine eye shall be
upon thee. You may have either one of those readings.
So there it is. There's God's promise. When you
are His, And when you are in the battle against
sin, God's gonna do his part, in other words.
He's gonna instruct and teach thee. Okay, we've
heard this a thousand times. God instructs us
through the word of the Spirit. He instructs
us through other people in our lives who use
properly the word of God in the power of the
Spirit. There's instruction everywhere. You don't
have to wonder. You don't have to say, what does
God want? God tells us exactly what He wants
us to do. He instructs us. He teaches us in the
way that we're supposed to be going. We're all
going, remember? Christians go through a time
when they're just kind of standing still. If
we're honest, we have to admit it. But we don't
stay there. We go. We go forward. We make progress
in our walk. We grow in the grace and knowledge
of our Lord and Jesus Christ because of who He
is and what He's doing. Nothing in us, when we
stop or when we pause or when we have an interruption,
that's us. We're the cause of those interruptions.
Sin, in other words. But when we're right and
things are right, we're going forward and we're
under the instruction, we're under the watchful
eye, we're under the care of God. He's leading,
directing, guiding, keeping, preserving. Is that
a blessed state? Is it a blessing to be under
God's watchful eye? Or is that scary? There's
no other reason to be scared. It's God who loves
us and guides and directs us. He watches over
us. He keeps us on the way. So then the warning,
be not as the horse or as the mule, which have
no understanding, whose mouth must be held in
with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto
thee. So don't be like that. Don't be stubborn
in other words. The horse and the mule, they're
stubborn animals. They gotta be guided. They
gotta be directed. They gotta have some kind
of controlling device stuck in their mouths.
Don't be like that. Willingly submit to the leading
of God. Willingly change. Willingly do that which
you should. Stop doing that which you shouldn't.
Listen to God. Draw near unto Him on your own
accord. Because why because he loves you and
you love him and you love to be near to your
God So that's but but don't do but don't do the
opposite because that's not going to be profitable
In verse 10 many sorrows shall be to the wicked,
but he that trusteth in the Lord Mercy shall
compass him about So there you have it Do you
trust God to do all the things that He said He's
going to do in this verse? Do you believe the
description of sin? Do you believe that you need
Him? Do you believe that you need to be more
attuned to watch care over our own souls and
hearts so that we don't sin? Do we need to be
more proactive in confessing our sin? These are
the questions you should ask of yourself when
you read a text like this. Do I have any knowledge
of anything that's being spoken about here? Have
I experienced any of these things? How can I
change my life to conform more to this text?
God is full of mercy. He's got mercy to completely
surround us, compass Him about. He's the God
of mercy. He's proven it, hasn't He, by giving
us His Son? What better place can you be in?
The place of forgiveness, the place of acceptance,
the place of covering with the righteousness
of Christ. Is this our life? Is this what we
treasure? Is this what we refuse to have any
interruption to? Is this what we're going to
spend at least a portion of our 24 -hour day
on? Those are all legitimate questions. And it
should be a blessed thing. That's what he tells
us. Blessed is he. Blessed is the person who's
in a right relationship with the Lord. In verse
11 it says, be glad in the Lord and rejoice ye
righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright
in heart. That's got to be the response of the
Christian to God. Rejoicing always. Being glad.
Acknowledging. Knowing. Serving. All of the glorious
truths that we all know. Does that make us shout
for joy? Does you ever think about it like that?
Do you shout for joy because you can serve God?
Do you shout for joy because you can die to yourself
and live unto God? Hopefully that's true. Hopefully
the center of your life is what? Yourself? Hopefully
not. The center of your life is your children.
Hopefully not. What is the center of our lives?
The center of our lives is God. The Father, God
the Son, God the Holy Spirit is the center of
our lives. It all revolves around Him. That's
the blessed place to be. That's what we should
all desire more and more of. Amen.