"Whoso Covereth His Sins"

The point: Live in the light of God's spiritual laws, just as you live in the light of natural and economic laws.

Compares natural laws (gravity, thermodynamics) and economic laws (supply and demand) to spiritual laws, emphasizing their universal and binding nature to introduce Proverbs 28:13 as a spiritual law.

In other words, whenever we find a principle universally applicable, we rightly call it a law. We speak. We speak in the natural realm of the law of gravity. The laws of thermodynamics, or the laws of aerodynamics, which laws I trust will be operating and functioning properly when I fly out on Air Jamaica tomorrow morning.

1:21 - 1:46 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon establishes three characteristics of Proverbs 28:13: it is universally extensive, applying to all people in all places; it is absolutely binding, indicated by the…

Illustrates that some laws are geographically limited, contrasting them with the universal extensiveness of God's law in Proverbs 28:13.

Now some laws of men are binding only in one place. For instance if you're driving in Britain it is a law that you should drive on the left hand side of the road. If you attempt to carry that law over into the United States and drive accordingly it will not be long before you're in the emergency ward or you're in the clink down at the local Huskow in Trouble. There are certain laws very binding in certain areas but those very laws would mean in the keeping of them you'd be an outlaw in other places.

7:53 - 8:28 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon establishes three characteristics of Proverbs 28:13: it is universally extensive, applying to all people in all places; it is absolutely binding, indicated by the…

Compares astronauts in space, for whom gravity is non-existent in their lifestyle, to the universal applicability of God's law, which binds all men regardless of circumstance.

The same way with the natural laws. We live constantly under the law of gravity as long as we're here. But some men have been whirling around for almost two months up there to whom the law of gravity is non-existent in their lifestyle. And if they forget that why they have problems.

8:28 - 8:46 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin defines covering sin in the context of the text as anything less than confessing and forsaking it, contrasting it with God's gracious covering of sin or a gracious man…

Compares the broadness and depth of a fishing net, with small mesh, to the universally extensive and absolutely binding nature of God's law, ensuring no 'minnow' (small sin) can slip through.

Not only universally extensive, broad, but it's absolutely binding. Now suppose someone wanted to catch all the fish that were in the ocean. He'd have to make a pretty broad net, wouldn't he? But not only would his net have to be broad, it would have to be deep.

15:10 - 15:28 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Using Psalm 32 and David's experience, Martin illustrates how men cover their sins by remaining silent about specific transgressions, leading to inner decay and a lack of genuine…

David's year of silence after his sin of murder and adultery, where he covered his sin with groaning and moaning, illustrates the spiritual and physical wasting away that results from unconfessed sin.

mercy? Well, he tells us he didn't come to it when he was covering his sin with a cloak of silence, for notice the progression. Verse 2. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. When I kept silence, my bones waxed,

32:29 - 32:52 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Drawing from Genesis 3, Martin shows how Adam and Eve attempted to cover their sin by blaming God, each other, or the serpent. He applies this to modern excuses for anger or lust…

The account of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3, blaming God, each other, and the serpent, illustrates how men attempt to cover their sin by transferring responsibility and guilt.

And the scripture gives us not only this illustration of the covering of sin with a blanket of silence, but that which meets us at the very introduction of sin itself. We find Adam and Eve seeking to cover sin by the transferal of guilt and responsibility to another. And we read in Job chapter 33, I believe it's verse 11, if I, like Adam, have covered my transgression, how did Adam cover his transgression? Well, turn to Genesis and we shall see. Genesis

37:29 - 38:07 Read in full sermon

The point: Stop covering your sin by transferring guilt and responsibility to others, acknowledging that sin arises from within your own heart.

An analogy of being 'beguiled' by a butcher to illustrate how Eve's claim of being beguiled by the serpent was an attempt to evade responsibility for her sin.

If I go and buy five pounds of meat, I think, and pay a price for five pounds, and I come home and find the butcher beguiled me, then my wife can't get upset with me that I paid five dollars worth for five dollars worth of meat, and it's only three and a half pounds. I say the butcher beguiled me. I'm innocent. Right? If I was fooled and hoodwinked, I'm

41:33 - 41:53 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The example of King Saul in 1 Samuel 15 demonstrates how rationalization allows individuals to justify disobedience by finding 'good reasons' for violating God's explicit…

King Saul's disobedience in sparing the best of the Amalekite livestock, then claiming it was for sacrifice to God, illustrates covering sin through rationalization—finding 'good reasons' for explicit disobedience.

sin and looking at it long enough and having a little dialogue with your own conscience until you try. You can never do it, but until you try to convince yourself that God's wrong has suddenly been changed from W-O-R-O-N-G to R-I-G-H-T. And the classic example of this process of rationalization is found in 1 Samuel chapter 15. This instance in the life of King Saul. God's commandment to King Saul was clear. A long-standing

45:03 - 45:40 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The longer I live, the more I'm suspicious of people who pray lengthy prayers in public.

The scribes and Pharisees making long prayers while devouring widows' houses illustrates covering sin with ostentatious religious activity.

Look at it in Mark chapter 12. Here were the Pharisees and the scribes indicted by our blessed Lord, who as none other could peel back those cloaks that men cast over their sins. And speaking of this group of people, he says,

54:34 - 54:52 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Psalm 50 is expounded to show how people who outwardly identify with God's people and statutes can inwardly hate instruction and presume upon God's silence, thinking He is like…

The description in Psalm 50 of people who declare God's statutes but hate instruction and presume upon God's silence illustrates covering sin by framing misconceptions of God to suit their own desires.

Look at the 50th Psalm. Here is the description of people who are externally identified with the people of God and with the worship of God.

58:48 - 58:58 Read in full sermon

The point: Confess and forsake your sins, even if it means having a long, humbling talk with parents to plow through a mountain of lies.

The metaphor that 'lies have a built-in tendency to bear multiple children' and 'have been taking fertility pills for centuries' illustrates how one lie leads to many more, creating a 'mountain of lies' to cover sin.

Am I speaking to some tonight? Am I to have a mountain of sin that's been covered with a larger mountain of lies? For lies have a built-in tendency to bear multiple children. All lies have been taking fertility pills for centuries.

63:19 - 63:36 Read in full sermon