"Whoso Covereth His Sins"

Introduction: God's Universal and Binding Law of Conferring Mercies

0:02 When you open your Bibles, please, to the book of Proverbs. We are not resuming our consecutive study in the book of Proverbs, but we shall be looking at an individual text tonight, and God willing, again next Lord's Day evening. A text which in a very singular way enforces the brief Sunday morning series that we are engaged in concerning the narrative of Achan's sin. In fact, there's a very real sense in which we may say that the lessons taught in this text, didactically taught in blunt, plain language,

0:39 are taught in historic form and by example in the narrative concerning Achan's sin. And I'm concerned that we look at the text, which I'll announce in a moment, because there are certain principles of God's dealings with men which are constant. Constantly applicable and universally binding, and occasionally those principles are stated in one sentence of the word of God. And when they are, they are stated in such a way that we may rightly call them a statement of God's laws in his dealings with men.

1:21 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.

1:47 As there are laws natural, there are laws economic. We speak of the law of supply and demand. And so likewise there are spiritual laws. That is, principles of God's operations.

2:01 That are binding in every situation. And it is important for us as Christians to live in the light of those laws, just as it is important for us as human beings to live in the light of laws natural and laws economic. As I indicated earlier, the law that we want to consider is one that enforces in a very lucid way the teaching of the word of God. these Lord's Day mornings.

2:32 Some of you have already guessed at the text because you've heard some tapes in which I've preached on this text in another place, but I trust you'll not pull down the blinds that hang over your mind because I believe God has given some fresh light on the text and this will by no means be a repetition of what you have heard on tapes from other places and the text, of course, is Proverbs 28 in verse 13. Proverbs 28 in verse 13

3:03 And if we were to give a title to this text we could well call it God's Law of Conferring Mercies. It speaks of some who shall obtain this law. This commodity called mercy. But it speaks of them of obtaining that mercy only within a clearly defined framework.

3:42 And because the text comes in such sweeping and universal language we may rightly call it a statement of God's law of conferring mercies. Now, of course, I hold as firmly as does anyone who believes his Bible that God is God. God is absolutely sovereign in the giving or the withholding of His mercy. If there were no other text in the Bible but Romans 9.15

4:10 it would be sufficient forever to establish that God is sovereign in the giving or the withholding of mercy. For in that text God says I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy and whom I will I harden. And all the objections and all of the rationalities and all of the attempts to evade the full and obvious import of that text are like so many little wooden arrows shot at six inch reinforced steel. I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.

4:49 But though God is sovereign in the giving or withholding of His mercy He is not capricious in the giving and the withholding of His mercy. He dispenses mercy sovereignly but He dispenses mercy only where He creates a disposition fitting to receive that mercy. Now that's a principle found everywhere in the Word of God. God resists the proud but giveth grace to the humble.

5:23 Well you see no man is humble unless God humbles him. Granted, true humility is a gift of God. It's an evidence of the working of His grace. But the text still says He resists the proud but He only gives grace that is brings a man to the conscious enjoyment of the conferral of grace when that man has been prepared to receive that grace that is when he has been made humble.

5:49 Likewise, though God is sovereign in the giving or the withholding of His mercy He never confers His mercy on a man or woman who is not prepared to confess and to forsake His sin. Now there are other aspects of biblical teaching that trace that disposition of desire to confess and forsake to the working of God but that's not in the text and therefore I'm not going to import it. It underlies it, it surrounds it but it is not the explicit teaching of the text and therefore my job is to open up the text not merely to pour into it to the rest of the Bible but to lay out the meaning that is in the text itself. Now then with that brief introduction to why we are considered

6:32 the text under the general heading God's law of conferring mercy and the rightness of thinking of it in those terms to think our way through the text over the next couple of weeks we shall first of all make three general observations concerning this law of conferring mercy. Having done that I shall attempt tonight to expound this law in its negative statement the first part of the verse He that covereth his transgression shall not prosper and God's law God willing next week the positive statement of the text but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall obtain mercy. In other words we're going to look at the text from afar to get a broad overview

Three General Observations on This Law

7:15 then we're going to come closer and see its two basic divisions the negative statement shall not and the positive statement shall obtain. What then are these general observations which we need to make in order to feel the weight of this text upon our own hearts and upon our own consciences. Well the first thing we need to see by way of general observation is that this text gives us a universally extensive law. It is a law that is universally extensive.

7:53 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.

8:28 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.

8:47 And you know what some of those problems are with a camera floating by the face or with the food floating off the spoon or some other such very practical problem. But not so with this law. The law of this text is universal. It's universally extensive.

9:04 It's binding upon those men in their space lab. It's binding upon the scientists in his submarine laboratory 800 feet beneath the surface of the sea. It is binding in the bush in the jungles of South America. It is binding amidst the teeming millions of India.

9:24 It is binding in some sophisticated wealthy person who struts down Fifth Avenue tonight with $10,000. $10,000 rings on every finger of every hand. It's binding upon the pauper in the squalor and filth of the Lower East Side. It is binding upon all men in all places and in all circumstances.

9:46 How do we know that? Well, just look at the text. He that covereth his transgression shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall obtain mercy. And the little words he and whoso, are those familiar indefinite pronouns used again and again in the Bible to show something that is universally extensive in its application.

10:15 Think of the use of these words in those familiar gospel texts such as John 5, 24. He that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to death. Unto life. Now, where does that text apply?

10:37 He that heareth my word and believeth shall not come into condemnation. Wherever the voice of Christ is heard, wherever a sinner, regardless of what his sin may be as to its nature or to its extent or its duration, no matter what that sinner is in terms of social standing, racial background, training, culture, or anything else, any sinner embracing the message of salvation by grace in Jesus Christ finds that that truth is universally extensive. He that believeth on the Son hath life.

11:20 1 John chapter 5. And then the well-known text, John 3, 16, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish. Whoever he be, young, old, black, white, and any kind, any color in the whole spectrum of human existence shall not perish. So then, this text is couched in the same framework of that which is universally extensive.

11:48 As long as there is sin, as long as there is opportunity to forsake or to cover that sin, as long as there is a God to forgive and to confer mercy, or a God to trouble the man who covers his sin, this text will be binding upon men. He that covereth, but whoso forsaketh. Now I want to speak particularly to the children here tonight. One of the things that is in your best interest for your own spiritual safety and well-being is to learn early in life those laws of life which cannot be escaped or evaded.

12:31 Some people come to the end of their days and look back and they could describe their lives as one constant string of failures to live in violation of known laws of human existence. There's the person who's always hoping to make it big by sitting around and dreaming dreams, grandiose dreams of how he's going to make it rich. And he ends up a pauper. Why?

12:59 Because he's forgotten that God is ordained, that it's by the labor of the hands that a man is ordained. That a man's needs should be met and it's taught again and again in the Word of God and particularly in the book of Proverbs. So then it's important early in life to have etched upon the conscience so that it may become regulative in the experience these fundamental laws of God's dealings with us as His creatures. And this is one of them.

13:26 This law is binding upon you children and all that you may learn it early. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper. So the very first time you're tempted to tell a lie to cover a sin to mom and dad, this text will flash into the mind. The very first time you're tempted to lie about where you've been and to scheme that you might go to some forbidden place against the dictates and wishes of mom and dad and then you think that you can cover up the one deception by another deception and the second by a third.

14:00 Oh dear children, learn early. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper. Learn early. He that covers his sins shall not, shall not prosper.

14:12 He that covers, though he thinks he's very clever, though he thinks he's very cute in the way he's schemed and plotted and covered, he that covereth his sins shall not prosper. Oh that you teenagers would learn it if you've not learned it yet. And for the same reason. Because if God is pleased to give you your three score in ten, your life will be a constant monument of the universally extensive nature of this law.

14:41 You'll either be a monument of someone who tried to live in violation of it or a monument of grace as one who's lived in the light of it. And of course, as it's true of children and young people, it's true of all of us as adults. For again, the he and the whoso are universally extensive and this law comes to all men in every place. Then secondly, in flowing out of this, we observe that it is an absolutely binding law.

What It Means to Cover Sin

15:10 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.

15:28 But not only deep, the mesh would have to be very small so that no little fish could wiggle through. The mesh would not have to be big enough to catch just the groupers and the whales and the porpoises. It'd have to be small enough to catch the minnows. And as we look at this text, it's not only a text that is as wide as the ocean of humanity, as deep as the sea of human experience, but the mesh of this text is narrow enough that not one little minnow can slip through.

15:58 Absolutely binding. And the binding nature of it is seen in the repetition of these two words.

16:07 He that covereth his transgressions shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall obtain mercy. Back when our Bibles were translated, they made the distinction that should be made formally in English between the use of will and shall. For some of you who have taken modern English courses, you wouldn't even be aware that that distinction exists. But if you want to take the time to use your dictionary, you will find that the use of shall and will when you move from the first person to the second and third person is a linguistic distinction.

16:46 And if you want to express obligation and necessity and certainty, you will use shall in the second and third person. Whereas if you just want to speak of futurity, you use the word will. And when our Bible translators translated he that covereth his transgressions and they use the word shall in the place of will, it was with purpose. It was to show the certainty of the declaration of the living God.

17:17 It is an absolutely binding law, again, as binding as the shall and the shall nots of New Testament promise and threat. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. He that believeth not the Son shall not see life.

17:44 And in the shalls and the shall nots of God is bound up not just verbal emphasis, my friends, woven into the fabric of the very characters in which men wrote in Hebrew and Greek was the nature and the character of the eternal God who cannot lie.

18:04 When you and I deal with the shalls and the shall nots of God, we are not simply to deal with them as some kind of a literary phenomenon. In which God is trying to say something for emphasis. We must see woven into the fabric of those very characters that were drawn by the Hebrew and Greek authors the very character of God. And no sooner can a shall or a shall not of God be violated than God can disintegrate and cease to be God.

18:34 Therefore, when we come to a text that bristles with the shalls and the shall nots of God, we are coming to that which is absolutely, absolutely binding. And I would say by way of application you may as well attempt to budge the throne of God than hope that this law shall in any way change in general or change for you in particular. For it is not only a universally extensive law, he and whoso, it is a universally binding law, shall not and shall obtain. And then thirdly, it is a definitely applied law.

19:13 It is a law which has specific and definitive application. Now some of you have heard the tape of a sermon that I preached on this text in Carlisle a number of years ago. We'll remember, perhaps you will remember, maybe I'm flattering myself to think that you would remember, but one amongst you may remember that I approached the text as though the word used here for sin or transgression was the general word for sin. And I sought to show in that message that this applied to anything that is called sin in the full range of the biblical definition of sin.

19:54 And then I sought to bring four key texts to bear upon this text. I believe that though there was no positive error taught in that exposition, it was not the most accurate exposition of the text itself. For if you will please turn to Exodus chapter 34 and I want to show you that this is a definitely applied law, a law that applies not just to sin in general, but to a definite kind of sin in particular.

20:31 Moses is prayed to see the glory of God.

20:35 And God is passing by and proclaiming His name and His character unto Moses. And we read in verse 6 of Exodus 34, And the Lord passed by before him and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth, keeping lovingkindness for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children unto the third and upon the fourth generation. Now the little phrase

21:19 that I direct your attention to is this. Forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. In other words, the perfection of God's mercy and lovingkindness are seen in that they extend to every form of sin and to every manifestation of sin. And the diverse forms of sin are described in these three words.

21:47 The first one is the word translated iniquity. And it comes from a root word which means to make crooked. And therefore most lexicographers, those who work in defining Hebrew and Greek words, tell us that the concept is that of perversity, a turning aside from the prescribed course.

22:12 Then the second word used is transgression. And this is a more vigorous word. It means to break away, to revolt. It speaks of sin which is an act of rebellion.

22:24 It's one thing to wander out of the way. It's another thing to punch a guy in the nose and walk over him in order to move in the way that you want to. Now in both cases you're out of the prescribed way. But there's a difference in the manner in which you moved out of the prescribed way.

22:40 One is to walk in a crooked path, to turn aside. The other speaks of a more open, high-handed act of revolt and rebellion. And then the third word, sin, is the general, most frequently word used for sin in the Old Testament. And strangely enough, it's the very word used for the sin offering.

23:01 So it is the broadest word. If something is staked iniquity and transgression, it is covered in that general word, sin. Now the word that the Holy Spirit directed Solomon to use in our text tonight was not the word iniquity, nor was it the word sin in general, but it was the second word, transgression. And here the accuracy of the American Standard, the 1901 edition comes through in that it uses that word in the translation.

23:33 He that covereth his transgressions shall not prosper. In other words, it is not speaking of sin in a general sense. When we talk about a man's sin, when we say, O God, I confess to you my sin or my sinfulness, it is not dealing with that mass of sin that is the part of every fallen son of Adam, nor is it dealing with that nature which is sin to its core, nor is it dealing with remaining corruption in a believer or his general state of consciousness, of uncleanness. No, no.

24:12 It is dealing with his specific definite acts of rebellion against the revealed will of God, as found in his law. Rebellion found when we entertain thoughts contrary to the law, when we speak words contrary to that law, and when we commit acts contrary to that law. Therefore this is a definitely applied law. It has to do with those sins that can be confessed and forsaken, those sins which can be covered. Now do you see why

24:48 I say it is a very strict parallel to the sin of Achan? Achan's sin, as we saw this morning, was not the common lot of sin that fell to all the Israelites in general. It was a specific act of rebellion. It was revolt against the definitive revelation of the will of God. And so

25:10 likewise, though we would not make such distinctions as some make between known and unknown sin and other fallacious kinds of distinctions, Holy Ghost has made a distinction between iniquity, transgression, and sin. And the law of this text applies specifically, though it certainly has extension into the other forms of sin, it applies specifically and definitively to the subject of transgression. Now, since sin in this form is a common problem, and all of us know what it is to revolt against the revealed will of God, there is not a one of us who does not have an interest in

25:54 this text. For because the problem conceived of in the text is our common lot, the directives of the text should be our common concern. Now, with these introductory observations behind us, noticing that this is a law of God's dealings that is applicable to all of us, is binding upon all of us, is binding upon all of us, is binding upon all of us, is binding upon all of us, is binding upon all of us, is binding upon all of us, is binding upon all of us, is binding upon all of us, is binding upon all of us, is binding upon all of us in every circumstance and applies specifically to this kind of sin, let us begin to expound the negative assertion of the first part of the text. And the best way I know to do it

26:34 is simply to approach the statement with three simple questions, questions which the text itself forces upon us. First of all, what does it mean to cover sin? If it's in the course of covering sin that we shall not prosper, then every one of us should be concerned with this question, what does it mean to cover sin? Secondly, we must ask the question, with what do we cover sin? The assumption of the text is that when men cover

27:02 their sin, they have something with which to cover the sin. And then thirdly, in another question the text forces upon us, what is the result of covering sin? Shall not prosper. What do those words mean? First of all, then, this question, what does it mean to cover

27:20 sin? And if you were to ask the question, what does it mean to cover sin? And if you take your Bible and look up the word cover in the concordance, take your concordance and look up the word cover in the concordance, and look up references to covering sin, you would come to the discovery that there are two instances in which covering sin is spoken of as a manifestation of grace. First of all, for God to cover a man's sin is a marvelous display of his grace. Psalm 32, quoting Romans chapter 4, blessed is the man whose iniquity

27:52 is forgiven, whose sin is covered. When almighty God covers a man's sin, so that the eye of omniscience can see it no more, what a manifestation of grace. When God's eye that sees all sin so deals with sin as to put it out of his sight that it is fully covered, what a display of almighty grace. Secondly, for a good or gracious man to cover the sins of another is a manifestation of the grace of God. First

28:30 Peter 4 and verse 8, above all, have fervent love among yourselves, for love shall cover a multitude of sins. In other words, when you sin in my presence, if it's not the kind of sin that warrants specific rebuke or specific church discipline, just an expression of those multitude of areas in which our imperfection sloughs to the ground. The surface, God says it is the glory of a man to cover the sins of his brothers. Not to look upon them, to magnify them, to put the magnifying glass upon them, to harp on the matters. No, no. For God to cover a man's sin is a display of his grace. For a gracious

29:12 man to cover another brother's sin or sister's sin is also a display of grace. But for a man to attempt to conceal his own sin. For a man to attempt to avoid the exposure of true penitence and the flesh withering experience of genuine contrition is not to cover his sin virtuously, but to cover it sinfully. Confession and forsaking of sin is the opposite of covering sin. You see,

29:46 grace will cause me to cover another man's sin. Pride causes me to cover my own. Love of my brother's well-being will cause me to cover his sin. Lust for my own desires and unwillingness to be exposed will move me to cover my own. To cover sin then in the sense

30:10 of this text is to do anything less than to confess and to forsake it if I am acting as though there were no sin. Now some men don't even make an effort to cover their sin. They are bold in sinning and they are bold in doing it. They are bold in doing it. They are bold

30:25 in declaring that they have sinned. At least such people are consistent. They say with their lips concerning themselves what God knows to be true about them. The man who covers his sin says with his life that which is a lie. He lives and acts before others as though

30:45 there were no controversy between his own soul and his God. He in that sense is the Achan who went back to the life and experience of the children of Israel. He went back to Israel as though there were no Babylonish garment in his tent, as though there were no shekels of silver and wedge of gold hid in his tent. Now having made that general statement in answer to the question what does it mean to cover sin, let us look at the biblical illustrations which answer this question. With what do men cover their sin? When Solomon

Covering Sin with the Cloak of Silence

31:19 wrote these words, he that covereth his sins, I doubt that he wrote them in a mental vacuum. I'm not sure that he wrote them in a mental vacuum. I'm not sure that he wrote them in a mental vacuum. I'm not sure that he wrote them in a mental vacuum. I'm not sure that

31:27 I'm quite confident that with his knowledge of Old Testament history there were before his mind specific instances recorded in the scriptures of how men cover their sin. There is no real significance in the order in which I state these things tonight, but may God be pleased to choose the arrows which will find their way to each of our hearts. First of all, men cover their sins with what I'm calling the blanket or the cloak of silence.

31:57 Turn to the 32nd Psalm. Psalm 32. David begins the Psalm with the expression of the blessedness, the spiritual ecstasy, the joy of the man whose sin has been covered by God. God no longer imputes iniquity to this man. When did David come to that experience of God conferring

32:29 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,

32:53 wasted away through my groaning all the day long. David looks upon his covering of his sin of murder and adultery and deception and duplicity. He looks upon all the things that he has done, all that sin as being covered with a cloak of silence for a period at least close to a whole year. David's place of prayer that previous to this had often been witnessed to the pouring out of his confession of specific transgressions. David, the man whose heart

33:32 smote him when he dared even to cut off a little bit from the garment of soul. David whose heart was smote by the sin of murder and duplicity. When he dared even to cut off his tender and smote him and drove him to the closet of prayer to confess acts of revolt that the world would not even call sin, for this is often the case of the true Christian. He weeps and trembles over things that the world offsets. He knows there's been revolt

33:59 against the standard of God. This David, for a whole year, knew nothing of what it was to have his prayer closet walls witness his honest confession of transgression. There was no cry, oh God, I acknowledge my duplicity, my lust, my murder by proxy. I acknowledge my hypocrisy and my sham. Oh no, there was much praying. Oh yes, there was,

34:28 he tells us. He was in his closet groaning and moaning and weeping day after day. You and I looked at David, we might have said, oh, what a burden for souls he's carrying around with him. Look at the circles under his eyes from his fasting.

34:45 And he's weeping. What a man of God, covering his sin with a cloak of silence. While I kept silence, my bones wasted away. And during that time, David, no doubt, according to the record of 2 Samuel, did all within his power to put those sins out of his mind, to drive them into the realm of the subconscious, tried to banish all serious thoughts about them, for remember, he didn't even get the inference of Nathan's parable. Everything within him was stirred

35:22 and the parallel is so clear to us that David's conscience was well nigh silenced in that area of sin. The agony because of the broken communion was very real, but it seems as though he had pushed the thing back and down and under and covered it with so many blankets of silence that it took those direct, sinful words from the prophet, thou art the man, to pierce through. Once again, awaken conscience. I wonder, my friend, if I'm speaking to someone tonight who is attempting to cover his or her sin with a cloak of silence. He that covereth

36:04 his transgressions with a cloak of silence shall not prosper. What sin, what sins, what transgressions, what breaking away, what revolt, what acts of rebellion against God are being covered with a cloak of silence?

36:24 If you could go to the place where you pray, if indeed you pray at all in this state, and ask that place of prayer, give back the words you've heard the past week. Would the walls be able to give out words of honest, heart-rending, genuine penitence and contrition where you've poured out to God your confessions of those specific sins? Would they? What about if we ask the walls to go back in their file?

36:59 Ask the walls for two weeks, for three weeks, for a month, six months, a year. How long has it been since the place where you pray has been witnessed not to just some general groaning and moaning and weeping that you feel miserable. David had plenty of that during this year. But the specific, pointed confession of your specific acts of transgression against God.

Covering Sin by Transferring Guilt and Responsibility

37:29 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

38:07 chapter 3. God has given specific directives. The man and the woman have openly and blatantly revolted against those directives. God in mercy comes to Adam. It's the cry of gracious discovery

38:23 that says in Genesis 3.9, Where art thou? And God enters into dialogue with Adam. And he says in verse 11, Who told thee thou wast naked? And now his question is very pointed.

38:38 Hast thou? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? In other words, Adam, have you openly, blatantly, knowingly, resolutely, willfully rebelled against me? That's what I want to know. And to that question there should have been a yes or a no. Oh my

39:00 God who has made me, I have revolted. Oh God who has made me, I have not revolted. A question like that needs no double talk. No pious evasions. Have you taken the place of a rebel? Yes or no? Now notice Adam's answer.

39:21 Let us not laugh at it. I'm terribly upset when people laugh at this passage. There's nothing laughing in here. No laughing matter here. It's weeping matter. For the spirit

39:33 of Adam is with us. And the man said, The woman thou gavest to be with me. He's mentioned God. He's mentioned the woman. He's mentioned the woman. He's mentioned the woman. He's mentioned

39:47 the woman. He's mentioned the woman. He's mentioned the woman. He's mentioned the woman.

39:48 The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, down at the list of implication, and I did eat. Do you see what he's saying? I was at the mercy of unavoidable circumstances, the responsibility of which did not lie with me, but with you God and with the woman. Oh I did eat, yes.

40:22 But had it not been for the woman who gave me to eat, and had it not been for you God who gave me the woman, I never would have eaten.

40:35 You see what this is? It's a subtle attempt to cover the gross nature of the rebellion, the transgression, by the transferal of responsibility and guilt to another. The woman shows that she's imbibed the same spirit in verse 13. And the Lord God said to the woman, What is this that thou hast done? I want to know about your responsibility.

41:02 I don't want to know anything about the serpent. I'm omniscient. I want you to own up to what you've done. God didn't need to ask this to get information. He's omniscient. He did

41:14 this to get them to own up to the nature of their sin. And the Lord God said, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me. And I did eat. You see, once you're beguiled, you're not responsible for what you've done.

41:33 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

41:53 innocent. The serpent beguiled me. And I did eat. What is she doing? Seeking to cover her

42:01 sin by the transferal of responsibility to another. That attitude carries down to this present hour. You know what's keeping some of you from confessing and forsaking your sin? You're covering it by the transferal of guilt and responsibility. Let me illustrate. There are some of you who

42:21 are guilty of blatant violations of God's precepts concerning the discipline of your own spirit, as we read this morning from Ephesians 5. Ephesians 5. 1. The clamor and evil speaking characterize your heart and your mouth in your relationship to your wife or husband. Hasty, bitter words are part of the common fare of your household

42:47 week after week. Though occasionally, to try to put a little salve upon your conscience, you'll have some kind of a general groaning and moaning in the presence of God, you don't really own the sin of that anger. You know why? 2.

43:06 You're saying, the woman, the man, if it were not for the provocation occasioned by that individual, I would never do this. In other words, it does not arise from me as the responsible agent. It arises from the external provocation of another, which is a violation of fact, because Jesus said, for from within out of the heart proceed. 3. The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, anger and wrath. There are also

43:38 the works of the flesh, which are these, anger and wrath. There are also the works of the flesh, which are these, anger and wrath. There are also the works of the flesh, which are these, anger and wrath. There are also the works of the flesh, which are these, anger and wrath.

43:49 You know them well. Well what is right, what means right ? Where is it located, where does the art originate? 1.

44:01 Remember We are living in this world of hatred. And the irony of this is that all of the world of hate repels us.

44:19 Д. to look twice at a woman's short skirt. Am I justifying the absence of modesty in our society? No. And if I were dealing with a text that spoke to it, I'd speak to the issue

Covering Sin with the Cloak of Rationalization

44:35 and speak to it without any fear or embarrassment. But this text says if you cover your sin by transferring guilt and responsibility to another, you shall not prosper. And then there is the third cloak with which we cover our sins. It's what I'm calling the cloak or the blanket of rationalization. You know what rationalizing is? It's looking at a thing that God calls

45:03 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

45:40 prophecy of judgment upon the Amalekites was about to be fulfilled. The instrument and the purpose of God was to be King Saul. And the direction of God was clear in 1 Samuel 15.3. Now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all that they have and spare them

46:04 not but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. God becomes redundant in his directives. He says destroy everything and by everything I mean precisely everything that is. Man, woman, beast annually delineates even the categories of the beast. Therefore if Saul goes up to touch the Amalekites and does anything other

46:32 than bring about total destruction, this is not a mere turning aside. Iniquity. This is not sin in the general sense. This is transgression. This is revolt

46:42 against explicit directive from the living God. Do you remember the story? He spared Agag and the best of the sheep and the best of the oxen. And the next day as he goes out, Samuel is sent from the Lord to meet him. And as they are about to meet each other,

47:01 and it's amazing how a man covering his sin becomes so artful in the mouthing of pious talk. There's nothing that's more abominable to God and abominable to anyone who has any discernment to see through the sham than pious talk dribbling off the lips of a man who's covering sin. And there's a hollow ring in the whole business that just makes a man know it's not real. Well, look at the example. 1 Samuel chapter 15 and verse 12. And Samuel rose early to

47:32 meet Saul in the morning, and it was told Samuel, saying, Saul comes to Carmel, and behold, he hath set up a monument, and turned, and passed off, and went down to Gilgal. And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said unto him, And I'm always suspicious when a man is ready to blabber at the mouth in the presence of a man of God. When I get around men who know God, I find myself strangely inclined to keep my mouth shut and listen. But here's Saul ready to blabber off before Samuel, who comes with a message from God, has even opened his mouth.

48:09 1 Samuel chapter 15 and verse 12. Blessed be thou of the Lord. I have performed the commandment of Jehovah. Boy, doesn't that sound great? You see, when

48:20 a man's conscience is fighting him, and he knows that there is not that unspoken witness of his genuineness, he's got to cover up his hollowness with a lot of religious blabber.

48:35 This is exactly what he's doing. And now Samuel, with one simple question, tears the covering off. What meaneth then this bleating of these sheep? In mine ears, and the lowing of the ox in which I hear, the commandment of God was destroy everything. As I would move in the direction of the Amalekites, there should be a deathly

49:02 ominous silence. Not even the sneezing of a man with allergies, let alone the lowing of the cattle and the bleating of the sheep. And Saul said, Oh, they have brought them from the Amalekites, for the people spared the best of the sheep and the oxen to sacrifice it. Unto the Lord thy God, and the rest we have utterly destroyed. We've done much of what

49:27 God required, and certainly God can't be so unreasonable as to expect us to take every word of his directive seriously. And you know the sequel. God says, because of this transgression and rebellion, you've had it. You're as good as done. And from that day forward, Saul was

49:46 a has-been. Now, by what process could he look at a commandment of God that was so explicit, and then just a day later, dare to meet the man of God, and say, I have done the will of God, by this subtle process of rationalization. Oh yes, we're sparing some of the sheep and the oxen, but this is not high-handed rebellion on my part. This is a consensus amongst the people, so that we may honor God with sacrifice. Rationalizing. Trying to find some good reason for disobedience.

50:24 Trying to find some wise rationale. Now, for blatant defiance of God's explicit command. And oh, my dear friend, perhaps there is nothing more subtle in the working of human hearts than this process of rationalization.

50:44 God thoroughly lays his finger upon an area and says, that must be destroyed. And we rationalize. Oh yes, God says, let all anger and wrath be put away, but then we rationalize. But you know, a man without a little bit of a sense of purpose, he's not a rationalist.

51:00 He's not a rationalist. He's not a rationalist. He's not a rationalist. He's not a rationalist.

51:00 He's not a rationalist. He's not a rationalist. He's not a rationalist. He's not a rationalist.

51:00 He's not a rationalist. He's not a rationalist. He's not a rationalist. He's not a rationalist.

51:00 Spunking, envious, and worth much, you know. And I don't want to have God so crucify and mortify in me, fleshly anger, that I become a pushover for everybody. I've got to preserve a little bit. God says, let all carnal anger be put to death. Not the ability to get angry,

51:25 because it's a command to be angry. Be angry, but sin not in your anger. That's a command to put to death all carnal anger. Anger that grows out of self-defense, self-preservation of my own reputation, of my own ambitions.

51:44 Anger that is the reflex response of the frustration of my own designs and my own longings. That's to be put to death, all of it.

51:55 Though no man will ever claim that he's delivered from it in this life, the posture of a true Christian is, Oh God, I want to be delivered from every last vestige of it. I've set the sword against every vestige of sinful anger, covetousness. I've only taken these, I trust not arbitrarily. I trust the Spirit of God has chosen the strands of emphasis to send some arrows to some specific hearts here tonight.

52:26 What are you rationalizing about tonight? Some of you young people, are you rationalizing about your social conduct? God says, flee fornication. That means, do not put yourself.

52:37 In any situation in which you are unnecessarily tempted to indulge in any form of illicit sexual contact. That's exactly what that command means. Flee fornication. But you're rationalizing.

52:53 So I'll need to flee, just so long as I don't commit fornication.

52:59 Therefore, since I know how to control myself, I can kiss and hold hands and hug promiscuously.

53:07 You're rationalizing, my friend, in covering your sin with the cloak of rationalization. God tells you to flee it. I don't care what your heart tells you. And what your flesh tells you, Almighty God's already spoken.

53:20 Flee fornication. Flee it.

53:26 So Jesus meant when he talked about cutting off right hands and plucking out right eyes. Dealing drastically and mercilessly. But you've rationalized certain areas of your conduct. How about some of you Bible school students?

53:38 What about your summers? Away from school regulations, you know? Away from the standards imposed upon you by the administration. What's your social conduct?

53:47 With all external restraints gone, what's it been?

53:53 Even now, you're rationalizing, aren't you? Well, that's extreme. My friend, listen. Does the Bible mean what it says?

53:59 Flee fornication? Or does it not?

54:04 Does it or does it not? If it does, you're rationalizing if you're doing anything other than staying as far from any unnecessary circumstances that could lead to sexual impurity as is humanly possible.

Covering Sin with the Cloak of Religious Activity

54:22 Rationalization. The cloak of silence. Silence. The cloak of transferal of guilt and responsibility.

54:29 Then in the fourth place, there is the cloak of religious activity.

54:34 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,

54:55 that the scribes, Mark 12, 38, desire, to walk in long robes and to have salutations in the marketplaces and the cheap seats in the synagogues and chief places of the feast. They that devour widows' houses and for a pretense, for a cover-up, for a sham, make long prayers.

55:20 What does it mean, devour widows' houses? Well, it probably means they took advantage of them economically, took advantage of them sexually. They made widows their prey to gratify their lust. And then they cloaked over their sin with ostentation in the realm of religious activities.

55:40 They made long prayers.

55:45 The longer I live, the more I'm suspicious of people who pray lengthy prayers in public.

55:53 I've found that those who have most of the spirit of prayer in secret are generally reserved in the length of their prayers in public. Now, if God comes upon us, if He comes upon a man and draws him out in prayer, he can pray for an hour and it'll seem like five minutes. I'm not talking about that.

56:13 I'm talking about the principle that our Lord enunciates here of attempting to cover sin by religious activity, particularly public religious activity.

56:27 And what was true of the scribes and Pharisees in our Lord's day was true of the leaders in the day in which Isaiah ministered. They even went so far as to engage in extensive fasting. You know, read Isaiah 58. And they say, why doesn't God hear us?

56:42 We're even fasting. And God says, yes, you're fasting. But you're fasting and all your religious observances are simply a cloak for your tight-fisted, covetous,

56:53 unfeeling attitudes to your brethren. He says you fast to smite with the fist of wickedness. And you live in indifference to the needs of your fellow countrymen. Read chapter 1.

57:06 You have the same thing in Isaiah. Read Micah 6, verses 6, 6 and 7. The Old Testament is full of illustrations where men were so foolish as to think that they could cover their sins with religious activity. What about you tonight?

57:22 Let me put it as simply as I know how. Is your coming to this place tonight simply one of but many, both private and public, expressions of a heart that pans to be holy and to be conformed to the image of God's Son? Are you here tonight because you believe God has instituted formal, public worship, praise and preaching to advance the sanctification of His people, to lead people into the way of salvation? Are you here because that God before whose eye you live in secret is the God whom you believe you will meet in reality here in public?

58:06 Or is your presence here an attempt to pacify a gnawing conscience which will meet you again when you leave? Is your presence here in public worship a cloak for private declension and sin that is willfully covered?

Covering Sin by Framing Misconceptions of God

58:28 Oh, may God strip the cloak away. I can only expound these things in seed form, trusting the Holy Ghost to enlarge upon the commentary in that way which only He can do. Let me mention just two others quickly. There is the attempt to cover sin by framing misconceptions of God.

58:48 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.

59:02 In the Old Testament language, God says, verse 16 of Psalm 50, they declare God's statutes and they take God's covenant into their mouths. They say, we're the people of God. We believe the Word of God. We believe the Bible cover to cover.

59:22 Etc. But He says, in your practice, verse 17, you hate instruction. You cast My words behind you. You confess belief in My words, but you are regulated by My words.

59:37 My friend, God doesn't need 10,000 people saying, we're Bible-believing Christians and we believe the Bible and defend the... No, no.

59:48 God says, if you believe that book, you'll obey it. That's the whole controversy He has with these people. They take...

59:55 They take His covenant in their mouths and they declare His statutes with their mouths. But when it comes to the way they live, they cast the words of God behind them. And it's very practical. When you saw a thief, you consented with him.

60:08 What about in your place of business? When you see business dishonesty, do you keep your mouth shut?

60:15 Or do you speak up and rebuke it? Protest against it.

60:22 Thou hast been a partaker with adulterers. Oh, maybe not in act, but in thought.

60:28 Thou givest thy mouth to evil and thy tongue frameless. Thou givest thy mouth to deceit. Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother. Thou slanderest with thine own mother's son.

60:36 Now, verse 21. These things thou hast done and I kept silence. Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thyself. You see what they did?

60:47 They framed misconceptions about God. They said, well, I've taken God's name upon my lips and His truth in my mouth and His covenant externally upon my life and yet I've sinned in secret and covered it and nothing's happened. No thunderbolts have come from heaven to strike me dead. I forget.

61:06 Maybe God forgets. With the passing of time, things fade from my memory. Maybe God's got a case of temporary amnesia.

61:17 Thou thoughtest I was altogether such a one as thyself. You see how they were covering their sins? By framing conceptions of God to suit the lust of their own heart. And I've seen this done again and again.

61:30 Listen, I'm talking to some tonight in whose mind and hearts the very word of God is not enough. The very rationale for going on in your sinful course is this. Oh, God's a God of mercy. And if I sin a few more years, a few more weeks, then when I finally do confess and repent and forsake, God's mercy will be all the more displayed.

61:51 My friend, you're mistaking God's forbearance for a sinful indulgence.

61:58 You're thinking that God is altogether such a one as yourself. Whereas God says, consider this ye that forget God. And look at the language. It's violence.

62:08 It's violent language. Lest I tear you in pieces.

62:15 Now you put those words in the words of the saccharine God of the 20th century evangelical.

62:21 A God who says, I'll tear you to pieces.

62:27 Oh, you say, God said it. I didn't. God said it. He says, when you begin to presume to make me into your image, I'll show you that I've maintained the dignity of my own image.

62:40 I shall come forth in violent, holy, anger and tear you in pieces and there shall be none to deliver.

Covering Sin with Lies

62:53 Oh, may God help us not to frame misconceptions of Him to cover our sins. And then the last covering, and this is by no means exhausted. It's the covering of framing lies. Cain tried it.

63:08 Joseph's brothers tried it in Genesis 37. David attempted it. Ananias and Sapphira attempted it. They tried to cloak their sin with lies.

63:19 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.

63:40 One lie gives birth to a dozen lies.

63:45 Am I speaking to some tonight, some of you children? That's one of the very reasons that with each passing day, as conscience gnaws, you're trying to scheme ways to...

63:56 Oh, it's race! Because you know, if you really begin to confess and forsake your sins, you're going to have to have a long, long, humbling talk with mom and dad and plow back through that whole mountain of lies that you've told them to cover your sins. How about some of you husbands and wives?

64:15 Lies spoken to one another.

The Result of Covering Sin: "Shall Not Prosper"

64:21 Oh, dear ones, listen. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper. Time will not permit me to expound those words, but I must close by just giving that sober warning. What are the results of covering sin with any of these cloaks or any others that may be woven upon the loom of human sinful ingenuity?

64:46 God says you shall not prosper. To the unconverted this means if you so cover your sins as never to come to that fountain open for sin and uncleanness, taking the place of a publican looking to God through Christ for mercy, you shall not prosper. That means you'll never, no one moment in this life of a conscience purged by the blood of Christ.

65:12 And that's a little foretaste of hell to live with a tormented conscience. But you shall not prosper for all eternity. You will be a monument of the truth of God's word when He said, I will tear you in pieces. When God pours out the vials of His wrath unmixed with mercy upon the head of all the impenitent.

65:35 And hell is a monument of the volition, of the divinity of this law.

65:41 But thank God, though it can never be that to the Christians, if you cover your sins, you will not prosper either. You will not prosper in terms of knowing the blessing of the full communication of the Spirit of God in all of His gifts and graces to make the Lord Jesus precious, to make His word real, to make worship a vital reality. Read Psalm 51 and Psalm 32 for the effects of covered sin in the heart of a believer. But you may also expose yourself to temporal chastisements.

66:15 1 Corinthians 11 and verse 30. For this cause many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. And oh my friend, worst of all,

66:27 you cannot really anticipate with joy the return of your Lord. For the scripture says, little children, let us abide in Him that when He shall be manifested we shall have boldness and not be ashamed before Him at His coming.

66:46 Achan is the monument of what happens corporately when a man covers his sins. We studied it this morning. Israel could not prosper. She could not advance and conquer her enemies because sin was being covered.

67:05 May God sober us with this law.

67:08 You can't escape it. It's too broad, too deep, and its mesh is too small. None of you can slip through it. You either.

67:19 Experience the gracious, positive statement that we shall expound God willing next week or you are a monument tonight of the truth of the first. He that covereth his sins shall not let us pray.