Let us turn now to the book of Proverbs and chapter 28. Proverbs 28. And we shall read from verse nine. He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination. Whoso causeth the righteous to go astray in an evil way, he shall fall himself into his own pit, but the upright shall have good things in possession. The rich man is wise in his own conceit, but the poor that hath understanding searcheth him out. When righteous men do rejoice, there is great glory, but when the wicked rise, a man is hidden. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. Happy is the man that feareth all way, but he that hardeneth his heart shall fall into mischief. We have a promise in verse 18 of this passage, sorry, verse 13 of this passage. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. And you will notice it is a double promise, one part negative and the other part positive, the negative He that covereth his sins shall not prosper the positive, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. This belongs to the gospel and to the Christian life and this sums up real religion. As Adam Clarke, the commentator, put it, here is a doctrine of vital importance to the salvation of the soul, which the weakest may understand. You'll see that it has to do with sins. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. And this makes it relevant to all of us. The Bible says, for there is no man that sinneth not. And in the New Testament, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. This is how we are born into the world and how we naturally live. And there are two categories of people, only two. We are either guilty and condemned in Adam or we are acquitted and justified in Christ. Only these two categories, guilty and condemned in Adam, which is what we all are until we're converted and become acquitted and justified in Christ. So many people would like to make a third category somewhere in the middle, but there is no third category. And every one of us in this congregation and everyone listening beyond is either in one of these two, lost, far from God, guilty, condemned, or acquitted. justified through Christ. Well, here are two possible ways of dealing with our sins in this verse and these will apply differently depending on whether we are unsaved or saved. And think of it in terms of those who are not saved. You know that when Adam and Eve fell In the Garden of Eden, right in the very beginning, when they became terribly aware of their guiltiness before God, we read in Genesis 3 and verse 7, they took fig trees and covered themselves, made aprons and covered themselves with these fig leaves. And that was the worst thing they could do. It was a symbol of covering themselves up in the presence of God. They felt exposed as guilty persons now, exposed to God's judgment. And they needed some covering. And they resorted to this physical thing which covered their nakedness, their shame. But it was the worst thing they could do because it was no help at all. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper. It's a picture of self-righteousness. Later in the scriptures we read of all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, an attempt to clothe ourselves with something that might be acceptable to God. But this resort, covering our sins, is no better than our sins themselves. It can keep people out of heaven. John Trapp The Puritan commentator said this, no man is kept out of heaven for his confessed badness. Many are for their supposed goodness. And self-righteousness is as much a barrier to being saved and going to heaven than sin itself. So are the unsaved. And the truth is, dear friends, that only God can cover sin. And later in Genesis chapter 3, we read that the Lord God covered Adam and Eve with coats of skins and clothed them. A picture, you see, of Christ, because these coats of skins would have been from a lamb, say, more than one lamb, killed, and then made into covering and applied to them, a picture of cleansing through the blood of Christ and justification in his righteousness. And that is what met the need. As Psalm 32 verse one put it, blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. So he that covereth his sins shall not prosper. God must cover them. But then apply it also to the saved. Because in Romans 7 verse 17, the apostle Paul no less writes, sin that dwelleth in me. Not sin that is his condemnation. He's been saved. He's justified freely by grace. Sin is no longer reigning over him and is to his condemnation, but sin is nonetheless remaining in him. And this, dear friends, is the picture. Sin is no longer the ground of my condemnation as a Christian, but it is the bane of my life. and it is the problem of remaining sin. It's not the Lord's will that we be free from its workings, not until heaven. That's when salvation will be complete. But in this sinful world, the flesh still wants to serve the sin from which we've been saved. and the devil tempts us to it. And again, he that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. And dear friends, we have not done with repentance as Christians. When we were converted, thank God, we confessed and forsook sin and we found mercy at the cross of Christ. But also afterwards in this matter of remaining sin, when we have sinned as Christians, it's not that it brings us back under condemnation, but it does interrupt fellowship with God. And through grace, we do not cover our sin. but we confess it and we are forgiven. And that's what 1 John 5 verse 18 means. Whosoever is born of God sinneth not. Not in an absolute sense, it means you can't remain in sin. You can't remain in unconfessed sin, but you're brought to repentance and you acknowledge it. And 1 John 1 verse 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. So then, this double promise, negative and positive, as it applies to a non-Christian and applies in principle to the Christian. But let us look at this more closely. And let us look at two things then here. First of all, the cover-up. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper. And secondly, the confession. Whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. First, the cover-up. And it reminds us, you see, that when we sin, whoever we are, naturally we tend to hide it out of sight. He that covereth his sins. In what ways do we try to cover our sins? Well, one way, by sinning in secret, when we think that our sin is hidden. Sinful thoughts and imaginations come into this category. They're not outwardly seen, but they are inward and they belong to our thought life. The things that pass through our minds are held there and cherished in our minds, the imagination of our thoughts. We cover them by contenting ourselves that no one knows They belong to our inner life. Job 31 verse 33, if I covered my transgressions as Adam by hiding mine iniquity in my bosom. But the thing is, of course, you can cover your sins in thought, in fantasy, in imagination, but there is one who understandeth the imagination of our hearts. And Psalm 66 verse 18, if I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me. I pray in vain. Sinful thoughts and imaginations in a cover-up. And then another way is when sins are done out of sight of others, covered by a cloak of secrecy, even outward sins, but no one knows about them. You remember Joseph's brothers, who sinned so terribly in making out that Joseph had been killed by a wild beast, and sending Joseph's coat of many colours to Jacob, his father, as the so-called evidence, and bringing that poor man to such a grief, such a terrible grief. They did it! quietly amongst themselves. No one else knew what they had really done. Did Joseph's brothers prosper? Did that get them anywhere that was good? My friend, again, sins done out of the sight of others are done in the sight of Almighty God, who is all-seeing and all-knowing and is always there, present. Ralph Venning, A Puritan writer put it like this, we can never sin, but there will be two witnesses present to observe and register it, our own selves and God himself. Ah, done out of the sight of others. Covering sin, it cannot be done, much as it is attempted. But then, not only sinning in secret, but When we claim that something is not sin, we cover it with another name. or put a different interpretation upon it. How often you've found that when you quote the Bible to even professing Christian people about moral things, standards of lifestyle and conduct, ah, but that's your interpretation, or, oh, well, that's what the Apostle Paul said. Ah, my dear friend, it's easy to do that, but you can rest the scriptures And you can refuse to bow to the authority of God's word by covering up your sin and claiming that it's not what the Bible teaches after all. Or how about this way? We have a prayerful concern to share something with others about somebody. Ooh, they need our prayers. And so we share it as a prayerful concern. But really we're enjoying it as the spreading of gossip and covering sin with prayerful concern. It's the motive, isn't it? Our hearts are so perverse and so deceitful. Or being upset. Oh, I'm so upset. So upset. And really it's wounded pride because God has spoken and rebuked us from his word, and we're not taking it. Well, someone kind and faithful has come alongside, faithful are the wounds of a friend, and pointed something out to us that we're doing wrong from the scriptures, and we are offended by it. Oh, I'm so upset, I'm so hurt. And so we cover unrepented sin by this claim. that we have been hard done by, when really, as the scripture says, let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness and an excellent oil upon my head. Worship, you see, worship is the word given to a lot that goes on in places of worship these days and yet it's a cover-up for what is really abomination in the sight of God. We have to say it and what an example of it you find in Exodus chapter 32 where the golden calf is part of the worship of Israel through the weakness of Aaron giving in to the demands of the people. And how significant this is, isn't it? Exodus 32 verse 6, The golden calf has been made and they rose up early on the morrow and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings and the people sat down to eat and to drink and rose up to play. And what did Aaron describe that as? Verse 5, the previous verse, a feast to the Lord. What did God describe it as? Verse 7, go Moses, get thee down, for thy people which thou broughtest out of the land of Egypt have corrupted themselves. feast to the Lord, the worship of the Lord, God says, corruption. And worship that is not according to the scriptures, not authorized by what God has said in the Bible, is corrupt. And yet people sin in this spiritual way and commit this profanity in God's sight in the name of worship which they cover and really it is something that is corrupt. My dear friend, we have to say it in these days, the worship band at the front of the building with guitars and drums and all manner of instruments and the music and rhythms and idioms of rock music from the world is not the worship of God. It is corrupt worship. It is the covering of sin by another name. Worship, it's called, it's corrupt and abominable in God's sight. Why? Because it's not according to the scriptures. It's not what God has required, what God has authorized, what is for God's acceptance and for God's glory. I say it on the authority of the Bible. But so many evangelical reformed churches will have these things as part of so-called worship, and there will be reformed preaching from the pulpit, and the people who should know better and stay in these places say, well the preaching is good, I get blessed through the preaching, but what kind of reformed preaching is it? which preaches reform doctrine supposedly from the pulpit that never addresses the issue of what is reformed worship to be offered in the pew. This hiatus, this difference, it's terrible. It's a cover up and should never be justified. We don't say it harshly to condemn, but we say it forthrightly to make it clear. Cover up. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper. And these modern, contemporary, worldly churches, though they may get the crowds, it is not spiritual prosperity. It is the bringing in of the world into the church. It will not be real discipleship. It will not be true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. This is not to the glory of God. It's the license of the flesh. And it's man-pleasing. And God will require it. of such people. We need to repent of these things if we're at all involved with them and come out from among them. Touch not the unclean thing and God shall receive us. My prayer so often is that God will bring his people back away from these things and into true and faithful churches, the Lord's own people, deluded and deceived by these things, content with these things, that he would bring them out and bring them back and honour his name in real worship in his churches. Just to illustrate this before I leave this point, I don't want to enlarge too much. We were having an open air witness in Holywell High Street some years ago. And during the course of the time when I was not preaching, a lady came up to me from one of the other churches in the town. And she said, can I ask for your prayers? We're having a gospel outreach. We're hiring the local leisure center, and we've invited Rock the Flock, a Christian worship band, to sing the gospel to people. And I said to the lady, I said, I'm afraid I cannot pray for that. She was stunned. I'm not being unkind in saying this, but I couldn't pray for this. She said, why not? I said, well, where in all the Bible are we authorized, commanded to spread the gospel by means of this worship band? It's the preaching of the word, the foolishness of preaching by which God is pleased to save them that believe. Oh, yes, and all that kind of thing. And you see, it's a cover-up. The poor lady, she honestly believed that this was evangelism. This was worshipfully promoting the gospel. but all it was doing was offending and provoking God. How can you pray for something like that? You can politely and lovingly try to point it out and try to convince, but there seems to be such a lack of teachableness on the part of such people who are so sure this is axiomatic, that you have to have this in evangelism these days and in your church as well. But Isaiah 5 and verse 20, woe unto them that call evil good. And so when we claim that something is not sin, he that covereth his sins shall not prosper. And then thirdly, not only sinning in secret and claiming that something is not sin, but when we cling to some darling sin, we love a particular sin and cannot let it go. There are people who are not saved because of one big issue in their lives. If I became a Christian, I would have to give this thing up. I can't possibly do it. And so this thing is clung to, it's covered up, it's a darling, protected thing that mustn't be touched by the grace of God. I'll go to church, I'll do the things that Christians do, but don't ask me to commit my life to Christ and give up this thing, confess it and forsake it. And so it's kept as a secret habit It's a part of private life as it's called, something immoral, something wicked. And the thing is that when this is the case, refusing to let something go, it's not really a case of that. It's that it is not letting you go because it's holding you. Our Lord said in John 8 verse 34, he that commiteth sin is the servant, or literally the slave of sin. And some sin, whatever it is, that's keeping you from conversion maybe, or some private sin that you're covering up even as a Christian, it's not that you are keeping hold of it, it's keeping hold of you. Sin has a power to enslave and sin has such a power that it holds us and we're helpless in it and the more we indulge it, the stronger its grip and power will be over our lives. It will eat into your life and you will never spiritually prosper. It has proved the ruin of many. Lot's wife, whose heart was really in Sodom. King Saul, who was only another man, not a converted man. Judas Iscariot, who was covetous. Demas, who loved this present world. None of these prospered. When we cling to some darling sin, it clings to us. And if not repented of, it will ruin us. the cover up. And then fourthly, when we refuse to repent, we have sinned. We know we're a sinner, can't go to heaven as we are, but we try to hold out against convictions. And there is a general work of the spirit whereby he strives with people. And I have known many people who have been quite affected by hearing the gospel, some solemn message of warning, some sweet wooing, inviting message, the pleading of the preacher to come to Christ. and affected temporarily, upset, worried, troubled, asking questions, receiving more teaching, eager to be helped. And then the thing wears off. And it's back to as it was. Refusal to repent. That's a terrible thing. Sometimes it happens not once but twice. And people are hopeful. Oh, it's good to see that person exercised about their souls, troubled about their position before God. Surely the Lord is beginning to do a gracious work in them. Ah, but you see there's a refusal only so far. Felix, when he heard the preaching of Paul, trembled. But then he said, go away. And when I have a more convenient season, I'll hear more. And that convenient season never came, as far as we know. Oh, my dear friend, if you are affected by the preaching of the gospel, if you are troubled about your soul, if you're drawn and you find a charm in the Lord Jesus Christ and free salvation, seize the moment. and don't hold back. It may pass from you, but pray that the Lord will really do a work in you and reveal himself to you and draw you to Christ and don't rest until you've come to the Saviour and are saved by him. Don't refuse. to repent, don't refuse to come to one who invites you and who is there available for you. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper. And then one further in this cover-up, not only sinning in secret and claiming that something is not sin, clinging to a darling sin, not repenting. But when we live a double life, we can pretend we are Christians and content ourselves with that. But what we are like in church is different from what we are like in the world. One thing on the Lord's Day, another thing on Monday. And that hypocrisy covers what we really are like from the eyes of others, but Hebrews 4 verse 13, neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight. All things are naked and opened unto him with whom we have to do, who sees what we're really like. Oh, don't live a double life, but live a real life and come to Christ for eternal life and that life more abundant. He that covereth his sins shall not Prosper, you're on a hiding to nothing. Nothing good will come of it by being like this. Here is this negative promise, which is a promise of God that cannot lie and is always fulfilled. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper. But let's look now at the confession, secondly. But whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. This is a sweet word. You see, it's a helpful definition of what the Bible calls repentance and the blessing that follows. What is repentance? Well, it's an inward breaking with sin. Whoso confesseth, confessing sin to God, admitting it, uncovering it, and showing it to God, and saying sorry. That word confesseth is used elsewhere in the scriptures to mean praise. give thanks to the Lord. And you say, how is it that repentance is praise and thanksgiving to the Lord? Well, in this sense, that we, in the confession of sin in repentance, we justify God. And we say that his verdict upon us because of our sin is right. And that we are the one in the wrong. and that he is worthy to be loved and served more than our sin and we cleave to him now rather than our sin. It's interesting that in the case of Achan in the book of Joshua chapter 7 and verse 19. Joshua uses this very term when he exhorts Achan to confess his sin. Joshua 7 and verse 19. Joshua said unto Achan, my son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel and make confession unto him. and tell me now what thou hast done. Hide it not from me. See, it glorifies God. This confession of ours, it rebounds upon him and says that he is right, we are wrong, and that what he said about our sinning all along is true. Who so confesseth? And then, There is the outward side, not only the inward breaking with sin, confessing it, but the outward and forsaketh them. And of course we will, because we are ashamed of what we have confessed and we abandon it and we want nothing more to do with it. That's repentance, confessing and forsaking. And that is a wonderful grace. It's something that is the gift of God. And even as Christians, we do not find it easy to repent. We're proud, we're self-centered, we hold out, we try and cover up. And even sometimes in our repentance, how sincere and deep is it really? One divine, used to ask God for forgiveness for his unrepenting repentance. It's a very searching thing, but how precious a grace. And now you see, where does it lead? To obtaining mercy, shall have mercy. And what an inducement that is to repent. Because what happens when we do? We repent into the mercy of God. The mercy follows. the confession and the forsaking, repentance into the mercy of God. Luther said that repentance begins in the mercy of God. Think of the prodigal son and the illustration there. This man who had sinned so deeply, wasted his substance and ruined himself pretty well and the father back home. and his repenting, coming to himself, repenting, rehearsing what he's going to say by way of confession to his father and asking that he might be just made one of the servants at least so that he'll have enough to eat. And he begins his slow, long journey home. wondering what reception he's going to get. But there he's confessing. He's forsaken. And what will he expect? What can he expect? Not very much. Just made a hired servant. Just about forgiven. and then employed by the father, but never the same again. No, the wonderful thing is that the father, seeing him afar off, he's been watching and waiting every day for the repentance and the return of this boy. And when he sees him afar off, he runs towards him, falls upon his neck and kisses him and showers him with every assurance of forgiveness and reinstatement. And he's brought back and brought in the best robe, the ring on his finger, the shoes on his feet, the fatted calf, the celebration, this my son. was dead and is now alive again. He was lost and now he is found and that is the God who receives repenting sinners, says Jesus. That's what God the Father is like when you confess and forsake sin. You shall have mercy, this kind of mercy. How moving it is, isn't it? He saw him, eyes of mercy. He ran to him, legs of mercy. He fell upon his neck, arms of mercy. He kissed him, lips of mercy. And Matthew Henry says, it was all mercy. Turning to God, we find he has laid our sins on Jesus. And if on Jesus, not on us. And quickly the Lord receives us. As soon as David had said, I have sinned against the Lord, he heard these words, the Lord also hath put away thy sin. What a wonderful, wonderful mercy is in the heart of God for Christ's sake, for returning sinners. Oh, this should be an inducement to you. And so I conclude by saying this, The way to have sin covered is by uncovering it before God, and then God covers it with His sweet mercy. Ezekiel 18 verse 22, All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him. What a word is this! All his transgressions that he hath committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him, forgiven, forgotten, put behind God's back, no longer in existence, not even mentioned ever again. Truly, we shall have mercy. So is it cover up or is it confession? Is it not prospering or is it having mercy? May the Lord enable us to answer the question for the glory of his name and our good. Amen.