Alright, notice with me as we read from verse 13 of Proverbs chapter 28. He says here in verse 13, He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. I'm going to look at this text tonight and next week in verse 14 and then we'll move farther on in the chapter later. Lord, we thank you for this evening. We thank you for the privilege again that you allowed us to assemble together. Lord, we just pray for thy will to be done tonight. Lord, we love you. We thank you for your word. We ask all of these things in Jesus Christ's name we pray. Amen. The verse we're coming to tonight I'm going to kind of camp out in this passage. We find here the importance of confessing sins. We see here the blessing of confessing and forsaking sin, and then we see the danger of covering sin. The Bible in both Testaments, Old and New, speaks of confession of sins. Now we've got sermons on this, we've covered this in the past, but as I come to this passage here tonight, I just felt like we need to just do this one verse tonight. Now notice as we come here again, I want to just take some of the words in this verse, and we got some other passages, just hold on here for a while, but we got a few other passages here in the Old Testament and New that we're going to look at tonight. He said in verse 13, the first thing he says is that he that covereth his sins shall not prosper. That is, someone who is refusing to confess their sins, to conceal it or to hide it is the ideal here, using maybe falsehood or lies, pretending to be virtuous when they're not. He said, he that covereth his sins shall not prosper. The word here, prosper, has the ideal that the person that will not confess their sins but will cover it or hide it, They shall not succeed in avoiding God's punishment. That's the ideal here in the passage. Unconfessed sins will rob us as Christians, will rob us of our joy, our peace, and progress in our Christian life. It'll rob us of spiritual strength. And that's what we see here in this passage. I want you to hold on here and turn with me to the book of Psalms, and I'm going to be reading Psalm chapter 32. I want to read in three different Psalms, or at least make reference to them, but notice in Psalms chapter 32. Now, we found that David was a believer, but David came to places in his life where he had to confess his sins. I think it's a good idea to confess our sins, keep short accounts with God, and confess them daily. And notice he said, I'm going to begin reading in verse one, this whole chapter is dealing with David, his sin, and when he did not confess them, and then later when he realized that this is what he's got to do. And by the way, in 2 Samuel 12, verse 13 and 14, when David was confronted by the prophet, David said, I have sinned against the Lord. David was a believer, and David had a love for the Lord, but he fell into sin. We all know that sin. And it's recorded in 2 Samuel 11 and 12. and he confessed that sin before God and got it right. And this passage here is describing his condition, it's describing when he was in sin, when he did not confess, when he kept silent, but it also describes him acknowledging his sin to God. And then the whole chapter, again, is a wonderful chapter, but I want to read at least the first five verses. Notice it says, beginning in verse 1, 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. When I kept silent, this is David. And notice verse three, when I kept silent. In other words, he's not confessing his sins at this time. Again, 2 Samuel 12, beginning in verse one, the prophet goes to David and confronts him while he was not confessing his sin. He said, when I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day. In other words, he was in anguish. I believe that David physically, spiritually, emotionally, he was a train wreck because of refusing to confess his sins and forsake them. He said in verse 4, for day and night thy hand, speaking of God, was heavy upon me, my moisture is turned into the drought of summer. And we can read in other passages, Psalms 51, Psalms chapter 38. We can read in other places where we see the anguish and the sorrow that David went through when he was not confessing his sin before God. But notice verse 5, his confession. He said, I acknowledge my sin. See this one time he kept silent probably for several months. But here in verse 5, he said, I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and my iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin. So we find him confessing and forsaking this sin. Notice in chapter 38, and I'd suggest go back and read all three of these chapters I'm going to mention, because again, they're written by David. chapter 38, and I want to come down to just one verse, and it's going to be in verse 18. Now, by the way, we find in the Bible those who, at least for a time, refused to confess and forsake their sins. In other words, they covered their sins. They did not prosper when they did this. We find that in Genesis 3.12, Adam and Eve, you know the story of the fig leaves, but they also hid themselves. After that they sinned, they hid themselves and tried to hide from the presence of God. Genesis 4.9, Cain, we find that he said, am I my brother's keeper? 1 Samuel 15 verses 19-21, Saul finally admitted that he sinned and then immediately he blamed the people. He never confessed and forsook his sin. Matthew 12 and verse 41, this is true with Israel. Joshua 7 verses 19 through 20, Achan, we find that Achan hid what he had stolen. In other words, he had to be flushed out by the Lord. In Matthew 27, 4, Judas's caret, kissed Jesus as a friend, but betrayed him. The Bible tells us that he repented, but he did not forsake his sin and put his trust in the Lord. He knew he was wrong, but he still ended up in hell because he wasn't willing to have true confession and forsaking of the sin. I've read this to you a number of years ago. But this is a quote and it speaks of a physician once kept a record of a thousand persons who thought they were dying and whom he thought were penitents. He wrote their names down in a book as those who if they had died would go to heaven. They did not die, they lived. He says that out of the whole thousand he had not three persons who turned out well afterwards, but they returned to their sins again and were as bad as ever. In other words, it was like a foxhole prayer. They were willing to repent because they thought they were dying. But when they did not die, they were back to their old selves. Well, notice here in Psalms 38 and in verse 18. Again, this is David. He said, Notice in Psalms 51. Psalm chapter 51, this whole chapter, is David's repentance and confession and pleading with the Lord to restore the joy of his salvation. David had a broken heart. He's asking God to purge him, cleanse him in verse 7, but notice in verse 3 and 4. He says in verse 3 and 4, he said, For I acknowledge my transgressions and my sin as ever before me against thee, thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest." So David was a very repentative man, especially when he was confronted with the Word of God. Going back with me to our passage, notice as we come back, he says here in verse 13 again, and again we found the subject of confession all through the scriptures Old and New Testament, he said in verse 13, he that covereth his sins shall not prosper. In other words, they shall not have peace. They shall not have forgiveness. They shall not have joy in their life. We know that confession of sins is the only way that we can be saved. And it's the only way as a Christian that we can be in favor with God. Confesseth and forsaketh. Notice verse 13 again. He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesses and forsaketh them shall have mercy." To confess and forsake, the sincerity of confession is proved by the forsaking of sin. Now we see this many times throughout the Holy Scripture. Notice with me, I guess you can turn loose of the book of Proverbs and go with me to the book of Acts and notice with me in chapter 19. The book of Acts in chapter 19. I hope this will be a joy to you. I count it a joy to see past like this where God is very honest with us and shows us how, not only how that a person can be saved, but how that we as Christians can stay and fellowship with him and stay within his will. Now notice as we come here to Acts chapter 19, I'm gonna take three verses, verse 18, 19, and 20. We're gonna find, and especially verse 18, the word believed, the word confessed, and showed their deeds in this passage. Now notice as we come here, beginning in verse 18. Now this is Paul, the apostle at Ephesus. Ephesus was a, a church was started there, but it was a city where the temple of the great goddess Diana in verse 26 was at, that many worshiped her. And so there many got saved at Ephesus and turned from their old ways. Notice in verse 18, 19, and 20. And many that believed came and confessed and showed their deeds. Many of them also which used curious arts, that is, magical arts or occult practices. Many of them also which use curious arts brought their books together and burned them before all men and they counted the price of them and found it 50,000 pieces of silver. So mindily grew the word of God and prevail. But notice back in verse 18, notice how this is worded. He said in verse 18, and many that believed came, now notice this, and confessed. and showed their deeds. In other words, they proved their confession by burning their books and their, you know, the false teachings that they had and the magical arts or occult practices. They proved their repentance and their confession. Notice with me in Romans chapter 10, a very familiar passage to us. And while you're turning there, I'll give you two other scripture. One of those is Mark 1.5, a part of that verse says, and all were baptized of him, speaking of John the Baptist, all were baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins, confessing their sins. Matthew 10, verses 32 and 33 says this, Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. But whoso shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. One writer put it this way in reference to these two verses. He said Christ confession of his own at his coming will depend upon their confession of him on earth and how true that that is. So notice with me in the book of Romans. Now we do find those that had sinned, and they confessed their sins, and God showed mercy on them, forgiveness, peace, joy, things of that nature. One is the prodigal son in Luke chapter 15. We see how that he rebelled against his father, rebelled against God, and he came to repentance. We also find that as Jonah in the book of Jonah in chapter three, we find that, she's a chapter two or three or both, we find that Nineveh repented and God spared them for many, many years after that. Then in 2 Chronicles 33 verses 12 and 13, Manassas. He was one of the most wickedest kings of the children of Israel and God brought him to a place of repentance and later restored him to the throne. Now the word confess means to admit, it means to acknowledge, or to say the same thing, that is, to say the same thing that God has said. In other words, when we confess, we're saying what God said about Christ and about who that He is, what He accomplished, but we're also confessing or admitting or saying the same thing about ourselves. We have a sin nature. We also sin ourselves. We've sinned and rebelled against God. So to confess means to admit or to acknowledge, to say the same thing that God has said, whether it be about himself or his son or about us, and it has the ideal of to agree with, to concede, or to face the facts. And we see that confession is clearly associated with repentance, would you not agree, as we come to the scripture. Now notice in Romans chapter 10, I'm gonna read it verse 9 through 11, all of you can quote this, right? We use this in our witnessing. I use this, I used this this past week while we were away a few times. But notice as we read verses 9 through 11, He said that, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. There's many other good thoughts in these verses, especially verse 13. But notice here we see it's necessary, confession is necessary for salvation and to have a right relationship with God. Verse 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus shall believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved. Verse 9, to confess Christ as Lord is to confess our need for salvation from sin. We also find, verses 9 through 13, we see here freedom from judgment. As a person comes and confesses Christ as their Savior, they're confessing that they need a Savior, and we find here freedom from judgment. But notice in verse 10, he said, For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. With the heart we have understanding. With the mouth, we have acknowledgement. The Bible tells us out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. So we find here the mouth and the heart are associated with this. Again, understanding in the heart, acknowledgement or confession with the mouth. But notice in verse 11, he said, for the scripture saith, now he's quoting from Isaiah 28 in verse 16. And I'll just read that for you before we read verse 11. Isaiah chapter 28 in verse 16 we have these words, Therefore thus saith the Lord God, behold I lay in Zion, that's Jerusalem, for a foundation, a stone, that's Christ, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation, he that believeth on him shall not make haste. Now, when he says he shall not make haste, this is used in the New Testament, in Matthew, and Romans 9, and Romans 10, 1 Peter 3, and a few other places. And there's different words that are used. But when he says in Isaiah that those who believe on Christ, this stone, shall not make haste, that means that they shall not take flight when trouble comes. They shall not be ashamed. They shall have no doubts. They will not be disappointed, confounded, or alarmed. In other words, they'll have peace in their heart, that peace you were talking about before the service started, Brother Avery. Well, notice verse 11 now in Romans 10, for the scripture says, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Shall not be ashamed. In other words, we will not come into condemnation or be confounded be full of doubts or disappointments, or make haste. In other words, we will have peace in our heart because we've confessed Christ as Savior, admitting that we're sinners in need of salvation. So verse 11, For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. Notice we're in James chapter 5. James chapter 5. I'm going to be reading from verses 13 through 18, but verse 16 is the verse I'm after here tonight. Notice in verse 13, Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any married? Let him sing psalms. Is any sick among you? Let him call for the elders of the church and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith shall save the sick, and the Lord shall raise him up. And if he hath committed sins, they shall be forgiven. him confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that ye may be healed the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much elias this is elijah the old testament elias was a man subject to lack compassion as we are and he prayed earnestly that it might not rain and it rained not on the earth by the space of three years and six months. And he prayed again, and the heaven gave rain, and the earth brought forth her fruit. Now again, this passage is dealing with prayer. But I wanna come back to verse 16, and I want you to notice he mentions about confessing faults. Now think about this. Proverbs 28, 13, and other places, we're to confess our sins to God. But in James 5 and verse 16, we're to confess our faults to one another. Confess sins to God and our faults to one another. He said in verse 16, confess your faults one to another and pray for one another that you may be healed. The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Confessing faults, that is mutual confessing of our faults to one another, that is reconciling of offenses against one another. This is a beautiful practice of the primitive church, the early church, as we began reading in the book of Acts and chapter 1 and chapter 2. One writer said this, he said, Our religious life is not an isolated thing, for we are all members of one body, the community of faith. And he quotes 1 Corinthians 12. Another quote I'll give you before we turn to her last passage is, I don't even know the author, I didn't write this down a number of years ago, but it says, Biblical confession is not limited to confession of sins, but also confession of faith and confession of praise and thanksgiving, given 1 Timothy 6, 12 and Hebrews 1 and in verse 1. Well, notice as we will bring this to a close, 1 John. I'm coming to 1 John, and I'll be reading in chapter 1. 1 John, chapter 1. And again, I hope this is a help. We preached on this about three years ago, a sermon titled, Confessing Our Sins, I believe was the title of it. Notice in 1 John 1, first of all, let us read in verse 9. In verse 9, he said, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's a wonderful verse, isn't it? Even as a Christian, we have the promise that if we confess our sins, that the Lord will forgive us of those sins and keep that close communion and fellowship with God. You'll notice here in this passage, and I'm gonna quote another author in reference to verse nine, confessing our sins. He said, the object of the apostle is to show that it is implied in the very nature of the gospel that we are sinners, and to deny this is to deceive ourselves. Now we read verse eight. In verse 8, he said, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Verse 8 seems to be talking about the sin nature, who we are by birth, and that we have a corrupt nature. And it'd be like somebody saying, I'm okay. and I have no need of salvation. I'm not a sinner like others. This seems to be talking about, again, the sin nature, and verse 10 seems to be talking about specific sins, the sins that we commit. So in verse 8, if we say that we have no sin, that is, my opinion, sin nature, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. How many times have you witnessed and somebody say, oh, I'm okay. I'm just good as the next person. Well, you are because they're going to hell if they don't get saved. How many times have you ever had that to happen? Many times if you do very much witnessing. So verse 8, if we say that we have no sin, that is a sin in nature, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Now verse 9, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. His blood cleanses us from past sins as well as daily cleansing as a Christian. Now verse 10 seems to me, I could be wrong, but it seems to be talking about specific sins. So this covering everything, the sin nature, and then the sins that we commit. Verse 10, if we say that we have not sinned, specific sins, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. And if we were to back up and begin reading in verse one through seven, since we've read these, and I'll just call on one tonight to pray, and to keep a little shorter, I wanna finish this, okay? But notice as we read from verses one through seven, it speaks of our fellowship with God, and with His Son, and also with one another. The importance of this. Notice as we read again, chapter 1 is our relationship and fellowship with God, one another, as we walk in the light. Verse 1, that which is from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the word of life. For the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and show unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. that which we have seen talking about the apostles that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the father and with his son jesus christ and these things right we and you that your joy may be full that is complete and perfect This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is a light, we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son, cleanses us from all sin. Notice that fellowship with God the Father, with God the Son, and he never omits the fellowship that we have with one another. We see this, and I've mentioned this a lot in the last six weeks, just studying in Ephesians. So what we have in verses one through seven speaks of our relationship and our fellowship with God, with the Son, with one another as we walk in the light. But notice as we come to chapter two, I'm gonna read verse one and two in verse 12. and we'll actually close in this particular passage, but chapter two is simply a continuation of all that we've read in chapter one regarding our fellowship of the Father and the Son, and it requires us taking sin seriously so that we can have that fellowship. Notice as we come here reading verse one and two in verse 12, he said, my little children, These things, write I to you, that you sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He is the perpetuation for our sins and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. Verse 12, I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake. When he uses the word little children, this is a tender term referring to the saints of God. And you notice as we come back to verse one and two of chapter two, we find that these statements, there's a good balance here in the context of chapter one of confessing. We find that in chapter two and verse one, He speaks of the fact that if you, I'm sorry, that you sin not. That's the first thing he said. He said in verse one, my little children, these things write on you that you sin not. That you sin not. In other words, don't make excuses for sin. But he also says this, if any man sin, In verse 1, middle of that verse, if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, verse 2, and he is the propitiation for our sins, not for our sins only, but also for the sins of the whole world. So he says, that you sin not, don't make excuses for it. Then he says, if any man sin, knowing that it's very possible. In other words, he's saying to us, don't become hopeless. Some take sin lightly, but also some despair in their sin. And what we find here, if we fail and we do, we fail there is hope, we're not forsaken by God as believers. In other words, Jesus is our advocate and our propitiation. These are two major doctrines in the Word of God. In verse 1 he is our advocate. If we sin and We have an advocate with the Father, that is the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, we have someone who represents us, the comforter. And this word is only used once here, the word advocate in the scripture, but it's a major doctrine. And not only that, perpetuation. This word here is only used three times in the New Testament in Romans 3 and in 1 John 2 here and also 1 John chapter 4. And this word, I got fascinated with this word and this doctrine about the mid-1980s when I was pastoring in another town. And the word perpetuation means to appease. It means, the best word synonym to use for a definition is to satisfy. It means to satisfy an offended party. In other words, Christ became, He's not only our advocate now at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us, but He is our propitiation. In other words, He became our substitute and He appeased the wrath of God. In other words, we never have to experience God's wrath. So I leave this with you tonight that even as a Christian, The reason that we're to confess and forsake our sins is so that we can prosper, so that we can have fellowship with God, walk within His will, have the peace in our hearts. I know we have that peace when we get saved, but also that peace that we have on a daily basis. Again, sin can rob us of our joy. of our peace, of our prayer life, it can rob us of spiritual strength. David, as a child of God, he became very miserable when he had not confessed his sin before a holy and a righteous God. Would you stand with me, please? Father, we thank you tonight again for this wonderful privilege, and Lord, I do call it a privilege, that we can come into thy house and fellowship with thy people. Lord, sing the songs of Zion, look into your word, pray together, and Lord, we thank you for this. And Lord, we pray tonight for all the prayer requests that'll be lifted up in the closing prayer. We thank you for your love and kindness and mercy to us. Lord, help us as Christians to stay close to thee and to stay close to one another. We ask all of these things in Christ Jesus' name we pray, amen.