Shall Not Prosper (II)
This is a transcript. It may contain small inaccuracies.
So we have been considering this text together for the past two Lord's Days, and we have sought to open up the text by making some general observations, and three of them to be more specific. And I'm just going to mention them just to refresh our memory. And the first one is that this text really is universally extensive. It applies to everyone at all times. It is absolutely binding to everyone at all times, and it is definitively applied. It has to do with this matter of the transgression. This sin, the kind of sin, which is open rebellion. Open rebellion. High-handed rejection of God's word, disobedience, against a known precept of the living God.
Then we began an exposition under the specific explanation, an exposition of the negative statement of the text, where it divides itself into negative and positive. And the first portion is the negative: "He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper." You remember we dealt with question number one: What does it mean to cover transgression? And it simply means, upon the discovery of sin, the knowledge of sin, upon the discovery of transgression, to refuse a full, honest confession of that sin before God. It is to refuse to seek forgiveness Godward and, where necessary, manward.
And then we dealt with the second question: What do men do to attempt to cover their sin, to conceal their sin, their transgression? And we saw biblical examples of various ways in which men attempt to cover, to conceal their transgressions. And just again, I'll mention simply the statements, the examples, the various cloaks by which men seek to conceal their transgressions: the cloak of silence in Psalm 32; the cloak of transfer of responsibility and guilt—you know, blame shifting—in Genesis 3; the cloak of rationalization in 1 Samuel 15; the covering of religious activity as in Mark 12 and Isaiah 58. And then, of course, you have the covering, the garb of misconceptions of God in Psalm 50. And then you have the covering of the framing of lies, as in the case of Cain, Joseph's brethren as well, and others.
We then considered the third question, question number three: What is the result of the concealing of transgressions? What is the result of that? And the result is stated in the simple words, "shall not prosper." End of the first part of the verse: "He who conceals his sins will not prosper," "shall not prosper." And the general meaning of the word "prosper" has to do with the concept of flourishing, faring well, succeeding, obtaining success. And so Solomon says the man who covers his transgressions, no matter what covering he uses, he shall not have success, shall not fare well, he shall not flourish, he shall not prosper. And the words have to do with those things that are spiritual blessings, without which a man cannot truly live now and without which he cannot really face the world to come.
We then consider the question: What do those words mean in relationship to the unconverted, those who are outside of Christ? And we saw from Scripture together that this meant at least a number of very frightening things. It means that they shall not prosper now, nor shall they prosper in the future. They will know nothing of a pacified conscience through the blood of Christ, nothing of the peculiar joys of the people of God. And then in the future, they shall die without the comforts of Christ and go to judgment without the protection and the advocacy of Jesus Christ. And then they will pass into the everlasting state without the presence of Christ to become an eternal exposition of the meaning of the text. And I'm talking, when I say "without the presence of Christ," I'm talking about fellowship, communion, and intimacy. "He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper."
And having considered how it is that the unconverted who cover their sins and their transgressions do not and cannot prosper, we began last Lord's Day to consider the application of the text to the converted, the people of God. And we just touched—really, we introduced—the first one last Lord's Day evening. It is tragic, a tragic reality, come to think of it, that the people of God, the converted, those who are bought with the precious blood of Jesus, are also involved in this dastardly work of making coverings for their sins at times.
And let me pause for a minute and underscore what I mean when I say the application of the text to the converted, the people of God. To the people of God, I mean nothing less than those who are born of God, born from above, those who, in the language of the Apostle Paul, have been made new creatures in Christ through union with Jesus Christ.
I'm not speaking of those who have merely made a profession of faith in Christ, who have merely conformed to a religious heritage that has brought them into proximity with the people of God, nor am I referring to those who simply engage in a certain number of religious duties that are connected with the church of Christ. When I use the term "converted" or "the people of God," I mean nothing more or less than those men and women, boys and girls, who by the work of the Spirit of God through the Word, have been brought to a conscious awareness of what they truly are by nature. And what are they by nature? Lost, rebel, guilty, undone sinners, who by the same Spirit, the same Word, have been brought to that glorious discovery of God's way for pardoning sins and sinners through the work of Jesus Christ.
And by the same Word and Spirit—Spirit of God—not only have they made that discovery of their desperate need and that discovery of God's remedy for their need to be found in Christ exclusively, but they have been brought, in the language of Acts 20 and verse 21, to deep inward repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They have been constituted new creatures in Christ. That's what I mean by the converted. That's what the Bible means by the converted, the people of God, because that's what the Scripture means when it speaks of such. Now it is to such people, those who have had that new principle implanted within that commits them to righteousness and holiness and Christ-likeness—to pursue that, to have the beginnings of God's mighty work in conforming them to the moral likeness of Jesus Christ. That's who we're referring to.
It is to such people who are the recipients of such mercies, who have such glorious destiny, but—shame of shames, shame of shames—are yet guilty of covering their transgressions. And whenever they do, the people of God will find this text coming down upon them with inescapable authority: "He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper." Even though he's a child of God, he shall not prosper. Last week we began to consider some of the ways in which a child of God does not prosper when he covers his transgression. And as I thought about this again this week, I really want to do so under the concept of forfeiture. Forfeiture.
Let me explain. As I was preparing for this week, I really sought a word that would most powerfully and clearly set forth the teaching of the Word of God. And the word that I was fixed upon is this word: forfeiture. Now when you forfeit something, you give up something, right? You relinquish something because of a crime or a fault or neglect. You're guilty. And so when the child of God covers his transgressions, his non-prospering is seen primarily in terms of—I want us to think beyond a loss to forfeiture. He forfeits it.
And the first one, so we can put it this way, that we looked at, we began to look at last Lord's Day, is that the—and this is perhaps most important—is this: that there will be the forfeiture of the enjoyment of God. There'll be the forfeiture of the enjoyment of God. Last week I said "the loss." I want to change that word "loss" to "forfeiture of the enjoyment of God." And we looked at that. We began to look at that together.
Psalm 51, verse 8. David, in this psalm of confession, this penitent psalm, "Make me to hear joy and gladness. Let the bones which You have crushed rejoice." See, there was a total loss of the enjoyment of God as long as he kept silent. This is the same psalmist who could say, "In Your presence is fullness of joy" (Psalm 16:11). And if that is true, then the opposite is true. In Your absence is full—what? Misery. And for the Christian, there's nothing more tragic, more painful than the loss of the enjoyment of God. It lies at the root of most prayerlessness and most neglect of Scripture. Because you have this mirror, you don't want to be exposed, right? So you just don't have the appetite for it. You avoid it.
In the second place—and I must say, I mean, this is really closely connected—and I was wrestling whether to keep it under the same heading, but I just want to expand on it. You can see it as a double-sided coin with the first consequence for a child of God covering his transgression. So we can put it this way: there will be, as fulfillment of this text, also the forfeiture of joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. There will be the forfeiture of joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. And they're closely connected. But I want to elaborate a little bit. This is quite important for us.
Next to love, these are the great fruits of the Spirit. One of the great truths of Galatians 5, verse 22—we read, "The fruit of the Spirit is" what? "Love, joy, peace." You see them closely connected. See how they're put at the top of the list? You find a similar centrality of emphasis in the passage, the likes of Romans 14 and verse 17. And you remember in that context, Paul is treating the whole subject of Christian liberty and of things indifferent, and what a Christian ought to do with things that are not clearly condemned by the law of God.
And in this setting, the things were external matters. And Paul wants to inject a principle that ought to govern all such discussion. And so he says this, Romans 14:17: "For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking." It doesn't consist, in other words, in these external things. But, he says, this is what it consists of: "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." “Righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”.
You see, the predominant characteristic of those who have been introduced to the kingdom of God is that they stand upon the ground of an imputed and alien righteousness in the favour of God. And they have the inward delight of joy and peace imparted by God the Holy Spirit. And when the child of the kingdom transgresses and does not flee to Christ for cleansing and have his conscience sprinkled afresh, sprinkled anew, what happens? What happens in that instance? There's the forfeiture of that joy and peace of the Holy Spirit.
A classic example, of course, is given to us in none other than David, King David. David, whose psalms are full of joy and peace, which are really the hallmark of those in the kingdom of righteousness. What happens? What happens to those commodities that are found again and again in psalm after psalm after psalm? When David sinned, you remember, we find in the language of Psalm 32 that they were the forfeiture of this joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. Turn with me to Psalm 32. Notice the language of Psalm 32, one of David's great penitential psalms. In the first two verses, he speaks of the blessedness of those whose sins have been covered by God. But then he reflects upon the misery of those who cover their own sins and will not confess them and will not forsake them.
Notice how vigorous is the language. Look at verse 3: "When I kept silent about my sin." “When I kept silent”. There was not that agreeing with God about the heinous nature of his sin. There was no confession. There was no brokenness that led to confession. There was casting over the cloak of silence, of rationalization to cover it. "When I kept silent about my sin," what happened? "My bones wasted away through my groaning all day long." Now watch this: "For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the heat of summer."
See what he said. In place of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, there was what? Misery, disturbance, and inward disruption of the soul. There was agony, inward disruption of the soul. He describes his condition in the language of groaning all day long. Groaning. Think about this. All you need to do is hear a person groan once a day and that's enough to help you really never forget it. The groan of pain, the groan of disappointment, or the news of some tragedy.
What he said, he groaned not just once a day, but the whole day, the entire day. And it was so opposite of his state of joy that he said his vitality was changed into the drought of summer. When a man cries himself until there are no more tears to come out, he has nothing but the dry sobs of a broken spirit, shattered spirit. What happened? Oh, he sinned. He transgressed. And instead of confessing and forsaking his sin, his transgression, what did he do? He covered it. He covered it. And in covering it, God said, "He who concealed his transgressions shall not prosper." And so he forfeited joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.
Mark it well, mark it well, dear child of God, no true joy and peace will ever be found but in righteousness and the true penitence that leads to righteousness. Now there's a false peace and false joy that bypasses and honours dealing with sin. The heart is deceitful. This is one of the major complaints against modern movements that claim to have a monopoly on the work of the Holy Spirit and get people all happy and joyous and excited and mushy and syrupy and all of that, you know. They do not deal with sin. They avoid dealing with sin. Replace it with an experience, seek an experience.
And as one of the writers said, it will be like having gin in your orange juice. And they talk about tingles down up your spine and when someone lays hands upon you and the feeling of what they call liquid love flowing over you. But here's the question: where is the dealing with sin? If you forfeited joy and peace because of sin, there's no way to its restoration but to go to the place where the Spirit of joy and peace was grieved and renew communication of those blessed commodities. And having dealt with those points of controversy, dealings with God, then plea that the Spirit of God will impart those graces again.
And isn't that what we find in Psalm 51? Look at the language. Psalm 51. Psalm 51. David having owned his sin, which is right after Nathan said to him, "You're the man, David," and David said, "I have sinned." Having owned his sin, and not until then, not until then, mark it, not until then. The first seven verses are preoccupied with the reality and the ugliness and the guilt of sin.
If you look at the first seven verses, what do you have? I mean, you can see him preoccupied with the reality and the ugliness and the guilt of sin. "My transgressions," he says, "my iniquity, my sin." In other words, my guilt, my wickedness, my uncleanness. Verse 7, "Purify me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." Then and only then would he pray for the restoration of joy.
Now he dares to say in verse 8, "Make me to hear joy and gladness, let the bones which You have crushed rejoice." Oh Lord, it was my transgression that brought the forfeiture of joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. David knew that to seek the restoration of joy without dealing with the occasions of its forfeiture was to try to make mockery of God. And dear one, you could try to encourage yourself—or to put it this way, to chuck yourself under the chin with a hundred verses from a promise box that is supposed to make you happy and feel good. But if you're covering sin, you shall not prosper in having true joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. It'd be like a band-aid solution.
Now false peace can be conjured up by the flesh as well as promoted by false prophets. You just read the book of Jeremiah and you see that Jeremiah's great complaint was every time he tried to tell people, you've warned them concerning what is impending. I mean, you've got peace, but that's not peace, he tells them. He warns them against this false peace. He says, you've got peace—well, it's not really peace. It's not the peace that is “kissing righteousness”, to use the language of Psalm 85, the psalm that was read in your hearing earlier in verse 10.
The false prophets came along and, in the language of Jeremiah, said, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace (Jeremiah 6:14). You better fear peace and joy that are divorced from righteousness as much as you fear hell itself, because "he who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper."
Child of God, may I ask you this evening, what sin is worth the broken bones of forfeited peace? If "the joy of the Lord is our strength," in the language of Nehemiah 8:10, then the absence of that joy is what? Our weakness.
What sin is worth being so weak, so crippled? I plead with us, all of us, including myself, hear the Word of God from the pen of Solomon: "He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will receive compassion."
Thirdly, the child of God shall not prosper when he covers his transgressions, because he comes to the forfeiture of access to God in prayer. The forfeiture of access to God in prayer. When the child of God sins, transgresses—particularly in the area of transgression, conscious of his area of transgression against the law of God—and he does not immediately flee for cleansing to the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, and renewing, quickening by the Spirit of Christ, one of the first ways in which he no longer prospers is precisely in this area. There's the forfeiture of access to God in prayer.
No privilege, no privilege of the child of God is of greater worth to him than the liberty of access to his God in prayer in the Spirit of Sonship. Listen to the Word of God. Galatians 4:4, "And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father." And one of the surest marks that you are a Christian, a true Christian, is that when I say something like there's no privilege of greater worth to the Christian than the privilege of access to God in prayer, your heart leaps out and says a spontaneous, Amen. It is so.
What is wealth? What is health if there's a brassy heaven? But if there's an open heaven so that when we pray, we are conscious of having access to God, entering into the most intimate form of communion possible to the sons of men here upon the earth, we are conscious of the unspeakable privilege of that access—that God hears us, God inclines His ear. He delights to hear the prayers of His children.
But, and here we must be careful to understand the teaching of the Word of God and follow closely, beloved. This is really important. Though the ground of this access to God in prayer is outside of us, in Christ, the condition of that access is a good conscience within us. Let me say that again. Though the ground of this access is outside of us, it is in Christ. The condition of that access is a good conscience within us.
Turn please to 1 John 3:21. And I want us to see this connection. 1 John chapter 3 in verse 21. We read the following, beloved: "If our heart does not condemn us” - right?- “If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God and whatever we ask, we receive from Him because." Because. Here's a cause-effect relationship. "Because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight." You see it? See what John is saying?
Now John is not saying that we have built up a certain amount of merit by our own obedience that now makes our obedience the ground of access to God in prayer. No, no. It's not what he's saying. Remember, it's John who recorded the words of Jesus: "I am the way, the truth, and life. No one comes to the Father but through Me." It is John who said, "We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 2:1–2). No, no. John has not forgotten his theology of the objective provision for sinners—being found in Christ and Christ alone in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
But John is saying that there's an inward personal condition if that access is to be enjoyed. And here it is: "If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask, we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight." And what is the opposite of keeping His commandments? Well, surely it is covering our transgressions. For whenever sin or transgression is detected in a believer, the commandment of God comes home to his conscience that he is to confess that transgression. He is to turn from it. He is to acknowledge it before his God and seek cleansing in the blood of Jesus.
Therefore, when our text says, "He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper," in its application to the child of God, it is saying this: Child of God, when you transgress, and rather than go through whatever kind of spiritual agony is necessary to come to true confession before God—and where necessary, before men—anything short of that, you're covering your sin. And you're covering your sin and covering your sin, you shall not prosper. There will be the forfeiture of access to God in prayer.
The psalmist stated it in those well-known words in Psalm 66:18, "If I see wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear." The Lord will not hear. If I see—that is, if I am conscious of its presence—but I throw the blanket of rationalization over it, I throw the blanket of shifted responsibility, I throw the covering of a lie, I throw the covering of refusing to drag it out into the blazing light of the law and the gospel. If I regard iniquity, if I countenance iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.
Now, I did not say that God will paralyze a Christian so that he cannot say a prayer. Many of us have gone to our closet many times to say our prayers, that prayer closet, but there's been no access. There's been no experimental communion with God. Why? Because God is going to be true to His Word: "He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper." And because we've covered transgression, regarded iniquity, God has refused to us the blessing of access.
There's no Christian who has walked with God for any length of time at all who does not know to his bitterness how real this is. He attempts to draw near to God and do something more than say his prayers. He wants to engage God in prayer. He wants access, and every time he gets down to serious business with God, as it were, that sin that he's been covering, that transgression that he knows he's been really covering, looms before him, really just gnawing his conscience.
Perhaps you are a living monument of the text. You're covering transgression. Oh yes, there's been some clever rationalization. There's been some very, you know, delicate, fancy footwork as you've woven your lies, perhaps as you spun out that very clever shifting of responsibility, but you're covering your transgression. You're a living monument to this text: "shall not prosper." Why? For some of you, perhaps, maybe, it's been weeks and months since you've accessed God in prayer that you once knew in the past. And now you say your prayers, but you have no access. Why? Because, beloved, God's Word is true: "He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper."
Child of God, this text is for our warning. Is anything worth the forfeiture of access to God in prayer? Is anything worth that? Not if you've tasted it. Not if you've really tasted it.
Well, that leads us to the fourth way this manifests itself or the consequence. There will be the forfeiture of usefulness in the service of God. There'll be the forfeiture of usefulness in the service of God. Psalm 51:12–13, David again in that psalm, "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation. Sustain me with a willing spirit. Then"—right?—"Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will be converted to You."
The Lord Jesus said to Peter in Luke 22:31, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat. But I have prayed earnestly for you that your faith may not fail. And you, once you have returned"—that is, when you have turned again, when you are brought to deal honestly with your sin of denial—He says, "strengthen your brothers." Usefulness. "Restore to me, then I shall teach." "Once you have returned, strengthen your brothers."
When we begin to understand the clear teaching of Scripture—that every member of the body has a distinct and special function of ministry, both to the saints and to the world—what a tragic thing it is when sin is being covered, when transgression is being concealed. For whenever there is the covering of sin, there is no prosperity. You shall not prosper, child of God. There will be loss—the loss of usefulness in the service of God. There will be inability to see needs that you, under God, are able to meet. Or, if there is ability to see it, there will be no heart to meet it. And if there is ability to see and a heart to meet, there will be no enablement from the Holy Spirit to perform. And without all three, there is no true ministry.
"He that conceals his transgressions shall not prosper." The loss of enjoyment, the loss of joy and peace in the Holy Spirit, the loss of usefulness in the service of God.
Fifthly, there may be the forfeiture of assurance that one is a child of God. The forfeiture of assurance that one is a child of God. David had to pray in verse 11 and 12 in Psalm 51, "Do not cast me away from Your presence. Do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation."
And again, I must say this, even though we've been studying John together and marvelous truth that we've studied again and again and again, let us be crystal clear again. The Scripture never teaches that a child of God ever falls away from grace. What God begins, He completes. We're saved forever. But my assurance that I'm in a state of grace can fluctuate due to my covering of sin.
And if we know our Bible, we know that our Scripture teaches that no Christian lives under the dominion of any sin. He's fighting sin. He's engaged in a battle. He may fall into sin, but he does not live in the dominion of any sin. Sin no longer reigns in us. It remains in us. There's the remains of sin, but it doesn't reign.
For you see, when there's a sin that's been covered for a period of time, then you have reason to begin to question, is that merely the fall of a man in grace? Or is that the revelation that there's no grace to begin with? And a man's assurance will be what? Shaken. And when a man of God who's known true assurance has that assurance shaken, he's like Bunyan's pilgrim when he lost his roll. He was filled with grief and sought it with tears until he found it again and placed it in his bosom.
If you have known a well-grounded biblical assurance based upon the sure promises of God's mercy to those who believe in Christ—an assurance based not only on the objective promises, but the evidences of a transformed life and the witness of the Spirit of God— I mean you could draw very little comfort from the objective promises when your life is questionable and when a grieved Spirit withdraws His presence in terms of His favor and power upon your life.
Now, the way you're going to start back is to hold tight to His promises when you're prepared to deal and have dealings with God concerning your sin. But you're trying to suck sweetness from the promises while you're still covering your transgression, dear one. You're turning the grace of God into a license to sin. And the conscience of a Christian when he's wrestling with some concealed transgression will try to get adjusted so it may find comfort in the promises and in the doctrine of the preservation of the saints. And that, beloved, is a butchering of the intent for which God gave those promises. They were meant to encourage us in the pursuit of holiness, not in the clinging to sin.
Am I talking tonight to someone who has known the blessed assurance of his standing—grace—but who this evening, under the convicting power of the Spirit of God, sees that the whole issue is up for questions? Why? Because sin has been covered. Sin is being covered.
In the sixth place, the child of God shall not prosper in that he will not only forfeit the enjoyment of God, forfeit joy and peace in the Holy Spirit, forfeit access to God in prayer, forfeit usefulness in the service of God, forfeit his assurance that he's a child of God. I mean, you could see the consequences. Is it worth it? But also, he will provoke the rod of God. He will provoke the rod of God.
Turn to Psalm 32. Look at verse 3 and 4: "When I kept silent about my sin, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For.” - See that little word For? It's really key.- “For day and night, Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the heat of summer."
Listen to what one commentator writes concerning this little word "for" here in this context: "'For,’ and I quote, explains why David wasted and groaned. It was retributive punishment directly from God. God's finger can crush us. What must His hand be? And pressing heavily and continuously. Under terrors of conscience, men have little rest by night, for the grim thoughts of the day dog them to their chambers and haunt their dreams, or else they lie awake in a cold sweat of dread." And he ends with this: "God's hand is very helpful when it uplifts, but it is awful when it presses down. Better a world on the shoulder like Atlas than God's hand on the heart like David." End of quote.
When you're dealing with a Christian—1 Corinthians 11—God determines that he shall not continue to cover his sin, that his sin shall be brought into the open, that he shall be brought back into the way of pursuing a life of holiness. And so Paul there in 1 Corinthians 11, dealing with the specific sins of the Corinthians, he writes this in verse 30: "For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world."
In other words, you Corinthians, by the sins you've committed, the sins you've covered, you provoke the rod of God's chastisement, God's discipline. And some of you are afflicted physically. You're weak. You're sickly. You find yourself afflicted with physical maladies. And some are, in fact, asleep. That is, they've come to death because God is so determined that He won't let you continue down that path, no longer bring reproach to His name by the sin that you've been covering.
Child of God, do you have a healthy fear of God's rod of correction? Do you fear your Father's rod? God's spankings come with sufficient severity that the child of God has a wholesome fear of the rod of His heavenly Father—loving heavenly Father.
Now, word of caution—and we've seen this before—but again, it is important to underscore here: again, not all sickness is an expression of the rod of God due to sin covered or transgression concealed. Some sickness is evidence that a man is walking blamelessly before God, and Job is the classic example. He was afflicted not because he was covering his sin, but because of his godliness—that his love for God was not circumstantial.
And so we must not say that if we see someone constantly afflicted physically, "Aha, they must be concealing sin." No, no. You ask yourself when affliction comes, "Lord, is it because I fail to judge myself?" And God wants us to know—it's like a puzzle. It's not like a puzzle. It's not like He's trying to hide it from us. He wants us to see it and deal with it and have dealings with Him.
So we ask Him, "Is this evidence of the truth of Proverbs 28:13, that “he who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper?"” “Lord, am I weak, and am I dealing with all of this because I've covered transgression?” Let us judge ourselves before whose eyes all things are naked and open.
There are other manifestations of the fulfillment of this text, and I'll close with this tonight. "Shall not prosper" with respect to the present. And time will not permit us, but anyways, I want to close by saying that, child of God, you shall not prosper with respect to future prospect as well.
You cannot be covering sin and maintaining a joyful anticipation of the return of Christ. So we can put it this way: there will be the forfeiture of a joyful anticipation of the return of Christ.
You see, the two are utterly impossible—concealing sin and maintaining a joyful anticipation of the return of Christ. The two are impossible to maintain. Turn with me to 1 John 2:28, and we'll close with that tonight: "And now, little children,”- look at it - “Now, little children, abide in Him so that when He is manifested, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming."
You see it? You know, child of God, as well as you know your own name, that there will be no rationalization, there will be no transferal of responsibility, blame shifting, there will be no equivocation. If you're a child of God, if you're a Christian, you know when your eye meets the eye of the Son of God, whose eyes are like a flame of fire, all coverings will be consumed and you have to face your sin honestly.
If you're not living conscious that His eye is upon you—*Coram Deo*—so you can say, "Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus, to the best of my knowledge, anything that Your Word and Your Spirit have revealed to me as transgression, as sin, my posture towards it is full and open confession by Your grace. My disposition is one of turning away from it by Your grace."
If you can't say that, then you have no joyful anticipation of the return of Jesus. When you know you have a controversy with the Lord Jesus, there's no joyful anticipation when He comes to take His church. Joyful anticipation of the return of Christ as the motivational life of a child of God—one of the most powerful motivating elements for faithfulness, for diligence in service—that is cut by the concealing of transgression in the life of a child of God.
How often the New Testament epistles make reference to the hope of His coming, and how often is the driving motive in the life of a Christian the fact that His Lord is coming. And dear one, you have no joyful anticipation of His coming if you're covering transgression—none whatsoever. And that's just a preview of the shame that shall be your portion when you meet Him if your sin is concealed.
There is a biblical doctrine of rewards for faithfulness, and there will be loss of rewards for unfaithfulness. And I don't think we can fully grasp all that is involved in this doctrine, but this much we know for sure: if I'm covering my sin, if I'm concealing transgression, I shall not prosper. For I cannot receive the full reward of a well-accomplished stewardship if my usefulness in the service of God is crippled because I conceal transgression.
If I carry out my service with no enjoyment of God because I'm covering sin, if I try to serve God while my own assurance is shaken, if I'm lying beneath the rod of God's righteous discipline, how can I serve with the freedom of a freshly purged conscience? No wonder Paul said, "I also do my best," Acts 24:16. "I also do my best"—this is Paul speaking—"I also do my best to maintain always a conscience without fault, both before God and before men." To maintain a conscience free of offense, without fault, both before God and before men. Oh, the blessedness of having a conscience void of offense to God and to my fellow men.
How can I have a conscience without offense toward God? Only by the blood of sprinkling. Only by bringing my sins, my transgressions, my shortcomings, my offenses out of my coverings and concealments, and honestly, and with true transparency and humility, cry out before the living God, "Oh God, I have sinned. I have sinned against You, and You only have I sinned." And how do I have a conscience without offense toward my fellow man? Well, whenever my confession must be horizontal, I'm willing to humble myself and make that confession to my spouse, to my child, to my friend, to my brother, to my work colleague. It doesn't matter. If I need to make it, I'll make it. Because "he that covers transgressions shall not prosper."
Maybe conscience is very active in some here tonight. And maybe there flashed upon the screen of your mind right now is that thing that you're attempting to cover. Maybe that thing that you have been concealing. Oh dear one, cover it no more. Cover it no longer. Is it worth it? Come to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness. Tell Him—will you tell Him tonight—that He's found you? Tell Him He's found you. Tell Him you're weary of living as a Christian with no conscious enjoyment of the presence of God. Tell Him you're weary of living with shaken assurance. Aren't you tired to live with a shaken assurance? Aren't you exhausted with that?
Tell Him you're weary of living with no consciousness of being used of God. Tell Him. Tell Him you're weary of dreading the coming of the Lord to take His church. And say to Him, "Oh God, grant me the promised mercy. Renew a steadfast spirit within me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation."
Let's pray.
Then we began an exposition under the specific explanation, an exposition of the negative statement of the text, where it divides itself into negative and positive. And the first portion is the negative: "He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper." You remember we dealt with question number one: What does it mean to cover transgression? And it simply means, upon the discovery of sin, the knowledge of sin, upon the discovery of transgression, to refuse a full, honest confession of that sin before God. It is to refuse to seek forgiveness Godward and, where necessary, manward.
And then we dealt with the second question: What do men do to attempt to cover their sin, to conceal their sin, their transgression? And we saw biblical examples of various ways in which men attempt to cover, to conceal their transgressions. And just again, I'll mention simply the statements, the examples, the various cloaks by which men seek to conceal their transgressions: the cloak of silence in Psalm 32; the cloak of transfer of responsibility and guilt—you know, blame shifting—in Genesis 3; the cloak of rationalization in 1 Samuel 15; the covering of religious activity as in Mark 12 and Isaiah 58. And then, of course, you have the covering, the garb of misconceptions of God in Psalm 50. And then you have the covering of the framing of lies, as in the case of Cain, Joseph's brethren as well, and others.
We then considered the third question, question number three: What is the result of the concealing of transgressions? What is the result of that? And the result is stated in the simple words, "shall not prosper." End of the first part of the verse: "He who conceals his sins will not prosper," "shall not prosper." And the general meaning of the word "prosper" has to do with the concept of flourishing, faring well, succeeding, obtaining success. And so Solomon says the man who covers his transgressions, no matter what covering he uses, he shall not have success, shall not fare well, he shall not flourish, he shall not prosper. And the words have to do with those things that are spiritual blessings, without which a man cannot truly live now and without which he cannot really face the world to come.
We then consider the question: What do those words mean in relationship to the unconverted, those who are outside of Christ? And we saw from Scripture together that this meant at least a number of very frightening things. It means that they shall not prosper now, nor shall they prosper in the future. They will know nothing of a pacified conscience through the blood of Christ, nothing of the peculiar joys of the people of God. And then in the future, they shall die without the comforts of Christ and go to judgment without the protection and the advocacy of Jesus Christ. And then they will pass into the everlasting state without the presence of Christ to become an eternal exposition of the meaning of the text. And I'm talking, when I say "without the presence of Christ," I'm talking about fellowship, communion, and intimacy. "He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper."
And having considered how it is that the unconverted who cover their sins and their transgressions do not and cannot prosper, we began last Lord's Day to consider the application of the text to the converted, the people of God. And we just touched—really, we introduced—the first one last Lord's Day evening. It is tragic, a tragic reality, come to think of it, that the people of God, the converted, those who are bought with the precious blood of Jesus, are also involved in this dastardly work of making coverings for their sins at times.
And let me pause for a minute and underscore what I mean when I say the application of the text to the converted, the people of God. To the people of God, I mean nothing less than those who are born of God, born from above, those who, in the language of the Apostle Paul, have been made new creatures in Christ through union with Jesus Christ.
I'm not speaking of those who have merely made a profession of faith in Christ, who have merely conformed to a religious heritage that has brought them into proximity with the people of God, nor am I referring to those who simply engage in a certain number of religious duties that are connected with the church of Christ. When I use the term "converted" or "the people of God," I mean nothing more or less than those men and women, boys and girls, who by the work of the Spirit of God through the Word, have been brought to a conscious awareness of what they truly are by nature. And what are they by nature? Lost, rebel, guilty, undone sinners, who by the same Spirit, the same Word, have been brought to that glorious discovery of God's way for pardoning sins and sinners through the work of Jesus Christ.
And by the same Word and Spirit—Spirit of God—not only have they made that discovery of their desperate need and that discovery of God's remedy for their need to be found in Christ exclusively, but they have been brought, in the language of Acts 20 and verse 21, to deep inward repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They have been constituted new creatures in Christ. That's what I mean by the converted. That's what the Bible means by the converted, the people of God, because that's what the Scripture means when it speaks of such. Now it is to such people, those who have had that new principle implanted within that commits them to righteousness and holiness and Christ-likeness—to pursue that, to have the beginnings of God's mighty work in conforming them to the moral likeness of Jesus Christ. That's who we're referring to.
It is to such people who are the recipients of such mercies, who have such glorious destiny, but—shame of shames, shame of shames—are yet guilty of covering their transgressions. And whenever they do, the people of God will find this text coming down upon them with inescapable authority: "He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper." Even though he's a child of God, he shall not prosper. Last week we began to consider some of the ways in which a child of God does not prosper when he covers his transgression. And as I thought about this again this week, I really want to do so under the concept of forfeiture. Forfeiture.
Let me explain. As I was preparing for this week, I really sought a word that would most powerfully and clearly set forth the teaching of the Word of God. And the word that I was fixed upon is this word: forfeiture. Now when you forfeit something, you give up something, right? You relinquish something because of a crime or a fault or neglect. You're guilty. And so when the child of God covers his transgressions, his non-prospering is seen primarily in terms of—I want us to think beyond a loss to forfeiture. He forfeits it.
And the first one, so we can put it this way, that we looked at, we began to look at last Lord's Day, is that the—and this is perhaps most important—is this: that there will be the forfeiture of the enjoyment of God. There'll be the forfeiture of the enjoyment of God. Last week I said "the loss." I want to change that word "loss" to "forfeiture of the enjoyment of God." And we looked at that. We began to look at that together.
Psalm 51, verse 8. David, in this psalm of confession, this penitent psalm, "Make me to hear joy and gladness. Let the bones which You have crushed rejoice." See, there was a total loss of the enjoyment of God as long as he kept silent. This is the same psalmist who could say, "In Your presence is fullness of joy" (Psalm 16:11). And if that is true, then the opposite is true. In Your absence is full—what? Misery. And for the Christian, there's nothing more tragic, more painful than the loss of the enjoyment of God. It lies at the root of most prayerlessness and most neglect of Scripture. Because you have this mirror, you don't want to be exposed, right? So you just don't have the appetite for it. You avoid it.
In the second place—and I must say, I mean, this is really closely connected—and I was wrestling whether to keep it under the same heading, but I just want to expand on it. You can see it as a double-sided coin with the first consequence for a child of God covering his transgression. So we can put it this way: there will be, as fulfillment of this text, also the forfeiture of joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. There will be the forfeiture of joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. And they're closely connected. But I want to elaborate a little bit. This is quite important for us.
Next to love, these are the great fruits of the Spirit. One of the great truths of Galatians 5, verse 22—we read, "The fruit of the Spirit is" what? "Love, joy, peace." You see them closely connected. See how they're put at the top of the list? You find a similar centrality of emphasis in the passage, the likes of Romans 14 and verse 17. And you remember in that context, Paul is treating the whole subject of Christian liberty and of things indifferent, and what a Christian ought to do with things that are not clearly condemned by the law of God.
And in this setting, the things were external matters. And Paul wants to inject a principle that ought to govern all such discussion. And so he says this, Romans 14:17: "For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking." It doesn't consist, in other words, in these external things. But, he says, this is what it consists of: "righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." “Righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit”.
You see, the predominant characteristic of those who have been introduced to the kingdom of God is that they stand upon the ground of an imputed and alien righteousness in the favour of God. And they have the inward delight of joy and peace imparted by God the Holy Spirit. And when the child of the kingdom transgresses and does not flee to Christ for cleansing and have his conscience sprinkled afresh, sprinkled anew, what happens? What happens in that instance? There's the forfeiture of that joy and peace of the Holy Spirit.
A classic example, of course, is given to us in none other than David, King David. David, whose psalms are full of joy and peace, which are really the hallmark of those in the kingdom of righteousness. What happens? What happens to those commodities that are found again and again in psalm after psalm after psalm? When David sinned, you remember, we find in the language of Psalm 32 that they were the forfeiture of this joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. Turn with me to Psalm 32. Notice the language of Psalm 32, one of David's great penitential psalms. In the first two verses, he speaks of the blessedness of those whose sins have been covered by God. But then he reflects upon the misery of those who cover their own sins and will not confess them and will not forsake them.
Notice how vigorous is the language. Look at verse 3: "When I kept silent about my sin." “When I kept silent”. There was not that agreeing with God about the heinous nature of his sin. There was no confession. There was no brokenness that led to confession. There was casting over the cloak of silence, of rationalization to cover it. "When I kept silent about my sin," what happened? "My bones wasted away through my groaning all day long." Now watch this: "For day and night Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the heat of summer."
See what he said. In place of peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, there was what? Misery, disturbance, and inward disruption of the soul. There was agony, inward disruption of the soul. He describes his condition in the language of groaning all day long. Groaning. Think about this. All you need to do is hear a person groan once a day and that's enough to help you really never forget it. The groan of pain, the groan of disappointment, or the news of some tragedy.
What he said, he groaned not just once a day, but the whole day, the entire day. And it was so opposite of his state of joy that he said his vitality was changed into the drought of summer. When a man cries himself until there are no more tears to come out, he has nothing but the dry sobs of a broken spirit, shattered spirit. What happened? Oh, he sinned. He transgressed. And instead of confessing and forsaking his sin, his transgression, what did he do? He covered it. He covered it. And in covering it, God said, "He who concealed his transgressions shall not prosper." And so he forfeited joy and peace in the Holy Spirit.
Mark it well, mark it well, dear child of God, no true joy and peace will ever be found but in righteousness and the true penitence that leads to righteousness. Now there's a false peace and false joy that bypasses and honours dealing with sin. The heart is deceitful. This is one of the major complaints against modern movements that claim to have a monopoly on the work of the Holy Spirit and get people all happy and joyous and excited and mushy and syrupy and all of that, you know. They do not deal with sin. They avoid dealing with sin. Replace it with an experience, seek an experience.
And as one of the writers said, it will be like having gin in your orange juice. And they talk about tingles down up your spine and when someone lays hands upon you and the feeling of what they call liquid love flowing over you. But here's the question: where is the dealing with sin? If you forfeited joy and peace because of sin, there's no way to its restoration but to go to the place where the Spirit of joy and peace was grieved and renew communication of those blessed commodities. And having dealt with those points of controversy, dealings with God, then plea that the Spirit of God will impart those graces again.
And isn't that what we find in Psalm 51? Look at the language. Psalm 51. Psalm 51. David having owned his sin, which is right after Nathan said to him, "You're the man, David," and David said, "I have sinned." Having owned his sin, and not until then, not until then, mark it, not until then. The first seven verses are preoccupied with the reality and the ugliness and the guilt of sin.
If you look at the first seven verses, what do you have? I mean, you can see him preoccupied with the reality and the ugliness and the guilt of sin. "My transgressions," he says, "my iniquity, my sin." In other words, my guilt, my wickedness, my uncleanness. Verse 7, "Purify me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." Then and only then would he pray for the restoration of joy.
Now he dares to say in verse 8, "Make me to hear joy and gladness, let the bones which You have crushed rejoice." Oh Lord, it was my transgression that brought the forfeiture of joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. David knew that to seek the restoration of joy without dealing with the occasions of its forfeiture was to try to make mockery of God. And dear one, you could try to encourage yourself—or to put it this way, to chuck yourself under the chin with a hundred verses from a promise box that is supposed to make you happy and feel good. But if you're covering sin, you shall not prosper in having true joy and peace in the Holy Spirit. It'd be like a band-aid solution.
Now false peace can be conjured up by the flesh as well as promoted by false prophets. You just read the book of Jeremiah and you see that Jeremiah's great complaint was every time he tried to tell people, you've warned them concerning what is impending. I mean, you've got peace, but that's not peace, he tells them. He warns them against this false peace. He says, you've got peace—well, it's not really peace. It's not the peace that is “kissing righteousness”, to use the language of Psalm 85, the psalm that was read in your hearing earlier in verse 10.
The false prophets came along and, in the language of Jeremiah, said, "Peace, peace," when there is no peace (Jeremiah 6:14). You better fear peace and joy that are divorced from righteousness as much as you fear hell itself, because "he who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper."
Child of God, may I ask you this evening, what sin is worth the broken bones of forfeited peace? If "the joy of the Lord is our strength," in the language of Nehemiah 8:10, then the absence of that joy is what? Our weakness.
What sin is worth being so weak, so crippled? I plead with us, all of us, including myself, hear the Word of God from the pen of Solomon: "He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will receive compassion."
Thirdly, the child of God shall not prosper when he covers his transgressions, because he comes to the forfeiture of access to God in prayer. The forfeiture of access to God in prayer. When the child of God sins, transgresses—particularly in the area of transgression, conscious of his area of transgression against the law of God—and he does not immediately flee for cleansing to the blood of Jesus, the Lamb of God, and renewing, quickening by the Spirit of Christ, one of the first ways in which he no longer prospers is precisely in this area. There's the forfeiture of access to God in prayer.
No privilege, no privilege of the child of God is of greater worth to him than the liberty of access to his God in prayer in the Spirit of Sonship. Listen to the Word of God. Galatians 4:4, "And because you are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father." And one of the surest marks that you are a Christian, a true Christian, is that when I say something like there's no privilege of greater worth to the Christian than the privilege of access to God in prayer, your heart leaps out and says a spontaneous, Amen. It is so.
What is wealth? What is health if there's a brassy heaven? But if there's an open heaven so that when we pray, we are conscious of having access to God, entering into the most intimate form of communion possible to the sons of men here upon the earth, we are conscious of the unspeakable privilege of that access—that God hears us, God inclines His ear. He delights to hear the prayers of His children.
But, and here we must be careful to understand the teaching of the Word of God and follow closely, beloved. This is really important. Though the ground of this access to God in prayer is outside of us, in Christ, the condition of that access is a good conscience within us. Let me say that again. Though the ground of this access is outside of us, it is in Christ. The condition of that access is a good conscience within us.
Turn please to 1 John 3:21. And I want us to see this connection. 1 John chapter 3 in verse 21. We read the following, beloved: "If our heart does not condemn us” - right?- “If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God and whatever we ask, we receive from Him because." Because. Here's a cause-effect relationship. "Because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight." You see it? See what John is saying?
Now John is not saying that we have built up a certain amount of merit by our own obedience that now makes our obedience the ground of access to God in prayer. No, no. It's not what he's saying. Remember, it's John who recorded the words of Jesus: "I am the way, the truth, and life. No one comes to the Father but through Me." It is John who said, "We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 2:1–2). No, no. John has not forgotten his theology of the objective provision for sinners—being found in Christ and Christ alone in the finished work of Jesus Christ.
But John is saying that there's an inward personal condition if that access is to be enjoyed. And here it is: "If our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God. And whatever we ask, we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight." And what is the opposite of keeping His commandments? Well, surely it is covering our transgressions. For whenever sin or transgression is detected in a believer, the commandment of God comes home to his conscience that he is to confess that transgression. He is to turn from it. He is to acknowledge it before his God and seek cleansing in the blood of Jesus.
Therefore, when our text says, "He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper," in its application to the child of God, it is saying this: Child of God, when you transgress, and rather than go through whatever kind of spiritual agony is necessary to come to true confession before God—and where necessary, before men—anything short of that, you're covering your sin. And you're covering your sin and covering your sin, you shall not prosper. There will be the forfeiture of access to God in prayer.
The psalmist stated it in those well-known words in Psalm 66:18, "If I see wickedness in my heart, the Lord will not hear." The Lord will not hear. If I see—that is, if I am conscious of its presence—but I throw the blanket of rationalization over it, I throw the blanket of shifted responsibility, I throw the covering of a lie, I throw the covering of refusing to drag it out into the blazing light of the law and the gospel. If I regard iniquity, if I countenance iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear.
Now, I did not say that God will paralyze a Christian so that he cannot say a prayer. Many of us have gone to our closet many times to say our prayers, that prayer closet, but there's been no access. There's been no experimental communion with God. Why? Because God is going to be true to His Word: "He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper." And because we've covered transgression, regarded iniquity, God has refused to us the blessing of access.
There's no Christian who has walked with God for any length of time at all who does not know to his bitterness how real this is. He attempts to draw near to God and do something more than say his prayers. He wants to engage God in prayer. He wants access, and every time he gets down to serious business with God, as it were, that sin that he's been covering, that transgression that he knows he's been really covering, looms before him, really just gnawing his conscience.
Perhaps you are a living monument of the text. You're covering transgression. Oh yes, there's been some clever rationalization. There's been some very, you know, delicate, fancy footwork as you've woven your lies, perhaps as you spun out that very clever shifting of responsibility, but you're covering your transgression. You're a living monument to this text: "shall not prosper." Why? For some of you, perhaps, maybe, it's been weeks and months since you've accessed God in prayer that you once knew in the past. And now you say your prayers, but you have no access. Why? Because, beloved, God's Word is true: "He who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper."
Child of God, this text is for our warning. Is anything worth the forfeiture of access to God in prayer? Is anything worth that? Not if you've tasted it. Not if you've really tasted it.
Well, that leads us to the fourth way this manifests itself or the consequence. There will be the forfeiture of usefulness in the service of God. There'll be the forfeiture of usefulness in the service of God. Psalm 51:12–13, David again in that psalm, "Restore to me the joy of Your salvation. Sustain me with a willing spirit. Then"—right?—"Then I will teach transgressors Your ways, and sinners will be converted to You."
The Lord Jesus said to Peter in Luke 22:31, "Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded to sift all of you like wheat. But I have prayed earnestly for you that your faith may not fail. And you, once you have returned"—that is, when you have turned again, when you are brought to deal honestly with your sin of denial—He says, "strengthen your brothers." Usefulness. "Restore to me, then I shall teach." "Once you have returned, strengthen your brothers."
When we begin to understand the clear teaching of Scripture—that every member of the body has a distinct and special function of ministry, both to the saints and to the world—what a tragic thing it is when sin is being covered, when transgression is being concealed. For whenever there is the covering of sin, there is no prosperity. You shall not prosper, child of God. There will be loss—the loss of usefulness in the service of God. There will be inability to see needs that you, under God, are able to meet. Or, if there is ability to see it, there will be no heart to meet it. And if there is ability to see and a heart to meet, there will be no enablement from the Holy Spirit to perform. And without all three, there is no true ministry.
"He that conceals his transgressions shall not prosper." The loss of enjoyment, the loss of joy and peace in the Holy Spirit, the loss of usefulness in the service of God.
Fifthly, there may be the forfeiture of assurance that one is a child of God. The forfeiture of assurance that one is a child of God. David had to pray in verse 11 and 12 in Psalm 51, "Do not cast me away from Your presence. Do not take Your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation."
And again, I must say this, even though we've been studying John together and marvelous truth that we've studied again and again and again, let us be crystal clear again. The Scripture never teaches that a child of God ever falls away from grace. What God begins, He completes. We're saved forever. But my assurance that I'm in a state of grace can fluctuate due to my covering of sin.
And if we know our Bible, we know that our Scripture teaches that no Christian lives under the dominion of any sin. He's fighting sin. He's engaged in a battle. He may fall into sin, but he does not live in the dominion of any sin. Sin no longer reigns in us. It remains in us. There's the remains of sin, but it doesn't reign.
For you see, when there's a sin that's been covered for a period of time, then you have reason to begin to question, is that merely the fall of a man in grace? Or is that the revelation that there's no grace to begin with? And a man's assurance will be what? Shaken. And when a man of God who's known true assurance has that assurance shaken, he's like Bunyan's pilgrim when he lost his roll. He was filled with grief and sought it with tears until he found it again and placed it in his bosom.
If you have known a well-grounded biblical assurance based upon the sure promises of God's mercy to those who believe in Christ—an assurance based not only on the objective promises, but the evidences of a transformed life and the witness of the Spirit of God— I mean you could draw very little comfort from the objective promises when your life is questionable and when a grieved Spirit withdraws His presence in terms of His favor and power upon your life.
Now, the way you're going to start back is to hold tight to His promises when you're prepared to deal and have dealings with God concerning your sin. But you're trying to suck sweetness from the promises while you're still covering your transgression, dear one. You're turning the grace of God into a license to sin. And the conscience of a Christian when he's wrestling with some concealed transgression will try to get adjusted so it may find comfort in the promises and in the doctrine of the preservation of the saints. And that, beloved, is a butchering of the intent for which God gave those promises. They were meant to encourage us in the pursuit of holiness, not in the clinging to sin.
Am I talking tonight to someone who has known the blessed assurance of his standing—grace—but who this evening, under the convicting power of the Spirit of God, sees that the whole issue is up for questions? Why? Because sin has been covered. Sin is being covered.
In the sixth place, the child of God shall not prosper in that he will not only forfeit the enjoyment of God, forfeit joy and peace in the Holy Spirit, forfeit access to God in prayer, forfeit usefulness in the service of God, forfeit his assurance that he's a child of God. I mean, you could see the consequences. Is it worth it? But also, he will provoke the rod of God. He will provoke the rod of God.
Turn to Psalm 32. Look at verse 3 and 4: "When I kept silent about my sin, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For.” - See that little word For? It's really key.- “For day and night, Your hand was heavy upon me; my vitality was drained away as with the heat of summer."
Listen to what one commentator writes concerning this little word "for" here in this context: "'For,’ and I quote, explains why David wasted and groaned. It was retributive punishment directly from God. God's finger can crush us. What must His hand be? And pressing heavily and continuously. Under terrors of conscience, men have little rest by night, for the grim thoughts of the day dog them to their chambers and haunt their dreams, or else they lie awake in a cold sweat of dread." And he ends with this: "God's hand is very helpful when it uplifts, but it is awful when it presses down. Better a world on the shoulder like Atlas than God's hand on the heart like David." End of quote.
When you're dealing with a Christian—1 Corinthians 11—God determines that he shall not continue to cover his sin, that his sin shall be brought into the open, that he shall be brought back into the way of pursuing a life of holiness. And so Paul there in 1 Corinthians 11, dealing with the specific sins of the Corinthians, he writes this in verse 30: "For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world."
In other words, you Corinthians, by the sins you've committed, the sins you've covered, you provoke the rod of God's chastisement, God's discipline. And some of you are afflicted physically. You're weak. You're sickly. You find yourself afflicted with physical maladies. And some are, in fact, asleep. That is, they've come to death because God is so determined that He won't let you continue down that path, no longer bring reproach to His name by the sin that you've been covering.
Child of God, do you have a healthy fear of God's rod of correction? Do you fear your Father's rod? God's spankings come with sufficient severity that the child of God has a wholesome fear of the rod of His heavenly Father—loving heavenly Father.
Now, word of caution—and we've seen this before—but again, it is important to underscore here: again, not all sickness is an expression of the rod of God due to sin covered or transgression concealed. Some sickness is evidence that a man is walking blamelessly before God, and Job is the classic example. He was afflicted not because he was covering his sin, but because of his godliness—that his love for God was not circumstantial.
And so we must not say that if we see someone constantly afflicted physically, "Aha, they must be concealing sin." No, no. You ask yourself when affliction comes, "Lord, is it because I fail to judge myself?" And God wants us to know—it's like a puzzle. It's not like a puzzle. It's not like He's trying to hide it from us. He wants us to see it and deal with it and have dealings with Him.
So we ask Him, "Is this evidence of the truth of Proverbs 28:13, that “he who conceals his transgressions shall not prosper?"” “Lord, am I weak, and am I dealing with all of this because I've covered transgression?” Let us judge ourselves before whose eyes all things are naked and open.
There are other manifestations of the fulfillment of this text, and I'll close with this tonight. "Shall not prosper" with respect to the present. And time will not permit us, but anyways, I want to close by saying that, child of God, you shall not prosper with respect to future prospect as well.
You cannot be covering sin and maintaining a joyful anticipation of the return of Christ. So we can put it this way: there will be the forfeiture of a joyful anticipation of the return of Christ.
You see, the two are utterly impossible—concealing sin and maintaining a joyful anticipation of the return of Christ. The two are impossible to maintain. Turn with me to 1 John 2:28, and we'll close with that tonight: "And now, little children,”- look at it - “Now, little children, abide in Him so that when He is manifested, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming."
You see it? You know, child of God, as well as you know your own name, that there will be no rationalization, there will be no transferal of responsibility, blame shifting, there will be no equivocation. If you're a child of God, if you're a Christian, you know when your eye meets the eye of the Son of God, whose eyes are like a flame of fire, all coverings will be consumed and you have to face your sin honestly.
If you're not living conscious that His eye is upon you—*Coram Deo*—so you can say, "Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus, to the best of my knowledge, anything that Your Word and Your Spirit have revealed to me as transgression, as sin, my posture towards it is full and open confession by Your grace. My disposition is one of turning away from it by Your grace."
If you can't say that, then you have no joyful anticipation of the return of Jesus. When you know you have a controversy with the Lord Jesus, there's no joyful anticipation when He comes to take His church. Joyful anticipation of the return of Christ as the motivational life of a child of God—one of the most powerful motivating elements for faithfulness, for diligence in service—that is cut by the concealing of transgression in the life of a child of God.
How often the New Testament epistles make reference to the hope of His coming, and how often is the driving motive in the life of a Christian the fact that His Lord is coming. And dear one, you have no joyful anticipation of His coming if you're covering transgression—none whatsoever. And that's just a preview of the shame that shall be your portion when you meet Him if your sin is concealed.
There is a biblical doctrine of rewards for faithfulness, and there will be loss of rewards for unfaithfulness. And I don't think we can fully grasp all that is involved in this doctrine, but this much we know for sure: if I'm covering my sin, if I'm concealing transgression, I shall not prosper. For I cannot receive the full reward of a well-accomplished stewardship if my usefulness in the service of God is crippled because I conceal transgression.
If I carry out my service with no enjoyment of God because I'm covering sin, if I try to serve God while my own assurance is shaken, if I'm lying beneath the rod of God's righteous discipline, how can I serve with the freedom of a freshly purged conscience? No wonder Paul said, "I also do my best," Acts 24:16. "I also do my best"—this is Paul speaking—"I also do my best to maintain always a conscience without fault, both before God and before men." To maintain a conscience free of offense, without fault, both before God and before men. Oh, the blessedness of having a conscience void of offense to God and to my fellow men.
How can I have a conscience without offense toward God? Only by the blood of sprinkling. Only by bringing my sins, my transgressions, my shortcomings, my offenses out of my coverings and concealments, and honestly, and with true transparency and humility, cry out before the living God, "Oh God, I have sinned. I have sinned against You, and You only have I sinned." And how do I have a conscience without offense toward my fellow man? Well, whenever my confession must be horizontal, I'm willing to humble myself and make that confession to my spouse, to my child, to my friend, to my brother, to my work colleague. It doesn't matter. If I need to make it, I'll make it. Because "he that covers transgressions shall not prosper."
Maybe conscience is very active in some here tonight. And maybe there flashed upon the screen of your mind right now is that thing that you're attempting to cover. Maybe that thing that you have been concealing. Oh dear one, cover it no more. Cover it no longer. Is it worth it? Come to the fountain open for sin and uncleanness. Tell Him—will you tell Him tonight—that He's found you? Tell Him He's found you. Tell Him you're weary of living as a Christian with no conscious enjoyment of the presence of God. Tell Him you're weary of living with shaken assurance. Aren't you tired to live with a shaken assurance? Aren't you exhausted with that?
Tell Him you're weary of living with no consciousness of being used of God. Tell Him. Tell Him you're weary of dreading the coming of the Lord to take His church. And say to Him, "Oh God, grant me the promised mercy. Renew a steadfast spirit within me. Restore to me the joy of Your salvation."
Let's pray.
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