Joe Gibbs, the former Head Coach of the Washington Redskins, tells a true story about a friend of his who owned a fine Labrador retriever. The friend, whom we will call John, looked out his window one morning and saw his faithful obedient dog sitting on his haunches near the front porch. John thought he saw something hanging from the dog's jaws. Sure enough, a closer look revealed it was his neighbor's pet rabbit that was now dead.
Well, John was not only stunned, he was scared. Not exactly sure what to do, he worked through several solutions until finally landed on one that he felt would be best for all parties concerned.
He gingerly pulled the rabbit from the dog's mouth, brought the thing into the kitchen and washed off all the dirt and the gunk. He then took it into the bathroom, pulled out a hairdryer and spent several minutes blow-drying the dead creature until it was nice and fluffy.
That night after it was dark and quiet in the neighborhood, John crawled over the back fence, slipped across the neighbor's backyard, opened the door on the rabbit hutch, placed the dead rabbit back in the cage and snapped the door shut. He then slithered back through the darkness, hopped the fence, went home and said to his dog, "Well, I saved your bacon."
Well, next morning there was a loud knock at his front door. John opened it, and to his surprise there was his neighbor holding that dead rabbit, and he was steaming. He said, "John, we have a real sick person in our neighborhood." John nervously said, "Oh really, why do you say that?"
He said, "Well, you see, my rabbit died three days ago and I buried it. Some idiot just dug it up, cleaned it off nice and neat and stuck it back in the hutch. John, we're talking about a real sicko!"
Now we have all struggled at one time or another with what to do with dead rabbits. This week an entire nation watched as Bill Clinton gave his "Monica message" to the country. What Bill Clinton did was to demonstrate exactly the way you do not deal with sin.
Now I want to share with you from the Word of God exactly how sin is to be dealt with. This is a very important matter for this simple reason. The way you deal with sin determines the way God deals with you. God says: "He who covers his sins will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy." (Pr. 28:13)
In the end, God gives everyone what they really want. If you want justice, God will give you justice. But if you want mercy, God will give you mercy. But you need to remember there is one rule concerning sin that cannot be broken—if the confession doesn't fit, you cannot acquit. So what are the lessons we learn from God's word on how to handle sin?
I. The Danger of Covering Sin
Solomon said: "He who covers his sins will not prosper." The word cover literally means "to smooth over" or "to hide from view." We all know the old saying, "To err is human, to forgive divine." Well, someone has also said, "To err is human, and to try to cover it up is even more human." Now the Bible has much to say about covering one's sin.
a. The Procedure We Follow
There is a procedure that everyone uses to cover up sin. As a matter of fact, it is a three-step process that is as old as time itself. It is described in John's first epistle. Three times in 1 John 1 we read the phrase "if we say" and it clues us in on how we cover our sins.
First of all, we lie to others. "If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth." (I John 1:6) We will look right into the camera, point our finger, lock our jaw, squint our eyes, and say, "I'm only going to say this once: I did not have sexual relations with that woman." We will say it to others knowing it is a lie. Now the Bible has a word for this. It is called hypocrisy.
Hypocrisy is not missing the mark you have been shooting for, it is trying to make people think you hit the target when you haven't even fired the gun.
Then we move on to lying to ourselves. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." (v.8) We convince ourselves that we have done nothing wrong. We will say things like: "Well, my answers were legally accurate." Or, something along the lines of "Well, I smoked, but I didn't inhale." Or, something like this: "Well, based on the definition of the act, I was not guilty." What we do is simply lie to ourselves.
But finally, we lie to God. "If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us." (v.10) This is the most horrible part of all because when you start living a lie, you get past the point where you will not tell the truth, to a point where you cannot tell the truth. That is the problem with covering sin.
If you know your history you know that it was not Watergate that brought down Richard Nixon. It was not the break-in that destroyed his presidency, it was the cover-up. First of all, there is the procedure that we follow.
b. The Penalty We Face
The text says, ‘He who covers his sins will not prosper." (v.13) Now David learned that. David, too, was a liar; he, too, was a cheater; he, too, was an adulterer, and he, too, tried to cover it up. The difference is, it bothered David. He wrote Psalm 51 after his sin had been found out, and he said in Ps. 51:3: "For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me." Now why did David's sin bother him so much. Because he was not only a sinner, he was also a saint.
Learn this lesson about sinners and saints. Sinners and saints both sin, but here's the difference: Sinners sin and then sleep; saints sin and then suffer.
David wrote the 51st Psalm to show just exactly what his sin had done to him. First it clouded the soul. "Do not cast me away from Your Presence, and do not take Your Holy Spirit from me." (v.11) Mark it down, when the sin is covered the soul is clouded. God shuts the door to heaven. God plugs up his ears to prayer. The Scripture makes it plain: "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear." (Ps. 66:18)
Then sin corrupts the spirit. "Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." (Ps. 51:10) David had a wrong spirit, a corrupted spirit. You know what I have discovered about a corrupted spirit, it is inevitably a critical spirit.
When you try to cover sin, you will become critical of those who try to uncover your sin. In a former church I pastored, there was a man in that church who, from the day I walked onto the field, absolutely hated me. He was harsh, critical, unkind, took every opportunity to undercut my ministry, criticize my preaching; it got so bad that in a deacon's meeting I had to literally withstand this man to the face, and in essence tell him to get off of my back.
When I left that church and went to pastor another church, I had not been gone six months until the word came back that this man, a dentist, had been arrested for trafficking in child pornography. It was then I understood why he had such a critical spirit toward me. Because the word of God that I was preaching, and the life that I was trying to live, convicted him and he couldn't handle it.
When you've got uncovered, unconfessed, unconquered sin in your life, you will try to blame others with your problems; whether it be a special prosecutor or a sincere preacher. Incidentally, to blame a special prosecutor for your failures and faults, is like a drug dealer who keeps getting arrested on the street corner for selling dope, and then blames the city for paying the policeman.
But beyond that, sin cuts the Savior. "Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight—that You may be found just when You speak, and blameless when You judge." (Ps. 51:4) David had not only sinned against his wife, and his children, and his friends, and his country, but he had also sinned against his God. For you see, sin not only breaks God's law, it breaks God's heart. Whenever we sin and try to cover it up, it grieves the dear Lord Jesus.
II. The Deliverance of Confessing Sin
Now the Scripture says, "He who covers his sins will not prosper." Well, the opposite of that is also true. "He who uncovers his sin will prosper." You uncover your sin by confessing your sin. Therefore he who "confesses and forsakes them will have mercy." Now if confession is genuine and real, it will involve at least three things:
a. Confession Involves Recognition
The word confess literally means "to agree with." When a person really wants to confess his sin, he doesn't want to argue with God, he simply wants to agree with God. Confession is simply admission.
A Sunday School teacher just concluded a review of the day's lesson and said, "Now children, who can tell me what we must do before we can expect forgiveness of sin?" One little boy spoke up and said, "Well, first we've got to sin."
Now that is certainly true. But after we sin we must confess that sin, and all confession is, is simply coming clean. Because when you don't come clean, you stay dirty.
Furthermore, confession is both complete and specific. When the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin, He doesn't just name it, He nails it.
The Holy Spirit will never say, "You've been a bad boy." Or, "You're just not doing right." He will tell you specifically what you have done, and then He will lead you to confess specifically what He has told you have done. You see, our problem is, we want to sin retail; we want to confess wholesale. Well, with God it doesn't work that way. True confession specifically names the sin and then asks forgiveness.
b. Confession Involves Remorse
Back in Ps. 51 David wrote in v.17, "The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and a contrite heart—these, O God, You will not despise." When you hear someone start making excuses, start blaming others, start changing the subject, that is not remorse. Corre ten Boom once said, "The blood of Jesus has never cleansed one excuse."
By the way, you need to keep in mind that you can be remorseful without being repentant. II Cor. 7:10 says, "For godly sorrow produces repentance to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death." I heard about a lady who was on trial for murdering her husband. The District Attorney stood before the defendant and said, "Mrs. Johnson, after you put the arsenic in the stew and served it to your husband, was there any time that you felt remorse?"
"I did," she said softly.
"And when was that?"
"When he asked for seconds."
When a person is truly remorseful, he simply wants to confess and tell the truth. When a person wants to simply come clean and tell the truth, he doesn't need a good lawyer, he simply needs a good conscience.
c. Confession Involves Repentance
The Scripture very plainly says, "But whoever confesses and forsakes them, will have mercy." The word forsake literally means "to leave behind." In the New Testament the word is repent. Confessing your sins is no substitute for forsaking your sins. The mercy of God is only triggered by the act of repentance. Isa. 55:7 says, "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon."
It was Charles Haddon Spurgeon who said, "Sin and hell are forever married, until repentance proclaims the divorce." Now I want to share with you seven steps of true confession. They all begin with the letter "A."
Address everyone involved. Anyone and everyone directly affected by your sin, or even indirectly deserves a confession.
Avoid the words—if, but, and maybe. All these words do is simply shift blame to the other person.
Admit specifically. State exactly what you did that was sinful or wrong.
Apologize. Use the words "I was wrong for doing _____." Don't just simply say, "I am sorry" and leave it at that. That may mean you were sorry for getting caught, and not sorry for the hurt your actions caused.
Accept the consequences. Now that may mean going to jail. It may mean being formally charged with a crime. It may mean resigning from office. But do whatever is necessary.
Alter your behavior. Stop doing the behavior that violated the commands of Scripture and gave you a guilty conscience to begin with.
Ask for forgiveness. Ask the person you offended to forgive you. After you have done these things, you know your confession has been real.
III. The Delight of Cleansing Sin
When you confess your sin, and forsake your sin, then "you will have mercy." When sins are confessed they are not just covered, they are canceled. Now learn this lesson well about sin, and how you deal with sin and how God deals with you. When you cover your sin, God uncovers it. Sooner or later He will bring it out into the open. IT may be in time, it may be in eternity; but one way or the other He will do it. "Be sure your sin will find you out." (Num. 32:23)
On the other hand, when you uncover your sin, God covers it. That is, when you come to God and confess your sin and forsake your sin and repent of your sin, you know what the Lord does. He covers that sin up with the shovel of grace, buries it in the grave of His forgetfulness, and remembers it never again. Did you know that God is more anxious to give you mercy than you even are to receive it?
I read a story about a little boy that was visiting his grandparents on their farm, and he was given a slingshot to play with out in the woods. He practiced in the woods but he never could hit the target. Getting a little discouraged, he was heading back to dinner and as he was walking back, he saw his grandmother's pet duck.
Well, just out of impulse, he let fly with that slingshot and hit the duck square in the head and killed it. He was shocked and grieved. He panicked. He hid the dead duck in the woodpile, covering his sin, only to see that his sister had seen the whole thing. But Sally, although she had seen all of it, said nothing.
After lunch that day, his grandmother said, "Sally, let's wash the dishes." But his sister said, "Grandma, Johnny told me he wanted to help in the kitchen today, didn't you Johnny?" Then she whispered to him, "Remember the duck?"
So Johnny did the dishes.
Later, his grandfather asked if the kids wanted to go fishing? His grandmother said, "Well, I'm sorry, but I need Sally to help make supper." Well, little Sally just smiled and said, "Oh, that's all right, because Johnny told me he wanted to help make supper, didn't you Johnny?" Before he could say anything she whispered again, "Remember the duck?" So Sally went fishing and Johnny stayed."
Well, after several days of doing both his chores and Sallys, he could stand it any longer. He went to his grandmother and said, "Grandma, I've got something to confess to you. I killed your duck." His grandmother knelt down and gave him a hug and said, "Honey, I know. You see, I was standing at the window and I saw the whole thing. But because I love you, I forgive you. But I was just wondering how long you were going to let Sally make a slave out of you."
The two most costly things in the world are salvation and sin. Salvation is costly to God because sin is so costly to man. Yet, the prophet Micah said in two of the most beautifully moving verses in all of the Bible:
"Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us, and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea." (Micah 7:18-19)
Dear friend, you don't have to be held hostage to sin. If you will confess your sin, and forsake your sin, you will have mercy.