Proverbs 28:13
Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.
We as humans don’t like it when someone tries to hide something from us. If someone has done a bad thing and you know that they have done it, but they lied to you about it, you will get angry with them. This is the same thing that God hates.
God sees everything on Earth
If you sin, God can see you clearly when you are walking into sin. He sees you and he might have done many things to prevent you from sinning, but you didn’t see it. Hiding your sins is like trying to act wisely in your eyes.
The Bible says in Proverbs 3:7 Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and shun evil.
A lot of Christians cover their sins
I will tell you what it means if you don’t confess your sins or if you’re hiding your sins. It is like telling God there is nothing he can do about it. You were telling him that even if you go on and sin more and more, God has no power to punish you or do anything about the sin. That means that you don’t have the fear of God in your heart. That means you are placing yourself above the Lord. You feel like God is not relevant and there is no need to confess your sins for him to forgive you.
This is a dangerous act, this is what can make God punish one greatly. No one who does this will prosper.
We pray for prosperity
We ask God to bless us abundantly. We desire that we prosper. It is the desire of God too, but if you have been hiding your sins from God, He will consume you. The reason why someone who covers their sins will not prosper is that the sin will consume them. If you look at someone who engages in sexual immorality and they don’t stop it and confess it, it becomes part of them.
They become addicted to sexual sin until it destroys them
What is that sin that you have been hiding from God?
What are that thing you have been doing secretly and you think God cannot see it?
You need to confess these sins and repent if you want to prosper. This is the time to ask for the spirit of the fear of God. You need to start fearing the Lord and shun evil.
We know the story of King David and the wife of Uriah Bathsheba. David was in his palace walking in his room when he was supposed to be at war. Other kings were at war. They were fighting. They were busy doing something. But David was idle. People always say an idle hand is the devil’s workshop. While he was walking on the roof of his palace, he saw Bathsheba bathing. We all know what happened in the end. He took her in and slept with her.
Maybe after a few days, the woman told David she was pregnant. David knew he had done something bad. He did not try to confess, but he tried to cover the sin he sent for Uriah, the husband of Bathsheba. He tried to force this man to sleep with his wife to cover his sin, but it did not work. David made sure he was put on the waterfront where he could easily be killed and truly, Uriah was killed.
2 Samuel 11:26–27
26 When Uriah’s wife heard that her husband was dead, she mourned for him. 27 After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house, and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.
He thought he could escape it. But God hates someone covering their sins when they ought to confess it and forsake it. David was punished for the sin.
2 Samuel 11:27
After the time of mourning was over, David had her brought to his house and she became his wife and bore him a son. But the thing David had done displeased the Lord.
From the Scriptures, What are the things that God wants us to do instead of covering our sins?
1) Confess your sins
The first thing that the Lord wants you to do is to confess. Do not say that you have no sin. You cannot say that because if you say this, you are a liar.
1 John 1:8–9
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
We have all sinned. We have all done something bad.
God sees them all. There is nothing that is in secret before him. He sees everything. If you want forgiveness and if you want to prosper, the warning that the Lord has given you is that you must not cover your sin. You cannot cover this sin for a long time because one day everything will come to light.
The Bible made us understand this in Luke 8:17
For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.
For how long will you hide that sin?
For how long will you lie to yourself and feel that you are safe?
For how long will you cover your sin?
God is telling you that this plan will not prosper. You will surely be exposed. We need to change the way we think.
We need to start thinking of the consequences of secret sins
We need to start thinking of the dangers of secret sins
One of the consequences is shame. If you don’t know secret sins when exposed, bring shame to one. There is no point covering your sin when you know God will forgive you.
Why are you covering it?
Has God told you that he will not forgive you?
There is no reason to cover your sins.
2) Forsake your sins
Forsake your sins with the Bible is telling us is that it is not enough to confess, you can’t go on confessing your sin every day, you can’t go on confessing your sins every week or every month.
This means that you are purposefully going into that sin again, this is not what God wants from you. It is not enough to confess, but you also must forsake the sins. Apostle Paul asked the question in:
Romans 6:1
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?
The reason why many people deliberately go into sin is because of grace. They say that Grace will cover them. They say that God will forgive them.
Some Christians deliberately sin and say that since God will forgive them, they will ask for forgiveness after. This is not what we should be.
Jesus did not call us into life so that we can continue to sin. Paul also answered the question himself in:
Romans 6:2
By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
It is not possible that we have been called into the death of Christ and then raised into his life to sin anymore. We are dead to sin. We should not be seen deliberately going into sin. A deliberate action to sin is caused by the lack of fear of God.
You don’t have the fear of God in you and you believe you can go on and sin. Are you like this?
Do you deliberately sin?
Do you confess your sins and then go back into sin?
God wants you to forsake the sins. You must forsake them. God says that you must flee from the appearance of evil. Anything that will make you sin, anything that will make you do something bad, anything that will push you into wickedness.
The Bible says that you must flee, forsake these sins, let them go!
All the addictions. It may not be easy, but you have to let them go. All the bad or evil relationships you are having, are keeping you in sin. You must end them because God is telling you to forsake them. Let them go.
3) Fear the Lord
What does it mean to fear the Lord?
Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.
When you fear the Lord, you will never do the things He hates.
You will always run from them. To fear God means to know that He has the power to punish for every sin. To fear God means to know that He can destroy both the soul and the flesh. The Bible says in
Matthew 10:28
Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
What or who are you afraid of?
Are you afraid of opening up your sins and confessing them?
Are you not afraid of God who has the power to destroy the body and the soul?
Who are you afraid of?
Have the fear of God in you let God be the first in your mind all the time. When the world is going into sin, when they are choosing this path of wickedness, the Lord wants you to fear him and do what is right.
One day judgment will come on those who are doing evil
You need to run from sin
This is what it means to fear the Lord. Have you been covering your sin? Have you been doing some ungodly things that will make God punish you? And you’re still not opening up to him. This is a warning from God today. Stop covering your sins. These, since you are covering, will destroy you. They will make things hard for you.
They are things that can kill you. You need to confess and forsake them. You need to stop committing these sins.
You need Christ in you
You need the power of God in you
God wants you to prosper
He wants to give you joy
He wants to give you great things
Don’t allow these hidden sins to live in you. Take them away from you. Don’t allow sins to deprive you of prosperity. Make these sins die in you. You have been called to become a joint heir with Christ.
You have been called into the family of God. You have been anointed to do great things, but the sins you are covering can cause great damage.
Why don’t you confess them today?
Why don’t you forsake them today?
Why don’t you allow the fear of God in you today, so that you will prosper?
What is the fear of the Lord?
There are several misconceptions about the fear of the Lord. Some people believe that the fear of the Lord refers to his judgment in terror.
There are people who think of the fear of The Lord as the terrific nature of His being. The fear of the Lord is, however, a reverential honor, which a man or woman is expected to according to God. When we fear God, we will do our best to honor Him and obey His will. The fear of the Lord does not imply that we have to hide from His presence. The Bible defines the fear of the Lord in several ways.
But we can deduce from all the definitions that the common factor is an honor.
There is no way a person will fear God and not honor Him. The fear of the Lord is great reverence of Him. The fear of the Lord is the marvelous respect and the wonderful of Him the believers have who are aware of how inferior they are to Him.
We see that angels consistently bow down to him and say, Holy, these angels are wholly themselves. In the Bible, they were even referred to as the Holy Angels, yet they bow down to God in reverence and all at Him and His Holiness. The fear of the Lord is to recognize how infinitely superior God is to us and how limited and weak we are compared to Him. Realizing the simple fact that this whole universe revolves around Him, the ticking of our heart is all because of Him.
Every breath we take is all because of Him. Reverence for God refers to respecting and honoring Him deeply and submitting our hearts to Him in
Psalms 111:10
The Bible defines the fear of the Lord as:
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all who follow His precepts have good understanding.
To Him belongs eternal praise!
The reason the fear of the Lord is the foundation for wisdom is that no one who ever obeys the commandments of God will lack understanding.
From here, we can also see that obeying the commands of God is one of the factors that can be used to judge whether a man or woman has the fear of God.
This church is a Christ-centered, Bible-based family striving to be like Jesus and share Him with others. We call ourselves “Christians” only. When we assemble we are called the church of Christ because the word “church” is a metaphor for the body of Christ and means the “called out” assembly of believers, with Christ as the head (Col. 1:24, 1 Cor. 12:12–14,27). Christ is the one who paid the price for us by dying for us and rising from the dead, never to die again.
