20260215 Proverbs 28.13 and Psalms 32.1-11 Sunday Sermon Mike Dickmann

Let's pray together once more. Heavenly Father,

we are thankful for your help and guidance in

the meeting thus far. We're thankful for your

continuing work of the Holy Spirit that calls

men and women, boys and girls unto yourself.

We pray that indeed that work might continue,

that we might see more and more come to repentance

and faith. We're thankful for this time now that

we have to open your word and hear from you.

We pray that indeed you would own your word,

that you would fulfill your promise, that it

would accomplish all of your perfect purposes

in the hearts of your people. I pray for myself

that you'd enable me to bring forth all the truths

that you have given to me this week and that

it would be brought forth in a way that is honoring

and glorifying unto you and helpful to all who

hear. So we do pray that you would own this time

for your glory, the advancement of your kingdom,

and we pray in Christ's name. Amen. Turn with

me once again then, if you will, to Proverbs.

We've been looking at various Proverbs in the

last several weeks. So we're going to look at

this Proverb found in chapter 28. Verse 13. This

isn't even off. Alright, in verse 13 we read,

He that covereth his sins shall not prosper,

but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall

have mercy. So indeed it is a wonderful promise

there that those who do not attempt to cover

their sins because they won't prosper. So what

does it mean to cover your sins? It means that

you try in your own power and in your own strength

to somehow get forgiveness. We know some people

think that good works will overshadow all of

their bad works. That's an attempt to cover their

sin. So some people think that they do so many

good works or so many... works of penitence.

Their sins will by doing that be covered. So

that's what it is we're not to do. We're not

to cover our sins by our own devices or by our

own thinking or reasoning or by what we do or

by what we don't do. We cannot cover our own

sins. That's what the Bible's making plain to

us. Well, what what do we have to do? Well, we

have to confess and forsake them So we have to

own our sin We have to realize who we are. We're

our sinners We're not God. We're not the creator.

We're the creatures and we have a sin problem

And I shouldn't have to stand here and say anything

more than that All you have to do is read the

news. All you have to do is Go out into the outside

world And all you have to really do is take an

honest look at yourself and you'll know for a

certainty that mankind, whoever they are, has

a sin problem. So that's evident. So I don't

want to go any further with this until we look

at the sign. I don't know if you got my email

or not, but if you did, hopefully you were able

to read ahead and you were going to realize that

we were going to use Psalm 32 as a commentary,

more or less, on this proverb. Because Psalm

32 speaks directly to this issue. So let's turn

over there then to the Psalm. And this psalm

is a, well, it's called a maskel, or it's called

a psalm of instruction. And you say, well, there's

instruction in all the psalms. There certainly

is. But there's a half a dozen or so of the psalms

that have this designation. So we can probably

learn from that that this is a pretty important

instruction. This is something that we should

be paying particular attention to. Maybe it's

an indication that we should read it more often

than we do. For whatever reason, it's designated

particularly as a psalm of instruction. So we'll

read then here the first two verses. Blessed

is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose

sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom

the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit

there is no guile So here we have this bold statement

blessed overwhelmingly happy Overwhelmingly at

peace Blessed it's a state of blessedness that

a Christian possesses Why because his sin is

forgiven We need to focus our attention as already

been said many times this morning That we have

to remember and focus our attention on The finished

work of Christ and what a blessing it is to be

his We are Christ's We're no longer ourselves.

We are Christ's and that is a blessed place to

be That's what the psalm is telling us so Here's

the particulars. It gives three types, perhaps,

or three designations of sin in these two verses.

So the first sin that is mentioned here is transgressions.

And if you're familiar with the children's catechism,

you'll know that a transgression is any violation

of the law of God. That's what it taught us.

But it's a willful doing what you know you shouldn't

do. We're given instruction from Christ Himself.

We heard the Sermon on the Mount reference today,

full of instruction. So we do know what we should

do. We get instruction all the time, from the

Word, from the meetings together. Perhaps you

get instructions from talking to your husband

or your wife. So the problem is not that we don't

know what to do. The problem is that we don't

do it, or that we do something that we shouldn't

be doing. It's a transgression then. That's the

first designation. The second is sin. And so

the theological definition of sin, you've probably

heard it hundreds of times, is a falling shard

of the mark. It's a falling short of the mark.

It's not doing what you should do Transgressions

doing what you shouldn't this the word sin is

generally understood to be not doing what we

should do So those are the really that really

covers the the sin but the Bible goes on and

talks about iniquity as the third element or

description of sin And the Bible uses this word

in at least a couple of different ways. So the

one way it uses is the perversity of sin, the

ugliness, the grossness. It's iniquity. It's

iniquitous. So it's something that's used to

describe some perhaps grievous sins. that people

fall into, iniquity. And that's not the way it's

used here in this psalm. It's used in the second

way. And that is, it can be translated, and you

may have it translated so in your Bibles, as

guilt. So along with sin comes guilt. Along with

doing what you shouldn't comes guilt. Along with

not doing what we should comes guilt So sin is

ugly It's worthy of the wrath of God it's worthy

of death So we need to understand as well and

I don't know that this is well understood or

well remembered We don't sin against each other

We hurt each other. We treat each other badly.

It's certainly true that we don't do all we should

do for each other. But how can we sin against

somebody who hasn't told us what to do or not

to do? Sin is against God, folks. That's where

our sin lies. And that's who we have to primarily

deal with, first of all, in sin. David makes

the confession against you and you only have

I sinned So yeah, we do a lot of ugly things

that have a lot of ugly effect upon everybody

else But our sin is against God and we need to

deal with our sin with God Primarily first of

all, perhaps I should say our first obligation

is to clear ourselves with God clear our sin

with God Now you know that this happens when

you're converted, when you're saved. That's the

beginning of the whole thing. All of these descriptions

of sin were certainly true of all of us when

we were lost. Just as they're true of every lost

man still today. So when we're converted, we

had a day of reckoning, we had a day of coming

forth, we had a day of the first day in our lives

probably that we were totally honest. and we

came forth and agreed with God and we said, yes,

I am a sinner against you, Lord. I have offended

you. I have done grievously before you. That

all happened to us in some form or another when

we were converted. If you never had a change

of mind about your sin, you had never been converted.

At the same time, when you were converted, you

had a different view of God. Before you were

converted, you didn't want nothing to do with

God. You didn't care what He said. You didn't

love Him. You didn't care anything about God,

how He felt about you, whatever. That didn't

interest you. When you were converted, you got

a big increase in the way that you felt about

God. You went from really rebellion and hatred

to love for God when you were converted. You

began to understand. just who God is and all

that He's done for us when you were converted.

So you had a big change of mind over sin and

over God. So that's where it all starts. So if

you've never had any of these experiences, if

you never come to submit yourself unto the Lord

in repentance and faith, I urge you this morning

again to do so. Get with God. Confess your sin.

Express your desire to be saved. And He's told

us that all that come to Him, He will receive.

So when you do come to God in repentance and

faith, you will be saved. Until you do, you won't.

That's all. Well, along with the three types

of sin that we have here, we have the three Shall

we say remedies of God for our sin? The first

remedy is forgiveness. We've been forgiven. And

we hear about this every Sunday just about, during

the communion time. Our sins are forgiven. And

glory to God, they're forgiven. It's like the

pilgrim's progress. Pilgrim's trudging along

to get to the cross and he's got the burden on

his back. Right? And he finally gets to the cross.

He finally sees Christ. And what happens? The

burden of his sin falls off and tumbles on down

the ravine never to be heard from again. His

burden is lifted. His sin burden is done away

with. Forgiveness through Christ. Owning your

sin and confessing it to Christ is guaranteed

forgiveness. First John tells us he is faithful

and just to forgive us our sins when we confess

them unto him. First John. So, forgiveness. It's

a beautiful thing. It's wonderful to have the

forgiveness of God. The second is that our sin

is covered. We can't cover our sin. There's nothing

we can do. We have to fly to God We have to ask

him to do it. How does he do it? He covers us

with the precious work of Christ That ugly filthy

mess that we've made of ourselves The big old

ugly pit that we dug the miry clay that was stuck

in all the descriptions of a man in sin It's

all cleaned up. It's all covered. It's gone.

What? In the finished work of Jesus Christ. He

not only forgives our sins, but He gives us an

actual righteousness in Christ that covers all

of our sin. When God looks at us, He sees the

righteousness of Christ. That's what He sees.

We're covered. Our sin is covered. This is what

we think about, this is what we remember. And

then last thing, the remedy here, he says that

he will not impart or impute iniquity. He will

not give unto the believer guilt. He won't reckon

the sinner guilty. He doesn't impute iniquity.

He does impute righteousness to us, as we've

just said, but by doing so, that prevents or

completely eliminates the Christian's guilt.

Now these are glorious truths, and hopefully

they still stir our hearts. We've been hearing

this for as long as we've been Christians. and

we're basking in the glory of these truths, hopefully.

Hopefully we are. So, the lesson doesn't end

there though. What the last sentence says, and

if I was to read this without the... The middle

part, verse two would read, blessed is the man

in whose spirit there is no guile. Now here's

where we get into trouble as Christians. Here's

where the problem rears its head. Guile. What's

guile? Deceitfulness. Pretending. Perhaps. Rationalization.

None of those things can be found or should be

found in a Christian. We're done with that. We're

done with that pretending that we're these perfect

people that walk around without any sin. We're

done with that. We've already owned our sin.

We've already said that God has forgiven our

sin. And again, in John, he tells us, confess

our sins. He's faithful and just to forgive us

our sins. In other words, sin is an ongoing problem

with the Christian. It's not a one -time act

and everything's disappeared. Yeah, your sins

are forgiven. You're right with God. You're guaranteed

to be carried along by God. But that does not

eliminate the probability of sinning. We still

have to deal with this flesh that embodies our

spirit. And we still have to be watchful and

mindful and open to the fact that we've got some

sin problems. We still sin. We still need forgiveness.

We still need to confess that sin. Now, I think

I know all of you here as well as I know myself,

and we all know that's true. Is there anybody

going to deny that they don't sin? Of course

not. Well, how are you going to deal with it?

How do we deal with our sin? Do we try to cover

it? Do we try to rationalize it? Do we ignore

it? I know I'm forgiven. Does it matter to us

that we sin? Does it matter that we're offending

God when we sin? Does it matter that we're trampling

on the grace and the blood of Christ when we

sin? Do those things matter to us? Well, I think

again most of us here would say yeah, they do

So it's important that we don't be deceitful

about our ongoing problem with sin and we Bring

them to the next Perhaps implication perhaps

is the fact that we have forgiveness of sins

and we have the ongoing forgiveness of sins from

God Has got to definitely affect the way that

we treat each other Look we don't expect everybody

to be perfect. We don't expect to never be hurt

by people we're in a close relationship with.

We don't expect that. In other words, we are

those who forgive. We forgive when sin occurs.

We forgive when we're hurt by someone. Or whatever

the case may be. Because we have been forgiven

so much, it should be easy for us to forgive

others. If we have a proper view of ourselves,

and know what big sinners we are and how much

God has freed us and given us the forgiveness

that we didn't deserve or earn, it should make

it that much easier to be forgiving one another.

Hopefully that's true. It should be. As far as

I know, there is forgiveness here. There are

no grudge keepers here. There are no folks that

gonna dwell on the past and past hurts and it

gonna Allow a wedge to be driven in between them

Everybody's gonna do their level best to forgive

each other So I'm just encouraging you to continue

to do it You know David David was a he has some

sin in his life, you know the story of David

He wasn't perfect, but God claimed him to be

a man after my own heart So Sin as long as it's

continued to deal with properly is not going

to be a hindrance to your relationship with the

Lord But it can be and this is the next verse

where David gives his testimony He says when

I kept silence my bones waxed old through my

roaring all the day long For day and night thy

hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned

into drought of summer Sila In other words, he

was covering his sin. He was denying it. It was

rationalizing it. However, whatever excuse you

want to give He was he didn't confess his sin

and God's hand was heavy against him He lost

his relationship. He lost the joy. He lost the

blessedness of his relationship. He didn't lose

his salvation, but there was an interruption

in his daily communing with God because he refused

to acknowledge and confess his sin to God. I

don't know if anybody here has ever experienced

that. Hopefully you've not, but you will. Unless

you're honest with yourself over your sin, and

you need to be confessing it unto God. Now, obviously

I'm not saying every single little sin that you

confess, that you commit, you have to confess.

There just has to be this willingness to do so.

There has to be this, when you know you've sinned,

you need to actually confess it. Probably just

as many times, and maybe more than, we don't

even realize our sinfulness. So it's pretty,

that's not what we're talking about. Once you

come to a realization that you have committed

sin against God, you need to confess it. That's

what David said and that's what he didn't do.

That's a personal testimony that we all learn

from. God doesn't allow us to go on in sin. He

brings his heavy hand upon us to work repentance.

Those whom he loves, what? He disciplines. We've

already seen that from the Proverbs. So what

was the remedy? How did David get back? In verse

5, he says, I acknowledge my sin unto thee, and

thine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will

confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and

thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Seel it.

So that's the remedy. That's what we've just

been discussing and talking about. The remedy

is being totally honest and open with God and

yourself. Confess your sin. Ask forgiveness.

Go hard after God. Don't just slough it off.

It's a big deal. It should be a big deal. You

should make every effort to own your sin. and

repent from it. You can't ask forgiveness for

something that you have every intention to do

it again. That's just hypocritical. That's just

fire insurance. And that's not what the Bible's

saying. Now I understand also and again that

we do battle with sin. We're all subject to a

particular sin perhaps. more than others and

it is going to be harder to truly repent about

from that sin but indeed it has to be the desire

of our hearts to be free from sin we long for

that day as we've sung and as we heard already

for what when we're at in glory with God and

we will no longer be in the battle with sin the

ultimate victory is ours we know that That's

the attitude. We want to be sinless. We want

to be free from all of the temptations that confront

us. We want to be free from our own sinful desires

that hinder us. And we own that with God. He

already knows it. He already knows all about

it. We're not telling Him anything new. We're

just agreeing with Him. over our sin issues.

And we're making every effort to stop it, to

correct it, to start doing what we know we should

do. Just a brief word here about this. Seal it.

I don't know, not all of the translations have

this, but this is a pause. It's an indication

of a pause in the teaching. It's giving time

for consideration. It's giving time to meditate

on what has previously been said. So if you do

have it, that's a good thing. So the need to

consider is what they're asking us to do here.

Learn something. Look at the word. Take it into

your heart. Meditate upon it. Don't keep reading.

Wait, wait. Get the point from what you've already

read, then go on. In verse 6, then, we read,

For this shall every one that is godly pray unto

thee in the time when thou mayest be found. Again,

there's how many times God is able to be found

now. He's ready now Nobody knows if we've got

tomorrow how many times if we heard that Now

is the time You can't put it off The verse that

tells us pray to God while he can be found and

this is the time now If you need to confess now

is the time and that's just that's that's what

he's saying If you, when you come to realize

your sin and your need of forgiveness, now is

the time to pray to God for it. Because it's

the only time that you have. And you know what's

really fantastic about it is there's no difference

among any of us. We all have 24 hour days. Some

people aren't given 20 hours and some are given

28. No, it's everybody has the same 24 hours

in a day. And God expects us to use those 24

hours responsibly and wisely. Well, I don't have

time to pray right now. Well, yeah, you do. You

just won't do it. That's all. It's not that we

don't have time, in other words. God gives us

ample time. It's how you use it. What are you

going to do with it? What's the most important

thing in your life? Is it your relationship with

the Lord or something else? That's usually what

it comes down to. So he says that we should pray

unto thee in the time when thou mayest be found.

And he doesn't say that some of the godly do

this. He doesn't say those who are super godly

do it. He says what? Everyone that is godly should

be doing it. So, first of all then, we got to

get right with God. We got to get the forgiveness

that God promises to give us. Then what? Well,

then you've got to make every effort not to repeat

the sin that you've just confessed. And then

lastly, you've got to go to the person whom you've

offended. If you know that you have offended

somebody, you've hurt somebody, you need to go

to them and confess that to them and ask for

their forgiveness. That's the circle. That's

what we should all do. And we shouldn't be afraid

to do it because we know that we're going to

be received by God and the person we've offended.

That's what we already talked about. A forgiveness,

a forgiving spirit that we all should possess

because we've all been forgiven so much. Then

in verse 7, we read, Thou shalt compass me about

with songs of deliverance." Selah. So there it

is. God is our hiding place. God is going to

preserve us. God is going to surround us with

songs of deliverance. That's what happens when

our sins are forgiven. That's what happens when

we repent. That's what happened when you were

converted, didn't it? Didn't you have a great

time with the Lord when you were converted? Was

it like choirs of angels were singing? When the

light came into your life and you were finally

free from your sin and your guilt and the ugliness

of it, that's what it was. We have a hiding place.

Everybody needs a hiding place, folks. realize

it are the blessed ones. We can't do this ourselves.

We can't go through life ourselves. We need a

hiding place. We need somebody that has more

strength, more power, more love, more willingness

than we do in order to be kept, in order to get

from this life to the next. That's what a hiding

place is. He's going to preserve me from all

my trouble. We persevere and God preserves, and

He does. He loses nothing. No one that He set

His love upon in this life will fail to reach

heaven, will fail to reach glory. He will preserve

us. That's the promise. So then we get God's

response here in verse 8, and here's probably

why they call it a massacre. In verse 8, he says,

I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way

which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine

eye, or I will counsel thee. Mine eye shall be

upon thee. You may have either one of those readings.

So there it is. There's God's promise. When you

are His, And when you are in the battle against

sin, God's gonna do his part, in other words.

He's gonna instruct and teach thee. Okay, we've

heard this a thousand times. God instructs us

through the word of the Spirit. He instructs

us through other people in our lives who use

properly the word of God in the power of the

Spirit. There's instruction everywhere. You don't

have to wonder. You don't have to say, what does

God want? God tells us exactly what He wants

us to do. He instructs us. He teaches us in the

way that we're supposed to be going. We're all

going, remember? Christians go through a time

when they're just kind of standing still. If

we're honest, we have to admit it. But we don't

stay there. We go. We go forward. We make progress

in our walk. We grow in the grace and knowledge

of our Lord and Jesus Christ because of who He

is and what He's doing. Nothing in us, when we

stop or when we pause or when we have an interruption,

that's us. We're the cause of those interruptions.

Sin, in other words. But when we're right and

things are right, we're going forward and we're

under the instruction, we're under the watchful

eye, we're under the care of God. He's leading,

directing, guiding, keeping, preserving. Is that

a blessed state? Is it a blessing to be under

God's watchful eye? Or is that scary? There's

no other reason to be scared. It's God who loves

us and guides and directs us. He watches over

us. He keeps us on the way. So then the warning,

be not as the horse or as the mule, which have

no understanding, whose mouth must be held in

with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto

thee. So don't be like that. Don't be stubborn

in other words. The horse and the mule, they're

stubborn animals. They gotta be guided. They

gotta be directed. They gotta have some kind

of controlling device stuck in their mouths.

Don't be like that. Willingly submit to the leading

of God. Willingly change. Willingly do that which

you should. Stop doing that which you shouldn't.

Listen to God. Draw near unto Him on your own

accord. Because why because he loves you and

you love him and you love to be near to your

God So that's but but don't do but don't do the

opposite because that's not going to be profitable

In verse 10 many sorrows shall be to the wicked,

but he that trusteth in the Lord Mercy shall

compass him about So there you have it Do you

trust God to do all the things that He said He's

going to do in this verse? Do you believe the

description of sin? Do you believe that you need

Him? Do you believe that you need to be more

attuned to watch care over our own souls and

hearts so that we don't sin? Do we need to be

more proactive in confessing our sin? These are

the questions you should ask of yourself when

you read a text like this. Do I have any knowledge

of anything that's being spoken about here? Have

I experienced any of these things? How can I

change my life to conform more to this text?

God is full of mercy. He's got mercy to completely

surround us, compass Him about. He's the God

of mercy. He's proven it, hasn't He, by giving

us His Son? What better place can you be in?

The place of forgiveness, the place of acceptance,

the place of covering with the righteousness

of Christ. Is this our life? Is this what we

treasure? Is this what we refuse to have any

interruption to? Is this what we're going to

spend at least a portion of our 24 -hour day

on? Those are all legitimate questions. And it

should be a blessed thing. That's what he tells

us. Blessed is he. Blessed is the person who's

in a right relationship with the Lord. In verse

11 it says, be glad in the Lord and rejoice ye

righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright

in heart. That's got to be the response of the

Christian to God. Rejoicing always. Being glad.

Acknowledging. Knowing. Serving. All of the glorious

truths that we all know. Does that make us shout

for joy? Does you ever think about it like that?

Do you shout for joy because you can serve God?

Do you shout for joy because you can die to yourself

and live unto God? Hopefully that's true. Hopefully

the center of your life is what? Yourself? Hopefully

not. The center of your life is your children.

Hopefully not. What is the center of our lives?

The center of our lives is God. The Father, God

the Son, God the Holy Spirit is the center of

our lives. It all revolves around Him. That's

the blessed place to be. That's what we should

all desire more and more of. Amen.