Now the verse that I want to focus on in this chapter is verse number 13 where the Bible says,
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but who so confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
Now flip over if you would in your Bible to Psalm 38.
Just one book back in the Bible, Psalm 38, but he said in that verse,
He that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but who so confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.
Now look at Psalm 38. I'm going to show you several things from the book of Psalms.
Of course, most of these are coming from the mouth of David.
This is a psalm that's written by David.
And here's what you need to understand before you understand these psalms.
David was already saved.
Okay, David was saved. He was already a believer.
I'm going to show you that in this psalm where he already makes that point.
That he's already saved. Now a lot of people get mixed up on this.
And they think that part of salvation is forsaking your sins, confessing and forsaking your sins.
Because he said, you know, if you confess and forsake your sins, you'll find mercy.
And they mix this up. They think that's a part of salvation.
When in reality, the only prerequisite to salvation is faith.
He said, you know, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish for that eternal life.
Okay. Believing on Christ is salvation without works.
Without quitting anything bad or starting anything good.
It's just faith in your heart on Jesus Christ that saves you.
With the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Okay. But a lot of people mix this up and they say, well in order to be saved you must forsake your sins.
Well the problem with that is that we're all sinners.
We will all continue to sin because we live in the flesh.
And we will never be totally free from sin.
I mean, yes, we have the spirit of God.
Yes, we have our own renewed spirit.
But we still have the flesh and you can't reform the flesh.
The only time that you'll be sinless is when the flesh dies and you go up in heaven.
You'll just be your new soul, your new spirit.
One day at the resurrection you'll have a new body.
But until then you live in the flesh and you will sin.
Every day you have to put off the old man.
Every day you have to choose to walk in the spirit and not walk in the flesh.
If you walk in the flesh you will be the same as you were before you were saved.
If you walk in the spirit you'll be a new man.
Okay. And so you have to understand that this is not salvation.
The whole Bible is not just talking about salvation.
Because I got saved once.
When I was six years old I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and got saved.
But I have my whole life ahead of me of living for God.
So the Bible has a lot of things to say to me as a believer after I'm already saved.
Okay. And that's what this is.
This is David. He's been saved for years.
You can't lose your salvation. We'll get to that later too.
And he is still having to constantly confess sin to God and forsake different sins in his life.
Because as we go through our life we commit sin.
God is saying that we ought to confess and forsake those sins.
If we want to be merciful.
If we want to receive mercy from Him.
But if we cover our sins, that's where we're going to get into problems.
Now look at Psalm 38 verse 1.
It says,
O Lord, rebuke me not in thy wrath,
neither chasten me in thy hot displeasure.
Now of course see, right away we're talking about chastening.
The Bible says,
When the Lord loveth, he chasteth, and discourageth every son whom he receiveth.
So if you're God's son, you're going to be disciplined.
I discipline my sons.
I spank my children.
And God disciplines his sons.
And so he's saying here,
God, when you chasten me, don't chasten me in anger.
Okay.
Don't chasten me in your hot displeasure.
Look at verse 2.
For thine arrows stick fast in me,
and my hand presseth me sore.
There is no soundness in my flesh because of thine anger,
neither is there any rest in my bones because of my chance.
So he's not trying to make excuses.
He's saying, God, I'm sorry.
I've done wrong.
Have mercy on me.
I know you have to chasten me, but please be merciful to me.
He says in verse 4,
For my iniquities are gone over my head.
As a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me.
My wounds stink and are corrupt because of my foolishness.
So he's not trying to blame anybody else.
He's not trying to cover up his sin or make excuses.
He's confessing it.
He's just asking for mercy.
He says, I'm troubled.
I am bound down greatly.
I go mourning all the day long.
Look at verse 17.
For I am ready to halt,
and my sorrow is continually performing.
For I will declare mine iniquity.
I will be sorry for my sin,
but my enemies are lively, they are strong,
and they hate me wrongfully or multiply.
They also surrender evil for good of my adversaries
because I follow the thing that good is.
For save me not, O Lord.
O my God, be not far from me.
Make haste to help me.
O Lord, my salvation.
So he's already saved.
He's not trying to get saved here.
He's been saved for years,
but he's been at committing sin.
He's sorry about it.
He's confessing it to God,
and he's asking God to be merciful in his chasing,
to be merciful in his punishment.
And he says, help me, God.
You're my salvation, is what he's saying there.
Look at chapter number 32.
Go back just a few pages to Psalm 32, verse 5.
Psalm 32, 5.
He said this.
I acknowledged my sin unto thee,
and mine iniquity have I not hid.
I said I will confess to my transgressions unto the Lord,
and thou forgaveth the iniquity of my sin.
Selah.
Look at Psalm 51,
one of the most famous Psalms.
Psalm 23 is probably the most famous.
Then Psalm 1, this is probably the third most famous Psalm.
Psalm 51 is a very famous Psalm.
This is after David had committed sin with Bathsheba,
and he feels terrible about what he's done.
He's committed adultery.
He's committed murder.
And here he is in Psalm 51, praying to God.
He says, have mercy upon me, O God,
according to thy lovingkindness,
according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies,
blot out my transgressions.
Wash me thoroughly from mine iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin,
for I acknowledge my transgressions,
and my sin is ever before me.
Against thee, thee only have I sinned,
and done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified,
that thou speakest, and be clear when thou judges.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity,
and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Behold, thou desirous truth in the inward parts,
and in the hidden parts thou shalt make me to know wisdom.
Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.
Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Make me to hear joy and gladness,
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice.
Hide thy face from my sins,
and blot out all mine iniquities.
Create in me a clean heart, O God,
and renew a right spirit within me.
Cast me not away from thy presence,
and take not thy holy spirit from me.
Restore unto me the joy of thy,
did he say restore my salvation?
No.
He said restore unto me the joy of thy salvation,
and uphold me with thy free spirit.
Why did he say take not thy holy spirit from me?
Well, in the Old Testament,
people were not indwelled with the Holy Spirit.
Not in John chapter 7.
Jesus said that the Holy Ghost would not be given
the indwellment of the Holy Spirit
until Jesus, after he rose from the dead,
would be glorified.
But, throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament,
there's something different than being indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
The Bible talks about the Spirit of the Lord coming upon you.
You remember in the Old Testament,
Samson, Saul, Jehu,
all these different people in the Bible.
David talks about the Spirit of the Lord came upon them,
and they preached, or they did some great work for God.
In the New Testament,
in the upper room,
Jesus breathed on them and said,
Receive ye the Holy Ghost.
That's where they were indwelled by the Holy Spirit for the first time.
But, in Acts chapter 1,
he still told them to wait,
to be endued with power from on high.
And that's where they were filled with the Holy Spirit.
That's where they had the Holy Ghost resting upon them.
You remember John the Baptist had the Holy Ghost upon him,
from his mother's womb.
This is a different thing than being indwelled by the Holy Spirit.
And if you remember David's predecessor,
turn to 1 Samuel,
and look at chapter 13 of 1 Samuel.
Backward in your Bible a little bit, 1 Samuel, chapter 13.
You see, David was not the son of the king.
He was made king because he was replacing a bad king, King Saul.
Now, King Saul was chosen by God to be king,
and he was a great man.
He was little in his own sight.
He was a very humble man.
He was a righteous man, a godly man.
But once he got into power,
the power began to go to his head,
and he started to become very jealous and hateful,
and he started to persecute people and persecute David,
who'd done nothing wrong.
Well, see, Saul had the Holy Spirit of God resting upon him.
In fact, it said of Saul more than any other man in the Bible,
besides Samson,
these two were tied for having it said about them most,
the Spirit of the Lord came upon them.
Saul and Samson are the two men of whom had it said most in the Bible.
So here's a man who was a powerful leader,
a powerful preacher,
a powerful king,
a mighty man.
But there came a time when he kept sinning against God,
where God basically took the Holy Spirit's resting upon him from him.
Now, he didn't lose his salvation.
He still went to heaven, according to the Bible.
According to 1 Samuel 30, he still went to heaven,
even though he committed suicide, no less, on the battlefield,
because he was afraid.
He got scared.
He thought that the Philistines,
after they captured him, would abuse him or torture him.
So he just said, you know, enough with this,
and he basically fell on the spear.
He fell on the sword and died.
Well, here's the thing.
Saul, after he'd committed all this sin and kept rejecting God's commandments,
you know, the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul and arrested upon David,
and David became the new king.
David is saying in Psalm 51,
I don't want to lose God's power.
I don't want to lose my position here.
I don't want to be rejected from being king like Saul was rejected.
So he's saying, God, I'm sorry.
He's confessing his sin to God that he'll have mercy on him.
Look at Saul.
Saul had a totally different reaction than David.
Look at Saul in verse 8 of chapter 13.
And he carried seven days according to the set time that Samuel had appointed.
But Samuel came not to Gilgal, and the people were scattered from him.
So Saul's waiting for Samuel to get there.
Samuel's late.
He says, okay, Samuel's not here.
I'm going to have to do this myself.
And he breaks God's law by offering the sacrifice himself.
Look at verse 9.
And Saul said, bring hither a burnt offering to be a peace offering.
And he offered the burnt offering.
Well, just as soon as he finished doing it, of course, right?
As soon as he finished.
He's impatient.
He just got done.
And what happens?
It says, and as soon as he had made an end to offering the burnt offering, behold,
Samuel came.
And Saul went out to meet him, that he might exclude him.
And Samuel said, what hast thou done?
And Saul said, because I saw that the people were scattered from me,
and that thou cameest not within the days appointed,
and that the Philistines gathered themselves together at McMass.
Therefore said I, the Philistines will come down now upon me to Gilgal,
and I have not made supplication of the Lord.
I have forced myself, therefore,
I forced myself to do this.
And offered a burnt offering.
And Samuel said to Saul, thou hast done foolishly.
Thou hast not kept the commandment of the Lord thy God,
which he commanded thee.
For now it is the Lord who has established thy kingdom upon Israel forever.
But now thy kingdom shall not continue.
The Lord has sought him a man after his own heart,
and the Lord hath commanded him to be a captain over his people,
because thou hast not kept that which the Lord commanded thee.
Look at chapter 15. Look at 1 Samuel 15, 10.
1 Samuel 15, 10.
It says in verse number 10 that it came to the word of the Lord unto Samuel,
saying, It repented me that I have set up Saul to be king.
For he has turned back from following me,
and the Lord hath not performed my commandments,
and it greeted Samuel, and he cried unto the Lord all night.
And when Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning,
he was told, Samuel, saying, Saul came to Carmel,
and behold, he set him up a place, and has gone about,
and has passed on, and gone down to Gilgal.
And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said,
Blessed be thou of the Lord, I have performed the commandment of the Lord.
And Samuel said, What meaneth them this bleeding of the sheep in mine ears,
and the lowing of the oxen which I heared?
And Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites,
for the people spared the best of the sheep and of the oxen,
the sacrifice unto the Lord thy God,
and the rest we have utterly destroyed.
Now he was commanded to destroy them all,
and to kill all the animals, and to make an end of all of them.
He disobeyed.
And Samuel said unto Saul,
Stay, and I will tell thee what the Lord hath said to me this night.
And he said unto him, Say on. Verse 17.
And Samuel said, When thou was little in thine own sight,
was thou made the head of the tribes of Israel?
And the Lord anointed thee king over Israel?
And the Lord sent thee on a journey,
and said, Go and utterly destroy the sinners of the Amalekites,
and fight against them until they be consumed?
Wherefore then didst thou not obey the voice of the Lord,
but didst fly upon the spoil,
and didst evil in the sight of the Lord?
And Saul said unto Samuel,
Yea, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord.
Now wait a minute.
He just told him, God told me that you disobeyed.
I'm seeing with my own eyes that you disobeyed.
This is what God told you to do.
You didn't do it.
And what did he say?
No, I did do what was right.
See the difference?
He's not acknowledging it.
He's not confessing.
He's not admitting they did anything wrong.
He's just insisting.
He's saying, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord,
and have gone the way which the Lord sent me,
and have brought Agag the king of Amalek,
and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.
It's like, okay, well if you brought the king,
then you didn't utterly destroy them,
because this guy still lied to the head of the whole country.
And the people took of the spoil,
sheep and ox,
and I was trying to blame them,
but they're the ones who took it.
They took the sheep and ox,
and sheep of the things which should have been utterly destroyed,
to sacrifice unto the Lord thy God and yield thou.
And Samuel said,
Have the Lord as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices,
as in obeying the voice of the Lord?
He said, God doesn't want your offering.
God wants you to obey, he said.
He said, Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,
and to hearken than the fattened branch,
for rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft,
and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry,
because thou has rejected the word of the Lord,
he hath also rejected thee from being king.
And Saul said unto Samuel,
I have sinned,
for I have faced finally many gifts of heart,
for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord,
and thy words because I feared the people,
and obeyed their voice.
Now therefore I pray thee, pardon my sin,
and turn again with me, that I may worship the Lord.
And Samuel said unto Saul,
I will not return with thee,
for thou has rejected the word of the Lord,
and the Lord hath rejected thee from being king over Israel,
and as Samuel turned about to go away,
he laid hope upon the skirt of his mantle, and renteth that,
and said unto him,
The Lord hath rent the kingdom of Israel from thee this day,
and given it to a neighbour of thine,
that is better than thou.
And so this is where Saul basically lost the kingdom,
and he lost the opportunity to have this position,
he lost God's power.
Why? Because he was stubborn.
And you say, well wait a minute,
he admitted he was wrong though.
Eventually he got it right, eventually he said he was sinned.
No, keep reading.
He never gets this, okay?
Because it's chapter after chapter,
he keeps disobeying God, again and again.
David comes to him and explains to him,
look, I haven't done anything wrong.
He's constantly trying to kill David,
and then he has to change his heart,
and then the next chapter he's trying to kill him again.
He's just constantly not getting it right,
not admitting his fault,
he always wants to justify himself,
he always wants to say he hasn't done anything wrong.
Now look, David committed some bad sins too,
but the difference between Saul and David
is that David admitted he was wrong,
and not only did he confess to sin,
but then he forsook him.
I mean, he repented of him.
He was done with him, okay?
And so that's the difference here.
That's why David was blessed by God and Saul wasn't.
Look if you would at the first jump in the New Testament,
toward the very end of the New Testament.
You see, no one's perfect.
Everyone's going to commit sin.
Now hopefully you never commit these kind of awful sins,
like, you know, adultery and murder,
I mean, these are major sins,
but all of us are going to sin,
there are going to be times when we do things that are wrong.
And what God expects of us
is to admit when we're wrong.
Now look, when you do wrong,
God's going to chastise you,
he's going to discipline you,
but the severity of that chastisement,
the severity of your punishment
is determined by your attitude
and by whether you're willing to admit it or not.
I mean, you need to be in the habit
of confessing your sins to God.
I mean, getting on your knees at the end of the day,
throughout the day, whatever time,
get on your knees,
not to ask God for forgiveness
or, you know, like getting re-saved.
I mean, look, if you believe on Jesus Christ,
in him we have redemption,
through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.
But wait a minute, look at 1 John chapter 1.
It says in 1 John chapter 1, verse number 5,
This then is the message which we have heard of him
and declare in him,
that God is light,
and in him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with him
and walk in darkness,
we lie and do not the truth.
He's saying if you're living a life of sin,
if you're walking in darkness,
you will not have any fellowship with God.
It doesn't mean you're not saved,
because he's saying if we,
and he's saying,
this is John the Apostle speaking,
he's saying if we walk in darkness,
we're not going to have any fellowship with God.
He says that if we walk in the light,
as he is in the light,
we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ,
his Son cleanses us from all sin.
If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.
If we confess our sins,
he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
If we say that we've not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
God wants us to confess our sin,
not to a priest,
not to some guy in a dress
with his collar turned around backwards,
who's just as much of a sinner as you are or more.
He wants you to confess your sins to God.
He wants you to get on your knees
and say, God, I'm sorry, I've done wrong.
Now the opposite of confessing your sin
is hardening your heart.
Hardening your heart saying,
I haven't done anything wrong.
I'm doing what's right.
I haven't sinned.
It's not that bad.
And what the opposite of that is
a contrite spirit that gets on your knees
and says, you know what?
I messed up.
It's my fault.
I'm to blame.
I'm sorry.
When God hears you say that,
he's going to be more merciful to you
than when you harden your heart.
Well, for example,
think about if my children did something wrong
and I say, son, you've done wrong.
You know, I told you to clean your room.
Your room is a disaster.
I caught you playing
when you were supposed to be cleaning it.
Okay, now you're going to be spanked.
Now let's say my son says,
you know what?
I haven't done anything wrong.
I have every right to play right now.
I don't have to clean my room.
Go ahead and do what you got to do, Dad,
but I don't think I've done anything wrong.
Okay?
Now, think about that versus,
Dad, I'm really sorry.
I got carried away.
I should have been cleaning.
Don't you think there's going to be
a difference there in this banking?
I mean, good.
That's going to be a real big difference
because it's the same thing with God.
He says, wait a minute.
If you confess your sin and forsake it
and say, you know what, God?
I'm sorry I did that,
and not only that,
but from here on out,
I want to make an effort not to do that.
I want to forsake that.
I'm going to quit doing that.
Then God is still going to discipline you,
but it's going to be much more lenient
than it would have been.
David still got disciplined,
but he would have been disciplined
much more severely,
and he still got to remain king,
and his children remained king after him.
Why?
Because he repented,
because he confessed and forsook that sin.
That's why he was able to keep
a lot of the blessings in his life,
but believe me, he paid for it.
The whole rest of David's life,
for watching him pay for it after that.
Thing after thing after thing,
and that's a whole other sermon in and of itself.
But don't say that you're not sinned.
Confess your sins to God.
Not to be saved,
but to have fellowship with God.
After you're saved,
if you want to have fellowship with Him,
how good of a fellowship am I going to have
with my child
when they just willfully disobey
and will not submit to my authority?
It's going to break the fellowship.
He's still going to be my son.
I mean, no matter what my son says or does,
he will be my son.
And whatever I say or do,
I'm still God's son,
because I believe God Christ.
I've been born again.
I'm a child of God.
But I'm not going to have any fellowship
with God walking in darkness,
and I'm not going to have any fellowship
with God when I sin willfully
and say, you know what?
I don't care what you say, God.
This is my life,
and this is what I'm going to do.
God's going to cloud up and rain on you.
It's a fact.
Look, if you would,
at Revelation chapter 3.
Revelation chapter number 3
is a few pages to the right of your Bible.
Revelation chapter number 3.
So there's a few reasons
why you need to confess your sins, okay?
The first reason is
because you want God to be merciful to you.
If you confess your sins...
I mean, do you really want God
to bring all this bad stuff into your life
and slap you around for the rest of your life?
Or do you want God to just be merciful to you
because you've admitted your fault?
You want God to bless you.
So that should be a big motivation.
I'm going to give you another reason,
but first let me show you this
in Revelation 3, verse 14.
And the angel of the church
of the layout of the sea is right.
These things saith the Amen,
the faithful and true witness,
the beginning of the creation of God.
I know thy works
that thou art either cold nor hot.
I would thou work cold or hot.
So then because thou art lukewarm
and neither cold nor hot,
I will spew thee out of my mouth.
Now is that all there is to it, though?
He says,
I don't like people who are lukewarm.
I want you to be cold or hot.
God forbid that faithful or Baptist Church
would ever be a lukewarm church.
This church ought not be
middle of the road about anything.
He'd say,
Oh, you're extreme.
You're a fanatic.
Thank you very much.
I'm not trying to be
some middle of the road lukewarm,
Goldilocks Baptist Church.
Oh, I went to this church
and it was too hard.
And then I went to this church
and it was too soft.
Then I went to faithful word
and it was just right.
He said,
You know, this isn't Pastor Goldilocks.
This is faithful word Baptist Church.
It ought to be hot.
Now neither hot nor cold
is going to be comfortable.
We want it lukewarm
where we're comfortable.
God wants us to be zealous.
God wants us to have a passion
about what we're doing.
Hey, God doesn't want us to be
these middle of the road,
half in, half out.
Hey, yes, we're extreme.
Yes, we do a ton of soul winning.
Yes, we take the Bible literally.
Yes, we pre-tard on sin.
Yes, we memorize whole books of the Bible.
We are fanatics
because that's what God expects.
He says,
Be zealous or get out.
I mean, that's the way he feels.
Don't be lukewarm.
Don't be watered down.
He's saying,
Choose what signs you're on
and then be that all the way.
But he says this.
It's not just being lukewarm
that made God want to spew
these people out of his mouth.
See, there was a...
Laodicea is a real town.
These are seven towns
that exist in Asia Minor.
Today it's known as Turkey.
And God is telling this church.
He's saying,
Look, you are a lukewarm church.
You are a watered down church.
He said,
It makes me sick.
He said,
It makes me want to spew you
out of my mouth.
But that's not the only reason
why he wanted to spew them
out of his mouth.
Keep reading.
Because...
So here's more of a reason, right?
That's why he's saying,
Because.
Because thou sayest,
I am rich and increased with goods
and have need of nothing,
and knowest not
that thou art wretched
and miserable
and poor
and blind
and naked.
I counsel thee to buy
of thee gold,
tried in the fire
that thou mayest be rich,
and white raiment
that thou mayest be clothed
and the shame of thy nakedness
do not appear,
and anoint thy eyes
with eye staff
that thou mayest see.
As many as I love
I rebuke and chasten.
Be zealous,
therefore,
and repent.
He's saying,
Look, the thing that makes me
want to spew you out of my mouth
is not just that you're lukewarm.
It's that you won't admit it.
He's saying,
It's the fact that
not only are you
lukewarm,
but then you're saying,
Oh, man, I'm rich.
I've got it all together.
I'm right on.
I'm spiritual.
I'm this.
He's saying,
It's the fact that
you won't admit
that you've done wrong
that makes me so angry,
because you're saying this.
You're saying this,
and you won't admit
that you're actually lukewarm.
If you confess
your sins to God,
you're going to find
mercy with God,
but God is angered
by people who are hard-headed,
stubbornly persisting
in their sin
and in their pain
and everything in their sin
and will not admit
that it's wrong,
that's going to get you
the worst kind of chasting
from God.
But there's another reason
why you ought to
confess your sins.
And forcott,
look at Hebrews chapter 10.
The Bible says
in Hebrews chapter 10,
verse number one.
Hebrews is a great book
that just kind of explains
the relationship
between the Old Testament and the New Testament. It's probably the best book to help you understand
and comprehend the relationship of the Old Covenant with the New Covenant, the Old Testament
and the New Testament. Look at verse number 1 of Hebrews 10.
For the law, having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things,
can never, with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually,
make the comers their unto perfect. For then would they not have ceased to be offered?
So what is he saying here? He's explaining, look, nobody was ever saved by these animal sacrifices.
He's saying if they were saved, why did they have to keep making them over and over again?
He says, then would they not have ceased to be offered?
Because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
But in those sacrifices there is a remembrance to get made of sins every year.
Look at verse 4.
For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins.
Those were just a shadow of things to come, a picture of Jesus Christ
who would come and be the sacrifice and shed his blood for our sins
because it's never been possible for the blood of a bull or a goat to take away your sins.
It was all symbolic is what he's saying.
But look at that phrase in verse number 2.
Because that the worshippers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins.
Now what does the word conscience mean?
Well, look at the word.
What's a word that kind of jumps out at you in the word conscience?
Do you see another word inside the word conscience?
What word is it?
Science.
Science, right?
The word science means knowledge, okay?
That's the origin of the word.
Conscience, the word con, think about it in Spanish.
What does con mean?
It's something that's with.
Okay, conscience, having conscience of your sins
is kind of like when David said my sin is ever before me.
It's like it's constantly in your mind.
It's constantly in your consciousness, your sins.
You're constantly remembering your sins.
Now Paul said this because Paul had committed some really bad sins in his life.
He said forgetting those things which are behind
and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
I press toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
It's not like I let my past or my sins hold me back from the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Paul tried it more than any of his other contemporaries forgot.
He didn't let a bad past hold him back.
And this is saying here that once you've been heard through your sins,
you shouldn't have any conscience of sins.
What's that saying? You have no conscience?
Like you just do things?
No, he's saying past sins should not be plaguing you today.
Now there are some people who literally today are feeling bad about,
feeling guilty about things that they've done years and years ago,
five years ago, ten years ago, fifteen years ago,
and that is not what God wants you to do.
It's not right.
Look, God has separated us from our sins as far as the east is from the west.
God has forgiven all of our sins if we're saved.
If we're saved, our sins are forgiven.
There's no reason to dwell upon our past sins.
Now, when you commit a sin, should you just blow it off and say,
oh well, no, you should confess it, you should mourn over it,
you should feel badly.
David, if you saw David, he was mourning about it.
He was sad, he was crying and saying, I'm sorry, God.
But then he got up and went on with his life.
Now for example, I've done wrong things in my life.
But you know what, I've confessed them to God,
I've forsaken them, and I don't feel guilty about them at all anymore.
Now look, I've known people who are plagued by guilt,
and you know what I've noticed about people who are plagued by guilt?
They're the people who try to downplay what they've done wrong.
It's true.
They won't want to confess it.
They won't want to forsake it.
And so it bugs them all the time, bugs them all the time, honestly.
For example, there are people who've been divorced.
And look, divorce is wrong.
You say whatever you want, but when you get married,
you swear to God.
I promise to keep me only unto her in sickness as in health,
in poverty as in wealth, and forsaking all others,
keep me only unto her so long as we both shall live.
I promise that.
I promise for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer,
to have and to hold from this day forward till death do us part.
Now you can come up with all the reasons why divorce is okay,
but it is never okay to break a vow to God.
And that's what marriage is.
It's a vow.
You're swearing a vow before man and God.
That's what marriage is.
I don't care what state it was in, what country it was in,
what church you got married in, or the justice of peace.
You swore an oath before God and man.
You must pay your vow, according to the Bible.
Period.
There is no grounds for divorce.
The only time that God permitted a divorce in the Old Testament
was people who had not yet consummated their marriage.
I mean, it is clear.
In Deuteronomy 22 and Deuteronomy 24, read it for yourself,
there was an allowance made for someone who married a woman
who thought that she was a virgin.
He finds out she isn't.
He backs down.
That was the one allowance that God made for people to back up.
This example is in Matthew chapter 1.
Think about Joseph.
Joseph was a spouse to who?
Married.
Matthew chapter 1.
Joseph and Mary.
They were married, they were spoused,
but they had not yet come together yet.
They were not yet consummated in marriage.
They had been sworn to each other,
they had been a spouse,
but there was a custom of a feast and everything,
a little different wedding than we would have today
that went on for a little bit of an extended period of time.
But they were a spouse, but the Bible makes clear
that they had not yet come together yet.
Well, all of a sudden, he finds out that she's pregnant.
He says, wait a minute.
That's not what I expected.
He said, I'm going to put her away.
Pribbly.
Put away and divorce him, the Bible says.
And it didn't say he was doing anything wrong.
It says Joseph, her husband, being a just man
and not willing to make her a public example,
was minded to put her away pribbly.
He said, you know what?
I'm not trying to make a big deal out of this,
but he said, you know what?
I don't want to marry you
and you're pregnant with this child.
That was his choice.
He decided to divorce.
That was acceptable with God
because they hadn't consummated the marriage.
Once you're married, once you've consummated the marriage,
there is no divorce in the Bible.
The Pharisees, when Jesus is dead,
they thought you could just get divorced
for whatever reason you want.
And they came to Jesus and said, hey, you know,
is it lawful for a man to put away his wife for every cause?
He said, no.
God made the male and female what God had joined together.
Let not man put asunder.
He said, you are false teachers
by giving people all these divorces and everything,
and he rebuked it.
Now look, but let's say someone has been divorced, okay?
And the Bible says,
whosoever shall marry or let us put away
comitteth adultery.
I didn't write that.
That's what the Bible says.
It says if you get divorced and remarried, it's adultery.
Now let's say someone has gotten divorced,
gotten remarried, that's a sin.
But wait a minute.
Now they're living for God.
Now they're doing what's right.
Should we hang that over their head?
No.
Should they feel bad about it every day of their life?
No, because our sins have been forgiven,
and God says, look, put it behind you,
confess it as a sin, forsake it.
You know, let's say you're on your third spouse.
You know?
Hey, just decide that you're going to stay married
to the one you're married to now until death.
That's what the, you know, you've made a vow,
you've broken two vows in the past,
but you know what?
Now you're married.
Now you're valid to this person.
Stay with that person until death do us part,
and say, you know what, God?
I'm sorry about the first time I got divorced.
I'm sorry about the second time.
You know, I'm sorry about the seventh time.
My name's Elizabeth Taylor, you know?
I'm sorry about the seventh time I got divorced.
The point is, God can still use you,
but I find that the people who are the most bitter
and they have all this guilt and they feel bad about it
is the people who won't admit that it's wrong.
They'll try to say, I had a reason why I got divorced.
You don't understand my situation.
Instead of just saying, you know what, I made a mistake,
but now I'm living for God.
Now I'm doing what's right.
I'm going to put that behind me,
and I'm going to do what's right.
And you know what?
You will have so much more peace in your life
when you put your sins behind you.
Move on.
But the only way you can move on
is when you first confess it and forsake you.
See, people do something wicked,
and then they just try to move on.
Without getting it right with God.
Without saying, God, I'm sorry.
I've done wrong.
It was my fault.
I'm not going to do it again.
Thank you for forgiving me.
Thank you for saving me.
I'm going to move on from this and live my life.
People who do that,
they can have peace in their heart and say,
you know what, that's behind me.
I'm going to forget about it.
I'm going to move on.
That's why Paul was able to move on.
Look at the woman at the well.
You have to turn there, but John chapter 4.
Remember the woman at the well?
Jesus spoke to her,
and he said to her, he said,
hey, go call your husband.
And she said, I have no husband.
And he said, well, you've well said
that you have no husband.
Because he said, you've had five husbands,
and he who now now has is not that husband.
So I guess you're right.
You don't have a husband,
because the guy that you're shacked up with
is not your husband.
And she said, well, sir,
I proceed with our prophet.
He knew, Jesus, knowing all things,
knew that she had been married
literally five times
and was now living with a man
that she was not married to.
But wait a minute.
She still got saved.
And not only that,
she was used by God
to get a whole bunch of people saved.
In John chapter 4,
she went back to that city of Samaria
and started preaching to everybody.
Hey, come see Jesus.
This is the Messiah.
You need to come hear this guy.
And many believed on him
because of her word,
because of her bringing them to Christ.
So there's somebody
who's going to get rewards in heaven,
okay?
Even though they had a bad past,
they were able to move past that
and say, you know what?
I'm going to do something for God.
And she did more for God
than a lot of people
who have never done anything wrong.
And so she's going to be rewarded in heaven
for getting people saved.
She confessed and forsook her sin.
She didn't say to Jesus,
well, you didn't hear my side of the story.
That first guy was a real jerk.
The second guy was even more of a jerk.
The third guy was, you know,
he slapped me one time with a pillow,
you know?
No, he slapped me.
Well, with a pillow, you know.
Oh, he's a drunk, you know.
Well, we both drink.
Everybody can always find excuses.
You know, even if he was a drunk,
that's when it falls under for better or for worse.
You know?
Oh, they committed adultery.
That's the worse.
That's the bad stuff that you deal with.
Now, you know,
I'm not making light of any of that.
But the point is,
she didn't let her past hinder her
from being used by God.
You see, if you confess and forsake it,
you'll find mercy and you'll find peace,
and you won't have this conscience of your past sins
year by year plaguing you.
You will never have peace about your sin
until you confess it.
That's where you can really move on.
But if you're harboring something from the past
where it's like you've done wrong
and you're trying to justify it,
that's where it's going to keep bugging you.
You know, I can think of a lot of things
that I've done wrong,
things that I'm ashamed of.
You know, let me give you an example in my life.
You know, this is a good example
just because it's something that I feel
like this was majorly wrong that I did.
I think this was a really big thing I did wrong.
Now, first of all, there are a lot of other sins.
Let me give you some other sins I've confessed.
You know, I've confessed to God
people that I didn't give the gospel to,
that I knew that I should have,
and I lost an opportunity.
You know, I think about growing up
or in my young and old years
and even, you know, times recently
where I had an opportunity to give the gospel to somebody
and I didn't use that opportunity.
You know, I just said,
God, I'm sorry, I was wrong.
You know, and, you know,
I'm not just going to beat myself up about it
for the rest of my life.
But at the same time,
I want to flip an attitude towards sin.
There's an acute, there's a temporary sorrow for sin,
then there's forgiveness and you move on, okay?
For example, when my wife and I first got married,
I was young, naive, you know,
I had just turned 19 when I got married.
You know, there were a lot of things
that I was wrong about
and things that I didn't understand
just being a young man,
and one of those things was that, you know,
I was one of these people
that just kind of bowed down and worshiped the doctor.
Like, I thought that he was just like a God-man.
You know, that's the way I was brought up.
Like, he can do no wrong.
And I remember I was always paranoid.
Like, I had to have health insurance and stuff
and, you know, you got to go to the doctor and all this stuff.
And I'm not saying it's wrong to go to the doctor, you know.
I mean, there are times when you have to go to the doctor.
But here's what happened.
I got married
and I got a new job right when I got married
so I didn't have any health insurance
because I was not on my parents' health insurance anymore.
Well, now, my new job, you know how it is,
the benefits don't kick in for what?
Three months.
And if your wife gets pregnant
before the insurance kicks in,
that's a preexisting condition.
It's not covered.
So here I am, I'm thinking to myself,
you know, no faith, no understanding,
no logic, no realization,
hey, people have been doing this for thousands of years.
You know what I mean?
They've been giving birth.
I'm just saying to myself, you know,
good night, I've got to go to the hospital.
My wife's going to have to go to the hospital.
She has a baby.
It's going to cost a thousand dollars.
I'm going to be in debt the rest of my life.
So basically, I leaned upon my own understanding
instead of going to God or the Bible to see what I should do.
And I thought to myself, you know,
I went to the world's wisdom and just said,
you know what, honey?
I said, just take birth control for like three months
until this kicks in
and then we'll start having our children, okay?
Well, I didn't know, you know, what was going on.
And so, you know, my wife, you know, got the birth control pills,
you know, the hormonal birth control pills, okay?
So, you know, and I told her, I said, you know,
just go get the birth control pills or whatever.
And I said, you know, get pregnant or whatever,
but, you know, take these pills or whatever, you know.
And again, I was wrong about this
because she took the birth control pills for three months.
Well, after three months, I said, okay,
the health insurance kicked in.
You know, you don't need this anymore.
You're done with it.
Well, the first month after she got the birth control,
she became pregnant right away.
So we were rejoicing, we were happy, right?
Well, after two or three weeks, she had a miscarriage.
So we were distraught, we were upset, we were sad.
You know, it's very hard to go through that,
especially when it's your first child
because you're like, oh, man.
You know, you're thinking these crazy thoughts
like my wife's never going to be able to have children
and this, you know, even though it's such a short time,
but, you know, we were upset, we were sad,
we were distraught.
But, you know, we started to look into it and research it.
And we realized that the reason that she had the miscarriage
was from the birth control pills
because what we looked at when we studied
how birth control pills work, you know,
they basically can cause you to have like an abortion
because they don't, I always thought,
naive person that I was like, okay,
a birth control pill just stops a woman from ovulating.
No.
It only does a small percentage of the time,
depending on what kind of pill you take.
The rest of the time, it hardens the lining of the uterus
and makes a hostile environment.
That's the exact wording from the package insert
because after she had the miscarriage,
we were back and read the package insert,
all that fine print.
We read books about it.
We studied about it.
We looked at the science behind it and said,
wait a minute, hostile environment.
That's why they tell you
that if you take birth control pills,
wait this many months before getting pregnant
because when you turn your body
into a hostile environment,
now you really get pregnant, you know,
and you're three weeks along,
but the thing can't survive
because it's in this hostile environment.
Your body has been messed up.
Now, look, I looked at that and said, you know what?
I said I didn't have faith in God.
I didn't trust God.
You know, I took things into my own hands
and said just trusting God to take care of me
and just, you know, go to the bed with my wife
like the Bible says
and let the chips fall where they may, you know,
instead of sitting there and taking it into my own hands
and going to some doctor or some drug store
and do these pills that actually are, you know,
could be killing a baby
because, you know, the baby's conceived.
The Bible talks about the conception
being the game of light,
talks about the seed in conception,
so that proves that it's when the seed
and the egg come together.
The Bible teaches that.
Hebrews 11, 11 is one example
and we see that that's a life
and if it then dies after seven to 14 days,
that's, you know, that's a manslaughter
and if you did it intentionally,
it's murder.
You did it by accident, it's still manslaughter.
And so I realized this and I said,
you know what?
I've committed sin.
I've done wrong
and my wife has had a miscarriage
and I am to blame
because I'm the one who told her to take these pills
and these pills caused her to have a miscarriage
and who knows, maybe even during those first three months,
something was conceived
and passed away in the very first few days.
So I didn't go and say,
you know what, it's not my fault.
It wasn't my fault.
You know, they lied to me.
I said, you know what, God?
I shouldn't have done something that I didn't understand.
I should have stayed with the Bible.
I should have known.
I should have stated
and I said, you know what, God?
I got on my knees
and I said, God, I am sorry.
It's my fault.
I've committed manslaughter.
This tiny developing embryo,
this baby in the womb,
has died because of my wrongdoing
and I said, I am sorry, God.
It's my fault
and my wife will never touch these pills again
and it will never be again.
Now look, do I feel guilty about that today?
No.
Has it bothered me for years
and keeps bothering me?
It never bothers me.
You say, why does it bother you?
Because it's forgiven.
Because it's confessed.
Because it's forsaken.
You know, that's an example.
Maybe you can't relate to that.
Maybe you can't.
I don't know.
But the point is,
this is an example from my life
of something that I did that was wrong,
I admitted I was wrong,
and now I have no guilt.
Okay, Jesus died for our sins, for our guilt.
We ought not beat ourselves up
about things in our past.
And I've seen so many people
who are not living for God to the fullest.
They're not really doing
what they could be doing for God
because they're just hung up.
Oh, you don't know what I've done with the past.
Let the past die.
And from this,
you may have been a wicked person in the past,
done wicked things.
You may have committed awful sins,
adultery, murder, theft, whatever.
You ought to just say, you know what,
if you haven't already confessed it,
if you haven't already forsaken it,
and you know what, take it to the cross
and leave it there.
And just unburden yourself.
It's like David said,
my sins are like this burden weighing down on me.
He unloaded that burden and said,
you know what, God, I'm admitting it.
I mean, there's something that feels good
about admitting when you're wrong.
I mean, think about children.
Did you ever do something wrong
when you were a child
and it was almost a relief
when you got caught?
You know what I mean?
Because it was almost,
the suspense was worse.
You know, I remember one time,
I don't want to give the details,
but like one time,
I did something wrong, okay?
And I'm, you know,
you don't want to give details,
you don't want to give ideas to the kids, you know?
So anyway, you know,
I done something wrong
and I remember just, you know,
me and someone else,
we had been, you know, partners in crime,
we'd done something wrong
and it was like,
we're like deciding, okay,
here's how we're going to cover it up.
You know what I mean?
Like, this is our,
let's get our story straight here, okay?
And then like as soon as we confronted the parents,
the other person just blurted out,
this is what we did.
I'm like, what are you doing?
I'm thinking to myself,
what are you doing?
But it was because it was worse,
the suspense,
just the, oh man,
what's going to happen?
Or the guilt or the wondering.
It was almost a relief
to just take the punishment.
I remember sometimes getting a spanking
when you were a kid was just great,
because at least it was over.
You know, you took your punishment
and it's over.
I think God, my parents never grounded me.
They never grounded me one time.
Never.
Because you know what they did?
They just beat me.
They spanked me.
I'm not saying it the bad way.
I'm saying they spanked me.
Because if they grounded me,
then it would be like this week long.
I love the fact that it was over.
You know, you get the spanking,
you get wailed on.
You know, maybe it was sore for a few days,
but at least the punishment was over
and you could move on.
You know, and that's the way God is.
God punishes you and lets you move on.
That's what's wrong with our criminal justices.
That's one of the 500 things that's wrong.
You know what?
Somebody commits a felony
and they have to carry it around with them
for the rest of their life.
That isn't right.
The Bible clearly says that if someone steals
and once they've been punished,
once they restore it,
once the judges have caused them to be punished,
whatever the punishment is,
restoring fourfold or fivefold,
he said it shall never be mentioned to him again.
Let it go.
It said, let him that stole steal no more,
but rather than work with his hand,
that was his good,
that he may have to give to him that hath not.
So the Bible makes it clear that when somebody steals,
they repent of that,
they pay what they owe,
they turn over a new leaf
and say I'm going to be an honest person.
It shouldn't be brought up.
It shouldn't be carried around.
And so many societies throughout history have done this.
They've made people carry it with them
for the rest of their life.
And the United States is one of them.
You've got this felony on your record.
You no longer can vote.
You no longer can own a gun ever.
Every time you're filling out a job application,
every time you're trying to get a contractor's license,
you know, are you?
Yes, I've been convicted of a felony.
I did this. I did that wrong.
You know, it's not right.
If you want someone not to turn back to a life of crime,
then give them a new start.
Give them a clean slate.
Give them a fresh start.
And that's what's wrong.
But you know what?
We as God's people should be above that and say,
you know what?
If somebody does wrong and repents of it and gets right,
they can go on, including ourselves.
And so don't let a past drag you down.
But at the same time,
don't be stubborn to admit when you've done wrong.
People come to church
and the pastor gets up and preaches something hard.
He preaches that something's wrong that they've been doing.
You can have one of two options.
You can be like Cain,
who when he was rebuked by God just got angry, got mad.
Or you can be like David, who was rebuked by God
and said, you know what?
I'm sorry. I'll get it right.
You know, when you come to church
and I hit on your favorite little TV show
because it's filled with a bunch of queers on it,
you know.
Or you know, you love somebody.
People are always like feeding me stuff.
Like somebody just sent me an email like,
preach against the Simpsons.
I never watched the Simpsons.
He's like, preach against the Simpsons.
I'm like, okay.
I'm preaching against the Simpsons right now.
He said, there's this guy in the Simpsons.
And I never watched it.
It's the stuff that I watched.
He said, there's this guy in the Simpsons
who lived next door to the Simpsons.
Who's a Christian.
And he's like the laughingstock of the whole show.
Who's seen it? Who knows?
He's this dork.
He's this pacifist.
He's this dweeb.
And he's like the laughingstock of the whole show.
And his pastor is some reverend
that's like all in it for the money.
And he doesn't really love God.
He doesn't care about the Bible.
You know, and that's what they portray on TV.
But you know, the pastor gets up and says,
hey, don't watch the Simpsons.
Oh, man.
Why don't you just say God?
I'm sorry I was filling my mind with the Simpsons
while I should have been reading the Bible
or playing with my children
or doing something that mattered in my life.
Instead of getting mad when I hit on Seinfeld, Friends,
probably two of the most perverted shows on television.
Homosexuality, going to bed on the first date
is what's taught in those shows.
You know, instead of getting mad about it,
why don't you get mad at the people
who have been cramming all the junk down your throat?
Get mad at the devil.
Get mad at Hollywood.
Get mad at NBC and CBS.
Instead of getting mad at the preacher,
say, God, I'm sorry.
You know you've watched things that are wrong, right?
Everybody in this room, myself included,
has watched a lot of bad things
on TV and movies that we shouldn't have watched.
We've seen all the bedroom scenes.
We've seen all the wickedness.
We've heard God blasphemed and mocked
on TV show after TV show.
Hey, the difference between the people in this room
who are right with God and the people who aren't
is the people who confessed that and forsaken it
and not hardened their heart and said,
well, it's not that bad.
I don't want to live a life that's not that bad.
I'm pressing on the upward way,
new heights I'm gaining every day,
still praying as I mumble or bow,
Lord, pat my feet on higher ground.
I'm not trying to just do something that's not that bad.
Hey, I want to do the high mark,
the high calling of God and Christ.
You know, I want to be like Paul
and say I labored more abundantly than they all.
I don't want to just be halfway.
And so you can sit there and justify your shows,
justify all your rock and roll,
you know, your ungodly music,
justify this, justify that.
But you know what?
When you confess and forsake it,
that's where you can begin to grow.
That's where you can move forward in your life
and not be weighed down and burned down.
The Bible says, let us lay aside every weight
and the sin which does so easily beset us
and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
looking unto Jesus.
How are we going to lay aside the weight?
How are we going to lay aside the sin that besets us?
Two things.
We've got to confess it and forsake it.
It's not even enough to just forsake it.
Well, you know, I'm not going to do it anymore,
but it's not like it was bad or anything.
You know what I mean?
No, just say, hey, it was bad.
I did something bad.
I did wrong.
I'm wrong.
You say, I couldn't.
I don't want to say that.
You've got a long way to go in your life
if you don't want to say that.
Get used to telling God, I'm wrong.
You're right.
I'm sorry.
I did it wrong.
You'll live a life of peace, guilt-free.
You can grow in the Lord when you can move on.
That's why our hands have a word of prayer.