I know this. I want my sins covered. I don't want you to see them.
I most especially don't want God to see them. I want my sins
covered. Can they be? In Psalm 32, verse 1, David said,
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Covered. Look in verse 5. I acknowledge my sin unto thee,
and mine iniquity have I not hid. Now, the word hid there
is the same Hebrew word that's translated covered. My sin, my personal sin against
thee, I have not covered. I've entitled this message Covered
by Uncovering. The only way my sin will be covered
is if I don't cover it before the Lord. No other way. The only way my
sin that I want covered, the only way my sin will be covered
is if I don't cover my sin before the Lord. Now my sins are not
covered by my not covering them before God, but they will not
be covered if I do not uncover them before God." Covered by uncovering. Would to God that he will enable
us to uncover ourselves before him. Not before one another,
but before him. Now, David was in a mess. The reason behind this psalm
is found in 1 Samuel chapter 11, if you want to turn over
there. First Samuel, chapter 11. David was in a mess. And it came to pass after the
year was expired, at the time when kings go forth to battle,
that David sent Joab. and his servants with him, and
all Israel. And they destroyed the children
of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But David tarried still at Jerusalem
when he should have been gone out to battle. He tarried still
at Jerusalem. And it came to pass in an evening
tide that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof
of the king's house. Second Samuel chapter 11. Verse 2. And it came to pass in an eveningtide
that David arose from off his bed and walked upon the roof
of the king's house, and from the roof he saw a woman washing
herself. And the woman was very beautiful
to look upon. And David sent and inquired after
the woman, and one said, Is not this Bathsheba the daughter of
Eliam, the wife of Uriah the Hittite? And David sent messengers
and took her, and she came in unto him, and he lay with her. For she was purified from her
uncleanness, and she returned unto her house, and the woman
conceived and sent and told David and said, I am with child. And David was in a mess. He was
in a mess, and so he tries to get out of that mess. And David
sent to Joab, her husband, or the captain, saying, send me
Uriah the Hittite, her husband. And Joab sent Uriah to David.
You see, if she became with child while Joab was, or Uriah was
out, Uriah would think it was his child. So he wants to bring
him in immediately so that he can lay with his wife. And David
sent to Joab saying, send me Uriah the Hittite, and Joab sent
Uriah to David. And when Uriah was come unto
him, David demanded of him how Joab did, and how the people
did, and how the war prospered. And David said to Uriah, Go down
to thy house, and wash thy feet. And Uriah, noble soul that he
was, departed out of the king's house, and there followed him
a mess of meat from the king. But Uriah slept at the door of
the king's house with all the servants of his lord, and went
not down to his house." He didn't go see his wife. And when they
had told David, saying, Uriah went not down into his house,
David said unto Uriah, Camest thou not from thy journey? Why
then didst thou not go into thine house? And Uriah said unto David,
The ark and Israel and Judah abide in tents, and my Lord Joab
and the servants of my Lord are encamped in the open fields.
Shall I then go into my house to eat and to drink and to lie
with my wife? As thou livest and as thy soul
liveth, I will not do this thing." Now we see what a noble man he
was. And David said to Uriah, Terry
here today also, and tomorrow I'll let thee depart. So Uriah
bode in Jerusalem that day and the morrow. And when David had
called him, he did eat and drink before him, and he made him drunk.
And at evening he went out to lie on his bed with the servants
of his Lord, but went not down to his house. And it came to pass in the morning
that David wrote a letter to Joab, and sent it by the hand
of Uriah. And he wrote in the letter, saying,
Set ye Uriah, this noble soul, in the forefront of the hottest
battle, and retire ye from him, that he may be smitten and die. That's pretty cold-blooded, isn't
it? He gave this message to Uriah. Not that Uriah could see the
contents. And he said, you give this to Joab. Uriah brings Joab
his own death warrant. Verse 16, And it came to pass,
when Joab observed the city, that he assigned Uriah unto a
place where he knew that the valued men were. And the men
of the city went out and fought with Joab. And there fell some
of the people of the servants of David. And Uriah the Hittite
died also. Then Joab sent and told David
all the things concerning the war, and charged the messenger,
saying, When thou hast made an end of telling the matter of
the war unto the king, and if so be that the king's wrath arise,
and he sayeth, Then wherefore approachest ye so nigh unto the
city, when ye did fight? know ye not that they would shoot
from the wall? Who spoke of Bimelech, and the son of Jerubbosheth?
Did not a woman cast a piece of millstone upon him from the
wall, that he died in Thebes? Why went ye nigh the wall? Then
say thou, Thy servant, Uriah the Hittite,
is dead also." So the messenger went and came
and showed David all that Joab had said for him. And the messenger
said unto David, Surely the men prevailed against us, and came
out unto us in the field. And we went upon even unto the
entering of the gate, and the shooters shot from off the wall
from the servants. And some of the Kedin servants
are dead. And thy servant, Uriah the Hittite, is dead also. Several people were killed by
this action of David. Then David said unto the messenger,
Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease
thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as another. Make
thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it, and
encourage thou him. And when the wife of Uriah heard
that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband.
And when the morning was passed, David sent and fetched her to
his house and she became his wife and bear him a son. But
the thing that David had done. Displeased. The Lord. King David. The man after God's
own heart. Committed adultery. And then
tried to cover it up with cold-blooded, premeditated murder. Can a true believer do something
like that? Now, if I ask that question,
I demonstrate great ignorance of myself. Yes, a true believer can do something
like that. Well, David went on business
as usual without truly confessing his sin. We know that he went
at least a year because Bathsheba went through a full term of pregnancy
and had a baby, and he still had not confessed his sin. Now, you remember the story of
Nathan. Look in Chapter 12. And the Lord
sent Nathan unto David, and he came unto him, and said unto
him, There were two men in one city, the one rich, and the other
poor. The rich man had exceeding many
flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing, save one little
ewe lamb, which he had bought and nourished up, and it grew
up together with him and with his children. It did eat of his
own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his bosom, and
was unto him as a daughter. And there came a traveler unto
the rich man, and he spared to take of his own flock, and of
his own herd, to dress for the wayfaring man that was coming
to him, but took the poor man's lamb, and dressed it for the
man that was come to him. And David's anger was greatly
kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan, As the
Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely
die. He shall restore the lamb fourfold,
because he did this thing, and because he had no pity. And Nathan
said to David, Thou art the man. Can you imagine what went through
David's heart at this time? Now, upon this occasion, David
wrote Psalm 51 and then he wrote Psalm 32. Now, look at Psalm 32 once again. In both of these Psalms, Psalm
51 and Psalm 32, David speaks of a three headed monster. Sin,
iniquity and transgression. Do you remember in Psalm 51,
When he said, Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness,
according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out
my transgression, wash me from my iniquity, wash me from my
sin. He mentioned all three. Look
in Psalm 32, verse one. 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. Sin, transgression, and iniquity,
while they always go together, you never have one without the
other two being right there, they're different things. The
word sin generally has to do with my nature. Do you remember
when David said, in sin did my mother conceive me? He wasn't
talking about the act of his mother's conception being an
act of sin, or he was born illegitimately. He was saying, I was born in
sin. I was born evil. Sin has to do
with our nature, sinful, evil nature. You don't become a sinner
when you commit sin. You commit sin because you're
a sinner. Transgression. is the actual
breaking of God's commandments. When I lie, I commit a transgression. When I covet, I commit a transgression. When I fail to love God with
all my heart, I commit a transgression. And iniquity is the moral perversity
of what we do, whatever it is. Exodus 28, 38 speaks of the priest
bearing the iniquity of the holy things of the children of Israel. There is a moral perversity in
everything that we do. That's why everything we do is
a sin, and to not see this is dishonesty. Now, David says,
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, no deceit before God. Now, David is demonstrating a
guileless spirit, a spirit without deceit, when he says, I acknowledge. Verse five. I acknowledge my
sin unto thee, my iniquity have I not hid, have I not covered?
I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest
the iniquity of my sin. I acknowledge my sin to thee."
Now, David went at least a year without acknowledging his sin.
And I suppose that was probably the longest year of his life.
Look in verse 3 of Psalm 32. He said, when I kept silence,
and this is a reference to not confessing his sin, 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 turned into the drought
of summer. He was losing his health over
this. He was so upset. I mean, as long
as he kept silence, look what it did to him. But then, he says
in verse 5, I acknowledge my sin unto thee. My iniquity have
I not covered up. I said I will confess my transgressions
to the Lord. And that Hebrew word confession
is a very interesting word. I learned something new. The
Hebrew word confess means to throw a stone at. David threw
a stone at himself. That's what's going on right
now. He says, I acknowledge my sin. I'm not trying to hide my
iniquity. I'm stoning myself. I'm agreeing
with everything you say regarding me. To confess your sin is to
agree with God, is to take sides with God against yourself. And
that is precisely what the spirit in whom there is no guile does.
Before God, he acknowledges his sin. He doesn't seek to hide. He throws a stone at himself.
Now, this thing of confession. There's something called insincere
confession. And I know a whole lot about
it. The reason I can speak so clearly about this is because
I personally know a whole lot about it. Insincere confession
is forced. You only do it when you're caught. You only do it when you're exposed. In insincere confession, you
confess with your lips, but you don't mean it. Sure, I'm a sinner.
Everybody is. Everybody is. Sure, I'm not perfect.
Nobody is. I'm like everybody else. Insincere confession admits
to guilt. but does not really believe it. Insincere confession really does
not believe that it actually deserves to go to hell. Insincere
confession confesses, but does not take full responsibility
for what was done. The woman you gave me, she gave
me of the fruit, and I did eat. If you hadn't given me to her,
this would have never happened. Insincere confession does not
confess all sin, just the one it got caught at. There's no
true my sin is ever before me. Insincere confession always has
extenuating circumstances to lessen the guilt or make it really
not that bad. I stole because I was hungry. A momentary lapse of Temptation
overcame me, and just at a time of weakness, I gave in. Always an extenuating circumstance
that makes it not all that bad. Now, sincere confession. I like thinking about this. Sincere
confession, first of all, is voluntary. What do I mean by
that? It's like somebody turning themselves
in because they're guilty. Not because they got caught,
but they turned themselves in. It's voluntary. And sincere confession
assumes complete responsibility. It's all my fault. Guilty as
charged. You take complete blame. My sin
is not because of the pressure of circumstances. It's not because
of bad environment. It's not because of a bad upbringing.
It's not because society failed me and didn't do its part. It's
all my fault. There's an actual sense of personal
responsibility before God. And in sincere confession, there
is a vindication of God's justice. You take sides with God against
yourself, and you say, whatever He does with me is just and is
right. And in sincere confession, you
understand it's God's prerogative to give or to withhold mercy. You bow to His sovereignty. And
in this confession of sin, David said, thou forgavest the iniquity,
the moral perverseness of my sin. Now, verse six, for this
shall everyone that's godly pray unto thee in a time when thou
mayest be found. Now, this is what everyone that's
godly is going to ask the Lord. Lord, give me the grace to uncover
myself before you. Give me the grace to do just
what David said. This is what everyone that's
godly is going to seek in a time when God may be found. Now, look back in verse 1, Psalm
32. Here's the four states of blessedness
that this man experiences in uncovering his sin before God. And remember, the only way you
and I are going to do this is if God enables us to do it. And
we're to ask the Lord to enable us to do this. And in uncovering
my sin before God, here's what happens. He says, Blessed is
he whose transgression is forgiven. Now, the Hebrew word forgiven
is literally lift off. That's the idea. to take something
and lift it off, something that's on you, it's in you, and he takes
it and he lifts it off so that it's not on you anymore. Now, when it was lifted off,
it was placed somewhere else. And this is the gospel. This is the gospel. I don't understand
how God can do this, but he does it. He takes my sin and he lifts
it off of me so that it's not on me anymore. And he takes it
and he places it on his son so that his son actually becomes
guilty of it. And he takes the righteousness
of his son and places it upon me. He lifts my sin off of me. That high priest put his hand
on the head of the goat to signify that the sin of Israel had left
the high priest and was placed upon the goat. And the innocence
of the goat is transferred to Israel. That's the gospel. That's
the way forgiveness works. It's sin lifted off. Now, you confess your sin before
God and you're going to find that your sin has been lifted
off. Now, he says in verse one, Blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. I'm so interested in this. I
want my sin to be covered. Oh, I want it to be covered.
And I don't mean covered so that it's still there after it's covered.
That covering won't do me any good. If it's just covered over
with a blanket, but it's still underneath the blanket, God sees
it. God sees it. That's not the covering
that the Scripture speaks of. I'm talking about a covering
to where it is no more. It's covered so as that it is
gone. You see, the covering of his
blood makes our sin to be gone, purged away. Nothing you can do about it,
but he's done it all. Isn't that a wonderful thought
to have your sin covered? Turn with me for a moment to
Jeremiah chapter 50. Jeremiah chapter 50. Verse 20. In those days. And in that time,
sayeth the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for. And he won't be able to find
it. No, it says there shall be None. None. God is going to look for my sin,
and there shall be none. And the sins of Judah, and they
shall not be found, for I will pardon them whom I reserve. Their sins and their iniquities
will I remember no more." Now, this is the kind of covering
God gives. A covering to where when it's
covered, it is God. Look at verse 2 of Psalm 32. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Now, here's the third state of
blessedness this man experiences who does not cover his sin. The
Lord does not impute iniquity to him. Now, I've told you all
about the experience I had that I came to understand this. I
understood it Theoretically, and then I came
to believe it. This thing, Psalm 32, and blessed
is he whose the Lord will not impute sin. Now, I can remember
in October of 1988, I became very ill, spent several months
in the hospital, but at one point thought I was going to die. And
they even brought family members to see me in for the last time.
You remember it. Weird time. But at this time,
I thought, I'm going to die tonight. I was convinced I was. And I'm
going to meet God. Now, am I really saved? That was the one question I wanted
to know. Am I really saved? I wasn't worried about anything
else. I wasn't worried about how the economy was doing. I
wasn't worried about how... One thing I want to know, am
I really saved? That's all I wanted to know.
And I started looking within my heart, trying to find a reason
to believe. or some evidence that I was saved.
And I couldn't find one thing in me that made me think I was
saved. And I thought, I'm going to hell
tonight. That's the most scared I've ever
been. I'm going to hell tonight. And I remember crawling up and
listening to those machines in the hospital and everything.
It's over for me. It's over. I'm going to hell.
I was so And the Lord brought this scripture
to my memory. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute iniquity. And what came to my mind was
everything I thought about myself was true, but here's my hope. The Lord didn't impute it to
me. He didn't impute it to me. You
see, my sin was imputed to the Lord Jesus Christ so that He
actually, literally became guilty of my sin. all the shame and
embarrassment that's associated with my sin, he was made to experience. You think how embarrassed he
would be if all your sin was exposed to everybody here. It'd
be humiliating. But all my sin became his to
where he felt the shame and the embarrassment and humiliation
of it before his father. But just as truly as my sin became
his, his righteousness is mine, so that if you want to know the
truth about me, the truth about Todd Naubert, the truth about
Todd Naubert is this, there's been nothing but perfect and
continual obedience. That's it. That's all you can
say about me, because his righteousness is imputed to me and it is mine. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven. whose sin is covered, blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute iniquity, and in whose
spirit there is no guile, there is no deceit, none. As Barnard used to say, honest
people don't go to hell. Now, can I find an honest person?
Now, that spirit in whom is no God is that new nature that God
gives. It's not deceitful. Remember,
the Lord spake of the honest and good heart, the good ground
here, an honest and good heart, not honest by nature. I tell
you what, if you have any honesty about yourself, you know, you're
nothing but a deceiver. You know that about yourself. You know,
you're deceitful. You can't trust yourself. That's the closest
we ever come to honesty is to see how untrustworthy we actually
are. I'm talking about me. I'm talking
about when total depravity quits being a theory and you believe
that you're totally depraved. You can't trust yourself. That's
the guile of spirit. It sees itself for what it is. It's honest. Honest in its confession. Honesty before God. Some believe
sin in theory, others believe it in fact. It's an honest confession
before God. They're honest with themselves.
That's why they don't trust themselves. Honest before men in this sense.
I want to tell you the truth. I want to tell you the truth.
But this honesty before men is, you know, if somebody says, Do
I look ugly? And you say, yeah, you do. I'm
always going to be honest. That's not right, is it? I mean,
I think maybe, well, I don't know what to say about that,
but there's times when it's better to not say anything, isn't it? Honesty before men, what this
is a reference to, is not being pretentious, not pretending to
be what you're not. Honestly, nothing but a sinner
saved by the grace of God. Honest with the Word of God.
We don't use the scriptures to prove us and prove our positions. We bow to whatever God says in
His Word. Honest in our preaching, preaching
the Word. Whatever the Word declares, we
preach it. Not trying to please men, but
to please God. Honesty, not sugar-coating anything,
but honesty, a guileless spirit. Now, here's what this guileless
spirit does in Psalm 32, verse 5. David couldn't stay quiet. He says in verse 5, I acknowledged
my sin unto thee. Mine iniquity. Have I not tried
to cover up? I'll confess my transgressions
unto the Lord. I'll throw a stone at myself.
And thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Covered by uncovering. May God give us
grace. to uncover ourselves before Him. Let's pray together.