How do you cover up your sins? UPDATE

Take and read the sign on the left, if you can not read it too well, then scroll down to the second picture!

Now, look down on the bottom of this picture. What is this guy doing?

selling his "wares!" Looks like he is trying to use his umbrella to "cover up" his sins!

hmmmm, how many of us do that?

Seriously, how many of you (me included) have

tried to cover up your sins? I know I am guilty!

Just think of all the ways we do it...

1. The Denial -- if we say we are not sinning (even though we are) we feel it makes it okay.

2. The Cover-up -- like this man trying to cover the sign, we tend to "cover up" our sins with our good works!

3. The Delete button -- we get on the computer and see things that are inappropriate and then we figure we can delete history (even though it is still in the hard drive)
4. The "my other church members do it" club -- we tend to gravitate towards those people who are also sinning, kind of like speeding on the highway with everyone else, you figure the police will only pull over the first person leading the group of cars!

Let's take a look at each one of these...

1. The Denial -- by denying what is or is not sin, we feel we can justify ourselves before God. We figure that we can continue to live in sin and when it is all said and done, all we have to do when we die is just tell God that we didn't know it was a sin. Wrong! God searches the heart and we have within us a moral code that tells us right from wrong. Your conscience bears witness to this. Where does God's Law come from? God! Matthew 10:33 says, "But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven."

2. The Cover-up -- When Adam and Eve sinned they hid from God (which is impossible to do!). And yet, how many times have we tried to cover-up our sins. We can cover our tracks with one lie on top of another lie (it will eventually catch up to you!) Genesis 3:6-13 says, "So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make on wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?" So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself." And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?" Then the man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate." And the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." When we try the cover up game, we end up putting blame on other people. "I didn't follow you Jesus because no one told me too!" or "I used to say I was a sinner but since Jesus died, I thought my sins were forgotten so I kept doing them and figured you would not see them!"

3. The Delete Button -- how often have you tried to delete the past, only to have it come up again later on? It can be hard to forgive people who have wronged us but we are so lucky to have a God that forgives us completely when we repent of our sins! Without repentance, your sins have not been deleted and will come up again on Judgment Day! 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 says, "Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.
The catalog of sins, though not exhaustive, represents the major types of moral sin that characterize the unsaved.
not inherit the kingdom -- The kingdom is the spiritual sphere of salvation where God rules as king over all who belong to Him by faith. All believers are in that spiritual kingdom, yet are waiting to enter into the full inheritance of it in the age to come. People who are characterized by these iniquities are not saved (v. 10) While believers can and do commit these sins, they do not characterize them as an unbroken life pattern. Whey they do, it demonstrates that the person is not in God's kingdom. True believers who do sin, resent that sin and seek to gain the victory over it (Romans 7:14-25).
fornicators -- all who indulge in sexual immorality, but particularly unmarried persons.
idolaters -- Those who worship any false god or follow any false religious system.
Adulterers -- Married persons who indulge in sexual acts outside their marriage (including lust)
homosexuals...sodomites -- These terms refer to those who exchange and corrupt normal male-female sexual roles and relations. Transvestism, sex changes, and other gender perversions are included (Gen 1:27; Deut 22:5). Sodomites are so-called because the sin of male-male sex dominated the city of Sodom (Gen 18:20; 19:4-5). This sinful perversion is condemned always, in any form, by Scripture (Lev 18:22, 20:13; Romans 1:26-27; 1 Tim 1:10)
thieves...covetous -- Both are guilty of the same basic sin of greed. Those who are covetous desire what belongs to others, thieves actually take it.
revilers -- People who try to destroy others with words.
extortioners -- Swindlers and embezzlers who steal indirectly, taking unfair advantage of others for their own financial gain.
Some of you -- Though not all Christians have been guilty of all those particular sins, every Christian is equally an ex-sinner, since Christ came to save sinners (Matt 9:13; Romans 5:20). Some who used to have those patterns of sinful life were falling into those old sins again, and needed reminding that if they went all the way back to live as they used to, they were not going to inherit eternal salvation, because it would indicate that they never were saved (2 Cor 5:17)
washed -- refers to new life, through spiritual cleansing and regeneration (John 3:3-8; 2 Cor 5:17; Eph 2:10; Titus 3:5).
sanctified -- This results in new behavior, which a transformed life always produces. Sin's total domination is broken and replaced by a new pattern of obedience and holiness. Though not perfection, this is a new direction (Rom 6:17, 18, 22)
justified -- this refers to a new standing before God, in which the Christian is clothed in Christ's righteousness. In His death, the believer's sins were put to His account and He suffered for them, so that His righteousness might be put to an account, so that we might be blessed for it (Rom 3:26; 4:22-25; 2 Cor 5:21; Phil 3:8-9; 1 Pet 3:18)
by the Spirit --The Holy Spirit is the agent of salvation's transformation (John 3:3-5)

As one who is washed, sanctified, and justified eternally by God's grace, the believer is set free (Rom 8:21, 33; Gal 5:1, 13). The Corinthians had done with that freedom just what Paul had warned the Galatians not to do: "Do not use your liberty as an opportunity for the flesh" (Gal 5:13). So in verses, 6:12-20, Paul exposed the error in the Corinthian Christians' rationalization that they were free to sin, because it was covered by God's grace.

4. The "my other church members do it" club -- you figure that the person sitting next to you in church is a wretched sinner so you feel justified in continuing in your sins. The problem is you will not be judged according to how you "measure up" to the other person, but you will be judged according to God's holiness. Look at what Rev 19:2 says, "For true and righteous are His judgments..." Saints long for the day of judgment (Rev 6:10; 16:7; Isaiah 9:7; Jer 23:5). Godly people love righteousness and hate sin, for righteousness honors God and sin mocks Him. Believers long for a world of justice and it will come (Rev19:15; Rev 2:27; Rev 12:5)

So, what have you done with your sins? By Scripture, there is only ONE thing to do with them...
REPENT!

Some people are offended by this message of repentance. I pray that God's Truth will become evident to them and that the blindness to sin will be removed!

Wow, I did leave a big gap on here Jessie!! Glad to see you all made it down this far! Some people try to cover up there sins by the illusion that the sin is gone forever, only to see it still lingering in their minds to show up again at a later time!