The Trespass Offering

“Cover sin over as much as we may, and smother it down as carefully as we can, it will break out.

“Many years ago the packet ship Poland was bound for Havre, with a cargo of cotton on board. By some singular accident the cotton took fire clear down in the hold. The captain, finding that he could not reach the fire, undertook to smother it; but in vain. The he caulked down the hatch-ways; but the deck grew so hot that neither passengers nor crew could stand on it. At length he fired a signal gun in distress, put all his people into boats, and left the doomed ship to her fate.

“He watched her as she ploughed gallantly through the waves, with all her canvas on; but ere she sunk below the horizon, the fire burst forth in a sheet of flame to the mast-head. That ill-fated packet, carrying the fatal fire in her own hold, is a vivid picture of the moral condition of thousands of men and women. They cover their sins by all manner of concealments; but the deadly thing remains underneath in the heart, and if it does not burst forth in this world. It will in the next.”

T. L. Cuyler

We must confess our sins.Listen to David and Achan.

• Psalm 51:4 Against thee, thee only, have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight: that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
• Joshua 7:19-20 And Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the Lord God of Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide it not from me. And Achan answered Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the Lord God of Israel, and thus and thus have I done:

Matthew Henry said; “Deceit lies in generals; but the way to be well assured of pardon, and to be well armed against sin for the future, is to be particular in our penitent confessions.”

Christian, go, run to the Father right now and deal with the sin you think to hide. Yes, it will burn on your lips and yes it will be humiliating to you but remember to whom you are speaking. The one with an inclined ear to your confession is none other that the dear Son of God who so humbled himself under God’s hand that he suffered the ignominy of crucifixion. And he did that so you could be freed from sin. Go now and call on him!