The Contenders

In the next section on indulging sins, Watson goes on to discuss the danger of indulging in “Secret Sins.” (Found on p. 147)

Secret sins “are more modest than to commit gross sin…. All will not sin on a balcony but perhaps they will sin behind the curtain…. Many carry their sins secretly like a candle in a dark lantern.”

“But a godly man dare not sin secretly”

1. “He knows that God sees in secret (Psa. 44:21). As God cannot be deceived by our subtlety, so he cannot be excluded by our secrecy.”

2. “A godly man knows that secret sins are in some sense worse than others. They reveal more guile and atheism. The curtain-sinner makes himself believe that God does not see…. Those who have bad eyes think that the sun is dim. How it provokes God, that men’s atheism should give the lie to his omniscience! ‘He that formed the eye, shall he not see?’ (Psa. 94:9).”

3. “A godly man knows that secret sins shall not escape God’s justice. A judge on the bench can punish no offence but what is proved by witnesses. He cannot punish the treason of the heart, but the sins of the heart are as visible to God as if they were written upon the forehead. As God will reward secret duties, so he will revenge secret sins.”

So let us bring even our secret sins out to the open and to the cross. May we confess it to others and confess it to Christ. For He is ready and willing to forgive even that which has been hidden for a long time, as long as we truly confess to Him (1 John 1:9).