Sin Will Find You Out (Numbers 32:23)

“But if you will not do so, behold, you have sinned against the Lord and be sure your sin will find you out.”
– Numbers 32:23

I can’t slow down enough at the end of Numbers 32:23 because oh, these words are so critical for us to hear, for me to hear, for you to hear. “Be sure your sin will find you out.” That is a sobering reality.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

We are Prone to Hide Our Sin

So we are all prone to try to hide sin. To try to cover over sin as soon as we sin. Particularly in a way that we’re just immediately ashamed of, which we should be for all sin. But we think, “Oh, if others knew this, what would they think?”

And so we just try to cover it. We try to hide it. We resist confessing it Even to our closest brothers and sisters in Christ because we just don’t want anybody to know about it. And oftentimes, that hidden sin can just grow and grow and grow. And before long, we are living this hidden life of disobedience and God is saying in his word, “Be sure of this. Your sin will find you out.”

Numbers 32:23 Compels Us to Repent and Turn From Our Sin

We need to hear that and head that verse causes us just to immediately repent and turn from sin. I am just assuming that some people who are listening to this right now, right now, are hiding or trying to hide sin in your life from God. As well as from those closest to you. And I just want to encourage you with this verse Numbers 32:23. You sinned against the Lord and be sure your sin will find you out.

Encouragement to Confess Our Sin

And I say encourage because I want to remind you that the God of the universe offers to forgive you of all your sin. To cleanse you from it, to free you from it. So I encourage you to confess it to him. And brothers and sisters in Christ. I mean, it won’t be easy to confess it to others when you need to do that. But to do that and to find freedom in that, to find life in that.

Confession Can Bring Blessing

The adversary will convince us in those moments. No, it’d be better for you to keep everything secret. That’s not what scripture teaches. Scripture teaches your sin will find you out so uncover it. Uncover it before God. Uncover it before others as appropriate and trust that God will use this not only to forgive you and to cleanse you. But to purify you and draw you into a greater experience of the life he has designed for you.

Numbers 32:33: Asking God to Help Us Confess Our Sin

So I’m just compelled to pray. I’m compelled to pray about my own life and for others. God help us. Help us to be sensitive to sin, to hate it, to confess it honestly, to be broken over in a Psalm 51 kind of way, to bring it into the light, and to experience your grace and your mercy.

God, I pray for the sake of experiencing your grace and mercy, that you would keep me from hiding sin. That you would keep others right now from hiding sin. Lord, help us to see the foolishness of trying to hide sin before you. We can’t hide anything from you.

Thanking Jesus for Paying the Price of Our Sin

Our sin will find us out. That is a sobering thought. Oh, that just drives us to Jesus and we praise you, Jesus, for making the payment of all our sin upon your sin. Like all of it, such that when we are trusting in you, we’ve confessed our sins as we know, oh God, you forgive us. You’ve covered over our sins with the blood of Christ and ultimately, our sins will not be held against us. Oh, praise you, God, for this grace that you remember our sins no more.

So, God, help us not to limit our experience of this grace in any way. Help us to live in this grace through honest confession of sin, constant reception of mercy, and flowing from that. God, make us more and more blameless, we pray. Help us to sin less and less and less. Help us to obey more and more and more by the power of your grace, your spirit, the spirit of Jesus in us. We pray in Jesus’ name, amen.