Presumption: The Great Transgression

If not the greatest work in Christian literature, at the very top of that list would be Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.

The main character of Bunyan's allegory is Christian. And Christian loses his burden at the cross and runs down the hill with joy and newfound freedom. And at the bottom of the hill he encounters three men who are asleep and in chains. Well, Christian is a bit dumbfounded by this. He's perplexed because these three are not within the city of destruction nor outside the wall, but they are beyond the cross, inside the wall, and seemingly on the path to the celestial city like he is.

Yet, unlike him, they are still bound and fast asleep. Bunyan has Christian awaken and warn these three men. Wake up and leave this place.

Have a willing heart and I will help you out of your chains. If he who goes about like a roaring lion comes by, you will become his prey. Those three men have names. The first man's name is Simple. And Simple naively answers, danger?

I don't see any danger. The second man's name is Sloth. He yawns and he mumbles, let me alone so I can go back to sleep. The third man, his name is Presumption. And he says in arrogance, quote, every barrel must stand on its own, end of quote. Now, as you're reading Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, you almost need to have a dictionary that help you understand some of these words. But that phrase, every barrel must stand on its own, means, in other words, mind your own business.

Mind your own business. And the three of them, Simple, Sloth, and Presumption, roll over and go back to sleep in their sin. We're going to come back to these three men at the end of the message, but now let's turn to Psalm 19. Psalm 19. C.S. Lewis called Psalm 19 the greatest poem in the Psalter and one of the greatest lyrics in the world.

I was arrested by that statement by C.S. Lewis and thought, I've missed something here from Psalm 19 for him to give such a high and glowing commendation and I think my study has deepened my appreciation for Psalm 19. Very quickly, let me show you the way the Psalm is structured. There are three sections to it. Verses 1 through 6 is the first section, verses 7 through 11 the second, and then verses 12 through 14, a third section.

And let me just sketch that out for you. Psalm 1, verse 1 through 6 is general revelation, or the revelation of God in nature, and it begins with that great verse we most all of us can quote, the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. And from verses 1 through 6, there is this explanation of general revelation, revelation that comes through creation. And then there is an abrupt change in the Psalm in verse 7.

Verse 7 begins, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. And there's this transition from general revelation to special revelation, or the revelation of God in scripture. Verses 1 through 6, the revelation of God in nature or in creation. Verses 7 through 11, the revelation of God in scripture. And then verses 12 through 14 record the effect that God's word, that is special revelation of scripture, has upon the Psalmist, David. The Psalm becomes very personal as David reflects, responds, and applies this revelation to himself. There are eight personal pronouns in these last three verses, verses 12, 13, and 14.

Two times he uses the pronoun me, four times he uses the pronoun my, and two times he uses I to identify himself. So this experiential reflection by David. And it's recorded therefore as inspired scripture. It's just not the record of David's experience, but here is inspired scripture. Therefore, we can read behind David, we can think about what he says about the Word of God, and we can make similar application for our own life to help us in our Christian pilgrimage and to prepare us for participation at the Lord's table.

So I'm going to concentrate and give just a brief review of the revelation of God, special revelation verses 7 through 11. And if you know anything about the Psalm, Psalm 19, Psalm 119, there are, I haven't counted, but 30, 40, 50 different names used for the law of God, for the Word of God, for the scriptures. And we see the Psalmist, David, employing various words that reflect this.

He's talking about the same thing. Notice with me verse 7, the law of the Lord is perfect. Verse 8, the statutes of the Lord. Verse 9, well verse 8, the statutes of the Lord, the commandment of the Lord. Verse 9, the fear of the Lord.

Now that's an interesting word. The fear of the Lord, that's a descriptive word speaking of the scriptures, the Word of God. The judgments of the Lord, also in verse 9.

So let me give you just an overview here. David states an adjective to describe the Word of God, and with that description, that descriptive adjective, a practical use and benefit from it. So let me show you in verse 7, the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. Being perfect, the Word of God, it does what? It converts the soul.

That's pretty straightforward. The next one is also in verse 7, the testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. Being sure or being trustworthy, it, the Word of God, makes the simple wise. Number 3, verse 8, the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart.

Being right, the law of God makes the heart rejoice. Number 4, also in verse 8, the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. And again, here's this descriptive adjective about the Word of God, being pure, the law of the Lord gives light to the eyes. Verse 9, the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. Being clean or pure, the law of the Lord endures forever. And then the last one is the last part of verse 9, and it runs all the way down to the end of verse 11. It says, the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.

More to be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover, by them your servant is warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. Being true, the law of God warns the servant of God against sin and provides him with great reward. Six statements concerning the Word of God, the law of God, the special revelation of God. Now, when we come to verses 12 through 14, the last three verses of the psalm, as I've already shown you, David is personalizing the psalm. He's making application to his own life. What is this section of the psalm about?

It extols, it exalts the law of God. In verse 12, David asks, who can understand his errors? Who can understand his errors? Can you?

Can I? Can anyone fully discern the sins of his own heart? Jeremiah 17 9 says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And because that is an accurate description of the condition of our hearts, the question that follows there in verse nine of Jeremiah is logical.

Let me add the question. Let me make the statement that then the question, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And then the question, who can know it?

Who can know it? Are we left to ourselves? Listen to the next verse. I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the mind even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.

We're not left to ourselves. See, the problem of being able to discern the depths of our own hearts and the sin that's there is not only complicated and compounded because of our hearts being deceitful. Second Timothy chapter three in verse one tells us we're living in perilous times.

And how are those times characterized? According to Paul in second Timothy three, he says in verse 13, but evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. We have a deceitful heart.

We live in a culture. We live in a world that's opposed to God that is characterized by deception and deceiving men. Revelation chapter 12 in verse nine makes this our problem even more precarious.

And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who was called the devil and Satan who deceives the whole world. No wonder Paul exhorts us, put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. You see, our ability to know our own errors, to know our own sins, to know our own hearts is compounded by the deceitfulness of our own hearts, by the deceit that will grow worse and worse in these perilous times, by the deceitfulness of the adversary of the devil. And number four, the very nature of sin itself. Listen to Hebrews three verses 12 and 13. Beware, beware brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God, but exhort one another daily while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. Well, we're up against some obstacles here to being able to understand and discern the depths of our hearts and the sin that lies therein.

So, the application here should be obvious. We cannot rely upon our own ability. We need the Spirit of God to apply the law to our hearts so that we may gain an increasing awareness of sin. Spurgeon said it well when he said, he best knows himself who best knows the Word of God. The Word of God is a mirror.

It helps us see ourselves for who we really are. Now, David is going to give us two categories of sin here in verses 12 and 13. It follows that question, verse 12, who can understand his errors? And then listen to the two categories of sin that he identifies. Cleanse me from secret faults.

Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Let's think about those two categories of sins that are being enumerated here. Secret faults.

Cleanse me from secret faults. You may have a translation before you that says hidden faults. Some speak here of sins of ignorance, sins that lie within the heart that we're ignorant of, we're not mindful of, we're not conscious of the fact that they are a sin against almighty good.

Let me give you an example. Paul in 1st Timothy chapter 1 and verse 13 says that he persecuted the church out of ignorance. He thought he was doing right. Now it was sin, grievous sin what he was doing, but it was sin that he committed in ignorance.

He thought he was doing right. When David speaks here of hidden sin or secret faults, he is conscious that he is guilty before the law of God in ways that are hid from him, unknown to himself, but certainly not hidden from God. Here is an application that I hope encourages you because what David is acknowledging and confessing is true of all of us. There are sins lying within our hearts that we have yet to identify. The Spirit of God has not revealed them to us, and if we live long enough on this earth and grow in grace, more and more of our sins are going to be revealed to us. But here's what I want you to be encouraged by. It's a good thing that God's pardon is based on Christ's finished work and not on our complete confession because we have sins that lie undetected.

Do you get the gravity of what I just said? It's a good thing that God's pardon of our sins is based on Christ's finished work and not our complete confession. Amen.

Amen. When you begin to read some of the men who've gone before us, you begin to understand that these men had a communion with God, had an awareness of God, had an awareness of their sins that most of us arrived to yet. Listen to what William Plumer said, quote, tell me what you think of sin, and I will tell you what you think of God, of Christ, and of the Spirit, and of the divine law, and of the blessed gospel. He goes on to say, he who looks upon sin merely as a fiction, as a misfortune, or as a trifle, sees no necessity either for deep repentance or of a great atonement. He who sees no sin in himself will feel no need of a Savior. He who is conscious of no evil at work in his heart will desire no change of nature. He who regards sin as a slight affair will think a few tears or an outward reformation, ample satisfaction. And then he says this, the truth is no man ever thought himself a greater sinner before God than he really was, nor was any man ever more distressed at his sins than he had just cause to be. Listen to these samplings of men of old and how they express their understanding of the depths of their sin and how there are sins yet lying hidden undetected.

They know they're there. Listen to what William Cowper said to John Newton. So these men were friends. Cowper said to John Newton, quote, the heart is a nest of serpents and will be such while it continues to beat. If God cover the mouth of that nest with his hand, they are hush and snug.

But if he withdraw his hand, the whole family lift up their heads and hiss and are as active and numerous as ever. This I always profess to believe from the time that I had embraced the truth, but never knew it as I know it now. End of quote.

Listen to Jonathan Edwards. This is riveting. He says, quote, it has often appeared to me that if God should mark iniquity against me, I should appear the very worst of mankind. When others have come to talk with me about their souls concerns have expressed the sense they have of their own wickedness by saying that it seemed to them that they were as bad as the devil himself, I thought their expression seemed exceedingly faint and feeble to represent my wickedness. When I look into my heart and take a view of my wickedness, it looks like an abyss infinitely deeper than hell. And it appears to me that were it not for free grace, exalted and raised up to the infinite height of all the fullness and glory of the great Jehovah, I should appear sunk down in my sins below hell itself, far beyond the sight of everything but the eye of sovereign grace that can pierce even down to such a depth. And yet it seems to me that my conviction of sin, listen to this, is exceedingly small and faint.

End of quote. Well, David has two categories here of sin that he is identifying. The first is secret faults or hidden faults. And then David has a second category of sins that in his mind has exercised him far more and of which he is far more concerned about. And what is that? He says in verse 13, keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. Presumptuous sins. He's asking, he's pleading that God would keep him from such sins.

He goes on to say, let them not have dominion over me. He understands the nature of presumptuous sins and their propensity to bind and enslave and control and dominate, praying that they would not have dominion over him. And then he goes on to say, then I shall be blameless and I shall be innocent of great transgression. And I think the antecedent to great transgression is presumptuous sins. He's calling presumptuous sins, great transgression, a degree of sin far more egregious. And if God does indeed keep him from presumptuous sins and keep them from having dominion over him, then and only then will he be blameless and innocent of great transgression. So again, the second category of sin, presumptuous sin, is particularly egregious and of a more serious nature. Again, he's calling it great transgression. So something that's serious, I think, needs to be explored so that we might understand, what is presumptuous sin? You've heard that. You've heard people pray, Lord, keep us from presumptuous sin.

But what exactly is that? Well, sinning presumptuously is to view grace as pardon only. If I confess my sins, he's faithful and just to forgive me of my sins and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Amen. Hallelujah.

I'm forgiven. Presumptuous sin assumes that grace is always available to cover more sin. It's carelessness in regard to sin. It mirrors the Roman Catholic who is going through this religious ritual of going to mass week after week after week after week confessing the same thing.

The only difference between the Roman Catholic and perhaps the Protestant is we're confessing to the Lord and they're confessing to a priest. But there's no sense of being done with sin. Repenting of sin, putting sin away. Presumptuous sin is sin with no intent or desire for repentance.

I've had conversations with people and they immediately in this context say, well, what about, what about Hebrews chapter 12? What about besetting sins? And my answer to that is what about besetting sins? What does Hebrews chapter 12 say about besetting sins? Lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily entangles you. Does that sound like confession only or does that sound like confession followed by repentance? Be done with it.

Lay it aside. Presumptuous people may go to the cross to confess their sin, but they leave with no intent to change. Like the reprobate and Dante's Inferno who all the time he's repenting has his eye on his next opportunity for sinning. You'll say, well, that's blasphemous.

Let's just be flat out honest here tonight. How many times have you confessed sin to God and at the very same time had made provision for the flesh to sin again in the very same way? You're not done with sin. You're not interested in repentance.

You're interested in simply confessing, acknowledging, receiving pardon and going on in the same old track, the same old way. Presumptuous sin is aggravated sin. It's sin piled on top of more sin. No wonder David calls it the great transgression.

So may David's prayer be our prayer as he prayed, keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins. I think we carry around in our minds a wrong idea of what is going on in our Christian life. When God saves us, he imparts to us divine nature. We have the nature of God within us, but guess what else is still residing within us? The old man, the old nature. What is the old nature about? He's opposed to God.

He hates God. And inside a redeemed man is this war going on between two natures. And you'll be dragging around this dead corpse with you the rest of your earthly pilgrimage. There's no getting away from it. Every time you stop, every time you pause for rest, if you can think you're leaning up against a tree and what do you got attached to your back?

Your old dead rotten corpse. You can't rid yourself of it. That's the nature of the Christian life. This idea that there's some place in this Christian life we get to where we are absolved, we are removed from the power of temptation and sin is folly. There's too much language in the scriptures to remind us this is warfare. We must be putting to death. We must be mortifying sin. David regards the sin of presumption to be at the top of the list of danger.

It's at the very top. I think that that too often escapes us. Well, as I promised, back to Christian and his three acquaintances.

Simple, sloth, and presumption. They did not heed Christian's warning. So sometime later, when Christina and Great Heart passed by the place where Christian had seen them earlier, they do not find them. They do not see them sleeping.

They do not see them shackled. But as they make their way down the way, there the three men are, hanging, dead, still chained to their sins. I don't want to anyone to misunderstand what I'm saying. I'm saying the nature of a man's heart that gives him to presumptuous sins has two explanations. He could be like the man in Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress. He's an unregenerate man. Why does he continue to sin and commit the same sin over and over and over and over and over again?

Because he's a natural man. That's the only thing he knows to do. He's still chained.

He's still bound. That's one possibility. What's the other possibility? The other possibility that it is indeed a person who's been converted. And yet, he's not in any place to be able to discern that he's truly a child of God. Because when you sin, you grieve the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God withdraws himself from you and withholds from you a sense of communion and fellowship with God. And if you truly are a Christian, you are a most miserable Christian if you're honest about what's going on in your life.

I follow sometimes Alistair Begg and his ministry. And he had a devotional, and he raises a question, how are you fighting sin? And then he goes on to say, we ought to be fighting sin the same way we first came to saving faith. Take your sins, he says, to Christ's cross, for the flesh can only be crucified there. There's a hymn that came to my mind as I was preparing this message, and it's entitled, Come Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy.

All five stanzas are worthy of drawing your attention to, but I only want to draw your attention to the fifth verse that says, lo, the incarnate God ascended, the Lord Jesus Christ is ascended, pleads the merit of his blood. Venture on him, venture holy, let no other trust intrude. None but Jesus, none but Jesus can do helpless sinners good.

None but Jesus. So here is my counsel to you. If we can have the mind of David, we can go before God in whatever area we're struggling in, and we can ask God for grace, that the desire that David is expressing here would be our desire, and that we can argue with God and say, God, you sent your son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into this world, that he might save his people from their sins. I desire to be saved from this sin, whatever it is. Talk to God that way. Name that sin, whatever it is, and ask God to give you victory in this. Notice what he says, keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins.

He wouldn't be asking that, he wouldn't be making that part of his petition if that wasn't a possibility. Let them not have dominion over me. Again, go to God in earnestness and pray, God, you have made me in Christ a slave of righteousness. Help me to be done with the evidence, the manifestation that I'm still a slave of unrighteousness. That's how I think we need to be praying in earnest, and not run the white flag up the pole and say, I surrender, I'm done battling with sin, this is the way it's going to be the rest of my life. I'm a Christian, I know I am, I'm availing myself of John 1.9.

That's dangerous ground, that's dangerous ground. We ought to be continually fighting against sin, resisting temptation. And I know there's all kinds of strategies in fighting sin and I'm not opposed to fighting sin, but let's take our sin to the cross. Let's take it there and ask God to deal with it decisively there.

There ought to be questions in our minds. If we're struggling with the same sin for years and decades, there ought to be a time where we are arrested by the Spirit of God. And we come to God in brokenness and say, God, something's not right here. I'm losing this battle to sin. We sing, He breaks the power of canceled sin, He sets the prisoner free.

Lord, that's not me, I can't sing that, why not? Search me, O God, and know my heart. Try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. David concludes this Psalm with hope for us, because we dare not trust the arm of the flesh. Some trust in horses, some trust in what?

Chariots. But we trust in the Lord our God. Our trust has got to be in Him and Him only.

And that's where David leaves us. He says, let the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord. O Lord, that is the word for Jehovah God, the covenant keeping God, the God who revealed Himself to Moses and told Moses, you tell them, I am sent you. This is Jehovah. O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. There's no strength within us.

Don't trust the arm of the flesh. Listen to the testimony of scripture. Paul says, I know that is within me dwelleth no good thing. And if it was nothing good in Paul, then there's nothing good in you or me. Look away from yourself and look to Christ.

He's able, he's able to deliver us. Do you see presumptuous sin as seriously as David sees it here? Keep back your servant also from presumptuous sins.

Let them not have dominion over me. Then I shall be blameless and I shall be innocent of great transgression. Now, please, I hope no one heard me tonight and said that man's talking about sinless perfection.

He's talking about a place we can get to in a Christian life when we're done with sin. I did not say that. I did not say that. What did I say? I said you will be dragging your flesh like a dead corpse around you as long as you're breathing God's air.

That's the truth. You'll not be done with fighting sin. But I think there's hope here in our battle against presumptuous sin. It's dangerous ground, my friends, to be on. And how is it that we can look with such suspicion upon the Roman Catholic who for 20, 30, 40 years been going to mass on Friday nights or Saturday or sometime and thinks he's right with God?

How do we look with suspicion on that and not look at suspicion upon something that we're doing that is so similar? Confessing the same sin over and over and over and over again, claiming 1 John 1.9. But no eye, no eye toward change, no eye toward repentance.

We've given up the fight. That's not the exhortation of scripture. Two verses and then I'm through. These came to me as I was sitting there contemplating preaching to you.

Listen to what Peter says. 1 Peter 4, verse 3. For we have spent enough of our past life time in doing the will of the Gentiles. We've wasted too much time. We've spent too much time living like a sinner.

What does it mean to be doing the will of the Gentiles? Well, it goes on to say when we walked in lewdness, lust, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. We've wasted enough of our life. We've done enough of that.

We ought to be done with it, is what he says. And then Ephesians 5 14. I come to you tonight as Bunyan, had Christian come to those three men.

Simple, sloth, and presumption. Woke them up from their sleep. Ephesians 5 24. Therefore, he says, awake.

Awake, you who sleep. Arise from the dead and Christ will give you light. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word that it is sharp and it is powerful. And it discerns into the depths and the innermost beings of our hearts. And Lord, we thank you for that because there's nothing in us that that enables us to reach in to the depths of our hearts, into the control center of our life like your word can. So Lord, please use your word in our hearts tonight. Lord, bring us to the end of sin. Bring us to some resolution, some grace fueled resolution. Deliver some in this room tonight from presumptuous sin. Lord, may we never come to the throne of grace with simply confession on our minds.

May it be mixed with a heart of repentance. And Lord, only you can do that. Only you can exercise us in the inner man and produce that in us. It's not within us to do. So we cast ourselves upon you and plead for your mercy and plead for your grace that would rescue us. Help us, Father, to be honest with you, to see ourselves as you truly do see us. As we've reviewed Cowper talking to Newton and we talked about Edwards and how he saw and what he, how he viewed his own life, Lord, we're not there. We're too shallow and too complacent and too indifferent about this matter of sin for which Jesus went to the cross of Calvary and shed his blood that we might be forgiven and rescued from those things. Hear us, O God, for the sake of your dear Son and for the good of our souls, I pray in Jesus' name. Amen.