Since we have sung a portion of Psalm 19, we will now turn to it once again and read just these closing verses. Psalm 19. And we'll read beginning at verse 12. Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. May the Lord bless the reading of Holy Scripture to our hearts. We want to conclude our studies in this psalm this morning. I always in a study like this, considering how much longer we could spend in a psalm like this. But we've seen in the opening verses, God's voice in creation. And then in the middle of the psalm, God's voice in scripture, in his word, And we've seen how that the voice of God in scripture is more full than his voice in creation. And here in the closing of the psalm, we see that scripture in particular warns us with threats of judgment for disobedience, It encourages us with promise of reward for obedience. Verse 11. And then we concluded with the opening words of verse 12 last time, who can understand his errors? The word of God convicts us of sin. And God does us a favor. when he shows us our sin, our errors. And this is enlarged upon in the remainder of the psalm. The way I want to approach it is by looking at three different Petitions that David raises unto the Lord here in these closing words from the middle of verse 12 to the end. In each of these verses, there is a petition, a prayer. Cleanse thou me from secret faults is the first. And then the second, keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. And then thirdly, verse 14, let the words of my mouth and so on. And so the first petition that David raises based upon the word of God that, like a spotlight, shines upon him and reveals his sin is, cleanse thou me from secret faults. You notice, of course, the word faults is italicized. We might well put the word errors there, for that seems to be the completion of the thought taken from the first part of the verse, cleanse thou me from secret errors or secret sins. Likewise, in the next petition, you know, the sins is italicized. These secret things and presumptuous things are clearly the errors or sins here in the context. Now, what are secret faults, errors, or sins? Oftentimes in our conversation and thought, we will speak of a secret sin as a sin that someone is hiding from everyone else and doesn't want everyone else to see. In this context, that is not what the secret sin is. Rather, the secret sin is the sin that is hidden from the sinner himself. Sins that he is guilty of before God that he's not even conscious of himself. Sins that have escaped our own notice, They are concealed from us. Whether they be sins of commission or sins of omission, they have not been planned. They are not intentional. They are not even known. They are in ignorance. They are done inadvertently. And this kind of sin is mentioned in the book of Leviticus with respect to the sacrifices and offerings. Let me read from Leviticus chapters four and five, just a few verses here. If the whole congregation of Israel sin through ignorance, that is, it's a secret sin. It is secret from them. They're not aware that they've sinned. If they sin through ignorance and the thing be hid from the eyes of the assembly, And they have done somewhat against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which should not be done and are guilty. You notice just because it's a sin of ignorance doesn't mean that the person is not guilty before God. Even if we don't know we're sinning. It's the same way with the law of the state of Oklahoma or the United States of America. You may break the law and in your defense you can say, well, I didn't know. I hadn't heard about that law. I didn't know it existed. That doesn't matter. You're still an offender. You're guilty. You can be prosecuted. So with the law of the God of heaven. And when the sin which they have sinned against it is known, then the congregation shall offer a young bullock for the sin, and so forth. Once again, and if any one of the common people sin through ignorance while he do it somewhat against any of the commandments of the Lord concerning things which ought not to be done and be guilty, or if his sin which he has sinned come to his knowledge, then he shall bring his offering and so on. And then if a soul touches an unclean thing, and it be hidden from him, he didn't know it was unclean or defiled, perhaps. Or if he touched the uncleanness of man, whatsoever uncleanness it be, that a man shall be defiled withal, and it be hid from him. When he knoweth of it, then he shall be guilty, and bring a trespass offering, and so on. This seems to me to be what Job was concerned about with regard to his children after they'd had one of their big family parties and get-togethers. He says, I'm going to offer a sacrifice for them. It may be that they have sinned and they're not even aware of it. They've cursed God in their hearts and perhaps did not even know it. We have an example in the book of Genesis of a heathen king, Abimelech, who in his innocence took Sarah, who he thought was the sister of Abraham, into his harem. And what the Lord says to him there is very interesting. Let me just read it. God said unto him in a dream, yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart. For I also withheld thee from sinning against me. Therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. Nevertheless, Abimelech was guilty before God, even though he did what he did innocently. And think of a New Testament example of this kind of sin in the life of the persecutor, Saul of Tarsus. He says, I persecuted the church of Jesus Christ ignorantly and in unbelief. He did not know that God was truly on their side. He thought God was on his side. And though his persecuting and blaspheming was a sin in the sight of God, yet Saul of Tarsus obtained mercy from God because it was a sin of ignorance, and not a sin of presumption. And we'll get to the sin of presumption here in a moment. Well, you notice verse 12 says, who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret. These two thoughts certainly go together. Our sins are more than we can calculate. Especially when we consider that we are not even able to know all of them. That we are in the dark concerning many of our sins. And how many? We don't know. This thought should really give pause to our hearts. It should humble us before God. because our sins are more than we know. But God knows them all. He is privy to our sins, all of them. None are secret to him. None are hidden. Everything is in the open in his sight. And so we need his forgiveness more than we realize. In that model prayer, we're taught to pray, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Do we understand when we pray that prayer, what we're praying for? We're praying for God's pardon more than we can enumerate. because we don't even know all of our sins. And we're to forgive the debts of others in the same way that God forgives us. Others may not know all that they are indebted to us. And we must likewise forgive them as God forgives us for more than we even understand. Or when we pray that petition of that prayer, do we think in our minds, Lord, I have a few little sins. Please forgive them if it's even necessary. They're such small, insignificant things, but just in case, would you please forgive them? If that's the attitude with which we come to God in prayer, We have no reason to expect him to hear that prayer. Now notice David wants to be cleansed from these secret sins. He does not simply want to be forgiven. He wants more than forgiveness. He wants to be purified, corrected, so as to avoid them ever again. And isn't this a good test of the condition of our heart before God? Are we content just to be forgiven? In fact, do we really want to be just forgiven? so that we can pursue the same sins again and again, and know that there's always forgiveness. No, we need to pray as David does here to be cleansed, to be purified, not only from the guilt of all our sin, but to be delivered from the bondage of it, And to be delivered from the pollution of our sins, the impurity of our sins. Do you really want to give up all of your sin? All the sin that you know, and even the sin that you don't know, but as soon as it comes to light, are you determined to be willing to give it up? and to be cleansed from it? Or are you happy to continue in especially sins of ignorance in impunity? See, I don't even want to know those things because it might interrupt my lifestyle and my temporary happiness. No, a true child of God wants to know and be delivered from all of his sins. secret faults, and we have the promise of God in his word. Thanks be unto him that he does cleanse. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so this is a petition that we ought to be praying. Cleanse thou me from secret faults. Part of that cleansing process is for them to come to mind, for them no longer to remain secret so that we might repent of them and be cleansed of them. Well, we come then to this second petition, keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Now, this is a very different type of sin. All sin is sin. The sins of ignorance incur guilt. Sins of presumption incur an even greater guilt, a more criminal guilt, we might say. The presumptuous sins are the sins that are done deliberately, defiantly. Intentionally. Knowing full well that this thing is wrong, but I don't care. I'm going to pursue it nonetheless. It's a reckless disregard for the law of God. Knowing that God is not pleased. And going ahead anyway. We might think of it as a a headlong rushing into sin. It's a violation of conscience. It's the opposite of a secret, hidden, unintentional sin. And yes, these presumptuous sins have an especially evil, foul character about them. They expose a heart that is obstinate against God. A heart that holds God in contempt to his face. It's a dreadful consideration. It's a dreadful state to be in. Presumptuous sins. Now, these two types of sins are mentioned here. The secret and the presumptuous. And mine, much greater than mine, suggests that there is perhaps some category in between in which, though it's not mentioned in this psalm, we might consider it here for just a moment, in which a person is simply overwhelmed and overtaken by a temptation which is still a sin and still incurs guilt before God but does not rise quite to the level of a presumptuous sin. It's the difference between being surprised and overtaken suddenly as it were by a temptation on the one hand and in the words of the New Testament, giving place unto the devil. On the other hand, as if to open the door and welcome him in. It's the difference between the devil storming in and us opening the door and inviting him, we might say. And I think it is an old writer named Sedgwick that uses David himself as an example of this, and I mention this with some hesitation, but perhaps it might be helpful. It's not to excuse or diminish the significance of any of David's sins, but it might be helpful in some ways to distinguish David's sin concerning Bathsheba from his sin concerning Uriah. In the first instance, yes, he's overtaken, we might say. He doesn't wake up that morning and say, you know, I think I'm going to steal a man's wife today. That sin with Bathsheba is inexcusable and brought great trouble in many ways for the rest of David's life. But on the other hand, his sin concerning the death of Uriah was premeditated, presumptuous. He woke up that morning saying, I've got to get rid of Uriah some way. And I think I know just how to do it. Well, listen, all sin is sin and ought to be avoided at all cost, but especially the presumptuous sin. In the Levitical law, there was no remedy for presumptuous sin, defiant rebellion determined obstinance, and contempt against God. There was no sacrifice, no remedy. Let me read it to you from the book of Numbers. The soul that doeth aught presumptuously, whether he be born in the land or a stranger, the same reproacheth the Lord, and that soul shall be cut off from among his people. We have it reiterated in the book of Deuteronomy in these words. The man that will do presumptuously and will not hearken unto the priest that standeth to minister there before the Lord thy God or unto the judge, even that man shall die. There's no sacrifice. There's no offering its death. Thou shalt put away the evil from Israel and all the people shall hear and fear and do no more presumptuously. Well, you know, in David's case with Uriah, the Lord was very merciful. And he said, I've put away your sin. You're not going to die, but your life will never be the same. The Lord was exceeding merciful to David. He knows what he's praying for when he says, keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. But let me give some other instances of presumptuous sin. I think exhibit A is a man named Aiken. He goes into those spoils of of A.I. and he's looking out for himself. He wants to enrich himself. He blatantly, flagrantly disobeys the command, takes some of the wealth of AI, and then he has to hide it from everyone else except his family. And when it all came to light, he and all they were put to death. We have some of the saddest words in all scripture in the book of Jeremiah, in Exhibit B. Here's Israel in Jeremiah's day. And they said, as for the word that thou hast spoken unto us in the name of the Lord, we will not hearken unto thee. We don't care what God says. We're going to do what we want to do. We will certainly do whatsoever thing goeth forth out of our own mouth to burn incense unto the queen of heaven and to pour out drink offerings unto her as we have done and our fathers and our kings and so on. Oh, what a awful presumptuous attitude against God. Exhibit number three is in church history, the purchase of an indulgence for sin, not yet committed that you had been considering. And now you've got your pass. You've got your ticket. You've already got forgiveness in advance. And so you can go on and yes, indulge yourself. Now, how do people justify presumptuous sins? Well, they tell themselves some lie. They give themselves some false confidence. They'll say something like, God will just have to forgive me. After all, He is merciful and even though I'm doing this presumptuously, He'll just have to find a way to forgive me. That's His job. That's the way people think. It's the way they talk sometimes. You've heard them. I've heard them. That is, I say, an abuse of the mercy of God. Viewing God's mercy as an obligation on his part, which is the very contradiction of mercy by definition. And such a one may well find no mercy and forgiveness from God. Or someone will say, God has forgiven me already. All my sins are under the blood of Christ, and so whatever I do now doesn't really matter. If I sin more, he shows more grace. Let us sin that grace may abound. Some were saying that early on, abusing, again, the doctrine of the grace of God. And the apostle Paul says plainly there in Romans 3 that that lawless heart is simply unregenerate. He minces no words about it. Some lost people love the doctrines of grace. Listen to me. Some lost people, unregenerate people love the doctrines of grace or their definition of the doctrines of grace because they think it excuses them for their love of their sin. And they're pursuing that path with a vengeance. If we love the doctrines of grace, let it be for a better reason. There are some who presume in their sin against God with the assurance that they will afterward repent. And they make the error of assuming the power to repent at will. I can repent whenever I please. They overlook the fact that repentance is a gift from God and he can just as easily withhold it as give it. The person who says, well, I'm going to pursue this sin, but then I'll repent afterwards and find forgiveness. They're playing games with God and they're playing games even with their own conscience. The truth is God may not give them repentance. Thomas Watson says, he who finds it easy to repent will not find it hard to sin again. That kind of repentance isn't worthy of the name, is it? And I've come to appreciate more and more this statement by a modern writer, Mr. Zodiatis, He says, it is much easier to repent of the sins we have committed than to repent of the ones we intend to commit. Because if we repented of those, we wouldn't commit them, would we? Well, notice here, David prays to be kept back. In the petition in verse 12, he prays to be cleansed from what has already occurred here in verse 13. He prays to be hindered, to be restrained, to be kept back from sins that have not yet occurred. That implies that David knows his own heart and he knows that his natural direction in Adam is. To presumptuously sin. And he needs to be restrained. He needs to be held back. And this is true of you and me. In our natural born condition. We tend to rebel defiantly against God and not care what he thinks. It's as if we say that's tough. You'll have to get over it. I'm going to do my own thing. We read, however, God's attitude toward such a heart in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 29, where this one who is an obstinate idolater, who says, I shall have peace though I walk in the imagination of mine heart. The Lord will not spare him. But then the anger of the Lord and his jealousy shall smoke against that man. Isn't that a dreadful thought and a, a graphic description of the wrath of God burning like fire and smoking against that presumptuous idolater. He goes on to say all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven. Again, keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sin. Something else that's implied here is that we are not able to keep ourselves back. We are weak and we need help. We are our own worst enemy and we need God To deliver us from our selves, our own inclinations in Adam, our own inclinations in terms of indwelling sin. If you are a believer. And thank God he is sovereign over the hearts of all men. His sovereignty knows no limit. His sovereignty does not come to the door of your heart and stop. He is able to keep us back from presumptuous sins. We need his help. He is greater than we are, and He's able to keep us from defiant, presumptuous sins and to keep us faithful and obedient to Him. He tells us to mortify our sins. We need His grace and help to mortify our sins, to kill our desire for sin. Now we must hasten on. He says, Let not these presumptuous sins have dominion over me. It's really a matter of dominion. It's who's in control. Either God or sin will hold dominion in your heart. Either God or sin will reign supreme. And if you are a believer in Christ, the fact is. According to Romans chapter six, sin shall not have dominion over you. Sin cannot have dominion over you if you are in Christ. Again, that sixth chapter of Romans, we won't take time to go there, but it shows us that we are either slaves to sin or slaves to righteousness, slaves to sin or slaves to Christ. We're always a servant. And if we are in Christ, then we are his servants. Well, this, this declaration that sin shall not have dominion over you is what David simply puts in petition form here. Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not have dominion over me. And yes, we are to turn the promises of scripture into petitions. As we see here. According to Romans chapter seven, sin in a believer. May at times appear to gain dominion. But it is a partial and temporary victory for sin it never has ultimate dominion in a believer well may the Lord give us that grace not to presume in sin but to humbly seek his grace his strength to be prevented from knowingly, with determination, pursuing a path of sin. Now, at the end of verse 13, he says this, then, then, when, when is then? It is when he has been cleansed from secret faults, as well as kept back from presumptuous sins. In other words, When he is walking with a clear conscience in the path of obedience before God, then shall I be upright. That word upright means complete. If this were a New Testament passage instead of the Old Testament, it might be translated perfect, whole, complete, upright, and I shall be innocent from the great transgression. Here is the joy and the benefit of walking with God with a clear conscience. Being upright. Being whole and complete and being not being guilty of what he calls the great transgression. And it's interesting that in the original language, there's no definite article here. It could be. And the word great simply means much a large measure. I shall be innocent from much transgression, we might say. But there are many writers who think that there is one particular sin in view here, the sin against the Holy Spirit. or the sin of apostasy. Mr. Spurgeon says, presumptuous sin is the vestibule of the sin which is unto death. Whatever the case, the child of God who walks with a clear conscience toward God is delivered from many potential sins. He avoids Many great sins. Again. This reveals the condition of our heart before God. Do we want to be kept back? From all sin. Do we want to be hindered? Do we want to be? kept back from flagrant sin. This is a test of our spiritual health and condition. Now, in closing, we see verse 14, the third petition, and we'll not spend too much time here. You notice that the two previous petitions deal with sin in particular in one form or another. Verse 14 presents the positive side. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer. Here in this petition, David is concerned not just to avoid sin or be forgiven of sin already done, but positively to be engaging in good works, walking in the right path, not just to be avoiding what's wrong, but to be engaged in what is right. He has a desire to be acceptable in the sight of God. And of course, In light of all of scripture, the only way to be acceptable in the sight of God is to be in Christ, to have his perfect righteousness, to cover all of our sin. Judicial acceptance in the sight of God is through Christ alone. There is also what this text is emphasizing we might call experiential acceptance with God. In terms of our own conscience, we are in that sense acceptable in the sight of God as we walk obediently in the path of holiness and with humility and dependence upon the Lord. And notice the two things he mentions here, his words and his meditations. The one from the mouth and the other from the heart. The words of the mouth. Would involve outward behavior. Meditation of the heart is the inward disposition. And we know from what our Lord himself said in the New Testament that it is out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. The heart is revealed by the mouth ultimately, and by our works. So if we are true in our heart, our words will also be true. If our heart is meditating upon the things of God, then out of our mouth will come what? The things of God. On the other hand, the mouth without the heart is hypocrisy. The mouth without the heart is a mockery of God. To maintain some good words in our mouth, at least for a season, while our heart is somewhere else. Yes, that's a mockery. And it is unsustainable. So we must not be satisfied with mere outward conformity to rules. We must seek to be right with God inwardly. As I grew up, there was a Negro spiritual that I heard now and then that said, Lord, I want to be a Christian in my heart. And that's where it matters, in our heart. Because what's in our heart will be manifested in our words and our deeds. Oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Jehovah is the savior and the keeper of his people. Only in the Lord do we find strength and salvation. He is the source of our willing obedience. He's the source of our hearty obedience. Do you find in him strength and redemption? Can you say the Lord is my strength and my redeemer? As we close the study of Psalm 19, let the word of God speak to your heart. See the glory of God as creator and the glory of God as redeemer. See in yourself your sin. Be convicted over it. Confess it to God. forsake it in him, find pardon through Christ, deliverance and strength to walk in a path of righteousness. I picked up recently a, a book that is sort of a history book. that has some political slant to it, and it's a big, massive thing. And I wanted to go to the very last page and read the closing, just to see where the book winds up. And the last sentence, if I can change about one word and apply it here, it fits very well. The devil doesn't care what you know. He cares what you're doing with what you know. And we've spent five weeks here in Psalm 19, maybe we've learned a little something about God and His glory. And ourselves and our tendency to sin. Are we satisfied with the knowledge? If it's just knowledge, the devil doesn't care. He's under no threat with that. But are we going to do something about this knowledge and give more diligence to walk carefully and in a holy way before a holy God?