SECRET FAULTS AND PRESUMPTUOUS
SINS
“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, 0 Lord, my strength and my
Redeemer.”-Psa.
19:12-14.
THIS prophetic prayer
represents well the heart attitude of the fully consecrated and earnest
Christian. While realizing forgiveness of the “sins that are past through the
forbearance of God,” through the grace of God which was in Christ Jesus, which
im-puted our sins to him and his righteousness to us who believe in him,
nevertheless the well-instructed soul realizes its faults, its short-comings.
These secret faults may be of two kinds: (I) They may be faults which were
secret to ourselves at the time committed-slips, unintentional errors. Of
course the earnest heart, de-siring full fellowship with the Lord, will regret
even his unintentional short-comings and will strive and pray for divine grace
to get the victory over these: but besides these there are other secret faults,
which are secret in the sense of being unknown to any one but ourselves and the
Lord: imperfections or faults of the mind before they take the outward form of
actual and presumptuous sins
All Christians of experience in the good way and in the battle against sin
and self have learned that there can be no outward or presumptuous sins that have
not first had their beginning in secret faults of the mind. The sinful thought
may be one of pride suggesting self-exaltation; it may be one of avarice
suggesting un-lawful acquisition of wealth; or it may be some other fleshly
desire: the mere suggestion of the thought be-fore our minds is not sin; it is
merely the operation of our faculties, and of the influences which surround us,
inquiring of our wills whether or not we will consent to such thoughts. Many
consent to thoughts of evil who at the time would utterly repudiate any
sugges-tion to commit evil deeds; but if the thought be entertained it
is a secret fault, and the growing tendency would surely be toward the more
outward and pre-sumptuous sinful conduct, the tendency of which is always from
bad to worse. For instance, to illustrate suppose the suggestion should come
to our minds of a method by which we could advance our own interests of fame or
honor or reputation by the undermining of the influence and reputation of
another, how quickly the evil, selfish thought, if entertained, would lead to
envy and possibly hatred and strife. Almost surely it would lead to back
biting and slander and other works of the flesh and the devil. The beginnings
are always small, and correspondingly much easier to deal with than in their
developed form. Hence, the prophetic prayer, “Cleanse thou me from secret
faults” and thus restrain or keep me back from presumptuous sins.
In the Epistle of James (1:14, 15) we read, “Every man is tempted, when he is
drawn away of his own de-sire and enticed. Then when desire hath conceived it
bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bring-eth forth death.” Here
we have the same thought differently expressed. The temptation consists at
first in the presentation to the mind of suggestions which are impure or
unkind or unfaithful to obligations; but there is no sin, no fault, as yet.
The fault begins, when we harbor the evil suggestions, begin to turn them over
in our minds and to consider the attractions which they may have to offer.
This is where desire (taking hold of the evil thing instead of resisting
it) causes a beginning of the secret fault; and it is only a process of
development which in many instances under favor-able circumstances may be very
rapid, that sin, the presumptuous or outward acts of sin, results;-for
instance, bearing false witness against a neighbor, or slander, or other evil
deeds. And the evil course hav-ing begun in the fostering of the evil
suggestion, and having progressed to presumptuous sin, there is great danger
that their entire course of life will be ultimately affected thereby and bring
the transgressor into that condition where he will commit the great
transgression-willful, deliberate, intentional sin-the wages of which is
death, second death.
It would appear then that every intelligent
Christian would continually pray this inspired prayer, for cleansing from
secret faults that he might thus be re-strained from presumptuous sins; and
thus praying heartily, he would also watch against these beginnings of sin and
keep his heart in a cleansed and pure condi-tion, by going continually to the
fountain of grace for help in every time of need. He who seeks to live a life
of holiness and nearness to the Lord by merely guarding and striving against outward
or presumptuous sins, and who neglects the beginning of sin in the secrets
of his own mind, is attempting a right thing in a very foolish and unreasonable
way. As well might we seek to avert the smallpox by outward
cleanliness, while permitting the germs of the disease to enter our systems.
The bacteria or germs of presumptuous sins enter through the mind, and their
antiseptics and bactericides of the truth and its spirit must meet them there
and promptly kill the bacteria of sin before it germinates and leads us to such
a condition of evil as will manifest itself in our outward conduct.
For instance, whenever the bacteria of pride and self importance present
themselves, let the antidote be promptly administered from the Lord’s great
medical laboratory for the healing of the soul: the proper dose to offset this
species of bacteria is found in the words, “He that exalteth himself shall be
abased, and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted;” and “Pride goeth before
destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.”
If the thought presented to our minds be the bac-teria of envy, then
let us promptly apply the antidote which declares that envy is one of the works
of the flesh and of the devil, and contrary to the spirit of Christ, which by
our covenant we have adopted as ours. And let us remember that envy is closely
related to and apt to be followed by malice, hatred and strife, which
under some circumstances mean murder, according to the New Covenant and our
Lord’s interpretation.-l John 3:15; Matt. 5:21, 22.
If the bacteria which presents itself to our minds is avarice, with the
suggestion of unjust methods for its gratification, let us promptly apply to it
the medi-cine furnished in the Lord’s Word, namely, “What shall it profit a man
if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?” “For the love of money is a
root of all evil, which some, coveting after, have erred from the truth and
pierced themselves through with many sorrows.”
The more attention we give to this subject, the more we will be convinced,
from our own personal ex-periences, of the truth of the Scriptural declarations
respecting the beginnings of sin as secret faults in the mind; and the
more we will appreciate the statement of the Word, “Keep thy heart [mind,
affections] with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.’’-Prov.
4: 23.
But we are not to wonder that God has so consti-tuted us as to permit
temptations to come to our minds, nor are we to pray that we may have no
temptations; for if there were no such presentations, no such temp-tations,
then there could be no victories on our part, no overcoming of sin and of the
wicked One. But we know that for this very reason we are now in the school of
Christ; not that we shall there be shielded from all temptation, but that we
may learn of the great Teacher how to meet the Tempter, and by our Master’s
grace and help to come off conquerors, victors in the strife against sin. The
degree of our success in this conflict will depend largely upon the keenness of
our faith and trust in the great Teacher. If we feel confident in his wisdom,
we will follow closely his instructions and keep our hearts [minds] with all
diligence. Faith in the Lord’s wisdom and in his help in every time of need is
necessary to us in order that we may be thor-oughly obedient to him; and hence
it is written, “This is the victory that overcometh the world, even your faith;”
i.e., it will be by the exercise of faith and the obedience which flows
therefrom that we will be en-abled to “come off conquerors and more than
conquerors through him that loved us and gave himself for us.”
Nor are we to seek divine aid far in advance, as, for instance, to be kept
throughout the year to come, or month to come, or week to come: rather we are
to know that if we have made a covenant with the Lord and are his, that he is
near us at all times in every trial, in every temptation; and that his
assistance is ready to our use, if we will but accept it and act according-ly.
Hence, our prayers should be for help in the time of need, as well
as general prayers for the Lord’s bless-ing and care for each day. In the moment of temptation the heart should lift itself to
the great Master, in full assurance of faith, recognizing his love, his wisdom
and his ability to help us, and his willingness to make all things work
together for good to those who love him. Asking for assistance in such a time
of need would surely draw to us the Lord’s counsel and help and strength for
righteousness, truth, purity and love; and thus we should be hourly victorious,
daily victori-ous, and finally victorious.
The difficulty with many is that they are looking for some great
battles, instead of averting the great battles by availing themselves of the
Lord’s provision, and keeping their minds cleansed from secret faults. The
little battles, and much more numerous, are the ones in which we gain the
victories with their ultimate rewards. ‘‘Greater is he that ruleth his own
spirit [mind, will] than he that taketh a city.”
Finally, the grand results of obedience to this coun-sel of the Lord, the grand
attainment of those who have faithfully kept their hearts with diligence, is
ex-pressed in our text, and may well be the repeated earn-est prayer of all the
sanctified in Christ Jesus,-“Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of
my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.”
A year from now we hope to hear from very many of great blessings received
through this counsel of the Lord’s Word, as suggested in our last issue.