In this sermon, the speaker discusses the four steps into sin using the example of David. The first step is making an error or mistake, which can easily lead to a fault if not acknowledged and confessed. The second step is committing secret sins, where wrong actions are done in hidden places. The third step is presumptuous sins, where one knowingly and willfully disobeys God. The speaker emphasizes the importance of recognizing these steps and turning to God for forgiveness and strength to live a righteous life. The sermon also highlights the power and significance of God's word in revealing His perfection, righteousness, and truth.

Well, we bow our hearts together as we come to the Word. Our Father, we thank and praise Thee that Thou hast been pleased to reveal Thy Son, reveal Him again to us. We hear the cry of the Greek strangers that came and said, Sirs, we would see Jesus. Our eyes have beheld so many things, but Father, we would see Jesus. Reveal Him to us and open the loveliness of Thy Son again to our hungry, needy hearts. And let us find in Him all that He has purposed to be to us, His people. For His sake, for our good. Amen. Psalm 19, if you have it open, I believe you will be profited by following. Perhaps you'd like to make certain notes that will aid you in recollection. This is a very interesting psalm, one that's most relevant to the day in which we live, because as man's scientific knowledge increases, the diameter of his telescope reflectors gets larger. His understanding of the nature of matter, more accurate and complete, he is finding a strange sense of awe upon him. I read last evening in the Chicago paper flying from Chicago here, after finishing ministry there, five days and five churches in Oak Lawn met together in Christian Life Conference, I read the testimony of an outstanding surgeon there in the Chicago area who said great surgeons and physicians find it terribly hard to be atheists because as they explore the human body and become better acquainted with it, there seems to be a mute and silent testimony to the fact that God is. And thus as we come to this psalm, we find that the purpose of it is the revelation of God. The heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament showeth his handiwork. And through the sixth verse you have the revelation of God in creation. We find that it testifies to his eternity. It testifies to his universality, that he's everywhere. It testifies to his omnipotence. All of this is seen in that which he has made, for the invisible things of him are clearly revealed and disclosed by the things which he has made. But it is when we begin with the seventh verse, we find that the revelation of God as to his mind, his power, his wisdom, his glory, so complete in nature, has left one vast area undisclosed. For nowhere in the creation of God will you find revelation of his grace, of his mercy, of his love. His power, yes, his majesty, his might, but not his love or his grace. And thus when God would be gracious to men because of what he is and because of what men are, he has to begin at the place of need. And thus we find that the law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. You'll notice that as he would minister to us, he ministers to us through that which he calls law. Now if you wish, you may note the six words, title words, that God has pleased to use to describe this revelation that he's given of himself. The first is law. The idea of the Hebrew word law is Torah that comes from an ancient Hebrew concept of shaft, pictured as we've mentioned in the past by a shaft of lightning which would illuminate the otherwise darkened sky and surroundings. And so that which we have then in this statement is that the law of the Lord enlightens the heart that's been buried in darkness. It is this which pierces and allows the revelation of himself to enter. And conversion has to begin therefore with law. And we find that this is the testimony of his love. How strange it should seem that law and love should thus be joined and linked together. Not strange at all. For until one has submitted himself to the work of the law, he is actually in no sense of need of love. And thus God would prepare our hearts for the revelation that he's given. And he describes this revelation that's an addition, a supplement to creation as being law. But notice in the same verse you have testimony. It is not only law, that revelation of standard and requirement, that legal, that jurisdictional obligation he lays upon his creatures, but there's a testimony concerning God, concerning his nature, concerning his power and majesty certainly, for this is confirmed in the word, but it's a testimony concerning his love and his grace, his mercy. Then he describes this revelation by calling it a statute, that which he sets before us to establish our way and our going. Law we will view as that initial work of preparing us for grace, testimony, that revelation of his grace, and now we see the statute that which he has implanted in our hearts. You remember the sweet promise that he made to Jeremiah when he said, I will make a new covenant with you, not as the covenant I made with your fathers, which covenant they broke, but I will write my law upon your hearts. This that he has written upon the heart we will view here as statute. This which he has established, which he has fixed, which he has carved and set to guide us. So the law tells us of our sin, the testimony tells us of his grace, and the statute tells us of his will and purpose unfolded. To Ezekiel he said, I will take away the heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh, and thus the testimony is added here that he has put within us the statute, and as we see in the eighth verse, the commandment, the commandment of the Lord. We have the testimony of John in his little epistle, who said, he that saith I know him, and keepeth not his commandments. He is a liar, and the truth is not in him, and thus as the statute is fixed and established, the commandment becomes the application of that statute to each changing step in our journey. And thus God is showing us that there's no part of this pilgrimage that he's calling us to make, but what he's gone ahead and he's fixed the way for us, then we'll notice here that the fear of the Lord is clean. Fear. He's associated this word fear with his testimony. For certainly the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and in one sense of causing us to cringe before his holiness, it was the work that began with the law. But that people only fear him who rightly understand him. If you have known his forgiveness, his cleansing, his pardon, his purging grace, then you truly fear him. For you discover when you come to Calvary laden with your guilt and covered with your sin, that God is so holy that when his son identified himself with you and me, he plunged the spear and sword of his wrath into the heart of his son. And we thus see in the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus that he cannot look upon sin. He only fears the Lord who's tasted of his grace and drunk of the cup of his forgiveness. One may cringe in terror before offended deity when the law has done its work, and this we'll recognize as a sense of fear. But he under he fears his father who realizes that his father is just to recognize obedience and to recognize the difference between stumbling and rebellion. And thus we find his word stirs our hearts with fear. And finally we find that his word sets before us judgment. They're not synonymous, synonyms but not synonymous. They give to us a progressive revelation of that work which the word of God is to do. What is the final thing in your pilgrimage? What is the day toward which you journey? Is it not this, that we must all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, that every man may receive of the things which he has done in his body, whether they be bad or good? And thus the word establishes for us that in that day toward which we journey, there will be a meeting with him, that his word is set forth clearly. All this won't come upon us as a thief in the night. God is not going to bring to you in the hour when you stand before the bima, the judgment seat, a new standard. How unjust it would be to allow us to live and walk with a pattern that seemed to be right and then find that as we're called before the bima, the judgment seat, that there's an entirely different standard that he didn't even bother to reveal to us. Oh no, our God would not do something so capricious and unfair and unjust. The word of God is the judging standard and we, he has appointed a day in which he will judge the by that man whom he has appointed, having sealed him for this task by raising him from the dead. But they will be judged according to the word. Oh sinner friend, you're with us today and we're glad you're here. You've come to the right place. But don't stop with having come here. Come to him, for there is nothing within these walls or others anywhere to meet the need of your heart. It is only the Lord Jesus Christ who loved you enough to come beneath the sword of God's wrath because you had broken his law, who had testified to the eternal love of God by dying in your place instead, who will fix in your heart a new heart, taking away the heart of stone and giving you a heart of flesh, who will give you commandments by which you may walk, commandments which he has said are not grievous and who will put within your heart a fear that will cause you to want to please him because of the worthiness of himself. But I say to you, dear sinner friend, should you choose today to spurn offered mercy and reveal grace, think not that you escape from this one of whom we speak. For he has not only appointed a bema, a place where he will meet his people and reward them for the deeds they've done, whether good or bad, and you stand outside and say, ah, see the people in the church. Remember, dear friend, that because of greater light there will be greater responsibility and this one will surely deal with his own. But I say to you that know not our Lord, nor trust him, that he has appointed another place and another time when he will judge those who spurned his mercy. For you will not appear at the bema he has reserved for you that have heard of love and spurned it, the great white throne to which the wicked dead will come. The books will be opened and found that their name is not in the book of life. And seeing the wrath of the lamb, the meek and lowly Jesus now exalted as the lion of the tribe of Judah, it is described by the one who saw that event in prophecy that men should call for the mountains to fall upon them and hide them from the face of the wrath of the lamb. Our Lord Jesus, who's given us the testimony of his majesty and might in creation, the testimony of his law and his statutes, his commandments, and his fear has declared there is a day in which those who refuse to bow enticed and drawn by grace will bow forced by his omnipotence. And so it's just a matter of time, just a matter of when you can't escape the bowing. I entreat you to understand that this judgment is twofold. The children of wrath, seeing that their works are open, testifying to their guilt to go off on the right hand into the lake of fire and brimstone, which burneth forever and ever. Oh child of wrath, we plead with you to flee from the wrath to come and turn to him even while you sit and while you hear and receive him who alone is your life. But child of God, through faith in Christ, let it be understood that this word declares that every man, every Christian shall receive of the things he has done in the body. And the words we've spoken and the deeds we've performed will one day be unveiled and discovered. There's nothing hidden from his eye. And in that day, he will not go beyond and dig from under his precious blood the sins that you committed ere you knew him. These you'll remember against you no more forever. But since you've come by grace and joined yourself in testimony to him, he will at that day bring before you all you've done. And here rises a question. What of those sins we've committed after we've been pardoned, will they be brought again before us? And the answer is an unqualified yes. Oh not in the sense of their heinousness, not in the sense of their ugliness which the blood has washed away, but in the sense of their consequence of robbing him of glory and robbing you of joy. For the fabric that you've woven on the loom that was begun of grace's birthday will have in it those arid burns, spots that perhaps have ruined the warp in some way and have certainly soiled the loaf. And you'll receive a reward and so will I of the things we've done in the body, whether they be bad or good. And this is the testimony of his word of judgment. So these six things are declared in the word. But we find that not only do we have the six titles used of his word in this nineteenth Psalm, but we also find that with it there are six attributes of God revealed. And to a day such as ours, where the smoke of men's reasoning clouds the inside of their heart, we need the fresh breath of revelation to show us God again. And I see here that six words associated with these terms that refer to his word but reflect his character, his attributes. Notice in the seventh verse, the law of the Lord is perfect. Why? Because he is perfect. And thus we see in this the revelation of his perfection. This word perfect, as the word infinite, refers to all that may be said of him. For he is perfect in all his ways. And it is his word which reveals his perfection, but likewise reveals our imperfection and prepares us for grace. Thus the law reveals the perfection of God in all of his attributes. Perfection from which nothing can be taken, to which nothing can be added. All that God is, he is in wholeness, completeness, infinite in all of his attributes. Perfect in all of his being. And it's the word of God that reveals his perfection. But you notice here that the testimony of the Lord is sure. He said, my name is Jehovah, I change not. And this testifies to us of his immutability, his unchangeability. God has not changed. Oh how my heart stirs with what I trust is righteous wrath. When I hear people impugn the God of the Old Testament and speak of the Jehovah of the Old Testament, as they have been wont to do in books and in their talks, as someone brutal, cruel, and hard, as though the God of Moses were other than the God Jesus. No, not so at all. Not so at all. He's utterly unchangeable. And just as he has spoken and said, the day thou eatest, thou shall die. He comes again and prophesies, declaring the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head, even though the serpent shall bruise his heel. And then he takes the lamb and slays it and takes the skin from it and wraps the skin from the lamb that gave its life around the woman and the man who sold their lives into bondage and testifies that whereas it is true, this God is perfect in all his attributes. He's unchangeable in all his justice and his love. But love and justice joined even there with our first parents. He's unchangeable. Calvary was no innovation. It wasn't as though God at one point in history said, now after all these centuries of being just, I shall become merciful. Never. He's always been merciful. He's always been gracious. He's always been loving. But his mercy and his grace and his love have never clouded his justice and his righteousness and his holiness. And so he said, the testimony of the Lord is sure. He's sure. Every good and perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights with whom there's no variableness, neither shadow cast by turning. He can't change. He can't change in his attitude towards sin. Every sin shall come into judgment. For you that have come to Calvary and known the covering of fast sins know this assuredly, that sin in the life of a Christian receives judgment. God hasn't changed. Fellowship is broken. Prayer goes unanswered. No longer are we used of him as once we may have been. We find that we are exposed to the attacks of Satan and finally fall into the chastening hand of God. God is unchangeable. He doesn't tolerate sin anymore in his children than he does in the devil. It'll always be dealt with. Think not that Jesus came to give us a credit card that we can live in sin as though he'd given us license. Not so. He came to save his people from, from, from their sins. He hates it as much in Revelation as he did in Genesis. He's unchanging, but he has grace and mercy and love and deliverance and victory. For you as he had for Enoch who walked with God, then he has grace that you may walk with him. He's unchanging. Then we find in the eighth verse, the statutes of the Lord are right, right. Balanced is the idea, absolutely without flaw, without any inequity, without any thing that's wrong. He is righteousness. Here is the attribute revealed as it is stated by the statutes of the Lord. Righteousness. The kingdom of heaven is not in me to drink, but in righteousness and in peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. And so as God is righteous and this is revealed by his statutes, so he gives to his people a new heart to cause them to feel as he feels. And the righteousness of Christ is not only imputed to us, but by his presence and his grace imparted in us until our hearts long for that which is so perfectly of him. And you know if you've been born of God, the frustration, the awful grief that comes in discovering what you are is against what he's placed in your heart that you want to be. Don't ever succumb to this and say, well, it's impossible. With man it is impossible, but with God all things are possible. And God who's given you a desire to please him has in his great grace given the Lord Jesus Christ for what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh. God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. We find in this eighth verse that the commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. And here we see his holiness, ineffable holiness, holiness that can't be measured, holiness that can't be plumbed, holiness that has no boundaries. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The angels viewing this one who's holy cover their faces and their feet and sing antiphonally of him who's revealed himself to be holy. He's a holy God who's given a holy bible of his holy son by the Holy Spirit. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. Oh that somehow our hearts can so lay hold of this that the commandment of the Lord is pure, that God is holy. We tremble in his holiness even as we long to be like him. And we find that the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever. Here we see his eternity. He's always been. Your mind will stagger and your heart will fail when you try to plumb eternity. When you see as some of us have pictures that have given some little conceptual demonstration of the immensity of the universe and you discover that out there in the infinity of space are galaxies as large as the one that we live in that look like stars to us that spangle the heavens. You begin to see something of what space is and your mind trembles and its gears clash and grind and fail to give you the grip that you need on the immensity of infinite space. And then when you go back to eternity, a million years you can comprehend because you know a year. A million years you can comprehend because you know something of what a billion is by imagination. But when it comes to eternity that God is always there, that he's always been father, that he's always been son, that he's always been spirit, that God as father has begotten the son before the foundation of the world and there's never been a moment of begetting because he's always been the begotten. And God as father has been breathing forth the spirit and there never came a time when he began to breathe forth the spirit. Your heart staggers and all you can do is throw yourself upon him. My friend, if God were just old, he would frighten us. If God were just big, he would tyrannize us. But because he is infinite and eternal, we can come to him and not comprehending infinity or eternity, but knowing that our souls demand it, we can cast ourselves upon the shoulder of his revealed grace and rest there as little children do, comforted in the arms of their mother. Because God is eternal. You tremble not on the brink of time or the threshold you must cross. Because God is eternal. This we see revealed to us in the fear of the Lord. Then the judgments of the Lord are true. Oh, the truth of God. That day when he judges, it will not be from caprice, it will not be from whimsy. It will be from truth that is his very nature. We tremble at what we see of God, but I want you to see with me quickly the six uses of God's word. We've seen the six titles used of his word and the six attributes revealed by his word, but notice the six uses of the word of God in your life. Go back with me to the seventh verse. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. No man can convert another. He said, after that the Holy Ghost has come upon you, you shall be witnesses. But it's one thing to stand as a post and point a direction. This is all a witness can ever do, for no man can carry another from the prison of hell into the arms of redeeming grace. And it's the law of the Lord which converts us all. Not you, not me. Salvation is of the Lord. We see it as the operation of the Holy Ghost using the law to sway, to break, to awaken, to convict, to bring to repentance and faith. This is all of him. And it's wonderful to know it's of him. Our responsibility is to make known that truth and share that testimony and communicate these statutes and declare these commandments. But it's the work of God to convert the soul. Are you here today converted? Has God wrought life in your heart? Then it's the work of God by his law. But notice it's not only the work of conversion, bringing you to the need of Christ and to the Christ of your need. You'll see next that it is the testimony of the Lord making wise the simple. Oh, such fools were we. Listen to our insanity. We thought Satan was our friend and God our enemy. We thought that we should fear holiness and love sin. We thought that up was down and down was up. We were fools. Everything reversed, everything inverted, and sin is moral insanity. Such were we. But oh, how marvelous it is that the law of the Lord which converts the soul makes wise the simple. And that man who's never learned is wiser than he whose name is surrounded with degrees, if all the degrees represent to the wisdom of this world without that of eternity. The law of the Lord makes wise the simple. And then we find that it not only makes wise, but then we discover that it is the rejoicing of the heart, the rejoicing of the heart, statutes of the Lord. You have joy today? I want you to know that you didn't get it because you made a decision. You didn't get it because you learned the plan of salvation or you learned the scripture verse. If there's joy and rejoicing in your heart today, it's because that he is there. For Christ is our life and there's only joy in the presence of the living one. It's the joy of the Lord shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, even as his love is the same. And so it's here that the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. And then we discover that the commandments of the Lord are pure, enlightening the eyes. How wonderful it is that he's not only made wise, but many a wise man is a blind man and cannot see in certain sense. And so he's made us wise to seek that which was right and enlighten our eyes to know the path to take, understanding all of our need and providing for it in all of his grace. And then, as we see, the fear of the Lord is clean, cleansing. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according to thy word. And then, having seen the cleansing work of the fear of the Lord, we discover that the judgments of the Lord are satisfying, for we find that it's more to be desired than gold. And what men do for gold, selling their lives, all they have, it's sweeter than the honeycomb. No one can ever know satisfaction or completeness or wholeness without knowing the Lord. But we discover also that the fear of the Lord not only brings satisfaction, but he's warned. For by them is thy servant warned. And we find also that in the keeping of them there is great reward. So in the judgment of the Lord, there's satisfaction. The word is satisfying, it's warning, it's rewarding. Have you seen this? Has this become real in your life? And then notice now, as we close, the four steps into sin. For David is speaking as a redeemed heart. And you, as long as you journey through this wicked world, though God has given you these six titles of his word, these six attributes that the word reveals, and these six ministries of his grace, you still have within your hand and heart the power to say, I will not avail myself even of such lavish provision. And be careful, for we find now the four steps into sin. Look at them and see them there. Who can understand his errors? The first step into sin is an error, a mistake, overtaken in a fault, let aside by a desire. But it doesn't stay long as an error. For unless it is judged as an error and confessed and forsaken as the error that it is, the next thing is, we find it's a secret fault. It's hidden. It's done a little, it's done here, it's done there, but it's done in secret. But it isn't long in secret, for the next step after this is presumptuous sins. Can you see it? An error giving way to a secret fault. But since there wasn't a bolt of lightning or a stroke from heaven, the person now presumes, and it becomes a presumptuous sin. It doesn't stay there long. It soon becomes a great transgression. And the great transgression in the scripture has reference to total apostasy, utter rejection, complete renunciation. I think of the man of whom I've spoken, a man who served once churches in our society, who resented in bitterness the thing which had been done at the death of his wife. He became not only bitter against men, but against God. He left the church, had an auction, disposed of his property, came into the city, and went up to Jack Dempsey's bar and got himself stone drunk and stayed here in the city till his money was gone. He came into the meetings that I had in the area south of us, time after time after time, and he'd sit there and he'd look at me and tears streamed down his cheeks. And he'd come to me afterwards and I'd say, why were you weeping? And he'd look at me, are you weeping for your sin? Oh, that's what I'm weeping about. I'm weeping because I have no concern for my sin. For there was no place found for repentance. I trust by God's grace there will be. But I've seen that tears just pour since his face convulsed. And it wasn't over his sin, but it was over the hardness, the obscuracy of his heart, because there had been an error that became a secret fault, that became a presumptuous sin, and it ended as a great transgression. And he found no place for repentance. Wasn't it if he repented there wouldn't be forgiveness? And there was a searing in his conscience. God's given the word to protect us, but it's got to be personal. Notice now as we close that the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart, for all error begins in the heart. You tell me what you've been thinking about these days, I'll tell you what you'll do. My dear, when you come to the place where you are prepared to let your life be blessed of God, you're going to have to deal with the thought of sin as though it were the finished act, and crush the egg as you would the hatched viper. For it's out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. My heart, my mouth. Are you prepared to say that the trouble lies with me and not blame it on tradition, history, nature, the world, but say it's my mouth that's with my lips, with my heart. Ah, this is the place. When you take responsibility there, then you can come and say, my strength. You have no strength in this battle. You have no ability in this conflict. And the Lord knew it. So he died on the cross and was buried and rose again, not only that he could become your redeemer and wash away your sin, but that he could become your strength to live his life. Oh, the testimony of his word. See it now. See it again. Let your heart rejoice in it. The law, the testimony, the statute, the commandment, the fear, the judgment of the Lord. Reveal his perfection, his unchangeableness, his righteousness, his holiness, his eternity, his truth, converting the soul, making wise the simple, rejoicing the heart, enlightening the eyes, cleansing, satisfying, warning, rewarding. Is he all this to you? This is the revelation of his word. Shall we bow our hearts before him? The Father of Jesus loves reward. Visit us now, pilgrim people. Some here have never known the cleansing of the blood. They walk with a mountain of guilt pressing them nearer and nearer to the grave. And should they perish as they are, it'll be eternal night. Oh, what folly to leave unconverted when the law of the Lord is pure, converting the soul. Oh, God, come upon us. For sinner friends, we pray. But then, Father, our hearts go out to thee for those who've tasted of thy grace and know of thy love. How great is our need. We ask that somehow now the Holy Spirit, hovering upon us and brooding over us, let the arrows of his love pierce as deep as our need is. Oh, thou heavenly surgeon, spare us not even when we cry in pain, but let thy cutting grace expose our every need. For we know that thou wilt not expose the need in us, but what there's been provision of love and grace in thee. And thy wounds were as deep as our need. And in thy cleansing blood thou didst provide all that thy grace and holiness could see of sin in us. For enough has been provided that thou canst be our strength and our redeemer. So grant to us frankness and honesty to judge our mouths and our hearts wherein we've sinned against thee. Bring us in brokenness to the place of cleansing. We can know strength and joy. We thank thee that the Lord Jesus is all this to his people, to us. May he see of the reward and travail of his soul and be satisfied because there's been brokenness and confession and faith to reach out and take cleansing. Come upon us, blessed one. With our heads bowed and our eyes closed, reach out to him. Tell him just now in this closing moment of your pressing need, he'll meet you. If you'd like to stay for prayer, do so. Don't go home. We want to help. He'll be all this and more to you, the altogether lovely one. My wonderful Lord, my wonderful Lord, by angels and seraphs in heaven adored, I bow at thy shrine, my Savior divine, my wonderful, wonderful Lord. Let us stand for the benediction. As we behold the wounds of Jesus and see the cleansing of his blood, may we see him exalted at thy right hand to reign and to rule the lives of his people. Grant, Lord, as we submit to him in glad abandonment, to all that thou hast made him to be, that thy grace, thy mercy, and thy peace shall be our portion. And those with whom thou art dealings, Lord, withhold all this until the issue is met, and blessing may flow for Jesus' sake. Amen.