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David said, "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" (Psa. 19:13). We wonder
sometimes just what this means — "presumptuous sins." From the statement
made above, these sins can take over a person's judgment, prevent him
from being "upright" before the Lord, and thus guilty. But, does this
apply to us today? Can we be guilty of these sins and not be upright
before God? The Scriptures have many examples of people who were guilty
of presumptuous sin and we can surely profit from their mistakes if we
will take them to heart.
Moses gave Israel God's law which pertained to sins of ignorance and how they could be forgiven. In contrast to those, he also told of presumptuous sins, and said those who practiced such were actually "reproaching the Lord, despising his word" (Num. 15:30-31). It is easy to see that these sins are committed with a disdain for what God has spoken and those who practiced such were to be put to death. They had rather "do their own thing" than to obey the Lord. Presumptuous sins are those which we practice, "assuming" that God will be pleased because we are "doing such a good work." Doing good works becomes our goal to the neglect of preaching the gospel, as surely as if we had a command from the Lord to place them above preaching the gospel. The end does not justify the means. Robbing Peter to Pay Paul may sound noble, but it is not right. Jesus did not tell us to go solve all the world's problems, and then we might be able to teach them the Bible. If I read correctly, He said, "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned" (Mk. 16:15-16). This is the primary charge for the Christian as it was back then. We must never forget our primary objective. When we do, we fall into presumptuous sins. Do you remember the fringe with the blue ribbon on the garments of Israel? This was a forceful reminder for them to keep all the commandments of the Lord and not go beyond, "seeking after their own hearts and their own eyes" (Num. 15:39). We often hear the expression today, "I don't see anything wrong with it and it sounds good and I like it — let's do it." And when we go beyond the authority of the Lord we get into trouble. We demonstrate to the world our disdain for the word of God and reproach Him. The case of Korah is a good case in point, recorded for us in Numbers 16. He and his cohorts rebelled against God's anointed, set apart servants. He even ignored — despised — the law given to the sons of Levi. The Levites were the only ones sanctified to serve in the tabernacle, but Korah wanted to "help" Moses out in this seemingly good work. After all, Moses and Aaron did have a great big job to do. Not only were Korah and his followers guilty of rebellion against God, but lying was also involved. A great lesson was learned from this incident, at a high cost of lives. The earth swallowed Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, their families, houses, and belongings. Numbers 16:40 tells it all regarding the 250 Israelites who were not from the seed of Aaron whom the Lord burned with fire. The censers used for them to burn incense were made into broad plates to remind them that "only the seed of Aaron were to offer incense before the Lord." Korah's rebellion and presumptuous sins caused more deaths the very next day when Israel again murmured against God's anointed servants. The Lord caused 14,700 more people to die before it was over. There are many more examples of presumptuous sins given in the Bible and from which we can profit. Even the sin which prevented Moses from entering into the land of Canaan was a presumptuous sin. It was such "a small thing" for Moses to strike the rock (Num. 20:11-12) but it was not what the Lord had commanded him. When David tried to move the ark of the covenant on his "new cart" it was such an "improvement." Did it please the Lord? Quite to the contrary. That act, too, was presumptuous. We must be careful today with our hearts' desires. Some of those things which look so harmless, and seem to be such good works, may, in reality, be presumptuous sins that incur the wrath of God instead of His pleasure. |