And
this, it will be remembered, was the Psalmist's inventory and estimate of
sins also. His last and his most earnest prayer was, that he might be
kept back from all presumptuous sin. Now you know quite well, without
any explanation, what presumption is. Don't presume, you say, with
rising and scarce controlled anger. Don't presume too far. Take care,
you say, with your heart beating so high that you can scarcely command
it, take care lest you go too far. And the word of God feels and speaks
about presumptuous sin very much as you do yourself. Now, what gave this
third man who lay in fetters a little beyond the cross the name of
Presumption was just this, that he had been at the cross with his past
sin, and had left the cross to commit the same sin at the first
opportunity. Presumption presumed upon his pardon. He presumed upon the
abounding grace of God. He presumed upon the blood of Christ. He was so
high on the Atonement, that he held that the gospel was not sufficiently
preached to him, unless not past sin only and present, but also all
future sin was atoned for on the tree before it was committed.
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