Self-Flattery and Presumption Psalm 36; Psalm 19:12-13

Psalm 36: Transgression speaks to the wicked deep in his heart, there is no fear of God before his eyes. For he flatters himself in his own eyes that his iniquity cannot be found out and hated. (For he flattereth himself in his own eyes, until his iniquity be found to be hateful.)

Psalm 19: 12-13: Who can discern his errors? Acquit me of hidden faults. Also keep back Your servant from presumptuous sins; Let them not rule over me; Then I will be blameless, And I shall be acquitted of great transgression.

Jonathan Edwards: “Almost every natural man that hears of hell flatters himself that he shall escape it.”

John Owen: “Many men live in the dark to themselves all their days; whatever else they do know they know not themselves; few study themselves as they ought; few are acquainted with the evils of their own hearts as they ought.”

John Owen: “A false notion in which men’s deceitfulness deludes the hearts of men is this: that one sin may be indulged. Some person’s have longed lived in the practise of some gross sin; yet all the while maintaining a semblance of great diligence in others duties of religion. One sin willingly lived in is just as able to destroy a man’s souls as a thousand…. There is no man that lives any one known sin but that he really lives in more. Let no man reassure himself with the thought that it is only one, when that one sin keeps him in constant neglect of God. They deceive themselves in this, reasoning that although they cannot as yet shake off their sin, yet they will continue to still love God and abound in the duties of His worship. They hope that notwithstanding this one lesser sin, it may be well with them in the end. This is a false notion, a mere instrument in sin’s hands to work deception.”