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What we know is as nothing compared with what we do not know. This is true of our errors.

I. EXPLAIN THE QUESTION. We all own that we have errors, but who of us can understand them? They mingle with our good, and we cannot detect them so as to separate them. And this not only in our feelings, but in our actions. And their number, guilt, aggravation — who can understand this? Let each one think of his own errors and their peculiar wickedness.

II. IMPRESS IT ON THE HEART. In order to a man's understanding his errors he must understand the mystery of —

1. The fall. Here is a piece of iron laid upon the anvil. The hammers are plied upon it lustily. A thousand sparks are scattered on every side. Suppose it possible to count each spark as it falls from the anvil; yet who could guess the number of the unborn sparks that still lie latent and hidden in the mass of iron? Now your sinful nature may be compared to that heated bar of iron. Temptations are the hammers; your sins the sparks. If you could count them (which you cannot do), yet who could tell the multitude of unborn iniquities — eggs of sin that lie slumbering in your souls. And so we are not to think merely of the sins that grow on the surface, but if we could turn our heart up to its core and centre we should find it as fully permeated with sin as every piece of putridity is with worms and rottenness. The fact is, that man is a reeking mass of corruption. His whole soul is by nature so debased and so depraved that no description which can be given of him even by inspired tongues can fully tell how base and vile a thing he is.

2. God's law especially in its spiritual application. It is exceeding broad.

3. The perfection of God.

4. Hell.

5. The Cross. George Herbert saith very sweetly — "He that would know sin, let him repair to Olivet, and he shall see a Man so wrung with pain that all His head, His hair, His garments bloody be. Sin was that press and vice which forced pain to hunt its cruel food through every vein." You must see Christ sweating, as it were, great drops of blood. You must drink of the cup to its last dregs, and like Jesus cry — "It is finished," or else we cannot know the guilt of our sin.

III. THE PRACTICAL APPLICATION.

1. The folly of hoping for salvation by our own righteousness.

2. Or by our feelings.

3. What grace is this which pardons sin! Blessed be God, the spotless flood of Jesus' merit is deeper than the height of mine iniquities.

( C. H. Spurgeon.)

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KJV: Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults.

WEB: Who can discern his errors? Forgive me from hidden errors.