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Formality | J. C. Ryle · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to reformed thinking. Glad.
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  To be here. We are really glad you're here
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  with us pulling up a chair is the third person in this
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  conversation because today we are taking a long, hard look at
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  a text that Well, it tries to build a diagnostic tool for the
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  human soul and it. Is a very sharp tool.
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  Yeah, it really is. We are looking at excerpts from
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  JC Ryles classic work, Practical Religion, specifically his
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  Really searing chapter on formality, and the mission of
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  this deep dive today is to dissect the radical difference
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  between outward religious habits and inward spiritual reality.
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  Ryle basically argues that confusing the form of religion
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  with the heart of religion isn't just some minor theological
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  error. No, not at all.
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  He puts the stakes the absolute maximum.
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  He says it is a matter of life and death for the soul.
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  But to understand the gravity of this problem, we first have to
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  clearly define what formalism actually look like when it's
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  functioning in the wild. Yeah, and Ryle provides a very
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  specific, almost botanical definition of formal religion
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  here. OK, Botanical.
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  Yeah, he describes it as possessing the husk or the skin
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  of religion without the substance.
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  Oh, I see. It's being a Christian in name
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  and outward profession only. So think of a seed.
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  If you hold just the outer shell, it might look, you know,
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  identical to a viable seed. Right from the outside, you
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  can't tell. Well, I mean, if the inside is
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  empty, it will never grow. It has no vitality at all, no
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  life giving properties. And Ryle leans on a quote from a
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  1658 Puritan writer named Thomas Hall to illustrate this
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  historical pattern. What did Hall say?
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  Hall surveyed his own society back in 1658 and said there is
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  more light than there was, but less life, more shadow but less
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  substance, more profession but less sanctification.
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  Wow. More light, but less life.
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  That is a chilling observation. It really makes you stop and
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  think. Because when you compare how
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  vividly that describes the modern era, it forces a hard
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  pause. We live in a time of
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  unprecedented light. You have access to, I mean
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  endless books, commentary, sermons, debates right on your
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  phone. Oh yeah, instantly.
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  You can pull up the original Greek in Hebrew in like 3
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  seconds. The light is blinding, but
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  Holland rile force us to ask the uncomfortable question.
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  You know, has that massive abundance of light produced
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  actual spiritual life, or are we just casting a larger shadow?
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  Yeah, that's the diagnostic question.
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  And to help answer it, Ryle breaks formalists down into two
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  distinct categories because he understands that formalism it
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  doesn't just wear 1U. Right.
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  What's the first category? The first category he identifies
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  is the ritualists. So these are individuals who
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  attend public worship with like absolute regularity.
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  They take the sacrament, they sit in the pews, they stand on
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  the congregation stands, they participate in the liturgy.
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  So on paper, their attendance record is flawless.
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  Flawless. But when you look at their
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  actual lives outside the building, there's a total void.
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  They don't read scripture privately.
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  They don't separate from the world and their daily habits or
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  you know, their friendships, business dealings, this.
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  Is a Sunday morning thing. Yeah, and furthermore, they are
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  completely indifferent to sound doctrine.
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  You could preach almost anything from the pulpit and as long as
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  the service ends on time and the aesthetic is pleasing, they are
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  content. So that first group relies
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  entirely on physical motions. They check the attendance box
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  and consider the duty fulfilled. But Ryle's second category is
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  vastly more subtle and, honestly, a lot more
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  intimidating. Yeah, the second group hits a
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  lot closer to home for people who care about theology.
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  He calls them the talkers or the Intellectuals.
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  The Talkers. Yeah, these are people who know
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  the theory of the gospel thoroughly.
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  They profess perfectly sound doctrine.
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  They can articulate complex concepts, They understand
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  justification by faith alone, and they they really love to
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  criticize the errors of others who disagree with them.
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  The ultimate theological debate champions, right?
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  But Ryle points out the fatal flaw here.
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  They lack all practical godliness.
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  When you examine their inner lives and their daily
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  interactions. They're not charitable.
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  They're not humble. They're not kind, tempered,
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  honest, or gentle. Their intellect is fully
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  engaged. Their vocabulary is sharp.
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  But their affections and their moral conduct remain entirely
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  untouched. Ryle uses these incredible
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  analogies for this. He talks about the painted fire
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  that can't warm you and the painted banquet that can't
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  satisfy hunger. Those are great images.
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  Yeah, and if we were to update that for today, think about
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  being stranded in a desert, dying of thirst.
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  Someone walks up to you and hands you a high resolution
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  Florida State color graded photograph of an ice cold glass
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  of water. That would be incredibly
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  frustrating, right? Visually it is 100% accurate.
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  Every pixel is perfect, right? But practically it is entirely
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  useless for your survival. It can't hydrate you.
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  And the mechanism of deception here is what makes that head
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  knowledge without hard action so uniquely dangerous.
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  If you have the high resolution photograph of theology in your
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  mind, you feel a false sense of security.
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  Because you know the facts. Exactly because your intellect
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  understands the mechanics of salvation, you just assume you
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  possess salvation. You mistake your ability to
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  describe the water for the act of actually drinking it.
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  The intellect acts as a shield against conviction.
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  When a sermon targets the conscience, the intellectual
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  formalist simply analyzes the preacher's homiletics.
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  Or, you know, checks the doctrine for accuracy, never
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  once letting the truth Pierce their own heart.
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  But wait, I am. I'm struggling with this a bit
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  because James tells us that faith without works is dead.
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  So shouldn't the works of the sacrifices, the attendance, the
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  form, the participating in the life of the church?
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  Shouldn't that be the very proof that the faith is real, it
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  seems? Like it should, yeah.
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  How can Ryle decouple the physical obedience from the
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  heart so completely when God is the one who set up the system in
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  the first place? Well, to answer that, we really
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  have to look at the intention behind the obedience.
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  And this brings us to the divine verdict on formalism and the
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  startling biblical evidence Ryle presents regarding how God views
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  outward religion without inward reality.
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  OK, where does he go in scripture for that?
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  He focuses heavily on a passage from the Old Testament, Isaiah
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  chapter 1, verses 10 through 15. The shock value in this text, it
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  really cannot be overstated. God is speaking to the nation of
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  Israel, and he explicitly rejects their sacrifices, their
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  feasts, and their Sabbaths. He rejects.
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  He calls them an abomination. He says He is weary to bear
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  them. But that is the crux of my
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  question though. God is rejecting the very
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  practices that he instituted. I mean, these were not Pagan
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  rituals. God commanded the feasts.
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  God commanded the burnt offerings.
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  How does obedience to his own commanded ordinances provoke his
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  anger? Yeah, it's a great question.
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  Ryle provides a quote from Machiavel that kind of unlocks
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  the psychology behind this divine anger.
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  The quote is religion itself should not be cared for, but
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  only the appearance of it. The appearance.
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  Right. When humans perform God's
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  ordinances purely for credit, for social standing, or just to
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  keep up appearances, they are attempting to deceive an
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  omniscient God. They are treating the creator of
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  the universe like a foolish neighbor who can be tricked by a
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  decent cloak. When you go through the motions
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  of a sacrifice while your heart is full of malice or greed,
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  you're basically implying that God can't see through the
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  ritual. You're insulting his
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  omniscience. Exactly.
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  You are reducing God to a Pagan deity who only cares about the
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  physical scent of the meat on the altar rather than the moral
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  state of the worshipper. That reframes the entire
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  concept. The outward action becomes an
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  insult because it assumes God is blind.
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  Yes, that's a perfect way to put.
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  It and that psychological nuance explains Jesus interactions with
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  the Pharisees in the New Testament perfectly.
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  You read the gospels and Jesus is incredibly patient with
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  people who are openly sinful. Yeah, he is.
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  Ryle highlights Matthew 15.8 where Jesus quotes Isaiah saying
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  this People draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, but their
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  heart is far from me. And in Matthew 23, Jesus
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  unleashes an intensely severe critique.
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  Jesus used his severest language for the formalists.
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  I mean eight times in one chapter he says, Woe unto you,
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  scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites.
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  He compares them to whited sepulchers, beautiful on the
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  outside, full of dead men's bones on the inside.
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  He reserves his absolute harshest words for those holding
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  the empty husk. Because formalism is a desperate
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  disease that causes permanent internal damage, Ryle points out
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  the severe danger of a dead end conscience.
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  How does that happen? Well, when you continually
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  repeat holy words and handle holy things while your heart is
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  running after the world, you don't just remain neutral, you
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  actively damage your soul. You build what Ryle calls a
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  thick crust of insensibility over the conscience.
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  And quest of insensibility. Think of a surgeon the first
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  time a medical student sees a major operation.
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  They might, you know, feel faint at the sight of blood.
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  But after 20 years of performing surgery, they can make an
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  incision while casually discussing their dinner plans.
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  Oh hell yeah, They have become entirely desensitized.
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  That is a terrifying thought when applied to spiritual things
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  becoming desensitized to the gospel.
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  It is, and Ryle lists specific piercing examples of how this
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  callous forms in different spheres of life.
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  He talks about landlords who attend public worship purely to
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  set a good example for their tenants, viewing religion as a
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  tool for social order. Right, just for appearances.
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  He points to masters who host formal family prayers just to
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  maintain a respectable appearance in their households.
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  He even targets the leadership too, which takes that surgeon
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  analogy to the highest level. Oh yeah, he mentions unconverted
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  clergymen who read the lessons week after week, handling the
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  most sacred texts with 0 real interest.
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  They pronounce blessings and preach warnings, and the words
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  pass through their lips without leaving a single trace on their
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  own souls. That's sobering.
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  He talks about clerks who robotically say Amen without
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  feeling a single word, and singers who perform beautiful
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  spiritual hymns simply because they have good voices while
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  their affections are entirely earthbound.
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  Just go through the motions. Yeah, and every single time they
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  perform these acts without heart, the crust of
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  insensibility gets thicker. The warnings of Scripture bounce
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  off them because they are so used to the sound of the words.
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  But if the outward obedience is the singing, the tithing, the
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  attendance is just a painted fire, how does God actually
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  measure a believer? Because humanly speaking, we
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  only have the outward actions to look at.
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  We're forced to judge by the husk.
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  So we really need to shift the discussion to God's standard of
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  measurement. Yeah, we do.
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  To establish God's scale of measurement, Ryle points to two
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  key texts, 1st Romans 2.28 and 29, where Paul says circumcision
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  is that of the heart in the Spirit and not in the letter.
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  In reality. Right, the outward mark means
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  nothing without it. Second, First Samuel 16.7, which
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  states the lore looketh at the heart while man looks at the
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  outward appearance. The heart is the only scale.
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  The only metric that matters. And to prove this, Ryle
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  illustrates the contrast between two distinct patterns found in
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  biblical history. The first pattern is the failure
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  of flawless outward forms when paired with a rotten heart.
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  Could you give an example? He uses the example of the
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  Israelites in First Samuel 4. They're going into battle
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  against the Philistines and they decide to bring the Ark of the
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  Covenant to the frontline. Right.
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  They bring out the heavy artillery.
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  They treat the Ark like a lucky rabbit's foot.
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  Exactly. They shout with a great shout.
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  They show it total outward reverence.
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  The form is flawless. They are honoring the physical
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  wooden box, but they lacked the God of the Ark.
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  Their hearts were far from him. Yeah, their hearts were wicked.
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  They were tolerating massive corruption in the priesthood
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  under Eli's sons, and the result was total defeat.
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  The Ark was captured and thousands died.
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  The flawless outward form offered zero protection.
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  Ryle also lists kings like Rehoboam, Abijah and Messiah and
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  Jehu. Jehu is such a fascinating case
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  study. For this he was anointed to wipe
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  out the idolatry of Ahab's house.
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  He drove his chariot furiously. He executed judgment.
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  He systematically dismantled bail worship.
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  On the outside, he looked like a hero.
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  Right. His outward actions seemed
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  entirely aligned with the commands he was given.
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  But the biblical verdict on Jehu is tragic.
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  Despite doing the right outward actions, the text says he took
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  no heed to walk in the law of the Lord with all his heart.
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  He didn't depart from the sins of Jeroboam.
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  So his motives were wrong. Yes, his zeal was for his own
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  glory and power, not a genuine love for God.
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  He was inwardly rotten. Now contrast that with Ryle's
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  second pattern, the success of flawed outward forms when paired
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  with a right heart. OK, what does that look?
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  Like Ryle points to kings like Jehoshaphat and ASA.
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  If you read their histories, they had massive outward
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  failings. ASA locked a prophet in prison.
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  Jehoshaphat made terrible political alliances that they
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  have. Their reigns were messy.
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  Very messy. Yet the overall biblical verdict
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  is positive because they maintain right hearts toward
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  God. They repented.
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  They relied on the Lord in times of crisis.
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  And Hezekiah's Passover in Two Chronicles 30 that is the
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  perfect illustration of this dynamic.
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  Oh yes, Hezekiah holds a massive Passover inviting all of Israel
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  and Judah, but a multitude of the people were not ceremonially
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  clean. The text explicitly says they
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  ate the Passover otherwise than the commandment ordered.
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  So the form was highly irregular.
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  Highly, by the strict letter of the law, they were in violation,
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  but Hezekiah prayed for them, asking the Lord to pardon
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  everyone who prepareth his heart to seek God, even if they missed
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  the outward purification rules. And what happened?
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  God hearkened to Hezekiah and healed the people.
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  God accepted the flawed form because the heart was right.
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  Think of it like a student taking a highly advanced math
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  exam. The formalist student turns in a
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  perfectly typed, beautifully formatted paper.
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  The margins are perfect. The font is crisp, but all the
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  answers are entirely plagiarized and the student understands
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  absolutely none of the actual formulas.
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  Right, just copying without comprehension.
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  Yeah, then you have the true believer.
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  They turn in a smudged, wrinkled paper.
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  It's poorly formatted. There are eraser marks
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  everywhere. Half the equations are scratched
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  out in frustration. But if you look closely at the
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  messy scratch paper, the underlying work shows they
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  genuinely grasp the core mathematical concepts.
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  That's a great analogy. They're actively wrestling with
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  the truth of the equations. God grades the scratch paper.
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  He looks past the smudges, past the messy formatting to see the
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  actual understanding of the material.
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  Yes, God is grading the scratch paper of the heart, and Ryle
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  applies this directly to his own Victorian era, an era obsessed
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  with formal propriety, and it translates seamlessly to our
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  current day. How so?
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  While he describes gorgeous chapels with beautiful
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  architecture, stunning singing, and perfect aesthetics,
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  everything gratifies the senses. The liturgy is executed.
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  Florida State. But God is entirely displeased
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  because there are no broken penitent hearts in the room.
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  He contrasts that with dirty Cellars and wretched upper rooms
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  where the singing is unmusical, the prayers are feeble, and the
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  aesthetic is completely lacking. Yet the Holy Ghost is present.
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  There are converting sinners because hard work is aimed at.
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  OK, but a listener might hear this, hear about The Dirty
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  Cellars and the rejection of the gorgeous chapels, and draw a
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  dangerous conclusion. They might think, great, I have
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  the solution, Forms are dangerous, so I will abandoned
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  all liturgy, I will stop going to corporate worship, I will
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  ignore the sacraments, and I'll just focus on my internal
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  feelings. Yeah, that's the ditch on the
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  other side of the road. We really need to address that
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  reaction. And Ryle explicitly cautions
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  against that reaction. He states clearly that the
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  misuse of a thing is no argument against the right use of it.
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  It's a senseless extreme to throw all forms aside just
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  because some people turn them into idols.
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  We can't throw the baby out with the bathwater.
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  Right, we must not abandon the physical habits of grace.
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  Remember the Ark of the Covenant we just discussed?
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  It has a dual nature and how it affects people depending
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  entirely on their heart. OK, explain that dual nature.
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  Well, treating the Ark as a magical idol brought defeat to
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  Israel in battle, and it brought sudden death to a man named
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  Ouza, who handled it profanely without reverence.
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  But later, that exact same physical wooden box, when it was
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  honored and reverenced correctly, brought immense
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  blessing to the House of Obadidum.
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  So the form itself was not the. Problem exactly.
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  The form is a designated means of grace when approached with
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  faith. Ryle quotes Bishop Hall here,
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  which balances the scale perfectly.
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  Hall said he that hath but a form is a hypocrite, but he that
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  have not a form is an atheist. That is a severe warning in both
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  directions. You can't divorce the physical
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  from the spiritual, nor can you divorce the spiritual from the
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  physical. So how do we work through this?
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  How does a listener practice the habits of faith, going to
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  church, reading the Bible, taking communion, which are
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  clearly necessary, without letting those very actions
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  calcify into dead formalism? Ryle offers a really beautiful
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  analogy to clarify the proper place of forms.
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  He compares forms to a Lantern. He says a Lantern is not a man's
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  home and yet it is a help to a man if he travels towards his
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  home in a dark night. The Lantern gives you the light
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  to walk, but you don't pitch a tent and try to live inside the
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  glass box. Precisely.
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  The ordinances of faith, baptism, the Lord's Supper,
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  daily reading, liturgy, they are the scaffolding.
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  You need scaffolding to build a brick wall safely and straight.
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  The scaffolding holds the structure up so the heart can be
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  built. But they are not the building
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  itself. Right.
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  You must never confuse the wooden scaffolding with the
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  building. If you use the forms diligently,
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  while always remembering that the main priority is the state
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  of your heart, you will find those forms to be an immense
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  blessing. They provide the structure for
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  your affections to grow. Having established what true
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  heart religion is and how it properly uses the scaffolding of
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  forms, we have to ask a sociological question.
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  OK, what is? It if heart religion is so vital
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  and formalism is so empty, why is formalism vastly more
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  popular? Why do the vast majority of
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  people consistently choose the empty husk?
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  That's the $1,000,000 question, and Ryle breaks down 3 deep
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  psychological reasons why formalism will always be the
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  popular choice. First, it perfectly suits an
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  unenlightened conscience. Meaning what?
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  Well, human beings generally want some sort of religion.
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  Complete atheism leaves people feeling untethered.
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  It goes against the innate sense that there is a creator.
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  But they want a religion that doesn't ask for too much, right?
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  Formalism gives them a comfortable middle ground.
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  It quiets the nagging conscience without demanding any real
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  sacrifice. Second, he says it gratifies
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  secret self righteousness. Yes.
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  Human nature loves the checklist.
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  We are naturally prone to believe we can earn our way into
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  God's good graces through our own efforts.
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  Formalism provides a very clear, achievable checklist.
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  Attend this service, recite this prayer.
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  Give the specific amount of money.
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  And when you check the boxes you feel good about.
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  Exactly when you complete the list, your ego is stroked.
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  You feel you've managed your own salvation.
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  You're the architect of your own standing before God.
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  The third reason is perhaps the most universally relatable, and
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  it explains the mechanism behind the first two It pleases natural
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  indolence or just plain laziness.
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  Yes, because heart religion is hard work.
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  It requires constant inner wrestling, examining your
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  motives, repenting of hidden sins, mortifying the flesh, and
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  altering your daily life. It's exhausting.
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  It is. Formalism requires none of that
• 19:36
  inner turmoil. You just show up, perform the
• 19:39
  physical task and go home completely unchanged.
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  I find the psychology that religious laziness so
• 19:45
  fascinating. Human nature would rather invent
• 19:48
  an elaborate, exhausting system of religious rituals, some of
• 19:51
  which are actually physically demanding, than simply humble
• 19:54
  itself. It's a paradox, isn't it?
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  It really is. It is somehow easier on the
• 19:59
  human ego to do 1000 physical chores, to climb a mountain on
• 20:03
  bleeding knees, to recite hours of liturgy than to look inward,
• 20:07
  sit still and admit total spiritual bankruptcy.
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  The ego wants a transaction where it retains its dignity.
• 20:14
  It desperately wants to avoid a full surrender.
• 20:16
  The ego recoils that bankruptcy. It demands to bring some
• 20:19
  currency to the table, and Ryle reviews the historical track
• 20:22
  record to prove this isn't just a modern phenomenon.
• 20:25
  It's baked into fallen human nature.
• 20:27
  Look at the Old Testament prophets.
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  Yeah, Elijah, Jeremiah, Amos. They weren't persecuted and
• 20:32
  killed because they opposed ceremonies.
• 20:35
  The society loved ceremonies. The prophets were murdered
• 20:38
  because they demanded heart service, right?
• 20:40
  They told the people that their ceremonies were useless while
• 20:43
  they oppressed the poor and worshipped idols in private.
• 20:46
  Same thing happened to Jesus. The religious leaders were
• 20:49
  furious not because he told them to stop praying or stop tithing.
• 20:54
  They were furious because he said their hearts were wicked
• 20:57
  while they prayed, and that they neglected justice, mercy and
• 21:01
  faith while they meticulously tithe their spices.
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  And this pattern continues uninterrupted through history.
• 21:08
  The early church faced it from both the Jewish establishment
• 21:11
  and the Roman Empire. John Huss was burned at the
• 21:14
  stake for challenging the formal corruption of the church.
• 21:16
  Reformers too. Yes, men like Hugh Latimer and
• 21:19
  Nicholas Ridley faced execution because they insisted that faith
• 21:22
  alone, not the mechanical performance of the Mass,
• 21:25
  justified A Sinner. The early Puritans were mocked
• 21:28
  and marginalized. Even in the Great Awakening.
• 21:30
  Later figures like Wesley and Whitfield were literally locked
• 21:34
  out of the established churches because they're preaching
• 21:37
  demanded a new birth, not just formal parish membership.
• 21:40
  In every generation, the people who preach heart religion face
• 21:43
  intense hostility. But why is it actively hated
• 21:46
  though? It's one thing to ignore heart
• 21:48
  religion because you're lazy, it's another to actively despise
• 21:52
  it and lock preachers out of churches.
• 21:55
  Ryle explains that true heart religion crosses the natural
• 21:58
  man's path as a killjoy. It demands 2 things that human
• 22:02
  nature fiercely protects. What are they?
• 22:05
  First, it demands the admission of being a lost, guilty Sinner
• 22:08
  without any righteousness of your own.
• 22:10
  Which completely crushes human pride.
• 22:13
  Second, it demands the giving up of beloved secret sins.
• 22:16
  Which crushes our natural love for the world.
• 22:18
  But it threatens everything, yes.
• 22:20
  When you threaten a person's pride and their favorite vices
• 22:23
  simultaneously, they will react with hostility.
• 22:25
  The formalist hates the true believer because the true
• 22:27
  believers life is a walking indictment of the formalists
• 22:30
  empty husk. Since true heart religion
• 22:32
  guarantees friction with the world and offers 0 earthly
• 22:36
  popularity, we have to look at Ryles final practical
• 22:39
  applications for the How do we take this diagnostic tool and
• 22:44
  apply it to our own lives today? Well, Ryle concludes with three
• 22:47
  highly practical, piercing points of application.
• 22:51
  He begins with the first point, the terrifying audit.
• 22:54
  He issues a stark warning against what he calls
• 22:57
  evangelical formalism. Evangelical formalism.
• 23:00
  Right. Having all the correct grace
• 23:02
  based theology, ascending to all the right doctrines, but still
• 23:05
  missing the heart. This.
• 23:06
  Is where he quotes that old Puritan saying there is no devil
• 23:09
  like a white devil. It is such a striking image.
• 23:12
  It's terrifying because it's so deceptive.
• 23:14
  A dark devil, a blatant sin like theft or obvious immorality, is
• 23:19
  easy to spot and avoid. The conscience naturally recoils
• 23:22
  from it. But a white devil looks like an
• 23:24
  Angel of light. It looks good.
• 23:26
  It looks like sound doctrine, accurate theological vocabulary,
• 23:29
  and flawless church attendance. Knowing all the right theology
• 23:33
  but having a totally dead heart is the most dangerous state a
• 23:36
  human can be in because you feel completely safe while your ship
• 23:39
  is sinking. Your accurate theology acts as a
• 23:41
  sedative. Yes, Ryle recounts the story of
• 23:45
  a dying man in Suffolk giving advice to his son.
• 23:48
  The man said whatever religion you have, never be content with
• 23:51
  wearing a cloak. You cannot face the audit of
• 23:54
  eternity wearing a theological costume.
• 23:57
  Which brings up a crisis for the listener.
• 23:59
  If someone is listening right now and their conscience is
• 24:02
  screaming that they've just been wearing a cloak, what do they
• 24:05
  do? That leads to a second point,
• 24:07
  the remedy. Ryle knows this diagnosis can
• 24:10
  leave a listener feeling condemned.
• 24:12
  For the person who realizes their religion has been entirely
• 24:15
  formal, Weil points directly to the Lord Jesus Christ.
• 24:19
  The true remedy? He calls Jesus the commissioned
• 24:21
  physician of the soul. He says there is balm and Gilead
• 24:24
  capable of healing even the most hardened formalist.
• 24:27
  It doesn't matter how thick that crust of insensibility has
• 24:30
  become over your conscience, right?
• 24:32
  It doesn't matter how many times you have hypocritically sung the
• 24:34
  hymns or taken the sacrament with a dead heart.
• 24:37
  The physician has the scalpel and the medicine to breakthrough
• 24:40
  that crust. Forgive the hypocrisy and grant
• 24:42
  a heart of flesh. And his Third Point is the
• 24:45
  responsibility. This is for the listener who
• 24:48
  examines themselves and finds genuine, well grounded heart
• 24:52
  religion, Ryle says. They cannot relax.
• 24:55
  They must exercise jealous watchfulness.
• 24:58
  Watchfulness over everything, over their private Bible
• 25:00
  reading, their daily temper, their tongue, their conduct in
• 25:03
  their family life. A whole life.
• 25:05
  Yeah. Ryle uses this vivid imagery of
• 25:08
  the Egyptian plague of frogs from the Book of Exodus.
• 25:11
  Those frogs didn't just stay in the river.
• 25:13
  They infiltrated the ovens, the kneading troughs and even the
• 25:16
  King's private bedchamber. So they were everywhere.
• 25:19
  Exactly, Ryle says. Formalism is just like that.
• 25:22
  Plague. It creeps back into our daily
• 25:24
  habits silently. You can fall into a formal,
• 25:27
  heartless habit of reading your Bible or saying grace at dinner
• 25:31
  or reciting the Lord's Prayer before you even realize the
• 25:33
  heart has gone out of it. So how can a listener
• 25:35
  practically spot the white devil of evangelical formalism in
• 25:39
  their own life before that crust gets too thick?
• 25:42
  The best diagnostic tool Ryle provides is practical self
• 25:45
  examination. Regarding your daily conduct.
• 25:49
  You have to ask yourself, am I relying on the absolute
• 25:51
  correctness of my doctrine to save me while actively ignoring
• 25:55
  my actual conduct toward my neighbor?
• 25:57
  That's tough. Do I pride myself on knowing the
• 25:59
  exact right theological terms, Well, knowing the correct terms,
• 26:03
  but fail to show basic humility, patience, or charity to my spice
• 26:07
  and children? If your theology is flawless but
• 26:10
  your temple is vicious, the white devil of formalism has
• 26:14
  entered the house. You are holding the husk.
• 26:16
  That is a sobering metric to weigh ourselves against.
• 26:20
  As we wrap up this deep dive into Ryall's work, I want to
• 26:22
  leave you with one final thought drawn directly from Ryall's
• 26:25
  vision of the last day. When the dead are raised, we all
• 26:28
  stand before the great white throne.
• 26:29
  Every ounce of earthly popularity, every bit of social
• 26:32
  credit we earn by maintaining the perfect outward religious
• 26:36
  appearance, It will completely vanish.
• 26:38
  The opinions of our neighbors, the approval of our pastors, the
• 26:41
  likes on our theological social media posts.
• 26:44
  None of it will carry a single ounce of weight.
• 26:46
  The only thing that will matter in that moment is the praise of
• 26:50
  God, who looks exclusively at the heart.
• 26:52
  That's the reality. When you consider that reality,
• 26:55
  it leads to a striking realization.
• 26:58
  When you look back from the vantage point of eternity,
• 27:01
  gazing over the landscape of your entire existence, the
• 27:04
  absolute certainty is this. There will never be a single
• 27:07
  hour of your earthly life where you'll look back and say, I gave
• 27:11
  my heart too thoroughly to this. Thank you for joining us as we
• 27:14
  analyze these difficult, vital truths.
• 27:16
  Keep examining the inside of the cup.