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The Great Separation | J. C. Ryle · Reformed Thinking

0:00
You know, usually when we talk about getting a medical
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diagnosis, there is a certain expectation of precision.
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Right, it feels very mechanical. Yeah, it's mechanical.
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You break your arm, you go to the hospital and the X-ray shows
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a jagged white line on the screen and the doctor just
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points at it and says there is the fracture, right?
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It's entirely binary. Broken or not broken, it's a
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clean assessment. And there is a lot of comfort in
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that kind of clarity. We like things to be visible.
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You know, we like to categorize people and situations neatly
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into boxes we can actually see with our own eyes.
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Oh, absolutely. We do this in medicine and
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politics, sociology. We do it constantly because it
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gives us a sense of control over our environment.
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Right. But then you step into the realm
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of human hearts and spiritual realities, and suddenly that
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X-ray machine just stops working.
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It's useless, yeah. We are looking at a diagnostic
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landscape that is honestly incredibly murky to us because
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we cannot see internal motives. We try to group people by their
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outward actions. We sort them by their
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backgrounds or their voting habits.
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Yeah, or how often they sit in a church Pew.
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And most of all, we love a good middle ground.
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We love Gray areas where nothing is too extreme.
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Which brings us to the topic at hand.
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Right. Welcome to reformed thinking.
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Today we're taking a deep dive into an essay by the 19th
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century English cleric JC Ryle titled The Great Separation.
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It's quite a piece. It really is.
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We are going to use his original text, the historical context of
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Victorian England, and some modern analogies to understand
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why he believed the human obsession with the middle ground
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is, well, a massive illusion. The entire premise of his essay
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is anchored on a single striking prophecy made by John the
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Baptist in the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 3, verse 12.
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OK, let's hear it. John is speaking about Jesus and
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he uses an agrarian metaphor. He says whose fan is in his
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hand, and he will thoroughly purge his floor and gather his
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wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with
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unquenchable fire. Wow, that is a stark image.
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It really doesn't leave much room for ambiguity.
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No, it doesn't. And before we get into the
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mechanics of what Ryall does with that verse, I want to ask
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you, the listener, to do something mentally.
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Set aside your usual categories of identity for a little while.
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Just put them on a shelf. Yeah, take your nationality,
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your profession, your social class, even your denominational
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labels and just shelve them. Prepare to evaluate yourself
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against a much starker metric. Because Ryall's argument is that
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when the divine eye looks at humanity, all of those earthly
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categories just evaporate. There are only two classes.
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There is no middle ground. To understand the separation
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that Raoul was talking about, we first have to grasp the cultural
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climate he was writing. In right 19th century England.
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Yeah, Victorian England. This was the era of the
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Victorian gentleman. Respectability was the highest
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social currency. So looking good was everything.
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Absolutely, and in that environment, religion was often
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treated as a social obligation rather than an actual spiritual
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resurrection. And Ryle vehemently denounces
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the idea of a moderate, easygoing Christianity that
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avoids extremes. He points out that the world
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generally hates the idea of a strict binary.
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Right, society wants a third option.
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Exactly, people think being very strict or being a St. is taking
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things way too far. It makes people uncomfortable at
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dinner parties. But having no religion at all,
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though in Victorian England that was not respectable either.
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Open atheism is heavily frowned upon.
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So what do they do? Society basically invented this
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safe, comfortable middle class. The goal was to have religion
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enough to be considered saved and decent, but not enough to be
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peculiar or socially disruptive. And Ryle holds nothing back when
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dismantling that specific idea. He calls this middle class
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Christianity, an immense and soul ruining delusion.
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He really goes after. It he does, I want to unpack one
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of the analogies he uses here because it is incredibly vivid.
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He compares this middle ground to a Russian ice palace.
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Oh, this is a fascinating historical reference.
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I actually had to look this up to understand it.
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In 1740, the Empress Anna of Russia had a massive palace
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built entirely out of blocks of ice from the Naiva River.
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I mean, we are talking ice furniture, ice statues.
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Yeah, and even ice cannons. And in the dead of the Russian
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winter, it looked spectacular. It looked like solid, permanent
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architecture. It gleamed in the sun.
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But Ryle's point is that the seasons inevitably change.
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When the summer heat finally arrives, that massive, imposing
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structure simply melts into puddles.
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He cannot withstand the shift in temperature.
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Which is his way of illustrating A theological principle.
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This polite middle of the road Christianity might survive the
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comfortable climate of a peaceful society, but it is
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structurally unsound. It cannot withstand the heat of
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divine judgement or even the heat of a genuine crisis in this
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life. He calls it a halfway house, a
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castle in the air. He asserts that this middle
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class of Christians is a group nowhere spoken of in the Bible.
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So if the middle is a myth, we are left with the binary, the
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wheat and the chaff. Just define the wheat first,
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because he does not define it the way a sociologist might.
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No, his definition is entirely theological.
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From Rile's perspective, the wheat represents all men and
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women who are believers in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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But he doesn't stop it. Intellectual ascent, right?
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No, he says. These are people who are
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actively led by the Holy Spirit. They're individuals who have
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actually felt themselves to be sinners and have fled for refuge
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to the salvation offered in the gospel.
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Let us pause and explain that mechanism for a second.
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We are not just talking about someone deciding to be a better
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person, right? That's moralism, Yeah.
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So what does it actually mean in this framework?
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To be led by the Spirit and to flee for refuge.
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It means a fundamental change in nature.
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It is a concept of sanctification.
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The person stops trusting their own moral resume.
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They. Throw the resume out.
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Exactly. They realize their own goodness
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is insufficient, so they take Christ for their only confidence
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and the Bible for their only guide.
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And a key characteristic, he points out, is that they regard
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sin as their deadliest enemy. That is a radically different
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posture than just trying to maintain basic social decency.
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A. Respectable Victorian might view
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public scandal as their deadliest enemy.
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Right, getting caught as the enemy.
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But the wheat views internal sin as the real enemy, and this
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category crosses every conceivable earthly boundary.
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Raul says it includes every rank, station, condition and
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degree. If you find people with these
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marks, they are the wheat, they are the precious part of mankind
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in the sight of God, even if they feel sinful and vile in
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their own eyes. That brings us to the second
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category in John the Baptist's metaphor, the chaff.
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Let's talk about the chaff. The chaff includes all men and
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women who lack saving faith in Christ and lack that internal
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sanctification of the Spirit. And this is a tremendously wide
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net. It really is.
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He's not just grouping the obvious villains of history in
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this category. Far from it.
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I mean Rile lists open infidels and famous skeptics.
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He mentions Thomas Paine and Voltaire, figures known for
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their intellectual hostility of Christianity.
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He goes back to antiquity too, right?
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Yeah, mentioning Julian the Apostate and the philosopher
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Porphyry. But then, in the very same
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breath, he groups those famous skeptics alongside formal,
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polite Christians. To self-righteous.
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Exactly the people who make a point of keeping up a Sunday
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religion. He specifically calls out the
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unconverted admirer of sermons. Oh, that stings.
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Right. Think about the psychology of
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that. You can sit in a Pew, take
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diligent notes, appreciate the rhetoric of the preacher, admire
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the moral teachings, and still be classified right alongside
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Voltaire. Because both lack faith and
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sanctification, they both bring no glory to their Maker.
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Ryle breaks down how natural gifts are viewed from this
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divine perspective, and it is a fascinating mathematical
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illustration. It's brilliant.
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He talks about people with rare intellectual gifts, high mental
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attainment, people who sway kingdoms by their counsel or
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move millions by their pen. But what is the catch?
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The catch is if they have never submitted to the yoke of Christ,
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Ryle says those natural gifts without grace are like a row of
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cipher zeros without a unit placed before them.
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I love the mechanics of that analogy.
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You can line up 20 zeros on a piece of paper.
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They take up a lot of space. They look like a massive
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impressive of number. But mathematically, without a
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one at the front, their actual value remains 0.
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It doesn't matter how eloquent you are, how wealthy you are, or
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how much you sway public opinion.
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Without grace acting as that unit at the front, the total sum
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in the divine economy is just 0. He follows that up with a claim
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that aggressively assaults human pride.
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He states that the meanest, lowliest crawling insect is a
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nobler being than a brilliant but unbelieving human.
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That is a harsh statement to swallow.
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I read that and had to stop. I mean, an insect is nobler than
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a human genius. How does that logic up?
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It holds up if you look at it through the lens of teleology.
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Which is the study of purpose and design.
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Right. The insect fills its exact place
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in creation. It does what it was created to
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do, therefore it glorifies its maker with all the power it was
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given. It's doing its job.
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But the human who inverts the created order, who lives as if
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time matters more than eternity, who lives as if the body matters
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more than the soul, that human is entirely failing their
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created purpose. They are malfunctioning at a
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core level. Therefore, in this framework,
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the insect is fulfilling its role better than the unconverted
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genius. That makes a lot of sense when
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you frame it around design and purpose.
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To illustrate this divine binary on a massive scale, Ryle brings
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up the Great Exhibition of 1851. We should give the listeners
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some context on this, because it was a staggering historical
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event. It really was.
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It was held in London, housed in this architectural marvel called
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the Crystal Palace, which was basically a giant building made
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of iron and glass. Millions of visitors came from
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all over the globe. People who had never seen each
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other met face to face under one massive glass roof to view the
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peak of human skill, industry and art.
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And Ryle points out that the human looking at that crowd saw
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a dizzying variety of cultures, languages and social classes.
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But the eye of God looking down through that glass roof.
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He only saw two companies, the wheat and the chaff.
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I was trying to map this onto a modern equivalent.
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Imagine the Olympic Games. You have the opening ceremony,
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an enormous stadium packed with athletes from over 200 nations.
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Right, You have billionaires sitting in the luxury suites,
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you have the working class locals and the cheap seats.
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You have an incredible diversity of political beliefs and
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religious backgrounds. The television cameras pan
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across the crowd highlighting all these differences.
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But if you apply Ryle's binary filter to the broadcast, the
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screen just drops to two colors. Every single person in that
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stadium is either wheat or chaff.
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There is no bronze, silver or gold medal in this assessment.
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That is the precise reality Rile is driving at, and he notes that
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the biblical text consistently uses this strict binary.
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He points to Noah's ark, right? You're either inside the Ark or
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outside the ark. There was no halfway point when
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the rain started. He points to the parable of the
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Gospel net too, which gathers good fish and bad fish.
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Or the parable of the 10 virgins.
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They are either wise or foolish. At the final judgement, people
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are divided into sheep and goats.
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The destination is heaven or hell.
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The scripture really leaves no room for 1/3 option.
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No it doesn't. Let's unpack this practically.
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I want to push back a little on behalf of a listener who might
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be feeling a bit defensive right now.
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OK, let's hear it. Let us say someone comes up to
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you and says, look, I attend a solid church.
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I participate in communion. I support good religious causes.
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I give to charity. I know my theology.
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A very common resume. Ryle addresses this exact
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persona. He says all of those things are
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fine, but he explicitly states that none of those actions
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provide a straightforward answer to the question, Are you wheat
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or chaff? Right.
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Why does he dismiss those outward, seemingly religious
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actions so quickly? He dismisses them because
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outward actions can be mimicked. We see this in human psychology
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all the time. People copy each other.
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People adopt the habits of a group to fit in without ever
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sharing the core convictions of the group.
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Outward actions do not necessarily require a new
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nature. So what does Ryle look for
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instead? He asks a barrage of much
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sharper questions to bypass the outward facade.
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He asks, has you been born again?
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Are you a new creature? Have you ever felt your sins and
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repented of them? He asks if you loathe heart sins
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and fight against them. Right.
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Are you vile in your own eyes and willing to take the lowest
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place? He is hunting for the vital
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signs of a spiritually living person, not just the uniform of
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a religious person. Yes, those are questions of the
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internal disposition, the affections.
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Anyone can write a check to a religious society or sit quietly
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in a service. But only the wheat truly
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wrestles in prayer and longs for internal holiness.
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And Ryle urges the reader to answer the question honestly,
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even if it hurts. He argues it is far better to
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find out you were in a bad state now, while there is still time
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to act, than to live in uncertainty and be lost.
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If the difference between these two groups is this vital, and if
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the destiny of the two groups is so vastly different, our natural
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assumption is that we should be able to clearly identify them
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right now. That's what we naturally want.
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We should be able to salt the wheat from the chaff today.
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Why don't we just get organized and separate the true believers
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from the hypocrites in our local communities?
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Because we cannot. And that brings up the second
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major point of Ryle's framework. The present reality is that the
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floor is not purged yet. Exactly.
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The wheat and the chaff sit side by side in the very same pews.
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They listen to the same sermons. They received the same bread and
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wine at Communion. The separation is a future
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event. It happens when Christ comes the
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second time with his fan in his hand.
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The winnowing fan is a great visual in ancient agriculture.
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After the grain was crushed on the threshing floor, the farmer
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would use a winnowing fan, basically pitchfork or a shovel
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to throw the crushed mixture up into the air.
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And the wind takes over. Right.
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The wind would blow away the light, useless chaff, and the
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heavier, valuable wheat would fall straight back down to the
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floor to be gassed. It is a perfect metaphor for
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judgement, but Ryle makes a crucial point here regarding our
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current era. Human beings are entirely
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incapable of making this separation accurately.
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He says the winnowing fan is not put into our hands.
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No it isn't. Why not?
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I mean, why can't a good observant minister just look at
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his congregation and figure out who is who?
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Because ministers cannot read hearts, we are fallible.
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We only know in part. We can't see the unseen.
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Right. But Ryle gives a brilliant
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psychological reason for our inability to discern.
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He says first that grace can sometimes be so weak and feeble
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that it looks like nature. Meaning a true believer might be
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struggling so much with doubt, or failing so visibly in a
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specific area of sin that they look like an unbeliever to the
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outside observer. And the invoice is also true, he
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says. Nature can sometimes be so
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plausible and so well dressed that it looks like grace.
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Wow, well dressed nature. Someone with a naturally calm
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temperament, good manners and a strict moral upbringing can look
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incredibly holy, but it is all natural discipline.
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It is not supernatural grace. He brings up two devastating
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historical examples from the New Testament to prove this point,
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Judas and Peter. Let's look at the psychology of
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Judas first. Ryle points out that if we were
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standing there watching the disciples for three years, we
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probably would have said Judas was as good as any of the
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apostles. He looked the part perfectly.
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He was trusted enough to manage the money.
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When Jesus sat at the Last Supper and said someone would
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betray him, the other disciples did not immediately turn and
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point at Judas. They actually asked, Lord, is it
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I? That shows how completely
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convincing Judas was. Nature was so well dressed it
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looked indistinguishable from grace.
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And then look at Peter when Peter's in the courtyard during
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Jesus's trial, denying with curses that he even knows the
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man, Ryle says. If we had been standing there,
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we would have looked at Peter and said that man is a
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reprobate, that man has no part in Christ.
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Grace was so weak and battered in that specific moment, it
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looked identical to fallen nature.
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But Peter repented bitterly right after we misjudged both
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sides of the equation constantly.
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Because of this complete inability to judge perfectly,
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Ryle argues strongly against the practice of church hopping in
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search of a, you know, pure congregation.
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He pities those who leave one church to join another just
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because they spot a few falls or suspect they're unsound members.
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He says they are chasing a phantom.
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He uses the analogy of Noah's dove.
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Right when Noah sent the dove out of the ark, the earth was
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still covered in water and the dove fluttered about, finding no
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rest for the sole of its foot. Ryall says if you are too
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scrupulous, constantly demanding a perfect church right now, you
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will go fluttering about like Noah's dove all your days and
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never find rest. You will always find chaff, you
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will find imperfections and hypocrites in every single
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communion on earth. He states very plainly, before
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Christ comes, it is useless to expect to see a perfect church.
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So how does a sincere listener handle this?
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If you are sitting in your local assembly and you are virtually
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guaranteed to be sitting next to chaff, maybe even loud talking
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professors of religion who are exalted as Saints by the
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community but have no actual grace, how do you maintain your
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own faith? It's a real struggle.
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How do you avoid becoming totally cynical or suspicious of
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everyone around you? Ryle gives a very specific
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posture for the believer to take, the posture of charity.
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Because we know there is one coming who never airs in
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judgement. We can leave the final sorting
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to him. Ryle says I would rather
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tolerate much chaff in the church than cast out one grain
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of wheat. That is a massive safeguard
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against cynicism. It is.
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You lean heavily to the side of charity.
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You do not have to act as the theological detective of your
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congregation. You focus on your own heart, you
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rejoice when you see evidence of grace in others, and you accept
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that the visible church is a mixed field.
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The demand for absolute purity on this side of eternity
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actually leads to immense spiritual damage.
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Christ taught this in the parable of the wheat and the
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tares. If you aggressively try to pull
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up all the weeds, you will inevitably uproot genuine
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struggling believers in the process.
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You leave the fan in the hands of the one who knows how to use
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it, but leaving the sorting to the end implies a specific
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timeline. Yes, it does, and that timeline
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crashes into a very popular idea about changing the world.
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If the church will always be mixed, what does that mean for
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the grander vision of global conversion?
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Ryle confronts a belief that was wildly popular in his day,
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driven by the optimism of the 19th century.
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There was this idea, often called post Millennialism, that
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human progress, missions and the spread of the gospel would
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gradually fill the earth with knowledge, make sin disappear,
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and usher in a state of perfect holiness before the 2nd Coming
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even happened. You can see the appeal of that
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idea. People think that if we just get
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enough missionaries, translate the Bible into enough languages,
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build enough hospitals and schools, we will essentially
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Christianize the globe through steady effort.
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But Ryle flatly dismisses this expectation.
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He says people holding this view are misreading divine purposes
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and sewing for themselves bitter disappointment.
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He points out a very practical, observable piece of evidence.
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He says he has never heard of a single congregation entirely
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converted to God, even in England or Scotland, places with
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centuries of Christian heritage. So if we cannot even get one
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local congregation completely free of chaff, why should we
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expect a totally different result from the preaching of the
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gospel in other lands? That is a harsh dose of realism,
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but it also functions as a brilliant defense against a very
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common argument. He brings up what he calls the
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Skeptics taunt when an infidel or a skeptic says to a believer,
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if Christianity is really true, why isn't the whole world
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converted by now? Why is there still so much evil,
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war and division after 2000 years?
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And rile of response is incredibly liberating for the
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apologist. He basically says I am not moved
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by that question because universal conversion was never
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promised in the present order of things.
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He argues that the Bible explicitly tells us that
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believers will always be few. It tells us that corruptions,
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divisions and heresies will always abound.
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And that when the Lord returns, he will find plenty of chaff.
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So the skeptic is demanding a scenario that the founder of the
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religion explicitly said would not happen before his return.
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I. Was trying to visualize this
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perspective on missions and evangelism.
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It is very much like a lifeboat operation in the middle of a
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massive hurricane. OK, lay that out for us.
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The goal of the lifeboat crew is not to calm the ocean.
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They're not trying to patch the hull of the sinking ship to make
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it sail smoothly again. The storm is going to rage.
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The ship is going down. Right.
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The operation is entirely about pulling individuals out of the
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freezing water and into the lifeboat as witnesses, holding
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out until the rescue chopper arrives to finalize the
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operation. That analogy aligns beautifully
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with Rile's timeline. It shifts the metric of success.
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If you think the lifeboat's job is to stop the hurricane, you
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are going to view the mission as a failure.
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If the goal is gathering individuals, the mission is
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entirely successful. Ryle states that the true
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function of current gospel preaching is raising up a few
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witnesses to Christ in every nation.
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It is about gathering the elect, gathering the wheat, until the
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fan is put to the floor. Only then, when Christ returns
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and purges the floor, does the true Kingdom of perfect holiness
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begin. He even addresses the people who
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argue we shouldn't send missionaries abroad until we
21:53
make everyone good Christians at home.
21:55
And Ryle replies, if I am to wait for that, I may wait
21:58
forever. The visible church will always
22:01
be a mixed body. But the separation is coming.
22:04
Sooner or later, the visible church will be split into two
22:06
distinct companies. And Ryle notes, there will be a
22:09
great gulf between them that none can pass.
22:12
He spends a moment reflecting on how wretched the ungodly will be
22:15
when left without a single grain of salt to season them without
22:18
one spark of light from the presence of believers.
22:21
And conversely, how peaceful the righteous will be.
22:24
Ryle points out that for a believer, their greatest trials
22:27
often come from being in the company of worldly people
22:30
feeling crushed by the earthly tone around them.
22:33
He quotes the psalmist saying woe is me, that I dwell in
22:35
Misek, but when the separation happens there will be pure
22:39
unmixed communion. So when the rescue chopper
22:41
finally arrives, what happens to those in the lifeboat?
22:44
The text from Matthew says Christ will gather his wheat
22:47
into the garner. The garner is a storehouse.
22:50
It is the place of absolute safety.
22:52
When the Lord Jesus comes the second time, he will collect his
22:55
believing people. He will send his angels.
22:57
The dead will be raised, the living changed.
23:01
But the most crucial detail Ryle highlights is the completeness
23:05
of this gathering. Not one single grain of wheat
23:07
will be missing. Not one poor Sinner who has ever
23:11
laid hold on Christ by faith will be left outside.
23:14
And Ryle spends a significant amount of time addressing the
23:16
current state of believers because he feels they do not
23:19
fully grasp how much God cares for them right now.
23:22
He complaints that we live in a day of weak and feeble
23:24
statements where the privileges of grace are poorly explained
23:28
and disciples are left feeling insecure.
23:31
He wants to show the full inheritance of the believer.
23:34
He divides this care into distinct phases.
23:36
First, the Lords care for them in their daily lives.
23:39
He says God takes pleasure in his people.
23:42
Even though they feel black and sinful in their own eyes, God
23:45
sees them as comely. He sees no spot in them because
23:48
he views them through the perfect record of Christ.
23:51
He uses some striking parent child metaphors to explain the
23:54
psychology of adoption. Oh, these are great.
23:56
Ryall says that when a believer prays, their prayers might feel
23:59
weak, distracted and pathetic. But God loves those feeble
24:03
petitions, just like a human father loves his child's first
24:07
stammering efforts to speak. And when we try to serve God, it
24:10
often feels completely inadequate.
24:13
But Ryle says God is pleased with our weak attempts, just
24:15
like a father is delighted with a crushed Daisy that his toddler
24:19
picks from the yard and hands to him.
24:21
The father doesn't critique the botanical quality of the weed.
24:24
He delights in the affection of the child.
24:26
Yes, that is the doctrine of adoption applied to daily
24:29
living. He also points out how Scripture
24:32
handles the historical flaws of believers.
24:34
This is a really comforting point.
24:36
He notes that the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write about
24:38
Noah's faith in Hebrews 11, but deliberately omitted the story
24:42
of Noah's drunkenness. The Spirit mentioned Rahab's
24:45
faith, but not her lie. God is uniquely gracious toward
24:49
His wheat. He orders all their steps.
24:51
Their trials are measured out by a wise physician.
24:53
Not a single grain of bitterness is put into their cup unless
24:56
there is a needs be for their spiritual health.
24:59
Satan cannot touch a hair on their head without permission.
25:02
Every pruning is designed to make them more fruitful.
25:06
That is, care in life. Then Ryle moves to the next
25:09
phase, care and death. He says believers are immortal
25:13
until their work is done. That is a very bold, comforting
25:16
statement. It changes how you view risk,
25:18
sickness and aging entirely, Ryall says.
25:21
Not a disease can loosen the pins of their earthly Tabernacle
25:24
until the Lord gives the word. 1000 may fall at their right
25:27
hand, but no plague can touch them till the Lord sees good.
25:31
Their times are in His hands. They are kept on earth until
25:34
they are ripe and ready for glory, when they have had enough
25:37
sun, rain, wind, and storm to perfect the ear of wheat, than
25:41
the sickle is put in. And he contrasts the experience
25:44
of death for the two classes brilliantly.
25:46
For the unbeliever, Death locks the door and shuts him out from
25:50
hope. But for the believer, death
25:52
simply opens the door and lets him into paradise.
25:55
When other men are laying aside their earthly honors, the
25:57
believer is just putting his on. Then there is care at the
26:00
appearing of Christ in the dreadful day of His return.
26:04
Believers will be totally secure.
26:06
The flaming fire will not come near them.
26:08
Ryle brings up historical examples of God providing a safe
26:11
haven right before destruction falls.
26:14
There was an ark for Noah when the flood began.
26:17
There was a city called Zoar for Lot when the fire fell on Sodom.
26:20
There was a town called Pella for the early Christians when
26:23
Jerusalem was besieged by the Romans in 70AD.
26:26
There was Zurich for the English Reformers when Queen Mary came
26:30
to the throne and started her persecutions.
26:32
The pattern is remarkably consistent.
26:34
God secures his people before the wrath falls.
26:37
There will be a garner for the wheat in the last day.
26:40
Jesus will do nothing to a sin laden world until all his people
26:43
are safe. Which brings us to the
26:44
underlying theological engine of this entire section, the
26:47
perseverance of the Saints. This is the idea that those whom
26:51
God saves, he keeps. Ryle is astounded that anyone
26:54
could doubt this doctrine. He calls the faithlessness of
26:57
believers one of the greatest wonders in the world, second
27:00
only to the hardness of the unconverted heart.
27:03
He argues from the logic of the cross.
27:05
He asks a very rational question.
27:07
How can anyone fancy that a savior who loved his people
27:11
enough to die for them in agony on a cross would ever let them
27:14
be castaway afterward? He will not let Satan pluck even
27:18
one sick lamb from his flock. He will not suffer 1 jewel to
27:22
fall from his crown. Ryle quotes John chapter 10
27:25
verse 28 where Jesus says my sheep shall never perish.
27:30
Ryle says. I take my stand on that text.
27:32
I know not how it can be evaded. He acknowledges that from false
27:36
grace a person might fall away, but from true regenerating
27:41
grace, men never fall totally. They are kept by the power, love
27:45
and promises of the Trinity. To illustrate this, he uses the
27:48
logic of rescue. He mentions the Old Testament
27:51
story of David rescuing a lamb from the lion.
27:54
David didn't pull the lamb from the lion's mouth and then leave
27:57
it bleeding in the wilderness to die of exposure.
27:59
He brought it all the way back to the fold.
28:01
Let us expand on the shipwreck analogy Ryle uses because it
28:04
carries so much emotional weight.
28:06
He asks the reader. Imagine you are walking on the
28:08
coast during a massive storm and you witness a shipwreck.
28:11
It's a terrifying scene. You see a helpless child tossing
28:14
on the freezing waves, you risk your own life, you plunge into
28:17
the violent sea, and you managed to save that child.
28:21
When you drag them onto the beach, do you just lay them in
28:24
the sand, look at their blue lips and shivering body and say
28:27
well I have done enough, I delivered him from the water.
28:30
Whether he freezes to death on the beach is up to him now.
28:33
No human being with a shred of compassion would do that.
28:36
Right, You would lift that child, carry them to the nearest
28:40
house, wrap them in blankets, start a fire and bring back
28:43
warmth and animation. You would never leave them until
28:46
their recovery was certain. And.
28:48
Ryle asks. Can you suppose the Lord Jesus
28:51
Christ is less merciful than a human stranger?
28:54
That he would wrestle with death and hell, go down to the grave,
28:57
rescue us, and then allow our eternal life to hang on such a
29:00
fragile thread as our own miserable endeavors.
29:04
It is an argument from the character of Christ.
29:06
He is a complete savior. Where he begins at work, he
29:09
finishes it. Let me present a push back here.
29:12
This is a very common objection when people hear this level of
29:15
absolute security taught. OK, go ahead.
29:17
If I am told that I can never fall away totally, that my
29:20
salvation is guaranteed by the combined power of God the
29:23
Father, Son and Holy Spirit, doesn't that breed spiritual
29:27
laziness? That's the classic objection.
29:29
If I am going to end up in the garner no matter what I do, why
29:33
strive? Why fight against sin?
29:35
Why not just live however I want?
29:37
That objection reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of
29:40
what the wheat actually is. We have to remember Rile's
29:43
definition from the very beginning.
29:45
The wheat are those who are led by the Holy Spirit.
29:47
Exactly who regard sin as their deadliest enemy and who long for
29:52
internal holiness. Security does not produce
29:55
laziness in a regenerate heart. It produces gratitude and a
29:59
desire to please the Father. So the nature of the person
30:02
dictates their reaction to the security.
30:04
Yes, if you were rescued from a burning building, your reaction
30:07
isn't to go back inside and play with matches.
30:09
No, obviously not. Your reaction is immense loyalty
30:13
and gratitude to the firefighter who saved you.
30:16
The grace that secures you is the exact same grace that
30:19
sanctifies you. If someone uses the promise of
30:22
security as a license to sin, they are proving they are chaff.
30:26
They're relying on a false grace.
30:29
That clarifies the mechanism perfectly, and Ryle concludes
30:32
this section by speaking gently to the weak disciple.
30:35
He says weak faith is still true faith, weak grace is still true
30:40
grace. Jesus will not break the bruised
30:42
Reed or quench the smoking flax. The babes in a family are loved
30:45
just as much as the older siblings, even if they cannot
30:48
contribute as much. All the wheat will be in the
30:50
garner. The safety of the Garner stands
30:52
in terrifying contrast to the alternative.
30:55
We cannot look at the rescue without looking at what people
30:57
are being rescued from. The text in Matthew ends with
31:00
the unquenchable fire. Rile does not shy away from
31:02
this. He addresses the end of the
31:04
verse. Christ will burn up the chaff
31:06
with unquenchable fire, Riles says.
31:08
These words should make our ears tingle.
31:10
All who are found in penitent, who have clung to sin, who are
31:13
without Christ, they will face a severe and eternal punishment.
31:16
He describes the severity of it by pointing to the physical
31:19
nature of fire. He asks the reader to put their
31:21
finger in a candle flame for just a moment to test it.
31:24
Fire is the most destructive, agonizing element we know.
31:28
Creatures can live in air, earth, and water, but nothing
31:30
can live in fire. It is utterly opposed to life.
31:33
And it is eternal. Millions of ages will pass and
31:36
the fire will still burn on. It never burns low.
31:39
The fuel never wastes away. It is unquenchable.
31:42
Ryle admits this is sad and painful to speak of.
31:45
He quotes the Apostle Paul saying he has great heaviness
31:48
and continual sorrow thinking about the lost.
31:51
But Ryle argues he dares not be silent because God has spoken of
31:54
it so plainly. Ryle observes a deep rooted
31:56
infidelity creeping into men's minds regarding hell.
32:00
People are apathetic. They eat, drink and sleep as if
32:03
there is no wrath to come. So he outlines 4 major
32:06
psychological evasions. 4 ways people try to dodge the reality
32:10
of hell. Let us look at the psychology
32:12
behind these evasions. The first evasion is denying its
32:16
existence completely. People say it is impossible.
32:19
It is inconsistent with God's mercy.
32:21
It is too awful to be true from Ryle's perspective.
32:24
What is happening here psychologically?
32:26
Psychologically, people are suppressing an uncomfortable
32:29
truth by attacking the character of the messenger, but Ryle
32:33
points out they're just helping the devil's Kingdom.
32:35
They are repeating the very first lie ever told to humanity
32:39
in the Garden of Eden. When the serpent told Eve, ye
32:42
shall not surely die. It is the oldest evasion in
32:46
human history. The second evasion is denying
32:49
it's eternality. Some people admit there might be
32:51
a hell, but they say a compassionate God would never
32:54
punish people forever. Surely he will open the prison
32:56
doors eventually after a period of correction.
32:58
Why do humans gravitate toward this specific idea?
33:02
Because it offers a psychological safety net, it
33:05
whispers a false comfort to sinners.
33:07
Take your ease, live how you want.
33:09
If you make a mistake, it is not forever.
33:11
You will get out eventually. Ryle quotes a tragic story of a
33:14
wicked woman on the streets of London encouraging her friend in
33:17
sin by saying come along, who is afraid?
33:20
Some Parsons say there is no hell.
33:22
The belief in a temporary hell removes the urgency of
33:25
repentance. The third evasion is believing
33:28
there is a hell, but believing it is basically empty.
33:32
The idea that everyone means well, everyone was sincere in
33:35
their own way, so everyone goes to heaven, Ryle says.
33:38
This is a massive societal delusion.
33:40
He tells the story of a little girl walking through a
33:42
graveyard, reading the epitaphs on the tombstones.
33:45
Every tombstone talks about how wonderful, kind and saintly the
33:50
deceased person was. The little girl turns her mother
33:53
and asks where are all the wicked people buried?
33:56
It highlights how society operates on an assumption of
33:58
universalism. When someone dies, we only ever
34:01
speak well of the dead, assuming everyone makes it to the garner.
34:04
The 4th evasion is held by people who believe hell exists
34:07
that think it should be kept completely silent.
34:09
It should be hush hush. It is considered bad taste to
34:12
bring it up in polite company or even from the pulpit.
34:15
Riley uses a brilliant analogy for the psychology of silence.
34:19
He says the Fowler, who is laying a trap for a bird, wishes
34:22
to hear no noise. The wolf wants the shepherd to
34:25
sleep quietly while he prowls around the sheepfold.
34:28
Satan rejoices when Christians are too polite to talk about
34:31
how. Against all four of these
34:33
evasions, Weil anchors his argument on the authority of
34:36
Scripture. He asks repeatedly, Do you
34:39
believe the Bible? If you do, you must accept that
34:43
hell is as real as heaven. He says if you disbelieve hell,
34:46
you unscrew, unsettle and unpin. Everything in Scripture, from no
34:50
hell to no God is just a short series of logical steps.
34:54
He makes a structural theological argument about the
34:56
eternality of hell. He points out that if words have
34:58
any meaning, phrases like forever and ever, evermasting
35:01
and unquenchable cannot be explained away.
35:04
If hell has an end, then heaven has an end too, because the
35:07
exact same Greek words are used in the original text to describe
35:10
the duration of both. They stand or fall together.
35:13
He also argues that if hell isn't eternal, the entire gospel
35:17
is structurally undermined. Think about the mechanics of
35:20
this. If a person can eventually
35:21
escape hell without faith in Christ, then sin is no longer an
35:25
infinite evil that demands an infinite punishment.
35:29
And if sin isn't an infinite evil, there was no great need
35:32
for Christ to suffer and make an atonement on the cross.
35:36
The cross becomes an overreaction.
35:38
That is the crucial theological pin.
35:40
He quotes an old writer named Carol who said forever is the
35:43
most solemn saying in the Bible. And he recounts the story of a
35:47
dying hero of Mr. Newton who said to his pastor, Sir, you
35:51
often told me of Christ and salvation.
35:53
Why did you not often or remind me of hell in danger?
35:56
That is a haunting question. It brings up the responsibility
35:59
of the minister or the teacher. Ryle asks.
36:02
What would you say of a man who saw his neighbor's house on fire
36:05
and never yelled fire because he didn't want to wake them up
36:09
rudely? If a minister tries to make
36:10
things pleasant and soothes people with a lullaby of peace,
36:14
Ryle says he is acting as an accomplice of the devil.
36:17
True charity is warning men plainly of danger.
36:20
To drive this home, Ryle warns the reader against manufacturing
36:23
a God of their own. This is a fascinating look at
36:26
modern idolatry. He says people invent a God who
36:29
is all mercy but not just all love but not holy, A God who has
36:35
a heaven for everybody but a hell for none.
36:37
He argues that this custom built God is an idol.
36:40
It is as true an idol as Jupiter or Moloch or a crocodile in an
36:44
Egyptian temple. The hands of human fancy and
36:47
sentimentality have molded this God out of their own
36:50
preferences. But it is not the God of the
36:53
Bible. He then points out the logical
36:55
absurdity of this manufactured God's version of heaven.
36:58
If heaven contains all sorts of characters indiscriminately, the
37:02
willing and the unwilling, the holy and the profane, what kind
37:05
of place would that actually be? That was the exact question I
37:07
wanted to bring up, Ryall says. A heaven containing all sorts of
37:11
characters indiscriminately would be miserable discord
37:14
barely different from hell itself.
37:16
Why is forced proximity in eternity such a catastrophic
37:19
idea? Because heaven is not just a
37:21
geographical location with golden streets, it is a state of
37:24
perfect communion with a holy God and with those who love Him.
37:28
Let's imagine taking a person who spends their entire earthly
37:31
life hating the things of God. They hate worship, they hate the
37:34
Bible, they love their sin, and they want autonomy.
37:37
Right. If you force that person into an
37:39
eternal environment where God is the central focus, where worship
37:43
is constant, and where sin is entirely absent, that
37:47
environment would be psychological torture to them.
37:49
They have no internal capacity to enjoy it.
37:52
As CS Lewis later echoed in his own writings, the doors of hell
37:56
are locked from the inside. Heaven would be miserable
37:59
discord if the heart is not changed to love what heaven
38:02
actually is. That makes perfect sense.
38:05
To avoid this kind of delusion, Ryle says we cannot take a
38:08
penknife to the Bible. He references the Old Testament
38:11
king Jehoiakim, who literally cut up the scroll of the prophet
38:15
Jeremiah with a penknife and threw it in the fire because he
38:18
didn't like the warnings it contained.
38:20
Ryle says we act like a spoilt child when we refuse the bitter
38:23
verses and only keep the sweet ones.
38:25
We cannot tell God as short lived creatures that we know
38:29
what is good for us better than He does.
38:31
We must read it all, believe it all, and say, Speak, Lord, for
38:34
thy servant heareth. That requires immense humility.
38:37
It requires submitting our modern sensibilities to the
38:40
ancient texts, trusting that the judge of all the earth will do
38:43
right. It really does.
38:44
We have covered a massive amount of theological ground today.
38:47
We have looked at the myth of the middle ground, the reality
38:50
of the mixed church, the false hopes of global utopia, the
38:54
absolute security of the wheat and the terrifying reality of
38:58
the chaff and the fire. So how does Ryle bring these
39:01
intense theological realities back down to our immediate daily
39:05
lives? He concludes his paper by
39:07
summarizing his thoughts into 4 main applications, and I want to
39:10
walk through the logic of those right now.
39:12
The first application is a call to intellectual honesty.
39:15
Ryall tells the reader to settle it in their mind that these
39:18
things are real. He notes a strange psychological
39:20
phenomenon where people treats women's in theology like a huge
39:23
shadow or formal part acting. They get incredibly excited or
39:27
anxious about the latest news from overseas or a new novel,
39:30
but they hear about heaven, hell and eternal judgment completely
39:34
unmoved. He is asking the reader to
39:36
bridge the gap between abstract theory and reality.
39:40
He says live as if these things were true.
39:43
They are as real as the sun in the sky.
39:46
The second application shifts from the intellect to the
39:49
personal conscience, he says. Settle it in your mind that this
39:52
concerns you. Yes, the direct application.
39:55
Do not sit like a spectator in a theater watching a play.
39:59
Do not read this essay like a report of a trial happening to
40:03
someone else in a different country.
40:05
The text asserts that you are the person spoken of.
40:07
You are this very day, either among the wheat or the chaff.
40:11
Do not linger as 1/2 and half Christian because the middle
40:13
ground is melting. The third application is the
40:16
gospel invitation itself, Ryle says.
40:18
Settle it in your mind that if you are willing to be one of the
40:20
wheat, the Lord Jesus Christ is entirely willing to receive you.
40:24
He is pleading with the reader here.
40:25
He asks, do you think Jesus doesn't desire to see his garner
40:28
filled? He wept over Jerusalem.
40:30
He says in the prophets. I have no pleasure in the death
40:33
of him that dieth. If a person comes to Christ with
40:35
a penitence prayer, the promise is free pardon and eternal life.
40:39
But Ryle also gives the plain warning, if you are determined
40:43
to have the world, it's pleasures, it's autonomy, and
40:46
you refuse to give up anything for Christ, you will eventually
40:49
face the fire. But if you are willing to be
40:51
saved, Christ stands ready. Let the angels rejoice over one
40:56
more saved soul today. And the final application brings
40:59
us back to that glorious security we discussed earlier.
41:03
Settle it in your mind that if you have committed your soul to
41:06
Christ, Christ will never allow that soul to perish.
41:09
The everlasting arms are around you.
41:11
Lean back in them and know your safety.
41:13
The same power that part of the Red Sea is on your side.
41:16
He says to the doubting believer, cast every care on
41:20
Jesus. Sins, unbelief, doubts, fears,
41:23
lay them all on him. He loves to be trusted.
41:25
He loves to see his people stop trying to carry their birdies
41:28
themselves. Only be among Christ's wheat
41:30
now, and you'll certainly be in his garner hereafter.
41:32
That is the conclusion of the matter.
41:34
We started this deep dive talking about a medical X-ray,
41:37
the human desire to see clearly, to diagnose the exact state of
41:40
things right now. Right.
41:41
Our obsession with visible clarity.
41:43
Ryle has shown us that while we cannot read the hearts of the
41:46
people sitting next to us in the pews, the Great Physicians X-ray
41:49
is already running and the categories are already set.
41:53
The middle ground you might be standing on is a Russian ice
41:55
palace and the temperature is rising.
41:58
So what should the listener do with all this?
42:00
I want to leave you with a final reflection to Mull over today.
42:04
If our entire earthly existence is simply time spent on a
42:08
threshing floor where the wind is blowing, the grain is being
42:11
battered, and the separation is imminent, how does that shift
42:15
the way you evaluate your current daily struggles, your
42:18
career ambitions, and the people sitting right next to you?
42:21
Think on that. It changes everything.
42:22
Thank you for joining us on this deep dive into reformed
42:25
thinking. We will see you next time.