Latest / Reformed Thinking / Zeal | J. C. Ryle

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Zeal | J. C. Ryle · Reformed Thinking

• 0:00
  Welcome to Reform Thinking. You know, usually we talk about
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  maintaining a healthy lifestyle or a healthy environment.
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  We look for balance. Right.
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  Yeah, Nobody wants wild extremes.
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  Yeah, think about sitting a thermostat in your house.
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  You want it right around, you know, a comfortable 72°, not too
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  hot, not too cold. It is safe.
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  It is entirely predictable. Yes, and sadly that is how many
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  people approach their spiritual lives.
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  We want a comfortable 72° religion.
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  We want enough warmth to feel cozy, but we certainly do not
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  want enough heat to actually catch fire.
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  Spot on. A controlled climate.
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  We avoid extremes because extremes make us, and honestly
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  everyone around us, very uncomfortable.
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  Yeah, they do. But then, you know, you open up
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  the pages of history. Oh man.
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  And you read the words of men and women who just completely
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  shattered the thermostat. And suddenly the idea of a
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  comfortable religion feels like a well, like a tragic
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  compromise. Yes, we are looking at a
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  spiritual landscape today that is often freezing cold.
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  Right. And the solution isn't to bump
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  the heat up a few degrees. The solution is a roaring, all
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  consuming fire. So true.
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  So welcome to this deep dive. Today we are investigating a
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  text from the 19th century English Bishop and writer JC
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  Ryle. Our incredible thinker.
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  Yeah, we are looking at his classic work Practical Religion,
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  specifically focusing on his exposition of Galatians, Chapter
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  4, verse 18. States it is good to be
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  zealously affected always, and a good thing.
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  Right. And our mission for this
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  conversation is to investigate the true nature of Christian
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  zeal. Learn how to spot its very
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  dangerous counterfeits and understand the massive weight
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  this characteristic holds for your daily life as a believer.
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  It is such a vital mission for you to hear.
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  The text was written to strike a blow at what the author called
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  the lazy, easy, sleepy Christianity of the 19th
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  century. Sleepy.
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  Yeah, And if he thought the 1800s were sleepy Man 1 can only
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  imagine the critique of our current era.
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  I know, right? The writing forces us to look
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  this concept squarely in the face.
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  It strips away all the modern sensibilities that prefer
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  religion to be polite and, you know, invisible.
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  OK, let's untack this from the very beginning because when you
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  hear the word zeal or especially zealot, it usually carries A
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  harsh negative connotation. Oh absolutely.
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  People instantly picture a guy screaming on a street corner
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  with a megaphone. Yeah, or someone who cannot hold
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  a normal conversation without making it awkward.
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  But the definition we are looking at today frames the
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  subject completely differently. So what are the actual
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  parameters here? Well, true religious zeal is
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  defined in this text as a burning desire to please God, to
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  do His will, and to advance His glory in the world in every
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  possible way. OK, and here is the crucial
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  distinction. This is not a natural human
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  trait you are not born with. This You cannot manufacture it
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  by reading enough motivational books or attending seminars,
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  right? It is a specific desire placed
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  in the heart of a believer by the Holy Spirit at the moment of
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  conversion. So it is not about having a type
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  A personality. No, not at all.
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  It is not about naturally being a high energy person who drinks
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  like 6 espressos before noon. Right.
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  You could be naturally introverted, quiet and
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  physically frail and still possess a roaring fire of
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  spiritual zeal. It is an imparted grace.
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  That makes so much sense. The text argues that while every
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  converted believer has this desire implanted in them to some
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  degree, some feel it so much more intensely than others.
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  And they are the ones who truly deserve the title of a zealous
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  individual. They feed the fire, whereas
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  others let it dwindle down to embers.
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  Yes, and there is the specific phrase used in the source
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  material that I just cannot stop thinking about.
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  Oh, which 1A zealous person is described as preeminently a man
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  of one thing? They are swallowed up in one
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  thing. Swallowed up.
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  Wow. Yeah, if they have health or
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  sickness, wealth or poverty, praise or blame, none of those
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  external variables matter. Because if they are consumed in
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  the burning, they are entirely content.
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  They're acting as a lamp made to burn.
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  That lamp imagery is so striking because it illustrates the cost.
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  Right, because the lamps entire function.
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  It's only reason for existing is to provide light.
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  But to provide light, the Wick in the oil must be consumed.
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  The zealous person understands that their life is the fuel.
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  They are indifferent to the circumstances that obsess the
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  rest of us, you know? Yeah, our comfort, our
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  reputation, our financial security.
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  They view all of those things as secondary or even tertiary to
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  the single goal of pleasing God. The burning is the point.
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  It is. It is like observing an elite
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  Olympic athlete or a tech startup founder.
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  Think about those individuals for a second.
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  Oh yeah, they are intense. They abandoned sleep, leisure,
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  normal social relationships, and physical comfort for a singular
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  secular goal. Right.
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  A swimmer will eat plain chicken and broccoli for four years.
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  Yeah, and stare at a black line at the bottom of a pool for six
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  hours a day just to shave 110th of a second off their time.
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  It is. Wild.
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  So what happens when we take that exact same obsessive,
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  singular focus and direct it vertically toward honoring
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  Christ? Well, the fascinating outcome of
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  that vertical focus is that a truly zealous individual will
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  always find a sphere to act. They do not wait for ideal
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  conditions. Exactly.
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  Well, yes, they do not say, well, if I had a larger platform
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  or if I had a theology degree or if my church had a better
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  budget, then I would do something they.
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  Figure out what they have access to and they use it immediately.
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  They find a way. If they cannot preach, they will
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  give money. If they lack funds, they will
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  pray and intercede. The text paints this really
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  vivid picture of a pauper, someone utterly destitute, lying
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  on a perpetual bed of sickness. Yeah, from a worldly
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  perspective, that person is useless.
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  They are a drain on resources. But through constant fervent
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  prayer, that bedridden believer can make the wheels of sin in
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  their community. Dr. Heavily.
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  Like throwing sand in the Gears of the enemy's machine.
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  Yes, I love that imagery. The historical comparison used
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  here is Moses, Aaron and her on the hill during the battle with
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  Amalek in the Book of Exodus. Right, Joshua is down in the
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  valley, swinging the physical sword, doing the visible bloody
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  fighting. But Moses is up on the hill, and
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  as long as his hands are raised in reliance upon God, the
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  Israelites prevail. So the zealous person who cannot
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  hold the sword in the valley will find a way to hold up the
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  hands on the hill. Spot on, and because this
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  intense single minded focus is so striking, it really helps to
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  look at historical evidence of this mindset in action.
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  Definitely brings the receipts looking at both the secular
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  world and the spiritual realm to prove that this specific habit
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  of mind is the secret to greatness in any field.
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  Yeah, the source material lists several massive secular figures
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  to prove the point, Consider Alexander the Great.
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  He conquered the known world before he turned 30.
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  Right. He didn't achieve that by living
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  a balanced life, right? Or Julius Caesar crossing the
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  Rubicon, defying the Roman Senate.
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  Knowing it meant total victory or total destruction.
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  And Oliver Cromwell reshaping the political landscape of
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  England. And it is not just military or
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  political leaders. In the realm of science, the
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  text points to Sir Isaac Newton. Oh, Newton is a crazy example.
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  You look at the historical accounts of Newton and the man
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  would literally forget to eat because he was so entirely
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  consumed by mathematical problems.
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  He would sit on the edge of his bed for hours, half dressed,
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  just staring into space, working out the laws of gravity.
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  Or Galileo, who is willing to face the wrath of the entire
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  scientific and religious establishment because he was
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  intensely focused on the truth of his astronomical
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  observations. James Watt is another prime
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  example mentioned. He is the man who perfected the
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  steam engine. Right Watt faced financial ruin,
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  constant mechanical failures and immense personal stress.
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  But he cast aside all secondary concerns to achieve greatness in
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  his specific lane. We look at these people, these
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  wealthy merchants, these scientists, these generals, and
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  society applauds them. We build statues of them.
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  We write biographies praising their singular secular ambition.
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  But then the text challenges us. What happens when that exact
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  same habit of mind is consecrated to the service of
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  God? To answer that, the author walks
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  us through a hall of faith, starting with the Apostle Paul.
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  Paul is the ultimate case study of taking incredible earthly
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  potential and trading it for suffering.
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  Yeah, Paul was a rising star in the 1st century.
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  He had brilliant prospects as a Pharisee.
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  Trained under Gamaliel, who was one of the greatest minds of
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  that era. Paul held significant political
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  and religious influence. He had status and he gave it all
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  up to preach the gospel to Gentiles.
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  He traded comfort for shipwrecks, beatings,
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  starvation, imprisonment and eventually dying by execution in
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  Rome. And his mindset was summarized
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  in his own words, he said. None of these things move me so
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  that I might finish my course with joy.
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  He looked at his impressive resume and counted all his
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  garbage compared to knowing Christ.
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  And it wasn't just the apostles who possessed this fire.
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  The text moves forward to the early Christians.
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  These were people driven to worship in dens, caves and
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  catacombs. They lost their property and
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  their social standing. The author mentions Ignatius, a
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  Bishop in the early 2nd century. He cheerfully travelled to his
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  own execution to be devoured by lions in the Roman arena.
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  He reportedly said Now do I begin to be a disciple of my
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  master? Wow.
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  Polycarp is another powerful example from that same era.
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  He was the Bishop of and he was 86 years old.
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  Wait, let's pause on Polycarp, because the context of his death
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  is staggering. He really is.
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  He is an old man. He is brought into the Roman
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  stadium, surrounded by a screaming crowd demanding his
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  blood. And the Roman Pro console
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  actually tries to give him an out.
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  The political pressure is massive.
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  The pro console tells him to simply swear by the genius of
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  Caesar and revile Christ and he will be released to go live out
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  his final years in peace. The Pro console is offering a
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  compromise that many today would take in a heart heartbeat.
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  Just speak a few words, appease the government and go home.
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  But Polycarp's response shakes the Roman hierarchy.
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  He looks at the proconsul and says 80 and six years have I
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  served him, and he never did me any injury.
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  How then can I blasphemy my king and my Savior?
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  That is the fire we are talking about.
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  He chose the Flames over a comfortable compromise.
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  Unbelievable courage. And then the source material
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  jumps forward to the Reformation.
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  It highlights Martin Luther. We often look at Luther as a
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  towering historical figure, but we forget the sheer terror of
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  what he actually did. In 1521, he is a monk standing
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  at the Diet of Worms. And for clarity, the diet of
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  worms was not a nutritional plan involving insects.
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  Right. No, It was a formal imperial
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  assembly, a diet held in the German city of Worms.
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  Right, thank you. So Luther is standing before
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  Charles the 5th, the Holy Roman Emperor, and the most massive,
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  wealthy religious hierarchy the world had ever seen.
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  The papal nuncio was there. The physical books Luther wrote
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  are sitting on a table and they are demanding he recant.
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  The threat of being burned alive is very real.
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  They had burned John, who's at the stake for saying similar
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  things a century earlier. Everyone is telling Luther not
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  to go. The psychological pressure must
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  have been crushing. But Luther's response, according
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  to historical accounts, was that even if there were a devil under
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  every tile on the roofs of worms, in the name of the Lord
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  he would go forward. He unveiled corruptions with an
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  unflinching hand and preach justification by faith
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  regardless of the anathema's hurled at him.
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  The text also brings it home to English soil, looking at the
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  English reformers. John Wickliffe rising from his
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  sick bed to oppose the corruptions of the Friars.
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  And then there is Thomas Cranmer.
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  Cranmer's story is incredible because it shows that this zeal
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  is not about inherent human perfection, no.
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  It is a grace that sustains you even after colossal failure.
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  Cranmer's narrative is intensely moving.
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  The political pendulum has swung back under Queen Mary, and
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  Kramer was imprisoned. Under immense psychological
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  pressure and the terrifying prospect of a painful death,
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  Kramer broke. He signed a document recanting
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  his Protestant faith. He showed a moment of intense,
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  understandable human weakness. But then comes the public
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  spectacle at Saint Mary's Church.
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  He's supposed to read his recantation publicly.
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  Instead, he shockingly revokes his recantation, declaring that
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  his hand offended him by writing contrary to his heart.
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  When they rush him to the stake to burn him, he thrust that very
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  right hand into the fire first. Calling it this unworthy hand,
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  holding it there until it burned to a stump.
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  He was followed by Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley.
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  Latimer, standing on his bundle the firewood at age 70, told his
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  friend Ridley to take courage because they would light such a
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  candle this day as by God's grace shall never be put out.
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  We also see the same fire in the great missionaries.
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  The text points to Henry Martin. Here is a man who was the senior
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  Wrangler at Cambridge. That title meant he was the
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  absolute top mathematics undergraduate.
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  He had won the highest academic honors available.
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  He could have chosen any lucrative, comfortable
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  profession in England. He could have been celebrated in
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  high society. Instead, he turns his back on it
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  all. He goes to India and then to
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  Persia, translating the New Testament into Urdu, Persian and
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  Judeo Persic. He labored under harsh
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  conditions, eventually dying an early death at age 31 in Turkey.
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  His entire motivation was a desire to see eyes of faith
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  directed to the Redeemer. He wrote that he could bear to
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  be torn in pieces, and only he could hear the sobs of penitence
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  from those he reached. And yet all of these men, Paul,
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  Polycarp, Luther, Cranmer, Martin, they are reflections of
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  the ultimate standard. The text points us to Jesus
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  Christ himself. The Psalms in the book of Isaiah
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  describe him as being clad with zeal, as with a cloak.
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  The zeal of his father's house literally consumed him.
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  If you trace the narratives of the four gospels from the
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  cleansing of the temple where he drives out the money changers,
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  to the agonizing prayer in Gethsemane, to the cross itself.
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  You see a life entirely swallowed up in the will of the
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  Father. Jesus said my meat is to do my
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  Father's will and to finish his work.
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  His zeal was perfect, unstained by sin and totally focused.
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  OK, we see this incredible list of figures, but I want to push
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  back here. Sure, when we look at worldly
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  figures like Caesar or Cromwell, that extreme singular focus
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  caused massive destruction. It left fields of bodies in its
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  wake. Yeah, that is a dark reality.
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  Doesn't this kind of single mindedness naturally breed
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  arrogant fanaticism? If someone is so thoroughly
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  convinced they're doing God's work, don't they risk becoming a
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  Wrecking Ball to everyone around them?
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  That is the critical tension. It is a very real danger, and
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  the author anticipates that push back perfectly.
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  He does. Yes, The text issues an urgent
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  warning comparing zeal to fire. Fire is an excellent helper, a
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  wonderful servant, but a terrible master.
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  If you harness fire in a furnace, it warms the house.
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  If it gets loose on the living room rug, it burns the house
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  down. Because of that destructive
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  potential, we must urgently learn to identify the fakes.
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  We have to learn the difference between true spiritual fire and
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  a destructive counterfeit blaze. It is noted that Satan is the
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  master counterfeiter. Wherever God mints A genuine
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  gold coin of grace, Satan immediately floods the market
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  with cheap forgeries to bring the genuine article into
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  disrepute. No Christian grace has suffered
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  more from counterfeiting than zeal.
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  People look at the historical wreckage caused by false fire,
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  the wars and the cruelty, and they conclude that all fire is
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  bad. The text outlines several
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  horrifying examples of this false seal, starting with a zeal
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  that lacks knowledge. So I'm trying to picture what
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  falls zeal actually looks like functionally.
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  It is tough to spot sometimes. Right.
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  I was thinking it is kind of like an autoimmune disease.
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  Oh wow, yeah, OK, unpack that a bit.
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  Well, you know when the human immune system is healthy, it
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  aggressively attacks viruses and bacteria to save the body,
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  right? But when it develops an
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  autoimmune disorder, the energy and the aggressive response are
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  still there, but it lacks the knowledge of what is actually a
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  threat. It gets confused and starts
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  attacking the body's own healthy tissue.
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  It destroys the host from the inside out.
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  That is a phenomenal comparison. The aggression is present, but
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  the target is entirely wrong. The text references the
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  unconverted Jews of Paul's day. Paul himself writes in Romans
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  that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
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  They were intensely religious. They fasted.
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  They prayed, but their energy was aimed in the wrong
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  direction, leading them to reject the very Messiah they
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  were waiting. For Or take King Manasseh in the
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  Old Testament. He had incredible zeal for his
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  false gods. He was so dedicated that he
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  literally sacrificed his own children, making them pass
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  through the fire to Moloch. Think about the psychological
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  state required to sacrifice your own child.
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  That requires A terrifying amount of dedication, but it is
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  a zeal birthed in pure darkness. The text also points out
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  instances where someone has the right heart but takes the wrong
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  action. Think of Peter in the Garden of
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  Gethsemane. The temple guards come to arrest
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  Jesus. Peter draws his sword and cuts
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  off the ear of Melchus, the high priest servant.
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  He is trying to defend Jesus. He is zealous.
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  But Jesus rebukes him and heals the man's ear.
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  The action was completely out of step with God's redemptive plan.
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  And history is littered with even darker examples.
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  The author brings up the Spanish Inquisition.
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  The Inquisition is a textbook case of the autoimmune disease
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  analogy. They would March men and women
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  to the stake to be burned alive for reading the Bible or holding
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  Protestant views. They would solemnly call it an
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  act of faith, an auto defay. They sincerely believed they
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  were doing goddess service by torturing people.
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  The test also mentions The Crusaders shedding blood across
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  the Middle East or Hindu widows voluntarily burning themselves
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  on the funeral pyres of their husbands.
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  It references the historical atrocities where Roman Catholics
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  threw the Vaudois and Albigensis off cliffs simply for holding
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  different theological views. All of those people were in
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  earnest. They were deeply serious, but
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  their zeal was contaminated. It shows that the human heart is
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  so incredibly subtle that we can do the right things for the
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  completely wrong reasons. Are motives get polluted?
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  The breakdown of these contaminated motives in the text
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  is fascinating. First, there is party spirit.
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  You see this with the Pharisees. Jesus said they would cross
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  oceans to make a single proselyte.
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  But they weren't trying to bring people to God, they were just
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  trying to recruit for their specific sect.
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  They cared about building their own brand, increasing their
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  numbers, and making the convert twice the child of hell.
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  Then there is pure selfishness. It is noted that sometimes it is
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  socially or politically advantageous to be religious.
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  If a society rewards piety with power or patronage, you will
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  suddenly see a lot of very zealous people.
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  The text points to Joab in the Old Testament, who served King
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  David primarily for his own military advancement and
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  survival. Or the citizens in England
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  during the Puritan Commonwealth who faked intense religion just
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  to secure government jobs under Cromwell.
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  We also cannot ignore the low of praise.
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  The example of Jehu is used here.
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  Jehu was commanded by God to put down the worship of Baal in
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  Israel. But as he is driving his chariot
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  to go do this, he spots Jehonidab and says, Come with
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  me, and see my zeal for the Lord.
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  He wanted an audience. He wanted someone to applaud his
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  radical dedication. If your.
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  Religious activity requires a crowd to watch it and validate
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  it. You are running on sals fire.
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  This brings us to a massive point in the work we are
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  studying and honestly, it feels like it was written this
• 19:49
  morning. The author offers a scathing
• 19:52
  critique of a modern generation that makes an idol out of mere
• 19:56
  earnestness. It is perhaps the most
• 19:58
  perceptive cultural analysis in the entire document.
• 20:01
  We live in a society that says it does not matter what you
• 20:04
  believe, as long as you are earnest about it.
• 20:06
  As long as you are sincere, you are fine, right?
• 20:09
  People will excuse massive catastrophic theological errors
• 20:12
  as long as the person committing them seems genuine.
• 20:15
  They say, well, we shouldn't get bogged down in minute points of
• 20:18
  doctrine. They are an earnest person.
• 20:19
  They, meanwhile, let them be. It is the idea that sincerity is
• 20:23
  the only virtue that matters. But the text tears this argument
• 20:26
  apart. Sincerity cannot replace truth.
• 20:31
  No, it cannot. It is like cheering for a
• 20:34
  marathon runner who is sprinting incredibly fast, pouring sweat,
• 20:38
  showing amazing endurance. But they're running backward on
• 20:41
  the track. Yes, the speed and the sweat
• 20:44
  mean absolutely nothing if the direction is totally false.
• 20:47
  You wouldn't hand them a gold medal, you would try to turn
• 20:49
  them around. The historical record supports
• 20:51
  that logic entirely. The text defends the objective
• 20:55
  standard of the Bible. God has not left us to guess
• 20:58
  what is true. We have a written word.
• 21:00
  If we elevate earnestness above the Bible, we are forced into
• 21:04
  ridiculous conclusions. The author uses a sharp
• 21:07
  historical contrast, pointing out that Queen Mary was earnest
• 21:10
  in restoring the papal system, referred to historically as
• 21:13
  popery, and she was earnest in burning Protestants.
• 21:16
  But Latimer and Ridley were earnest in opposing her.
• 21:19
  Are we really going to say that because both parties were
• 21:21
  earnest, both were right? It is logically impossible.
• 21:24
  You cannot have two completely contradictory truths just
• 21:27
  because the people holding them really mean it.
• 21:29
  God does not just look at the sweat on your brow, He weighs
• 21:32
  the motive of your heart and the scriptural alignment of your
• 21:35
  actions. Mere sincerity is an idol.
• 21:37
  It is a vague humanistic replacement for Christ, the
• 21:41
  author states. He shrinks with horror from the
• 21:43
  theology that says a man cannot be wrong, whose life seems right
• 21:47
  on the surface. So, since sincerity alone is
• 21:50
  wildly insufficient, we have to establish the precise criteria
• 21:54
  for the genuine article. If they're all these
• 21:56
  counterfeits, how do you know if the fire in your own chest is
• 22:00
  the real thing? The anatomy of Genuine Zeal is
• 22:02
  broken down into five non negotiable markers and if any of
• 22:06
  these are missing, the fire is suspect.
• 22:08
  The anchor of this genuine fire is that it must be according to
• 22:11
  knowledge. True zeal is not a blind chaotic
• 22:14
  frenzy. It must be calm, reasonable,
• 22:16
  intelligent, and most critically, it must be able to
• 22:19
  show a clear warrant from scripture for every step it
• 22:22
  takes. It isn't driven by emotional
• 22:24
  whims, political outrage or cultural panics.
• 22:28
  It is anchored deeply in the text of the Bible.
• 22:30
  But knowledge can be cold. You can memorize the entire
• 22:34
  Bible and still have a heart of stone.
• 22:36
  So the text immediately pivots to the motives.
• 22:39
  Yes, the action must come from true motives.
• 22:42
  As we discussed earlier with Jehu and the Pharisees, God
• 22:45
  considers the doers heart, not simply the volume of work
• 22:49
  produced. The author uses a specific term
• 22:51
  here stating that if you are working from selfishness or a
• 22:54
  desire for praise, your work is reprobate silver.
• 22:58
  Let's explain that term for a second.
• 23:00
  In metallurgy, reprobate silver is an impure metal mixed with
• 23:03
  dross. It might look shiny on the
• 23:05
  outside to the untrained eye, but when the assayer tests it,
• 23:08
  it fails. It is useless currency.
• 23:11
  And in the economy of heaven, work done for the applause of
• 23:14
  men is rejected. Currency.
• 23:16
  True zeal desires only the glory of God.
• 23:18
  Building on that pure motive, the fire must also be aligned
• 23:22
  with God's mind. This means your energy is
• 23:24
  focused on the things that God actually cares about.
• 23:27
  This is where it gets very practical.
• 23:29
  What does God care about? The text lists several things,
• 23:33
  starting with personal holiness. The truly zealous person will
• 23:36
  view their own sin as the mightiest of all evils.
• 23:40
  They are willing to figuratively cut off the right hand or pluck
• 23:43
  out the right eye to avoid sin and walk closer with Jesus.
• 23:47
  It's not just about fixing other people or winning arguments
• 23:50
  online. The fire starts in their own
• 23:52
  house. Secondly, they burn with a
• 23:55
  desire for the salvation of souls.
• 23:57
  They want to bring people to the knowledge of the Gospel. 3rd
• 24:00
  they stand against evil practices in society.
• 24:03
  The 19th century context mentions fighting things like
• 24:05
  drunkenness or slavery. They are jealous for God's honor
• 24:09
  and. 4th They fiercely maintain the doctrines of the gospel.
• 24:13
  They treat religious error like a deadly pestilence.
• 24:15
  They guard the truth scrupulously, just like Paul did
• 24:18
  when he publicly confronted Peter at Antioch for
• 24:21
  compromising the gospel of grace.
• 24:22
  But if you are so fiercely focused on guarding doctrine and
• 24:26
  confronting error, don't you risk becoming a tyrannical jerk?
• 24:30
  That is the tension. The author interest is next.
• 24:32
  How do you prevent this fire from turning you into an
• 24:34
  unbearable person? That tension is resolved by the
• 24:37
  requirement that true zeal must be tempered with charity and
• 24:41
  love. It cannot be a bitter, fierce
• 24:43
  enmity against people. The weapons of true Zeal are
• 24:46
  spiritual, not carnal. The text paints a beautiful
• 24:50
  picture here. It says True Zeal will hate the
• 24:53
  heresy, but intensely love the heretic.
• 24:55
  It will long to smash the idol, but it will profoundly pity the
• 24:59
  idolater. It speaks the truth boldly, but
• 25:02
  it always strives to speak that truth in love.
• 25:05
  It warns people, but it does so with the tenderness of a nursing
• 25:08
  mother over her children. And how do you sustain that kind
• 25:11
  of love when you are dealing with difficult people?
• 25:14
  The final marker is that true zeal is joined to deep humility.
• 25:19
  A truly zealous person is painfully aware of their own
• 25:22
  shortcomings. They're not walking around
• 25:24
  thinking they're the greatest Christian in the room.
• 25:26
  In fact, they're usually the last to discover the greatness
• 25:28
  of their own attainments. The text notes that Moses came
• 25:31
  down from the mountain, his face physically shining with the
• 25:34
  glory of God, and he didn't even know it.
• 25:36
  The author quotes Doctor Claudius Buchanan, a pioneer of
• 25:40
  modern missions in India, who genuinely believed he lacked
• 25:43
  zeal despite his massive accomplishments.
• 25:46
  The text also quotes the great evangelist George Whitefield,
• 25:49
  who preached to thousands and turned multitudes to God,
• 25:53
  praying after 30 years of grueling ministry.
• 25:56
  Lord help me to begin to begin. Begin to begin that reveals such
• 26:00
  a massive view of God's holiness.
• 26:02
  And then there's Robert Marie McShane, the Scottish minister
• 26:05
  whose ministry left a massive mark on Scotland despite his
• 26:08
  dying at age 29. McShane wrote in his letters.
• 26:12
  None, but God knows what an abyss of corruption is in my
• 26:15
  heart. The truly zealous person is
• 26:17
  looking at the blistering holiness of God and in
• 26:20
  comparison they only see their own inadequacy.
• 26:23
  Where there is self conceit and arrogance, there is no true
• 26:26
  zeal. So what does this all mean for
• 26:28
  you, the listener? How do you practically hate the
• 26:31
  sin with a burning passion, but genuinely love the Sinner
• 26:34
  without softening the truth? That feels like walking a
• 26:37
  tightrope in a hurricane. It does, but the author uses a
• 26:40
  medical image that captures the balance perfectly.
• 26:43
  The believer must be as decided as a surgeon dealing with a
• 26:46
  diseased limb, yet as gentle as a nurse dressing the wounds of a
• 26:51
  brother. Let's test that idea.
• 26:52
  A surgeon cannot be sentimental. Right.
• 26:54
  If they're operating on a gangrenous leg, they cannot say,
• 26:58
  well, I don't want to hurt the leg, so I'll just leave a little
• 27:00
  bit of the infection. No, they have to be absolutely
• 27:02
  uncompromising, decisive and ruthless with the disease to
• 27:06
  save the life. But the surgeon is not angry at
• 27:09
  the patient. Their ruthlessness toward the
• 27:11
  disease is driven entirely by their compassion for the person
• 27:15
  on the table. And once the disease part is
• 27:17
  removed, they switch roles. They become the gentle nurse,
• 27:20
  supplying the ointment, wrapping the bandages, speaking softly
• 27:24
  and aiding the recovery. That is what true Christian zeal
• 27:27
  looks like, uncompromising on truth, ruthless with sin, but
• 27:31
  infinitely tender with the souls of men.
• 27:34
  When this balanced, humble and truthful fire is actually
• 27:37
  burning in a person's life, it produces massive ripple effects.
• 27:40
  The text breaks these benefits down into 3 distinct domains.
• 27:44
  Let's examine how this fire impacts the individual soul.
• 27:47
  The author compares spiritual exertion to physical exercise.
• 27:52
  We all know that if you sit on a couch for a month, your muscles
• 27:55
  atrophy, your joints stiff, and you feel sluggish, and your
• 27:58
  overall health declines. But regular exercise, even
• 28:01
  though it requires exertion, pain and sweat, actually
• 28:05
  promotes vigor, health and a feeling of well-being.
• 28:08
  What exercise does for the physical body, zeal does for the
• 28:12
  soul. So spiritual exertion actually
• 28:14
  brings peace rather than exhaustion.
• 28:17
  The historical reality is that the Christians who possess the
• 28:20
  most joy, the most comfort and the most peace are the ones who
• 28:24
  are constantly striving, working and watching to extend the
• 28:27
  knowledge of Christ. They live in the sunlight, so
• 28:29
  their hearts are warm. Furthermore, the text points out
• 28:32
  a theological reality. While God loves all his
• 28:34
  children, He takes a special pleasure in those who burned for
• 28:37
  Him. He reveals himself to them in
• 28:40
  ways others do not experience. They get a taste of heaven upon
• 28:43
  earth. But the fire does not stay
• 28:45
  contained in the individual. The second domain is what it
• 28:47
  does for the church as a whole. The text argues that zealous
• 28:51
  Christians act like salt. Salt.
• 28:52
  In the ancient world was primarily A preservative.
• 28:55
  It kept the meat from rotting. 11 of zealous Christians
• 28:59
  scattered throughout a church prevents that local body from
• 29:02
  falling into institutional corruption and spiritual death.
• 29:05
  They're the ones who revive congregations when they are
• 29:08
  ready to die. The author argues that if you
• 29:10
  look at church history, the man who left the biggest marks,
• 29:14
  we're not necessarily the smartest guys in the room.
• 29:16
  Men of fire like Latimer, Baxter, Whitefield and Wesley
• 29:20
  did far more for the Church than men of superior intellect like
• 29:23
  Bishop Butler or Bishop Watson. Which is saying something,
• 29:27
  because Butler and Watson were brilliant defenders of the
• 29:30
  faith. They wrote volumes of flawless
• 29:32
  apologetics. But brilliance alone does not
• 29:35
  wake the dead. Fire does.
• 29:37
  Wesley rode hundreds of thousands of miles on horseback,
• 29:40
  preaching in open fields to coal miners who had never seen the
• 29:44
  inside of a church. Richard Baxter changed the town
• 29:46
  of Kidderminster through relentless, exhausting pastoral
• 29:50
  visitation, going house to house.
• 29:52
  Their secret wasn't their academic pedigree.
• 29:55
  It was their burnings zeal. And this zeal is highly
• 29:58
  contagious. One awake Christian makes all
• 30:01
  the sleepy ones around them intensely aware of their own
• 30:04
  barrenness. It is an unavoidable dynamic.
• 30:07
  If you put one thoroughly zealous man or woman in a dead
• 30:10
  congregation, they disrupt the status quo simply by existing.
• 30:15
  The sleepy members might rail at them.
• 30:17
  They might try to pick holes in their conduct.
• 30:19
  They might view them as an oddity, like a new comet in the
• 30:22
  sky. But insensibly, the zealous
• 30:24
  person does them good. They force the sleepy Christians
• 30:27
  to look in the mirror and ask, what are we doing?
• 30:30
  Are we just cumbering the ground?
• 30:32
  Cumbering the ground. That is a reference to the
• 30:34
  biblical parable of the barren fig tree, right?
• 30:36
  Taking up space and soil in the vineyard without producing any
• 30:39
  actual fruit. Right, one person can open
• 30:41
  fountains of activity that would have otherwise remained sealed
• 30:44
  forever. And then we reached the third
• 30:46
  domain. Zeal is good for the world?
• 30:49
  The text asks where would the missionary work be?
• 30:52
  Where would the city missions and the ragged schools be
• 30:55
  without this fire? For context, ragged schools were
• 30:58
  a 19th century charitable schools dedicated to the free
• 31:01
  education of destitute children in Britain.
• 31:04
  They were started by zealous Christians looking at the
• 31:07
  immense poverty, crime and ignorance in the slums of
• 31:11
  London. The author states clearly that
• 31:13
  governments and laws are entirely useless to fix the
• 31:16
  human heart. They cannot devise legislation
• 31:19
  to cure spiritual death. The text operates on a specific
• 31:23
  theological framework here regarding human nature.
• 31:26
  It assumes that human beings are fundamentally broken.
• 31:29
  A concept theologians refer to as total depravity.
• 31:32
  This doesn't mean people are as bad as they could possibly be,
• 31:35
  but rather that spiritual deadness effects every part of a
• 31:38
  person's nature. Meaning no amount of external
• 31:41
  government legislation or social engineering can generate
• 31:44
  spiritual life. The government can perhaps
• 31:46
  restrain the outward expression of evil through the threat of
• 31:49
  the police force in prisons, but it cannot make a dead heartbeat.
• 31:52
  Only the gospel can do that, and the gospel is carried into the
• 31:56
  dark alleys of overgrown cities by individuals who do not sit
• 31:59
  around waiting for good works to become fashionable.
• 32:01
  They do not wait for a committee to approve it or for the culture
• 32:05
  to applaud it. The text uses a military term.
• 32:08
  It says they go forward like a forlorn hope.
• 32:10
  That was the term for the first wave of soldiers attacking A
• 32:14
  breached wall in a siege. They knew they might not
• 32:17
  survive, but they went first to pave the way for the rest of the
• 32:19
  army. Zealous Christians look at
• 32:22
  insurmountable odds. They look over the heads of the
• 32:24
  giants in the land and they say something must be done.
• 32:28
  It is like dropping a single red hot coal into a massive pile of
• 32:32
  freezing briquettes. That one coal does not look like
• 32:35
  much. It is vastly outnumbered by the
• 32:37
  cold around it. But the nature of fire is that
• 32:40
  it spreads, it heats the coal next to it, and then the next
• 32:43
  one it inevitably changes the temperature of the entire pile.
• 32:46
  The world owes a debt to Christian zeal that it will
• 32:50
  never fully comprehend until the final judgement.
• 32:52
  It has checked crime, saved souls and brought light to the
• 32:56
  darkest corners of human existence.
• 32:58
  Knowing these vast, undeniable benefits, the author tunes the
• 33:01
  corner. At the end of the text, he stops
• 33:03
  teaching and starts preaching directly to the reader.
• 33:05
  He issues 3 distinct challenges addressing 3 different types of
• 33:10
  people. Let's look at his first.
• 33:11
  Appeal. He speaks to the unconverted or
• 33:14
  the person who makes no decided profession of religion.
• 33:17
  And the approach is incredibly blunt.
• 33:19
  He asks them. Where is your zeal?
• 33:21
  He points out the tragic irony of their lives.
• 33:24
  They have abundant energy and passion for temporal things.
• 33:27
  They are zealous about reading the newspaper, checking their
• 33:31
  account books, expanding their businesses.
• 33:33
  Or, pursuing whatever the modern equivalent of Californian gold
• 33:36
  is, they will pour out their lifeblood for a career or a
• 33:39
  hobby. But when it comes to the Bible
• 33:42
  or the unsearchable riches of Christ, they have absolutely
• 33:45
  nothing. They are dead to it.
• 33:47
  They are spending all their oxygen on things that will burn
• 33:50
  up in the end. The call to them is a stark
• 33:53
  prophetic command. Awake, be zealous, and repent.
• 33:56
  He tells them to look at the cross of Christ, to see the Son
• 33:59
  of God shedding His blood for sinners, and to never rest until
• 34:02
  they feel some zeal for their own eternal soul.
• 34:05
  Then he turns to the second group, and this one stings.
• 34:08
  He addresses the lukewarm believer.
• 34:10
  The person who is in the fold but they are terrified of
• 34:13
  stepping out. The text suggests.
• 34:15
  They are so afraid of doing harm that they never dare to do good.
• 34:19
  He describes them as being rich in wet blankets, but poor in
• 34:24
  anything like Christian fire. They will find 100 objections to
• 34:27
  any proposed good work. If someone suggests a new
• 34:30
  ministry or a bold evangelistic push, they will list all the
• 34:34
  reasons it might fail, but they never offer a solution.
• 34:38
  Targets their financial giving. He critiques the miserable
• 34:42
  Guinea subscriptions that they give to religious causes.
• 34:45
  A Guinea was a British coin. Giving a Guinea subscription
• 34:48
  meant tossing a small standardized amount to a
• 34:50
  charity, an amount the giver would never even notice was
• 34:54
  gone. It required 0 sacrifice.
• 34:56
  It was the 19th century equivalent of setting up a $5
• 35:00
  monthly auto draft and thinking you have fulfilled your duty to
• 35:03
  the Kingdom. The author points out that these
• 35:05
  people look at false doctrine growing up in their own
• 35:07
  communities and they just wring their hands and wish it wasn't
• 35:10
  so, but they lift no finger to stop it.
• 35:12
  They're burying their talent in the ground.
• 35:14
  If a listener is auditing their own life right now, how did they
• 35:18
  determine if they are just throwing spare change at the
• 35:20
  Kingdom of God versus actually spending and being spent for
• 35:23
  Christ? The text answers that audit by
• 35:26
  pointing the listener to the urgency of time.
• 35:29
  It forces you to look at the clock.
• 35:31
  Life is incredibly brief. The author points out to the
• 35:34
  lukewarm believer that in heaven there will be no ignorant people
• 35:37
  to instruct, there will be no unconverted souls to reclaim.
• 35:41
  The window for Works of Mercy is closing.
• 35:44
  The opportunity to pull a brand from the burning, to snatch
• 35:48
  someone out of the fire just before they are consumed is
• 35:51
  strictly limited to the present moment on this earth.
• 35:54
  Once you cross the threshold of eternity, the time for
• 35:56
  missionary work is permanently over.
• 35:58
  The author quotes Bernard of Clairvau, a medieval monk who
• 36:01
  noted a chilling reality. Bernard said that Satan will
• 36:04
  rise up in judgement against many people at the last day
• 36:08
  because the devil showed vastly more energy and zeal to ruin
• 36:11
  souls than Christians ever showed to save them.
• 36:14
  That should keep us awake at night.
• 36:15
  The enemy of our souls does not take days off.
• 36:17
  He is not lukewarm. Which is why the call to the
• 36:20
  lukewarm believer is the same as to the unconverted.
• 36:23
  Awake, be zealous, and repent. He tells them to stop pouring
• 36:27
  over their own inward conflicts and realize that while they're
• 36:30
  obsessively analyzed, their own feelings, souls are perishing
• 36:34
  around them. Finally, he turns to his third
• 36:36
  group, the truly zealous Christians, the ones who are
• 36:40
  already burning. What is the counsel for them?
• 36:42
  It is a strong encouragement to hold fast.
• 36:45
  The author knows the temptation for the zealous person is
• 36:48
  burnout or giving in the relentless pressure from society
• 36:52
  and sleepy Christians to cool down.
• 36:54
  He pleased with them. Do not go back from your first
• 36:56
  works. Do not let your first days be
• 36:59
  better than your last. He warns them that it is
• 37:01
  incredibly easy to catch a chill in this world, but much harder
• 37:04
  to impart a glow. He tells them not to fear the
• 37:07
  reproach of men. When you live like this, you
• 37:09
  will be called names. You will be labeled A bigot, an
• 37:12
  enthusiast, A fanatic, or a fool.
• 37:14
  The advice is simple. Heed it not.
• 37:16
  Those titles have been given to the best and wisest people in
• 37:19
  history. If your zeal requires the
• 37:21
  world's applause to keep burning, it will extinguish the
• 37:24
  moment you face opposition. And he leaves them with a quote
• 37:27
  from a Jansenist, a Catholic movement known for its rigorous
• 37:31
  Piet. When this man was told by his
• 37:33
  friends that he was working too hard, destroying his health and
• 37:35
  needed to take a rest, he replied, What should we rest
• 37:39
  for? Have we not all eternity to rest
• 37:41
  in? It is a total perspective shift.
• 37:44
  The rest is coming. The Sabbath rest for the people
• 37:46
  of God is eternal, but this current life is the battlefield.
• 37:50
  It is the work day. We are to give, teach, visit and
• 37:54
  pray as if we're doing it for the very last time.
• 37:56
  Let's pull all of this together. We've covered massive ground
• 37:59
  today. To summarize the thesis, genuine
• 38:02
  Christian zeal is a singular, burning desire to please God.
• 38:06
  It is carefully guarded by scriptural knowledge.
• 38:08
  It is fueled by pure unselfish motive.
• 38:11
  It is wrapped in a thick blanket of charity and love for others,
• 38:15
  and it is grounded in painful humility about one's own sin.
• 38:19
  It isn't a personality type, it is the natural byproduct of a
• 38:22
  heart that has truly seen the cross of Christ.
• 38:24
  It is the only rational response to the Gospel.
• 38:27
  And I would leave the listener with this final thought to Mull
• 38:30
  over. If your specific spiritual fire
• 38:33
  right now could be seen as a physical flame, what would it
• 38:36
  look like? Would it be a raging bonfire
• 38:39
  warming everyone around you, pushing back the darkness?
• 38:42
  Or would it be a flickering match, barely alive, about to be
• 38:45
  blown out by the slightest wind of worldly distraction?
• 38:48
  Take a hard look at your life and consider what specific daily
• 38:52
  habits are draining your oxygen. What are you allowing to
• 38:55
  extinguish the flame that Christ lit within you?
• 38:58
  That is the question we all have to answer.
• 38:59
  You cannot just set the thermostat to 72 and hope for
• 39:02
  the best. Thank you for joining this deep
• 39:04
  dive into the source material. Keep pursuing truth, keep
• 39:07
  blowing on the goals, and we will catch you next time.