Latest / Reformed Thinking / Self-Inquiry | J. C. Ryle

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Self-Inquiry | J. C. Ryle · Reformed Thinking

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Welcome to reformed thinking. So usually when you talk about a
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medical diagnosis, there is a clear expectation of precision.
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Oh absolutely. It feels very clean.
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Yeah, exactly. No, I mean, it feels very
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straightforward. You break your arm, you go to
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the hospital, the X-ray shows that jagged white line on the
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screen and the doctor just points and says, well, there is
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the problem. Right, the bone is either broken
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or it is not broken. Yeah, you got a cast and you
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have a clear plan for healing. We really crave that kind of
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visible, undeniable proof when something is wrong.
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We prefer things to be categorized neatly.
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Having a straightforward read on a situation offers a lot of
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comfort. You know it really does.
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A blood test or an MRI gives you empirical data which takes all
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the guesswork out of the equation.
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But then you step into the world of internal spiritual realities
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and suddenly that X-ray machine is utterly useless.
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Yeah, completely useless. We are looking at a diagnostic
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landscape that is entirely murky.
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When you try to audit the health of your own soul, you cannot
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draw blood or scan for a fracture.
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No, you are dealing with hidden motives, invisible affections,
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and a heart that is remarkably good at deceiving itself.
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Very good at it. You might have outward behaviors
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that look incredibly healthy, but they might completely mask a
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state of inward decay. It is the absolute definition of
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diagnostic Muddy Waters. And this brings us to a specific
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historical figure who recognized this problem and developed a
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framework to Pierce through that murkiness, right?
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And who are we looking at today? We are looking at a piece of
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writing from 1878 by JC Rile. He was an English Bishop and the
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material we are unpacking today is the opening of his work
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Practical Religion. The chapter is simply titled
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Self Inquiry, and our goal today is not to sit in an ivory tower
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and debate abstract theological concepts.
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No, not at all. This is an intense personal self
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examination guided by Ryles pastoral insight.
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He wants to help you, the listener, audit your own
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spiritual reality. And he sets this whole process
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in motion by dropping an anchor in a very specific biblical
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text. Yeah, he goes to the book of
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Acts, chapter 15, verse 36. Right in that passage, the
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apostle Paul makes a proposal to Barnabas after their first major
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missionary trip. Paul says, Let us go again and
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visit our brethren in every city where we have preached the word
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of the Lord and see how they do. Ryall zeroes in on that final
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phrase. See how they do.
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Because Paul and Barnabas had already planted the churches,
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right? The people had already heard the
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message. Yes, but Paul knew that starting
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the race is very different from continuing in it, so he wanted
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to go back and check on their actual present condition.
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And Ryle takes that historical check in and turns it into a
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mirror for you. He frames this entire text as an
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opportunity for you to ask yourself, well, how do I do
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about my soul? Are you moving forward, standing
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still, or falling backward? And to understand the weight of
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this question, we really have to look at the environment Ryle was
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living in. Yeah, let's set the stage a bit.
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He writes this as an avowed evangelical churchmen in the
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Church of England in the late 19th century, and he states
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right in the preface that holding this position provoked
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sneers. It was highly unpopular.
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I mean, why was it so unpopular to be an evangelical in the
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Church of England in 1878? Is a great question.
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Because the Victorian era feels like a time when everyone was
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going to church anyway, you know, What was the specific
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tension he was facing? Well, the Church of England at
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that time was being pulled in two distinct directions, and
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neither of them aligned with Rile's convictions.
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On one side you had the Oxford Movement.
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This was pulling the church toward High Ritualism, so heavy
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focus on outward ceremonies, vestments, and traditions that
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looked very much like Roman Catholicism.
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And the other side. On the other side, you had the
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rise of liberal theology and rationalism.
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That side sought to strip away the supernatural elements of the
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Bible, questioning miracles and the atonement.
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So Ryle stood squarely in the middle of all that.
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Yeah, he held to the Reformed doctrines of the 16th century.
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Reformers, people called him, unlearned it or ignorant for
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clinging to the historic plain reading of Scripture.
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But after 40 years of intense Bible reading and theological
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study, he refused to budget. He believed these were the true
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principles of the Christian faith.
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He certainly had thick skin. I mean, he writes that it as
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well it stands the fire. He was totally undisturbed by
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the critics. Oh, completely.
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But here is the massive paradox he identifies in his era.
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He looks around the late 19th century and calls it an age of
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peculiar spiritual privilege. Yes, there has never been a
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time, he argues, with so many sermons preached, Bible sold,
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tracts printed and aggressive efforts to reach the
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unconverted. He even lists the great
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preachers of the 18th century awakening men like William
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Romaine, Henry Van John Barrage and William Grimshaw.
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Right? Ryles says.
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If those men could wake up and see the sheer abundance of
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gospel teaching and print media available in 1878, they would be
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astounded. They would think the windows of
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heaven had opened. But then Ryle immediately
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follows that observation by stating that this abundance
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creates an age of peculiar spiritual danger.
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Which on paper that makes zero sense.
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Yeah, I mean, more Bibles, more sermons and more theological
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literacy should equal a much healthier society.
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If the truth is everywhere, the people should be flourishing.
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You would think so. So why does an abundance of
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religious material create danger?
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Because human nature has a tendency to become inoculated by
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overexposure, when you have incredibly easy access to truth,
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familiarity breeds a sort of spiritual numbness.
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Oh, I see. If you hear the most glorious,
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life altering concepts every single day, they begin to lose
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their weight. You learn the vocabulary, you
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know when to stand up and sit down at the service, you know
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which theological books to display on your shelf.
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But the entire exercise remains superficial.
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The inward reality is hollow. Yes, people were filling the
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seats in Ryles Day, but they possess no vital Christianity at
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home. Ryle uses a very striking phrase
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to describe the specific condition.
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He calls the religious life of his peers a continual course of
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spiritual DRAM. Drinking a DRAM is a quick shot
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of liquor. Right, he says.
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People are morbidly craving fresh excitement.
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They run after new preachers. They weren't clever arguments.
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They want their ears tickled in a crowd.
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It is a sensational, hysterical kind of religion that demands a
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constant emotional high. And he notes that this crowd is
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unable to discern differences in doctrine as long as the delivery
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of the sermon is exciting. Yeah, they act like young
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military recruits who have just received their signing bonus,
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making a lot of noise, acting incredibly forward,
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contradicting older, wiser individuals and trusting their
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own fancied wisdom. They lack any real stability
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because their faith is built on adrenaline rather than truth.
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Right. Reading that phrase spiritual
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DRAM drinking, my mind immediately went to modern
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Internet. Habits.
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Oh that is a great connection. Think about how we consume
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content today. It looks a lot like doom
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scrolling short form videos or binge reading 10 different self
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help books in a month without ever putting a single piece of
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the advice into practice. Absolutely, you get a dopamine
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hit from hearing a new idea. Yeah, you feel like you achieve
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something significant just by listening to a smart person talk
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about it. The consumption of the material
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tricks the brain into feeling virtuous.
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You mistake the act of gathering information for the act of
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genuine personal growth. Which forces a very
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uncomfortable question for us right now.
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Does the modern abundance of podcasts, theology blogs, and
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streaming sermons actually make us less spiritually healthy if
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we are only seeking A dopamine hit?
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Wow. If we're just taking a shot of
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theological liquor to feel a quick buzz of intellectual
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superiority, are we poisoning ourselves with the very thing
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meant to cure us? It is an urgent question.
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If you consume information solely for the thrill of
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intellectual stimulation, you build a massive tolerance to the
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truth. You.
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Do the next time you hear the same doctrine, it will not move
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you. You will need a more
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controversial take, a hotter debate, or more charismatic
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speaker just to feel anything at all.
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Yeah, Ryle saw this happening in 1878 with special church
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services and traveling preachers.
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Today, the social media algorithm does the exact same
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thing. Serving up endless theological
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controversies to keep us engaged while our actual spiritual lives
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wither away. Because of this immense danger
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of becoming numb while surrounded by truth, Ryle
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insists we must undergo individual self inquiry.
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We have to strip away the noise and ask diagnostic questions.
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Right. He lays out 10 specific tests to
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help us figure out our actual condition.
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Let us walk through the baseline of belief.
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Ryle starts with three questions.
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Number one, do we ever think about our souls at all #2 do we
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ever do anything about our souls?
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And #3 are we trying to satisfy our consciences with a mere
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formal religion? The progression of those three
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questions is highly deliberate. Ryall starts at the very bottom,
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addressed with complete apathy. He describes people who live
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from January to December entirely absorbed in business,
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pleasure, politics and money, death, judgement, eternity.
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They never calmly consider these realities.
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They live their entire lives as if they will never die.
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And Ryle does not pull his punches here.
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He says a life lived in complete ignorance of eternity reduces a
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man to the level of a beast. That sounds incredibly harsh to
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modern years, but look at the underlying logic he is
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employing. Right, let's unpack that.
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A beast is entirely governed by temporal needs.
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An animal eats, sleeps, seeks physical comfort and avoids
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physical pain. It has no capacity to
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contemplate eternity. Exact wait, I mean yes that is
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spot on. If a human being created with an
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immortal soul and an eternal destiny lives exclusively for
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the Stock Exchange, the weekend party, or acquiring real estate,
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they're ignoring the very thing that separates them from the
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animal Kingdom. They're denying their own
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design. He clarifies that these
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apathetic people are not necessarily openly opposing
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religion. No, they are not writing books
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to disprove the Bible. They just do not care.
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They are like Gallio in the book of Acts who cared for none of
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these things. They ignore the spiritual realm
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entirely unless a sudden severe illness or a terrifying car
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accident frightens them for a few.
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Minutes, but once the danger passes, they go right back to
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sleep. Then Ryle moves up a step to the
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second category. These are the people who are not
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completely apathetic, but they fall into the massive trap of
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good intentions. Oh, this one is tough.
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They hear a stirring sermon, or they attend the funeral of a
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close friend, and they feel a genuine emotional response.
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They think about religion. They talk about it in a vague,
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respectful way. But they never crossed the line
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into tangible action. Right.
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They're always meaning intending, purposing, and
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resolving to change, but tomorrow never comes.
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There is no actual separation from their favorite sins.
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There is no taking up the cross. To illustrate this, Ryle pulls a
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fascinating scene from Ezekiel 33.
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The people come to the prophet Ezekiel.
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They sit down and they listen to his words, but they absolutely
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refuse to do them. God tells Ezekiel that to the
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people he is nothing more than a lovely song, someone with a
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pleasant voice playing an instrument.
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They treat divine revelation as entertainment.
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They enjoy the rhetoric, but they reject the authority.
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Rile also brings up the parable of the son who was told by his
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father to go work in the vineyard.
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The son answered immediately. I go, Sir, but he never actually
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went. The danger Rile highlights here
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is mistaking the feeling of conviction for the act of
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conversion. Feeling bad about your actions
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or feeling a warm swell of inspiration to be a better
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person is not the same thing as actually turning to God in
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repentance. That is a terrifying
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distinction. I mean, I can feel bad about
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eating terrible food all week, but feeling bad about it does
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not burn any calories or heal my arteries.
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Great point. So we have the apathetic and we
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have the well-intentioned but inactive.
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Then we hit the third trap, formalism.
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Yes, formalism. These are the people who make a
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massive deal about the outward, visible parts of Christianity
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while entirely neglecting the inward reality.
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They never miss a Sunday service.
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They are incredibly strict about observing holidays like Lent.
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They attach huge significance to outward ordinances and liturgy.
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But Ryle points out they have no heart religion.
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They remain secretly unsatisfied because they are starting at the
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wrong end. This leads to one of the most
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vivid images in the entire text. Ryle warns his readers not to
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make shipwreck on the very lighthouse, which helps to show
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the channel into the harbor. OK, I need to push back on that
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concept for a second, or at least try to visualize the
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mechanics of it. If forms, routines, and church
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ordinances act as the lighthouse, how does someone
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crash a boat into them? The whole purpose of the
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lighthouse is to keep you away from the rocks.
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Right, but the lighthouse is meant to illuminate the safe
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passage. The safe passage is Christ
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himself. Okay, I am following.
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The forms of religion, the liturgy, the sacraments, the
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regular church attendance, they are designed to point your
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attention away from themselves and toward the Savior.
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Oh, I see, you make shipwreck on the lighthouse when you steer
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your boat directly into the stone tower, convinced that the
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tower itself is your final destination.
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You place your faith in the physical act of going to church,
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rather than placing your faith in the God you're supposed to
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meet there. Yes, you trust the signpost
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instead of traveling to the city the signpost points toward.
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That makes perfect sense. It brings to mind an analogy.
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Crashing into the lighthouse is like walking into a high end
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restaurant, sitting down at a table and picking up the menu.
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OK menu. You memorize the entire menu.
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You debate the font the menu is printed in.
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You admire the quality of the leather binding.
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You praise the chef who designed the courses.
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Oh, right. But you entirely forget to
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actually order the food and you end up starving to death right
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there at the table. That is perfect.
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The menu is necessary. It tells you what food is
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available. The ordinances of the church are
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necessary. They communicate the promises of
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God. But reading the menu provides 0
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calories. And participating in an outward
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form provides 0 grace unless it is received with genuine inward
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faith. This was the specific trap of
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the ritualists in Rile's day. They elevated the form so high
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that the substance was lost. Which moves us past the outward
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forms and into the internal reality.
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Rile asks questions 4-5 and six. #4 Have we received the
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forgiveness of our sins #5 Do we know anything by experience of
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conversion to God? And number six, do we know
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anything of practical Christian holiness?
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Notice how Ryle shifts the entire focus away from what we
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do on the outside and turns the spotlight onto the invisible
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transactions of the heart. Yeah, On the question of
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forgiveness, he stresses that general historical belief is
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completely insufficient for salvation.
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Right. Most people on the street will
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admit they are flawed or that they are sinners.
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They will admit that Christ is a Savior, but Ryle insists that
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holding a general historical belief about Jesus will not save
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anyone. He quotes Martin Luther here,
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and this is a staggering line, Luther said.
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Many are lost because they cannot use possessive pronouns.
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It is a brilliant psychological and theological insight.
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It highlights the vast difference between saying Christ
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is a Redeemer versus saying Christ is my Redeemer.
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The forgiveness purchased on the cross must be personally
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appropriated. You have to lay hold of it for
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yourself. Ryle tells a story about an old
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man speaking to a little girl. He tells her never to forget 2
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vital things. One, that our sins can be
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forgiven while we live, and two, that we can actually know and
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feel that we are forgiven. Ryle wants a listener to have
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absolute certainty of their standing before God.
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This requires a legal transaction.
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It is not just God ignoring our bad behavior.
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It is a declaration of righteousness.
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But justification does not happen in a vacuum.
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Which brings us to conversion question 5.
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Ryle insists on the absolute necessity of a thorough change
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in our nature. He argues that we are all by
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nature weak, worldly and completely inclined to sin.
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To explain this, he uses a very simple analogy about ducks.
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Ducks. Yeah, he says.
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Just as ducks naturally take to water as soon as they are
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hatched, children naturally take to selfishness, lying, and
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deceit. What he is outlining there is
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the theological concept of human depravity.
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Right. He is not saying that humans are
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as evil as they could possibly be at all times.
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He is saying that every part of our nature, our mind, our will,
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our emotions is fundamentally slanted away from God.
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Because of that natural slant, we do not need a little moral
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polishing or a few new habits. We need a completely new birth.
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Conversion involves a deep abiding hatred of sin, a resting
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faith in Christ, and a brand new delight in holiness.
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It permanently alters the natural inclination of the
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heart. The person who used to love sin
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now hates it, and the person who used to find God boring now
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finds him beautiful. And that shift leads directly to
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question 6. Do we know anything of practical
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Christian holiness? Ryle is very careful to clarify
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what Holiness is not. It is not absolute flawless
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perfection. He actually issues a strong
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warning against people who claim to have unbroken communion with
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God for months on end. He argues that kind of wild talk
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raises completely unscriptural expectations and deeply harms
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young believers who are struggling with their own
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failures. Absolute perfection belongs only
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to the next life on Earth. We are dealing with a weak
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physical body, a busy devil and a wicked world.
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Because of those 3 adversaries, true holiness on Earth is
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characterized by a constant fight and struggle.
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It is never passive. Ryle quotes the Apostle Paul
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saying I fight, I labor, I keep under my body.
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The Christian life is depicted as a battlefield, not a hammock.
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OK, here is where I want to push back and examine a real tension
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in the theology. Let's do it.
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We just talked about full free forgiveness.
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We talked about how salvation is a free gift received by faith,
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not by our own works. If salvation is entirely free
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and Jesus paid it all, why does Ryle insist on a constant fight
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and struggle for holiness? It almost sounds contradictory.
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Why do I have to fight if the war is already won?
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It is a vital tension to hold, and confusing the two creates
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massive theological problems. The free gift of justification,
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being legally declared righteous before God, is instantaneous,
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complete, and entirely based on Christ's work.
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But sanctification, the ongoing process of actually becoming
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holy in your daily thoughts and actions, is a lifelong, grueling
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battle. So the grace of God does not
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replace human effort in the realm of sanctification, it
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empowers human effort. Exactly.
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You are not fighting to earn earn your salvation.
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You are fighting because you have already been saved and you
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want your life to reflect that new reality.
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I think of it through a fitness analogy.
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Imagine a wealthy benefactor buys you a lifetime all access
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VIP gym membership. OK, I like this.
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It's completely free to you. You could never afford it in a
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million years. You're justified.
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You are officially in the club. Your name is on the Ledger.
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But receiving that free membership does not mean your
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physical conditioning just magically happens while you sit
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on the couch. You still have to set your
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alarm, wake up early, walk into the building, lift the heavy
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weights and push through the physical pain.
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The Benefactor gave you the access, but the benefactor is
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not going to do the push ups for you.
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That is a highly effective way to frame the relationship
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between faith and effort. Ryle would completely agree with
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that framing. He notes that genuine holiness
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will not make you run away to a cave and live like a hermit to
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avoid the world. True holiness shows up in the
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mundane daily grind. It makes a person humble, kind,
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unselfish and considerate in the little frustrating trials of
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daily life. It is immensely practical.
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And that everyday practicality spills out into how we interact
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with the world around us, which moves us to question 7:00 and
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8:00. Question 7 Do we know anything
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of enjoying the means of grace? Question 8.
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Do we ever try to do any good in the world?
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Let us start with the means of grace by this phrase, Ryle
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memes, reading the Bible, engaging in private prayer,
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attending public worship, partaking in the Lord's Supper,
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and keeping the Sabbath day. These are the standard channels
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God appointed to convey grace and strength to the human heart.
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But Ryle makes a razor sharp distinction between using them
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mechanically and genuinely enjoying them.
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He argues that our internal feeling about these practices is
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a primary diagnostic test of our souls actual state.
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If you read the Bible just to move your bookmark forward so
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you can feel satisfied that you did your religious duty, or if
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you mumble a string of words morning and evening without your
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mind ever engaging, you're completely missing the point.
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He asks A devastating question. How could a person possibly be
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happy in heaven forever if they find and Sunday a dull, gloomy,
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tiresome day down here? The logic there is inescapable.
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Heaven is described as a place of ceaseless worship and
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unbroken fellowship with God. If you do not enjoy the presence
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of God and the worship of God in this life, why would you want an
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eternity consisting of exactly that?
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You would be miserable. The means of grace supply a
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diagnostic test for your affections.
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Ryle basically says tell me how a man prays in private and how
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he reads his Bible and I will tell you which Rd. he is
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traveling. But Ryle refuses to let us stay
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hidden in our private prayer closets.
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He forces us to look outward with Question 8.
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Do we ever try to do any good in the world?
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And he goes absolutely scorched earth on a specific type of
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professing Christian here. He talks about people who are
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entirely swallowed up in the concerns of #1 meaning
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themselves and their immediate families.
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He fiercely critiques those who are possessed by what he calls a
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devil of detestable selfishness. These are people who eat well,
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dress well, work hard, accumulate money and spend money
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on their own comforts, but remains supremely indifferent to
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whether the people around them are happy, happy or miserable.
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They view their religion as a personal comfort blanket,
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entirely disconnected from the suffering of their neighbors.
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He points out that these same selfish people will happily
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argue by the hour about what he calls dry bone questions.
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They will furiously debate the proper mode of baptism, the
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right forms of worship, or the intricacies of church and state
22:16
relations. But they will not lift one
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single finger to show genuine, practical Samaritan love to a
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neighbor who is bleeding out on the side of the road.
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This raises a very interesting point of tension, especially
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considering who is writing this. Ryle spent his entire life
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writing thick theological books. Yes, he did.
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He cared deeply about precise doctrine.
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He fought battles over orthodoxy.
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So is he saying here that theological debates do not
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matter? Is he advocating for a kind of
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mindless social activism where we just feed people and ignore
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truth? I do not think he is saying
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theology does not matter. I think he is saying theology
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without love is an absolute abomination.
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It is like a group of doctors arguing over the architectural
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blueprints of a hospital while completely ignoring the bleeding
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patients sitting right there in the waiting room.
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Oh wow, yes the blueprints matter.
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If the load bearing walls are in a wrong place the entire
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building collapses. But the whole purpose of
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constructing the building in the 1st place is to heal the sick.
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If you are screaming at the construction crew about the
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blueprints while people are actively dying at your feet, you
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have completely lost the plot. That analogy clarifies the issue
23:26
perfectly. True doctrine is meant to
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produce the life of Christ within the believer.
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And what did the life of Christ look like on earth?
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He went about doing good. He noticed the marginalized.
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He healed the sick. He fed the hungry.
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He touched the leper. If our pristine, airtight
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theological systems do not result in a greater capacity to
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love our actual physical neighbors, then our systems are
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broken, or at the very least, our hearts are completely
23:52
broken. It is a heavy reality check.
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It forces us to ask if our religion is just an intellectual
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hobby. And that pushes us upward to the
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highest peak of this self inquiry.
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We're at the final two questions.
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Question 9. Do we know anything of living
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the life of habitual communion with Christ and question 10?
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Do we know anything of being ready for Christ's second
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coming? Question night requires us to
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draw a very firm theological line between two distinct
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concepts, union and communion. We must thoroughly differentiate
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them to understand what Ryle is demanding.
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He states that union is the common privilege of all who
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truly repent and believe. If you have genuine faith in
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Christ, you have union with Him, you are justified, you are
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forgiven, and you are permanently accepted in the
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courtroom of heaven. Union is the baseline.
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You cannot be a Christian without it.
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But Ryle laments that far too many believers never progressed
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beyond this initial stage. They get their chicken punched
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and then they sit down and stop walking.
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Partly from spiritual laziness, partly from fear of what others
24:52
might think, or perhaps a secret lingering love for the approval
24:55
of the world, they settle for a little faith, a little peace,
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and a very little measure of holiness.
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They limp along through life bearing very little fruit.
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They are safe, but they are incredibly weak.
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Communion, on the other hand, is the higher end of the inclined
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plane. Communion is the active, daily,
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habitual fellowship with Christ. It is a constant running
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dialogue with God throughout the day.
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He uses some highly poetic contrast to make this point
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stick. He says Union is the bud, but
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communion is the fully bloomed flower.
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Union is the infant babe, but Communion is the strong, mature
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man. To further illustrate this, he
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brings up characters from John Brennan's classic allegory,
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Pilgrim's Progress. He mentions characters named
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Despondency, Feeble Mind, and Much Afraid.
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Now these characters genuinely reached the Celestial City at
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the end of the book. They had union.
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They were truly saved. But they traveled the entire Rd.
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gripped by fear, experiencing very little comfort, and they
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did far less good in the world compared to a character like
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Valiant for the truth. Ryle is pleading with his
25:59
readers not to settle for a weak, powerless, uninfluential
26:03
faith. He wants them to draw out of
26:05
Christ the daily supply of grace they need to live robustly and
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courageously. And that robust, courageous
26:11
living leads directly to the final diagnostic question, the
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horizon line of the Christian faith.
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Are we ready for Christ's second coming?
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Ryle is emphatic that Christ will return visibly in the
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clouds to raise the dead, reward his Saints, and renew the earth.
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He points out that the ancient Christians made it a core part
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of their daily religion to eagerly look for this return.
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It was not a fringe theological debate for them.
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It was their daily hope. But Ryle immediately clarifies
26:38
what readiness actually looks like in practice.
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Readiness does not mean abandoning your daily life or
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shirking your responsibilities. The farmer not give up his farm
26:47
and stare at the sky. The shopkeeper should stay at
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his counter, the doctor should continue treating his patients,
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and the Carpenter should keep swinging his hammer.
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True readiness means doing your mundane daily duty as a
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Christian, fully engaged in the present reality.
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He uses this beautiful phrase doing your duty with a heart
27:04
packed up and ready to be gone. I love the imagery there, but I
27:08
also want to ask about the mechanics of it.
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Sure. How does someone genuinely care
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about their earthly job? How do you put real, focused
27:16
effort into being an excellent doctor or a skilled Carpenter
27:20
while simultaneously maintaining a packed up heart?
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It is a very fair critique. Does that mindset not inherently
27:26
force you to detach from reality and careless about your work?
27:29
If you are always looking up at the clouds, do you stop tending
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the soil beneath your feet? But true Christian readiness
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does the exact opposite. Oh, really?
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Because you know this physical world belongs to God and will
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eventually be renewed by Him, your daily labor suddenly gains
27:47
eternal weight. Right.
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You are not working to build a permanent, flawless earthly
27:52
utopia which frees you from the crushing, anxiety inducing
27:56
pressure of worldly success. You are simply working to honor
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God in the present moment, knowing the final outcome is
28:04
secure in His hands. So it is kind of like a traveler
28:07
staying in a really nice hotel room on a business trip.
28:09
Tell me more about that. They were there for a week.
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They respect the room, they keep it tidy, they might even buy
28:14
some fresh flowers to put on the desk while they work to make the
28:17
space beautiful. Yes, they take care of.
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It they are fully present and doing good work in that room,
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but they never for a single second forget that it is not
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their permanent home. Their suitcase is sitting in the
28:29
closet and their mind is constantly aware of their actual
28:33
permanent address. That captures the dynamic
28:35
perfectly. They do not start tearing down
28:37
the drywall to renovate the hotel.
28:39
They live exceptionally well in the space they are given, but
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they are always ready for check out.
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And Ryle issues a stark warning that the vast majority of
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professing Christians are not living with this mindset.
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They are acting like the men in the days of Noah, completely
28:54
absorbed in planting, building and accumulating, utterly
28:58
oblivious to the fact that their lease on this earth is about to
29:01
expire. OK, we have walked through 10
29:04
massive heart searching questions.
29:06
We move from the terrifying reality of complete apathy,
29:10
through the subtle danger of formal religion, into the
29:13
necessity of personal conversion, and all the way up
29:16
to habitual communion and readiness for the Second Coming.
29:19
Now we arrive at the final movement of Rile's text,
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pastoral application and comfort.
29:23
This concluding section reveals the true pastoral heart of JC
29:27
Rile. He spent the entire chapter
29:29
applying a very sharp, uncompromising diagnostic
29:32
Gnostic scalpel. He has dismantled superficial
29:35
cultural religion with relentless logic, but he does
29:38
not just leave the reader bleeding out on the operating
29:40
table. He maps out specific customized
29:43
remarks for five different spiritual states, ensuring that
29:47
every listener receives the medicine they need.
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Let us look into these five groups.
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The first group consists of those who are completely asleep
29:55
and utterly thoughtless about their souls.
29:57
His word to them is a stark, jarring warning.
30:00
He tells them to wake up and look at the local cemeteries,
30:03
noting that they must lie there one day soon.
30:05
He says they're like someone sleeping soundly in a boat that
30:09
is drifting rapidly down the stream toward Niagara Falls.
30:11
A severe warning meant to shock the nervous system into
30:15
awareness. But then he immediately turns to
30:17
the second group, the self condemned.
30:20
These are the individuals who read the 10 questions, see their
30:23
own massive failures, and feel terrified that there is no hope
30:26
for their souls. To them he offers the broad,
30:29
free, unconditional grace of Christ.
30:31
He quotes Jesus saying, Come unto me, all ye that labor, and
30:35
are heavy laden. He tells them to bring all their
30:37
sins, all their doubts, and all their unfitness directly to the
30:40
cross. He writes, This man receiveth
30:43
sinners. The third group is the Joyless
30:45
Believer. This is the person sitting at
30:48
ease, content with a tiny amount of faith, unconsciously
30:51
shrinking back from full devotion.
30:54
Ryle tells them to change their plan immediately.
30:56
Be thorough, very thorough. Stop holding back, stop worrying
31:00
about what the world thinks, and drink full drafts out of the
31:03
fountain of life. 4th He addresses the doubting and
31:07
feeble believer, the one who is constantly oppressed with fears
31:10
about their own physical and spiritual infirmity.
31:13
He points them to Matthew 12, quoting them a promise.
31:16
A bruised Reed will he not break, And smoking flax shall he
31:19
not quench? He assures them that the
31:21
absolute least grain of spiritual life is infinitely
31:24
better than spiritual death. He advises them to expect very
31:27
little from their own strength, but to expect massive things
31:30
from Christ. And finally, the fifth group,
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the downcast and the tried those facing severe bodily illness,
31:37
crushing family trials or public persecution.
31:40
Ryle points their eyes upward to a sympathizing savior.
31:43
He points out that Jesus was also alone, chronically
31:45
misrepresented, forsaken by his friends, and violently
31:48
persecuted. Jesus knows what it feels like
31:51
to suffer. He can feel for them, and he can
31:54
help them through the darkest valleys.
31:56
The shift in tone here is remarkable.
31:58
After so much heavy, demanding examination, he ends with
32:01
incredible gentleness and highly specific, tailored comfort.
32:05
It proves that his initial severity was motivated entirely
32:08
by love. It brings us right back to our
32:10
opening Michael analogy. True self inquiry, when guided
32:14
by scriptural truth, is never meant to destroy the listener.
32:17
It is meant to diagnose and heal.
32:20
It functions much like a skilled surgeon.
32:22
The surgeon makes deep, painful incisions into the body, but the
32:26
goal is never to cause senseless harm.
32:28
The goal is to locate and remove the tumor.
32:31
The incisions are meant to save the patient's life.
32:34
Rile's 10 questions act as the scalpel, cutting away the dead
32:37
tissue of formal religion. But his pastoral applications at
32:40
the very end act as the sutures and the healing bandage he
32:43
wounds in order to heal. The whole objective of this
32:46
intense process is to force an honest audit of the soul so that
32:50
the soul can find its ultimate rest in Christ, rather than
32:52
trusting in false superficial assurances.
32:54
Let us do a quick recap of the massive ground we just covered.
32:58
We started by looking at the specific danger of our current
33:00
age, the spiritual DRAM, drinking, and the subtle trap of
33:04
going through the outward motions of church while the
33:07
inward heart remains completely cold.
33:09
We moved to the absolute non negotiable necessity of personal
33:12
forgiveness and a radically changed nature.
33:15
We saw how true internal conversion cannot stay hidden.
33:19
It must inevitably spill out into active, practical Samaritan
33:23
love for our neighbors rather than just arguing endlessly
33:26
about dry bone theological concepts.
33:28
And finally, we looked at the heights of daily communion with
33:31
Christ and the mindset of living fully in the present while
33:34
remaining ready for His return. It is a comprehensive,
33:37
inescapable framework. It strips away every single
33:40
layer of cultural Christianity, removes all the polite excuses,
33:43
and leaves you standing face to face with the bare reality of
33:46
your own heart. Which leaves us with a final,
33:48
provocative thought to consider as we wrap up.
33:51
We often assume that the greatest threat to a vibrant
33:54
spiritual life is some spectacular public moral
33:57
failure. We worry about a huge scandal, a
34:00
devastating crisis of faith or a sudden renunciation of belief.
34:04
But what if the greatest threat is actually much quieter?
34:08
What if the absolute greatest danger to your soul is the slow,
34:12
undetected slippage into religious automation?
34:15
A state where all your theological vocabulary is
34:17
correct, your church attendance is flawless, your outward
34:20
behavior is respected, but your heart has entirely fallen
34:24
asleep. That is the very definition of
34:26
the muddy diagnostic waters we discussed at the beginning of
34:29
the hour. It is the condition that is
34:31
hardest to detect because everything looks perfectly fine
34:34
on the surface. The X-ray shows no broken bones.
34:37
You pass all the outward tests, but the internal organs are
34:40
quietly failing. So here is our challenge to you,
34:42
the listener. Sometime today, car out five
34:45
uninterrupted minutes of absolute silence.
34:48
Turn off the podcast, put away the screens, silence your phone,
34:52
and just sit quietly. Use that time to ask yourself
34:55
the exact question Paul asked in Acts 15.
34:57
How do I do about my soul? Let the murky water settle, stop
35:00
performing for the people around you, and take an honest look at
35:03
what actually remains in the quiet.
35:06
Thank you for joining us on this deep dive into reformed
35:09
thinking. We will catch you next time.