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Zeal For God Gone Wrong · Pastor John Piper's answers

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  Speaker 1: Happy Monday morning everyone. As we come upon the end
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  Speaker 1: appreciate it greatly. Thank you for partnering with us. Well,
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  Speaker 1: there's a story in the Old Testament. We read it
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  Speaker 1: this week, we study it today, and honestly it's a
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  Speaker 1: bit terrifying. It's about a guy named Jayhu. Jayhu pulled
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  Speaker 1: off a massive purge of idle worship in Israel on paper.
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  Speaker 1: For doing that, he's a hero of the faith he
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  Speaker 1: brags about his own zeal even but then just a
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  Speaker 1: few verses later, we get a bombshell that causes us
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  Speaker 1: to rethink everything that we know about Jehu. Today, I
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  Speaker 1: asked Pastor John zeal for God gone wrong? This is
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  Speaker 1: the same text that God Jared's attention in Michigan. He
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  Speaker 1: wrote this, Pastor John, hello, and thank you for apj
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  Speaker 1: I am struck by the story of Jehu in the
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  Speaker 1: Old Testament. He was clearly zealous enough to declare openly,
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  Speaker 1: come with me and see my zeal for the Lord
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  Speaker 1: in Two Kings ten sixteen. And he did enact that
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  Speaker 1: zeal by purging bail worship from inside of Israel, which
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  Speaker 1: was a big accomplishment. And yet the Bible's final verdict
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  Speaker 1: on him, just a few verses later, is that Jaehu
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  Speaker 1: was not careful to walk in the law of the Lord,
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  Speaker 1: the God of Israel, with all his heart. That's Tewod
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  Speaker 1: King's ten thirty one. It makes me wonder about my
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  Speaker 1: own motives. How do we guard ourselves against the self
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  Speaker 1: deception of believing we are serving God passionately, even doing
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  Speaker 1: big things for him, when in reality our zeal is
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  Speaker 1: just performative half hearted or driven by something other than
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  Speaker 1: true love for him.
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  Speaker 2: Jae who is a tragic figure in Israel's history. He
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  Speaker 2: was a king of Israel who became king by wiping
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  Speaker 2: out Ahab and his wife Jezebel, and all his sons
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  Speaker 2: and heirs. It was complete carnage. God's prophet Elisha had
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  Speaker 2: in fact given him a word from God to do
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  Speaker 2: just this. Elishah's messenger said to Jehu, I anoint you
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  Speaker 2: king over Israel, and you shall strike down the house
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  Speaker 2: of Ahab, your master, so that I may avenge on
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  Speaker 2: Jezebel the blood of my servants, the prophets. And as
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  Speaker 2: Jehu finished off Ahab's lineage, he said, come with me
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  Speaker 2: and see my zeal for the Lord. Second King's ten sixteen.
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  Speaker 2: That sounds so positive and so helpful. Who could find
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  Speaker 2: fault with the zeal for the Lord. But what makes
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  Speaker 2: Jehu a tragic figure is that when the Bible sums
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  Speaker 2: up his life's work, it reveals that his zeal was defective.
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  Speaker 2: Listen to this summary of Jehu's life in Second Kings
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  Speaker 2: ten twenty eight to thirty one. Jehu wiped out Bail,
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  Speaker 2: that is, the false God. You wiped him out he
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  Speaker 2: wiped out idolatry like that from Israel. But verse twenty nine,
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  Speaker 2: Jayhu did not turn aside from the sins of jai Boam,
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  Speaker 2: the son of Nibe, which he made Israel to sin,
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  Speaker 2: that is the golden calves that were in Bethel and Dan.
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  Speaker 2: And the Lord said to Jehus verse thirty because you
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  Speaker 2: have done well in carrying out what is right in
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  Speaker 2: my eyes, and have done to the house of Ab
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  Speaker 2: according to all that was in my heart. Your sons
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  Speaker 2: of the fourth generation sell sit on the throne of
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  Speaker 2: Israel verse thirty one. But Jayhu was not careful to
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  Speaker 2: walk in the law of the Lord, the God of Israel.
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  Speaker 2: With all his heart. He did not turn from the
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  Speaker 2: sins of Jereboam, which he made Israel to sin. What
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  Speaker 2: a tragedy. God actually commended Jehu that he had quote
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  Speaker 2: done well. In other words, at the external of deeds,
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  Speaker 2: he had been obedient. The bail worship was destroyed, the
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  Speaker 2: murderous house of Ahab and Jezebel was wiped out. But
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  Speaker 2: there were two problems, jay who still loved idols if
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  Speaker 2: not bail, and jay who did not obey God with
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  Speaker 2: all his heart. Much of his heart was driven by
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  Speaker 2: his love affair with the golden calves of Bethel and Dan,
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  Speaker 2: and by personal vindictiveness against Ahab and Jezebel. In other words,
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  Speaker 2: it is possible. This is the sobering part. It is
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  Speaker 2: possible to have a kind of zeal for God today
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  Speaker 2: today that loves the external forms of Christianity, but does
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  Speaker 2: not love God. Zeal itself was not the problem. Zeal
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  Speaker 2: can be wonderfully good, even essential. I think Isaiah ninety seven.
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  Speaker 2: We all love this. Of the increase of his government
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  Speaker 2: and of peace. There will be no end on the
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  Speaker 2: throne of David and over his kingdom. To establish it
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  Speaker 2: and to uphold it with justice and righteousness. From this
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  Speaker 2: time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of
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  Speaker 2: Hosts will do this. And Jesus himself was driven by
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  Speaker 2: a kind of jay who likes zeal when he turned
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  Speaker 2: over the money changer's tables, zeal for your house has
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  Speaker 2: consumed me John two seventeen. And Paul said to the
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  Speaker 2: Corinthians that their zeal had stirred up other believers. To
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  Speaker 2: Corinthians nine to two, and he said to the believers
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  Speaker 2: in Rome, do not be slothful in zeal but be
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  Speaker 2: fervent in spirit. So clearly zeal is not only a
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  Speaker 2: good thing, it's actually, I think, a crucial thing in
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  Speaker 2: the Christian life. God wants us engaged with him, not
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  Speaker 2: half heartedly, not with lukewarm affection, but with all our heart,
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  Speaker 2: not just a fraction of it. Jayhu is not the
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  Speaker 2: only biblical warning about defective zeal, though Paul looked back
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  Speaker 2: on his own pre Christian life and said, with great
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  Speaker 2: regret as to zeal, I was a persecutor of the
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  Speaker 2: church Philippins three six. And perhaps the most important warning
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  Speaker 2: of all was Paul's amazing statement in Romans tend To,
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  Speaker 2: where he says of his beloved kinsman, according to the flesh,
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  Speaker 2: his fellow Jews, I bear them witness that they have
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  Speaker 2: a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. In
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  Speaker 2: a sense, that's very much the problem with Jehu, a
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  Speaker 2: zeal for God but not according to knowledge. And Paul
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  Speaker 2: was referring to his precious Jewish kinsmen because they were
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  Speaker 2: quote ignorant. This is Romans tend for they were ignorant
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  Speaker 2: of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their
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  Speaker 2: own They did not submit to God's righteousness. So both
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  Speaker 2: Jehu and the Pharisees. Paul was a Pharisee before he
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  Speaker 2: was a Christian. Both Jaehu and the Pharisees had a
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  Speaker 2: zeal for the law of God, but they were ignorant
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  Speaker 2: of the heart of the law. They thought that external
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  Speaker 2: compliance was the main thing, but authentic love for God
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  Speaker 2: himself as the all satisfying treasure was missing. And I
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  Speaker 2: think the answer to Jared's question about how do we
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  Speaker 2: guard ourselves against this self deception of Jehu and the
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  Speaker 2: Pharisees is mainly answered by being aware of the difference
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  Speaker 2: between external conformity to rules and internal enjoyment of God.
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  Speaker 2: Because once we are aware of the difference between false
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  Speaker 2: zeal and true zeal, we can test ourselves, so we
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  Speaker 2: can ask the crucial questions like am I excited about
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  Speaker 2: this new Christian political movement? Or am I excited about Christ?
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  Speaker 2: Am I excited about out doing my friends with spiritual disciplines?
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  Speaker 2: Or about Christ? Am I in love with the name
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  Speaker 2: I am making for myself as an articulate religious zealot?
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  Speaker 2: Or am I in love with Jesus? If we ask
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  Speaker 2: these questions honestly, I believe God will refine and purify
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  Speaker 2: our zeal. It will accord with true knowledge and it
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  Speaker 2: will go deep into our hearts.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, Jayhu's story is haunting doing the right things but
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  Speaker 1: with the wrong heart. For for us, it means it's
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  Speaker 1: possible to have a kind of zeal for God today
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  Speaker 1: that loves the external forms of Christianity but does not
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  Speaker 1: love God. But if we are willing to interrogate our
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  Speaker 1: own motives, there's hope for us that God will refine
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  Speaker 1: and purify our zeal. Amen, there's hope if we're honest.
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  Speaker 1: Thank you, Pastor John, and again, please consider joining us
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• 10:47
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  Speaker 1: our egos, that's an essential key to saving a marriage.
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  Speaker 1: It's tomorrow, how to save a marriage? I'm Tony Ranky.
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  Speaker 1: We'll see you back here on Thursday.