Life in the Father's House #2 - "A Culture of Spiritual Zeal" (Romans 12:11)

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I'm not going to read these words.
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I won't say who they're from just yet. But here's the quotation.
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Quote, many churches in America are looking less like armies engaged in war and more like lazy boy chairs from which drowsy
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Christians are saying, don't wake me up. Who among us hasn't seen this decay?
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Who cannot see a difference between the ancient church and us? In former days, a fire burned within Christians and our hearts seldom, but our hearts, excuse me, seldom, if ever, burn within us.
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Formerly, Christians seemed driven by a holy passion, but now little seems to motivate us. Christians of old who are at war with their sin and strove for holiness by heavenly strength, but we seem to tolerate sin rather easily and are satisfied to do the minimum of what
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God requires of us. Like the Laodicean church, too many of us have grown lukewarm.
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We are not zealous for the things of God. Where today do you find zeal for the honor and glory and holiness of God?
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Our lives are not marked by zeal, nor do they reflect the sacrifices necessary to strengthen and embolden
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Christian zeal. Those aren't my words.
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Those are actually the words of Joel Beakey in his excellent work, A Puritan Theology, Doctrine for Life.
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Towards the end of the book, he has a chapter that he entitles Puritan Sacrificial Zeal. And those were his introductory words to that chapter.
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The question that I leave with you as I begin this message is this, how do those words hit you?
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Do they resonate with you? Do they anger you? Do they raise questions?
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How do those words hit? When I read those words for the first time,
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I bought the book when it first came out in 2012. And when I read those words for the first time,
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I have to be honest with you, I couldn't sleep for a few days because I had to ask myself whether I was reflected in those words.
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And so I began to look into resources on the theme of zeal and growing in zeal. And the big discovery
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I made was that there weren't that many, at least not that weren't wild and weird and came from places that theologically we would have massive questions about.
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In fact, I found lots of books that were trying to encourage Christians to not be so zealous, to not take themselves so seriously.
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But regardless, we can't, I think if anybody pays attention, we can't look at the state of the world and think that Christianity as usual, business as usual, as we've been engaged in it for quite some time, that business as usual is going to cut it.
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I think we can all agree, whether we look at the world at large or even sometimes the church itself.
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And when I say the church, again, I'm not saying our local church in particular. I'm saying the church, big C. I think we can all agree that something has to give.
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And the temptation is often, when we kind of think about the fact that something has to give, the temptation is often to think,
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OK, so what we need is kind of pulpit thumping, try harder and do better. And I'll confess,
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I've been guilty of that sometimes. But it hit me not too long ago that actually if we genuinely want to see change, if we genuinely want to see spiritual zeal, if we genuinely want to see lives transformed by the power of God and by the power of the gospel, if that's going to happen, we can't spend all of our time complaining about the fruit of a lack of zeal.
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We need to get to the root of the issue. How is it that we can become a people who are marked by spiritual zeal?
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How can we become a people who are marked by Christ -honoring, Bible -driven, spirit -empowered, world -changing zeal?
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How does that? Well, I think the text that we are in this afternoon will go some ways to help us with that.
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You remember that, as we said, we were in Romans chapter 12. And last week, you remember I said that really what you're seeing in Romans chapter 12 from verse 9 through 21, which is going to be our focus for this and next week, that in Romans 12, 9 through 21, we're answering the question of, how does the gospel, how does the good news of the forgiveness of sins and the redemption that Christ has won for us, how does that good news affect the shared life, the gathering together of God's people?
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Essentially, we're answering the question, how do redeemed people live together like redeemed people?
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And you remember last week, I said that there are really three big themes that emerge from this section of God's word.
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So in verses 9 and 10, which we looked at last week, we saw the foundational virtue of love, that first and foremost, the shared life of the people of God is characterized by love for one another.
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And so we started with love last week. We're going to look at a second major theme in this section, which is verse 11, the theme of zeal.
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And next week, we'll look at the theme of service in verses 12 through 21.
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So love in verses 9 and 10, zeal in verse 11, and service in verses 12 through 21.
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Now, I have to be honest and say that when we talk about this subject of zeal, this subject of spiritual zeal, it's very easy to misunderstand what the term zeal means.
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And so I'm going to take a little while before we actually get to our text, because what
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I want to do before we get to our text is to ensure that we're all on the same page as to what we mean when we use this language of zeal.
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If we're all on the same page, it will help us when we actually start to discuss what
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Paul has to say to us in chapter 12 and verse 11. So for a few moments, if you grab the study guide, which I hope you did,
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I want to clarify our terms very quickly. I want to spend a few moments clarifying our terms.
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I want to make sure that we have a good definition of what zeal isn't and what zeal is before we move forward.
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So clarifying our terms, letter A there if you've got the study guide, what spiritual zeal isn't?
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Let's start there. Let's start by answering the question, what spiritual zeal is not?
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If we start there, it will help us when we actually define what zeal is. And really there are two thoughts I have there. First of all, number one, we have to be careful not to confuse zeal with excitement.
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That's number one. Zeal is not the same thing as excitement. We have to be very careful that we don't confuse the two.
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The reality is when we think about zeal, for lots of people, we kind of conflate the two words, being zealous and being enthusiastic as though they are the same thing.
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And I want to pause a moment. I want to kind of pump the brakes and say, not so fast.
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Because actually there are massive differences between zeal and excitement.
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And I think that when we think about the difference, really the biggest difference is its source. The source of these two things are completely different.
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As we're going to see in just a few moments, zeal is an internal disposition.
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Excitement is an external response. Zeal is an internal disposition.
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Excitement is an external response. If I can put it another way, zeal is something that comes from the inside out.
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Excitement is something that comes from the outside in. Well, why is that important?
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Why would you want to labor that point for a moment? It's important because if you need something outside of you to excite you all the time, think about this.
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You know this from experience. The things that excite you will constantly change. I mean, think about it.
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Are you excited? Let me put it this way. Are you excited about the same things that you were excited about when you were 18 years old?
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I don't know how far that period of life is from you. I'm 32, so it's a fair distance away from where it once was.
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Are you excited about the same things that you were when you were 18? I'll be honest, some of those things
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I'm still excited about, I was excited about my football team.
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I'm still very excited by the football team I support. I've supported the same one since I was about 11 or 12. Actually earlier than that.
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I'm excited by that. Still excited, as you all know,
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I have a longstanding love affair with cheesecake. I really like cheesecake.
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I'm still excited by cheesecake. But there are lots of things I was excited about at 18
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I'm really not excited about. In fact, there are some of those things I look back and I think,
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Kofi, seriously, what were we doing? Why were you excited about that? Seriously.
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The reality is external things that excite us change from time to time. But when we talk about zeal, we're not talking about things from the outside that may excite us in the moment or for a season.
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Because the reality is external motivations don't last. Not always. But properly cultivated spiritual zeal does.
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Why? Because it's something that comes from within, not from the outside. So the first clarification we need to make is that zeal is not the same thing as excitement.
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But number two there, we have to be clear that not all zeal is spiritual zeal.
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Not all zeal is spiritual zeal. You can have people who are zealous, incredibly zealous, but they're not zealous necessarily about the things of God.
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They're not necessarily zealous about things that matter spiritually.
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The theologian Charles Hodge preached a sermon during his time at Princeton Seminary on the subject of zeal. And in that sermon he said this, that there can indeed be no holy zeal for sin or error, but there may be an unholy zeal for God and truth.
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And he gives us an example, actually. We should see this. Keep something in Romans 12. Turn over a few pages to Romans chapter 10.
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Romans chapter 10, Romans 9, 10, 11, Paul is answering the question of if God is as faithful as we say he is, which is how he ends chapter eight, what do we do with the nation of Israel and the fact that God made promises to them and it seems like his promises haven't been fulfilled.
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Romans 9, 10, 11 is his answer to that question. And in chapter 10, Paul head on deals with the issue of the nation of Israel and he says this,
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Romans chapter 10, verses one to three. Romans 10, one to three, Paul says, brothers and sisters, my heart's desire and prayer to God concerning them, them being the nation of Israel, is for their salvation.
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Verse two, I can testify about them that they have zeal for God, but know what
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Paul says? He says they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
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They're really zealous, they're really passionate about the things of God, but the passion that they have for the things of God isn't according to knowledge.
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Verse three, since they are ignorant of the righteousness of God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to God's righteousness.
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They're zealous and he says, that's commendable, they're zealous, I can say that about them, but it's not according to knowledge.
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Well, what's the knowledge in this context? It's not in line with the gospel. You see, we have to be careful that we don't assume, well, that person's really zealous, that person's really passionate, they must be doing the right thing.
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You see, zeal isn't determined by how hard somebody works or what they put off necessarily.
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So Charles Hodge, again, he says this, many unholy men are exceedingly fervent in their zeal and many such men make the greatest sacrifices for their ends.
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In other words, you can have people who are really zealous, but they're zealous for the wrong thing and they'll make all kinds of sacrifices because they're incredibly zealous.
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Some of you, if you've been around church long enough, you've heard people make arguments like this. So and so, they're part of X group.
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Their group is really passionate. Why can't Christians be as passionate as that group? Have you heard that argument before? I've made that argument before and I had to rethink it a few years ago because it hit me, wait a minute.
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Just because they're really passionate and just because they're really hardworking doesn't mean that they're proclaiming the truth.
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You can be passionate for the wrong reason. See, the reality is we can't confuse either excitement or working really hard for being spiritually zeal.
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Those things at times can be counterfeits of spiritual zeal. So if those aren't the marks of spiritual zeal, the question becomes, well, what are the marks of spiritual zeal?
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Well, that's letter B there in our clarifying the terms little section there. Well, we've asked the question, what zeal is it? Well, let's ask the question, what spiritual zeal is?
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Let's actually define what spiritual zeal is. And I think that when we ask this question of what spiritual zeal is,
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I think we can boil it down to one sentence. I know our slides are having technical issues today. So I have a definition.
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I put it up on screen. Unfortunately, we don't have it. So I'll do my best to say a few times so you can write it down. If we're gonna define what spiritual zeal is, zeal,
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I think we can define as this. Spiritual zeal is the spirit -empowered disposition of the soul.
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Oh, I guess our slides are working, there we go. Spiritual zeal is the spirit -empowered disposition of the soul, where we are totally devoted to the
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Lord and His work with singular passion, drive, and focus.
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Allow me to say it again. Spiritual zeal is the spirit -empowered disposition of the soul, where we are totally devoted to the
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Lord's work, to the Lord, excuse me, and His work with singular passion, drive, and focus.
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A few thoughts about that. First of all, it's a disposition of the soul. It's not, again, something that's external to you.
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It's something that happens from within. Secondly, notice
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I said that it's a spirit -empowered disposition of the soul.
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In other words, this is something that the Spirit of God does internally.
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Some of the older writers used to talk about zeal and they used the word that zeal is a grace. It's something that is given to the believer.
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Something that the Spirit of God works in the heart of the believer. And thirdly, it's a work that flows out in single -minded devotion to the
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Lord. It's the kind of thing that Paul describes if you're taking notes, 1 Corinthians chapter seven and verse 35,
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Paul says in 1 Corinthians chapter seven that he was writing about marriage and whether one should marry or remain single.
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And he says, I'm not writing to put any burden on you, but I want to secure your single -minded devotion to the
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Lord. That's what spiritual zeal is. It's a spirit -empowered disposition of the soul where we are totally devoted to the
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Lord and his work with singular passion, drive, and focus.
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So if that's what our definition of zeal is, the question becomes, well, if zeal is a disposition of the soul, it's a grace, it's empowered by the
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Spirit, and it leads to single -minded devotion, singular passion, drive, and focus, the question becomes, how can we become zealous?
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How can we become zealous in our walk with the Lord? You know, that kind of leads to my big idea for this message.
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My big idea for our message is very simple. A zealous faith requires
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Spirit -enabled cultivation and will lead to vibrant Christian service.
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A zealous faith requires Spirit -enabled cultivation and will lead to vibrant Christian service.
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One more time. A zealous faith requires Spirit -enabled cultivation and will lead to vibrant Christian service.
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Now that I've kind of laid, I think, a sufficient foundation for what we want to talk about, for the rest of our time,
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I want to consider three truths about spiritual zeal which we cannot afford to ignore, three truths about spiritual zeal that we cannot afford to ignore.
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If we're going to be characterized by genuine spiritual zeal, there are three truths that we're gonna learn from this simple verse in Romans chapter 12 and verse 11.
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Three truths if we're gonna be characterized by zeal. If we're going to become a zealous people, a genuinely zealous people, well, that pursuit begins with recognizing, point number one, that zeal has to be earnestly cultivated.
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Zeal has to be earnestly cultivated. Zeal has to be earnestly cultivated.
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So let's look at our verse, Romans chapter 12 and verse 11. How does Paul begin it there? Do not lack diligence in zeal.
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Now, in the original language, Paul doesn't actually add the words in zeal. He just says, do not lack diligence, which is interesting because he's gonna tell us in just a moment that zeal is
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Spirit -empowered, but he starts by saying, do not lack diligence, and the
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CSB rightly infers that that's in the context of talking about zeal. You see, zeal is a grace that's given by the
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Spirit. You cannot manufacture it. You cannot work it up, but here's the wonderful thing.
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In the mystery of God's dealings with his people, zeal is something that we have a role in cultivating.
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You can't create it, but you can cultivate it. Now, if that sounds kind of contradictory for a moment, let me see if I can use an illustration that can help.
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Both Laura and I are cursed with black thumbs. We are not good at growing things. I can cook using the ability of other people's ability to grow.
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Praise God for that. The product of their ability to grow things, I can work with that, but me trying to grow things, no.
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Laura's actually better than me, to be fair, but neither of us are that great at growing things, but I'm told by people who are good at that sort of thing.
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I vaguely remember paying attention in science class, even though I didn't like science at school. I vaguely remember being told that everything that a seed needs to grow is found in the seed itself, that when you hold a seed, it has all the potential it needs to grow, that everything the seed needs, the seed has, but none of us would think if I just take a seed and I put it on my windowsill that the seed itself is gonna grow, is it?
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No, we recognize that you've got to do some things for that potential that is contained within the seed to work, so you need some sort of earth.
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You need water, you need fertilizer, you need sunlight. Depending on what you're trying to grow, you may need some additional food for that thing to grow.
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Like all of these things are required if the seed, which has all this potential, is going to grow.
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And I'm gonna argue zeal is exactly the same. Every Christian, when you became a Christian, you received the Holy Spirit, which means, excuse me, when you became a
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Christian, you received the seed of spiritual zeal. That seed is there.
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It is resident in the heart of every believer by faith, but that seed in and of itself will not grow by itself.
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That seed calls for some work. It calls for some cultivation if that seed is going to grow and grow at its best.
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When Paul calls us to diligence in the realm of zeal, he's calling for us to work hard at developing and cultivating spiritual zeal.
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And that's why he can say, right out of the gate, do not lack diligence in the area of zeal.
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Okay, Paul, so you want us to be diligent in zeal. Okay, I hear you. Okay, great.
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How? What is it that needs to take place for us to be diligent in zeal?
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Do we need a special crisis moment to kind of shock us into being zealous? Is it that, you know, somebody has zeal and you don't, and so you need someone to lay hands on you and impart the power of spiritual zeal, as it were?
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Is it reading the right book or going to the right conference or the right seminar? Is that what helps us in cultivating zeal?
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Is there some special thing we need to do to grow and develop in spiritual zeal, to cultivate spiritual zeal?
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Well, thankfully, I'm gonna say no, there isn't some special thing you need to do. It's not some special crisis moment you need.
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You don't need someone to lay their hands on you and impart the power of spiritual zeal. It's not even in the right book or the right conference or the right seminar, though I encourage you to go to those things.
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No, the mystery of spiritual growth is that spiritual growth is complex in terms of how it happens, but in terms of the means, it's actually quite simple.
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You see, being spiritually zealous, the grace of spiritual zeal, I'm gonna argue is cultivated by the ordinary means of grace.
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Now, if that phrase is unfamiliar to you, it's one that we use around here at Redeemer fairly regularly, but if it's unusual to you or it's new to you, this is what we mean when we say the ordinary means of grace.
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God in his goodness saves us by his grace and he sustains us by his grace. The sustaining grace that we need is given to us by God through particular means that his spirit uses.
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Our fathers in the faith put it like this. Question 154 of the Westminster Catechism says, what are the outward means whereby
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Christ communicates to us the benefits of his mediation? So the fact that Jesus is our mediator before the father, that he sustains us in our spiritual life.
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Well, what are the means that Jesus uses to benefit, excuse me, to communicate to us, to give to us the benefits of that mediation?
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And our fathers in the faith answered it like this. They said, the outward and ordinary means whereby Christ communicates to his church, the benefits of his mediation are all his ordinances.
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And they noted especially the word, the sacraments and prayer, all of which are made effectual or they're made powerful to the elect for their salvation.
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And salvation isn't talking salvation from sin, it's talking about salvation, well, salvation from the penalty of sin,
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I should say. It's salvation from the presence of sin, our ongoing sanctification. God's regular means of growing
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Christians is through his word, through the sacraments that he gives to us, baptism, when we become part of the gathered church and the
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Lord's supper, where we are nourished in our life together as the gathered church through his word, through the sacraments, through prayer and all of this in the context of the gathering of the people of God.
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And I need to maybe spell this out a little more, letter A there in the study guide, letter A under point one.
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First of all, zeal is cultivated by earnest prayer. Zeal is cultivated by earnest prayer.
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We start growing in spiritual zeal to the degree that we are willing to ask for it.
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It's like what James says, James chapter four, verse two, you do not have because you do not ask.
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I won't labor this point because it's one I make all the time here at Redeemer. But if we feel ourselves lacking in spiritual zeal, we would be wise to start with prayer, prayer individually, prayer as families, prayer in our small groups, prayer as a local church.
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One of more practical, that was one reason that we've started these monthly prayer meetings that we're calling the engine room.
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Because one of the means by which spiritual zeal is developed much like energy is developed in an engine room, one of the ways in which that happens and I would argue one of the primary ways that happens is through prayer.
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Again, Charles Hodge says, gather warmth by continual intercourse with God and you will cherish the influence of his spirit.
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If you are making regular intercourse, contact with God through prayer a priority.
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One of the things that God promises to do through that, remember what James says, draw near to God and he will draw near to you.
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One of the ways in which that happens is through earnest prayer. But not only is zeal cultivated by earnest prayer, secondly, zeal is cultivated by careful attention to God's word.
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Zeal is cultivated by careful attention to God's word.
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If you've been on Redeemer in length of time, you've heard me say this before. But God creates by his word and God sustains what he creates by his word.
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That was true in the first creation. So you read Genesis chapter one, it says, God spoke and it came to be.
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God spoke and God saw. You see that pattern over and over and over again that God creates by his word and then the rest of the
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Bible will tell us that not only does he create by his word, but he sustains by it. Well, that's true in the new creation by faith as well.
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So Peter can say, remember, it's a couple of summers ago, we were in first Peter, if you're a Redeemer regular. Remember what Peter said, 1
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Peter 1 .22, that since you've been saved by the living and abiding word of God, you should basically obey the truth by loving one another sincerely from a pure heart.
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The word of God is what God uses to create faith in his people, Romans 10 .17. So then faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word about Christ.
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So God creates faith by his word, but he also sustains our faith by his word.
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And the reality is a sustained personal habit of being in the word of God is critical to spiritual zeal.
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And this is not just a New Testament reality. We see this in the Old Testament as well. Tell me to Psalm 119,
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I wanna show you something there. Psalm 119, Psalm 119 is the extended celebration of the word of God.
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It's 176 verses of the Psalm is basically giving
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God praise for the gift of his revelation. And I wanna draw your attention to a theme that comes up again and again in Psalm 119.
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So Psalm 119, begin with me in verse 25. Psalm 119 .25, the psalmist says, my life is down in the dust.
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Give me life through your word. Jumping down to verse 37, psalmist says, turn my eyes from looking at what is worthless.
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Give me life in your ways. And the ways of God, there are again, a reference to his revelation, to his word.
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Verse 40, how I long for your precepts. Give me life through your righteousness.
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All the way down in verse 93. Psalm 119 .93, I will never forget your precepts for you have given me life through them.
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Verse 107, I'm severely afflicted Yahweh. Give me life according to your, 149.
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In keeping with your faithful love, hear my voice Lord, give me life in keeping with your justice.
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Verse 154, champion my cause and redeem me. Give me life as you promised.
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And verse 156, your compassions are many Lord. Give me life according to your judgments.
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You pick up on the theme there? Psalm is rightly understood that the only way that spiritual life would come about for him was through God's word.
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And I have to wonder, when we look at the church at large and read the statistics,
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I'm sure you have as I have, if you're into that sort of thing anyway, you read the statistics that biblical literacy among Christians, not among the world, among Christians is at its worst and has been for quite some time.
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I can't help but wonder that is there a correlation? And I personally think there is, but let's just put it as a question for a moment.
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Is there a correlation between a lack of attentiveness to God's word beginning in the pulpit, but just in general, a lack of attentiveness to God's word and lack of zeal for the things of God?
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I mean, should it really be that much of a surprise? Again, I leave that to you to think about.
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I think it's not that much of a surprise. And the irony is, as a result, we've tried to, again, remember what
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I said, the difference between zeal and excitement. So what we've ended up doing is because we've kind of said,
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God's word, okay, well, kind of important, but not really. What ends up happening?
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In the words of Dr. Volodymyr Barkun, the modern church ends up producing passionate people with empty heads who passionately love a Jesus they do not know.
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I grew up in tradition where at times it was made to sound as though if you really care about the Bible, if you really care about doctrine, if you really care about theology, that's going to kill your zeal.
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But I'm sorry, the more I read the Bible, the more I see that the opposite is true. That if we truly care about God's word, we will be a people characterized by spiritual zeal.
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And so it has to begin with us making this word of God a priority and say,
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I'm going to prioritize timing God's word. I'm going to prioritize growing in the grace and knowledge of our
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Lord Jesus Christ as he's revealed in this word, that I am going to make this word the centerpiece for my life.
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And bringing it back to our theme of life in the Father's house is one of the reasons that here at Redeemer, we've made a point of prioritizing the word in pretty much all of our stated gatherings.
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Whether it's Sundays, midweek, and Bible studies, men's training that we just started. It's because we recognize that spiritual zeal doesn't happen without being a people of the book.
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But it's not just reading and studying the word personally that promotes zeal. Our fathers in the faith rightly understood that one of the means that God used was not just the reading and hearing of God's word, but also the preaching of it.
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So Joe Beeky and Mark Jones in their book stated plainly that quote, preaching the word is a powerful means to blow on the coals of zeal and keep them aflame because God himself speaks to us, excuse me, in preaching.
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When the word is faithfully preached, God speaks to our hearts, lighting his match and blowing upon the coals of our zeal with his spirit to make our zeal burn afresh.
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And yet, isn't it a tragedy? I've said it before. Actually, no, I've said it in other places. I don't think I've said it here. But this is a thing that I think can happen for us.
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It can happen for any church that takes the word of God seriously. After a while, you kind of get used to the fact that, well, this is just what we do.
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I know this happens because even God's word says it. One of the prophets, I believe it's
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Isaiah where God tells him essentially that you're going to be, Isaiah, like somebody who's in the marketplace singing songs, singing love songs.
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I think that's actually the way the ESV renders it. That people are gonna delight to hear what you have to say, but they're not really going to care.
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It's very easy for the preaching of God's word to become at best background noise in the life of a church.
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You know, we just expect it. We take it for granted. You know, I encounter this often. People will call me because my phone number's on the church website.
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They'll call and they'll ask about the church and what have you. And, you know, they've got their list of things they're looking for, which again, everybody has their list of things, that's fine.
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But it gets fascinating to me at times because they'll ask me all sorts of things.
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And almost nine out of 10 times when that happens, what happens in the pulpit never gets asked.
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The reality is, though, and again, this is why I think older generations kind of have us beat a little bit.
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The reality is that in the preaching of God's word, God is doing something. It's not just you come and hear me.
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There are way better preachers you can hear than me. That's not really the point. I have to pause and say,
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I think our internet age hasn't helped matters because now you can ignore the preaching in your own local church and listen to preaching online all the time if you want.
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That's not a bad thing. I think it's a good thing, but I think unguarded, it can be a danger. But for a moment, what if we genuinely recognized that the preached word is, as Paul says in Ephesians chapter four,
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Christ speaking to his people. Tells the Ephesians in Ephesians chapter four, this is not how you learn
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Christ. Supposing that you heard him, most of our translations add the word about him, small problem.
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Brother, I noticed you had a Greek New Testament. You can check me on this. In Ephesians four, when Paul says that there's no about him, it says, assuming that you heard him.
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Well, how did the Ephesians, almost 30 years after the events of the gospels, hear Jesus because they heard him preach?
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What if we recognize the preached word is God speaking to us? What if we recognize that not just the reading of God's word, wonderful and as beneficial and as invaluable as that is, that is not the only way in which the word of God is the means of grace.
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The preaching of it is too. What if we came to the preaching moment with the expectation that God is doing a work in our hearts and flaming our zeal as he speaks to us in preaching?
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I have so much more I'd like to say, but I'll save that for Wednesday night in our midweek gathering if you wanna hear more. Zeal is cultivated by earnest prayers, cultivated by careful attention to the word of God.
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Thirdly, zeal is cultivated by Christian fellowship, by Christian fellowship.
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So what does the author to the Hebrew say? Hebrew chapter 10, Hebrews 10, 24 and 25. Let us consider one another in order to provoke love and good works.
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Oh, how is it that we are provoked, stimulated, stirred up for love and good works, not neglecting to gather together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other and all the more as you see the day approaching?
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This week I read Puritan after Puritan after Puritan who all use the same analogy. Coal's on a fire. It said that the coal that sits by itself might be warm for a while, but eventually that thing's gonna die.
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I learned this by practical example this past September while I was on sabbatical. For a few days I went to wilderness trails out in Ashland and I stayed in their lodge for a few days and they didn't have central heat and air like they do at my house.
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So I, an unashamed city boy had to learn how to light a fire. I didn't know the first thing about starting a fire because I've never needed to start one.
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Thankfully they gave me some instructions and I can read instructions. So I was able to get, but it was fascinating. I would just kind of sit there and watch this thing.
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And every so often I'd get curious and they had a little thing that you could pick up little bits of the fire. I'd pick a piece of wood out and I just kind of hold it.
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I kind of watch it and give it enough time. What do you start to notice?
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It stays glowing for a while, but you kind of take it out from the midst of the rest of the fire and what starts to happen?
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Slowly but surely it starts to cool off. It starts to cool off. It may still be glowing for a little bit, but after a while I got to a point where I could actually pick the thing up with my hand and I'm just kind of watching it.
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Why? Because it's been taken out from the rest of the fire. And the
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Puritans seem to use this analogy constantly to say that Christian fellowship, the gathering together of God's people, both formally as we gather on the
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Lord's day and informally in other events, that this was one of the means the spirit of God used to cultivate zeal among God's people.
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And so as I think about our church, which is who this series is primarily directed at, one of my desires for Redeemer moving forward is for us to be a church where we are stoking the fires of zeal in one another.
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I want Redeemer to be a place where if you come long enough and you're plugged in long enough, that I want people to be able to say if they've been here long enough, as a result of my being here,
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I love Christ more, I love his people more, and I am more zealous for the things that concern him.
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And I want to tell you that if we can succeed even in a little bit of that over the course of our lives, as a body of believers, we would have done some eternal good.
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Again, more to say about that, we can discuss that in a bit more detail on Wednesday in our midweek gathering. I've kind of overly labored that point, the next two points will move pretty quickly.
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Because we have to start with this idea of cultivating zeal. We have to begin with the recognition that zeal has to be earnestly cultivated.
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But there's a second truth that Paul teaches us about zeal in this passage, it follows on quite naturally from the first.
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You see, not only does zeal need to be earnestly cultivated, point number two, zeal is internally fueled by the
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Holy Spirit. It's internally fueled by the Spirit of God. So look at the middle section there in chapter 12, verse 11, do not lack diligence in zeal, be fervent in the
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Spirit. The command to be fervent there, it's a pretty fun word picture actually.
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It has as its root, the idea of something burning or boiling.
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Burning or boiling, what did those two very different things have in common? There what happens when fire is applied to something.
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So if I apply fire directly to something, give it enough time, it will burn. If I have a, we do not have a gas stove in our home, but when we did have a gas stove in our previous home,
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I would light the thing, you see the flames, put your pot or whatever it is you're trying to get to boil, enough heat applied to it, what happens?
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It starts to boil, that's the idea here. Heat applied to something and producing a result.
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In fact, one translation translated verse 11 like this, be aglow in the
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Spirit. You see, the reality is the Christian life, yes, we can do all of this work to cultivate spiritual zeal, but we have to be careful because though the
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Christian life is not fueled and sustained, excuse me, while we have our role to cultivate it, the
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Christian life, Christian zeal, spiritual zeal, is not fueled and sustained by us.
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The fuel that keeps the fire of zeal blazing hot in our lives is the Holy Spirit's work in each and every one of us.
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By the way, can I take the opportunity real quickly when we use this language of blazing hot and fuel and all of this, the temptation, and often
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I found this in church life and I found it frustrating for a while, the temptation is often to equate that to a personality type.
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So if you're zealous, you're gonna be basically like the spiritual equivalent of ADD, bouncing off the walls and that's not to speak disparagingly to people who have
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ADD, but the point is, we can at times assume that being zealous basically means like you're just wild and uncontrolled.
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And I want to say said who, that's an assumption.
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And my general rule of assumptions is, I like to question assumptions until you can prove that they're true. Because actually when you read the
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Bible and when you just look at human experience, you can be zealous and not necessarily have a personality type that demonstrates that.
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If I can be blunt, I have met very loud people in my life in church who were spiritually useless. Like they were really loud and really boisterous.
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Oh, can you actually do this? Oh, absolutely not, I'm just really passionate. About what? And I have met relatively mild menaces who were incredibly zealous for the things of God.
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I think about one of my friends, he might be watching this actually because he watches my sermons from time to time. His name's John Warren. I hope you get to meet him one day.
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I'd love to have him come out and preach for us. John Warren and I grew up at the same church back in London, Grace Life London.
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John is mild -mannered and very academic in his daily life. Very much so.
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I don't say that as a criticism, that's just who he is. He's a very mild -mannered, very analytical mind. But I have not met anyone.
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John is, I want to say he's a few years younger than me, but I have not met anyone with as much spiritual passion as that young man.
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The Lord's gifted him with a ministry in the last few years. He basically is an itinerant preacher across the UK, filling pulpits as the
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Lord gives him opportunity. Gifted, passionate, zealous. But you wouldn't guess it if you met him because he's a really chilled out, very calm, quiet guy.
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The reality is zeal is not, as we think about this, the product of a boisterous personality.
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It might be for some people, but it might not. No, no, no, we're not looking necessarily at externals as much as the fruit of an internal work, a work that is incubated and nurtured by the
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Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the one who ultimately fuels spiritual zeal in the hearts of God's people.
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I mean, in one sense, talking about the Holy Spirit is risky business. On one side, you have folks who basically do away with any talk of the
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Holy Spirit. He's kind of the Cinderella of the Trinity, as one author puts it, doing all the hard work while the
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Father and the Son get to go to the ball that is the affection of God's people. And on the other side, kind of the tradition
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I grew up in, you have folks who turn the Holy Spirit into something akin to the force from Star Wars.
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In the words of Emperor Palpatine in episode three, he's the pathway to many abilities some consider to be unnatural.
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Star Wars fans in the room, terrible, fix that. But the reality is whether you basically don't talk about the
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Holy Spirit or you basically turn him into a force, both of them are missing the point. In fact, in the life of our own church, one of the earliest sermon series
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I taught was on the person and work of the Holy Spirit. It was called Spirit and Truth, you can listen to it on our website. Because I realized that if our church was going to thrive, it would only be to the degree that we actively sought the power and the presence of the
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Holy Spirit in our midst. You see, zeal, true, genuine,
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God -glorifying zeal, that can't happen without the Spirit working among us.
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And so Calvin in his commentary on this verse says this, it is only the fervency of the Spirit that can correct our slothfulness.
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Hence, diligence in doing good requires that zeal which the Spirit of God kindles in our hearts.
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I wish I had time, I've got to keep moving, but there are so many verses, I had them in my notes here, just all the things the
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Holy Spirit does in the life of a Christian. You read all of them,
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I just took a sampling. When you read even that sampling, it becomes apparent that the
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Spirit of God is indispensable in the life of the people of God.
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Yes, the Holy Spirit's indispensable to Christian life and witness, but hear me on this, and this is important. His presence is guaranteed.
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When you became a Christian, you received all of the Holy Spirit at one time. I do not believe in a second baptism, a third, fourth, fifth, or 10 million for that matter.
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You received all of the Spirit that you needed, and yet the Bible also says that we should pray to be filled with the Spirit, that's continual.
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Golfie, is that a contradiction? No, it's not, it's very simple. The presence of the Holy Spirit is guaranteed in the life of every
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Christian. His power in the life of every Christian is not so guaranteed. It has to be sought, and requested, and prayed for.
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And in fact, the Bible makes it clear, you can quench the Spirit's work in your life, you can grieve the Holy Spirit's work in your life.
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So we have to be a people who are actively seeking the power of the
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Holy Spirit in our Christian life and in our Christian witness. But here's the beautiful thing.
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If we would only ask, God promises to give. Jesus promises to give, Romans, excuse me, not
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Romans, Luke 11, 13, if you're taking notes, if you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the
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Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? Again, you do not have because you do not ask.
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But if we would ask, God is more than gracious in giving us the power of His Spirit for life and witness.
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Excuse me. If we're going to be people characterized by spiritual zeal, then that zeal will have to be earnestly cultivated and internally fueled by the
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Holy Spirit. But there's a third truth, and I won't label this point really long. There's a third truth that we need to learn about spiritual zeal.
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If we're gonna be a people marked by spiritual zeal, then we have to be prepared for the fact that, point number three, zeal leads to humble gospel service.
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Zeal leads to humble gospel service. So how does
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Paul end in this verse? Do not like diligence and zeal, be fervent in the Spirit, serve the
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Lord. Spiritual zeal isn't designed for the purpose of getting us to sit on our hands, doing little, if anything, while we nod affirmatively about how we enjoy spiritual zeal.
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And spiritual zeal, by the way, isn't given for the purpose of getting mad at the stuff we don't like, winning arguments and pounding our spiritual chests.
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No, Paul would have us to understand that genuine spiritual zeal is given to us for the purpose of service.
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Now, I'm not gonna label the point about service because that's what the whole sermon next week is gonna be on. But for now,
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I just wanna pay attention to one thing here. One thing. Who does
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Paul say we are to serve here? I mean, look at it. He says, do not like diligence and zeal, be fervent in the
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Spirit, serve the Lord. Jesus is the one we serve first and foremost.
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Maybe, Kofi, hold on, hold on, hold on. Don't we serve people? Aren't we called to serve one another? Indeed, we are. But why do we serve one another?
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Because Jesus, the one we actually serve, tells us to serve. Any people we serve, we serve at the wonderful and glorious call of Jesus who calls us not to serve ourselves, but to serve others.
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After all, that's what Jesus did. Remember Mark 10, 45? Son of man didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give his life a ransom for many.
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In fact, Paul will say in Romans 15, verse eight, that Christ became a servant. It's the same word for deacon.
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That Christ became a servant of the circumcised on behalf of God's truth to confirm the promises to the fathers.
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Jesus was the ultimate servant. In fact, in Isaiah, he's called the servant multiple times. He served to the point of shedding his own life's blood.
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He gave all that he had, not for himself, but for others. He lived a life of personal obedience to God's revealed will and thought, word, and deed.
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He died the most humiliating death that you and I and anybody could ever die, so that all who put their faith in him would have eternal life.
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And here's some good news for us as Christians. All those moments where we have lacked the zeal that we should, we can be comforted by the fact that his zeal more than makes up for it.
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And so even when we have not been as zealous as we should be, it doesn't change
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God's love for us. Why? Because Christ was zealous for us. And that in turn empowers us and emboldens us to be zealous for him.
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J .C. Rowe, he was Bishop of Liverpool in the 1880s, a thoroughly evangelical and reformed man. He wrote a chapter in a book called
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Practical Religion on this subject called zeal. This is how he ended that, and I couldn't think of a better way to end this message.
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Bishop Rowe said, think of Jesus in Gethsemane and on Calvary, shedding his blood for sinners.
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Think of his life and death, his sufferings and his doings. This he has done for you.
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What are you doing for him? Oh, resolve that for the time to come, you will spend and be spent.
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And that's what understanding the gospel ultimately does. If we understand the gospel rightly, it does not make us less spiritually zealous.
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If anything, it makes us more spiritually zealous. Again, that's a work we have to be earnest in cultivating.
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That's a work that's internally fueled by the spirit. And if we rightly understand it, it will lead us to serving one another, which is what we'll talk about next week.
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But for now, let's pray, and then we'll come to the Lord's table. Let's pray together. Our father in this moment, we come before you and we begin in earnest repentance for the times when we have not demonstrated zeal as we ought to.
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We come in humble recognition of the fact that sometimes our hearts are cold.
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Sometimes the cares of this life and the distractions of the world around us serve to make us less than zealous.
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And so father, we come in humble repentance. We come in humble acknowledgement of the fact that your word commands us to be zealous.
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And we ask for your forgiveness for those times when we are not. And father, we thank you for the zeal of the
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Lord Jesus Christ, that zeal that led him to perfect obedience, to a sacrificial death through which we have come to know you.
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Father, for all the moments where we have not been as zealous as we should, thank you for the good news of the gospel that both comforts us and it challenges us.
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It encourages us to respond in heartfelt gratitude. May we never lose sight of that precious good news.
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And may we never lose sight of the fact that we are called to be a people who are fervent in the spirit as we serve you.
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Father, help us to be diligent in the pursuit of that. And father, help us that all that we would do would be for your glory and for our good.