When with the ransomed in glory,
his face I at last shall see, it will be my joy through the
ages to sing of his love for me. And then that him, when by
his grace I shall look on his face, that will be glory, be
glory for me. Heaven, it's a glorious place,
no doubt. But what makes heaven heaven
is seeing his face. That's what the believer rejoices
in, being in his presence and seeing his face. What a blessing
it is to sing those songs that truly will be glory. Would you
turn back to Galatians chapter four. I've entitled this message zeal. We're going to confine our thoughts
to that, zeal. Now, as soon as I made that statement,
I dare say that everybody in this room thought, I've got a
problem there. But everyone ever thought it.
Well, let's see what we can see from the scriptures about this
subject. Now zeal is not always a good
thing. Look what he says in verse 17. They, speaking of these Judaizers,
these works mongers, they zealously affect you, but not well. They get your zeal up, but it's
not a good kind of zeal. It's a wrong kind of zeal. Yea,
they would exclude you that you might affect them. Now, these
men, bringing in a subtle form of salvation by works, had caused
the Galatians' attitude about Paul to change. We considered
that last week, but that's why I read these verses at the opening. Look at verse 14. And my temptation,
which was in my flesh, you despised not, nor rejected, but received
me as an angel of God, even as Christ Jesus. That's how they
received Paul in his preaching. Like, he's Christ himself. They
were so enamored with the message he brought. Where is, verse 15,
where is then the blessedness you spake of? For I bear you
record that if it had been possible, you would have plucked out your
own eyes and have given them to me. Am I therefore become
your enemy because I tell you the truth? You used to receive
me just like you would have Christ himself, and now all of a sudden
I'm your enemy because I tell you the truth. Now this is the
influence that these Judaizers had had on the church at Galatia.
It made them totally view Paul differently, And this is not
a good kind of zeal. Actually, they're trying to isolate
you from my influence and make you zealous for them. That's
what's going on. Now, I repeat, zeal is not always
a good thing. I think of what Paul said to
the Jews, I bear them record that they have a zeal of God.
But it's not according to knowledge. Zeal without knowledge is a terrible,
terrible thing. But Paul says in verse 18, but
it is always good to be zealously affected, always in a good thing. And not only when I'm present
with you. It's always good to be zealously
affected, to be consumed, to be eaten up with zeal. And let
me make this statement. I want you to think about what
I'm saying. The gospel we believe and preach, the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. If it's true, it's of infinite importance and
demands nothing less than the utmost zeal. Amen? If it's false, it's of no importance. and does
not deserve any zeal at all. But the one thing it cannot be
is moderately important. And there is no place for moderate
zeal with regard to the gospel of God's grace. Actually, Nothing
is more pathetic than a lukewarm, moderate, tepid, safe brand of
Christianity. And I'm going to attempt to preach
what is Christian zeal. Now, in both the Old Testament
and the New Testament, the words jealous and zealous are used
interchangeably. They're actually the same word.
When you read the word jealous, it's zealous. When you read the
word zealous, it's jealous. And that gives us some idea what
zeal means. If you're zealous, you are jealous
of the honor of the object of your zeal, aren't you? That's
what zeal is. You're jealous of the honor of
the object of your zeal. You know, there's folks who have
a political ideology that they're very zealous about, and they
will promote it, commend it, and defend it against any tax
made against us, against it. As a matter of fact, in the New
Testament, at this time, there was a political group called
the Zealots. Remember, one of the Lord's disciples was Simon
the Zealot. He came out of that political
group. And the Zealots were so zealous about hating Roman occupation
in Israel that the reason Israel ended up getting leveled in 70
AD, and it did, it was leveled, it was because the Romans said,
we're not gonna take these fellows anymore. All the problems they
were creating because of their zeal for Israel and getting the
Romans out of there. So they were leveled because
of that. Now, God identifies himself as a jealous God. You remember when he gave the
commandment against idolatry? He said, for I the Lord thy God
am a jealous God. He is intolerant of idolatry. And he doesn't make any concessions
here. He doesn't negotiate with anybody about this. God doesn't
need to negotiate with sinners. He's a jealous God and he's absolutely
intolerant of idolatry. He said in Exodus chapter 34
verse 14, For thou shalt worship no other God for the Lord whose
name is jealous. That's his name. whose name is
Jealous, is a jealous God. He's zealous of his own glory,
he's jealous of his own honor, and he is utterly intolerant
of anything contrary to his glory. That's who God is. And it's only
right that he should be that way. Now, if I was that way,
it would be wrong. If you were that way, it would
be wrong for you to seek your own glory, to seek your own honor.
But when God's that way, and that's the way He is, it's right.
It's the only way for Him to be. His agenda is the manifestation
of His glory, and that is why He does all that He does. He does everything for His own
glory. He said in Isaiah 42, my glory,
I will not share with another. The reason for salvation is this. Ephesians 1, 6 says we're saved
to the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made
us accepted in the beloved. Turn with me to John chapter
2 for a moment. I think this is interesting that
this is how the Lord's earthly ministry began, and this is how
the Lord's earthly ministry ended. John chapter 2. Verse 13, and the Jews Passover
was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. and found in the
temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves and changers
of money sitting. Now they were doing this for
convenience sake. Nobody wanted to bring a lamb
or an ox to be sacrificed all the way from some foreign land
and here's what you could do. You could give them money and
they'd sell these to you and this would make things much more
convenient for the worshipers. You know, anything about convenience
in religion is wrong. You can just write that down.
Anything about convenience. This is not about our convenience.
This is not about something easier for us. Now look what the Lord
did. And when he'd made a scourge
of small cords, he made a whip. And he drove them all out of
the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen, and he poured out the
changers' money, and he overthrew the tables. Now, can you imagine
how upset people were with this? Who gives him the right to do
this? And he said unto them that sold
doves, Take these things, hence, make not my father's house an
house of merchandise, a place of profit. And his disciples
remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath
eaten me up. He was so filled with zeal for
his father's glory that he would not tolerate this. Now this is
John 2 where he begins and this happens again at the end of his
ministry. He goes in once again and overturns
the money changers tables and drives them all out. Now that
is zeal. Turn with me for a moment to
Numbers chapter 25. Numbers chapter 25. Now let me
give you the setting of this passage of scripture. Balaam was asked by Balak of
the Moabites to get Balaam to curse Israel. God said, you can't do it. And
Balaam is the arch false prophet. He was a hireling. He was in it for money. And he
said, I'll promote you with great honor if you do it. So he went
again, and God said no again, and so on. He finally gave up.
He finally gave up. He couldn't get God to curse
Israel. He says, can I curse him whom
God has blessed? It can't be done. But if you go on reading
in chapter 31, you find out through his influence, he did something. And we read this in Revelation
too. Now this is the arch false prophet, but through his influence,
he said, I can't get God to curse Israel. But if you can get them
to compromise the gospel, if you can get them to fall into
idolatry, then God will curse them. And through his influence,
that is exactly what happened. Now remember that as we look
at this passage of scripture. Verse 1, and Israel bowed and
shid them, and the people began to commit whoredom with the daughters
of Moab. And we know from Numbers 31,
verse 16, you can look that up on your own, that was through
Balaam's influence. He told them, here's what you
need to do. You need to get your women to mix with their men, and it
will end up causing idolatry. They'll go after them, so here's
what happened. And they called the people unto the sacrifices
of their gods. And the people did eat, and bowed
down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto
Baal-peor. And the anger of the Lord was
kindled against Israel. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Take all the heads of the people, and hang them up before the Lord
against the sun, that the fierce anger of the Lord may be turned
away from Israel. And Moses said unto the judges
of Israel, Slay ye every one his men that were joined unto
Baal-peor. And behold, while all this was
going on, one of the children of Israel came and brought unto
his brethren a Midianite woman in the sight of Moses. Exactly
what they were being plagued for, bringing in a foreign woman
in the sight of all the congregation of the children of Israel who
were weeping before the door of the tabernacle of the congregation.
And when Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, he was the grandson
of Aaron, the son of Aaron the priest, saw it, he rose up from
among the congregation, and he took a javelin in his hand, and
he went after the man of Israel into the tent, and thrust both
of them through, the man of Israel and the woman through her belly.
Can you imagine how people must have felt when they saw that?
Probably, what's going on here? So the plague was stayed from
the children of Israel. Through that act, the plague
stopped. And those that died in the plague
were twenty and four thousand, and the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Now here's the Lord's comment on this. We think of
this as just being gruesome, but here's the Lord's comment
on this. And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, the
son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron, the priest, hath turned away
my wrath away from the children of Israel, while he was zealous
for my sake among them, that I consume not the children of
Israel in my jealousy. Wherefore say, behold, I give
unto him my covenant of peace, and he shall have it in his seat
after him, even the covenant of an everlasting priesthood,
because he was zealous for his God and made an atonement for
the children of Israel. Paul said in Romans chapter 12,
verse 11, be fervent. Same word as zealous. be zealous
in spirit, serving the Lord. That's the only way to serve
him, isn't it? With a zeal for his glory. Now, if we are zealous and passionate
regarding his glory, some will be offended. That's But we read
in 2 Corinthians 9, chapter 9, verse 2, that Paul said to the
Corinthians, your zeal hath provoked very many. Now, it's contagious in that
sense. Now, I don't want to be like
Jehu. Do you remember how Jehu said,
come and see my zeal for the Lord? Come see my zeal. Now, all that is is self-promotion.
Come see my zeal. And if you hear a preacher or
if you hear an individual talking about zeal and what it does,
it makes you feel guilty and makes you feel like you don't
have enough zeal and you don't have enough courage and you don't
have enough passion and you wish you were like they were, what
you're hearing is someone promoting themselves. If someone's really
preaching zeal as it ought to be preached, you won't be listening
to that and thinking, oh man, I wish I had their courage and
zeal and passion and love and so on. It won't be that way.
If somebody makes you feel that way, they were trying to promote
themselves and make you zealous of them, and they were just trying
to make themselves look good. You can just write that down.
I've heard preachers like that, and I just thought, I'm not going
to listen to that anymore, because when I listen to them, all I
think about is how I need to be like them. No, I don't need to
be like them. I need to be like Christ, and I need to follow
Him. So I don't want to be like Jehu.
Come see my zeal for the Lord. That zeal for yourself. But we
want to serve the Lord with such zeal that others are provoked
to do the same, with a passionate desire for His glory and His
honor, a holy intolerance of that which is contrary to Him.
Now, I want to be a fanatic zealot concerning Christ, don't you?
I want to be a fanatic zealot. Is he not worthy of that? You
know he is. Now, where does zeal come from? What produces this zeal? I want
to have it, don't you? Where does this zeal come from?
Well, that's very easy to answer. Zeal comes from a love to Christ. It's that simple. Zeal comes
from a love to the Lord Jesus Christ. And what produces a love
to Christ? When I see His love to me. We love Him. Why? Because He
first loved us. Turn with me to 1 John chapter
4 where that is, and let's read a few verses here. Beginning in verse nine, John
says, and this was manifested, the love of God toward us, because
that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might
live through him. Now he's talking about his love
to us, isn't he? He's talking about God's love to us. You know,
when people describe somebody, they'll say, well, they really
love the Lord. Well, when John described himself, he didn't
describe himself as that disciple that loved the Lord, but that
disciple that Jesus loved. And this is what John is talking
about to show us of his love. He says in verse 10, herein is
love. It ain't us. It's not that we
love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation,
the putting away of our sins. God's reason for anger was removed,
and God can love us freely. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time.
If we love one another, God dwells in us, and His love is perfected
in us. Hereby know we that we dwell
in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit.
And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son
to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that
Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and He in God.
And we have known and believed." Now, that word believed, It could
probably be better understood, although believe's a good word,
it could be better understood if we use this word. We have
known and relied upon the love that God hath to us. We're relying
upon his sovereign, saving love. Nothing shall separate us from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Now that's the
love I'm relying on. Now let's take this a little
further, verse 17. Herein is our love made perfect,
our love to Him, made perfect and mature and complete, that
we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as He is,
so are we in this world. Now, let me tell you one thing,
I could say a whole lot of things about how He is, but I'll tell
you this, He, the Father loves Him completely. The Father sees
Him as altogether beautiful. The Father's love to him isn't
unconditional. Oh, no, sir. He loves him because
he's altogether glorious. Just he's not like God. He is God. He's altogether glorious
with all of God's glorious attributes. And the father looks upon him
and he says, oh, he's so lovely. He's so perfect. He's altogether
lovely. Nothing about him that's not
completely lovely as he is. So are we. That's how God the
Father sees me. He doesn't love me with an unconditional
love. You know, unconditional love
scares me. If somebody can love me unconditionally, they can
quit loving me unconditionally. It's loving me because I am in
Christ. I'm united to Christ. However beautiful Christ is,
that's how beautiful I am to the Father. however much the
Father... You know, the Lord said in John
17, 23, Thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me. We wouldn't dare think anything
like that unless the Bible said it, but the Bible says it. And
that's how God the Father loves his people. Now, when you see
his love to you... Let's go on reading. There's
no fear in love. You know, in this love I'm talking
about, this love that's in Christ Jesus, I'm not afraid. I'm not afraid. His perfect love
to me casts out fear, because fear hath torment. He that fears
is not made perfect in love. We love Him because He first
loved us. That's why we love Him. Now, somebody I love, If you love them too, then you
have a special bond. The most obvious example is my
family, my wife and daughter. You love them, I love you. There's
a special bond. Say something bad about them,
and you won't hear me staying silent about it, because I love
them. I won't be quiet about it. I
won't let it go. Anybody said, you know, even
with regard to, I love the brethren. Anybody said something about
somebody that I love, a brother or sister in Christ, I'm not
going to remain silent about it. When someone says something
derogatory, somebody said something kind of derogatory, they said,
do these people hear what you're saying? Boy, I got mad. Yeah,
they hear what I'm saying. They love what I'm saying. Why
would you say that? If you love somebody, you've
got to zeal for them. You love them. You're not going
to listen to that which is contrary to them. You're just not going
to do it. Now, if I love Christ, I am zealous for his honor. Somebody that says something
that detracts from his glory, I'm not going to keep my mouth
shut about it. Phineas did something about this,
didn't he? I don't think I'm going to be throwing javelin
through somebody. I'm going to kind of avoid that. But Phineas
did something about it when he saw the Lord being dishonored,
and that man just so presumptuously taking the Midianitish woman
into the tent, and he said, we're not gonna have this. That was
a zeal for the glory of God, and that's what God called it,
a zeal for his glory. Now, if you say something about
somebody that I'm not fervently in love with, I'm probably not
going to say anything. I'm not going to defend him.
I'm not going to go through the trouble of the awkwardness of it and
the embarrassment of the person. I'm just going to keep my mouth
shut if I'm not fervently in love with that person of whom
that statement was made. But if I love somebody, I'm going
to be zealous of their glory. And you know, that person that
honors and glorifies him and is zealous of his glory, I want
to get on the bandwagon with him, don't you? I want to identify
with them. I want to be with that person.
Now, when Phineas threw that javelin, I'm sure men and women
were shocked when that took place. I think it's kind of a shocking
scripture. I mean, I try to, you know, it's one of those things
in the Old Testament, you think, man. But that being said, I see
how God viewed it. God said he did this for my glory. Now, what is the first end in
our preaching? Is it to see souls saved? No. It's to glorify God. And souls
will only be saved through preaching that seeks only to glorify God. And if I'm seeking to win souls,
if that's my aim, if that's my purpose, if that's my goal, I
will compromise and accommodate the message to that end. Now, does that mean we don't
care about souls being saved? Of course not. We love to see
people brought to a saving knowledge of Christ. We love to see people
bow the knee to Christ because it glorifies Him. That's our
purpose. The glory of God in Christ Jesus. Now, wherever there's genuine
love, there will be zeal. Wherever there's true repentance,
a change of mind, there will be zeal. Let me show you this
in 2 Corinthians chapter 7. Now, Paul is referring to what
he wrote in 1 Corinthians. And I thought this was showing
the human side of this. He said, for though I made you
sorry with a letter, I don't repent, though I did repent.
Now, when Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 15, he said some rough things.
He's thinking, should I have said that? I'm sure he's thinking
that. Should I tell, oh, I was so hard
on him. Should I have done that? Should I have spoke that way?
He said, I regretted it. I regretted it. I wish I hadn't
have done that. How many times have you felt that way? I wish
I hadn't have done that. Oh, I wish I could take that
back. I wish it never happened. Paul said, I did repent. But he says, I do not repent,
though I did repent, for I perceive that the same epistle hath made
you sorry, though it were but for a season. Now rejoice, not
that you were made sorry, but that you sorrowed to repentance.
For you were made sorry after a godly manner, that you might
receive damage by us and nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance
to salvation not to be repented of. but the sorrow of the world
worketh death. For behold, this selfsame thing
that you sorrowed after a godly sort, what carefulness it wrought
in you, yea, what clearing of yourselves, yea, what indignation,
yea, what fear, yea, what vehement desire, yea, what zeal, yea,
what revenge, in all things you've proved yourselves to be clear
in this manner." Now whenever there's true repentance, and
remember repentance is a change of mind, It's a change of mind
concerning God, concerning yourself, concerning His way of salvation. Preachers always talk about repenting
of your sins. Now, beloved, sin is horrible. But do you know the Bible never
says repent of your sins? Not once. I mean, we ought to
have a change of mind about our sins and hate them and ask God
to deliver us from them. I'm not in any way implying that
that's not the case. But repentance is a change of
mind about God, it's a change of mind about yourself, and it's
a change of mind about how He saves sinners. You begin thinking
you need to do something in order to get Him to save you, and you
change your mind about that, you find out it's all what He
does. That's a change of mind. And
whenever there's a change of mind, what zeal for his gospel
and his grace comes from that. Now this word zeal is also translated
covet earnestly. What you're zealous of, oh, you
covet it. You desire it. You desire his
glory. You desire for him to be honored. You desire for him to get all
the glory. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
chapter 11 for a moment. Verse 2. Paul says, For I am jealous over
you, I am zealous over you, with a godly jealousy, with a godly
zealousness. For I have espoused you to one
husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means,
as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should
be corrupted, and you'd lose this zeal, so your mind should
be corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. Now, what is
the simplicity that's in Christ? Well, the word means the onlyness,
the singleness, the singularity. The simplicity that's in Christ.
There is one reason for my election. Christ. There is one reason, only one
reason, a very simple singular reason for my justification.
Christ. Not because of anything I've
done. There's one reason for my redemption. Christ. There's one reason for my regeneration. Christ. There's one reason why
I'm preserved. Christ. There's one reason why
I have faith. Christ. There's one reason why
I have repentance. Christ. There's one reason why
I'll be in heaven. Christ. The simplicity, the singularity,
the onlyness of Christ. And we have a zeal for that,
don't we? We are utterly offended by anything contrary to that.
And when we hear something contrary to that, we're not going to keep
our mouth shut about that. Christ is all. And oh, we dread the thought
of being corrupted from the simplicity that's in Christ. Turn with me
for a moment to Titus chapter 2. Now, if I'm corrupted from
the simplicity that's in Christ, I'm in trouble because God is
zealous of the honor of His Son. Titus chapter 2, verse 14. Beginning in verse 13, looking
for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and
our Savior Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for us, that He
might redeem us from all iniquity and purify unto Himself a peculiar
people, literally a purchased people, zealous of good works. Now why are we zealous of good
works? For His honor. That's why. It's not for self-promotion.
It's not to feel better about yourself. You know, the Lord
said, let your light so shine before men that they may see
your good works and what? Glorify your Father, not glorify
you. If they end up glorifying you,
you had a reason behind it. That's what you wanted. Oh, look
at him. He's such a good person. If somebody glorifies you for
your good works, Let me assure you, it wasn't a good work. It
was an evil work. He said, you let your light so
shine before men that they may behold your good works and glorify
your Father, which is in heaven. And every believer in this room
wants to be someone who glorifies God and glorifies Christ. Not
themselves, but oh, I want to glorify Him. And every believer
in that sense is zealous of good works. Do they feel like they're
filled with them? No. Well, I've got a lot of good works. I know
you don't have any. I'll assure you, you don't have a one. But
I know this. While no believer feels like they've got plenty
of good works, they're zealous of them, aren't they? Zealous
of good works. Turn to Revelation chapter 3.
This is what we're going to close with, and this is the opposite
of zeal. I repeat, this is the opposite
of zeal. Verse 14, And unto the angel of the church
of the Laodiceans write, These things saith the Amen, the faithful
and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God. I know
thy works. You know, that's how he began
every one of these letters to these seven different churches.
I know your works. I know. That thou art neither cold nor
hot. Now, you know what it is to feel
cold. And you can't stir up any emotion. And you're miserable being cold. Oh, it's such an uncomfortable
feeling. How can I be cold toward him?
How could I have a cold attitude toward the Lord Jesus Christ
and the things of God? And here I am in this cold, hard,
dead state. What's wrong with me? Do I even
know the Lord? What in the world is wrong with
me? How have I gotten myself into... Oh, it's a miserable
feeling, coldness. Oh, it's so uncomfortable. And
you also know what it is to be hot, to be unable to hear the
gospel. to be enabled to rejoice in what's
being said, and you feel a zeal for His glory, and you're so
grateful for the freeness of His grace, you're so grateful
for the forgiveness of sins, and you're hot. But you know,
both of those states, hot or cold, are not comfortable. There's
a discomfort involved. Lynn's always cold. I hear I'm
freezing 40 times a day. And it's a state of discomfort. And when we're in the car, I
mean, just going back and forth, she turns off the air conditioner,
I get some air. I'm very uncomfortable when I'm hot. But here is a state
that is not uncomfortable. Lukewarm. You know, when you're lukewarm,
you don't even know things are bad. How you doing? Great. Everything's wonderful. Everything's
fine. Verse 15, I know thou works that
thou art neither cold nor hot. I would that thou were cold or
hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, tepid, and neither
cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth. Because you
say, I'm rich, I'm increased with goods and have need of nothing.
and you don't know that you're wretched and miserable and poor
and blind and naked. I counsel thee to buy of me gold
tried in the fire that thou mayest be rich." If you have any riches,
it's going to be what comes from me. And white raiment. that thou
mayest be clothed. Your nakedness is not going to
show. That's talking about his righteousness. And the shame of thy nakedness
do not appear. And anoint thine eyes with eyes
that thou mayest see the truth of who I am and who you are.
Then he said, look what he says next. He says in verse 19, as
many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Well, I don't want to be somebody
he doesn't rebuke and doesn't chasten, do you? I don't want
to be that person. He said, as many as I love, I
rebuke and I chasten. Be what? Zealous. Zealous, therefore. And repent. Now the Galatians
had a zeal, and about everybody does have
a zeal of something. But so many zeals are misplaced. But it's always good to be zealous. And to be zealous is to be jealous
of the honor of the Lord Jesus Christ. May we be zealous. men and women. Let's pray. Lord, we ask that you would deliver us from coldness. Lord, we ask that you would deliver
us from lukewarmness. Lord, we ask that we might be
boiling with zeal for the glory of thy son and his honor and cause us to boil in zeal
against all in ourselves our own persons that are contrary
to His glory. Lord, this is like everything
is, it's above the strength and energy of the flesh, but we ask
in Christ's name that we might be enabled to seeing I stand
amazed in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder how He
could love me, a sinner condemned unclean. And Lord, from that
wonder at that glorious truth, may we burn with zeal for Him. In His name we pray. Amen. We
got Dwayne.