Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - A Christian’s Happiness

Episode Date: December 27, 2024

Jesus tells his disciples that no one will take away their joy. Now that’s pretty amazing. He knows to whom he is talking. He is speaking to men who are going to be persecuted. They’re going to be robbed of everything they own. They’re going to be tortured. They’re going to be put to death. The Bible says there is a joy that is not subject to circumstances, that the deepest troubles can’t put out, that can coexist and overwhelm the greatest grief. And these three verses in Romans 8 have the heart of it. In these three verses, you have three principles. This is the basis for joy. Your joy will be strong to the degree you understand and grasp these three things: 1) our bad things turn out for good, 2) our good things can never be lost, and 3) the best things are yet to come. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on July 6, 1997. Series: Happiness and Weeping. Scripture: Romans 8:28-30. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Thanks for joining us on the Gospel in Life podcast. Do you long for unshakable joy in every circumstance? The Bible says that in this world you will weep, but there is a joy that even the deepest grief can't put out. Listen now as Tim Keller teaches on happiness and weeping. After you listen, we invite you to go online to Gospelinlife.com and sign up for our email updates. Now here's today's teaching from Dr. Keller. Please turn in the bulletin. It should be right there. It's a passage of the Bible

that we're going to be basing our teaching this morning. It's Romans 8, it's a brief passage, Romans 8, 28 to 30. Romans 8, 28 to 30. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. For those God foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those he predestined he also called, and those he called he also justified, and those he justified he also glorified. This is God's word. Now, let me give you the reason for our subject this morning, the topic is happiness. And the reason it occurs to me to discuss is because I always feel very good around 4th of July

because of the circumstances of my life. There's warm breezes. There's fewer deadlines. There's lots of time off. And the 4th of July is the secular American high summer holiday. It's very much a feel-good time. And just frankly, I know you're not supposed to solve your own problems in the pulpit. There's the pulpit, so I came away

from it. But what you're supposed to do is you are supposed to deal with things that I know other people are dealing with. If you're a Christian, and even if you're not a Christian, you know Christianity is supposed to be about joy, and you probably all, everybody has some understanding that Christian joy is supposed to be there in spite of circumstances. The Bible says that there is a joy available that is not supposed to be subject to circumstances, and I always have to wrestle with that this time of year. I have to say to myself, why do these things affect me so much? Why is it that there's not a relentlessness about my joy? The Bible very clearly says that there is a joy available

and that joy should make us at least quietly happy no matter what the circumstances, that there's a joy that the deepest trouble can't put out and that if properly nourished and properly nurtured can coexist and even overwhelm the greatest grief. Now, there's plenty of places where that's just stated. You know, when Jesus, in John chapter 17, he prays before the Father, just before he's leaving this world. And he says, Father, he prays for us. He prays for his followers. And he says, I pray that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. And one chapter earlier, he's speaking to the disciples and he says, you will rejoice and no one will take away

your joy. Now, that's pretty amazing. He knows who he's talking to. He's talking to his 12 disciples. And he says, no one will take the joy away from you that I'm going to give you. And he's speaking to men who are going to be persecuted. They're going to be robbed of everything they own. They're going to be tortured. They're going to be put to death. And Jesus says, I'm giving you a joy now. They can stand up to that. It can stand up to anything. None of these things. Disease and persecution and alienation and loneliness and torture and death. Nothing will be able to take it away.

And on 4th of July I sit around and I wonder, do I have that kind of imperviousness about my joy? Not at all. Why not? Partly because I don't think we understand the nature of this. We see this or promise a number of places, but what is it really made of? What is it made of? Now if you get to Romans 8 and actually in our evening service this year we spent a lot of time studying Romans 8, but I pretty much skipped over these verses or at least I treaded upon them very lightly. Romans 8 is all about living in a suffering world, living in a world of brokenness. In chapter 8 if you go a little earlier than the place that we pulled this out of these

verses you go up to verse 17 and 18. Paul says I consider the sufferings of this present time are not, you know he's talking about that, sufferings. And a little bit later he's talking about trouble and persecution and nakedness and poverty and danger and he's talking about how do we live in a world like that. And then these verses, these three verses, they're very, very famous. I believe in these three verses you've got the heart of it. In these three verses, you've got three principles. Now, there's a couple of ways of putting it. I could say that Christians can have this kind of impervious and relentless joy because of these three things.

There's three reasons for this kind of happiness and joy. Or let me put it another way. You will experience this joy. Your joy will be strong to the degree you understand and grasp these three things. And what are these three things? Here's what they are. One in each verse. Verse 28, our bad things turn out for good. Verse 29, our good things can never be lost. And verse 30, the best things are yet to come. Paul tells you, if you follow Christ, your bad things turn out for good, your good things cannot be lost, and your best things are yet to come. Those are the reasons for your joy.

Those are the things that you have to grasp and plant, and this is the basis for your joy. Those are the things that you have to grasp and plant. This is the basis for your joy. Do you understand those three things? Let me help. Number one, verse 28, our bad things turn for good. Verse 28, now I have to say that our translation that we use, the New International Version of the NIV, is a little weak here and I'm not sure why. But let me give you a real literal translation of what was written in the book of Romans in Greek. It's rendered here in English. But here's the literal translation. It says, For those loving him, God works together all things for good. To those loving him, God works together all things for good.

And this is a very, very famous text, but let me give you an ABC implication of this first principle. ABC, three implications. First of all, now look, first of all it says that all things happen to Christians. The first implication is Paul is teaching, and this is by the way extremely important for you to understand this, if you're going to have a kind of relentlessness and an imperviousness to your joy. Okay? The first thing this tells us is that Christian circumstances are no better than anybody else's. The first thing this tells us is that terrible things happen to people who

love God. Many Christians explicitly teach and most Christians implicitly believe that if I love God and if I serve God, then I will not have as many bad things happen to me. There's terrible things that can happen, you know. There's horrible things that can happen. But they're not all going to happen to me. There's terrible things that can happen, you know. There's horrible things that can happen. But they're not all going to happen to me. No, I believe, I serve, I love God. And so these things are not all going to happen to me. By and large, my circumstances will be better. And this text tells us, and experience shows us, that that's just not true. All things, all the same things that happen to everybody else will happen to people who love God. All the same things. Now, if you

want to know what all things is, it really means all things. A little further down in verse 35, it's not printed here, but I'll read it to you. Paul says, what can separate us from the love of Christ? He says, can, and he mentions this, trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, poverty, danger, or sword? Now, look at those things. Trouble, hardship, persecution, famine, poverty, danger, sword. What is Paul saying? Paul's saying, all the same stuff that happens to everybody else will happen to you. If you love God, all things happen to you. And that's the first thing. It's very, very important for you to realize that.

It's not like some things will happen, mainly good, not as many bad things will happen. No, all things will happen. The other implication, B, this also tells us that when things work together for good in your life, it's because of God. Notice Paul does not say things work together for good. They never work together for good on their own. If any... A Christian understands this about life. If anything is going good, it's because God's working it together. Again, if you go up a little higher in chapter 8, you'll learn this.

Things fall apart. By the way, there's a novel by an African novelist, a very famous novel, modern novel written and the name of the title of it is Things Fall Apart. But that's what Paul says because in chapter 8 verse 18, 19, 20, he's talking about the fact that the nature of the world is because we're under evil, because the world is burdened down with evil and sin, things fall apart. Things are subject to decay. Everybody, and I'm talking about everybody in this room who's got a body, eventually it's going to fall apart. Why?

It's the nature of things. Go to the beach, and a lot of you have been there, and a lot of you are going there, and a lot of you have been there. And you know the little teeny grains of sand? You know on the beach, and a lot of you have been there, and a lot of you are going there, and a lot of you have been there. And you know the little teeny grains of sand? You know on the beach, the sweet little grains of sand? There was a mountain once. Everything falls apart, but so do relationships, and so do families. Everything falls apart. Things do not come together.

They do not work together. And what this is telling us, Christians get rid of the saccharine sentimental idea that things ought to go right, that things do go right, that that's the normal. You know, modern Western people believe if things have gone wrong, I'm going to sue. Why? Because things ought to go right. Christians have gotten totally rid of that idea. The Christian's believe, the saccharine view, the sentimental view is gone. Christians say, if I today, if my health is intact, it's God holding it up. If people love me, if there's somebody to hug me today, if there's somebody to squeeze my hand,

if there's somebody who loves me and somebody cares about me in spite of the fact of all my flaws, in spite of the fact of all my selfishness, in spite of all these things, you see, if there's someone who loves me today at all, it's God doing that. It's God holding it up. There's no reason for it otherwise. If anything goes good, it's a miracle of grace. That's the second thing we learn here. And the third thing, these are three implications of this very first important thing to understand. The third thing is the most basic and that is that though bad things happen, they work for good. That's the promise to those who love God. The promise to those who love

God is not that you will have better circumstances. No. It doesn't say that better things will happen to you. This also doesn't say that better things will happen to you. This also doesn't say that bad things are really good things. Oh, no. But I tell you, I get so much...an endless source of insight for me is Jesus standing before this tomb of Lazarus. Some of you know that because I keep referring to it. When Jesus was in front of the tomb of Lazarus, he was about to raise Lazarus from the dead. He was not smiling. He was angry and he was weeping. Why? Why didn't Jesus Christ say, they think that this is a tragedy? No harm done. I'm about to raise him from the dead. Won't everybody be excited?

This looks like a bad thing. It's not a bad thing. It's really a good thing. It's a way for me to show my glory. It's really exciting. I can't wait. No. He's weeping at the tomb. And why? Because the bad thing. It's a way for me to show my glory. It's really exciting. I can't wait. No, he's weeping at the tomb. And why? Because the bad thing he's about to work good is bad. It's bad in itself. See, this does not give you a sacrament view. This is, well, these bad things, they're really blessings in disguise. In every, behind every cloud has a silver lining.

Oh, no. The Bible never says anything like that. These are bad things. They're bad. They are working for good. That means God will give them good effects in your life, but they're bad. Listen, Jesus Christ being mad at the tomb of Lazarus proves that he hates death, he hates loneliness, he hates alienation, he hates pain, he hates suffering. He hates it so much that he was willing to come into this world and experience all of it himself, so that eventually he could destroy it without destroying us. That's how much he hates it. This is not a saccharine view. The

promise is not, if you love God, you will have more good things happen. No. The promise is not, if you love God, that the bad things really aren't bad. They're really good things. No. The promise is that God will take the bad things and he'll work them for good in the totality. It says all things work together for good. Now you know what this means? This means don't wait a week. It doesn't mean, well something bad happened. Okay, I'll give God a week to show me how this is going to turn out for good. Don't wait a month. Don't wait a year. Don't wait a

decade. The promise isn't for a month or a year or a decade. The promise is not that any bad patch in your life, if you bracket it, you can see how that works out for good. No. The promise is that taken in the totality of all of your life and the whole of everything, God promises if you love him, he'll make sure it works for good. What does that mean? Well, the summary, the best summary anybody has ever come up with is John Newton's summary. John says, John Newton says, what this is promising is everything is necessary that he sends. Nothing can be necessary that he withholds. Everything is necessary that he sends.

Nothing can be necessary that he withholds. The premise is the things that really hurt you and that really kill you are foolishness, pride, selfishness, hardness of heart, denial of your flaws and weaknesses, and the belief that you don't need God. Those are the only things that can hurt you in the long run. Those are the only things that can hurt you in the long run. Those are the only things that can hurt you in the totality of your life. In the short run, selfishness feels great. In the long run, it'll destroy you. In the short run, self-deception is wonderful, by the way.

We all know that. In the short run, just closing your eyes is great. In the long run, it kills you. And therefore, here's what John Newton is saying, and here's what Paul is saying. What he's saying is, good things, things that you think are good, if God has withheld them, they would only be good in the short run, but in the long run, terrible. Good in the micro, not in the macro. Good in the, you see, good in the partial, but not in the macro. Good in the partial, but not in the whole. And any bad thing, and the bad things God hates, God will bring in only in order to cure you of the things that

can really destroy you in the long run in the totality. And that's the first principle. Do you understand this principle? Do you realize how practical this is? Remember I said you will not only have this impervious joy if you hold on to these three principles. And the first one is that bad things will happen to you. We shouldn't be shocked. We shouldn't be surprised. One of the main reasons I think why a lot of Christians are continually overthrown is not because bad things are happening to them. At least 50% of their discouragement and their despondency is the surprise that the bad things have happened to them.

Do you see the distinction? 50% of the reason we get so despondent is we're shocked. We say, this isn't how it's supposed to be. We may say life should be better. Well, that's not what the promise is. Or we say, I love God, therefore surely I will have more good circumstances happen. That's not what the promise is. We say, I love God, therefore, surely, I will have more good circumstances to have it. And that's not what the promise is either. And until you understand what the promise is, you're going to be continually shocked, continually amazed, continually overthrown. Your joy is always going to be overthrown.

But if you understand what's going on, this is what's amazing. Jonathan Edwards wrote a sermon called Christian Happiness many years ago in another text and he says this, he says, if you understand this, he says, therefore, if you believe this, Romans 8.28, you may look down upon the whole army of worldly afflictions under your feet and you may consider with joy that however so great they are and however so numerous they are, let them all join their forces together against you and put on their most rueful and dreadful habits, forms and appearances,

and let them spend all of their strength, all their vigor, all their violence with endeavor to do you any real hurt or mischief and it will all be in vain. That's the first principle. You see that? If you hold on to this first principle, first of all you will practice routine praise. You will not just… if you go through a day and your health is intact and there's some… things go well, if anything is going well in your day, you'll be praising God. Routine praise. When bad things happen, you won't

be shocked, and you'll become incredibly patient. And if you're willing to step back and look at the whole picture, like Jonathan Edwards says, you can actually say, come on graves, come on crosses. See? The lower you lay me, the higher you'll raise me. The more you try to destroy me, the more you will make me. That's what it says. Do you believe that? Do you understand that?

First principle. The second principle. Bad things work out for good. Our bad things turn out for good. The second principle is the good things we have cannot be lost. Now, you know what? For many years, if you've been a Christian for any period of time, you will know that Romans 8.28 is a very famous verse and people use it all the time, all by itself. All by itself. It's a blessing box verse. You know what a

blessing box verse? You have a little blessing box of verses you pull out of your blessing box and you pull it out and you rip it out of context and you don't think about what came before and after you. It just feels good. It just sort of, you send it through your mind. All things work together for good. Well, now what? You know what most people think?

I'll tell you what most people think. All things work together for good. They say, ah, all by itself it means what I've hinted at. Bad things happen, surely something good will happen. I didn't get into the grad school I wanted to get into, but there's a better grad school for me somewhere. I didn't marry the girl, I didn't marry the guy that I wanted to marry, ah,

but there's a better one for me somewhere. Now, listen, that may be, that's not really the promise. Let's face it, that's really the promise. Let's face it, that's not the promise. And I'll tell you something, I have avoided stories like that in this sermon and I will continue to. When somebody says, I can tell you a story, I wanted to marry a girl and I didn't get her and it was a better one for me. But you know what? I have to really, that's wonderful, thank you Lord, but that is not the promise.

That is utter grace and there's plenty of people that don't marry the woman, don't marry the man they want to marry and they don't get married. How dare I say what a wonderful testimony. This is how God, how do I, that's wonderful and it might still be the case in your case, but it may not. That's not the promise.

Because there's a little word between verse, after verse 28 into verse 29, which shows that verse 28 and verse 29 go together. They're not supposed to be taken away from each other. It's a little word for. And that means that verse 29 explains verse 28. That means they're connected. That means they must not be pulled out.

And here's what it says. God, all things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose. For those he foreknew, he predestined to be conformed in the likeness of his son. Now, this is the principle. The second principle is God does not promise you better life circumstances if you love

Him. He promises you a better life. From everyone here at Gospel in Life, we want to thank you for the ways you've partnered with us in 2024. We're so grateful for your faithful prayers, for your generous gifts, and for how you've shared our resources to live out the gospel missionally. And we rejoice in the stories we've heard this year from people who have been renewed by the gospel teaching they've received through our podcast, YouTube videos, radio broadcasts,

and other resources. God is using your gifts to bring the transformative story of the gospel to people around the world. Looking ahead to 2025, we believe God is opening up new opportunities for us to spread the message of Christ's love. As we approach the end of December, we invite you to prayerfully consider making a year-end gift to gospel and life. Your support helps us to move into the new year with the resources we need to share the story of the gospel all over the world, making it possible for more people to discover the life-changing reality of Christ's redeeming love. To make a year-end gift today,

go to gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelandlife.com slash give because the gospel truly changes everything. Now here's Dr. Keller with the rest of today's message. He doesn't promise you better life circumstances. He promises you a better life. He doesn't say the good. What is the good? He said, ah, if I don't get into this grad school, I'll get into a better grad school. If I don't get into this grad school, it's a circumstance, see? Marriage is a circumstance. We're talking about a joy that goes above it,

beyond it. Jesus Christ says to disciples who will lose all of those things, I can give you a joy that's not dependent on those things. So how dare we interpret verse 28 as a joy that is dependent on those things? No. What it says is this, and here's the principle. Jesus Christ did not suffer so that you would not suffer, but so that when you suffer, you'll become like him. The Bible does not, the Christianity does not, the gospel does not promise you better life circumstances. It promises promise you better life circumstances. It promises you a better life.

Oh, and somebody says, oh my goodness, what's the difference? Ah, see, our slip is showing, is it not? Is it not? Suddenly we realize we don't know the difference, but the Bible certainly knows the difference. And you do know the difference. In verse 29, we're told what the good is. We're told what it is that every

single thing that happens to you is moving you toward. I want to treat you like adults for the next 90 seconds. I want to treat you like adults in this sense. Paul uses a word here called predestined. Now, if you stand back and look, you'll see that he's introducing the word not in order to confuse you, not in order to explain the word, not in order to raise all the issues that bother people when this word comes up. He's using this word to comfort us. There are other passages where he raises the issue and he discusses all the implications and the difficulties people have with this word. But that's not the passage in front of us. When I say I'm going to treat you like adults,

I'm going to say, will you listen to Paul instead of imposing your agenda on this for a second? This isn't a sermon about the things that bother you. This isn't a sermon about the difficulties of the word predestination. This is a sermon about the certainties of it. Because Paul says, I want you to know something. Something which is predestined is fixed. Okay? Right?

It's fixed. If you love him, there is something absolutely fixed no matter what. Okay? That's all he's trying to get across right now. And what is it? Conformed. The word conformed, unfortunately our word form means outward, doesn't it? In English the word form tends to mean sort of to look like, right? We talk about form as opposed to content, which is a shame because the Greek word here is morphe, from which we get our word metamorph. And what it's saying is God is going to metamorphosize us. He is going to change our very inner essence into the very inner essence of Jesus Christ. What it means to be a Christian is you get passionately in love not with just obeying the rules, but with the character of Jesus.

You read about him in the Bible and you're amazed by things. What do you see? You see truth and yet love. You see wisdom. You see melt-in-the-mouth approachability. You see utter conviction. You see incredible courage. You see a brightness, a radiance. You say, that's a human being, huh? And more than a human being, see? And you say, well, what are we being told here? We're being told that the good that God is moving you toward, everything that happens in your life, externally good or externally bad, is for good. Everything that happens in your life, he says, if you love him, is molding you, is sculpting you, is contouring you, is polishing you, is shaping you into the image of his son.

He is going to make you like him. He is going to give you that incredible greatness. He's going to give you that incredible compassion. He's going to give you that incredible sensitivity. He's going to give you that incredible compassion. He's going to give you that incredible sensitivity. He's going to give you that incredible courage. He's going to do that. And everything that's happening in your life is unto that. Everything. It's predestined. What? It's fixed. It's guaranteed. Do you know one of the most astounding things, and even though I have to, I'm not quite to verse 30 yet, one of the most astounding things in verse 30 is this.

It says, the ones he foreknew he predestined. The ones he predestined he called. The ones he called he justified. We understand all that, do we not? It's an incredible thing. And then it says, the ones he did all that to be glorified. Wait a minute, what? Glorified is in the past tense. No, shouldn't he say the ones he foreknew he predestined and he's justified and he will glorify? No. Why does he say glorify? That's one of the most astounding verses in the Bible, some commentators have said, because it is so absolutely certain that you are bound that he is going to make you as beautiful as Jesus, that he's going to make you as great as Jesus. He's going to give you all these incredible things. It's an accomplished fact.

He can talk about it in the past tense because it's virtually done. It's as good as done. It's guaranteed. He is going to make you as radiant, as holy, and as happy as Jesus. He is committed to that. He is not going to let anything in life get in between you and that. No matter what people have done to you, no matter what people have done to you, no matter what you have done,

no matter how much you flail around, and no matter how much people have tried to harm you, God is not gonna let any of that happen. He's not gonna let any of that get you away from this. You're predestined to be conformed to the image of his son, but not only that, so to be the firstborn among many. Brothers, a lot of people get offended by this statement because you see in verse 29 we're told that the good things,

the two good things that we have as Christians and that we'll never be able to lose and circumstances have nothing to do with it. If anything, even the worst circumstances only enhance it. That's the reason why we say Christian's happiness because bad things work for good and the good things cannot be lost. The first good thing that we have in this verse is the fact that we are on a collision course with greatness and nothing can hold us back. And

everything that God is doing in your life is moving you in that direction. He suffered not that we might not suffer, but that when we suffer we'll become like him. Father forgive them. But the other thing is that we become members of his family. He's the firstborn among many brothers. We are all sons of God. We all are adopted into the family. We are all brought in.. We all are adopted into the family. We are all brought in. You know, Paul uses this term and he's talking about something that happened in the Roman world that's a little different than the way we use adoption. Because in the Roman world, most people who were adopted were adults. Did you know that?

See, usually adoption happened like this. When some wealthy man had no heir and didn't want his estate to be broken up when he died, he would always adopt a male and he would adopt an adult male, usually someone who worked for him, usually someone he trusted, and he would adopt that male and make him his son. And the minute that legal thing happened, number one, suddenly the relationship was happened? Number one, suddenly the relationship was changed from formality to intimacy, from temporariness, right, and conditionality to permanence and unconditionality. And all the debts and all of the financial condition of that man before adoption was wiped out and now he was rich. And see, conform to the likeness of his son is something that

we have off in the future and it's happening now gradually, but being firstborn among many brothers is something that we have now. We are adopted, Paul says. This is astounding. The minute you become a Christian, you now have this intimacy of relationship, you have this unconditionality of relationship, and you are wealthy. Everything, in a sense, that Jesus Christ has accomplished now is transferred to you and you are wealthy. Everything in a sense that Jesus Christ has accomplished now is transferred to you and you are beautiful in him. You're rich in him spiritually in all these ways. Now, I just mentioned a minute ago that some people are very put off by this. Why? Because it's gender insensitive. How

wrong it is, some people say, and it's sort of typical of an old book like this to say all Christians are now sons. We're all brothers. Wouldn't it be better to say sons and daughters? Yes, but you're also missing the whole point. Some time ago, a woman shared this with me, and it really moved me a great deal. She said she was raised in a non-western family From a very traditional culture and in that culture She was a girl and there was one she had one brother There was only one son in the family and it was very very

Openly said and understood in her in a sense in her tribe and her culture and her society and in the family That of course he would get more provisions. Of course, he would get more expenditures. of course he would get more honor. He's the son, you're just a girl. That was the way it was in traditional cultures. The girls, the daughters, second class, the sons, especially if there's only one son. And one day, she's been a Christian for a good long time, but one day she was studying a passage like this in St. Paul's writings with somebody else and suddenly realized this. St. Paul was living in a traditional culture. St. Paul was living in a place where daughters were second class. And what does it mean when he says, to every Christian reading the letter of Romans, we're all sons. What is he saying? I'll tell you

what he's saying. It struck her. She suddenly realized. She says, my goodness, what Paul is saying is revolutionary. He is saying that every human being, when you love God, when you give yourself to Christ, when you become a Christian, there's no second class in God's family, none. You're all sons, you see, because this is radical. This is Paul talking out of a traditional culture. I was very, very humbled because as a white male, I've never been excluded like that. And as a result, I didn't see some of the sweetness of this welcome.

I didn't see some of the sweetness of this incredible subversive, yes, revolutionary thing that God says, when you become a Christian, this is yours. You are utterly welcome. You are raised to the highest honor. There is no second class. What does that mean? Well, isn't Jesus the older son? Doesn't Jesus get... Well, you see, the fact is that we're in him. He's our head, the Bible says. This is... I can't get at all that. It means that we are loved like he is loved. We are honored like he is honored. Every one of us, no matter what. Your circumstances not only can't hurt that, your bad

circumstances will only help you understand the beauty of that, and it'll get you to live out of it. And the more you live out of who you are in Christ, you become like him in actuality. You see that? Jesus...Paul is not promising us better life circumstances. He is promising us a far better life. He's promising you a life of greatness.

He is promising you a life of joy. He's promising you a life of humility. He's promising a life of nobility. He's promising you a life of joy. He's promising you a life of humility. He's promising you a life of nobility. He's promising you a life that goes on forever. He says, and here we get to the third point, why can you be happy? Why can you be joyful no matter what? Your bad things turn out for good. Your good things can never be lost and the best is yet to come. Verse 30, glory. Paul says, do you understand glory? If you understand what is to come, you can handle

anything here. You know what amazes me is even Ivan Karamazov knew that. And Ivan Karamazov, if you read the Brothers Karamazov, you know that he was an unbeliever. And yet, he understood something. He understood it very well. And he wrote it this. He says this in the novel. Of course, he's a fictional character, but Dostoevsky says this through him. He says, I believe that suffering will be healed and made up for, that in the world's finale, at the moment of eternal harmony, something so precious will come to pass that it will suffice for all hearts, for the comforting of all resentments, for the atonement of all the crimes of humanity, of all the blood that they've shed, that it

will make it not just possible to forgive, but to justify all that's happened. Now you see, there's some people here, I'm sure, and this is one of the things I love about Redeemer, there's certainly some people here who are saying, you know what, this has been extremely interesting and kind of eye-opening, I must say. However, I'm not sure that I'm a Christian. I'm not sure I believe all this stuff. At least, I'm not sure I believe Jesus is the Son of God. I don't know if I can trust the Bible and all that says.

So where does this leave me? And here's what I want to say. First of all, I certainly do not want to short circuit the process it takes to become a Christian. Here's the process. We like to say this around here. C.S. Lewis says it this way, and we paraphrase, don't come to Christianity because it's comforting.

Don't come to Christianity because it's encouraging. Don't come to Christianity because it's relevant. Don't come to Christianity because it's exciting. Come to Christianity because it's true. Because if come to Christianity because it's exciting. Come to Christianity because it's true. Because if it's not true, how can it be relevant or exciting or comforting, you see? And therefore, it would be stupid, ridiculous to say, well, I've got all these intellectual doubts.

I don't even know if this is true. But gee, I would love to have all this kind of joy. That would be the worst thing in the world. In fact, the joy would never last. The joy is based on what? Not on your circumstances, but these convictions about Christ and about the gospel and these lofty and incredibly important truths. It's all based on that. Paul says, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be

compared to the glory which will be revealed to us. Reckon. He compares. He thinks it out. He adds it up. That the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed to us reckon He compares he thinks it out. He adds it up. That's where all the happiness comes from. That's thinking thinking It's it's not a feeling. It's not Christianity is not a spirit to be caught Christianity is not like that. Christianity is not like, you know, I feel bad. So I go out shopping I feel bad. So I go to the top of a mountain, I'll breathe in the air. You know, what you're doing at that point is, let me just get away from the hardness of life. Let me stop thinking. Christianity is always not the absence of thinking, but the presence of more thinking.

You don't deal with the difficulties through stupidity, through not thinking, but rather by adding what? This whole perspective. Paul reckons he thinks. He looks at all this and he works it all out. He says all that. So listen, I don't want to get rid of the rationale that you need to think about these things. You need to work it out. You have to decide is Jesus who he said he is. You need to recognize all this. But here's what I don't want you to believe. I don't want you to think that this talk about glory and about heaven trivializes suffering.

You'll hear this about Christians. They'll say, ah, Christians don't take the suffering of life seriously. They say, oh, it doesn't matter because someday we'll go to heaven. It trivializes it, not a bit. I want to say what Ivan Karamazov said. This is the only worldview that takes

your brokenness seriously. This is the reason why I have not told stories The way the talk show hosts do oh so and so died Killed by a drunk driver and so the parents have moved on and they have they've changed public policy So drunk drivers are taken off the road and people's lives have been saved so she didn't die in vain Their daughter didn't die in vain in vain. Their daughter didn't die in vain. That is not a consolation. You lose a daughter, it doesn't...public policy saving lives, nothing but this will address that. Your souls are so great and your suffering is so deep that nothing but this will overwhelm it. Glory

does not take human...does not trivialize human brokenness. It's the only thing that I think addresses it and takes it seriously. For goodness sakes, what else could possibly deal with the hurts of our hearts? Nothing else could possibly deal with the hurts of our hearts. Your soul is too great for anything but this. Don't you know a compliment when you hear it? Come to Him. Let's pray. Our Father, we ask that You would help us to fix our hearts on the fact that our bad things turn for good,

that our good things cannot be lost, and that the best is yet to come. And to the degree we understand, to the degree that we use it, to the degree we go through our daily lives with it, to the degree we face routine good with it, as well as the most terrible times with it, to that degree we'll be like your son. Because your son, Jesus Christ, was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, but we're told in the Bible, he ran the race, why? For the sake of the joy that was set before him. He ran the race, he suffered, he endured the cross for the sake of the joy. Now Lord, Jesus Christ could experience the sorrows he experienced deep in his heart, weeping all the time, but because of the joy, face what he faced, we need him to. He is our pioneer.

He is our forerunner. He is our model. We pray that the joy that we've talked about today would be put before us and that we would understand it so that we too can run the race with delight, knowing all these things. Help us to come. Everybody here has a different path to understand these things and appropriate these things. You're by your spirit. We ask that you would help us to do so. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching.

We hope you were encouraged by it and that it gives you deeper appreciation for God's grace and helps you apply His Word to your life. You can find more resources from Tim Keller by subscribing to our quarterly journal at GospelOfLife.com. When you subscribe, you'll receive free articles, sermons, devotionals, and other valuable resources. We also invite you to stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter.

Today's sermon was preached in 1997. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.