Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Before the Beginning

Episode Date: June 9, 2023

The Bible is not a compendium of varied stories like Aesop’s Fables, each with directions and examples on how to live. If that’s all it was, then basically the Bible would be about you and what you must do. Read rightly, the Bible is not about you—it’s about him and what he has done. A single storyline moves from creation to the fall to what he has done to rescue you and renew the world through grace.  We start, obviously, at Genesis 1. This tells us the beginning of the story of the world. And if you look carefully at the first three verses, you actually get a glimpse of what was going on before the beginning.  We see three things before the beginning: 1) there was God, 2) there was love, and 3) there was darkness. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 16, 2008. Series: Bible: The Whole Story - Creation and Fall. Scripture: Genesis 1:1-3. 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.

The Bible presents us with a grand narrative of God's predictive work in the world, but for many of us, parts of the Bible can seem confusing, disjointed, or even irrelevant. Today, Tim Keller is teaching on the big story of the Bible, examining how each part fits together to reveal the character of God and his purposes for us. After you listen, we invite you to go online to gospel on life.com and sign up for our email updates. When you sign up, you'll receive our quarterly newsletter with articles from Dr. Keller as well as other valuable gospel-centred resources. Subscribe

today at gospelonlife.com. The scripture this morning is taken from the Book of Genesis, chapter 1, verses 1 through 3, and the Gospel of John, chapter 1, verses 1 through 3, and 10 through 14. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the waters. And God said, let there be light, and there was light. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him, all things were made without Him, nothing was made that has been made. He was in the world and though

the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent nor of human decision or husband's will, but born of God. The word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only, who came from the Father full of grace and truth. This is the word of the Lord. The Bible is not a compendium of varied stories

like Esop's Fables, each with directions and examples on how to live. If that's what it was, if that's all that it was, then basically the Bible would be about you and what you must do. But read rightly, the Bible is a single story, and it's not about you, but it's about him, and not about so much what you must do, but what he has done. He made the world.

It was devastated because of the art turning away from him. He re-entered the world to rescue us from sin and death, and he's going to remake it. And the story of the Bible, a single storyline can be discerned and it moves from creation to the fall and the devastation, to the rescue and the redemption, to the complete restoration at the end. Now, it's very hard, actually, to not miss the forest for the trees when you're reading the Bible because the Bible is so long and it's so varied and it's so rich and diverse and it's so many genres and yet it's important to keep in mind the big picture or else you fall into the moralism we've been talking

about for the last few weeks where basically the Bible has looked upon as a series of stories on how you ought to live instead of a single story about what he's done to rescue you and renew the world through grace. So is it possible in one series of messages and sermons to give the whole big picture of the Bible? I don't really know, but I'm going to try. We're going to try.

What we want to do is of the next number of weeks with a small hiatus for Christmas, we're going to look at first the beginning of the Bible, Genesis 1 to 4, first four chapters, that tell us something about how the world began and what happened, how things went wrong. Then we're going to look essentially at the, you might say, the redemptive historical middle of the Bible, which is Romans chapter 1 through 4, which tells us what Jesus did, how he re-entered and what he did about our problems and the peril of the world. And then finally, we're gonna look at the last four chapters

of the Bible, the first four, the middle four, is it where and the last four, Revelation 18 to 21, and see how it's all gonna come out. Do you wanna try? Come with me. Let's go. And we start obviously at Genesis 1, and this tells us the beginning of the story of the world.

But if you look carefully, and that's what I want to do here, just this morning, if you look carefully at the first three verses, you actually get a glimpse of what was going on before the beginning, what was there before the beginning, what was there before the beginning of the world's creation. And every one of the things we see there, and there's three of them, how convenient for a sermon, there's three of them, and every one of them is important for us to know about. And the three things we see before the beginning are that there was God, there was love, and

there was darkness. There was God, there was love, there was darkness. Okay, first, in the beginning there was God. Notice when the world began, God was already there because God, according to the Bible, is the only one or only thing, the only object that has no beginning. And because God alone has no beginning, he's beginningless. Therefore, everything that there is is grounded in God,

finds its origin in God, it's being in God. Now, what does that mean for us? What does that mean practically? You might be surprised when I turn to a man who I think put it extremely clearly. What are the implications of believing that there was a God who made the world or not? And I'm going to look at John Paul Sartre's landmark essay

that he delivered right after World War II, 1946, called existentialism is a humanism, landmark essay. And in it, he looks at the example of a pen knife or a paper knife, he calls it, a knife by which he cut paper. And with this, he tries to show the enormous difference between believing there was a god or there was a god that made us and not believing that there's any god

that made us and he goes about it like this. In the lecture, he says, if one considers an article of manufacture there's any God that made us, and he goes about it like this. In the lecture, he says, if one considers an article of manufacture, as for example, a paper knife, one sees that it has been made by a designer to serve a definite purpose. No one would produce a paper knife

without knowing what it was for. Now, if God created man, each human being is then the realization of a certain divine conception and purpose. Here, then, is the problem. The atheism of the 18th century abolished God and yet still insisted that there was such a thing as human nature, that there were still some things we must do because they are good for human beings to do. Atheistic existentialism of which I am a representative, that is him, he is representative, it's a long quote, I just want you to remember who's saying this.

Atheistic existentialism of which I am a representative, so John Paul's answer, declares with greater consistency that if God does not exist, we have to face the consequences of this. We are not made for a purpose like a paper knife, and therefore there is no a priori good. No where is it written that human beings must be honest, that we must not lie, because we are now on a plane where there are only human beings and no God. As Dostoevsky wrote, if there is no God, everything is permitted. Now, what is he saying? I think he's making it clear as can be.

First of all, he says, if there is a God and we were made, then we're like a paper knife. A paper knife can be said to be good or bad only because it was made for a purpose. It would be silly. If you say it's had a good paper knife or a bad paper knife, who knows, unless you know what it's for.

And if it was made for cutting paper, then it's good if it cuts paper, it's bad if it doesn't. Not only that, but it is good for a paper knife to cut paper and not to try to carve marble. If you try to carve marble with a paper knife, you're going against its purpose, and therefore you will either ruin the paper knife and or maybe even ruin the marble.

And so if the paper knife was made for purpose, it's good or bad, and there are good things for it to do, or bad things for it to do. But he says, and if human beings were made by God, then there is such a thing as things that all human beings must do, which is good, or all things human beings must do because they're bad. But if God did not make us, if we're not here for a purpose, there is absolutely no way, he says,

of talking about right and wrong and good and bad. The good news, says Sartre, is that you're absolutely free. You can live any way you want. The bad news is, and he says you have to face it with bravery, and it does take a lot of bravery, but takes a little bit more than that, is you have to admit that you cannot talk anymore about this is just, and this is right, and this is wrong, in a way that everybody has to do it. You may feel that something is right.

You may feel genocide is wrong. But why? How in the world are you going to say it everybody? We should all feel the way I feel. There is no way. Now by the way, Sartre drove the Marxist nuts for two reasons, because he would very often ally with them and then he would pull back from them. And the reason is, on the one hand,

he had a lot of sympathies politically with them. But on the other hand, he was trying to be true to his philosophy. And you can't say some things are right and some things are wrong. And yet what drove everybody nuts was at Sartre in spite of this brilliantly clear statement, spent all the rest of his life making strong moral judgments all over the place

about how people should treat him or not treat him and how people should act, et cetera. And Philip a foot, a very brilliant atheist, British professor philosophy many years though she taught at University of California for many years has a great article in which she says, Nietzsche and Sartre made ironclad case.

That if you don't believe in God as most philosophers, she said, don't, which is maybe an exaggeration, but she says, as most philosophers don't, everybody agreed, they made an ironclad case, that if there is no God, there is no truth of the capital T, there is no way that you can say, some things are good or some things are bad for human beings are good. None. And yet, she says, we've spent, after we applauded them and said, you're right, we spent all the rest of our lives making strong moral judgments all over the place.

Do you find enough just to be brave and say, if there is no God, then all things are permitted, you've got to be consistent and nobody is. Why? Because in the beginning, God. There was a God. And we, Romans 1 says, we know that down deep. And even if you deny it up here, you can't deny it in the way in which you live.

And you, such as wrong about the freedom, I think, because yeah, to say you can live any old way you want, that's a way of thinking about freedom. I got a better way, and the Bible has a better way. When you look at a hawk soaring, you know, riding the thermals, I tell you, that's one of the few times I get jealous of an animal. When you see what they can do, but you know, they're not very good, you know, on the ground, if somebody's chasing them, they probably shouldn't run, they'll die, they'll be eaten. They shouldn't, as far as I know, they probably shouldn't run, they'll die, they'll be eaten.

They shouldn't, as far as I know, Hawks aren't very good at diving for fish in the water, burrowing in the ground. No, no, no. They're built for the thermals. And when you see one, in a sense, submitting to its design and riding the thermals, there's freedom. Isn't it freedom? What a picture of freedom.

They're not free by ignoring their design, or their purpose, which Sartre would consider freedom. They become free by submitting to it. In fact, they're only actually enslaved, they're only eaten. If they don't submit to their design, if they try to avoid their design. And instead of flying, they try to run. And Isak Denison in her, in Out of Africa, has this fascinating statement about what that means

then for us as human beings. She says, pride, proper pride, you might say, is faith in the idea God had when he made you. Pride, proper pride, is faith in the idea God had when he made you. Pride, proper pride, is faith in the idea God had when he made you. A properly proud man is conscious that God made him and conscious of that idea and does not strive toward happiness or toward comfort, listen carefully, because happiness or comfort may be irrelevant to God's idea of you. Success is the idea of God successfully carried through and a proud man is in love with that destiny. Many people are not aware of any idea God had in the making of them, or maybe they think it was lost, or maybe they

think, you know, who will ever find it again? Such people have got to accept as success what others warrant it to be, and to take their happiness and even their own identities and selves at the quotation of the day. They tremble with reason before their fate. What a quote. Sometimes they envy hawks, sometimes they envy writers. You know what she's saying?

She says, what if you don't think there was any idea that God had when he made you? No idea that you have to realize and find. Then you are not free, but you are going to be completely affected by what everybody else says you should be, or what is important, or what's cool, or what's hip, or what's smarter, what's important,

you have to take your very identity at the quotation of the day, tremble with reason before such a fate. You wanna be free. Do you really want freedom? Then find what God made you for and realize it. And you say, well, how does that happen? Well, two ways, and we gotta to move on to the second point,

because this is another whole sermon, but two ways. One is you read the scripture, which tells you what God made human beings in general for, and you obey it. That's not all there is to it, but it's because there's a lot in there. That's the first step. See, that's one way to become the hawk that rides the thermals.

But secondly, then you also know that there are certain collings on you, God's given you certain gifts, certain things he wants you to do. And that's not the sort of thing you find just by reading the Bible. You got to get to know him personally. You have to have a great prayer life, and you have to be in deep community where you have a lot of other people who know what you're good at and can see you better than you are. And together, God shows you even more distinctly and specifically the idea He had when He made you. Because in the beginning, God, number one, number two, the second thing we learned before the beginning, it was God, but also before the beginning, there was love. What do you say that? Well, look, verse 1, in the beginning there was God. Then move on, verse 2, also in the beginning or before the beginning,

there was the Spirit of God hovering. And by the way, it's a word that means a mother bird fluttering over her young, very interesting. It's a very intimate and warm image. And then the third thing you have, you have God, and you have the Spirit of God, and God and the Spirit of God are creating through the Word. And God said, let there be light. God never makes light. He says, let there be light, and there was light. He says this. He says that all creation happens through the Word. So you have God and the Word of God and the Spirit of God. Doing the creation, and that's the raw material. Those are the hints that the New Testament picks up

and reveals to us in John chapter one, that the God who was there before the creation of the world and who created the world is a triune God. But within the one God head, there are three persons. Father, son, the Word of God, and the Holy Spirit, the Father, Jesus, the Word of God, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And they together were creating the world. Looking for a new way to deepen your faith and understanding of Christianity this summer? If you are, we'd like you to consider the new city, Catechism devotional.

Based on the historic Catechisms of the Christian Church, this devotional offers 52 weeks of thought-provoking questions and answers that explore the foundational beliefs of the faith. Each week includes a scripture passage, a prayer and a brief meditation that will challenge and inspire you. Commentaries are written by contemporary pastors such as John Piper, Timothy Keller, and Kevin DeYoung, as well as historical figures such as Augustine,

John Kellen, and Martin Luther. The new city-caticism devotional is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel and Life share the hope of Christ's love with people all over the world. So request your copy today at GospelUnlife.com slash give. That's GospelUnlife.com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. That's what was there before the world. Now what does that mean? What are the implications of that? Aha two things two enormous implications and the most practical implications possible if you're living in a place like New York City number one

First of all, what does this mean? It means the primacy of relationships Would you think with me for a second? Most people most religions believe that there is a God, but they think of God in a unipersonal way, most religions, most unipersonal way. And we all know that love is something that can only happen between persons. And therefore, God could not have had any love, such a God could have no love until a universe of beings or persons was created with whom he could have love. And what that means then is, here's this God, a universal God, imagine this universal God, creating the world in power and then comes love. So first love, first power, then love.

Power is more fundamental than love. Love comes in later. Love is something peripheral. Love is something that comes in later. Love is something peripheral. Love is something that comes out later. At the root of the universe then is power. At the essence of God is power. And love is secondary or tertiary or, you know, kind of peripheral. The essence of ultimate reality then is power.

But what if what Jesus tells us in John chapter 17 is true that from all eternity the father of the son of the Holy Spirit from before the foundation of the world Jesus says we're glorifying each other to glorify each other means to praise, beginninglessly, there was love inside God. God was love. Now you know what God was love means. God was literally love, not just loving the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, were knowing each other and loving each other and delighting each other from all eternity and out of that comes the power for creation. Love before power, love before creation.

It all comes creation. The universe comes out of love and relationships. That's the ultimate reality, not power. Now what does that mean practically? I said this is the first thing, the primacy of relationships. We live in a society and in particular, we live in a city with a certain set of cultural values.

And there's a hierarchy of them. And here's what the New York City culture tells you. Relationships are nice. Nobody comes here for relationships. It's incredibly hard to maintain relationships. New York City, the jobs are structured, so what's really important is achievement, money, career advancement, and power.

And it's structured in such a way, not only jobs, but careers are structured in such a way in our culture, increasingly, that it's almost impossible to maintain friendships and still be doing well. And actually, almost impossible to maintain a marriage in a family and still be doing well, and actually almost impossible to maintain a marriage and a family and still be doing well. Now if there is no God, then the reason you and I are here is through violence and power. Strong eating the weak, that's it, that's all.

Power is the ultimate reality, and therefore the New York City culture is perfectly fine, because it's right in line with what real, ultimate reality really is. But if the Bible's right, and it is, and the Triune God created the universe, then for you to continually make choices, life choices that put personal advancement over community, loving relationships, marriage, family, things like that. For you to always be putting career and advancement ahead of relationships, you are going to be, you're going to be eventually dashed on the rocks of ultimate reality. You were not built for that kind of life.

The world was not built that way. Ultimate reality is the primacy of relationships, not achievement, not advancement, not personal pleasure. That's the first implication. It's a huge implication. If this is right, then New York City culture is way out of whack. Number one, number two, it's not just talking about the primacy of relationships. This is teaching us about the nature of those relationships. When Jesus Christ says that Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, relationships, this is teaching us about the nature of those relationships. When Jesus Christ says that Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit were glorifying each other,

now the word glorify doesn't just mean to love. It's a kind of love, to glorify means to honor, to bow before. It's an amazing word actually. And what it's actually saying is that the father, the son, and the Holy Spirit were other oriented. Each of them was holding the other two at the center of their being. Each of them, as it were, circled the others and loved and honored. And therefore, as a friend Don Carson says, studying John 17, there is an other orientation

of the very being of God, that at the heart of God This is this is really something if God is trying and then we can see the very essence of reality is To put the needs of the other ahead of your own Is to defer is to serve is in a way to abdicate and that means Selfishness is absolutely at a logger heads with ultimate reality. Self-giving, mutual self-giving is what we're all made for, mutual self-giving, in which each person around is doing everything to say, no, no, no, no, not my needs, yours. And if everybody's doing that, you actually have a kind of paradise. And if that's the essence of the Trinity, and that's the essence of the kind of relationships we ought to be in, what does that mean?

C.S.S.O.S. has this masterful spot in his book, Mirchristianity, where he talks about this. He says, in self-giving, we touch a rhythm, not only of material creation, but of all being. For the eternal Word, Jesus Jesus Christ gives Himself in sacrifice. But when He was crucified He only did in the wild weather of His outlying provinces that which He had been doing at home in glory and gladness from before the foundation of the world. For the Son glorifies the Father and the Father glorifies the Son.

You see the self giving-giving is what? It's ultimate reality. And so Lewis goes on and says, so, from the highest to the lowest, self exists to be abdicated. Off the throne. Listen, from the highest to the lowest, self exists to be abdicated.

And by that abdication, it becomes more truly self. To be there upon yet the more abdicated and so on forever. This is not a law which we can escape. The only thing outside the system of self giving is hell. Hell's fierce imprisonment of self-absorption. No, self-giving is absolute reality. Now the reason I've still got a marriage that is a joy after these years is because my wife

and I discovered that self is made to be abdicated. The reason this church is still here is because untold numbers of leaders and members have come to realize self is meant to be abdicated. That's all the reality, to defer, to serve, to forgive, to give. And you say, oh, is that me? I'm supposed to let other people walk all over me? No, because that would, you're doing yourself giving, self giving is in service, right? And the worst thing you could possibly do to somebody is let them sin against you. But you draw a line and you say, you can't do this for their sake, not for your sake. If you're

drawing lens for your sake, you are going to dash yourself on the rocks of reality because all your boundaries are selfishness. And everything about the way in which you're living in life is selfishness, you're going to destroy yourself. You're going to destroy the people around you because this is ultimate reality. The primacy of relationships and mutual self-giving relationship, self from the highest to the lowest,

self-exist to be abd advocating. Do you understand that? Because that's what was before the beginning. Now, before the beginning it was God, secondly before the beginning it was love, but now thirdly, before the beginning, we need to at least notice this that there was darkness. Darkness. Yeah, look, It says, and now the earth was formless and empty. It was a shapeless chaos, right? And darkness was over the surface or the face of the deep. I like the old King James darkness was upon the face of the deep. Okay, what does that mean?

When God begins to speak, under His word, the darkness and the chaos to spells, and there's orderliness and there's light. There's a primordial chaos and darkness when God speaks, when things that come under his word, there is orderliness and light. So what? Here's what. If you go back into Exodus chapter 5 to 10, there's a very famous account of Moses coming to Pharaoh to try to get the children of Israel out of bondage and slavery in Egypt.

So he goes to Pharaoh and he says, let my people go. Pharaoh won't do it. So what does he do? Well, God begins to smite Egypt with plagues. You know, for a long time, I used to wonder why in the world Pharaoh was so stubborn. Couldn't he see that this was God's hand? But if you actually look carefully, you begin to realize why he might have been in some doubt. Because all the plagues are incredibly natural. The first plague got smoked the Nile in such a way that everything in it died.

Well, what happens as a result of that? Well, the frogs are driven out in everybody's houses. So there's an infestation of frogs, and then they all die. But when the frogs die, all the carcasses are around next thing, you know, have an infestation of nets and flies. And as a result of that, suddenly there's an epidemic, and the cows and the cattle die, and then the people begin to die. It's pretty natural, isn't it? See, every time Moses would come back and say, okay, God's going to do another plague, and that plague, and that plague, and, every time Moses would come back and say, okay, God's gonna do another plague, and that plague and that plague and that plague. And Merit Pharaoh said, he said they're saying,

well, maybe this is God, but maybe this is just a bad stream of luck, because all the plagues were so natural. It was nature seemed to be falling apart, and sometimes it does. They were natural disasters. Well, you say, well, why didn't Moses just make it unmistakable? Why didn't he just do an unmistakably supernatural thing?

Why didn't he walk it and say, OK, Pharaoh? I see what you're thinking. All these natural disasters, you're just thinking, maybe this is natural. I'm going to blow the roof off your palace. Look at that. And then Pharaoh would say, oh, no, you're right. Well, why doesn't he do that?

Why didn't Moses do it that way? Why didn't God do it that way? Commentators now realize that what God was showing us as well as Pharaoh is it sin unleashes the forces of chaos and darkness, because sin violates the very fabric of your being and unravels God's creation. What you actually have, if you read through carefully

the plagues of Exodus five to 10 is the unraveling of Genesis one and two, because like the second last plague near the very end, suddenly there's darkness over the face of the whole land. It's almost like God is just unraveling creation, showing that their sin is destroying the creation, destroying the very fabric that he had made. See if a doctor says to you, do not eat high cholesterol and you do. He doesn't have to find you or put you in prison, he doesn't have to do that. You're violating your own being. The consequences are natural, which means that you are unleashing the forces of chaos and darkness in your own life.

You're violating the design of your own physical being and you're gonna have a heart attack. Okay. And when God says, to check. And when God says, have no other gods before me, put me in the center of your life. He doesn't have to find you or strike you with lightning if you don't do it. What if you put fame and fortune in the center of your life? Eventually your body will break down because of overwork, your family will break down because you've neglected them. Maybe you'll have a legal breakdown because you'll lie in order to save your reputation. You are unleashing the forces of chaos and of darkness in your life

when you fail to be under the word. Because when God brings something under the word, the chaos becomes orderly, the darkness becomes light. And it's our sin and it's our wrongdoing and it's our refusal to obey God as a human race and as individuals that have unleashed all kinds of chaotic forces and darkness in our lives. Well, that's pretty bad. What can we do?

What can be done? What can be done? How can we start to repair that? How can we be turned back toward Him? Wouldn't God be perfectly just to let us just do one our juices? And the answer is, of course, but He's not only just, or another way to put it, He's He's not just just. He's not just just. He's something else. What else? Well, in Matthew 27, we

read, from the sixth hour to the ninth hour, darkness came over all the land. And at the ninth hour, Jesus cried, my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? And at that moment, the earth shook and the rocks split and the tombs broke open and the bodies of people who had died were raised to life. What's going on there? Here's what's going on there. Think about the plagues. The chaotic forces of disorderliness and unraveling and darkness and disintegration, they were falling on Jesus.

Remember the first? Remember Moses Rod? This is the rod of justice coming down on Jesus. Remember the first? Remember Moses Rod? This is the rod of justice coming down on Jesus. Remember the Nile turning the blood? This is Jesus' blood and water flowing mingle down. Remember the death of the firstborn? This is God's firstborn dying.

And over the darkness, this was the uncreated chaotic darkness that sin deserves falling on Jesus. What is it? Jesus was the Creator. Nothing was made without Him. Through the Word, everything was made. We read this. What is going on? Here's what's going on.

Jesus Christ is the Creator who came here not to smite us, but to be uncreated so that we could be recreated. Jesus is the maker who is willing to be unmade so that we could be remade. Jesus is the judge who came not to bring judgment, but to bear judgment, to take what we deserve so that the Holy Spirit could come into our lives once our sins are forgiven and begin to remake us and to get rid of the darkness and to say, let the be light there and let the be light there and let the be light there. The word and the spirit and the Father come into the life of everyone who's born again, see, who get right

with him through believing in him and recreation begins. Why? Because de-creation happened on the cross. Well, might the sun in darkness hide and shut his glories in? When Christ the mighty maker died for man the creature soon. There's the self-giving. You see that? You go and do that and realize of other people. You'll know freedom and you'll begin to re-weave the fabric of the reality that sin has eaten so much through. There's the freedom sarsher wanted. There's the freedom your heart wanted.

That self-giving love will enable you to ride the thermals. Because in that way, you'll be like him. Let's pray. Our father, before the beginning, it's amazing as profound and as remote and as high and as lofty and as deep and profound as such matters are, they are profoundly practical.

They tell us something about our priorities, how we spend our time, they tell us about our, they convict us of our own selfishness and our relationships right now. We thank you, Lord, that doctrine is always practical. We thank you that your truth is always brought home to us in a gracious way because it always comes through the cross. It never just falls upon us and waits us down and makes us feel awful. It lifts us up and comforts us and renews us.

And we thank you for that. We pray that you be with us as we travel through the whole story of the Bible. And we ask that you would help us to see that self exists to be abdicated. thereby it becomes more truly self. Help us understand that in the context of the Gospel of Jesus in His name we pray. Amen. Thank you for listening to today's teaching. We recognize that many of you will want to respond to the news of Tim's passing. If you would like to know more about how to share

your condolences or to share a story of how Tim's writing or teaching helped you, or if you just want to know how you can pray, please visit gospelunlife.com-sla-remembering. This month's sermons were recorded in 1996 and 2009. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. in church.