Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Boasting and Faith

Episode Date: July 14, 2023

In Romans 3 and 4 the Bible tells us exactly what God has done to put things right in Jesus Christ. You can put it in a phrase: we’re justified by faith through the blood of Christ.  We look now at one of those terms: faith. What is this saving faith that connects us to God? Notice that Paul twice contrasts faith with boasting. He tries to throw into relief what saving faith is by contrasting it with this idea of boasting.  Let’s look at this passage under three headings: 1) the spiritual sickness the Bible calls boasting, 2) the antidote to that spiritual sickness, and 3) what it means to take the antidote. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 22, 2009. Series: Bible: The Whole Story - Restoration and Redemption. Scripture: Romans 3:27-4:8. 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.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. People around the world understand the word gospel to mean good news, but it's much more than a message of salvation. The gospel is also a comprehensive worldview that can shape how we understand ourselves, others, and the world around us. Today Tim Keller is delving into the underlying implications of the gospel and how it truly changes everything. After you listen, we invite you to go online to gospelandlife.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-centered resources. Subscribe today at gospelandlife.com. Our reading today is from Romans chapter 3, verses 27 through 31, and chapter 4, verses 1 through 8.

Where then is boasting? It is excluded. And what principle on that of observing the law? No, but on that of faith. Where we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law, is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles too? Yes, of Gentiles too.

Since there is only one God who would justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith. Do we then nullify the law by this faith? Not at all, rather we uphold the law. What then shall we say that Abraham or forefather discovered in this matter? If in fact Abraham was justified by works, he had something to boast about, but not before God.

What does the scriptures say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work, but trust God who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness.

David says the same thing when he speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God credits righteousness apart from works. Blessed are they, whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man, whose sin the Lord will never count against him. This is God's word.

The Bible is a story about what's wrong with the human race in the world and what God's done to put it right in Jesus Christ. We've said that here in Romans 3 and 4 we have maybe the most compact place that the Bible tells us exactly what God has done to put things right in Jesus Christ. And we actually, I think three weeks ago, said you can put it in a phrase, we're justified by faith through the blood of Christ. That's what Paul sang.. And three weeks ago we looked at the word justified and last week we looked at or two weeks ago we looked at justified,

one week ago we looked at blood of Christ. And today we want to look at the last of those terms which is faith. What is this saving faith that connects us to God? And I want to do it in a way that, well, I want to do it the way Paul is doing it here. There's too much to say about faith for one sermon, but Paul, notice, twice, contrasts faith with boasting. So, verse 27, the opposite of boasting is faith. In chapter 4 verse 2, the opposite of boasting is faith. And I think that means that Paul is trying to throw into relief what saving faith is by contrasting with this

idea of boasting. And so let's us, let's do it, let's go with him and let's cast our text, our teaching today under three headings. There's a spiritual sickness that the Bible calls boasting. There's an antidote to that spiritual sickness. And then lastly, let's look at what it means or how we actually take the antidote. There's a sickness, there's an antidote to the sickness, and then last, last of all, let's ask ourselves questions. How do we actually take the antidote?

First, the sickness, which is boasting. Now in Paul and in the Bible, this idea of boasting actually comes up a lot more than you think. Paul mentions it constantly in his biggest and his most important, longest letters. But it's also there all through the Bible and the background of this idea of boasting. What is both actually good and bad about boasting, we can understand if we look at the original, the origin of the idea of boasting, the origin of the concept.

In ancient times, boasting was a ritual before you engaged in battle. Boasting was a ritual part of warfare in ancient times. And I'll think about this. How do you get a group of guys, soldiers, to charge with all their might and with all their passion into certain death? How do you get them excited about that? A ritual boast.

One of the things that the king or the general would do is to do some sort of boasting before the soldiers. And he would do something like, this is, by tonight, the king, their king's head will be upon my banners, standard. And everybody go, ah, like that. And there's crude forms of it. There's Anglo-Saxon, Mandarin, Greek versions of basically, we're going to wipe the floor with you. That's a boast. We're going to do this, we're going to do that to them, and they're going to be this, and we're going to be that. Then there's the more eloquent versions.

You can go to Henry V, you can go to Shakespeare, and you can listen to the St. Christians Day speech, and the St. Christians Day speech is incredible eloquent, but essentially it's a ritual boast. Ray for us, we've got what it takes, we're going to do it, and the end of the speech is what? A cheer. What are they cheering for?

They're cheering for themselves. Because how do you get people to go into battle? How do you get people to go move out into confidence, into horrible danger? You boast. You say, we have this and we have that. Now, it is fascinating that the Bible takes something which was the way in which you got confidence to go into battle, to take part of ancient military warfare and say, this is actually characteristic of every single human heart. And this is also what's wrong with every human heart. It's very interesting. So for example, in judges, the book of judges,

God speaking to Gideon, and Gideon is leading an Israelite army against the Midianites, and Gideon is saying to God, please help us defeat the Midianites. And you know what God says? He says, the people that are with you are too many. For if I deliver the Midianites into your hands, He says, the people that are with you are too many. For if I deliver the Midianites into your hands, Israel will boast against me saying,

my own hand has saved me. Now, right there is the very essence of the problem. The whole idea behind Rich will boast is, we can do it. We can get it. We're strong enough. We're good enough. And what God says is the problem with every human heart is you look at your beauty, you look at your smarts, you look at your talent, you look at anything good about yourself, you look at your achievements

and you say, I did that. You take credit for it, you see it as your accomplishment, yet they're gifts from God. You know, you were born with the talent. You were born with the, they're gifts from God, but you take credit for it. And that is the very nature of the human heart. But the problem with the most famous spot in the Bible that talks about the spiritual sickness and the difficulty and the problems of boasting is in Jeremiah 9, 23, something that many people have heard so often they kind of know it by heart, where

God says, let not the wise man boast of his wisdom, let not the strong man boast of his strength, let not the rich man boast of his riches, but let him who boast boast about this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord, for I exercise kindness, justice, and righteousness on the earth for these things I delight as the Lord. Now what is Jeremiah saying? What is God saying? What God is saying is every soul makes its post in something. And by the way the word boast here, this is a Hebrew text, is the word halal from which we get our word halaloo-yah which means praise to Yahweh, to praise the Lord. But here, this is telling us that every single soul

makes its boast in something, it looks at something. If you have money, at least look at the money I've got. If you've got might, athletic prowess, beauty, you look at that, if you have smarts, you have that, look at that and you say, this is why I'm valuable. This is why I am love worthy. This is why I'm worthy of applause, of accolades, of cheering.

This is why I am worthy of praise. This is my glory. This is who I am. This is my significance. This is my value. This thing. I have accomplished this. This is mine.

You see, the soul knows, our hearts know, that the world is a battlefield. How are you going to move out into it with confidence? Or when you're actually attacked, when you're criticized, when you're, when you're opposed, how do you, how do you defend yourself? How do you deal with the battle? Here's how the human heart does. You say, I'm a good father or a good mother. Look at my children. I'm a good artist. Look at my credentials. Or I'm a good person. I go to church. I obey law of God. Look at my moral record. Or I am part of an incredibly important political cause. And I'm really doing good in this world. Or I'm part of a particular people group. And I care about my people, and

I'm moving my people forward in this world. And God says, don't do that. Don't do it. Every single soul looks to something and says, that's mine, I'm strong enough, and looks to cheer itself, or to get cheers from other people. So it can be brave enough. That's how it's defending itself, it's how it's getting its confidence. Look at this, look at this in me. That makes me somebody who can do this. And God says, no, you know why? I'll tell you why, because boasting is a battle cry, and every boast is necessarily a taunt. Every boast was a taunt.

Again, let's go back to the origin of this idea. When you said, we're gonna do this, and we're gonna do that, we're gonna wipe the floor with you. Let's get out there. Of course, that was also a taunt. It was a way of despising the other army. This pathway, oh, seems to back by every year. You know, for the two weeks before the Super Bowl, every soldier, I mean football player,

is, I'm sorry, and is interviewed, and very often you always have one guy on the team who start to say, you know, our receivers are no match. Their receivers are no match for our secondary. We're gonna wipe the floor with them. They're not even gonna, this guy's not even gonna catch one pass. So, you know, and what's he doing?

It's a ritual boast, you know. And what he always says is I was just trying to fire up my teammates, but so often, and that's true, it's a boast. It's how you get people to get out there, fire up my teammates. Same idea. But it's also a taunt. And it very often backfires because what happens

is the coachy other teams pins the statement on the bulletin board of the locker room and says, are you going to take that? You see? And what happens is the boast becomes a taunt and it creates bad blood, creates bitterness, creates anger, and what that means is when you ground your identity, that is to say when you boast in something you have or something you do, that identity, as much as it seems to build you up, always, always divides the human race. It's a taunt. It leads to all kinds of destruction break down divisions and conflicts

So if you if you're ultimate post of your soul is What a hard working person you are your career you have to disdain you have to feel superior to people that you think of as lazy You will you have to you superior to people that you think of as lazy. You will, you have to, you disdain them. If you believe, if the ultimate boast of your soul is that you're a good person or that you go to church or that you study the Bible or that you obey the Bible and your doctrine is all just right, so you, then you have to despise infidels.

You have to sustain them, make it easy to mistreat them. You know, if you really, really, really, if the ultimate boast of your soul is, I'm part of this great people, this nationality, this ethnic group, this group of people, it's almost impossible not to villainize and demonize any other people group that doesn't respect yours. Or if you're part of one political cause and you say, if it's one thing that people, you can have a family, you can have, you can be proud of your race, you can, you can be involved in a political cause. But when it's the ultimate post of the soul and that's what happens.

When it says, this is how I know I'm okay, this is how I feel good about myself. This is the way in which I deal with the battlefield of life, you know. I am in this political party and we're doing what the world really needs and you're going to have to demonize and villainize and marginalize the people who aren't voting for you. And the human heart so wants to do this. A minister, I was reading recently a sermon by an old minister, British minister, who remembers years ago he was at one of these a service in which it was an evangelistic revival service. And he had several testimonies, people were going to give their testimonies. So one man got up there and said, brothers and sisters, I was such a bad sinner, but the Lord wonderfully,

wonderfully saved me. Everybody went, oh, that's wonderful. It was a great testimony. Then another guy got up there. And the next man says, well, the brother that just went before me, he thought he was a sinner. He thought he was, it was really something the guy said, he didn't know anything about sin. Let me tell you about sin, you know. Let me tell you what I've done and what I've been through. And the minister sat there and said, oh my gosh, he's proud of grace. And what if you go to a church that's down on legalists, down on people who are just religious moral people, they don't understand the gospel, they don't understand grace?

Thank goodness you're not like one of them. Thank goodness, you're not self-righteous. Thank goodness you don't boast in your morality. But guess what, now you're boasting that you don't boast. And now you're self-righteous against the self-righteous. See now you're proud that you're not a proud person. And you don't put your trust in doctrine like those awful doctrinally tight rigid people over there. You really, you major in the majors and you got

graced toward everybody. And next thing you know, see what the minister is saying is the human heart will boast. It will take something that is an absolute gift grace of God. And it will say, that's mine, and that's the reason why I am love-worthy, that's why I'm worthy of applause, accolades, cheering. You know, applaud me. Everybody does it. And it's dividing the human race, and it puffs you up in arrogance if you get the thing. If you achieve the thing that you're boasting in, it'll puff you up and divide you in race.

And if you can't get it, if you fail it, you'll beat yourself up and it'll load yourself and hate yourself the rest of your life. Boasting is a sickness. It's a terrible sickness. What is the antidote? Well, in both cases, we see the antidote is faith. It says, where then is boasting?

It is excluded by what? By observing the law? No, of course, that increases boasting. That's what boasting is all about, you see? No, but on that of faith. For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law. And what's that we're justified, me?

Okay, let's move down to the other example of this. Follow me. What then should we say of Abraham? Was Abraham justified by works? If he was, then he would be boasting. Because that is the ultimate boast to say to God, God, you owe me. Look at me.

See, everybody's cheering me because that's such a good person. So you've got to answer my prayers. You see, that God, you owe me. Look at me. See, everybody's cheering me because that's such a good person. So you've got to answer my prayers. You see, that's, you know, look at all the applause I'm getting, God. So you've got to answer my prayers. But he says, that's boasting, but Abraham knew better.

What do the scriptures say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now, when a man works, his wages are not credited to him as a gift, but as an obligation. However, to the man who does not work, but who trusts God, who justifies the wicked, his faith is credited as righteousness. Now, the word credited, LaGizdemai, is an accounting word, and it's from the world of ledgers and account books. And what it's saying is that though you may not have earned that million dollars, if

it's credited to you, if it's put in your account, it is now yours to spend. And what is the righteousness? The righteousness, in a sense, is the applause. It's the honor. It's the reward. It's the accolade. And that which you are trying to coerce out of people through your work, through your performance, through whatever, through your beauty, through your smarts, through your money,

it's given to you. And that is the antidote. Now, how is that the antidote? What Paul's doing when he uses the word inverse 27 when he says so then, where is boasting? Now, what's he referring to? He's referring to a case. He was already talking about boasting in chapter 2. We kind of ignored it. We went through there because we've gone through in chapter 1, 2, 3, 4. And if remember, in chapter two, Paul, though he himself as a Jew and has great respect for his countrymen, uses the Jews as a case study of boasting. Now, as we've seen everybody boasts, but he's using the Jews as a case.

And he says, the problem with the Jews is they boasted of their circumcision. Why? Well, he says Jews meant well, they said, we're obeying the law of God, and circumcision represented the fact that they were obeying the law, that they were giving themselves to obey the law. But they became proud of their circumcision.

They began to boast in it. And then Paul says at the end of the case study, this is chapter two, verse 25, he says, but the circumcision you want is the circumcision of a heart, not of the flesh, by the spirit, not of the written code. See, you want the new birth, the new heart. Such a man's praise is not from men, he says in chapter 2, verse 25, 29. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God. That's in chapter 2. It's not from

men, but from God. And at that point Paul is rolling out maybe the ultimate thing that we get when we believe in Jesus Christ. He says, everybody else gets their praise from men. Cheer me because I'm this. Cheer me because I'm that. Now, just keep in mind how many different ways we do this. For example, for some of us, it's all through relationships. The one thing we want,

the one thing that makes us sure that we are important, is there is some beautiful person that loves us. And this person that we love so is there is some beautiful person that loves us. And this person that we love so much looks at us and when he or she has that incredible look of love in her face and she's smiling on you or he's smiling on you, it's the applause, it's the acolyte, it's the, then I feel like I'm important. Other people, it's literally getting up in front of an audience and doing something and hearing this thunderous applause. We need that.

We have a recording of Daniel Baron-Bone conducting and playing the piano as he conducts Beethoven's choral fantasy, conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. It's an incredible knockout, great performance. And when it gets to the very last note because it's this incredible great performance, one second after the last note, there is the audience erupts and the recording keeps it. Just for about 10 seconds, it absolutely erupts,

thunderous applause, hazaz, hallelujahs, see. Wild accolades. They're just absolutely flooding the conductor and all the musicians with glory. And praise and honor. And you can kind of imagine what it must have been like at that moment for a musician to be up there and literally getting all that applause and all those accolades. What Paul is saying is he's not a stoic. He's not saying, well look at you trying to get all that. Look at you basing your identity in the accolades and the praise of human beings.

He's not a stoic and said, you shouldn't need that. You know what? If you ever hear somebody say, you should need anybody else's praise what you really personally usually means. All should matter as you're applauding yourself, which is just as bad. It's just, it's even worse. What Paul says is, you do need that. When you listen to that thunderous applause, every human being needs to walk around with

that in their heart. You're as thirsty for that kind of praise and acclamation and honor as a thirsty person dying of thirst in the desert. You need it, you want it. Everybody needs to walk around with it so they can get into battle, so they can move out of the world and confidence. We need that. But Paul says, don't build your identity on praising yourself and sharing yourself.

Don't build your identity on other people praising you. Build your identity on this that in Jesus Christ you're justified, which means what? Up to now probably we've been thinking more long lines of moral record or legal status or something like that. And that's right, that's there. It's in the gospel, it's in the Bible. But today I want you to see because I think Paul wants you to see, what that also means is the praise of God,

the applause of God. It means the, listen, the thunderous applause of 2,000 people, because you've just performed, a violent contriot of them, and to have them leap to their feet and scream, and imagine what that feels like. Nothing compared to having gods. In fact, what Paul has said is if you build your life on the cheers of a crowd or even the

love of a lover, the beautiful, you know, the smiley face of a lover, it'll distort you. It'll puff you up if you get it. It'll create conflicts in the world, it'll make you a slave to it, and if you ever lose it, you'll kill yourself or you'll hate yourself, no, no, there's only one kind of praise that doesn't puff up, that you cannot lose, that heals you instead of rots your soul, and that is the praise of God. Most Christians, even pastors, struggle to talk about their faith

in a way that applies the power of the gospel to change lives, especially in our skeptical culture. Tim Keller's book of preaching, Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism is a guide for anyone who wants to become more effective in communicating about their faith. Pastors and lay people alike. Drawing on his years of experience, Dr. Keller will help you share your faith in more engaging, passionate and compassionate way from the pulpit or in the coffee shop.

Preaching 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 gospelonlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Nobody put this better than Louis, CS Lewis, in his way to glory. So I'll read it slowly. When I began to look into this matter,

I was shocked to find people such as John Milton and Thomas Aquinas understanding heavenly glory in the sense of fame with God. See what he's saying is what you've always heard all your life is that when we're in heaven with God, we will be in glory. But what does that mean? Is that mean we're just going to be incredibly bright like big light bulbs? What does it mean?

That will be in glory. And he suddenly realizes that Thomas Aquinas and John Milton said, what it means to incredibly bright like big light bulbs? What does it mean? That will be in glory. And he suddenly realizes that Thomas Aquinas and John Milton said, what it means to live in glory means fame with God. The applause, the accolades, the praise, the delight of God. In other words, they understood that. I am not forgetting how horribly, this is Lewis,

I'm not forgetting how horribly the innocent desire to please and get praise from those whom it was my duty to please, turns into the deadly poison of self-admiration. But I thought I could detect a moment, a very, very short moment, as a child before this happened during which the satisfaction of having pleased those whom I rightly loved was pure.

And that was enough to raise my thoughts to what might happen. Might happen when the redeemed soul in glory, beyond all hope and nearly beyond belief, learns at last that she, the soul, has pleased him whom she was pleased to please. She was created to please. There will be no room for vanity then. She will be free from the miserable illusion that it is her doing. With no taint of what we would call self-approval,

she will rejoice in the thing that God has made her to be. And the moment that heals her old inferiority complex forever will also be the moment that drowns her pride deeper than Prosperos' book. Now what he's saying is crucial, the minute you begin to understand that in Christ you have God's applause, God's praise, God's thunderous affirmation, adoration, honor and acclamation. It not only, and by grace, by grace, through what Christ has done,

not on the base of your performance. On the one hand, that destroys your inferiority complex forever, but on the other hand, it humbles you and drowns your pride deeper than Prospera's book. This is the you need to have it. You need to walk around with that inner applause going on all the time. That's how you handle the world. That's how you get out there. See? But on the other hand, it's got to be gods. Because only that will not distort you, will not rot you, will not puff you up. Only that you can never lose. Only that both humbles you and builds you up at the same time. With no taint in what we would call self-approval, she will rejoice in the thing that God has made her to be. And the moment that

heals her old and free already complex forever will also be the moment that drowns her pride deeper than Prospera's book. So he goes on, it is written, we will stand before him. The promise of glory then is the promise almost incredible and only possible by the work of Christ that we shall please God. It shall, it seems impossible. It's a weight of glory which our thoughts can hardly sustain, but so it is. It means good report with God, acceptance, response, acknowledgement and welcome into the heart of things, the door on which we have been knocking all our lives will open at last. That's the antidote for what's sailing us. Now, lastly, let me give you on the basis of this text two handles, practical handles on how to actually take the antidote, because it's one thing to kind of be inspired and say, okay,

I see what the sickness is, and I see what the antidote is, okay. And you can just get up and walk out and not know what to do about it. Here's two things you need to do. If you want this antidote to actually get into your system and begin to change your identity, so it's not rooted in self-praise or the praise of others, but the praise of God and the knowledge of that.

Here's what you have to do. Number one, you have to see what it cost you to get this praise. And number two, you have to make an appropriate taunt. You have on the one hand, you have to see the cost of getting you this praise. And then secondly, you have to make appropriate taunts. Yeah, okay. First, the cost of getting you this praise, and then secondly you have to make appropriate taunts. Yeah, okay, first, the cost. Believe it or not, Paul actually refers to it, though you have to look up the verse.

When Paul talks about Abraham, the moment in which Abraham finally understood what God was doing for him, finally saw that his salvation was being accomplished by God, not by himself, is where. It's actually quoted, it's in verse three. What does the scripture say? Quote, Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. But where's that quote from?

Where did that moment happen? Genesis 15, verse six, that's what that verse is. And here's the story, and Paul's trying to remember this story. In Genesis 15, briefly, Abraham says to God, God, you know, you've been promising me all this blessings. How do I know I'm going to get them? You've been promising me the blessings. How do I know I'm going to get them? Now, you know, God should have said, Abraham, okay, look, we entered into this covenant relationship

and I promise to give you the blessing and you promise to walk before me. I promise to do something for you. You promise to do something for me. And you're sitting there thinking, how do I know you're going to come through for me? That's probably not going to be the problem. Abraham. Abraham, you should be saying, how do I know that I'm going to're going to come through for me? That's probably not going to be the problem. Abraham. Abraham, you should be saying, how do I know that I'm going to be able to come through? And maybe he was thinking about this. Anyway, he's saying, how do I know I'm going to get the blessing?

There's you, there's me. How do I know I'm going to get the blessing? So, guys, here's what I want you to do. Take a couple of animals, cut them in half, and set them out. Well, in those days, when you made a promise, when you made a contract with somebody, what you would do is you would kill an animal, put it on two sides, and walk between the pieces, and say, it was a ritual, by the way, and say, if I don't do everything I've promised

to do today, may I be drawn and quartered. You're identifying with the animal and you're taking upon yourself the curse of the covenant. And it was your way of ratifying that covenant. So when God says to Abraham, Abraham takes some animals, you know, cut them in half and you know, create an aisle so if somebody can walk between the pieces, Abraham was sure that with that problem

meant that God was going to say, Abraham, I want you to ratify the covenant. I want you to walk between the pieces and sort of reaffirm our contract. That's not what happened. He cut the animals and pieces and then God appeared in the form of a smoking fiery pillar and God went between the pieces and said, I promised to bless you. I promised to do everything I said.

And Abraham was never asked to walk through it. And Abraham was shocked. That's the reason why I probably there for the first time he understood that his righteousness, that his salvation was a free gift. It was credited to him. It was given to him that God was going to accomplish it because you know what God was saying?

At that point, he was saying, I'll take the curse. Let the curse fall on me. I will bless you if it means being torn to pieces." And he was. Because think of what actually happened to Jesus Christ. You have an amazing statement of it in Philippians 7 where it says, this is the old King James, let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but he made himself of no reputation and took upon him

the form of a servant and became obedient under death even the death of a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name. You know what's happening? It's a... When Jesus Christ was in heaven as part of the Trinity, the triumphant Father Son Holy Spirit, He had all the praise, think about that. He had the praise. He had the adoration of the thing that every heart wants.

All the time, acclamation,, praise, roaring approval love, you see, infinite. And he came down where he got, he came into this world where he got mocked. Jeered, struck, made fun of. He got the booze, B-O-O-S. He got the mockery. I mean, there's nothing worse than to think that you get up there and you do your performance and instead of applause, people throw rocks or tomatoes and boo you

and hiss at you and say, get out of here. Do you know what happened? Jesus Christ lost the acclamation of heaven and took the approbation and took the rejection, that we deserve so we can have what he deserved, which is what? Depart from me, Eucharist and Neverlasting Fire, well done, Good and Faithful servant. it in everlasting fire, well done, good and faithful servant. The divine, jeer, mock rejection. The divine accolade applies. Well done, good and faithful servant. When Jesus Christ went to the cross, wow, for you, for me, for God. There's the ultimate accomplishment.

And yet, Jesus got the, he heard in his soul. He was forsaken by God. He heard in His soul. He was forsaken by God. He heard in His soul the words, depart from me so that we could hear in our soul well done, good and faithful servant. You are my beloved child in whom I'm well pleased. Jesus Christ lost. He made Himself of no reputation.

He lost everything so that you could have a name with God. He was jeered so that you could have a name with God. He was jeered so that you could have the infinite honor of God. And that's what he did. That's what it cost him. And when you see that, then you'll finally be so in your heart. See, only when I see that, only when you see that, can you be absolutely convinced in your heart of God's delight at you,

God's praise of you, God's delight in you, and then you don't have to worry about what anybody else thinks or says, and that leads us to the second thing. I told you that both always lead to taunts, right? If you boast against an army, it's a taunt. Well, guess what? In the Bible, we're told that if you do it rightly, you should taunt. Once you understand your justification, once you understand who you are in Jesus Christ, you should taunt. Where?

Where does it say that? Here is a restatement of the end of Romans three and four, except it's in Galatians 6, 14, where Paul says, may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified Jesus Christ, through whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. May I never boast except in what? The cross, what it cost, Jesus, to give me his praise.

See, I am boasting. I am grounding my confidence. I do know that I'm a value, see? But it's only in the cross of Jesus Christ and what He did for me. And what's the result? The world is not crucified to me. And I do the world. What does that mean? The world has been weakened. The world has been demoted. The world has been demathologized. See when you ground your identity in something here, if you say, I'm a great artist, or I've made a lot of money,

or I've got people who love me, you know what you're doing? You're empowering the world. And if the person who loves you says, well, I think I'll break up with you, where the career goes south, and your money goes south, or the world, see, the world can say, if you don't have me, you're nothing.

So the world is filled with power. And it's got all this, but you know what? When you boast in the cross, you can look at the world and taunt it and say, you cannot control me. You are not my life. Now that woman, I sometimes tell you about that years ago when I was a young pastor, she taught me about the gospel.

She told me this awful story about how she, all her life, been in abusive relationships with men. She constantly got into relationships with men and she knew no boundaries in that relationship. She let them beat them, hurt in thumb cases, exploit her, why? Because she, over the years, she had felt in her heart of hearts

as long as I have a man loving me, then I'm worth something. But when she understood the gospel, she said, I started looking at men and I started to say, under my breath, of course, I'd say, you know what, maybe you're the guy for me. Maybe I'll marry you, that's fine, but I want you to know something you were not my life, Christ is my life. You're not my identity. I don't need your love to know that I'm somebody. What's she doing? She's taunting. She's taunting men with a gospel in her heart under her breath, by the way.

But she's taunting. Why? She's boasting in the cross. And it gave her a freedom. It gave her a freedom she could make decent choices with guys now. Remember two weeks ago, I mentioned the guy who said, he had a lot of money, he was an asset manager, remember? And three years ago, he said, found Christ,

and he suddenly realized that this was his worth, this was his value started in his heart of hearts being embosting in Christ, in the cross. And it says, this year, he lost an enormous amount of money, major part of his network. He said, if I hadn't found Christ three years ago, I would be probably suicidal now. Why?

Because he can look at his bank book. He can look at the financial history. He can look at money and say, you're not my life. That is an appropriate taunt. Because every boast is a taunt. Do you know how to do it? Do you know how to do the things that right now are cowering you?

You need to look at those things in the world and say, you're a good thing, but you're not an ultimate thing. And therefore, you're not alive to me. I dematologize you, I demote you. I don't need you. Man, I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through whom the world has been crucified to me and I to the world. Let us pray. Our Father, we thank you for this remarkable insight into what the nature of saving faith is. In fact, what the nature of our salvation is, it's not just a legal standing.

It's the praise. Your praise, your accolade, your acclamation, your thunderous applause. And we see that faith is not just some kind of general belief. It's boasting in the cross. It's re-grounding our identity so that the world no longer can push us around. And we can look at the world and we can say, you're a good thing, but you're not an ultimate thing.

You cannot control me, you can't make me a slave. I pray, Father, that the freedom of the gospel would be something all of us would experience and that we wouldn't let our hearts tendency to boast in things, even in anything, full us, deceive us and keep us spiritually sick. Heal us with your word, heal us with the gospel, with the antidote.

They were justified by faith through the blood of Jesus Christ and Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching. We pray that it challenged you and encouraged you. You can find more resources from Tim Keller at gospelandlife.com. Just subscribe to the Gospel and Life newsletter

to receive free articles, sermons, devotions, and other resources. Again, it's all at gospelandlife.com. You can also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. This month sermons were recorded in 2009 and 2016. 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.

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