Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Confident in Love

Episode Date: April 27, 2026

Philip asks Jesus for something I think most of us can identify with. He asks Jesus to actually show them God. And at this, Jesus is exasperated.  Philip’s saying, “We believe in God, but it’s hard. So give us just one view, and that will be enough for the rest of our lives.” And essentially, Jesus says, “I’m offering you something greater than a vision, that through me you can know God.”  Let’s look at 1) what is possible, that through Jesus we can know God, 2) how it’s possible, and 3) why it’s possible. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 22, 2017. Series: Jesus, Mission, and Glory: New Confidence. Scripture: John 14:7-11. 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 and Life. What keeps your faith from unraveling when trouble comes your way? On the night before his crucifixion, Jesus told his disciples to not let their hearts be afraid. Today, Tim Keller shows us how Jesus offers a new kind of confidence that is rooted in something far more secure than our circumstances. The scripture reading this morning is from John, chapter 14, verses 7 to 11. If you really know me, you will know my father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him. Philip said, Lord, show us the father, and that will be enough for us.

Jesus answered, don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you, such a long time. Anyone who has seen me has seen the father. How can you say, show us the father? Don't you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father living in me who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me. Or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves.

This is the Word of the Lord. John chapter 13 to 17 is Jesus training session with the disciples the night before he dies. He's sending them out into the city, out into the world, and he's training them to go out and represent him. One of the reasons why we this year are reading through this entire section studying John 13 to 17 is that through the rise campaign, we have also been asking God to take deemer and to send us out in the city in a heightened and new way. So we're studying the same material as the first, those disciples.

And John 14 is a wonderful, marvelous chapter. In that, in this chapter, Jesus gives the disciples a number of gifts, I think it'd be the best way to put it. A number of gifts, knowing how hard it is to represent him in the world, knowing how hard it is to live in the world. He gives them a whole set of treasures. And it begins with hope. He says, for the future, I'm going to prepare a place for you, my father's house.

The end of the chapter is peace, I leave you. My peace I give you. Not as the world gives, give I unto you. So Jesus is giving us peace for the present. He's giving us hope for the future. There's a number of other things. However, in some ways, what he offers us here is maybe the greatest of all. one of the ways you can see how great it is is Philip asks for something in verse 8 he says

Lord show us the father and that will be enough for us it's a lot like Moses and on Mount Sinai saying to God show me your glory Philip is doing something I think most Christians can identify with he's saying you know we believe in the father we believe in God but it's hard it's hard sometimes to live for God when he feels so remote and so unreal. So give us a vision. Let us have just one vision, one actual sight of God. Show us the Father,

and that'll be enough for the rest of our lives. And Jesus, as we'll see here, is exasperated with Philip. And essentially, he says this, Philip, I'm offering you something greater than a vision with your naked eyes of God. through me you can know the father in other words jesus christ is talking about something that he calls knowing god and by putting it over as greater than a vision of god we can see how great it is so let's

let's look at what this is let's look at first of all what is possible according to jesus and that is through him we can know god how it's possible that is how does it actually happen that you come to know god and why is it possible so what is possible knowing God. How is it possible to know God? And why is it even possible to know God? So first, let's look at the thing that he's offering. What is possible, knowing God. Jesus makes a remarkable statement in his exasperation. And he says, don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you for such a long time. You've been around me, Philip, and yet you really don't know me. It's pretty interesting. I've been with you. You've been with you.

You've been with me, but you don't know me. It's a remarkable statement. Philip is not just somebody who shows up, you know, attends church every so often. Philip is a pillar of the church. He has been studying Jesus' words. He's been learning all about what Jesus' teaching. He's gone out and he's healed people and he's done miracles. And Jesus looks at him and he says this,

it is possible to be around me, it's possible to know a lot about me, it's possible to study my words, it's possible to attend church, it's possible to be extremely active in Christian activities, help people, minister to people, and not know me at all. Because informational knowing is not personal knowing.

You can know about suffering and not really know suffering. You can know about Mr. Jones, but not really know Mr. Jones personally. And Jesus says that's not only possible with him, but it's common. Now, three Bible passages that drive this idea home, which we need to have it driven home.

Here's three passages. One of the most, probably most famous and the most scary, is Matthew 7, verse 22, where Jesus is talking about what's going to happen on Judgment Day. And he says, many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name? And in your name,

demons and perform miracles and then I will tell them plainly I never knew you depart from me okay now when he says he's going to meet people who are saying we preached in your name we did miracles in your name here's Jesus is saying it's possible to be a theologian is possible to be an extremely successful minister and not know me personally at all never have really given me your heart have no saving personal relationship with me at all. Another verse that drives this home is later on in this, in John chapter 17, we'll get to it later this year. In John chapter 17 at one point Jesus is praying and he says, Father, this is eternal life. That they know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ have you sent.

This is eternal life, that they know you and Jesus Christ, who you sent. So saying knowing God, whatever this is, is not just something for spiritual elites. It's not just something for super religious people. There is no eternal life without knowing God. So it's possible to be incredibly busy in a church, know lots and lots of Christian doctrine, do all sorts of ministry and not know him at all. But if you don't know him, you don't have eternal life. And the third passage just to note is pretty famous, because so eloquent. It's Shakespearean sort of. It's Jeremiah 9, where God is speaking through Jeremiah, and he says, let not the wise man, glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man, glory in his might,

let not the rich man glory in his riches, but let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me. And the reason that is so rhetorically powerful, here's what God is saying. He says, imagine being the consensus smartest person on earth. Every university, every government wants you to work for them. Or imagine being consensus the greatest athlete on the earth. Or imagine being the richest person in the world, which today would really take a lot, by the way. I don't know what, 100 billion or something like that.

So imagine that you had achieved something like that. would that be satisfying? Would it feel good? Yeah, it would really feel good. It would be incredibly satisfying. And yet God has says, and yet that is nothing compared with the depth of fulfillment and the sustained richness of knowing me. And by the way, everyone I've ever met who's had a major taste of the first kind of satisfaction

and a major taste of knowing God. agrees. So obviously here's the average person, you ask them, what is a Christian, they're going to say, somebody who goes to church services or somebody who believes certain doctrines or somebody who follows certain ethical rules. And the answer is yes, yes, yes, yes. No, Philip, no, Philip. Because you can do all those things. Jesus says it several times. It's all through, you can do all those things and actually not know God at all. So do you see the necessity of it? Do you see the centrality of it? Do you see the possibility of it? So Jesus says how important this is knowing God. So it's possible. Okay, well then how is it possible? How does it happen? How does somebody know God? And there are three

elements in here. If you ponder and meditate on this, there's three elements. They're not necessarily stages like you do, you know, three weeks at this and this one. and yet they do have a logical order, but they're all here. And here's what I would say. Through the words of Jesus, you have to see Jesus, and to see Jesus is to see the Father.

First of all, the words of Jesus. Jesus says something in verse 10 that is actually pretty interesting, and it's worth pondering because it's actually surprising. Verse 10, Jesus is saying, the Father is in me. Then he says,

the second half of verse 10, The words I say to you, I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the father living in me who, what? Now, wouldn't you expect him to say, the words I say to you, I do not speak in my own authority, rather it's the father living in me who is speaking. Wouldn't you think that's what he should be saying? But he doesn't.

He says who is working. And what Jesus is getting at here is one of the, it's something the Bible says from beginning to end. Genesis chapter one, God says, let there be light. And then he doesn't go off and turn on the lights. He says, let there be light, and there is light. See, when you and I say let there be light, then you have to go turn them on. In other words, our words have to be backed up with deeds. But God's words are deeds. And say, Jesus is saying, Philip, you want God to be working in your life through a vision. You say, boy, if I had a vision, that would be enough. Then I know God's

working in my life. But I said, no, no, no, Philip, I want you to realize that when you read my words, when you really listen to my teaching and my words, that is how God is powerfully present and working in your life. John chapter 7, the religious leaders send a bunch of soldiers to go and arrest Jesus. So they go to arrest Jesus. They're going to get their man, you know, but they come back empty-handed. And the religious leaders say, why didn't you bring him back? You remember what did they say? They say,

no one ever spoke the way this man speaks. You know, in the old King James Bible, it says, never man spake as this man spake. And what had happened there was, the words of Jesus had revealed such an unearthly beauty that they said, this guy's for real.

And say, look, I don't know, what you, don't argue with people about Jesus or think about Jesus or ponder Jesus, read books about Jesus, go to the page and listen to what he says. And if you do, secondly, you will see Jesus. What do I mean by seeing Jesus? Well, this is what happened to the soldiers. The soldiers, by hearing his words and studying his words, they weren't just studying his words, they were seeing that the words reveal an unearthly kind of person.

Remember singing in the rain? Remember that musical movie, Gene Kelly? One of the characters, there's a character in there named Lina Lamont. Remember her? And she is a star of the silent screen because the movie takes place when, at first, movies were all silent movies. And she's a star because she's dropped dead gorgeous. But then there's a crisis at the, you know, there's a crisis that comes up in the studio

because talking pictures come in, and do you remember, Lena Lamont's voice, she's beautiful, but her voice reveals, reveals that she is shallow, vain, and spiteful. And she has an incredibly whiny, complaining voice that's just awful. By the most famous line is, what do you think I am, dumb or something?

Do you remember that? Except she says it in a high wine, and I'm not going to try to jive your memory by trying to imitate. her. The point is, her words revealed, in spite of how lovely she looked on the outside, it revealed her character. And if you listen to Jesus' words, they are, it's not just, when they came back and says, no one ever spoke like this man spoke, the reason they didn't lay hands on him was that the words revealed, there's never been anybody like this. Now, if you go and you actually

begin to listen to his words, you'll start to see him. What do I mean by? that. Well, Jonathan Edwards, great sermon, the Excellency of Jesus Christ, best thing I've ever read on this subject. Edward says that Jesus Christ, the reason he has this impact on people who are really listening to him and looking at him, both in person back in those days, but on the pages of the New Testament now, the reason it has this impact is because Edward says he combines traits or virtues that we would never expect to be combined in the same person. There are traits and virtues that if you have one, it tends to push the other one out. But in Jesus Christ, they're combined, and that's what gives him this sort of special

on-earthly beauty. And of course, it's a testimony to the fact that he's not just a human being, that he's divine and human. And that's the reason why he combines these virtues. What are they? Well, Edwards goes through them, but he says, in Jesus Christ, this is what's so breathtaking about him, in Jesus Christ, Jesus Christ combines high majesty, yet deep humility, strong commitment to justice, yet infinite mercy, tenderness, yet with no weakness, boldness without any harshness, humility without any uncertainty, in fact, towering confidence, unbending conviction, yet totally approachable,

insisting on truth yet bathed in love power without insensitivity power without insensitivity integrity without rigidity passion without prejudice in human beings when you have one of those virtues it tends to push out the other but not in Jesus Christ and the more you look at him you just start to see an absolute beauty and its testimony this isn't no one ever spoke like this because no one was ever like this because he's divine and human he's a lion and a lamb and when that begins to dawn on you and you begin

to see that unique beauty that leads to seeing the father if you see me see he was saying to philip philip you know actually you've been around me but you've never really seen me but when you begin to see me you'll see the father now what does that mean what does it mean it's important to think about this because in the end knowing god seeing the father are the same thing And when Jesus uses the word see, he can't mean a vision, right, with the naked eye because that's his whole point. Phillips asking for that and Jesus saying, I'm going to give you something else. Well, then what does it mean?

To know God, rather than just know about God, is to see him. And when Jesus uses sensory language, sight is one of your five senses. He is giving us a hint about what it means to know God rather than just know about him. So Psalm 34 verse 8, the psalmist says, oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Now, what is he asking the listeners to do? Is he saying, be convinced that the Lord is good? Is he saying, I know you guys don't believe that God's good, but I want to argue that he is good?

No, he's not saying, he's assuming, his listeners know that that's the doctrine, God is good. He says, I don't want you just know God is good or just believe God is good. I want you to taste and see. Now, what he's doing is when he evokes sensory language, he's reminding you of all the times in your life when you move from a head knowledge to a sensory knowledge of anything and how different that was. So if somebody says to you, the Grand Canyon is incredible. So you believe it's incredible. But when you actually see it, or these mountains or this is incredible, you believe it, but when you see it, you realize that the words you had before could not convey the greatness that the actual sensory experience of seeing it brings. It just can't. Now, here's God's point. Here's Jesus's point. Here's the Bible's point. Your heart, your heart doesn't just have feelings, it has sense. there are some things that have become more real to your heart,

just the way that the greatness of the Grand Canyon becomes more real when you actually see it. So there's a way in which the heart has a sense as well. What is my purpose in life? What is a good life? And why does the world feel so broken? In the Gospels, Jesus meets people who are asking these very questions. And when Jesus responds, their lives are changed in unexpected ways.

In his book, Encounters with Jesus, Tim Keller explores several of these conversations. Looking at Jesus's interactions with everyone from a skeptical student to a religious insider to a social outcast, Dr. Keller shows how these encounters with Jesus can uniquely address the big questions and doubts we still face today. Encounters with Jesus is our thank you for your gift this month to help Gospel in Life share the hope of the gospel with more people. Request your copy today when you make a gift. at gospelonlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. Now, here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching.

So let me give you an example. I could, listen, I could choose a zillion examples. I'm going to use two women who are both engaged, because I can actually think of two women who were both engaged. You went through this. I could use two men. I could use, not just engaged.

I could use in a career. I could use a million. There's a matter. I'm just going to use these two, okay? So don't give me a problem with this. just anticipating objections. Here's two women. They're both engaged.

They both go to church. They both believe God loves them. They're both professing Christians. You say, do you believe God loves me? Of course, I believe you died on the cross for my sins. Fine. Both of them break up with their respective fiancés. It's terrible.

It's horrible. One never gets over it. One does. One gets so bitter, and that bitterness just stays in her life. She never really gets over it. The other one gets through it. What's the difference? Well, there's one person to whom God's love was an abstraction.

She knew with the head, but not with a heart, see? She knew God loved her in an abstract way, but she'd never seen it. It was never reeled her heart. The other woman didn't only know that God loved her, but actually had some heart experience. She knew God. and see when you have actually experienced god's love and you know it personally it puts a sweetness into the bottom of your cup the bottom of your heart that other other problems and difficulties can't the bitterness just can't get down there it can't go all the way to the bottom or put it this way

for the first woman the guy's rejection was more real to her heart than the love of God but the second woman God's love was more real to her heart than the guy's rejection who she was was more shaped by God's love

than by what the guy said she tasted and seen that the Lord is good got it and so the words of Christ lead to seeing Christ, and if you see Christ, you see the Father. And if you're asking something practical there, well, how does that happen? Maybe you have seen one thing.

Look, you can know the Bible without knowing God, but you cannot know God without knowing the Bible. I've already shown you. You can know all kinds of things about the Bible. You can have Bible knowledge. You can study the Bible stories. You can know all about the Bible. You know a lot about the Bible without knowing God,

You can't know God without knowing the Bible. Why? Because where do you hear the words of Jesus? Where do you see the beauty of Jesus? Where do you see the unearthly beauty of Jesus? Where does that draw you in? So that you can start to see God. The answer is only on the pages of the Bible.

Now let me be practical in one more way before going to our last point. Let me give you four marks. See, some of you're out there saying, I don't know, do I know God? Okay, I'm glad you're asking that question. I don't want to throw you too much into doubt, but I'm glad you're asking that question. And so here's four ways to test yourself. And I need to start right off by saying there is a spectrum here.

It is possible. There is a sort of Matthew 722 kind of person who actually is active in church and it does not know God at all. And according to what I've shown you, if you don't know God at all, there's no, not only there's no eternal life, but you actually have no real ballast or poise or any,

you have no ability to handle the shocks of life. So there are plenty of people, plenty of people in a church that don't know God at all. But for most people in church, most professing Christians, there's a spectrum. And therefore these four things I'm going to tell you, the more true they are of you, the more you probably know God.

So I don't want you to think it's all or nothing here. But here's the four. Number one, people who know God have a more sustained, steady prayer life. Many people pray when they're in trouble, and then when the trouble passes, they don't. They pray when there's time, but when they get busy, they don't.

Why? Because in their prayer life, they're trying to get things from God, but they're not trying to get God. They're not after knowing God. A person who's tasted and seen that the Lord is good praise in order, yes, obviously, praise about all the worries, praise about all the things we need, but also praise just to be with him, just to get him, not just to get things from him, to get him.

And therefore, the more you know God, the more you are likely to have a sustained prayer life instead of an all or nothing prayer life. A second mark of knowing God is the more you know God, the more you actually have experiences of God in your prayer life. Now I've got to be very careful about this because there can be seasons, they can be episodic, but sometimes, sometimes you actually sense God,

you're not just thinking about God, you're not just talking about God, you're not just praying to God, but sometimes you sense his presence. Here's a guy who was having a particularly good season, and he's more eloquent than me or you. That's why I'm reading it to you. But he was, this is Daniel Steele,

He was an English Methodist minister in the 19th century, and he was writing a friend about his prayer life, how great things were happening in his prayer life. And this is what he says. He says, quote, almost every week and sometimes every day, the pressure of his great love comes down upon my heart with the light of his radiant presence,

the spot before untouched, has been reached. And all its flintiness, has melted in the presence of that universal solvent, love divine, all loves excelling. Now, it's quite lovely, but you notice what he's saying here is almost every week. And he's having a very, very fruitful season. He says almost every week, and sometimes every day,

the pressure of his great love comes down upon my heart. See, he's using sensory language. There's no other way to talk about it. He's not actually feeling pressure on his heart, so doctors, you don't have to actually worry about, oh my goodness, why do you feel that pressure? He's not talking like that. He's not about physical pressure on his heart,

just like he's not talking about physical sight. And when he says, I see the love of God. Finally, I see that he loves me. And yet you have to use sensory language to make the difference between the abstraction and the experience. Your heart actually has a sense to it. And what he's saying is

almost every week and sometimes every day. And that's a good prayer life right now. But here's all I'm trying to tell you. is that the more you know God, the more often that happens, the more often you actually don't just say your prayers, but you actually meet God in prayer and you experience this present. So first of all, people who know God have a more steady prayer life. Secondly, the more you know God,

the more often you actually experience God in your prayer life. Number three, and I can go back to the Daniel Steel quote here, number three, the more you know God, the more you see long-term, deep changes in your heart. I really love the fact that Daniel Steele says, the spot before untouched has been reached, and the flintiness has been melted, or is being melted.

Now, listen, I think an awful lot of us would have to say that there is a spot at the very center and that it takes just to be told God loves you or just to try to strengthen your life or just even go to counseling or just, you know, try to try hard to be a better person does not reach the spot. What does he mean by flintiness? Well, I don't know. But it could be this, anger.

There's some of us who have, not me particularly, but some of you have experienced an awful lot of injustice in your life. And when you've experienced a lot of injustice in your life, it can create, you can have an anger problem. You feel like I always get the wrong end of the stick. things never go right for me. And when that is, that creates a hard spot in the very center of your life and it gives you a problem with anger. And I'll tell you, all the anger management classes and all the therapy, I mean, you can find out why you're angry, that doesn't actually deal with the spot. All the therapy in the world can tell you why you're angry, but not deal with a spot. You know, all the, all the anger management can help you at least control the worst parts of it, but it doesn't deal with a spot.

but what will melt that spot a deep understanding of God's unconditional love in Jesus Christ that you experience bit by bit by bit and it starts to finally change it. Nothing else will reach that spot. Another possible meaning of flintiness could be well like that woman. You've been hurt and so now you're hard, you cannot commit. You just can't.

You just keep things at arm's length. you can't be vulnerable, you can't open up. What's going to change that? What's going to reach that spot, that hardness of heart? Only a sustained prayer life with a repeated experience of God's love over the years, only seeing Jesus and through seeing Jesus, really knowing God. So the more you know God, the more study your prayer life, the more you actually experience God in your prayer life,

the more you have deep long-term changes, the spot. that nothing else can touch, gets touched, and you can see the changes. You can see yourself becoming less angry. You can see yourself being able to open up the other people. And you know, nothing else could have made that happen. And lastly, you get a sense that the Bible is a divine book. Sorry to just throw this in here at the end, but the point, I mean, there's a lot to say, here's what happens. You may have, you may struggle with things the Bible teaches, and you may have be confused about things the Bible teaches, and you may find difficulties in the Bible. But the more, the more you know God, the more you sense God speaking to you through that book.

You know, Psalm 119 says, the unfolding of your words gives light. The unfolding of your words gives light. The more you see depths, infinite depths in the Bible. No matter how often you come back to it, you see new things. Psalm 119, the psalmist says, Open my eyes to behold, wondrous things in my law. The more you see,

speaking to you. The more you see Jesus, the more you find, this book is God's book, this is a divine book, this is not just any book, the more you experience the self-authenticating nature of the authority of the Bible.

I can tell you other stories, but no, let's go to the last point. The last point is, why is all this even possible? And you know what? It's very easy to miss. But notice one little word, one little word tells you in the very first sentence, if you really know me, you will know my father as well, and from now on, actually three words, sorry, I was wrong, I was wrong. From now on,

you do know him and have seen him. From now on. What do you mean from now on? Why? What's, what's happening? And of course, the answer is Jesus is about to die, of course. This is the hour of his death. He's just about to die. And he says, it's only from now on that you will really be able to see me and know me. he's actually kind of letting Philip off the hook a little bit because obviously Philip has no idea what Jesus Christ is about to do for him and if you don't have any idea you cannot know him but it's only as you've begun to understand the greatness of what he did for you that you can really know him at one level one aspect of Jesus death means that I can know him because objectively my sins are taken away and the Holy Spirit comes into my life.

We're going to read more about that as we go along. That's why I'm not going to say anything more about it here. As we go along in these passages, we're going to see Jesus is saying, it's the reason why God can send the Holy Spirit into your life so that your heart can be changed. And so you can actually begin to experience God in your heart, even in the very, that central spot, is because your sins have been paid for by Jesus Christ going to the cross. So there's a sense in which we can know God because objectively God,

The barrier on God's side is taken away. But I'd just like to end like this. It's only when I know what he's done for me that I want to know him. Something has to move me on my side. I know some years ago, I talked to a woman after one of the services here, and she was saying, you know, she says, you know, I believe in a loving God. I absolutely believe in a loving God. but on the other hand

I don't believe in Jesus I think he was just a nice guy I don't believe he died on the cross from my sins I just don't believe in him but I believe in a loving God so basically we're the same you believe in a loving God I believe in a loving God I don't think you need to believe in Jesus to believe in a loving God and I remember having this conversation

and it had much more of an impact on me than her I said well I don't think that's right I don't think you and I believe in a loving God in the same way. She said, how so? I said, well, what did it cost your God to love you? She thought about it. She said, there's nothing. I said, well, if I believe that God loved me, but it didn't cost him anything,

I would, you know, I'd be happy with that, and I would want to know about him and know him, maybe, deal with him. But I said, what if God was not just loving but holy? and he hated evil, which I'm glad of, and I think we all should be glad of. But therefore, because we're all complicit in evil, he knew he couldn't love us unless somehow the penalty for our sin was dealt with. And what if in Jesus Christ he came to earth and took that penalty himself? You see, when Jesus Christ, in the garden of Gassimony, and especially on the cross, says, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Do you know what he's saying? He's saying, Father, I can't see you. Just imagine the prayer life Jesus Christ had. It would have been an incredible prayer life. But you see, the curtain had come down, even, I think, when he got to the garden. And by the time he was on the cross, my God, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Meaning what? I can't see you.

I can't see you. Why can't he see us? Why can't he see his father? because he's experiencing the darkness, he's appearing the darkness that we deserve. And because he's experiencing the darkness that we deserve, we can see God. And when I see him doing that,

the flintiness, it starts to do something to my flintiness. See? When I see him doing that for me, I realize my heart is so stupid. I think God is a killjoy. He's not. I think God is against me. He's not.

And I want to know this God. So you see what he means when he says? Why is it possible for us to know God? From now on, once you understand what I'm about to do for you, the greatness of what I am going to do for you, now you can know me. Do you really know him?

Huh? Do you know a lot of things about him? Or do you know him just a little, but not very well? Know the Lord, let us pray. Thank you, Father, for your this tremendous gift. We thank you that you're not an impersonal force

that we can only sense in some kind of impersonal way. We thank you you, you're not a remote God who never came to earth and suffered like we have. Lord, you are, of all the gods that are even out there on offer to the human race through the religions of the world, there is no God like you, a God that can be known. Oh, Father, help us to know you and Jesus Christ whom you said.

Make us a people who know you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel and Life podcast. If you'd like to see more people encouraged by the gospel-centered teaching and resources of this ministry, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel and Life monthly partner. Your partnership connects people all over the world with the life-giving power of Christ's love. To learn more, just visit gospelonlife.com slash partner. That website again is gospelandlife.com slash partner.

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