Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Discipline of Desire 2

Episode Date: January 4, 2023

What does experience of God actually consist of? How does it happen? And how do I know if I’m experiencing God? Psalm 63 shows several principles of what a real experience of God is and consists of. Each principle can be used as a test on your own heart. And each principle is also a discipline—a practical handle for what to do to draw near to God. We’re going to look at two of these principles: 1) you develop a spiritual appetite and, 2) you are capable of a new sense of God. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 26, 1997. Series: Lessons in Drawing Near. Scripture: Psalm 63. 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. Who is God to you? Is he a boss, a concept, a cypher? Is it possible to really know and experience him? Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller continues to explore how Christians can practically experience God in their lives. May I ask you to turn to the place in the scripture and part of me in the bulletin where we have the scripture passage written.

Psalm 63. I'm going to look at it as we did last week. This is the new international version. Some of you, if you're familiar with it in other versions, you'll know that in the very beginning, the, it says, oh God, you are my God, early will I seek you? There's a Hebrew word, it's hard to translate. It's a Hebrew word that means primacy,

has to do with primacy. And it's difficult sometimes to know whether an ancient Hebrew word has to do with temporal primacy or qualitative primacy, which means some people have translated it, oh God, you are my God, early will I seek you. That's the reason why we sing the song Step by Step, which we'll sing tonight later, which is based on Psalm 63. That's the reason why we sing, I will seek you in the morning.

And this translation says, earnestly, will I seek you? But the important thing is, of course, it's just an interpretation. It means this is the first thing in my life. Now, does that mean the very, very first thing, temporarily, in time, or is it mean the first, probably both? Nevertheless, let's read this together,

and I'll read it slowly. Oh, God, you are my God. Earnestly, I seek you. My soul thirst for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and be held your power in your glory, because your love is better than life. My lips will glorify you. I will praise you as long as I live,

and in your name I will lift up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods, with singing lips, my mouth will praise you. On my bed I remember you, I think of you through the watches of the night, because you are my help, I sing in the shadow of your wings. My soul clings to you.

Your right hand upholds me. They who seek my life will be destroyed. They will go down to the depths of the earth. They will be given over to the sword and become food for jackals. But the king will rejoice in God. All who swear by God's name will praise him while the mouths of liars will be silenced. That's Psalm 63.

Now we're looking at, and we just began to look at last week, and we'll look at one more Sunday night. We're asking ourselves the question, what does experience of God actually consist of? How does it happen? What does it look like? See, in the fall, we had a series, in the evening service, we were looking at a series of accounts in which men and women actually had experiences of God. And those are very exciting, but at a certain point it begins to make you ask, well, how does that happen?

How do we actually do it? How do you practically prepare? How do you seek out? This morning, somebody after the morning service, when we were looking at a place in Luke, where there was a contrast between a kind of intellectual cerebral approach to God and a passionate approach to Jesus Christ, a woman falling down, weeping, giving herself. Some people were very concerned afterwards, especially around Redeemer, there's a lot of cerebral types.

There's a lot of people that like to think and talk and discuss, and they suddenly began to realize, you know, the Bible says, there's supposed to be a passion, there's supposed to be an experience. We're supposed to be an experience. We're supposed to actually know God, we're supposed to actually have an experience of God. And right away the question arises, and this question was asked me, and I quote, what am I supposed to be feeling? What am I supposed to be experiencing? How do I know if I am experiencing God?

And that's what we're going to look at when we look at the Psalms, because the Psalms is the premier place to look to answer that question. The Psalms are a journal, almost a kind of instruction manual from the inside of people who are experiencing God and explaining and describing it. Now Psalm 63 is a great, it's one of the greatest of the Psalms when it comes to this subject. John, Christ, is one of the great fathers of the faith, they call them, you know, one of the great teachers and preachers in the early centuries of the church, believe that if he said if he had his way, Christians would

sing this every day. Maybe he's right. There's several principles in here, very important principles of authentic Christian experience. They tell you what a real Christian experience, a real experience of God is, consists of. And what I'm doing is I'm pulling one or two out every week. And I'm saying every principle, every teaching, is also a test and a discipline.

Now what I mean by that is, is the first principle, which we introduced last week, and now we're going to use, and the second principle, which we'll get out, each principle of Christian experience is not just a description, but it can be used as a test on your own heart to see whether you've had a Christian experience or if you to see the degree the depth of your experience. It's not only a test, it's also a discipline, it's actually a method, it's it gives you a practical handle for what to do to

draw near to God. Now the first of the disciplines, I'll just I'll just name you the two. The first of the principles, I'll just name the two. The first of the principles. In verse 1, oh God, you are my God. Earnestly, I seek you. My soul thirsts for you. My body longs for you. And a dry and weary land where there is no water.

And the first principle is the appetite principle. Now, let's look at this one first. We introduced it last week. What's the appetite principle? It's this. The first mark of an authentic Christian experience is a sense of God's absence. Notice, and this is very important, it doesn't say, I am seeking you, and then you'll be my God, but rather, look at the order, you are my God and implied, therefore I seek you.

The first principle is this, the more you actually know God, the more you have an appetite for him. The seeking is always a result of having found him. It doesn't say anywhere in the Bible that you find God because you saw him, but rather the Bible continually says, you seek him because you found him. And the more you find him, the more you seek him. Not the other way around.

It's not like the more you seek him, then you find him. But rather the more you find him, then you seek him. Let's go all the way back to the early part to see this principle, go back to the early part to see this principle. Go back to the early part of the Bible. You do not have Adam and Eve going around the garden of Eden saying, where are thou? You have God coming into the garden,

crying out that of an Eve, where are thou? In Romans chapter 3, Paul says, no one seeks for God God and yet we have Jesus Christ saying when he talks to Zacchaeus in Luke 19 he explains what he came for he says the son of man came to seek and save that which is lost. Jesus does not say you are the Maus I am the flame he says you are the sheep and I am the shepherd see Maus go after a flame but sheep do not get together and say, let's go find a shepherd. Sheep wandered off and the shepherd has to go and get them. And that's what you see here. You see, you are my God, therefore, I long for you.

And the first mark that you have a real relationship with God, that God has actually come to you, that you have a real connection to him, is God has actually come to you, that you have a real connection to him, is that there's an appetite for him. I'm sure somebody's going to raise questions about this, and all I can tell you is, the Bible does say that we have a general spiritual hunger for the divine. Paul says in Acts 17, he goes to the men of Athens and he says, I see that you are all men, most religious. I see that you have put up an altar to the unknown God. And he is the one I'm going to declare to you.

I mean, Paul recognizes the fact that all people everywhere have a general, I could say, a generic spiritual hunger for God. But the Bible also says that sin sets us up in such a way that we don't actually seek the true God, but we do everything we can to escape him. In fact, the Bible says that all spiritual searching, unless God has come in and changed your heart, all spiritual searching is actually a way to get away from Jesus. All your spiritual searching is trying to find a God that will let you stay in control. All your spiritual searching is trying to find a God that will let you stay in control. All your spiritual searching is trying to find a God that will not say you are utterly

dependent on me. I have to be your savior. All spiritual searching is after some kind of God that will kind of give you help you over the hump toward your goals. But anyone who has an appetite for the true God, the God of power and glory, the God of grace and mercy, the God of the covenant, my God, can't get into all that again. That's because the reason you have a passion, we have an appetite, is that he has come to you and opened your heart. Now, what that means is, what is the definition? Let's use it as a test and then a discipline. Here's a test that you really have experienced God. An appetite by definition is a sense of absence. See, if I have no appetite, either because I'm sick, either because I've just taken one of those little appetite suppressant pills,

I don't know how they work, but you take them in, and I think they kind of distend you with gas. Isn't that what happens? Isn't that what the... Somebody was telling me, that's what an appetite suppressant pill sometimes is. It basically, you know, gives you gas and fills your stomach up or something like that. If I'm sick or if I'm, you know, if I have no appetite, I see food around me, but I do not sense its absence. A sense of the absence of food is a longing for it. I may know that I have an 18 and 12 hours, but if I have no appetite, I have no sense of the absence of food. But if you sense of the absence, that means that you have a longing,

you have a sense of inadequacy, you have a sense of incompleteness, you see. It was a sense of the absence. That, the Bible says, you are not capable of on your own. Only people who have really met God, only people who have a personal relationship with God, only people who can say, in a sense, my God are the ones that have this great sense of absence. So, appetite is a sense of incompleteness and it's a sense of absence. And that is the first mark of authentic Christian experience. Now the reason I'm begging you to see this, before I talk to you about how it uses a discipline,

uses as a test on yourself. A couple of you have told me, after last week's sermon, when I first introduced this idea, they said, you know, every time I've ever heard you talk on spiritual experience, I felt worse. This is the first time I've ever heard you talk about spiritual experience that I felt better. And I think you see, a lot of people struggle with this idea that the only people that seek God or the people that God has opened their hearts, a lot of people really struggle with that. But, you know, for a minute, let's not worry about all the intellectual ramifications. Let's not worry about, well, what about the people that aren't saying, you know, isn't

God going after everybody, but let's not think about that. But if you see, there's very, very, very strong theological point in the Bible. Jesus says, John 6 verse 44, no one can come to me except the Father draw him. I mean it's just categorical over and over. Do you realize what a comfort that is? Your sense of absence is not something the absence of God is not something you're capable of. Your sense of being unhappy that you don't know God shows the God's there. Somebody today said to me he had heard that when St. Teresa of Avala died, when she was

on her deathbed, and she was a great saint and a great mystic, lived in the Middle Ages, when St. Teresa of Avala died on her deathbed, she said, Lord, help my disbelief. Well, he said, that troubles me to think that somebody that Godly could still be struggling with disbelief. Well, you know, the problem is, I don't know. I don't know. It might have been a bad sign. It might have been a bad sign in some way.

But what I try to say is, listen, you have to come for yourself because anyone with an appetite for God, anyone who's in love with God, is going to always feel, I just don't believe enough. You see, a person who's constantly unhappy with a is going to always feel, I just don't believe enough. You see, a person who's constantly unhappy with a level of spiritual experience is a person who's in love with God. You don't have any other ability, you know, you have no capability of it otherwise.

And therefore, you've got to learn to do that. Over the years, you've got to learn to comfort yourself. And I say the way it works with me, sometimes if I sit down and I feel absolutely dry and I'm so ticked and I'm so unhappy and I say, I can remember times when you were so real to me. And if I think this thought, the sense of your absence is a sign of your presence. The sense of your absence shows that you're at work within me. I wouldn't even be having this thought. I wouldn't even be dissatisfied. I wouldn't even be kicking myself, except that you were right here melting my heart, see softening my heart, prodding my heart, and

sometimes to say, the sense of your absence is the mark of your presence actually is the bridge away from the sense of absence. Sometimes there's a joy that comes. Sometimes you can feel the ice melt right there, right there. It's a test. That's the first test. But it's also a discipline. Now we say how is it a discipline? Well, every one of these signs is a discipline. Every one of these marks is a discipline. And the appetite is a discipline. Well, what do we do? It's two things, I suggest.

If you want to experience God, first of all, negatively, you have got to identify the God appetite suppressants in your life. The little pills that blow you up that you take. You've got to find out what those things are. That's the negative. Now you say, what does that mean? Well, in general, we can say this, sin is an appetite suppressant. Any kind of sin is actually going to destroy your appetite for God, but it would be better to put it this way. It's sinful adoration of things. There are things in your life that you are doting on

that are appetite suppressants. Now one thing that parents have known for centuries, even before they knew anything about what science told them, a fun thing parents knew for centuries is that children must not eat a cookie or a sweet. They can't eat sugar between meals or else they have no appetite for their meal. Now the reason that's so bad is this. Sugar. Now I'm not as down on sugar as a lot of people walking around New York. I found out that nutrition is sort of a religion in New York and people have very strong feelings about what you must eat and what you can eat.

So I probably am just stepping on someone's religion here tonight. When I say, I don't think sugar is that bad, but one thing I have learned, sugar gives you a high. Sugar makes you feel like you've eaten a meal. But you see a piece of candy or a sugar cookie or something like that cannot actually provide the range of nutrients that you have to have. And therefore what goes on is if you eat a sugar, if a kid eats sugar, they don't only eat their meal, so they don't eat their meal. But they can't see without eating a meal, they cannot keep up their strength and they find they kind of crash and Then they have to eat some more sugar and so on

Archbishop William Temple There's a quote by him that I've used for years. I remember in my when I earliest gospel sermons I used to use this quote because it was so helpful. He said Your religion is what you do with your solitude earliest gospel sermons, I used to use this quote because it was so helpful, he said, your religion is what you do with your solitude. I had to think about that for about three years before I figured it out. What does he mean? He says, when you don't have to think of anything.

When your mind isn't being taken to things by the environment, in other words, you're not at work, there's nothing that's taking hold of your mind. When you're standing on a street corner, waiting for someone, or when you're in a place where you don't have anything to think about, where does your mind go? What does your mind habitually go to? What do you most like to think about? What do you most enjoy daydreaming about? What gives you the most comfort to fantasize about? And he says that's your God. Your religion is what you do with your solitude. It's a profound statement. And you see in some of your cases you're thinking about a person, maybe a romantic figure. Somebody that you're in love with or you'd like to be in love with or you'd like that person

to be in love with you. Maybe you think about your career, what you're in love with or you'd like to be in love with or you'd like that person to be in love with you Maybe you think about your career what you're gonna do when you're done with this job and where you're hoping to get there And maybe you're thinking about the house the dream house that you've always wanted to build and you're saving up and you're hoping you can get You see what those things are According to William Temple Those things are God's substitutes in the most functional way. I know you've heard me talk about idolatry, but I'm saying in this case, maybe a little bit less fundamental than that.

There are certain things that are kind of like the sweets, the sugar cookies, the things that when we get down, we think about to comfort ourselves. And that's a form of adoration. It's a form of worship. And they are appetites of presence. And if you want to experience God, you've got to find those pieces of candy that you're popping between meals

so that when you sit down of your quiet time, you're just not hungry. You've been getting comforted by the thought of this or that success. You've been getting comforted by the thought of this or that success. You've been getting comforted by the thought of someone saying, well you marry me. You're getting comforted by the idea of a peer group finally saying, you're really good at this. You're getting comforted by something. Watch out for those things. Those are appetites. Watch out for the things that are destroying your appetite. But then positively, if you want to experience God,

you've actually got to give your appetite for God, a balanced diet. And it's got to be a balanced diet of truth. Because if you look, you'll see what David says is, oh, God, you're my God. Ernestly, I seek you. Now, look at verse two. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beeld your power and glory because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you, but especially too, I have seen you in the sanctuary

and beheld your power and glory. What's that? Well, it's possible because it's David and because the Old Testament times, there's always a possibility that he actually saw something literally. There's always a possibility, I mean after all Moses really saw a burning bush, you know, and when Moses got into the cleft of the rock there really was a glory cloud that went by. He really saw it naked eye, sensory experience in that sense. Abraham really saw the torch. Jacob really wrestled with somebody. I doubt from the language, that's what David is talking about. David went to the tabernacle, and he had worship, and what did you do at worship? There was a sacrifice, there was the reading of the scripture, there was prayer, and what he is saying here is, I went there and I was meditating and thinking on your power

and your glory and your love, and I began to see them. Now, this gets us into our second of the authentic science, but what I'm telling you is, that the way you deal with your appetite is you sit down and you give your appetite truth about God. The whole range reflect on His glory, reflect on His power, reflect on His love. It's in the Scripture. If you go back into the Old Testament, you see it described in the narratives. If you go to the law, you see it delineated in the rules and the regulations. If you go to the New Testament, you see it embodied in Jesus Himself. If you go to the epistles and the letters to the New Testament, you see it embodied in Jesus himself. If you go to the epistles and the letters

in the New Testament, you see it expounded. What is it? His power, his glory, his love. You read it, you learn it, you study it, you reflect it, reflect on it, you meditate on it, and if you put that in front of the appetite, that's there because of the implantation of God, you will move from information into sensation.

Now that's the second. The Psalms can profoundly shape the way you approach God. Even Jesus relied on the Psalms to face every situation, including death. In Tim and Kathy Keller's devotional book, The Psalms of Jesus, you'll find daily readings through the Psalms with fresh biblical insight. If you have no devotional life yet, this book is a wonderful way to start. And if you already spend time in study and prayer,

reading and praying through every verse of the Psalms can help you discover a new level of intimacy with God. We'll send you Tim and Kathy Keller's devotional as our thanks for your gift to help Gospel and Life share the love of Jesus with more people. Just visit gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelandlife.com slash give.

Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. If the first mark of authentic Christian experience is a kind of sense of God's absence, a desire for God. Not just to know. I mean, there's people out here tonight, probably, that say, I know that God's not in my life. That doesn't mean you've got an appetite for it. Just to know, it doesn't mean there's a hunger. That's the first mark. But the second mark is that for a Christian, when you study the truth and you think about the truth and you listen to the truth and you read the truth and you meditate on the truth sometimes, often, more and more, we hope, the information becomes sensation.

The second of the marks of authentic Christian experience is the Christians are capable of a new sense of God. What do I mean? The trouble is, at this point, the Bible itself has to use the language of physical sensory experience to describe the new spiritual sensory ability that you get when you become a Christian. What are the physical senses? Seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling, okay? Don't you leave any out? That was it. Anyway, those are sensory experiences.

Now, when the Bible talks about what happens when you become a Christian, it uses sensory language. And it's so, so vivid. And in some ways it's metaphorical, but what I'm trying to press on you here tonight is to say that in another way it's not metaphorical at all. Like, for example, the Bible is continually talking about the fact that Jesus' blood is like sweet wine.

The Bible says, many will come on the last day and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and eat at the feast of the kingdom. The psalmist is taste and see that the Lord is good. Peter says, you're a Christian if you've tasted the grace of God. They always get into sensory language. Here's the best example I know, just to show you. The psalmist in Psalm 119 says, open my eyes that I might be hold wondrous things

in thy word. Now you say, what do you mean, open my eyes? I mean, we sing that all the time. Open my eyes. You can't see the paper. You open the book. There's the Word of God. You're reading it. What do you mean, open my eyes that I can't see the paper. You open the book. There's the word of God. You're reading it.

What do you mean, open my eyes that I might see wonders things? I'm reading it. I can see the words in the page. I can understand the words on the page. You know, what is he asking for? And that's the second mark of authentic spiritual experience. A sense of God that the art, the truth of God, brings a new sense on your heart.

Nobody put this better than Jonathan Edwards. He's written a number of things on it. Let me read you his approach to it. He says, there's a difference between believing that God is holy and gracious and having a new sense on the heart of the loveliness and beauty and holiness and grace of God. There's a difference between believing that God is holy and gracious and having a new sense of the holiness and grace of God. The difference between believing that God is gracious and tasting that God is gracious

is as different as having a rational belief that honey is sweet and having the actual sense of that sweetness. A man may have a belief in sweetness without the experience of it, but a man cannot have the experience without the belief. Now what is he talking about? Let me give you four things to try to help you understand what this sense is. The mark of a real Christian is you get a sense of God on the heart. You don't just know about God. You don't just have information. You get a sense of God's a new sense. First of all, you have to understand this. Edwards makes this point, and I hope this doesn't discourage anybody,

but I've been thinking about this quite a bit lately. Ultimately, a sense can't be reduced to any other sense. Edwards in his sermon asked this question, if a man born blind asks you to come and describe to him the difference between red and blue, how would you do it? And here's a man who's never seen red and blue and this is a man who's never seen anything. And let's see, it comes to you and you have red and blue. And this is a man who's never seen anything. And let's see, it comes to you and you have sight. And he says, what is the difference between red and blue? Is it like the difference between water and sand?

You know, water's very wet sand is very dry. Is that the difference? You say, no. You say, is it like the difference between a trumpet and clanging symbols? You say, no. Is it like the difference between a trumpet and clanging symbols? He said, no. Is it like the difference between the smell of a rose and the smell of a skunk? He said, no, why? He says, well, tell me, what is it like?

And the answer is, every sense is irreducible. Every single sensory experience cannot be reduced to something else. Now actually, in a sense, you can. I mean, Tom Jennings and I were talking about this. I mean, you can sometimes say, a trumpet is more like red, and an oboe is something more like blue, I suppose. I mean, sometimes you can say certain sounds suggest certain colors. But when it comes right down to it, we all know that if you've

never seen blue, you can talk about an oboe, you can talk about what you would, but none of these descriptions are anything like the actual experience of blue. And that means this. Let me read to you two statements. One very recently, very, very pedestrian, one very ancient, but really the same thing. I was reading a book by my name Gerald McDermott and he's a teacher at a college in Virginia and he said one day one of his students came and said this. He says, Professor McDermott, something's happened to me. Everything looks different now. Since I've been reading Galatians, it's as if a light has gone on.

Nothing looks the same. Everything I see looks different from what it used to look like a week ago. I can't describe it precisely, but it's as if I got a new pair of glasses on that makes everything look like a different color. Now let me give you another one that's a little bit older. Jonathan Edwards himself made this journal entry

when he was 18 or 19 years old. You have to remember that Jonathan Edwards was raised in a pastor's kid, and he read the Bible from the time he was very little. And here's what he says though, when he was 18 or 19, he says, the first instance that I remember of an inward sweet, the light in God and divine things was on reading the words

1 Timothy 117. Now, one to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, the honor and glory for ever and ever, amen. And as I read the words, there came into my soul a sense of the glory of the divine being, a new sense, quite different, from anything I ever experienced before. Never had any words of Scripture seemed to me as these words did. I kept saying, as it were, singing these words of overt to myself, and I went to pray to God

that I might enjoy him and pray to a man or quite different from what I used to do with a new sort of affection. Now these are two guys about the same age, one of them a little more in particular than the other. But the point is, one guy says, you know what? I was reading the book of Galatians.

I was reading about the gospel, and suddenly, it's like a light went on. And everything looks different, everything. On the other hand, you have Edwards that comes along and says, I'd always known that God was eternal and mortal and visible the only wise God, but suddenly, I got a sense of these things. I felt them.

I didn't just know them. I got a sense of them things. I felt them. I didn't just know them. I got a sense of them. And I enjoyed them. And I prayed to God in a way I never had before. Now, here's what I mean when I say, you can't tell a blind man about red and blue. Do you know what we're talking about? Do you know what it's like to be reading about God

and suddenly a light goes on? Suddenly you enjoy it. Suddenly there is a satisfaction. Suddenly there's a reality. Do you know what I'm talking about? If you don't, you're not a Christian. And if you say, tell me what it's like, I can't. Any more than a person who withsight can tell a blind man

about blue. I ultimately, this is irreducible. I'll ultimately, if you don't know what this new sense is, you're not a Christian. That's how authentic a mark of this experience, of real Christian experiences is. On the other hand, if you are a Christian, when I'm talking to you, if you're a normal Christian,

you know what you're thinking, you're saying, yes, I've had that, I've had that, but it's been so long, it's been so little of that, but you see, you know it. You see, you know it. In fact, then when I say, when I talk about it, when I read this sort of thing, do you hang your head and you say, boy, I want it, that's both the signs, you see. You know it, and there's an appetite for it. Now, if somebody's going to say, are you going to leave us hanging? Are you going to just say, well, if you have an experience that I mean, I know it sounds terrible. In a way, I know it's

sort of saying, well, if you don't understand, if you've even ever experienced it, I can't help you, that's not what I mean. I'm just trying to say that the reason the Bible uses sensory language to talk about an experience of God, physical sensory language, is because this new sense of God you get when you become a Christian is as different from the way in which you related the God before as the ability to see is from the ability to hear. That's what it's saying. But let me just let me do a little description anyway. Having just said you can't describe it, here at the very end let me describe it. On the one hand what we mean when we say a new sense of God, you're reading about

the grace of God as Edward says and you begin to taste him. You don't just know about the grace but you have a sense of the grace of God as Edward says, and you begin to taste him. You don't just know about the grace, but you have a sense of the grace. You don't just know about the holiness, but you have a sense of the holiness. There's two things that are the mark of the sense. First of all, it satisfies. It satisfies. You enjoy it.

For example, have you sensed the gospel, have you experienced the gospel, than whenever you think about justification by faith alone through grace alone because of Christ alone, you can never think about it enough. You just can't stop thinking about it. You can't stop talking about it. You know, you just don't get tired of it.

And because there's a satisfaction, that's the big, that's the first thing. New spiritual sense, there's a kind of satisfaction. That's the big, that's the first thing. New spiritual sense, there's a kind of satisfaction. There's a kind of sense of, of, of, of, of, it, it filling you with, with this real delight. Just like when you hear a incredible beautiful piece of music, the way it satisfies the ear, or when you're incredibly hungry and you put that first bite of incredibly good chocolate cake in your mouth or something like that and it just galvanizes you. There's a delight, in other words, it's satisfying, but the second thing, the truth, a sense

of God means that the truth becomes satisfying, but also the truth becomes strengthening. When you eat food, you digest it, it changes you. And you get a sense of the reality of it. And if you want to know what it means to have a sense of God, it's really this. You're worried, but you read a passage which says, I love you. And if I am for you, what can be against you? Now, when you look at that, if you get a sense of his power

and a sense of his sovereignty and a sense, if you get a sense of his power, and a sense of his sovereignty, and a sense of his wisdom, and a sense of his care, that's all in that little verse in Romans 8. If God is for us, what can be against us? That's all in there, his sovereignty. If you get a sense of it on the heart, you'll stop worrying. I mean, this is it. The sense of God's truth means that it becomes real.

CS Lewis has a story that I can't forget because it's so interesting. And that I read years ago to try to get this across. CS Lewis says, what if you're about to go out on a date, you know, CS Lewis was a single man for many, many years. But let's just say he uses the celebration. He says, you're going to go out on a date with a very attractive woman, but all of your male friends say to you, just keep one thing in mind. Don't tell her anything you don't want all over town because she cannot keep a confidence.

And so you say, of course, and you know, that's his true because your friends told you that and you trust your friends. And they all said so and you're absolutely convinced it's true. But then you get out with her and she is beautiful and she starts to ask you questions and you want to please her and you want to have this and suddenly she's true. But then you get out with her and she is beautiful. And she starts to ask you questions and you want to please her. And you want to have this review. And suddenly she's asking you things and you're about to tell her things that you really don't want to tell her because of what your friend said. But as Lewis puts out, he says, the knowledge that your friends gave you is an abstract mental concept.

But what you have right in front of you is a sensory reality. And you see the abstract concept is going to lose out to the sensory reality. And in the same way, when you get a sense on the heart of the sovereignty of God, it means instead of becoming an abstract concept, it becomes real to you, and it becomes real to you. And it becomes more real than your worries. And when you get a sense of God's grace on the heart, it becomes more real than your guilt.

And when you get a sense of God's holiness on the heart, it gets more real than your impulses. And what goes on is when you get a sense, it actually changes you. It changes the way you are. The truth becomes not just something have strength, it becomes substantial. Do you understand this?

It's really relatively simple. You sit down and you get out the truth, get out as power as glory and as love and you meditate and you pray over it. And you say, Lord, I praise you for what you are, I think about what you are. Now I'm going to give you next week and the week after, I'm going to give you some more practical disciplines on how to do that. But when you meditate, when you meditate on the truth, not all the time, but sometimes

you'll get a sense of the truth. And if you never get a sense of the truth, you're not a Christian. And you need to go back and ask yourself, what does it mean to say, your steadfast love is better than life, but that comes next week. It's really relatively simple. Go to the truth, lay it out there, meditate on it until it becomes real, until it becomes satisfying. You know, there's a hymn that we never sing in this church. It was a hymn that we used to sang in my other church, sort of a Southern church, and we used an awful lot of the 19th century bumpy, bumpy Baptist hymnology, and a lot of which we don't use here, and I don't mean to be, it's just not as appropriate, but there's some great hymns, and one of the

hymns goes like this. The hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred suites before we reach the heavenly fields or walk the golden streets. The hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred suites before we that come to you and that are available now. You have to watch your appetite, suppressants, you have to get rid of them, and you have to make sure that you go and say, there are things that are available to me before I reach the heavenly fields. George Herbert, one of the five mystical songs we're going to sing in the open forum a couple of months from now. George Herbert, who is a great poet of the 16th, 17th century, he's got a poem that is

almost too intense for me when I read it. It goes like this, it says, I got me flowers, this is true thy way, I got me bows of many a tree, but thou wast up by break of day and brought thyshe sweet along with thee. You know, have you ever gotten up at break of day and sat down and just read about his love and his power and his glory and then suddenly you begin to see it? And is a sensation, satisfaction and strengthening. A sense of joy, a sense of reality, and do you suddenly find his sweets? Do you ever taste it as sweets? One of the reasons I think it's a good idea to translate this text early will I seek thee is because

there is nothing more wonderful than to get up in the morning and let him suppress your appetite for everything else. To taste the sweets, to see his power and glory, and then when you go out into the world, you can just enjoy life instead of needing it so deeply. You can just enjoy it, and then you won't find yourself binging and purging in a spiritual sense, of course. The hill of Zion yields a thousand sacred suites before we reach the heavenly fields or walk the golden streets. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank You that this is available to us.

And we ask that You continue to work with us, to show us how we can experience you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching from Dr. Keller, Unexperiencing God. We pray that it challenge you and encourage you. To find more gospel-centered resources like today's teaching, you can sign up for email updates at gospelandlife.com. This month's sermons were recorded in 1997 and 2013.

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 the Denver Presbyterian Church. you