Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Enslaved to Non-gods

Episode Date: July 8, 2024

This is a startling passage. The context is that the Galatians, who became Christians out of pagan backgrounds, are now falling under the influence of teachers who say, “It’s not enough just to believe in Jesus Christ. You also have to obey everything in the Bible.” Paul says something here which is astounding. He says that if they do that, they will fall back under what he calls the slavery of the non-gods. So we ask ourselves three questions: 1) what are the non-gods? 2) how do they enslave? and 3) how can we be free? This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 22, 1998. Series: Galatians: New Freedom, New Family. Scripture: Galatians 4:8-20. 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. The book of Galatians isn't a very long book, just six chapters, but it holds some of the most transformative truths in scripture. All month on the podcast, Tim Keller's teaching will be from the book of Galatians, a book that is all about the power of the gospel. We're going through the book of Galatians. It's printed in your bulletin. I'm only going to read the first three verses because they are very, very pregnant and we need to have a delivery.

And we can't get to the rest tonight. Galatians, so I'm going to read Galatians 4, verses 8 to 11. Formally, when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods. But now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? You are observing special days and months and seasons and years. I fear for you that somehow I have wasted my efforts on you." We'll end the reading right there. This is God's word.

What we have here, formally when you did not know God, you were slaves to those who by nature are not gods, but now that you know God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable principles? Do you wish to be enslaved all over again?" This is actually one of the most, this is an amazing verse. It is actually hard to interpret because a lot of people in interpreting it just don't want to admit how amazing it is and how startling it is. Now when I, but it's not that easy to see on the surface. In fact, when I've written some curriculum for small groups on Galatians. And one very, very poor question, and I often write poor study questions, is, what is so amazing about this verse?

Well, you know, I understand that this just freezes small groups. People stare into space for hours because it doesn't give you enough information, and nobody can just read that on the surface and figure it out. Yet they're afraid to miss it, you see. And so they're just transfixed, and people never go home. I understand it's just terrible. And so I'm going to try to help out here. What is so startling? This tells us the Galatians who are in danger, they are converts, they became Christians out of Greek pagan background, and yet they are now falling under the influence

of teachers who have come and said, if you're really going to be acceptable to God, it's not enough just to believe in Jesus Christ. You also have to obey all of the law. You have to go back and observe special days and months and seasons. You have to go back and do all the festivals. You have to obey all the mosaic ceremonial laws. You have to be circumcised, you have to undergo all of that. Jesus isn't enough. You also have to obey everything in the Bible. It's very, very important. And Paul says something here which is astounding. First of all, he says, if you do that, you will fall back under what he calls slavery of the non-gods. So we ask ourselves three questions. What are the non-gods? Who are these? What are these elemental spirits? Secondly, how do they enslave?

See? In fact, we're going to see there's two ways they enslave. They enslave the way the Galatians were enslaved to them in the past and the way they would be enslaved to them in the future if they keep on in the direction they're going. So first of all, who are the non-gods? Secondly, how are they, do they enslave us? And then thirdly, how can we be free? And in these few little verses, all those are answered. Who are the gods? How are we enslaved? How can we be free? Now, let's take a look who the non-gods are. This isn't easy, and here's the reason why. It's this term, formerly when you did not know God, you were a slave to those who by nature are not gods, but why would you want to go back to those weak and

miserable principles? Now, in verse 3, this same word came up. In verse 3 of chapter 4, which we don't have in front of us now, they said, when you were children, before you became Christians, before you understood the gospel, you were slaves to these principles of the universe. Now, this is such a difficult phrase. The Greek is such that we're not even sure how to translate it. And almost every different Bible, every English Bible you might have here tonight, probably has a different translation. They can't even agree on how to translate it. The Greek word is stoichia to kosmou. Stoichia of the cosmos,

of the universe. What is that? You see, for example, the NIV, which we have in front of us, renders it basic principles of the world in verse 3. Basic principles. And then here in verse 9, it calls them weak and miserable principles. Principles. In the Revised Standard Version, they're translated the elemental spirits of the universe. Spirits.

And the King James Version says the elements of the world. Now here's what's so problematic about it. One of the problems, frankly, is, here's a little idea. When you come to understand what a word means, one way you can look at it is look at the entomology and the other is to look at the usage. Now entomology means what was the original root meaning of the word? And you can pull apart the word looking at the stem and looking at the various parts, and find out that original entomology.

The trouble is very often the entomology is not necessarily the way it's used. So for example, look at the word awful in English. What was the word awful originally? If you look at the original root, what does the word awful mean? It was originally a-w-e-F-U-L-L. And something was awful if it filled you with respect. If you said, wow, how great, that's awful. That's not what it means anymore.

It means now something that actually fills you generally with sort of disgust. And so the entomology is not the same thing as the usage. Now, the, many commentators come to this and they look at the entomology is not the same thing as the usage. Now, the many commentators come to this and they look at the entomology. Literally stoichia means the ABCs. Literally stoichia means the ABCs of the universe. Now nobody translates it that way because that doesn't make any sense. And the original entomology of the word meant basic principles as opposed to advanced, ABCs as opposed to XYZ.

And so many people come here and they say, okay, now in verse 3 it says, formally when you were children you were slaves to the ABCs of the universe. And now you want to go back to the ABCs and be enslaved to them again. And here's what most people, frankly, most commentators, maybe not most, but many do. They say, what this is saying is, Paul is saying, look, you used to belong to a kind of more primitive, simplistic religion, but the gospel is a more advanced religion. Don't go back. You know, stay with the advanced. Don't go back to the primitive religion that you had before. The gospel is so advanced, and stick with the gospel. Now, there's a number of reasons why people use this to understand

this verse. One of the reasons is because I'm going to show you the alternative is so fantastic, a lot of people will stick with this understanding of the word, even though it doesn't make any sense. Does it make sense? First of all, here's…it doesn't make sense for a couple of reasons. First of all, Paul does not call these the elementary principles of the universe, of the religion. They don't, he doesn't say you were enslaved to the elementary principles of religion. He says you were enslaved to the elementary principles of the universe. So he's not talking about, you know, don't go back to primitive religion, stay with the advanced religion. And not only that, notice these basic principles in verse 9 are the same thing as verse 8,

which he calls, you were slave to those things which by nature are not gods. That means something that is treated as gods, but who are not. And that certainly can't be basic principles of religion. Most of all, and by the way, I'll be real quick on this. This was, Paul would never say Christianity is a more advanced religion than other religions. He'd never say such a thing. You know, the word for religion, the common Greek word for religion is almost nowhere in the Bible, in the New Testament.

Because Paul's understanding and the biblical understanding of the gospel is not that this is just a more advanced religion. You know, you get this. In the 20th century, historians of religion very often had this attitude. They say, yes, there was the primitive religions, the tribal deities, the god of wrath, the god of war, the god of judgment, but now we have Christianity, the more advanced religion. You see, a religion of love, a religion of ethics, a religion of pure, you know, a simpler religion, a more advanced love, a religion of ethics, a religion of pure, you know, a simpler religion, a more advanced religion, a more noble religion. Paul would never talk like

that. How stuck up to say that our modern consciousness is the ultimate consciousness, our modern consciousness is just one more consciousness and there'll be another one coming. Things that people think now is what we hate judgment and we hate wrath, but now we like love and acceptance and tolerance. You're modern, we hate judgment, we hate wrath, but now we like love and acceptance and tolerance. You're modern, see? See, we've gotten over all that primitive stuff. People in a couple hundred years will look back at us as if we're the morons, as if we're the Cretans. You must never, ever, ever, sorry if you're from Crete, you must never, there's a lot of people from Crete that live in Astoria, so I have to be very…look, Paul would never say that.

The Gospel is not a more advanced religion. It has come down from heaven. It's off the spectrum. It's not…it's not a human category at all. He was…so he'd never say this. So what is he saying? What he's saying is the other meaning of the Greek word. The etymology of the Greek word was basic principles, but the way the word was often used, and it's

very easy to see when you compare verse 8 and verse 9 together, was this. The pagans believed that behind every single basic element of creation was a god. Behind earth, behind basic element of creation was a god. Behind earth, behind fire, behind water, behind sun, behind moon, behind the stars, behind the land, behind agriculture, behind wine, behind everything in the Bible was a deity. So you had Bacchus, the god of partying, and you had Ares, the god of war, and you had Aphrodite, the god of sexual love and beauty. And of course, therefore, everybody had their own god. And these were the Stoichia. The Stoichia were the spirits behind everything, every created thing that was worshipped. And of course, they were. Farmers would sacrifice to the agriculture god. And sailors would pray to the sea god.

And merchants would pray to the...and there were gods of sort of financial luck. And of course that was paganism. Everything basic, every created elementary thing, there was a god. And Paul is talking about that. And what he's saying is that anything, any basic thing, whether it's going out and making money or whether it's having sex or whether it's plowing a field or whether it's the

mountains or whether it's nature or whether it's the sea, anything can be worshiped, can be treated as a god, can be the basis of your religion. And that's what Paul is talking about. And Paul therefore is saying, and here's the principle that we're going to spend some time on this, is an extremely important principle. Paul says the only alternative to the gospel is idolatry. The only alternative to worshiping the true gospel is idolatry. The only alternative to worshiping the true God is idolatry. Nobody is an unbeliever in this truest sense of the

term. There is no such thing as any religious person, really. There is no such thing as a secular person, really. There's no such thing as you either believe in the true God or else you are a slave to worshiping something that you treat as a God but really isn't. Now this is actually one of the main themes of the Bible, and let me take just a couple of minutes to show you how important this is to understanding everything. When it began to dawn on me, it changed my life, it changed my preaching, my counseling, everything. And it really only dawned on me a number of years ago, right around the time I was getting Redeemer started here.

Think about this. The first two commandments, God in the Ten Commandments is going to show us everything we need to know in order to live a life, a human life. Everything we need to know to live a life pleasing to Him, everything we need to know to truly be human. He only, and He's God, therefore He boils it all into ten principles, if only I could be that precise. You know, He boils it all.

The first two are about idolatry. If you go to God and say, I want to know how I can live my life. I want to know the secret for living. I want to know how, the first thing He'll do is talk to you about idolatry. First thing...and the second thing. But in the Old Testament you see idols come up all the time. In the New Testament it's a little bit deceptive because the word idol doesn't show up very much. But if you want to understand the foundational and absolutely basic nature of this whole theme.

One of the most fascinating little hints of this is the last verse of 1 John. You know, 1 John is a five-chapter letter, and in 1 John, he writes a letter to Christians, and he's talking to them about three things. He's talking to them about living in the light, living in love, and living in God. And living in the light means holiness. He teaches you how to live a holy life in the world. Living in love means how you can be a loving person to the people around you. And thirdly, how you can really have a relationship with God. And so he's doing all this. And at the very end, the last verse, the very 5.21, he says, little children, keep yourself from idols. Amen. Little children, keep yourself from idols. Amen.

Now, there's only two possibilities here. This is the first time it's even come up. The first time the subject has come up. The first time the word has come up. He says nothing else about idols throughout that whole book. So one possibility is suddenly at the very end, John, being a terrible writer, suddenly decided at the very, very end to throw one thing in that had nothing to do with anything else he said. Now, there was a possibility that just as he was getting to the end, suddenly John says, oh, oh, oh,

yeah, one more thing, keep yourself from idols. Bye. But I don't think that's what happened. Dr. David Martin Lloyd-Jones wrote a sermon or preached a sermon years ago. He preached all the way through the book of 1 John. And the last sermon, which is of the 67 sermons, which he preached on the book of 1 John, is on this verse. And he says some… I went back and I re-read the thing this week. And he says, what's so astounding about this is the only possible

way to understand this is that John is saying, he's giving us a summary of everything he said. And therefore, the only, this is what we have to conclude. John is saying that if you ever fail to live in light or ever fail to live in love or ever fail to live in God, if you do anything wrong, if you fail in any way, if you have any problem, it all comes from idolatry. Because to say keep yourself from idols is essentially a summary statement of everything else he said. And here's what the doctor says, Dr. Lloyd-Jones says, it's pretty remarkable. He says, John therefore is teaching usones says, it's pretty remarkable. He says, �John, therefore, is teaching us that the greatest danger and the greatest enemy that

confronts us is not a matter of deeds or of actions, but of idolatry.� Listen carefully. �That may sound very strange to some. Some think that above all what we need to be warned about is not to do certain things. But our deeds and our actions are always the outcome of our attitudes and our thoughts. So, John takes the same procedure as the Ten Commandments. All the scriptures always start like this. They always say, they always start here, that the greatest danger and the reason for all other wrong deeds is idolatry. Now, you know, when I read that, it just hit me like a ton of bricks. You know what he's saying? He that, it just hit me like a ton of bricks.

You know what he's saying? He says, John takes the same as the Ten Commandments. The Ten Commandments have, number one and number two, have no other gods before me, make no graven images. Why are they the first two? What the doctor's saying here, Dr. Lloyd-Jones is, and what John is saying, and I think what the Bible is saying is,

if you ever break Commandments three to 10, it's because you have broken Commandments 1 and 2. The reason for anything you ever do wrong, the reason for any problem you're having, the reason for any flaw or any brokenness in your life is always idolatry. That's the principle here. The only alternative to worshiping the true God in purity is idolatry. And the reason we ever fail to do that is idolatry. They're the only alternatives. This is a reason. See, what the doctor is coming along and saying is, and what John is saying,

and what the Bible is saying, this is really cataclysmic in your thinking. When you fail to be like Jesus, when you fail to be honest, when you fail to be loving, when you fail to be like Jesus, when you fail to be honest, when you fail to be loving, when you fail to be generous, when you fail to be holy, when you fail to be noble, which happens all the time, why? Why are you lying? Why are you bitter? Why are you anxious?

Why are you bored? Why are you despondent? Why are you failing to be generous? Why are you being selfish? Why? Now, what we usually say, and what I've said all my life is, because I'm a sinner, because I'm weak, because I'm flawed. And of course, that's true.

But do you see what happens when I say, the reason I have sinned here, the reason I have fallen here is because I'm a sinner. On the one hand, that means I'm powerless. What can I do about that? That's just me. I mean, what can I do? I'm powerless. What can I do about that? That's just me. I mean, what can I do? I'm powerless. And in another sense, it's a cop-out, because I can do nothing about it.

But what this is telling us, the Ten Commandments themselves are telling us, if you ever fail in three to ten, if you ever fail to love, if you ever fail to be generous, if you ever fail to be kind to people, if you ever fail to be honest, if you ever fail to be kind to people, if you ever fail to be honest, if you ever fail to do all those things, it's because something is an idol. Whenever you have blown it, you should always say, what is it that I have in the place of God? What is it that's so important to me that it has the place of God? What is it that I think is absolutely necessary?

What is it that is in the place of God that is is it that I think is absolutely necessary? What is it that is in the place of God that is causing me to do this? That has been a revolutionary principle. I began to make changes in my life once I figured that out. I began to, I think, in my counseling and my preaching, help people a lot more than I was before. Because instead of flailing on people and saying, don't do this, don't do that, don't do that, which of course you have to, but I also will say, what I also say to myself is, why are you not doing that?

Why are you doing this and not that? Why are you doing this and not that? You know why? Because something besides God has taken functional title to your heart. Something besides God is your beauty. Something besides God is your summum bonum, your highest good. Something besides God you're adoring. Idolatry is under every sin. Always. It's the only alternative to

knowing God in purity. How can we best understand the freedom we have in Christ? What is the relationship between the law of the Bible and the grace that Jesus How can we best understand the freedom we have in Christ? What is the relationship between the law of the Bible and the grace that Jesus offers? In the book Galatians for You, Tim Keller takes you through a rich and deep study of Paul's letter as he reflects on the amazing grace we have in Christ. Galatians is a powerful book that shows how people can think they know the gospel but are actually losing touch with it.

In this study of the book of Galatians, Dr. Keller helps you understand how this short book in the New Testament can transform your life. Galatians for you is our thanks for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the love of Christ with more people. Request your copy today at gospelandlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Now, you know, so what is idolatry? You know, Lloyd-Jones in the sermon, he says this, the reason I'll read you this is not because it's brilliant,

because it is so unjargony and so non-technical and so simple. He says, an idol is anything in my life that occupies the place that should be occupied by God alone. An idol is anything that is central to me. An idol is anything that seems to me essential, absolutely necessary. An idol is anything by which I live

and on which I depend. An idol is anything that holds such a controlling position in my life that it moves and rouses and attracts me so easily that I give my time, my attention, my energy, and my money to it effortlessly." I mean, that's so non-jargon and so non-technical, but when you put it that way, you begin to see. Why Paul can use this word stoichia.

Idols are not bad things. Idols are not sins ordinarily. Idols are good things made the best. Idols are basic things. Wind, earth, and fire. Farming, sex, these are good things turned into something that you've got to have, something that's an idol. That's what screws you up, and that is the reason you do everything that you do. That is the root of your personality, it's the integrating, it's the, when something

good becomes the best, it becomes a deity and therefore it becomes a demon. It becomes an idol, becomes the integrating focus of your personality and it is why you are the way you are. Now, that's who the non-gods are. How do they enslave us? Now we've already mentioned it but let me just give you a couple of ideas. Notice that Paul calls them twice, several times. He says, if you go to them, they'll enslave you. Of course they'll enslave you. Well, how will they enslave you? Well,

let me put it to you like this. Let me give you just two great examples. In the Bible, the way idolatry is… the way we see how idols control us. There is a Greek word that is used over and over and over and over again, and unfortunately because our translations do not know how to translate it, the average Christian who's read the Bible has missed one of the most important things the New Testament says. What this word is, is the word over desire. It's the word epithemia. You've probably heard me talk about it before and I'll talk about it again because it comes up in Galatians 5. And it's, let me tell you where it happens. It happens in Galatians 5.16, Ephesians 2.3. It happens in Ephesians

4.20. It happens in 1 Peter 2.11, 1 Peter 4.2, 1 John 2, 16, James 1, 14, virtually every letter. And here's the problem. The word means over-desire, and nobody knows how to translate it. The old translations used to translate it lust, but right away when you hear the word lust in English you think of sex. The new translations talk about sinful desires, but that doesn't help either at all because listen, now listen, an over-desire, how do I say this? In the Bible, the word lust does not mean a normal-sized desire for

something evil, but an oversized desire for something good. Lust in the Bible is not a normal-sized desire for something evil. Lust in the Bible is an over-desire for something good, and idols create it. You lust after fame, or you lust after love, or you lust after achievement, or you lust after your children to be happy. Because when an idol comes in and says, if you have me, then you'll be happy, it creates a delusional field and what it does is it takes normal desires and turns them into enslaving desires. It turns them into drives. It turns them into chains and it makes you a slave. And if you want to see how this works out, let me just give you two examples of this. I said, whenever you find yourself having to sin, you feel

like you're having to sin. You're trying real hard and you can't stop. Always look for the chain of the idol. Like for example, sometimes a person I'll talk to over the years, you know, as a pastor I've listened to people and they say, I'm bitter and I can't seem to get rid of it. I'm mad at my parents or I'm mad at my spouse or I'm mad at my friend. I'm bitter. This person wronged me. This person did this and I've tried to forgive and I've tried to get rid of the anger and it's just killing me and it's burning me up and I can't get rid of it. But the reason that you are bitter, the reason you're enslaved to bitterness, is not what that person did to you, even though that's wrong, okay? The reason for the bitterness is not what that person did to you, but what

your heart is making of the thing you lost. You see, your friend robbed you of something, and the reason that you can't get past your anger is not what that person did to you. That's not the reason you're enslaved. It's because what you lost you feel like you've got to have and you can never forgive him or her for what you lost, which means it's what your heart... This is what Lloyd-Jones is saying. This is what John's saying. This is what Paul's saying. The only reason you ever have a problem loving somebody, the only reason you ever break one of the commandments three to ten is because you're breaking one and two. And the only possible reason you can't get over the bitterness, it's not because of what she

has done to you or what he has done to you, it's what your heart is making of the thing you've lost. Demote it. You have to. You have to destroy its power, but you have to say, I don't have to have that. Or here, let me give you another example, and that is guilt, the opposite of forgiveness. Sometimes people say, I just hate myself. I feel very guilty. I can't forgive myself. I have this low self-esteem and it's very typical for people to say, and I guess I say this every so often, that's the reason why nobody says it to me anymore, but

it's very typical to say, I know God forgives me, but I can't forgive myself. Now, whenever somebody says that, the reason that you're locked into failure, the reason you're locked into low self-esteem, the reason you're locked into guilt, the reason you can't get past it is not because of what you've done, it's not. It's because what your heart is making of the thing that you've failed. If you have failed because of lack of discipline and therefore you've blown your career, if you've failed because you blew a relationship, you feel like, I'll never get anybody like him or her in my life, and you just hate yourself, or you've failed

because two or three people you were raised with have just outstripped you, and you can't forgive yourself, what? No, you can't. The idol of your life that says if you could beat that person or if you could be as good as him or her or if you could please your parents or... In other words, why you are ever stuck is never because of what you've done or what's been done to you. It's what your heart is making of the thing that you feel like you've got to have. Lust is not a normal desire for something evil. That's wrong, of course. But that's really not what runs our life. It's not really the root of our problems. Lust is not a normal-sized desire for something evil. It is an over-desire for something good created by the enslavement of the idol. But what is so astounding about this particular verse,

this verse would not be that different than other verses on idolatry if it wasn't for this amazing thing. Paul says to the Galatians, you once were slaves to idols, and now you want to go back again. How dare you? Are you fools? Are you idiots? Have I been wasting my breath, he says? Now, here's what's so astounding about it. You have to realize something, and this is

pretty amazing. Do you know what the Galatians were before? They were pagans. They were Greek pagans or Greco-Roman people who were pagans. Now, for all the good things about pagan culture, I mean, pagan culture had some general sense of virtue, but by biblical standards, they were very licentious people. By biblical standards, they were copulating with everybody. By biblical standards, you know, they were, you know, they were the great unwashed, and they really were worshipping idols. I mean, they were bowing down to, you know, to little statues, and they were stabbing each other in the back. Paul talks about them, you know, in Ephesians and the kind of life they came from, hating and being

hated and all that. Now, remember, remember what it is that they are being tempted to. What is the whole reason why the book of Galatians is being written? You know why. Teachers have come to the Galatians and have said, if you really, really want to be accepted by God, it's not enough for you just to believe in Jesus. You have to be very biblical. You have to be absolutely moral. You have to believe and do everything in the Bible. And so they're getting ready to move into a kind of biblical, legal moralism, an incredible,

they're going to become more moral and religious, that's the danger. Oh my word, you realize what Paul is saying? Before they were copulating in the streets, and now they're about to go into an absolutely rigorous program of utter obedience to biblical detail as a way of seeking to earn God's favor, and Paul says, you're just going to go right back where you were. How could he say that? Is this one of the most startling? This is the reason why my little question, you know, says, what is startling about this verse?

And people just stare. You see, it's taken us 30 minutes to get here. Now you realize, do you see this? It is astounding that Paul would say that being incredibly biblical and incredibly moral and having all your doctrine right and being absolutely pristine in all of your…being morally scrupulous and being sexually pure and all that sort of thing, that you will be just as enslaved as when you were out there fornicating all over the place. Why?

Because Paul is saying that you can either be your own Lord and Savior through your work, make an idol out of your work, or make an idol out of your sex, or make an idol out of your body, or make an idol out of your family. You can do that. In all those ways, you're being your own Lord and Savior. You're refusing the gospel of grace, and you're trying to earn your own salvation. You don't think of it that way. You don't think of it as religion, but you're out there being your own Lord and Savior. Or you can get moral. You can get very religious and do the doggone same thing.

Instead of following Christ, you're following Christianity. And you're actually seeking to be your own Lord and Savior through obedience to the law. You are just as enslaved. In fact, in fact, if any of you around, back in the end of January, I did three sermons in the morning service on the parable of the prodigal son. And one of the amazing things about the parable of the prodigal son is the father in that story had two sons, an elder brother and a younger brother. The younger brother is like the early Galatians, you know, the old Galatians. He was out there fornicating in the pigsty with everybody, and the elder brother was very moral

and very good and very religious and stayed very close to the father and did everything the father said, remember? He says, Father, I have a slave for you. And yet the point of the parable, the point of Jesus is they were both alienated from the father. Neither of them understood the father. Neither of them had the father's heart. And both of them wanted only to control the Father. And that's what idolatry does. I'm going to be my own master, I'm going to be my own Savior, I'm going to control my life. I don't want to give myself to God.

And of course, the point of Jesus is they were both equally lost. But if anything, in the end of the parable of the prodigal son, the younger one goes in. You know, as I said there, the father had two sons, a Jekyll and a Hyde. And in the end, Hyde comes home and becomes a Christian, and Jekyll will not go in. And see, one of the problems is, if anything, the religious slavery, religious spiritual slavery is worse because you don't know you're

dead. You just don't know it. So the non-gods, anything, any good thing raised to become your ultimate thing enslaves you and it can enslave you just as much by being good as being bad, just as much by living a bad life as living a good life. But then lastly, how can we be free? Well, now the answer is there, but to be honest with you, we're going to get back to idolatry later on when we get to Galatians 5. But one of the things that's so marvelous about this is Paul actually hints at it. He says,

how can you go back to slavery when you have...what does he say? You know God or rather are known by God. Now frankly, there's the two things. Now when he says known God or known by God, he is not saying you don't really know him, you're just known by him. What he's trying to say is, what's primary? He says, what makes you a Christian? The primary, the most basic thing is not that you know him, that you've experienced him, that you feel his love, that you're praying to him

day and night. He says, that's not what makes you a Christian. Ultimately, what makes you a Christian is what is that God knows you, that God loves you, that God has chosen you, that God has put his grace and his mercy on you. And see, Paul is actually here explaining the way to deal with idols. In 1 Corinthians 4, Paul says, I don't care what you think of me. He says, it is a small matter to me whether I'm judged by you or any human court. Yea, I don't even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent.

It is God who judges me. You see that? Any idol will make you a slave to somebody's judgment. If you're the idol, you know, if idolatry is friends and approval and popularity, you'll be letting other people judge you. All the time. And you'll be up and down depending on what they say. If it's achievement, then it's what your peers think, or maybe what the critics think. If it's, you know, whatever it is, if you're religious, then you have to, you know, we want everybody to think you're very

guilely. But Paul's saying is, the gospel is, your performance means nothing, popularity means nothing, those things mean nothing. All that matters is that God knows you. It's what God thinks of you and what God thinks of you in Jesus Christ. And see, Paul is like a laser beam. He thinks about that all the time, and as a result, he laughs in the face of anything else that comes along. Criticism, what people think. He's not up and down all the time, because he's like a laser beam.

He's focused on that. The important thing is not that I know God, but that God knows me. And you see, my knowledge of God goes up and down all the time, but his knowledge of me is absolute and permanent and fixed and unchanging. I will never, never, never forsake you," he says. That's what the Lord says. But then the other part is you do have to know God. And ultimately, I, now here's what I have to, ultimately, it is not enough to just tell yourself over and

over the gospel. It's not enough to say to your idols, which is fundamentally what you have to do, you're a good thing, but you're not the best thing. I don't need you. I've got Jesus. Now, I'll tell you something. That works sometimes in a cringe. When you're feeling like, I've got to do this, how can I get control? You have to find your idol and you have to look at it in the face and you have to say, I don't need you, not when I have Jesus. But ultimately you have to know God. And what I mean by that is, you actually have to experience God. You have to experience

his love on your heart. Just telling yourself the truth, just sort of getting yourself together, just pushing it. Ultimately that doesn't work in the long run. It certainly doesn't work in a pervasive way. You have got in your prayer life to have enough of experience of his beauty that everything else that is out there trying to say, lo, worship me, worship me, you'll say, forget it. There has to be a decent prayer life. But lo, my dear friends, listen. God lost his son. God has been working throughout all eternity just to bring down the barrier so that he could be in you and you in him. I mean everything God's ever done is so

that you could feel his love in your heart. Do you think therefore that he's gonna put you off? Absolutely not. Go get him. Go to him. He might make you wait. He may do all sorts of things, but it's not because he wants to see you squirm. Everything he's ever done is so you can know him. And only by knowing him will you be able to say, forget it, to the idols. Dr. Lloyd-Jones ends his sermon, and I will too, with two little verses from a hymn. Two hymns, actually. The one hymn was an old John Newton hymn, and one verse goes like this, the dearest idol I have known, whate'er that

idol be, help me to tear it from thy throne, and worship only thee. And Lloyd-Jones says, but how? And he says, here's how. And he says, when Hudson Taylor died, the great missionary to China, they found a piece of paper in his diary. It was a loose piece of paper, and it had this written on it, and it was clear that he would move it every day, so that whatever else he was reading, he was looking at this every day. It was just these verses. Lord Jesus, make thyself to me a living bright reality, more present to faith's vision keen than any outward object seen, more dear, more intimately nigh than in the sweetest earthly tie." Every day, Hudson Taylor was asking for Jesus' reality. He said, that's the only way I'm

ever going to get the freedom from idols. If you take that prayer and you go to him every day with it, He'll meet you. Everything He's ever done, He lost His Son so He would meet you. He's not going to drag His feet. Don't drag yours. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for giving us this great insight into how we can live lives that please you. All we ask is that you would meet us. We're coming. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching from Tim Keller. If you have a story of how the gospel has changed your life or how Gospel on Life resources have encouraged or challenged you, we'd love to hear from you. You can share your story with us by visiting gospelinlife.com slash stories. That's gospelinlife.com

slash stories. Today's sermon was recorded in 1998. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.