Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Freedom in Relationships

Episode Date: July 29, 2024

Our relationships are such hard work. People are always getting hurt. People are always getting disappointed. Relationships are a nightmare, but we can’t get along without them. As soon as we try to pull back from relationships, we lose our humanity. Because we’re made in the image of God. And the triune God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—has, from all eternity, been loving and knowing and communicating with each other. Relationship is at the very heart of things. Galatians 5 tells us a lot about relationships. Let’s look at 1) what is the problem? and 2) what is the solution? This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 26, 1998. Series: Galatians: New Freedom, New Family. Scripture: Galatians 5:13-15,25-6:5. 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. In your bulletin you have printed the next section that we're going to look at as here in the evening services we've been looking at the letter in the New Testament, Paul's epistle, Paul's letter to the Galatians. And we've come to the spot where he talks about relationships.

Now what I did was I actually skipped a couple of verses, I skipped commenting on them a week ago or so, and I've put them together with this next section. So what we're reading is Galatians 5, verses 13 to 15, and then we're jumping down to verse 25, and reading over into chapter six. You, my brothers, were called to be free, but do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature.

Rather serve one another in love. The entire law is summed up in a single command, love your neighbor as yourself. If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you'll be destroyed by each other. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. Brothers, if someone is caught in a sin, you who are spiritual should restore him gently, but watch yourself, or you may also be tempted.

Carry each other's burdens, and in this way, you will fulfill the law of Christ. If anyone thinks he's something when he's nothing, he deceives himself. Each one should test his own actions. Then he can take pride in himself, without comparing himself to somebody else, for each one should carry his own load.

This is God's word. When Adam was invented, when Adam was created, one of the great startling things, if you're reading the Bible carefully, you're reading through the narrative, and you see everything God created was good. Every time God created something, there was light, and there was darkness, and there was sea,

and there was sky, and there were birds, and everything was created. Every time something's created, the narrator says, and it was good. And it was good. And suddenly he comes, and in chapter two of Genesis, verse 18, it said, suddenly you have God saying, it is not good for what?

This is amazing. Here's God creating the world. And of course, everything he's creating is good. And he's a perfect creator. And certainly everything would have to be good. And suddenly he gets to something that's not good. It is not good. And what is it that's not good?

What's the first thing in the history of the universe that wasn't good? From what I can tell, at least the history of this particular corner of the universe, what is the first thing? Man without a relationship.? Man without a relationship. A person without a relationship. It's not good, God says, for Adam to be alone.

Now, why would that be? You see, did God make a mistake? Was there a flaw? Was there something wrong with human design? And of course, the answer is, well, maybe I shouldn't say of course. It's been a while since we talked about this here in the evening service. The reason that Adam was lonely,

the reason that there was something not good, the reason that a human being without relationships is not good, I mean this is cosmic. The reason for that is because we are made in the image of God. Not because God failed to make us great, but because God did make us great. Because now, I'm talking from the Christian perspective, of course, every other religion gives us either an impersonal God, like Eastern religions, there's not, God isn't personal,

God doesn't weep and rejoice and God doesn't speak and so on. You have either impersonal gods or else you have unipersonal gods. A God who is one person and existed for many, many eons, I suppose, you know, or, you know, untold eons, of course, until God created people or created angels or created some other beings. And not until God created some other being did God have a relationship. And so you see in all the religions of the world,

except Christianity, relationship is secondary, relationship is peripheral, relationship is less important. Relationship is something that's added, relationship is peripheral, relationship is less important. Relationship is something that's added. Relationship is icing, see? God was there without relationship, so obviously relationship isn't that important. Obviously a lack of relationship is not a lack of God,

a Godness, it can't be anything of a lower degree of moral excellence or something like that, but in Christianity it's different because we are the only religion that have a multi-personal God, that have a triune God, that have a God who exists in three persons from all eternity, co-equal, co-eternal.

There was never a time in which God was not filled with love. You see, without a relationship, there God was not filled with love. You see, without a relationship, there's no such thing as love, and therefore, love is secondary in all other religions. It would have to be. Love is peripheral. Love is not the main thing.

Relationship is the main thing, but in Christianity, you know, this is the part I like, you'll notice, if you've been around for a while, the Trinity, the idea of three gods and one, the Trinity really creates a lot of problems logically for people and all these questions, the Trinity, oh my word, you know, and it seems like, boy, why couldn't we have a religion

with just, you know, God and all the Trinity? I mean, Jesus is God, but he's the son of God, and I mean, what is it, you know, and he's God, but he's talking to God. How can God be talking to God? And it's got schizophrenic and all these issues that come up and people, what's going on here? And you know, there are problems, I'll be happy.

But this is one, this is the place where we don't have a problem. This is where the Trinity shines. This is amazingly important. This is incredibly practical. The reason that a human being without a relationship is not good. The reason that human human being without a relationship is not good, the reason that human beings without great relationships and deep relationships

and important reason it's not good is because we're made in the image of God who from all eternity was loving and knowing and communicating and opening heart, you see. He's the father, son, the Holy Spirit from all eternity were loving and knowing each other communicating and opening heart, you see. The Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, from all eternity were loving and knowing each other and communicating and rejoicing each other,

and therefore relationship is at the heart of things, the essence of things for Christianity. And therefore, Adam, because he was made in the image of God, it was not good until he got a friend. And you see, God makes Adam, and then it's not good that Adam's alone, and then he creates Eve. And when Adam sees Eve, he breaks into the first Hebrew poetry, first couplet in the Bible,

and therefore I guess the first poetry, the first song, and he says this, he says, at last, at last, this is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. What's going on here? Why doesn't he say at last, this is bone of her bones and flesh of her flesh? What, isn't it? What is he saying?

Here's what he's saying. He says, oh my word, I found me. Because you see, since we're made in the image of God, without a relationship, you cannot know yourself till you find another self. That's because we're made in the image of God. God has, God has selves loving and knowing each other, and so since we're made in the image of God,

you cannot know yourself until you know another self. You can't, can't be done. You see, and by Adam getting a relationship, a deep, absolutely perfect, you know, that was before the fall, before sin came to the world, a perfect relationship, he suddenly looked at it, he says, oh my gosh, it's me. Now it wasn't him, she wasn't a pyramid, she was herself.

But the fact is, by getting to know somebody else, I mean, this is true in so many, I mean, I don't him, she wasn't a mirror image, she was herself. But the fact is by getting to know somebody else, I mean this is true in so many, I mean I don't know, I can't see myself bodily unless I look in a mirror, I have to see it reflected. You know I always do this. I can't hear what I really sound like until I hear myself on a tape. Something has to come back to me.

I can't hear what I really sound like through the voice, through bones in my neck. That's the reason why whenever we hear ourselves on tape, something has to come back to me. I can't hear what I really sound like through the voice, through bones in my neck. That's the reason why whenever we hear ourselves on tape, we hate it. The reason we hate it is because that's what we sound like. And the reason that's what we hate, what we sound like, is because we don't know what we sound like. It's gotta come back to us from outside.

We've gotta send something out, it's gotta come back, or we don't know who we are. I mean, this is just true in physics, let alone the more practical and the more basic and the more fundamental way, and that is we need relationships. But something happened to relationships along the way. At first, Adam and Eve were naked and not ashamed, and then, next thing you know, as soon as they are sin in the world, they're hiding.

They're ashamed. They can't let the other person see. They have to cover up, they have to invent, they sew fig leaves together and ever since then, that's what's been happening. We've been running from each other. Our relationships are such hard work. Have any of you ever noticed when you go away on vacation,

what are you going away from, work? What are you resting from? What do you have to, what do you have to, what do you need to rejuvenate your batteries? What do you have to going away from, work? What are you resting from? What do you have to, what do you have to, what do you need to rejuvenate your batteries? What do you have to get away from so you can sort of restore yourself and get yourself, what are you actually getting away from? To a great degree, you're getting away from relationships.

Relationships are horribly hard. They're very difficult. People are always getting hurt. People are always disappointed. You're always being disappointed. They're being disappointed with you. People are always getting upset. Relationships are a nightmare.

And we can't get along without them. As soon as we try to pull back, we lose our humanity because we're made in the image of God. Why? And how in the world do we fix? Now, in this passage, we've got one of many, many references to this in the Bible, but here's one of them. And what we have here is the problem.

This thing tells us what the problem is in relationships. Why relationships, though we obviously see how important they are, why they are, they're in tremendous pain, they are now. What is the problem? And what is the solution? Now let's get started this way. What is the solution? Now let's get started this way. What is the problem?

In verse 26, let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other. Boy, there is so much in there, I'm gonna show you. No, I don't know if we have the time to do too much, but let me just show you what's in here. First of all, provoking and envying, which we'll return to, provoking and envying is basically a summary

of all the things that go wrong in relationships. The word provoking basically means to challenge, but it, I mean, that's the original meaning, but the word provoker, to challenge, basically means to look down on. Provoking means to have a sense of superiority, if I just take a look. The word pro-kaleo literally means to call out

or to challenge somebody, but it means to look down on somebody to be sure of superiority, to lord it over someone, to say I dare you. You know, it's looking down on somebody, that's what it means. But the word envy, of course, which is not that hard for us to understand, means to be feeling, to be looking up and being mad about it.

You see, what you have here are the superiority complex and the inferiority complex. People who look, they're so nice, they're so smart, they're so gifted, they're so talented that we either envy them, we hate them, we resent them, who do they think they are, all those kinds of people. I dislike people like that. And then you also have the other side,

which is looking down and saying, why are people like that around? Why do I have to deal with people like this? I just, you know, people you feel superior to and people who feel inferior to. And the reason for both superiority and inferiority complex, the reason for all the ways in which relationships fall apart is this word, conceited.

Now this is another word like, what was the last word we were dealing with? Oh yeah, the word sinful nature, which we talked about last couple weeks up in verse 13. We said the word there, the Greek word there is sarx or flesh and the trouble is whenever you talk about flesh or when it talks about the desires of the sinful nature, it's the word over desires, remember?

And we said it's very difficult to translate these because in the old translations, they would say lust of the flesh. And right away when you think of lust of the flesh, you think of sex. So they can't say that. So what they say is the desires of the sinful nature, but that doesn't get it across either,

and we won't open that one up. Same thing with conceited. The word that's translated conceited, if you go back into the old King James Bible or the older translation, it'll say, vain glory. Now that doesn't get anywhere with people today, vain glory, what is vain glory? Does it mean to be vain?

Well, it does, somewhat. But that's not what it means. Vain glory is a very, very literal English rendering of the Greek word which literally means empty of glory. A glory vacuum. Em empty of glory, a glory vacuum. Empty of glory. Keno, from the word empty, canonic, to empty, of glory, doxa.

For which we get our word doxology. You know the word doxology, we're giving glory to God. You see, it's the old word, it's the old Greek word and Latin word for glory. And this word actually means deep inside us, we have a problem. And that is we know we don't matter. Now, I have to open that for a minute. The word glory in the Bible, both in the Old and New Testament, basically means importance.

Because it literally means weight. When something matters, see, even in English, we have the word matter, material, is it material? You know, matter, which is something that has to do with weight. And then we can say, it doesn't matter. And what it's saying is that there is a spiritual condition, there is a problem in all of us, and that is that we know we don't matter. There is a deep lack, deep inside of us, we are absolutely unsure, or I should say this,

no, that's not what it's saying, it's not saying that. It's saying we're absolutely sure that we don't count. We're absolutely sure that we don't have honor, we don't have glory, we don't have glory, we don't have worth, we don't have, we're not, deep down inside this is saying, I know it seems like the opposite, but the word kainodoksa means deep down inside we know we're nobody and we're desperately desperately trying to prove to everybody around us that we're somebody and that's why the word is often translated vainglory or conceit. Somebody who's desperately trying to prove something

they know isn't true. That's what a conceited person is. Somebody desperately trying to prove what they know isn't true. Deep down inside we feel like we don't matter. Now you know I haven't read this quote I think in the evening service maybe but when you first read this, I think you're going to say, oh, sure, here's a person. She wasn't loved growing up. She's obviously weird. She's obviously strange. It's very clear. And therefore, why are you giving her as an example? And the answer is because actually, I think that one of the reasons why she's so successful

is because she's very much in touch with human soul, including hers. But she's not weird. I think she's just much in touch with human soul, including hers, but she's not weird. I think she's just explaining what it is. Her name is Madonna. And in Vogue magazine, she said this in an interview. She said, I have an iron will. And here's why. I'm struggling with fear.

I push past one spell of it and I discover myself as a special human being, then I get to another stage and I think I'm mediocre and uninteresting. And I find a way to get myself out of that. Again and again and again. My drive in life is from the horrible fear of being mediocre. That's what's always pushing me. It's always pushing me because even though I've become somebody, I still have to prove

to myself over and over again that I'm somebody. My struggle has never ended and I don't think it ever will. Ah, you say, well, there's a really messed up person. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says there's a normal person. The posters, remember the posters some years ago, they're not up anymore, but they show, and you know, these are very well-meaning and they're partly right. They're partly right.

They're partly wrong. The posters show little babies of different races playing together, and remember what the sign used to say? Nobody is a bigot. Oh, it's been such a long time. It says, no one is born a bigot. No one's born a bigot. No one's born a bigot. And they're right in the fact that they say,

if you teach little children to play with people of other races, they won't grow up being a bigot. But I'll tell you what they will do. They will grow, if you're liberal parents and you grow your children up to say, it's very important to love people of other races, that when they grow up, they will be very, very, feel very superior to anybody who is not

as liberal minded as they are. Absolutely, they will be very, very, feel very superior to anybody who is not as liberal minded as they are. Absolutely we will. And here's the reason, see, because the problem goes deeper. For 50 to 100 years, secular people in the West have said bigotry and hostility and all these relationship problems come from a lack of education.

People aren't naturally this way. They don't naturally hate each other. They're not naturally bigots. We need to educate people, educate people. The greatest acts of genocide in the history of the human race this century have been done by the most cultured and the most educated people. And when you do educate people to be very open-minded,

they will be incredibly superior in their attitudes toward people who are not as open-minded. Whereas there is a there what is conceit? Conceit is we are desperately trying to prove something we know isn't true. We're somebody. Deep inside, kinodoxa means that every human being is born knowing that they don't count, that they don't matter. What is the thing that you most are scared of? To be hated? No! To be ignored! That's hell. That's the end. 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 gospelinlife.com slash give.

Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. One thing that the little books on child rearing will tell you, if you're a parent by the way, it'll tell you, if a kid acts up, be very careful how you respond. It's very, very natural if a child starts to, you know, to pick things up and throw things and do bad things, what do you do? He said, stop this, I'll show you,

and you make this big fuss, and you punish, and you punish. It doesn't get any better, they keep doing it. Why? Because the books will tell you, any attention's good. That's reinforcing the behavior. Why is that? You say, how could they be reinforcing the behavior? I'm scowling at them.

I'm waving my hands around. I'm crying. I'm punishing them. I'm taking away their dolly. I'm sending them to their room. I'm doing all these things. How could this? Because our biggest problem is not to be disliked.

Our biggest problem is not to be known, not to be noticed. The big problem is not that I write a book and then it gets panned in all the journals. The biggest nightmare is I write a book and nobody writes anything about it. Why is that? Here's why. Well, now, you know, this is the case.

This is the point. Our relationships go bad this way. We are desperately trying to feel better than many people, better than other people, better than other people. So when we get into relationships, we have to decide, am I better than you or worse than you? And this is the reason why we have no friends. Because almost nobody is just like us. Almost everybody is ahead of us or below us on the scale. We've all chosen, we've all chosen some way in which we're gonna try to get ourselves some glory, get ourselves some worth,

get ourselves a sense that I count, get ourselves, right? See, okay, and like for, from what I can tell, probably Madonna doesn't care about a lot of things that I do, you know, she would say, oh, that's interesting, you know the Bible, that's great, that's fine, but I do know this, ministers, I don't know if there are any of you here, it's very hard, is it not, come on, be honest, it's very hard to listen to other people's sermons, I do know this. Ministers, I don't know if there's any of you here, it's very hard, is it not?

Come on, be honest, it's very hard to listen to other people's sermons, it's very hard. If you're a minister and you're here, you're having some trouble. Because what are you doing? Because I know, I have the same problem. When I go on vacation, I listen, and what do I do? How do I do it?

How do I keep from either saying, oh, I could do better than that? Or else, how do I keep from either saying, I could do better than that. Or else how do I keep from saying, I'll never be able to do that. I'll never be able to do that. So right away I'm into provoking or envying. Why? Because I'm not full. I'm empty.

Because I'm lacking worth. I'm lacking, I'm not full. I'm empty. Because I'm lacking worth, I'm lacking, I'm lacking. It's the big problem. Now where does that come from? Where does that come from? Well, it's not education. I'm sorry, we've been trying for a hundred years to educate people.

We are not over warfare, are we? We're not over anything. We're not over racism. We're not over anything. It's not gotten better What's going on? Well, the Bible says here's the reason what the Bible says is the reason we feel like We're really not we really don't matter is because We don't now

Now listen you see Christianity tells you the opposite of what everybody else in the world's been telling you. You've been running off to counselors for years, they've been saying, you're important, you're important, and Christianity comes and says, what, wait a minute, maybe you're not insane. Maybe you're absolutely there.

The nature of sin, the Bible says, is to make you less and less real, less and less solid, less and less there. More and less solid, less and less there. More and more ephemeral, more and more weightless. Hey, you wanna see it? Who are the people who you most wanna ignore? It's the people who most desperately want attention. The more self-centered a person is,

the more desperately they're trying to say, look at me, look at me, the more you wanna say no. The Bible says it's the nature of sin. What sin has done is it's come into our lives and it's disrupted our relationship with God who's the only face, the only eyes, and the only heart whose opinion really matters. We're told that on Judgment Day, the way that God is going to punish people who have done everything they can to destroy his rule over their lives,

done everything they can to live lives of ingratitude to the one to whom they owe everything, everything they can. What is he going to do in the one to whom they owe everything, everything they can. What is he gonna do in the last day? He's gonna give us the opposite of what we were built for because it's the opposite, see, of what we wanted. And yet it's exactly what we wanted. What? What we want is we wanna be free from God.

We wanna get away. We wanna be our own boss. And so what he's gonna do is on that last day, he's gonna say, fine, you want to be away from me? You're away from me. And what is he gonna say? He's gonna say, I don't know you. Now, I don't know completely.

Whenever people ask me about hell and fire and all that sort of thing, I think all of that, frankly, I think it's metaphorical. That doesn't mean I think it's not gonna be as bad as fire. I think it's gonna be much worse than fire. When I say hell, is all that talk about fire is metaphorical? Doesn't mean that I'm saying, don't anybody go, phew, good, I'm glad he doesn't believe in hellfire.

I think there's something a lot worse out there than hellfire. I tell there's something a lot worse out there than hellfire. I tell you something, what is out there is to be eternally and utterly ignored. We think that by getting free from God, that's what the human heart thinks, by getting free from God, getting away by doing our own thing, then we'll finally count,

then we'll be somebody. We think, and some of you think, I know, some of you think, if I would come to Jesus Christ, if I would give my life to God, if I would say, your will not mine be done, oh my gosh, you know, I wouldn't be my own person. You're scared, because sin makes you think that that's the way to lose your sense of being somebody.

When you look at what the Bible says, the Bible says, Jesus says, come and give yourself to me. You have to lose yourself to find yourself. You get, you're just frightened. And yet the nature of sin is the more you try to get away from God, the less you count, the less you matter and you know it. Deep inside you realize you're passing away.

God didn't make you for that. God made you to last forever. God made you to be immortal. God made you to live in his presence. You were not built to die. You were not built to pass away. You were not built to go to nothing. You were not built to just fade away.

But you can even see it now. The more sinful, the more self-centered, the more self-absorbed, the more they're ignored, They're not built to just fade away. But you can even see it now. The more sinful, the more self-centered, the more self-absorbed, the more they're ignored. The more you want to ignore them. So finally on judgment day, God will ignore you. Which is what you've been asking for and yet it's actually the thing,

it'll be the greatest nightmare of all. Now that's the reason why we act the way we do. That's the reason why we're in a relationship, that's why we're either provoking or envying. That's the reason why we're biting and devouring each other. It's very interesting up here in verse 13, 15, I have to get to the solution I know, but just one more thing on the problem.

It's fascinating, I mentioned this this morning, but it says here, my brothers, you were called to be free. Don't use your freedom to indulge sinful nature. Serve each other in love. That's verse 13, look at verse 15. Don't devour each other. The Christian understanding of love is serve. The world's understanding of love is eat.

No, and I mentioned this this morning. Most of the time when you feel attracted to somebody, I'm not just talking about sexually attracted, but that can be in there too. But when you're attracted to somebody because they're attractive, because they're poised, because they're sharp, because they're beautiful, because they're wise, because they're all the things

that you want, there is a kind of attraction that comes. It's a kind of, it's a lot, a lot of it is sort of like envy, but it's, but it mainly is, it's a way of saying, here's a person that I'm falling in love with, or I'm really coming to like, and what, you see, what it really is is, this person will help me feel finally like I'm here. This person will make me feel like I'm somebody.

And see, when you go after someone, basically not to serve them, but to use them to serve you, to deal with that inside emptiness, what you're really doing, you're on your way to hell. You really are on your way to hell. There's this great place in Lewis' Screwtape Letters.

In the very beginning, he explains how he thinks, well, he's pretty interesting, if I can find it, yeah. In his introduction, he talks about the difference between love and hunger. He says, on Earth, this desire is often called love, this attraction to people. But in hell, I believe they recognize it for what it is, it's hunger.

There though, the hunger is more ravenous and a fuller satisfaction is possible. There I suggest the stronger evil spirits can really suck the weaker evil spirits into themselves and permanently gorge their own being on the weaker's outraged individuality. It is for this that Satan desires. For all of the sons of Eve and all the hosts of heaven,

his dream is of some day when all shall be inside him and all that says I can only say it through him. This, I surmise, is the bloated spider parody, the only imitation he can understand of that unfathomed bounty whereby God turns tools into servants and servants into sons so that they may be at last reunited with him in the perfect freedom of a love offered from the height of the utter individualities he has liberated them to be. Welcome to English, that's

English. Now you see what he's saying? He is saying that there's from hell where people are just ravenous for glory, ravenous, because they are so unreal, because they are just, you see, they're so ephemeral, because the further away you get from God, the less you matter, they're so desperate. He says that down there, they're actually doing, what we up here, they know what they're doing.

They definitely know what they're doing They definitely know what they're doing That is they're trying to eat each other. They're trying to use each other They're trying to say I want to take you into my life and make me somebody then I'll know I'm an individual but heavenly love instead of Filling with the other person empties for the other person and says how can I make you into the individual you need to be? Well, you say how how in the world, could anybody be like that?

He says, serve each other, don't devour each other, those are your only two options. Well, how are you gonna get that? Well, the simple answer is this. Jesus Christ, look at verse 26, now we've, I can't, 25, since we live by the Spirit, keep in step with the Spirit, all I can do is summarize. We spent a couple weeks explaining what this is about. If we live by the Spirit, keep in step with the Spirit. All I can do is summarize. We spent a couple weeks explaining what this is about.

If we live by the Spirit, keep in step with the Spirit. We've seen that the Spirit has desires, remember that? The Spirit's job in John 16 is to glorify Jesus Christ. Is to show us Jesus Christ, is to make him real to us. That's the job of the Spirit. And here's what I want you to see. Go to Philippines 2 and you'll see something amazing. Jesus Christ runs toward that which we run from.

We are afraid of any situation that makes us feel small. We're afraid of any situation that makes us feel sinful. Any situation that makes us feel weak or needy. Any situation that makes us feel less important. Any situation, see, that shows that we don't have glory. We're scared of it, we get out of it. Any relationship, we just run. We're told there, Jesus Christ,

though he was in heaven, he counted equality with God, nothing to be held on, but he emptied himself of his glory. He did the very thing that we're, he did the opposite of what we're trying to do. We're trying to fill ourselves, we're trying to eat other people basically, we're trying to take, we know, we say, oh you can be my friend,

but I don't want this person to be my friend. Why? Because this person makes me feel like I'm somebody. That's why I reason I can't serve everybody, that's the reason I can't serve people and listen to them and think about who they are and care for them. I have to go after the people who are slick,

the people who make me feel good about myself. Now the reason that we can't do that, do anything else, is because we don't see Jesus. You might say, well I'm a Christian, or I believe in Jesus, but you haven't seen him, you haven't had the spirit make him real to you, or else you wouldn't be so discriminating in the way you relate to people.

And you wouldn't be always every night tossing and turning because you feel like somebody has snubbed you, somebody's made you feel unimportant, somebody's ignored you, somebody hasn't given you what you want. You're always going back and forth between provoking and envying, feeling superior and feeling inferior.

Get rid of all that, how? Look at the one who did the opposite of what you're trying to do. Though filled with glory, he emptied himself. He became absolutely unbeautiful, absolutely unbeautiful. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows acquainted with grief, like one

from whom men hid their faces, he was despised and we esteemed him not." Do you see what he did? He ran toward it. Remember in Jesus Christ Superstar, Pilate looks at Jesus in the hallway. He says, oh, so this is Jesus Christ. My, I'm really quite surprised. You look so small. Not a king at all.

And of course, that's because he chose that. He had to do it. Because what is the only punishment for people who really deserve to be ignored by God? They deserve to have God say, I don't even know you. They deserve to be ignored. What is the punishment? To be ignored. Well, what did Jesus Christ do?

He came to earth, and he got on the cross, and what happened? My God, my God, why hast thou ignored me? Why hast thou turned away from me? He emptied himself of his glory, and he came to earth, and he got exactly what we should get. And if you see him doing that To the degree you see him doing that to the degree the Holy Spirit

This is keeping in step with the spirit to the degree the Holy Spirit Shows you what he's done for you That fills you back up that shows you what that shows you that shows you That shows you what, that shows you, that shows you the real true God. It melts your heart. It shows you, wait a minute, if I give myself to him, he's not going to destroy me. He won't make me nobody. I'll finally be who I am. Finally. When you see him losing his glory, finally for the first time, you will feel yours in truth. And what happens is if you feel full again, you won't be out there provoking or envying. You know, there's a great place in Psalm 102

where it says, the heavens and the mountains will perish. They will wear out like a garment, but the steadfast love of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon those who fear him and his righteousness to their children's children. And here's what you can do. If you're a Christian and you know this,

you can look at the mountains and you can look at the stars and you can look at them and say, your glory is nothing compared to mine because my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ died for me and because I am his, because he opened my heart to him and showed me how much I mean to him and because he set his love on me from everlasting to everlasting,

my glory is greater than yours. I'll be around when you're spent. You are peripheral, you are ephemeral, you are nothing compared to me. When you receive the gospel, you take a living argument into your heart. And whenever you see people that seem to make you feel like inferior, make you feel superior, that argument, you know, just comes on up. And it says you're not saved by your good works.

When you're saved by your good works, you'll feel superior to the people when you feel like you're living up. you'll feel inferior to people when you feel like you're not living up. But the gospel takes all that away and makes you both bold and humble, keeps you from either envying or provoking. It'll absolutely revolutionize your relationships. This is the only way.

Some of you are alone. It's not good. Let's pray. Our Father, we ask that those who are alone, those who do find that the relationships are just such pains, it's not just their fault, it's everybody's fault around them. They are not, we have been sinned against, we have sinned.

I pray, Father, that you would take everybody in this room and show them what they're not, we have been sinned against, we have sinned, I pray Father that you would take everybody in this room and show them what they need. There's some people here who are not yet believers, they don't really believe in you. The gospel itself, this whole idea of Jesus Christ coming to earth and dying and emptying of himself of his glory and being ignored on the cross and receiving that kind of pain into his life,

all for us, they don't believe it. I pray Lord that you would bring them into relationships, bring them back here, bring them into lines of thought where they can understand the basic truths of the gospel. Father, there's some of us who basically believe the gospel, but these things aren't real to us. We're not in step with the spirit. And so we're acting out of vain glory all the time.

We're always feeling superior or inferior to people. We're always having our feelings hurt, and our relationships are not strong. We pray that you would keep us in step with the Spirit. Show us these things. We pray 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 in 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.