Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - How Sin Makes Us Addicts

Episode Date: October 24, 2025

Even when we feel vaguely guilty for things in our past, or when we feel outraged by what we see other people doing, we have trouble talking about sin and evil. In our society, we’ve been taught that words like “sin” or “evil” are oppressive or meaningless. Yet we sense something out there that we don’t have the vocabulary for. But the Bible gives us a far richer vocabulary and helps us understand sin in far more nuanced ways. In Jeremiah 2, there’s a prophesy from Jeremiah to a nation in spiritual decline. And in it, we’ll see how sin is replacing God, and the result is addiction of spirit. Jeremiah’s telling us about 1) the dynamics of spiritual attraction, 2) the dynamics of spiritual addiction, and 3) the dynamics of spiritual restoration. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 14, 1999. Series: What’s Really Wrong with the World. Scripture: Jeremiah 2:1-8. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. Why is the world so broken? And why are we capable of inflicting such harm even toward those we love? People point to politics, poverty, or psychology, but none of these fully explain what we see in ourselves and in history. This month on the podcast, Tim Keller is teaching from a series exploring the question, What's wrong with us? Showing us how the Bible's teaching on sin offers the only explanation deep enough to face the truth in all its complexity and the only hope powerful enough to transform us.

Jeremiah 2.1 to 8 and 23 to 32. It's printed there. This is the beginning and the ending of this great chapter in the book of the prophet Jeremiah. The word of the Lord came to me. Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem, I remember the devotion of your youth. How as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert through a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest. All who devoured her were held guilty,

and disaster overtook them, declares the Lord. Hear the word of the Lord, oh, house of Jacob, all you clans of the House of Israel. This is what the Lord says. What fault did your fathers find in me that they strayed so far from me. They followed worthless idols and became worthless themselves. They did not ask,

where is the Lord who brought us up out of Egypt and led us through the barren wilderness, through a land of deserts and rifts, a land of drought and darkness, a land where no one travels and no one lives. I brought you into a fertile land to eat its fruit and rich produce, but you came and defiled my land

and made my inheritance detestable. The priest did not ask, where is the Lord? Those who deal with the law did not know me, the leaders rebelled against me, and the prophets prophesied by bail following worthless idols. How can you say, I am not defiled, I have not run after the bales? See how you behaved in the valley. Consider what you've done. You are a swift she camel running here and there, a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her craving. In her heat, who can restrain her?

Any males that pursue her need not tire themselves at men. waiting time, they'll find her. Do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry, but you said, it's no use. I love foreign gods. I must go after them. As a thief is disgraced when he's caught, so the house of Israel is disgraced, they their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets. They say to the wood, you are my father, and to stone, you gave me birth. They have turned their backs on me and not their faces. Yet when they are in trouble, they say, come and save us. Where then are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you're in trouble, for you have as many gods as you have towns, O Judah. Why do you bring

charges against me? You have all rebelled against me, declared the Lord. In vain I punish your people. They did not respond to correction. Your sword has devoured your prophets like a ravening lion. You of this generation, consider the word of the Lord. Have I been a desert to Israel or a land great darkness. Why do my people say we are free to roam? We will come to you no more. Does a maiden forget her jewelry or a bride, her wedding ornaments? Yet my people have forgotten me, days without number. This is God's word. One of the reasons why we have trouble talking about sin and evil, even though we need to. There's things in our past that we feel vaguely guilty for.

There's things that we see people doing to us or out in the world, and we feel moral outrage toward, and yet we've been taught by our society that to use the word sin or evil is oppressive or it's meaningless. And yet we sense something out there that we don't have the vocabulary for. Now, what we're going to do in this series started last week, We're going to go to the Bible because the Bible gives us a far more rich vocabulary for sin.

It helps us understand sin in ways that most of us in our society just don't. It's so much richer, it's so much more nuanced. Last week, for example, we saw sin is reducing God, and the result is smallness of spirit. This week we're going to see that sin is replacing God, and the result is addiction of spirit. This is a prophecy from Jeremiah to a nation in spiritual decline, and what we see here is he's telling us three things. He's telling us about the dynamics of what we'll call the dynamics of spiritual attraction, the dynamics of spiritual addiction, and the dynamics of spiritual restoration. And I think as we get near the end, you're going to see what I mean by how this enriches our vocabulary when it comes to thinking of sin and evil, and how important that is, very practically.

But let's get started. First of all, he shows us the dynamics of spiritual attraction. All through here, he is using remarkable sexual imagery. One verse, which I left out, you know, I was trying to say, well, I can't print the whole chapter, but we're looking in a sense of the whole chapter. And there's one verse that's very, very interesting. See, in verse 4 to 8, which we did print, we're told, God is calling them to task for the fact they're turning to idols.

They're worshiping other gods. worshipping him. And verses one to three, he uses, we'll get back to this, remarkable sexual imagery of a young married couple, just hopelessly in love. And in the very end, we're going to see. But in verse 20, this is what I didn't print, but I should have, in verse 20, there's a verse that starts this way. It goes this way. On every high hill, under every spreading chestnut, every every spreading tree you now we we say okay that's idol worship because we know that on every high hill they had altars to bail on under every spreading tree there were altars to bail why well because altars were a sign of transcendence spreading trees were a sign of fertility so in verse 20 you see

the sentence starts like this under on every high hill and under every spreading tree figure the sentence will end, you worship idols. That's not what it says. What it says is on every high hill and under every spreading tree, you spread your legs. Now, I don't know what version you've got out there, but I can tell you one thing. Whatever English version, if you've got a Bible with you, you look at it and I know it doesn't say that. Whether it's King James or RSV or the New International Version or whatever version it is, it's not going to say that. But that's what it literally says in the Hebrew. It's interesting, generally speaking, the translators feel that we're just too sensitive or something to actually hear

what God is trying to tell us. What God says is that when you worship idols, when you worship other gods, he says, on the top of every hill, under every tree, you're spreading your legs. Now, why would he use that kind of imagery? Is he just trying to, you know, get our attention? Is he just trying to, you know, is this just for shock value? No, it's for teaching value, because this is what he's teaching all through here. Why, all the way through the Bible, when God talks about worshiping him, he uses sexual imagery so often, and when he talks about worshiping anything else, or worshiping any worship is used very often under the umbrella of sexual imagery, why would God do that? Here's what he's doing. He is saying,

that there is an attraction going on at the spiritual level in your heart right now, every bit as powerful as the sexual attraction at the physical level that can happen. In other words, right now he's saying there is something going on in your soul, in the deepest recesses of your soul, you are laying down with something spiritually. You're putting yourself in the arms of something spiritually, and your spiritual relationship with that thing is every bit is, powerful as a physical relationship is, and a sexual one at that. Now, for a minute, think about physical attraction.

On the one hand, physical attraction is pretty overwhelming. In fact, most of us would probably say the most embarrassing moments in our lives, and most of you, only you yourselves know what these are, the most embarrassing moments in our lives were times where a physical attraction kind of overwhelmed our common sense, overwhelmed our wisdom, overwhelmed our conscience. But what makes physical attraction so strong? Is it just emotional infatuation? Now here's a place where I'm going to turn to the biologist

because actually Jeremiah turns to the biologist. I usually don't. Generally, I'm not going to go to a biologist and say, tell me about the sexual instinct. I don't usually like what I hear. In fact, you don't either. Most people don't. But it's intriguing.

Jeremiah likens us, and it's really pretty powerful. It likens us to an animal at one point, not just to a bride like in the very beginning of chapter 2 and at the very end, but here in the very middle. He says, see how you behaved in the valley. He were a swift she camel running here and there, a wild donkey accustomed to the desert,

sniffing the wind in her craving, in her heat. Now here's what the biologists are going to tell you. Why is the physical desire, why is sexual desire so important? And it's this. collectively speaking, we are dead unless we find somebody else. We cannot reproduce ourselves. This is what the biologist would tell you. The biologist would say that unless you're Godzilla, this is true of every other species,

there is something in the male that only the male produces, that has to get together with something in the female that only the female produces, or else your race is over. your species is over you're over and therefore what the biologists will tell you is a big root of this incredible physical attraction is that it is collectively speaking male gender or female gender by itself is incomplete and it's dead unless you literally get together that's certainly obviously there's nothing emotional about animals and yet there's and yet the physical attraction is incredibly powerful. There's no emotional involvement from what we can tell.

Oh, where does it come from? It comes from the fact that we are, biologically speaking, we're incomplete, collectively, okay. Now, why this powerful sexual imagery? Here's why. This passage, this text is not talking at all about Israel's sexual practices. It's not talking at all about sexual ethics. It's talking about religion. You know, it's very interesting. Down on St. Mark's place across from Kim's video there's a store it says religious sex and it's very attention getting it's sort of avant-garde and cool to call something religious sex why because in our mind religion and sex are two totally different things are total opposite so put it together kind of gets to you right that's why they they chose it it's St. Mark's place you know we're we're avant-garde we're unusual

we're shocking well god beat them to it Jeremiah did this 2,500 years ago and here's what they're saying There is, deep in your soul, a spiritual desire even more powerful than the desires that inform physical attraction. And it's this. You cannot produce your own meaning in life. You cannot by yourself produce your own worth. You cannot produce your own security. Everybody has got to have some meaning in life or else life. is empty. Everybody's got to have some affirmation of your worth or else you feel worthless. Everybody's

got to have some security or you can't face life. But you cannot produce it yourself any more than you can reproduce your own species, your own, your own life. You can't reproduce that spiritually anymore than you can reproduce yourself physically all by yourself. You can't just say, all that matters to me is I like me. You're never going to get your worth that way. You can't say, I'm just going to live for my own happiness. You'll never get your meaning that way. There's got a be something else besides you that is the source of your meaning, the source of your worth, the source of your security, and you are dry for that, your need for that. You need to take hold of whatever that is.

That has to be something, or somebody, or some person, or some pursuit, or some relationship, or some goal, or some condition, or some practice, something. You are as powerless to reproduce, to produce in your heart meaning and worth and security, as you are physically able to reproduce your own life. And so, spiritually speaking, if it's not God who's the lover of your soul, if it's not God in whose arms you are spiritually, if it's not God whose meaning is the source of your meaning, whose affirmation is the source of your self-worth, and whose power is the source of security, if it's not God, you're in bed with something spiritually, something you've

given yourself to in realms so deep and so profound that God here is saying, you are as every bit spiritually beholden to it as you are physically beholden, every bit as spiritually laid out, as spread out, as vulnerable to it spiritually as you are physically when you're having sex with someone. You're doing the very same thing spiritually that you do in bed with someone physically. Same thing. You've got to have this. You are spiritually incomplete, and therefore you're in bed with something. Now, let's take a minute before we move on. Can I show you how radically different this view is of soul and of spirit

than what you're going to hear about or read about if you're going to Barnes & Noble and you go to the section on soul and spirit? It's getting bigger every year. There are just tons of book on soul, care of the soul, and help for the soul, and chicken soup for the soul, or the spirit. You know, care for the spirit. And if you go in, get those books down, they're all very, very different, and yet they're all the same. First of all, they depict the soul as a pond, a sort of still lake.

But the Bible depicts the soul as a restless, turbulent ocean. Or, whenever they talk, when all these books talk about the cure of the soul, or the care of the soul, what they usually, they talk about getting into quiet places. and they think about, think inspirational thoughts, reflect, you see, be quiet. See, the soul is that sort of thing. And the Bible says something so much more robust, so much more robust, so much more vital, so much more alive. Your soul is two empty arms. Your soul is an utterly empty heart. And you must run after things in order to fill that.

I can't help it, says the soul. I must run after them. See, completely different approach, not only to your soul. Your soul doesn't just need to be petted there, there. Your soul needs love, your soul needs rapture, your soul needs passion, all right? But it's also giving us a completely different view, not just of the soul, but it's a completely different view of God. If you take those books down, if they ever do talk about God, many of them just don't. But if they ever do talk about that God, they talk about God in the sense of being someone who sort of gives peace, a sort of a remote, a power, a force.

And God here says, I am not just a remote force. In fact, I am not just a sovereign you obey. Let me tell you what I built you for. I want to be the lover of your soul. I want to be the center of your heart. Look, he's saying, at the sex. Look at the greatest, rapturous bit of sexual love. That is just a dim hint of what closure between your soul and my soul will be.

That's what I've made you for. That's what I want you to be with me. You know, I mean, a lot of people go in and they think this is great. This approach to the soul, the modern new age spirituality. And they just say that, and it seems so cool. it seems so avant-garde, you see. It seems so much more, seems so much better than the wooden mechanical understanding people have of Christianity. Christianity, real Christianity. Look what we're seeing. Look what we're talking about. This view of the soul, this view of God. God says,

I want you in my arms. Power, the dynamics of spiritual attraction. And he says, if I'm not, if I'm not in your arms, if you're not in my arms, you're in your arms with something. Now, the second thing we learn, and I'm going to be brief on this because a lot of you know this, and you would rather have, you'd like to know, I'm pretty good at telling you what's wrong with you. And some of you are going to say, I've heard this part before. I'd like to find out what to do about it. So let me be brief. The second thing we learn here is also the dynamics of spiritual addiction.

Because what God is saying is if you don't have me in your arms, if you're in the arms of anything else, you're in deep trouble, you're actually in an addiction. cycle. Let me show you how that cycle runs, so briefly. First of all, the first part of the cycle is you promote something. Look here in verse 27. They say to Wood, you are my father and to stone, you gave me birth. And then you say, okay, you are my father, you gave me birth. Now, some of you are saying, okay, what do you mean if you're not worshiping God, if he's not the center of your life, if he's not the center of your heart, if he's not your greatest joy, if you don't have that kind of intimacy with him why I'm turning to other gods well what do you mean when you think

of idolatry and false gods you usually think of sins see now here's where we're trying to enrich your vocabulary is there anything sinful about wood is there anything sinful about stone no false gods idols are not sins they might lead you to sin but they're not sins they are good things they're created things you see which you have looked at though and you've promoted and you've put them into this place in your life and what do you say to them you made me you define me you are my father see when you look at somebody and say without you baby what good am i you are saying to something probably very very good you are my father you are my savior you are my maker Everywhere we look, we see brokenness, wars, cruelty, and heartache.

We feel it in the world around us and in our own lives. How did it get this way? And what can be done about it? In his brand new book that's releasing this month, What is Wrong with the World? Tim Keller offers a clear and compassionate answer. Drawing from a series of teachings given at Redeemer, Dr. Keller shows how the reality of sin explains the pain we see all around us

and how only the gospel offers lasting freedom and healing. Whether you're overwhelmed by the state of our world, struggling with your own mistakes or choices, or looking for hope and joy, what is wrong with the world will help you see how the gospel speaks to both the heartache of our world and the pain within each of us. This newly released book, What is Wrong with the World, is our thanks for your gift this month

to help Gospel in Life share the good news of Jesus. Request your copy today at gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the rest of today's teaching. That's the first step. The first step is you take something good, wood, stone, something good, not a sin, and you promote it. And you say, you are my father, you are my maker, you are my, without you, I have no definition. That's the first thing.

But then secondly, we see, that leads to addiction. It says, you can't be restrained, see? It says, it's very plaintiff here. Verse 25, do not run until your feet are bare and your throat is dry, says the Lord. Why are you running? Your feet or bare means your shoes have worn through. Your throat is dry. You're dying a third.

You're running through the desert, of course. It's a terrible thing. You should never run in the desert. That's where this is depicted, see. But you said, it's no use. I must. Now, that word must is everything. Anything you have decided.

See, as I said before, if God's not the center of your life, something is, right? It might be work and career and job and achievement. It might be beauty and love and romance. It might be money and possessions and comfort. It might be Adam Smith's invisible hand of the market. It might be Hegel's, you know, the world's spirit, or it might be baseball. It might be football. It might be your music.

I mean, you know, it might be your independence. It might be some incredibly noble cause. Somebody that you're, some cause you're working for against injustice. It could be anything. But when you say, you define me, you're my meaning without you, I don't have meaning. By achieving you, you make me feel I've got worth, otherwise I have no worth. You have to have those things, so you are addicted to them. You've got to have them.

And, you know, the best way to tell whether you're addicted to something, is not, and this is what the text says, not when things are going well, but when you're in trouble. You see the verse 27 and 28? Fastest way to tell is when you're in trouble. See, for example, let's just say, I'm sure this has got to be true some of you. Let's just say you've got a really close friend. And she and you talk to each other a lot. I guess I'm thinking of two women friends right now. Have you ever noticed, for example, you both went through a career disappointment and she was okay with it, and you were kind of devastated. But you've also both been through a romance disappointment, right?

Similar disappointment. And for some strange reason, she was more devastated, and you were okay. What's going on here? I'll tell you what's going on here. See, you're in bed with success. You're spiritually sleeping with it. That's the reason why when it's taken away from you, you can't take it. where she is maybe in bed spiritually with romance.

You see? You see, we're all in bed with something, but the way you can tell is usually when it's taken away. I mean, here's four people at a restaurant, and they're all drinking a glass of wine. One's an alcoholic. How do you find out? How do you find out who's the alcoholic?

How do you find out who's addicted to the wine? Not when they all have the wine, that's not the way to tell, because you see the people who are not addicted are also drinking. The way you tell is take it away from them. take it away and say you can't have anything you see it's the absence of the addictive substance which is really what tells you you're addicted and for most of us the only way we come to realize that we are addicted to lover gods these lover gods that we have a fatal attraction to a lover god to something that we feel like we've got to have is when something goes wrong and you see

there's a terrible challenge here and i thought about this many times you see god comes and says, where then are the gods that you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you when you are in trouble. And of course they can't. It'll be real blunt here. If you build your life around your spouse and she builds your life around you, you know, if you're a man, one of you is going to see the other in a coffin someday. And here's what God is saying. where then will be the gods that you've made for yourself how will they if you build your life on her how can she possibly save you in the moment of greatest need she can't let me give you a very different view but really the same what if you've built your life on the idea that you are a moral decent

person and therefore in a sense your your moral standards your precious moral standards and your sense that i am a good person is really the thing that gives you your meaning and your worth And what happens when you fall? What happens when you lapse? What happens when you blow it? How can the God of moral integrity save you when you've just blown it? Do you see that? This is the reason why your guilt, it will come down on you.

Where then will the gods be? It's when you're in trouble. When your heart is breaking, that you come to realize the things I've built my life on can't possibly save me. That's the addiction cycle. Now, lastly, there is a remarkable program here of restoration. First of all, we see the dynamics of spiritual attraction, the dynamics of spiritual addiction, those things which we promote, we get addicted to, and then those things we're addicted to desert us in our time of greatest need. See?

They're worthless, and in the end, we feel worthless, it says in verse 5. Now, here's the last point. How can we avoid the fatal attractions? How can we do that? How can we get out of bed with the lover God? And you know what? I'm not being discriminatory here at all. Let me just speak to Christian friends. Let me speak to my, let me speak to solid, committed, mature Christians, whoever you are, you know. Who dares to think I'm talking to you now? But anyway, you might. But there are some of you out there.

Let me tell you something. All of your problems come from this. It doesn't matter whether you're a strong Christian, a weak Christian, or a no Christian at all. This is the map of your life, your lover gods. And whenever you feel an inordinate amount of anger or an inordinate amount of fear or an inordinate amount of guilt or even an inordinate amount of boredom, you can always find out why. You can always get to the bottom by asking two questions. Why do I feel like, what is there, you can say this, what is there that I feel like I've just got to have or I'm dead? no meaning, no worth.

What is it that I just feel like I've absolutely got to have? And the second question is, what is more? What is functioning right now? More is my real savior than Jesus Christ. I mean, that's the map of your life. Now, your lover gods. Now, how are you going to deal with them? There's a wonderful program.

There's three things, we're told. Three things. Still have to be kind of brief, but I want you to see them. If you want to overcome these fatal attractions, If you want to get freedom, here's how you do it. The first thing is, personalize your understanding of sin. Read verses 1 to 3. With me?

Or actually just 2 and 3. I remember the Lord says, The devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of his harvest. All who devoured her were held guilty,

and disaster overtook them. Now, here's what I mean by vocabulary. Here's the vocabulary issue. If you understand sin as only breaking the law of God, if that's your basic understanding of sin, here's what you're going to do. You're going to be a scold, a scold, S-C-O-L-D. You're going to scold yourself when you sin,

and you're going to scold others when they sin. You're breaking the law. And the only thing I know about scolding is this. anyone you scold about doing X wants to do more of X than he's ever wanted to do before. Even yourself. You scold your heart and your heart's going to want to do it more. And some of you, that's all you've ever done over the years. You've got these things you want to overcome. You've got these things you want to change. And all you're ever doing is scolding your heart. You're breaking the law of God. This changes our vocabulary. I should say it enriches vocabulary.

Because here's what the text is telling us. Sin is breaking the heart of God. One of the most vivid ways I can put it is like this. Some of you have been through what all the counselors will tell you is the ultimate psychological torture. The worst thing, the most stressful thing that can happen to human being is divorce. You know that, right? Especially when the person that you've given yourself to, you've made yourself vulnerable to them, rejects you, turns away from you. maybe even puts him or herself into somebody else's arms.

Now, that kind of suffering, I think, is probably the worst kind of suffering there is. But even though we do not want to wish this on anybody, that's a terrible thing, and I know there's people in this room who've experienced that. But you know what we're learning here? That's exactly how God feels. If you've been through that kind of marital suffering, you get insight into God. until you understand that that's how God feels about sin, you don't understand sin. Until you understand, look at this language, this honeymoon language.

You know what verses two and three? He is depicting his relationship to us as two lovebirds. In fact, it's almost, it's almost disrespectful. You see, because on the one hand, he depicts us as a young bride who didn't care the fact that she's marrying somebody with no money and they're going to go live in some little hole in the wall somewhere. It doesn't matter. And he's even look at verse three. He's depicting himself as a sort of young man,

and he's just going to deck anybody that even looks cross-eyed at my girl. And you look at this and you say, these two lovebirds, it doesn't matter. Nothing matters but that they have each other. And now, why in the world would God use, in a sense, such an unworthy illustration? Because that's what his heart is like. The Bible is telling us that even though God is utterly holy and utterly majestic and in his being, he does not need us, we're told that God has voluntarily done the exact, here's the other side of the sexual imagery. He's made himself vulnerable to us.

He cares for us. He's bound up his heart with us. He, in a sense, he's given his heart to us. And when we live for anything more than God, we are doing exactly to him. him only far more than what people have gone through when their spouses walked out on them. You're not just breaking his law, you're breaking his heart, you're stabbing him in the heart whenever you don't put him in the center because he's put you in the center of his heart. Do you understand sin like this? Here's why I want you to know this.

For some of us, the reason we've never really been able to change is because all we ever do is scold our heart, but this will melt your heart. You have to look, you have to look down until you see that what God has done is he's given his heart to us. And you know what, since he's infinitely more powerful than we are, infinitely more loving than we are, infinitely more, you know, wise than we are, that must mean he suffers infinitely more than we do too. I mean, I've seen some people, I've had some very close friends who've been through this this kind of rejection, where you've made yourself utterly vulnerable, you've put yourself in the arms of somebody else, and they have rejected you, they've gone somewhere, they've put

themselves in the arms of someone else. It hasn't happened to me, but when I see what other people go through, it's devastating even to care for somebody like that. And yet God says, I'm going through something infinitely greater than the worst experience of that. And if you've been through that, at least you know a little bit about how God sees us. He cares for us. Until you personalize your view of sin, your heart will not be melted. The offeratory when you listen to, it's about this. Melt your heart with a personalize your understanding of sin. Secondly, remember grace. Look at verse 5 and 6. Verse 5 says, this is what the Lord says. What fault did your fathers find in me that they strayed so far from me? Okay? But then

verse six. They did not ask, where is the Lord who brought us up out of Egypt? Let us through the barren wilderness through a land of desert and rifts, a land of drought and darkness, a land where the reason they got into idolatry was that they had spiritually forgotten their salvation. They weren't constantly saying, let me remember what he's done for me. The second way you can deal with lover gods is you have to spiritually make real what Jesus has done for you. There's a place in Lord of the Rings. my favorite novel, where the Hobbit, Pippin, is standing at the gate of the city, and in comes the great witch king, the demon king, and he comes through the gate and he's about

to destroy the city. And all of a sudden, off in the distance, horns. The horns of the cavalry, basically, the horns of the riders of Rohan, and they have come. And even though the king of Rohan rides to his death that day, the city is saved. And we're told that for the rest of his life, Pippin could never hear a horn off in the distance without bursting into tears. Why? Because every time he heard a horn in the distance, it reawakened the memory of his salvation and the memory of the one who died for him. Now, how do you listen to a distant horns? What are your distant horns? The sacrament when you take the Lord's supper. Christian friends coming to worship. But, see, you get into the arms of lover gods.

When you stop saying, where is the Lord who did this and this and this? You need to remember grace. You need to find ways of making it spiritually real to you. You need to find ways of doing that. You can't be passive. Verse 5 happened because verse 6 didn't happen. So first of all, personalize your view of sin. Secondly, remember grace, but then lastly.

Look in the mirror. Verse 32. This is an amazing verse. And Jeremiah couldn't possibly have known what we know. it. Does a maiden forget her jewelry, a bride or wedding ornaments, yet my people have forgotten me days without number? Now, what's the function of your wedding dress, brides? On your wedding day, you want to be perfect, and the fact of the matter is, you're not perfect. On the wedding day, you want to be just the right size, you're not the right size. On the wedding day, you want

to be, you know, flawless. You're not flawless, but there's something about wedding ornaments and wedding dresses and the makeup that has never been an imperfect bride. And that's the reason reason why they're so important. But one thing I've never seen, in all my years of doing weddings, I've never seen a bride get to the top of the aisle and say, I didn't put my makeup on. And everybody says, oh, you're right. Heck no. You know why? Because your bride's always looking in the mirror. I mean, all day you're looking in the mirror. I mean, can you imagine a bride getting to the top of the aisle? I forgot to look in my mirror. I don't have my veil on. Or I don't have this. That doesn't happen. Now, God not only says,

Gosh, God doesn't just say, just as you use your wedding ornaments to hide your physical deformities and make yourself physically perfect looking. So I will give you something that will make you spiritually beautiful and spiritually, he doesn't say I will give you something. What does he say? Does a maiden forget her jewelry? Does a maiden forget her wedding ornaments? yet my people have forgotten me.

Now, he's saying this. Here's my promise. I can make you spiritually perfect and beautiful. The reason you're out there working so doggone hard, the reason you're out there so upset, the reason you want your children to be perfect, the reason you want somebody to love you who's perfect, the reason you're working so hard on your career is you're trying to cover yourself.

You're trying to put their ornaments. You're trying to make yourself spiritually beautiful, spiritually acceptable. And God actually comes so far and says, I'm not just going to give you something that makes you spiritually acceptable. I am that. I can be that for you. And only Jeremiah couldn't have understood what we know. And that is that Jesus Christ did not just come and die to make us forgiven. Jesus Christ came, we're told in Ephesians 5, to present us spotless and radiant, a bride. He came to be perfect for us. He says that John the Baptist today is getting baptized. John the Baptist says,

you don't need to be baptized. You're not sinful. And what does Jesus say? He says, I have to fulfill all righteousness. Of course he's not doing everything perfect for him. He's already perfect. He's living a perfect life for us. So that when we believe in him, his beautiful record is put upon us. And the reason we're going to love our gods is we're trying to convince ourselves we're beautiful, spiritually. And God says, if you look at yourself in the mirror, if you're willing to see what I have done for you, if you understand, how beautiful you are in my sight because of what my son has done for you. You'll be free from these lover gods forever. You know the song that goes like this? You see, I will arise and go to Jesus.

He will embrace me in his arms. In the arms of my dear Savior, oh, there are 10,000 charms. Go learn what that means. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, as we look at this passage for the profound analysis of our souls that it gives us and for the complete program of renovation and restoration it gives us. We thank you that it's possible now for us to have our hearts melted by the knowledge of your love for us, to have our hearts maintained and changed by the remembrance of your great, for us. And most of all, to be completely changed by the knowledge of what your son has not just done for us, but what your son is for us. Lord, these things are very, very, they're

deep, they're wonderful. Some of us have never heard this before, some people here today have never even heard this understanding of Christianity. And we pray, Father, that those of us who have heard it many times before, that through your Holy Spirit it will become active in a way, that it's never been before, and for those of us who have never heard it before, that this is just the beginning, the first step of a journey, and that it will end in your arms. Now, Father, give us, give us what you want to give us. Give us yourself. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching. It's our prayer that you were encouraged by it and that it helps you apply the gospel to your life and share it with others. For more helpful resources from

Tim Keller, visit gospelandlife.com. There, you can subscribe to the Life in the Gospel Quarterly Journal. When you do, you will also receive free articles, sermons, devotionals, and other great gospel-centered resources. Again, it's all at gospelandlife.com. You can also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X. Today's sermon was recorded in 1999. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.