Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Lord of the Storm

Episode Date: October 25, 2024

Some of you are thinking, “The idea of divine judgment is upsetting, outdated, and irrelevant.” My goal is to respectfully show you that you’re absolutely wrong on all three counts.  The story of Noah and the flood is about divine judgment. And if we look at three things being taught in it, we’ll understand the meaning of judgment. And we’ll see what a difference these three things make for our lives. We’re taught here about 1) the violence of man, 2) the pain of God, and 3) the solution to both. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 3, 2000. Series: Genesis – The Gospel According to God. Scripture: Genesis 6:5-13; 7:17-18. 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.

Thanks for listening to Gospel in Life. Today, Tim Keller is preaching through the Book of Genesis, an ancient book that answers many of the foundational questions we all have. Why did God make the world? What is the world for? And how are we supposed to live in it? After you listen, we invite you to go online to GospelinLife.com and sign up for our email updates. Now here's today's teaching from Dr. Keller. Take a look in the bulletin. We'll read the scripture passage together on which the teaching's going to be based tonight. For the first two weeks of Advent, you know, this is the first, the four weeks

before Christmas, the four Sundays before Christmas are traditionally called Advent, we're going to continue to go a little longer on our series on the early chapters of Genesis. We're going to be looking at Noah and the flood this week and next week, and if somebody says, well, that's not very Christmassy, we get to the end. I'll show you that actually, believe it or not, though it may not look like it on the surface, there's a lot of similar messages in this passage as in the very idea of the incarnation and of the birth of Christ. But right now let's read Genesis 6. This is the beginning of the story of Noah and the flood and next week we'll do the ending. Genesis 6, 5 to 13 and then two verses in chapter 7. The Lord saw how great man's wickedness

on the earth had become and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth and his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, I will wipe mankind whom I have created from the face of the earth, men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air, for I am grieved that I had made them. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. The waters rose and

increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water." This is God's word. Well, now the subject is judgment. The subject of the passage is divine judgment. And because I've lived in New York for a long time now, sort of, I know what some of you're thinking. The idea of divine judgment, you say, is upsetting, outdated, and irrelevant to me practically. And my goal tonight is to try to respectfully show you that you're absolutely wrong on all three counts. We actually have three things. Three things are being taught here, and if we look at what is being taught here, and they're all very striking, really, we will understand the meaning

of judgment. And so let's take a look at these three things and then see what difference it makes for our lives. The three things we're taught here are about the violence of man, the pain of God, and the solution to both. The violence of man, the pain of God, and the solution to both. First of all, the violence of man. Now, I'm looking here at verses 11 to 13. Now, the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. God said, I will destroy, I will wipe them off the face of the earth. Now, this is very upsetting to people. When I was looking at Bill Moyer's PBS, his series on Genesis, and I was reading the transcript of the roundtable discussion he had, he led on Genesis, on Noah, on this particular account. These are some of the comments that I pulled

out of the conversation on Noah. Why does God have to destroy everyone just because he's unhappy with the choices we make? In our century we've had so many examples of purges where people say, let's get rid of all the bad people and start again with the good people. I would suggest that this passage is why a lot of people today cannot abide the Bible and cannot come to terms with a God who would do something like this. Now, yeah, I want you to know that if you believe in the doctrine, the teaching, if you believe in the idea of divine judgment, divine vengeance, if you believe in divine judgment, that will create problems for your mind and your heart.

We'll actually touch on some of them as we go along. But I would like you to see that there's something out there, there's something out there, that if you don't believe in divine judgment, creates even a bigger problem. There's a problem if you agree with it and believe it, but there's a bigger problem if you don't. That's actually one of the reasons why I believe it, by the way, right there. And the thing that creates the problem is human violence. In other words, let's put it two ways. This text tells us that the thing that elicits, evokes, in fact in a sense creates divine judgment is human violence. Verse 11, verse 13, that's the thing that brings divine judgment. And

let me put it in another direction. If tonight you don't believe in judgment, if you don't believe that there's a judgment day and there's a God who's going to believe in judgment, if you don't believe that there's a judgment day and there's a God who's going to judge the world, if you don't believe that, if you think it's distressing, primitive, you know, you don't believe it, you have a huge problem with human violence. As a matter of fact, you have three insurmountable problems, and I mean they're insurmountable. Insurmountable problems with human violence. Human violence wins if you don't believe in the doctrine of divine judgment. And here's what those three problems are. You have, if you don't believe in divine judgment, you have no intellectual defense against the

naturalness of violence. You have no emotional defense against the poisonousness of violence. And you have no cultural defense against the endlessness of violence. That's a whole sermon right there, that's my first one, but let's go fast, okay? Number one, first of all, you don't believe in divine judgment? You have a major intellectual problem. You have no intellectual defense against the naturalness of violence. What do I mean by that?

Well, Robert Jarvik, who's the inventor of the artificial heart, was commenting on the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution and the whole idea of human rights. And this is what he says. He says, in reality there are no such things as human rights. They are conventions we agree to abide by. All we know is that we are part of nature and there is no scientific basis whatsoever for thinking that we are part of nature and there is no scientific basis whatsoever for thinking that we are better than all the rest of it. That means we have no more basic rights than viruses other than those that we've created for ourselves through our intellect. Now here's what he's saying. Here's what he's saying. He says you look out there and you see big viruses eating

little viruses. Don't get you upset, does it? Even New York, there's no protest against, you know, oppressive viruses. You see big fishes eating little fishes. But when it comes, you say, that's okay, why? Well, it's natural. Violence is utterly natural. It's natural to nature. But then you say, oh, but when big nations eat small

nations, when big groups eat small groups, that's wrong. And here's what Jarvik wants to know. Why? Unless there's a God, unless there's a judge, unless there's something outside of nature by which to judge nature, how can you say anything that's natural is wrong? On what basis do you say it? How can you say anything in nature is crooked unless there's a straight edge somewhere? In other words, you have to believe in the supernatural. You have to believe in the supernatural to even complain about violence. And Nietzsche had it absolutely right. Literally right. Nietzsche says if there is no God, all

moral outrage, all moral outrage against violence is really a power play. You say, what? Oh yeah. Nici says, if there is no God, there can be nothing wrong with violence. There's nothing unnatural about violence. And if you are morally outraged against violence, what, you're really a weak person and you're doing a power play against somebody who's stronger.

You're doing a power play against them. You're keeping them away from them. They could take you out. but your moral outrage is your way of putting them in their place. And Nietzsche says, if there is no God, there is nothing wrong with violence and all moral outrage is a power play, including moral outrage against power plays. Think that one out. I just threw that one in there for some of you. Some of you won't hear the rest of the sermon. You'll be sitting. I'm trying to work that out. Now, but Nietzsche's are absolutely right.

If there is no such thing as a divine judge, there is no intellectual defense against the naturalness of violence. Secondly, there is no emotional defense against the poisonousness of violence. Now, I'm talking very personally. For every one act of physical violence, there are thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of acts of emotional violence. Characters are assassinated. Hopes

are killed. Dreams are killed. Relationships are killed. Self-images are killed. I mean, the world is filled with violence. And when you are wronged, when someone does it to you, what are you going to do? You're going to be angry. You're going to have to be angry. You're going to be bitterly angry and your life will be completely poisoned by that. And what are you going to do? Now, I know what people say. They say, well, yeah, that's right.

I mean, who's going to deny that when people wrong you, your anger poisons your life? Who's going to deny that? You say, well, in that case, forgive. You should forgive. You need to forgive. Anger doesn't solve anything. Bitterness just poisons your life.

Just forgive. I want you to know that if you can just forgive like that, if you can forgive what somebody has done to you with a simple act of the will, like that, because, hey, you know, it's not good for anybody, you have not really been violated. If you can forgive somebody, something that they did, with a simple act of the will, they haven't actually touched your treasures. They haven't really gone after you. They haven't really violated you.

I know, as a person, as a counselor, as a pastor, as a friend, as a husband, as a father, there is absolutely only, from what I can tell, one emotional defense to the poisonous of violence. And that is you've got to believe that there is a judge and you're not the judge. In other words, it has to go like this. You have to say, I'm not a judge. I'm not the judge. In other words, it has to go like this. You have to say, I'm not a judge. I'm not the one. I can't be the judge because I don't have the power to give people what they deserve, but there's one who does. And I don't have the knowledge to know what they deserve. I think I know what they deserve, but I don't have the knowledge to know what they deserve. But there's one who does. And I also can't be the judge because I don't have the right to give people what

they deserve because I deserve something, I'm flawed. But there's one who does. And only if you know that there is a judge, you don't have the power, you don't have the knowledge, you don't have the right, but there's one who does. Only if you know that, are you going to be able to forgive. You're going to be able to limit your anger. You're going to have any kind of emotional defense against the poisonous violence. And let me, just an extension of this, but it's an important extension, it's sort of an extension of what I just said. That's not just true emotionally on the individual level,

it's also true culturally on the social and corporate level. There is a Croatian theologian, Croatian philosopher theologian, a Christian man, who teaches at Yale now, who put forth a thesis a few years ago that has been very, very striking, and yet nobody's been able to refute it. Listen to this. Here's a single line. He says, violence, now don't forget, he's from the Balkans, all right? Violence thrives today secretly nourished by the belief that God refuses to take up the sword. Violence flourishes today secretly nourished by the belief that God refuses to take up the sword. And listen, my thesis that the practice of nonviolence requires a belief

in divine vengeance will not be popular in the United States, but it will take the quiet of a suburb for the birth of the thesis that human nonviolence can result from belief in an all-living God that refuses to judge. And you know what he's saying? He says, if you think, and I think the average New York? He says, if you think, and I think the average New Yorker believes this, if you think that believing in a God of vengeance leads to war and strife, he says you haven't, you're living a comfortable little life, you have not really experienced violence, because he says I'll tell you what happens. If you've actually experienced violence, if your house has been burned down, if your family members have been killed or raped,

he says you will pick up the sword. You will pick up the sword and you will be sucked into the endlessness of violence, which you can see, the endless cycles of violence that in certain parts of the world, you know, that it's just gone on for centuries. He says you will pick up the sword unless you believe deep deep deep deep inside that God will do it. He says, you will pick up the sword unless you believe deep, deep, deep, deep inside that God will do it. Unless you believe that vengeance is God, saith the Lord, and unless you believe that he will do something about it, he says there's nothing less than that will break the cycle.

Now you see what he's saying? You see what we're saying? You see what I'm saying. What I'm saying is, this text tells us that the reason God's a judge is because of human violence and if you get rid of the idea of judgment, you get rid of the idea of a divine judge, you have absolutely no way to deal with human violence intellectually, emotionally, or culturally. There's no hope, no hope at all.

And therefore we see the necessity of judgment. You just can't say, well, this is outdated. Is violence outdated? I don't think so. So the first thing we learn here is the necessity of judgment as we look at the violence of man. But then secondly, now, we also see the problem of judgment. Now listen carefully.

Is there anybody in this room who says, look, I just hate this idea, it just makes my skin crawl to hear people talk about wiping people out and God judging and smiting people and cutting them down. Here's what I want to tell you. Do you find it emotionally unbearable to think about God's judgment? The idea of divine vengeance, is it something that hurts you? Is it something that you emotionally can't bear? Well, what am I going to tell you? Am I going to say, well, tough. I'm a minister. I know. Am I going to say that? No. You know why I'm not going to say that? Here's why.

There is nothing wrong with your heart if it recoils at the idea. There's nothing wrong with your heart if it's filled with distress at the idea, because there's somebody else, a very surprising somebody else, who actually experiences considerably more distress than you do at the thought of divine judgment. In fact, your distaste and your recoiling and your disgust and your distress is nothing compared to his. Isn't this interesting? See, look at verse 5. What do you see in verse 5?

The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become. This is a terrible verse. Look at, so here's a judge and he's evaluating and look what it says. Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. Look at the language. Every, only, all. Nobody passes. So, what do you expect in verse 6? Not what you get. Verse 5 shows the necessity of judgment, but verse 6 shows us the problem of judgment because

what does God do when he sees what has to be done? What is his response? His heart was filled with pain. You're upset about divine judgment? God's more upset. You can't stand, you want to vomit when you think about it? God's more upset. His heart was filled. Not just a little part of his heart. He had a little bit of pain. He had a... No! Filled with pain. What a statement! How in the world could this be? And here's the answer.

This word, by the way, which means deeply... Deep, unfulfilled longing. This word, pain, unfulfilled longing. This word pain is a specific word, for example, in Isaiah 54 verse six, where God says, you were a wife, married young, only to be deserted, and your spirit was filled with pain. You know, a therapist will tell you that to be deserted by your spouse

is the most shattering, most traumatic thing you can go through and hear God has the audacity. I hear the text writer here has the audacity to say that's the kind of pain God felt. The actual word, and I did a lot of looking at this thing because it was sort of a new word on me, but it's a very odd word to be used of God very odd because it ordinarily means unfulfilled longing bitter anguish deepest frustration and What does this mean here's what it means it means that God Voluntarily bound his heart up in his life up with us. He didn't have to he's God

He didn't create us out of need if he couldn't have created us if he was so powerful. If he was so... pardon me, if his power was such that he needed us, he wouldn't have had the power to do what he did. He built the world and the stars. So he didn't need us. But once he made us, he knit his heart to us. He voluntarily bound his heart to us so that his own joy must be so deeply tied to us that when he sees something going wrong with our lives, he experiences pain, not just sadness, not just, oh, what a shame. Pain, the deepest pain possible, the most shattering pain possible. Isaiah 49 verse 15, that famous place where God says,

can a woman forget the baby nursing at her breast, yea, she may forget, but I will not forget you. Remember, we referred to this earlier in the fall, but think about this. Think of the audacity of God to evoke such an image. Here is the image of a woman looking down at the baby nursing at her breast. The image of a woman who has experiences enormous, overwhelming physical and emotional love for

the child as her milk is coming in and God has the audacity not just to evoke that but to say, that's nothing compared to what I feel for you. Most people think Christianity is either incredibly inclusive or unbelievably exclusive. But the fact is, Christianity is both radically inclusive and radically exclusive. How can this be? In his short book, The Gospel on the Move,

How the Cross Transcends Cultural Differences, Tim Keller shows us how we can make sense of this apparent paradox. Through the New Testament story of Philip and the Ethiopian, we learn how the gospel allows us to humbly critique our own cultural biases while becoming a united people of God. This month we have an exclusive resource only available through Gospel in Life that we want you to share. When you give to Gospel in Life in October,

we'll send you three copies of Dr. Keller's short book, The Gospel on the Move, as our thanks for your gift. This short book is a great way to present the gospel to a friend or loved one. We hope you'll prayerfully consider who you could give each copy to and that it helps you live more missionally. To receive your three copies of this short book, just visit gospelinlife.com slash give. That's gospelinlife.com slash give. That's GospelInLife.com slash give. And thank you for your generosity, which helps us reach more people with the gospel.

Now what does this mean? It means two things. Three things. I'll give you three incredible implications. The first thing is here you have the meaning of history. Nicholas Wolderstorf, a philosopher at Yale University, says the tears of God are the meaning of history. And when I first thought heard that I said oh yeah that's sort of poetic whatever that means who knows and now I suddenly

realized in this passage this is what it means. God tied his heart to us and in the garden we said, we don't want you, we don't trust you and turned away. That's chapter three verse seven. Why is there a chapter three verse eight? Why didn't history just come right down? Why didn't history come down right there? Why didn't it stop? That's what Wills Stouffe is trying to say.

Why are you and I here? Why has there been any human history at all? Why are we here tonight? It's simple. The answer is because God decided to weep. Because God decided to stay vulnerable. Because God decided to suffer. What do you see in chapter 6 verse 5? God's suffering for the sins of the world. And six, excuse me. God's suffering for the sins of the world. And six, excuse me. God's suffering for the sins of the world. And the only reason there's any history, and that's why Woldestorf can say the meaning of history,

the tears of God are the meaning of history. The only reason that there is a history is because God was willing to suffer. And, this is what Woldestorf actually says in his book Lament for a Son, which he wrote after his 20-year-old son died. He says, the tears of God are the meaning of history. If you don't see God suffering for our sin, you don't know what history is all about. First, the history of the world is the history of our suffering together.

Every act of evil pulls tears from God. But, second, the history of the world is also the history of our deliverance together. For when God's cup of suffering is absolutely full and over, our world's redemption will be fulfilled." Now, what is he saying? Here's what he's saying. What does God actually do? Does he just judge everybody?

No. He takes his judgment. We've seen the violence of man and we've seen the pain of God, but we have a solution for both. What's the solution for both? How can God be a judge and yet a lover? See? How can God be absolutely against injustice and yet still be totally engaged? How can God be a God of truth and love? If he's just a God of truth, he's not going to suffer, right? He just smites people. If he's just a God of love and accepts and tolerates everybody, he's, you know, he's just going to accept people. But if he's a God of truth and love, if he's a God of holiness and absolute compassion,

he suffers. It's the nature of God. When God saw what Adam and Eve did, when God saw what we did, he knew because of who he was, he was going to suffer more deeply than anybody else. And yet he let history go on. I have people all the time ask me this question. They come up and they say, why, if God knew the evil that was going to happen and the suffering that was going to happen, why in the world did he let it go on? Why did he ever invent us? Why did he let the world go on?

If he knew this was going to happen, why did he do it? Have you ever asked that question? Of course. And here's what I know. Whenever you ask that question you're thinking if you're evil and suffering. Right? You're thinking of your friends or people you know. And you say, I don't see what good reason God could possibly have. Well, here's the answer. I don't know what good reason God has either, but it must be a pretty good one because you see, he is suffering. See, that's how we know he has to have a good reason. To let history go on

costs him infinite suffering and therefore, I don't know what the reason is but it better be a good one, it's got to be a good one. Just because you and I can't think of it doesn't mean it can't exist, right? And people all the time say, basically people say, I reject the idea of a God who's good because if God was good he never would have let these things happen. He never would have let history go on the way it did. Therefore I… You know what that here… Can I tell you what the reasoning is?

Is anybody here like that tonight? Let me tell you what your… Let me tell you your logic of your heart. Your saying is, because I can't think of a good reason why God would let this go on, therefore there can't be one. By the way, that's a logical fallacy. Because I can't think of one, therefore there can't be one? There's a whole lot of times in your life that you have not been able to think of something that was really there.

Have you ever been wrong before? Yes. So how could you say, I couldn't be wrong about this? I can't think of any reason why God would let it go on. There can't be a good reason, because I can't think of it. Of course, that's a logical fallacy, but here I'm trying to show you it's not just a logical fallacy. It's a personal fallacy because God himself has let history go on, though it's going to cost him infinite evil and suffering. I have no idea what is on the

other side of the evil and suffering of history, but it must be worth it. Because God could have stopped it, and he didn't. God could have stopped his own suffering, and he didn't. And on it goes. Now, what's the solution? Do you see we have a problem here? We've got an infinitely holy God, an infinitely loving God, and what's the solution? And the answer is, the flood points to it. Now let me show you what I mean. First of all, the flood is the pattern for the solution, but it's not the solution. The pattern for the solution is this.

What is the flood? Is the flood simply a judgment? No. The flood is salvation through judgment. Not salvation in spite of judgment, not salvation and judgment. Not half salvation and half judgment. It's salvation through judgment. What do I mean? Well, if you look carefully you'll see he puts Noah and his family in an ark. And in comes the waters of judgment.

And they do two things. First of all, they give the world a fresh start. The meaning of judgment. And they do two things. First of all, they give the world a fresh start. The meaning of the flood is on the one hand judgment on human violence. It stops the human violence. It had gotten to the place where it, you notice, verse 11, 12 and 13, there's actually an irony in there that does not come out because the translators don't give it to you. You know where it says they corrupted themselves and they were corrupt? It's the word destroyed. And you know where the word where God says, I'm going to destroy them? It's the same Hebrew word.

What he's really saying is, I'm going to destroy the self-destroyed. I'm going to stop the destruction is what he's saying. I'm going to destroy, but what I'm going to destroy is the destruction of the earth. Not the earth, actually. You know, you miss the irony and the paradox of it because of the translation. So what God is doing in judgment is he's judging violence, yes, but at the same time he's saving the world. He's giving it, he's redeeming the world. He's giving the human race a second chance. And most interestingly, Noah comes along and God says to Noah, Noah, build an ark. Trust me. And he

builds an ark. Takes years to do it. He trusts the word of God. He trusts the promise of God. Nobody else does. Everybody else lasts. And as a result, along comes the water. And the same water that sinks everybody else who didn't believe in the word of God actually lifts Noah up. You see that? For 40 days the flood kept coming on the earth. As the waters increased, what did they do? See, as the waters increased they pressed down and crushed everybody else, but the same waters that crushed people who didn't believe in the promise of God lifted up the people who did. The judgment saved them. Now the interesting thing though about this is

just how effective was the flood as a pattern. It was a pattern of not grace in spite of judgment but grace through it. The judgment was the grace. The judgment cleansed. The judgment saved. And the question is, I mean, how good did it do and not very good? If you read the rest and we won't actually get to it, if you read the chapter nine and 10, you'll realize that almost the first thing that Noah does when he gets out of the ark is he gets drunk and screws up his family royally.

And here's the reason why. My wife, years ago, wrote a Sunday school curriculum for fourth, fifth, and sixth graders, and when she came to this particular chapter, she had a great question. And let's do it, right? She had a great lesson. You want to just do it with me for a second? You want to do it? Okay, class? Okay. What went into the ark with Noah? Class? Animals, right? Okay, good. What else went into the ark with Noah? Family, good. What else went into the ark with Noah? See, this is the third time I preach this today

and somebody snitched. But usually in this lesson everybody says, gee, I don't know, I don't know. And the answer of course is sin went into the ark with Noah. And as a result, as a result, what is God actually showing us in the flood? On the one hand, he's showing us the pattern of how he's going to solve the problem of his own pain and the problem of human violence.

He's showing us the pattern, but he's also showing us the inadequacy of anything like this. You know what's interesting is you could look at it this way. From a liberal point of view, this is the ultimate, ultimate effort in social engineering. And it didn't work. From a conservative point of view, this is the ultimate effort to have traditional values. You know, you could say, look, let's get rid of all the bad people, all the bad people, just take them away, throw them out, and only virtuous, good, moral people, and we start over with them. It didn't work. It didn't work. It retarded the growth of violence, but it didn't wipe it out

at all. So what is the flood pointing to? It's pointing to something else, and here's what it's pointing to. When Jonah was in the boat and a terrible storm came up, Jonah said, there's only one way for you to be saved if I drown. You throw me down and you'll be saved. And he was thrown into the water and when he was down in the water he said, he cried out, remember in the belly of the fish, and he says to the Lord, all my waves and my billows have gone over me, I am cast out of thy sight. Jesus Christ comes along and in Matthew 12 says,

a greater than Jonah is here. What was he talking about? Well here's what he's talking about. He says, what he's really saying is, there is a greater storm coming and I'm going to be at the bottom of it and I'm going to be crushed by it and I'm going to be saying, Father, all thy waves and thy billows have gone over me and I am cast out of thy sight. And it's going to be an ocean of wrath, it's going to be an ocean of justice, it's going to be, what's going to come down on me is everything that the human race deserves for all of that human violence. And he says, my sinking will be your salvation if you believe in me. You see,

here in Genesis 6, we see God's heart breaking, but on the cross we see his heart broken completely through. When they spear him out comes water and blood. Why? Why is water and blood? Because his heart literally broke. Here we see God beginning to suffer for sin, but on the cross we see the ultimate example because on the cross we see truth and love utterly satisfied.

On the cross, Jesus had to die. That's how committed to truth God was. He had to die. But he was willing to die. That's how committed to love God was. And therefore, on the cross, what have you got? Through his judgment, we're saved. Through his sinking, the same wrath, the same judgment that sank Jesus can lift you up if you get into him.

If you climb on in, then all the waves and all the billows and all the lashing and all the lightning then all the thunder then all the waves are slapping against him. He takes it. You're in him. And that means there now is no more judgment for you. There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And if you believe that, and you see him suffering on the cross for you, what does that do? Here's what it does. Number one, here's, I'm going to give you four things. If you believe what I just told you, if you believe in divine judgment, but you also believe in the pain of God, you don't just believe in a divine judge, but a judge who is so emotionally engaged with us that

he would come and take the judgment himself and save us through judgment on his son. If you believe that, four things you need to, it'll change your life in four ways. Number one, and by the way this is a Christmas theme, the flood narrative tells us that this world, this world is important. What is the flood about? The flood is God's commitment to creation. The flood is God's commitment to creation. The flood is God's commitment to the earth, to the animals. That's why they were in the ark. It's God's commitment to the physical world. He loves this world.

Anything that goes wrong with it fills his heart with pain. Injustice fills his heart with pain. Violence fills his heart with pain. Oppression fills his heart with pain. Every other, the trajectory of all other religions' salvation, I hope I'm fair in saying this, is outward. In other words, if you look at karma and the cycles of reincarnation of Hinduism, you look at Buddhism that says you have to see that this physical world is unreal, you look at Islam and you see the future is an esoteric non-physical paradise, the trajectory of all other salvations is, we're going to get you out of here. We're going to escape the earth into heaven, or into the

divine. The trajectory of Christianity, Christian salvation, is exactly the opposite. Heaven's coming here. God's coming in. That's what the incarnation's all about. God gets involved. That's what the incarnation's all about. God is involved. God is committed. God is enmeshed in this creation. Therefore, the first thing is this. This is what Woldestorf says and this is an amazing thing, I think. Nicholas Woldestorf says, God's work to release us from suffering is his work on the cross. Our work to deliver him from suffering is our struggle for joy and justice. Until justice and peace embrace, God's dance of joy is delayed. The bells for the feast of divine joy are the bells for the shalom of the world.

What? You know what he's saying? He says, when you see Jesus Christ on the cross, what was he doing up there? He was trying to deal with our suffering. He's trying to get rid of our condemnation. Now what are you going to do for God's sorrow? You say, what do you mean for God's sorrow? What causes God's sorrow? Evil, injustice, brokenness. And here's what Waldersdorf says is, to work for justice in this world,

to work for healing, to heal people psychologically and physically and socially and spiritually in every way, is helping God with his pain. I mean, if God would go to all the effort he went to, to deal with the pain in your heart, why can't you go to some effort to deal with the pain in his heart? So the first thing we learn is get involved with the world. Get involved against injustice. Get involved to heal people physically, psychologically, and socially. This world matters. Don't just say, well, I'm hoping that someday if I live a good life, you know, I'll just get inner peace and eventually go off to heaven somewhere.

That's not what Christian salvation is all about. This world matters. That's the first thing. Secondly, I'll be brief about this. If you live a life of truth but about this, if you live a life of truth but not love, if you're a condemning person, if you like to put people down, tell them what's wrong with them, you won't experience a whole lot of pain in relationships. You just tell people off and the only people that are like you will be your friends. So if you're a truther without love, not much pain, if you're a lover without truth, if you just nod and you're happy to everybody and you never tell anybody anything's wrong and you never contradict them and you never confront them and you never...

You won't have much pain in your life. But to the degree you're like God, to the degree you're like Jesus, to the degree that you're committed to both truth and love, you'll be suffering. You'll have pain in your heart. If you want to tell people the truth, if you want the people to see the truth and yet never give up on them, always stay committed to them, love them and care for them no matter what, not condemn them but constantly try to show them the truth, Christians ought to be people who are deeply involved in the sorrows of people. We're not afraid of it. We're walking. We mustn't shrink from it. Jesus didn't shrink from it. Do not be a truth-or-without lover or a lover-without-truth to avoid the pain that comes to do both. Okay? So be involved with truth and love and don't shrink from the pain that comes from it. Jesus didn't shrink What if he had shrunk away from the pain was involved in helping you? Number three the first thing is this world matters and number number one number two be involved in people don't shrink

From the from the pain that comes from being involved people's lives and truth and love number three When floods and troubles come into your life Even if you're a Christian you still need to get into the ark. If you don't get into the ark of the gospel, if you don't remember what Jesus has done for you, if you don't really think about what he's done for you, if you don't live as if the judgment is in the past, when problems come into your life, it's just going to crush you. You're going to feel guilty, you're going to be in despair, you're going to be bitter against the world or people or God. Every time a problem comes into your life, it's either going to make you a better person or a worse person than you were before. You know that? It's like

a flood. It's going to either sink you down and crush you under the water pressure, or it's going to lift you up, depending on to what degree you're in the gospel. You're thinking about the gospel. You're filled with knowledge of what he's done for you. If there's a flood coming right now, get into the gospel and then you'll know the truth of these words, which it's a pretty famous hymn, though we're not singing it tonight. When through the deep waters I call thee to go, the rivers of sorrow will not thee overflow, for I will be near thee thy troubles to bless and sanctify to thee thy deepest distress." Lastly, live as if the flood is over.

Live as if the judgment is over, because it is if you're a Christian. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus unless you believe that. When people criticize you, you will lash out in violence. Unless you know you're okay in him. Or when you fail, you'll lash inward in violence. You'll beat yourself up. You won't be able to handle criticism without violence. You won't be able to handle failure without internal violence. Unless you live as if you're in him and the judgment's passed and there is no condemnation. Okay?

The violence of man, the pain of God, and the solution to both. Let's pray. We're grateful to you tonight, Father, that you've given us so much vulnerability. And because you're vulnerable to us, because you have given so much to us, we were able to face the world with confidence. But we really want to admit, Father, that we are, we're afraid to walk your son's path, keeping truth and love together in our relationships. We find ourselves sinking when the troubles come in instead of being raised up, and we have a lot of trouble living as if the judgment day is past.

We pray, Father, that the Holy Spirit tonight, through these words, through this passage, through our singing tonight, will bring this home to our hearts with such spiritual reality that we will be able to live in the newness of life that comes from people who understand this in Christ. It's in His name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel in Life podcast. If you found today's teaching helpful and something you'd like more people to hear, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel in Life monthly partner. Your partnership helps more people discover the hope and joy of Christ's love.

Just visit Gospelinlife.com slash partner to learn more. Today's sermon was recorded in 2000. 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.