Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Overcoming the World

Episode Date: October 30, 2023

We all want peace, contentment, groundedness. And Jesus says, he will give us his peace. But he doesn’t just zap us with it. He says it comes through learning who he is. John 16 is the end of the training course Jesus gives his disciples. It’s just before he dies, and verse 28 summarizes everything he’s been saying: he explains who he is, how he came, why he came, and what he accomplished. But the key to this whole thing is in verse 33 where he says, “I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”  Jesus has been teaching about himself. And he says this doctrine leads to peace, but only if you do two things. So let’s look at this under two headings: 1) what is this doctrine that you need in order to have peace? and 2) what are you supposed to do with it? This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 9, 2017. Series: Jesus, Mission, and Glory: New Power. Scripture: John 16:28-33. 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. This month we're looking at directional signposts through history that point us to Christ. All through the Old Testament from Genesis to Jonah, you see signs that point us to Jesus. Listen now to today's teaching from Tim Keller on pointers to Christ. Tonight's scripture reading is taking from the Gospel of John,

chapter 16, verses 28 through 33. I came from the Father and entered the world. Now I'm leaving the world and going back to the Father. Then Jesus' disciples said, now you are speaking clearly and without figures of speech. Now we can see that you know all things and that you do not even need to have anyone ask you questions. This makes us believe that you came from God. Do you now believe, Jesus replied, a time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone, yet I am not alone for my father is with me.

I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart. I have overcome the world, the Word of the Lord. Thanks for your time. So this is actually the end of Jesus' training course that he gives to his disciples the very first. We've said each week that from chapter 13 to 16, Jesus is teaching his disciples just before he dies. And chapter 17, we're going to look at after the Easter season. But chapter 17 is actually a prayer, so where Jesus is praying to his father.

So this is actually the first, this is the end, the conclusion. I keep wanting to say first. This is the last, this is the end of his teaching. And he's summarizing things. In fact, we're going to show you in a minute that first 28, in some ways, is a summary of everything he's been saying. First set 28 explains who he is, how he came, why he came, and what he accomplished. It's all there.

But the key to this whole thing, the very end of the end of the end, is in verse 33, where he says, I've told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble to take heart, I've told you these things so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble but take heart. I have overcome the world. Notice he is saying that I've told you these things. That's the doctrine about Jesus. He came from the Father, entered the world, leaving the world. He's been teaching him about himself. The doctrine leads to peace. But only if you do two things, one of which is take heart when you have trouble in the world. So there's the doctrine that leads to peace, but only if you do certain things with it.

So let's break down what we're going to learn from this passage in under two headings and open those two headings up. One is there is no peace without doctrine. But then secondly, there is no peace unless you do something with the doctrine. See, we all want peace. We all want contentment, we want confidence, we want inward quiet, poise, we want groundedness, we want peace. And Jesus says, we want groundedness, we want peace. And Jesus says, I'm gonna give you my peace, but he doesn't just zap you with it.

It's through learning these things. He says, I've told you these things. It's all his teaching about himself, summarized in verse 28. He says, I don't just give you peace. You have to believe these things, and then you have to do something with them that in times of trouble, you have to take heart,

we'll open that up. So let's first of all say, what is this doctrine that you have to have in order to have peace? And then what are you supposed to do with it? What is it? What are we doing? So first of all, what is it?

Okay, I keep telling you, 28 is remarkable. And actually it's a problem for me, not for you. Because verse 28 sums up everything. It sums up where, who Jesus is and how He came and what He came to do and what it affected. And it's basically a summary of everything He's been saying, not only in John 13 to 16, but it's actually a summary of everything in the Bible. Okay, so you want to cover that? How much time should I take to give you everything in the Bible? Yeah, we can either take two weeks or two minutes,

and so let's get closer to two minutes, won't be two minutes. But look at these four things. I came from the Father, that's Jesus saying that I am not just a regular human being. I'm not just born, I came into the world. I existed before. Then he says, and I entered the world, so I'm incarnate.

So I'm a divine person who has come into the world through the incarnation. I've become a real human being. I'm leaving the world now, and of course, as you know, if you've been coming, every time he talks about leaving the world, departing, he's talking about his death. So you see, he says, here he's talking about his pre-existence as a divine being. In John chapter 17, we're going to see where he says that he shared divine glory with the Father from alternatively. So he's a divine being, but then he's entered the world and became a human being.

And now I'm leaving the world, I'm going to the cross, and then I will ascend to the Father where I will be your advocate. It's everything. Let's just take a moment for a second. The four things. One is, he says, I came from the Father. He's claiming here to be God. And Alexander McLaren, who was a Baptist minister in Manchester, England 150 years ago, he writes this.

I know this sounds like the sort of thing you've heard other people say, but he said it first. He says, nothing is more plain than that over and over again again Jesus reiterated this tremendous claim to have dwelt in the bosom of the Father long before He lay on the breasts of Mary. If we know anything about Jesus Christ, we know that. And if we cannot believe that He thus spoke, we know nothing about Him on which we can rely. I leave with you as a plain fact that the meekest, lolliest, most sane and wise of all religious teachers deliberately and repeatedly made this claim to be God, which is either absolutely true and lifts him into the region of deity or is fatal to any pretentions to be either meek or modest, wise or sane, or religious

teacher to whom it is worth our wild to listen. It's all or nothing, McLaren says, and he's right. Because Jesus, you can't take Jesus as just a nice guy or a teacher of love. Because he claimed to be God so often, I came from the Father, I shared glory with the Father. He claimed it so often that either he is who he said he is or you shouldn't have anything to do with him. But most of all, Jesus is saying,

if you want my peace, you have to believe these things. And one of these things is His claims to be God. So if you're a typical New Yorker, I think you kind of, okay, Jesus is like, you know, He's a good teaching and things like that, but I don't know if I want to get into all that doctrine about his pre-existence and being divine. Well, you have to, or you have no integrity if you invoke his name, if you invoke his example, if you follow him, but you don't take this seriously. He claims to be God.

And he says, unless you accept this claim, you can't have my peace. But then the second thing, he says, I entered the world, which means, even though he was God, he became a human being. Dorothy Sayers was a fiction writer who wrote novels, detective novels, and she invented a character named Lord Peter Wimsey.

Maybe you've read or seen some of them. And about halfway through the novels is if suddenly a love interest shows up, Harriet Vane. It's actually very interesting. Dorothy Sayers wrote detective novels, Harriet Vane. It's actually very interesting. Dorothy Sayers was, wrote detective novels, Harriet Vane, in the novels, right detective novels. Dorothy Sayers was one of the first women to ever graduate from Oxford. Harriet Vane, the character Harriet Vane in the novels, is one of the first women who ever graduated from Oxford. And a lot of people who studied Dorothy Sayers' literature actually believe that what she did

was she looked into the world she created and she looked at this character she created and she saw him being very lonely and she fell in love with him and she wrote herself in to the world and saved him. I'm here to tell you that's exactly, almost, exactly, what God has done. See, he's looked into the world. He sees us. We created. He created us. And he created us, but he loves us. And he sees us flailing and sinking. So he writes himself into save us, thinking so he writes himself into Savus just like Dorothy Sayers did. Now as lovely as that is, I want you to see how important it is to the third thing. He is the divine Son of God.

I came from the Father. B, he's the incarnate human being. I entered the world. C, now I'm leaving the world and going back to the father. Now, when he says, I'm leaving the world, he's actually saying, I'm going to the cross. By the way, two things to tell you. Well, there's, let me, one thing to tell you. Notice what I've always liked about this is when he says, I'm leaving the world, I'm departing.

It's all, he's very much in control. He doesn't say somebody's gonna grab me and drag me away and kill me. Well, they will. But you see, when he says, I am leaving, it's his way of saying, this is something I've chosen to do. This is something fully voluntary. If you

were here when we're going through John chapter 15, what Jesus is claiming to be the good shepherd, you know, where he says, I lay down my life for my sheep and he says, no man takes my life from me. I freely lay my life down. Remember that? He is not under any obligation. He doesn't have to do this. So when he says, I freely lay down my life, that's love. It's so voluntary. There was an old teacher of theology, John Murray, who, when he would teach on John 15 or this passage, when he would stress how voluntary was Jesus' love for us. And there's a place where, some place where John Murray says, when Jesus says that I, no one takes my life from me,

I freely lay it down for my friends. I love you. It, Murray says, it's almost like Jesus Christ took his soul in one hand and his body in the other and tore himself apart. No one did this to me. I know this was the only way to save you and I'm doing it freely. So I came from the Father, I entered the world, now I'm leaving the world, I'm not being dragged, I'm leaving the world, and finally I'm going

back to the Father. Now when he says I'm going back to the Father, it's not just talking about a change in location, as you know, we've talked about it before, he ascending. He dies on the cross, he pays for our sins, And because he pays for our sins, he's raised from the dead and he is sins and he's seated at the right hand of God. And also, the Bible says he stands as our high priest or our advocate. Now we've talked about this before. In fact, we had a whole sermon talking about Jesus as our advocate. But you know what?

You may not have been here then, and besides that, it's an important part of this passage, so we have to at least recap it. What is that talking about? The Bible says that when you believe in Jesus Christ, he stands before the Father as your advocate. It's a metaphor, but it's getting across the idea that even though you are in yourself unacceptable to God,

because of your sins and flaws, unacceptable to a holy and just God, in Jesus Christ, he only sees Jesus when he sees you. He doesn't see your flaws. He doesn't see your record, amazing. I read years ago, and it was like 25 years ago, I saw an article in the New York Times about something interesting, it was happening on Long Island.

About 25 years ago, they were really starting the municipalities were beginning to really jack up the property taxes out there. And people were getting socked with these huge property tax bills. And everybody was in an outrage, but when they tried to look at the tax code, the tax, you know, anything about this,

in New York state, especially in places like Long Island, the tax code is so complicated that nobody could figure it out enough to, you know, everybody said, I'm just too stupid, I'm not smart enough to understand the tax code, so I can't raise, you know, an appeal or a claim or a complaint. The tax code was beyond everybody. I'm just too stupid to understand the tax code. I just know I'm doing something wrong. One guy got really upset. And he said, I'm going to master the tax code. And so what he did was he studied for weeks and weeks

and months and months, and he finally mastered the tax code. And he came to the conclusion that the municipalities were actually jacking up the prices too much. Jacking up the tax too much. So he began to represent people in court, who went to court against the municipalities, and he won case after case,

the reason why I was in the New York Times was the municipalities were very upset with this guy. Why? Because he was smart enough, he made himself smart enough, everybody else was stupid when it came to the tax code. Where all the rest of us are dumb, but he was smart enough that he would represent them in court and he hears the interesting thing.

You might say even though they were dumb in themselves, but in their advocate, they were smart. They were smart in him. They were smart enough to win the case. Now this is an imperfect analogy because when God sees you in Jesus Christ, He doesn't just see you as smart. So a lot of us need that too. He sees you as beautiful.

I mean, morally, what does Jesus Christ look like to the Father who has perfect eyesight and can perceive all things? Think about Jesus' goodness, his heroism, his commitment, his holiness, his glory, his wisdom, his love. What does he look like to the Father? He must look like an absolute moral beauty. And the Bible says, you believe in him, that's what you look like, because God sees you in Him.

It's just a way, it's a metaphor, but it's a gorgeous metaphor. It's a way of saying that because of the cross, because Jesus died for you. Now, you're not just given a kind of like, okay, a pass. You are actively loved by God. You're not just forgiven. You're not just pardoned. That would be great enough. Look, there's nothing better than to be

respected by somebody respect. When I was a young minister and somebody I idolized said, oh, that was a good sermon. When someone you respect, respect you. Wow. When someone you love loves you, that's even better. When someone you adore adores you, but see this goes beyond all that. Now, look, we have to move on. It's not enough just to believe this doctrine. But you see why the doctrine is important. There was an article in the New York Times magazine today called Why Can't Silicon Valley Fix Our Online Harassment. It's actually a very good article.

Kind of a scary article, but it's also nothing that probably anybody who's ever goes online is surprised at. That is social media has developed basically online harassment is going higher and higher. There's more horrible, there's women are constantly getting death threats and rape threats and non-white people have racist stuff thrown at them all the time and it's just getting worse and worse and nobody seems to be able to stop it.

But the article's author at one point says, we live in an astounding technological advancement. There's deep sea drones, there's live streaming virtual reality. Why can't we brainstorm our way out of this? We're technologically advanced. Why can't we fix this? And the answer of online harassment is what? It's not a technological problem.

It's a human heart problem. The internet, the anonymity of the internet has actually shown us we are more wicked than we ever dared think. Because it takes away the kind of guard reals, it takes away the shame, the sort of thing that makes you kind of keep it inside. But when you get in a place where people can say whatever they, whatever they, whatever they're in their heart, they're awful things in their hearts. There's awful stuff. So it's a hard problem. Well, here's my point. We don't need one more teacher of love to tell us, love one another.

We know we should love one another. The worst problem is not that we don't know, we should love one another. The worst problem is we can't do it. We don't need another teacher of love to tell us what to do. We need a savior. We need somebody to give us what to do. We need a Savior.

We need somebody to give us a new heart. One of the biggest obstacles for people to believe in Christianity is that they think they already know all about it. But if we look at Jesus' encounters with various people during his life, we'll find some of our assumptions challenged. We see him meeting people at the point of their big, unspoken questions. The Gospels are full of encounters that made a profound impact on those who spoke with Jesus. And in his book, Encounters with Jesus, Tim Keller explores how these encounters can still address our questions and doubts today. Encounters with Jesus is our thanks for your gift to help Gospel in life reach more people with the amazing love of Christ.

Request your copy of encounters with Jesus today when you give at gospelonlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. So first of all, there's your doctrine. And Jesus is saying, unless you believe the doctrine, there's no peace. There's no possibility of getting saying, unless you believe the doctrine, there's no peace. There's no possibility of getting peace unless you believe this, but it's not enough just to believe it in the abstract.

It says, I've told these things so the enemy you may have peace, well, how? And here it is. In this world, you will have trouble, but take hard, I have overcome the world. Now, I think there's two principles here

that's telling you, well, actually, go up for a little further. In verse 29, after Jesus makes this little summary thing here in verse 28, you know, it really is remarkable. I don't, you're never going to find more doctrine packed into one sentence. It's amazing. You know, the pre-existence of Christ, the incarnation, the atonement and the ascension,

the resurrection and ascension and session at the right hand. It's all there. Okay. But it says, then Jesus, this type of said, now you're speaking clearly, which by the way, He was. I mean, this is the best. This is the most accessible summary He'd ever given them. And they say, wow, now we can start to see things.

Now, here's what Jesus does. You know, Jesus is not usually ironic, but occasionally he can be ironic, which, by the way, means it's okay to be ironic, but you shouldn't do it all the time. Look what he says. Do you now believe? Oh, you believe, do you? And then he says, but a time is coming and in fact, it's come when you will be scattered each to your own home.

Now, what he's saying is simple this. I mean, if you want a paraphrase, Jesus is saying, oh, you believe? And then he says, but a time is coming and in fact, it's come when you will be scattered each to your own home. Now, what he's saying is simple this. I mean, if you want a paraphrase, he's saying, oh, you believe? Not really. Because I want you to know within the next few hours, you're going to betray me, deny me, and forsake me. If you took my doctrine,

if you really believed my doctrine, and it was in my down deep in your heart, you would not be afraid of the world. That's what he's saying at the bottom there. If you really understood this fully and if you really worked it into your heart, you would not be afraid of the world. But he says, within hours, the world's going to grow, you know, you're going to be afraid of being imprisoned, you're going to be afraid of being maybe even put the death, and you're going to run.

So you say, you believe it, well, maybe you do, maybe intellectually, but it's not, and your heart hasn't changed your life. And you know what? Most all of us in this room, if you're a Christian, you're somewhere, probably you're not, well, obviously. Let's not be too mean to the disciples. They still hadn't actually seen him die in Christ with dead, okay? And we know he died for sins and rose to dead. I don't think they really understood that. Nevertheless, we're somewhere between them and where we should be.

Because we also have not really brought this in. How do you get this doctrine into your life so it really changes you? There's two things at least, he mentions here. One is it says, in this world you will have trouble, but take heart. So the first thing I think he's saying is, when you're having trouble in the world,

that's when to take heart, which is that's when to grasp this doctrine. I wish I didn't have to say this. Every time the Bible should, every time I have to say, because it's in the Bible, I don't want to have to say it, but I have to say it. The Bible says, in general, you spiritually grow better when you're having trouble. You spiritually grow more on stormy days than sunny days as it were. For most of us, you'll never find out that Jesus is all you need until you get into a situation where Jesus is all you've got. Or put another way.

The Bible is constantly saying that the way God builds you up spiritually is by taking things a way that you tend to rely on for your peace. And then it makes you rely on God, then you find out, my goodness, God was far better thing to lean on than the thing I was leaning on before. If you lay in bed for a week and don't get up, you probably won't be able to get up. Some of you have been bed ridden for a while. You remember how you like your, you can't believe it. You've been in bed for a long time, you get up and you can hardly walk.

Why? Your muscles atrophy. Whereas when you're in the gym and you feel like you're dying, your muscles are getting stronger. When you feel like you're getting weaker, you feel like you're getting stronger. When you feel like you're resting, you're actually getting weaker. And there is a spiritual analogy. And that is simply that when the things are worse, and when the things are at their worst, that's when you take this doctrine,

moves from being something abstract and actually starts to make a change in your life. When Kathy and I were about 20 years old, a book came out, and I think it was just around that time, it was knowing God by J.I. Packer. And if you were a new Christian or a young Christian at that time, you would be everybody read it.

And there was a chapter near the end called these inward trials. And at the end of the book, the chapter, there is a hymn by John Newton, the guy who wrote amazing grace. And when Captain I first went, all of us, you know, the guy who wrote amazing grace. And when Cathy and I first went, all of us young Christians, we read that, we were young people, and we said, wow, that's interesting. We had no idea. Here's how it goes. I'm only giving you three stanzas, which will help you trace it out, not the whole thing.

I ask the Lord that I might grow in faith and love in every grace. Might more of his salvation know and seek more earnestly his face. Instead of this, he let me feel the hidden evils of my heart and let the angry powers of hell assault my soul in every part. Lord, why is this? I trembling cried, will thou pursue thy worm to death? To his in this way, the Lord replied, I answered prayers for grace and faith. These in were trials I employ from pride and self to set thee free and break thy schemes of earthly joy that thou mayst find thine all in me. And when Catherine, I read that as 20 year olds, we had no idea that this would be the key to the rest of our lives. Go get the book knowing God, read the chapter, read

that hymn, and you'll have the key to the rest of your life. So first of all, it's when you're in the world and you're having trouble that doctrine becomes part of you. It becomes strength, it becomes reality. But how exactly? Well, look at this term, tech heart. Basically, the second thing is in trouble, you must take heart. Now, that's not very revealing that way that's translated, though it's not so bad. Now, there's some other translations that say,

be of good cheer. That's even worse. You know what the word means? It's a very specific word. It means to dare. That's why I like it so much. It means to dare. To dare. Yeah. It says, dare to believe that I've overcome the world and you will overcome the world. Dare to believe. How does that work? It means step out in faith and live as if all the things I've told you are really true. And as you do that, as hard as it is, you do that even though it doesn't feel true.

You step out and you dare to believe and live as if all the things I told you are true, and that will change you. Let me give you two examples. One is, you should dare to rest your identity in Christ. It's pretty interesting earlier this week I was at a conference and I was speaking on Galatians 614. It's really hard and then I hear I am speaking on this passage and the two passages are very similar. Jesus is telling us to do something that Paul tells us to do. In Galatians 6.14 he says, God forbid that I should boast, except in the cross of Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world.

Now what does it mean the world is crucified? It doesn't mean the world's crushed or destroyed or something. It means that it's, I'm dead to it. It means that I can get into a place where the world can't scare me, it can't bother me, it can't intimidate me anymore. It has no control over me. Well, how does that work? Well, he says, you have to boast. You have to boast in the cross of Christ. Now, boasting in ancient times was actually the way warriors got ready to charge. So they would say, we've got the armor, and we've got the best captain, and we've got this,

we've got that. And by boasting, it was called a ritual boasting in warfare, they got themselves ready to charge. But Paul takes that idea, that idea of ritual boasting, and he applies it in a different way metaphorically, and he says, well, there's a certain sense in which every human being has to boast in something. Every human being has to get their strength and their confidence from something, then what is it? If it's from your talent, if it's from your

your social status, if you say, well, look what I've achieved in life, or look at my job, or look at how talented I am, or look at this person who loves me. If you take your strength and identity from anything in this world, the world controls you. Why? Because the world can take that away. That's why the disciples all scattered. The world can take away your social status.

The world can take away your possessions. The world can take these things away. And then you melt down because it's your boast, it's your identity, it's your confidence, it's your strength. But what if you dare to believe that your love because of the cross of Jesus Christ, not because of any of your performance, not because of anything you've ever done? What if you actually say, I'm going to dare to rest my identity in what Jesus Christ, not because of any of your performance, not because of anything you've ever done. What if you actually say, I'm going to dare to rest my identity in what Jesus Christ is on for me, knowing that the Father sees me as a beauty, the Father sees me and loves me.

You know what that means? Paul actually gives you an example of it. In Romans 8, Paul actually gives an example of what Jesus tells you to do here and what Paul himself tells you to do in Galatians 6.14. In Romans 8, listen, he's going through the doctrine. He says, he says, it is Christ who died, who is risen, who is seated at the right hand of the Father, who ever lives to intercede for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?

Did you see what he just did there? In other words, he's going through the doctrine. It's what Jesus says. Think about these things. separatist from the love of Christ. Did you see what he just did there? Miller is he's going through the doctrine. It's what Jesus says, think about these things. It's what Paul says in Galatians 6.4, think about the cross. He's going through, he's died for me. He's risen for me.

He's sitting at the right hand of the Father for me. He's interceding for me. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Then he says, well, you know, famine or nakedness or peril or sword? No. In all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I'm persuaded that neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor anything to come nor height nor death nor any other creature will be able to separate

us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. What is He doing? He's doing exactly what Jesus Christ says here. He says, dare to look at the world and say, world, you've got nothing I need. You may take away this, you may take away this, you may take away this, these are good things, but they're not the ultimate things. Economic problems, I've got the ultimate riches in Christ.

Relationship problems, I've got the ultimate love in Christ. Dare to rest your identity in that, especially during the tough times, and you'll be different. You will be different. But here's the other thing. Last thing. Another way to dare, take heart, dare to believe I've overcome the world. It's not just something you do by daring to rest your identity in Christ, but also when things are really bad in your life.

And you don't feel like God loves you, dare to live as if he loved you. In other words, look at what Jesus Christ has done for you and say, even though it doesn't feel like it, dare to believe that He loves you, even when you don't feel loved. And boy, that changes you. In 1874, Horatio Spofford,

who was a Christian lawyer, I think, had a wife and four children. And he put his wife and four children on a ship that going to Europe for a tour, and this is 1874. There was an accident, the ship sank. The wife was actually found unconscious, clinging to debris, and she was rescued, but the children were all dead. So she comes back, her husband comes comes back to America and they wrestle.

How can we as Christians, we just feel like, how could God do this? But here's what they did. We know what they did. We know how they got through it because Horatio Spoffer wrote one of the more famous hymns than we sing it here. It goes when peace like a river. So get that, listen to it. Now, in light of what he went through, listen to what he did, it actually tells you how he processed it. It goes like this,

if you remember, when peace like a river attends my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, now you know why he said that, hmm? Next time you sing that, remember that. When peace like a river retends my way when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot thou hast taught me to say, it is well, it is well with my soul. You know, the world cannot deal with the things that make my soul well. Well, you say, how did he do that?

Well here, those Satan should buff it, those trials should come, let this blessed assurance control. Okay, what is that? That Christ hath regarded my helpless estate and hath shed his own blood for my soul. Now that's what he did. Look what he did. Here's the thing that controls him. He says, I don't feel love, but here's the thing I know. See, he's daring to believe this. Jesus Christ died for me. You know, Jesus, I'm giving you my peace. You know why I can give you his peace?

You know why I can give you this piece? Isaiah 57 verse, yeah, Isaiah 57 verse 20 says this, the wicked are like the tossing sea which cannot rest. There is no peace for the wicked. Now watch Jesus Christ in his last hours, the garden of his semening, going to the cross. Does he have a smile on his face? Does he say, oh, I'm just trusting the Lord? I've got intercontentment. Does he say that? No, you know why he didn't have it? Why?

When he gets to the cross and he says, my God, my God, why has self-reconcerned me? He had no peace. You know why? He was in our place. There is no rest for the wicked and he was being God made him sin, made him to be sin, who knew no sin, that we might become the righteousness of God and him. On the cross, Jesus Christ was treated the way we deserve as the wicked. He had no rest, why? So you could have peace. He lost his peace, so you could have peace.

He suffered, he suffered. And instead of Horatio's spoffered and his wife, looking at themselves and saying, well, if God loved me, he would never have let this happen. Instead, he looked at the cross and said, I know God loves me. Because he suffered far worse than I did. I know the father loves me, why?

Because the father loves me and says, I know what it's like to lose a child. And when I see a God like that, then I dare to live loved, even when I don't feel like a live love, and that will transform you. That will give you a peace that you didn't know you could possibly attain. I have told you these things, so in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble, but take heart.

I have overcome the world. Let's pray. Our Father, thank you for giving us your peace. Thank you for giving us your peace the way you do. You don't give it to us just by somehow infusing it in us. You say, here's the doctrine, here's the Bible. Here's the things that my son Jesus Christ did for you. Know them, learn them, memorize them,

meditate on them, pray about them, sing about them into your heart until you more and more your heart's changed. And we pray, Father, when trouble comes, and it will come, we will have trouble in the world, show us how to dare to believe that we are as loved as we are. Teach us how to rest our identity in Christ.

Oh Lord Jesus Christ, we do take heart because you've overcome the world. Thank you. Give us all these things, we ask them in Jesus name. Amen. Thank you for joining us today. If you were encouraged by today's teaching, please rate and review it so more people can discover this podcast. And thanks for listening. This month's sermons were recorded in 1997 and 2017. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life Podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior

pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.