Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Rejecting the Real Jesus

Episode Date: December 7, 2022

This passage is part of Jesus’ response to John the Baptist who was struggling with doubts about the identity of Jesus. It is so relevant for today because many of us may have similar questions or doubts about Jesus. We may be in a similar situation as John the Baptist. In Jesus’ response, we find answers to that unbelief.  Let’s look at three wonderful things about unbelief that Jesus teaches us in this passage: the power of unbelief, the character of unbelief, and the solution for unbelief. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 22, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus, Part 1: His Teaching. Scripture: Matthew 11:16-24. 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.

For many people, trusting Jesus with your life is challenging. Questions immediately arise like, how can I believe in Jesus in light of the sufferings I've experienced in my life? And there's so much suffering and injustice in the world. How can we know He is the One who will make things right both in my life and in the world? Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller continues looking at the Gospels to show us who the real Jesus is and what that means for our lives.

After you listen, please go online to GospelAndLife.com and sign up for our email updates. When you sign up, you'll start receiving our quarterly newsletter with articles from Dr. Keller as well as other great Gospel-centered resources. Subscribe today at GospelOnLife.com. The passage on which our teaching has taken this morning is printed in your bulletin, it should be right where you are. If you are using your bulletin at all today following, the scripture reading is Matthew chapter 11, verses 16 to 24. We're moving through this chapter and in a moment we'll tell you why we're doing it, but for now we get to chapter 11, verse 16 to 24.

And this is Jesus speaking all the way through. So what can I compare this generation? They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to others. We play the flute for you, but you did not dance. They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to others. We play the flute for you, but you did not dance. We sang a dirge, but you did not mourn. For John came, neither eating nor drinking, and they say he has a demon. And the son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, here's a glutton in a drunkard,

a friend of tax collectors and sinners, but wisdom is proved right by her actions. Then Jesus began to announce the cities in which most of this miracle, his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. Woe to you, Chorazan, woe to you, Bithsata. If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in Sackloth and Ashes, but I tell you, it will be more bearable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will you be lifted up to the skies? No, you will go down to the depths.

If the miracles that were performed in you had been performed in Sodom, it would have remained to this day. But I tell you that it will be more bearable for Sodom on the day of judgment than for you. This is God's Word. And it's just so full of wisdom, and unfortunately I just don't see how I'll ever get to it all. It's very frustrating passage for me to look at. This chapter 11 of Matthew begins, and we began looking at it three weeks ago, it begins with John the Baptist,

a great religious leader, one of the greatest in history, who at one time had been very supportive of Jesus. Now is filled with doubts. And even as we have been seeing, it is feeling offended by some of the things that Jesus has said and done. So he sends them a message and he says, are you really the one? Are you the Messiah from heaven? Are you the one or should we look for another? And all the rest in this chapter is Jesus' response to John's doubts. It's Jesus' response to John's question. And the reason we have to look at it, and we're spending a number of weeks looking at it, is because this is bullseye, this is exactly what, from what I can tell, after being here for seven years, this is exactly what, the average New Yorker, the average New Yorker would ask Jesus if He showed up.

The average New York person would say to Jesus exactly this he would say she would say I Find many of your claims very offensive How do I know you are who you say you are and is there any other is there some other way to God? I mean that's that's why here all the time Jesus it's somewhat offensive some of the things you said how do I know you are who you are and is there any other way any other way to God and You see therefore the New Yorker may not, because of this passage, you may not say what Job said. Job in chapter 23 has this,

in the Old Testament, has this spot where Job says, oh, that I might find him, oh, that I knew the place of his dwelling, then I would go to him and I would fill my mouth with arguments and I would hear what he had to say to me. You can't say that. We can't say that. We can't say, if only I could talk to Jesus, if only I could ask him a question, if only I could ask him this question and see what he said. If only I could do that, then I think a lot of my questions would be answered. Well, you have asked him and he has answered, it's here.

And that means that you've got a study, you've got to reflect, we've got to digest what he said, Matthew chapter 11. Now in this particular spot, he's still responding to John's questions in his doubts and he's saying to John, well he's speaking still to this question and he's saying here, why so many people don't believe in him. In this passage, he is dealing with what I'm going to call, though the word doesn't show up here, unbelief. Jesus is actually talking about wisdom. See, right in the middle of the passage,

he says, how do we know what is true? How do we know it is real? Wisdom is knowing what is real. How do I know what is real? Sometimes we talk about people who know a lot, but they're not very wise. You know, they know an awful lot, but they're not very practical. What we really mean is they're not wise. They don't know what's really there. They don't know reality. And Jesus is trying to say, why isn't there so many people look at me and don't understand who I am?

Why do so many people disbelieve? Why does so many people reject me? Why unbelief? And so I'd like to show you the passage, it tells us three wonderful things, if we look carefully at them. He tells us about the power of unbelief and the character of unbelief and the solution for unbelief. And that means these doubts, this rejection is feeling that I don't believe in Jesus. He says, there's something you need to understand about it. See its power, see its character, and then you'll be able to see its solution. Now, first, this section where he says, woe to you, Korazin, woe to you, Bethseda, woe to you, Copernium, I did all sorts of miracles

there and yet you wouldn't believe. Now, the first, that section is showing us the power of unbelief. And I'll repeat it a couple of ways, so it syncs in before we move on to understand the character. What Jesus is saying here is that there are three towns, Corazin, Betheseda, and Capernaum, where Jesus went and he did scores and probably hundreds and hundreds of public miracles.

You know, at the end of the gospel of John, John says that only a fraction, only a tiny slice of what Jesus actually did has been written down. So when you read the scores of miracles in the gospels, you know that that's just a tiny percentage. Jesus says, I went into those towns and I gave you all the evidence in the world of who I was and you wouldn't believe.

Now what's Jesus saying here? He is teaching us that unbelief is not just a lack of something, it's the presence of something. Unbelief is not just the lack of faith because of a lack of evidence or a lack of cogent arguments. Unbelief is the presence of something else. Unbelief is not a lack of faith, it's a presence of something else. There's a positive power. There is something within our hearts that resists and fears, and maybe I should say fears

and therefore hates, the message of Jesus. And so Jesus is saying, all the evidence in the world doesn't overwhelm it. It's not, unbelief is not just the absence of faith, it's the presence of something else. Now, quick qualifier. I would, I want to say that I am the first, the first to assert that a skeptical person, a non-believing person, has the right to good questions, to make good questions and to get good answers. Has the right to say what's the evidence? Has the right to say what are the arguments? What is the case? I would, Redeemer is here for many reasons, but one of them is not a bad idea to remember this on our birthday.

Redeemer is here, and one of the reasons is because we do not believe, you should say, to the world, just believe and don't ask any questions. We don't operate like that. We never just come in and what I'll call assertionism. It's a new word. It's a new cult, a new religion, and you can say, I was there when the word was first created. What is assertionism? Assertionism is religion in which you say, you should believe because I say so, sit down, shut up.

Stop questioning. It's true because I say it's true because I say it's true because we're all the people who believe these wonderful things. We're wonderful people. Believe it. Assertionism. And you know what's interesting. Not only Redeemer doesn't believe that that's right, the people need to get questions answered and need to be, get respectful responses to their difficulties about Christianity.

But Jesus did too. Jesus felt this way. Why? He didn't go into Capernaum. He didn't go into Cora's Inn and he didn't go into Bethesda and said believe in me. He didn't do assertionism. He didn't say just believeppurnium, he didn't go into chorison, and he didn't go into Bethesda and said, believe in me. He didn't do assertionism. He didn't say, just believe in me because I say so. He overwhelmed the with evidence. He reasoned with them and he showed them

he overwhelmed the with evidence. And what he's saying though is, these people didn't believe by and large, which means unbelief. Unbelief is not just caused by a lack of evidence, unbelief prevails over evidence, unbelief swallows up the evidence and says, I'm still hungry. Unbelief is the presence of a force in the heart that makes it recoil at the message of Jesus.

One more little piece of evidence of this, at the end of, that just amazes me, at the message of Jesus. One more little piece of evidence of this. At the end of, that just amazes me, at the end of Matthew, chapter 28, at the end of Matthew, there's been a series of stories that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John all tell about how after Jesus was resurrected, after his death, he came back from the dead. And during that time, after that, he met with his disciples.

And if you read Matthew, and you read Luke in particular, they tell you many, many stories about what Jesus did. Jesus appeared to the disciples many times. It's difficult to know how many, but certainly multiple times. When he came, he let them touch them. He let them put their finger in his hands in the nail prints. He ate a fish in front of them. I'm not a ghost, he said.

He passed through locked doors and he taught them and he spoke to them over and over and over again. In Matthew chapter 28, verse 16 and 17, we're told that just before he went to heaven, this must have been who knows the 10th time, the 12th time, the 15th time. He appears to them. On a mountain we're told in Galilee and there's a little verse there that just still blows me away. It says he appeared to them and he says many worshiped but some doubted. Now one commentator said and I think he's absolutely right. He says there's almost no way, almost no way,

that that verse could exist if it wasn't telling the truth. And here's the reason why. We flatter ourselves. Everybody in this room. We flatter ourselves that the reason we have trouble believing, the reason we don't have more faith, is partly because we haven't seen enough evidence. We all flatter ourselves to say,

it's somebody stood in front of me, it's usually illustration. And if somebody stood in front of me and came up to a person whose hand had just been cut off in a terrible traffic accident, if that person says, in the name of Jesus, be whole. And if that hand jumped up in the middle of the air and sucked itself back onto the arm,

and immediately healed itself, no blood, no will, no nothing. I believe. And Jesus says, I have done that. And they didn't. And if you think you would believe, you don't know your own heart. One commentator said, the idea, if you were writing this story, if you were making this story up, if you were Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John says, I'm going to make a resurrection stories, which of course, many, many people believe that that's

what happened. Many people think the gospel stories of the resurrection appearances are made up. This commentator says, if you were making up these stories, wouldn't you figure that by the 13th time Jesus had shown up and had eaten a fish and done everything to say, I'm real, I'm real, I'm real. You would, when you think that the 13th or 14th time, people would not be saying, I still don't believe you. I can't believe in you. The reason you wouldn't write that down is because you would think,

not only would you be done with your doubts by then, you would think other people would be too. You would never put that in the story if you were imagining it. It's utterly counterintuitive and it makes the disciples look like absolute idiots. And it was there, it was there disciples who wrote the gospels, you know, their followers who took their teaching and so forth. Therefore the commentator says, what possible explanation is there for this strange statement and he says almost the only possible explanation is that the people who remembered that day

remembered that as well. That there is something in our hearts that is a positive resistance against the message of God. And until you realize it, and until you see it, what that is, that that is in there, you will never find Him. And you must not flatter yourself

that your only problem is a lack of evidence. It's very possible to go through life and never hear an intelligent presentation of Christianity. Absolutely easy. But don't you dare think that that's your only problem. In fact, Jesus is saying, don't even think that's your main problem. There's a power of unbelief.

Now, second thing, what does He say in here is the character of this. See, now that we've talked about it, there's something there, something in there, something that kept chorison and Bethesda and all these from seeing this. What is it? And the answer has to be, it's in verse 16 and 19. This is where Jesus tries to say, let me tell you what it is. I've told you that it is, and I'm going to tell you something about it.

And in it, he says, let me tell you about this generation, the people who have rejected me. He says, they're like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to others. We played the flute for you. You did not dance. We sang a dourge. You did not mourn. For John the Baptist came, either eating or drinking. They said he's a demon. The son of man came, both eating and drinking, and they say, glut go out and drunkard, friend of tax collectors and sinners. But wisdom is proved right by her actions. Now, if anybody read this, and if you were offended by this second part,

woe to you, judgment repent. You know, say, oh gosh, this is great. I love this. You know, this is the thing, if you were offended by that part and you weren't offended by the first part, you don't understand it yet. Because the first part is far more insulting to us in this room than the second part, far more insulting.

Jesus tells us that spiritually speaking, we're like peevish children in a snit. Objection? Overruled. Now listen, Jesus, okay, Jesus is not against children. There's other places where Jesus, first of all, children loved him. They came to him. Why? That's another sermon. They knew him. And at one point Jesus says, you can't be a Christian unless you're a child. And he says, you know, unless you become as a little child, you will not enter the kingdom

of heaven. And what does that mean? It means that unless you have the same relationship to God of dependence and vulnerability that a little child has to an adult, you cannot be mine. But here he turns, so he's not against children, but here he takes the metaphor of a child. And he also, he's in this point, he's not talking about child likeness, which is a positive thing, but he's talking about child ishness. And here is where he says that every human being relates to God the way you see reflected

in a little child having a SNIT. Now the story is this, Jesus has seen this many times, and we haven't as much, but in the marketplace of those days, in those villages, in the marketplace every day, the parents would be in the marketplace either buying or selling or both. And the children, while this is happening, would get together and play.

And Jesus has seen this happen. There's a ringleader, several ringleaders, let's say, and they say, maybe one person, one kid says, let's play a game. Now there's two games that are suggested here, and the reason that they're suggested is because there were only two things that really were big deals in these villages. There were only two forms in a sense of entertainment and celebration. What were they?

Weddings and funerals. Weddings lasted a whole week, and it was the biggest thing. Fortunately, you know, you had a wedding almost every month, you know, and it was the biggest thing, and fortunately, you had a wedding almost every month, and this is where for a whole week you celebrated, and in particular, you danced. Dancing happened at weddings. The other major event were funerals. Funerals, of course, were places where people mourned, and they wailed.

And what's interesting, of course, is that for children, and I've been through this recently, children can't really tell much of the difference between a wedding and a funeral. They buy in large, kind of still play out of wedding, and they play at a funeral. However, they know there's a difference. So this little ringleader gets up and says, let's play wedding.

And he or she takes a little flute of some sorts and plays a well-known dance. And some of the children say, good, you can be the bride. I can be the groom. Let's have a wedding procession. But there's a group over here that's in a snit, and they say, no, why not? We don't like that game.

That's a stupid game, wedding game. Maybe they're saying, we're not in a happy mood. We don't want a happy game. We don't like this game. We don't like this game. We don't like this game. We don't like this particular game. Well, the Ring Weider says, fine. Let's play the other game.

And I guess the only head too. And the only two things happen in the village. And he said, let's play a dirge. And then we have a funeral procession. And basically the women were the ones that sang at funerals. Back then, the women were the ones who wailed. They did the wailing. And so maybe he was, maybe, you know, a little boy was piping a flute and saying, now you're girls, you're going to line up and you can wail or whatever. But this little group over here, some say, yeah, let's

play it, but there's a little group over here and they say, no, we don't like this game. Thumb game. Funeral. Stupid. We're in a good mood. We don't want a stupid game, funeral, stupid. We're in a good mood. We don't want a stupid game like this. The problem is your tunes. The problem is, I don't like this tune. I don't like that tune. Now, if you're a parent, you have seen something like this. Most of us who raise kids know that something like this has happened to you.

You have a birthday party. And all week the kid, your child, your son, your daughter, so excited, looking forward to it. Can't wait for it. It's heart aching for it, heart longing for it, and sometimes in the middle of the party, the child runs into his or her room, slams the door, it will not come out. You go in and you sit down and say, what's wrong? Everybody's waiting. I don't want a party. I hate that kind of cake. All the presents are stupid. And if this is your first child, you're really upset and you're totally perplexed.

And you say, honey, how is it that you're vehemently denying what you and I both know you want desperately? This doesn't work by the way at all when you say that. You know, reasoning doesn't work by the way at all when you say that. You know, reasoning doesn't work. See, this is what Jesus is talking about. Reasoning doesn't work. The reason a little kid says he or she doesn't want the presence said, I don't like that kind of cake. I don't like this kind of, I don't like this part, I don't want this part. What they're really saying is it's not going my way.

Therefore, I'm going to convince myself that I don't want it. In the illustration, which is Jesus illustration, which is better than mine, I was just trying to give you something to hang it on. Jesus is saying here that you notice the kids are basically lying. They're lying to themselves. They're self deceived. They're saying the reason I don't like that is because it's a happy tune. I don't like happy tunes. The reason I don't like that is because it's a sad tune. I don't like sad tunes. But Jesus is trying to get across the fact that these little kids in a SNIT continually say the problem is with the fact it's this kind of tune or that kind of tune. But the real problem is that the kids are really

saying, it's your tune, not my tune. I want the pipe. I want to be the leader. Now what they're saying is the problem is this or that tune, but you see what Jesus is saying is they say the real reason is the tune, but as soon as you turn change the reason, they'll find another. As soon as you get rid of that reason, they'll get another why, because there's a reason

under the reason. The reason isn't the reasons. It's the fact that I want to be in charge. Jesus says, when you come to Jesus, you do need evidence, here's the evidence, he says, but he says, the nature of unbelief is that you will deceive yourself to think that there's this thing wrong or that thing wrong

with Christianity, when actually it's a power problem. Actually, the problem is that if what Jesus says is true, you lose all power. If what Jesus says is true, you lose authority over your life. If what Jesus says is true, you lose your right to self-determination. That's the problem underneath the problem. And you're interpreting all the reasons, and maybe telling yourself, this reason, that reason, when actually there's a reason under the reason. So I don't like this tune, but you see when Jesus turns the tune, you know, that reason, when actually there's a reason under the reason. You say, I don't like this tune,

but you see when Jesus turns the tune, you know, it says, well, how about this? Well, I don't like that. How about this? Well, the problem is, it's your tune, not my tune. I want the pipe. I don't want to dance to your tune. I don't want to dance to your composition.

I want to write my own. Now, some of you have heard the illustration, by the way, this is profound philosophy and the philosophers are just coming up to it now. Jesus is saying, no one's neutral, and that it's not simply a matter of interpreting data, but we interpret data in light of what we think our ultimate authority is. Forgiving someone who is wronged you can be one of the most difficult things to do in life.

In his new book, Forgive, Why Should I and How Can I? Tim Keller shows how the skill and ability to forgive is one of the greatest resources Christianity offers us and, if rightly understood, it is not a hindrance to seeking justice, but a necessary precondition for the pursuit of it. In the book, you'll discover how both justice and forgiveness are aspects of love. We'll send you Dr. Keller's new book, Our Thanks for Your Gift, to help Gospel and Life share the love and forgiveness of Christ with more people. Just visit Gospel and Life.com-slashgive.

That's Gospel and Life.com-slashgive. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. A perfect example of this is a very famous illustration. Some of you may have heard it, but let me show you how it helps us here. I call it the Dead Man Walking Illustration. The Dead Man Walking Illustration goes like this, what if you had a friend that insisted he was dead? I'm dead.

And you're very concerned about this person's mental health and you're trying to convince this person that he's not dead. And you do a lot of things, but finally you come up with an idea and you say, I'm going to give you the three greatest books that medical science ever produced. This is what all the world believes and all of medical science, you know, concedes that these are the three best books. You get the three best books and you show them inside each of the books that dead men cannot bleed.

So he reads it. And you say, now, have I proven to you that medical science says, without a shout of it out, dead men don't bleed. Yes, I understand, I see that. Fine, he says, you say, give me your hand. He puts out his hand and you cut it. It begins to bleed and his eyes get very big. Now, you say, are you amazed? Yes, I'm amazed. Do you see what this proves? Yes, I do see what this proves. What is it proved? Is this proves that medical science is wrong?

That dead men do bleed. Now, maybe you've heard that before, but here's the analysis that Jesus is giving us. The same data that will prove one thing will prove another depending on your authority. If you believe that the ultimate authority has to be medical science over your feelings and perceptions, then the bleeding, that data will prove that medical science is right and you are wrong. If you think, however, that your perceptions and your competence to judge is much more competent than all of medical science

than that very same data will be interpreted in the opposite way. You see, there's a reason under the reasons who's in charge if you have decided the one thing I will not even consider is the idea that I should lose control of my life and give it to Jesus. If you all consider that, then you will interpret all the data in a different way. You see, this dead man walking person, because he's decided he's chosen the wrong ultimate criteria. He is out of touch with reality.

There is no wisdom in his life. He is utterly out of touch with reality. And even though again and again and again, he will find that his view of things is out of accord with reality. He will continue and continue to interpret it in such a way that his ultimate authority, which is himself, will always stay intact. He will find some way to interpret everything in light of that. You know how CS Lewis has answered something for me long ago?

A lot of times people say, I don't think I'm going to be able to be in heaven living with people in hell. I say, why? Well, the idea, people will be down there in hell and be saying, let me out, let me out, I'm sorry. And God will be up there saying, you're too late, stepping on their fingers as they come up to the top. I just can't imagine that.

Read C.S. Lewis's great divorce. C.S. Lewis knows what Jesus is saying here, and that is there will never be anybody in hell who will have to get out. Never. If you think people in hell are capable of knowing that they were wrong, you still don't understand what the teaching.

C.S. Lewis in great divorce has this parable that people from hell come up to heaven and the people from heaven urge them to come in. And the people in hell find all sorts of ways of rationalizing where they are. They don't want to go up there. Oh, it's terrible. You can't do what you want.

I'd rather be down here. Remember Milton, paradise lost, better to rule in hell than serve in heaven. They're not gonna ever leave. Because you see, once you've decided the wrong ultimate criteria, you will interpret all data in line with it, forever. You will never admit the truth.

You will always blame something besides your interpretation of reality on why you are so miserable. It's their fault, they don't understand me. They don't know me. They haven't come through for me. Nobody in hell will ever ask to get out. Take a look at Luke 16. The rich man, he's not in hell asking to get out. Absolutely not. He's just saying, why can't Lazarus come down and make it easier for me? This isn't fair. I was a rich man. I should have servants down here. That's hell. That's hell. Do you see? Unbelief. A starts with the assumption and refuses to even consider the

possibility that you are not competent to run your life, you are not that competent to be the ultimate arbiter of what is wise and what is right and what is wrong. Unbelief says, that's where I start and then you're going to interpret everything. And Jesus is no matter what I tell and then you're going to interpret everything. And Jesus is no matter what I tell you, you're not ever going to see the truth. Aldous Huxley, I hate to beat up on poor Aldous Huxley, but he's made it so easy for me. In the 1920s, he was part of what's called the Bloomsbury said. It was an intellectual group of British people that really said, we got to get rid of religion.

Why? Because religion is too emotional. It's not rational, they said. Science and reason will solve all of our social problems. It will make the world the place we need it to be. By the 1963, he died, by the way, 1963, the same day as John F. Kennedy and CS Lewis, all of the sucks he died the same day. And by the end of his life, you know what he was saying? He was saying, let's forget Christianity. You know why? It's too rational.

He said, science and reason has let us down. Science and reason has made us muck of things. The world is getting worse. We need mysticism. We need emotion. We need to get back in touch with our own who we are. And he died, they say, on an LSD trip. He was a very brilliant man, because he

was always ahead of the curve. He was always 20 or 30 years. What he was saying, 20 or 30 years later, that's what everybody, all the other Western intelligence and telegencies were saying. But do you see, if he had lived longer, he would have said something else. Jesus piped a dance, and he said,

this is too sad. This is too happy, I'm sad. And then Jesus piped him, you know, a derg. He says, this is too sad. I'm happy. He says, no, the trouble is with this tune, the trouble is with that tune, but no, the trouble was, it was your tune. And it's not my tune. Unbelief will utterly contradict itself from generation to generation. That's what Jesus is saying. This generation, last generation, it'll say reason, that's what we shouldn't believe in Jesus.

This generation will say emotion, that's a problem is that Christianity is too rational. And last time it said it wasn't rational enough. Well, the problem isn't the tune, the nature of the tune, there's a reason under the reasons. All right. Lastly, what's the solution? What's the solution if that's the case? And Jesus, boy, there's all sorts of little hints and here they are.

First of all, first thing you have to understand is, the first thing that Jesus is telling us is that Christianity, you must see its utter pessimism and its utter optimism. It's interesting that Jesus says that John the Baptist represents the dirge, and he represents the dance. He says, you know, John came to you, not eating and drinking. He was a austere man. He was a very severe man, and he talked about the bad news. You might say, of the gospel, repent.

You need a savior. Jesus, and I love this, Jesus comes along, and he says, I came eating and drinking. I came yucking it up with the tax collectors in the sinners. I came talking of grace. I came opening a feast. And they said, you're a glutton and a wine bivirant. And this is the case today. If you talk to people about the good news in the gospel,

the bad news, the bad news in the gospel is you're such a sinner. You are so wicked that you can't earn your way to heaven by being good. You need a savior. You have got to totally trust in someone else's work for you. And you know what people say? That's too hard. That's too negative. Repentance, wicked sinner. I don't believe in Jesus. You know why? Because it's too hard. But then if you come around and say, but if you believe in Jesus, the determining factor in your relationship is not your past, but Christ past. The determining factor in your relationship with the father is not your record, but Christ record, not your present, but Christ present. You are completely accepted. And you know what they're

going to say? When John the Baptist comes, you know the words, when the bad news of the gospel comes and says, you're wicked and you repent, they're gonna say, it's too hard. As soon as you say, it's totally by grace,

what do they say? It's too easy. See, it's not the reason. There's, there's, the reasons aren't the reason. People say, I heard this, they say, are you trying to tell me that a murderer at the end of his or her life

could just say, I'm a sinner and please receive me because of what Jesus did and that person be saved and I live a good hard life and and if I don't accept Christ and all that and I think that I am good enough and I'm lost and this is this is ridiculous. This idea that you're saved by grace is ridiculous. It's too easy. Is it too hard or is it too too easy. Now which is it? It's not the reasons. When you tell people the bad news of the gospel, you're telling them that they're more sinful than they want to believe because if they're that sinful, they lose control. You lose power. You're not able to save yourself. You've got to go to someone else. You lose power. That's the problem. But then, some not too long ago, I talked to a woman who said,

I want to come to Redeemer, I noticed that you say you're saved totally by grace and I come from a church that says you're only saved. You'll only reach God if you try your best. Why? Why is it that other churches don't preach this? And I said, well, I don't know that. I don't want to judge anybody's motive. I don't want to know. But I said, let me ask you a question. Why do people prefer? Why do people prefer a religion that is neither a dirge nor dance?

Why do people prefer a religion that will not say that you're terrible sinners? But then, on the other hand, will not say that you're terrible sinners, but then on the other hand, will not say that you're utterly saved by grace instead, it'll say, try your best. Always be anxious. Never know whether or not you're being good enough. Try your best and pray and always sort of struggle along. Never feel like you've got this intimate relationship with God, but that you're always sort of

hoping that you're good enough for God to come through for you. Why do people prefer a religion that's neither durgent or dance, and she said, if I'm saved totally by grace, like you say, then there is no limit to what God could ask of me. If my religion is try my best, and then maybe God will come through for me, that means that God can't ask anything of me. If you believe God should favor you

because you're better than others, or at least you're pretty good, you've tried very hard there for God. You see what you're saying? You're really saying, is God can't ask anything of me? I'm a right. I'm a citizen. I'm a taxpayer. I'm a spiritual taxpayer.

I've done my duty. God could do this in that, but He owes me. But if you're saved my grace, you lose power, and that's the issue. The real problem is not this tune, that tune, the fact is it's your tune. And when Jesus says, wisdom will be proved right by her actions. Here's the interesting key. Why does he call it her? Why doesn't he say wisdom is proved right by its actions? Why does he call it her?

Why doesn't he say wisdom is proved right by its actions? In fact, you know, literally, that's a translation, literally, in the Greek, Matthew wrote down that Jesus said, wisdom is proved, is justified by her children. Why? There's only one place, really, that wisdom is seen as a woman, and that's in proverbs, that's in the Old Testament, or wisdom calls out to people. And you know what Jesus is saying?

Very interesting. He personifies wisdom and he says, in the end, he says, if you continue, if you're a dead man walking, if you continue to insist that I'm competent to run my own life, eventually, he's saying it, eventually, your sins will find you out. You will be beaten up. Wisdom will come through.

You will see that you're out of touch with reality, but why does he personify wisdom? And the answer is, if you go back into the Old Testament, you'll see that in Proverbs 8, this wisdom person, this woman, this personification, it's admittedly, it's poetic, it says that when God created the world, wisdom was at his side. And wisdom says, I was at his side and I rejoiced in creation and I rejoiced in humankind. And I was there when he laid the foundations. And of

course, John says that Jesus is that divine wisdom. He says in the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God, the Word, the wisdom of God. All things were created through Him, without Him was nothing created that was created. And what Jesus is coming and saying is, I am the wisdom of God. And only if Jesus is the wisdom of God, can you hold the dirge and the dance of life together? Christianity is so dirgey and so dancing, but it's the only religion that accounts for reality. It's the only religion that's wise. Oh, please God help me for the next 60 seconds to say this right.

You see, no religion and no philosophy is anywhere near as pessimistic as Christianity. Christianity is the biggest dirge of all. No other Nietzsche, for example, said things, you know, basically people are terrible, people are awful, but even the most pessimistic philosophers never said what the Bible says and that is that Nietzsche is awful. There's been many, many philosophers that said people stink. Freud said most people are trash. He didn't say, I am trash too and I am a sinner. The Bible is so pessimistic. It says we are sinners, we are wicked, we are lost without God. There is no other religion like that. Every religion says if you try hard

enough, you can find God. No religion is as pessimistic as God. No religion is pessimistic as Christianity. And yet, what else can account for how bad things are? Sin. The problem is not that we've voted the wrong administration in. The problem is not that we have too much government, too little government. The problem is not the politics, the problem is not the education, the problem is not the problem is the sin in our heart. There is nothing that accounts for reality, like the dirge of Christianity. But Christianity also says, guess what? It's possible to live forever.

It's possible to run and not be weary. It's possible to walk and not faint. You know, this place in CS Lewis, where he talks about what's in store for people, the new heavens and the new earth, he says, our life long longing to be reunited with something in the universe from which we feel cut off, to look on the glory of nature and want

to be on the inside of it, the inside of a door, that feeling that we're on the outside of a door, that all of our life we wanted to be inside is not a neurotic fantasy or adolescent dreaming, it's the real. It's the truest index of our situation. What he's trying to say is Christianity says, why do you want to live forever? Because it's possible. You're made for that. Why do you want to be totally loved?

Because it's possible. You're made for that. Why do you want to be perfect? Because it's possible. And you're made for that. If you aren't willing to be as optimistic as Christianity, which is more optimistic than the most optimistic religion, it talks about things that no other religion talks about.

Honest, I can make that case in the Q&A if you want. And Christianity is far more pessimistic than any other religion or any other philosophy. And you know what? If you are pessimistic and not optimistic, you can't account for reality. You can't account for our aspirations. Where do they come from?

But if you're optimistic and not pessimistic, you can't account for reality. Where did all this sin come from? And it's only Jesus who's able to keep them together. Winton Marsalis in a book I read this summer said, the difference between noise and music is very simple. Music is two sounds related to each other. Noise is the same two sounds, not related to each other.

How do you pull together the fact that we are wicked and we deserve punishment? If you try to get rid of that, you're not wise. And also, that we are beautiful, we are valuable, we are people of dignity. How do you keep those together? Only on the cross. Jesus is the wisdom of God, personified. Jesus is a person. The wisdom of God is not a formula to be grabbed hold on.

It's a person to get to know. Jesus says, only if you know me, will you be able to hold the dirge and dance of life together, will you be able to account for the pessimism and the optimism, the horrible and the beauty of human beings, because on the cross, when Jesus was put to death, both the holiness of God and the love of God, instead of being

intention, were related together. By God pouring out His wrath on Jesus, His holiness was satisfied in punishing sin and His love was satisfied in pouring out grace, because now if we believe in Him, we can be saved. Only Jesus makes those two things, the dirgeant dance of life, music and not noise, and wisdom is music, wisdom is relationship, wisdom is harmony. Jesus says, wisdom is proved right by your children. Friends, if you're skeptical today, here's what I say, don't try to work it all out, look at your biases.

If you were a judge sitting on a case and the defendant was someone who was the head of a company that you had controlling interest in, so if that defendant lost the case, you would go bankrupt. You'd be scared at death, you'd be biased, right? You say, well, in this country, a judge like that wouldn't even be allowed to try that case, right? But when you read the Bible, you're like that judge. You have to see that you've got a bias that's tremendously strong, because if, when you read the Bible, you're like that judge. You have to see that you've got a bias that's tremendously strong.

Because when you read Caesar's Gallic Wars and you say, is this true or not, whether it's true or not won't make a difference. But if you read the New Testament, it's true or not, it makes all the difference. You have to admit your bias. You have to see it. You have to realize that I've got a snitty little child in me.

And until I do that, until I recognize that, I'm not going to be open to the evidence. But on the other hand, Christian friends, do you see Jesus is Lord of the Feast. He invites you to advance the Gospels of Dance. Do you see Jesus says that if you keep looking at me, the problems of life, the difficulties of life, the dirges and dances of life, they will come together.

You'll be able to hold on to them. You'll be able, on the one hand, admit that you're a sinner, really admit that you're a sinner, and still see your value, which is the ultimate wisdom. Everybody else goes back and forth between when you fail, you feel like a sinner in your humble, and when you succeed, you feel like a viable person and you're confident, but you're not able to deal with all the data.

You're not able to see all the data without the wisdom of God, which is Jesus on the cross. If you're confused today, go to Him, see Him. Wisdom is justified by her actions. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would help us to understand the unbelief in our hearts. I'm praying for my Christian friends today that they would see that unbelief remains, and to a great degree we struggle because we don't want to lose power. Help us to see that some of the things that we are confused about are really, really based on our unwillingness to admit that you know best.

For my seeking friends here today, I pray that they would see that maybe the reason isn't the reason, but maybe that they need to look at their biases, they need to look at their roots, I pray that you would teach people through your Holy Spirit to be open to what your son has said about himself. I pray this in Jesus name, amen. Thanks for listening to Gospel and Life and Dr. Keller's Teaching. You can find more Gospel centered content like today's teaching when you connect with Gospel and Life on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or Twitter. This month's sermons were recorded in 1996. The sermons and talks

you here on the Gospel and Life Podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.