Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Sent to Bear Witness

Episode Date: February 3, 2023

We’re looking at the last sermon that Jesus Christ preached publicly to the world at large. And when you know this is the end, that you’re never going to speak to people again before you die, you usually say the things that are most important to you.  There are three ideas that Jesus gets across in this passage. They are not easy messages for the world to hear, but they’re brilliant.  Jesus is saying three things: 1) you need my power to believe, 2) you need my light for your darkness, and 3) the only hope you have is the judgment of God.  This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 25, 2016. Series: Jesus, Mission, and Glory: New Purpose. Scripture: John 12:37-50. 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 and Life. What does it mean to represent Christ in the world? Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller is teaching on how Jesus trained his disciples to go out into the world and what that means for Christian believers today. Tonight's scripture reading is from John, chapter 12, verses 37 to 50. Even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in Him. This was to fill the word of Isaiah the prophet.

Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For this reason, they could not believe because as Isaiah says elsewhere, He has blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts so they can neither see with their eyes nor understand with their hearts, nor turn, and I would heal them.

Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him. Yet at the same time, many even among the leaders believed in him, but because of the Pharisees, they would not openly acknowledge their faith for fear they would be put out of the synagogue. For they loved human praise, more than praise from God. Then Jesus cried out,

whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. The one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent me. I have come into the world as a light so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.

There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words. The very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day. For I did not speak on my own, but for the father who sent me commanded me to say all that I have spoken.

I know that His command leads to eternal life. So whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say, the word of the Lord. Now this, what you just heard read, is the last sermon that Jesus Christ preached on earth. The last time he speaks to the world at large, right after this, he goes up into the upper room and he spends time training his disciples in John chapter 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, getting them ready to send me sent out.

We're gonna be looking at that this year. But this is the last time he speaks publicly. And so when you know this is the end, you're never gonna speak to people again. You're when you know this is the end, you're never going to speak to people again. You're never going to, this is the end of all that you're going to say before you die. Usually you say the things that you are most important to you. There are three things that Jesus gets across. This passage gets three ideas across.

And they are not at all easy messages for the world to hear, but they're brilliant. And we need to be thinking about this, not only because these are the messages that we have to take to the world. And they can't be, how do I say it, when we give the message of Jesus Christ to the world, we can't look for an easier version. We can't water down what Jesus says. And we have to be, we have to find ways of being brave, but at the same time being careful and wise and how we communicate them.

But look at these three things. In the first few verses, he is saying, you need my power even to believe. In the middle versus he's saying, you need my light or you are plunged into darkness forever. And the very end, he actually says, you need a judgment of God, it's your only hope. So the three things he says is you need my power to believe, you need my light for your darkness, and the only hope you have is the judgment of God.

So let's take a look at what Jesus is saying. They are not easy, true, but they're brilliant. First of all, in from verses 37 down to 43, the message here is, we need Jesus help even to believe. Verse 37 says, even after Jesus had performed so many signs in their presence, they still would not believe in him. So here's the presenting issue. There are many people that heard Jesus' matchless words.

They saw Jesus' beautiful life. They saw Jesus' astonishing miracles, and they still didn't believe. Why? And the text tells us there's two reasons why they didn't believe. The people who didn't believe in Jesus, two reasons they didn't believe. Look at the first one. It's in verse 40 where it says, God hardened their hearts. You see that?

In verse 40 it says God hardened their hearts. But then he blind it says, God hardened their hearts. But then he blinded their eyes and hardened their hearts. But then down in verse 43 it says, for they loved human praise more than praise from God. They were afraid of status loss. They were afraid of losing their status, losing their reputation. So they didn't believe, well now which is it? Verse 40 says, God hardened their hearts, verse 43 says, they hardened their hearts, which is it?

And what we have here is actually a New Testament version of another place in the Old Testament that some of you may remember. The book of Exodus is about how God sends Moses with a message to King Pharaoh of Egypt, and the message is, let my people go. And when Moses would come and give Pharaoh the message, sometimes the text, you can read this in Exodus 7, 8, 9, 10, sometimes the text says, Pharaoh hardened his heart and wouldn't listen. But sometimes it says, God hardened his heart

and he wouldn't listen. And very often it's just a few verses away. Sometimes it says, Pharaoh hardened his heart and so he didn't listen. And then like three verses later it says, and so God hardened Pharaoh's heart so he wouldn't listen. Which is it?

Why did Pharaoh not listen? Was it God who hardened his heart? Or did he harden his heart? And the answer is, totally. And I've used that word carefully. Because we are now standing before one of the more important teachings of the Bible without which you're not going to understand big parts of the Bible. There is, for example, in the Old Testament a number of places where God says to Israel, He says, I'm going to bring Assyria and I'm going to, they're going to attack you and

I will punish you for your sins through Assyria. Assyria will be the rod of my anger. And so Assyria will come and attack you, and I will bring them, and they will punish you for your sins. And then one chapter later, God says, but I'm going to punish a Syria for attacking you. And you say, okay, now wait a minute. Did God attack the Israelites, or did the Assyrians attack? Did God make them do it or did they do it freely? That's the question, right? And the answer to the Bible is totally.

In Acts chapter two, the very first sermon, Peter says that Jesus Christ died on the cross because of the foreign nation, and predestination of God, God destined Jesus Christ to die on that cross because of the four-ordination and predestination of God, God destined Jesus Christ to die on that cross. He ordained that Jesus Christ would die on that cross. It was absolutely planned.

He had to die on that cross or it wouldn't be saved. And yet, he then turned around and says, but those of you who betrayed Him and killed Him are guilty for what you've done. Well, okay, did God do it or did they do it? And the answer is yes, because you and I, the reason why we're struggling here, aren't you? Is because when you and I think of the relationship between God's control and our free will,

we think of it as a zero sum game. So we think either it's if God isn't controlled and we're not free, or if we're free and responsible, then God's not in control. Or maybe it's 80-20, right? Maybe God is mainly in control, but we have a little bit of wiggle room. God only gives us two options and we can choose A or B, but not C and D because he's in control.

Or maybe it's the other way around. Maybe it's 80-20 us. Maybe we have 80% in control, and God just, he has got a little bit of room to make do avasive action where he says, oh my goodness, I can't believe what they did that. Now what am I gonna do? So we think it's 80-20 or 20-80 or 50-50,

or 100-0 or 0-100, but it's 100 and 100. It's 100%. Look, the Bible says God is absolutely in control of everything that happens, that every one of your choices as part of His plan, that everything you and I do is something that He's decreed will happen. And there is no deviation from the plan. And yet, at the same time, when you make that choice, none of us are ever coerced by Him. We're freely choosing them. It's something that we have freely chosen,

therefore we are absolutely responsible for what we've done. Now, I know, look, that you're saying, I don't see how that could be. And guess what? After 40 years of preaching this, actually, true confessions, I don't know how that works either. But I can tell you this, if you're willing to embrace it, it couldn't it's the most one of the most practical doctrines in the Bible. If you're willing to embrace it, let me tell you what happens. If you really believe this, first of all, it gives you a life of how do I put it? Peaceful initiative. See, if I really thought, if you really thought, that everything depended on you, that your whole life was determined by the wisdom of your choices,

if you were smart, you wouldn't get out of bed in the morning. Or certainly, if you understood what that meant, you'd be filled with anxiety all the time. Because you might get it wrong in one slip in your whole life. On the other hand, if you thought it was all up, if you thought everything you did was faded and destined, did you see the guy that fell down a steps and he gets up at the bottom and his blood coming into his eyes, but he says, I'm glad that's over. All right, never mind the point of it. So if you, 11, the 1130 people love that. I just want you to know that you're just a very deep,

so you're a different type of people. Anyway, the point of, we got a 645. Of course, we have a different personality than those people. Anyway, see, if you thought everything was destined and faded, you'd be passive, you'd be cynical. If you thought everything was up to you, you ought to be scared. But if you look at Joseph and Jacob, go read the stories of Joseph and Jacob. It's, you know, they're in Genesis, chapters 28 to the end, or, or, verse, chapter 50. That's where I saw how this works out.

Joseph and Jacob both did stupid things, constantly stupid things, and they suffered because of the stupid choices, and their foolish and evil choices, and they not only hurt themselves, but they hurt people all around them. And they shouldn't have done it. And they were responsible for what they'd done.

If they hadn't done it, they wouldn't have suffered so much. But when you see how God used every single one of their stupid evil choices, not by working it out into some plan B, but plan A, then you know this. Christian, let me ask your question. If you believe this doctrine, can you really mess up your life? You know what the answer is? Yes, but ultimately no. Not yes, and not just no. Yes, but ultimately no. And that means you have all the incentive of initiative.

You better work, you better summons of everything you can to be as wise as you possibly can be. And yet in the end, there's a deeper peacefulness that says, well, in the end, no. My father's in charge. See, a peaceful initiative. not only that, security. See, let's talk for a minute about why not just how you choose and God's relationship to your choices, but why you chose to believe in Jesus. Are you a Christian? John chapter 6 verse 44 says, Jesus says, you did not choose me, I chose you. Now he doesn't mean, by the way,

that we don't choose him. What he's saying is, I don't choose you because you've chosen me. You chose me because I've chosen you. Tis not that I did choose thee for Lord that could not be. This heart would still refuse thee. Hadst thou not chosen me. Jesus says, you don't, I don't love you because you loved me.

I don't love you because you surrendered to me because you gave yourself to me. Then you'd be a little smarter, a little humbler, a little better, a little more moral than other people around you. No, no, no. I loved you. I set my love on you, and that's the reason why you love me. Now do you know what kind of security that is? First of all, it humbles you. Does it not?

It's very hard not to feel superior to people on the other side. I mean, there have been an awful lot of books and articles written last 20 years about how hard it is for human beings to get an identity without doing it at the expense of other people. We think that we're one of the good guys and we bolster our sense of being one of the good guys by saying, I'm not one of those awful people over there. There's something in the human heart that's so strong, you would take a really strong medicine

to cure the human heart of its proclivity to look down at other people. But this is that medicine. Because this is saying, if you love Jesus Christ, it's not because you were any smarter or better, it's just because Jesus opened your heart. You chose me only because I chose you. And think about the security.

Years ago, Ed Clowney, a teacher of mine, who's now passed away, he was doing a lecture and he was trying to say, I know some of you struggle with this idea that the only reason that you chose God is because God chose you. But I said, of course, there's issues here, but let me show you what unbelievable security and peacefulness in your heart heart it can bring you. And then he was talking to a group of men, so he used this example. He says, guys, if you go home to your wives, realize this, at some point your wives are going to say, honey, do you love me?

He says, now I advise you, when she asks you that, to say yes. But the real test is going to be, when she comes back and she says, why? Why do you love me? And he says, now here's some possible answers. One is, you know, honey, you were the prettiest girl in the class. Or honey, you were the most well-read girl in the class. You were the one that read the most and you were this great intellectual conversation partner. That's really important to me. Or honey, one that read the most and you were this great intellectual conversation partner. That's really important to me. Honey, you are so physically fit and you are the best tennis player and you're a great tennis partner and all that's very important to me. There's all these things I love about you. You know what you're saying? You know what

you're saying? You're saying, I love you because you're useful to me. I love you because you have certain attributes and you better keep those attributes. And because I love you because you have certain attributes and you better keep those attributes. And because I love you because those attributes make you useful to me. They help myself with steam, they do this, they do this, you know, actually stimulating, you know, nice to have a good looking woman. He says, listen, the only answer to the question, why do you love me? That she wants, that you want, and the only answer that God gives us is this,

I love you just because I love you. So God is saying, I don't love you because you humbled yourself. I don't love you because you chose me. I don't love you because you somehow got yourself moral enough to come follow me. I love you just because I love you. And the Bible says he chose us in love

before the foundation of the world. And that means a Christian can say, I'm gonna screw up, I'm gonna screw up. But the stars may fall from the heavens, and yet his love for me will stand. Why? Because his love for me, his love is older than the stars, and it will outlive the stars. And therefore, I'm safe in his love is older than the stars, and it will outlive the stars.

And therefore I am safe in his love." It's estimated that most of us spend half of our waking hours at work. How does the wisdom of the Bible apply to our careers? In other words, how can our work connect with God's work and help us make our vocations more emotional? In his book, Every Good Endeavour, Tim Keller draws from decades of teaching on work and calling to show you how to find true joy in your work as you serve God and others. The book offers surprising insights into how the Christian view of work can provide the foundation of a thriving professional and balanced personal life.

Every Good Endeavour is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel and Life share Christ's love with more people around the world. Just visit Gospel and Life.com slash give. That's Gospel and Life.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. You know, I don't know what your self-esteem is based on, what your self-worth is based on. So what your self-esteem is based on, what your self-worth is based on, but if you would like to be free from the ups and downs of a self-image based on your performance, what

people say about you, here it is. So Jesus Christ says, the text says, ultimately, you can't even believe in Him without His help. And that's good news. Now, the second thing he says here, and right here, it's in verse 46, I have come into the rows of light so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness. Okay, so the first part of this text is telling us that we're so weak that we can't believe unless God helps us to believe, but that's good news. It humbles us, it gives us security, it gives us tremendous peace, but at the same time

encourages initiative. And this doctrine is just as insulting. And that, as he says, unless you have me, you're in darkness. It doesn't say you might fall into darkness if you don't have me. It's assuming that everybody in this world is in darkness and he's the only light. Now how could that be true? What Jesus is saying here is,

the world is a dark place and it cannot ignite its own light. See, darkness is a metaphor. You know, we use darkness as a metaphor. It's a metaphor in the Bible too. One of the things it means is hopelessness. If you ask somebody who's going through a hard time, how are you doing, they may say, I see light at the end of the tunnel.

Light, what was that mean? It means I see things that are really bad, but I actually think there's hope that it might be over. Or if there's no hope that person might say, I just can't. It's just all dark, I can't see any light. So it's a metaphor. So darkness can mean hopelessness. It can also mean evil.

Darkness is, of course, a metaphor for evil. And when Jesus says, without me, without something from outside this world, this world is a dark place. He's saying that the world does not have the resources for either hope or a solution for evil. The world cannot generate its own resources. Human resources cannot possibly give hope or deal with the problem of evil. That has to come from outside. Let me give you

two famous quotes that explain that. The first one has to do with hope, okay? Bertrand Russell, 19th, 20th century atheist philosopher. He believed in science. Now look, I'm all for science. Science gave us medicine, science gave us air, flight, a lot of other good things. But what he's trying to say is science, without religion, can only tell us about natural causes in the material world.

And he says, science alone, which is what he believed. He didn't believe there was anything outside of this life. He didn't believe there's an afterlife, there was a God, there was a supernatural transcend, he didn't believe at all. Any of that. And by the way, science as a method has to always assume there's a natural cause for everything. And so what he was doing here is he was saying, science without religion, method has to always assume there's a natural cause for everything. And so what he was doing here is he was saying, science without religion, here's what science without any kind of religious faith can tell you about the world.

Listen, he says, the world which science presents to us, this is virtue and Russell, is this. Human beings are the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving. So you're here because of certain forces, but you weren't here for any purpose. There's nothing personal going on here. This is human beings of the product of causes which had no prevision of the end they were achieving. And human origin, growth, hopes, and fears, loves and beliefs are all the outcome of an accidental collocation of atoms. No fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought or feeling can preserve an individual life beyond the grave. All the labors of the ages, all the devotion, inspiration, and noonday brightness of

human genius is destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system. And man's achievement must have never be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins. Now, what is what is Bertrand Russell saying? Believe it or not, he's saying exactly what Jesus is saying. If this life is all there is, there's no God, there's no afterlife. We were not put here for any purpose. While we're here, we can do what we want to do, but then when we die, we rot. And after a little while,

nobody will remember anything you've done. And after a little longer while, the sun will burn up, and nobody will be even around to remember anything that ever happened. And if that's all there is to life, your prospects are dark, right? Bertrand Russell saying, if you have science only and you don't have anything outside of the material world, that's your prospect. In fact, he goes so far as to say, if you don't believe there's anything outside of this world, he says, only within the scaffolding of these truths on the firm foundation of a yielding despair, can your soul's habitation henceforth be safely built? He says, only within the scaffolding of these truths on the firm foundation of a yielding despair can your soul's habitation henceforth be safely built.

He says, don't get your hopes up. Don't believe in any kind of hope. And this is the only way to face life. There is no hope. And that's exactly what Jesus was saying. You got nothing but darkness, unless you look to me. The other thing, by the way, we said darkness also symbolizes evil, right? And therefore, what Jesus is saying, when he says,

I'm the light and you are in the darkness, he's saying, without me, you also have no solution for the problem of evil. Now, the person, interesting, the person who I think helps us here is Martin Luther King Jr. Now in 1963, Martin Luther King Jr. was put into jail in Birmingham. He had been doing civil disobedience. He'd been breaking some laws he thought were segregation laws and he thought were unjust. And he was put into jail.

And a number of white ministers wrote him a letter and they said, how can you, as a Christian minister, encourage people to break the law? They said, the law is the law. This is a legitimate, democratically achieved law. It was voted on by the majority, and these laws are the laws. And how can you tell if you're a Christian minister, how can you tell people to disobey the law?

And this is what Martin Luther King Jr. said in the letter to Birmingham from Birmingham jail, very famous letter you can find it online, 1963, and he said this among other things. He says, how does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with a moral law, or law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law.

St. Thomas Aquinas said, an unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal and natural law. So Martin Luther King, Jr. says, look, because there's an eternal law, because there's God's law, human laws might be just or unjust. We have to decide if they are unjust because they're not in line with God's law, then we can disobey them. Now, here's something fascinating about what he's saying. If this world is all there is, and there is no eternal law, there is no divine law, right? If this world is all we have, there's no God, there's no

afterlife, there's no eternal law, then actually, what have we got when you look at the laws? We've got nothing but a power struggle. You may think the law is right, you may think the law is wrong, whoever gets the most votes, whoever asks the most money, that's the way it is. But Marley the King Jr said no. If you know that there's a divine law, there's something outside of this world that sheds light on what's going on here and we can tell what is right and what is wrong, we can work for justice. Now one of the ironies, by the way, of our modern situation, and it's a big irony, is that our cultural elites all rightly revere Martin Luther King Jr. for what he did.

And yet they reject this very idea, which was the very basis for his action. They say, oh no, we don't believe in God's law. We don't believe there's a moral law out there. We believe in moral relativism. We believe that all moral values are person-specific or culturally constructed. So they deny the very basis for what he did. And you know what happens? When you spend 50 years in all of our elite universities telling young people that morality

is relative, there is no eternal law by which we can judge who's right and wrong and everybody, you know, moral reality is relative. You know what happens? I don't know, Wells Fargo, thousands evidently, or at least hundreds of employees for years opened 2 million checking savings and credit card accounts without the permission of the clients in order to charge them. That's systemic, that's incredible. Or Facebook finally admitted last week that what they've been telling advertisers

was the number of seconds and minutes that people watched their ads was over. They overestimated by 80%. They were vastly out of line with the reality. And therefore, they were overcharging all the advertisers. I mean, look, Paul Krugman of all people, you know, he writes to the New York Times. Paul Krugman wrote an article in the New York Times magazine a couple of years ago in which he said he realized in the 70s and 80s, for the first time we were told,

anything goes with regard to sex. He says, about 1990s, I realized the same thing was now happening. People now believed anything goes with regard to money. Any way I can get that money, Matt. He says, you can't be relativistic in one area of life like sex and not be relativistic in the area of law and money and business. So you tell everybody, morality is relative, and then you expect them to be honest. Or as CS Lewis put it, we laugh at honor and are surprised to find traders in our midst. We castrate the gildings and bid them be fruitful. Martin Luther King Jr. said, there's light up there that sheds light on here.

There's an eternal law. Otherwise, there is no way to tell what is right and what is wrong, what is just and what is unjust. And that's exactly what Jesus is saying. He says, if this world is all you got, if the human race is all you got, you are in darkness, but I am the light of the world. Now here's the last thing he says. The last thing he says in the very end, from verse 47 to 50, is about judgment.

And he tells us two things about judgment. The first is in verse 48, that there will be a judgment day. It's a long sentence, but take a look at it, verse 48, starts says, there is a judge, and the very end of the sentence says, on the last day, there will be a judge and the very end of the sentence says on the last day. There will be a judge on the last day. At the end of time there will be a judgment day. And that's good news. Miroslav Wolf, who is a friend of some of us, and he's a Croatian philosopher, theologian.

Back in the 1990s he wrote a book called Exclusion and Embrace It Had A lot to do with the bloodshed that was happening in the Balkans where he's from. And there he said, he said, is hard for Western people to understand the importance of the doctrine of a judgment day. Because he says, if you have had your daughters raped, your sons beheaded, and house is burned to the ground, and you're still alive. And you're told there is no God, or there's just a God of love, and there will never be a judgment day. So if all that's happened to you, and you're told, there's never gonna be a judgment day,

but you need to learn to get along with other people. They're gonna push you aside, they're gonna pick up whatever weapon is available, and they're gonna go out and have their own judgment day. And he says, anybody who's been wrong like that will know that. But Miroslav said, Miroslavov said, however, if you believe there is a judgment day coming, if you believe that someday God will stand on the earth and He will write every wrong, and every evil will be redressed and every

sin will be paid for and he will do it perfectly and he will do it proportionately and everything will be set straight. If you believe that then and only then if you got something powerful enough perhaps to get you to put your weapon down and to start living at peace. So the doctrine of judgment day, if you care about. So the doctrine of a judgment day, if you care about justice, the doctrine of judgment day is good news. There's no hope for the world if there's no judgment day, but the other problem is then, yeah,

if there's no judgment day, there's no hope for the world, but if there is a judgment day, what hope is there for you and me? Because we're far from perfect. You know, Francis Schaeffer has that little illustration that's so good where he says, you know, imagine that God puts a little invisible recorder around your neck and all during your life, all it records is whenever you tell somebody else how they ought to be living.

So every time you say you ought or you should, it's picking it up. On judgment day, imagine, this is a part of the Francis shape for illustration, imagine on judgment day, God takes that little invisible recorder off your neck and sets it down and says, you know, I'm the judge of all the earth, this is judgment day, but I'm going to show you how fair minded I am. I'm the most fair minded judge of the earth you could possibly imagine, because I'm not even going to judge you according to the eternal law. I'm just going to judge you according to your own standards

that you've been saying over the year of whole lifetime that you've laid on other people. How much more fair could that be? And then he's going to turn it on and there's not a person on the face of the earth who could even live up to that low bar of judgment day. There is, look, if there's of judgment day. There is, look, if there's no judgment day, there's no hope for the world.

If there is a judgment day, there's no hope for us, unless you believe, verse 47. If anyone hears my words, Jesus says, but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. You know why? Because when he was speaking, he says this, I did not come this time to judge the world, but to save the world.

Here's your hope. Why is Jesus saying this? Because when he came into the world the first time, he didn't come to bring judgment, he came to bear judgment. He didn't come to bring judgment. He came to bear judgment. He didn't come with a spear in his hand. He came with a spear in his side, with nails in his hands, with thorns in his skull. On the cross, the light of the world was plunged into darkness. It literally says it was the middle of the day, but when in the middle of the day, the light of the world was plunged into darkness. It literally says it was the middle of the day,

but in the middle of the day, when Jesus Christ was on the cross, darkness fell upon the land. Why? The light of the world was being plunged into darkness. The one person who had the right to judge us was being judged. The one person who had the right to condemn us was being condemned. He was standing in our place. He was taking our judgment day.

Didn't we say judgment day was a day when every sin is paid for? But if you believe in Jesus Christ, He pays for it. And that means your judgment day is already over. You believe in Jesus Christ the day you believe in Him, the moment you believe in Him, your judgment day is in the past. And you don't have to worry about the verdict, because the verdict is in. This is my beloved child in whom I'm well pleased.

In Jesus Christ, you are perfect, you are loved, you are beautiful, you are clean in the eyes of the Father. I know what that means, not just that you don't have to be afraid of that day. You don't have to care what anybody else thinks. And we have a crunch gym next door. Do you remember what the slogan used to be of crunch gyms in New York City? Remember what the slogan was?

No judgments, remember that? Because New Yorkers like to say, oh, we're not judgmental. We're not like the people out there in the rest of America. No judgments. We don't judge people. You know, we let you be who you want to be. No judgments. We don't judge people. We let you be who you want to be. No judgments. What a lie.

Because this is New York and it is so competitive and if you walk around New York, you're being judged all the time. They're looking at you. Look at how she dresses. You're going to be judged on your waistline. You're going to be judged on your looks. You're going to be judged on your smarts. You're going to be judged on your looks. You're going to be judged on your, certainly your smart. You're going to be judged on how productive you are. You're going to be judged on your bank account. Be constantly judged. And if you live for those things, if those are the main things

you live for, really, if you just come to church in order to get a little bit of a boost inspiration, but the main things that give meaning to your life is your career, or romance, or something like that. You're going to be living your whole life judged. The mirror will judge you. Your bank account will judge you.

But Jesus Christ is the only judge who was judged already. If you go to Him and He make Him the center of His life, of your life, then you can say that everybody else in the world, I don't care what you think. I don't care what you think, and that's freedom. In Jesus Christ, no judgment, because the judgment's all fell in Him.

And so Jesus Christ says, come to me, know my love, know my light, know my power. Let's pray. So Father, wow, these messages. Judgment day is good news, especially for those who have turned to your Son. The world is a dark place, but in you we have the light. And we need your help even to believe, even to choose you. And yet, all these things are good news.

Lord, how do we, as a church, take this message of the world? It's going to take a lot of ingenuity, but we just pray first. We can start this way. Teach us to let these great messages be good news to us right now. Let it change our lives. Let it give us the poise, let us give us the joy, let us give us all the things that these truths should give us so that we can represent your Son to the world. Make us like Him. We pray and Jesus name. Amen.

Thanks for listening to today's teaching from Dr. Keller and representing Christ to the world. If you're encouraged by this podcast, we invite you to consider becoming a gospel and life monthly partner to help more people access this resource. Just visit gospelandlife.com slash partner to learn more. This month's sermons are a selection of recordings from 1996 to 2016. 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.