Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Sent with Grace

Episode Date: February 10, 2023

When Jesus knew it was his last time to train his disciples, he started their training with foot washing.  He gets up out of his place as the guest of honor, and he puts on a towel, picks up a basin, and begins to wash their feet. We’ve seen that this has symbolism that tells us who Jesus is. We look now at how it tells us what he came to give us: his salvation. We learn here that 1) we have a deep problem, 2) there’s a twofold cure, and 3) why and how we can get it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 16, 2016. Series: Jesus, Mission, and Glory: New Purpose. Scripture: John 13:6-11. 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. The scripture reading is from the book of John, chapter 13, verses 6 through 11. He came to Simon Peter who said to him, Lord, are you going to wash my feet? Jesus replied, you do not realize now what I am doing,

but later you will understand. No, said Peter, you shall never wash my feet. Jesus answered, unless I wash you, you have no part with me. Then Lord, Simon Peter replied, not just my feet, but my hands and my head as well. Jesus answered, those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet. Their whole body is clean, and you are clean, though not every one of you. For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said,

not every one was clean, the word of the Lord. Now, Jesus, the night before he was to die, put his disciples through a kind of intensive training course, and we have that in John chapter 13, 17. He was about to send them out into the world. This was his last chance before he died to speak to them, and John chapter 13 to 17 is actually the longest single body of teaching we have in the New Testament from Jesus. Now, the rise campaign or what we're calling rise is actually Redeemer's asking God to

send us out into our city in a new and heightened way. And so what we're going to do is we're going to submit to the same training regimen as it were. We're going to listen to the teaching and undergo the same intensive. And so we're going to march right through, John chapter 13 to 17, verse by verse, all during the year. And it's striking, I think, that when Jesus knew this is his last time with his disciples to train them, he started the training with the footwashing.

We started looking at this last week. He gets up out of his place as the guest of honor and he puts on a towel, picks up a basin, begins to wash their feet. This has to be incredibly significant. Fill with meaning or he wouldn't have started, is very last training session with it. And it's important for us, because he's training people to represent him in the world. So what does it mean?

And we're looking at it for three weeks. Last week we saw that it is filled with symbolism, it tells us who he is, who Jesus is. This week we're gonna look at the second part of the account. It actually the account of the footwashing goes all the way from chapter 13 verse 1 all the way to verse 17. We're looking at this section in which it tells us not who he is so much as what he came to give us. What he came to give us. What he offers us. And then next week we'll look at what the footwashing means for our relationships with each other.

Now, what is it that he comes to give us? His salvation. But what do we learn here? We learn, we have a deep problem, there's a twofold cure, and we also learn why and how we can get it. We learn here there's a deep problem, and there's a twofold cure for that problem, and we also learn here why and how we can get it. We learn here there's a deep problem and there's a twofold cure for that problem. And we also learn here why and how we can get it. So first, what is the deep problem?

Well, I think you see it in verse 8 where Peter says, you shall never wash my feet. And Jesus answered, unless I wash you, you will have no part in me. Now, last week we talked about the foot washing itself. What did that mean? People in that hot-air climate who were invited to go to a banquet, they would take a bath, of course, before they went, but when they got there, because they wore sandals and it was a hot-air climate, their feet would be very dusty,

they'd be very dirty, and in order to get, you know, in order to sit down at a table and a great banquet, you had your feet washed so that you were clean, head to toe as it were. But footwashing was something that was very foul, it was very, obviously smelly and foul, and it was considered something that only the lowest ranking slave would be made to do. But here's Jesus Christ, the guest of honor, who suddenly gets down on his hands and knees and begins to wash the feet and it's unconscionable, it's offensive, it's shocking. And when Peter, it's probably all the disciples were shocked, but Peter is the only one that

speaks out and that's typical of Peter, very impetuous, and he says, are you wanna wash my feet? You will never wash my feet. Now that sounds, it might be partly, deferential, humble. It might be a good way for Peter to say, well, you're too great to have this, should be doing this. But there's more to it probably than that.

He's insulted too. You can just tell, he's insulted. Why? Because he's essentially saying, look, if you can't find another slave to do this, let's just not do it. I mean, am I that bad off? Am I so socially unacceptable?

See, why do you clean before you go into a nice banquet? Because dirt and stench is relationally repugnant. If you're a New Yorker, you know the experience of getting on a subway car and noticing everybody's packed away at one end of the car and there's one person sitting at the other end, nobody around them. Usually it's a person who is a stench person. The smell is too. As soon as you move to that part of the car, you can hardly handle it. Because dirt and stench just makes you recoil. And if somebody comes up to you who's very dirty and stinks, you can't embrace them, you recoil. And so, of course, you have to be clean

to be in respectable company. And so Peter understands that. And yet, here's Jesus doing something so drastic as anything, come on, it can't be that bad. Am I that bad? That you know, if we can't get somebody else to do it, then let's not do it. Am I that bad? That you, that, you know, if we can't get somebody else to do it then let's not do it. Am I that bad?

And what does Jesus say in verse eight? He says, unless I wash your, you have no part with me, which is his way of saying, yeah, you are that bad. Yes, it is drastic what I'm doing, but you have got a problem. And only I can solve it. Only I can cure it. It's that bad. And only drastic measures will cure it. Well, not clearly Jesus is talking at a symbolic

level here, right? He's not actually saying that literal dirtiness is going to mean he has no part with me. In fact, the word part, you see in verse 8, what he says, you have no part with me, it's a Greek word Jesus uses that usually means an inheritance. In normal Greek parlance, the word actually meant to disinherit somebody. So you have no part in me, means you're out of the will. You've been written out of the will.

But of course, that's not what the word means in the Bible. The inheritance that Jesus Christ gives us eternal life. And so Jesus is actually saying, if I don't wash you, and of course it will take drastic measures, if I don't do that, you cannot be saved. You cannot have eternal life. Well then what does the dirt represent? Because if the water, and it says represents eternal life,

what does the dirt represent? And the answer, of course, the dirt and the stench, and the uncleanness is one of the biblical metaphors for sin. So in Psalm 51 verse 2, David asked, God, he says, wash away my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin. In Acts 22 or 16, the servant goes like this, at the end of the sermon, the servant, Paul, servant goes, get up and be baptized

and wash your sins away, calling upon his name. Now, you gotta be careful here, because there's no one metaphor for sin, and the Bible uses many metaphors for sin. There's no one metaphor that gets across all the freight of what the Bible means by sin. But I think you can begin to see what the metaphors have in common. Dirt, stench, is alienating. When someone is dirty and stinks, it puts a barrier.

You can't embrace them. And so one of the ways that we get this across is through the image of unclenliness, and unclenliness means there's a barrier between you and God. You've got to be washed. Now let me show you how almost all the metaphors work like that. Here's another metaphor for sin, and that is it's a debt. So let's just say you have a friend. And one day that friend attacks you physically and robs you.

Now the next day the friend comes to see you in your in the hospital. And the friend says, you know, I'm really sorry. Let's just be friends. And you're going to say, no, it's not quite that easy. There is a barrier between us. You owe me. You owe a debt. Or I mean, justice has to be done. This was wrong. This is illegal. In other words, something is going to have to be done about the barrier between us. You're going to have to pay. You're going to have to be some kind of penalty. And of course, that's another metaphor for sin.

Sin is a debt that has to be paid. Sin is a stench, a stain that has to be cleansed. But what they all do is they're saying, sin creates a barrier between you and God. Just like it puts a barrier between you and other people, but it puts a barrier between you and God. And Jesus is saying, yes, this is shocking, drastic behavior. I've come down so low, but it's the only way that you can be saved. It's the only way that we can deal with this problem. Now, I think it's important to keep in mind that Peter's, Peter who doesn't really feel he's that bad,

and he doesn't really feel like he really needs such drastic measures, is that he has many errors today. We are a very Peterish culture. In general, there's probably more Peters around there ever have been. What do I mean by that? Well, we live in a culture that says guilt is really not that big a deal anymore. Yes, in the past, people were racked with guilt. But we've come to see what? Our modern culture is marked by this idea. There is only one moral absolute, and that one moral absolute is that everyone should

feel free, should be free, to choose their moral absolutes. And therefore, moddos of our modern times go like this. You can't make me feel guilty. You can't put your, you can't tell me how I have to live my life. You have no right to tell me how to live. Every human being is free and determined right or wrong for themselves. So you can't put your guilt trip on me. You can't put your values on me.

I'm free to decide how to live my own life. And that's the reason why many people today are Peter-ish in the sense that they say, you know, our parents and grandparents, they struggle with guilt, they're racked with guilt all the time, but we're modern people, we're free thinking people, we're not racked with guilt, guilt is not a big problem for us today. Yeah, but here's one thing everybody seems to say is a big deal. Books about this fly off the shelves, books about this, take up entire walls of Barnes

and Noble. Videos on this are watched billions of times, and that is not guilt, but shame. And over the last 30 years, at least in Western culture, there have been a number of people who have come along and they have taught this. They said, well, guilt is kind of old fashioned. Guilt is, I feel bad about what I've done. I've broken the moral law. I feel bad about what I've done.

But shame is different. Shame is feeling bad about who you are. Guild is over, it's feeling bad about something I've done and I can make right, but shame is something more all-encompassing, shame is sort of deeper, shame is more incoherent, it's more difficult, shame is just feeling bad about you who you are and one of the experts on this today defines it like the shame is the persistent sense of being

unworthy of love and belonging. It's a persistent sense of being unworthy, just unworthy of love, unacceptable, not as I ought to be, not embraceable, dirty. So you see, I mean, as far as it goes, when you define guilt is bad about what feeling bad about what you've done, and shame is feeling bad about who you are, unworthy, you know, unembraceable, you know, unacceptable, something's wrong with me. Yeah, at one level, they are different, but at the very bottom. Comes down, I think, to the same thing. There's a feeling of being fouled, of not being fit for people, feeling like I'm unworthy of respectable, you know, a respectable company.

And years ago, Franz Kafka, 80, 90 years ago, wrote a great novel that kind of nails this, I think. He wrote the novel, The Trial. And it was about a man, Joseph Kay, who was arrested. And he's never told what he's accused of. And he spends the whole novel trying to figure out what he's accused of, and have no idea. He doesn't know what he's done wrong, but he's still under arrest.

He's still under arrest. At the very end, one of his prison guards stabs him, kills him. That's how the book ends. And in one of his, in a diary, one of his diaries, Franz Koffe explains what he was trying to get across. He says, the state in which we modern people, I guess you may be saying, the state in which we find ourselves

today is sinful, quite independent of guilt. in which we modern people, I guess you may be saying, the state in which we find ourselves today is sinful, quite independent of guilt. Sinful, but independent of guilt. And you see what he's saying? He was saying, look, we say, we don't believe in God, we don't believe in the moral law, we don't believe in hell, we don't believe in judgment. You can't make me feel guilty.

You know, everybody has to decide what is right wrong for them. And yet, we still't believe in judgment. You can't make me feel guilty. Everybody has to decide what is right or wrong for them. And yet, we still feel like sinners. We still feel like there's something wrong with us. We still feel shame. We still have a sense of condemnation we can't shake. We still have a sense of being an imposter. Still feel like we're unworthy.

Why is it that some of you work too hard and you keep saying, I gotta stop it, but you can't. Why is it some of you just can't say no to helping people? So there's no boundaries and you're helping people and just sinking. Why is some of you absolutely afraid of commitment? Because you don't want anybody to actually get in there and really see what you're like? Well, I know what their experts are going to say. It's shame. You don't feel worthy.

That's right. And Franz Kafka says, even though you still don't believe in guilt, you don't believe in maybe heaven, you don't believe in God, you don't believe in judgment or hell or any of those things, you still feel like a sinner. Yeah, you do. You still feel like you your dirty, you're soiled, you're fouled, there's something wrong with you. The Bible says the reason why you can't get rid of that, even if you say, I don't believe in God or moral law at all, even if you say I'm a relativist, the reason why you can't get rid of it,

because the Bible says that deep down inside, Romans 1 and 2, tells us deep down inside, Romans 1 and 2 tells us deep down inside we know there is a God. We know we owe that God everything and we know we're not giving him what we owe him and there's something wrong we feel something wrong. It's a memory trace in the human race and it's called shame. So that's your deep problem and and we've all got it, and even if you don't believe in guilt, you still got it. So what's the cure?

There's a twofold cure, and that's what's interesting about this. There's a twofold cure that Jesus says, I have come to do this. I'm the only one that can do it. I'm the only one that can actually solve. Unless you let me wash you, see, you cannot inherit eternal life. I know what I'm doing is drastic, but it's necessary. Well, what is it that he brings?

In verse 10, you actually see there's a twofold cure. Jesus answered, those who have had, excuse me. In verse 9, after Jesus says, hey, if I don't wash you, you can't have eternal life. Peter says, well, then give me a whole bath. That's in verse 9. Okay, you know, talk about pendulum swings, you know, come on, Peter, let's just, just, you know, let's even kill. Okay, it's, no, you'll never, never, never watch me. Oh, everything, please, everything. And Jesus says, those who have had a bath need only to watch their feet, their whole body is clean. Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet. Their whole body is clean.

Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet. And what he's talking about is two things. Now again, he's speaking metaphorically. What he's saying is, and this is, he's extending the metaphor. Look Peter, you have come here, you took a bath, and you walked over here, and you don't need another bath. You just need to have your feet washed. So over there, you had a bath, and you had your feet washed today.

I mean, now that you got over here, you just need a foot wash. And that's, he's playing on the common experience that people had in those days. But clearly, he's being metaphor metaphorical and he's saying, my salvation has a once and done, unrepeatable aspect to it, and yet at the same time it has a repeatable aspect. So this cleansing from sin that I can bring you, this cleansing from sin, there's a once, unrepeatable, once and done aspect, that's the bath. But then there's a need for footwashing. There's a repeatable one, too.

Now, Jesus does not explain what that is. And if we didn't have the rest of the Bible, we wouldn't know, because He doesn't explain it here. But guess what? We do have the rest of the Bible. And in the rest of the Bible, here's what we learn. First of all, in Titus chapter three, verse five and six, Paul says, here's how we become Christians.

He says, we become Christians quote, through the washing of regeneration by the Holy Spirit. And the word he uses there, Lutron is literally a bath. And what he says is, when you become a Christian, you're born again. The Holy Spirit comes in, your heart is regenerated, and there's a sense in which the Holy Spirit washes you. But also, let's use both metaphors we've been using, not only that your sins are washed away by the Holy Spirit.

But on the other hand, don't forget the other metaphor. In Romans chapter 8 verse 1, it says, now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And in Philippians 3, it says, where Paul says, I want to be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own through performing the law, but a righteousness which is a gift from God through faith in Jesus Christ. Now what both of those, all those verse are saying is this, that when you become a Christian, you are

pardoned, permanently pardoned. Your sins can no longer bring you into condemnation. That you are now, as it were, Paul says in Philippians 3, closed in the righteousness of Jesus Christ as a gift. God doesn't look at your record when he sees you, if you're a Christian, you believe in Jesus Christ. God sees Jesus' record. And so what this is saying is that the very moment you become a Christian, when God looks at you, he sees something clean and beautiful, he sees you in Jesus. And it also means that your sins, even when you do them, they can never again bring you

into condemnation and lose that relationship with God. And it means that the moment you become a Christian, the very first second you give your life to Christ and believe in Him, you're as loved a Christian, the very first second you give your life to Christ and believe in Him. You're as loved by God the Father that moment as you will be five billion years from now when you have a glorified soul and body. 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 endeavor 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.

So that's great. And that's once and done, it's unrepeatable. You don't need it again. You're clean. But well, then what's the what's the footwashing thing? What's that metaphor work? I mean, and you see in first John chapter one, verse eight and nine, it says that whenever we sin, we should go to God and confess our sins and he will forgive us. And James chapter 5 actually says that we should confess our sins to each other. That is to say, we should admit sins to each other and then go to God together to get forgiveness. So here's what we want to know. Why if the first moment that we believe we are pardoned so that our sins will never bring us into condemnation, why do we need to keep coming back?

And confessing our sins. If we've been bathed, why do we need a foot washing? That's what Jesus is saying. You need one bath and multiple foot washings. Well then, why, how's that work? Well years ago, I read a little booklet by John Stott, a book that I cannot find, and I cannot tell what even the name of it is, though I think I remember.

It doesn't matter because it was enormously helpful. I read it when I was in college, when I was a new Christian. He was actually trying to explain this very thing, and here's what he said, imagine a family. And it's a solid family. There's a mother, a father, there's children. They are a loving family. They're a legal family. These are your legal parents and so forth.

And let's just say one of the children very disabays, very flagrantly, violates what the parents said, maybe insults the parents, say terrible things parents, runs out of the room. Should that child come back and say, I'm sorry. Should that child ask for forgiveness? Yes, but here's what John Stodd said. When that child sins like that,

basically violates and sins against the parents. Does that mean now the child's not in the family? Does that mean the child's written out of the will? Does that mean the child is not legally still a child of the family? No, it hasn't changed the legal relationship at all. Not only that, it hasn't really changed the attitude of the parents' heart toward the child. Those of you who are parents know that when one of your children rebels, yes, you're upset, yes, you can get very angry. And yet, if anything, your heart is more drawn to the child, right?

Because that's your child. And so, the sin of the child does not change the fundamental legal relationship. It doesn't even affect the fundamental attitude of the parent toward the child. But boy, does that child need to come back and say, I'm sorry, why? Wouldn't everybody say that?

Of course you would, why? The child needs to come back to repair the fellowship, to repair the daily fellowship with his parents. But also, if that child doesn't confess, that child's gonna keep doing what they do. And never grow and never mature and never get to the place where they don't do that anymore.

That's how he's a come back and humble him or herself. And repair the fellowship between the child and the parent. And as they do that, they're growing. And that's exactly what Jesus Christ says has to happen. You need to realize that you are pardoned. And your's exactly what Jesus Christ says has to happen. You need to realize that you are pardoned and your relationship with God, you cannot suddenly fall into condemnation when you sin. But you need to come back, not only to repair the relationship, but to humble yourself and change. And therefore, you need one bath and multiple foot washings. And

do you see, by the way, how important this is? You've got to believe in both, do you? See, what if you only believed in the bath? All you believed is, once you become a Christian, there's no condemnation, vows and Christ Jesus, and you're great, what is that gonna do to you? It's gonna harden you, and you're gonna say, hey, I got my little morning in certificate, signed, sealed, I can live anyway I want until the day I die,

then I'll be fine. To make you a hard person. So if you only believed in the bath and not the knee for the foot washings, it would make you a hard person. But if you only believed in the foot washings and didn't know about the bath, what if you thought that every time you sinned,

you had to go back and really get saved all over again? What if you thought that every time you sinned suddenly, the relationship with God was totally broken, and now you have to go back, and you've got to show how sorry you are, and somehow get God's mercy back. What if you, that wouldn't make you a hard person, that would make you an extremely anxious person,

a very upset person. You'd be a lot like Martin Luther was before he grasped the doctrine of justification by faith alone. Luther was a monk and he actually began to understand what it meant to have a sinful heart. If you read the sermon on the mount, and Jesus says, hey, if you just lust after somebody who committed adultery, if you just envy, you've committed theft, if you just resent, it's like committing murder. And once you figure that out, like Martin Luther, but he didn't understand the idea that you're saved

once for all. He didn't understand the idea of the once-for-all bath, that he was justified, that there was no condemnation. He didn't get that. He actually thought that every time he went to Confess, he was sort of completely redoing his relationship with God. And as a result, Martin Luther was just, there must have been a priest in a Confessor box who did nothing but Luther. Because like every 20 minutes, oh my gosh, he was Martin again, oh my word. Had a lustful thought.

You better get back and better confess why? Because my gosh, I mean, what have I died before I confessed? You see, if you know the bath and not the foot washings, you become an antinomian, a hard person, a person that I can live anyway I want. But if you know the foot washing and not the bath, you become a legalist and incredibly anxious person. But if you know them both, you not only have a rest

and a peace, but you only have a rest and a piece, but you also have the motivation to grow. And I got to tell you over the years, you know, in marriage, it's a shame how often we have to say, would you please forgive me? Would you please forgive me? Would you please forgive me? Would you please, it's scary how often that has to happen.

And it's probably not good how often it happens, but it's one of the most amazing things about that, is it makes the love stronger, it makes you a different person. So the point is here that it's a twofold cure that Jesus Christ has provided, and everybody's got the problem. He says, this will cure your shame.

This will cure your guilt. This will deal with that sense that you're unclean. This will do it. Now, so we come finally to ask the question, how is this possible? And how do you actually grasp this cure? How is it even possible? See, or put it this way, why is this possible? And how do you actually grasp this cure? How is it even possible? See, or put it this way.

Why is it possible? And how do you actually grasp it? Why is it possible? How is it possible? And so let's answer those questions here under the third point. First of all, why is it possible? I'll tell you why he tells you. Verse 7.

You do not realize what I'm doing, but later you will understand. In verse 7, Jesus says, I know you don't understand what I'm doing, but it won't be long before you do. So what is he referring to? Later you want, what is he talking about? Later after what? The cross and the resurrection. He says, and besides that, what does it mean that he gets up from his table and he gets down on his knees? What does it mean that he was up here

at the table and he gets down on his knees and he's doing this humble act of a servant? What does it mean? He's acting out what Paul talks about in Philippine's two, that though he was equal with God, he didn't hold on to his equality with God, but he laid aside his glory. And he came to earth and became a mortal human being, but not just a human being, but a servant who served us and was obedient even to the death of a cross. That's what Paul says. And so when he's down on his knees, acting like a slave, washing Peter's feet, he's acting out what he does. It's a symbol of what he's going to do when he goes to the cross. And so what Jesus is saying is, this will all me

make clear when you see me go to the cross. Because what happened on the cross? Why would the cross be the answer to your shame and your guilt? Why would it be that? Well, keep in mind that Jesus Christ wasn't just, he wasn't shot, of course. He wasn't just, he wasn't decapitated. There's a lot of ways to execute a person. He was crucified.

Why? Because crucifixion was the most shameful possible death. It was a shaming death. You know that. A person being crucified is stripped naked. While you're dying, you're stripped naked. Why? It's a shaming.

He was spit on. He was fouled. Remember, they spit on him. He was fouled. He was mocked to shame him. And then finally, they crucified him on a garbage dump amongst the feces and the excrement. In every single way, Jesus Christ was experiencing a shaming death, a shameful death. He was getting the shame you deserve.

He was being treated truly as unworthy of love and belonging. He was getting the shame we deserve so that we could have our sins pardoned and turn to the Father and know that we are clean and beautiful and fragrant in his eyes, in his sight. You know, then what are you supposed to do with that? See, that's why it's possible. That's the reason why the cure is possible, because he took the shame we deserve. That's why it's possible that we can be free

from our own guilt and shame. But you say, well, how do I actually get a hold of that by looking? Now, here's what I mean by that. By looking at the cross. I got out some bold books I had read, you know, from 25 or 30 years ago. There were a lot of books on the difference when you shamed and guilt.

And what do you do about your shame? You're sensitive on worthiness. And now, by the way, I don't have to get out books. I just watch TED Talks and videos. Millions of people on, how do you heal shame? What do you do with shame? And all the shame gurus say the same thing. They very often shame comes because there's a voice. It's a voice and the voice comes and shames you. It's a shaming voice and it says

you're this kind of person or you're not this kind of person or why don't you ever do this or why don't you ever do that or you're not good at this and And all the books and the videos say, what you need to do is you need to realize what those shaming voices are saying, and you need to argue with them. Don't just listen, don't just accept it, argue with it. I'm here to tell you, don't do that.

You know why? You will lose. Say, the shaming voice will say, you're not a person like that. You say, well, yes, I am. And you know what the shaming voice will say, you're not a person like that. You say, well, yes, I am. And you know what the shaming voice is? The shaming voice is a much better memory than you do. Because the shaming voice will say, OK, what about last Tuesday at 830? You will always lose because the shaming voice wants you to look at yourself.

And if you get into an argument with the shaming voice, you'll start looking at yourself. And the more you look at yourself, the more stuff you're gonna see. There's another way to go. In Pilgrim's progress, it's an allegory, about the Christian journey. Christian is journeying along, and he's got this huge burden on his back, and it's just crushing him.

It's the burden of his shaming guilt. And it's just crushing him, and he doesn't know how to be relieved of his burden. So what he does is he tries to get advice and he goes to Mr. Worldlywise and he says, I'm just crushed on to this burden. What can I do? Mr. Worldlywise, you see that hill over there? It's called the Hill of Morality. And at the top there's a a house there. And if you get up there, the person up there, Mr. Legality, will tell you how to be rid of your burden. That's great.

So Christian starts to walk up the hill. And what's weird is, as he's walking up the hill, as he's struggling up the mountain of morality, he finds the burden's getting worse and worse and worse. It's not getting better. He thought, well, I thought the closer I get to the top, the more moral I get, I'd be feeling better, but no, of course not.

Because actually the more you try to be a good person, the more you look at yourself, the more you're gonna see, where you're falling short. And he finally says, forget this and he leaves. And he walks along until he sees another hill. And at the top of that hill there's something else but he can't quite tell what it is, but at the bottom there's a grave.

So he starts to go up this hill and it doesn't get very far until he's finally can finally see what's at the top of the hill. It's a cross. And when he sees that cross, finally to his shock, at that moment, he's not even very far up to hill, but once he sees the cross, at that moment, his burden falls off and rolls down the hill right into the grave and disappears forever. And he suddenly is shocked. He says, well, I thought I'd

have to get up to the top of Mount Morality to get rid of my shame and guilt, be a really good person, but it got worse and worse as I went up. But here all I have to get up to the top of Mount Morality to get rid of my shame and guilt, be a really good person. But it got worse and worse as I went up. But here all I have to do is look. I have to look at the cross. And of course the burden falls off, and so he just leaps for joy three times, and he sings this song. Blessed cross, blessed grave, blessed rather be,

the man there put to shame for me. Now how do you really get that? Every couple years I love to get this story out. Charles Spurgeon was a Baptist minister, great Baptist preacher, but he tells about how he became a Christian in London as a young man in a snowstorm. He went to a church, but it was almost nobody there. And the minister wasn't there, the preacher wasn't there because the preacher couldn't get through the snow.

And so there was a layman who got up there to be the preacher, and there were about four or five people maybe at the most in the auditorium. And the layman got up there, and he read a text, Isaiah 45 verse 22, and the text was, look unto me and be saved all the ends of the earth. Look unto me. So he suddenly began his sermon. He says, my dear friends, this is a simple text. It says, to be saved, we only need to look.

It ain't lifting your foot or your finger. It's just look. You needn't have gone to college to look. Even a child can look. You needn't be worth a thousand pounds a year to look. Anyone can look. But the text says, look to me. Look to Jesus.

Many of you are looking to yourselves. It's no use looking there. The text says, look unto me." And Spurgeon said, then the good man lifted his arms to the heaven and began to cry out. The Lord says, look unto me, I am sweating great drops of blood.

Look unto me, I am hanging on the cross. Look unto me, I am dead and buried. Look unto me, I rise again. Look unto me, I ascend to heaven. Look unto me, I am sitting at the Father's right hand. Look unto me. And Spurgeon the Father's right hand. Look unto me." And Spurgeon says, after the good man had gone on a couple of minutes like this, he noticed me sitting under the gallery and he knew I was a visitor.

And he fixes eyes on me and he said, young man, you look miserable and you're always going to be miserable, miserable in life and miserable in death until you obey my text. Young man, look, look to Jesus Christ. You have nothing to do but look and live. And Spurgeon says, the blow struck home, and I saw it at once. I've been waiting to do 50 things to find God. But when I heard that word look, the cloud finally was gone.

Like when the brazen servant was lifted up, the people only looked and were healed, so it was with me. So I looked and I looked and I looked until I almost could have looked my eyes away. Don't look at yourself. That'll just make the shame worse. Look to Jesus dying on the cross for you. He can cleanse you. He can get the stain out, let us pray. Thank you, Father, for showing us what your Son Jesus Christ gives to us. We want that burden of sin and guilt and shame to roll off of us. We want to look at what your Son did. How drastic it is.

Yes, Peter was offended, but we're not offended right now because we see, yes, our problem was so deep and the only way it could be dealt with was for him to come down, all the way down, down to the depths, and be shamed on the cross and get what we deserve so that you could receive us with open arms as something beautiful and clean and fragrant. Give us the freedom, the sense of freedom, the sense of joy, the release that ought to be part of our lives once we realize that. And now make us a group of people, make us a community of people sent with grace into the world. We pray in 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 hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.