Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Shaker of the Earth

Episode Date: January 24, 2025

Hebrews was written to people who have been shaken by life. Difficulties and sufferings have shaken them to the core.  The writer is trying to help them find ways to face the brutal realities of life, to stand solid when everything around them is falling apart. In Hebrews 12, we have the climax. The writer pulls together all of the threads and says, “In an unstable world, here is how you can live an unshakeable life.” This passage depicts 1) the shakable life, 2) the unshakeable life, and 3) how to receive that unshakeable life. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 17, 2005. Series: Christ: Our Treasury (The Book of Hebrews). Scripture: Hebrews 12:18-29. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. The book of Hebrews was written to a group of Christians who were weary of troubles, struggling with fear and discouragement. Sound familiar? Today Tim Keller is preaching from the book of Hebrews, showing us how fixing our eyes on Jesus is the only way to truly deal with the challenges we face in our lives. Tonight's scripture reading is from Hebrews chapter 12 verses 18 through 29 found on page eight of your bulletin.

You have not come to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire, to darkness, gloom and storm, to a trumpet blast or to such a voice speaking words that those who heard it begged that no further word be spoken to them because they could not bear what was commanded. If even an animal touches the mountain it must be stoned. The site was so terrifying that Moses said, I am trembling with fear. But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon

thousands of angels in joyful assembly, to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven? At that time his voice shook the earth, but now he has promised, once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heavens. The words once more Indicate the removing of what can be shaken that is created things so that what cannot be shaken may remain Therefore since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken

Let us be thankful and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe for our God is a consuming fire This is God's word We've been saying every week that Hebrews is a book written to people who have been shaken by life, that the problems and the difficulties and the sufferings and the persecutions have shaken them to the core. And every week we see how the Hebrew's writer is trying to help his readers find ways to face the brutal realities of life without melting down, find ways to stand solid when everything around them is shaking and falling apart. And today, tonight, we get to the place that is, in a sense, the rhetorical climax of the book of Hebrews. Many people believe, and I'm one of them, that the book of Hebrews is not a letter.

You can see that just by how it starts, it doesn't start the way ancient letters start with a greeting, salutation from so and so to so and so, but rather it's a sermon. It's the only complete early Christian sermon we've got and if that's the case, then this is the climax of the sermon right here because chapter 13 is practical application about what to do, but this is the climax, this is the point. At this point the Hebrew's writer is pulling all the threads of the things that he's been saying all the way through together and saying, here's how you can live an unshakable life. In an unstable world, in a world that's things are always changing, there's always tumult going on, here's how you can live an

unshakable life. The first paragraph in the passage talks about how not to go. It depicts a shakeable life, verse 18 to 21. Then verse 22 to 25, the second paragraph depicts the unshakable life. And the last part of the passage shows how to get that, how to receive that unshakable life. And the last part of the passage shows how to get that, how to receive that unshakable life. The shakeable life, the unshakable life, and how to receive it. Okay? First, verse 18 to 21, the shakeable life. And one of the keys to understanding the passage is the fact that verse 18 and verse 21 start with the same verb. And it's a significant verb. Verse 18

says, you have not come. Verse 22 says, you have come. Now there's a whole lot of words for come in Greek for approaching and this is not a word that simply means to move from one geographic location to another. This is a word with very deep religious and spiritual meaning. It means your fundamental, it refers to the fundamental spiritual approach to God and life. And everyone's got one, your fundamental spiritual approach to God and life. Everybody's got one. And I can get at it by asking you a couple of some questions. How do you face life? How do you face the world? How do you face troubles? If someone questions you or criticizes you, how do you face them? How do you face yourself

in the mirror? Or if there is a God, let's just for a moment assume there is a God, if there is a God and he were to appear and call you to account, how would you face that? What to appear and call you to account, how would you face that? What would you refer to? What would you talk to about? And the answer to all those questions, in almost every case, because it's the default mode of the human heart, is that we always say to ourselves, to the critics,

to the world, to God, I've tried my best. I determined what my standards were, I decided the kind of life that a human being should live, and I'm not perfect, but I've tried my best and I'm better than a lot of people, I've done a pretty good job. That's basically how we face life. That's how we face ourselves. That's how we face others. Now, everybody's culture and generation is different. If you're a young postmodern person, you say I'm a free-spirited person, I'm an open-minded person, and I live and let live, and that's all you can ask for from a person, but I do that. Or if you're

a more ambitious baby boomer type person, you say I've tried to accomplish things in my life, here's my vocational accomplishments, here's the great causes that I have given to and the things I've done. And if you're a more traditional older person you say, I have tried my best to live according to high moral standards and to care for my family to be a good family man or family woman and so on. And yet, when it comes right down to it, we're all saying, I'm not perfect, but I set what I decided was human beings should do, and I've tried my best. I really have. And I'm better than an awful lot of other people. I haven't done a bad job. I'm a really pretty good person. No, you're not. No. That is a

sham. You have not tried your best. You have not come close. Now, let me speak personally here. Who else could I speak for? You know, I mean, I speak for myself. If you take, if you do a little reflection on the most basic ethical principles there are, you'll see that this is a sham. That the way we tell ourselves, we're really pretty good, we really tried our best, we're really fairly good people. Let's take the golden rule. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. I will just say that there's never been a day in my life that I've made it through the day in which I have worked as hard at understanding other people as I want them to work at understanding

me. I haven't come close. I want people to be so understanding. Why don't they understand me? I don't work nearly as hard at understanding other people as I want them to be understanding of me. Or I don't work, I do not meet the needs of other people with the eagerness, the promptness, the fastidiousness, the energy with which I want other people to meet my needs. I don't come close. I don't come close. It's a sham to say, oh, you know, I'm not perfect, but I pretty much live up to my standards. Nobody does. You don't come close at all. We are moral failures. Everybody's a moral failure. And the shamness of the way in which we look at ourselves and the way in which we face

life and face these things, the shamness of the spiritual approach is revealed in this famous incident, verse 18 to 21, at Mount Sinai. That is describing the famous encounter of the Israelites with God. God came down on Mount Sinai., God came down on Mount Sinai. His presence came down on Mount Sinai, and he gave the Ten Commandments. And the people got close. They drew near, because here's God. And guess what? As they drew near to God, they did not have anything close to a warm, cozy, toasty experience. They were shattered. They felt as shaken

as the mountain was shaken by the presence of God, by the voice of God. And the Hebrew writer with great eloquence and great rhetorical skill, waxes us with seven negative images to get across how shattering and devastating the experience of the nearness of God was to the Israelites. And it talks about, it says, you have not come to what they came to, which was a mountain burning with fire, darkness, gloom, storm, a trumpet blast, and a voice that was overwhelming they couldn't bear. And when God began to speak to them, they didn't say, wow, it's the voice of God, isn't this great? No, they said stop. They couldn't take it. Every place the presence of God comes close, comes into a building or comes into a space

or comes onto a mountain, it's fatal to go near. And Moses is trembling with fear. It was a horrible experience to get near God. Now why would this be? Well, if you want to understand why it is so shattering and so shaking to get near the presence of God, let me give you one illustration and I'll give you the gist of it. Some years ago I was talking to an administrator at an elite university in this country, one of the top ones. And he said to me, he said, you know, you have no idea on elite university campuses the enormous pressure there is from the students, especially on the teachers but also on the administrators, there's a tremendous amount of pressure from the students to do grade inflation. Everybody wants an A. Everybody wants an A. And he says here's the reason why. He says you've got to realize the kids

that get into these top institutions, they've gotten all A's. They've always been the smartest in their class. But here's the issue. It's not simply that they are the smartest and that they get straight A's. Being smart and getting straight A's and being the top student is how they face life. It's how they face themselves. It's how they face others. It's how they build an identity. It's not just that they're smart. Being smart is how they know there's somebody important. It's their foundation. And here's the problem, the're smart. Being smart is how they know there's somebody important. It's their foundation. And here's the problem, the guy said. He says, you know, when you get several thousand people who have only ever gotten As in the same classes, somebody's

got to get a B, somebody's got to get a C, but so many of the kids melt down with a B, utterly melt down. Go ballistic. And here's the reason why. If the foundation of your life is, I'm the smartest, then to get into the presence of smarter people is shattering. It's shaking. When we get into the presence of God the way we are, which is we boy ourselves up, though deep down inside we know this is true, but basically consciously we're pretty good people. We perform well. We've done very good in our family. We've tried very hard. We're pretty moral people. We've worked hard. We're pretty good. We're alright. We're not perfect, but we're alright. But when you get into the presence of God,

that all falls apart. Your whole approach to your life falls apart. Your whole approach to the world, your whole view of yourself, all falls apart. Every single person in the Bible who ever gets near God shatters, explodes. When Job, at the end of Job, the book of Job, he gets into the presence of God, he says, I despise myself and I throw myself to the ground in dust and ashes. When Peter gets near the Lord, he says, depart from me, not, oh, it's great to be in the presence, depart from me, not, oh it's great to be in the presence, depart from me Lord for I am a sinful man. Or Isaiah, when Isaiah experiences the presence of God in Isaiah 6, when he sees the Lord high and lifted up

and his train filled the temple, Isaiah said, how wonderful, I'm in the presence of God. No, he said, woe is me, I am undone. You know what that means? I am shattering. I am shaking. I am being shaken to pieces. You know why? Because in the presence of God, finally is revealed

our unbearable lightness of being. Our unbearable smallness. Our unbearable lightness of being, our unbearable smallness, our unbearable flawedness, our unbearable creatureliness, all the things that we have no way do we have the slightest, I should say, we are in deep denial, we have no way we have the slightest willingness to admit how selfish we are, how cowardly we are, how much evil we're capable of. We have no idea. You don't like it? You don't believe what I'm telling you? I don't believe what I'm telling you. But in the presence of God, it becomes absolutely inescapable and that is why we can't live there. That's why we can't be there.

That's why you feel shaken to your roots. And guess what? If, I'm going to say, if you don't, most people haven't had an experience of the literal presence of God, have we? But even if you don't have that, the world eventually will do the same thing to you. Because if you build your life on anything here, the world will still shake you down. If you decide, I build my life on being the smartest, you will go to some school where everybody is smarter. If you build your life on having money, economic downturns won't just be hard, they'll be shattering. If you build your life on finding Mr. Right or Ms. Right or finding this just

right person, then rejection won't just be hard, it'll be shattering. This approach, which everybody has, is a shakeable life. We are headed for meltdown. We will not be able to stand. Point one. Point two. You get to the second paragraph and here the Hebrew's writer turns to another way of living. He says, I don't want you to approach life like that. He says, I want better for you, oh readers. You have not come. You are not doing that. That's not the way I want you to live. You have come." And then he lists a bunch of amazingly over the top things that actually are the opposite of the things that he lists in verse, in the first paragraph. And he tells us it is possible to have an unshakable future,

to have an unshakable joy, and to have an unshakable identity, to have an unshakable joy, and have an unshakable identity, and therefore an unshakable life. It's possible to have a whole new approach to yourself, a whole new approach to God, a whole new way of facing things. What are these three things? First of all, he says, it's possible. Now, don't ask yet, how do we get that?

We'll get to that in a second, but first of all, he's showing you a life that's possible and he says first of all you have come to the unshakable future, another way to put it is, you have come to the city of the Living God. Mount Zion, heavenly Jerusalem, city of many names, you have come to the city of the Living God. Now, the Bible says that the history of the world is basically a tale of two cities. In fact, you know, if you have a Bible at home, you know, on the cover it may say Bible, but you could just as easily stick the title, Tale of Two Cities. It would be just as fair a title. It starts in Genesis,

goes all the way to Revelation, climaxes in Revelation, especially you see this theme in the book of Isaiah, but here's what it's saying. First of all, there is the earthly city, what's also called the city of man in the Bible. And this city is the present human order, the present human society. And the earthly city is based on the principle of making a name for yourself at the expense of others. It's based on the principle of maximizing personal power and happiness, number one priority. But God is building his city, the city of God, the heavenly city. He's laying the foundation and in the future this is going to be a new human society. This is going to be a new human order, not based on power, but on peace. Not, therefore, a place of exhaustion and oppression, which our cities are, but a place of joy and justice. And therefore, not a place based on the principle, your life to benefit me, but rather a city based on the principle,

my life to serve you. And could you imagine what it would be like to live in a city in which that was the operating principle of everybody in it? But that's what's coming. God says that's what's coming and it's definitely coming, it's inevitable, it's guaranteed. Because when Augustine saw Rome sacked in 410 AD, I think, when Augustine saw Rome sacked and everybody was saying, oh my goodness, civilization is over.

The barbarians have sacked Rome. Civilization is over. And Augustine says, no, wait a minute. The city of God, the city that God is building can never be sacked, it can never be bombed, it can never be burned, you can't put a torch to it. But here it says, you have come to it. Now how could something in the future, the Bible talks about in the future, Revelation,

we see the city of God merging with the world and becoming the new heavens and new earth, the new creation. But how is it possible that you have come now? Present tense, you have come. And the answer is, it is possible for those who have experienced the grace of God to form a community with others who have experienced the grace of God. And when you do that, that community is a pilot plant, a forerunner, a foretaste, imperfect but genuine of that future city. You can live as an alternate provisional pilot plant of the city of God in the city of New

York. You can be a citizen of that city. You can taste it. You can have it to some degree now, only to a degree, but you can have it. And therefore you can know because of the imperfect but real joy of living in that community and being a citizen in that community, you can be absolutely sure of an unshakable future. That's the first thing. But the second thing you can have is an unshakable joy because the second thing it says is you have come not just to the city of the living God, but to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly. We all long for a home, for a place where we can truly flourish and belong. In One with My Lord, a new book by Sam Albury, he shows how the Bible promises that there

is a place like that for all of us, but it doesn't have a zip code. Instead, the key to home and the very heartbeat of the Christian faith itself is that we find ourselves in Christ. For the New Testament writers, this phrase was so important that instead of using the term Christian, they referred to followers of Jesus as those who are in Christ. Jesus is not only our Savior, Lord, Teacher, and Friend. He is also our home and our location. Each chapter of One with My Lord is short enough to be read as a devotional, and in it, Aubrey examines what being in Christ means,

giving us a fresh lens to view the Gospel and all that it means for our hope, purpose, and identity. We believe this new book will help you grow in your relationship with Christ. To request your copy of One with My Lord, visit gospelonlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. Now, here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Now this is, what is that? What is that? The presence of God is all about angels. The royal presence of God, the face of God, the thing we were all built for, has always

got angels as a sign of its presence. So for example, when Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden of Eden, the place where, you know, God's presence dwelt, they were cast out of God's presence. When they look back, what did they see? An angel guarding the door. When Jacob in the middle of the wilderness had a dream and had a vision of the very presence of God, it was a stairway, remember? And up and down were coming angels. Because it was a stairway into the axis mundi, the heart of the world.

It was a stairway into the heart of the universe, into the very presence of God. Angels. When Isaiah saw, you know, the Lord high and lifted up in Isaiah 6, there were the cherubim, there were the angels. The angels were over the Ark of the Covenant, the sign of his, you know, the symbol of his presence and so on. What is this saying? This is saying that in spite of the Mount Sinai experience, in which when they started to draw near the presence of God, when we draw near the presence of God, we immediately experience trauma. It's shattering. Actually, the presence of God is the place of infinite joy. By the way, this word joyful assembly is a very unusual Greek word that really means an incredibly wild party.

Unbel- very weird for it to be used here. A celebration, a festival, a rejoicing, a wild revelry really. So what is that saying? What are we talking about? Here's what we're talking about. You and I don't get out much. You know, we're in time and space in the world. You know, we're just here. We spend all of our time in the world, time and space. So we don't get out in the rest of the universe. So we don't get out much. So we don't know much about what's going on out there, but the Bible gives us some hints. John chapter 17, Jesus is praying to the Father and he tells us some incredibly important things to know.

First of all, he says that from the beginning, from all eternity, from all eternity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit were glorifying each other out of love. Listen to that. They were glorifying each other out of love. Listen to that. They were glorifying each other out of love. Now, you know what it means to glorify someone? It means to serve them. It means to center your life on them. It means to praise them. It means to adore them. To glorify them. And we're told that inside the Triune God Inside the Godhead father son and Holy Spirit that is what they've been doing from all eternity There was an other orientation

within the being of God the father The son the Holy Spirit the son defers and glorifies the father and the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit Glorifies the father and the son Spirit. The Holy Spirit glorifies the Father and the Son. And on and on they go, and you know, you know what that's like. There is nothing better than being in the presence of someone you adore, utterly adore. You're glorifying them, you're serving them, you're praising them, you're loving them,

you're centering everything on them, and they're doing the same thing to you. That's heaven. Not demanding, not saying, how come you aren't giving me what I need. You're glorifying them, they're glorifying you. That's heaven. You know you can't even love a landscape or a piece of music without praising it. You go grab somebody say listen to this, listen to this. You have to praise it, you have to glorify it. Do even enjoy it. The Father, the father son the Holy Spirit knew the

absolute infinite cosmic joy of Unselfish relationships So if that's the case why did God create us Jonathan Edwards in His book the end for which God created the world the End for Which God Created the World, The End for Which God Created the World, he plumbs the depths of this question. He says, wait a minute, why would God create the world? If God was unipersonal, if God had just one personality, then he wouldn't know the joy

of loving relationships, of unselfish, glorifying, loving relationships. He wouldn't know the joy of that until he created angels and human beings, other personal beings. Right. But since God is triune, he's a community because he's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, then he already had that incredible joy, that infinite joy. So why would he have created us? And the answer is he couldn't have created us to get it. He must have created us to spread it. Not to get it, but to give it to us. In other words, every being, every part of the universe in its own way, because Psalm 19 says every part of the created universe glorifies God.

Every part of it, every star, every planet, everything. We were all created, everything was created, to stand before God and glorify God and obey God and give everything, all of your love to God and have Him love and honor you. And that's what you're built for. Nothing else will satisfy you, because you're built for that. And guess what? Everything else in the universe knows it but us. because you're built for that. And guess what? Everything else in the universe knows it but us. The rest of the universe out there is one incredible party, one unbelievable party. Everything out there, CS Lewis calls it the dance. Everything out there is just a joyful dance before the throne of God, except for us.

Because see, a lie came into our hearts in the Garden of Eden and it's still there You know what that lie is if you lose control you won't be happy if You unconditionally live for God's will instead of your will You won't be happy if you unconditionally live for for God's glory instead of your glory. You won't be happy and as a result We're holding on We're holding on to the control of our lives. We're holding on to the throne of our lives. And as a result, we live in a very miserable little corner of the universe. But this is what this is telling us. Guess what this is telling us. This is saying that

all of reality is an ocean of joy, and we're just stuck in a tiny little speck of darkness. is an ocean of joy, and we're just stuck in a tiny little speck of darkness, one little tiny speck of the universe that's filled with darkness and unhappiness and brokenness, and everything around us is this ocean of joy, but get this, the shadows of this world will not be able to keep that joy out forever. Someday it's going to break in. But it says here, you have come to it. And when it says you have come to it, it must mean this, it's possible to get some of this now.

It must be possible to get some of the sense of God's love on your heart, some of the sense of God's glory in your mind. Not just an abstract, not just a concept, not just knowing about, but actually sensing some of this. It must be possible to at least get a drop of this incredible wine on your tongue. And even a drop will send you to the moon, will give you a joy that will never go out and will get you through. So there's an unshakable future that's possible now for you to live on the basis of. There's an unshakable joy which is possible to experience some of now. And thirdly, there's an unshakable identity.

Because the third thing it says here is you have come not only to the city of the living God, you have come to the church of the firstborn whose names, pardon me, to angels and joyful assembly and you've come to the church of the firstborn whose names, pardon me, to angels in joyful assembly and you've come to the church of the firstborn whose names are written in heaven. Hmm, what is that? This is the unshakable identity. Jesus Christ in Luke chapter 10 sends out his disciples and gives them the power to preach and to heal and to cast out demons. And they go out and they have a great time.

And when they come back, they're excited. And they say to Jesus, they're pumped, you know, when they come back, really pumped up. And they say, Lord, it worked. Even the demons are subject to us. You know, they must have gotten together and said, did you see that demon yelling and screaming with his fire, you know, all in his hair and all that? And I just did that in an office. So they come back and they're really excited. They say, even the demons are subject to us. And Jesus gets very serious. And he says, rejoice not that the demons are subject to you, but that your names are written

in heaven. What's he doing? He's really serious and he's right. First of all he says don't get a name like that. Don't get a sense that you're somebody like that. See what the disciples were saying is we can cast out demons, we've got power, we're somebody, now I know I'm somebody. Jesus says what a dead end. Don't you dare get a sense of somebodies like that. Don't say I make six figures and I'm not even out of my 20s, I'm somebody.

Don't say, I made partner before I was 35, I'm somebody. So I have a PhD from this leading institution, I'm somebody. I'm smart, I'm somebody. I have a supermodel wife. I'm a wife and I still look like a supermodel. See, I'm somebody. And Jesus says, that's a dead end, that's a dead end, because next week you're not going to look like a supermodel or eventually you certainly won't. You won't be on top. Maybe next week the demons won't fly out when you move your little finger. Don't you dare try to build your identity on stuff that's up and down and in and out.

Don't get your sense of being somebody like that. Your names are written in heaven. Your members of the church of the firstborn was that. Well see in ancient times, the firstborn got the whole inheritance. See families had a certain amount of wealth and they wanted to keep their status, their standing in society, and the way to do that and they wanted to keep their status, their standing in society. And the way to do that was they did not divide their money up much amongst all the children. The firstborn got virtually all or all of it, always guaranteed.

It didn't matter how they lived it. They didn't have to go out there and really work hard in order to become rich. They were rich. And this says it is possible not to be hoping if I really live a good life and I try real hard and I do all this that then I'll really feel like I'm somebody. No, it's possible to have your names written in heaven, past tense, to be firstborn, to have your inheritance guaranteed, to be in the family of God, absolutely accepted by God. It's possible to have your identity based on something like this, something unshakable, a whole new identity structure. See,

something like this, something unshakable, a whole new identity structure. See, who are we? Apart from this, I don't know who I am, and I'll bet you don't know who you are either, and here's why. You are the accumulation of what everybody has always said about you. Your father, your mother, your siblings, your friends, your teachers, your coaches, your bosses, your employees, everybody's said all kinds of stuff about you over the years, isn't it? There's a lot of things that people have said that you hope is true. And there's a whole lot of things that people have said that you hope isn't true, but you're afraid is. And they all conflict.

And you don't even know really who you are. This has got the power to overturn the accumulated verdicts that have ever been passed upon you. This has got the power to reprogram your self-appreciation. This has got the power to heal you of the deepest wounds you've done to your self-image through your own failures, through your own flaws, or through what anyone else has ever done to you. Any abuse, any criticism, anything. This is the possibility of an unshakable identity. Rejoice not that you can do this or this or this or this or this or this, but that your names are written in heaven."

These are astounding things, and it's possible. You have come, he says. It's possible. Well, how do we get it? How is it possible to get it? And the answer is, we've got to be brief, but the answer is, in the middle of the paragraph of all these wonderful things, see the middle paragraph is all the good things, but in the middle of the paragraph it says you have come to the church of the firstborn, names written in heaven, joyful assembly, angels and angels, city of the living God, Mount Zion, and to God the judge. And that sure doesn't make much sense. It doesn't make much sense because that doesn't sound so like good news, does

it? Why would God the Judge be good news? How could the Judge of all the earth be the source of an unshakable joy, an unshakable identity, an unshakable future? How could he be? In fact, the entire passage is actually about judgment. Do you know what the shaking is? It's God's judgment. You know what the shaking is? It's God's judgment. The reason Isaiah felt like he was coming apart was he felt he was being judged. And he was.

When God, see, when you shake something to see how solid it is, it actually says God shakes things to see whether there's anything that is eternal there, whether there's anything that is ultimate there, whether there's anything that's lasting there. And there's anything that is ultimate there, whether there's anything that's lasting there. And the trouble is we know that if God shakes us, there won't be anything left. We can't bear with the sifting of God.

We can't bear under the shaking of God. Well, then how can we get all these great things? And the answer is Jesus, the mediator of the covenant. You know what happened to Jesus when he was on the cross? Matthew 27. From the sixth hour to the ninth hour darkness came over the land and Jesus cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And when he cried out in a loud voice and gave up his spirit. At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom. The earth shook and the rocks split."

It's an earthquake. Was it just special effects? You know, kind of made for a kind of more dramatic crucifixion? Earthquake, darkness, gloom, rock split. It's Mount Sinai all over again. What? It's Mount Sinai all over again. What happened? Jesus Christ was being judged. Jesus Christ was being shaken. Jesus Christ was getting the shaking that we deserve. When people say, aren't all religions the same? Oh really? Every other religion says, here's the standards, live up to it, and we spend all of our life, insecurely, trying desperately to assure ourselves that we're pretty good, we're living up to the standards. Here's the only religion that says the judge of all the earth came down to bear judgment, not to bring it.

The maker of all the earth came down onto the cross and was unmade. He was shaken so that you can be unshakable. He was shaken so now the curtain in the temple is ripped and the presence of God, which you were built for, the thing you're looking for in all of your romance, the thing you're looking for in all of your romance, the thing you're looking for in all of your work, in all of your desire for achievement, the thing you're looking for in every vacation, the thing you're looking for in every great piece of music that sends you to the moon, but you'll never find them in there because they're pointing to it, but they're not it.

It's the presence of God. It's the face of God. And now because of what Jesus Christ has done, the thing that used to be fatal can come into your life. And now it won't consume you and destroy you, but now when it comes into your life through the grace of Jesus Christ, it only consumes the flaws, it only consumes the parts of you that need to go away. You know, when Jesus Christ at one point had the audacity to say, he was talking to Nathaniel

and he said, I saw you under the fig tree and Nathaniel said, oh my gosh, you must be, how did you know about the fig tree? You are, you know, you must be the son of David, you must be the Messiah and Jesus says, you think that's something. You will see angels ascend and descend on the son of man. Through me you can get in. You can get in. You can get all the way in. Into what? C.S. Lewis puts it. Our lifelong nostalgia, our longing to be reunited with something

in the universe from which we now feel cut off, to be on the inside of some door which we have always seen from the outside, is no mere neurotic fancy, but the truest index of our real situation. To be at last summoned inside would be both glory and honor beyond all our merits and the healing of all our aches. Then we finally have the identity, then we finally have the joy, then we finally have the future that will be shaken. No, it will never be shaken no matter what happens here. We don't have to be afraid of that final judgment day, the day in which not only

the earth but the heavens, everything will be shaken. We have nothing to fear because Jesus was shaken for us so that we can have a kingdom that cannot be shaken. And in worship, to the degree that out of gratitude for his grace, we experience his presence in reverence and awe. He comes into your life and consumes the things that are bad, consumes the things that are holding you back, fulfills that deep longing. In Christ, you have come. To all this, let's pray. Thank you for giving us a kingdom that cannot be shaken. Now, Father, some of us are here and we basically don't understand the gospel.

We've always thought of religion as trying very hard to live up according to Christ's teachings and as a result, we're in the first paragraph. We're in denial. We are stuck. We really have ambivalent feelings when we get near you and we can't completely lose control. We can't just give up everything. We go back and forth. We play I wish I were a better person. The gospel brings us into the city of God as citizens, brings us into the joy of your presence, brings us this unshakable identity because Jesus Christ lived the life we should have lived, died the death we should as citizens, brings us into the joy of your presence, brings us this unshakable identity because Jesus Christ lived the life we should have lived, died the death we should have died, took our penalty for us so that we can be accepted by you when we believe in him.

Now Father, there's an awful lot of us here who believe that, but we don't worship you with reverence and awe. We don't worship you with gratitude. We don't worship and pray enough. We don't get into that universal dance enough. We don't get we with gratitude. We don't worship and pray enough. We don't get into that universal dance enough We don't get your joy on our hearts enough And so we find ourselves living cowardly lives and fearful lives and selfish lies cleanse us consume Our dross and make us something beautiful Refine us make us pure gold you can do that now because of what your Son experienced for us. We ask that you would grant this for His sake. Amen.

Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel in Life podcast. If you were encouraged by today's teaching, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel in Life Monthly Partner. Your partnership allows us to reach people all over the world with the life-giving power of Christ's love. To learn more, just visit Gospelinlife.com slash partner. That website again is Gospelinlife.com slash partner. And thank you! Today's sermon was recorded in 2005.

The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.