Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Culture of Pride

Episode Date: June 2, 2023

The little book of Habakkuk tells us how to handle evil times, especially evil times in a culture. In this passage, God is saying to Habakkuk something about the evil Babylonian Empire that is rising up and wreaking havoc everywhere. God shows the rottenness at the heart of the culture and shows what is wrong in that culture.  As God deconstructs what’s wrong with the Babylonian culture, he actually gives us two principles for facing evil times wherever we are: 1) with your head, you need to understand the source of the evil that’s surrounding you, and 2) with your heart, you need a consolation to help you face the evil. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 17, 2009. Series: Living by Faith in Troubled Times. Scripture: Habakkuk 2:5-20. 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. How can we trust in God's goodness and faithfulness even when the answers were seeking seem elusive? In today's sermon, Tim Keller teaches on what it means to wait on God. After you listen, please take a few seconds to rate and review our podcast. Your review can help others to discover our podcast and experience the hope of the Gospel. Now here's today's teaching from Dr. Keller. Tonight's reading is from the book of Habakkuk,

chapter 2 verses 5 through 20. Indeed, wine betrays him. He is arrogant and never at rest. Because he is as greedy as the grave and like death is never satisfied, he gathers to himself all the nations and takes captive all the peoples. While not all of them taunt him with ridicule and scorn,

saying, woe to him who piles up stolen goods and makes himself wealthy by extortion. How long must this go on? Will not your debtors suddenly arise? Will they not wake up and make you tremble? Then you will become their victim, because you have plundered many nations, the peoples who are left will plunder you. For you have shed man's blood, you have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them. Woe to him who builds his realm by unjust gain to set his nest on high,

to escape the clutches of ruin. You have plotted the ruin of many peoples, shaming your own house, and forfitting your own life. The stones of the wall will cry out, and the beams of the woodwork will echo it. Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime. Woe to him who builds a city with bloodshed and establishes a town by crime. Has not the Lord Almighty determined that the people's labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing, for the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wine skin till they are drunk so that he can gaze on their naked bodies.

You will be filled with shame instead of glory. Now it is your turn, drink, and be exposed. The cup from the Lord's right hand is coming around to you and disgrace will cover your glory. The violence you have done to Levin and will overwhelm you and your destruction of animals will terrify you. For you have shed man's blood. You have destroyed lands and cities and everyone in them. Of what value is an idol since a man has carved it, or an image that teaches lies. For he who makes it trust in his own creation, he makes idols that cannot speak,

woe to him who says to would come to life, or to lifeless stone, wake up. Can it give guidance? It is covered with gold and silver. There is no breath in it. But the Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth be silent before Him. This is the word of the Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth be silent before Him. This is the Word of the Lord. We're looking at the book of a back-ek because it's a little book in the Old Testament that tells us how to face evil times, whether they're times of your own individual evil times, because everyone goes through very bad times,

or sometimes you have a society-wide evil time. The late 19th century, in America, things got better and better. The early 20th century, two world wars, a depression, the late 20th century, things got better and better. And now, where are we going? It would be naïve to say that we aren't going into bad times. It would also be probably precipitous to say we are.

But if you understand what the book of Herbackerk says, you'll be ready for anything. You won't be at loose ends. And we're looking each week at learning some things that the book tells us about how to face difficult times, especially evil times in a culture. Now this week God is saying to Habakkuk, he's telling them something about this evil Babylonian

empire that is rising up and is going to be wreaking havoc everywhere, and God shows the rottenness of the heart of the culture and shows what is wrong in that culture. But as God deconstructs what's wrong with the Babylonian culture, he actually, I think we're going to see, gives us two very important principles, two, for facing evil times wherever we are. And those two principles are, in evil times, you have to understand with the head the source of the evil, and you need a consolation for the heart

in the face of the evil. With your head, you need to understand the source of the evil that's surrounding you. And with your heart, you need a comfort or a consolation to help you face the evil. And those are the two things we learn here. So first, first of all, we learn in this text something about the how to understand the source of the evil.

During this great recession that we're in right now, I've been reading The New York Times editorial page and The Wall Street Journal editorial page every day. And they do not, in any way, say the same thing at all. Both of them are trying to find people to blame. And the New York Times approach is trying to find, well, I won't tell you who's who. One narrative is the problem is the greedy business

capitalists. And the other approach is the other approach is stupid idiotic government intervention. It'll conceive bad government policy. The one says we need more government regulation. The other says we don't need government regulation. They're all trying to find different people to blame, to say, this is the source of the evil times.

This is the source of the collapse and what's gone wrong in our culture. The Bible doesn't let you do that. The Bible is nowhere near simplistic, there I say it, as either the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal's editorial page. You can write that down. You know, put it on your blog, I don't care. And here's how we see this. In the center of the denunciation of the Babylonian society and culture, we see all kinds of sins

that we identify as a sign of rottenness, a sign of evil. So you have in there ruthless, greedy business practices, you have bloodshed, you have violence against the poor and the weak, and you saw that. But at the top and at the bottom of the description, up in verse 5 in the beginning and down verse 18 near the end, there are two bookends you might say, two sources of the evil, that when we look at them, we begin to realize, aren't so remote. I mean, it's very easy to read this and say, oh, yeah, these Babylonians, how awful. You know, they're out there, you know there burning cities to the ground, killing and raping everybody.

And probably none of you have done that. And so it's pretty easy to say, well, that's isn't me. But look at the bookends. The source at the top of all this evil in verse 5 is he, that's the Babylonian society, he is arrogant and never at ease, and never at rest, because he's greedy as the grave, as insatiable as death, gathers to himself all the nations and takes a cap to all the people. Now the reason why the Babylonian culture is filled with people who are trying to make money and have militaristic power is because in their

center, they're proud, arrogant, and they're empty, and they need to clothe themselves with glory. Over in verse 16, it tells us that the Babylonians were trying, in all of their effort to accrue power and wealth, to cover themselves with glory and honor. Two female celebrities, one of which you probably have heard and one of which you may not have heard, in interviews over the last few years have been very open about why they were seeking fame, why they were seeking accomplishment. One of them was Madonna, in her very famous Vanity Fair interview

back in the 80s, admitted that she really didn't feel like she was anything special, and she was out there trying to achieve higher and higher levels of celebrity and fame, because she said, when I achieve a new level of celebrity and fame and accomplishment, for a brief period of time, I feel special, and then it goes away. And I have to reach further.

The other celebrity I'm thinking about is Chris Everett, who is a very famous fact she's in the Hall of Fame. She's a great tennis player, terrific tennis player. And at one point in one of her interviews, she admitted that the reason she was so driven to be the best and to win, she says, winning made me feel pretty. It was an amazing statement, but here's what it means. It's just like the Babylonians.

The reason they were out burning down cities and the reason that Chris Effort was out there trying to win tennis tournaments, and the reason that you and I do so much of what we do, even if it's preaching, or whether it's singing, or whether it's making money, or whether it's moving ahead in your career, or whether it's doing your art. If you know your own heart, you'll know to a great degree it's because we're insecure. We're trying very, very hard to cover ourselves with honor. We want to feel beautiful. We want to feel loved. We want to feel significant.

And that's why we're working so hard. And that's the source of the evil. Lewis Meads, great Christian writer writer talks about pride like this. He's talking about arrogance, pride at the heart of the evil Babylonian culture, at the heart of every culture, the heart of your life. He says this, pride in the spiritual sense is refusal to let God be God. It's to grab God's status for oneself. It's turning down God's invitation to join the dance of life as a creature in his world and wishing instead to be the creator,

independent, reliant on one's own resources, and that is the great illusion. That's the delusional fantasy of all fantasies. That's the cosmic put on. It's the fantasy that we can make it as our own masters of our own lives. And that fantasy leaves us empty, restless at the center. And so we're attacked by the demons of fear and anxiety. We learn to swagger, to bluff, and we look everywhere for people

to use to buttress our shaky ego that this pride has created. Now every new situation calls forth this question, what can I get out of this situation to support the need of my ego for power and applause? And every time you meet a new person in your heart of hearts, you say unconsciously, perhaps, how can this person contribute to my need to prove that I am better than others? All of this is because we're empty at the center. Do you see yourself in that? If you don't see yourself in that quote yet, just keep coming to church, please.

Lewis means rightly says, unless you are profoundly, profoundly, so sure of your value and your significance, that it doesn't matter that much what people say about you. It doesn't matter that much how you're regarded. It doesn't matter that much, you know, what, what, you know, how you're received, because you're so sure of who you are and nobody is, by the way. If you're needy and you need a claim and you need a ploy and you need people to tell you you're okay, then you're out there using people, you're not serving people, you get into every relationship, you say, I want to be with these people because they make me feel good about

myself. I don't want to be with these people because these people make me feel bad about myself. You're using people, you're not serving people. And see, that pride, which is the essence of every human heart, apart from the intervention of God, is the source of all evil in the world. Even the wicked Babylonians, do you see yourself? So see, at the one end of this list of sins is pride. At the other end, in verse 18, a 19 is idolatry. Any life that is not based, and any culture that's not based on the glory and the grace of God will be based on an idol.

It will take something good and raise it to an ultimate. It will take something relative and make it an absolute. And we do that because of our pride. So for example, if winning tennis matches is the way you feel good about yourself, then tennis is an ultimate. It's an idol. You've got to have it.

You've got to win, and it drives you under the ground. And it's an idol. But every culture, every society, corporately, everyone takes some good thing and makes an an ultimate thing, looks to some created thing to give you and do what only God can give you and do. And that creates seeds of destruction in every culture. So for example, if you're part of a traditional culture,

if you're, and many of you are, if you're part of a traditional culture, and many of you are, if you're part of a culture or come from a culture in which family is the absolute, that's the idol. Family means everything. In those cultures, we call that conservative traditional culture, because family is an idol, that leads to honor killings,

it leads to women as chattel, it leads to killing gay people just because they're gay. But if you come to our culture, which is highly individualistic, what really matters is individual freedom, individual rights, that's the ultimate, that's the absolute, and what you have in that kind of society. You have sex outside of marriage, you have family deterioration, you have abortion. Now, you know, in verse 15, 16 and 17, in verse 17, it talks about environmental sin, harming Lebanon, which is the forest, killing animals. But in verse 15, it says, woe to the one who gets people drunk so you can gaze on their nakedness, which is a euphemism

by the way for having sex with them. Now liberal people say, harming the environment, that's a sin. And conservative people say, sex side-side of marriage, that's a sin. But only the Bible says, it's all a sin. Because the conservative cultures and liberal cultures have their own sets of sins, but because they're based on idols, because they're based on making moral goodness and family the ultimate instead of God in His grace, or making individual freedom and fulfillment the ultimate instead of God in His grace. Every culture has got within it idols and therefore the seeds of destruction. And that's the reason why, and this is the first point and very, very important,

every time evil times show up, everybody wants to find a scapegoat, everybody wants to blame somebody, everyone wants to say those evil people over there, they're the ones that are bad, but if you understand your own pride and your own heart, and if you understand that every single culture, whether it's liberal or conservative, whether it's capitalist or socialist, whether it's traditional or individualistic, has got within it idols and seats for own destruction, then you're not going to get into that game. Alexander Sultzenitsen, in his famous book, The Goulog Archipelago, of course, has been interred, you know, he was oppressed by the Communists.

And just when you think he's in his book about to talk about how horrible the Communists are, here's what he says. Very Christian, he says, let the reader who expects this book to be a political ex-pose, slam its covers, close right now. Oh, if only it were so simple. If only there were evil people out there somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them

from the rest of us and destroy them, then our problems would be solved. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. That's a problem with a famous statement. The line between dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. Listen to this, confronted by the pit

into which we are about to toss those who have done us harm. We halt. Stricken dumb. It is after all only because of the way things worked out that they were the executioners, and you weren't. Now that is a profoundly Christian understanding of things. He says, the line between good and evil, pride, it comes from every human heart, idolatries at the root of every human culture. In every culture, some things are idolized and some things demonized. That's the thing that's going to save us, and these are the bad people over here who

are harming us. But Christianity says, our problem is sin. Do you want to know the source of evil in every evil time? It's me, it's you, it's your own heart, and it's infecting every culture, it's infecting every person. And for you to start saying, these are the bad people, these are the bad people, you're part of the problem, and not part of the solution.

Part of the solution is humility and repentance. It's amazing what Sultzenitsin said. He says, when you're about to throw your executioners into a pit because of what they've done. If you're a Christian, you understand, if a Christian worldview, you realize it's, you have all the seeds in your own heart to be what those people were. It's it's only the grace of God that you're not an executioner. Do you get that? Do you understand that? How crucial it is when you're in evil times not to find the perpetrators

and say they're the horrible people off with their heads. That's the Babylonian way. Don't you do that? Looking for a new way to deepen your faith and understanding of Christianity this summer? If you are, we'd like you to consider the new city catechism devotional. Based on the historic catechisms of the Christian Church, this devotional offers 52 weeks of thought-provoking questions and answers that explore the foundational beliefs of the faith. Each week includes a scripture passage, a prayer, and a brief meditation that will challenge and inspire you.

Commentaries are written by contemporary pastors such as John Piper, Timothy Keller, and Kevin DeYoung, as well as historical figures such as Augustine, John Kelvin, and Martin Luther. The new City Catechism devotional is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel and Life share the hope of Christ's love with people all over the world. So request your copy today at gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelandlife.com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. In Germany, everything was going wrong

in the 1920s in German culture. If they had said, ah, the line between good and evil goes down the middle of every human heart, ah, okay, no matter what culture there's Caesar destruction and no matter what the human being is pride in, but no, instead they heard the Nazis say the Jews are doing it, The capitalists are doing it. There's the problem, and they put the Nazis in a power

and the rest is history. Do you know how dangerous it is? Not to have a Christian view of things when it comes to politics. In politics, you will say what Silzen Eatson said, the line between Good and Evil goes down the middle of every human heart, and by the way, every political party. You know, when Silzeneetzen says, when you're about to throw the executioners in the pit

and then you begin to realize only the grace of God that you're not the executioner, I've had people tell me, oh, if you believe you have God's absolute truth, you're going to be an oppressor person, you're going to be an oppressor person. You're going to be someone who divides the world in the good and evil, and I always say it depends on what you think the absolute truth of God is. And if it's the gospel, and it is the gospel, then you'll know the problem is sin,

and the answer is grace. Not the problem is those people and the answer is these people. Okay, secondly, you need comfort. Oh, you need comfort if you're going to face evil times. You need comfort for your heart. And there are two wonderful verses in the midst of all this darkness. You notice how suddenly there's all this darkness, death and judgment and wrath and bloodshed and all of a sudden in verse 14 and in verse 20, there's these flashes of light in the darkness.

I love that. They're actually stunning and surprising. You're reading along and all of a sudden it says, the Lord isn't His holy temple. All of a sudden it says, the knowledge of the glory of God will cover the world as the waters cover the sea. It's sort of like a flash in the darkness. And I believe this is how hope works. That if you understand the hope in these two verses, even in your darkness, you can face anything. You know what they are, first of all, let's look at the second one first.

The penultimate hope you've got in all bad times is verse 20. It's the sovereignty of God. The Lord is in His holy temple, let all the earth keep silent before Him. What is that saying? What it's saying is, no matter how bad things are, God is in control. He is sovereign. He is not gone.

He is in charge. No matter how chaotic everything is, He says, I'm still in charge. Jacob, he was supposed to bear the messianic seed. Remember, he was supposed to be the one through whom the Messiah, Jesus Christ came. But boy did he screw up his life. He lied to his father Isaac. Remember to try to dress up like he saw so he could get the birthright and after when he saw found out about it, he wanted to kill him and Jacob really mucked up his life. Did he not? He had to run away because he saw one to kill him. He never saw his mother again. He never saw his father again. He lost his inheritance.

What a mess. He was away for years and years and years. And yet, if he hadn't run away, he never would have met the woman that he married through whom the Messiah came Jesus Christ. Would you say Jacob's life was on plan B? No, I don't think Jesus Christ is plan B. Oh, well, it's all right then that he lied and he screwed up and he did all that. Of course not. Not at all. It was a mess. He never should have done it. But don't you see what's going on?

The Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silent before Him. What does that mean? On the one hand, you can really scrub your life, your decisions count, your responsible for them, and yet God says, I have got a plan and I'm going to overrule all evil, all bad choices, I'm going to have my purposes for you and for the world fulfilled. Now this is what some theologians have called an antinomy. You know what an antinomy is?

A paradox is a contradiction, but an antinomy is an apparent contradiction. It just looks like a contradiction. One of the antinomies of classic antinomies is light. Sometimes acts as a wave, sometimes as a particle. And they can't, you know, particles and waves aren't the same thing, so how can light be both wave and particle? We don't know.

It's an apparent contradiction, but that's just the way it is. Now, God says, I am completely in control that everything that happens is only according to my will. And yet, every single person who is doing my will is responsible for what they do. Their choices count. They're not puppets. See, we have a tendency to say,

if God's in control of everything, then we're just puppets and we can't help what we're doing. Or we think, if my decisions count, then it's possible for us to kind of mess up history and mess up God's plan. That's just not true. God could never look down at you and say, oh, look at Mr. X.

Gee, I wanted this and that for him, and he did this. Now what do I do? Is there any place in the Bible that ever depicts God like that? No, what God is saying is, you are absolutely free and responsible for your choices at the same time.

There's terrible things gonna happen. Bad things gonna happen. And I'm overruling it all. I am in charge." And that's the first gleam of light in your darkness. He never leaves his throne. He's always there. He's always controlling everything.

But the second gleam and the more ultimate hope, frankly, is verse 14. For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. I want you to know everybody, the reason why we are empty inside, the reason why we use people to bolster our self-image, the reason why we're trying to win tennis matches or be excellent or make money is because we're hungry for glory. Remember, the Babylonians were hungry for glory. They were trying to get honor.

Well, the only glory that really, really, really can satisfy your heart is the beauty of God, the honor of God, the applause of God, the love of God. You know, as Madonna said, when they were all, you know, when everybody's on their feet applauding for their incredible performance, briefly, briefly, you feel special. But it's brief. Because what you're really looking for is the glory of God, the honor of God, the love of God. And this tells us that someday you will bathe in it, you will wear it, you'll breathe it. You say, how in the work of that bee, here's how it can be. Look at verse 16. You'll be filled with shame instead of glory.

Now who's he talking to? The Babylonians, why? Because all of their lives, proud people, a proud person uses the people we've said, instead of serving them. We use them to get glory, to feel good about ourselves, to bolster our ego, to bolster our esteem. We use them.

And therefore, we deserve shame. We deserve the opposite of what we're looking for. We're looking for Honorable. We deserve shame and disgrace. And what we deserve is the cup of God's wrath. Drink the cup of God's wrath. You deserve disgrace. You deserve shame.

But verse 16 cannot be read by a Christian without thinking of somebody else. Philippians 2 says, Jesus Christ emptied Himself of His glory. And then He went to the cross, and Hebrews chapter 12 says, we must fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, made light of its shame. The most ignominious, disgraceful, possible execution was the cross.

But Jesus Christ drank the cup of God's wrath. Remember the Father's cup in the gardening assembly? What does that mean? Jesus Christ emptied Himself of His glory. The Babylonians and you and I tried desperately to cover ourselves with glory. Jesus emptied Himself of His glory, lived a life of serving others, not using others, but at the end of His life He took our shame. He took the shame we deserve so that when you believe in Jesus Christ,

the Father closed you, clothed you in the honor that Jesus deserved. We seek our own honor and therefore deserve shame, but Jesus Christ took our shame so we could have his honor. I was reading and I was talking to some Korean missionaries who told me a very interesting story. In the early part of the 20th century, when the great revivals began in Korea, that made Korea go from like a less than 1% Christian country

to like 40% today. There were these powerful revivals in 1905, 1906, 1907. And a very interesting part of those early revivals, those early revival meetings, was how often Korean men and women who had been converted were willing to confess sins publicly. They're willing to confess that they had stolen. They're willing to confess that they had wrong

other people and ask for forgiveness and wept out their sins. And what one missionary told me is very important to know, and of course some of you certainly know this very much firsthand, that a Korean culture is a shame culture. What matters more than anything else is that you bring honor to your family and your people, not shame to your family and your people. The worst thing in the world is to be shamed. The worst thing in the world is to lose face.

But the reason why in those early revival meetings, people were able to repent publicly and not be afraid of losing face. We was because they had been liberated from their culture because they realized that Jesus Christ took their shame, and that now they were clothed in his honor, and now they could admit when they were wrong. They could admit publicly when they were wrong. They were freed from the idolatries of their culture, just like you can be free from the

idolatries of your culture. When you say, Father, accept me because of what Jesus has done. To know then that at that moment we are clothed in his beauty and in his righteousness and in his honor so that the Father sees us as beautiful, we're no longer struggling to win at all costs. We're no longer struggling to achieve at all costs. And we don't have to use people, we can serve people and now we're part of the solution not the problem in every culture. When evil times come, people get cynical and angry and they blame others and they lose

hope. But Christians are the opposite. We should be humble and be willing to admit our part in what's wrong and we should have all the hope in the world. Because the gospel humbles us out of our pride, but in such a way that we have more confidence that we had before. Have hope. Have humility. By remembering this,

the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you that though we deserve shame for trying to live for our own glory, Jesus Christ emptied Himself of His glory and took our shame so that we could have the honor that He deserves, and so we could be free, free. To be salt and light in our culture instead of part of the problem. Help us to understand what you have told us in these wonderful passages of this part of the Bible. Help us to apply them to our lives by your Holy Spirit. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Thank you for listening to today's teaching. We recognize that many of

you will want to respond to the news of Tim's passing. If you would like to know more about how to share your condolences, or to share a story of how Tim's writing or teaching helped you, or if you just want to know how you can pray, please visit gospelandlife.com slash remembering. This month's sermons were recorded in 1996 and 2009. 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. you