Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Grace of the Law

Episode Date: December 16, 2022

The gospel of Matthew is famous for having long discourses of teaching. Matthew 11 is the best single place where Jesus explains how to receive him; Matthew 5 through 7 is the best single place where Jesus explains how to follow him. He teaches us what it means to become a Christian and how to live the Christian life. If you go through the Sermon on the Mount verse by verse, you learn a tremendous number of details about what it means to be a Christian, but we’re going to look at it as a whole and we’ll begin to see larger themes. First, Jesus tells us what we are to do in the Christian life; secondly, why we are to do it; and thirdly, how we are to achieve it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 20, 1996. Series: The Real Jesus, Part 1: His Teaching. Scripture: Matthew 5:1-10, 17-20. 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.

Do you know the real Jesus? If you're going to find out whether Jesus is the one to be king of your life, you have to make sure you understand him first in order to understand who you're meant to be, and you should know that if you reject him, you'll never be able to stop searching for him. Today on Gospel and Life, Tim Keller is looking at the Gospels to show us who the real Jesus is and what that means for our lives. After you listen, we'd appreciate it if you'd take a few moments to rate and review the

podcast. When you do, you'll be encouraging others to listen so they can discover the real Jesus because the gospel changes everything. Now here's today's teaching from Dr. Keller. The passage of Scripture is printed on which the teaching is based. It's Matthew chapter 5. It's the sermon on the Mount. It covers the Beatitudes and the section at the end of the Beatitudes.

So we're reading Matthew 5, 1 to 10, and 17 to 20, Matthew 5, 1 to 10, and then verses 17 to 20. Now when he saw the crowds, he went up on a mountainside and sat down. His disciples came to him and began to teach them, saying, Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Do not think I have come to abolish the law of the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth

disappear not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the

teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. This is God's Word. Now, in the beginning of the fall, we looked at Matthew 11 for a number of weeks, because I think it's the best single place where Jesus addresses the question, who are you? Why should I accept you? Why should I receive you? Who are you? And Matthew 11 is the best single place where Jesus teaches His claims and then He invites people to receive Him. He ends by saying, come to me. Take my yoke upon you and I will give you rest. And that's what we've been looking at. But what if somebody says, and I certainly hope there are plenty of people who are, what if somebody says, okay, okay, I'll come.

But what's that mean? Okay, I'll take the yoke on me, but what does it mean? What does it mean to receive Christ? What does it mean to live as a Christian? What does it mean to become a Christian? What does it mean to be a Christian? And what I'm gonna do is this week and next week, I'm gonna go to the single best place

where Jesus addresses that. Matthew, the gospel of Matthew is pretty famous for having these long discourses. Whereas if you go to the book of Mark, you'll see that there's almost nothing but action. Jesus actions, not much of his teaching, but if you get into Matthew, you'll see there are these excellent and lengthy discourses by Jesus.

It's Jesus the Teacher. And I would like you to see that whereas Matthew 11 is the best single place where Jesus explains how to receive Him, why to receive Him, this Matthew 5, 6, and 7, the Sermon on the Mount is the best single place where Jesus explains how to follow Him, what it means to live the Christian life. And what I want to do this week and next week is something that I never have done and almost nobody does. And that is the Sermon on the Mount is so famous, it is so rich, that almost always, almost always, so rich that almost always, you do an extensive study of it. If you're a student and you're just simply trying to read it, you read it over a period of time.

There's so much in there. And if you're a teacher, if you're a preacher, you go through it in a long series. But in the spring, and then recently, I found that there are many things, several things that you only see in the sermon in the Mount, if you fly over it rather than walk through it. Unless you look at the general, unless you look at the as a whole, you miss some very important things.

And they've moved me very much. And what I want to do this week and next week is I'd like to show you, in general, what profound insights this has about what it means to live a Christian life. If you break it down and go through it, you know, verse by verse, you learn tremendous number of details about what it means to be a Christian and what it means to live a Christian life. But when you look at it as a whole, you see some broad strokes, you see some grand themes that I like to share with you.

And let's start this way. Let's take a look at it. The sermon on the Mount tells us what we are to do in the Christian life, why we are to do it, and how we are to achieve it. What to do is a Christian, why to do it, and how. If you look at the sermon on the Mount as a whole. What, why, and how? In fact, I'd like to tell you that that is almost always the psychological order in which the term on the Mount dawns on you.

As a person who's not only led people through this as students, as a teacher, and who has gone through it myself as a teacher, inevitably, well, maybe not inevitably, but almost, almost invariably. The psychological order in which we learn the sermon on the Mount is we first come, of course, to the Beatitudes, I read them this morning. The Beatitudes come first in Matthew 5. Right after the Beatitudes and this initial section,

there is a series of ethical guidelines where Jesus lays out what the Christian life looks like in very specific behavioral guidelines, ethical guidelines. So first you have the Beatitudes and this initial announcement of relationship to God. Then the last part of chapter 5, all of chapter 6 and the first part of chapter 7, Jesus lays out ethical guidelines. And then the very last part of chapter 7, the last part of the sermon,

are several metaphors that sort of drive the thing home. The two builders, the two roads, knocking, the tree and the fruit and so forth. But when you go on through, you hit, first of all, of course, the Beatitudes, and this stuff here about the law, and then about the commands, and then you get into the specifics of what Jesus says,

the Christian is supposed to be doing in the world. And almost always, we skip the Beatitudes intellectually. Oh, it doesn't mean we don't look at them and find them interesting, but they're cryptic. And they don't seem, unless you're actually, in a tremendous, unless you're going through a devastating time in your life, you read these things and you say,

this seems to be consolation for hurting people. Fine. Good. That's very interesting. How wonderful. It's cryptic. It's a little confusing. It doesn't seem directly relevant. You're not sure exactly what he's talking about, but as soon as you hit the ethical, as soon as you get past the Beatitudes where Jesus starts to say,

if you're a Christian, this is what I want you to do. This is how I want you to live. As soon as you get there, it grabs you. And the first thing you learn from the sermon on the Mount is what Jesus wants the Christian life to look like in the most detailed specific concrete behavioral way. And when you go through it, now this is what I'm going to do. I'm actually going to do it. I'm giving myself a little time limit here, but there's a sense of which to sweep and the beauty, the

intenseness and the extensiveness, the intensiveness and the extensiveness of Jesus' ethical guidelines are only possible, if they're only visible, if you look at the whole, Jesus actually, I think, lays down basically 10 essential principles. If you read the Thurman on the Man as a whole, I'm actually going to try to give him to you concisely. It's not going to be easy, but I think if we don't see them, you kind of, you don't see the vista, you don't see the broadness, you don't see, you don't see the breathtakingness of it unless you see them all. First of all, Jesus says, Christians here. Number one, you're attitude toward the world. I want you to be salt and light through your good deeds. He says, you're salt of the world, you're light of the world through your good deeds. And you know

what that means? See, we don't realize this. For us salt is just a seasoning, but for back then salt was a preservative. You put salt in things that tended to break down and decay. You put salt to keep them together. And this is what Jesus says. Christians find people who are breaking down and get in there. Find people who are emotionally breaking down, get in. Find neighborhoods that are socially breaking down, get in.

Find communities that are in every way breaking down. Get in. That's why I want a Christian to live. Why should you live in a city that's breaking down if it is because you're a Christian? Salt. And Jesus says, here's how I want Christians to live.

I want you to find places where you're most needed, where there's most decay, where there's most breakdown. I want you to go in there with what? He says, your good deeds are your salt, your good deeds are your light. In other words, deeds of compassion, deeds of investment, of your heart, of your talent, of your resources, get in there. That's your attitude toward the world. Wow. Okay. And then he moves on. And then he says, you've heard it said, thou shalt not kill, but I say unto you, here's a paraphrase of it. He says, you've heard it said, thou shalt not kill, but I say, if you attack a person with your tongue

by calling them a fool, or if you attack a person even in your heart by nursing a grudge, or if you attack a person, that person's personhood simply by being indifferent to them, simply by being cold, simply by calling them raaka, that's the Semitic word he uses, but it just means you nobody. He says, he says, you've heard a said, you should not kill, I say, if you attack them with your tongue, even nurse a grudge in your heart, or if you actually even are

cold to them, I say to you, you're trampling on their humanity and on the creator of that humanity. Jesus says, I don't want in theory, I want a Christian in every relationship, every encounter with any individual to make that person feel infinitely valued, welcomed and cherished. That's what I want a Christian to live like, that's what I want you to do. So that's the world, that's the individual. Then he moves on to sex. And he says, if you look on a woman with lust, you'll have committed adultery to it with her. And if you read the passage, here's what he's calling.

He's calling us to sexual integrity. You know what he says? Listen, what's integrity? He says, do not do anything with your body, you're not willing to back up with your life. That's a lack of integrity. He says, if you say, I want you to give me your physical vulnerability, but if you refuse to marry,

if you refuse to back that up with personal vulnerability, if you say, I want you to give me your physical vulnerability, but I don't want to be married to you. I want to hold onto my life. I don't want to give myself away to you. I want to keep my options open. Jesus says, if you are asking a person for his or her vulnerability through sex,

but you don't have the guts and the integrity to back it up with the personal vulnerability, doing with your life what you're asking that person to do with their body. In other words, if you have sex outside of marriage, that's lust, even if you're both doing it, it's lust. And even if you live in fantasy world about that kind of life, you're stabbing yourself

in the soul. He says, so have sexual integrity. And then he moves on. And he says, I also want you to have integrity of your words. Not just integrity with sex, integrity with words. He says, he says, don't swear by this or that or this. He says, but let your yes be yes and you know, be no. You know what that means? He says, a Christian should be someone who is so honest,

so transparent with nothing to hide. Always mean, you always mean what you say, and you always say what you mean, that you should every yes, every no, everything you say, you should be responsible to that as if you'd sworn on a stack of Bibles. When he says, swear not at all, but let your yes be yes and you know, but you know, he's saying, Christians should be so honest, you should walk around as if you're always under oath, as if you're always swearing on a stack of bibles, as if you're always on the witness stand. Integrity, he says, don't do something with your body,

you won't back up with your mind. And he also says, don't do something with your mouth, that you won't back up with your heart and your whole life. Integrity, you see, transparency, and then he moves on. Oh, I wish he wouldn't, but he does. And then he moves on, and then he says, this is very interesting. He says, give to the poor, but don't let your right hand know what your left hand is doing, and don't trump it at a broad that you are. I wish I could get into this, I can't, but he says, a Christian is someone who cares about the poor in radical, profound't, but he says, a Christian is someone who cares about

the poor in radical, profound ways, but you don't pity the poor, you don't look down at the poor. You don't get self-worth out of the superior sense you have that you have all the answers. If you read carefully what he's saying is, don't you dare help the poor out of a sense of superiority. He says, don't pity the poor, love and respect the poor, and then he moves on. And he goes on to your very, very tightly knit here. He goes on to your possessions. And he says, do not store up for yourself treasures on earth. He says,

don't store up treasures on earth where moth consumes and rust corrupts for where your treasure is, there is your heart also. Now, you know what he means? He says, where is your storehouse for your money? Now, your storehouse is your portfolio, your treasure house, your mutual fund, and he says, what is it? What is the thing you most delight in?

What is your real wealth? What is the thing you most delight to put your money into? He says, is it ministry? Is it people? Is it the ministry of the church? Is it the, is it ministry? Is it people? Is it the ministry of the church? Is it the poor of the world? Is it your friends and the people you know around you who are in need?

It says, if your heart is right, you won't just simply ask the question, how much do I have to give away in order to be a Christian? No, you never would. You will find that you enjoy giving your money away in general. There's a joy. In fact, you have to watch out. You have to watch out. You say, I'm giving too much money away this year.

I've got to be careful that I can still pay all my obligations. Where your treasure is there is your heart. If your heart is in the right place, he says, I want joyful giving. I want radical giving. And then he moves on. And he says, don't worry. He commands us not to worry.

He says if you worry about your clothes, if you worry about your life, if you worry about food, if you worry about the circumstances of your life, he says life is more than that. And he calls Christians, he doesn't just call Christians, he demands. He says do not. He says it'd be nice if you could try it over, he says, do not be anxious. And what he means? Fairly simple. We talked about it last week. He says, Christians should have this deep poise.

We called it last week, the spiritual, rapid eye movement of the soul, spiritual REM, a deep rest that you look at at the world and it doesn't matter what's happening out there. There's an equanimity, there's a courage, there's an equilibrium, there's a sense in which you're not finding yourself subject ups and downs. And Jesus says, love God and trust God so much that there's no worry and there's no stinginess and there's nothing to hide and there's and you live a life of grateful joy all the time and then lastly he says judge not this is the 10th thing he says judge not

bless you be judged you see and actually I'm and I'm going to tie it to the other thing. First of all, he says, when someone persecutes you, turn the other cheek. And later, he says, if someone is wrong, don't judge them. Now, first of all, turn the other cheek is something that people have struggled with for years. And they say, oh my goodness, what does that mean? It says, he says, turn the other cheek, love your enemies. If someone that mean? He says, turn the other cheek, love your enemies. If someone strikes you in the cheek, turn the other cheek and love your enemies.

And what people have thought over the years, that this means that you're supposed to let someone walk all over you. My dear friends, Jesus is calling you to something far harder than that. A lot of us, that's what we do. And frankly, it comes naturally. It's not a virtue. It's not a virtue. It's something we need. It's the easy way, letting someone walk all over you. That's not what God Jesus is. Not calling you to something as easy

as to let people walk all over you. When He says, love, what is love? Love is an action. Love is not a feeling. Love is giving somebody what's best for them, no matter what it costs you, that's love. And frankly, to let an enemy or a friend to let anybody lie, harm, to let anybody sin against you is bad for them, and therefore,

to love your enemy will be to oppose what they're doing. Forgiving someone who is wronged you can be one of the most difficult things to do in life. In his new book, Forgive, Why Should I and How Can I? Tim Keller shows how the skill and ability to forgive is one of the greatest resources Christianity offers us and, if rightly understood, it is not a hindrance to seeking justice, but a necessary precondition for the pursuit of it. In the book, you'll discover how both justice and forgiveness are aspects of love.

We'll send you Dr. Keller's new book as our thanks for your gift to help Gospel and Life share the love and forgiveness of Christ with more people. Just visit Gospel and Life.com-slashgive. That's Gospel and Life.com-slashgive. Now, here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. But why? Why?

The cheek. Well, you see, what does the cheek mean? The cheek represents the relationship. You see, a person can strike you on the cheek, that's a bad relationship, or a person can kiss you on the cheek, that's a good relationship. And what it's telling you is, when you oppose your enemies, you do it in such a way as not to get rid of that person's

relationship, but to try to reclaim it. Everything you do in opposing your enemy, everything you do is never to give that person come upence, to pay that person back, to show the world how stupid that person is. You never ever do anything toward an enemy in order to get rid of that person, but there has to be so much hope in your heart for that person,

and so much forgiveness in your heart, that though you may not believe it's very likely, your aim, your hope, and your expectation is, this person can be brought to the senses, this person can come back, this person can have a relationship with me. I want it. If you cannot desire a relationship with the redeemed version of your enemy,

Jesus says, you're not living the way I'm calling you to live. And then he turns and says, judge not let you be judged. Now modern people will say, that's right, don't judge. Don't make an evaluation of a person's moral beliefs and don't try to convert them.

You know, don't make a moral judgment. Don't call their beliefs wrong and don't try to persuade them to change their beliefs. Well, of course that's not what Jesus is saying, why? Because to say it's wrong, to say it's wrong to call someone's moral beliefs wrong is to call somebody's moral beliefs wrong. And to say you can't persuade anybody that your religious beliefs are right and theirs is wrong is to try to, at that very minute,

persuade somebody who, that your religious beliefs are right and somebody else is wrong, you can't avoid moral evaluation. Jesus is saying, though, when you do it, you must do it with humility, with warmth and with plenty of hope for that person. Never to get rid of them. Now, do you see, when you look at what Jesus is saying, a Christian is supposed to live like,

see the absolute extens- it's utterly comprehensive. Look at the extens—it's utterly comprehensive. Look at the extensiveness of it. The breadth of it. To be a Christian means everything's changed. Your relationship to the world and to individuals is different. Your relationship to riches and to the poor is different. Your relationship to your body.

Your relationship to your words. Your relationship to your mind. Your soul, it's all different. It's—look at the breadth of what Jesus says, but then look at the depth of it. I call you, He says, to a life of sacrifice. I call you to a life of deep peace. I call you to a life of gentle fearlessness. Boy, I call you to a life of absolute integrity.

And you know, maybe the worst one of all or the best one is where in verse 14 he says, you are the light of the world. The world will see. In other words, we are to be characterized. He commands us to be characterized. And let's face it, he'll be right. If we could treat enemies like that. If we could treat misled people like

that, if we could treat individuals like that, if we could act toward the world like that, if we could have this attitude toward the circumstance of our life and toward our lives and money, if we were like this, we would be the light of the world. He's saying let your life be so radiantly beautiful, people come to it. And to be anything less than that is to disobey these commands. See, he says, what does he say? He tells you, this is not a suggestion. This isn't a suggestion.

He says in verse 19, anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great. He says, if you practice and propagate these commandments I'm giving you, that is greatness of life, I guess. I guess. Look at it. That's what a Christian is supposed to be like. How are we doing? Now, secondly, the sermon on the mount. Once we get to the very first step, the sermon on the mount always gives you this picture of life at the highest, a vision of greatness. The next thing that happens is we begin to fall into despair because this, because, look

at verse 20. If this verse 20 wasn't here, we would feel it anyway. He says, I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven. Now, I'll tell you why I'm bringing this up. If this verse was not there, we would feel it. Jesus is saying, I am asking in this sermon on the Mount for a level of righteousness that no one has ever asked for before, no one.

See, the teachers of the law, in their day, the teachers of the law in Jesus' day had done a wonderful job about as good as you possibly could, trying to be obedient to God. I made a little list of this. I got this out of one history book. The teachers of the law in Jesus' day had read the Bible over and over and over and they had distilled out, let's see, I had my list.

They distilled out 613 rules, 248 they called commands and 365 they called prohibitions. And to be sure that you kept to this, that you'd never broke any of the 613 rules, they bolstered this by putting around it what they call another 1,521 emendations. These were not things that the Bible forbid, but there were 1,521 things that they voluntarily abstained from

because if you did them, it might make it easier to do some of the things the Bible forbids. So what they did was they were working as hard as possible to be obedient. These are professional holy guys. They worked extremely hard at it and nobody's ever worked any harder at it and Jesus has the audacity to say,

you will not go to heaven unless you are a whole lot more righteous than they are. And if that verse wasn't there, you would know he's right because he asks for things here. No one has ever asked for. No one. No religious leader. No teacher. No one. He says, I don't just say, don't kill. I don't just forbid killing. I forbid coldness, coldness to people. You know, he doesn't say, I forbid you paying back, I forbid you giving up on people, I forbid you, see, he doesn't just say, I forbid you to pay back. He says, I tell you, you have to go out there with love and hope for that person, never lose.

He doesn't say, I want you just to, here's a certain percentage of your money that you have to give away. I said, I want you to have a heart that loves giving money away in general all the time. Nobody's ever asked for this. He says, I want you to trust God so much that you live a life of grateful joy and worry is banished.

See, if first one he wasn't there, we would know it. And you know, one of the reasons why a lot of us are not devastated like we ought to be by the sermon on the Mount is because we sort of read the sermon on the Mount through cultural haze. If you were raised in a church, whenever you got the Sunday school lesson on the sermon on the Mount,

some well-meaning teacher stuck up on the flannel board, Jesus sitting on a green hillside surrounded by little pink children. And then we say, the sermon on the flannel board, Jesus sitting on a green hillside surrounded by little pink children. And then we say, the sermon on the mount. And of course, the regia of the Beatitudes, which are cryptic and hard to understand, and they kind of leave out the rest of it. Virginia STEM Owens is a Christian writer,

and she also teaches English at a major university. And she says, finally, Americans have started to reach the level of biblical illiteracy. And she's not being pejorative here. She's the level of biblical illiteracy. So now, she found that she assigns her English students, students in her English class, to read this term on the mountain right in essay.

And she says, now, since most of these people have never read it before, you're getting an honest response to it. And she says, for example, the last time she had somebody read, do it, she took a few pieces out of the essays. If I can find it, here's one. Here's three of them. One student said, I did not like the sermon on the mount.

It was not only hard to read, it makes me feel like I have to be perfect. And nobody is. Another one said, the things asked in the sermeter absurd, it's killing to have a grudge. It's wrong to look at a woman like that. These are the most extreme stupid on human statements I've ever heard. And here's one more.

This stuff is extremely strict and allows for almost no fun in life without thinking, is this a sin or isn't it? It's devastating. And any thoughtful person who comes to the sermon on the Mount and begins to understand what God wants you to do. What kind of life we should live. It does not walk away saying, how beautiful.

What a beautiful teaching. What wonderful thoughts. No, a thoughtful person looks to heaven and says, God save me from the sermon on the mount. God get it away from me. It exposes me. It strips me. it reveals me, it condemns me, protect me from it. God saved me from the sermon on the mount. And that's the first thing that happens when you really see what it teaches. But if you're willing to stay with it, you start to ask yourself, why does the righteousness in the sermonenade amount surpass that of the

scribes and the Pharisees? Why? Why is it so? Why does it go beyond? And the answer is illuminating because if you look carefully, and I, by the way, I very studiously avoided mentioning these things and I went through my little survey, along with every command, Jesus always, not always, but in almost every one of those cases that I gave you,

He always shows you that the reason the dynamic for that kind of behavior is because something has already happened inside of Christian. There's a condition already there. Let me just give you three. I can't certainly go back, but let me just give you three. First of all, you know that place where he says judge not or you'll be judged. He says, I want you

if you're going to correct somebody, do it with the utmost humility, the utmost respect. Now, right after that, he says, before you remove a spec out of one person's eye, take the log out of your own. What is that? Well you see a piece of wood that looks like a speck in somebody's eye, that very same piece of wood would look like a log in your own. And Jesus says, a Christian is a person who's in a condition that your own sins always look worse than anybody else's you're looking at at the moment. And therefore you see this kind of behavior he's talking about is impossible to someone who hasn't gone through some kind of profound change where you see your own sin

as always greater than anybody else's you're looking at. It's impossible to behave as impossible unless that's happened already. Let me go on. I'll turn the other cheek. When you first hear turn the other cheek, you think it's hard. When you find out what it really means, it's actually much harder. I tried to give it to you. Turn the other cheek means, Jesus says, you should have an endless, bottomless, inexhaustible confidence in the grace of God. You have seen God's grace come to undeserving people, hard people, broken people, messed up people, and changed them. And therefore, whoever you're opposing, no matter how hard they are, no matter how broken

they are, no matter how messed up they are, no matter how nasty they are, you identify with them. And you know that God can, His grace can work in that person. And you see, in turn the other cheek, Jesus is assuming that there is a confidence you have in the grace of God that is bottomless almost, profoundly deep, something already has happened inside you. Where else you are incapable of this. But here is theless almost. Profoundly deep, something already's happened inside you. We're also you're incapable of this, but here's the most important.

You know the one on worry? That's the one that most of us particularly, maybe this morning, feel most guilty about. Don't be anxious, he says. Do not be anxious. Don't worry about your life. Don't worry about your job. Don't worry about these things.

And you say, oh boy, I don't know how I'm going to do that. But you know what Jesus says? He says this. He says, God so close the grasp of the field. And he says, he also takes care of the birds of the air. And then he says, and you are much more valuable than they. There it is again. Now listen, if you don't have poise in your life,

if you don't have this deep poise, this deep calm, if you're worried, if you're anxious, you don't just kick yourself and say, I've got to stop doing this. God says, you don't know your value to me. And a Christian is only capable of this kind of life because something has happened to a Christian that has convinced you profoundly that you

were of infinite value to God. Something has shown you, and deep in your heart, you may forget it, but you can come back to it. Deep in your heart you say, there is nothing that he would not give up to keep me. There is nothing that he would refuse to do in order to bless me. I am of infinite value to him. He will do anything for me. Do you believe that? If you don't believe that, if you've never seen anything that convinced you of that,

you are incapable of this kind of life. Now, what are we talking about here? We always pass over the Beatitudes. We always pass over the first part and we run right into the second part. We always pass into the what? What should I be doing as a Christian and we ignore the why? But Jesus says, unless you have the why,

you'll never be able to do the what. Something has to happen. The law, the commandments of Christ, are not ways to obtain it. The laws and commandments of Christ are simply ways to work it out in your life. They're not ways to get it. They're just simply ways of working it out. You've got already have it.

The law of Jesus Christ, these commands he talks about, assume something has happened on the inside. Something profound, something that shows you your sin, but shows you God's grace, and most of all shows you your infinite value to God. It is in there, it's a conviction, it's deep, and that changes everything. Now, how can you get that?

You see, the commands of Christ, the Christian life assumes the radical change first. You don't obey Christ in order to get this change. You obey Christ because you have the change. I mean, this is fundamental and it's in the sermon on the Mount. Well, if you go back to the Beatitudes, which we're going to look at next week, actually, the Beatitudes are not talking simply about different groups of people. They're talking about the same person.

They're talking about a Christian. A Christian is somebody who's poor in spirit, who's mourned, who's meek, and who hungers in thirst after righteousness. In fact, let me just give you a kind of quick summary, but also an overview. Who is it that has got this change so that you can live this life? Just look at the middle of the Beatitudes. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled. This is what you have to be to be a Christian. First of all, blessed are they who hunger and thirst after righteousness. A Christian is first of all somebody, Christians

are people who realize that your problem with blessedness, your lack of blessedness or happiness in your life, is due to a lack of righteousness. So the first thing is a Christian is somebody who realizes I don't need a bigger car, I don't need a better spouse, I don't need a better job. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after something besides blessedness. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness who see it's a spiritual issue. That's the first thing. Secondly, to become a Christian, you have to hunger and thirst after perfect righteousness.

He would take me a while to explain this to you, but all the Greek commentators have all mentioned that it, for some reason, Jesus departs from the customary and he puts righteousness in an accusative instead of a genitive form. Now, see, here it is, the end of the sermon, and I hate to bring it up now. I don't want to distract anybody. It is extremely unusual, but commentators say, the only way to translate this very odd statement

is Jesus is saying, blessed are they who hunger in thirst, not after some righteousness, but all the righteousness in the world. Blessed are they who hunger in thirst, not after some righteousness, but all the righteousness in the world. Blessed are they who hunger and thirst after perfect righteousness. And here's what a Christian is. A Christian reads the law, reads those things we talked about, reads the kind of life, and you begin to finally see the forest for the trees. You finally start to say, oh my God.

I read the law, and I begin to see not just rules and regulations. I'm beginning to see a person. I'm beginning to see a kind of life. And I don't just want to be a little better. I want to be like that. I see a kind of world that I would like to live in. And therefore, I see a kind of life that I should be living. I don't just ask, Lord, I'm not hungry and thirsting after just getting better, getting over

the humps. I want to be like that. I want to be a person like that. I want to know a person like that. A person as loving as that, as transparent as that, with that kind of integrity, with that kind of sacrificial love, with that kind of courage, I want to be like that. You see, a Christian is somebody who begins to see perfect righteousness and you begin

to hunger and thirst for it. You start to say, you know, I've been playing in the mud puddles, but I've seen the ocean. I've been playing in a dirt pile. I've seen the mountains. I don't just want to be a little better. I want perfect righteousness. I want a life like that. I want character like that. I want to be a little better. I want perfect righteousness. I want a life like that. I want character like that. I want that.

And thirdly, hunger and thirst. A Christian is not somebody who's starting to go about attaining it. A person who is dying of hunger does not plan a garden. A person who's dying of hunger begs. A person who's dying of hunger doesn't even cook. A person who's dying of hunger begs. A person who's dying of hunger doesn't even cook. A person who's dying of hunger says, feed me. A Christian is somebody who sees in the law a perfect righteousness and says, this is

the way I should be and I can't do it. But I need it. And you begin to cry out for it as a gift. But lastly, a Christian is somebody who sees that what Jesus Christ says is something that no founder has ever said. He says, do you not think I came to abolish the law on the prophets, c. 17? He says, no, I came to explain them more what he did. I came to show you the way to obey them. Well, he did.

That's not what he says. He says something no one's ever said. He says, I am the sermon on the mount. I am the sermon on the mount and it will never be true of you until first you see it's me. It will never describe your life until first you see it describes my life. I came to fulfill. I came to be the person that you should be. So you could receive this perfect righteousness as a gift. Now look, not only does it mean Jesus Christ is all these things, he's the one who turned

the other cheek, Father, forgive them. He's the one who gave himself away. He's the one who loved God with all his heart, soul, strength in mind. He's the one who loved His neighbor as himself, but not only that, he's the Beatitudes. He's the Beatitudes. Why are you rich because he became poor? Why are you comforted because he mourned inconsolably? Why do you inherit the earth? Because he lost everything. Because he lost everything. Why are you filled? Because he cried out, I thirst. See?

Why do you get mercy? Because God showed him no mercy. Why can we see God? Because when he was on the cross, He said, my father, my father, where are you? I can't see you. Where are you? You've turned away from me.

Jesus Christ is the sermon on Mount every part of it, every bit of it. And until you see that he was the sermon on the Mount, he came to fulfill it. This is him. This is the perfect righteousness. Then and only then will you know what it's like to be filled. Because to be filled is to cry out for perfect righteousness and to say, Lord, Father, I see that to be a Christian is not to give you an imperfect righteousness to you, but to receive a perfect righteousness from you.

Jesus came to not only live the life I should have lived, that's the second part of the sermon on the Mount, but to die the death I should have died, that's in the first part, that's the be attitudes. And because of that, now I can be filled. Because of that, now that thing is happening in my heart. So I can live a life without judging people. I can live a life of turning the other cheek.

I can live a life of transparent-sac because I know I'm filled. I walk out in the world because I know my value to him. I know it. I finally know it." See, until you see, when you read the law, you see grace in it because not only does the law is a law, really, in Jesus Christ, a work of grace in that it shows you your need of grace, but it actually shows you your Savior, it doesn't just show you your sin, it shows you your Savior, and it shows you what you look like to him today, if he fulfilled the law for you, and you're filled with it now through Him,

you have that perfect righteousness. That means God looks at you today and He sees as if you've turned the other cheek. All week, you've never worried. You've poured yourself out for the needs of the world. He treats you as if you are his heroic as Jesus is. He loves you as if you are as attractive as Jesus is. And when you know that, you'll be able to start living this way. Don't you see?

Until you see that the sermon on the Mount is about him, it will never be about you. And until you see it's about him first, it'll never be about you second. Blessed are they, who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they will be filled. Are you living filled? Christian friends? Are you cold? Are you worried? I tell you in the next couple of minutes say, Lord, I'm not living filled. I've forgotten my value, I've forgotten my sin, I've forgotten your grace. I got to do it. Be attitudes who you are and then the law. Do it. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst

after righteousness for they will be filled. Let's pray. Thank you, Father. For giving us your Son, from whom all things come, we pray that you would help us to come to Jesus now, just to come to Him. So we can be the people we long to be. We ask that you would help us to come to Jesus now, just to come to Him. So we can be the people we long to be.

And we ask that in Jesus name. Amen. We hope you enjoyed today's teaching about knowing Jesus. And we hope you'll continue to join us throughout the month as we continue to discover the joy and freedom of putting Him at the center of your life. Before you go, if you were encouraged by today's podcast, please rate and review it so more people can discover the message of Christ's love. Thanks again for listening.

This month's sermons were recorded in 1996. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel on Life Podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.