Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Heart of Darkness

Episode Date: July 3, 2023

We’re in a series tracing the storyline of the Bible: what’s wrong with the human race, what God has done about it, and how it’s all going to turn out. We’ve begun to look at Romans 1 through 4, where Paul gives us perhaps the single most comprehensive explanation of what God has done about our problem through Jesus Christ.  We turn now to this passage in Romans where Paul actually reflects back on Genesis and what it says is wrong with the human heart.  If you look in every human heart, Paul says, you’ll find four things: 1) the knowledge of our God, 2) the manufacturing of our idols, 3) the hardening of our humanity, and 4) the capacity for endless praise. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 15, 2009. Series: Bible: The Whole Story - Creation and Fall. Scripture: Romans 1:18-32. 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. Many people view the Bible as a series of disconnected stories or morality lessons, but in reality, the Bible tells one single beautiful story. What's wrong with the world? What God has done to put it right in Jesus Christ? And how history will turn out at the end? Today, we invite you to listen as Tim Keller teaches on the central story of the Bible, our redemption and restoration.

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. The scripture reading is taken from Romans 1-18-25. The rath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the Godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Since what may be known about God is plain to them because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made,

so that men are without excuse. For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God, nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal men and birds and animals and reptiles.

Therefore, God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator who is forever praised. Amen. This is the word of the Lord. We're in a series that's tracing out the storyline of the Bible. We've said each week that the Bible is not a disconnected set of individual stories that each has a little moral to it. But rather the Bible is primarily a single story that tells us first what's wrong with human race, secondly what God has done

about that in Jesus Christ, and thirdly how it's all going to turn out in the end of history. And what we've done is we first started by looking at Genesis 1 to 4 to see the beginning of the Bible's story about what is wrong with human race. And now we've begun to look at Romans chapter 1 to 4, where Paul gives us perhaps the single most comprehensive explanation of what God has done about our problem through Jesus Christ. But at this spot in the text of Romans, we actually have something pretty interesting. If you've been with the series, we have Paul reflecting himself on Genesis 1 to 4.

We have him looking back on all the things that we've been looking at and summarizing what's wrong with the human heart. Now all scripture is equally true and all scripture is equally inspired, but not all scripture is equally packed. And this text is packed and there's more in it than we can unpack. So for example, the very first line introduces us to the idea of the wrath of God. A lot of people have questions about that. We're going to wait for next week on that.

Instead, what we're going to look at tonight is the four things Paul says you can find in every human heart. If you look at in every human heart, Paul says, reflecting on Genesis 1 to 4, you can find in every human heart. If you look at in every human heart, Paul says, reflecting on Genesis 1 to 4, you'll find four things. And those four things are the knowledge of our God, the factory of our idols, the hardening of our humanity, and a capacity for endless praise. and a capacity for endless praise. The knowledge of God, the manufacturing of idols, the hardening of our humanity, and the

capacity for endless praise. First, start at the top of the text. First thing we learn here, Paul says, is that there is in every human heart the knowledge of God, because we're told that what is so awful, what God is so angry at, is we suppress the truth. You can't suppress something unless you've got it. And what do they got? What do we have? The truth. What is the truth? The truth is, and you go through the rest of the little paragraph, it tells you, that basically down deep in our hearts we know there's a God and we know about his eternal power and divine nature. In other words, we know regardless of what we tell ourselves or what we claim.

Every human being knows that there's a creator on whom we are utterly dependent and to whom we're completely accountable. Because power, see, in this nature, there is a creator to whom we are completely accountable and on whom we are completely dependent. And we know that down deep, but we suppress it. We repress it. The word there is, we hold it down or hold it back. Now that means there's two things.

That means Paul's saying two things about human beings. First of all, is that everyone does understand a great deal about truth. There's a lot of truth that every human being knows about life, about reality. But we're also told that we hold down that truth. We repress it. Why? Well, here's the big answer. And the big answer is the reason we repress the knowledge of the true God is if you take a look down in verse 21, it says, for although they knew God, they didn't glorify Mazz God, nor give thanks to him.

And I remember years ago, when I first started studying this passage, that sure sounded anticlimactic to me. They didn't give thanks. That's it. That's the problem. That's the source of all the problems in the world, the evil and mystery and suffering. We don't give thanks.

And you know, you think about when you're a little, all the teachers and all the adults and all the parents are always like, now say thank you. You know, don't take that without saying thank you. Thank you. And it just seems like courtesy. Is that it? That's the problem with the whole world.

Bad manners. Is that it? No. Let's think about it for a second. You know what plagiarism is? We say that's intellectual property theft. IP theft. Yeah.

But you know what plagiarism is? You know why it's so severely punished? Because it's not giving thanks. In other words, it's claiming to be self-sufficient, claiming that you came up with this and not acknowledging dependence, not acknowledging the fact you didn't come up with that. You got it from over there. You're dependent on this person. Plagiarism is a refusal to give thanks and therefore it's a claim to self-sufficiency when it's not

there, when it's not true, and cosmic in gratitude. Cosmic unthankfulness is living in the illusion that we are self-sufficient, that we can call the shots, that we are self-sufficient, that we can call the shots, that we decide what is right or wrong, that we decide how to live. We hate the idea that we would be utterly and completely dependent, and therefore thankful to God for everything, because then we lose control, then we'd be obligated, then we couldn't live the way we want, and we hate that.

And therefore we're told because this sin in the heart makes us want desperately to keep control of our lives and to live the way we want to live. We cannot acknowledge the magnitude, the size, the greatness, and how much we owe God, how dependent we are on Him, how accountable we are on, how much we should be living in thankfulness. We don't want that because that means to lose control. Let me give you an example. Therefore, we repress the knowledge of the real God. We may believe in God, but we don't believe in the true God, the real God, because that

means losing control. Example. Some years ago I was listening to a minister teach on this topic. When I gave you his illustration, you'll know how long ago this was. But anyway, he was saying that the other night he'd been watching television, and he was watching David Frost on television. And he saw David Frost interviewing Madeline Murray O'Hare, who was a very famous and activist atheist. And David Frost was arguing with her.

She says, oh, there is no God. And he says, well, I think you can believe in God. And they went back and forth. And finally, David Frost was getting kind of frustrated. So he did the modern thing. He solved the problem in the modern way. He took a poll of the studio audience. And what he did was he said, now,

how many of you out there believe in God? And they almost everybody raised their hand and he turned to Madel Meroher, see. And the preacher, the teacher who was teaching on Romans 1, said, what is she? Madeline Meroher missed what an opportunity, what a chance she missed. Because what she should have done is she said, excuse me, could I take my own poll? And she got to turn to the audience and say, how many of you believe in the God of the Bible?

How many of you believe in the God who when he comes down on Mount Sin, I comes down enlightening and deep darkness? How many of you believe in the God who was a consuming fire, who says no one can look upon the face of my glory and live? How many of you believe in the God who says, without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sin. How many of you believe in the God of the Bible? That God. And probably said the teacher, very few people would erase their hands, and then she could have turned and said, rightly so, I win. Here's why she would have been able to do that if she'd known.

Here's why she would have been able to do that if she'd known. Romans 1 says, the real God, not the liberal God or the conservative God, not the God, the liberal God is a God of love in the universe, you know, a spirit of love, everybody loves everybody. So you basically can live the way you want. Or a conservative God who says, no, this is, we believe that there's God with a moral absolutes. And if you really obey those absolutes, if you try really hard, then you know you're one of the righteous people. Then you can please God. Then he'll take you to heaven. Don't you see? Both of those kinds of gods leave you in control. You know, a God who's just a God of love, you can live anyway you want. A God who is the man in God

that if you obey him and then he'll take you to heaven and, you can live anyway you want. A God who is the man in God that if you obey him and then he'll take you to heaven and then you can know you're one of the righteous people, that's a God who owes you. You're not losing control, but the God of the Bible, the God who's a consuming fire, the God you can't look upon him and live, the God who says, without shutting up others,

there's no remission of sins. The God, if you relate to him, you'll have to relate to him on the basis of absolute grace, and therefore you will owe Him everything. You'll be utterly thankful to Him. We're not having a relationship with Him at all. That God, the God about, at the very end of that old movie, The Bible, in which you've got Abraham and Isaac, and Isaac at the very end looks up at his father,

Abraham, and says, is there nothing he cannot ask of the, and Abraham says, nothing. That God, nobody believes in that God, unless by the power of the Holy Spirit, your heart is regenerated. The Holy Spirit has to come in and intervene to let you believe in that God because according to Romans 1,

you can't believe in that God. You suppress the truth about that God. You may not believe in any God at all, that way you can live anyway you want, or you'll believe in God. In fact, most people believe in God, but they don't believe in that God. They can't believe in that God.

They won't believe in that God because then they lose control. And we can't do that. We don't want to glorify Him as God. That means give Him the significance He deserves and give Him other things because then we be out of control. Now, therefore, point one, we all have the knowledge of God but we suppress it.

And you know what this means? And here I'm gonna speak to Christian believers. We have to realize that what Sultzenitsyn said is true of everybody in a way. Sultzenitsyn has this very famous line where he says, you can't divide the world into good and bad people. The line between good and evil goes down the center of every human heart. Every human being is good and evil.

Now, you know, Christians understand that because Christians know there's that you know even even when you're born again you know you've got the new self and you still got the old self and we feel that but see Paul is saying that's true of every absolutely everybody everybody's in the image of God everybody has the truth and yet everybody has a an a deeply ambivalent relationship to the truth and therefore the line between good and evil goes down the middle of every movie, every book, every work of art. Because every human being knows a lot about the truth, and every human being is struggling

and resists the truth, and therefore every work of art, every cultural product, everything out there has got remarkable mixtures. There's a dialogue going on between the truth and falsehood in all human endeavor. And therefore Christians cannot just say, well, I only want to go to read Christian books and go to Christian counselors and Christian lawyers and Christian doctors and you know all those other people out there are bad. No, no, you don't want to be like Salieri who's sitting around saying, hey, I go to church, I pray. Why is this licentious person Mozart, that's in the movie Amadeus?

Why is he getting so many of God's gifts? Why does such beauty come into the world through him? I don't understand it. I'm the good person. He's a bad person. What's going on here? It's, well, you know, James chapter one verse 17 says, every good and perfect gift comes down from above

from the Father of lights. Every act of goodness, wisdom, justice, and beauty, no matter who does it, is a gift from God, and everybody does them. And so Christians need to not be so exclusive. They need to have critical appreciation of all the people around them and all the culture around them.

Yet at the same time knowing that in all of our hearts there's this deep resistance to the truth. So you're not naive, on the other hand you're not exclusive. And so it's a very important first point. Second point is not only is in the heart every human heart the knowledge of God, but secondly you have the manufacturing of idols. Now, this is perhaps the central thing that Paul's getting across. And there's a lot more we could say about it

than we are about to say, but let me say this. First of all, he says, he shows us here the inevitability of idolatry. Because he says, in verse 25, they exchange the truth of God for a lie. And worshiped and served created things rather than the creator. Notice they worshiped and served created things

rather than the creator, but the one, there's only two options. You either worship the creator or you worship a created thing. But there's no possibility of not worshiping or serving anything. In spite of the fact that plenty of people say they don't worship or serve anything, it's not impossible. Why?

Paul says it's impossible. If you do not worship the true God, and nobody does, apart from the power of the Holy Spirit, then you have to be worshiping something else. Well, how could that work? Well, like this. Human beings, I mean, some philosophers and thinkers have said it this way, human beings are telek creatures.

And the telek is, is from the word telos which means purpose. In other words, human beings have got to live for something. Human beings don't live. They just have to live for something. Something has to capture your imagination. Something has to capture the imagination. Something has to capture the highest allegiance of your heart. Something has to be the resting place of your deepest

hopes. Every human being has to look at something deep in their heart, semi-consciously, unconsciously, and say, if I have that, then my life is worthwhile, then I've got meaning in life, you know, then life will have been worth living, then I'll know that I'm somebody. If I have that, and whatever that is, wherever your hopes are, your deepest hopes, wherever your highest allegiance is, wherever your ultimate concern is, that's what you worship, because that's what worship is. And therefore, the inevitability of idolatry, because that's what worship is. And therefore, the inevitability of idolatry, because since none of us in our natural state actually worship the true God, we believe in God, but we believe in a kind of God that

keeps us in control of our lives, as we just said, and then what we actually center our lives on, what we actually give our functional trust, our functional worship too, is always something else, whether it's achievement or money or claim or human approval or comfort or power or approval or control. And that's the inevitability. But the second thing, Paul shows, is this incredible range of idols, the incredible range. See, today, if you talk about idolatry, almost immediately modern people say, you mean worshiping statues? Oh, no.

When Kathy and I first started coming up here to start the church in 1989, we used to take trips up here every Sunday afternoon to meet with people and meet individuals in her one time. We met somebody at a Thai restaurant. And every week, we used to take one of our three sons and leave the other two at home with a babysitter. That's the parental philosophy, dividing conquer. Okay, you leave two at home, have one, you know, without number to them, so it always was better.

And I remember my middle son, age nine, with a loud voice, only nine-year-olds can muster. Walks in the Thai restaurant, sees a little statue and a candle lit in front of it and says, there's idols in New York. And, uh, if only he knew. Because see, Paul, in his writings, let me give you three examples, shows that anything can be anything is an idol. On the one hand, here, he links idolatry to what? Sexual lust. Sexual desires. Now, if this is the only place he mentioned idolatry, and then he said, sexual lust is an example of an idol,

making an idol out of sex romance, maybe even marriage. He said, well, he's got sex on the mind. But go to Colossians in chapter 3, and there he calls greed idolatry. Materialism idolatry, a love of money idolatry. So, okay, well, I can understand it, sex can be an idol, money can be an idol, well, let me try this one on. In Colatians 4, he is talking to Jewish Christians who are sliding back into their belief

that they need to adopt the mosaic code, all the mosaic laws, in order to please God. And he looks to them and he starts saying, if you go back into that kind of moralistic religion, if you begin to think that obeying the mosaic code and the law of God is going to get you into heaven, then please God. If you go back into that kind of moralistic, legalistic religion, you are going into idolatry.

Look, maybe you've heard of the idea that money can be an idol. Maybe you've heard the idea that sex can be an idol. Have you ever heard that church can be an idol? The law of God can be an idol. Your own moral efforts and your own moral rectitude can be an idol. Until you can see that, you don't have a biblical understanding of what idolatry is, because idolatry is looking to something to give you the kind of hope, the kind of value, the kind of safety that only God himself can give you.

If you love anything more than God, if you rest your security in anything more than the providence and wisdom and sovereignty of God, if your imagination is captured anything by more than the greatness of God, if your value is rooted in anything more than the grace and love of God, if you love anything more than the grace and love of God. If you love anything more than God, and you do, you are looking to a created thing to give you what only God can possibly give you, and therefore you have set up an idol. And there's all kinds of idols. There's near idols and far idols.

Yeah. See, for example, you say, well, I've heard this idea that money is an idol, aw, okay. But why is money an idol? Some people, you know, make a lot of money and you'd have no idea. They don't spend it on themselves. You don't see it on their, you know, they don't spend it making clothes, you know why? Money for them is something they sock away and they can't give it away, you know why? Because they, money is their way of keeping control of the environment.

It's their way of keeping control of the environment. It's their way of saying, I've got this money and therefore I can handle what comes. I'm secure. I've got control over my world. Instead of prayer, instead of God, it's money. That person doesn't spend the money on him or herself at all. They just have to know it's all there. And they can't give it away.

Why? Because of the idolatry of control. I have control of my life. And the money gives me that control. Other people take the money and they spend a lot on themselves. You can see it. They look beautiful and they live in beautiful places and they hang out with beautiful people. Why? Because for them, money is a way of getting on the inner ring. Money is a way of getting human approval. And if I have human approval, then I know who I am. Then I feel significant and secure. And so the money is actually an easy to look for idle, but underneath there's deeper idles. Everything's an idle. Everything can be an idle, everything serves as an idle. And everybody in this room, you know,

what if you are a Christian believer, it means you've had maybe the back broken of your idols and when you gave yourself to Christ, you understand something about who he is. And it comes into your life, but you've got the new self and the old self and the old self is still beholden at idols. And apart from the work of the Holy Spirit,

we're completely beholden at idols. And if for everybody in this room's got a problem with it, do you know what your idols are? Do you know what your near idols are? Your far idols are. Unless you do, Paul says, you don't even know your own heart at all. You don't know anything about your heart. You haven't begun to understand yourself.

Most Christians, even pastors, struggle to talk about their faith in a way that applies the power of the gospel to change lives, especially in our skeptical culture. Tim Keller's book of preaching, communicating faith in an age of skepticism is a guide for anyone who wants to become more effective in communicating about their faith. Pastors and lay people alike. Drawing on his years of experience, Dr. Keller will help you share your faith in a more engaging, passionate and compassionate way

from the pulpit or in the coffee shop. Preaching 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 gospelunlife.com slash give now Here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching So in the heart is the knowledge of God in the heart is the manufacturing of idols thirdly and linked very much to idolatry Third thing it's going on in every human heart is the hardening of our humanity. The hardening of our humanity? Yes.

One of the great themes of the Bible throughout, from Old to New Testament, is that idolatry leads to the hardening of a heart of stone, to dehumanization. Over and over again, we're told that if you worship idols, which are things, rather than the living person of God, if you worship things rather than are things, rather than the living person of God, if you worship things rather than the person of God, instead of a person, you'll become a thing. You will become hard. You will become as blind as the idol.

You will become as deaf as the idol. You will actually become less and less of a human being, less and less personal, more hardened and hard, more blind. So, you know, there's hundreds of these references, but here's one, Psalm 135. Their idols are silver and gold. They have mouths, but cannot speak eyes, but they cannot see. They have ears, but cannot hear, see.

They have hands, but cannot feel. They have feet, but they cannot walk. Nor can they utter a sound with their throats. Those who make them will be like them, and so will all who trust in them. Now Paul is basically working that out, because when he says, we're all guilty of idolatry, then he goes along and says,

our wills, our minds, and our emotions are slowly being eroded, they are slowly being taken over, and we're becoming less and less human and less and less personal all the time. Look, first of all, he says, whatever you worship, this is down to verse 25, you serve, and that word serve means you're a slave too.

And think about this. Well, I know this is hard, because we're also blind and futile in our thinking and we're in denial, but think about this. Whatever is the most important thing in your life, whatever is the thing that boy, because of that, I'm happy, because of that, I got many in my life. You have to have that. You have to.

If you don't have that, life is over. See, hope is gone. Your very identity falls apart. And therefore, you're not, there's no freedom about that thing. There's no choosing about that thing. A human being can choose, but no, you're more like an animal who's operating on instinct or you're more like a robot who's got to do what's your program. You've got to have it.

You've got to have it. You're driven. So your will is beholden. Secondly, your mind, see up in verse 21, it talks about because they neither glorified God or gave thanks to him, they're thinking became futile. And then, of course, even down in verse 25, it says, the exchange of truth of God for a lie, all addicts,

and that's what we're talking about. You know, idolatry is a form of spiritual addiction. All addicts, all, are actually in denial. You see, I don't know where you are. I don't know what you're thinking right now. But if you say, I don't see any idols in my life, you're an addict and you are in denial. You say, well, yeah, of course, that is pretty important to me. Oh, you don't have no idea how important it is because you don't want to see.

You want the alcoholic to say, I can control it. Right? That's what an alcoholic is. Alcoholics, I can control it, but they can't, but they think they can. And there's something in your life that you look at like that. Your idols weave a delusional field, a field of denial around them, so you always minimize their impact on you.

So, in other words, you have eyes, but you don't see. And the longer you worship the idol, the more you've got eyes that don't see just like they have. And then, last of all, your hearts are darkened. Not only is your will beholden and your mind is made futile and deluded, but then it says in verse 21, their foolish hearts are darkened. And, most of all, it says, therefore, God gave them over to the sinful desires of the heart. Now, if you've been around,emer, you've heard this before.

This word desires. This Greek word that's translated here desires shows up every place that idolatry shows up in the New Testament. And it's a word epithemia, which actually means an epidessier, like an epicenter. And it doesn't mean sinful desire.

That's not a best way to translate it. It does, sometimes they try to translate it as lust, but lust, of course, does mean sex, so that's not a good translation. There's no good English translation, so I'm gonna tell you what it is. I dolloture creates super desires, burnout level over the top uncontrollable desires,

inordinate desires, over the top uncontrollable desires, inordinate desires, over the top desires. You not only are driven to have it, but if anything gets in your way, there's paralyzing anxiety, not normal kinds of worry. Paralyzing debilitating guilt, not normal kinds of regret. Paralyzing debilitating kinds of bitterness, not normal kinds of anger.

And therefore, you are more and more like an animal, or more and more like a robot following your program, and less and less like a human being. You say, well, how does that work it out? Well, let me read you from a manuscript that I was working on with somebody about idolatry, listen carefully. I'm only going to say this once. Okay? Just listen carefully.

Though it's recorded, so, you know, you'll be able to listen to it forever if you want. All right. Anxiety is idolatry mapped onto the future. Anxiety becomes pathologically intensified to the degree that I have idolized finite things. Suppose my highest value, my functional meaning in life, is politics, either the Democratic Party or the Republican Party. Then, when my party experiences a great defeat,

I don't experience just gloom disappointment, but I'm shaken to the depths, I want to leave the country, and I'm too furious to speak to anyone who voted for the other side. Guilt is idolatry mapped on the past. Guilt becomes pathologically intensified to the degree that I have idolized finite things. Suppose I value a happy family, and therefore my performance as a parent is valuable above

everything else. Then if my daughter goes wrong or has great problems, I am not just sorrowful and grieved, I am stricken with neurotic guilt. I cannot forgive myself, I hate myself, I may become suicidal. And lastly, anger and bitterness is idolatry mapped onto the present.

Anger becomes pathologically intensified when someone or something stands between me and something that is my ultimate value. Suppose my career is the measure of my worth. And as a person, and someone at work is harming it, I won't just be angry. I will be so deeply bitter and capable of doing things to this person that I may blow up my career more thoroughly

than that person ever could. Do you see what's going on? Or what if you make your moral recitude into an idol? Remember, like in Galatians 4, what if you really believe that because you're good, a good person you've tried very hard, God owes you a good life. And then when difficulties come, sorrow is pathologically intensified absolute bitterness against God and life itself. And it poisons your ability to ever enjoy life ever again.

Because you deserve better than this. Don't you see idolatry dehumanizes you. If you worship a thing instead of the living person of God, you'll become lessenless a person and more and more thing. How will we escape? How will we escape? I told you this is a packed text. This text is like an arrow. I mean, if you really listen to it, this text is like an arrow

in a bow and the bow is bent. The bow is really bent. How are we going to escape? Here's what you have to do. Admittedly, the text doesn't tell you much about it. In fact, because what Paul's going to tell you guys has done about it, comes later on in the next chapter, especially chapter three and four.

But there's a hint here, especially at the very, very, very, very end when it says, we worship created things rather than the creator who is forever praised. Amen. Think with me for a second. The first thing you have to do, if you want to escape, the idols of your heart and the heartening that comes with it, is you've got to really not waste your sorrows.

You've got to make good use of your disappointments and there's never been a better time than now. There's never been more disappointments in New York City than now. Why? Well, here's why. It says in verse 21, no pardon me, verse 24, therefore God gave them up. God gave them up or gave them over to what? Now don't forget what the right translation is. God gave them over to the strongest desires of their hearts.

The worst thing God can do to you and the most just form of punishment God could possibly give you is to give you over to the strongest desires of your hearts. In other words, let your wishes come true. That's the worst thing God could possibly do. And the most fair thing, Oscar Wilde of all people said, when the gods want to punish us, they answer our prayers. You think about that. Right out of Romans 1, when the gods won a punish us, they answer our prayers.

Oscar Wilde knew that when he got the things as heart most wanted, it was the worst possible thing for him because our hearts are disordered. Our hearts have idolatrous desires. They have epi desires, over desires. And the worst thing I could possibly do is give you what you want. Give you over. You know the word give over is actually where that means surrender to your enemies. That's an amazing verse. Paul is saying, your enemies are the strongest desires of your heart.

The idolatrous desires of your heart, the worst thing I could do is give you a good life, let everything happen the way you want it to happen. In Richard Baxter, the old period and the 17th century period, and has a section on particular kinds of spiritual problems. And he has a frightening section. He wrote this in the 1650s, 1660s, on if you set your heart on money and you actually get it, how horrible that is for you spiritually. He says, for example, if you set your heart on money and you actually make it, several

things happen. One is, you first of all, mistake, wealth and savvy and skill and smarts for character. Because you're smart, smart, and you're savvy and you've made this money and you want to believe that it's because of your character. So you mistake wealth and savvy for character. And then the rest of your life, first of all, you make all kinds of terrible choices and relationships because you'll mistake wealth and savvy for character

and it's not true. You'll also become very, he said, proud. He says wealthy people have believed that they're smart about every area, that their experts on everything. He says, and everybody sees it, and everybody laughs at it, but nobody can say anything because of your power, which makes it impossible for people to tell the truth. And he goes on and on and on and saying, the worst thing you can possibly happen is to

set your heart on money and get it, but it's really true about anything. Kathy and I, when we, before we were married, my wife and I had really good prayer lives. And neither was really thought we were going to get married, anybody. And we got married without knowing it, our prayer life kind of went into the toilet. Why? Because, you know, why you have to pray to God when all you can do is just call on the phone. John Newton said the worst thing about a good marriage is the problem of idolatry.

And for many years, we had no idea how poor our prayer life was because we'd made idols out of each other. And we didn't see it that way. We didn't understand that. But when sickness came, when bad sickness came to both of us, we realized our prayer life was nothing like it should have been. And the best thing that happened to us was our idols were in jeopardy.

And it gave us a prayer life back. The best thing that can happen, according to Oscar Wilde, is God is not answering your prayer. At that time, and only at that time you begin to see this anxiety I'm feeling, this guilt I'm feeling, this anger I'm feeling, it's pathological, it's not caused by the circumstances, it's caused by my over trust in things, by looking to things to give me what only Jesus can give me. And it's only in bad times that you will ever see your idols. It's the only opportunity you have briefly when bad times come to get on top of them.

And then secondly, besides you have to make good use of your troubles, the second thing you've got to do is you've got to learn to do what the angels do, which is endlessly praise. See the only way to get your hearts to stop worshiping other things is to worship the right thing. Who endlessly praises God? Who endlessly praises God? The angels.

And in 1 Peter 1 verse 10 to 12, we read this, concerning the salvation, the prophet spoke of the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. They spoke of the things that have now been told to you by those who preach the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit into which things even angels long to look. And the word long to look, it says here, the angels long to look at the gospel. They long to look at Jesus dying for us. They long to look at the glory of it. They long to look at the glory of it

and the beauty of it and the wisdom of it and the love of it. They can't get enough of it. And you know what that word long to look is? It's the word epithemia. It's the word that's usually translated lust. The angel's lust. After the gospel, what's that mean?

Here's what it means. Angel's hearts, the deepest passions of angels hearts, are satisfied by looking at the love and the beauty and the wisdom of Jesus Christ, reveling in it, rejoicing in it, seeing praise, and it's not even for them. And yet you see what? See, when the deepest passions of your heart are satisfied by praising and adoring Jesus Christ, then all other passions are put in their place. And you can look at approval and you can look at romance

and you can look at all these things that you wish you had and you could say to them, I can live without you because I've got Jesus Christ. And if I can't live without you, I'll never be able to live safely, spiritually with you. And therefore, don't you tell me how to live my life? Don't you push me around? Don't you inflict anxiety and guilt on me?

You can spit in the world's eye if you've learned like the angels to look at the gospel and be so moved by his love for you and love him for his love for you. Especially when you realize this word, it says, God gives us over to our strongest desires, but do you realize in Romans 8 it says, God gave him over to die for us. And in Ephesians 5 it says, Jesus Christ gave himself over to die for us.

When you see Jesus Christ giving himself over to his enemies, to die for us, I'd love for us, to pay for our sins. Nothing else will take functional control of your heart, you see. If you see Him giving Himself over for you, you will not be given up and given over to your lusts, to your idols. Learn to sing the praises of the one who died for you. And here's actually a hymn that was written many years ago about this very subject by William Cooper.

The dearest idol I have known, what air that idol be, helped me to tear it from thy throne and worship only thee. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for being the one God who, if we get you, will satisfy us to the bottom. And if we fail you, we'll forgive us. If we live our career, our career can't die for our sins. We pray, Father, that you would help us to rest in the beauty

of what Jesus Christ has done. Teach us how to praise you endlessly, especially for your gospel grace, and as we do it, and as we sing your praises, and as we think about what you've done, our hearts will heal. We'll get from heart to stone to hearts of flesh. We'll become more and more personal. We'll be more and more free to live our lives instead of being driven by fears and guilt and anxiety. Oh Lord, give us the lives that are possible if we love your son, our Savior has done for us, Jesus Christ, in his name we pray. Amen.

Thank you for joining us today. If you were encouraged by today's podcast, please rate and review it so more people can discover the hope of the gospel. Thank you again for listening. This month's sermons were recorded in 2009 and 2016. The sermons and talks you hear on the gospel and life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.