Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Liberty of Obedience

Episode Date: November 4, 2024

Paul says you have to work the gift of salvation into every nook and cranny of your life, and that you do that through spiritual disciplines. That’s how you change.  But the modern mind finds some of these disciplines more appetizing than others. The idea of meditation is sort of cool. But obedience? That’s not very appetizing. And yet, this discipline tells us that you don’t get changed unless you’re willing to come in under the authority of God. Let’s look at what Psalm 119 shows us about 1) what’s wrong with trying to be your own ultimate spiritual authority, and 2) how you can put yourself under God’s authority in a way that’s transforming and not stifling. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 14, 2002. Series: Psalms: Disciples of Grace. Scripture: Psalm 119:32-49. 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.

The book of Psalms gives voice to the full range of human emotions. You'll find joy, sorrow, doubt, fear, praise, and lament in its pages. Join us today as Tim Keller shows us how the Psalms can help us grow into the people God designed us to be. Today's scripture is from Psalm 119 verses 32 through 49. I run in the path of your commands, for you have set my heart free. Teach me, O Lord, to follow your decrees, then I will keep them to the end. Give me understanding, and I will keep your law and obey it with all my heart. Direct me in the path of your commands, for there I find delight.

Turn my heart toward your statutes and not toward selfish gain. Turn my eyes away from worthless things. Preserve my life according to your word. Fulfill your promise to your servant so that you may be feared. Take away the disgrace I dread, for your laws are good. How I long for your precepts. Preserve my life and your righteousness. May your unfailing love come to me, O Lord, your salvation according to your promise. Then I will answer the one who taunts me, for I trust in your word. Do not snatch the word of truth from my mouth, for I have put my hope in your laws.

I will always obey your law, forever and ever. I will walk about in freedom, for I have put my hope in your laws. I will always obey your law forever and ever. I will walk about in freedom, for I have sought out your precepts. I will speak of your statutes before kings and will not be put to shame, for I delight in your commands because I love them. I lift up my hands to your commands, which I love, and I meditate on your decrees.

Remember your word to your servant, for you have given me hope. This is the word of the Lord. Philippians 2, 12, there's a verse where St. Paul says, work out your salvation in awe and wonder. And you notice he didn't say, work for your salvation. He said, work out your salvation. You can only work out something you already have. And what it does mean is that whatever salvation is, the spiritual gift of grace is not something you just clutch or hold onto, but it's something you have to work

out into every part of your life. What St. Paul is saying is that you have to work out into your identity, into your psychology, into your sociology, into your relationships, into your approach to the world, into everything. The gift is salvation. Now, that's how we change. That's how we become new. We spoke in a long series before Easter, we were looking at how character can be changed so drastically by the grace of God. But what are the disciplines by which we work our salvation out into every nook and cranny of our lives? How do we do that?

And we're looking each week at a different discipline, especially as we see them in the book of Psalms. Now, last week, the discipline we looked at was scriptural meditation. This week, I guess you could say, the discipline we're going to look at is scriptural application. Last week we looked at how the scripture leads us into communing with God, and this week it has to do with how the scripture leads us into obeying. Now right off the bat, we are confronted by something.

Modern people, the modern mind finds some of these disciplines much more appetizing than others. So the idea of meditation and contemplation, that's sort of cool. Doesn't that resonates with most New Yorkers? Yeah, that's cool. Meditation, contemplation, that's sort of cool. Doesn't that resonates with most New Yorkers? That's cool. Meditation, contemplation, fine. But as soon as we start talking about obedience,

as soon as we talk about the discipline of coming under the gracious and transforming authority of God, that's not very appetizing. And here's the reason why. In modern, in popular conception, popularly conceived, freedom is understood in almost completely negative terms.

We define freedom as freedom from, freedom from any restrictions or constraints that would keep us from fulfilling our heart's desires. We're free if we don't have any constraints or restrictions on following the deepest desires of our heart. Therefore, all the polls show, all the research shows, amongst religious and irreligious Americans, that Americans don't believe it's even right to ever give up ultimate spiritual authority to some external party. In other words, almost every American says,

you and you alone, or maybe put it this way, every American says, I and I alone can judge what is right and wrong for me. I and I alone can decide what is spiritually, what the pathway is that I should tread. I and I alone can decide what is right and wrong and spiritual. My heart, my conscience is the only way,

it has to be the thing that determines that. Therefore I give up my spiritual and moral authority to no one, I'm my own spiritual authority. I don't give it over to some external authority that puts me under its statutes, decrees, commands, and precepts. Now, that's a problem because here this discipline tells us that you don't get changed, you don't transform unless you're willing to come in under the authority of God. And therefore, what we have to do tonight is note,

look at this passage, Psalm 119, and notice on the one hand, what's wrong with trying to be your own spiritual authority? And on the other hand, how you can put yourself under God's authority in a way that's transforming and not stifling. What's wrong with a normal American understanding? What's wrong with trying to be your own ultimate spiritual authority?

And how to put yourself under God's authority the way that's transforming and not stifling? So first of all, what's wrong with the idea that says, look, I must never cede spiritual authority to anyone else. Only my heart and my conscience can determine what is right and wrong for me. What's wrong with that?

A lot. In fact, I'll mention three things. First of all, what's wrong with trying to be your own spiritual authority? It ignores how your heart really works. It ignores the fact that you've already got spiritual authorities working on your heart. You're already, your heart's already enslaved.

It's already bound to something else. You're not really your own spiritual authority. You're naive about the heart's motivation. Look at verse 37. 37, turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me life in your ways. Now, life in your ways is talking about this. Your ways is a synonym for scripture, for the decrees, for the commands. But notice what he's saying. He's saying,

if I'm going to follow your ways, he doesn't say, I'm going to turn my eyes. He says, I need help. I can't stop it. My eyes are fixed on what he calls worthless things. Now this is a Hebrew word for idols. This is the same word that's used in Jonah chapter 2 verse 8 where Jonah says those who cling to idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. So this is a word for idols and notice what the assumption is. The assumption is that if you're not serving God, you're serving something else already. If you're not a slave, as it were, to the Lord's spiritual authority, you're under the spiritual authority of something else already. Euripides, the old Greek writer, put it like this.

No one, he says, is completely free. If you live for wealth, you're a slave to wealth. If you live for morality, you're a slave to the law, the moral law. If you live to please people, you are a slave to the people you are seeking to please. Now that's almost common sense, but it's also what the Bible says, and it's this. Euripides says, stop being naive. Everybody lives for something. Everybody's got something that is the main thing that they live for that gives their

life joy, that gives themselves a sense of convenience. Everybody's got something that's the integrative center, their emotional integrative center. And whatever it is, is your authority. You're a slave to it. You've got to have it. It drives you. If anything threatens it, I see fear. He says you're being naive about how the heart works.

If you are not under the controlling authority of the true Lord who can forgive and fulfill you, you are under the spiritual authority of some other Lord that can't. And those are your only two options. In Oliver Twist, there's a prostitute named Nancy, you know, good-hearted prostitute named Nancy, and she's living with Bill Sykes. And Bill Sykes beats her, and she stays with him. Why? Well, I don't remember the novel well enough, but I do know in the musical version of it, she sings a song that explains why she stays with him.

And, you know, it's an incredible song. It's the ultimate example of a Broadway co-dependent song. It's a co-dependent song. And I just can't believe actually, it was written in 1963. I just don't imagine anybody would write it today. But the first stanza, she's explaining, why does she stay with a man who abuses and beats her? And she says, as long as he needs me,

I know where I must be. I'll cling on steadfastly as long as he needs me, I know where I must be. I'll cling on steadfastly as long as he needs me. You know, here's a woman being abused by her boyfriend, you know, and he says, well, he needs me. I'm going to be true to him. Why? And here's what she says. This is the last line. And it might sound frothy or maybe might even sound obvious, but it's not. She says, if you are lonely, then you know.

If someone needs you, you love them so. Here's what she's saying. She says, if you have a love vacuum in your heart, you know what I'm talking about. When someone comes along with the promise of filling that vacuum, you have to give yourself to them no matter how they abuse you, you can't stop it. Ah, we say how wrenching, how dysfunctional. Yeah, because she had the misfortune of having Bill Sykes as the integrative personal center of her life. But everybody in this room's got one. And even if it's

your career, which makes you a less dysfunctional person, you're as beholden to it as Nancy was to Bill Sykes. And it will never be happy. It will never be satisfied. And it is ordering you around. Whatever it is, whoever it is. Euripides is right, the scripture is right. I'm never gonna be able to serve you unless I can get my eyes off of these other things which I'm obsessed with and which I am serving. So to say, I'm my own spiritual authority, it's naive.

It's not how the heart works. You're not your own spiritual authority. You're not your own. You're sold to something. Second problem with saying, I can be my own spiritual authority is it's ignorant. It ignores the nature of how real freedom works. Verse 45, a fascinating verse. I shall walk in a wide place for I have sought your precepts. Now this Hebrew word, it's a literal translation which is good. Let me show you

what it means. The Hebrew word for broad place is the metaphor for freedom. It's a word that means freedom. See how the metaphor works? If you're, let's just say you're walking on a little narrow path and on your left is a sheer wall of rock, and on your right is a thousand foot drop. Where are you going to walk? You don't have many choices. You're in a narrow spot, and there's no choice. You walk there. There is no other place to walk.

But if you come into a broad place, you have choices. You can walk there, you can walk there, you can walk. A broad place means choices. What is astounding here is this psalmist is is not saying I gave up my freedom to serve you. He says I now walk at liberty because I've sought your precepts. I'm finally free because I have bound myself to serve you with all my heart.

Isn't that weird? No, it's not. What he's saying is, finally I'm free now that I am your servant. Finally I'm free because I'm your servant. I used to be a slave to fear because there were certain things I thought I had to have. And if they were threatened, I used to be a slave to resentment because there were certain things I thought I had to have. And if they were threatened, I used to be a slave to resentment because there were certain things I thought I had to have. Certain things I had to have.

And if anybody got in the way, I couldn't overcome my anger. I used to be a slave to guilt. I could never live up. But now, what is he saying? He says, now that you're my master, nothing else masters me. Now that I serve you, nothing else can order me around. There's the things that I felt I had to have. Now I can take things, I can leave.

I can come, I can go. I've got choices, finally. So what he is saying is, here's what he's saying, and it's common sense really. Freedom is not a lack of restrictions. Freedom is finding the right restrictions, restrictions that fit your being. Look at the glider.

Ever seen a glider? It soars, it's almost the picture of freedom. It's an amazing picture of freedom. But why is the glider able to soar? Not because of lack of restrictions, because it is honoring the aerodynamic realities of air currents. And because it was built for air currents, and it's in the environment it was built for, it soars. If you try to put it underwater, it'll just sink, it'll

just die. Because it's free, not because of the lack of restrictions, but because it's in the environment it was built for. It's found the right restrictions, as you might say. The restrictions that fit its being. Let me give you a negative example. My wife told me she read this as a true story she read in the Reader's Digest years ago. She said this little five-year-old boy had one neighbor, had a playmate who had little kittens and he'd go to their house and the little kittens would frolic around and play on the

rug and he loved it. And then he went to another playmate's house and they had little puppies. And the puppies would frolic around and play on the rug and he loved it. And he came home and said, Mommy, I want some pets. But the little boy had allergies. And that's the reason he didn't have any pets. But his mother thought about it and she had a brainstorm and she said ah so she bought him an aquarium filled with goldfish perfect and she put the goldfish in the

aquarium in the little boy's room and later that day he came on out and she said how do you like your pets and he says well you know mom at first they really played very well they frolic, but now they just lay there on the rug. Now, why was it that the fish didn't experience freedom when they finally got out of that narrow, confining little aquarium? You know, surely the goldfish were sitting there saying, I wish I could really be liberated and sit on the couch with The little with my master or you know or be out on the rug with it with the others

No, of course not what the boy was doing was he was violating the being of the fish and and he took them into an environment in which they think that they weren't built for and they lost their freedom they lacked their freedom and That's the reason why that's the reason why, that's the reason why the ultimate environment in which the human heart and human soul soars is the service of God. Because the minion of any other creative thing drops when he becomes the integrative center, when he becomes the absolute integrative center. When God's, listen, when God, God does not say, well I'm the Lord and you're the servant, so there's got to be rules, right? If you're the Lord, I mean, if I'm the Lord and you're the servant, there's got to be rules. So let me

think of some rules. I know, forgive one another. No matter how many times you're wronged, forgive them. No matter how bad it is, forgive them. That's my rule. Is that what he does? He says, you know, you gotta have rules, forgive. No, here's what God is saying. God is saying, I built the human heart. I created your psychology.

I also built the world of human relationships. I created sociology. And if you don't forgive, you're violating the creational givens of your wondrous being. You're violating yourself. You're destroying your own structure. You're destroying your own being. My commands are the water for you,

oh cosmic spiritual goldfish. My commands are the air currents for you, oh cosmic spiritual gliders. Only if you live in this environment will you be free. So when somebody says, well I'm not gonna give anybody else, you know, I'm gonna be my own spiritual authority, that's also naive, ignoring the nature of real freedom.

But last of all, what's wrong with trying to be your own spiritual authority? It ignores the inevitability of spiritual enslavement anyway. It ignores the nature of true freedom, thinking of it as the lack of restrictions instead of finding the right ones. But last of all, it ignores the paradox of love and how that relates to freedom.

Francoise Sagan, some years ago, she was a French novelist and when she was turning 50 or 60, I can't remember which, she was interviewed by a magazine, and in the interview she was asked, have you been happy with your life? And she says, I have been well satisfied with my life. And the interviewer says, ah, so you have had the freedom you wanted then.

And she says, well, I was obviously less free when I was in love with someone, but one's not in love all the time, fortunately. Apart from that, I've been free. Interesting. First of all, you see that she's using what I mentioned before, the operative modern understanding of freedom, which is just a lack of restrictions, complete autonomy, self-determination, and independence. Right? That's her working definition. But she's also noticing something very interesting. The deeper you go into a love relationship, the less you can be autonomous and self-determining. You know, when this first starts to happen is, you know, you're dating somebody and,

you know, you think, hey, I think the relationship's going along and it's getting deeper. And then you, because you're a single person, live in New York, you decide to go away for the weekend, you go away for the weekend, you come on back and there's all these phone messages and email messages. Where are you? Where did you go? You didn't even tell me where you were.

And then you talk to him or her and you come to realize, the person says, I didn't even know where you were. I was wondering about you, why didn't you tell me where you were going? And you realized that the relationship had progressed to the place where you now really had an obligation to be accountable for your whereabouts. And that's just the beginning of a loss of freedom that will happen if the relationship keeps on going.

That is just the beginning. And what she's saying is absolutely right. But now wait, wait, wait. Think now. She says, fortunately, you're not in love all the time. Otherwise you'd lack all your freedom. You'd never be free. Think about something. When do you feel the most free? Even by the original standard that we mentioned, the original definition, freedom is lack of restrictions on the deepest desires on the heart. When is your heart most satisfied? When do you feel most free? When do you feel most like yourself? When do you feel like you're soaring? When you're in a deep love relationship, of course. A good, reciprocal, healthy, give and take love relationship.

But wait a minute, what does that mean? If you only feel free when you're really, really in a great love relationship, and if, as she said, as Sagan said, if by definition, love means giving up your self-determination, then the only way to be free is to serve somebody. If, by definition, love means giving up your self-determination, then the only way to be free is to serve somebody.

The only way to have a self is to give up your self-centeredness. And if that's true in the human love relationship, how much more that ultimate environment that we're built for, the love of God. This month, we're excited to let you know about a brand new resource based on Tim Keller's best love books. Go Forward in Love, a year of daily readings from Timothy Keller, features a short passage each day from one of Dr. Keller's books to use for daily reflection. Each day's reading offers deep insight, biblical wisdom, and spiritual encouragement. The passages are meant to lead you into worship, help you reflect on God's attributes, and

encourage you to live more missionally. Go Forward in Love is our thanks when you give to Gospel in Life in November. To receive your copy, just visit Gospelinlife.com slash give. That's Gospelinlife.com slash give. And thank you for your generosity, which helps us share the love of Christ with more people. And this, and this alone, explains the almost odd and weird love language of the author of Psalm 119. I can't look at any one verse, but I can... There's a cast to everything he says about the scripture. It's weird. Look at verse 40.

He doesn't say, oh, I enjoy reading the Bible and obeying it. He says, I long for your precepts. That's a word that means lovesick or at least dying of thirst. I long for your precepts. That's a word that means lovesick or at least dying of thirst. I long for your precepts. Look down at verse 47 and 48. I find delight in your commandments, which I love. I will lift my hands toward your commandments, which I love. By the way, when he says I lift my hands toward your commandments, that is an act of adoration. Now, what is the matter with this man? He's not just studying the Bible, he's not saying, well, I'm gonna obey it.

He's panting. This is love language, this is love sick language. He's pouring over the scripture. He's passionate about it. He's filled with love, he's filled with delight as he reads it. What's going on here? David Martin Lloyd-Jones years ago in a sermon explained this to me and helped me so much.

He says, think of what happens when you're falling in love. You know what you're doing? As you're falling in love, every time you meet with that person, you're making little mental notes and you're trying to create a schema, you're trying to create an outline in your mind of this person's joys and sorrows, the things that make this person very happy and the things that really distress this person. Their joys, their distresses.

You're looking for the things they just love and the things they hate. And you're creating an outline, and you're not just listening to what they actually say they are you're even looking for hints in fact, you're even willing to go on hearsay and Find out what other people say about them and you create the outline so what you so you can do what so you can conform your behavior Why? Just for the look of the light on their face. Oh, of course. I love a book like that

I'd love to go to a place like that. Well, thanks for doing that. You know, I love it when people do that. What have you done? And here's what Lloyd-John is saying. You have looked at this person's likes and dislikes, and you are submitting to this law of their nature. The law of their nature.

The law of their loves and hates, the law of their joys and displeasures. You're submitting to it, why? Out of delight, out of passion. So you can go deeper in the love relationship. And see, you see that, by the way, in verse 37, when he says, turn my eyes from looking at worthless things and give me life in what? How does he describe the scripture? In your ways. Isn't that interesting? When he reads the scriptures, does he see precepts? Yes.

Does he see laws? Yes. Does he see commands? Yes. But what are they? Busy work? No, no. They are an expression of his habitual nature.

Your paths, your ways. Why do you look at a picture over and over and over again? Because you love the glass, you love the frame, you love the photographic paper, because you love the, if you're in love with a person the picture is of, why do you pour over a love letter? It smells of him, it tells of him, it smells of her, it tells of her, why?

Not because you just love the paper and you love the ink. Because you're in love with the person. The psalmist is doing everything he can to bring himself under the authority of the nature of God. He wants to find out what God loves and hates, what brings him pleasure, and what brings him displeasure and he's bringing himself under it. Why? Why? Out of fear? Because it's a grind? So that someday he gets some kind of blessings? No. The same reason that you, and you don't even realize, Lloyd-Jones points out, when you are making that outline of the person you love, their likes and dislikes, and you start to conform yourself to it, you don't even think of it as a law.

We have such a negative understanding, and such a negative view of law and obedience. We don't think of it as a law. You don't think of yourself as obeying, but that's what you're doing. As Sagan says, you're becoming free by losing your independence. You're becoming yourself finally. I long for your precepts. Look at

him. John chapter 14 verse 23. Jesus says, if you love me you will obey my commandments and then my father and I will come to you and manifest ourselves to you. We'll make ourselves real to you. It doesn't say, if you obey me, I'll love you. It says, if you love me, then you'll obey me so that I'll become more and more real to you, and that is what it means to come in under the authority of God. See, to say I'm not going to give my spiritual authority up to anybody else is to misunderstand even the paradox of how love and freedom work.

You can get into authority without love. You can start to obey the Bible with any love at all because you want to make a better life or feel better about yourself or get God to answer your prayers or so you can get to heaven. You can get into authority without any love, but you cannot fall in love without coming under the authority of the nature of the person who you love joyfully, eerily, panting after it. You don't even think of it as obedience, but it is. So, that's what's wrong with trying to be your own spiritual authority. Now, how can you, in the context of an incredible love relationship,

put yourself under God's authority? four things Fast but four okay you the way you can actually go about doing this Transferring the spiritual authority from yourself to God You do it four ways you have to accept the Bible's authority you have to accept the Bible scrutiny You have to accept the heroic adventure, and you have to accept the finisher of the race. Accept the Bible's authority, the Bible's scrutiny, accept the adventure, and accept the finisher of the race. Fast, but let's get through.

Number one, you have to accept the authority of the Bible to have this love relationship, this personal relationship. Why do I say that? New Yorkers say, now wait a minute, wait a minute. You know, I get a lot out of the Bible, I like studying it, it's provocative, it's inspirational, but we all know today that you can't accept everything the Bible says. There's certain things in the Bible that are primitive, that are oppressive, that are out of date.

You know, we can't accept everything. Here's why, if you take that position, you cannot escape enslavement to your cultural moment, and you cannot have a personal relationship with God. If you reject the full authority of the Bible, you cannot escape enslavement to your cultural moment, and you cannot have a personal relationship with God. I mean, I know that sounds outrageous. I know it. But let me back it up. First of all, you can't escape the enslavement to the

cultural moment. If you're my age, a lot of you are not, a lot of you are pretty young, but if you're my age, you can remember things your grandparents and maybe your great-grandparents said and wrote and believed that you are absolutely appalled and embarrassed by. They had views of other nations, they had views of other races, they had views of different things, and you're just absolutely appalled by them and just absolutely embarrassed by what they said and did and wrote, okay? But we're different, right? Our grandchildren, our great grandchildren are not. See, we're enlightened people, we now know. We know when we look at the Bible

what things are oppressive and what things are primitive. We know now. Our grandchildren, our great grandchildren, how ridiculous. Your grandchildren and your great grandchildren are going to be deeply embarrassed and appalled by many of the things that you write and teach and believe now, which all intelligent people around you believe. And you don't know which things they're going to be

embarrassed by. You don't know which of the things that you hold to right now are going to be considered by almost all, you know, intelligent, decent people 60 years from now absolutely appalling. You don't know. You've got them. You really think you've arrived at the ultimate cultural moment? You're the ultimate generation? Of course not. But now think, if you use this cultural moment to pick and choose what things in the Bible you're going to accept and you're going to reject, you're a slave to your cultural moment. And I'll tell you this, and this happened in 1930, if you took all the things that everybody

knew in 1930, like Freud of course was absolutely true, and things like that, if you took all the things that people believed in 1930, and you'd used that as the plumb line by which you accepted and rejected things in the Bible, and you created a kind of up-to-date Christianity, now we know what things are cool and what things aren't cool, what things are primitive and oppressive, and what things are acceptable. If you'd created a Christianity in 1930, today it would look every bit as stupid and as outdated as 1930s politics and 1930s science.

And of course, a lot of people did do that, by the way. And it does look stupid. The only way to escape your cultural moment is to let the Bible pick and choose between the current cultural opinions, not let the current cultural opinions make you pick and choose between what's in the Bible right and wrong. You'll never escape your cultural moment, you'll never be free from it unless you accept the authority of the scripture. But secondly, you'll not have this personal relationship

we're talking about. Do you know why? You can only have a personal relationship with someone who can talk back, who can fight back, who can tell you things you don't wanna hear, who can surprise you, who can argue with you, right? If you go through the Bible and you say, well these things that God says, I can't accept that,

these things, of course that's primitive, and you get rid of those things, you have a God that you have created, and a God that can never talk back to you, and therefore a God who can't change you, can't contend with you, you don't have a living God. You don't have a personal God. You have a Stepford God.

Yes dear, yes dear, yes dear. And therefore, you have a one dimensional cardboard cut out God that you've created, and I hope you'll be very happy together, but it won't be a personal relationship. It can't be. So you can't have this incredible love relationship in which you come in under the authority of a personal living God.

Unless first of all you accept the Bible's authority. Secondly, you have to accept the Bible's scrutiny. What do I mean by that? If you do number one, then you can do number two. Yes, you should study the Bible, but only with the purpose of letting the Bible study you. Yes, you need to scrutinize the text. You need to ask questions about it.

What's this word? What are these phrases? Look this up. You have to figure out what the text is teaching. So you have to ask questions of the text, but only for the purpose of finally letting the text ask questions of you. You interpret the text so it can interpret you.

You scrutinize it so it can come and insert you and challenge you and disturb you. Now there's certain questions you need to ask. If you really wanna do this kind of application, if you really wanna do this sort of discipline in which you let the scripture search you, ask questions like this, here's a good one. Here's maybe the only one you need.

Look at a verse, look at every single verse, look at every single sentence you're reading on a given day and say, why is God telling me this today? Where must I apply this today? Why would I be being shown this today? If I apply this, how would it make me different in my relationship with my family, my relationship at work, my,

how would it make me different? my relationship with my family, my relationship at work, my... How would it make me different? How can I apply this and be different on the basis of this today in the things that are happening now? See, that's a question you're asking in the text, but not really. It's letting the text come after you. And you have to accept the Bible's scrutiny. You have to let it argue with you. You have to let it argue with you. You have to let it debate with you. Sometimes you feel really pretty smart and the Bible comes along and says, you're weak and dumb, be dependent.

Other times you feel absolutely worthless and horrible and the Bible comes and says, you're valued and significant, live that way. See, if you don't do number one, accept the Bible's authority, you won't be able to do number two, which is accepted scrutiny. Number three, accept the Bible's authority, you won't be able to do number two, which is accepted scrutiny. Number three, accept the adventure.

Adventure. If you've come this far, if you accepted everything else we've talked about tonight, finally you're in this position. And the position is where you can follow the Bible obediently, though it looks like, it's going to be really hard and really difficult. And really what happens then is you end up being invited into an adventure. What do I mean by that?

Well, heroes are people who serve a cause bigger than their own safety, and they give themselves to the quest, and it doesn't look very good, and it doesn't look like they're, it looks like things are really gonna turn out badly, but they don't turn back, and they move on ahead, and they obey the quest, they follow the quest. And they're the people whose stories are written about.

You know, a perfect example of this, I'll show you how this works out here in a minute. A perfect example of this is one of my favorite illustrations is the Princess and the Goblin story by George McDonald and it tells about the little Princess Irene, she's eight years old and she lives in a very dangerous place and she has a grandmother who lives high, high up in the top of the castle. And the grandmother says, I'm gonna give you a magic ring for when bad things, when danger happens. And when danger happens, put the ring under your pillow

and feel a thread coming from the ring. And if you feel the thread and you follow the thread, it'll take you to me and to safety. But you have to follow the thread. You can't turn to the right or the left and you can't go backwards because you'll not be able to feel it you've got to go forward you got to go forward well the first thing there's the first time that there's any kind of danger Irene puts the ring under her pillow there's goblins coming to get her and she starts to follow the thread but instead of going upstairs

what looks like safety to grandmother's rooms, it goes outside where the goblins are. Then once it takes her outside, it goes toward the cave of the goblins and she's saying, this is nuts, this is nuts, this isn't right, this is taking me into danger, this is not taking me away from danger. And every time she tries to go backwards, every time she tries to go backwards, she time she tries to go backwards, she can't feel the thread, and she's completely, completely adrift. So she follows the thread.

And of course, the way stories like this work, it's going, this thread takes her exactly where she needs to go to escape. It takes her exactly to the place where she has to go in order to save somebody else. It takes her exactly where she needs to go eventually to be safe. Now, if you start to obey the Bible, else, it takes her exactly where she needs to go eventually to be safe now.

If you start to obey the Bible, you put yourself under its authority and under its scrutiny, you will start to feel like you're on an adventure. Let's just say some of you say, I'm going to obey the place where it says in the Bible, only marry somebody who's spiritually compatible to me. It won't be long till you realize that you're following a thread that seems to be going away from happiness, going away from security, but follow the thread. That's what makes you a hero. That's what makes life the adventure. Follow the thread. It may look like it's taking you away from happiness and security, but it's not. Or let's just say you suddenly realize that if I tell the truth in this situation,

if I tell the truth I might lose my job, I might lose a lot of money, my career might go on hold. If I'm really honest in this situation. Follow the thread. Well, it looks like it's taking me away from security and happiness. Follow the thread. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Christian minister in New York City, end of the 1930s, a German.

He was safe, he was out of Nazi Germany. He went back, voluntarily went back went back everybody said you're nuts he says I got he says as a German I have to take responsibility for Hitler and number two as a German I need to show solidarity with the other people who are in danger he went back to work for the overthrow of Hitler was caught and executed and this is what he wrote he says if it is I who decide where God will be, I will always find a false God, a God who is in some way corresponding to me, who is agreeable to me, who fits in with my nature. But if it is God himself who says where he will be, that place is the cross

of Christ. In other words, Bonhoeffer followed the thread. Well, you say, that didn't have a happy ending. Oh, really? Oh, really? Thousands of people are inspired and changed because of what he has done and what he wrote and what he did, and now he's in glory? You call that a disaster? Accept the adventure of coming on the authority of a will that is not your own.

Lastly, accept the finisher of the race. Look at verse 32. I will run in the way of your commandments when you enlarge my heart. Well, that sounds exciting. He sees that to run, pardon me, to obey is like a marathon. And you need, you need, not only that, you need enlarged lungs, you need all kinds of things to run, pardon me, to obey, is like a marathon. And you need, you need, not only that, you need enlarged lungs, you need all kinds of things

to run this race, and he's excited he's gonna run a race. Well, he's a better man than me, because he was excited to run the race, even though he didn't have this incredible assurance. Hebrews 12, therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despised his shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. If that text had said Jesus Christ is the pioneer of our race, in other words, he ran the race of commandments first, he came to earth and he lived an obedient life, as our example he went first, now you follow him, that wouldn't be very exciting to me. I would say I'll never keep up with Jesus, I'll never run like he did. He didn't knock over any of the hurdles, he didn't knock, I can never do. But it doesn't say that. It says he's the pioneer and finisher of the faith. Jesus Christ was obedient. Jesus Christ came to

earth, he humbled himself, Philippians 2 says, and became obedient even unto death of a cross. But why did he die? Why did he obey? Why on the cross, why did he say, not my will but thine be done? Why did he follow the thread? Why did he accept the authority of the Bible? Why did he obey perfectly? Why did he accept the adventure? Why? Not just as our example, as our substitute. He didn't just run the race as our example, he ran the race for us, he obeyed for us. He's satisfied, the gospel is not that we give God

this great performance and then God blesses us, but that in Jesus Christ, God gives us a perfect record which we receive by faith and then we bless him. And what this means is, there's no way running the race, there's no way obeying the commands once will be a delight and will be a love relationship if you don't believe you're already accepted. You can't be condemned.

You can't flub up. I mean, running the race would just be, you'd always be afraid, what if I don't do it well enough? Unless you accept that the race is already finished for you. Unless you accept the finisher of the race. Unless you read verse 32 of Psalm 119 in light of Hebrews 12, one, two, and three, your obedience won't be a love letter,

it won't be an experience of love, it'll be a grind. That's the reason why that little hymn goes like this. To see the law by love fulfilled and hear his pardoning voice transforms a slave into a child and duty into choice. Accept the finisher, you'll be able to accept all the rest. Let's pray. Give us the grace to receive this discipline and then work your grace out in us

because we are working out our salvation in awe and wonder. We pray, Father, that you would help us to follow the thread, accept the adventure, enter into a deep love relationship all through obeying and applying your word. Help us to keep our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and finisher of our faith. For the joy set before him ran the race,

endured the cross, despised the shame, and now sits down, finished work at your right hand. Help us understand these things and apply these things through your Holy Spirit. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel in Life podcast. If you found today's teaching helpful and something you'd like more people to hear, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel in Life monthly partner.

Your partnership helps more people discover the hope and joy of Christ's love. Just visit Gospelinlife.com slash partner to learn more. Today's sermon was preached in 2002. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.