Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Necessity of Belief

Episode Date: April 1, 2024

We live in a fragmented culture. There’s no consensus about the big questions of what’s right and wrong and true. Jeremiah is a prophet in this same situation—he lived and wrote in a fragmented culture.  One of the challenges of a fragmented culture is living in the cafeteria of different worldviews, religions, and systems of thought. It’s typical to respond by saying, “I don’t think anybody has the answer.” But Jeremiah shows us that this very statement is ignorant of how the heart works. Jeremiah shows us that we need to see three things about the human heart: 1) the radical faith of every heart, 2) the radical flaw in every heart, and 3) the radical cure for every heart. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 7, 2003. Series: The Necessity of Belief. Scripture: Jeremiah 17:5-17. 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. We live in an increasingly fragmented culture, one in which it's more and more difficult to come to a consensus about what's true and what's right. As Christians, how do we navigate the challenges of living among competing worldviews and systems of thought? Join us as Tim Keller teaches on how we can live faithfully and wisely in this cultural moment. The scripture is taken from Jeremiah 17 verses 5 through 17. Thus says the Lord, Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. He is like a shrub in the desert and shall not see any good come.

He shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness in an uninhabited salt land. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord. He is like a tree planted by water that sends out its roots by the stream and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and it is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick. Who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.

Like the partridge that gathers a brood that she did not hatch, so is he who gets riches, but not by justice. In the midst of his days they will leave him, and at his end he will be a fool. A glorious throne set on high from the beginning is the place of our sanctuary. O Lord, the hope of Israel, all who forsake you shall be put to shame. Those who turn away from you shall be written in the earth. For they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living water. Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed. Save me, and I shall be saved.

For you are my praise. Behold, they say to me, where is the word of the Lord? Let it come. I have not run away from being your shepherd, nor have I desired the day of sickness. You know what came out of my lips. It was before your face. Be not a terror to me. You are my refuge in the day of disaster."

Now, why are we looking at the book of Jeremiah, which we're going to do for, not the whole book, but for the next few weeks we'll take selections out. Jeremiah lived in what you could call a fragmented culture. Now what I mean by that is that Israel at one time had been a coherent culture. That is, there was broad consensus about the big questions. What's life for? What should society be like? What's right and what's wrong? It was a coherent culture because there was broad consensus, but by the time of Jeremiah himself, it was a fragmented culture

because you had these great power blocks with radically different visions of what life should be and what people should be doing and right and wrong. And they were at war with each other, they were battling with each other. That's what I mean by saying we had a fragmented culture. Now, we live in a fragmented culture. There is no consensus. There are these great power blocks with radically different visions of what is right and wrong, and what is true, and so on.

And therefore, Jeremiah is kind of unique in some ways, because the prophets that came after him, like Ezekiel and Daniel, this is after everything fell apart and the people were in exile, and the prophets before were in a different situation. Jeremiah is kind of a prophet who was in the same situation that we are in. He wrote and spoke in a fragmented culture, and one of the great challenges of living in a culture like this is the cafeteria of different world views and different religions and different systems of thought and they're all around us and how is going to decide what's right and how we decide what to believe and what is true? How do we decide that? And it's very very typical

to respond to this cafeteria by becoming aloof and saying, well, I really don't think anybody's got the answer. Now, Jeremiah, in the passage was just read to you, the passage we're going to look at tonight, challenges that. You see, the average person in New York says, the average person in New York, you might say, when it comes to spiritual things and matters of faith in God, they assume a pose of hip jaded aloofness. And they say there's no answers to the big questions and no one should say they have the truth. And anyone who says they are right and they have the truth and anyone who says they are right and they have the truth and they know about God is naive and dangerous. But Jeremiah in this passage shows that that very statement

is naive and dangerous because it shows ignorance of how the heart works, of how the soul works. works, of how the soul works. In verses 5, 6, 7, and 8, Jeremiah gives us pictures of two trees, really, and they are depictions of the human heart. Verse 5 and verse 9 both say that they are depictions of the heart. And because the heart is about the roots, because Jeremiah is concerned with the roots, that tells us something. You see, the word roots in Latin is the word radix, from which we get a word radical. And therefore, Jeremiah is saying that especially in a fragmented culture, you need to see three radical things about the human heart.

And he teaches us here that every heart has radical faith, every heart has a radical flaw, and every heart has a radical cure for it. In other words, Jeremiah is here telling us about the radical faith of every heart, and the radical flaw in every heart, and the radical cure for every heart. And if we don't see these things, Jeremiah says, especially in a fragmented culture, you won't understand yourself, and you'll never find God. So let's see how these three things that he tells us about the human heart really help us in a fragmented culture first the first thing

That Jeremiah teaches us here is that every single heart is Marked by radical acts of spiritual faith every heart everyone even the most hip jaded New Yorker So for example look at verse 7 and 8 It tells us there So, look at verse 7 and 8. It tells us there that the person who trusts in the Lord is like a tree who puts its roots down into the water. And that's an image of the trust of the heart being put into God. Now, in verses 5 and 6, you have the image of someone who's turned away from the Lord. But what's amazing about this is that the central characteristic of the heart of someone who's turned away from the Lord is also trust.

It's not that Jeremiah doesn't say, well, here's the person who believes in God and their life is marked by trust and faith. But here's a person who turns away from God who maybe doesn't even believe in God. And what's the central characteristic of their life? Also trust and faith. The same word, trust. Cursed is the man who trusts. Blessed is the man who trusts.

Cursed is the man who trusts. What it's saying is here's a man who doesn't even believe in God, perhaps, but he trusts. The central characteristic of every human heart is trust, or put it this way, at the foundation of every heart. The basis of every single life are radical acts of spiritual faith. Everybody's doing it. Even the most jaded New Yorker, we say, well, how could that be? Well, let me give you a couple of examples. Number one, haven't you heard people, some of you perhaps believe this, certainly your

friends believe this, people around New York say it really doesn't matter what you believe about God, doesn't really matter what you believe about doctrine, all that matters is that you're a good loving person. It doesn't matter what you believe about God or doctrine, all that matters is you're a good loving person. Here's a question, see, a person who says that sounds like they're trying to say, I am not particularly committed to any one view, I'm very open to all views,

you know, I'm being real open-minded and all that. But that statement is riddled. It's riddled with theological commitments and spiritual commitments to particular views of God. For example, what is it saying? Think about it. We know that if you have wrong beliefs about what you take into your body, it can kill you. Right?

If you believe something is good for you, but it's poison, you take it in, it kills you. You're sincere, but you're dead. However, this approach that says, it doesn't really matter what you believe about God or doctrine, all that matters is that you're a good person. This approach says that even if there is a God, However, this approach that says it doesn't really matter what you believe about God or doctrine or all that matters is that you're a good person. This approach says that even if there is a God, even if you take false spiritual beliefs into you, that's not going to hurt you. If you have false beliefs about your body, it can hurt you, but if you have false beliefs

spiritually, that can't hurt you. Even if there is a God, it's not going to matter what you believe. How do you know that? There's only one way you can know that. By faith. When you say that even if there is a God, it doesn't really matter what you believe, that is a particular theological position

about the nature of God. You're saying if there is a God, He's not going to mind. How do you know that? Only by faith. It's a leap of faith. It's a radical leap of faith. And it's a very particular view of God. And here it sounds so open and committed. There's no such thing as being open and uncommitted about God. No such thing.

Blaise Pascal, the great philosopher in his book, Pensees, puts it this way. And here's a little summary of it. Blaise Pascal says, "'Every person on the face of the earth "'is making a high-stake life commitment "'to a particular faith view about God.'" Every person on the face of the earth is making a high-stake life commitment to a particular faith view about God. Why? Well, you see,

if you believe in God, you can't prove that, huh? But if you believe there is no God, you can't prove that position. And if you think, well, there is a God, but it doesn't really matter what you believe because it's not going to make any difference, and you can't prove that position, and whatever your position is, it's a particular faith view of God, and you're betting your eternal destiny you're right. Because if you're wrong, the consequences could be dire. And so Blais Pascal says there is nobody out there in spite of their claims, that isn't making radical spiritual faith commitments, based on your entire life and destiny on certain views about

God, about human nature, and about spiritual reality. Let me give you another example. It's very typical for people in New York to say something like this. Everybody, we all have to think for ourselves about truth. Nobody can tell me what is true or right or wrong for me. We all have to think for ourselves. We all have to determine truth for ourselves. Now, this summer I was reading the writings of a man named Stanley Hauerwas, who is a big-name philosopher, teaches at Duke University. When I say big name, he's, you he's cover of Time Magazine kind of big name.

And he loves it when students in his class say, I think nobody can tell you what's right or wrong for you. You have to think for yourself. You have to determine truth for yourself. He loves it. Because here's what he says. He says, we are every culture before our culture believed that right or wrong was determined outside the self, by God, tradition, natural law, community, family, whatever.

I mean, every religion, every culture was different. But every culture before our culture said, right and wrong is determined by something outside the self and it's the job of the self to harmonize with it. But we are the first culture, Hauerwa says, that is marked by what he calls expressive individualism. And expressive individualism is the view that right and wrong is not determined by outside the self but right or wrong is determined by your own consciousness inside the self. It's determined by what you find in your own consciousness. Now, Haraway says, I'm not going to argue which of these views is right,

but all I'm going to tell you is this. When an American says you have to think and determine truth for yourself, you are not thinking for yourself at all. You are adopting a particular way of thinking a Particular view of truth and spiritual reality. It is a Western Almost tribal he says white European way of thinking based on the enlightenment based on romanticism Those European movements and you're believing it not because you're thinking for yourself, but because your culture's told you to do it. And he says, let's put it another way.

When you say, everybody's got to decide truth for yourself, everybody's got to think for themselves, that is a particular way of thinking, an individualistic Western way of thinking, which you're saying, everybody's got to do. When you say, nobody really has the truth, that is a very very very very particular worldview with

radical life spiritual commitments to views about God about spiritual reality and you're saying your view is right and everybody else's is wrong. Why am I telling you this? Why am I bringing this up? Because in a place like New York people are doing it just like Jeremiah says the central characteristic of every human heart is radical spiritual acts of faith. About God, about human nature, about right and wrong, about spiritual reality, about knowledge and so on. Nobody can avoid

them, but people in New York think they are. They think they are. They don't think they're doing it. When they say, well, you know, nobody has the truth and nobody, you know, everybody has to think for themselves. That is a very particular way of thinking that you're imposing on everybody else and you're disdaining everyone. And it's very Western, it's very enlightenment, it's very individualistic. And you know what, you have, what you're saying sounds very open and commit uncommitted but it is riddled with theological commitments. The reason we're bringing this up is you have to begin to see something that modern people don't want to see. Every expression of doubt is an assertion of faith because you can't

doubt belief A without clinging in faith to belief B at the same moment. You can't doubt God unless you say, I've had people say to me, you know, I don't have to believe in God unless you can prove him to me. I said, that's interesting. That is a belief about God. What do you mean? Well, your belief is that if there is a God, he would have to have afforded empirical proof. How do you know that? You're basing your whole life on a particular understanding of God. You want me to give evidence for my view of God, but you're not giving me any evidence

for your view of God. What is your evidence for the idea that you've got to have evidence to believe in God? You have a particular view of God. You look like you're saying, you have faith and I don't. I'm a hard-nosed skeptic. No, you're not. You have faith and I have faith. We're both basing our entire lives on our views. Every single person on the face of the earth is committed to a particular view about God and spiritual reality and you think your view is better than anybody else's. The difference between Christians and Muslims and Jews and secular people

is the secular people don't admit they're doing it. But Jeremiah says at the root of at the foundation of every life, the basis of every single life are radical acts of spiritual faith. You can choose what to believe, but you can't choose whether to believe. And unless you see what you're doing, you're living an incredibly, incredibly unexamined life. So the first thing that Jeremiah says

is that the human heart is such that we can't avoid radical acts of faith. But there's a second thing he says. He's not just talking about the radical faith of every heart. In this passage he talks about the radical flaw in every heart. There's some bad news here. Verse 9 says, the heart is deceitful and desperately sick.

Fatally sick is a good translation there. And here's what he's saying. We can't avoid, okay, we can't avoid radical faith, but on the other hand we can't do it right. There's something about our heart congenitally, seriously wrong. We can't not form beliefs about God, but this passage is telling us that no one can form them properly. We can't do it. There's something wrong with our belief forming apparatus. And that basically it's saying here that we're incapable of stopping our faith, but we also are incapable of doing it right. That our heart will always put the roots down

into the inappropriate objects of faith. Our heart will always put the roots of its faith into something that can't support us. Look at what it says, look at the metaphor. First of all, we're told here that every human heart will put its spiritual roots down into something. It will put its deepest faith into something. It has to. There is not such thing as somebody who's committed and somebody who's uncommitted. We're all committed.

See, take a look at the image in verses 5-8. When the roots of a tree go down, what are they doing? The roots anchor the tree. The roots draw life out of the soil for the tree, moisture and minerals. And what Jeremiah is saying here is that every human heart has to put its roots into something. You can make God the center of your life, but if God is not the center of your life, there will be something else that you will suck on for your significance, for your security, for your purpose and for your meaning

in how do I say it, with equal intensity than you would for God. You know, let me show you how old I am. You know how old I am? I remember straws that used to collapse on you when you sucked on them. You see, all the straws are plastic now, but I remember back when saws would collapse on you because they were made out of sort of paper and you'd suck on them

and then the more you sucked, the less they came out and the more less they came out, the more you sucked and so on. Jeremiah is saying, everybody is gonna put your roots down into something. If God is not your most radical spiritual trust, you're going to look to love, you're going to look to career, you're going to look to your looks, you're going to look to a family,

you're going to look to achievement, you're going to look to something else, you're going to put your roots down and you're going to be trying to draw the significance, the security, the purpose, the meaning of life. If God's not the thing you're going to do, you're going to do it with equal intensity to something else. How can we understand the meaning of life's milestones through the lens of the Gospel? In the How to Find God series, Tim Keller offers three short books

on birth, marriage, and death that will help you understand the meaning of these milestones within God's vision of life with biblical insight for how the scripture teaches us to face each one. These books of pastoral care are designed for specific life situations you or someone you know will go through. When you give to Gospel in Life during the month of April, we'll send you the How to Find God series

as our thanks for your support of this ministry. To receive this short three-book set, simply make a gift at gospelinlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. Your gift helps us share the message of Christ's love all over the world. So thank you for partnering with us because the gospel truly changes everything. That's the first thing. But we're also told that if you do that, if you put, if God's not your heart center, if God's not your main trust, the most radical trust, whatever you center your life on will desert you and will twist you.

It will desert you and it will twist you. Where do you see that? Well, first of all, notice it says, the one who trusts in something besides God, he is like a shrub in the desert, shall not see any good come, he shall dwell in the parched places of the wilderness in an uninhabited land. Now here's what we know about these shrubs. They grew in the rainy season. Why? Shrubs did not put their roots all the way down to the water table. Shrubs had shallow roots and what that means is they put their roots down to

try to get the you know the moisture out of the soil and in the rainy season there was moisture there. There is a rainy season even in the desert and during the rainy season things grow. Flowers grow, you know, and shrubs grow. But when the heat comes, when the dry season comes, and it's inevitable in a desert, there's nothing else in the soil. It sucks and sucks and sucks, and it just collapses,

and it literally dries up and blows away. Now, there are great things to live for and there's a noble things to live for. So for example, we say, oh here's a person living for money, isn't that awful? We don't like that, we're living for money. But here's someone who lives for love, here's someone who lives for his or her family, here's someone who lives for loved ones. Well now of course, I agree, that's much more noble than this, but I want you to know they will all desert you. When the heat comes, they will all desert you. There is nothing better than a great marriage. But even if you have the greatest marriage

in the world, one of you is going to die. And that means that if you put your roots, there's nothing wrong with loving your spouse, but if your roots only go down as far as your spouse, as far as any created thing in this world, if your roots don't go through all the way down into God, the cosmic water table, If God's not the real ultimate meaning in your life, you're going to dry up and blow away. If there's anything but God that is the most radical trust in your life, whether it's ignoble like money or power or noble for serving people and your family and love, it will desert you. Do you understand that? And the second thing is I said it won't just desert you but it'll twist you. This particular shrub, you know it's

a Hebrew word for a particular tree and I don't remember the Hebrew word and of course there's a generic name that there's a generic word that's it's translates shrub but the commentaries say that there was a particular bush that it had in mind. And we know that this desert bush was twisted and asymmetrical and stunted and ugly. Why? Because even in the rainy, the moisture was inadequate. And what this is saying is, yes, not only if you build your life on anything besides God it will desert you, but even when you have it, it will twist you. It will be inadequate. It will stunt you.

It will distort your life. If you live for the approval of other people, and I know at least a quarter of you do, that's kind of how temperaments go. You say, well, I don't live for the approval of people. I believe in God. Now, look at this verse seven. Have you ever wondered why the man was so repetitious? Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,

whose trust is the Lord. You say, well, isn't that the same thing? Uh-uh. Why did he have to add that clause to clarify? Think about it, will you? It's possible to trust in the Lord for certain things that are your real trusts. It's possible to go to church and pray and obey the Ten Commandments and do all the religious stuff because you're saying, oh Lord, I'm trusting in you, I'm doing all these things, so you'll give me a spouse. So you'll give me health. So you'll give me a good career. This country is littered with people who say, I trusted in the Lord and he let me down. You know what they mean? I trusted in the Lord

for something that was my real trust and when I didn't get it I abandoned him. Well that proves that he wasn't your trust. It's possible to trust in the Lord and not make the Lord to be your trust. You see? And what this means is you may say, well I believe in God and I go to church and all that, and yet your basic trust is human approval. And if you live for the approval of other people, it will twist you. Let me tell you. It will twist you. It will distort you.

Because you'll need it, and you're afraid of losing it, and you'll pursue it, and next thing you know, you're doing things that you never thought you would do, and they're bothering your conscience and you're overworking, it will twist you, it will distort you and that doesn't matter what it is. Whether you're after human approval or your family or professional success or financial security, it will twist you, it will distort you because it's inadequate. Another way to put it is this, and I'm sorry that this is so stark. When you look

at drug addiction, you see it. Rit small. A person has an unhappy life. They take a drug to escape the unhappiness. But the drug use makes the life more unhappy. And because they're unhappy, they take the drug. But now because they're taking the drug, they're even more unhappy. So they have to take the drug because they're even more unhappy and therefore they have to take the drug because they're more unhappy. And the next thing you know, it's a breakdown, right? And we call that a disorder. We call that a disease, right?

But Jeremiah says that anybody who centers their life on anything but God is in the same situation. It's just that the arc of your breakdown will take longer to play out and it's more complex. Now, that's not all. He says, number one, everyone has to put their roots into radical faith in something. Number two, we put our radical faith ordinarily into things that cannot support us, that will desert us and twist us. And number three, he actually says, and this will never be changed just by trying. You say, wow, this is really right. I haven't thought of this.

I've just got to change. Uh-uh, that won't be enough. Look carefully. It doesn't say, here's a shrub in the desert and here's a tree by the water. It says, here's a shrub in the desert and here's a tree planted by the water. That's the big difference. The shrub is just in the desert, but the tree has been planted. Now listen, trees can't plant themselves. A non-tree has to do it. And that means that there is no way, Jeremiah is saying,

to get your roots down into the water of God. Down to the place where it doesn't matter whether it's cold or hot or whether it's rainy or dry. It doesn't matter the circumstances. It doesn't matter what comes. You're independent of circumstances because your roots down in God. That's impossible just by trying. You've got to replant it. Somebody's got to dig you up. There's got to be surgery. There's got to be intervention. Because the natural state of the human heart is to not center on God, to not make him your most radical trust, to put your roots down into something else. Nobody was better at explaining this congenital impossibility of...

There's something congenitally wrong with our belief-forming apparatus. We have to believe radically in something, and we will not believe in God. There's something wrong with us. And nobody put it better than Augustine in the Confessions. When he was trying to figure out, he was reflecting on why he stole pears as a kid. There was an incident in his youth when he was a kid that he broke into somebody's, I think, climbed over a wall into somebody's orchard and he stole pears. And years later he was trying to figure out why did I want to steal the pears? So he thought was he hungry? He wasn't hungry. Was he too poor

so he didn't have enough to eat? He had plenty to eat. And actually there's one place where he even said, and I didn't even like pears. So why did he want to steal pears? And he realized it wasn't because he was hungry, it wasn't because he liked pears. It was because somebody said, don't go in there. And he says, as soon as somebody said, don't touch those pears, he wanted

to. And he began to realize deep in his heart there was a voice crying, my will not thine be done to every other party in the world and especially to God. St. Augustine said at the root of his heart and at the root of all of our hearts is a voice crying out, my will not thine be done to every other party and especially to God. And Augustine says this is going to distort everything. This absolute insistence, my will be done not thine to every other person especially God. He says it means I'm going to, I'm deceiving myself all the time,

it's gonna distort every relationship, it's gonna distort every decision I make. I'm sick. My heart is desperately sick. I cannot avoid making radical faith acts, and yet I cannot make them rightly. I will always put my spiritual roots down into things that cannot support me, that will desert me, that will twist me. And I'm not gonna be able to change this just by trying

because something outside, trees can't replant themselves, something on the outside is gonna have to come and dig me up from the bottom and pull me out by the roots and radically revolutionize even my very foundations. I'm going to have to be born again. So how do we get that kind of radical intervention? And that's the third thing. Jeremiah says, not only teaches us here about the radical faith of every heart and the radical flaw in every heart, but also the radical cure for every heart. The radical cure. Now how do you get the radical cure? It's in verse 14. We have a little synopsis

of it. Heal me and I shall be healed. Save me and I shall be saved. Now those are two things. Let's take a look at them. If you want this radical cure in your life, here's how you have to get it. You have to say these two things. You have to ask for these two things. The one thing is you have to say, heal me. Okay? Now when do you ask someone to heal you? Heal me. During the blackout, Heal me! During the blackout, we had to use the gas stove on the top. The oven didn't work because it was electric, but we had to do everything on the top because we had gas and the gas worked. At one point I burned my finger. And it was an interesting sort of like a biology class, because every day I would sit down and watch it grow back It was interesting. I hadn't burned myself in so long and it was interesting to see you know All the skin was gone and peeled off and ugly and then came back bit by bit and it was interesting But I didn't go running to anybody saying heal me Because I knew my body had the restorative power in it to do it

You say heal me when you know you're going to die without an intervention. You say, heal me when you say I've got a poison in my body and if I don't get the antidote I'm going to die. I've got a tumor in my body and if it's not removed I'm going to die. And therefore, there's a lot of people that don't understand repentance. The Bible says if you want this change, if you want God in your life, you have to repent. And many people say, ah, well, I've done five or six really bad things in my life. I'll ask for forgiveness. And that's not what we're talking about. Something

more radical. The average person in this country, if you go up to them and say, are you a Christian? They say, well, I'm trying. But notice, Jeremiah does not cry out, and Augustine did not cry out, I'm trying. He says, heal me. He doesn't say, I'm trying real hard. Heal me. That's asking for something absolutely radical. Jeremiah is saying, I thirst. I'm in the desert and I thirst, And a rain storm won't help me.

Even a flash flood won't help me. I need to be replanted. So the first thing you have to say is, heal me. You have to be willing to admit the fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, but in ourselves. You have to admit that there's something radically wrong at the center of your being, that you can't form proper beliefs and you can't stop believing. But then there's a second thing. He doesn't just say, heal me Lord, he says, heal me Lord and I shall be healed.

Now what's interesting there, why does he say that? Where does he get that confidence? Why doesn't he say, heal me Lord, if you will. I'm not sure why you should. I am unworthy. I've done many bad things. I don't know why you should. He's confident. He says, heal me Lord and I will be healed. I'm going to ask you to save me Lord and I will be saved. How could he be so confident? Well now you know what a lot of people say today? Well, I believe in a God of love.

Modern people. Let me ask you a question. I'm glad you believe in a God of love, so do I, but let me ask you a question. What is your warrant? What is the evidence for that belief? What's the basis for that belief? Where did you get it? Did you read the paper and just look at world events and say, oh, look at the world. I just know God is a God of love. No, nobody, you would never get it there. That idea could not have come by looking at the world. Do you read world history and say, oh, look at the history of the world.

I just know God is a God of love. You'd never get it from world history. Do you look at the history of the world I just know God is a God of love you'd never get it from world history do you look at every great thing that's happened you look at your life do you look at your life and is it all gone so wonderfully do you say oh look at my life I just know God's a God of love no you wouldn't get the idea from that unless you're very very young and nothing bad's happened to you yet, but it will. Or you say, well, okay, let's look at the other religions. Surely all religions believe in a God of love. Please. You know, anybody who thinks all religions believe

in a God of love, show that they really don't take any religion seriously. You're not listening to them. You're not listening, you're not letting them have their voice. Outside of the Bible, there's no religion that believes in a personal God of love. Sorry. And if you're surprised, that shows you haven't been taking religions of the world seriously.

The only place where the idea came in the history of the world that God was a God of love was from the Bible. And the Bible says God is not just a God of love, but he's also a God of holiness and justice, and he can't let things go, just let wrong go unpunished. So how can Jeremiah be so confident? And the answer is this. Centuries later, someone else said, I thirst. You know, Jesus Christ was sent into the desert.

He was sent into the uninhabited salt land. He was sent into the parched places of the wilderness, and he was thirsty. Why? It was boot camp. It was prep for the incredible cosmic thirst he experienced on the cross because you know Jesus Christ all of his life on earth Had his roots down completely into God's love He didn't have a spouse

His family thought he was crazy His his all of his best friends misunderstood him completely and he was homeless and bother him Many of you the only thing missing on that is you're not homeless. It didn't bother him. Why? Because his roots were down into the Lord, into God. His roots got down into the water table and as a result he was impervious to circumstances. It didn't matter when the heat came, you understand? And yet when he got to the cross, it all dried up. He said, I'm forsaken. He said, I thirst because he was experiencing God turning away from him. There was no love, there was no

grace, there was no favor. Why? Why did Jesus go through that? Jesus died of thirst so that we could have the river of God. Jesus was uprooted so that we could be planted in God. Jesus took what we deserve so that when we say, heal me, save me, we know we will be healed and saved. And let me tell you what will actually change you. To the degree you grasp what Jesus did for you, the more you grasp that, the more it grasps you, the gospel. The more you see that he went into the ultimate desert

to get you out of your little desert, the more you see what he did for you, the more that will change you. When Paul had a thorn in the flesh, we don't even know what it was, but it was some painful circumstance, and he prayed to God. And he said, remove this circumstance. And you know what God said? My grace is sufficient for you. And Paul says, therefore, I glory in my weaknesses

for when I am weak, then I am strong. You know what he's saying? You know what he's saying? What Paul is saying is, I was asking God to get rid of this circumstance and God said, don't you realize the weaker you are, the more that's going to force your roots down into me. When you suffer, think about how much infinitely greater was Jesus suffering, so that when you suffer, you can know God loves you. You know God's there for you. You know God's behind you. To the degree that you grasp the gospel, it grasps you, and it lifts you up,

and it replants you, and it gets your roots out of all these other things, and it puts you down into God, and it replants you and it gets your roots out of all these other things and it puts you down into God and it comforts you. You know there's Paul in Acts 26 standing in front of all the Royals, standing in front of Agrippa and Festus and he's in chains. He's a slave, he's condemned to death. You know what he says? He looks up at all these people and he says, I would to God that you are as I am.

He didn't envy their throne, he didn't envy their money, he didn't envy their power, he didn't even envy their freedom. Why? He was free and independent of bars, prison bars. He was free and independent of chains. It didn't bother him. He wasn't a victim of circumstance. He wasn't dependent on circumstance. Don't you see? If your roots are down in him, it doesn't matter when the heat comes.

It doesn't matter when the heat comes. If you're a Christian and you're healthy, you're alright. If you're a Christian and you're sick, you're alright. If you're a Christian and you're fatally sick, you're still alright. Because if you're a Christian and you die, you're really great. Don't you see it doesn't matter what the circumstances are? If there's anybody here who says, I'm okay and I don't really have God in my life, what are you going to do when the heat comes?

Jesus says in John 4, I have water to give such that whosoever drinks it shall never thirst again. Indeed, the water I give will become in you a spring of water welling up to eternal life. Let's pray. Our Father, we see that if we've never put our roots down into you, boy, we need to. It's not going to happen just by trying to get more religious. Show us how to cry out and receive the new life. On the other hand, Father, there's an awful lot of us here who believe, but we're in a situation where we're asking for help

and the heat has come, and you're saying to us, put your roots down more deeply into me. Become, become people who are impervious to the changes of circumstances, who know how to be content in plenty or want. We pray that you'd make us like Paul. We pray you'd make us like this tree. We pray that you would make us like your son, Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. Thank you for joining us today. If you were encouraged by today's teaching, please rate and review it so more people can

discover the Gospel in Life podcast. This month's sermons were recorded in 2003. 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.