Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Professor’s Disillusionment

Episode Date: October 2, 2023

A lot of people say Ecclesiastes is the greatest book of the Bible. But I can almost guarantee none of them felt that way the first time they read it. Because when you first read Ecclesiastes, what you’re struck with is a professor in absolute despair.  Some will think this seems to contradict the rest of the Bible. Others will say, “Who needs this pessimism?” It can be a confusing book because people don’t realize its instructional approach of andragogy, which means adult instruction by goading and asking questions. And it can also be confusing because people don’t notice that the teacher is looking at life in two different ways, and that he keeps going back and forth between them. Let’s look at both of the ways he looks at life. Let me show you: 1) how he looks, 2) what he sees, and 3) why he sees it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 7, 1997. Series: Pointers to Christ – Directional Signs in History. Scripture: Ecclesiastes 2:17-26. 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. This month we're looking at directional signposts through history that point us to Christ. All through the Old Testament from Genesis to Jonah, you see signs that point us to Jesus. Listen now to today's teaching from Tim Keller on pointers to Christ. Verses 15-26. Then I thought in my heart, the fate of the fool will overtake me also. What then do I gain by being wise? I said in my heart, this too is meaningless.

For the wise man like the fool will not long be remembered, in days to come both, will be forgotten. Like the fool the wise must die. So I hated life. Because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me, all of it is meaningless, a chasing after the wind. I hated all the things that I had toiled for under the sun, because I must leave them to the one who comes after me, and who knows whether he will be a wise man or a fool. Yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun.

This too is meaningless. So my heart began to despair. Overall, my tulips and my labor under the sun. For a man may do his work with wisdom, knowledge and skill, and then he must leave all he owns to someone who has not worked for it. This too is meaningless and a great misfortune. What does a man get for all the tulips and angstious driving with which he labors under the sun?

All his days, his work, his pain and grief, even at night, his mind does not rest. This too is meaningless. A man can do nothing better than to eat and drink and find satisfaction in his work. This too, I see, is from the hand of God. For without him, who can eat or find enjoyment, to the man who pleases him, God gives wisdom, knowledge, and happiness, but to the sinner he gives the task

of gathering and storing up wealth to hand it over to the one who pleases God. This too is meaningless, a chasing after the win. This is God's word. Now, one of the things that an awful lot of people have said is that Ecclesiastes is a great book. In chapter 97 of Moby Dick, I know it so well, Melville says, the truest of all books is Ecclesiastes. Thomas Wolf and a pretty well-known American novel, you can't go home again, he says,

one of these characters says this. Ecclesiastes is the greatest single piece of writing I have ever known. The noblest, the wisest, the most powerful expression of humanity's life on earth. The highest flower of eloquence and truth. There's an awful lot of people who talk like that. Say, this is the best book in the Bible. This is the truest. This is the greatest. But almost I can almost guarantee that none of them felt that way the first time. Not the first time they read it. Because what you have, when you first read Ecclesiastes,

what you're struck with is a teacher, a professor, as we'll see, in absolute despair. The very first verses, the first few lines of Ecclesiastes go like this. Meaningless, meaningless, utterly meaningless, everything is meaningless. And of course, the passage I just read is just the same. And so you have someone in utter despair

with a bleakest view of life. And the reason people generally get very confused when they read it, people who are believers, people who believe in God, people who have the traditional faith, they say, I'm confused because it seems like he's contradicting everything the rest of the Bible says. And people who don't believe or have trouble believing or who are not as believing, when they read it, I'll say what

they say, what they say is who needs this. I said this guy is a professor, this is this is the kind of guy who drinks himself into a stupor in the cafe, is in the left bank talking about the meanness of life. This is the kind of guy who makes these art films that, you know, are so bleak and terrible that are, that play in obscure little corners of Greenwich Village. Of course, world has people like that. But most of us aren't like that.

We don't see life like that. Who needs this rant? Who needs this pessimism? Now, the reason why it's so confusing is because a couple of things are missed. The first thing is because people don't realize the instructional approach. We don't know exactly who wrote Ecclesiastes. I won't get into the debate. It's debatable that Solomon write. It doesn't matter because in the very first line, he calls himself a teacher, a word that can mean a professor. And if you read Ecclesiastes, you'll realize

that this man, and it's the only book like this in the Bible, this man is running a seminar. He's not lecturing, he's not preaching, like a good philosophy professor, he's running a seminar. He is making you think. He is goading you with questions. Ecclesiastes, unlike any other book of the Bible, is not pedagogy, it's andragogy. Pedagogy literally means child instruction, memorizing, wrote, you see drill, spoon-feeding, andragogy is a word that means adult instruction.

Goading, asking questions, getting peopleadgy is a word that means adult instruction. Goatting, asking questions, getting people to look at their own foundations, discovering truth for themselves. That's one of the reasons why Ecclesiastes seem so odd. But the other reason it seems so odd is because people, I don't think notice, unless you look clearly and I'm going to try to show you this morning. The teacher is looking at life all the time. He's always saying, I see, I see, I saw this, I looked at life and I saw this,

but he looks at life in two different ways and he goes back and forth between them. Let me show you the first way he looks at life and the second way he looks at life. It'll teach us a great deal. The first way he looks at life, in the first view, let's say how he looks and what he sees and why he sees it. Now, the first way he looks at life how he looks and what he sees and why he sees it. Now, the first way he looks at life is he looks at life under the sun. You notice how three times in this passage

for 17, 20 and 22, he says, I found this meaningless under the sun. I saw all my work under the sun was meaningless. This is a term that's used 30 times in the book. This is a term that is not used anywhere else in the Old Testament, so it's clearly critical to, and very important to the the book. This is a term that is not used anywhere else in the Old Testament, so it's clearly critical to and very important to the whole book. And what he means by this, almost all the commentators have ever read, agree. What he means by under the sun is life here and now, considered in isolation from anything else. Life under the sun is, he says, I'm going to look at

the world as if this life under the sun is all that there is. I'm not going to look at life above the sun. I'm not going to think about God or eternity or heaven or hell. See, I'm not going to think of anything beyond. I'm going to look at life as if this is the only life we have, at least the only life we know. You know, Carl Sagan in the beginning of every one of his Cosmos PBS segments, in the very beginning you'd hear Carl Sagan's voice come on and you would say, the Cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be. Now most people are not atheists in the strict sense like Carl Sagan.

Carl Sagan is saying is, this life, this world, there is no heaven, there is no hell, there is no heaven, there is no hell, there is no eternity. Okay? There is nothing but this life, life under the sun, there is nothing else. Most people aren't atheist. Most people would say, well, I believe in God, but the modern person says, I believe in God or something, but we can't know.

We can't know God's will for sure. We can't know about the after, we can't be sure. And so essentially, most, the modern person says, we have got to live life as if this is the only life we know. And the teacher says, deal. I'm gonna look at life as if it's the only life we know. That's how he's looking at it. That's the first way he looks at it.

I'm gonna look at life under the sun. But what does he see? What he sees is absolute inconsequentiality. Now he can't look, he kind of looks at it in several ways. He notices the injustice. If you look down, he says, it's unjust. Some people work very, very hard and never enjoy the fruit of their labor and other people who don't deserve it all. Enjoy it. And then he says, and worse than that, it's possible that you could work very hard to accomplish something in life.

And then when you die, not only don't you get it anymore, but some fool comes along and takes over. And next thing, you know, everything you've worked for is gone. You build an institution, you establish a school of thought, you do some good deeds and somebody else comes along afterwards and just ruins it. But you see, that all is just, those are all just symptoms. Because of in verse 15 and 16, he really gives you the bottom line.

In verse 15 and 16, as I read, he says, the fate of the fool will overtake me also. He says, therefore, this is meaningless. For the wise like the fool will not long be remembered. Now, what he's bringing out here is something again incredibly modern, but something he's trying to grab you by this graph of the neck and show you. We're going to talk about why, but for now let's say the what? We'll talk about why he's doing this, but right now let's say what he's looking at. And what he is saying is, a wise life, a wise action,

or a foolish life, a foolish action, a compassionate life, a compassionate action, a cruel life, a vicious action, in the end, makes no difference at all, not at all. If it's really true that life under the sun as all there is, if it's really true that when we die, that's it. And eventually the solar system dies. And other is eventually something will sweep everything away.

Civilizational, I'll be swept away. It will make a bit of difference how you've lived at all. And therefore, there is no way if you realize that life under the sun is all there is, that you can say one action is more significant than another. Because it makes no difference in the end at all. Now, that's very bleak, you say. And the question comes up, why, you know, we're all smart people, we walk around.

Why is it that the average person, and the average person in Western culture who shares the teacher's premise that this life is all we know? But they go on out there and they don't feel that life is meaningless. They don't say one thing is insignificant as another, that everything is ridiculous, everything is meaningless and vain and futile. No. So why to see? And here's the reason why.

He looks at the whole of life, the big picture, and we refuse to. The key is, take a look at this question that he brings out. I have been meditating on this question for some years, and I just saw something this week that I've never seen before. Here's the question he asks, and he dares you to ask the question. He says, down here in verse 22, what does a man get for all the toil and anxious striving with which he labors under the sun? That's the question. Every word is significant. First of all, he says, assuming

that this life is all there is. First of all, he says, what is the gain? What do you get? What is the difference? Now, why do you ask that question? Because he's really showing us that you ask that question about any individual piece of your life. Do you not? If somebody says to you, I would like you to go to the corner of so and so a place, and I would like you to stand there for an hour tomorrow, you would say, for what? Well, the person says, I don't want to tell you, I just like you to do it.

And you say, no, no, no, no, no. I want to know what difference it'll make, what gain will be. Otherwise, it's a waste of time. You would never do anything. If it made absolutely no difference at all, if nothing came up at all, you never do anything. But the thing that, in other words, we look at every part of our life like that. But the reason that the teacher comes to despair, existential despair, is because he uses a little word in that question that is so critical, and that is the word all. What do you get from the whole of your life? And the reason the average person shares the teachers' premise, but does not share the teacher's despair in this world,

in this Western culture. It's because we refuse to use the word all. See, the average person, I mean, there's probably a lot of people right here listening to this, and you're going to sit through the 30 minutes or whatever, but you would never sit through 30 minutes personally with somebody. If somebody sat down and said, well, what do you believe about life? And you said, well, I'm kind of an agnostic. I'm kind of a, I sort of believe in God in general. It might be true. But the one thing is all we know is that we're here. We don't really know for sure why we're here or where we're going or, you know, we can't be

sure. Now, the person says, well, in that case, you must, you have to look at life and say that nothing means anything that there's no right and wrong ultimately, there's no significance between one action over another, that no one action is more meaningful or more significant than the other. And you wouldn't stand for that. He would say, oh, give me this. I took philosophy 101, this meaning in life, so philosophers need this. Philosophers ask the big question.

The average person, the average person, lives for the daily things. Sure, I don't know, I'm an agnostic, but I'm optimistic about life. Why? Because when I take a boat ride in Central Park, I feel good. It's meaningful. When I hug somebody I love, it's meaningful.

That's it. When I accomplish something at work, it's meaningful. When I do a compassionate deed, as opposed to a selfish deed, it's meaningful. When I do a compassionate deed is opposed to a selfish deed It's meaningful to me. I'm having a fine life. You can't throw all this on me You can't put me back into philosophy class. Now you know what you're doing. What is you refusing to ask the word all? There was an old mutton Jeff cartoon some years ago remember mutton Jeff

and one place mutt Jeff comes up and there's mut, and right in the middle of a street, right in the middle of a road, a street. He has built a very, very tall pile of stones. At the top of the pile of stones, there's a lantern. And Jeff says to mut, oh, my, why did you build this polystone? Oh, he says, that's easy. So I could put the lantern up there. So that it's up high, so it gives a lot of life. Oh, okay. Why did you put the lantern up there? Well,

I want the lantern up there, so the cars will see the pile of stones and they won't crash into it. Oh, why did though you put the pile of stones there for the car to crash into it? Well, so that I could put the lantern up there. Now, what is he doing? It's very simple. He's finding meaning of one part in the meaning of another part, but he's refusing to ask the question, does the whole thing have any use? Or is it just stupid?

Why do you work? Usually a person says, I'll tell you why I work, so that I can do things that I like to do. I have invocations, I've got hobbies, I've got leisure, I like travel, why? Well that really recharges my batteries, why? So I can work. See the lantern is for the stones, the stones for the lantern, and if you refuse to stand back and say, but what is the whole thing for?

What is the whole thing for? How do you know your whole life isn't stupid? That your whole life isn't pointless. How do you know your whole life is not just a very, very large stone lantern in the middle of a highway. How do you know this? Now, here's what the teacher is saying. The teacher is saying, grow up. This is not pedagogy, this is Andrew Gogy. Don't be an ostrich.

Ask yourself the question. If you would never do one thing, if it made no difference at all. Okay? It would be meaningless. It would be a waste of time, unless it made a difference. What difference is your whole life make? What are you living for?

What difference does it all make? Now, the average person just does not want to hear this. I had a little conversation with somebody, by the way, I know very well. I get back to why I think this was a valid conversation, but it's a dangerous one. I had a conversation not too long with somebody, I knew very, very well.

And this person had just said what he said was. He says, you know what? The way you know what's right and wrong is, there's no reasons for it. There's no way to know what's right and wrong. You just have to know what's right and wrong in your heart. And if you know in your heart, then it's right. And then you just need to do it.

And that's how you live. That's how you find meaning in life. And I said, well, then what do you say to Hitler? He felt it real hard in his life and he did it. So that was okay. Oh no, my friend said, well, you know, he says the trouble is, Most of the people's hearts in the world know that what Hitler was doing was wrong. Therefore it was wrong And I said well, you know up to 150 years ago most of the hearts of the world thought slavery was just fine You think slavery was just fine. No

Why not and he just looked and he shrugged me He says, you know, these things are so complex if you think about this you'll just dig a hole Now this is the first and I knew very long time. And it was very, very cordial. Now, here's the question. The teacher is saying, when someone says, I don't need to ask this question, I don't need to ask this question. What you really are saying is, my optimistic agnosticism, and that's the worldview that the teacher is trying to absolutely smash, my optimistic agnosticism will and that's the worldview the teacher is trying to absolutely smash. My optimistic agnosticism will fall apart if I ask that question.

It can't deal with that question. It is demolished by that question. It is absolutely inadequate to that question. Optimistic agnosticism. Why one of the sun is all there is, but there is moral truth. There is human rights. There's human dignity. Listen, if your origin isn't significant, you come from nothing. And if your destiny isn't significant,

you're going to nothing, have the guts to admit that your life isn't significant. And stop talking. As if, on the one hand, you feel like you can poke holes in other people's inconsistencies. You'll poke holes in Muslims who say, I believe in God, but then they do something wrong. Our Christians say, I believe in God, do something wrong. You'll poke holes in everybody else's inconsistency, but you won't look at your own. You know, Jean Paul Sartre made a very interesting statement. His most

famous essay was right after the war, 1946, wrote his essay called, The Existentialism and Humanism. And this is what he said. He says, God does not exist, and we have to face all the consequences of this. The existentialist is strongly opposed to a certain kind of secular ethics which wants to abolish God with the least possible expense. The existentialist, indeed, thinks it is very distressed in that God does not exist because of all possibility of finding any values, disappears with God. There can be no a priori

good since there is no infinite and perfect consciousness to think it. So nowhere is it written that we must be honest? No where is it written that we must not lie? Because the fact is we are on a plane where there is only us human beings. Dosti Eski said, if God didn't exist, everything would be permissible. That is the very starting point of existentialism. If God does not exist, there is nothing within or without that can legitimize any conduct. Now, you know, what is very interesting to me, Sartre took this idea, life under the sun is all there is. And you know what he says? He says, don't talk to me in any way that says that you believe that one kind of conduct is more legitimate than any other kind. One of the things that's come out recently, he died in 1980. One of the things that come out over the last few years is what a misogynist he was.

So, I'm Paul Sartre was very bad to women. The women he knew, and he was very misogynist, but you know what, whenever I read the people who accept his premise about life, and then get very upset about it, if he was alive, he would rise up, and he was only five two, so he would rise up, and he would say, please, he would say, you want to be free. You want to say, I am free to do what I want to do. You want to be free. As far as I know, this life is

all there is. I'm not controlled by eternity, by moral absence, by God. I want to be free. Then you have got to have the guts to accept the utter meaninglessness of all distinctions. You want to be free, fine, but you have to accept it. Meaningless, meaningless, utterly meaningless, everything is meaningless. Come on. You know, Christians look like real hard-nosed skeptics compared to a view that says life under the sun is all there is but I'm optimistic. I have meaning in life. I can enjoy things. I know some things are right and some things are wrong. I know it's better to be compassionate than to be violent. I know these things. Talk about blind faith. Talk about naive religiosity. Now, why is he doing this? Because he also tends to see life, the preacher, the teacher,

the professor sees life in a different way. One of the biggest obstacles for people to believe in Christianity is that they think they already know all about it. But if we look at Jesus' encounters with various people during his life, we'll find some of our assumptions challenged. We see him meeting people at the point of their big unspoken questions.

The Gospels are full of encounters that made a profound impact on those who spoke with Jesus. And in his book Encounters with Jesus, Tim Keller explores how these encounters can still address our questions and doubts today. Encounters with Jesus is our thanks for your gift to help gospel in life reach more people with the amazing love of Christ. Request your copy of Encounters with Jesus today when you give at gospelonlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching.

Did you not notice a change in 10 to verse 24? If you read the book of Ecclesiastes, you will see that up to verse 24, the word God is used once and once only. Only once. It's only used in chapter 1 verse 13 where God is called the author of all human misery. So up until verse 23, God is out of the picture. And in all of a sudden, the word God shows up 10 times in the next few verses, not in those verses. They're all the way into chapter 3, 10 times. And therefore, here's what the teacher is saying. The professor

says, I've looked at life as if this life is all there is. And I can tell you only once, I can tell you this, optimistic agnosticism is utterly disingenuous, it's utterly cowardly. You've got to get rid of it. Okay, that's what he's done. He says, now, let's try to look at the world and see what we see if there's a God. And he sees if there's a God, two things. The first thing he sees, and this is the thing that actually just came to me recently that I've never seen before, is existential despair. If there's a God existential despair, it's a gift from God. It's a good thing. This is one of

the reasons why he's helping us get to it Where does it say that you say well look look carefully it says Amanda can do nothing better than the eating drink and find satisfaction in his work this 2 is from the hands of God He doesn't say that finding satisfaction in work is from the hand of God He says finding satisfaction in your work 2 well wait a minute 2 what else is from the hand of God then He says, finding satisfaction in your work, too. Wait a minute, too. What else is from the hand of God then? And the only answer. I've checked all sorts of Hebrew commentators and all that, and it turns out they all pretty much agree with it. He has just said that

you can't find satisfaction in your work. He can't find satisfaction in his work, but now when he turns and he looks at things in terms of God, he says, I can find satisfaction in my work. What he's really saying is, finding satisfaction in your work is from the hands of God and despair and pain and grief over your work is also from the hand of God. What he is saying is, we are so cowardly and we are so infantile in our thinking, so childish and so afraid that it's only by God with God's help that you can actually say what John Paul Sartre said. Why do you think Jesus is always dealing with the people in despair kindly? Why does he look at the weeping prostitutes? Why does he look at the thief on the cross and he deals with them tenderly? But why does he turn around

of a smug to the respectable, you know, to the religious, to the pillars of their community who think they've got it together who say, why? Because Jesus knows only those who know they're sick will look to a physician. The teacher's job is to make you sick and God, it's a gift from God to get rid of all of your skeego defense mechanisms and all of your defense mechanisms to actually see what life without God looks like. And you know why God helps you experience existential despair because in the despair itself is all kinds of pointers to God. All kinds of pointers to God. C.S. Lewis, in his little essay, encounter with light, put it this way.

Interesting. He says, how could an idiotic universe have produced creatures whose mere dreams are so much stronger, better, and subtler than itself. Do fish complain of the sea for being wet? Or if they did, would that fact itself not strongly suggest that they had not always been or would not always be purely aquatic? If you are really the product of this materialistic universe, why don't you feel it home here?

Now here's the point. Why is existential despair there? If the world is just this way, why are we upset about it? Why the idea that there is no right and wrong, why the idea that is strong, the weak, why the idea that when we die, we write, why does that bother you? Why is it that we look at the little part

just the lantern or just the rocks to avoid seeing that? Why can't we see that? It's a pointer to God. It's an evidence that you know that there is a God. It's an evidence that there's a God who's put eternity in your mind. It's a pointer to the reality. The first thing you see is existential despair as a gift from God. In fact, unless you get there, you probably never will appreciate what God does say.

And what does he say? Well, the second thing that the teacher tells us about is not that life can be lived fully if you believe in God. That's not only says that's not enough. No, he says you have to see that everything is from the hand of God. You have to see that everything is a result of the grace of God. And because you see everything as a result of the hand of God, you have to see that everything is a result of the grace of God, and because you see everything as a result of the grace of God, you live a life strictly to please them, just to give him pleasure. Now, this is an Old Testament embryonic version of the gospel. What he's really saying is, if you go to work and you don't know that God loves you,

What he's really saying is, if you go to work and you don't know that God loves you and has given Himself to you and accepts you, if you go to work, what you're going to be doing is you're going to be trying to... The work will never be something you do out of joy for the work. You'll never do it simply for the joy of doing the work. You'll be doing it to fill that hole. You'll be doing it to try to deal with that deep, under-night, and East feeling of meaninglessness that you may be hiding from yourself intellectually, but it's there. And as a result, ironically, you'll never

get joy in work because by concentrating so much on the work in order to fill that need, it's never about the work. It's always about you. It's always about giving you a reputation or giving you a sense of accomplishment or how do the critics see me? You'll never enjoy work that way. Unless you see everything from the hand of God, everything, everything has of the grace of God. Now, the teacher doesn't know it, but the pointers are not just pointers to God, but the pointers he's talking about are also pointers to Jesus himself.

The Bible tells us in a New Testament that every major figure in the Old Testament is really pointing to Jesus. Jesus is the true prophet. He's the true king. He's the true hero. He's the true priest, but I tell you, listen, listen. He's also the true priest, but I tell you, listen, listen. He's also the true teacher. Jesus Christ's job, when He comes to you, is to show you the meaninglessness of life apart from Him.

That's His job. You know the place where Jesus, where Paul says, I had so much, it's in Philippians 4.8. He said, I have so much, but now I realize it was all done without Jesus Christ. All the stuff that I did was nothing but excrement without Jesus Christ. Now you know what the teacher sees that? intellectually, rationally, that everything is done unless through Jesus Christ, you know that God loves you absolutely. Everything is done. Now the teacher knows the negative half. The New Testament provides the positive half. But the point is Jesus Christ is the true teacher. He comes and he shows you. Now those of you who aren't sure you believe, maybe one of the reasons why things are going

wrong in your life right now is the teacher. It's the teacher forcing you to look at the whole. You've been moving along in life not very religious or not very committed and you've been okay. And what you've been doing is you've been doing the mutton Jeff thing. You're just looking to the lantern or just looking at the stones. You're not looking at the whole thing. If your life is starting to kind of be shaken and if you find yourself starting to ask the big questions, it's Jesus. He's a teacher. He's bringing you along. He's treating you like an adult. Listen to him. See that unless you know, unless you have a rapturous love

relationship with God, work in the end. In the beginning, you'll overwork and in the end, you'll hate work. Do you hear me? In the beginning, you'll overwork because you'll be trying to fill that meaninglessness. You're trying to, with the business, keep it away, but in the end, you'll overwork because you'll be trying to fill that meaninglessness. You're trying to, with the busyness, keep it away, but in the end, you'll hate work because you'll see it's off or nothing. And it would never was about the work, only when you know God. And only when you see that everything in life is a gift of grace through Jesus Christ. Will you find work becomes satisfying? You want overwork?

You want underwork? You want to idolize it? You won't hate it. Christian friends. You say, well, this is a sermon for non-Christians, wasn't it? Absolutely not. Well, Jesus Christ comes and teaches people that, you know, life is meaningless without him. I know that life is meaningless without him. Oh, no, you don't. Why do you, Christian friends, why is it that so often you feel life less stinks? Why do you get down? Why do you get an existential despair? You know why? And intellectually you say, Jesus is first. Everything is

exquisite without Jesus. But you see in your heart you take things just like you used to. And you make them the meaning in your life. You make them the way in which you're trying to deal with the hardness of life. But anything besides Jesus Christ that's number one will lead you to that same sense of meaninglessness. Don't you see? And you need Jesus Christ to come along every so often and say, apart from me, life is meaningless and that's why you're feeling this despise. Why you're feeling this boredom? You know why? Because you may believe in me in general, but you don't have a rapturous love relationship with me. Get down on your knees,

come find me. And maybe he's telling you that now. He's the teacher, the prophet, the priest, the king, the teacher, but I'll tell you one other thing. Since he's the teacher, don't you try to argue your friends into the kingdom of God. Remember, I said I'd get back to this. Well, here it is. When I made that little conversation with my friend, it was dangerous. Because by and large, people don't want to be logical.

People don't want to be logical when it comes to religion. They don't want to ask that question to answer that. They don't want to go. If you as a Christian try to push them, if you try to become the teacher in Israel, instead of letting the true teacher teach their hearts, they're never going to listen to your line of reasoning unless Jesus Christ is already working

in their hearts to show them. Don't you say? Come on, friends. You need Jesus to show you. And at the very end of my favorite non-biblical book is Lord of the Rings. And it's all about a hero, a little hobbit called Frodo, who's had this ring around his neck, which basically had him in its grip. You know, he was a slave to it, but he finally throws it away.

And when he throws it away, he's free. And you know, redemption, he saved, everybody saved. You know, and at the end, we're told that in spite of that, he was wounded and every so often, you know, his friends would find him laying on the bed, holding his breast with a ring used to be saying, it's gone and everything is darkness. As Christians, we still do that. Principally, Jesus is our Lord and the little rings we used to have around our necks are gone,

but sometimes we find ourselves on the beds holding on to where they used to be saying, it's gone. beds holding on to where they used to be saying it's gone. See, I'm single and I want to be married. I'm unsuccessful and I want to be successful. I'm old and I want to be young. The thing that used to be around my neck and I've thrown it away and Jesus is now my author. He is my champion, he is my wealth, he is my youth, he is my honor, he is my dignity. But you know, every so often we grab hold and we say it's gone and everything is darkness. And Jesus comes to us and says, of course, remember?

Everything is darkness unless I'm around your neck. Come back to me. Grab hold on me. And you will find life's a gift. Let's pray. fine, life's a gift. Let's pray. Our Father, we are now coming to grab hold of your Son. We see that for life to have meaning, for life to fit together, it's not enough just to intellectually believe in God, we have to see everything as a gift of grace from your hand. And we have to see you having pleasure in us. And we have to know that we please you. And we have to have a rapturous love relationship with you. Now Lord, you have actually

appointed a place and a way for us to do that. You said that when we celebrate the Lord's Supper, you will meet us in a special way, in a poppable way, in a deep way, and we ask that you would now do so. As we confess the truth on which this love relationship is based, as we come to you and ask for it, as we break the bread, as we drink the cup, meet us, and make our lives meaningful all over again. We pray in Jesus' name. 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 this podcast. And thanks for listening. This month's sermons were recorded in 1997 and 2017. 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.