Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Search for Certainty

Episode Date: May 8, 2024

A fool can be brilliant and a fool can be stupid. Foolishness is not a function of your intelligence. Foolishness is a function of how you use your intelligence.  The Bible says every human being is born with a heavy streak of foolishness. It’s like a deposit. It’s foolishness, according to the Bible, that destroys our sense of God’s reality. And it’s a common reason why people have trouble believing God is real. The Bible tells us 1) foolishness is a proud willfulness that keeps us from learning, 2) foolishness is a superficiality that makes it impossible to see our own heart commitments as alternatives to believing in God, and 3) foolishness can’t understand grace. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 3, 1993. Series: Modern Problems; Ancient Solutions. Scripture: Psalm 14. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. Many today have elevated skepticism to such an extent that belief in God can seem almost unimaginable. But many of the human longings that characterize the ancient world are still the same today. We all still desire meaning, happiness, and a strong identity. Today Tim Keller is speaking on how the Christian faith can address the problems and satisfy the longings of the modern heart. Today's scripture is from Psalm 14. The fool says in his heart, there is no God.

They are corrupt. Their deeds are vile. There is no one who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven on the sons of men to see if there are any who understand, any who seek God. All have turned aside. They have together become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one. Will evildoers never learn? Those who devour my people as men eat bread, and those who do not call on the Lord. There they are overwhelmed with dread, for God is present in the company of the righteous. You evildoers frustrate the plans of the poor, but the Lord is their refuge. Oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of Zion. When the Lord restores the fortunes of his people, let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad. This is God's word.

Any statement of someone's intelligence is not saying anything about how intelligent you are. A fool in the Bible can be brilliant and a fool can be stupid. But actually, foolishness is not a function of your intelligence or your mental furniture. Foolishness is a function of how you use your intelligence or your mental furniture. The Bible says that every human being is born with a heavy streak of foolishness. There's a place in Proverbs 25 that says, foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. And it's the parent's job to drive that foolishness out. That's the job.

Everybody's born with foolishness. It's like a deposit. It's like a load of vein in us. And it's foolishness, according to the Bible, that destroys our sense of God's reality. That if you have trouble believing in God, or if you struggle with doubts, it's not saying that everybody who says

there is no God is a fool, but it is saying that foolishness in the heart is a strong reason, is very, very often, it's a common reason why people find that God is not real. And it's our job to look at our own hearts and say, if I have trouble believing, if I have trouble with doubts, is it possible that the troubles are not so much intellectual but they're something deeper? Here's what the Bible tells us about foolishness which destroys our sense of God's reality. Number one, the Bible tells us that foolishness is a proud willfulness that keeps us from learning. It keeps us from seeing the evidence. Foolishness, first of

all, is a proud willfulness that keeps us from learning from seeing the evidence. You see, for example, right down here in verse four, it says that they never learn. They don't learn. And that's a very important part of the Biblical definition of what it means to be foolish. Dan Allender, a Christian counselor, wrote a book in which he described a man that he met one day because he was going to counsel with them. And he met them out front and he walked through their office, back to the counseling room. On the way back through the office, the man looked around and pointed out to Dan that all of his computers were wrong. He had the wrong kind of computer.

He had the wrong setup. If he just checked with him, he could tell Dan how he really could set up his computer systems in a right way. And as he was walking back, Dan remembered Proverbs 18, verse 2, him, he could tell Dan how he really could set up his computer systems in a right way. And as he was walking back, Dan remembered Proverbs 18 verse 2, which says, a fool delights in erring his own opinions. And then they got back and sat down and began the counseling session. And the man started right away.

He said, now, before we even start, I want you to know one thing I hate is people analyzing me and telling me how to change my life. That's a great way to start a counseling session. I wonder how much he was paying, Dan, I don't know. So the first thing I want you to know is I don't like people analyzing me or telling me how to change my life. And Dan immediately remembered Proverbs 12, Proverbs 15, 5, which says, a fool hates correction.

And then when they got into the subject, which was the man's deteriorating marriage, the marriage had been devastated, the man continually insisted to Dan that the only problem in his marriage was he let his wife get out of control, That he just had not laid down the law, that he hadn't done it sooner, and that was really the problem. That he just had not really laid down the law to his wife. And as Dan listened to him, he remembered Proverbs 12.15, the fool thinks he's right all the time. Now, what are all those verses after? Foolishness, the essence of the spirit of foolishness is, I don't need anybody's help. I don't need anybody to tell me what to do. I can do it myself. Nobody tells me how to live my life. That's the essence of foolishness. Why?

Because the assumption there is that people don't have things for me to learn. I never have to depend on anybody. I never need to be taught. And of course that is out of touch with reality. That spirit, that proud willfulness that says I don't need anybody to tell me what to do. I can do it myself to the degree that you and I are under the influence of that spirit. Intellectually, emotionally, and spiritually, we're fools. Because what does it mean?

It means you'll never learn if you have that attitude. I can't forget, you know, my six year old. It's just to show you, prove what the Bible says, that foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child. I remember one of my sons, none of them are six now, but one of them was once, and we were looking in the car, and I remember my son saying,

Daddy, I don't need your help, I can change the spark plugs. And I said, well, you will probably be electrocuted, lose your fingers, you don probably be electrocuted, lose your fingers, you don't think that's the problem? He says, daddy, I can do it myself. And listen, that is in the heart of a child. You see that? Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child, the Bible says.

I can do it myself. And the purpose, you see, of being a good parent, the purpose of being a good parent is to drive foolishness away. In other words, a parent realizes that when you start out with a child, you start out with a fool. Every child born into your family is a fool. And if you do poor parenting, those individuals will stay fools. And a lot of people do.

And in many cases you have to realize foolishness is to a degree operating in all of us. I don't need your help. I already knew that. I knew that already. I don't have to listen to anybody. I can do it myself. Nobody tells me what to do. Now, it's fairly easy when you see a child acting like a fool. That's foolishness. When you see a grown man walking around insisting that he knows what's going on, nobody tells him what to do.

But stop and think. The Bible says that it's not as easy to see when you're playing the fool in relation to God. The Bible says many people doubt God because they don't like the idea that there's someone to which they have to submit they want to do it themselves. Nobody tells me what to do. In Romans chapter 1, the psychology of the spirit, the psychology of foolishness is laid out perfectly. In Romans chapter 1, Paul says, and this is just a kind of brief paraphrase, in Romans chapter 1, Paul says that those things, what was known about God is plain to them. He's talking about human beings.

What is known about God is plain to them in all creation, but because they didn't want to glorify him as God or give thanks to him, though claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged a lie for the truth. See, he's talking about all of us, human beings. Paul says, human beings, when they look at a creation, lots of evidence that there's a creator, lots of it. And yet, because we didn't want to acknowledge God,

we didn't want to glorify Him, we didn't want anybody to tell us how to live our lives, in that case, we filtered him out. And we decided that he wasn't there and we were blind to the evidence. So it says, though claiming to be wise, we became fools. That's the essence of foolishness. There's evidence out there, lots of evidence that God exists. You know, a quick, when Paul says, look at creation, what's he thinking about?

You know, there's a number of different ways. In fact, if you want to ask me about them downstairs afterwards, I can go into four or five different ways that people have looked at creation and said, look at all the various evidence. But one of them is what's called the teleological argument. Teleology means, look at the universe, look at the world, its design, its design, its order, its beauty.

Could that have happened by accident? Well, if there was no creator god, of course they say it happened by accident, but now let's think about this for a minute. If there's an explosion in a print factory, in a print shop, let's say there's an explosion, what are the chances that the ink and the paper and all that would go up into the air and come down and print Hamlet?

What are the chances of that? Now, if you say impossible, a statistician, a person who understands something about probability statistics would say, oh no, you could never say that's impossible. See, one of the things you have to realize is you cannot prove or disprove hardly anything except a few mathematical theorems. Or certain logical, there are certain logical transactions in which the premise contains the conclusion,

in which case there are tautologies, there's a number of things you can prove, but not many of them. The fact is you can hardly prove or disprove anything. You can't prove that Columbus discovered America in 1492. I can't prove that my wife loves me. I have lots of evidence for it. The fact of the matter is, when it comes down to it,

everything that we think we know is actually only statistically very, very probable. You get a lot of evidence and so you trust it. And because it's probable, you trust it, you come to know it, you come to be assured. But there's always a chance because nothing is proved. In the same way here, could you say it would be impossible for an explosion in a print company, a print shop, to write the book of Hamlet?

Or to say it would be impossible, what are the chances of an explosion in a paint factory painting Whistler's mother? What are the chances? You say infinitesimal. Well, of course, but they're there. And yet, I wouldn't bet on it. If I had to produce a painting, if I had to produce a book, I wouldn't bet on it. I wouldn't do that. In other words, I wouldn't bet my life on it. Now, in the same way, let's look at the world. Look at the world.

There's far more intricate order. There's far more beauty. There's far more design in the systems of nature than there is even in the book of Hamlet. And therefore the chances of it happening by accident are even more infinitesimal. And yet, people will say, well you can't prove there's a God. No, you can't. You can't prove that the explosion wouldn't, you know, write the book of Hamlet. Well, no, you really couldn't, but why would you ever think of actually resting anything

on that infinitesimal probability? Look at a man in Las Vegas. Look at the man down at Atlantic City. He's put all of his life, all of his life savings, all of his family, he's bet everything on one number, and the roulette wheel is coming around. What would you call that man? You'd call him a fool. And yet, anybody who says, you can't prove there's a God, I'm going to live as if there is no God,

until somebody can prove to me there's a God, is what? Come on. If you're betting your life on something like that, there's a bias there. There is a pre-theoretical deep bias against the very idea that somebody can tell me what to do. I mean, how else would you explain it? Number one, first thing the Bible tells us is foolish people, people with foolishness, have a proud willfulness that says, I can do it myself. I don't want anybody telling me what to do.

And it blinds them to the evidence that there is for God. Secondly, okay, that's the first point. So watch yourself, look at yourself, make sure that your so-called intellectual questions, and there are many intellectual questions about God, and whether it's a God, that there isn't underneath it a proud willfulness that really doesn't want to obey even if somebody made a great case. Be careful. You may say my unwillingness to obey is based on my inability to believe, but it could be your inability to believe is based on your unwillingness to obey.

Two different things. One is intellectually honest, one is not. Okay, the second point. We said there's a proud willfulness that makes it impossible for fools, foolish people, to see the evidence by God. Secondly, the Bible teaches us, foolishness is also a superficiality that makes it impossible

for you to see your own heart commitments as alternatives to believing in God. You see, foolishness leads you, foolishness, the Bible here tells us, actually is in the heart. It's in the heart that the fool says there is no God. Why does it say that? People think that their inability to believe in God is intellectual or emotional. I have people who come to me and say, well, my real reason, the reason I don't believe in God is there's so many intellectual objections. There are so many scientific discoveries that show that miracles don't happen and so forth.

And other people come to me and say, my problems are emotional. I just feel like when I see all the suffering and the misery in the world and in my life, it's just hard for me to believe in a God. And so people like to say that my real problem with God is intellectual or emotional. No. The Bible says that's superficial. If you've got a problem with God, if you can't believe in God, it's because your heart, your heart already has put its faith in something else. A rival. Put it this way, you cannot doubt everything at once. It's impossible. You can only doubt something from the vantage point or from the platform of having,

putting faith in something else. You can't doubt God without believing in your own reason, for example. You can't doubt biblical morality. For example, you can't say, I think God is unfair and unjust, except by already believing in some other kind of morality by which you're judging what God has done in your life. You can't be skeptical. You can't disbelieve in God without putting a tremendous amount of faith in something else. Have you examined those other things? Foolishness won't even admit that you've already put your faith in something. Now take a look at, here's Aldous Huxley for example. I put his quote in the beginning

of the bulletin. He was very, very honest. He says, when I went into philosophy 101, he became a philosopher, but he says, when I began to study philosophy, I didn't want there to be a God, I didn't want there to be a God who had spoken in the Ten Commandments, I wanted to believe that life was meaningless, I wanted to believe in the meaninglessness of existence.

Why? He says, I had a girl I wanted to sleep with. So here I am in philosophy 101, and I know that if there is a God, the God of the Bible, I can't sleep with her. I am not a detached person, he says when I'm studying philosophy. I've already got commitments,

I've already got things my heart has put its faith in. And therefore, whenever you're trying to figure out, do I believe in God or not? If you can't believe in God, if you find it difficult to believe in God, what's actually happened is God is threatening the things you already have faith in. So, for example, that's the reason why he says right there in the beginning, as I printed it up here for you. He says, I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning.

Consequently, I assumed it had none and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem of pure metaphysics. For myself, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation,

sexual and political. He says, I already had certain things that I believed in, and therefore God threatened that, and that's why God wasn't real to me. Let me give you another example. Sheldon Van Auken is an American who studied in Oxford. When he was in Oxford as a young man, he was trying to understand whether Christianity was true or not. And he was studying it and he kept saying to people, I'll be a Christian if you can prove to me that Jesus is God. And then one day he had a horrible experience. He had a horrible experience.

He began to understand, hear what the scripture said. It says, if I were to stake my whole life on the risen Christ, I wanted certainty. Then I realized it was a question of whether I was to accept him or reject my God. I saw now that there was a gap behind me as well as before me. It took faith to accept Christ. But what about the leap of faith to rejection? I had no certainty that Christ was God, but by God I had no certainty that he was not. This was not.

This was not to be born. Now, what's he saying? Very simple. He says, I can't reject Christ unless I already leap and believe in something else. He said, if you read his discussion, he says, the other Oxford students had decided that without religion, his other Oxford friends, without religion, without a religious community like the church, without the Bible, without revelation,

without the Ten Commandments, that they, on the basis of their sense experience, their sense data, how they read reality, on the basis of their own reason, that they would be able to decide what was right and wrong politically, socially, morally, and psychologically. He said, I began to realize that that took tremendous faith.

There's no way to doubt God's revelation without putting a tremendous amount of faith in your own. There's no way to doubt what God says without putting a tremendous amount of faith in your own. There's no way to doubt what God says without putting a tremendous amount of faith in what you believe. There really is not, you can't say, you must never say. Only a fool says, you have faith, I don't. I'm a hard nose skeptic, that's silly.

If you doubt, if you doubt Christianity it's because you have a lot of faith in something else. Why does God allow suffering in the world? How can one religion be right and the other is wrong? Has science basically disproved Christianity? Tim Keller addresses these questions and more in his book, The Reason for God. Drawing on literature, philosophy, real-life conversations, and potent reasoning, this book will challenge you to gain a deeper understanding of the Christian faith, whether you're a believer seeking

reassurance or you're reading it with a friend who is searching for answers. When you give to Gospel in Life during the month of May, we'll send you two copies of The Reason for God, one for you and one to give to a friend who is exploring Christianity. It's our hope that through reading the book with a friend, you can have conversations about the claims of the Christian faith. The books are our thanks for your support of this ministry. To receive your two copies of The Reason for God, simply make a gift at gospelonlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. We also encourage you to check out our short podcast series, Questioning Christianity,

for people exploring the claims of the Christian faith. To listen to this short series or share it with a friend, visit Gospelonlife.com slash questioning. That's Gospelonlife.com slash questioning. Your gift helps the message of Christ's love go out all over the world. So thank you for partnering with us us because the gospel truly changes everything. Now this was something brought out many, about 30 years ago a guy named Thomas Kuhn wrote this. In a book called The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.

In it he put that the fact that there's no such thing as value neutrality. You know 20 years ago before Thomas Kuhn began to sort of sink down into modern thinking, he used to read, when I came out of college, the counseling textbooks always said, if you're going to counsel somebody, you must do it value neutral. You must never impose your values on anybody, never. If somebody sits in front of you and gives you a problem, you must be value neutral, you must not tell that person what's right or wrong, but let them work it out for themselves. But you see, in light of just experience, the most recent counseling textbooks insist and admit that that's impossible.

Look, here's a guy in front of me as a counselor, and the guy says, I'm thinking of having an affair with somebody who's not my wife. Now, in the old days, the so-called value-neutral person, this counselor, would say, wow, let's work out the pros and cons of each possible alternative. You know, I'm not going to say anything about what's right or wrong. You see, the modern textbooks are beginning to realize that that's a farce, that that's a sham. If I don't tell him what to do, I am imposing moral relativism on the counseling process.

I am assuming that there isn't a God in heaven who's going to get him because of that. And as soon as I have a counseling experience and have a counseling process that assumes moral relativism, I have actually imposed a value. There is no way, Thomas Kuhn said 30 years ago, to be value neutral. Everything that you see, everything that you question

is on the basis of some kind of faith commitment. And, of course, you didn't have to go to Thomas Kuhn 30 years ago. It says so right here. You can't think without the heart. You think through your heart. When you look at the evidence for God, if you doubt God, it's because you've already got faith commitment someplace else.

And he's threatening those things. Now, all I'm trying to say is, Alex Huxley was not being a fool when he admitted them. You see what Alex Huxley said? He said, I had things I already believed in. I believed in sexual liberation. I believed that it was right. And so when I came to looking at the evidence for God,

I was not able to believe in God. But he admits why. I already had a commitment. I already had a God. I already had a faith. I already had things that I believed in and God threatened them. See, at that point, Aldous Sucksley's not being a fool.

But if you say, I have trouble believing in God, because I don't have faith in anything, I'm a hard-nosed skeptic. You say, I only believe in what can be proved, you're being a fool. You're blind to your own faith commitments. That's the reason why around Redeemer we often say, if you have a lot of trouble and doubting, if you have a lot of doubts about God, one thing you've got to make sure you do is doubt

your doubts. Why doubt everything except your doubts? Another way to put it is, examine the hidden faith commitments that are in the heart of your doubts. And very often you'll find that the things that you believe in, in order to doubt God, are far less grounded, far less well grounded

than Christianity itself. You know, all the success that I was committed to sexual liberation, how did he know it was a good idea? I'll tell you the things that in the 1960s, 20, 30 years ago, that everybody, all my friends believed about sex, they've changed. I'm not talking about Christians, I'm just talking about my whole generation has started to settle down. You know, we were kind of talking about Christians. I'm just talking about my whole generation has started to settle down You know we were kind of stupid about that They had faith

And it wasn't very well grounded if you want a Christian sex ethic. What have you got when you look at that? This is what Jesus Christ taught Jesus Christ here's somebody who lived 500 people saw him resurrected For 2,000 years people have been basing their lives on his teachings and found that they have transformed their lives. See, Christianity gives you a basis for their sex. I think, what's the basis for yours?

Well, I read it in Dear Abby. Well, it seemed good. Well, if you ever saw this woman, oh, you didn't. And this is the basis on which you come and study whether there's a God or not. If you don't understand that your doubts are based on faith in something else besides God, trust in something else besides God, you are a fool. Thirdly, I didn't say you were stupid.

You could be brilliant, but you're not being wise. You're not showing understanding. You're not showing self-knowledge, and therefore you're foolish. Okay, thirdly, we said foolishness consists of a proud willfulness that blinds you to the evidence about God. Thirdly, secondly, foolishness consists

of a lack of self-knowledge that blinds you to your own faith commitments, the things you already believe in, in order to disbelieve in God. But thirdly, foolishness can't understand grace. The third mark of foolishness is it can't understand grace. It doesn't understand Zion. The last verse in this chapter, in this Psalm, goes like this. It talks about the fools. It talks about how the fools never learn, how the fools devour my people as bread. They don't realize. And finally it says, oh, that salvation for Israel would come out of

Zion. And when the Lord restores the fortunes of his people from Zion, then Jacob will rejoice and Israel will be glad. Now, what was Zion? If you read especially the Psalms, and if you don't understand what Zion means, you're gonna have a lot of trouble appreciating. This is the, ta-da, you know, at the end of almost every Psalm except a couple of them, there's always hope.

You know, in spite of how bad everything looks, ta-da, this is the cavalry coming in at the end. Somehow God's grace shows up at the end of these psalms and this is it. The word Zion is the name of one of the hills inside the city of Jerusalem. Jerusalem was a city of a number of hills. Zion was one of the hills and it was the hill on which the temple was built. And what is being said here is God's salvation will come out of Zion, out of the temple. Now what is Zion logic? What is the temple? The temple is the place where God, the great God, he dwells. That's where his glory dwells. But it was at the temple, if you approached him, his glory would not threaten you. If you approached him at the

temple and you brought with you a blood sacrifice and you spread it on the altar, God says, I'll meet you over the sacrifice. Now what has this got to do with foolishness? It has everything to do with foolishness. You know, foolishness is that part of our heart that is threatened by God. We don't like people to tell us what to do. We don't like somebody greater than us to show us what we have to do. We don't like that. That's that's intrinsic. That's what sin is. It's't like somebody greater than us to show us what we have to do. We don't like that. That's intrinsic. That's what sin is.

It's foolishness. Daddy, I can change the spark plugs myself. We don't need anybody. And so when you start to actually get near God, the real God, the great God, you immediately begin to feel threatened, tremendously threatened. That's the foolishness that says,

I'm getting close to somebody who's going to demand this and who's going to demand that. And so we get threatened when we get near God. The Bible says that's right. Because as you draw near God, he threatens you. You feel like I can't be near a God like this. There's a lot of churches, by the way, in which if you go, all you're going to do is get,

this is how you ought to live, this is how you ought to way, in which if you go, all you're gonna do is get, this is how you oughta live, this is how you oughta live, this is how you oughta live. And you feel terribly threatened, oh my gosh, I can't live like that. Now, those churches are telling you what the Bible says. Ten commandments, this and this and this and this. And if you try to come near God through a church like that,

you'll find that it'll just crush you with guilt. It'll just crush you. You're just frustrated because the closer you get, all you hear is, God is in charge, God's gonna do this, God's gonna do that, and of course, the part of your heart that hates that anyway, you just push yourself closer to God and push yourself closer to God.

It just doesn't work. It's like trying to push two pieces, opposite pieces of a magnet together, and you can never quite get them to connect. They keep pushing by each other. There's a barrier there. Because God says you must submit, I am holy. I am great.

You must obey me. And your heart says, I don't want to obey, I don't want to obey, I don't want to obey. And so if you just try to approach God any way, that's what's going to happen. People say, I can go to the Grand Canyon, I can go to the ocean, I can go to the mountains, and I can just get near God that way.

The Bible says don't you try. You've got to go to the temple. Because in the temple, God says, I can accept you even with all of your foolishness if someone pays, a substitute pays the penalty with his blood. Jesus says in John chapter 2, I am the temple. That's the place where he says to the Pharisees, tear down this temple in three days and I will raise it up again. And he was referring to himself.

He was thinking about his resurrection. And he's saying, tear down this temple in three days and I will raise it up again." And he was referring to himself. He was thinking about his resurrection. He was saying, I am the temple. I am the sacrifice. I am the one who lays down my blood. I am the way for you to come to me. I am the way through which all of your foolishness can be forgiven. And I am the way that you can actually meet God. You know what's so ironic is Jesus Christ, who is the temple,

Paul says that when Jesus died on the cross, the cross is foolishness to the world because the heart of the fool says, I don't want your bleeding charity. I can do it myself. I'm a good enough person. I can live a decent enough life. I don't need your bleeding charity.

That's the fool. The fool doesn't understand grace. The fool doesn't understand why. And therefore, the cross is foolishness. And yet, the cross was actually the greatest and highest act of wisdom that's ever happened. It was on the cross that God, in one stroke, in one event, could on the one hand honor the law

by showing how important it was that sin be paid for, and at the same moment, save us. Save us by having Jesus pay our penalty. Justice and mercy at the same time, in one stroke, both absolutely satisfied and fulfilled. That's wisdom. That's consummate wisdom. It's the highest wisdom ever. And yet, to the world, it's foolishness. I don't need your bleeding charity. Now, let me just tell you what it means to become a Christian. A Christian is somebody who knows he or she is a fool.

A fool is somebody who thinks he or she is not a fool. And that's basically the two kinds of people in the world. Do you see that? We're all foolish. and the only way to keep from being a fool is to realize you're foolish and to approach the Father through Jesus Christ, through the temple, you see, through Zion. And if you do, oh it changes everything. Things that used to look foolish look wise. Things that used to look wise look foolish. Things that used to look wise look

foolish. There's a kind of transplant that happens. It's an amazing thing. And when you really get a hold of Zion logic, when you really get a hold of the grace of God, what can happen? Here's the, let me just say this at the end here, and conclude. Here's what can happen. There was a, we've been spending time today talking about the evidence for the truth of Christianity. Well, there's a man named Kenneth Scott Latterette, who was a great historian, and he was trying to come to grips with the fact that Christianity took over the old Greek or Roman Empire.

Why? And he goes through and explains all the reasons why it didn't seem like, very likely, that Christianity would take over. Christianity was a religion of the poor people. Christianity has no high backers. Christianity was the most persecuted of all of the religions of the Greco-Roman world. And yet Christianity triumphed tremendously, swept the civilization, survived the death of the very civilization that sought to kill it. And at the very end, what Ladorette said was, it's clear that at the very beginning of Christianity, there must have been a vast release of energy, unequaled in the history of the human race.

Without admitting this, the course of history is inexplicable. Something must have happened to the men and women who had associated with Jesus, but what was it? Why this occurred and what it was is probably outside the realms in which historians are supposed to move. But you see what he said? He says something, an enormous amount of energy, was released in the beginning of the Christian movement by the people who knew Jesus Christ, who saw what he did. And the question is, what happened to the men and women

who associated with Jesus? What happened? I'll tell you what happened. Salvation came out of Zion. They finally figured out he's the temple. They finally figured out that the way to get near him without just aggravating the foolishness of your heart is to go and admit I'm a fool. I am proud and willful. I have, my heart has false gods and idols. My heart hates the idea of charity, but I see that Jesus died for me.

And I see that the cross, far from being foolishness, is wisdom, and my wisdom, far from being wisdom, is foolishness. Oh, says Paul, the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of humanity. Zion, is wiser than the wisdom of humanity. Zion. Salvation will come out of Zion.

Christian friends, if there's anybody here who knows that I blew all this stuff, and yet I find that from day in and day out, I have trouble finding God real. It's the foolishness of your own heart. Recognize it, and deal with it in the way that we're talking about. The fool says, in his heart, there is no God. The Christian, continually, in the heart,

every day says, there is. Let's pray. Our Father, we ask that you'd help us to now understand what it means to drive foolishness out of our own hearts. And we ask that you grant that we might do that by your Holy Spirit and help. We pray this 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. This month's sermons were recorded in 1993. 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.