Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Those Who Cling...Forfeit the Grace

Episode Date: August 28, 2024

Jonah’s spirituality was fine for his old world and his old situations. But when he’s faced with a new situation, it just collapses. Then, when he’s in the belly of the fish, Jonah begins to reflect and pray, and as the prayer moves along, we see he has a spiritual breakthrough. Now the new situation is something he can handle. How do we, too, move to the next level? By looking at Jonah’s prayer we learn about 1) the key to spiritual transformation, 2) the method of spiritual transformation, 3) the marks of spiritual transformation, and 4) the continual need for it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 30, 2001. Series: The Church in the City. Scripture: Jonah 2:1-3:3. 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.

Thanks for listening to Gospel in Life. Today Tim Keller is taking us through a series on the book of Jonah, a story which is about much more than the reluctant prophet being swallowed by a great fish. You may be surprised at how profoundly it speaks to the issues we face today. After you listen, we invite you to go online to GospelinLife.com and sign up for our email updates. Now here's today's teaching from Dr. Keller. The scripture reading can be found on page 8 in the bulletin, reading from Jonah chapters 1, I mean chapters 2 and 3.

From inside the fish, Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. He said, In my distress I called to the Lord and he answered me. From the depths of the grave I called for help and you listened to my cry. You hurled me into the deep, into the very heart of the seas, and the currents swirled about me. All your waves and breakers swept over me. I said, I have been banished from your sight. Yet I will look again toward your holy temple. The engulfing waters threatened me, the deep surrounded me, seaweed was wrapped around my head. To the roots of the mountains I sank down. The earth beneath barred me in forever. But you brought my life up from the pit, O Lord my God. When my life was ebbing away, I remembered you, Lord, and my prayer rose to you, to your holy temple. Those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs. But

I with a song of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you. What I have vowed I will make good. Salvation comes from the Lord. And the Lord commanded the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. Then the word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time. Go to the great city of Nineveh and proclaim to it the message I give you. Jonah obeyed the word of the Lord and went to Nineveh." The word of the Lord. We continue to see sort of the relevance of Jonah's situation and the story of Jonah to our own. Think about this. Jonah was a prophet and he was obviously he had a relationship with God. He was a preacher. He had a faith. He had an understanding of who God was and who he was and so on. And

he was just fine. I mean, he was moving along in his world just fine. And then his world changed because God came to him and said, now I want you to start, now I call you into a new ministry, a new situation, I want you to go to Nineveh. Now Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, and Assyria was the, you know, it was the emerging world power. And it was a violent and ruthless and imperialistic nation and it was, as it were, a clear and present danger to the very existence of Jonah's country. And God calls him to go minister in the capital city of Assyria and, you know, to use the technical theological term, Jonah freaks. He freaks out.

What happens is, he had a certain amount of confidence, but the new danger was too much for the confidence he had in God, and he had a certain amount of humility, but to be confronted with the people that he despised and he disliked, he didn't want to spare them, he didn't want to warn them,

he didn't want to deal with them. He had a certain amount of humility, but when brought in the face of these people, he was filled with disdain and hatred and, and well, and bias and bigotry. In other words, Jonah's spirituality, his level of spiritual functioning, was fine for his old world,

but not for the new world he found himself in. Fine for the old situation, but the new situation, it just collapsed. I suggest to you, and I'll get back to this at the end to try to show exactly, you know, be more detailed, that's a situation in which a lot of us are finding ourselves. An awful lot of people in the city of New York

have been sort of rocked out of the glitz and the busyness of New York City and they're starting to say, wait a minute, I need to move into another level of spiritual functioning. I need to get closer to God. I need to find some new source of spiritual strength beyond what I've got right now because the level I've got now,

the amount I've got right now just isn't enough. Well, what's intriguing here is that Jonah does have a breakthrough. He runs away, as we know, we saw this the last couple of weeks. He's thrown overboard, he's in a storm in a boat and he's thrown overboard and he sinks into the water and he's swallowed by a great fish.

Now one of the things I always thought was great about this story was, you know, some people, it takes radical things to get you to just finally think. And you know, in a fish, there's like nothing else to do. I mean, you know, nothing, I mean, I don't think you could even move your hands, probably. I mean, finally Jonah, I mean, a lot of us are just too busy to think. But Jonah learns, Jonah is put in a situation, begins to reflect and think and he begins to pray. And as the prayer moves along, we see that he's, he has a breakthrough. And

he's moved to a new level because at the end of the passage that Beth read you, at the end of this part, the same word comes to Jonah. The same situation comes back to him. I want you to go to Nineveh and this time he can do it. He's been moved to a new level. He's had a spiritual breakthrough. He's had a spiritual transformation. And now the new situation is something that he can handle.

He can meet it. See? And that's where a lot of us are. How do we move to the next level? is something that he can handle. He can meet it, see? And that's where a lot of us are. How do we move to the next level? What we're learning here through Jonah and looking at his prayer, is we're gonna learn something about the key to spiritual transformation,

then the method of spiritual transformation, the marks of spiritual transformation, and the continual need for it, okay? The key to it, the method, how it happens, method of it, the marks of it, how do you know if it's happening to you? And lastly, the continual need for it. First, what is the secret? What is the key to spiritual transformation? Well, if you look at the end of the prayer, see, at the very end of the prayer, he breaks into a kind of exclamation. And it's when he gets to the end, when he gets to saying the things in verse 8 and 9,

that's when he's released. That's when he's given the new challenge, or actually it's the old challenge frankly, it's the word comes back to him and says, now will you go to Nineveh. That's when he's released, that's when he suddenly finds himself able to function in the new situation that God sends him. And what is that? What was the key? What does he get to in verse 8 and 9 that is the key?

That the thing that when he gets that, then God lets him move on. Then he breaks through. Then he's changed. It's grace. The climax of verse eight and nine, he says, those who cling to worthless idol forfeit the grace. I've been forfeiting the grace that could be mine. Salvation is, literally it says salvation is of the Lord, which is the same thing as talking about grace. That's when he's released and he has a breakthrough.

Years ago, I heard somebody, I heard a teacher when I was actually preparing as a student for ministry, I heard someone lecture on this verse, actually the last line of verse 9, salvation is of the Lord. Literally salvation flows out of us from a salvation is of the Lord. And I heard this lecturer say this, this verse is the key verse in the Bible. He said, this is the summary verse of the Bible. This is the theme of the Bible. This is the whole Bible boiled into one verse right there.

Not only that, let me tell you what, he says this is what Jesus' whole ministry and message was about. To show us this, salvation is of the Lord. He says, this he says is what your life is about. Every single thing that happens to you in your life, this is what God's trying to show you in every one of those things. That salvation is of the Lord. And this is the thing you've got to relearn and relearn and relearn every time you're going to break through any kind of new barrier,

any time you're going to meet any kind of new challenge, that salvation is of the Lord. It's the essence of what makes the Gospel, what makes the Bible so unique in all that salvation is of the Lord. It's the essence of what makes the gospel, what makes the Bible so unique in all the thought forms of the world. Remember, I think I said last week that there's three kinds of people in the world, religious, irreligious, and Christian. And the reason I say that, the reason that we say that, is because the world thinks of everybody as being along one sort of spectrum with two poles, irreligious, religious. And they say everybody's along there somewhere. There's the most

irreligious and there's the most religious and most people are somewhere in the middle. But that's it. Everybody fits on there somewhere. But that's not what this says. That's not what the Bible says. That's not what the Gospel says. There's a whole other way of going. You see, look, salvation is of the Lord. The irreligious person doesn't know they need salvation. They don't need, they say, I'm doing just fine, thank you. I'm savvy, I'm okay, I'm a good person.

I don't need salvation. So the irreligious people don't believe they need salvation, but the religious people believe salvation is from them. Religious people say I've gotta be good and I've gotta to be good and I've got to obey the Bible and I've got to try to live like Jesus and I've got to pray and I've got to go to church and I've got to take notes when Tim Keller preaches and I've got to do all the things that God wants. And then God will bless me and help me. In other words, religious people all the way out here say, I don't need salvation, and religious, pardon me,

irreligious people say, I don't need salvation. Religious people on the other end say, salvation is of me. And the Bible says neither, none of the above. Salvation is of the Lord. It's utterly and solely and surely of the Lord. This is what you need need not only the first time you meet God, but it's also the key to every breakthrough. What I mean by the first time, Paul says in Colossians 1, 6, he says, the gospel has borne fruit in you since the first day you understood the grace of God

in all its truth. Now, isn't that an interesting verse? The gospel has borne fruit in you. Now, that's the language of, that's an organic metaphor. It's the language of spiritual transformation. The gospel began to really change you, really bear fruit in you when, not the day you signed up, the day you said, I believe it, the day you understood the grace of God in all its truth. That language means the day it dawned on you, you grasped it, it began to overwhelm you,

it began to electrify you. What? The grace. So you see, grace of God is not only the way in which essentially you have your first encounter with God, but as you can see here, it's the way you break through into every new level of spiritual reality and spiritual functioning. because obviously Jonah knew something about the grace of God. In fact, when we get to chapter 4 verse 2, we're going to see in a very ironic way he said, I knew you were a gracious God.

That's the reason I didn't want to come in the first place. And it's a very, very interesting dialogue. But the fact is that Jonah, being a prophet, already knows about the grace of God. So what's this? He says, oh my gosh, grace. Salvation is of the Lord. Didn't he already know that? But he didn't know it like he knows it now. And by the way, if Jonah, a prophet who gets revelation from God, if Jonah did not have grace straight, if Jonah's life was distorted, deeply distorted because he didn't understand the nature of the grace of God, if he did not have grace straight, if Jonah's life was distorted, deeply distorted because he didn't understand the nature of the grace of God,

if he didn't have the grace of God straight, do you think you have? And you know what? Whether you're a pastor on my staff or whether you're somebody here saying, I don't even know if I believe in Christianity at all, the answer is no, you don't have it straight. Because Jonah didn't. So the key to all spiritual transformation and every spiritual breakthrough is to see salvation is of the Lord. It's to grasp it in a new way. Okay well see, all right, you say okay fine but what do you mean grasp? Okay so let's move on to the method.

What do you mean by grasp? How do I actually get hold of it? And I suggest three. You have to learn more about grace with the mind. You have to love more into grace with affections. And you have to live more into grace with the life. And by the way, this lines up completely with Martin Luther's outline of saving faith, which is notitia, ascensus, and fiducia. Notitia meaning mental knowing,

ascensus meaning heart consenting, and fiducia meaning life committing. But, you know, they're all here. You can see Jonah doing them. Because it's not only the way you grasp God's grace to start with, it's the way you grasp God's grace at every new breakthrough. What are these three? Let's go through them. First of all, the mind has to get a clearer,

you have to learn more about God's grace. Whenever you break through, you get a clearer intellectual grasp of it. Notice verse four, you see the two components that get clearer and clearer and clearer in your mind as you learn more and more about grace as your life goes on. Verse four says, I have been banished yet. I look toward your temple, you lift, you bring me up. Now here's what these two components are. Put it to you like this.

Grace is an undeserved gift from an unobligated giver. Grace is a completely undeserved gift from a completely unobligated giver. And in my own life, those two components to the doctrine, the biblical teaching about grace, have gotten clearer and clearer in my mind over the years. And the clearer they get, the biblical teaching about grace, have gotten clear and clear in my mind over the years. And the clearer they get, the easier it is for me to love and live into grace. Now, what do I mean by those two components? I'll give you three quick case

studies and then I'll show you how that works. First of all, imagine that you're the parent of a disobedient, rebellious, ungrateful, irresponsible teenage child. Now, what do you do with that child? You still help them, you still do everything for them. Why? They are undeserving. Yeah, they're undeserving. But the fact is, you're still obligated. You know why? You're a parent. And to be a parent is both a moral and a legal obligation. You don't get into parenting without that obligation. So in a sense, when you help a disobedient wayward child, it's not a perfect analogy of what God's talking about in terms of grace because though the child might be undeserving, you are still under obligation.

Let me give you a second example. You're in a Bible study, and your Bible study leader, she's just great. And at the end of the Bible study, you all decide, let's all chip in and let's buy her a really nice gift. And by the way, a lot of your small group leaders wanted me to use this illustration. No, they didn't actually. Now, in that situation, you as the students are not obligated to do that. That wasn't part of the deal when you signed up. But on the other hand, she is deserving.

So it's, again, it's not, let me give you a nice example of both an undeserving, an undeserved gift from an unobligated giver. And if you live in New York, you understand this, and if you don't live in New York, the whole sermon's a waste because you won't get this illustration. And here it is. You live in a relatively small apartment building

with relatively thin floors and walls. And you have one absolutely obnoxious insensitive resident. And when anybody in the apartment walks up and says, would you please turn your music down, he walks over and turns it up, and then he looks at you and slams the door in your face. And whenever anybody else in the apartment, anybody else in the building, even turns the music on at all,

he calls the police. And then he gets sick, and you run errands for him and you bring meals into him and what you have is not only somebody who absolutely does not deserve that kind of sacrifice on your part and that kind of inconvenience on your part, but nobody in the whole world thinks that you have any obligation to give it. But if you do, that's grace. And one of the things, one of the reasons I bring up these two components, both undeserving and unobligated, is because I have found, not only in my life, but in the life of working

with people over the years, that usually one of the other of those components is missing in the brain. For example, there's some people that have a very light view of their need. They don't really see the depth of their need. They don't see themselves as really being all that bad off. They don't see themselves as all that needing of forgiveness and pardon and help. They don't see themselves as that weak. They say, I'm doing fine. So they have too low a grasp of their need. Other people feel very unworthy, oh oh I'm so unworthy after all the bad things I've done, but they have too light a view of God's love. They don't understand the depths of his commitment. They believe they're very unworthy, but they just don't

believe they believe actually they're too bad for him to love and accept. And what's ironic is those two kinds of people, people with too light a view of their own need or too light a view of his love and commitment to them. As different as those kinds of people are, those are very different personalities, those are very different kinds of people. Here's how they're the same. When you say to either of those people, Jesus gave his life for you, they might even agree, but it doesn't change them. It doesn't transform them.

There's no inner transformation. It doesn't reconfigure their self-understanding. It doesn't reconfigure their identity. It doesn't at all. They might even say, sure, I believe that. But because they don't grasp the depth of their need and the depth of his commitment, the idea of God's grace isn't really, it's just fuzzy for them.

But then, like what's happened recently, something comes into your life. It's come into all of our lives really, and you begin to see I'm weaker than I thought, I'm more cowardly than I thought, I'm more superficial than I thought, and you're humbled by it. I mean there's a hundred ways in which what's happened

in our lives have been humbling us. A woman this morning, a therapist, a professional therapist told me that she had a man in her she'd been counseling for quite a while who was just filled with anger and hate toward all sorts of people and saw nothing wrong with it. Felt like people deserved his hate. And when he saw what happened on September 11th,

he realized where hate can take you, and he has just been absolutely humbled. He says, you know, I'm on that same path. I'm headed for something like that. I am really wrong. I've gotta do something. I need God. There are three million ways in which

the stuff that's been happening here has actually brought people deeper into the sense that I really have, I see the depths of my need. But then what has to happen is you've got to move over. When your understanding of your need and your understanding of God's love were kind of commensurate but shallow and you suddenly begin to learn in an existential way the depth of your need, the depth of your sin, then you have to move over and you go back to the things you've

heard a hundred times, you go back to the things you've heard 100 times, you go back to the texts you've read 100 times, you go back to the truths you believe maybe or you discarded because they weren't transforming, you go back to them and you look at them and you reflect on them and you yearn for them and you seek after them until your existential grasp of the freeness of his love catches up

with your existential grasp of your undeservingness and your condition But that's a that can be a pretty painful process by the way when when your Existential grasp of your need hasn't quite caught up yet to the existential grasp of Jesus love It can be a little bit like somebody's doing surgery on you and forgot the anesthesia Really like somebody's doing surgery on you and forgot the anesthesia. Really. But that's how you learn, frankly. Your mind gets a clear grasp when something comes in and deepens your understanding of those two components,

the depth of my need, the depth of his love. You know, completely undeserving, completely free and unobligated. And the more that increases, the clearer your mind grasps grace. And that's the first thing. You gotta learn grace about grace more clearly. But the second thing is you gotta learn to love grace.

Because it's not just a mental thing. It's not just enough to see how free the grace is, you have to see how cost of the grace is. You don't just have to have a clear grasp of the freeness of the grace with the mind, you have to find your heart being drawn out in affection because of the costliness of the grace that you sense in your heart. Notice that whenever Jonah talks, he is not talking directly to God, he goes to the temple.

Isn't this interesting? Look at verse four. He says, I'm banished from thy sight, yet I will look to your holy temple. Look at verse 7. I remember the Lord, my prayer rose to you to your holy temple. Why? Isn't that weird? I mean, he's nowhere near the temple. What does it mean? It means he's thinking, he's yearning, he's relying. Look. You don't see Jonah saying, just forgive me. Just, you know, I broke my oath,

but could you just let it go? He doesn't do that. We don't have much hope in the world if God just lets things go. Just lets evil go, lets sin go, lets lying go, lets hypocrisy go, lets, you know, but on the other hand, He doesn't say, and therefore, there's no hope. He looks at the temple. Why? Because the temple is the place of sacrifice.

Chances are you've heard some version of the story of Jonah, the rebellious prophet who defied God and was swallowed by a great fish. In his book, Rediscovering Jonah, Tim Keller reveals hidden depths within the story, making the case that Jonah's rebellion also provides one of the most insightful explorations into the secret of God's mercy. As you learn what the book of Jonah teaches about prejudice, justice, mercy, self-righteousness, and much more, you'll gain fresh insight into how to become a bridge builder in today's culture, how to foster reconciliation across lines of division, and with God's help, bring

peace where there is conflict. This month when you give to Gospel in Life, we'll send you Dr. Keller's book Rediscovering Jonah as our thanks for your gift. Just visit gospelinlife.com slash give. That's gospelinlife.com slash give. And thank you for your generosity, which helps us reach more people with Christ's love. Now, before somebody says, oh yeah, I always hated that about the temple. Animal sacrifice, slaughtering of animals, you know, how primitive, I'm glad we're beyond that. Well, let me ask you to consult your own experience on something.

When someone really, really wrongs you, really wrongs you, don't you see yourself caught in a kind of conundrum? And here's what I mean. On the one hand, if you don't forgive, if you just vent your hatred, if you just let it all out, I'm just going to, vengeance, hatred, pummel the evildoer, the enemy. The next thing you know you find you've spread the evil.

You know, you might take the evildoer out, but you haven't taken the evil out at all. If you don't forgive, evil wins. It's've spread the evil. You know, you might take the evil doer out, but you haven't taken the evil out at all. If you don't forgive, evil wins. It's all over the place. There's all sorts of awful things. It's hurt you, it's hurt the person, and then all his friends are after you, and all of your friends are after all of them, and on it goes.

If you don't forgive, evil wins. But if you just let it go, if you just say, oh, that's all right, don't worry about it, just let it go, if you just say, oh that's alright, don't worry about it, just let it go, evil wins again. I mean, if someone wrongs you badly and you say, oh I'm not going to say anything, I'm not going to do anything about it, so that person's out there free to live his life in the world, is that good for the world? Is that good for all the other people that have ever going to be in his path?

That you've said nothing? Done nothing? Huh? Is it good for all the other people that have ever going to be in his path? That you said nothing? Done nothing? Huh? Is it good for him? Here's the conundrum. If you just forgive, evil seems to win. But if you just make him pay, evil seems to win too. Now not, would you please not take what I'm about to tell you and try to apply it to

U.S. foreign policy at the moment? Actually, I may want to talk a little bit about that next week, believe it or not, in a way, indirectly. But what we're talking about here is the relationship with God. Because what Jonah does is he looks at the temple because in the temple he realizes that on the one hand in the temple, with all that blood and guts and all the stuff that you hate, here's one thing that the temple taught him that sin is taken seriously there there is shedding of blood sin is not just said bye you know who cares don't sin is taken seriously blood is shed but

it's not the blood of the sinner and all Jonah knew was somehow somehow God's gonna deal with this mystery, this horrible mystery, in the midst of injustice. If I just forgive it, evil wins. But if I just make it pay, make them pay, evil wins. And yet we know what Jonah only sensed. Jonah sensed that somehow God's gonna solve it, somehow God's gonna be able to be just and the justifier of those who believe. Somehow God's gonna punish sin and yet at the same time forgive me.

I don't know how he's gonna do it but I know there's some kind of hope and next thing you know, he senses God returning to him and he starts to praise the grace of God but he doesn't know what we know. And that is that Jonah himself was a living analogy of how God really fulfilled what the temple's all about. Just as Jonah was voluntarily thrown into the stormy sea we saw last week to save the sailors,

so Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was voluntarily thrown in. He voluntarily had himself thrown in to an ocean of eternal justice and he paid our sin so that God can be both just and justifier so that I can forgive us and yet not just say bye doesn't matter amazing Jonah kinda realizes it but you see John is looking to the temple he's not just thinking about the temple is not saying I guess the temple the temple as in the sacrificial system depicts the doctrine of propitiation that's not what he's doing what he's

saying is I'm looking to it. I'm yearning for it. I see some kind of severe, costly mercy there. But, boy, do we see what he could only vaguely see. When you think of the freeness of God's grace to you, you're learning. But when you sense the costliness of God's grace to him, your heart is beginning to come out toward it. You're beginning to yearn for him. You're not just knowing about grace, you're loving grace. You're starting to appreciate grace. You're starting to have your hearts drawn out toward it. You're starting to be changed.

You're starting to be changed. You're starting to be changed. And then lastly, you have to live grace. You see, God comes along, he's learned what grace is, he's beginning to love grace, and then God comes along and says, now will you go to Nineveh? And Jonah says, all right. Because the third thing you have to do is you have to start to live as if I'm a recipient of grace.

I have to live it out, I have to live it as if I'm that loved, I have to live it as if I'm that cherished I have to live it as if I'm that cherished, I have to live as if I'm that bad, and yet that loved. I gotta live in a new way, I'm gonna practice it. And that's how you make the breakthrough. And that leads us real quickly and briefly to the third point which I wanna talk about. What are the marks of this new lived life?

And you'll see two things right away as soon as you look at verse eight and nine. Two things that are a sign that you've had a breakthrough into an understanding of grace, a breakthrough. There's two signs here that he did not just get more religious, but that he grasped grace. The first sign is his fear is eroded. It's something I had, you know, I've looked at the book of

Jonah a lot over the years, but something I never saw in verse nine until this week. He says, I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will make good. I, with a song of thanksgiving, will sacrifice to you what I have vowed I will make good. Now, I used to think, I was talking about two different things. I used to think, well, first of all, he's going to you what I have vowed I will make good." Now I used to think, I was talking about two different things. I used to think, well first of all he's going to get out and he's going to go make a sacrifice. He's going to go to the temple and he's going to sacrifice bulls and goats and all that.

And then he's going to go live an obedient life and pay his vows. But I don't think so. Not only does that not fit, Hebrew parallelism usually means the same thing is said one or two different ways. But also think about this. What are his vows? His vows, of course, as a prophet, original vows were to do whatever God called him to do.

But what is God going to call him to do? To go to the capital city of the great enemy? I mean, if in 1942 the word of the Lord came to some American minister and said, go to the capital city of the great enemy. I mean, if in 1942, the word of the Lord came to some American minister and said, go to Berlin and preach against its wickedness and its violence, what are that guy's chances? And that's what Jonah's being called to do. And you know what he's saying? He is saying is, if I obey, I'm going to be sacrificing myself,

but I'm going to do it with thanksgiving. His fear has been eroded, and here's why. Look, listen, some of you have heard me say this before. If not, you need to hear it again anyway, and some of you have not. Here's it in a nutshell. Both religion and irreligion essentially are the same thing because they give you an identity based on performance.

The reason I know I'm okay is because I'm living up to standards. Now, irreligious people have more secular standards and religious people have moral and religious standards, but basically, your identity is based on that. It's based on I can prove that I'm okay, I know I'm special, I know I'm all right, I know I'm valuable because look what I'm doing. And that fills you with fear,

because you're never sure you're being good enough. And it fills you with pride, because you look down your nose at anybody who hasn't done as well as you have. In fact, you need to look down at other people to bolster and make sure that you know, to sort of bolster the sense that you have that I am achieving, you know,

I am living up to my standards. The gospel comes along and says, you are not saved by giving God a perfect record or a good record and then he owes you blessing, but rather you receive through Jesus Christ a perfect record which you accept by faith and then you live for him. Because at the same moment, you see, religion and irreligion says you can be confident if you're living up to your standards but not humble. But if you're failing your standards, you can be humble but you won't be confident, right?

See, religion and irreligion, your identity can either have confidence when you're living up but not humility or can have humility if you've been failing a lot but not confidence. It cannot keep those two things together. The psychology, the identity based on either religion or irreligion can't keep those two things together. But what does it mean to be a Christian? What it means to be a Christian is, though you are undeserving, God loves you, God has given himself for you, God has died for you,

and though you are no better than anybody else, really, come on, let's face it, you are no better than anybody else really come on let's face it you know better than anybody else you are now irrevocably loved you are utterly loved you are completely loved by the only person who's in the universe whose opinion counts which means that you are on the one hand humbled by grace because you're only saved by grace. And yet at the same time incredibly assured by grace that God is absolutely for you and that he loves you no matter what. So you're humble and bold together.

What's unique about the gospel-based identity is humility and confidence intermingle. In fact, they actually are mutually self-supporting. And what does that mean? My assurance makes me less afraid. I'm affirmed, of course. The logic of Romans 8, there's some place where Paul says, if God loved us so much that he spared not his own son, how will he then not together with him freely give us all things?

And what he's really saying is, if God gave you the diamond ring, is he going to begrudge you the ribbon? And if God did this for you, if he loves you like this, is he going to somehow abandon you and sort of, you know, not take care of you? Grace strengthens me away from fear. And you can see it right here. But on the other hand, the second mark of a grace changed life is not only his fear has eroded, but his bigotry has eroded. Because in verse 8 he says something remarkable, though it's not that easy to tell as you read it just off in English. Literally he says, those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the ksev that is theirs, their own ksev. Now a ksev is a word that means covenant

love, sometimes it's translated loving kindness, it means permanent love, unconditional love that God gives to the people with whom he has a covenant. But you see back then as far as Jonah knew, the only people with whom God had a covenant were the Hebrews. And therefore, it is astounding for him to say, I realize, this is what he's saying in verse 8, I realize that those idol worshipers, those pagans that I so despised, those people in the boat that were worshiping to their little statues, those people up in Nineveh that I so despise, I realize something.

That God's covenant love is as much theirs as it is mine. That my self-righteousness was keeping grace from me, just like their idol worship keeps grace from them, but grace is as much theirs as mine, I'm no better than they are. And that's the reason why he's willing to go to the people that he despised. In other words, the second thing you can tell about an experience of grace is not only has it assured you out of your fear, but it humbles you sweetly out of your bigotry. And you know why this is an important thing to say? Because recently, it's pretty hard to miss it. Over and over in the newspapers and just talking to people, you know what a lot of people are saying? One of the things that we've learned from all this is that religious fervor is dangerous. I've heard people say, I just read it today

on a web page even, it says, you know, what we've learned from this is all religious fundamentalism, all religious fervor, turns to violence. Anybody who thinks they have the truth tends to violence. Nah. Let me give you an example. Think of the Amish. Now let me ask you a question about the Amish. (*audience laughs*) Amish are very conservative.

Oh yes. The Amish are patriarch conservative, oh yes. The Amish are patriarchal, oh yes. The Amish will not wear modern clothes, oh no. The Amish are unbelievably traditional. The Amish are incredibly religious. The Amish are not by any means secular, moral, relativistic people. They believe they have the truth.

Are you really worried about Amish terrorism? It's nice to be able to laugh about that in any way at all, isn't it? No. And let me give you another example. The Khmer Rouge, atheists, dialectical materialists, don't believe in truth, don't believe in, you know, the supernatural, don't believe in God, absolute atheists, right? Don't believe in moral absolutes. And yet the Khmer Rouge were one of the most, if not the most, murderous and genocidal regimes in the history of the world. Now here's what, when I mentioned this to Kathy, my wife, a

couple days ago, I said, it's interesting. They're saying that religious fundamentalism, all religious fundamentalism is violent. And she said, oh yeah. She says, it depends on what you think the fundamental is. It depends on what your fundamental is. And the reason the Amish are so peaceful, though they are obviously fundamentalists, is because they know they have the same fundamental

that every Christian should have, and that is, what is the truth? What is the truth? The truth is, a crucified God. A God who dies for you. A God who doesn't come with spears in his hand, but nails in his hands. A God who says, here's how I'm going to win you. I'm going to give myself away. Here's how I'm going to get power and influence over your life and heal you. I'm going to sacrifice. I'm going to become poor. I'm going to lose all my power. I'm going to lose all my strength. And if that's the God that you believe at the heart of the universe, and if that's the

fundamental, if that's the truth that we know we've got, that's not going to make you hostile or violent. It's going to drain it all away. And if you don't believe there is such a thing as truth, why can't you do anything you want? It's pretty stupid to say if you think you have the truth, that's going to lead to violence. It all depends on what you think the truth is. And the truth is a crucified God, a God who suffers for you, a God who becomes weak for you. And that takes away fear because if he would do that for me, you think he's gonna let me go now, and that gets rid of bigotry.

It humbles you sweetly, enough to handle enemies, and it strengthens you enough to handle enemies. Now the reason, let me conclude this way. We've seen the key, we've seen the method, we've seen the marks, but the last thing I want to point out is the need for continual spiritual breakthroughs. Now, in a way, I've already shown you that this is the way it happens, that it's not only the first way through, it's the second way and the third way. Every single time you get to a barrier, every time you get into a situation in which the

level of your spiritual functioning, the level of your grasp of grace, the amount of fearlessness that you derive from grace, the amount of humility and love and sweetness you derive from grace, you see, you have a certain level of spiritual functioning, a certain level of grasp of grace, and you have a world around you,

and when that world is of a certain kind of level of comfort and so on, you can handle it, but when your world changes and you suddenly realize I need a deeper grasp of grace, that's when you have to have a breakthrough. Now let me just be real honest about this, like it was last year, week, but a little more clear maybe. I wish my old world was back because in that old world, in my pre-September 11th world, everything was safe, everything was fine, and the level of spiritual functioning I had, the level of assurance and confidence I got from the

grace of God, and the level of humility with which I looked at people who were different than my enemies and so on. I was able to handle it and guess what? The world changed and my level of spiritual functioning can't quite meet it anymore. And you see, like everybody else, I'm praying for protection. I'm praying that no more attacks would happen. I'm praying that the economy would recover. I'm praying that, you know, we wouldn't do too much or too little militarily.

Aren't you all praying for that? I'm praying that all these things would go well, but I suddenly realized that even though I should continue to keep praying about that, underneath I realized, here's what I was really also praying. I was also saying, Lord, I want my old world back, because in that old world, my little amount of spiritual faith, my little grasp of the grace of God

was enough, and now it's not. I want my world back. I'm holding my breath so that eventually things will be like they were, and I won't have to grow. I won't have to move up a bracket. You know, there's two ways to pray. If you're coming along in a boat and suddenly you see your boat's about to be dashed on a rock that's sticking four feet out of the water,

you can say, oh Lord, get rid of the rock, which is fine. But you could also say, oh Lord, if it's your will, why don't you raise the level of the water five feet? And even though I need to pray, and I want you to pray, that the old world comes back, I want you to prepare your heart to handle any world that's on its way One of the things that amazed me about here's let me tell you about this interesting parallel You know the Lord of the Rings you're gonna be awash in allusions to the Lord of the Rings when all these movies comes out But let me tell you in the book. There's something pretty interesting

the narrative engine, one of the main engines of the narrative of the Lord of the Rings is you have this group of people called hobbits. They're kind of small people, like they're three and a half to four feet tall. And they live in a very safe place. And they think that that's the way the world is. And in the very beginning of the book, this is how they're described. It says,

they heeded less and less the world outside where dark things moved until they came to think that peace and plenty were the rule in the world and the right of all sensible folk. They came to believe that peace and plenty were the rule in the world and the right of all sensible folk. Americans. Short Americans. Americans. And then the way that... That's how we've been. But then something... there's four of them. Four of them. Four protagonists. Four hobbits. Four protagonists are drawn out into the real world and they struggle.

They can't just change like that. They're not used to a world of such darkness and such evil and so many bad things and so many tall things. And they don't immediately suddenly become courageous. They can't handle it for a long time. But then one of them has a transformation. It's on a battlefield and it's one of my favorite spots in the book. And this one protagonist, he's a hobbit, you know, and he's on a battlefield, and suddenly who's looming over him is one of the biggest, baddest guys in the book. Some kind of ancient, evil, you know, sorcerer.

Big. And it says, "'Such a horror was upon him,' that's our protagonist, "'such a horror was upon him that he became our protagonist, such a horror was upon him that he became blind and sick. You know, he's just scared. He's so scared he doesn't even know what to do. He's been living in this safe little world.

He thought that peace and plenty was the rule in Middle Earth and the right of all sensible folk. He comes out and sees the world's not like this and he can't really adjust. And now he sees this big thing in front of him and he says, I'm just going to go under. He's blind and sick. And then he sees just off to his left one person standing up to this great dark sorcerer and ready to die for not only him but everybody around him. And then this is what the text says, pity filled his heart and great wonder and suddenly the slow kindled courage of his race awoke. He clenched his hand. I want to tell you I've been getting a lot of comfort from that line because I'm like him. I thought peace and plenty was fine. I had this little

little bit of faith. You know, I thought it was a lot. It was enough for my old world, not for the new world. But when he saw someone ready to die for him, pity and wonder filled his heart and the slow kindled, his slow kindled courage awoke. And I realized if I keep and if you keep looking at the one who is willing to die for us, the courage will awake. It really will. Let's not just pray for the old world back the way I think we need to and I think there's a really good chance it's coming back. But let's pray for a heart ready for any world that would come. Let's pray for a new level. Let's move up. Let's grasp the grace of God.

So we're fearless enough and humble enough to handle the world, whatever it is. Salvation is of the Lord. Let us pray. We thank you, Father, for the possibility of spiritual transformation and breakthrough at any level, at any time in our lives Doesn't matter whether been a Christian for years and years and years doesn't matter whether you're the preacher of Redeemer Doesn't matter whether you're a brand new person is not even sure what he or she believes every one of us

We need to learn We need to love and we need to live into the grace of God, till it catches fire in our hearts and changes the very way in which we think about ourselves, the very way in which we relate to the world. And I pray, Father, that we would become the great hearts that can handle absolutely anything that comes to us. Make us the kind of neighbors and citizens and friends that the people of New York need. Make us people like Jonah, who are so transformed by a new realization of your grace,

that they're able to handle the call. Able to handle the call. To be your people in this great city. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching. We trust you were encouraged by it and that it gives you a deeper appreciation for God's grace and helps you apply it to your life. You can find more resources from Tim Keller by subscribing to our quarterly journal at GospelInLife.com. When you subscribe, you'll receive free articles, sermons, devotionals, and other valuable resources. We also invite you to stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter.

Today's sermon was recorded in 2001. 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.