Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Training in Wisdom

Episode Date: January 3, 2024

It’s not good enough to be a person of vision, a person of high principle, a person of high moral values. Not if you’re not a person of wisdom.  Wisdom is knowing the right thing to do in the 80 percent of life situations to which the moral rules don’t apply. For most of our decisions, there are four or five different options, and they’re all moral. Which is the right one? We have decisions to make, and if we don’t make them wisely, we’re going to blow up our lives and the lives of people around us.  How do we get wisdom? Proverbs 3 shows us 1) the path of wisdom, 2) the process of wisdom, and 3) the man off the mountain. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 19, 2004. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 3:1-12; 30:1-4. 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 and Life. For many of the decisions we have to make in life, moral values alone can't tell you what choices to make. You may be weighing several options in a decision, and they all could be morally allowable. So how do you choose the right one? That's where God's wisdom is critical. Today Tim Keller is speaking about how we can grow in using God's wisdom. Tonight's Scripture reading is from Proverbs, chapter 3, verses 1 through 12, and then again, chapter 30, verses 1 through 4.

My Son, do not forget my teaching, but keep my commands in your heart, for they will prolong your life many years and bring you prosperity. Let love and faithfulness never leave you, bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart, then you will win favor and a good name in the sight of God and man. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your path straight. Do not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. Honor the Lord with your wealth, with the first fruits of all your crops.

Then your barns will be filled to overflowing, and your vats will rim over with new wine. My son do not despise the Lord's discipline and do not resent his rebuke because the Lord disciplines those he loves as a father the son he delights in. The sayings of auger, son of Jacob and Oracle. This man declared to Ithiel, to Ithiel and to Ukao. I am the most ignorant of men. I do not have a man's understanding.

I have not learned wisdom. Nor have I knowledge of the Holy One. Who has gone up to heaven and come down? Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is his name and the name of his son? Tell me if you know.

This is the word of the Lord. Last week we started looking at the book of Proverbs and at the subject of wisdom. And we said last week that wisdom can be defined as competence with regard to the realities of life, competence with regard to the complex realities of life. And wisdom is not identical to moral goodness or moral values. Example we used was, for example, you might decide you really want to help a poor family to get out of poverty. That's right, that's noble.

And you might do it in a completely ethical way and still ruin their lives because you're not conversant with the complexities of the realities of how things work in the world. It's not good enough to be a person of vision, a person of high principle, a person of high moral values. If you're not a person of wisdom, and here's why. Wisdom is the ability to know what the right thing is to do in the 80% of life situations

to which the moral rules don't apply. Most of the decisions you have to make, the moral values, whatever you think they are, they don't apply. There are three, four, five different things that are options and they're all allowable, they're all moral, which is the right one. In every area of our life, with the work area, the love area, the marriage, the family, in every area of our lives, we have decisions we've got to make. And if we don't make them wisely, we're going to blow up our lives and the lives of people around us

and therefore being good, being right, being moral, having right moral values, is not enough, we've got to be wise. We've got to be wise. We've got to be wise. Now, how do we get wisdom? And this week we look at chapter three of the book of Proverbs, and here we see in chapter three, the beginning of the answer to the question,

how do we develop wisdom? How do we grow in it? How do we get it? And we're going to learn how to get wisdom if we understand from this passage the path of wisdom, the process of wisdom, and the man off the mountain. We'll learn if we learn about the path of wisdom, the process of wisdom, and the man off the mountain.

Okay, first of all, the first thing we learn here about is the path of wisdom. So verse six, it says, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight. Now it'll even be easier to see if you're here next week in Proverbs four, that the Bible is constantly talking about life as a pathway. In fact, there are seven or eight hundred times in the Bible that living life is likened to walking a path. Why? Why is that metaphor used? Well, first of all, walking a path is basically accomplished by steady, repeated, even mundane, even boring actions.

You're not going to make much progress on the path if you summer salt down the path or if you leap down the path because you can't keep it up. If you're going to go miles and miles, it's right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, boring, repeated, steady, things that are fairly easy to do as long as you do them over and over and over and over and over again, you get somewhere and that's another way in which life is like walking a pathway. According to the Bible, what really makes you what you are, what really takes you somewhere. See, when you're walking a path, the steady right left takes you somewhere you weren't before. It takes you somewhere.

Who you become, your final destiny is basically a product of how you do the little things every day. Your little choices, your little attitudes, the basic disciplines, the things you spend your time doing every day. It's not the dramatic events, it's not the turning points. If somebody says, give me a bio or give me an account of your life, we don't talk about right foot, left foot. We talk about the big things, and that's not how the Bible sees it at all.

And when, therefore, the Bible calls wisdom a pathway, when it talks about the way of wisdom, the path of wisdom, what it means is you become wise by assuming a certain set of daily practices. By taking upon yourself a certain set of daily repeated disciplines, things you're going to do over and over and over and over and if you do them every day, and if you do them over and over, eventually you'll become a wise person. So the path of getting wisdom is to go down a path. And what does that mean? The going down a path of wisdom means you adopt certain practices, certain daily disciplines that you're going to do over and over and over again.

And eventually it makes you wise. Path, pardon me, the wisdom in the Bible is a pathway, not a door. Wisdom in the Bible is a pathway, not a door. See the door image would be, here's a door, and if I turn the latch or if I have the key and I turn the key, I walk in, there it is, I'm wise. But the Bible never says wisdom's like that. The Bible never says wisdom is a door, that if you get the secret knowledge, or if you get the information, or you have a certain experience, your wise, no.

Wisdom is a path. It's a long patient quest over and over and over again doing simple things day and and day out, right left, right left over a long period of time, and wisdom therefore can never happen very quickly. Now the reason this is so important is because of who we are as a culture. It's so important for us to understand because of where we are as a culture. It's so important for us to understand because of where we are as a culture. This critiques our culture. CS Lewis in his book, The Abolition of Man,

many years ago wrote this, though, he was very up to date. He says, the sages of old, for the sages of old, the cardinal problem had always been, how do I conform my soul to reality? And the solution had been wisdom. You understand that? He says, for ancient people, wisdom was the answer to the cardinal problem of life, which

is, here's the world, I need to see how it works, and then live in accordance with it. In other words, the cardinal problem is how do I can form my soul to reality and the answer is wisdom? But he says, it says however, for magic, and today's science alike, the cardinal problem has been how do I subdue reality to the wishes of my soul?

And the solution is a technique. See these two different approaches to life? He says, the sage has said, the cardinal problem is, how do I conform my soul to reality, and the solution is becoming wise. But magic in ancient times and science today says, the cardinal problem is, how do I change reality to fit the desires of my soul and the solution is a technique.

Now, if you want to see what he's talking about, just go into any Barnes and Noble. There's one very close by, free advertisement. And you walk in and you go to a certain sections where it's going to give you books after books after books, in which it gives you three lessons, five steps, or maybe a set of six tapes on how to overcome your shyness, how to become confident, how to handle trouble, how to deal with stress, how to overcome anxiety, how to have a decent love life,

how to understand the opposite sex, three tapes, six tapes, a seminar, $200, $2,000, read a book. In other words, wisdom is a door. It's not. It's not. You can't get those things that fast. You can't possibly. Wisdom is a path. Or we Christians, even conservative Christians, are very much creatures of our time. I don't know how many times I've had people say to me, pastor, I want to talk to you because I'm trying to find God's will for my life. And usually what that means is I've got a big question, I've got a big decision to make. Should I marry this person? Should

I break up with this person? Should I go and move to this city? Should I take this career? And I'm trying to sign God's will. I'm trying to discern his will. Okay, well, how are you doing it? Well, some people say, when I pray about doing this, I don't have peace. When I pray about doing this, I have peace. Is that God telling me,

shouldn't you have peace before you, wouldn't that be the way I could tell that God is telling me to go in that direction? Some people say, I'm asking God for a sign and when this happened last week, I thought maybe that's a sign. Do you think it's a sign? Some people actually say, I pray and then I open the Bible and I ask God to give me a verse.

So I close my eyes and I say, oh Lord, speak to me and I look down. And it says Judas went out and hanged himself. So then say, well, I'm gonna give God a second chance. So I close my eyes and I put down my finger and I look and it says go and do likewise. At well, that's just a coincidence, I'm sure. And so I've got one more chance, and so I close my eyes, and I look down and says,

and what they'll do is do quickly. So... When people say, I'm looking for a sign, I want some peace. I don't have any peace about this. And I can't be right unless I get peace. I say, you've got to brain make a decision. Don't sit around trying to guess God's will. You've got to brain make a decision and they'll look at me and they say, I'm trying to be spiritual here and the right answer is no, you're looking for a technique. You're trying to make a decision without

wisdom, without having wisdom and maybe you don't have wisdom, but you know that's your fault. You're looking for a technique. You're saying, how do I discern if you're doing left, right, left, right, left, right, over the years? The Bible says, here's how God does guidance. After a period of time, you become the kind of person, the kind of wise person who knows how to make the right choice. There is no other form of guidance. There is no shortcut.

It's a path, no shortcut, not a door, not a latch, not a key. I've had other people say to me, they come and they say, you know, I have been a very good person. I live morally. I go to church every week. I say my prayers every day and my life isn't going the way it ought to go. That's not fair. You know what they've done?

In other words, I've been moral. I push that button. I pray every day. I push that button. I go to church and out should come this good life. They've turned their morality into a technique, they've turned their prayer into a technique. The purpose of those things is to make you wise, not to do this and this and this and this. We are just because you're a Christian, just because you're even a very conservative Christian, even if your person says, I don't like the way the culture is going.

You are a creature of your culture, unless you understand that wisdom is a path. And the way God works in your life, the way God guides you is by right left, right left, doing certain practices that put you on the way of wisdom eventually turns you into the wise person who knows how to make the right choices. There is no shortcuts. Wisdom is a path, so there is the path of wisdom. Now secondly, right away, of course, you're going to say, Well, what are those practices? What is it? What do you mean? What is the right left? Right left?

What are the daily repeated steady things you do that turn you into a wise person eventually? I'm glad you asked me. That's my second point and they're right here There's five of them enlisted now. I'm not saying that they're the only ones there are. If I went to different chapters in Proverbs, there'd be more, but at least I'm giving you five from this chapter and they're very, very crucial.

Five things. Knowing God, knowing yourself, knowing your friends, knowing God's database of best practices, and knowing trouble in the proper way. There's five, okay, let's go through them quickly. First of all, knowing God. Now, verse three, let love and faithfulness never leave you, bind them around your neck,

and write them on the tablet of your heart. Now, in English, that comes across rather pious. You know, what does that mean? First, you must realize that comes across rather pious. What does that mean? First, you must realize that the word love and faithfulness are two Hebrew words that are always used of gods, of God, God. And they're used to describe having a personal, intimate, covenant relationship with God.

The word love is the word case Seth, which means industrial strength absolutely committed, unfailing love. God's love for you in which he is absolutely committed to you under any circumstances. And of course, faithfulness is essentially a synonym. What does it mean when it says, if you want to go down the path of wisdom, what does it mean when it says, let love and faithfulness never leave you, bind them around your neck and write them on the table of your heart. This is actually extremely practical. And it's actually something very hard. It's not enough just to know God loves you. If you want to become wise, you have got to find ways to pound deep into the

very heart of your heart every day that he's absolutely committed to you, that he would never leave you or forsake you, that he will do anything for you. You have to be absolutely in your heart of heart of heart. You've got to pound it into your heart every day, to bind it on your heart. You have to remind yourself about it as you go about every day. That's what it's saying. You have to find disciplines, prayer, worship, music, poetry, memorization. You have got to find ways for every day to make the absolute industrial strength, commitment and love and faithfulness of God to you real to your heart. You've got to learn deep in your soul that He absolutely loves you. Now why is that so important for wisdom?

Why would that, it's the primary thing. The book of Proverbs is constantly telling you that wise people have a calm, they have an inner, unassailable, poise, so that no matter what the situation, there's a kind of calm and poise and confidence, and that's why they always make good choices. No matter what the situation, they never lose their head. They've got this inner, calm and poise and confidence and that's why they always make good choices. No matter what the situation, they never lose their head. They've got this inner common poise. Now you can't get that unless you do this. That's where it comes from. You say, maybe, you know, I know God loves me, but at the deepest level, at the deepest level, you've got to find ways of pounding into your heart. The fact that God loves you so it's so real to your heart, it leads to

that unassailable inner poise and calm that never, ever, ever can be dislodged. You'll never get that unless you do this. That's the first discipline. Going deeper into God every day. Finding ways to make is absolute love and faithfulness to you. Real to your heart. Secondly, knowing self. Verse 5, of course, says, trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding and a slight extension of that. Verse 7, do not be wise in your own eyes. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Do not be wise in your own eyes. The great paradox of the book of Proverbs, wise people are extremely aware of their foolishness. Fools think they're wise or to put it a little more starkly.

If you don't think you're a fool, you're a fool. Do you? Or put it another way. When you're saying, I've been a fool, I've been a fool. You are barreling down the road toward wisdom. At that moment, there is nothing that pushes you toward wisdom. Why? Because we said wisdom is being in touch with reality. Being wise is to be absolutely in touch with reality. And one reality you've got to know in order to know all the rest of

reality is who you are. You've got to know that. You've got to be absolutely, accurately, intimately aware of all your limitations, all of your weaknesses, all of your flaws, all of your besetting sins, all of your area of foolishness, if you don't, you're going to make stupid choices all the time. And you know how the only possible way to do that? The only way you're ever going to have to know yourself as if you know God's love the way we just spoke of. And here's why, if you need approval, if you're comparing yourself to other people, if you're defensive about criticism,

if you're afraid of failure, if you're always looking at how other people seem smarter and better looking, better credentials than you, if you don't have that absolute inner poise and that unincredible, unassailable calm on the inside that comes from knowing in your heart of hearts that he is absolutely faithful to you and absolutely loves you. You're not going to see, you're going to screen out, you're going to deny, you're going

to repress the knowledge of your flaws. You're just not going to admit who you are. You're not going to be willing to see it. You won't psychologically be able to, you'll repress it. You'll make excuses all the time. So, well, that was a mitigating circumstance. So you'll say, well, of course, you'd be like that too if you had a mother-like mind. You do everything you can to avoid really seeing who you are, and if you can't see who you are, you're not going to see any of the rest of reality. And therefore, the second discipline, daily discipline, ruthless yet nontraumatic self-examination.

You see why the second goes with the first now? Why knowing the self goes with knowing God? You have to be able to do ruthless self-examination, but you won't actually be able to admit who you are unless it's not traumatic. And that will only happen if you know how much he loves you. Unless you are so deeply immersed in the sense of his love, you will not psychologically be able to admit what's bad about you. You won't be able to, you'll screen it out, you'll deny it.

You're in denial, I can tell you you are. I am too, because I don't know how much he loves me, therefore I don't know who I am. And to agree I do the first discipline of going deeper into God and pushing that into my heart of hearts, to that degree I can do the first discipline of going deeper into God and pushing that into my heart of hearts. To that degree, I can do the ruthless yet nontromatic self-examination that is the very essence of wisdom.

In the midst of life's uncertainties, where do you turn for wisdom? The book of Proverbs is filled with wisdom to help guide us in all aspects of life. In Timon Cathy Keller's devotional book, God's wisdom for navigating life. You'll get a fresh, inspiring view of God's wisdom each day of the year from the book of Proverbs. This devotional book will help you unlock the wisdom within the poetry of Proverbs and guide you toward a new understanding of what it means to live the Christian life. This resource is our thanks for your gift to help Gospel and Life share Christ's love with more people. You can request your copy of God's

wisdom for navigating life when you give today at Gospel and Life.com slash give. That's Gospel and Life.com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. So knowing God and secondly knowing yourself and thirdly knowing your friends now what do I mean by that look verse one we talked about this a little bit last week you notice how often when you read the book of Proverbs you see the writer saying my son my son do not forget my teaching now we said last week this is because the book of Proverbs was probably a manual written for a boy's school where they were learning wisdom and therefore you have the mentor always

saying my son this my son that but you know the point for us here is this you'll never find wisdom by yourself you've got to have mentors you've got to have counselors see what verse seven is telling you? The fool is an individualist. The fool is someone who says, I don't need you, anybody else's advice, I know. I know my mind, I know what I want, I know what's the right thing to do. A fool doesn't need advice. A fool is an individualist. A fool, but a wise person, is so unsure of his or her wisdom that you need counselors,

you need friends, you need friends, you need advisors, you need mentors and you go get them and as a result you get wise. By the way, this is one of the reasons why we push small groups like we do in the church. New Yorkers would much rather have a seminar with the expert telling you the truth and it's nice and you get it and you can take it home.

And the person next to you that you're sitting next to, you don't, if you want to talk to them fine, if you don't like the other looks, you don't have to talk to them. That's a technique. But if you go to a small group where it's messy, you got to get to know each other and you talk to one another, that's the place where you develop wisdom because you don't find wisdom without mutual counsel, without mutual excitation, without mutual confrontation, without mutual comfort, you get wisdom in a community. You only get information through a class. And the discipline of community, the discipline of letting somebody else know about your besetting sins, the discipline of community is really very, very important to the path of wisdom. How are you doing? Right, left, right, right. The fourth, knowing God, knowing yourself, knowing the your friends, knowing community, and fourthly, knowing God's best practices. Now, what do I mean

by that? That's actually a kind of business term right now. A lot of people talk about best practices, but it's a way of getting your attention. First one, my son, do not forget my teaching and keep my commands in your heart. The word commands there is the Hebrew word Torah. And most people know that the word Torah means God's law. It's usually refers to God's law. Some commentators say, well, maybe the mentor is talking about his commands, not God's commands, but probably in a school like this, the mentors would have been teaching them God's law. The fact is, having said what I've been saying, that you need community, you need knowing

God, you need self-examination, it's not traumatic, you need knowing so, you need that rather than a bunch of abstract propositions. Having said all that, you've got a master the scripture You've got a master God's database of best practices You got one in verse 9 and 10 where it says the world tells you hold on to your money spend it on yourself But I'm telling you give your money away because ultimately that is wise now the Bible says has stuff to say, and we're gonna look at it over the next few weeks, where God says, here's what I want you to do with your words,

here's what I want you to do with your emotions, here's what I want you to do with your wealth, here's what I want you to do with your relationships, here's what I want you to do with your family, and so on. And so over and over in the Bible, you've got best practices, then you do have to master that. That's one of the daily right, left, right things. You have to take it into your heart.

You have to meditate, you have to reflect. So knowing God, knowing self, knowing friends, knowing God's database of best practices, but lastly, and it's kind of the surprise, you have to know trouble. You'll never be wise that knowing trouble. If you get down to verse 11 and 12, it's a little surprising, actually. Because when you get to verse, you know, up until verse 11 and 12,

you see how many interesting promises there are. If you seek after wisdom, verse 4, people will like you. Where it says, you'll win favor in the sight of God and man. People will like you. Verse 8, you'll be healthy. Verse 10, you'll make money. In other words, it's really saying that if you go into the way of wisdom, generally your life often tends to go better. But then you get to verse 11 and 12 and it's a little surprising,

because you're not expecting it. And it says, bad things that will happen and it's part of the path, it's part of the training, it's part of the discipline, it's part of the way which you'll learn wisdom. Why? Wisdom does not avoid suffering. It transforms suffering into more wisdom. If you let the wisdom, notice it says don't despise, don't reject, don't resent it. In other words, you have to stay on the path. Don't go the stoic way and say, oh, I'm not going to let it bother me.

Don't go the resentful way and get bitter. Let the trouble in your life drive you more into knowing God, more into knowing yourself, more into God's word, more into your friends' arms. And if you know trouble in the context of those others, during troubled times, you're growing wisdom much faster than any other time. Much faster than any other time. So there they are, right? Left. If you do these things, if you put yourself in the way of wisdom, you become the kind of person that makes wise choices. And there's no shortcut to it. Now, having said that, we can't completely, we can't just finish.

And the reason we can't finish is because I went by that last point kind of fast when I said, one of the main ways in which people grow in wisdom is by troubles and suffering. But thoughtful people start to ask a question at this point. And they start to say, wait a minute, they're suffering and then they're suffering. You see, we all agree, do we not?

If you look at people and you know people who have had a charmed life, which means nothing ever bad has happened to them. When you look at people like that, that everything's gone well for them. They're shallow. They are. They don't know how to put themselves in other people's shoes. They don't really understand how life works.

They don't understand what's in their own heart. They're not wise. Okay, so we say, all right, I see that. That without suffering, there's no wisdom. But they're suffering and they're suffering. See, it's one thing to say, I see that, that without suffering there's no wisdom, but there's suffering and there's suffering. See, it's one thing to say, the person broke up with me who I wanted to marry.

That's awful. That's suffering. It's another thing for your spouse to drop dead of a brain aneurysm and leave you with three little kids. It's one thing to say, my elderly parents died, and I love them so much and I'm in grief. That's suffering. It's another thing to have your teenage daughter commit suicide. It's another thing to have 300 children shot by terrorists dying in their blood crying out for their parents. When you look at that, when you look at horrendous, outrageous evil and suffering, and there's

lots of it in the world, if you try to say, well, you know, suffering and trouble is one of the ways in which we learn wisdom. That's an insufficient response. And when, if it's true that wisdom is being able to handle reality, right? That's the part of reality that seems to devastate wisdom. The Old Testament, the wisdom literature, Psalms, Job, is filled with the question, why did the innocent suffer? In other words, how do we get the ultimate wisdom, which is how do we learn how to deal with that?

That's the worst life reality of all. Herendous evil, horrendous suffering, outrageous evil. How do we get the wisdom to deal with that? Agor at the end of the book of Proverbs. Near the very end, chapter 30, one of the sages whose words come down into the book of Proverbs tells us how absolutely stymied he was in developing wisdom because of what I just talked about. See, in verse 2 of chapter 30, Agor says, I am the most ignorant of men. I do not have a man's understanding. I have not learned wisdom nor have I knowledge of the Holy One.

Now, that is very, very bitter almost. He's not just being humble. Oh, you know, I'm not very wise. He must have been wise or he must have been very respected wise man or he wouldn't have had his words put in here. But when he says, I have not a man's understanding. He's literally using a Hebrew word that literally means I am mentally impaired. I have the IQ of an animal. The other place where this word is used in the Bible is in Psalm 73, where the Psalmist is looking at how the wicked succeed and the righteous and the innocent suffer and are oppressed and trampled into the ground. And he feels the same way. And he says, when I look at that part of reality, I don't feel wise.

I don't feel like I understand that any more than my animals do. And so Agor and the psalmist in Psalm 73, when we look out at the world and we see that, we say, I still don't have the wisdom I need, unless I'm able to handle that, unless I'm able to find some way of understanding that, unless I'm able to see what's really going on in the world, I'm not able to, I don't feel like I'm wise. But then Agra says in verse 3 and 4, interestingly enough, he realizes the whole problem is his perspective. He says, I don't have wisdom, I'm ignorant. But then he says, for who has gone up to heaven and

come down? Who has gathered up the wind in the hollow of his hands? Who has wrapped up the waters in his cloak? Who has established all the ends of the earth. What's that? This is what it is. He's saying, I'm in the valley, I'm in the path. But when you're in the valley and under the trees no matter how hard you work sometimes, you feel like I don't know what's going on

unless I could climb up to one of the mountains, one of the mountain peaks around the valley and get the big picture. So if I could get the big picture, if I, and the only person who's got the big picture is who? The one in heaven. The one who has wrapped the waters in his cloak, who has gathered the wind in the hollow of his hands, he says, unless God comes down from heaven and speaks directly to me

and tells me what's going on in the world, the evil and suffering and the injustices to see out there is just going to continually overwhelm me and freak me out and frustrate me. I need to have somebody come down from heaven. Then I'd have wisdom. Until then, I don't. And then he actually says at the end, what is his name? Who is this person? What is his name? And who is his son? What is his name and who is his son? What's that mean? Well, centuries later, in John chapter 3, Nicodemus was having a discussion with young Jesus of Nazareth, and Nicodemus was trying to be complimentary.

And he says, you know, for a young man, for a young rabbi, you're fairly wise. Your teaching's pretty good. And Jesus did not react the way you might expect. Jesus didn't say, well, I'm so glad you people are finally understanding. I'm so glad I've made the big time. And I've come to Jerusalem in the Sanhedrin finally. One of you, no, that's not what he says.

He says, you have no idea. And then he says, in chapter three of John, no one has ever gone into heaven except the one And then he says, in chapter three of John, no one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came down from heaven, even the Son of Man. And Nicodemus, wouldn't have been, Nicodemus mustn't have believed his ears. Nicodemus would have known the Hebrew scriptures.

Agor says, who has gone up to heaven and come down? That's the only one that can give me the ultimate wisdom. And Jesus says, here's Nicodemus saying, you know, you're pretty wise, you know, you're pretty good for a young, Jesus says, I am the one that Agor was looking for. I have come from heaven. I'm the man off the mountain.

I can tell you heavenly things. I'm the source of ultimate wisdom. Imagine Nicodemus hearing that. And then Jesus adds the very next sentence, something that surely he wouldn't have expected. Anybody would have expected. He says, and just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the sun must be lifted up that whosoever believes on him may have eternal life. Jesus says, I have come from heaven to bring you the ultimate wisdom, but I'm not bringing it to you in the form of abstract propositions.

I have come from heaven, but I'm going back to heaven by way of the cross. I'm going to be lifted up on the cross, like the lifeless serpent of Moses. That is the ultimate answer to the biggest question of human wisdom. Why did the innocent suffer? He says, look at me, I am the ultimate innocent sufferer. I'm gonna go to the cross, even though I don't deserve it, even though I've lived a good life,

and on the cross I'm gonna experience ultimate derision, I'm gonna experience insecurity under death, I'm going to experience ultimate derision, I'm going to experience insecurity under death, I'm going to experience the absolute rejection of my friends, I'm going to experience government-supported violence, I'm going to experience utter hopelessness, the wrath of the universe, the wrath of God. It's all going to come down on me.

I'm going to do it. So that someday I can end evil and suffering in this world without destroying you. I'm going to do it to pay for your sins. Jesus is saying, I've got the ultimate wisdom. It's the cross. Only if you bring the cross into the center of your life will you finally have an answer as to the big questions of wisdom.

Back in the spring, there was a time magazine cover story called Why Did Jesus Have to Die? Did you see that? It was during the Passion of the Mel Gibson movie. So they had this big cover story. Why Did Jesus Have to Die? It was actually a pretty good article. And in it, it told a story of an African-American writer. And when she was young, a young girl, her mother was killed by her boyfriend. And she could remember the blood on the mattress where her mother died.

And she could remember the bloody hand print on the wall where her mother died. And for years and years, she struggled. And she said, how do I make any sense out of this? And she couldn't, like Agor. She couldn't. She says, I don't feel like I understand this at all. And one day, she was in a graduate school class and went through her talking about Christian doctrine and the crucifixion, and she suddenly realized, this was in the article.

She said, I suddenly realized that Jesus didn't just suffer for us, if he suffered for Jesus didn't just suffer for us. If he suffered for us, he also suffered with us. And I suddenly realized, Jesus knew what it's like to be beaten to death by somebody who should have loved him. Jesus knew what it was like, and he did it for me. And suddenly, the faithfulness of God was bound into her heart. You see? Suddenly she realized, I can trust him.

He's, this is not a God who stayed up and said, well, I can tell you why your mother died. It's very hard to understand. I have a purpose in all this. No. Well, here we have a Lord who comes down and actually gets into our suffering with us. He was beaten to death. He experienced injustice, he experienced violence, he has experienced everything and worse that you have ever experienced and he's walking alongside of you. And she suddenly realized, what happened? She said, I could suddenly realize I can trust him. I have a God I can trust because of the cross.

And you know what? What was happening was she was binding the faithfulness of God to her heart. It finally sunk in. And it made her able to handle life. She realized that here we have a God who is suffered with us so that someday he can remove all suffering without destroying us. If you want to really have the wisdom and barrel down that road, you've got to take the cross into your heart because that, not an abstract, oh God loves me, God loves me, you've got to see that and that will bind the faithfulness of God into your heart and that will give you the self-knowledge and that will change everything.

Not only that, bring the cross into every area of your life because think about the cross. Jesus won through losing. Jesus got power by giving all his power away. Jesus ruled through service. Jesus got wealthy by giving all his money away, and if you bring the cross into every area of your life, every area, every relationship, wealth, words, emotions, and start to work it out.

Where do you see how wise it is. You know, the world says, if somebody wrongs you, pay them back. The cross says, forgive them. Go ahead and see how wise that is. The world's wrong. The world says, keep your money or spend it on yourself. Take the cross in there.

Cross says, give it away. And way to see how wise wise the world's wrong. Bring the cross into the center of your life and it'll make you wise. And you know one of the neatest things? Whenever I used to read that CS Lewis quote, he says, the wise can form their soul to reality, but the magicians try to can form reality to their soul. I never liked that choice because, you know,

conforming your soul to the world, that seems more realistic, but kind of a drag. And trying to change the world to fit your soul, that's obviously unrealistic, but guess what? In the cross, you don't have to choose, because the cross will do both. Yeah, because on the one hand, as it worked with that young woman, the cross will enable

you to handle reality as it is, but through the cross and the resurrection, God is going to change the world. The cross is the ultimate magic. It's God's magic. Don't you try to do magic? It's God's magic, because someday He's going to give you the world that your heart most deeply wants. He is going to change the world. He's going to give you the body you want. He's going to give you the soul you want, the love you want, the glory you want. Absolutely. As C.S. Lewis wrote, he will make the feeblest and filthiest of us if we let him into such dazzling, radiant and mortal creatures pulsating all through with such energy and joy and wisdom and love as we cannot now imagine. A bright, stainless mirror which reflects back to God perfectly though on a smaller scale

his own boundless power and delight and goodness. The process will be long and in parts very painful, but that's what we are in for. Nothing less. And it starts today, right? Left, right, left. And that's where you're going. Let us pray. Thank you, Father, for giving us Jesus the wisdom of God.

And the cross, foolishness to the world. But to us, the wisdom of God and the power of God. Make us wise through the one who came down from heaven and went back to heaven through the cross. We need it so desperately. Thank you for the hope, thank you for the practical nature of everything that we've learned tonight. Help us to apply to our lives through the power of your spirit.

We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel and Life Podcast. If you were encouraged by today's teaching, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel and Life monthly partner. Your partnership helps more people discover the life-changing wisdom of God's Word through this ministry. Just visit Gospel and Life.com slash partner to learn more. This month's sermons were recorded in 2004. 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. as material in church.