Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Wisdom: How To Get It

Episode Date: July 28, 2025

We live in a culture in which there are more choices than there ever have been. But you can be incredibly good, moral, and knowledgeable and still make pretty stupid choices.  Wisdom is knowing the right thing to do in the 80 percent of choices that the moral rules don’t directly apply to. What you need in order to make good choices is wisdom.  In Proverbs 3 we learn 1) where wisdom develops, 2) the vehicles through which wisdom develops, and 3) the catalyst that sparks and fuels them all. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 15, 2013. Series: Wisdom in Life. Scripture: Proverbs 3:1-8, 11-12. 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 the Gospel in Life podcast. Many of the questions we face in life are complex and aren't always answered by simply following rules. Do I speak up now or do I wait? Should I take that job or stay where I am? That's why wisdom is so crucial. But how do we develop it? Today, join us as Tim Keller explores how we apply God's wisdom to the everyday complexities of our lives. After you listen to today's teaching, we invite you to go online to GospelInLife.com and sign up for our email updates. When you sign up, you'll receive our quarterly journal and other valuable Gospel-centered

resources. Subscribe today at GospelInlife.com. The scripture reading is from Proverbs chapter three, verses one through eight, and 11 through 12. 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 peace and prosperity. Love, 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, submit to 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 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. 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. This is God's word. the Father, the Son, he delights in. This is God's word. So we're in a short series on the early chapters

of the book of Proverbs. We're just doing three weeks here right after Labor Day. And Proverbs is about wisdom. We live in a culture in which there's more choices than there ever have been. And we also live in a city in which there's an enormous number of choices. And what you need in order to make good choices is wisdom. Yes, of course, moral values, moral goodness is important.

On the other hand, wisdom is knowing what the right thing is to do in the 80% of life situations that the moral rules don't directly apply to. So for example, you might have two careers to take and both of them are morally acceptable, neither of them are sinful and yet one of them fits you and one of them doesn't. And if you make the wrong choice, you could waste an enormous amount of your own time and a lot of other people's time too. If you make a bad choice

because you're out of touch with reality, out of touch with reality of what the job really entails, out of touch with reality with who you really are, it's a huge difficulty and it could take years to get your life back on track. Even though you're morally good, even though you're a good person, right? Even though there was nothing wrong morally in what the

decision you made. But you can be incredibly moral, incredibly good, incredibly knowledgeable, and still make pretty stupid choices. So question, what is wisdom? We looked at this last week in chapter one of Proverbs. Wisdom is competence with regard to the realities of life. Competence with regard to the realities of life,

how life really works. Well how do you get wisdom? Ah, that's what we're here for tonight. Because here in chapter three, this very well-known chapter, we learn where wisdom develops, the vehicle through which wisdom develops, and the catalyst that sparks them all and fuels them are all. So there's a place where

wisdom occurs, where you learn it. There's vehicles through which you learn it and then there's a catalyst for those vehicles. Let's take a look at that. First of all, brief but important is where does wisdom actually happen? It doesn't happen in a classroom. It doesn't happen in a seminar I could give you a seminar on what the Bible says about wisdom But I would just be telling you what I'm about to tell you now and that is you can't get wise in a seminar Where does it happen? There's a there's a metaphor all through the book of Proverbs actually all through the Bible, but all through the book of Proverbs You see it in verse six. It says do this this, do this, do this, and he will make your path straight. Now, that's not

that hard to understand as a metaphor. What does that mean? God will make your path straight. That means he'll make your life go well. Your life is being likened to a pathway, and therefore living your life is being likened to walking a path. Now, that metaphor says a lot. First of all, think about this. Walking a path means doing something very, very steadily. Something very simple. If you jump, if you somersault, even if you run,

you won't get very far because everybody can walk a lot farther than you can run. Even the greatest athletes can still walk further than they can run. And so the best way for you to make progress on the path is to do something very simple, very rhythmic. It's called walking one foot after another foot in front of another foot in front of another foot.

And if you walk on the path, it takes you somewhere you don't stay where you were. And why is this a metaphor for life? Here's what it means. The actions you take repeatedly, day after day, in your ordinary daily life, make you something. You can't stay the same. The way in which you behave, the actions,

the choices you make in just ordinary daily life is turning you into something. It's actually turning you into a wise person or a foolish person. You know why? Because it's character that is forged in the small parts of daily life. Nobody brings this out better than C.S. Lewis. C.S. Lewis says that every day when you make little decisions, you are putting a little mark on your soul, a little twist on your soul.

And slowly, he says, it's through the little things you do. It's the pathway. It's just one foot after another foot after another foot. The actions and choices you're making in your very ordinary daily life is either taking you down to becoming a person like the angels or like the demons. So he gives an example in his book, Mere Christianity, in the chapter on

forgiveness. Here's what he says. He says, imagine something. Imagine one day you read in the newspaper a story. And it's about a party of people that you don't like. And the story is, oh, there's gonna be this big scandal that's about to break. These people have acted very, very badly, very scandalously, and it's going to be a big scandal, and they're gonna be thrown out of power.

And you don't like them anyway, so what you do is you're reading this newspaper story and you're enjoying this. You say, hey, I never liked these people's positions. I didn't like their politics and so now it turns out that they're really nasty people. Yeah. They're going to be turned out of office. That's great. Then Louis says what if a week later you read another

story in the newspaper that says, hey, that wasn't right. It turns out that the original report was not true or not so bad as it was made out. And Louis says, at that point you've got a choice to make. You may not even realize it. He says, on the one hand, you could say this, you could say, oh, thank goodness that person is not as bad as I thought he was. Or you can be very disappointed. And this is what he says, he says, you can either decide, well, I guess I was wrong, the person's really a pretty good person,

or you can be disappointed, I wanted to think that person was that bad. Now here's what he says, this is Lewis. He says, he says, if you go with the first feeling, then thankfully he's not so bad. That's one thing, but if you go with the second feeling, and he says the second feeling is a feeling of disappointment and the determination

to hold onto the first story for the sheer pleasure of thinking your enemy is bad as you would like them to be. He says if you do that, I am afraid it's the first step in a process which, if followed to the end, will make you into a devil. You see, one is beginning to wish that black was just a little blacker than it really is. And if we give that wish its head,

later on we shall wish to see gray as black, and eventually you'll be able to see white as black and finally you'll be fixed forever in a universe of pure hatred. Because remember, we Christians believe the soul lives forever. And so what really matters is the little marks or twists on the central inside part of the soul which are going to turn it in the long run into a heavenly or hellish creature. Do you hear what he's saying? in the long run into a heavenly or hellish creature. Do you hear what he's saying? He says, when you, if you don't like somebody and then you hear that they're really, really bad, then you find out they're not so bad.

And you say, and you basically say, but I want to think that they're that bad, so I'm going to believe that they're that bad. What have you done? Because of your resentment, because of your grumpiness and unhappiness, you are choosing to believe something that's probably not true.

You want to believe that. And that means you are just a little more foolish than you were a minute ago. Because you're out of touch with reality. Think of these, think of three character qualities. There's humility or pride. There's cowardice, I mean there's, pardon me, I should say courage, or cowardice. There's grace and forgiveness, or there's anger. Now if you're angry and you're resentful,

you want to believe a person is bad, even if they're not. So what you're going to do is if you see something that confirms your prejudice, your belief, you're going to grab to that and if you see something that shows the person's your belief, you're going to grab to that, and if you see something that shows the person's not as bad as you think they are, you're going to ignore it, and you're out of touch with reality. You're creating a scenario in your mind of what the person is like that isn't true,

and you're going to make bad choices, because wisdom is competence with regard to the realities of life. Wisdom is making choices on the basis of reality, not what you think is real, but what is real. If you're a coward, or if you're proud, and you don't take anybody else's advice, you want to think your opinion and your feelings

are the right ones, don't you see? Here's the first point. It's the little things you do every day that can either make you more resentful, more cowardly, more proud, or more loving, more forgiving, more courageous, and the greater the, the stronger your character, the wiser you're gonna be,

because the more in touch with reality you are. Do you get this point? In other words, in daily life, your little choices give you good character and that good character is the basis for making the big choices wisely. Little choices give you the character on the basis of which you make the big choices wisely. Because life is a path. And it's in ordinary daily life that wisdom is lost or gained. Bit by bit by bit, one foot after another foot after another foot, extremely gradually. Point two, alright, how can you set things up

so that you are making those good choices and you're moving down that path toward wisdom instead of foolishness? There's four things that the text tells us about. Four things that if you do, will enable you to make those, make the choices in daily life that develop the character of humility and of courage and of graciousness and so on. It's the small choices that create the character on the basis of which you make the wise big choices because you're in touch with reality. How do you get that character? If in daily life you do four things, and here's what they are, I'll list them and then go through them. Knowing God, this is how wisdom

comes through knowing God, trusting God, submitting to his word, and living in community. First of all, knowing God. Look at verse 3, let love and faithfulness never leave you. Bind them around your neck, and write them on the tablet of your heart. Now this is not an easy text to understand immediately, because when we read it in English,

it looks like it's saying be a loving faithful person right but love and faithfulness never leave you but that's not exactly you probably think be a loving and faithful person but look at the way it's talking about what do you mean let love and faithfulness never leave you bind it around your neck write it on the tab of your heart don't let go of it don't lose a grip on it. What does that mean? And actually the word for love here and faithfulness are two Hebrew words that are words that actually describe God's covenant love for his people. The word love there, by the way, is the Hebrew word ksev, which actually means his unconditional love for his people, his commitment, his faithfulness,

his graciousness that he's unconditionally committed to you. So when it says, let God's love and faithfulness never leave you, hold them on, find them around your neck, right on the top of your heart, talk about it all the time, here's what it's saying. right on the tablet of your heart, talk about it all the time, here's what it's saying. It's saying you need to be absolutely convinced of, and never lose your grasp of, his unconditional gracious love for you. Or, put it like this, you need to know,

know, know, in your heart of heart of hearts, that he's for you, that he would do anything No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no you knew, knew, knew, in your heart of hearts, love and faithfulness, you know, his unconditional love, it would give you a poise. You would never panic.

You'd always make wise choices because you just would never be panicked. You'd never be running scared. Well, how do you do that? Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. Actually, there's a lot of things I'm sure you can do, but mainly, at the very least,

it means having a prayer life. At the very least, it means having a prayer life. At the very least, it means taking an abstract idea and making it real to your heart through prayer, at least daily, maybe a couple times a day, through, you know, you have to at least have a very vigorous life in which you are walking with God, that you're praying and reading and talking to him, that you're practicing his presence and reminding to him, that you're practicing his presence

and reminding yourself of what he's done for you. So, first of all, knowing God, daily knowing God, enables you to make the choices that will turn you, push you toward wisdom and not foolishness. Secondly though, look at this, verse five, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Now I'm afraid when you hear that right away, you just start to feel inspired. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Now I'm afraid when you hear that right away, you just start to feel inspired.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart. It sounds like a Hallmark reading card, and you know, oh how nice. But it actually has got an edge to it. It really has teeth to it. Because it is very possible to believe in God, to obey God, I mean in other words, obey the Ten Commandments, to pray to God,

and not, and trust, give the functional trust of your heart to something else. It's possible to believe in God, but to trust something else for your real significance, for your real security. So for example, you believe in God, you go to church, you obey the Ten Commandments, you pray, you go to church, you obey the 10 commandments, you pray. But is your career the real functional trust of your heart?

Is that really the way you get your self-esteem? You really get your sense of value and worth? Is it where you really, really get your sense that I am safe in this world? Come on, be honest. Very often you won't admit it until something goes wrong with it, but when something goes wrong with it, here's the problem.

Anything you make, the functional trust of your heart, whether it's your beauty, your intelligence, your talent, your career, your wealth, family, some romantic relationship, your spouse, anything you make, your functional trust, there is always an ordinate emotions around those things. That is to say, if something goes wrong with your anything you make your functional trust, there is always an ordinate emotions around those things. That is to say, you know, if you, if something goes wrong with your career, you're gonna be sad. It's awful. It's terrible. Work is

important. But if it's your trust, you will be devastated. You will be emotionally debilitated. You won't be able to function. There's, there's these enormous emotions around things that are your functional trusts rather than God. And it clouds your judgment. It makes you unable to actually be wise. So knowing God, trusting God. Okay, thirdly, and lean not on your own understanding.

In all your ways ways submit to him. Now, I said, thirdly, the way for you to develop wisdom is through submitting to God's word. Now, it doesn't say Bible there, it doesn't say scripture, it doesn't say that at all. And yet it says that even though you may understand, you may have this opinion, you may have this belief, you may have this understanding of things.

You need to follow God's understanding and submit to him and his will, not your own. Now how does that happen? The background of the whole book of Proverbs is the Torah, the law of God. In fact, most commentators on the book of Proverbs say Proverbs is nothing but the law of God, the Torah being applied to daily life.

And so, it's immersing yourself in the word of God, that's the way, instead of leaning on your understanding, instead of doing your own will, you lean on his understanding. Now, how does immersing yourself in the Bible, just plunging yourself in, learning it, mastering it, listening to it, reading it, studying it, how does that turn you actually into somebody who's wise?

There's a nice simple way and there's a more complex way. Now here's the simple way. There are a lot of just plain rules in the Bible. Moral categories, categorical moral statements. So for example, what if you're married and marriage isn't going very well and you have an opportunity for an extramarital affair, an actual offer is on the table from someone and you're wrestling, do I want to do that? I don't, can I handle that?

You know, should I do this? You know, and you're wrestling. Well, see, now the Bible can really help you with this decision. Now, here you are wrestling, you're taking all this time, maybe you're working through a decision, making matrices and things like that. And the Bible says, no.

No, never. You're married, you made a promise while you're married, no. So it's very simple. I know, there's plenty, the Bible says, you don't have to pray about it. You don't have to sit around. You don't have to think it out. And there's a lot of things the Bible says.

I said, 20, 25% of your life decisions, the Bible's got some nice, clear tracks to run on. And so in some ways, you might, now listen, we don't always like what the Bible says. So here you are in this marriage, but I don't understand. Lean not on your own understanding. See? Maybe you don't like it,

or maybe you find it difficult to understand, but there it is. And so how do you let God's understanding trump See? Maybe you don't like it or maybe you find it difficult to understand, but there it is. And so how do you let God's understanding trump yours? How do you do that? So that you become wiser as time goes on than you would be otherwise. One way is through submitting to the word of God. That's the simple way, but there's a more complex way. I do need to tell you about this. The more complex way is important. Are you looking for ways to grow in your faith this summer? Or are you hoping to help new believers or kids grasp the heart of the Christian faith? For many of us, the summer months can provide more time to deepen our faith and our understanding of what it means to follow

Christ. A great resource to start using this summer is the New City Catechism Devotional, God's Truth for our Hearts and Minds. This devotional brings the historic catechisms of the Christian Church to life, offering a question to consider for each week of the year. In the introduction, Tim Keller lays out the case for catechesis, the rich and communal practice of learning and memorizing questions and answers that frame the foundational beliefs of the Christian faith. Each week includes a scripture passage, a prayer, and a brief meditation that will challenge

and inspire you. The included commentaries are by contemporary pastors such as John Piper, Tim Keller, and Kevin DeYoung, as well as historical figures such as Augustine, John Calvin, and Martin Luther. This month, in addition to the New City Catechism Devotional, we're including a great companion resource, the New City Catechism for Kids, as our thank you for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the hope of Christ's love with people all over the world. So request your copies today at GospelinLife.com slash give. That's GospelinLife.com

slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Alistair McIntyre in his book, After Virtue, and he's a... Alistair McIntyre is a Catholic philosopher, wrote a book called After Virtue. And in the book, he gives an illustration that's very famous, it's rightly so, and the illustration goes like this, imagine that you're standing at a bus stop and a young man you've never met in your life, you don't know him, a young man walks up to you and says, hey, the Latin name of the common wild duck is histrionicus, histrionicus, histrionicus. And then he walks away.

Okay, so. Alright, how do you make sense of that? Why did that happen? It happened. How do you make sense of that? Now, MacIntyre's point is, there's only one way to make sense of it, and that is you have to put it in a narrative.

You have to say, what is the story in which this incident makes sense? And it can't make any sense unless you stick it into a story. Now he says there's three, he suggests three possible stories, there's probably more. He says the first story is actually very likely and a pretty sad story, and a sad story is

that the man is mentally ill or mentally deranged or traumatized or something. So that there's some that he's mentally not right. It's a very sad story. And he well that would make sense. Would it not? And of course it would make sense of it. And it would either be sympathy for him. And so that's one story that would make sense of it. He said here's a second story and that is it's mistaken identity. That maybe several days ago when he was in the library he was trying to look this book up and find it about the common wild duck and he talked to the librarian and you look like the librarian.

And so it was dark in there and now he's out here at the bus stop and he thinks you're the librarian. So he walks up because you look like that person somewhat and says, hey, you know what, I did find the book. Okay? That's a little bit less likely, but it's possible. Now he says, here's the third story, by the way, that McIntyre says. Well, the third story is this man is a spy.

And he has mistaken you for his contact. And he's giving you the code. Now that's not as likely, but well it could be. Now here's McIntyre's point. What happened makes no sense unless you stick it into a narrative. And the narrative you put it in completely determines how you respond to it. Now, obviously you're going to respond

in very different ways depending on whether the person's a mental patient or that sort of thing or a spy. Now let's think about something. Think of your money. The money you have. How do you look at it? How do you treat it?

How do you act toward it? What do you do with it? Do you realize it all depends on what you think the story of the world is? If you accept the secular idea that we're here by accident, when we die, we just rot. Eventually, when the sun dies, there'll be nobody around to remember anything that anyone's ever done.

In that situation, then the only happiness you'll ever have is the happiness you can have right here. Right here. So how are you going to treat your money? You'll treat it one way. But what if the story of the world is very different? What if we were all created by God so that absolutely everything that we have is a gift from him. And what if the world has fallen but God has come in to redeem it and someday he's going to renew it

and there's going to be an afterlife. What if this life is not the only life? What if this life is actually a relatively small part of your entire life? Your entire life on earth is only a small part of your entire existence. Now in that story, not only your money looks different, obviously everything looks different.

It all depends on what story you put it in. And when people come to me and say things like, how much money, as a Christian, how much money should I give away so God is pleased? Because I really don't want to give one cent more away than I need to. So what you're doing is you're looking for a rule like thou shalt not commit adultery.

You're saying thou must give 12.3% of your income away to the poor. So you're looking for a rule. But what if the Bible gives us a story that's so different than the world story that it's gonna make you generous. It's gonna make you far, far, far more generous. See, when you then read not just the rules of the Bible, but the narratives and the

history and everything, everything in the Bible, as you read it and you immerse yourself in it, every part of your life looks different. And therefore, how you live is different and the wisdom grows out of that. And it's not as simple as, well, what's the rule about, you know, how much I have to give away? The more you immerse yourself in the Word of God, the more you become wise. You see that?

Because everything looks different in the story that the Bible tells us about the world. And there's one more thing, that one more vehicle that you need in order to develop wisdom in daily life, and that is community. It says here in verse seven, do not be wise in your own eyes. Do not be wise in your own eyes. Now, the definition of a fool

is a person who's wise in his or her own eyes. The definition of a fool is someone who only cares to see things from their own perspective. Now, I'm in this room, and I can see some things from this perspective that none of the rest of you can, because I from their own perspective. Now I'm in this room and I can see some things from this perspective that none of the rest of you can because I have this unique perspective. Many of you can see things around you

that I can't see very well because I'm old. And I'm far away and you're closer. And therefore to really know what's happening in this room would take all of our perspectives, is that not right? Now the definition of a fool is someone who only sees things through his or her own eyes. I don't care what anybody else thinks. I just see it the way I see it.

The definition of wisdom is to see things through as many other eyes as possible, through God's eyes, through the word of God, through your friend's eyes, because you have friends and you have other people. The definition of wisdom in the book of Proverbs is a person who has created a company of counselors around them over the years. Mentors and counselors and friends and people

that you always check with. We are an individualistic society. We are a place where we're taught, you make your own decision, you make your own call, you shouldn't be accountable to other people, you shouldn't have to have other, you shouldn't let other people weigh in on what is your life. Yeah. It's your life, yes, but you can't see it. You can't see it. You don't, you can't see yourself.

Do you know what you really look like? You don't know. Every time you look in a mirror, you're looking at something else. You're not really looking at yourself. That's the reason why so often when you actually see a picture of yourself you say, oh. Or, or if you actually listen to a recording of yourself you say, who is that awful person? And I don't sound like that, do I? Because you don't, you're inside here and you hear yourself through the bones and ears or something like that.

When you actually hear your voice you sound awful and you say, I don't sound like that, do I? And all your friends say, yes, that's you. See, their eyes see better. And only if you are deeply involved in community are you going to be wise and in the word and in trusting God and in knowing God. But, not done, not quite. Because actually, in this text we're told

there's a catalyst, a kind of spark, that makes all of the vehicles run turbocharged. There is something that when it happens makes all these things produce wisdom at 10 times the normal rate. Do you know what that is? Well it's kind of a shock when we get to it. It says here in verse 11 and 12, 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. Now, the image isn't hard to see. It's talking about a father disciplining his son. Well what does a father who's disciplining his son do? The father brings into the son's life painful things. Things that are hard, things that are difficult, things that are painful, things that make the child cry usually. What is that doing here? Okay, here's what's so surprising about this. Look at verses one and two.

Do this and this, peace and prosperity. Look at three and four. Do this and this, favor and a good name. Is the result. Okay, look at five and six. Do this and this, straight paths. That's the result. And then seven and six. Do this and this, straight paths. That's the result. And then seven and eight. Do this and this, health for your body, nourishment to your bones.

So if you do this and you do this, right, if you do this right, you do this right, you do this right, do this right. Oh, by the way, even if you do everything right, horrible things are going to happen to you. That's what it's saying. It's completely unexpected. You're going right along and suddenly, hey, bad things are going to happen to you and God's going to let them happen to you. Now, how do we respond? What does this mean?

Well, at the most basic level, it is very basic wisdom. You know why? At the most basic level, this is very basic wisdom. You know why? At the most basic level, this. This chapter at least is saying that you can do everything right and your life still go pretty bad. Everything right and your life still go pretty badly. You can do this right and this right,

be moral, be decent, be charitable, be work hard, submit to God, do all these things, and still terrible things happen. And I want you to know that at the most basic level, if you don't believe that, if you don't know that, you are not ready for life. You are actually foolish, because you're not in touch with reality. The reality is, people who do live extremely good lives

and have very smart and do pretty much everything right can still have terrible lives Now I'll tell you I see a lot of young people who don't want to believe that when they see somebody's life blow up They actually say they probably did something wrong. I'm not gonna do that. That's very self-justifying That's being wise in your own eyes and that's setting you up for incredible disappointment Because if you believe that people whose lives blow up have always done something wrong in order for that to happen, you don't know how life works. You are not wise, you are not competent with regard to the realities of life.

To the very least, it's telling you you can do everything right and your life will still blow up. But it's also telling you something else. This is a chapter on how to become wise. These are things that have to happen in order for you to become wise. And what this is saying is, nobody ever gets wise without really bad things happening to them. Now, it's not just Christians who believe this. I mean, I do know that our modern Western society does not see anything like this in suffering. It's just seen as a total disaster.

But almost every other culture and every other religion has always understood this, and that is that if you don't suffer, you will not be wise. You'll be a shallow person. People who live charmed lives, people who have had almost everything go well, are shallow people. And virtually everybody who is wise says, I learned the most through my failures, my mistakes, through bad things that happened to me. Look, do you want to really know yourself?

Do you really want to know who you are, your strengths and weaknesses? That only happens if you're tested. Do you want to be good at helping hurting people, skillful and compassionate at helping hurting people? That's only gonna happen if you've been through it. Otherwise you won't know what to do, you'll be clueless. You'll actually make things worse when you try to help. Do you want to be absolutely so sure

that you can trust God, that he's there for you, so absolutely sure that nothing really rattles you? I think that only happens. Frankly, you don't really learn to trust God So absolutely sure that nothing really rattles you. I think that only happens. Frankly, you don't really learn to trust God till you're drowning. You don't really come to see that Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you have. But when you realize this and you say, okay,

suffering turbocharges everything else. It's not until you suffer that you really end up knowing God in prayer, that you really end up trusting God instead of the things that you used to trust which have now blown up on you. It's only through suffering that you really get into the word of God and you really get into community. We very often just go off on our own.

We're our own person. We're ‑‑ and we really don't rely on other people until what happens. What happens is suffering comes and then in it comes and suddenly we have to ‑‑ we need people, which we always did. In other words, suffering turbocharges all the other things that move you toward wisdom. But I think everybody does know that suffering doesn't necessarily do that. Because as I said, the thing you need to be wise and make good choices is character. You need to become humble, not proud. You need to become courageous, not cowardly. You need to become gracious and forgiving, not angry and resentful.

But the problem is suffering can make you a proud person. Haven't you seen that? Some sufferers become very arrogant because they feel like you don't understand how I've suffered. They feel noble. They feel better than other people. Suffering can also, of course, make you a coward, say, they're so broken that they just won't face anything.

Suffering can make you incredibly bitter. In other words, when suffering happens, it will be either pushing you down the path toward wisdom, toward greater humility and greater dependence on God and greater, or it'll be pushing you toward foolishness. Why? What is the key? How, listen, suffering is inevitable and it's either going to make you wiser or stupider. So how are you going to make sure it makes you wiser? Here's the key. The key is you have to believe that God delights in you when it happens. Because the

Lord disciplines those he loves. As a father, the son, he delights it. In real child discipline, if a father really loves his son and he's letting bad things come into the child's life as part of discipline, he's not doing it to condemn the child. He's not doing it to hurt the child. It hurts him to see the child cry, but he's doing it to grow the child up. You have to be absolutely sure that he loves you and delights in you when the bad things happen or the suffering will harden you. It'll make you despondent. It'll make you turn from God.

It'll make you turn away from life. It'll make you arrogant. You've got to believe that he delights in you if you're going to have suffering soften you and make you wise rather than harden you and make you foolish. But how can you be sure? How can anybody be sure? In the New Testament, these two verses, 11 and 12, are picked up and put down in Hebrews chapter 12. There it says, my son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline. Do not lose heart when he rebukes you.

The Lord disciplines those he loves and he punishes everyone he delights in as a son. But right near it is this, let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, scorned its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. And there it is. Think. How can you be sure that you're a child of God, that he delights in when you're going through suffering?

That's what you need, otherwise you won't become a wise person. How can you be sure? If you see what Jesus did for you. You see, when Jesus Christ was baptized, the Spirit came down on him and there was a voice from heaven that said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well-pleased, in whom I delight. But when he got to the cross, you know, all through his life,

whenever Jesus turned to God,, you know, all through his life, whenever Jesus turned to God, he always said, Father. When his disciples said, how should we praise our Father? When he's in the Garden of Gethsemane, he says, Abba, Father. Always Father. Whenever he talks to God, except on the cross. When he cries out, my God, my God. Why doesn't he call him Father there?

Because Jesus at that point is being expelled. He's being rejected. He's getting what we deserved so that when we believe in him, our sins can be forgiven. He took the punishment we deserve so that when we believe in him, our sins are forgiven. And it says in John chapter 1, 12, for those who received him, who believed on his name, he gave authority to become children of God.

We're adopted. We're brought in. That, his losing his sonship so we could become children of God. His losing that so that it says in Romans chapter 8 verse 16, the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we're children of God. What does that mean? It means because Jesus died on the cross and took our punishment, we can know now that he is pleased with us. And sometimes the Spirit comes in and says, you are my beloved child in whom I'm well pleased. That will re-narrate your world. That will re-narrate it. That story, you put anything in that, and it'll turn to gold. See, if you, how can you know, know, know

in your heart of heart of hearts that he loves you? Only because he went to the cross. How can I trust God in suffering if he's never suffered? But he has. We're the only religion on the face of the earth that says God has suffered. And if he suffered never suffered. But he has. We're the only religion on the face of the earth that says God has suffered. And if he suffered and he suffered like that, then I can trust him in the suffering.

I can know he delights in me, otherwise he wouldn't have gone to the cross. And, therefore, when you rest in Jesus and see what he did for you, you are going to find that your troubles relate to your heart the way fire relates to gold or the way pressure relates to diamond. It'll just make you into something great. Let us pray. Our Father, we want to become wise. No, we want to become like Jesus in whom all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom are hid. And therefore, we pray that you would help

us to look to what Jesus did on the cross for us. And therefore, seeing that proof that you delight in us, go through the ups and downs of life, knowing you, trusting in you, submitting to your word, and living with our Christian brothers and sisters and get in the in community, and becoming more and more conformed to the image of your son in whose name we pray, amen. ["Prayer for the World"]

Thanks for listening to today's teaching. It's our prayer that you were encouraged by it and that it helps you apply the gospel to your life. For more helpful resources from Tim Keller, visit GospelInLife.com. There you can subscribe to the Gospel In Life quarterly journal. When you do, you will also receive free articles, sermons, devotionals, and other great gospel-centered resources. Again, it's all at gospelandlife.com. You can also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X. Today's sermon was recorded in 2013. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was

senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.