Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Wisdom: What is it?

Episode Date: July 25, 2025

There are choices everywhere, just zillions and zillions of choices. And if you don’t make good choices, it can be very destructive. Bad choices blow up on you. Every choice is like a fork in the road, and once you make it, you really can’t go back to where you were.  What does it take to make good choices? It takes wisdom. And the book of Proverbs is perhaps the most famous text in the world on wisdom. If we look at Proverbs 1, we can see the basics: 1) what wisdom is, 2) why it’s important, 3) why it’s a problem, and 4) where you can find it. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 8, 2013. Series: Wisdom in Life. Scripture: Proverbs 1:1-9, 22, 32-33. 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 Gospel in life comm and sign up for email updates When you sign up you'll receive our quarterly journal and other valuable gospel centered resources subscribe today at Gospel in life comm GospelandLife.com. Tonight's scripture reading is from the book of Proverbs chapter 1 verses 1 through 9,

22 and 32 through 33. The Proverbs of Solomon son of David David, king of Israel, for gaining wisdom and instruction, for understanding words of insight, for receiving instruction in prudent behavior, doing what is right and just and fair, for giving prudence to those who are simple, knowledge and discretion to the young. Let the wise listen and add to their learning, and let the discerning get guidance. For understanding Proverbs and parables, the sayings and riddles of the wise, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction. Listen, my son, to your father's instruction, and do not forsake

your mother's teaching. They are a garland to grace your head, and a chain to adorn your neck. How long will you who are simple love your simple ways? How long will mockers delight in mockery, and fools hate knowledge? For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them. But whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease without fear of harm. The word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.

So for the first three weeks here after Labor Day, we're gonna do a real short series on the very first chapters of the book of Proverbs, which is the number one book in the Bible about wisdom. Now, if you live in New York City, one of the things that you see are choices. There are just zillions and zillions of choices. One of the reasons for that is that ‑‑ excuse me ‑‑ one of the reasons for that

is the density. You know, in the rest of the country there's 90 people per square mile living. 90 people per square mile living in the rest of America. In Manhattan there's 60,000 people per square mile. So if you have ‑‑ and that means more than just more restaurants. It means ‑‑ which is, you know, I don't know where to go out to eat, where to go out to eat. But you have all these other choices. Should I stay in the business I'm in? Should I get into a new career? Should I stay with this company? Should I move to another company? Should I go into business myself? Should I go to grad school? Where Should I stay with this company? Should I move to another company? Should I go into business myself? Should I go to grad school?

Where will I work after grad school? Where will I work after school? Should I marry this person or not? All the deals, all the collaborations, all the partnerships, because it's dense here, there's all these choices to make. And you know what? If you don't make good choices, it can be very destructive. Bad choices blow up on you.

Every choice is like a fork in a road and once you make it, you really can't go back to where you were. And if you make the wrong choice, you never really in a sense can go back. So what does it take to make good choices, especially in a place like New York, to live is to make good choices. What does it take? It takes wisdom. And the book of Proverbs is perhaps the most famous text in the world. Millions of people for thousands of years have looked to it for help and we're going to look for just three weeks

at it ourselves. Now, if we take a look at the very first few verses of the book, we're going to see the basics and what do we have here? What wisdom is, why it's important, why it's a problem and where to get it. Okay? What wisdom is, why it's important, why it's a problem and where you can find it. First of all, let's look at what wisdom is. And right off the bat, look at verse one and two, it says these are the Proverbs of Solomon for gaining wisdom. Well, what's the word wisdom mean? Well, one of the best ways to figure out what it means

is to look at the synonyms. Look at the other words that are used to describe wisdom right there in those first sentences. One of the synonyms is the word insight. Do you see this? For gaining wisdom, that's the first part of verse two, and for understanding words of insight. What's insight?

It's a Hebrew word, it's the word binah, and it's a word that actually means to notice differences, to see, find distinctions that other people can't see. Ever notice when a master detective walks into a crime scene, the master detective sees 20 or 30 clues and everybody else has just got two? That's insight. But by the way, insight doesn't just mean noticing 20 things when other people only see one or two. It also means to imagine. Wisdom and insight means to imagine 20 or 30 things where other people can only imagine

one or two. If somebody says, well, I'm in this situation and there's only two things I can do and a wise, an insightful person says, no, no, you've got about 15 things that you could do and here they are, and breaks it down. So wisdom is insight. It's the ability to see distinctions where other people just see a blur. Secondly, you have the word prudence.

Do you see that? First, receiving, this is verse three and four, for receiving instruction in prudent behavior. Verse four, for giving prudence to those who are simple. The word prudence translates to a Hebrew word that means practical. It means to know strategic. It means to know how to actually get things done. How to make a goal into reality. Not just to talk about it, but to actually bring it into reality. Or another way to say it, wise people are not just characterized by insight, but also by foresight.

They don't just diagnose the problem, they also know how to solve it. And then third, by the way, is the word instruction. Notice it says in verse two, for gaining wisdom in instruction, it's a kind of strange English word, it translated to Hebrew where it means means character, depth of character. Now, let's pull them all together. What is wisdom? One Old Testament scholar, Gerhard van Rad, who knew all about the wisdom literature of the

Bible said this, wisdom according to the Bible is competence with regard to the realities of life. Competence with regard to how life really works. Really works. So, for example, is wisdom knowledge? Well wisdom assumes knowledge. If you don't know anything about a subject, you can't be wise about a subject. So you can't be wise unless you know, but you can obviously know a lot about a subject and be stupid. Because wisdom is knowing what to do with the knowledge, how to practically use it.

Or, put it like this, is wisdom the same thing as being good and moral? Following the rules. Now according to the Bible, if God made the universe, and he did, so if there's a God who made the universe and you disobey him, you're not just being, to disobey the God who made the universe is not just wrong.

It's stupid. I mean, if there's a God and he made the universe and you disobey him, it's not just wrong, it's dumb. It's not gonna work. And so, according to the Bible, wisdom assumes that you're good, assumes that you're following the moral rules. But, it is quite possible to be very moral

and still be stupid. And do you know why? So, wisdom is not less than being good, it's more. But wisdom is not, it's more than just following the moral rules, you know why? Wisdom is knowing what the right thing is to do in the 80% of life situations to which the moral rules don't directly apply.

Like if somebody comes and says, well I've got these two jobs, okay, what is the ‑‑ I'm a Christian, I got these two jobs, what does the Bible tell me? Well, the Bible is filled with moral rules and they're both okay. It wouldn't be a sin to take either job. And yet if you take the wrong job, it will be a disaster. So you see why you can be very moral, you can be following all the moral rules and yet still not know the right thing to do in the 80% of life situations to which the

moral rules don't directly apply. So wisdom is, you got to be knowledgeable and you got to be good to be wise, but you can be both good and wise and still be really dumb. Wisdom is competence with regard to the realities of life. It's competence with regard to how life really works. That's the first point, that's what it is. Now, you begin to see why it's so important. Because down here in verse 32, it says,

for the waywardness of the simple will kill them. And the complacency of fools will destroy them. Now, that's saying that people without wisdom, the simple and the fools, are not just simply, it's not just unfortunate if you don't have wisdom, it'll kill you. It'll literally kill you. Why?

Well, let's take a look at this for a minute. First of all, let's look at these two words, the simple and the fool. Now these are two Hebrew words and they're used throughout the book of Proverbs. The simple is a word that means young, naive people who are too unrooted and unformed to make smart decisions because they're going with the crowd.

And by the way, those of, I've got to be careful here, I always put this, this is a particular form of foolishness that young people fall into. What is it? Notice it says the waywardness of the simple will kill them. Wayward means to go off the road. And the thing that often the road. And the thing that often really harms us when we're young is we care so much what our friends think. I mean, to be a teenager or young adult, the people that you like, to have them think you're not cool is the worst thing in the world. And because young people are so incredibly affected by what their friends think, they'll very

often go off the road. They'll be wayward because they're too concerned with what people think. They're too affected by what people think. Instead of doing the wise thing, they'll do the popular thing. And you're looking back, there are so many choices that people made when they were in this simpleton form. You look back on your younger years and you say, why did I ever think that would ever work?

Why did I think I would get away with it? Why did I think I wouldn't be found out? It was because I was blinded by the crowd I was with. And so that's one, the waywardness of the simple will kill you. But the other name, the other word, a fool, this is a Hebrew word that actually means almost the opposite kind of foolishness. Why? Well, the fool is a person who is wise in his own eyes. That's the characteristic of the fool in the book of Proverbs. And you

see a simple fool, you might say, a simpleton, is a young person who is too concerned about what people think. Whereas a fool, according to the book of problems, is somebody who doesn't care enough what other people think. That is, he's wise in his own eyes. By the way, just because it's so hard to go he, she, he, she, whenever we talk about fools here, I'm going to talk about

he, but I just want you to know, those of you who aren't he's, it could be you. I'm just like, it could be you. But anyway, the fool, he's wise in his own eyes and he's set in his ways. Here's a bunch of synonyms that one Old Testament professor put in his commentary. A fool is self-righteous, opinionated, stubborn, hard to persuade, gets his back up,

if you try to correct him, and despises correction. Now, there are opposites. The simpleton is a person too concerned about what people think. Whereas the fool is a person who's not concerned enough. The fools are people who don't listen to what others say, you can't talk to them, they're set in their ways, they're sure they know. But they're both out of touch with reality. See, wisdom is competence with regard to reality. Wisdom does the thing in the situation

that fits with reality as God has made it, basically. You know, God made the world in a certain way. It's his God's world, it's also a broken world because of sin, and a wise person figures, sees the created brokenness of the reality and says what is the wisest thing to do? Simpletons aren't in touch with reality, they're in touch with their friends.

Okay? Fools are not in touch with the reality, they're in touch with their own pride, their own dignity. They're sure they know, okay? But what it takes to be wise is to be in touch with reality. And fools, whether they're too open to what other people say or not open enough, are not in touch with reality.

So for example, here you have a situation, a really difficult situation. And you're in it with people, and here's the question, should I speak out, should I open my mouth, should I just tell them everything, should I confront, or should I open my mouth, should I just tell them everything, should I confront or should I let it go, should I let it be, should I not say anything? Now both of those things are perfectly right.

As we go through the book of Proverbs, you're gonna see that, there's two Proverbs that are almost back to back and I think it's in chapter 25 and it goes like this Answer a fool according to his folly or he'll be wise in his own eyes like the next verse is don't answer a fool in his folly Because he'll despise you so you read it and you say Okay, which is it eyes you see we don't know Christians do not know how to read the book of Proverbs because we look

at the book of Proverbs as if it's a bunch of rules, but it's not a bunch of rules. It's about wisdom, it's about how life actually works. And those two Proverbs next to each other are not contradictions. What it's trying to say is sometimes you ought to confront a fool and sometimes you shouldn't. And a wise person knows the difference.

Now here's the problem, almost all of us are not in touch with reality enough to know when to do it and when not to. Why? Point three. Point three is, here's why wisdom is such a problem. Some years ago, I read a really great article in the Atlantic Monthly with it was an interview with Jerome Kagan. Jerome Kagan

taught for many years at Harvard. He's retired and long retired. He's still alive, I believe. But he was like the child psychologist of his time later on it's called developmental psychology, very, very respected, brilliant man. And in the article he was being interviewed and he said that across 36 cultures now, with thousands and thousands and thousands of people studied, he says we now know that, I'm paraphrasing, I'm reading it, but paraphrasing it, that neurochemistry creates three basic habitual reactions to threats. So every one of us, no matter what the culture, there's three different ways that our neurochemistry has wired us to respond to danger or a threat or a problem. He says some people are wired for what he calls, some are

anxious, some are aggressive, and some are philosophical. He says, the anxious people, basically you're wired to instinctively say, let me out of here. When there's a threat, you say, just cut your losses, just get out, just go. He says the aggressive is when there's a problem you say, let me get in there and deal with it. You know, I'm gonna get it before it gets me. That's the aggressive part.

So he says, anxious people tend to be pessimistic, this is never gonna work, just leave. Aggressive people tend to be pessimistic and say, I can handle this, get in there and try to deal with it. The philosophical are wired to say something like this. Just calm down. Let's not do anything rash. No use getting bent out of shape. Let's wait and see. Okay? Now, Kagan goes on and says, do you realize that we're all wired for one of those responses.

One of those responses feels right. Feels absolutely right. Feels wise to you. It happens instinctively. It feels like the best thing to do. You do it almost without thinking. But he says, you realize that in most situations, your habitual response is inappropriate.

He says, anxious people are best in situations where danger is really high. You know why? Because the only way that you're going to actually survive is without spending a lot of time thinking about it to get out. So the anxious response is the best response for highly dangerous situations

and anxious people are the people who are most functional in that situation. He says aggressive people are best when it comes to mid-level danger. If the danger is kind of middle size, sometimes your confidence, I can handle this, actually sometimes makes, you know, pays off, but even if it doesn't pay off, it won't be lethal. He says philosophical

types are best in situations that look worse than they are. If you're in a situation and it's kind of looks dangerous but actually it's not, the philosophical say let's slow down, let's stop, and some situations are really not that bad, but if you act evasively like the anxious person or aggressively, you can actually make it worse. And so what Kagan says is you realize that whatever seems the most natural way for you to deal with threats is usually wrong. In the exact right spot, it's perfect.

But in many cases, it's inappropriate and kind of dysfunctional. In some cases, it's perfect. But in many cases, it's inappropriate and kind of dysfunctional. In some cases, it's absolutely lethal. 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. That's GospelInLife.com slash give. Now here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching.

Now what does that mean? And then Jerome Kagan goes on and says this, and this is just, this sounds right out of the book of Proverbs. Don't forget he was a child psychologist. He says, for the wise men of old, pardon me, modern, wrong quote, I'll get there. It's late and I'm old. From the article he says, modern parents have been taught that their children need to find themselves and be themselves.

But unless parents intervene, their children's natural temperament will dominate them and they won't learn how to act wisely in situations in which their habitual temperamental response is inappropriate. Good parenting will see the dark side of their children's temperament and will intervene showing them that they have to have a greater range of responses. These are all from the article. The point is, yeah, the aggressive have to realize you sometimes are to blame. The anxious have to realize that sometimes you aren't

to blame. The philosophical have to realize that sometimes things are really terrible. And so what parents need to go to with their children is they need to challenge the anxious to be bold, the bold to be anxious, the pessimistic to have hope, and the chronically sunny to worry more. Now, Proverbs, I told you this, this head at this point, I'm trying to show you why wisdom is such a problem. Proverbs chapter 22 verse 15 says, foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child.

You know what that means? We're all naturally foolish. Jerome Kagan says so. The way we're wired automatically makes us respond in habitual ways that are often inappropriate. They're out of touch with reality. They're in touch with our temperament.

They're in touch with our opinion. They're in touch with what the crowd says, but they're not in touch with reality. And fools, but they're not in touch with reality. And fools are people that are not in touch with reality. And Kagan says, foolishness is natural. Wisdom is acquired. If you're just yourself, you're going to be a fool. If your parents just let you be yourself,

you're going to be a fool. If your friends just let yourself be yourself, you're going to be a fool. And if you let yourself be yourself, you're gonna be a fool. If your friends just let yourself be yourself, you're gonna be a fool. And if you let yourself be yourself, you're gonna be a fool. You see the problem it is? And he's also right in saying that unless somebody,

listen, unless you learn wisdom, which takes years, it takes years of training, it takes years of humbling yourself, it takes years of not being wise in your own eyes, it takes years of being corrected yourself, it takes years of not being wise in your own eyes, it takes years of being corrected by people, and receiving correction, it takes years of being mentored, it takes years of being trained, of learning. We're gonna see all this, by the way,

in the next couple of weeks. Years of getting to know the word of God, getting to know God, getting to know your own heart. It takes years and years of pushing yourself out beyond your comfort zone, pushing yourself out beyond your comfort zone. Pushing yourself out beyond your natural temperament. Pushing yourself out, it takes years to develop and if you don't, you're gonna be killed,

you're gonna be destroyed. You're gonna make bad choices and they're gonna blow up on you. And also Kagan's right when he says, it's our culture. The culture is completely against us. The culture says you need to be yourself. The idea that you're supposed to fight against your temperament and not try to be yourself

and to learn wisdom, oh no. What the culture says is be yourself and if you've got a problem, find a technique. That's now, now let me get to the, C.S. Lewis has a quote from his book, The Abolition of man, which I just tried to read to you a minute ago. And Lewis says, if you want to summarize the difference between modern times and ancient

times, listen. He says, for the wise men of old, the cardinal problem had been how to conform the soul to reality and the solution was knowledge, self-discipline, and virtue. He says that's the ancient way. The ancient way is our problem is that we are not conformed to reality. How do we conform the soul to reality? And the answer is virtue and wisdom and change,

change yourself. But today, he says the problem is how to subdue reality to our wishes, that's what modern people want, and the problem is how to subdue reality to our wishes. That's what modern people want. And the solution is a technique. So for example, plenty of Christians who consider themselves not being influenced by their culture but being influenced by the Bible are more influenced by their culture in this area than they think. And I'll give you an example.

Over the years, I've had people so often come to me and say, I've got a big question, I've got a choice to make. It's I have to choose this or this, or I have to choose from this, this, or this. And I want to discern God's will. I want to know what God's will is. Well, that's very spiritual. It is, that's right.

I only want to do what God wants me to do, okay? So I would like to know, when you pray, how can you tell which of do what God wants me to do, okay? So I would like to know, when you pray, how can you tell which of the options God wants? In other words, is there a way to pray so that I can sense God showing me? So when I pray about this or this or this, do I, and I feel more peaceful

when I'm praying about this rather than this, is that God telling me? I mean, how do I discern God guiding me to show me what I should do? And my response to them is virtually never a very satisfying response to them at first, I hope, I hope later maybe it is. Because I always say, look, prayer is a very big part

of what it means to become a wise person. We'll talk about that again next couple weeks. what it means to become a wise person. We'll talk about that again in the next couple of weeks. But I said, you know, you need to, as far as the Bible's concerned, here's how you discern God's will. You become a wise person through years of training, through learning, through getting to know God,

getting to know the word, getting to know your own heart, going through suffering, being corrected by people, you've slowly, slowly, slowly become a discerning, insightful, prudent, wise person. And then when you've got a choice to make, choose the option that you think is best. Because when you come into me and say, well, I want to learn how in prayer I can sort of lay things out in front of God and find out what God wants.

That's a technique. That sounds very spiritual. Oh, I just want to know what God wants. In other words, it sounds very spiritual. It's a technique. You're doing exactly what your culture wants. Not to conform the soul to reality, but to basically conform the reality of the soul.

Not you make the change, but you find a technique that when you get into a situation, no, actually, I haven't spent years praying, I haven't spent years learning correction, I haven't had years of experience, I haven't had these things, I want a technique. Do you see the problem we've got? This is what wisdom is, being in touch with,

competent with regard to realities of life. The real problem is that we're all fools by nature. And if we don't learn the wisdom to make good choices, it's going to destroy us. So, how do we find that wisdom? Now, all we can do at this point is point to the next couple of weeks, but we have one verse here that tells us how to begin the search.

How do you find this wisdom? Here's how it begins. It's right there, in fact that's the word. Look at verse seven. This is one of the most famous verses in the Bible because it's repeated over and over again. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

Okay, here's the last thing I'm gonna tell you. Here's how you find wisdom. It's through paradoxical fear and the foolishness of grace. Paradoxical fear and the foolishness of grace. So first of all, paradoxical fear. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Don't you notice how strange it is that fear here

is obviously a positive thing? You and I would think of fear as negative. In fact, there's many places in the Bible that say fear is negative, right? The Bible says perfect love casts out fear. Fear is bad. The Bible says God has not given us a spirit of fear. So why is the fear of the Lord here

a positive kind of fear? Well, there's a negative and a positive kind of fear. You know what they are? There's two ways to be afraid in the presence of someone. The first way is you're afraid if you think they may hurt you or hurt you or say something mean to you. In other words, if you distrust the person, you really distrust that person.

They might say something really mean, they may do something to hurt you. So if you go into the presence of someone you really distrust, you can be kind of scared. But there's another way to go into the presence of someone and be afraid. Right after the first Lord of the Rings movie came out, a lot of the actors who were in the first movie were at a Barnes and Noble downtown. I can't remember where

it was exactly. It was downtown somewhere. One of the was there was Christopher Lee. Big talk, Christopher Lee. He plays Saruman in the Lord of the Rings, and he's in his 80s now. But he talked about one time running into, when he was a younger man, somewhere JRR Tolkien himself, whose works he just loved and revered. And he talked about the fact that he went all kind of trembling. And he said in his deep Christopher Lee voice, and he says, when he met Tolkien, he says,

and I almost knelt. Now, here's the point. When, you were in such awe of. Have you, haven't that ever happened to you? That you just start to tremble. But it's not, it's a positive fear, it's not a negative fear. See, there's, you can be afraid of, the negative fear is you're afraid that somebody's gonna hurt you,

because you distrust them. A positive fear is you're afraid you're gonna disappoint them, you because you distrust them. A positive fear is you're afraid you're going to disappoint them. You're going to dishonor them. You're going to grieve them or something because you love them so much, because you appreciate them so much, right? The negative fear is actually selfish. I'm afraid I'm going to get hit.

But the positive fear is actually all about the person. I don't want in any way to dishonor this person or bore this person or offend this person or certainly grieve this person. And that is the fear of the Lord. That is a fear that is a joyful fear. It's a positive fear. It's awe and wonder before him.

It's not being afraid he's going to condemn you. It's not being afraid that he's going to hurt you. You're afraid in a sense that you're going to grieve him. If I put in a priceless Ming dynasty vase in your hands that was beautiful and it was thousands of years old and worth millions of dollars, you might get scared. Why? Not because you're afraid it's going to hurt you.

You're afraid you're afraid it's gonna hurt you. You're afraid you're gonna hurt it. And the fear of the Lord is a joyful fear with such awe and wonder and such love that you don't wanna grieve him and you would do anything to avoid dishonoring him. Now if you had that kind of fear, do you realize how different that is?

How different that is from just believing in God. And do you realize that most people in the world are obeying God out of negative fear? Negative fear is I've got to obey God otherwise he's just going to hit me. But if you had the positive fear, if you had this joyful fear, do you realize what that would do?

It would make you wise. You know how? First of all, you wouldn't be simple. If you had this kind of relationship with God, if God meant this to you, if you had this sense of His love and His delight in you, if you wanted more than anything else to give love and delight to Him, then you wouldn't care what other people think. You wouldn't be a simpleton. You wouldn't be wayward then you wouldn't care what other people think. You wouldn't be a simpleton. You wouldn't be wayward. You wouldn't care what other people

think. But you also wouldn't be an obstinate fool because you wouldn't care what you think anymore. You wouldn't have that insecurity that needs to be right. You wouldn't be standing on your own dignity. There'd be a humility. There'd be an ease. There'd be an openness. The fear of the Lord, this positive, joyful fear of the Lord would be the very beginning of your wisdom. Well, how do you get that? The only way to get it is to be absolutely sure that God is not going to hurt you.

To be absolutely sure that in spite of your flaws, He will not condemn you. The difference between a converted person, a person with a new heart, a person who understands the gospel, and a person who's just knuckling under, is the difference between a person with a positive fear of God versus the negative fear of God, right? And how can you get that positive fear of God?

You've got to know that there is no condemnation for you. And the only way to do that is this. Put the book of Proverbs in the whole Bible. Put it in the context of the whole Bible. And in the Old Testament we know there's a negative and positive fear. But when you get to the New Testament, we learn there's also a negative and positive foolishness.

Negative foolishness we've been looking at. But there's a positive foolishness. St. Paul talks about it. It's the foolishness we've been looking at. But there's a positive foolishness. Saint Paul talks about it. It's the foolishness of the cross. It's the foolishness of Christ. It's the foolishness of grace. What does he mean when Paul talks about the foolishness of the cross?

Well you see, when Jesus Christ came to earth as the Messiah, and he says, I am the Messiah. I have come to bring the kingdom of God. Now, in the world's eyes, if you're coming to be the king and to clean this place up and to make everything okay again and to deal with evil and suffering and injustice, what would you do? You'd come as a general with an army

and you'd smite the evildoers or you'd come as a philosopher and you would convince everybody. And, but he goes to the cross and He and becomes weak and he dies on the cross and Paul says by the world standards. That's foolishness But they don't realize it's actually consummate wisdom and here's the reason why The reason that the world sees the crosses foolishness is that when we look at all the evil in the world everybody You know everybody's got a theory about what's wrong with the world. And if Jesus Christ had dealt with it, they would have come and hurt those people or those people. See, we all have a theory about what's

wrong with the world. And it's never us. It's never us. It's them. It's Democrats. It's Republicans. See? In other words, there's always a, what's really making this world a bad place is those people over there. We're wise in our own eyes. We're fools. And therefore, if Jesus Christ goes to the cross, it looks foolish, but it's consummate wisdom because only by going to the cross and taking our punishment, the punishment that we deserve, could God someday be able to end evil without ending us. Fools who are wise in their own eyes think the cross is foolishness,

it's actually wise. And Paul says, oh the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men. The weakness of God is stronger than the strength of men. And he says, if you want to become a Christian, you've got to become a fool. A fool for Christ. First of all, you've got to admit you have been a fool and you've been wise in your own eyes. And you have to embrace the foolishness of the cross and look like a fool to the world,

especially in a place like New York. But then you'll know there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. You know Psalm 130 verse 4? Psalm 130 verse 4, I'm going to say it again because I'm afraid I've said so many other things you're going to forget it in the massive stuff I've said. Psalm 130 verse 4 says, because you have forgiven me, because I see your forgiveness and grace, therefore I fear you." First time I read that I said, that doesn't make any sense at all because I was thinking of negative fear. But you see what it's saying?

When I see how gracious you are, when I see how good you are, when I see what you did to save me, when I see your grace and your goodness, it makes me tremble. I'm afraid. Afraid of grieving you, afraid of dishonoring you, afraid of disappointing you in any way. And when you have that joyful fear, it's the beginning of wisdom. Go get it. Let us pray.

Our Father, as we take the elements of your supper, the bread and the cup, these are things that the world sees as foolishness, but we know them as wisdom, and we pray that you would tell us again right now about the greatness of what you did for us so that we can increase in our joyful fear and become more and more wise like your Son

in whom all the treasures of knowledge and wisdom are hid. It's in His name we pray. Amen. 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 Gospelinlife.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. and the Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Cedric-Ced