Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Noah and the Nature of Faith

Episode Date: March 31, 2025

What is faith? What is it made of? How do you know if you have it? How do you lose it? How do you get it back? Hebrews 11 deals with all of these things through specific personal case studies of men and women who wrestled with issues of faith. I would suggest that it’s the easiest to understand the parts of faith as three layers, one of which comes first, then the others resting upon it. But the reality is it’s more complex than that. If you look hard enough at any one of these aspects, the other two are contained in the one. Yet all three are absolutely critical if we’re going to understand faith. Faith 1) begins with understanding, 2) which leads to conviction, but 3) completes itself always in commitment. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 11, 1994. Series: The Nature of Faith. Scripture: Hebrews 11:1-3, 6, 7. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. What makes the Christian lifestyle truly distinct? Many belief systems emphasize moral behavior, but Christianity offers something deeper, a radical transformation from the inside out. This month, Tim Keller is teaching on how the Gospel doesn't just modify our behavior, but completely reshapes our hearts. In your bulletin is printed the passage on which our teaching is based and the chapter on which the teaching will be based

at all the morning worship services all fall. Hebrews 11, I'm gonna read verses one through seven. Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith, we understand that the universe was formed at God's command so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible.

By faith, Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith, he was commended as a righteous man when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith, he still speaks, even though he is dead. By faith, Enoch was taken from this life so that he did not experience death. He could not be found because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. And without faith, it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him. By faith, Noah,

when warned about those things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith, he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. This is God's word. Now, we are going to spend all of the fall in this service, in the teaching of this service, examining this particular chapter of this particular book of this Bible. In the Bible you have the book of Hebrews, in the Hebrews you have the 11th chapter, and the entire chapter is on what is faith. What does it mean to have faith in God and in Jesus Christ? And it looks at faith in every possible aspect,

and it's certainly considered in many ways the locus classicus, the classic text, the main and best single spot in the entire Bible on the nature of faith. What is faith? What is it made of? How do you know if you have it? How do you lose it?

How do you get it back? How does it grow? How does it wane? All of these things are dealt with not only in some general statements which we're going to look at now, but best of all, through specific personal case studies, almost literally dozens of them. Case studies of men and women and how they developed and how they wrestled with the issues that have to do with faith. Now, right away, I think it's always important, if you've invested your time here this morning, to come and spend a few minutes with us, it's always important for me to answer the question that might come up, why do I need to know about this? Faith, that's kind of, it's interesting, it's kind of abstract, or maybe somebody says, well I have faith, I guess I've always had faith.

What's so important and what's so practical about it? Now, considered from an absolutely pragmatic standpoint, which I won't do, but considered from an absolutely pragmatic standpoint, faith is, there's nothing more practical than faith. An example that Kathy and I, my wife and I, can never really remember, never forget, we can never really get it out of our minds. When we lived years ago in the Richmond, Virginia area, we were, we knew of a family, we knew some people who knew a family, a Christian family. They were a young family, they had three little children. One day the mother was taking the three kids for a ride and she belted all three of them in

the back seat of her car. She was pulling out and then she remembered something and for some reason she had to leave the car and she ran back into the house and as she did it the car, they were out in a very, very, they were in a kind of farm, they lived on a sort of farm, the car drifted back down, started to roll back down the drive. It was a long drive, she couldn't stop it, she couldn't catch it. At the end of the drive was a lake, car went into the lake. Before they could get the kids out, all three of them had drowned. All three children. Thousands of people

marveled at this young couple because, first of all, to their surprise, they saw not really any bitterness toward God, but a sense that God was lovingly upholding them through it in the midst of that profound grief. And secondly, the mother in particular was able to navigate through the enormous boulders of guilt and self-recrimination that come to anybody who has just been through that. Did I say there was no anger? Did I say there was no guilt? No, I said. Thousands were astonished at the fact that they got through that. That they moved through it. that they clearly had a faith not

that made them exempt from those feelings but that just cut through those feelings like an icebreaker cuts through the ice. And they made it and they got through and they got through in great shape and today believe it or not they have three other children, three new ones. Now when you look at faith even in the most pragmatic way, you have to say it would be great to have something like that that could enable you to face what I would consider the ultimate. If you've got a faith that can face that, you can face the ultimate. Now what is it? Don't you see? It's a tremendously practical issue then. What is faith then? I want to give you an overview. In many ways today's the first an interview, pardon me, an interview. It's an introduction to our

whole fall. We're trying to be real careful today to end at a certain time to give you plenty of time to get to classes. Those of you who we're hoping to lure into those classes and after meetings. And today I'm going to try to give you more of an overview of what is to come through the rest of the fall. Because faith, as we read in this chapter, has three parts to it, has three aspects to it, has three layers. Now there's many ways to look at it,

how these three things interrelate. I would suggest to you, and this is how I'm gonna present it, that's the easiest to understand these three parts of faith as three layers, as three layers, one of which comes first and the others rest upon it. Now the fact is that the reality is that there's more, it's more complex than that. That there's a sense in which each of the three things

I'm about to mention to you are part of faith, but they're actually aspects. In other words, if you look hard enough, you'll see that if you look hard enough at any one of these aspects, the other two are in there. The other two are contained in the one. If you look at any one of aspects, the other two are in there. The other two are contained in the one. If you look at any one of them, the other two are there. And yet all three are absolutely critical if we're going to understand faith.

I would still suggest that we understand it as three layers. And I would like to give you a look at how the three all work together first, give you an overview, and then give you an introduction to how each of the three, what each of the three all work together first, give you an overview, and then give you an introduction to how each of the three, what each of the three is. Martin Luther, when he spoke about it, being who he was, gave them Latin names, those three aspects, notitia, assensis, fiducia. We're not going to do that. Instead, I'm going to say to you that faith has three aspects and you can understand it this way. Faith begins with understanding, which leads to conviction, but completes itself always

in commitment. It begins with understanding, it leads to conviction, but always completes itself in commitment. Understanding, conviction, commitment. Let me show you how that works. And I don't have to give you exotic illustrations. Faith development, the process of faith development, one of these things layered on the next, layered on the next, is absolutely necessary to live. There is essentially no demonstrable proof of anything except mathematical equations and therefore everything we do,

everything we know, everything we learn actually is, I hope to show you, the result of a faith development process. I'm not saying you can't know everything. I'm just saying there can't know everything. I'm just saying there's nothing except for mathematical equations that you can know without a certain amount without a faith development process and somebody might want to challenge me and afterwards we have a question answer time about what I just said about mathematical equations but don't challenge me too far because

I'm not a mathematician. Faith development is the way in which we do anything. Let me show you how it works in fourth, well, how do you find a surgeon if you know you have to have surgery? How do you choose a spouse? How do you find an auto mechanic for your car? How do you hire a new key member to your team? How do you do those things? They're all the same. Essentially, they're all the same. Here's what happens. Say you know you have to have surgery, you're going to find a doctor. First of all, there's a rational process. You get recommendations from people that you trust. You get opinions, you get references. You sift through the evidence. You sort out competing claims

and you decide which is the evidence, you sort out competing claims and you decide which is the best doctor for me, for this situation, for this. In other words, it's a rational process. There's reasoning that goes on. You don't just leap to a conclusion, you think about it. That's first. But then secondly, if you truly come to understanding, there's a point in which you have to go make a decision. If you've gone through the process that this is the right doctor, you see, at a certain point you have to decide this is the right doctor for me. There has to be a decision. But what we hate about faith development, what we like about mathematics, what we hate

about faith development is at that point in the process you've reasoned, you've taken all the references, you've thought it out, you have lots and lots of evidence that this is the doctor, this is the best person, this is the one to go to and you make a decision, you can only do that on the basis of probability. You can't know for sure yet. Faith hasn't completed itself until you move through that decision into commitment. What do I mean by that? You've got to make yourself vulnerable. You lay yourself out on the table. That's commitment. You let them put that thing over your mouth. You know that you're utterly and completely vulnerable. You made a decision on the basis of reason, but it was just probability. You couldn't know for sure until you make yourself vulnerable to that person. And after

you've done that, and you've rested in that decision, and you've lived out of that decision, and you actually put yourself in the hands of the mechanic, put yourself in the hands of the doctor, put yourself in the hands of your fiancé and actually marry. Only after you've done that can you ever be certain. Only after that can you be certain. If the person is trustworthy, then as time goes on the certainty grows. And that's the way it works. You understand, you reason to probability, but then you decide and you commit to certainty.

And faith only completes itself in certainty. So you see what's happened? You reason but you can never know anything simply through reason. You reason and then you have to commit. You have to live out of it. You have to rest in it. You have to stick to it. You have to follow through and then you come to certainty. That is the way in which people make decisions. That's the way in which you find things. People would like it not to have to be. People would like to think that simple reasoning can get you to certainty. It doesn't work.

This is the reason why some people never get married. Because they want to reason to certainty and then make the commitment. They want to be absolutely sure. This is the reason I'm sure that some of you in this room aren't married. They want to reason to certainty. They don't want to reason to probability and then commit to certainty. They don't want to admit that there's no way to know anything except through faith. And the faith has those three aspects, understanding, conviction,

and then finally commitment. Now, as I said, I'm going to move on and explain the details of the parts, but for a minute, let me stop and make my first practical application point. The first practical application point is do not, do not try to get out from under your responsibility to believe in God and in Jesus Christ by thinking of faith as a talent. You see, let me say that again, do not, don't you dare get out from under your responsibility to believe in God and Jesus Christ by thinking of faith as a kind of talent, as a kind of gift, as a kind of bolt. That's not how faith development works and you can't get around in life without faith development and you're using faith all the time. You're putting your faith in things all the time. Everything from the little things like mechanic for your car to the big things like how do

you decide on your career and how do you decide on a spouse to the very big things like how do you decide what's right and wrong and how do you decide what is your meaning in life and what you're going to live for. All those things are faith processes. Now it's so easy and it's very typical for people to say, oh you have faith, how nice, that's just not me. In other words, you can look at people with faith in Christ and you look at them the way a non-musical person looks at the great musician, or an unathletic person looks at the great athlete. I wish you'd say, I could hit a ball like that. It would be so nice. You might not really wish it, but you say, it would be nice if I could hit a ball like

that. That's just not me. It would be nice if I could sing like that. That's just not me. It would be nice if I could have faith in Jesus Christ. That's just not me. Scott Sherman showed me a book by a hot young writer, Douglas Copeland, I think his name is pronounced. He's written a book called Life After God.

And there's one page he showed me the other day, showed me yesterday, in which Douglas Copeland says sometimes he listens to radio programs in which he hears people talking about how Jesus has changed their life. And he says, you know, it sounds like it would be nice. He says, however, here's how I relate to it. It's as if somebody came from another planet to earth and a planet in which they didn't have sex. And I would sit down and try to explain to them the joys of sex and show them pictures.

They would look at it and say, can't relate to it. I guess it's great for you, but it's not me. I'm a Martian, you know, we don't have sex. Simple as that. And so Douglas Copeland says, and this is typical, people say, you have faith, it seems like your life is changed by Jesus. Isn't that nice? I wish I could hit a ball like that. I wish I could sing like that. It's just not me. This is utterly mistaken. It is utterly wrong. The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is not that Christians have faith and non-Christians don't. The difference between a Christian and a non-Christian is not whether you have faith, but where you put the faith you've got. Where you're building your life. What you're building your life on. The Bible does not call to the skeptics and say,

oh, you hard-nosed, skeptical people who don't live life with faith, but only on the basis of reasoning. Ah, yes. Oh, make the leap. Just make this great leap of faith and believe in Jesus. No, that's not what it says. What it says is this. It says there's instability and unhappiness in your life.

And you know why? It's because you have already put your faith in inadequate objects. You know what a bomb is? A bomb is something with an unstable compound in the center and that's why it blows up. You want to know why you're anxious and unhappy? Something is inside you which is unstable. You know what that unstable compound is? You have put your faith. How you decide where you get your meaning in life. How you decide what are the most

important things to live for. How you decide what is right and wrong. You've already put your faith, because you can't prove these things, you've put your faith on things which are inadequate. A pyramid upside down is very unstable. And for you to try to build the greatness of your life on the things that you are already believing in creates that instability. You're a bomb. If you haven't already gone off, you will. See? So the Bible doesn't say, oh, you poor people without faith, believe. Just take the leap. Take the flying leap and believe in Jesus. And it says, don't you dare get out from under your responsibility to believe by saying you don't believe, you do. It's where you believe. It's what you're believing in. That's the point. Now let me just give

you an overview, I just gave you the overview, let me give you an introduction, not of how these three things interrelate, but of how in terms of faith in Christ, what each one of these things really is. And it's going to be an introduction, because the beauty of a series and the beauty of an exposition through a book of the Bible is we're going to get back to each of these aspects several times in the next few weeks. But first of all, number one, and this will be brief, next week actually this is the one we'll open up. So don't be, if you feel like I didn't give it adequate treatment, you're right.

It comes back next week. First of all, faith is understanding. See what the text says, verse 3 says, by faith we understand that the world was not made, was made by the unseen God. By faith we understand that the visible things, nature, see the physical, was actually brought into existence by the unphysical, by the immaterial, by the supernatural, by God himself. Now you know what that word understand means? It's simply the old Greek word noane, from which we get our word noose. I mean, it has to do with the mind, it has to do with thinking, it has to do with reasoning.

When it says understand, it means by faith we conclude from the evidence. That's what it says. Are you holding onto a grudge or struggling to forgive someone in your life? Would you like to experience the freedom and healing that forgiveness brings? In his book Forgive, Why Should I and How Can I, Tim Keller shows how forgiveness is not just a personal act, but a transformative power that embodies Christ's grace to a world fractured by conflict. Far from being a barrier to justice, forgiveness is the foundation for pursuing it. In this book, you'll uncover how forgiveness and justice are

deeply intertwined expressions of love and how embracing Christ's forgiveness equips us to extend grace to others. We'd love to send you Dr. Keller's book, Forgive, as our thanks for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the hope and forgiveness of Christ with more people. Visit gospelinlife.com slash give to request your copy. That's Gospelonlife.com slash give. Now, here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Now, you say, what does that mean? Here's what it means. I was reading a book last year on philosophy of science, and there was a tremendously interesting article in which it said that scientific theories are not established by induction strictly.

Rather it says when a scientist noticed, for example, that particles react in a certain way. What the scientists do to figure that out why is they posit a theory. In other words, they start with a premise. They say let's start assuming that this is the case. Does that explain the phenomenon? Let's test out the theory. In other words, they start with faith. In other words, what this essay was saying is that's how scientists understand anything.

They start with faith. They take a theory. They take a premise, something that hasn't been proven. That's the idea. They start with a premise and they say, does this account for what we see? Does this make it coherent? Does this lead us to expect what actually is happening? In other words, by faith is the way

we understand anything, scientifically. You start with a premise, you start with a faith spot, and then you say, does this help us understand? Then you test out and the theory that best explains what's out there becomes the reigning theory. How do we decide where the universe came from and where life came from? The same way. Everybody who's ever addressed the question, where did life come from?

How did organic life happen? How did the universe happen? You either you start with a premise. The premise is not something you can prove to start with. You either say, well, let's start with a premise that there is no supernatural. You can't prove that. Nobody can prove that. That's an assumption. Now if you start with that as a premise and say, does that make sense to the universe? That is a way to try to justify the theory. That's a way to understand the universe. And that's the way the average secular intellectual,

it's the reigning way people look at the universe now. But here's what a Christian is. And this is what the text is telling us. Christians are people who decide that from the premise of no God, the universe is not understandable, it's not coherent, it doesn't account for what's there. And the only rational and reasonable way to account for what we see is by starting with the faith premise that there's a God who created it. Now, we'll look at that next week, but I want

you to see that when it says by faith we understand, it doesn't mean, oh, here are the hard-nosed people who look at the universe without faith, and here's Christians who look at the universe with faith. In spite of the evidence, I believe God created everything. That is not Christianity. And if you say you have faith, and what you mean by that is because my parents raised me this way, I believe that God created the universe in spite of the fact that all the evidence is to the contrary, that's not faith at all. That's not faith.

That's brainwashing. That's obscurantism. That's anti-intellectual. And that's not faith. That's brainwashing. That's obscurantism. That's anti-intellectual and that's not faith. See, real briefly, I'll just put it to you this way. A Christian is somebody who looks at the universe and thinks like this. A Christian looks and says, okay, if there is no God, then there's less mathematical chance of organic life just springing out of inorganic life. Then there is a chance that an explosion in a print factory would produce the Gutenberg Bible.

Now that's true. So Christians look at the world and say, does that premise that there is no God really make sense of what I see? No! Or, another way, Christians start and say, if there is no God, that means everything is an accident. And even though all human beings universally believe, for example, that genocide is morally wrong, there's no basis for that.

It's not true. Though all human beings deeply believe there's a difference between violence and compassion, that's not true. It's all random, it's all chemical, it's all molecules. Does that make sense? A Christian says, if there's no God, does that premise make sense of what we know and what we see? No!

A Christian is not somebody who says, I believe against the evidence. A Christian is one who says, unless I believe in God, what I see out there does not make sense. There's reasoning, there's rationality. That's how faith has to begin. Let me make my second practical point before we move on. This means the Bible calls you, when it calls you to believe, it calls you to start thinking in many cases,

let me say this respectfully for the first time, most people do not disbelieve out of thinking. They disbelieve because it's not radical, it's not relevant, it's not cool, it's not hip, it's not in. That's emotion. I'll put it to you this way. Christians are people who usually, in many cases, have become Christians because they've been forced to think. It is anti-intellectual to say what I often get from people, and maybe somebody's thinking this out there right now. You say, you know, I'm in pain.

I've got a hard life. I came to church today hoping I would get something practical to know how to deal with the hard life I've got, how to make these hard choices, how to deal with this awful relationship. I need some strength, I need some inspiration, I need something practical, not arguments for the existence of God. And here's what Christianity says. Okay, you're in pain. But let me ask you a question. How in the world do you think you're going to make a decision about how to make these decisions in life unless first you decide whether you're an accident or whether you are the creation of a designer personal God? Don't you see that if you're an accident and it all happened by accident or if God created you

it utterly affects everything else you do. You can't make a single move without presuming one or the other. Nobody can do anything without starting one place or the other. It's ridiculous to say I don't have to know whether I'm an accident or whether I was designed with a purpose to decide whether to sleep with this guy or not, whether to go to college and do this career or what, how to deal with my depression. I want something practical. I don't want to have to think about things like that. Christianity says you have to think

or you're not going to be able to make intelligent decisions about daily choices. Christianity is not for lazy minds. Faith is not a matter for lazy minds. It's not saying, oh, I'm the person who doesn't want to think, so I just want to believe. Christianity says for the first time in your life, start thinking maybe. Maybe. Christianity is not escapism. Everything else is escapism that says I can make a decision about these values and I don't have to figure out whether or not there's a God or not, whether or not

the universe makes sense or not without God. I don't have to figure out whether or not there's a God or not. Whether or not the universe makes sense or not without God. I don't have to want to think of the implications of my decision, which many people have made, that there is no God or we can't know if there's a God and therefore the universe should be seen as an accident. You don't want to live with the implications of that. It's anti-intellectual. I'm getting agitated. I'm not mad.

I'm getting agitated. I'm not mad. I'm concerned. Faith is understanding. By faith we understand. Faith is thinking. Gird up the loins of your mind, says the Bible. Remember, if you want to be a Christian, gird up the loins of your mind. Get your mind together. Get your thoughts together.

Stop just acting on impulses. Don't be an animal just going on instincts, don't be a machine just a matter of your programming, think. Secondly, secondly, faith is conviction. Now here's what that means. You notice it says in verse one, and this is just a fascinating little phrase, and it's always translated differently. It says here, now, faith is being sure of what we hope for.

And I'm looking at the second phrase, certain of what we do not see. Now the Greek words, this is one of those places where the exact Greek words are pretty important to understanding the meaning. It literally says, the conviction of the pragmaton, past events. Living by faith means I am convicted personally to live in line with past events, things that no longer are in front of me, but things I know affect me. That's what it means. In other words, first of all, this means that a Christian is not somebody who says, is a person who has moved beyond saying, I believe in there's a God. I know the evidence is there.

I realize that life doesn't make sense on naturalistic, non-supernaturalistic assumptions. In other words, a Christian is not somebody who simply believes intellectually in God, in Christ, that he died, that he was raised. A Christian is somebody who says, if that's true, it changes the way I am. It changes the way I live. A Christian, you have not come to faith if you simply intellectually assent to things. But at some point you have to say, wait a minute, if this is true, if Jesus really did these things, if he did die on the cross for me, if he was the Son of God born as a human being, if the incarnation, if the atonement, you see, if the resurrection, if they're true, you get personally convicted, that changes the way I am now.

That's what it says the life of faith the life of faith is living in light of Being controlled by what he did by what Jesus did by those great events that the gospel proclaims Son of God born as human being died on the cross for our sins raised on the third day Born as human being, died on the cross for our sins, raised on the third day. In other words, a Christian is somebody who says, if he's the king, I can't live as if I'm the king, and I am, and I'm just going to stop. A Christian is somebody who says, if he died for my sins, why am I crushed under guilt?

On the one hand, because if he died for my sins, I don't have to be crushed with self-hatred and guilt. on the one hand, because if he died for my sins, I don't have to be crushed with self-hatred and guilt. But on the other hand, if he died for my sins, how in the world can I live in this kind of behavior since he died to get me out of it? So, a Christian is somebody who draws a line from what happened, that which we don't see right in front of us. Instead of going on appearances, instead of simply living in the present, a Christian is somebody who is controlled by what happened. Now Paul gives a great example of this, and I'll just give one perfect and classic illustration, but it just shows how the life of faith is not at all a matter of brainwashing. It's

not closing your eyes and just acting in a certain way. It's a deeply rational process, but it goes beyond reason. Faith is not less than reasoning. Faith is not less than thinking, but it is much more. Faith is not less, but it's far more, and here it is. Paul tells us about a story, something that happened in Galatians, in his letter to the Galatians, in his letter to the Galatians. He tells us that he had an argument with Peter.

What the argument with Peter was? Peter and Paul were both Jews. Jews had traditionally been taught that Gentiles could not be pleasing to God, and they couldn't be pleasing to God because of their practices, the way they ate, the way they handled life, the way they did things, and because of their lack of pedigree. They weren't of the right people. Because of their pedigree and because of their practices, they weren't clean, they weren't pleasing to God. But in Acts chapter 10 and 11, we know that God showed Peter something remarkable. Peter believed in Jesus Christ, and

God, by converting and bringing to Jesus Christ Cornelius the Centurion and his family, a Gentile group, right before Peter's eyes, he showed Peter that we do not become pleasing to God either by our pedigree or by our practice, but through faith in Christ. Because when we believe, we are united to Christ. How much faith do you need if you are falling off a cliff and you see a branch sticking out of the cliff? How much faith do you need in the branch to save you? Do you need complete certainty? You say, I'm not even worried.

Yes, I know, it's 70 stories down. But there's this branch. No sweat. I'm not even sweating. Yes, look at this. I'm three feet now falling down, but I can still reach that branch. Is that the kind of faith you need for it to save you? No. You need just enough faith to grab it. And if it holds you, you will know it's not the strength of your faith, but it was the truth of your faith that saved you. It was the strength of the branch. And when you grabbed it, your faith united it to its strength. Jesus' pedigree is perfect. Son of God, pretty good family. Jesus' practice was perfect.

He lived a perfect life, and He died a death to pay for our sins. When you unite with Him by faith, not perfect faith, not strong faith, but the truth, if you unite with Him by faith, that pedigree becomes yours. You are as acceptable as if you were from that wonderful family. You're in the family. His practice, his life, his death, everything he paid for, everything becomes yours. When Peter realized that, he began to eat with the Gentiles. He realized, I'm not saved. People are not saved by their pedigree or by their practice. They're saved by faith when that faith unites them to Jesus. But old prejudices die hard and some people came to Peter and said,

how could you be eating with those unclean Gentile dogs? Yeah, they're Christians, but they're still Gentiles and he stopped eating with them. And Paul looked at him at one point and he said, in Galatians 2, he said, I face down Simon Peter because he was not, his behavior, he says, quote, was not in line with the gospel. Do you want to know what it means to live a life by faith? It means you're continually looking at what Jesus did. Are you saved sheerly by grace?

Are you saved sheerly by what he did? His life is death and all that? Then what you're constantly looking at is you're looking at yourself and saying, are my feelings in line with the gospel? Is my behavior in line with the gospel? Is my thinking in line with the gospel? Look, I'm depressed. Is that in line with the gospel? I feel guilty. I feel terrible. Is that in line with the gospel?

I'm proud. I've looked down my nose at other people. Is that in line with the gospel? That's the life of faith. That means Christianity is not. A bunch of rules. Does the Bible say that racism is a sin? Yes. But why? Just an abstract violation of a rule? No. Racism is a sin because it's not in line with the gospel. We're all sinners saved by grace. Pedigree doesn't mean anything. We all should be lost, but we're all saved, those of us who believe. Pedigree means nothing.

There's a doctrine that some of you have heard. The Bible teaches, I believe, you can't lose your salvation. Why? Just because the Bible teaches it, yes. But because to believe that you can lose your salvation once you have your salvation, that belief is not in line with the gospel. If you didn't earn it, how can you unearn it? If you didn't earn it by being good, how can you unearn it by being bad?

Everything, everything, the life of faith is not a matter of, here's a bunch of abstract doctrines, I've got to believe them in spite of the evidence. Here's a bunch of abstract rules, I've got to stick with them in spite of the evidence. No! Once you see that this is coherent, then you say, because of what Jesus Christ did, I am certain of the things, you see. I am convicted by those things which happen, and I live my life out of it. Okay, lastly, and this is the one that we'll probably talk about most in the fall, faith is not simply understanding and conviction.

Then you have to live it out in commitment. And I've already started talking about that, have I not, under conviction? But I just, just to say this, you cannot know the certainty of anything without commitment. I know we hate that. Modern people want to be certain before we commit, but you can only be certain after you commit. But I want you to realize that you can't avoid commitment. If you don't believe in God, if you're living your life as if there is no God, if you're living your life as if there is no judgment day,

if you are living your life as if God is not going to judge you for what you've done. If you're going to live your life as if Jesus Christ did not die for you. If you're living your life like that, that's a commitment. You are betting your life that he's not a judge. You're betting your life that there is no Christ. You're betting your life there is no God. You don't know that? You're waging your entire life and your entire destiny on a faith premise.

I'm not saying that's wrong. I'm saying it's the only way to live, but I want you to know what you're doing. Christians are people who have thought things out. They haven't picked up their religion by going to religion 101 at school and seeing everybody ridicule Orthodox religion saying, boy, I don't want to be stupid. That's not thinking. That's emotion. Christians are people who've thought out what it means to believe. They realize if Jesus did what those things, the things that he said he did, he is now convicted, he or she, a Christian is convicted,

that I'm going to live in line with that. And the more you live out of that, and the more you commit to that, and the more you rest in that, and the more certain you will find that He is who He said He is. Are you ready to do that? Can you do that? Christian friends, live the life of faith. None of us do it like we should. Ask yourself, is what I'm doing in line with the gospel? Those of you, my friends, who don't know whether you're Christians or not, or maybe you thought you were Christians before you came today and now you're wondering, don't stop thinking and exploring and digging until you come to the place where you can say, I am certain of the things that I don't see.

I know these things to be true. Let's pray. Our Father, we ask that it be possible that everybody in this room might now or at some time come to see what it means to say, I don't believe like I should, but help my unbelief. And Father, by beginning, by admitting we don't believe, by admitting that, we take the first step toward real belief, toward real faith. I pray that all of us will take more steps today, in the next few minutes, in the next couple of hours, that everybody in this room

will bring their lives more in line with these truths and will find that they are growing in faith and in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ in whose name we pray. Amen. Thanks for joining us here on the Gospel in Life Podcast. It's our hope that today's teaching encourages you to go deeper in your prayer life. We invite you to help others discover this podcast by rating and reviewing it. And to find more great gospel-centered content by Tim Keller, visit gospelinlife.com.

Today's sermon was recorded in 1994. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.