Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Search for Values

Episode Date: May 13, 2024

A Newsweek cover story said that after a 30-year spree, our entire society is waking up with a monstrous hangover, facing a values vacuum. It said that we realize unlimited personal freedom is not the way to build a society, but now we face the question of whose values we should use. If you think the Bible’s answer to the values vacuum is simply “Let’s get back to traditional values,” you don’t understand how penetrating and nuanced and sophisticated the biblical answer is.  What is the biblical answer to the search for values? Psalm 19 tells us three things: 1) so-called “moral values” must be based on universal moral absolutes, 2) submission to God’s moral absolutes do not enslave—they liberate, and 3) God’s moral absolutes will destroy you unless they have assumed the right role in your life. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 17, 1993. Series: Modern Problems; Ancient Solutions. Scripture: Psalm 19. 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. Many today have elevated skepticism to such an extent that belief in God can seem almost unimaginable. But many of the human longings that characterize the ancient world are still the same today. We all still desire meaning, happiness, and a strong identity. Today, Tim Keller is speaking on how the Christian faith can address the problems and satisfy the longings of the modern heart. The heavens declare the glory of God. The skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech. Night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into

all the earth, their words to the end of the world. In the heavens he has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other. Nothing is hidden from its heat. The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right,

giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, more than pure gold. They are sweeter than honey than honey from the comb. By them is your servant warned. In keeping them, there is great reward. Who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins. May they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless. Innocent of great transgression,

may the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my Redeemer." God's Word. Now, last year in the magazine Newsweek there was a cover story, I think it was written by Joe Klein, on what was called the values vacuum. And on the front, on the cover, there was the headline, whose values? It was over an angry face, you know, whose values? And inside the essay was, I think, a fairly good essay. And to actually quote a couple of its phrases, it said, after a 30-year spree of unlimited personal freedom, after a 30-year spree of sneering at all the old values

of self-control and chastity and honesty and thrift and modesty and self-denial, after a 30-year spree, Joe Klein said, our entire society is waking up with a monstrous hangover and now facing the values vacuum. Now that's actually a great metaphor, great image. The picture of an entire society that's been out partying all night and now is waking up with a monstrous kind of cultural hangover. And in it he says in the 60s and 70s we were we binged on sex and drugs and we woke up

to addiction, to unwanted babies, to disease. In the 80s, we binged on materialism and we woke up to debt. And so the question is, since everybody realizes that unlimited personal freedom is not the way to build a society, now we face a vacuum and the question that comes up is, whose values do we use? A great vacuum. Now, the answer to the question, I'd like to look at here in the passage that we have just read, Psalm 19 in the scripture. But if you think that the Bible's answer to the value vacuum is simply, let's get back to the Ten Commandments. Let's get back to traditional values. Let's get back to that.

If you think that's all it is, you don't understand how penetrating and how nuanced and how sophisticated the biblical answer is. What is the biblical answer to? The search for values, the values vacuum. Let's look at what this particular psalm tells us, and I would only like to point out, there's actually a lot in here,

but there's three things that the passage says that we're going to look at today. The first thing that we're taught is that so-called moral values, quote unquote, so-called moral values must be based on universal moral absolutes. So-called moral values have got to be based on universal moral

absolutes. Here's what I mean. The word values has a slant to it. When Newsweek actually asked the question whose values should be used they were already biasing the answer. Because the word value is a subjective word. You value something by assessing its worth and assessment of worth especially economic worth, is always relative to the individual. So for example, what is this painting worth to you? It's probably not worth it to you

as much as it's worth to me. That's why we have auctions. We find the person to whom it's worth the most and we make them buy it. That's what an auction's all about. For me, I would never bid on it. It's worth nothing to me. See, valuing is relative and it's subjective and it comes out of the emotions.

And you see, right now in our society, we use the word values to refer to morals all the time. And I think the reason for that is because since the early 70s, most of us, or many of us have been exposed to courses of instruction in public schools and private schools and colleges called values clarification. And values clarification is based on the assumption that all morals and all morality arises out of emotion. It's all a product of the emotions and the feelings

and the subjective. So for example, just the other day I went and looked at a values clarification book, and here's one exercise you do with fourth graders. You ask them questions. What's your favorite kind of ice cream? Do you like yogurt? What do you think about sex outside of marriage?

What's your favorite baseball team? Same set of questions. What's the assumption there? And supposedly that's a very neutral approach. It's not at all neutral. There is no such thing as a neutral approach to anything. And what they were really doing is they were saying that all morals, all morality, is on the same level of whether or not I root for the Phillies or the Toronto Blue Jays.

It's the same thing. It's an emotional thing. The Bible says no. If that's what you base your moral values on, you're in a swamp. You're in quicksand. The Bible says the law of the Lord is perfect. The law of the Lord is altogether righteous.

Now what's that mean? In English, the word righteousness, unfortunately, what's that mean? In English, the word righteousness, unfortunately, what does it mean? The English word righteous means today. It means condescending, looking down your nose, righteous people, look down their nose. But the Hebrew word that's here means something else. The Hebrew word actually means a straight-edge tool.

You can't build a building. You couldn't build one 3,000 years ago, You can't build a building. You couldn't build one 3,000 years ago, you can't build one now. You can't build something without a straight edge tool. What's a straight edge tool? It's an instrument for measuring what you do. It's an instrument that is not your own judgment. You know, for example, just a quick example,

how many people do you think there are here? Don't tell me. You know that there's almost a third, let's see, there's basically probably about 160 people here. And there's probably about 600 people in the morning service. Most people, when they look out here, if you just use your naked judgment, it looks like the morning service, the whole floor is packed and it looks like the four o'clock service, there's nobody here. But the fact of the matter is, you're floor is packed, and it looks like the four o'clock service, there's nobody here. But the fact of the matter is, you're about as one, you know, this is about a third of the number of people,

maybe, not a third, but say 30%. There's a lot more people here right now than it looks like. There's so many ways, there's so many ways in which the naked eye, the intuition, the hunch can't be judged. You don't build a building and look at a joint and look at a corner and say, it looks straight to me. You get a straight edge. You get some kind of standard that is not your judgment, something that's external to you, something that's perfect, that's unchanging, that's specific.

Now, how do you make moral decisions? You need a straight edge. What is your straight edge? Well, most modern people use the three E's. One of the three E's. You know what the three E's are to make decisions? One is expectations. How do you make moral decisions? What do other people think?

What do, what does the Gallup poll say? What do the experts say? What does my peer group say? You know, what do most experts say, what does my peer group say, you know, what do most people say, expectations. Number two, the second E is you can use your emotions. It can't be wrong if it feels so right. I heard it on the radio once, that's what it said. Emotions, it feels right.

The third way you make moral decisions is expectations and emotions, and if you'll admit it, the third E is ease. We tend, very often, to make moral decisions as expectations and emotions and if you'll admit it the third E is ease. We tend very often to make moral decisions not on the basis of what we think is right or wrong but which way is the way of least resistance, which way is the way of least confrontation, right? Which way is the way of least effort? Many of us will admit that we see these decisions and you know which one should we take and we're in doubt, so we take the one... Expectations, emotions, ease. That's not a straight edge.

You need something much more specific than that to make moral decisions. Because those things don't... those things are always changing. Those things are shifting around all the time. Well, somebody says, you don't need a moral code. There's a school of thought that says, the only thing you need in order to make moral decisions is love, that's all you need. There's a whole system of ethics called situation ethics, and it's pioneered by a man named Joseph Fletcher. And what Fletcher said, and what that school of thought says is you don't need a moral code,

a bunch of absolute regulations in order to make these decisions. All you've got to do is you've got to just always do the loving thing. That's all. Just do the loving thing. That's the only straight edge you need. That's not true. It's not specific enough. Look, have you ever met up, what if you met up with somebody who said, you know, every time my child talks back to me, I beat him until he bleeds. And you say, why? Well, it's loving. I mean, I wouldn't want my child talks back to me, I beat him until he bleeds. And you say, why? Well, it's loving. I mean, I wouldn't want my child out of control.

I want him to be courteous. It's loving to do that. And you look at that person and say, well, how do you define love? And don't you see what you're doing? What you're really admitting is that love is a contentless word, unless you've got some kind of specific code that defines it, plenty of people have lied to everyone in the name of love,

have lied to their whole country in the name of love. Love isn't a straight edge, your emotions aren't a straight edge, the Gallipoll isn't a straight edge. What would it be? And the Bible says, you will be in a complete morass and a complete swamp unless you are willing to base all moral values on moral absolutes. The Bible says the law of the Lord, the ordinances of the Lord, the precepts of the Lord are altogether righteous. In other words, here's the doctrine. The Bible says the law of God,

the Ten Commandments, is not a set of abstractions. It's not an abstract code of conduct. It is actually just the delineation of God's own moral excellence. It's the delineation of his own glorious goodness. And therefore, it is also a description of your own humanity and the reality that this great Creator has created. Let me give you a quick example of how this works. Ask somebody, do you believe lying is bad? Let's be real, real, real concrete, because I know a woman like this. Here's a woman who's an eighth grade teacher, and she's an eighth grade teacher in a public school in an inner city community where the kids lie like crazy, they

cheat like crazy, they skip school like crazy, they're low achievers, their lives are headed for a dead end. So she wants to convince them that lying is bad. How shall she do it? Well, somebody says, what you tell people is lying is bad because it hurts your conscience. You can always get over that. These eighth grade kids will sit there and say, I know the teacher's stupid because I remember in sixth grade when I used to lie, I used to bother my conscience. Now it doesn't bother at all.

I've learned I've gotten over, I've overcome it. All right, what shall she say? All right, she should say, you shouldn't lie because lying isn't loving to people. But don't forget what we just said, is you can define love any old way you want. And a lot of people have lied in the name of love. As a pastor, I don't know how many times, especially when I was in the South, when people were dying, dying, the doctor had told the family, you know, your mother, your father, your son

is gonna die, and the family would not tell the person they were gonna die. And I used to, as the pastor, I used to sit there and say, you have got to tell this person they're gonna die. They've got to get their houses in order. They've got to treat you as if they're gonna die. They have a lot of things, we can't do it. It wouldn't be loving.

In other words, love has no content. That's not good enough. I couldn't convince them. If I just said it wouldn't be loving. If the only reason I said it's unloving to lie, if that's my only basis for trying to convince those families to tell their family member the truth, I couldn't have gotten anywhere. They can define it any way. What if I said it's against your conscience? I would have gotten anywhere. Here's another one. Let's just say lying is wrong because it's bad for society.

Now this is true. It's true. If everybody lies, and by the way, the communists knew this because one of the reasons why communism fell down was because everybody lied. When you turn on the TV and you watch the news you knew they were lying. You see, whenever you went to, people were taught to lie everywhere and basically the economy can't work, the civil government can't work. It's true,

lying is bad for society, it's terrible for society, but you think that will help those eighth graders? You know, I can just see the eighth graders sitting there going, okay, let me get this straight. If I cheat on the next test, all the civilization will come crashing down around my head. Come on, I can get away with it. It's not gonna hurt anything. When you base your moral values

on anything but moral absolutes, the nature of God, the way things are, if you base it on conscience, if you base it on feelings, if you base it on the three E's, if you base it on some contentless idea of love, if you base it on social utility, first of all your theory is theoretically shallow. It doesn't explain things. It says if everybody lies society won't work. But why won't society work? Why? See, the Bible goes deeper than the social theories.

The Bible says here's why it won't work because God tells the truth. And because he's a truth teller, the world that he created doesn't work if you lie. Because he's a truth teller, he created a reality so that when you lie, you set up strains in the structure of life that will lead to breakdown. That is a theory that is adequate, it's deep. Any other way of talking about why lying is wrong doesn't go deep enough, doesn't explain why. It's theoretically inadequate, not only that, it's pragmatically.

Any other way of basing moral values is pragmatically ineffective. Nobody is going to stop lying if all you do is say, oh, it's not loving, it'll hurt society. The only proper moral restraint is to be able to say to somebody, God tells the truth, and God has therefore built your heart and built our society and built the world for truth tellers. And if you don't tell the truth, as it says in Proverbs 1.18, and I quote, those who lie, wait in ambush for their own blood. Isn't that a telling point, a telling vivid image? Proverbs 1, 18 says, those who lie and cheat are lying and wait for their own blood. They're waiting

to ambush their own lives. That's why you don't lie. It's wrong because it's based on a universal moral absolute. It's based on the nature of God and the fabric of reality and you lie and wait for your own blood. There is no other way of grounding people in values than that. Grounded in social theory, grounded in your emotions, grounded in your feelings. Everybody will just run on by, everybody will laugh in your face. And therefore the Bible says, the only straight edge is that which issues from the Lord. Moral absolutes that issue from the Lord, it's of the Lord. Now let's move on, but just one quick point.

If you don't admit that there are moral absolutes, you're in such an impossible situation, such an unbelievably impossible situation. Here's Newsweek Magazine, right? And on the cover it says, whose values? And when you got into the into the magazine, it kept on saying, since all values are personal, since all values are personal and therefore relative, your values aren't my values and my values aren't your values, how are we going to have a society? Since it's wrong to impose your values on other people, how are we going to have a society? Since it's wrong to impose your values on other people, how are we going to find a common set of values

on which to base a society? That was the question. Well, there's all sorts of incredible contradictions in there. If all values are more, are personal and relative, why is it wrong to impose your values on other people? As soon as you start talking about tolerance being something that we must all observe,

you have just described a universal absolute that everybody has to obey whether or not it's something you feel or not. Where do you get the basis for that? We do this almost every week. But a moral relativist is an impossible position to be in. People don't operate rationally. People don't want to think logically. And if you try to show a person who says, everybody has to work out their own values. Relativist is an impossible position to be in. People don't operate rationally. People don't want to think logically.

And if you try to show a person who says, everybody has to work out their own values. Everybody has to come to their own conclusions. All values are relative. I mean, you can, logically, that person doesn't have a leg to stand on. Just ask them this. Is your statement that all morals are relative,

relative itself? Is your statement that everything's relative, relative? isn't if you say no it's not what makes you immune to your own principle see on the other hand if it is it's a meaningless statement it means that Christianity could be true the fact is moral values have got to be grounded in moral absolutes or we live in an impossible situation. The law of the Lord is perfect. The ordinances of the Lord are absolutely righteous.

Second thing, not only does it tell us here that moral values are based on moral absolutes. Now this is kind of a brief point, but we've got to point it out. Secondly, submission to God's moral absolutes do not enslave, they liberate. It says the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The precepts of the Lord, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.

The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. One of the central tenets of modern philosophy is that it's oppressive and it's enslaving to submit to somebody else or some other body of values. Every human being needs to be free to fashion his or her own set of moral values. And therefore, to have to submit to something is oppressive.

For example, I was reading a quote where Martin Luther said, he was looking at a passage of the scripture, and he says, I don't understand that. He's talking about a passage of scripture. I don't understand that, he said, and I don't like it. But he says, I must not use my natural reason to criticize or explain away any part of the Bible. Eugh!

You know, that's suicide, academic suicide, intellectual suicide, that's moral enslavement, says the modern person. If something doesn't make sense to me, if something doesn't seem right to me, then I've got to be free, otherwise I'm enslaved. The Bible says not at all. If you submit yourself to the moral absolutes of God, it actually brings liberation. And here's why. It says the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.

Let's put it this way. The Bible teaches us, and common sense teaches us, that real freedom is always found in restrictions. Real freedom only happens when you find the right restrictions. Why does God allow suffering in the world? How can one religion be right and the other is wrong? Has science basically disproved Christianity? Tim Keller addresses these questions and more

in his book, The Reason for God. Drawing on literature, philosophy, real life conversations and potent reasoning, this book will challenge you to gain a deeper understanding of the Christian faith. Whether you're a believer seeking reassurance or you're reading it with a friend who is searching for answers.

When you give to Gospel in Life during the month of May, we'll send you two copies of The Reason for God, one for you and one to give to a friend who is exploring Christianity. It's our hope that through reading the book with a friend, you can have conversations about the claims of the Christian faith. The books are our thanks for your support of this ministry. To receive your two copies of The Reason for God, simply make a gift at gospelonlife.com slash give.

That's gospelonlife.com slash give. We also encourage you to check out our short podcast series, Questioning Christianity, for people exploring the claims of the Christian faith. To listen to this short series or share it with a friend, visit gospelonlife.com slash questioning. That's gospelonlife.com slash questioning. Your gift helps the message of Christ's love go out all over the world. So thank you for partnering with us because the gospel truly changes everything. A life without restrictions is not liberation, but always leads to destruction. Let me give you an example.

Here's a sparrow. Submerge a sparrow in water. Let the sparrow swim. The English Channel, let's see how it does. And of course the answer is, the sparrow will start to drown because the sparrow doesn't have the equipment to swim. So what happens if you pull the sparrow out of the water?

It revives. It begins to experience liberty again. See, its liberty was destroyed in the water and so you get it out and you get it into the right environment, it has freedom. In the wrong environment, it has no freedom. Let me ask your question. What does a polar bear in Miami and a jogger on Venus have in common? The answer is they're both dying. Why? Because they're in the wrong environment. See, the jogger is, you know, out there he's jogging along, but of course there's ammonia gas in the air and his lungs aren't built to process the Venusian atmosphere, and the polar bear is not able to handle 100 degrees in the shade. And so they're dying. Get them out of that environment, and they revive. Put them in the right environment, and they revive.

Or I was talking to a woman just last week, who told me that professionally she just was going nowhere for years. She worked for a big corporation, and she'd shaved. Finally she went into business for herself and everything changed. She was an entrepreneur, that was her spirit. She chafed working under other people. She chafed and was frustrated under the restrictions. She was just made to be self-employed. That was the environment in which she really took off. Now don't you see, what do these all have in common? They were not able to be free, the polar bear, the entrepreneur, the Venusian jogger, the sparrow,

until they found the right restrictions. For the sparrow to be liberated, the sparrow has to say no to swimming. The polar bear has to say no to Miami. The entrepreneur has to say no to IBM. There is no freedom unless you know how to restrict. There is no freedom unless you find the right restrictions. There's no freedom without no to say that freedom is the ability to have no restrictions at all.

Makes no sense at all. Let me tell you, if that's true physically, if that's even true vocationally, it has to be true spiritually. The Bible says there is only one proper environment for you spiritually and personally to become everything that a human being's supposed to be. That is the environment of the commandments of God.

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. You need the moral authority of God and you need the restrictions of God to revive yourself. And there are thousands of people and plenty of them right here in this room who can say it wasn't until I said no to things that the God's law said no and it wasn't until I came in under the commandments of God that my marriage revived, that my work marriage revived, that my work life revived, that my self-esteem revived, that my psyche revived.

The law of the Lord is perfect. And so the second point is that these moral absolutes, when you submit to them, they are not destructive, but they liberate. So first, your so-called moral values have to be based on absolutes. And those moral absolutes do not destructive, but they liberate. So first, your moral, so-called moral values have to be based on absolutes, and those moral absolutes do not destroy, but they liberate. But, now, up to now, there's three points to the sermon you just heard, too.

And up to now, we might assume that what I'm saying, and what the Bible is saying is that the way to answer the search for values is just go back to the old ten commandments, just go back to traditional values, let's just get our society back there. Is that all it's saying? Is that all the Bible says? Is that what I'm saying? No. Because the third thing that this passage teaches us and that the Bible teaches us is that the law of God, the moral absence of God will destroy you unless they have assumed the right role in your life. Listen very carefully, obviously.

Up to now, maybe all I've shown you is that the law of God is real. And secondly, that the law of God is necessary. It's real, so you owe God obedience, and it's necessary, so you need obedience. But it's not as simple as that. I'm here to tell you that you can admire the law of God, and you can love the law of God,

and you can obey the law of God, and you can observe the law of God, and it destroy you. If you don't understand the role it's supposed to play, conductors know that singers, an individual singer can be wonderful, just have tremendous talent, but if he or she in a choir doesn't assume the proper role, that person can destroy the performance. A good coach knows that say a basketball player may be tremendously talented, but if he doesn't play the right role on the team, the team will be in last place. And I'm here to tell you that you can love the law of God

and try to obey the law of God, but if you don't understand its proper role, the role it's supposed to play in the human life, it can ruin you, it can destroy you. And here's what the role is. You have to stand back for a minute and look at the whole sweep of Psalm 19. The first six verses tell us

that if you just look at the heavens and you look at the sun, the moon, and the stars, they tell you that there's a God. They tell you that there's a God. That's why we sang that first hymn that was so wonderful and said, if you look at the sun, you look at the moon, you look at the stars, and then the last line, it says, in reason's ear, they all rejoice

and utter forth a glorious voice, forever singing as they shine, the hand that made us is divine. And what Psalm 19 says in verse one, two, three, four, five, and six, is that if you listen, even though there's no words, the sun, the moon, the stars, the spacious firmament is telling you that there's a great glorious creator behind it all. But Psalm 19 shows us that the natural revelation that comes to us through nature is not sufficient to get us to know God personally.

Now the way it gets that across is not that obvious reading it in English, but in Hebrew it's stunning. In the first six verses, the name for God that's used is Elohim, translated God. In the last eight verses, from verse seven to 14, the only name for God that's used is the Hebrew word Yahweh, which is translated the Lord.

What's that mean? It means this. The word Elohim is a generic name for God. The generic name means the divine one, the great one. But the word Yahweh is the personal name that God revealed to Moses in the burning bush that he gives to the people that he knows. It's roughly analog name that God revealed to Moses in the burning bush that he gives to the people that he knows.

It's roughly analogous to somebody, to you going up to someone and saying, hello professor or doctor, and that person saying, no, just call me John. No, just call me Sue. Now when you say, call me by my first name, what you're doing is you're saying, I want a relationship with you.

I don't want you just to recognize that I am the great professor, I want to be a friend. And so verses one to six, by using the word Elohim again and again and again, the psalmist is saying, look, it's great to use your reason, it's great to see the stars and the moon, it's great for you to infer, to deduce that there is a God. But that will never get you to know him personally.

If you want to know him personally, you have to go to the law. You have to go to his revealed word. You have to go to the prophets, to the Bible. You have to go to the law because there verse seven to twelve he starts saying if you want to know the Lord, if you want to know him personally, you have to look at the perfect law and you have to look at the righteous law. But now look, even that's not enough. Because you see there's a wonderful psychological order to things. The first six verses says, I look, you look in the sky and you'll see God in general, but you'll never know him personally. You look in his word and you see how holy he is and how perfect he is.

But then look what happens in verse 12. Suddenly the psalmist says, who can discern his errors? Forgive my hidden faults. Keep your servant also from willful sins. May they not rule over me. You know what happens? Here's what happens.

This will always happen to you. The more you look at the law of God, trying to know him. I've seen this happen a million times, people begin to wake up, they say, I need God, I need God in my life, I need a faith, I need a vitality. That's why some of you are here.

So many people, they have a general belief, or maybe they have no belief, but then suddenly they realize for various reasons, I need God in my life, I need something more than I have. So you start going to church and you start reading the Bible and you start seeing what the Bible says. And you see, when you read all the things the Bible says, be generous, be honest, be loving, be compassionate,

be humble, be wise, be gentle, be powerful, be wise, be approachable, be gentle, be powerful, be wise, you see. Be approachable, be courageous. And you read all that and you say, yes, yes. Oh, it doesn't start to dishearten you. It starts to make you getting tired. And this is what happens to the psalmist. He looks at the law and he says, the law of God is perfect.

And it's altogether righteous and it's radiant. And then almost you have to suddenly begin to say, but wait a minute, I'm imperfect. I'm unrighteous. I'm confused. The law of God will always do that to you. Now, the first thing I want to tell you is that's good. Because the first role of a law of God, as God intended,

the first role of the law of God in your life is to swamp you just like that. You're supposed to feel like that. Because Christianity is for moral failures and only for moral failures. Do you hear me? Jesus said, I come not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. What does that mean? He says, if you think you're righteous, if you look at the law of God and say, I obey

that, I've obeyed that all of my life. I've always kept the Ten Commandments. If you look at the moral law of God and you, it obey that, I've obeyed that all of my life. I've always kept the Ten Commandments. If you look at the moral law of God, and you, it doesn't swamp you. If it makes you feel righteous instead of as a terrible sinner, if you feel you're a moral success, if you don't think you're a moral failure,

you're not a Christian. You're not. Jesus says, I didn't come for people who think they're righteous. I didn't come for anybody like that. Christianity is for moral failures and only for people who know they're moral failures. And the way you find that out is the law comes in and swamps you.

You see what the law of God requires. And it's wonderful. You say, of course we should be as generous as that. Of course we should be as compassionate as the law says. Of course we should be as kind as the law says. Of course we should be as honest as the law says. Of course we should be as kind as the law says. Of course we should be as honest as the law says. Of course we should be as principled as the law says. But I'm not.

And I'll never be. That's good. Unless the law is doing that to you, right now the law is going to kill you. Because it's making you smug. It means you're not looking at it very well. If it makes you, if anybody here does not see that they are moral failure, thinks that I'm a pretty decent person,

I live according to the Ten Commandments and the laws of decency, you haven't looked at them very closely, and they are going to strangle you, because unless the law of God plays the right role in your life, you will be destroyed. And the first role of the law of God is it should show you that you're a sinner.

Jesus says, I mean Paul says in Galatians 3, the law of God is a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ. The job of the law is to show us that we need exactly what happens here in Psalm 19. Because you see, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, as the pere, The job of the law is to say you're a mouth failure and you need a redeemer. That's the first role. Is it playing that role in your life? And secondly, the second role of the law of God, second role the law of God should play in your life is it should push you to see what Jesus has done for you.

It should get you to see the redeemer. That's what Psalm 19 does. It pushes you to say I need a redeemer. Listen to this verse. It's from Colossians 4. And I tell you, this verse is something that I... There's enough in here to live off of all of your life. Colossians 4 says, When the time had fully come, God sent his Son, born under the law, to redeem those under the law,

so that we might receive the full rights of sonship. What a verse. When the time had fully come, God sent his son under the law to redeem those under the law that we might receive the full rights of sonship. The Christian reads the law in an utterly unique way. Tell me if this is how you read the law. When you look at all those wonderful, terrifying things the law says, be generous, be courageous, be humble, be loving, be wise, be gentle, be approachable,

be powerful, all those things, they're wonderful and they're terrifying. A Christian reads all that and says, my savior has done this. Every one of these things, He's done it for me. He was born under the law. That means He was responsible for the law and He utterly fulfilled it so that we might not earn, but we receive the rights of sonship.

He lived the life I owed and He paid the punishment I owed. Everybody in this room knows they should be perfect. Please hear me. You know it. It's an emotional reality. And apart from the Christian gospel, there are only two ways to deal with it. The first way is to try to kill it,

to destroy your own moral sensitivity, to say nobody's perfect, I'm better than most people. You just try to kill your perfectionism. You just try to kill it. Attack your own moral sensitivity, to say, nobody's perfect, I'm better than most people. You just try to kill your perfectionism. You just try to kill it. Attack your own moral sensitivity. Go ahead, that's one way you can do it. The other way is to let it drive you so that you've gotta achieve the perfect body,

the perfect relationship, the perfect record, the perfect job, live in the perfect home, have perfect moments, and so on. So you can either deal with this emotional reality by trying to kill your own moral sensitivity or by letting it drive you into the ground, or, and the only other alternative, is this. Christianity alone refuses to minimize this reality

that you know you should be perfect. It addresses it. It says, the gospel is, you must never trust in anything that you are doing, can do, will do, have done, but to say, Lord, accept me strictly and fully and completely because of what your son Jesus Christ did for me. He fulfilled the law. When you look at the law, you see he's done it. He's done every bit of it. Is that the role the law. When you look at the law, you see he's done it. He's done every bit of it.

Is that the role the law plays? Do you read it that way? First, the law is there to swamp you. Secondly, the law is there to show you what Jesus has done for you. And then thirdly, thirdly and lastly, the role of the law is to show you how to give pleasure to God. Now think. The purpose of the law is not a ladder to heaven.

If I do these things, God will have favor in me. The purpose of the law is not pragmatic. If I do these things, then God will help me. Oh no, the law will grind you if that's the role it plays in your life. No. But if you see, the purpose of the law is to show you that you're a moral failure and secondly, to show you what Jesus has done for you, then when you know that he's done this for you, when you've received him as Savior, the purpose of the law is to show you how to give him pleasure. Let me put it this way.

Here's how you know you're in love with somebody. You begin to experience their desires, and their things that delight them, and the things that they want as commands. Oh, they're not coercive. You want to find those things out. You want to know what pleases the beloved. You want to know what delights the beloved. And when you find out, his or her wish is your command. You know? When you're in love, you experience the things that give the beloved pleasure as commands.

And you love to fulfill them. And here's how you know you're in love. You know you're in love when the pleasure of giving pleasure is greater than the pleasure of taking pleasure. It works like this. Man, if you're in love with your wife, I use this as an illustration, but it works in a hundred ways, you know. If you're in love with your wife, your wife will ask you to do something that you don't like. But if the pleasure of giving her pleasure

is greater than the pleasure of getting pleasure, you do it. And as you do it, you find that there's a pleasure in giving her pleasure, which is even greater than the unpleasantness of the task. And you find therefore, as you do it, you change. Two things that happen when you begin to find the pleasure of giving pleasure.

You change and your relationship deepens. Now, it's the same thing with God. What is the law of God? The law of God is the list of things that give him delight. Do you want a relationship with him? Why should you obey the Bible? Why should you obey the Ten Commandments? Why should you confess your sins? Why should you obey the Ten Commandments? Why should you confess your sins?

Why should you wrestle like crazy to be as holy as you can be in every part of your life? Not to get to heaven, because you want to know him better. You want the deepness of purpose. The purpose of the law is so that you can know him more intimately. The purpose of the law is to get the pleasure of giving pleasure, which is the greatest pleasure there is.

Every so often, I try to get a hold of one of my children and say, I love you. Every time I look at you, I feel my heart burst with joy and love. I wanna always be there for you. No matter what you do, I will never forsake you. No matter what your problem is, I'd like you to come and tell me about it.

But even if you don't come and tell me about it, I will be there for you. I will do anything for you. I'll even die for you. Let's always be friends. And of course, when I do that, my own heart just bursts and I radiate and they radiate. It's a great experience.

But I can't do it when they're disobeying me. The Father wants to pour that kind of love, wants to pour that kind of assurance into your life, but he can't do it unless you're obeying him. What is the purpose, Christian friends, of obeying God? To know him. Not to manipulate him, not to push buttons to get him to do things, he's already willing to do everything for you. He's saying, obey me so we can be friends.

Obey me so I can be your father. Obey me so I can pour myself into you the way I want. The law is utterly different to a Christian than to anybody else. The immoralist despises the law, the moralist fears the law, the Christian delights in the law. It's sweeter than a honeycomb. May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.

Let's pray. Our Father, help us to see what the law is here for. O Father, for us as Christians, the law doesn't crush us. It's not a big book that lays on our chest and suffocates us and crushes us instead. It's the way we find the pleasure of giving pleasure. It's the way that we prepare ourselves to receive your love. It's the way we know you as our father and as our friend. I pray that everybody in this room will understand how we can find values.

It's not simply by loving and obeying the law but seeing that your son loved and obeyed the law in our place so that now the law we're not on its leash, it's on our leash. Now the law we're not its servant, it's our servant. And now the law is the way for us to bring joy to our father's heart. We thank you that this is all true and we ask that you let the truth of it sink in and make us into all that we should be. Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel in Life podcast. If you found today's

teaching helpful and something you'd like more people to hear, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel in Life monthly partner. Your partnership helps more people discover the hope and joy of Christ's love. Just visit gospelinlife.com slash partner to learn more. This month's sermons were recorded in 1993. 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.