Knowing God 42:42

Welcome to Gospel in Life. For many of the decisions we have to make in life, moral values alone can't tell you what choices to make. You may be weighing several options in a decision, and they all could be morally allowable. So how do you choose the right one? That's where God's wisdom is critical. Today, Tim Keller is speaking about how we can grow in using God's wisdom. The scripture reading today is taken from various proverbs.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. By steadfast love and faithfulness, iniquity is atoned for, and by the fear of the Lord, one turns away from evil. The fear of the Lord leads to life.

Then one rests content, untouched by trouble. Who can say, "I have made my heart pure"? I am clean from my sin. Let not your heart envy sinners, but continue in the fear of the Lord all the day. Surely there is a future, and your hope will not be cut off. Blessed is the one who fears the Lord always, but whoever hardens his heart will fall into calamity.

We're looking at the book of Proverbs every week, and that means we're looking at the subject of wisdom every week. And we've said each week that wisdom, while not being less, of course, than being moral and good, it's more. Wisdom is knowing what is the right thing to do in the vast majority of life situations in which the moral rules don't apply, they don't address.

Now, today we come to a theme that runs all through the Proverbs and all through, in fact, the whole Bible, and that is that the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord. This term, fear of the Lord, it comes up in chapter 1, verse 7, where it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. This chapter, chapter 9, verse 10, that we listed here,

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It comes up in Job 28. It comes up in Psalm 111. It's one of the main themes of the Bible, that the beginning, the foundation of wisdom is fear of the Lord. What does that mean? There's a place in Job where God actually shows how important the term is when he says, "'Have you considered my servant Job? There is none like him in all the earth, a man who fears God and shuns evil.'"

And so it's obvious that the term fear of the Lord is something that is a summary of everything we're supposed to do and be. So why is it so important and what in the world is it? And by culling out of these passages of the Proverbs, I'm going to tell you this morning that I think the fear of the Lord is beginning with God, knowing God, trusting God, and discovering the grace of God.

All of those are important. Beginning with God, knowing God, trusting God, discovering the grace of God. So let's get started. First of all, beginning with God. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That's the second proverb there. And the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. Now, for a moment, let's not talk about the term fear, and let's look at the word beginning. Beginning. Here we're told that your relationship with God is the beginning, it's the foundation for wisdom.

But you know, in chapter 1, verse 7, where it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, it shows that what Proverbs is saying is maybe even more comprehensive and far-reaching than you might think. It is saying your relationship with God is the foundation even for your thinking. Your relationship with God and what you believe about God completely determines what you know about the world and how you know it. It determines everything that you know.

and how you know it. Now, that's a pretty astounding statement because in our modern society, we don't think like that at all. In our modern society, we believe that you have faith, religious faith. You may believe this about God. I may believe this about God, but we keep that private. It's separate. We actually, in many cases, think of faith as somewhat opposed to reason, and we believe that reason, our thinking...

is something that can operate apart from religious faith and tells us all sorts of things about the world apart from religious faith. That's the reason why you have a statement like this that Christopher Reeve made when he was addressing students at Yale last year. And he said, quote, "'When matters of public policy are debated, no religion should have a seat at the table.'"

Now, that's a very typical belief in our society, and that is that religion, your religious beliefs, is for your private life. But when it comes to public discourse, when it comes to talking about public matters, there we need to use reason. Those things that we can empirically prove and keep religious faith out. All right.

Proverbs says exactly the opposite. Not only that, the whole Bible says exactly the opposite. In fact, a German scholar who wrote the best book on Proverbs ever about 50, 60 years ago, Gerhard von Rod, summarizes the teaching of the book of Proverbs in the most amazing way. Quote, he says, the book of Proverbs teaches, quote, faith is not only not opposed to reason, but constitutes its possibility, its connection to reality. Faith in the Bible is not only not opposed to reason, but constitutes its possibility,

It's connection to reality. What he's saying, what the book of Proverbs is saying, what the Bible says is that your faith view of reality, your faith view of God, your faith, your religious faith, and everybody's got one. I'll show you in a minute, is the foundation from which all of your reasoning proceeds. That's what the Proverbs is saying. It's the beginning of knowledge. You say, how could that be? Well, let me give you just two examples to try to show you.

One is, let's take the view that Christopher Reeve, the premise that he has, it's an enlightenment premise. It's very, very common in our country. And that is, it goes like this. The only things we can really be sure of are things that are scientifically proven. You may have your belief about morality, about God, but that's fine. Keep it private. The only things we can really be sure of are things that are scientifically proven. That statement, that we can only be sure of things that are scientifically proven, can't be scientifically proven.

And therefore, on its own terms, we can't be sure of it. But that's okay. Here's what I'm trying to say. If you don't believe that anything that happens in this world has a supernatural cause, if that's what you believe, fine, but it's a belief. You've taken that by faith. You can't prove that. And once you have taken that by faith, once you have adopted that as your faith view of reality, all your reasoning proceeds from it. You screen out things that don't fit with it, you know?

But look, you have a view about reality you've taken by faith, and all your reasoning proceeds from it. Your understanding of God is the beginning of your knowledge. All right, let me give you another one. Very typical in New York, certainly. People say to me all the time, they say, every individual must be free to determine what is right or wrong for him or her. Don't impose your morality on me. Don't tell me that I have to believe this or that. Every individual should be free to determine what is right or wrong for him or her.

Okay, that assumes something. That would only be the case if there's either no God, right, or if there is a God who doesn't hold you accountable for beliefs and behavior. That may or may not be true, but what that person just said, we should all be free to determine what's right or wrong for us.

assumes a view of God, which you can't prove. You're either assuming there is no God or else there's no God that can hold you accountable. How do you know that? You don't know that. You hope it's true. You're betting your whole life on it. You're betting your whole destiny on it. But it's a faith act. It's a faith leap. And once you've made that leap, then all of your reasoning, everything else you do, proceeds from it. I'm constantly meeting New Yorkers who are always saying that

Well, I'm filled with doubts. You religious people, you're filled with faith. Nonsense. Everybody is living their life based on all kinds of faith leaps. Everybody's faith-filled. David Klingenhofer, who is a writer for the Jewish Forward, usually, wrote an interesting op-ed piece in the LA Times, Los Angeles Times, earlier this year. And in it, he says this, quote, quote,

What we are observing in our society seems to be the struggle of religion against no religion. In actuality, it's the conflict of various religions, including secularism. If you object that secularism isn't a religion because it has no deity, let's remember that other faiths, like Zen Buddhism, also lack belief in God. What is a religion then? Simply this: a system of beliefs explaining where life comes from,

what life means, and what we as living beings are supposed to be doing with our few allotted years. Answers to these questions are not provable. They're taken on faith. In other words, everybody has got a faith view of reality. That's the only way to get one. And once you have leaped to that faith view, all your reasoning proceeds from that faith

Most secular people just are still living the illusion that somehow they're skeptical, they're neutral, they don't really know what they believe about God. That's not at all true. Everybody has to base their entire life and all their reasoning on some view they take by faith of God. Even to say, well, nobody can know. How do you know that? Nobody can know about God. How do you know that? You hope. That's faith. And when, by the way,

People who think they're skeptical begin to see that actually their entire life is being controlled and determined by the particular Taken by faith view they have of God and spiritual reality. It's a shock Sheldon von Aachen who became a Christian after being a very secular person for a number of years wrote about his Change like this. He said I saw a gap between me and Christ. How was I to cross that gap? I

If I was going to stake my whole life on the risen Christ, I wanted proof. I wanted certainty. I wanted letters of fire across the sky, but I got nothing. But then one day I realized, my God, there was not only a gap before me, there was a gap behind me as well. There would have to be a faith step either way. I suddenly realized I couldn't prove that Christ was God, but by God, there was no certainty he wasn't.

This was not to be borne. I now realized I couldn't reject Jesus without faith. There was only one thing to do once I saw that gap behind me and before me. There was only one thing to do. I flung myself over the gap toward Jesus. Now, you see what he was doing? The writer said, when I realized that my life was already being determined, I had already bet the farm that

on a particular view of God. In fact, I can't avoid it. I'm betting my whole life, my whole destiny, the beginning of all my wisdom, the beginning of everything is always what you think about God. And once he realized that, it was easier for him to start considering Christianity. And maybe somebody listening to me here will find it's the same with you. But now what does this mean personally? Okay, here's what it means. Your relationship with God, my friends, has got to be absolutely central.

You know, people start coming to church, they start reading the Bible for a lot of different reasons. But listen, your relationship with God cannot enrich you spiritually the way your gym membership enriches you physically. It can't be another thing on your shelf, another add-on, another way to help you live a better life. Your relationship with God must be, no, your relationship with God is the most central thing in your life.

Every job you take, every place you live, every relationship you conduct, everything you do should be always done with this question in mind. How does this affect my relationship with God? See, the question is not, how can I use God to live my life that I want to live? No, no, the question ought to be, how is the life I am living right now getting me to God? And how must I change it? Because getting to God is the most important thing. It's the most important thing.

I'll be out of touch with reality unless I'm in touch with the real God, because wisdom is being in touch with reality, being competent with regard to the realities of life. So, first of all, the fear of the Lord is not starting with something else, beginning with something else, and then using God to get there. It's beginning with God. Secondly, the fear of the Lord is not just beginning with God, it is knowing God. Now, let's talk about this term fear. A lot of people find when they read it, and it comes up at least a hundred times in the

The fear of the Lord, the fear of the Lord. And you read it and you say, that is really weird. Because when you and I hear the term that somebody has fear of the Lord, it sounds like they're scared of the Lord, right? And so all this talk about fear of the Lord, fear of the Lord, it sounds like the Bible's talking about be scared of the Lord, be very, very scared of the Lord. Are you scared of the Lord? I'm scared of the Lord. Oh, don't hit me, Lord. That's being fear of the Lord? No, not at all. Not at all. Here's why we know it. Look and see how the word is used.

So, for example, in Deuteronomy 10, verse 12, it says, Notice, it doesn't say you can either fear him or you can love him. The more you fear him, the more you love him, and they're involved with each other. But more than that, listen, Psalm 130, verse 4, But with you there is forgiveness, therefore I fear you.

Now, wait a minute. If fear of the Lord meant being scared of the Lord, then the more forgiveness I get from him, the less scared I'd be. Well, that's true, by the way. The more forgiveness, the more you know you're forgiven, the less scared you are. But the fear of the Lord isn't being scared of the Lord. It's something that's enhanced by the love of God. In Psalm 130, verse 4, it's saying, the more love I felt, the more I got God's love lavished out on me, the more I feared him. Now, what does that mean? Here's what it means.

If you read all the text together, the fear of the Lord is a life rearranging, joyful awe and wonder before the greatness of who God is and what he's done. It's life rearranging, joyful awe and wonder before the greatness of who God is and what he's done. But now, see, somebody says, yeah, but why use the term fear then? I mean, why would the word fear be in there? And I think there's a couple of reasons. Let me give you what they are. And they're very helpful in understanding this term.

First of all, one of the reasons why this joy is called a fearful joy is because it's humbling. There's a kind of joy that you can get that makes you look down on people. If you get promotions, if you get prizes, if you get accomplishments, if you get success, it's a kind of joy that kind of inflates you and makes you feel, I'm pretty cool, I'm pretty good. It makes you feel important. It makes you tend to look down on weaker people.

But this joy, this life rearranging awe and wonder before the greatness of God, this astounding joy is so unmerited, it's so unlooked for, that it humbles you. It takes off the melancholy burden of self-importance. It takes off the melancholy burden of always having to prove yourself. What a relief. And it brings you to the place where you actually understand and respect weaker people better. That's one of the reasons why.

This joy is called a fearful joy. It's down in the dust kind of joy. Oh, but it's great. It feels so good to have that incredible burden of proving yourself and needing to build yourself up in front of others to have it taken off. What a relief. But it's fearful joy. It's humbling joy. The second reason I think the term fear is used is this. Psychologists have told us very, very wisely for years that

If you really understand your greatest fear, you understand what your heart most is after in life. What your heart is looking to most for its significance, security, and identity. Follow your fears. Follow your nightmares. So, for example, if you look mainly in life for people's approval, if you're a people pleaser, your greatest fear is rejection. But if the main thing you look for in life is power, you need power to feel significant and secure,

Then your greatest nightmare is humiliation, not rejection. You say, now, see, if you're a people pleaser, you don't mind being humiliated if it makes people love you. See, your nightmare, your greatest fear is a sign. Your fear is a sign of what you most want, what your heart most desperately is hoping in, what your heart most desperately wants. See, if you're living for money, if you're living for your children, if you're living for your career, if you're living for your reputation, whatever, you are living in mortal fear of something.

You're living in mortal fear of something, the loss of which would render life meaningless. And by understanding your fear, what is your greatest fear? You'll see your greatest love, the thing you most fear losing. Now, do you realize now what we're doing here? You can believe in God. You can be inspired by God. You can obey the laws of God.

and him not be what the Bible calls, you know, there's one place where the book Genesis talks about God as the fear of Isaac. He was Isaac's fear, it says. It's possible for God to be someone you believe in. It's possible for God to be a concept and not your fear, not the main thing you're afraid of losing, not the main passion of your heart and life. And once that happens, once God moves from being a concept to

to being the darling of your heart, the love of your life, the main thing your heart is desperate to get a hold of, the thing that says, if I have that, then I'll be somebody. If it's God, if that's your fear, then you move into knowing him personally. Notice chapter 9, verse 10. It says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Look at the second line. It's Hebrew poetry. And in Hebrew poetry, the second line recapitulates the first line, says it in a different way.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowing the Holy One is insight. The fear of the Lord leads to knowing God, not just knowing about him, but knowing God. When God moves from being a concept to being the fear, the thing you most are afraid of losing, the thing that you most tremble before because that's what you're looking for, that's what you're after, that's who you want. When he becomes the core of your identity, when you're so astounded by what he has done for you that it rearranges your personality and he becomes the core of your identity rather than something else.

Then you move from knowing about him into knowing him. So you can know about a person by getting lots of information. You can believe the information, but it's not the same as an encounter. It's not the same as actual interaction, is it? And there's some place where Jonathan Edwards said very famously that there's an infinite difference between being told and believing that honey's sweet and actually tasting the sweetness of honey. So there's an infinite difference between being told and believing that God is love

and actually experiencing the love of God in your heart. Or being told and believing that God is glorious, which means he's all important, same thing. And actually experiencing the glory of God in your heart. That's knowing God. The difference between tasting honey and just being told and believing. You know, if everybody tells you honey is sweet, but you've never tasted it, there's an infinite difference, a qualitative difference between believing it, knowing about it, and knowing it. Do you know God?

See, is the holiness of God, is the love of God, are these things you might believe about God, but are they existential realities? Have they become real to you because you've grasped with loving, joyful astonishment the greatness of who he is so it's actually rearranged your personality? Do you know him personally? In the midst of life's uncertainties, where do you turn for wisdom? The book of Proverbs is filled with wisdom to help guide us in all aspects of life.

In Tim and Kathy Keller's devotional book, God's Wisdom for Navigating Life, you'll get a fresh, inspiring view of God's wisdom each day of the year from the book of Proverbs. This devotional book will help you unlock the wisdom within the poetry of Proverbs and guide you toward a new understanding of what it means to live the Christian life.

This resource is our thanks for your gift to help Gospel in Life share Christ's love with more people. You can request your copy of God's Wisdom for Navigating Life when you give today at gospelinlife.com slash give. That's gospelinlife.com slash give. Now, here's Tim Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. You know, there's a place I often pull stuff out of Jonathan Edwards' book,

journals to illustrate this. Here's something I've never pulled out before. He said, he's talking about a certain time in his life, and he said, I began to have a new kind of inward sweet sense of Christ. I spent much time reading and meditating on him, and I found the beauty and excellency of his person. I found an inward sweetness that used, as it were, to carry me away in what I know not how to express otherwise than by

saying, Well, it's old English, but let me show something in there that I think is so telling. He said he began to experience abstraction of soul from the concerns of the world. Do you know what that means? This is knowing God. Here's what knowing God is.

Out in the world right now, money, that's security. Love, acclaim, popularity, sex, that's love. That's security. That's significant. That's real. And you may believe in God being love and wisdom, but it's an abstraction. It's a concept. But when you know God, it switches. He says the things of the world that used to scare him and used to drive him, they become abstract compared to the absolute realities of God's love.

The absolute beauty of God becomes not just an abstraction, but the reality. And the things that used to scare me become abstractions. That's knowing God. The fear of the Lord is not just knowing about God, but it's knowing him. Do you know him? Or when you pray, do you just sort of pray and hope that somebody's hearing you? Do you sense him? Do you encounter him? Okay, thirdly, we said the fear of the Lord is beginning with God. Secondly, the fear of the Lord is knowing God. Thirdly, the fear of the Lord is trusting God. Now,

What do I mean by that? Well, look, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. Knowing God spells out what the fear of the Lord means internally. Trusting God spells out what the fear of the Lord looks like externally in your actual practice. We just said that if God is your fear, there's nothing else that you're more afraid of losing

If God is your fear, there's nothing else that you're more afraid of losing. And if that's the case, then you will trust him unconditionally. Automatically, it translates into unconditional trust. Here's what I mean. Almost all of us, virtually all of us, start our relationship with God conditionally. You know, we say, I'm going to start coming to church. I'm going to start praying. And I'll pray if I start to feel good. And I'll obey if my life starts to go better. And see, the way we all start almost, always,

I'll try God and see if my life goes better, if I feel better, if I have more strength, if I find the things that I'm looking for. But you see, whenever you say, I'll follow God if, I'll follow God if, on the other side of the if are your real trusts, your real fears, your real non-negotiables. See, if there's any ifs in your relationship with God, I'll relate to you if, I'll pray to you if, I'll obey you if, I'll...

I'll follow you if there's any ifs at all. God is not your trust. God is not your fear. Something else is at the bottom of your personality. You're just using God to get to it. But fear of the Lord means unconditional trust. Now, listen, from 1970 to 1973, I know a lot of you say, I wasn't born yet. I know you weren't. But I had been born by then. And two women

had a huge impact on me as I was becoming a Christian during that time with regard to this idea of unconditional trust. Barbara Boyd, Elizabeth Elliot. Huge impact, and I'll tell you how. At a Christian camp 33 years ago, I remember Barbara, and she used this illustration. She said if the distance between the Earth and the sun, 92 million miles, was only the thickness of a sheet of paper, and...

If that was the case, then do you realize that the distance between Earth and the nearest star would be a stack of paper 70 feet high? And the diameter just of our little galaxy would be a stack of paper 310 miles high? And our little galaxy is just a speck of dust in the little part of the universe that we can just see? And she said, okay, now if, as the Bible says, the Lord upholds all that just with a word of his power, just with his little pinky finger,

Is this the kind of person you ask into your life to be your assistant? Your consultant? You know what consultants are like. You pay them and then you ignore what they say. Unless you think it pays off. She says, is this the kind of person you bring into your life and you say, don't call me, I'll call you. I'll work with you as long as I understand what you're saying, as long as you're helping me to get to my goals?

In all your ways, acknowledge him. Trust in the Lord and in all your ways. So here's what she said. Here's how you can tell whether you're unconditionally trusting. Look at every area of your life, every area. You have two questions. One, are you willing to do whatever God says in scripture about this area, whether you agree with it or not? Number two, are you willing to accept anything that God sends, anything that happens in that area, whether you understand it or not?

And if you say, oh, no, no, oh, no, no, if that sort of thing happens, I'm out of there, then you haven't done unconditional trust. There's something else besides God that's your fear. What's it going to be? It's going to affect everything. It's going to alter your entire wisdom. Then what she said was at the very end, she said, I want everybody to go out in absolute silence for 30 minutes and think about what I'm telling you. And I can still remember 33 years ago, I remember what my shoes look like. I remember the path. I remember the places I sat. I remember it because I

I was exposed. I was exposed. I didn't want to live that way. I wasn't living that way, which meant God was a concept to me. Just a concept, just an abstraction. Boy, that was hard. But another woman who came along, Elizabeth Elliot, and gave a talk that helped me a great deal. She was once visiting a farm in northern Wales. Actually, she was at a place that Kathy and I consider one of the most beautiful places in the world. And sometimes if I'm having trouble sleeping, I think about the place.

And she was staying with a shepherd named John Jones in that part of northern Wales. And she watched one day as he was bringing his sheep and his rams to a vat of antiseptic that they had to go into, otherwise they would literally be eaten by insects and parasites and so on. And she says, this is what she saw. She said, one by one, John seized the animals. They would struggle to climb out the side and Mac, the sheepdog, would snarl and snap at their faces to force them back under.

They tried to climb up the ramp on the far end, but John would catch them, spin them around, force them under again, holding them, ears, eyes, nose submerged. She wrote, I've had some experiences in my life which have made me feel very sympathetic to those poor sheep. She lost two husbands. Two husbands died on her. She says, I couldn't figure out any reason for the treatment I was getting from the great shepherd I had trusted, and like these sheep, I didn't get a hint of explanation."

But she remembered another shepherd who said, sheep lose their direction continually. Even when they are found, it is very difficult to round them up. The lost sheep rushes to and fro, and when you find it, you must seize it, cast it down, tie its four legs together and its hind legs together, and put it over your shoulders and carry it home. You know what she was saying? She says, let me tell you what your problem is. Let me tell you what our problem is. We refuse to admit that the distance between the great shepherd and us sheep

The difference, the wisdom differential between the two of us is infinitely greater than the wisdom differential between a shepherd and a sheep. And sometimes the most loving thing to do with a sheep, if you're a shepherd, you see, grab it, cast it down, seize it, tie it up, and not a word of explanation. Do you not see, though, that the anxiety, that the bitterness, that the confusion so many of us are experiencing is because we simply don't want to admit that differential?

We just don't want to admit it, but there's no... Why not? If there is a God, surely that differential would be there. Do you realize that we're ruining our lives, some of us, because we're refusing to put ourselves into the hands of anyone, including the great shepherd, and others of us are ruining our lives because we are giving great shepherd kinds of prerogatives to human beings. We're trying to marry somebody who will fix everything in our life. We look to our parents. You'll fix everything in my life, and because you haven't, I'm mad at you. This is the one you must trust. We're...

We are trusters. We need to trust. And the fear of the Lord puts you right smack unconditionally trusting in the hands of the ones we were made for. All right, now that's pretty hard, isn't it? The fear of the Lord is beginning with God. It's knowing God. It's unconditionally trusting God. That's the fear of the Lord, see? Otherwise, it's just a concept. Well, somebody says this is convicting, maybe, or maybe you just consider it overwhelming. How can we do this?

How are you going to have this life-rearranging experience of the greatness of God? Do you just go home and say, give it to me? You know, I'm closing my eyes. Hit me. How do you get yourself to the place where you can trust God or anyone at all like that? How can you do it? There's a key. You don't do it in the abstract. The fear of the Lord here is, by the way, not just an abstraction. Look,

Look at two verses will show you that it's the discovery of the grace of God that's the key to this, the discovery of the grace of God, not just, you know, meditating on God somehow in general. Chapter 20, verse 9, which is the fifth of the Proverbs, who can say I have made my heart pure, I am clean from my sin?

And then the third proverb, chapter 16, verse 6, by steadfast love and faithfulness, iniquity is atoned for. And by the fear of the Lord, one turns away from evil. Here in the heart of the book of Proverbs is the foundation of the New Testament Christian gospel. Look, first of all, it says, who can say I have made my heart pure? I am clean from my sin. Now that's going a lot further than saying everybody sins. Because in the Hebrew Bible, cleanliness had to do with your fitness for God, right?

Cleanliness had to do with your fitness for God. And when it says no one can clean themselves, it's not just saying everybody sins. It's saying everybody's lost. It's saying everybody's alienated from God and can't do something themselves about it. Well, what can be done? By steadfast love and faithfulness, iniquities atone for, and by the fear of the Lord, one turns away from evil. Ah, now...

This is actually very striking. And the commentators will tell you that these two Hebrew words, steadfast love and faithfulness, create a conundrum in the verse. Steadfast love means absolutely total unconditional love. But the word faithfulness means total commitment, unconditional commitment to truth and righteousness. Now, how can God be totally loving and totally holy and deal with unclean people?

The answer would be he can't. I mean, that's the logical answer. He would say, if he's totally loving, it would seem that he would have to kind of just let us off the hook and kind of compromise his holiness. Or if he was totally faithful and holy, then we would say, well, then he's not going to be able to love us all and bring us all in. And yet the sage who wrote this said it's by both total love and total holiness our iniquities atone for.

somehow our sin is atoned for out of both of those things. Both of those things are the source. Both of those things are reconciled in it. And see what the second line says? That's where the fear of the Lord comes that changes the way in which you live. And by the fear of the Lord, one turns away from evil, seeing my iniquity atoned for.

seeing somehow some astounding way in which both love and holiness have been reconciled and I am absolutely by free grace saved. That's the source of the fear. That's the thing that is a life rearranging awe and wonder, joyful apprehension of something. That's what you're looking at, not just God in some kind of general way. That's what makes the change. Well, now, how could that have happened? Notice the Proverbs writer has no idea, really. Doesn't tell us how, just says it has, but we know.

And here's what we know. Centuries later, on the cross, they were making fun of Jesus. They were mocking him. And one of the things they said, and you read it in Matthew 27, verse 43, they said, he trusted God. Let God rescue him if he wants him. See this Jesus Christ? He trusted God. Let God rescue him if he wants him. Now, that was cruel, but logical.

And here's why. They could see that God had abandoned them. I mean, they heard him say, my God, my God, why have you abandoned me? They could see God had abandoned them. And every place in the Bible it says, whenever God says, trust me, he says, trust me and I will not let you down. Trust me and I will not abandon you. Trust me and I won't let you down. So here is someone who God has abandoned. Therefore, he says he trusts God, but he obviously can't. But they couldn't see what we can see. In the beginning of time,

Adam came into the garden of Eden, the founder of the old humanity. And God said to him, trust, do my will, and you will live. Centuries later, Jesus Christ came into the garden of Gethsemane. He was the second Adam. He was seeking to establish a new redeemed humanity. And God said to him, do my will, trust, do my will, and I will crush you to powder. See, Jesus knew that

that if he did his father's will, he would be crushed. He would be abandoned. Why? Well, it was the only time in history, it had never happened before, it will never happen after. But you see, the message of the father to the son was this. If you hold on to your life, they will lose theirs. But if you let go of your life, if you pay their debt, then they will have theirs back. And Jesus trusted God absolutely, unconditionally. He said, "'Thy will be done.'"

but he was utterly abandoned. Imagine, as hard as it is to trust unconditionally, but then to know that that was going to result in abandonment and absolute infinite torture. Why did he do it? For us. For us. And therefore, when Jesus looks at us and says, take your hands off your life, drop your conditions, get rid of all those ifs, follow me whether you understand or not, follow me whether you agree or not,

Take your hands off your life. Give up your right to self-determination. Let go of your life. When he says that, he's the only God in any of the world religions who actually is saying, and I'm not asking you to do something I haven't done. He's the only one. And he says, when I did it for you, I let go of my life for you. I gave up control for you. I was abandoned. But if you give up control for me, you'll only be embraced. That's a deal. What are we waiting for? But we are waiting. Don't.

And when God was trying to get Abraham ready to be the leader of his new people, he put him through a test, you know, a trust test. And what happened was Abraham went up that mountain and he was ready to sacrifice his son. And finally God said, stop, Abraham, stop. Now I know that you love me. Now I know that I can trust you because you did not withhold your son, your only son from me. But don't you know, we can look at Mount Calvary and we can say,

Now we know that you love us. Now we can trust you. Not because you're just some kind of abstract deity who says, trust me, just trust me, but because you did not withhold your life from me. You gave it. Now, by the way, I want you to know that I don't want you to think that somehow in one moment you can suddenly move from God being a concept into being your fear.

Obviously, as we've said over and over and over again, you can cross the line from not trusting in Jesus for your salvation to trusting in Jesus, from not having a relationship to having a relationship. But notice that second last proverb, it says, continue in the fear of God all the day long. It's just like the place in Philippians where Paul says, work out your salvation in fear and trembling. And he doesn't mean work for your salvation. What he means is take the gospel, take this amazing thing, look at what Jesus is doing for you and work it into your life.

Until more and more and more and more joyful fear, humbling fear, astounding fear of God, which literally makes you not afraid of anything else. If you're afraid of God, the God, and pardon me, if you fear God in the way we're talking, it will cast out every other fear, every other fear. Go grow in it. Fear God all the day long. Let us pray. Father, we pray that you'd help us to understand better

what it means to say the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We spent time here looking at how to begin with you, how to know you, how to trust in you, and how to discover the grace which is the key to all. And we ask that you would help us apply this to our hearts by your Holy Spirit, for we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel and Life podcast. If you were encouraged by today's teaching, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel and Life monthly partner. Your partnership helps more people discover the life-changing wisdom of God's Word through this ministry. Just visit gospelandlife.com slash partner to learn more.

This month's sermons were recorded in 2004. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church. ♪