Stay ConnectedSermons by Timothy J. Keller (1950-2023), founding pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City, co-founder of Redeemer City to City, and the author of numerous books, including The Reason for God, The Prodigal God, Making Sense of God and The Meaning of Marriage. His thirty-one books have sold more than six million copies and have been translated into twenty-nine languages.
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Long before Marx, Nietzsche, and Foucault rightly noticed that normally people follow moral virtue out of fear, pride, and a desire for power, the apostle Paul said it’s extremely possible to live a completely ethical life without any love at the root of it.
We’re looking at the traits that show not just moral restraint but a supernatural change. And in Galatians 5 and 1 Corinthians 13, we see a list of a wide spectrum of traits that are in a supernaturally changed heart.
Let’s look at 1) how to know them, understand them, and recognize them, and 2) how to grow them.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 17, 2002. Series: Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character. Scripture: Galatians 5:16-25.
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.
In the last 40 years or so, we’ve had an explosion of 12-step groups helping people with a range of addictions. And even if you don’t have those addictions, think of how much misery there is in our lives because we can’t control our tongue or our time or our thoughts. Just about everybody has a problem with self-control in some area. What’s the solution?
In 1 Corinthians, Paul says he has self-control. And he says he’s going to share the secret to having self-control.
Let’s look at 1) some principles about the nature of self-control, and 2) some specific ways of increasing self-control in our lives and carrying it out.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 10, 2002. Series: Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 9:23-27; 10:11-13.
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.
A lot of people think that to say Christians have a changed relationship to the truth means that Christians become honest. It’s not less than that. Technical, ethical honesty is one thing. But we’re talking about something more and deeper.
In Ephesians 4:15, Paul says, “speaking the truth in love.” But what Paul actually says in Greek is, “truthing in love.” He turns a noun into a verb. It’s an awkward phrase. And it harkens to a place where Jesus speaks of his followers as people who are of the truth, sort of made of truth, swimming in truth. It means a supernaturally changed heart is a heart that has an attitude and relationship to truth that no other kinds of hearts have.
What are we talking about? In this great passage, we see 1) the problem of truth, 2) the encounter we have to have with truth, and 3) something about the practice of truth.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 3, 2002. Series: Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character. Scripture: Ephesians 4:15-25.
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.
To talk about humility means we’re getting into a very culturally interesting subject, which is self-esteem.
Traditional cultures have believed that having too high a view of yourself is the real root cause for most of the evil in the world. But in modern Western culture, particularly in the United States, we have an utterly opposite consensus: that people misbehave for lack of self-esteem, because of too low a view of themselves. What’s intriguing about 1 Corinthians 3 is that it gives us an approach to self-regard, an approach to the self, that is absolutely, utterly different than both traditional cultures and postmodern contemporary cultures.
The three things Paul teaches here are 1) the natural condition of the human ego, 2) the supernatural condition, the transformed sense of self and identity, that can be brought about through the gospel, and 3) how to get it.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 24, 2002. Series: Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 3:21-4:7.
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.
How can you relate to someone whose views and values and practices offend you and distress you? How can we relate to people with whom we deeply differ?
Our culture says we need to be tolerant, but I want to show you that Paul says the mark of a supernaturally changed heart is to go way beyond tolerance. It’s something better than tolerance, something greater than tolerance, something I’m going to call gospel-receptivity—a loving, peaceful receptivity toward people with whom we deeply differ.
What is this receptivity, this receptive grace? The best way to figure it out is to look at 1) what it’s not, 2) what it is, and 3) how we develop it.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 10, 2002. Series: Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 8:4-11; Romans 15:1-7.
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.
One trait or quality of a supernaturally changed heart is peace.
There’s a difference between a supernaturally changed heart and a morally restrained heart. The marks of a supernaturally changed heart are sometimes called the fruit of the Spirit. They’re listed a number of places in the New Testament. And peace is always included.
So let’s look at 1) what is this supernatural peace that’s available to us? and then 2) how can we cultivate it?
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 3, 2002. Series: Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character. Scripture: Colossians 3:1-15.
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.
Every religion in the world gives you a list of virtuous behaviors. But the New Testament gives you something different. It does give you a list, but it’s of aspects of how a supernaturally, grace-changed heart shows itself.
The apostle Paul says it’s possible to do all the morally virtuous behavior without any love at the core, for virtuous behavior to flow out of an inner emptiness rather than an inner fullness. Jesus actually talks about this constantly. And so we’re looking at what we’re calling practical graces, at the aspects of a heart that isn’t just restrained but that is supernaturally changed.
We’re looking now at kindness. Let’s look at 1) what kindness is not, 2) what kindness is, and 3) how you can get it.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 27, 2002. Series: Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character. Scripture: Ephesians 4:29-5:2; John 15:12-15.
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.
Morally virtuous behavior can arise out of a heart that hasn’t actually been supernaturally changed.
For example, in traditional moral training, we teach people to be honest by using a motive of fear and insecurity. But only for a heart that feels absolutely loved is lying unnecessary and unnatural. It’s only an experience of the grace of God through Jesus Christ that changes the heart rather than restrains the heart.
We’re looking at the marks of a supernaturally changed heart, and we come now to patience. Let’s look at patience: 1) why do we need it? 2) what is it? and 3) how do we get it?
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 20, 2002. Series: Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character. Scripture: Matthew 18:21-35; 1 Corinthians 13:4, 6.
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.
The city of Corinth was a place of commerce. Nobody went there except to be successful. It was built from scratch just a few decades before Paul’s letter was written. There were not old families and traditions. This was a place that attracted an unusually resourceful, talented, ambitious, intense kind of person.
And right into this culture, Paul says, “I don’t care how rich or talented you are. If you’re irritable, impatient, selfish, self-centered, self-pitying, driven and anxious, you have nothing. Don’t say, ‘I just have a few personal issues to deal with.’ You have nothing.” Paul says character is everything. And so what is inner love and joy? What is the inner supernatural change in character that God can bring?
In 1 Corinthians 13, we see 1) two things that heart character is not, and 2) one thing that it is.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 13, 2002. Series: Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:1-8.
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.
This talk was given by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 6, 1994. Series: Redeemer Open Forums.
Today's episode 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.
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