Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

What gets God angry? Romans 1 tells us: ingratitude. If there’s a God who created you, do you work for his goals or do you take all that he’s given you and live for your own interests? My friends, that is ingratitude of the highest order, and this passage says it is secret treason. 
The reason this is a secret treason is because you keep it secret from yourself. Romans 1 says even though we know deep down that there is a God who created us, we all suppress that truth to some degree. We know we’re committing treason, but we keep it secret even from ourselves. We know it and we don’t know it. 
This passage looks at the structure of this secret treason: it says 1) ingratitude leads to repression, 2) repression leads to darkness, and 3) darkness leads to all of the problems in your life.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 19, 1989. Series: Ten Commandments 1989. Scripture: Romans 1:18–24.
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 fifth commandment is talking particularly to adult children. It says, “Honor thy father and thy mother.”
What’s intriguing about the Ten Commandments is they are a summary of everything human beings ought to be. Yet in all of the Ten Commandments, there’s no place that talks about how people should relate to the government or to the people above them. It doesn’t talk about authority except right here. 
So let’s look a little bit deeper and ask the commandment three questions: 1) what does this commandment tell us to do? 2) why should we do it? and 3) how can we do it?
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 12, 1989. Series: Ten Commandments 1989. Scripture: Ephesians 6:1-4.
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.

What is true rest? In Psalm 3, we see a man who goes to sleep the night before a battle knowing full well that he’s greatly outnumbered. And he sleeps. He rests. 
Scientists will tell you the thing that restores the body is not the length of your sleep—it’s the depth. In the same way, the Bible shows that there are all kinds of shallow ways you can get rid of tension, but none of those are the deep rest that really restores the soul.
Hebrews 4 says there remains a rest for the people of God. What is it? Let’s see how this passage 1) helps us understand the rest, and then 2) helps us understand how to enter the rest.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 5, 1989. Series: Ten Commandments 1989. Scripture: Hebrews 4:1-12.
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.

If you have any other gods before God—and we all do—to that degree that you have other gods before him, you’re in bondage, co-conspirator with your own jailers.
God in his grace seeks to liberate us—with the most liberating of all of the Ten Commandments: “I am the Lord thy God … thou shalt have no other gods before me.” What he’s saying there is, “I’m the only God there is; all others are imposters. My yoke is easy, and the yoke of any other god is bondage.”
Let’s look at Jonah as a case study and see 1) how you can detect the things in your life that are controlling you, and 2) how you actually abandon those gods.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 1, 1989. Series: Ten Commandments 1989. Scripture: Jonah 1:1-10.
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 book of Deuteronomy is a series of sermons Moses preached just before he died. In it, he lays out, in the most comprehensive and practical way, how you should live if you experience the grace and salvation of God. If you experience God, how should that actually affect the way in which you live your life? It’s a very, very practical book and an incredibly comprehensive book.
Today, we get to the Ten Commandments. This is one of the most influential texts in the entire history of the world. Let’s take a look and see what we’re taught about it. It’s awfully basic, but it’s awfully basic because it’s awfully important.
There are four things we’re going to learn here about God’s Law: 1) the origin of the Law; 2) the substance of the Law; 3) the problem of the Law, and 4) the solution to that problem.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 27, 2007. Series: Deuteronomy – Doing Justice, Preaching Grace. Scripture: Deuteronomy 5:6-21, 24-29.
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.

Jesus says, “Don’t be anxious,” three times in this passage. Quick question that comes up: how does anybody have the audacity to command us to not be anxious? Nobody gets up in the morning and says, “I’m going to really be anxious today. I can’t wait.” It’s not a very voluntary thing.
So why would Jesus command us? If we look carefully, we’ll see that he’s not commanding us in a drill sergeant way. Instead, he gets underneath and he explains and he reasons with us. There’s a sense in which he does surgery. He’s saying, “If you let me do my surgery in you, if you listen to my instructions, I can get anxiety out of you. I can deal with your anxiety.”
Let’s look at what Jesus shows us about 1) what is anxiety? 2) where does it come from? and 3) what do we do about it?
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on June 3, 1990. Series: The Lord’s Prayer 1990. Scripture: Matthew 6:25-34.
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 many people, the whole point of prayer is this: how do you get God to give you what you need? Now, that’s not the point of prayer, and if you think it is, you will get very little. That’s the irony. Prayer is very effective for those people who don’t come into it hoping it will primarily be a way to get God to give you things.
In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus shows us that after you are done centering your heart and mind on the fatherhood of God and submitting to his lordship by saying, “your will be done,” then you can go and start asking him for your daily bread, for protection, for provision.
So there’s an order here that must be honored, or else you rip up the fabric of prayer. Let’s look at what it means to pray with this order: 1) first accepting “your will be done,” and 2) then asking.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 27, 1990. Series: The Lord’s Prayer 1990. Scripture: Matthew 6:9-15.
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.

A life of absolute peace, a life of tremendous clarity, a life of total power and freedom, a life of high beauty—that’s the vision of the Lord’s Prayer. A whole new life that revolves around God.
We’re going to look now at the part of the prayer that’s about admitting. Let me reiterate that since prayer essentially is centering on God, everything starts with adoration and everything has to be understood as flowing out of it. If your repentance, if your admitting doesn’t flow out of adoration, it won’t deal with your guilt and it will even make it worse. But if it flows out of adoration of the Father, it can get rid of your guilt.
Jesus Christ, in the context of the Lord’s Prayer, teaches us 1) the reason for repentance, 2) the motivation for repentance, and 3) three ways to repent.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 20, 1990. Series: The Lord’s Prayer 1990. Scripture: Matthew 6:9-15.
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.

What’s ironic is the Lord’s Prayer has probably the most familiar words in the English language, and yet it is the secret to what you seek. We’re so tired of technology, of quantifying everything, of being a number. At the core of our being, we need and we desperately want real soul experience. And how to have it is right in front of us. 
Jesus Christ taught it to us in the Lord’s Prayer. Jesus says, “This is how to pray. This is the key.” I must say that one of the reasons why we don’t know how to use it is because this prayer is so familiar. But it tells you everything you need to know about communication with God.
Looking at just one verse, we see how Jesus shows us 1) the difficulty of prayer, 2) the basis of prayer, and 3) the essence of prayer.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 6, 1990. Series: The Lord’s Prayer 1990. Scripture: Matthew 6:9-15.
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.

It’s artificial to avoid the subject of money when so many of your problems, your worries, and your difficulties revolve around money. And it’s also artificial to avoid the subject because so much of the Bible is about money.
The Bible says there can be no significant spiritual growth unless you put your money and your attitude toward it into God’s hands. And 2 Corinthians 9 shows us that it’s the mark of a real Christian to be radically generous.
This passage teaches us 1) the impact of that generosity, 2) the motivation for that generosity, and 3) the measure of that generosity.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 10, 1991. 2 Corinthians 9:6-15.
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.

In the middle of John 1, the religious leaders send people to interrogate John the Baptist. It doesn’t look like it’s got much to do with Christmas, and yet it does.
Some major inner change has happened to John the Baptist. And if John the Baptist has had that change with what little knowledge he had of Jesus and the meaning of Christmas, how much more should we be exhibiting that change? 
Let’s take a look at 1) John’s view of himself, 2) John’s view of Jesus, 3) the resulting character change, and 4) how we might know it as well. 
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 18, 2016. Series: Jesus, Mission, and Glory: Advent. Scripture: John 1:19-28.
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.

When the original hearers of John’s gospel—the Jews and the Greeks—heard the term, “the Word became flesh,” it was revolutionary. Many scholars have said it marked a complete revolution in the history of human thought. 
But I’d like us to think about the fact that Christmas doesn’t change our lives like it ought to. John says the Word of God became a flesh and blood human being. This is a life-transforming truth. 
Let’s look at three ways this truth should change our lives. If Christmas happened, and it did, 1) we have infinite comfort in the face of suffering, 2) we have infinite powerful conviction and incentive to serve, and 3) we have a hope that is both realistic and infallible.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 11, 2016. Series: Jesus, Mission, and Glory: Advent. Scripture: John 1:14-18.
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.

John 1 is about Jesus first coming into the world. It’s John’s way of helping us understand the meaning of Christmas. 
And at the very beginning, John sort of hits us between the eyes and says the reason why Jesus Christ came into the world is so that you might be born again. 
It’s all here in two verses, where it says the new birth is 1) essential, 2) radical, 3) simple, but 4) hard.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 4, 2016. Series: Jesus, Mission, and Glory: Advent. Scripture: John 1:12-13.
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.

Light in the darkness is one of the ways that throughout history, Christmas has been celebrated. Lighting candles, and lights on trees, and lights at night. What is that all about?
In John 1, John talks about Jesus coming into the world. It’s his way of talking about the meaning of Christmas. And in this very famous passage, the word “light” shows up seven times.
Let’s look at how this tells us that 1) human beings need light, 2) there is a light, and 3) how we can connect to it and receive it.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 27, 2016. Series: Jesus, Mission, and Glory: Advent. Scripture: John 1:1-11.
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.

Paul gives us an assurance at the end of Romans 8. It is magnificent and yet very simple. In these verses, he’s saying, “Here’s the thing that will absolutely change your life through Christ.” 
Paul tells us this assurance, and he says this is the thing that you can use every day that will change your life.
Let’s look at it under three headings: 1) that we can be assured, 2) why we can be assured, and 3) how we can be assured.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 7, 2007. Series: In Christ Jesus: How the Spirit Transforms Us. Scripture: Romans 8:28, 38-39.
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.

Rightly so, at Christmas, people who are suffering want to know, “Why should I be merry? What basis do I really have for joy?”
The answer is that if Christmas really happened, if God really did open a cleft in the pitiless walls of this world, if he broke into our broken reality with his healing power, if he became a human being, then there are three solid bases for joy in any circumstance. 
If Christmas happened, then even in the deepest grief, you can feel these three things holding you up: 1) our bad things will turn out for good, 2) our most truly good things can never be taken away from us, and 3) our best things are yet to come.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 17, 2006. Series: In Christ Jesus: How the Spirit Transforms Us. Scripture: Romans 8:28-39.
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.

If we’re going to be equipped for real life, we have to see how Christ actually prepares us to face the unavoidable brutalities of life.
We’ve been looking at how faith in Christ concretely and profoundly changes us. And in Romans 8, we get to the subject of suffering. It’s absolutely crucial if we’re going to be equipped in any spiritual way for real life, to see how Christ helps us in our sufferings.
This text gives us three things: 1) it gives us a warning about suffering, 2) it gives us three resources for suffering, and 3) it tells us how we can be sure those resources will work.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 10, 2006. Series: In Christ Jesus: How the Spirit Transforms Us. Scripture: Romans 8:13-27.
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.

When I first embraced the Christian faith, there were a number of things in my life that profoundly needed changing. But nothing seemed to work until some Christian writers took me to Romans 6, 7 and 8. 
When I began to understand the teaching of these chapters, my life began to change. In this brief series, I’m sharing these teachings with you as we ask this question: how does faith in Christ actually lead to real change in one’s life?
In Romans 8, we see that in Jesus, you get three things: 1) you get the freedom to know yourself, 2) you get a new method to change yourself, and 3) you get a new power to be yourself.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 3, 2006. Series: In Christ Jesus: How the Spirit Transforms Us. Scripture: Romans 8:1-13.
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.

How does change really happen in somebody’s life? And how does faith in Christ concretely and practically lead to change? 
In Romans 7 we see, in very starkly and shockingly realistic terms, a depiction of the human heart. And what we really see is the very heart that any principles about change have to be applied to.
When we look at Romans 7, I think we learn three things: 1) what our biggest problem is, 2) what won’t address that problem, and 3) what will.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 26, 2006. Series: In Christ Jesus: How the Spirit Transforms Us. Scripture: Romans 7:1-9, 18-25.
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.

If you need to see changes in your life, what is the process by which change really happens? And how does that change flow from belief in Jesus?
The gospel is unique to all the religions of the world in that it says salvation is not achieved, but is received. So if you understand the gospel, and that salvation has nothing to do with how you live, why would you change? In Romans, Paul answers that, and in the process, he shows how faith in Christ concretely leads to changes.
In Romans 6, Paul gives us three keys to real, profound life change: 1) you have to recognize the shape of your spiritual slavery, 2) you have to realize the scope of your cosmic unity with Jesus, and 3) you have to live daily out of your new identity.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 19, 2006. Series: In Christ Jesus: How the Spirit Transforms Us. Scripture: Romans 6:1-7, 11-18.
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.