Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

Today’s message comes from a series on the book of Proverbs in which we’ve been looking at the subject of wisdom. Wisdom can be defined as: competence with regard to the realities of life. It is knowing the right thing to do in the vast majority of life situations in which the moral rules don’t apply or in which there are multiple permissible options. 
Why is it that so many religious communities want to make up new rules? One answer is that we won’t have to think. We want a rule to cover every single situation, so we don’t have to apply wisdom and think out the implications. But the truth is that you can never create enough rules to cover every situation. This is where wisdom comes in — you have to know something about the true nature of reality. Today we’re going to look at 1) the persistence of reality, 2) the problems with reality, and 3) how it gets healed. If you want to be wise, you have to know all three.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 3, 2004. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 5:16-23 and Revelation 21:1-5.
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 Proverbs is one of the best places in the Bible to look at the topic of wisdom. Wisdom is a lot more than just having high moral values. It is knowing what the right thing to do is in the majority of life situations where the moral rules don’t apply. The most right and virtuous word or deed done at the wrong time, done in the wrong way or in the wrong order, can blow everything up.
Wisdom is not having a technique that helps you make right choices and decisions, but it’s having character of the mind and the heart that enables you to make the right choices. So how do you get that character? Today we’re going to look at 1) how this character develops, 2) where it comes from, and 3) how it can be transformed.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 26, 2004. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 4:11-27.
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.

Wisdom can be defined as: competence with regard to the complex realities of life. It has to do with understanding a particular situation and then knowing the right thing to do. For example, you might decide you really want to help a poor family to get out of poverty. That’s a noble thing, but you could do it in a way that actually ruins the family. You need to be conversant with the complexity of the realities of how things work in the world.
It’s not good enough to be a person of vision or of moral values if you’re not a person of wisdom. For most of the decisions you have to make, there are multiple permissible options and wisdom is the ability to know what the right thing is. So how do we develop wisdom? Today we’re going to look at 1) the path of wisdom, 2) the process of wisdom, and 3) the man off the mountain.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 19, 2004. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 3:1-12; 30:1-4.
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.

We live in a pluralistic society, which results in people continually fighting about morality. They’re fighting about different views on what is good and what is bad, what is right and what is wrong. In many ways this was different in ancient societies because on the whole, there was generally more consensus on morality in each society. There were spoken and unspoken rules that were necessary for the society to exist. 
If you’re going to not make an absolute mess of your life, then there is something very important that you must have. The secular culture talks about science and facts, and the moral communities — the churches and synagogues — talk about morality, but actually what we need is something that’s hardly talked about at all nowadays. It’s not identical to knowledge, and it’s not identical even to moral goodness; it’s wisdom. Today we’re going to look at 1) the importance of wisdom, 2) the definition of wisdom, 3) the problem of wisdom, and 4) a clue to its solution.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 12, 2004. Series: Proverbs: True Wisdom for Living. Scripture: Proverbs 8:10-16; 22-31.
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.

Today’s passage is not an easy one. When you look through it, there’s a lot of obscurity. Nothing leaps up and grabs you, but if we do some mining, we’ll find all sorts of gems in here. This passage helps unlock one of the keys for understanding all of the Bible. Paul shows us how the Bible fits together with beautiful coherence. 
Paul is writing to a series of churches in Galatia that he founded. They had come under the influence of a group of wayward teachers, and Paul is at great pains to correct them. The teachers said to first believe and obey and then you’ll be saved. But Paul taught to believe and be saved, and then you’ll obey. The teachers said faith and obedience go together and result in salvation, but Paul said faith and salvation go together and result in obedience. This change in order makes all the difference for how we live.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 11, 1998. Series: Galatians: New Freedom, New Family. Scripture: Galatians 3:10-22.
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.

All of our personal problems and practical problems are really theological ones. Most theological problems are really practical problems, because theology affects the way you live. Today we’re going to look at one huge problem. There’s a theological way to put it, and there’s a more practical way to put it.  
The theological problem is this: when you are saved, how do you move beyond being accepted by God as righteous to actually living a righteous life? This is a move from imputed righteousness to imparted righteousness. The more practical way is fairly simple. When you become a Christian, you realize you’re forgiven and that God loves you, but you may continue to see sins in your life that continue to pop up. How do you move beyond that? How do you actually grow in the faith and become more like Christ? Paul gives us a radical answer: the way you enter the Christian faith is exactly the same way you advance in the Christian faith. We’re going to dig deeper and look at this in more detail in today’s sermon. 
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 14, 1997. Series: Galatians: New Freedom, New Family. Scripture: Galatians 3:1-14.
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 is a great passage. There are so many details in it. I think, however, the important thing would probably be to get the gist of it, the point, which I think is actually in verse 8. Then we can come back and look at the parts and the details later without losing our way or being confused. This passage in the very beginning, which we began looking at last week, talks about, “How do you get the Spirit? How do you have spiritual power?” It’s a very, very relevant question nowadays.
Here you have Paul talking about the Spirit. How do you get into contact with the Spirit? He keeps on saying “hearing.” The first five verses are all about hearing. You have to hear. It’s not what you do; it’s what you hear. It’s the message. In this case we see where it’s from. He’s talking, of course, about the gospel; the gospel is the way. Well, how do you find the gospel? How do you know the gospel? In verse 8 we have a stunning verse. Here’s basically what verse 8 says: “The Scripture preached the gospel to Abraham.” You have a very important and “bipolar” truth.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 7, 1997. Series: Galatians: New Freedom, New Family. Scripture: Galatians 3:1-9.
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 our culture, many people go to church looking for spiritual power. They’re looking for spirituality, or prayer, or changes in consciousness. People don’t want to be told how to live decently, because that whole idea that there’s a certain way to live is gone. But they’re empty, and they want spirituality. This text from Galatians has everything to say about spirituality. Paul says, “If you want to understand spiritual power, spiritual reality… not just an ethical life, but a spiritually powerful life… here it is.”
How did the Galatian Christians get converted? How did they receive the Spirit? How did this inner transformation happen? There are two things we’ll discuss in this passage. One is the instrument of the Spirit, and the other is the secret of spiritual power.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 30, 1997. Series: Galatians: New Freedom, New Family. Scripture: Galatians 3:1-5.
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 passage tells the story of how Peter and Paul had a confrontation over the nature of the gospel, the essence of the Christian faith, over what a Christian really is. What is a Christian? We’re going to look at a definition in this teaching, a definition that is vast in its implications. Almost any other definition than this one is unbalanced, misleading, and distorted.
Becoming good is a result of being a Christian; it’s not the essence of becoming a Christian. When you become a Christian you are justified. It doesn’t mean you suddenly stop being bad. It means you’re no longer viewed in the same way. It means your sins can no longer bring you into condemnation. It means you’re righteous in God’s sight.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 23 1997. Series: Galatians: New Freedom, New Family. Scripture: Galatians 2:17-21.
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 this passage, Paul has confronted not just Peter, but Barnabas and all of these great Christian leaders, over what it means to live in accordance with the gospel. The word gospel or “good news” is the essential core; the thing that makes Christianity, Christianity. Here we have Paul arguing with Peter, another apostle, and all of the leaders, as to how the gospel is to be worked out, and what the gospel is. 
For the first time in the book of Galatians, Paul gets into terminology. First of all, we’re going to talk about the fact that there's a need for a vocabulary, and why we need a vocabulary. Then secondly, what that vocabulary is. There is a gospel vocabulary—let’s see how this teaches us why we need those terms, and then secondly, what they are.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 16, 1997. Series: Galatians: New Freedom, New Family. Scripture: Galatians 2:14-21.
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 this sermon we continue looking at an account of two very important visits: Paul coming down to Jerusalem and Peter coming up to Antioch; Paul coming down to where Peter lived and Peter coming up to where Paul lived. In the first visit, we saw a very important principle laid down as to the nature of the gospel, what it is. We saw that the problem was the message of a certain group of religious teachers.
Their point was believing in Jesus Christ was very important; they weren’t against Christ. But they said you have to add to Jesus Christ, his work, his love; faith and union with his work and his love is not enough to cleanse and beautify you. It’s not enough. You have to believe in Christ, and, in their case, they said you have to adopt the entire Mosaic law, all the ceremonial laws. The important thing is the principle of the gospel: is Jesus Christ’s work and love enough to cleanse and beautify you all by itself? Paul’s answer is “Yes.” For these folks the answer was “No.”
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 9, 1997. Series: Galatians: New Freedom, New Family. Scripture: Galatians 2:11-16.
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 of the great things about this passage from Galatians is that Paul is giving us some very meaty, very important theological teaching exposition, but he’s doing it in the form of a narrative because he’s telling us a story of two visits.
There were all these ceremonial rules in the Mosaic covenant in the Old Testament. There was an extremely influential pressure group of early Christians, and this group was saying that in order to be a Christian, you must not only believe in Jesus Christ, you also have to obey all the ceremonial clean laws. Of course, Paul’s point was, “No, you don’t.” If Paul says we have to honor parts of the Bible but we don’t have to honor another part of the Bible, who’s to say? How do we know?
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 2, 1997. Series: Galatians: New Freedom, New Family. Scripture: Galatians 2:6-14.
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.

We’re looking here at one particular truth: Paul is saying in this passage that doctrinal truth is absolutely critical. He’s fighting for a particular truth, the truth of the gospel. It is the mark of our culture right now that we want spirituality without theology. We want some kind of heart intimacy, but we don’t want to have to bring our mind and our entire life. 
Yet you also can’t have theology without spirituality. What is Paul saying over and over again? If you lose the truth of the gospel, the freedom is gone. The liberation is gone. The spirituality is gone. The love, the power, the glory are all gone. That’s why we have to keep the truth.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 19, 1997. Series: Galatians: New Freedom, New Family. Scripture: Galatians 2:1-10.
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.

We’re looking at Paul’s letter to the Galatians, and the thing I hope will strike you is the radical objectivity and subjectivity of Christianity. Almost everybody tends to see the objective and subjective as being at loggerheads. Christianity will not let you make that choice. It says Christianity is radically both. They’re joined in the gospel.
If you take a look at the passage, it may be better here than anywhere. You can see them together. First of all, we see the hard objectivity. We won’t spend as much time on that because this is a continuation of where we were last week. First of all, we see the hard objectivity and the deep subjectivity. You’re really not a Christian unless you accept both, unless you embrace both, unless you really see both.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 12, 1997. Series: Galatians: New Freedom, New Family. Scripture: Galatians 1:10-24.
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 book of Galatians is not for non-Christians. It’s not for unbelievers. It’s not for people who say, “Oh, I don’t believe the gospel.” The whole book of Galatians is a book on the gospel, a book communicating the gospel, explaining the gospel, applying the gospel, and it’s a book for Christians, a book for people who say they believe it.
To break down this passage, first, Paul shows us the need for controversy, essentially why and when we need controversy. Secondly, he tells us what the authority is to appeal to in controversy, the method of conducting it. Again, we’re talking about Christians struggling with beliefs. Thirdly, he tells us how to heal controversy.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 5, 1997. Series: Galatians: New Freedom, New Family. Scripture: Galatians 1:6-12.
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 the Bible is not so much a human book reaching up for God, but a divine book reaching out for us, then we’ll only really profit from it if we read it in search of what God has for us rather than reading it to find what we want to find. One of the best ways to do this is to take verse by verse, rather than just jumping to topics that we like. 
One of the things we see right away in the introduction of Galatians is that Paul has to address a church that is losing touch with the gospel. He has to remind his readers how they came into being  and how they became Christians. By doing so, he gives us a little set of tests to know whether or not the gospel is in our own lives. We’re going to look at four things to test ourselves: the power, the content, the drama, and the intimacy.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 21, 1997. Series: Galatians: New Freedom, New Family. Scripture: Galatians 1:3-12.
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.

Galatians is like a little bomb. There’s dynamite in it. It’s not a very long book, but it brings a big punch. Paul has to bring a hard truth to the Galatians. Those that thought they believed the gospel were actually losing touch with it. The lesson for us is if we really think we understand everything about the gospel, then that probably proves we’re losing touch with it. 
We’re going to look at the introduction to Galatians. It’s tempting to gloss right over these first few verses, but there are important things for us to learn. Paul touches on themes that will reappear later in the book. 1) The importance of doctrine, 2) the importance of authority, and 3) the importance of God’s initiative.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 14, 1997. Series: Galatians: New Freedom, New Family. Scripture: Galatians 1:1-5.
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 sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on August 21, 2011. Series: Theophany: Anticipations of Jesus in the Old Testament. Scripture: Daniel 3:14-29.
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.

The book of Daniel is a helpful place in the Bible to learn how to live as a believer in a pluralistic society — a society that believes in many gods, religions, and moralities. Today we take a look at the most famous of all the narratives in Daniel. We learn three things that should characterize the life of the believer: salt, hurt, and light. These are the same three things that Jesus gives us in the Sermon on the Mount. 
Let’s look at these three principles that show us how to live in the world as believers in the only true God.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 21, 2000. Series: Daniel: Living by Faith in a Secular World. Scripture: Daniel 6:1-10, 16-23.
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.

Daniel is a set of narratives about what happened when the Jewish exiles were taken out of a country in which there was a set of cultural institutions that supported the biblical God. They were taken into Babylon, which was a pluralistic society in which there were many gods and there were many moralities, all equally valid. The Israelites, who believed in the one true God, had to learn how to function in an unbelieving society. 
Today’s passage from Daniel 5 will help us see how we should also live faithful lives in a secular world. Let’s look at these three parts of the narrative: the party; the great party crasher, Daniel; and thirdly, the fingers of God and the writing on the wall.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 14, 2000. Series: Daniel: Living by Faith in a Secular World. Scripture: Daniel 5:1-6, 17-31.
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.