Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

Honesty is a difficult commodity. It’s pretty hard to find. Instead, you can see dishonesty everywhere: in the high places in the professional places, and all the way down to the inner places. We’re not honest with other people, and we’re not even honest with ourselves.

Dishonesty starts because we’re all so good at denial. All around you there are people who, through blame-shifting and rationalization, are absolutely blind to a fault that others around them can see clearly. No wonder the Bible says honesty is a supernatural work of God. Honesty starts when you say, “I’m incapable of it.” Until then, you haven’t even begun to have integrity.

Psalm 15 and 16 will show you yourself. This passage shows us 1) the opposite of integrity, 2) the counterfeit of integrity, and 3) how to cultivate integrity.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 21, 1990. Series: Ten Commandments 1989. Scripture: Psalm 15, 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.

If you’re not radically generous, you’re a thief. The Bible is full of this teaching. If the money you have was yours and you’re not generous with it, you’re just being stingy; but if the money is somebody else’s and you’re not generous with it as the owner directs, it’s robbery.

The Bible says your attitude toward your wealth and your possessions is not an incidental or peripheral or optional issue. It’s at the very heart of what it is to be a Christian. A Christian says the money you have is yours to enjoy and take care of as a trustee, but you must give it generously as God directs.

James 2 says real faith inevitably leads to three characteristics: 1) it’s radically generous, 2) it’s radically gracious, and 3) it’s radically practical.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 14, 1990. Series: Ten Commandments 1989. Scripture: James 2:1-17.

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.

Money is not a silly or superfluous thing. Money was designed to be our dignity. It answers to something God put down deep in us: that we all need to have part of the world to care for, and without any part of the world to care for, we have no dignity. But what has happened in most of our lives is instead of being our dignity, money has become our definition. 

Money is power. It can act destructively or constructively in your life. How can you be sure it’s acting constructively? You know the answer: it’s in the Bible many places. It’s not how much money you have or how little money you have, it all depends on your heart attitude. You have to be freed from money as your definition so that it can become your dignity and you can release its power where it will do the most good.

There are three principles that need to be worked down into your heart, and we see them in what Paul says in 2 Corinthians: 1) God owns everything you have, so you have to act like a trustee, 2) Jesus gave everything for you, so you’re freed for radical generosity, and 3) you can take it with you if you invest it in eternal things.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 7, 1990. Series: Ten Commandments 1989. Scripture: 2 Corinthians 8:1-15.

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.

When Christianity burst onto the scene, the early Romans were amazed and astounded in two particulars: that Christians were radically generous, giving away large portions of income, and that Christians were radically pure, believing in no sex outside of marriage. This unique understanding transformed the Roman world.

At that time, there were two major philosophies about sex. The first was the platonic view: that the soul is good, the body is bad, and sex is kind of dirty. The second was the mystery religions’ view: that sex is an appetite that is unhealthy to repress. The prudes and the pagans. And in 1 Corinthians, Paul vividly and incisively shows that Christians are neither. Instead, Christians have the most glorious and lofty possible understanding of sex that there is.

Let’s look at what this passage shows us about 1) how God says sex is supposed to function in a life, and 2) in looking at how to order our lives in accord to that, we see two things: 3) the only real cure for loneliness is the thing that sex points to, and 4) when you misuse sex, it works backwards.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 10, 1989. Series: Ten Commandments 1989. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 6:15-7:5.

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.

Jesus gives us the most radical ethic of love that’s ever been put forth: “Turn the other cheek.” This ethic has been criticized and disregarded, but no one ever says the reason is because it’s too low or vile or unworthy. They always say it’s too high, too lofty.

The reason it seems so lofty is it’s a whole new dimension. The love ethic in Matthew 5 is part of a package. The package is that Christianity itself is actually an interconnected set of radically altered relationships. A new relationship with God creates a new relationship with yourself, creates a new relationship with others. They can’t be separated. They rise and fall together, and you can’t have one without the others. 

Let’s take a look at those three aspects. As we move through this passage, we’ll see 1) the understanding of the self, 2) the relationship with others, and 3) the root of it all: a new relationship with God.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 3, 1989. Series: Ten Commandments 1989. Scripture: Matthew 5:21-24; 38-48.

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.