Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life

When the Bible says the fruit of the Spirit is patience, it’s saying a Christian is somebody who at last knows how to deal with anger.

You know, anger is a scary thing. Almost all murders and wars start with anger. It’s a tremendously dangerous emotion. And this ability to deal with anger, to really release and remove it, to pray for enemies, to forgive people, to pray for oppressors, to repay evil with good is an essential sign of Christianity.

Ephesians 4 shows us three things about anger: 1) anger in itself is not a sin, 2) anger usually is a sin, and 3) your motives are always impure.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 4, 1990. Series: Fruit of the Spirit. Scripture: 1 John 3:11-20, Ephesians 4:26-32.

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 we talk about the fruit of the Spirit, love and joy seem like they’re in a higher league than patience. We think, “everybody gets impatient!” 

But in James 5, it says impatience and grumbling is worthy of judgment. You may say, “Why?” But what do you think murder is? It’s just grumbles that were planted and watered and fertilized. Impatience is at the root of things. 

Let’s look at 1) the danger of impatience 2) what patience is, 3) what patience is not, 4) the counterfeit of patience, and 5) how you develop a patient heart.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 25, 1990. Series: Fruit of the Spirit. Scripture: James 5:7-16.

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.

A lot of Christians are cast down, losing their peace and joy because they don’t expect attacks on their peace and joy. We’re sad that we’re sad. We’re upset that we’re upset. We say, “it’s not supposed to be like this!” because we don’t have the proper expectations. 

Before you became a Christian, your main enemy in life was God: someone who loved you, who was doing everything he could to wake you up. But the minute you make peace with God, instantly, all of God’s enemies declare war on you—and they’re not nice enemies. 

We’re going to look at 1) what the Bible says about peace and joy, 2) our three enemies, and 3) the attacks on assurance. 

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 18, 1990. Series: Fruit of the Spirit. Scripture: Philippians 4:4-9.

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.

When the Bible says joy comes in the morning, it doesn’t mean you’ll wake up every morning with a smile on your face. It means there’s a joy of such intensity in the Christian life that nothing can put it out. 

A Christian will receive a joy of such intensity that no sorrow, in the end, can overwhelm it. Sorrow is always a temporary condition for a Christian, and joy is a permanent condition. 

To look at the fruit of joy, let’s ask 1) what’s the definition of joy? 2) what’s the opposite of joy? 3) what’s the counterfeit of joy? and 4) how do we cultivate joy in our lives?

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 11, 1990. Series: Fruit of the Spirit. Scripture: John 16:16-22.

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.

They say if you’ve been married long enough you start to look like each other. Whether or not that’s true in marriage, I know that’s true about God and you. 

We’re being transformed into the image of his Son. Every fruit of the Spirit, every aspect of holiness comes from looking at God himself.

We look now at 1) what it means to study the fruit of the Spirit, 2) why love is more important than anything else, 3) what the opposite of love is, 4) what the counterfeit of love is, and 5) how you develop love in your life.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 4, 1990. Series: Fruit of the Spirit. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 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.

In a single acorn is not only the entire tree, but all the acorns on that tree and all the acorns on that tree and so on and so forth. It’s all already in that one acorn. 

In the same way, a Christian already has the divine nature in them. When we talk about love, joy, peace, and patience, we’re not talking about how to import these into our hearts. No. The Bible says we must grow up into our salvation. So instead of saying, “Oh, I’ll never get there,” the question is: “When are you going to grow up?”

We’re looking at this passage on the fruit of the Spirit as a whole. Galatians 5 shows us 1) there are two natures in every Christian, 2) what it means to live in the Spirit, and 3) how we can walk in the Spirit.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on January 7, 1990. Series: Fruit of the Spirit. 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.

The point of Robert Louis Stevenson’s book, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, surely is to make us look at ourselves and say, “Are we that bad? Is the evil in us that evil?” Therefore, another question immediately rises up. Since this story is inspired by the Bible, is this the biblical view of human nature? 

On the one hand, Stevenson is profoundly right about human nature, but in another way, he is profoundly wrong. The biblical view of human nature is more pessimistic and more optimistic than any other view I have ever heard of. 

Looking at Romans 7, we can see 1) how this pessimistic view is right, 2) how this pessimistic view is wrong, and 3) how to defeat evil and sin in your life.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on August 24, 1997. Series: The War Between Your Selves. Scripture: Romans 7:1-25.

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.

All of life is a battle between two selves, but there’s a war before you become a Christian that’s different from the war that happens after you become a Christian. 

When you become a Christian, you don’t move from warfare to peace. You move from a battle you cannot win to a battle you cannot lose. To understand the difference is extremely important. 

If you look at Romans 7, you’ll see 1) the battle you can’t win, 2) the battle you can’t lose, and 3) how you make the transition.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on August 17, 1997. Series: The War Between Your Selves. Scripture: Romans 7:1-25.

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 Psalm 73, Asaph is mad at God. He’s been living right, but everything is going wrong. Yet all kinds of abusive people are having great lives. Life seems unjust. Asaph’s just about to chuck his faith. Yet at the end, he’s able to say in his pain, “God is always good.” 

I’ll tell you, if you’re trying to live a decent life, this is going to happen to you. At some point, you’re going to say, “God, why are you letting this happen? You’re not running my life right. You’re not running history right.” It’s going to happen. How will you handle it? 

How does Asaph do it? He goes through a number of steps: 1) he grabbed hold of a negative, 2) he entered the sanctuary for understanding, 3) he saw the big picture, and 4) he asked the ultimate question.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 28, 1993. Series: Modern Problems; Ancient Solutions. Scripture: Psalm 73.

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 are mad at God. People who believe. People who don’t believe. And people who don’t know what they believe. And in Psalm 73, we see Asaph get mad at the way God seems to be mishandling the world.

Asaph has been living a self-controlled, compassionate life, but everything is going wrong. On top of that, he sees all sorts of people who live abusive, immoral lives, and they’re having a great life. Yet we’re told that Asaph finally comes to the conclusion that God, in spite of it all, is good. 

How does he get there? We’re going to look at this psalm over two weeks. This week I want to show you 1) the situation he was in, 2) how he escaped it, and 3) how he finally came to say, “God is good, no matter what happens to me.”

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 21, 1993. Series: Modern Problems; Ancient Solutions. Scripture: Psalm 73.

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.