In Isaiah 61, we have one of the great prophecies about the Messiah. It tells us the Messiah is going to deal with the problems of life—and that shows us something about sin.

Sin is not just breaking God’s scale and breaking God’s heart; it’s also breaking God’s design for us. God’s law is also the design print of your heart, the way you were built to work. So when you break God’s law, you’re trampling on yourself.

In Isaiah 61, we can see 1) what the problem is, 2) what God is going to do about it, and 3) how we should respond.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 21, 1999. Series: What’s Really Wrong with the World. Scripture: Isaiah 61:1-11.

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Even when we feel vaguely guilty for things in our past, or when we feel outraged by what we see other people doing, we have trouble talking about sin and evil. In our society, we’ve been taught that words like “sin” or “evil” are oppressive or meaningless. Yet we sense something out there that we don’t have the vocabulary for.

But the Bible gives us a far richer vocabulary and helps us understand sin in far more nuanced ways. In Jeremiah 2, there’s a prophesy from Jeremiah to a nation in spiritual decline. And in it, we’ll see how sin is replacing God, and the result is addiction of spirit.

Jeremiah’s telling us about 1) the dynamics of spiritual attraction, 2) the dynamics of spiritual addiction, and 3) the dynamics of spiritual restoration.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 14, 1999. Series: What’s Really Wrong with the World. Scripture: Jeremiah 2:1-8.

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.

The story in Judges 17 is not interesting. It’s a bunch of trivial people doing kind of dumb, weird things. Micah robs his mother, but then he gives the money back. Then his mother cheats God. Then Micah hires a Levite, and then Danites hire the Levite instead. What’s the point?

On the one hand, this is terrible storytelling. Why was this incident chosen out of this whole period of history? There’s nobody in this narrative who you care about. They’re shallow and uninteresting. And we’re left completely unprepared for what happens in the following chapters, where there’s rape and civil war and genocide. So why is this here?

Every other part of Judges is about God’s salvation. And this passage shows us what we look like without his salvation. In other words, this shows us the nature of sin, and it shows us some things that are very surprising. This tells us 1) what sin does to us, 2) what sin does to God, and 3) how we can be cured of it.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 7, 1999. Series: What’s Really Wrong with the World. Scripture: Judges 17:1-13.

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When people see the evidence of great evils and atrocities, they automatically turn into philosophers. They start to ask the metaphysical questions. How could this have happened?

Why doesn’t God do something about evil, about the wickedness and violence that’s here? Why doesn’t God do something about the brokenness of the world? Exodus 17 tells us that God has.

This passage tells us about a trial that happened years ago, and it was the most remarkable trial in the history of the world. Look at it carefully: 1) there’s a lawsuit, 2) then there’s a trial, and 3) then there’s an execution.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 9, 1995. Series: The Seven Deadly Sins. Scripture: Exodus 17:1-7.

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The story of Jacob and Esau is a great example of how anger works out in a family situation.

Esau and Jacob were twins, and Esau was the oldest. When their father is fooled into giving Jacob the birthright, Esau can’t get ahold of his anger. We’re told that Esau held a grudge against Jacob and consoled himself with thoughts of killing Jacob. And when Esau’s father does pronounce a blessing on Esau, he predicts that Esau is going to be driven by anger all of his life.

How can you make sure your anger does not imprison and control you? How can you make sure that you control it? This passage in Hebrews gives us some principles: 1) it tells you what anger is, and then, 2) it tells you three ways to handle it.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 2, 1995. Series: The Seven Deadly Sins. Scripture: Hebrews 12:14-17.

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The rich young ruler looked like he had it made. He’s characterized by moral excellence and he’s financially wealthy. He’s got it so together that he even admits he doesn’t have it all together—that there’s still something he lacks. He isn’t sure what it is. He’s gotten to the top and realized, “I’ve almost made it.”

So he comes to Jesus and says, “I just need that one more step.” And Jesus gives him an outrageous, strong answer. Jesus tells him he’s on a completely wrong road—that he’s totally outside the kingdom of God.

Unless we understand why the rich young ruler went away from Jesus grieved, we might be in danger of also being sent away. The rich young ruler went away grieving because 1) he talked to the real Jesus, 2) Jesus smashed two of his basic assumptions about how religion works, 3) Jesus got personal, and 4) he didn’t understand treasure in heaven.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 19, 1995. Series: The Seven Deadly Sins. Scripture: Matthew 19:16-25.

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Joseph’s career was going along fairly well. He’d risen from servanthood to becoming, in a sense, the Chief Operating Officer of a huge estate. And then sex came. He wasn’t even looking for it, but it came at him.

Things may be going very well for you, but sex will come—and it’s such a powerful force that how you handle it can make or break you. From Genesis 39, we can learn about what we’re going to call lust. We learn something from what we see Potiphar’s wife doing, we learn something from what we see Joseph doing, and we learn from what we see God doing.

Let’s look at 1) how to understand lust, 2) how to handle it, and 3) how to heal it.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 12, 1995. Series: The Seven Deadly Sins. Scripture: Genesis 39:4-21.

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In the Middle Ages, theologians said there are different forms of gluttony—that you can eat and drink excessively, sumptuously, daintily, or impulsively. Technically, gluttony means to eat and drink immoderately. But gluttony also tells us something about each of us.

Gluttony is taking something good and then cramming it in until we’re sick of it. Our desires are disordered so that good and necessary things become cravings. Sin, in other words, makes us all addicted to something. We all crave something, and we do it in such a way that it is very, very bad for us.

Let’s look at three things this Scripture teaches us about craving: 1) the depth of our craving, 2) the structure of our craving, and 3) the healing.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 5, 1995. Series: The Seven Deadly Sins. Scripture: Joshua 7:19-26, Hosea 2:13-15.

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.