Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - God’s Plan (Part 1)

Episode Date: July 15, 2026

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on August 2, 1992. Series: Salvation From the Outside In. Scripture: Ephesians 1:9-12. 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.

Welcome to Gospel and Life. Modern culture often says that our beliefs are secondary as long as we live like decent people. But the Bible insists that what we believe shapes our day-to-day lives. All summer long, we are sharing a series from Tim Keller which unpacks the core beliefs of the Christian faith. Dr. Keller looks at how the truths that shape our understanding of God, ourselves, and our salvation can transform us and free us in every part of our lives. Tonight I'd like to take a look since we've been going through the book of Ephesians, at least when I was here we were.

I'd like to take a look again at this huge sentence that we started looking at in the late spring and early summer. It's Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3 to 14. And I'm going to show you tonight that there is a second major division in it, and I'd like to give you an overview of it. We've been looking for weeks at the beauty of the first part. of that sentence, and what it means that we were chosen to be adopted as his children, to be his sons. And we spent a number of weeks on what it means to be adopted, and I want you to know that I don't know if it helped you, but I wrote most of those sermons sitting in a convent on the

shores of the Hudson River back in late May, and it changed my life. Just to think about the first part of the sentence. But starting at verse 9, We have a second part, and I'd like to introduce you to that tonight. Let me read you the whole sentence again. Chapter 1, verse 3 through 14. In the Greek, it was all one sentence, even though the English translators have had to break it up just to make it comprehensible. Praise be, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ,

for He chose us in Him before the Christ. creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will, to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the one he loves. In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that he lavished on us with all wisdom and understanding. And he made known to us the mystery of of His will, according to his good pleasure, which he purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment, to bring all things in heaven and on earth

together under one head, even Christ. In Him we also are chosen, having been predestined according to the plan of Him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of His will, in order that we who were the first to hope in Christ might live for the praise of His glory. And you also, were included in Christ when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing your inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession to the praise of his glory. This is God's word.

It's a very long convoluted sentence, and in order to really get the grip of it, you have to get it in the original language and look at the sentence structure, and you will see that the verbs, the main verbs, mark out the divisions of the sentence, and therefore the subject or the headings. And the first main verb was chosen and predestined to be adopted, to be holy and blameless. But then now in verse 9, it says, he has made known. And this introduces a new area, a new amazing privilege that I want to look at tonight. we said that verse 3 to 14, this whole sentence is all about salvation. In New York, a person that talks about being saved, a person who asks you if you are saved,

a person who talks about Christ saving us, in New York, that kind of religion generally is looked down upon as shallow and narrow. And yet we were trying to see here and show you here that Paul is revealing that salvation being saved is not a narrow and shallow thing, but the broadest and deepest and richest thing possible. And he's breaking down everything that salvation means, all in this one marvelous introductory sentence. And we look in a way at what God does to the individual. when you receive Christ as your Savior.

And we saw that what he has done is he makes us holy, and he comes inside, and he adopts us, and we looked at all those beautiful things. But verse 9 to 12 introduces a new idea, and the new idea is he has made known the mystery of a plan that he's had throughout the ages. The difference is this. If you go, it's not there anymore,

but I think it was last year, Metropolitan Museum of Art, they had an exhibit of Tiffany windows. Tiffany glass, stained glass, color glass windows. And you know, there's two ways to look at a Tiffany window. There's the glory of the microscopic view. And then there's a different glory to get the macroscopic view. If you go in real close, and of course when you're over 40, to go in real close and see something, you've got to take your glasses off, unless you're because you're still probably, you're still probably too irresistant to the inevitable and you haven't got bifogels yet. So anyway, the microscopic view is to get up real close and examine the individual pieces

of glass and delight in and be amazed at the artistry, at the purity of the color, at the vividness of the color, of the purity of the texture. And you can look and see things close up that you can't see anywhere else, see glories, close up that you can't see anywhere else. And yet, unless you move back and get the big picture, you don't realize that this beautiful little gorgeous piece of blue glass is actually the eye in a deer in a forest. See, until you stand back and get the macroscopic look,

you can't see the beauty of what that little, blue piece of glass really means. I've been thinking about the difference between a macroscopic and a microscopic look, you've actually got to do both in order to get the full beauty and glory of what the artist has actually put into that piece of art. Isn't that right? So look up close is not enough. When I stand back and see just how that beautiful little piece is a teardrop shape, but it's now an eye of a deer in this beautiful forest. I'm getting a new look at it. Now, you and I live in the most individualistic culture that has ever, ever survived, and who knows how long ours will. We are completely immersed in our own individual needs.

Our hurts, our goals, our own fulfillment or lack thereof, we are absorbed with it. In every other culture, you tend to get your meaning in life out of the relationships you have, to institutions, to your family, to the church, to the state, to the community, and so forth. You're born into certain positions, and you get your meaning in life by living out those positions. You see, you're a citizen. You're a son or a daughter, a husband, a wife, you see. You're a man, or a woman, and those always had assigned places and roles and positions and functions in these institutions. And almost every other, and it's true, anywhere else in the world, that's how you get fulfilled. We, however, in this country, live in an individualistic society that is completely

focused on the individual. Unless we are free to pursue what fulfills us, we don't have meaning in life. In other words, American, especially young Americans, have a completely microscopic attitude toward themselves. Almost every other culture, you get your meaning in life by how you fit into the larger picture, how you fit into your family, how you fit into the extended family, how you fit into your tribe, how you fit into the neighborhood. Those of you whose parents are from another country besides America and yet have been raised up in American culture, you know. what it's like to be caught, don't you? You know what it's like to be caught between cultures in which you find your meaning by being part of the big picture and this culture in which you're supposed to find your own meaning in yourself. Now, because we live in such a microscopically oriented culture, when we come to Christianity, we immediately get obsessed with what God can do

for me. And immediately, when we think about Christianity, people, it's amazing to me that people don't really ever seem to ask me whether it's true. They want to ask me whether it'll make them happy. They don't care about whether it's true. They care about whether it works. See, that's an amazing and a very unique cultural mindset. But we've got it. So let's admit it.

And let's admit that when we first get in to Christianity, our first concern, now I'm talking about when you really get into Christianity, you're really converted, you really move on in. you still tend to be obsessed with me. You tend to be obsessed with my hurts and my needs. And of course, we just dote on, and we love to talk about and read and study all of the doctrines that have to do with what God is doing in us individually.

He is regenerating us. He's filling our hearts with love. He's adopting us. He's reparenting us. He's building us up. All we love all that stuff. And the first part of this sentence is all about it. Hmm?

You see? It says, he chose us to make us holy and blameless to cleanse us. In love, he adopted us as his sons. In him we have redemption. There's the end of our guilt and all of our guilty feelings. The forgiveness of sins. That's all wonderful. But in verse 9, he says, okay, you've been up real close to the glass

and you've been looking at the beauty of what I'm doing for you. it's time to step back and see where you fit into the big picture, or you do not understand Christianity at all, and you won't even understand yourself at all. And he says, and I quote, and he made known to us the mystery of his will according to his good pleasure which he purposed in Christ to be put into effect when all the times have reached their fulfillment, to bring all things together in heaven and earth, together under one head even Christ. And he's doing this as one who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will in order that we, who are the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.

It's an involved sentence. Let me break it down and let me introduce you to it tonight. Paul says, now you can see something that God has revealed. He has a plan for the universe. It's the mystery of his work, of his, of his, of his, uh, will, according to his good pleasure. This word will is the word boulon, which means the plan. God has a plan for the universe, and now he is revealing it. It was a mystery. It was hidden, but now it's been revealed. It's going to be that in Christ, he is going to reunite things that have split apart. He's going to heal the decay, the disintegration. He's going to heal the disharmony of things by uniting everything underneath the hedge of Christ. And he's going to appoint

all of you to live for the praise of his glory. What God actually eventually says to everybody, if you've been a Christian for a while, you know this. If you haven't been a Christian for long, maybe this is your introduction to this. At some point, God says, grow up, even though he's not Joan Rivers. God says, grow up. The irony of your faith, the irony of your nature is you will never really be happy if you're focused on your little kingdom and whether or not I am fulfilling your goals. Until you get lost in the splendor of my kingdom, until you get your heart captivated by, until you submit to, until you start to live for the glory and the spread of my kingdom, and all that that means,

you will never actually find the happiness that you've ever wanted. Grow up. I have done all these wonderful things in you. Why? I've made you happy. I'm going to make you even happier. Why? So that you will be for the praise of my glory.

Because that is the way in which I'm going to heal the universe of all of its hurts. Listen. At this point, God is making you stand back and look at the big picture, and there's a lot of us that just will not come. And I'm trying to get you to come. Every year we go down to a place on the Blue Ridge Parkway during our vacation called the Peaks of Otter.

And it's in the Blue Ridge, and there's three mountains, Sharp Top, Flat Top, and Harkening Hill. And the ironic thing about it, for years and years and years, people thought that's sharp top, because it's got a sharp top, very sharp, and it looks much taller than the other mountains. And for years, people thought it was the tallest peak in Virginia. In fact, in the Washington Monument,

there's pieces of granite from Sharptop, and there's a little insignia on it. In the Washington Monument said, this is a stone from the highest peak in Virginia, but it's not. Flat top is higher. The problem is that when you're on Sharp Top, flat top looks small,

But when you go to flat top, you actually realize that it's the tallest, and you can see the entire mountain range far better from up there. It's an optical illusion. From downstairs, you know, from down in the valley, Sharptop looks higher. When you get up to the top of it, it looks higher, but not until you get over to flat top, you realize that it's the only place where you can really see things as they really are. It's the same thing here. you get a grip on this mystery of his will, until you get a grip on what this plan is, you will live in a very little individualistic, privatistic kind of faith, that God exists to make me happy, that God exists to get rid of my guilt feelings, which he does. I mean,

he gets rid of your guilt feelings. God exists to make me happy and make me overcome my feelings of loneliness, and of course he does. All those things we've been talking about, we've been going through the inventory of them. They're in the first few verses. But it's a mistake to look at that and to be absorbed in that. You will not understand, until you understand, the truth that he's talking about in verses 9 to 12, what he's really about and what you're really about,

and what your place is, until you get to this peak, the peak of verses 9 to 12, and look at life from this peak, you will not see things properly. Now what he says here is three things. The first thing is God reveals his plan. The second thing is he tells us what the plan is. And the third thing is he shows us how he works his plan out through his sovereignty.

He tells us he's a revealer of his plan. And secondly, he tells us what the plan is. He reveals his plan, he tells us what the plan is, and then thirdly, he tells us in verse 11 and 12 that God is able to work his plan because he's completely in charge of history, and he works all things together according to the counsel of his will. So you have a very, very large subject, and it's kind of breathtaking, and it's not that easy to understand. The first part of this passage is much easier to understand and a lot more fun. The second part is harder, and when you get to the top of it,

you start to get a nose bleed because you realize you're really high. This is tough. This is high doctrine. So let's look at it. The first thing is, he made known to us the mystery. Now, there's not much use in spending much more time on it, but just to mention this. A little bit of a tangent, but we can't go by it. God is somebody who makes mysteries known. You live in a culture that believes that you can't be sure about anything religious. As soon as you start to let people know you're a Christian and talk a little bit about your experience, the first of the first thing you're going to get in a place like New York is, who do you think you are? You've got a pipeline to God? How arrogant. You seem to think, you know just what God believes and just what God thinks.

How do you know that? See, it is a rule in our modern culture that you can't be sure about anything pertaining to God. You can't be sure. The trouble with that is that that is actually an incoherent and self-destructive way of thinking. It chases its own tale. And we've talked about it before. If it's arrogant to insist that you know anything about God, it must be arrogant to insist you know that you can't know anything about God. You see, today we're supposed to be skeptical about everything religious,

except we're not supposed to be skeptical about religious skepticism. We're not allowed to be rigid about anything except we must be rigid about that. What? That you can't be rigid about anything. but you see that chases its own tail. By your own definition, you are being rigid to say such a thing. Everybody's going to tell you that if there is a God, he doesn't make things known. Everybody's going to tell you that if there is a God he doesn't speak.

If there is a God, he doesn't reveal mysteries. If there is a God he can't speak intelligibly. If there is a God he's sort of an incomprehensible, mysterious force, and you can experience him, but you can't turn around and tell people what he teaches or what he says. And yet Jesus Christ, him says, says, heaven and earth may pass away, but not a jot or tittle from the word of God will pass away till all be fulfilled. What's that mean? He says, here's the word of God. The mountains

are nothing compared to the word of God. The mountains are temporary. This is permanent. This is so solid that the heavens and the earth are nothing compared to it. That's what Jesus says. What are you going to do about that? The Christian religion is a religion it says, God makes things known. God reveals mysteries. God gives us truth. God talks to us. Let me tell you something.

A person supposedly is your father, but never talks to you, never writes to you, never says anything intelligible to you, then he's not your father. He might be technically your father. You know, you can't have a father like that. The essence of the Christian religion is, through Christ, God becomes your father. And if he can't speak to you, if he can't speak to you through the Word, if he doesn't reveal things,

if you can't know that he reveals things in propositions to you, that you can understand and read and think of and discuss and take in, if he doesn't give you truth, then he's not a father. This God makes things known, all right? A bit of a tangent. We've got to rejoice in it. We've got a God like that. I've constantly have people say to me, you have more than a third grade education and you really believe the Bible? Isn't the Bible full of contradictions? How can you know anything about it?

How can you know anything about God? And then they turn around and always say, I think that you're rigid and intolerant in your views. And I turn to them and I say, here, that's really interesting. You're telling me that God doesn't speak truth. You're telling me that the Bible isn't coherent, and yet you're telling me it's wrong to be intolerant. Where do you get the fact of tolerance is good? Where do you come up with that? That's a truth.

That's a proposition. You're laying it on me. By your own definition, you can't do that. You're going to tell me the truth is incoherent. Then you're going to tell me that toleration is good. I think toleration's bad. See? I think I'll burn you at the stake.

And on what basis will you call me wrong, immoral? If truth is incoherent, If we don't know if there's a God, if the God doesn't speak, where do you get the idea? No, I'm sorry. The idea that says, you can't know anything, eats itself. You can't know anything about God. That destroys itself. It eats itself.

It kills itself. A much more coherent view is the one that we have. Come down to us from Jesus. Heaven and earth may pass away, but not a jot or title of the law of God or the Word of God will pass away to law is fulfilled. Do you struggle to find the words to share your faith effectively with others? Most Christians, pastors included, have moments where we have trouble articulating what we believe and why our faith matters. In his book preaching, communicating faith in an age of skepticism, Tim Keller shows how to

communicate the Christian message in a way that's clear, compassionate, and accessible, whether you're speaking to a group or having a casual conversation with a friend. Drawing from his decades of experience connecting the gospel to, real-life circumstances, Dr. Keller shows how the gospel message can speak even to the most skeptical or spiritually curious people. During the month of July, we'll send you a copy of preaching as our thanks for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the transforming love of Christ with more people. So request your copy today at gospelonlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the rest of today's teaching.

Okay, now that's the first thing we learn in this passage that he makes the plan known. But now, what's the plan? Okay? And the plan is this, to bring all things in heaven and earth together under one head, even Christ. Now, the one thing that has always bothered me about most translations, this translation does it too. Maybe yours is the two. the word unite is always there it's there but in the greek there's a little prefix to it anna and it means to reunite to unite again and for the life of me i don't know why so many modern

translations don't bring this out i think it's absolutely critical i think it's it's it's a key to understanding what what paul is talking about here he says god has got a plan to reunite all things under one head even Christ. Now this is such an important verse and some of you probably will recognize as I speak if you've been around for a while. This verse has had a big impact on me and the teaching of the verse has come out in many other things that I've said and many of the other areas in which I've taught. This is what is teaching. Number one, reunite means that originally the universe was united and has to see

integrated. And only in Christ will it be reunited. Picture goes something like this. A system is something in which all the components enhance one another rather than destroy one another. A system is something that never happens by accident. Never. Systems don't happen by accident. They've got to be designed. And in a system, you've got lots of system. A clock is a system. Open up the back of your wristwatch and look at the system. Open up the hood of your engine and look at the system. Systems are such in which there's many components and they're interacting with each other,

but they enhance one another rather than destroy one another. But it doesn't take very much to destroy a system. If one component is out of alignment, if one component is ripped out of the system so that it's not in the place it's designed to be. You know, one of the most beautiful systems is the way your lungs work. You breathe in oxygen, breathe out carbon dioxide.

There's another wonderful system. There happens to be a lot of green little leafy things around that do the opposite. You know, they breathe in the carbon monoxide and they expel the oxygen, and it works out beautifully, doesn't it? If you go to Mars in a spaceship and you open the door and you don't put on your little breathing apparatus, and you open up the door and you take in a nice big, deep breath of that wonderful marshal, atmosphere, your lungs immediately experience alienation. Your lungs don't fit in that system. They weren't built for that system. All the ammonia gas, for example, doesn't really work

into your lung very well. And you will die because you're out of alignment. You weren't designed for the Martian atmosphere. Your lungs weren't designed for the Martian atmosphere. They weren't built for that. And therefore, everything breaks down. There's alienation. There's decay. Things fall apart. your body, as long as you're alive, is a system. The moment you die, it starts to go to pieces. It falls apart. It disintegrates. It goes back into constituent chemicals.

It's disunited. I have one of the problems with the vans, the mini vans that are so popular, any of you've ever owned one or know of anyone who owns one, you don't have a full-size spare. You know that? there's no room for a full-size spare. What you've got is underneath the van, there's a little tiny mini spare. You've seen those.

And they're real tiny, and when you have a flat tire, you stick the thing on there, and then you're supposed to go find a gas station. Well, I remember the first time, being as ignorant as I was about the thing, I knew I couldn't go forever on it, but I didn't realize that you can't really go very fast on it.

It's not built to go 60 miles an hour. It's built to go 40 miles an hour, if that. And what I did was I took it and I used it out of alignment. It would have fit in wonderfully in the whole system if I'd kept it under 45 miles an hour. Next time, read the directions. And I was right there in my owner's manual. It was fact it was right there on the tire, but I didn't. And I put it on there and I used it in a way and pretty soon the little tire began to experience alienation. And when the tire experienced alienation, my car experienced alienation, and then I experienced alienation, the whole system fell apart. When it says here,

God's plan is to reunite all things in Christ. What he's saying implicitly is what is what is said explicitly in Romans 8. And that is simply this. Originally the world was built to be under one head Christ. And anything that's under His Lordship, whether it's your life, whether it's your friendship, whether it's a neighborhood, whether it's a business, whether it's a country. In other words, any system, political, social, economic, familial, relational, psychological. And I'm going to go further than that, and we'll talk about it in a second, biological. Every single system that was created was built to work with the ultimate component being the headship of Christ. And when the headship of Christ is taken away from a life,

from a country, from a friendship, or even from a body, a physical body, disintegration, alienation happens. We see that in Genesis 3, and a lot of you heard me talk about, about this. In Romans 8, it says all things, all of creation has been subjected to decay. Disintegration. Why? Here's why. Back in Genesis 3, God set up all the systems. They were all in perfect harmony. There was no death. There was no war. There was no poverty. There was no disease. What are those things? Huh? Those are disintegrations of systems. Those are alienations of systems. Those are alienations of systems. There was no family strife. None of those things. Because everything was under the Lordship of Christ. God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden. And when Adam and Eve decided

they were going to be their own masters, what they really did was they pulled themselves out of a line. And it doesn't take much. You know, the reason that the tires have to be aligned, why? If one of the tires has bent out of alignment or something like that, it won't be long before the tire will run, threadbare will burst, and your car will experience alienation. Adam and Eve pulled themselves out of alignment. They said, we're going to be our own masters. And the scripture tells us when that happened, every system, every system, to one degree or another, began to experience alienation and breakdown and decay. And things became disunited. Look at it.

First of all, if you live for yourself instead of under the headship and lordship of Christ, that means you're spiritually alienated. You're cut off from God. You know, when you're born again, when you receive Christ, part of that alienation is gone. He loves you. He puts your sins behind you. But I want you to know, and I've been realizing this in my own life, that you spend all the rest of your life until the end,

dealing with the fact that deep inside of us, of our sin, we continually get mad at God. We continually demand things of him. There continues to be a kind of encroaching alienation that still clings to us. Because of our sin, and as a result of that, we never experience the love we could experience, the joy we could experience, the fellowship we could experience, there's spiritual alienation. But not only that, sin causes psychological alienation. You know, Freud used to talk about the fact that you have an id, an id, call it a libido, which meant you had all these desires for self-gratification. And then you had your super ego, which was your conscience that said, you mustn't indulge all of your appetites. Then you had your ego.

And your poor ego was sort of like a battleground, you know. It reminded me of a marriage counselor. You know, I used to read about the ego. And Freud, and I said, this is like, marriage counselor. Here's the id and here's the super ego and the ego somehow got to keep them together and keep them from killing each other. And if one gets too strong, you become neurotic. And if the other one gets too strong, you become neurotic. And one gets way too strong, you become psychotic. And listen, I'm not saying that I'm baptizing everything Freud said, but Freud recognized that there is psychological disintegration. There's no unity in us. There's wars and conflicts going on inside there. And biblically, the answer is because if you don't know God, if you're spiritual alienated,

you will be psychologically alienated. You will not know who you are. You will not know that you're valuable. You will not know you're loved. You will not know what your direction is. You will not understand your conscience. You'll never satisfy that superego. Spiritual alienation and breakdown leads a psychological breakdown, which also leads to social breakdown.

Why do people oppress each other? Why is there war? Why is their oppression? Why is their injustice? Why is their family breakdowns? Why is their crime? Why is their class struggle? Why is their management labor struggle?

The psychological alienation inside us, the unhappiness we experience, the certainty that somebody out there is causing our problems leads to social alienation. And that's why all of our political and social systems don't work right. But lastly, if you read back in Genesis 3, as soon, As soon as Adam decided he was going to eat, and Eve, they were going to eat the tree, and they were going to be their own masters, you know what happened. First of all, they felt cut off from God, spiritual alienation. Then they felt anxiety and fear, that's psychological alienation.

Then they had to get away from each other. They couldn't be naked with each other anymore. They had to hide from each other, that social alienation. And then God shows up and says, on top of everything, nature isn't going to work right. See, you're like out of alignment. You're like a cog in a clock mechanism that ought to be up here, and Adam and Eve have sort of thrown themselves down here. And when you take a cog that's got to be here and throw it down there,

everything starts to grunt and burn and grind against each other. And God says nature isn't going to work right. You're going to be subject to natural disasters and the disease and even to death. But then in Genesis 3, and in Romans 8, and here, God makes a promise. He says, someday I'm coming back. I'm going to find a way in spite of your sin, in spite of the fact I've got to cut you off forever. In fact, I have an obligation as a righteous and just God to do that. I'm going to find a way to deal with your sins, and I'm going to bring the Lordship, my Lordship, back over every system in the universe, until finally in the fullness of time, everything will be healed. physically, there won't be any more disease or death or natural disasters.

And this nature, this natural creation that you see out there look so beautiful, it's nothing like what it's going to be when the kingdom of God is completely fulfilled. And Jesus is Lord of all, because when Jesus is Lord, to the degree that He's Lord, there is blossoming and fulfillment. And Jesus is going to be Lord over all the social systems, and there will not be war, and there will not be crime, and there will not be class warfare, there will not be racial oppression. And psychological,

over all the cycle, your psychological system will finally work. There won't be this disunity. The components will not grind against each other. They won't destroy each other. They will enhance each other. Because the spiritual alienation will be gone. And everything will be all in all.

And if you look at this translation, it almost gives you the impression that that's not coming till later. But in the original language, it says he has a plan for the fullness of time. And in the Bible, the fullness of time is the entire period between Christ's first coming and his second coming. And that means God is already working out his kingdom work now.

What is God's plan just to save your little soul, to get rid of your little guilt feelings, to give you the self-esteem? That's just the beginning. That's just the center of it. You see, when you give you, yourself to him in the way that some of you have, you just have begun to see a few of the systems begin to work right. You see some of the psychological and spiritual alienation go, but it's your

job to see by banding together in the church and by seeking to obey God that through the word of God and through the Spirit and through the gifts of the Spirit, Jesus wants to work through you to heal more and more and more of the results of sin in every area of life. And that is the reason why Christians who really understand what God is after get pretty excited. We are here to start with, to share the gospel so people move from death to life, they're justified by faith, they're adopted, and to some degree, some of the systems of their life and of their relationships and in their family, things begin to get healed. But do you realize what the job of the church is? Do you realize what the

job is? To bring the kingdom power of Jesus Christ into every area of life. We can bring our neighborhoods. We can bring our political systems. We can bring our social systems. We can bring the media. We can bring education. We can bring our families. We can bring our friendships. We can bring our businesses. We can bring our city. We can bring our country. Under the Lordship of Christ, to the degree that he is Lord of a life or a relationship or an area of reality to that degree, there is a unifying going on. When he's head, where he's head, unify, this unity is going on. The disintegration is getting healed. It won't be complete until the end, until the fullness of the fullness of time. But even now, this healing begins. And that's the reason why you have this

astonishing statement over in chapter three. In chapter three, verse 10, this is what Paul says. He says, now God, now look, listen, has made plain to everyone the administration. That's the same word he uses over in the verses we're looking at. It's just that it's a different English word, but the same Greek word is there. He has shown everyone the administration of this mystery. The word administration is the word oikinomia from which we get our word economic. And it means a blueprint And it says Christ has shown the blueprint of this mystery, which in the past was hidden in God. His intent was now through the church, now through the church, that the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities

and the heavenly realms according to His eternal purpose, which he accomplished in Jesus Christ. Everyone should be able to look into the church and begin to see the administration of this mystery. It's inside the church that we've got to show people how friendships and how relationships, how economics, how race relations, how mental health, how things heal up when they're brought in under the headship of Jesus Christ. You know, there's a place at the end of the Les Mises musical. At the very end where they sing, and I think I wrote it down here if I can remember, will you join an arc crusade?

Who will be strong and stand with me? Somewhere beyond the barricade, is there a world you long to see? There's only two kinds of people that can sing like that and to have their lives galvanized with a vision like that. Two kinds of people. Crazy ideological, visionary people who think that if we have a revolution,

we can bring in nirvana, we can bring in utopia. People like the shining path. on the left wing, people like the Nazis on the right wing. You know, some of them we admire, some of them we don't. And the only other kind of person that can say, who will join in our crusade? Won't you be strong and stand with me? Somewhere beyond the barricade, is there a world you long to see?

Is there a vision of the future? Is there a world that you want to bring about, that energizes and galvanizes everything? The big picture, so that you're not just simply living your life, day to day saying, how do I make ends meet? Maybe I could have a, maybe I could afford a nice apartment next year. If that's all your life is, it comes down to nothing. If all that you think Christianity is, is a way for God to make you happier. In the end, you're just missing the big picture. Stand back and see what God is going to do. He is going to unite all things in heaven and

earth. He is going to destroy all the effects of sin in every area of life. And right now, through the church, the power to see many of those effects healed exists. And you see, it's Jesus who says, will you join in our crusade? Will you be strong and stand with me? Is there a world you long to see? My world, to the degree you obey me and work for my kingdom and become my co-partner, There's an adventure that you begin on that will never end and is inevitably going to be a victorious one. I'm going to bring you to victory, he says. It's going to happen. You might experience setbacks now.

But eventually, oh, eventually, it'll all come true. You know, the people who have died on the barricades trying to have revolutions to bring in a better government or better life, If they die and they don't know whether what they're going to see, will ever, what they wanted will ever come to pass, Christians know that the world you long to see is inevitable. Stop living for your own kingdom. Stop living just for yourself and your own happiness. And begin to say, Lord, show me what it really means to work for your kingdom and live for your kingdom.

Show me what it means. You've given me the power to begin to reverse the alienations around me. show me what to do, help me to understand. I know that I've only introduced you to the very rudimentary, most fundamental ideas of this. I haven't given you much in the way of details. But the fact is the church has never been, and never must be simply a place where people come to learn how to be more successful in life. This is not the place where you come simply to get a little extra psychological boost.

This is a place where you come to be renovated from the ground up, remade in the image of Christ, because you submit your entire life to His Lordship, and then you become an agent for the spread of that help and that power throughout the world, throughout the universe, and for all eternity. Amen. Let's pray. Father, help us to see that we really live to praise your glory. You don't live to make us happy. We exist to make you happy.

And the irony of it is to work for your pleasure, and to work for your glory and to work for your kingdom will bring us a satisfaction that we couldn't know anywhere else. And Father, help us to lose ourselves to find ourselves. And help us over the years, because Lord, we know it will take years, help us to find out what it will mean as a body, what it will mean as a church, to bring your kingdom power to a place like New York City.

What will that mean? It'll mean so much more than just individual souls getting saved. It'll mean bringing salvation to an entire community. Show us what that means. Help us to see that it's a great adventure to find how to bring every area in under the sovereignty of the king. Now, Father, we ask that you would excite us with this, but at the same time, convict and humble us. And we ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for joining us here on the Gospel and Life podcast.

If you were encouraged by today's teaching, you can help others discover this podcast. podcast by rating and reviewing it. And to find more great gospel-centered content by Tim Keller anytime, visit gospel and life.com. Today's sermon was recorded in 1992. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017, will Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.