Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Greed: The Case of the Rich Young Ruler

Episode Date: October 15, 2025

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. 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 in Life. Some people say the fundamental problem of the world is poverty. Others say it's bad systems, poor education, or biology. But what if none of these can fully explain the brokenness we see, both in the headlines and in our own hearts? In today's teaching, Tim Keller looks at how the Bible's teaching on sin gives us a deeply honest and yet incredibly hopeful view of the world. Father, I want to congratulate you for how well you sang Amazing Grace.

We didn't have a choir, we didn't have a trumpet, you know, and you did a great job. And I think it's because, after the number of years, one of the ways you know you're a Christian and you've been a Christian for a while is that your whole life flashes before you when you sing that. You know, this incredible film of your entire life, this sort of biography, A&E biography, but it's you. It's going by. And I know enough of you, and I know enough of your biographies to watch you sing, and I know it's happening to you too. And it's a good mark of a church that's living up to its name when people sing it that well. Let's look at this passage to which our thoughts have to be focused, and we're going to see Matthew 19, 16 to 25. It's printed in your bulletin. We're going to read

that and base our teaching on it. Matthew 19, 16 to 25. Now a man came up to Jesus and asked, Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life? Why do you ask me about what is good? Jesus replied, there is only one who is good. If you want to enter life, obey the commandments. Which ones, the man inquired?

Jesus replied, do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother and love your neighbor as yourself. All these I have kept, the young man said. What do I still lack? Jesus answered, if you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come follow me. And when the young man heard this, he went away sad because he had great wealth. Then Jesus said to his disciples, I tell you the truth, it's hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I tell you it's easier for a camel go through the eye of a needle then for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. And then the

disciples heard this. They were greatly astonished and asked, who then can be saved? This is God's word. This is the very famous story of the rich young ruler, rich young man, and he was rich in two ways. He had both great moral wealth and great financial wealth. You notice? First of all, he has great moral wealth. He's a very decent person, a person characterized by moral excellence. So, you see, when Jesus actually enumerates many of the Ten Commandments, don't murder, don't commit adultery, do not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your father and mother, love your neighbor as yourself, he says, bingo, I do that. And so, and let's assume that he was certainly telling the truth and that anyone who knew him would say, yes, here is a man

characterized by moral excellence. Here is a man who's characterized by sexual purity. he's a loving son. He's a great citizen. He's a man of integrity and honesty. Let's just assume that this is true. Not only that, we're told he was wealthy. He had many possessions. Back then, as well as now, there's a kind of unconscious and sometimes conscious feeling that those two things go together, that if you do good, you'll do well. And if you've done well, it's because you did good. And remember when Maria in Sound of Music, the main character in Sound of Music, is about to marry a rich guy, she realizes she's going to marry a rich guy. So she sings a song.

And she says, somewhere in my youth or childhood, remember? I must have done something good, see? I must be a pretty good person, or God wouldn't be rewarding me like this. And, of course, this is the reverse of what Job's friend sung. When Job fell into poverty and disease, they essentially, said, somewhere in your youth or childhood, you must have done something bad. It must be something wrong. And there's a feeling, it's hard to describe, and nobody wants to articulate, a feeling that if you live a good life, then God will reward you by giving you a certain

amount of prosperity. And so, in a sense, you characterized by moral excellence, obviously rewarded by God by being given a prosperous life. And so as he approaches Jesus, it seems like here is the ideal person that any religious leader, any religious leader you can imagine would say, this is the kind of guy I'm looking for. This is the kind of person I want. Not only is a man characterized by moral excellence, not only is a man whose life is very together in all sorts of ways, but he's even willing to admit there's something he lacks. I mean, this is great to have a rich person who's willing to come to church and to say, I'm still missing something. He's real pulled together in every way. He's got it all together.

But even he's so together, he even admits that I don't have it all together. Yes, I still lack something. So he comes to Jesus, and Jesus speaks strong with him and sends him packing. Here's the kind of guy that, by modern standards, everybody would say, this is about as together a person as a person can be. And he's even willing to admit he has a spiritual need. And he comes and asks a perfectly legitimate question, what do I still lack? There's still something missing in my life spiritually. What do I lack? And Jesus gives him an outrageous, strong answer, sends them way packing shows him that he's totally outside the kingdom of God. And when the disciples see it, they're absolutely astonished. And they say, wait a minute, if he's out, who in the world is in?

But this is to teach us that Christianity is utterly and entirely different than anything the human mind, the natural human mind can conceive of or think. And what's so alarming is that most of us are going to be in the very same boat. Even those of us who are able to somehow pull our lives together like he did. Get ourselves sort of morally together, self-disciplined, self-control, economically together, career-wise together. And there's plenty of people in New York who are like that and who still are willing to admit, I need something. But obviously, it's possible to have all that, even the humility to ask, even the humility to come and seek and be sent packing by Jesus. Why did he go away? It says, sad. And that's kind of a weak word. And that's kind of a weak word.

I think the better translation is grieved. He went away grieved. That's how the old translations do it. How can we avoid going away grieved? This man had set out on a course of his life that looked like he had made every bit of it. He was just lacking one thing. He wasn't sure what it is. I mean, he had put his career together.

He had built the steps up the mountain, and he was almost at the top. And he just, when he got to the top, he realized, you know, I've almost made it. if there was just one more step, I can't quite reach the top. So he turns to Jesus, says, I just need that one more step. Jesus tells him he's on a completely wrong road, that he's far from the kingdom. How are we going to avoid being sent away by Jesus grieving? In fact, I know, and this is a great thing about Redeemer, there are dozens of you right now, probably in similar situation.

Oh, maybe not rich and maybe not this together. But you're here saying, what do I love? lack. There's a danger that you could be sent away grieving. Why was it he sent away grieving? Why was it? Why did he go away like that? I would say, unless we understand the four reasons I see, we might be in danger of being sent away the same way. And so let's take a look. There's four reasons. Each one is more serious than the last. Four reasons that he went away grieving. The first reason is, let me just lay these out. And each one is more serious, therefore each one takes a little bit more thought. The first one is he went away grieving because he talked to the real

Jesus. Now, I won't take long on this point, but I think I need to say this. One of the reasons why he was disturbed, it was because he was talking to the real Jesus and he was hearing the real message of Jesus. When you talk to the real Jesus, you are always shocked. When you come up against his real message, you're always disturbed. You're always disturbed. In fact, I'll go this far. Even this is the way you grow as a Christian. When you meet the real message of the gospel, you always find, always find two things that are shocking. It demands more than you thought and it offers more than you thought. It requires, when you meet the real Jesus, you'll find he wants much more from you than you ever thought and he offers far more to you than you ever dreamed.

And frankly, that's what it means to grow. the way you grow as a Christian, the way you know you've grown is that a year ago, no matter how long you've been a Christian, you're growing, if a year ago you were much more ignorant about these two things. Today, you see far more of what he's requiring. He requires a lot more than you ever thought. But he offers far more than you ever imagined. That's what it means to be dealing with the real Jesus. And you see, whenever you actually do come against, up against the real Jesus. What always happens, you see that, and then you can only have one of two responses. You can either bow down and wonder and give yourself to him, or you go away

offended. One or the other. Now, if you go away offended, there's hope. Because you could always think about it. At least you've seen the truth, and you might come back. But the one thing it's impossible is to have met the real Jesus and to be indifferent. And if there's anybody here who is experiences one of the forms of indifference. In other words, if you find Christianity laughable, irrelevant, boring. Or if you find Christianity to be just a kind of sweet, comforting thing that it's nice to dip into occasionally.

Or if you find Christianity kind of vaguely guilt-producing and kind of vaguely anxiety-ridden, you haven't seen the real Jesus. Because you are in the grip of indifference. Whenever you meet the real Jesus, he disturbs you. And that's the first reason he was disturbed. Secondly, the second reason he was that he went away grieving was that Jesus smashed two of his basic assumptions about how religion works. He smashed, Jesus smashed his religious views.

Now, what's really instructive for us is that the religious views that this young man had are not just common in his day, but they're absolutely common today. You see, he came knowing that he was lacking something. He needed some kind of spiritual experience, at least. He wasn't sure about his relationship with God. He says, what must I do to inherit eternal life? I don't think he meant he didn't know that he had it. I think it meant he wasn't sure he had it. And he wasn't sure about his relationship with God,

and he lacked a certain kind of peace in the center. So he comes and he asks. And you see, the way he approaches it, is based on two assumptions. The way he looks for this piece, it may seem honest, you know. When you first look at it, it seems like he's very sincere, but the fact of the matter is,

he is approaching God on the basis of two assumptions that Jesus utterly smashes. And those two assumptions are that Christianity is something you can add and Christianity is something you can do. Christianity is something you can add and you can do. First of all, people assume, he assumed, that Christianity was something

you can just add to your life, a kind of way of sort of, of furnishing your life out, filling your life out. You know, it's like you're listening. Let's just say you're a conductor and you're listening to the music and you say, you know, there's a, there's a, there's a, one of the, one of the notes isn't coming out, you see, one of the, one of the lines, I can't hear it. And a lot of people say, that's what I need.

I've had a pretty good life. I need to sort of round myself out. I need to add something. So he says, what do I still lack? He goes to Jesus and says, what can I add? But Jesus' response, as we will see later, is to make an outrageous request. And what he's really doing, what Jesus is really doing is saying this, Christianity is not something you add.

Christianity is more like an explosion that destroys everything you have to make way for something new. Christianity isn't something you add. Christianity is starting completely afresh. Remember Nicodemus? He was also, he wasn't a rich young man, he was a rich old man. And he said, he comes to Jesus by night. John chapter 3 and he says, essentially he says the same thing. He says, you're a good teacher

and I'm a ruler in Israel, but I just feel like I lack something. What do I still lack? And Jesus goes, boom, you must be born again. You must be completely redone. Everything has to be smashed. Young man, he's saying, you don't need one more rung to get over the top of the mountain. What I have revolutionizes everything. What I have, revolutionizes everything. What I have, smashes through the mountain. It's a whole new approach. And so what really Jesus is saying is utterly Christianity is not something you add. It's something that completely revolutionizes. But then the other assumption, you can't just bring Jesus Christ in as an addition. He doesn't just furnish you out. He's not another book on your shelf. He's not another file on your hard drive

that somehow gives you more power. He's not something you just add and say, wow, look how much more powerful my program is now. Oh no. Oh no. He's a whole new program. He doesn't just add and boot up your program. But then the second thing that the young man does is he thinks that Christianity is something you do. He says, what good thing should I do? And Jesus, again, is absolutely blunt. He says, there's only one good. And in a minute we'll see. He also asked the man to do something that is utterly impossible. In other words, Jesus Christ says, I want you to know that getting to God is not a matter of goodness. Nobody can be good enough. Nobody can be moral enough. And then look at the furious logic. He says, take all of your wealth, oh, rich man,

and sell it all, and give it to the poor, and follow me. What is he doing? It's brilliant. He says, oh, you will be all the Ten Commandments, do you? Well, let's just start with the first one. Let's just take the first one. The first one is, you see, love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. Have no other gods before me. All right, he says, let's try that one out. I want you to sell all of your money just because I, Jesus Christ, the Lord say so. How are you doing? He says, you see, if God is really first in your life, everything and anything else is trivial compared to God. everything and anything else is a bobble, see, it's a trinket. Nothing is compared to his cause.

Nothing is compared to his heart, nothing. Do you have any other guys before you? Before him? How does your heart work? You see, what is he doing? He's saying, my dear friend, nobody loves God with all their heart still strength in mind. Nobody loves their neighbor as themselves. Don't you see?

Your problem, oh, rich young man, is not that you need a little more goodness. Your problem is you won't admit what you know down deep that you're not good. And I can almost hear Jesus saying this. He's saying, the reason you come to me is because you know at some level that you're not good. Take a look at a needle. Just get some sewing needle and look at it with a naked eye and it looks perfect. Stainless, pure, spotless, brilliant, bright. But look at it under a microscope and it's all pocked and misshapen.

Now, anybody who gets close enough into a heart will see the same thing. When as a young minister years ago, I made a terrible mistake. Very often I would do funerals, and I very often did funerals for fine Christian men or women. And from what I can tell, you know, from my naked, you might say the naked eye, when I looked at them from where I could see them, they looked just about perfect. They were wonderful men and women of God. So I would do these glowing funeral sermons. I about how great this person was and the self-control and the love.

and the nobility and the wisdom. I would watch the family, you know, squirming their seats. Why? Because if you look close enough at any heart, any human heart, it's all misshapen, it's all poked. And the rich young man knew that. He wouldn't admit it to himself. Jesus is trying to break on through. No one is good. You think Christianity is something you add? No, it's a revolution. You think Christianity is something you do? No. It's something you do. No. It's something receive. Everywhere we look, we see brokenness, wars, cruelty, and heartache. We feel it in the world around us and in our own lives. How did it get this way? And what can be done about it? In his brand new book that's releasing this month, What is Wrong with the World? Tim Keller offers

a clear and compassionate answer. Drawing from a series of teachings given at Redeemer, Dr. Keller shows how the reality of sin explains the pain we see all around us, and how only the gospel offers lasting freedom and healing. Whether you're overwhelmed by the state of our world, struggling with your own mistakes or choices, or looking for hope and joy, what is wrong with the world will help you see how the gospel speaks to both the heartache of our world and the pain within each of us. This newly released book, What is Wrong with the World, is our thanks for your gift this month to help gospel and life share the good news of Jesus. Request your copy today at gospelandlife.com slash give.

That's gospelonlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the rest of today's teaching. And so you've got to move on here, but let me put it to you this way. Every other religion in the world, every other philosophy in the world, and every, actually, even so-called common sense, divides all humanity like this, like this. See it? Up here's the good, down here's the bad. Hmm? here's the moral, down here's the immoral.

Up here's the nice, down here's the nasty. Up here's the religious, maybe, down here's the irreligious. Depends a little bit, but basically everybody sees that that's the line. And Jesus comes through and says, no. The real line isn't a horizontal line. The real line's a vertical line. And he says, I want you to know that there's really two ways to God. Both nice and nasty people can do it on their own efforts,

or both nice and nasty people, no matter what you've done, no matter who you are, no matter how great, no matter how awful, you can come on a totally different basis. You can come on the basis, not of your efforts, but on the basis of my efforts. Until you see that the real line, going down the center of humanity, in its attitude and its stance toward God, is not the horizontal, but the vertical. The vertical is the real one. It cuts across the horizontal.

It makes minceme to the horizontal on either side. Because no matter how good you are on this side, Jesus says, you're not. But it's only relative. You're just a little less pocked and misshapen. No matter how far, and no matter how bad you are on this side, as we'll see in a minute, you can come. In other words, this is a young man is good, relatively speaking. Relative to other people, he's very good.

It's his doctrine of goodness that's wrong. And as a result, he goes away grieving. Jesus has smashed his assumptions. the assumptions that virtually everybody else has, too. Thirdly, the reason he went away grieving was when because he was talking to the real Jesus. Secondly, because Jesus smashed his religious assumptions. Thirdly, he went away grieving because Jesus got personal. Now, I would suggest to you that even though Jesus has contradicted his views,

that's not the real reason that he is so grieved. No. Jesus refused to stay academic. This young man is like so many people. I've seen it for years. He believes, essentially, his problem is an academic one. He says, I'm missing something. I don't know why I feel, I don't know why I feel kind of like there's something wrong.

I'm missing something. Is it a doctrine that I have missed or don't understand? Is some project I ought to do that I don't know about? Or is it some rule that I'm breaking that I don't know about? What is it? And he's essentially saying it's something I'm missed. missing, something I'm missing in my thinking. And he approaches it academically, and Jesus will not have it. An awful lot of, I've seen this for years. People say, my real problem

with Christianity is, I don't see how a God of love could punish people. Or you say, my real problem with Christianity is, I just don't like, it's so exclusive, it seems to leave out of religions. That's my problem. Or you might say, my real problem is the whole idea of miracle. I just can't believe as a modern person in miracle. Or you may say, oh, you can even get a little less academic. And you say, my real problem is I have a bad habit and I can't break it. Or I've got an issue that I just can't seem to deal with. Or I've got something that I'm caught in. And I don't know that I really want to give it up or I don't know how to get out of it. And so you get a little bit less academic. But Jesus Christ, see, the rich young man is like this. But he has come to Jesus

Christ, who has the eye that pierces all the way through all the smoke screens. all the pretense, all the camouflage, all the posturing. And, you know, in Mark, in Gospel of Mark, this same story is told. And Mark inserts something very important in this story. You see, you know the place where he says, what still do I lack? In the Gospel of Mark, he says, what still do I lack? And Mark says, Jesus looked at him and looked at him and loved him and said, sell everything you've got. He looked at him and loved him. Now, what's that

mean? It means he wasn't just looking at his face. It means he was reading his soul like a book. It means he said, I know this is going to hurt you, but I want you to know that I see the real cancer, I see the real issue, I see the real thing that's killing you. You've got to get rid of all your money. Now, the only way to understand what Jesus is doing is to put this in the context. There is nobody else in the Bible, who, as far as I know, who is asked to give up everything like that. Even Zechias was only asked to give away half. In other words, there's no rule that says all Christians to follow Christ have got to give up everything, all of their money. There's no place that says you have to sell all your money and go into complete poverty. There's no place that

says that. So that means the way he's dealing with this young man is he's doing a drastic measure the way you deal with an alcoholic or a gambler. What Jesus is saying is our difficulty underneath all of our objections and underneath all our complaints, the difficulty we really have is never the difficulty we really think at first. Everybody I know who's really gone very far into Christian life has found this out, that what we thought in the beginning was the problem really isn't. Jesus Christ comes all the way in and says, underneath it all, there is a power struggle that you have with God over your dreams. Carousel. Musical? There's one place where one of the characters,

Carrie Pippridge, sings a song about how she can't wait to be married and have children. That's her great dream. And, you know, she sings one of the most lyrical of all Oscar Hammerstein and Rogers, all the Hammerstein Rogers songs. She sings, When the children are asleep, will sit and dream. But the night she sang that song, if Jesus Christ could come down to the middle of a carousel, he'd walk over to Carrie Pippridge, and he'd say, there's one thing that you lack, I want you to be willing to live a single life, all of your life for me. That's what he would do. He comes to Abraham and says, I want you to take your son, your only son, whom you love,

and offer him up as a burnt offering. He comes to the rich young man and says, you've got to give away all of your money. What is he doing? Jesus Christ is saying, I want your dreams. There's a song that we sing in the evening service. It starts Holy Father. You know that song? Some of you do. Some of you come. And the main part of the, it's a short song, but the main part is we have to surrender all our dreams. And what Jesus Christ says is, I want the most important thing in your life. That is the running sore. That is the cancer. I want your dream. I want your dream. I want that through which you dream of a life of power and joy without God.

I want the thing that you think will give you a life of power and joy without God. And until you have given it to me, not only we aren't right, but you don't know it, it's killing you. The Village Voice, at the end of January, there was an article that made an awful lot of, made a big flap, got a lot of publicity. And the reason it was, it did was because it was about the fact that unsafe sex is on the rise again in big cities. And the person who wrote, the writer who wrote it, wrote as a person who had begun to get back into unsafe sex. And at one point, the writer said this. The writer said, at first I was shocked at what I was doing, quote, I recoiled so much from what I had done that it seemed to be not my choice at all. It was like a monster did it. I recoiled so much

from what I had done that it seemed to be not to be my choice at all. It was like a monster did it. But when you read through the article, at the end, reflection goes on, and here's how it ends. Yes, if you want to stay alive, you have to avoid wild, anonymous, spontaneous, and explosive sex. Then you have to ask, who are you? What is life about? Now listen, because I'm not picking on sex as the greatest evil, just like Jesus is not picking on money is the greatest evil. I'm not using this illustration because I'm a conservative and Jesus isn't using his illustration because he's a liberal. The point is, anything that you have decided will give me a life of joy and power without God becomes a monster. It does drive

you. It takes you out. Jesus looks at this and says, this is your monster. Jesus says anything. The reason The reason he loves him when he says it, he says, I have to tell you this. I know it's going to hurt, but I love you. And the reason I'm telling you is this is how you think you can have a life of power and go without God. As a result, we've got to kill this thing before it kills you. The reason your life is out of control is because you're afraid of losing control to God. He says, give it to me and let me decide how much money you're going to have.

Put me first. Be willing to part with anything, anything. change your attitude toward this. Destroy the psychological umbilical cord. Be willing to part with anything, anything. So he's saying to this man, he says, be willing to walk away from it all. And let me decide how rich you're going to be. He says to Carrie Pippridge, be willing to not be married at all. Let me decide that. He says to Abraham, be willing to not have any child. We think the problem's academic. We think the problems. We think the problems superficial. We think the problem's behavioral is there's a monster at the heart.

Jesus says, surrender your dreams. Money can be a monster. Money is so dangerous spiritually that even not having it can destroy you because of your envy and your desire and you can kill yourself to get it. But the point is it's not the money or the sex or the work purse as such, but it's money or sex that comes before Jesus. That's what Jesus is. It's money or sex or work as your fondest dream, as your deepest dream. Jesus says, I want it. You know how money can do it? I've seen people who don't have money. But if money is the way that they dream of a life of perfect control, we use money because we feel like it'll give us a life of power. We'll be in charge of our lives. We'll feel in control finally. People won't push us around. If you don't have it, the monster

of money will fill you with anxiety. It will fill you with bitterness toward other people who have more than you. It'll fill you with envy. It'll always make you worry about money. It'll make you work too hard. It'll make you trample on people. It was amazing, you know, how the new talk shows are pushing people into conflict. People will watch the talk shows that make people embarrassed and fight, right? And when recently somebody shot somebody after a talk show, you know, the media called up, I mean the newspaper media called all the talk show executives up and said, why are you still doing this? They said because people watch it, which means, because people buy it, which means, yeah, it's bad, but

it makes us money. It's become a monster. Yeah, we're trampling on people, but it makes us money. And you know what? One of the worst things that can happen is when you actually get the money. When you become rich, you feel that it's because you're smart, because you're savvy and you get very confident about your hunches and you get very confident about your beliefs it's become a monster anything will Jesus says

yes you lack one thing and what is that here's the end the fourth reason see he does lack one thing and it's not the giving away of the money it's treasure in heaven the reason that this young man has missed it all, because he doesn't understand treasure in heaven. And Jesus Christ comes and says, you have to get rid of your monster.

You have to put me first, and that's the only way you'll ever get treasures in heaven. Well, what are treasures in heaven? Treasures in heaven? It means these two things. I have to really be brief here. Number one, it means to see that he is your treasure in heaven. Jesus is really saying is, I want you to give away everything. What he means is, I want you to see that if you have me and only me, you're rich. And not just rich toward people, rich toward God.

He's saying, young man, I know that you have the greatest estate in the district, but it's nothing compared to my forgiveness. It's nothing compared to my righteousness. It's nothing compared to being adopted into the family of the father. It's nothing compared to what I can give you. Don't you see? can steal it. Moth can, moth and rust can corrupt it. But what I give you is permanent. And if you don't see that I alone am good, but that as your savior, if you rely on me for your standing before God, you become good in me. You'll see that I'm your treasure. I'm your righteousness. I'm your record before God. And if you have that, then it changes your attitude toward everything. Money no longer is sacred. It's nothing compared to the treasure in heaven. You're free from worry. You're free

from envy. You're free for generosity. But that's not it. The last thing is, if you want to understand treasure in heaven, you have to see that he is your treasure in heaven. But lastly, you have to understand that you're his treasure in heaven. Jesus says when he sends his disciples out, they come back, and they've been casting demons out. And they say, this is great, we're doing miracles, and he says, rejoice not that the demons are subject to you, but rejoice that your name is written in heaven. Oh, where's there a name's written in heaven? Well, the Bible tells us in the Old Testament that the high priest who went in before God, you had the names of every one of the children of Israel engraved on precious stones over his heart

when he went before God, and Jesus is our high priest. And in Isaiah 49, God says to Israel, Can a woman forget the woman? Can a woman forget the baby that nurses at her breast? She may forget, but I will not forget the, look, I've engraved you on the palms of my hands. If you put a tattoo here, you won't always see it. If you put a tattoo here, you won't always see it. But if you put a tattoo here, you won't obviously see it. But if you put a tattoo here, what is God saying? He was saying, if you make my son your treasure, that makes you my treasure. Now when I see you, I see an absolute beauty.

I see you radiant in Christ. I see you righteous in Christ. I dote on you. I gaze on you. Is that the most exhilarating thought you can possibly have? Is that, do you live in holy consciousness of this? Or do you take your identity from your bank account or your dress size? Don't you see the freedom that comes?

Jesus says, you will only be free. If you see that with me and me alone, you're rich. and as John Newton once put it Since I have known the Savior's name And what for me he bore No more I toil for empty fame I thirst for gold no more Placed by his hand in this retreat

I make his love my theme And see that all the world calls great His but a waking dream If you come to him Even though he's grieving you You'll see he really loves you Let's pray our father we ask that you would teach us not just how to be free from greed but how to be free

period by seeing what your son has asked us for everything we look at you and we say oh lord jesus christ we thought you were a great teacher we thought you were a great moralist we came expecting a little additional help we see that you have to be our surety our mediator you have to be our prophet our priest our king our alpha our omega are everything and we ask that you would let that be the case. Thereby, we will find the freedom that comes only to those who have submitted holy and utterly to your son as their Lord and Savior. In his name we pray, amen.

Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel and Life podcast. If you'd like to see more people encouraged by the gospel-centered teaching and resources of this ministry, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel and Life Monthly partner. Your partnership allows us to reach people all over the world with the life-giving power of Christ's love. To learn more, just visit gospelandlife.com slash partner. That website again is gospel and life.com slash partner. Today's sermon was recorded in 1995. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.

Thank you.