Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - House of God (Part 1)

Episode Date: September 11, 2026

Being part of a church doesn’t mean we’re part of an audience. Rather, each of us is a building block that plays a crucial part in making up the whole. The apostle Paul explains this when he says we as Christians are stones that build a holy temple—stones that must enjoy unity, connection, and intimacy if we are to hold together. And if we rely on Jesus Christ as our cornerstone, we can immerse ourselves in true community even when it takes sacrifice. Let’s explore how 1) we are all stones that make up a holy temple, and 2) see that we now have access to the presence of God. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 18, 1993. Series: Salvation From the Outside In. Scripture: Ephesians 2:19-22. 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.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. We tend to think of faith as a personal matter, a relationship that's just between us and God, but the Bible presents a much bigger vision, one in which God brings people into a relationship with himself and brings them together into a new kind of community with each other. This month, we continue going through an extended series of teachings from Tim Keller that explore the core truths of the Christian faith and what they reveal about God's purposes for our lives together.

Verses 19 to 22. Four verses, very, very critical verses if we're going to understand how the church is supposed to function. I'll show you why in just one second it's so important for everybody in this room, no matter where you are, no matter where you stand, no matter what you believe, how important it is for you to understand what the church is, what it can be, what it should be. Verse 19, consequently, you are no longer strangers and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief

cornerstone. In him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in him, you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit. Now, we're talking about the church. We go back to it. Why? Two things, I think, in my experience, are necessary for people to cross the line from unbelief to belief, to cross the line from being outside of the Christian faith into the Christian faith. Two things. You have to demonstrate the people, and some of you are in the midst of seeking this out and this happening to you right now, you need to be. You need, first of all, to have the credibility of the Christian faith demonstrated to you.

And then secondly, you need to have the plausibility or the personal relevance of the Christian faith demonstrated to you. The credibility and the plausibility. The credibility means is it intellectually coherent? Does it stand up to the evidence? The credibility. The plausibility has more to do with does it have the ring of reality? Does it work? Is it practical? Does it make a difference in people's lives? Now, in order for both those things, the credibility and the plausibility of the Christian faith

to be demonstrated, the Bible shows us again and again that you really need two things. The Christian message only really spreads and it only does good in a city when two things are happening. Both communication of the Word and the community of the Lord are highly developed. community. See, the communication, which is what I'm doing right now, in case you didn't realize it, the communication of the word really has a lot to do with the credibility, tremendously important to show people that Christianity really isn't just a pipe dream. It's not really wishful thinking. It's not a leap in the dark. No more than anything else is. That Christianity, of course,

is coherent. It's true. As one writer put it, the reason you urge people to become Christians is not because Christianity is exciting, though it is, not because Christianity will really help you, because though it will, not because Christianity is up to date, though it of course is, not because Christianity will meet your needs, though, of course, it will, but because Christianity is true,

which is very surprising to modern people. I mean, the best they hope for is that it's useful. The idea of truth doesn't even come in. Well, it's the purpose and the goal of communication of the Word of God to demonstrate that Christianity's true. true to demonstrate its credibility. But that's not enough. That's not enough. You also have to demonstrate the plausibility of the Christian message, and that only happens in community. In other words, when the church is healthy, when the church is showing people relationships that are inexplicable

because of their beauty, when you have a body, when you have a corporate supernatural, corporate life. It is characterized by both truth and love. Not love without truth, where everybody's goofy, but nobody holds anyone accountable. But not truth without love, where everybody is making people toe the mark but in a kind of harsh and destructive way. Truth and love, affirmation and accountability, praising and weeping. When you have relationships of that kind of beauty, then people say there's something to this that shows the plausibility, the relevance of the Christian message. So great communication isn't enough.

And this means, for example, let's be real practical, this means that it's possible temporarily for a church to get off the ground with fine communication. The music is good and the worship is good and you're inspired and you feel like I get something to take home with me and I'm lifted up and so forth. That's great communication. But without community, ultimately that church ends up just being a spectacle. That church just ends up being a circus. And in the long run, it cannot really spread the Christian faith through the city.

Now, actually, the vice is versa as well. You have to admit that it's possible for churches to be very warm and very loving and to have a tremendous amount of really good in the area of personal relationships, but the communication is poor. The worship is actually poor. As soon as you walk in the door, you feel like unless you're one of the friends, unless you're somebody who's in these relationships, you get nothing out of the worship service at all.

Have you been to churches like that? Community without communication? Well, Redeemer, of course, as though you can find this supernatural community out there in spots, the jury is out on us. Absolutely the jury is out of us. Because ultimately, communication without community is like a tire without air.

In fact, for quite a while, you know, actually your tire can be losing air, but if you keep on going hard enough and long enough, it sort of artificially stays inflated, until you come to a stop sign, and all of a sudden, communication and community relate, like the air relates to the tire. All the greatest, slickest presentation, and all the fine music and all the sense of worshipfulness

and the communication is nothing without community. The Christian message really spreads and really gets into the guts and into the entrails of a city when the church's corporate life gets remarkable to the point of inexplicably. people can't account for it. They're amazed by it. We've said that before, and that's the reason why we're looking at this passage. Now, having said that, and don't forget, as we look at these

things, I hope that no matter who you are, whether you think you're a Christian, you think you're not a Christian, you don't know what you are, to get an understanding of what the church ought to be is important for all of us, you see? When we look at what the Bible says the church can be, it ought to burn a hole in our hearts. I don't feel that people are nearly passionate in And part of the reason is because we're individualistic Americans. The best we hope for is that I will come to a church that makes me whole. And it gets my life together. And you don't even know, really.

I think, by and large, we don't even have pictures of what the church ought to be and what the church can be. The pictures that God gives us here, that Paul gives us ought to burn a hole in our hearts. It should make us really passionate for it. It should make us salivate for it until we're willing to put up the time, the emotion, the money, and the vulnerability it takes to achieve this kind of unity and fellowship and corporate body life. I said to put up the time, the emotion, the money, and the vulnerability, because make no mistake, it will take all of those four things. It takes money. Believe it or not.

It takes time, absolutely. It takes emotion and vulnerability, which I guess kind of go together. You've got to put yourself on the line. if you're going to have this kind of unity and supernatural community. But it's worth it. It's not only worth it. It's an absolute necessity. You know, it's hard to achieve this, but it's much harder not to.

Now, let's take a look. The three things that Paul tells us about the church, he gives us three pictures, and I actually want to look at the last one because it's the one that he spends the most time on, and that I think would be appropriate at least to get into it tonight as you will see, it will be appropriate for coming before the Lord's presence by coming to his table. He tells us three things.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God's people and members of God's household. Bill on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus as the chief cornerstone, in him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord, and you are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by his spirit. Number one, we are citizens in a kingdom, see? No longer foreigners, no longer aliens, no longer immigrants. Citizens, fellow citizens. You're citizens in a nation.

Secondly, you're God's people and members of his household, which means actually you're members of his family. So first, citizens in a nation, secondly, members of God's family. But thirdly, your building blocks, stones, in a house. We are built upon the foundations of the prophets and apostles in Christ, and our building is fitly framed growing into a holy temple, you are a habitation of God through the Holy Spirit. Now, what is he telling us?

Just the only time for two things to talk about tonight. He says we're a temple, and you are building blocks in a temple. All right? First, this image, if you look carefully, you will see every image from the citizens of the nation, to the members of a family, to the stones and the constituent building blocks in a temple of God. that actually everyone moves higher. Everyone actually goes farther in its claims.

First of all, Paul is trying to tell you by saying you are stones in a building that's becoming a temple, a dwelling of the Holy Spirit. He is trying to tell you how absolutely you need each other. How absolutely you need each other. It's talking about a unity that Christians must have, and actually all human beings have got to have, and it's only available in Christ.

And that if you violate this unity, you're violating your own nature. See what I mean by saying there's an ascendance. Citizens, if you're all citizens of the same country, there's a unity we have. Of course. Citizens have a unity. We share it.

We're under the same laws. We're paying the same taxes. You know, there's something about April 15th that just creates a bond between us. So, and so there's a unity, between citizens. Ah, but when it comes to members of the household, there's even greater unity, is there not? Because brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers and children, there's even greater unity between family members. But I would point out that what Paul's trying to tell

you is when he says that we're building blocks in the same wall, a building blocks the temple of the Holy Spirit, the temple of the dwelling of God, he's actually giving us an image of unity that's even more intimate. And he's even talking about a closer kind of unity. Because you see, A brother and a sister can have a falling out. They can be estranged and they're still part of the family. You're still in the same family. Even though you're mad at each other, even though you only see each other, say, at Christmas,

and then you kind of stay on the other side of the room from each other. You can be estranged. You can have a falling out and you still are members of the family. But two building blocks can't have a falling out and there still be a wall. The fact is that you can be estranged from each other and still be brothers and sister. You can have a fight. you can be having conflict. But let me tell you something. Building blocks, and I think we

refer to this a couple of weeks ago, building blocks, unless they're together, have no function at all. What is the function of a building? To shelter you from the cold. To keep out the rain. Why are you in a building? Why do we need buildings? Well, nature is our enemy, basically. Because nature changes more than our body can take. And so you need shelter. That's what a building is for. To shelter you from the cold, to comfort you, and, you know, and, you know, shelter you from the rain and the storms and the snow. Building blocks, unless they're together, can't do that. A building block all by itself. One building block cannot keep the rain off of you. Just try it, you know, walk through the streets that way. One building block cannot keep

the blizzard away. I'm sorry. You can curl up around a building block and you'll still die of exposure out there. Building blocks estranged from each other have no function at all. you might talk about them as in a sense you're total you know when they talk about a car being total they say the car was total does that mean the car ceased to exist no well what does it mean it says the car was total it's there look at it it's all there why is it total it means it is totally incapable of fulfilling its design

it's totally incapable of doing what it was designed to do it's just a piece of junk I mean in a sense it's all there there's the windows there's the doors but it's total when you are a lone rager Christian. That's what Paul's trying to say. When you are trying, in a sense, to be a Christian all by yourself, you can't even begin to function the way God intended you to function. For you to be all by yourself, not an accountability relationship with other Christians,

not bearing one another's burdens and having other people bear your burdens. By being a privatized individualistic Christian, you are violating your nature as surely as I am violating or you're violating your physical nature if you work 100 hours a week or if you're addicted to drugs or alcohol. It's the same thing.

If you're addicted to drugs or alcohol, you're working 100 hours a week, you're violating your nature there's going to be breakdowns. And if you're a privatized Christian, there's going to be breakdowns too. Why? Because you're building blocks in the temple of the Holy Spirit.

You're meant for each other to be intimately put together. For one build on the other, you'll be completely supported by others. You're meaningless. Your existence is meaningless. Apart from the unity of the body. Well, I know you don't want to hear that. I know what you do. I know what I do. It was a tendency for me, and if I wasn't a pastor, I know what I'd be doing. I mean, in some ways, ministers, but just be, you know, we're unable to do what most people or other people do, and yet in other sense, there's ways for us to be

just as private. If you have a fight with somebody, you just leave. Why? Well, There's lots of churches. It's the big city. There's 1,800 other churches. If the minister changes you don't like, we'll go to another one. If you don't like the change in the style of music, we'll go somewhere else. I'm going to sit here and I'm going to get my needs met. And as long as I don't get my needs met, a lot of people, you look around and you say,

you look at the other people around and you say, are these people too old or too young for me? Are these people too polished or too unpolished for me? Are these people too trendy or too tacky for me? And, of course, you size it up. And as long as it's within your comfort level, you'll stay as long as your needs are being met. That's not what Paul is saying the church is at all. You're not an audience. You're a holy temple of the Lord, your building blocks, being built up.

What he is trying to get across here is the absolute critical nature of the unity of the body. You're built for it. You're designed for it. Let me just ask you just for one second, as kindly as I possibly can, how do you obey the very very? verse Hebrews 13, 17. How do you obey that verse? Now I'm talking to Christians here. I am not talking to people who aren't sure whether Christianity is true. I'm not talking to people who aren't sure where they stand with Christ, right? I'm talking to the person next to you who knows Christianity's

true. What do you do about Hebrews chapter 13, verse 17? It says, obey your leaders and submit to them. For they're keeping watch over your soul. don't make it hard for them to do their job, but enable them to do it gladly. Did you hear that? Obey your leaders and submit to them for their keeping watch of your soul. Can I ask you, who are those people? Does it mean anybody that walks up to you and says,

I'm a leader you've got to listen to? If you're outside and you're walking out the door and somebody says, oh, by the way, are you a Christian? And you say, yes, I am. Well, I'm a Christian leader. Could you go get me a tuna fish sandwich? much? The point is that would be silly. You only obey people that you are in a covenant with. You find somebody who you say, here's a person who's more mature in Christ than me.

Here is a person, in other words, put it this way, here is a building block further down toward the foundation, down closer to the apostles and prophets, down closer to the Lord Jesus Christ, somebody who I can rely on, somebody who can support me, but then somebody who I can be accountable to. Somebody who I can say, I want to submit to you. The Bible says we're supposed to submit to each other. We're supposed to confess our sins to each other.

We're supposed to bear each other's burdens. We're supposed to admonish one another. We're supposed to exhort one another unless we be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. And we're supposed to obey our leaders. That only works when you find a set of leaders who you want to be accountable to, and the only way to be accountable to them

is to make an agreement with them. You enter into a covenant with them. You join. You're in a member. You've got to be a member of a church. You do. woven into our slogans, songs, and social media feeds are the stories that our culture tells us about life's biggest questions, like, what gives my life meaning? Can I have a happy and fulfilling life? And why is there so much suffering in the world? We don't really choose these stories, but our culture is telling them to us every day. So what are these stories our culture tells us about who we are? And do they actually deliver what they promise? Tim Keller and his son Michael Keller explore this in a brand new book, The Stories We Live By. Tim began this book before his death, compiling hundreds of pages of notes and collaborating with Michael before giving it to him to complete. In it, they explore some of our culture's most prominent narratives about topics like identity, freedom, happiness, and progress, unmasking how these narratives shape our lives.

They examine why these stories resonate with us so deeply, and yet how these narratives ultimately aren't able to help us through the hardships and sufferings of life. The stories we live by offers a challenge to skeptics and to Christians alike to examine the underlying narratives that drive our lives and an invitation to discover a story that's big enough to make sense of the beauty and the brokenness of the world. When you give to Gospel in Life during the month of September, we'll send you this new book, The Stories We Live By, as our thanks for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the love of Christ with people all over the world. So request your copy today at gospelonlife.com slash give. That's gospelinlife.com slash give, because the gospel truly changes everything. Oh, not that you say, well, where's the Bible saying anything about membership? I'm not everywhere. You know, everywhere, because membership just means you make a covenant, a public promise.

You make yourself accountable. You know, Ulysses, remember Ulysses? He wanted to hear the sirens. He heard that they were really, really a great singing group. But he also heard that when you heard the sirens, you would go insane and crazy. So he says, all right, I've got a great idea. I will tie myself to the mast and I'll keep my ears open.

And I'll take all of my crew members of my ship and I will plug their ears with wax so they will be free. They won't be tied. They will be at the oars. So in other words, I'll be tied, they'll be free, but my ears will be open and their ears will be. closed. Therefore, he says to everybody now, when we get near the sirens, when we get near the coast, I'm going to start hearing the singing. Now, I want you to know what's going to happen is I'm

going to go crazy. I'm going to go berserk. I'm going to say, stop the boat and go over there. But we can't because anyone who under the spell of the siren seeks to get near their island, their boats are dashed on the rocks, and they are lost at sea. So he says, when I go crazy, I'm going to yell, I'm going to scream at you, and don't listen to me. And then I'm going to make all sorts of motions, and I'm going to say, when I get out of here, I'm going to strangle you. I promise I will. I'm the captain, I'm the general, I'm the king, I'm a king Odysseus.

You're just a bunch of galley slaves. You're just a bunch of sailors. I'm going to strangle you. I'm going to make it impossible for you to even get home alive. I'm going to disembowl you. I'm going to run you up the flagpole to see if anybody salutes. Don't listen to me. I'll be wrong, I'll be berserk.

What's he doing? What's he doing? He's actually saying, I'm going to put myself in a position where I'm going to submit to you because I know I'm going to go insane. There'll be a time in which I'm insane and I'm going to set up things. Put myself, tie myself to the mask, I'm going to set up things. I'm going to plug ears. I'm going to set up things so I can submit to you.

So I can, when I go crazy, can be, brought by you away. It's the same thing when you say, obey your leaders and submit to them. What you do is you're saying, I know that there'll be times in which I'll go crazy. There'll be times in which I will be bewitched. There'll be times in which I won't think that Jesus is so great. There'll be times in which I won't think that holiness is a great thing to

have. There'll be times in which I won't want to obey. Everybody, if you know your own heart, if you know your own heart, you know there's going to be times in which you'll hear the sirens. And not the police sirens. And unless you've got to be a lot of the sirens, you know, some people around that you have worked with, that you said, now when I go crazy and when I say, I don't want to do this and this and this and this, don't listen to me.

Take me away from there. You know, unless you've got accountability relationships, unless you're built into the wall, unless you've got people under you and over you, people that you're supporting and people who are supporting you, people who are accountable to you and people to whom you're accountable, unless you're built in, unless you have that kind of unity. You're violating your own nature. There's going to be breakdowns. How do we say this?

You see, in a sense, Paul is saying there is nothing higher than this. There's unity in a citizenship. There's unity in a family. But most of all, there's this unity in the wall, there's unity in the temple. And Christians are characterized by this. You need it. You must have it.

You were built for it. You've been recreated, so you've got a design. Have you got that kind of unity? Do you have those kinds of relationships? Is there that kind of accountability? I'm not trying to get everybody to join Redeemer. I'm trying to get everybody to listen to what the word of God says. Okay, now secondly, and last week, I said there's two things that he lays out for us in this image. The first thing, this wonderful image of the temple, this idea that we're stones in a holy temple, first of all proves that there's a unity that we've got to have. And there's an interrelatedness that we've got to have. that there is a unity and an intimacy that Christians should have.

And secondly, the fact that we're a holy temple means that we actually have access to the presence of God. Again, look, citizens have access to their king or their president, of course, to some degree. Children have access to the father. You know, that's the first image of citizenship and a nation. The second image is children, members of a household. Children, of course, have even more access to the father. but children are still outside the father. Do you know what I mean?

Children are still independent individuals. But in this last metaphor, in this last image, Paul is trying to show us that we have an access of, there's no higher access than this. God actually dwells in us. The father can't actually indwell the child, you see. The king can't actually indwell the citizen. But Paul has got to pile metaphor upon metaphor

to get across to the privileges that we've got. the Holy Spirit of God God's own nature actually interpenetrates and in-dwells us we're the temple, we're the place that he lives now we're going to spend next week really developing this in some detail but here's all I want to tell you right now

we desperately want to live with God when you live with somebody they really see who you are don't they you know if you're married that's one thing but even if you're raised with brothers and sisters Even if there's three or four roommates in a dorm room in college or something like that, they really know who you are. To some degree another, they see your nakedness.

They see what you really like. They certainly see what you look like without makeup, ours. You know, they get to know you. They get to know you. There's a familiarity. God and humanity once lived together. It was in the Garden of Eden. The Garden of Eden was the dwelling place of God,

and we lived together, and we walked in the cool of the day together. And it was life itself. We opened our hearts to each other. We knew each other. We were naked there and not ashamed. But as soon as human beings decided to be their own master, we're told, and we looked at this last month, God put, he sent us away.

As soon as we decided to be our own masters, God's presence became traumatic to us. Why? Rudolph Otto, a old German sociologist of Rome, religion, wrote a book, early part of the 20th century, called The Idea of the Holy. And he said, in all religions, people have an experience when they get near God that he called Numinous Aw. What is the characteristics of Numinous Awe, he said?

Numinous awe is a violent contradiction of fear and fascination. That's what he said. He was just a sociologist of religion. He wasn't a Bible scholar. He wasn't, I don't know if he was a Christian or not, but he wasn't writing as a Christian. He just went out there as a sociologist, as a phenomenologist, basically, and he studied how people responded to God when they got near,

in any religion at all. And he found out that every one of them had this incredible approach avoidance feeling when they got near. It was traumatic. He called it Numinous Law. It was a violent contradiction, a tension within him, a fear and fascination. Well, you know where that comes from, biblically?

We were built for the presence of God, but now we're scared of the presence of God because when you get near God, you see who you really are. The closer we get to God, the closer we get to His hugeness, the more we see our smallness. The closer we get to His holiness,

the more we fill our unholyness. Whenever you get near God, I mean, if you listen to a sermon that makes you feel terribly guilty, it may be that the minister just happens to be a legalistic person who just enjoys inflicting, it might be a sadist,

enjoys inflicting there. But it also could be, and that's always a possibility, but it also could be that you're getting near God and you hate it. Because the way you know you're getting near God is you feel like Isaiah did. When Isaiah got near God, and Isaiah was a godly man in source, he was a preacher. He was a preacher. What did he do? He says, woe is me, I am a man of unclean lips. You have to remember that Isaiah made his living through lips.

He was a preacher. That was his pride and his joy. But don't you see, the men. minute he gets near God, the thing he's most proud of in the whole world, his lips, he senses, are full of uncleanness and corruption. We're built for the presence of God. We want the presence of God, but the closer we get, the more scared we are and traumatized by the presence of God. Now, this is one of the major themes of the Bible. This maybe in a sense is the theme of the Bible. How can a human being live with God when that's what we're built for and that's what we need,

and that's where all of our problems come from. When Moses, on the mountain, Mount Sinai, turned to God and said, show me your glory. Show me your face. You know what happened to Moses at that point? He got it. What he was saying is,

oh my Lord, oh my God, I suddenly realized that my sexual passions, I suddenly realized that my professional ambitions, I suddenly realize all the lust and passions that drive me are basically just drive from this ultimate lust, this ultimate passion, this ultimate longing, this ultimate yearning. I want your glory, I want your face, I want to live with you, I want to dwell with you.

I want you to see me and know me and love me. He suddenly realized that that's what he was built for. He suddenly realized that underneath all the itching, underneath all the passions, underneath all the addictions, underneath all the drivenness, underneath the sex and the ambition all these other things he suddenly realized all these things have just grown under this those things are just

shoots this is the root this is what I want this is why I'm restless this is why there's something wrong with me this is why I'm incomplete and none of these other things is going to complete me this will complete me I want to dwell with God show me your glory and what does God say I can't it'll kill you God says what he's saying to Moses Moses I know you need to dwell with me

that's the problem It'll kill you. You're sinful. I'm holy. The trauma will kill you. And yet, Paul says, he who said, let there be light, has shined in our heart

to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. John the Apostle said, and the word became flesh and tabernacled among us, and we beheld its glory. Glory is of the only begotten of the Father. What the New Testament says,

and here we do. I'll just say it now so we can conclude and get back to it next week. Is that the Garden of God, the original place where God dwelt with us, God recreated his house when he built the tabernacle and the temple. He dwelt in there and he let people live near the tabernacle and near the temple, but nobody lived in it. The priests weren't allowed in there. No one was allowed to live in it. His chakina glory dwelt in there. And you know why that nobody could get in it?

Because of the sword. when God sent the people out, Adam and Eve out of the garden, put the sword there and the chairman. And he said, you can't get in because somebody has got to pay for your sin. You'll never get back in unless somebody goes under the sword. And for years in the tabernacle and the temple, that's where God dwelt, but nobody could live in there.

And when anybody even came in to visit, nobody could live with God, but if you just came in to visit, you had to bring in an animal and put it under the sword. There had to be payment. for sin, or you couldn't even visit God. But in the New Testament, the Bible says Jesus is the temple, and you're a temple.

In the New Testament, it says Jesus has gone under the sword. So that when you believe in him, when you're built into him, the very presence of God that Moses wasn't allowed to have, the presence of God that the people couldn't dwell with in the temple and tabernacle, the presence of God that Adam had in the Garden of Eden belongs to you.

You can dwell with God. His presence can come into your life. You can know his love. You can know his touch. You can know his kiss. You can know his power. That is what God is talking about here. That's what Paul is talking about here when he says,

You are a temple of the Holy Spirit. There's nothing higher than that. We're going to have to explore that theme. But what does it mean? It means that when you come to the Lord's table, you're coming as part of the dwelling place of God. God will give you a sense of his presence that Moses did not have, that Abraham did not have. It's not as complete as Adam had because we're told that the final temple will be the new Jerusalem when it comes down out of heaven in Revelation 21.

It tells us that the new Jerusalem, the new heavens and the new earth, will be a cube. It'll be a giant holy of holies. It will be the place where God dwells. It says the lamb and the Lord will be there, and there won't be. be a tabernacle because the presence of God and the knowledge of God will cover the earth the way the waters cover the bottom of the sea and we will dwell there in and then we will walk with God in the cool of the day. We don't have complete access to God. It's not total, but we've got real access to God. We are His temple. Now what that means is you need to cleanse your hearts because

the more holy you are, the more godly you are, the more disciplined you are, the more holy His you are. the more you set aside sin and make him the focus of your attention, the more you consecrate yourself in ditch complete competing concerns, and make him first, the more you will experience this incredible presence, the more you will experience this power. You can have it right now, you can see it right now. Why? Because you are a dwelling place of God, the Spirit.

You see, this image in a way shows us something, and there's nothing higher. There's an intimacy and a unity we have with each other, and there's an intimacy and unity we have with the Lord because Jesus Christ advanced against the sword at the mouth of the Garden of Eden, and the sword slew him. But as it slew him, as it broke his body, it broke itself.

And death no more has any claim over us. Oh, death where is I sting? O grave, where is thy victory? It's gone. We're going to physically die, yes, but the physical death will do nothing but make us spiritually completely alive. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

God says, come into me. Come into me. I want your fellowship. You can experience my presence. Are you ready to do that? Let me just tell you how we're going to do the Lord's Supper. If you have received Christ's Savior, if you've been baptized,

in other words, if you've professed your faith before other people, join the church have been baptized, If you're ready to ditch competing concerns and to forsake any sins that you know of and commit yourself to be holy, because that's what a temple is, you can receive the sacrament. That means you can actually receive his cleansing power, his grace, and his presence here tonight. If you haven't received Christ, the Savior, don't take the bread in the cup, take Christ. Now, you're headed and say tonight, if I've never really received you as my Savior before,

I do so now because I want to be built into that temple. We're going to confess our sins together and then we're going to pass out the Lord's Supper and you're going to hold it until when we pass out the bread, we sing and then we'll eat together. We're going to pass out the cup while we sing and then we're going to drink together.

We're going to come into His presence because we are the temple. Because he's the temple, we're the temple, because he's a priest, we are priests, you see? Because he was the bread of life. we can eat it. Because we've seen God's presence in his face, we can look on God's glory in his face. Let's pray. Our Father, as we come to you, we ask simply that you would really meet us. You've shown us here tonight that it's possible to meet you. That's what we want. Father, I pray that some people here tonight will not take the bread in the cup, but will actually take hold of you for the very first time.

I pray that somehow, somewhere, in all these words, your gospel has been made clear to them, and they have crossed the line into faith, and I pray that that will happen to some people here tonight. But, Father, I also know that there's some Christian friends, we've got Christian friends here who don't know your presence that feel very cut off from you. I pray that you would enable them to repent tonight, to know the freedom of that, to ditch competing concerns, and to commit themselves to be holy, commit themselves to be part of the temple. And I pray that some people here tonight

will get a sense of your presence and feel your love shed a brought in their heart in a way that they never have before. Prove to them that you indwell us. Prove to us that you're in our midst. Show us your glory. We ask that in Jesus' name. Amen.

Thanks for listening to today's teaching. It's our prayer that you were encouraged by it and that it helps you apply the gospel to your life and share it with others. For more helpful resources from Tim Keller, visit gospelonlife.com. There, you can subscribe to the Life in the Gospel Quarterly Journal. When you do, you will also receive free articles, sermons, devotionals, and other great gospel-centered resources. Again, it's all at gospelandlife.com.

You can also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and X. Today's sermon was recorded in 1993. 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.