Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Love, the Most Excellent Way

Episode Date: March 19, 2025

Most of us know how to restrain a life. We start to get in trouble, so we change. But when the consequences go away, we snap back the way we were.  Human nature without supernatural intervention is like a rubber ball that’s squished, but when the pressure is off, it snaps right back. The rubber ball was constrained. It wasn’t actually changed or reshaped. 1 Corinthians 13 is about how you actually change, about how you get a supernaturally changed heart. What is the supernaturally changed heart? Let’s take a look at 1) two things it is not and 2) what it is. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 1, 2016. Series: What We Are Becoming: Transforming Love. Scripture: 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel in Life. True transformation isn't about adopting a set of rules. It's about a heart changed by the gospel. This month, Tim Keller explores how Christianity is not just an ethical system, but a supernatural transformation. This morning's scripture reading comes from 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verses 1 through 13. If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give

all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing. Love is patient. Love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It does not dishonor others. It is not self-seeking.

It is not easily angered. It keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil, but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails, but where there are prophecies, they will cease. Where there are tongues, they will be stilled. Where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears.

When I was a child, I talked like a child. I thought like a child. I I talked like a child. I thought like a child. I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now, we see only a reflection as in a mirror. Then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part. Then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known and

Now these three remain Faith hope and love but the greatest of these is love. This is the word of the Lord Now when you hear that passage read you look around for the people in the tuxes and the long dresses because it's ‑‑ I would ‑‑ maybe right ‑‑ many of you have heard this but only ever in a wedding. Maybe even have heard someone teach on this but probably only at a wedding. And there's nothing wrong with that. Not that there's anything wrong with that because it's fine to apply this to marriage but I want ‑‑ you know, has nothing to do with what Paul had in his

mind when he wrote this. In fact, the wonderful elevated verses 4 to 7, love is patient, love is kind, is basically, when Paul wrote it, it was at least partly ironic. Because if you read the rest of the letter to this Corinthian church, you'll know that they were not patient, they were not kind, they were not humble in any way. And what Paul's doing when he makes that list is he's actually criticizing them. He's coming after them, he's admonishing them. He's trying to convict them. Why? Because for all of their gifts, for all of their activity,

even for all of their morality, they didn't have the marks of a supernaturally changed heart. This is not, this text is not about marriage, though it can be applied to marriage, of course. It's about how you get and what is a supernaturally changed heart. See, most of us know a lot about how to restrain a life. We start to get in trouble because of something we're doing and we get scared and in a sweat with our minds filled with

the consequences of what might happen, we change, we say. We've changed. But those consequences go away and so often we snap back the way we were. Human nature without supernatural intervention is like a rubber ball that you can squish down smaller, but the minute you take the pressure off, it snaps right back because it was constrained, the rubber ball was constrained and restrained, it wasn't actually changed. It wasn't reshaped.

And this is all about that. This text is about how easy it is to miss and not have a supernaturally changed heart. And you say, well, this is very different. We've been talking about the Rise campaign. This is a new series. Well, it's a new series, yes, but it's not that different. Here's the reason why. This is a whole series on what is a supernaturally changed heart. But this is the reason why we're bringing it up right now. We've been talking about how what we think God is calling us to do in the city over the next decade. We want to see the body of Christ exponentially grow, and we have said that

we believe that that will serve the city in so many ways. We can foresee more humane workplaces, and we can see art with more hope in it and we can see people not using their money as selfishly and the poor lifted up. But none of that is going to happen if our numbers grow and our lives don't actually change. If you have growth in numbers but you don't have supernatural change then none of that is going to happen. And that's what we're looking at is now. So what is a supernaturally changed heart? The only way to find out what anything is is sometimes to contrast it with what isn't it or what it isn't. So let's take a look at what Paul does in the first few verses. He shows us what a supernaturally changed

heart isn't. Two things that it is not and mustn't be confused with. And then secondly, we'll see what it is. So verses 1 to 3, two things that a supernaturally changed heart is not, and then verses 4 to 8, what it is. Now, the first thing that it's not and it mustn't be confused with is a supernaturally changed heart is not the same as talented, successful ministry. It's not the same as talented, successful ministry. Look at verse 2. This is a list of spiritual, you might say, gifts or talents. It says, if I have the gift of prophecy, can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge if I have faith that can move mountains. Now, that's just a, that's a list of, you know, it's an illustrative list. But if you look at Chapter

12, you'll see that the Corinthian church was filled with people that were incredibly gifted and talented. Corinth was an urban center. It was a financial center. And through history urban centers, big cities, financial centers, cultural centers have attracted very ambitious and talented people. And very often in cities you have some of the most talented, ambitious people there are. And they were in Corinth and they came into the church. The gift of prophecy was the miraculous ability to get revelation from God. And there's a lot of debate about what does that mean and is that happening today? Well, Paul's not talking about that here. He talks about it

elsewhere. And so we're not going to talk about that right here. It's just one of the gifts. Then secondly, can fathom all mysteries and knowledge. Now, that's Pauline language for being a teacher. To fathom the mysteries and knowledge means to master the scripture and to teach it. And then it says, if I have faith that can move mountains. Now that's not just the ordinary faith that you need in order to be saved. That's visionary faith. It's inspirational faith.

It's the kind of faith that inspires groups of people. It's a leadership gift. And so what Paul's doing here is, and you can see more of these things if you go through the rest of the book of Corinth, he's making a list of all the talents and the gifts that the Corinthian church had. They were so successful. They were so productive. They were so gifted. They were so talented. And then Paul pivots and says, but without love, without love, without, and we're going to get to that when we get on, but without a supernaturally changed heart operating on love as its operating system,

it's worthless. It's all worthless. He's saying it's possible to be incredibly good at, gifted at, successful at ministry with all of your gifts and it be worthless. Or another way to put it is, in the eyes of God, talent means virtually nothing compared to character. So, you know, you say, well, how does that work? Well, it's actually pretty important. Verses 1, 2, and 3 are things that the Corinthians important. Verses one, two and three are things that the Corinthians have. Verses four, five, six, seven are all the things that Corinthians are not. In spite of the fact that they are talented and gifted, they are filled with

what? Impatience. You just have to do the opposite. Impatience and abrasiveness and jealousy and turf consciousness and pride and selfishness and they're crabby. They're gifted, they're talented and their church is sure growing, I'm sure. They've got great teachers, they've got great leaders, right? Faith that can move mountains, surely their church is growing. And yet Paul says in God's eyes it's worthless if you don't have a supernaturally changed heart. And you can be effective in ministry by the way, because of your talents and not have that supernaturally changed heart. We have to be careful here. We live in a city too.

Bigger than Corinth ever was. And we have some of the most talented people in the whole world here. In the world. And we all know that many of them, though they're incredibly talented and we eat the gifts, you might say, the fruit of their talent, yet many of them in their personal life are cruel, narcissistic, imperious, and you know what we say, that just makes them colorful. What we actually do is we excuse their lack of character because their gifts are so wonderful and we're all eating the fruit of their gifts. It might be music or sports or in the arts or in business. We're all eating the fruits even though in

their character. So we make excuses for their lack of character because of their gifts, but that's not what happens in the kingdom of God. It must not happen. It does not happen in the kingdom of God. See, keep this in mind. At the very end of chapter 12, Paul says, seek the gifts, which means he's not against talent. He's not against giftedness. I have seen churches that don't want gifted people in them. You know why? Out of envy. Okay? They don't want them. Paul's not like that. But here's what he's saying. Do not mistake talent and giftedness and brilliance and leadership and all those

things. Do not mistake those things for grace. Don't mistake gifts for grace. Don't mistake talent for character. Because he says, I don't mistake gifts for grace, don't mistake talent for character. Because he says, I don't care whether you're such a good preacher, that you're drawing multitudes, or you're such a good leader, that millions of people are being touched by you. If you're envious, if you're angry, if you're anxious, if inside your heart's not been changed, then in God's eyes it's valueless, it's worthless. Now, we're going to explain some of the reasons why, but let me just end here with a kind of warning, especially, and just for a second, for those of us who are real

active in this church, some of you are community group leaders, some of you are volunteer, you do a lot of work here, some of you are on the staff, some of you are community group leaders, some of you are volunteer, you do a lot of work here. Some of you are on the staff, you know. Some of you are in ministry, you know, professional ministry, that kind of thing. This is warning particular for you. Paul is saying, do not think that giftedness and grace in the heart are the same thing. God does not respect, does not value skill and talent

does not respect, does not value skill and talent of the mind and the hand as much as grace in the heart. And don't mistake them. You say, well, how could you mistake them? I'll tell you how you can mistake them. I'll tell you exactly how it happens. Let's just say you're leading your community group and people say, oh, you've helped me so much. You know, you've listened to my questions and you've helped me study the Bible. Just help me so much. Or you're on staff here or you're in ministry and people say, oh, you've helped me so much. And when you see that, you feel good. You should feel good. But then what you do, it's very easy to say, so God is with me. When actually you've got no prayer life, you're filled with anxiety and pride

and anger and resentment yourself. Your heart's nowhere, but you've been helping people, see? And you say, well, I guess God's okay with me. Not necessarily why. Listen, if somebody is in your path and they need help and God sees that you've got the talent to help them, why couldn't he help them with your talent even though your heart is not near him, even though your heart's far from him. Don't mistake the operation of gifts for grace. A supernaturally changed heart is not identical with talent, giftedness, and ministry.

But secondly, that's verse two. Here's the second thing it's not, verse three. This actually, I think, is even more, more counterintuitive for us. Look at verse 3. What do we have there? This time instead of three things we have two things. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast. Now what's that? Well, the first one is easy. Here's a person who's being so generous to the poor, they're not just being giving token kind of charity, but someone giving so generously to the poor that it's actually affecting their lifestyle. It's possible that Paul's talking about a

person who goes into voluntary poverty, who could live far higher and better, but goes into a sense of virtually voluntary poverty in order to give away so much to the poor. That's what's called a virtue. We call that social justice, living justly. Now the second one is a little harder to interpret. Some of you, if you've been to weddings, you probably remember when they got to this verse. It said, if I give away all I possess to the poor and give my body to be burned, right? Give my body to the flames. You've probably seen that translation. This one says, body to hardship that I may boast. There's, as there often is, questions about translation in the text here. I'm just going to say, as far as I know, the best way to read this is just what the older way. And that is to say,

it said, if I was willing to die for my faith, if I was willing to go to the stake for my faith, if I was willing to assert and identify myself as a Christian even if that meant persecution. Now, when Paul says, give away to the poor, doesn't he believe we should give to the poor? Absolutely. And when Paul says, even if I would die for my faith, doesn't he believe we should give to the poor? Absolutely. And when Paul says, even if I would give my, even if I would die for my faith, doesn't Paul think we should be courageous and testify to our faith even if it means persecution and death? Of course he does. And yet, what does he do? He says, even if I was willing to die for my faith, and even if I gave away everything to the poor,

and I had that kind of just living, and that kind of, you know, that courage, but I have not love, it means nothing. Now here's what's going on here. This is a virtue list. Aristotle talked about the virtues. His four cardinal virtues were prudence, and self-control, and courage, and justice, and the other philosophers and classical

teachers had different virtues. But the virtues was basically morality. And here's Paul saying you can be incredibly moral, absolutely moral, and still not have a supernaturally changed heart. It means nothing. Now how in the world could that possibly be? How could it be? And the answer is actually verse 1. Now when you read verse 1, most people look at verse 1 and they say, oh, this is all about tongues. If I speak in tongues of men and angels, everybody says, what's tongues? And well, he doesn't explain and therefore I'm not going to explain. But here's what it says, but have not love. I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. Now why did Paul choose that symbolism? A gong,

a cymbal, why did he do that? And the answer is, as far as I can see, here's what he's saying. Yes, a supernaturally changed heart will always issue in a moral life, but you can have a moral life without having a supernaturally changed heart. And here's the reason why. In Corinth, it was a religious center, and there were a number of pagan cults that worshiped various gods that had their kind of cathedrals, in the sense, their temples in Corinth. So you had temples to various gods. But one of the marks of the religious rituals and the worship of those gods was the procession. That every one of those temples, especially a couple of them we know, very often you didn't just go into the temple, but you came out of the temple and you marched around in a procession around the town, around the city. And everybody wore their finery, and there was always gongs and cymbals in this pagan worship. And the purpose of it was to get the attention of

the God, to say to the God, look at how much we honor you. Listen to our prayers. See how much we venerate you. Now for Paul to say, you might say, I'm a Christian and I'm gifted in ministry and I'm working in the church and I'm even willing to give away a lot of my money and I'm willing to stand up for my faith and witness for my faith even if it means persecution and it'll all be nothing. Why? Because it's exactly like the Gong and it's simple. Are you holding onto a grudge or struggling to forgive someone in your life?

Would you like to experience the freedom and healing that forgiveness brings? In his book, Forgive, Why Should I and How Can I, Tim Keller shows how forgiveness is not just a personal act, but a transformative power that embodies Christ's grace to a world fractured by conflict. Far from being a barrier to justice, forgiveness is the foundation for pursuing it. In this book, you'll uncover how forgiveness and justice are deeply intertwined expressions of love and how embracing Christ's

forgiveness equips us to extend grace to others. We'd love to send you Dr. Keller's book, Forgive, as our thanks for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the hope and forgiveness of Christ with more people. Visit gospelinlife.com slash give to request your copy. That's gospelinlife.com slash give. Now, here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Okay, let me say it again. Paul is saying you could obey the Ten Commandments, you could get to church every week, you could

be sexually incredibly moral, you could not just give some of your money away but huge percentages of it away to the poor, you could be true to your faith and witness for your faith to the point of persecution and it'd be basically being done for the same reason that the pagans clang those symbols. Why? It's your way of saying to God, look at how good I am. Look at what I'm doing for you. Listen to me. Favor me. Bless me. Answer my prayers. That you're actually not doing it for God, you're doing it for yourself and you're trying to get other people's respect, you're trying to get your own respect. Look at me. You know, in Pride and Prejudice, the Jane Austen novel, there's a set of sisters and the one, the most unattractive of the sisters in more ways

than one is Mary. And according to Jane Austen, according to the narrator,ractive of the sisters, in more ways than one, is Mary. And according to Jane Austen, according to the narrator, the writer, Mary is the most Christian looking, the most religious of all the girls. And she's always lecturing them on what is our Christian duty and why aren't you reading your Bible more and why aren't you being more moral. And this is what Jane Austen said about why she was so religious. It said, Mary, this is quote, Mary in consequence of being the only plain one in the family,

worked hard for knowledge and accomplishments of which she was impatient for display. It gave her a pedantic air and a conceited manner. In other words, her religiosity was all about her. It was a way of saying, see, I'm special, see, I'm a good person. In fact, I'm better than you. It's a gong, it's a symbol. And here's what's so ironic. It's basically another form of self-centeredness. Put it like this. Giving your money away is externally, publicly, very sacrificial. Suffering for your faith, taking it on the chin for your faith, is externally, publicly, sacrificial.

But what Paul is saying here is that you could be like that. You might say volitionally, behaviorally, very, very sacrificial and unselfish in your behavior. But in your heart, impatient, unkind, envious, grumpy, crabby, selfish, irascible, manipulative. and here's the reason why. Because there's a kind of morality that doesn't put a stake through the heart of self-centeredness, it just nurtures it. It cultivates it.

Because everything you're doing is for you, just like Mary was doing it. Everything, it's not for God, it's not for your neighbor. You're helping the poor, but not for the poor's sake, for your sake. You're going to worship and praising, not for God's sake, but for your sake. You're going to worship and praising not for God's sake, but for your sake. You're doing it out of a sense of emptiness, and you're trying to fill that

emptiness with respect and trying to say, God, now you have to favor me and other people have to favor me and I have to favor myself. Look what a good person I am. Just like gong a symbol. It's hollow. Externally selfish, internally, and anybody who lives with you can see it. That you're grumpy, that you're irascible, that you're selfish, that you're manipulative, that you're anxious, that you're vain. And Paul says that shows not a supernaturally changed heart. And basically he's showing that's a morality that does not come from love. Well you say, okay, he's been saying love, love, love.

All right, what is love? Well it's pretty simple. Self-centeredness says me first, love says you first. Self-centeredness says my needs are more important so I'll trample on yours to fulfill mine. Love says your needs are more important so I'll sacrifice mine to fulfill yours. Simple as that. If you have in your heart a need to get God's favor, to get other people's favor and feel like I've got to do all these things in order to make sure that it comes in, you're doing it for yourself. It's me first. It's all about you.

And that means that even if externally, in order to be moral, to be thought of as moral, for you to think of yourself as moral, to present to God yourself as a moral person, you're going to be unselfish in these external big ways, but internally, you're going to be just every bit as selfish, every bit as proud, every bit as unhappy, every bit as irritable, every bit as proud, every bit is unhappy, every bit is irritable, every bit is worried, every bit is ungracious, because everybody else actually. And that's the reason why you should not, let me tell you this, you should not be surprised when great people

that you have so much respect for suddenly seem to have some kind of moral collapse. For example, there can be a public servant, a man or a woman who has just served for years in public service, usually meaning government, maybe politics or civic leadership in some way, nonprofits. And whereas everybody else that they went to Harvard or Yale or Princeton with is making far more money, they get lower salaries and they're just giving to everybody and everybody has so much respect for them. Or there's people in ministry. Oh, look at them, they're preaching the word.

And then suddenly you find out, oh, they embezzled. Oh, they committed adultery. Oh, they did something. They were, how could that happen? I'll tell you how it happens. If your morality is external, if you've actually not put a stake through the heart of your self-centeredness, but you've been nurturing it,

see, you've been actually feeling better and better about yourself. You're doing all this stuff so that you can feel good about yourself because it pays. All your goodness pays. And yet, that means you'll grow in self-pity. And that public servant will say, nobody knows how much I've sacrificed for this community.

Nobody knows. And suddenly there's an opportunity to make a deal or cheat or make some money or have an affair, you say, I deserve it. See, external morality without a supernaturally changed heart is a house of cards. It's just a house of cards. Because basically you look unselfish on the outside,

but inside, your every bit is grumpy, you're competitive, you're looking at other people, you're envious, you're boastful, you're self-righteous in many ways, you're self-absorbed, and that's going to come back. At some point it's going to erupt. Morality without a supernaturally changed heart is a house of cards. So we're in trouble, are we not? The real question is how do you get a supernaturally changed heart? Don't mistake active ministry for it. Don't mistake

moral goodness for it, moral discipline, virtues for it. Well, what is it? Well, it's love. And here's what Paul's doing. When he gets to verse 4 to 7, almost 8, you know, when he gets there, it looks like he's describing love. Love is patient and kind. It doesn't envy. It doesn't boast. It's not proud. It doesn't dishonor. That means it's courteous. It's not self-seeking. It's not easily angered. It doesn't keep grudges, see, it keeps the record of wrong. It does not delight in evil, rejoices with the truth, it always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres, love never fails.

And the way this is usually read and the way this is usually preached, frankly, is okay, it's not enough just to be good, verse three. It's not enough just to be active in the church, verse two, you gotta be loving. And so you say, okay, there it is, I gotta do those things and then I'll be okay. And that's the miss the whole point of the way

in which Paul puts this. Paul doesn't say, love consists of patience. He's not actually describing an abstract principle at all here. He doesn't say, well, if you want to be loving, you got to do these things. He doesn't say that. He said love is. He personifies love. Love is patient. Especially when you get down and he says love does not delight in evil. Wait a minute. I'm talking as if love is a person. Love protects, love trusts, love hopes. You say, well, what he really means is if you are a loving person, you need to trust. If you are a loving person, you need to hope. Well, yeah, but that's not what he says. And one of the reasons why this is often read at weddings is because

it has an elevated tone when you say love is patient. Not now if you want to love that consists of being patient. If you want to love. See it's one thing to say love consists of forgiveness. Another thing to say love keeps no record of wrongs. That's more poetic. It's more lyrical. It's more elevated. It's one of the reasons why we read it at elevated events like weddings. But I think we're missing the point. Paul is making something a very crucial point for us. By depicting love as a person, and there's two reasons I think he does it.

And if you grasp this, you're on your way. The first is, he depicts this as a person because that's the only way love ever comes into your life. Nobody learns to love by trying. He depicts this as a person because that's the only way love ever comes into your life. Nobody learns to love by trying. You only learn to love because someone picks you up and loves you. Love is an active force, not a passive set of principles or practices. Love is an active force.

No one learns to love by trying. You only learn to love because someone loves you. Someone picks you up. Now, by the way, one of the reasons why, this is literally true, one of the reasons why orphanages in the West for infants have pretty much died out. In other words, an infant in an orphanage is virtually not there. Why? Because we know that even if you just keep the infant in the crib and pick the infant up to change him or her or feed him or her, a third of

them die. Half of them have mental problems as they grow up. What every baby needs is to be constantly held, constantly cooed over, constantly delighted in, constantly kissed. Literally, somebody has to pick you up and just hug you and love you or you can't love. You can forget all these other lists of things. Of course these things are helpful. I want to be a more loving person. Here's a great list. Fine. But unless you've met love in the form of a person, you will never be able to be loving just by looking at a list. Before love is something you do,

it has to be someone you've met. Before love is something you do, it's gotta be someone you've met. And if you haven't met someone who so filled the deepest part of your heart with love, the deepest part of your soul with love, so you are assured of that love. When you move out in the world to so-called do good things, you're doing it to use people in order to fill that.

Everything you do, every good deed you do, every charitable thing you do, if it's not coming from a fullness of love, where you're just loving others as you've been loved, if instead you're not sure of that, then everything you're doing is actually for yourself as a way of just trying to steal love and respect from other people. And it's all about you. And that's one of the reasons why Paul puts this in the form of love. Unless you've met someone who loves you to the skies, fills

you with love, all the lists won't matter. Ah, but here's the question. Where do you get that? Now, of course, by the way, your parents, I hope in many of your cases, your parents were probably the very first persons to lift you up and love you. But here's what Paul is saying. I don't think Paul is wrong when he says love does not, love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres and never fails. Now you could read that first about you. And you could say oh okay, it means that if I'm loving I need to protect, trust, hope, persevere and if I ever fail to do that then I'm failing to love. Well you could say, oh, okay, it means that if I'm loving, I need to protect, trust, hope, persevere,

and if I ever fail to do that, then I'm failing to love. Well, you could look at it that way, but actually, here's another way to look at it. You need love like that. We are so dependent on love that we can't bear to be loved by someone who will fail us, who will not persevere, who will not hope. Well, where are you gonna get that from?

Your parents? Well, I want you to know, I'm a parent, FYI, parents are flawed people. They will let you down. They will disappoint. They won't always persevere. They won't always hope. They won't always trust. And even if they're really good ones, they're gonna die. They're gonna leave you. In that sense, their love will fail. Well, you say, I can do it to my spouse. Well, spouses are made of the same human stuff as parents.

Well, how about my children? I'll find it in my children. Well, you'll just destroy them if you actually try to smother them with that kind of freight. Where are you going? But we need someone who, we need a love that so always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres and never fails, that it fills us up so that we're able to move out in the world in fullness to love others rather than in emptiness in

order to use them in order to get some kind of respect. Well then here's the question. Who can give that kind of love? And the second reason I think Paul personifies love is he has a person in mind. The first word is love is patient, but in the Greek word is macrothymia, which literally means love is long-suffering. How could Paul write that without thinking of the one who said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me, the man who suffered for us patiently? Love does not keep a record of wrongs. How could Paul write that without thinking of the one who on the cross said, Father, forgive them, they don't know what they're doing.

Love always hopes. How could Paul write that without remembering that, you know, here's this thief dying on the cross. I mean, he's being killed. That's the end of all of his hopes, right? He's got no hope left. And this guy next to him says, hey, I'm the Messiah, the Son of God, and today you will be with me in paradise. Nobody else in the world can say that to you. Nobody.

Everybody else says, at death my love fails. When I die, love fails. When you die, my love fails. But Jesus doesn't. Or love never fails. When Jesus Christ is on the cross looking down at all of his friends who have either betrayed, denied, or forsaken him, and looking at everybody else around him he's supposed

to be dying for, they're jeering at him and they're mocking at him, and in the greatest act of love in the history of the world, he stayed. He didn't fail us. He stayed until he said, it is finished, meaning I did it. I've accomplished it. I've saved them. I paid for their sins. He never fails. That soul who on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes. That soul though all hell should endeavor to shake, I'll never know never know never forsake." He was forsaken on the cross so that he can never he'll never forsake you. If you read verses 4 to 7 first, not as

something you must do, but that's a kind of love that saved you. If you read verses four to eight, first of all, as the love that saved you, that will humble you out of your self-centeredness and it'll affirm you out of your neediness, and it'll so fill you that then you can reread this as a way to live. And only then. Christian friends, don't mistake gifts for grace. And stop, look, all of us have partly changed heart.

None of us have hearts that are anywhere near as changed as we think they are. Look at this list and use it on yourself. Ask the person in the world who knows you the best and say, am I more patient, am I more kind, am I less envious, am I more happy, am I less worried than I was two years ago? Because if you have a supernaturally changed heart,

you're growing, you're alive spiritually, and you're becoming more and more like that, and if you say, no, I'm stalled, well then wait a minute, don't settle for anything less than a supernaturally changed heart. And those of you who are thinking about Christianity, exploring it, please don't think Christianity is all about just getting more moral. It is about meeting the one whose love will transform you and you will be born again. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for I thank you for the Lord's Supper because here we can have in our lives reenacted what your son did on the cross for us. Perfectly patient love, absolute long suffering, love that persevered, love that never failed.

We pray that you would reignite the same kind of love in our heart as we perceive and conceive and think about what you have done for us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel in 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 in 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 gospelonlife.com slash partner. That website again is gospelonlife.com slash partner. Today's sermon was recorded in 2016.

The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel in Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017, while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.