Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Resting Grace

Episode Date: October 9, 2026

One trait or quality of a supernaturally changed heart is peace. There’s a difference between a supernaturally changed heart and a morally restrained heart. The marks of a supernaturally changed heart are sometimes called the fruit of the Spirit. They’re listed a number of places in the New Testament. And peace is always included. So let’s look at 1) what is this supernatural peace that’s available to us? and then 2) how can we cultivate it? This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on February 3, 2002. Series: Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character. Scripture: Colossians 3:1-15. Today's podcast is brought to you by Gospel in Life, the site for all sermons, books, study guides and resources from Timothy Keller and Redeemer Presbyterian Church. If you've enjoyed listening to this podcast and would like to support the ongoing efforts of this ministry, you can do so by visiting https://gospelinlife.com/give and making a one-time or recurring donation.

Welcome to Gospel and Life Radio. We often assume that being kind, generous, and forgiving is all that matters. But in his writings to the early church, the Apostle Paul offers a challenging truth. Even the greatest acts of love and sacrifice are empty if they're ultimately done out of self-interest. Today, Tim Keller explores how the gospel transforms us completely, even our motivations, making us people who love and serve others in response to God's grace for us. The scripture reading printed in your bulletin is Colossians chapter 3 verses 1 through 13. I'll also be reading verse 14.

Since then, you have been raised with Christ. Set your hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died and your life is now hidden with Christ and God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him and God. glory. Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature, sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived, but now you must rid yourselves

of all such things as these, anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. not lie to each other since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its creator. Here, there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircised, barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free, but Christ is all and is in all. Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And verse 14. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Love does not envy. It is not self-seeking. Let me add also, we're going to live also at verse 15 of chapter three, which is let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. What we're doing tonight, I'm not sure why you're here, actually. There's two possible reasons. I'll tell you why I'm here. One is a lot of you are new to this country and you've never heard of football. The other possibility is that you're from Pennsylvania, and since none of your team's got in, you're boycotting. And that's why I'm here. I'm from Pennsylvania. So it's a stupid game, stupid game. the series we're in the series we're talking about we're talking about the fact that there's a difference between a supernaturally changed heart and a morally restrained heart and the marks of a

supernaturally changed heart are sometimes called the fruit of the spirit they're listed in number of places in the new testament and tonight we come to the trait or the quality of a supernaturally changed heart, peace. And almost all the lists of these traits, it's joy or peace. Now, what I want to do is I want to look at for a minute what this supernatural peace is that's available to us. And then secondly, how we can cultivate it. And I want to spend more of my time tonight than I have the last couple of weeks on how

to cultivate the trait because the three disciplines of cultivation here don't just work for peace. They really worked for all of the character qualities we're looking at. But what is peace and how to cultivate it? Okay. First. First 15, which Michelle didn't read and wasn't print in the bulletin because I just didn't give the office the proper notice, is let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. It comes at the very end of all this sweeping chapter on how to change on a changed heart. And there's a parallel to it in Philippians 4. And in Philippians 4, Paul says, the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ

Jesus. For I have learned the secret of being content, whatever the circumstances, whether well-fed or hungry, whether in plenty or in one. Now, what's the principle here? Let me use one more illustration from pride and prejudice. My illustrations tend to come in clusters, if you notice. And there's a place near the end of the book where the central character Lizzie Bennett, one of her sisters is engaged to be married and her sister says, I wish you could find a man and be as happy as me. Well, now, Lizzie's response is interesting because on the one hand, it's not the traditional response.

It's not, she doesn't say, oh yes, you're right, I'll never be happy unless I find a man. She doesn't give the traditional culture response. On the other hand, she doesn't give a modern response that says, how dare you say such a thing, I shall be free to choose the circumstances of my life as I see fit. She doesn't give either the traditional response or the modern response. Instead, she says this. She says, if you were to give me 40 such men, I could never be so happy as you,

until I have your disposition, your goodness, I will never have your happiness. And what Lizzie Bennett is saying is that happiness is not a matter of circumstances, doesn't matter, you know, as he said, 40 such men. It's not a matter of circumstances. It's a matter of the disposition of the heart. It's really a very profound idea. It goes completely against, completely against our instincts.

When we're unhappy, when our peace is disrupted, when we experience a lack of peace, it's usually because it's triggered by some change in circumstances. Something happens. Something to disrupt our lives. And we lose our peace. And we look at the circumstance, we say, that's the cause of it. That's the cause of the lack of the loss of peace.

What Lizzie Bennett's saying is, no, circumstances may be the occasion for the loss of peace, but it's not the cause. The cause is something wrong in your heart, a disposition of your heart. And the circumstances brought it out, but your loss of peace is in you. It's not caused by what happened out there. It's in you. and that is what Paul says both in Philippians 4

and even here in chapter 3 verse 15 when he says let the peace of God guard your heart let the peace of Christ rule your heart now what do you learn from those statements parallel there's three things here about this peace this supernatural peace the first thing if you notice is that peace is not a general condition

this peace but it is a living power that comes into your life. If you look at the verbs, they're even more active than comes out in the English translation. When it says, let the peace of God guard your heart, it literally means

march around the ramparts of your heart, like a guard, warding off, any attacks. And in chapter 3, verse 15, of Colossians, when it says, let the peace of Christ rule your hearts, it's literally a word for umpire, by the way, for umpire.

In the ancient days, they had umpires for the games. You know, they're great games, but I want you to know that those games can get even more rowdy than today's games, and the umpire ruled with an iron fist to keep peace in the games, throwing out the troublemakers, throwing out those who disobeyed. And so, look at this, look at this. This peace that the Bible talks about, the peace of God, the peace of Christ, is not a vague inner condition. It's a power that comes into your life and acts. It's active. You know, it rules, it dominates, it, you know, it guards you.

So the first thing we see is that this peace is a living thing. The second thing, and this is maybe the most important, that the peace of Christ rules, it is not ruled by circumstances. It rules. It rules from within. Another place where Jesus says, peace I give you, my peace I give you, not as the world gives you. See, there's a worldly kind of peace. but it's always going away because of circumstances.

I mean, if you've ever, I certainly have, if you ever felt like I'm really at peace right now and the very next moment it's gone, that's peace as the world gives, and here's why. Think of a mirror for a second. The mirror has no power of illumination of its own. If there's light outside, the mirror is illuminating. But if it's dark outside, the mirror is dark.

If it's light, the mirror is light. If it's dark, outside, the mirror is dark. It has no power within it of illumination. and the natural heart can only reflect its circumstances. If there's peaceful circumstances out there, you have peace in the heart, but you don't have your own peace.

It's a peace that the world gives you, and take it away. So fast. But we're talking here about let the peace of Christ rule. It's not ruled by circumstances. It rules despite circumstances. It rules from inside.

It rules from itself. It's your peace, believe it or not. It's your peace. It's not a peace the world gives you and then can take away. It's in you. It rules. It dominates.

It words off. It works in spite of the circumstances. And lastly, it's the peace of Christ. It's not a piece that you develop yourself. It's a peace that comes from union with him. Have you got that peace? Do you really have that peace? When you're younger, when you're under 40, usually,

when you're younger, you you placate your heart for a long time by saying things will get better, I'll get the job I want, I'll get the relationships I want, I'll get the things I want, I'll get the circumstances I want. But as time goes on, you'll come to see that you can't control your circumstances. And it takes time to learn how completely dependent your heart is

for its peace on the circumstances of the world, which you have so little control over. You're just completely dependent. You have no peace of your own unless you have this supernatural peace. Do you have it? Now, how do you get it? Okay? I mean, I'm not too worried anybody out there saying,

oh, yeah. Okay, you can leave now. You're going to, you can make maybe the second quarter or the third quarter. I don't know, when it starts. But anyway, just in case you don't have this piece that's completely impervious to circumstances, let's go on and ask the question, how do you cultivate it?

And the cultivation of it has, there's three strategies or three disciplines that are here in the text and they are so important and really they're so practical and they're so basic the three strategies which i'll give you i'll give these names to them so that we can keep them in our minds we're going along it's thinking out digging down and looking up thinking out digging down looking up the first one is thinking out thinking out. And it starts right here in verse one. He says, since then, set your, since then, logic. If this is true, think out what that means for your life and live that way. See? If this is true, think out what the implications of that are and live that way. And that's how Paul's reasoning.

Now, let me immediately show you how completely different that is than the secular approach to peace, stress, anxiety. I mean, our bookstores are filled with books. The magazines are filled with articles. The radio shows, TV shows, the internet are filled with secular approaches

to coping with stress, coping with pressure, dealing with anxiety, and finding peace. And what's so interesting about them all is unlike this approach, they don't start with thinking, they start with doing. They go right to technique.

Now, here's what I mean by that. They don't start with the worldview. They don't start with the big questions. They don't start thinking. They don't say, they don't start, the articles, article you're going to read in, you know, good housekeeping or something like that or vanity fair or anything like that on how to deal with stress, how to cope with pressure. It's not going to start by saying, well, let's start by thinking.

What is the meaning of life? Where are we coming from? Where are we going? What's really important? What is our reason for life? What is life all about? They're not going to start there. They're going to start thinking.

They're going to go right to technique. They're going to say, well, let me talk to you about getting your life in balance, getting a balance between work and rest and recreation. Let's talk about relaxation techniques. Let's talk about meditation techniques. Let's talk about controlling guilty thoughts, controlling. In other words, they get right down to technique. They don't start with thinking.

They start with doing. Why? Well, here's one possibility. I'm going to use this gentleman's quote, next week, too, in a different way and a different reason. But Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr., I've been reading some of his works, and he was, of course, a very, very famous, he was a Supreme Court justice. I guess he was the Chief Justice.

He was a leading thinker in 20th century jurisprudence, and he was a classically modern, 20th century secular man. but he thought out the implications of what that meant. And let me just read you a couple of his statements. I'm going to read him slowly because when you first hear you may double take and say he said, what? But here, this is Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr. He says, there is no reason for attributing to a man a significance different in kind

from that which belongs to a baboon or to a grain of sand. The world has produced me and the rattlesnake, but I will kill it if I get the chance and the only reason is because it is in Congress to the world I want the world we are all trying to make according to our own power now why does he say such bleak

things he's a secular person as far as he says look as far as I know this world wasn't created this world is an accident and human life is an accident we're the accidental collocation of molecules and then what does he do

he's thinking out the implication He said, well, now if that's true, and if nothing has any purpose and everything is an accident, and there's no design. Two things. Number one, there is no reason. Remember, he's the word reason. There's no empirical, rational reason, there's no reasonable basis to say that a human being is more valuable than a rock. No empirical reason. And secondly, there's no right and wrong, just power. Nobody's to say what is right and wrong. Right and wrong means there's a design, there's a reason for things. There's a reason for things. things and you have to conform to it. But if everything's an accident, frankly, right and wrong is whatever, it's whatever you, who's to say what right and right? There's no right and wrong.

And therefore there's nothing but power and whoever gets their way gets their way. And there's nothing they can stop you. And there's no moral obligation to live in any particular way. Now, the average New Yorker, who's a secular person, just doesn't go there. And here's what they say. Now, over the years, here's what they say. What they'll say is, look, Look, yeah, I agree that as far as I know, this world is an accident. But I know that people are valuable. I just know it. And I know that injustice is wrong.

I know there's a right and wrong. There's injustice is wrong. Violence is wrong. And people are valuable. I just know it. Fine. Okay, that's fine. There's nothing wrong with that way of thinking and believing. I just want you to keep this in mind.

You're getting your peace by refusing to think out the implication. of your own view. And I want you to see that Christianity works in exactly the opposite direction. What the Bible says, what Paul says is, do you believe that this world was created by a God who wanted our friendship? And even though we've turned away from him, he's moving heaven and earth at infinite cost to himself, he's come down in the form of his son to get us back?

If you believe that, if you understand that, think. How valuable is every human life? how significant is your life? Think if you don't have peace, if you don't have a certain amount of joy, it's because you're not thinking out the implications of your belief. Here's the difference. A secular person says, I'm not going to think out the implications of my belief, and that's how I'll get peace. I'm not going to think. I'm going to do technique. I'm not going to think. But here's what Christianity has. Not a stupid piece, a smart piece. Not a peace that comes from refusing to think.

Not a piece that comes from escapism. Not ho, ho, ho to the bottle I go to heal my heart and drown my woe. Raines may fall and wind may blow. And many miles be still to go. But under a tall tree, I will lie and watch the clouds go sailing by. That's approach to peace. I'm going to stop thinking. I'm going to refuse to think about what I know.

I'm going to escape. And there's a way to peace, but let's face it, it's stupid peace. It's a peace by getting stupid. And the Bible says the Christian approach to peace is a piece by getting smarter, by thinking. Think it out.

Is history a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing? Or is history all about the love of God for you? That makes a difference in the way you see things. Think.

So, the first point is two things. Number one. There is no intellectual end run. You cannot, if you want the peace that passes understanding, if you want the peace that transcends, that guards your heart, that rules your heart, you can't take any intellectual shortcuts. You can't say, well, I just want, I'm coming to church because I want a sense of peace, but I don't want to have to think about it's the Bible true. Does Jesus Christ really live and die? You know, do those things really

happen? Was he resurrected from the day? I don't want to do all that. There's no shortcut. You don't get peace by making yourself stupid in Christianity. You get your peace by thinking things out. Some of you may be saying, that's weird. I never thought of Christianity as giving you peace by thinking more. I always thought of Christianity as close your eyes and just believe. No, sorry. I'm happy to disabuse you of the notion. But there's absolutely no way to peace without doing the intellectual work, without exploring, without studying, without answering your objections, without working through these things. There's no intellectual shortcuts. However, having said all that, we got to move on to the next two, and here's why. All by itself, this isn't enough to give peace. I had to know.

I'm a thinker, or hadn't you noticed? I think. I reason. And I want you to know that it takes you a certain, it takes you to some degree. The peace that is not based on circumstances is accrued, is procured by learning to think out the implications of these great statements in the scripture. And they think out the implications of these truths. But it's not enough.

The intellect is not enough to get you here. Some of you know that. Some of you say, I believe all this. and I'm still having trouble with peace right now. I'm still experiencing peacelessness, so let's move on. First, think out. The second basic strategy and discipline is, dig down. Verse five, put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature,

sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires, and greed, which is idolatry. Now, we have to make a discernment here. First of all, it starts kill off. Kill off. Where it says put to death, it literally means kill off what? Well, there's a long list. And verse five is not the all their list there is. I mean, you've got sexual obsession and impurity.

Then you've got materialism and greed. But if you move on down to verse 8, you've got anger and rage and malice and slander, you've got lying, dishonesty, lack of integrity. And if you go all the way down to verse 11, it looks like there was also other problems there. There's hints that there was class and race strife, you know, within the church and says

there is no Greek or Jew, no circumcised or un-sacriscriminates, no barbarian, Scythian, slave, or free, and so on. But what is the cause of all these things? What is at the bottom of all of these problems? And right in the middle of verse 5, there are two words that are critical and key, but easy to miss. As the key to everything, those two words.

The first term is evil desires. Now the word desires, if you've been coming to a Redeemer over the years, you've heard this before, but I hope I can just make it a little more clear, a little more specific than in the past. The word desires here is a Greek word epithemia, and it's a hard word to translate

because we don't really have an English word that's a synonym. As you can tell, by even the way I put it, it means an epi-desire, a mega-desire. An inordinate desire, an over-desire, an incredible desire. And the reason why, and when you, pardon me, I should say, when you translate it just as evil desires, you give the wrong impression. When you read that, what do you think it means? What do you think it means, and it's natural for you to conclude this,

what you think it means is desire for something evil, right? That's not what it means. It is not talking about an ordinary desire for something. something evil, it's talking about an over-desire for something good that leads to evil. This is one of the great keys, and because of the translation problem, it's one of the things that is most missed by people, as you read the New Testament. Every single place, every place, that character change and supernatural heart change is mentioned, this word is there in the midst to explain in a catch-all summary way what is wrong with our hearts.

How would your life change if you no longer had to prove yourself to anyone? We often live as though our value depends on our accomplishments, the opinions of others, or whether we're meeting our own expectations, leaving us trapped in a cycle of trying to measure up. In his short book, The Freedom of Self-Forgatfulness, based on a sermon from 1st Corinthians 3, Tim Keller explains how the gospel offers a completely different foundation for our identity, one that's free from insecurity and pride, and that allows us to rest in God's complete acceptance. This month, as thanks for your gift to help Gospel in Life spread the transforming love of Christ with more people,

will send you two English copies of the freedom of self-forgetfulness and one Spanish copy that you can share with a Spanish speaker in your life. Request your copies today at GospelandLife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the rest of today's teaching. John uses it in John chapter 2, James use it in James Chapter 1, Paul uses it in Ephesians 4 and here, and in Galatians 5, where it talks about the fruit of the spirit.

Peter uses it. Everybody uses it. The problem with our heart is not ordinary desire for bad things, it's over-desire for good things. And it comes from the second term, idolatry. and I know that grammatically the way it looks in verse 8, verse 5, is that idolatry is only referring to greed.

It looks like it's saying greed, which is idolatry. But if you match this with Ephesians 5-5, where almost the same statement is made, it's very clear that Paul's talking, when he talks about idolatry, he's talking about all the things, all the sins, all the issues. And here's what we come down to.

In summary, it is saying, kill off the over-desires in your heart which are caused by idolatry. That's the direction. And what we're getting here, boy, when you put these two terms together, Paul is showing you how sin works in the heart psychodynamically.

How sin works in the heart psychodynamically. I mean, that's a big way to put it. Let me put it like this. Exodus 20, First Commandment, probably everybody in this room has heard of it. The First Commandment is, I am the Lord thy God, thou shalt have no other gods before me. So the commandment envisions two prospects, two ways.

Either worship the uncreated God, the true God, or you worship some other finite thing as a God. But notice, the one option that is impossible is to have no God. See, it doesn't say, I am the Lord thy God, don't worship other gods or worship no God. It doesn't lay out that one. You either are going to worship God or you're going to worship something as God, but the one possibility, one impossible possibility, the one thing that's impossible for a human heart, is not to worship anything and not to have any God. Lots of people say, I'm not religious, I don't worship. And that may be true in the formal sense, but basically there is no such person. And this is saying, therefore, that everybody, everybody, and some of you have heard this often, but I'm going to try to show you how it fits in here tonight in this idea of peace.

every single person lives for something every single person has something that is your basis for your joy your basis for your meaning it's your ultimate value you have to everybody's living for something and that therefore spiritually is your life there's something that you've made your life now how do you find out what these idols are

how do you find out what these idols are how do you find out what these idols are that are throwing epithume out all through your life well let me give you two tests the first test is and this is the scariest one of all and I don't you know I'm going to use it I won't shrink from it because it's to me the quickest you have to ask yourself a question

what is there in my life whether what what pursuit what relationship what condition I mean you know what thing in my life if I lost it would make me not want to live. Probably make me not want to live. Now, caveat, it's possible, very possible,

to be suicidal without idolatry. I'm not saying that anyone who's suicidal is into idols because there's physiological and chemical reasons for depression that can send you there. But having said that, let's go back to the test,

let me show you how it works. What thing that if you long, lost it, what condition, what pursuit, what relationship. If you lost it, you would say, I wouldn't even want to live. You know what that means? If there's anything you can say that about, and everybody's got something, if you're honest. That's your life. That's your life. If to lose it means you don't feel like you've got a life, that's your life. You have put into its hands, you have put into its hands, the power of life and death over you. It's your real master, it's your real savior, it's your real Lord, it's your real God, it's your real worship.

Now you begin to understand what I said back in the beginning, what the Lizzie Bennett thing was alluding to. Something out there happens and it puts into jeopardy, it puts into jeopardy something that you've made a good thing that you've made into an ultimate thing. And your peace is gone. Why? Is it the circumstance? No. It's the disposition of your heart toward that thing. The circumstances is the occasion for your loss of peace, but you have caused it. See, here's the other test. The one test is if you were to lose it, what is if you would lose it make you not even want to live?

That's your life. But the other way to find out what these idols are is to basically find the epi, the epi emotions, the uncontrollable emotions, the overwhelming emotion, negative emotions, and trace them back. to find the idols. Now, what do I mean by that? Well, now listen, careful. I know this about supernatural peace. Supernatural peace does not replace normal human sorrows.

It doesn't replace them. Now, what I mean is, if a good thing in your life, somebody blocks it, you get angry at them. Jesus got angry. If a good thing is in your life, and something jeopardizes it, you worry. Jesus showed concern. And if a good thing is in your life and you lose it,

you feel grief. Jesus was always weeping. And you see, he had the peace. So this supernatural peace does not replace normal human emotions. And normal human emotions don't ruin your peace. The supernatural peace of Christ boils you up through those kinds of emotions. It keeps you going.

It keeps you balance. It doesn't remove them. You see. What does remove your peace is not normal anger, normal worry, or normal sorrow. But it's epi anger. Do you know what I'm saying? It's epi worry. So, for example, if there's a good thing in your life and something blocks it, you get angry.

But if it's an ultimate thing, you get bitter and you can't overcome it. it's an epi desire it's epi anger if a good thing is jeopardized you worry but if it's an ultimate thing you're paralyzed you're utterly paralyzed you don't know what to do you're absolutely frozen with fear and anxiety do you see if a if a good thing is being lost you're grieved but if it's an ultimate thing you're an absolute and complete despair Now do you understand why this is the key to peace? When you're deeply restless, when you're peacefully restless, because of circumstances and you're inconsolable,

and it creates all this, the anger or the fear or the despondency, and it ruins your peace. You say the circumstances are what's causing it, but it's not true. It's the disposition of your heart, and the circumstances are just revealing the disposition of your heart. It's the epithemia. See, it's the over-desire. caused by idols, that is the real cause of your restlessness, of your lack of peace.

And this is the only way you're ever going to find out who you really are and ever deal with the lack of peace in your life. You've got to dig down to this level. Do you go down to that level? You'll never understand the emotions that you cannot seem to handle. You'll never understand the things that you've done that you're amazed that you ever did them. You weren't raised that way.

Why did you ever do them? You won't be able to understand yourself. unless you get down to this level. There's two pines of people I'm going to warn. If you think you're not a religious person, you say, I don't have any idols in my life. Don't kid yourself. I'm trying to show you that you've got to have them.

You do have them. You've got something you're living for, and whatever you're living for controls you. You don't control your own life. On the other hand, the other persons I would like to warn are Christians, especially long-time Christians. You just say, well, no, I live for Jesus now. There are, don't hide behind that kind of pious babble.

there are alternate competing functioning saviors in your life you've got to dig down to this level or you will not come to grips with your lack of peace with the kind of worry the kind of anger the kind of despair that is not the normal it's over the top it's tearing you up it's removing your peace you've got to dig down this deep or you're not going to find it so think it out dig down, but lastly, look up. What are we going to do about our idols? This is our last point. What are we going to do about them? See, what are we going to do?

What most people think to think is they're going to deal with them by willpower, because it's not overly difficult. I would say most of us are kind of blind. We tell ourselves, yeah, I know that's important to me, but it's not an idol in my life. and of course we're always minimizing. We don't want to admit just how important it is. But a lot of us do admit

that there are certain things that are controlling us. They're ruling us. And we say, yes, I'm too controlled by what my parents thought of me, and I'm too controlled by this, and I'm going to stop it. You're just going to use your willpower. It doesn't work. Famous, famous statement by Thomas Chalmers shows that idols cannot be uprooted,

they can only be replaced. They can't be uprooted. they can only be replaced. This is a famous place where essay by Thomas Chalmers and where he says, we only cease to be the slave of one appetite because another taste has brought it into subordination. A youth may cease to idolize central pleasure and partying around, but it's only because the idol of material gain has gotten the ascendancy. In other words, he wants to have a career. He says, but there is not one personal transformation in which the heart is left without an object of beauty and joy.

its desire, the heart's desire for one particular object may be conquered, but its desire to have some object is unconquerable. The only way to dispossess the heart of an old affection is by the expulsive power of a new one. Now this may be kind of sense, but you've got to understand something. What makes certain things in your life so powerful is that you are worshipping them, you're doting on them, you're seeing them as a beauty, you're enjoying in them. when you're standing at the, you know, you're standing at the subway and you don't have anything else you have to think about, where does your mind go? William Temple said your religion is what you do with your solitude.

When you're absolutely alone, you don't have to think of anything else. What do you fantasize about? That's worship. And if you think that by a sheer willpower, I say, well, I see that this, I'm too controlled by people's approval, I'm too controlled by my career, I'm too controlled by these things. I see these things around my life. I'm just going to stop it. you may conquer see remember what chalmers said

you may conquer a particular object but your need for an object of absolute beauty and absolute joy is unconquerable you can only expel one affection with another more powerful one affection and that is why verse five says kill off inordinate desires

you know verse five says you can kill all these things off you can get rid of these things but notice it says put to death kill off therefore and the therefore is referring to verses one to four and what it's really saying is you can only destroy the idols from verse five on is if you've already done verses one to four and verses one to four is what you can destroy the idols if if and only if you've set your heart and set your mind on things that are above not just set your mind that's verse two set your heart. That's verse one. So we're not talking about just thinking. We're talking about rejoicing in something. We're talking about weeping with joy over something. And what is it? Well, what it is

is pretty astounding, but it's a doctrine. And here's the doctrine. If you read verses one to four, it's not saying just that you're supposed to set your mind on the fact that Jesus is dead and has risen, but that you have been you have died and have been raised. Look at this. Past tense. This is astounding. It says, you died

and your life is hidden with Christ and God. You have been raised with Christ. What in the world does that mean? You know, you would make sense of it said, well, if you believe in Jesus, then when you die, you'll be raised. You will die, you will be raised. That would make sense.

And think about that, because isn't that a happy thought? That's a happy thought. But he's, that's not what he's saying. He says, don't get happy because you think that someday you will die and you will rise. I want you to set your mind and heart on the fact that you have died and are raised. And if you do, you will then finally have the power to cast out these drives, these cravings, these demands of your heart that come from idolatry.

You'll finally be able to cast out the things that are destroying your peace. What does it mean, though? Well, you know what it means? You have died in Christ. You have been raised with Christ. You are in him. You are hidden in him. You are with him.

And this is what it means. It's all spelled out. When it says, you have died, what it means is Jesus, God, God considers your sins as forgiven as if you had died on the cross to pay for them yourself. He considers your sins absolutely forgiven, totally. And secondly, when it says you've been raised, what it means is, who raised? Jesus is the right hand of God. Why?

because the right hand is the place of honor and intimacy. And of course, the father's heart bursts with delight and love when he sees the son because of all that he has done. And when it says, you've been raised with Christ, it just simply means this, that if you believe in him, if you have said, Father accept me because of Jesus, the moment you believe, God delights in you as if you had done everything that Jesus has done. God accepts you as if you had done everything that Jesus had done, every bit as much. And if you say, well, that's hard to understand. Yeah, of course.

You're going to have to set your mind. You're going to have to set your heart. You're going to think and think and think. You're going to have to pray. You're going to have to worship. You're going to have to listen to sermons. You're going to have to meditate on hymns. You're going to have to sing this stuff into music.

You have to get it into your heart until you say, if this is true, how should I be? and that and only that will expel the other affections. This is what heals the heart. And you know what? What I love about verse three and four is it actually gives me

the most practical possible way of understanding it. It says, and when Christ, it says, set your mind on things above, not on earthly things. When Christ who is your life appears, you will appear with him in glory. Let me give you a perfect example.

of this. It says, if you want to, you say, okay, thanks, this is really nice, but how do I do it? I'm feeling my over desires, right? I'm feeling, you know, my peace is gone. I'm upset. I'm feeling overly angry or overly fearful or overly despondent. What am I supposed to do? First, realize your heart's already set on something that's earthly. See? If you want to set your mind and heart on things which are above, first find where it's set on something that's earthly. It's set somewhere. where Exodus 20 says it's got to be set someplace. And therefore, when your piece is gone,

you have to say, what is it that I have turned into my life, that I've made too important? What good thing if I turned into an ultimate thing? Where is it? Look for it, okay? And then look at it and say, you are not my life.

Christ is my life. And you have to rejoice in him as the very thing that you're looking to this thing to give you. The example that it's hard for me to get better then is this. I remember, you know, I use this example. You've heard this example before, have you been here because it has so many applications.

Let me apply it to this situation. Years ago, I was counseling two women. They were both wives and mothers. They both had teenage sons who were going bad. And they had husbands who were being lousy husbands, and that's fathers, and that's why the kids were going bad. And I'll never forget that I, you know, called them both. to forgive their husbands as Christ forgave them.

And what surprised me was that the weaker Christian, at least what looked like a weaker Christian, seemed to be able to forgive her husband. And the stronger Christian, I should say the more active in church Christian, couldn't. And we're very, very perplexed by this until we began to realize

that even though this first woman loved her son, the second woman had made her son her life. In other words, his success, his happiness was everything to her. She felt only, she was living for him. Her life would be a success.

If he was a success, and if he wasn't a success, her life was a failure, which meant he was her life. Everybody's got something. And the only way she could overcome her problem, she had an over desire to hate her husband. See?

She couldn't forgive. Epi anger. And the only way she could do it was not to say, I'm going to try harder, I'm going to try harder, I'm just going to forgive, I'm going to be a good Christian, I'm going to stop hating my husband. Oh, no. She had to turn to her son, not out loud, in her heart, and she had to say, you are not my life. And we tie this into last week and the week before. She had to look at my son and say, not, I'm loving you too much. She had to look at him and say, you know what? For years I've been saying, I'm sacrificing for you

and I'm doing everything for you and I'm living for you, but it's really all been for me. this parenting has been about me. I need for you to be successful. I need for you to be happy. It's all about me. Unless I demote you in my life, I'm never going to be the mother you need. The real problem here is, you are not my life. I'm looking to get from you what only Jesus Christ can get, give me. And I'm going to worship him at the moment, every time the moment that I hate my husband, because I over-desire my son's happiness. And at that very moment, I'm going to worship him. minute I'm going to say, you are not my life. And therefore, look at her son and look at her husband and say, and therefore you have not blocked my access to my life. My life is hid with Christ. I'm already

beloved in him. I'm already a good mother. I'm already a good woman. I'm already a delight. And she can't just say that. She has to worship. She has to experience it. She has to praise until it warms her heart, she has to weep over it, she has to be dazzled by it, right into the teeth of it. And a bit by bit by bit, her peace will come back. That's how it's done. And you know what? Will you please think for a minute how organic this is, how holistic, how different this is than moral education, where you go into a class and you say, now you must be just and you

must be kind and you must be unselfish, and here's the reasons why. How much different this is than technique. every adventure story goes like this some ordinary person kind of going along in life and suddenly something comes in and takes them to another time or to another planet

or to another dimension or to a far faraway land and they get caught up in some big story and that big story has heroes and villains and evil forces and there's always some incredible conflict and at the last minute somebody usually sacrifices the life

and snatches victory out of the jaws of defeat and everyone is saved. And then they come home. They come back to their present time, they come back to their planet, they come back, they come back. And their character is different. They're never the same, why?

They're braver, they're sweeter, they're happier, they're more easily moved, they're more noble, they've become great. Why? nothing tempts them now because they've seen high beauty so celebrity and sex and money can't hold a candle to it nothing tempts them now and nothing uh nothing bores them now because someone remember at the end of saving private ryan somebody sacrificed somebody gave their life so that they could be saved and now every second is precious. Nothing tempts them now, nothing bores them now, and nothing scares them now,

because they've seen greater evil, and they face it down. Nothing scares them, nothing tempts them, nothing bores them, there's a greatness about their life. Why? Because they're living every day in light of that bigger story. They've come from a bigger story into the daily life, and they remember it. Their minds are set on that. And so they move through their life with greatness, and that's the only way for you or anybody to really become

people of greatness, to become kind people, forgiving people, peaceful people, joyful people, noble people, courageous people. That's how it's done. It's not done through techniques. It's not done through New Year's resolutions. You have to think that I was part of this incredible heroic story, and now I'm

back, and I'll never be the same again. You know, that's what it needs to be a Christian. know why a christian is somebody who's come back every for example every sunday you go back into the story and you remember what he did and you remember what he faced and you see him again snatching you from you know from death at the cost the infinite cost to yourself and you're moved by it and you weep you go back in the story and then during the rest of the week you come back and you're great if you remember it if you think about it if you look and you set your mind and you're and heart on it, that's the only way organically and holistically a person's real character can

change. All the alternatives I see out there are techniques and moral education and New Year's resolution. 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 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 2002. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were recorded between

1989 and 2017, will Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.