Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Battle For the Will

Episode Date: February 23, 2026

If you don’t have a desire for a transformation of character from the inside out, it’s because you just haven’t faced yourself. There is in all of us a selfishness, a lack of self-control, a dysfunction. And yet God calls us to, “be ye holy.” Being holy does not just mean to keep the rules. Being holy means you are wholly reoriented in your thinking, in your feeling, and in your behavior. It means to be totally changed in mind, heart, and will. To be holy is to wholly belong to God. Let’s look at these verses in 1 Peter and ask 1) what does this text tell us a holy person looks like? And 2) how can we want a holy life so that we get it? This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on November 7, 1993. Series: Splendor in the Furnace: 1 Peter, Part 1. Scripture: 1 Peter 1:13-21. 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. Why do some people grow through suffering while others are crushed by it? Peter says the answer begins with holiness, giving our thoughts and our actions fully over to God. Today, Tim Keller shows us how to turn our whole selves over to the God who can transform our character and turn us into people who live joyfully, even in life's most difficult moments. First Peter, chapter 1, and we'll read verses 13 to 21. Therefore, prepare your minds for action, be self-controlled, set your hope fully on the grace to be given you when Jesus Christ is revealed. As obedient children do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance, but just as he who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do.

For it is written, be holy because I am holy. since you call on a father who judges each man's work impartially. Live your lives as strangers here in reverent fear, for you know that it was not with perishable things, such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Jesus Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect,

he was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake. Through him, you believe, in God, who raised him from the dead and glorified him, and so your faith and hope are in God. This is God's word. Now, the subject of the passage that we've been looking at for four weeks is holiness. And I know that that's just a word that has almost no connotations today except negative ones. It says here that instead of of living a life of evil desires, you see, in verse 14. Instead of living a vain and empty life,

we should be holy. And even though we've been talking about for four weeks, I think I better start out with a word to people who might be here for the first time or might have just come in on this series and they wonder about the relevance of it. It's just very natural and completely understandable for somebody to be sitting here tonight saying, a sermon on holiness, great. That's just what I need. Holiness. The only people I knew who were holy were people that I wanted to get away from. How relevant is that to us today? If you cannot see the relevance, if you don't desire to be holy, oh, you know, to some degree it might be because you just don't understand the concept, and we're going to get back into that in a moment. But it's also a possibility, if you think that

holiness is irrelevant to you, that you just don't know yourself. You simply don't know who you are. If you don't have a desire tonight for a transformation of character from the inside out, if you don't come in here saying what I need more than anything else is to be changed from the inside out, I'm weak. I need renovation. There's a rottenness on the inside of my heart. My character is not what it should be. I need some, I need an interchange. If you don't feel that way, it's because you just haven't faced. waste yourself. I was, some years ago,

Mike Wallace, you know, of CBS, was interviewing Ahil Dinoor. Now, Yehiel Dinoor, many years before this particular interview, had been a witness against Adolf Eichmann at his trial in 1961.

Yihil D'Nor had been a concentration camp survivor. And because he was a survivor, when Adolf Eichmann was brought to trial, was apprehended, I was only 11 at the time, but I can still remember the television pictures very vividly, the man in the glass booth, remember? And when Mike Wallace was interviewing you healed D'Nor a number of years later after the trial,

he showed D'NORR the film clip of when he first walked into the courtroom and he saw Eichmann. And in the film clip, it was very dramatic. I even remember this. De Noor walked on in and looked at Eichmann for just a moment, and suddenly he began to sob uncontrollably, and he immediately fainted and collapsed. And the whole courtroom was in an uproar, and the judge started to pound the gavel. It was tremendously dramatic. And Mike Wallace, many years later in this interview, said to him,

tell me, why did you collapse? What did you feel at that moment? What happened that it's so overwhelmed and overpowered you? and he said was it hatred for the man who had killed so many of your friends and your relatives was it hatred or was it fear just being in the presence of such a wicked and evil person or was it some kind of post-traumatic stress syndrome did you suddenly have tremendous flashbacks did the horrible scene suddenly appear before you and it overwhelmed you why did you collapse what did you feel and you healed anew or said something that

that we'll never forget. He said, no, none of above, none of the above. He says to Mike Wallace, when I walked in and I saw him, I suddenly realized he was no demon or Superman. He was an ordinary human being exactly like me. And suddenly I became terrified about myself because I saw that I was capable of the exact same things. Now, do you believe that you are too?

Do you believe what you healed De Nour saw? That is what the Bible teaches. That is one of the essential planks in the platform of the Bible. That is one of the essential messages of the Bible. And almost everything else it says of an optimistic nature, of a hopeful nature, when it says you can be born again, when it says you can live a holy life. None of it will make any sense unless you believe what you healed, De Nour finally saw in a flash. That's the message of the Bible. This was no demon, nor was he a Superman. He was exactly

like me. And so I became terrified about myself because I realized I was capable of the exact same things. That's exactly what the Bible says. That's the message that we were looking at last week in the morning service, the message of Psalm 51 and 2 Samuel of 11. When the Bible tells us about David, how he took one of his trusted friends and had him murdered so he could marry his wife. What is the message of that? Why is that story related to you? Is the Bible trying to show you that some people are just rotten? No.

The Bible is trying to tell you that the greatest people can do things like that. The message of the sermon on the Mount. The wonderful sermon on the Mount. People who don't know the sermon on the Mount talk about it as if it's a wonderful ethic of love. I find out that in my children's public school textbooks of the history of Christianity or the American history, whenever people try to characterize Christianity, the textbooks, obviously people who have not studied the basic documents of Christianity, say, well, you know, Christianity is basically the law of love. Jesus came and said,

we don't not have to adhere to some kind of system of merits in which we try to make points with God in heaven, no. God just loves us all, and now we just love everybody, and that's really why Christianity is so popular. Can you imagine people dying for that? Can you imagine people going to the stake, being thrown to the lions? First of all, if that's what Christians believe, if that's all they believe, that God loves everybody and we have to love everybody, why the heck were the Christians killed for that? Not only that, why would Christians be willing to be killed for that? No, no, no, the message of the sermon on the Mount is not just love everybody. The message of the sermon on the Mount was this.

You've heard it said, don't kill, but I say that if you are bitter, if you have a grudge, that's murder in the acorn. You've heard it said, Jesus says, thou shalt not rob or steal. But I say to you, if you're envious, if you're covetous, that's robbery in the acorn. What is he saying? He is saying, the Bible is saying, what you heal denour saw. we are capable of anything. We're capable of all of this. Now, let me ask you a question.

Have you really faced that about yourself? Do you know that there is a power of evil in your heart, so malignant? Do you know that you all have? And I'm saying this sensitively, in case some of you are dealing with this on a physical level, but I want you to know that the Bible says, we all have got malignant tumors, and they are fatal. They're called sin. Not in our bodies, in our souls.

do you believe that do you understand that do you know that there's a selfishness a lack of self-control a dysfunctionality that's right there at the heart of everybody's soul it's called sin do you believe that do you know that you're capable of what adolf Eichmann was capable of if you say ha i don't believe it then nothing else the bible says will make any sense to you and now you know why but have you really faced yourself don't look at other people and say well you know i'm as good as the next don't look at them and don't look at your circumstances and what's been done to you. Don't say, well, if you had my family background,

if you had my troubles, if you had, don't look at that. Just look at yourself for a minute. Have you really faced yourself? If you do and you come to see what you really like, you will say what Paul said. You will say, in a sense, what you heal, denour said on the floor as he was sinking down.

Who will deliver me from this body of death? That's what Paul said. Who will deliver me? from this body of death. He was talking about his own nature. I need to be renovated. I need to be changed. I need to be purified. I need to be cleansed. I need to be rebuilt. I need to be restored. And that's what the Bible means when it says, be holy. That's what it means. Do you think this discussion of holiness is irrelevant to you? Look at yourself. Now, the time has come because it's the last time we were looking at this to ask two questions, one of which is kind of a summary question.

The first thing is, what does this text tell us a holy person looks like? And then secondly, how can we want a holy life so that we get it? Here those two questions? The first is, what does a holy person look like? And secondly, how can we want holiness so that we get it? Now, the second question we'll get to in a minute. The first question, really, in a sense, gives me a chance, gives us a chance to summarize everything that this passage has been telling us and we've been looking at.

for four weeks. A holy person, this text tells us, is a person who is wholly committed to God and totally changed mind, heart, and will. To be holy is to wholly belong to God. We've said that a number of times. And therefore, let me just show you some of the passages, some of the verses and the phrases that we haven't looked at, and it'll indicate the very thing that we've been saying all along. Being holy is not just to be moral. Being holy does not just mean to keep the rules. Being holy means that you are wholly reoriented in your thinking, in your feeling, in your behavior. Mind, heart, and will.

Every one of them is totally reoriented. Look, first of all, you know, we spent time on, in verse 13, where it says, therefore, prepare your minds for action. Let's not talk about that. Let's talk about the next one, just to show you. It says, be self-controlled. Now, I'd say the translation is a little bit, leaves a little bit to be desired. That is a word that means be sober as opposed to be drunk. And it's really not trying to say, just stay out of substance abuse situations.

That's really not what Peter's meaning. I'm sure a holy person does have self-control in that sense, but he's talking about something different than that. And let me just briefly lay this out. It says, be sober-minded. And it means Christians' thinking is free. it's free from outside influences. It's free, it's not under the influence of foreign substances, which is what the word sober means.

To be sober-minded means a Christian is completely alert and is in touch with reality and is not under the influence of particular ideologies or even particular fantasies. Let me give you one way to characterize this and a new definition of the gospel. The gospel is extreme pessimism combined with an even more extreme optimism.

That's what the gospel is. You see, most people are either at the ends, they're either very pessimistic, the nihilists, you know, or they're very optimistic. And most of us know enough to realize that the pessimists and the optimists aren't really right, and so we find something in the middle. We can tell that the pessimists really,

what they say doesn't ring true to reality, and the optimist really doesn't ring true to reality, either. So we find someplace in the middle. Christians are not in the middle. Christians are not on the chart because Christianity is deeply pessimistic and tremendously optimistic at once. Some of you might remember us talking about this back in the summer, but let me show you how this ties into a holy life and into a sober-minded person. First of all, look at the worst pessimists we have. Christianity is far more pessimistic than they are. For example, one of the pessimists right now is a guy named Nathan Glazer, who's a Harvard sociologist, and what he's been saying a lot, he's been quoted, he was just quoted

in the New York Times opinion section today. He basically says there's no solution to our problems. We're never going to deal with drug addiction. We're never going to deal with homelessness. We're never going to deal with rising crime. He says, the more money we throw out it, the worse it gets. He says, some people are just a mess and we'll never going to be able to help them. And, you know, whenever he's quoted in an article, the reporter always has to back away and say, however, because, you know, if we live with that, I mean, that's the end of the article. You know, that's the end of the article. So we always say, well, you know, he's considered the pessimist.

The Bible is much more pessimistic than that. The Bible doesn't just say some people are messes and will never help them. The Bible says all of us are incorrigible sinners. We're all dysfunctional people. We're all wicked. We're all alienated from God and from our true selves and from our neighbors and from nature itself. The Bible is far more radically pessimistic than Nietzsche, far more radically pessimistic than Schopenhauer in the West, far more radically pessimistic than Buddhism in the East. Now look at the optimists.

And the optimists say, we can change things. We can turn it around. Ah, but look at Christianity. Christianity is so much more optimistic. in any philosophy or religion, what does Christianity say? It says, it is inevitable that God is coming and he will inevitably clear up suffering, clear up death, clear up war, clear up racism, clear up war and disease. It will wipe away every tear. Every bit of brokenness is going to be healed. There'll be a new heavens and a new earth. We're in dwell with righteousness. In that new heavens and

new earth, every blade of grass will be beautiful beyond bearing. The sun will be a thousand times more glorious and beautiful than it is now, and you and I will outshine it. And this is free. It's offered to us freely. All we have to do is receive it, faith and repentance plus nothing. And not only that, the power of that kingdom is here now. And it's already at work partially, and if we believe it comes into our lives and the lives of the people that we love in Christ's name. There's nothing more optimistic than that. Now, here's what I'm trying to do. Now, here's what I'm trying to say. Christians are sober-minded. You know what that means? They are not pessimists. They are not optimist and they are not halfway, which is where most people are. Oh no, absolutely not.

We're off the spectrum. We are deeply suspicious and deeply trusting. We trust people in a way that other folks will not do it. You know why? Not because we're naive, but because we're not scared to be let down. Because we have God underneath us. We're leaning on the everlasting arms. But we're deeply suspicious. We're like Jesus. The Bible, it said in John chapter 2 of Jesus, it says he never trusted anybody. The Bible says that about Jesus. Look at the end of chapter 2. He trusted no one. How could he trust no one? He loved people. He gave, he delegated to the apostles the biggest jerks and he delegated things to them. And yet it says he trusted nobody. So that's sober-mindedness. Of course he trusts because he's supposed to trust me. He said, it's a loving thing to trust people.

but we know better. We don't trust out of some kind of naive belief that people aren't sinners or this person isn't a sinner. We're deeply suspicious. We expect anything to go wrong at any time. The gospel tells us not to be surprised about the worst evil erupting out of anybody or any place.

And yet, we're completely trusting because we know that we've got somebody who will never let us down, Jesus himself. And therefore, we've got the power to trust other people. So, you see, we expect disaster, and yet we are utterly, utterly hopeful because we know the sky is the limit. The gospel is tremendous pessimism

and a little more optimism that overwhelms it. We are not polyanus, we are not doomsayers. We're sober. See, sober, not pessimists, not optimists. Both at once. Ready for anything. Not cynics, not naive. Not romantics.

Don't you see? being holy means that you have a completely different way of thinking wholly different on an entirely different basis mind then secondly there's the will

to be holy means you have a completely reoriented lifestyle of behavior and you know where you see that here look it says down in verse 17 since you call on a father who judges each man's work impartially live your lives as strangers here live your lives

the strangers here. Now this word strangers is great. It's a word, a very, very specific Greek word that means to be living permanently in a land while citizen of another land. It means to be living permanently in one country, though a citizen of another country. So it has a very specific meaning, and Peter knew exactly what he meant when he said it, and right in that one little word, we've got a wonderful explanation, a wonderful little compendium of what he said. what it means to be holy. Look, if you are living in a country that's foreign to you, you're not from it, you're not native to the country, you're a citizen of another country. Well, there's really two ways, there's really three ways that you could be there.

The one is to go as an immigrant. Now, an immigrant is somebody who's left one country, and you've moved to another country that's not your native country, but you want to become a citizen. You want to assimilate. You want to move in. You want to lose your old ties and take up your new ties. The other possible way to come is not as an immigrant, but as a tourist. A tourist is somebody who really watches this new country kind of just through a glass.

There's hardly any real contact. Tourists tend to go in bands, you know, so they can speak their own language and they can stay in their hotel together and eat in certain restaurants together. And they really, there's very little contact. They're tourists. The other way to go into a country is as an exile. And I know that that English word has a kind of forlorn sound to it, but that's really the best way to understand what the Bible means when it talks about how we're supposed to relate to this world. We're not immigrants and we're not tourists. We are citizens of the heavenly country living in this country. We're not immigrants, which means that we know that there's a huge difference between the principles and the

customs of this world and the principles and customs of our true country. And we live in this country with the values of our true country. Why is there so much pain and suffering in the world? And how do we handle it in a way that won't destroy us, but could actually make us stronger, wiser, and more hopeful? All month long on gospel and life, Tim Keller is teaching from the book of First Peter, and looking at how Peter encouraged early believers who were facing intense suffering in pain. In his book, Walking with God through Pain and Suffering, Dr. Keller takes a deeper look at how, with God's help, we can face life's most intense challenges and confront the hard questions on suffering. Through deep pastoral insight and real-life stories, Dr. Keller explores how we can

face pain and suffering in our own lives. This month, walking with God through pain and suffering is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel in Life share the message of Christ's love and compassion with people all over the world. So request your copy today at gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. So we're not immigrants.

We don't apply for citizenship here. We wouldn't want it. But on the other hand, we're not tourists. Oh, no. Remember what we said this morning? when God said, some of you do, some of you obviously don't, when God put the Israelites into Babylon in Jeremiah 29, what did he say? He says, build houses, plant gardens, have marry and have children, settle down,

pray for the peace of that place, identify with the health of that place and so on. If you're holy, a holy person's attitude toward this world is neither one of retreat, nor of assimilation. If it's either you're not holy. You're truly living in this world, loving this world, engaged in this world, ministering in this world, at the same time living on the basis of the customs and the laws of your true country. Now, if you want a perfect example of this, at least once a year I like to read this thing, but it just shows the way in which this word strangers orientes us to what

it means to live a holy lifestyle. You remember, there's a letter that we have from the early days of the Christian Church. It's not in the Bible. It's called the letter to Diagnitas. We don't even know who the author is. But it's very, very, very old. It's certainly the first or second century after Christ.

And it tells us something about Christians. And in it, the writer says this. Christians busy themselves on earth, but they're citizens. is in heaven. Let me stop for a minute with that line. Now remember, this is a very, very, very old account of how Christians used to live. Christians busy themselves on earth, see?

They're not tourists. But their citizenship is in heaven. They're not immigrants. And as soon as he points that out, because that's exactly what Peter says, you're strangers. Then he goes on and makes several distinctions that show how it affects our lifestyle. He says, for example, Christians busy themselves on earth, but their citizenship is in heaven. They marry and have children, but they don't kill unwanted babies. They're persecuted by all, yet they love everyone.

They share their table with everybody, but they don't share their bed with everybody. They are poor, and yet make many rich. They are short of everything, and yet have plenty of all things. Now, there's a wonderful paragraph. You see what happened? as soon as the author said, we're not citizens of this world. We're busy here, but we're not citizens.

He then makes a little list of how we're strangers here because we live on a different set of values. A holy person is living according to the values of our true country. What are some of them? Well, look. First of all, it says, though they share their table with all, they don't share their bed with all.

In our true country, we know that sex, is a mechanism, yeah it is, it's a mechanism for continually renewing an absolutely total permanent exclusive covenant commitment between two people. In our true country, we know what sex is for. Sex is an expression of and a renewal

apparatus for a complete total permanent exclusive commitment between a man and a woman. and therefore Christians understand that that's what sex was built for because that's the way we understand it in our true country. And so we don't have sex outside of a permanent binding, total exclusive covenant, which of course is marriage. We don't share our bed with all. We look like strangers here. We look like aliens here, of course.

But that's because we're living according to the laws of our true country. We understand what sex is there. These folks around us don't. Or look, number two, it says they share their table. with all. They're short of everything and you have to have plenty of all things. Simple living. The values of our true country are that God is our wealth. And because God is our wealth, Christians have a funny attitude toward possessions like we don't care that much about them anymore. We're short of everything. If you're a citizen of heaven, you're always short of everything.

Why? Because you're giving it away. Because you're so generous. You're radically generous. See, Christians have a completely different attitude toward money and material possessions. We share a table with all. We're short of everything, and yet we have everything we need. So a different attitude towards sex, because in our true country, there's a different set of values on sex. In our true country, there's a different set of values on money. Number three, we're persecuted, yet we love. Because in our true country, we really forgive.

in our true country we know people can change you know in this world that we live right now people think that forgiveness is for whims and people don't believe people really can change it always amazes me for example the media will not forgive chuck colson they won't forgive him he was a stinker when he worked for nixon and he admits he was a stinker and he's repented that he was a stinker he did terrible things and he ruined people's lives and he lied and he cheated and now he's a converted christian they won't forgive him. They won't let up, because they consider that wimpy. You know,

you can't let people like that pull the wool over your eyes. He goes to prison, he comes out, and I'm a born-again Christian. He expects us to forget. He expects us to think that he can change. He expects us to forgive. In our true country, we do that, because we find that ultimately forgiveness is the only way to go, is the only way to have a free life. And lastly, look, it says they don't kill unwanted babies. And that's something very interesting. In the, in the Roman world, a brand newborn infant who was a girl, usually girls were, a lot of families didn't want girl babies, or who was just economically inconvenient, the newborn infant was considered the woman's property and therefore could be thrown out, thrown into the river, left out to be

exposed. What's interesting about Christianity is women were considered the properties of the men. The poor and slaves were considered properties of the ruling class. Brand newborn infants were consider properties of the mother. And Christianity came against all of that because Christianity is actually a liberalizing influence in this sense. Christianity has continually, over the centuries, enlarged the circle of respected life, protected persons. Slaves didn't used to be persons, but now we see they are. They're not property anymore. Women used to be property, but now they're persons, you see. Newborn infants used to be property, but now Christians say they're persons. and see we're always cherishing life

and enlarging the boundaries of what is life. Now look, the Christian attitude towards sex utterly different. The Christian attitude toward money, utterly different. The Christian attitude toward relationships and forgiveness is utterly different.

The Christian attitude toward cherishing of life, very different. Life isn't cheap. What does it mean to live a holy life? It means to be a stranger in this world and to have your entire life oriented around the values of your true country, your true city, you are a citizen of no mean city, you're a citizen of the real city, and you live according to the politics of the kingdom of God.

Now lastly, we said not only, to be holy means that your mind is completely reoriented and your life is completely reoriented. But lastly, your heart is completely reoriented in this sense. it says set your hope fully on the grace to be given when Jesus Christ is revealed set your hope fully on the grace to be given when Jesus Christ is revealed and what I want to do at this point is is is a transmute you into the final question I said this is what a holy person looks like wholly devoted to God completely committed to him mind will and emotions every part of your life subject to to him. Now, how can you become holy? How can you become holy? The answer is, it all depends on your motives. Your motives. A lot of people say, I want to be holy, but I can't. I want to be holy, but I keep doing this. I want to be holy, but I keep doing this. That's silly. That's not true. Jonathan Edwards, in his great book, The Freedom of the Will, a very hard book to read, but one of the great arguments he makes in there is nobody has ever done something they didn't want to do.

One of the big arguments in that book is you have always at every spot in your life, whenever you've had a decision, you have always chosen to do the thing you most wanted. Well, said somebody, that's not true. Not at all. For example, two years ago, somebody took out a gun in the subway and said, give me your purse or I'll shoot you, and I gave in my purse. Well, now, there's a perfect example of why Jonathan Edwards is wrong, you said. I'm sure it didn't occur to you at the moment, but it does now. You say, I didn't want to give my purse. There was lots of money in my purse.

So he forced me to do something I didn't want to do. Oh, no, says John Edwards, you don't have it right. You had before you a choice. You could live or you could lose your money. And you did what you most wanted to do. You wanted to live. Somebody says, well, you know, I wanted to be holy and I didn't want to have to lie,

but I knew that if I did, if I told the truth, I was going to be out $20,000. So I lied. But I didn't want to. Oh, yes, you did. You had before you. You could either do the right thing or you could lose $20,000, and you wanted not to lose $20,000 most more than you wanted not to do the wrong thing. Don't you see, you always do the thing you most want to do, and therefore, the only way to get holy is not to come up with a new regimen, not to come up with new disciplines, not to make New Year's resolutions.

is the only way to become holy. It's only one thing. It's mentioned a couple times right here in the passage. You've got to change your motor. Your motive. You know, the word motive and motor are the same word in English, basically. The motor is the part of the car

that gives the car any power and any drive. Your motive is what drives you at any given point. Your deepest motor, what you most want. The only way to change yourself into a holy person is to want to be holy, more than you want to be anything else. Well, somebody says, how do I do that? The Bible says it's simple but hard. You know what I mean? Simple but hard? It's not complicated, but it's hard. It's not easy. It's simple but very hard. And here's what it is. It says, put your hope fully on the grace. Or, if you want another place, down here at verse 18, for you know that it was not with perishable things like silver and gold that you were redeemed. from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ.

Now, listen, see that word for in verse 18? That's very important. Up to now, verses 13, 14, 15, 15, 16, 17 has been telling you how to live a holy life. I mean, what it means to be holy, you know. But now suddenly it says, because for, and here it is, here's your motive, for, you were redeemed. Now, the word redeemed is a very important word. It means to be ransomed. it means somebody has paid a tremendous price to get you out of a predicament. And so when it says you weren't redeemed with silver and gold, you're redeemed by the precious blood of Christ. This is what it's telling you to do. If you want to be holy, what do you tell yourself?

Do you say, I want to be holy because I'm embarrassed by these bad habits? I want to be holy because I want to know that I can lick these things and I can change if I want to. What do you say to yourself? Do you say, I want to be holy because there's somebody over there that I really admire and I want to be like her. I want to be like him. Do you say, I want to do it because I was always told that I can do anything if I put my mind to it, huh? You know, Rocky, I have the tiger. I can do it.

I can make it. If you tell yourself these things, I want to be holy. I want to be sober-minded. I want to be self-controlled. I want to be like Jesus. I want to laugh and cry quickly and become. courageous and be bold and yet be tender. I want this wonderful character we've been talking about for four weeks. What do you tell yourself? There's only one way to get there. The Bible says

you go to the cross or put it this way. It's not with silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ. What is Peter doing? He's saying the only way to change your motives is to go to the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ and look at the ocean of love that's there and stand on the shores of that ocean and listen to the waves lapping on the shore until the sounds of those waves sink deep into your heart. What am I talking about? I hope you know this isn't just theology. It's not just rehearsing something. What Peter's doing is he's using emotional language. He's using motivational language. He says, you have got to think about the preciousness of what Jesus gave for you. Or put it another way, you will be as holy as you know what your sin cost Jesus.

You will be as holy as you are aware of what your sin cost Jesus. You stand there. You see the ocean of love. You let it lap on the shores at your feet and you think about it and you reflect on it. This wasn't silver. This wasn't gold. Look at what he did. Look what he did. Look what he did. this is the secret. You know, sometimes I think every one of my sermons comes down to this. Sometimes I think every chapter in the Bible comes down to this. It's simple, but it's hard. You will never be holy simply by disciplining yourself.

The discipline comes second. You get holy by changing your motor, by changing what you most want. And the only way to change what you most want is to go and look what he did for you. If that means nothing to you, you better cry out. You better say, Lord, God, by your Holy Spirit, make this real to me. Let the grace of God begin to teach me. Let the grace of God come to me.

Help me to put my hope fully on the grace of God. Now, this works out very, very practically every day. I mean, listen, when somebody criticizes you, do you react in anger? Or do you react in a holy way? Well, how do you react in a holy way like Jesus? Who, when he was reviled, reviled yet not again? How do you do that? Do you say, I'm going to be like Jesus? I'm going to be like Jesus. What do you say? Or do you say, wait a minute, where's my hope? Is my hope on my reputation? Or is my hope on the grace of God? What really saves me? What these people think of me or what Jesus has done for me? You stand at the foot of the cross. You listen to the waves of the ocean of his love until it sinks into your heart. You set your hope on it. Another way to put it is there's a place where Jesus Christ in John 17 says, Father, for their sake, I sanctify myself.

You know, the word sanctifies the word holy. And what he's saying is, what is he saying? I sanctify myself. Jesus was already holy. What do you mean he sanctifies himself? But don't you see what he means? To sanctify means to put yourself and make yourself completely committed to something totally. And what Jesus Christ says is, I have decided to ditch all other concerns.

and I am committing myself completely in all of my priorities and all of my use of my time and all of my energies and all of my energies to saving and making these people holy. I'm going to die if I have to and I have to. I'm going to be tortured, you see. What he's really trying to say is, you know, the son comes to the father and says they're going to be lost unless we do something. I will do it.

He sanctifies himself for you. He sets aside every other commitment, and he ditches all competing concerns, and he's living for you. That's what the Bible says. For their sakes, I sanctify myself. Now, that's another way to put it. That's just another way to put it. Take those words, for their sakes, and set them on your heart. And I don't care how hard your heart is.

I don't care how cold your heart is. It'll melt it if you let those words stay there long enough. For his sake, for their sakes, Jesus is doing everything for your sake. He is completely committed to you and to making you holy and happy, which is the same thing. He's ruling the heaven for you. He died for you. The Bible says he has sanctified himself for you.

If you think about that long enough, you'll be able to start to be sanctified for him. You will only be as holy as you know what your sin cost him. What does it take to do that? How many minutes a day do you think about that? How many minutes a day do you sit and look at that? And think about it until you feel it melting you into his likeness.

That's all there is to it. But listen, as hard as it may sing, I just said it's simple, but it's hard, but be of good cheer. Jesus Christ has sanctified himself. He's taking all of his lovely omnipotence, and he's completely committed to making you perfect. Do you believe in him? Have you received him? Then you can't miss, you know, because he has made you perfect, and he will make you perfect. John Bunyan, in his autobiography at one point, he says, now death and devil beware

beware what you do for I am in the king's highway the highway of holiness therefore take heed to yourself amazing John Bunyan says as long as I'm on my way of being holy he's got a kind of world defying laughter

he's God Jesus Christ is committed to my holiness he has died so I'll be holy he has put it he has ripped himself apart so I'll be holy I cannot fail to become holy the more I look at what he has done to make me holy and the more I see what he has done

to assure that I become holy, the faster I get there, the faster I actually become holy. I'm in the King's Highway. Are you in the King's Highway? John Bunyan says, I'm in the King's Highway. I've got nothing to fear. Are you there? Are you coming? Let's pray. Our Father, we ask that you would teach us how to live self-controlled lives, how to live sober lives, how to live lives as strangers here with our hearts fully set and our hope fully set on the grace of Jesus Christ, as we look at not the silver and the gold that was paid as our ransom, but as the precious blood of Christ.

And we ask that we might be made holy in the ways that we have been discussing over the past month. Father, make us holy even as you are holy. And we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to Tim Keller on the Gospel and Life podcast. If you'd like to see more people encourage, by the gospel-centered teaching and resources of this ministry, we invite you to consider becoming a Gospel and Life monthly partner. Your partnership allows us to reach people all over the world

with the life-giving power of Christ's love. To learn more, just visit gospelandlife.com slash partner. That website again is gospelandlife.com slash partner. 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, will Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.