Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - The Judgment on Sin

Episode Date: October 20, 2025

When people see the evidence of great evils and atrocities, they automatically turn into philosophers. They start to ask the metaphysical questions. How could this have happened? Why doesn’t God do something about evil, about the wickedness and violence that’s here? Why doesn’t God do something about the brokenness of the world? Exodus 17 tells us that God has. This passage tells us about a trial that happened years ago, and it was the most remarkable trial in the history of the world. Look at it carefully: 1) there’s a lawsuit, 2) then there’s a trial, and 3) then there’s an execution. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on April 9, 1995. Series: The Seven Deadly Sins. Scripture: Exodus 17:1-7. 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. You don't have to look far to see that something's deeply wrong with our world and with us. But is there an answer that gets to the root of why? In today's message, Tim Keller explores the human condition through stories in the Bible, uncovering what scripture says about sin and why it's the only explanation deep enough to face the truth about ourselves. The teaching is based today, is printed in your bullet, and it's Exodus 17, verses 1 to 7. An incident during the time that the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness, and we read, The whole Israelite community set out from the desert of sin, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded.

They camped at Reffodim, but there was no one. water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, give us water to drink. Moses replied, why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test? But the people were thirsty for water there. And they grumbled against Moses. They said, why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst? Then Moses cried out to the Lord, what am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me. The Lord answered Moses, on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go, I will stand there before you by the rock at

Horib. Strike the rock and the water will come out of it for the people to drink. So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel and he called the place Masa and Maraba because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the Lord saying, is the Lord among us or not? This is God, God's word. You know, April and May this year marked the 50th anniversary of the liberation of the death camps in Germany just before the end of World War II. And the U.S. News and World Report last week, or this week, had a large cover story consisting largely of the reports of eyewitnesses, the GIs, American GIs, who still are alive, the reports

of those eyewitnesses when they liberated those eyewitnesses, when they liberated those witnesses, camps. And I thought I knew a lot about the subject, but reading that was just devastating. Here are these guys, GIs, that they were battle-hardened. They'd fought their way across Europe. And yet when they saw what they saw, they vomited. And they took pictures saying, nobody will believe this. That's one of the reasons why we've got, the evidence we've got. And the witnesses ask, and the writers ask, and anybody who gets anywhere near that subject, you ought to automatically become a philosopher. You start to ask metaphysical questions. It's not an academic exercise. You have to. You have to ask this question. It comes up. How could this have

happen? But then, once you realize it has, you have to ask yourself the question, what does this say about the human race that we could do this? How could human beings do this? What does it tell us about the human race that we could do this? And there's only two answers to that question. that question hits you right between the eyes every time you read that the question's all through the article it's not there by the writers it's there because of the witnesses they kept saying to themselves what does this tell us about the human race we had no idea that anybody was capable of this now we see they are what does this tell us and there's only two answers to that question the first answer which is the normal answer but which is an absolutely wrong and deadly and

dangerous answer, is to say, I'm not capable of that. Most people are not capable of that. Some of them were. Now, who's the them? As soon as you decide that there's a group of people who are capable of it, you know what's going on? That's the way most of us have dealt with it. Both historically, both intellectually and even personally, we say, well, most people aren't capable of that, just a certain number of people. But who? As soon as you say, well, those countries were of that, you're into a terrible form of racism, are you not? But even if you say a certain number of people, you immediately begin to treat them as subhuman. People that could do that. They're not like me. People that could do that. And to defend your own view of yourself, you have to demote

a certain number of people down into a subhuman status, and that is exactly what caused the problem to start with. As soon as you say this group of people, they're not like us, they're not human, They're not at the same level. As soon as you do that, you know what goes on? One of the most intriguing things about that article was the GIs now, 50 years later, are admitting that when they got to the death camps and they saw what had happened,

they immediately said, anybody who did this is subhuman. And when they saw the guards surrendering, in many cases, they just killed them. They just bludgeoned them to death. They just wiped them out. Wrong, illegal? They did it. Why? Because, you see, the first answer to the question, how could anybody do this, is to say, there's a certain number of subhuman people that can do it, not me, and then you immediately start to treat them as animals. But that's what caused the issue to start with. That's what started it all? Then the only other alternative is what? If you don't do that, which is essentially to keep the process going, right? As soon as you can say these people are,

subhuman, then you can treat them in that way. No trial, just wipe them out. And of course, if you do that, then somebody's going to do that to somebody else who's going to do that, somebody on it goes. The only other alternative is to say, we're all capable. We're all capable. There's something about the human heart, and that's what we've been looking at all during Lent, all during these last two months. There's something about the human heart. There's seeds in the human heart that should they come forth, the seeds of that are in us. Those are the only two answers. and the second one has to be the right one. And the second one is the one the Bible says.

The Bible says, as we've been, several times we've referred to this, Dorothy Sayer says, to Christian writer, she says, sin is a deep interior dislocation of the soul. You know, when a bone is dislocated, it's not on its proper center. And as a result, there's great pain and damage. But she says, and the Bible says, the human heart is deeply dislocated spiritually. It's not centered on God, and because it's not centered on God, all kinds of things can grow. There's all kinds of pain and damage.

There's pride. There's selfishness. There's denial. There's anger. Envy. We've been looking at it for two months. And those seeds under the right circumstances are so deep and so evil that the human heart is capable of this under the right circumstances.

But the way in which people have tried to deal with this and not answered either. I mean, a lot of people realize, unless you say, were all that evil. You have to say some people are subhuman, and there's a lot of people that don't want either, and you know what they've been doing? Right in the 50s and the 60s, what's so intriguing is many of the people who had suffered started writing books like after Auschwitz, and they began to say, God is to blame. People see, in other words, people don't want to say, well, this race is subhuman. So what they say is God's to blame. Why didn't he do something?

God's to blame. Why didn't he stop it? And so many of the people who suffered, who were amongst the folks who suffered, started writing books like after Auschwitz. But what's interesting is the Germans themselves, the people who participated in this, they had a deal with things. And in the 50s and 60s, a play came up out of Germany by Gunter Rutenborn called The Sign of Jonah. And in that play, a lot of... of Germans who were part of the problem, part of all this violence, are brought out and they're asked, they're accused. Why did you do it? And you know what they always say? They say, I was just

taking orders. It's the next level up. That's the ones to blame. So then they bring the next level up. And what's the next level say? This is a play now. What's the next level say? They say, well, I was just taking orders too. It's the next level up. So then they bring in the next level. And what do they say? I was just taking orders and suddenly it starts to hit them. That's right. It's one at the top. We're not to blame.

It's God to blame. God is the one who is created. Why didn't God stop it? Why didn't God do something? How can you believe in a God who would allow such evil and suffering in the world? And what's so interesting is both sides of the Holocaust have produced literature that said God's really to blame. God's the one. the evil of this world is so terrible, who's going to be blamed? God. Why didn't God do something?

Why doesn't God do something about the evil and suffering in the world? The passage I just read you, this is the last time we're looking at this subject of sin. We've been looking at it for two months. Why doesn't God do something about evil? Why doesn't God do something about the wickedness, the violence that's here? Why doesn't God do something about the brokenness of the world? This passage tells us, God has. And it tells us about a trial that happened years ago, and it was the most remarkable trial in the history of the world. I look at it carefully.

There's a trial. First, there's a lawsuit, then there's a trial, and then there's an execution. Now, look with me. First of all, it says, the whole Israelite community set out from the desert of Shinn, traveling from place to place as the Lord commanded. They camped at Refidim, but there was no way. water for the people to drink. So they quarreled with Moses and said, give us water to drink. Moses said, why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the Lord to the test? Then Moses cried out

to the Lord, what am I to do with these people? They're ready to stone me. Now, here's what's going on. You see this word quarrel? The Jews were following Moses through the desert, and they'd come to a place where there was no water. Now, this is kind of a metaphor for life, isn't it? They were trying to be good, they were following God, they'd sworn allegiance, they'd come to a place where it looked like they were going to die. Some of them had probably already had died. They didn't see any way out. And this is a metaphor for life. You try to be good, you try to be moral, you try to be religious, you try to be decent, and you come to a dead end. You get annihilated. At least your hopes and dreams get annihilated, and maybe your very lives get annihilated. And so the question will

come up. How could God do this? Well, trouble is, God's not around to put your hands on. So, you look to his representative, see? They start quarreling. Now, the word quarrel is a two-week, a translation. The Hebrew word that's translated quarrel here into English is a word that means a charge or a lawsuit. And they're charging Moses with treason because they want to stone him. They're saying, you've betrayed us. Treason. You've brought us here. We're all going to die. We're all going to be jackal food. Well, we're going to start with you. We'll make you the appetizer. In other words, they said, you're going to, you've killed us through your criminal incompetence and your stupidity. Moses, however, knows that what they're doing is not just after him. They're after God. See?

Moses said, why do you quarrel with me? You're putting the Lord to the test. And that's the way it goes. Because, you see, many of you may be in this situation, too. You may be very angry at a Moses in your life, but actually you're just mad at how your life is gone. And behind all of your quarreling with Moses, you've got to quarrel with God. I don't like the way my life is gone. Why has God let my life go this way? Why has things gone so poorly in my life? How could God allow this?

And so, there's a lawsuit against God in our hearts. So there's a charge going on. There's a charge. Now, what's God's response to it? The response is a trial. You say, where's a trial? Well, look, the Lord answered Moses. Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go. Now, if you look carefully, and I'm going to make you do it, you'll see something very interesting. He says, take with you some of the elders and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile. Now, the staff of Moses was not just a walking stick. The staff was the rod of God. It's the rod through which God punished Egypt. When Moses struck the Nile with it, it turned to

blood. And Moses continually used the rod as God's way of putting plagues on Egypt. Now, what was this all about? A rod was the sign of civil authority. In the ancient world, the rod was that which you punished the offender. You beat the offender. That was the way it was done. And the one who had the rod would have been, was the governor or the king, the ruler, the one with a civil authority. And in Roman times, by the way, and this is so intriguing considering how we're setting this up here today, in Roman times, Roman governors would carry

a bundles of rods rods bunched together to show their absolute authority and their power and you know what those bundles were called in Latin? Fascis from which we get our word

fascist. This rod was not just Moses' staff, this was the rod of God's authority. This was the rod of judgment. This was the rod through which God made execution. Everywhere we look,

we see brokenness, wars, cruelty, and heartings. We feel it in the world around us and in our own lives. How did it get this way and what can be done about it? In his brand new book that's releasing this month, What is Wrong with the World? Tim Keller offers a clear and compassionate answer. Drawing from a series of teachings given at Redeemer,

Dr. Keller shows how the reality of sin explains the pain we see all around us and how only the gospel offers lasting freedom and healing. Whether you're overwhelmed by the state of our world, struggling with your own mistakes or choices or looking for hope and joy, What is Wrong with the World will help you see how the gospel speaks to both the heartache of our world and the pain within each of us. This newly released book, What is Wrong with the World, is our thanks for your gift this month to help Gospel in Life share the good news of Jesus.

Request your copy today at gospelandlife.com slash give. That's gospelonlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the rest of today's teaching. There's going to be an execution. There's going to be a trial also because the elders go to. And if you know much about the Old Testament, you know that what God would constantly do when someone was an offender, they would have to appear before the elders and before the rod. That's how they were tried.

And if they were found guilty, there was punishment. So there's going to be a trial. But who? Well, here's the weird thing. It's not Moses, even though Moses' life is at stake. Moses is the one who's being charged. Moses is the one whose life is at stake, but Moses has the rod. So he's not the one who will be standing in the dock.

He will not be in the defendant's spot. So it's not Moses. Well, who will it be? Could it be the children of Israel? Well, you see, somebody says, well, why? They hadn't done anything wrong. Oh, yes, they had. Oh, my, they had.

the children of Israel owed everything to God and Moses. God came in. Moses came in through God's mighty acts and through Moses bravery. They had been let out of Egypt through mighty acts of God. They owed everything to God. And now here they are saying, I don't like the way God is running our lives. We want the rule back. We want to overthrow God. We don't like the way he's doing things. They should be saying, why has God been so good to us? But instead, they're saying, what have you done for me lately? And they're saying, we don't like the way you're running our lives. And so they actually are guilty of the treason that they charge Moses with. They ought to be in the dock. They ought to be on trial. But that's not who's on trial.

Who's on trial? Look. In verse six, I says God, will stand before you by the rock at Horib. Now listen, dear friends, every place in the Bible, especially in ancient times, who stands before who is very important. The one who stands before is always the one in the place of servanthood. The servant stands before the master, the weak stands before the powerful, the condemned stands before the judge. Nowhere else in all of the Bible do you have God standing before anybody. People stand before him. Nope, he never stands before anybody. could he possibly stand before?

That's why he says, walk before me. That's why in the Old Testament, when someone was brought forth to judgment, they were told to stand before the Lord and the elders of Israel. But in an absolute astonishing statement, God says, I will stand before you. You have the rod. What is God doing? And then he says, I'll stand before you by the rock. Now, you know, the Hebrew preposition says at the rock or over the rock. And the translators that we use, the new international version, that's the English translation we use here,

is almost afraid to say what it actually says. God says, I will stand before you at the rock, over the rock, on the rock. They say by the rock, same thing. I will stand before you are the rock, bring the rod of God up. and strike the rock. The execution. God gets into the dock. God gets into the place of weakness.

God gets into the place of condemnation. Listen, Moses was not really able with a physical stick to hurt God, but can you imagine how astonished he must have been? You know why? Every time God's presence is ever, ever manifest, you show the utmost respect. Remember when Moses got near God at the burning bush? What does God say?

Take off your shoes. You're on holy ground. Whenever the presence of God is around, you treat it with the utmost respect. But here's God saying, I will stand before you upon the rock, at the rock. Hit it. Hit the rock.

Bring down the rod of God upon me. Moses must have been more astonished than he ever was before or after in his entire life. And he would say, How could this be? But we know how it could be, because in 1 Corinthians 10, Paul says, our forefathers passed through the Red Sea, and they ate of the same spiritual food, and they drank of the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the rock, and the rock was Christ. Here is what's going on.

Moses was condemned. He's on trial for his life. God gets into Moses' place. The people should be condemned. They are guilty of treason. God stands in their place. God on the rock. God in the dock.

The dock. He's the defendant. He comes in. God on the rock. God on the dock. And he's executed. Now you see, friends, it didn't happen that day. No, it didn't.

It was a foreshadowing. But a day came in which someone on the cross, which was the rock. looks up to heaven and says, my God, my God, the same rod that spilled the Nile's blood is now spilling my blood. The same rod that turned the Nile all the blood is turning me all the blood. Why? Because we put God in the dock, we should go into the dock, but God actually gets into the dock and takes our punishment for us. One of the most astonishing things about the play, sign of Jonah. At the end, remember how I said? The way

They deal with it is they say it's God's problem. God's to blame. God's the one. Now, that's just stupid. Don't you see, we don't want to look in our own lives. We don't want to look in our own heart. We don't want to say the evil of this world and the suffering of the death camps. It's our fault. We don't want to do that. So what we do is we try to put God in the dock. We should be put in the dock for putting God in the dock, but God goes in himself and takes the blow that we deserve. serve. What's so fascinating is in the sign of Jonah, in the play, at the end, they say, you're right. God's to blame. It's not us. And they say, let us sentence him to death. And you know what they say? This is what they say. I say, let him become a human being. Let him become a homeless person. Let him become a wander on the earth. Let him lose a son. let him die and when he dies let him be ridiculed and disgraced wait a minute wait a minute he did he has oh lord god why don't you do something about the suffering of this world god has done what no other religion even claims a god to have done there's not another

another religion anywhere that even claims that their God has done this. The Bible says, our God has done something about suffering and evil. He came to the bottom of it. He dove in. He plunged in. You know that incredible Christian poem that says, other gods did ride, but thou, old Jesus Christ, did stumble to a throne to our wounds.

Only thy wounds can speak. the only God the only God who did something about suffering and evil came took it in and took the punishment

we deserve for the evil of the world he did it he did the very thing that we in our self-pity and arrogance demanded of God God actually comes as I can save you by doing the very thing that you call me to do but your calling is a wicked thing it deserves

judgment but I'll take the judgment myself. If you read the eyewitness accounts of those GIs, the one thing that, the reason that they shot, they just started shooting and clubbing the guards. You know why? Because they knew in their heart of hearts that the only way to deal with this incredible evil was judgment.

They had a need to see judgment. This was a wound that could only be dealt with through judgment. The evil of the world, the sinfulness of the world can only be done through judgment. But by subhumanizing, by dehumanizing the guards, they were keeping from themselves the fact that we all deserve to be judged. God has dealt with the suffering and evil of this world through judgment. He came and took the judgment himself. And do you see what that means?

If you are humble yourself and say, Lord, I deserve to be struck, but you were struck for me. Then on the last day, God can deal, he can wipe out evil without wiping out you. God could always have brought down the rod on evil, but then he wipes us all out. If you believe in him, he can wipe out evil, and he will on the last day without wiping out you.

Do you hear him? Now, here's the last thing to say. The water comes from the stricken rock. The water comes from the stricken rock. And you know what that means? If you look at Jesus Christ struck for you, God on the rock, God in the dock, if you see him struck for you,

if you see him being turned all the blood by the rod of God, water comes. It enables you to deal with your wilderness. It enables you to deal with your desert. You notice, God does not take the Israelites out of the desert. He gives them a provision in the desert. And until he comes back, we are not taken out of the suffering of this world, but we're given a provision in it.

What is it? The sight of the rock that struck. Friends, if you see the rock struck, that will enable you to face the wilderness of life. You say, how? Well, like this. When you see the rock struck, now you know that he's right. righteous. He is so righteous. He is such a judge that he has to come and get struck himself if he's going to forgive us. You know what that means? You don't have to look at the evil of world

and be galled. You don't have to be a vigilante. You don't have to be bitter because you're going to say everything will be paid for. A person either asks for mercy through God and God pays for it or in pride refuses to ask for mercy and they'll pay for it, but everything will be paid for. You don't have to be bitter. You don't have to ever have revenge. You don't have to look at the New York Times in the morning and say, look at all the injustice and get depressed. Water from the rock, when you see God stricken, you will know you'll have a peace that God is going to put everything right.

But that's not all. The other great thing, water from the rock, when you see God stricken, that means that we are no longer passive or fatalistic toward the problems of this world. You know why? Christians are the one group of people in the world that have a God who was so angry at the brokenness of life he entered into it. So angry at suffering that he entered into it, Christians have a fighting religion. We say, God doesn't like hunger. God doesn't like evil. God doesn't like injustice. I'm going to fight against it, and I'm in the spirit of my father. I'm in the spirit of my brother,

Jesus Christ. Don't you see? What's so weird is you can either decide, oh, well, let's be passive. You get peace without energy. or you can say it's awful out there you get energy without peace but if you see the stricken rock if you see god judged if you see jesus stricken on the one hand you get a calmness because it's all going to be taken care of god's going to judge it all but you also get a feistiness and energy you say look at that jesus christ suffered he entered into suffering to do something about it so will i You know what? If you even refuse to sit down and listen to somebody's troubles, because you know, oh my gosh, I don't want to get involved. Oh my, next thing you know, they'll be calling me. I don't want to get involved. I'm a busy person. You haven't seen Jesus on the rock.

He entered into suffering. Of course it cost him something. It'll cost you something if you follow him. It won't cost you anything like what it cost him. But you see, water from the rock. If you see Jesus stricken for you, there'll be peace when you look at injustice, but there'll be peace when you look at injustice, but they'll be lost you. There'll be a feciness and an energy when you look at suffering. And not only that, you'll know that he loved you so much that he would do this for you. There'll be a joy in your heart. You'll say, you know what, no matter what I've done, he won't bring the rod down on me. He brought the rod down on himself. He must love me, incredibly to do this for me.

Water from the rock. You can face anything if you draw from it. You can face any wilderness. Do you see it? And if there's anybody here who says, you know, I'd be a Christian, but God's got to to explain what's wrong in the world. I'd be a Christian, somebody once said to me, if he could tell me why he gave me the father he gave me. I could be a Christian. If he could explain to me why he allowed the terrible things to happen in that country back in that year, I could be a Christian

if God would explain these things, you've got God in the dock. Don't you see, God gives you something far greater than explanations? He gives you his son. He gives you his own back. He gives you his own blood. Say to him, Oh, Lord, you were struck for me. So I will build myself on your rock. I'll base my life on you because of what you did for me. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you'll help us to see. You'll help us to see. Jesus struck for us. God on the rock, God in the dock. The rod come down. Turning our son, your son, Jesus Christ. our brother all to blood, and help us to draw on that and to receive the kind of water that comes from that. So we'll have a peace and an energy and a joy that will enable us to live joyfully

in this wilderness until the day in which you bring us into your promised land, the land of milk and honey. We look to that day. We thank you that the rock that follows us is Christ. Help us to drink from it. In Jesus' name, we ask it. Amen. Thanks for joining us here on the Gospel and Life podcast. We hope that today's teaching encouraged you to go deeper into God's Word. You can help others discover this podcast by rating and reviewing it. And to find more great gospel-centered content by Tim Keller, visit gospelandlife.com. Today's sermon was recorded in 1995.

The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 will Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.