It’s very common for people, even those who want to live the Christian life, to feel they have to check their brains at the door if they’re going to believe.

Often, we hear this basic approach to the Bible: the gospels were written down after years of legends, so we don’t really know how much of them are true. But let me give you a case that the Jesus the Bible shows you is historically reliable.

Here is the case in three stages: 1) if you look at what the gospels claim, you’ll see they’re not written as legends or fiction; they’re either historical accounts or a deliberate hoax, 2) we now know now that all of the gospels were written within the lifetime of eyewitnesses, and 3) the same rules of historiography that are used on other documents of antiquity show the gospels to be trustworthy.

This talk was given by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on December 4, 1994. Series: Redeemer Open Forums.

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We live in a culture of choice. In our individualistic culture, our place and our parents and our social location don’t determine everything that we can do. We have some choices. Choices! What does that mean?

That means we’ve never needed wisdom more than we do now, because wisdom is the ability to make wise choices.

Proverbs 4 shows us that if we want to lead a life of wisdom, our lives will be characterized by three things: 1) a glorious fight, 2) a guarded heart, and 3) a living word.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 22, 2013. Series: Wisdom in Life. Scripture: Proverbs 4:5-9, 14-27.

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We live in a culture in which there are more choices than there ever have been. But you can be incredibly good, moral, and knowledgeable and still make pretty stupid choices.

Wisdom is knowing the right thing to do in the 80 percent of choices that the moral rules don’t directly apply to. What you need in order to make good choices is wisdom.

In Proverbs 3 we learn 1) where wisdom develops, 2) the vehicles through which wisdom develops, and 3) the catalyst that sparks and fuels them all.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 15, 2013. Series: Wisdom in Life. Scripture: Proverbs 3:1-8, 11-12.

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There are choices everywhere, just zillions and zillions of choices. And if you don’t make good choices, it can be very destructive. Bad choices blow up on you. Every choice is like a fork in the road, and once you make it, you really can’t go back to where you were.

What does it take to make good choices? It takes wisdom. And the book of Proverbs is perhaps the most famous text in the world on wisdom.

If we look at Proverbs 1, we can see the basics: 1) what wisdom is, 2) why it’s important, 3) why it’s a problem, and 4) where you can find it.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on September 8, 2013. Series: Wisdom in Life. Scripture: Proverbs 1:1-9, 22, 32-33.

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The trouble with the Sermon on the Mount is it’s so familiar that almost nobody listens to it, almost nobody knows what it’s saying. How do we know that?

At the very end of the sermon, it says the crowds were amazed at Jesus’s teaching. And that word, “amazed,” in Greek meant thunderstruck, shocked, astounded. That’s the prevailing way people responded. Have you been thunderstruck? Are you shocked by it? If you’re not astounded, you haven’t listened to it.

So let’s listen to it. There are basically three great things Jesus says that are utterly astounding: 1) that there are two ways, two options spiritually, 2) that at the end of those two ways, there’s a judge, and 3) that at the end of that judgment, there’s a sentence.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 23, 1999. Series: The Mount; Life in the Kingdom. Scripture: Matthew 7:15-29.

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There’s no one section where Jesus lays out how a relationship with him radically changes our human relationships and forms a new, deep, radical human community in Christ. It’s not in one place — it’s all throughout the Sermon on the Mount.

The Sermon on the Mount is really a description of a new kind of community. What does Jesus teach us about this radical new community that is formed by his gospel message? When it comes into your life, how does it create this new community between those who believe in Jesus?

Jesus teaches us four things: 1) the necessity of this new community, 2) the intensity of this new community, 3) the symmetry of this new community, and 4) the causality of this new community.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 16, 1999. Series: The Mount; Life in the Kingdom. Scripture: Matthew 5:21-24, 45-48; 7:1-6.

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When people say, “I’ve tried prayer, and it didn’t work,” what Jesus is saying is, “You used prayer, not the way I designed it, but with a false model of spirituality.”

For Jesus, the importance of prayer is revealed in a little unobtrusive word at the beginning of this passage in the Sermon on the Mount: the little word “and.” Right before Jesus talks about prayer, he talks about our engagement with the poor and the needs of the world. Then he says, “And when you pray …” Because in Jesus’ understanding, it’s the people who are characterized by the most radical interiority who have the most courageous, visionary engagement with the needs of the world. And before Jesus gives us a model of prayer, the famous Lord’s Prayer, he tells us two other models of prayer that we should avoid.

Let’s look at 1) the two false models, 2) the true model, and 3) a few practical ideas on how to go about it.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 9, 1999. Series: The Mount; Life in the Kingdom. Scripture: Matthew 6:5-13.

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If we actually take the gospel, the essential message of Jesus Christ, and we live it out, what will it look like? That’s what the Sermon on the Mount is about.

And in this part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, we get to the area of money and possessions.

Jesus tells us three things we can draw out here: 1) how money exercises power over us, 2) why money exercises power over us, and 3) how we can break the power.

This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on May 2, 1999. Series: The Mount; Life in the Kingdom. Scripture: Matthew 6:19-34.

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.