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Living Grace
October 21, 2026 · 47 min
Long before Marx, Nietzsche, and Foucault rightly noticed that normally people follow moral virtue out of fear, pride, and a desire for power, the apostle Paul said it’s extremely possible to live a completely ethical life without any love at the root of it.
We’re looking at the traits that show not just moral restraint but a supernatural change. And in Galatians 5 and 1 Corinthians 13, we see a list of a wide spectrum of traits that are in a supernaturally changed heart.
Let’s look at 1) how to know them, understand them, and recognize them, and 2) how to grow them.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 17, 2002. Series: Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character. Scripture: Galatians 5:16-25.
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.
Series Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life October 21, 2026 · 47 min · Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life
Long before Marx, Nietzsche, and Foucault rightly noticed that normally people follow moral virtue out of fear, pride, and a desire for power, the apostle Paul said it’s extremely possible to live a completely ethical life without any love at the root of it. We’re looking at the traits that show not just moral restraint but a supernatural change. And in Galatians 5 and 1 Corinthians 13, we see a list of a wide spectrum of traits that are in a supernaturally changed heart. Let’s look at 1) how to know them, understand them, and recognize them, and 2) how to grow them. This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 17, 2002. Series: Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character. Scripture: Galatians 5:16-25. 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. ...more Show the full description Show less Long before Marx, Nietzsche, and Foucault rightly noticed that normally people follow moral virtue out of fear, pride, and a desire for power, the apostle Paul said it’s extremely possible to live a completely ethical life without any love at the root of it.
We’re looking at the traits that show not just moral restraint but a supernatural change. And in Galatians 5 and 1 Corinthians 13, we see a list of a wide spectrum of traits that are in a supernaturally changed heart.
Let’s look at 1) how to know them, understand them, and recognize them, and 2) how to grow them.
This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on March 17, 2002. Series: Practical Grace; How the Gospel Transforms Character. Scripture: Galatians 5:16-25.
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.
Series Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life
The Fruit of the Spirit 0:03 Welcome to Gospel in Life. What does true Christian character look like, and how is it formed? We often assume that becoming more disciplined, generous, or patient is simply a matter of trying harder. But0:15 even our best efforts can be driven by pride or a desire for approval. Today, Tim Keller explains how true Christian character only grows out of our acceptance of God's grace and how we live differently when0:27 the truth of the gospel transforms us from within.0:37 Scripture reading is found in your bulletin on page nine. I'll be reading Galatians five verses sixteen through twenty five. So I say live by the spirit0:49 and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the spirit and the spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.1:01 They are in conflict with each other so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the spirit, you are not under law. The acts of the sinful nature1:13 are obvious. Sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery, idolatry and witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of1:25 rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, and envy, drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you as I did before that those who live like this1:37 will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
1:48 faithfulness, gentleness, and self control. Against such things, there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its
2:00 passions and desires. Since we live by the spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit. Love always trusts, always hopes. This is the word of the Lord.
2:15 Now we're in a series in which we're looking at the traits or the marks of a supernaturally changed heart, and how it's different from just a morally restrained heart.
2:28 Long before Marx, Nietzsche, Foucault rightly noticed that normally people follow moral virtue and moral behavior out of
2:40 fear, pride, and a desire for power over others, Long before they said that, Paul, first Corinthians thirteen, said it is extremely possible to live a completely ethical
2:51 life without any love at the root of it but rather fear, pride, and power. Without a heart that's been changed through an experience of the grace and love of God. And what we're
3:03 doing is we're taking a look at the traits of of a life that's not just morally restrained externally, but supernaturally changed from the inside. This passage is not like the other passages because every
3:15 other every other week what we've been doing is looking at one trait each time. This passage of course in some ways is the most famous of all, perhaps along with first Corinthians thirteen And it lists all of them, it
3:27 lists, well not all of them, but it lists a note a very very wide spectrum of these traits in verse twenty two. And I'll paraphrase a little bit for you. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace,
3:38 patience, kindness, integrity, courage, humility, self control. Instead of focusing on one trait, this well known passage
3:50 from Saint Paul shows us how to know and grow all of the fruit of the Spirit. How to know them, that means how to evaluate them, understand them, recognize them in our lives, how to know them, how to grow them.
4:02 Okay. First, what does this passage teach us about how to know them, how to understand them, recognize them? The first thing we learn about the spiritual fruit, supernaturally produce spiritual fruit and
4:14 character, is that it shows up ex... Internally, it shows up internally. Verse twenty three says, now these love, joy, peace, patience, against these, against such
4:26 things there is no law. Against such things there is no law. What does that mean? Well imagine a law against joylessness
4:38 or a law against anxiety, peacelessness, imagine laws against things like that. They'd be useless. Law is a form of
4:50 moral constraint. It's it's essentially negative in its nature. Law can can, stop the results of a messed up heart, but it can't actually get in and
5:01 deal with the messed upness itself. So for example, a well enforced law can pretty much stop most murder, but it can't at all get into the anger. It can't
5:13 deal... Reach in and get to the anger, which is the root of murder. Law can get at theft and stealing, and and and pretty much get rid of it, but it can't get at the jealousy
5:25 and the envy that are at the root of it. A well enforced law can pretty much eliminate rape, but it can't deal with a disdain for women, which is at the root of it.
5:37 In other words against anger and joylessness and pride and selfishness and fear, all the root problems of our heart, law is useless. Well then
5:49 what will work? And the answer is, take a look at verse twenty three, what the answer is is the spirit. The spirit goes or the law can't go. The spirit deals with things that the law can't deal with, that's what it's
6:00 saying. The Spirit of God comes in, resides, it implants, and of course the Spirit can change the external. The Spirit will stop you from harming and will stop you from
6:12 lying. Both the Spirit and the law can deal with the external, but only the internal. Now what does this mean practically? The spirit shows up inside. Law as
6:24 a force for moral behavior will not touch that in inner place where laws can't go, where there are no laws. Now what does this mean practically? What it means is this, there's the British have a
6:36 saying, no man is a hero to his valet. Now what does that mean? Well my guess is imagine there's a valet club somewhere in the heart of London where
6:48 all the valets get together afterwards for a drink and they're sitting around and say, one valet says, you know I'm valet for you know so and so who's a great war hero and everyone just thinks the world, what a war hero,
6:59 what a man, you know. And another valet says, I'm the valet of a of a social activist who's who's loved and revered all over the world for the enormous social changes for good,
7:12 humane... You know he's changed, our society, it's a more just and equitable and humane society. And another guy says, well I'm the valet of of this great moral religious leader who wrote this great moral philosophy and
7:23 so on. But then they say, yeah but you know what, in private, you see all their words. They're impatient, they're irritable, they're selfish, they're
7:35 petty, they're anxious, they're jealous. But Paul says all this. Paul says in first Corinthians thirteen, we're gonna get back to that passage next week, to find... You know kind of come full
7:47 circle and and look at this whole subject as to wrap up the series. Paul says in first Corinthians one to three, first Corinthians thirteen verses one to three, you can you can teach
7:59 the Bible, you can give away all your money to the poor, you can die for your faith, but if it's a result of moral restraint, if it's coming from a heart that hasn't been changed
8:11 by divine love at the center, then in spite of all that great behavior on the external, verse four to seven says, you'll be irritable, impatient, selfish, self
8:22 seeking, petty, anxious. Why? Here's why. When you use law alone
8:35 to make a person moral, you do it at the expense of joy and peace. Think about how you raise a child to be a moral person. What do you do? In school you get them and you say, we don't
8:46 want you to do this and this and this. Why? Number one, you'll be caught by God, by this, by by the police or by me. Number two, okay. Number two, you don't want to get caught. Number
8:58 two, you don't want people to despise you. People will despise you if you do this thing. And number three, you will despise yourself. You will have no self respect. So how are we making these kids moral? We're making
9:10 these kids moral by nurturing joylessness and peacelessness and anxiety and insecurity. And what that means is the law as the law
9:22 establishes external moral behavior at the expense of inner peace and joy and that joylessness, put it this way, the fear and pride that you will nurture
9:34 in order to be moral through the law will show up in the place where only the valet can see, or your spouse, or your children, or your parents, or the people who know you, the people who see you when you think
9:46 nobody's looking but they know what you're really like. That's where you find out whether you're a morally restrained person or a supernaturally changed person, because only the spirit goes there. Only the spirit makes
9:57 you in your most private place and most private life, most private time, a person of equity and joy and calm and peace and and justice, and
10:08 love, and kindness, and patience. Let me put it this way, if you're not a hero to the people who know you the best, the people you live with, the people... If you're not a hero
10:20 to your valet or that kind of person, if you're not a hero to the people who know you the best, if you're not more of a hero to the people who know you intimately than you are to the people who know you out there, if
10:30 you're not more of a hero, if you're not a hero to your valet, you do not have the fruit of the spirit, if you had a valet. Got it? Because the spirit the
10:42 fruit of the spirit, unlike the fruit, you might say moral restraint, the fruit of the spirit are internal, private. They show up in the place where there is no law where the law can't go. That's the first thing. How are
10:53 you in there? Are you a hero to the people who know you the most? Or do they laugh about you over drinks? Secondly, we learn, that's a
How to Recognize the Fruit of the Spirit
11:05 scary question, I'm sorry. Okay, number two, the second thing we learn about the spiritual fruit is not just its internal and it shows up in the internal place, the inner place. Secondly, the spiritual fruit all come
11:16 together, they come all together. If they're not growing all together, they're not growing at all. If they're not growing all together, you're not getting any of them. Now where do I get
11:28 that from? Verse twenty two, very interesting is it not? There's a singular noun and a singular verb and then you have a plural predicate. So what we have here is the
11:40 ax, pardon me, it says the fruit of the spirit is. Doesn't say the fruits of the spirit are, it says the fruit of the spirit is. And my guess is that's deliberate,
11:52 because Paul's understanding is that these traits are not individual separable traits. They interpenetrate each other and they're interdependent on each other. Now that's one of the reasons why I put at the bottom of
12:02 your of your, the passage a little section out of first Corinthians thirteen, which we'll go to next week. But we all know first Corinthians thirteen ends by saying there's these three great,
12:14 things, faith, hope, and love. Okay. There they are, three different traits of a of a of a you know a gracious heart. Faith, hope, and love. But
12:26 look at this place, this is verse seven of chapter thirteen of first Corinthians. It says love trusts, love hopes. Now wait a minute, it
12:37 says there's faith, hope and love and yet it says that love has faith and love has hope. Say what is that? It's exactly what Paul's saying in verse twenty two and that's this, the fruit of the spirit are fruit not
12:49 fruits. They are basically all aspects of the same thing. They're... So the fruit of the spirit's organic and organisms grow from become more complex and they grow out of a single cell in most
13:01 cases. And therefore love, joy, peace, patience, they interpenetrate each other, they're interdependent on each other, they have to come together. You can't be patient with people or with life
13:13 unless you are incredibly humble, frankly. You can't be kind to people and and and and and stick with difficult people unless you have a lot of self control. You can't
13:25 have integrity and be the same in one place as another and always be honest and be the same with one crowd as another. You can't with as with another. You can't have integrity unless you have a tremendous amount of inner
13:35 peace. These things have to come together or they're they're not all growing together, they're not there at all. Now the reason I mention this as a practical way for you to recognize the fruit of the spirit and evaluate
13:46 it in your life is this, we don't think like that. We look at lists like this list and we say, well I got a couple of those that I'm pretty good at but there's a couple of them that are really really bad at.
13:58 Right? Wrong. I got a few of them, but there's others I really don't have much at all. Right? Wrong. They're all come... They either all have to grow together. Now, this is a little bit
14:10 of a generalization because, you know you can have lag, they don't have to grow completely symmetrically, but they're interrelated so they got to all be growing together or you don't have any of them. Let me show you
14:19 what I mean. It's very typical for people who are gentle and kind and diplomatic and so empathetic and so you know they're
14:31 so gentle with one with others and you know they're peacemaking. People like that very often they were so gentle and kind, they're not assertive, they're not bold, they're not courageous. They have gentleness and
14:42 patience but they don't seem to have that that what faithfulness is probably best translated as courage and tenacious. They're not very good at confronting. Then on the other hand you have people who are very bold and
14:52 assertive and they're that you know they're direct and they they step out, but they say, yeah but on the other hand I know, I know, I tend to be impatient, I tend to not think about how other people are feeling, I tend
15:00 to not be very... Tend to be on the harsh side, I know about that. So what are you saying? Well I've got a couple of this fruit but I don't have them. I have these but I don't have them. I have these but I don't have
15:08 them. Oh really? Now let's think. If your gentleness and your diplomacy was coming out of a heart just filled, so filled with God's love,
15:20 so filled... If your gentleness and diplomacy were coming out of a heart radically secure in God's love, you'd be bold. You could turn on a dime and
15:32 confront because you wouldn't be afraid of anything. Your gentleness and your diplomacy is not growing out of that kind of spiritual supernatural changed heart. It is
15:44 a temperamental sweetness, which a lot of people have and which is really good for most people in the world, but it in significant part it's cowardice. Let's come over
15:56 here, then some of you are very bold and you're very good at confronting and you speak out and you say, you know, but I'm not you know I'm a little weak on that, well wait a minute. If your boldness and your
16:06 directiveness, if it was growing out of a heart radically secure in an experience of love of God, an experience of love of God, you would be incredibly empathetic,
16:18 you'd be incredibly sweet. Your boldness is not a fruit of the spirit, it's a natural temperament of assertiveness which is good in many situations and good for many people and many and and for you very often,
16:29 but it's in significant part arrogance. If they're not both there, they can't either be there, at least not in their
16:41 supernatural version. Do you hear that? If both the gentleness and the kindness and the boldness, they're not both there, they're neither there. At least they're not both there. They have to they have to both be
16:53 there to be there in their supernatural versions, in their supernatural... Rootedness in the heart. And what that means, my friends, is that you are really only spiritually mature as your
17:05 weakest trait. You shouldn't be looking at the trait and say, oh okay here and here but I'm really bad there. Go to the weakest trait, that's the level of the Holy Spirit in your life, that's the level of the water.
17:17 Now, some of you are getting a little nervous and that's right. You know you know a good sermon has a narrative structure and in the beginning suddenly there's
17:29 peril and and the plot is thickening and you say oh my goodness the noose is tightening and how am I going to get out of this and later on a hero always shows up in the sermon to save you but it's not me.
17:41 That's how every good sermon is. But right now the plot is thickening. So let me let me help you a little bit. I... There's on the one hand, spiritual fruit show up internally where the law can't
17:52 go. The place where your valet, if you had one, could see. Secondly, spiritual fruit all come together. Unless they're all growing together, they're really... Your your your decency and your morality and your
18:04 your your character is not grounded in a supernaturally changed heart unless it's all coming together. And that's what those are very threatening standards, but here's the third thing I'd like to show you about what Paul
18:14 shows us about spiritual fruit. So first of all it's internal, secondly it all comes together, but thirdly it's gradual. It's gradual. It says the fruit of the spirit. Notice verse nineteen,
18:26 it says the acts of the sinful nature. An action happens. How long does an action take? An action, it's over. You know, it's you know, it might take a little while but it's over.
18:38 How long does fruit take? A long time. Fruit comes slowly. And here's what's interesting about this, Paul is trying to get... He's trying to calm you down a little
18:50 bit. I mean you know if you go out every day and you look at your tomato plants you say, they're not growing. Of course, they'll never look like they're growing. Every so... You have to get a stick out and measure them
19:02 occasionally and say, oh my gosh they are growing. You know your own growth is so growth is imperceptible to the naked eye. It can't really be seen, it can be measured. So every so often
19:14 God sort of puts a measuring stick down and something happens and you say, man I would never have responded like that a year ago. I never would have been able to do that two years ago. But very often, you don't feel like
19:23 you're growing, and Paul is letting you know that because this is fruit. This isn't the acts of the spirit, it's the fruit of the spirit. So even though I just scared you, I want you to relax a little bit, recognize it's
19:34 gradual and lastly it's internal, the fruit of the spirit is internal. Secondly it's... They all... It comes all together, but thirdly it's gradual and lastly it's hard won. Look at verse seventeen.
19:46 This is the most comforting thing I've learned this week in this sermon, for me anyway, hopefully for you. It says the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the spirit and the spirit what is contrary to the sinful
19:57 nature. There's a flesh and spirit war going on inside us, right? Now look at this, they are in conflict with each other so that you do not do what you want. You know why that is so you know why that's so
20:09 comforting? First of all, Paul doesn't say you never do what you want because that's kind of silly in a way. I mean obviously Christians sometimes do, he doesn't say never. But look at this, why would he say
20:21 you do not do what you want because of this conflict that's going on all the time? And what he must mean, at least he must mean this, a person who's really growing in the fruit of the spirit can routinely go through
20:33 seasons where you don't feel like you're you're doing it at all, doing the thing you wanna do at all. Where you're giving into the flesh, giving into the sinful nature. Ain't that amazing? You know, Paul Paul Paul
20:45 assumes that that you will fairly regularly be in a situation where you're saying, I'm not doing what I want. But here's what I really like about this verse. He's not just assuming that, he's also saying something
20:56 else. When you feel like, I'm not growing in love, I'm not growing in peace, I'm not growing in these things, these things aren't happening, I'm not doing any of the things I really want to
Crucifying the Sinful Nature
21:08 do. That's a sign that you belong to Jesus. Because you have two desire centers in your heart. The sinful nature is desiring things, verse seventeen says. The the, the,
21:20 this this the spiritual your spiritually regenerated nature also is desiring, but only one of them is you. See your spirit your sinful nature is desiring, but it's not you. It's not what you really want.
21:32 It's not what you really want. And the way you can see that you have been converted, one of the main ways you can see is that you identify so completely now with the spiritual desires that even though you find
21:44 yourself doing things you don't want to do, that's how you think about them. You say, here I'm doing something but it's not me. I hate it. It's not me. It's not who I wanna be. It's not who I wanna be. Your very
21:56 weakness is proof that there has been a massive shift in your identity. You're going to experience conflict, it is going to be gradual, but the fruit of the spirit will grow,
22:08 and you can see it will grow because that has happened to you. So the fruit of the spirit is internal and comes all together, It's gradual, and it's hard won. Now how do we grow it? How
22:20 do we actually develop it in our lives? How does it come? And again, there's four things that we learn here. My wife this morning on the way home, she says, you sly fox, you start off by saying there's two points, but
22:31 there's really eight. I said, well, you know, honey, when you're as, you know, as experienced as a preacher as me, you learn how to do these things. So I just... She said, eight points. Well, I said, alright, keep going.
22:45 There's four things, four ways to grow. Here's the first one, crucify the sinful nature. Let me tell you what these four things are quickly. Think
22:57 why you're acting, Rejoice in order to repent. Look at him when you long for something else
23:09 and community. Okay? Think why you act, why you act as you do. Rejoice in order to repent. Look at him when you're longing for something
23:21 else and community. Okay? Number one, it says in verse twenty four, crucify the sinful nature.
23:31 Many of us spend more time thinking about ourselves than we'd like to admit. Whether we're comparing ourselves to others or just trying to live up to our own expectations, it's easy to become preoccupied with what we've
23:43 done or accomplished. In his short book, The Freedom of Self Forgetfulness, Tim Keller shows how embracing the truth of the gospel makes it possible for us to let go of the constant need to evaluate ourselves
23:55 and points us to an identity that's secure because of Christ's work on the cross. This month, as thanks for your gift to help gospel and life spread the good news of the gospel with more people, we'll send you two
24:07 English copies of the freedom of self forgetfulness and one Spanish copy that you can share with a Spanish speaker in your life. Sharing this Spanish copy is part of our focus this month on gospel and life's translation
24:18 initiative as we launched the Global Reach Project, where with God's help and in partnership with the Keller family, we are translating five hundred of doctor Keller's sermons into thirty of the world's most spoken
24:30 languages. Through the Global Reach Project, millions more people around the world will be able to access the hope of the gospel shared through doctor Keller's teaching in their native language. To learn more, go to the
24:41 global reach project dot com. And to request your copies of the freedom of self forgetfulness, visit gospel in life dot com slash give. Again, that's gospel in life dot com slash give.
24:52 Now here's Doctor. Keller with the rest of today's teaching.
24:58 Now this is not the same as in Romans six:six, and in Galatians two twenty, where Paul says, when you become a Christian, you have been crucified. You have been crucified. That is
25:10 almost certainly talking about the fact that when I become a Christian, I'm identified with Jesus. So everything he's done, his death, his resurrection, everything I'm identified with. Meaning that the benefits, what
25:21 what he has done, he paid for sin, but now it's accrues to me. I am as accepted, I'm as pardoned as if I had paid
25:33 for all my sins on the cross, see. And so when he when when Paul says you have been crucified, so that's interesting language, he's talking about an objective once for all thing that happened when I became a Christian.
25:45 This is different. This is not you have been crucified. This is, it says, Christians crucify the flesh. Now it's it's past tense, but that's because this, your sinful nature is
25:57 unfortunately, I wish it, is not electrocuted, it's not hung, it's not shot, it's not stabbed, it's crucified. And we all know that crucifixion is a slow death. So it means you've nailed it up and you're
26:08 watching it die. Okay. What does it mean to crucify the sinful nature? And this is the point. What most people think crucifying the sinful nature means is, no.
26:20 Crucify the sinful nature means, I set my will against wrongdoing. Now I'm all for that by the way. I'm all I'm all for I'm all for setting the will against wrongdoing. It's a great thing next time you are
26:32 about to wrong... Do wrong, just set the will. But that can't be what it means to crucify the sinful nature. Here's why. To say no, that's moral restraint. That just that just
26:44 that only stops the effects or the results of the messed up heart, but it doesn't get at the messed up heart. The sinful nature is the messed upness of my heart.
26:56 And therefore, to crucify the sinful nature can't just be to refuse to do something wrong. It's gotta be more than that. You see, that's the law. The law can't get in at the sinful nature, so it must be something else.
27:08 What is it? Well, what is the sinful nature? Verse sixteen and verse eighteen has a have an interesting parallel that we have to see. It's the key to me to understanding this whole
27:20 text. It says, if you live by the spirit, you won't gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Okay? But then in verse eighteen, it says, if you live or if you're led by the spirit, you're not under the
27:32 law. Now that's interesting. These two things go together. There's a parallelism here. If you walk by, you live by, you're led by the spirit, to not gratify the
27:44 sinful nature and to not be under the law go together. Essentially the same thing. What does it mean to be under the law? In Saint Paul, to be under the law is not referring to obeying the law. You can obey the law
27:55 without being under the law. To be under the law means that you have made moral performance a system of identity and of salvation. To be under the law
28:07 means to make your performance a way for you to... It's a system of identity, so if I do this and if I have this, then I'm a worthwhile person, then I'm
28:19 alright. And it's a system of salvation. If I have this and if I do that, then god will bless me, then god will take me in. So what is the sinful nature? Now here this, there's very few things I could tell you that would
28:30 be more important in my life and that I would wanna share with you than this. The sinful nature is not just simply the part of your heart that makes you sin. Of course, it's that. The sinful nature is the part of your
28:42 heart that wants to go back under the law. The sinful nature is the part of your heart, it's a motivational system that's constantly trying to move you back into moral performance as a system of identity
28:54 and an approach to God. And what that means is that this sinful nature is taking good things and trying to suck them into a system of moral
29:06 performance. So, it takes a good thing like your career, it takes a good thing like your family, it takes a good thing like human opinion, it takes a good thing like like financial success, it takes a good thing, and it
29:15 pulls it into its system of moral performance as a basis for identity and for salvation, and in that system it becomes an ultimate thing. It becomes something that said if you have that, then you'll be okay,
29:27 then you'll have meaning in life, then you'll know you're a worthwhile person, then God will bless you. And when it pulls it in, and automatically, it creates an over desire, an inordinate desire, an overwhelming drive
29:38 for that thing. Do you notice that every time sinful nature is mentioned, it's not mentioned except sinful nature and desires. You don't want to
29:50 gratify the sinful nature and its desires at the top of the passage. You don't want... You want to crucify the sinful nature with its desires at the bottom of the passage. In both cases it's that great word, epithymia,
30:00 which literally means an epidesire or an over desire, an inordinate desire. And that's how your sinful nature works. Do you see it? Over desires caused
30:12 for for normal things, over desires for a good thing that's become an ultimate thing because it's being pulled into a system by your sinful nature. Over desires is the reason for most of your bad feelings and all
30:24 of your bad actions. Inordinate desires are the basis for most of your bad feelings and all of your bad actions. Examples? It's one thing to be hurt by
30:36 criticism. It's another thing to be devastated by it. What's the difference? See, now if you try to crucify the sinful nature and say, I shouldn't be so devastated. It's bad to be devastated. I'm a Christian. I ought to
30:46 have faith. And just... That's the law. You're saying no. You're setting the will against, you know, what you consider to be excessive devastation. But how are you gonna... Where's the excessive devastation coming
30:58 from? How is it proceeding from the sinful nature? Like this, the sinful nature takes a good thing, like human opinion, and it pulls it into the system, and now it becomes an ultimate thing. It says, unless people like
31:09 you, unless you look good to people, you know, you're nothing. And therefore, the human opinion, because it's been pulled in there, you now have an over desire to look good, an over desire
31:21 for people's approval. Instead of just being unhappy about criticism, you're devastated. And every problem you've got comes from that. Every inordinate, you know, over anger and incredible, you know, paralysis and so
31:33 on. We talked about this all during this series, which we have to. So how do you crucify the sinful nature? You think why
31:47 you're acting and feeling the way you are. You don't just say, I shouldn't be doing that, I shouldn't be think... Thinking that way, I shouldn't be feeling that way, I shouldn't be acting that way. You think, why? And
31:55 you ask this question, what is my sinful nature fixing my heart on, And what what good thing is my sinful nature making an ultimate thing? What thing has
32:07 my sinful nature fixed my imagination on so that I'm looking to it for things that only Jesus can give me? That's why I'm cast down, that's why I'm anxious, that's why I'm angry,
32:19 that's why I'm bitter, that's why I'm about to do something I shouldn't be doing. Always think why. Say why am I like this? Not, well, I'm a bad
32:30 person. Listen. Example, every Saturday between eleven and eleven thirty, I have an inordinate amount of fear and anxiety in my life.
32:43 Not the normal kind of concern, an inordinate amount. Because I'm looking at the sermon that I'm working on, and I'm say... I say, this stinks. I always like my sermon around nine o'clock, and
32:54 by eleven, eleven thirty, I hate it. Almost every week, I don't know what it is. Biorhythms, I'm not sure. Now there's a couple of things, there's two ways to go. One is I could say, oh my gosh,
33:07 I am breaking the no anxiety rule. There's a isn't there a doesn't it say in Philippians four have no anxiety in everything, in anything, but but with prayer and supplication make your needs be known to God. Isn't that
33:18 what it says in in the Philippians? I'm having anxiety, I'm breaking the no anxiety rule. So what do I do? I'm going to crucify the sinful nature. I'm gonna say, I better not have anxiety. If my wife thinks sees it,
33:30 she'll think I'm a wimp. If the people see it, I'll be a lousy model. If my children see it, they won't respect me. I better stop it or that really gets to the sinful nature. No. That's the law and it
33:41 can't get into my messed upness. I have to think. Why? Why? What what what is... Well, it's pretty obvious for
33:53 you, isn't it? Okay, counselors, therapists, you know. What's the problem? How can I crucify the sinful nature there? How can I get at it? Romans oneShow more
In this video 0:00 The Fruit of the Spirit11:00 How to Recognize the Fruit of the Spirit21:00 Crucifying the Sinful Nature34:00 How to Grow the Fruit of the Spirit
Tim Keller
Tim Keller
Tim Keller
Tim Keller
Tim Keller
Tim Keller
Tim Keller
Tim Keller
Tim Keller
Tim Keller
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