Timothy Keller Sermons Podcast by Gospel in Life - Abel and the Salvation of Faith

Episode Date: April 7, 2025

Many of us are wondering how we’re even going to face Monday, but the men and women in Hebrews 11 didn’t just know how to face life—they were enabled to even go against the whole world. And the thing that enabled them was they were commended by God. Abel got the commendation from God—he was shown God accepted him as absolutely righteous, and as a result, he became one of these great hearts who can face the world, can face anything. By looking at Abel, and the contrast with Cain, we can have some understanding about how we also can know this same thing. The best way to understand the case of Cain and Abel is to ask: 1) how were Cain and Abel alike, 2) how were they not alike? and 3) are you Cain or Abel? This sermon was preached by Dr. Timothy Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian Church on October 2, 1994. Series: The Nature of Faith. Scripture: Hebrews 11:1-7. 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 the Gospel in Life podcast. We all strive to live with stability and balance in the face of the challenges life brings. It's natural to want poise and strength when we deal with adversity or uncertainty. Today on Gospel in Life, Tim Keller shows us how a life of faith in Christ is the key to facing the challenges and adversity in life. After you listened to today's teaching, we invite you to go online to GospelinLife.com and sign up for our email updates. When you sign up, you'll receive our quarterly journal and other valuable Gospel-centered

resources. Subscribe today at GospelinLife.com. Let me read to you from Hebrews chapter 11. It's printed in your bulletin. This fall we're going through this particular chapter. And though I'll read to you the first four verses of it because each week we're looking at a different case study. This passage gives us a series of case studies that tell us about how various men and various women learn to live lives of faith.

And I'm going to read down to verse four because verse four tells us about Abel and he is the particular case study to which we look today. So Hebrews 11 verses 1 to 7, Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for. By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings, and

by faith he still speaks even though he is dead. This is God's word. How can you live a life of power? How can you live a life of such stability and equilibrium, a life of such poise and greatness, such fearlessness that you can face anything. What's interesting about this chapter is it tells us that very thing.

It tells us how to live a life of power, which it calls the life of faith. And what's wonderful about these case studies, which we've begun looking at this fall, is it doesn't just show us people who, through faith, have learned just to face life. Many of us are wondering how we're going to face Monday. And some of us want to know how we can face our whole lives, but these men and women didn't just know how to face life. These men and women were enabled, they got enough power to go contra mundum against the

whole world. Not just to face their lives, not just to face Monday, but if necessary to spit in the eye of the world. Last week we looked at Noah. Noah, hmm? Contra mundum. Everybody else is laughing at him. Here he is building an ocean liner in the middle of Kansas.

Everybody thinks he's ridiculous. He knows he's right, and he proves that he's right, and he proves them all wrong. See, that's power. Now, how do you get it? The secret to all of these people, they're called the ancients, because these are all very ancient case studies. But the secret to all of these people is in verse 2, and it's not that easy to see because we have a bit of a translation problem. It's hard to find an English word that really gets

across what is said. The secret of all these ancients, the thing that enabled them to go against the world was they were commended. Well, now the trouble with this commended, they were commended by God. Now the trouble with the word commended is it's just too weak. In English the word commended means, oh, I got a certificate, you know, or a thank you note maybe. And if you look, even if you look at the Greek word there, the Greek word is really the word for martyr, martyria. And unfortunately even

that Greek word has come into the English language and the word martyr means to suffer for a cause, sometimes needlessly for a cause. If you want to understand what the word means you have to realize the fact is that the word has a legal context. It says God bore witness, God gave testimony to them that he was pleased with them. And the idea is a legal one. The setting, the image, the metaphor is a legal one. Imagine yourself in court and you're defending yourself. And you're the defendant. And you're struggling to make your case.

All of a sudden someone walks in, an authoritative witness, maybe a forensic expert, or maybe a missing eye witness, and that witness sits down and gives a testimony that completely destroys the case of the opposition. Maybe this expert says, I was there and I saw it, and what happens? It establishes your case beyond a shadow of a doubt. The case is dismissed. Joy and relief washes over you because you've received this, an authoritative witness that proves that you're approved. An authoritative witness that puts your case beyond the shadow of a doubt. That's what the word means. Now

there's nothing we want more than that and there are many not just legal but emotional and personal versions of that. You know in that movie that I love so much, The Fisher King, where Robin Williams gets a hold of this girl who's sort of a klutzy girl who doesn't like herself very much and he gets her on his steps and he says, you don't understand. I know you don't want to see me anymore. You're used to being rejected, but I've been watching you. I've been watching you for a long time. I know who you are. I know you don't have many friends. I know you think you're klutzy, but I think you're wonderful. And I will never give up on you and I will never leave you

and I love you. And she looks at him and she she says are you for real? Now what is that? That's a witness, an authoritative witness. I've examined you, I know the facts and you're wonderful. See? And it proves that you're approved. These men and women, the ancients, this was their secret. They didn't just have somebody who had a crush on them, though that's so wonderful. They didn't have, and they didn't just have somebody who comes in to a court, a particular court case, and dismiss a case. What we're told here is they had reality itself. The God who's the author of all authority permanently changed their self understanding

by giving them a testimony that he was completely and absolutely pleased with them. He accepted them, he approved them, he endorsed them. And when you know that that one the only eyes that matter see the only witness that matters absolutely accepts you what happens you can take on anything hmm let hell itself break forth it doesn't matter I can face anything nothing phases me that's what they had This is what the ancients had. They were commended. Now, how do you get that? How do you get that? That's how you get the life of power. That's what

this whole chapter is about. How do you get the certainty that God sees you as completely acceptable, righteous, he approves you utterly. utterly he says you're wonderful. I Will never leave you. I love you Now, how do you get that? Abel were told you know in verse 2 you see it mentions that they all had that but Abel were told in a particular way Abel in the incident in which he and his brother Cain Came to God with an offering. We were told in Genesis chapter 4 that Abel and Cain, two brothers, both came with an

offering to God. Abel was a keeper of flocks and he brought an animal sacrifice. Cain was a tiller of the ground and he brought a grain sacrifice. But we're told in Genesis 4, for Abel and his sacrifice, God had regard. But for Cain and his sacrifice, God had no regard. And at the time of this incident, Abel received the witness. He got the commendation from God himself. He was shown that God accepted him as absolutely righteous and as a result he became one of these great hearts who can face the world, can face anything. Now how did that happen? That's how we'll, if by looking

at this case we'll have some understanding about how we also can know this same thing. Now the best way to put this is, of all the case studies in Hebrews 11, this is the only one that's given to us by way of contrast. Abel is given to us by way of contrast with Cain. So let me just look for a moment at two issues. The best way to understand the whole case of Cain and Abel is to ask, how were Cain and Abel alike and how were they not

alike? How were they alike and then how were they not alike? And then we'll conclude by asking, which are you? Are you Cain or Abel this morning? How were they alike? For just one second, let me point out that they're very alike. And for a moment, let's just think about the fact that they're alike. The Bible's continually giving us examples of couples putting people side by side, giving us examples of two individuals who

seem to be completely alike on the outside, but inside are polar opposites. On the outside, they look identical. On the inside, they're entirely different. Here you have Cain and Abel, same family, same parents, same teaching. In fact, they're both going to worship God by bringing offerings, but totally different. Isaac and Ishmael, same father, totally different. You have Jacob and Esau, twins, same gene pool, totally different. You have the ten foolish bridesmaids and the ten wise bridesmaids, see? Same friends, same event, probably same dresses, totally different. The reason that we're shown these people over and over again

is that the Bible teaches us that there's a foundational difference in the human race, and only one. There's one major difference, there's one foundational difference, and the reason we're given all these pairs of similar but totally dissimilar people is because the Bible wants us to see that the foundational difference between difference. And the reason we're given all these pairs of similar but totally dissimilar people is because the Bible wants us to see that the foundational difference between people is not a racial one, it's not an economic one, it's not a political one. Because the dividing line goes right down the middle of races, right down the middle of families, it goes right down the middle of wombs. And it goes right down the middle of the church.

Yeah, Cain and Abel, two worshipers, both coming with their offerings. You say, well they're both worshipers, that's the important thing. One is rejected, one is accepted, and one persecutes the other. Now you see friends, what we're being told here is everybody in the world today is either Cain or Abel. Everybody in this world today, in this room, is Cain or Abel. There are two fundamentally different ways to approach God. There are two fundamentally different ways to approach life.

There's two fundamentally different ways to run and operate your heart. And once a choice is made at this point, it affects everything, psychologically, sociologically, your eternal destiny, everything. Here is how they're the same though. They're the same in which, because they both were taught and they both know intuitively, you can't go to God just as you are. You have to go in with an offering. You can't just go into God.

They knew that. There's no such thing as a come-as-you-are party with God. They knew that they couldn't just go in as they were. They had to bring an offering and point to it and say, accept me because of this. Now why? Many people say, well, I know why, because those are primitive people. in primitive times we believe that you had to appease the angry cranky gods with with offerings of livestock and grain, but we're enlightened now No No

The reason they did this is because of human nature. I submit to you that we all still you that we all still fundamentally know this same thing. In all of our relationships, in our relationship with God, in our relationship with each other, in our relationship with ourselves, we all know we can't just go in. We all know that as we are, it won't work. If we want to be approved, we've got to control what people see and that is what an offering is. Let me give you an example. Elections are coming up right now. Aren't they funny? Because what you have is the candidates coming to us, the electorate,

and they're saying, approve me, accept me. But they sure don't come in just as they are. They do not let you see who they really are. They control completely what we see of them. And they come to us with offerings. They say, look at my record, look at my credentials, look at my plan, look at my wise plan. Please approve me on the basis of my offering. And offerings always do two things. They create an image of strength, and they hide your flaws. Candidates know that you're not going to accept them if you know everything about them.

If you know what they're really like, if you know how they really talk, if you know how they treat their children, if you know their entire voting record, if you know everything, so what do they do? They control what you see. They don't just come as they are, they don't just go in, they control what you see. They bring offerings. It proved me because of this. Well you say,

yes that's funny how that works, I hadn't thought of it that way, but that's an extreme example. You know, politicians and of course they're that way. No friends, we're all like that. That's how we get into any circle. That's how we get in any school. It's how we date. It's how we get into any social circle.

It's how we get into any relationship. I was reading an article about Elaine's, you know, the famous restaurant here on Upper East Side. And in Elaine's, there's one table called Table Number 4. And it's reserved for the celebrities and the people that Elaine knows. And the article said that there's one particular TV actor who said,

when I was first invited to Table 4, I was petrified. I wasn't sure I would say anything smart enough that night to merit inclusion. Well, that's just in other words, you don't you never go in as you are. You bring an offering you say I've got to hide who I really am. If people saw who I really was. I can't go as is. I've got to bring something. I've got a point and say accept me because of this. Why is that you're ready to go out on a date, and you dress in the outfit you expect to dress,

and you get frantic? Why? Because it shows, when you look in the mirror, this outfit shows the world what you really look like. You know, we're all too this or too that. We're too this or too that, or this part of our body. Our clothes are ways of controlling what people see. And as soon as we say, oh my gosh, it makes me look as heavy as I am, as skinny as I am,

as bad as I am, we go bananas. When we go into any social situation, the thing that will most petrify us is the idea that people will completely see who we are. We have to control what people see. Jean Paul Sartre in his book Being in Nothingness, Being in Nothingness has a chapter called The Look, and in it he says there's nothing worse than a stare. He says because if someone sees you who you cannot see, if you cannot control people's knowledge of you, it destroys us. It utterly destroys us. It's easy for people to say, oh that's just not true of me. No, no, no. I happen to, I know who I am and I don't care what people think about me. Sartre says that's silly. He says if there's anybody who sees you that you can't see, there's anybody who absolutely

has access to knowledge and you can't be selective about what people see of you and you can't and you can't provide certain things and keep certain things back. You're destroyed. Why? Because fundamentally we know we're not acceptable. We know we're not acceptable. We never just go in. We always bring offerings. We always have to hide and cover up who we are. Now why is that? The Bible gives a perfectly and the only, I think, a perfectly profound and the only profound enough answer.

Oh man, trends right now are, in the last few years, people have said, well if you feel that way, you know, it's bad parenting. You know, the reason that you always have to hide, the reason you can't just be who you are, the reason that you feel very often that you have to kind of keep people out, and you have to control what they see, is because you didn't get enough love

as you were growing up, and I think people are beginning to realize now that whereas bad parenting can aggravate that condition, it doesn't cause the condition. The Bible tells us that Adam and Eve, before they disobeyed God, were naked and unashamed. What does that mean? They just went in, not only to God, but to each other. Naked and unashamed meant they had nothing to hide.

They had no need for an offering. They had no need to control what people saw. Their hearts were completely pure. The minute that they disobeyed, they jumped into the bushes. They hit the dirt. They put fig leaves up to cover themselves. Not just to cover themselves from God's eyes, but further from the eyes of the other. And you know why?

The Bible says the human heart has become self-centered. And yet we can't extinguish the original knowledge that we were originally built to serve God and other people. And we cannot let God or other people see how selfish we are. And as a result, there's a sense of shame, there's a sense of guilt. We know we can't just go in. We know we can't just be acceptable as we are. We've got to have an offering. We've got to say, we've got to desperately point and say, look at this, look at this, look at this about me, look at this about me. Don't you see that I'm acceptable? We've got to hide, we've got to say, we've got to desperately point and say, look at this, look at this, look at this about me, look at this about me. Don't you see that I'm acceptable? We've got to hide, we've got to cover, we've got to put up an image.

We all do it. There's a primal need because there's a painful, indelible sense that we're not right, that there's something wrong with us. There's no greater hope for you today than the resurrection of Jesus Christ. In fact, His resurrection is the key to understanding the whole Bible and the greatest resource we have for facing the challenges of life. Discover how to anchor your life in the meaning of the resurrection by reading Tim Keller's book, Hope in Times of Fear, The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter.

Hope in Times of Fear is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel in Life share Christ's redemptive love with people all over the world. Just visit gospelinlife.com slash give to request your copy. That's gospelinlife.com slash give. Now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching. Well, somebody says, I don't believe that. I'm a modern person. I create my own reality. I set my own standards.

I don't care what anybody else thinks of me. It's not true. It's not true. You say, I don't believe in sin. I don't believe in sin, I don't believe in judgment, I don't believe in eternity, and yet there's a voice inside of you. There's still a sense of condemnation. And you can't put it out. You call it complexes. You call it stress. You call it bad parenting. But it's there. What are you going to do about it? You know where it's coming from?

Hebrews chapter 4 says, All things, nothing is hidden from God, but all things are uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him with whom we have to do. And the Bible says we know that. And we have to keep those eyes out. Sartre doesn't know why we have to do. And the Bible says we know that. And we have to keep those eyes out. Sartre doesn't know why we have to. He knows it's the fact.

Don't you see? Why do some of you work so hard? It's your offering. It's your way of saying to yourself, to other people, or to God, look, please, don't you see I'm acceptable? It's the only way you can feel acceptable please don't just say I'm acceptable. It's the only way you can feel acceptable if you're just killing yourself with work.

Why is it that some of you have to help everybody? You can never say no to anybody. You can never disappoint anybody. You're always being taken advantage of. Why? It's your offering. It's your covering up that sense of nakedness. It's your way of saying,

it's the only way I can feel acceptable. Why are some of you the opposite of that? up that sense of nakedness. It's your way of saying, it's the only way I can feel acceptable. Why are some of you the opposite of that? Why are some of you under committed, never trusting anybody, tough on the outside, never letting anybody get close, never letting anybody see inside, because you only feel acceptable when no one knows you? And on it goes. Why are some of you just devastated when you gain a pound? Why are some of you devastated if you're not being dated? These are fig leaves. These are offerings.

These are desperate ways of saying, don't you see? I really am acceptable. These are ways of trying to commend yourself. These are ways of making a case. I deserve to live. I'm okay. But underneath you know that your offerings are not perfect. And so there's always that sense, there's always that sense of condemnation. Therefore, Cain and Abel both did what we all do. It's not just that Cain is like Abel, but Cain and Abel both did what we all do. It's not just that Cain is like Abel, but Cain and Abel are like us. We're all the same.

We don't just go into God. We need an offering. But here's how Cain is unlike Abel. Here's how Abel is unlike Cain. Abel offered a better sacrifice. The Lord had regard for Abel and his sacrifice, but for Cain and his sacrifice, the Lord had no regard. Well, a lot of people think this is very, very unfair.

It seemed pretty obvious why Abel and Cain brought the sacrifice they did. Abel was a keeper of flocks. Cain was a tiller of the soil. Abel brought some of the flock. Cain brought some of the soil, theer of the soil. Abel brought some of the flock. Cain brought some of the soil, the fruit of the ground. And therefore, when they went into offering, see, most people think when they went into God,

what they were saying is, accept me because I work hard. Accept me because I'm a productive member of the human race. Look at these things that I'm doing. Please accept me. That's not at all. That's not at all true. Because if they were both coming like that, then why did God accept one and reject the other? Well, people say maybe God's just arbitrary. No, it says here,

by faith Abel offered his sacrifice. Now, faith, as we're beginning to see, is always a positive response to God's word. And you have to remember that Abel and Cain knew what we know from Genesis 3. God had spoken to Adam and Eve when they disobeyed and when they had fallen into this sense of shame and when they developed this terrible sense of guilt and shame that we all deal with, this sense of inadequacy, the sense of incompleteness, this thing, this voice that we can't put out, no matter how much we try to say it's complex and it stresses, it's bad parenting and so on. God said something to them. An Abel sacrifice

was done in response to that word of God and Cain's was not. Abel responded in faith his sacrifice was a living out of the thing that God said to Adam and Eve, and Cain's wasn't. Well, what did God said? First of all, he said, number one, he says, listen, he says to Adam and Eve, don't try to cover yourself.

You'll never do it. Let me do it. That's the first thing. You see, when God saw Adam and Eve pitifully trying to cover up their nakedness, no longer could they just go in. No longer could they ever go to any other person, whether divine or human, just as they are. They had to control what people saw. And he saw how pitiful it was, and they were trying to cover up their nakedness. And God comes to them, and he says, you'll never do it. Your offerings will never be good enough. You'll always know it.

If you try to deal with this situation yourself, you will utterly fail. And he makes them clothes as a way of telling him, you'll never deal with this yourself. Your offerings will never work. Your coverings will never work. I have to cover you. This is one of the most wonderful things the Bible says. There's some tremendous prophecies about it. It says in Isaiah 61, when the prophet Isaiah comes to understand this tremendous point, he says, I will rejoice, I will rejoice in the Lord for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation and he's wrapped me in a robe of righteousness. So there's many places where the Bible talks about that and it's the first thing that

God said to Adam and Eve, your offerings won't do it, your covering won't do it. But then the second thing, of course, is an answer to the question, well, how will God do this? And the second thing he said, he looks at Adam and Eve and he says, I'm going to send somebody, a descendant of the woman, and he will be wounded in a terrible battle. He will suffer. He will bleed. He will be the offering. He will do it and it will be the offering that brings you home. He will restore. He will save, but he will be wounded. And see when Abel comes with

the offering, it's a bloody offering. And it's not just because he happens to be, you know, a keeper of flocks. But instead he comes and he says, Lord God, I don't know how this is going to mean. I don't know how you're going to do it. I don't know how this is going to work. But all I know is that my only hope is that someday you will send one who is wounded. Here's the wounded one. I trust in this and only in this. I don't come pointing to my works. This is what Cain was doing.

Cain comes in, we understand what Cain's doing. He says, look at me, look what I do. Look at my accomplishment. Look at my work. Look at what a good person I am. Look at how hard I work. You better favor me, it's only fair. And Abel comes in and says, God be merciful to me a sinner. See, one's the Pharisee, one's the publican, and one went home justified that day. Abel comes in and he's talking about who? Jesus. day. Abel comes in and he's talking about who? Jesus. He offers a better sacrifice. In Ephesians 5 it says, God loved us. Christ loved us because he made himself an offering

and a pleasing sacrifice. What does this mean? What it means is when Jesus Christ, look at his trial. What was happening at the trial? Look at him being stripped. Look at him on the cross. Look at people mocking him. Look at the terrible verdict. You see, all of us know we're guilty and we desperately want a verdict of guilty, of not guilty.

We want people to be approving of us. Here's the one who was guiltless. He gets all of our greatest nightmares, the trial, the verdicts, the rejection. He became utterly out of control, stripped naked. He became sin who knew no sin that we might become the righteousness of God in him. And see, this is exactly what happens. Abel comes in and says, God, be merciful to me a sinner, and points to the sacrifice. And as a result, he's accepted.

Now how do you know who you are? Are you Cain or are you Abel? Now there's two ways to tell if you're Abel or Cain. There's just two things that Cain, that Abel had that Cain did not. Number one, Abel was commended. He knew he pleased God and secondly, Abel was commended and secondly, Abel was killed. Now let me just show you how these are the two tests for you to tell today whether you're Cain or Abel.

First of all, Abel was commended. The Lord had regard for Abel in his sacrifice, but for Cain in his sacrifice, the Lord had no regard. And Genesis goes on and says, and Cain was very wroth. That's the old King James. And his face fell. Now what this is telling us is this. Canes never, no matter how religious they are,

no matter how much they worship, no matter how many offerings they give, no matter how good they try to live, no matter how much money they give to the church or the poor, Keynes never feel the accommodation of God. They're restless, they're always angry, they always sense that they displease God,

no matter how hard they try, and they're right. And they're very unhappy about it. And Abel's, if you come as a humble sinner and you plead the blood of Jesus Christ, if you come in not pointing to anything that you have done, that's what a Christian is. Abel, what a Christian is, is you go into God and you admit who you are. You don't point away from it right away. You admit who you are. In a sense, you go in as you are, empty hands. But then you point and you say, no merit of my own, his anger to

suppress. My only hope is found in Jesus' righteousness. Lay your deadly doing down, down at Jesus' feet. Stand in him and him alone, gloriously complete. So Abel comes in and he points and he knows. And here's the reason that you know. A Cain is somebody who believes, I'm trying my best, I'm trying my best, but you always know your sacrifice isn't perfect. You know your sacrifice isn't perfect, so there's always doubt.

But an ableist, somebody who comes in to God and says, my record was not perfect this week, my heart and my faith are not perfect this week, but my offering is perfect, my wounded Jesus, my surety, my Savior is perfect. And therefore you know your offering is perfect. You're accepted. Canes always hate the idea of being born again, needing the blood of Christ. What do canes say? Canes say, oh, it's just, the important thing is that you're good.

The important thing is that you live a good life. All this blood sacrifice, all this being born again, it's just unimportant. You're just showing yourself to be Cain. Canes and Abels, you know what the big difference is between Canes and Abels? It's not your sins. Canes admit they sinned, Abels admit they sinned. They both repent of their sins. The difference is that Abels repent of their righteousness and Cain's don't.

What's keeping you, Cain, from God is not your sins. You admit you're a sinner. It's your damnable good works. It's your offerings. It's the things that you point to and you won't see that they are just inadequate. Hmm? Christians and non-Christians, Christians and religious people, both repent of their sin but only Christians repent of their righteousness. No merit of my own. That's the difference. Then lastly, the last difference is, Keynes hate Abel's but Abel's never hate Keynes. That's how you can tell who you are. See, Cain hated Abel and he killed him.

He's dead. Why? Because Cains feel that Abels are arrogant. See, Cains are trying so hard, and they have that sense of nakedness and of unrighteousness, and they're trying so hard to cover it over with their perfect offerings and their offerings aren't perfect so they're always restless, they're always mad at God. They always feel they're getting a raw deal. They always feel like God isn't really being fair. Always.

They don't see themselves as terrible sinners. And therefore when you see Abel who's sure that God loves him, Cain's hate that. They think, you must be arrogant, you must think that you're perfect. But of course, Cain's are reading Abel's through their own grid. But Abel's don't hate Cain's. Because Abel's know that they're saved by grace alone. And that there's no real difference between Cain's and Abel's. And they just yearn for Cain's to see the truth.

You see, Cain's can't handle people who differ with them. It threatens them because they feel like if you're going to make it with God you've got to be good and you've got to be accurate. But Abels are so different. Abels, they're not standing on their own dignity. They're not always worried about what they look like anymore. Abels are people who... are we still there? Pardon. Ables... It's a bad time for this. Okay. Ables are people who no longer...

worry. I don't think it's going to work. Abels no longer stand on their own dignity. Abels no longer worry about what they look like. Abels just go in. When you're with an able, even though you differ with them, even though you disagree with them, even though you disagree terribly with them, they don't see themselves as superior to you because that's not how they get their self-understanding. They don't say, oh, I'm a better person, my offerings. No, they say, there's no difference between me and you. Therefore, ables make you feel that you can be great because they're great only by grace. Ables are completely different in the way they treat people who differ with them religiously. But canes hate ables, ables don't hate canes. Which are you?

Christian friends, listen. Be careful that you don't act like Cain. You may say, oh, I believe all this. I know, but look it, look it. You're cast down now. You know why? You know why you get fear driven? Because you forget that the things that you're losing

are not your offerings. Are you upset because something you're losing, something's happening to you? Look at those things and say, this is not my hiding place. My life is hid with Christ. This is not my offering. Christ is my offering. I don't need this. I don't have to have this to look myself in the mirror. I will not be enslaved by this. And you will become a wonderful, loving, transparent person

to the degree you do that. And is there anybody here who's come with your own offering? If you don't let Jesus Christ be your offering, someday, as Kierkegaard said, it'll be midnight, Cinderella, and the mask will have to come off. You can't hide forever. Let Jesus be your righteousness. Let others in their gaudy dress of fancy merit shine. The Lord shall be my righteousness, the Lord forever mine. Let's pray. Father, as we go to the table,

we only ask that you would help us to recognize the wondrous nature of this offering. We ask that as we get the bread and the cup, we'll realize what this is. This is the way we can go into you and no longer wonder whether you love us. This is the way we can get the commendation. This is the way we can get the witness.

This is the way we can know that we're approved by you. This is where we get our life of power. For if we know you're your children, we're your children, then let all hell break loose. It matters not. Thy loving kindness is better than life. Help us all to know that we ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Thanks for listening to today's teaching.

It's our prayer that you were encouraged by it and that it helps you apply the wisdom of God's Word to your life. For more resources from Tim Keller, visit GospelInLife.com. There you can also subscribe to the Gospel In Life newsletter to receive free articles, sermons, devotionals, and other helpful resources. Again, it's all at GospelInLife.com. You can also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and Twitter. Today's sermon was recorded in 1994. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel

in Life podcast were preached from 1989 to 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.