Because of our new birth we think in a new way. Yahweh is God’s covenant Name. He redeems us. He gives us His Presence. His gifts strengthens His Body, His Church.
Isaiah 48:17; 1 Corinthians 12:9-13

Speaker: Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12791
Date: 2024-09-22
Time: Sun 11:00am

P. Schaller –

We are bought by the blood of the Lamb. Let’s turn there and read that. Just praise the Lord and worship the
Lord in our hearts. Look at 1 Corinthians 6:20. You are bought with a price. Turn to your neighbor and
just say you have been bought with a price. You’ve been bought. Ransomed. Paid for. Bought.
Somebody paid for you. Somebody bought you. Somebody bought you. Isn’t that amazing. You
were bought with a price.

This is on a level that is beyond us. But I had an idea one day that I was in heaven and I sat at a
table with the angels, and they said what are you doing here? What are you doing here? Really,
it’s like a great idea. What are you doing here? And of course, we will be glorified. They will
know of course. They know that we are there because we have been bought with a price. I
shouldn’t be here but I have been ransomed. I’ve been redeemed. I’ve been bought by God.
God paid a dear price for us. And in this room and around the world, there are believers – all of
us – we have been bought by God. He paid a great price for us. Yeah.

You might say, I’m not worth much. And the Lord would say, yeah. You got that right! But
actually, no. You’re precious to me. I had to pay a price, a dear price for you because your sin
was so great cuz the curse was so powerful. There was no way you could be a saint. There’s no
way. The sin is written through your DNA. You are a sinner all your life. You are a sinner. And
how could that which is unclean become clean? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.

Now, that’s another idea that the modern man doesn’t like bloody religion. Modern man likes
philosophy and he doesn’t like – he likes to think his own way about things. But we have a
religion that has blood in it and that’s something you should study and understand and enjoy
the reality. Because there is a big gap between us and God.

We could draw a picture. Here’s the tabernacle, the Jewish tabernacle, a birds-eye view. The
holy place. The holy of holies is here and the priest would come here. Here’s the altar, the laver.
And he would come in, the high priest, and go through here and go into the holy of holies and
took blood. Why? On the outside is sinners, sin. On the inside is holiness and they can’t go
together. They can’t go together. A sinner cannot go to heaven.

A sinner cannot become holy. Yeah, you may burn incense and candles and say prayers but it can’t happen. There’s no way that we could become holy. It’s impossible except when God pays the price through his Son and
his Son came as a lamb to take away the sins of the world, to die in our place, to shed his blood
presented to God and we have been bought with a price. Let’s read it one more time. You are
bought with a price. That’s the blood of Christ.

So, you belong to him. That’s all. The song provoked me to say these few things about it and to
have it in your mind and understand it. I have no problem with us having blood in our religion
’cause it’s the truth. God set it up to show us. But the blood of bulls and goats cannot get you to heaven. The blood of men cannot get you to heaven, but the blood of the Son of God.
Incarnated. The living God. The God that came to take away our sin. Oh, wow! We go to heaven
because of him.

We will sing about it in Revelation 5. We will sing about it in heaven. It will be always be in our mind.
We will always realize that the only ground for me to be here was the Son of God who shed his
blood for us. And to as many as received him, believed in him, just received him, believed in
him, trusted in him, to them he gave power to become the children of God. And anyone
listening today, just believe in Christ and you have that great gift of salvation. For God paid the
price for you.

Calls you his jewels in Malachi 3:16. You are my jewels. Do you know what a jewel is? A jewel is a
precious, unique stone. They usually have a jewel box to put the jewels in the box, right? And
think about you and I. I’m dirt. I’m a throwaway. People can walk on me. Lose me. I’m mud at
the bottom of the Chesapeake. I’m nothing. But God says I take up my jewels. I bought you with
a price. I paid a high price. You belong to me. I own you. You are my children. You are precious
to me. The apple of my eye. I have your name in my book. I know everything about you. I know
every hair on your head. Every footstep you take. Every thought you think. You belong to me.
I’ll never leave you, never forsake you. I am your Father. I am God and I am your Father. How
about that? Amen.

This past weekend we had a women’s seminar here and folks came from a few places. I just
wanted to have two ladies give a short word. What did it, what spoke to you at the seminar.
Just a short word on that. How about Teija Petrone? Do you have something you want to say
about it? One thing. And how about Lise. No? Yes. No. Yes. Okay.

Teija –

I think because we all need prayer, we had record number of attendance and it was
mainly just about being in the presence of God. Not about talking or having a list of things but
enjoying the presence of God.

Lise –

So, it’s going to be a quick testimony but everything was so precious. Every second of the
weekend. It has to do with the Friday night. It came like a lightning. You said it may take years
before – I’m going to cry – before you get an answer to your prayer. And I just realized that at
least 30 years ago, I really asked the Lord to be here. Not just for one month or two weeks, so I
mean I started crying right when you said that. God is answering right now. Very happy to be
here.

P. Schaller –

Thank you. Wow. Okay. Let’s pray for the offering. (Prayer). Turn in your Bibles
please to the book of Habakkuk for our message this morning. Thank you, Terry for that
beautiful song. Touches our hearts I think. And also, Lise’s testimony. Also, another one of the
ladies who came from outside – not from Baltimore but from – shared a similar word about

wanting to be here and we just feel honored by God that we can assemble and the Lord
ministers to us.

And many times, people in life, you know, you have a circle of friends maybe and family little bit
or broken family but it’s empty. It’s not enough for the believer. The believer wants fellowship.
And there’s a difference between having a family member and having a family member with
fellowship. Or having a friend and then having fellowship with somebody. That’s different.
That’s why we don’t get married people who are not believers. Though you might fall in love
with somebody who is not a believer, but do you have fellowship with them? It’s like, don’t do
it.

Don’t get close to that person unless you might end up marrying an unbeliever and not having
fellowship which is a big part of your life. Fellowship. So then, it happens in married life that
your husband or your wife are carnal and you don’t have fellowship because they are angry
with God. And that’s another problem. So, the best is to walk in the light as he is in the light and
have fellowship one with another and also to be in a place where I can have fellowship. Let’s go
down to the church and hear a Word. Let’s go to the church and have some prayer. Let’s go to
the church and hear a message. Let’s go and be loved.

Let’s just sit there and be – I used to think of it like being under the shower. You just step in and
the shower happens. And in the same way, I come to the church and there’s fellowship that is
happening because God ministers to us in the Body of Christ that we drink the same spirit. Even
when I don’t feel very good or I have my problems in my heart, but I come into the shower, I
come into the fellowship and it starts to help me and speak to my heart and draw me to him.
This morning, I preached at 9:00 on the book of Habakkuk but I kind of feel differently right
now. I think I’ll speak on that subject of fellowship from 1 Corinthians 12. I’m changing the message
from the 9:00 to this one and just share a few things about this. Maybe it will minister to you. I
hope so.

So, 1 Corinthians 12. Let’s turn there but then put up on the screen Isaiah 48:17. Who is that? Christ.
Christ. That’s Christ. He is the Redeemer. Now, when you have capitals like that – LORD – all in
capital letters, that’s Yahweh. That’s the covenant name of God. You have Adonai. You have
Elohim. Just for you to know this. Elohim means God, gods. But that’s the name for God. You
also have Adonai is the Lord. And that’s spelled in your King James small letters like that. Lord.
But Yahweh is the covenant name of God. Let me explain that to you simply. This is the name
that he wants you to call him by, Yahweh.

We all know that in our society you could be a teacher, professor, doctor, pastor, mister,
professional, principal, leader, whatever it is. But then you have a name. You can call me Tom.
I’m Pastor Schaller, right? But I could say to you, you can call me Tom. That’s my name, Tom.

But you could call me P. Schaller but my name is Tom. The same with God. God said my name is
Elohim but you can call me Yahweh. That’s my name. I’m your Savior. I am also your Father. I
am also your friend. I am your Savior. I am your Redeemer. Isn’t that beautiful.

God said to the Jews, what is your name? Yahweh. That’s my name. I know you are Almighty
God. You are God Almighty and I can’t even say the word, your name. But God said you call me
Yahweh. I AM. That’s who I am. I am the one you need. I am the door. I am the Savior. I am the
vine. You are the branch. I am the Captain. You are the soldier. I am the chief cornerstone. You
are the stones. I am your God. Call me Father. Jesus said it 80 times in the New Testament to
call God Father. And that’s how we come before God. He’s a personal God and he wants us to
call him by name. Okay.

So, let’s go to the verse. So, that’s, you know, let’s slow down here. I will teach you to profit.
Profit. Now, you could, we could say a few things about profiting. How will you profit in a
difficult world. How do you benefit? How do you make progress? How do you grow? That word
we use for money, material profit, but it has a bigger meaning than that. I will show you how to
increase, how you will gain, how you will grow. I will teach you that you will be more than you
are. Left to ourselves we are like so, but when God is our God, he teaches us to benefit. Profit.
Increase. Grow. Love. Forgive. Serve. Believe. Speak. Listen. Increase.

I’ll teach you to increase. You know, that’s one thing that happened to you with your new birth. When you’re spiritually
born, you start to think. I want to say that we don’t think outside of the new birth, but I know
because of the new birth we think and we think in a new way. We think in a new way. We start
to think about God. That’s one thing. We benefit from it. We think about God. We start to read
books about God. We start to read our Bible and get interested in it.

What is God saying and what does this mean and how does that affect my life. Does he heal
me? Does he help me? Does he encourage me? Does he love me? You start to think that he
loves me. You start to think he’s for me, not against me. Very simple but very important. He
teaches us to profit. To think the right way about ourselves but have it happening in a deeper
part of us. Not on the outside like some self-help book or somebody trying to convince you or a
psychologist talking to you about having a better self-image. Or just improving in life. How to
win friends. How to be successful. All of that. That’s fine. That is what it is but, no.

You need something more. And that is our Redeemer will teach us. That’s God teaching you, isn’t it?
What will he do? There’s two things there. He will teach you to profit. Um, I want to put down
two subpoints here. #1 is presence. I’m writing with my finger because my stylus is in my
pocket! Presence. He will teach you to profit. Presence.

If you go through the Bible and look at the presence of God in the Bible and to think that you
are in the presence of God is such an honor. The first one is at the Garden of Eden. The voice of God walked in the Garden and Adam and Eve heard the voice. They’re in the presence of God.
And then later, Enoch walked with God and men started to call upon God. I like to think that the
presence of God came and they knew that. Enoch knew it. And then later, Noah found grace in
the eyes of God and God was with Noah and he did an incredible thing of building the ship. And
then later, Abraham stood before God in Genesis 18. Later, Jacob wrestled with God in Genesis
28.

All of these encounters with God kind of smack of the most important thing in life that causes
you to profit. I will teach you to profit. I will teach you. You will grow, because I prepare a table
for you in the presence of your enemies. I will be your counselor. I will help you. I will comfort
you. I will anoint you. I’ll be present with you. Even Paul in prison. Jesus in Gethsemane. When
he started to lose the presence of God and Jesus on the cross, Why have you forsaken me? I’ve
lost the very thing, the most important thing in my life. I’ve lost the presence of God. He’s
forsaken me. Left me hanging on a cross. Cursed. Cursed is the man that hangs on a cross. I
have the presence of God.

You and I have the presence of God in our lives. Wow! What does it mean? Well, it means that
in his presence is fullness of joy. It means that in the presence of God you will find satisfaction,
John 4. Satisfaction. Wisdom has built her house. Wisdom builds a house in Prov. 9. That house
is where God is. That’s the house of God and there he has filled it with knowledge and precious
things that are in the house of God that God has built for us. Presence of God is in your life and
you know it.

Sometimes, we lose the presence of God though in one way he will never leave us. On the
other hand, he could say, where are you? Where are you? I don’t have fellowship with you?
Where have you gone? He did that with Adam, remember? Adam, Adam where are you? In the
same way in my life. I could say many things. Lord, I’m very busy. Or Lord, I don’t know where
you are. Where are you? And the Lord could say to me, Tom, you’re sinning. You’re sinning. You
are sinning. You’re proud. You departed from me. You are arrogant. You are blind. You are
deceived.

And I could say, no. I’m not deceived. And the Lord said, the Lord is quiet. Yes. Why aren’t we in
fellowship? Why not bring your stuff to me? Confess your sin. Confess what’s going on. I say,
Lord, I don’t know that I am proud but if you say I am, I am. I admit it. I confess it. I agree with
you. The word “confess” by the way – I’ll put two words down here. Presence and words. He
will teach you to profit with his presence and with his words. You will increase with that. Okay.
(Prayer).

I’m proud. Lord, I’m not proud. Yes, you are. Am I? I confess. It’s HOMOLOGEO. I don’t know
exactly the ending here. I’m not sure how that’s spelled. It means to say the same. HOMO
means same. To say the same thing as a confession.

You are proud. I don’t think I am. And the Lord says, agree with me. You are. I go, yes Lord, I am. I agree with what you say. I agree with you.

Is that hard for you? The answer is it is. Our flesh doesn’t agree with God. It doesn’t agree. But
you learn this. Learn to be submitted. Learn that you can be wrong. Learn to say, forgive me.
Learn to agree with God. Cuz then, we are in the fellowship with God and he will teach us the
way to go and also the second thing: lead you by the way that you should go. He will lead you ’cause he’s the Redeemer that makes this possible. Okay.

All right. So, do you get the point about how I can be deceived. Do you know what it means to be deceived? What’s
deception mean? Deceived. All right. I think I got it spelled right. Deceived. What’s the
meaning? I believe I’m right but I’m wrong. I’m drinking the poison. Hey, that’s poison! No, it
isn’t. Gurgle, gurgle, gulp, gulp. Drinking poison. I don’t believe you. But who’s right? Like who’s
correct? I could deceive myself. That can happen to us. I can deceive – I am right but actually
I’m wrong.

Do you understand that? That’s Isaiah – that’s important – Isaiah 1:5 and Jeremiah 17:9. Just want
you to know this and think about it. I can be wrong, okay. But what happens when you are
wrong? It depends but most importantly trust in the Lord with all your heart and don’t lean on
your own understanding. You know, leaning on your own understanding means – if we do it like
this, I’m leaning.

Okay. This understanding is very important to me because it holds me up. This understanding
holds me up, right. My self-image. My whole idea of my life. Everything about it is being held up
by my own understanding. But actually, the other way is not to lean on our own understanding.
But trust in the Lord with all our heart and agree with him and then what happens? We agree
with him and he will cause us to profit. We will be renewed in our mind. We will have the
anointing of God, the Spirit of God heal us, help us, fill us. We’ll have liberty and freedom in
God, right? God will be our life. God will help us and lead us by his grace.

So, what happens when a whole group of Christians assemble in the name of God and walk in
the Spirit of God? What happens when the Spirit of God moves and ministers to our hearts?
What happens when Jesus is lifted up and there’s like blessing of God in our lives? What
happens when the Spirit of God moves in our life and we are drawn to him and worship him
and it’s about him. And his words and how he causes us to have this joy and peace in our
hearts.

What happens? Well, it’s a revival. It’s a spiritual awakening. It’s a moving of the Spirit. It’s
answered prayers. It’s encouragement. It’s spiritual transparency. You know, transparency in
itself with sinful people isn’t such a great big deal. Like sinful people being transparent with
themselves. What do we find? We find people. Transparent people produce people. But when the transparency is like before God in the presence of God, what do we have? God. We have
the manifestation of God. Where did God, how did God manifest himself? Because people
admitted their sin and their selfishness and their own life and God caused us to profit by the
Redeemer, by his presence, and by his words.

These are words that are words of truth, right, forever established in heaven. Man does not live by bread only but by words. The words of the Spirit. The words of faith. The words that we are able. We can do this. We believe God. God is
presence with us. We can do this. We believe. We found Jesus. We found Jesus, right?
Amazing. So, um 1 Corinthians 12. Let’s read a few verses here. Chapter 12, we have the gifts of the
Spirit working from vs. 8. 1 Corinthians 12:8, have you been with believers and you hear these things?
You hear them. They speak. That’s why sometimes in the congregation I have you talk to your
neighbor because maybe your neighbor will have a word of knowledge, a word of wisdom, a
portion of faith. They will have mercy or compassion. I hear it in the Body.

I hear the gifts of the Spirit in the Body. I see it sometimes. I hear it. I find it in conversations on
the sidewalk. I find it on the phone. I find it with friends in the Lord. We find it. This is what’s
called Body life. The ladies had it this weekend and we enjoy thinking about what the Spirit is
doing with us as believers here and abroad. We enjoy thinking about what is happening in India
today and Africa and in Asia. Next week is SEACON in the Philippines. And they just had Milan,
Italy with P. Matti and the group there. And I’m sure the gifts of the Spirit operating there that
manifest God. That’s what he wants. That’s why he came and he causes us to profit, you know.
To benefit from it.

Vs. 9. I believe the healing is on many levels. It can happen physical healing. There’s like
psychological healing. Being loved. I need to be loved. Kind of a healing of my mind. My
emotions. My sense of values in life. I had a man in another country, he got saved and he
started to cry. He was crying and crying and I said what’s wrong? He said, I haven’t cried in 17
years. Emotionally dead. I am so happy that I can cry. I am crying. I am so happy that I’m crying.
I had no feeling. I had no affection. I had no, nothing. But God is healing me. I’m saying that. I
don’t know that he said that, but that’s in effect what happened to him.

Go to vs. 10-11. He dishes them out as he wants to. The Spirit gives them to the Body and then
as the Body is one, vs. 12. Now, this is Christ this morning. Christ is here. Can you see him?
Christ is here. No, I can’t see him. Christ is here. Christ is in the Body. Hang around. You will see
him. Seek him. You will find him. He is here. He’s present on the earth.

I think of it as a big picture of the plan of God. All through these millennium, God has
manifested himself many ways, many times to people. And they have seen. They have touched
it. They have seen it and they recognized it. Some not. I’m sorry to say in 2 Corinthians 4 it says there
clearly, vs. 4. They do not believe. We could say they do not believe. They will not believe. They cannot see anything. They are occupied with their life. They’re living their life and they don’t
know. They don’t think about it at all. Nothing about God. Nothing about it.

I was in Hawaii one time. I told you maybe before. I was in the north shore where the surfers
are and there was a young guy with a surf board and I stopped him. I said, could I talk to you?
How is it surfing? Yeah, it’s great. It’s beautiful. How long you’ve been – we talked. Let me ask
you a personal question. When you’re out there, when you’re out there and the sun is shining
and the ocean is beautiful, everything about it, do you think about God? And he looks at me
and says, no. I don’t. I thought I’d give him another chance. I went at it again. I mean come on.
Isn’t it beautiful? Did God make it or what? Do you ever think about God? No, I don’t think
about it at all. Do you understand.

There are people. Maybe – I prayed for him actually. I’m sure I’ll never see him again, but I
prayed for him. And that one day, – he was like 17 years old. A young guy having a good time,
you know. But maybe one day, maybe that will happen. But the God of this world has blinded
people and by the way, let me say a few. He hurts people. The god of this world destroys
people. He’s a thief. He steals from people their life, their minds, their relationships, their
values. He destroys them. He counsels them. He minimizes them. He causes fear.

He intimidates them. He accuses them. He’s a destroyer. In some cases, he kills them. Destroys
them. He’s a murderer as Cain killed Abel. He’s a murderer. And that is tragic. That’s sad.
So, the god of this world is here but our God we have the presence of God and he teaches us to
profit in the presence of our enemy. He teaches us how to live in a difficult world. Complex
world. Troubled world. Painful world. He teaches us to minister. He teaches us to speak
wisdom. He teaches us to believe. He teaches us to assemble.

Like don’t leave the assembly. Assemble in his name. Look to him and have your own heart and
life with God. Bring it to God. Don’t be deceived like deceiving myself. I’m leaning on my own
understanding. I’m judgmental or critical or accusing the brethren or accusing God or accusing.
Let me finish with this. When Jesus said pray to your Father. If you ask for bread, he will not
give you a stone. But actually, sometimes I’ve asked God for things and it seems like he has
given me a stone. How about it? You pray for a good marriage and you don’t have one. A good
job and you don’t have one.

A healthy baby and you don’t have one. You say this is a stone.
But you can’t say that. You don’t dare say that to God. But that’s how you feel. You don’t dare
curse God and throw it back at God or throw a stone at God. No, Jesus said he will not give you
a stone. But it looks like one but it isn’t one. It isn’t. Don’t allow your heart to think like that.
Don’t lean on your own understanding. But in all your ways like just be humble before God and
say Lord, this feels like a stone to me. And the Lord says, I know. But it isn’t. I’m answering you.
I’m with you. I am present.

Do you feel my presence? Do you hear my voice? Can you trust me with all your heart and don’t
lean on your own understanding. And we say to the Lord, yes. I want that. Fill me with your
Spirit so you can turn my – how’s it go – turn my ashes into joy. Garment of praise for the spirit
of heaviness. The spirit of heaviness, turn it into a garment of praise. Give me – what is it – joy,
ashes? How does it go? Beauty. Give me the beauty for ashes. Give me light in the darkness,
please. Lord, show me.

Now, let me close. We have an election coming up in our country. We don’t know how it will
go. We don’t know what will happen. It might go bad. It might go bad. You say, Lord, we’re
praying for revival. We’re praying for a change. We’re praying for a moving a spiritual one. The
Lord says, keep praying and asking. I will answer you. Trust me. I will do my work.
But my work, my ways are not your ways. And like Habakkuk said, in Hab. 1:5, things will
happen that you don’t even know how and I’m adding the meaning, how bad it will be. You
don’t even know. You can’t even imagine how bad it will be. I use that verse too thinking how
bad can it be and the Lord is saying it can be really bad, you know.

So, I think the answer is regardless of how it goes, I can have joy in the presence of my enemy. I
can have a message ready in our heart. We can be comforters. We can be evangelists. We can
seek him and we will find him. We can knock and the door will be opened. The Lord will help us.
the Lord will lead us and guide us. We are a church. We have a great future and a great mission
and we’re doing something. And that’s amazing. How could that happen? That’s the Lord doing
that.

The Lord started this church by the way. This is long ago in the book of Acts. He hasn’t failed it.
All through history, he does his work. Our particular church, how did it start and where did it
come from? Who were the people and how did it work and how does it go on? And are we
pointing to him? As the real Head of the church is Christ. We have his Spirit and his way and his
Word and he causes us to profit. He really does. Okay. Amen. Let’s pray. (Prayer).

 

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