An incorruptible seed is put in us who are born again. We gird our minds with the Word of God that is the link between Heaven and earth. Things such as malice and guile and evil speaking are to be laid aside as the Holy Spirit fills us. (1 Peter 1:13-2:5, 23; Mark 15:16-20)

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12378
11:00 AM on 9/25/2022

P. Schaller –

Turn in your Bibles with me to Mark 15 for our introduction. We had a women’s seminar this weekend and it
was a great success touching anybody that listened to it. The ladies, also guys that maybe were
listening in in the hallway. The speakers were excellent. There was Dr. Wanda and Pivy Janssen.
They gave a great ministry. It was beautiful.

In this text here, Mark. 15 and we’ll start from vs. 16-18. The sufferings of Christ are important to
us because there is a dimension to it that is more than just human history. There is the mind of
God and what God is actually doing through Christ. This is not a man only. This is God. God was
on the cross. God is being abused by people and we read in our epistles that this actually was
because we needed to be judged by God. We are the ones that are guilty of sin and this
judgment on Christ is actually a judgment that is on us. So, but we weren’t there. Christ was
there in our place. We weren’t even alive at that time, but it was done for us. When he was
mocked and ridiculed, this was actually the judgment on us and then the purpose of it because
it happened once to him, then actually we are honored. He was judged so that we could be
free.

Like the two birds in the book of Leviticus. One, the head was wrung off the body, the blood in
the bowl. The other bird dipped in the blood and set free as with Barabbas. Barabbas was the
criminal but he was set free and Christ was crucified. We could also say that he was mocked so
that we would be honored. Look at vs. 19. The contrary part would be that we would not be
smitten on our head with a reed but we would be crowned with glory. Not thorns but honor
and wisdom and love from God.

Vs. 19. They worshipped him in a mockingly way. That does not happen to us before God. God
has raised us with Christ to inherit honor and be accepted by the Father. So, he became poor so
we might be rich. He became sin that we might be made righteousness. He was forsaken so we
would never be forsaken. He was ridiculed so we would be honored, spoken well of, given a
place at the table of God. The place of honor as Mephibosheth with David. Christ with his
disciples.

We read this in vs. 20. He was clothed with shame. He was stripped naked at the cross. They
took his clothes off and hung him up so we would not be naked. We would have a wedding
garment. We would enter into heaven with a wedding garment, a garment that is given to us
from God. That imputed righteousness that we have received because it’s a gift from God that
we would be made righteous. This is the honor that God has given to you, that you have that.
Wow. God has honored you. Think about it. God has honored you and I. Yeah, maybe you
haven’t seen that honor but you have it. It’s written. It’s true. We’ve been highly honored by
God. We’ve been accepted in the beloved. We’ve been called by his name. We’ve been
imputed with righteousness. Our name is in the book of life. We are 100% accepted by God.

Never forsaken. Never forsaken. I will never leave you never forsake you. Jesus said of all the
father has given me, I have lost none. I have lost none. Isn’t that amazing.
So, we’ve gathered together today to think about our new birth and what we have because of
Christ. I want you to think about how maybe some of you feel like this is happening to you
today. That maybe you have lost something. Maybe you are ridiculed. Maybe you are not
accepted. Maybe you feel shame or some kind of guilt of some kind. This happens in life. But
our heavenly Father is saying this happened to my Son so that I would – this is God. God will say
I will always accept and honor you. You have inherited that by the new birth. You’ve been
accepted in my family and I want you to know how abundantly favorable I am toward you
because of this. That will be our message this morning after our song and our offering we will
take. This will be our message.

Turn with me to 1 Peter. We see the new birth in these verses.1 Peter 1:23, we’ll look at that
verse in our message about the new birth. What it means, how it affects our life in a very real
way and that will be from 1 Peter 1:13-25. That’s the affects of the new birth and then it runs
into chapter 2:1-5. The point will be that I want you to see that because of our new birth, we
have a new lifestyle. A new way of thinking and processing life because of our new birth.
Because of what Jesus went through and he ascended into heaven and he’s given to us
something extraordinary by the new birth and how it affects us. That’s that. Amen. I’m so glad
you are here today. Praise the Lord. Turn to your neighbor for a moment and just say, are you
born again? Okay. You may be seated.

I like this part of the service. You stand and talk and I can spend a little time and look at you and
just see you and enjoy that so much. The Marriage Getaway [Women’s Seminar] was excellent.
I said that in the beginning. I heard about it. Andrew Garner spoke Friday night. I heard it was
excellent. Dr. Wanda. We’re just thankful. So much happens without people arguing with each
other. So much happens without people fighting. Is that Peter? Peter, good to see you. So much
happens in a church where there isn’t a lot of – what do we call that? A lot of drama or a lot of
extra stuff. So that will be our message today.

There are five words in 1 Peter 2:1. I want you to memorize these words. I want you to listen to
the message and think about these words. 1 Peter 2:1, it will come up on the screen. Laying aside
– it means to get rid of. By the way, I asked for prayer. I forgot to do it at the 9:00 service, but I
can ask you to keep us – tomorrow night, Barry Quirk and I fly to Hungary in Europe. We fly to
Budapest. We used to live there. Some of the Hungarians are here and people that have been
there. We’ll be there for one week, so ministering and meeting friends and having some
meetings and talks and so on. Thank you for your prayers for that. Wow.

Do you ever feel weak? Do you ever feel like you can’t do it or do you ever feel insufficient or
maybe these words, these words – get rid of, lay aside all malice. The word means wicked ill will. Get rid of wicked ill will. I would will on somebody else something bad. I am kind of angry
with them or jealous and this word is an important word. You and I have to learn these words
so that we are not thinking – these are sins of the thoughts and speech. There are sins by the
way we talk and by the way we think. Let me back up.

Jesus was mistreated by the world and he was quiet. He was mistreated, abused and he took it.
It was a judgment. We also in our hearts and in our lives we can also be mistreated. It’s really
written at the end of chapter 2, isn’t it? Maybe at the end we could look at it. 1 Peter 2:23.
Meaning they made fun of him and he did not return it. He had something bigger in mind.
If you’ve been here on Wednesday night, we’ve preached a few times on this subject. My life is
sometimes small and God has a life for you and I that is bigger. We have to get our eyes on
something more than my pain or my trouble or my tendency to fight back. You hurt me. I hurt
you. You slander me. I slander you. You cannot do it. Get rid of that. How can I get rid of it?
Because we are born of God by an incorruptible seed, we have a capacity to live by faith and
see what God will do with my small world here. My small world, the Lord will give us a heart.
Enlarge our heart, 2 Cor. 6:7. God enlarges your heart. Okay. Now, I want the anointing of God
in the message. I want to follow God in the message. (Prayer).

I have a story here to read to you. “A poor family up in New York City inherited – a mother and
two children, – 10 thousand dollars from their father’s life insurance policy. The mother was
excited cause she could get out of the ghetto life of Harlem, move into a little house with flower
boxes in the countryside. The brilliant daughter wanted the money so she could go to medical
school. But the older brother had an idea. He said me and my friend can go into business. Give
me the money. We will make more money. We’ll give that money back to you, and so the
mother decided to do that, give the money to the son and his friend. The friend skips town with
the money. The desolate son has to return home and break the news to the family that their
hopes for the future are stolen. Their dreams for a better life are gone.

His sister lashes out with a barrage of ugly statements. She calls him every despicable thing she
can imagine. She has no limits. When she takes a breath in the midst of her tirade, the mother
interrupts her and says, I thought I taught you to love him. The daughter said, love him? There’s
nothing left to love. The mother says – this is a good statement – there’s always something left
to love, and if you haven’t learned that, you haven’t learned anything. Have you cried for your
brother today? I don’t mean for yourself and the family because we lost the money. I mean for
him for what he’s going through. When do you think is the time to love somebody the most?
When they’ve done good and things are easy for everybody? Well, then you haven’t learned
what love is. It’s when he’s at the lowest and can’t believe in himself because the world has
whipped him. When you start measuring somebody, measure him right. Make sure you’ve
taken into account what he’s going through.”

I say this story because I think this picture here – even though it’s so confusing – is something
like it. Let me say it a different way here. Here’s my life. Here’s that family with the little money
and their world and then there is the world of love and the Spirit. The world of love. Everything
is like this. The mission in Singapore. Why go to Singapore? Because God is in Singapore. God
sent them to Singapore. God has a plan for people in China, in Indonesia, Malaysia, the islands.
It’s about God. But I have to say all of us have things that hurt and things that trouble us and we
get focused on those things so easily. And the purpose of this passage in 1 Peter is because we
are born again, we have something more in our life. We have the Spirit of God.

I want to walk you through this. Go to 1 Peter 1:23. What is that to be born again? Another
word in Titus 3:5 is regeneration. Christ said it in John 3 to Nicodemus, “you must be born
again.” You don’t have to be a disciple. Discipleship – if you will be my disciple, if you would be.
You don’t have to be. If you would be. But I’m telling you, you must be born again. You will not
enter heaven without the new birth.

Well, what is it? It is when you are believing in Christ and born of the incorruptible seed, vs. 23.
Not of corruptible seed. You know, life is filled with seed. I remember reading about spiders.
Spiders and spider eggs can go up into the air like ten or twenty miles up in the sky. They can by
the air current float around in the air round the other side of the world and land in some island
in the Pacific Ocean. And spiders are there. Where did they come from? They came from
Baltimore!

You know, everything living has seed. Pine cones, insects, animals, fish. Everything has seed but
all that seed dies. But this seed that is born in you is the same as when Mary was told by
Gabriel, that holy thing that is born in you, conceived in you, is called the Son of God. That did
not come from any seed on the earth. It came from God. When you believed in Christ, the seed
was brought into you and you have Christ in you. So, these five words where you can get rid of
it are really in chapter 2:1. It’s really possible. You can actually live in faith.

Go back to chapter 1:13. This is a – I want to break this down. It’s not in order. I want you to
catch the drift and read it on your own later. Vs. 13. That’s another way of saying have a
prepared mind. Your mind is important because you are born again of the seed of the Word of
God. The Word of God is pure. The link between heaven and earth is really the Word of God.
It’s Christ but Christ is the Word. Christ, the link between heaven and earth is really God’s word.
When someone hears it – we are made like this. Human beings have speech. Isn’t it amazing.
We’re unique. We have speech. We hear them. We understand them. We connect with each
other by words. And when these words are the Word of God, then those that hear and believe
are born of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God.

That happened to us. We are able to gird up the loins of our mind. It’s another way for saying
having your mind prepared. I don’t know about you but my mind drifts, wanders, daydreams, imagines bad things. It bubbles up in my heart. These words that are going to look at in a
minute in 1 Peter 2. The other possibility is meditation, thanksgiving, worship, praise. The other
possibility is quoting the Bible, is saying the Bible, is reading the Bible in a room out loud.
Sometimes when I do that in my office, I just read it out loud and sometimes it seems to be
alive. That word, that’s what I need. It’s that word. That Bible word. That verse. That thought
behind it. That rhema. That living word that is able to purify it says in vs. 22. This obedience is
by the Holy Spirit. That’s why it’s very important that you and I would learn how to be, walk
Spirit filled, Spirit filled lives. Not in our flesh. Not in a program on the outside but the Spirit and
truth on the inside.

Vs. 22. When I walk around, there’s a women’s seminar or marriage retreat or the leadership or
our trip to Hungary and we will be with our sisters and brothers, and there will be something
genuine in our hearts in vs. 22. Genuine. Obeying the truth through the Spirit. This is by the
Spirit of God we are obeying God.

Let’s make a little diagram here and make it clear. This will be my flesh or sarx. There’s two
words. There’s sarx is the old sin nature. And there’s soma for the body. We don’t mean the
flesh on our bones. We don’t mean that word but we mean the old sin nature, the fallen nature
of man which is jealous, lustful, envious, angry, looking for revenge, justice. I hate my brother.
What he did he took our money, the only money we had. He took our money and lost it and so
the reaction is so easy and natural.

Vs. 22. You have obeyed from the heart and by the Spirit. Why does it say that? Because the
Holy Spirit is sent into the world so we would live a different way. We would have different
thoughts. We’d have different words. We would actually go to Singapore and preach the gospel
to people we don’t know. Why would we do this? Because the Spirit of God leads people. The
Spirit of God helps us process our pain and our trouble and our disappointments. When we
have a marriage seminar, a leadership retreat or we just be together as a family or a family is
together, it’s very easy for these relationships to run into hard times. But for us, we endeavor,
we really want, we have to prepare our mind. Gird up the loins of your mind.

Go back to vs. 13. Be sober – this is the word for self-control. You know when I would like to get
revenge on my brother for having taken the money, I would like to have self-control. How can I
have the self-control? I have it because I am born again. What do you do when you are born
again? You are Spirit filled and you are listening to the teaching that is able to gird up the loins
of my mind so that when I run into these troubles, I’m going to be mature or capable of
ministering Christ and maybe solving some problems by my love, by my faith, by my spirit, by
my rejoicing, by my singing by my quietness, by my fervency. This is beautiful.

Read with me now – we did vs. 13. Then vs. 14. Here we go. I want you to follow this with me.
This is will be a few minutes more and we’ll finish up. You are an obedient child. Turn to your neighbor and say you’re looking like you’re an obedient child. I’m not sure but maybe you’re an
obedient child. Obedient child. What am I obedient to? Teaching. The teaching. What teaching?
The teaching of God. The Spirit teaching us. The Bible teaching us. What is he saying to us?
Don’t be the way you used to be.

Look at the verse. Not fashioning yourself – that means conforming according to your previous
way of life, your former lusts. Maybe you used to be addicted to pornography. That’s over. You
don’t do that anymore. You used to do it in your ignorance. Here it is. What is ignorance mean?
You didn’t know better. It bothered you but you just did it anyway because I had nobody telling
me not to. I had no reason not to do it. I was just living for myself. I was living conforming to my
own lusts based on my own ignorance. I just did it. There are people that steal because they’ve
always been stealing.

We had a brother here new in our church. He said help me. What shall I not do here with these
people cause I’ve never been a Christian before. I said give me an example. Ask me more
specifically. Do you guys swear? I go, no. Don’t do that. Don’t swear. No. Stop doing that. That’s
what I told him. Stop swearing. Don’t swear in the parking lot. Don’t swear in the meeting hall.
Don’t swear in the café. Don’t swear on our property. And furthermore, don’t swear in the car
and at work and at home. Okay. Alright.

Do you see what we are saying here. We used to be this way which we are going to read in a
second. We used to do these things but it’s changed cause we are born of God and we have a
purification that happens by obedience to God by the Spirit of God. That’s an important point.
It’s by the Spirit of God.

Go now to vs. 15. Look up at the screen. We now are focused on holy. The flesh is focused on
happiness. Do you know what they say in the world? Life is about being happy. I just want to be
happy. I just want to live a happy life. I want to have a happy marriage. I want to have a good
job and be happy. That’s all I want to be happy. That’s how people talk day and night. All the
time. But how do you talk? How do you talk now? What do you think? I have found that
happiness isn’t all that it’s cranked up to be. It’s momentary.

But I have found in the Spirit of God and you have also, we have found another way and that is
the nature of God is holy. I mean even if I am suffering or I am in pain but there is holiness, this
is satisfying to us. The best part about it is that it is real and also that it’s God and also it’s not
momentary. It’s eternal. It is not coming and going. Holiness is the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of
God that dwells in you and satisfies your life and gives you this meaning and purpose where you
are relating to a holy God. The living God and you. You are together. You are joined together by
the Holy Spirit and you are in fellowship and you are able to deny or put aside the things that I
used to do because of the new birth, because of walking in the Spirit.

This really introduces the chapter for you, chapter 1. If you take some time and read it through
the week and kind of get ahold of it, some of it will speak to you. By the way, when you come to
a meeting like this one, some of the things are going to stick just like a piece of duct tape on
your clothes. Just kind of put it there and it’s going to stick there. Some of these things that you
hear they will stick and they will stick for 40 years. They will stick your lifetime. They will stay
with you.

This is the beautiful thing about God. God the Spirit wants to teach us and lead us in a new life.
And that new life is an eternal life and what we are saying and thinking has an eternal value. I
am believing if you bring a glass of water to someone in the name of a disciple, you will not lose
your reward. That means there is a value in our everyday life. Living in the Spirit of God puts
treasure in heaven. That means there are values here that are carried over into heaven. Put
your treasure in heaven where moth and rust does not corruptly. Amazing. So, we have good
news there.

Now, let’s take a good look at the bad news. This is 1 Peter 2:1. About an hour ago, I said I was
just going to be short. The message was going to be short. I was going to finish in a few
minutes. Okay. Was that an hour ago! A look at chapter 2:1.

This is what we used to do. We used to do this. Not every day but some of it carried all the
time. Some people have a problem with being with other people. Some people when they get
in with a group, they start fighting. Sometimes in a family, there’s somebody who is – one of
these words is happening in a family. Look at the list. There’s five words and they are attitude
and speech. All malice, all guile. I have guile means deceit. Deliberate dishonesty. I used to be
that way. You, too. You, too. There will be some kind of trick or saying the same thing two
different ways. You say it one way to your friends and another way to your mother. You say the
same thing. It’s just not right. It’s not clean. It’s not true. It’s a form of being deceitful.

Ananias and Saphira did it with the apostles. If you remember the story in Acts 5, they sold the
house for so much. They lied to the apostles so they would look like they were part of the
whole program that was happening, giving a lot of money to the apostles. But they were lying
and Peter said you are lying to the Holy Spirit. You are being deceitful. You are not honest.
In the morning message, my wife is sitting over here and I thought of something that actually
happened recently. I want to buy a used truck. I have a truck but the brake lines went and so I
just decided, one more breakdown and I’m getting rid of it. I mean this truck I bought it for
$2,800. We’re not talking about a lot of money. But I want to get a different one.

My wife doesn’t like me buying junky trucks or junky cars but I do. Cause I like it. I don’t know why. My
car is 21 years old. I don’t know. New cars. I have no interest in new cars. I like deals. That’s why
I go to Goodwill! I want something for nothing! Then if I buy a junky car – I was thinking I could
get some cash and then write a check out from our joint account and I could mislead her regarding the price of the truck if I have some cash. And then she’ll think I only spent so much
for it when actually I spent more for it and it’s still a junky truck. I was thinking about this in my
deep meditation and I read Acts 5. I did! I turned there and read about how Ananias and
Saphira were deceitful and I just thought of myself dropping dead in front of my wife because I
lied to her or I was deceitful!

Do you see that this is not good for a church to have these five words in this list? That’s what I
want you to remember. I want you to think about how bad church life can be if we have these
words in our lives. How angry people can be. How dishonest. How it bothers us. How you are
not being honest with me. You’re not humble. You’re not in the Spirit. You are not an honest
person. You are gossiping. You are slandering. You are tearing down my brother or my sister.
You are telling me things I shouldn’t know anything about. I don’t want to know anything about
that. I don’t benefit from it. I am not a gossip. I am not that way.

This is how we talk when we are Spirit filled. This is how we live. Churches can be terrible
places. That’s why some people don’t go to them. They are not even normal. They’re not even
normal. You can go to the bowling alley and have a better time with unbelievers. You know,
something like that. I’m sorry to say it. That cannot happen. That cannot happen.
Look at chapter 2:1. Here’s the list. Hypocrisies. No. It was in your past life but you cannot live
like that now. Envies. Who can stand before envy? Wrath is cruel, anger is outrageous but who
can stand before envy? Let me repeat it. wrath is cruel, anger is outrageous. It’s a proverb. But
who can stand before envy? Envy is covered up. People are smiling and polite but inside you
can’t – envy is going to get, going to say things. It’s going to sow discord. It’s waiting for
somebody to fall.

Remember the New England Patriot football team were winning Superbowl after Superbowl
and it was getting on our nerves! We got voodoo dolls of New England Patriots and starting
cursing them! Cursing that football team. Hating that football team and so on unless you are a
fan like half of you are. Listen. When somebody succeeds again and again and again, it can
bother people. I want to take you down. I’m going to take you out. I’m going to get you behind
your back. I’m going to take you out. That cannot happen with us, right? That’s vs. 1.
Evil speaking, that’s slander. Vs. 2. Get rid of the list in vs. 1 and take on the habit of God’s
Word in your Spirit and in your worship and learn how to love when somebody is unlovable.
There’s always something left to love the mother said to the daughter. Your brother has
messed up. Your brother is in trouble. Your brother lost our money.

We got many problems but your brother is one thing we can’t lose. We cannot lose your brother. We need to love. This is beautiful. Then we’ll figure out how to solve our problem. Maybe God will give us what we
need. God will answer our prayer. Come on. We’re born again. Let’s live in our new life. Let’s learn to forgive people. Let’s live in the Spirit. Let’s put on the Lord Jesus Christ and learn to
love people because God is in it. Amen.

Please enjoy these sermon notes from the messages preached at Greater Grace Church in Baltimore. These notes are provided to aid in your study and understanding of the Word. Note that these notes do not represent complete, word-for-word transcriptions. Also, they may contain omissions as well as some errors in spelling and structure, etc., as we attempt to provide them as soon as possible. Our hope is that these notes serve as a way to help you search and connect with messages on related subjects and passages. Thank you for your interest in the ministry of Greater Grace.