The world system is attempting to control the way people live and think. Enemies will fire their arrows, but God has His arrows. He shall triumph and revival can come again. Romans 12:1-2; Psalm 64:1-10

Speaker(s): Pastor Thomas Schaller
Sermon 11915
6:30 PM on 7/5/2020

P. Schaller –

Steve, did you look up Turner, Maine? We got a request from Turner Maine and then there was a picture. Do you
remember the picture? One house I think. I’m sharing. You’re going to look it up on the phone
and we’ll put it up on the screen. I started to cry when I saw Turner, Maine. Not really! Good
evening. Praise God! Thank you for your lives, your hearts. I got four different messages in my
mind. I can tell them all to you very shortly. Okay? I don’t know if that message will flow but
you’ll learn something. You can do the follow up on it. The first is Psalm 64. What a beautiful
morning it was with P. Kevin Lewis. He ministered to us very much in the Spirit this morning and
spoke about inconsistencies, the shaking going on in our country and different voices and
movements and direction. I’ve heard some disturbing things at lunch today.

We talked about how when there is a revolution, oftentimes they tear down statues and get rid of the old and
try to do the Communist thing. In Iran, when they took over with the Islamic revolution they got
rid of the shah and did their new identity. In our country, we have an identity that is rooted
very much in our faith. We have revivals, the history of our revivals, schools, universities and
something very traditional that we hold dear to us. It’s a man falls in love with a woman. Let’s
pause there. That’s beautiful. A man falls in love with a woman and has a family or child or two,
six or seven. They have a Fourth of July, hamburgers and sausages and flags and sing about
American and their freedom. They put their kids in school and go to church and learn about
faith and love. Love your neighbor as yourself. In our country, we have more than one party.
We have two.

One part of me says I wish we had two or three or four or five or seven. It can’t
be one party. We can’t all be saying the say thing. We can’t all be agreeing on the same thing.
It’s not real. It can’t happen. Pray for me because I’m stirred up. I don’t want to miss what I
want to say to the church. I’m working on it. If you read Psalm 64, this is a three-minute
message. I’ll point out some things to you. Vs. 1. We cannot be in fear of the enemy. Vs. 2. The
wicked. There is a wicked spirit, an evil spirit. Wicked and evil are the same thing. There is an
evil spirit against people, against God. That evil spirit is at work in different places and times.
We are not afraid of him. Hide me from the secret counsel of the wicked. Mark in your Bible if
you want and later do a study and count the things that wicked people can do: 1) Secret
counsel, vs. 2. What kind of counsel?

Secret. What does it mean it’s secret? Not everyone is included in this information. It’s behind closed doors. It’s only with a select group of people. They have a strategy. They are doing something. I studied about John Wilkes Booth from Belair, Maryland. He went to Mary Surratt’s house in southern Maryland. The last year, he worked as a
world-famous actor. He earned $20,000 which is an enormous amount of money back then.
Then he took off to meet with conspirators to assassinate three men in the government. They
were making a plan. Vs. 2. What does it mean “whet their tongue”? Sharpen it like a sword.
They strategize in their words, their vocabulary. They strategize who they can hurt. They make
sharp words. Like “homophobia” is a word. A sharp word. Black Lives Matter. It’s a very good
sentence. Give me room here.

Don’t misunderstand me. Black lives do matter. But if you read their agenda, there is a hook to get you. The hook is a homosexual lobby and nontraditional marriage. Black Lives Matter is one thing, but homosexuality is a different thing. This is a strategy of evil. They figure out how to do it with their words. You got to pray for me because I can’t get rid of this today. P. Kevin helped me. He had a message and I have one too. We want
to go to mind renewal at the end. I said I have four of them. At this rate, we’ll do one of them.
Vs. 4. How? In secret. That means if you could imagine a big factory and someone on the first
floor is going to shoot an arrow at someone in another building in another floor. They make
what kind of phone call? A secret phone call. Who do they call? That person’s boss on the
fourth floor. The guy on the first floor secretly shoots an arrow at you and you don’t even know
where it came from.

This is the strategy of evil in the world we are living in. It happens in
hospitals, the legal profession, medical profession, politics of course, church life, Boy Scouts,
Cub Scouts. There is the activity of an evil tongue and the work of evil. Lot lived in Sodom and
Gomorrah. They compassed his house. They pushed on his door and would not leave him alone.
In 2 Peter 3:7, it says it vexed him. I want to read what it means. To tire down, to exhaust, to
afflict, to be oppressed, to be much depressed. How did Lot live in Sodom and Gomorrah?
Oppressed, bent over, burdened, distressed. These people were pushing on him. They would
not let him go. I feel that. I’m telling you this because we are the church. We have something
else going on that we enjoy. What we enjoy is fundamentally miraculous. We enjoy truth in the
inner man. We are like Abel in the Cain and Abel story.

That’s another one of the four. Abel and Cain story is that Cain was discouraged deeply, and Abel was not. Abel was built up and very encouraged. He was worshiping. He was a worshiper. There are a lot of people around us not
worshipers. They are envious, jealous, angry, divisive, sectarian with party spirits, they are
manipulative, power hungry, materialistically hungry and they can be very much driven like the
world we are living in. It’s unbelievable that major corporations like IKEA and Starbucks and
other major corporations are giving millions of dollars to the homosexual agenda. Come on!
Leave me alone. I fell in love with a beautiful woman that I married 44 years ago. Would you
please leave me alone! I love my wife. Please leave me alone. I want to have grandchildren. I
an’t if my kids are homosexuals. Period. By the way, HIV is still very active and growing. HIV. HIV
is a sexually transmitted virus that hurts and can kill people.

I’m sorry. I’m not sorry. You didn’t necessarily come to church to get this. I don’t care what you think but at the same time, what I’m saying is I don’t like to be saying these things. On the other hand, I love it. You got to follow
it with me. Vs. 4. If you were numbering these things, “suddenly.” That’s another one. How do
they shoot? They are stroking you. What an amazing guy. Wonderful and then suddenly they
shoot at you. What? How did that happen? It’s satanic. Jesus is amazing and then he’s crucified.
That’s the nature of the world we live in. P. Lewis said it. If you look for justice in this world, you
will be disappointed. Man is made to find God and know ultimate justice. When I find God, I
have the capacity to live in this world being attacked and misunderstood and victimized by evil.
When Jesus was a victim, he was an overcomer. Vs. 5.

They encourage themselves in an evil matter. They “commune,” another word. You know what the answer is? God will see you. Proverbs 15:3. God sees you. They say we can get away with this. We can get away with murder. We can get away with attacking them. They’ll never find it out. Who will see them? They do it all
undercover. How many times does it say privily and secretly. Vs. 6. They are digging and digging
for the bones in your closet. They are looking for the righteous man to fall. They are trying to
find who hates him and who disagrees with him, how we can bury that guy. Vs. 6. Very intelligent and deeply involved. Very capable and smart and well connected. It’s well explained
here. Now comes God in vs. 7. Did you forget about God? I haven’t seen God around. I don’t
think there is any God. Have you forgotten about God? Vs. 7. They will be depressed suddenly.
Without a friend suddenly.

Hung out to dry suddenly. Forsaken by people suddenly. Vs. 8. People will leave them, depart from them. They’ll be kicked to the curb. Doesn’t matter. God did it. Vs. 9. That’s our hope in our country that we will do the right thing, the righteous thing and we will find God. That’s our hope. I don’t know. I can’t promise it. I don’t know history. I
don’t know what our future is. I’m very concerned about our future and what they are doing.
What are they talking about? What is going on? I’m shocked. I’m not losing any sleep over it but
it’s in the back of my mind. I can’t believe it. One Catholic cardinal said when they are tearing
the statues down, he said soon there will be no more statues. Maybe they will tear me down
and you down. Our history is not a history of perfect people. It’s a history of imperfect people.
Christopher Columbus ends up in the harbor last night.

Do you have any brains? Do you have any understanding? Because he’s from Europe and he’s white? What is going on. I’m not concerned about it. It’s a statue. I am concerned however about the work of evil with people
that need Christ. That’s what’s needed. Christ. We’ll speak about it in a minute. God will do his
work, here it says. Vs. 8-10. What did Lot need? Genesis 19, two angels went to Sodom. Lot sat in
the gate of Sodom. Vs. 1. He invited the two angels into his house. By the way, they don’t have
wings. These are two people who look like men, but they are angels. Come and stay in our
house? They said no, we’ll be in the street. Vs. 3-4. They compassed the house. That’s what I
feel. They are compassing. They are pushing, surrounding. Give us the men. We want to know
them sexually. That’s what it says. Vs. 4. How many people?

Every body from every quarter. Vs. 5-6. Do you read your Bible the way I read the Bible? Do you understand this subject? Do you understand what is happening in this story? There is a nature of evil that increases. There is not
two parties. One party. The Sodom and Gomorrah party. In Nazi Germany, there is one party.
They eliminated in one night – Adolf Hitler murdered 106 men that were capable of contesting
him. It’s called the “Night of the Long Knives.” They went to their houses when they were
shaving and getting ready for bed. He eliminated his opposition. How come they succeeded in
doing so much evil for so many years? How could that happen? How could the evil happen?
How could they murder and lie and have their secret counsel?

That suburb in Berlin, Wannsee is where the leaders of the Reich met to formulate their strategy for the extermination camps in Poland. That’s where they met to strategize for the murder systematically of millions of
people. It’s incredible. I’m angry. I hate the pacifity. I hate the spineless attitude. I hate the lack
of spirituality. I hate the compromise for sin in the world and envy and pride and jealousy.
Psalm 101 David said I will walk in my house with a perfect heart and have no wicked thing
before me. I hate lying men. He said if they turn away from you, they will not cleave to me. I
won’t have anything to do with them in that way. I don’t have an attitude of compromising for
what Jesus Christ shares with us in our hearts by the Holy Spirit and what the anointing of God
will do in our spirit and heart like we heard today.

Romans 12, I’m not a – what’s wrong with me saying I’m a man and I love my wife and we have a family? I love my grandkids. I love the church. I love families that stay together. I love when a man falls in love with a girl and that beautiful magic happens. God puts people together. If that doesn’t happen, that’s also God.
Praise God for that, too. You are shoving this down my throat. I do not like it. Leave me alone. I
want to have a sausage. I want to have lemonade. I want to have friends, a church, a Bible, a
prayer meeting. I want to do missions work and bring the Gospel to the world. Would you leave
me alone! And I like IKEA furniture. Why are you doing that to me? Are you out of your minds?
It’s the spirit of the age. If there is one party left at the end of the day, you know, it’s
unbelievable. Everyone has to say what they say. Everybody has to act the way they are saying.
They are crazy.

They are ruining and destroying healthy people. They are teaching people. Are
you kidding me? A little girl says daddy I’m a boy and the parents and the school and the
teachers? Unbelievable. I’ve said enough about it. Let’s go to the good part if we can. Romans 12.
I’m not rah, rah about self-righteousness. I’m not talking self-righteousness. We are talking
about something God says in his Word and something God does in your heart. It vexed
righteous Lot every day. They were in his face and would not let him go. Every day it vexed him
every day. Why did I move to this place? Why am I living here? He couldn’t get out. He couldn’t
leave, yet he was troubled by it. Romans 12:1, he’s pleading by the mercies of God. I’m going to say
something about our bodies. When you are born again, your body used to be your body and
you could do whatever you wanted. When you are born again, it changes. It’s God’s body. My
physical body isn’t mine even though I act like it is.

Actually, it’s God’s temple (1 Corinthians 6). We give it as a living sacrifice. My body. Maybe I used to eat too much, drink too much, maybe fornication or sexual activity. My eyes, ears tongue. This is true for all of us. It’s my body for my pleasure, for my life. I have one life to live and it’s my body and mine, for me. My lust, my
passion, my desires and my ambition and motivation. This body is my body. Paul said I beseech
you. I plead with you. Because of the new birth, you have a mind, righteous mentality that is
spiritual. The spiritual mind is higher than the body. The body is a tool, but the mind is where
we really live in my motivation, my heart, my thought life, my meditation and my worship.
There’s much to say about this. There is a negative. I could look at a woman once, she’s
attractive but I won’t look again.

I remember as a young man realizing this. It was God that showed this to me. I would be attracted to a young lady and wanted to live with God so I would not look again. This was like a sacrifice to God. I offered my eyes to God. I would not look again. It’s a sacrifice of my opportunity. I lose the opportunity to look again because I want to find
God, to know God. I feel maybe God will help me and honor me. Though not being perfect
people yet at the same time realizing something spiritual by looking at my body as a sacrifice to
God. I could steal something but don’t want to. The hand doesn’t belong to me anymore. My
hand is offered up as a sacrifice. God has my hand. I don’t steal cause it’s God’s hand. I offer it
as a service. I could run off and do something, but I would like God to lead me and guide me.
There is a negative thing in terms of sacrifice.

I lost my right to my body and my own life. Vs. 1. By the mercies of God, – there is the key. Here it is. Holy and acceptable unto God. That’s the key. Holy and acceptable unto God. Remember Abel and Cain. Cain was not accepted. Abel was accepted. That’s the difference in our country. I think the coronavirus had people isolated. They
broke out into groups and there was the rioting and the protesting. I’m for protesting in a legal
way. I realize there are injustices. I’m against things that are wrong. But I also want to say that  restlessness in the human heart, hatred, anger, anarchy, rebellion, murder and many
expressions that come out of our hearts because our ministry is not acceptable. When it’s
acceptable, you just can feel it. It’s acceptable. It’s acceptable. God, I’m accepted. It’s
acceptable.

My worship is acceptable. To use that illustration, I look at a woman but don’t look
a second time and I go on my way. The Spirit fills me or speaks to my heart or leads me and
immediately I’m occupied with something of a better nature, something precious and valuable.
Many that fall into the lust patterns of the soul are restless and upset. They don’t feel they are
accepted by God. They are troubled deeply in their hearts. They have these expressions. Vs. 1.
“Reasonable” meaning mentally and spiritual worship. Reasonable service. It means that your
worship is of a mental dimension the way I am thinking deep in my heart. How we serve God.
We have the words “worship” and “service.” We have a church service.

We are serving God. We are worshiping God. It’s the same word. We have a spiritual and mental worship of God.
Listening to the Bible the highest form of worship, mentally receiving from God what he has to
say to us. Vs. 2. Be not conformed to this world. What is the world like? Secret meetings,
shooting arrows suddenly, plotting and scheming, forming groups, targeting the righteous,
Jesus. Targeting people that are upright. Suddenly they shoot at the perfect, the upright, the
righteous. Suddenly they gather around Lot’s house. They can’t leave him alone. It’s spiritual.
They are after him. The life of the believer is to not be conformed to the world but be changed.
I’m sorry for the problems you have. I can pray for you and give you the Gospel and if you
believe in Jesus, he can give you a new life.

I’m sorry for the restlessness and confusion. I have been there too. I’m a sinner also. I’m not better than you except God has given us his Son. Now we are accepted by him. We have a worship that is a mental worship, a spiritual worship. Our bodies are not controlling our lives. That’s awesome. We have a spiritual life where we have
authority, Romans 6. We have something in our heart and mind and can feel we have the authority
over our body. I don’t have to look at that thing. God gave me the authority over it. I don’t have
to be dishonest. God gave me a sense of integrity in my heart, Psalm 101. I’m not doing
something secretly to destroy someone’s life, Psalm 64. Abraham is standing in the presence of
God in Genesis 18:25 praying for Sodom and Gomorrah. Why?

Abraham is a friend of God. Because he’s a friend of God, his worship is reasonable and acceptable and holy. Abraham is the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Abraham’s prayer may bring a revival. Our prayers may
change things. Don’t buy it this is over. God can send a revival. God can humble people. Maybe
the coronavirus is one step for that. There may be other things happen. It might be
unfortunate. We don’t know if our mind is renewed we will be fine. We can have a message, a
ministry in the midst of trouble. He is our hiding place. He is the Word of God. Vs. 2. You may
prove – a kind of evidence that when your mind is renewed its an evidence that there is a good
and acceptable and perfect will of God and you are in it.

I said it from the beginning. You kind of sense that. This is good. I got it. Thank you, Lord. It’s clear to me. It’s in my heart. It’s acceptable and perfect and good will of God. Thank you, Lord. That’s what we grow in as
people. I think that’s why through these years together as a spiritual family we actually really
love each other. The Spirit is proving to us that there is a good and acceptable and perfect will
of God. We can feel it and sense it. It is. It is good. It is the way to live. God is honoring us. He is present with us. It is. This is Body life. This is the ministry of Christ. You know what? The devil
sees you, knows you got something. He sees that. When he sees that, you know what? You
know that he will shoot an arrow at the perfect. There will be an arrow coming across the city,
the country or the world and it’s got your name on it.

They will shoot the arrow. The devil is good at it. He knows how to do it. He has problems. He’s not God. How would we know who the Antichrist is? I believe even the devil doesn’t know. Maybe though Hitler was, and he could
do all kinds of things. He was an antichrist but even the devil doesn’t know. He can’t come into
the picture unless God allows it. It’s God’s business. The devil will do it but can’t do it whenever
he wants because he’s not God. He can only do it when God allows it. The guy comes into the
picture. Just like Judas Iscariot. It was the Last Supper. It was the perfect time. It had to happen
on a certain day, on a certain event. When it was recognized by the devil, then he could have
his guy and have Christ crucified. The devil doesn’t know what’s going on. He doesn’t know how
may angels, about a revival sent by God. He doesn’t know about our prayers. Someone said
they pray in tongues that the devil can’t hear their prayers.

Colossians. 3:3, we are hid with Christ in God. I don’t believe the devil is invited into my prayer closet. Me and the devil don’t partner up, hook up. He’s not invited in. It’s us and God. He doesn’t know what is going on. He can’t do it
without God. God is listening to us. We are the people praying. We are asking. It says in Psalm
64 he hears our prayers. We don’t worry about the enemy. We don’t fear him or fret, but we
have to be sober minded, serious about God. We have to have a spiritual orientation by grace.
Don’t worry about it if you have. God saved you and gave you the Spirit and the Spirit will teach
you. Keep coming to church and you’ll grow in it. He’ll answer you all the time. He loves you
and me. Fear not little flock.

It’s the Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom. We are
called at this time in our country not to worry or fret but be clear regarding who we are and
what we think and believe and what we do not accept and believe. Excuse me. I’m in America
and I can disagree with you. Excuse me. I don’t believe in that. I love you but don’t tell me
about that. I love my wife and kids and grandkids and church and an looking for a mission and
want to help people and live the way I learned to live by his grace. I’m not self-righteous at all
at the moment.

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.