Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12266
11:00 AM on 3/13/2022

P. Schaller –

Yes, good word. Good song. Thank you. Awesome. Great. Good morning. We’re going to have a good message
this morning. I really believe that. We had at 9:00 and I just believe it’s going to minister to our
hearts a lot. I know that. I believe that. I’m excited about it. Praise the Lord!
Thanks for your prayers regarding Poland. Ukrainians are immigrating or looking for refuge.
Thanks for your love, prayers, support. Money has been gathered. Medical supplies have been
given, donated. A lot of good stuff is going on. We’re going to Poland for our Eurocon
conference. It’s been cancelled two years because of covid, so we haven’t met the European
churches in Greater Grace haven’t met for three years.

Two Eurocon’s, so that’s three years. We are excited about it and anticipate the Spirit ministering to us and encouraging us. We continue on in our good works, good efforts, our evangelism, our outreaches, our meetings, our
youth ministry, counseling, and ministry of all kinds. Thank you for your love and prayers. Some
of you don’t know, but we have been in Europe for a long time now, more than 40 years and
God has done a lot of good things. And also in the former Soviet Union, 1990 we moved to
Hungary and started a work. In a ten-year period, we planted churches in 24 former Soviet bloc
cities. There was Uzbekistan where P. Glen Cannon and Pete Westera are visiting in Tashkent
today. They were in Baku yesterday and the day before. We have in Tyumen, Siberia; Moscow,
St. Petersburg; Bishkek Kyrgyzstan; Ashkhabad, Turkmenistan.

All of this is home for us because we lived there and worked there during that ten-year period and saw God move. We believe God’s not done. He’s working and he’s on the move, not only over there as far as Pakistan,
Afghanistan, Tajikistan, but here in America where we really need what we are going to share
this morning.

I’d like to start the service this morning by asking you to stand and have a good attitude and be
really awake and have a good spirit of thanksgiving and praise, and just stand and say halleluiah
to the Lord. Halleluiah! Halleluiah! Hey, I got a good attitude today. Turn to your neighbor and
say, hey! I got a good attitude! You may be seated. P. Knight, good to see you. Awesome. And
the whole family. Wow! The Colby family, the Knight family. Deuteronomy 30, we’re going to go a little bit
slow, bit by bit, but I need your attention. I want to teach here and have you think with me. We
are going to cover something about hypocrisy and explain that to you, teach about what that is,
and then also the gospel of grace. I want you to look at Deuteronomy 30:6.

Circumcision was a Jewish tradition that started with Abraham who believed God. When
Abraham believed God, he was saved. That’s Genesis 15. He believed God and it was imputed for
him for righteousness. When you hear that phrase “imputed righteousness,” that means he was
saved. Justified. Made righteous. Forgiven. Made righteous. So, later he was circumcised.
Circumcision in the anatomy of the human body for males, circumcision with a knife affecting
his reproductive organ. Okay. That has a meaning to it. On the outside, it’s a symbol that he is
different. Gentiles were not circumcised. Jews were. Jews were circumcised. It meant that they
were a Jew. They were different. They were marked. They were different. They’re flesh was cut.

But here it says there is another kind. It’s not of the flesh. It’s of the heart. If you take the same
idea that God changes me in my heart, that he cuts my heart so to speak or changes my heart
so that, – look at vs. 6. To what? Love the Lord thy God, vs. 6. Now, we could draw a picture.
We’ll use the sermon. Here’s a Jew. That’s his outward. This is the outer flesh, the outer man,
his flesh. But in him is in his heart. This is inward. Circumcision in the flesh is one thing, but
circumcision in the heart to love God from the heart, that’s the new birth. That’s meaning God
gave me a heart, a different one. Mark. 7:21-23, there’s a list of 13 things, bad things that come
out of my heart. I’m a sinner. We think sinful things.

Stealing, lying, deceit, treachery, adultery, dishonesty, blasphemy. That’s from my heart, but then the new heart love God, love righteousness, love truth. This is the new life. Which is a Jew? Is a Jew just a man that is
circumcised in his flesh and that’s enough or is a Jew somebody circumcised in their heart?
Turn to Rom. 2 for the answer to that question. Rom. 2:28, I’ll have you talk to your neighbor
too for a minute as we look at this. So, if you don’t like your neighbor, you can move! No, you
can look down at the ground. I told you to have a good attitude! Chapter 2:28, do you see that?
He is not a Jew which is one outwardly. Using our picture here, here is the outward man
circumcised and he says I’m a Jew. Paul would say just because you’re a Jew outwardly doesn’t
make you a Jew because a Jew is somebody who has it inwardly. That’s what he’s saying here.
Let’s look at it. Vs. 28-29. Let’s put here in our diagram this man has praise of men and also of
the letter. We’ll explain that in a second. The letter. Vs. 29.

I’ll put over here the heart and the spirit, not of the letter. This is praise of God, right? Praise of
God. How did you get your new heart? God. What do you mean? I got a new heart. It came
from God. Glory be to God! God gave me a new life. He gave me a new heart. But you’re not a
Jew. Are you circumcised in the flesh? No, that’s not Rom. 2:28-29. That’s not really the point is
the flesh because there are people who walk around and say I am a Jew, circumcised. I know
the Bible. I have the letter of the Bible. I know the Bible. Jesus comes to those people and Jesus
says to them, do you love? Do you forgive? Do you have joy? Do you care? Do you have a
heart? Do you have a heart for God and God’s people and for the world? And so, they in their
like we can all do this, we go to the outer form. Translated in our language we could say, I go to
church. Leave me alone. I read my Bible. I’ve found people I talk to on the street. I’ve read my
Bible. I’ve read it three times. Don’t talk to me about the Bible.

I read the Bible. Woe! It’s like there is a form of religion and this form of religion is what some people prefer. They
may want it that way. They may want the form but we have to ask the question, wait a minute.
God’s not interested in the external form and our pride, our religious pride and our hypocrisy
where we give the impression of how good people we are and how we obey or we do the right
thing. But inside in my heart, I don’t have any power over my heart. I have the old heart. I have a heart that is doing secretly things. I don’t have the joy or the love. I don’t have the power. I
have the form, but I don’t have the power. That’s what we are speaking about today.

Turn with me to – go back to Romans 2:28-29. I’ll read it and then you talk to your neighbor about
it for a minute. Could you say I’m not a Jew but I am a Jew? Could you say that? I sometimes say
that to people on the street. I am a spiritual Jew, or to somebody I’m talking to. Oh, you’re
Jewish. I am a Jew also. I am a spiritual Jew, Romans 2:29. They don’t know the Bible of course like
you do. I’m just saying it says that here. Vs. 29. Remember the Jews were very proud of the
Bible knowledge they had and how they understood it. Jesus said if you knew my Father, you
would know me and you would know the Scripture that they speak of me. But you don’t know
my Father and you don’t know. So, he was very tough with these people because they were
glorying in their religion. They were glorying in their religion, and that happens to us. Yes, us
too. It happens to us. Somehow we become proud of our image, about how we behave or how
we speak and how much we know but then Jesus is saying it’s not outward. It’s inward. That’s
the life of the Spirit and grace, the gospel message.

Let’s talk about this for another minute here. I told you you could talk to your neighbor about it
so go ahead. You can say to your neighbor, what’s P. Schaller talking about? What are you
hearing him saying? What’s he saying? I’m impressed how much you like to talk! Woe! Alright.
Turn now to Galatians  1. Part of what I want to say today is dealing with this outer man picture. The
outward and how we gravitate to the outward. We gravitate to how you see me, how I behave,
what type of a Christian am I, how you see me as a Christian. We gravitate to the outward. But
we also know life is also lived – before people, the outward impression is important, by the
way. There are some people that buy a certain car because they want to give an impression. Or
the clothes we wear or the way we look. These things are a big part of life for people. Where
did you go on vacation? How much money do you make? Where did you graduate from school?
What part of the city do you live in?

All of these things that are on the outside. For many people, they are so important. They are very important and in a religious way, too. Like what impressions do I give to people and what do I have from them. It’s outward.
But that’s not why Jesus came. Jesus came to go to – he said to the Pharisees, you wash the
outside of the plate. It was Luke 22. You’re washing the outside. Luke 21:44 I think, but inside
it’s filthy. You are like graves. They used to color their graves like in Haiti they do that. They
paint the tombstones. They have these graveyards with these colorful colors of paint, but inside
are dead men’s bones. He said that to the Pharisees. He said you are people that are occupied
with the outward, but I came that you would be born again and you would have a new heart.
Now you would have love in your heart. Jesus was shocked when he saw how cold and hard
hearted the people were when he healed on the Sabbath.

He became angry in Mark. 3. He was very angry. There was a man with a withered hand in the synagogue and he could feel it in the atmosphere. The Jews were there watching. Are you going to heal him on the Sabbath? And
Jesus told the man come forward. And the man – it looks like, I read maybe Kenneth Wuest on
it. The man really didn’t want to be out. He knew he could be a showcase. Jesus said, stretch
forth your hand and he did and it was healed. The Jewish religious people were angry about it.
What? You’re angry cause I heal a man’s hand? I heal. If you had a sheep in a ditch on the
Sabbath, wouldn’t you pull him out? How much more this daughter of Abraham. Another
miracle. Daughter of Abraham is healed.

So, we must live our faith from our heart. That’s why sometimes when we do our duty, we
check our hearts. Am I doing it before men or am I doing it before God? Because hypocrisy is a
common thing in all of our hearts. Hypocrisy. I love you but I don’t. I say it but do I? I have to
check my heart. God knows if I do, what my motives are. In our world, we have all these
artificial materials for building houses if you’ve noticed. Houses are built out of plastic pieces
and furniture sometimes – like yesterday I was at my son’s house, and there was a coffee table.
I go that looks like it’s marble. He goes, I doubt it. Jewelry. There’s pasty jewelry. Pearls made of
paste or whatever. Gold that is spray painted gold and what’s real amongst us. Is there
mahogany? Marble? Is there gold? Is there silver? What is real?

Listen. You are real. You are real. That’s amazing. Are you? Yes, you are. How did it happen? He
gave you a heart, a new heart by grace. That’s this life, so we aren’t living in hypocrisy. We are
living in the Spirit in the grace of God and truth in the inner man. You meditate on it, relate to
it. It touches your spirit. You are alive to it. You come here to listen to the Bible cause you know
the Bible is the word of life. That life resonates with you in your new heart. You say go ahead.
Keep preaching, pastor. I’m listening to you. I get it. Yes, Amen. I understand that. Thank you.
That’s encouraging to me. That’s a sound of truth. That’s what I’m looking for in an artificial
world of hypocrisy and emptiness where people say things but they can’t do them. That’s like
all of us except for the new birth. There is a very, very, very awesome thing happening in your
life and that is your heart is alive unto God. That’s amazing. Okay.

Let’s go to Galatians here. We have the churches in Galatia have heard the gospel and have
received a new heart and been born again and now a false teacher has come to them. Let me
explain to you the false teacher. The Jews were – the man on the right who is circumcised also
as a Jew followed dietary laws. Did he eat shrimp? No. Did he eat Maryland crab, blue crab? No.
Maine lobsters? Portuguese eel? Did he eat those foods? Did he drink blood? No. Jews couldn’t
do that. They were not to do that. They had dietary laws. They had religious law. They had
ceremonial law. They had moral law. They had civil law. More than 600 laws and they followed
them and obeyed them if they were dedicated people. So, they could become proud about how
they obeyed and did the law. That’s on this side. But was it in their heart?

You see, David in the Old Testament was an example of a man who had it in his heart. Where
did he get it? God gave it to him. Create in me a clean heart. Renew a right spirit in me. David is an example of a New Testament believer. He’s an example of a man who understood law, but
he understood law this way. Behind the law, is love. If I don’t love, then I’m not keeping the
law. I may keep the letter of the law. I might be circumcised. I may not be eating lobster. I’m
living by the letter of the law, but I don’t know love. I don’t know love. I become a hard,
religious person without love. You and I are focusing on God and his love. The Galatians had
that but they went to this. They were removed from the gospel of grace and they moved to law.
Paul said I marvel. It means like I’m amazed that you so soon.

I have the text here. Let’s go to Galatians 1:6. “so soon” – I have a Greek study on this from this
commentary. “So soon” – the Greek word can mean either easily or quickly. So soon removed.
That means easily you have moved from grace. You easily moved to this one and what was the
message of this other gospel? It was be circumcised. Keep the law of Moses. That’s what you
should do as a Christian. Where did the teachers come from? They came from Jerusalem. What
was their label? They were called Judaizers. Did they believe in Christ? Yes. But they believed if
you believed in Christ, you were to keep the law. So, they went north to Turkey, in Galatia and
they were teaching these churches that you must keep the law. And Paul said after he had been
there as a missionary on his first trip and then he was gone, and then he gets word that these
people have moved. They have moved in their minds and now living by formality, by outward
structure and behavior and not by the Spirit. That’s in Galatians 3.

Go to chapter 1:6. It means easily and also quickly turned aside. The word turning aside or
removed, the Greek word was used of military desertion which was punishable by death. The
form of this Greek verb means that the Galatian believers were voluntarily deserting grace to
pursue the legalism taught by the false teachers. Galatians 5:4.
Could I see this happening? I have seen it happen that people would rather live in some simple
structure or form of Christianity instead of the life of Christianity. They would prefer a simple
form that they can do by their flesh. I can do that. I can be a good guy. I want to be a good guy.
That’s all I need. I just want to be a good guy. I want to read my Bible, go to church, and be a
good guy.

That’s all I need, but we know that you can do it on the outside but what are you
doing secretly? What’s coming out of your heart? What kinds of sins are coming out of your
heart secretly? Is there the pride of man? Is there the sexual addiction? Is there lust or hunger?
Is there some secret sin that I have going on in my life but I don’t talk about it? I give the
impression that everything is good, but actually Paul says you should stand in the grace for the
grace is what sets you free. The message of the gospel is what changes your life. The ministry of
the Holy Spirit is what you’re hungry for. The Holy Spirit and your new heart is where you really
live.

So, we – he was amazed that this could happen. I am not. I have seen people get tired in life
and they just say I am a Christian. Let me just do this. I am a good guy. I can just do this. And
they kind of keep their behavior, and their public image is like this but inside there is a straight jacket. Inside there is legalism. Or inside, there is liberalism. What’s the? Sensuality. Inside it’s
dull and sometimes passionate and there is a kind of emptiness in the heart of man. “There is a
way that seems right to a man but the end thereof is death.” There’s a longing for truth but at
the same time a preservation of my self-life. I can do this. I’m going to do this. Prov. 3:5 says
“trust in the Lord with all your heart and don’t lean on your own understanding. In all your
ways acknowledge him.” It means in all the things that we do; we can go to our private prayer
closet and we can just say Lord, I am empty.

I am needy. I trust you. Please fill me with your Spirit. Please, put it in my heart. I’m tired of the words. I’m tired of the action. I’m tired of pretending. I’m tired. There are people that leave a church because they say I’m tired of
pretending. I’m tired of pretending. I can’t do this. I don’t want to pretend. We want to say to
them and to all of us, I agree. I don’t want to pretend. I want it to be real. I want Jesus to fill me
with the Spirit and speak to my heart. I want to be quiet before him and believe him and trust
him and bring it back to me and encourage me and refresh me.

Listen to this. This new life that you and I have, this new heart, is really characterized by liberty.
It’s John. 8:32-36. It’s liberty. Real liberty. Hypocrites, they can’t handle liberty. Hypocrites are
afraid to be exposed. A man of liberty doesn’t have that fear. I am what I am by the grace of
God. You are free in your spirit, in your heart. You have real freedom. It’s a paradox because in
the world, they think our Christianity binds us. They think, oh! What a terrible way to live. They
are Christians. They can’t do this and they can’t do that. They think they have the only way to
heaven. They think that Jesus is the only way to heaven. Oh, the Christians. And they carry
those big, black books. Oh, the Christians. If you do something wrong, they will be on your case!
Christians. It’s a straight jacket. Their creativity is destroyed. Their lives are so narrow. They are
so judgmental. They are so nasty.

You know, they could be right. There are those kind. They gossip. They talk about each other.
They accuse each other. They judge each other. That’s the world of hypocrisy that actually –
Paul said it to the Galatians. Be careful if you are judging one another like you are, that you
don’t bite and devour each other. Meaning actually like biting and eating up each other. If
you’ve ever been in a legalistic church, that is a disaster. It’s not fun. I don’t like it. I’m not
there. I don’t care about it. I don’t care about that form that us as arrogant people have the
praise of men. The praise of men. What do men say about you? I don’t care what men say
about me. What do men say about you? What’s your reputation? Are you kidding me? Is that
our target? Our reputation? What people say about us?

Not when you have found that Holy Spirit that fills you and ministers to your heart and you
found wonderful things from God in the Word. When you have found joy in life and freedom
personally, freedom from sin. That’s what the hypocrite doesn’t have. He has a form and he
protects but he doesn’t have inside a liberty from sin. But you have. You have. How do we know
that? “Stand fast tin the liberty wherein Christ has made you free, and be not entangled again
with the yoke of bondage.” I can go back to that. I can go back to that.

The minute I’m too concerned about my outer life and the impressions that I give and all of that kind of that thing.
When we are afraid of being exposed, when we can’t talk about things that are open and
transparent, when we are afraid and try to protect our reputation and so on, and we can get
some idea I want God to be deeper in my life. I want God – I will not be afraid. We will have the
praise of God and not the praise of men. God will honor you. You pray in secret and he rewards
you openly. You have a spiritual life and you have freedom with each other. You don’t have to
protect yourself. You don’t have to sound self-righteous. You don’t have to worry about what
the world is saying or the world is doing. Because when you have the freedom, that freedom is
2 Corinthians 3. It’s where the presence of the Lord is, there is liberty. We grow in the liberty from
glory to glory. We behold in the mirror the face and we are changed from glory to glory and you
are satisfied.

Let me finish up with saying this. This life is the satisfying one. Are you in a straight jacket? No.
if I live in sin, I’m in a straight jacket. But if we live in Christ and we do because it’s been given to
us. We are free. Free to sing. Free to listen. Free not to defend ourselves. Free to care. Free to
find God’s love coming out of our hearts, Romans 5:5. We are free to follow Jesus and trust him.
We are free people. We have found this deep liberty. We don’t have to live in hypocrisy, not
have to live in it but we don’t automatically live in a form of godliness that has hypocrisy but we
have the real mahogany, the real marble, the real gold. Not the plastic pieces. Not the artificial.
Not the spray-painted gold. I found the spray-painted gold can. I thought that’s fantastic. I can
fool everybody! Take 2 X 4’s and spray paint them. I can fool everybody but not God. I can fool
everybody but not myself.

How did Lincoln say it? You can fool some of the people some of the time, right? And some of
the people all the time but you can’t fool all the people all the time. It’s going to come out. It
will be seen. Who are we? We are by God’s grace crucified with Christ, nevertheless we live, yet
not I but Christ lives within me. The life I now live I live by the faith of the son of God. I do not
frustrate the grace of God. Let’s talk about that in closing. Grace of God. I frustrate it by not
hearing it, not receiving it, not wanting it. I am so hurt by what happened. I’ve been offended
by people. I’ve been offended by the church. I’ve been offended by my friends. I am hurt and I
refuse, I refuse to receive the grace of God. And by the way, I am circumcised and I haven’t had
shrimp for years and I have been obeying the law. By the way, my name, the Pharisees know
my name. I made it to the top list. And that’s who I am. Paul is saying I have been there. You are
an empty guy. I know who you are. I have been there. That’s not the gospel.

The gospel is reality. It’s where you are living as a sinner. It’s when God is loving you as you are
and given you a new heart. It’s where the Holy Spirit is flowing in you and out of you. It’s when
you know the truth and you hear it and go, yes! Amen. God is for me and not against me. And
that love and that liberty is what Jesus had when he was in Jerusalem. He came in on a donkey.
He looked around and saw what is really going on. He said my Father’s house is not a den of
thieves and robbers but that’s what you made it into cause you are people that are – you miss the whole thing. You have missed the whole thing. You have no idea who I am and what I have
come for. What was it? Fifty days later, Pentecost came and the Holy Spirit came all over that
place and they were just saying Jesus is raised from the dead and the church was born.

That is our history, heritage as Christians. That’s what we are looking for. That’s what we have.
And by the way, do not be turned aside by some artificial thing. That’s not the real mahogany.
That’s not the real gold. That’s not the real marble. You look for it and find it. When the Holy
Spirit is saying to you in your heart amen and you are opening your Bible and understanding
how to live the life, then you’ll have the fluctuation. I have it. I know about it. I know what this
hypocrisy and emptiness is as I do the right thing. As I do the right thing but then I check my
heart before God and say, Lord, you know. I’m going through the motions but I need you.
Please fill me with your Spirit and speak to my heart and build me up cause I don’t want to do
this without you showing me and teaching me how to live this new way.

Amen.