God knows our state after the Fall. He came all the way to us. The unspeakable gift of salvation was offered to all who were lost. Sin is a liar. The Word of Scripture is our possession, our pleasure, our protection, our promise, and our purifier. (Psalm 19, Psalm 84)

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12973
Date: 2025-08-10
Time: Sun 11:00 am

 

P. Schaller –

Wow. What a great worship, huh? Great group. Beautiful. Let’s turn to Gal. 4 just as an introductory thought
here for our message. I was traveling years ago up in Massachusetts on a back road and I was
speeding. Yes, I was speeding. Apparently, cuz the state police pulled me over. And I was sitting
in my car. Lights were on. I mean, you know. So, I’m waiting for him to walk up the window.
Anybody been there before? A couple people. God bless you. Let me ask you. Has that ever
happened to you before? Do you want to raise your hand? Get more honest people.
So, I was praying in my car thinking of mercy, you know. And he gave me. Of course, he didn’t
hear my prayer.

The Lord did. And then what happened? He gave me a warning and good
words. So, that’s mercy. Okay. That’s mercy.
But then, this didn’t happen but hypothetically, what would have happened if he pulled out his
wallet and he said this isn’t from the state of Maryland. This is from me. I want to give you
$100. What would that be called? Grace. Theologically, we say grace. That’s when you get
something you didn’t deserve. What I did deserve was a ticket. I deserved a ticket but I didn’t
get it. He gave me mercy but added to that he gave me $100 out of his own heart for whatever.
He just did it. That would be grace.

Now, listen. When God, when God gave us his Son, there were two things. One was the penalty
for our sins was death. The penalty for our sin is severe. It’s a severe penalty. It’s separation
from God. And if we die in this lifetime without, without him, then we pass into eternity
without him. That’s the end game of our sin is eternal. It’s eternal.

So, that was removed when Jesus died to take our sins away. But there’s more. When he was
raised, now comes that great grace part where not only has he removed my sin and the
penalty, but now he has given me his Son and put me somewhere. I don’t deserve to be there. I
never paid for it. I couldn’t earn it. I could never get it on my own. None of this could be gotten
by me, but it’s called, it’s all by grace, Romans 5:2. We are standing in that grace. That our name is
in the book of life. Not only am I a forgiven sinner, but now we are a sanctified saint. That now
you are in the family.

So, this is in Galatians 4 just to read this portion. Short. We have the example of Hagar and Sarah in
vs. 21 and that’s where we will teach from today. Vs. 27. Who is the desolate one is Sarah.
What does it mean? She had no children. Couldn’t have children. She’s 90 years old when the
Lord gave promise and she had a child and she had more because in Isaac is a nation and a
covenant and promise. And today, Israeli passports exist. Israeli people are here in the world.
They are the children that came from Abraham by promise. And they are more than the one
who could bear children, Hagar.

And the meaning of it is fantastic but I just want to make a point to you. I hope it encourages
you that you are saved by the Son of God who bought us. Shed his blood to atone for our sin.
And then has imputed to us righteousness.

Remember Adam in the Garden of Eden. He was – Adam in the Garden of Eden, he sinned and
that was kind of the end. And he never, he never made it. He never ate at the tree of life. Adam
left the Garden and he never found what was there in the garden for him was more than just
being an innocent man. It was the righteousness of God. It was the living Christ. It was the tree
of life which he never got to.

But when Jesus came, Jesus had that. He had the Father. The Father and he were one and he
had a ministry. That ministry is now ours. We are with him and in him and that has changed our
lives. Wow! Okay.

We had a camp in Africa this past week in Uganda and some hundreds of children came to
Camp Life Africa. Boiling Springs church did it with a joint effort from here and they did a great
job. Liz and Micah Orsey serving food and others. Marian Frankenhauser. So, we have a short
video just to share with you for you to kind of see what happened there. (Video).
There’s Kyle and Deb. Is that correct? Is it? And Deb, next to you? I can’t hear. What? Is that
Rene? Really? That’s amazing. Thank you for being here. So, my son, Kyle and his wife Deb and
then Deb’s dad, Rene, from Virginia is here this morning. Wow. Thank you for coming. That’s
amazing. Great. Beautiful.

All right. A couple principles. The first one is very simple. Very profound and it has to do with
salvation. The gift of God. What God did for us and how it is the Gospel and how that is distinct
from religion. So, we have a little picture that we draw. A very simple diagram for the difference
between the Gospel and religion.

So, we have a starting point in our teaching and that is by nature generally people are religious.
Generally, 96% of the world’s population believes in God. But who is their God and how do you
please God? This is written in us by nature. Like we believe in God. There must be some God. I
don’t know who he is. Where is that in the Bible? The woman at the well. Jesus said to her,
John 4:22, you worship but you don’t know what. You worship on this mountain. You worship
here but you don’t know what. That’s very common.

People are worshipping but they are worshipping the unknown God of Acts 17. It happened in Greece, in Athens, when Paul was on Mars Hill. The Unknown God. He is the one I will declare unto you. I want to tell you who he is.
And that is Jesus Christ. That’s Paul’s message in Acts 17.
So, what makes up religion. Here it is. It’s very simple. There’s two diagrams here. One is the
unknown God people believe in and then there is a ladder or stairs like this.

A person that is walking up making some progress by way of some sacrifice or some dedication. So, you have
two elements in it. You have time and then you have some labor or dedication or sacrifice. This
is religion. I will pay something. I will do something. The eight pillars of Buddhism. The five
pillars of Islam. And in Christianity also, people have the idea of paying. That I would pay
something. That I would be dedicated or I would read my Bible a lot or say prayers often and so
on. I would go to Rome, the Vatican or I would do some dedication. I would be paying. Maybe I
would be a missionary or I would be very dedicated for weeks and months and years and
sacrifice. This is very typical. It’s in our life. It’s in our way of thinking but it’s not the Gospel. It’s
not the Gospel.

The Gospel is not us paying, serving, earning, being rewarded. God being impressed with our
effort, our sincerity, our dedication and so on. That is not the Gospel. The Gospel is this one.
We have God and we have a sinner. And the sinner is not holy. The sinner is defiled. The sinner
is without God. He lost God in the Garden of Eden. He lost God.

He actually has three things about him in his nature. He is afraid of God. He is ashamed because
he’s naked and covers himself with fig leaves. And he’s guilty. He’s afraid. He’s ashamed. And
he’s guilty. An anthropologist or you’re interesting in those things, it’s interesting. Every
culture, in the three main parts of the world, we have Asia. They have a problem with shame.
We have Africa. There’s a problem with fear. And we have the West. We have a problem with
guilt. If you want to remember it that way. In the West, we are guilty. In Africa, we are afraid. In
Asia, we’re ashamed. And personally, between you and me, I’m all three of them. We all are.
I’m afraid. I’m ashamed. And I’m guilty.

So, when it comes to God I feel like I should pay something. I should earn something. I also feel
like I should hide. I’m afraid of God. Actually, I might be afraid of life. I might be afraid of death.
I’m afraid of failure. I might be afraid of what other people say about me. I’m afraid of my
reputation being bad. I'm afraid of people talking about me. I’m afraid in life. I may not want to
live my life because of the Fall. This is called the Fall. The sin of man has made man this way.
So, how can man find God? We read in the Scripture that he can’t. That his heart is deceitful.
That he’s under the curse of sin. That his life goes a certain way.

Left to himself, he doesn’t come to the living God. Yes, he has God. Yes, he has God but it’s kind of like I tell this short
story. I’ve said it before. I have my apartment and I have a picture of my mother on the wall.
And I love my mother and I have a picture of my mother on the wall. And she’s there and I in
my heart I love her. I respect her. My mother is there. Then the doorbell rings. I look through
the little peep hole. It’s my mother. Now, it’s different.

When I have a picture of my mom and in my heart, I’m loving my mom, but now I’m going to
have mom in my house. Now, I’m going to – mom is going to be present. Mom is coming into my house. People are like that with God. They have God there in the frame, but when God rings
the doorbell and God is there, do I want him? What’s the answer?

I would say many people do want God. I would say that’s at the heart of our evangelism. We
are looking for those people. Actually, we have a Polish brother, Mariusz. Rodger Stanger met
him in Poland in Krakow years ago. Just he’s a university student. And Rodger said, what are
you doing? He’s walking in the street. A stranger. What are you doing? And he answered, I’m
looking for God. Rodger led him to the Lord and this is 40 years ago. He’s a pastor in Gdansk.
But that’s a beautiful story.

There are people that want to know God. They are being drawn, John. 6:44. Nobody can come to
me except the Father draw him. There are people like Zacchaeus up in the tree that want to see
Jesus and Jesus said, Come down. We’re going to have lunch together. And that man’s life was
changed. We heard it from Zane this morning at 9:00 in Cambodia. A great salvation story. This
was last week.

And then Vietnam. Another beautiful story. Those people are here. They want to hear not
about this – they don’t know what they want to hear. They don’t know what it is. It’s like the
state trooper like giving you mercy plus giving you – that will never happen but when it comes
to God, that’s the way God is. God is the God of all grace and he has a ministry to you and I. A
personal ministry of grace to us. So, this is the Gospel.

God knows this about us so he came to us. He came to us all the way. He came to save us. And
he did it all. All of it. Everything. He paid. All of it. It’s the ultimate message. It’s on another
level. It’s not religion in the typical way in the way I’m putting it this morning. It’s extraordinary.
It’s called an unspeakable gift. It’s the exceeding riches of his grace. It’s beyond us. It’s the gift,
the ultimate gift of God given to us when we were lost without strength and when we were
sinners and he came.

What did he do exactly? Well, he lived with us and then, of course, when he died, that’s where
God and man meet. Let’s turn to Psalm 84. Sorry, wait a minute. Psalm 85:10-11, this could be
in different ways. Mercy and truth. You see, you have to have truth. God is the God of truth but
he is also the God of mercy. And where did they meet? Where did truth and mercy meet? You
could say they met at the cross. Because the truth is sin has to be judged. And when Jesus is
there on the cross, there’s truth and mercy. They meet together there.

God is saying I cannot just forgive you. You know how we do that in our culture. Like we just
forgive people. Forgive. Forgive. But somebody has to pay. Like I loan my car out to somebody.
They take my car. Wreck half of my car. Half of the car is like scraped along a wall and with a
flat tire and they drive it back to me and say, Thanks for the car. Goodbye.

Okay. Who is going to pay? Who will pay? And the guy is saying, Thanks so much. I appreciate
it. I say, truth will say somebody has to pay. And he goes, Thank you very much. See you later.
Thanks for the mercy. And you give him mercy. You say go and have a good day. Don’t worry
about it. I will pay. My insurance will pay. I will pay.

Truth is there has to be a payment. There has to be a payment for our sin. There has to be a
payment for my lying. You know who pays when my car is wrecked? My wife. Lisa will say,
Where is the car? It’s over there. I got to go to the store. You can use the bicycle. She goes, I
have to use a bicycle? Yeah, apparently. You have to pay. Lisa has to pay. She has to pay by
using the bicycle.

That’s the way sin is. Like we don’t really realize what it is. But it’s like extremely, severely
affecting our lives. Because truth is truth. And you know, let’s say an adulterous affair lands on
your table. Somebody is very interested in you. You also have some connection with that
person. And then they’re like inviting you into a relationship that is sinful. Who is going to pay?
My family will pay. I will pay. That person pays. There’s truth.

Because anything outside of the order of the universe that God made is a lie. Sin is a lie. It’s
outside of God’s mind. Sin is not in the mind of God. This adultery is not in accordance with
God’s reality. God is not an adulterer. He doesn’t teach it. He does not embrace it but the
human heart does, so the truth is we suffer. And we end up paying in our life for the sins that
we commit.

But when Jesus came, he is truth. He never sinned. He never – he is truth hanging on the cross
and the Father said I will judge you and I will give mercy to them. I will give them mercy. I will
even when you are raised from the dead, I will even raise them. Because you see, you and I
have already been raised from the dead in Christ, Romans 6.

We died with him and we were raised with him and we are also seated in heavenly places with
him while we are sitting in Baltimore. We are seated in heavenly places, Ephesians 2:6. We are
seated with him. We are raised with him. We have died with him. This is the Gospel. This is the
grace of God. This is God’s mind. This is reality.

And a lot of people say that’s nice thinking. That’s fine. But that doesn’t really affect my life and
we’re saying it does. It is reality. Walk by faith in it. Embrace it.
It says something more there in that text. Mercy and truth are met together and I am saying
they met together I think through Christ’s life all the time. Christ is with the Father. They met
together in Christ. All the time, there is truth and mercy together meeting. God with the Son
and in you and I. Truth and mercy meet together.

By the way, you’re going to have a hard time in this church sometime because we’re going to
say something that’s going to offend you because it’s true. And you might not like it but don’t
bolt out the door. Like relax and receive truth and mercy and truth will meet together in your
heart. You’ll say that’s true. And mercy will say, amen. Here I am.

I am the God of all mercy. I am the one to comfort you. I am the one that made you godly. I am
the one that is going to help you. I am the one that is going to give you comfort and lead you in
prayer and faith and you’re going to trust me. When you get offended by truth, don’t bolt out
the door and react against God but receive it. Embrace it. It will protect you.

I have five words for what the Word of God does for you. I have a slide. You can put it up now.
Okay. This is what the Bible says it in Psalm 19. I’m a little bit ahead but I’m just speaking
extemporaneously the way we preach here. So, Lord help me! Okay.

This is so interesting. The Bible in Psalm 19 says it’s like gold. It’s a possession. The Bible is like –
can you imagine having a block of gold in your pocket or a block of gold under your bed or in
the attic. I lived in Sweden one time and in the old house, it was a newspaper from 1944. World
War II was going on, and there was a box of sugar wrapped in the paper. In the war time, sugar
was rare. And I was thinking about a war and about that Swedish house and that history is kind
of fascinating.

Can you imagine having a block of gold in your possession? That’s like this book. This book is a
treasure. It’s like gold it says. Let’s look up – I think we have to use the other screen. Put up Ps.
19:10. What is they? The Scripture. The Scriptures. More to be desired. Like you want it. This is
the work of grace in your new life cuz you are born of God. You have the Spirit of God in you.
You have a new heart. So, you have more to be desired than gold, vs. 10.

Then the next word is pleasure. Sweeter than honey and the honeycomb. Pleasure. It’s kind of
– we got the mouth and tasting. You mean the Bible, you can actually have pleasure in the
Bible? Have pleasure in the Scripture? That it’s like honey in your mouth? It’s like a comparison.
A treasure of gold is hard. That’s hard value. And then the pleasure. I experience it in my
mouth. I taste it. That’s the Bible. Actually, the Bible? Yes. That’s what the Bible is. That’s what
happens with us. Cuz we have been born of God.

Okay. The next verse, vs. 11. Go back to that slide with the list. We have it’s a possession, it’s a
pleasure, it’s warning or protection. It will warn me. This is what the Bible does. It’s a warning.
You know, the skull and bones on an electrical box is a warning. Poison. Medications. Too much
poisons. Warning on cigarettes. Warning label. Warnings on your car on the dashboard.
Warnings by mail. A citation. Warnings.

What is the Bible? It’s helping me live my life. It’s helping me make my decisions. It’s helping me
how to live with God’s mind. God’s reality. ‘Cause when I violate God’s reality, I suffer. But with
the Gospel, there’s something new.

And to use our sketch here, when Jesus came, he came and took us up. He took us to God and
there’s no price that we pay. He paid the price. Now, the Bible is speaking to us these doctrines
and I understand the value of the Bible. I understand salvation. I understand the grace. I
understand the nature of God. Actually, I’m starting to enjoy it. I’m actually enjoying my faith. I
actually have a pleasure about it in my heart. There is something that is happening by God’s
grace in your life.

You’re saying, yeah. That’s what I want. Here’s one other part here. Promise and purifier. So,
we have promise and purifier. What does the Word do? It’s at the end there. Go back to the
Scripture, Psalm 19:12. It’s like I have some secret problem. Or I have something secret I don’t
understand totally.

It’s like with my car and those lights come on and you don’t know why. And you take it to a
mechanic and he plugs in the electrical, and they read the – I forget what it’s called – they read
the diagnostic test. They read it and they tell you what is wrong with your car and how to reset
those lights on your dash if everything goes right anyway.

How can my life, how can my secret errors – maybe the things that I don’t really understand
about myself. How can they be corrected? How can those things about my life and I don’t really
care to know about them to be honest because maybe they are buried in me somehow.
But I know if I can take the objective Word and meditate on this Word, I know and you know
that Christ is born in you and that you have a fellowship with God, and God will cleanse me
from my secret errors. Isn’t that amazing?

Like my indifference. Maybe the Lord will show me and help me and fill me and move me so I
am not lazy or indifferent or I don’t care anymore. I notice that in my life. It happens to all of us.
Sometimes we are indifferent about life. But I want to be engaged. I mean, do you really want
to be engaged? No. I’d like to check out but it might be and this is what Christ is in you, that you
have this desire to be an overcomer. You have a new life where you are able to live your life
fuller.

It says in John 10, Jesus came to give us abundant life. Abundant life. Like invest your talent.
Remember? I bury my talent. I knew you were hard. I buried my talent, Mt. 25, Luke 19. I buried
it. The Lord said, why did you bury it? You know that I want a return. I want you to invest. I
want you to be engaged. I want you to take a risk. I want you to do something and believe me
and trust me. Yeah. I don’t know how that can happen. I know how. It’s I get this Word governing my life. It’s Prov. 4. We’ll look at that in a minute and I want to finish up here in a
minute.

Go to the next verse, vs. 13-14. This is big here. It’s all good but, I mean. Vs. 14. So, what’s he
saying? My meditation might be, to be honest, might be rubbish. They say in Britain. Rubbish.
Trash. My meditation might be filled with me, my fears, my doubts. My meditation might be
filled with shame. Filled with all kinds of stuff. What if my meditation was different? What if my
meditation was truth in the inner man? What if my meditation was Christ’s Word is able to
build me up and speak to my heart, and I have my meditation acceptable by God? How can this
happen? It’s from the Scripture here.

This is the counsel. P. Stevens used to say to us you came to church and this is your counseling
session. But you don’t have to go to the psychiatrist because you come to the church and you
get your counsel. Or you go to a counselor. You may. He’s not meaning that and he would say
that. If you need help, you get help. We get help.

But we also have something going on in our life that is beyond us. We not only have a natural
life but we have something more. Cuz mercy and truth have met together and we are in a
fellowship with the God of truth and the God of mercy. The God of truth is holding me
accountable, but the mercy is holding me and saying I am with you. I am for you.

Just like that state trooper in that hypothetical case. Half of it is hypothetical. He’s giving me a
warning. Thank you for the mercy. But also, I am more for you than you could ever imagine. I
am your God. I am the God of all grace. I am God that will uphold you and underneath are my
everlasting arms. I will lead you in and out. I will give you abundant life. I will hold you. I will
give you counsel. I will direct your life. You will be an overcomer. And you will not be the tail
but you will be the head.

And you know that probably in Deuteronomy 13. We’ll finish with that. And it is there is a snake and how
does the snake govern itself? By the head. And when you are the head, you are deciding.
What’s the tail doing? Tail is just following the head. It doesn’t have any option. If you are the
tail, somebody else is governing your life. You are the tail. You are subject to some other head
here, right?

And the Lord said to the Jewish people, if you will follow me, you will not be the tail. You will be
the head. You will not be borrowing money. You will be loaning money out. You will be the
head. You will not be in the prison. You’ll be the jailor of the prison. Joseph. You’ll not be
hanging on a cross dying because the world kills you, but you will be raised from the dead and
there will be an empty tomb. You will be the head. You will be the King of Kings and the Lord of
Lords.

Now, what about us? Well, he’s saying the same. I did not make you that you would be subject
to all of these problems of shame and fear and guilt. That you would be the tail. Get down
there. Stay down there. But, no. I will give you the mind of Christ. I will give you the faith. I will
fill you with my Spirit. I will govern you and lead you so that you will have an impact in this
world because you will just be abiding in my reality. My reality is the ultimate life that we live.
We fail but we have him.

Okay. So, Bible school starts in a few weeks. Come and use your time like that if you can. Think
about it and pray about it and learn. A great way to spend time. Great way to meet new people.
A great way to be in the environment of the faith. Great way to be with people that are learning
to be the head and not the tail. Great way to walk in life victorious and to learn this Word.
Let’s put those words up one more time lastly as we close. The Scripture that you are learning
and have your Word. Put it in your heart, because it is gold. It’s honey. It will warn you. It will
uphold you and it will purify you. That’s what it will do. Okay. Amen. Would you pray with me,
please?

 

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