There is much empty religion in our world. It serves the outer man, the natural, surface part of the person. Spirit of the Lord brings liberty. A ministry is given to us. We give and go by faith. The Great commission brings power, message, purpose, and results. (2 Corinthians 3:6-7, 13-14; 2 Corinthians 4:1-7; Romans 7:25)

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12414
11:00 AM on 11/27/2022

P. Schaller –

Morning. This is a special Sunday. Missions. I want to just show you one short thing as we introduce our theme
today, 2 Corinthians 3. The inner man. 2 Corinthians 4, world missions. World missions. First the inner man
and that will be one part of our lesson this morning. The inner man. Outer man and inner man
and then what do we do with it? Where does it go?

In a word, it’s like this: Here’s you and I and we have, God touches us. God affects our life. God
speaks to us. God delivers us. We are regenerated. God is real for us in the inner man. I’ll put a
heart here. Then we have the world and we are in the world. So, two parts. The inner life, what
happens, and then our mission. Our mission is connected with what happens in our hearts. That
will be our theme this morning. Welcome, P. Steve. (Children singing and then Faith Promise
video).

P. Gary Groenewold –

Okay. As you know, today we are talking about missions and part of
missions is giving. People go by faith and we can also give by faith. That’s why we have this
program. See my shirt. We have a program called Faith Promise. And this is our coined or label
for giving to missions. What it is. Faith Promise is a method of giving. It’s a heart of giving. It’s
giving to missions. It’s not your offering, okay. It’s not your tithe. This is something above and
beyond. This is something you don’t have. It’s something where you believe like P. Schaller was
talking about in the inner life.

I was telling the earlier message, the widow’s mite, she gave because she knew somebody. She
believed in something. She had a relationship. She believed in who Christ was and Christ saw
her respond to that. It wasn’t based on what she had. In Faith Promise, it’s not about – the left
hand doesn’t have to know what the righteous right hand is doing. It just gives because it
believes that this is where God is faithful. This is the way God works.

And we have missionaries, we have churches, we have over 700 churches. Over 750 churches
and this is done by us. Our little gifts, our widow mites. And we give. We give on a consistent,
regular basis. And we see God’s faithfulness as we become a part of this. Just like Stan and
Doug. They’re friends. This work for P. Doug has become personal, wherever P. Stan has gone
throughout the world. It becomes personal.

If I can say anything, I would love the church to be personal for you. I give to this person. I
follow this person on the Wings of Glory or when he comes for Convention, I follow him. I think
about this country. I pray for this country. I care about this city, this place. I love the way this
person ministers and I give to them. She went out and I want to support her. I believe she’s
living by faith. You get intimate personally with missions. The left hand doesn’t know what the
right hand is doing. And the right hand just gives. That’s what Faith Promise is.

Maybe like monthly – challenge yourself. Forget about why you said no before. And there’s
ways to give. You can come out and see me after service. I got these. You can make a pledge on
here. But sometimes it has to be physical. You have to go to the computer and go on the
website and you make a pledge. There’s a way there to make it recurring. There’s a whole list
there. You go to “specific” and you see a whole list of missionaries. You can give to them on a
recurring basis, a monthly basis, a biweekly basis, every two months, every six months. You can
give. Let it become personal to us. This Great Commission.

Or you can give to the general fund. Maybe you say I have a group that meets and money is
given to the greatest need, whatever it is around the world for whatever project it is, whatever
conference it is, whatever the need is. We decided what is the greatest need and we designate
money to different areas. It’s for the gospel’s sake. We just want to encourage you to give. On
your Church Center ap, if you have that, it’s easy to go there and make a donation the same
way. You make a recurring gift. You can set up Faith Promise that way. We just want to
encourage you to do that. We only do this twice a year. Don’t let it slip by this year. Make a
sacrifice. Do without something. Let’s go for it.

You say who needs it? Everybody needs it. I had a guy this last service, he just wanted to
become a part of it. He said, where do they need it most? I said, I want you to become
personal. I’m going to make him personal with where he’s supported. And if I can help anybody
do that if it feels impersonal. I want to make it personal for you so you know where you are
supporting and where your money is going and you feel just like these two. It becomes personal
for the giver. You know you’re on that team. See me afterwards if you want any connection
with that. You want to know where it goes or how it goes. See me or of course you can do it on
your phone or you can do it on the website, okay? Thank you very much.

P. Schaller –

Okay. You may be seated. How many of you had a good Thanksgiving holiday?
Enjoyed it. Family. Yes. Good time. And what a nice season. All through December there will be
all kinds of – here we’ll have the children’s music concert. GGCA. In January, there is a play from
the school. Just stay connected and there will be caroling on the street also. I think there’s ten
or fifteen different groups. P. Jason. If you want to join in, let’s say you live in Parkville and you
just say, I wonder when in Parkville they’re going to be singing? So, we have a schedule and you
can jump in and join. If you are a good singer, we need you. If you’re not a good singer, stay
home! No! If you are not a good singer, come anyway cause I’m an example of that! Jesus came
into the world and he is real. He is for everybody in the world.

There is something in your heart and in your mind that you have to process and that is, is Christ
the only way to God? Is he the only Savior? Is there some other way? God will teach you and
guide you in understanding this subject, but it’s very important because he came. No one like
him. He did something no one could have ever done unless he was God. God did this for us.

We have the first point up on our screen here is inside you, in you, inside you, what is it that
you have. Turn to 2 Corinthians We will give some definition here. We have a man. We have a man or
a woman with the outer man and the outer man is where usually people live. This is a term
used at the end of Romans 7. We have it here too in principle. We have people living by their
natural preferences, capacities, intelligences, their natural disposition, their culture, their
natural self. The outer man.

When Jesus came into the world, he told us you need to lose your life. If you lose your life, you
will gain it. What does it mean losing my life? I have a natural love for my family, for life itself
perhaps. My aptitude for mathematics or language or music or art. My personality. My life. The
life that you and live is a natural life. We call it the outer man. But if the outer man is broken,
that means that we bring our natural self before God and we are submitted to God. Then the
inner man, this heart that I just drew in the middle here, this is where you really live. The inner
man or the spiritual man.

When I became a believer, I became very interested in this understanding because I wanted
God to be real in my life. I didn’t think it was a function of personality. I felt it was deeper. It’s
something more. It’s the Holy Spirit. It’s the reality of God in your life, in your heart. It’s love.
The love of God in your heart, Romans 5:5. Also, wisdom. It’s understanding. Let’s read the text
here. Chapter 3 and we have Paul describing this to the Corinthians and he talks about the
letter kills.

Look at vs. 6. Of the letter. What does that mean? The letter? Let’s put this down here. The
letter. I’ll put here of the law. Letter. What does he compare it to? The letter of the law in
distinction to the Spirit, vs. 6. You see, you can quote the Ten Commandments and someone
hearing the law and the letter of the law, it kills you, condemns you. You are guilty. You don’t
have life. Maybe you don’t want to hear it. You don’t want religion.

I don’t want really religion in one meaning of the word. Religion. There’s a lot of religion in the
world. There’s a lot of religion in the Christian world, the Islamic world, the Buddhist world. The
Hindu world. There is a lot of letter. Letter of the law or on the outside, the outer man being
religious. But inside he’s empty. Inside there’s no life. There’s no change. There’s nothing inside
in his heart. Paul said we are ministers not of the letter but of the Spirit. We are ministers of
life. We have love, joy, liberty.

Then he explains how it is. He says here in this chapter he uses Moses and says that Moses had
the glory of God on his face but he had a veil over his face. Do we have a jacket over there. P.
Eugene, come on. Bring it up. In 9:00, we used his jacket. We used it as a veil. Thank you. So, we
have Jewish people looking at Moses and Moses’ face is glorious and he had a veil over his face
so you couldn’t see the glory of God. This is a metaphor of what happens in our lives.

There is Christ. But it’s almost like I can’t see Jesus really. I see the veil. But I see the outer man or I see
the veil. I can’t see beyond the veil.
I think it happens with our church. We have a church here. Our fellowship. People come in.
They might not see what is really here. How about with somebody that you know in the Lord
and you know them and you can’t see their inner man who they really are cause there is a veil
there.

And also, how about when you read the Bible? It might be when you read the Bible, there is a
veil over the Bible. And you can’t see the Messiah. You can’t see the purpose. You don’t see the
plan. You don’t see God when you read the Bible. You live your life. You can’t see God as you
live your life. Drive your car on the beltway. Get home. Eat out of the refrigerator. Watch some
news. Fall asleep. You don’t see God. You don’t see God. You believe in God but you don’t see
much. This is very common for all of us.

Let’s read the text. Chapter 3:13, Meaning the law. They couldn’t see the point. Vs. 14. Minds
were blinded. How much of that happens in our lives, you know. So, we turn to the Lord. We
turn to the Lord not to our outer man. We turn to the Lord by faith. We humble ourselves
before the Lord and we say I don’t know. I can’t see. Help me. Open up my heart and my mind.
Fill me with your Spirit. If you’d like to just make a quick turn to Rom. 7. We got the screen so
you don’t need to turn. Let’s put it up on the screen.

Vs. 25. Do you see that? I think Romans 7 is a great chapter on that. It would help you if you
want to read that today. Go back to 2 Corinthians 3:14. The Jew is reading the Old Testament, it’s just
like this. They’re reading the Old Testament but they can’t see. They don’t see the Messiah.
They don’t believe Jesus is the Messiah. If you read Isaiah 53, – often when I meet a Jewish person
and we get to talk a little bit, I say would you do me a favor? Would you read Isaiah 53 when
you get home? And often they say, yeah, I can do that. Read Isaiah 53. So, that’s just a, you
know, and pray for them. When they turn to the Lord, the veil is taken away.

It happened to the Apostle Paul when the Apostle Paul saw Jesus on the road to Damascus and
he was blind for three days. And we just implicitly understand that Paul knowing the Scripture,
the Scriptures opened up to him and he became a mighty believer.
Okay. Go to chapter 3:15-16. This is a very cool thing. This is on my heart. Actually, my heart
gets hard sometimes. I get cynical or unbelieving or hard hearted. There’s a veil. I can’t see the
Spirit, the glory of God. I don’t see God. I don’t see him in my heart, in my life. This is the
meaning of the text cause it says it. Read it with me, chapter 3:16. It means when you turn to
the Lord, the veil shall be taken away.

What happens? Vs. 17. Let’s put here this big word, “liberty.” What do you mean? It means the
greatest problem we have as people is our sin. When we are free, we are free from our sin. We
have liberty. The Spirit is the Spirit of liberty. You are free. It is real. You are not pretending. It’s
not artificial. It’s genuine. It’s God. The Spirit of God in you and you have liberty. You don’t have
to prove anything. You are free. You are not in bondage. You’re not afraid. You have liberty. The
Spirit of the Lord, there is liberty, Acts. 2 at Pentecost.

When the Spirit came on the church in Jerusalem where Jesus had been crucified. There was a
lot of reason to be afraid but they weren’t afraid. They had courage. They had faith. They had
liberty. They could preach in front of their enemies. They had joy. So, this is what we all want to
happen in our lives. We want this to be real for us.

Look at vs. 18. What does it mean, “open face.” Like open face. Right? What does it mean?
Actually, I think of it this way. Halloween is when you wear a mask and for some people, every
day is Halloween! They’re always wearing a mask. Always we are putting on our best
projection. Or giving the impression. It’s like hypocrisy. We are showing that we are good but
inside we are somehow struggling. Maybe we give the impression of happiness like Thailand I
think is the land of 10,000 smiles or something like this. They smile a lot. It’s beautiful actually.
But what’s happening really inside.

So, when you have an open face, it means you are open face before God. And the face of God
inside changes you. You are released. The inner man is released cause you are broken. The
outer man is broken and you are released in your ministry. You have life. You have love. You’re
quiet. You are wise. You are real. You are free. You are changed.

Look at vs. 18. I think of the mirror being the Bible. We look at the Bible. Remember the Jews
reading the Bible like this, the veil is there. But there’s no mirror. There’s nothing there
reflecting back to you. But when the veil is taken away, one lady said to me this morning at the
door, she said I want to tell you since I’ve been coming to this church, I’ve been reading my
Bible and I love my Bible. She said since I’ve been coming here, my Bible is speaking to me. It
was a good word to hear. Awesome to hear that.

Well, why? Because vs. 18 says. We are not with a Halloween mask before God but we took it
off. We are broken. We admit. We are submitting. We are before him and we are looking into
the Bible and we are seeing the glory of the Lord and we are changed into the same image from
glory to glory even by the Spirit of the Lord. We have something going on. I like to say it that
way. You have something going on inside. So, there’s the outer man but then you have your
inner man and there’s something going on. It’s joy. It’s life. It’s ministry. You have it. This is
normal for us. We have it. We have something quietly or forcefully, really happening inside in
our hearts.

Coach Lynch had an alumni and Jen, an alumni games at the gym on Tuesday. I think he told me
there were a hundred young guys that came out to play basketball on Tuesday night. They
know in their hearts. They know. A lot of them know what this is. They have seen it. And you
know, when we are in church this is why we come because there is the hope that there’s
something going on inside in my heart. The outer man isn’t satisfied.

What about the outer man? What is he doing? He’s socializing. He’s shopping. He’s talking. He
goes to the pub. He’s lonely. He’s looking for relationship. He’s – the outer man is smart or not.
He has a job or not. He’s depressed or not motivated. He has an outer man and people live with
the outer man governing their life. And it’s not satisfying. It doesn’t satisfy. No, what we have
found is Jesus. We found Jesus.

So therefore, chapter 4:1. I’ll put here “ministry.” Many expressions of the ministry. It’s the
Spirit that is in your heart and you have a ministry. You might say I’m not a pastor or I’m not in
the ministry. Yeah, but you have a ministry. You have one. You have a ministry from what you
see. From what you see, the glory of God. Then you speak from there. You live from there. You
have something going on for your lifetime. You have a ministry. You have an influence. You
have something in your heart.

You can think about the rest of the world and say, you know, I really believe that people in
Vietnam really need what I have. What I have I really believe they need what I have. But I don’t
think I’ll be so concerned about missions unless really have something that’s worth giving away,
worth ministering. Unless I have what Jesus came to give me, then if I went somewhere what
would I have to give them? We have. That’s why graduates from our school and people from
our church go to different countries by faith. They go by faith. How did this life happen inside in
your heart? It was a life of faith.

Let’s read the text here. Vs. 1. I’ve tried to quit to be honest. I have. Early in my Christian life I
tried to quit. I couldn’t. I didn’t. Who has this message? Who can talk to me like Jesus can talk
to me? Who can help me like Jesus can help me? Who are these people that have a ministry?
Where could I go to have so much fun without alcohol? I don’t want to spend my money on
alcohol or pay the consequences otherwise or become a fool or throw my life away or get
married two or three times maybe because alcohol ruined my first or second marriage. Or a car
crash or any other thing. As you can tell, I’m totally against it. Alcohol.

I’d like to say just to not lose the main point and that is when you find it, you can’t replace it. A
bottle of beer won’t do it. A new girlfriend won’t do it. A new job won’t do it. Moving to Florida
won’t do it. It’s got to be deeper than Florida. Deeper than a girlfriend. It’s got to be deeper. It’s
got to be deeper than your life my life. It’s got to be the inner man.

When we have the inner man – look at vs. 1. We don’t faint. I tried to quit, but where will I go?
You have the words of eternal life. You quit for a little while but there’s nothing as exciting as a
life where we will follow Jesus and Jesus will be personal with you. Remember when Jesus said
to the disciples, I’m going to go away. They said right away, we’re going with you. Cause this
guy is so cool. He is so awesome. He is so filled with life. It’s such an adventure. I don’t want to
live without you. You’re the one. You are the guy. You are God. How about that? Isn’t that
amazing? That’s amazing.

Why would it be any different from the first century? Why wouldn’t in the 21 st century we have
the same thing going on in our hearts? I love my church. I love my Bible. I love the adventure. I
love the faith. I love the presence of God. I love who Jesus is. I love the mission. I love the
purpose of it. I love the authority of it. I love the liberty that is in it. it’s all good.

Vs. 2. And you got to renounce the things that you do at 2:00 in the morning. I’m not trying to
be cute about it. I want to be serious about it. There are things that are done in darkness
behind closed doors on the phone or on the social media or whatever it is that is done in
darkness. I read in Roman history that this historian his name is Juvenile (?). Another scholar
wrote about it. This one woman in Roman times you could get divorced so easily, she was on
her 24 th husband. Twenty fourth and she was married to a guy who had been married 25 times!
Yeah. That’s the way it was in a pagan world.

That’s where we are going, sisters and brothers. That’s where our country is going. It’s into neo-
paganism. It’s a perverted world but we are Christians. We are different. I don’t apologize for it.
We are part of it. The greatest civilization that has ever existed. We are people with character.
We are people with conviction and we renounce the hidden things done in secret. We
renounce them. We don’t have any part with them because I have an inner man who is holy.
Amen. The inner man that is moving that sees the glory of God. You see the wisdom of God and
you renounce the hidden things of dishonesty.

By the way, there is a book written by William Barclay called, “Ethics in a Permissive Society.”
That’s where I read that. “Ethics in a Permissive Society.” Very interesting historical view of how
we are different. And this is written 1971. We are 50 years beyond it and it applies even more. I
want to preach from there sometimes about having sex with your wife. After you are married,
you have sex with your wife. Your girlfriend becomes your wife and only then. Only then. No
premarital sex. No living together. No, that’s not Christian. We are Christians.

What are you talking about? You are – no. We have an inner man. I’m serious. That inner man
has a sense of God and God teaches him how to live. How to renounce the things that are
dishonest, immoral. We are different. And by the way, maybe I don’t want to be different but I
am. I am. You are, too. We are different. Enjoy it. I don’t know about you; I’m enjoying the
difference. They are suffering. We are enjoying the presence of Almighty God who is a holy

God, an awesome God, living God, who is the God of our joy, our freedom, our peace and our
wisdom. That will come in the future that message.
Let’s go to the mission here. Go down to vs. 3. And there are people who could care less about
what we are preaching about today. It’s amazing how they live like lemmings following one
another over the cliff. It’s amazing how we have a herd instinct and we go with the group.
What’s cool. What’s popular. Oh, it’s so easy and to many of them the gospel is hid. But if
you’ve eaten poison long enough, you might be looking for some good food. If you’ve been
deceived long enough or you are proud. We as people are proud and arrogant and live long
enough in our arrogance, we may open our hearts to God and say God teach me. Give it to me.
Whatever you got, show it to me.

Virginity. You are for virginity. That a man and a woman they would be virgins and get married
as virgins. I want to hear about it. That is so unusual in a pagan culture. So unusual in the 21 st
century. But no. That is what I want to hear. I want to hear about it. I want you to teach me
about it. I want to see something in life that is bigger than ourselves and our sin. Yeah.
So, vs. 4. Wow. That’s quite a message, isn’t it? Who is the god of this world. It says “god”
doesn’t it? Small g. Some little god. God of this world. Who is the little god of this world? It is
Satan. A fallen angel who has a lot of power and can blind people’s minds. They are blind to the
light of the glorious gospel of Christ. Vs. 4. What do we do? We are living in this world. They
don’t see what you see.

Let me finish up here. They don’t see. The world does not see what you see. What do they see?
They see the veil, right? They see Jesus. Who was Jesus? He was a prophet. That’s all that he
was. No, he was the Son of God. They read; they look at the Bible. What is this? I don’t
understand any of it. I don’t really care about it. They can’t see it.

What do you see? Do you see it? You are the Son of the living God. Christ you are the Son – who
does the world say? You are Elijah or Jeremiah or a prophet. But who do you say I – you are the
Son of the living God. Flesh and blood did not show that to you but my Father in heaven
showed that to you. You keep that. That’s precious. You see me. You understand this. I want to
send you into the world. I want you to go into the highways and byways. I want you to go to
central Asia. I want you to go to China and Korea and Japan. I want you to go to Africa and India
and Latin America and North America. I want you to go.

Yeah, but what if I go, what will you do? I will guide you. I will empower you. If they receive you,
they receive me. “As the Father sent me, I sent you.” Open your mouth. I will fill it, Psalm 82:10. I
will anoint you. You’ll have power. This is it. I want to share this. What will happen? The Great
Commission. This one. The Great Commission. Go into all the world. I am with you with great
power. You’ll have a great message, the forgiveness of sin. I’ll deliver people from demons. I’ll cast demons out of people. We have seen that happen. You’ll have great purpose in your life.

You’re bringing the message of Christ into the world that will change a life. Great results. And it
is a great secret. People don’t see it. People don’t see the value of it.
But by God’s grace, we do. We do it in Baltimore. We do it at the Timonium Fair, the state fair.
We do it in Dundalk. We do it in Havre de Grace and Cumberland. Up in Pennsylvania. Florida.
No wait. In Los Vegas. Chicago. No, wait. Canada. Mexico. We do it in Columbia. Argentina. No,
wait. Africa. Ghana. Sierra Leone. Zambia. Botswana. Really? Yes. People have gone. India. Asia.
Central Asia.

And what do you do when you come back? You just say what is in my heart is real and it works
for them and they need it. They need a church. They need a pastor. They need answer to
prayer. They need help in their families. They need the freedom; the liberty and they have
found it in Jesus Christ and they continue in it because they also would like to get out of it but
where would I go? How can I get out of it? It is God.

I’d rather be with God on the corner of a housetop than in a big banquet hall with unbelievers.
I’d rather be one day in the courts of God, one day as a doorkeeper than 10,000 with the tents
of the wicked. There are people that are in unbelief that have nothing other than the outer
man. And they cannot see the glory of God. You and I have been called to something deeper
and by that we have a ministry and we care about others. So that’s it. Would you pray with me,
please.

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.