Words are such powerful things. What manner of lips will we have? Our heart will determine this. Let us not allow words to drive wedges between us. Too much talk can make troubles. Let us edify. (Proverbs 10:12. 17-21)

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller, John Love
Sermon 12379
6:30 PM on 9/25/2022

P. Schaller –

Hello. Yes, praise the Lord! Tonight, is praise and worship also with P. Mark and Matt. Isn’t it great to have P.
Matt Roberge and Sarah and Bonnie and the band behind me. Wow. These guys are good,
aren’t they? It’s beautiful.

Just to change it up a little bit tonight, would you just turn around in your seat or lean forward
or whatever, 2 or 3. Make a little group. Maybe ten and just have some prayer together. You
can move around in the auditorium. We’ll give you five minutes. Make little groups and have
some prayer together. Encourage each other. Pray to Jesus. Amen. Jesus. Thank you, God. Jesus
is here. Praise you Lord. Drinking the same Spirit.

Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 12:13. Through the new birth and the Spirit of God in us, we are in
one Body and we have this spiritual life, connection, fellowship, oneness. By the way, P. Barry
and I go to Hungary tomorrow night. We fly for – we’ll be there one week and come back. You
guys will have a great time here without us but we’ll have our portion there hopefully. Pray for
us. We are one Body. Also, Eurocon and where will Eurocon be. We’ll be praying for that and
deciding very soon. Matt Gehret had a baby boy, his wife did. I don’t know if he’s here. P. Matt,
we are happy about that. We are one Body. Can I have my little folder there? The top one?
Vs. 13. We know this. This is a blessing for us in our church that we learned about Body life by
the cross, by the filling of the Spirit and we found it with each other. We give a lot of room to
each other without those five words we taught this morning in 1 Peter 2:1.

Because of being born again, we have learned to live a different way. And we avoid those things
that very much drive a wedge between people. That’s what I want to say tonight. I want to
speak about words. Words. And we’re going to do that and I asked P. Love to make some
comments at the end of the service on that subject.

Vs. 13. By the way, all the new people that are coming to church in the mornings and also
evenings, it’s so good to have you here. I’m encouraged by people looking for Christ, looking for
a fellowship, looking for the teaching of the Bible. What a great thing that is. Looking for the
love. Looking for God’s mind, God’s heart. The Bible to speak to my heart. I don’t even know
what I’m looking for but when I find it, I find it and it’s a treasure.

Vs. 13. Whether we are Jews or Gentiles, African immigrant, native American, old or young,
educated or not, wealthy or not, from there, from here, from Virginia Beach, from Harford
County, whatever. Vs. 13. Hungarian or Ukrainian, Turkish or Finnish, Chinese or American. The
marvel of our conferences is that when we gather, we drink the same Spirit. This glorifies God.
In the words of Jesus, it is the evidence that I came is the kind of love we have for each other.
How we talk. What we say to each other. What we do not say.

Go to 1 Peter 2 and we see those five words in chapter 2. In chapter 1, we have the new birth.
We have being born again, vs. 23. Born again of incorruptible seed of God’s word, the word of
the Lord. Vs. 25. Because of being born again and then the Spirit of God in us and the new
direction we have. Jesus is the way, the truth, the life. And then we learn words. We learn the
Word of God. We have the Word of God dwelling richly in us and because we are under a
pulpit, we get trained in how we think and how we talk. We are corrected in our thinking here
in chapter 2:1.

It really is saying get rid of these five things that are listed here. Get rid of them. Malice means
evil intention. Hoping the worst on another person. Another person has a new car. I hope that
and it’s a bad thought. They have a good job, a nice family. Or they are not married. They are
happy. They are happy people and you get this attitude and it’s malicious. So that’s that word in
that verse 1. Guile. Put it away. That’s the deceit. The way we can explain something two
different ways, put a spin on it and maybe mislead somebody in how they think. Maybe a
façade.

The hypocrisy, third word. hypocrisy is a big problem in religion. We make the effort so we give
the right projection. We give the right impression. We live in hypocrisy. We are spending a lot
of time on the outside wanting to give the right impression. But this isn’t needed because we
drink the same Spirit. We are Spirit filled. Out of our belly. We are pure in Spirit and heart. We
have our heart, our mind and words. Words. We’re honest. We are not misleading the best we
can by the grace of God. By being Spirit filled, there’s not a game. It’s real.

Why do I say this? Cause we just had a – I said it a few times marriage retreat. It was a women’s
seminar! We had a women’s seminar. We’ve gone through our summer. We’ve had
conferences. We went through covid. We went a lockdown with covid. We were on the rooftop
preaching. We’ve had all kinds of different things in the last years. We’ve been here about 17 or
18 years, us leading here. Us as a body from the 2005 period. And do you know how easy it is
for wedges to be driven between people? Do you know how easy it is for this thing to be bad?
I said that this morning. I met a family. They are new here. And they just wanted to talk to me.
They go when you said church can be bad, we’ve lived through that. And thank you for saying it.
And uh a lot of us know this.

We’re only a little bit far away from saying things that are not
edifying. Getting on track with something that is not from the Spirit. It’s not from the Holy
Spirit. It’s not edifying. It’s gossip. It has a sound of – it’s a sound of a complaint. It’s an
irritation. It’s something troubling you like behind your words is some irritation and you have to
say it. You have to attack. You have to say things and this is so common. It’s so common.
The reason I’m saying it is I don’t find that with us. You keep away from me! I don’t hear you
talking. In Hungary, because we didn’t understand the Hungarian language so much, we weren’t totally immersed in the culture like I am in America. I’m an American.

Wow That’s a blessing. I know what’s going on more. Actually, it’s not a blessing.
But I want to say this. I want to say it very clearly. I understand this thing. I understand it. I do. I
have seen it. I know the flesh. Don’t you? You know the flesh. If you go from vs. 1 to vs. 2.
Babes are fragile, vulnerable. They can get sick easily. They’re needy. They need milk. Vs. 2.
Sincere means pure. The Bible is like meat and also milk. You got to have it. You got to learn it.
I’m not kidding you. Your life will be on another level. You’ll be able to, you’ll be able to say
things. You’ll be able to encourage. You’ll be able to praise God when nothing is going on.
You’re able to live in faith. You’re able to see things that other people can’t see cause you live
in faith. Your able to love. It’s amazing. It is. It’s the Holy Spirit.

It’s Luke 11:13, if you lack the Holy Spirit, ask. If you ask for bread he'll not give you a stone. If you ask for the Holy Spirit, then he’ll give it to you. Meaning the filling of the Spirit, the influence of the Spirit. Okay.
Go to vs. 2. This is what happened to you and I. I’m explaining it to you. It’s true. It’s real. I’m
telling it to you. I know you know it. it’s real. It’s amazing. P. Topio over there. He’s from
Finland. This is an old story I told many times. We were in the office at [?]. I go let’s get in the
car and drive to the village and evangelize. He was there as a teenager. And he got saved and
here he is sitting in the congregation tonight 40 years later at least, 45 maybe. Whatever. He
knows and we know that we desire the pure milk of the Word. Not from people. Not from
people but from the heart of God. And what does it do? We grow thereby in vs. 2. We get a
new way of living. Not the first verse. That’s not the way to live. Verse 1 is not malice, not guile,
not hypocrisy, not envy and not evil speaking. No, we don’t need it.

Go now to Prov. 10. I want to finish up our word here and it’s really precious these verses. Vs.
12. Why are you saying that? Why is there strife? Why are fighting with me? Why are you angry
with me? Why are you stirring up strife? Has anyone ever had that in your home? Have you
ever had it in the kitchen? Have you ever said something that somehow you get in a fight over
something? Why are we even talking about this? Where is this even coming from?
I’ve taught it before it’s like a frog coming out of your mouth. Out comes a frog. Egypt was
filled with frogs. And sometimes when you are talking the room is full of frogs and they are all
coming out of your mouth. Where is that in the Bible? Isn’t it in Rev. 16? Out of the mouth of
the kings comes frogs. They are demons. They come out. It’s happened to me. Go ahead. Be
honest. Raise your hand. Go ahead. It’s happened to me.

Look at the verse. Where did the strife come from? It says in vs. 12 hatred. Hatred in the heart.
Jealousy in the heart. Envy in the heart. How many of us I said this morning the New England
Patriots won Superbowl after Superbowl and we started to hate them! Hated the New England
Patriots. Some people. Why is that guy always winning in the swimming Olympics? Why is he always winning the 48 gold medals? Michael Phelps right? Alright, so did he have any enemies?
Sure, he did. Jealousy.

How about a pastor who is successful somewhere in our country? And he’s being used of God
whether it’s a Billy Graham or a David Jeremiah. Whoever it might be. Is he hated? Of course.
Man is like this. He has envy, jealousy. How about in your neighborhood? Some neighbor you
don’t even know who they are. Somehow, they don’t like you. Does that happen? Those
wedges that are driven between people are real. The Bible is teaching us that that is not to
happen with you and I. We are not to have those thoughts. We are to have the sincere milk of
the Word. We are to look at things a certain way.

Go to the next verse. Vs. 17. I’m not going to say anything about that. I want you to lean over to
your neighbor and preach a message about that verse. Go ahead. You can do it. Bible teaching.
If you keep Bible teaching, the Bible is taught to you, if you have the sincere milk of the Word,
then you will be in the way of life. But if you refuse to be corrected, you refuse to face the
music, you refuse to have the truth to be corrected – I don’t want to hear it. I don’t want to
hear it. I’m doing it my own way. Then you err. Okay. That’s the message. You don’t have to
lean over to your neighbor now.

Go to the next one. Vs. 18. Oh, you look so wonderful today. You look so wonderful. That dress
look so good on you. You look so shiny, bright and shining. Look at vs. 18. I hide hatred. I hide it
with lying lips and then I utter a slander against you behind your back. I am a fool. I am a fool.
Please memorize that verse. It will speak to you.

I am a fool. I am not honest, not transparent, not Spirit filled, not edifying, not filled with the
Spirit, not in the Body of Christ, not drinking the Spirit of God. I am a fool. I am here but there is
no real change in my life. The way I talk. The way I am thinking, that process with jealousy, envy
and division. I attack the pastor, the elders, the trustees, the church, the people in it, the
women, the teachers. All kinds of things that happen because of the hearts of men. Those are
words. It’s amazing, isn’t it? okay. Take a break from me for one minute. When I start talking,
quiet down. Turn to your neighbor and just say what is he talking about. Help me understand
what the is saying. Go ahead.

Sorry. I got to shout it out. He is a fool! He is a fool! I got to shout it out. He is a fool! I have seen
them. I have met them. I have been with them. He is a fool. His reputation, the trust. He’s
walking on that side. You go to the other side of the street. He has lost friends. He has been in
the garbage can. He is a gossiper, a slanderer. Jesus Christ maybe saved his soul. Halleluiah I
hope so but the way he is living is not good. He has not found it. He doesn’t know it. But he just
yaps, talks, gossips, slanders. Why do you live in that? Why do you live in that? Why do you talk
like that? Why do you think like that? Because you are jealous. You want to destroy the guy that’s winning. You will crucify Jesus Christ just because of jealousy and envy. You will say
crucify him! Crucify him! And you don’t even know what you are doing.

Go to the next verse. These are a series. Look at vs. 20. No, vs. 19. Have you ever felt like you
talked too much? I have sinned. I think I went over my limit. In the multitude of words. There is
so much room for sin in all the talking that is going on. The layers behind the words and so on.
But he that refrains his lips is wise. What a lesson. Learn how to stop talking. Learn how to talk
and then stop in a timely way. Learn how to control your own mouth from a heart that is Spirit
filled.

Wow. What a lesson. Lord, help us. We got to stop right there and say a prayer. Oh, Jesus,
please help me. Help me, God. Right? What I say and how I say it and how we live and how we
edify.

I’m telling you; you can have a Spirit filled brother and that brother when you are around him,
you feel edified. You have a Spirit filled brother who is in love with Jesus, has a prayer life and
learns how to edify, that person is a great blessing to be with. You want to ride in the car with
him. You want to see him on the street. You want to be with him on the side walk. You want to
be with him in the cafe. You want to be with him in life. You want your kids to know him. You
want your grandkids to hang out with him or her because she just is a very loving, edifying, very
encouraging person. Isn’t that amazing? It does a lot of good.

Now, last one. No there’s two more, vs. 20-21. What do you need a wicked guy talking about?
What’s he talking about? He doesn’t have much value. He doesn’t have much to say. He doesn’t
have much value. He might be a great guy but he doesn’t have much to say. He doesn’t have –
there’s not a spirit of what, the spirit, the ministry of encouragement and of love.
Vs. 21. Could you say verse 21 out loud with me? Fools die because they lack wisdom. But the
lips of the righteous feed many. Let’s read it one more time. Have you ever had a thirty second
talk, one minute talk and you got something. You carry it away with you. That righteous man
fed me. That word that I got from that guy. That was a good word. I needed that. I needed that.
I was on a visit yesterday morning in White Marsh with Teddy and his family, and that man built
us up. That man is a Spirit filled guy. Boy, that was a lot of fun. The lips of the righteous feed
many. Okay.

I have one short story and I’m done. This is “My son had two daughters. One who’s five and one
who is in the terrible twos. The grandmother said the child is in the terrible twos. Believe me
she is. For several years, my son has taken the oldest girl out for a date time. But he’s never
taken the two year old until recently. On his first date with the younger one” – okay. Two year
old having a date with a two year old. Wow. That’s really young. “He took her out to breakfast
at a local fast food restaurant. They had just gotten their pancakes and my son decided it would be a good time to tell this little girl how much he loved and appreciated her. Jenny, I want you
to know how much I love you. How special you are to mom and me. We prayed for you for
years and now you are here and growing up to be such a wonderful girl. We are so proud of
you.

Once he said this, he stopped talking and reached for the fork and started to eat the pancakes.
He never got the fork in his mouth. His daughter reached out her little hand and laid it on his
father’s hand. His eyes went to hers and in a soft voice she said, daddy, longer daddy. Long. He
put down his fork and proceeded to tell her some more reasons in ways they loved and
appreciated her. Then he began. He wanted to eat the pancakes. A second time she said, more
daddy. More. Longer. Longer. Third time and a fourth time. He didn’t eat much that morning
but his daughter got the emotional nourishment she needed so much.” Cute little story, isn’t it.
More. Longer daddy. Longer.

Hey! That’s how I feel. We come; we are needing to be loved. I need the joy. Help me with my
joy. I need laughter. Help me with the laughter. Goof around with me. Help me live a life full
and satisfying. What we receive, we can in turn pour out to people. We are loved and
encouraged because of words. It’s so easy to tear people down and drive a wedge between
people. Do you know what he said about you? Do you know what she really thinks about you?
We all know that whole thing. That’s not us. No. We have something in us. We drink the Spirit
and we learn what that means. Amen. Alright. Let’s take the offering. (Prayer).

P. Love –

Amen. Jesus is all we need. Amen. I’d like to sing in that group if it’s possible. P. Tom
had a one liner. I could probably do that. I could squeeze that in without offending too many
people. (prayer).
In Matthew’s gospel chapter 12, Jesus said something interesting. Vs. 34. So, imagine going to a
doctor and explaining to the doctor what all of your symptoms were. Imagine the doctor only
addressing your symptoms and not the root problem. You might want to get a different doctor
especially if the nature of what he was treating you was serious. Let’s say you had a heart
condition and you know you felt a little tired and he said apparently all you need is a little more
rest. And in reality, maybe there was a serious condition behind that. We would want him to
treat the root cause.

It would be like you’re bleeding and you go to the doctor and he says just put a band aid on it.
And then it continues to bleed and it starts to bleed more profusely. You call him up. The
bleeding is getting worse. Well, use a bigger band aid. We might think to ourselves don’t you
really understand what my problem is.

I think what is so beautiful about coming to church is P. Schaller’s message a moment ago, he
wasn’t simply addressing our words. He was addressing our hearts. Because that’s the real issue, isn’ t it? Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Then Jesus a couple verses
later, vs. 37, listen to what the said. And when I read this for the first time as a young believer, I
thought I’m in a lot of trouble. It says by your words you’re justified and by your words you will
be condemned. I thought to myself, I’m condemned because I know what my words have been
like. We all know what our words have been like. We would all like to be able to say to people I
have never spoken an ill word, an unkind word, a critical word throughout my whole life except
now I just lied to you!

It’s kind of shocking when you hear either other people hear you or you hear other people that
are believers and maybe they don’t know you are around or they don’t know anybody is
present and they say something and it’s like wow! Shocking! But not really because we know
what’s in our hearts. When he said this, I was very concerned when I read this in vs. 37. I
thought my words the sum total of my words would not justify me. I thought was Jesus taking
issue with the Apostle Paul? Paul said a man is justified by faith in Romans 5:1.

I thought Jesus is saying something different but he wasn’t. He was speaking of the present
condition of a person’s heart. In other words, this doesn’t have anything to do with our being
justified in the sight of God. Because that is on the basis of faith in what Christ accomplished on
our behalf. The blood of Christ justifies us. But when we speak and our words are not consistent
with the mind of God and our words don’t build up and our words don’t edify, it reveals that
there is something wrong with the present condition of our souls. That’s all. It just means that
something is not right in the heart, and doesn’t God spend a lifetime with all of us dealing with
the issues that relate to our hearts.

He said to the children of Israel in Deuteronomy 8:2, the whole reason I brought you through the
wilderness was to prove you and to find out what was in your hearts. You could say the same
thing he is doing with our lives. Always testing our hearts. Always bringing to our attention if
there needs to be an adjustment, a grace adjustment. If something needs to be addressed.
When you think of James 3 and all that James said about the heart, it’s a fascinating chapter.
As we heard tonight, life and death, Proverbs 18:31. Life and death are in the power of the tongue.
We can wake up on any given day and with our tongues we can go out into our world and we
can kill people everywhere or we can bring life. We can minister to them. We can build them
up. I think as believers all of us, we are in the construction business. Amen. We spend a lifetime
building up other people. In fact, it has been a staple of this ministry for decades since it’s
beginning to build people up.

When people come into our ministry, they get built up. We are happy to see them. We
welcome them. We love them. That’s the nature of God’s people. I love what James said. James
said early on in that third chapter he says mark this down. You have found a mature believer
when you discover someone who controls their tongue. I love that. He goes on. So many things.

The tongue is a restless evil. He says the poison of asps is under the tongue. We know it’s a
restless evil because so many people talk in their sleep, right? My wife does that sometimes,
and it wakes me up. Sometimes she’s carrying on a conversation. And at times, my name is
mentioned in it! so, I wake up and I hear her saying something. I want to draw a few things out
of her. What did he do? What did he say? Are you upset with him? Do you like him? Because
she’s talking in her sleep! And sometimes the conversation goes on until the next thing I hear is:
what are you doing? I was like, oh, nothing. You were just talking in your sleep and I was trying
to get you back to sleep! It’s a restless evil!

As you keep going in that third chapter in the book of James, listen to what it says. James says
we can train wild animals. We can train tigers. We can take wild animals and we can
domesticate them. We can control them. It’s incredible. And then he says this and I think this is
a liberating word from God. He says but the tongue, no one can tame. You think to yourself
there’s no hope.

No, it’s just God’s way of saying you can’t do it but I can do it for you. Any more than you can
save yourself or cleanse your own sins. Or redeem your own life. Those things are impossible.
He also says right along with that is you can’t tame your tongue which means it is so vital we
are filled with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can control our tongue. The Holy Spirit can make
sure we edify one another. Build up the hearers. So, thank God for the church. Because the
church is God’s encouragement zone.

We can take that encouragement zone and we can take it home. Our home can become the
encouragement zone. We can take it to work. And the workplace becomes the encouragement
zone. We can take it to school and the school room becomes the encouragement sone. Because
everywhere we go, we can bring this construction business with us. We can build up. We can
edify. We can minister grace to the hearers.

Long ago, I think we all learned our tongues we can’t control them. God says what you can’t
control I can. Yield your members as instruments of righteousness and you’ll see what a
difference I can make even with your tongue.

The tongue – it’s so interesting that third chapter in James. The Greek word is MICRON. It is the
micron member but it has the power to do the megala damage. Can’t control it. God says that’s
why you need me. That’s why you need to be filled with the Spirit. And the psalmist, – I’ll close
with this – he says in Psalm 141:3, he says Lord set a watch over my mouth and keep the door of
my lips. Doesn’t that say it right there? Set a watch. You think of a watch you think of
something that is being guarded. God says you need a watch over you mouth. Keep the door of
your lips. And above all else, guard your heart for out of it come the issues of life. Amen. Amen.

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