Jesus was given all things into His hands. He came from above and He knows where He’s going. The world is in bad shape and needs our words and life. We don’t stay capsized, we get righted. Proverbs 24:16; Ephesians 2:1-4; John 13:1-4

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12274
11:00 AM on 3/27/2022

P. Schaller –

Good morning. The anointing of God is the presence of God in our lives and in the assembly we gather in
Christ’s name and we anticipate the Holy Spirit to minister to us. All of the ministers in the
church, we all pray that our ministry would be anointed of God. What a difference it makes.
We have a play. These are the dates, and this is a yard sign, lawn sign, so you can take it. We
got one of them! No, maybe we have 200 of them. And they are at the foyer and you can grab
one and put it in your yard. I want to do that. The play because it’s written by P. Steve. He
wrote the play. Our people are doing the play. And it’s really quality. Every year we do it and
you can actually get in the play. You actually feel that you are in the play. It’s so real. It is
anointed of God.

Tell your neighbors, if you want to bring them or tell them about it. Tell them
now and they can plan for these couple weeks from now when the play will be going on. We
invite them and we want to pack out the room every night. Most importantly, we want the
anointing of God to speak to every heart and love them, encourage them, teach them, and that
they would realize that there’s more to life than just my natural life.

This is an introduction so turn to Prov. 16 with me please. Our theme today is humility. I mean
Proverbs 24:16. I had it reversed for some reason. Humility. A capsized boat. Do we have a picture
of a capsized boat we can put up for everybody to look at before we read that? Okay. That’s a
capsized boat, but the good news is it is connected to the shore line so you can flip it over. But
that’s one picture. Anybody sailing here? Anybody sail? Boating? Sailing? Anybody? Okay. One.
Two. What are those called? Land lovers. I’m not going out there! I’m not going out there! Then
there are boats that are designed so that if they flip over, they right themselves automatically
by the proportion of weight and the way it’s designed. So, it can roll over. A boat can actually be
incapsulated and it can roll over and come back up. So, I want to use it as an illustration. There
it is. The Thunder something? Do you know the name of it? Thunder Boat! Thunder Boat! It’s
not going down.

Now, Brian Lange, P. Lange, has a sister, Donna, who sailed around the world by herself.
Circumnavigated the whole world in a sailboat and it was designed so that if it rolled over in a
storm, it would come back up. I remember him saying to me she rolled it two times in the
Indian Ocean on her way to Australia in a storm. Very tough seas. Anyway, I want to use that
picture for this proverb.

Read Proverbs 24:16 with me. That will be our subject for this morning. Why do some people fall
and they never get back up? They just continue in mischief. Why are some people when they
fall, they just go into more trouble and more trouble and they are in mischief? They’re in
quicksand or they are in despair or isolation or loneliness or depression. How come they can’t
flip back up? Why can’t they get up? It’s a good question, isn’t it? There’s a lot to say about it.

In my primary message is that Christ is the reason why we come back up. Because this is God.
God. And of his fullness we have all received. All of us? Yeah. All of us who are born again, we
have received him, a new heart, new spirit, new nature. The nature of man leaving man to
himself, he’s very cunning, very clever, very capable. But when he goes over, you can’t be sure
if he’ ll come back. He may try. He may come back for a little while, but then he’s over again.
And he ultimately can’t. He stays in mischief cause he has nothing but himself. He has only
himself. Whether that is good or bad stuff, it’s only himself.

When you and I are born again and when we fall, we come back. We come back and fall again.
Seven times. We’re back. We never, never – we fall but we are not utterly cast down. We
stumble but we don’t ultimately go down because we are born of Christ. And the world –
remember how vigorously the world went against Christ and crucified him. What happened? He
came back up. This is God. “I’m not strong enough.” I’m not saying it’s about how strong you
are. It’s about him. It’s about him. “Yeah, but I’m not a religious person.” I know. We aren’t. But
we are born of him and he dwells in us and we have his new heart. We have a new heart and
it’s his heart in Ezekiel 36:26. So, this will be a great message today. I believe it will help us.
I want to speak to all the hurting people in the world. Everybody. Every hurting person in the
world and for myself as well to hear what this means and why Christ what he gave us and what
it means in our lives. So, let’s pray for the message. (Prayer).

Yesterday, I was talking to someone who works in a mall. They were telling me about how
people could come into the store – this did happen. They just took goods or merchandise away
and walked away with it. They were instructed in the store not to stop them. Because of the
fear of confrontation maybe, for security reasons or whatever.

The thought comes to my mind in our country is there lawlessness? In 2 Thessalonians 2, if you want to
make a note for your own study. Every believer should know that chapter, 2 Thessalonians 2 because it
speaks about the mystery of iniquity or another word, of lawlessness. Defunding the police.
Letting criminals go free. Not arresting criminals or charging them for criminal behavior. It’s
strange, but this is the age and it is a mystery that lawlessness would be dominating in our
western society in the United States. But there are other mysteries that we should know about
in the Bible. One of them is that the Jewish people would read the Bible and not see Jesus
Christ as the Messiah. That’s a blindness and that’s a mystery.

Another chapter for you to read is Matthew 23 where Jesus says, “woe unto you,” “woe unto you”
eight times. And then he says you are blind. You are blind. You are blind. You are blind. He says
it five times. That’s fascinating to me because we are students of the Bible and students of
human nature. The heart of man. The capsized boat that goes over and you can’t get it back up
without a lot of difficulty. It can be done of course but by yourself out in the ocean, when you’re out by yourself in the ocean and you capsize by yourself you cannot do it unless it’s
designed that way and it will roll back over. So, let’s talk about those two pictures.
The first one is the capsized boat is relating to the heart of man which has a hole in the heart
like this. We draw this picture in our Bible psychology course here at MBC&S.

That there’s something missing in man as a sinner. He’s missing God. He’s missing the life of God. He’s
missing the righteousness of God. He’s missing the wisdom of God. He actually has a kind of
self-inward contraction in his heart. His heart and his consciousness is – he has the ability to
imagine and think in sinful ways or constantly in ways of iniquity. We could say a 16-year old
teenager can learn as he is in a school. He can learn to deceive. He can learn to cheat. It’s in his
nature. He can realize that he can trick the teacher. He can fool his friend. He can actually like
fool everybody. He has that ability. He is deceitful is what Jeremiah 17 says. “The heart is deceitful
and desperately wicked; who can know it?”

Why are we so surprised that – and by the way. Here he is. I’ll just draw a picture of him and his
friends and they learn and they can learn together to be deceitful. They’re a group and they
tolerate the lying and the cheating. That happens on many levels. That can happen in a family,
in a marriage. We all know about how a man can cheat on his wife or the wife on her husband.
We’re not surprised. We understand this, the nature of man. Yeah, but is he moral? Yes, he can
be moral but behind the morality is a scheme, a plan, a pride. I can look like a very good man
here. I’m a better man than others. He has pride in his heart. He has a group and they are all
nodding. I kind of feel that in our country with the lies – I mean, we had a Supreme Court
nominee recently interviewed in Congress or in the Senate hearing. What is a woman? And she
couldn’t answer the question. What is a woman? Why can’t you answer that? Because it’s a
political identity.

The politics of identity is in our world and I might end up saying the wrong thing to disturb a
group of people who are playing the game. They are playing a game here. A group playing the
game. There’s a game played in business. You can cheat people. You can steal from people. You
can defraud people. You can mislead people. There’s a game played in politics. There’s a game
played in church where you could mislead people or cheat people or mislead them. This is
amazing. It’s called in our message this morning the world of the capsized boat. It’s a boat that
is flipped over and it’s in mischief. The wicked man falls down and he falls into mischief.
One of these guys can lie or steal and you’re going to say, that’s okay. We all do it. Just don’t do
it for me. If you do it for me, if I catch you, I’ll do it to you anyway. Where’s this all coming
from? It’s what the Bible calls sin nature.

The nature of man. It’s the problem with us. It’s the world we live in. We are in Romans 3:4, God is true; every man is a liar. Woe! What are we in church for? What are we here for? I wouldn’t be here except for this message what I want to
say next. The most incredible thing has happened to us. We have been born again. We have
been born of God. God gave us a new heart, new spirit. He gave us a new life. We were dead in our sins, Ephesians 2:1. We were in the course of the world. Maybe we should look at the text to
make it so clear. It’s so great a text and very important to know this.

Ephesians 2:1, you might say, pastor, you’re really tough on that 16-year old boy. I go, are you
kidding me? Not only is he 16 but he’s 17 and he’s 36 and he’s 86 years old. He is the story of a
man. It’s a problem with us. Look at what the Bible says about it, vs. 1. You has he quickened or
made alive and were dead in your capsized boat. You could never get it right. You cannot get it
right.

You might say I’m a morally good man. Yeah, but are you born again? I’m a morally good man.
I’m a religious, morally good man. I don’t deceive people. Are you sure? Are you sure you don’t
dream about it at night about how you could cheat somebody? Are you sure you don’t hate
anybody? Are you sure that you live like that all the time as a way of life? I don’t think so. We
must be born again. This is what it’s saying here. Vs. 2. This is course as in an orbit, a pathway of
the world. This group of people here, this little group here that are tolerating everything. They
will tolerate everything. They will tolerate sin. They will tolerate the devil. They will tolerate the
world. They will tolerate lies. Jesus called them a den of thieves and robbers. He did not trust all
that ever came before me are – how did he say it?

Are thieves and robbers, John. 10:2. But my sheep hear my voice and they follow me. They go in and out and they find pasture. We’re going to go there in a minute, but I want to hit this a little more clearly. “I’m a
homosexual.” Do you tolerate it? I mean we’re a civilized society and we love people, all
people: adulterers, homosexuals, thieves, liars. Do we love them? Yes. But do we have
fellowship with them and do we accept that way of life? No. It’s a capsized boat. It has to come
right. It has to be – there has to be another heart. I don’t accept that. I wouldn’t accept that for
my children. I wouldn’t accept that for my friends. If my friends were talking like that, I would
say you be loving and kind but please understand what I am saying here. “Tolerating” is maybe
not a good word for what I want to say. But I’m telling you, that people tolerate lies. They
accept it because it is the course of the world.

They say everybody does. Everybody does it. Everybody does it. What do you say? I don’t do it. I don’t do it. I don’t do it. I don’t do it and I’ll tell you why. I don’t do it. I don’t believe in it. I don’t accept it. You don’t accept it? No, I don’t. That’s the very thing that this world is disgusted and angry that we are not playing their game.
It’s like deceitful people living with deceitful people and accepting each other’s way of life and
saying this is acceptable versus somebody saying like Jesus Christ it’s not acceptable. I love you.
I can serve you. I can speak to you. I can care about you. I can pray for you but I’m not a liar. I’m
not a liar. I know what a woman is. I know what a man is. I know when a little girl is a little girl
and a little boy is a little boy. Are you a liar? Are you a liar? Are you reinterpreting reality? Is
that a lie? Is a crime a crime?

No, we’re all doing it. It’s a new thing. We can do whatever we want and if we get caught, we are just yelling and screaming and we make a big fuss about it. That’s how we are going to win. That’s how we are going to win.
Jesus says if you are the servant of sin, then you’re a slave of sin. Your boat is capsized and you
can’t get it right. I don’t care who you are. You have a pile of money. It doesn’t matter to me. It
doesn’t matter to God. If you can’t get it right, you can’t get it right. It doesn’t matter how
famous you are. It doesn’t matter if you are the MBA. It doesn’t matter if you are a leading
leader in politics. It does not matter. The thing that matter is: are you free from sin? That’s
what matters.

Go to vs. 2. It’s a way of life. It’s a way of life. They are children of disobedience. It’s a heart
issue of the nature of man. Vs. 3. So, this teenager that I’m making up the story, he’s cunning.
He’s very clever. He’s very capable in his mind. And he smiles when he’s lying in bed and
thinking about what he is doing. What he’s doing and how he can do it, how people are
believing him. He’s lying in bed. He’s very good in his mind and in his design made up in his soul
and this is how he’s living. He has his buddies and he’s thinking about it and then he can have
people agree with him and the whole thing goes that way.

Have you lived that way? Have you been able to do that? Can you do that in your sin nature?
Have you been able to steal Have you been able to cheat? Have you been able to lie? Have you
been able to mislead people? Whoever it is. A sister or a brother, a mother or father, a
girlfriend. Wow. It’s amazing isn’t it? Wow.

Look at is. Vs. 3. It says the mind. The boat flipped over. Everything was good until the boat
flipped over and I can’t get it right. I can’t do it. vs. 4. Wow! But God. But God. Really? Yeah.
God. What did I have to do? I just had to admit it. My life is a mess. I’m tired. I’m isolated. I’ve
lost friends. My parents don’t trust me. I’m alone. I’ve got people but we’re all the same.
There’s no new message. There’s no life. I don’t even know what life is. There’s no wisdom.
There’s no answer. There’s no money. There’s no solution. There’s no job. There’s no
righteousness. There’s no church. There’s no real friends. There’s no excitement. There’s no joy.
There’s no peace. Wow.

Why did Christ come if it wasn’t for us? And didn’t he give us this new heart? There’s no hole in
it. it’s just Christ’s heart. It’s the new heart of Ezek. 36:26. I make a new covenant with you. Not
like when I brought you out of Egypt. But a new covenant. I give you a new heart and a new
spirit and will write my laws on your heart. If we reduce that – the laws that he would write on
our heart, if you reduce all the law it is in a word “love.” I will give you a heart of love. Love. You
will love God. You will love your neighbor. You will love life. You will have love. You will also
have energy. Life. You’ll have power. You’ll have honor. I will crown you with honor and glory. I
will be the lifter of your head, Psalm 3.

I’ll restore you, restore your soul. I will lift you up. I’ll set you on a rock higher than yourself. You’ll live a life beyond yourself. What life will it be? It will be Christ’s life. Christ’s life in you. You’ll have the life of Christ and the mind of Christ.
Now, I’m alone on my bed. Before, I was thinking evil. Cheating. Deceiving people. Laughing
about it. Thinking about what I could get away with, how I could get it done. I had my buddies.
We were all the same. But now, I don’t do that anymore. I don’t do that anymore. I got love in
my heart. Christ came to give us a new heart. And to renew our mind. Now, what are we
thinking? I’ll show it to you in a second.

Turn to John. 13 with me and this is where we will end the message. John. 13:1-5, Ephesians 2:4-6,
(prayer). John. 13:1, let’s make a new slide here. Jesus’ heart was to love his disciples how much?
To the end. To the end of his life, to the end of his ministry, to the end where he could not talk
anymore. All the way to the end he would love them. Where did he get this heart, this energy?
Where did he get this not contracting but expanding. That he was able to reach out. That he
was able to say to Thomas and Peter. How did he have a ministry? He was able to take a towel
and wash their feet saying I need to wash your feet. I want to show you something. I am at the
hour of death. My last night with you guys on the earth. I care about you. I love you. I can’t
stop. I can’t stop. I’m not thinking of cheating you. I’m not thinking of misleading you. I’m
thinking of you, of loving you, of forgiving you, of serving you.

This is the nature of God. Vs. 2. How close was the devil at that table? Here’s the table at the Last Supper. Here’s a table. Imagine it. Next to him was John and where is Judas? I don’t know where he was sitting. I don’t
think we really know but he’s close. How close can the devil be to God and his work? One
person away. The devil came into Judas. I’m sure the devil was very glad to be breathing on
Jesus, like I’m going to get you. You’re going to be crucified. How close does evil come to love?
How close could evil come in your house? How close could evil come in a church? How close
could evil come in this world we are living in? I’m going to say to you I think it can come very
close.

But do you know what evil doesn’t have? When it flips over, it can’t come back up. The wicked
man falls into mischief and he can’t come back. Do you know what God has? You flip him over,
he comes back. Truth can’t fail. You kill Christ, Christ is coming back. You lie about Jesus; it
doesn’t change Jesus. It may be the evil is breathing on him and wanting to devour him but you
can’t overcome truth. You cannot overcome life. You cannot overcome God.

That’s like us, isn’t it? isn’t this story about us? Jesus said I’m washing feet so that you will know
later what I’m doing and you will remember what it means to have a new heart. You will love.
You will love each other. You will forgive each other. You will care about me. You will care
about my work. You will care about my church. Somebody that says something derogatory
about the church like they can say whatever they want to because this is the nature of the world we are in. But you know in your heart you have been sent into the church not to destroy
it. You’ve been sent into the church to edify it, to wash feet, and care because love cares.
Look at the next verse here, vs. 3.

This is a very good verse. We got to go slow on it. We’re
going to finish soon. We got three things here: 1. All things are given into Jesus’ hands. What
does it mean all things? I think it means Hebrews 1:2. He is the heir of everything. He’s the heir of
the universe. All things are put into Jesus’ hands. Everything. He is the King of Kings. He is the
Lord of Lords. He owns the whole universe. Everything is in his hands. Salvation, righteousness,
sanctification, imputation, forgiveness, redemption, adoption, the bride. All of us, we are the
bride of Christ. We have been given to Christ. He has authority over all principality and power.
Christ knowing that the Father had given him the highest position and yet he hasn’t yet died on
the cross, but he knows what the Father’s going to give him, that the Father will raise him on
the third day. He’ll be ascending into heaven and seated at the Father’s right hand. He knows
this.

Look at #2 of that verse. #2. He came from God. Where did you come from? Where did you
come from? Did you come from God? Somebody could say I came from my mother and father. I
came from some evolutionists say that we evolved. Did we come from the slime of the Nile or
from outer space? Where did we come from? Do you know where you came from? Huh? Good
question. We have been born from above. We have come from God. God knew us before the
foundation of the world. He elected us unto his Son. We have been chosen from before the
foundation – where did you come from? We came from God. And then thirdly, Jesus knew
where he was going and that he was going to God. These three things give you an amazing
sense of your self-respect. Your self-identity. Who are you? I came from Rome, New York. Yes,
but actually I was born again and I have come from God. Where are you going? I’m going to the
cemetery somewhere here in Baltimore one day. Yeah. I’m going actually to God. We’re going
to God. What has been – Jesus knowing this, then took a towel.

Look at vs. 4. Later, Peter in his epistles writes “and be clothed with humility.” Maybe he has
this story in his mind. Be clothed, take your outer garments aside. Put a towel around you. And
then go down on your knees. Who’s going down? A nobody. No, the guy that has everything in
his power. The guy that came from God and is going to God has the authority to love. He has
the energy. He has the heart. He has the wisdom. He is not lying or deceiving. He is not blind.
He is understanding. He is a servant. He is humble. He is able to serve. And so are you and me.
That’s the whole point of our message today. You are able because of this new birth for your
capsized boat, seven times it will come back. It will come back and it will come back. What I
mean I think of the mast. It has happened to me.

A small sail boat goes over. It’s upside down
and then it’s a one man sail boat and you can flip it back over and it goes back up. I just think of
the mast like this kind of thing and there it is. It’s back up. I feel like that’s what Jesus is, that’s
what I want to say to you. I want to say no matter how hurt you get, don’t let your sin nature invent a narrative that steals from you and keeps you down. And say I don’t have it. I don’t have
it. I don’t know what – I’m so hurt by my kids, my job, my marriage. I’m so hurt in life. I don’t
have it. I don’t have it. We say, no. you have. You are born of God. You are a believer in Christ.
You just need to know who you are.

Those three things are about Jesus but actually, it’s a message to us. That’s how we wash
other’s feet. It’s from a place of strength. It’s from a place of spiritual identity. It’s knowing who
you are in him. You are able. Before honor, is humility. Daniel had honor before the people.
Joseph rode in the second chariot. God often clothed his children with honor in the face of their
adversaries and makes the wicked confess that the Lord is with them in deed and truth. I love
that. You know, other people their boats are capsized and they’re looking to you why you keep
going. We just say, you need to be born again. When you’re born again, Christ, he will restore
you. He will speak to you. He will love you. He will forgive you. He will help you. He will lead
you. He will use you.

Then they look at you and say, how do you keep going? How do you do that? We just say it’s
the new heart. It’s the nature of God. It’s his love. It’s our privilege. We have his life. We have
his glory. We have his honor. He’s honoring you with long life. Or he’s honoring you with a word
of wisdom. Or he’s honoring you with a lot of patience. He’s honoring you. You can’t give up.
You just can’t give up. You’re just back and you just are back up again and you’re restored again
and helped again. We are in a troubled world and there needs to be people like you and I. We
just can’t quit cause it’s too good. It is. It’s not fun to be a sinner. Its not fun to cheat and lie in
your heart and be with other liars and cheaters. It’s not fun.

But if we can be with the righteous, with God, and give us love. And we can reach to people
that need another message. You need another message. “Oh, yeah. I’ve been to church before.
They didn’t do anything for me.” But have you accepted Christ? Are you born of Christ? Are you
born again? Yeah, but I’ve been trying to be good all my life. It’s not in me. No, it isn’t. What
you need is that which will never fail you. “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” What you need
is the Son of God in your heart. What you need is the Holy Spirit to teach you and lead you into
who you are. What you need is a fellowship with the living God, a holy God that changes your
heart and mind and affects your life and motivates you to be a righteous child of God by grace.
Okay. 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.