Our comfort comes to us through the Scriptures. The Word gives us the origins, the future, salvation, instruction, answers for faith. Continue in what you learn. Bible explains itself and connects things together. Spirit teaches and our fellowship in the love of God. (Romans 15:4; 2 Timothy 3:14-17)

Speaker(s): Thomas Schaller
Sermon 12388
7:00 PM on 10/12/2022

P. Schaller –

Turn in your Bibles please to Romans 15 for our message tonight and our prayer for the message. We come on
a Wednesday night to get a slice of bread, a slice of spiritual food for our renewal, being
refreshed, instruction. The key verse here is Romans 15:4 and I’ll introduce our subject to you. We
have a principle. I want to show it to you.

You have two kinds of people. People without the Bible and how do they think and how do they
live and how do they process life? And then you have people that are with the Bible as the
Word. What is the difference between the two? Let’s read it again, Romans 15:4. What’s that
mean? What was written in the Old Testament before Paul wrote Romans? What was written
before? Give me the names of some books that were written before. Genesis. What does
Genesis say? In the beginning, God. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
When I don’t have the Bible, there is another way of thinking and that is the explosion, the Big
Bang, evolution, chance, force of nature.

The force of nature. We are by accident we became human beings. I remember telling somebody that I think the world was made by an accident and you also are an accident and you look like one, too! It’s so paradoxical that we want to
teach that we are an accident, and yet when someone tells you you are an accident, it offends
you. Isn’t that funny? What do people believe if they don’t have the Bible? And if you have the
Bible, what do you believe and what does it do to you?

Look at vs. 4. again. Genesis, Exodus, 1 Kings, Chronicles, Psalms, Job, Isaiah, Joel, Amos, Micah,
Malachi. What was written before, what does it do to you? What does the Bible do to you? Vs.
4. It says it is for our learning. It’s an important word, “learning.” What does it mean? Learning.
What does it mean? Understanding. Learning. I want to learn. By the way, understanding is
such an important part of life.

When I have a medical issue, that something is a mystery to me. Something in my body is not
working. It bothers me that I don’t know what it is. I don’t understand it. Have you ever felt that
way? You go to the doctor and you tell him and then he gives you the name of it and then he
describes it to you and he says he understands and then when he talks to you, what does it do
to your mind? It comforts you cause he understands and I understand what he’s saying.
Actually, this happens to other people this same medical condition and I am comforted by the
doctor that he tells me what it is and even there is a cure for it. Woe! That’s good. I feel good
about it.

Well, use that as an example for your whole life. When you don’t know what is going on. You
don’t know why people behave the way they do. You don’t know why nations are stockpiling
nuclear weapons. You don’t know why the economical world is the way it is and people are
having ideas and studying and thinking about it and trying to solve problems, but who knows?
Cause in history, man repeatedly has hope and then the hope is dashed by a world war or nuclear bomb or disease or pandemic or a tyrant. Someone steals your livelihood or your future
or your country. Wow. So, we are in a world with a lot of people who don’t understand and the
things they understand are often times misleading. They’re also lies. There are misconceptions.
There are many of them.

In the 19 th century, they believed that the 20 th century would be the greatest century of the
human race. That we have the technology, economical growth, education. They believed that –
Brave New World written by Huxley and then World War I. Then World War II. Then the
Communist purges. Tragic. If you don’t have the Bible, there are so many things you don’t know
and understand and life can be without hope.

Read the verse again please. The Proverbs. Jeremiah 17 the nature of man’s heart. What were they
written for? For our learning that God would diagnose the human race and tell us what is the
essential problem with the world. What is the problem. How the world came into being. Where
the world is going. Who is the Messiah? Our hope is not in mankind. Our hope is in God. Some
trust in horses, some in chariots but our trust is in the Lord our God. The God that appeared to
Moses. The God that spoke wisdom to Solomon. The God that sent the Messiah into the world.
The God that tells us the biggest problem in the world is me, my heart, my wickedness, my
unbelief, even substituting my goodness for God. So, that’s our theme today. I’m almost done
actually, but it provokes you to think.

Look at vs. 4. We want to look at what it says there. It seems that we have Scriptures here and
from the Scriptures comes two things: patience and comfort. That we through the Scriptures.
That’s what changes our life, the Scriptures. That’s the mind of God, the reality of God. The
Scriptures. Without them, I’m left to myself and the human race that is trying to control the
world, manage the world and have a good life. A civilized world.

But we know that we are in perilous times. We just came from Hungary and Hungary is next to
the Ukraine and they live in the shadow of a war and they know that nuclear weapons could be
used. That fallout would effect the surrounding countries. So, what do they have to think about
and hope for without the Bible? Without understanding. And there’s a couple areas we’ll look
at in a second but I want to stay on this for a minute.

When you read the Bible, you have a sense of time and this patience is an important word. We
are waiting for Christ’s coming. We have patience. The Scriptures give us hope. In a way, we
could say the doctor, God, told us what the problem is. And we are refreshed and renewed and
understanding that we have patience. It may not change immediately. The problems of the
world are what they are but the kingdom of God is real and it’s coming.

And then this word “comfort.” Powerful word. Comfort. We need it. We need to be comforted.
We need hope. We need understanding. We need love. We need God to tell us I’m with you. I won’t leave you. I won’t forsake you. I comfort you. He sends the Comforter, the Holy Spirit.
Through the Scripture, we read it and we realize and understand and we have this faith in God.
This understanding where our hope is that it’s in God and he’s told us things. He has ministered
to us. He’s told us things. That we can be comforted. Comforted in our trouble. Comforted in
pain. Comforted in confusion. Comforted by the Scripture. Wow.

Vs. 4. We have this great word there, “hope.” We are the people in the world that have hope.
We are the people that are in the world that are at peace. We are the people in the world who
are comforted. We are the people in the world that instead of like lost sheep, like hurting, lost,
we are comforted by the shepherd. We have God who is telling us things. Many deep things
from the Kings.

I really enjoy reading about the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah, and finding the good ones
in the middle, the bad ones, and thinking about leaders in the world and how leaders can
change. They can be good and then they can become bad. Some bad ones can become good
ones. It fascinates me. Power structures in government and how a leader can effect a whole
nation or a whole region.

Where do we learn this? In the Bible. We are historians. We are people that have a reference to
life by history. We have another little diagram here. We have the beginning of the world and
then we have the final, the glorification of the world that is coming one day. Where do we read
that? Revelation 22. A new heaven, 21 and 22. New heaven, new earth, 2 Peter 3. Where is it going?
What are we anticipating? How about in the beginning? In the beginning, God created the
heavens and the earth. We see how it began with purpose.

God did not make this as an accident. It’s not an accident. It has divine purpose, eternal
purpose. These thoughts are profound, written in our spiritual life that we believe that this isn’t
an accident but this is actually ordained by God. Everything about life is all ordained of God.
These things are in the world and Jesus said, “these words have I spoken unto you that in me
you might have peace. In the world, trouble but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world.”
These words I have spoken.

I think that’s the thing that is missing in many people. They don’t have the words. They don’t
have understanding. They are not learning anything. The things they learn are like on a sub
level. Like they learn things about chemistry and biology and psychology and history and so on.
They learn things but tell me more. Tell me more. Where did this come from? Why is this here?
Why do we exist? Why are we thinking these thoughts? Where can I find the answers? The
answer is God.

These are the oracles of God. The oracles of God. What’s so great about Jewish people? Rom.
3:2. What is the big deal about being a Jew? It is that from them came the oracles of God. Treasured, respected, studied, understood, that gives us a life that’s different from other
people who have no message except on a lower level. They’re studying and learning and
studying and learning. But what are they learning?

Turn to 2 Timothy please and chapter 3. We have vs. 14. You know, it grows in you. Don’t give
up on it. It grows in you little by little. The study of the Bible. It builds up. It grows little by little.
And also, the attitude you have toward the Bible is important. The attitude is from God. Let God
fill you with the Spirit and give you the right attitude about listening. The right attitude about
studying and God will speak to you from it.

So, what Paul said to Timothy is to continue in the things which you have learned. Don’t walk
away from it. Don’t stop it. It gets richer and richer as you pay attention to it. And you have
been assured of it. When someone challenges your faith, then seek the answer. It says the just
study to answer. Don’t let a question that has value – some questions are not valuable. Who
asked the first question in the Bible? Who asked the first question in the Bible? Satan. What did
he say? Has God said? He hasn’t stopped saying that, asking the question. Has God said? Has
he spoken? The follow-up is no. And it’s not true and what God said you can eat of the tree.
What has God said? Eve said he told us not to eat it and she added not to touch it. But he didn’t
say not to touch it. He just said don’t eat it. That’s another study. But the point is Timothy you
need to be assured of these things and not lose your faith, not walk away from it because it is
spiritual food that is for your comfort and gives you patience and gives you hope. That you are
built up. That you are believing.

Actually, you have a message in a world that is very disappointing. Young people are not
disappointed. Older people get disappointed about the world. It can be very tough. Very tough
world out there, but you have the Scriptures.
Let’s look at it and we can say a few things. Vs. 14. That’s Paul. That word “child,” there are two
words in the Greek. One is an infant or child just before walking. We say toddler, right? We say,
child, adolescent, teenager. Infant. Before they walk. This word is Timothy knew the Scripture
early in his life. Vs. 15. That’s another thing lacking in our picture here is this one. We can
repeat it. Without the Bible and with the Bible. It makes you learn. There’s an increase. There’s
patience, comfort, hope and then it says it makes you wise unto a certain subject. What’s the
subject? Salvation.

It doesn’t make you wise in mathematics. It may. I believe that. It may make you wise in
school; make you wise in relationships but there’s one area that it says there it will make you
wise unto the subject of salvation. That you understand salvation. Without the Bible, you don’t
understand it. You don’t even know you need it. Salvation isn’t even on the – in this area over
here without the Bible, you don’t even have the subject of salvation. The most intelligent, trained people on this level of life, they don’t understand or know salvation. They don’t know
people are lost. They don’t know that the blood of Jesus atones for sin and saves us and
justifies us. They don’t know that God so loved us that he sent Christ to save us. They don’t
know that.

So, go back to the text here, vs. 16. How about a dying man? He’s a dying man lying on a bed
here without the Bible. How is he going to die? How will he die? I don’t think it will look very
good. Where are you going? I don’t know. Are you prepared? No, I’m not. What happened in
your life? I got a doctorate in this and that and I traveled around the world and I have a whole
pile of money. Where are you going? What do you have? Who are you? What is in your
character? What’s your nature? He doesn’t know it. He has no wisdom regarding salvation. He
has no mind for it. He has no heart for it but you have. You and I have. It’s perhaps our greatest
treasure that we have it.

How did we get it? It was the Bible that spoke to us. The Bible that explained itself. One part of
the Bible with another part of the Bible and it comes together and we are amazed how like
Jesus’ garment was woven through one thread. Remember? And the soldiers gambled for it
because they didn’t want to tear it cause it would have all unraveled. But one guy gets it, and
that one thread is something like the Bible. The Bible all goes together and every part is linked
to every other part and that’s God’s message. It’s different from all other books. It’s the oracles
of God written with wisdom. And you have that wisdom. You have that understanding. You can
live in a difficult world with patience and comfort and hope and you are wise unto salvation. It’s
pretty amazing, isn’t it?

Let’s finish up here. Look at chapter 3:16. Very useful for doctrine. I see the young people up
here singing tonight and I think of our young people. I think of the value of being in an assembly
where we have a spiritual life and spiritual food. We have doctrine as the basis of our lives.
Let me show you something very simply. Many people live like this. There’s two people. And
they relate to each other like this. It’s very common. They look at each other. They connect.
They are similar. There’s magnetism. They somehow relate. But what’s the ground of the
connection? It can change. It can also be fragile. It can be the car you drive or the society that
you connect with or the community or your group. But this is different.

God says if you and I have doctrine as the ground then we connect to truth and then we
connect this way. It’s not a time sensitive issue but the spiritual life with truth in your heart and
now you are connected in a horizontal relationship with content that’s not from my subjective
preferences. Like I like your hair cut. I’m going to hang out with people that have that kind of
haircut. That’s a very fragile relationship. What society are you in? What side of the tracks are
you from? What is your job or profession? Do you like music or Mexican food? What it is that
you like as a person? This is all very human. Therefore, it’s very subject to change.

When we have the Scripture by the Spirit of God teaching us doctrine, when you love it and I
love it and we respond to it, we relate to it, and our fellowship is in the Holy Spirit and we love
not our lives. These people love their lives but this other one is we have something deeper. We
have the love of God and therefore our loves are not the center. They’re not the center of my
life. My life, I don’t have to keep it. I don’t have to protect it. I don’t have to guard it. My life
isn’t that important to me. My life is relating to God at the death of my self-life. In finding God,
he gives me my life back. He fills me with the Spirit and I have a life that I cannot lose. But if I try
to keep my life, I will lose it. But if I lose my life to God, I will find it in Luke 14. Okay.
Go to the last part here I think.

There’s so much to say. Look at how doctrine, the Bible is
profitable for doctrine, for reproof, being corrected. Reproof means correction but it’s
welcomed. Like coach, help me be a better tennis player. Like coach, teach me how to swim or
Cody Walker got his license for driving the bus. So, let’s give him a hand right now. Cody
Walker! Cody! He did it. So, he took a course. He passed the test. Shocked that he passed it! He
had to be reproved. He had to be corrected. He had to be instructed so that he could become a
bus driver and be a good one. That’s healthy. Being guided like a parent with a child. A coach
with a teenager. A musician and so on. It’s normal. Reproof is welcome. Help me, God, live this
way.

Okay. Then correction is stronger. Instruction in righteousness. Let me wrap it up here. I made a
short list. What will the Bible, without the Bible, without the Bible, what do I have? I think you
could work on that and think about it. Like what do people have? They have a worldview. They
have a very fragile worldview. Very troubled. Very, it’s really a lie actually. It’s false hope. It’s
something empty. They have each other. “Though hand join in hand” the Proverbs says,
“iniquity will not go unpunished.” That means you can have a den of thieves and all the thieves
decide to steal from other people when they are together. They’re not going to steal from each
other. Hand join in hand about loyalty amongst thieves. Though hand join in hand, it doesn’t
survive. It’s not going to work.

So, now we have this – what will the Bible, the oracles of God give me? I’ll make a short list.

#1. The future. We say in a word, Jesus is coming. The kingdom is coming. “Our Father, who art
in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come on the earth as it is in heaven.” The
future.
#2. Salvation
#3. Personal problems are understood. Personal problems we have internal and external
problems. That’s fine. I have internal. Woe is me. I am undone. Romans 7. What I should do, I
don’t do it. What I shouldn’t do, is what I do. I have a struggle inside. What’s the answer? It’s in

the Bible. Romans 8. The finished work of Romans 6. Walk of faith. Personal sanctification. Real
answers to real issues. External problems. We’re not surprised. We understand what that is.
And then lastly,

#4. The origin of everything. Where did it all come from and why? Revelation 4:11, we
are made, we have been created to glorify God. Wow! What an answer. Why are we here? To
glorify God. Does it resonate in your heart. Why do I exist? Why are we on planet Earth? We are
here so that we are glorifying God. Wow! Where did I learn that? From Revelation 4:11.
I am saying tonight maybe in some different kind of a way that there is nothing that we could
have better than what we have tonight. A humble heart to hear what our heavenly Father has
to say to us from the Bible. As the world goes the way it’s going and the troubles are the way
they are, we have a message. We have a ministry given of God to help people find the comfort,
the patience, the hope that is in God. This is our joy. 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.