i'd rather have jesus the substitute
lamb i'd rather have him the great i am I'd rather have Jesus
because he chose me. I'd rather he died as my surety
Than to think I'm the king of my destiny Or to believe that
my will sets me free I'd rather have Jesus the sovereign king have the father who ordained
before time that Christ should die for his elective I'd rather have Jesus who saved
his own I'd rather have his spirit who brought them safely home
Than to think I'm the king of my destiny Or to believe that
my will sets me free I'd rather have Jesus the Sovereign
King and rest in Christ complete. i'd rather have jesus who bore
the sin of his own salvation secure by his blood alone i'd
rather have jesus who really ? I'd rather be his by him choosing
me ? ? Than to think I'm the king of my destiny ? ? Or to
believe that my will sets me free ? ? I'd rather have Jesus
the sovereign king ? We'll miss you guys. Thank you. Will you open your Bibles with
me to the 27th chapter of Acts, Acts chapter 27. I've titled this message, Whom Do
I Believe? Whom Do I Believe? And I'm going to try to summarize
the message in two points and then go back and deal with these
in a little more detail. Look with me at verse 10, if
you will. Paul admonishing them. Said,
sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be with hurt and with much
damage, not only of the lading and ship, but also of our lives. Nevertheless, the centurion believed
the master and owner of the ship more than those things which
were spoken by Paul. And because the haven was not
commodious to winter in, the more part advised to depart thence,
if by any means they might attain to Phanesi, and there to winter,
which is a haven of Crete, lieth too toward the southwest and
the northwest." There were two reasons why the
owner of the ship And the merchant and the centurion and everyone
else involved, except the apostle Paul, wanted to depart from Fair
Haven and try to make it over to Phoenicia. Now, you surely
know that this event turned out exactly as Paul said it would.
It is a ship from Alexandria. It is laden with grain. headed
to Rome. There was much profit to be made
in the cargo that's on this ship. The owner of the ship did not
want to winter in Fairhaven. He wanted to get his cargo to
Rome and his prisoners to Rome so that he could get paid for
his voyage, as did the owner of the ship. The reason why they
didn't want to stay in Fairhaven, the reason why they disregarded
the warnings of the Apostle Paul, was for personal gain. Secondly,
they said that Fair Haven is not commodious. Now, commodious
means to be broad or spacious. This was a very, very small cove,
if you will, on the south side of Crete. There wasn't much there.
They said, you know, we don't want to spend the winter here
because there's nothing to do. We'll be stuck on the ship. And so there weren't enough options
for them, there weren't enough choices for them to be able to
make like there would have been in Phoenicia. So two reasons
why they didn't want to stay in Fairhaven. Number one, we
see no personal glory and no personal gain and no personal
profit to us staying here. Second of all, we see no personal
choices if we stay here. We're limited to what we have an opportunity of. Now, we've been studying the
book of Acts and we know where the apostle Paul is. This is
a gospel story. This is why men won't come to
Christ. They won't come to Christ because
the gospel strips them of all their glory. They have no personal
gain to be made by coming to Christ. And coming to Christ
strips men of all their choices. They're left with only one option,
which is not a choice. And so it strips men of their
pride in being able to decide for themselves what they want
to do. On the contrary, I've asked the
question, whom do I believe? I don't want to be given any
choices. I want the little cove of fair
haven to not entice me with an opportunity for something else.
I want God to shut me up to Christ. I don't want it. If God gives
me a choice, I'm going to choose something other than the Lord
Jesus Christ. I don't want to commodious. port
with lots of options. Second of all, I don't want any personal
gain, any personal profit from this gospel except the salvation
of my soul. I don't want to rob Christ of
his glory and take it to myself because of something that I've
decided or something that I've done. Now that's the message,
that's the summary of the message. The Apostle Paul has been tried by two governors, Felix
and Festus, and they have found him to be innocent of the charges
that were being made against him by the Jews. And so King
Agrippa comes to town. They are in Caesarea, which is
a coastal community just west of Jerusalem. And Agrippa tries
the Apostle Paul. Remember, Agrippa's the one who
we saw last Sunday said, almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian,
but I'm not persuaded. I'm not persuaded. I've heard
your arguments. I've heard your defense. And
you know, I just not too sure about this thing of Jesus being
alive and raising from the dead and being the son of God and
ascending into glory and saving me of my sins. I'm not persuaded. That's what Agrippa would say.
But I find no charge against you. But since you have appealed
unto Caesar, I have no option but to send you to Rome. And
so he puts him on a ship headed to Rome. And their first stop,
he puts him under the charge of a man by the name of Julius,
who the scripture says is a centurion. He was a member of the Roman... Matter of fact, it says it. Look
at verse six. verse 1 of chapter 27. And when
it was determined that we should sail into Italy, they delivered
Paul and certain other prisoners unto
one named Julius, a centurion of the Augustus band. Now the
Augustus band would have been Caesar's private guard. This
is the secret service. This was the elite of the elite.
And this centurion would have been in charge of a hundred Roman
soldiers. And that's who Agrippa puts the
apostle Paul under the authority of. We know when the apostle
Paul ended his letter to the church at Philippi, he said,
greet the brethren, especially those who have the household
of Caesar. God is sending the Apostle Paul through all these
trials and troubles to take the gospel to Rome. Julius is going
to be very favorable towards the Apostle Paul. Matter of fact,
at the first stop that they make, Julius gives him freedom to go
visit his friends. And then when the soldiers want
to kill the prisoners, as the ship is breaking up, the ship
is going to be lost. All the grain is going to be
lost. Everything's going to be lost. Paul, what they told him is going
to come to pass. 276 souls are going to be saved
who all remained on the ship. What a picture of the church
and the gospel. But here's the point. That time,
the Lord is sending the gospel to Rome. He's sending, the Lord
is going to have the apostle Paul preach the gospel to the
Roman emperor, Caesar himself, and puts him under the charge
of this one who's of the Augustus band. All in God's good providence
to carry the gospel to the world. That's the only thing that our
God is concerned about. I say that. The scripture says that the nations
are a drop in the bucket to him, a speck of dust on the scale. the things that you and I get
so bent out of shape about, we get so concerned about. God said,
no, it's all about the expansion of the gospel. It's all about
the glory that's gonna go to my son through the saving of
his elect. That's why this world exists.
That's what we're seeing happen, being carried out here. And the
story's still being carried out. The ships are still being tossed
about by the storms. The gospel's still being declared.
God's elect are still hearing and believing. But those who
wanted personal profit and those who wanted an opportunity to
make choices, voted against the Word of God, and they lost everything
as a result of that. They chose to believe the master
and captain of the ship rather than the Word of God. They end up in Malta. We'll get to that part
of the story in a bit. I want you to notice with me,
if you will, at verse seven. And when we had sailed slowly
many days, and scarce were come over against Snydus, the wind,
not suffering us, We sailed under Crete, over against Salmoni,
and hardly passing it, came unto a place which is called the Fair
Havens, nigh whereunto was the city of Lysia." There wasn't
even a city there at Fair Havens. The city was a bit away from
this little cove. They were struggling to make
progress on their journey. They were struggling to make
progress on their journey. The wind was not favorable. They
were moving along, just creeping along the southern coast of Crete.
They wanted to get to Rome, but their circumstances were not
cooperating with them. Can you relate? We have plans,
we have grandeur purposes, and we're struggling to make progress.
Job put it like this, a man is born unto trouble. A man is born unto trouble as
the sparks fly upward. Man that is born of a woman is
of few days and full of trouble. Now, brethren, that's our lot
in this world. A few days and full of trouble. And like these
men on this ship, sometimes the wind's not favorable. Sometimes
we're not making the progress we wanna make. And the Lord's
steering the ship to a fair haven. Now, fair here translated means
beautiful. And haven means safety. And you
know what this is a picture of. God is directing this ship, not
according to the plans of the captain and the owner of the
ship, but according to his will and purpose, bringing them into
a safe harbor where they might winter the storms. Fair haven,
that's Christ. That's Christ. He's beautiful,
and he's safe. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 7,
verse 5, when we were come to Macedonia, our flesh had no rest,
but we were in trouble on every side. Without were fightings. and within were fears. Now that's the apostle Paul speaking
of his circumstances. We weren't making the progress
we wanted to make. The wind was not favorable. Spirit
of God didn't seem to be blessing what we were doing. And there
was nothing but conflict on the outside and on the inside, nothing
but fears. We were in trouble. Not only do we face the troubles
of this world, to which we are contrary to, we're strangers in this world,
we're sojourners, we're pilgrims, our values and purposes are at
odds with everything in this world. But we have one more enemy we
have to face. The scripture says the final enemy is death, is
death. Men live all their lives in fear
of it. Here's the good news. Christ
Jesus the Lord came into the world to destroy him who had
power over death and deliver them who through fear of death
were held in bondage all their lives. He conquered the grave. He conquered death. He destroyed
the works of the devil. We still live in this world and
in this flesh, and we still have to face that final enemy. David said in Psalm 34, verse
four, I sought the Lord, And he delivered me from all
my fears. Whom do we believe? Ships not
making the progress we want it to make. Winds not blowing as
we want it to blow. Things are not going necessarily
the way we want them to go. Lord steering us to fair haven. Someone says, you know, I'm not
worried about death, I'm just trying to get through life. The
troubles of life are my struggle. A lot of people go to church
just trying to figure out how to get through another week of
life. Let me read you what God said
through the prophet Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 12, verse
5. If thou hast run with the footmen and they have wearied
thee, what wilt thou do against the horses? And if the land of peace wherein
thou hast trusted have wearied thee, then how wilt thou do? in the swelling of the Jordan. If running the race with the
footman in this life is more than a man can bear, then what's
he going to do when he has to run up against a horse? And if
this land of peace wherein we dwell and trust is more than
we can bear, what are we going to do in the swelling of the
Jordan? That's death. We've still got
to cross the Jordan, don't we? A lot of struggles in this life,
aren't there? Sometimes our circumstances cause us to
say, you know, I'm just hardly passing it. God has brought me to Fair Havens. This word fair doesn't just mean
beautiful. It means excellent. It means suitable. It means better. It means good. This is a harbor
that will be safe to winter in. Scripture tells us in this very
passage that the, look at verse nine. Now when much time was
spent and we sailed with, and our sailing was now dangerous
because the fast was not already passed, Paul admonished them
and said to them, sirs, I perceive that this voyage will be of hurt
and with much damage, not only laden the ship, nevertheless,
the centurion believed the master. and the owner of the ship more
than those things which are spoken by the apostle Paul. Paul said,
you know, we need to stay right here for the winter. The day
of atonement has passed. Winter storms are typical in
the Mediterranean this time of year, and we need to stay right
here. Fair Haven, a safe harbor. Scripture says the way of the
Lord is through the seas, and we know that the seas represent
the turbulence of trials and troubles that we have in this
life, culminating in that great trial of our death. But Scripture also says that
in heaven there'll be no more sea, and that our Lord He's the only
one that has authority over the wind and over the seas. What
sort of man is this that even the seas and the wind obey his
voice? Isn't that what the Lord said? And when he had stilled
the seas, when he had stilled the seas, The scripture says
in the gospel of John, after he had calmed the waters and
Peter had almost drowned, they said that immediately they were
on the other side. The Lord was in the boat. He
brought them safely to the other side. Men, we are here in fair
haven. Let's just stay right here. Let's
don't venture out because God has revealed to me that if we
leave this place, it will be to the destruction of this ship
and to our lives. No, we have money to be made,
and we've got a profit to consider. We'll risk your warnings that
we might gain profit for our pockets. How many times you and
I have ignored the things of God because they didn't seem
prudent at the time. We thought there was a better
way. This starts in childhood, doesn't it? When a small child
believes that they know more than their parents. Especially
true with teenagers, isn't it? They think they know more than
you know. Oh, the pride of flesh. Well,
yeah, Lord, I know this is what you said, You know, it just seems
more expedient for me that I would go this way or do that or do
the other. And we make choices leaving fair
haven for what we consider to be our own personal gain and
profit. And we suffer the consequences
of that, don't we? Someone might hear that and say,
well, you know, I got ahead of God. Can't get ahead of God. Here's the good news, brethren.
Yeah, we've all been like Jonah. God sent Jonah to Nineveh to
preach the gospel. Instead, Jonah went down, the
scripture says, to Joppa. And then he went down to the
seaport, and he went down into a ship, and then he went down
into the belly of the ship. And he ended up down in the bottom
of the ocean in the belly of a whale. What was Jonah doing? He's running
from God. He was choosing his way over God's way. God had already
said, go there. And Jonah thought, yeah, no,
no, I've got a better idea. I've got a better plan. It doesn't
seem commodious to me. You know, this is not, this is
not where I want to stay. I want to, I want to go to Phanesi
where there's palm trees and choices and options and opportunities. And Jonah brought much suffering
on himself. But Jonah, in his rebellion against God, did not
thwart the purpose of God. He did not thwart the purpose
of God. You can't get ahead of God. It wasn't until he was in the
belly of the whale that he made the declaration that he needed
to make, salvation is of the Lord. And immediately that whale
vomited him up onto dry land. God was bringing Jonah to that
place of confessing and believing. Safe haven's the place to be.
Salvation's of the Lord. If I'm gonna be saved, God's
gonna have to save me. And the choices he made brought
much pain and suffering into his life, but didn't thwart the
purpose of God. Turn with me to Psalm 139. This
is... This is an experience that every
single one of us have had. You know, don't you know that
David, in looking at Bathsheba, thought, you know, I'm king.
I deserve this. I deserve this. And what suffering
and agony David brought on his own life and in the life of his
family. Did he thwart the purpose of God? Oh, no. No. Here's our God. Our God is sovereign
over our sin. Nothing can change his purpose.
You can't get ahead of God. You can bring some sorrows and
suffering on yourself and on your family by leaving Fair Haven
and thinking that, you know, there's a quicker way to get
where we want to go. And we can justify ourselves in doing
it, can't we? Well, I'm doing this for my family.
Doing this for my kids. Now, you know, it's just always
right to obey God. And it's always best to trust
the Lord and lean not on your own understanding, but in all
of your ways to acknowledge Him and let Him direct your path.
It's always the best way. But when we don't choose the
best way, when we say, you know, the wind's not blowing in the
direction I want it to blow in, and I'm not making the progress
I wanna make, and I'm gonna leave Fairhaven, and I'm gonna do it
my way. You're not going to thwart God's purpose. Look at, you have
your Bibles open to Psalm 139. Look at Psalm 139, verse one.
Oh Lord, thou hast searched me and known me. Thou knowest my
down-sitting, my uprising. Thou understandest my thoughts
afar off. Thou compassest my path and my
lying down and art acquainted with all my ways. For there is
not a word in my mouth and my tongue, but oh Lord, thou knowest
it altogether. Thou hast beset me behind and
before and laid thine hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful
for me. How can I explain the fact that
God is sovereign and accomplishes his purpose and his will, even
through my rebellion and disobedience? How can I explain? This thought
is too wonderful for me. I can't reconcile these two things. Men trying to reconcile man's
will with God's sovereignty. You know, I like what, Spurgeon said about
that, he said, how do you reconcile man's will with God's sovereignty?
He said, I don't have to reconcile them. They're already friends.
They're already friends. You don't have to reconcile them.
God's made them friends. Now, some people are going to
hear this and they're going to say, they're going to, they're
going to blame God for their sin. Don't do that. Don't do
that. You've chosen to leave safe haven,
fair haven, because the winds weren't blowing right. You thought,
well, I've got a better way and I'm gonna disobey God in order
to satisfy my own purposes. Don't blame God for that. That's
all on us, isn't it? Every bit of it is on us. But
here's the good news, brother. You're not gonna get ahead of
God. He knows your thoughts before you think of him. He knows your
words before you speak of him. He goes before you, comes behind
you. He's accomplishing his purpose. Here's the message. Stay in safe,
in Fairhaven. Stay in Fairhaven. It's a beautiful,
safe place to be. Remain in Christ. To obey is
better than sacrifice. I think we make, well, how much conflict and pain we
bring on ourselves because we think we know better than God. These men, now that's an admonition
and an encouragement for you, my brothers and sisters. Child
of God, we've all done it. We've all left Fair Haven. We do it daily. We do it daily,
because we think we've got a better way. And we bring on ourselves
the consequences of our disobedience. And the Lord brings us again
and again and again to a spirit of repentance. Oh Lord, what
have I done? Lord, what have I done? And he
uses our very sin to accomplish his purpose. But the gospel application of
this is that men will not have a gospel. Men will not have a
gospel that they cannot personally profit from. They will not have that. They're
struggling to get through life. They know that death's coming.
They know that life is full of trouble. The wind's not blowing
the way they want it to blow. But they've got no interest in
going into Fairhaven. The captain and the owner of
the ship say, we've got money to make. We've got to get this
grain to Rome. We've got to get these prisoners
off board so we can get paid for them. And that's how men
look at the gospel. We're not interested in Christ.
We're not interested in Christ. He robs me of all of my profit,
all of my glory. They think that gained... Turn with me to First Timothy.
First Timothy chapter six. Verse five, perverse disputings
of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth, supposing that
gain is godliness. You see, men don't want fair
haven. They don't want Christ because
it brings them to the place to where they have to say, I don't
know anything. I can't do anything. I don't
have anything. It robs them of their gain. They
presume that gain is godliness. Well, I've learned some doctrine.
I've learned some Bible. I've learned some scripture.
I've learned some spiritual truths. And so they assume that gain
is godliness, a gain of knowledge. Or they assume that a gain of
their works is godliness. You know, I'm doing this, this,
and the other that I haven't done before. And so that must
be evidence of my godliness. And they'll not stay in fair
haven, because they've got grain to sell. They're gonna bargain
with God for their salvation. We've gotta make a profit here. Oh, come without money and without
price. You can't bargain with God. He's
gonna get all the glory. Just stay in Fairhaven. Grain
will sit. Those prisoners aren't going
anywhere. The Lord gets all the glory in
salvation, doesn't he? Presuming that gain is godliness. How many friends do you have?
I've met people over the years. And here's what they think. Surely
the blessings of God are not on this. This little group of people who
come from all sorts of walks of life, what influence and significance
are you having in the community? Look at us, we've got thousands
of people. We've got big denominations and
lots of money. We're the ones that God's blessing,
presuming that gain is godliness. Don't despise the day of small
things. God's not doing things the way men does things. Now,
men glory in thinking that gain is godliness. That's what these
men thought. We're not gonna stay in Fair Haven. We've got a ship to unload. We've
got money to make. We've got a profit to make. How many times I've heard somebody
say, well, you know, I'm not doing what I used to do before
I got saved. And the gain of my righteous
life is evidence of my salvation, presuming that gain is godliness. If you're looking to what you're
doing, but you shouldn't have been doing those things all the way anyway.
A lot of things we ought not to be doing. But if we look to
what we're doing and not doing as the cause or evidence of our
salvation, we are presuming that gain is godliness. Stay in Fairhaven, just winter
there. Yeah, you're not gonna be able
to profit from that yet, but you stay there. The only way
to cross the swelling of the Jordan is to stay in Fairhaven,
amen? Amen. And then they said, this place
is not commodious. Now that's not a word that we
use, but you can look it up. It means spacious or roomy. This is just a little Harbor.
You know, I know it's safe to winter here and we could live
if we stay here, but we don't have any options. We're going
to have to just, we're going to be stuck on this ship. There's
not even a town around. There's no entertainment. There's
no, there's no place to go. And Paul, you're telling us to
stay here in a port that's not broad enough. There's not enough
options. There's not enough choices. It's
not spacious enough for us. We want to be able to make choices
about our salvation. We don't want you to shut us
up to just having to stay on this ship. We want to be able to do something. taking away our options. And
to say to us that one option is all we have, that's not a
choice. You're robbing me of my free will. This port is not
commodious enough for me. That's the reason men won't come
to Christ. They won't come to Christ, number one, because they
have no personal profit or gain to make by coming to Christ.
Number two, because they can't make a choice. Coming to Christ
is not a choice. You don't choose to come to Christ.
You did not choose me, I chose you. Coming to Christ is something
that happens when God shuts you up to no other choices. You are
in fair haven, there's no towns around, there's no places to
go, there's nothing else to do. Lord, you alone have the words
of eternal life. We know and are sure that thou
art the Christ, the son of the living God. We've got no place
else to go. How can you have free will if
you don't have any options? Free will assumes that you have
two or more choices. This harbor is not commodious
enough. You're telling me that it's Christ
and Christ alone? You're telling me that I've got
nothing to say about this? Yep. I'm telling you what Jonah confessed. Salvation is of the Lord. In election, before the foundation
of the world, God chose a people according to his own will and
purpose. In redemption, the Lord Jesus Christ actually paid for
all the sins of all of God's people. When he bowed his mighty
head and said, it is finished, everything that God required
for the salvation of his people was accomplished. In regeneration,
God will knock us off our high horse and put us in the dirt. When he shines the light from
heaven, he didn't say, Lazarus, come forth if you want.
He says, Lazarus, come forth. It's an effectual, irresistible
call. Salvation's of the Lord. In sanctification,
it's the Lord that keeps us from falling. In glorification, it's
the Lord that presents us faultless before the throne of God with
great joy. Salvation's of the Lord. He did
it all. We got no contribution to make.
Yeah, this port's not very commodious. It's not very broad. It's not
very spacious, but oh, how safe it is. How safe it is. Peter, James, and John were taken
up on the Mount of Transfiguration. And they saw that bright light
shine from heaven and they heard the voice of God, this is my
beloved son in whom I'm well pleased, hear ye him. And Peter wanted to build three
tabernacles, one for Elijah, one for Moses and one for Christ.
Elijah being the prophets, a picture of knowledge, revelation, that's
what the prophets brought, revelation. And Moses being a picture of
the law, That's works. And Peter said, Lord, let us
build three tabernacles, one for you, one for the law, and
one for the prophets. All these things need to be glorified
and honored. And then the Lord, unmask. His glory. He slid away the veil
of his humanity just for a moment until Peter, James, and John
were forced to the ground. Oh, the brightness of the light
just knocked them down. And then they were sensed that
the light had dimmed and they dared to get up. And the scripture
says, that they saw no man save Jesus only. They saw no man save
Jesus only. Fair Havens, brethren, is not
commodious. It's not roomy. It's not broad. It doesn't offer you any choices. And you can't get any glory or
profit for your for your cargo there. It's the only safe place
to, oh, don't you, Paul's gonna, you read the rest of this story,
we're gonna preach from this the next couple of weeks, but
what a picture of the gospel it is. And when they got in the
midst of the storm and the ship starts breaking up, Paul said,
I told you so. You should have listened to me.
And they should have, and don't you wish they, don't they, you
know they wish they had. They wish they had listened to him. Whom do I believe? If I believe God, I will park
my ship in safe haven until the winter's past. If I'm concerned with personal
gain, and personal glory and maintaining my authority to choose
that I'm going to sail for Phoenicia and I'm going to get caught in
a storm and all will be lost. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for your Word. Lord, teach us by your grace,
show us the truth by your Spirit, and enable us to find all our
hope in Christ. For it's in his name we pray,
amen. 126 in the heart, back to him
now, let's stand together.