This we know that all Scripture is given by
the breath of God, the inspiration of God. And it's profitable,
the Scripture says, for doctrine, for teaching, for reproof, that is, for the
evidence How do we prove what we believe? The Word of God.
It needs no other proof. Our God has said it that ends
it. It is profitable for correction,
that is restoration, and for instruction in righteousness,
that is chastening. So for our teaching, for the
evidence of God's faithfulness, for the restoration from our
constant failings, and for the chastisement that comes to those
that the Lord has everlastingly loved. I'd like to look at the first
12 verses of the 27th chapter. And there are four things that
we learn. We've looked at the book of Acts
and we realize This is not a history book. It is, but it isn't. Man can stand up and preach the
Scriptures correctly, historically, and not preach the Gospel. That's
understandable. You understand that. You could
read this and say, this is what the Word of God says, and you'd
be speaking historically. See, that's right. I agree with
you. That's what it says. But what's the message of the
passage? If we see not Christ, if we receive
no instruction in righteousness, no reproof, no correction, if
we have no doctrine of Christ, then we've missed it. Four things
that we learn from these 12 verses. Here's the first thing we learn.
Everything that is conducted in this world's affairs is according
to God's purpose to show mercy to His elect. Verse 1 and 2. Chapter 27 says,
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 Augustus' band. And entering into a ship of Adrometheum,
we launched, meaning to sail by the coast of one Aristarchus,
a Macedonian of Thessalonica, being with us. Now, in the last verse of chapter
26, this is what Agrippa said. Well, this man might have been
set at liberty if he had not appealed unto Caesar. So therefore,
Agrippa and Festus determined that Paul must appear before
Caesar. But do you know why they decided
that Paul was going to appear before Caesar? Because Almighty
God, like the river, turns the head of the king whether so ever
he will. He rules in the army of heaven
among the inhabitants of the earth. And His counsel is going
to stand. So therefore, because God Almighty
had determined having a people in Rome that would surely hear
the gospel, and in time a letter would be written to the church
at Rome that we studied for, what, two years? The book of
Romans and some of the greatest instruction and correction and
reproof and chastisement that we've ever received concerning
the things of God was taught the church through the Apostle
Paul who learned these things by the Spirit of God's teaching. So he was going to Rome. And
there was going to be a church raised up. But because Agrippa
and Festus decided, that's how man sees it, well, the king and
the governor decided, you know. Well, this happened because the
government says that that's what we're going to do. So to get
the gospel to the Gentiles, which was at Rome, Paul was a prisoner
in Caesarea. And the reason that he was a
prisoner in Caesarea was because he was a chosen vessel under
the Lord Jesus Christ to preach the gospel to the Gentiles. The
Lord told him that on the road to Damascus. Boy, how constantly we must be
reminded that we're not our own. We're bought with a price. This
is God's world and we're His people. I know we forget. We often forget. I know that. But it's comforting to know that
whatever comes your way, my way, all things, work together for
good to them that love God. As I've said before, that promise
is not to those that know not the Lord. All things work together
for good to them that love God, who are the called according
to His purpose. Ephesians 1, 11 and 12 says,
"...in whom also we have obtained an inheritance being predestinated."
You know what that means. The destination beforehand. According to the purpose of Him
who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will that
we should be to the praise of His glory who first trusted in
Christ. Well, in order that God's elect
might hear the glorious gospel. the gospel of that everlasting
covenant of peace, the Lord must order all things to surely bring
His will and His purpose and His pleasure to pass. Here is the second thing I know.
Those who are prisoners of Christ are faithful to His calling And
they trust Him. Now I'm going to read verse 3
and tell you what happened to the Apostle Paul. But I'm telling
you, this rule, this truth applies to everyone. Just like the first
one. You know that all things are working together for good
to them that love God. You know that God is ordering
all these things. Agrippa and Festus They were
not the source of Paul deciding he was going to Rome. God was. Those that are prisoners of Christ,
you that believe here, you're faithful to His calling. It says in verse 3, In the next
day we touched at Sidon, and Julius, Now that's a centurion. He's a Roman soldier. Julius
courteously entreated Paul and gave him liberty to go unto his
friends to refresh himself. Now here's a scenario. Paul has
been entrusted by the Roman government to Julius. Julius is a centurion. that he is in command of a hundred
soldiers. It is the responsibility of Julius
to get Paul to Rome. And Julius allows the prisoner
of Rome, yes, but a prisoner and a servant of the Lord Jesus
Christ to courteously Get off that ship and go into Sidon and
visit with some friends to refresh himself. Now you think, kind
of risky. He's going to let a prisoner
of the Roman government just go in there? This centurion obviously had
been moved upon by divine power to show some kindness to Paul. No doubt about that. Now, you
know that this would be an unusual scenario. Proverbs 16, 7 says,
When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies
to be at peace with him. This Roman soldier showed compassion
to Paul because the Lord God of heaven had purposed for Paul
to minister and to be ministered to the brethren that were at
Sidon. Now in this world, all things
are the servants of Almighty God to God's people. Now this is what I mean. Paul
was going to Rome because God purposed that Paul was going
to Rome. How was God going to get Paul to Rome? The Lord used
means. How was He going to do it? He
was going to put Paul in prison. He was going to cause Paul to
stand before Grippa and Festus and Felix, and he was going to
preach the gospel to them. You know what happened. They
didn't want to hear it. It needed a more convenient season.
Oh, Mose Paul, you persuade me to be a Christian. Agrippa listened
to it, couldn't find anything wrong with what Paul was saying,
and decided that really, if Paul wouldn't have made such an issue
out of going to Rome, he could have been turned loose. He's
got to go because he's appealed to Caesar. So therefore, because
Almighty God had purposed for Paul to go to Rome, those soldiers,
that ship, even the economy of that place was now in the hands,
the means of Almighty God to get Paul to Rome. All things
wait upon Almighty God for the good of His people. Romans 8,
we just quoted that. All things work together. Whose
ship was that? That was Rome's ship. No, no. Whose soldiers was that? That's
Rome's. No, no. The earth is the Lord's and the
fullness there. Owns the cattle on a thousand
hills. Owns a thousand hills. Owns those soldiers. Owns those
ships. Well, what happened was those men were just going that
way and they had some ships that were, you know, some grain and
stuff that was being shipped up that way and so they happened
to... God raised up that economy and gave them the business to
be able to ship to the place that they were going and put
Paul there. He raised them up for this purpose. You see, our
problem is that we think too little of what Almighty God is
doing in this world. But I said before, and this is
what I mean when I said that believers are faithful to His
calling, Paul knew that he was the prisoner of Christ. Paul, a servant of Christ, called
to be an apostle. But he was not the prisoner of
Rome. He was the prisoner of Christ. And the Lord told him, you preached
in Jerusalem and you are going to preach in Rome. And Paul was
not going to abuse the freedom that the Lord gave him through
this soldier to go into Sidon and to minister and be ministered
to by the brethren that was there. He wasn't going to run. Almighty
God moved on that soldier to let him go in because God was
going to send him there. He didn't attempt to flee. He
was going to preach and run. And I'll tell you, God's people
bow to the good providence of Almighty God, of Him who's called
them by grace. You don't buck against that which
Almighty God raises up in your life. I mean, there's times that
we come across things in our life and our flesh rebels against
it. But you that believe, and I know
that this is a lesson that we all will learn, and this I know,
comes by trial. But you learn, though the trials
begrieve us, you come to love the good pleasure of Him who
causes us to walk in the paths and be led and taught by these
chastisements." Paul says, in tribulation. They are grievous,
but when we are brought to realize they are sent by Almighty God,
we bear the cross that He sends with thankfulness. They war against
our flesh, but in all things we are thankful, thankful to
Him that does as He will. Whenever Eli was told by Samuel. God raised up a young boy, Samuel. And Eli had two boys, Phinehas
and Hophni. And these boys were priests. And they had been disrespectful. And whenever God told young Samuel
what he was going to do to Eli's two boys. He told him that he
said, I'm going to kill your boys. And this was what happened. Eli came to Samuel and he said,
I want you to tell me what the Lord said. He said, don't hold
anything back because if you do, he said, God do to you as
he said he's going to do to me. In verse 18, I'll just read this
to you. 1 Samuel 3 verse 18, And Samuel
told him every whit, and hid nothing from him. And this is
what Eli said, It's the Lord. Let him do what seemeth him good. Almighty God gives His people
a heart to bow to His good providence, and He's teaching And it is through
much tribulation that we enter into His presence. But I tell
you this, God's people trust Him. And they're His servants. And they rest in Him. Here's
the third thing I know. The Lord will prove. That is, He will show. He will
test those that are His. Back in Acts 27 verse 4 to 7,
And when we had launched from Thence, we sailed under Cyprus,
because the winds were contrary. And when we had sailed over the
sea of Cilicia and Pamphylia, we came to Myra, a city of Lycia. And there the centurion found
a ship of Alexandria sailing into Italy, and he put us therein. And when we had sailed slowly
many days, and scarce, were come over against Nidus, The wind
not suffering us, we sailed on decree over against Simoni." God is going to prove those that
are His. We're not told why the Lord sent
the wind that was contrary to the way that Paul went. What we are told is that the
Lord said to Paul, you are going to Rome. Julius, the centurion, his route
was altered that God's will might be accomplished in God's timing. You know, Paul's character in
regenerating grace was going to be shown. Why would the Lord
send a wind that was contrary? Surely, if God said that you're
going to Rome, the winds were going to be favorable and everything's
going to be fine, and we're going to sail just exactly in a straight
path, and there's not going to be any delay because God's got
a people over there, and if we don't get over there in a hurry, Some of God's sheep may not be
saved. Some of them may die before we
get there. Was Paul the one that caused
the winds to blow contrary? Now, I'm not saying that I excuse. We don't condone laziness. It's not that. But when providentially
the Lord so orders things that it appears as though it has become
very evident that the winds of God's providence blows contrary
to what we think needs to be done, what do you do? You bow to the good pleasure
of Him who does all things Well, just suffice it to say, he who
is declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times
the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand
and I will do all of my pleasure, is running this show. The Lord slowed the progress
of that vessel for a good reason. What was it? Well, I guess we could all sit
here and try to form a hypothesis, a good educated guess of what
was going on. We're all prone to that. But
Job 33, 13 says, Why dost thou strive against him? And we all do that. For he giveth not account of
any of his matters." Lord, why has this happened to me? Well, I feel as though that this
would have been much better handled this way. If this could just
be removed and this could have been done, how many of us would
have chosen the lot? that Almighty God has laid upon
us in exactly the way it was laid. How many of us would have
chosen that if it was left up to us? None of us. Because there are things that
come our way that seem to be contrary to what we thought. Paul was going to Rome and he
was going to be in Rome in God's timing. James 1, 2 to 4 says,
My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into divers temptations,
knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect
work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Why did this happen? Why did
the wind blow contrary? He does not give account of his
matters. He does as He will. Fourthly
and lastly is what we learn for this evening. The only true safety
is found in Christ. Verse 8 to 12, In hardly passing
it came unto a place which is called the fair havens. Nigh whereunto was the city of
Lasea. Now when much time was spent
and when sailing was now dangerous, because the fast was now already
past, Paul admonished them and said unto them, Sirs, I perceive
that this voyage will be with hurt and much damage, not only
of the laden and ship, but also of our lives. Nevertheless, the
centurion believed the master and the owner of the ship more
than those things which were spoken by Paul. And because the
haven was not commodious convenient to winter in, the more part advised
to depart thence also, if by any means they might attain to
Pharnaces, and there to winter, which is an haven of Crete, and
lieth toward the southwest and the northwest." Now here's what
happened. Paul was on this ship along with
276, a total of 276 men, soldiers, Jews, criminals, just Christians,
three of them. And they got on this ship. They're going and it just seemed
like when they got off, this got going, this thing, after
they left Sidon, this thing was just creeping. We weren't going anywhere. The
Roman centurion thinks to himself, we ain't going to get there.
Well, they come to a place called Fair Havens. Paul tells them,
this is where we ought to stay, right here. But the centurion,
the Scripture says, didn't believe Paul. He listened to some bad
advice. You see, as far as he was concerned,
much time had been lost, and we need to make up the difference. Paul perceived that danger was
going to surely follow if they left the fair havens of Crete. But because that centurion believed
the master and the owner of the ship more than those things spoken
by Paul. They didn't feel, he didn't feel,
they didn't feel, nobody felt that much debate was given concerning
this matter. They decided that the best thing
to do was to leave the security of that port for what they thought would be
a better place to stay. It'd be a whole lot better If
we left and get to Phanisee and let's winter there, that's a
much better haven. Well, tonight we consider him
who is the one, the only one, who is the fair haven. That haven
that Brother Scott just read about a while ago. the beautiful, virtuous harbor
of safety, the Lord Jesus Christ, our haven, our security, our
cleft of the rock. Many feel, as these did, save
for the Apostle Paul and I'm sure Luke who penned this, he
keeps saying we and us, so obviously Luke was with them. And Aristarchus,
the believer from Macedonia, but most all, in fact, probably
all of them, felt that that haven, as men today who feel as though
that the haven of the Lord Jesus Christ, to just trust Christ,
Paul said, this is where we need to stay, right here. I don't
think so. This is not safe enough. We need
to get over to Pharnaces. That's a better. That's a better. What is Pharnaces? It's whatever
man thinks is better than the fair haven. Pharnaces. Oh, that's a better place. Better
than trust in God. What's better than trust in Him? Well, I feel as though that,
you know, my church membership, I feel as though that my baptism,
I feel as though that whatever a man thinks is better, that's
for nicey. We'll get there. Well, I'll tell
you this, Lord, Lord willing, is we're going to find out that
they did leave. And they came, they got into
a hurricane, the Heraclodon. We'll look at that and see what
happened to them. But I'm telling you, man by nature, anything's
better than Christ. 2 Kings, there was a man named
Naaman. I'm telling you, it amazes me
to read about that. He was the captain of the Syrian
army. And it named all of these wonderful
things. Naaman this, Naaman that. And
it came right down to the end. You remember the last thing it
said about Naaman? But there was only one. He was a leper. He was a leper. That was his
only problem. You name all of the things that
are so-called wonderful about a man. Oh, I mean, he's a graduate. He's got these degrees. He's
got that. He's got this business. He's
got all this. But he's a sinner. As men have said before, when
he dies, how much is he going to leave? All of it. What's he
going to leave this world with? Nothing. Naaman went to Elisha. There was a young maid over in
Syria. And she said, there's a prophet. I want to go talk to him. So Naaman went over to see Elisha. And Elisha didn't even go out
to see him. He sent his servant out there. It kind of made Naaman
mad, you know, realizing who he was. And he said, you're the servant?
Well, I thought. I thought that surely he'd come
out to me. No. The servant said, this is
what he said. This is what the Master said.
This is what every servant of the Master says. Wash. Wash in Christ. He told him, he said, go wash
in the Jordan seven times and thy flesh shall come again to
thee and thou shalt be clean. And it made Naaman mad. Why? Because Naaman had the same
thought that these men had right here. Fair Haven's in Crete. That's no security. Man, have
you seen the docks and the dams and all of the seawalls that
they've got there in Phanesi? Man, they've got stuff there. They've got just like that seawall
that goes around New Orleans, impenetrable. He said to the servant of Elisha,
he said, the River Jordan, that filthy river, that's a dirty
river. He said, Abana and Farpar, rivers
of Damascus, are better than all the waters of Israel. Jordan. But Jordan was a picture of Christ.
What men by nature consider filthy, base. To lower myself? To cast myself? And to think that I've got to
bow to one who will accept nothing that I have to offer. Do you
know who I am? Yeah, you're a leper. That's
who you are. You're a leper. And you're going
to die. That's what's going to happen to you. You're going to
die. Yeah, but what about all of the
things that I've done? What about who I am? What about
how long I've been a member of this church? What about? Wash
in the River Jordan. That Philippian jailer asked
Paul, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. As Paul admonished the leaders
of the ship, stay in the fair havens. We admonish men tonight,
come to Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Come to Him. All that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. He said, I perceive that this
voyage, the voyage of this life, He said, is going to be with
hurt and much damage. apart from staying in the haven. Those that believe all by the
grace of God, that trust themselves to Him, are surely going to be saved. Matthew 11 and 28, "...Come unto
Me, come unto Me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. May the Lord add
His blessing and be to the comfort of His people for Christ's sake. Amen.