Let's turn in our Bibles to Acts
chapter 27. Acts 27. Thursday we saw in Matthew's
Gospel how that when we enter into fellowship with Christ, then we shall face trials. But
that trial that we face is a must. We must face trials because through
trials we're taught by Christ and it's through the trial of
the fellowship of Christ that we're taught the importance of
staying in fellowship with Christ. Staying in fellowship with our
brethren under the sound of the gospel. This morning I want to
see that again in Acts 27. I've titled this, Except Ye Abide
in the Ship. Now, the Apostle Paul here was
being carried, bound. He was a prisoner. He's being
carried to Rome to stand before Caesar. And there were many fellows
with him in this ship. He was in a ship. And there were
many different kinds of fellows with Paul in this ship. And that's
a very good picture of believers in fellowship. We're all different. We come from different backgrounds.
There were different kinds of people here. There was a Roman
centurion. There were soldiers, Roman soldiers. There were sailors probably from
all over different parts of the world. There was Paul, minister
of Christ. There was Luke who's writing
this. There was Aristarchus, who was
a brother from the church at Thessalonica, who was traveling
with Paul, along with Luke. You have all different kinds
of people in this ship. And that's what you have in Christ,
in his church, where a lot of different kinds of people in
fellowship with Christ, in fellowship with one another. And then, as
they're sailing, a large storm came upon them, named Euroclida. This was like a hurricane. named
Uroclidan. And they tried to save themselves,
but they couldn't. They couldn't. This was a big
ship. Big ship. Loaded down with people. Loaded down with goods. And they
began to cast those goods overboard. And when you're in a trial, you
realize what you need and what you don't need. The things you
thought you needed are just weight, dead weight, weighing you down.
And that's when you'll cast those things off. And they began to
cast those things off and at last, after having heard from
the Lord, Paul stood up in the midst of them. Just like I'm
standing here now in the midst of you in this ship. Fellows
in the same ship. And I'm standing here and I'm
declaring to you what Christ has said. Paul stood up and he
declared what Christ said. Here's what he said, Acts 27.22. He says, Now I exhort you to
be of good cheer, for there shall be no loss of any man's life
among you but of the ship. For there stood by me this night
the angel of God, Christ the Lord, whose I am and whom I serve,
saying, Fear not, Paul, thou must be brought before Caesar,
and lo, God hath given thee all them that sail with thee. Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer,
for I believe God, that it shall be even as it was told me. Howbeit, we must be cast upon
a certain island. But when the fourteenth night
was come, Fourteen more nights passed after Paul got up and
said this. When the fourteenth night was
come, as we were driven up and down in Adria, in the Adriatic
Sea, about midnight, the shipmen deemed that they drew near to
some country. And they sounded, and they found it was twenty
fathoms. They did a test to see how deep it was, and they found
it was twenty fathoms. And when they had gone a little
further, they sounded again and found it fifteen fathoms. And
then fearing that we should have fallen upon rocks, they cast
four anchors out of the stern and wished for the day. They
dropped anchor and just said, we're going to wait until the
day, until the light. And as the shipmen were about to flee
out of the ship, now these are different shipmen here. These are different ones. Watch
this. As the shipmen were about to flee out of the ship, when
they had let down the boat into the sea, under color as though
they were pretending as though they would have cast anchors
out of the fourth ship. They were pretending like they
were dropping anchors, too, out of the other end of the ship.
But they weren't. They were letting a lifeboat
down. They were finna leave the ship. And Paul said to the centurion
and to the soldiers, except these abide in the ship, you cannot
be saved. That's my title, except ye abide
in the ship. Christ had spoken to Paul. Paul
was his messenger. Christ had spoken to Paul, his
messenger. And Paul, his messenger, was in fellowship with these
men and he spoke Christ's word to these men. He preached what
Christ told him to preach. And because of the promise that
Christ gave to Paul, when he saw these men trying to jump
ship, Paul said, except these abide in the ship, you cannot
be saved. Now here's what I want us to
see. When God reveals that salvation is by being in fellowship with
Christ through faith, when He reveals that, that salvation
is by being in fellowship with Christ through faith, He reveals
to us that we must abide in fellowship together. We must abide in Christ,
and we must abide in Christ together. Fellas in the same ship. We must
stay under His Word, and hear His Word. If we're going to obey
His Word, we're going to have to stay under His Word. Is that
not right? And we're going to have to hear what Christ says,
and we're going to have to stay with His people. And if we don't
do this, we can't be saved. On the authority of Paul here
in this beautiful picture of Christ and His church, I'm telling
you, except you abide in the ship, you cannot be saved. And
on Christ's authority, I say to you, except you abide in the
ship, you can't be saved. Now, why is it so important to
abide in fellowship with Christ and with His people? Why is that
important? I'm going to show you a few things we see here
in this beautiful picture. First of all, It was in the ship
where Christ spoke to them through His minister, the apostle Paul.
It was in the ship where Christ spoke to these men. Look in Acts
27, 22. Paul stood up, he said, Now I
exhort you to be of good cheer, for there should be no loss of
any man's life among you, but of the ship. For there stood
by me this night the angel of God, whose I am and who I serve,
saying, See, the apostle Paul was only a sinner, just like
everybody else in that ship. He was a sinner like everybody
else in that ship. He was going through the same
storm that they were all going through. He was seasick like
the rest of them were. But the difference was, Paul
was Christ's messenger. The Lord was using Paul to speak
the gospel. He gave him the word to speak.
And that was the difference. So Paul stood up, he declared
Christ's word to them. He didn't declare his word to
them, he declared Christ's word to them. And that reminds me,
you know, of 1 John 1 verse 3. John, listen to this, what John
said. That which we have seen and heard, declare we unto you. That you also may have fellowship
with us. And truly, our fellowship is
with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. Now that's
what we have pictured in our story here in the midst of this
storm. So if these men are going to
disobey Paul, if they're going to not heed Paul's word, who
is it that they're really disobeying? Christ. Because Paul's just speaking
Christ's word. So if they disobey, they're disobeying
Christ's word. You see, A Christ preacher is
a sinner just like everybody else in the ship. He's going
through the same storm that you go through. He's suffering the
same trials you're suffering. He's seasick like you are. He's
just a sinner. The difference is though, Christ
has sent him to preach His Word. And he's preaching Christ's Word.
So if we're going to heed Christ's Word, then we're going to have
to stay in the ship. You see, this is the means God
chose to save His people. Just like they're on that voyage
going across the sea, going to a set destination, we're going
across the sea. We're on a set destination. We're
going to a predestined place to be with God. And the means
by which Christ brought them across that sea was to use Paul
to preach His Word to them. And the way He's doing it for
us in this ship is to preach His Word to us. That's the means
He chose. Listen up. We'll go to Romans
10. Let's look at this together. Romans 10. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call on Him
in whom they have not believed? You can't call on somebody you
don't believe. And how shall they believe in Him of whom they
have not heard? Can't believe on somebody you
haven't heard of. And how shall they hear without a preacher?
And how shall they preach except they be sent? You see where this
comes down to? It comes down to the glory of
Christ is what it comes down to. Christ sending his preacher. Christ preaching through his
preacher. That's what this whole thing is about. That's why I
pleased God to do it this way. It's very humbling. to know that
the way God's going to save His people is through the preaching
of the gospel, using another sinner just like you to preach
it. Isn't that humbling? You know, Brother Jack Shanks
used to say, take advantage of every opportunity
you can to shut up. And that's good. That's good
advice. We don't like to shut up, especially when we're talking
one-on-one with somebody. But when you're hearing the gospel
preached, you don't have any other thing to do but just hush
and listen. It's humbling, isn't it? It's
humbling, but that's how he chose to do it. Now watch this. He
says, How shall they preach except they be sinned? As it's written,
How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of
peace and bring glad tidings of good things. Remember Isaiah
52, Christ said, In that day they're going to know it's I
that is speaking. It's His feet that's beautiful. He sent the
preacher with the gospel. He made His feet beautiful by
giving Him the message to preach. And Christ said, in that day,
they're going to know it's I that's speaking. My people are going
to know I'm the one doing the speaking. And He speaks in the
heart. But look at this, but they have not all obeyed the
gospel. For Isaiah said, Lord, who's believed our report? But
did that change God's means because some did not believe? Because
some jump ship and say, well, I believe God saves by other
means. Does that change God from using the means He chose? It
doesn't affect God. It proves the message wasn't
sent to them. Look here. Look at the conclusion
right here. So then, faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the
Word of God. Christ said, the Word I speak
unto you is spirit and life. And so He's going to send His
messenger. He said, it pleased God for him to save through the
foolishness of preaching. And he said, so that using no
bodies, so that no flesh shall glory in his presence. This is
the one place no flesh is going to glory in his presence when
Christ is speaking in your heart. That's right. If I'm by myself
searching the word, I could glory in my flesh. If I'm off reading
some other writer, I could glory in my flesh, but when I'm sitting
under preaching the gospel and it's Christ speaking in my heart
to me, that's the one place I can't glory. I have nothing to glory
in. I'm not doing a thing but hearing
by His grace. And He said, and this will be
so that of God you'll be in Christ, and of God Christ will be made
all to you, so that when you glory, the only one you'll glory
in is Christ. That's exactly what Paul is talking about in
1 Corinthians 1. This is why it pleases God to save this way,
because it gives Him all the glory. So, if we're going to
object after hearing those reasons, anybody that objects to this
means God chose after hearing those reasons, They hadn't heard
Christ speak in the beginning. That's just so. That's a fact.
A person who would object has not heard Christ speak this gospel. Because this is how He brings
glory to Himself and doesn't allow anybody else to glory.
And if anybody's upset with that, they're upset with God. That's
just so. So the first reason we need to
remain in fellowship is because it pleads God to save through
the foolishness of preaching. And the word preached is the
word of Christ himself. And if we'd be saved by Christ,
we need to hear and heed Christ's word. Don't we? That's how we're
going to be saved. Now secondly, not only do we
stay in the ship because it's how God chose to save His people,
but also because it's in the ship, under that means, preaching
the Word, that we hear the message of how we shall be saved. Look
here what Paul cried in verse 22. He says, Now I exhort you
to be of good cheer. Don't we need that Word? Don't
you need that Word on a regular basis? Think how they needed
that word. You think of the picture there.
They're in a ship and we're talking about a large ship. We're talking
about a sailing vessel, not under the power of engine, under the
power of wind. And they're out there in that
ocean and those waves are going up and down and up and down and
water's coming over the bow of that boat. and they are just being tossed
all over that boat, trying to hang on to that boat, and the
ones that are down in the boat are being tossed, and they are
sick, and it's just miserable. It's a lot like us going through
our life. The kind of things that happen
to us in our life every day, out in the field working, and
then you need to come to a place and hear Christ declare through
His messenger, be of good cheer. He said, in the world you shall
have tribulation. The only place you're going to
have peace is in Me. I've overcome the world. Be of good cheer,
I've overcome the world. And then look, verse 22, He said,
There shall be no loss of any man's life among you, but of
the ship. And I get that. There's not going
to be any man's loss of any man's life among you, but the ship's
going to be lost. Now, what? You told us to abide
in the ship, and we can't be saved except we abide in the
ship, and now you're telling us the ship's going to be lost?
Ship's going to be broken? But that's how you're going to
be saved. Isn't that a beautiful picture of the gospel? How are
we going to be saved? Abide in Christ. That's one way.
And no man's life will be lost that's in Christ, except Christ. His life is going to have to
be broken. His life is going to have to be laid down. Look
down there at verse 41. It said, Falling into a place
where two seas met, they ran the ship aground, and the forepart
stuck fast and remained unmovable, but the hinder part was broken
with the violence of the waves. Our Lord Jesus Christ is our
ship of salvation. And two seas met on Him, Two
seas met on Him. He came and the justice of God
met on Him. When He bore the sin of His people,
the sea of justice met on Him and was poured out on Him and
He suffered that justice to the full satisfaction of divine justice
for His people. But at the same time, another
sea was meeting on Him, the sea of mercy. The same one who was
declaring God just was also justifying us and declaring God the justifier.
And those two seas have met in Christ, truth and mercy, and
they've kissed in harmony in Him. And nothing happened to
Christ as God, just like the front of that ship stuck in the
ground, and nothing happened to the front of that ship. He's
God. Everything He did, Because He's
God, gave eternal efficacy to His work so that we're eternally
redeemed. But the hinder part of that ship
broke. And as a man, he was broken. He was broken. He was broken
for His people. That was God shedding His blood
for His people. Broken. And by that justice,
by those two seas meeting now, all for whom He died are saved.
Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. That's what Paul, that's
the picture here. Biding the ship, and there'll
be no man, loss of no man's life, but the ship. I'm crucified with
Christ, nevertheless, I live. Christ died, and by His death,
I live. I have life. I have life. Look down the page. See how those
who could not swim made it to shore. This is how nobody died
right here. You and I can't swim. There was
some on that ship that could swim. We can't swim. That's God's
people. We can't swim. How are we going
to be saved then? Look here, verse 43. The centurion
willing to save Paul kept them from their purpose. They wanted
to kill all the prisoners. And He commanded that they which
could swim should cast themselves first into the sea and get to
land. But here we are now and the rest. That's us. That's God's
elect. We can't swim. How are we going
to be saved? Some went on boards and some
on broken pieces of the ship. And so it came to pass that they
escaped all safe to land. That's why He told them to stay
in the ship. Stay in Christ. How am I going to live if I stay
in Christ and Christ died? because he was broken. You're going to go to Canaan's
eternal shore on that piece of the ship, on his broken body
and his shed blood. We're going to hang on to that
and that's how we're going to be brought to shore. Isn't that
a beautiful picture? Beautiful picture. Where did
Paul get this message to preach? Back up to verse 23. He said,
there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am
and whom I serve. Where do you get this message
to preach? I'm not telling you my word. My word wouldn't be
worth a hill of beans. You won't hear God's word. You
want to hear how God says He saves. This is how God says He
saves. That's what I'm declaring to you. I'm telling you what
Christ has taught me. I'm His and I'm serving Him and
I'm telling you what He says. This is why we have to abide
in the ship. We've got to hear what Christ says. What was His
message? Verse 24, Fear not, Paul, thou
must be brought before Caesar, and, lo, God hath given thee
all them that sell with thee. This is my message. Just as Paul
must be brought before Caesar, I'm telling you, everybody that
God gave to Christ, all those that are His true elect right
here that God's given me to minister to, They must be brought before
God. Just like Paul must be brought
before Caesar, all Christ died for must be brought before God. They must. Ephesians 5.25 says,
Christ also loved us and gave himself for us that he might
sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word
that the church that He might present it to Himself, a glorious
church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that it
should be holy and without blemish. And all God's elect for whom
Christ died must be saved. They all must be brought to that
place where they're brought before Him and presented to Him. God
gave His elect to Christ. Lo, God's given thee all them
that sell with thee, He said. God's given all His people to
Christ, and they must be brought before God. Neither is there
salvation in any other, for there's none other name under heaven
given among men, whereby we must be saved. This thing's not up
for debate. There's no ifs, ands, or buts,
or maybes about it. God gave His people to Christ,
and for God to be all-glorious, and Christ to get all the honor,
these people must be saved. And they shall. Paul believed
Christ, and so do I. And I'm telling you what Paul
said right there. He said, verse 25, Wherefore,
sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God that it shall be even as
it was told me. Don't you believe God? I believe
God. You know what I'm going to do?
Because if I believe God, I'm going to stay in the ship. I'm
not going to part the ship. I'm staying in the ship. Preacher, you're saying you've
got to stay right here at this local assembly? No. No. But if we're willing to leave
a place, we ought to be willing to pack up and move to another
one where the gospel is preached. If I'm so offended at what's
being preached at a place and I'm leaving there, I ought to
be willing to confess that I never got a thing from it. God don't
use lies. If it was justified reason to
leave, I ought to be justly renouncing it as being nothing but a lie
and going where I can hear the gospel preached. And that's serious
now. If it's that valuable to you,
that's the only way I'm not jumping ship is I'm going to where the
gospel is going to be preached. That's what we ought to do. But
I believe God and I'm going to preach Christ to you. And I believe
you're going to abide in the ship if he is, because this is
what he's going to do. Now let me show you this last
thing. There is a how be it. There is a how be it. Look at
verse 26. How be it? We must be cast upon a certain
land. Now that island that he's talking
about here was the island of Melita, which is called nowadays
Malta. You can find it right down there
at the foot of the Idli. That's where Jeanette Morel's
family is from, Malta. She's Maltese. Bob calls her
the Maltese Falcon. But I'm told, I don't know if
this is true, but I'm told that there's still a gospel church
there now. That's where they were cast,
that island. They had to be cast on that island.
There was a man on that island and he was healed by Paul. And that man was called a certain
man. Usually when you find in scripture
a certain man, that means that's somebody God saving. That's one
of his elect. They must be cast from that island
for that purpose. Now the picture here is you and
I are here for a purpose. We must abide in this ship. How
be it? We're going to all be delivered.
No doubt about that. How be it? There's a reason we're
here. We must be cast Wherever God's people are in this world,
we must be cast there to preach this gospel to them. God chose
them, Christ redeemed them, the Holy Spirit shall regenerate
them, and He shall do it through the preaching of the gospel.
That's why we're here. We must be cast on the island
wherever they are and preach this gospel to them. That's the
purpose of the reason we're here. It's not just for you and I to
be saved. It's to be used of God to preach His gospel whereby
He's going to save others that He's redeemed. That's why we're
here. We can get selfish and think,
oh, it's all about me. No, it's not all about us. It's
about saving all Christ's elect through the preaching of the
Word. That's the purpose. We're going to be saved in the
process, but that's the purpose. And so brethren must abide in
fellowship for the salvation of those Christ shall call through
the preaching of the gospel. Christ, remember in John 17,
20, he said he was praying for those that he had called out.
But he said, neither pray I for these alone, but for them also
which shall believe on me through their word, through their gospel. See, Christ is interceding right
now for you and I, who He died for, who are sitting right here
in the ship. But He's not interceding for us alone. He's interceding
for those who shall believe through our preaching. That's what He's
doing. That's why we're here. That's
why we must abide in the ship. And not only that, in fellowship
with Christ, our faith is going to be tried. It's going to be
proven to be the work of God. It's going to be proven and give
God glory by showing that you abide in the ship. By abiding
in the ship in the midst of all trial and all difficulty, that
shows God's work. That brings glory to God. Look
here in verse 27. It says, But when the fourteenth
night was come, as we were driven up and down in Adria, about midnight
the shipmen deemed they drew near to some country, and they
sounded, and they found that, sure enough, they were getting
close to land. Verse 29 says, Then fearing lest we should have
fallen upon rocks, they cast four anchors out of the stern,
and wished for the day. And then there was these other
shipmen, and they were trying to flee out of the ship. And
they let down the boat into the sea under the color, pretending
that they were casting anchors out of the foreship. And that's
when Paul said, except, he said this to the soldiers, except
these about in the ship, you cannot be saved. See, get this
now, after Paul stood up and declared this message that nobody's
going to die here, be of good cheer, nobody's going to die,
the ship's going to be lost, but we're not going to die, And
Christ stood by me and told me this, and I believe God is going
to be like He told me. After He declared that message,
14 nights went by. Up and down, up and down in that
sea. Up and down in that sea. One
time, Brother Paul Mahan and Gabe Stoniker and me and our
wives, we went up there to Block Island and crossed that little
bay there between Rhode Island and Block Island on the ferry.
And the day we got there, they canceled the ferry because the
seas were so bad. And they should have canceled it the day they
let us go because the seas were still bad. And everybody on board
that little ferry, it was just up and down. Everybody on there
was seasick. And that was just a few hours. I can't imagine
14 nights of that. These men were there for 14 nights,
seasick. Don't you know they were sick
and just tired and worn out? But you know what? That's just
a beautiful, beautiful picture of the Gospel. We preach the
Gospel. We declare what God's doing, what Christ has done,
what He shall do. But we have a voyage to go on
and we've got to go through some storm. And God brings you into deep
seas and He brings you in. Those that go down into deep
waters, they see the hand of God. And He brings you into some
deep trials and some storms to prove that you don't have strength
in yourself, but that your strength is Christ. That's what He's doing. When He did this trial by this
storm, some folks in their glory, they were a testimony of God
working in their heart. They believed the word they heard
preached. And they dropped the anchor and waited for the day.
They said, let the storm rage, we're fine with it. We drop an
anchor right here, we're going to wait until it gets light.
That's what a true strong believer that God's done this work in,
that's what he's done. He dropped his anchor and he's
just waiting for the day. He's going through, batting down
the hatches and right out the storm. He knows Christ is working. But then this same trial, it
proved that the men in that fourth ship, they didn't believe. You
know what they were doing? They snuck up there and pretended
like they were faithful, pretended like they were casting down the
anchors. What were they doing? They were casting down the lifeboat.
They were fixing to leave. They didn't believe Paul's word.
They didn't believe Christ's word. They were fixing to get
off the ship. They were fixing to leave. But then Paul turns
to those soldiers and he says to them, except these abide in
the ship, you can't be saved. Why? Why? You mean if they leave
the ship, I can't be saved? If they leave, why can't I be
saved? What's the picture there? What's that saying? Except Christ
saved every sinner He promised to save, none can be saved. He has to save them all or none
can be saved. It's all or nothing. If He loses
one, He saves none. And that won't happen. That won't
happen. Look what those soldiers did
in verse 32. Then the soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat
and they let her fall off. I'll tell you what, when that
ship broke up, I bet when that ship started breaking up, I bet
those fellows that were standing there and they watched those
soldiers cut that lifeboat away, I bet those fellows were thinking,
you should have let us go. You should have let us get on
that lifeboat and go. But when that ship broke up and they were
on a piece of that boat and they were going safely to shore, I
bet they were saying, man, I'm glad we stayed in the ship. You hear the gospel preached
and you may think sometimes about jumping ship, but I pray Christ
cuts the ropes and makes it to where you got no lifeboat but
Him. And I guarantee you what will
happen, you'll be glad you stayed in the ship. You'll be glad you
stayed in the ship. He said this, this is the Father's
will which is sent me, that of all which He has given me, I
should lose nothing, but should raise it up again in the last
day. I'll lose nothing. He said, My sheep hear My voice,
and I know them, and they follow Me. I give them eternal life,
and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand. My Father which gave them Me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
My Father's hand. I and My Father are one. Nobody that Christ came
to save is going to ever perish. Not one. Except these abide in
the ship, nobody can be saved. Christ is going to make sure
every one of his people abide in the ship. Because he's not
going to lose one. He's not going to lose one. Christ
said this, Abide in me, abide in me, and I in you. As the branch
cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more
can you except you abide in me. John said, that's what we've
seen and heard. Declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship
with us. And here's where our fellowship
is. Our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus
Christ. You abide in that ship. You'll
be saved. If He's revealed this gospel to you, you know what
you're going to do? You're going to do what those soldiers did.
The soldiers cut that rope and they let her fall off. This is
the thing that is true in salvation. You and I cannot have any just-in-case
lifeboats. There can't be no insurance just
in case things don't work out. We've got to cut all the lifeboats
off and let them go. And say, I'm abiding in this
ship alone right here. This is my salvation. That's
how we're saved. Christ alone. Alright brother,
let's get the two Kevins pass out the elements.