I'm going to ask you to turn
to Acts chapter 28. And before we begin there, I
want you to look with me in Proverbs. Proverbs, just before you have
Isaiah, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Proverbs, going back towards
the beginning of the book from Isaiah. Proverbs 4. And verse 18 says, the path of
the just is as the shining light, like
the sun, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Picture the sun coming up over
the horizon. and it shines brighter and brighter
and brighter to the perfection of day. The Lord says the path
of those that he's justified in Christ called into fellowship
with his son through faith in him as the shining light. His path is going to shine more
and more until the perfect day. When will you know that this
gospel this Word, this very message of Christ Jesus, the Lord, who
saves, who saves all the Father gave Him, all that are drawn
to Him, all that come to Him, all that cast their care on Him.
He alone is salvation. What's it going to take for you
to know that this Gospel is not of man, but it's of God? that this salvation is not of
man, but it is of God. What will it take for us to believe
that Christ really is the power and wisdom of God to save His
people? Acts 28 verse 1, And when they were escaped, Then
they knew that the island was called Melita. This word escaped
means to cure, to preserve, to perfectly save. When God cured them, when he
preserved them, when he brought them to be saved on this island,
then they knew the name of this island. When will you know? that this Gospel is not of man,
but it's of God. When will you know that salvation
really is in Christ Jesus the Lord through faith in Him by
God's grace alone? When will we know that? We'll
know it when God has delivered us, when He's preserved us, and
when He's saved us. Then shall you know. Then shall
you know. And He does this in the beginning,
He does this through every trial and He does this at last. That's
our three divisions. In the beginning, through every
trial, and at last. In the beginning, you'll know
and you'll believe God when God has delivered you from the power
of sin and from the darkness of our own depraved hearts and
made us willing to truly come to Him and trust Him to save
us. You know back in Acts 27.20,
we saw the condition of all men by nature. Let's read that, Acts
27.20. When neither the sun nor stars,
now that's light, that's light. When neither the sun nor stars
in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all
hope that we should be saved was then taken away. No spiritual
light. That's the condition. Everybody
God saves, that's their condition. It's their natural born condition
as they come into this world. No light. No light. The Word. The Word. The light. The life. Who was in the beginning. Who
was with God. Who is God. The light and the
life that was the light and life of men came into this earth in
the person of Jesus Christ, God with us. And listen to this sad
commentary. I want you to turn here with
me. Hold your place there and turn over to John chapter 1.
John chapter 1. Listen to this now. Verse 5, The light shineth in
darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. Look down at verse 10. He was in the world, and the
world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. He came unto
His own, and His own received Him not. A sinner believes. when God shines the light into
this dead, dark sinner through the gospel of Christ. Look over
at John 7. This is what got me thinking on this. John 7. I read that first verse of Acts
28. When they were escaped. It means
when God delivered them to that island. Then they knew the name
of that island. And now, thought of this verse.
Now, the Lord stood preaching the gospel. He is the word, and
he was preaching the word. He preached himself, that he
is the salvation of sinners. Now, as God, he needed not that
any man teach him. He is the word. He is the very
gospel itself. But standing here before the
religious hierarchy, the establishment, as the son
of man, as the servant of God. He answered this way. Look at
this now. John 7 verse 15. The Jews marveled, saying, How
knowest this man letters, having never learned? Jesus answered them and said,
My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me. If any man, now listen to this,
if any man will do his will, the will of him that sent Christ,
if any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine,
whether it be of God or whether I speak of myself. He's saying
to us, when God has delivered you from the power and dominion
of your sinful flesh, your sinful will, then you'll know, then
you'll know that this doctrine's not of men, it's of God. He gives
spiritual life, He gives light through Christ, the life, the
light, where there was no life and there was no light. That's
what He does. And He gives a new spirit, He
puts a new spirit within a sinner where there was only hatred for
God. enmity against God. And when
he makes his children willing in the day of his power, willing
to cast all their care on Christ, willing to come and be taught
of the Lord, willing to look into God's Word and truly seek
the works of God and to seek the salvation of God and to truly
hear what God says about our complete and total inability
and his mighty works when he's brought us to that place. To
be able to honestly say, to will is present with me, but how to
perform it, I don't know. I don't have it in me, I don't
know. To be honest, when he brings a man to be honest by his life,
through the light of this gospel, then shall we know. Then shall
we know. We'll know him. We'll know who
he is. We'll know him in that day. Paul
said, If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost,
in whom the God of this world hath blinded their minds, which
believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ
should shine unto them. The light. the light. That's what we need. We need
the Son of Righteousness to begin to come up in the day just like
the sun comes up in the morning. We need this light to shine.
He said, God who in the beginning spoke light and said, let there
be light and there was light. He said, He hath shined in our
hearts to give the light of the knowledge. We didn't have it.
We didn't have wisdom. We didn't have understanding.
We had no knowledge. He gave the light of the knowledge
of God, the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. And Paul
said, and we have it, this treasure, in earthen vessels. The preacher
does, and the believer does, and the witness does. Everybody
that's saved of God has this in earthen vessels, that the
power may be of God and not of us. from beginning to end. Now these men were in darkness. They were in complete, total
darkness with no hope whatsoever. Then Paul stands up and he delivers
the word of God. He delivers the promise. And
this is light coming to them. This is light coming to where
they are in this tempest, in this ship. And watch this in
Acts 27, 21. We've looked at this, but I want
you to see this again. I've got something else I want
you to see in this. Paul stood up and he said, now,
you should have hearkened to the word from the beginning,
but they didn't. We had seen that. Now in Acts
22, he says, I exhort you to be of good cheer. 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 whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul, thou must be brought
before Caesar. And, lo, God hath given thee
all them that sell with thee. Now Paul says, Wherefore serves
be of good cheer? For I believe, God, that it shall
be even as it was told me." Paul had this light. It had sprung
in his heart. He had seen it. And he had been
through many trials and he had proven God. And God had proven
to Paul that where he's begun this work, he'll finish it. He
will carry it on. And Paul said, therefore, when
I hear him say this to me, I believe him. I believe it will be exactly
as he says it will be. You know what unbelief is? You
know what a lack of faith is? You know what a refusal to come
and cast all your care on Christ? You know what it is? It's not
believing it will be as God says it will. Right here in this Word. But he stood up there and he
declared promises. That's what our gospel is. It's
promises that God has given in His Word. Promises of what God
will do. Promises of what only God can
do. Only God could give these promises. Because only God can bring these
promises to pass. And only those who have had the
light shine into their heart to behold this glory belongs
to God alone. And it's made manifest in the
person of His Son, Christ Jesus the Lord. Only those who have
had this light and experienced this power and this grace of
God can truly, with a sincere heart, stand up and declare in
truth these promises of God. What God shall do. And truly
believe and say to you, I believe it shall be even as it was told
me. Now this is how you're going
to know when this light shines. Then shall you know. You see
what God did, what He does is He makes us to be completely,
totally cured, delivered from that power of darkness. into
His marvelous light, so that now He's walking with us, He's
walking in us, He's among us, and He's leading us, and He's
guiding us, and He's teaching us, and He's directing us. And
He says this, the Lord said this, He said, I am the light of the
world. And He said, he that followeth
Me shall not walk in darkness. I like that word. That's a promise. He that follows me shall not
walk in darkness, but shall have the light. He shall have the
light, the light of life. God promises he'll never take
it away. The path of the just. The path
of those that He's called by His grace, that He's brought
to truly seek Him and desire Him, to know Him, to know more
of Him. The path of the just. It is as the shining light that
shineth more and more unto the perfect day. Now, we saw how
this begins. They had no light. Paul stands
up. He delivers the light to them. And we saw a picture in
this when we looked at it before how that we saw many ways in
which these were illustrations of what God does when he shines
that light into our heart. Now once this light has begun,
we know then, we know this is the power and wisdom of God.
Christ Jesus the Lord, this one who was crucified is my salvation. He's the one that's gonna bring
me to God and not me myself. And so this is what's going to
separate us. It separates us from the beginning.
Light separates from darkness, doesn't it? You can't have light
and darkness in the same room. Where the light is, the darkness
is gone. The very essence of light is it separates from darkness. And when He shines this light,
it separates us from that false notion that it's by our will
and our way and by some blood relation or anything in us that
He said. He separates us from that. And
he begins from that moment forward to teach us over and over through
this whole life of faith, through trial after trial after trial.
And this light grows more and more and more. Now this is something
that got me excited. It got me excited when I saw
this. I want you to see a progression here. Back in Acts 27. Now they
started out, they had no light. Paul delivers the word of the
Lord, the light of the gospel. And Paul said to them here at
the very At the very, verse 26, he said, howbeit we must be cast
upon a certain island. I never really saw this before,
but I think, you know, this is me, this is me talking. I think
Paul probably told them the name of the island they were going
to land on right then. When God told him they were going
to be cast on a certain island, It might just be that Paul told
them right then, the island they're gonna land, the name of it, the
name of it. And I'll show you why I say that.
I want you to see this progression. Verse 27 says, but, now that's
an important word. He told them this, and it starts
the next line, but, but, when the 14th night was come, as we
were driven up and down in Adria about midnight, The shipmen deemed
that they drew near to some country. They had heard Paul say, we're
going to be delivered to this certain island, but they looked
through this darkness and they deemed, that don't look like
an island, that looks like it's a country. I believe that's a
country we're coming to. But they dropped the anchor and
they waited for the day. And then as they were waiting
there in the night, in the darkness, some tried to leave and Paul
gave them that word of instruction. And he gave them some more light.
He gave them some more understanding of what God said. Verse 31, Paul
said to the centurion and to the soldiers, except these abide
in the ship, you cannot be saved. And what did they do? Then the
soldiers cut off the ropes of the boat and they let her fall
off. We got here a picture, we've seen this, but I want you to
get what I'm getting at here. This is a picture of God giving
light through his gospel. And of you and I who believe
in walking in the light he's given us. Walking in the light
he's given us. We see here an illustration of
a willingness to believe what we've been taught. That path
of the just, it says the light, shining light that shines more
and more into the perfect day. He said, the scripture said,
with thee is the fountain of life and in thy light we shall
see light. Look at this next word. Watch
this progression, verse 33. And while the day was coming
on. It's not fully light, but the day's coming. The day's coming
on. And Paul stands up and he gives
them some more instruction. He gives them some more light.
He says, verse 34, Wherefore I pray you take some meat. This
is for your health. There shall not fall from the
head of any of you. Then were they all of good cheer,
and they also took some meat. Verse 36. You see, the light
caused them to walk in the light. And then they, as they walked
in the light, they were full of good cheer at the promise,
and they ate. They ate. The promise was, not
a hair is going to fall from the head of anybody. And it cheered
them. This is the promise of salvation. Not one for whom Christ
died shall be lost. All shall be saved. That cheers
my heart. You know what it makes me want
to do? Walk in that light. It makes me want to eat this
food more and more. Alright, now notice the progression.
Verse 39. And when it was day, now the
sun is shining. It started out in complete darkness.
And now it's day. You see the picture here? We
don't have any light until God gives the light. And He makes
us willing to walk in the light. And as we walk in the light God
gives. He gives more light. But notice here, when it was
day, they still didn't know this land. They didn't know it. These
sailors knew every island. This wasn't their first trip
down this way, you know. They knew every island. They
knew that place backwards and forwards. They knew everything
about it. And they cannot, by their own wisdom and their own
eye, look at this island and name this island. They have no
idea what island this is, what land. It's gone from being described
as a country to a land. Now they're just saying, we don't
even know what to say. Did not God tell us that he will
take his children and he will bring them by a way that they
don't know? He's going to bring us by a way
that's not going to be about where we're going to buy our
own wisdom and our own understanding, be able to glory in any regard
whatsoever that we arrive by our own wisdom. That's the purpose
of God giving this light and of the manner in which he gives
this light and of who this light is. It's Christ the light delivered
through the gospel of Christ the light that all the glory
may be of God. Why do you think he whittled
down Gideon's army to nothing? So that when the victory was
won, everybody there would have to say, God did this. God did
this. Why is he bringing them this
way on the backside of this island in a way that they can't even
know the name of this island? They can't even know it. Because
it's not gonna be by our wisdom that we're saying. How many times? How many trials? You, Brother
Pete, talked about his trial and Patty's trial. How many times
has God in our lives saved us in a way that we could have never
imagined? That we would have never in our
own wisdom thought about? How, isn't that the very first
lesson of the gospel? Is that It's not by my wisdom. It's not by my will. It really
is God who shows mercy. God who has mercy on whom He
will. God who saves whom He will. Brother Tommy asked me this week.
He said, Clay, why do you think God chose sinners? I told him, I said, I don't know,
Tommy. I said, according to His good pleasure. We sit there and
talk about that a minute. God, why did I have Will? I wanted a son, that's why. And in the purpose of wanting
a son, our purpose to give him everything, provide everything
for him, love him, guide him, teach him, direct him, just in
the purpose of the desire to have a son. All my love was towards
him, just in the purpose of it. So it is with God before He created
anything. The whole purpose was to have
sons and daughters, children that will know Him and rejoice
in Him and love Him for the great things that He's done for them.
The sin entered in according to His purpose that He might
manifest to us the greatness of His glory in saving us from
it. To show us something of Himself. To bring us to Himself. Faith,
brethren, it's not being able to look at something and know
it by your own intellect and know it by your own wisdom and
understand it by your own faculties. It troubles me some with the
children when they're asking good questions, and I want you
to ask them, but you know, if I answer all these questions
and show all these questions to you from the Scriptures, don't
get the idea that that's how you're going to understand this
gospel. He's going to have to shine this light in your heart.
He's going to have to make Christ your wisdom and make you to behold
you've got none. That's how He's going to do it.
He's going to bring you by a way that you don't even understand. You wouldn't even recollect.
You wouldn't even enter into the fact that this is how it
comes. And faith, brethren, is the substance of things hoped
for. When He starts this Word, He
gave them this Word, they're going to be cast on this island.
And they're hoping for that. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. It's the evidence. It's the reality. It's the truth of what God has
promised us, though we may not see it with our carnal eyes.
That's what faith is. It's, you know, the closer to
the vine, the stronger the branch. Faith is not stepping out and
blindly just taking a leap. Faith is stepping into Christ
and trusting Christ alone to deliver me. And the nearer we
are to Him, the stronger we are. Faith's not turning again to
our wisdom. It's wholly trusting Christ who
is the wisdom of God, who really, truly has in His wisdom done
all that God gave Him to do, sent forth the prophets and had
this Word written. I thought of this the other day.
We were talking about Christ the prophet. You know, a good
way to teach a lesson, a message, is to tell the people what you're
going to tell them. first, and then tell them, and
then tell them what you told them. Well, you know what Christ
the prophet did? He sent forth his prophets with
his word to tell us what he's going to tell us, what he's going
to show us. And then he came to where we are and he showed
us what he had told us he was going to do. He fulfilled everything
that was written, everything he said he was going to do, he
fulfilled it. And you know what he's doing
now through the gospel? He's telling us what he's shown us.
That's exactly what he's doing. It's not turning now to our wisdom. It's not turning now to Mount
Sinai. It's not turning back again. It's trusting Christ,
the righteousness of Christ, having these promises, brethren.
He said, I'll be to you a father, you'll be to me a son. Having
these promises, let us purge ourselves, let us be separated
unto Him, to be cleansed, to be rid of all those former confidences
and to draw near unto Him. That's the perfection of holiness.
What will the perfection, the absolute ultimate perfection
of holiness be? when you're perfectly conformed
to the image of Christ and you're one in Him. Well, how then do
we think that holiness now in this life has to do with us looking
at how far we've come and how far we've progressed and what
we've done by our hands? Isn't holiness now being rid
of that notion and rid of that thought that we can somehow perfect
ourselves once we've begun in the Spirit? Isn't holiness being
drawing nearer and nearer to Him who is our separation, who
is our holiness? And having no desire but to be
found in Him? Not having our own righteousness,
but the righteousness which is of God by faith? That's true
separation. That's true holiness. That's
what it is. Hosea said, then shall we know
if we follow on to know the Lord. To know the Lord. Now look at
Acts 27 verse 40. We saw in this that they committed.
They had walked in this light and they walked further in this
light. They committed to God. They took up the anchors. They
committed themselves into the sea. They loosed the rudder bands.
They hoist up the main sail to the wind and made toward the
shore. And here's our hope, brethren. Look at verse 42. We looked at
those two seas where they met. We looked at that being sort
of a picture of mercy and justice. Here's another one. The same
picture, really. Verse 42. The soldier of justice wanted
to kill the prisoners. The soldier's counsel was to
kill the prisoners lest any of them should swim out and escape.
That's what the law of God demanded of us. We'd be killed. But the
centurion of mercy, the centurion of God's mercy, willing to save
one for the sake of one, for the sake of this one man, for
this one, kept them from their purpose and commanded that they
which could swim should cast themselves in the sea and get
to land. You know how we're saved? The justice of God demanded we
be put to death. And the centurion of mercy demanded
for the sake of that One who laid down His life and bore the
wrath of God in our place and purged His people of all sin
and is raised again to the right hand of God. For His sake, like
this centurion did it just for the sake of that one man in this
ship, for Christ's sake, for God's own righteousness sake,
He saves us and He will. And He will keep on doing it.
Verse 44, look at the end. And so it came to pass that they
escaped all safe to land. That's how we're going to be
brought. to glory. Now look at the progression. And when they were escaped, then
they knew. Then they knew. They knew the
name of the island now, didn't they? In every trial, as we walk
by faith and not by sight, and every one of them, though unbelief's
in us, there's still darkness in us, Christ has promised they
shall have the light of life. And He's going to continually
deliver us through all those trials. And when He brings us
out of every one, Then shall you know. That light is shining
a little brighter and a little brighter, isn't it? It's coming
up a little more and a little more and it's shining brighter
and brighter. The path is a little more clear
and a little more clear. He really will not forsake me. He really will provide for me. It really shall be as he has
promised it shall be. We see it a little more and a
little more. And you know what every one of these trials are
preparing us for? The end. The end. Listen to this. Let me read you
this before we move on. This is what the songwriter wrote. Every joy or trial falleth from
above, traced upon our dial by the sun of love. We may trust
Him fully, all for us to do. That is, all for us to do, trust
Him fully. Those who trust Him wholly, find
Him wholly true. Stayed upon Jehovah, hearts are
fully blessed, finding, as He promised, perfect peace and rest. Every trial. And He does it when
He shines the light in the beginning, He brings, we know Him. And in every trial, He shines
His light brighter and brighter, and we know Him. And this is
preparing us for the end. We're going to come to a day when we're going to realize if
God doesn't take us suddenly, if He puts us in a place where
Brother Tommy is down there, we're going to realize No point,
no point in having any confidence in this flesh. It is a shipwreck. Always has
been, always will be. We are the circumcision. which
rejoice in the Spirit. That's how this light came to
us, by the Spirit of God. We rejoice that He said, you'll
have the light. I won't leave. He's proven it
to us, keeps proving it to us, that you shall have the light
of life. And we rejoice in Christ Jesus.
It's for His sake He won't leave us. And we have no confidence
in this flesh. And He's teaching us through
every one of these trials. He's bringing us to that place where
we're gonna sit there and we're gonna know. I can't cross this river. I got no ability, no power whatsoever
to cross that river of death, none. Got no power whatsoever
to raise my body from fleshly corruption to a new body. Got
no power to do that. Got no power to raise my spirit
to be with him, to abide in his presence. Got no power to make
myself acceptable to him. It's all of Him. Look over at 1 Corinthians 15. Verse 51. Behold, I show you a mystery. We shall not all sleep. We shall
not all die. We're not all going to be dead
when Christ comes. But we shall all be changed. In a moment, in the twinkling
of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet shall sound,
And the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we who are
yet alive, we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality. On light. I don't know how to
describe immortality better than to just say light. Light. It's shining more and more until
the perfect day. we'll put on light. Then shall
be brought to pass the saying that's written, death is swallowed
up in victory. Death, where's thy sting? Grave,
where's thy victory? The sting of death is sin. It's
been put away. The strength of the law, strength
of sin's the law. It's been satisfied in Christ. Thanks be unto God which giveth
us the victory. How? Through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Christ the light. Listen
to this. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God. And it does not yet appear what
we shall be, but we know. We know. How do we know? You've been delivered. How do
I know you've been delivered? How do I know? Have I known this
through every trial? He's continued to deliver me.
We know, we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like
Him. For we'll see Him as He is. And every man that has this hope
in himself, he starts boasting of his will. He starts boasting
of his works. He starts boasting of his ability.
He starts boasting in his wisdom. He starts glorying in his flesh
more and more and more and says, Oh, I'm so strong now. No, no. He purifies Himself from those
things, even as He is pure. Look at Colossians. We'll close
with this. Colossians. Are you delivered? Do you know
this way? Do you know this island? Do you
know who it is that's delivered you? If ye then be risen with Christ,
that's how you know it. You know that? If ye then be
risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where
Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on
things above, not on things on the earth, for ye are dead. I said to Brother Tommy, Tommy,
you're about to know what it's not like not to have sin and
to be fully in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said, he said, I don't
even have sin now. I'm already dead. He said, I
just wish I could believe that. more and more. But he trusts
Christ. He's looking. He's looking now. He's looking. Because he knows.
He's dead. His life is hid with Christ in
God. And when Christ who is our life
shall appear. You reckon it's just this real? I walked in the room, and I pulled a chair up beside
him, my friend. And I started comforting him
with words of this salvation. You think it's just this real,
but you're just laying there. And he appeared. just like a familiar friend walking
in the room. It says, come on. Come see what
I've prepared for you. When he shall appear, then ye
also shall appear with him in glory. That's what He'll do. And you know what, when he does
that, then we'll know. Then we'll know. We know it now
by his grace calling us. We're learning it in every one
of these trials. And then we're going to really know him. Really
know him.