May the Lord be pleased to bless
us this evening as we meditate upon his word. Let's turn to
the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 27, and we'll read verse 20. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter
27, and reading verse 20. And when neither 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. We have in the account of the
Acts of the Apostles the path which God ordained for God's
people and we have the testimony of it as it relates to some of
their lives and part of their lives and much of it of course
is taken up with the life of the Apostle Paul and as we may
ponder it we realise that the Apostle Paul was not exempt from
many many hardships many times of opposition many burdens to
bear, many crosses to carry and we might perhaps just ponder
his life and realise that as we now walk upon the earth and
we may find sometimes that we are engaged in difficult situations,
trying times, opposition, hardships, we should not think it strange
We should not be surprised. The Apostle said, think it not
strange concerning a fiery trial which is to try you. The Lord
does send trials to his people and they are often fiery trials. You may think, well what is the
reason for that? Well, I believe the reason is
to purify our souls. Purification naturally takes
place through being placed in a fire and sometimes the furnace
needs to be very hot to burn off all that which is not real,
all the dross, so that only the true and real metal remains behind. And so as in our lives, like
the apostles, the furnace may appear sometimes to get rather
hot, we should not be surprised. But we should consider it is
the Lord's gracious dealings with us. And those dealings are
for the benefit of our eternal souls. Because if we are the
children of God, our life on this earth is really just a preparation
for our eternal life. And we should not therefore expect
our life to be plain sailing, to be a calm sea. We should expect
it to be the opposite, really. And in that path, we learn. The Lord teaches. And so we've
read together this account of the journey of the Apostle Paul
and those who were with him. And we see here that Paul was
not exempt from entering into the hazardous situation of which
he encountered, but we also observe what he was able to do, what
he was able to say, and the faith that was given to him. and we
can therefore believe that in our lives today we may also be
blessed with light precious faith and like providing prayer and
to see answers and no doubt when the apostle commenced this voyage
he warned them that it might end in destruction but no doubt
he didn't expect it to end as it did But we see in it the mercy
of God and the favour of God. And not only to him, to the prisoners
and all the soldiers, but also to some of those on the island,
that they were cast ashore. So what do we observe? We observe
God's marvellous work. We observe God's work gloriously
being set forth. If there'd been no storm, if
there'd been no shipwreck, there would have been no blessing to
those on the island. And yet, you see, there was a
blessing. And the Apostle was able to speak
therefore of those things which had occurred and truly of the
things of God and to be made a blessing and a use. So, we
should not be surprised. In our lives, if the Lord sees
fit to use us, it may be in difficult ways. maybe in trying ways, and
it may be in ways that seem almost impossible that there could ever
be a good result. But there was a good result,
and there was a blessing. And so today as we walk upon
this earth, let us not be surprised at the path that God has ordained
for us. And God has ordained a special
path, a peculiar path, a real road, a right way, that by His
grace will bring us at last to glory. And that surely should
be our great desire and our great concern. And that we might have
grace to be able to come and say to our God, that the Lord
would do with us, as seemeth him good. Not always as seemeth
good to us, especially when we may be in the midst of a tempestuous
trial, when we may that wish, and the day would come, the light
would shine, but we may find, like the Apostle did, there was
darkness. Now Paul was a man of God and
we might think, well surely God would have heard Paul's prayer
and sent an immediately deliverance, the storm would cease. No, the
Lord waits to be gracious and we should recognise that. But
Lord knows what He's doing with us, how He's dealing with us,
we don't know. We don't know His purpose, the
purpose of the situation which we are in perhaps at the moment,
perhaps that we have been in, perhaps that we will come into.
And so here we see the Apostle on this occasion, and there was
his boat, you see, and well they didn't listen to what Paul spoke.
Paul had warned them the danger of going forth but no. When the
south wind blew softly, oh when it looked all right, when it
seemed calm and bright, off they went and they ventured. It wasn't long, it wasn't long
before this great tempestuous wind called Iroquodon I suppose
we would call it a day of hurricane or a typhoon, suddenly came upon
them. And of course it didn't have
the technology that we have today to be able to see sometimes the
weather fronts which are coming. And so here they weren't aware
of it. They'd ignore the warnings of Paul and therefore when it
seemed to be suitable, off they went. But you see God was aware
of precisely what was going to occur. He knew what was going
to occur and so he found the ship being caught and tossed
about and he could not really penetrate the effect of the storm. They did all they could, the
mariners, to make the boat lighter and to direct it in the right
direction but all without any success. And we being exceedingly
tossed with a tempest, the next day they lighted the ship, and
the third day we cast out with our own hands the tackling of
the ship." So they were exceedingly tossed with a tempest. Now we know, don't we, the Word
of God is a book that is written for the Church of God and it
brings through the words that spiritual interpretation and
that spiritual direction which we may be able to observe. It's
a little like the deep that catches beneath. It's not on the surface
but as you and I ponder the truth of such situations we can see
how the Lord directs us in our spiritual life. And so, here
was an exceedingly tossed with a tempest, on the sea, no calm,
exceedingly tossed about. And sometimes the people of God,
the Church of God, are exceedingly tossed about, yet they don't
know where the sea will end. They can't really look and see
any prospect of deliverance. And really it comes down to what
the apostle wrote, and when neither 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. Darkness, no light, no stars,
No sun, no moon, darkness. It may be like that in our spiritual
life, when we find we're just tossed about and there's no light. There's not even a star as it
were, not even a small little shining. It's dark. And not only is it dark, the
tempest is raging. We're being tossed about all
around. Will there be any deliverance? Will we come out of it? Or will
we be lost? Now here was clearly all hope
that we should be saved was then taken away. They were in a destitute
and a desperate condition, were they not? And they weren't aware
of what deliverance would come. But we have the evidence that
the Apostle Paul was praying to his God. And we know the result
of such an effectual fervent prayer that God gave to him. God gives prayer. You know, we
may come into a situation like this, and we might find prayer
almost impossible. We might think, well surely now
I shall be able to pray well. We have to learn that God gives
prayer. God gives the spirit of prayer, but we can't produce
it ourselves. We would love to, as it were,
turn the tap on, wouldn't we? But you see the Lord shows to
us His sovereignty in these things. He gives us to realise we're
dealing with a great God who controls everything. We don't
control it, God controls it. We are to pray and sometimes
God then breaks in as it were. The Holy Spirit comes upon us.
And there is that little bit of life in our prayers. A little
access at the throne of grace. And what a difference it makes.
Because it produces a hope. Because we have a hope then that
our prayer is heard. And our prayer will receive answers. And yet the Lord has brought
us into this situation. where it's been dark, and neither
stars nor sun have appeared for many days." Well, I wonder if
you understand what that is. Day after day, darkness, no light. Well, Isaiah tells us, doesn't
he, about that being led into darkness and not into light. I think, what is this really?
The work of God? We should not assume that it's
because of our gross sins that it's occurred. It may be so.
And God may bring thoughts like that into our mind to perhaps
correct us in some evil situation that we've been engaged in. Perhaps
some wrong thoughts, some wrong ideas, some evil desires. You may think, well, the God
is bringing his judgments upon me. Well, it may be so. But on
the other hand, it may not be so. Apostle Paul was a gracious
man. Clearly he lived near to his
God, and clearly the Lord allowed him to be involved in a situation
like this, so that the Lord may show forth His marvellous grace,
His wonderful love, His great favour to unworthy people. And Lord waits to be gracious.
My friends, it's good, you know, when we can observe His hand
upon us and realise that He hasn't left us and He hasn't forsaken
us. But He is remembering us in a
very different way to what perhaps we expected. We don't like, I'm sure, being
found in spiritual darkness, spiritual barrenness. It's not
a comfortable place, is it? We long and love to be walking
near to our Saviour and to hear His voice and walk before Him
in the light of His countenance The Lord does not always permit
that. They're told the days of darkness shall be many. Perhaps we like to avoid such
words like that. We don't want to think upon them.
Many so-called Christians today don't believe them. the true
Church of God knows what it is, to walk in a path, a spiritual
path, like that outlined here in this natural way that the
Apostle Paul was involved in. But the Lord did appear and the
Lord would appear and you see the apostle was able to tell
us and it's important to note what he says and after long abstinence
really that means that he was fasting and praying yes what
a great blessing it was the apostle was on this ship And so we're
told after long abstinence, it wasn't just a few hours or perhaps
a day, clearly it was many days, long abstinence, the Lord came
and remembered Paul. Maybe sometimes in our lives
we have to press on in darkness, in darkness, to press on, to
pray on, to persevere against storm and wind and tide. Everything seems against us.
We're not to give up. We're to press on. And so here
was the Apostle after long abstinence. He stood forth in the midst of
them. Again, the Apostle was declaring the work of God. He was declaring what God had
spoken to him, how God had met with him, how God had answered
his prayers and he was declaring it. It's a good example for us in our
lives because I'm sure we are often very backward in declaring
God's goodness, in declaring what God's done, in hearing and
answering our prayers. And so here was the Apostle speaking
in this way. He stood forth in the midst and
said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and let loose from Crete,
and to gain this harm and loss. And now I exhort you to be of
good cheer. Really, Paul, to be of good cheer?
Here's the storm. We're stood in the midst of it.
No sign of deliverance. We think we'll all be lost. says
the apostle Paul. For there shall be no loss of
any man's life among you, but of the ship. For, here we have
the testimony, here we have the revelation, here we have the
evidence of God's love and mercy towards the Apostle. For there
stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am and whom I
serve. What a blessing, isn't it? To
be able to testify such a truth as that. In the midst of this
darkness, in the storm and the tempest, the Apostle believed
God. He believed the Word of the Lord.
And he was able to testify of it. And we might see there, great
faith. You know, it hadn't stopped.
There was still the storm. Were they going to be delivered?
Was it going to be calm? Were they going to be safely
brought to land? The Apostle speaks in the fear
of God, but with living faith, declaring what God would do.
And he tells them, and exhorts you to be of good cheer, for
there shall be no loss of any man's life. What a wonderful
statement that was, wasn't it? To be able to speak like that. And why was it? Because God had
met with him. He had his confidence in his
God. My friends, what a blessing for
us tonight, if we have confidence in our God, in the same way that
the Apostle Paul did. No deliverance had appeared,
had occurred, but nonetheless God gave him faith to have that
humble and right and true confidence in Almighty God. Well, we still
worship that same God today. that God was able to do far more
and exceeding abundantly above all we could ask or even think. We have a God who hasn't changed.
A God who is ready to hear our prayers and to answer them in
His time and His way. What a blessing it is that God
gives faith to believe that our prayers have entered in acceptably. Now I believe it was, you see,
when the apostle was here, he says, the angel of the Lord stood
by him. no doubt that there's that realisation
of that access at the throne of grace and his prayers that
entered into the holy place and that's the great blessing and
privilege for us today when as it were our prayers enter in
and we can say that not in the same words but in similar wording
but like the apostle did as he said here that there stood by
me to this day, who as I am and whom I serve. My friends, it's
a blessing to know the knowledge of that in our own hearts, to
know that God has come to us. He's drawn us to himself. He's
drawn our prayer and the prayers entered in and he's given us
faith to believe those prayers will be answered. It's very precious,
you see, really, the life of faith. It's very precious, the
testimony and the experience that God deals with our souls
in love and mercy, and it brings about a good deliverance, and
it also brings honour and glory to his great and holy name, that
we as his people may be able to declare Yes, for there stood
by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,
saying, Fear not, Paul. He would have been fearful before,
because he has written, When neither sun nor stars on many
days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should
be saved was then taken away. He was fearing, wasn't he? He
was fearing. They were all fearing. that they
would be lost, no hope. But here God came and spoke to
Paul saying, fear not Paul, fear not. And so we come into times
of darkness and tempest and trial and opposition to realise the
Lord comes as it were and speaks into our heart and says, fear
not. Why? Because God was with him. My friends, if God is with us,
we have no reason to fear, do we? Because we know, as the Apostle
proved, all things work together for those who love God and those
who are called according to His purpose. No, there was to be
a wonderful deliverance. Fear not, Paul. Paul, there's
something for you yet. Thou must be brought before Caesar,
and though God has given thee all them that sail with thee,
wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer, for I believe God, and it shall
be even as he has told me." Well, what a good thing if we are given
grace, like the Apostle here, to come and be able to testify
that we believe God. Now then, considering this perhaps
more specifically in a spiritual sense, our souls may be in darkness,
maybe no light at all, we may be fear, we are lost, there's
no hope for us, there's going to be no deliverance, Well, the example of Paul is
to persevere, to pray on, long abstinence. Paul stood forth. Continue to pray. Don't give
up. The Lord will come and we'll
hear and answer prayer in his time and in his way. And that
will be to draw us unto himself. That will be to mean and to bring
the Lord Jesus Christ before our eyes, the eye of faith, and
to believe that he, the great saviour of sinners, has died
upon Calvary's cross to redeem our souls. What light there will
shine then, what glorious light and the storms you see then and
really the storm of unbelief and it's a very powerful storm
the storm of unbelief and the devil wields it very ably in
trying to convince us there's no hope for us we're lost perhaps
we may be tempted that we've sinned the unpardonable sin No
doubt we may have sinned against light and knowledge. We cannot
hold up our head. We cannot be found like the Pharisee. We realise we have no righteousness
ourselves. And we come helpless, pleading the mercy of God. Pleading that he will come and
appear for us and deliver us from this situation of gross
darkness. Well, here was the Apostle telling
us, when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no
small tempest low on us, all hope that we should be saved
was then taken away. Well, you know tonight, whether
you understand, perhaps in your life, perhaps now some evidence
of that darkness and gross darkness of people, Yes, it's not an easy
path to walk. Indeed, it's a path where we're
tempted to give up. But faith enables us to hold
on our way. Hold on our way. Yes, there's
not perhaps a great deliverance as we might think. We hold on
our way and the Lord then reveals himself. as the light of the
world. And what a difference it is,
you know, when that light shines in a very small way, a small
light in a great, in a dark room, makes a wonderful light. And
a little view of the sufferings of Christ will make a great light
in your soul. because it will reveal the way
of salvation. You may say, well, I think I
know that. Well, you may know it, but you
see, we benefit, we grow by experience. We grow spiritually as the Lord
leads us into all truth as it is in Jesus. is when he comes
and brings us out of darkness into his marvellous light. and then perhaps we see and we
understand things that we never realized before and then we can
praise and thank our God and glorify his grace which has come
to us and revealed these things. Thankful to have a crucified
Christ, a risen Christ, an ascended Christ revealed to our spiritual
understanding because it will bring joy and it will bring good
cheer. The apostle told them, wherefore
so as be of good cheer, such a view, such an understanding
will be good cheer. Our faith will be strengthened
and we will go on our way rejoicing. And he said, I believe God that
it shall be even as it was told me. Well, when the Holy Spirit
tells us, reveals to us the things of Jesus, what a privilege it
is, what a blessing it is. It shows to us the Lord hasn't
left us to what we deserve. We may sometimes in these dire
situations mourn our condition, and mourn our lack of prayer,
and mourn the hardness of our heart, and mourn our far-offness
from God. It may be a real cry. The Lord
will draw us to himself just like the Solomon said, draw me
and we shall run after thee. The drawing power of God, my
friends, is through His grace, and bless God, it is irresistible. When God draws, we don't resist,
we don't want to resist, because it's so suitable for us, and
it so comes where we are. And when the Lord comes and reveals
himself unto us, perhaps in some new aspect, perhaps in some greater
aspect, but nevertheless, for the blessing of our soul, for
the encouraging of our soul, and never forget this, for the
honour and glory of his great and holy name. Because I'm sure
of this, when the Spirit of God brings us out of darkness into
light, We realise it's His work because we've been in it for
a long time and we couldn't bring ourselves out of the darkness,
just like the Apostle was in this darkness himself. He couldn't deliver himself,
nor can we. The Lord brought him out. The
Lord brings us out. And then it is time, surely,
to acknowledge it and to bless and praise God for His great
mercy and His great favour toward us. See these people in this
account, they all got safe to shore. Not one soul was lost. And blessed be God, none of those
for whom he has died will ever be lost. And so tonight, if you
can look back in your life, your spiritual life, and able to observe
that good hope in His mercy, my friends, that will never be
destroyed and never be taken away. Once in Him, in Him forever,
eternal safety in Christ. And as perhaps the Spirit of
God may bring us into these paths, these tempests, to prove to us
His faithfulness and show to us perhaps how unfaithful we've
been in our lives and how faithful our God is. As he said, I will
never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Wherefore we may boldly
say, the Lord is my helper. I will not fear what man should
do unto me. The fear of man brings a snare.
The fear of man brings a snare, but says the Apostle, I will
not fear what man can do unto me. The great thing is to have
the fear of God. That fear of the Lord, which
is the beginning of wisdom, to walk before him in the light of his
countenance, desiring that we may walk closer, closer. You see, when the light shines
in darkness, it shows things really, to begin with, a little
hazily. The light shines more, they become
so clear, yes, because there's a contrast between darkness and
light and When we walk in the light we find it difficult to
understand what the darkness was and perhaps the reverse is
true. When we're in darkness we find
it difficult to remember what the light was like. And so sometimes
the Lord graciously brings us into these paths to remember
the way the Lord has led us through the wilderness thus far, to bring
to our remembrance His goodness, His grace, His favour, to direct
us to none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the Saviour of
sinners. See, we don't want to come into
times of storms and tempest and come out of them without any
blessing, without any comfort, without any encouragement. May
it be our privilege to be blessed and to be brought nearer to our
Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to experience more and more
of his love, his great love of which he loved us, And as that
love penetrates into our heart, penetrates into the darkness
of our heart perhaps, what an effect that may have, as it may
melt us as we realise His love was so great, the Saviour came
to die to atone for our sins, nothing less than His death would
do. He had to die. He had to die
that excruciating death of crucifixion in order to satisfy the demands
of the holy law of God and also so that nobody would be able
to ever say that Lord Jesus Christ did not agonise in the worst
possible way to save our souls. This evidence, this revelation
will mean that Christ becomes precious to our souls. And if so, we will bless God
for the path, for the tempest, for the storm which has brought
us into and brought us out of a time of favour, a time of perhaps
spiritual revelation, a time of union. The Lord Jesus Christ
walked and had that period of extreme darkness in his life,
exceeding darkness when he was upon that cross. What did he
cry out? My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? We will never know the love of
Christ in any depth unless we understand something of the path
and the darkness that the Saviour walked in, and therefore to be
blessed, as the Apostle Paul speaks so ably when he wrote
to the Philippians, the fellowship of his sufferings, darkness. If you and I never come to any
darkness at all, we won't appreciate in any measure what the Saviour
went through. If the Lord brings us, remember
He brought Paul and us with Him into this storm, He brought it
upon them, didn't just suddenly occur, the Lord ordained it,
And so he does in our spiritual lives, he brings us into those
places, perhaps to make us come into that place where we understand
something of what the Saviour endured for us. And that's why
Christ then becomes precious. If we have no evidence, no testimony,
no understanding in a spiritual way of what Christ suffered,
what he endured, then you see Christ will not be very precious.
But the Lord allows us Perhaps I should say the Lord directs
us, or brings us into those situations where we do understand, where
we do have some fellowship with his sufferings, and we appreciate
the blessing that it is. Well, the Apostle desired it.
He prayed for it. And we should know that that
prayer was a good prayer. You see, the Lord works in various
ways in our lives to bring this about. But my friends, what a
favour for you and me to know something of that fellowship
with Christ true fellowship, union with the Lamb, the Lamb
of God, and that's not to be found really outside of knowing
something of what the Saviour endured to save our soul. If we just count Christ's suffering
as nothing very much, He won't be very precious. Our salvation
won't be very precious. It won't mean very much if the
Lord Almighty comes and directs us into the cost, into the darkness,
that he walked and perhaps in his path the Lord may suddenly
drop in and enable us to, as the Apostle
says, consider Him. Consider Him. As you and I may
consider the Saviour in His life and in His excruciating crucifixion,
to realise what He endured, then by comparison we will see the
storm that we're passing through, the darkness that we're in, by
comparison is very small. and how we will then appreciate
the greatness of the work of our God on our behalf. He loved us so much that he was
willing to give his life that we might have life. And so as
we ponder these things, these accounts are recorded for our
profit and blessing. May we thank God that we have
this account in the Acts of the Apostles which declares to us
that the leading and direction of the Lord God in the Apostles'
life and the wonderful outcome and the wonderful deliverance
that he was able to testify and to forecast the wonderful deliverance
that would come and so it came to pass. Now we know this, all
God's dealings, all God's works, all God's promises come to pass
and it came to pass and it came to pass and so may we bless God
tonight, to know that whatever situation we're in, if we're
in a place like this, extreme darkness, great tempest, to realise
that Lord is dealing with us in love to our souls for our
eternal good. and therefore may we be able
to praise and thank God that he's dealing with us as sons
and daughters of the Most High God and not leaving us to our
just deserts. Amen.