I please the Lord to bless us
together this morning as we consider his word. Let's turn to the Acts
of the Apostles, chapter 27, and we'll read verses 23 and
24. The Acts of the Apostles, chapter 27, reading verses 23
and 24. 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 though God hath given thee, all them that sail with thee." Well, we, I'm sure, are aware
that this, that we have read of in this chapter was an amazing
occasion in the life of the Apostle Paul. And it was a very difficult
occasion in the life of the Apostle Paul. And indeed the Apostle
Paul had many difficult situations in his life. Many times he was
called upon to endure the great difficulties and trials and temptations
and oppositions. And again and again we observe
how prayer was answered and he was delivered. And we may sometimes
think in our lives, well, why is it that I have to come into
a situation like this? You see the Apostle Paul here,
he went on board this ship, and this ship came into the storm
of Euroclidan, we would classify as a typhoon or a hurricane today,
and it was obviously very severe and didn't see the sun and moon
for many days, tossed about in the sea, We might think, well
surely the Lord could have arranged it so that the Apostle could
have had a calmer journey and a more blessed journey because
he was doing the will of the Lord in any event. But we see
the Lord's purposes are to be worked out and they were worked
out and he was, as we know, cast on an island and he was made
a blessing to those people, those barbarous people who never heard
the gospel before, and therefore through this situation, the Lord
brought the gospel into that area. We should therefore realise
that in our lives, we perhaps think today, well of course things
are very different. Well they are very different
in one sense, but in another sense they're not. You see we
are called to walk upon the earth today, to show forth the praise
and the honour and glory of our God. And we are not to just carry
on our life and hide our light, but we are to set it forth. It may be put on a candlestick
so people may observe it and see it. Now, Paul was on this
boat and there were 276 people on the boat. A lot of people.
Many of them were prisoners. No doubt many of them were hardened
criminals and really were not prepared to think about or listen
to the things of God. It may be sometimes that we might
think, well of course people won't listen and in any event
what I might say they will just turn away from and it's irrelevant.
But the Apostle Paul, he set forth the things that he believed
and he told the people very clearly what had occurred. and how important
we have this example for us today. And even later on in this chapter,
when they were to take food, having fasted for 14 days and
when he had thus spoken, he took bread and then, listen to this,
he gave thanks to God in the presence of them all. He wasn't
afraid of saying grace. You know, sometimes We might
be. I hope we're not. I hope the
young people are not afraid to say grace. You know, when you're
out with other people, when you go to dinner, perhaps you go
out with your friends and your relatives and perhaps your school
friends, perhaps your college friends, and you have a meal
together, and perhaps, well, most of them wouldn't say grace,
but it's good if you bow your head and say your grace. You
know that you will never find that anything other than rewarding. Rewarding your own heart and
your own conscience and it may be for the honour and glory of
God. Just a little instance in my
own life. My wife and my sister worked
at Queen Charlotte's Hospital and they both went there as student
midwives. And they noticed that each of
them bowed their head before their meal to say grace. And the effect was, there was
that connection. They were able to speak to one
another then, and they realised they were both Christians and
able to commune together. So we may sometimes think that
we are the only person, well we may be, There may be many
other people who may be encouraged by the things that we are able
to do. Let us never be ashamed of our position, never be ashamed
of saying grace. So here was the Apostle setting
forth to us the example before 276 people many probably hardened criminals,
but the Apostle had the strength given to him to declare these
things. So here was the Apostle then
on this trip, and he warned them it was not good to go on the
journey. Nevertheless the Lord permitted it, and initially it
seemed fine. the wind seemed nice and calm,
and that may be so in our lives. Sometimes in the path that we
are going in, it may appear initially all nice and smooth and calm,
and indeed in this case the south wind blew softly, and supposing
that they had obtained their purpose, sometimes you might
think, well things are working out rather nicely, and I must
have made the right decision, and I'm going the right way.
But then, there's a change. Then, there's a change. Because
it wasn't long after that there arose this tempestuous wind called
Yerokkuthun. It may be again in our spiritual
life. There may be times when suddenly
there's a change. All our calmness is destroyed
and we find ourselves in the midst of a storm. And they didn't
know which way they were going, they couldn't see the sun, they
couldn't see the stars, or the moon, you know, mariners in those
days, they were dependent really upon the sun or the night sky
to direct them. They had a compass but they needed
to know which way they were going. And they were dependent upon
that. And so today, you know, We are
dependent really upon the direction of the Lord. Now we may not always
be blessed with that. We may sometimes come into these
situations where it's very tempestuous and it's very dark and we might
not know what to do. There was an occasion in the
life of Jehoshaphat, that godly king, and he was surrounded by
the enemy. And he didn't know what to do. So what did he do? He prayed
to the God of Heaven. And he came to the Lord and he
honoured the Lord in his prayer by acknowledging who he was.
You know, sometimes our prayer life is really just a want list. You know, we have various wants
and we just seem to, all we do is come and pray for a want list.
But if you follow the example of the prayers of godly men in
the word of God, like Ezra, like Nehemiah, like David and like
Solomon, just for a few examples, you won't go through them, you
can look them up if you like at your leisure, you will find
that in those prayers they first of all acknowledge the Lord who
he was, great and high and lifted up, a holy, gracious God, one
who was to be honoured and was to be glorified. And then they
acknowledge their sin and their shortcomings and their evil propensities. And then they ask the Lord for
those things that they desire. That's the pattern that we have
in the Word of God. And we need to follow a pattern
like that to come. We are encouraged to come with
thanksgiving in our prayers. Even when you may feel very desolate
and very downhearted, when everything may seem against you, you're
not to forget to thank the Lord for the things you have and the
blessings you enjoy, the privileges and the favour, both in this
life and, I hope, in a spiritual life. We have much cause to praise
and to thank our God for every favour and every blessing. And
there we have Jehoshaphat doing just that. But he comes to the
Lord and he says this towards the end of his prayer. Neither
know we what to do, but our eyes are upon thee. Now that's a safe
place. He wasn't saying, well I'm going
to fight the battle in this way. I think this is the way to go.
Very easily we sometimes look around and we think, well I think
that's the best way, and I think that's the best way. The great
question is, have we sought the Lord? Have we desired the Lord
to direct us? Now you know, an amazing occurrence
occurred in the life of Jehoshaphat on that occasion. He prayed to
the Lord. and he was told he would not
need to fight in that battle, because the battle wasn't his,
it was the Lord's. And in reality, in our life today,
the battle that we fight are the Lord's battles. We should
realise that. Now then, again in Jehoshaphat's
case, there was a prophet raised up to encourage them and to tell
them what would occur. They caused the singers and the
Levites to rise up and to praise the Lord. Hold on a minute, haven't
they got to fight a battle? No, they've got to start by praising
the Lord. Therefore, when Israel began
to praise the Lord, the Lord then ordained that the enemy
should turn and fight amongst themselves and defeat themselves. And that was a wonderful victory.
Now, my friends, we have the same God today, who is able to
do for us far more and exceeding abundantly than we can ask or
even think. But, may we come. Jehoshaphat
prayed in faith. May you and I come today to the
Lord and pray in faith. Now, the Apostle Paul came here
and he prayed in faith, prayed in faith, and we can read about
the situation and what happened to the Apostle, we're told. But
after long abstinence, you know, the Apostle clearly was fasting. We don't think much of fasting
today, do we? Strangely, we seem to ignore
it. And yet there's a lot of fasting in the Word of God, And
you might think, well, I don't think that's appropriate today.
Well, you only have to analyse it in your own mind. When you've
had a big meal, I'll tell you what happens, you get sleepy. You settle down and have a sleep.
A big meal and you're sleepy. If you're hungry, you're alert. You can't sleep very easily when
you're hungry. You're alert. And therefore, quite clearly
fasting does have a benefit from this perspective. It makes us
more alert. And so here we read that the
Apostle Paul, after long abstinence, he stood forth in the midst of
them and he said, Sirs, ye should have hearkened unto me, and have
not loosed from Crete, and to have gained this harm and loss. But then he says, but now I exhort
you to be of good cheer." They're in the middle of the tempest.
The storm's all around them. Really? Good cheer? Yes, says
the Apostle. Be of good cheer. And he tells
them the reason. He tells them the reason. For
there shall be no loss of any man's life among you but of the
ship. there stood by me this night, the angel of the Lord,
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 sail with thee." Here was his testimony. The Lord had heard his cry. The Lord had come to him. Not
immediately. Not immediately. We perhaps sometimes
think that we're going to pray to God and that our prayers are
going to be answered immediately. The Lord tells us, your time
is always, but my time is not yet. God's purposes have to be
worked out. And my friends, your life and
my life is just a very small infinitesimal cog in the great
plan of God. And my friends, your life and
my life is worked into that plan. Don't therefore think that you're
going to stand and demand an instant response from Almighty
God. If we prayed in faith, the Lord
hears our prayers and the Lord will answer those prayers in
his time and in his way and in accordance with his purpose,
which will be the best way and will be the best time. And therefore
the Apostle He is able to come and to say, and 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 the Lord, whose I am and whom I serve,
none other surely than the blessed Lord Jesus himself. because the
Apostle says, whose I am and whom I serve. The Lord had heard
his cry, the Lord had heard his prayer, and now he'd come and
met with the Apostle and stood by him. Oh, what a glorious answer
to his prayer. What a wonderful favour it is
for us to read such an account as this and to believe that we
today still worship the same great almighty God. He said,
whose I am and whom I serve. Now that's a wonderful blessing
to be able to confirm that. He didn't say Well, now this
person came who I didn't know. Somebody came and stood by me
I didn't know. The Apostle was able to come
and declare whose I am and whom I serve. It was His Lord and
God. It was His Master. It was His
Saviour. It was His Friend. There stood by me this night. What a blessing to realise we
come to that same great almighty God who does appear for his people,
who does come and appear still for us today in the life of the
disciples. We read that they came and they
laid their hands on the apostles and put them in the common prison. What was their What was their
sin? Preaching the Gospel. Thankfully
today in our country we can preach freely the Gospel. We don't know
how long our liberties are going to be maintained to us. It may
be, especially in you young people's lives, maybe there's times come
in our country where you won't have the blessing of being able
to come together as we do today, in freedom. So, like the apostles,
you may have to be put in prison. There are many people today in
the world who are in prison because of their stand for Christ. You and I sit here this morning
in comfort in our pews here, or go home and sit in our armchairs
in complete comfort and freedom. Don't forget the persecuted Church
of God. Don't forget the many who are
in prison because of their stand for Christ. Perhaps your religion
today hasn't cost you very much. Perhaps it may do. Perhaps the
day may come when your religion does cost you something. In fact,
be assured of this, the Christian religion is costly. Don't think
it's not. Don't think it's not. But remember
the words of the Lord when he said, it is through much tribulation
that we shall enter the kingdom, but be of good cheer. I have
overcome the world. There's our strength. There's
your strength. You rely upon the Saviour. Well, here were
these apostles, they were put in prison, but the angel of the
Lord came by night and opened the prison doors and brought
them forth and said go stand and speak in the temple to the
people all the words of this life they weren't to stop doing
the work of the Lord they weren't to say well I've escaped now
I'm going to clear off and go and hide no they were to stand
boldly and still proclaim the truth of God's Word. God had
opened the prison doors for them. What a blessing it is to know
that today we still worship the same God, who can open perhaps
the prison doors for us. We may not be in a physical prison,
but you may perhaps be in a spiritual prison. And my friends, the Lord
can come and open those prison doors so that you are able to
be blessed with that wonderful freedom, that wonderful freedom
which only the Lord can give. Again, further on in the Acts,
in Paul's life again, in chapter 23 we read, And when there arose
a great dissension, the chief captain fearing that less Paul
should have been pulled in pieces of them, commanding the soldiers
to go down and take him by force from among them and to bring
him into the castle. And the night following, the
Lord stood by him and said, Be of good cheer, Paul, for as thou
hast testified of me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also
of me at Rome. The Lord stood by him My friends,
I believe today that our Lord still stands by His people. He helps them and He strengthens
them and enables them to go forward, enables them to declare whose
they are and whom they serve. How important that is for us
today, that we may be able to declare whose we are and whom
we serve. So clear it was, wasn't it, here
in the Apostle's life here. For there stood by me this night,
the Angel of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, whose I am and whom I
serve. Now how encouraging it was for
the Apostle. Now remember, remember the situation,
in the middle of the storm still, all the tempest, no sun, no stars,
dark, cloudy, still very dark, and yet, what did the Lord say?
He said this, Fear not, fear not, Paul, 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." Well,
that's a wonderful testament, isn't it? I wonder today if you
and I can come and stand in the same position, although it may
seem very dark in our spiritual life, maybe tempests all around,
maybe tossed about, and yet to realise that in the
midst of a storm, In the midst of the times of darkness, the
Lord has stood with us. Has it been easy? We haven't
found prayer easy. We haven't found life easy. Day after day, it's continued
to be dark. We've had to press on. We've
had to pray on. You may be still there today, but don't be discouraged. Press
on and pray on, because Paul was favoured. Poureth faith because,
as he says, I believe God. My friends, if we are to pray,
surely we pray because we do believe God. No point praying
to the unknown goddesses like the Athenians did. Like the Apostle
Cain and Sauron in Athens, they were praying to the unknown god. I hope we don't pray to the unknown
god. But I hope by the grace of God, you pray to the ever-living
and true God. That God was the same yesterday.
that you can read of in the Word of God, saying God is today,
and tomorrow, and forever. Well, it has been encouraged
by the Word of God. It has been encouraged then,
what the Apostle was able to declare. There stood by me this
night the angel of God, and sometimes the nights are very dark, and
when there's Like it was here, no stars or moon. In the middle
of the sea, my friends, it would have been pitch black. Very dark. No light. But remember this. The Lord says, the darkness and
the light are both the same to him. They're very different to
us, aren't they? The same to the Lord. The Lord
knows. the situation. He can see in the darkness as
well as in the day. We can't see in the darkness.
The Lord can. And therefore may we have our
trust in the Lord. Trust in Him at all times, ye
people, all times. When it's light, it's easier.
It's still hard to trust, but when it's dark, it's harder.
Well, the Apostle was able to say, for there stood by me this
night, the Angel of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, whose I am
and whom I serve. Oh, I pray that you and I might
be able to recognise and know that we are of God and that we
are Serving the Lord. You know, really, we serve one
or two people. We either serve the Lord or we
serve the devil. We either serve the Lord or we
serve the devil. Now, all of us have served the
devil in our lives. All of us. Are we still serving
the devil today? Are you serving the devil? Or are you truly desiring to
serve the Lord? Now the Apostle Paul, as I often
say, he was an honest man. He wasn't a hypocrite. He didn't
suffer from mock modesty. Some people pretend to not be
a Christian. They pretend not to believe and
they pretend all these things. And if the Lord has spoken to
them, it's utterly dishonouring. And they sometimes seem to think
that a negative religion is a gracious religion. I can tell you this
much. A negative religion is not God glorifying. And our lives
are for the honour and glory of God. So never settle down
in a negative religion. Desire. You may have those positive
evidences which prove to you that you are a child of God. and be able to say, as the Apostle
did here, with, I'm sure, with true humbleness, but honestly,
stood by me this night, the angel of God, whose I am. He didn't
say, well, I'm not really very sure about this. He said, whose
I am. The Lord had come and stood by
him. Whose I am and whom I serve. My friends, you and I need to
come to this place. Or may we pray earnestly for
it. It may be in darkness, but let's
pray. Lord, come and stand by us. So that we're able to come
and say humbly, whose I am and whom I serve. And then to hear
encouraging words like this. Fear not. Fear not, Paul. It was a personal word. My friends,
God still speaks today. in a personal way. He comes and
speaks to his people. Fear not. There are very many
fear nots in the word of God. We won't go through them all.
We'll be here all day and all night. But there are just one
or two which I would refer to. Isaiah. There are a number in
Isaiah. In Isaiah 41, And perhaps verse
9 first, Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth. Now
that's where we may have been sometimes in our own eyes, at
the ends of the earth. Jehoshaphat was at the ends of
the earth. He said, neither know we what
to do. You might say, neither know I
what to do. The ends of the earth. But the
Lord has come and taken you from the ends of the earth and called thee from the chief
men thereof and said unto thee, Thou art my servant, I have chosen
thee and not cast thee away. There will be that fear that
we are a cast away and there will be that knowledge that we
deserve to be a cast away. What a blessing to have a confirmation
like this. Hear the word of the Lord, Thou
art my servant, I have chosen thee, and not cast thee away. Fear thou not, for I am with
thee. Be not dismayed, may it appear
difficult, may it appear dark, be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness." How confirming, how strengthening it is to our
faith to hear the word of the Lord. And my friends, we have
such verses recorded in the word of God for our encouragement,
for our strength, and may we possess faith to stretch out
our hand and lay hold of these words. Fear not, because we are
fearful, and perhaps we do fear the Lord's cast us away, and
the Lord's forgotten us, and the Lord's forsaken us. We may
say, well surely these things wouldn't have come into my life
if I'm one of the children of God. Fear not, for I am with
thee. Be not dismayed. Here was the
apostle in the midst of the sea. Surely the Lord wouldn't have
allowed this. All is for my honour and glory. Fear not. The Lord causes us
to come into those paths which will prove to be for his honour
and his glory. And when the Lord comes and delivers
us, When the Lord comes and brings us through, through the difficulty,
we will then look back. And we will say a number of things.
First of all, it may be physical affliction, it may be spiritual
affliction. You'll be able to say this, it
was good that I was afflicted. It was good. Why? Because the
Lord taught me. The Lord drew me. The Lord comforted
me. The Lord revealed myself to me. And the Lord revealed himself
to me. It is good that I have been afflicted. You see, in that position, we
have to look out of ourselves. And where do we look? We look
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we see in Him all that we
need. We see in him an all-sufficiency. We see then that not only is
he our God, but he is our friend. And we find that that friend
sticks closer than a brother. He's always by our side. Therefore
we can say, it is good that I have been afflicted. Fear thou not,
For I am with thee, be not dismayed." We may be dismayed. We may be
dismayed because of what's happened. The Lord says, be not dismayed. This is the path I have ordained. Be not dismayed. For I am thy
God. The Lord's our God, we can believe
the pathway is a right way for us. How difficult it is sometimes,
as we are left to our own understanding. But you know, I believe as the
Lord brings us into times of adversity, in times of the storm
of life, it is to make us look deep into ourselves, deep into
our hearts, And we find there things that we didn't realise
existed. We find evil, we find sin, we
find pride, we find no manner of things. And we realise the
Lord has permitted these things to come into our path, to reveal
His mercy and His grace, so that we have come to the position
to say, yes, by the grace of God, I now know, I realise, and
I am able to say and to prove what the Lord has said, for I
am my God, I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee,
yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness."
You see, all these things in our path are to lead us to Christ. You know, if everything in our
life went smoothly, Christ would be right at the bottom of the
pile. And we'll be worldly minded, and we'll be satisfied with the
things of this world, and we'll carry on in a sad state. But blessed be God, he takes
his children in hand, as it were sometimes, to bring them back
to himself, to lead us to Christ. And what is it then, in these
sufferings, in these adversities, what do we do? We find fellowship
with Christ. fellowship with Christ. We wouldn't
otherwise. Left to ourselves, we would not
have fellowship with Christ. The Lord doesn't leave us to
ourselves. He leads us to Christ. And He shows us the cost of our
salvation. He leads us to Calvary. He shows
us the value of His precious blood. We wouldn't value Christ's
blood left to ourselves? Oh then, here it says the prophet,
Yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Oh what a glorious thing it is
to know something of the righteousness of Christ. And there's one more,
fear not, in the 43rd of Isaiah, But now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear
not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name,
thou art mine. And it's a wonderful blessing
that the Lord deals with you and me and brings us into dark
places, stormy ways, to bring us to this position where he
speaks to our hearts. Fear not, for I have redeemed
thee. This is a spiritual blessing.
This supersedes everything in this natural world, because it
has reference to our eternal soul. And it's an eternal blessing. It's not just a temporal blessing,
it's an eternal blessing. And therefore to have the Lord
say that, fear not, whatever the darkness, whatever the situation,
fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called you by thy
name, thou art mine. No greater blessing, really,
than that to be confirmed in our souls that the Lord is indeed
ours. And so here we have this statement. Fear not Paul, for thou must
be brought before Caesar, and lo, God hath given thee all them
that sail with me. Yes, the Lord is full of compassion,
the Lord is gracious, the Lord is long-suffering. And when the
apostle wrote to Timothy, he encourages him And it's good
that you see how the Apostle wanted to encourage the young
man in the faith. And he tells him, he gives him
some clue of his warfare. And he said, just a couple of
verses, at my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men
forsook me. We may feel sometimes very lonely,
very solitary. We may think no one else has
walked this path. No one else knows the path that
I'm in. At my first answer, no man stood
with me, but all men forsook me. I pray God that it may not
be later their turn, notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened
me. You see, the Lord stood with
me. That's the important thing, that the Lord stands with us
and the Lord strengthens us. that by me the preaching might
be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear, and
I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion, and the Lord shall
deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his
heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." Well, the Apostle had
a good religion. The Apostle had it worked out. The Lord had worked it out in
his life. He proved it. My friends, by the grace of God,
you and I also are called upon, like the Apostle, to come into
situations, difficult times, dark times, stormy times, that
we may prove the faithfulness of God in all things to lead
us to Christ and to lead us to Calvary. Blessed be God, for
there stood by me this night the Angel of God, whose I am
and whom I serve, saying, Fear not, Paul, Now I must be brought
before Caesar, and know God has given me all them that sail with
thee. Amen.