All right, we're going to start
in Acts chapter 27. Turn with me over to Acts 27. The Apostle Paul, who was a prisoner
for Christ's sake, he had been for three years, a servant of
God, He was a man sent with God's message. That's what he was.
And he said in chapter 27, the end of verse 31, he said, except these abide in
the ship, you cannot be saved. You just cannot be saved. How
can a man be saved? How can a sinner be saved? There is one answer. Only in
Christ. That's it. There's one answer.
Only in Christ. He must be in Christ. How can
a man make it through the storm? Only in Christ. He must be in
Christ. Except a man or a woman abide
in Christ, They cannot be saved. They just cannot be saved. That's
it. If a man tries to jump out, out
into the sea of God's wrath alone, he's going to die in his sin,
isn't he? He will die in his sins. Verse 35 says, And when
he had thus spoken, when he preached the truth and the gospel to them,
When he had thus spoken, he took bread and gave thanks to God
in presence of them all. And when he had broken it, he
began to eat. Then were they all of good cheer,
and they also took some meat." They all had just heard that
if they abide in the ship, they're going to live. They're going
to live. And Paul illustrated to them
what was going to happen. He took that bread and he broke
it. And they were so happy. They were so cheerful. They took
meat. The gospel brings cheer to the heart. You know that? It brings cheer to the heart.
It is good news. It is such good news. Verse 37
says, And we were in awe in the ship 203 score and 16 souls,
276 souls. Verse 40 says, And when they
had taken up the anchors, they committed themselves unto the
sea, and loosed the rudder-bands, and hoist up the mainsail to
the wind, and made toward shore. And 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. They endured their beating in
that ship. They endured their beating. in
that ship. That ship was broken in their
place, wasn't it? That ship is Christ. That ship
is Christ. And that's the gospel that a
sinner is quickened to. We sinners are blind, aren't
we? We're deaf and we're dead. And all of a sudden God brings
us to a quickening. He sends His Spirit and He quickens
us. And that's what we're quickened
to. That's the awakening that a child of God is awakened to. That knowledge right there. Men
and women truly do deathly and blindly and deadly have themselves
convinced in their religious life that they have a cross they must
bear. Don't they? That's what they
believe. When everybody has a cross they must bear. A sacrifice they
must make. I know somehow I'm going to have
to make a sacrifice. Sin that must be atoned for. But one day, one day God in His
mercy crosses their path with His messenger And his messenger brings the
one and only truth in the middle of all that mess. Except you
abide in the ship, you cannot be saved. It's that simple. Except a man abide in Christ,
no atonement will be made. None. No sacrifice will be accepted. None. People think they're making
all these sacrifices. They won't be accepted. You will
not bear the cross. The cross will bear you. Meaning, you're not going to
go around dragging that cross all over the place. We're going
to be hanging on it. Outside of Christ, we're hanging
on it. You know, men think they've got to drag their cross around.
Oh, bless his heart. You know, he's a boy, he's dragging
his cross, weighing him down, and we're going to die on it.
Outside of Christ, we're going to die on it. We're not going
to drag it around. But with that God-revealed truth
comes the gospel that the cross bore Christ. And in Him, the cross has already
borne us. In Him, the cross is satisfied. That judgment and that penalty
is satisfied. And there's no more cross to
bear. There is no more cross to bear. None. The sacrifice has been made. The ship has been broken. The
blood of Christ was shed. And every single soul in him
is safe and sound. Safe and sound. Verse 44 says,
And the rest, some on boards, and some on broken pieces of
the ship. They were just holding on to
broken pieces of that ship. And so it came to pass that they
escaped, all safe to land. All of them. All 276 of them.
Not one was lost. Not one was lost. Now, once God
quickens a sinner to that, alright, once that awakening comes, that
quickening comes, it floods the soul. It immediately, once a
sinner gets a hold of it, it immediately floods the soul with
relief. Absolute relief. Absolute relief. A person who's been under the
bondage of works, works, works, works, works. Once they hear
rest, it is absolute relief. It's total relief. It's peace. It's love. It's thankfulness. Oh man, it lays hold of the mind. It starts consuming your mind.
It lays hold of the heart. It lays hold of the body. But there is a fact of the matter,
it's a real fact of the matter, that every soul who has been
delivered must still deal with, still deal with. There's something
every soul who has been delivered must still deal with. Alright, look with me at chapter
28 verse 1. And when they were escaped, now
here they come up out of the surf. That ship, the head of
that ship, Christ, stuck fast, remained unmovable. His body
was broken and everybody went in. We endured death in him. We endured death in him. But
they were holding on to those broken pieces of the ship, just
floating in on broken pieces of the ship. And here they come
to this island, and all of a sudden, they feel sand under their feet.
And they start walking out, and the waves are crashing on them.
And they come walking out of the surf, up onto the beach. And they know that they have
been delivered. Don't they? They know that they've
been delivered. And so do we. So do we. We do, don't we? We do. In Christ, they could see, they
were holding on to, they could see that that ship was broken
instead of them. And they were clinging to that.
And we can see that Christ was broken instead of us, and we're
clinging to that. We can see it. And we know. When it's revealed to a child
of God, when it's truly revealed to a child of God, what Christ
has done for him, he knows he's been delivered. He knows he has. Verse 1 says, And when they were
escaped, then they knew that the island was called Melita,
what we now call Malta. The name means honey. Our Lord
said He was going to deliver His people to a land flowing
with milk and honey. Sounds delicious, doesn't it?
They're all going to eat honey from the rock. God's people know that they have
been delivered. Not will be. Not will be. Have been. It is Christ that
died, right? Have been. But there is still
something that every soul who has been delivered must deal
with. Every soul. Verse 2 says, And
the barbarous people showed us no little kindness For they kindled
a fire and received us, every one, because of the present rain
and because of the cold." They were delivered. Buddy, they
were delivered. They knew they were delivered.
They were clinging to broken pieces of the ship. They knew
they were delivered, but they still felt sopping wet and cold. Just completely drenched and
cold. Have you ever heard that saying,
don't rain on my parade? Anybody ever heard that? The sin that remains in this
flesh. Until this flesh dies, that sin
will never stop pouring the rain. It'll never stop pouring the
rain on every ounce of that relief. A sinner, a child of God, yeah
a sinner, gets that relief and it takes no time before the sin
that is still present in this flesh starts pouring the rain
on all that relief. And starts pouring the rain on
every ounce of that happiness. and pouring the rain on every
ounce of that peace and that love and that thankfulness is
just pouring the rain on it. Isn't that right? You can't put
your finger on it, you just feel it. Is there a cloud just above
me? I don't see everybody else getting
rained on. Sin in the flesh causes the spirit
of a believer to feel quenched, soaked, waterlogged, rained on,
just rained on. And the sin that still remains
in this heart right here keeps this heart so cold, so cold. They were delivered. But they
were rained on and cold. Now can you enter into that?
Can you enter into that? I can. I can. I tell you I can. Do you ever find yourself in
a position where you can't even pray? Have you ever experienced
that? Not a good place for me. Not
a good place for any of us. You're just so cold. You're just
so soggy. You're just so... It's like trying to light a fire
in the woods when it won't stop raining. It just won't stop raining. Every log you lay hold of and
every stick you grab is so sopping wet. And it will not stop raining. And you just want to get one
spark going. Just one spark. And you can't
get one spark. You just keep trying to get one
spark. I'd just take a spark. And you can't even get one spark
going. If we have never been there,
we will be soon. We will be soon. It's just a
fact. Look with me at the goodness
though of our God, the goodness of our God to every soul that
he has delivered. Oh, it's such goodness. And I'm
going to tell you this, a person who's in that position needs
this. I mean, needs this. Verse two
says, and the barbarous people. showed us no little kindness,
they showed us great kindness. For they kindled a fire. They kindled a fire. Every soul
there who was delivered was provided a fire. Every soul there. Every soul there was provided
a fire. You ever been out someplace and you're going to have a campfire
and it's cold and the fire's not going yet and you're ready,
let's get this thing going. And all of a sudden there it
goes. And you think, I need this. If I burn my leg, I'm going to
sit as close as I can. I need this. Every soul there
was provided a fire. Here's the good news that I have
for us tonight. Here is the good news. We don't
need to get our own fire going. Religion is trying to get everybody
to get their own fire going, right? Get their own spark going. Well, I'm sopping wet and I'm
cold and I can't. And we don't need to get our
own fire going. Isn't that good news? I tell
you what now, you better get on fire for Jesus." Well, I can't. Sometimes I just can't. Well,
guess what? God has provided us a fire. God
has provided us a fire. If we look inside ourselves for
a spark, we're going to be really disappointed. There's no spark
in there, not on our own. This flesh can become so rained
on by sin and this heart can become so cold it can't hardly
move. I remember one time I was a young
teenager and I went to this event with the family of a friend.
Huge event. A lot of people were camping
out. And the event was such that I
was sleeping out under the stars. I didn't even have a tent. And it's strange details. I won't tell you now. But anyway,
the point is it was one of the coldest nights I can ever remember.
Everybody was talking about it afterwards. Freezing cold. I
don't ever remember being that cold. I was so cold I couldn't
sleep. I was so cold I couldn't move.
I needed to get up and use the restroom. I couldn't do it. I
was so cold I could not move. I could not move. I just could
not move. And sometimes this heart right
here becomes so cold it cannot move. It can't move. What's wrong with you? It's cold. But God has provided us a fire.
He has provided us with a fire. David said, the Lord is my light. And back in David's day, the
only light he had was a fire. Even the sun is a fire. Christ
is our fire. When you can't get anything going
in and of yourself, Christ is our fire. He is our warmth. I don't feel the warmth in here.
Well, guess what? You have a fire. He's our warmth. And He's our light. We all literally
come here to gather around the fire. That's the whole reason
we're here. To gather around the fire. It
could be 99 degrees outside and so cold. Just so cold. But we
all come in here and we gather around the fire. I was reading
something that Charles Spurgeon wrote, and he was talking about
his own experiences with that coldness and that deadness and
that quenched spirit. I don't normally think of men
like him experiencing that. Every child of God does. I mean,
every child of God does. And as I was reading what he
had to say, it was so endearing to me. I appreciate his honesty
so much. It helped me so much. But after
he described the absolute misery of that condition, he said, thank
God he doesn't leave us there. Thank God he has not left us
without a fire. He wrote, it is not often that
I can hear a sermon. I've said that so many times.
I was so happy to hear him say the same thing. He preached all
the time. Some accounts say he preached
about nine times a week. He preached all the time. He
said, It is not often that I can hear a sermon, but when I do,
I have sometimes had seasons of very gracious, refreshing
to my soul. He said, I remember one Sabbath
morning listening to a man who was by no means literate. And I love that. Man, I'd rather
be illiterate with the light of Christ than the most literate
man on this earth with nothing but cold dead doctrine. But he
said, I remember one Sabbath morning listening to a man who
was by no means literate. And as I listened, I felt the
tears streaming down my cheeks as I realized afresh how precious
Christ was to me. He said, it is Jesus Christ that
you want. He said, if there is no Christ
in the message, you go down the aisles saying like Mary Magdalene,
they have taken away my Lord. And that's the truth, isn't it?
That's the truth. Without Christ, the tomb is just a damp, dark,
cold place. That's all it is. And without Christ, the same
thing applies to me. Without Christ, the same thing
applies to me. Christ is the fire that will
warm the soul of a cold, wet believer. So if you find yourself
cold and wet, step up to the fire. Step up to the fire. Go with me to Jeremiah 23. Jeremiah 23. Jeremiah 23, look at verse 29.
Is not my word like as a fire, saith the Lord? This Word right
here is the Word of Christ Himself. Christ Himself. And He said,
My Word is a fire. My Word is a fire. Those who
come saying, I'm so cold and I'm so dead, will hear, and you
hath He quickened. who were dead in trespasses and
sins. But God, who is rich in mercy
for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, He quickened us together with Christ. By grace,
you're saved. Yeah, but my faith and my faithfulness
is so weak, it's just so small. This word says, great is thy
faithfulness. He'll never leave you. Oh, but
I'm so prone to wander, Lord, I feel it. Yeah, but you're kept
by the power of God. You may be, and you are, I promise. You and I are prone to wander,
but guess what? He said, you're in my hand and
no man can pluck you out of it. No man. If you're miserable because
of the rain and the coldness of your sinful flesh, step up
to the fire. Step up to the fire. His word
is a fire. Turn with me to Luke chapter
3. Luke 3, verse 16 says, John answered,
saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water, but one
mightier than I cometh, the lachet of whose shoes I am not worthy
to unloose. He shall baptize you. with the
Holy Ghost and with fire. The Holy Ghost of God Almighty
is a fire. He's a fire. We just sang a song
and it says, Come Holy Spirit, heavenly dove, with all thy quickening
power, kindle a flame of sacred love in these cold hearts of
ours. Look how we grovel here below,
fond of these earthly toys. Our souls, how heavily they go,
just waterlogged they go, trying to reach eternal joys. In vain
we tune our formal songs. We sing the same songs over and
over and over, trying to tune them to you. It's in vain. I
feel like it's in vain. In vain we tune our formal songs.
In vain we strive to rise. Hosannas languish on our tongues,
but our devotion dies. Dear Lord, and shall we ever
live? Are we going to stay like this?
At this poor dying rate? Our love so faint, so cold to
thee, and thine to us so great. Am I going to stay like this
forever? You do all the loving, and I just stay dead. Come, Holy Spirit, heavenly dove,
with all thy quickening powers, come shed abroad a Savior's love,
and that shall kindle ours. When God's Holy Spirit comes,
He takes the things of Christ and He reveals them to us. He
sheds abroad a Savior's love and that kindles our love. That's
the spark that was not there. So if you feel miserable, if
you feel rained on and cold, step up to the fire. Beg God
to send you His Spirit. Beg God to send you His Spirit.
Call on Him in prayer. And Spurgeon said, if you can't
pray, pray for the ability to pray. Start right there. If you
can't pray, pray for the ability to pray. You keep asking for
that until He gives it. And then all of a sudden, you'll
realize I'm praying. Behold, He prayeth. God has provided us His Word,
God has provided us His Spirit, and go with me to Ecclesiastes
chapter 4. Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 4 verse 11 says, again, if two
lie together, then they have heat. But how can one be warm
alone? David, Solomon wrote this, and
David, his father, wrote, behold how good and how pleasant it
is for brethren to dwell together in unity. God's congregation
of saints is a fire. It's a fire, it truly is. We
all come here to gather around the fire. I've told you this
before, but this is such a good, such a needful illustration,
but there was a man who came to know the truth. The Lord
crossed his path with the truth, and he believed it, and he confessed
it, and he loved it. And one day, though, he started
neglecting gathering together with the saints. And everybody started wondering
what's going on with him. I don't see him as much anymore.
And finally one day, everybody realized he didn't come anymore.
He's just not here anymore. So the pastor, out of love, true
love, he went to that man's house. And he was going to knock on
the door, but the door was open. So he walked in. That man was
sitting in his living room facing his fireplace. Pastor went in
and sat down next to him. and didn't say a word. They're
both just sitting there looking at all these red hot coals in
the fireplace. So the pastor grabbed a shovel
and he got one coal and scooped one coal out of that pile and
laid it there on the hearth. And both those men just watched
that red hot glowing coal get dimmer and dimmer until finally
it just turned black. And that pastor scooped the coal
up and pushed it back into the pile and it started glowing red
hot again. And that man with tears in his
eyes said, you're right, I understand. I'll see you Sunday. We are by nature so cold, so
cold by nature. Everything he is by nature, we're
the opposite by nature. We are so cold and we're so quenched
by the rain of sin, but God has provided us a fire. He's given
us his word, he's given us his spirit, and he's given us each
other. If you are miserable, I mean
miserable, step up to the fire. Step up to the fire. Kindle a
flame of sacred love. Love for Christ. Love for that
sacrifice that He first brought us to know. Lord, let me hear
it like it's the first time I ever heard it. Don't turn, but Leviticus
6.13 says, The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar. It shall never go out. It'll
never go out. It'll always be there for God's
people. Christ will always be there for God's people. His Word
will always be there for God's people. His Spirit will always
be there for God's people. And His people will always be
there for God's people. They will always be there. If
something happens, if division takes place, all one has to do
is say, I'm sorry, and the other one's going, me too. Always, always. So let's all
step up to the fire. All right, let's stand together.